Journeys of Time 18: ...And the flowers of battlefields
This story is copyrighted to SashaWS/ArtisticEastern, containing characters owned by various people used with permission.
Any usage or posting of this story under the claim of being your own is not approved and you will be requested to remove it or face charges.

Tenchi had no idea what awaited her when she would eventually arrive at the wyvern graveyard. To her it sounded like it would be a field full of gravestones with the names of many wyverns carved into them and some loving message from rider to loyal wyvern. The image in her head was already bringing tears to her eyes, even before arriving to the location. Hildegaard could hear Tenchi sniffing and had a vague understanding what could have triggered it, but seeing that Arashi landed on top of another larger wyvern before nuzzling her rider's cheek was more than enough to calm her, knowing that wyverns were keen on picking up differences with the riders they are bound to.
A few minutes after having taken off with their bags on the wyverns, Hildegaard looked over at Tenchi with a nod, "We are here now." Tenchi looked forward and when Arashi took off from the wyvern's back, Tenchi's whole idea of a field of gravestones was broken entirely apart like a window being struck with a rock. What she saw was instead a large crater with various ribs sticking out to create a protective net of bone for various smaller remains of wyverns, including some still fresh wyverns having arrived earlier that day. What shocked Tenchi the most was the pair of wings sticking out from the sides of the ribs to make a second protective net, the tail forming a secondary spine inbetween the tips of the wings and at the very northern top of the crater was a massive skull of a dragon, but with the appearance seeming less draconic and more familiar, Tenchi understood why they had named it Rywigo's Valley.
"Is that Rywigo? He was that big?" Tenchi asked and got a nod as a response from Hildegaard, "We are not meant to talk about it. But the only one who killed a wyvern was Vana herself. Rywigo went crazy and Vana had to put him down. I was told that it was at that moment that Vana died herself. But when I think about it, she was a prime, so she couldn't have been killed from something like that." Tenchi listened and soon Arashi began to dive without a command, shocking Tenchi who did her best to steer the wyvern upwards, but it was too late as Arashi swoop up and nearly touched the bones of a big wyvern before landing on the steps of a shattered temple.
Tenchi didn't know what to say, but once she climbed off, Arashi ran over to the big bones. Tenchi growled at her, "Arashi, bad girl! What are you...?" Her question was interupted by Hildegaard grabbing her shoulder before leading her to the bones as Arashi curled up close to the bones, "Tenchi, she is just taking farewell of her mother." Tenchi's eyes widened as she looked at Hildegaard and then at Arashi, who was licking the skull on the nose before laying down her head, making Tenchi fight back the tears at the display of a respectful bond lasting even past death and for a second both her and Hildegaard could see the image of the wyvern that had given birth to Arashi's egg, the image nuzzling Arashi on the head and causing Tenchi to break down and cry as Hildegaard held her tightly, "See? They are not some normal beasts like others claim them to be. They are highly intelligent and very close to us."
Tenchi nodded as footsteps could be heard approaching before Hildegaard and Tenchi turned around when they suddenly stopped and Chaldoa stood there with her armor on and her javelin by the side. Hildegaard gave her a soft smile, "Hi aunt Chaldoa. What are you doing here?" Tenchi looked at Chaldoa, but it was like looking into a sun, but Chaldoa's body soon stopped to illuminate the crater and Tenchi could see that unlike Janch, Chaldoa was actually white with golden eyes and long flowing golden hair, giving her the image of a draconic angel, if not for the obvious lack of wings.
Chaldoa lifted her javelin and struck the ground before the bones illuminated and gave both Tenchi and Hildegaard a show before the ground behind her split open and out of it came a gigantic wyvern with a similar appearance to her, making Hildegaard gasp in shock and Tenchi to almost draw her weapon, only for Chaldoa to quickly strike and prevent her from even unsheathing it, "No need to draw your weapon. He is peaceful."
Tenchi didn't question it as the wyvern growled and laid its head against Chaldoa's left shoulder and nuzzled her cheek, making the white dragoness smile, "Hi to you, Dullahan." The wyvern growled before lowering his head and with a quick flick of the head, he sent Chaldoa into the air with a backflip and she did a successful landing right in front of the wings before he approached both Tenchi and Hildegaard. Being used to the usual greeting, Tenchi and Hildegaard exposed their throats, but the wyvern quickly did the same to them as he had done with Chaldoa, making them land perfectly behind Chaldoa as the wyvern gave a loud growl, making the wyverns listen to him before they all took to the air.
Tenchi was a little confused and was about to ask, but Hildegaard was quicker, "Why are they listening to him so quickly?" Chaldoa looked behind her with a smile, "He is an Angelshell wyvern. They are very proud of being the most dependable wyvern for being picked by a defender of light. So they are having lots of influence." Dullahan growled before flapping faster to speed himself up, only for the others to catch up and Hildegaard smiled as she stood up and jumped off his back, only to land on one of her own, but Tenchi decided to take it to the next level by spreading her wings and flap them to sail behind in the air current of Dullahan, making Chaldoa laugh, "Now that is one way of traveling." Tenchi couldn't disagree with it, but suddenly the sound of a booming voice was heard and Tenchi began to feel that suffocating feeling she had once felt near a certain black dragoness. Her wings felt like they were flapping at a record speed to get to the place where the feeling came from and as the landscape below her felt more familiar and the feeling grew stronger, Tenchi's blood began to feel like an ice cold liquid being injected.
When Tenchi saw her home below her, her eyes opened wide as she saw Sas'Ha standing there with her wings open and from the finger tips was a thick string connected to what she had felt. In front of Sas'Ha stood none other than Ririne, Sacine, Malicoe and Hauga, but from the looks of it they weren't even moving and Tenchi dropped from the sky before leaving an imprint around her as she growled, "What do you think you are doing?!"
Sas'Ha looked at Tenchi and smiled, "Oh hi. I was requested to infuse Peridot with the essence from her aunt, that is all." Tenchi turned to look at Peridot standing like in a trance, her eyes full of rage and unlike her normally holding whips, she was armed with two fist weapons instead which beamed of energy from her, covering the claws attached to the fist weapons. Tenchi wasn't knowing if she was going to be turned on by this or scared of the fact that Peridot looked like more of a sadistic butcher than even Avril did.
Deciding to not question Sas'Ha's decision, she was nodding before pointing at her, "Okay, I will permit it, but if she gets injured, I will..." Sas'Ha's calming voice stopped Tenchi's words from being heard, "I am not letting her get injured. In fact, I think I won't be needing to even have a protection spell ready. Watch." Tenchi moved backwards with the rest as Sas'Ha cut the strings and like a trigger being pulled, Peridot accelerated from zero to speed of sound in less than one-tenth of a second, leaving Ririne and Sacine no time to react as they felt their throats being torn out and then cut through across the waist, or so it seemed before they were both splitting into eight pieces with four clean cuts meeting in the center of their bodies.
Hauga and Malicoe just watched in horror of seeing their own kin being brought down before Malicoe felt a strike against his chin and was launched into the air before Peridot appeared in front of his face, "Hello there, you rotten fuck!" Malicoe was about to attack, but growled out when Peridot cut his hands off and the claws seemed to sharpen up more as she swung them rapidly in a similar way to what her father Sedrin had done once, each swipe bringing Malicoe more and more pain until her swipes seemed to increase in speed until it was merely a blur, but no marks were left on his body until they crashed down into the ground with Peridot delivering one final swipe from the top of his head and out through his crotch as her voice boomed out loudly, "Starfire Rain Sonata: Archipelago of the Starborn!" Malicoe suddenly erupted in a fountain of blood that turned into a rain of stars.
Hauga began to move backwards, only for Sas'Ha to push her forward, "No, you better fight for our tribe, you miserable shit." Hauga saw how Peridot looked at her before discarding the fist weapons and removing her shirt and pants to reveal the weights she had been wearing this whole time and Hauga looked confused and did the wrong thing for the moment, "What is that? You are thinking that dropping a few weights will do so much?" Peridot smirked back, "Just you wait, bitch. Mom, release her full power."
Tenchi was about to object to it, but Hildegaard held her back as Sas'Ha brought Hauga to her full power and not before long Hauga prepared a ball of dark energy that she flung at Peridot, who kicked it away with the weight on her right leg, the weight coming off and Hauga's confident smirk soon faltered as Peridot soon removed the collar around her neck and both of Tenchi and Hauga saw how it was like Peridot was someone else as the intensity of her energy had grown exponentially and Tenchi looked at Sas'Ha, "What beast have you released?" Soon a voice came from nearby as a hyena walked up next to Sas'Ha, smirking with a laughter, "Just a Savage Beast."
Tenchi looked confused before Peridot got down on all four and growled as she disappeared and left three sonicbooms behind her, a tornado slowly forming around Hauga who attemped to slow the speedster down with a powerful gravitational pull to the ground, but her idea was doomed to fail as Peridot appeared for a brief second to kick her in the face, sending her into a tree before disappearing again, leaving Hauga to try and figure out where she was going to come from next.
It wasn't until a hand grabbed her by the head and broke the tree behind her and all the ones behind her that Peridot appeared again and this time managed to even shock Janch when Hauga growled in pain when Peridot slammed her into a rock wall with such an impact that she couldn't move at all, just watching as Peridot looked into her bloodstained face, "You dare to let an old feud started by your own kin build your hatred. In all fairness, it was your own kin's fault for killing the Frostclaws. Had they not done that, you wouldn't have been killed. Even death didn't better you. I will deliver you back to your rotten ancients, you shameless bitch!"
Peridot moved backwards before raising a hand to the sky, her body gathering up the spiritual energy around her before she growled out and made Tenchi's jaw drop when she had formed her own set of claws like the tribes had, only hers was made of spiritual energy, but seemed rather solid, especially when Peridot pulled Hauga out and uppercut her head straight off, skewering it on the claws before pulling out the claws fast enough to allow her to swipe across the face, cutting it into perfectly symmetrical discs, "If you ever get reborn, hopefully you will have learned your lesson."
Tenchi couldn't believe her eyes and suddenly Janch noticed the difference, "Hey Tenchi, why is my daughter dressed up like that?" Tenchi looked at Hildegaard, who sighed and admitted, "While we were hunting, a pack of lavascales attacked us, Tenchi decided to be respectful towards the matriarch, but it covered her in lava and I thought she was dead. So... I beat a wyvern almost to death in anger and sadness. And when Tenchi proved to be alive, I offered her to take my clothes and I made my own ones." Janch grabbed onto Hildegaard by the throat with a growl, "You did what?! Do you have any idea what you have done?" Hildegaard looked at her mother and took a deep breath before grabbing the arm, "Yes, I do know what I did, mom. I showed honor and fought for the one I..."
Janch looked at Hildegaard and put her down, "Fought for the one you what?" Hildegaard looked at Tenchi and then turned to face her before taking her by the shoulders, "Tenchi, the reason why I wanted to bring you along for the hunting trip was because I wanted to show you what I used to do and show you your heritage. But also... because I..." Tenchi looked confused before Hildegaard let it out, "The reason for me fighting the lavascale in my fit of anger and sadness was to show honor and fight for the one I... that I love. Tenchi, I love you and I have always looked up to you as the prime that brought us back and I have felt alone for a long time, but with you I feel like my former wife has been reborn in you. So, I wanna ask you if you honor me with allowing me to become an additional set of wings for you."
Tenchi smiled as she understood what Hildegaard meant, "I will admit it, I asked your mother to give that idea to you so I could see if you would open up to me. I have felt the same for you and looked up to you as the one who made me a wyvern queen. I knew you had the hots for me, but seeing it in front of me when you broke tradition to avenge me, even if I am resistant to fire, that was a heartwarming sight. So yes, I will honor you with allowing you to become my additional set of wings as I will become yours too." Everyone applauded at the announcement and also at the sight of Hildegaard and Tenchi sharing a warm kiss.
Peridot looked over at her mother and tilted her head when she spoke loudly, "Mom. I think I got a bit of a problem now." Sas'Ha looked at Peridot, "And that is?" Peridot smiled, "We gonna need a new bed in the bedroom. I don't think that queen-sized bed you gave me and Tenchi is gonna be enough now." Everyone began to laugh loudly for a while before Tenchi's attention was brought to the hyena girl as she looked at her and asked, "And who are you?" The hyena began to laugh before winking, "Someone you should have met a long time ago."

The End.