Kindle Dahlia Tributes: Spark Between Us: The Breach

A handful of years had passed since Dahlia and Kindle had sorted out their feelings for each other. Kindle became a frequent visitor of the arena, and Dahlia was delighted each time. She’d even begun her training to become a battler at this arena, although progress was a bit slow due to her flight hindrance. Not to mention the other slew of problems making themselves apparent over the years, including the arena slowly draining its funds due to lack of attendees to their shows, the severe dropout rate of new trainees, and the corruption taking hold on the world with an iron grip. Dahlia had never seen the world in such a state, and frankly wished all this tragedy could never have happened. But she wasn’t the only one, and had little to no part to play in the healing process, so she merely bears the burdens thrust upon her and many others, making the most of the little things.

“Dahlia!”

 

A voice shouted from across the barren pit of the arena, one Dahlia knew all too well. Kindle came sprinting into view, skidding to a halt before the darker harpia.

 

“The training crews found something while they were escorting their students to the training grounds. They called for the general’s assistance.” Kindle panted lightly as she explained.

 

Ah. That’s right, Dahlia had been promoted to arena general after the old one had been corrupted and was taken away for research and a pending cure. It was a last minute decision, but Dahlia had been the one everyone chose to be the next general, despite her disagreements.

 

“What did they find now? Another trainee scared by a red wisp?” Dahlia mused. Kindle’s face remained worried. Dahlia suddenly felt a wave of dread wash over her. It was rare for Kindle to get like this, all worked up and upset. Dahlia nodded to her, signaling for Kindle to show her what had been found.

 

The pair exited through the coliseum-like walls of the arena, Dahlia allowing Kindle to take the lead to wherever her assistance was needed. Kindle seemed on edge the whole time, worrying Dahlia.

Finally the pair rounded a rather sharp bend, Dahlia nearly knocking Kindle over as the webbed-winged harpia suddenly stopped in her tracks.

 

“Look. It’s in the middle of the path there. We have no idea where it came from, or what it is, but it doesn’t seem…of this world, so to say.” Kindle’s voice seemed shaky, forcing Dahlia to go into guard mode. Her feathers prickled up, tapping Kindle on the shoulder in a signal for her to stay back while Dahlia investigated.

 

As she approached whatever was imbedded in the trodden path, an air of static began to buzz around Dahlia. Upon reaching the strange occurrence, rustling began to sound from the nearby bushes, but Dahlia was too enraptured in whatever was embedded in the ground to register it.

 

It was a relatively small, somewhat orbicular item, and had a black sheen to the strange…plating? Making up most of the object’s surface. The gaps between the plating seemed to glow almost, a bright white that seemed charged with electricity. Dahlia approached it further, gently tapping its surface with her wing talon. Nothing happened, and the object continued to glow. Deeming it safe, she picked it up in her beak, transferring it to her talons and turning it over and over.

 

“Are you sure that thing’s safe?” Kindle called from where she still stood. Dahlia nodded, motioning her to come closer. Kindle reluctantly obeyed.

Dahlia rolled the item over in her talons, spotting a small glowing button on the backside of the artifact.

 

“Don’t press that button!” Dahlia nearly leapt out of her skin, Kindle giving a shrill cry at the sudden unfamiliar voice. The tall bushes off to the left of the path parted, revealing something the likes of which the two harpias had never seen before.

 

A large gryph stepped out from between the bushes, seemingly hesitant of the two harpias. Something about this gryph was…off putting to Dahlia. He was tall, almost unrealistically so, and had strange markings and angles across his body that Dahlia had only encountered with inorganic materials before. He certainly looked like a gryph, but something about him made Dahlia doubt that obvious observation.

 

“W-who are you?” Kindle broke through Dahlia’s thoughts, speaking to the stranger before them.

The stranger in question cocked his head slightly, the three antennae-like appendages on his head perking up at her words.

 

“You don’t appear to be a threat, so I suppose I may inform you. I amd Nikola. That orb you possess is not safe.” The gryph’s voice was something Dahlia had never heard before. It sounded unreal, almost artificial in a way. She chose to brush off the “not a threat” comment. She’d show this weirdo how wrong he was if things took a turn for the worst.

 

“And why not?” Despite her hesitance to find out, Dahlia questioned this newcomer’s know-it-all attitude already.

The gryph frowned at her.

 

“I’m…not entirely sure myself. It’s–” Dahlia cut the gryph off with an interjection.

 

“Then who are you to tell someone not to touch something? If you’re not sure, don’t interfere.” Dahlia was growing tired of this stranger already. She grunted, turning to the other harpia beside her.

 

“Come on Kindle, let’s take this back to the arena, maybe they’ll know who to contact about it.” Dahlia made a motion to turn around and return to the arena with the strange glowing item, Kindle doing the same.

 

“I highly advise against taking that artifact with you.” The gryph warned, earning a snort from Dahlia.

 

“If you’re not sure, don’t interfere.” Dahlia repeated over her shoulder. She assumed her victory in the argument when she heard no response from the gryph.

 

The pair of harpias took the trail back to the arena in silence. It wasn’t until the coliseum was in sight that someone spoke.

 

“Are you sure that thing’s not dangerous, Dahlia? I know you said “if you don’t know, don’t interfere,” but I’m fairly certain you don’t know what that thing is or does either.” Kindle seemed apprehensive about taking the strange item back with them.

Dahlia restrained herself from huffing at Kindle.

 

“And leave it in the hands of that freak? We don’t know him. He could be lying. He could want this thing to do who-knows-what with. There’s a large number of reasons to take whatever this is, even if it is potentially dangerous, which I highly doubt.” Dahlia retorted. She pretended not to notice when Kindle flinched at her tone.

 

Dahlia, having stopped when Kindle had to talk, turned the artifact over in her talons, eyeing the button on the back again. This thing was so small it couldn’t possibly hurt something as big as her, and besides, she’d been through so much in her life already, what’s one more strange occurrence?

Kindle grabbed Dahlia’s leg holding the item.

 

“Dahlia, don’t.” Kindle’s voice was shaky but stern. Dahlia felt bad, but she had to learn not to give in to Kindle’s every whim and want, like she had been for most of their time together. She wrenched her talons from Kindle’s grasp, swiftly pressing the button on the back of the strange item.

The white glow seeping through the cracks of the item’s black plating ceased with a light crackle of sparks from the inside. No one said a word, until Dahlia let out a hearty laugh.

 

“My god, Kindle, so worked up over what? A little kid’s toy? A fancy firecracker? What a joke.” Dahlia’s laugh trailed off as the artifact suddenly zipped out of her talons and latched onto her chest, two straps materializing from seemingly nowhere to cross over her back and cling the item to her body.

 

“What–”

 

Dahlia was cut off as the artifact then began materializing more parts of itself from the little orb on Dahlia’s chest, latching them to various parts of Dahlia’s body and expanding to their full size. Dahlia let out a screech as a large ring appeared around her neck, quickly transforming into a helmet-like head covering, complete with a visor and everything.

Once the process was complete, Dahlia was covered in high-tech armor, pulsing with the same white glow throughout the various notches and joints in the obsidian-colored armor. Dahlia immediately froze, trying to comprehend what was happening. Kindle merely stared in awe at the artifact, now embedded in a chestplate that had sprung forth from it. She was unaware of the footsteps rapidly approaching from behind.

 

“I heard sounds of distress, so I came to investigate. What’s–” Nikola slid to a halt next to Kindle, staring apprehensively at Dahlia, now armored up and attempting to pry it off of her body.

 

“What the hell is this stuff?! Get it off, it’s uncomfortable!” Dahlia’s complaints were muffled through the helmet on her head.

 

“So it was merely an armor housing device. Interesting.” Nikola muttered to himself. Kindle snapped out of her trance and ran over to help Dahlia attempt to get the armor off.

The pair used everything they could think of to pull the armor off of Dahlia, even if it all came off in pieces. They tried to no avail, the armor stayed firmly pressed to Dahlia’s body.

 

“Would you like some assistance?” Nikola finally asked, finding the struggle amusing somehow.

 

“That would be nice.” Kindle replied, backing away to let Nikola move in. As soon as the strange gryph approached, Dahlia began backing away.

 

“I can do it myself.” She snarled. Kindle frowned worriedly.

 

“Dahlia, you can’t. Let Nikola help you–help us.” Kindle pleaded.

Dahlia simply rolled her eyes, not that it could be seen through the one-way visor, reluctantly letting Nikola get closer to investigate the armor. She tensed up as he examined her. After a moment’s pause, the gryph hummed.

 

“Ah, I know. Just press here and…” Nikola clicked the button on her chest again, the armor’s glow dimming to nothing with a whirr. Not a second later was the armor quickly maneuvering itself off of Dahlia’s body and dematerializing back into the small artifact still strapped to her chest. Once the armor was gone, the straps fizzled away and the artifact fell to the ground with a thud. Nikola motioned to pick it up, but Dahlia beat him to it, snatching it away from his grasp.

 

“I advise you not to–” Nikola was once again cut off.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. I’m taking it back to the arena so we can figure this thing out.” Dahlia grunted at Nikola. Kindle didn’t follow her as she turned away.

 

“You coming?” Dahlia turned back when she couldn’t hear Kindle’s footsteps. Kindle avoided her gaze.

 

“I believe she has a disagreeing point of view.” Nikola responded calmly, before continuing what he was going to say before Dahlia stormed off.

 

“I advise you not to take that artifact back to your colony. I know of its origins, but had no idea of its abilities when I’d taken it. I would like it back so I can further review its effects and functionalities.” Nikola extended his talons towards Dahlia, expecting her to hand it over. She didn’t budge.

 

“How about no. You stole it in the first place it sounds like, so it’s not yours either. Go back to wherever you came from, dude. We don’t need any more upset around here.” Dahlia harshly said, motioning for Kindle to follow her. Kindle gave an apologetic glance to Nikola, who simply watched as the pair headed back towards the arena.

Kindle hardly slept that night, worried about Dahlia, who had been messing with that little device almost all night. Kindle eventually settled down a bit when she heard Dahlia turn off the lights in her compartment in the arena’s underground, but took note of how Dahlia didn’t go to sleep next to her, as she normally did when Kindle stayed the night.

 

Dahlia awoke in the early hours of the morning to a blaring voice over the megaphone in the pit.

 

“We’ve got an intruder, a thief! Stand your ground, they cannot be allowed to leave!”

 

Dahlia bolted upright, a feeling of intense dread settling in her gut. She darted out of her compartment, noticing Kindle doing the same and following closely behind. Dahlia couldn’t let this happen, she had to stop him.

Suddenly, a series of loud bangs sounded from above the ground, and the pit fell silent. Dahlia ran faster, shooting up the ramp and into the pit, sand flying as she came to an abrupt start. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a set of black, silky tail feathers pushing past the barricade of arena workers, tossing them to the side and rushing out of the coliseum walls. Dahlia, fueled by rage, raced after him, barreling out of the arena and giving chase. Kindle followed as best she could with her impaired flight.

 

Just before reaching the forest’s edge the target suddenly launched off of the ground, spreading his wings and taking flight. Dahlia did the same, quickly catching up. She spotted the exact item she was hoping he hadn’t taken; the little armor shell they’d found the previous night. She huffed so hard a plume of ice crystals puffed from her nostrils, using all her strength to push herself further, finally catching up to the culprit and outstretching her talons. She was sure she’d manage to latch onto his sorry hide in three…two…one…

 

The culprit suddenly dove sharply, causing Dahlia to overshoot by a longshot. She cursed loudly as she watched him dive. Down below the trees, something was emitting a strange, otherworldly aura. Not thinking much of it, she dove down after him, snapping her wings open just in time to be blinded by an abrupt flash of light, a sudden sensation of disorientation consuming her, and then–

Kindle managed to catch up to where she’d seen Dahlia dive after Nikola, hoping the two would be unharmed when she reached them. Upon descending below the trees, she felt like her internal compass was being spun around at high speeds, her senses becoming muddled and confusing. She opted for landing and finishing the chase on foot, so not to injure herself trying to fly.

Kindle finally reached the exact spot of the chase’s end, but what she was met with was something like she’d never seen before. A strange, mirror-like distortion hung in the air above the ground, buzzing with an otherworldly glow. The closer she got, the stronger she felt like throwing up. Once she was standing directly in front of it, it began to humm louder, sparks spewing from deep within this…rift of sorts. Before she even knew what was happening, a bolt of lightning launched from within the rift struck Kindle right in the chest, making her vision go white and causing her to collapse. The last thing she was able to comprehend before blacking out was a familiar artifact being spat out of the rift, landing in front of her, glowing softly. She only had one thought when she awoke back in the medical wing of the arena; Dahlia was gone…

 

Kindle

2212 words-44

Tribute-4

Extra stryx-3

Personal-3

Total= 54 AP

 

Dahlia

2320 words-46

Tribute-4

Extra stryx-3

Personal-3

Total= 56 AP

 

Nikola ( EmpressAkitla )

1250-24 AP

Extra stryx-3

Total= 27 AP