The White Dragon Temple

Expedition

They arrive at the Temple and rest next to a makeshift fire in the foyer of the dungeon.

Natalya watched as the temple door rose up before them in the otherwise barren tundra. She looked over at her tired companions and went to open it. It opened into a long staircase leading down into a room. The walls and floors of the temple were made of cold ice and their was a door at the other end of the foyer. In the center of the room was a makeshift fireplace. Natalya leaned down next to it and saw a few silver strands of Fenneck's hair on the ground. They were close. "Fenneck was here," she told the others. She stood and walked toward the door. "Natalya," she heard Nerlureel huffing behind her. She turned and saw that they needed to rest before they faced whatever was waiting for them beyond that door. She nodded understandingly and walked back see Tarin holding a huge gash on his leg. "Let me help," she told him as they all pulled out their bedrolls to set over the cold ice. "Kotsik, start the fire back up," she told the little pseudodragon who happily flapped over to the fire and huffed a small breath of fire onto it. Tarin held out his leg and Natalya gently cleaned the wound and Nerlureel bandaged his arm from the fight. Almyr and Fuqwigt laid down and immediately went to sleep. "Do you think Fenneck is okay?" Tarin asked her. She sighed. "I can feel him. His presence with me," she said, shrugging. "I'm not sure if that means he's okay or not. He never told me what happens if an elves thiramin dies," she said sadly. Tarin gave her a frown. "You really knew he was your soulmate when you met him?" he asked her curiously. Natalya nodded. "I did. I didn't trust it at first though. I thought he was trying to charm me," she said, smiling at the memory. "When did you meet him? Like, surely it hasn't been too long if you aren't married yet," he asked her. She chuckled. "I met him right after Arrallath. I decided to come back home, to Lenisily and face Pufuktin. On my way, I fell into a grove of apple trees in the mountains and Fenneck was there. So, almost thirty years ago now." "And you're still not married?" Nerlureel asked in surprise. Natalya smiled. "I guess it has been a while. For elves it doesn't really seem that way," she said thoughtfully. "For us though, we have had quite a few things to overcome. It hasn't been a simple love story." Tarin looked at her expectantly. She chuckled at his curiousness. "So, remember Dimitri? In the cave?" Tarin and Nerlureel nodded. "He trained me in the KAV. We met when I was around fifty years old, so about a hundred years ago now. While we worked together we fell in love. We had a secret affair for almost seventy years. When I killed Staladin, I was only able to tell him goodbye before I escaped into the mountains and I didn't think I would see him again. After I met Fenneck and I had been in Flottenheim for a few months I decided to leave him to go and find Dimitri and make sure he was safe and to face Pufuktin. I felt guilty for leaving in the first place and so Fenneck let me leave and he gave me this ring." She showed Tarin her ring with the engraved foxes on it and he smiled. "He enchanted it to keep me warm in the cold mountains so I would be safe on my journey. I finally made it to Lenisily and found Dimitri and he told me to leave. That everything was my fault and that Lenisily didn't want my help. He was also really upset when I told him about Fenneck. So I ran back into the mountains and almost killed myself from crying into a pile of snow and essentially giving up. I woke up in a cave, the same cave Fenneck and I have essentially been living in for thirty years, to see Fenneck there. He nursed me back to health and I stayed there in the mountains with him for about a year. We went back to Flottenheim for the winter and that was when he told me about his family who had died during the revolution of Glitterfjell," she said sadly. "You see, sixty years before this, Dimitri and I were sent by Pufuktin to kill Fenneck and another ranger in Glitterfjell named Erikur, Fenneck's best friend and sort-of lover, it's a bit complicated. I killed Erikur and Fenneck got away after nearly killing Dimitri. I felt guilty for it and I decided to leave Fenneck before I hurt him anymore than I already had. Our relationship was very rocky at first, see. He expected us to meet and instantly fall in love and start a life together happily. I didn't know much about thiramin and I had a lot of other things in my life pulling me in other directions. He was looking for love to save him from his pain and grief and I was trying to help my country and my people. It was right after Arrallath. We had seen the face of pure evil itself. My goal was to try and combat that, not meet my husband." Nerlureel chuckled. "I guess we walked away from that experience with different perspectives," he joked. Natalya laughed. "I suppose so. I'm glad you had the perspective you did though," she said smiling at Nerlureel. "So I ran away again and as I crossed the border into Lenisily Dimitri caught me and shot me, nearly killing me before realizing it was me. He ran to me and helped bandage my wounds and I said something morbid, along the lines of you should just kill me and he... he forgave me, essentially. We talked and..." She glanced Nerlureel and they shared a chuckle. "We made love in the snow and I told him that I loved him and that I was sorry I left. He came up with the idea to send his targets he was supposed to kill into the mountains and I would take them into Flottenheim. I collected the first family and brought them through the mountains and made it to the cave and Fenneck came out. We let the family rest and we decided to help each other with the refugees but we were most definitely not going to be a thing. He was very angry with me for hurting him and I told him I was with Dimitri and I was happy with that. Later Fenneck told me that as we brought the family into Flottenheim, they had a small child with them whom I had let borrow my ring so he wouldn't freeze in the cold, and the child ran to me to return my ring, I refused to return to Flottenheim after that for almost seven years I think?" she shrugged. "Anyway, Fenneck said he fell in love with me that day," she said sadly, thinking about how wonderful he was and how much she hoped he was safe in this cold place. "I was with Dimitri though and for a few years we made it work like that. Eventually we became best friends and we grew close with each other. Dimitri started to age and he pushed me away because it was dangerous and he started to realize Fenneck and I were at a point where we could make it work. One day, Fenneck came to check on me before the winter started and that was when we finally kissed each other and... and everything just made sense." Tarin smiled at her story. "So how long ago was that?" he asked her, trying to keep track of her messy timeline. She chuckled. "About twenty years ago." His jaw dropped. "So why aren't you married yet?" he asked her. "Well," she said. "We still had things to work through. We focused on the refugees mostly until he became more involved politically. Baegla is having him write up a proposed democratic system for them to implement in Flottenheim and he's had to be quite busy with his growing responsibilities in the Kingdom. I started training more rangers to take his place here in the mountains as well. We also wanted to keep my identity and location a secret for as long as possible because Pufuktin has been searching for me. A year ago we decided to lean into the rumors and announce our engagement publicly at the Brindellis Arts Festival and revealed my location and position to Pufuktin as a... fuck you, essentially. He really hates Glitterfjell and he really hates Fenneck so finding out I was engaged to him, about to become the duchess of his political enemy was a big power move." Nerlureel nodded. "That'll do it," he said. Tarin chuckled. "So what is Pufuktin like? Have you met him?" She nodded solemnly. "He's a monster. He's a high elf with a beard and a bald head, not really sure how, I've never seen an elf like that before, but he... he's mean. He's very angry and lashes out at people with his emotions. He would charm me and convince me to sleep with him while I was in the KAV. He was disgusting and cruel." Tarin looked uncomfortable and Nerlureel gave Natalya a sad frown. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that," he said comfortingly. Natalya shrugged. "It is what it is. I learned a few years ago that he stole me from a farm in the Vallee of Flottenheim when I was a newborn baby. It was the year of the revolution and Fenneck was there and tried to stop him. We didn't even realize it was me until I told him that Pufuktin had told me he had saved me from a burning farm and that an elf and a halfling were there. Needless to say, my feud with Pufuktin is pretty personal, even despite the awful things he's done to to the people of Lenisily." Tarin looked intrigued. "So Fenneck was a grown up when you were a baby?" he asked, confused. Natalya chuckled he's about sixty years older than me, yeah. He helped lead the army in the revolution for Glitterfjell and fought Milena Malenthot, the Grand Duchess who was a powerful warlock. I guess the family line of the Staladin's blood is cursed to be preyed upon by the devil Mephistopheles. That's why Pufuktin is so powerful and evil," she explained. "So he had Dimitri stabbed?" Tarin asked her. "Because he was old?" Natalya shrugged. "That's what Dimitri made it sound like. He might not have known the exact reason. Milosh, his brother, probably took great joy in doing it though." Nerlureel sighed. "I hope we don't end up having to deal with him on top of all this mess," he mused. Natalya nodded. "Me either," she said as she finished wrapping Tarin's leg. "You both need to get to sleep," she told them. Nerlureel nodded. "We're going to find him, Nat," he told her, trying to be hopeful. She gave him a smile. "I hope your right," she said, moving over to her bedroll where Kotsik was curled up, already asleep. "Goodnight, Nat," Tarin told her. "Goodnight," she told them both as they laid down and closed their eyes. She sighed and closed her eyes and tried not to think about all the awful situations Fenneck might have gotten himself into here. She opened her eyes before everyone else and prepped a breakfast for them all with the rations she had brought from the cave. They finally woke up and ate quickly, understanding the urgency of the situation. Finally, they were ready to go and Natalya led them through the first door, into another room that was a circular courtyard like space that was also made entirely of ice. In the center of the room was a frozen water fountain in the center of a spiral staircase that led farther down into the temple. To the left and right of the fountain were two more hallways with sealed doors and directly before led a hallway into an open room with a large stone mural on the wall. They cautiously walked in and walked toward the mural. In this space, the large mural dominated the wall and Natalya recognized as the same one they had seen in the swamp temple, only this time the other side revealed a large five headed dragon. "That's... that's Tiamat..." Tarin said, his voice quivering in fear. Below the mural was an alter with a basin of water in it. On either side of the basin were large tomes, one with the silver dragon on it and the other with the five headed dragon. "Who's Tiamat?" Natalya asked him. Tarin gave her a worried look. "She is the queen of evil dragons. She's the most powerful, evil black dragon to ever exist," he said, walking over to the book and opening it cautiously.