Hellscape - Wraith's Lament: Chapter 1

Shenzi was less than thrilled to be standing so close to the Edge of the World, shifting moodily from foot to foot as the humans and other wingless folk outlined a plan to search for and capture the mystery stryx safely. She fluffed her silky black feathers, making her temporarily look far larger than usual, before flattening them again as her rider returned to her side and addressed her.
“We're going in to look for them,” she explained, gesturing to the smokey, broken land that lay beyond, between them and the volcanoes hugging the coastline. Shenzi let out a low, muttering grumble. “I know, I know. It's dangerous going, and I'm not eager for it, but the sooner we find these oddities and get them contained, the sooner we go back to Sol.”
Heaving a long-suffering sigh, the corva lowered herself to the ground, making it easier for her rider to mount, which she did, making soft crooning noises at the stryx as she scratched her neck feathers while they waited for the signal to leave. When Tazmyn suddenly alighted from their stryx and walked off, Shenzi cocked her head to one side. Were they supposed to wait? No... apparently not. Her rider signaled her to go ahead.
She rose to her feet, shifted her weight, and felt her rider settle her weight into the flight saddle. Taking a last large gulp of relatively clean air, Shenzi sprang into the air, wings stroking downward causing dust to rise in her wake. After a short time, they reached an area that seemed almost to be a solid barrier wall, the murk was so thick. They plunged in, setting the foul air in motion, curling behind them.
This place reeked. Sulfurous gas belched from ragged tears in the earth, and steam hissed from narrower vents. Keeping aloft, and avoiding running into unseen hazards, such as spires of rock, took all of the corva's focus. Above and behind her head, she heard her rider sneeze, then sneeze again. Being a dragon seemed to give Shenzi some small immunity to the odors and to the drifting, airborne ash, but clearly her elfin friend was not likewise protected. She hoped the foul miasma wouldn't cause her rider to pass out, or she might fall from her saddle.
A viscous pool of mud burped and bubbled, sending super-heated clay into the air and spattering it along its banks. There was more ash now, softly drifting like snow, being stirred up where steam vented from the ground, and specking Shenzi's deep black feathers so they looked frosted, like those of her flockmate Starlight. She was going to need a good bath after this, she knew.
Her rider tapped her softly on the shoulder, suggesting they find the safest, most stable location nearby for a break. This was an agreeable idea, but it took a fair bit more flying to find a large, high outcropping of rock on which to perch. By then, they'd begun to pass over slow moving rivers of lava, black on the surface, until it shifted and broke apart, revealing the hot glow of molten rock beneath. If not for the danger and uncertainty the region and the mystery stryx provided, it would be quite scenic.
The rock, Shenzi noted as they landed, was not a singular sheet of stone, but rather a cluster of basalt pillars, pressed tightly together, creating a hexagonal tile pattern on top. She heard her rider cough, hard. If they had to come back into this accursed place, she hoped the elf would find something to cover her face with, to protect it from the harsh gases and tiny ash particles.
The stryx stretched one wing, then the other, then her legs. She was just getting ready to give her rider a gentle, playful nip on the leg when something caught her eye. Something aglow seemed to float on the heavy air, red and bobbing slightly. No... wait. Two glowing orbs hung side by side in the perpetual cloud, and they were moving closer.
Shenzi gave a small croaking sound, alerting her rider to the danger, then leapt into the air, banking hard, carrying them back in the direction they'd come from. They were supposed to find the things, but one had found them first. It gave a terrible, fell screech as it charged after them. The heat and steam vents made seeking higher thermals too dangerous, so the corva had to fly far nearer the ground than she would prefer to do, especially once her rider had seen the thing that pursued them, and called out that it seemed tall as a gryph.
Her heart hammered in her chest, fear sending a surge of adrenaline coursing through her veins, boosting her performance, lending strength to her wings. She felt a sharp tug, then a twinge of pain, and knew the thing had pulled a feather from her distal tail. Close. Too close. She flew faster, turned sharper, became more reckless than she ever thought she would allow herself to be in a place like this.
At last, they punched through the outer layer of toxic clouds, bursting into clean air and sunlight that seemed blinding after the landscape of cloud and ash fall. Shenzi gulped the fresh air, eyes scanning for the Taura-Naji camp, and hoping against hope that enough time had passed for the trap to be finished, as the dangerous stryx was incoming.