Duty Chapter 7
#7 of Duty
Duty
Chapter 7
By David C. Henry ("Ahndeleck")
The water Motungo had unleashed splashed around the feet of the Boneweaver and swept its left pair out from under it. Motungo kept his momentum and leaped again, crashing his claws into the falling skeletal shape. His claws met with the ribcage of the creature and he felt the material give way. Several snapping noises erupted the same moment his shoulder screamed in agony.
He could feel the sharp teeth of the Boneweaver sinking into his flesh, burning small pieces of his shoulder away. The bonework gave way and his paws met the floor of the stage. Then he swiped with one claw at the neck of the creature, just as it released its hold on his shoulder. Motungo missed, as the boneweaver snaked its thin neck away from his claws.
Motungo leaped backward, as a heavy boney claw swiped up at his chest. Landing in a crouch, he hissed at the monster and backed slowly away from it. To his surprise, it rose as if the snapped ribs were only a scratch. That would have killed a normal dragon. How do you stop these?
The boneweaver stepped to one side, and picked up a large fragment of its ribcage from the floor. It lifted it in its claw and lowered its head, as it looking at its own broken pieces. The bone-like shard glowed a light pinkish color for a moment.
With a flick of its wrist, the boneweaver tossed the glowing fragment towards Motungo's face. Twisting his mind and his body at the same time, Motungo willed any sort of wall out of the closest wisp he had and threw his wing open to protect his face from the creature's assault. A ringing thud met his ears, and the welcome lack of pain came second. He pulled back his wing and stood.
The boneweaver snapped its jaws, and Motungo stood his ground. Slowly the boneweaver rocked its head to and fro, as if peering for some weakness in his defenses. Motungo drew another wisp from his body. I've got to blow it all apart. If I can get an air wisp inside of it, I can expand it and blow it away.
He waited, the boneweaver waited and rocked its had to and fro like a snake. Motungo felt blood oozing from his shoulder, and it still burned. Small pieces of the creatures ribs seemed to crumble to to dust and fall away from the creature. Maybe I hurt it more than I thought.
It launched itself forward, impossibly fast. Motungo shifted his weight and leaped aside. He threw the wisp up where he had been as the boneweaver flew into the air. The boneweaver's claws raked at Motungo's good shoulder, but his focus stayed on the glowing blue point of light now passing into the central cavity of the creature's chest.
"Now!" he roared as his body crunched on the stones of the stage.
He threw the whole of his focus into expanding the wisp. It responded instantly, and forcefully. A blue flash, and a powerful gust of explosive air erupted above him. The crack of expanding air mingled with the snapping of bone thundered through his ears. Sharp lances of pain spiked over his side, in his left wing and on his neck.
He shook reason back into his mind. While his ears still ringed with the explosion he glanced to the pain in his side. Small shards of the creature stuck out from him all over. Then the pain reached its threshold and he groaned as he curled himself into a ball. He could feel each small wound from the boneweaver burning, digging deeper into his flesh.
He shifted his weight and pulled his right wing from under him. He had landed hard on it and pulled a muscle or possibly several. As he lay, Motungo looked around the room, the purple haze from the wandering wisps had begun to diminish. As it faded, so did the burning sensation from the open wounds.
A minute passed and the lights went out completely in the room. Motungo no longer felt the horrible presence of the Thief. He was alone in the temple, and some how still alive.
* * *
To Motungo, it felt like a day had passed. After the doorways opened, he limped towards the sunlight outside. He could hear the murmurs ahead of him, but the ringing in his ears still muffled their words. As he neared, he could see them craning their necks and whispering to each other. A pair of the largest hunters stood at the mouth of the temple, with wisps at the ready. Motungo only stumbled forward.
"He's coming!" one of the two guards shouted to no one in particular.
Azerzan suddenly appeared behind the two, and then the crowd rushed forward behind him. Relief poured over him. Thank the gods they're there. He started forward faster, ready to be out of the temple as soon as he could.
"No," Azerzan's face drained to disbelief, "Back everyone, back now!"
Motungo stopped and turned his head, fear gripping at him. He expected another Boneweaver, but found nothing behind him. He looked to the guards, but they were retreating with the rest of the crowd, crouching and baring their teeth.
"Let me through, what is it?" Motungo recognized the voice of his father, "Is he hurt?"
"No Jerlio, stop!"
"Father, I-"
His father stepped past the guards and his face filled with rage. A bestial roar ground in Motungo's ears, as his father backed away with the two guards. Motungo stopped, and his heart caught in his throat. What's wrong? This isn't supposed to be how it is after an Attunement.
Motungo felt weary from the fight, and tired from his wounds. No fight he had endured rivaled what he just lived through. Now everyone backed away from him as if he was some monster. He slunk to a sit and desperately pleaded from face to face.
Azerzan stepped away from the writhing crowd of angry and pained faces. Motungo recognized the walk and expression as one Azerzan wore at a funeral. He stopped at the mouth of the temple, several steps from where Motungo sat. He drew in a deep breath, his face mixed with sorrow and anger.
"Covenant," He shouted loudly, "before us is the chosen of our enemy, Mixcoatl."
"What?" Motungo shouted in return, but the roars of the crowd drowned his question as Azerzan continued.
"Look hard at this face and at the mark of the Thief. The presence of our enemy courses in the blood of one of our own. This taint-"
"But I did nothing wrong." Motungo shouted wearily, "I told him no, I told them all I wouldn't go with them. I fought them, I killed one. I'm not-"
"This taint," Azerzan rose his voice, booming over Motungo's, "must never flow through the Covenant. Our lives are nothing but a struggle against what we see standing before us now. We must, and we will reject everything that is of and from the Thief. And thus," Azerzan thrust a wing in Motungo's direction, "we must banish this creature from our presence, or the Thief will be within our presence."
"No." Motungo whined, unable to believe the words he heard. He couldn't believe what Azerzan was saying, and how everyone behaved.
The crowd behind Azerzan wailed, roared, screamed, and cried. Motungo joined every single feeling, and collapsed upon the beaten earth in the tunnel. Motungo could see tears in the old dragon's eyes, but his face was resolute. He means every word. Every gods damned word of it. Motungo clawed at his face in anguish, words failed to come out of his throat.
"From this day forward," Azerzan's voice trembled, "You are banished from all covenants. No servant of the Thief will have a home among the dragons of Tiamat. Leave us now, and never return." Motungo watched Azerzan turn and walk back to the crowd. "The rest of you go, return to your dens. We will finish the Attunement a week from this day. I must clean the presence of the Thief from our temple."
Motungo lay in the dirt and with tear filled eyes watched the crowd of dragons begin to disperse. Then he saw Cellista running toward him. His heart lightened, and a weak smile passed onto his lips.
One of the guards shouted at Cellista, and stepped in her way, then Azerzan stepped in her way as well, their wings blocking her way to him.
"Cellista, no." Azerzan shouted, "There are laws, you can't go near him, you can't-"
"I don't care, I don't care!"
Motungo's hope died. The guard shoved Cellista back. She began wailing. Azerzan turned back towards Motungo and started forward. He watched as Cellista tried to push the guard aside, even swipe at the guard's legs and chest. The guard stood firm despite the blows, and Cellista's parents joined the guard in holding her back. Azerzan stood over Motungo then and blocked them out of view.
"Motungo," he choked through his tears. "gods I'm so sorry. There's nothing we can do. You have to-"
"Why? Why damn you? There's no right for-"
"Because that is the law! There hasn't been a dragon from this covenant chosen by Mixcoatl in three hundred years, and I had hoped we'd never see another. You bear his mark upon your crest now Motungo, the plate of dark iridescence. There's no mistake."
"But why Azerzan? Why?"
"I don't know Motungo. I wish I did. You must leave us-"
"I won't, I have a life to live here, I-"
"If you don't we will kill you Motungo. You may rest in the woods, but do not stay in the covenant's land for more than two nights. The hunters will bring you down if you do. Go."
Azerzan's face held no more for him. It looked blank, tired, and worn. Motungo knew that there would be nothing he could do. All that was left was to leave. He's really sending me away. I don't have anywhere to go, nowhere, nothing, no one. Gods- no, no gods. They've abandoned me as well, I have nothing. I have damned nothing left at all anymore. I should leave, I'll leave every one of them.
He stood, pain erupting through his legs, back, and wings. He gritted his teeth against the pain and walked past Azerzan. The two guards that stayed behind stepped back to let him pass. Moungo strode slowly to the edge of the clearing the temple laid in. After he was out of sight from the guards and everyone else, he collapsed underneath a tree and whined himself to sleep.