Chapter One: Quickening
Warm sea air flowed with the wind, catching blades of grass in the medows below and fluttering them like feathers. The rolling hills were covered, like mats of green placed upon the landscape by the gods themselves, stopped only by the sands of the beach. Amongst the grass, a mouse scurried about only to be whisked away into the air by a hungry owl, which took to the skies. Though the owl thought itself to be king of its domain, it was far from, for above in the clear, starry expanse calmly floated a pair of metal wings, silently carrying a set of unwavering eyes forwards.
The owner of the wings watched carefully at the owl through a thermal imaging camera, the simple act of hunting most likely going to be it's only form of entertainment for the night. A few smooth strokes brought his airspeed up as he banked into a broad turn, cameras turning to follow the owl. The machine, built in the image of a feral dragon, was several times larger. Whereas most dragons grew to be about 8 feet tall at the shoulder and 10 feet long, it dwarfed them at 24 feet tall and 56 feet long. The machine was not manned, nor was it remotely operated. Instead, the operator was a demon, which had been anchored in the construct to help the mortal world, initially to repay his sins, and now out of sense of belonging and duty that he had caught from his mortal companions.
As the owl roosted itself, out of view, the demon turned his attention elsewhere, scanning the main roads with his thermal camera. All night he was supposed to do this for 12 hours until the sun rose, and another fellow demon took over. Even with his 150,021 years as a demon in the Royal Guard, nothing seemed to bore him more than simple night watch. Night after night had he flown the skies with nothing to report the majority of the time. With his current search pattern completed, her turned to enter his next area, watching the reflection of the moon in one of the rivers with his visible spectrum camera.
It was with it that he caught the first glimpse of something, a light blue blot moving under the currents. Zooming in several times revealed that it wasn't an anomalty. Bringing his thermal camera to bear, he watched carefully until the blue blot revealed itself. A female dragon surfaced, looking towards the city of Cobalus, the capital city of Sypho-Diahz, the largest country on the continent. As she watched, she swam forwards, slipping under the city wall, exiting the water and proceeding on foot towards the Palace of the Unity Council. She slipped out of view as she crossed into a under-river tunnel.
Though her actions were unusual, they were in no way illegal, yet something bothered him about her. Having learned to trust his instincts a long time ago, he made the decision that tonight was no longer a normal night. Ports opened up on his shoulders and behind his flanks, revealing the intakes and exhausts for two turbojet engines, which rumbled to life, giving him the speed to race ahead and catch her as she exited the tunnel.
"Starlight, this is Ghartoom. We may have an unwanted visitor."
***
On the beach, the sands still radiated the warmth of the day's sun. It had been a beautiful day, and still was a beautiful night, with the soothing, rhythmic sound waves breaking on the sand. Some, however weren't quite ready to let the day end. A bonfire marked a small university student party on the beach, with drinks being passed around, and exam horror stories shared. Not all attendees were on land though. A pair, a male and female dragon and found themselves in the water, wrestling over who would end up dunked first.The two danced around, laughing until the male won, promptly dumping his female companion in before he dropped in himself.
Lacyu wasn't your normal dragon, at least not physically. He stood about 7' 3", about average for his age and possessed a medium build with a bit of muscle showing from under his scaled burgandy hide, marked with dark grey streaks in a symmetrical pattern all over his body. On his head was a pair of black, jagged horns, and his eyes were cinder red with a jagged scar just behind his left eye. What set him apart, however, was his left arm, or more accurately, the absence of one. His arm, lost in a terrorist attack, was replaced by a cybernetic prosthesis from the shoulder down, the metal painted in a dark matte grey. As he swam, water flowed freely through the cooling vents of his arm, the currents stirring up sand and making his brown board shorts flap in the water.
Sunset, however, didn't want him going anywhere. She grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back for a kiss. While Sunset was very modest about her looks, the purple bikini that left just the right amount to one's imagination certainly betrayed her assessment. Her body was that of a swimmer, very lean with not much muscle showing, but far from being bony. At 7' even, she was a bit smaller than her mate, about average size for her age. Even though she denied it, Sunset had curves in all the right places, from her shapely hips to her modest chest. Her eyes were a golden yellow, and white scales covered her body, laced with yellow streaks.
The two stayed lip locked for a few seconds before Sunset broke the kiss and scooted into Lacyus' lap, cuddling up against him. "Hmmm, good idea coming to this party?"
Definately. I needed some down time after exams." Lacyus wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close. "And some time with you."
The two leaned in for a kiss only to end up kissing a cold bottle of beer dropped between their heads. Both blushing, they looked up to see the culprit.
Above them stood Ennica Mykai, a female panther a year older that both of them. Long red hair sat over her shoulders and reached almost halfway down her back, and black fur with even blacker spots covered her body flowing over her and nearly erasing any trace of her nearly flat breasts, covered by a cyan bikini and matching cyan and brown shorts. At 5'11" she was quite smaller that the two dragons, but didn't bother her in the least. Her violet eyes gazed down with a hint of annoyance.
"Hey you two lovebirds. We're not gonna let you guys sit around while we do all the work. Grab a beer and help us dig the trench for the fish bake." She waved around a pair of bottles, an open bottle in her other hand.
Lacyus stood up as he took both of the bottles, popping off the caps with the edge of his arms wrist plates, and handed one to Sunset. "You do remember that we caught all the fish today. I think that earns us a free ride for now, right Sunset?"
His protests were cut short though by Sunset grabbing a horn and hauling him to his feet. "Come on you lazy heap'a scales. You're not getting out of this."
"'Easy to persuade' huh Lacyus?" Ennica prodded him in the ribs as they walked by, a triumphant smirk on her face.
"Oh shut it."
***
Mayatei looked around warily as she wrung out her shirt and jacket. Her entrance into Cobalus had given her the advantage of not alerting the guards, but had left her with wet clothes, and nothing left to change into as she had left her backpack behind for the final leg of her escape. The city had apparently been put on alert, with checkpoints at every turn. With luck, she managed to slip around them through a combination of tunnels, sewers and canals, but the net was closing in. With the guards growing in density, avoidance was becoming increasingly harder, and, though she knew she had snuck in undetected, she couldn't help but feel like, once again, she was slowly being boxed in as if being hunted.
***
Sand hissed as it poured from Lacyus' shovel. Before him sat a trench, a foot and half wide, 4 feet long and two feet deep. He was joined by Saiul, a cheetah and Ennica's boyfriend. Like most other cheetahs, his body was thin and toned, his training on the track team showing very clearly. Standing 6' even, his brown hair was braided up as usual, pulling it out of the way of his emerald eyes. He looked up to see Ennica packing the foil packets with veggies and herb. However Saiul's wave was met only by a frustrated roll of her eyes followed by the cold shoulder.
Saiul sighed and frowned. "Hey Lac, you've been in a relationship with Sunset for about six years now right?"
"Yeah," Lacyus replied, nodding. "Though 6 years is pretty short for a dragon. Why do you ask?"
Pitching his shovel in the ground, Saiul sighed and gazed on at Ennica. "Well my girl seems pretty pissed at me right now. Ideas why?"
He thought for a moment. "Did you say anything to her just now?"
"I just told her that I would handle digging the trench and she should just do the cooking but she said she'd be fine digging the trench."
"There's your problem: You completely forgot that she was raised by dragons."
Saiul sighed and tilted his head quizzicaly. "What's that gotta do with it?"
"Most dragonesses, or at least people raised by dragons, Ennica included, find chivalry to be insulting rather than romantic."
"Whaa?"
"It's seen as basically saying 'You're too weak to do this, so I have to do it for you.'" Lacyus took one more shovel full of dirt to finish the trench. "You've pretty much just verbally slapped her in the face." He turned to face Sunset. "We're ready, bring over the coals."
Sunset approached with a pair over steel pails full of hot coals from the bonfire. She knelt down and emptied both into the pit, spreading them with her bare hands, earning a apprehensive look from Saiul. She frowned back at him. "What?"
Shaking his head, he pulled his shovel free and rested the handle against his shoulder. "It just creeps me out that you scalies can hold stuff that'll strip the fur right off of me."
Picking up a handful of coals, she offered it to him. "They're really not that hot."
"Yeah, how about no." He waved his hands laughing nervously. "I'll just go check on Ennica and-"
"Already done." Ennica pushed past, foil packets in hand, more than a little annoyed.
Saiul put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, once you're done, can I talk to you in private?"
Ennica handed the food to Sunset with an exasperated sigh and gestured away from the two dragons, leading Saiul away.
Sunset smiled, watching the two. "Remember when we used to fight like that?"
"I don't remember too many fights like that." Lacyus replied placing the packets on top of the coals. "Or at least for the same reason."
"Well... hmmmm...." She thought for a moment. "There was that one time with you teasing me about reading the Holy Scriptures for my Clan Studies all the ti-" She stopped when she heard shouting along the upper path along the beach.
***
Mayatei swallowed nervously as she approached the checkpoint the last before she could make an end run for the Palace. The guards seemed to be IDing people at random, so her chances were much better than what she initially expected. That being said however, her trip was not over yet. The guards were turning some people away, mostly beggars and drunks, and her the state of her clothes didn't help her case against being considered as one of them. Tucking her tail between her legs, she tried to shrink into the crowd, her six-foot Draconian stature not helping much. As she walked, the guards seemed to give her no attention as she made her way between them. Her small victory, however, was cut short by the squad's sergeant, a tall, green and brown male dragon stepping into her path.
"Hang on there miss. Just need a quick look at your City ID." He gave a pleasant smile and held out his hand.
Mayatei swallowed hard and tried to banish the feelings of dread rising in her throat. "I'm sorry, I don't have my ID on me."
Cocking his head quizzically, the sergeant paused. "Hmmm... Can't speak english I take it?"
"Wait, sir, I am speaking english." She was sure that she was speaking english perfectly, so why couldn't the guardsman understand her.
The sergeant thought for a moment, then spoke again in Asahyr, the language many dragons spoke. "Ehhhumm... Mettak, Ki girv toz obaskeh. (Lady, I need your identification.)"
Mayatei could understand what he said, but the intonation was much different from her dialect. "Naihn, naihn obaskeh. (No, no identification.)"
Frowning even deeper, the sergeant jestured over to their mobile command tent. "Well, I'm not sure if you can understand me, but how about you come over here and we'll clear things up for you."
Swallowing one again, trying to wet her throat she nodded slightly and followed the sergeant. He opened up the tent flaps and motioned inside. One of the communications operators, a female jackal took a look at Mayatei's face and nodded. "It's her, exactly like the security cam photos."
Mayatei took a step back, beginning to panic. "Wait, I'm not an enemy!"
Another operator stood up a male gekko. "She's speaking Ancient Asahyr sarge. I can't make out everything she's saying, but she just said 'Enemy something-or-other.'"
The sergeant shrugged. "Well, at any rate, the general wants us to hold her overnight for now and-"
"No! Nonononono NO!" Mayatei started backing up some more. "You hold me here and the Exiles are gonna find me in the morning!"
"I think we're scaring her sarge." The jackal smiled and turned to face her. "It's okay honey, we just need some stuff sorted out."
A rolling chair rattled as the gekko pushed it over and the sergeant caught it, offering it to Mayatei. "Just take a seat an calm down ma'am. You're not in trouble, you just need to stay here for now."
The offer fell on deaf ears, as Mayatei turned and ran as fast as she could. Shouts erupted as the sergeant called for him men to chase her. Panicking, she ran faster than she ever thought she could, fear spiriting her forwards. If she was caught, there was no doubt that the Exile Hunters sent to find her would no doubt succeed and kill her, no matter how much protection she had.
She had come too far to let that happen.