Draconian Peril Ch.2
Ryuu had practiced his newly awakened Shadow Flare abilities at least once a week now, just as a precaution, so that he wouldn't lose control again. He had discovered many abilities he possessed thanks to his curse. Most people wouldn't call it a curse though. In exchange for near limitless power and adaptability as well as brutality and intellect when needed, person had to forsake taking a mate for the rest of their unnaturally long lives. This is a small price to pay for a human, lycanthrope or many other races. However, to a race whose entire culture revolved around love, pleasure, emotion, honor, and battle... it was a nightmare. An unquenchable loneliness would forever follow this curses victims. Another aspect of this curse that made it so unbearable to a draconian was that if one did take a mate while they still acted as a vessel for the curse, their mate would almost immediately die a long and painful death before the curse's victim. The reason that Serris and her mate didn't suffer was because they both bore the Shadow Flare when they fell in love. Ryuu knew this. He also knew that he was practically immune to the solitude required for the curse to permanently take hold of him. He could use the power of the curse for the rest of his life yet he would never be affected by its loneliness. Ryuu preferred to be alone rather than around other people. This alone made him the Shadow Flare's perfect vessel.
"Ryuu!" A voice yelled in the distance.
Ryuu recognized the voice so he returned to his human form before he called out an answer.
"Over here!" Ryuu said in a slightly louder than normal voice,
After a few moments, a boy from Ryuu's village ran up to him from over a large hill. He ran at an incredible pace and Ryuu could immediately tell that he had already taken the trials. The boy, who looked no older that fifteen, was one of Ryuu's only friends in the village. Ryuu smiled as the boy stopped about ten feet from him and acted as though he was out of breath.
"What's going on Kain? You've never come up here before." Ryuu looked at his friend, questions at the ready.
"I just passed the trials! Why don't you come down to the village? They're holding a celebration for the ones who passed today," Kain said with joy on his face.
Ryuu knew he didn't need to come. As far as he was concerned, he had already passed the trials and solitude was his celebration. Yet, he had come all the way to Ryuu's mountaintop home to invite him. Still, he didn't really want to go.
Ryuu called out to his mother, telling her that they had a guest from the village. Serris, still in her draconian form, walked into sight of her son and his friend, making a dismissive wave of her hand before walking back into the forest to find something. Kain knew that Serris was supposed to be one of the most beautiful draconian females in the village, as well as one of the most powerful, having lived several hundred years without getting so much as a scar from battle. So seeing Serris with those mangled wings and a slight limp in her right leg, he resolved to ask Ryuu what had happened to her. Seeing that Serris had allowed her son to see her true form, Kain thought that Ryuu must have taken the trials already and might know.
"So Ryuu, what happened to your mom? She looked like she got in a fight with a demon just now," Kain asked offhandedly. Ryuu sighed before he answered.
"I... lost control of my power. She had to fight me until my power was drained, and she paid with her wings. When I woke up, I was just as surprised as you, probably more so." Ryuu clenched his hand and smiled as he tried to push the memories away.
"I don't think I'll be welcome at one of the villages celebrations," Ryuu said as he turned from his friend and walked over to a tree with several hammocks strung from its branches. Kain followed, and sat near the tree for a few minutes before trying to convince Ryuu again. Ryuu declined again and stood when Kain asked why he wouldn't come.
"First, that celebration is for those that have passed the trials. I have never taken them. Second, the village would rather kill me, than willingly have any part in reawakening my power. Third, if you really want to know why I am not welcome, then try and get the elders to give you a straight answer. Since you passed the tests, they should tell you all about my family and how we all bare the Shadow Flare curse."
Kain was dumbstruck. He could not believe that one of his best friends was cursed by the Shadow Flare and he hadn't seen any of the signs. He asked about why he seemed unaffected by the curse, and once Ryuu spoke. Kain wished he hadn't.
"I was born with this curse, Kain. Unlike any other in my family, I was conceived while my parents were using their Shadow Flares. That in itself is why I show no marks of the curse. It is bonded to my very soul! I cannot be affected by the loneliness of the curse." Ryuu yelled as he invoked his transformation,
The black scales of Ryuu's draconian form took their place as his wings erupted from his back in a spray of blood. Ryuu's tail grew from his spine while the needles and spikes of his cursed form sprouted. The last thing to appear was the indentation that held his flame. Kain stared in horror as his friend called on the curse like second nature.
"Now do you see? Now do you understand? I am a draconian by blood, a member of the clan. But, I will never be welcome among you." Ryuu folded his wings about himself and vanished in a burst of black fire.
Kain looked around to see where Ryuu had gone, when he saw no one, he ran. Kain ran as fast as he could, back to the village where he believed himself to be safe, even though he already knew that Ryuu meant him no harm. He would tell everyone what he had seen.
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Two weeks had already passed, and yet, Ryuu had heard nothing from the village. Serris had not gone far from their home as of late. She only left the house in order to bring home fresh game when Ryuu's last catch had been finished off.
Meanwhile, Ryuu had spent more and more time out in the woods, perfecting his abilities. He had been learning new ones as well, abilities such as illusion, necromancy, fire manipulation came naturally to him. Whether they came to him because of the Shadow Flare or not, he didn't know. Nevertheless, Ryuu felt that he had gained a better understanding of himself after learning these things.
Serris sat in the house, basking in the darkness she had come to enjoy after these long years. Ryuu was the only one who ever bothered her, and even that was seldom as of late. Serris stood, and left the house to sit out on the rocks. At first she didn't see them, the villagers stalking up to their home, weapons in hand. When Serris first heard the villagers coming, she took a quick glance. Eyes wide with fear, she dashed to the spot she knew her son to be.
"They are not going to get him" She thought as her unmatched speed brought her to Ryuu. None would harm her son as long as she lived.
"Ha, got another one down!"
Ryuu walked to a river close to where he had been practicing his fire breath, filling his canteen over and over again, while just as quickly draining it. The flame he had been spitting had left a sooty after-taste in his mouth. The water quickly pushed it away though.
A gust of wind alerted Ryuu to his mother's presence before he had even seen her worried expression.
"What's wrong? You look pale," Ryuu said in surprise.
Serris looked back to the direction of their home before Ryuu's words registered in her mind.
"What? Oh, nothing... um, Ryuu, I need you to go stay with your father for a while. You remember where he lives correct?" Ryuu nodded.
"Good, get going."
Ryuu looked at Serris questioningly for a moment and looked in the direction that she had looked before. When he saw nothing, Ryuu shrugged and spread his wings.
"No!" Serris said as she took gentle hold of his wing,
"Don't fly... Remember, there are many human villages and cities between here and your father's lair."
Serris made her point by squeezing the joints in his wing.
With a sigh, Ryuu reverted back to his human form and got dressed before he began walking. His mother stood there watching as her son disappeared from her sight.
Serris sighed herself, as she invoked her Shadow Flare once again, but this time with the malice and anger she held in her heart. Black markings spread out over her wrists and ankles while her wings regenerated to their former glory. Her scales shone with a silver gleam while her right wing sprouted black tipped feathers that matched the rest of her scales. Long spines grew from under the scales on Serris' shoulders as she extended the blades from her wrists that were her favorite weapons. The final change to Serris' new form was that of a blue crystalline horn jutting from above her right eye. This was Serris' true form, the form she attained with a perfect and irrevokable merger of her soul and the Shadow Flare's power.
"Farewell Ryuu, my son." Serris' whispered to the wind as she ran back to their home, where the other villagers were sure to be looking for her and her son.
Serris perched herself up in a high tree as she watched her home get torn apart by the villagers she had known and loved like family for centuries. She knew that if she didn't act soon, they would find the path she had taken to find Ryuu. If they found it, Ryuu was done for.
Her resolve strengthened, Serris stood and spread her wings, making a shadow over her home. One of the villagers noticed the shadow, and quietly drew a knife. He threw it in the direction the shadow was cast from. Serris saw the blade flying toward her, and attempted to dodge the blade. She moved to evade it, only to have the blade strike in her left wing joint. She screamed in agony as the poison tipped blade went to work infiltrating her blood stream and spreading it's deadly ambrosia. Serris muffled another scream as she fell from the tree, landing on a sharp mound of rock. A fall that would have split a human in half. Giving the wounded female a chance to recover, the villagers spread out and surrounded her, they expected her to fight back, not wanting to accept her punishment, they didn't expect what she did next.
Serris was already feeling the effects of the poison, her scales were dulling, vision misting over, strength failing her. It was only a matter of time, considering what they hit her with.
"(panting)... Dragons-bane? You would use Dragons-bane against one of your own?" Serris shook her head, making her dizzy, yet not letting it show.
"Of course, what else do you think we could have used on a victim of the Shadow Flare?," One of them asked.
"Victim!? I am no victim of this power. I willingly took this flame unto myself. So I could be with my mate. Ryuu is the product of that love! He is the perfect merger between human, dragon, and the Shadow Flare. He has no soul that the flame can affect. He IS the Shadow Flare. The living incarnation of one of the greatest powers in the universe, and you want to destroy him!?"
Serris grinned, and spit the blood that had gathered in her mouth at the feet of her clan. She saw no need to be cautious anymore. She was already bleeding internally, as the blood dripping from her lips was evident of. She would leave this world soon. Serris lifted her arms and ignited black fire around her wrist blades, right wing, and tail.
"YOU WILL NOT TAKE HIM!!!", Serris screamed as she charged her clan, using her power to the fullest for what would be the last time.
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Miles away, Ryuu felt a sudden clenching in his chest, a sudden loneliness like he had never felt before engulfed him, driving him to his knees. This only lasted a few moments, but he knew what it had meant. Ryuu stood, wiping a tear from his eye as he collected himself, and continued on his way halfheartedly. His father's lair resided on a large peninsula nearly a hundred miles from where he stood now. It would take weeks to travel by land. Carefully looking around, Ryuu changed into his draconian form. Spreading his wings, he took to the skies, not noticing the small girl who lay on her back, eating an apple as she watched him take off with a sadistic smirk. The girl reached into the bag that lay at her side, and pulled out a small, intricately carved, wooden box. Opening it, the girl reached into the box and ran her fingers over the many draconian scales that lay strewn within the box. Each scale was taken from a different draconian that she had killed. Now she had her eye on Ryuu's black scales.
"Soon you will be mine."
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Ryuu flew over rivers, hills, valleys and villages alike. Now he was only a half-mile from his fathers lair. Ryuu could see his father's cave in the distance, but would have to land and walk the rest of the way because of the barrier spells his father had erected around his territory. As Ryuu stepped through the invisible barrier, he felt a familiar cold sensation that was his father's overwhelming power, as it filled the surrounding land. Shivering slightly from the sudden winds, Ryuu pressed onward, disrupting the flow of power that laced the area with his own. After ten minutes of walking in the direction of his father's home, Ryuu reached the entrance of the cavern. Ryuu had never actually met his father, as he was born long after his parents had parted ways. The one thing that perplexed him was the size of the cavern.
"Why would my father need such a large cave to call his home? After all, its not like he's a full blooded dragon." Ryuu smirked as he walked in.
Ryuu senses went into overdrive as he took his first step into the vast cavern. The scent of blood was so thick he could barely see straight. Bones littered the floor, and several large serpents had taken up residence in the rocks. Ryuu noticed that his father's power was so dense and potent that it could be seen with the naked eye. His father's power acted like a silver mist, creeping around everything it touched, barely relinquishing its grip on Ryuu as he walked deeper into the cave. Ryuu now understood what his mother meant when she told him that his father's territory was almost barren of life. Only the most hearty of creatures could stand to be anywhere near this kind of malevolence that his father's power radiated. Either that or those remaining were just plain insane.
A sudden, deep growl pierced the silence and caught Ryuu's attention. The mist that had worked its way to his knees receded into the darkness of the cavern. Without warning, a bull carcass was flung out of the darkness and landed at Ryuu's feet. Ryuu, taking this as a challenge, called on one of his new abilities, and summoned six skeletal beasts to protect him. Ryuu readied several illusions and spells to combat his opponent, if it turned out to be so. Out of the darkness, a long red tail shot straight toward Ryuu and his creatures. With a single sweep, the undead beasts were obliterated and reduced to smoke. As the creatures were struck by the attacking beast's tail and faded away, the real creatures that Ryuu had summoned clamped their fangs onto the tail. Digging their claws into the dirt, the skeletal beasts immobilized the appendage. Ryuu smiled as he realized that this was his chance to do some real damage. Planting his feet on the ground in a more stable position, Ryuu began to focus his power into his talons. As Ryuu's talons began to glow with a white aura, he ran up the beast's tail and over it's back before unleashing several energy scythes right in the creatures face.
A piercing roar of pain resonated throughout the cavern as the beast writhed on the ground. Ryuu took this opportunity to create a small orb of light and launch it at the ceiling. Where it promptly turned into a brightly glowing crystal, illuminating the cave, and revealing his opponent to be, ironically enough, a red dragon.
Ryuu froze when he realized that he had almost killed a dragon. He ordered his skeletal beasts back to rest, releasing the dragon's tail. Ryuu walked toward the massive creature, a male, as he could now see. As Ryuu reached the dragon's head, he began to heal the wounds he had dealt him, sending short pulses of restorative power into the dragon's body. The dragon smirked, and before Ryuu could react, his breath had been forced out of his lungs. He was pinned to the wall of the cavern by the dragon's claw. Struggling for breath as the dragon's maw came ever closer. Ryuu closed his eyes, and whispered a single word:
"Vanish," Ryuu said in barely a whisper, though his voice echoed several times.
Just as the dragon was about to tear Ryuu in half with his massive jaws, he disappeared in a burst of black mist that dissipated within seconds, right in front of the dragon's eyes. The dragon released his grasp on the wall where Ryuu was suspended moments before.
"Come out, coward. Show yourself, and fight me!" , The dragon bellowed in his own language.
Ryuu heard and understood the dragon's challenge easily. Being a half-breed had certain advantages. He then laughed at the dragon's dim perception,
"I never moved, I am disappointed though." Ryuu said as he held out his held out his hand, mere inches from the dragon's face.
Ryuu cast a powerful healing pulse into the dragon's wound and took several steps back as the wound mended itself. The dragon looked Ryuu in the eye for several moments until he was sure that Ryuu meant him no harm.
"Speak, child. Why are you here?" The dragon said in an even tone.
Ryuu bowed slightly, folding his six wings over himself and relaxing himself before answering.
"My name is Ryuu. My mother, Serris, sent me to find my father, who was supposed to live here," Ryuu said in a respectful tone to the dragon standing before him.
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The dragon's eyes went wide when he heard the name 'Serris' before taking another, longer look at Ryuu. The dragon had felt a small hint of the flame when Ryuu had entered his lair, but had attributed it to his power colliding with Ryuu's own. Yet now, as the dragon was closer, he could feel that this boy, who looked no older than twenty at the very most, held a flame not unlike his own. The dragon chuckled quietly for a moment before he spoke again.
"That is a name I have not heard in centuries. Serris left me over three hundred years ago so that she could raise our child among its own kind. She had no doubt that we would meet eventually. It's good to see some family after all these years."
Ryuu stared at the now grinning dragon for several minutes before he fell flat on his butt in front of the dragon.
"Father?" Ryuu asked in astonishment.
The dragon nodded silently.
"One with a very sore muzzle I might add," Ryuu's father added with a smile as he rubbed the spot where Ryuu had managed to injure him.
Ryuu looked over the size of his father, easily five stories tall at full hight. He next thought about his mother. She was even shorter than he was, just under six feet tall. This perplexed Ryuu to no extent.
"Okay, I can except that my father is a five story tall dragon, no problem. But one thing seems odd."
The dragon cocked his head, as if welcoming a question.
"Shoot."
Ryuu stood and brushed off several pebbles that got stuck under his scales before he spoke.
"How the hell did you fit in her!?"
End of Chapter II
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