Rammi sat back from the edge of the rocky overhang just inside the mouth of the cave. The rain was still catching him slightly but if he sat back any further he wouldn’t be able to see the fluxing events happening in the town below. Every epoch since his retirement, Rammi ventured to the top of the rocky mountain to watch.
Low black clouds swirled erratically as bolts of lightning struck and thunder roared with the rhythmical precision of a marching band. The ground released an earthy smell as the rain hit the hot dirt and evaporated into steam which lingered amongst the trees in the dense forest just outside of town.
The smell drew Rammi back to the evening eons ago when he had been fluxed back to House Altan. At the time, he was unaware he was a Dragon Blood and found the event somewhat traumatizing.
Even for a flux event the air was uncharacteristically thick. Unusual flashes of red, blue, black, brown, orange, purple, yellow and green, sporadically zipped across the dark night sky. It was more typical to see the Northern Lights during sharding not fluxing, but Rammi thought little of it.
The flickering streetlights of the town below had finally given up their fight, leaving everything in darkness. The rain was falling quite heavily now making it even harder for Rammi to make out what was happening. If it weren’t for the bolts of lightning temporarily illuminating the night’s sky, he would not be able to see anything at all.
He heard screams coming from the high school oval which drew his attention in that general direction. He could vaguely make out a mass of people scattering in every direction as bolt after bolt of lightning whipped violently at the oval and its occupants. A young man dressed in football practice gear received a direct hit from a lightning bolt and vanished before Rammi’s eyes. The girls standing close by screamed louder. Only a black patch of grass remained.
Welcome Dragon Blood. Rammi mumbled under his breath. I should just sit closer to the practice fields. They always flux a lot of jocks. Must be the Dragon Blood that brings out their athleticism, competitiveness and sharp mind. He smiled as if he had just received a complement.
Rammi turned his attention to a ruckus at the top of the bleachers. Bolts of lightning struck ferociously at three lads trying to run through the obstacle of chairs, missing them narrowly. Finally, a lightning bolt directly hit the tall lad in the middle, and he disappeared, the two lads standing next to him disappeared also.
Three with one bolt. Wouldn’t be surprised if a Normie or two were caught up in that flux.
Rammi’s attention snapped away from the bleachers to a commotion on the edge of the forest closest to town. A young couple scurried along the dark bitumen road that divided the high school grounds from the forest. The man had something tucked dangling under his arm. It wasn’t until the couple inched closer that Rammi could see the man was carrying a toddler by the waist.
Strange shadows roughly shaped like a human were following closely behind the couple. The shadows were not running but flowing along the ground in one smooth continuous action. The couple kept turning their heads back to see if their assailants were still close behind them.
The man grabbed the woman’s arm and jerked her towards an opening in the forest’s thick brush. They stumbled along the narrow forest track barely noticing the scratches they were accumulating from the overgrown brush along the way.
The shadows were still following closely behind the couple but not close enough to see the man stow the toddler in an old burnt-out tree stump. The toddler remained calm and quiet as the shadows passed him by. It was as if the tiny child knew his life depended on him remaining hidden.
A flash of blue light caught the corner of Rammi’s eye, and he turned his head in the direction of the forest. His senses heightened as he saw a blue dragon fly down and land in the dense brush.
What is a dragon doing in this world during fluxing?
Shortly after, Rammi saw a red, then a purple, green, yellow, black, brown and orange dragon land, one after the other, on the edge of a clearing in the middle of the forest just a bit further into the forest from where the first dragon had landed.
Why are there dragons from each house landing in the forest during fluxing? This is highly unusual. Dragons normally wait for fluxing to finish then re-enter for the sharding……….. It would explain the Northern Lights activity.
Rammi could tell by the crest on each Dragons’ tunic that they were Alphas.
Why have so many high-ranking Dragons from each house gathered in a dark forest during fluxing?
Rammi had never seen such a sight. The Dragon houses have been at war with each other for eons of eons.
Rammi’s attention was drawn back to the man who was shouting at the woman to hurry. The couple continued to run erratically through the forest. It was clear they had no real plan other than to put distance between themselves and their assailants. The couple turned and ran in a more direct line towards Rammi’s vantage point, that’s when he realized the shadows following them were the Chaggrin.
What are the Chaggrin doing in this world? They never leave Pedahzur.
A shiver ran down Rammi’s spine. Seeing the Chaggrin in this world gave him an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew he needed to get down closer to the events unfolding. He descended the mountain as fast as he could. Sticks and leaves crunched beneath his feet as he ran. The storm was intensifying.
A bolt of lightning struck at his heels almost at the same time a deafening clap of thunder broke over his head. The wet fallen branches and loose rocks slowed him down as he weaved left and right trying to dodge them. It was no use. It was going to take too long to get to the clearing if he were to continue running in his human form.
Running at full tilt, Rammi stretched his arms forward until they were pouncing on the ground in front of him. He could feel the strength in his hind legs as they propelled him forward. He landed lightly on his front legs first, then brought his back legs forward and used the power of his back legs to propel himself forward with force and speed.
Alpha Thanh stretched his hind legs out and landed so delicately on the forest floor that not even the leaves rustled beneath his talons. He had decided to use the element of surprise so strategically landed some distance from the clearing where House Sorrel would gather before executing their plan. He stealthily made his way through the brush towards the clearing.
Thanh’s Chaggrin contact had let it slip during their last tavern gathering that House Sorrel were planning to abduct a toddler during the next flux. After some gentle coaxing and several more hogsheads of mead, the contact revealed the toddler was no normal toddler but the Pedahzur prophecy. House Mazarine were not going to allow any of the other houses to control the prophecy so, he as Chief Alpha decided to personally step in and make sure this didn’t happen.
As he weaved his way quietly through the brush, something caught his eye. A dull glow of purple, green, yellow, black, brown, red, orange and blue light danced just over the top of a burnt-out stump. Quite an unusual sight for the middle of a dark forest. Thanh didn’t really have time to stop and investigate but the scales tingling on the back of his neck, told him to do otherwise.
He carefully inched closer to the burnt-out stump and cautiously looked down into its hollow. He was surprised to see a toddler sitting there quietly looking back up at him. Thanh saw an amber flame flicker in the toddler’s eye and knew immediately that he was looking at the Pedahzur prophecy.
“My, my, my what do we have here.” Thanh leant over and picked up the toddler. “Well, it appears House Sorrell’s abduction plan isn’t going so well.” Thanh scoffed. He tucked the toddler under his wing and continued to walk cautiously towards the clearing.
He noticed a flash of orange through the bushes and held his breath in an attempt not to give his position away.
“Give it up Thanh, I can smell you. Besides, I can see your blue tail trying to hide in the bushes.” Kirros walked towards the bush where Thanh was trying to conceal his beast of a body.
“Nice of you to finally turn up Alpha Kirros.” Thanh stepped forward into the clearing.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you here Alpha Thanh.” Kirros noticed the toddler tucked away in Thanh’s wing. “Nor was I expecting you to be in possession of the toddler.”
“No, I imagine not Alpha Kirros. Did you really think, you could just quietly come down here, abduct the Pedahzur prophecy and shoot off without a challenge?”
“What are you talking about? I’m not here to abduct the toddler. I’ve come to stop house Iroatu from abducting him but now I see my information was a little off.” Kirros puffed his chest out as he stepped up to Thanh.
“Give it up you larp. My Chaggrin contact….” Before, Thanh could finish his sentence, a purple Dragon landed in behind the two Dragons standing toe to toe.
“Evening Larps. Looks like, I got here just in time for the action.” Thanh and Kirros turned to see Alpha Calfuray from House Kovidar standing behind them. A black, brown, green, yellow and red dragon all landed in the clearing in quick succession. The Dragons gathered in an impromptu circle, eyeing each other suspiciously as they each assessed the situation before them.
“Well, well, well, it seems we have the whole gang back together again.” Kirros finally broke the silence. “So, it seems, I was not the only one my Chaggrin contact informed about House Iroatu’s intention of abducting the toddler tonight?” Kirros stepped forward, puffing his chest out at the green dragon. “I must admit, planning a stunt like this during the chaos of fluxing was very crafty indeed, Alpha Luntian.” Kirros was now standing toe to toe with the green dragon.
“What are you talking about Alpha Kirros? I’m here to stop Alpha Branwen from abducting the child for House Licarayen.” Luntian looked past Kirros and pointed to the black dragon.
“Hang on. I’m only here to stop Alpha Terava from House Solbrun……”
“Wait, I’m here to stop Alpha Roth from House Altan.” The brown dragon stepped forward.
“I’m here to stop Alpha Xanthos from House Yrevner.” The red dragon protested.
“Wait, I’m here to stop Alpha Calfuray.” The yellow dragon challenged.
“Hang on, hang on. I’m here to stop Alpha Thanh and he’s the only one holding a child.” Calfuray pointed to the toddler under Thanh’s wing.
Thanh stepped forward in protest but before he could get a sentence out Roth lunged at Terava, sending him toppling to the ground.
A melee broke out between all eight dragons. The yelling was so loud, and the wrestling was so fierce it was difficult to make out who was accusing whom of what. Thanh crouched down over the toddler to protect him from the flying wings, tails and talons.
“Hey.” Alpha Xanthos roared in an incredibly high pitch tone. The pitch was so high it almost burst the other Dragons’ ear drums as they fell to the ground holding their heads in agony. “Enough. This isn’t making any sense. We’re all here to save the child from being abducted and we’re all suspects. How is this even possible?”
“Medea, my Chaggrin informant.” Every dragon started to say almost in unison. They stopped abruptly and looked at each other.
“It appears, we all have the same informant, and he is telling us all a different thing.” Luntian spoke up.
“Why would he do that?” Thanh stood up from his protective stance.
“Look at us. We are all at each other’s throats over rumors.” Branwen became the voice of reason.
“I don’t get why they would lie to us about a toddler being abducted.” Terava added.
Suddenly, a young couple burst into the clearing and stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of the thunder of Dragons. Their attention darted from Dragon to Dragon as they tried to make sense of the situation.
“Give me my child.” The nervous man stepped towards Thanh but then suddenly stopped when he realized he was standing before a great beast. Thanh held the toddler out towards the man but before the child could be exchanged, dark shadows flowed through the opening in the clearing and circled around behind the dragons. Thanh pulled the toddler back protectively under his wing.
The Dragons looked at each other with puzzled looks as they realized that the Chaggrin had joined their little meeting.”
“Well. What do we have here?” A dark skinny figure stepped forward into the middle of the circle of dragons that had formed around Thanh and the couple.
“Orpheus. It’s unusual to see such a high ranking Chaggrin this side of town. In fact, I didn’t think your folk ever left Pedahzur. I mean, I didn’t think it was possible for you guys to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere.” Terava stepped forward to join the others in the middle.
“And yet. Here we are.” Orpheus slowly spread his arms out to either side.
“None of this is making any sense. Why are you here? Why are there so many Chaggrin Guards here? How are you even here?” You could hear the confusion in Roth’s voice as he spoke. “Why are we all here?” Roth looked around at all the other Dragons.
“Yes, it’s all getting a bit awkward to say the least. It seems Medea has done a good job convincing you all that another house was going to abduct the Prophecy of Pedahzur. A little too good.” Orpheus turned to face Medea. “You weren’t supposed to scare them into taking matters into their own hands.” Orpheus struck Medea across the face with the back of his hand.
“Sorry Ser. I did explain to them we would handle it. They weren’t meant ….” Medea stepped forward to try and explain his position but before he could finish his sentence Orpheus sliced Medea’s head off with his scythe. The Chaggrin informant fell into a heap on the floor, then started to liquify. The mercury like liquid congealed for a moment then seeped into the ground slowly disappearing until there was no sign that anything had ever been there.
“Sloppy, Medea. Very sloppy.” Orpheus spoke to the ground. He turned to face the couple. “I guess you knew this day would come.”
“You leave my child alone.” The man stepped forward into Orpheus’s face. Two Chaggrin Guards immediately grabbed the man under the arms dragging him backwards and him restrained him.
“The child.” Orpheus turned to Thanh who was still protecting the toddler in his wing.
“Don’t touch him.” The woman was immediately restrained by another two Chaggrin Guards before she had a chance to do anything.
The gathering had barely noticed the weather amongst the commotion. Dark black clouds were swirling wildly above their heads. They formed a small tunnel and an orange bolt of lightning shot out the opening. It struck the man, his body jolted violently as he was sucked up the tunnel, leaving nothing but a burnt spot on the forest floor where he had been standing.
The woman screamed trying to jerk herself out of the hold the two Chaggrin Guards. The dark clouds reformed, a red bolt of lightning shot out and struck the woman. She disappeared.
“Oh, how sad. They’re fluxing into different houses.” Orpheus grinned. “That’s going
to prove rather awkward when they find out they’re arch enemies.” He turned to Thanh and held out his hand. “The child.” His voice was deep and authoritative. Thanh instinctively pulled away.
A couple of Chaggrin Guards restrained Thanh who was still clinging tightly to the toddler. Orpheus stepped forward with his arms stretched out towards the child, but Terava stepped in between them hindering Orpheus.
“You want us all, to believe that a different house is abducting the child so you can keep it for yourself while we’re all fighting with each other about it.” Terava made a circular motion with his wing pointing to the other Dragons gathered.
“Well, what do we have here. A Solbrun big brain. Pretty clever but not quite.” Orpheus tapped Terava between his eyes with his scythe. “The child is for the Jatse.” Some of the other Chaggrin gasped at Orpheus’s boldness.
“Relax, it’s not like they are going to live to tell the story. Right, we need to do some cleaning.” Orpheus thumped his scythe on the ground three times quickly. Small cracks spread from the bottom of the scythe towards Terava. Black veins shot up from the cracks and dragged Terava down through the ground. He shredded into tiny pieces, like he was being pushed through a sieve.
Thanh’s memory flashed back to when he saw the multi-colored flashing lights dancing just above the burnt-out black stump where he found the toddler. They weren’t random colors. They were colors of every house. Suddenly it all made sense.
“This child is the only one who can piece the Stone of Pedahzur back together.” Thanh said to Orpheus.
“Well, look at this another big brain. Correct and whoever controls the child, controls the Stone of Pedahzur. Now give me that child.” Orpheus lunged at Thanh.
“Run Thanh.” Xanthos screeched in his high-pitched roar causing both the Chaggrin and the Dragons to fall to the ground in agony. Thanh quickly struggled to his feet and ran as fast as he could into the dense shrub. Calfuray jumped up and tackled a Chaggrin that was in hot pursuit. They tumbled and wrestled blocking the other Chaggrin, allowing Thanh to make a clean get away down a narrow forest track.
Thanh could hear the screeches of pain from both the Chaggrin and the Dragons as they battled to the death. He did not stop to look back, he knew saving the toddler was far more important than helping his fellow Dragons. He ran until he could run no further and then ran some more.
The sound of his talons thudding on the forest floor were muffled by the loud thunderclaps above. He stepped forward and felt an immense pain shoot up his leg, he lurched forward and fell.
Thanh looked down to see his talon caught in a bear trap. He pulled at the trap and started dragging it with him, but it was no use, it was slowing him down too much. He hid himself in some thick brush to catch his breath and assess the damage. There was no way he was going to be able to bring the toddler to safety now.
A white flash caught his eye.
“Dog.” The Dragon called Rammi out from the bushes. Rammi didn’t move. “Come on Dog, I know you’re there. I’ve seen the little white flashes, as you run from bush to bush, trying to hide while watching what’s going on. I can tell you’re one of ours. You may be a retired Samoyed Ser, but you never lose that smell.” Rammi emerged from the bushes. “Take the child. Get him to safety.” The Dragon held the toddler out for Rammi to take.
Orpheus appeared around the corner. “Take the child.” The Dragon shook the toddler at Rammi this time.
Rammi lifted his front feet off the ground and stood upright morphing into his Normie form. He took the toddler from the Dragon. The Dragon nodded without saying a word and immediately turned to face the oncoming threat.
Orpheus opened his mouth and a snake of green mist slithered out towards the Dragon. Thanh grabbed Orpheus by the throat and drew him in closer deeply breathing in the mist as if he were participating in a ritual. Thanh looked Orpheus directly in the eyes and smirked as he lifted his scepter high. A bolt of lightning struck the scepter so ferociously the scepter sparked and jolted violently in Thanh’s talon. It took all his energy to maintain a grip. A wave of electricity buzzed down the scepter through Thanh and into Orpheus. Both the Dragon and the Chaggrin immediately turned to ash.
Rammi bent down and scooped a handful of the ashes up and spoke to them. Thank you my friend you have made a great sacrifice today. Rammi knew that a Dragon could only flux once and if he were to flux again it would cause instant death.
Rammi then looked at the toddler on his hip and smiled. “How am I going to explain this to my wife?” The toddler smiled back at Rammi lifting his arms to reveal a red Piedmontite amulet he had been holding in his hand the whole time.
“Steady on young fella. Best I don’t touch that little beauty.” Rammi swiftly left the forest and its secrets behind.
Goel sat quietly towards the back of the classroom, he could hear the snickers coming from the boys behind him. He had the unfortunate luck of sitting in front of the Dempsey boys.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like the boys behind him, he just didn’t like the way they behaved and treated people so he chose not to run with them, which in their language meant you ran against them, making you a target.
He could feel something small hitting him in the back of the head and he knew it would be spitballs. It took all his will power not to run his fingers through the back of his hair to find out. It would only encourage the boys more.
“Pssst. Mullet head. There’s something in your luscious locks.” Goel didn’t need to turn around to know that Quade was trying to get his attention. He recognized the boy’s snicker.
“Butt head.” Goel continued to ignore Quade’s over exaggerated whispers. “Where’d you get that rock?” Quade continued to pester Goel. Quade was referring to the fragment of partially polished stone that hung on a leather strap around Goel’s neck.
Knowing Quade was eying off the amulet his father had given him just before he disappeared made Goel uncomfortable. With as little movement as possible, he slowly slipped it back under his shirt out of sight.
“You can’t ignore me out of class butt hole.” Goel glanced over his shoulder to see Quade making a cut your throat action in his direction.
In that instant the bell rang and before Goel had time to think, he had grabbed his books and started to head towards the classroom door. He could vaguely hear the teacher yelling instructions to the students about the looming deadline for the next assignment.
Goel slipped out through the classroom door and into the safety of the student hoard that had already gathered in the school hallway. He disappeared into the crowd as quickly as he could.
As Goel turned the corridor corner towards the entrance he saw Lily being shirt fronted by a much taller girl. Lily was not pushing or fighting back nor was she retreating. She just stood there square on to the girl in strong silent defiance.
The afternoon sun shone through the windows in the doors and caught Lily’s hair in such a way it looked like she was wearing a halo. Lily saw Goel out of the corner of her eye, distracted by him, she momentarily took her eyes off her opponent sneaking a quick glance at him. He swore in that millisecond he saw fire swirl around in her amber colored eyes. He shook the thought out of his head as he convinced himself that the light dancing around her was playing tricks on him.
Suddenly, the tall girl seemed a little unnerved and took a step back from Lily. She looked around herself nervously as if she was making sure her army of girls were still around her.
With an exaggerated swing, she slapped the books that Lily was holding out of Lily’s hands and turned to her friends. “Come on let’s get out of here. We’ve better things to do than mess with losers.”
“Yeah, her father doesn’t even know which team he bats for.” snickered another girl. The girls all turned at once as if they were in the middle of a cheer leading routine and flowed around Goel as if he was parting the Red sea. Leaving Goel and Lily almost entirely alone in the corridor looking directly at each other.
Goel had been besotted with Lily since first grade. To be fair it was more than just being besotted, he was strongly drawn to her. Her silky copper colored skin accentuated her fiery curly auburn hair and large amber colored eyes. She was gorgeous but it was not just her beauty that he was drawn to. There was something else about her, about her presence, about her energy that he just had to be as close as possible to.
Goel knew Lily was not attracted to him in the same way, or if she was she certainly didn’t let on. She certainly didn’t turn into a bumbling mess like he did every time they ran into each other.
She had been part of the in crowd at school until her father disappeared. Then the rumors started circulating about her father and their family and slowly, one by one, her so called friends started distancing themselves from her.
Her father had disappeared around the same time as Goel’s. Of course small towns being small towns, rumor had it that Lily’s father had ran off with Goel’s father in some kind of male version of Thelma and Louise.
Among other more disturbing rumors such as they had been sacrificed to the Pagan Gods by their Pagan cult to stop the world descending into a barbaric new world order. Now, people feared they would become the next Pagan sacrifice if they got too close to one of them. Goel had given up trying to fight the stupid illogical rumors and by all appearances it seemed Lily had too.
Goel bent over to pick up the books that had been slapped out of Lily’s hands. In doing so, he hadn’t noticed that his father’s amulet had fallen out from underneath his shirt. He held the books out for Lily to take, she just stood there frozen, staring wide mouthed at the amulet.
“What’s the matter?” Goel asked gesturing for Lily to take the books from him. Lily didn’t respond.
“Your necklace it’s made of red Piemontite.”
“It’s an amulet. Boys don’t wear necklaces.” Goel cringed as soon as the words left his mouth. Taking the amulet in his hand, he looked down at the nondescript greenish, brownish, reddish rock that hung around his neck.
The stone was triangular in shape with two smooth sides and a jagged third side. The top was not pointy but rounded like a cup. There was some type of hieroglyphics on the two smooth sides. One picture looked like a horizontal zig zag and the other was shaped like a protractor. Goel slipped the amulet back under his shirt out of sight. This seemed to snap Lily out of the trance she was in.
“Can I walk you home?” Goel asked Lily who had finally taken her books from his extended arm.
“Sure that would be nice, thank you. I don’t really fancy walking alone these days.” Lily replied.
They headed out the school’s entrance towards the school boundary. Goel looked up at the storm that was gathering fast in the sky as they were crossing the school grounds.
“There’s a storm brewing. Gees, it’s coming in fast. It was sunny five minutes ago. Shall we save some time by cutting through the woods?” Goel looked at Lily. Lily was also looking up at the sky. She paused for a moment as in deep contemplation of the world.
“The storm does look nasty. It is coming in fast. It would be much quicker through the woods.” She hesitated. If it had been anyone else but Goel the answer would have been a quick and firm no. She knew better than to give some of the guys at this school a chance to be alone with her in an deserted wood. Particularly, the Dempsey boys, who Lily could see, were hot on their tails.
A clap of thunder broke almost directly above school with such force that a wave of energy surged through the earth below them. It sounded so much like a gunshot that some of the students had dropped to the ground thinking they were in the middle of an active shooter siege. Some of the students who had remained on their feet, pointed and laughed hysterically at the students on the ground.
Quade was one of the students who had mistaken the thunder clap for a gunshot. As he struggled to his feet, he furiously pushed over all the Dempsey boys who had fallen about him laughing. The tussle broke into a full scale melee. Lily saw the commotion and welcomed the delay in the Dempsey boys pursuit of them.
“Yes, let’s cut through the woods and get back to mine quickly before this storm really takes hold. Mom should be home from work already, I can get her to drop you home.” Lily wasn’t actually sure if her mom would be home from school yet but she wanted to think there was no chance of any funny business back at hers.
Lily held her hands up as if to catch the rain that had started to fall. “Uh, it’s already started to rain.” She grabbed Goel’s arm and started to jog quickly in the direction of the woods.
Goel obediently jogged with Lily until they were about a hundred yards into the woods when he started to slow down.
“I can’t keep this pace up, I’m not as fit as you.” Goel slowed to a brisk walk. “It’s just a bit of water, I don’t mind getting a bit wet.” He added.
“I wasn’t running because of the rain. I was making a quick get away while the Dempsey boys were distracted beating the crap out of each other. They were following us back at the school up until that massive thunder clap.” Lily slowed to a brisk walk also.
“Ah, OK. I hadn’t realized they were sizing us up.” Goel threw a quick look over his shoulder to reassure himself he was no longer being followed. “Hey, where did you learn so much about gems?” Goel continued.
“My dad, he’s an avid amateur prospector. He likes to think he’s a geologist. I mean …… he was……” Lily hung her head and darted her eyes towards the ground. Tears had started to well in her eyes but she was hoping that Goel was unable to see them with all the rain that was now falling.
“Hey, I’m sure our dads are OK.” Goel was reassuring himself as much as Lily with his words. “Wherever they are, whatever has happened to them, I am sure we will find them.” Goel gently lifted Lily’s chin up so she was now looking up at him. Her auburn curls had straightened from the weight of the rain and were plastered to the side of her face. Her white school blouse was so drenched, it clung to her body revealing the outline of her lacy bra.
Goel gently wiped the tears from her eyes with his thumb. He swore he saw a flame flicker in those amber eyes of hers, again. Without thought, Goel leaned over and gently brushed his lips against Lily’s. At that moment an even louder clap of thunder broke overhead and a bolt of lightening struck three foot to the side of them. The electricity surged through the ground and through their bodies, their lips tingled as Lily pulled away.
Lily gently held her lips staring straight into Goel’s eyes. She looked both stunned and shocked at the same time. It was hard for Goel to tell if it was from the kiss or the lightening strike.
“Wow, that was close.” Lily was staring at the spot where the lightening struck.
Goel started to instinctively apologize for something he wasn’t sorry for but before he had a chance to say anything, he caught a glimpse of the Dempsey boys coming around the bend in the track. Normally, in this situation he would leg it out of there but he couldn’t just take off and leave Lily at the mercy of the boys.
“Oh great.” He mumbled under his breath. When it rains it pours. Perhaps just today we could’ve had a break.” Goel looked up to the sky in despair.
“Well, well, well, what have we got here?” Quade, followed by the Dempsey boys started to circle around Goel and Lily. “You two getting together is like incest you know, even if you are step siblings.” Quade snickered.
“Our father’s haven’t run off together.” Lily retorted. Triggering the Dempsey boys to laugh boisterously.
“We’re not together.” Goel added, this just seemed to inspire the boys to laugh even more. “Stop.” Nobody seemed to notice the red glow that was now radiating from Goel’s eyes. His limbs felt like they were on fire and he could feel his blood boiling and circulating faster through his veins.
Quade walked up to Goel, aggressively stuck his hand down his shirt and pulled Goel’s father’s amulet from his neck. “I’ve only ever seen one of these in a book. I’ve never seen one in real life before. Where did you get it from?” Quade looked at the amulet as he bounced it up and down in his hand.
“My dad gave it to me.” Goel slapped Quade’s hand away with his left and caught the amulet in his right and put it in his trouser pocket before Quade managed to even figure out what was happening. Goel surprised himself with the speed in which he reclaimed his precious stone.
“Wow, the boy has some quick moves there. I’ve only ever seen one other person with moves that quick.” Quade took a quick arrogant look around at his boys, then looked Goel straight in the eye, pausing for effect. “Are you a Dragon Blood?” Goel could see a flame flickering in Quade’s eyes.
“What are you talking about?” Goel took a step back.
“He’s not a Dragon Blood.” Terach Laughed. He walked up to Goel and sniffed him. We can smell other Dragon Bloods, he’s definitely not one of us.
“Why’s he got a fragment then?” Quade and Terach were facing breast to breast, they seemed to have completely forgotten that Goel and Lily were there.
Lily caught Goel’s eye and motioned with her head that he and her should make a run for it. Goel shook his head slowly no, to let Lily know that he didn’t think it was a good idea but it was too late. Lily had already started to run down the track.
Quade put his arm out to stop her but Goel managed to grab Quade’s arm foiling his attempt and she darted past him and continued down the track. Quade tried to push Goel off but Goel held Quade strong with his left arm as he swung at Quade with his right. A big clap of thunder cracked directly over their heads, amplifying the sound of Goel’s hand making contact with Quade’s cheek.
Quade grabbed his cheek in pain and leaped backwards just out of reach of Goel’s left hand which had instinctively followed his right.
“Jack ass.” Quade screamed.
“Sorry, sorry man. I barely touched you.” Goel once again apologized for something he wasn’t sorry for. Quade removed his hand from his cheek to reveal a long gash from his ear to the corner of his mouth that had started oozing blood down the side of his neck.
“The dip shit has pulled a knife on you.” One of the Dempsey boys pulled a switch knife from his pocket and started to lunge towards Goel but stopped dead in his tracks.
Goel stood there holding his hands up in front of his face, staring. He was just as shocked as everyone else by the damage he had done to Quade’s face but he was more shocked at what he saw on his hands.
Claws were protruding from the tips of his fingers and the claw from his index finger was covered in a small amount of Quade’s blood. The blood glistened in the dappled light which was struggling to break through the heavy clouds.
Goel noticed that the blood had a strangely familiar smell to it but he couldn’t pick where he had encountered that smell before.
All of the Dempsey boys seemed to instinctively move back from Goel.
“No way. No way. He’s not a Dragon Blood.” Terach repeated. “That’s not possible. We’d smell it.” He reassured himself, as much as everyone else.
In all the commotion Lily had managed to make her way another hundred yards down the track.
“Don’t just let her get away.” Quade yelled, pointing in Lily’s direction. He was still holding his check trying to stem the flow of blood mixing with the rain drenching the side of his face.
A couple of the Dempsey boys obediently ran after Lily and managed to run her down. As Goel watched the boys drag a kicking and screaming Lily back, he could feel the blood in his veins boil even more. His back began to itch, then ache more intensely, suddenly he could feel a rush of wind swoop in behind him as a huge set of wings sprung out of his back.
The force of the wind from the wings was so strong that it pushed the Dempsey boys standing close by to the ground, Quade included. Everyone scurried back as Goel flexed his translucent wings. The boys dragging Lily back, absentmindedly let go of her and she made a break for it again.
Quade struggled to his feet. He had now forgotten about the gash on his cheek which was now freely oozing blood down the side of his face and trunk of his body. “Don’t just stand there. Get them.” Quade waved his arms widely in both Goel’s and Lily’s direction.
Half of the boys instinctively lunged towards Goel while Quade and the others started running down the track after Lily.
“Get back.” Goel tried to scream at the boys coming towards him but instead of his voice coming out, a ball of fire shot out and scorched the top of one of the boy’s head. He screeched and fell to the ground holding his burning hair.
A massive clap of thunder sounded directly above, shaking the ground beneath Goel. A bolt of lightening struck the boy screeching on the ground and his whole body caught on fire. The boy stopped screeching and squirming, laid on his back and opened his arms wide. The boy looked up to the heavens as if summoning to be taken. Right in front of Goel’s eyes the boy disappeared in a ball of fire, leaving nothing but a patch of scorched earth where he had been lying.
Three claps of thunder sounded in quick succession startling Goel. he jumped like 4th of July fire crackers had been set off right at his feet. Three bolts of luminous blue light struck the three boys standing around him and they all instantly exploded in balls of fire. The burning boys fell to their knees with their arms open and looked up to the heavens before disappearing in puffs of smoke. Goel swore one of the boys had a smirk on his face.
Too spooked to react, Goel’s wings seem to take over and before he knew it he was flying overhead directly above Lily. He swooped down and picked her up with his claws. Lily looked up at him as he lifted her off the ground.
As he lifted Lily up above the ground to safety, Goel could see the remaining Dempsey boys being struck by lightening one by one, erupting into flames and vanishing into thin air.
Weaving in and out of the lightening strikes, Goel lifted Lily higher and higher, as he banked to the left to avoid a bolt another one came out of nowhere and struck him on his claws causing him to let go of Lily.
Lily screamed as she plummeted towards the ground. Goel banked harder and dove directly down towards the earth as fast as he could. A bolt of lightening flashed before his face just missing him. It hit Lily. Her body jolted and convulsed as the contorted figure fell closer and closer to the ground.
“No.” Goel screamed, diving even harder towards the ground. Before, he could get to Lily a bolt of lightening struck him. He could feel the electricity surge through is whole body as it erupted into flames. He was now falling uncontrollably towards the ground.
As he watched the ground rushing closer and closer he saw Quade being struck by lightening and erupting into a ball of flames. Quade looked up at the fiery mass that was Goel hurtling towards him and saluted. Goel could just make out the smirk on Quade’s face.
“Noble dragon blood doesn’t smell.” Quade whispered to himself as an effigy of his body burned until the flames were overwhelmed by the darkness.
Young people all over the world began to panic as news of the death wielding weather events traveled to untouched parts of the globe faster than the storm traveled itself.
Moob and Acitrev stood watching the 5 pm news report on the large screen in the university square. They could barely believe the vision they were seeing beamed down on them from other parts of the country. They listened intently to the news reader.
“Parts of the world are in shock today after an unusual weather pattern started charging its way through eastern land masses. It left a trail of death and destruction never seen before.” The female news reader paused to take a breath.
“Several young men and women struck by freak bolts of lightening tragically burnt to their deaths without any trace. Strangely, all the victims were aged between 17 and 24 and in some cases entire sporting teams were lost in the bizarre weather events.” The news reader paused again but this time she appeared to be holding her breath.
“Just exactly how many young people have been lost so far, is yet to be determined and given the lack of remains it may take months or even years to quantify. In all likelihood, the exact numbers will never be known.” The news reader seemed visibly distressed.
“What we do know is that the storm does not appear to be finished yet and that almost an entire generation of young people seem to be being wiped from the universe, even as we speak.” By the end of the report, Moob and Acitrev could barely hear what was being blared out over the large speakers around the square. The hysteria of the crowd was so deafening that the commotion had also blocked out the noise of the storm that had been furiously rolling in.
A large clap of thunder broke overhead, shaking the old university buildings lining the square. Moob and Acitrev looked up to see glowing black and blue clouds in the shape of a phoenix hovering intimidatingly over them. The mighty storm clouds rolled in such a way that it looked like it was thrashing its wings as it sprayed blue flashes of light from its red eyes and mouth in every direction.
Neither Moob or Acitrev saw the blue bolt of lightening coming for them.
There is a code written into the book that will be breakable over time and the person who breaks it wins something big (to be determined)
At various times the Noble Bloods will be raffled off or auctioned off to the community.
Goel tossed and turned in the bed. Beads of sweat trickled down the side of his face and onto the sodden pillow beneath his head.
He tried to move his arms, but they were pinned to his side. His wrists and ankles were red raw from the straps that had been wound around them tightly. With every movement he could feel them cut deeper.
He had thrashed so much during the flux that the Betas had to tie him to the bed to stop him from hurting himself or somebody else. Fluxing is what the citizens of Pedahzur named the process of transitioning from Earth to the new realm.
Even though he was still in a state of flux, he could feel himself drifting in and out of semi-consciousness. He could see faces and hear voices but could not make sense of anything that was happening around him.
Images from the storm flashed through his head like an old film reel that had been left to spin on the cinematographer’s projector long after the movie had ended. He could see Lily’s body falling uncontrollably to the ground. His body jerked and twitched in its half comatose state as he tried desperately to save her.
No matter how hard he tried, she always slipped through his fingers and fell faster and faster towards the ground, over and over again. She didn’t burst into flames like the others. He wished she had. That may have saved her some pain. At the very least perhaps she would have died before she hit the ground. It was hard for him to picture her body laying all alone, contorted on the ground, waiting for someone to discover her before her body was torn apart by wild boars.
“Beta Nottoc, I think we have another one that doesn’t know, on our hands.” Beta Geoj quickly jumped out of the way as a bolt of fire spewed out of Goel’s mouth. “Oh man, I hate it when the noobs do that. This one definitely has no idea. Fighting it bad.” He added.
Nottoc was sitting at a round wooden table playing Wojak in the corner of the fluxing room. Wojak was a fork of the Normies game shithead. The object of the game was to dump all your cards while influencing someone else into being stuck holding cards at the end of the game. The games became quite fierce at times as no one wanted to be the last one caught holding the bag.
“No looking at my cards, you larps.” Nottoc wagged a finger at the four other players sitting around the table as he placed his cards face down. He was not trusting enough to leave his stack of $Flame sitting there as well and scooped it up before leaving.
Nottoc walked over to where Geoj was standing and looked down at Goel thrashing around in the bed. “Why is it that the Dragon Bloods that don’t know always flux the hardest?” Geoj was staring down at Goel’s twitching body, shaking his head in disbelief.
Nottoc leaned down close to Goel’s neck and took a couple of quick short sniffs. He stood back up and looked at Geoj and shrugged his shoulders. “He’ll survive.”
Nottoc abruptly left and walked over to a tall old man with a long gray pointy beard that almost reached his navel. He was standing in a turret room surrounded by books. The bookshelves stretched from the floor to the ceiling with a large wooden ladder to one side. There was a marble alter in the middle of the circular room. A mortar and pestle and several bowls and bottles sat on top of the table. There was a fireplace at the back with a large cauldron bubbling away and a brewing stand to the side of it. There was a solid wooden desk with dragon heads carved into it by the door.
Nottoc whispered with the old man who was rushing around too much to pay Nottoc any attention.
“I can’t smell the noob in flux piece five, but his skin is blue and scaly, Ser Margoose.” Nottoc said in a low voice. Margoose stopped dead in his tracks with a surprised look on his face.
“Nothing, you can’t smell him at all, but he’s blue.” Margoose replied with a rising intonation which let Nottoc know it was a question and not a statement.
“No, not at all.” Nottoc answered. Margoose rushed off to his desk and opened the top draw. After fishing around in the draw for a moment he pulled out an obsidian crystal.
“Take me to him.” Margoose ordered. Nottoc led Margoose over to flux piece five.
“This is the one.” Nottoc waved his arm in Goel’s direction as he closed the curtain behind Margoose. Margoose examined Goel closely before placing the obsidian crystal on Goel’s forehead.
“What are you doing?” Nottoc inquired.
“I’m checking to see if he is on our chain. This one is a bit concerning, he’s fluxing into our house colors, but we should be able to smell him. Normally, fluxing into our colors with the lack of scent would lead me to believe he is a Noble Blood, but the House has no Noble Bloods left to recall.” Margoose said pointing to Goel’s scaly blue skin.
“On chain? I have no idea what you are talking about right now.” Nottoc replied.
“If he is a House Mazarine asset, it will be recorded on our chain. We all have little crystals in our foreheads that this crystal can detect.” Margoose held up the obsidian crystal.
“When he’s one of ours the crystal will glow blue. If he is someone else’s, it will glow the color of that house. If he is another species, it will glow white.” Margoose explained.
“Oh right, I had no idea we were all being monitored on chain.” Nottoc looked concerned.
“Well, it’s more of a way to authenticate that we have the right asset more than to monitor what everyone is doing.” Margoose replied.
“Why do we need an authentication system? I thought we could smell other Dragons and distinguish our own house from them.” Nottoc asked.
“This is true we can but with the advances in magic others were becoming increasingly crafty, inventing potions, elixirs and devices to mirror us. All sorts of deceptions were being committed by impostors and infiltrators. We had to come up with a better way to authenticate our own.” Margoose explained.
“But this one has no smell?” Nottoc questioned.
“Yes, I know this one is confusing. Normally, impostors are trying to deceive us by imitating our scent. If it wasn’t for the blue skin, I’d have assumed he was a Normie that had got caught up in another Dragon’s flux and ordered him sent back to Earth immediately, without hesitation.” Margoose replied.
“So, what are we dealing with here?” Nottoc asked.
“I’m not completely sure at the moment. First things first, if he’s recorded on our chain then this crystal should emit blue light.” Margoose waited for a moment, but the crystal did nothing. He adjusted the crystal slightly on Goel’s head and waited a moment longer. The crystal remained dark. Margoose took the crystal off Goel’s head and walked into flux piece four and placed the crystal on the noobs head lying motionless in that piece. The crystal immediately radiated a warm blue light.
“Well, it’s definitely working.” He took the crystal and walked back into Goel’s piece and once more placed the crystal on Goel’s head.
“What does it mean when there is nothing, no light at all?” Nottoc inquired?
“It means, he’s not on chain.” Margoose paused. “Not on any chain.” There was an air of concern in the old man’s voice. He looked at Nottoc as he took the crystal off Goel’s head and placed it in the pocket of his robe.
“Infiltrator?” Nottoc queried.
“No, this crystal would detect he was another species or from another house.” Margoose looked both concerned and confused at the same time.
“How can he not be on chain at all?” Nottoc questioned.
Margoose slowly stroked his beard while he thought. “Bastard.” He said quite loudly before he shuffled off mumbling to himself. “No surely not? It must be. It’s the only logical answer as to why he’s not on chain. But it’s been epochs since the last Bastard was sent back, but we did just lose our last Noble.” Margoose continued to mumble to himself as he approached a large wooden cabinet that housed hundreds of vials, beakers and conical flasks.
“Excuse me!” Nottoc said defensively.
“Not you, him.” Margoose pointed to Goel. He seemed unfazed that he had offended Nottoc. “He must be a bastard.” Nottoc still looked perplexed. “A mixed blood. A half Noble Blood.” Margoose added for clarification.
Margoose started rummaging through a cabinet filled with conical flasks, vials, beakers and bottles. “Nobles have no scent. That is why we can’t smell him. Half Bloods are outcasts and not recorded on chain, anywhere. That is why there is no record of him existing.” Margoose continued talking to Nottoc without looking up.
“Huh?” Margoose could tell from Nottoc’s bewildered replied that Nottoc had no idea what he was talking about.
“Beta Nottoc being an Alpha in waiting, I thought you would be aware of all this.” Margoose challenged.
“No Ser. It hasn’t come up in my Alpha training yet.” Nottoc cast his eyes down in shame. “Alpha Vlatka is away on missions, a lot.”
“No matter.” Margoose mildly attempted to make Nottoc feel better about his gap in knowledge.
“If he’s a bastard, why are we bringing him back?” Nottoc asked.
“Noble bloods are the only ones that can touch the Stone of Pedahzur.” Margoose responded.
“Stone of Pedahzur. What is the Stone of Pedahzur?” Nottoc asked with a puzzled look on his face.
“To be honest, I’m not really sure what it is myself. I’ve never seen it. I’m not sure anyone really knows what it is, but legend has it, the stone of Pedahzur is very powerful. So powerful everyone wants to have control over it.” Margoose paused.
“Is that why the houses are warring?” Nottoc was finding the history lesson very intriguing.
“Yes for the most part, amongst other things.” Margoose replied.
“So, the house needs a Noble Blood, even a bastard Noble Blood to be able to take control of the Stone of Pedahzur?”
“Yes, that is how I understand it. Even a half Noble Blood will be able to touch the Stone of Pedahzur without dire consequences.” Margoose nodded.
“What happens if a non-Noble Blood touches the stone?” Nottoc inquired.
“Nobody knows exactly but legend has it, well let’s just put it this way, it’s not good.” Margoose replied. “Are you volunteering to find out for us?” He smirked.
“Not this little black duck.” Nottoc returned the smirk. “I’m happy to heed the legend’s warning Ser.” Nottoc ignored the challenging tone of Margoose’s voice.
“We really do need to have a talk to Alpha Vlatka about your Choryrth Scripture studies Beta Nottoc.” Margoose handed Nottoc a small vial containing a glowing blue liquid. “Apply a small dab of this to the Noble Blood’s neck, daily. Make sure nobody sees. And make sure you keep a close eye on him until we know he can be trusted.” He instructed. “I need to confer with the House Phoenixes about this one.”
Nottoc took the vial and inspected it closely. “What is it?” he asked.
“House Mazarine Dragon scent. We need to hide his nobility.” Ser Margoose shuffled off back to his potions in a way that Nottoc knew not to question him any further.
Nottoc walked back over to Goel who had finally stopped thrashing but was now making low grunting noises. He untied Goel’s wrists and ankles and slipped a small amount of the blue liquid onto Goel’s neck. The familiar dragon scent filled his nostrils.
“Keep a close eye on this one Beta Geoj, let me know if there is the slightest problem. And I mean the slightest problem.” Nottoc had unwittingly leaned in close to Geoj’s face to make his point.
“Yes Ser.” Geoj replied as Nottoc walked back to the Wojak table and sat down.
“I hope you larps kept your talons to yourself.” Nottoc took his stack of $Flame out of his tunic and slapped it back down on the table. The other dragons looked sheepish. “I thought as much. Let’s play. New round. Sweep and deal Wojak.” Nottoc pointed at Beta Сайн уу to remove the cards from the table and start a new game.
Beta Orter and Beta Sirel walked by the table with a broom pretending to sweep the floor. The not-so-subtle dig they were having at Сайн уу sent the other dragons into fits of laughter.
The loser of the previous game was called the Wojak, which is a massive insult, and was pretty much treated like a servant by fellow players until the next game was lost.
“Before, you deal Wojak, I’ll have another mead.” Beta Kaaz waved his arm in the general direction of the Dragons’ mead hall.
Knowing better than to protest, Сайн уу stood up and headed in the direction of the mead hall.
“Make mine a Firefly.” Beta Hatu shouted.
“Lightweight?” Beta Itsirc slapped Hatu on the back. “Make mine a Rotted Beast.”
“Make mine a Crackle.” Kaaz chimed in. “Not drinking Beta Nottoc?” Kaaz taunted.
“On duty larps. Some of us need to keep a clear head.” Nottoc replied, casually leaning on the table. “Don’t forget we have a sharding mission later this evening. It won’t be much longer before the fluxing has finished for this epoch.”
“Beta Nottoc.” Geoj came running over to the Wojak table with a panicked look on his face. Nottoc appeared unamused as he looked up from the table.
“The noob?” Nottoc raised an eyebrow as he asked.
“No. Well yes but a different one. This one looks sus. Real sus. You better come check him out.” Geoj hurried Nottoc in the direction of flux piece 12 where the noob concerned lay.
Nottoc looked down at the noob. He leaned over and sniffed the noobs neck.
“Why to do you keep sniffing them?” Geoj questioned.
“To see if they have the House Mazarine scent.” Nottoc replied without looking up. “He doesn’t. He doesn’t have any Dragon scent at all.” He added. Nottoc proceeded to look the noob over. Lifting his arms and legs and inspecting them closely.
“Why are you looking at him so closely?” Geoj questioned again.
“To see if he is showing any of the traits of a dragon.” Nottoc kept inspecting the noob. “Go call Ser Margoose over to take a look at this one too.” He added.
Geoj hurried off to the alchemy room where Margoose was still pottering away with his potions.
“Ser Margoose, Beta Nottoc would like you to come and have a look at the noob fluxing in flux piece 12.” Margoose put down the conical flask of purple liquid he was swirling and walked with Geoj over to flux piece 12.
“Ser Margoose, this one is a bit sus.” Nottoc closed the curtain behind Margoose as he stepped into the flux piece. “No scent, no scales, no color, nothing to indicate he is a House Mazarine dragon or a dragon in general.”
Margoose pulled the obsidian crystal out of his pocket and placed it on the noob’s forehead. The crystal glowed white.
“White light.” Margoose took the crystal off the noobs head and placed it back into his pocket. “Normie, send him back to Earth.” Margoose said flippantly as he rushed back to his alchemy room without waiting for a response.
Nottoc grabbed the Normie under the arms and hauled him off the bed.
“A little help Beta Geoj. This one’s a bit of a porker.” Nottoc’s voice was visibly strained from the physical exertion of trying to get the Normie off the bed.
Nottoc and Geoj dragged the Normie to the grand hall where the fire tunnel was burning brightly. The fire tunnel was a return portal to Earth. Nottoc and Geoj heaved the Normie headfirst over the side of the tunnel and threw him in unceremoniously.
“There we go. Took care of that.” Nottoc dusted his hands together. At that moment a siren started to sound. “Fluxing has finished. Let’s grab the others.” Nottoc said to Geoj.
They both hurried off in the direction of the fluxing room where they found Kaaz, Itsirc, Сайн уу, Hatu, Orter and Sirel arguing over a game of Wojak.
“Boys let’s go we’ve got some sharding to do. Geoj you stay here and keep a close eye on the noob in flux piece five.” Nottoc marched passed the Wojak table in the direction of the flight chamber.
“But Beta Nottoc sharding is so much fun.” Geoj protested.
“What’s sharding?” Sirel and Orter asked, almost in unison. Both Betas had just finished their initiate training, and this would be their first sharding mission.
“We shard the Earth’s clouds with a memory wiping potion, to wipe the crazy events from the past few weeks from the Normies memory. Basically, it rolls their memory back to just before the storm. It is quite entertaining to watch. Some Normies have moved towns, broken up with partners and who knows what else in that time, sometimes they wake up in strange places with strange people.” Geoj answered.
“What!” Is all Orter could manage to get out of his mouth in response.
“Don’t worry, not too many people are affected. The little bit of confusion is far better than them thinking the world is coming to an end because people are getting struck by lightning and disappearing. Most of the time people just assume they have been on one hell of a bender.” Geoj snorted through his laugh.
“One day we will be able to manipulate time too and that will solve the problem entirely.” Margoose yelled from the alchemy room.
“OK boys enough chit chat, we have some work to do.” Nottoc looked over his shoulder as he walked. Everyone except for Geoj followed him briskly.
In the flight chamber Nottoc grabbed three bottles. He dipped two in the fountain of invisibility and one in the fountain of memory loss.
“Remember, don’t forget which bottle is which boys. It was rather embarrassing for House Altan last epoch. Everyone, transform into your Dragon form.” Nottoc ordered, he had already turned into a muscular blue dragon. Then he totally disappeared as he chugged down a bottle of invisibility potion.
“What happened with House Altan last epoch?” Sirel whispered to Kaaz.
“They mixed some of their bottles up. Ended up sharding invisibility potion all over the place. It was hilarious, people bumping into people they couldn’t see. Some of the Dragons ended up wiping their own memories. I heard it took them days to reverse the effects.” Kaaz chuckled as he answered. “We had to do the sharding all over again.”
“Oh.” Sirel grabbed his three bottles making sure not to mix them up. “Will the other houses be there tonight?”
“Yes, we have a peace treaty with the other houses that covers sharding, it’s one of the only times you will find us in the same place together and not warring. Be careful though, they still can’t be trusted.” Kaaz replied.
Sirel transformed into his Dragon form and gulped his first bottle of invisibility potion. Suddenly, he realized he couldn’t see anyone. He took a step forward and hit something.
“Dude! Can you not smell me?” Kaaz said loudly.
“Yeah sorry man. It takes a bit of getting use to relying on a totally different sense to figure out what’s around me.” Sirel apologized.
“OK boys time to fly.” Nottoc’s voice was coming from the direction of the large ledge that hung over the side of a cliff looking over the town below.
Sirel’s senses were heightened as he followed the scent of the other Dragons and their screams of excitement as they jumped off the ledge into the darkness.
They flew high in the sky as they reached the edge of Pedahzur.
“Be careful boys, make sure you get your angle right for the re-entry into Earth or you will burn up. We lost a couple last training session. It’s not fun nor pretty to watch.” Nottoc looked back to the Dragons following him.
Each dragon tilted slightly before they hit the outer atmospheric layer of Pedahzur, flashes of blue, red, yellow, black, green, brown and purple light momentarily streaked across the night’s sky as Dragons from the eight houses re-entered Earth. The phenomenon is known as the Northern Lights and thousands of Normies flock to the Northern parts of the Earth to watch the spectacle every year, unbeknown to them that they are watching Dragons re-enter their world.
The House Mazarine Dragons flew high above Rugston spraying the memory loss potion into the clouds. In a few hours when it rains every Normie will be wiped of their recent memories.
“Hey, look Dragons there’s the Normie Beta Geoj and I just threw back through the return portal.” Nottoc pointed.
Down below they saw a Normie unsteadily stagger to his feet in front of a 24-hour convenience store. A man standing outside the store was waving to the Normie in the middle of the road trying to get his attention.
“Erk!” the man shouted. The man standing on the side of the road was Erk’s friend and happened to be buying some midnight munchies just as Erk materialized on the road, right in front of his eyes. “Man, what are you doing stumbling around naked in the middle of the road?”
Erk stumbled around in a dazed state before waving back to his friend. “I don’t know.” Erk finally managed to answer as he looked down at his naked body.
“Man, it’s like you just appeared from nowhere.” His friend was rubbing his eyes and squinting trying to focus. “Jeez, I gotta cut back on the 420. I’m starting to see things.” Despite his own advice, Erk’s friend pulled a doobie from behind his ear and held it up for Erk to see. “Hey dude, wanna toke? Looks like you could use one.”
Erk smiled eagerly and started stumbling with his arm out towards his friend. Before he could orientate himself he stumbled into the path of a large Rugs R Us truck. The truck struck him with such ferocity that it squished him flat on the road like a squirrel.
“Erk.” Screamed Erk’s friend as he rushed to the mangled dead body lying on the ground.
The Dragons having witnessed everything from above gasped as they saw the unfortunate event unfolding below them.
“Ouch.” Said Kaaz.
“He’ll be right after the rain, right?” Orter looked mortified.
“Nope, not this one. We can wipe memories, but we can’t turn back time.” Replied Hatu.
“Yet.” Interjected Kaaz.
“Unfortunately, sometimes there is collateral damage.” Itsirc added. “Don’t worry you get used to it.”
“OK boys we’re done. Let’s go home.” Nottoc turned in the direction of Pedahzur and the other Dragons followed. “Catch you next epoch Normies.”
The Dragons let off a deafening screech that sounded like thunder as they headed for home.
“Aaaaaahhhhhh” Moob let off a deep guttural scream. A long green scaly snout was so close to his face he could have licked its leering pink eyeball. If he had been able to jump back he would have but he was restricted by the bed he was laying in.
The glowing pink eye was slowly looking him up and down then the beast’s green snout turned slightly to reveal another glowing pink eye. Two turned up nostrils at the end of the snout started crudely sniffing at him. He flinched trying to get away.
Moob strained his eyes searching through the dark room looking for an escape route. His body jolted as the dragon breathed a flash of blue fire across the room that lit two candles sitting on a stone mantle. Flecks of light danced on the gray stone walls. He could see his only escape route was through a heavy iron and wooden door which was blocked by the green beast.
“There you go, there’s a little light for you.” The beast growled. Then he froze for a moment, eyes fixated on an amulet hanging from Moob’s neck.
The beast inched its snout closer and inspected the amulet. The reddish-brown stone was triangular with two smooth sides and a rough side. The two smooth sides had hieroglyphic type pictures on them. One of a bird and the other in the shape of an eye.
“Well, well what do we have here?” The beast moved closer to Moob and reached for the amulet.
“Stop scaring the noob.” Another mighty green beast banged a bright green staff on the ground, startling both Clovis and Moob as it entered the room. Clovis immediately jerked his claw away from Moob.
“Go back to your Thunder Beta Clovis. And why are you not in your Alaris uniform?” Clovis dipped his head in shame and promptly left.
Moob, unsure whether to feel relieved that the first green beast had left just laid in the bed staring up at the second green beast.
“Good morning.” The beast greeted Moob.
“Cat got your tongue?” The beast stepped forward prompting Moob to scoot as far back in the bed as he could.
“No matter. How about, I do all the talking?” The beast did not wait for an answer.
“I’m Alpha Apetom. Head Alpha for House Iroatu the mighty green dragons.” The dragon held his talon out. Moob stared at the giant claws.
“Ah yes. Probably better if I offer my hand in my Normie form.” The green dragon glitched a few times before turning into a human form right in front of Moob’s eyes. Apetom still had his hand extended in Moob’s direction.
“Not going to shake it? No matter.” Apetom withdrew his hand.
“Didn’t know you were a Dragon Blood?” Apetom lifted his eyebrows as he spoke. Moob looked down at his body to see green scales glitching through his skin. He started frantically slapping at his skin like he was trying to flick bugs off.
“Don’t stress my friend. You’ll gain more control over it when you start training.” The man glitched into a dragon, then glitched back into a man again.
“Come, you must be hungry. Fluxing is an exhausting exercise.” Apetom turned and left the room before Moob had a chance to decline.
He sat on the side of the bed for a moment contemplating his options. Then quickly decided following the dragon who had not tried to cremate him was his best option.
He walked through the heavy door into a cold stone hallway that stretched endlessly in both directions. He saw Apetom striding along the hallway to his left and quickly caught up to him.
“What do you mean Dragon Blood?” Moob finally spoke.
“You’re a Dragon Moob. A Noble Dragon Blood to be precise. That’s why Clovis was sniffing you. He didn’t believe me when I told him we can’t smell Nobles.”
“What?” Moob looked disbelieving at Apetom.
“Don’t worry it will all make sense eventually. For now, you will just have to trust me.” Apetom smiled and slapped Moob on the back as they strolled quickly.
As they approached an intersection in the hallway a white long-haired dog scurried quickly in front of them and disappeared around the corner. Apetom followed the dog and nearly bumped into a green bird like Kreechure striding purposely towards them.
“Excuse me.” Apetom did the House Iroatu salute as he stepped to the side allowing the Kreechure to pass. “The Phoenixes must be back from their summit.” Apetom casually said before continuing to walk.
Moob followed the phoenix with his eyes until it disappeared around the corner. Apetom continued to stride quickly as if nothing was unusual. They continued to walk when suddenly the phoenix appeared right beside them again.
“Excuse the interruption Alpha Apetom but I see your escorting our new Noble.” The phoenix smiled at Moob.
“Why, yes Ser Luntian. How did you know?” Apetom looked surprised. Luntian simply winked and tapped his nose.
“Oh.” Apetom quickly slipped his hand into his vest pocket and immediately started splashing Moob with green liquid from a bottle.
“Hey.” Moob jumped away as he protested. Apetom ignored him and emptied the bottle.
“Thank you Ser Luntian that could’ve developed into quite a security breach.” Apetom saluted at the phoenix who quickly saluted back.
“Perhaps, I can take over Moob’s welcome tour.” Luntian suggested.
“Yes, why of course.” Apetom bowed and quickly walked back the way they had come. Moob started pinching himself on the arm.
“I can assure you lad, this is real.” Laughed Luntian as he walked off. The phoenix glitched a few times and then turned into a man. “Come” He turned his head back to Moob and gestured for him to follow.
At the end of the hall, there was a stone arch with the letters WAGMIT in capitals etched over it. They strode through the arch into a massive courtyard.
“What does wagmit mean?” Moob asked with increasing confidence.
“You mean, W-A-G-M-I-T. We Are Going To Make It Together.” Luntian articulated slowly as if Moob was intellectually challenged. Moob paused for a moment but then decided not to take offense and continued to follow Luntian over to where several dragons were standing in a circle watching two other dragons fighting with weapons.
“Epoch 370, talon to talon combat training.” Luntian said matter of factually. They stopped to watch the dragons fighting. One dragon was armed with a ball mace, the other with a sword.
“Gees got some skills.” Moob looked impressed.
“Not going to lie, not going to make it.” Luntian shook his head in that way fathers do when their child is a disappointment.
“What do you mean? They’re bussin.” Moob protested.
“Nah. First sign of trouble they’ll capitulate.” Luntian grunted with the disgust of a mother just finding her son’s porn collection.
“Huh?” Moob looked puzzled.
“Dump and run.” Luntian paused before turning to look at Moob.
“We can’t have deserters in our ecosystem. WAGMIT!” He waved his hand in the air like the underdog athlete who had just smashed a world record.
“How can you tell they’ll do a runner?” Moob surveyed the Dragons training.
“Look at their position. Their stance. The way they hold their weapons. Real paper hands. Luntian paused for a moment. “Unfortunately, Epoch 370 has been quite the disaster.”
“Why?” Moob asked.
“Dragon quality down. Down bad.” Luntian was short.
“Why?” Moob was starting to sound like an over inquisitive four-year-old.
“Some sort of unusual Catalytic Zant dump which caused a Simultaneous Burn Flurry storm.
Sometimes when you have a flux event you may encounter one or the other but not both together.
When they hit together the whole ecosystem destabilizes diabolically and affects the noobs fluxing, in a very bad way.” Luntian explained.
He strode off purposefully across the courtyard and through an arch on the other side. Moob scurried quickly behind him. They walked down a massive stone hallway and passed a doorway leading into a grand hall. Moob stepped back and poked his head through the doorway.
“Noobs.” Luntian poked his head through the doorway too. He then entered the room when he saw Apetom walking towards them with another dragon.
“Alpha Apetom, twice in one day.” Luntian greeted Apetom and his companion with a salute.
“Ser Luntian, have you met my esteemed colleague, newly appointed Alpha Claire?” Apetom gestured to the dragon next to him. Everyone except Moob saluted.
“You must be Moob our new Noble.” Claire saluted directly to Moob. He tried to mimic the salute back and then diverted his eyes passed Claire in embarrassment and focused on the party happening behind her.
“Quite the party.” She smiled.
“Wow they seem to be really enjoying themselves. What are they celebrating?” The partying noobs were being served by Dragons wearing a halo logo on their vest. Moob watched as the elixir flowed freely.
“They just finished their initiate training.” Claire answered.
“Awesome.” Moob was impressed.
“Not really. They have no idea what’s coming.” Claire continued.
“Huh.” Moob sounded concerned.
“Oh, nothing too sinister. We have very high standards, only accept the best of the best. These ones didn’t make it. They’re rejects being sent back. The elixir is actually a mind wiping potion.” Claire explained.
“Do they know?” Moob asked. Claire shook her head.
“We don’t tell the noobs there is a chance they can get sent back if they don’t make it. Avoids all sorts of complications and manipulations that way.” Claire winked at Moob.
“Should you be telling me this?” Moob questioned.
“Noble bloods never get sent back.” Apetom slapped him on the back. “So, there’s not much you can do by knowing anyway. Well, unless you manage to get yourself exiled.”
“What can you get exiled for?” Moob asked.
“The only betrayals I know of that can get a Dragon exiled are getting too close to your rider and fraternizing with dragons from another house or another species.” Apetom wiggled his eyebrows. “If you know what I mean?”
“Oh.” Moob replied in deep contemplation.
“Don’t go getting any funny ideas, Noble one. Besides, who wants to get nasty with dragons from another house or another species.” Claire screwed her face up. “And well, we never get to find out the identity of our riders.” She adds.
“Why don’t we get to find out who our riders are?” The wrinkles on Moob’s forehead folded in a frown.
“Stops fraternization. Fraternization complicates things. It’s for the better all round really. A lot of riders die. It’s a dangerous gig riding us. It’s harder to get close to someone you don’t know.” Claire spoke in a businesslike manner.
“What happens if you find out who your rider is?” Moob questioned.
“If a rider is doxed they also get exiled.” There was a brief moment of sadness in Claire’s eyes before she snapped back to business.
“Has anyone ever been exiled?” Moob prodded. Claire walked off without answering.
“Only Shillin that I know of.” Apetom waited until Claire was out of earshot before answering. “Her rider.” He lifted his eyebrows and nodded in Claire’s direction.
Yahooing sounds moved the group’s attention to the noobs who had started dancing around the fire at the front of the grand hall. The blue and red flames licking out the top of the fire pit seemed to incite the group.
Moob recoiled when he realized the Dragon who had nearly incinerated him was standing behind the fire. Clovis was nearly unrecognizable in his blue armor but Moob would never forget those fiery pink eyes, white horns, and golden spikes. The Dragon’s sheathed sword made him even more intimidating.
“Hello lads.” Came a voice from behind the group. “Watching a rejection party. I see.” Moob and the others turned to see another green bird like Kreechure standing behind them.
“Ser Alex. Long-time no see.” Apetom saluted. “Can I introduce you to our newly fluxed Noble, Moob?”
“It’s a pleasure.” Alex saluted. Sounds of yahooing took their attention back to the rejection party.
One of the Dragons wearing blue armor broke from the group and jumped over the fire. Clovis’s thunder started chanting and clapping which seemed to incite the noobs even more.
Clovis jumped over the fire followed closely by the rest of the Thunder. They continued to spring over the fire one after the other beckoning the noobs to have a go. Slowly, one by one the noobs followed but as they jumped rather than land on the other side of the fire pit they were being sucked down into it.
None of the other noobs noticed this at first and they continued to blindly follow. When it finally dawned on the remaining noobs that their group of trainees were slowly disappearing, they started to frantically yell and move back from the fire pit.
Clovis and his Thunder each grabbed one of the remaining noobs and dragged them unceremoniously to the edge of the fiery rejection tunnel and tossed them in one by one. Hollow screams could be heard as they disappeared.
As the remaining noob was tossed into the rejection tunnel he somehow managed to grab hold of Claire’s leg who was now standing on the edge of the fire pit. The force of the noob being sucked into the return tunnel was dragging Claire in with him. She grabbed the edge of the fire pit, but the noob was holding tight. She kicked and jerked trying to free herself.
The noob’s eyes screamed at Moob to help him. Claire’s fingers were slowly slipping one by one as she struggled to keep grip of the edge of the pit. A flash of green streaked across the room.
Suddenly, Alex had braced himself against the edge of the pit with his feet and was holding Claire by the wrists.
The noob fueled by adrenalin was now slowly inching his way up Claire’s trousers. A bolt of electricity flashed out of Alex’s eyes hitting the noob on the forehead. The noob disintegrated.
The sudden release of force catapulted Claire over the edge of the pit. She landed on top of Alex who had been flung backwards onto his back. They laid there looking directly into each other’s eyes, panting trying to catch their breath.
A dead silence had fallen over the room. All eyes were on Claire and Alex.
“Claire are you OK?” Alex gently brushed a piece of her hair out of her eyes. Claire’s already flushed face grew a deeper shade of red. She immediately scrambled to her feet and stormed out of the room without saying a word.
You could cut the air with a knife.
“There’s going to be a lot of weird news of people being found naked in weird places with no memory of what they have been up to in the Normie world tomorrow.” Apetom laughed in an effort to break the tension. He paused and hung his head. “Well except for the last guy.”
A solemness fell back on the room.
Elyrria stood proud by Lake Khalid on the outskirts of Pedahzur in the region controlled by the House Solbrun Dragons. The steep emerald green mountainside and ice-covered peak of Elyrria stood so high that it scraped the cirrocumulus clouds when they danced across the bright blue sky. Even on a clear day the icy peak was not visible from the lake.
Lake Khalid had mythical healing powers. It was important to the Dragons both historically and culturally. Its tepid water grew algae that glowed pink in the sunlight giving the illusion that the whole lake was pink. Many gravely ill and injured Dragons had been brought back from the brink of death after eating the pink algae. However great care had to be taken to prepare the algae in the correct manner or it would bring instant death.
Despite centuries of warring, the houses had managed to maintain a treaty and relative peace around the joint ownership and use of the lake. Even though it was in House Solbrun’s territory all the houses had been enjoying the benefits of the lake’s mystical powers unhindered for eons.
So peaceful that no mortal could foresee, this tranquillity was about to be shattered. Perhaps forever.
“Run, run. We need to run.” Dream Catcher’s eyes were rolling into the back of her head.
“Dream Catcher. Dream Catcher.” Saul was shaking Dream Catcher almost as violently as she was convulsing. “What is it? What do you see?”
“Darkness. Shadows descending. Deceit.” She paused. “War.” Her eyes popped wide open. “War.” She repeated as an arrow shot through her wing leaving a gaping hole.
“Quick we can’t stay here. We need to move up the mountain.” Amaranth grabbed Dream Catcher under the wing and started dragging her up the mountain.
“They’re gaining on us.” A flaming arrow whizzed past Saul’s horns as he caught Dream Catcher under the other wing. “We can’t out run them. We’re going to have to turn and fight.”
“Quick in here.” Amaranth pulled Dream Catcher and Saul with her into a small cave high up on the peak of Elyrria. Together they hid behind a boulder trying to muffle the sounds of their labored breathing.
Amaranth touched the spike of her wing to her snout indicating they needed to be quiet. She motioned towards the entrance of the cave. Scurrying sounds could be heard as several dragon shadows passed the opening.
“I think they’re gone.” Amaranth finally whispered.
“Which house was it? What do they want? Why are they attacking us?” Saul whispered in quick succession. He slowly moved from behind the bolder but stopped when he heard shouting coming from further up the mountain. He sniffed and put his wing to the ground.
“This is our chance to escape. They’re about 50 meters higher up the mountain.” He paused. “There is another group below us ascending quickly.” He paused again. “We need to move east around the mountain and try and escape down the south side before the others descend over the mountain. We need to be quick before the group below gets too close.”
Saul went to grab Dream Catcher under the wing but she shook him off. “I’m good, thanks.” She lengthened her neck in stubborn pride.
The three dragons stood up slowly and crept towards the cave opening pausing only for a second before Saul gave the all clear. He waved the others to follow him.
“I’m going to see if I can get close enough to see who these mongrels are.” Saul turned just in time to see Amaranth glitch into a white long-haired hound. She disappeared into the thick brush before he had a chance to protest.
“Come on. We need to get you to safety.” Saul started leading Dream Catcher further down the mountain when he stopped abruptly.
“What is it?” Dream Catcher watched Saul sniff the ground more intensely.
“House Mazarine……. House Altan……… House Licarayen……… All the houses. I can smell all the houses.” Saul continued to sniff.
“How do you do that? I can’t smell anything but our own house?” Dream Catcher was in awe.
“Freak of nature.” Saul shrugged off his ability as if it were nothing special. “Chaggrin. I can smell Chaggrin too.”
“Why would the Chaggrin be here?” Dream Catcher cut Saul off. He ignored her question as he continued to investigate.
“The scents are everywhere. They’re going every which way. Stop here, start there, suddenly change direction. The Chaggrin scent seems to be all over.” Saul spoke without looking up.
“What’s it about?” Dream Catcher was nervously surveying the shrubs around them, expecting to be ambushed at any moment.
“It’s like they are trying to purposely confuse us, throw us off track.” Saul answered. “We don’t have time to figure this out now. We need to hide and wait for Amaranth to come back.” He looked around. “Quick over here, under these ferns.” Saul and Dream Catcher dived under the thick brush, covered themselves and waited.
“How long has Amaranth been gone?” Dream Catcher whispered to Saul.
“About half an hour. If……” Before Saul could finish his sentence Amaranth came galloping past so fast she had not noticed the other two hiding.
“Amaranth!” Dream Catcher shouted.
“Run!” Amaranth didn’t stop. “Run! Molten glass is flowing down the mountain.” Saul and Dream Catcher looked up the mountain to see flames marching towards them. Without hesitation, they both glitched into their animal forms and followed Amaranth.
They fled down the mountain and around Lake Khalid.
“Here, I think we can shelter here.” Saul sensing Dream Catcher could not flee for much longer, dashed into dense brush behind a boulder that lay partially in the waters edge. He scrambled up the boulder and peered over the top.
“What do you see?” Amaranth asked.
“Molten liquid is hitting the edge of the lake and is cooling into glass. A wall of glass is starting to form on the edge of the lake. The side of the mountain is chard.”
“The lake is starting to boil.” Amaranth touched the water and quickly pulled her paw back.
“Quick, we need to preserve some of the fresh algae before it all cooks.” Dream Catcher scooped some algae up into a small glass bottle hanging from her belt. “We need to preserve the lake and its contents or….”
Before, Dream Catcher could finish her sentence Amaranth had glitched into her Dragon form and was flying low above the lake breathing bright blue ice breath over the lake’s surface until the water stopped boiling. She flew back behind the rock and touched the lake with her wing.
“Much better.” Amaranth’s eyes smiled. This unnerved Dream Catcher somewhat as it was unusual for Amaranth to show her sensitive side.
“What on earth happened up there Amaranth?” Saul climbed down from the boulder.
“After you headed down the mountain, I caught sight of House Altan and House Kovidar coming up the hill. They ran into House Mazarine and House Licarayen. There was some sort of altercation which has turned into an all out battle.
The House Mazarine and House Licarayen dragons were forced to retreat into the cave, we escaped from. Suddenly, fire and molten liquid was spilling down the mountain and that’s when I decided it was getting too dangerous to hang around.” Amaranth recounted.
“Dream Catcher can you…” Saul looked over to see Dream Catcher had started convulsing again. Her eyes rolled back in her head then suddenly rolled forward. She laid motionless on her back staring vacantly past Saul.
“Tweeter…… Tweeter…… Tweeter Bottom.” Geoj shook Tweeter’s mangled corps ferociously. “Come back to us buddy.” Dream Catcher flickered her eyes trying to keep them open. “Hang in their buddy. You’ll be fine once we get you down to the lake.” Geoj tried to pick up the dying dragon.
Struggling through semi consciousness Dream Catcher realized she was in the cave she had just escaped from. Nottoc, Kaaz, Geoj and Acitrev from House Mazarine and a few dragons from House Licarayen were corned.
Nottoc and Acitrev were at the entrance of the cave holding back attacks from House Kovidar and House Altan. Both their scepters received direct hits and simultaneously exploded in their claws.
Nottoc reached behind him and realized his sword was not in its scabbard. He tried to hold off the attacking dragons by hand but was quickly being overpowered.
“Here.” Nottoc turned around just in time to catch Acitrev’s hammer.
“Beta, I can’t take your last weapon.” Nottoc attempted to throw the hammer back.
“Take it.” Five dragons pounced on Acitrev drowning out his words.
Nottoc started swinging wildly at the attacking dragons, spewing fire at the same time. He managed to push them back towards the mouth of the cave when he suddenly stopped. After, the briefest of moments he turned his fire breath to a sandy spot on the floor near the cave’s entrance.
The fire was so intense that it was not only melting the ice but it was also melting the sand. Red and purple dragons screeched and fled in every direction trying to escape the fire and molten glass spewing down the side of the mountain.
“Nottoc. Stop. The fire’s causing steam to build up in the cave. The pressure will cause an explosion.” Kaaz screeched. Nottoc smirked and winked at Kaaz and continued to spew fire.
“Quick Tweeter, we need to make our escape now. While we have the other houses on the run.” Geoj was pulling at Tweeter’s lifeless corps. Steam started to build so densely in the cave that Dream Catcher was struggling to see more than a centimeter in front of her snout.
“Get out of my body.” A loud angry voice echoed in Dream Catcher’s head. She lifted her wing gingerly in front of her eyes and realized she was in the body of a Licarayen dragon. “I said, get out of my body you piece of pigs fodder. I’m not crossing over. It’s not my time.” The voiced boomed even louder.
“Geoj, leave the dragon here. It’s a Licarayen. No alliance is worth dying for.” Nottoc shouted over his shoulder as he ran through the flames out of the cave. Geoj ignored Nottoc’s instructions and continued to try and get Tweeter on his feet.
“I want my body back swine.” The voice screamed so loud in Dream Catcher’s ear she was surprised that no one else appeared to hear it. She could feel her host’s body slowly crushing under the pressure from the steam building up in the cave.
“Come on Tweeter.” Geoj pulled the dragon’s wing in a last-ditch attempt to get him on his feet.
“I’m not worth saving.” Dream Catcher slightly lifted the Licarayen beast’s snout and met Geoj’s eye. She smirked and winked at Geoj who quickly bowed his head and fled from the cave. Dream Catcher closed her eyes and allowed the darkness to carry her spirit.
“Dream Catcher! Wake up!” Dream Catcher opened her eyes to find Saul shaking her quite violently. “Oh, thank the Gods. I thought you had left us.”
“No, just doing a little involuntary astral traveling.” Dream Catcher sat up just in time to see the peak of Elyrria blow off the massive mountain. With the sound of the explosion still ringing in their ears, they ducked for cover as glass, rocks and flaming objects showered down all around them.
“What on earth!” Amaranth’s mouth hung open as she peered over the boulder she had taken refuge behind.
As Saul and Dream Catcher ventured out from their shelter, a splashing noise coming from the other side of the lake drew their attention away from the smoking mountain top.
A purple and a blue dragon were wrestling with each other on the lake’s edge. The purple dragon seemed quite injured and more interested in fleeing than fighting but the blue dragon was relentless.
Dream Catcher’s body start to convulse once more.
“Not again.” Saul ran over to catch her before she fell to the ground.
Dream Catcher gasped for air as her head was forced under the water. She looked up to see a blue dragon was holding her down. She struggled hopelessly to break free but the hosts injured body was no match for her opponent.
Suddenly, the blue dragon stopped attacking and stared at the amulet hanging around the neck of the purple dragon. Dream Catcher could feel the host dragon’s body weaken, it started convulsing, struggling to hold its dragon form, the body glitched and turned back into its Normie form. The blue dragon froze. Eventually he spoke.
“Mom!?” The blue dragon seemed both confused and excited. He lifted the woman out of the water and held her body tenderly. “Mom, it’s me Goel. Mom.” Goel gently shook his mother’s unconscious body but quickly dropped it back into the water and hid when he heard a commotion coming from the bushes nearby.
“Nottoc you GOAT that was a Degen play!” Kaaz yelled as a small convoy of blue dragons scurried past.
“Goel.” Nottoc sped past Goel and motioned him to follow. He joined the fleeing House Mazarine dragons.
Dream Catcher laid motionless under the water, eyes wide open watching the convoy of blue dragons pass by her. Her hosts body too weak to lift out of its watery grave, she could feel the life slipping from it and quickly warped.
“Your drakaina is minting a hatchling. Looks rare.” Dream Catcher suddenly opened her eyes and smiled at Saul.
“What! Now?” Dream Catcher nodded and without even so much as a goodbye Saul flew off into the distance.
"I am the Lore Master. With one stroke of the pen, I can write you into history. Come chat to me in the DDP discord and convince me, I should write you in. But remember ..... I can also strike you out!"
M.K. Marche
“Don't be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart."
BOOM
Elvis Costello, "What's so Funny about Peace, Love and Understanding"???
Max Vertica
"Everyday passing minute is another chance to turn it all around." Vanilla Sky
Cotton Le Blue
"You never know how strong you are, until being strong is the only choice you have" by Bob Marley
Kaaazzz
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JoeG
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Ariel Givner
"Science is the study of knowledge, and magic is its application to perform miracles in the eyes of those who lack the former. Only the mystery of the unknown gives the magicians power...or that is what the ignorant and narrow-minded would have you believe. It could not be further from the truth. It is magic that is the true pursuit of knowledge, to seek the source of creation and the truth of all things, even that which cannot be measured or observed. We are but the shadows dancing on the wall...but under the right conditions, even shadows may gain substance." - Amaranth
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Cristi
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