TSK Chapter One: Dragoness, Meet Demon
I am proud to finally present The Soulless King __on SoFurry! Four years in the making, I hope that you will enjoy an excellent adventure filled with drama, fighting, and mystery! It's a long time coming, and if you like the first chapter, throw up a like/fave/vote/comment and let your other friends know about this story!
Summary Details: A fox and a dragoness are thrown together by fate to explore a dark past and escape execution. As they travel they will meet several different anilas (their word for "people"), monsters, and mysteries, all the while trying to figure out a big mystery within a kingdom lost to time.
"As I walk upon the plane of death, guide me, O Architect, that I be made pure and righteous in the face of evil and darkness. May my voyage be just, my path and will unwavering, and the Gods up on High watch me as I strike the root of evil. This is my final prayer, a prayer in which I pray for paradise..." A prisoner who couldn't be seen because of the shadows of his cell was hulking in the corner, rocking back and forth and reading from a tiny book like he'd gone insane. That didn't make Quarah feel any better.
The seven and a half foot violet dragon, though she was taller than the two bull guards on either side of her, was being dragged through the complex, nearly stripped of all her clothing. She only wore a nasty black robe that was given to female inmates, and wore no shoes, unlike most of the inmates, because of her large clawed feet. Instead of spikes, she had a black mane streaking down her back almost like an eastern dragon, and her bright ruby eyes darted around at the inmates. Unlike most dragons, she had fur instead of scales, but still didn't look like an eastern dragon.
The prison she was being dragged through was one of very few prisons on the continent Selan that held the worst criminals of all time. Hirlen Prison was a unique prison, residing within Mount Hirlen, one of three tall mountains left standing in Highreach, this mountain being the tallest. Quarah's mind still reeled as she tried to figure out exactly how she got herself in this situation.
Some male inmates only wore pants, which unnerved Quarah as they pressed their ugly snouts between the bars, hooting and hollering at the very defined female. One inmate shouted something nasty to her, and due to the small corridors, it was sometimes hard to avoid the grabbing paws and claws. She felt a paw give a solid Slap! to her hindquarters, and she instinctively turned around and gnashed her teeth at the animal, who'd slunk back into the shadows before she had a good chance to see him or sink her claws into his arm. Probably a cat of some sort, for the speed he avoided her at. She immediately received a rough hand against the back of her head, the hit strong and firm, making even a thick-boned dragon like her see stars. "Enough of that, lady." The bull on her right said. He was a little shorter than her, being a dark red bull with a black fur spot over his left eye, ebony horns and really muscular.
The bull on her left spoke up. "Wouldn't want t' put a muzzle on yer mouth, now would ya?" He was a soft cerulean bull with a deep gash across his snout and a thick gold nose ring in his nostrils. Both wore thick silver armor, carried two paw cuffs on each side of their belts, a long stick on their left belt loop, and a double-bladed axe on their backs.
Down the main hallway they stopped, and red bull looked at cerulean bull, a sudden realization on his face. "Uhhh...which cell was she supposed to go in?"
Thwack!
"Idiot! You forgot th' number?! That's eight frikkin' levels up!" Cerulean bull snorted, his veins popping out on his face. "And d'you want t' go back up those damn flights t' get them?!"
Red bull grunted and looked away. "Not really. That's a lot of stairs..." While cerulean bull rubbed his temples with a free hand, red bull said, "Hey! Don't we have that empty cell down here? That um....concrete one. Dilta cleaned it out last week."
Cerulean calmed down, and snapped his fingers. "You're right! Instead of going back up, we can just chuck 'er in that cell and mark it down like we threw 'er in 'er original!" They both gave happy grunts as they agreed on what they were going to do.
Lazy bulls, Quarah gave an inward snort as she was hauled down one of the side corridors. At the far end, she could see a large concrete door, as they said, which sent chill down her spines. Only the worst prisoners were put in concrete cells like those. All four walls made out of hard stone that even would give dragons a hard time breaking through because of the thickness, and the only source of light was a small square where they chuck food through for the inmate. Her acute sight assisted her in seeing something small slip back in from poking out of the concrete cell's small window: a white snout. It moved so fast she barely caught it, so she blinked multiple times to make sure she wasn't seeing things.
"H-Hey, I think-" She started to say, but was slapped by the red bull again.
"Quiet, you! Or else I will put a muzzle on you!" He snarled as the cerulean bull unlocked the cell.
"She better keep quiet or else I'll sew your maw shut." Cerulean laughed darkly before opening the cell.
Red snorted and said, "You idiot, do you even know how to sew?"
Cerulean frowned. "Not exactly. But one can learn!" He shoved Quarah in there, and slammed the door shut, leaving her in almost complete darkness.
He pushed herself against the door as the guards locked it and they began to walk away. "Hey!" She shouted after them, having the freedom to talk without them hitting her. "I-I think you've got the wrong dragon! Tell my brother! He knows I shouldn't be here!" All she heard in response was laughter and other inmates telling her what they'd like to do to her, which disgusted her even further.
Quarah closed her eyes and began to think. Okay, girl. You're strong and smart. There has to be a way out of here, even if it's illegal to break out of prison. She grabbed the bars in the window and shook them to check the strength of the door: surprisingly sturdy. Next, she began to feel around the cell, realizing it was only a twelve by thirteen foot space. She began to knock on the walls softly, listening with intent to try to single out the weakest part of the walls around her. As she felt around, she found out that there were a few things in the cell with her, like a single big bunk to fit one of those large bulls, and a wooden toilet. Strangely, the toilet didn't reek - which meant that it hadn't been used in a long time.
But who did that snout belong-
"'Bout time they threw in a dragon. Now I have someone to talk to until I rot properly." A soft male voice behind her said, making her jump and bare her fangs at the darkness. Even with her well-adjusted night vision, she still couldn't see a thing. Was it a ghost?
She peered around the cell, and now that her adrenaline was down with some of her senses calming down, she could now smell the horrid stench of death. Like someone had left a carcass in here for a few years. She did all her best not to regurgitate. "Who...Who are you?" She swallowed, trying to locate the mysterious voice.
The voice countered, "My cell, my call. Who are you, Miss Rudeness? It's not polite to make someone else's place your home."
Quarah was taken aback. She still couldn't pin the voice, only knowing it was in front of her. "Hey! I was randomly thrown in here because the guards are too lazy!" She shot back, growing more annoyed and impatient with this anila.
There was a short moment of silence, and the anila - if he was even an anila - said, "You didn't answer my question."
Growling in frustration, the dragoness spat, "Quarah. Quarah Ceranii."
There was a moment of silence, and she watched as a figure on the bunk sit up slowly. From where she stood, she could barely make out the features, but she could see that the figure was a canine, but she couldn't pick what species. However, she was taken aback by the figure's eyes. They were a soft gold, shining bright in the darkened cell, but there were no pupils - as if he were blind. "Ceranii.....you wouldn't happen to know Suumau Ceranii...would you?"
Quarah gave a soft growl. "Yes. My older brother. Of course you know Suumau, considering he probably had you thrown in here." She turned towards the door. "But he'll be here soon enough to pick me up. I know it."
The canine scoffed. "Right. An interesting thing, that dragon. He seems to be quite the chauvinist."
Quarah snarled at the male. "Take that back, you filthy-"
"I'm surprised you didn't even realize why you're possibly here." The canine got up, and started pacing around her, still far away enough for her to not see his features. "Should I tell you the nasty things your brother-?"
Quarah roared at him and lunged, her talons outstretched ready to slice whoever this miscreant was, but he vanished before her eyes. Suddenly her world shifted as she was flipped forward, somersaulting in midair and landing on her chest as something heavy - though lighter than she expected - landed on her back and wrenched her arm up into a submissive hold. One knee ground into her back, and a hindpaw was placed by the right side of her face. She looked over at it and saw a soft brown hindpaw that went up mid-calf, and then changed into orange fur. Confused, with a little bit of fright, she realized that the creature atop her was a fox.
"Y...You're a fox...?"
"I thought dragons had sharper senses than that."
She growled and tried to get up, but he wrenched harder. "Get off me you damned fox!"
There was a soft sigh, and he said, "I've already been damned. Now, you gonna be friendly or not?"
Quarah was annoyed by this fox to the extremes. "Going to be friendly?! You're the one who started that insolence and blasphemy about my-!"
She froze when she felt his hot breath on her ear. His voice, still monotone like it had been before, but he sounded more threatening. "If you're not friendly, I'll just have to end your life and Quarah swallowed. This fox was smaller than her, she knew, but yet her instincts were crawling, telling her to flee. Better yet, they were telling her to do exactly what he wanted her to do. "I'm waiting," He said in her ear, and she swallowed and nodded, and the fox patted her cheek. "Good."use your body for something. Are dragon scales as tough as other anilas say?"
As soon as that weight got off of her, she hurled herself away from the fox, heart pounding and instincts going on the fritz. She pushed herself against the wall opposite of the door where the fox stood, still in the darkness. "W-What the Inanis are you?!"
The fox walked towards the only shaft of light that rested on the floor. When he walked into the light, Quarah's frightened mind turned to fear. The fox was actually taller than she thought, even though she was sitting down and he had his back to her. His back was covered in scars, not too much to be nasty, but enough to show that he was experienced. He wore what Quarah thought was pants - they were so tattered and old that a loincloth would've been better - and had no shirt or shoes. He was a soft red orange, his fur matted and unclean, and he had no hair. He gripped the bars to peer out into the hallway.
When he saw nothing interesting, he turned around and spread his brown paws wide, as if he was displaying his horrendous form to her. As he had turned, Quarah saw tattoos on his arms, ones she'd never seen before, and his front looked somewhat better than his back. He was muscled slightly, looking lean and weak, and had a thick scar on his left side of his abdomen. But what shocked Quarah even more were his eyes: empty irises of gold, glowing softly, making him look blind. He didn't react to her horrified expression when he saw her face, and said nothing
Quarah couldn't believe her eyes. This...thing... She didn't know what to say. The fox nodded, as if confirming what her thoughts were screaming. "It's bad enough I'm a fox, right? Now that I'm like this, well..." He let his arms drop from where he stood, staring at Quarah, peering into her soul...
Quarah's shock subsided as a million questions rushed to her head. Being a book dragon and constantly reading on spells and history, Quarah couldn't contain her mixed emotions. She almost instantly began bombarding the fox with her hailing questions.
As the questions came, she began making gestures with her hands, and not exactly paying attention to the fox as she tried to understand her situation. "What exactly are you? How come your eyes are like that? Can you still see? How come you seem so small yet you-"
When she blinked, he disappeared from sight, only to make his presence known beside her. When did he-? She asked, and the fox's hand wrapped around the dragon's snout.
"Shush. You get three questions. That's it."
When he let go, the dragoness huffed and said, "That seems hardly fair. There's no way I'm going to-"
The fox sighed and said, "Fine." Cutting her off, he went back over to the bunk and sat on it, curling his knees to his chest and staring at her. Now that she got a good look at his eyes, Quarah could see the faint glowing of the golden irises. "We'll play a little game, then. You ask a question, then I, then you, until we're happy. Sound fair?"
Quarah opened her mouth, but closed it, snorting a bit. "Fine." She chewed on the inside of her cheek and asked, "What are you...exactly?" She swallowed, looking his body up and down.
The fox shook his head. "Dunno. Some people say I'm a fox, others say I'm cursed. However, I've heard that their favorite is 'Demon'."
Quarah stared at him skeptically. "Demon?"
"I'm being honest." He raised his paws, sighing softly as he then rested his jaw on his knees. "I...I don't remember that much..."
"So you have amnesia?" She asked, tilting her head slightly
"It's my turn, remember?" He responded, and the dragoness cursed silently. The fox scratched his chin, studying the dragoness. "Okay...what dragon type are you?"
Quarah stared at him dumbfoundedly. "Out of any questions you have, this is the one you choose?" The fox raised an eyebrow, awaiting her answer. She sighed, and responded, "I'm an Arcane type. I have this third horn in the middle of my head because it helps balance my magic. Happy?"
"Not really. And you just spent your next question." Quarah groaned, but she didn't see a sly smirk from the fox, like the other foxes would show. In fact, he just stared at her...kind of like those lobotomized patients in mental institutes. It nerved her. He asked his next question: "How old are you? I've heard of dragons being able to live a long time, but I've never met one."
Quarah shook her head. This fox is stranger than most Anila I've met... She sighed as she fidgeted from where she sat. "Around....325 years old."
The fox stared at her and said, "Wow. You're older than almost all of these prisoners."
"My turn." Quarah stated, ignoring his comment and thinking of what to ask him carefully. She looked up at him and asked, "Who are you? Your name, at least, if amnesia hasn't wiped that away."
The fox rolled his shoulders. "I do remember my...first name. I remember that it stood for 'Peaceful, but strong'. The name's Paxenal."
Quarah stared at him and laughed, her body shaking as she roared with laughter. "There's no way in Inanis you're the Paxenal. Nice try fox, but I-"
"Do you think I'm feeding you false words?" His face was serious, but Quarah wasn't convinced.
"There's no way you're him. Paxenal was executed nearly a hundred years ago, and I was even there to check his pulse. He was hanged for a crime against the Hierarchy of Highreach. Afterwards, his body was burned to ash and discarded among the Middle Plains." She folded her arms across her chest, a smug look on her face. "If you can prove to me you're Paxenal, then maybe I'll listen to your tale. But, of course, that would be physically impossible."
Paxenal - no, he's still "the fox" - sighed softly like he couldn't change her mind. "Well, I can't prove it to you now..." He grunted and shook his head. "Then just call me Pax. Until I can prove it to you."
Quarah snorted and said, "Right. I know how you foxes work. You try to act sweet and innocent until you are in the best position then you get what you want." She folded her arms and looked away like she knew what she was talking about. Her ear twitched and she let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine. Pax is kinda like Paxenal, but I guess we can use that as your name....Pax."
Pax crouched, leaned forward, and stifled a yawn. She realized he didn't lash out or make any offensive expressions on his face towards her straight-up racism. He studied the dragon and asked, "So what exactly is your occupation? If you don't mind me asking."
Quarah knew this was easy. "That's simple. I study in the library to gather information, but my usual job involves-" She stopped herself, but when the fox stared at her, she confessed. "-interrogating and or studying animals emotions, behaviors, and mental profiles. In other words, I'm an Auxiliary to the military of Highreach."
"That's an interesting job for a civilian." Was all Pax said.
Quarah waved her hand dismissively. "I'm not a civilian. My brother's General, remember?" Pax just shrugged, and Quarah asked her question. "What are you in here for?"
Pax scratched his chin and leaned back, sitting on his rump. "To be honest? I forgot the real reason. I think it was about thievery or murder or something." He looked down, thinking about it, yet no signs of confusion spread across his face. He was a hard one to read.
Quarah blinked at him, her gears turning fast as she began to understand this fox. "Wait...you don't remember your crime?"
He looked up at her. "No...? I don't remember why I was put in here. It was a long time ago."
Quarah's eyes narrowed as she began rearranging the newly formed situation in her mind. She'd always been a problem solver, and her mind raked to understand the puzzle before her. He interrupted her thoughts. "Why do you ask? It's not like you'd care. I'm a fox, remember?"
Quarah bit her lip, realizing how rude she'd been, and her ears flopped down in shame. "Sorry...just, trying to understand."
The fox didn't look mad, or angry, or anything for that matter. It unnerved her that since she met him, this fox hadn't shown a lick of emotion. It was as if he was detached, and lifeless, but still moving like he was full of life. "Understand what, exactly?" His head tilted slightly, making Quarah internally scream when she still couldn't read his expression.
She laced her fingers together and looked at the fox, studying him. "Understanding why you're innocent."
Pax raised his eyebrow. "'Innocent'? If I was innocent, then why am I in here?"
Quarah thought carefully on how to respond. Because of her numerous hours of studying books and other animals, her judgement had almost never been wrong. And she knew the slyness of foxes and how to get around, but this fox seemed...off. Quarah sighed a bit and said, "Well, I'm not exactly sure. You're not like other foxes I've profiled." When Pax tilted his head, she answered his impending question. "You're being honest. Now, I've known some foxes to be honest, but when they don't wanna say something or hiding a truth, they lie. You haven't lied one bit."
The fox shrugged. "So? You still haven't told me why - or how - I'm innocent."
The dragoness raised her claw and said, "When you answered my question I could tell you were speaking the truth. Upon my studies of criminals in prison, no matter how long they've been in here, nearly ninety-seven percent of criminals will still remember why they've been thrown in prison. You don't remember why...so perhaps you were framed?"
Pax shook his head. "No, I'd known if I was framed. Now that I think about it, I didn't have a clue to where I was at the time, both country and city wise. So maybe it was just one of those 'wrong-place-wrong-time' things?"
Quarah nodded, agreeing with him. "Perhaps. But, if you don't remember that much, then it won't help you when my brother gets here."
Pax tensed when she mentioned her brother, but as always, displayed no emotion. "My turn; what are you in here for?"
Quarah sighed and stood up. Almost instinctively, Pax scooted over to give the dragoness room to sit comfortably, but instead she began pacing in front of the fox. "I was...arrested. My fault for being caught, I know, but it was important." She looked at Pax. "Have you ever heard of the Stel'nilah Cult?" Pax shook his head softly, and she continued. "The Stel'nilah believe that all magic should be available to everyone, including Dark and Forbidden arts. However, General Sen - she's a new general, by the way - believed there was something more going on than just an ameture Magic Cult, so she sent me there to investigate and blend in as an apprentice mage."
"How does that work? Wouldn't they know your face?"
"Well..." Quarah scratched the back of her neck. "When I interrogate, I use transformation magic to change into different animals that way my enemies can't locate me. As for the magic? I was given a crystal that can hold most of my magic and render me almost without it to cover my magic aura." She waved her hand and crossed her arms. "Anyways. I infiltrated their Cult and was there for about three months, secretly reporting back to General Sen as I learned more. Sadly, opposed to Sen's orders, I did study and learn forbidden arts. Never used them, but..." She tapped her temple. "Still there."
"So how did you get arrested?"
She sighed softly as she rubbed her arm. "It happened all so fast. The secret meeting house was suddenly flooded by guards, and all of us were arrested. Some were sent in for questioning, others to Sherlan Prison, and some of us, like me, to here." She looked at Pax, and said, "That's why I was trying to break out. I found something more important than any dark magic spell."
She sat on the bunk and Pax scooted a bit closer to her. "What did you find, Quarah?"
Quarah looked at him with all seriousness. "Pax, does the word 'Primarch' ring any bells?"