Ignited - Chapter 001
#1 of Ignited
The first chapter to my writing experiment about a fantasy, mixed (to a degree) medieval world with a variety of races, including, of course, Earth-based anthropomorphic races, dragons, and the occasional human! Meant to be serious with mixed lighthearted tones and not particularly sexual in nature.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions for a new writer. I'd love feedback! Especially on how to successfully use SF as a website.
[So I spent about an hour trying and failing to submit text that was being replaced with odd text like numbers and such. Turns out I had forgotten to stop my Chrome autofill extension (that I use for filling standard information such as age, birthdate, & etc.) and dumb me thought it was the website not taking my text! I have officially become "that user"]
An inferno of screams and soot raged around the market square's only survivor, a wide-eyed, black pelt wolven. Great winds clawed the wolven's bent back ears and filled his nose with unfamiliar scents and lungs with choking ash. The wolven dropped to his knees as his memories burned down around him: his friends and kin, townsfolk - everything they worked for. Wood popped, brick and stone crumbled, and even shadows from the morning sun were devoured by the hungering fire. As he bent forward, oil-soaked palms on the dirt, a heavy impact on the ground nearby startled him to his feet.
In front of the wolven towered a blackened, gold-scaled dragon, four legs spread ready to pounce, wings splayed across the breadth of the burning remains of the marketplace. The dragon stared down his small opponent in a hateful gaze, slowly rolling back the corners of his jaw, growling like distant thunder. The wolven's tail bent down and he froze, jaws open and panting, arms out in an uncertain stance caught between running from and fighting. Nearby, he heard a familiar voice scream in terror and his ears perked up to catch the direction it came from. When they screamed a second time, the wolven heard it abruptly smothered and he whipped his head left toward its location. The dragon snarled and leaped.
The wolven turned back and brought up his claws in time to grab the widening jaws of the dragon and was slammed into the dirt, bones cracking underneath the dragon's bulk. He howled in pain and squinted through tears and stars of light, desperately pushing back on his assailant while an intense ache spread through his skull. The dragon continued to shift his weight forward to further crush the wolven, who strained to keep the rows of white daggers from ripping into his muzzle.
Another rumble surfaced from the depths of the dragon, and scorching heat licked the wolven from deep within the dragon's throat. As the wolven pushed back, the heat grew and his skin cooked and fur smoldered. Flames began licking the inside of the dragon's maw and as they neared the wolven's oil-soaked left claws, the wolven growled and kicked at the exposed throat over his feet. He winced as his toes connected with the hard skin, claws too dull to scratch or puncture.
When the flames drew near and ignited the oil on his claws, he howled again and brought his left arm backward, against the dirt, his right arm slipping into the jaws of the dragon. With his remaining strength and breath, the wolven released a guttural cry and thrust his flaming claws toward the dragon's right eye as a metallic grey spread down his forearm. Flames burst around his claws as they entered the dragon's glassy socket through his eyelid, creating an aura of heat waves.
"Avril."
Red blood hissed and steamed around the wolven's wrist while his claws burned deep through the skin of the dragon's eyelid. The dragon began to rear back on his hind legs, beating his wings to gain distance, and the wolven's now smoldering claws slid out of a blackened socket. His right arm, no longer coated with grey, was raked with the dragon's white daggers, digging a trench of blood. The wolven's arms dropped in exhaustion and he saw his blood mingling with the dirt below.
"Ay Avril."
While the dragon reared, the whistle of an arrow closed in from nearby. Within a newly made hole in the dragon's chest faded a large iron arrow. As the wolven watched, muzzle open and ears up in surprise, the dragon roared in pain. While falling back down another hole appeared, now within his throat, and another arrow faded into sight. The wolven's head fell wearily against the dirt and his gaze faded slowly into the blue sky, no longer attentive to the raging of the gold dragon.
Avril shot up in bed, panting and matted with sweat, and tossed the covers down his legs. At his tent flaps a familiar head was peeking inside, a greymuzzle ursen of light brown fur with a scar running from his right ear to between the eyes and down to his nose.
"Keep burning down 'ur tent, Avril, and we'll start havin' you sleep under the moon," he rolled his eyes up and backed his head out. Casting a shadow on the tent wall he continued, "Greyhast wants you and Caris to run scout 'til midday, so I'd get a head start on the breakfast Hark and Sev brought back 'f I were you."
"Yeah I'm up, Virik, I'm up," Avril looked down at the heat waves radiating from his left claws, closed his eyes, and went to rub the morning drowsiness from his muzzle.
"Ow!"