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The Last Dragon part 3

by GreenEonDragon

"Tag! Your turn father!" Hylena cried joyously, beating her matured wings as she and Hynsten in his dragon form raced around their home valley.

The large, male, purple dragon played along, exaggerating fatigue before catching his daughter as she banked and then dropped into a thermal, letting the warm air lift him higher as his wings billowed.

"Not any more," he said playfully, blowing a flame out at a wisp of cloud, causing it to evaporate.

Down below, Elmyra tended to her son who was more of a handful than his sister had been. The young dragon was itching to fly and had been caught trying to jump from the top of the rocky entrance to their den earlier that week.

As Elmyra explained for what seemed the millionth time, why he was not allowed to fly yet, he gazed up at the dark underside of his father and the smaller form of his older sister and moaned.

"It is not fair mother..."

"You must wait until you grow some more Gruffel, until then, you can show me your magic. It's very strong, just like you." Elmyra said, looking down at the sapphire blue dragon.

When he had hatched from his egg, Hynsten, Elmyra and Hylena had been surprised, unlike his parents, he had sapphire blue scales, as deep as his father's eyes, but they also seemed to reflect light when he was joyous, making him appear majestic, as Hynsten had said one morning.

Already the young male had proven that his magical strength was greater than both his mother's and sister's, and quite unlike Elmyra and Hynsten, he seemed drawn to fighting, he loved to play roughly with his father, at times the human had come back with deep cuts that had been accidentally inflicted upon him, and each time they were mended with both Elmyra's and Hylena's magic.

As the son and mother talked, they were interupted when Hylena and Hynsten landed, Hynsten caused the ground to tremble slightly from lack of experience, but the young dragoness landed gracefully, barely bending a blade of grass.

And then the magic faded as she released it. And Hynsten rapidly re-assumed his human form.

Gruffel turned and raced towards his father and skidded to a halt at his bare-feet.

"May we play father!?" he demanded, his tail wagging sideways rapidly as he awaited an answer.

"Not right now Gruff, I am a little worn out." Hynsten said with a sad smile, running his hand over the young dragon's forehead.

Having gotten his answer, Gruffel turned and began to slowly head towards the den, his tail dragging along behind him as he let his head hang.

Hylena gave her father a look to say, "I'll talk to him," before trotting off to catch up to Gruffel.

With a sigh, Hynsten moved towards Elmyra and sat down in the grass with her, her tail curled up and lay across his legs.

"I did not mean to upset him, I am tired."

"I know, which brings me to ask, are you ill? As of late you have seemed... less energetic." Elmyra asked, prodding her mate in the side with her snout before moving her head back a smidge so she could watch him closely.

Hynsten began to nurse Elmyra's tailtip in his hands as he spoke, "My life span pales in comparison to theirs and yours, I will not be around for long. The fact that not just dragon blood flows through their veins, but human blood, leads me to realize that they will not always be independant like you, they will require us to aid them... but I won't be here at some point."

Elmyra licked his cheek, the tip of her pink tongue softly rubbing over his unshaven skin, the stubble tickled the muscle.

"You must not think of such things. It only pains the heart to do so." she said.

"I know... but it is not as simple as not thinking about it."

"Then what do you want?"

"I... I will sound greedy..."

"Say it Hynsten, I cannot think such a thing of you, not ever,"

"I... I, wish to... be a dragon, for good. Not for periods of time when you or Hylena can manage it. I wish to fly with my son and daughter, and with you. I wish to not feel so small among my family, I want to be able to provide the protection a male should... in this useless human body... all I can do is offer words, no protection. I feel so utterly useless, sometimes I wonder why the divines have cursed me so..."

With his outburst seemingly over for the moment, Elmyra spoke up.

"If I had the power within my grasp I would use it within a beat of my heart, and you know it Hynsten, but I do not have such power and we must learn to accept our lives as they are."

"Is there not anything you heard from the other dragons when you were younger? Not a thing that might fill this gaping hole in my being?"

"No... I am sorry Hynsten but I do not recall of anything that might allow you to become a dragon other than our magic..."

There was a sniff from behind and the parents heard Hylena utter a curse she'd heard Hynsten say when a nasty badger had scratched him.

"Mother does not know of it," Gruffel began, sniffing again, "but I have seen the stone in my dreams..."

"Gruffel... no," Hylena whispered, her eyes pleading with her brother, but he ignored her and pressed harder.

"It has great magicks in it, it can turn the one who touches it into a dragon if they desire. It was locked away during the great war of humans and dragons for safe keeping but now it lays in the ruins someplace near here."

The parents stared at their son, eyes wide as he spoke.

"Gruffel... how can you know?" Elmyra asked, doubting the truth in his words.

"I saw it in my dreams, the spirits of the lost dragons told me so."

Silence followed that statement, even Hynsten couldn't find the strength to work his tongue.

The young male padded forward and stood up on his father's knee. Only four feet tall, he wasn't too heavy and Hynsten didn't react to the weight.

"I have heard you speak about me... and I know that I have hurt you when we played father... but you do know that I do not mean to hurt you, I love you and mother and Hylena so much, hurting you makes me sad. If being a dragon will make you happy, and will help, then I want you to be a dragon, forever."

"But Gruffel..." Hynsten began, unable to finish his sentence.

"The spirits say the ruins lie to the West, when the sun sets and you touch the stone, your wish shall be granted."

The fiery red eyes blazed, Hynsten knew his son was telling what he believed was the truth. He'd seen all of this in his dreams. Hynsten couldn't doubt his son's resolve and having experienced what he knew of as 'Dejavu' in his own dreams, he could only think of the possibilities. If such a relic existed, he could throw away his weak human body for the last time, he'd be a dragon for the rest of his life, and that life would be a very long one indeed, spanning the ages of humankind.

"Hynsten..." Elmyra whispered, seeing something spark in her mate's eyes, something that made her worry.

Hynsten rose up, and hugged his son around the neck.

"Thank you Gruffel... stay here with your mother. Hylena, will you come with me? If we fly, we can find these ruins quickly."

"Hynsten, no!"

Hylena turned her eyes from her father to her mother. Though normally Hynsten would seem to cower before her mother's great form, it seemed Hynsten's desires gave him a strength she had never seen in him before. He stood upright, appeared taller than normal and had a familiar sparkle in his eyes that he had when enjoying the wind in his face as he flew with his daughter.

Hynsten put his hands on Elmyra's cheeks and kissed her, "If there is even a chance, I will take it. I want to make you happier than I can now, and I know you would like me to be a dragon, not just when you can manage it, but be a dragon at all times."

Elmyra seemed defeated, her eyes closed and she lowered her head. She couldn't beat down her mate's hopes and dreams, she couldn't bear to be the one to bring such a crushing weight down upon him, not again.

"Keep our daughter safe..." she whispered, before drawing Gruffel in close to her chest.

Now, happy she had her mother's blessing, Hylena wove her unique magic upon her father. The mist of magic enshrouded her father's form and began to change it rapidly.

In mere moments, the familiar dragon form that her father had and that she so enjoyed flying with was standing before her with blazing sapphire eyes, much like her own.

"Let us go!" he said before taking to the skies, Hylena following suit, leaving their den behind.

They flew over the hills, using the clouds to mask their flight in case humans happened to be travelling out in the region. Hylena gazed northward towards a small woodland village she'd snuck to in the nights when her family had been sleeping. During those nights, she'd answered the pleas of the sick or wounded animals under the care of the few humans in the village, and spent her time carefully arranging things to please the occupants of the small timber shacks.

She turned her gaze away and continue to scour the land below them for the ruins her younger brother had mentioned he'd seen in his dreams.

It wasn't until the sun had begun to hang low in the sky that she'd spotted something ruin-like hidden under decades of aging and regrowth.

"There father!" she cried, pulling up beside him and pointing down at the barely visible stone walls.

The pair dived down, not making the slightest effort to conceal their dive. And they pulled up, beating their wings hard to slow down until they hung just over the tops of the trees.

"It looks much like an ancient site... let us see if it is indeed the one Gruffel spoke of." Hynsten said, carefully lowering his weight down through the treetops and onto the ground below.

Hylena followed his example, landing beside him and folding her wings before releasing the magic's hold on her father. He faded back into his human form with a sigh of sadness before he took the lead and began to move through the ruins.

As they passed through rooms that had once had complete walls and roofs, Hylena found herself thinking back at the village she'd visited against her parent's will. She knew and understood that humans would not ever accept her as a kind creature and not a blood thirsty monster, but she was drawn to these people. One in particular.

Though she was very young, she had matured, she had felt strange at times but never once mentioned it to her mother or father, something deep in her told her that it was information she should keep to herself.

Though now thinking back on it, maybe she should have? Then again... then she might have told them of her rare visits to the village, and of spying through the window of a young male human's shack as he slept.

Her attention was brought back to the ruins when her father stumbled down some steps into a grand hall, or atleast what had once been a grand hall.

The moss covered stone floors and walls had weathered, and ahead were crumbling stone pillars that had once supported a ceiling high above their heads. But it was the balcony they were approaching that had her attention most. It overlooked the forest from a cliff. The tops of the trees below them hid the ground they stood upon. And she could see the sun as it rapidly approached the horizon, appearing to be merely inches from touching it.

As Hynsten turned around, his hand brushed over a stone in the wall that chinked oddly.

"Wait a moment... since when do bricks move as such in well designed structures?" he asked himself more than Hylena, instructing her to stand back before he pressed on the brick.

The mossy stone scraped in and dropped an inch in place as it weighed down a switch. And the stone floor to Hynsten's right, on the balcony, started to rise up until it was as tall as Hynsten was.

When all seemed quiet once more, the father and daughter approached the small stone pillar. It appeared to be just an ordinary stone pillar in every way except one. It radiated raw magical energy and even Hynsten's magicless body was able to sense that power.

"Gruffel was right Hylena! Oh... I can feel my heart beating so fast." Hynsten said, turning to look at his daughter. Thinking of how he would soon have his dragon body become his permanent body.

"If this is what you wish, then do it father. Do not do it for other people, it is not something that should be done for others." Hylena whispered, stepping back as she began to realize just how much raw magical energy was in the stone. A great deal of energy had been spent in creating it, quite possibly lives too.

Hynsten nodded, keeping his eyes on his daughter. He could not touch the stone until the sun had begun to set so he had time to spend.

"I know that such magical power could not have come freely Hylena, do not worry... and I am doing this for myself, but not just myself, for you, your mother and your brother. Imagine how they would feel upon finding out that I am able to stay dragon without you or your mother using magic! I can already picture Gruffel begging me to play with him."

Hylena just nodded, standing her ground from a dozen feet away.

The human turned back, feeling better now that he'd said what he had and watched the sun. And as the big ball of burning gas started to sink behind the horizon, he reached out and placed the palm of his hand upon the stone and willed every fibre of his being to become dragon, to shed his human body and assume the form of his dragon body permanently.

At first nothing happened and Hylena began to doubt the stone's powers until Hynsten cried out as waves of the magical energy began to surge from the stone, through his hand and up his arm into t he rest of his body. it was nothing like Elmyra's or Hylena's magic, it was magic from an age long gone and he could feel it's unlimited strength coursing through him and he finally understood why it had been hidden.

If such power had fallen into the hands of someone mad for power... it would mean the end of balance, the end of freedom.

He cried out in pain as the end of his spine grew out into a tail, muscle growing along with it as scales began to slide out of his skin. As his blunt nails began to narrow and his fingers began to crawl back into his hand, he watched as his chest began to ripple, muscles forming and bones growing.

Suddenly he was on all fours, his feet catching up with his hands in their painful transformation.

By now his face was beginning to elongate, the teeth in his mouth tapering into sharp carnivores teeth. He felt the scales finish growing and felt his clothing begin to tear as he grew, doubling in size while his bones snapped and reformed, hollowing out so he'd become lighter, enabling him to fly.

His eyes stayed much the same other than growing, his pupils had seemingly been squeezed from the sides however, gaining a reptilian appearnace now. He blinked and his second set of eyelids closed over his eyes before the first set did.

The nubs in his back near his shoulders began to grow out into wings, they grew so large and fast that Hynsten barely had time to begin folding them before they could crush up against the stone walls around him.

The whole time the ugly and painful transformation had occured, Hylena had watched on, wincing everytime she heard a bone snap, and closing her eyes as something that made her feel ill occured.

But at last, just as the sun disappeared below the horizon, the transformation was over and Hynsten just stood there, unable to speak.

Hylena on the other hand, raced forward and leaped up at his head, which she promptly wrapped her arms around as she began to cry, tears of joy and wonder streaming down her snout.

"It worked father!" she sobbed into his fore-head.

Hynsten gently removed his daughter from his head, bending his neck so he could look down at her in his paws before licking her face.

"It did! Oh... Hylena, this... I..."

Hynsten was lost for words, as was Hylena, all they could do was grin at each other, tears welling up in the corners of their scalene eyes.

Finally Hynsten put Hylena back down on the ground, and as she stepped back, he stood up straight and tall, tilting his head up towards the sky as he let loose a jet of blue flames that scorched the stone wall above him.

The return flight was slower, the father and daughter darted through clouds and laughed joyously as they played tag once again, this time they were limited to a few minutes play, they could stay up their for as long as their wings could bear the stress.

They dived down as darkness fell around them, into a clearing a few leagues from their den. Hynsten landed with a thud as usual, but kicked off at a trot as he put his snout to the ground and began searching.

It wasn't long before he'd found the flowers he'd heard about when he was younger. Part of the reason he'd shown Elmyra the way to this region was because of those tales of beautiful flowers, ones that would capture the heart of any woman.

Though Hynsten's intent was not quite so vague, he wanted to gather a few of the flowers and return home with them, to show an act of compassion and apology in one of the ways he knew best, by giving.

Clutching the delicate flowers to his chest with his fore-paws, he took flight again, this time Hylena did not dart around, but stayed in line behind her father as they flew the last stretch to their den.

And awaiting them at the mouth of the den, with the orange glow of flames on her back was Elmyra. At first she had thought Hynsten was returning from a fruitless endeavour, that was until he landed in the clearing where their water supply flowed and ran all the way up to her and began nuzzling her.

Hylena landed not far from her parents and watched with a pleased smile. She chuckled as Elmyra looked at Hynsten as if he were mad until he presented the flowers to her.

"I am sorry for rushing off like that and putting you in a bad position Elmyra. I remember the people in my village speaking of these flowers, and their beauty and I thought it befitting to give them to such a beautiful dragon, both inside and out."

Right then and there, Elmyra seemed to cave in. Her hardy nature melted away as she hugged her mate in her arms, her neck crossing over his.

Hynsten began to smile again and whispered, "Gruff was right, we found the stone... and now I feel... I feel... right at home."

Hylena hadn't the need to sneak from her den that night. Her parents had let her wander off while they got affectionate.

Now that she was alone, the young dragoness, who was now the equivilent of a newly matured human, found herself wandering through the trees silently wondering of her fate. There were no more dragons in the land besides her family. Humans despised her kind, dragons might shun her from being born of human and dragon.

She began to feel self-pity, which was not something she usually felt. Her thoughts meandered for a while until she found herself not a few hundred yards from the village she'd visited earlier that same year.

Feeling that strange feeling, of need, she silently approached a familiar hut, sticking to the shadows until she was at the window she'd stared right into many times before.

This time however, the window had been left open, and she found the human boy laying on his bed with his arms wrapped around him as he shivered. Feeling a pang of something she couldn't describe, she reached into the room through the window and grabbed the blanket in her jaws, gently tugging it over the male until it was up to his chin.

Then she released the blanket and gazed down upon him, the moonlight just barely reflecting off her scales, casting pretty lights all over the timber walls and ceiling.

And then, unable to control herself, she licked the human's cheek gently, feeling a pressure in her chest as she did so.

The boy's eyes fluttered open, and she pulled back in shock, finding her eyes locked on his. The deep brown eyes seemed to be pools in which she could dive into to find his soul located within.

"Urrrnnn... d-draaagon... mussst be dreammming still..." he said, his words slurred by sleep. His eyes closed again but his breathing remained the same, indicating sleep still hadn't claimed him.

"Sleep well..." She tapped her chin upon his nose and then withdrew as quickly as she dared from the window.

"I... No, I cannot be having these feelings for this human. I do not even know him!" she hissed to herself, yet she was unable to leave the village. She wanted answers, and she wanted them now, or she'd not sleep.

She returned to the window and leaned in again, this time she breathed over the boy's face, which woke him again.

"Dddraaaagon... agaain?" he mumbled, this time rubbing his eyes with his hands.

"My name is Hylena, please do not be frightened, I mean no harm." Hylena whispered, tempted to use magic to stop him from causing a ruckus.

But instead of yelling and screaming for help, he reached forward and put a cold hand upon her snout.

"Excuuussse me Hyleeena... still groggy..." he replied calmly, his eyes not focusing on her properly.

Now she felt guilty for stealing his sleep from him. "I-I'll leave... it was wrong of me to wake you-" she began, but he interupted her, putting a finger to her lips.

"Stay please... I am an orphan... I crave love." he said, his words getting clearer, his focus become stronger.

At first, Hylena was skeptical, but the boy insisted she stay, and she climbed in through his window which was quite a squeeze considering how she'd grown over time.

She took a comfortable position on the rough bearskin rug and sat her head comfortably on the side of his bed, he then began to run his fingers over her scales as he spoke.

"I prayed for the divines to end my loneliness... and now you have come, a beautiful dragoness with a heart that beats love."

"You do not fear me?" Hylena asked quietly.

He shook his head.

"No, why have I need to fear you when I have much worse things to fear? Death is the least of my issues, and if I became a snack for a dragon, at least my life would have meant something, I'd have given sustenance to a grand creature more worthy of life than I. No, I do not fear you."

His fingers played across the stubs that would grow out into horns later on in Hylena's life, and she began to feel quite comfortable sitting there.

"Might I ask your name?"

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry... I've forgotten my manners, I am Orlan." he said, sitting up in his bed.

"Orlan. It is a name with great strength in it." Hylena smiled, her compliment seeming to fit.

With a snort, Orlan shook his head, "I'm not strong, nor brave."

"Strength does not mean being able to lift heavy things, your strength is in your heart, and your mind. My father is a human with great inner courage-" she stopped, realizing her mistake.

"Your father is human?" Orlan asked, raising an eyebrow at Hylena.

"Uh..."

"Go on, I will not judge him if he mated with a dragoness. Besides, he fathered a beautiful daugther indeed."

Now Hylena felt hot under her scales at being complimented like that by someone who was not her parents. She'd never received a compliment from someone she didn't live with before.

"I... I uh," she stammered, unable to speak.

"Oh, I'm sorry... by the way, you're english is extremely good."

Now she was feeling shy and turned her gaze to the window.

"I... thank you Orlan."

"That's okay Hylena."

There was a silence that followed, not an akward one, but one that sounded a million thoughts. Hylena began to understand her strange feelings.

"I... I only came because I wanted to know what these feelings were... but now I understand that they must have been some kind of instinctual knowledge... a gut feeling that you would be the only human capable of understanding me as you do. I think I have deep feelings for you Orlan." she confessed to him. Her sapphire blue eyes twinkled in the moonlight as she gazed softly at him.

Now Orlan began to feel something well up in his heart, a feeling he'd not felt since he was young. The feeling was so alien to him that at first he couldn't understand it until finally he remembered the memories from long ago in his earliest years.

"Hylena... will you stay with me? I feel so... so... right with you here. I feel a hole that once stayed empty within my soul filling up with your presence."

The dragoness nodded, licking Orlan's face.

"I will, I like seeing you smile and feeling the joy radiate from you."

Orlan began to smile more so, he felt like his face might stick in that position, in a smile he'd not used for years. Then he moved over in his bed and patted the empty space beside him.

"Come, it is late and we need to sleep."

"My mother and father..." Hylena began, but Orlan stopped her.

"It is no use stumbling through the woods in the dark, you will hurt yourself and as your host, I cannot accept such a thing to occur. No, now you and I shall rest and catch up on our lost sleep, tomorrow, we venture to your home, I will not leave your side until I know you are safely home where you belong."

Hylena's heart fired up and she climbed into the bed, which was softer than it appeared to be, she curled up next to Orlan and he threw the blanket over them both before turning and wrapping his arms around the dragoness's neck.

"Goodnight Hylena... if I wake tomorrow and you are here... I think my heart just might melt from joy. Sleep well."

He closed his eyes, Hylena licked his cheek and whispered, "I will be here Orlan, rest well." before she lowered her head down onto the pillow next to Orlan's and closed her eyes, glad she'd broken one of her parents rules for once.