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The following novella was written as a collaborative effort between myself and Dragonatic for the People. Project started March 2010. All characters and content are copyright to their respective owners.This series will only be made available for reading in its entirety for a limited time only, with parts released periodically!! All comments, critiques, and criticisms are welcome.

After a couple minutes of phasing around, Donichus morphed back their shapes on the barren outskirts of the city. Jaqaran, taken aback by the experience, was breathing deeply and hanging slightly by Donichus's tight grip on his scuff. With in incensed roar, he threw the boy forward, making him roll across the ground. When he tried wobbling back to his feet, Donichus placed a clawed foot on his side and kicked him back down. "Fool!" he hissed down at him. "You ruined everything!"

And then something happened Donichus didn't expect. Jaqaran pushed off the ground and threw himself at him. Caught by his initial reaction, the boy knocked a few good breaths out of him as they tumbled over each other in a fury of blind punches and kicks. Finally, Donichus was able to grab the boy by the front of his shirt and pull him forward to his knee. Shoving him back again, Jaqaran lay panting on the ground beneath the raptor's cold glare.

"What you're doing isn't righteousness," Jaqaran gasped. "It's murder. It's not justice... it's revenge. How many other people have you killed this way!"

Donichus kept his eyes narrowed as Jaqaran tried to stand again. His legs wobbled, but his stance was defiant and stubborn. "Those I've killed deserved to die."

"Who are you to say that," shot Jaqaran. "Where does an exiled prince get that kind of authority, huh Donichus? Don't you deserve it too?"

In the next instant, Jaqaran was back on the ground, his hands held up over his head, pinned firmly down by one of Donichus's while the other suspended a sharp dagger over his stomach.

"Do it," Jaqaran asserted. "Oh god, you never should've taken me... at least with Talos, I never had to kill anyone!"

The dinosaur's drilling stare burned down on the boy for some seconds, the dagger in his hand quivering slightly. With anger or fear, Donichus was unsure. Then finally, with an irate roar up into the night air, he stabbed the dagger into the soil next to Jaqaran and sat with his back to him, panting furiously, his nostrils flaring.

With the initial spark of rage extinguished, Donichus was left feeling rather empty and somewhat exhausted. Behind him, he heard Jaqaran sit up and felt his stare on his backside. For the first time in a long while, Donichus was unsure on what to do next. He could try plotting again. But then, he would have to be rid of Jaqaran. The thought disturbed him, and when he decided that he no longer had the patience to wait until another chance like that came again, he tossed the idea out.

The raptor was unable to comprehend the amount of things flying in and out of his mind. He needed to get away. Anywhere. And so with a huff in his pant, he got back to his feet and stormed off.

Hours later. Donichus was by himself in a small sanctum he'd found among forage of trees. He had the back of his head resting on his hands as he looked up at the sky. For some reason he'd hated looking up at the sky before, but now, he was mad enough at himself and everyone else to bear it. Donichus didn't know how people could ever find peace by doing this. The twinkling stars above seemed to be laughing down at him. And the moon was one big, accusing eye whose gaze even Donichus couldn't stare down. Somewhere up there, the shimmering lights never ceased their jeering song:

Twinkle twinkle little star, sees you for all that you are. Up above the world so high, one for every dying cry. Twinkle twinkle little star... watching you, small dinosaur.

"STOP!" Donichus roared up at the heavens.

The stars only laughed and the moon tapped its baton twice against the inky blackness of the night, motioning to conduct the song again.

Twinkle twinkle little star...

Donichus growled and turned himself over to his side. Sleep was impossible, so he lay there for some minutes, twirling the grass around his clawed fingers. Over and over again, he played the memory of what happened a couple hours prior. Jaqaran's direct defiance to him, standing with his weapon pointing out at him. Blood-soaked.

Only then did Donichus wonder where it all came from. Had it all been his, the boy would've never had the strength to stand up to him. Sometimes, he felt bad about the way he wanted to tear right through him to get to Tyrannio. There was something about the way Jaqaran was so sure about what he was doing that made Donichus a bit envious. It might've been possible that he taught the boy a little too well how to think and fend for himself. Because now his very techniques were being used against him. I made him feel... foolish if not some small measure of pride. Then again, Donichus was experiencing a lot of different emotions that didn't seem to fit his current mood.

The boy believed Tyrannio was a good ruler. Fixed on it. And even before the events of tonight, this possibility lay fettered in the deepest, darkest dungeon of Donichus's mind as well. Like a forgotten prisoner whose wails resonated for miles off the stone walls, it was with a heavy heart that Donichus thought to revisit this chained captive once more, the key to its freedom visible, though gripped tightly in his mental grasp.

The idea that Jaqaran's stance was correct was an emaciated, pathetic, and pitiful looking thing. A skeletal and abused soul whose scarred wrists barely contained the strength to hold up its shackles anymore. "Have you come to free me?" it said in a coarse whisper.

"You've rotted in here for twenty years already," Donichus replied back, tapping the mental key on his wrist. "A couple more minutes won't kill you."

"It may well." The shackled idea lumbered to its feet. "But I suppose you being here is already a step in the right direction."

"How do you know what's right?"

"How do you?"

Donichus remained silent.

"See, Donichus, you don't. That's why I've managed to survive this long, in this godforsaken part of your mind. It's also why I came to be here in the first place; Whenever you questioned the morality of your actions, I spoke out. Defied you. And when my ideals became a threat to your overall persuasion, my counterpart - that's you - thought to shut me down by locking me up. But I could never be silenced. My wails bouncing off the walls of your cranium became your qualms. And you thought to drown that out by becoming a vigilante, fighting for a righteous justice of your own definition, to compensate for the mistake you made of chaining me here. Do you not see how, when you thought to rid others of their tyrants, the biggest of them was but a mere glance in the mirror away?

"So here I stayed for twenty years. An innocent thought condemned to wither away until I ceased to exist, leaving you perfectly content. I have to admit, I came close to leaving you be. Close to dying. But then something happened that sparked me back to life. Something that made you look back and start to question again. You met Jaqaran. And when you began to feel for him, you know you could not simply brush the boy away as you have brushed me away. He was more than what was ever amounted by those unsavory 'services' you took in return for a few personal favors. With real affection for the boy came real affection for what he felt. And when he felt that you were mistaken in your judgment, you sooner realized that this was never about getting the throne - or even about getting even. Even now, you're looking back and seeing that exile was a merciful sentence. Your own brother could've sentenced you to death! And the people whom you feel so obliged to protect would've gladly carried it out. What do you think stopped him from making such a decree?"

Donichus bit his lip and forced the words into his ears. Before now, he'd have long silenced the idea and left it alone again to rot for another decade. As much as he wanted to kill it, however, he allowed the thought to have its say.

"I'll hint at it for you," it spat. "The reason that stopped your brother from killing you is the same reason why you couldn't stand to be rid of Jaqaran when he foiled your attempt to kill him."

"How could I ever care for the boy in that way," Donichus snapped. "I would never allow such a thing to cloud my vision."

"Please," the fettered idea scoffed. "You can't lie to me, Donichus. Every time you do, the only one fooled is yourself."

Donichus turned over the idea a couple more times, examining every possible angle from which its arguments were formed. After some minutes, he took a step forward and inserted the key into the chains that bound the idea securely in place. "It may be possible that I have indulged too deeply in the lie I've set up for myself. If such is the case, I suppose there's a lot I have to be sorry for."

"True." If ideas could smile, Donichus was sure that this one was. "But let's take this one right step at a time."

Snapping instantly from his trance, Donichus shook his head and pushed off the grassy floor to go in search for Jaqaran.

The young jaguar wasn't far off from where Donichus had initially left him. He'd slinked into the treeline as was sitting perfectly still atop a large, flat boulder, looking up at the night sky. Donichus thought to leave him be and return to his own side before the old, shackled thought he conversed with shoved him forward. Sighing deeply, Donichus pulled his cloak tighter over himself and summoned the nerve to climb up to him.

Jaqaran neither moved nor spoke as he plopped himself next to him. The boy had taken off his bloodstained shirt and rolled up his pants up to the knees. With fur ruffled slightly matted, he looked at lot more boyish and... attractive.

Donichus took another deep breath and sighed it out with an upward tilt of his head. "The stars are soothing tonight," he said lamely.

"I hate looking up at the sky," replied Jaqaran.

Donichus turned to him. The boy was still looking up, perhaps if only to avoid meeting his gaze. To this the raptor returned his own sights forward. "Yeah. Me too."

After a few more minutes of silence, Jaqaran must've finally decided to address the inevitable matter at hand. "Donichus... I know you're still angry, but I'm not sorry for what I did. If this is what you want, then fine. Go for it. I just can't follow you when I know there's something about what we do that I don't agree with."

Donichus grunted. "I'm not angry, Jaqaran. At least, not anymore with you. But I would like to know why you feel so strongly about this."

Just then, Jaqaran lowered his head down. "I don't really know myself," he admitted. "I'm not like you, Donichus. I can't look someone in the eye and then bring myself to drive a sword through them. I guess I was just... scared."

"Scared? Of what?"

"Come on, Donichus, in this business, there's a lot to be afraid of. I see how critical and withdrawn you get before missions; you're scared too."

Donichus had to keep reminding himself that Jaqaran was not the child he always saw him as. Somehow, the boy always knew whenever he lied to him or tried to sugarcoat the situation. Knowing this left him with no other choice but to be honest, he sighed. "I do get scared. But it's not me I worry about."

The two looked at each other, and once again, Jaqaran was forced to lower his gaze. "Me neither," he said rather quietly.

"Jaqaran..." Donichus reached out to touch the boy, but he suddenly flinched back. Taken by this, he quickly withdrew his hand and scratched penitently at the back of his neck.

Jaqaran took a breath and returned to him. "Sorry," he said. "Instinct."

"Hmm." The raptor's eyes softened at the boy's nature. Jaqaran was as like a knife sitting on the counter; completely harmless, timid, and able to arouse some small measure of curiosity. It was only when acted upon by others with an ill will that he became lethal and deadly. A knife has no desire to kill because that's not what it was made for, and yet others still utilize it for that purpose; the case was a perfect description of Jaqaran. "Jaqaran, what was it like... when you were with Talos?"

Jaqaran's countenance suddenly turned solemn, and he looked up, as though his true feelings were etched somewhere up in the sky. After a while, Donichus realized this was to keep excess moisture that had collected in his eyes from spilling out. He thought to recant his question when he took another deep breath and answered, "I was Talos's trophy servant for as long as I can remember. It was my job to show others how powerful Talos was. And if needed... persuade his clients by showing them a good time as well."

Donichus breathed through his nostrils, eyes focused on Jaqaran as he continued after a brief hiatus. "He used me. Sometimes in front of others, and he'd have them join in if they wanted. If I resisted... or whimpered... cried... or just didn't satisfy them, I was punished. Plain and simple."

"Jaqaran," Donichus said quietly, "I... I had no idea."

Jaqaran rubbed at his eyes and forced a weak smile at him. "It's alright. You couldn't have. Anyway..." he sniffed. "Being Talos's favorite had its advantages too, I suppose. It's through him I came to learn about our magic system."

"Talos taught you how to use magic?!"

"Well, not actually," Jaqaran quickly replied. "I picked up on a few techniques and principles that never helped much. I mean, I knew he was a Dark Mage too... I figured using me the way he did was what gave him his power. That's why he wants me back so badly."

"Wants you back?" Donichus frowned.

Eyes forward, Jaqaran nodded, "Before I came and stopped you... one of Talos' assassins came into the castle and found me. I guess he followed us... He... he told me he had been hired by Talos to bring me back to Switzerland, dead or alive. I managed to fend him off, but only just..."

"Tell me," Donichus said, "how did you fend him off? Fending off a hired assassin is no small feat, Jaquaran..."

Jaquaran gulped. "He was about to kill me. Then he threatened your life the same way he threatened mine... So I fought... and somehow his arm turned to dust when he took my weapon after I had dropped it in the fight. So he backed out the door and fled."

Donichus' eyes widened. "Did you say anything specific?" he inquired.

Jaquaran remained silent, and averted his eyes, and then simply turned his head to the side. A set of claws gently turned his head back towards Donichus. "Jaqaran," he said, "I realize now that in order for this... for us... to work, we're going to have to start being honest with each other. You can tell me."

"I..." he stammered, "I told him that... I wouldn't let him hurt you... that... that I..." a long pause, then a whisper, "I... l-liked you..."

Donichus froze. His heart felt lighter than air. His breathing shuddered, as if he was cold.

"And then... he stabbed me with my sword. And his hand turned to dust. What does that mean, Donichus?" Jaqaran spoke frantically, as though he were about to be diagnosed with some incurable disease.

It made perfect sense; Jaquaran, having fought selflessly, enacted magic involuntarily. But that, obviously, wasn't what shocked him. It was, of course, who Jaquaran was fighting for.

"Certain kinds of magic require certain kinds of energy and emotions to fuel them," explained Donichus. "Black magic, for example, runs of hedonic pleasure. Vindictiveness, spite, or anger. But what you did was the exact opposite."

Jaquaran bit his lip.

"It was light magic that saved your life," Donichus said, his tone soft. "And mine. What you did... what you acted upon... was love." A thought occurred to him in that moment. "That symbol on your sword. That's what it means. I heard it when the blacksmith told you."

It all made sense. No wonder the blacksmith whispered the meaning of the symbol in Jaquaran's ear rather than saying it aloud. Finding no words in him, but only a single instinct that took over his senses, even more so than when he was purchasing favors from the blacksmith down south, more so than when he was making the kill on a corrupt noble that ruled his land with a spiked mace, even more so than right before he was about to kill his brother. This feeling transcended all of that. This feeling focused entirely on the jaguar in front of him. He slowly maneuvered himself closer to Jaquaran. "Will you trust me?"

The boy looked at Donichus and nodded slowly. This time, he didn't flinch away when he lightly extended his arm to touch Jaquaran's chin. He slowly and gently stroked it with one of his claws, to which his heartbeat was clearly increasing, judging by the pulsating of his neck. Donichus leaned closer. "You really... fought to protect me?"

Jaquaran simply nodded.

"How could I have been so daft," he said quietly. "Could you ever forgive me for--"

Without another word, Jaqaran leaned in and lightly pressed his lips against Donichus. Donichus, after getting over the initial surprise, maneuvered his lips accordingly, returning the light kiss to the young boy.

It was an eternity in the span of a moment. Soon, Jaqaran pulled away without warning, his head facing the stars. "I, umm-"

"No..." whispered Donichus. He got on his hands and knees and crawled over on top of the boy, laying down on his body and stroking his head. "You were right... about everything." And then he lowered his head and kissed Jaqaran, who returned it, as well.

Through their connection, Donichus sensed the boy was hungry for affection. He needed it, though Donichus was unsure exactly how much if it he was capable of giving. When the boy wrapped his arms around the back of his head to pull him in closer, Donichus only then realized how his own clawed fingers quivered slightly as he reached around to stroke the back of Jaqran's neck. He was almost ashamed of this, but the truth of the matter was that despite all he was familiar with, the stone raptor was only now beginning to realize what it meant to truly feel for someone.

It touched Donichus more than anything how the boy clung to him as though he were his father. He idolized him, and seemed to want to show how much he looked up this paternal figure. Or perhaps, the Jaqaran had been used so consumably, the only thing he knew to do was to give and give and give. Either way, Donichus, on the other hand, didn't think he deserved such a level of adoration. This new impression of selflessness was an overload to the keen raptor's senses. Though many things were speeding in and out of his mind, he couldn't pinpoint exactly how he felt - because he wasn't thinking about himself.

Cracking his eyes open, he saw how the corners of Jaqaran's eyes were accumulating small beads of moisture. Nether had either known such affection before. Still engaged in their passionate liplock, Donichus leaned down on the boy until he was lying flat on his bare back. Drawing breath from Donichus's snout, Jaqaran seemed so much like a child then... so needy, inexperienced, and dependant. He wanted to take care of him, console him. Pleasure him.

Disengaging from the kiss, Donichus glided the tip of his snout over Jaqaran's neck, taking in his apprentice's scent into his olfactory chamber, forever ingraining itself in his memory. Despite how young Jaqaran seemed, he smelled of masculinity; dirt, sweat, and pheromones combined to form a unique signature that described the boy perfectly. Jaqaran took a breath when Donichus extended out his tongue to lightly lick at the Jaquaran's fur, like a parent grooming the young cub he was. The raptor's sharp claws were undermined by the way his hands softly glided down the boy's toned body as he licked farther down. It was before he stopped at the lower region of his abs, just above the rim of his sash, did he sense a small shudder ripple across the boy's body. Kneeling over him, Donichus unpinned the brooch of his cloak and spread it out in front of them. "Lay with me," he offered.

Jaqaran eagerly scurried out from under him and lay down on Donichus's cloak. A soft purr escaped him as he buried his face and nuzzled in the fabric like a kitten. This made the edges of Donichus's snout upturn as he unbelted the rest of his armor and threw off his own shirt to reveal a well-defined torso, rigid and spectacular. The connotation behind his sturdy build against Jaqaran's made the young jaguar withdraw a little upon seeing him and pin his ears back in clear submission.

"Don't be nervous," Donichus said, coming up to him again. "I'm not going to hurt you." Leaning over him once again, the boy looked about ready to melt under the raptor's bulk. And when Donichus reached down to peel the edges of Jaqaran's pants down, he lifted his head to gaze down the length of his body quizzically at him as he nuzzled the boy's fleshy, pink member. Another small shudder radiated out from between the boy's legs as the dinosaur's tongue began to flick against it. The scents came, more powerful this time, as Donichus nursed the boy's shaft with the gentleness of caring for a newborn.

"Oh... Donichus..."

He downed himself on Jaqaran's rod, washing it down clean with his saliva. Rich with the jaguar's flavor, it tickled down his throat. And when a rhythm had been established between them, on sync with the heaving of the boy's chest, his apprentice's hips started to lift off the floor and hump into Donichus's eager maw. He found that the boy was especially ticklish in this area, and startled gasps of ecstasy would leap from his lolling mouth whenever he lightly caressed his sharp teeth up the length of the boy's organ.

Gradually, Donichus became aware of how aroused the both of them were making each other, and thought to promote the boy's reward by giving him one last lick, before kneeling back up. As though waking from a marvelous dream, Jaqaran sat up too, and they looked longingly at one another, the same thought crossing both their minds. Donichus didn't even need to ask, as Jaqaran crawled up to Donichus and gave him appreciation in the form of crossing his legs around his body and slipping his arms under his to attach himself firmly to him.

Though Donichus taught the boy how to think and fend for himself, he loved the way Jaqaran was so willing to give himself over to him. With a tittering smile, he licked at the sides of his mouth and then rest the side of his head on Donichus's shoulder. As the boy slowly relaxed his grip on him, his lower body steadily began to lower down on the raptor's member. When the tip of his head prodded the boy's entrance, however, Jaqaran suddenly jumped back up, and tightened himself around Donichus, as though to say he suddenly dipped a finger in scalding hot water.

Realizing the boy's hesitation, Donmichus stroked the back of Jaqaran's head soothingly and licked at the boy's face. "It's okay," he cooed. "I won't hurt you."

There was a comfort to Donichus's words that only Jaqaran could interpret. He felt and heard the boy's breathing in his ear as very slowly, he began to lower himself down again on him. Jaqaran hugged Donichus tighter, his eyes and teeth gritted shut when the tip of the raptor's organ entered him. Relishing how the boy so clung to him, Donichus continued to caress the back of his neck comfortingly. As Jaqaran sank further down on his lover, friend, and teacher, his tense body gradually began to relax. And when Donichus's entire length was warmly accommodated within the boy's tight bowels, Jaqaran exhaled a soft moan of accomplishment.

After remaining in him for a brief time, Donichus started to rhythmically buck his hips up and down., methodically penetrating into his apprentice. Jaqran hung on to him, as though for dear life. With every push into him, Donichus grunted at the blissful pressure being applied to his genitals. In a gradient, he heightened his pace.

Their bodies pressed so closely together, the friction between them was lessened by the boy's pre-ejaculate being smeared across both their abdomens. So firm at attention, Jaqaran was, that whenever he rubbed against him, Donichus could hear the slick wetness of the pink organ prodding his muscled torso.

Jaqaran's breathing started to increase sharply, as Donichus felt both their meats start to throb with a looming anticipation. The boy murred into his mate's shoulder, his arms avidly exploring his backside, all the way down to the base of his tail. Reciprocating, Donichus nudged up Jaqaran's head with his snout and placed many small nips and kisses under his chin. He pumped into him faster, wanting to touch the boy at a level so deep, their connection would never be broken.

"Oh, Donichus," he purred. "I-I'm going... going to..."

Donichus licked over the boy's mouth as a sign of approval. Keeping one hand behind the young jaguar's back for support, he slipped a hand between their interlaced bodies and took up the pulsating pecker he found in his palm.

Jaqaran gasped and rolled his head up at the sky, both his hands on Donichus's shoulders as he thrust into him once again.

A riveting wave of electricity shocked the raptor's body. His crest vibrated and flushed. He, too, looked up at the night sky and screeched out a final mating call. A release unlike any Donichus had ever felt before exploded out of him, and he inseminated the boy with many wet splotches that dripped out from under them onto the ground. The orgasm was like a tsunami of relief, pain, and pleasure washing over him, completely paralyzing all his other senses for a brief time. Gripping the boy to him fiercely, as though to say he were his own child, he injected himself into him one more time. When his senses finally returned, he could hear his excess virile rivuleting down below them.

All the while, the dinosaur had been firmly, and yet gently, tugging on his lover-and-friend's rod. His own orgasm had caused him to miss Jaqaran's initial reaction, but before he knew it, upon looking down, he found both the front of their torsos to be sodden with the boy's sticky essence. It webbed and roped between them, connecting their bodies together. Donichus's fingers became laced in it as he released the boy and stared at it for a couple moments before turning, then, to Jaqaran. He was panting, saturated and glistening chest heaving, as he returned the stare.

All of a sudden, it was Donichus who couldn't stand to look back. Flushing madly, he turned slightly away. "Jaqaran, I..."

The boy leaned down and licked at his snout. "I told you I'm not sorry," he said softly. "You shouldn't be either."

Donichus gently lay his mate down on the ground and rest himself behind him, licking at the back of his neck. As they slowly drifted off to a blissful slumber, their occasional sighs of gratitude and relief barely carrying through the fragmented night air.