Draconian Peril
Legal crap
don't read if under 18 years old
Draconian Peril
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Ryuu was laying out in the sun, relaxing after constant nagging by his mother, Serris. She did this when Ryuu decided to shirk his studies and combat practice. Ryuu was unusual for his age, he was only eighteen, many thought him to be much older when they first saw him; despite any attempt Ryuu made at trying to change it, his skin remained as pale as milk, and his hair as white as untarnished silver. The only bit of natural color his body held was that of his dark crimson eyes. This alone made him stand out; yet, if anyone outside of his clan knew his ancestry, he would most certainly have been killed many times over by now.
Ryuu's clan held a sort of 'coming of age ceremony' that they called the trials of inheritance. No child of his clan was allowed to know of their history until they had passed the trials; to do otherwise meant death.
Ryuu was a unique person, aside from his visage; many in his clan feared or respected him for some reason or another. The elders of the clan looked to him with the utmost caution, the adults with wary respect, and the girls his age swooned over him as he walked past them, but he was very popular with the children, often caring for them when their parents went out. Ryuu always just thought that his clan was just full of overly cautious people until he noticed that they only acted that way toward him, to each other they held a calm and casual air about themselves. Ryuu even spoke to the elders about this, yet all they would say is 'Patience, you're answer will come in time. Soon, you will understand.' These vague answers only furthered to fuel his annoyance; yet, in order to stop the villagers from alienating him even more, he acted calm and followed his normal routine for whenever he went into town.
The storm approached suddenly and fiercely. Trees were pulled from the earth, fires spread, winds whipped and thunder sounded as if protesting its fury. Ryuu and Serris barred the windows, doors, vents and shutters. Ryuu pried open the cellar door under the table so they could escape the gale.
Serris lit a candle and placed it in a corner. Ryuu tried to get a better look around, seeing as this was the first time he had been allowed into the cellar; He was curious to see beyond all the doors there. One door in particular caught Ryuu's attention; it was a large double-door engraved with the same draconian rune as on his left shoulder; the way it gleamed, door itself seemed to be carved from ivory.
"Hey mom... where's this door lead to?"
Serris looked at the door in question and answered with two simple yet powerful words:
"Your legacy..."
Ryuu rolled his eyes and walked over to the door. Both the rune on his shoulder and on the door began to glow with iridescent silver light. The glow startled Ryuu, as did his mother's next words.
"Ryuu... be careful, you aren't ready for what lies beyond that door yet!"
Ryuu steadied himself and placed his left palm over the glowing rune on the door. Sudden warmth flowed through Ryuu's body as an unrelenting stream of power passed through him. Light filled the room for the next few moments before dying down and extinguishing itself. After the light went out, a loud creaking sound along with that of many snapping chains sounded from the door as it opened inward, spilling even more light, golden this time, into the room.
Ryuu couldn't believe what he saw; behind the door, resting on a carved wooden pedestal was an ancient draconian relic known as a Soul Cage. The soul cages were used to store a draconian's power until its owner could control it.
"Mom... what is that?"
Ryuu couldn't bring himself to take his eyes from the small golden orb even as Serris answered.
"(sigh) That is your legacy Ryuu, the power of a dragon incarnate to it's human child; Ryuu, you are a draconian, and your true self rests within that relic."
Serris looked to her son for a few moments before speaking again,
"You weren't supposed to learn about it until after the trials, but the question is: what will you do now?"
The tone that she used forced Ryuu to break eye contact with his soul cage and look to his mother with uncertainty.
"What do you mean?" Ryuu asked; Serris sighed quietly as she gathered her thoughts,
"Will you take your true self now, or will you take it after the trials?"
Ryuu considered her question for a while before taking a few steps past the door and speaking,
"Since I already know... I might as well..." Ryuu reached out his hand and grasped the small golden orb.
"...Take it!"
Ryuu said in a wisp of a voice as the soul cage was absorbed into his body. Suddenly, a golden light surrounded Ryuu as black teardrop shaped scales of varying sizes covered his body from head to toe. Six wings erupted from his back in a spray of blood, each set directly under the last. The top set were the white-feathered wings of a dove, seventeen feet across. The middle set were the gray-furred wings of a bat, six feet across, and the last set were the black-scaled wings of a dragon, twelve feet across. Two inch talons grew from his fingernails. His teeth grew to resemble those of a vampire. Ryuu's hair fell out only to be replaced by a long mane of eleven inch black spines that reached down to his middle back and an ivory check-mark shaped horn grew from the left side of his forehead, just above his eye.
Ryuu finally opened his eyes to look at what he had become; the power he felt flowing through his body reminded him of what he felt when he first touched the door, it felt unnatural, and left a tingling sensation running along his spine and hands. This power was that of something that does not belong, something dark, and he liked it...
Ryuu just stood there, basking in his new power until he felt that his jeans felt far too small and soon found the reason. Ryuu's tail that was now coiled around his left leg had the fabric stretched to its limits, it didn't last long though; as the spines along it sliced through the fabric and lashed through the air with a slight swish each time. Ryuu looked behind himself to see his new tail, it was prehensile and shaped like a whip, around seven feet long with extremely fine scales running along it in a in a way that left it shimmering in the now scarce light.
Suddenly Ryuu's wings flared and his muscles tensed as intense pain shot through his body, he fell to one knee clenching his teeth as the pain slowly subsided.
"Shit!" Ryuu screamed as the pain began to fade. Ryuu stretched out his new form as well as his wings which all struck the wall scraping several layers of skin, scales, and feathers.
"Ouch, damn walls. How am I supposed to control these things, Ow." Ryuu said as he accidentally knocked himself with his upper right wing...
Serris nearly doubled over in laughter as she watched her son struggle with the seven new appendages,
"What are you laughing at?" Ryuu growled, unintentionally sending a strong pulse of energy toward his mother. As the energy pulse struck Serris, she reverted to her own draconian form. Ryuu stared at her for a moment before turning his head out of modesty. Serris laughed at her son's innocence.
"The most sought after male in our entire clan blushes and turns from the mere sight of a bare female?"
Serris took a step closer to Ryuu and said quietly, "Ryuu, you will soon learn that a draconian female has little need of privacy. Fights break out amongst us at such a regular basis that we stopped wearing clothes in our true forms."
Serris wrapped her wings about herself like a cloak and walked over to a trunk, pulling out a new outfit for once she returned to her human form. Ryuu turned away while Serris changed her clothes. Serris sighed again, realizing quickly what would happen once the rest of their clan figured out what happened.
"Pathetic."
Serris grinned as she watched Ryuu trying to force his wings to fold back.
"Relax yourself; the wings will react to your instincts and thoughts. If you stay calm they will follow suite."
His anger having returned, Ryuu growled again revealing his sharp fangs.
"Fine, I will."
Ryuu stilled himself, body and mind, allowing his wings to fold of their own will. Unlike a bird's wings, Ryuu's wings folded at odd angles and positions. Ryuu's feathered wings folded to his back like a bird's would, but only the joint where they touched his shoulders stayed flat to his body. His middle bat-like wings folded over his chest like plate-armor, and his lower draconian wings folded over his waist with the claws at the joints hooking together at his belt line. Ryuu's upper wings then arched just enough to where one could see his back, while his lower wings unfurled the joint that attached them together, making all six of his wings together seem like a long trench coat that reached to his ankles. Ryuu's tail then coiled around his waist once, the rest of its length coiled around his left leg to stay out of harms way, and his talons retracted to about three quarters of an inch. Ryuu was now completely relaxed.
The next few days went by peacefully and without incident. Ryuu learned how to revert to his human form without to much difficulty, and Serris trained him daily to control his powers without pause. Flying, transformation, fighting, learning; these all became more of chores than anything else. Serris decided that since Ryuu had already regained his power, she would let him skip the trials. Besides, he was to powerful for her to make him do anything that he didn't want to. Unfortunately, Serris forgot to inform the rest of their clan of the developments and decisions that had been made without them.
One day, during another of Ryuu's training battles with Serris, his faults as a draconian were made painfully clear. Serris and Ryuu stood silently in the center of the training grounds, both in their draconian forms, back to back with blood lust staining their features.
"Are you ready Ryuu?" Serris asked with mockery evident in her voice. Ryuu smiled, exposing fangs sharp enough to pierce even the scales of a dragon. Serris already knew what to expect when her son's wings flared and he took to the sky. It was one of his favorite opening attacks, which made it oh so easy for the draconian femme fatal to counter. Serris released a pulse of energy toward Ryuu to knock him off his balance and tumble back to the ground, landing on his back. Ryuu let loose a nearly silent hiss of pain as he returned to his feet. Serris turned, revealing a five foot jagged blade jutting from the underside of both her wrists. Ryuu grit his teeth, knowing that he did not have the dexterity or agility to dodge his mother's next attack. Serris flashed a smile as she disappeared in a flash of inhuman speed. Ryuu knew what to expect when she did this but only had time to harden his wings so that the blade did not cut them clean off as it sliced through the flesh of his back. Ryuu screamed in pain as he turned and with a slash of his own, disabled Serris' right arm by cutting through the muscle and tendons, just below her shoulder with his fully extended talons. Serris just smiled again as the blood stained her ivory scales a metallic crimson. Ryuu locked eyes with Serris and got into a stance more suited to fighting someone of her caliber.
"Very good Ryuu, this is the third time you've managed to injure me isn't it?" Serris taunted with a gentle grin. Ryuu nodded slightly as he took a cautious step backward to reinforce his stance. Ryuu heard a small snap at his feet and chanced a look to see that he had stepped on a stick. When Ryuu looked up again, to keep her within his line of sight, she was gone. A gust of wind behind Ryuu alerted him to his mother's position and without even thinking he swung around as fast as he could, reaching out a clawed hand to force her away. He expected to feel a sharp blade slicing through his hand, or the torn flesh of Serris' wings in his grasp as he pushed her away. Yet, after removing his talons from his mother's chest, he turned out of modesty. Unintentionally leaving himself open to Serris' next attacks. By the time he realized what would happen if he didn't it was already too late, when Ryuu turned and had gotten his guard backup, he could already feel the already bloodied blade on his mother's wrist pierced through his throat.
"You still don't get it do you Ryuu?" Serris twisted her blade, bringing Ryuu to his knees in pain as he attempted to grasp the blade in his hands, only to have it thrust deeper still into his neck. Had Ryuu been able to scream from the pain, he would have, but as he stared into his mother's eyes in a pleading stare, he couldn't utter a single word. Transfixed in Serris' gaze, Ryuu could not prepare himself for when she pulled the blade from its resting place. Almost immediately, his wounds began to mend themselves at a quick pace. Serris then waited quietly until her son could look her in the eye without coughing up blood. When he finally managed it, Serris smiled at him as she used to when he was younger, but the moment didn't last long though. Serris got down on her knees and grabbed Ryuu by the spines growing from the back of his neck. The still-tender flesh burned in her grasp as Ryuu grit his teeth again. Serris leaned over by Ryuu's ear and whispered something that would change his view of the world forever.
"I am truly ashamed of you. If you weren't my son, I would kill you right now. If you don't get rid of that damned modesty of yours even your own mate will kill you. When you can stand again come back stronger, or do not come back at all."
Serris then thrust his face into the mud underneath them and left him to the wilds of nature. Ryuu lay as his mother left him for the rest of the day, pondering over what she had said.
Later that night, those that rule the night came out to sate their hunger, their thirst, and their curiosity, came upon Ryuu. Still he lay there, lost in thought, even as the wolves began to move in. Serris' words kept haunting him, echoing in his mind, causing his scales to bristle in fury. Ryuu's red eyes began to pulsate, his fury beginning to overtake his mind. Slight changes swept his body as the darkness of his own heart overshadowed him. Ryuu attempted to stand, and the first of the wolves, their Alpha, attacked. Ryuu didn't even need to look as his arm reached out behind him and took firm hold of the Alpha's head. His eyes still gleaming with blood lust, Ryuu clenched his hand into a fist with little effort, even as the wolf's skull was crushed beneath his fingers. Splinters of bone shattered against his scales. Ryuu smiled sadistically at the still-warm blood dripping from his hands. Dropping the carcass at his feet, Ryuu began to walk deeper into the forest. However, at the light sound of paws tapping the ground behind him, Ryuu looked back to see around nine or ten wolves following at a respectful and submissive distance. Ryuu knew what they were doing. He had killed their Alpha. So now he was to lead them. They would follow his wishes until his position was usurped by a stronger creature, be it wolf or otherwise.
Ryuu thought for a moment as he looked at them each, one by one. The wolves would not look him in the eyes. To do so would be a challenge to his position. They looked in health, intelligent, strong, agile, and silent when need be. Ryuu knew just what to do. He lifted his hand, still warm with the blood of the wolves prior Alpha, to eye level. A small grin crossed his face as every speck of blood on his hand was suddenly coated in a sheet of cold, black fire. The flame's light danced over the forest setting as the wolves gaze was unflinchingly locked on his arm. Barely a breath went by unheard during this time. When the flames died out, not a trace of fire was left, except for a dark sheen on the Alpha's blood. With a low whistle, Ryuu beckoned the wolves to his side as he offered his bloody arm to each wolf. One by one, they lapped a little of their kin's blood into their eager muzzles, sealing their fate until the time Ryuu was replaced as their master.
Their change took place so quickly that they hardly even noticed until it was over. Their fur darkened to an inky black that seemed to fade in with shadows whenever they moved. Their steps became silent, even on the worst of terrains. Their eyes held a gleam of gold, even in the darkest of night. They became ghosts to the touch of others and their fangs and claws now held the deadliest of poisons. As their changes ended, all but their outline against the night sky seemed to disappear and they instinctively moved through the woods into strategic positions around Ryuu. They would always be within range should he need them, to serve as his silent assassins, or to gather his evening meal. Ryuu and his wolves walked through the forest silently back to where Serris was waiting for him.
"Those words will never come true, I swear it." Ryuu growled, as he approached the edge of the clearing where Serris had built their home. With a silent nod to one of the wolves, they dispersed and left Ryuu to deal with his mother. Once again, Ryuu's draconian body was swept with changes as the feathers of his wings grew savagely sharp blades at their tips, ready to be shot like arrows at any target he wished. Even more spines grew from under the scales on the back of his forearms. Small ivory plates in the shape of ribs grew over his torso to cover the spaces between the ribs that lay under his scales. The last change that took place was that a shallow depression appeared on the center of his chest, where the solar plexus would normally be. In its place, a small black flame ignited, radiating energy to the rest of his body. This was the source of his families power, the reason that the elders feared him, and the adults of the clan looked at him with wary respect and caution burned in their eyes. This was the curse of Ryuu's family, the Shadow Flare.
Ryuu basked in this familiar sensation, the one that overtook him when he first transformed. It was the curse awakening inside him, taking hold, and beginning to flow through his veins. Ryuu walked up to the door of his home, and kicked it in without even bothering to see if it was locked. Serris looked up when she heard the door shatter. Seeing Ryuu there with fury painted on his face was no surprise. However, when Serris looked over the changes he had gone through, however, her face paled to almost what Ryuu's human form resembled. The small black flame floating in Ryuu's chest was a dead giveaway as to what had happened to him. She knew that unless she released her own flame, she would be killed in less than five minutes. Without thinking of the consequences, Serris reignited the flame that she knew burned within her for the past five hundred years, smoldering in her soul.
"So be it then." Serris closed her eyes and whispered as she transformed into her draconian form and let the flame warm her blood. Serris' long blond hair turned a light blue and grew to her lower back, while her normally pristine ivory scales grew to resemble a sleeve over her forearms, shoulders and ankles, and became whiter than snow. The two scaled wings on her back grew larger and more ragged as her flame's dark influence altered her beautiful form. Serris' bangs grew down past her eyes and her already whip-like tail elongated to nearly twice her body length. Serris' breasts receded into her body and a large depression, beginning at the solar plexus, appeared about six inches across to house her flame. Just before Serris' flame ignited in its core, the tips of eight bones, her ribs, extended out of the outer rim of the depression to form a cage in the center of her chest to protect it. Serris opened her now pulsating, slitted emerald eyes. Flexing her wings and talons, she hardly spoke in a whisper before she ran at him.
"Let us begin." Ryuu heard her say. He had barely nodded before he was flung back by a white blur. He could see that his mother appeared to not be moving, but still he felt the slashes, punches, and kicks he had grown used to receiving whenever he challenged his mother. It took a full five minutes of constant beating to get enough concentration to fire off a volley of bladed feathers from his wings. Almost as soon as he had launched the feathers, the barrage of attacks stopped. Ryuu managed to get back to his feet and look to his right , just in time to see Serris pulling at a long feather that had pierced her right leg, locking her to the patch of ground that the feather stuck in. Ryuu turned to face his mother, fury once again seized him as he realized how pathetically weak she was once someone managed to take away her speed. After a moment of observance, he realized that she wasn't going anywhere, Ryuu took his opportunity while he still could.
Serris had already stopped struggling against the feather stuck in her leg, she had already figured out that Ryuu's hand was the only one that could remove it. The feather was insignificant next to what Ryuu was gathering power for next. With what little time she had left before he struck, Serris got down on one knee and folded her wings over herself like a shield, as she waited for his attack.
Ryuu had seen Serris get into a defensive position. He just didn't care. Whether this attack broke through her defenses or not didn't matter. His next attack would exhaust his strength. Ryuu moved his hands in front of the core in his chest. The small flame loosed an ember between Ryuu's hands and as the ember smoldered between his hands, it grew in size. The swirling vortex of energy that had originated from Ryuu's still developing Shadow Flare pulsated with an energy incarnate of chaos and pain.
Ryuu's attack had grown to the size he needed over the last ten minutes and he was ready to use it. He broke one hand away from the vortex and pointed it toward the mass of white scales Serris was hiding behind. He manipulated the vortex into a marble sized sphere floating several inches off of his palm. Ryuu's energy attack pulsed one more time before he launched it.
"Blast!" Ryuu yelled as a massive burst of flaming energy erupted toward Serris with the force of a freight train when it struck her.
Serris' wings withstood Ryuu's attack for little more than a few seconds, pain lancing through her as the black flames and flowing energy engulfed her in its path. When her wings finally gave out under the extreme pressure the bones snapped, the membrane began to tear and her scales began to burn. Serris doubted that she would survived this attack, but if by some miracle, she managed it, she knew that she would never fly again. As the last of her defenses fell, the full force of Ryuu's blast tore her leg free from the feather that kept her stuck in place and she was thrown into the forest some fifty feet back. The blast had only gathered enough power to sustain itself for around ten or fifteen seconds, then it slowed and then stopped, leaving Ryuu too drained to even blink. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell to the ground unconscious. Serris had survived, only barely. The only thing left of her wings looked like they had gone through a meat grinder and then nearly incinerated. Her once ivory scales were blackened by soot from her wings and many of them still held a bright orange glow. Nearly all of Serris' hair was burnt away within the first few seconds so all that remained were the blackened tips. The places where Ryuu's attack had gotten through her scales were burnt away, leaving nothing but soot and cinders. It would take all the remaining power she had regained from her Shadow Flare to heal these wounds, but she had no choice. It was either that or die. So she began to heal herself, channeling her remaining power toward regeneration.
An hour later, Serris slowly walked up to her son. He had reverted to his human form from using so much power at once, and he even seemed paler than usual. Serris chuckled to herself quietly, as she thought about how powerful that last attack was.
"He was holding back... even though the Shadow Flare had consumed his mind, he was able to hold back. There is no doubt that he could become one of the greatest."
Serris looked behind her to see how much damage he had caused, and was not surprised to see that the mountain that stood behind their home now had a one mile wide hole straight through it to the other side. Everything in his wake was obliterated. The skeletons of wildlife that had not moved in time were testimony to that. Serris then took a closer look at one of the trees that Ryuu's massive attack had hit. Only half of it had been in the way of his attack and yet there were no singe marks and no soot on the rest of the tree. The tongues of flame that had radiated from the blast had not even touched the rest of the woods, only what was directly in its path. Serris didn't know that an attack like that could be as large and precise as that, but the evidence stood in front of her, very much still alive at that.
Ryuu woke several minutes later. His body was riddled with bloody gashes, slash marks and bruises. He remembered everything up to now, but didn't know if his attack had finished what it had started. Ryuu didn't feel anymore fury or hatred in his heart. On the contrary, he felt more relaxed than ever before. He then noticed that he had returned to human form. With a quick thought, Ryuu attempted to trigger the transformation that would return him to his draconian form. Nothing happened. Ryuu tried again to change, but all he felt was an incredible sense of fatigue fall over himself as he attempted changing again and again.
"Don't you get it Ryuu, you're exhausted. You don't have the energy to transform now." Serris said, as she slowly walked over to her son, with pride shining in her eyes.
"You need to rest, get some food and go lay down." Serris smiled and kissed Ryuu on his forehead before she walked into the forest to get their dinner for the evening. Ryuu watched as his mother walked away. She seemed so happy and proud. He had nearly killed her, and she didn't seem upset. Then Ryuu saw her wings, or rather, what was left of her wings. Even with a draconian's restorative prowess, her wings dragged across the ground in a shredded mass of flesh and bone, barely recognizable as what they once were. Ryuu looked down at his hands as he asked himself,
"Did I really do that." Ryuu sighed, as he tried to remember what had made him go berserk like that. He remembered being in the woods, surrounded by a pack of black wolves with golden eyes. Beyond that, all he could remember was fighting Serris, and getting beaten by her as she moved so fast that his eyes could not follow. It was only a fluke that he was able to trap her, and yet, with just one attack, he had permanently crippled a being that had bested him for years.
"I'll have to try and remember how I did that," Ryuu said with a half hearted smile.
End of Chapter I
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