A tale of Twilight
#1 of The Knights of Juno
Alrighty, here it is the first chapter of the Knights of Juno. I do apologize to my loyal readership out there, I know that you have been patiently (Or impatiently as the case may be) waiting for well over two months for me to get this online.
Continued from http://www.sofurry.com/?pid=35394
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story. As always, comments are greatly appreciated.
Enjoy.
"There has got to be an easier way to do this." Twilight stated, un-sticking his scaled fingers for the fifteenth time. Twilight was a sixteen year old male black dragon with violet scales on his underside. He was the son of Amethyst and Nightshade, both his parents hardened veterans of combat. Twilight and his rider Karen, were still in training, but soon, they would be joining the ranks of the Knights. But right now, neither rider nor dragon were concerned with their training. They had the weekend off and they had decided to play Warhammer 40,000 with some of their friends. Twilight was currently occupied with putting together a Lemon Russ tank for his Imperial Guard army and the glue he was using seemed to have been perfectly designed to stick dragon scales together.
"Not that I have found." Karen answered, having a similar problem assembling a platoon of guardsmen. Both of them were getting incredibly frustrated as their hands grew increasingly sticky and glue covered. Twilight squirted another drop of glue from the tube onto the model and attached another piece. But, when he pulled his fingers back from it, they were once again joined by glue.
"Dammit!!" He shouted and separated his fingers once again. Fed up and grumbling to himself, he seized a solvent cloth and scrubbed at his scales, removing the last of the sticky residue. Looking down at the half finished tank, he sighed and capped the tube of glue. But this action only served to get more glue on his hand. Snarling at the persistent adhesive, he threw the tube across the room, uttering a dragonic curse. Karen looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a sudden idea hit him. He smiled and put a clawed hand out over the tank, accessing his magic. The familiar tingle of energy crawled across his fingers and the model pieces suddenly came to life, separating from their plastic sprues on their own and sealing together into a continuous piece of plastic as they found their places. "There. Finished, and without the damned glue."
"Twilight." Karen said in a warning tone. "We aren't supposed to use magic like that. We could get into trouble."
"It isn't hurting anything." He replied and waved his hand at the rest of the boxes of his unfinished army. Within moments, the boxes opened and the figures began to assemble themselves. Less than a minute later, a full army of soldiers stood drawn up in ranks and files alongside numerous vehicles. Twilight smiled and spoke to Karen once more. "It will be a forest battle right?"
She nodded and he waved his hand at his army. In moments, waves of color crisscrossed his army and they stood decked out in camouflage suitable to forest environments. Karen looked at the finished army, then at her own unfinished soldiers. When she looked back up, there was a mischievous gleam in her eyes. She put a hand out over her army as Twilight had done and her brow furrowed as she worked to access her magic. Because she was not fully trained yet, the task took a lot of effort, but it worked. A minute later, another army of guardsmen were standing fully assembled and painted.
"They look good." Twilight said and Karen nodded. A moment later, his purple reptilian eyes went wide. "I have got the best idea."
"What?" Karen asked and he shook his head, quickly gathering his new army into a satchel. His magic would protect them from harm during their journey. "Grab your stuff and come with me, I will show you what I mean."
"Okay." She said and Twilight led the way to an unused conference room. Another dragon and rider pair were already there, setting up terrain on tables. After greeting each other, Twilight and the other dragon stepped apart from their riders, speaking in rapid dragonic together, their conversation getting ever more excited. The other rider, a dark skinned youth named Malcolm, raised an eyebrow at Karen and she shook her head. She didn't know what was going on any more than he did. A few minutes later, another two dragon and rider pairs joined them, the dragons joining the private conversation while all the riders looked at each other in confusion. After a few more minutes, a decision seemed to have been reached and the dragons separated.
"Alright, everybody place your units for the start of the game." Twilight said, still not revealing what was going on. Eight armies were set down on the table top. Four huge orkish clans were lined up on the edges of the board with four companies of Imperial Guard set up in the center of the map, in a series of fortifications. Malcolm, probably the most experienced player in the game, started to tip over a box full of six-sided die, but Twilight spoke. "You can put those away, you won't need them."
"Are we not playing?" The rider asked and Twilight smiled at his confusion.
"Oh we are, just not like that." He said and touched the table top near to where he stood. The other dragons did so as well and sparks of magic energy crackled around their hands. For a moment, nothing happened, but then, all of a sudden, spreading out from the dragon's hands, a wave of energy rolled through the landscape. Where the wave touched, the landscape suddenly became exactly like a real landscape, albeit a small one. It looked as though the terrain had been transported from some other world, the grass and tree branches waving majestically in a light breeze. The moment the waves met in the center of the map, tendrils of magic energy surged up every figure on the board. And suddenly, instead of armies of figures made from plastic and metal, armies of flesh and blood troops milled about on the table, their plastic bases suddenly gone.
"Wow." Malcolm said, leaning in close to his orks as they brawled amongst themselves for position. "That is amazing! But how are we supposed to play like this?"
Twilight smiled and waved his hand in the air, conjuring a headset with a microphone from thin air and settling it on his head. The dragon tapped the mike and then spoke into it. "First Dragon Legion, Fall In!!" In an instant, the dragon's army formed up into neat ranks behind their fortifications, each soldier snapping smartly to attention. The flag in the hand of the company's color sergeant bore an uncanny likeness of Twilight in his dragon form curled around the Imperial Eagle on a background of cool light blue. His soldiers stood motionless for a moment, waiting for more orders, then Twilight spoke again. "By squad, man fortifications!"
His soldiers each snapped a smart salute, then swarmed into their trenches and bunkers, the tanks rumbling into positions behind them. The young dragon tapped the mike once more and then smiled at his fellow players. They were all looking at him in amazement and he waved his hand once more through the air. A headset appeared in the air in front of each of them and they reached out eagerly to take them in hand. The other Imperial Guard players repeated the orders Twilight had given and suddenly, the Orks started forward in a huge wave of green flesh. Twilight grinned and tapped his mike before speaking into his mike once more.
"Battery, prepare to fire." He said and the gunners manning the twin Basilisk Artillery pieces that were lined up behind his position scrambled about their vehicles, loading rounds into their cannons and raising the barrels into firing position. The dragon waited a moment and then spoke an order into his mike. "Open fire!!" With the boom of cannons, the battle began...
***
Lord Mikael strode along the corridor, headed for a workout room. His body was tense like a coiled spring and he needed to work out some of the pressure or he was likely to snap, a very bad event when one commanded magic. The dragon mountain was a busy place these days, for, in addition to the knights and dragons, soldiers of the various organizations that had sided with them had gathered there to train and serve as guards. He was particularly troubled today because Pierre LaRoche, the commander of the Ordre de la Chimera, had arrived with rumors that were flying all through Europe. Rumors that told of horrific events happening in Germany... The lord's thoughts were interrupted a moment later by a miniscule green skinned figure flying into the corridor from an open doorway to his right and hitting the wall, the magic that animated it fading as it fell to the ground. Amused, Mikael picked it up and looked at it. It was dressed in a few small pieces of armor and it held an oversized gun clutched in its grip. He recognized it as an Ork soldier figurine from Warhammer 40,000.
The lord turned and walked into the room where the diminutive soldier had come from and found a landscape that took up a full third of the room spread out across several table tops. It was of a wilderness area with a few buildings standing here and there. And right now, the landscape swarmed with soldiers. The action froze in place as he approached, a quartet of teenaged aspirants and a like number of young dragons who stood around the table in humanoid form looked at him with fear as if caught breaking the rules. All of the youngsters wore headsets with microphones, but what they were for was not immediately apparent. Despite the worried expressions on their faces, the lord smiled and lay the ork next to a shell crater near the edge of the table. He surveyed the carnage portrayed on the table with a bemused smile and picked up what was going on. An ork army of four clans appeared to have been attacking an Imperial Guard bunker line and ran afoul of a Basilisk artillery battery, one of the shells sending the ork flying into the hall.
"I think your orks are poorly prepared for this assault." He commented and a young black dragon with violet scales on his belly looked at him in amazement. "You have too many ork boyz to handle tanks."
"My lord, you play Warhammer?" The dragon asked and Mikael smiled.
"I used to play all the time. But never like this." He said. Peering closely to the table, he examined the landscape and smiled as a breeze once again kicked up around the bunkers. The trees and grass waved and he smiled upon seeing the trampled grass where the soldiers had run across it. Dirt had been scattered by the artillery strikes and a few fires burned slowly. Right now, the soldiers were frozen in their familiar poses and he stepped back from the table. "Don't let me stop you." The aspirants nodded and the soldiers on the table suddenly sprang to life, their plastic bases vanishing. Mikael watched with interest as the black dragon who had spoke to him spoke into his microphone.
"Third platoon, grenades and then fall back to the bunker line. Lancers, provide supporting fire." He ordered and a platoon of Imperial Guardsmen who were being badly mauled by ork fire tossed small grenades into a nearby mob and then turned and ran. While they retreated, a squad of storm troopers positioned in a building opened fire, the tiny, wire thin laser beams from their guns glowing ruby red as they covering their retreat. Mikael smiled and leaned against the wall watching as the eight young students directed their troops. The orks advanced despite withering fire from the guardsmen, and just when they were overrunning the outer defenses, the guardsmen threw an entire mechanized company into the fray, spear headed by a gigantic Baneblade tank. The battle was tough fought, but the orks were wiped out at last. When the battle was over, Mikael applauded, his smile broad.
"That was amazing." He said and the aspirants smiled.
"It was Twilight's idea to try it this way." The only female aspirant in the group said, nodding to the black and violet dragon that had been directing the infantry. The dragon bowed to the lord and he smiled.
"Well done Twilight. I must admit, I never thought to use magic this way. Very well done indeed. If you ever want to try your hand against me, let me know." The youngsters nodded and Mikael continued his walk to the workout room, some of the tension already gone from his body...
***
"Whew, I thought we were dead when he came around the corner." Twilight said, packing his army back into his satchel.
"Don't I know it." Malcolm stated, packing away the terrain. "Next time we play, we will have to invite him. I wonder what army he plays."
"I'm betting Tyranids." Turquoise, an aptly named blue-green dragoness said, "He seems the type."
"No, I would bet Tau." Twilight replied.
"How much?" The dragoness replied, a gleam in her eye.
"How about a turn on watch?" He offered and she nodded her assent. Karen was on her way out by this point and Twilight bid the others good bye to follow her. He came up next to her and she smiled at him. The pair dropped off their bags in her quarters and then headed for the stairway to the top of the mountain. As they walked, Twilight thought about his companion and smiled.
Most rider and dragon pairs were close, and rightly so, for they trained constantly together. But Twilight and Karen were different. They were closer than any other pair their age. By coincidence, Twilight had hatched at the exact same moment that Karen had been born and they were matched as a pair from the beginning. They were the fourth such pair in the mountain, but they were closer even than their fellows. From the beginning, they had felt a strange attraction for each other, an attraction that had led to their special relationship. When they were little, they had often slept cuddled up to each other. Their parents didn't mind that behavior because it encouraged the essential trust that a dragon and rider needed.
When they had grown up, and Twilight stopped being able to fit in the same bed as his rider, the pair had started to sleep apart, but they were still closer than any other pair. They did everything possible together, spending every moment they could in each other's company. They, like all the prospective knights, had first flown together when they were twelve, but again they were different. The night after their first flight, they had snuck out together and Karen had ridden bareback for the first time, and ever since the pair had been riding that way. The training instructors, though they discouraged knights from trying to ride bareback until much later in their training, had accepted the change and as Twilight had grown into his more adult size, the knighthood hadn't even bothered to make a new saddle for him. But now, when they were approaching the knighting ceremony, the two spent even more time together.
As Twilight examined his companion as they walked, his smile widened. Karen was slim and fairly muscular from their training, and she was extremely pretty. She was the daughter of two Knights and for a reason that was often debated, children like her were far fairer then normal human children; Twilight suspected that it was all the magic coursing through the Knight's blood. Karen's hair was raven black and her silvery eyes stared out of a face that was so perfect and beautiful that it looked as if it had sprung from a sculpture. Already, many of the male riders their age had been making overtures to her to start a relationship with them. But she had spurned every advance so far and Twilight had started to wonder why. And then, as Twilight thought this, a familiar giddy sensation spread in his heart. He shrank instantly away from his thoughts, afraid of the feeling. He knew what the feeling meant, but the fact that he was feeling it scared him, because he had a secret. The attraction he had felt for her since he had been born hadn't faded with time as everyone had expected. Instead it had grown into something that he knew he shouldn't be able to feel. He didn't just like her as his rider. He wanted her as his mate.
He had been told over and over for many years, ever since he had started to mature, that dragon mated with dragon and human with human. That was the way of things, so he shouldn't have been able to feel any such things for her. But he had often had fantasies and dreams about mating with her and he had always enjoyed them... Feeling the beginning of arousal, he clamped down on it and steered his thoughts away from the images forming in his head. If human males got embarrassed for becoming aroused in public, it was SO much worse for dragons, because dragons produced powerful pheromones when they became aroused and that would cause many more problems than just an erection did. He heaved a mental sigh and turned his thoughts away. But the voice of his fantasies had one more jab to throw at him before it was locked away. 'Maybe she spurned the advances of the others because she wants you.' The voice said and he shook his head slightly, dislodging the thought before it affected him.
The pair reached the Hall of Heroes below the mountain's peak a moment later and stepped out of the stairway, pausing before the statue of Juno. The pair stood in silence for a moment and then walked further into the gallery. The young aspirants in the mountain often came here, for it was a place of strange energy. The still air was filled with a strange reverence in that place, a feeling that visitors had sometimes described as the feeling one got when entering a cathedral. The companions walked along slowly, making as little noise as possible, pausing now and then before some of their favorite statues. There was Sunfire the Magewise; one of the first of new dragons and a daughter of the Dragonlord Argil. She was so named because she had pushed the boundaries of magic far beyond that of anything anyone had ever done before. And there was Sir Daelin Darkblade, named for the black bladed sword he carried. On the pair walked, stopping now and again to look on a statue, until they reached the end of the gallery and turned back towards the stairs. They stopped one last time in front of the statue of Juno and then continued up to the Aerie.
"I always like it in there." Karen commented as they passed the Golden Ring and the frigid air of the top of the mountain touched them. "If only it wasn't so stuffy."
"I know." Twilight stated, stepping up into the vast peak of the mountain, he smiled and his body grew suddenly, swelling in proportion until he was in his true form.
Stretching, he continued. "Fortunately, I know just the thing to cure stuffiness."
Karen smiled at her mount and climbed onto his shoulders, settled herself between his neck spikes. Twilight privately enjoyed the sensation of his rider climbing into position and considered moving around so she would take longer to get settled, but he held off, the action going against his nature. The moment she was settled, Twilight leapt upward into the air, his wings swept out to the side. With a few beats of his wings, the pair soared through an entrance in the walls, and out into the open sky...