FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"We're almost there, people!" I was leading quite a small horde of dragons. Rock was back of us, while all my thirteen little dragons were flying between us. Besides it seeming that only two dragons in such arrangement couldn't protect those children, an attacking dragon could be surprised by a taste of Thyamat's power. I entered the cave first, checking for any danger. After making sure it was secure, I called them in and allowed them to explore the cave. However, if anything happened, they should return instantly.

I turned into my fragile cat form, a form I haven't assumed in a long time, recovering my ability to walk in two feet. Don't get me wrong. It's just like riding a bicycle: you never forget, you just get rusty. After a little training to not have any shame, I walked alert outside of the cave. A few meters away, I could see someone coming. Green scales and, believe me or not, a hair composed of long feathers with a seemingly furious appearance, deep white pupils and iris with golden eyes made him rather different. I started to think that his eyes were just for me to find him.

"So you're Quetzalcoatl."

"Sorry, but... You're the Thyamat?"

"Actually, a Thyamat in training, I guess you could say. My name is Eliza and it's my pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine, shir."

"Oh come on. No need to get so formal around me, okay?" I grinned. "Please, let's get inside to chat more privately, in some ways, of course."

"What do you mean with that?"

"My children. Have you forgot?"

"Oh that. Okay then. If they don't intertwine with us..."

"Don't worry with that. I brought my mate to look after them."

He followed me inside and I introduced him to Rock, which made a quickly introduction, since some children were getting too far from the cave.

<Mom... Who is him?> Silverscale asked. Shi was curious as any child I ever seen; the difference is that shi haven't a year of life yet.

I thanked that shi was still small and took hir in my arms, caressing hir head. "This is Quetzalcoatl, darling. He's helping mom to solve a problem."

"Hello little one." he answered.

<He's weird...>

That comment let me embarrassed, as I looked to him chuckling. "Okay... Now, down to business. Everything seems just so coincident to me."

"I have nothing to do with whatever you was chatting when I entered in contact with you." He answered. "I got my information with Athena. She is one of the dragons of knowledge and was gathering numbers about the illegal hunting worldwide. As you may guess, as a dragon of knowledge, she made sure to build only true facts, thus being why it took so long..."

"So she already did what I thought in doing?" I got surprised. "And where can I find her?"

"Actually, you can't." Quetzalcoatl said. "She decided for herself to never meet another dragon which doesn't live among humans. She says that these dragons are growing wild and many just want to tear humans apart."

"Yeah... I guess I know some of those..." I answered. "But why would she be doing this research?"

"About our food, of course. Dragons need food to live as does humans. The difference is the time we can live without it. But without food, our children can't grow and we can't use our true powers as you know."

"Well... not actually..." I had to say "I'm still learning a lot of things."

"All dragons know that..."

"I haven't born as a dragon..."

That caught him off guard. Quetzalcoatl looked at me surprised before asking "You lived among humans?"

"Most of my life, actually."

He then thought before adding "Can you control your power? I mean..."

"Not to harm the humans... yes, I can do that."

<Mom? We're going somewhere?>

<I am. You aren't.> I answered <You will wait me there with your sire. And you behave!> I said, looking at the other children that were attacking Rock (more like hunting lessons I felt...).

<Don't you trust me?> Rock asked with a grin.

<I'm asking YOU to behave!>

I could hear all the children chuckling and even Quetzalcoatl... "May I call you Quetz?" I asked looking at him.

"I would prefer you calling me John, since we're going into the city talk to Athena herself." Quetz answered "But I wouldn't mind that."

I just nodded and he was guiding me to the city, directly to Athena's house. Imagine my surprise when I found out where she lived... A hotel not too far from my human house! A few blocks down the street and there we were. However, it seemed she didn't live alone. When she answered the door, Athena looked puzzled. "May I help you, John?"

"I guess you can help us all." Quetz answered. "This is Eliza and shi is the most interested person in your research."

"Most interested?" Then she looked in curiosity. "Oh, please... come inside..."

As we entered I noticed some 'writings' on the door frame. I waited until we were all inside and the door closed. "Were those..."

"Runes. Dragon runes to be more accurate." Athena answered my unfinished question. "I assume you never needed to use one of them?"

"No..."

"Anyway... let's get down to business. We have no time to lose." Athena said.

"I'm listening." Eliza sat on a sofa when offered on the living room.

"First of all, who are you?"

"I'm Eliza."

"Shi's the new Thyamat." Quetz said. "However, as shi said, shi was born as a human."

"Yeah, I remember seeing hir face around there..." Athena acknowledged.

"Indeed I lived not too far from there." I answered.

"It was Jonh... I mean Quetzalcoatl here which told you about it?"

"Yes. However, his timing was such that I was talking with my mothers about it... I mean... My dragon mothers... One of them being the Thyamat."

"You have... reborn two times?" Athena asked.

"Yes. The first to change into a dragon and the second to ascend to Thyamat." I answered a bit surprised since I thought the dragons of knowledge would be more... well...

"So you too fear for our lack of food." Athena said with some concern.

"Athena? Do we have visits?" asked a voice from inside the house, what I thought would be the rooms. It was a female voice, but I learned never to assume a thing.

"Yes, Bast... Come over here and meet the new Thyamat." Athena said.

"What? Shi's there?" I heard the sound of someone rushing to the living room.

Well... What I saw was a deep contrast: Athena was much more human like, I mean, human... No fur, no muzzle and no tail. Only a long and pitch black hair at mid of her backs. Her clothes greatly suggested Ancient Greek style, which wasn't much surprising. The newcomer, though, was a cat like I used to be, just that she dressed much more Egyptian-like. She had a vividly red mane and deep green eyes. I couldn't believe that in a single day in my life I had not only confirmed that gods do have existed, but also met three of them!

"So you're a Thyamat?" Bast asked with a grin. "Glad that you like cats!"

"Being born as one, was rather hard to choose another form besides this." I answered with a grin, then turned serious again, looking at Athena. "But please... Explain better what are our options or our doomed fate."

"Well... We have badly limited options actually." Athena started again. "But first, the data I collected. By the end of the millennium, dragons will start hunting humans. I know, we have barely started this millennium, but you know pretty well that for dragons, this is most irrelevant time."

"Yeah... I'm still getting used to this idea." I agreed.

"Humans' hunting habits are growing as do their numbers. Since the meltdown of the ice age, dragons haven't had the big animals we once fed upon, so we had to go for smaller preys. That led many dragons to hide among humans, a dragon in human form liberate less amounts of power, so they need less food.

"Also there's the aspect that many dragons always feared that the creatures which were evolving rather quickly among the years would start to hunt us down."

"Rather quick? Even for dragons, a million years can't be 'quick' evolution!"

"Not compared to the life of an individual." Bast answered. "But we had many clues about other dragons which have abilities so strong that they could even travel among planets. Don't get it wrong. Not even Thyamat hirself could make a travel this way. Dragons may hold their breaths longer, but they do need to breath."

"Are you telling me..."

"Don't be a fool..." Quetz was the one to look me in the eye. "Are you really believing that life as you know it came from nothing? Dragon history has enough information to pinpoint that what your science thinks created the very first cell ever is nothing but lie!"

"So how was born the first dragon?" I asked, trying to understand more about the origin of that magnificent species which I now belong.

"There are only one place with enough information for me to go and dig up that for you. However, no dragon can go there. Not anymore." Athena said.

"Where it is?"

Quetz looked at the other two in the eye. "Maybe shi have better luck? And besides, shi's just 26... Still has a long way between dragons. The Thyamat with the highest lifespan ever!"

Athena nodded. "Shi will need luck indeed. The City was lost long time ago..."

"What city?" I was getting inpatient.

"The Dragon City, of course. Ilnarya." Bast answered. "The ancients books hidden in the city's library holds knowledge beyond any dragon's lifespan. Not even the Thyamat before you could stand a chance against that knowledge."

"But the City's guard died long ago, in the war between the Dragon Goddess and the Dragon Demon." Athena finished. "With his death, the Dragon Demon's army had an advantage over the Thyamat's forces. However, the battle was finished two months later, when announced that a new Thyamat has been born. Not even the Dragon Demon has enough power to fight two Thyamats, for weaker the new one was."

"That history I've heard." I agreed.

Before I could ask another question, though, I was interrupted by Athena. "We're distracting from the main subject." she started. "My research is pointing something so deep into the society that nobody would ever find about and if they find, they wouldn't believe what they found. These hunting numbers aren't random: they are coordinated by an old enemy of the dragons. The Dragon Hunter Clan."

That seemed to got not only me by surprise. The reason also seemed to be different. My was about a group menacing to destroy themselves and all those they swear to protect, or so I believed, for the sake of killing their enemies. Bast and Quetz, though, seemed like a ghost had appeared in front of them.

"Okay... I knew that back at the Dark Age many knights get out 'dragon hunting'... But I never thought about a clan organized fighting against dragons."

"Not even us thought on that. At last not after we had destroyed them." Quetz answered, his face had that expression you do when you have a bad-tasting thing in your mouth. "Even I which liked to fight and protect humans was forced to fight them. They were going to fight me just because I was one of 'the bad guys'."

"That's why my digging took so much time." Athena said. "Even I was reluctant to the fact that they may be alive. But they are. Right now I'm working on track their heads, so dragons could deliver a precise attack instead random killing humans and causing the power heads change and it get even more time in war."

"But you can do that without using your dragon powers?" I asked.

Athena chuckled. "My power lies on my intelligence. _Any_one could have my powers. I just have more time to develop my potential, that's all."

"Sorry... forget that..."

"Anyway, I got your mind, so I can send you my progress." Athena said. "Remember... don't do anything stupid before talking to me."

"I will try..." I agreed with a grin. "But may we change subjects now? I'm curious to know how you were turned into Gods..."

"Well... that's a tale which is different for each of us." Bast answered with a grin. "In my case, I was traveling , knowing what nowadays is called 'Ancient Egypt'. When randomly walking around, I heard voices from a temple. Later I learned it was a temple for my grandsire Amon, but that's not what is important. Inside the temple, the Pharaoh himself had his wife ready to give birth, but if nobody helped her, both she and the baby would die.

"I rushed to them. They were praying for my grandsire, but I had no intent on becoming their goddess, I just wanted to help. When they saw me, the priests tried to take me away. Back at that time, I had a human form, like Athena here, but when they insisted in not allowing me to help, I decided a life was worth risking the dragon secrets. I turned into this same form I'm now, and the surprised priests decided I was a miracle from their god Amon.

"You must understand that my powers lies in healing ability and body manipulation, so when I touched the Pharaoh's wife's body, I started healing whatever sickness she and the baby had and in the meanwhile, I helped her both with supporting words and by helping her body contract and push in the right times. When not only she delivered without further complications and was healed, that Pharaoh ordered to build a temple in my name. Since then, the goddess of fertility has a cat face in Egypt."

"Many gods' stories are like that." Quetz chuckled. "We were just walking and then everything explode in our face. My case, though, was a rather sad one. When visiting the territory of the Aztec, I accidentally ran into another dragon's territory. He was territorial and came against me with everything. Sadly, I control lightning and storms, so when I lost temper and give myself to the fight, everything they saw was a huge winged snake causing storms and lightnings to attack and defeat his opponent. When the fight finished, I saw them bowing to me in respect, since the storms had died.

"They had saw what I could do. But they didn't feared me. They respected me. And when they asked what I could do for them, I said that nothing was needed. I was asked to protect them and their people, but my answer was no: dragons could not intertwine within humans. I do visited regularly, bringing some heavy rains when I was furious and lighting when I shouted to someone. But I never wanted to be their god."

I chuckled. And does I asked to be a dragon goddess? I wanted to ask. "Well... That was fun... and explicative. I will try finding your lost city, Athena. But I can't promise anything."

"I understand that." Athena agreed.

"I must go now. My children are waiting me to go home." I said walking to the door.

Athena was quicker, though, and opened it to me. "Visits shouldn't open the door when they're parting. Some cultures says that if they do, they never returns."

I grinned. I heard that a time or two before. But after that, I rushed back to the beach. It was afternoon, and our visit was synchronized with the time when most people were working, so the children could play in the water under their sire's watchful gaze.

As soon as I approached, I was assaulted by a bunch of little dragons, all of them jumping, hugging and kissing, or trying at least. We've played some more before I turned into my Cat-Dragon form and in the same formation as we came, we returned home. Now I had some pretty bad news to tell my family.