A Shadow's Oath
The ancient shadow dragon Shade Nightclaw sat in his cave leaning against the wall in deep though the light of the dusk barely illuminated his dark body his black scales seeming to dim any light that got near it as his dull dark green belly scales showed his long tail resting behind him as his wings draped over him like a cloak his eyes closed in meditation when suddenly his ears perked up hearing the noise of small footsteps approaching the entrance of the cave as he he slowly sank into the shadows preparing to ambush the intruder and simply dispatch them in order to return to his thought though this plan was postponed a bit when he saw that the intruder was a small female human who couldn't be no more than 9 or 10 in human years which is barely a blink of time considering his almost six thousand years of life. He watched the small girl enter his cave clearly out of breath constantly looking over her shoulder as if someone was chasing her. This is was too much for the dragon's curiosity as he stepped from his shadowy hiding place merely feet from where the child was running towards as she slammed into the legs of his nearly seven foot frame looking up in sheer horror at what she saw.
"y..yo...you're S...Shade the Abyss Dragon" she barely made out looking up into the glowing emerald eyes of the large back dragon
"That's right little one and you are trespassing in my lair...now why would someone who knows me by name do something so foolish?" he said as he gazed down to her tiny form as it shivered in fear
"th...they...won't..won't stop chasing me...." she broke down into heavy sobbing rubbing her eyes in an expected child like manner
"who won't stop chasing you child?" the dragon asked her looking to entertain and false stories she might make up to escape him
"th...the village warriors...they are going to kill me sir they said so cuz...cuz this strange mark appeared on arm today..." she was still sobbing heavily knowing that her chances might have been better with the warriors knowing the horrifying tales of what this dragon has done in the past
"mark? what mark? show it to me girl.." the dragon kneeled down to inspect this "mark"
she sniffed and cried more but softer now not wanting to anger the dragon slowly rolling up her sleeve to show him what appeared to be a brand on her arm of a white dragon and a black dragon intertwined together see this caused Shade's eyes to go wide whispering to himself
"The Mark of the Twilight Dragon....it can't be but here I am looking at it with my own eyes"
the girl looked up to him her sobs growing fainter but still there "t..the what?"
he looked to the girl *it is a sign of a great change to come for this world that cannot be avoided but it cannot occur without the bearers of the Twilight Sigil like yourself..you are a very special person my child" the dragon's stern look softened some "what is your name girl?"
the girl looked in awe at what had just been explained to her as she looked to the mark then back to the dragon startled by the question "oh..m..my name? it''s....it's Setsuka..."
Shade gave a soft smile and nodded "it's a good name..well Setsuka as the Sigil Bearer you are in no safer hands than mine now I will watch over you as these events transpire" he patted her head walking to the entrance of the cave hearing the men approach and from the sound of it there were at least a dozen of them making the dragon sigh and grumbling to himself "and here I thought I would have a lazy day"
the soldiers of the nearby village followed the trail of Setsuka to the mouth of the cave not bothering to remember who's cave it was approaching the mouth at a full run barely having time to stop after seeing the dragon standing there in the entrance grinning. They quickly stopped and even the most battle hardened of them shook a little feeling the intense pressure of the shadow dragon's aura looking back to their commander for orders. The commander a man just short of being considered venerable stepped forward and spoke to Shade
"Dragon of the Abyss we have no quarrel with you as you must know we only want the girl" there was a slight shake in his voice as he tried to sound confident
Shade chuckled which sent chills down the spines of the soldiers "heh now why would a group of soldiers as well armed as you are be searching for a lone little girl?"
"She is an abomination that must be dealt with before..."
Shade cut him off there "before what? the prophecy is fulfilled and this world changes how the fates see fit? no I don't think I will let you have her....of course you could try to take her by force from me if you think you children have what it takes" he smirked at his last comment
the commander frowned looking back at his men then to the dragon "do not be so confident in your abilities dragon you are indeed powerful yes but we are the elder's elite guard and our skills are flawless even you could not take us all" the troop cheer proudly at their captain's words glaring at Shade
the dragon laughs loudly "oh really? the elite? heh I'm shaking in my scales then perhaps one of you brave men would like to test your luck hmm?" he grinned his eyes glowing brightly now
the commander roared out loudly "your arrogance will be the end of you this day dragon" he pointed at one of the soldiers in front of the group "Callahan!! show this drake what it means to be of the elite"
the man named as Callahan walked forward holding a large claymore in one hand with a sneer on his face as barked at the shadow dragon "I'm going to make a nice pair of boots out of y....."
the man's threat was cut short as Shade was suddenly standing back to back with the large human grinning licking the blood off his claws while Callahan barely had time to look back before his body began to fall into the many pieces that Shade had sliced him into leaving a bloody mess of gore at his feet the soliders arms still twitching the other soldiers recoiling in shock and terror having not even seen the dragon move the commander dumbfounded by this uncanny display of power "im...impossible" was all he had time to say before Shade the Dragon of the Abyss proceeded to dive into his men systematically slaughtering each of them as their screams of pain and horror filled the air and within seconds on the captain was left standing being held in the air around the throat by the claw of Shade looking deeply into his human eyes "that girl is under my protection now and should you come back with more men then I will not be as nice next time now go and tell your elders that" he dropped the man and turned around as the human scurried away like a rat back towards the village yelling curses and threats behind him as Shade waded through the mess he had made of the troop back to the entrance of the cave where he found a terrified Setsuka balling her eyes out having witnessed the terrible massacre this throwing Shade off a bit
"what is the matter child I got rid of your attackers you are safe now"
"y...you killed them..all"
"well yes if I hadn't then they would have tried to hurt you"
"I..don't care...killing...is wrong no matter what" she grabbed one of his blood soaked claws and rubbed it clean and looked up to him crying heavily "pl..please Mr. Shade never kill anyone again..please"
the dragon was baffled at this most odd begging looking down to the child as she tried to wipe the blood from his hand not understanding what he was feeling now as he watched her something very deep inside of him compelled him to agree to her request smiling down at her very warmly "all right Setsuka I promise that I will never kill again"
he had said this before even realizing it trying to figure out what inside his cold heart had made him do such a thing killing was in his nature and he actually derived much pleasure from it but for some reason this small girl's request had suddenly made him give that up. was it the seal she carried? no it was something more something more sincere that he had never felt before
"Now come let's let me get cleaned off and you something to eat for the night I know you must be hungry and you will sleep in my bed with me tonight until I can fix you something up later"
Setsuka happily nodded happy that the dragon had promised not to kill anymore holding his claw as they walked deeper into the cave helping him clean up and eating a very large meal considering her size and laid against his large form as he told her stories of his long life until she dozed off in the warm embrace of the large shadow dragon. Shade smirking as she slept against him "there is something special about your Setsuka"
Meanwhile back at the elders house the Commander of the elite troop had just finished giving his report on the events that had occured reporting his failure and the interference of Shade waiting for the elders repsonse to such events
"as you can see my lords there was little that I could do the dragon was too powerful"
The High Elder Mordikin nodded "yes commander Jaxas you did your duty and now that duty is over" he twitched his hand as a dagger in one fell swoop executed the commander before he even knew he was dead the assassin now standing on the other side of the room now her serpentine features obvious now in the light "failure will not be tolerated in these crucial times and now that that blasted shadow dragon is involved it makes things very hard on us...Sinistera do you think you can handle him?" the old man looked to the viper in the shadows again now who responded only with a hiss and a nod her fangs gleaming in the faint light in her grin "good you are commander of the elite corps now use them how you see fit we must end this quickly before too many are involved in this...this change will not happen as long as we are here and in power..." there was loud echo of agreement from the halls as the sun finally set on this most eventful of days....
End of Part One hope to have Part Two soon
this is my very first story post ever be gentle but honest please ^_^