FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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CHAPTER 38

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I opened my eyes and was freezing cold. The memory of the demon dragon made me jolt. I rolled over onto my back and found myself laying on the snowy ground. No sign of any giant, demonic dragons or of the outpost.

"What the...??!?!"

I looked round and saw the entrance to the mine. When did I get here?

My heart still hammered hard in my chest, my scales crawled at them memory of them being burned by the flames of the demon dragon. The burning sensation I realised was my flesh burning from the icy bite of the cold. I drew on my nen instinctively. I sighed as the heat of my nen coursed through my veins, allowing myself another sigh of relief as I found myself able to draw on my fire nen once again. It stung like hell, but was just as equally satisfying as it was painful as my nen drove the cold from my body.

I stood up and headed towards the mine, eager to get out of the cold wind for a few moments to allow my nen to warm my body. As I took the first step I froze. It felt like I was being watched! I spun round to try and spot whoever was watching me.

I saw little more than rocks and snow. I stood there staring at the landscape for a while before giving up. But I still couldn't shake the feeling of someone watching me. I quickly made my way towards the entrance of the mine, feeling a little better once I was inside. I was happy to see Kassandra a short ways inside, talking to a Zangarian. I was happy to note that this drake didn't look like me.

"What the fuck took you so long?!" Kassandra snarled. "Pay him so we can get back please!"

"Sure, sure." I huffed.

Silently grateful that everything seemingly was back to normal. But what the hell was that I just experienced? A dream? It was vivid, it had seemed so real... and I don't remember having fallen asleep. If I'd laid out there for much longer I'd have frozen to death!

"You okay?" The Zangarian asked.

"Yeah..." I lied as I handed him the pouch of coins Feun had given me. "Just a little tired is all."

"Okay." He said, not sounding totally convinced. "Well here you go!"

He motioned to a sack behind him. I ignored the burning sensation in my muscles as my nen worked the cold from my body. I grabbed sack of ore and hefted it up onto my shoulder. It was heavy, but nothing I couldn't handle.

"Lets get out of here!" Kassandra moaned and turned to leave.

I nodded at the Zangarian and began to follow her. Once again our journey was made in silence. Which allowed me time to mull over what I had experienced. It had to have been a dream... there was no other explanation. But that didn't help explain how I ended up at the mine. Had I passed out as I reached the mine? Or did I sleep walk here? I don't recall having sleep walked before, never waking up somewhere I hadn't when I'd gone to sleep, but such things where not unheard of. But they were still unusual.

I just tried to push it from my mind. I wouldn't reach any answers, at least not any that made sense. I've had countless nightmares with those eyes before... but for the first time it felt like I had actually come in contact with the beast they belonged to.

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After we dropped off the ore to Feun, I was going to head to the dojo to practice. But Feun seemed to have different ideas. Much to my annoyance, and I could hardly refuse with how insistent he was being about the whole thing, and it was a nice gesture. He insisted that he treated me to lunch, since I had refused any payment for the favour of collecting the ore for him.

He was much to busy to take me himself, or so he claimed, so he got Kassandra to take me. Kassandra grudgingly agreed. She would not refuse her grandfather, that much was obvious. So upon Feun's command she took me to his favourite eatery, one that I was scarily familiar with... Darcy's.

I had not taken more than a couple of steps into the place when I saw a plump, large breasted dragoness hurtle towards me at surprising speed. I managed to brace myself as she collided with me and hugged me with rib crushing strength.

"Malakye! It's so good to see you sweety!"

"Hi... Darcy." I huffed.

Thankfully Darcy released her vice like hug and took a couple of steps away and smiled sweetly at me, before noticing Kassandra who stood a couple of feet away, watching the scene unfold with a confused look.

"My, my, my!" Darcy grinned. "What a pretty girlfriend you have!"

I gulped nervously as I saw Kassandra's pale blue scales tinge with a red hue. My heart skipped a beat as I feared that Kassandra was about to become enraged.

"Uh... she's just a friend actually!" I insisted.

"Oh? Why so defensive? She's definitely a looker!" Darcy grinned. "I bet all the guys will be jealous of you with a looker like that on your arm!"

"N-n-no! Really... we're not an item." I stuttered nervously, not able to bring myself to look at Kassandra, afraid of the murderous rage I may see in her eyes.

"Fine, if you insist!" Darcy sighed. "But you two make a cute couple, and you'd better not hang about! Girls like her don't stay single for long!"

"S-sure." I smiled, trying to appease the relentless Darcy. "S-so... what's on the menu today?"

As Darcy reeled off the menu I dared to look at Kassandra and was relieved to find her calm. Once Darcy finished Kassandra calmly, if a little ominously, ordered her food and began to walk towards a table at the back. I ordered and followed her. Darcy promised to bring our meals to us and let us be as she hurried back to her kitchen.

I sat across from Kassandra, who stared at the table top blankly. She was definitely not herself right now. I wonder what's wrong? I remained silent as I watched her. She seemed to be lost in her own little world. I took a couple of moments to build up my courage to ask her what was bothering her, afraid of the potential torrent of verbal abuse that could follow. As I opened my muzzle to talk Darcy arrived.

"Here we go!" She sang happily as she placed our respective meals in front of us. "Do enjoy!" She grinned, giving me a not so subtle wink before she pranced away.

"Uh..."

"This looks nice." Kassandra said softly, as she stared at her perfectly baked meat pie.

The pastry baked to perfections, a wonderful golden brown. Darcy had even baked the likeness of a petalled flower into the top.

"Y-yeah. It sure does." I smiled.

Glad that she seemed to have come out of what ever funk that had been bothering her for the moment. I decided not to push the issue. I looked down at my own delicious smelling pie.

We ate in silence. A pleasant, comfortable silence. Lost in our own little world together. Despite the noise of the other patrons, I felt content like this. And couldn't help but smile as Kassandra smiled softly as she ate. Despite everything that I could say about Darcy, there was one thing that would remain true despite everything else, she knew how to cook an amazing pie!

"Thank you for the meal Darcy!" I grinned as I paid for our meal with the coin Feun had given me for it.

"It was a pleasure sweety! Make sure you come back soon!" She gave me another hug, less bone crushing this time thankfully.

"Thank you for the meal." Kassandra bowed her head respectfully.

"I meant what I said before you know." Darcy grinned. "You two make a cute couple."

I felt myself blush and after a glance at Kassandra I could see her blushing as well. We were both taken aback by the comment. Kassandra didn't seem to take offence, thank Asurmen.

"T-thanks Darcy..." I chuckled nervously. "We gotta go now!"

"Bye!" Darcy gave an overly elaborate wave as we walked away.

As I usually did I gave a sigh of relief as we passed through the doorway of Darcy's establishment. She was sweet, but a little overbearing.

"I can see why grandfather raves about her pies." Kassandra said suddenly.

"Darcy sure knows how to cook!" I grinned. "I'm stuffed!"

"I should head back to grandfathers shop."

"You want me to walk back with you?"

"Why?" She scoffed. The comment sounding less angry and more amused at the prospect.

"I don't know..." I laughed, rubbing the back of my head. "We've spent the whole day together so far..."

"And the night!"

"Yeah... the whole day and night together..." I chuckled. "I'm surprised you haven't kicked my ass yet... or told me to get lost cause you're sick of the sight of me."

Surprisingly she didn't say anything, despite the obvious opportunity for a snide comeback. She just remained silent as we walked casually back to Feun's shop.

"Hey look it's Malakye!"

I stopped and turned to the voice I heard say my name and saw a group of young dragons, seven in all, three of them I recognised as members of Aceh's dojo. They were all roughly around the same age; ten winters old.

"Hey guys!" I waved as they ran up to us.

"He doesn't look all that tough!" One of the older ones said.

"Nu-uh! He's super tough!" One dragon I recognised as Reece, the dragon I met in the changing room the other day. "He can beat anyone!"

"Hey now!" I chuckled. "What's all this about!"

"Reece was saying how awesome you are!" One of the other young drakes said.

I didn't miss the fact that Reece had suddenly gotten all embarrassed all of a sudden. The boy unable to look me in the eye and shifted nervously,

"Well he is!" Reece insisted.

"Yeah... but he's not the strongest! Tau'ruc is way stronger than him!" One of the other drakes said.

I felt a slight pang to my pride at the comment, but I couldn't exactly disagree. Tau'ruc was an amazing warrior. I hadn't yet had the opportunity to go up against him in an all out fight yet, but I'd like to think my chances were fair.

"Hey I know you..." One of the other drakes said, pointing at Kassandra.

"Don't you know it's rude to point?!" Kassandra scowled.

"Yeah! You're Kassandra!" The young drake continued, unphased by Kassandra's scowl. "I hear you beat the warriors all the time."

I chuckled a little. In the past few months Kassandra had been allowed to practise with the warriors as a sparring partner. Lets just say Kassandra's reputation as a hard ass had grown since then. Only a pawful of warriors even have a chance against her, and even then that was when they were allowed to use nen. I had heard that it was my fathers way of lighting a fire under the warriors tails. He knew that they would hate being beaten by a female. His hope was that it would drive them harder during training. But I constantly worried that it would lead to another incident like before.

"I bet you he couldn't beat Kassandra!"

"Sure he can!" Reece jumped to my defence. "Tell them!"

"Well... I have beaten her..." I admitted reluctantly.

"Oh really?!" Kassandra scoffed.

Oh fuck!

"Well..." I turned to face the now angry dragoness. "I did... didn't I?" I asked nervously.

"You got lucky!" She snorted.

Fuck... just when things were going so smoothly. I just had to shove my foot-paw in my maw didn't I?

"Ohh... sounds like a rematch!"

"Rematch! Rematch! Rematch!" The young drakes all chanted, earning us a few looks from the crowd around us.

"Look... I really..."

"A rematch eh?" I turned to the new voice.

It was Tristen! And with him was Laguna and Roxis.

"Hey Malakye!" Laguna grinned.

"Hey guys..." I said nervously. Fully aware of Kassandra giving me the death glare behind my back.

"So you two gonna fight again or what?" Tristen asked with a grin.

Thanks a bunch Tristen!

"I think we should." Kassandra snarled.

"Hey! Wait now!"

"You're not scared are you Malakye?" Tristen mocked.

"Uh... no... but..."

"Then this is so on!! AWESOME!" Tristen grinned and rubbed his paws together in obvious anticipation. "HEY EVERYONE!" He yelled to the crowded marketplace.

"Tristen!" I growled but he paid no heed.

"WHO WANTS TO SEE A FIGHT BETWEEN MALAKYE AND KASSANDRA?!"

The crowd around us seemed to take an interest in the conversation. Suddenly we seemed to be surrounded by dragons eager to see a rematch between Kassandra and myself. I felt like kicking myself. I really did not want to fight Kassandra! But from the look in her eyes I'd say she really wanted to.

I cursed silently to myself.

Suddenly we were being escorted, by a large crowd of dragons some of whom were making bets, the crowd was growing bigger as word of our pending fight spread like wildfire through Zangar. Just what the hell had happened in the last ten minutes that had lead to this? Someone had suggested that we use the nearby arena, and from the way a crowd was growing we were going to need it.

"I don't believe this is actually happening..."

"Relax man!" Tristen smiled as he wrapped an arm over my shoulder. "You can take that bitch!"

"Tristen..." I heard Roxis groan.

I had to smile. They tried to hide it, but everyone knew that they were an item. Their behaviour reminded me a lot of how Jason and Michael were together. Any smile I had disappeared though, as the metal gates of the arena came into view. The realisation that this was really going to happen washed over me, filling me with nerves.

I remembered how badly beaten I'd been after our first encounter. Despite managing to scrape by with a technical win, I had suffered some pretty painful injuries. Not to mention how painful her punches were. I still didn't know how she did it, each one of her punches causing a piercing, lingering pain that just would not go away.

I had asked Aceh about it once, he had heard of such techniques but was completely unfamiliar with them. Attacks that focused on the energy flow around the body, rather than causing physical damage. They were techniques designed to combat those that could use nen. Essentially levelling the playing field for those who didn't possess the gift.

When I had fought her before I had no idea how to use my nen, or even how to summon it. This time however I could. If the technique she uses was indeed one designed to attack the flow of nen round the body, then if I tried to use my nen I could be in deep trouble.

Over the crowds cheering there was low, rumbling bellow that echoed through the tunnels. Everyone stopped, everyone fell quiet, and a moment later the bellow sounded again. I felt my blood run cold as I realised what that noise was, several members of the crowd realised as well and began to panic. It was the alarm.

Zangar was under attack!