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The pungent smell of fear and dragon blood still Hangs in the air As I pace Towards the center of the cavern. my feet slip over bones with each step but I forced myself to ignore them. “Just focus on what you have to do” if I didn’t make my kill soon I might never see my brother again.
“Crea, your here early.” I spin around to face my mentor. Her violent eyes glow from her place near the entrance of the cavern.
“I need to get this done quickly.” I don’t tell her why. I’m not supposed to be attached to anyone. Not even her son. Her tail flicks Menacingly
“Not to quickly or it might be your the one being eaten.” I feel an impulse flatten back my ears at Karkahs worlds but I resist it.You are not afraid. The words find grounding in my mind but I shake them off. I don’t need to Hypnotize myself.
“Are you ready?” Karkahs voice echoes in the cavern. I nod.
“I will tell the gate keeper” she disappears down the Corridor and I’m left momentarily alone. I shiver. Force my tail smooth. My mouth itches with anticipation. I stair up at the Small skylight, trying to focus on the far away stars. Finally, I hear the sound of stone grading together. My attention snaps towards the far side of the cavern. I watch the door there slowly slide upwards Muscles tensed. Before the door is fully open a blur of red flys from it spewing hot white fire. my wings beat the air and I get off the ground just in time to ovoid burning my ankles. Fire dragon. My favorite. It lounges at me and I bolt towards the Stalag tights. The dragon tries to follow me but it doesn’t have room to spread its wings. I anticipated this and when it falls to the ground. it gives me just enough time to duck into a crevice without being seen. Blood pulses in the quicks of my claws. If the dragon stands on to legs it will reach me. Before It finds me I will strike. I hear the dragon scream in rage and I can hardly blame It. This is not how hunting is supposed to be.
A moment later it’s scarlet face comes into view. It looks at me with its huge golden eyes and opens its mouth to spew. I kick of from the crevice and shoot towards it. my claws dig into the snout my feet kick rapidly at air. I feel the heat raise over my legs. Fire is coming. My claws scramble over the blood colored scales. I need to clime. Fast. The dragon rears back and one of my arms is wrenched loose. It slams into the wall and I slam jaw first into its face. This time when my claws find grip my feet aren’t dangling over the dragons mouth. I kick. My talons dig under the dragons scales and carve into its flesh. Venom pours into the wound. The dragon screams In pain and spreads it’s wings towards the skylight. The hole isn’t nearly big enough for it. If it beats it’s wings we will both be crushed. I try to dig my claws out but before I can the dragon sways and it’s legs buckle. it thunders to the ground and our bodies collide. I blink awake. I’m still laying on the dragons face. It’s hart isn’t beating. Mine is thundering. I’m alive, but there’s something else I needed to do… I struggle to focus and then I remember. Kole, my brother, has he left yet? I try to sit up but my shoulder burns with pain. It must be out of place again. Did it happen when my arm was wrenched loose or when I was slammed into the dragon for the second time? It doesn’t matter. It will take time to fix and I might only have a minute. I cradle it in a wing and find my feet, trying to make the posture look natural. Karkah is coming towards me stepping carefully over the bones. I see approval in her eyes.
“Vary well Crea, the people will feast tonight” I step down the dragons massive wing. She’s right, its a huge dragon. In only a matter of minutes the bone workers will come and carve every scrap of meat from its skeleton.
“You have done good work, now come, you have somewhere to be.” Karkah terns and walks away expecting me to follow. Could she mean kole? She must know her son has been called away. and that he is like a brother to me, even if In raising me she was never my mother. I give my wings a beat to catch up and instantly regret it. I land lightly by Karkahs side but can’t hide my
Expression of pain. She glances side ways. “Are you hurt?” I consider my options, if I show her my dislocated shoulder she might take me to the medic and kole will leave before I can say goodbye. but I’m not sure I can lie to her, even with hypnotism.
“It’s my shoulder” I admit, when I open my mouth my jaw aches and I remember smashing it into the dragons hard scales. “But it’s not bad, it can wait till tomorrow.”
“Good” Karkah nods approvingly “your father is already waiting”
my father? What did he have to do with kole? My hart sinks and I realize that’s not where we’re going. We reach the entrance of the cavern and tern left. We’re going to the dining hall.
The first time I dined with my father I was six, he told me I would be starting battle training. The next time he wanted me to practice it on live dragons. After that it was learning to hypnotize, attack humans, speak their language, read minds, and fight without armor. The vary sight of this passageway makes my skin crawl. The walls feel like their pressing in on me. I tuck my wings in tighter and look up, the sealing is hundreds of feet above me. here however there’s barely room for me and Karkah to walk side by side. She moves behind me as the passage tightens. The only light comes from our glowing eyes, it is just enough for me to see by.
After several minutes the passage way starts to open up. in front of me is a huge door made from stone and intricately carved with a Sean of faylines eating a dragon. I fold my hands over my back nervously as Karkah slides a key into the lock. I force my ears to straighten.
“I trust you can find your chamber on your own?” I nod my stomach twists. She is leaving me. The door swings open. I step into the dining hall, it’s exactly like I remember it. huge with nothing in it except the table set for two, chars, and dragon oil lanterns casting everything with a red hue. My father is sitting alone at the head of the table. I take my place next to him careful to keep my posture perfect. ears up head held high wings tilted slightly back.
“I hear you had another success in the arena” his voice is low and smooth. I nod. My jaw disagrees.
“you’re twelve out of thirteen I believe” another nod. I remember the only dragon I couldn’t kill. Small and bright blue it hadn’t looked like a fire dragon. Ten minutes into the fight it’s constant blasts of bright blue fire aimed at the ceiling as much as at me had melted the skylight, a hole just big enough for it to escape.
“Next time you will do something a little differently” I knew this was coming, what will it be? Fighting two dragons at once? A dragon and it’s rider? A human? I brace myself for the worst.
“Your training is complete.”
That is not what I expected. Did he mean I could actually fight in the war now? Then I could be kole’s fighting partner, I could protect him. My stomach crawls with a mixture of fear and hope.
“I meant to give you more time to work on fighting humans themselves, but your needed urgently and I know your ready. “
Ready for what? The army? Or is there something more? I look my father in the eye for the first time since I sat down. He stares back unwaveringly.
“Cria, do you know what I’ve been training you for?”
My mind reels, Ive always assumed the training was just to keep me alive, The things I would need to survive and become his heir. If that’s not the case then what have I been trained for?
My father seems two gather my uncertainty. Did he read my mind or have I not been guarding my expression? Ears up eyes up. You’re heir of the Faylines, you’ve have to look like it
“Really Cria? Battling dragons without armor, speaking human, hypnotizing? I even had you taught to use a human sword at one point. You never guessed what I was going to have you do?
My hart beats like a dragons wings. Dose he mean what I think he dose?
The terrible question is delayed by a servant who sets an ivory try holding a dragon hart and two glasses of blood on the table. Despite myself my mouth waters, I haven’t eaten anything but bone meal in days. I hastily pull the battle cuffs of my wrists, resisting the urge to stretch out my thumbs. My father slices into the meat with a claw, he waits for the servant to vanish before speaking again.
“Your going to go into the Guardian force pretending to be a human”
My hand freezes, claw half way into the bloody dragon hart.
“But I’m not a human! Won’t they notice I have claws and wings and a tail?! The worlds slip from my mouth before I can stop them.
My fathers eyes flash.
“Cria! Silence! I know it’s possible to fool the humans because we’ve done it before, do not doubt my ability to mask your appearance.
“Yes father.” I force my ears up. and finally put the slice of hart in my mouth. It oozes with blood still warm from being alive. My head is spinning. Who else had to do this mission? What happened to them and if it worked so well why are we all still stuck in a cave starving to death?
I don’t know how to ask the dozens of questions swirling in my mind without letting myself slip so I wait, watching my father desperately.
“When Me and my twin were children the humans began to pillage the dragons from this land, by the time we were twenty the great famon had started.” I know that everyone is born with a twin, but I’ve never heard my father mention his before. “People tried to eat other meat, deer, fish even plants but it was futile. We need dragons to survive. Or parents died, so did many others. we knew we had to fight back.”
“And that’s when the war started?” I guess. ”what does it have to do with pretending to be human?”
“Do you remember the legend of the Faylines who unite under one mind two defeat the dragon queen? I hesitate. Why is he bringing up a children’s story to explain a dangerous mission?
“Yes”
“The story isn’t real but I believe it is possible.”
“Possible for a huge dragon to be the mother of all other dragons?” This doesn’t seam feasible.
My fathers eyes hold a perplexed expression. He puts another peace of meat in his mouth.
“No, possible for the king of Faylins to unite there minds as one. To control them” my ears perk up.
“What?”
In the legend any Faylin from the royal bloodline could control there people, but only if they had ever healed them with their anti venom. That claimed them as our people.
I glance at my thumb claws, they have never been anything but an annoyance to keep out of the way in a fight. never have I had to actually use my anti venom.
“You will soon” my father reads my mind. “Humans can also be controlled.”Slowly I make sense of this fact and the pieces of the conversation begin to make sense. Please no. Please let me be wrong.
“You want me to go into the enemies forces pretending to be a human and inject everyone with anti venom so that you can control there entire army? I wait for him to say no. This will never work, the idea is based off a fairly tale.
“Yes, that is exactly what my twin tried to do, but you will not fail like she has” It takes a moment for the terror to sink in. No no no no no no no. My pulse races and my wing tips start to shake like bats coming out of hibernation. Just single handedly defeat the same enemy that the entire force of faylins have failed to defeat in two decades. It’s not that hard Cria. You can kill a dragon what else do you need?
My father grabs me by the shoulders to steady me. I cry out in pain but he seems not to notice.
“Your not a traitor are you?”
Dose he mean to say that in fearing my mission I show rebellion? I shake my head fiercely.
“Then you have succeeded in the one place my sister failed. He lets go of my shoulders and takes a step back.
I stair. His twin was a traitor? At least I could do better than that, even if I die instantly. A drop of water drips from the ceiling onto my cheek, I wipe it away with a wing shoulder so my father doesn’t think I’m crying.
“Ok,” I push away my scrambled emotions and focus on the important questions.
“How are you going to disuse me?” I try not to sound doubtful. I know that Faylines can learn to mask apprentices, make shadows, things that aren’t there. But it’s one of the most energy consuming forms of our magic. How can anyone keep that up for so long? I might be with the humans for moons. My pulls something from his cloak pocket. It’s a tiny carving of a dragon, made of some greenish stone and hanging on a strap of leather.
“Me and my twin spent months putting our magic into this stone. The warriors in our tribe helped two as much as they could , everyone did. “
I realize how hard even the tiniest bit of magic must have been for someone like kole who have no royal blood. My hart pangs for them. This dragon must have been important to make.
“We poured everything we had into giving it enough cloaking ability to disguise my sister, two keep her safe.”he hands me the green dragon and I hold it carefully so my claws don’t scrape it.
“How did the magic not escape from it? My father eyes me carefully
“I see you’re teacher hasn’t taught you vary much about magic. it can’t escape its just energy it’s trapped in the jade. Try it on, you’ll see.
I hesitate for a moment before laying the Leather strap over my neck. I brace myself to suddenly turn into a human But nothing happens. My father has a strange expression on his face.
“Look at your hands” I look, my claws are completely missing. I swivel in panic to look for my wings, knocking over my chair. There gone. I reach for them. My hands find smooth warm features and my wings feel smooth hard talon. There still there I realize, just invisible.
“The enchantment doesn’t protect you from being felt so you’re going to have to keep your wings tucked in.” My father advises.
I nod and tuck my wings together. They fold up surprisingly small when I press them to my back. My shoulder burns from the pressure.
My father seams satisfied. He takes a sip of blood. I tip my chair right side feeling foolish. At least my father seems to understand. Is that how his twin reacted? Don’t compare yourself to her, your not like her. I sit down suddenly exhausted. My muscles ache. The food sits in front of me tauntingly. I’m more tired then hungry but I realize I won’t be able to leave entail it’s gone so I try to eat. My jaw stings.
“Cria” my fathers voice holds some compassion at last. “I see that you are tired, are hurting. Go now and rest.” I stand up gratefully and nod my thanks.
“Tomorrow you will leave for there kingdom, you must sleep well tonight.”
I nod less gratefully. Why dose everything have to be happening right this minute? Im overwhelmed the ground tilts as I leave the dining hall. Safely outside the door I lean egenst the cave wall to steady myself. it is smooth and cool on my invisible wings. I slip the jade dragon of and place it in my pocket. I don’t need any guards to kill me because they think Im a human. It occurs to me that kole is definitely gone by now. When will I see him again? I might spend mounth as, even years as a guardian. Can kole survive that long without me to fight with him? Without any venom in his de-formed claws? Faylins are supposed to have a twin. We’re not supposed to go on dangerous missions by ourselves. I tilt my head up to fight back my tears. Stay strong Cria. You’re people need you. My knees shake but I finally fight back the urge to cry. Crying isn’t what a warrior dose. I step away from the wall and walk towards my chamber. Head up ears up wings tilted slightly back.
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