This idea was originally suggested to me by my best friend online and in real life, dreamcatcher shadow AKA Cuppie. I like taking on challenges, after all :) Don't worry, I will still be working on my others stories, haha. This just seemed like an interesting idea. I tried writing more of Green Eyes for a little while, got to a slowish part like three pages in, and stopped for the time being. Hopefully I will get back to that one soon enough. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks again for everyone who has been reading my stories, and thank you all so much for kindly reviewing! I hope this series will warrant your wonderful reviews as well? If not, it's been fun writing it anyway!
I'm not going to say too much right now...my head is hurting, my papaw is in the hospital, and there's a bad fight breaking out between two sides of our family, and my appendix is still hurting but I can't do anything about it. So yeah, life in general? Pretty damn suckish at the moment, but hopefully things will turn back around soon!
Disclaimer: Yeah...read my general one...on profile...but yeah, don't own anything...sorry...
General Warnings: Slash, M/M, yaoi, whatever you want to call it; dragons; fire; heights; etc...
Anywho...let's start this story, shall we?
Onward! ...to begin!
Dragon's Blood
First in the Dragon 'verse
Summary: AU. Dragons (yes, this story involves dragons! Be warned) and humans have been at war for as long as they can remember. There is a peace between them right now, but even that is sure to not last, and one half-breed, Dean Winchester, knows it. As a half-dragon/half-human person, he gets to live the best of both worlds...until his eighteenth birthday. Afterward, all hell is going to break loose on the world, and he may be the only one who can stop it. Dragon story tied together with a plot, mainly. Dean/Cas slash. (Horrible summary, I know, but I'm very tired)
Chapter One: Flying Free
The night was wide open. Crimson red wings, filled with soft red-orange feathers, spread out across the night sky as a man stood on the edge of a small cliff, which looked out over the lake. Water lapped at the shore far below, clinging to the cliff walls. The man attached to those wings grinned as he released a yell of joy and jumped off the cliff, spreading his wings out to either side of him. He dove downward and then pulled up before he hit the water, barely balancing over the rippling waves as he laughed to himself and pulled up, climbing higher and higher in the sky. The wind slid across his wings, disturbing his soft feathers and echoing through him joyously. With a whoop of glee, he evened himself out in the night sky, far above the cliffs, practically in the clouds. He almost felt like he could touch the sky, like he was one with the stars.
The skies had been cleared for those like him for some time now. It was part of the pact the humans had made with them, and in return, the war was stopped. It was peaceful, for the most part, but even he could tell there was storm brewing on the horizon, for both human and dragon alike.
Yes, that was what he was - a dragon. Well, technically speaking, a half-dragon, force-fed dragon blood when he was born. Given up for adoption at the age of three, he'd been taken in by one of the Trusted, or one of the families the dragons trusted to raise their offspring, or at least the half-breed ones. Dragons were real, but they were different than what those myths and legends suggested. Well, technically speaking, there were dragons like that. But not him.
He didn't even look like a dragon. Save for the wings, of course, but he could hide them when and if he pleased. And the fire in his eyes, but he could hide that as well. The heat, thought, he could do nothing about that. The heat was there to stay, as he was a dragon of fire, said to have been forged in the fiery pits of hell. He had never met the owner of the blood he'd been given, the dragon who had turned him, but he wasn't going to dwell on it.
Not on a night like this, when the skies were so freely open. Not when he could see the ground far below and there were only a rare few clouds out tonight. Not when he felt so light, like he could do anything, like he was on top of the world. Flying always left him feeling like this, and it was one of his favorite sensations. The wind ruffling his feathers on his wings, echoing through his short-cropped hair…This was the life, as far as he was concerned. Maybe this was why the humans were so angry - because they couldn't partake in this kind of absolute pleasure.
He dove downward, moving quickly toward the ground like a bullet out of the sky, and then pulled upward just before he crashed into the water. He liked flying over the water, feeling invincible, like he could never fall and would never do so. It was exhilarating, and it got the adrenaline pumping through him like nothing else did.
He angled himself upward once more, climbing quickly toward the stars, and shouted with glee as he evened himself out, looking down at the world. Flying was truly a wonderful gift bestowed upon the dragon-kind. He wasn't sure what he would do if he were denied the ability of flight, denied the excitement and adrenaline rush it gave him.
He knew he would have to land soon, though - he couldn't fly as much as he used to, for humans were beginning to grow hostile again. They would shoot him down if they saw him, and so it was always risky to fly, but there was no way he was going to stop. He wouldn't really be living if he stopped, after all. Not really.
Diving downward for the last time, he landed softly on the ground, spreading his wings out at his sides in a large, drawn-out stretch. He loved having his wings out, loved the sensation he got when the wind howled through them, but he knew it was not safe to have them out for too long. So he summoned them back into his body, and they folded into him eagerly, following his unspoken command as though it were second nature, which it was.
The house he lived in wasn't far off - he never strayed too far away from home, because other humans lived not too far away and they would shoot him down or something. They had warned him not to risk it and he wasn't going to go against them.
The walk back to his house was quick - they didn't live far off from the lake, where he liked to fly. He entered the house quickly enough and smiled at the face of Elizabeth, his foster mom, one of the Trusted. She looked up at him from the dishes and smiled, her brown eyes bright. "Hey, Dean," she greeted cheerfully, as she always did, "did you have a nice flight?"
She knew what he was, as one of the Trusted. He nodded and smiled at her. "Yeah, it's nice out tonight." He sat down at the kitchen table even though he knew he had missed dinner. Elizabeth seemed understanding, though, and she always saved him a little something. She pulled out a plate wrapped in foil and handed it to him.
"It should still be a little warm," she said, "but you can heat it up if you want."
Dean nodded in thanks before he tore open the foil and greedily began to eat, his hunger taking over. As a half-breed dragon, his appetite was bigger than a normal human's and required a lot more meat and protein. If he didn't get enough every day, then his immune system weakened and he usually got sick. It had happened once to twice before, after all. Elizabeth was good at getting him what he needed, though.
The food was gone in no time and he smiled at her. "Thanks, El," he said to her sincerely.
"No problem, Dean." She picked up his plate and chuckled. "It's nice to see a man actually clean his own plate." She put it in the sink and turned back toward him, smiling warmly. "Sam is waiting for you upstairs - he said something about movie night?"
Dean smirked. "Yeah," he said with a shrug. "Kid suckered me into watching some girly-ass movie with him."
"Language," Elizabeth chided, but she was grinning. "Well, why don't you go on up to him, and I'll finish up down here."
"Thanks, El. Night," he said, because he didn't think he'd be back down again tonight. He left the kitchen and climbed the stairs two at a time.
Elizabeth and John Winchester were his foster parents, both part of the Trusted. Sam was their son - technically John's son, because his wife, Mary, had died shortly have Sam was born due to a horrible case of the flu, but Elizabeth was a wonderful person and a good mother to Sam, especially since he'd never known Mary in the first place. Dean had met her once, he thought, but he couldn't quite remember. He'd only been around four at the time. His memory was a little fuzzy.
He knocked lightly on Sam's door and then entered, smiling at the sleeping form on the bed. The thirteen-year-old was sleeping soundly, curled up in his covers with the TV on and the screen blue. He must have been waiting, Dean realized. He crossed the room toward the bed and sat down, lightly pressing a hand against Sam's shoulder. Sam jerked sleepily and opened his eyes, peering up at him with murky, hazel depths. "Hey, kiddo," Dean greeted with a smile.
"Dean," Sam said happily as he sat up, grinning. "When did you get back? I was waiting…"
"Just a few minutes ago," Dean told him. "I ate and came up here. You can go back to sleep if you want, Sammy."
Sam always scowled when he called him that but he rarely actually said anything about it. "Let's watch the movie," he said. "You put it in and I'll go get the popcorn."
Dean sighed. "Alright, kiddo, sure." He took to putting the DVD in while Sam disappeared out the door. He could hear the teenager running down the stairs.
Sure, he and Sam weren't technically related, but Dean felt like they were. He liked to think of them as brothers, after all.
Sam returned a few moments later with a big bag of popcorn. "Extra butter?" Dean asked innocently, and Sam nodded, smiling.
"Of course," he said. "Would I forget? Did you put the movie in?"
"Yeah," Dean said as he and Sam sat down on his little brother's bed and silently began to eat popcorn as the film started.
Sure, it was nice when he was out flying…but it was also night to come home to a family like this. It would probably only last another year or so, he knew with a sigh. He was already seventeen and once he was an adult, he was sure he wouldn't be able to stay. Elizabeth had told him once that the dragons would come for him when he was of age, whatever that meant. It might be nice to be with others of his own kind and fly with them, something he could never do here, but he didn't want to leave his family. This was his life, and he couldn't picture himself without it.
But he wasn't going to dwell on that quite right now.
No, right now, he was just going to enjoy the movie and his time with his little brother before Sam got into that horrible teenage stage where he hated everyone. Luckily that hadn't started yet and hopefully Dean wouldn't be around for it.
The thought made him sigh.
"You okay?" Sam asked, eying him.
"I'm fine, Sammy," Dean told him. "Just fine."
And he was, really.
He was just a little torn.
It was another boring school on another boring day. Honestly Castiel wasn't impressed. He wasn't sure why they had to move here, to this stupid small town in the middle of nowhere. The occupants of said town? Mostly trees. He felt like he was living in a jungle or something, surrounded by wildlife. There weren't many people in this town, either, and the school reflected that. It was small and, again, not impressive. Sighing, he hoisted his backpack over a shoulder and entered the school with the other students after walking the twenty minutes here.
Why did they have to move? What was so wrong with their old school? Shaking his head, he sighed heavily and moved through the halls, searching for his locker. Finally, he found it and he spun in his combination, breathing in relief when it opened on the first try. More often than not, he'd gotten stuck with some lousy locker that refused to open no matter what, and it was always very annoyed and made him late for class.
It was already March, nearing the end of the school year, so he couldn't figure out why they'd moved anyway. It was just going to make him lag behind and stick out like a sore thumb as the new kid.
He shoved his few things into his locker, grabbed his schedule, and decided to try and navigate his way through the halls and try - try - to find his class.
He rounded a corner and nearly bumped into someone. Startled, he jumped back at the same time as they did, which had him sighing as the person grinned at him. "I'm sorry," the guy said, green eyes sparkling with humor, "I should have been watching where I was going."
"Uh…" Castiel said, unsure as to what to. "I'm sorry, it's my fault." He really shouldn't have been looking at his schedule so intently anyway.
The guy shrugged. "Then I guess we're both at fault, eh? Anyway, I haven't seen you around before…are you new?"
"Yes. Today's my first day." He wasn't quite sure why he was telling this guy this, but he didn't dwell on it, just let the words slip out of his mouth.
The green-eyed guy smiled and ran a hand through his dark blonde hair. "That's cool. You're probably bored out of your mind, huh? The town looks pretty damn boring, if I say so myself, and I do."
"I guess so," Castiel agreed.
"How about I show you around?"
"Won't you be late?" Castiel asked. It was a nice offer but he didn't want to make someone late just because of him.
The guy shrugged easily. "Nah, doesn't matter. I'm Dean, by the way."
"Castiel."
"Nice to meet you, Cas," Dean said, instantly giving him a nickname. Castiel frowned at it but didn't bother to correct him. For some reason, he got the feeling it wouldn't do a whole lot of good to argue. "C'mon, I'll show you around. What do you have first?"
"Uh…" He looked at his schedule. "Art class, Mrs. Stapleton."
"That's cool," Dean said, grinning. "I had her last year and I hear she's fun to have for first period. You can drop your things in there and I can take you to show you around, if you want."
"You really don't have to," Castiel told him seriously.
"It's fine," Dean told him, smiling, "and I want to. It's not fun being the new kid."
"You new?"
"No, but I've seen enough people pass through this school to know what it must be like," Dean said, chuckling. "I try to make it as easy on them as I can."
"So you do this for all the new students?" For some reason, that made a knot form in his stomach even though he wasn't sure why. It should have loosened it, if anything, to know that Dean wasn't just doing this for him, that he did it for everyone.
"Only the ones I like," Dean said with a smirk, a cocksure twist of his lips as he turned and started walking, leaving Castiel to gape after him momentarily before he quickly caught up, not knowing his way around the school. "The good thing about this school," Dean started, "is that it's not very big. Once you get the basics for where everything is, you're pretty much set for life. What grade are you in?"
"I'm a Junior this year."
"Same here," Dean told him. "Okay, here's the art room - go ahead and drop your things off and let the teacher know you're alive."
Castiel frowned but did as he was told. He took his things to the room and the teacher, Mrs. Stapleton, looked at him from under a small veil of her somewhat short black hair, the color of his own. "Yes?" she asked kindly. "Can I help you?"
"I'm new to your class," he told her.
"Oh, you must be Castiel," she said, nodding. "I have you seated in the back…is that alright?"
"That's fine." He preferred the back. Not a lot happened back there and he didn't have to worry about being front and center in front of everyone he didn't know.
"That's good."
"Is it okay if I drop my things off? Dean is going to show me around."
She looked around him and toward the doorway. He turned to see Dean smiling at her and waving. She smiled and looked back at Castiel. "That's fine, Castiel. Return when you are ready. I can write you both a pass if you want."
"That'd be great, thanks," Castiel said honestly.
"Go ahead and put your things down," she said as she pulled out a piece of paper and started writing on it.
Castiel took his things to the back of the room and put them down on a desk before he returned to the front of the class and grabbed the pass as she handed it to him. He nodded his thanks to her and then joined Dean in the hall, holding out the pass to him.
"That was nice of her," Dean commented. "Alright, c'mon - stick with me and soon you'll know this place like the back of your hand."
Castiel sighed and followed after him, not sure he really wanted to get to know the school that well. But someone was offering to show him around and who was he turn down a good tour? Besides, Dean seemed nice enough and friendly, and if he could make a friend on the first day, then maybe there was actually hope for this school after all.
Maybe.
That night, when Dean went out on his flight, he thought about the new kid at school, Castiel. He wasn't sure why, he just did. And suddenly the feel of wind against his wings wasn't doing it for him anymore. It wasn't getting him excited, wasn't getting his adrenaline pumping.
He went home that night disappointed. Disappointed that the flight hadn't been everything it usually was. He entered the house, sighed, and climbed the stairs to his room.
"How was the flight?" Sam asked as he met him in the hallway. Sam also knew what he was - everyone in this house knew. It was people outside of the house, outside of this patch of trees, that didn't know, that would never know so long as Dean had his way.
"Okay," Dean murmured in response.
"Just okay?"
"I guess."
"Wanna watch another movie?"
"Sure." At least it would take his mind off the flight and off of Castiel. He wasn't sure why he was even still thinking about him anyway. He was just some new kid at school.
He followed Sam to his room and the two sat down to watch a nice, distracting movie.
"The ancient laws have spoken," Eon said with a sigh, his dragon voice rough and growling even though his words themselves were rather calm and collected. He wasn't used to taking on such a human form, hadn't done it in nearly ten years, but it seemed necessary at the moment.
Across from him at the end of a long wooden table sat Elizabeth Winchester. She nodded slowly, tears present in her brown eyes as she looked down at the table with dismay.
"You have known this has been coming for quite some time now," Eon told her.
"Yes," she uttered quietly.
"Then it is settled. If Dean does not take a mate who accepts him completely in the months to come, before his eighteenth birthday, then he will be consumed with fire and taken over by the dragon within. As is the way of our people."
"But he's only seventeen," Elizabeth whispered.
"Dragon law states that should a half-breed not take a mate to satisfy the hunger within, then said dragon will become a monster."
"But what do you mean, accepts him completely?"
"They must know what he is, who he is, and who he is to become. The two of them must join."
"Join?" Elizabeth asked, confused.
"That's enough questions," Eon said, narrowing his fiery red eyes at her. "You have until August 1st. On the eve of his birthday is when the fire will consume him. He must take a mate."
"If he doesn't?"
"We need him…I suppose one will have to be chosen for him."
"But that's not right."
"That is the way of our kind," Eon said with an honest growl this time. "We need him and have use of him. He must take a mate. If he does not, then one will be created for him."
That night, Castiel dreamed of fire. It was glorious and gave off an intense yet comforting heat. It was licking at the sides of Dean and massive shadows of what looked like wings stuck out behind him, seemingly brought to life by the flames themselves.
That night, Castiel dreamed of fire and Dean.
Anyway, there you have it...what do you think? Should I continue? Is it worth continuing? Please let me know, otherwise I'm fine with leaving it! :) Thanks again, you guys, and please continue to review! (Sorry if this sucks...tired...headache...so yeah, lol sorry) Thanks again!
~Muffy the Dough Slayer~