Log #1: What The Hell Happened?
Previously, on The Guild Next Door . . .
"Diamauros, and everyone in it, including ourselves, are currently adrift outside of space and time," Master Feng Chriona solemnly nodded.
Pierce Kynigós groaned. "I only just got to this new world of magic, and now we're somewhere else entirely? That pisses me off, and I wanna take my anger out on something,"
{Apo-C}
"Well! Look what I've found!" Equivaton, the Earth Dragon, boomed, seeming to salivate at the sight of the humans. "It's been so long since I've eaten!"
"Why is a dragon here in the out-of-time anyway, old hag?" Lync demanded.
"How should I know, you little brat? This has never happened before!" Feng retorted.
{Apo-C}
"Oi!" The Earth Dragon turned, just in time to see a camo-coated blur dash up his leg and onto his back. "Don't get the wrong idea, but I still have a claim to your head, dragon! So I'm not letting anything else touch you until it's my turn!" Kynigós yelled.
Snarling, Equivaton tossed his head around, hoping to dislodge the hunter now nestled between his wings, but to no avail; Kynigós was holding on tight. "Look, you great brute, it's a good plan! You're powerful enough to smash shit and from here I can cover your blind spot!" he shouted, cocking his rifle.
"With that toothpick?" Equivaton snorted, but, in spite of how angry he was that this whelp dared to ride him like some mount, he has to admit that his proposal was sound. "Ugh, fine. But if you get killed it's your own fault," he growled, spreading his wings and lifting off.
{Apo-C}
Suddenly, as it was splattered with white time magic, the final remaining chain holding the Earth Dragon and the Sempiternal Phoenix together snapped and broke apart.
There was a moment of silence as the stunned realisation of what had happened sunk into everyone. Pierce Blastreyne, looking up at Equivaton in dismay, caught the briefest glimpse of Pierce Kynigós' horrified face.
And then the Sempiternal Phoenix shook and pitched forwards, rotating on an axis within the river of time, and what had been like an ocean rushing beneath their feets was suddenly rising up above them in a tsunami, engulfing them. Alice, Master Feng and Donna were gone in a flash, quickly followed by Lync, Tyria and Garrotte, and, looking up, Pierce caught one final glimpse of Equivaton, as well as his counterpart, being sucked into the time stream ahead of them, and then he, too, was being engulfed by the whiteness of time.
{Apo-C}
My name is Deadeye Pierce Kynigós. And I have no idea what the actual fuck is going on.
Yesterday, I was in Edolas, my home dimension, hunting down the bastard King Faust, the man who was responsible for my guild, Phoenix's Eye, being destroyed. Yeah. I once held the title of the greatest hunter in Edolas. Self-proclaimed, but whatever. Unfortunately, I ran into who I at first thought was my old friend Tyria. Which didn't make much sense, because I saw her die a few months ago.
Turns out she was the version of Tyria from another dimension, a place called Earth Land. There was a messy fight with some freak named Monday, and I ended up sucked into her Earth Land place and meeting her Phoenix's Eye. Including my own otherdimensional counterpart, "Pierce Blastreyne".
He's an animal-loving hippie with a stupid name. I have no idea what weirdo Tyria sees in him.
Anyway. I was there for all of an hour before some time machine thing called the 'Sempiternal Phoenix' got turned on and blasted everyone, including the entirety of Earth Land Phoenix's Eye and myself, into some void outside space and time. And that's where we met a dragon.
Yeah, see this big brown thing I'm standing on? That's Equivaton, the Earth Dragon. We somehow ran into him in that void place, and he helped the lot of us drive the Sempiternal Phoenix back into space and time. And I stuck with him over other Phoenix's Eye because, hello? He's a dragon! What sort of hunter would I be if I didn't make sure that I, and only I, got to hunt and kill a dragon? So of course I need to keep him safe until I get the opportunity to take his head.
Thing is, me and Equivaton got separated from the locals, and now . . well . . I have no idea where or when we are. There's a lot of ruins, though. Like this place used to be a city or something.
I should be writing this down. Hold on.
{Apo-C}
And so Kynigós, using his prosthetic steel arm, fished his travel log out of his hunter's pack and transcribed everything that he had just thought through into his journal, before reading back over it.
"Hey," he muttered. "I was going to kill the dragon,"
Leaping off Equivaton's flank, he scrabbled to the ground and ran towards where he knew the massive, unconscious dragon's throat was. Upon reaching the massive, earthy brown region of scales, he unslung his rifle from the strap that was attached to his khaki coat and levelled it at the great creature's throat. It would be so easy to pull the trigger, to kill this creature and take his head.
"Go ahead, fleshbag. Try it," a low rumble sounded. Kynigós looked up, and saw Equivaton shifting his head.
The dragon was so huge that he could snatch up a small building in one claw. He was built with bulging muscles and coated in scales that were mostly earth brown, but dark tan in the underside with several sand green streaks running across his body. An impressive crown of six silver horns crowned his dinosaur-like head, a long, muscular tail with sharpened spikes running all the way from his neck to the tip of his tail, and serrated silver claws adorned each of his digits on his four claws. Thick, leathery wings crusted over with what almost looked like solid rock were folded on his back, the joints adorned with spikes. Even lying on his side, the dragon was a mighty, majestic creature.
"Like I'd do anything else!" the hunter shouted, and fired at his throat.
Nothing happened.
Both Equivaton and Kynigós were confused by this development. Kynigós fired again, and again. Still nothing.
He frowned, spotting glints of metal among the dragon's scales, and, lowering his weapon, the blond boy strode forwards and inspected the great beast's throat.
The three bullets were buried in the tan scales of Equivaton's underbelly. Even the weakest part of the dragon's body was too thick for Kynigós to pierce it.
"I need a bigger gun," the hunter snapped, storming away.
Equivaton softly chuckled. "You're a spirited little thing, aren't you?" he exhaled, picking himself up and rising to his full height.
"Shut the hell up!" Kynigós barked at him, casting around as though he expected to find a convenient bazooka lying a few feet away. "You just wait until I get my hands on something bigger!"
The Earth Dragon continued to chuckle, lifting his head and taking a deep breath - and then he paused. He took another sniff, looking around, and Kynigós registered that something had changed in his expression.
"I smell dragon," he hissed, stepping closer to Kynigós.
"So what?" the hunter questioned. "You're a big-ass dragon! Of course we can smell it!"
"No, you loud little cretin. I smell other dragons. Multiple ones," Equivaton clarified.
Kynigós was about to respond, but an ear-splitting roar interrupted them, and both human and dragon turned to the left.
In the distance, they saw two more large dragons. One was thick, muscled, coated in black scales with white, bony ridges and a long, white spike on the very end of its tail. The second bore silvery scales that overlapped like plates of armour, with wide wings that looked sharp and a long, lashing tail. Several cracks in its armour were dripping blood.
"Oi. Fleshbag," Equivaton couldn't believe he was saying this. "Climb on," he declared.
"What? Why?" Kynigós blinked.
"Because, call me a sentimental old lizard, but I don't particularly want to leave you in a ruin full of rampaging dragons," Equivaton snorted, picking up Kynigós between two claws and dropping him on his neck, where the hunter slid down to land in the same spot between his wing joints as before.
"This feels counterproductive," the boy groused as Equivaton, content that he was secure, charged forwards, prepared to intervene, and within moments he was glaring up at the two fighting dragons. "What is going on here?!" he roared, immediately getting the two's attention.
The black one landed, proving herself to be only slightly smaller than Equivaton, and hissed; "Thisss one'sss a human-lover!"
The second, clearly injured and exhausted, collapsed to the ground in a heap, and the Earth Dragon rapidly interspersed himself between the two. "Is that important?" he growled. "She is one of our kin. There is no reason to fight her,"
"No? When ssshe hidesss a dwelling of humansss in this, the ruins of their greatessst city?" the bony one retorted, gnashing her teeth and revealing a forked tongue. "I am Nefartari, the Crypt Dragon! We dragonsss are the ownersss of thisss world, and humansss are a ssscourge upon thisss world, and I ssshall sssee it cleansssed!"
Equivaton stepped forwards, baring menhir-like teeth. "I don't care what your reasons are. I will not see my kin fight," he snorted.
"You're wrong," came a rasping cry, and both dragons turned to see the silver one weakly trying to stand up. "I'm . . not . ." She broke off into a fit of rasping coughs, and Equivaton glared at Nefartari.
"Why do you care, anyway?" the Crypt Dragon hissed.
"Because I have seen dragons fight before, and I will not allow it again," Equivaton growled. "Leave, before I force you to,"
Nefartari gritted her teeth, before scoffing and turning away, spreading her wings to take flight and leave. Meanwhile, Equivaton turned and crouched over the silver dragon, inspecting her injuries. She was only a little over half his size, though her wings were larger.
"Th - thank you," she spluttered, looking upwards, and green eyes met his red. Equivaton nodded, but started in concern as she shakily got to her feet and started in the same direction as Nefartari had gone. "She lured . . me . . I need to get . ." Only a few steps in, she collapsed, her rear right leg with its massive gash across the side giving out and sending her sprawling.
"What's the matter?" Equivaton questioned, but the dragoness' laboured breathing enabled no response.
"Move, you big lizard. There's obviously something important in that direction!" Kynigós shouted. For his part, Equivaton growled at being addressed in this manner, but nodded, accepting that the hunter was right. "Well, I shan't leave her," he declared, carefully unfolding his wing and spreading it beneath the dragoness, before raising it and sliding her onto his back. Kynigós shouted in shock and frantically scrambled up the incline of Equivaton's neck, ending up almost directly in front of the unfamiliar dragon's snout.
"Good thing she's light," the Earth Dragon rumbled. Of course, he couldn't fly with a burden like that, so he set off on foot, following the direction that the unknown dragoness had initially begun to move in.
And then there was an explosion, a massive plume of black smoke in the distance. Equivaton drew up in surprise, before wordlessly growling and charging forwards at a vastly increased speed.
It wasn't long before they came upon a large building that might have once been some kind of warehouse. However, now it was a smouldering ruin - and Nefartari was wheeling around overhead, shrieking with joy.
However, she cut herself off as soon as she spotted Equivaton. "You!" the dragoness snarled, dive-bombing the Earth Dragon.
In response, the beast roared, blasting a massive whirlwind filled with jagged chunks of rock at the other dragon. Nefartari wheeled and dodged, landing a couple of hundred metres away.
"What have you done?" Equivaton growled, shaking his body and letting the limp dragoness, along with Kynigós, slide off his back.
"What that filthy human lover had coming to her," the Crypt Dragon hissed in response.
Just then, the silver dragoness regained enough sense to open her eyes - and she screamed in horror at the sight of the burning warehouse. With no thought for her own safety, she charged forward, narrowly avoiding treading on Kynigós, and leapt into it, seemingly frantically searching for something. The hunter, curious, followed her, while Equivaton kept one eye on the dragoness and one on Nefartari.
But all eyes were drawn to the injured dragon as she let out an anguished cry, before gently, precariously, gripping something in her mouth and raising it, grief in her eyes.
Nefartari smiled darkly.
Kynigós gasped.
Equivaton growled.
Clutched in the dragoness' maw was the shattered remains, still dripping with viscous fluid, of a dragon egg.
"That was a nest?" the Earth Dragon demanded, staring with absolute hatred at Nefartari.
"It wasss a human hideout. The fact that ssshe kept eggsss in there alssso isss of no consssequenssse," the black dragoness snorted.
"You -" Equivaton roared, lunging forwards in a full-body tackle. Caught by surprise, Nefartari allowed herself to be knocked onto her back with little resistance, and only barely moved her head in time to avoid Equivaton pounding it into dust.
Meanwhile, Kynigós followed in the mother dragon's wake, charging into the ruin, where he was immediately confronted with the silver dragoness staggering about, desperately searching for any of her eggs that might still be intact. He'd leave that to her. The other dragon had mentioned that there were humans in here. If there were any survivors . . He growled, remembering the massacre of his guild, before charging into the wreckage.
Equivaton roared, smashing his tail into Nefartari, but the smaller dragon was too quick, leaping over it and blasting a breath attack that consisted of some kind of purple energy at him. It caught the Earth Dragon on the shoulder and he growled, before his wing flashed out and smacked into his enemy, cuffing her across the neck.
She landed in a skid, growling, and turned to retaliate - but Equivaton was already thundering towards her, his head lowered for a staggering headbutt.
The impact anded with a dull boom, throwing the Crypt Dragon into the air. Spreading her wings, Nefartari caught herself and hovered. "You ungrateful little whelp," she growled, dive-bombing the larger dragon. Equivaton tried to dodge, but she immediately corrected and pounded him into the ground, before launching herself skywards again.
Kynigós gasped, spotting a worn shoe poking out from under a chunk of wall. Flexing his metal arm, he removed the debris, revealing the spot to the open air.
Contained within was the corpse of what had once been a young man, whose left leg had been crushed by the collapse, and whose entire upper right side of the body had been burnt away, reducing flesh to ash and exposing charred and blackened bones. He was obviously dead.
Turning away, a choked sob from the mother dragoness caught his attention as she gently extricated an egg that looked cracked, but intact, from a pile of broken bricks. A smile tugged at Kynigós lips. That didn't look like major damage. Maybe the hatchling within was still alive?
As the dragoness turned and placed it with the others, a massive chunk was revealed to be missing from its side.
Kynigós' jaw set. If there were any survivors, he would have found them by now. Time to go do something useful.
Just as he made this resolution, Equivaton spread his wings, fully intending to take to the air after Nefartari, only for her to launch another breath attack, targeting his left wing. Equivaton hastily retracted the appendage before it could be blasted to shreds, and the shockwave from the shot impacting directly next to him sent him sprawling sideways.
And Nefartari took advantage of his moment of weakness, speeding down and pinning the larger dragon's neck and wings. "You blasssted whelp," she hissed, raising a single claw and running it along Equivaton's flank without breaking the scales, until she reached the spot directly over his heart. "You ssshouldn't have interfered,"
"You think I'm afraid of you?" Equivaton retorted, baring his teeth at her. "Please. You barely even rate,"
"You think ssso?" Nefartari demanded, baring her own teeth and opening her mouth wide, pausing just inches from biting into his neck and tearing his head off. "Haw aghout nahw?"
"What was that?" Equivaton chuckled.
With a growl rising in her throat, the Crypt Dragon repeated herself.
"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full. Did your dam never teach you that?" the Earth Dragon retorted.
"Don't you dare talk of my dam!" Nefartari raged as she retraced her mouth, before driving her claw into Equivaton's wing joint. Gritting his teeth, the dragon refused to give her the satisfaction of crying out in pain as blood spurted from the wound.
"Oi! Snake breath!" A shout rang out from nearby, and Nefartari turned in surprise, before spotting a human coated in khaki with something clutched in his hand running towards her. She grinned, rippling her forked tongue and glaring with her right eye, unwilling to move, even to address the human. "An appetissser? How deliciousss,"
"Eat this!" Kynigós roared, tossing the object from his hunter's pack into the air, where it sailed towards Nefartari's exposed eye. The dragoness snorted and closed her eyelid. Even the thin membrane that protected her eye would be sufficient to deflect any projectile a puny human could throw at it, she was certain of that. And she continued to be certain of it right until the object, a dusty bottle, made contact with her eyelid.
And then the impromptu Molotov Cocktail that Kynigós had engineered exploded.
Nefartari roared in shock and pain, staggering away and letting go of Equivaton - who jackknifed to his feet and blasted a roar of Earth at her.
"Forget thisss," the dragoness hissed, spreading her wings and leaping into the air, keeping her injured eye shut tight. Another shot of Equivaton's breath attack encouraged her to accelerate her retreat.
Gingerly cradling his hurt wing, Equivaton wheeled and regarded Kynigós. "That . . was impressive," he rumbled.
Kynigós shrugged. "All I had to do was repurpose some of my stun grenades with an old bottle I found in the warehouse,"
"We should return. She will need a shoulder to cry on," the dragon asserted, gesturing to the ruined warehouse. Kynigós nodded, and the two made their way back.
{Apo-C}
When they returned to the warehouse, it was evident that something was wrong.
The silver dragoness was lying, morose, tail wrapped protectively around a pile of shattered egg remnants. A couple seemed mostly intact, but evidently her efforts to find one that was undamaged had been fruitless. But, more importantly, the dragoness wasn't moving, and her injuries were still dripping blood.
"Oh no," Kynigós breathed.
"If you even think about taking this opportunity to 'kill a dragon' -" Equivaton rumbled with a warning tone, but Kynigós wasn't having any of it.
"What the hell do you take me for, you big lizard? A poacher?" he demanded. "I hunt beasts because I respect them. Because it's a challenge. My best against theirs. If I killed her at a time like this, there'd be no challenge, no thrill! Just a - an empty victory!" he shouted.
Equivaton blinked, before slowly nodding. "You have a point," he admitted. He couldn't believe he was saying this . . but the more he found out about him, the more he grew to like this feisty little human. Indeed, he was half tempted to . . hmm.
While he was thinking, Kynigós rushed up to the limp dragoness and started inspecting her wounds. Coming to a gash on her flank, he opened up his backpack and started rummaging through it. He groaned in dismay. "Damnit! I don't have enough bandages for wounds this big!"
"You . . would help me?" The hunter looked up to see the silver dragoness weakly raising her head and looking at him.
"Well, yeah. Why the hell shouldn't I?" Pierce Kynigós demanded.
The dragon struggled with herself, before starting to rise - but the effort was too great for her and she collapsed, sending a glut of blood spurting from her wound. The splash caught Kynigós' forearms and coat, as well as washing across his thighs and feet, and he groaned. "Great. How am I gonna get this shit off?" he questioned, inspecting his palm, now dropping with dragon blood.
"Come here," the silver dragoness beckoned, and Kynigós, frowning, stepped away from the wound and approached her head. "I don't have long for this world . . but I can do one last good to aid a boy like you," she murmured, before a hacking cough overcame her.
Equivaton frowned, watching the process, but didn't interfere.
"I am Kixezen, the Life Dragon," the dragoness murmured, forcing herself to move her snout forwards, until Kynigós was mere inches from the tip of the massive dragon. She could have swallowed him in one bite, but, instead, she parted her jaws and exhaled, blowing a stream of glowing white energy at Kynigós. "The power of old, born anew. Lies swept away, revealing the truth. And in barren soil," She suddenly broke off into a fit of coughing. A thick globule of her blood emerged from her throat and hit Kynigós' chest, immediately soaking through his jacket and shirt. "A seed may grow," she finished.
She eyed Equivaton and told him, "Take good care of him. Teach him. Let him grow," before turning back to Kynigós and adding, "Be all the good you can be," With those final words, Kixezen heaved a great sigh, and her eyes closed.
"She's dead," Kynigós spoke, and Equivaton nodded. "Undoubtedly,"
"What did she do?" the hunter questioned, looking himself over. He didn't feel any different . .
"I'm sure we'll find out. In the meantime, we should find sources of food and water. And,above all else, information. What year it is, what the current state of the world is, everything," Equivaton resolved.
"Yeah, I guess you're right about that. I suppose I'll have to hold off on killing you for a while longer, then," Kynigós sighed, sitting down on a chunk of rubble.
"We ought to move. There's no reason to stay here," the Earth Dragon ascertained. "But I can't fly with my wing like this," he griped, looking at the bloody wound in his wing joint.
"Will it heal?" the hunter questioned.
"Probably. Eventually," he sighed. "But in the meantime, I suppose I get to be the Earth-bound Dragon,"
They both chuckled at that.
Kynigós was about to pick himself up and prepare to leave, but a faint noise caught his attention. "What was that?" he questioned, looking around.
Equivaton rumbled, expecting a threat.
The nose sounded again, and this time, now that he was expecting it, he isolated the location. It was coming from the pile of shattered eggs.
"No," the Earth Dragon blinked, shocked. He too had located the source of the noise.
Slowly, carefully, Kynigós crept towards the pile, taking careful steps around its circumference.
And then he saw it.
Emerging from one of the cracked, but mostly intact eggs that Kynigós had written off before, was the pale-scaled, triangular, head of a dragon hatchling.
A/N
A/N
Okay, so here's the rub;
The Apocrypha storyline is going to run on a tangent to the main Phoenix's Eye plot. Every third week, instead of posting to Crowns of Thorns, I will instead put up the next chapter of Apocrypha.
And I'm really trying to push myself to adopt a different tone with this part of the story. After all, there's a reason I chose Kynigós, the dark and twisted version of Pierce, to be the lead for this arc.
Just remember what I said; this isn't Phoenix's Eye anymore. War.