Prologue
"Are you sure about this, Ashunera?" A young looking man asked the one known as Ashunera.
"Yes Grima, I'm sure about this one, he will be the one to set you free from your dark curse." Ashunera assured the one known as Grima.
"Very well but before we bring him here I'd like to ask you something." Grima responded.
"Alright, what is it?" Ashunera replied.
"Why are you helping me?" Grima asked his voice a cocktail of mixed emotions, probably on account of not knowing how to feel.
"Because what stands before me is the real, uncorrupted you. Now come on, we've got work to do." Ashunera answered.
"Thanks Ashunera, for everything but most of all for believing in me." Grima replied sheepishly.
"Look we're not out of the woods yet so don't thank me till then, okay." Ashunera pointed out.
"It's done, I've prearranged the boys death. All that's left to do is to usher his soul to limbo for negotiations. Ashunera said releasing a heavy sigh from her lips.
"And those are up to me correct?"
"Yes, although ultimately the choice is that of this potential vessel." Ashunera responded.
Meanwhile on Earth
"Great, just great. It's raining again, and I have to walk home in this too." I thought aloud, while secretly wishing that I wouldn't have to walk home in the rain.
Suddenly the early release bell rang, dashing any false hope I'd managed to build up over the course of the day.
As I trudged out of my chem class and to my locker I was unfortunate enough to hear the sounds of several thunderclaps, all of which sounded too close for comfort.
"Perfect end to a perfect day." I muttered dryly to myself as I left the building for home or more likely a friends house.
…
Well this sucks, I'm cold and wet which is probably giving me hypothermia at the moment, everything I have on me is undoubtedly soaked to the core, and to top it all off what was once a constant downpour is now an all out onslaught of thunder, lightning, wind, and rain. In fact the rain was so bad that I couldn't even see 6 inches in front of me, and I have 20/20 vision. But worst of all is that it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.
Which is probably why I didn't realize that I had stepped on to the street until it was too late. The things I remember most about that day were the sounds that I heard in my final moments and the understanding that life truly was a gift, and that I had squandered mine.
"Oh I wouldn't say that." Came a strong feminine voice that I had honestly never heard before.
"Whose there?" I rasped causing me to gag on my own blood.
"Why don't you follow me and find out?" Came the reply.
So with nothing better to do I decided to follow this mysterious voice, which for whatever reason was leaving a glowing path for me to follow to where ever it was going to take me.
"And we're here now mortal." The voice said.
"Great, so where is here?" I asked as I observed the surrounding nothingness.
"At the aperture of life and death, but you know of this place as limbo." The voice responded with a casual authority.
"Well that answers the 'Am I dead' question. So who are you than?" I said muttering the first part and asking the second part of my statement as clearly as I could.
"Well since you asked I am Ashunera, a goddess. But please call me Lady Ash."
"Okay, new question. Why are you here with me?"
"Why to introduce you to friend of mine that needs your assistance, of course." Lady Ash answered sounding almost sweet and innocent.
"Oh, and who might this person be, I'll have you know that I don't make deals with strangers." I retorted defensively.
"And I don't expect you to, now if you'll come with me I'll take you to meet my friend of and hear his case for why he should be helped." Lady Ash replied getting a little defensive herself.
"That won't be necessary anymore Ashunera." Came the male draconian voice that sounded somewhat familiar.
Well, I see you've taken the liberty of letting yourself into the room Grima. Can I get anything for either of you?" Ashunera asked like she was having a grandchild and their friend over at her house and had just offered them both a plate of cookies, which would have been hilarious if the grandchild wasn't a genocidal draconian death god, and if I wasn't the friend.
"Yeah, I'll take a big tall glass of what the hell is going on here with my insanity, thank you!" I replied both loudly and dryly.
"How much did you tell him Ash?" Grima murmured out of the corner of his mouth in an attempt at subtlety.
"Just that we were friends, and that you needed his help." Ashunera replied.
"Oh and that reminds me, what does a death dragon need my help for?!" I literally screamed at the two of them.
"Perhaps we should start at the beginning, when I became the 'death dragon' as you put it." Grima began carefully.
"You mean you don't wanna tell me how you two got on speaking terms? Because that ones up there on my WTF list right now too." I retorted dryly and was promptly rewarded with a surprisingly scary glare from Ashunera, seeing as I was already dead.
"If I could start by explaining to you how I became the fell dragon, it might help you understand why I need your help." Grima said in a low throaty growl.
"Alright, I'm listening." I said raising my hands in surrender.
"Good. Now our story begins with an event called the The Great Die Off, which as you might have guessed is when what you would call elder dragons began to die in droves. This led to an event in mankind's history known as the?" Grima trailed off leaving me to finish his statement.
"I'll go with scouring on this one Grima." I answered dryly.
"Which is when?" Grima said, adding another part to his previous question.
"Which is when humanity began hunting down what was left of the ice, earth and even a majority of the fire dragons, or at least that was probably how it started. I answered.
"Good, it seems you know more than I expected you to." Grima complimented in genuine surprise.
"It should however be noted, that these hunts soon led to the founding of the draconian remnants defense force, which led humanity to declare all out war on any of us that would not turn to using stones." Grima continued.
"I take it you were a member of this defense force?" I asked with a cautious curiosity.
"Indeed I was, and while I may have been a mere hatch-ling at the time so were many of the members, but we're getting off topic." Grima replied.
"Now as you might have guessed the defense force almost immediately began taking heavy losses due to mankind's seemingly endless onslaught of superior numbers." Grima explained with a hint of sadness etched into his voice.
"These losses led me to search for a power that could aid the defense force in repelling humanities assaults on what was left of my brothers and sisters, this search would eventually lead me to a volcano now known as the Demon's Ingle, and the power I found there, that was sealed there, it changed me into what you know as the Fell Dragon." Grima finished.
"Though one good thing did come of it, men and dragon stopped fighting each other, granted that was because I had become too big of a threat for either side to deal with on their own." Grima amended quickly.
"I'm sorry, but how do I know that I can trust you?" I asked plainly.
"Because I would not be here if I didn't trust him, and neither would you for that matter." Ashunera replied with equal bluntness.
"So what do you say, will you help me banish this darkness from me?" Grima asked with cautious optimism.
"What exactly is entailed in helping you with this problem?" I asked now curious as to how I could possibly help.
"Well since your dead we'll have to bring you back to life, but the main problem is that I can't seem to get a living vessel of my own, and if I do I have to share it with the darkness." Grima explained.
"Alright, just one last question. Did either of you have anything to do with my death?" I replied.
"No, your death happened by complete accident, and while I understand why ask I am a little offended that you'd think either of us capable of such a thing, what with Grima being sealed away and all." Ashunera answered hastily.
"Well I just thought I'd ask." I replied indignantly.
"Excuse me, but can we get back on topic here?" Grima chided, reminding the two of us that we were here for a reason.
"Right, so the first thing I'll need you to do is visualize your ideal self." Ashunera said.
"Do I have to picture myself with clothes?" I asked stupidly.
"Do you want to be spawned naked? And you have to verbalize your appearance." Ashunera remarked.
"Right, in that case I think I'd like to blue hair that when it's styled properly makes me look like Hector of Ostia, but when I'm just getting out of bed looks more like a blue version of Eliwood's hairstyle." I began.
"And for your clothes?" Ashunera asked.
"For my clothes I'd like to look like a cross between a Nightingale from Skyrim and General Zelgius as the Black Knight, and since your a god I'll assume that I won't have to be more specific than that." I continued.
"Alright, just one last thing and then we're done." Ashunera said.
"Lay it on me." I replied.
"I need you to picture your weapon, and no you can't start with two." Ashunera said back.
"Well if that's the case than I think I'll take a sword, do I need to keep going or are we done?" I asked unsure of how much she needed.
"No, I have what I need." The goddess replied.
"Great, so now what?" I inquired.
"Now, now you just need to wake up." Ashunera answered simply as a blinding pink light began to flash wildly.