"Black Wings"

By: Vanpi

Disclaimer: Unfortunately all of the characters here that are from Dragon Knights do not belong to me. A rare thing, but I'm using them at the moment to satisfy my always-twisting imagination Usually it only includes my characters but this time it spewed this up and I'm unfortunately only along for the ride.

Parings: None so fare, and I don't know what's going to happen down the road.

Notes: The sentences written in Italics are thoughts.

"Black Wings…"

Chapter 1

Awakening Darkness

Rath's blood red eyes opened and gazed upwards towards the darkening night sky. He looked into the trees over shadowing him for a few moments as he tried to gather his thoughts. After a few seconds he finally arose to take a look at his surroundings. Everything looked some-what familiar, but at the same time very unfamiliar. The scent of blood was in the air and for a moment Rath couldn't figure out why it seemed to be so strong, that is, until he took a closer look at his surroundings.

There was a lot of blood that seemed to be everywhere and everything that surrounded him seemed to be just about covered in it. The dark brown of the ancient forest trees had once faded into the color of the dirt and grass. But now they were hidden with the red substance. The boulders surrounding the site were also painted with the substance as well and a few demon bodies intertwined with what seemed to be human forms were littered across the landscape.

As Rath looked around, he tried to figure out what had happened to him before he had found himself on the ground. At the moment his head was throbbing and it seemed to hurt even worse when he tried to concentrate on getting his thoughts in order. Plus, for some odd reason, he couldn't remember anything about himself or his past. ''What happened to me? And why in the hell am I here of all places, with all these dead corpses around? Who am I, and best yet, where am I?'' He thought as he sat in bewilderment.

The black-haired teen knelt over and placed his hands on his head as he racked his brains in an attempt to find the answers that should have already flowed back to him by now. After a few moments he noticed that there was some sort of cold, wet substance that had covered a part of his head. It had entangled its self in parts of his pitch-black hair, but most of it seemed to be near the spot that his severe headache was arising from.

A confused look arose on the black-haired boy's face. Rath then removed his hands from his forehead to find that the red substance had covered them. At this moment he now knew that he had to find someone to help him, or else he might not last through the night. The rest of his body was badly bleeding due to the slashes he had received on his chest and this only added to the injury on his forehead. Rath had been struck in the head with something that had caused him to fall unconscious and drop to the cold ground. Who ever had done this damage must have thought that he was dead or was on the edge of meeting these other creatures in the after life. Or, maybe, just maybe they were due on coming back to give him a more torturous death. Due to this, Rath now knew he had to find someone to help him or at least find a place to hide until he figured something out.

His head was now pounding as he struggled to get up, and as he bent over a streak of severe pain shot across his chest and down his side, causing him to wince as he tried to catch his breath. He could tell by the immense pressure that seemed to be suffocating him that he had to have a few cracked or at least broken ribs. Trying to ignore the pain, Rath began to stagger down the darkened night path that was almost hidden by trees, not knowing which way would lead him away to safety and out of this dark, demon infested forest. As each painful gasp escaped Rath's lungs as he staggered on it only reminded him of the state he was in.

/&/

Meanwhile, a Renkin Wizard going by the name of Kharl the Alchemist was in the process of tending to one of his newly created demons within the walls of his castle when a faint but all too familiar smell caught his attention that was riding on the air. The smell of freshly spilled blood had flooded the arising scent on the wind. And in that mixture of blood Kharl could smell one of his pets that he had lost to that dam Demon Clan a long time ago. For a second he paused, wondering if he was truly smelling the scent of that delicate boy he longed to see and feel under his grasps again.

"Is it truly you? The one that I lost so long ago? Hmm...I guess I shall see you once again my little one." And with that, the silver-haired Alchemist decided to check and see if one of his long lost pets had been injured in the process of almost returning to him.

He then moved his other pet's dark, blue hair out of the way and grabbed a hold of the collar around his neck. With a flick of his wrist, Kharl chained him to the wall and turned to leave. After this, the young Alchemist walked out of the steel door and swiftly made his way down the dark staircase and through the hallways of his castle.

/&/

As Kharl made his way through the forest of Kainaldia, he focused all of his senses on that of the young Dragon Knight's blood. He soon fell upon the source of most of the scent in the air as he made his way to where demon and dragon clan bodies alike were littered across the ground. Hidden from view by the ancient trees that grew in this part of the demon realm, not many would be able to find this place that easily. That is, except for the scent of the blood for that matter, which would lead any demon and every one of them to this location in a matter of minutes.

Kharl was puzzled by the origin of most of the corpses laid out. Shydeman had obviously set loss another one of his worthless pets to do his dirty work again. In doing so, it had carelessly slaughtered these victims and left them out to dry on the blood-soaked ground. Karl wouldn't really care about this, except for the fact that his pet's blood was all over the place. This really annoyed him, due to the fact that he still wanted to play with his little demon, and now he couldn't find him anywhere within the mess of littered dragon clan and useless demons that covered this blood-soaked ground.

As he searched the ruins of the leftover battle, Kharl's aqua-blue eyes eventually set their gaze on a trail of blood leading away from the scene. As he came closer, the Alchemist was both relieved and horrified to find that Rath's scent was lingering to it.

"He must have hardly escaped with his life from the looks of it and staggered away from this place in search of safety. As bad as he's bleeding, every demon could be fast on his trail by now. That damn Shydeman! If his little toy dragged him off I'll kill him." Kharl then began to follow the poor boy's trail of blood in hopes of finding what he was looking for intact. With his moonlit-white cloak scrapping behind him on the ground, he passed through the darkness of the night.

/&/

As the Renkin Wizard walked deeper and deeper into the forest of Kainaldia, that once weak scent of Rath's blood seemed to be growing stronger with every few steps that Kharl took. This made the Alchemist even more anxious in his attempt to find his pet. In doing so, he sped up in the attempt to hopefully recover the black-haired boy sooner.

He soon came to a clearing in this forest filled with nothing but entangling trees and vines. As he looked around Kharl noticed the blood trail that he was following ventured off towards a few huge boulders in the pass. He knew that just behind those caverns, caves lay hidden from view. As he followed the trail into the seemingly never-ending rocks and boulders, Kharl finally came across a figure of a young boy just hidden from view.

Where the trail finally ended, the helpless figure of Rath's unconscious body lay curled up in a fetal position under a green, moonlit bush. He looked as though he had been in a very brutal fight due to all of the injuries his body had been covered in. Plus, the poor boy was now covered in blood to the point that his black trench coat was now caked in the red substance.

With one look at him, Kharl knew that he wouldn't last the night alone if his wounds weren't tended to. He was just glad that he had found him in time before someone else had. The young Alchemist then bent over and picked the black-haired boy's limp, cold body up and wrapped him in his white cloak in an effort to help him keep warm. As he positioned Rath in his arms the helpless Dragon Knight quietly whimpered in protest as he slightly awoke.

"Shh… it's ok my little one. I'm not going to hurt you, just relax. You'll be ok."

As Rath heard the older man holding him in his arms speak, it sounded almost like a whisper, sending words of comfort to him in his helpless state. For some reason his voice sounded very familiar to the boy, but he couldn't quite put his hands on whom it was at the moment.

'Does he somehow know me? Or is he an enemy?' Rath thought.With no strength left in his body to resist at all, Rath only had one choice, and that was to trust this guy for the time being and to hope that something good would come out of this in the end.

After Kharl quietly spoke to Rath he watched as his pet looked as though he was lost in thought for a moment before he finally totally relaxed once again and fell unconscious in the older man's arms. A slight smile grew across the young man's face as he looked down at the now sleeping boy. How peaceful he looked just laying there in his creator's arms, just like a wounded bird crawling back to his master with his tattered, black wings.

After this thought crossed the Alchemist's mind, the silver-haired demon turned and began to walk back towards his castle with the boy's limp body held in his arms. Part of his white cloak that was now stained with his pet's blood dragged behind him as he passed. How he couldn't wait for the next few days to play out in front of him with the return of this beautiful child once again. But best of all, he was the only one at the moment able to nurse this boy that just seemed to be begging for attention.

"To be continued in chapter two..."

An: Hello! I'm Vanpi and this is my very first fanfic so I hope you guys enjoy it. Please tell me what you think if you like this story or not because it really helps me reflect back on my work as a writer. Also if you guys have any suggestions as to what you might like to see in this story as well, please comment because those are also very welcomed but please read up till chapter six before you make any permanent decisions as what to refer to me. Thanks, and please enjoy. -