"The First Step in Aaa."
"Yo-ho-ho! Draco! I got a mission for ya!"
"Eh, what is it Harly? Can't you see I'm busy?" Draconis laid on his back, seeming rather comfortable as he plaid with a small white ball. He tossed the rubbed ball against the wall over and over again until it was caught by the mechanical comic. "Hey I was busy playing with that…"
"Play with this…" The mecha-harlequin held up a tattered scroll and unraveled it before the dragonoid, "We've got an aqua hydra on the loose and I need you to get rid of it. There's a nice reward in it for ya if you think you can handle it that is." The mechanized clown began to grin as he noticed Draconis' body begin to tense up.
"Hydra you say…well I guess I could do that. Not like I have anything to do here right? Now, where exactly am I headed? The water kingdom?" The Dragonoid got to his feet and rolled his right shoulder forward and then his left trying to get nice and limbered up for what should be a rather long flight.
"Well yes and no. It's in the Water Kingdom but not in Ooo…you're about to do something no other bounty hunter has done before. You're going to complete an multidimensional mission." The harlequin quickly pulled out a rather small and transparent blue cube and tossed it to the floor. With a bright beam of light the cube expanded, rose and became a one dimensional doorway.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where exactly am I going? I'm not just gonna walk through some shinny blue portal thing without knowing what I'm in for." The hired hand slowly crossed his arms as he awaited for an answer, "Well?"
"It's basically like Ooo…except it's called Aaa and everything is reversed there. Gender wise that is. Trust me dude it's all perfectly legit and there's nothing to worry about ok? Now get going ok? You're gonna go and find a girl named Martha…when you finish the mission you can go see her for the reward." Harlequin slowly pointed towards the door and began to chuckle slowly.
"…you can get me back here, right?" Draconis peered into the doorway of light before looking back at the mechanical man and then to the door. There was a rather long pause which didn't ease Draconis' paranoia. "Right?"
"Yeah I can get you back! I can't lose my number one hunter right? I'll get you back here just as soon as you finish up alright? Now just remember, after you slay the beast find Martha and get your pay." He quickly tossed Draconis a holopendant and came right up behind him, "Use that to contact me ok? Good. Now go!" Harlequin quickly pushed the dragonoid through the portal and let out a sigh of relief, "Great…now to figure out how to get him back."
Draconis began to free fall through the bright blue vortex, it seemed like he had been dropping for at least a good hour now! Then again the whole time and space thing may not have applied in this situation and it could have been a few days or maybe a split second! "Alright this seems simple enough, kill an aqua hydra, collect a reward, wait for a transport. Easy…totally easy." He peered down through the rippling blue vortex until he suddenly caught a glimpse of a doorway coming up fast! "Seems like that's my exit point…"
Little did Draconis actually realize the door way had been only three feet off the ground. The moment his head poked through it he only had about two seconds to react and by the time he realized that he was about to hit the ground it was far to late. Draconis hit the ground with a rough, "SMACK!" as he got a nice face full of grass. Draconis' body went stiff for a split second before the going limp. The rest of his body slowly began to slink out of the portal just before it closed up. With his face in the grass the hunter muffled out, "I'm gonna kill that clown next time I see him…"
Using his arms Draconis quickly propped himself off the ground and spit out the collection of dirt and grass he had accumulated. He slowly got to his feet and dusted off his chest before taking in his surroundings. He was in the middle of no where it seemed, nothing but fields and grass for as far as he could see, that was until he noticed the tops of roofs east of where he was standing. "Good, I should be able to get some info there…"
With his wings spread wide open the dragonoid took flight high above the tree line and went due east. Surely enough he was right about the town being a few miles away from here. Draconis touched down in the midst of the two square which startled the inhabitants that lived there. He glanced about and noticed that he was in a town of lizard and serpent people. As he looked about he noticed that most of the town's people who were out and about that day were staring at him.
A person resembling a king cobra walked up to the dragonoid slowly, "Can we help you ssssstranger?" The male spoke nervously due to the fact that he hadn't seen anyone who looked like that before in his life. And the same could be said about nearly everyone who laid eyes upon him in the town. They all seemed to be a bit frightened of him, some backing away into their homes, others covering the eyes of children and ushering them in the opposite direction.
"Yeah I need a little information. What do you know about a aqua hydra running a muck?" Draconis looked into the cobra's eyes for just a moment and noticed that he struck some sort of fear in him. Draconis tilted his head down a bit as he awaited for his answer. The Dragonoid didn't like this all to much, he knew he wasn't the nicest guy in the world but being feared by people who just laid eyes on him actually made him feel…awkward.
"Oh I know! A girl and her cat came through here today, they said they were going to the water kingdom for the same reason you are." A plucky, young girl quickly stood beside the cobra and smiled up at Draconis. She had to have been no taller than 4'2" as Draconis actually had to tilt his head down to see seemed to resemble what looked like a armadillo lizard strange thing was her scales were bright colored, a mixture of warm reds and oranges scattered about. It looked like she was on fire. "If you want to try and catch up to them keep going east from here and you'll find them…or at least the kingdom!"
Draconis blinked for a moment as he notices she didn't hiss after each s she spoke, it must only occur with certain species of people. "Thanks…" Draconis smiled and got down onto his knee as he looked the girl in her bright yellow eyes. The hunter quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of gold pieces and placed them down in her hand. "Take this and put it somewhere safe…and don't spend it all in one place ok?"
The girl smiled bright at the dragonoid and wrapped her arms around his neck before looking him in his one good eye, "Thanks…" She noticed that Draconis had a bandage wrapped around his left eye lightly brought a hand up to try and touch it, "What happened to your eye…?"
"It's a long story and one you probably don't want to hear." Draconis got to his feet and turned his attention to the road that led out of the town, "I'll be back once I've finished the mission. Maybe when I get back Ill tell the sto-"
"COMING THROUGH!" A high pitched female voice called out from down the road, the source of it was none other than adventurer Fionna and her trusty cat companion Cake. At first no one really seemed to wonder why she was screaming like that but it all changed when the earth rumbling growl of the seven headed aqua hydra sounded. The duo came barreling through, leading that beast right into the town.
"Why would you bring it back here?" The Cobra grabbed onto Fionna's shoulders just before she ran by and looked her in the eyes. He was not only furious that they would do something so reckless but also scared out of his mind! He peered up only to see the one of the hydra's head reel back and pump gallons of water into the streets of the town.
"W-well we thought if we got it away from the water we could kill it!" Fionna stuttered out before looking down at Cake.
"Yeah! When it was in the water it seemed like nothing we did would kill it! Fionna definitely cut open one of it's necks and it just sealed right back up like nothing happened! Besides I can't stand the water and I wasn't gonna fight near it!" She pouted a bit and crossed her arms before quickly jumping at the sound of the hydra's terrible growl!
"Well it looks like my day just keeps getting better…" Draconis turned his attention to the beast. It towered over him by at least a good 25-30 feet and was able to produce gallons of water with just one spit take! Yet for some reason that only made Draconis that much more excited. Draconis dashed forward, past the group of frantic people and went right for the beast! "Come on!" The hunter shouted out as climbed on top of a house and quickly began to leap from rooftop to rooftop!
The group of people watched from below. Draconis was in the air with his Katars ready for action! The dragonoid floated them for a moment before choosing the center head as his target. "You first!" With a flap of his wings Draconis went from 0 to 25 in a split second, with a twist of his body became a red corkscrew. He pierced through the neck of the center head and quickly threw his arms apart and severed it right there.
The town's people below began to cheer with glee, that was until the bright blue blood came raining down on them after the decapitation. Draconis on the other hand had a grin on his face as he stood on the severed head of his target, "One down seven to…" Before he could even finish his sentence Draconis felt the head underneath him dissolve into nothing but water. The puddle of liquid quickly rushed up back of the hydra, closed off the bleeding wound and congealed into another head! "Oh you've got to be kidding me…"
"That happened to us too…" Fionna pouted for a moment as she drew her crystal sword, "You ready Cake?"
"Yeah just give me a, OOOF!" Just before Cake could adjust her size to combat the beast the Hydra used his manipulation over water and formed dense aqua tendrils that wrapped about both Cake's and Fionna's body. Fionna struggled a bit but Cake was freaking out! Like most or rather all felines Cake hated water and she couldn't focus enough to grow any lager. She was too focused on the water.
"Great…now it's a slay and rescue mission?" Draconis growled a bit as he reached into the rather large pocket to retrieve his chain when all of a sudden he heard the screams of a familiar voice.
"HELP!" The armadillo lizard from before had also been snared in the tendrils and hoisted high up into the air. This really put a fire in Draconis' chest. There was no way he was going to let the only person in this town that didn't fear him be swallowed by that beast. "Please, somebody! Anybody! HELP ME!"
"Let. Her. Go!" Draconis' one good eye began to burn with a powerful fury. The hunter quickly drew out his chain. The skilled dragonoid quickly wrapped the chain around stray boulder and began whipping it around before launching it forward and clocking two of the hyrdra's head together, causing the rest to howl out in pain. The sudden painful sensation caused the beast to release the three girls in a not so safe way…
"EEEEEEP!"
The collective squeals of the girls suddenly being released into the air alerted the dragonoid. Without even hesitating Draconis leaped into the air with frightening speed and whizzed by three times, each time he did he brought one girl back down to the earth. The last that of which was the lizard girl who he still didn't even know the name off. "T-thank you." She said softly as she clutched onto his arm, strangely enough she was a bit afraid of heights.
Draconis touched down on the ground and looked the fire colored lizard in the eyes for a moment and began to chuckle, "Sorry, I don't even know your name…"
"Celosia…M-my name is Celosia and what is the name of my rescuer?" She smiled softly and lightly rubbed her scaled arms, the yellow spots on her cheek slowly shifted to a bright reddish-pink as she smiled.
"My name? I'm Draconis and…" Just before he could finish his sentence the hydra quickly doused in gallons of water. Draconis stood there for a moment with a blank stare on his face. Within seconds how ever his face began to shifted from neutral to enraged. The water on his body quickly evaporated as his temper rose and soon the patch of grass beneath his feet caught fire. "Would you excuse me for a moment.
Celosia quickly nodded and took a step back, as did Fionna, Cake and the rest of the towns people did as well. Draconis turned about and began to snarl under his breath, "You've just pissed off the wrong person!" The hunter threw his arms into the air and brought them down quickly as his body was suddenly burst into flames. With even greater speed the Dragonoid quickly took to the skies and began to reek havoc on the beast. His zoomed by it multiple times, each time leaving a burning gash on the beast.
The dragonoid was moving so fast the hydra just couldn't keep up with it and began to sway back and forth with confusion and dizziness. The beast let out a low, painful groan as it's body was taking one blazing strike after another. Draconis' katars burned deep painful wounds that the hydra couldn't heal without and external source of water. In about a minute the beast dropped to it's knees. "Let's finish this…"
The Dragonoid quickly dropped to the ground and with sharp reflexes drew his chain and began to bind and constrict the body of the hydra. Once the beast was coated in chains the Dragonoid stepped back and clasped his hands together. "Meus ignis adolebit, meus ignis accipere et consumet meum scopum!" He chanted out rapidly as he watched the chains around the hydra catch fire.
The beast let out a terrible growl as it's body began to wither and evaporate into nearly nothing. Except how ever a rather bright and massive sapphire that hit the floor with a heavy "Thud!" The towns people came out behind and from their homes as they say that the beast had been slayed. The king cobra came out from the midst of the crowed and made a b-line for the sapphire. "Thissss sssshould fix all the damage caussssed by thosssse two and a little left over for ssssome renovationssss. What did you ssssay your name wassss again?"
Draconis quickly rolled up his chain and stuffed it back into his pocket before turning the the cobra. He pointed at himself with his thumb and began to grin, "Me? I'm Draconis."