Growing Anxiety.
It was a bright spring morning in Glenhaven, and the sun shone brightly over the desert city. The streets filled with dragons of every shape and colour, from Light dragons to Dark dragons. The palace, which stood at the center of the city, towered over the landscape, with no equal in the whole of the desert.
Rune, the black dragon, was pacing down the halls of the palace, examining the many paintings and statues that were artfully placed along the way. He had no real reason for coming here, it was his day off from school, and could have gone anywhere he pleased. But the quiet calm of the empty castle was far more soothing to him than the noisy bustle of the rest of the city. And he hoped to meet up with Nellie, his water dragoness girlfriend here for a relaxing day.
Rune's midnight black scales where matched by his grey underbelly and two grey horns. Four more spikes jutted out from the back of his jaw and a strange, glowing blue Sigel, shaped like two infinity signs intersecting at the middle stood out on either side of his flanks. His golden yellow eyes appraised the surroundings with keen interest. Finally he caught sight of his destination: The Library. He had promised to meet Nellie here for a bit of reading, and enjoying each other's company.
As he stepped in, he was completely unaware that three sets of eyes were watching him. Roxanne, Aaron and Vaun all watched from the shadows of one of the side passages. Roxanne, the yellow, blue horned, green under bellied lightning dragoness grinned as she saw Rune disappear into the library.
"What are we doing here again, Rox?" Vaun the two horned blue dragon asked, confusion edging his voice. Roxanne sighed.
"Fine, I will explain once more, though I fail to see why I have to every five minutes. I am sick of Nellie getting Rune, so we are going to knock her out, and I will take her place."
"Um, Rox. Not to be rude or anything." The brown four horned dragon, Aaron grumbled glancing over at his friend. "But why would he go with you? He already has a girlfriend, Nellie."
"Well I will dress up as Nellie. And once he sees how much better I am that her, he will leave her for me. Simple."
The lightning dragoness's two companions looked at each other sceptically and shrugged. "Whatever you say, Rox." They sighed in unison.
A few minutes later, a blue water dragoness walked past the spot the three were hiding in. She had two pink horns that grew backwards off of her head, and then sharply angled down parallel to her neck, and matched her underbelly in colour. Her mane was a light blue.
"That's Nellie!" Roxanne whispered, body tensing to pounce on the unsuspecting dragoness.
"We know Rox." The two dragon cronies sighed again, exasperated. They all waited for a moment for Nellie to pass them by, and then they sprung from hiding and bore down on their prey. Three quick strikes to her head took her out cold.
"Wow that was easy." Roxanne grunted in surprise. They grabbed the dragoness and dragged her back into the side passage they had just came out of.
"So where do we put her?" Vaun asked as they set Nellie down.
"In that garbage can over there." Roxanne chuckled evilly, gesturing to a heap of trash nearby.
"Is that entirely necessary?" Aaron questioned, dubiously.
"Of course! She has gotten Rune for too long! It is time for this wealthy mooch of a dragoness to get what she deserves. And besides, insult to injury." Roxanne grinned. The three picked up Nellie and heaved her into the garbage bin. They then covered her in trash until she wasn't visible.
"Okay." Vaun panted, tired from the exertion of burying the blue dragoness. "Now what do we do?"
"Nothing." Roxanne answered, also panting. "Now I just dress up like her and I go on a date."
Roxanne pulled out a pack of makeup and fake horns and opened it up.
"Okay, I will get dressed, you guys look that way, no peeking, or I will kill you."
…
Cyrus padded down the halls, towards Tina's room. He was a black dragon, just like his brother Rune, only his symbol was red, instead of Rune's blue. He also looked a great deal like a girl, which caused many male, and even female dragons to make fun of him. Some male dragons would even ask him out on dates, without realising he was actually a male. It drove him crazy.
The one girl he truly liked, was Tina, who despite all of his subtle attempts to get her attention, wouldn't think anything more of him than as a friend. So now he was going to do the only thing he thought would get her attention: Ask her out on a date.
He swallowed hard and shook his black maned head. Two horns protruded from his skull and backwards, and two curled under his jaw like tusks, his underbelly was a light red, almost pink.
He stopped at Tina's room door, and stopped to get his nerve back. In a pack draped over his side held a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates. He wanted to make sure she would go out with him. With one last deep breath, he opened the door.
Tina stood in the middle of her room, amidst the mess of her room. She was mustard yellow in colour, and with two dark coloured horns, with blue eyes. She turned to look at him and smiled.
"Hey runt, whatcha doing here?"
"Uh, well I was here to ask you something." Cyrus stuttered, feeling more confident as he spoke.
"Yeah, what is it?" She asked, turning and picking up a stocking and slipping it on to match the other one she wore.
"Well, I was wondering if… if…" His nervousness returned, and she turned back to look at him. "If you would like to go with me to a restaurant for a meal, on me."
"Oh, sorry runt, I've got to go and clean the Deep Shadow's public toilets for mom and dad. They're all too busy to do it themselves and they're giving me forty bucks to do it!"
"But…"
"Got to go!" Tina called and ran out of her room, leaving a speechless Cyrus behind.
He stood; the bag filled with goodies fell to the ground.
"But… but you could do that later…" He whispered, tears filling his eyes.
Then, unable to keep his anguish in check, he turned and tore out of the room, bawling like a little girl.
...
Blank paced around his room, grumbling. He had been sent to his room to clean the disastrous mess that he lived in. His parents had described his room as: a tornado had torn through it and had been followed by a herd of pigs. This was an unfair comparison as the former was completely untrue.
Blank was an orange dragon with two red horns and a blue mane. He continued pacing, not wanting to clean up his artistically messy room. A voice from behind his door caused him to flinch and stop pacing.
"You aren't going to get out of that room until that pigsty is cleaned up!"
"Alright mom." Blank sighed, turning to his closet and scooped up a bunch of crud and moved over to it to put it away. He opened the closet and dumped the crud into the closet. A bunch of dust and old garbage fell out and all over the floor.
"Crap." Blank sighed. And leaned over to examine the garbage and grimaced. "Literally."
He sighed again and straightened up to start organising his room. That is when he caught sight of the spider. It was tiny; barely even the size of his pinkie claw.
Blank screamed. He swiped a paw at it but that just caught it on him. He frantically shook his claws and it was flung onto his face and got stuck there. He crossed his eyes and saw it staring at him with its eight red eyes. He turned and ran, swinging his head hoping to get it off of him.
He burst through the door, and behind him he heard his mother shout at him to stop. He didn't listen and continued running, screaming with fear.
…
Rune sat reading in the quiet sanctuary of the library. He was reading his favourite kind book: History. This was stupid as History is, and always has been boring, especially with so many more interesting books like Bashing your face against a wall 101, and Why you don't eat sharp objects 2.0. But he read History anyways, yet none knew why.
The library was deserted, achingly empty of life and as silent as a graveyard. And this was the way Rune liked it, quiet, so he could concentrate on his reading without others pestering him on his choice of books. But for once, he wanted the later to not be true, he wanted Nellie, his girlfriend, to be here with him to read. Yet she had not arrived yet, much to Rune's distress.
"Where is she?" He grumbled, putting the book down. "She should have been here by now."
Then the stillness of the library was shattered as a blue dragoness came into view. She approached slowly, making her way over to Rune with care and grace.
"About time." Rune thought, smiling. Nellie sat down beside him, and he frowned. Something wasn't quite right. Her scales were a little darker than normal, and her pink horns seemed to be placed slightly off. And even her eyes seemed to be a shade off. Nellie noticed his frown and smiled warmly.
"Sorry Rune, I wasn't feeling very well today. And I couldn't get my makeup on right."
Even her voice seemed different, but Rune nodded in understanding and pushed the thoughts aside. Nellie snuggled up to Rune, who looked at her quizzically.
"This is a little weird of her, normally she isn't so forward." He mused, but folded his wings around her welcomingly. "Not that I mind." He thought with a grin.
"So Rune," Nellie asked, smiling contentedly, "What do you have in mind for today?"
"Well," Rune began, tapping his claws down on the book he had been reading, "I was thinking of having some time alone together to read, and then I was going to let you decide what we would do for the rest of the day…"
Nellie smirked. "Really! Then I think I know what we should do…"
Rune glanced over at her. "Already? I thought I would give you some time to think it over."
"No, I know what I want to do, and I think you would like it as well." Nellie responded slyly, rubbing her side against Rune's chest. Rune blushed, and was starting to get the nervous feeling that he knew what she wanted.
"Um, I-I don't think we're r-ready for that just yet, Nellie." He stuttered, flushing scarlet.
Nellie purred in response. "Oh but why not? We're still young, why not relish in the fact and have some fun while we have the chance?" She moved closer, and kissed him on the cheek, rubbing his leg with her paw suggestively.
Rune flushed and even deeper red, nearly turning purple beneath his black scales, but he allowed her to continue her treatment.
"Are-are you sure?" He stammered again, quivering.
"Yes, I am very sure I am ready." Nellie grinned, licking his face tenderly. "But for now I have a treat for you." She pulled out a box from her bag and handed it to Rune. He took it and opened it. Inside he found a box of chocolates, all moulded into the shape of hearts and other romantic shapes.
"Um, isn't it normally the males job to get a girl chocolates?" Rune asked sceptically.
"Yes, but I wanted to break the mould, you are very close to me, Rune." Nellie whispered, "I made them myself, try one, you will like them." Nellie picked one out, a walnut delight according to the list in the box and put it up to Rune's muzzle.
"Open up." She murmured, and Rune obeyed. He chewed the chocolate and smiled at its sweet flavour.
"Hey, this is really good." He smiled, planting a kiss on Nellie's forehead. And then a sudden wave of nausea flooded through him. He clamped a paw to his muzzle and resisted the urge to throw up all over his girlfriend. He failed.
Nellie screamed as she was bowled over by Rune's uncontrollable wash of sick. The nausea passed only to be replaced by a feeling of intense tightness. He felt bloated, and slow. Looking down, he saw to his horror that he was swelling. Nellie got to her paws and stepped back in fear as Rune continued to swell, his whole body, doubling, tripling in size until he was a swollen, bloated blob of dragon.
"What happened?" Nellie screamed, and Rune groggily looked around.
"I-I don't know…" He wheezed, hardly able to breathe. "But it think I was allergic to that chocolate."
"Oh Rune I am so sorry!" Nellie wailed. And then a hard, angry voice silence her.
"What have you done to my Rune you imposter bitch!"
Both Rune and 'Nellie' turned to face the newcomer. Nellie stood, covered in trash remnants. She dragged the unconscious bodies of both Vaun and Aaron behind her. Her eyes shone a bright red and steam billowed out from her nostrils.
"You, Roxanne, are so going to die." The real Nellie declared, dropping the two bodies and charging the vomit covered 'Nellie'. Rune, unable to move in his bloated state, could only watch as his two 'girlfriends' fought over him. He was unsure which of the Nellies was the real one, but he guessed it was not the one who breathed lightning.
They tore up the library with their battle, destroying many of Rune's favourite books, much to his distress. Then, from the other side of the library, Cyrus burst through and rushed over to Rune, bawling. He threw himself onto Rune, weeping.
"She dumped me! She would rather clean toilets than go out with me! I am useless; there is no reason to live!" Cyrus wailed, hugging his swollen brother close, not even caring that his brother was three times his size and as round as an orange.
Then a sudden scream ripped through the sound of the two Nellies fighting and Cyrus weeping. Blank exploded into the ruined library screaming, a tiny spider latched onto one of his horns, holding on by a thread of web. His mother, Seraph, ran behind him shouting at him to go back to his room. Blank ran into several shelves of books, sending them crashing to the ground. He then continued to run, screaming, even after the spider had been dislodged.
Rune looked around in horror as his favourite sanctuary was destroyed before his very eyes, all the while unable to do anything about it.
Over the sound of Cyrus crying, the two Nellies fighting, and Blank and his mother chasing each other around the room, Rune sighed. "This day couldn't get any worse."
It did. With a burst of purple smoke the shape of a black cloaked purple dragon appeared. He had an orange goatee and mane, and four silver horns, two of which curled back over his head, and two that curled under his jaw. He glanced around at the destruction with an amused glare and laughed.
"This is a surprise! It almost makes me curious as to what happened here."
"Bergan! What do you want now?" Rune groaned, trying to put a paw to his head over his bloated body.
"I came to destroy you once and for all. You and your friends have been a thorn in my plans for too long! And it looks like I won't even have to do that much either!" With a snap of his claws a dozen pools of darkness appeared around the area.
The others did not even pause in their antics and Rune was helpless to stop Bergan as he summoned a horde of shadowy bird like creature that Rune couldn't remember the name of.
"Atta-" Bergan shouted, but a sudden ringing from the palace bells caught his attention. "Oh!" He cried, turning away from the scene. The monsters stopped the advance they had nearly started. "It's tea time! Alright everyone, back to the Nexus. We will be back Rune! Just you wait!"
The purple dragon vanished in a puff a smoke, and his monsters followed suit. Rune sat, bloated and confused as the dragon disappeared. All around him, Blank, Cyrus, both Nellies, and Seraph continued their chaos, as if nothing had happened. Rune let out a long sigh, and closed his eyes. It was going to be a long day.
Alright, you have struggled through this to the end, so I think you deserve an explanation.
The short version: APRIL FOOLS!
The long version: Deeth Irteen and I had an interesting idea, we decided to make a spoof on each other's stories as an April fools gag for both us and you readers. Where we would bash each other's stories and characters half to death. Honestly it was fun, and I had a blast writing this story. If you want to see a spoof off of my characters, go to Deeth Irteen's profile and look for his story Derp Legacy.
Also, in case you're wondering, this isn't my new project, that is still in the works right now. I just delayed it a bit longer to put this out.