Ideas ! So many ideas, and yet so little motivation to write them... This is the first chapter of yet another AU, and I will not give up on the previous. One day I'l work consistently, but in the meantime... I hope you'll enjoy some Dragon Hunter AU !
Eyes scanning above the dense forest facing her, Yang breathed as evenly as her thudding heart allowed her to, excitement and apprehension clawing at her at the same time. Behind the forest, an endless wall of towering sharp peaks seemed to bite the evening sky, almost as if a gargantuan creature had died here, leaving a row of deathly abrupt teeth to separate humans from dragons.
Dragons. The very reason of her presence here.
For the millionth time, she checked her weapons. Bow, crossbow, double-edged battle axe, daggers, and her trusty hunter knife were all in functioning order and at hands reach. Last but not least, she checked Amber Celica's blade, clenching and unclenching her fists to make sure that her iron claws were ready. She was about as ready as possible, considering that she was running straight into the reptiles' den in hope of hunting one down.
She knew finding a dragon wouldn't be easy, let alone track it down, isolate it and then end its monstrous rampage of a life definitely… But she was determined, more than ever. It was time for her to prove herself, and nothing less than a dragon would be enough of a claim for her first solitary hunt. She had a legacy to carry, and she was definitely not letting it down. Else, she could as well drop her family name and exile herself, as her uncle had done so long ago…
Lavender eyes suddenly drawn toward a moving shape, she clenched her teeth in a satisfied grin, one some may have qualified as sadist. Others would simply say she had taken after her mother. The vague shape she had noticed was closing in rapidly, and it soon revealed itself to be two dragons flying close to each other. Squinting, she could see that the first one was bulkier, apparently having a hard time keeping its muscled mass off the ground with wings that were disproportionately tiny while the other was evidently shaped for flying, and acrobatic flying with that. That said, the slender coal scaled one – that Yang instantly named Black, as she had an old habit of naming preys and challenges – seemed a bit… off. It kept spiralling, barrel rolling from right to left, jerking away from Red - the bulkier one – almost as if it would be hurt staying too long by its side.
With the two fire-breathing lizard now less than a third of a mile away, she finally understood that it wasn't just a weird flying fashion. Red was clawing and gnawing at Black, trying its darnest to wound, if not kill the other. That was definitely abnormal, as dragons were reported to be either very solitary or very supporting of one another… But she wasn't going to question her luck. There were literally two dragons flying over her, so engrossed in their fight that they hadn't even noticed her. Her huntress instincts finally kicked in, and very shortly she found herself at the highest point she could find, modified crossbow armed and ready.
Letting out a shaky breath, she proceeded to calm herself down. Her hands now steadied, she pointed her weapon toward Black, Barely hesitating before choosing which would be her first prey. Something in the way that this dragon moved had piqued her interest, and perhaps that's what pushed her to try to capture it rather than kill it. Both would be equally rewarding in terms of honour, and she could still kill it if it stayed too uncooperative in her taste. Not to mention that capturing Blake would be way easier than doing so with Red, since it seemed to be the most injured of the two. She saw an opening, her breath caught in her throat, and time seemed to slow down as her grip clenched on the trigger.
The net went flying an instant later, and she already knew it would land precisely where she had wanted it to : to Black's side, trapping one of its wing and legs. Red, unphased by the surprised yelp of its foe, finally managed to land a hit. His claws viciously came across Black's snout, and it almost seemed to laugh at the other's misfortune while it sunk toward the ground, unable to fly due to the sudden stillness of its wing. The sheer force of the hit sent it flying away completely uncontrollably, and Yang made a mental note as to where it should land before focusing on Red again.
"Don't rejoice yet," Yang murmured as she reloaded her crossbow, this time with good old deathly bolts. "You're gonna join the party."
Evening her breath once more, she secured her shot rapidly and fired once again, but this time luck was not on her side… At the very last moment, turned around its heavy body, its muscular shoulder blocking the bolt initial path toward its neck. Cursing under her breath, she placed the crossbow on her back as swiftly as possible, then picking up her battle axe. There was no way her bolt could kill such muscular dragon, especially if its scale were as thick as their sanguine red colour seemed to indicate. And there was no way that it'd let her alone, now that she had caught its attention.
Peeling her eyes off of it for a split second, merely the time needed to asses her surroundings, she almost missed the contraction of its wing, signalling an imminent descent. There was no guessing where it would descent : right on her, to either incinerate her with its terrible breath, or scoop her up into its monstrous claws to devour her. Or maybe if it was merciful, it would toss her into the night sky, and let her body wreck on the cold, rocky ground. Fighting her instincts, she stood still, waiting for the very last minute to dodge. If she averted herself from its trajectory too early, it could correct its path and kill her. If she did it too late, well there was no wonder what would happen.
Plunging to the side, she cringed at the shrieking sound of its claws against the rock on which she had stood not a moment ago before getting back to her feet hurriedly. Red then landed, its powerful mass shaking the ground upon impact. Inadvertently, she made eye contact with the beast. She saw its rage and its fury, glinting in Olympic blue like a raging sea, she saw amusement, but worst of all, she saw a glimpse of intelligence. Understanding. That thing was not just a blood thirsty beast : it was a sentient creature that took pleasure in other's suffering.
And just like that, she realised how foolish she had been, thinking that she could strike down two dragons by herself. Hands clammy, she gulps hard, trying to get rid of the sudden feeling of absolute dread that dawns over her, to no avail. Gone are her bravery and pretention, and the only thing on her mind is survival. The beast start to circle around her, and she suddenly notice how easier it seems for it to walk and not fly… as if she needed any other odd against her. Maintaining the distance and doing her best to not look into those devilish eyes, something caught her attention. To her right, there was an opening in the cliff, a narrow crack that would hopefully lead to some kind of underground gallery. Her eyes came back to her opponent, only to see it squint its eyes at her, having apparently caught on her little stratagem. Giving up all kinds of confidence, she bolted toward the crack, knowing very well that if she did not reach it first, she would be dead meat by the end of the day.
The ground shook slightly under her feet, signalling her that the thing had started running. Much to her dismay, it seemed to be closing the space between them at an alarming rate, its bull-like musculature slowly but certainly giving it the upper hand. Closing her eyes for a fleeting second, Yang briefly wished she'd get out of this alive, before barrelling into the opening.
Surprisingly, she made it to the cave. Luckily, it seemed to be more than just an air pocket in the cliff, as the walls disappeared into shadows. Mercifully, the dragon was way too large to enter the cave, and it was reduced to slipping one of its paws in, blindly clawing around to try and catch her. Making sure she was out of reach, she took a second to catch her breath, barely believing that she was still alive. That had been a close call. Way too close in her taste.
The paw retreated suddenly, leaving all her senses in high alert. Did it gave up? So soon? That was unlikely. Then again, this thing had been acting weird from the very start, attacking another dragon… when its mouth slipped through the entry, she almost jumped.
It inhaled loudly, and in an instant she knew what was about to happen : it would incinerate the entire cave, and her with it. Her eyes widened before turning a crimson red that would probably match the beast's scales, and she clenched her fists, readying her claws. She would have liked her axe better, but the weapon laid abandoned in the grass, as she had let go of it in favour of sprinting toward the cave.
"Oh no you don't!" she roared, propelling herself toward Red's face, all claws out.
She punched it right on the jaw, tearing through the scales surprisingly easily and startling the beast. In its surprise, it tried to retreat hastily and scraped its neck on the sides of the entrance, yelping at the unexpected pain. It groaned a bit out of her sight, before a heavy, leathery sound tore through the obnoxious silence. Biting her lower lip, she slowly risked her head outside, to see that it had abandoned the pursuit. Visibly, it did not expect such opposition, and deemed her too dangerous for what killing her would benefit. Sighing heavily, she hesitantly stepped outside and made her way as discreetly as possible toward her axe. Picking it up, she replaced it amongst her other weapons and started walking toward what she deemed to be Black crash site. Tonight she wouldn't sleep… She needed to put as much distance as possible between her and the previous battlefield. She wasn't sure she could have slept anyway, the devious glint of these blue eyes still haunting her.
A long, restless night later, she was finally approaching her estimated target while the sun started to lazily trail its morning rays on the peaceful trees. She was quite tired, both from the extended period of awakening and by the surprising amount of effort she had to put to cover the distance. Walking in a forest was not as easy as it could seem, especially in dense forests… and this one in particular added a rugged terrain to get some more fun. Twice already she had fell in hopefully not-so-deep crevices, and twice she had to claw her way out of them, tiring a little more and adding small scratches and bruises to the pretty long list of those she already sported. By now she was almost pushing further just for the sake of it, having lost almost all hope of finding her prey…
Pushing back a branch that obstructed her view and making one more tired step, she was stopped mid-yawn by her own surprised yelp as her foot met nothing but thin air. Stumbling downward in a completely uncontrolled manner, she ironically had the time to inwardly whine at yet another crevice, before a merciful bush slowed down her fall. Slightly. Inflicting various cuts and scratches to her already bruised arms.
Grunting, she pushed herself back to her feet only to notice that this wasn't another small pit like she had – begrudgingly – become accustomed to, no this was a much larger place, surrounded by cliffs. And looking back on where she came from, she was pretty damn lucky to have fallen on that bush, else she would have suffered a lot more than a few cuts and scratches. While she tiredly wondered how the heck she was going to get out of there, a heavy breathing resounded, freezing her on spot. Was that her end? Stuck down a pit, killed by a dragon because she was too stupid to be careful about where she'd set her feet, and too stubborn to admit she needed sleep?
Slowly turning around, she breathed in relief when she noticed the ropes tying the jet-black beast to the ground. Having a chance to get a closer look at such majestic creature, she carefully made a few more steps toward it while still keeping a safe distance from its deathly claws.
It was one of those very lizard-like dragons, with a slender but muscular body and thick scales, while its wings were slowly merging from long, flat scales to a more leather-like skin and whiting slightly at the tips. Its right wing was covering a great deal of its body, but some purple patterns could still be seen slithering around its legs, as if deep purple flame were permanently etched onto its scales. Its barbed tail was whipping around, long and thin white bony spikes uselessly scraping against the ground in a visible display of annoyance. Or maybe it was despair?
Slowly walking around the sprawled form of the beast on the ground, she made her way towards the head, curious to see which kind of facies such monster could bear. That was perhaps a terrible mistake. When she finally got to a place from where she could see its head, the beast painfully strained its neck to point its snout at her. And she was met with the most heart-wrenching, painfully resigned look she had ever seen. This beast was sentient, just as Red was, there was human-like intelligence glimpsing in those eyes.
And it knew it was going to die. She would take its life, for the sake of a legacy she had never wished to carry. But could she really mindlessly slaughter a beast – no. It was too intelligent to be called a beast. Could she really slaughter a creature that looked back at her with such human expression?
Her pondering was interrupted by a sudden realisation : the creature wasn't looking directly at her. And it slowly dawned on her, the blood dripping from its head, the pained wince of its mouth, the unnatural veil on its pupil, the scars running over its eyes, almost hidden by the coal tone of its skin… It couldn't see anymore. And that simple realisation lifted a great weight from her shoulder, as she made a rapid, perhaps foolish description.
"Dragon!" she said, voice loud and assured. "In other circumstances, I would have ended your life this instant. I would have taken your heart as a trophy, and your carved skull would have become an infinite testimony of my victory." Suddenly dropping the fierce bragging tone that had been pushed on her, she pursued with a much softer voice, one that felt like herself. "But I have seen something else in your eyes. I want to believe that you're not a stupid mindless beast as I was told. I want to believe we can come to an understanding. For that, Dragon, I will set you free of your chains. But don't you get any funny ideas, or I swear on my axe that I'll behead you before you got the chance to lay a claw on me. Is that clear?"
At this point she was pretty close to deeming herself entirely mad. She had asked a question to what was essentially a giant, winged, fire-breathing lizard. And she was expecting an answer now?
She almost jumped when the beast nodded ever so slightly. Did it understand her? It looked a lot less desperate now, and a lot more… suspicious. Giving one last look to the top of the cliffs, Yang made a step toward the dragon. Now in attack range, she stood with all her senses on high alert, expecting death to rain on her at any minute. But when nothing happened, she had to convince herself that she had not dreamed the nod, that the creature had effectively agreed – willingly or not – to let her get dangerously close to its core.
Breathing deeply, she made her way towards her goal, nerves unravelling at how foolish her actions were, until finally, she was in touching range.
"I will cut the ropes now, don't move or my blades might cut you. Also I'll probably have to touch you in order to free you from the trap, please don't freak out."
When that last sentence left her lips, she realised that she was most likely the one who would freak out from the contact, and almost laughed at the stupidity of the situation. Instead, and against all of her instincts and training, she slowly proceeded to slice the ropes, successfully avoiding all contacts with the beast. Until the last link came, and she had to separate it from the beast's chests.
And for a fleeting second out of time, she grazed the warm scales with her fingertips, electricity running through them each time the powerful heart beneath it beat, an otherworldly contact that would forever mark her with the memory of how warm, how soothing this feeling was. Then, breath caught in her throat, she cut the last rope and the moment was gone. The beast extended its wings, and in one powerful bat, it propelled in the sky.
Silhouette etching black against the morning sun, it held for a graceful second before reality claimed its rights, and the gigantic shape came crashing down on the ground, away from where it had stood not so long ago.
Shaking lightly, Yang turned away. Apparently they were both stuck inside this stupid pit for an undetermined period of time. Heart still hammering in her chest, she decided to make the best of the situation, and a beginning of a smile crept its way on her lips.