Hello everyone, this is my first Fire Emblem fic and I hope you enjoy my story. My previous story Dream Guardian is discontinued at this point due to lack of motivation and ideas to where to take the story. This is a slight retelling of Paralogue 2 where Corrin's route is ambiguous as well as her marriage option for the convenience of the reader's own experience with the game.
I probably have a better time writing about animals interacting and displaying natural behaviors than having humans interact with dialogue.
This story contains gore, and somewhat graphic descriptions of my darker interpretation of the feral dragon transformation.
There is a disturbance in the Deeprealms. The fields are soaked with blood, bodies scattered, tattered by slashes done by blades. If one could carefully see each wound on every corpse, they would find a pattern of elegant and efficient slashes that told a story of what order each invader was killed.
Corrin charged towards the army of invaders threatening the Deeprealms and especially her son Kana who was gripping his arm from a small wound that led to minor bleeding done by the first wave of invaders who appeared shortly before his mother's arrival.
"Hey you bunch of bullies! Stop hurting Mama!" Kana intervened in place of a possible assault dealt again by the invader before him.
"Kana what are you doing?! How many times do I have to tell you to run?" Corrin scolded, showing great concern for her son's safety.
"No! Not after I have waited so long to see you again!" Kana responded with an unexpected outburst of anger, although he was not aware, his blood was boiling and roars were heard inside his head. His grey eyes became blood red with a reptilian pupil and his canines grew into fangs.
"I want to stay right- Rrgh!" Kana collapsed to his knees and growled, his hards tightly gripped the earth as a wave of pain coursed through his body. Corrin could only watch in horror as his son was struck by a mysterious pain.
"To stay righ-RRarghgh-right..." The child's voice became more strained as he grunted in agony. His organs felt like they were molten metal burning his flesh from the inside while they were pulled apart.
"Right by your-BRAAARRRRGGGHHH!" He gave out a monstrous howl as he was surrounded by water while his body was burning. His body began to stretch and his bones and muscles broke apart and restructured themselves back together. There was the constant sound of bones crunching and flesh sizzling and melting as it molded itself into a new form.
The pain of Kana's body was too much for him to handle as it knocked him unconscious, yet his body stood in his knees and his hands growing into talons that supported his upper body. His mind was asleep, but his body was nowhere near at peace, his neck elongated and his face faded away into a smooth, visor-like front of his dragon head. His back gave opening to large holes which a set of wings erupted, spraying draconic blood that boiled in the air. The lowest end of his spine bursted from his rear as it quickly extended into a tail.
What stood before the princess was no longer her little boy, but a dragon of silver scales towering over her. Consumed by rage, the young dragon attacked one of the shocked invaders by pinning him to the ground. Kana used his front legs to stomp him continuously, breaking his ribs and crushing his lungs. The dragon moved to his next target, leaving the invader to die of heavy internal bleeding.
"It can't be! He must have inherited the ability to transform from me!" Corrin said to herself, shocked to find her son running rampant and killing every enemy in his path.
"I cannot allow him to lose himself to a mindless rampage, I must stop all of this!" Corrin followed the newlymade trail of blood and bodies done by the raging dragon.
"My dear Kana, if you can hear me... Please stop this!" Corrin stood in front of the young dragon, Kana snarled at her and warily stepped back into a threatening stance. Raising his back legs as high as possible and widely spreading his wings to appear as large and intimidating as possible.
"Please... I don't want to lose you..." Corrin begged with tears coming from her eyes. Behind that feirce and aggressive dragon was her son, a cheerful and kind boy who Corrin loved so dearly. She promised to visit him today and is determined to see him again just like his former self wanted to see her as well. Kana, overwhelmed by instinct, was unable to recognize her as her traces of dragon blood made him identify her as a small, bipedal dragon of some sorts, she was a rival in his territory that needed to be eliminated.
Kana snarled and Corrin screamed as he swiped her mother out of the way, his talons cut through her armor and left deep claw marks on her body that became more visible the more she bled. Corrin curled up and groaned at the sharp pain, she tried so hard not to cry but failed as she let our whimpers of defeat. Her son was lost to the dragon from within. Even if she could defeat all of the invaders in an injured state, she was in risk of being mauled to death by her own son.
Corrin weakly rolled on the grass to face the direction where the sound of high-pitched roars and a loud thud. Although her vision was slightly blurry, she saw the young dragon tethered by ropes around his body and neck. The invaders grasped the ropes with all their might as they pulled the dragon to its knees. Kana struggled desperately, multiple invaders weilding clubs swarmed the dragon and brutality pummeled him to submission. The young dragon cried in pain and fell completely to the ground. The intentions of the invaders were clear, to capture and break feral dragons and bend them to their will.
The sight of a mighty feral dragon fall in the hands of malevolent men broke Corrin's heart along with the calls of distress. They sounded guttural and other-worldly, but as the distress calls of her offspring continued, Corrin began to hear the same draconic roars that she heard back in Hoshido when her mother Mikoto died in her arms before her very eyes. She started breathing erratically and growling as she held back her anger.
"Gods... not here!" She whispered. Corrin searched blindly on the grass for her dragonstone, the collar was cut by Kana's claws. She could not afford to unwillingly transform into a dragon again, she would eventually lose her humanity altogether, and the fate of her kingdom and her family counted on her.
"I won't let you take over!" Corrin screamed to herself as she tightly gripped her dragonstone with one hand, the other hand was engulfed in flames as it grew larger. She felt her finger nails painfully split apart as what felt like large tooth picks emerge from and through the flesh of her fingers. The hand moved its clawed fingers against her will, the dragon within her struggled for control. She writhed in agony as she refused to allow her own skeleton to go on all fours, suffering a slow and painful change.
The dragon in her head gave a protesting roar, but surprisingly, not roars of fury but of fearful begging, showing that it had no intention to senselessly slaughter everyone in rage but it was a kind of anger with a purpose. The dragon calf naturally called for help, and the mother simply is answering. Corrin now sensed an understanding with the dragon blood that flowed throughout her body. She was always afraid of her inner dragon ever since it nearly killed Azura out of anger and confusion. Seeing this side of the feral dragon brought her at peace. Corrin could only remember an old saying, "Before you can trust others, you must learn to trust yourself."
"For the first time, I will... trust you." Corrin let go of the dragonstone and felt the collar slip away from her hand. She was engulfed in water and flames as she embraced the changes and let the dragon take over. Without resistance, the transformation was much faster but painful nonetheless. Throughout the change, the feral dragon's mind was present and awake, witnessing every second of it.
Kana's struggle became weaker as he was being constantly clubbed by the invaders, unable to get up due to the ropes holding him down and the numerous dents on his armor. The male dragon calf fell into despair as he felt a kodachi slowly saw off one of his antlers, a dragon's source of pride and dominance.
The slaughter came to a halt when the invaders heard a second roar, it was much deeper and filled with rage. Everyone including the wounded calf turned to the direction of the roar, a large feral dragon was charging horns-first into the invaders huddled together.
The invisible soldiers ditched Kana as he was far too injured to escape or fight back, Corrin turned around and swung her tail. The invaders that were struck and were knocked on their backs, a club weilder struck at the side of her torso, but her armored scales were not even dent. Corrin gripped the invader with her front talons, the claws dug deep into his shoulders and he screamed as the female dragon bit down on his head with her jaw, crushing his skull. She shaked and pulled violently as her teeth peeled away the flesh from his face.
More enemies that charged from the front raised their lances and naginatas, Corrin stood up on her two back legs and started swiping away at the invaders with her talons. The enemies screamed and fell as if they felt the pain of multiple daggers slash their bodies, those that were down too close had their spines split as the weight of an adult dragon crushed them with her front legs coming back down to the ground.
Corrin then felt a large rope slip into her neck, the dragon was being tugged by a mounted invader. The dragon's superior strength enabled her to pull the rider from his horse and into the air. Freed from the rider's control, the horse gave a panicked neigh and galloped away from its potential predator. The dragon used her claws to cut through the tethering ropes and gouge out the rider's intestines.
As the army of invaders were devastated, Corrin picked up a scent of a potential rival, it belonged to a large wyvern that nearly matched her body length and was under the command of a malig knight. The rider looked experienced and commanding, he wore a large shoulder pauldron coated in gold to display his leadership over the other soldiers. Corrin however, was much more concerned with the wyvern that entered her territory, the wyvern's thick, armored body was marked with many white scars that signified a warning to those foolish enough to face it. Unlike a feral dragon's slender frame, a wyvern's body was thick and bulky and their jaws were larger and more powerful, their teeth specialize in piercing dragon scales and is what wyrmslayers are primarily made of.
Corrin sized herself up by raising her back legs and spreading her wings to the rival dragon. The wyvern unfolded its wings and roared in response, showing no signs of backing down. The feral dragon and the malig wyvern charged towards eachother, just as the dragons continued their imminent collision, the wyvern's rider fired a tome of ice magic into Corrin's face. The female dragon flinched when the cold struck her face then was knocked down to her side when the wyvern struck her with its tail. Corrin got herself up and stomped in frustration.
Before she could look around, Corrin felt a large set of jaws bite down on her neck. She roared in pain as she was being lifted to stand on her back legs and the wyvern's teeth penetrating her silver scale armor. The wyvern, encumbered by the feral dragon's weight, flapped its wings as it pulled Corrin towards a nearby set of trees where it slammed her into them with the strength of its thick, muscular neck.
Corrin plummeted to the ground and a large dust cloud formed from the impact. The wyvern descended from its flight to find its prey through the dust. It began to sniff the air in search of a scent of a fresh kill or possible life signs. Suddenly, a set of talons emerged from the dust cloud and scratched into the wyvern's face, leaving a fresh set of bleeding scars. Corrin stood up on her hind legs and unleashed multiple swipes, the clawed talons left marks and scrapes on the wyvern's thick scales.
The wyvern thrashed its head the push the dragon back. Corrin returned to her quadrupedal stance and into the defensive. The dragon swung her head around to keep the wyvern at bay with her antlers, the wyvern kept distance and attempted to strike with heavy bites at the opportunity.
The wyvern lunged at the female dragon and then the malig knight swung the tip of his axe into her face like a scythe. Corrin recoiled and was tackled by the wyvern, sending her crashing into a nearby house of an evacuated village.
Corrin rose from the debris and revealed that her featureless, visor-like face was cracked like glass. Although she lacked expression in her face, one could tell she was furious. The wyvern stood warily, waiting for the dragon's next move.
She charged as she raised her head to swing down her antlers like a blade. The wyvern retracted to avoid the antlers once again and then attempted to bite down on her slender neck. Corrin tackled forward and raised her front talons to wrestle the wyvern's jaws away from her. Upon hurling the wyvern down on its stomach, Corrin used the weight of her front legs and upper body to push the wyvern's head down to the ground. The wyvern's rider was now vulnerable and on her reach.
The malig knight on the wyvern's back swung his axe to keep the female dragon away. Corrin used her long neck to strike swiftly and decisively like a snake. The rider screamed in pain when the dragon bit down into his axe arm and she pulled away with enough force to tear off his forearm.
Blood gushed and stained Corrin's silver scale armor, she bit the rider again but from his side. Her jaws crushed his ribs like a bear trap and pulled again to throw him off his wyvern. The malig knight landed head-first into the village concrete and broke his neck.
The wyvern thrashed to escape the immobilizing hold of the large quadrupedal dragon, but its attempts were futile as it used up all of its remaining energy in vain under the dragon's weight. It lied there breathing heavily in exhaustion, under the mercy of the female dragon. The dragon however, knows nothing of such concept.
Corrin used her front talons to slightly tilt the wyvern's head to the left, exposing the soft skin of the throat and underbelly. Although the wyvern's neck was too large for her smaller jaws, she began to bite into the throat and dug her head deeper into the neck. Her jaws gouged out chunks of flesh and muscle as the hole in the wyvern's neck became deeper and wider until the large jugular vein was cut like a thread. Blood pooled around the carcass. Corrin retracted her head out of the gouged neck, her head was soaked and drenched in the wyvern's blood. Her snake-like tongue was used to wipe and lick the blood off her face, which she found the taste rather fresh and pleasant. She roared in triumph over her worthy opponent before rushing to the last living thing on the field.
The dragon calf lied on the bloodied grass, tired and beaten. His vision was hazy and all he could see was a towering silhouette staring down at him. The calf lacked the strength to fight, so he lowered his head back down to the floor, waiting for the finishing blow. The tall silhouette's head came closer to reveal the head of a dragon similar to himself, but larger. The adult dragon sniffed the scent of the injured calf, he smelled similar to her own. The calf looked confused to why the dragon before him was treating him with such compassion when she could have killed him for being in her territory as he heard her declaring roar after a series of snarls and ground shaking stomps.
Kana felt the larger set of jaws gently pick him back up to his feet. The calf's legs were shaking feebly as he struggled to maintain balance from the injuries. Corrin gave an encouraging bellow and slightly nudged him with her head to move. The young dragon limped awkwardly to wherever the adult dragon was leading him. When he fell down, the older dragon would pick him back up by lifting him from his stomach with her head.
As Kana kept limping forward, Corrin was ahead of him pushing and clearing out the debris and corpses from his path. Ahead of him was a shallow lake, which the female dragon was halfway submerged into the water. She communicated a welcoming growl, as the dents and scratches in her silver scale armor faded away the longer she stayed in the lake. Kana hesitantly went towards the water, where he slowly stuck his front talon into the water.
The young dragon recoiled and retracted from the cold liquid. However, Kana felt a small surge of energy as the skin of his talon absorbed the water. The calf approached the lake again, he got a closer look into the water's surface and saw the hazy image of another dragon. He was slightly startled but after seeing the movements of the other dragon, it did not take long for him to realize he was staring at his own reflection. Seeing the larger dragon's appearance, he felt drawn towards her in a way that he knew he can trust her. The instinct of parental bond began to kick in now that the rage and confusion going through him has subsided.
Kana walked into the lake confidently, he felt the water being absorbed into his body through his skin. His armored scales regenerated from their dents, and his severed antler grew back to its original shape. The young dragon had a youthful urge to splash around until his newly restored energy drained out. Corrin watched as the smaller dragon played around endearingly in the water. Kana walked up to his mother where he began to rub his head against her neck as a sign of affection.
Corrin called out to her calf with a bellow as she crawled out of the lake, her armored scales were instantly dried when her skin absorbed every drop of water soaking her body. Kana followed her as she strode to a nearby tree and lied down on the grass to rest. The calf stared at the round, pink fruit that hung on the tree branches above. Despite being taller than a horse, Kana's height was a few inches short from reaching the fruit even when standing on his two back legs.
The adult dragon raised her long neck to gently pick off the fruit off the tree, upon holding the fruit with her jaws, the fruit was smushed into a flat pulp. She flinched when she sprayed juice and scattered fruit chunks on the grass. Corrin made a deep snort and then reached up the branch once more and just tore the entire branch with her mouth, there had to be a multitude of fruit that her calf could find in there. Kana gave a joyous bellow and gorged himself on the fruit until he felt sleepy as his body was focusing on digesting a large intake of fruit.
The female dragon curled herself into a ring-like position where the tip of her head met the tip of her tail. The young dragon walked to her spot and tucked himself between her legs and felt a relaxing warmth that made him even more drowsy.
Corrin turned to look at her calf curled up on her, almost sleeping like on a comfortable nest. Kana raised his head to touch hers and they nuzzled their faces together.
"Rrrghg Rawrgghh rrrh!" Kana communicated.
"These are bite marks and scratches, it isn't like Corrin to fight so animalistic and brutal in her dragon form." A black armored cavalier who stepped off his horse kneeled down to inspect one of the corpses scattered on the blood soaked field of the Deeprealm.
"Perhaps it wasn't exactly her who was doing this, look." A light-blue haired songstress said worryingly to the Norhian knight as she held a green orb she picked up from the ground.
"That is Corrin's dragonstone, but what does this mean?" Silas asked.
"Something must have triggered her Draconic Rage, likely due to these enemies attacking her child. I am afraid this situation has become more dangerous than expected. If we aren't careful, she could kill us both if her anger has not subsided."
"Then we will have to find her before she hurts anyone else!" Silas said in a serious tone.
"I believe that will not be a problem Sir Silas." A green haired ninja suddenly spoke from behind Silas, startling him.
"Please stop doing that Kaze, you scared me out of my wits!" He sighed in relief.
"I apologize for my unannounced appearance, but I have returned from my scouting to report good news. I have located Lady Corrin, but I'm afraid she is not herself at the moment." Kaze explained.
"Are the villagers safe?" Silas asked.
"The villagers have long evacuated before we came here, they must be at a safe distance by now. There are few signs of collateral damage like destroyed houses and trees, but no civilian casualties."
"Thank you Kaze, may you take us to where you found Corrin?" The songstress spoke.
"As you wish Milady, follow my lead." The ninja leapt through the fields, with the other two not far behind.
Upon reaching the place, the group carefully kept a considerable distance away upon seeing a feral dragon sleeping peacefully under a peach tree.
"She looks so peaceful." The songstress was releived to see the dragon in a peaceful state unlike her previous encounter that nearly killed her in blind rage.
"There is another dragon sleeping with her, is that..?" Silas said noticing the sleeping calf wrapped around by the larger dragon.
"Kana... He must have inherited her dragon blood to be able to transform." The princess stared in awe.
"Lady Azura, I recommend you approach with much more caution if you are considering singing to bring her back. One must not anger a bear if her cubs are nearby." Kaze said to the songstress.
Azura looked back at the sleeping dragons. Besides their aggressive nature, seeing the creature's nurturing side was an endearing sight. Showing there is more to feral dragons than being beasts fueled by rage. The way the dragon keeps her calf safely tucked in her sleep is not so different from how she has seen Corrin keep a sleeping Kana on her arms when he was an infant not too long ago.
"I believe singing will not be necessary. We will just have to wait a little longer." Azura smiled. This was the first time Kana's feral dragon has seen Corrin's. Perhaps the dragon within Corrin did not emerge out of anger, but of natural need to protect its offspring like any other creature with strong parental instinct. Or was the power of their bond what kept such familiarity between the two dragons? Azura may never know, but what is most important is that the dragons are finally at peace.
Corrin opened her eyes and found herself under the warmth of a blanket. She was back at her living quarters in the Astral Plane. She felt fatigued and had the need to go back and rest, but she could not stop thinking about the dream she just had where her son turned into a dragon and she did the same. The last thing she remembered about the dream was letting go of her dragonstone and allowed the feral dragon to take control of her body, everything after that was rather hazy. With some disturbing glances of soldiers being mauled to death, and some sweet sights of a dragon calf cuddling with her in dragon form.
Attempting to turn in her bed, one of her arms were weighed down by a warm, heavy pillow which she noticed she was hugging while in her sleep. Then realized the feeling of little arms wrapped around her waist all this time. She peeked under the blanket to investigate this 'pillow'.
Corrin gave a quiet gasp, surprised to see Kana hugging her and sleeping rather peacefully. She smiled over how cute and small he was, his body warmth kept her relaxed and tempted to go back to sleep. She tried to gently move and squirm out of her son's grip, as she almost got lose, Kana's expression saddened in his sleep and squeezed harder to keep a grip until his face looked peaceful once again.
Unable to leave the bed without disturbing Kana's sleep, the princess decided to stay in bed a little longer before Felicia wakes her up herself with that dreaded ice magic. Corrin returned to her original sleeping position to enjoy her dream come true.
Author's Note:
Special thanks go to a friend of mine for being my beta reader.
This was one of my few stories that were fun to write, such as portraying feral dragons as more like animals who have instinct outside of killing everything in sight like how they appeared in Fates. Some of the behaviors like the nuzzling, sleeping, and parental behavior was inspired by scenes from Godzilla 2014, Brother Bear, and real world animals. The fight between Corrin and the wyvern were heavily inspired by Jurassic World (I love dinosaur fights).
If you have read Dream Guardian, you may have noticed that motherhood is a recurring theme in my stories, that is probably me being a mama's boy. It would have been appropriate if I waited a few more days for that Mother's Day date.
Please submit a review if you enjoyed this story, and maybe ill regain my confidence to write again!