Author's notes.
Hello there, I'm Corn Chip and welcome to my first story. I'm mainly doing this out of freetime and to help improve my writing. The Beta Reader for this story is my good friend Strandshaper who also is currently working on a story of his own which, called 'Catalyst', a crossover between Harry Potter and Starcraft. If your into that stuff i highly recommend it, and if not I still recommend it. Also as I promised him I would leave him a space in the author's notes for him to put his own. So here he is.
Strandshaper: Long story short, all the good parts are mine, and the bad parts are his. Also the (Transition)s. Those are mine. Also, it seems to fall to me to give context. The following characters are from a DnD game that both of us participated in, where I played a tiefling warlock, and Corn Chip played a dracotaur paladin, so if you have no idea who they are, rest assured that no one else does either.
Shattered Dreams and Scattered Shards
Chapter 1: Unexpected events
It was a beautiful day in the forest. Birds were flitting between the branches, the sun was shining down, and Dagon was having a pretty bad time currently. How could the day be so joyful while such a tragic event has taken place. He couldn't help but be depressed at the great loss.
"Oh, do get over yourself, Dagon; you've known from the start that we would be risking our lives, this really shouldn't come as a shock," said the winged tiefling, Drelan, in a dismissive tone. It was Dagon's only job to protect them from harm. Which resulted in him failing and letting about 3 people in our group of 5 die.
"That still does not fix the fact that my role in the party was to protect them, and I failed miserably," Dagon replied with a tone of sorrow and some annoyance. It was only because of the warlocks ability to fly that he was able to save himself. Which meant he was stuck with Drelan. And to make matters also worse was the main fact that since there were only two people left, which did not make for an intimidating group. So life for him was just going to be much more tougher than it originally was.
As we continued forth through the forest. Dagon was still mourning his failure while Drelan was just simply trying to ignore the tears running down Dagon's face. Behind the dracotaur's back, the tiefling warlock was trying to hide his own discomfort.
"My familiar that exists somewhere within this realm."
Dagon paused, he has never heard this voice in his life and he couldn't see anything that likely to be the source of this voice. "Drelan, did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Drelan asked, wondering if the stress was simply too much for the copper colored dracotaur.
"With a heart of gold and the body of bronze."
Dagon was starting to feel very uncomfortable. honestly it's not everyday one would hear a voice talking to them in the middle of a forest. "Drelan I heard the voice again. Can you locate the source of it?"
"Dagon, I can't locate something that almost certainly exists only inside your head." Drelan said, seemingly deaf to the ethereal voices. It's possible that the loss of our fellow adventurers had taken its toll on Dagon much more than he thought and is causing him to imagine voices. "You're just hearing things. Now, we still have a path to get past, so if you don't mind..."
"Ok... but, I swore I heard-"
"From the very core of my heart and soul."
Dagon's face contorted in fright, and he jumped a bit back, startled from the sudden interruption by the same voice. At this point, Drelan was starting to worry for his companions sanity. As far as he could tell, there was nothing suspicious around, besides Dagon himself. Even when he looked around there was sign of anything that could have even caught Dagon's interest, much less his own. "Dagon, are you actually alright? It was a stressful day after all, and-"
"Drelan, whatever kind of magic spell your using in order to plant a voice in my head, I want you to stop using right this fucking instance!" Dagon replied, directed his panicked stare straight at the winged warlock.
"Dagon, I am not playing any type of tricks on you," Drelan rolled his eyes. "If anything's scaring you, it's probably your own imagination."
"That's probably what the guy who is doing it would say!"
Drelan wondered if it would be excessive to roll his eyes again. It probably wouldn't be. After all, he was stuck with Dagon. The same person who licked a visabily unstable-lookin radiant crystal with no good reason other than 'It looked like rock candy' and then immediately spewed acid from his mouth, and even then, changed his focus back onto the crystal, intending to 'take a bite out of the crystal and see what happens from that'. Drelan was lucky he had managed to persuade him not to do that. "Dagon, listen. I sincerely promise that whatever is happening to you is not being caused by me."
If this was any other situation, Dagon would have called bullshit and again demanded Drelan to stop whatever he was doing. Although, Dagon has been with Drelan long enough to be able to put a bit of trust in him.
"Alright. I trust you."
"Finally. So, what has the voice that apparently ONLY you can hear said so far?"
"It said something about wanting to call a familiar with a heart of gold and a body made of… bronze? I don't know exactly-"
"Answer to my call and appear!"
With the sudden return of the voice came a brownish oval suddenly appearing in midair a few inches away from the ground and just seemingly floating there. Dagon reared onto his two back feet and walked a few steps backwards in literally shock while Drelan looked on in awe.
"A portal? A stable, interdimensional portal?" Drelan exclaimed. "That's advanced magic! Why would one open here?"
Drelan almost immediately regretted mentioning that. Dagon proceeded to bombard him with questions at a speed that would dream of possessing, for minutes on end. Drelan only managed to shut up Dagon's verbal assault by quickly saying. "The answer to all your questions is 'fuck if I know. Now stop asking."
Dagon's curiousity satisfied, he walked over to the portal itself, and examined it closely and carefully. As all good scholars did, he began with the most common experiment when anybody discovered anything remotely tangible. He poked it. In response to the very light touch, the portal started to suck in Dagon's finger at a rapid pace. Dagon was caught off guard, and allowed the portal to quickly suck in his entire hand. At this point he began to try desperately to retrieve his hand, pulling with all his considerable might. The keyword being 'try'. As Dagon attempted to pull out his hand, the vacuum coming from the portal increased its own power, and pretty soon nearly the entire arm was taken in.
Drelan just watched in shock as with one final burst of great power Dagon was pulled entirely into the portal. He didn't even have time to help or grab on. Granted, he didn't really have the inclination either. But even if he had the reflexes of a rogue, and the strength of a berserker, he doubted it would have helped much. Drelan was intimately familiar with just how powerful magic could be.
However a few moments after Dagon's rude removal from this world, Drelan's expression shifted, and his gaze grew vacant. He began to nod, and his lips moved in a pantomime of speech. After a moment, Drelan nodded and turned towards the portal once more. Without hesitation, he stepped directly into it. After he went inside, the portal vanished without a trace. To an unknowing eye, it appeared as if nothing had ever happened.
(Transition)
'Today was the day where i finally get my familiar' I thought as i walked out towards the courtyard. A Lot of the time i have spent today was mainly just wondering about what type of familiar i was going to conjure up. It was clearly going to be something that will show just how great my family is. I simply waited patiently as i saw Montmorency summon her familiar, which appeared to be just a simple frog, finally after her i came next. My patience has been worn on long enough and just when i thought i was going to die out of boredom my turn came. I walked over to the summoning circle and proceeded to eagerly chant out my summoning lines.
"My familiar that exists somewhere within this realm"
"With a heart of gold and the body of bronze"
"From the very core of my heart and soul"
"Answer to my call and appear!"
I was expecting a puff of smoke, perhaps with a loud noise or grunt accompanying it. However i did not expect the ground starting to shake, before violently erupting upwards, sending many of my fellow peers, self included tumbling to the ground. When the dust cleared, there was no more circle. Instead a large crater, looking like the aftermath of a Supercharged 'Zero' Explosion, dominated the summoning ground.
"What the hell Guiche? Are you trying to show up the Zero with a massive explosion of your own?" shouted a random student, after managing to get out of the smoke, now quickly evaporating away. Louise, who was smirking due to his peer's failure, almost instantly started to scowl at the mention of her title.
Just as i was about to respond back to his mocking words, a sound emerged from the smoke that sounded like a groan, if the groaners throat had been massive and reptilian. A moment later, what little smoke remained was suddenly cast away when a large lance swung around in a wide arc.
What stood there was a dragon with brown scales, somewhat amount taller than the average human and with long horse-like legs, topped by a humanoid torso along with a dragon's head. It was as if someone had glued the upper half of a human onto the spot where the head should be and then covered the rest in scales. Also it appeared that the 'dragon horse' was wearing chainmail armor while also holding a lance and a large shell that it seemed to be using as a shield. Never have i seen or heard of any type of dragons that even came close to looking like this thing. Even Professor Colbert, who probably had more knowledge on the different kinds of creatures, from his relatively old age and experience with the familiar summoning ceremony, seemed at a loss as to what appeared.
Realization struck me. Had i summoned some unknown breed of dragon?. Perhaps I did! Or at least, one that was really rare.
Another groan rang out. Because everybody was paying their attention on the horse dragon 'that name can work' we did not even notice the other figure with him until it started to rise from the ground.
If everyone was not shocked at the dragon then they were at this… thing. It looked to be like a human, expect… its skin had a reddish tint and on it's back were two large wings. It was much shorter than the dragon horse. but unlike the dragon horse, it was not casting a shadow. It brushed itself off quickly, standing and spreading its wings to their full, impressive length. It quickly looked towards the students, allowing me to see it's slitted, catlike pupils. Which almost immediately moved along with the rest of it's facial features into a very intense and calculated glare which even intimidated ME of all people. But as a noble I cannot be allowed to falter at such a thing.
I walk over towards the pair. Normally, only one familiar is summoned but with two summoned, I could have two familiars. Which would be the case, but I don't have much interest in the humanoid creature. It's appearance was far to ugly for such a beauty like me to have. The dragon horse however had brown scales that shined like bronze which would fit very well with my runic name. As I walk over the dragon horse turns toward the humanoid and says something to it. Even if I tried, I would have not understood what it has said, not only because my ears were still ringing, but because it was in a language I had never heard, unlike anything I had heard before. As I walk over, I pointed my wand at the dragon horse and prepare to recite my lines for contract familiar.
(Transition)
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF LOVIATAR IS HAPPENING?" Dagon thought, as he fell through the air. Looking behind him up, he could see Drelan soaring above him, close behind, wings outstretched. Dagon looked back down, and saw that the ground below had come all too close. As he approached the ground, Dagon closed his eyes and tucked into a tight ball, preparing for impact. With his massive bulk, and in his heavy armor, Dagon hit the ground with the force of a meteor, causing an explosion of dust. Some of the particles managed to find their way up to Drelan, getting in his eye, and causing him to crash into the ground right beside Dagon. Dagon got up with a groan and swung his lance, clearing out the smoke. He immediately noticed the large group of fancy-dressed children staring at him. They were also whispering in some language dagon could not understand. But what caught his eyes mostly was the human that was closest to him. He had blonde hair and a jacket or whatever the name was, that exposed much of the humans chest. He holding a rose and looking at Dagon with wide blue eyes. That was rather rude. Staring is very impolite and he should get a apology. However Dagon could care less as he quickly looked towards his party member, Drelan, as he groaned and lifted himself from off the ground.
"You alright, Drelan?" Dagon asked.
"I fell from the sky because of the dust cloud that you made, and crash landed face first into this crater, which you also made. So what do you think?" Drelan snapped back.
"Well then I think I must have made a pretty impressive display"
As Drelan was about to respond he then too noticed the large crowd around them and quickly glared at the people who just apparently HAD to open up the exit to the portal in the middle of the damn sky.
"So what do you think they summoned us for" Dagon asked
"More like what they summoned YOU for, I just decided to follow you through the portal."
"You really care that much about me!?"
"Fuck off."
"Awwwwwwww" Dagon responded and had a fake tear running down his eye. He knew Drelan long enough that he knew how to joke with him. As Dagon looked back towards the crowd he noticed the blonde human walking towards him. He didn't seem very threatening. He held only a rose, and no other visible weapon. Once he reached Dagon he held out his rose and began chanting something. Dagon wasn't sure what was going on. Was the human… proposing to him? Dagon debated to himself if he should take the rose or deny it, but before he could decide, the blonde stopped talking. Dagon immediately noticed a circle forming around him and a sudden burning pain burst into existence on his forehead. This pain was unlike anything Dagon had experienced in his entire life of being a paladin. He collapsed onto the ground, trying to fight against the pain and stay awake. However the pain was too much and as Dagon vision slowly turned to black. The last thing he could make out were the frightened eyes of the blonde and the very pissed off eyes of Drelan.