Foreword,
I don't have much to say this time, I just wanted to post another chapter since the first one was so short.
Be warned, there's a gratuitous reference just beyond the bold line.
"Yes... yes. This is a fertile land, where we will thrive," Stegosaurus said to Tyrannosaurus, gesturing to the verdant valley before them with his forelimb. "We shall rule over all this land, and we will call it... This Land."
Tyrannosaurus turned to Stegosaurus, his flesh-ripping teeth bared, "I think we should call it Your Grave!" he snarled maliciously.
"Aaah!" Stegosaurus responded, reeling back, "curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal!"
"Ahaha!" Tyrannosaurus laughed, malice and evil rolling out of the bowels of his throat, "mine is an evil laugh! Now die!"
The two plastic toys clashed, Tyrannosaurus easily gaining the upper hand over Stegosaurus. Meanwhile the little girl deciding their each move was ecstatic. "Yes! Fight and die for my amusement!" she cried, smashing the two toys together again and again as she imagined their bloody combat.
The Scarlet sister was torn from her fantasy of betrayal when she heard a knock on her door. "Come in!" she answered.
Through the door came Patchouli, looking a little ragged for one reason or another. "Flandre, do you have a moment?"
"If it's from my sister, buzz off," Flandre shooed, "I got a story to tell," with that she returned to her dinosaur toys.
"How would you like a friend?" Patchouli asked.
"You mean like all them?" Flandre asked, gesturing to the bones crammed into a bloody corner of her room, "no thanks."
"We all know why you're doing that, Flandre," Patchouli responded, "know that your sister has nothing to do with what I have in mind, this is all me."
"Oh?" Flandre asked, suddenly interested, "so you're gonna bring me someone this time?"
Patchouli nodded, "and this one is physiologically incapable of death."
Flandre cocked her head, "that's a really funny word, Patchy."
"They can't die," Patchouli reiterated flatly.
The Scarlet sister's eyes lit up with comprehension, "oh, cool! I hope they come fast!"
"All in due time," Patchouli said as she retreated from Flandre's room, a smile gracing her thin lips as she turned her back on the Scarlet sister.
Flandre lied down on her bed after Patchouli left, toys forgotten, interested more in the prospect of what the magician was doing. Images kept running through her imagination, ideas of what her playmate would look like. Small, large, fuzzy, bald, scaly, friends of all kinds of shapes and sizes played in her mind.
She started humming a familiar tune, a song she always listened to on that record player Remilia got her; the only song she had to use it with. As her fantasy friend took a more consistent shape, Flandre found the lyrics.
"Mister Sandman, bring me a dream.
Make him the cutest that I've ever seen.
Give him two lips, like roses and clover.
Then tell me that my lonesome nights are over."
Flandre got out of bed, sauntering over to her record player with a frown. On a whim she started it up, listening to the song play out. On the second verse the lyrics seemed to fade away to Flandre as she danced around her room, singing in tune with the music.
"Sandman, I'm so alone.
Don't have nobody to call my own.
Please won't turn on your magic beam?
Mister Sandman, bring me a dream."
Flandre stopped in front of her mirror, staring at her reflection thoughtfully. She puckered her lips at her reflection briefly before her lips settled back into a thoughtful frown, "I wonder if they'll be a good kisser." Flandre giggled at the thought, "oh that won't be a problem! I'll just teach them how!" Flandre's reflection was now smiling brightly, she was actually getting excited over this. "I'm gonna have the bestest friend ever if Patchy is on the case."
=][=
Floating outside the mansion on her broom was a familiar magician, who was currently going on about her hand. "I can't believe that Patchouli does that. Outside traditions are so gross," Marisa mused to herself as she wiped her slimy hand on her shirt, "but... a favor's a favor, I guess I should hop to it then."
After a quick back and forth with the resident gatekeeper, Marisa went on her way, flying over the lake that embraced the Scarlet mansion. The magician hadn't even made it halfway across when she spotted something a little off. There was a group of fairies dropping ice blocks into the lake... which they had rigged to explode beneath the waves.
Quirking a brow, Marisa decided to saunter over and see what was up. She quickly spotted someone familiar, the green fairy Daiyousei, and decided it would probably be best to ask her. "Oi Daiyousei!" Marisa called to the fairy, "what're you guys up to?"
Daiyousei looked over her shoulder, spotting a curious Marisa. "Ah, Marisa!" she chirped happily, "we're on a rescue mission!"
Marisa scratched the back of her head, "rescue mission?"
Daiyousei nodded with a face of urgency and purpose. "There's a big nasty water dragon in the lake that's been eating all of our friends! We're dropping exploding iceblocks in there to get his attention!"
Marisa immediately had an issue with a story. "Daiyousei, you know nobody's seen a dragon in hundreds of years, right?"
"I'm not entirely sure but it's all I got!" Daiyousei countered.
"You sure you're not trying to piss off some salamander or something?" Marisa asked.
"He has scales, not really slimy skin!" the fairy said, "I've lived long enough to tell the difference between a salamander and whatever this is!"
Marisa folded her arms skeptically, but spotting the shards of ice that exploded from beneath the waves of the lake illustrated that the fairies meant business. "Any luck with that?"
"N-not so far," Daiyousei said, "but I'm sure we'll find him soon!"
"It looks like all you folks are killing is fish," Marisa observed, watching the dead carp rise from the water.
"That's part of the plan!" Daiyousei beamed, "Cirno figured that since he's hungry we get a bunch of dead fish in one place and he won't be able to resist!"
Marisa couldn't help applauding. "Thats... clever, and from Cirno no less."
"Look a wake! The dragon's over there!"
"It's a lizard you idiot!"
"Salamander! Salamander!"
At the sound of the commotion Marisa turned, spotting a rather large shadow make its way through the water. It looked to be about four or five meters in length, quite the bulk of a creature. The shadow made several sweeps around the mass of dead fish as the fairies above made ready to attack.
"Alright you stupid beast! You wanna eat? Well eat this!" suddenly Cirno was on the scene, hurling a large dodecahedron of ice at the beast below.
She missed horribly.
"Masterful shot, most honorable general Cirno," one fairy said halfheartedly as the rest looked on.
"Really? Well I don't mean to brag..." Cirno said with a blush as she began to conjure another mass of ice.
Marisa just hung back, watching the fairies provoke the leviathan in the lake.
The shadow briefly shrunk and faded, but then returned with a vengeance. The leviathan rocket up from beneath the waves, instantly snapping up a moderately innocent fairy that had strayed too close to the water. Cirno immediately hurled her hunk of ice at the beast, already forming another in her free hand as the projectile exploded against the dragon-thing's slimy skin.
The demon let out an annoyed grunt as the shards of ice bounced off its armored hide, unceremoniously flopping back into the lake. The leviathan was quickly on the move again as the fairies pelted its shadow with embers, stones, ice-balls, anything and everything they could find.
Marisa eyed the shadow with uncertainty. That thing looked nothing like the pictures of ancient dragons Aya had shown her, it was too short and a bit on the fat side, plus it had no whiskers. But it had the teeth of a dragon alright, those ghastly teeth that looked like they could easily shear through whatever was unfortunate enough to get caught between those mighty jaws.
"Get him, get him, get him!" Cirno ordered, hurling more ice blocks at the beast below.
The fairies tried herding the scaly hulk toward the shore, but all it did was gobble up whoever dared to get in front of it. Marisa counted the casualties: one fairy, two, three, five; okay, that was it. Pulling a card from her pocket she decided to zoom over and introduce herself to the monster. Youkai or not, she wasn't going to just watch this.
The dragon smacked one of Cirno's ice blocks with its tail, batting it into the fairy squadron above, when it was hit in the face with a spark of lighting. The thing snorted, its mucus-colored eyes glancing skyward. Right above, Marisa was hanging off of her broom by the insteps of her feet. She grinned a goofy grin at the leviathan, "Heyas!" she greeted cheerily, "Kirisame Marisa! I'm going to be kicking your ass today!"
The dragon ducked below the water, smacking its tail against the surface and splashing the magician as it went below the waves. Marisa scoffed at the thing's audacity as she wrung the filthy lake water out of her hair, "well that's polite," she mused out loud as the fairies regrouped and started dropping ice bombs in the water once more.
The monster rocket out of the water, snatching Marisa's broom between its jaws. The young magician let out a shrill cry, those twisted gnashing teeth just barely missing her legs. Marisa kicked off of the monster's snout, lifting off as it reached the apex of its jump.
Prize in jaw, the beast dove back into the sea, but Marisa was quick to react. She cried out for her broom, diving into the water with gusto in pursuit of the monster.
The lake water was incredibly murky, the magician could barely make out the shimmering shards of magical ice in the water, but little else. Marisa prayed that Cirno could hold back until she got back out of the water, at least until she got her damn broom.
Marisa was torn from her prayers when she spotted a pair of lights deep in the murk, dancing about and flickering energetically. She tried swimming over, when it hit her just what she was doing. She was in that scaly beast's element now, and she had just provoked it.
The lights became the gaze of a reptilian hulk as they drew near and illuminated its silhouette. The dragon slowed its pace as it drew near, sizing up its prey like any over-confident predator would. Marisa cast a spell for unending breath, just so she could spit expletives at the beast as it cruised past her, bumping her with its narrow snout before diving deeper into the muddy blackness of the lake. The magician panicked, desperately swimming up to escape the leviathan, charging headlong into one of Cirno's depth charges.
The gears in Marisa's brain spun as she looked down, spotting the eyes of the monster in the murk and noting their growing size. Mustering all of her strength Marisa swam with all haste toward the ice block. Her blood ran cold when the dragon behind her let out a low groan that filled the deep; she doubled her efforts. Reaching the ice block, Marisa clawed her way on top of it. Down below the dragon gained, ghastly maw open wide and oblivious to the danger. She kicked the block down.
The ice block lodged itself in the leviathan's mouth. It swung its head in an attempt the throw it aside, and the block exploded in retort. Shards of ice tore holes in its throat and shattered its jaw, thick blood filling the water as the stunned beast flailed about. The dragon shook its head as its gut pulsed and shifted, out of its broken jaws swam several fairies. Marisa looked on, both glad she could help the fairies, and somewhat pitying the creature.
The dragon let out an anguished groan as it swam off, leaving Marisa to be carried to the surface by the thankful fairies. As soon as she left the water, she could hear the fairies up above celebrating, Cirno taking all the credit for the victory. "That's right!" the fairy cried, "that was my ice block!"
Marisa snickered, but said nothing. However... she never got her broom back. Marisa frowned as she looked back at the water, rather disappointed. "Well I got soaked for nothing," she said.
"There it is!"
Marisa quirked a brow, spotting the scaly hulk beach itself on the shores, staining the wet soil with its blood. The fairies made their way over, and immediately set about pelting the thing with ice and stones. The dragon let out a low groan, shifting weakly; unable to retreat.
"Hey!" Marisa called, "leave the poor thing alone!" she shouted, floating over.
Cirno looked rather insulted, "he tried eating all my friends!"
"He's suffered enough for trying to survive, just leave him be," Marisa said, "he's probably going to bleed to death anyway, just go celebrate your victory."
Cirno and the other fairies scrutinized the dragon keenly, "fine," the ice fairy said, "we'll let him die slowly then," with that said they flew off, jeering and laughing at the monster below as they faded into the forest thicket ahead.
Marisa sighed, landing next to the beast and taking a moment to gently rub its side; a gesture of good faith. "Hey big guy," she greeted with a tinge of regret. "You know, up close I can tell you're not a dragon, if you were I'd prolly be dead," an awkward laugh, "I wish it didn't have to end like this." Marisa paused, face taking on a thoughtful expression. "You know what?" she asked the beast, "I'm not the kind of lady to go killing animals all willy-nilly, you're just trying to survive so let me give you a hand."
The black leviathan shifted, taking a deep breath and exhaling as the magician continued.
"Here," Marisa's hand gained a heavenly glow as she continued to stroke the lizard's abused flesh. "I'll give you a second chance, so don't waste it on Cirno and her friends, okay?" she winked playfully. Some of its strength returning, the dragon-thing hissed loudly, trying to scare Marisa off. The magician laughed sweetly, "alright big guy, I'll be coming back with a leash and collar though, alright?" With a smack on its armored side, she returned to her journey to Alice's, leaving the beast to its devices.
The dragon let out a low groan as it watched Marisa disappear in the forest thicket. It slowly clawed away at the earth, trying to move as its strength gradually returned. It started with an agonizing drag, then quickly evolved into a slow shuffle, until finally the black leviathan mustered the strength to lift itself off of the ground. The creature glanced around, sniffing the air intently. This lake was no longer suitable, it was time to travel elsewhere. With that the beast lumbered off, making its way through the forest with quite a ruckus.
Meanwhile across the lake, Hong Meiling was stunned. The gatekeeper blinked a few times, watching what looked like a colossal plated lizard disappear into the forest with wide eyes. "I didn't think they existed here," she mused aloud, wonder in her voice. "Why does all the cool stuff happen to everyone else?"
As always, your thoughts are appreciated.
Until next chapter, have a great day everyone.
