Hi guys, I'm here again, I think I would be posting the story every two or three weeks, I think it's reasonable for me to write and for you to wait. In any case, thank you guys for the support, the follows ande the reviews, I really love you (ી(΄◞ิ౪◟ิ‵))
In any case, I can't answer some of you by private massage since you don't hace an account in the page, so I will be answering you here if there's not a problem:
Gest: Salut, je ne parle pas beaucoup français donc je ne sais pas vraiment comment il va faire passer le message, mais je suis heureux que vous aimer cette histoire et le reste qui ont accroché à la page précédente. Concernant cela, je espère que vous aimez le chapitre parce que ce un peu plus concentré sur Kidd et explique certaines choses que je ne sais pas si vous aimerez arrivée. Merci beacoup pour le commentaire and'm heureux que je ai répondu à la dernière. Un baiser
Racelet: Hi dear! I don't really know Skyrim or Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, but I'm reading now the hobbit and a hundred other books with this kind of magic world and I understand you more or less, I'm kind of obsessed right now with dragons and all kind mythological stuff, it's a bit creepy but I love it and it's interesting. In any case, here you have the next chapter and I have a feeling that you are going to like it. See you~
The ancient beast cut quickly through the air, flying between silver clouds and covering the world at his feet in even darker shadows. He flapped his huge wings in the sky riding the cold currents and rising with amazing ease despite his huge size. The sun shining between the clouds, caressed his scales and, with the warm rays, they magically shined with a reddish tone. The beast then accelerated his career, wanting to reach his lair before the sun rose high above the clouds. There there were still several hours of darkness until the light of a new day touched the ground, but the sooner he reached the refuge, the better.
The dragon had never been so angry in his entire life, he wanted to destroy everything, he wanted to smash those pathetic ants called humans who have dared to challenge him. But that would be too easy for him and it wouldn't give him too much satisfaction given the situation. The magic creature needed them to suffer, to cry and scream in desperation after losing all hope.
His stomach send him an electric shock of pain from the huge wound on his torso, and the beast roared with rage as he remembered the cause of it. Oh yes, the dragons was going to have his big revenge. The man with gray eyes and the scent of old metal was going to pay. What he was going to do to that man couldn't be compared to anything humanity had ever seen. He was going to break the human in every way possible. The man would suffer every day for the rest of his short life, and in the end he would beg for death until he regretted ever being born. It would be a perfect reminder for the world, of what could happen if someone stood against him.
The dragon smiled, thinking about his next victim and his evil plans. The beast's mind reveled in the chaos that he was about to create and the power he had to destroy everything. Still, as much as the creature tried to ignore it, there was a much more primitive and instinctive part of his mind that was slightly terrified and disturbed about what had just happened. That part was worried about the possible consequences of a new confrontation with the man of grey eyes, and was still in shock from the wound that the human had inflicted upon him. The dragon was beginning to consider the other as a decent opponent rather than a small insect that could be easily crushed.
So the beast groaned annoyed at his thoughts, he wanted revenge, not to have a strange feeling of fascination and rivalry with the human. Humans were worthless, they never played fair and only took advantage of its strength. Working with them never amounted to anything good. So the dragon quieted that part of his mind that kept insisting that, maybe, this time would be different, and that the man with gray eyes could be someone decent. Because it wasn't true. The human had tried to kill him for God's sake.
Nothing ever changed; solitude and terror were the best friends for someone like him.
While black thoughts permeated his mind, the dragon finally recognized the opening to his lair between two dark rocks. Folding his wings, the creature dropped sharply and maneuvered his way into the cave. He landed with a heavy thud inside the narrow entryway, shaking the place with his enormous weight. And then, and only then, did the beast let his dragon form disappear to make way for his human appearance.
The dragon hated humans with the same intensity that they hated him. Still, the form they had was convenient for some tasks and he, like a dragon, was too huge for others. Having a human appearance had helped him mingle with their society countless times, allowing him to get the information necessary to save his life and had helped him steal the things humans created.
Mankind was something annoying yet enjoyable at the same time. They created the gold and jewels that dragons so much appreciated and struggled to collect. No other race could create such beauty and perfection, but they also repudiated all that they couldn't control or understand. The dragon had been called monster, murderer, and the humans had even tried to kill him without hesitation, but no other race committed such massacres or genocides as the human race . They were the true monsters.
Growling low in his chest, the man entered the huge cave that was his lair, walking down dark passageways until he found a small room. His lair was composed of a series of caverns that connected to each other through long tunnels that made an incomprehensible maze. It was an enormous palace carved in the dark hard rock of the mountain with thousands of different rooms. Some of them were barely used by the dragon, some of them were even forgotten as they traveled down into the bowels of the world and into dark abysms the dragon created when he moved in. It was his hideout, his home. The principal rooms were all decorated and were full of extravagant furniture from different places, each room different from the next one, but there were so many of them, that half the treasures the place hided were now covered in a thick layer of dust.
But the dragon didn't care about the state of his place. It wasn't as if he wanted to show it to anyone and make an impression out of it. The people that arrived at his lair didn't deserved that kind of treatment. Only a few beings had ever found this place, and none had ever left it.
The dragon frowned as he thought about it, he had never understand the idiots who came here to hunt him. Did they really believe they could defeat him? Even as a human he was still bigger and stronger than ordinary people. Most of the time he could cause panic through a population with just his crimson hair and his strange and dangerous golden eyes. Although it wasn't as if he cared much either way. It was better for him if they feared the beast and left him in peace.
The dragon reached the room he was looking for and quickly opened the door with more force it was necessary, making the hinges creak and the wood scream with the added pressure.
But he ignored the sound and just walked in angrily.
He hadn't used this room in years. The place, one of the smallest rooms of his domain, was full of cabinets with medicines, bandages and other products used to heal him in both of his forms. The room was painted in a calm green tone and a few anatomic draws were hanging from the walls next to the small window that let him see the rainy valley. There were drying plants dangling from the ceiling used for medicine, and the shelves were full of books about remedies from different countries. It wasn't a very common for him to be injured and to have to use this room, but in any case, no mattered how many years passed by, his mind remembered the placement of each object and each recipe with deadly precision.
Putting pressure on his chest wound with his good hand, the beast moved through the room dodging the desk and the few leather chairs until he stood in front of one of the cabinets decorated with filigree pearl. Opening one of the drawers, he dug through its contents until he located a needle and thread. Then, he moved again until he finally sat in one of the chairs covered in the expensive wolf furs and next to the window. There, he would have more light and he wouldn't be tempted to break some of the furniture that filled the room in a fit of rage.
Taking a resigned breath and with the skill of someone who has done the same thing hundreds of times, he began to stitch his bloody wound closed. His face revealing neither suffering nor pain, just plain anger and killing intents.
Normally this wasn't necessary. Normally his wounds healed faster than those of a god. But, as always, there were exceptions. He didn't know what the dark man had used, but the injury wouldn't heal no matter how hard he called to the power within him and focused it around the bleeding area. Maybe the human's sword had been one of those cursed metals. He'd been wounded several times with such weapons throughout his ancient life and, as a result, he'd been forced to learn how to treat wounds himself. But he'd never received a wound as large as this. No one had ever been able to hurt him so severely, and it took him longer than he'd thought to stitch it shut.
The wound was deep, stretching across his entire chest from shoulder to hip and it bled profusely, staining his pale skin with a crimson tone. He needed more than twenty stitches to close it and when he finished he was tired, tense, and wanted to break something.
Groaning low in his chest, he rose from his spot by the window and headed out the door and down the labyrinthine corridors, to another cave that had been partially flooded by an underground river.
It was a large place, with several holes in the ceiling that let the rays of the moon, or, in this case, the first light of dawn, illuminate the water below in a magical mix of red and golden colors. In turn, the rippling surface of the water reflected itself on the roof creating undulating forms that moved around the place. It was a beautiful spectacle, but the old dragon no longer took notice of it. After so many years off watching it the elegant magic of water and light had lost all its beauty.
Instead, he tore off his bloodstained pants – the only clothing he'd decided to dress in that day - and let his power fill the cave, heating the dark water at his feet in just seconds.
The man then walked into the dark liquid without hesitation and completed several laps under the water until his blood pounded in his ears, his eyes blurred, and his lungs screamed for him to come up for air. He swam there for several hours, coming and going from one wall of the cave to the other, spending all the pent up energy he felt from the rage, and trying to get his emotions under control until he could focus again.
When he emerged from the water, it was morning and the pale sunlight filtered through the ceiling in a curious spectacle of red and blue colors. Eustass Kidd climbed of the water with a clear and sharp mind, feeling clean and relaxed. His muscles ached with a pleasant fatigue after his exercise and he had finally got his next plan of attack.
Smiling wickedly, the dragon ran a hand through his red hair to sweep the wet bangs away from his eyes before wandering away from the river and towards his room in search of clothes and food. He needed to rest and prepare before going out to begin his hunt for the gray-eyed man. He didn't want to give his enemy even the slightest chance to fight back, so he'd better be in the best shape possible in the shortest amount of time.
Arriving at his room, he grabbed a pair of sturdy black trousers, high boots made of leather, and a black shirt which fit too tight around his muscles. Then, just in case, he retrieved a light sword from another cabinet, where he kept his impressive collection of weapons. Satisfied, the redhead turned on his heel and returned to the tunnel, continuing onward toward the most important room in the cave: his sanctuary.
He walked through the dark passageways for a while, into the depths of the earth, into such an unseen and hidden place that no creature apart from himself had ever stepped foot inside. There, the walls of the cave widened into an enormous cavity, and into something so big it could house a palace inside its walls. It's ceiling was so high that it was even lost in the shadows of the cave and dense river of lava flowed through the cavity, forming a ring around a massive center made of stone. Like a crocodile-filled moat around a castle, just that this was much more dangerous than an innocent crocodile. You could just die by standing next to the ring an aspiring the toxic vapors.
There was no bridge to cross over, nor a ladder to climb. There were no obvious ways to get over it, only the roasting, melted rock. And, as a big bad joke, in the middle of the rock, in the very center of the cave, was one of the greatest wonders of the world and the pride of the old dragon.
His treasure.
Gold he'd accumulated throughout the centuries of his life filled the enormous space. There were old Spanish bricks of gold he'd rescued from ships sunken long ago, there were shiny Mayan coins covered in the dried blood of innocents, Egyptian offerings of bronze statues that represented half-animal half-human gods, Chinese jade jewelry, and sapphires the size of his fists that had been used in ancient Australian rituals. Pendants, bracelets, rings...all of such a great value that many would not only give their lives, but the lives of their families for just one of the coins.
But not everything glistened and gleamed under the light, as not all the treasures were made of gold and silver. There were also manuscripts from the devastated Alexandria library, European codices from medieval monks which held remedies for all of the diseases known at the time, and leather books with ancient Viking legends of magic and spirits. There were works of Italian painters from the Renaissance, as well as statues that represented each and every one of the world's greatest civilizations.
The knowledge of the world gathered in this dangerous and unstable space. And everything in perfect order and organization, surrounded by mountains of gold and protected by the bright, and ironic glow of the lava.
Kidd approached the river of magma, undeterred by the scorching heat it gave off. Putting one foot before the other, the dragon began to move above the liquid surface of the river with strong and quick steps. The soles of his boots hissed when they made contact with the melted stone, yet they didn't burn or melt because he didn't allow them to do so.
With steady steps Kidd walked to the nearest mountain of money and instantly felt the tension in his back crumble as he heard the distinctive sound of coins shifting under his feet. Yes, nothing like the soft tinkling of his treasure to help him relax.
While a few of the items had been procured by himself, most of them were gifts or tributes, offerings rather... compulsory.
Whenever he settled in a new place, he terrorized the surrounding villages. Normally he'd make these trips out of sheer boredom, since it was fun to see those humans who believed themselves so important flee, terrified and helpless, as they ran screaming for their lives. But there was still another reason for his scaring attacks: the more frightened the villagers became, the larger their peace offerings were. After all, everyone knew that dragons worshiped gold. So, in exchange for money and treasures, Kidd promised not to scare the people to death, destroy their homes, or eat their flocks of skinny sheep.
The deals were always worth the pain of dealing with those beings. At least for several centuries. After a while, fear was forgotten, the old men died and the legend of the frightening dragon disappeared. That was when the offerings would diminish, and the foolish humans would even dare to stand up against him and try to kill him.
But Kidd never gave a second chances, nor did he allow such attitudes.
When rebellions started to happen, the dragon's anger would rise once again, and never, in all the ages of his life, had he left survivors. Whole villages would be wiped from the map; clans, families, realms, nothing would be left but smoking ruins. And then the dragon would fly away, establish another lair, and the situation would again be repeated: terror, offerings, forgetfulness...Kidd sighed as he lay down on a pile of coins taken from an Aztec treasure. Maybe he would have to destroy everything here and look for another place to live again after he'd killed the man with gray eyes.
Shifting to lay in a more comfortable position, Kidd put his arms behind his head, posed one ankle above his opposite knee and focused on his surroundings. The lava roaring at his back and casting a sinister glow over the cold coins pressed against his skin, the throbbing pain of his healing wound...
Slowly, Kidd closed his eyes and finally drifted into a deep sleep, surrounded by the world's greatest treasure.
.
.
.
The mayor of the village leaned back in his desk chair and rubbed his temples with his fingertips. It had been a long day, a very, very long day, and as a result the pounding headache was increasing at each passing hour. First the furious dragon appeared at the entrance of his village, then the total destruction of half the town, then a weirdo who had appeared a few days ago easily fighting the beast, the fire, the mountain of corpses, the viceroy squealing at him...
Frankly, he was tired of all that shit. He needed a cigarette like a fish needs water. Smoking always relaxed him and made things right, and at a time like this, the poor man needed to stop thinking and brush off the accumulated stress of the day.
Thankfully his niece, Vivi, knocked the door at the moment with a cup of coffee and a packet his precious cigars on a tray. He almost stood up and covered her with kisses.
"Crocodile, can I come in?" she asked from her position just outside of the room. The black-haired man grimaced at the use of his name, as he always did. He'd told her thousands of times to call him 'Uncle' rather than by his real horrible name. Vivi however flashed a mischievous but affectionate smile and Crocodile growled in annoyance.
Routine. Comfortable. Relaxing.
"I've told you thousand times not to call me that." said the tall, dark haired man that had a scar across his face from his years as part of the army.
The young woman ignored him, and approached the desk to begin serving the coffee while he stole a cigar and lit it impatiently. Crocodile then leaned back in the chair and slid his feet onto the desk, allowing himself a moment of rudeness that, at any other time and with any other company, he would have resisted.
The girl gave him a worried but understanding look.
"It's been a hard day, right?" she asked. "With the dragon, the arrangements, the Viceroy..."
"Yes." Crocodile admitted. "Though the Viceroy's just an asshole who likes to blab, and the damage the dragon made doesn't worry me too much, after all, we have money to fix it. What worries me the most are the families of the dead who will probably seek revenge... and that Trafalgar Law." he remarked softly.
His niece watched him with a calculating expression. She had always been clever, it was one of the reasons he liked her, and the main reason why he'd hired her as his secretary.
Also, people tended to speak more freely in front of a pretty face.
"Trafalgar Law?" the blue-haired girl asked quickly. "The one who defeated the dragon?"
"He didn't defeat it, he only shooed it away." explained the grumpy mayor. He didn't want rumors to start so soon since it could lead to someone doing something stupid. "But yeah, that man doesn't convince me, there's something I don't like about him. Something's off"
His mind flew quickly to the moment, three hours ago, when he had spoken with the man. The young lad's hair had still been wild from the fight and his clothing has been covered in ashes from the fight. His gray eyes had looked tired and his skin seemed paler than normal, but even still, he'd still been able to make the mayor shake with uneasiness. Something about the man wasn't normal, and he old man didn't like it.
Crocodile had spoken to him. An entirely too quick and unrevealing conversation by his judgment. The dark-haired man had been sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk with crossed legs and the long sword in his hand. His very presence had made the room seem colder than it was, and Crocodile had found himself pacing uncomfortably from one side of the room to the other, shivering slightly.
He'd asked questions, he had thanked the younger man for what he'd done, and had offered him a nice place to stay. But the man had rejected everything. He had said that he needed nothing, that he had everything he could want or require in the depressing cabin he had acquired when he had arrived. Crocodile had tried to extend the visit and had tried to manipulate the boy into staying something or training the troops of the city so they could defend it from the dragon. He had also attempted to get some information from the man on how to act and defend against the dragon.
But the lad hadn't released a word, and, after two hours of useless interrogation, the mayor had given up and had let the stranger go without knowing what else to say and feeling completely frustrated.
"Despite his attitude, he helped us." his niece said, looking serious and returning him to the conversation "For that reason alone he has my gratitude."
'If everything was that easy...' thought the mayor, watching his niece leave the room with that elegant dress and a determined demeanor.
But it was not. Things were not white or black, but a sea of different shades of gray. The fact that someone attacked your enemy didn't necessarily mean that they were now your ally. Vivi still has much to learn. Having honor and a sense of justice was nice, but in some cases those attributes were completely useless.
Settling further into his chair, he turned to the window and let the smoke from his cigar mingle with the air. His gaze then swept the room, the floors and ceilings made of old, dark wood that had become worn over the centuries, the yellowish shelves held books of accounts and finances, and the maps and paper bulletins that were hanging on the wall beside the oil lamps which flooded the room with a warm golden light. His niece had placed some plants in various corners of the room, stating that it would brighten his office. Crocodile had said nothing to stop her. After all, it was always more difficult to argue with her than to just go along with her whims.
Hypnotized, he let his gaze linger on the clouds of fog outside the window at his back. Scrolls curled and rolled through the air in a magical kind of dance. As the thoughts in his head. He still have a lot of things to do. Thankfully, due to the humidity of the area, the dragon's fire hadn't spread very far the previous evening, even so, he still had to pay the carpenters and talk to the affected families and…
Suddenly the air in the room changed, the atmosphere became more dense and heavy, and Crocodile began to feel uncomfortably warm. Alarmed by the sudden change of environment, he turned his head to find the cause of it and had to hold his breath when he saw it.
An enormous man standing before him across the desk.
As high as no one he had ever seen and with a bright red hair that almost touched the ceiling. His skin was paler than marble and his eyes shone the color of gold and dark magic. The man stood tall and powerful, with broad shoulders and powerful muscles that promised bloodshed, he was dressed entirely in black, and, though he apparently didn't needed it, he carried a long dagger in a leather sheath attached to his pants. The man was standing idly before him with a menacing expression on his face and fire in his eyes.
Crocodile could only open his mouth terrified and a bit concerned by the sudden appearance.
"Good morning, Mayor. I think we need to talk." the boy said with that voice full of dark promises.
Crocodile felt the adrenaline pumping through his veins on a rush of energy. He began to sweat and, as his mind panicked, he started to seek solutions and escape plans. He didn't know how, but he realized that the man before him was the dragon that had attacked the town the previous evening. He didn't understand why the creature was in his office, but it was obvious that he was up to no good. Was the dragon going to attack him ? Kill him in revenge?
The dragon however smiled at the man seated behind the desk. He could feel the human's panic and fear through his heightened senses. Like prey that had realized he will die after seeing the predator.
It was just perfect.
"O-of course...whatever you wish, sir." Crocodile managed to say with a tight smile as he turned to sit properly in the chair.
Kidd however frowned at his words. Really? Did the human honestly think that a few compliments was all it would take to win him? Moron.
"Let's see," Kidd started, wanting to leave a few things clear, "When I got here two centuries ago, your ancestors and I made a deal. We agreed that, in exchange for their lives, they would offer me gold and riches"
His hands fell with a loud thud onto the wooden desk between them and the mayor jumped, with tense nerves, watching terrified as the old wood began to burn beneath the redhead's hands. For Kidd, this was just a trick to create drama, but to his delight, it seemed to work perfectly on the other man. The human glanced anxiously at his steaming desk, growing paler by the moment.
"What happened yesterday was a total violation of the deal. Not only did you stop paying the tax for your life, but you also tried to kill me." Kidd said watching the man's eyes open wide with panic as he instantly understood the message behind the dragon's words. "So," Kidd continued, "Give me just one reason why I shouldn't kill all of you right now and take back my peace."
The dragon enjoyed the panic of the human. How he tried to compose an understandable sentence, how the cold sweat covered his forehead, and how his hands were shaking uncontrollably. Something inside Kidd was satisfied with that reaction. It was revenge and justice for what he'd faced the previous day. The dragon's pride as a predator returning to his rightful place, high and mighty.
He left the man quivering for a moment, and thinking of an answer under his glare. The mayor's stupid flattery had clearly passed away.
"We didn't know about the deal." Crocodile finally defended himself "We will arrange the gold delivery. I promise, we will give you twice the agreed amount. It won't happen again…"
"Of course you're going to pay for your lives again, and of course you'll pay double." the dragon replied, the look in his eyes leaving no objections. "But I didn't come here just for that" His voice dropped. Angry but controlled, just full of devil intents.
Moving away from the desk, he crossed his arms and fulminated the human before him. "I want the gray-eyed man," he demanded, "and you're going to hand him over to me as an apology for what you did. You will betray the person who helped you as your punishment "
The man who called himself mayor opened his eyes horrified.
"But we can't do that…He doesn't belong to the village, we can't..."
Kidd roared loudly and the room shook beneath his feet. Books fell to the ground and flames flickered on the walls, creating disturbing shadows. The mayor screamed while he instinctively took refuge behind his desk.
"I want the gray-eyed man." the dragon repeated with the flames of hell in his voice. "You will bring him to me on the next moonless night, on the hill on the north of this town." Kidd moved again towards the mayor and placed his hands on the burned surface of the table "You choose: your people, or the skinny lad"
And with that he then turned with an air of arrogance and disappeared through the other window of the office with an agile leap. Like a trick of the mind or a daydream nightmare. But with the mark on the desk as an irrefutable proof of his existence.
Crocodile instantly rose from his chair, tipping it over and listening at it clattered to the floor. He stood there, motionless, while an anxiety attack assaulted him.
His mind spun at full speed.
The dragon. The flames. The man with gray eyes. Sacrifice.
He sighed nervously and wiped his damp forehead with the back of his hand. He had no choice. The man with the metallic eyes had to die. It was for the common good. But Vivi and the rest of the village will never understand it. He had to do it in secret, he had to ...
As he mulled over the situation in his mind, an old dragon flew away hidden by the fog and rain.
On his face shone a smirk.
Yeah, I know, Crocodile and Vivi, WTF? what's wrong with me? But I don't care what you think, I'm sure they will reunite in the manga and they will be happy ever after since Croco is a good boy since the impel down incident. ヽ(ー_ー )ノ
In any case, this chapter I have focus more on Kidd to explain a bit the situation they are and the world, I'm sorry Law didn't came out, but I will compensate in the next one I promise.
Hope you liked it and my apologies again for my English.
Thanks for reading, see you guys
(,, ・∀・)ノ゛
