~3~
A Dragon! I Swear I Saw a Dragon!
The sun sluggishly lifted itself over the horizon bidding the moon good light, but welcoming the creatures of Earth with a brand new day. The sun's early rays danced over the sleeping fire dragon's feathers like little embers of a fire. It was from the sun that fire dragons got their energy like the water dragons got their energy from the moon or the earth dragons from the plants and so on and so forth. There once was a time when there were a great variety of different dragon types, dragons that could change into any living thing, dragons that could cover areas in light like the sun or cover areas in darkness as if it were night. This was not the case anymore and it was becoming frequently horrifying to find a hatchling, a newly hatched dragon, without any gifts. Dragons without any gifts of earth, water, air, fire, light, dark, animal etc, were known as nil, which in the ancient language of latin meaning nothing. It was the dragons that had taught the humans how to speak, not just latin, but other languages long forgotten, each having its own magical power when said. That was the time when words were more powerful than action. A time when every creature was treated equally. A time long, long ago.
The fire dragon woke with a heavy sigh of frustration thinking about some of his siblings that had hatched as nil. What would it be like? he wondered, To not be able to feel the sun the way he does, or the moon the way Demyx, a water dragon, does? To have no powers other than the natural gifts that all dragons receive? Just thinking of how it would feel made him sad even though fire dragons always celebrated the rising of the sun which gave them their greatest source of energy. He shook his head attempting to rid the dark thoughts swirling around in his mind before the sleeping human woke. He hadn't thought of the now legendary stories his parents told him every nest time for a least a 3 decades if not more. His bright green eyes fell upon the blonde in wonder. Could it be possible to make those legends true once more? he pondered Would it be possible to teach this human the ways of the dragon riders that I had heard so much about? Axel was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice the human beginning to wake with a small yawn.
Roxas looked up at the dragon staring off into oblivion wondering what in the world he was thinking. He hoped there wasn't anything dangerous because Axel looked so serious right now.
"Good morning." Roxas said softly with a yawn.
"Morning." Axel replied with a smile transforming back into his human-like form. "I figured we should stop at the next town so you can get something nice to wear."
"But I don't have any money." the blonde replied sadly.
"Not to worry," the dragon laughed, "I have plenty of gold. Dragons poop gold!"
"Really?" Roxas asked with a look of wonder. "That's amazing!"
"I was just kidding about the pooping part," the redhead chuckled, "but dragons do have lots of gold. So don't worry about money."
"Are you sure?" the human said looking down, "I have no way of paying you back. I'm too young to get a job."
"Seriously Roxie," Axel smiled, "Don't worry about it. But I'll have to give you the gold now because I can't exactly stroll into town with you. I'll go with you to make sure nothing bad happens, but I'll be in my dragon form and invisible." He took out the gold coins that were used throughout this region of the world and handed a small bag of them to Roxas.
"Thank you..." Roxas said with a small smile, "I will pay you back someday I promise."
"Consider it a gift Roxie," the redhead grinned, "no payment required."
Roxas just nodded because he knew it was probably better than to argue, but he promised himself that someday he would pay Axel back. He watched Axel transform into his dragon form then shimmer a bit, but not turning invisible.
"I thought you said you were going to turn yourself invisible?" the blonde asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I am invisible..." the dragon answered with a confused expression, "You can see me?" He watched the human nod and wondered if it was because they were connected now. If Roxas was truly his master then he wouldn't be able to run away and probably meaning not being invisible to the blonde. He only hoped that everyone else still couldn't see him otherwise he would be in big trouble. One because humans would know dragons still exist. And two because if other dragons found out he exposed them they would be very very upset.
"Are you okay?" Roxas asked, "You're not sick are you? Oh, you are sick and it's my fault. Now you can't hide yourself from the world and then they will find you and hurt you. I must be the worst master in the history of masters."
"I'm fine," Axel chuckled, "It is probably because we are connected now so I can't hide from you. We won't know until we get to town so why don't we see."
"But what if they can see you?" the human cried, "I promised Namine to keep you safe because she doesn't want the dragons to go extinct. If they can see you then they are going to hunt you down and you're going to get hurt. It's going to be all my fault aga..."
"Roxie calm down," the redhead interrupted, transforming back into his human form to grab the young boy's shoulders. "I'll be fine. I'm more worried about you in those clothes with winter just around the corner. I may be a fire dragon, but I can't always keep you warm. You'll freeze to death."
"Axel," Roxas whispered as he looked down at the ground, "You're in more danger than I'll ever be. If you get hurt again because of me I'll never forgive myself. You've already done enough and for that I'm very grateful for, but you shouldn't have to babysit me. You're a dragon, you should be with your own kin." Even though everything he was saying was true, he still didn't want Axel to leave. It was for the best though, if Marluxia ever caught up it would be Axel that would be in the most danger. Marluxia could never kill him without getting away with it, but a dragon, Axel, was different. He Marluxia wouldn't see Axel as a person, but just another trophy.
"Roxas," Axel whispered as he lifted the blonde's chin up, "We met for a reason. Call it was you may, fate, destiny, but we were brought together for a reason. When I was off hunting last night, I came back as soon as you were in danger. It was like I could sense you needed me... You don't want to see me hurt and I don't want to see you hurt. So lets compromise and work together instead of fighting." He looked into those tear filled blue eyes and began to wipe away the tears.
"So to town then?" the blonde smiled as he wiped away the rest of his tears. "On our way there you should stay close to the forest and if someone doesn't notice you then you can walk with me on the road. If they do notice you can disappear into the forest quickly so they will second guess themselves. Deal?" He raised his hand out so they could shake on it.
"Deal," the redhead grinned taking Roxas' hand and shaking it. "But first let's get breakfast." He exited the cave with Roxas following close behind as they entered the forest to find something to eat.
"So you said unicorns and fairies aren't nice," the human asked running a bit to catch up to Axel, "What makes them so bad?"
"Fairies are the children of angels and demons," Axel explained, "They have all the beauty of an angel, but all the wickedness of a demon. (1) Unicorns are a very violent race who love war and bloodshed above anything else. According to my parents, back when magical creatures didn't have to hide unicorns were used in human wars all the time."
"Wow, it's different from what I've heard." Roxas replied trying to think of what else was different. "What other creatures are dangerous?"
"Too many to list." the redhead laughed, "But I guess since you're now a part of my world you'll have to learn. Nymphs live everywhere and they aren't the nicest of creatures, but they won't bother you as long as you don't bother them. But heaven forbid you enter their territory during mating season they'll skin you alive."
"So beware of unicorns, nymphs, fairies and mermaids." the blonde nodded trying to take everything in. He only hoped that fairies, mermaids, nymphs and unicorns looked the same as in the books he used to read about them.
"Don't worry Roxie," the dragon grinned, "I won't be making the mistake again of leaving you by yourself."
"But I've never run into any magical creature before," Roxas said, "Why now?"
"Truthfully, I don't really know." Axel sighed hopping over a fallen tree with ease and grace. "It is probably because of me, but other than that I don't have a clue."
Roxas was about to say something, but Axel turned to him with a finger over his lips signaling to be silent. He looked into the small clearing to see a doe drinking water from the stream. He watched Axel pull a feather from his tail with instantly turned stiff and sharp to look like a deadly black blade. Quietly, Axel positioned himself in a better angle before throwing the feather at the doe slicing it's neck open enough to cause it to loose a good amount of blood and die almost instantly.
"I'll cook you a leg," the redhead said pulling out the feather to use to skin the dear and cut a leg off for Roxas.
"Are you just going to swallow the rest whole or something?" Roxas asked with a curious look.
"Pretty much," the dragon grinned, "I am a dragon after all." He took the feather and cut off the front leg of the doe before skinning it so Roxas would be able to eat it. He had learned over the years that humans didn't like skin on their meat and didn't like it uncooked. Once he was satisfied with the leg, he transformed into his dragon form to cook it. When he was done he handed it to Roxas with a grin before devouring the rest of the doe in one quick gulp.
"thanks," the blonde said as he took the leg and watched Axel eat the rest. "I don't think I'll be able to finish all this though,"
"I'll eat what you don't," Axel grinned.
Roxas thought it was odd seeing him grin in his dragon form because it was so different form a human grin. He pushed the thought from his mind as he began to eat what he could of the leg. What he didn't finish Axel ended up eating and then they were on their way to the road which would take them to the closest town. They followed Roxas' plan with Axel remaining invisible by the forest line just in case his invisibility didn't work anymore. Thankfully, it was only Roxas would could see him because all the people on the road just ignored Axel even if he was acting crazy to try and get their attention.
"Well," Axel grinned, "I guess they can't see me."
"That's good," Roxas agreed, "but when we get to town you have to be careful."
"Okay, okay." the redhead agreed.
When they finally made it to the town there were people getting ready for the day. Men and women were going to work while the kids lined up for school. The people of the town looked at Roxas strangely because he was in torn clothing and obviously wasn't from the small town. They also noticed a strange sound that was coming from behind the boy, like something was being dragged, but the couldn't see where the sound was coming from.
Roxas made his way into an alley mainly filled with crates to hide him from view. When they were completely out of view Axel appeared in his human form with a raised eyebrow.
"What wrong?" the redhead asked curiously.
"You are making noise by dragging your tail. The people are giving me weird looks because of it." the blonde whispered hoping not to draw more attention to himself than he already had. He knew that they were probably already looking at him because of his torn clothing, dirty face and completely alone. Even though he was fifteen, he only looked twelve or thirteen. And even if he did look his age, people would wonder why he is traveling by himself without any adults with him.
"Sorry," Axel shrugged, "Force of habit. I'll try to be quieter."
Before Roxas could answer and old man with a long white beard, strange blue clothing and a pointed blue hat wobbled into the alley. He looked at Roxas then to Axel, then back to Roxas then back to Axel. The old man's eyes widened from behind his circular glasses as he pointed towards Axel who was still standing there not even bothering trying to become invisible again.
"A d-d-dragon." the old man stuttered, "I can't believe it!"
"Axel!" Roxas hissed, "disappear!"
"Oh, right!" the redhead chuckled before disappearing in his dragon form so only Roxas could see him.
"A dragon?" the blonde asked with a puzzled face as he looked around. "I don't see a dragon."
"Don't mess with me boy!" the old man warned, "I know what I saw. I knew dragons weren't extinct!"
"Dragons are only legends you crazy old man," Roxas laughed as he went to exit the alley way and caught the distinct smell of alcohol on the old man. "You're drunk and seeing things. Get home before you have a heart attack over an imaginary dragon." He exited the alleyway with Axel following in toe leaving the old man mumbling to himself about dragons. When they were a safe distance away, and in a small secluded corner of the town by the school he gave the dragon a glare.
"You have to be more careful!" the blonde whispered, "You're just lucky it was a drunk old man that saw you and why didn't you disappear the instant you saw him?"
"He is a wizard," the dragon replied cooly, "He could see through my invisibility if he really wanted, but since he was drunk I doubt he would have been able to.
"A wizard?" Roxas inquired.
"Yes, a wizard." Axel answered, "and a powerful one at that. Although I doubt he is any harm when he is drunk."
Roxas was about to answer, but a young woman stormed up to him with her hands on her hips. She was wearing a pink dress that went down just past her knees. Her brown hair was pulled back with a pink bow into a ponytail braid with two pieces of hair hanging on both sides of her face that couldn't quite be pulled back.
"What are you doing out of school young man?" the woman asked with a stern face.
"Um, I don't live here miss." Roxas answered hoping she would just go away, but from the look of it she wasn't.
"Oh?" she said with a perfectly thin eyebrow raised high. "Then where might you're parents be?"
"I don't have any parents..." he said wondering why he was being honest with her. "They died a while ago."
"Are you traveling alone?" the woman asked with a concerned look.
"Yes miss," Roxas answered looking away from her.
"'tsk, 'tsk a young boy shouldn't be without a home," she said, "Why don't you come stay with me? I'm one of the school teachers, but I live in the lighthouse with my father. What do you think?"
"I don't know," he said not knowing whether to trust the woman or not. He looked up at Axel's head towering above him which nodded in approval to go with the woman. He looked back at the woman in pink and slowly nodded.
"I'm Aerith," the woman said with a bright smile. "Why don't you come to school today? You can wash up in the bathroom and I can give you some spare clothes we keep just in case."
"Roxas" he said with a nod as he followed Aerith into the school leaving Axel outside to await his return. He only hoped that Axel wouldn't get into too much trouble while he was gone.
A/N:
(1) Yes I made fairies like the one in the Mortal Instruments books if you have read them. They are pretty good. :)
Anyways, you should all give me a slap on the wrist for updating another story instead of studying...or you know, put my muse into a coma for like a week or so. God, I swear that whenever I need to do something I do something else. What is wrong with me? ...everything... nevermind lol! Oh! I just downloaded a cat ringtone thing for my phone to see what my cats would do. OMG it has like 20 different cat noises and my one cat freaks out! So hilarious! she started looking for another cat in the room! hahahahahaha. Wow, I am way to hyper, so hyper I can hardly type right now. You'd be amazed at how many errors I have been making. XD
Soooooo... I hope you like the chapter! More updates are on their way, we will see. Wish me luck on finals! if you don't I won't update anymore! jk jk. I wouldn't do that no... I would delete my acount! bwahahahahahahaha... I really have to stop eating ring pops...they are bad for me. And they are hard to type with.
All Hail Ring Pops! *turns into a ring pop*
