The Antagonist

The first face Roland saw was Ashlyn's, staring into the cloudless skies before her. Her eyes met his and he knew she was bewildered. Seth had arrived first, after all.

Roland didn't speak as he landed, uncomfortably shifting past her, lost for words. He could hardly recollect the events in his head. One second, he was behind the wall of a gloomy alleyway, hiding from his encroaching death, the next he was soaring far, far away from the one lone cheetah who'd rescued him, confused, anxious, fearful. He'd never seen so much blood before. He didn't remember the faces of any of those slashed down by the monster, just an ocean of scarlet splattering the market square.

"R-Roland, wait up!"

He stopped for a moment, breathing hitched. "Wh-what, Ashlyn?"

"First Seth... now you? What happened back there?" She tilted her head as he turned. He didn't want to worry her. It was only a one-off thing. She'd probably find out later, anyhow.

"It's fine, Ash," he responded, adopting a calmer tone. On the inside, thoughts of the beast plagued him. He shivered. "Our... plans just went bad and now we're here. We were trying to steal something, and–"

"Roland," she intervened, "I might look stupid a lot of the time, but... I-I know you're lying."

He exhaled before beginning to walk on again. Much to his displeasure, Ashlyn trailed behind him. "Seriously, it's nothing."

"Roland, come on. What happened?"

"Ashlyn, just–"

"Would you just tell me!?" she snapped. Roland stopped in his tracks, feeling like he'd leaped out of his own scales. She lowered her voice. "...S-Seth just comes walking past me, doesn't say anything, tears all over his face, and now you won't say anything. Nobody would cry over stealing gone wrong..."

His heart drummed against his rib cage as he thought of the creature. It hadn't felt real at all, like it'd jumped straight out of a book of mythological monsters. Those piercing yellow eyes, those bloodied fangs, that damn screech. "I..."

"I what? What did you do, Roland?"

He heard her say that and his will to assume his defence grew. "N-no, I didn't do anything. There was just... There was this huge winged thing. I don't know what it was. I don't think anybody knew. But it... killed people, Ashlyn. People fucking died. I've n-never seen so much blood in one place before."

Any fire previously in her eyes dissipated. "Oh... A-are you serious?"

"I didn't want to worry you or anyone else." His head hung as he seated himself on the stone walkway. "It would, like, scream at people and then they'd be overcome with so much fear that it'd paralyse them. I didn't feel it myself, but Seth next to me... I-it was horrifying, anyway."

Ashlyn sat there with him. "Th-that'd explain why he came in crying. You're... You're okay though, right?"

Roland didn't know if he ever would be after that, though he allowed a smile to play on his maw. It wasn't any more than a reassuring smirk, however. "For somebody I only met a little while ago, you seem awfully concerned about me."

"W-well, you looked buggered this morning, and then when you come back home after th-that thing... What do you expect?"

"I understand, Ash." He forced a chuckle. Ashlyn didn't seem to peer through him as if he were a window this time, though. "Anyway, I'm gonna go to bed. I'll probably see you tomorrow."

"You sure you're fine?"

"Yes, Ashlyn, I'll be fine. Don't worry about me." He grinned. "Goodnight."

"Okay," she said. "S-sleep well!"

As he turned the corner, the smile vanished, eyes dropping to the cobble pathway through the metallic pipework. He thought he saw a few of the faces around the pipes nervously glance at him – Kage and another dragoness he knew was nicknamed Trix. Fatigue weighed him down and his mind flared over the atrocity committed within the market square of Firemore. Roland wondered, grimly, if the guard that'd rescued him had been in tears over the cheetah slaughtered by the monster. He knew what it was like to lose family, but at least in some ways he'd seen the blizzard before it had engulfed his mother – not that he could do anything about it after running away. To lose them so suddenly, though, somebody as young as that boy, to an animal... He didn't know if there could be a worse feeling than losing those cherished forever to something seemingly so insignificant.

Maybe being raked at with that creature's claws, or diced by its fangs as sharp as knives.

Stepping inside his room, he peered at the pocket watch by his bedside table. It wasn't even late: still eight hours left on the clock before the sun officially completed its cycle and the twin celestial moons rose. He didn't care, however. Mind awash with the beast, his body shut down for the night.


A bang on the metal outside startled him from his deep, dreamless slumber. He was wide awake, exhaustion afflicting him no more. Intrigue twinkled in his eyes. When he remembered Drevon slept close to his quarters, however, his curiosity was replaced by an irked grumble. The purple dragon was always up early mucking about in his room. One such morning he'd found him playing chase with his sister, Carolin. Sure, the room was spacious enough for a game or two, but with the way he ran like a fire through stubble, he was bound to crash into the walls at some point. Thankfully, dragon skulls were built for charging and he was never injured.

Roland tossed in bed, humming irritably. How could one dragon be so energetic? He wondered if the Ancestors regretted their decision to give one such as Drevon the energy he clearly didn't need. With the noise he made, he probably disturbed even them. And then, once it was all wasted on his shenanigans, he'd sleep like a rock for ten hours.

The smack on the wall came again, reverberating across his room. And then once more, only seconds after. This time, Roland sat up, frowning. Normally Drevon would only make one mistake before slinking off to bed, guilty.

"What are you doing in there...?" Roland mumbled to himself, one more knock at the steel confusing him further. Examining the hands on his pocket watch, he realised it was only three-thirty. "I thought it was later than that. Drevon's usually asleep at this time..."

As he crawled out of his sheets, a voice broke through the dense walls, furious. He leaned against the wall beside him; however, it faded as though it were never there. Concern for his friend replaced his irritation.

He quietly scampered down the sewer lines and stopped in front of Drevon's door. He remembered building this little room when it was just the four of them: himself, Seth, Myrtle, and Drevon. All the rooms were made of the stone Seth and occasionally Myrtle could summon on a whim, and the metallic walls already happened to be there. He silently thanked the brown dragon again for his kindness to build such things. Roland had always wondered where he'd learnt to construct them, whether his skill was innate or not.

His musings were halted by the slam on the iron again. Nobody else listened to it, slumbering. He couldn't blame them when they lived further from Drevon's room than he.

He lowered himself to the position of the keyhole. He was uncomfortable with peeping through the keyhole to examine the antics Drevon got up to. He didn't exactly want to see the unholy things he got up to ever again, but it couldn't be helped.

Drevon's room was decorated, unlike many of them, with all sorts of furniture they'd dragged back together. He didn't have a bed, like Roland, but a basket brimming with colourful pillows, which he always said he preferred because he rolled in his sleep. They lay strewn about the room which perplexed him, as though Drevon had dragged himself out of bed.

Then he heard the voice from earlier. The fact it belonged to Seth scared him. Rules were that nobody entered a room unless invited inside – not even Roland, their sort-of leader. The rage in Seth's voice suggested he'd invited himself in, though.

He looked around the room, but it took shifting his head and vision to truly grasp the display in front of him. Cuffs fashioned out of the stone floor shackled the purple dragon to the wall, brown paws wrapped around his neck. Drevon wheezed, breath restrained by Seth's clawed grip. If it had been any tighter, he'd probably suffocate.

"You're useless, Drevon." Roland felt his own breath catch in his throat as Seth spoke. "You're the purple dragon and you're absolutely useless. You don't even want to help anyone; instead, you just sit there, complaining about the sewers! If you hate us all so much, why don't you just leave?!"

Seth was angry about the jokes made about the sewers' stench? Drevon appeared to utter a word, but the earth dragon didn't give him a chance, nor did he seem to hear.

"Do you even care, Drevon?"

Drevon couldn't force the words through his throat. He spluttered weakly, painfully.

"I asked you a question, Drevon. Do you even care!?" Seth pulled the purple dragon back for a second, only to slam his body into the metal. An audible crunch echoed through the room. One of the many dark spines descending Drevon's back fell to the ground, hollow against the stone. The silence and brutality inflicted upon him disturbed Roland. This torture over a joke?

"Y-ye... Ye–"

"You're a liar," Seth snarled, growing closer to his face. "You're nothing but a liar! You don't care. Not about Roland, not about Myrtle... Not about me. I built everything for you. I created what you live for! I made sure you were safe and happy, and you do nothing to show for it! You just sit there, scaring the shit out of everyone with your purple dragon magic."

Roland could barely watch, but he kept his eye glued to the keyhole. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Why don't you just leave? You're nothing, Drevon. That's all you are." Seth's paw glowed a startling green. "Nothing!"

The crack that echoed across Drevon's room made Roland jump. Before he could blink, a pillar of earth jolted through the ground, striking the purple dragon's stomach. The cuffs crumbled upon impact, Drevon left to fall to the ground. He clasped his battered stomach, gasping for air.

"Don't tell anyone about this." Seth grasped the purple dragon's horn and pulled his head up to meet his. A complete mockery of a dragon Drevon had been made out to be in that very second. Roland held back the fury to barge in and deck the brown dragon one. He'd only end up the same as Drevon.

Frankly, he was terrified of him now.

"If you do..." The brown dragon paused. He wrenched at Drevon's horn. "I'll show you what dying feels like. I'll rip out those fucking horns of yours."

Then Seth shoved his face into the stone and stormed away from him. He was coming to the door.

Roland lifted his head away and scampered far into the gloom of one of the many pipes. The door swung open and Seth slammed it for good measure. If he was trying to be quiet, he hadn't done a good job. Maybe he knew nobody would hear him.

The red dragon could barely fathom what he'd witnessed. He knew Seth had always been somewhat aggressive to those he didn't like, but a full-on beating wasn't him. Seth turned down the corridors moments later, vanishing with any trust Roland had once had for him.

When the silence permeated Firemore's sewers once more, Roland rushed back. The door groaned open, weak from Seth's punishment. Drevon spluttered, red fluid leaking from his nostrils dripping onto the ground.

As he walked inside, Drevon looked up, tears dancing in his eyes. As he realised who it was, he looked more embarrassed than in overwhelming pain. "Oh, h-hey..." His words were barely audible through his wheezing. He spluttered breathlessly. "...R-Roly."

"Don't talk to me, Drevon." Roland was by his side immediately, offering him his paw. "Focus on your stomach."

On his feet again, Drevon did as he was told. He leaned against the wall where he'd been shackled for support.

"I don't have any spirit gems with me and I'm afraid to leave you alone," Roland stated. The seriousness in his voice caught Drevon off-guard. "You're gonna have to make do."

"I-it's... fine," he wheezed. "Th-th..."

"Don't talk."

It took a good while before Drevon's breathless gasps retreated and the air returned. He aggressively rubbed at the tears staining his face. He clearly hated himself for it, to be sobbing in front of his best friend. In no way could Roland could blame him for it, though.

"I... I shouldn't be here. He's right." Drevon's eyes met the floor. His words startled the red dragon. "I should just leave and–"

"No, Drevon, don't think that," Roland spoke back. "I've never seen him like that. That's not him at all... Has he done anything like this before? And more importantly, are you okay now?"

Drevon sniffed, wiping the blood from his snout. He stared at it for a strangely long time, like he'd never seen such a thing. "I-it still stings down there... And he's come in here before, but h-he... he never hurts me. He usually just yells at me..."

"Why didn't you defend yourself?" Roland asked, draping a wing over Drevon's shoulders. He flinched momentarily, but didn't seem to mind after a few seconds. Drevon froze at the question, whimpering. "You're the purple dragon. I've seen you fight, and..." Roland adopted a slight grin. "And you're a force to be reckoned with. You could've taken him down with that ice of yours, or–"

"H-he..." He didn't seem like he could finish his sentence. Another loose tear rolled down his cheek.

"He what?"

"He... scares me..." Being the strong, exuberant dragon he was, the shame in Drevon's voice was indescribable. Roland couldn't blame him for being terrified; he'd felt the same simply watching the earth dragon's display. "He tells me to leave, tells me I'm worthless, threatens my sister. He tells me he actually w-wants to kill me, Roland. And just now he said–"

"I heard what he said." Roland huffed. Seth's words were unreasonable. He remembered the spine he'd shattered and suppressed the anger in his tone. At least dragons couldn't feel their spines and horn and tail blades, and they grew back quickly enough if destroyed. But getting one yanked straight from the body had to be a different story. "To be honest, I don't think even he'd have the guts, Drevon. Seth wouldn't kill somebody. None of us would... Did you see him coming back from the city today?"

He felt bad for saying it, but his bitterness for Seth quelled those feelings. Drevon, however, seemed confused. "N-no?" He sniffed.

"According to Ashlyn, he came back crying after we both saw that flying thingo in the market square, attacking the stalls and people... Ah, crap, now I've opened up a can of worms."

He predicted the new look on Drevon's face. "Wait, what?"

"Long story short, that thing we saw in the sky last night wasn't a weird dragon and was actually this monster. It... well, it killed people, to put it straight." Roland could still hardly stomach the thought. After getting some sleep to ponder over it, however, he was able to accept nothing like it would happen again. Firemore's guard was reliable; they'd get the weaponry fixed and ready to go to stop any more of these invasions. Of course, thoughts of that adolescent cheetah didn't simply vanish. He shuddered. "Anyway, point is, I don't think Seth would want you dead. Dunno if he'd be able to deal with blood on his paws. Maybe he was just... extra mad today. Don't worry about the monster, either."

"N-no, now you've got me interested." Drevon leaned in slightly, shifting the subject. "You mean it actually came in and killed people?"

"Yeah, I was hiding in an alleyway when it happened."

"What did it look like? ...Did you almost get eaten by it?" Drevon's child-like intrigue was sort of unnerving.

"It was grey and it had these yellow eyes and fangs and it screamed at people and..." Roland put a paw to his jaw. "Feel like we're both treating people dying too lightly. It was horrible to watch, and... I'm worried about their families, honestly."

"You didn't know any of them, did ya, bud?"

"Uh, no?"

"Then who cares about 'em. Worry about yourself and your friends. I'm just glad nothing happened to you."

"Um... I-I guess?"

"Dragons and cheetahs and moles and stuff die everyday," Drevon said nonchalantly, able to see Roland wasn't convinced. "If I told you some dragon or cheetah kicked the bucket in that Lingrad bullshit overseas, would you care? It's just as if not more brutal and there's thousands more of 'em. There's, like, gunshots and shit, and if you've seen what the cheetahs can do with an E.F... Or heard about what the Assembly's ice dragons do to other people..."

When the newspapers soared out of the printer's offices and landed in the paws of many, the headlines and stories of warring species overseas were on the front page every time. 'Confederates Fight Back', 'Assembly Loses Ground', all that jazz, yet Roland couldn't care less about it and overall didn't know anything about it, other than that he was supposed to root for the Confederation, and the weapons used by many were E.F.'s: elemental firearms. Perhaps Drevon had a point, but those damned images wouldn't so easily leave his mind. There was a significant difference between hearing it from miles away than seeing it before your very eyes. "Maybe you're right."

"I always am!" Surprisingly, he grinned, seeming to forget about the encounter earlier. That, or he desired some semblance of respite from Roland. "Anyway," he continued, getting up, the red dragon following suit, "I think it's a bit early to go out and do shit today. Think we should both go back to bed."

"Yeah, alright." Roland nearly tripped over the pillows Drevon then started gathering. "I'll see you in the morning."

"It is morning." Drevon shoved his own pocket watch into the red dragon's face, chuckling.

He pushed his paw away. "See you later then, smart-arse." Roland ambled out the door. He stopped as he found himself within the sewers once more. "And hey, Drevon?"

"What do you want, bud?"

"You can tell me, you know." His smirk gave way to the warmest smile he could muster. "Don't keep it all bogged up inside of you. You don't deserve this. I'll see if I can talk to Seth about it because he'd probably be willing to listen to me."

"You... you sure?" Unconvinced, Drevon stopped gathering his pillows and moved to the oaken door. However, the determination in Roland's eyes settled any doubts he had.

"Yeah, of course. I can't just let you be antagonised by him."

Drevon beamed. "Thanks, Roly. Goodnight." And with an awkward creak, the door closed in front of Roland, leaving him to stare into the empty sewers once more.

The purple dragon of all things, bullied by a mere earth dragon. It was completely unreasonable, Roland thought. Spyro had been that heroic, loyal, loving soul nobody opposed – until he turned to the darkness, of course – if not because of their love for him but for their fear over what a purple dragon could unleash. Truly, Roland had never seen the powers of aether before his own eyes, but he'd read stories of it, of magic that rippled through the air, tearing away light, ripping the world asunder. Even a breath would turn the strongest to a cinder.

"Yet Seth's not afraid of any of that?" Roland questioned, sauntering along the pathway to his room. He realised his voice echoed and trapped his muzzle with a paw. "Not to mention their power in everything else..." he muttered.

Maybe Drevon was different to the other purple dragons, though. He certainly wasn't heroic and hadn't displayed his true power to anybody yet. If Roland had that kind of power, he'd use it willy nilly, but maybe only because he'd never felt an element before. Perhaps Drevon knew not to blast whatever he saw fit with the element of the purple dragons.

Or maybe Drevon couldn't. Roland hadn't thought about that. All this time he'd been seeing purple dragons as this legendary race of his own kin – in spite of how annoying he could become in the span of two seconds, he looked up to Drevon, a feeling he didn't share with anybody else. They were supposed to be born in times of prophecy, either to smite evil or become the darkness. He'd always wondered which one Drevon was when he was far younger, but those feelings stopped after a while.

Drevon's story seemed different. Perhaps he was just another normal dragon. And, just maybe, that was the way Seth saw it.