Disclaimer: I do not own HP or IY.
Chapter 11: A Plea
It was the time of twilight. The shrill cry of a bird could be heard in the distance. The multicolored sky painted the lands with just enough light for any wanderer to notice the macabre scenery with no too much difficulty while passing unnoticed by the less observant.
In the time of twilight, the land could manifest its horrifying story at the best of its capacities. The broken, burnt houses suddenly transformed in the twisted reflection of its dead inhabitants, their façade resembling their contorted arms supplicating mercy to the bloody sky.
The deformed bodies of the dead laying in the hard, unforgiving ground retelling their manner of death: Cruel, merciless, a complete and utterly massacre. No one was spared; pleading mothers, innocent children, the old and wise elders, babies barely out of their suckling years, hard-working husbands; no one escaped their fate.
Their pitiful possessions ransacked if useful or if the contrary, disposed and thrown without care. Their cattle slayed or taken for provisions as well as any food gathered from their fields who then had burn with any unfortunate soul who had got trapped in the asphyxiating smoke.
If you heard closely, you could still hear their screams for leniency or begs to spare any love one or the howls of rage for their loss and pain.
Outside of this desolation, in a nearby hill, stood a silhouette observing emotionless this unhuman scene; he kept staring until a rider came near him.
"You are needed at the commander's tent." The rider said.
The figured nodded signifying his acceptance. Then he calmly walked towards the edge of the hill's cliff and let himself fall, outlining a smile.
Just seconds before he reached the ground, two black wings emerged from his back, snapping to his sides so that with a powerful beat he raised himself vertically to the sky.
He flew through the air until he arrived to his destination: a humungous encampment full of tents of various sizes, war-horses with their riders, warriors preparing for their next battle, pieces of armor damaged or in the mending, soldiers with dangerous lances, and many a commander preserving the order.
He changed his course in the air so the he aimed to the largest and most flamboyant tent of them all. He landed with barely a noise by its side.
With sure steps, he walked to its entrance and stood respectfully waiting for the guard to announce his presence to the tent's owner. A few minutes later, he was granted access and entered the pavilion.
"You are late."
The man nodded his accent to the owner, who was sitting staring intensively at the enormous map that was located in front of him.
"I apologize, my lord." He said courteously.
"Remember it, for the next time I would not be so lenient with you." The lord stood up and motioned him to get near. With a wave of his hand, he gestured to the red points located in the map and said "This is your next mission, you know what to do. Do not disappoint."
The man did a curt nod and waited for permission to exit.
"You are dismissed." The lord indifferently said, turning his whole attention to the map.
With those words, he made a bow and twisted his body towards the tent's opening. He had his next mission.
He didn't bother with resting; he simply gathered the leaders of the troops under his command and told them their next location while ordering them to make sure they arrive well rested and to follow the usual orders.
Then he extended his wings and rose to the sky towards his duty. He smiled bitterly, thinking of what has become his life. Many years ago he was a 17-year old dimension-traveler teenager fighting in the front lines of a pointless war by the side of traitors under the command of the Great Puppeteer of the time, then a 4 and a half year-old child in a parallel world learning to survive to then be captured a the age of 5 by a group dedicated to the trafficking of Half-Bloods, Hayous.
It was just his luck that a few weeks later he caught the interest of a military squad doing terrain recognition.
The next events passed in a whirlwind of chaos. He was put with others trainees; peasants and other slaves a like, the only requisite was that they must have at least a drop of youkai blood. The training was harsh and brutal, barely giving time to rest and the food given was meager and insufficient for such hard-work.
But it made sense, after all, they were preparing for war. And it was mercy that who can't take the rough environment dies before battle because the weak didn't survive and their death would be in absolute agony in the field.
Slowly, after many years training, he began to be noticed by his skills and began to rise in rank. He didn't want to be involved in another war for power, but what could he do? He was just a child, barely capable of surviving not to mention unable to escape at that time.
They were all carefully watched by the guards and any sight of rebellion was crush and punish harshly, sometimes even with death. Lynched, beaten, gutted or beheaded, it didn't matter; all were hanged in the court-yard as an example to the living. He wouldn't have survived with only his Gryffindor rashness; he began to develop his slytherin self-preservation and cunning.
He was now a lower rankedKumigashira, a commander of a troop with a group of Kogashira to help him.
He wanted to live, but it didn't mean that he wanted to help the war; he had shown the minimum of his abilities to climb up in rank until he was not be cannon-fold and had some liberty, but no so much that he gained the attention of the higher powers.
It helped that he was a hanyou, not a pure-blooded youkai, and was thought as weaker for his blood; not expected to raise and be in any manner powerful. It was a surprise he had got to his level.
He still have to kill innocents, but by being the commander he could do it as painless and quick as possible to them and leave enough evidence of mayhem cause by his team so the higher ups didn't notice or care.
A strong current of wind made him stagger in his flight. He shook his raven hair out of his face. That made him remembers the changes that occurred in his body caused by growth. It was then when he discovered that his species had a different life-span because it took him decades to reach puberty and even more to reach his current body form that was like one of a 15 year old.
The small protuberances grew a bit until they resemble two small horns. His grey scales turned darker to a bluish-black color and the knots at his back grew into his two majestic wings. It was possibly the change that he loved the most, he had always imagined back in his old world how would it be if he could be capable to fly like his beloved Hedwig, without the help of a broom.
Also a large, thin tail grew from his behind, with a two pairs of wings at the end, one smaller than the other that helped with his ability to maneuver in the air and glide.
He loved to fly, even if he currently was going to murder another town. In the air it seemed that all his problems vanished and it was just him, Harry, or Hari, as they called him.
He continued to fly until he reached the outskirts of the village. He mentally prepared himself for his task, he couldn't let his emotions damage the mission, it would only harm him and aggravate this villagers' destiny.
He could only do his duty and pray for the end of this war.
A.N: So how did you like it? And thank you all for reviewing, favorite, fallowing or reading this, its appreciated.
If you want to know, the years between he was captured and this was like 60. It is my believe that youkai lived for millenniums, but when they grew from new-born to teenager (17 approx.) would take a century because of the dangers they had from being children and then to adult hood it would take 3 to 4 centuries to then freeze in their prime and then the majority would die in here because of war, battles, etc. or just reach to an extremely old age and then unfreeze and continue to grow old until they die. And because Harry is a ¾ Hayou (mother ½ youkai and ½ human and father pure-blood Youkai) he would grow more quickly than a Youkai of his age I believe. Harry is currently 77 (60 plus the 17 of before).
Also about the ranks, I took them from internet and I do not know if they are very accurately historically speaking, so if you now about military ranks, please correct me if I am wrong.
And about Harry appearance, maybe someday I would draw him, but his appearance is based in Toothless of How to Train Your Dragon, 'cause I just love him and in my opinion he is just like Harry. And yes, Harry is a dragon, of the western kind, so kudos to those who guess! And the explanation would be in the next chapter if I remember.
And that's all for today folks! Thank you so much for reading!
And Late Happy New Year!
Love.
Aria.