Title: Dragon's Lies
Author: Knux33
Disclaimer: I don't own D. Gray-Man. If I did, there would be dragons. :)
11. White Is-Sac/red
Isaac what hast thou seen?
"An apple on my head,"
Said he,
"And the beginning, of gravity."
"Rhode?" A voice called. "Rhode?"
No answer.
Isaac sighed, and tried moving his once-broken arm. It was stiff, and ached, but was movable. He tried to do the same with his wings. Both opened and closed without protest. Time in the dream-world Rhode had set aside for him had done wonders on his battered body, and he was glad to be home again.
But he did wish he could see Rhode more often.
He hated how his chosen had to go to the 'school,' 'balls,' and 'social events.' Human were such strange things, with even stranger customs ...
He moved from his nest of pillows and stuffed animals, looking for the door Rhode had left just in case he wanted to go outside to eat something. Or someone. She always seemed particularly joyful when he brought back a human morsel, alive, for her to play with. And he still got to eat them afterwards, which was a real treat.
But not many people dared to venture into the mountainous region where Rhode had opened the dream-door to, so human snacks were scarce. Secretly, Isaac was glad he didn't get the chance to eat too many people. It just seemed a little wrong to eat something that knew the workings of the world, and had a mind. But, of course, that problem was solved when he brought them to Rhode.
When she was done with them, there was near to nothing left of the mind. Then it became a pile of meat to be swallowed before it rotted, and Isaac was quite content to feast on those.
He nudged the checkered heart-door open, and stepped into the snow. One good thing about his lack of color, the dragon noted, was that he could become invisible in terrain like this. The downside of such white scales, of course, was that fact that he was painfully visible in any other area. But, at least he didn't have to worry about that here.
He slid through the frozen liquid blanketing the thin forest and jutting rocks on the side of the mountain, utilizing his belly, as it was smarter to act more like a snake in the snow and glide along quietly instead of marching through on all four feet and scaring everything within a mile away.
Isaac thought about flying, now that his wings had healed, but dismissed the motion. No animals would care about a large flying creature above, the dragons had been gone from this world for too long for them to remember. But, the humans were another story. They did not just remember to fear, they lived their lives based off of the emotion.
They lived clustered together, cramped and hostile but unwilling to leave the group. At night they lit artificial lights, and slept in small, stuffy rooms. When something went 'bump' in the night, they lay, paralyzed by fear and pulled the covers closer, praying for dawn or sleep to come faster.
But--
Isaac reminded himself.
--there were exceptions. Few, but they existed. The foolhardy that dared to venture into these mountains for example. They came, with only cloth, small tents, and a few necessities for survival, trusting their own instincts and common sense to help them survive. Of course, common sense usually tells humans to stay near home, and not to go on such foolhardy adventures. So, in Isaac's opinion, all those he saw here were the defuncts of an otherwise cowardly species.
But, it was because of those very throwbacks that he would not fly. Humans were often smart enough to stay hidden when in sight of a large predator, even the stupid ones, and with all of the nooks and cranny's on his mountain Isaac wanted to make sure no rumors escaped about a 'white dragon in the mountains.'
Sure, the whispers would bring more idiots for him to eat, but it would most probably bring exorcists as well, and Rhode didn't want that. Well, at least not yet anyway.
He ghosted through the snow and pulled his concentration back to finding Breakfast, which was either going to be reindeer or musk ox, and payed close attention to the smells in the air, and tracks on the ground.
Breakfast, what a funny word ...
Yes, Isaac began to believe he would never fully understand people and their habits, but he would still have Rhode, and that was all he wanted.
Well, that, and whatever she wanted.
//DRDRDR//
"She ate a ... dragon egg?" Doctor Alter was at a loss. He still couldn't wrap his mind around the concept. Dragon eggs were not covered in the book of standard doctor know-how.
Mark was about ready to start pulling out his own hair at the moment, and not just because the doctor was acting particularly thick at the moment. It was because all of the weeks of Val's steadily decreasing health, the hopeless look she had first gotten in her eyes when she realized her legs weren't working properly anymore, was his fault.
He had been hunting around the beach near the port, looking for anything edible, and had found an egg. A big egg. A wonderfully large and easy-to-get egg. Well, almost ...
//FLASHBACK//
Waves crashed on the surf, masking the growling of a thirteen-year-olds empty stomach. He had been looking for sea-bird nests, or maybe even something else that looked remotely like a good lunch. Or Breakfast. Or Supper. Or a good substitute for all three.
Yesterday, both he and his sister hadn't been able to find anything in the local recked buildings of trash heps, so today, they had split their forces. Val was looking in the more populated areas of the city today, trying her hand at pickpocketing and scouring through the 'fresher' trash heaps. This was a risky job, and of the two only Val had the fast feet and reflexes needed for it.
Mark always hated to admit that his sister, his younger sister, was quite superior to him in most ways. Speed, smarts, charm, always able to get what she wants, a schemer, and she had always been Mom and Dad's favorite ...
But ... their parents were dead now, so that last bit didn't really matter ...
He sighed, and looked along the coast again. He was high up on the dunes, where large rocks, tall, thick grasses and bushes blocked most of the possible paths forward. But, it was in this dense area where Mark hoped to find a few crab holes, or a bird's nest. He didn't know if seagulls laid their eggs on the ground near the coast, or if anything laid their eggs along the coast for that matter, but he knew had had to try to find something.
He irritably scratched at his legs. The strong, wind-blown sand both stung and irritated his exposed skin, and was probably why no one else was on this beach today, besides the fact that most of the nearby inhabitants were still rebuilding their homes.
Well, all the better for him. Looking down, he realized he saw something small and fast moving along the sand.
A crab. A rare and mouth-watering sight for the daylight, as the crustaceans usually didn't leave their homes until sunset.
The small creature was scuttling sideways as fast as its little legs would take it, bolting for its hole somewhere in the dunes above the tide line. Mark leaped after it, and was soon hot in pursuit. The little thing was surprisingly fast for a small-fry, and Mark had trouble in both chasing it and avoiding the bushes that got in the way.
It wasn't very surprising when the dirty-blond haired boy found himself out of breath, without a crab, and quite a ways from the ocean. His feet, which had been without a decent pair of shoes for quite a while, ached.
He gave up on finding his elusive quarry, turned to head back to the beach, and promptly tripped on a protruding root.
Que: face-first fall into a bush, rebounding somersault into sand, then frantic sputtering to get sand out of mouth, and disgusted exclamations at how gritty it tastes on tongue.
Mark was really glad no one had seen that ...
By the time he had gotten up again, Mark realized there wasn't an inch of him anywhere without sand on it. Ugh, he was going to go through hell trying to get it all out of his clothing. His only still-decent clothing anyway, as the rest had been discarded after being covered in grime or ripped beyond use.
He picked himself up and dusted everything off the best he could, though the sand seemed to be sticking quite stubbornly when he saw a gleam of white peeking out from underneath the bush he tripped over. Curious, he paused in his de-sanding and bent down, aiming for a good look at it.
Lucky for him, it wasn't some long-forgotten bone of some other creatures' snack, but an egg! And it was huge!
Just wait until Val sees this thing! It must-of been laid by-- by an ostrich or something! He snagged it, grinning from ear to ear. I bet this beats everything she finds by two-fold!
Of course, he would leave out the part where he tripped. He'd just say he found it under a bush after chasing a crab, that was truth enough.
When he got back to where they had agreed to meet a few hours later, Mark found his sister waiting with a small slab of ham clutched in her grubby fingers. Well scratch the hope that he had found something better than her, ham beat eggs in Mark's book.
Val grinned at him. "So, what'd you find Mr-Sand-King?"
Mark ruefully tried to rub some of the extra grit on one arm while showing off his catch with the other. "I found an ostrich egg."
"Sweet. Where do we fry it?"
It took the better part of what was left of the afternoon to find an abandoned house with a good-old fashioned stove that they could pop some wood in to start it. With that and a frying pan, Mark quickly decided to make scrambled egg and cracked the thing open.
The shell was surprisingly hard, and Mark had to hit it as hard as he could to make a crack, but soon had the contents spilling into the pan anyway. Then, he got another surprise. The egg yolk was green.
Val was hovering over his shoulder during the entire process, and eyed the substance doubtfully. "Are eggs normally supposed to be green on the inside?"
"Don' know." Mark mumbled, concentrating on using a stolen fork to scramble the substance. "But I'll eat it if you won't."
"No way!" She exclaimed with a glare. "Eggs are my favorite and I know you love ham. You're getting the meat, and I'm getting the eggs that I love."
He frowned but continued stirring until the eggs were done, removing the frying pan from the stove and putting out the fire. The food looked okay ... relatively. He was getting really bad vibes about feeding it to his sister, but before he could even voice his complaints his sister grabbed the pan and fork, shoveling the food in her open mouth. He looked at the forgotten slab of ham and felt his stomach.
Oh yeah, hunger.
The empty feeling had become such a constant companion by now that he had almost forgotten about it. Grabbing the meat, he dug into it, quite forgetting about the green egg yolk and concentrating on making sure his body didn't start eating itself to contemplate for the lack of food.
A few days later, Val had gotten sick. Soon, when her temperature was clearly lingering in the highs longer that it should, she was no longer able to walk without assistance. Mark had to find food on his own, or with her on his back. After that, they had met the cheerful and unique Allen Walker.
//END-FLASHBACK//
And now, they were here.
And the ostrich egg had really been a dragon egg.
And it was his fault for finding the damn thing and feeding it to his sister.
Mark sat next to his sister's bed and sighed, glancing once and a while at the white orb placed by her bed on another chair, balance perilously on some of the flat pillows they used in the infirmary. Somehow, he wished he could blame the egg instead of himself, but he knew that would be unfair.
It's not like it jumped out and screamed 'Eat me!' at him. It had been sitting there in the sand, hiding under the bush, probably trying its hardest not to be eaten, and he had gone and scrambled it!
Man ... things were messed up. Mark put his head in his hands and tried to make as much sense of the situation that a thirteen-year-old boy could, and found he couldn't make much sense of it at all.
All he knew was that he had fed his sister a dragon, it had made her sick, and now that the dragon egg was out again, she was better.
Really, she was. Her temperature had finally gone back down, and her cheeks were slowly gaining a healthier pinkish color. As much as everything else infuriated him, this one fact made Mark feel at least slightly better.
"Can I get up now?" He heard Allen ask from the other end of the screen placed in the room between to beds. The nurses here seemed very passionate about keeping the invalid in bed, though he sounded better to Mark and no longer needed extra warmth to keep his body temperature up. The poison had run its course, and Allen was better again. The exorcist just needed to wait for his shoulder to heal itself.
Mark was staring to get tired of hearing the teens voice but not being able to see him, and really hoped the nurses would removed the screens soon. He voiced his opinion to the doctor scratching his head quizzically and Allen quickly agreed from his side of the 'wall.'
The doctor nodded, and stated that they would remove the screens later. Dr. Alter then went back to trying to wrap his head around the unpredictability of innocence while marveling at Val's obvious health improvement.
He really should of taken that job in America ... this was all way too crazy.
A shriek came from the door way outside. Mark twisted his head around and Allen was halfway out of his bed (nurses trying to stop him or not) before the strangled yelp of "D-d-d-dragons!" stopped them both.
Just dragons? Okay then, no problem. Mark went out to calm down whoever was panicking and Allen let the nurses throw him back in bed.
//DRDRDR//
Speck was quite sorry he had startled the people in the room. He was even sorrier he couldn't fit his whole body into the small space between himself and Allen. Smudge was currently trying to pull him back out because ... well ...
Speck had gotten himself a little ... stuck ... when he had wedged himself in the door frame ...
"Next time, you do not go stuffing yourself into places to-small for you to fit in!" Smudge grunted, pulling at specks back legs with his own arms.
"Sorry Smudge," Speck whined, wincing when the small lady spoke again.
"D-d-d-d-d--" Lo-Fwa stuttered.
"Speck!" Mark exclaimed, coming in on the situation. "Get your face outta here!"
"Speck trying." Speck said, wiggling a bit in another attempt to get loose. "Me stuck."
Mark groaned. "And if my sister bleeding eggs wasn't enough--"
"Oh?" Smudges voice was muffled, but heard. "I was under the impression that at a certain age it was quite normal for human females to bleed an egg out once a mouth if it was not fertilized."
Lo-Fwa stopped stuttering, and turned a very unique shade of red. Li-Kei, currently as far way from the gray dragon's jaws as possible, also blushed, looking like he was trying very hard to not think about what had been said. Mark looked in disbelief at the wall by Speck, as if he was trying to see Smudge through the stone.
"Don't speak of such things!" Mark exclaimed.
"Why?" Smudge continued pulling at Specks legs, but the gray dragon was wedged in tight.
"J-just don't!"
"But you were talking about it--"
"Not I wasn't!" Mark yelling, red himself. "I was talking about the dragon egg that bled out of her eyeballs!"
A stunned silence followed the statement.
"Your sister ... had a dragon egg ... in her?" Smudge sounded quite stunned.
Even Speck looked surprised. "Girl lay egg?" He pondered. "Girl ... chicken?"
"No!" Mark shook his head violently. "She ate an egg, see? And it must-of been a dragon egg, 'cause it made her sick, and now that its out she's better, and no normal eggs come back out after they've been eaten."
Li-Kei rubbed his head, as if he had a headache. Lo-Fwa looked stunned.
Speck nodded, clarification clear. "Oh! Girl-Val ate egg, and egg now out! Speck see, Speck see!"
It was at that point that Smudge finally yanked Speck out of the door frame with a strange sort-of 'scrape' sound as Speck's scales rubbed the wrong way against the wood and stone of the frame and doors.
Speck turned out to be fine, but the frame now looked like several cats had decided to test their claws on it.
Smudge sighed, and carefully poked his now-mostly-healed head a little ways inside, careful not to get stuck where his throat connected to his shoulders, like Speck had. "Speck is wondering if he could see Mr Allen, please."
Mark sighed. "If the nurses let him out, Speck can see Allen."
A cheerfully cry was heard from outside.
"If," Mark reminded with a yell. "And only if, the nurses let him out."
"Allen, Allen, Allen--" Speck sang quite happily. "--Speck get-see Allen--"
Mark rolled his eyes.
"How did your sister come to eat a dragon egg, child-Mark?" Smudge asked, eyes glowing white. "They are not very common in this world."
"Uh ..." I fed it to her. Mark left the last bit unsaid, and revised it. "We found it, and she ate it. We were starving at the time ya' know." He added in 'a-matter-of-fact' tone.
"Did your parents not feed you well?" Smudge asked, quite curious. He had not seen much parent-hatchling activity, and was wondering just how the human race had become so populated if the parents did not take care of their children.
Mark glared, and Smudge noted that Kanda's glares were much more passionate. Compared to the samurai's heated looks, this one seemed flat. "They're dead."
"Oh ... oh." Smudge realized he had just said something very rude, and so did Speck.
"Smudge shouldn't say things bad." The gray pointed out.
"I am sorry." Smudge said to Mark, then pulled his head out to tell Speck, "And I did not mean to say anything bad. I did not know his parents were dead."
"Smudge should. Smudge knows lots."
"But I don't know everything!"
Speck pondered this statement. He decided to simply repeat: "Smudge knows lots." In a determined tone.
Mark sighed at them and marched back into the infirmary, shutting the door behind him. It was about this time that Lo-Fwa realized the door had been open, and she hadn't gone in.
Li-Kei rolled his eyes at her angry sputtering and tapped her on the shoulder. Before her rage could be properly channeled in his direction, the tall teen pointed out that it was Breakfast time, and they hadn't even eaten dinner the night before.
As if to agree, her stomach made a little gurgle. The pig-tailed girl blushed.
Speck's stomach answered in a small roar, and the gray dragon looked quizzically at the named body part, as if to ask 'What?'
Smudge laughed good-naturedly. "Maybe we should all have Breakfast then."
Speck looked like he was about to object, obviously wanting to wait for Allen to come out, but Smudge quickly added, "And Speck can bring back something for Allen and everyone else that is unwell."
The speckled gray dragon looked very happy with his 'job' and was quite willing to go eat after that. Li-Kei watched the creature flit about in the hallway, jumping around in a hop/skip looking quite happy with the world and wondered how he could of ever been scared of it. Him. Speck was a 'him,' and so was Smudge. Li-Kei, as most scientists would, wondered how anyone could tell, with no obvious signs of gender ...
//DRDRDR//
The cook was scared.
Very scared.
And exhausted.
Why?
Because there were two dragons in the lunch line. Both had already eaten the designated food Lenalee had already ordered for them, and were now asking for more. A lot more. And--
By all that is holy-- The cook thought dismally.
There were two more beasts! TWO! Walking right in, and getting in line, chatting quite happily with the two already there.
Orange, yellow, black, and gray. Four dragons. All hungry. All in his lunch line.
"Um ... excuse me?" The young scientist in the front of the line asked.
The cook was quite dazed. "What?"
"Could I have some oatmeal? For breakfast?" The mid-sized teen with bowl-cut black hair asked as if repeating himself, which he probably was.
"Yes, yes, of course--" There are dragons in the lunch line.
Within moments Shifu had his food and made his way to a table. He stopped briefly to glance at the large mythical creatures in the room, before moving on. He decided that he was more sleep deprived than he himself had originally thought, and moved on.
Then Ammy got to the small window in the wall connecting to the kitchen and looked down at the cook with one, large, dragon eye. The cook gulped.
"I would like several pounds of herring. Properly spiced and seasoned. No heads." Each addition sound more like an order instead of a request, and the cook asked himself if this job was worth it ...
"Oh, oh! I would like something pretty to look at and good to eat please!" Sunny chattered from behind.
"I'll just have some meat. Any kind is fine, as long as it's not too slimy." Smudge called forward.
"Meat!" Speck chirped, echoing Smudge's request.
The cook looked back into the kitchen, to make sure the rest of the staff had heard the request. The rest of the kitchen workers looked backed at him uneasily, shuffling their feet and looking at the amounts of food they had currently on stock. Hopefully, it would be enough.
He faced the gluttons head on and replied: "A moment, for us to prepare the food, if you will?" The sentence was scrambled, and he sounded like a butler, but the Head Cook did not care. He was trying not to squeal like a mouse faced with four cats. Four, hungry cats.
"Oh, then we shall wait." Smudge declared, moving out into the main hallway where there was more room. The other three followed, Sunny and Ammy chatting. Speck was glancing curiously at passing people, but trailing behind Smudge for the most part.
The Black was better a knowing-what-to-do better than he was. At least, when it came to people. The small, two-legged creatures had a strange society, and Speck really didn't understand why they did what they did most of the time, but he liked most of them.
Especially Allen. His Allen was wonderful, and perfect, and almost always made sense.
He hoped he could see Allen soon ... then they could find 'Home' like Allen had wanted to.
The last Home had been the wrong one, but Allen was sure to find the right one next time ...
Maybe it would be a nice place.
//DRDRDR//
Isaac licked his jaws, wiping the last trace of reindeer blood from his face; a dragons tongue being far more efficient than any napkin. Looking into the sky, he saw the sun rising ever higher, and turned to make his way back to Rhode's door. He walked through the snow, not caring about scaring away any of the animals now that his appetite was sated.
But even in the tremendous sound he was making, he 'heard' and 'saw' the akuma long before it reached him. It was one of Rhode's current 'favorites,' and Isaac did not even try to hide his distaste at the vile being trotting up the snowy hill to meet him halfway, somehow spoiling the pure, white snow with its presence alone.
And this one was only on the third stage of development. The dragon shuttered to think about the levels beyond it.
This creature was specially made, and unique in its structure. One could not help but recognize it immediately, with its hound-like build while most of these monsters looked like humans, and with its vile, tar-colored poison.
A very useful poison, Isaac had to add to his thoughts, especially when attempting to capture instead of to kill.
Even one with parasitic innocence, whom was usually exempt to the effects of Dark Matter poison.
True, the overall mission of capturing Allen Walker for Rhode had been a failure; but for this mutt the trial had been a complete success of testing its full capabilities. It would 'live' to do its duty some other day, or just to simply supply the drug its fangs excreted out with its saliva.
Isaac felt its claws grip the frozen ground beneath the snow with enough pressure to break through the compacted soil and leave deep imprints.
Even though he did everything Rhode asked him to—and did it gladly, if only to please her—he found this request very hard to honor.
"Don't kill any akuma." Oh, that was the only thing about his chosen that left a bad taste in his mouth and made his scales itch as if bugs were crawling beneath. How could she stand these stupid, worthless, vile--
Isaac coughed(hacking really), berating himself for such thoughts, and faced the demon.
It panted at him, breath forming no vapor in the air. It gave the mechanical life a distinct ... dead look, unlike the dragon puffing out clouds of warm air with each breath, as if he could breath fire.
Sometimes, Isaac wished he could. It would of made life a lot more fun, and Rhode would of liked that. But, regrettably, only Ammy's venom could spontaneously combust with the air, forming flame.
Quite a useful trick, that.
The ... thing ... barked at him. Or, it tried to. The sound it made was both sharp and flat, almost as if a metal plate was being hit with something soft, and made Isaac hiss at it. But he controlled himself. Barely.
"I take it Rhode wants me back now?"
It nodded, and turned to lope back to the portal to the dream-world. Isaac glared at it, grinding his teeth silently, before following.
Its soul was screaming at him.
He want to scream back.
But Rhode was more important. She was the most important. To him, only her soul mattered.
And with all of his power, he would save her. He knew how.
In the end, it was as simple as getting the Noah Clan to leave the Earl. That was all that needed to be done.
But to do that, other events had to be put in motion. Events that would lead to the eventual end of the world. Events that would lead to death and suffering.
The path would be hard.
Isaac was going to start it all anyway.
Because what else for him to do? Let the Earl lead the way to the End?
No. He could not let that happen.
It was a long way to the End yet, and there was much time to prepare. And even Rhode wasn't totally under the Earl's sway. She had something on her own agenda. Someone, actually.
Despite what he knew of the coming future, Isaac smiled to himself. The Noah were still loyal to their 'Will,' yet. He just had to find a way to remind them.
And it would be ... fun.
END 11.
AN:
"... and all through the house, not a creature was stirring..."
... Except the fanfiction writer. :)
Agh ... some parts of this feel ... agh, if you know what I mean.
And sorry about long waits (this is plural, because there is more waiting coming along for you all ... I'm so soooooorry!). But ... I'm in a 'slump' (I will NOT say writers block! It is a curse to say the words aloud!)
But, you guys deserve way more than I'm giving! Did I mention ... this story has over 100 reviews as of a long time ago? (swoon) Oh, sorry. I'm still amazed by that.
Thank-you all so much! Merry Christmas, and my your vacations be jolly!
Important news: Next update will be on New Year's (somewhere around there anyway ... I'm not sure about the hours at different parts of the world ...)
