Sins of Harmony
Volume 1.5: Untold Tales
Cal'vel: Part 2: Defiled Destroyer
Afternoon, twilight light in the sky.
August 28th, 912 ANM
Mount Erebus, Entarktika
Qurin's cave
"Sorry the clan leader's late. He is paranoid, so he goes out patrolling often." Qurin admonished, as she led Cal'vel into her own cave.
Stealing a gaze back at the winter wastes beyond and around the island, Cal'vel asked with some amusement: "What for? Even my old clan leader didn't bother as much, no one else wants to come this far south."
"Well, whalers are well armed to deal with their prey. And he says they may be armed enough to risk us dragons. He just goes out to see if they are too close." Qurin reasoned.
As Cal'vel fully entered, she gestured to the quarters: "Come on, I'm sure you're tired. I sure am. I'll bring some food."
Settling onto the ice and rock floor, Cal'vel wondered what became of his old tribe. Perhaps their declining population finally caught up with them. Qurin was far too nice to be from his old clan.
1 hour later, evening.
August 28th, 912 ANM
Mount Erebus, Entarktika
Qurin's cave
Cal'vel had finished the meat, a pair of leopard seals, that Qurin had brought. As he settled down, he was beginning to feel a little tired.
Settling down for the night, though it was a constant twilight considering the time of year, Cal'vel saw Qu'rin say drowsily:
"Just relax okay? He'll be thrilled to meet you. Its not often we get visitors. Did you miss your home much?"
"Not really, but maybe, I'll, stay, now that they're, *yawn*, gone..."
Cal'vel fell asleep at that stage, and not a few minutes later, Qu'rin slept too.
She woke not a few minutes later, sneaking out of the cave to fetch the others.
The clan made a deal with the whalers that visited, who always came here for the past 10 years with the humpback whale migrations, as they followed the daylight.
They had been tracking Cal'vel for years, and plotted this.
They arranged a trade, acquiring a few tonnes of Opium from the Pandina empire, and a few tonnes of Yohimbine extract from the West African Shetland Leonyan colonies, on delivery from the whalers.
In exchange, they would give them an easy whale hunt that year.
But their plot for Cal'vel involved those two things.
As Qurin had snuck out, they set makeshift Opium burners at the ready, always having one on hand to keep Cal'vel all but completely sedated.
The Yohimbine extract was an aphrodisiac, and while Cal'vel was at their mercy, their first reason for having him here was carried out, his willingness not a concern.
They carried on for months, keeping Cal'vel fed and watered, but under sedation.
What he dreamt was a warped vision of the extent of the last cruelty his own clan would do to him, for the sake of strength.
Cal'vel's dreamscape
The murky grey shapes swam, time seemed as fluid as the oceans.
A grey dragoness, like Qurin, but different. He felt her, felt his need for her, but he knew it was a dream. He did nothing, yet she gave herself to him all of her own.
Many times they would share pleasure, but in time, she seemed to grow more sly. As if she had what she wanted, and now merely toyed with him.
His vision swam, and he felt water and food registering barely. He often dremat of good food, and a good mate, the basest of desires any dragon could have.
Then, a black shape, looming over him, Familair white stripes, and a scowl mixed with a smirk of success.
Behind him, A grey Dragoness, her rear torso bloated, with what he knew was someone's brood. Gatarak stole his mate, and he'd pay.
More vision swimming, and now, he saw Qurin over him, definitely her. And beside her, Gatarak stood.
"They're healthy, strong, just as promised."
"Good, the lowlifes will have him. I won't have his weakness tainting our clan."
Clan leader Gatarak would visit him from time to time as he lay unconscious, Erebus's wayward son.
If his strength in his genes was wasted on his soft heart, it wouldn't be on his heirs he sired with Qurin. His aroused state, even while barely conscious, was enough for Qurin to have him sire his children to her.
November 2nd, 912 ANM
10 miles north of Mount Erebus, Entarktika
Rock shoreline
The dragons had dropped off their sedated brother and left without another word. The massive blue form was barely conscious, and they told him to keep him sedated during the journey.
The Pandina whalers, the ones who provided the Opium from their homeland and travelled to West Africka for the Yohimbine, knew that a full dragon was a fortune on the markets, once he was shipped back and sold for 'parts'.
The panda captain ordered his crew members, mostly tigers, to load the Dragon aboard. Luckily, a 250 foot dragon could be lifted by a crane designed to haul whales.
Still, the boat was a small fit for him.
November 4th, 912 ANM
Early morning
Southern Ocean, 1800 miles south east of Dingolia
The storm raged, rain and heavy waves thrashing the boat.
"The Sea's too rough!" A tiger bellowed from on deck.
The sea spray and rain lashed over the steamship's steel decks, but the captain saw heard something.
"SIR! The cargo hold's flooding!"
"Get the pumps going!"
November 5th, 912 ANM
Midday
Southern ocean, 1500 miles south east of Dingolia
The cargo hold had flooded, along with damaging much of their cargo. But what was worst, was that the flooding had seeped into the Opium and Yohimbine stores, ruining them.
Now more awake, Cal'vel groaned as he saw harpoons being thrust unsuccessfully into his body as he strained to stand, still somewhat weak.
"GET MORE ROPES ON HIM!"
Growling, Cal'vel remembered what he thought he'd dreamt. Qurin betrayed him, somehow Gatarak was involved. She violated him, used him to sire descendents, but for what?
He couldn't let this slide.
With some groaning, Cal'vel whipped his tail around violently many times, destroying the ship quite easily.
As the ship sunk the crew took to the lifeboats, though their chances of rescue this far from shore were less hopeful than they wished.
They saw Cal'vel swim south, but after day of swimming, and resting, he would gain enough strength to begin flying.
He had business with his old clan, clearly not as gone as he'd hoped.
November 8th, 912 ANM
Late Morning
20 miles from Mount Erebus, Entarktika
Clan Erebus, or what remained of it, number only 5. The 'breeding' for strength had diminished the population so much that Cal'vel wasn't the first outsider that Gadarak had tried to have sire heirs. But he was the only Erebus member of the 6 who he went on his trials with to survive to this day.
Qurin was in fact, the daughter of one of the other males of that same trial. The male in question had been killed when he had tried to stop Gadarak from killing his mate for producing too many 'whelps'.
Only 5 they were, including Quirin, Gadarak, and 3 others. One elder female, and 2 young males.
One of the males, Varul, a white and blue striped 200 foot long dragon, spotted Cal'vel as he flew fast overhead, approaching the cusp of a smaller mountain north of Mount Erebus.
Not taking a moment to hesitate, he took off, roaring as loudly as he could. He alerted the clan to an intruder.
As soon as he finished the roar, a dark blue blur desceneded overhead, a midair tackle of extreme power breaking his wing, and causing him to nearly black out.
The male fell to the ice shelves beneath him, his wing broken as he spiralled down.
Struggling, he landed atop a large iceberg, but broke his arm as he landed hard.
He would struggle to move, but with his wing broken, and arm broken, he was stranded here. The iceberg was already broken off from the ice shelf. He was doomed to die at sea, frozen to the 'berg', only to submerge when it too began to melt a flipped.
His carcass would be consumed while it was underwater, a icy grave adrift at sea, then a meal for scavangers.
Meanwhile, his harbinger knew he needed to resolve the issue that was his clan. But he needed to go low, unseen, for now. That roar had undoubtedly drawn attention.
Mount Erebus, Entarktika
Qurin's 'real' cave
Gadarak and his elder female mate, Kuval, had rushed out upon hearing the distant roar. The other young male, Jai'nel, a similar white and blue striped youngling, remained with Qurin.
The grey dragoness had not left the cave for a good few weeks now, not since her eggs had been laid.
She had taken drugs delivered by the whalers they made deals with, anything to improve her own fertility. As such, she had a total of 5 eggs in her clutch, all undoubtedly strong, with her own and Cal'vel's genes.
She almost pitied how easily she'd fooled him into thinking his clan was dead. Her father always said Cal'vel had been soft and idealistic, more than his parents.
Crooning over her 5 eggs, she mumured to them:
"Be strong, you will be our future. You shall be great, now that the strongest of dragonkind has been achieved. I and your sire, in all of you. My children, Erebus's children."
A low growling echoed, and up ahead, there were suddenly flashes of red fire in the dark cave. A few crashes, and the rumble of some falling ice boulders.
His red flames shining in his mouth, Cal'vel stepped into the cave, his hurt and rage filled gaze growing as he saw Qurin's fearful look.
His eyes fell on the eggs, and he knew.
"You used me. Violated me. Why...? I trusted you."
She stood in front of the eggs, growling menacingly: "I serve my clan, not like you, a disloyal, soft hearted whelp! You were remembered as a weak willed waste of potential when you ran, by what my father said!"
"You're all brainwashed. You would force yourself to have my children, just for my strength to be in them? What then, will Gadarak warp them to be his soldiers?"
Qurin was quiet, but her silence confirmed what Cal'vel guessed. He grimaced, and said darkly:
"I can't let Gadarak spread his ideas he's been brainwashed by, and you too. And my heirs won't be a part of his scheme."
At this, Qurin's growls erupted into full roars:
"DON'T YOU TOUCH THEM!"
Cal'vel paused, as Qurin warned him: "You can't carry them all out. We will find you, and them! I know what you have to do to stop them ever becoming true Erebus clan.
He stood still, knowing Gadarak and his mate were minutes away. He had wanted to save the eggs, get them away.
He had to choose, because if he turned away, they may flee to a place he wouldn't find them, and the entire cycle of Erebus's rise and self destructive fall would happen again, and possibly forever. An idea wasn't easily killed.
Knowing he'd be disgusted by his actions, Cal'vel charged Qurin.
The Grey dragoness was shaken as he charged her, throwing her aside from the eggs all of a sudden. With his fists, he punched her repeatedly in the temple, until her hearing was ringing and her vision nearly black.
He turned to the 5 eggs.
He was finished and gone before Qurin fully realized what he did, and before Gadarak and Kuval had returned.
Midday
Mount Erebus, Entarktika
Qurin's 'real' cave
Qurin was inconsolable, and was slumped in a corner in complete depression.
The elder female, Kuval, had already disposed of the crushed and incinerated 5 eggs, but she herself was beyond hoping.
Inside the cave, Gadarak had seen this before. The black and white striped dragon knew that Qurin would likely follow this depression with starvation, and a slow, agonizing death.
He knew this, as it was common knowledge that overwhelming grief weakened a dragon greatly.
But more to it, their ideology demanded it be removed.
Qurin blankly looked up at Gadarak, saying sadly: "I go, my failure my legacy."
"You didn't fail, you were honourable to the end. The weak hearted one destroyed out future for our clan." Gadarak growled, but he leant down to nuzzle Qurin in some comfort.
She exposed her neck, asking him tearfully: "Let me be with them. I have nothing else to give the clan. Its over, I wish to die by an Erebus clan."
Gadarak had unfortunately had to do many of these 'mercy' deaths, as suicide was frowned upon. Over the last few decades, the increasing killing of whelps was accompanied by increasing 'assisted suicides'.
So entrenched in this dogma that they couldn't see how self destructive it was.
"Rest, young mother. Go be with them." Gadarak muttered.
His jaws leapt forwards, clamping and crushing the exposed neck of the female dragon as she yielded to death willingly.
1 hour later
Mount Erebus, Entarktika
Ice shelf shoreline
Standing at the edge of the island, Gadarak saw his mate ready and waiting. She was older than he was, but he kept her around because she had been powerful in her prime. Strength was measured by one's maximum ability, as age weakening was tolerable. Age after all, was inevitable.
She however, was not overcome by grief, but acceptance. As was he. She knew the clan Erebus's dogmatic regimes as well as he did, and knew this was the end.
"The sea will claim me. Will you promise me, Gadarak, that however it turns out, you will join me soon?" Kuval asked. Her aged grey and black scales heaved with a sigh, as Gadarak nuzzled her one last time.
"Yes. I shall ensure the last true Erebus goes down with honour."
"I shall meet you in the next life, soon." Kuval presented her neck. She knew when he mercy killed her, she could fall into the sea from this ice shelf edge, a cermeonial death for a clan leader's mate.
For the 2nd time that day, he mercy killed a clan member,
As he gently nudged Kuval's slumped grey and black scaled form over the ice shelf, it splashing down into the sea below, Gadarak turned his eyes north.
Cal'vel would pay for all he had done. He had destroyed what he could've helped create, a great new future for clan Erebus.
In a fit of rage, his roar echoing across the plans, Gadarak took off, wings beating hard.
Cal'vel may have the strength beyond any Erebus before him, but Gadarak came close. And still, Cal'vel lacked the one thing Gadarak had always had, even more so on his charge to kill Cal'vel now, and however it turned out, reunite with his clan in death.
The will to use his power, and sheer drive to destroy any opponent.
The black and white striped dragon would spend the next day flying north, where he sensed Cal'vel had flown.
I saved the 3rd part for last, as it will be a much more flowing chapter.
Cal'vel was kept 'under' for 3 months, and exploited, for time references.
The idea of clan Erebus is of a dogmatic ideology that was warped so much that they can't comprehend how doomed they are, and even when they do know they're doomed, as they are now at the end of this chapter, they have nothing but their beliefs to die by.
Also, as for Cal'vel 'destroying' the future of Erebus, its a twisted deed of his, but little choice given. All this will serve as a lesson for him to avoid contact, remain alone in future, and as part 3 will see, restrain his physical power.
As usual, please review/critique as one would.