Author's Note: Apologies for taking so long to spit this one out, I had a rather important meeting to attend this morning. With that in mind please read, review, favorite and Enjoy!
Chapter 53: The Dragon That is Way Too Fast
Morgan arrived in Ever After on the back of Brogan, the massive demon dragon was carrying a large trailer that had been filled to the brim with supplies that Morgan would need to complete her end of the bargain with the dragons. Course she wasn't the only one who was coming either...
"Remind me why did I let you talk me into letting you come with me on this little exercise?" Morgan asked directing her attention to Raven who was flying on Nevermore beside her.
"Because you dumped a few hundred dragons on top of their heads and they know you did. Besides that I actually have a good relationship with these people and enjoy their company." Indeed, if there were ruffled feathers over there that needed smoothing then Raven was better suited to the task then the abrasive Morgan. Besides that these were technically Nevermore's children they were dealing with so the unexpected mother did have some responsibility here. Even if, genetically, she was as far away from these dragons as the throne of Lucifer and the Throne of Yahweh. "Either way, we're here."
The two Konigan's landed in Ever After's Courtyard. Morgan's eyes quickly scanned the area and they landed on the stables that the Carpenter boy had put together for the dragons, thus she could immediately get to work on her business here. Or so she thought.
"YOU!" A shrill voice snapped at the back of Morgan's head, and her self proclaimed diplomat had already made herself and her guard scarce. "You miserable, cowardly, evil little cockroach!"
"Evil. It's been a while since I was called that." Morgan stated not one iota of nostalgia on her face. Turning around Morgan got to confront her accuser, and the fruity breath coming out of her mouth. "Go home Weiss you're drunk."
"I'm drunk!" Weiss snapped her face flush, whether it was an effect of the half empty wine bottle in her hand or heat build up from the armor that she was wearing it couldn't be said. "Well at leash I have an essscusse!" Weiss slurred jamming a finger accusingly into Morgan's chest. "How do you plan on jusshifying dumping hundreds of dragons on top of our headsss!"
"You were the ones who said that you wanted dragons to deal with the Aliens." Morgan stated her little finger firmly in her ear and twisted.
"Oh ssso that'shhh wash your plan!" Weiss made a grand gesture of directing Morgan's attention to the various parts of the area that had been chewed, burned down, blasted, or simply crushed by a two hundred pound or more lizard landing on it. "Burn the realm down fore the ally-in's get here and do it for ush! Brilliant!"
"Well it was either that or let them blow up my tower." Morgan replied with a roll of her eyes. "In all honestly if a bunch of baby dragons gave you this much trouble then you're gonna be screwed when the Lithilid's and whatever brand of monsters they've bred come here."
"We were ssscrewed the moment you decided to go around and mesh everything up!" Weiss shouted right now her face closing uncomfortably close to Morgan's, prompting the witch to push Weiss backwards. Sadly drunk and unstable as she was Weiss fell over backwards.
"Dwarf, your boss needs help getting back on her feet." Morgan informed before she turned around and left for the dragon stables.
"WE ARE NOT DONE HERE MORGAN!" Weiss did not look any more dignified after having been made to resort to flailing her arms and legs on the ground trying to get back up.
"I don't have time for this." Kicking a stone into the air Morgan infused it with healing magic and threw it at Weiss's head with enough force to render her unconscious before the healing magic instantly fixed the damage done. "She can come and talk to me again when she's sober." Morgan stated prompting a questioning glance from Joyful that seemed to say 'Again?'
After Landing Raven had wasted little time in tracking down Apple, she was conversing with a group of individuals most of whom she recognized, but stand out among them was Ramona's father Bigby Badwolf. Bigby had taken the role of a teacher like Ruby had, unlike Ruby who dealt in Martial Arts Bigby's class was 'Care of Magical Creatures' which was all the explanation she needed for why he was here.
"Bloody hell Morgan, was it too much to ask for a little less variety." No two of the dragons were the same, he counted at least four three body types, three different numbers of heads, and over a dozen different breath types. A still uncounted number of unique species had been created by this little stunt and they were all under their roof. "Or at least hold them back a bit." In spite of the claims that these dragons would only be teenagers from a biological point of view, they were far larger, Weiss had a adult Kirin in her stables and the 'teenage' Kirin Morgan had dropped on their heads was taller by three inches, still had the attitude of a teenager though, unlike the majority of the dragons this one didn't seem to eat at all, rather it just soaked up electricity through the blade like horn on it's head. Also that particular Kirin seemed to be able to haul three times the weight of it's adult counterpart, and it was still wandering outside of the stables slashing things in search of electricity.
"Raven!" Apple tackled Raven with a glomp and quickly pinned her to the ground.
"Hey Apple." Raven replied as she struggled to sit up.
"Do you have any idea how crazy things have been around her lately?" Apple asked, the sudden arrival of the dragons had hit this weird sweet spot for her to put her on edge, but thanks to everything else that had been happening at the school lately it hadn't crossed into full blown terror yet. In fact once her adrenaline had calmed down many of the species actually seemed rather cute to her, one of them blew bubbles for crying out loud.
"I was wondering what Mom was doing with all of Nevermore's eggs." Raven commented looking at the surroundings that looked like they were the scene of a riot.
"These... are Nevermores?" Apple asked confused.
"I don't know all the details, but that is as far away from Nevermore as heaven and hell." Raven stated gesturing to the oversize Kirin that is supposedly Nevermore's off spring. "Speaking of which, we need you guys to clear out the courtyard and let all the dragons out of the stables." Raven stated looking to Professor Badwolf, though the look on his face dreaded what came next.
"Why?" Bigby sighed already having a guess at the answer.
"Nevermore and Brogan needs to teach them how to be dragons, and Mom has few... alterations she wants to make."
All of the students had been made to enter the dorms until Morgan was done outside, a contingent of rifle wielding dwarfs had been positioned around the perimeter ready to shoot at anything or anyone who tried to pull something funny.
"Yes I know they don't trust me." Morgan muttered while she worked on a pacified Kirin, producing lightning magic was enough to lure it over, followed by a dose of 'the draft of the living dead' to render it unconscious. The magic runes Morgan was implanting into the Kirin worked on the same principle as the kind used on weapons. The runes are designed to absorb magical energy from the environment around it and use that to form an effect. In this case since the Kirin's lightning knack already gave it impressive speed and offensive power Morgan was focusing on enhancing on their comparatively neglected defenses with barrier runes.
Meanwhile Nevermore was running the dragons through the basics, such as using their breath's to the point of exhaustion to enhance their control and stamina and teaching them how to get air born. Course not all of them listened at first...
"""RRRWWWAAARRR!"""
It was solid gold and had three heads with a bird like body type, and it shot lightning out of it's mouths, by the look of how much biting at one another they did they didn't even listen to each other let alone anyone else. Nevermore did not look amused.
"Oh no." Apple whined a pathetic dreaded noise escaping her mouth.
"What is it?" Raven had found Apple's fox Gala and was amusing herself with her before her attention was drawn to the balcony where Apple was.
"It's Lizzie's party all over again!" Apple stated a panicked tone in her voice.
"How is this anything like Lizzie's party?" Raven asked legitimately curious. Apple shot a glare at Raven before she gestured to Nevermore and the three header down below in the courtyard.
"That's nothing like a Jabberwocky Apple." Raven stated after taking moment to clue in.
"Nevermore's the one I'm worried about. The last time she went up against a Alpha dragon she ended up burning down the Wonderland Forest." Apple stated matter of factually. "Lizzie, who keeps a man eating plant monster as a pet, threatened that if you didn't get Nevermore out of her realm she'd turn into a handbag! That is how much damage Nevermore can do to her surroundings!"
"...You make a fair point I will admit." Raven admitted after she thought about it for a minuet.
Outside Nevermore and the three header had taken to circling each other, glaring at each other as they looked for some chink in their armor, Nevermore spotted several but was debating how to best prove the gap in their ability, the three header thought they saw several and was gloating over their assured victory. Finally they acted the three header releasing a combined bolt of lightning at Nevermore, the smaller dragon's response was no less swift than Brutal releasing a single bolt of plasma at the bolt of lightning and when the two forces met, a large mass of force was released stunning the three header while Nevermore had already moved out of the way. Not done yet a precision fire ball from Nevermore landed on the left most head of the three header slamming it into the middle and the middle into the one on the right with enough force that all three of them were knocked out cold.
"...Wow." Apple commented wide eyed.
"Like I said. That was no Jabberwocky." Raven commented even she was a little surprised.
Then again since it was not a Jabberwocky Nevermore had no reason to treat it like one, not only that but she made the three headed knuckle head into a example earning the respect of many of the young dragons and the fear of others. A couple of 'battles' later and many of Morgan's modifications and the dragons had been deemed fit to join with their partners to be.
"We still only have six members." Darling pointed out arms crossed and unamused.
"Not quite..." The group turned around to face a familiar blonde dressed up in Dragon riding gear. "Professor Hood had a Chat with Professor Badwolf and they agreed that someone with animal knack would be best suited to this task of taming that Kirin." If speed is going to be a key component in the upcoming games, and more importantly the Clash with the Lithilid's, then that Kirin would be their most valuable asset. Hence why a individual with the power to make any animal sit roll over and beg had been called in.
"Ashlyn?" A surprised Hunter asked staring in shock at Ashlyn who was dressed in Dragon riding gear.
Naturally Apple of the Royal family was the number one pick to take control of the unruly beast, but it was politically unwise move. If Apple lost a game while on the team then it would make the family look bad, but if she won there would be accusations that she made the other team throw the match. So they went with their second choice Ashlyn.
"She's not on the team yet, though she has been through basic already." While they were training with Snarl, Bigby's picks for the team were doing safety drills, and while Hunter and the others were jumping off the side of the boy's dormitory they were practicing with Snarl. The conclusion? Ashlyn was the most suitable for the task of taming a dragon. "The Kirin's over there."
With his belly full after absorbing Morgan's lightning the dragon horse was taking the opportunity to relax: it left him laughably vulnerable to be mounted.
"Alright now." The Kirin awoke to a jolt and looked behind him to see a little girl a quarter of his size had climbed onto his back. "I know that you like to go fast, don't worry I like to go fast too." The Kirin stood up as it seemed to assess the weight suddenly put onto it's shoulders. She was pretty lightweight so she wouldn't be slowing him down any time soon, but there was no point in it either. Nor for that matter was he sure she understood 'fast.' "But there's still a lot of things that you're not aware of so can we just work together for a-WHOA!"
Suddenly the Kirin took off like a bat out of hell. The Kirin began running literal laps around the school, the army, his dragon siblings, all the while leaving a trail of lightning where ever it went paying no mind to Ashlyn who was suffering multiple G-Forces and electricity in her veins.
"Ugh. For god mother's sake." Darling had a different crisis to tend to, fixing her hair.
Not normally the vain type it was explained that unless she could get her hair that constantly stopped time around her to obey her, she wasn't going to be able to partake in dragon riding. Last time she got the O'Hair twins to fix it for her, now however they were a little busy. A three headed dragon landed on their shop. Every time Darling tried to do it herself one lock of hair always managed to escape the bun. Currently she was walking out of the girl's bathroom after having snapped the hair scrunchy she had been working with. While muttering about that, wind blew by Darling, throwing untied hair up into the air. As usual, time seemed to slow down, when you ignore the dragon horse trotting by merrily with Ashlyn barely, comically, able to hold on. Then as quickly as they appeared they disappeared again, leaving a stunned Darling to drop her broken Scrunchie in shock.
"What. The Actual. Hell?"
As quickly as the Kirin had taken off he stopped, in the same spot it had taken off from no less. Ashlyn was long gone though, in her place was a thoroughly stiff young lady who was clinging to the back of the lightning spewing dragon horse for dear life and her hair frizzy to the point of standing on end. Sparrow went to fetch the army doctors while Hunter worked to pry Ashlyn off of the horse. She was alive at least, though the term 'scared stiff' applied to this situation in spades leaving the annoyed dragon horse to trot off back to the stables. Until another annoyance made their presence known.
"Hey there!" Darling had climbed the stables and dropped down on the dragon from above and now she was looming over his head. "Now I know you probably don't want anything to do with a partner, but I'm way better then Ash." Like the stubborn impudent child he was the Kirin shook Darling off and now the rest of the group were taking notice of their interactions. "Oh I get it." Darling sprung up and brushed herself off with a merry smile on her face. "You don't respect me because I can't control you like Ashlyn can is that it?" Not that Ashlyn could control him, that comical routine she just put on was proof enough of that. "Alright how about..." Then a merry thought came to Darling's features as her eyes landed on the forest next to the school. "The other side of the enchanted forest." The Kirin cocked a suspicious brow, looked at Darling, then the forest, back to Darling and nodded it's head in approval.
"Oh this isn't going to end well." Noting that Sparrow was helpless as he watched Darling and the Kirin getting into a spring board position before they both took off into the woods. "Remind me: Why aren't we allowed into the far side of the enchanted forest?"
"That would be because of the plethora of creatures being bred for the border defense of Ever After." Hunter stated looking at the two foolish people who were running head on into a hoard of angry critters that prefer to eat meat and were trained to fight for their meals.
Review Section:
rmarcano321: Again my apologies for posting the wrong chapter yesterday.
DJ: Thank you. No, even if Grimm approved of it Morgan wouldn't, and your theory seems to be based on a fundamentally flawed principle that they even want Morgan back. Duchess is quite afraid of ending up like Morgan, which is to say someone with the madness associated with Narrator, Morgan herself has already stated on a few different occasions that she considers herself crazy. Technically Ruby is a Ulfhedjar, her cloak is enchanted to allow her to take on the form of a wolf.