Chapter 16 - The Divide
Percy looked at the other Dragon Hunter from the corner of his eye. He didn't want to grant her any attention but that was a little difficult when they were the only two living beings within half a mile, sat on the edge of a grassy knoll that overlooked a sheer cliff edge that dropped into the ocean below.
In his mind it was clear, a perfect escape route, but that wouldn't solve the problem, she would no doubt find him again. No, he needed to address the problem here and now or he'd be stuck in an endless loop of being the hunted Dragon out of the two of them.
"Look," he began, mustering the courage he needed to abruptly shut her down right where she sat. He tried hard to focus on weakening his heartbeat so as to seem like it wasn't such a big thing but he knew that she could hear a beating heart from hundreds of feet away. He knew because he could do it too and it was just like she was thinking; They were almost exactly the same.
But they weren't, not really. He didn't actually know anything about her, all he knew for sure was that she came before him and that she at least believed herself to be the stronger of the two.
A foolish notion considering that when he changed he also intertwined his divinity with that of the essence of the Dragon that became him. He was unique, the ONLY one of his kind.
Despite what Kareah might have thought, he was simply above her by such a level that she couldn't even perceive it.
He was a Dragon God but not in the same way that she'd thrown the title about like a silly label, he had fully intertwined the two aspects of his beings to create something new, something that he had yet to reveal to the world, something that he was saving for the toughest fight yet.
"I can appreciate where you're coming from, but it's not like that, you've blinded yourself because you believe that we're the same. You've convinced yourself that what you're feeling is attraction, but it isn't, you just haven't figured out that there's anything else which has made your mind default to that, but there isn't anything here." He told her softly. His voice was tender but the words he spoke and his underlying tone was one of sheer iron authority, one that could not be defied.
Now was the time to shift that to become nothing but firm. "Give up your ideals of chasing me. I will never kneel to another ever again." He told her. The pressure that erupted around them whilst Percy had stood up at the edge of the cliff was so great that Kareah was unable to move, frozen in place as she gazed at him with fear in her eyes. What the Hell had he just done!?
The Law of the Dragon God.
A tertiary element of power that he'd been discovering developing slowly, much slower than his other powers, if he executed it successfully he found that no one was able to disobey him. It was something that he'd gained when Icewyre had bonded the souls Percy had collected to him. A pure silver indestructible skeleton from Mirroth, the Law of the Dragon from Azazel, only it had evolved within the confines of Percy's soul into something much more powerful, something far beyond the grasp of the Ancient Dragons.
He spared a glance over at the Dragon Hunter who had been afflicted by his words like the whole world had come crashing down on her. She was frozen in place, a tremble shooting around her body like the Death's chill breath breathing down her spine.
She had no idea what he'd done but it sent ALL of her senses into high alert. He realized this when he finally heard her heart beat again, a great thumping against her ribs that almost crunched with the pressure.
Had he overdone it? It wasn't like he'd had much chance to practice it.
"While I don't agree with your words… I cannot argue, I don't know what you've done to me or what you are, but it's monstrous." Kareah announced with droplets of cold sweat rolling down her forehead.
He could see just how uncomfortable he'd made her, perhaps he'd need to make it up to her. He'd shot her down and seemingly frightened the life out of her all in one sentence.
Just as he had been about to say something he got a strange notion of sense from the waves below. A partial message from his father it seemed, a message that had no words, just feelings of emotion. It was something that Percy had learned to read well, so well that he didn't need words to understand exactly what it was meant to say.
Kareah had noticed the immediate shift in tone about the fellow Dragon Hunter as he abruptly stood up and intently stared out at the vast ocean expanse below.
"What is it? What's going on?" She asked, finally being able to move. Whatever hold he had over her had broken the moment that his attention had shifted away from her.
"A warning from my father. There's something in his domain, something that hasn't been there for a VERY long time. Something unfathomably large is spreading across the ocean floor. It would appear to be a Leviathan." Percy told her, using his choice of words very cautiously.
Leviathan. It was easy to misinterpret this by anyone else's manor, but to them it could only mean one thing. THE Leviathan, a flightless sea Dragon that was massive in scale. The potential for Leviathan's growth was even greater than that of Ddraig.
"Are you telling me that there's something near biblical invading the ocean, or, and be clear on this," Kareah told him with a level of confidence that moments ago had been completely shattered, "Or that THE Leviathan, one of the Ancient Dragons we're hunting, has awoken?" She asked, looking straight at him.
He didn't need to see her to know that her eyes were planted firmly on him, it was clear from the get go that just because the topic had shifted she wasn't going to give up. Even being rebuked by the Law of the Dragon God wasn't about to get in Kareah's way.
It just meant that Percy was going to have to handle her very carefully so as to not ruin his 'thing' with Artemis, which he greatly wanted to expand upon, now more than ever. He felt that in his moments of exchange with Kareah where he'd been initially blinded by the fact that she too was a Dragon Hunter, that Artemis herself had been seeing more clearly than ever, and that would have hurt.
He would kneel to no-one, except a Queen.
"We?" Percy asked, narrowing his eyes at her, "How exactly do YOU plan on fighting him? This is a fight that not even my father would want to take a part in." He asked skeptically. She was making a pretty big assumption there.
"I'm a Dragon Hunter aren't I?" She asked with a grin. It was the first time she'd been positive since she'd come out to find him. She punched him in the arm before leaping off of the cliff edge and plummeting below. It took mere seconds before a vast sleek brown Dragon swept upwards into the clouds heading towards the exact place that Percy had felt the disturbance before Poseidon's warning.
"You think you're impressive? Watch this." Percy laughed to himself knowing full well that the Dragon no doubt heard him. He followed suit and jumped off of the cliff, only he didn't transform mid air, he dived straight into the depths of the ocean, leaving nothing but silence in his wake before a vast green Dragon broke the surface of the waves, erupting in a grand show of water as he rose high into the sky.
He was bigger than Kareah, much bigger. She looked at the fellow Dragon in awe and wonder as the glistening emerald skin glided past her. It was then that the facts hit her, hard, she would NEVER be able to defeat him.
He truly was in a league of his own. Perhaps his plan to save the Dragons would work, but he still stood nowhere near Ddraig himself and that worried her.
Onwards they flew together to their next target. A single tear shed from inside her soul as she came to the harsh realization that what he'd told her had been true, and this was the closest that she would get to him.
Things were going at a vastly different pace halfway across the world where the twin archers were entering the Dragon Sanctuary, empty save for the ice Dragon and their leader. Apollo looked around at the architecture, eyeing up just about anything he could analyze as he went, it was all fascinating to him.
"So, wanna fill me in while Ddraig awakens. What did you come here for?" Icewyre asked, glancing back at Artemis, not paying Apollo much mind, he was seemingly harmless anyway.
"The other Dragon Hunter, she has already managed to put a divide between myself and Percy, I want to know where she came from, where she actually came from and what her intentions are." Artemis answered him honestly.
It seemed that her answer was satisfactory as he gave her a tired smile after a second or two of consideration. "I'm not sure you particularly needed to seek an audience with Ddraig for that. Us Dragons are honest, we are compelled to never lie and she is as much a Dragon as the rest of us, if you'd just ask her then she'd likely have told you." Icewyre explained, but nonetheless he never stopped taking them through the cavernous assembly.
"Either way, we're here now so I guess you better hear it from the big guy." Icewyre motioned towards the massive space at the end of the rocky platform where Artemis knew Ddraig's face was soon to appear.
Sure enough the cavern began to rumble. Apollo centred himself so that he wouldn't fall over but otherwise he was dealing with the appearance of a gargantuan Dragon's head rather well.
"Speak." He ordered, clearly not feeling the mannerisms today, which was understandably, he had just lost one of his trusted attendees to Percy.
"Apologies for disturbing your slumber." Artemis began, bowing deeply to show her respect. Apollo followed suit without needing to be told. "I wish to know about the other Dragon Hunter, and I wish to be blunt." Artemis announced with confidence, it was something that Ddraig would favour.
"Is she a threat to me?" Artemis took the leap and put the question out there.
Ddraig's face came out ever so slightly more.
"That is a large question to answer, but none the less I will answer. Fetch our guests something to drink." He ordered Icewyre who nodded and disappeared immediately. Every syllable causing reverbs in the room.
"You must first understand that you immediately face a divide, not only in what you and the Dragon Hunters are doing, but in the path that you must take from the first steps you take outside of this Sanctuary." Ddraig explained. It was all very cryptic.
"I will tell you what is happening and what is going to happen, and then I will tell you what must be done if you wish to avoid losing the Defiler forever." Artemis's eyes widened. She realized that what with Percy being a Dragon he was still part of Ddraig's race which seemed to give their leader a massive amount of insight into their lives.
"As we speak, both Dragon Hunters are seeking out Leviathan who has awakened under your sea God's domain, it will be a long and difficult battle that only the Defiler could ever partake in. He will no doubt be injured from this and inevitably end up in her arms to heal." Ddraig's words made Artemis' heart fall and feel heavy.
"You should not worry at this. She is a Dragon at her core and he has by now already told her of his motives towards yourself, he has absorbed the Law of the Dragon from Azazel's soul, his word is almost undeniable. This presents the other side of the divide, what must YOU do to ensure that your Dragon does not disappear." Ddraig told them with the smallest part of a smile gracing his lips.
"You will never understand what must be done until it happens so I will not tell you, what you do next is up to you but the path that I have seen, the one that I think you should take... " Ddraig went silent, considering what he was telling her before deciding to go ahead with it.
"Seek out Amiruss and Erymanth, they are dormant together, trying to fight off the corruption themselves. They will be the key to keeping the Defiler by your side, you will understand when the time is right." Ddraig's face and voice faded from view, a clear sign that they were done.
Icewyre had reappeared, "Sorry, couldn't find anything appropriate but it seems that you're done now anyway." He shrugged with a sad smile.
"So, I'm to find two dormant Dragons, any ideas?" Artemis asked, hoping that Icewyre could be clearer than Ddraig.
"You're the Goddess of the Hunt, you tell me." Icewyre laughed immaturely. "The two Dragons that Ddraig has instructed you to hunt down are dormant, so it will be difficult but for as long as I can remember they've always favored impressively high altitude mountain tops. I'd start from the highest and work my way down. Now I must insist that you begin, I want a nap." Icewyre smiled, looking more like Apollo in that moment than anything else.
"So, let's go mountain climbing." Artemis sighed, hating that her mission of information had taken THIS turn.
A/N: Still not dead. Sorry for the long delays but you're right, it is to be expected. I AM however now stuck in my home for however long and I wrote this in like a few hours so if inspiration and motivation strikes me then I could potentially write quite a lot.
Maybe even finish a story or two!
Review?
