Note : We~ell, that took way longer than expected, sorry. oh, and please, don't hesitate to make me know if there is spelling or grammar mistakes, it'll help me improve. And sorry for sucking.
Chapter 2 : Manakete
In the north of the continent of Archanea is located the Anri's Path, named after the hero of the liberation war who crossed through the desert, the fire dragon graveyard and the north east icy mountains to receive the falchion and defeat Medeus.
-???
"So you are actually a dragon too ?"
Night had fallen. Around them, the desert had just began to dissipate the heat it had absorb during the day. Next to a cracking campfire, Bantu was cooking whatever he found was eadible in the vicinity.
"Then, can't you transform so you can fly ? We'd go so much faster, right ?"
Bantu took a deep breath and smiled painfully.
"It isn't that simple. You see, after Medeus' episode, we manaketes had loose the little trust the humans had for us, and therefor, it was best if we didn't transform back."
She stare a few second inside the fire before she asked :
"Yeah, but if nobody sees us, we should be fine right ? There's no harm done if it's just to go faster. And don't we need to be as fast as we can right now ?"
"...it's because I lost my dragon stone."
In the night, a shadow flew at speed that she never thought was possible. Bantu had said that manakete were still proud people, even thought they had to cast away their powerfull form and so, they very rarely allowed someone, even an other manakete to ride them.
But pride was the least of her problem when she was at risk of loosing herself, so she needed that dragon stones.
Acoording to Bantu, those special stones were presented by Naga to the other dragons as a way to prevent degeneration by sealing their power and draconic form within.
But because the form they assumed was weaker than the average human, they could free their true power for a short period if needed.
But the downgrade rebuted many dragons who refused to step down as owner of the world and they degenerated further, ultimatly resulting in a war between remaining dragons and manaketes.
The war was so violent most manaketes had their stone rendered useless as result of overuse, as they couldn't wait their power to recharge.
So the most power she could charge in, the longer she could use it anyway, she'd better put everything she got inside and be carefully using her dragonstone.
Flying was too good to renounce it like Bantu's did, it was so different than inside the labyrinth, the world's ceiling was so high and it's walls so far that she doubt they even existed, for the first time she had all the feedom to fly around, and it felt very pleasant.
She also had seen several things that attracted her interest, like that big warm light -the sun- that shone upon the world.
Everything seemed brighter in day time, the world was living, color were ... colorfull and bright, the air was warm. But she liked the night more, even if it was dark, she loved the sight of the moon.
The moon was so pretty, even if it wasn't as bright as the sun, it still provided light in the night, not intense and warm like the Sun's but gentle and white as if it was watching over her in the dark, to tell her darkness never are complete and a promise that light would come back.
But the moon wasn't all the night charm, the stars also were beautiful, the night sky was filled with stars, there wasn't a single part of the night sky that they didn't fill.
She had asked Bantu what they were and he answer he thought they were the souls of the passed ones, watching over people they held dear from the heaven.
She wondered if anyone was watching her, even though she had not give nor receive love from anyone untill now ...
She swore to herself that even if no star was watching over her now, there will be in the futur. And then, maybe she will become a star and watch over people herself ! Sure, she just needed to meet someone worthy first.
The temple was located at the other side of the continent, and so a variety of landscape offered to her sight : from the hot desert of the west side where they departed, they flew above several chain of mountains.
The sight was breath taking, mountains of every shapes everywhere met the eye, covered by snow dazzling in the light and with forest of sapling showing up here and there on the flank, and clouds drifting lazily, grazing the tops of the mountain.
At some point in the plains far away, she caught glimpse of a settlement. She couldn't figure what it was, so she asked Bantu.
"These are were humans live. Sometimes they are a few dozens and they build temporary camp, sometimes, thousands of humans live together in much bigger cities made of stone."
(Is that so ? How can creatures looking so weak could defeat me ? He stated it clearly, I am the ultimate life form ! I have to know !)
"How can a human have the power to defeat a dragon ?"
Bantu looked at her, visibly unsettled.
(I might have made a mistake putting it so bluntly. How should I justify the knowledge of human having defeated a dragon ? huuu think think think ...)
"It has happen that because a dragon went on rampage, a human had to take arms and defeat him, however those feat are exceptional and the hero never could have achieve it without the help and moral suport of his friends. But the need for humans to take on the dragonkin didn't rose in a while, for what we should be thankful to the united kingdom of Archanea that have preserved peace for nearly a thousand year now."
(ouf ! glad he did not asked but ...)
"The united kingdom ?"
"Yes. I might as well tell you the story since we still have a long way until we reach our destination."
He then shifted his position, closed his eyes and went into deep thinking. He was certainly reliving the story before he spoke.
"More than a thousand years ago, Dohlr, land of the dragonkins, led by the earth dragon Medeus waged war at humanity. During this time now called the War of Shadows, a hero named Marth and his friend fought for the sake of humanity against Medeus."
"That boy went through lot of hardship, loosing his kingdom and betrayed by his allies, but in the end he successfully ended the War of Shadows, sealing Medeus and restoring peace."
"However, it wasn't the end yet as merely three years after the end of the war, an other one called the War of Heroes broke, this time opposing Marth with one of his former ally. It turned out that everything was the result of the manipulations of the human sorcerer Gharnef to take revenge on his master and dominate the world, for what he managed to revive Medeus twice."
"In the end, the two wars were devastating for the several kingdom of Archanea, leaving most of them in bad shape, so every ruler finally appointed Marth as their successor. Marth then created the united kingdom of Archanea and made sure the dragonkins weren't persecuted again, even thought the human did not perceived well manakete after that episode."
"Tell me, what was Marth like ?"
"For I have personally met him and fought by his side, I can say he was a kind and caring person that always prioritized the wellbeing of his friends and his people before anything."
"Oh hum sorry, i meant, what did he looked like ?" (He seemed kinda nice though)
"Oh ... He had blue hair, wore blue cloths and owned a golden circlet."
(So it wasn't that Marth. But after all, I never did any harm to anyone so far, right ? Wait, does mistakenly crushing a death mask count ? oh, and those humans attacked me first, it was only retaliation, they definitively do not count.)
They finally reached the temple, current residence of the white sage sage Gotoh, also a member of the divine dragon tribe, and the teacher of that Gharnef guy according to Bantu.
The old building was covered by ice (so fitting to the name) making it look deep blue, and consisted of three towers linked by a lower -was it a hallway ?- , the whole thing forming the shape of a trident.
As she landed for him to step on the ground, an other old looking man came out the temple, also dressed in red scheme but his robes looked greater, thought to impress rather than just wear like Bantu's. In contrast to him, he also stood straight, had a white beard and his person had a very solemn look.
"Welcome, Bantu, old friend. who is this young girl, how may I help you ?"
"Sir Gotoh, this is quite long to explain, but this dragon never became a manakete, it would be wiser to start the rite right away and to talk later."
(Can i even enter inside here ?)
She was now hoovering 1 or 2 metters above the ground, looking at the ancient structure.
"R-really ? Of course, I'll prepare everything right away."
The old sage then drew a circle in the snow, went into the temple and exited a few minutes later with a shining blue stone in hand.
He then asked her to focus all of her power into the stone. Having no idea of how to do, she started to exhale her breath on the stone.
Apparently, this was good enough, the stone started to float and glow in the center of the circle, Gotoh just asked her to make sure she gave it her all It would take a while, she thought. She saw the two men enter the temple, certainly for Bantu to speak with Gotoh.
The two men strolled through the hall. After a moment of silence, seeing that he wouldn't start talking first, Gotoh engaged :
"So, tell me, Bantu, who is that girl you brought here ?"
"I found her by the old city, alone. I do not now where she came from as no one was around. I guess she could have escape some slavers in the desert and got lost as she was unable to tell me her name or where she lived. Or she could have come from Thabes, but that would be strange, no one get near it since Gharnef was fell. She don't look like she belong to any dragon tribe I know either, but what do you think ?"
"Her appearance is indeed ... unique, and her power is also unfamiliar to me. I never saw anything like her. And yet there is no doubt possible, she is a dragon, and a scaringly powerful one. Her apparition in this time of crisis is also unsettling. It is truly the worst time for someone with godlike power like her to appear."
Bantu ticked.
"You don't intend to put her to sleep too, don't you ?"
"It is the wisest thing to do, she is now more powerful than Naga was at her apex. At this point, it's not even garanteed that becoming a manakete would help her to avoid degeneration."
"You can't force someone to sleep all their life ! She, like everyone, has the right to live, meet new people, experiment !"
"... I've learned from the previous time. It just doesn't work that way, does it ? I will allow you to guide her in the world, but you will be assisted. We don't want to loose her somewhere, do we ? You don't exactly have an impressive track concerning travelling with children."
Bantu remained silent. He couldn't deny those facts.
"I'm leaving to Constantinpolis, I will send you someone trustworthy from here. I also won't return here for some time, so be sure you have everything prepared when you leave."
Bantu was suprised.
"But I thought you retired from human affair ?"
"I was recently made aware of great disturbance in regions around Thabes and you said you found her around there, this is too much coincidence to be ignored. I will organize an expedition to Thabes and try uncover the truth. While I'll be here, I will also pay my respect to Naga."
Before he left, Gotoh turned to say one last warning.
"Be careful old friend, while she is indeed young, she isn't a baby. Her power is unfamiliar and i sense some dark secret. In fact, it is truly a miracle that she haven't gone mad by now, and actually i fear she already is."
She suddently fell on the ground. Even though it was soft enough to not get hurt by the fall, it was very surprising.
After getting up, she tried moving and stumbled into the snowy ground again.
(Ack ! COLD ! IT'S SO COLD)
She hurried in the temple as she suddently felt more attracted to the notions of 'house' and 'cloth', barely stopping in her rush to pick the now dark-purple stone in the snow.
Upon entering in the temple, she turned around. Somehow, she felt great urges to play with the white cold powder, but it'll have to wait, she was shivering too hard for anything right now. And the cold was starting to hurt.
When she finally found Bantu, he was sit on a chair and sipping from a cup of tea.
"Hey, Bantu, Bantu !"
He turned around, trying to localize the little girl that called him.
She had the appearence of a 12 years old human girl, with snow white hair reaching her waist and golden shining eyes. Curiously, her ears weren't long and pointy like any other manaketes he met and her complexion looked normal outside of being very pale.
In addition, her body, while underdevelopped, did not looked weaker than any human's. If it wasn't for the dragonstone in her hand, he could have mistook her for a normal girl.
And she was naked.