Forbidden Chains
By: rainjewel
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Thrust left, chop right, and block! Duck down, thrust up, and chop left! Got him! Chid let his sword drop. He was tired. It was his second day out of Allen's room in the Fanelian castle, and he was practicing his sword fighting. Allen had finally let him out for some fun, but only because Serena had said that he had needed some exercise. The Prince was beginning to think that Allen could be a bit overprotective at times.
"Good job! Your moves looked wonderful, and your stamina and endurance are back! I hardly saw you falter!" exclaimed Akaro, clapping. The two were in the forests of Fanelia, and Akaro, was watching Chid practice in a small clearing. She had been giving him compliments all day long, and Chid was feeling quite proud of himself, but he was very tired. He'd been practicing for hours.
"Ugh. I'm tired," said Chid, sitting down beside her. He leaned against the tree she was sitting against. He wiped the film of sweat that was on his forehead with a handkerchief Akaro had given him. She had chastised him for using his gloves all the time, and had given him one of her many handkerchiefs. Luckily, the things weren't lacy. Chid hated lace. It was the total opposite of his leathery clothing. He closed his eyes and breathed in the deep pine air. Ah...refreshing, he thought.
"So, how are you feeling lately?" asked Akaro. Chid turned his head to the sound of her voice and slowly opened his eyes. My word, she looks lovely, he thought. Serena had lent her a few dresses from her wardrobe, and amazingly enough, Akaro had fit into most of them. Luckily, it seemed Serena was a tiny thing, about half Allen's size, and barely came up to Chid's shoulder. Akaro was wearing a clingy vermilion dress that came to just above her knees. Serena said she had had it for a very long time, when she was 10 rotations old or so. Chid found this hard to believe because he didn't think Serena would have been caught dead in a gown that was bright red and for the most part...didn't have yards of fabric, like people seemed to like back then. OH well, he didn't care. Akaro looked beautiful. The red in the dress brought out the red in her hair, giving her a very warm glow.
"Akaro, you look like a fire nymphet," said Chid dreamily, then noticed how his voice sounded very stupid. He tried to fix it. " Uh, you look very...uh...pretty," he said, blushing. He wasn't used to complimenting people on his own free will. Of course, he always complimented visiting monarchy, but it was the usual brown-nosing of acting impressed at their wealth. A true compliment that he meant, that was a whole different and completely foreign thing for Chid.
Akaro looked at Chid. She looked a little shocked by Chid's sudden compliment. She gave him a large smile.
"Why, thank you Chid. You're looking pretty handsome yourself," she said uncertainly. Chid noticed her cheeks turn a shade redder then usual. He didn't know what to say. Suddenly, a great roar cut through the clearing, and Chid felt the ground tremble. "What was that?" whispered Akaro. Her eyes were large and looked frightened.
"The only thing I know of that roars like that is...dare I say it? A dragon," said Chid. He quickly stood up.
"I think we need to get out of here," said Akaro. She jumped to her feet, which were barefoot.
"I agree comp—MOVE!" yelled Chid. The tree that the two had been leaning against was falling towards them. Akaro quickly backed up out of the way, and the tree fell, right in between her and the Prince. The dragon screamed, and when Chid looked up. The dragon was standing at the base of the tree. He looked quickly across at Akaro, and she scrambled across the tree towards him. Her dress caught on one of the branches. She's not going to make it! thought Chid. He quickly leapt up into the tree, and grabbed her waist, pulling her away for the branch. The dress ripped, and the loss of tension caused both Chid and Akaro to tumble out of the tree.
The minute the two hit the ground, they began running. Chid knew that they couldn't out run the dragon but he couldn't think of a better thing to do, since he wasn't exactly skilled in the dragon-fighting department. His only advantage was that his sword and dagger were edged with energist, making both strong enough to cut dragon scales, though he wasn't planning on fighting the dragon. He had had classes on doing it before, but he had never had practice with a real dragon.
Suddenly the forest ended, and he and Akaro were on the edge of a wide cliff. This is not cool. Not at all he thought.
"Chid..." said Akaro. She stopped. She didn't know what to say.
"Akaro, I know that you can climb extremely well, can't you?" he asked, very softly. He could hear the dragon coming at them by its rumble that cut through the trees.
"Yes. I can," she said.
"Look over the cliff. If it's an overhang, and you think that you can climb down there and hold on, do it. If not, go into the forest, and hide in one of the trees. Try to stay calm," he said. Chid forced his voice to be steady, and kept his face a complete mask of coolness.
"I'm not leaving you, Chid. And I couldn't climb down this cliff anyway," said Akaro. Her voice trembled when she spoke.
"Yes, you are. Or I'm going to go and put you in that tree myself, and you know that I can't climb. Look, after the dragon passes you, try to get to Fanelia as fast as you can, and find Allen. Go, now! The dragon is almost here!" He pushed her in the direction of the forest.
"Chid, I..." she said, she felt so torn it was almost unbearable. Chid saw a tear slide down her cheek.
"GO!" he yelled. Akaro ran and leapt into a tree, and then bounded into the next. She was on her way to Fanelia. "Goodbye, Akaro," he whispered. He withdrew his sword with his left hand.
Suddenly, a dragon burst through the forest, on the far side of the cliff. Chid held his breath, and turned his body to face it. He dropped his sword. It was only an infant dragon, very small and delicate. The dragon stopped and looked at Chid, and then cowered on the edge of the cliff. Chid relaxed for a second, and then tensed again. Come on, where's your mom? He thought. He felt the ground shake. She wasn't far away.
The trees in between him and the dragon cub shook. Chid tensed, and a short, very young girl stepped out. She was wearing a long white dress, very similar to Akaro's, and her thick black hair was flowing freely around her.
"Hey! Get out of here!" Chid yelled. She looked at him, and her emerald eyes were full of wonder. He ran quickly to her side and dragged her away from the forest. She didn't resist.
The ground gave a tremendous shake, and the cliff started to break. Chid moved the girl farther away towards the forest, but she suddenly broke away from him and went running towards the edge of the cliff. Chid tried to catch her arm, but missed by mere centimeters. He went running after her.
A large groan echoed through the air and half of the cliff fell away. Without warning, a shrill shriek broke through the air. The cliff had given way under the infant dragon, and it was falling, along with small girl. Chid stopped just in time to see the cliff break off, inches from his feet.
"No!" Chid shouted. He looked down. The beige colored rocks of the gorge greeted his eyes. He couldn't see them anywhere. "Holy shit! They're gone!" he whispered. Suddenly a flash of white flew right by his face, and Chid abruptly backed up, tripping over his feet. The Prince fell to the ground and lay flat on his back. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as pain ripped through his body. It quickly passed and he opened his eyes.
"The sky...the sky is full of feathers," he said. White feathers were all around him. He picked himself up from the ground, and saw the small child that had jumped off the cliff. He nearly fell again.
"There you go little one. Go back to your Mama," the girl said. She put the dragon cub on the ground and he hurriedly ran off to find his mother. Protruding from her back were great white wings.
"You're an angel!" he whispered. He couldn't believe his eyes. She looked like a small cherub.
"No I'm not silly," she said giggling, "I have Draconian blood in my veins, and that's why I have white wings."
"Oh," said Chid. He'd never seen a person of Draconian descent. He saw her small mouth open to say something but a great clamor from the forest made her stop.
Chid turned around to face the trees just as a huge dragon burst through them. It was the Mother, the same one that had chased him and Akaro through the forest. He saw the beast's huge head came right at them, and he jumped out of the way. He made a slash at it with his sword, cutting its eye. The dragon jerked its head back and let out a loud howl.
Chid glanced at the girl. She was on her back, unconscious, and her head was bleeding. He quickly picked her up and ran to a boulder and placed her behind it. Chid heard the dragon running at them and turned around and to meet it. The dragon stopped, and slowly eyed him with her good eye.
"Come on, you bitch...let's get down and dirty. You want to fight?" he asked. He glared at the dragon. It snorted a small fireball at Chid's feet. He backed up a few paces. The thing's serpent tongue slithered out and ran around its lips.
Oh, so it thinks I'm going to taste good? he thought, well, I'm going to give it the worst indigestion it ever had! But let's think, I have to be logical. What do I know about dragons? Chid ran through his mind as quickly as possible. They're big, they're ugly and they eat—the dragon lunged at Chid. He flung himself to his left as hard as he could. The dragon's teeth landed in the dirt just inches from where Chid had moved. Chid quickly got up. The dragon lifted its head and turned its back to him, lashing at him with its big spiked tail. Chid jumped away from the writhing tail, and the spike hit the boulder that the girl was lying behind. The boulder disintegrated into dust. Chid quickly picked the small child up again and thrust her behind a tree in the nearby forest. Maybe I could loose the dragon in the forest, he thought. But Chid soon realized that he'd have to get on the other side of the dragon to do that, for if he went in the greenery right now, the dragon would surely follow him, trampling the girl.
Chid turned to face the dragon again, and barely saw its tail coming at him. He put his arms around his head and ducked, but the tail's tip still caught his left forearm and smacked the side of his head. There was an awful sound of bones cracking, and the force of the blow made Chid fall to his knees. His vision went dark for a few seconds, then returned. He let go of his sword and took cover behind a tree. Chid looked at his arm. It looked like one of the bones in his forearm was broken. He grabbed his sword with his right hand. Since he was left-handed, this was going to make his dragon fighting much trickier. I have to cut open the stomach he thought, before it starts spitting fire again. Suddenly, he got an idea. He quickly dashed through the trees, till he was on the other side of the dragon, who had turned to where he had fallen.
"Hey!" he shouted. "I'm right here you big ugly lizard! How about you come for your damn dinner!" the dragon turned its head towards him and let out a big, ground shaking shriek and came rumbling towards him.
Chid stood his ground until the dragon was right upon him, he dove for underneath the belly of the beast and thrust his sword into the dragon's chest using his sword to rip through the dragon's scales all the way up to its throat. The beast's blood rained onto him. The dragon let out a deafening roar and reared up onto its hind legs. Chid ran from underneath the beast, but slipped in the giant lizard's blood.
The dragon darted its head and bit into Chid's right leg, ripping a good deal of cloth from his pants, and lifted him off the ground. Pain burst through Chid's entire frame. The dragon flipped its head up to swallow him. Chid quickly took his sword and using all his strength, jammed it into the roof of the dragon's mouth, forcing it to remain open. The sword bent but held. Chid realized that it wouldn't last for very long, energist ridged or not.
Chid took out his dagger and flung himself out of the lizard's mouth, grabbing onto its nose. He looked into the beast's yellow eye and saw the glazed look of death. The dragon was dying. Chid raised his dagger and with all of his waning strength, thrust it deep into the dragon's eyes, blinding it completely. The dragon shook its head and Chid heard the sword snapping. Chid tried to hang on, but he didn't have the strength. He was hurled into the trunk of a tree and slid down to the base and collapsed. He couldn't move. He opened his eyes to slits and saw the dragon dragging her enormous weight, sniffing around on the ground. Chid tried to stand up, but his head swam at every movement.
The dragon staggered over to Chid, drawn by the smell of his blood. Chid weakly lifted up his dagger and concentrated on the dragon's neck. He drew his hand back and flicked his wrist with all his might. The dagger flew straight into the dragon's neck. Blood spurted from the scaly neck. I must have hit something vital. Too bad it wasn't enough. Chid felt the dragon's breath and salty blood oozing into his own puddle of blood. He made a last ditch effort to help his situation. He wrapped his right arm around the base of the tree trunk and swung his body to the other side of the tree. The pain he felt this time had never been so extreme in all his life. He collapsed on the tree's immense roots. I'm sorry Father, he thought. The ground gave a titanic rumble. Hear it comes, he thought, then the Prince slipped into a merciful oblivion.