The Dragon's Cosmic Breath - Chapter 4 The Dragon's Cosmic Breath
by Chustang
Chapter 4
"Starlight Fire"

Casters, both Old Magic and New, have become a symbol of rare power across the stars. These magic powered guns originated from Earth, and had spread like wildfire. The guns were more popular than televisions had been at release, because of their potency. Despite the success, they were banned from being made on Earth, and the producer of the guns soon was imprisoned, stopping production. As the guns became rarer, the bullets for them were like ghosts. During the peak of Casters, their wielders had foolishly wasted them in street fights, and they slowly began to fade back into the darkness. By 2024, only ten years after Casters had appeared, finding one had less chance than someone being killed by a mad rabbit.
Gene Starwind's Caster, an Old Magic gun with the model name Starlight Fire, has been most loyal. The gun has, on many occasions, been the unsung savior and hero of duels. Found in the sheath of his first bounty success, that gun had more power than anyone could imagine, being one of a kind.

The air broke with the electric roar of the looming dragon, the dark, cruelly twisted creature glaring mercilessly down with stunning lavender eyes. The sun glinted like gold dust off its armor of shining quality and its jagged body was contrasted by the endless blue stretch of the sky overlooking the Everlasting Forest. A broken grin flashed against its fangs, and the dragon whipped its wings twice before screeching into a dive.
Instantly, the younger outlaw felt his aniki shove him out of the way, rolling quickly across the plain of tree tops. "Jim, watch it!" he snapped angrily, snatching his blaster from its holder in his pocket and recovering himself as the dragon swept by in a futile dive. Its dark wings brushed over him dangerously, its jagged spikes gleaming sharply, and knocked the unexpecting Jim to the ground. He could hear the blonde's shrill yelp of pain, and Jim Hawking collapsed, with hands clutching at his shoulder. Dark crimson blood began to shine against his skin.
"Jim?!" Gene asked frantically, ignoring the looming danger. Like fluid motion, the glistening gold dragon flared its wings against the cold wind and reared its fearsome body to face its prey again. It flapped leathery wings to hold it airborne for a moment and watched the strange creature with red hair race to its injured comrade. Fool...
The outlaw placed the gun down, and quickly saw Jim was unconscious once again, giving a snort of displeasure. He carefully lifted him and looked at the wound. It was speared straight through by a thick claw, most likely from the dragon's wing that had dislodged. "Dammit Jim," he cursed, gently pulling out the scythed talon. "Why do you always get hurt? Poor kid..."
"Don't call me a kid..." Jim suddenly fluttered his eyes open, giving a weak smile. The small boy seemed like a toy as Gene gave a smile back, then glanced around for something to stop the accessive bleeding before Jim fainted. Man, why does he have to be anemic anyway... Gene groaned to himself, laying Jim across his lap and swiftly ripping off a piece of his dark gold cloak.
As he wrapped it around Jim's maimed shoulder, the blood seeping through instantly, he saw his younger partner flinch and give a squeal of pain. Jim, frustrated, shut his marble blue eyes in pain and tried desperately to shove the helping hands of Aniki away. But Gene's grasp held firm, and the pressure on the wound mounted quickly in the kid's tiny body. "Aniki! Stop... please! It's fine its fine!" he pleaded, cracking open a tearing blue eye at his mentor.
Gene smiled, but with a distant tone to it, and it was clear he had pretty much blocked out any pleads from Jim. The outlaw tightly tied the scrap of material, and the blonde bolted up in pain and angrily forced him away. Instantly, Jim doubled up in pain and lifted hazy blue eyes to the wound. He pursed his lips weakly, then turned pained and almost ungrateful eyes toward him, giving a snort.
"If you really don't want me to help Jim, I can just leave you," he said a bit angrily, lifting the blaster to the ready again. The same, haughty fire of his abandoned bad ass attitude flickered dangerously, becoming a bit fed up with Jim's constant, almost parental orders.
Jim flashed back a resentful and dark look. "I didn't mean it like that."
Gene just looked away in anger. He suddenly blinked, realizing what he had been darkly brooding. Gene snorted, slightly tossing his jagged cut red hair and stood up to face the looming dragon.
It simply wasn't there.
"Gene! Behind you, idiot!" Jim screamed, desperately scrambling away while still clutching his shoulder.
Blackness ensued cruelly, as the thickly armored blur seemed to defy all reason in a flood of speed. With its wide, leathery wings arched in anticipation, another electric roar first sliced at the outlaws' ears and Gene collapsed to his knees. His torn gloves were hopeless to block out the screech. It gave a cold smirk, fangs flashing, then pivoted and brought its tail down to slam its human play toy's back. The tail came like a tiger's fury, and Gene's bruised body skidded painfully across the tree plain. He was nearly knocked out and the gun slipped from his limp grasp. Even the caster, jolted by the force, rolled from the sheath and disappeared into the canopy.
"No!" Jim yelled by impulse, and instantly, he resented it.
The dragon snapped its head toward him like an accusing finger in his direction. The creature, dark gold in tint, was like some mutated tyrannosaur, with a lean, scaly body that was leveled for balance. Its wings were large and rigid with strength. But there was bristling spikes frothing around its jowl, which sharpened at a sound. It's lavender eyes were sharp and jagged with glowing light, matching the equally razor teeth. The dragon obvious forgot about the defeated human and turned to annihilate the second.
He weakly scampered backwards, spears of pain expressing the danger of using his arm to get away. Jim was gasping for breath, and his heart was beating out stress. It was like he'd swallowed a pufferfish; pain and fear racked up in his throat like a burning vice. Jim had never really realized just how much pain Gene had to endure, being the bounty hunter and outlaw he was. He'd watched from the sidelines, helping him along, and only experienced the sharp blade of knife and the angry graze of bullet once. In a way, he seemed like broken doll running from a unknowingly cruel master, when it had never left the safety of the house to venture into the world.
Jim's blue eyes were thick and tearing with fear, as he suddenly pushed his shoulder too far. It violently shook before giving way under him. And he went down screaming and crying as the golden dragon extended massive wings, brewed a swirl of wind beneath them, and launched forward.
Dark gold clashed against the dappled black fury that intercepted it from its bullet launch from beneath the trees. The sleek figure was impossible to discern from the snarling, rolling mess of teeth, fur and scales, screeches and roars, and anger. The dragon flapped wildly as the attacking thing savagely snapped at his vulnerable eyes, releasing a roar of pain to the sky.
Again, it whipped at the creature with its tail, coming down with the crack of a bullwhip. In a blur, he saw the gold furred animal abandon its fierce attack and desperately try to fall back from battle. But it was futile.
Giving a cruel smile to flash on fangs, the second animal to hunt the Starwind and Hawking duo, it arched huge wings against the sun, roared, then struck. With speed infinite, it gave a airbourne body slam to the gold creature, lurched slightly back to size up the nearly broken thing, and lunged with spiked arms slashing down. The dragon snarled in victory, as the body of the cat like animal crashed. The defeated thing yowled angrily, letting the trees break its fall, then staggered drunkenly up.
The sleek cheetah body of the creature seemed to be a collection of liquid speed. It was a thin and quick cat with the familiar black spots and long black, furred ears that were flat in anger. It turned its head toward Jim, and the amber eyes beneath scrunched whiskers were eeriely famliar. Lashing a tail, it spoke suddenly. "Jim! Get Gene before the dragon gets him!"
"Savannah?" The blonde blinked, dumbstruck.
She replied him with a toothy grin, like a chessercat. The cheetah Ctarl-Ctarl suddenly felt the ungodly force of the dragon repelling her away, and instantly, she dug in with long, scythed claws, hesitated on a breath, then whirred back on her heels. Her foe came crashing, unable to recover fast enough from his dive, into the sharp snap of the branches at his eyes. Savannah flashed insolence through her sultry, almost metallic amber eyes, then sprinted around the felled monster. The wind couldn't even compete with her as she came across the armored back, sliding backwards, with her long claws scarring the armor as they drew across.
The Ctarl-Ctarl leaped again, doging an angry lash as the dragon snorted the ivy and leaves from its dark, twisted face. It raised itself on its forearms, gave another flick of its pillar-strength tail before it sprung easily into the sky again. With lavender eyes trained coldly on the Ctarl-Ctarl, it roared with jagged fangs like ornaments on its spiked muzzle. It smiled secretly to itself.
That's it kitty, forget all about your friends... They'll be taken care of.
Savannah, raising a gold aura to shield future attacks, tensed for battle.

Jim lifted his unusally heavy body while his hand still cradled his injured shoulder in pain, while blood leaked relentlessly from it, sifting through his fingers. His eyes burned with tears of pain, while he gave an aching glance up. Again, the two gold animals gathered their outcasted power and gave a minagery of furious roars, screeches, yowls and threatening growls. The swirling anger seemed to grow and grow in the darkening sky until pain seemed to bleed into Jim's ears. He staggered back, trying again to spot his aniki.
"Aniki!" he cried, grip weakening around the wound. In his throat, the burning vice of panic seemed to wait for the second he broke with fear. Tears of insane panic blurred his vision, seeing no sign of his brother and mentor. No sign of his aniki. Jim staggered aimlessly across the flat land stretching out before him, with no city on the horizon. He began to lose track of all senses rashional.
Nothing!
Nothing!
Nothing at all!
In a dioriented flurry of emotions, the eleven year old only saw a blurred world. Across the plain, it was empty of life. Jim couldn't understand. There wasn't a Gene Starwind there when he should be. Every logical nerve screamed at the defiance he'd been roughly handed. The boy wandered uncontrollable as the roar of battle faded slowly into the background.
He kept walking, and would, until he found Gene.