The Dragon's Cosmic Breath - Chapter 5 The Dragon's Cosmic Breath
by Chustang

Chapter 5
"The Outlaw"

Shinar is the prison of the Dragon's Cosmic Breath, or as it's popularly referred to, the Galactic Leyline. With a mind of its own, this stardust magic has the ability to see power within souls. All living things have a magic in them, but only few have potential to be dangerous. The Leyline is very protective of its power, and aims to destroy whoever dares to use it, but is helpless if they survive and are able to access its power. Shinar has captured all of the known dragons, the ones who would destroy the whole Leyline, and thousands of Ctarl-Ctarl, wild animals, and humans, peasants and emperors alike. They have no way to use the endless silver and dragonite.
They go in, but never come back out.

With her darkly dappled fur slicked down with sweat while scratched up and scorched, Savannah stood for a few minutes over her defeated enemy. She blinked her amber eyes, recovering from her shell shock, and, panting, stepped off the dragon's sharp back. It had been a close battle, with the wide, stealthy hits of the dragon slowly becoming more close range, until she had gotten close enough to grab him by his nose, the only vulnerable spot. After that, it had been a simple matter of holding on tight enough to block the air passage.
Whipping her tail lazily, the cheetah Ctarl-Ctarl glanced around, slowly trotting to ease her strained muscles. With her coat glistening in the intense sun, Savannah felt a strange silence. Something was wrong. Once her eyes cast across the treetop-plain, it struck her like a truck. Fear sparked in her curious and energetic amber eyes, twisting up her face and making her begin to pant harder.
"Jim?! Gene?!" she cried desperately, her dry and raspy voice cracking. No answer was reflected back to her, only the indifferent glare of the sun was noticeable across the emerald green world.
Savannah sprinted off in the direction Gene had been knocked off his feet, with her thin and sleek frame shuddering from shell shock. Her breath came in short rasps, padding softly across the leaves that swayed with the wind. Where the hell could they be? Oh, god, please not... Her beautiful amber eyes now wide with shock were guided by the furrow he'd created on impact, and Savannah suddenly paused over a hole in the canopy. He must have fallen through here. It was wide enough have fit Gene and/or Jim, and the darkness of the gap had snapped branches and even a sickeningly green and thorny vine crawling out into the sun. Or pulled down...
"Ugh... Lucifer ivy," she groaned to herself, staring at the fat, hideous plant that moved like a green bug in the sunlight. It paused, as if eyeing her up with no eyes at all, then slithered ominously forward. Savannah held her lips back in disgust, at the stench the thing emitted. It suddenly rattled at her and snapped forward with the intensity of a bullwhip, landing in a flurry of leaves where her paws had rested only moments ago. Jumping up as it swept under her feet, the Ctarl-Ctarl landed on top of the fat, leathery ivy and resentfully bit into its flesh.
The plant hissed in pain, as it lost half of itself to her teeth, and recoiled, wincing, into the darkness of the Eternal Forest. She twisted up her face and spit out the leathery skin, before her body shuddered with its horrendous taste. "Nasty little things," she muttered to herself. "Those things'll sting you to death if they get the chance." A pause. "Gene? Jim? Are you down there? Hey, I'm coming down!" With that, Savannah unsheathed her claws to slice the Lucifer ivy, glanced down, and leaped head first into the hole.
It could have been best described as a green hellhole, as she leapt face first into a thriving nest of ivy. The cheetah Ctarl screeched in pain as she collapsed onto a writhing pile of thorny plants, rolling over onto her feet to grip the green mass. Thorns clung to her fur, but luckily, her stiff hairs and tough skin nullified the pain. It was less she could say for any soft-skinned human. Yowling as more, living ivy latched themselves to her and tried to drag her in, she gasped in fear, seeing a gloved hand poking limply out of the mass. "Gene?" she cried out over the hiss of the Lucifer ivy.
No answer. Damn. Must be out cold.
A surge of ivy came up beneath her, a living wave of thorns and the Ctarl-Ctarl stumbled on the mass. Savannah clawed her way back up, wincing as thorns stuck between her toes and managed to regain her feet. Another surge of energy through the vines knocked her back off, and suddenly began to enclose the limp, bloodied hand, pulling him further into the green fury. Snarling and baring white fangs under narrowed amber eyes, she felt a whirl of anger bubble up inside her. In a rage, she slashed off the ivy that had managed to wrap around her.
The Ctarl-Ctarl agilely sprung up, as a large vine whipped at her with the speed of a bull whip, stinging at her heels. Then, finding traction on the mass, sprinted across the ivy at a speed amazing for the thorns that had found way into the vulnerable pads of her paws. Wincing in pain, she tripped and was sent rolling down into the lashing Lucifer ivy. But she didn't waste anytime hesitating or tending to her pain. If it was this difficult for an immortal Ctarl-Ctarl, she barely imagine what hell a human would be in. Savannah lifted her head up, feeling blood dripping along the curve of her jaw and trickling between her whiskers, and spotted the fingers of the hand slowly been consumed into the ivy. She shut her eyes, forcing her body to move while wrapped in ivy, and leaped forward at it.
With the glaring sun dappling across the nest of Lucifer ivy, a painful glaze over her eyes, and with little to hold onto, she should have missed the hand by a mile and been swallowed up by the Lucifer ivy, as had hundreds before. But, for the sake of the story, we'll keep it going and say she did.
After that, it became a pain smeared whirl of bodies, vines, and glaring sunlight. Savannah felt the vines loosen around her, her grip on the hand coming free, and the sensation of tumbling off a bird's nest into nothing. Still with her eyes shut, she could feel leaves and branches whip at her as she tumbled through them, and was jolted around until, finally, she felt the reassuring earth as she hit. The Ctarl-Ctarl, feeling the blood stopping, slowly allowed her battered body to rest and her mind to settle back into place. With a sigh, her thin frame settled against the ground, and Savannah gently opened her amber eyes.
"Gene!" Savannah staggered up, blinking as she saw the outlaw, alive but dazed and scratched up. The Ctarl-Ctarl forced her aching body to move, and trotted over to where he sat against a tree.
"Hey, Savannah," he replied drowsily, rolling his head to clear it of the haze. It was like someone had tried to put him in the blender. The gold cloak he had proudly worn only an hour ago was nothing more than tattered strings of thread. Gene's eyes were black-ringed and bloodshot, and she recoiled in shock. He'd fared the Lucifer nest well enough. His clothes were tattered, he was bleeding, and worse yet, it would hurt like hell pulling those thorns out. Savannah glanced around the Eternal forest, looking for anymore possible danger, then sat beside Gene, looking him over with concern.
She turned her eyes to his, and leaned closer, to see more scars adorning his arms. "You sure you'll be okay?" she asked Gene, nudging his head as he hung it limply, nearly blacking out. "Hey, come on."
Suddenly, he blinked his glazed-over, dark blue eyes to look up to her. His face twisted up, taking in the swirled world around him. The outlaw seemed to forget what had happened, and he just ignored the pain as he leaned against the tree trunk, staggering up, and looked around again. "Where's Jim?" he asked, turning his gaze to her. And, slightly unnerved by the multiple thorns that scarred his skin and even caused a slight green swell, she was frightened by his appearance. Even more of the Lucifer poison.
The golden furred Ctarl-Ctarl frowned, biting at her lip.
His steely blue eyes flickered confusedly to her and were lanced with pained lights, yet he still made no move to remove the poisoning, thick thorns that leaked blood and tinted his tanned skin a ill-looking green. Gene pursed his lips in apprehension, like a young child who had lost sight of his friends, strangely vulnerable looking. Glancing out from tangled flame red bangs, it was clear he was disturbed. And although he choked slightly on the strain of talking, the outlaw asked, "....You do know where Jim went... right?"
Savannah gave the kindest amber eyes she could bear without bursting into her own tears. The sleek but drained cheetah paused, leaning forward as she laid her ears sympathetically back along her dappled neck. "Now listen Gene, don't do anything stupid alright? Jim's lost somewhere out on the canopy, but first we gotta get those thorns out before you get an allergic reaction, alright? You'll be sick for a week, if you're that lucky, so just... Gene! No!"
The partially sliced shoulder armor clattered nosily at her feet as the bloody outlaw just wiped the sticky crimson stuff from his face, forced himself to stand, then blinked his steely blue eyes once before they were overwhelmed with a droning darkness, as almost in a trance. Before Savannah could react, he was already climbing the nearest tree and up in to the glaring canopy.
"Ah Gene you bastard, get back here!" she cussed to herself, displeased with the apparent disappointment of his stubborn attitude. Yet, there was nothing she could do. He was an outlaw, and he and Jim were an undeniable duo. And losing that prodigy kid, his only family left, would drive him probably to the edge of insanity. Savannah braced her straining body, and sprinted after, leaving a wake of leaves to settle in silence.

Dirt smeared across the young, round face, entangling in the locks of hair that lapped around the thin neck in the wind. The child's lips were parted slightly, composure serene although the excruciating damage that echoed through the entirety of his arm, which was pierced straight through. Even though, the warmth in his thin frame was welcoming enough, and the creature with the dark smudged face was tempted to lay down and sleep beside him, instead of consuming him. The mangy thing hadn't had a meal or safe place to rest in at least a few days, quickly approaching a week... especially since its mother had been killed.
The creature paused above the face in its study, gently brushing its paw across the forehead in curiosity, before gently sniffing at him. It's nose brushed lightly against the boy's temple, wet and chilled to the touch, before he sensed it.
The boy was still very much alive.
In the darkness, the creature glanced around the dusky sky as night began to tighten its grasp on the prison world. Lifting its neck to the glittering civilization on the near horizon and letting the the long horns flexing along its neck glitter slightly with ice, it evaluated the time it would take to get to the city before total darkness fell. After night, humans would be easy prey for any Athena hawks that might be patrolling for their meal. If it moved now, it could get in the gates before dark at least.
Sniffing its slender nose a final time along the bone-prounounced frame, the slender and small creature gently opened its mouth to close gently around the boy's chest. As it staggered back up, it could feel the human's chest rise and fall in the confines of his jaws, filled with stubby baby teeth. A soft light came to its blood red eyes, and the dark greenish wolf crouched down in the slightly forested plains surrounding Shinar. The city glitter off in the horizon, and the creature glanced nervously back at the tunnel he'd come out of. The only way out of the forest was to go underground, and it wasn't sure if the hole would still be there if it dropped the human child off. But it swallowed its nervous worry, which fluttered in its empty stomach like butterflies, then began to trot smoothly toward Shinar. The body jolted slightly around in his jaws, rubbing uncomfortably against the stubby, mostly harmless teeth.
Jim felt his mind slur into a swirl of confusion, pain, and as he lifted his head in a semi-conscious state, a stab of pain reminded him of his injured shoulder and he collapsed into the warmness of the animal's mouth. As the limp boy just lay there, he mouthed a few words before falling asleep once again.

"Savannah, you son of a-Ahhhh! Shit, that hurt!" he snapped in a weak, enraged slur of pain. By now, the cheetah Ctarl-Ctarl, in her human form, had learned to ignore the ill-tempered snaps Gene gave and continue with the necessary work.
Only a few seconds after he had started to climb away, she had easily tackled the weakened Gene to the ground and constrained him enough to keep him from chasing blindly after Jim. But it had evolved lots of missed gunshots, cusses, and a few claw marks before she could tie him to a tree with some harmless vines she'd found. And now, she had the outlaw tied so that he wouldn't move while she pulled the multiple, 1/2 inch-thick thorns from his scarred skin. He was sitting against the tree, with thick vines circling him and the massive oak.
Gene narrowed his pained steel blue eyes dangerously at her, gritting his teeth until there was a sharp pain in his tongue. There were many thorns dotting along his face, and even a few lodged near his temples. The expression on his face expressed his anger, and it was clear if he had been displeased with her before, he was just angry now. With his disheveled red hair falling around his shadowed face, it looked like he was going to bite her if she tried to pull another thorn out. A thin line of red traced along his face, then dripped from his chin to trace crimson down his shoulders and chest.
"Don't give me that look, Gene!" Savannah said, with apologetic amber eyes. Tentatively, she glanced down, feeling his fiery blue eyes burn at her neck and seemingly straight through her skull. The cat girl stared down at the few thorns she'd pulled out, and sighed sharply to herself. There were only three. There were three hundred more to pull. And she couldn't trust him to do it, he'd just run after Jim till he collapsed. She turned fierce amber eyes to him. "You know this has to be done. You can't save Jim if you're sick as a dog. So just grit your teeth and take it like a man, okay?"
With spikes of pained light through his eyes, he just snarled in frustration back at her, not bothering to look at her. His gaze, fiery but still slurred with fatigue, was toward the darkening dapple rays of light through the canopy. It was clear to see the greenish tint from the remaining thorns spreading across his tanned skin, a sign that Savannah was right this time. The redheaded outlaw tried not to show it though. "Easy for you... you're not Jim's aniki," he muttered under his breath.
Gene flashed a steely blue eye at her, narrowed through his candy apple red hair, then scoffed at her, shifting his gaze angrily up and down her slim, cheetah-like body. Gaze framed by the small blood stream from the first removed thorn, he said darkly under his breath, "If you even cared about Jim, you'd let me go."
Tears welled up in her amber eyes, beneath fiercely narrowed brows and Savannah slightly growled at him, tightening her fist around the thorns. Her canine teeth poked out of her mouth, over her tightened lip. "Don't you say that!" she said defensively. "I do care about Jimmy, probably more than I do you. So be grateful that I'm helping, Gene Starwind! You'd black out for a week if I wasn't here to help you. Hell, you would have been a Lucifer ivy appetizer if I hadn't saved you! Now-" she said, her shrill voice softening to a gentler purr, "hold still. This is going to hurt." With apologetic amber eyes, she sighed and lifted up to remove another thorn.
Gene winced, as he felt her long-nailed fingers tighten around the thorn lodged between his eye and the bridge of his nose. The redheaded outlaw was only able to struggle away a few inches to the side, causing Savannah to lose her grip just as she was going to tear it out. Growling to herself, the golden-haired cat girl leaned further forward, pressing her face closer to the scarred redhead. Biting her lip, she was just about climbing on Gene's chest as she reached to grab it. Suddenly, as she sensed his muscles tensing to dodge her again, the Ctarl-Ctarl took his chin firmly in her hands and held it forcefully there.
Suddenly, gold met steel blue and she could feel his forced, nervous breath causing his chest to rise and fall heavily underneath her. Their faces were only inches apart, with Savannah's arching gold hair mingling with Gene's red as it fell around her neck and over his shoulder. She sat there, in that awkward position, staring straight into the eyes of the outlaw.
She was laying with her upperbody resting fully on his chest, her legs across his knees and her hips pooled in his lap. Both blinked at each other, feeling a surge of embarassement flush their faces. Yet, with his head still cradled in Savannah's hands, he did not feel her attempting to get off or remove thorns. Gene swallowed dryly, feeling mixed emotions clash vibrantly in his mind, then burst into what seemed like fire in his chest and throat. Suddenly, he no longer could see, but had his blue eyes closed instinctively. Yet that didn't dull the shock.
Savannah lowered her head to his, then, brushing lips, locked him into a full kiss on the lips.
To Gene, it was like eating fire. He felt his mouth erupt, as she didn't stop at the small play. Closing then snapping his eyes open in shock, he nearly choked, taking an odd breath as the relentless Ctarl-Ctarl forced his head back against the tree trunk. The outlaw closed his eyes, unable to break free of Savannah, then resisted a shudder of longing. He just gave into the burning in his mouth for a moment, forgetting about Jim... and Melfina.
Mel! Oh, damn!
Luckily, Savannah paused long enough to breathe, and he wrenched his head from her. Instantly, as the kiss broke, the golden blonde Ctarl-Ctarl scampered back away, flushed with embarassment. Gene lay twisted crookedly in his bonds as he sucked in hard, suprised breaths, face concealed by his red hair as it fell around his eyes. After a tense moment, he twisted back up to lock eyes with her, narrowed confusedly at her. "What... the hell.... was... that for?" he asked between gasps.
Savannah bit her lip frantically. "Um... I just was curious, that's all."
He strained his blue eyes as he took a confused look. His entire throat was burning, not only from surprise, but from the breaths he'd forced through his previously unused lungs. Now he had to remember to breathe, and it wasn't helping him too much. "Curious? Savannah, what were you thinking? Sick..." he said back with a harsh voice. Maybe women will be the death of me... Gene glanced around, vision blurring again. "Now let me go, would ya?" He squinted at the sky between the emerald canopy, seeing it darken as the sun sunk slowly. "Jim..."
Gene's eyes darkly narrowed, and he turned back to her, fiercly glaring at the golden haired Ctarl-Ctarl. The words were already formed on his lips that he wasn't going to take this anymore. But what the outlaw didn't expect was for Savannah to make a move.
His eyes went wide. Shit.
With her freckled face twisted up defiantly, the thin girl stood over him with her tensed arms up at the ready to slash down, the discarded shoulder armor from before clutched in her hands. Savannah gave a shrill Ctarl-Ctarl snarl, eyes showing no mercy, then bought it smashing across his face.