Of Past and Future: The tale of a Traveller
Disclaimer: Me no own Star Fox! Nintendo own SF! Me own Skysoar!
A good load of fighting in this chappy. The next one will hold plenty of thinking and a flashback.
Chapter 2- The Newborn
For the following few days Skysoar mainly hunted and foraged for food to store in his cave lair. He had gathered a good storage of firewood in the back of the cave and had moved some bushes to the ledge to hide the cavern mouth. Lacking any resons to leave the cave besides to gather supplies, Skysoar used most of his time sitting and thinking when awake. When asleep his mind seemed to travel back to remember his past.
Skysoar had been sleeping uneasily and awoke suddenly. He had dreamt of his past.. but he could not recall the details. The dream had been filled with the smell of burning wood. Even when awake he thought he could smell smoke. Wait up.. he could smell smoke. Skysoar stepped on the ledge and had a look around. The snowy valley before him seemed unchanged.. except for a pillar of thick, black smoke rising from the northern part of the valley.
Skysoar made haste travelling to the source of the smoke. Soon he could see the base of the pillar- a caravan.. of the remains of one. Three large wagons were burning in the middle of the valley. Several smaller wagons were scattered around them. Screams and the clash of metal against metal could be heard echoing off the mountains. The snow surrounding the site had been stained black and blood red.
Skysoar growled and revealed his fangs. His azure scales were standing on their edges and his tail was making small swings of barely witheld fury. "Shandar´ai" he rumbled to himself. "Bandits."
Skysoar quickly approached the caravan, concealing himself among the trees. He could smell the foul scents of blood and charred flesh, feeding his wrath and bringing him dangerously close to the edge of the infamous Draconian combat fury. The Draconian growled to himself and concentrated. His cloven hands drew intricate patterns in the air as he uttered words of ancient Draconian. Skysoar felt fire and thunder coursing through his veins as the spell was completed.
The air around the Draconian shimmered and black plates of armor materialized on Skysoar as his spell bent reality to do his bidding.
Soon Skysoar had been covered in plates of black and silver steel combat armor. A black pair of ankle bracers and greaves adorned with silver edges covered his legs from ankle upwards. The cuirass was a large set of black steel plates with silver details, designed to protect him from harm while not limiting his movement. The back of the suit had two long, thin slits where his azure wings sprouted through the metal. His arms were covered in pauldrons and gauntlets of heavy black steel. His head was protected with a specially crafted black helm covering his head entirely except for his lower jaw. The helmet had small slits in the sides for his ears and small holes on the top for his horns. The left side of the breastplate was decorated with a detailed image of a silver dragon spreading its wings.
Skysoar felt the magic of the armor pulse with his heartbeat. The armor had been forged by the best Draconian smith who ever lived and Skysoar had poured much of his own power into it. The enchantments he had placed into the suit made it lighter and stronger- Skysoar barely felt the weight of the armor, and yet it could take a beating from an angry minotaur- and allowed him to magically conjure the suit on him, regardless of the world- or plane- he was on. The suit had served him well for centuries during his Traveling and would do so for millenia to come.
Skysoar growled and stepped out of the woods, his suit reflecting the red light of the flames, making the Draconian appear like a demon spawned in the deepest pits of the nine Hells. A small part of the Draconian felt nearly sorry for any unlucky bandits foolish enough to cross his path- the rest of him craved for the smell of terror and the fury of combat.
The scene of destruction before him disgusted Skysoar. Blood and flesh strewn all around, corpses lying in pools of blood. The scent of blood and death was overwhelming. Skysoar kneeled to study closer one of the bodies. The creature lying in a puddle of crimson blood was basically humanoid with a startlingy odd appearance. Skysoar was looking at the corpse of an anthropomorphic dog- a being resembling a human/hound hybrid slightly over five feet tall and suited in a silvery uniform Skysoar did not recognise. There were no visible markings on the suit except for a small insignia depicting a shield with the image of a rising sun. "Most likely some kind of a guard of some kind" Skysoar thought. "It is too well suited to be a bandit."
Skysoar rose back to his feet, an eight-and-a-half foot tall tower of black and silver steel and blue scales. He quickly made his way through the destruction zone towards the sounds of combat. The sight at the northern end of the caravan appalled him.
A lone caravan guard, suited in a silvery uniform similar to the suit on the body he had seen was fighting against a group of five armored bandits, using a spiked mace of some kind. Judging from the corpses around him, he had already felled two more bandits before. Still the movement of the warrior had a sense of desperation. He appeared to be quickly tiring.
"Five against one? Not only are the shandar´ai fools, they are also cowards!" Skysoar rumbled to himself. "Time to even the odds.." The fighters had not yet noticed the Draconian. A mistake the bandits would not have time to regret. Skysoar opened his mouth and spreadt his wings. A deep, low rumbling sound came from his stomach and seemed to rise towards his throat while growing in volume.
One of the bandits took a glance around and was about to shout a warning when Skysoar exhaled suddenly. A roaring sound like a thunderclap was heard as a brilliant bolt of lightning issued from Skysoar´s mouth, knocking the bandit back several feet back, leaving a gaping hole to the chest of the bandit. Skysoar roared a challenge as he leapt towards the closest bandit, his wings beating furiously, leaving behind clouds of snow kicked up by the nudden gust caused by his wings. His claws left deep rends to the bandit´s flesh as he was subdued by over four hundred pounds of steel-covered Draconian.
Two of the three remaining bandits turned to face the battle-crazed Draconian. They seemed startled, but confident as Skysoar seemed to be unarmed.
"Bring it on, fools" Skysoar growled in a voice like distant thunder. "Grad´ai." The Draconian word for `blades`. Skysoar´s battle gauntlets shimmered as his command activated an enchantment within his armor. The small bulges on his gauntlets seemed to flow like water and stretched into two long, slightly curved blades reaching almost three feet beyond his knuckles.
Skysoar only barely noticed the look of pure horror on the face of the taller bandit –a wolf of some kind- as the Draconian spun around, blocked a powerful sword blow with his left blade and struck with his right. Blood seeped out of the long gash Skysoar had left when the bandit fell to his knees, eyes glazing over. Skysoar slammed his wings down and leaped backwards to dodge a thrust from a long spear the second bandit was using. The bandit´s victorious grin turnad into a look of amazement and pain as Skysoar spun both of his blades rapidly, striking the spear and leaving only a short stump from the stalk of the spear.. and severing entirely the right hand of the bandit. The pained scream of the bandit cut abruptly and turned into an odd gurgle as Skysoar stepped forward and swung both of his blades horizontally crossed, cutting through flesh and bone and decapitating the bandit.
Skysoar turned back just in time to see the last bandit had fallen and the caravan guard was collapsing to the ground. Skysoar´s twin katars retracted and he grabbed the fallen warrior, aiding him carefully to a half sitting position. The guard seemed to be some kind of a white fox anthropomorph. Blood was seeping slowly from a long, horizontal gash in his chest. The fox spoke in a low, faint voice in a language Skysoar could recognize as a strange dialect of a language spoken in a Human world he had visited so long ago.
"Thank ..you. But.. who.. you..?"
"I am a friend" Skysoar assumed in a low voice. "Rest now. I´ll bandage your wounds."
The fallen warrior managed a small chuckle. "Thank.. you.. too.. late. Dying. Help.."
"Help you? How?" Skysoar asked.
The fox locked his gaze into Skysoar´s eyes. The grey eyes of the fox were dim with pain and the approaching end. "Not.. me.. the child.. must.. protect.. child in.. wagon.. Promise.."
"You want me to protect a child in the wagon?"
"Yes. Promise.. guard.. she must.. protected.. promise.."
Skysoar raised his right hand. "I will protect her. This I swear by my honor and my right hand."
The fox seemed relieved and lied back down. "Good.. thank.. you.. she…" The fallen warrior drew deep breath and closed his eyes. A deep sigh escaped his chest and he laid still.
Skysoar touched the fallen one gently. The first sentient being he had met on this world was dead.. after requiring an oath of honor from Skysoar.
"Rest well. I will guard her to my last breath. This I swear by my right hand and by the name of my god Dachar, the Dragon of Ages."
Deep silence had filled the battlefield. Nothing was moving except the for dancing flames. The bandits had been defeated.. but the caravaners had also fallen. Only Skysoar was left in the battlefield standing.
Skysoar rose to his feet and opened the door of the wagon the fallen guardian was lying against. There, in the wagon, was a small bundle wrapped in white cloth. Skysoar picked the bundle gently up. "You must be the one I am to guard. Let us have a look at you, dal´rann.."
Skysoar carefully unwrapped the cloth around the child. He was holding a small bundle of white fur in his hands. The child was a very small fox anthro. She was sized like a human baby and covered in a thin layer of dazzlingly white fur. Her small, but perfect hands were humanlike with five thin fingers. Her feet were like a mixture of human and fox features with humanlike legs and a pawlike feet with three toes. The appearance of the child was strange to Skysoar with her short vulpine muzzle and a small black spot of a nose among the white fur at the tip of her face. Her ears were small, triangular flaps of skin and fur on the top of the head. But it was not the body of the child that sent chills moving down Skysoar´s spine. It was the eyes of the child. They were mandel-shaped and large, colored bright blue like Skysoar´s scales but with a slight hue of purple.
Skysoar had never seen eyes like that before.. except.. "Cloudkeep?" Skysoar wispered silenty as the flow of memories struck him like a tidal wave.
