*psst, 'The Unwild Hunt Pt. 3 has had a few alterations to it. I rarely post-post edit but I found the need to here. Sorry for the interruption.*
"Fight, fight warriors!" Dumnorix yelled at the warriors as they swatted at drakes.
When they had been alerted to the drakes the creatures converged on their location surrounding them and began harassing them. It didn't seem like they were being attacked seriously at the moment, only a dozen or so drakes attacked them at a time, but Mavis was still worried. Nearly a thousand drakes now sat around them watching the fight as if ready to leap at them at a moment's notice. The Nightmares, Timberjack, and Bonenapper were watching the fight in a group with an air of disinterest as drakes leapt in and out of the fight. Ancalagon was at the moment standing to the side looking back and forth between the drakes and warriors as if not sure of what to do. Her warriors on the other hand had no backup and the strain of the fight was clearly showing. Cuts, bruises, and burn marks marred her group as they fought back desperately. At the moment two of the drakes, a Gronkel and a Zippelback, were circling Dumnorix with them shooting some flames at him occasionally. Whenever he tried getting in close to beat them down one just retreated and the other struck at his back. Mavis raised her wand for what felt like the hundredth time that day and tried shooting magic out of it with nothing coming out.
"*Grrrr* what won't you work?!" At that one of the Alucard's responded to her.
"It takes time to master the wand my child. Why did yo uwait until now to use our magic?" Mavis let out a growl of frustration.
"You are of no help." Mavis then used it like a club to hit a Terrible Terror like a baseball while one of the warriors called out to her.
"Just cut open a portal for us to retreat already, is it really that hard?" Mavis hit her head with her free hand and reached in her clothing for the scissors but came up short.
"Ummmm…" She looked up to see a Terrible Terror gnawing on it at the foot of the Bonenapper. "Oh come on!" At this a Gronkle leapt at Mavis knocking her to the ground prone.
Before she got up the Gronkle pinned her down and seemed to smirk at her before readying his breath to strike Mavis down. Before he could do so however a sudden strike with a cudgel like tail sent him rolling as Ancalagon stood protectively over his mother. He reared back on his legs, spread his 4 wings out, extended all his purple feathers, and gave out a deafening screech that got everyone's attention. 'Well, I was wondering when he would get invol… wait what?!' Mavis's thoughts were interrupted as the drakes all immediately winced and stepped back from her group while getting into a strange 'bowing' position towards Ancalagon. Even the Monstrous Nightmares all growled a challenge before taking a step back from their group with the big two immediately looking at Ancalagon with interest. As Mavis got up she could clearly see Ancalagon was shocked but what had just happened and looked at Mavis to figure out what was going on. When Mavis smiled at him and chuckled Ancalagon seemed to realize this was good and turned back to the drakes hissing a challenge to them. Unfortunately he got a recipient in the form of the Bonenapper who looked like he wanted to kickass and take names now.
The Bonenapper seemed to go to roar but nothing came out of his mouth aside from a whisper as he charged Ancalagon. Ancalagon leapt at the beast using the talons on his feet and wings to tear at his foe but his blows just bounced off of the Bonenapper's armor. As Ancalagon reeled in shock the Bonenapper just used his larger size and greater mass to push Ancalagon to the ground and made him roll a few feet. The Bonenapper seemed to chuckle at Ancalagon before lunging in and grabbing the smaller opponent before tossing Ancalagon into the boulder Mavis's gang were hiding behind originally.
"NO!" Mavis charged the Bonenapper but a Nightmare knocked her down effortlessly and pinned her to the ground forcing her to watch the one-way fight.
The Bonenapper knocked Ancalagon about a few more times with Ancalagon trying to strike back with his blows bouncing off of the beasts bone armor. Taking on a haughty expression the Bonenapper pushed Ancalagon to the ground and ripped off the display feathers on his head and waved them around. The other drakes seemed to chuckle at this no longer being afraid of Ancalagon at this point. During this humiliation one of the warriors had scooped the scissors away from the Terrible Terror and had opened a portal motioning for the others. As they went for Mavis the Nightmare sent itself on fire to warn off the others while it motioned towards Ancalagon as if saying 'You will watch this.'. The Bonenapper now leaned down gripping Ancalagon's head in its jaws ready to crush it with a single bite…
"NO!" A flash of green magic erupted from Mavis's wand shooting a hole through the Nightmare's head killing it instantly and making it fall to the side. "You do not touch my baby." Everyone looked at Mavis in shock as she raised her wand with her rose shaped cheek marks now glowing a poison green color. "Let him go you BITCH!" She then with a muffled scream shot a blast of energy at the Bonenapper striking it straight in the skull with the sound of splintering bone echoing through the crowd.
As everyone stared at Mavis in shock the Bonenapper reeled from the blow and stepped away from Mavis in shock as his 'helmet' had almost been completely destroyed. At this Ancalgon got back up and growled a challenged at the Bonenapper who looked nervously between him and Mavis. Ancalagon wasted no time however and shot a line of lilac flame at the now exposed face of the Bonenapper making it shriek in pain. The other drakes looked in dull shock but the Timberjack however immediately took to the sky shrieking in anger and swooped down on the group of warriors. Mavis shot magic at it but the Timberjack nimbly dodged those shots coming in for a strike at Mavis. As he got in close however one of the warriors, the one with the strangely high end bow, stepped between the two raising her bow and yelled out 'Ryuuga wagateki wo kurau!' As she shot her arrow it splintered apart in a flash of blue light with three serpent like dragons emerging and flying at the Timberjack in a swirled fashion. The Timberjack tried to dodge it but the dragons moved to intercept it and blasted it with a force that made it fall from the sky and skitter back 40 feet when it hit the ground.
The other warriors looked at Mavis and the small hooded figure in shock before turning to Ancalagon who was looming above the now terrified Bonenapper. As Ancalagon raised his arms to strike at the now exposed head the Bonenapper lowered its head in submission recognizing a new Alpha was in charge; even if the means were a bit unconventional. All the other drakes then immediately lowered their heads towards Ancalagon, even the Timberjack though it seemed unable to stand at this point. As this happened Ancalagon stood up taking a majestic pose with his wings fully extended and extending what display feathers were left on his head. Mavis then fell to the ground exhausted with her cheek marks going back to their normal grey color. Dumnorix was the first by her side pulling her up into a sitting position and checked her over as Mavis began asking questions.
"Wha-what happened?"
"We won. Your Dragon rules this group now." Dumnorix looked up and around as Ancalagon now came over to them chittering in concern. "Worry not mighty one, she is simply exhausted." He chittered in relief and nuzzled Mavis with Dumnorix standing up and turning to the cloaked figure. "And who are you to use such pow- Madam?!" The Madam of the Red Dragon pulled down the hood and spoke to the now doubly shocked group.
"Yes it is me; but I am not just a Madam of a Bordello." She stood up straight and addressed the group with the bearing of a noble. "I am Marigold Dragon Matriarch of the fallen House Dragon, and with Mavis truly in command of the Butterfly's wand I and the others in hiding shall hide no more."
Nacho screeched in panic as he was dragged off the ground in a strong wind throwing him around in the air. Clawing at the air desperately he snagged onto a palm tree and clung with desperation hissing at Cloudy as he stormed over the Diaz household. Star ran outside and began shooting magic at Cloudy trying to do something to him and shouted up to him.
"Cloudy, you're out of control!" Marco poked his head out of the house seeing Star's magic was still the toxic green color.
"Star, I think you're making things worse!" Star ignored Marco's words and shot a particularly powerful blast at Cloudy cutting a hole through the cloud.
"Hey, you damaged MY FLUFFY!" Cloudy spoke with his voice going deep and intimidating as his mouth opened sucking up everything it could.
The house and shed shook under the force of the wind with the joints straining and creaking while nearby trees bent and waved. The palm tree Nacho was on was even uprooted and flung through the yard narrowly missing Star and slammed into the house. Marco leapt out of the house by reflex trying to avoid the tree and the wind began to catch him. As Marco grabbed the ground in desperation Nacho finally lost his grip on the tree and was flung towards Marco screeching in panic. He was flung onto Marco's face and, by reflex, grabbed onto Marco with his claws digging in deeply. Marco grabbed at Nacho losing his grip on the ground with both of them being flung into the sky. As they were sucked up by Cloudy Star saw all this at long last through her annoyance and screamed panicking.
"MARCO!" Her wand suddenly got some of its pinkish glow back with the two colors mixing together.
Star desperately shot up a taloned hand at Marco and Nacho grabbing hold of them and dragging them back to the ground. When the two realized they were safe they looked around in shock seeing Star with her cheek marks glowing white and her eyes a red-veined yellow growling a challenge at Cloudy. She twirled and pointed her wand with the two colors combining and yelled 'Mystic Room Suck Transform!' shooting the beam at Cloudy. When it hit Cloudy a black hole style portal opened up and began sucking Cloudy in like it did to Marco's room once. Cloudy screamed in agony as he was twirled around the portal that instead of just sucking him in seemed to be ripping him apart. As they watched this Nacho glared at Star and hissed at her like he did when the 'dork' spell of corrupted magic was cast on her. Marco thought fast and went to pull out the special comb he kept on him only to find it wasn't there.
'Oh come on really?!' He thought in frustration as he thought of another idea. He rushed over to Star and put his hands on her trying to turn her around to try and snap her out of her state. However all that did was make her uppercut him throwing him back a few feet. As he tried getting back up Marco saw Nacho step between him and Star trying to keep Marco from being hurt. As Marco saw the house and shed were being pulled up by Star's spell Marco began to panic as there was no way to calm Star down at… 'No wait, there may be a way.' He rushed forward past Nacho, who tried to stop him unsuccessfully, and reached out grabbing onto Star's tail. *EEEP* Star's voice cut through the whole situation as everything suddenly seemed to stop as if it was hit with a pause button. Wasting no time Marco began rubbing her tail in the manner Star usually did when she was nervous trying to get her to calm down with Star whimpering at the contact. As he did that a car horn sounded with his dad calling out to them.
"Hello kids, we got you ice cream for cleaning the hou…" His father stopped talking as the parents took in the scene going on in front of them.
The magic going on with the green color disappearing and the pink becoming more prevalent with the house, shed, lawn ornaments, and trees being put back into the places they were supposed to go to. The hole in the sky slowly closed up and disappeared with a soft *puff* of energy as if it was never even there. Cloudy slowly turned back to his 'normal' size and turned a bright pink color with purple eyes as he blinked and got his bearings as if he had just woken up from a deep sleep. Nacho blinked in confusion before sniffing the air and relaxing as the green went away sitting next to Star and Marco looking up at them in concern. As Marco continued to rub Star's tail she slowly sank to her knees shivering all over and whimpering with pleasure. As Marco sat down next to her she turned and grabbed onto him holding him so tightly he began to gasp for breath, but he did not let up on the rubbing. After a few seconds more Star gasped a few times in pleasure before her grip loosened considerably to a soft hug and began purring as she held onto Marco.
"Oh Marco." Star moaned in pleasure as she spoke making Marco blush slightly. "Your hands so strong and firm yet so delicate and gentle. *purr* Don't you dare stop rubbing me like that." Marco blushed even more deeply glancing at his parents and Nacho who were right next to them now.
His blush got even worse when he saw all three of them were waggling their eyebrows at him with coy smiles on their faces. Marco wanted to stop at this point but he was afraid of what might happen if he stopped rubbing Star's tail. Caught in his dilemma Cloudy finally got his bearings and began speaking.
"Oh that was strange. What happened while I was out?" Nacho sniffed Cloudy suspiciously before giving him a nod of approval with Marco speaking to Star.
"Say Star, what was going on with your wand? I mean that green magic is a thing with you but this is really weird." Star pulled away and looked up slightly dazed as Marco slowed down his tail rubbing before speaking.
"I… have no idea. I mean I was going through my time of the month and it was worse than usual but… I have no idea why this happened." At this Raphael pulled out a random box of chocolate and handed it to Star.
"Take this, it is my 'time of the month' emergency chocolate box." Everyone looked at him weirdly with Angie speaking up.
"Why do you have that on you?"
"*hehe* In case if your time is a bit unpredictable and/or worse than usual." Angie smiled and giggled as Raphael stood up. "Now I am going to see if everything is broken or not." He went towards the house with Angie speaking up again.
"Star, if you're having trouble with your 'time of the month' and I'm not around just go to Marco, we taught him how to deal with it so he could when he finally got himself a lady friend." Star smiled at that and grabbed onto Marco again smiling broadly as she spoke.
"What else did you train him to do?" Marco's face went deadpan as he butts in.
"Why do I get the feeling I'm viewed as a dog by everyone?" Star immediately reached up and rubbed his fluffy black hair with Marco sighing. "Of course." Star and Angie giggled with Raphael calling out from the house.
"It's not so bad in here honestly; one person could get it done before supper." Everyone smiled and stood up with Star suddenly grimacing slightly.
"Oh gods the cramps, I forgot about the second wave of cramps." She grabbed onto her midsection while Marco held onto her.
"Let's get you inside so you can let this pass comfortably." Star nodded and walked with Marco back inside as Angie and Raphael started cleaning.
As they did so Star set her wand to the side with Nacho sniffing it suspiciously before batting at it with his paw. As he did so a faint green light flashed in the gem that spooked Nacho making him look up at the family again. He didn't know much about the world, but if this was happening to the wand something EVIL was approaching.
One woman held her hand out with her eyes to the side as she turned her palm towards a Deadly Nadder all the while holding her breath. As she did so the Deadly Nadder closed its eyes relaxing its body and pushed its nose into her hand with a soft chortle. The woman looked up with a sigh of relief as the drake pulls back a few inches and seemed to almost chuckle with amusement. Scenes similar to that was playing out all around the encampment as Forest barbarians of all varieties got acquainted with the drakes and built up trust with them. Aside from a few reluctant warriors, who were dragged up to a drake by their friends, there were no ill feelings between the two groups; and thankfully no casualties. To the side Mavis was practicing with her wand to insure that a last minute save like she had pulled would not need to be pulled again. Of course with no instructor it was going to be a hard and slow process. Ancalagon stood nearby watching his mother do so with great interest in his eyes but glancing at the crowd occasionally to insure his drakes did no one any harm. Dumnorix smiled as he took in this sight and allowed himself to hope, a mad hope but hope none the less, that they can do more than die for past glories now. They could emerge from the shadows like true warriors to fight Moon and her allies head on, and win. His smile faltered a little when he saw Marigold Dragon was organizing a group of people to work on stables for the drakes so they could be properly housed while they stayed here. He knew this confrontation between him and her was inevitable now and had no idea how she would react to the information and questions he had. Heaving a sigh he stepped towards Marigold as she finished up directing the Warriors who were working under her.
"… so that should be all that's needed for now. And be sure to not skimp on the fire retardant materials as we will need to rebuild the whole thing if you do." Everyone nodded and walked off with Marigold spying Dumnorix and smiling. "Ah nice to see you again big boy, what might you need?" Dumnorix looked around a second before speaking to her.
"Can we talk in private, this concerns your family." Marigold blinked in confusion before nodding and going along with him. After moving away a comfortable distance he turned to her with a serious face. "Are you really Marigold Dragon and not just a member of the house of Dragon?" Marigold got an offended look on her face as she replied.
"I do know who I am thank you very much; what next are you going to ask me whether I know I'm a woman or not." Dumnorix sighed heavily at this recognizing the spitfire's voice anywhere.
"What I mean is… are you Selene's mother?" Marigold's face immediately went into shock as she took several seconds to answer.
"Selene? You… met her?" Dumnorix nodded. "Where is she? Is she alright? Did she make it in the world?" She likely would have asked more questions had Dumnorix not held up his hand.
"Well that answers my question. As for yours…" He shifted a bit uncomfortably as he continued. "… we first found her nearly a decade ago demanding for us to take her in so she could fight alongside us." Marigold blinked in shock with a hand over her mouth as he continued. "She trained hard with us and became a rather fearsome warrior, I'm sure you would have been proud of her. However that changed a few months ago when we discovered the Butterfly wand was being kept on earth…" He went into their countless raids against the girl and her guardian cumulating with Selene running off when the wand was destroyed. "… Now I have no idea where she is or even if she is still alive." Marigold stared at him blankly for a solid minute before she sat down and held her head in her hands. "I know this is a lot to take in… but why did you abandon her?" He couldn't keep the accusation out his voice as Marigold closed her eyes as if in great pain.
"I didn't want her to follow me down the path I was going; she deserved a better future then mine." She continued speaking with her head in her hands. "After The War of Moonlight Shadow many nobles were at risk even after the red winter and needed a place to hide. We couldn't go to Moon at this point as she would not return what we had lost and many could not flee to other dimensions at this point as we either had no Dimensional scissors or had lost them. So I started a group to hide them in plain sight so we could continue to live while waiting for a chance to either leave for good or take back what was ours." She looked up at Dumnorix her eyes damp with moisture. "And what better place to hide then as someone everyone overlooks except when some men have a 'need'." Facing Dumnorix head on she spoke softly. "We got nobility to better lives if we could but it's harder to do so then you might think. The easiest ones were the children we could put into new style orphanages to give them a chance for a fresh start with my daughter being no different." Dumnorix tried giving her a hard look but it only came across as pained.
"Detaching your daughter… from the only stability and everything she knew…" Marigold held back a sob as she continued.
"What kind of life would she have led with me?! If she had stayed with me she would have doomed to spend the rest of her life on her back taking strangers dicks just to keep from arousing suspicion!" Dumnorix took a step back at the forcefulness of her words. "And I couldn't just send her off into the woods to fight; it would have been no different from an orphanage except she was more likely to die." At this tears were now flowing freely down her face. "But she went regardless just to look for me after giving her a clean slate. *sob* And now that we have hope again for a real victory *sob* I'm never going to see her again." Dumnorix could not stop himself and put a comforting hand on her shoulder as Marigold sobbed silently.
"My lady Dragon, you will see her again." Marigold looked up in disbelief. "We are attracting the attention of everyone who wishes to see the current ruler unseated and Selene is included in that. She will find us eventually no matter how long it takes. And what's more Mavis has the wand. Do you know about Eclipsa?" Marigold nodded as Dumnorix smiled. "Her chapter is a dark place but there is one spell that can be useful despite its implications, 'The All Seeing Eye'. With it Mavis can look all over to find your daughter if she has not shown herself yet." Marigold sniffed wiping her eyes clear.
"R-really?"
"Why else do you think Selene came to stay with us in the first place?" Dumnorix smiled as Marigold outright grabbed him in a hug sobbing again into his chest.
As they did so one of the whores screamed in shock prompting everyone to look up in confusion to see a Monstrous Nightmare flying around with her on its back. Everyone watched with a mixture of worry and amusement until it landed and shook itself chuckling at the frazzled woman on its back. The woman began laughing after they had landed getting off with the drake affectionately snorting at her. As Dumnorix watched this he noticed Mavis look at them with a look he recognized from the past.
'Our warchief has an idea.'
Summer is long gone, storm clouds are gathering as the season of the Dragon is about to commence. But it will be awhile before the storm well and truly breaks, until then let us go back to Star and Marco and see what happens on earth. What you still want more plot and less fluff... how about we compromise then. It will be a bit 'Heinous' for some but it should work with a combination of the two.