Chapter Thirty-Four : Sos ahrk Rax
He inhaled the rich heady scent of smoke and closed his eyes a clear image of her face he kept hidden in the recesses of his mind, flashed before him. She was smiling, her skin glowing in the sunlight, hair cascading down her body the smell of smoke rich in the air. She looked fierce, glowing eyes and rippling muscles quivering from the exhaustion of her transformation. She was majestic and beautiful, and his heart clenched in his chest at her memory. He slowly peeled his eyes open and stared into the fire, the soft glow of the flames not bringing him the same comfort they always had, somehow it felt cold and lifeless. These flames could never hold a candle to her, the fire she breathed into his soul. He felt off, he hadn't felt this way in months if ever before and he felt lost. He rubbed the thick stubble growing on his chin and frowned glaring at the fire, watching the wet log his lieutenant had thrown onto his campfire his and pop angrily.
"Ya alright cap?"
He snapped his eyes up and peered into his face, the words breaking through his pitiful staring contest with the flames. He wanted to force a smile and pretend he was just fine as excited as his men at the prospect of going home as they were, but he felt it to forced and he knew Dagonett would have none of his lies.
"How many days has it been" his voice sounded gravely even to his own ears and he winced cleared his throat and tried again "How many days have we been traveling"
Dagonett ran his hand through his hair, tugging lightly on the ends, unhappy with its new length and sighed "Bout three so far, couple more until we make it back to town"
Jarvan nodded his head, he seemed to recall making three campfires so far insisting to no one in particular that he used the dragonesses method, the harsh spitted out word for fire always made him feel powerful and close to her. He would admit it to no one, but he felt like a pathetic school boy crying over his lost crush, but he knew deep down that it was more than that.
"Everyone seems excited to get back" he said, stretching his legs and leaning closer to the fire hands extended. He swept his eyes over the camp and could see the huddled forms of his friends in their makeshift tents, weathered and worn over the course of their journey.
Dagonett watched his captain and frowned, he looked horrible, a permanent grimace graced his face, his once bright vibrant eyes looked hollow and he moved like a coiled spring ready to explode. He knew the cause of his behavior as did all the men and no one dare say a thing to him. They all felt the same, even Hart who was never particularly friendly with her, but secretly was fond of her in Dagonett's opinion felt the loss of her companionship. No one more than Jarvan he knew, and he felt for the younger man. He had hoped that the day they left that she would come flying in, and crash right onto their camp, lighting half the forest on fire with her lizard breath, transform and have to listen to Garretts wolf whistle and singe him a new hair cut, but she never did, for days they traveled and she hadn't come, and each day his captain grew a little colder. He hoped wherever she was she was alright and was planning on coming home.
There was no need of a fire for her, she had long settled into the cold that had started to claw its way through the ground toward her prone body. It was a welcome to the numbness she was already feeling. She turned to lay flat on her back, and stared up at the stars, watching the little balls of light glistening so far away from her. She felt a longing to join them sweep over her so strong it nearly seized her body in that moment, her muscles burning and her skin peeling away to reveal blackened scales. She hadn't experienced these strange mood swings since she first began learning to channel her draconian strength. She rolled and curled into a ball, her twitching muscles causing her to grimace. How was she to fight that monster if she couldn't even get a hold of her own emotions. She felt pathetic, her human side again showing its weaknesses to her and she began to agree with the other dragons that maybe she was an abomination that should be destroyed, maybe this was the reason dragons and humans never should mix to produce such an unworthy offspring. She clenched her eyes shut tight and curled into a ball, the emotions causing a spike in power heat radiating off her in waves and then she heard something. She uncurled and sat up, her head swaying back and forth, eyes glowing like beacons of light in the darkness. It sounded like laughter, far away floating on the breeze. It sounded like him and she strained to hear it again, but there was nothing just her imagination and her memories of him, of all her companions slowly driving her insane with a sense of longing.
…..
That night, the silence was broken not by the popping and hissing of the fire but by the heavy thudding of footfalls. At first, he wasn't sure where it was coming from, broken out of his daze he reached for his lance, the cool metal biting into his warm palm like an old friend. He strained his hearing, wishing for the millionth time that Shyvana was here to tell him what the sound was, there a twig snapped. He shot his head to the side and watched the dark treeline waiting. Slowly he stood up and cursed himself for not wearing his damn armor when they camped for the night. He was left in a cotton shirt and pants, his leather boots and dragon scale body suit flung over a log by the fire to dry out after all the ran that day. The soft earth squished beneath his feet as he spread his legs into a proper battle stance, lance at the ready. More movement to his left and he swung his lance in a wide arch, the fire hissing behind him cast shadows across the treeline and he saw it only for a brief second. Something large and dark running on the outskirts of the camp.
He moved slowly behind him, his back foot hitting something soft and meaty, a bed roll he knew his ranger was snoring loudly in. he gave him a soft kick, frowning when the ranger snorted and shot up, his blonde hair in his eyes.
"What happened" he shouted and Jarvan gave him another quick kick hissing to be quiet.
Garrett, rubbed his eyes, wincing when his bad eye flared with pain at the contact and looked up groggily to see his captain, lance drawn staring off into the forest. The first thing that came to his mind was Jarvan has finally gone insane, but then he heard it as well. A twig snapping, then another and suddenly several pairs of glowing yellow eyes greeted the small party of men.
Something was wrong, she felt it deep in her bones. She couldn't understand it, but something woke her in the middle of the night, she felt a deep sense of dread wash over her and again the urge to transform was strong. She stood and surveyed her surroundings, nothing out of the ordinary a quiet forest blanketed in the darkness of night welcomed her as it had the last few nights. But this night something felt different, it was far to quiet for her liking, no sounds of creatures scurrying in the night no songs to be sung by the crickets it was deathly still like a predator stalking its prey. She felt uneasy, a tingling sensation rippling through her muscles. She closed her eyes and focused her energy to summon her strength, everything became so much clearer, the smells and sounds of the forest so intense she had to calm her breathing to make sense of it all. There far in the distance she could hear it, the soft pattering of paws on wet soil. All her time living In the wilds taught her much of how the creatures moved and hunted and she knew instinctually it was a pack of wolves. She strained her hearing as much as she could, they were large much larger than an average wolf the sound travelling to her hear let her know that much a normal weighted wolf would weight barely enough to make that much noise from this far away. The sense of dread washed over her again.
A pack of wolves moving towards her companions just as they did when Connors was deathly sick, and she had left them forgetting all about the pack of monsters trailing behind. She decided in that moment she would not sit idly by and she quickly stripped of her mother's armor tucking it safely away in a area she had marked and transformed. The heat that enveloped her body a warm welcome to the cold as her small human body morphed into a powerful dragoness. She leaped through the trees crashing through the canopy above and spread her wings flying towards the predators faster than she had ever flown.
…
Chaos had erupted onto the campsite, as the snarling and growling of the wolves met the shouting and clang of metal of men. Jarvans adrenaline was pumping so strongly through his body he did not feel the gouge of tooth nor nail. He was faintly aware of a gash on his torso that trickled warm blood down his side, making his tunic stick uncomfortably to his skin. He swept a large arch to the left as a massive grey wolf lunged at him, the end of his lance slashing angrily through its front leg, blood spraying across his face at its close proximity. The beast howled in agony crumbling to the forest floor, blood spewing from its severed leg, lips pulled back to reveal its long white fangs a promise of pain. It lunged again blood crazed with its powerful hind legs, using the last of its strength jaws snapping mere inches away from his body as he rolled away the weight of his lance pulling at his tiring limbs uncomfortably.
He turned and speared the wolf through the top of its head silencing it, grimacing when he pulled back the awful squelching sound as he pulled the lance back through its skull making him gag.
He quickly spun around looking for his next adversary when something large launched itself onto Dagonett's back its powerful jaws crunching the bones in his shoulder, causing him to drop his sword. Dagonett scream pulled Jarvan back into reality and he ran lifting his lance into the air and he threw it with all his might into the side of the beast.
It sliced cleaned through its midriff, the steel of his lance glistening with fresh blood as the wolfs guts poured out from under it, its mouth slackened from Dagonett's shoulder enough for the leuitenant to pull himself free. The bite was deep and it was pouring blood, but he set his lip in a firm line and held onto his sword with two hands screaming a battle cry as he swung bloody murder at a wolf going for Connors who could barely protect himself.
Jarvan felt his blood boiling, how could he have been so stupid letting these animals come into his territory and terrorize his companions while they slept. He had forgotten that they were tailing them and assumed they had left once they had patched up Connors but he had been wrong and now they were paying the price.
It smelt strongly of blood and he felt a wave of dizziness hit him and he reached out to take his lance to steady himself when something built like a brick wall came crashing into him. Suddenly everything was tumbling around him, as he rolled with the heavy body pinning him to the ground. Long nails sliced through his skin and he hissed biting his lip to stop the scream threatening to spill from his lips. He struggled to get free, pushing the weight off his body gripping and pulling the thick black fur before it fought back, a sensation so strong it felt as if he his leg was being torn off shot through his body as the wolf buried its long fangs in his calf he could no longer hold back the scream.
It echoed throughout the night, bouncing off the trees making everything else seem silent.
….
She heard it, a scream shrill and loud and full of pain and she recognized it a fury like no other building inside of her so strongly she felt flames tickling her wings along the underside of her body as she soared through the night sky. Again, she heard the screams, weaker this time and she could take no more of it, she roared as loud as she could warning whatever creature dare harm what was hers that she was coming.
….
He was flung again, this time it felt as If he was moving in slow motion watching his men fight off the wolves before crashing against an old oak tree. The bite of the bark a reminder that he was in fact not dead yet. His leg wasn't throbbing anymore, and he wasn't sure If that was a good sign or not, blood was pouring down his face and clouding his vision, but he could still see it in all its glory stalking towards him. Two pairs of glowing green eyes greeted him, he had never seen one up close before, but he had heard the legends of them when he was a boy a monstrous creature a wolf with two heads, it was enormous dwarfing its pack mates like they were mere pups. It growled so loudly the ground beneath him shook with the vibrations, he could faintly hear in the background the shouts of his companions trying desperately to come to his aid, but as he looked into the beast's eyes, he felt an odd sense of peace wash over him. How fitting that a monster he would have never hesitated to kill before meeting the dragoness would put an end to him, a monster powerful and majestic much like the dragoness it was all rather poetic to him. He closed his eyes and waited for the pain to come but it never did, instead her heard it, a roar so loud the very forest spilt, a wave washing across the canopy of leaves causing some to fall onto his bloodied lap. The giant wolf looked up and turned to flee but it was to late, it came crashing down on top of it, long black talons deeply embedded into its flesh as the weight of the dragon pushed it into the earth. She wasted no time, her long jaws snapping and burring themselves into its flesh as it snapped and bit at her to get free. She paid no heed to the meager wounds it inflicted it was personal to her. This monster dare touched her prince it would pay with its life. She swung her head back and forth viciously severing one of the wolfs heads and flung it towards the pack, her maw glistening with its blood she roared again, displaying her power in its true form, she was the deadliest predator around and these beasts were not welcome.
The wolves realizing that the dragoness had killed their alpha quickly fled, or attempted to in her blood haze she descended on them riping flesh from bones and savoring the warmth of their blood on her hide, her chest heavy from the built up anger she swept back towards her companions camp, her blackened scales and white teeth pulled back to show the blood and her thick tongue lapped it away the beast in her satisfied with the bloodshed.
"Jarvan" she bellowed the low timber of her draconian voice echoing through the night.
She swept her head towards a sputtering cough "I'm here"
Her heart broke at the sight, he was leaning against a tree, bleeding to death but the smile that graced his face light up the night sky for her.