An Author's note: Now the reviewer count is at twelve, thanks to Lorendiac and timkhj for reviewing.
Yeah, I spend about four pages yapping about dragons again, anyone else think I am obsessed with them?
Chapter Twenty-Six
A Bit More on Dragons
The Titans stared at the huge dragon in awe, which was understandable considering the creature was about the size of skyscraper. The big dragon bent his head to get a better look at them, and Robin resisted the urge to run away. Hey, when a head THAT big is heading towards you, your first thought is to run. Even though the dragon had just saved them and seemed friendly it was hard to rid of the feeling that the entire team was basically a collection of mice from the dragon's point of view.
The dragon looked at Robin and rumbled "Hello, who are you…and why are you dressed like a traffic light?"
How in the world does a dragon find out about traffic lights? Robin thought. He tried to keep the irritation out of his voice as he introduced himself and the rest of the team to Lightflight.
When he got to Raven the dragon smiled…at least Robin fervently hoped that expression was a smile.
"I've heard of you, you're Zarule's youngest granddaughter, aren't you?"
Raven shifted uncomfortably and muttered an affirmative.
"You kind of look a bit like him, you know?" the dragon said. He looked puzzled when Raven looked away as if embarrassed.
Illeria jumped in to save her sister from more questions "We need to get across the Rift, Lord Dragon. And we also have a few questions for you. Will you help us?"
The big dragon lifted his head up in the air again. "What are these questions?"
"We need to know about the Dragonborn." Illeria replied.
"Why?" the dragon growled.
"Cause Raven's one of 'em." Beast Boy said which earned him an elbow in the ribs.
"No I am not; I've just been having dreams about them." Raven growled.
Lightflight snorted "Dreams mean much to my kin. Just the fact that you are having dreams about the Dragonborn at all means something-"
"But does it mean that you are one of them?" Raven asked.
"Hmmmmm….not necessarily, but it could." Lightflight said. "It depends on the person and the dragon, basically."
"What do you mean?" Robin asked.
"Tell me more about these dreams first."
Raven described them once again. It was getting so that she felt she should probably tote around a therapist couch to lay on when she did this. She was started to feel like a victim of Freudian analyzing.
"Well," Lightflight said when she was finally finished. "Like I said, being Dragonborn depends entirely on the person and the dragon involved. The thing about the Dragonsouls is that they retain the consciousness of the Seven, even though they are long dead. What that basically means is…well it is like they are still alive in some way. The Dragonsouls chose the humans who will carry their souls. It is not a cut and dried destiny thing. You could have the potential to be Dragonborn, but that does no mean that you will actually become Dragonborn, it will depend on whether or not the dragon accepts you, and whether you want it badly enough."
"So…what you are saying is that Raven could be Dragonborn…but might not?" Beast Boy looked confused.
"Like I said, it depends…tell me, Raven has your body been changing in any way?"
"What?" She gave the dragon an odd look.
"Are you growing wings or scales? Any tails popping up? Claws?"
"No." Raven said.
"The ones that might be Dragonborn will eventually start gaining draconic attributes to their human bodies. It is one of the signs. They will grow wings and scales and tails. They will start to smoke through the nostrils and might even gain the ability to breathe fire."
"So, this means I'm not Dragonborn?" Raven asked.
"Maybe, or it might mean that you simply are not showing any physical signs yet. The dreams come before the transformation, I do know that." Lightflight yawned. "I will tell you this much, before I was so rudely awaked by your feathered friend, I was having dreams as well-"
"Feathered what?" Raven said.
"Him, the falcon." Lightflight said and pointed to a tree. In the trees branches and small merlin poked its head around a branch, spotted Raven looking at him, and hopped back.
"Zapolio?" Raven asked. The little falcon decided to give up the hide and seek game and fluttered out, landing on Raven's shoulder and peeping at her.
"How long have you been following me?" Raven asked.
"Actually he was following me…I just told him to stay out of sight because of…well, you know." Illeria shrugged.
"You should be glad he was around, he woke me up and told me you were in trouble. He is the reason I got to you in time." Lightflight said. "But, back to what I was saying. For quite some time now I have been having dreams myself. Actually there were only two, but I feel they might be important. First I saw a human girl trapped under the earth surrounded by hairless beings. Suddenly she was consumed by green fire and became the Dragon of Time. The second concerned a red-eyed human male, also in darkness. The dragon inside of him sleeps, corrupted by the hands of evil, but the human heart has been purifying it, and the dragon inside is remembering who and what he truly is, the Dragon of War. I believe that this means that these two Dragons, the Dragons of War and Time are awake and have chosen their humans."
"Who are the other dragons?" Raven asked.
"There is the Dragon of Life, Zilantaxx, who could heal any wound no matter how fatal, and could even travel to realms of the dead and back. The Dragon of Nature, Rinjinma, was a master of the natural world, particularly to plants. The Dragon of Dimensions, Illuyankan, could travel between dimensions in an instant. The Dragon of Spirits, Gorynycaheem, could communicate with the dead. The Dragon of Time, Tiamatiania, could influence Time, speed it up and slow it down. The Dragon of War, Yoksolalthee, was a master strategist. And the last, the Dragon of Magic, Mafafneral, was a master of all forms of magic. These were the Seven First Dragons who first fought the Outer Gods and saved all of reality."
"Wow, talk about unpronounceable names." Beast Boy said, but not quietly enough.
"Actually, my true name is just as hard for you mortals. It is Amphiptereum. In our tongue it means He Who Flies with the Light, so mortals here call me Lightflight."
"Err, sorry." Beast Boy said, afraid that he had offended the dragon.
"You have nothing to apologize for, do not worry about it." Lightflight said.
"So," Raven said "Basically what you are saying is, I might be Dragonborn, but I might not be…but the Dragonborn are being chosen somewhere out there."
"Yes, that about sums it up." Lightflight said. "Now, wasn't there something else?"
"Yes, we need to cross the Rift and now if at all possible." Robin said.
"Very well," the dragon said, "follow me."
They reached the edge of the Rift, which was exactly how Arcktos had described it. It was a big hole in the ground about as wide as the Grand Canyon and much deeper. Peering over the edge Robin could see little stars twinkling merrily in the Void.
"Man, that is just plain freaky," Cyborg said. "You shouldn't be able to see space while sitting on solid ground beneath you. Just isn't right."
Robin has to agree, it was very freaky and strange. Pretty, but strange.
Lightflight approached the edge of Rift, spread his wings and roared. As if on cue a bridge of light appeared; your standard translucent white shining bridge. Standard issue. Little shining lights. Possibly generous amounts of fairy dust. You know the drill.
"Is that thing safe?" Cyborg asked, looking at the thing dubiously.
"Safer than a bunch of metal and wood slammed together by small nails and stretching hundreds of feet." Lightflight said as he walked out on the bridge. Raven, Jinx, Illeria, Arcktos and Winterwing followed with no hesitation. After a few moments the other Titans followed with varying levels of trepidation. The merlin fluttered above the group, continuously circling and fluttering.
About halfway over the bridge Lightflight's head shot up. He tested the air with his nose and gave a rumbling growl.
"Something is wrong, I can smell smoke. Hurry!" With that the dragon launched himself in the air. Knowing that smoke could mean a fire, and possibly hurt people, Robin ordered the group to follow the dragon as fast as possible.
As soon as the last person's feet had left the bridge it vanished, as these things often will.
Lightflight had been right, something had indeed been burning, and Robin was right as well in the fact that people were hurt. But there was no one to save.
It had been, at one point, a village. Now it was a collection of burned buildings and roasted corpses. No one had been spared, not even the children. Piles of blackened bodies littered the ground, some might have died before the burning due to the amount of charred spears and other weapons protruding from backs and chests, but a few just might have been burned alive. The buildings where dark black husks, and a few where even still smoking a bit from the fires that had destroyed them. The Titans had no idea who might have done this, but they had a pretty good idea: Sanath.
As soon as she saw it Starfire started crying in sympathy for the poor people who had lived here. Surprisingly, Jinx did as well. Robin, as soon as he saw his first corpse, promptly ran off to throw up in a bush. He was no stranger to death…but there was just so much of it here…Beast Boy's and Cyborg's stomachs did better, but they both turned pale and looked like they might want to throw up.
Raven just walked around like a zombie, staring at the destruction around her and muttering. Beast Boy managed to catch a few words: "Dear Azar, Sanath, what have you done?"
Illeria was busy. She had found a shack and was rummaging through it. Finally she found some charred, but usable, shovels, and brought them out. She strode over to Robin and announced:
"I'm going to give these people a proper burial. Are you going to help or not?"
Robin nodded, and the Titans set to work. A few of them carefully dragged the bodies into a central location and the others set to digging. With a half-robot, an alien, a guy who could become any animal and a dragon the work went by faster than it should have. However it was still a long and exhausting process, and all of them at some point had to run off to the bushes to purge their stomachs of food.
About halfway through the process the group heard the galloping of hoofs. Fearing that the monsters who had done this terrible thing had returned, the Titans prepared for battle.
However, Lightflight looked over at the approaching horsemen and said "Never fear, it is a Nazlar patrol."
The patrol was soon in sight, and the Titans got their first look at a Nazlar. They were riding creatures that almost resembled night horses, except for the lack of fangs. These steeds also had bird wings, not bat wings, and they looked a bit less savage than night horses.
The lead Nazlar reined in her mount and looked at the Titans with suspicion in her eyes. She was tall, taller than Cyborg, but slender. She had white hair and black skin. She had hooves that strangely reminded Robin of Trigon's hooves. The rest of her patrol seemed to male, seeing as they had curved rams horns and she did not.
"What happened here, and who are you?" the Nazlar asked.
Robin approached her. "I'm Robin, leader of the Teen Titans. We just got here and found this village like this. We're burying these people."
"Teen Titans…then…than is SHE with you? H'Radoni?"
"Who?" Robin asked.
"Yeah, she is here." Illeria said, and tried to drag a protesting Raven up to the Nazlar. Raven was glowering at her sister and grumbling threats.
Robin was completely confused. "What. Is. Going. On." He growled, trying to be calm and failing.
Raven finally rescued her arm from Illeria with one last glare. She then turned to Robin and said sullenly "It's just my name in Nazlar. 'H'Radoni' is the Nazlar word for 'raven'."
The Nazlar leader gave Raven a look, then to the Titan's surprise she got down off her winged horse and bowed to Raven. The rest of the patrol followed in suit.
"Welcome home Your Highness." She said, and Raven looked around for someplace to hide. She hated attention, and she sure didn't like being bowed to…it was too much like what Trigon would have demanded.
"I…look I'm a High Priestess of Azar, remember…you don't…I mean…you don't have to do that."
The Nazlar leader snorted "You are still Prince Flario's only daughter, and a member of the royal family. Besides that from what I have heard you are a warrior as well. Just because you have never been to your proper home before does not make you any less of a Nazlar." The Nazlar then stood up and said. "We will help you with this…if that is alright milady?"
"You don't need my permission." Raven said, trying to edge away. The Nazlar just grinned at her. She then started barking orders at her men, who began to assist the Titans with the work. As they worked Robin told the Nazlar leader (whose name turned out to be Amlerz) what they thought had happened. With the Nazlar helping the work went by even faster, and soon all of the graves had been dug.
"You are heading to castle, correct?" Amlerz asked. "I know that the king will want to know about this, and since you seem to know quite a bit about this Sanath fellow than I assume you will not mind telling him what you know."
"That's why we were going to the Nazlar kingdom." Robin said.
"We will accompany you; the king needs to know about this as soon as possible."
"I'm going as well." Lightflight said. "Actions like these stain the memory of my mother, and I shall not allow it to continue".
Robin tried not to groan. Just how many people were going to end up following them?
"Dude, how far away is this place?" Beast Boy asked. They had been riding all day, and they had yet to reach their destination. It was starting to get dark.
"We should be their by tomorrow morning." Amlerz said. "In the meantime we should probably set up camp." She then looked at Robin as if wanting to hear his opinion. Robin nodded.
Since there were so many people now, no one noticed when Beast Boy slipped away during dinner except for Raven. He had been quiet for the entire meal, which was very strange for a guy who talked a hundred miles a minute. Raven decided to follow him.
Beast Boy had found a nice quiet spot away from the others. He had been feeling a bit depressed, part of it had been because of the village. Why would anyone do something so horrible?
"Are you okay?" Raven said. Beast Boy turned and looked at her. She sat down beside him.
"That village…everyone was dead, Rae. Why would someone do something like that? It doesn't make sense."
"I don't know, I don't understand it either." Raven said. "I suppose we should be glad for that."
"What do you mean?" Beast Boy asked.
"Well, if we understood why than that would mean that we were like them, right?"
"I guess you are right." Beast Boy looked up the sky. "Stars are real pretty tonight, huh?"
Raven gave him a look. "That was an odd change in subject." She said.
"Is it just me, or do they look brighter here than they did at home?"
"Yeah, pollution less atmosphere will do that." Raven said, smiling a little. It was a little, almost nonexistence smile, but it was there, and Beast Boy noticed it. Taking a chance he scooted closer to her. To Beast Boy's surprise she did not try to move away.
"And that moon, it's full. Really cool looking huh?" Beast Boy said. He was pretty sure that this was a dumb subject, but he could think of nothing else to say.
"It's the same one that circles Earth." Raven said.
"Really?"
"Binary planet, remember?"
"Oh, right." Beast Boy decided to take a chance. Slowly, as someone approaching an animal that could bolt at any moment would have, he gently placed his gloved hand over hers. She stared at his hand over hers as if she had never seen a hand before.
"What…are you doing?" She didn't sound angry, just puzzled.
"I…I'm not sure." He said. They were really close now. Very close. As in kissing close. Raven's emotions were going wild. Had she had her powers no doubt something would have blown up right about now. A part of her was terrified of this, but most of her wanted this more than anything else in world. She fleetingly wondered if she would be as good at this as Terra must have been.
"Hey Raven, where are you?" a certain Boy Wonder's voice broke through the atmosphere, completely killing the mood. Beast Boy and Raven jerked back from each other with a jerk.
Robin walked up; completely unaware of what might have been had he not walked up just then. He looked at his two teammates in puzzlement, completely clueless.
"What's going on?" His gaze slid from Raven to Beast Boy as he tried to figure this out.
Raven got to her feet and muttered something about checking Mithrah. She then basically fled from the scene.
Beast Boy stood up as well, but he did not move. He was afraid that if he moved or turned he would end up hitting Robin. Honesty, was he going to be interrupted EVERY TIME HE TRIED TO KISS A GIRL!? Was he ever going to catch a break?
"Beast Boy?" Robin's voice grated against Beast Boy's ears.
"First it was Slade with Terra." Beast Boy growled "Then Cyborg walked in on my and Raven and now you've done it too!" Beast Boy finally turned to face Robin, who stepped back when he saw the look on his younger teammate's face. "So, Robin," Beast Boy snarled. "Is there some sort of freaking conspiracy against me or something?!" Not wanting to say anymore before he did something that he might regret, Beast Boy stalked off.
"What was that about?" Robin said, honestly puzzled.
"You really have no clue, do ya Rob?" Cyborg emerged from the bush he had been hiding behind. He had suspected that Raven and Beast Boy might be having a "moment" when he notice that the two of them were missing, and he had followed them in the hopes of seeing if anything would happen. He was almost as disappointed as the two of them must have been when Robin so rudely interrupted.
"Cyborg, what is going on?" Robin asked.
Cyborg shook his head. "Ya know, it's pretty bad when you're clueless about your own relationship with a girl, but when you can't even tell when two of your own teammates like each other…"
"Wait…you mean…Raven…and BEAST BOY? You have got to be joking!" Robin gave Cyborg an incredulous look.
Cyborg rolled his eyes "Haven't you been picking up any of the signals, man? There're almost as obvious as you and Star are…okay maybe Beast Boy's signals are a bit louder, but come on. And you're supposed to be her familiar too!" Cyborg walked away, shaking his head.
"Signals…what signals?" Robin called "Cyborg! WHAT SIGNALS!"
Later that night, after everyone had gone to bed, Raven lay awake arguing to herself. Actually, she was arguing with her emotions, but that was basically the same thing.
"I do NOT like Beast Boy!" She thought.
"Actually, you do." Knowledge contradicted her. "Every single emotion here has at least some level of affection for Beast Boy, trust me on this. Not even Malchior was able to cause such an occurrence."
"What do you mean?" Raven mentally growled.
"When you where having that…fling with that creature I repeatedly told you how foolish you where being." Wisdom said, joining her sister in the argument. "I told you that he was using you, but you refused to believe me. As I recall Timid did not like him as well, and neither did Rage for that matter."
"You are Wisdom, and nothing is less wise than a girl in love." Raven growled. "Timid is afraid of her own shadow, and Rage hates everyone!"
Evil sounding laughter, the laughter of Rage, echoed throughout Nevermore.
"You are wrong, I do like Beast Boy." Rage said.
"What?" Raven was shocked by this. Rage had never shown affection for anyone before, much less Beast Boy. "What brought this on?"
"His beast and mine are the same… the Beast and the Demon were made for each other, in case you did not know. The first time I saw the Beast I knew it was special, its anger and bloodlust equal mine!" Raven could tell that Rage was grinning inside her.
"You are horrible." Raven muttered.
"Of course I am, but that does not change the fact that everyone else in here likes Beast Boy as well."
"She's right." The small, sad voice of Timid came next. "I like Beast Boy too…he makes me feel…safe…like when he saved us from Sanath…he's so nice."
"You have to face facts here, Raven. You are in love with Beast Boy, and you know it." Wisdom continued. "Don't run away from this or you will regret it. You know that I am right."
Raven pondered long and hard. She thought of all the times she and Beast Boy had been together, and found that it was true. She was in love with the grass stain. She wondered if the world was ending again.
"Okay, so I like him…I'll admit that to myself at least. Now what do I do about it?"
"Tell him! Walk up to him and give him a big smooch!" Bravery bellowed.
"Not on your life." Raven said.
"Why not?" Love asked.
"Because…he would never want to be with me. I'm creepy, remember. He'd want…someone like Terra."
"Then why has he been going out of his way to be closer to you?" Love demanded.
"It's probably just a friendship thing. Besides…even if he did care for me, it would not be real."
"What are you talking about?" Knowledge demanded.
"No matter what he'll always be in love with Terra. Remember when we came back from the war with the Brotherhood of Evil? He was looking all over for her, just because he thought he caught a glimpse of her in the crowd! He will always love her…never me." Raven was surprised to find tears in her eyes, but maybe that was to be expected. It was not every day that you found yourself in love with someone you thought of as unattainable.
"Raven…that's not true!" Love said.
"It is true, and even if we did start dating or something that would change nothing. Nothing at all." Raven turned around on her side and tried to stop the tears.
"No matter what…I would always be…Terra's replacement."