Chapter 4: Presence
The dragon, with all its savagery, voiced its intentions through a roar so fierce, it would quail those of its own race. With that, its stance was decided. It was now a fight to the death… and it had no intention of losing.
"Heh heh… is that supposed to be scary?" He looked around, then surveyed the dragon. Within seconds, he was smiling. "I… see. You're rider-less? Then that makes you wild. Fantastic."
He looked to the side and seemed to relax a little. "So… you're going to watch, are you? That's fine. It's not like this is my first brush with a dragon… well, it might be, since I don't know which species it is.
"Ah… but you don't know, do you? The dragons… and about them… you wouldn't. Well… then I'll have to… though I don't want to." He looked up sharply and frowned. "Hold that thought…"
The dragon reared and let forth a jet of thick, green-tinged flame that just narrowly missed its mark. Not put off by its failure, it redoubled its efforts to take down its prey.
He cursed loudly as a mouthful of razors snapped the empty air that until a moment ago had been occupied by his flesh.
"This…" he stated as he dodged a tail lash, "is why…" another blow just missed and the dragon raised its claws, "I… hate dragons!"
Screaming, he charged the dragon just as the dragon pivoted away. However, in the pivoting beast's wake, came its emerald tail, which caught him across the chest and hurled him into the forest. When the momentum halted, he whirled on one of the trees next to him.
"SHUT UP!"
The tree had said nothing, but in the next moment its icy remnants rained down.
"…and you…" he turned to face the dragon that lay beyond the mass of trees in the clearing beyond. "I know you now… 'Split-tail'."
The dragon roared with an unmet savagery that sent any remaining forest-life fleeing. Without hesitation, it proceeded to ignite the grove of trees in front of him. Thick smoke and intense heat rolled off the blaze, which as it was, earn him a smile.
"Heh heh… ah… thanks."
He put a hand to the blaze and it spontaneously reduced as though being sprayed by an invisible hose. The various wounds on his back and arms healed. Eyes ablaze, he looked at the dragon with unchecked emotion.
"You… you are a Split-tail. Ah…" he sighed, then pushed his hair from his eyes. Then absently talking to nothing: "Split-tails… a dragon species that came to being through the evils of the land. I only know of three kinds, the sires included… yet I've only the dishonor of meeting two."
The dragon reared again, and brought its tail through the air, where upon its end rested a bony spade that upon drawing closer slid open, in a sense splitting. The flayed axe of a spade then cleaved effortlessly through several trees, before the dragon brought its tail back around. Akin to its rising fury, it opened its maul again, displaying the many angled teeth that lay poised to strike.
"Yeah… and hence the name…" he said looking at the spade. He closed his eyes and sighed. "I remember once… when I was a boy. A friend and I… we questioned a dragon's intelligence, where he said it existed… I did not. So which is it?"
The great beast stirred again, this time fanning the fires of the forest with its wings. Contrary to the original dragons, its neck spikes no longer consisted of a line of vertical spikes. Instead, the spikes had grown into peaked triangular plates that could either lay flat or raised to an angle. Likewise, its head had also changed. The facial structure had become streamline… and narrow. And the forehead…. It was bear no longer, and instead bore two shielded tapered points angled slightly from the back of its head, but relatively flat, that were as long as half the dragon's head.
In short, this species while swift and capable… was also extremely deadly.
"Hmmm… no response… then I'd have to say… stu-"
Without warning, he was caught in the gut by a piece of tree that all but gutted him.
However, considering its limbs had pierced several arteries, a gutting would have been preferable.
Now he could do naught as he watched helpless under its weight, as his blood continued to pour forth from the wound as he thrashed about, sending blood splaying out in every direction. Eyes bulged out, and losing their silvery glow, his life force teetered on the edge.
He had been stupid, and he knew that now.
Desperately he reached out a hand to the blaze… to use the gift…
But it was too late.
With his hand still outstretched, he closed his eyes, and let go his last breath.
It was over.
With an error of caution, the Split-tail moved forward through the broken remnants of the forest strewn about at its feet. It could smell its kill, but with its fires burning with the integrity of hell, it was kept at bay. Though that didn't stop it for long.
During the battle, dark clouds had gathered upon the horizon and now lay overhead. Within seconds, a black rain, rain cursed by the dark magics, began to fall.
As it did, the flames lessened, and the pathway to the corpse opened.
With the rain, ash and ember mixed together into a smoldering, noxious combination. The mire formed now was thick, and burned to the touch. But that's only if you were human.
To the dragon now, it was nothing. Having grown up in such mixtures for the entirety of its life, it knew it all too well. Having also grown up hungry, it knew when to not pass up a meal.
Jaws closed, it bumped the log off the corpse, breathing in the scent of fresh blood. For a moment, it continued to linger above the body, taking in the sweet scent of fresh death. Having enough, it quickly jerked its head, determined to rip its head off.
The dragon was never expecting a hand to block its path.
With a growl, it snapped its head up and gave a sideways glare at the body.
Sure enough, the hand was elevated, and a smile rested on the once expressionless face.
With a chuckle, the body sat up.
"I'm sorry, beast, but he's not on the menu."
From the edge of the forest, a great burst of energy ripped free from within, causing the great dragon to careen through the trees before grinding to a halt just beyond the clearing. Despite the pouring rain, the forest had caught ablaze once again, a thick smoke obscuring the happenings within. Then, as impossible as it seemed to the dragon, the body showed at the edge, just as bloody.
A dead man walking.
With a laugh of insanity, he flung aside the tattered remains of his shirt, exposing the torn, pallid skin to the elements.
The dragon in the meanwhile, was nursing several deep abrasions on its leg, as well as sporting a large number of injuries on its right side. Whatever had happened… it seemed their positions were slightly more equal.
"Heh heh… ha… ah…" He held up his hands, and looked at them, though there was no color to his eyes any longer, in fact, they seemed not to echo any life. None whatsoever.
"Ha… it's been awhile… since last I was in control."
To hear him talk, the dragon gathered itself together. It was clear to it that this fight wasn't over. Not in the least.
"But you don't know that… do you?" He asked the dragon that now slashed at the air violently with its tail. "And do you wonder… why I often ask so many questions of so many things? It's an insanity thing… I doubt that you would truly understand.
"You see… of my kind… the non-existences… the nameless ones… the Jrrha." He looked at the dragon as the rain clawed at his skin, but all in all, he seemed immune to such pain. "…we live only as souls of the dead… and the sins that we carry echo forth from those of the living we possess. Forget reincarnation. This isn't natural… it's not right."
With a massive blade of energy, he lashed out at the trees to his side, the fires still burning ceased to be and the trees were no more. Seemingly satisfied with the destruction, he continued his rant.
"I lost my body… when I tried to do the impossible… but I can do it now. But I died… and now my soul lives within this shell." He held up his hands to make a point. "But this shell feels my pain… my fury… my hunger. It isn't evil, but inherits it all the same. But at death, we have the control… but not long… no, the body burns. The fury of the nether claws at it. But I am in control… and he who would be is alive, for I'll need him again. But to bring him back… fool that he is! I need blood… the blood of a foe." He pointed a pale finger at the dragon.
"Your blood!"
In a reply, came a mighty bellow. But that only served to widen the smile of the Jrrha.
An eerie laugh filled the rain soaked battlegrounds. "That's right. Tonight I take a slash at the empire itself… by killing one of Obscurity's dragons. Now… COME!"
Enraged to the point of break, the dragon launched forward, claws and fangs bared. However, it was jumping to its death.
Using the rain as his ally, Jrrha siphoned the heat from the air above the clearing, which caused the rain to fall as black daggers of ice. Many which bounced harmlessly off the dragon's armored hide, but a few strengthened by the Gift… managed to pierce the weak spots.
However, undaunted by the assault, the dragon plowed forward, its claws sliding of the soaked earth, just to lash out at that which angered it.
Just as equally stubborn, was its opponent, who merely laughed as the dragon miscalculated and tumbled over its weakened foreleg, enough to send it careening on its side.
Seized with opportunity, Jrrha used the Gift and froze the mud it had so graciously planted itself in. Although, he wasn't happy about it.
"THIS…! YOU SEE THIS?" he spat angrily at the dragon, not cemented to the ground via the many mud-cuffs about it. "This… this is what he'd do… the only factor of the Gift he knows. That's why… I'll deliver… the new lesson."
Arms parted, he raised his hands above his head in a gesture of mock worship. "To steal heat is the weakest usage… to create it… to cascade it… is infinite." He smiled wickedly. "ARE YOU WATCHING…? WATCH IT!"
He stuck a hand out at the dragon.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR? DO IT! ROAST ME!"
Without further hesitation, the dragon did exactly that… or it tried to.
But when its maw opened, and the green fire came forth, the madness of the Nameless One intervened, and used the gift to strike back. And strike back it did.
Accelerated and fueled by the burning hell fires, the flames tripled in intensity, and disappeared in a reversed direction. A direction that made short work of what was left of the dragon.
In that instant, the flames traveled down its throat, through its chest cavity, and literally split the dragon in half, spewing forth guts and bones, and a thick fog of blood and debris created a temporary mist that displaced the falling rain. As the pieces settled, Jrrha bent down to examine one of the claws that had been torn free in the process. Without pause, he set to work at something, as the remaining fires died down, and the wounds on his stomach healed.
Then, he threw the claw into one of the fires, something carved into its surface.
Apparently pleased with himself, he then went to examine the carcass… letting what blood remained within flow into his own body.
"Now your strength is mine." He eyed the wing membranes, as well as the head crest and the tail. "As will your attributes."
Having said that, he went to the tail, and ripped its end off, leaving a few of the tail bones in place to serve as a handle. To test it, he flicked his wrist and the axe-like apparatus opened. With another flick, it closed. Pleased, he set off toward the wings, and then to the head.
When he was finished, he tucked the tail spade in his belt, and hoisted the great head-crest up as a shield, attached to his arm with three loops of leg tendons. While around his shoulders, hung a crude shroud made from dragon wing-membrane.
Now for the finishing touch.
He sighed to himself. "So you won't forget…" He kicked the blackened claw free from the flames that had since licked at its surface. Determined, he lined up his arm and grabbed it up. For a few seconds, he endured the pain, the searing of skin and his smoking palm, then his teeth bared; he smiled, just as his eyes began to return to normal.
"Remember…"
With a wild cry, he let fly the burning claw clenched in his fist.
For a moment, he fought the pain, and the temptation to cry. Then he caught sight of his palm… and the word branded into it.
Jrrha
What was that? A name?
No… a title.
He closed his eyes… trying to remember…
Remember.
Nodding, he grabbed a fleshy piece of dragon, letting the blood soothe his hand.
It was as he did so, that he noticed it was gone.
The hunger had abandoned him… at least for the moment.
With a satisfied inner sigh, he looked at his hand again. Just to find that where the dragon blood had touched the letters of his palm, they had turned into a shimmering crimson. He was marked.
With thoughts of the cursed history he hated so much, it dawned upon him that the ancient riders had palms that shined silver… and they were the ones that had bonded with dragons.
He laughed at the irony of it all.
Now he bore a palm that shone crimson. And now he too shared a bond with the dragons.
A bond of death.
Continuing to laugh, he left that site. But not before he stowed the marked claw within a fresh pouch of dragon hide. Just as a reminder… just so the orange flame would know not his title.
Know not of the Jrrha.
With continued chuckles, he left, and disappeared into the shadows of the black rain.
But he was not all that left.
From the shadows was a creature that had been attracted by the scent of blood. A creature that watched as he made his departure.
A creature that would remember.
Having seen enough, the black form of the mighty creature backpedaled, and in seconds, it to was lost to the rain.
In a direction pointed toward the heart of the empire.
A/C (10/27/05): Sorry, didn't mean for that to take so long. I deleted so many different versions as I went along... nothing seemed to go right. (it's much easier to rant than to add detail.) At least now he has a name/title.
And a special thanks to my only reviewer at this time. Thanks Julian, that is if you're still around after this delay.