Warning: Not much has changed. I still shall warn thee of violence, language, Caim, convenient situations, deviations from the original games, blinding grammatical errors, and my lackluster narrative skills.

Disclaimer: I don't own any idea or character from the Drakengard franchise. Those rights are reserved to the creators and distributors to a lesser extent.

Wow it's been so long (over a year) since I've written this. To be honest I lost all inspiration about it as this isn't my usual type of story. Bear with me and if you were at all interested in reading more then I am especially thankful.

Vein of Grief

Chapter 6

The elf sat in the smoldering ashes of what was a working Gaol before the Red Dragon and the Empire had their fiery battle. Nowe stepped in close behind Verdelet as the old man went to greet the apparent 'mysterious voice' that he and the Lady Dragon heard from afar. Nowe's first impression of the female elf was one of startling unease. She swayed in place and despite the dim light that the ruins provided he could see how bleak and empty her eyes were. It appeared as though she had lost her soul or perhaps she was just that insane. Nowe's fears were not at all quelled when she opened her mouth and arms ecstatically at their approach. Her eyes stared straight through them and the elf swayed on the spot before she addressed Verdelet.

"Tell me, are there any children here?" she asked vaguely. Her voice was almost more unsettling then her gaze. It held some sort of sweet venom as if she were going to pounce on any second. Nowe shuddered as her eyes swept over the small number of men in the area. Her hollow eyes snapped to his face in an instant and her feet carried her swiftly to his side. Before he could so much as whimper in protest she fastened her hands on his shoulders.

"You are not yet fully grown…I bet you will taste sweet…"

"H…Hey…I'm not…I mean please do not come so close," Nowe managed.

Her choice of words was accurate. As Verdelet turned they both saw what exactly her actions entailed. The elf woman's grip tightened and she leaned forward with a tranquil sort of smile. Her jaws opened wide and the elf woman gleefully giggled before she attempted to snap her mouth down on Now's shoulder. He had at least sort of anticipated this and he got his arm between their bodies as she attacked. Nowe made a small noise to convey his utter terror with her actions as her teeth grazed his thick shirt. The elf only got a mouthful of fabric which was quite different from what she expected. She sputtered a bit reflexively and Nowe impolitely put his hands upon her abdomen and pushed. The former knight's movement tangled their legs up and they fell had to the ground. Things were chaos for a short minute as the pair struggled and pushed against each other, each for entirely different reasons. Nowe kept pushing harshly against her as he was in a near state of panic. The elf manically laughed again as she attempted to seize his wrist with her abnormally sharp nails.

"I suggest you make more of an effort to separate yourself from the elf," Angelus supplied helpfully. Nowe finally got his left leg from under her knee and he scrambled away on all fours like a spooked dog.

"She has lost her womb," Verdelt said impatiently. He had obviously been waiting to impart this information upon Nowe and the stationary Leonard but he was interrupted by the woman's apparent desire to eat Nowe alive. He quite obviously considered this to be a great offense to his pride as a storyteller and all around boring old man. Nowe was irate with his unchanging attitude.

"Does that explain why she is trying to eat me?" Nowe asked as he got to his feet and started running when the woman regained her balance. She returned to her task with renewed enthusiasm but she was interrupted by two flashes: one of red, one of blue as they moved directly from inside her body.

"Yes…she…Arioch has made a pact with Undine and Salamander and her womb was the price," Verdelet confirmed.

"And apparently her sanity was bartered away as well," Nowe cried as he ran in a little circle around Leonard.

"No, I would think that she lost that before her pact," Leonard commented. Verdelet nodded and he raised his staff just as Arioch and Nowe came near. He held out his weapon and visible scripture emitted from the tip. The characters lazily glided on the air to halt Arioch in her chase. Her eyes barely reflected the fact that she knew vaguely what was happening as her body was wound in the enchantment. Verdelet's voice donted as he chanted what Nowe guessed was a containment spell on Arioch. The Red Dragon scoffed. She could tell what he was doing and to what end.

"You mean we are taking this elf along with us? How many more useless companions do you intend to gather?"

Nowe's eyes grew wide. She was coming along? He turned toward the Red Dragon in disbelief but his attention was diverted when he felt the elf's hungry eyes upon him again. She was no longer drooling after him but it was unsettling all the same to see her huge, empty eyes focused on him alone.

"She is a pact-partner and she will probably prove useful in battle. It is much safer to take her along," Verdelet said cryptically.

"You mean for anyone else she might encounter who is not prepared to handle her madness" the blind man supplied.

"I should think that was obvious," Nowe muttered. He was about to turn and retreat to the Red Dragon's side when he felt something brush against the skin of his neck lightly. He reached out instinctively and grabbed at his necklace while it fell. It must have come loose in the conflict that he had with Arioch. Nowe's hands failed to grab the simple leather that went about his neck. It rolled on the slightly uneven ground and then toward Verdelet. The Hierarch bent down and picked the necklace up. He inspected at the item curiously as Nowe approached him to retrieve it.

"Where did you get this?" he asked.

Nowe blinked. "It was a gift from a friend." He found it a bit strange that Verdelet asked about it. The golden charm that served as the main attraction was mostly unremarkable, just a simple circle, but it was a pleasing enough design.

Verdelet hesitantly dropped it back into Nowe's offered hand and the young man tightly tied the pieces together just under the back of his shirt. He noticed that Verdelet was still staring but his face did not hold grief, just curiosity.

"What is it?" Nowe finally asked.

"Nothing in particular. I just thought it was an odd coincidence…"

Nowe pulled on the charm to make sure that it wasn't just going to fall right off again. He waited for the Hierarch to continue but the man never did. Nowe supposed that he needed to give him further prodding.

"Odd coincidence?" Nowe finally supplied.

"Yes. I usually would not have noticed but Caim had a similar design, as does the Goddess. They both have bracelets rather than necklaces. I suppose I thought that it was just curious as Caim is not the sort of person frivolous enough to wear jewelry unless it had some significance."

So that meant that Verdelet possibly considered him frivolous? Nowe rubbed the top of his head almost grumpily. It didn't help that Arioch chose that moment to rise to her feet and move in beside the Hierarch which was a little too close to Nowe for comfort. This time he did manage to retreat to the Dragon's side. This earned him a snort of disdain from the Dragon.

"As long as you keep your distance I doubt that she will be that much of a bother. Or were you raised unable to face hardship?"

Nowe's head snapped up in defiance. "I was trained as Knight and I have been well prepared on how to face such things…" this sounded uncertain, even to Nowe. He averted his eyes and the Red Dragon merely ruffled her wings in annoyance. It was obvious to Nowe that he was quite a bit different then the humans she was used to.

The former Knight's mind wandered from topic to topic quite remotely as they flew. He was so used to the sensation of being in the air that it tended to bring him to a meditative sort of state when there was no threat nearby. As Nowe experienced with Legna, it seemed that their time was spent in only two ways. They were either swamped with enemies or else they were in total isolation. He noticed from his advantaged position in the air exactly how much the landscape had failed to change over the years. Perhaps it was due to the war but large human settlements were few in number. The land varied in its state as they passed from location to location. It was painfully obvious as to the location of the sites where the two armies clashed. The entire land was stripped bare of all its life like some sort of infection till the edges where it ran back to the overgrown wilderness.

"You are being awfully quiet, young one," The Red Dragon exclaimed. This sudden comment came right out of nowhere for Nowe who jerked his head up as his eyes focused on the back of the dragon's neck. He had been deep in thought for so long that her sudden words did little to bring him back into the present. The Red Dragon apparently caught this oddness in his demeanor. She turned her head back toward him while they flew.

"This place is rather upsetting to view, even from this distance," Nowe said.

"What would you expect? Such is the natural consequence that the land suffers due to the humans' foolish war. You are just now noticing?"

As embarrassing as it was, Nowe had been too caught up in the newness of his predicament to do much sightseeing and subsequent reflection. He bit his lip and averted his eyes toward her gleaming scales. It was probably a mental sort of decision but he was under the distinct impression that everything about her made her noticeably warmer than Legna. He was straightforward but the Red Dragon was not an impossible being with which to converse.

"This land is not all that different in the place where I am from. The ground itself is not as war torn but there are few large human settlements and everything seems to have an overall feeling of desolation."

"That is a promising future."

Nowe smiled vaguely, "I've noticed over the years that dragons in general have a very cynical view of the world and especially of humans."

"I do not claim to be different but I believe that being around my pact-partner has only further lowered my opinion of the humans as a whole."

"Tell me. Is this Caim as frightening as everyone seems to imply?" Nowe asked.

The Red Dragon did a small twirl in midair as she took some time to answer his question.

"I doubt that you would even wonder about that were you to meet him."

"So where is he? I mean, you're pact partners so you should be able to tell where the other one is, correct? I know that it means you share one life."

"If I knew then he would be here. It is unsafe in such a time of war to be away from the human who shares my life. Especially considering the particular creature of which we speak."

Nowe found this almost comical though slightly frightening in the same instant.

"Sounds like a total monster."

"To the Union humans he is a necessary commodity while they fight this meaningless battle."

Nowe wished that his time with the Knights had been better spent. He had attempted on several different occasions to read about the state of things before the Knights of the Seal but most of his teachers had discouraged it. They stressed constantly that the Knight's purpose was to uphold their ideals and look to the future rather than dwelling on the past. Thinking on such a matter in perspective made his blind loyalty that much more distasteful. Nowe frowned as his mood blackened further.

"I don't think that we would readily get along but I am intrigued about someone who has managed to survive these circumstances. Before this I thought that our fight against the Knights of the Seal was brutal but when I am with your group it feels like the very air is conspiring against us."

"This world is on the brink of collapse."

Nowe shook his head. According to what he heard and read it came very close until this Caim person and his allies had saved everyone. Had he taken stock in dreaming of such a tale he would have been disillusioned after spending three minutes with the Dragon and Caim's companions. Of course, his current situation begged the question of how the future might be altered due to this displacement in the past. Nowe wondered again about the voice he had heard before being sent to the past and about that strange force's intentions.

"Would it be too optimistic to think I should change the past to try and save the future?" he asked.

"Such sentimentality would be out of place with this group."

"I couldn't agree more."

----------

It was black…or was it blue? It was nearly impossible for Caim's eyes to discern something as asinine and unimportant as the dragon's color. After all, he only cared about the "dragon" bit. Though he was running so fast and hard past the point of exhaustion, the soldier still felt no closer to the beast. To Caim's eyes it was still just a flash of dark moving erratically around the blinking lights of battle.

He was forced to stop when he came to the edge of a steep cliff that led to a natural yet steep incline in the land's geography. He clenched his hands so hard that he would have drawn blood if his hands were bare. As it was the man was in more than enough pain. The discomfort in his chest only worsened as his breath came in short and labored gasps. Caim's legs tingled with dull pain and he felt almost ecstatically dizzy. Despite this, his overall driving force was the venomous hatred he felt for the distant creature. He had a dire need to face the beast and see it eye to eye before he could sink his blade into its black hide. Not just a dragon but a dark dragon. Caim felt as though the image of his parent's demise was burned into his retinas and he shook his head before he ran to the side and too the long way around the large cliff.

The opponents in the sky were entirely new to Caim who was entirely unaccustomed to watching the skies during a battle. There were at least two large flying ships and several cube shaped objects relentlessly attacking the dragon. He assumed that the ships had something to do with those Knights that he had fought earlier as even from afar the insignia was very recognizable on the side of the ships. There were several other more organic creatures, bats and griffons that streamed across the sky at random intervals to try and catch the dragon off balance.

Caim did not allow himself even the momentary luxury of resting to regain his breath. Logically he knew that the battle would continue since the dragon had no viable way of flying off without sustaining serious damage from its opponents. He realized this but his mind had shut down as his desire for revenge did not want his body to rest for fear of prolonging the moment when he would meet the monster.

Of course, there was the even more logical matter of the dragon's position in the air while Caim had no means of getting there short of spontaneously growing wings. He would deal with that when he was nearby. If all else failed he could always cry out to it…except he had no voice because of the pact he couldn't remember making. Caim bit his tongue reflexively as this frustration set in anew which managed to coerce his mind back into more human state.

He had managed to get farther than he had originally expected and he could now hear the terrible crashing sounds of the dragon's fire hitting its material opponents and the inhuman screams of the various monsters that were dumb enough to get in its way. Caim smiled but it wasn't in appreciation. It wasn't positive or kind in any sense of the word but instead a grin that conveyed the madness plaguing his mind as he fulfilled his need to be close to the creature that he so desperately wanted to kill.

Another large gorge served as the battle area for the aerial conflict. Caim was in an elevated position all things considered but he could get no closer to the actual battle. He stopped right at the edge of what used to be a natural hill but much of the land had caved under the wreckage of a nearby ship. He coughed as the smoke and ash blew into his face by a hot wind, clouding his vision and forcing him to take his eyes off of his target.

The soldier wanted to scream or do something to get the beast's attention as the battle continued to wage but all he could do was watch as the beast triumphed over its numerous opponents, one by one. Its way of battling was quite precise and calculated. To Caim's well trained eyes, not a single fireball missed its intended target. The dragon sustained little damage as well. He strained to see more identifying features but all he could make out was the blackish blue scales, the wickedly sharp tail, and the dragon's reddish horns. There didn't appear to be anyone riding it. Caim would have wondered about it had he been in a state of normal concentration. The Knights of the Seal were relentlessly attacking a single dragon.

"Do you think that they have any idea where Nowe has gone?"

Caim blinked as he heard voices not to far off behind him. He was conflicted as he probably needed to defend himself but every other part of him that wasn't normative still wanted to watch the dragon just in case it decided to swoop his way even for an instant.

"I wouldn't think so…They use Legna as a marking point for Nowe so why would they attack him unless they suspected that Nowe and you were nearby?"

The second voice was obviously male. Caim hovered on indecision for another moment before his sense of danger won out and he turned in place with one hand on the hilt of his sword.

They were much closer than they sounded and they both halted when it was apparent from their end that he was standing in their way. Another burst of smoke swept over him but not before Caim got a general idea of their puzzling appearances. The male's clothes were unlike anything Caim had seen before but he was decently well built which made sense considering the size of the axe in his hand. The most notable feature by far was the fact that his head was obscured entirely by a dark helmet. Caim couldn't tell for sure but the thought that the face resembled a skull. He was accompanied by a petite blonde woman. That was about as much as Caim confirmed before the smoke passed between them. He was unsure again. Did these people mean any real harm? Before he was caught in this useless place he had only really thought of people in terms of the Empire or the Union. All of these people in plain clothes who he saw on the road or skirting the small villages were a baffling new obstacle.

The other two hadn't closed any distance by the time that the smoke cleared. The dragon let out a startling roar strong enough to cause the ground to tremble slightly. Caim half turned toward the outside and he blinked to try and clear his head. He wanted return his attention to the dragon and this desire gave him a confused, lightheaded feeling. He noticed only distractedly that the woman's mouth dropped open the moment she saw him and her eyes went so large that they looked as if they threatened to pop right out of her head. Caim clenched his hand on his sword hilt and he looked away from them finally to turn his head back toward the sky.

He heard something that sounded like choking from the two humans and then Caim distinctly noticed that there were hard and fast footfalls coming his way. His battle instincts took over instantly and Caim unsheathed his sword as he fully turned.

The soldier was a bit too late as the woman was already upon him. He saw a flash of pale hair and mad red eyes as she attacked. Caim took a step to the right and he brought his sword up to deflect her blow. The silver of her staff hit high on his cheek, narrowly missing his left eye. Caim barely registered the pain and warm trail of his blood as it slid down his face.

"Manah! What are you doing?" The man demanded. He had run up right behind her. He grabbed the woman away from Caim as he slashed to try and hit the woman in the chest in response to her strike. The woman struggled against her companion madly, knocking his helmet back with her elbow.

"It's him…" The woman finally screeched.

Caim stepped back to observe the situation warily just as a mammoth black shadow overtook the three of them. He turned around to see the black dragon beating silently behind them.

"What is the meaning of this? Why is she suddenly so disturbed?" The dragon asked.

Caim opened his mouth to try and say something to the dragon as he momentarily forgot his handicap. He twirled his sword around as the scene of his parent's death played again in his mind. The soldier disregarded all time and place and he leapt forward to attack the dragon. He was unaware of the fact that the dragon had his eye on Caim from the start and his tail quickly lashed out toward the human. Caim luckily heard its loud sweeping and he just managed to move out of the way. The sharp end sailed above his head but he couldn't avoid the bulk of the rest of the dragon's tail. It impacted him sharply from his back to his head. Caim's vision faltered and he collapsed unwillingly in front of the dark dragon and his strange companions.

Note: I have no idea how Nowe got the necklace but I did notice that in the art for the first game both Caim and Furiae are wearing the same bracelet. Manah wears one in Drakengard 2 and Nowe has the charm on his necklace in his non-soldier outfit. Pretty curious.

I wonder if young Caim died in the future would that make Angelus drop dead in the past? A totally random question, I know.