Chapter 3:

Pursuing Darkness

He stood on the edge of a rocky outcrop that overlooked the winding valley below, watching the Hau River flow between the mountains. A fine mist hung over the mountain peaks, obscuring them from view in the weak pre-dawn light. Overall, the landscape painted the perfect picture of serenity.

He hated it.

He hated the calmness of this place; he hated how every gust of wind sent shivers down his spine; he hated just how bloody cold it was.

I shouldn't be surprised, he thought bitterly. Everywhere in the world seems cold to someone who was born and raised in the world's hottest desert. The thought didn't make him any warmer, though, and so he blew a small stream of fire towards his chest, not enough to hurt him, but enough to heat him up, even just a little bit.

This is humiliating. I should be out fighting, or tracking down refugees from one of the dragon cities. Instead, I have to babysit a bunch of apes because they've gone and lost a group of scouts! This isn't what Gaul bought me for! I can kill, I can hunt, I can lead an army into battle if I have to! Why does that fool waste my talents on mundane tasks such as this?

When the Shadowmages had sold him to Gaul, the Ape King had promised that he would be given the opportunity to do what he had spent most of his life being trained to do: kill.

The Ape King had kept true on his promises, and for those few weeks it had been glorious. He had burned villages to the ground, he had hunted refugees, he had even destroyed an entire civilisation in a matter of hours… well, almost destroyed, although that lone survivor couldn't hide forever – when he was given a job, he would ensure he finished it.

When Gaul had departed for the Well of Souls, the King had left him in charge of his armies until their master returned. He had used this time to lead the ape forces into ruthless attacks on many dragon settlements, and had even begun to make plans to lay siege to Warfang, the great capital of the Dragon Realms.

When they received word of Gaul's death, slain by the young purple dragon, the apes had crowned his son, Garth, as their new king. Garth harboured a deep hatred for the dragon race, even more so than his father, who at least acknowledged that some of them had their uses.

The new king had been quick to relieve him of command, and had led the siege of Warfang himself.

Suffice to say, it did not go well.

The apes had taken the city, true, and still held it to this day, but the way they had taken it had not been easy. King Garth had insisted that they leave the city intact, so the apes had not been able to use their full force. This had led to many of the dragons managing to escape, including the dragon Guardians. At least three of the Guardians had been in the city at the time of the siege, and they had all escaped.

I wouldn't have let them escape I would have had the Dreadwings firebomb the city, before hunting down any survivors and ending them. I would have killed the Guardians personally. I would have burnt the whole damn city to the ground! I should have been in command, or at least taken part in the battle. Instead, that young fool sent me away from the warfront to endure years of wasted potential!

"General Raaka, we have need of your presence."

The black dragon sighed and glanced over his shoulder at the burly ape commander standing behind him.

"What is it?" He asked impatiently.

"The search party we sent out has returned." The ape said, seemingly unperturbed by the hostile edge in the dragon's voice. "It would be best if you hear what they have to say first hand."

"Very well." I suppose I should hear this. "You go on ahead: I'll be there shortly."

"Yes, sir." The ape bowed and left, leaving Raaka to his thoughts once more.

This had better be important, for their sake; Ancestors help them if they haven't found something I can kill; I may have to settle for one of them. It's not like my master – my true master, not that pompous ape – will care.

After one final glance at the mountains, Raaka unfolded his pale blue wings and leapt off of the edge, making his way to the apes' campsite.

XXX

"Are you absolutely certain?"

"Y…yes, sir." The ape scout stammered, his face fearful as he looked into Raaka's burning yellow eyes. "I'm sure of what I saw. The other scouts saw them, too. You can… you can ask them if you don't believe me…"

"That will not be necessary. I believe you." Raaka said, and the scout practically sagged with relief, glad he would not be on the receiving end of the black dragon's deadly tail blade. "Thank you for telling me this. You did well."

"Thank you, sir!" The scout said before scurrying away to join the group of apes gathered by a campfire.

"Are we to pursue them, sir?" The commander asked from behind Raaka.

"I need a moment to think on this." He replied, closing his eyes in concentration.

This is better than anything I could have hoped for! Sure, six scouts are dead, but this is an incredible opportunity! We cannot let it pass us by!

"How many soldiers do we have?" He asked, opening his eyes and turning to look the commander in the face.

"Including myself, there are sixteen of us here. However, there is an outpost not far from here, and they are well provisioned. With our combined forces we would number around fifty. They also have a pack of wolves and several Death Hounds, as well as eight Dreadwings."

That should be enough, especially with me in the fray.

"Make haste to this outpost, and tell them to meet me in the ruins of the old market town." Raaka ordered. "Tell them to come well-armed, and to bring any Elemental Armour they have to me."

"Yes, sir!" The commander saluted. "Is it to be battle?"

"Yes." The black dragon turned to the south, a look of deadly intent in his eyes. "Yes it is."

XXX

It took over two hours for the ape host to gather in the town, and by that time the sun had risen. As ordered, the apes had piled pieces of silver armour in front of Raaka. When he used his fire breath on them they began to glow, and red runes appeared on them. Once he was finished with the armour he rose to address the gathered apes, and the commander called for order.

"Listen up" Our mission here may sound simple, but it will only work if we are prepared! Some of you may be thinking that because our targets are weak and tired that they will be easier to subdue. Some of you may become overconfident, or even reckless. This will get you killed.

"Our target isn't some lost hatchling, or a stray Warfang Guard who's out of magic. This is a purple dragon, and even a magically drained purple dragon is more dangerous than any other foe you may face. Do not underestimate him, or even his companions, for that matter. The dragoness was your former general, the Terror of the Skies, and I'm sure many of you remember how ruthless she was in battle. The cheetah may look weak, but he managed to take down an entire scouting party with ease. If we simply go up against them, all of you will most likely die." Not that I would care. "We need to turn the situation to our advantage, to force them to run. This is why I intend to set the forest on fire.

"Those of you who will be on the front lines with me will have nothing to fear from the flames. I have imbued some of my fire magic into this armour." He indicated the pile of armour with his wing, and the ape commander and his medium-sized subordinates began to gather them up and hand them out. "This will protect you from the flames, as well as any fire-based attacks the dragons may throw at you. The Dreadwings will carry our archers for aerial support, and we will release the Hounds and Wolves first, in order to make our targets more inclined to flee.

"Prepare for battle! We attack on my mark!"

It didn't take long for the company of apes to get ready; they were eager for battle, and had been known to work faster fir the promise of bloodshed.

Once they were prepared, Raaka turned once more to address them and said, "Take the dragons alive, if possible. I know our master would relish the prospect of having them as prisoners. Kill the others." He then turned his head upward and unleashed a powerful, ear-splitting scream, which manifested in the form of a blood-red shockwave.

At this signal, the apes charged, the Wolves and Death Hounds bounding forward madly, and the Dreadwings took to the air.

The purple dragon's days of hiding are over.

What's this? I actually uploaded relatively soon after a previous upload? What is this madness...

Anyway, big thanks to Fire Shallows for Beta-reading this for me.

Fire Shallows is also working on a FanFiction, called The Legend of the Purple Dragon: A New Age. It's looking really great so far, and I'm sure he'd appreciate you guys checking it out.

So, we are introduced to a new character and one of my oldest , Raaka. I tell you, this was really fun to write, and I'm looking forward to future chapters with him. The character has actually gone through several different iterations during his existence, one of which as Malefor's son! I think I'm happy with where I'm taking him with this, though.

I do have a quick announcement to make, though: I may have to take a little break from writing to go into planning of this story. I'll write the next chapter (should be fun!) but during that time and a bit after it, I'll be doing some serious brainstorming of where I'm going with this story, including some finer details, the overall theme, what characters to introduce and - most importantly - make it fit in with the first two TLoS games... y'know, the whole reason I started this thing.

Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you thought of this chapter, and what you think of Raaka.