Chapter 11:New Information

Just so everyone knows, for a while I had considered stopping this story. Due to school, personal reasons, and new ideas entering my brain on a daily basis, i could not focus on writing this. So, I will post a few more chapters and then figure out what to do from there.

But, for now, here's chapter 11.

An hour had past and Abeck was still not back yet. However long it took that girl to pack, is wasn't fast enough to save them from the person who somehow managed to talk since the blonde left. At this current point in time, Comet was giving Ratatouille and Cowboy a lecture on the many kinds of plants that could be used in poisons and medicines. He also went on to explain the different symptoms of the poisons as well as the side effects of the poisons.

"Curare is a common name for various plant extract alkaloid arrow poisons originating from Central and South America. These poisons function by competitively and reversibly inhibiting the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, which is a subtype of acetylcholine receptor found at the neuromuscular junction. This causes weakness of the skeletal muscles and, when administered in a sufficient dose, eventual death by asphyxiation due to paralysis of the diaphragm."

Snipe had received a headache from all the information and tried to get the talkers attention, "Um Comet, I don't mean to be rude but- "

Comet did not hear the pro hero, "Then of course there's water hemlock, it's closely related to poison hemlock, the plant that famously killed Socrates, and water hemlock has been deemed "the most violently toxic plant in North America." A large wildflower in the carrot family, water hemlock resembles Queen Anne's lace and is sometimes confused with edible parsnips or celery. However, water hemlock is infused with deadly cicutoxin, especially in its roots, and will rapidly generate potentially fatal symptoms in anyone unlucky enough to eat it. Painful convulsions, abdominal cramps, nausea, and death are common, and those who survive are often afflicted with amnesia or lasting tremors." How one person could hold that much information in their brain was anyone's guess.

Luckily for everyone, Katchi saw a butterfly outside and barked. That bark had caused Comet to stop talking, much to the pros relief. Nezu decided to say something before the lecture could continue, "Comet, if you don't mind, it would be appreciated if we could go find Abeck."

"Well alrighty," he surprisingly didn't seem sad at all, "Who wants to check where? I'm going this way!" His question and response gave the others no time to answer before he ran off. The two teachers stood confused for a second before deciding to stick together as they wandered through the house.

As it turns out, the kitchen and living room seemed to be the only clean place in the house. Most of the hallways were just as cluttered as the entrance hall, if not more so. They passed rooms filled to the ceiling with boxes, others were filled with treasures and what looked like gold. One room had a steel reinforced door that stood slightly ajar, inside were pillars with chain, scratch marks and burn marks on the wall, bones scattered everywhere, and a small sky light to let a small amount of light into the otherwise pitch-black room. That room was by far the most disturbing room they saw, and eventually they found who they were looking for. Abeck was in the library reading what looked like a book that appeared to be several centuries old. Unfortunately, she was reading underneath a giant sleeping cat-like thing.

The creature looked only a little bit smaller than Katchi was, but definitely a lot more dangerous. It had a large cobra hood going down its back, a scorpion's tail that swished around, sharp birdlike talons, and six pointed horns on its head. Yet, as if ignoring the creature completely, Abeck continued reading as the thing slept on her back.

"Abeck" Nezu whispered as quietly as he could to get her attention. She tore her eyes from the book and sent a questioning look his way. "Are you ok?" He continued whispering as to not wake the cat thing.

"Fine, why?" she didn't whisper, and the creature shifted. Snipe pulled out a gun and gestured to the thing, it was then that Abeck understood. She shifted into a position on her arms and said, "Oh, right, I never introduced you to her. So, Ratatouille, Cowboy, this is Ruko, my other pet that is almost always in the woods."

Her companions seemed to be in shock. They looked between Ruko and Abeck as the latter went back to reading. They slowly went into the room and Ruko woke up. She growled at the intrudes as she walked off Abeck. The sleek tawny fur on her back bristled as she crept towards those she considered prey, those in question immediately stopped moving. The atmosphere in the room tensed, but only until Comet burst into the room shouting and Ruko bolted. As it turns out, she was just as spastic as a regular house cat.

"Did I miss something?" Comet sounded confused after watching the cat sprint out of the room. He was, for some reason, holding a large box and a baguette while he stood in the middle of the room with a confused expression.

"Nothing important," Nezu regained his composure, "However we found Abeck."

"Oh, that's good! I found food and this box!" Comet dropped the bread when he excitedly showed off the box. Then, once realizing what happened, scrambled to pick up the bread again. "Also, turns out this house needs a major cleaning."

Even though he is still on edge, Snipe spoke up, "I will actually agree with that. Some of these rooms are the definition of messy."

"Eh, the dragon likes clutter." Abeck was barely paying attention as she spoke, giving most of her attention to the book she was reading.

"What do you mean by that?" Nezu went back to questioning and was answered with a confused 'hm', so he clarified, "What do you mean by 'the dragon likes clutter'?" By all means, it did not make sense. Abeck said she was half dragon, but that shouldn't mean her personality should be affected. If her and her dragon half are merged, then her thoughts, feelings, and instincts should be the same for both sides.

"Oh, that," she went back to sounding completely uninterested and sat up, "First, you need to know a bit of history. This is actually a large misconception, but dragons did exist once, and they had a defense mechanism they used to survive after death. What happened was that when they got close to death, their soul would detach from their body and merge with the closest creature to them. It gave that creature any abilities the dragon had, and when it died the dragon would reincarnate until the process repeated.

"Then one day a dragon by the name of Gravag decided that he wanted to be the strongest, so he started to kill his kin. Eventually, he had killed off every other dragon and trapped their souls inside of him. He had taken their powers and used them to kill and destroy. He claimed to be the ruler of the world, even saying nothing could best him, until a mortal human managed to bring him to the brink of death. Gravag's soul split away and went into the human's body, and thanks to the fact that one of the powers a past dragon had was invulnerability to everything, unless certain circumstances were met, that human couldn't die." At this point in the story, the other people in the room were captivated, and Abeck did not even process that she was telling them all this. "That very same Human went to wander the world for around 20,000 years, trying to find a way to end their suffering. The human suffered from nightmares, hearing voices when no one was around, loss of control when they slept, and even mood swings that caused them to kill everything in sight.

"These things happened because Gravag was trapped in them and wanted to escape. So, every chance he got, he would take control of the human's body to fight and kill. This human ended up spending most of their time in solitude and fear, that is until they fell in love with the chief of a tribe in Africa. For years, they hid their relationship from the chief's tribe, who only found out when a baby was born. The mother died soon after and the baby was taken to the tribe to live out its life there. Five months after the birth of his child, the father was killed as well, and the baby was raised to believe that both parents died during a hunt that took the lives of an entire hunting party, which of course was not true…"

She had stopped talking so Snipe asked her a few questions, "Alright, first off, how do you know this when no history book has ever mentioned it?"

"That's because no one ever recorded it," she responded, "or they did, and the writings were destroyed. Both are possible answers." Something whispered in the back of her mind, but Abeck opted to ignore it.

"Then how do you know about this?" Nezu spoke this time while Comet was already piecing things together in his mind.

She took a deep breath and debated for a bit before responding, "I was told this story, by the very creature that caused so much pain to be inflicted on my mother." By the look on their faces, Abeck could tell that was not the answer they expected. "Being the closest thing to my mom at the time of her death, the soul of Gravag merged with mine and gave me all the powers they both once had. Eventually, I ended up with the not only the strength of thousands of dragon's souls, I also had the magical potential of a witch trained to kill dragons. It sucks."

"'It sucks'?" Snipe repeated what she said in shock, "what do you mean by 'it sucks'? Anyone in this day and age would kill to be as strong as that!" He was nearly shouting at this point because he couldn't understand why Abeck doesn't love to be that strong.

Abeck's eyes narrowed, "Yes, it sucks to have these powers, because I know the cost of having them. I need to remain calm at all times, or the dragon will take control. I cannot use most of my magic due to the fact that the mere thought of it these days is scary. I cannot sleep due to my nightmare, and when I do, it can only be for twenty minutes or the dragon will take over and kill. I have been alive for 5,000 years, and I'm going crazy. I cannot be in my dragon form very long or I will lose control and kill. Now, after hearing this, would you still like my abilities?"

Not very much time passed before Snipe answered, "Not really, no. However, the public want answers. Right now, everyone's afraid of you, want you locked up for the rest of your life, or they want you dead."

Apparently, Abeck had heard this before as she waved it off fairly quickly, "Ya, I expected that. And none of it is happening. No one can know about what I can do, or some pretty bad things could happen. Also, I can't die, which was literally explained this a few minutes ago, and if I were to be sent to prison, more bad things would happen."

"Then in that case," now it was Nezu speaking, they really like to jump back and forth when questioning someone, don't they, "Do you mind if we speak to Gravag?" That got her attention big time. Abeck no longer seemed uninterested, now she just seemed to be in a cross between shock defiance.

"Absolutely not!" She nearly roared when she regained her voice, "I have spent my entire life trying to keep him a secret, and away from living creatures, and you want to talk to him?!"

Nezu, as well as Snipe and Comet, stumbled back a bit when Abeck yelled. "Well, maybe there is a way to reason with him," he suggested hoping that the dragon lady would calm down.

Much to everyone else's relief, she took a deep breath and calmed down. "You cannot reason with him," she said in a more neutral tone, "Gravag will do and say anything to get his way. And the only way to talk to him without releasing him would be to go into my mind."

"Well then let's do it!" Comet spoke up with his usual happy demeanor.

"Ha, no."

"Come on, please? I wanna meet him!"

"Still no."

"PLEASE?!" Comet started whining at this point, and quite frankly, it was hurting everyone's ears.

"Alright fine! But just because I can't take that anymore!"

"Yay!"

While Nezu was happy that they would be talking to the dragon, he couldn't help but wonder how powerful it truly was. He also wished to know how Comet managed to convince Abeck to do something just by whining. If Hizashi tried the same exact thing, all Abeck would have done was yell at him for being an annoying child. So, for her to give in to Comet, they must be close friends, or there's something about this man that Nezu doesn't know about. But, that's for a later time, right now, he would focus on the dragon.

And that was that, sorry if everything seemed a bit less descriptive at the end, I am very tired right now.

Next chapter is going to cover more on the dragon, Comet, and some more of Abeck's past. That might be changed when I write the next chapter because who knows what will pop into my head at that time.

Any way, it's 11 pm and I need to wake up at 5 to go running, so good night everyone.