The searing, intense, razor sharp pain vanished as quickly as it had struck,
leaving it's sufferer at first disbelieving that it had left, and finally
doubting that it had existed at all. Cautiously Mobius' ruler uncurled and
stretched his cramped muscles. Whatever he had been doing before the pain had
struck was a mystery to him at that particular moment in time. A momentary
glance at the window let him know that the sun was setting and painting it's
gorgeous kaleidoscope of colors across the soon-to-be night sky. Faintly a
thought resonated within him that the beautiful scene meant something in
particular to him on this evening, but what exactly that meaning was eluded him
for the moment.
Rising to his feet he did a quick and careless rather careless
visual sweep of his room letting his gaze finally come to rest on a robe that
was carefully laid out on his bed. Approaching it he realized that it was
actually his dragon riding jacket and it dawned on him that he hadn't exercised
his dragons that day. Hastily putting it on he quickly exited his bedchamber and
jogged down the hallway and into the dragon keeping area. Upon arrival he
wondered why their fewer guards in the hallway. Had he sent them away to do
something else? Shaking his head he went to the very back of the dragons'
housing area and opened the huge obsidian door that sealed the last habitat.
The huge inhabitant acknowledged his entry by kneeling and lowering it's head
inviting him to ride. Quietly the King approached his dragon and circled it
admiring it and ensuring to himself that it was perfect health. The gigantic
dragon was several times the length of a freight train, and many times heavier,
each of it's perfectly smooth black iridescent scales was the size of a dinner
plate, each huge foot ended in several curved cleaver-like talons each bigger
around than a broadsword, two horns six times the length of the average broom
handle extended backwards from the dragon's skull, the dragon's eyes were blood
red with no discernible pupils, a huge maw the size of a cave entrance packed
with double rowed re-curved teeth bigger than a bedpost completed the dragon's
look.
Satisfied with his brief inspection the King halted his circle directly in
front of the dragon, looking up at the scaly behemoth he spoke to it. "How are
you feeling Death Wish?" The dragon looked down at it's master and blinked
before nudging it's master. An approaching guard could only shudder: the dragon
was nudging his king the same way a puppy did begging to be petted. Halting he
made his presence known before coming close enough to be perceived as a threat.
"My lord I have come to inform you that the sun has set and the protestors are
still outside." The previous events returned to the black hedgehog like a
thunderbolt, the protestors, his youngest brother being injured, how could he
have forgotten? Carefully disguising his true response from the guard he coldly
informed him: "I already know this, Scorpio...but since you feel the need to
state the obvious to me answer this, who took my brother's dragon out against my
orders and exercised it..or should I say broke it's head harness?"
The male echidna Scorpio was at a loss for words, the king's ability to tell who was
talking to him without looking and oftentimes before the approaching person
could speak was legendary and well known but it still unnerved him. Attempting
to collect and wits knowing that his life depended on giving the right answer
the Echidna replied "I have no idea however, I will find out. What would you
like for me to do?" The king temper had taken a sudden turn as was evident in
his reply "Get out of my sight and leave me in peace. Oh and open the external
flight door on your way out." Turning quickly and walking away the Echidna was
inwardly trembling. The external flight door was only opened when the King rode
Deathwish. Many of the older guards had told him myths about the dragon's size
and they had turned out to be true what If the other rumors held true as well.
Pressing the button to open the door he hurried back to his post praying that
the protestors would be spared from whatever the dragon might do to them. Upon
the Echidna's departing the black hedgehog turned back to the gigantic dragon.
"Ready for a ride Deathwish? The protestors outside hurt my brother, I have to
deal with them but you need exercise as well..why not kill two birds with one
stone?" He mounted without bothering to put any riding gear on the dragon and
laughing to himself took of into the evening sky through the door as it was
opening. All of the guards on patrol saw him exit and it was no small feat the
dragon was almost to big to fit through the just opening door so it closed it's
wings and spiraled through opening upon reaching the other side it opened it's
wings to it's full wingspan which was a few miles across and took off at a few
hundred miles per hour with it's riders laughter still echoing in the darkness.
Inside Amy Rose had witnessed the dragon's the dragon's dramatic exit and heard
it's master's laughter turning to the guard's around she asked "What was that?"
dreading the response. To her amazement they all looked as scared as she felt
"The king went dragon riding." Was all that they would say. The protestors were
sitting together talking when the dragon's shadow fell over them, looking up all
they could see was the dragon's outline as it temporarily blocked out the
setting sun on it's way further out heading away from the kingdom.
As the young purple hedgehog looked at the shocked expressions around him he turned to their leader
who had began questioning him. "Do you know what that was?" Ashamed at his
answer he nodded slowly "The king has taken his dragon out for exercise." His
answer was met with gasps of disbelief and incredulous exclamations: "Dragons
don't exist!If he does this a lot why aren't there witnesses? Why now?" Quietly
the purple hedgehog answered them: "There are no witnesses because he kills
everyone that lays eyes on the dragon and usually only rides it into war." The
protestors glanced at each other as the words sunk in. Their leader answered for
them all: "So when he comes back he's going to let the dragon kill each of us?"
The gentle purple hedgehog nodded solemnly "He did say you had until night fall
but since he rode the dragon out in plain view of you guys I'd say it's already
obvious that he's made up his mind what he's going to do." A hush fell over the
crowd as everyone turned to look in the direction that the dragon had gone.
Meanwhile, atop the castle gates Shadow had witnessed the takeoff realized that
there had to be a lot of big places that he didn't know about inside that castle
in order for something that big to be housed inside without him knowing about
it. As he watched the dragon fly into the sunset he marveled that some one was
actually able to ride it and turned back to watch the protestors. As each group
watched and waited for the King's return the sun slowly set marking the passing
of yet another day.
Meanwhile unknown to anyone else at the time a exquisitely dressed red hedgehog was rifling through job applications in search of an Echidna guard to replace the one that Fleetway had killed previously. One caught his eye lifting the document from the overflow on his otherwise tidy desk he looked at the picture. It showed a young male echidna with bright red fur, purple eyes, and a white half moon shaped marking in the center of his chest, but what had truly caught the fancily dressed red hedgehog's eye was the fact that this particular Echidna's abilities list: strength that rivaled that of even other Echidna's, and some knowledge of healing as well as knowledge of chaos energy and it's properties. It was in his mind a perfect match, what his oldest brother might have to say about was going to have to wait. Pushing the other files aside and into a huge awaiting paper shredder he picked up the phone to make the necessary call. Smiling and fully at ease as his work for the evening was done. Or so he believed.
Far away from civilization and as far away from his kingdom as he could get without leaving the planet the king signaled for his dragon to land and then dismounted. They had landed in the middle of a tropical rainforest well away from the eye of the public. Turning to admire the air plants in the lush canopy above him he became almost at once aware of a dull ache starting at the base of his skull. Ignoring it he turned his gaze away from canopy and towards ground level where a tiny poisonous frog was hopping by at less than a safe distance. For reasons he couldn't understand the sight of the frog sharpened his pain and he quickly realized that each living creature that he laid eyes upon intensified his pain tenfold. Laying down and squeezing his eyes shut he mentally cursed the fact that he was in the Jungle surrounded by Wildlife whose mere presence caused him pain. He flinched when he felt the slightest vibration in the ground or heard leaves rustling nearby. Wishing to be surrounded by peace and calm where he could rest without being in constant agony.
(Why do you fight with yourself my lord? Resistance of your instincts is futile at best and self destructive behavior at the worst. What do you have to gain?) Trembling visibly now the King dared to peek around convinced that he was going mad. The first thing he saw was his dragon's head and a quick glance around and he realized that the dragon had curled around him providing both a visual and physical barrier from the Jungle surrounding him. Breathing a sigh of relief he glanced at the dragon and then the fact that the dragon had finally spoken to him sunk in. "Why do you speak with me now?" (Because it is my job to protect and serve you. You need to stop fighting yourself. It is a lose-lose situation King). The jet black hedgehog looked at his dragon as if it were speaking a foreign language that he couldn't understand. "Fighting Myself? I have no idea what you're implying..." The dragon in response turned away from his king grabbed a Gorilla and pinned the struggling primate directly in front of his king. As soon as the black hedgehog saw the Gorilla he turned away trembling and curled into a tight ball with his back to it. The dragon sighed (You cannot fight yourself forever, it is who and what you are, embrace it and be proud of your heritage and destiny). The Gorilla looked at both of them then spoke to the dragon as it was well known that dragons could understand the native tongues of many different creatures. "What are you doing?" The dragon looked back down at the Gorilla and spoke to it in it's native language not wanting to startle it further with telepathic communication "Attempting to get him" he gestured at the trembling black ball of quills in front of him "to realize who he his."
The pain that he had experienced before had nothing on the new pain that was now spreading to each part of his body. He finally gave in when the pain reached his heart uncurling, shuddering and blinking away tears he turned to face the Gorilla dreading what was to come.