Chapter 83-Night
Nuri should have known things wouldn't work out quite as he had planned as he ventured into one of the larger rooms in the Compound and saw the area already nearly full of dragons who had gathered to decide the next leader of their kind. It was only a select few that were there for the reason he had originally set up the gathering and most of those were the remaining children of Narssia who had told him they would come to support him. While he wasn't bothered by the lack of respect for the dragoness he had enjoyed spending time around, he was slightly disturbed when Sitedal approached him and informed him that Jormundur had made a surprise visit to complain about honoring a dragon that had never done anything worth celebrating. He realized he should have expected complications with his vision but he hadn't thought they would come from a sibling that was already deceased.
As he mingled with other dragons and tried to avoid Jormundur's ghost as it lingered and mocked him, Nuri slowly felt the first signs that he was needing to feed as his jaws tingled unpleasantly and a dull ache resounded in the back of his head. He had found some poor wildlife to drain before coming to the event but apparently it hadn't been enough to satisfy him completely. Slipping past a group of earth dragons discussing a matter of environmental concern, he headed straight for Sitedal as he knew his older brother would be able to help him survive long enough to make it through the night without killing anyone. The dull ache in his head pounded softly as he caught up to the fear dragon and sat down beside him, shaking his head slowly as he wished he could drown out the noise around him.
"You're not enjoying this?" Sitedal asked casually before realizing the reason Nuri had sought him out specifically, lowering his voice as he added, "I thought you had told me you fed before coming. Isn't it supposed to last you for a few hours?"
"It is supposed to," Nuri hissed as he felt the discomfort in his jaws increase slightly, wishing he had never said anything to Sitedal about starting the event now. "It depends on how stressed out I am that determines the frequency I have to hunt. I had brought down a full sized deer though but I guess it wasn't enough with all the activity that has been going on. Any idea when Mother is going to get back?"
He had felt sorrow when Arxa had grown cold but he had heard from Zagnoth soon after that the transfer had been a success and that she was back in her original body. Twitching the end of his tail as he noticed Seraphina somberly walk across the room to greet Aurelia and a swaddled-up Nathaniel in her arms, he clenched his teeth as he picked up on the infant's heartbeat and the warm blood running through his veins. A clawed forepaw soon touched his shoulder and he turned his head to see Verdra leaned in and nuzzled him, remarking that she was proud of him for wanting to do something to honor Arxa's memory.
"Thanks," he muttered absentmindedly as he blinked and glanced around the room to see Ryta and Reath engaged in a heated conversation.
Suspecting for a while now that his sister had been thinking of deepening her friendship with the fire dragon, he was pleasantly surprised to see the two so close to each other and a soft hum of contentment echoed from his throat before he continued his observations around the packed space. He and Sitedal were sitting along one of the walls and as he glanced across to the opposite wall, he saw a small dragoness he had never seen before along with a regal starlit dragon as the two walked side by side briskly through the crowd. Catching a brief glimpse of an amethyst iris and an elongated gray snout peeking out past the much larger male, Nuri reasoned it was a female before he soon lost sight of the scale-fliers as they disappeared into the collection of dragons present.
Deciding after a moment he would follow after the strange dragoness he had seen, he left his brother and wandered through the crowd. His hearing was sharpened because of his hunger and he heard one she-dragon as he past grumble to the friend she had come with that they were in attendance to honor some sadistic nobody that had nearly started a full-scale war. Knowing he shouldn't have been riffled up by the remark but giving in to his rising temper, he turned to face the creature in question that had spoken with her comrade and bared his fangs as his eyes flickered black for half a second. Teeth elongating as he snarled and moved to strike her neck on instinct to quell his need for nourishment, he stopped himself as he caught the scent of an open wound somewhere else in the room.
Ignoring the calmness he had displayed during the event so far, he ran for the nearest exit and entered into a small hallway as he turned and pressed his head into the cool rock wall beside him. Coming back to the Compound had been a bad idea, he reasoned as he felt his elongated teeth refuse to relax and return to normal. Slamming a forepaw into the soft ground next to the wall in anger, he growled softly at himself for his actions and realized he would be better off to never go into an area with several dragons present ever again. While chiding himself for how foolish he had acted, he heard footsteps coming up from his left side and he moved his body to let the individual pass, only to hear them stop. Lifting his head as he shook dirt from his snout, he saw the dragon in question that had approached him was the scale-flier he had noticed in the main area.
Even though the lighting was dim in the narrow hallway, he could see her scales were dark gray and her amethyst irises gleamed in curiosity towards him as he noticed she had not backed away while he was unable to control the raging bloodlust within him. Taking a step towards her, he saw in her eyes that his eyes were completely black and his teeth - fangs, actually - glistened with saliva. He was surprised she wasn't repulsed by him but something about her seemed oddly familar the more he looked at her.
'Daughter, where are thou? I told thou to stay by my side . . .' The voice confirmed it as Nuri heard Zagnoth's deep voice echo off the walls and reveal to him that he was seeing the new form of Arxa for the very first time.
"Arxa?" He whispered in questioning, wishing he could control his desire to feed so she could see his eyes and not the black pools of a hungry blood dragon seeking a quick meal.
'Ne ri?' Amethyst eyes fluttered with brief panic before Nuri noticed her focus more keenly on him.
"You know my name? Arxa, do you remember me? Nurus, the blood dragon that you first showed kindness to at a time all others loathed you . . Do you remember that?"
Her eyes widened in fear as he heard Zagnoth called out for her again and he gently lifted a forepaw as she shrunk back, whimpering as though he was going to hurt her. Taking a step back as her behavior was the exact opposite of what he thought she would have done, Nuri was confused as he saw the hurt and the panic in her eyes tell a completely different story from the powerful fearless dragoness he had known.
"What happened to you? Why are you scared of me? Arxa, talk to me, please. I just want to help you," he whispered, lowering his head and his risen foreleg as she crouched and quivered severely.
'Ne ri! Agh, zi qe nu vih su!' Arxa's voice shook as she backed up, hitting her tail against a wall as she crouched as far down as she could go to avoid contact with him.
Nuri shook his head, not understanding her terrified Stagraven words. "Speak to me, Arxa. I can't understand your words if you use your panic to distort them."
'Her words are the truth, blood hatchling. Axsanu is lost in memories of my betrayal of her when I forced her into your mother's mind.' The coarse voice told him immediately it was Zagnoth and he retreated a few steps at seeing the regal deity approach in his new form.
"I thought you fixed her. You were supposed to help her! The state Arxa is in now is not any better than the dying corpse I watched over. She is far worse now than she ever was and I have you to thank for that, Corruption." Lifting his head, he narrowed his eyes and lunged at the larger dragon, only to get pinned against a wall by one of his grandfather's impressive wings.
Turquoise eyes looked him over in disgust as he snarled and tried to move as the starlit appendage stayed where it was without even the smallest quiver of movement. 'I see your need to feed has consumed you. I can smell the taint of blood on your breath and I suspect your jaws are tingling, wanting to get at my throat and drain every last drop of my life energy from me. That will not happen - nor will you attack Axsanu in her defenseless state. Her panic and fear override any other emotion at this point and-'
"Because her own monster of a father ripped her from the life she had and threw her into eternal bondage, trapped in the mind of her own sister! What parent does that to their own flesh-and-blood, Zagnoth? Did Arxa even have a choice before you took everything from her and ruined her entire existence?"
'Tfr! Tfr sqa! Rni zi boq Qom . . .'
'Vre'jo? Ne Qom sikua agh qu'ceh ymu sliku xa ki . . .'Zagnoth growled darkly at Arxa in reply as he focused his eyes on Nuri and the hatchling shrieked, feeling as though his heart was being clenched by powerful jaws that threatened to snap shut and kill him where he hung pinned against a wall.
Arxa shuddered quietly as she rose, her eyes flickering a murky yellow as a thin sheet of ice coated Zagnoth's outstretched wing. Nuri noticed her body shaking and he reasoned it was from fear but he gradually saw a dim amber light dart over her scales before she stepped forward and roared with all her might in challenge to her father. Her outburst was quickly contained by the deity as he forced her back with a snarl that nearly sent her cowering again.
Finding her voice as a soft whimper left her, Arxa hesitantly took a step towards her father and Nuri before pausing and staring wide-eyes at him as if a revelation had come over her. 'Shiga'roku . . .'
'How dare you speak his name in Stagraven! He means nothing to you now! Remember the nothingness you were in once? I can put you right back into that place if you continue to interfere!' Irises blazing with anger, Zagnoth lifted his free wing and Arxa cowered, shrinking away from him and pressing herself tightly against the wall behind her in fear.
"This is why Arxa flinches away any time a dragon even so much as looks at her. You ruined her!" Nuri growled as the ice around Zagnoth's wing thawed quickly with no further accumulation to keep it cooled down.
Zagnoth hesitated for a moment before moving his wing back to rest against his side and released Nuri from being trapped against the wall. The blood dragon was relieved to be free of his confinement but was concerned for Arxa as the ancient dragon turned to her and growled softly. He wasn't sure if her life was in further danger but, from what he had seen, any form of relationship between the two was forever damaged by something that had happened which had left the dragoness so emotionally unstable to the point she could barely handle being around other scale-fliers.
"Zagnoth, I . . ." Nuri started to stammer, unable to find the words he wanted to speak as Arxa hid her face from the regal beast before her and trembled as if expecting some physical punishment for her actions.
'Axsanu, I know my very presence frightens thou but please understand that I reacted on instinct when I lashed out at the blood hatchling. I never meant to harm thou and I got caught up in the heat of the moment. Those moments that thou remembers . . . I was a much darker creature back then.' Zagnoth paused for a moment before turning his attention to Nuri directly, 'Go back and enjoy the celebration. The dragon thou once knew is no more and never shall be again. All she once had is now in ruin because of mislead choices and residual darkness.'
Turning to walk away, ignoring the hunger that still dominated his current appearance, Nuri waited a moment to hear Arxa sniffle before he lowered his head and sighed. "I loved her once," he admitted softly as he started to return back into a room that would be too much temptation for him. "The Arxa I knew had no fear and this broken dragoness before me will never be that strong. If she will forever retain the damaged persona that I see before me, then I have no choice but to distance myself from her."
As Nuri walked away, Zagnoth could tell Arxa seemed to draw tighter into herself as she closed her eyes and a single tear rolled down her cheek. He knew the destruction the blood hatchling would leave in its wake and he realized he had made the right choice by allowing Narssia's son to distance himself from them. It was too late to contain the vicious ferocity of an emotionally distraught dragon and he would let the consequences happen without involvement. The sound of panicked shrieks soon graced his hearing and he resisted the urge to join in the bloodshed as he glanced at his daughter to see her small body shaking.
'Ki voa ze'n xa su!' Her voice was quivering as she hissed the words at him, squeezing her eyes shut tighter as she clenched at the loose dirt under her foreclaws.
'You think I wanted to do this to you? I had no choice, Axsanu. There was no way I could handle the strain of keeping three separate consciousness alive for thousands of years with my energy depleted from the curse Aker bestowed upon me,' Zagnoth snapped back, echoing the words to her in Stagraven as he fluttered his wings and lowered his head to nudge her back gently. 'I would do anything to protect you . . .'
'Vre'jo? Ki siq su umn xam ri'roga! Ki syve su,' Arxa trembled as she spoke, losing any sense of bravery she had as his snout graced the scales on her back and she pressed tighter against the wall she lay beside.
'I did not abandon thou, Axsanu. Nuodasis was there to help thou learn and adjust. I had to ensure that Cilous was doing fine as well.'
'Ki jop su xa w'ven xe riy ahn! Ki eri xe . . . ri dusa.'
Zagnoth lifted his head slightly, looking over her as he realized what Nurus had said was true. He had been a horrible father to Axsanu and it had left her this broken dragoness he saw before him. While Nuodasis had played a part in breaking her strong psyche, he had done the irreversible damage when he had stripped her of her body and thrown her into her sister's mind without a second thought. The sounds of dragons dying briefly caught his attention and he sighed, knowing that he had also done damage to the blood hatchling by having shown up with Arxa in her fragile emotional state.
'Axsanu, I . . .'
"Zagnoth!" Narssia's high pitched shriek echoed off the walls as she hurriedly limped towards them from the direction of the main area where Nuri was lost in a frenzy. "What did you say to Nuri? Everything is in ruins now. Dragons are dead and the body count grows higher each minute. I barely managed to get Aurelia and Seraphina out of there before he tried to rip my leg off. That beast in there is not my son anymore. What did you do?"
Turning to face her as her eyes flickered with rage, Zagnoth was smacked with a clawed forepaw as her talons grazed his glossy scales. Arxa cowered in fright at seeing the dragoness that haunted her memories and a small squeak escaped her jaws. Not sure which she-dragon to face first, the deity retreated from his enraged daughter a few steps before trying to explain what had happened.
Narssia seemed to calm down, sitting on the ground as she licked her foreclaws and listened to hm defend his actions that had caused Nuri to unleash the inner monster within his young body. "So my son went on a frenzy because you told him Arxa will never get better, is that what I just heard? Based on what you told me earlier, he loved her and now he's thrown all that away to become a murderous killer." Turning her attention to Arxa, she continued, "Sister, come. I will show you the monster the dragon you once loved truly is. Put aside your fear and follow me to see the destruction Nurus has caused."
Arxa hesitated for a moment then rose on shaky legs, avoiding either dragon's gaze as she went past Narssia and into the room where Nuri had lost all control. Furious growls rippled through the air before a terrified squeak told Zagnoth that the blood dragon and seen her and was going to make her one final victim of his rage.
'Are you going to let him kill her? Is that your plan, Nuodasis?' Zagnoth snarled bitterly before he caught the sound of another voice from inside the room.
"Brother, do not lay a single talon on her. I know you are furious at both her and our grandfather but do not see her as yet another target in this mad game of revenge you are playing," Sitedal growled softly as Zagnoth and Narssia walked to the edge of the tunnel to see inside the room and watch the conflict between brothers.
Blood smeared over the dirt walls as the bodies of dead dragons lay tattered throughout the room. Sitedal and Nuri circled each other, the blood dragon snapping at him any time he ventured a little too close. He was surprised he hadn't been attacked yet but he suspected it was because his younger sibling knew deep down who it was that stood opposing him. Stepping over a deceased dragon whose neck had been ripped to shreds, he briefly saw Arxa lingering just a few steps away, shaking in fear of the rampage Nurus had gone on and he put the thought from his mind as another snap by the enraged hatchling redirected his attention. White fangs stained pink parted as a vengeful roar left the blood hatchling before he lunged at his fear-wielding older brother, only for the tempered scale-flier to sidestep the attack and turn to face him calmly.
"Now, now, brother. There are younglings in the room. You wouldn't want them to be forever scarred by the destruction you left, would you?' Sitedal knew he would get no where if he tried to fight him and so he reasoned he would try to talk down his enraged sibling, at least while Arxa was still inside the room.
"The only young one in this room is the very dragon I want to rip limb from limb!" Nuri snarled in response and Sitedal sighed, retreating a few steps as he put distance between them.
"Yes, I know that but you must realize these feelings are not doing you any good. Brother, you killed innocents-"
"They chose to stand in my way! Who was it that mocked her death? Who was the one that took her from me and changed her into a completely different dragoness?" Nuri roared, lifting a wing at flaring it towards her for further emphasis. "She is not the Arxa I knew and loved! I look in her eyes and see nothing but fear, brother. Fear from a dragoness that knew none previously. That deity, our grandfather, screwed her up so badly she's nothing more than a walking basket case."
Taking another step back as he was surprised by the venom in Nuri's tone, Sitedal tried to collect himself as his brother's talons gleamed red from the blood staining the ground. "You loved her? She is Mother's sister and our aunt, Nuri!"
"I didn't care back then and I care even less now! She can't even speak in our own language. What monster has that much of an impact on its child to leave her so damaged that she forgets all the things that made her happy? Arxa was happy with me and now she's a bundle of emotions and broken words . . ."
Nurus lunged at Sitedal again, being smacked by his brother's tail as the older dragon flared its wings and pushed him back with physical force before growling, "I will not fight you. That being said, I will do everything in my power to keep Arxa safe from you. She deserves a chance to grow and learn, the same chance you denied many of the dragons around you."
Another furious snarl rippled from Nuri's throat as the hatchling stepped down on a descended dragon's tail and lowered his head, snapping the appendage away from its owner's body before throwing it at Sitedal. Disturbed by the sight of an oozing formerly blue tail land right before him, he narrowed his eyes and spat a burst of red energy at the enraged hatchling. Seizing upon the moment as the blood dragon tried to avoid the glowing sphere, he followed up the attack by inhaling quickly before he let loose a scream that echoed with the damaging power of his element. Broken forms tumbled over the moist dirt floor as the rush of energy cleared the area of objects for them to use and he took a step back, pleased with himself for using his unnatural gift to turn the fight to his favor.
Nuri snarled as a few wisps of red energy clung to him and he spread both wings before rushing at Sitedal, knocking the older dragon to the floor as they fell back in a fury of claw swipes and snapping teeth. Their tails smacked into each other as he pinned his brother to the ground and drew back his head in triumph, revealing his elongated sharp teeth. Hearing Arxa shuffle forward a little bit, he growled and prepared to bite and end it all.
'N-no . . . NO!' Hard scales rammed into his side as Nuri lost his footing and collapsed next to Sitedal, eyes widening in shock at seeing Arxa fall onto his brother's exposed underbelly.
"Arxa, did you . . . ? Did you just save me?" Sitedal asked as she nodded her head softly and struggled to get back onto her feet.
"You!" Nuri growled, knocking her to the blood-covered dirt floor with a swipe of his tail as he lunged to his feet. "You . . ." Lowering his head, he trembled as his teeth retracted to their normal length and his eyes returned to the red irises that defined him as a dangerous dragon.
'Axsanu . . . Is she hurt?' Zagnoth questioned as he and Narssia entered, each glancing around the room before focusing on the three dragons in the center of the area.
"I'm not sure. She might have some bruises but I think she'll be fine physically," Sitedal informed them as he rolled onto his side and then gradually got to his feet, noticing Nuri sit down in the dirt. "It's the emotional effects I'm worried about for her. As Nuri told me, she's raw and driven by her emotions now."
"Thank you for calming him down, son," Narssia hummed softly as she nuzzled him and then limped over to the blood dragon, her words sharpening with resentful anger. "You killed innocents, Nurus. Murdered them because you believed your relationship with Arxa was gone. That emotional outburst will likely have you-"
"We won't decide to kill him, Mother," Sitedal assured her gently. "I'll speak with the other dragons representing the vast elements present in the Compound and see what we can come up with but it will not be the penalty of death - even if he does deserve it for his crimes."