Hello! If you've stayed this long I'm happy you are coming along for the ride. I'll Try to fancy up my profile page here soon enough, I think I'm gonna enjoy writing here. Well I'll try to keep the chapters rolling as I get ideas! Feel free to message me or leave a small review! Every bit helps :D Im sorry I haven't posted in a while, I had some military stuff I needed to sort out, also finding a new job lol
Rough coughing shook the Ionian awake, his face covered in sweat from the nightmares he had been plagued with for what seemed like an eternity, the faces of his friends and even his own brother had plagued his mind, those he had been unable to protect ...Their faces locked in pain, screaming and cursing his name.
He shakily wiped the sweat of his eyes, only to realize he was wiping across his bandage covered face,
and upon further inspection of his body he notices he could not even see his own skin, it being wrapped in bandages, spots partially soaked in blood. Scanning his surroundings, he noticed he was in a hospital bed in a room made for at least nine others, but judging by the empty beds, he was the only person injured, or maybe the only one they'd found. The room was dimly lit, wax candles scarcely placed around the room, with a desk next to the front door. Glancing towards one of the windows he noticed it was nightfall, and he could hear talk coming from outside, though very faint.
As he attempted to sit up he screamed as body stung from pain, he could hear his own skin tear
from the sudden movements, making more red patches against his bandages. "Damn it!" He cried as he fell back down to his bed. Not even a moment later he heard the rush of footsteps as the door to the room was quickly pushed opened, a woman in a long white coat who he assumed was the nurse rushed in, quickly giving him a worried look as she ran to his side. " Sir your awake! Please stay still, we still haven't gotten rid of all the toxins within your body, Here take this. It should numb some of the pain, Lady Soraka should be here within the hour, just hold on until then." She quickly pulled a flask of some sort from her lab coat, a shiny glass bottle with blood red liquid inside of it.
She had him take a few drinks from the potion, leaning his head back slightly and trying to make sure he felt as little plain as possible, before setting it on a nearby night stand. She then glanced at the bandages, obviously noticing the condition they were in. " We need to change out your bandages before they get infected, I'll give the potion time to run its course before we change them but do be prepared for a little...pressure sir. I'm going to go fetch some supplies. I will be back soon, try not to move very much as we don't want you to reopen anymore wounds. And with that she took her leave closing the door behind her.
His mind seemed to drift off, he couldn't tell whether it was from sheer boredom or the potion he was given, but soon his eyelids closed, and he went back to the realm of dreams. Minutes felt like hours as he was dragged through that same battle over and over again, his comrades collapsing one after the other as the bombings seemed unending. He screamed and begged to be released from this horror
as his pain resurfaced, now more painful than before. All faded to black as he shook himself awake
to find himself back in the hospital bed, but it was now what appeared to be midday. He looked down at his bandages to see that they were fresh.
He slowly rose, noticing that the pain had been lessened heavily, he not only sat upright but pulled himself off the bed. Standing was a little tough but he quickly grew used to it as he limped towards the
bathroom on the other side of the room, and with a little struggle he manage to prop himself on the sink. Taking a few breathes, he painfully began to unwind the cloth on his arm, revealing his brown skin, though to his surprise, was covered in scars both from burns and cuts. He immediately stopped
and paused to soak in the damage that had been done. If that's what my arm looks like... rage began to flood his mind as he messed with the wraps around his neck, quickly uncoiling the bandages so that he could see his skin underneath.
He was not pleased with what he saw. Not at all. His once long silver hair had been burned short and made uneven. His faced littered with small cuts and burns. A large burn scar ran from his left eyebrow
all the way up into his hair ending on at least four inches wide. His left eye had been turned from its original brown to a now warped brown and green mixture, faintly glowing a dark green. Last but not least there was a very large burn scar covering most of his shoulder, crawling up the entire right side of his neck and reaching just past his jaw, small deep scars just barely touching the edge of his lips.
"Look at yourself...This is what they did... first they take away your friends, your family... then they turn you into A FREAK!" He screamed, raising his fist in a burst of rage he punched the mirror, shattering it to pieces. " I swear I'll kill them for what they've done... I'll find all involved in this tragedy and ruin them as they ruined me and my brethren." He took a quick glance at his now bloodied hand, small bits of glass cutting into it. He wiped as much glass as he could from his hand before exiting the bathroom. He was quickly met by four guards, The Starchild a little behind them,her staff in hand. She had a concerned look on her face, they seemed to form around her pointing their spears in his direction. " Please calm down sir, you've been asleep for a few weeks and your body is still sore from the extensive ca-"
"WHAT?! A FEW WEEKS!?" The wind howled as he yelled,blowing the candles out and ripping the curtains off the windows as his anger increased. Wait...what am I doing? They helped me. Why am I filled with so much hate? Sighing he bowed to Soraka and her guards. "Thank you for healing me Lady Soraka, without you I would be here. I am sorry for my previous actions." The guards lowered their spears but kept a watchful eye on him as Soraka walked towards him, each step making small taps against the wooden floorboards. She was about eye level to him, and he was not a short man, infact he was taller than most. She covered his bloodied hand with her own, a glowing green energy surrounding his hand. A sharp pain surged through his hand before he heard the small pings as shards of glass
were pulled from his hand and fell to the floor. Tsking a few times after inspecting the now healed hand she then pulled her attention from it to him. "Lieutenant, you must be careful. Control your anger as your body cannot handle treatment like this. You may not have felt it at first but you almost shattered your hand against that mirror you smashed. You need to lay down and rest until your body recovers fully. Duchess Karma would be in tears if her younger cousin were to injure himself any further. I am here to finish the last stage of your healing as requested by the Duchess herself. "
He nodded in agreement, walking back to his bed and laying himself down." Thank you. How long should this take? I wish to return to the Capital City to give my report of the Couer Valley incident to the Elders." Soraka frowned before signaling to guards to give them some privacy. The guards left, with one staying back to throw a quick glance at the Lieutenant, a glance he was sure carried some level of anger. "At your wish ma'am, I will have my guards post outside the door, If he becomes an issue I can assure he will be dealt-" Soraka quickly interrupted him by tapping her staff against the floorboards and shooting him a dirty look. " I can assure you sergeant that this man is of no threat to me, so please if you will allow me to finish his treatment that would be much appreciated."
With hesitation the guard left, closing the door and leaving the two of them in silence for a brief moment before she spoke. " I apologize, back to our previous topic. This process, considering the amount you healed while I was traveling here is well beyond human standards, should be four to six hours, maybe even less if you continue to heal at the rate you are. What occurred in that valley may have indeed saved your life by holding you together." As she spoke she went and grabbed a chair from the nearby desk , pulling it to his bedside before sitting in it, leaning her staff against the bed. Her face then changed, to a much more serious look than he had expected. "Unless... something happened during that incident. I have sensed a large amount of unknown energy residing within your body that I have been told was not a normal attribute of yours from past medical examinations that I was informed of before this one." Under her gaze he shifted uncomfortably in his bed.
He didn't want to tell her the truth, to tell her how he gave his soul to a demon. He would be shunned,thrown out or maybe even executed, but he was raised to be an honest man, and lying was something he knew he'd regret tenfold when it came back on him. With a gulp he looked back at Soraka. "I...was saved. My death was negated by a demon spirit, one whose named is cursed in our culture. We call him Ao Shin, but he has many names, Nightweaver, The Windraider, etc. But none the less, I made a pact with him, I can take power from him and in return I am his eyes and ears in places he cannot go himself." He look away from her when he was finish, eyes cast downward. " I shall not judge you for your actions, you were in a situation that was absolutely horrific. To push past that alone is astounding.
You may seek to ask Duchess Karma for insight on this situation, she just may have a solution for this problem." She then stood and took hold of her staff, a dim glow forming over it. "Now let's get you up and moving again shall we?"
The process was slow, and within minutes the lieutenant had dosed off again, but this time was different than normal. He felt as if his mind and body had been dragged into a completely different realm. He opened his eyes, and darkness stared back. It expanded for what seemed like an eternity,he could hardly tell he was standing on anything at all, besides the slow rolling gray fog beneath him, just barely covering his ankles. "Where...am I?" He began to look around, before examining himself, he found he was still covered in bandages. "You are in my realm, I have brought you here from your dreams." The Lieutenant's eyes grew wide at his first glimpse of the being approaching him from the darkness, a faint blue and golden glow coming from it making it impossible to ignore as it hovered closer just feet off the ground. Its head alone was his size, a golden metal in the shape of a dragon's head with two large metal horns connected to it,their tips glowing blue, lightning occasionally dancing around and between the pair. Its lower jaw was covered by a long flowing white mane which connect up past it jaw to behind its mask were the rest of its hair draped down its impressively long neck. Its entire body long and slender like a snake, with large bronze colored scales that covered most of its body like a exoskeleton with large spikes protruding from its back. Its arms were surprisingly thin, but covered in scales with razor sharp talons at the end of his fingers. Its underbelly was white, glowing as lightning crackled form it, dancing across his body and over his scales from time to time. His tail reminded him more like a weapon more than anything, as it was thin until it reach the very end, flattening out like a spoon, but with a sharp end along with spikes coming off its edges.
Its blue eyes cast down on him, its gaze alone on the verge of stopping his breath. It moved closer before circling him once, before stopping just a few feet in front of him. "As was our agreement, I am toto make you stronger. As of right now you and I share a link, a bond. Through this bond I can speak to you like this, and give you ever so slight boosts of power, etc. But the power would fade in time unless you strengthen this bond on your end. As our bond is very weak at the moment I had brought you here to keep it from fading." And with a simple flick of its wrist I large bolt lightning flew from its fingertips hitting the man square in the chest before covering his body for a brief moment,before fading. The Lieutenant had initially flinched at what he thought was an attack, but after a brief moment of checking himself looked back at the dragon, who was already moving to leave. "W-wait! Ao Shin! I still have questions!" He spoke suddenly, but the dragon kept his course, fading into the darkness. "I will explain more once we meet again, when your wounds have healed and you have recovered. Plus you have other things to focus on, like how you are going to explain to your family how you made a pact with a "Demon Spirit" as you put it. Heh...You humans always made me chuckle." And in that same moment the lieutenant blacked out, waking up in his hospital bed. Looking around he noticed Soraka having a talk with the guards previously posted outside. He sat up, placing his legs on the floor before standing slowly. To his surprise he felt great, in fact better than he used to be. Soraka upon seeing him smiled. "I'm glad to see you condition has improved from earlier. How are you now overall.?Any lingering pain or odd feelings?" He shook his head no. "None whatsoever Lady Soraka, thank you again for coming out this far to treat me." She then shared a glance with one of the guards, who was carrying a small box which he walked over and presented to him. "These are fresh clothes and the personal items we found on your person. Once you get changed we can arrange transport using the summing pads to go directly to the capital. I have business to discuss as well with Duchess Karma so I will accompany you."
With a slight smile he took the box containing his things and headed towards the bathroom to change.
He had a long couple days ahead of him, and he knew he wasn't gonna like any of it.