A Dragon's Tail
Xenologue I: A Dragon's Tail
-Somewhere… In the unknown place at the unknown time…
How much time had passed since they started doing this? No one knew…
The blood-red candles on the table were the only source of light in this chamber. Anywhere else where the candlelight couldn't reach fell into the embrace of the darkness. The light they gave was just enough for the only living creature in this chamber to do their work.
Other than the sound of the glowing candlelight, the only sound that echoed through this chamber was the sound of a quill being dragged on the paper. It sometime was replaced with the sound of a quill dripped into the inkstand, and then the sound of quill dragging on the paper came back again. It was the thing that the one in this chamber was doing.
The last alphabet had just appeared from the ink-dripped quill onto the paper when a flash of deep purple light appeared for a second, and after the light disappeared, the host realized that they were not the only living creature in this chamber anymore…
"I remember you…" The host of this chamber said while they they put the quill back into the inkstand and looked at their guest with a skeptical feeling within their heart. "It has been quite a few decades since the last time we met…"
"… Forgive me for being blunt, but I didn't come here for a remembrance." The guest spoke with a blunt voice as they walked toward the table where the host of this chamber was sitting.
"Impertinence, aren't you?" The host said with a hint of sarcasm in their voice. "You know what? You are some of the most interesting creature that I have ever met…"
"… This is just who I am…" The guest said with a nonchalant voice.
"Are you?" The host spoke up again. This time, the guest didn't reply, so the host continued speaking. "Enough small talk. Now, tell me why did you approach me in my own chamber? And I know that you know what would happen if your reason for crossing your line isn't good enough."
"…Before I say anything else…" The guest spoke up again, this time, with a cold voice. "Do you know what happened atValley of No Return?"
"And do you know who are you asking that question?" The host answered with a sarcastic voice.
"… And so, why didn't you do anything about it?!" The guest seemed to be angry after hearing the answer from the host. "Didn't you know how terrible those barbarians did to everyone?!"
"You speak as if you don't know who I am." The host answered with a calm voice. "And what would happen if I get myself involve with this affair? Arceus wouldn't be very pleased."
"… Don't tell me that you're afraid of Arceus?" The guest asked with their arm crossed.
"…Do you really want to die that much?" The host said with a cold voice to the guest.
"No." The guest answered.
"Then… Let me tell you this; I am not afraid of Arceus. They are the god of Pokemon, and so am I, so there's no reason for us to fear each other. However, the reason why I don't want to get myself involved with the mortal affair is because of those 'pets' that Arceus has." The host continued speaking.
"Pets? What an inappropriate word…" The guest said with their arms crossed. "Personally, I'd prefer the word 'Slaves' instead."
"Slaves? Hehehe…" The host let out a small laugh before they continued speaking. "Tell me if I am wrong or not, but your hatred toward those Hero/ine of Legend seem to almost match mine…"
"Wrong." The guest said. "My hatred toward the Hero/ine of Legend is equal to, if not more than, yours."
"Arrogance, aren't you? To think that you have something equal to the god, but I digress." The host said sarcastically. "Back to our topic… What happen at Valley of No Return in the Land of Equilibrium was truly a tragedy, and the cause of it is the Hero/ine of Legend, whose heart and spirit are blinded with madness. And, trust me, if I could, I would go to that filthy land and obliterate those pets of Arceus since the moment the tragedy started!"
"… Me too." The guest spoke up, this time, with a calm voice. "Back when this tragedy occurred, I knew nothing about it, and when I finally know, it was too late…"
"…" The host didn't say anything.
"But I don't have a plan to grief on my mistake." The guest continued speaking, this time, with a more serious voice. "What I must do now is take an action by stepping into this!"
"… And what are you planning to do?" The host asked.
"I shall purge the world from the corruption caused by those with the Blood of Legend, and then the whole land will fall under my control!" The guest answered.
"… So, basically, you just want to conquer the world? What a stereotyped villain you are…" The host said.
"You are mistaken." The guest spoke up again. "Who want to take the control of that filthy land? Not me, of course. All I want is to teach them the meaning of fear for what they have done!"
"And what are you planning to achieve that?" The host asked.
"Are you sure that the information you told me is valid?" The host asked with a plain voice without any emotion.
"Absolutely." The guest answered. "And this very information I obtained is what I will use to achieve my plan."
"… Now, now… This is really interesting…" The host spoke with an enthusiastic voice. "This is the most interesting thing I have heard since War of the God III…"
"And as I said, in order to achieve this plan, I need a help from a god like you." The guest continued speaking. "What would you say? Not a bad deal, isn't it?"
"Quite a tempting deal, I must say." The host said. "However, would you alone really capable of doing all of this?"
"One person can make a difference." The guest said. "Moreover, I have never said that I will do all of this alone."
"… Fine. I accept your proposal." The host said. "It really feels weird that it was me who say this sentence instead of you, isn't it?"
"Indeed." The guest said. "Now, shall we proceed to the next step?"
"…Finished." The host said.
"So… This is the feeling of…" The guest mumbled as they looked at their body.
"I guess that I don't have to tell you anything more about this, right? Because you seem to be familiar with this more than me." The host said.
"Not really…" The guest answered. "I just know a bit too much about this thing."
"Perhaps…" The host said.
"Now that my business with you has finished for now, I shall take my leave right now." The guest said. "I still have a lot to do before I could achieve my plan."
"Not so fast…" The host said as they waved their paw a bit, making a chest suddenly appear beside the guest! "Take what's inside this chest with you too."
The guest said nothing as they walked to the chest that had just appeared and opened it to examine the object inside it.
"…Seriously?" This was the first word that the guest said after they finished examining the object inside the chest. "You want me to have 'these things'?"
"Precisely." The host said. "And I think that someone like you would be able to grasp the reason why I want you to have it."
"… Because I am now your 'slave'?" The guest said with a sarcastic voice. "And this is the thing that identified me as one?"
"Nope, you are my 'pet', not my 'slave', but other than that, you are right." The host said with a half-serious-half-casual voice. "However, that's actually half of the whole reason why I gave this to you."
"And what's the other half?" The guest asked with an impatient voice.
"Like a pet, it will serve as your 'leash' and 'collar'. If you try to abandon your plan and run away, or worse, betray me, I will just pull you back and 'punish' you." The host said with a nonchalant voice.
"… Are you serious"?" The guest asked with a cold voice. "That's really… kinky."
"Nope! I lied." The host said with a casual voice before they changed their voice into a more serious one. "But I must warn you that you must not forget what you have told me, as well as what you have gotten yourself into, or else you may have to face the unpleasant consequence."
"I know what I am doing. There's no need for you to tell me." The guest said as they 'took' the object in the chest with him. "Now, there's nothing else, right? I have so many things else to do."
"… What are you going to do next?" The guest asked.
"…It's time for me, for the first time in this century, to return to the place where I once called home…" The guest answered, this time, with a rather sad voice. "And then I must correct the mistake I did."
"Come to think of it… It has been a few years since that… tragedy happenned." The host said. "And I can sense that the seal is gradually weakened, so…"
"… For a god, like you, and a non-mortal, like me, yes, it would be a few years…" The guest said. "However, for a mortal, such as 'them'… Whatever, I'd better get going now, before anyone else reaches them first."
After they finished speaking, the guest walked toward the exit of this chamber, but before they could reach it, they were stopped by another word from the host of this chamber.
"One more thing." The host spoke up again, this time, with a mysterious voice that completely concealed what they were thinking. "… Just before you came here, why did you go to the Colorless Garden? And… What had you done to Frostic?"
"!" The guest was greatly shocked after hearing the words of the host, but they were very good at concealing their emotion.
"Don't forget who I am." The host continued speaking. "I am the God of Dragon type Pokemon, so there's nothing that you could conceal from me, including what you had done before."
"…I just 'need' something that's in the possession of that Kyurem." The guest said with a nonchalant voice. "However, that Kyurem refused to give it to me peacefully, so I had to assort to the method of 'violent' a bit, which results in that Kyurem and his—"
"That's enough." The host said. "I didn't mean to disagree with what you had done. In fact, I appreciate you for what you did at the Colorless Garden."
"You do?" The guest said.
"Right." The guest nodded to the host. "Frostic needed to be taught a reason for betraying me not once but twice. This also applied to that fairy who's praised and adored the 'Goddess' by the Pokemon on the Land of Equilibrium. Both of them deserve this."
"... Then, I shall take my leave now." The guest said. "Farewell for now, Dragon God."
"You too, Bahamut." The host said as a flash of pale blue light appeared at where the guest was standing, and a second later, the guest was nowhere to be found, leaving the host the only living creature in this chamber.
"…"
After realizing that they were the only creature in this chamber, the host of this chamber looked at the story they had just finished writing. However, it seemed like the entire story wasn't finished yet, as the entire story they had written so far only took up about half of the whole paper.
After finishing reading the entire story so far that was written on the paper again, the host of this chamber picked up the quill again. However, instead of continuing writing it, they moved the pen toward the head of the paper, above the start of the entire story, before they started writing again…
Within the darkness, the light from the candle reflected the word they just wrote on the cover of the book as…
"A Dragon's Tail"
To Be Continued…
Dragon of Vale: Hello again after a bit of hiatus after the end of the sixth tail, and we aren't moving to the next tail yet. Instead, here's the first 'Xenologue'… Okay, some of you may know that I got the idea of 'Xenologue', as well as the 'Paralogue' that appeared before, from Fire Emblem series, but let me explain how does 'Paralogue' and 'Xenologue' work in this story.
Let's start with Paralogue. Paralogue is a chapter with a 'special event' about the main characters. It could be a holiday or festival, just like the Paralogue I, or it could be just an interactive moment between the main characters (Such as they play games together or something else), which would be the future Paralogue. Paralogue will be the chapter that reveals more detail and personality of the main characters, as well as serve as a 'relaxed' chapter in order to decrease the 'tension' of the story. (Especially after the sixth tail because the story will get much more serious.) Mostly, Paralogue won't have anything to do with the main story, so you can skip it without risking of leaving out an important story, but still, it wouldn't be a bad idea to change the mood once in a while, right?
And next, the Xenologue. Xenologue is the opposite of the Paralogue, as it would be a chapter with an important detail regarding this story. It could be either the story from the point of view of the character who are not the main protagonists, just like this one, or it could be… something else. Oh, and don't mix Xenologue with the 'Interlude', as Interlude would be a series of the story from the point of view of other characters, while Xenologue would be a story, mostly single, from the point of view of any character who are not part of a current group of main characters. Unlike Paralogue, most Xenologue tended to be a serious chapter, but because it holds some important detail regarding the story, I strongly suggest that you shouldn't skip it. Oh, there's one more difference between Paralogue and Xenologue. In this story, Paralogue would appear much more often than Xenologue.
Enough with a long detail. Let's talk about what happen in this Xenologue. It seems like this is a scene between two characters. One of them is the 'Dragon God', wait, is he one of the gods that was mentioned by Richard in Tail 5-3? And the other character in this Xenologue is Bahamut… Wait a second, is he the same character that appeared in the Prologue of this story? And the name Bahamut... Where did I hear this name before in this story?
After this Xenologue, the next chapter would be the 'sub-tail' I mentioned earlier in this story! This time, we will return to the point of view of the main characters!