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Ryūmō
Prologue - In Another World...
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Luscious Luna glid effortlessly in the inky blue aether, watching the realm with an analytic, cold, monochrome eye burrowed from searing Sol's shine, surrounded by gleaming dots of burning gases many miles away, granting little light to nocturnal beasts under Luna's full-ocular lamp yet enhancing the ethereal beauty of the cosmos beyond this Earth's pull and Sol's warming, prideful reign.
The rustling and bustling forest dotted with orphic polychromatic fungal lamps sat beneath the half-luminous stone in pandemonium symphony: each creature, great and small, playing its part in the enchanted acres, even those you'd typically see in daylight hours still pondered their territories: Brooding, breeding, courting, competing, foraging and hunting, one's rest is another play, no matter what time it was, rain, shine, snow or storm - this simple woodland of biotic lights didn't have even a minute of silence.
A pigeon-sized reptilian avian flew on two, handless, pterasaurian wings, surfing across the oak-land's canopy on weak currents, a half-dead rat clenched in a foot, calling out in an eerily sweet shrill - almost akin to the whistle of a farmer to their cattle dog - from its needle-tooth maw while eyes shinning strawberry red gazed forwards while it cruised threw the air, listening intently for the shrill reciprocating it's own; if one were to peek at the chubby, eye-bulged, hyperventilating rodent, they'd find a synchronised bite wound of needle-point teeth upon the neck, swollen but dried with blood and saliva.
Before the studious reptile could return the call of the almost adjacent reciprocate, gigantic wings flapped weakly above, sending equally weak yet foreboding gusts towards it.
Without a second thought, the little bird-lizard dropped into the canopy, using the atrophied claws upon its wing to grasp a branch, rustling the branch as it grappled unto the perch yet keeping the paralysed quarry within a firm grip. As much as it could muster, it hoisted onto the bark perch by the wings, managing to balance upon it despite the deficit being the potential gift to the reciprocating opposite on the other side of the canopy. With its sharp-as-knife vision, the little reptile bird gazed upwards through the leafy roof at the being responsible for the gusts; only to land on the silhouette of a great, winged, saurian beast soaring silently aloft the biotic jungle.
When the giant soared past, the wyvern resumed its quest for copulation, fluttering out of the canopy as swiftly as it could, returning to the search on wide but sharp-edged wings - quarry clenched and still fresh.
As for the soaring saurian beast in question: it also continued with its quest, unbothered by the spying eyes of the woodland; its ashen grey, hairy mane flowed through the wind along with its equally hairy beard and long, flailing, white catfish whiskers, contrasting but blending well with the burnt crimson pigment of its scales, which gave its silhouette below the glittered night sky - its somewhat rotund physique held in the air by a pair of vast feather-shaped, membraneous wings, effortlessly holding the beast with only the most minimal of wing-beats, despite the amount of encumberment it would have to carry such a heavy, almost serpentine bauplan through the breathless atmosphere. As it cruised through the air atop the shrubbery, their soul windows: fiery crimson irises surrounding gold-rimmed slits, gazed forward to their destination, snout sniffing the air for the target.
And it was right on the bitter-sweet, cinnamon trail.
Catching the scent with his bloodhound - if not keener - nose, the great saurian slowed the soaring into a gentle landing posture: folding the wings closer to the almost dumpling form, gliding down to the gaping maw of a cave, crowned in a varying mushrooms, mosses and several young mangrove trees, granting the mouth of the craggy grey grotto a curtain of vines growing down from the crown of green; it sat the small bai next to a river like a resting beast in a field of grass and flowers.
The winged saurian of dark crimson scales landed heavily upon the grassy soil upon its four, taloned feet akin to a feline, tucking wings tightly beside its form before trudging inside, silent and broad steps of a giant resounding mutely through the soft ground, transitioning to bony clinks upon stone as it entered the rustling entrance of the rocky shelter; twin flamming, stringent soul windows shining through the dark gloom like a torch. Then, when the entrance was some feet away, it sat down with a tired huff, saurian tail extended placidly behind and only four metres from the den's mouth.
"Lammergeier," The draconian beast called to the gloom through a maw of tyrannosaur dentures, voice rusty as an old man, bouncing off the walls as it travelled into the den, echoing with the resonance of an aged general. "I need to speak with you, Lammergeier" he enforced.
Responding to his call, another pair of eyes lit agape, the left shined an audacious orange fire of red veins while the right gleamed with a putrid purple glow like that of a firefly, each encompassing a slit pupil: both alit like twin torches yet half sealed and blinking slothfully, attempting to wipe away the sleep; followed by a prolonged yawn with wet clicks of a dry mouth whilst the sweet-sour smell of cinnamon wafted into the locale like the pollen of a flower.
The old draconian gazed down at the pair, which were closer to the ground compared to his, bending his sauropod neck to level its head with their position as it sat, possessing the posture of a patient vulture. The old saurian could see the movement of a right eye being rubbed, "I heard you the first time, ya' know..." another voice, gloomy, youthful and fatigued, spoke.
"Why didn't I hear any footsteps?" the much larger - ten times that of the being it was watching through the black - elderly saurian queried, wondering how they got there so fast if he were asleep.
"I apperated, dude, I know this cave like the back of my wing," the younger being elaborated, sounding annoyed at the end.
Pops of joints and the preening of feathers - discerned by the keen senses of the draconic giant - resonated, "Anyhow, what brings the Colonel of Chaos into my humble abode?" he questioned partly playfully, the sleep in his voice fading, now transformed into the dialogue of a more attentive young lad.
"You know the rumours of my daughter, how she escaped into another world after her near-death encounter with Jubileus?" The old magic saurian resumed his purpose of visiting, referring to the events that happened a year ago, about how a heretical dragon known as Tohru - one of his eight children - tried and failed to bring down the chancellor of the Gods, dying as she did (according to witnesses) before it turned into the news it was today.
"Yeah?" he encouraged solemnly, but the answer would be contradictory to what he was thinking.
"Well... Those rumours are true."
The heterochromatic sights in the dark sparked as electricity would, "Santa mierda! Really?" his tone resounded with disbelief, "You sure it wasn't Zeus!? Jubileus slaughtered thousands with just their hands!"
"I know, I was just as shocked as you." the old saurian responded, "'Since when does the Chancellor of Divinity show partial mercy upon a descendant of Demise?' I asked. And yes, I also assumed it was Zeus due to them having similarities..." He sighed and clutched gently unto his beard, Innately, he twiddled some strands of fur with his great talons, "though I'm glad she's not dead."
"Good on ya', mate," the young one lauded, "Did you try to bring her back?"
The old man of a lizard huffed slothfully and halted his fiddling of chin hair, "Yes... But, as it turns out, a year in the other realm did a number on her motives; she's decided to live with a human known as Miss. Kobayashi, whom Tohru proclaims to be the one who saved her from the sword after her narrow getaway. What's more baffling is that Kobayashi possessed nothing of the supernatural, blessed or damned: just an ordinary, pedigree human living in a world vacant of everything in this one." The Colonel of Chaos then sparked his flames down at the Lammergeier in the shade, "I'm sure you are familiar with the world I'm referring to?"
And that he was.
"A mere human, with no specialities to speak of, pulled a God's sword out of a dragon?" The young one's tone turned from disbelief to flabbergasted discovery.
Sure, in his youth: He travelled to worlds populated by cockroaches, beings that screamed to grow their potential, monsters with summoning abilities from a soul, cybernetic worlds, half-magic worlds and even worlds that had humans granted with gear capable of answering desires of the wielder. But when a human from a world devoid of such specialities - which he visited years ago - then either this human was lucky or the sword the Divine Chancellor struck upon Tohru wasn't meant to kill her but to send a warning to not repeat history: Like the sting of a bee, curable yet painful.
"Indeed." The old Colonel Dragon agreed, "Thanks to these altered views upon our faction and freedom as a whole, Tohru disobeyed the code of Chaos, returning to the realm after a week of staying in this one, and so I had to try and fetch her back," he gave a frustrated huff through his nostrils, "She's bull-headed, that daughter of mine, almost Sorann, if not calmer."
The Lammeigeir gave a bored huff, rolling his eyes; the left gleamed with annoyance and the right glossed with frustration, remembering the damn hassle it was trying to get the seventh child of Demise to pay him after that wager they made, "Yeah, way calmer." He soughed out.
"So she went back. What happened next? She challenged you so she could stay with Kobayashi? Which she then won?" he continued, hitting the nail on the head.
"Correct, Lammergeier. Yet it wasn't so much a fight, but more of an argument... Quite a familiar to me - rather than the training and preparation I used to do back in my days of fatherhood."
He huffed before swiftly yanking a tuft of hair behind his crown of bamboo brown antlers, gazing at it as he held it within his talon, eyes gleaming of remembrance, feeling nostalgia for the days he hunkered down to raise his clutch: those junctures of fatherhood he felt, through the love, loss, joy, irritation and trial of it all, from the grief of his comrades to the insufferable anguish when he lost the other four children within his formerly twelve egg clutch he brought up with tooth and claw, only to have them perish by a world governed by serendipity.
"Reminds me of the journey I've made through the remainder of these centuries." He spoke, soft and husky, holding back his joyful tears, unwilling to show weakness to one of his youngest comrades, no matter how much rust he'd gain through his now wise dominion over the armies of Chaos.
However, the Lammergeier only stepped out of his shade and placed a talon on the elder's grounded one, unveiling his image to Luna's light.
As his name points out, he possessed the plumage and partial bauplan of a Bearded Vulture, albeit standing on four, scaly grey legs with fluffy calves and biceps; the front pair possessing three fingers and a thumb tipped with blunt grey-silver claws on each finger, while the back pair held only three fingers with even blunter than the fore-pair, more akin to nails rather than claws. Velvety pillowy chocolate-brown wings sat tucked tightly against the slender, lean frame which bared the same pigment as the plumed, folded-in tail laying placid upon the lukewarm floor - as the smaller bird-dragon gazed up at the old crimson-scaled saurian dragon with his contrasting orbs shining with innocent empathy: a pair of young caribou antlers sat at the back of his dromeaosaur scalp; sitting behind his head like a prince's crown, thorny yet premature.
Sitting in the exact position of his old man Chaos Colonel, Lammergeier stroked his left talon while gazing up at him, his smaller fame projecting warmth and comfort to the father of Demise.
For statistics: Lammergeier is comparable to the size of a Shire Horse, possessing the length of a car, counting out his neck and head - the larger dragon could be just over the height of a cottage while being the length of a three-cart bullet train if he were standing on four feet, counting in his tail, neck and head.
"It's alright, Damocles," the small, feathered dragon began, calling him by his name rather than his title "I may not be old like you, neither am I wise like you, nor do I have, like, almost a dozen kids..."
Damocles cracked a chuckle at his overanalysis.
The Lammergeier continued, "But if there was something I learned, through my years of travelling a portion of the universe, is that everyone and everything - no matter how lucky - has gone through their shit, whether it was upon themselves or the path they picked. For you, it was a matter of duty amongst your lineage. Tohru's path, ever since you let her go to explore the world, defying the wishes of the Chaos Faction and your heritage, has turned out to be the opposite of the chaos-craving lunatic you worried about creating; she's living the life that she wants rather than what was beholden. Not exactly how she wants it due to the pressures of blending with the crowds and preventing the government from discovering this world, though less stressful compared to the life she had with Elma, no matter how close they were."
The father of Tohru remembered how the onlookers (hired by his advisor) explained the happenings in her voyage across this fantastical realm, how she coped by lonesome and interacted with opposing dragons of opposite clans, especially with the twelfth grandchild of Telne; their entire interchange could be a report of its own! In fact, it may as well be an example of how opposites attract, only to separate some years later.
Perhaps this human is Tohru's strategy to move on.
While it was nice to hear the speech from a young dragon such as Lammergeier, especially due to the conflicted state he's been in these couple of weeks about one of his prime daughters sharing residence with a being who could barely live past a couple centuries - this wasn't the reason for his visit.
Damocles turned his snout slowly from the smaller dragon's gaze, attempting to resist the innocent and somewhat slumberous, heterochromatic eyes; sealing his flaming soul windows as he did, trying to recall the motive of his visit. 'Ah, right. His student.' The old dragon remembered, caught up in the speech the Avian Dragon gave that he almost forgot.
"There is another reason I came to you Lammergeier," Damocles spoke, resuming his serious disposition and authoritarian tone. The Lammergeier retrieved his scaly hand from Damocles' scaly talon, resuming a more serious gaze of his own, switching off the lamb-like gleam both his ocular pulsed.
Clearing his throat and setting his firey gaze upon the bird dragon, he continued: "While I'm pleased my daughter is happier with her more peaceful existence, I'm not pleased with how she may cope with her new environment; keeping shackles on her to stay 'normal', I want to know if she's prepared to stand against threats if they take advantage of her weakness and wreak havoc upon that world and risk unveiling this realm's existence, as you stated earlier." He unleashed a nerved puff from his nostrils like anxious cattle, "We don't know what other secrets that world holds, thanks to what our spies have uncovered from their system and remarkable weapons they hold... They could rival that of the Gods..."
Lammergeier titled his head, antlers and eye patch streaks leaning with them as his eyes sheened with conspiracy, timing the prior points into a knot: "A lesson in Chaos?"
"Correct," Damocles pointed, "But I don't want you performing it; I heard what you're like in combat..." He paused, conserving his patient vulture stance and iron gaze upon Lammergeier, who returned his head to its natural position, however, his right eye carried a relatively bizarre twinkle in the depths of his soul which pulsed within the peculiar iris; it lasted less than a second but it was noticeable to eyes such as his, even in his centuries-old age.
'Do Ehetal or his mother know of this...?'
The vulture dragon with orange sunrise feathers and a black-spotted beard felt a silent tension grow with the emperor of Demises' gaze, who stared directly into his soul with curious but sceptical intent - it was nice to look at those pyroclastic rubies, but not nice when they seemed analysis whatever it was you had. "Yo... D'? You alright?" Lammergeier queried awkwardly, squinting his amber and amethyst eyes in an equally suspicious look.
As if awoken from a trance, Damocles' eyes sparked in awakening before resuming his serious character, "Ah, m-my apologies," he stammered awkwardly, "I just thought I saw something in your feathers..."
"Do I have something in my feathers?"
"No, just my odd imagination..." The Emperor of Demise stored that reflection for another time, "Regardless, I need you to teach Tohru a lesson about Chaos and test her resolve in those crises. Besides the young Kamui, I heard you have another student?"
"Flamming Noodle?" Lammergeier queried with a toothy grin, bladed teeth gleaming audacious amber in the moonlight.
"I don't quite know who that is, but I hope you're referring to Ilulu, the Lyndwurm?" Damocles summed up, according to what he knew when he refers to noodles.
"That I am, dude!" He gave a proud huff as his heterochromatic eyes lit with pride and joy, "Yep, she's been learning a lot while under my wing!"
"Is she available to speak to?" Damocles questioned formally. "Oh! No," Lammergeier's tone turned more monotone and solemn, "She had a rough day, came here earlier and just snoozed it off. I'm not quite sure what it was, and neither did I ask; whatever it was, she was as depressed as she was when her parents died..."
Damocles hummed gruffly in understanding, "Be sure to tell her what I said, she must be furnished, for the lesson begins tomorrow," He promptly stood up from his seat, stretching his legs and old muscles as he did, "I shall tend to my duties, have a good night."
"You too, man!" Lammergeier returned with vigour.
"Oh, and one, paramount rule." the crimson-scaled dragon spoke as he turned, his tail hovering over the Lammergeier's head, "Yeah, dude?"
Damocles' head turned slowly to face the smaller dragon, eyes aglow with pent, hellish fury, voice growing gruff.
"Do. Not. Kill her."
"Gotcha', I respect you, after all, and so does she!" Lammergeier shot back with no ounce of fear whatsoever, mock saluting with his grey-silver talon, eyes aglow with innocent energy.
The old father of Tohru felt the sense of partial relief splash onto him, though still itching with minor worry for his daughter's safety. Fortunately, while he learned about the tendencies he developed quite recently, Lammergeier is not a megalomaniac; he knows that from the years he knew, from when he was a yappy fledgling who just left the nest to explore to an individual impressive amongst the Avi-Gon's many mages, a rank that only the few could reach and fewer journey to.
Honestly, his mentor and parents have all the right to be proud!
"Have Ilulu informed, before the lesson begins tomorrow," With that statement, he trudged quietly out of the humble cave through the creeping plant entrance with a resonating rustle ringing the den, "Regardless, it was pleasant talking with you again. Have a good night." Damocles announced before he entered the Bai. "You too, boss man! Hey, come round more when you have the time!" Lammergeier resounded with vigour, calling from his seat, soul windows aglow with excitement.
'That erratic vulture,' Damocles rolled his eyes, hiding a smile before he took off into the air at the flaps of his mighty wings, making his way to his home territory South of the luminescent, biotic jungle.
As the old bearded lizard left, the young bird lizard stood up from his seat and stretched like a feline, outstretching his wings, unveiling their great width and length whilst a pumped tail swished in the air from its position behind him - If one looked closely, they'd spot a couple of odd, black veins contracting at the bald pits of the finger-tipped wings, more akin to roots rather than blood vessels, however, they were sheathed under his fine coat of chocolate brown feathers.
Turning his attention from the maw, he prepared to resume slumber, swivelling his lean form to the embracing gloom of the cave. Only to set his eyes upon another pair which gazed back at him with innocent curiosity; they writhed a poisonous pink blaze, youthful but potent, encircling slit irises which gazed at the Bearded Vulture straight into his own.
"So now you're awake," he remarked with a shallow frown, "how long were you standing there?"
"Long enough for the big D' to tell you about what's happening tomorrow," the eyes replied, a voice potent with girly punk spunk which hissed softly as it added, "So tenacious T' has found a new home, eh?"
"Seems as if, and it came with a replacement!"
"A replacement for love? That's somethin'." The girly punk remarked, "They were so close, they shoulda got a room when they still had it!"
The Lammergeier promptly stood up on his back legs, his tail acting as a counterweight and giving him a tripod stance, levelling himself with the much higher pair of eyes.
"Well, love's complex, Noodle," Lammergeier began, placing his hands together "Just because they had a spark it doesn't mean anything outside it couldn't weaken it: the conflicting ideals they had as opposing factions, and the differing perspectives they had on freedom; Tohru's was being free of any sort of obligation to prevent desiccation of oneself and the motives they had, while Elma's stood as doing what you felt was the benefit to the majority rather than the minority. While they had their moments where they could connect and conflict - which can work hand in hand within any relationship - after that day when the inner tensions grew terrific enough to turn Mibia into Hiroshima during World War Two, which it still is today: that says a lot about the forces both were under." his hands were miming the events like a puppet show, with his final statement shaping his hands into flat plates, once perfectly aligned before they slid over each other with a scrape of claws on scales.
"Fair enough, yet those were the human's fault; if they didn't treat Elma like a Goddess and stuffed her face with food then none of that would have happened, they would still be together!" The poison-pink eyes reasoned.
"Elma would have taken that roll with or without sweets and treats, all she wants is to quell conflict and bring peace to the world." Lammergeier huffed through his nostrils at the end of his snout, closing his eyes in mild annoyance, "Unfortunately, for her at the time: peace is armed, more than willing to bring down competition if it means maintaining an authority, no matter the leader at play."
The punk tried to find an argument, eyes squinted in thought while she thought, only to fall on no ideas for his proclamation, sulking slightly with a quiet sigh.
Deciding to lift her spirits from defeat, especially after the dark grey rainy cloud she was in hours prior before she slept for the day's remainder, Lammergeier reminded her: "Though they ain't the partners they were a two decades ago, they're still friends! I mean, kinda enemies outside, but friends at heart."
"Heh, yeah. They're damn funny now." punky remarked, "and also damn stupid." She remarked with a pinch of salt; those two were like peas in a pod when it came to reasoning, yet one isn't easily persuaded by food, the other doesn't resort to throwing fists willy-nilly, though, generally speaking, they are practically made for each other; just take away the petty arguments and they have and they're just competitive dragons more than happy to take the plunge for what they love, sacrificing themselves in the process if it means seeing a brighter end for their comrades. Despite the conflicting heritages and factions.
"Anyhow, it's getting late and we need an early start!" Lammergeier cut the conversation short as he strutted his way into the comforting gloom, comfortably walking upon his two feet. The punk giggled innocently before turning her body to his trajectory and heading into the lair for sleep, their footsteps responding throughout the chamber, scrapping and slapping unto the stone floor.
"Also, 'Lulu?"
"Yeah, bro?"
"You don't mind doing a favour when you get to the other world tomorrow, do ya'?"