Chapter CIV: Fire Clan

Yubel couldn't think of much worse to happen. She hated her hatchling. She hated herself. She hated being alone. Sartorius cared nothing for her or anything else. He found pleasure only in harming others, be it prey or any animal he could sink his claws in. He'd torn the head off an alligator when it had crossed over his visions when he'd gone back to watching Yami die. He'd named the "gods to come" by Instinct, Determination, and Death. He loved to call them by that, and when Yubel had asked why he'd named them that he'd laughed spitefully and refused to tell her.

She'd settled for watching him much of the time, bitter with abandonment upon failing to see Jaden for so long. Sartorius was only ten moons old and he looked full grown. He'd come to loom over her when they stood beside one another. He was the embodiment of strength and likely pure insanity but Yubel had never cared to say it.

"I'm bored, Mother," he snarled, dropping what looked to be a lion cub at her paws. It was only size and the slight patch of hair left through which she could identify the corpse. The sheer amount of blood clinging to its mauled body made her stomach churn. She wondered if he'd slaughtered the entire pride for fun or if he'd managed to find the cub alone.

It didn't matter, but she was curious.

"And? What do you want from me?" she snapped, voice brittle with aggravation. She hadn't eaten in days. She'd watched the water instead, pleased when Sartorius showed her the Gandora with brilliant eyes and annoyed when the vision faded to nothing. She wished she could watch it all the time, just spy on the so-called deity Sartorius claimed he was.

"Entertain me," he spat back. He flexed his claws and bore his teeth, blood red like dried patches in the sand. "Why do you never entertain me? Is it because you hate me? Surely if you loathed me so much you'd have put an end to me to help ease your suffering, though, right, Mother? But you've yet to lift a paw to me. So how can you claim you hate me? Do you even know the feeling?"

"Oh, don't lecture me again," she growled, turning away and forcing her back to him. Sartorius snarled behind her but did not move around to face her again. He always did that. He snarled and glared, but he never followed through with more. Why didn't he just do more?

It was a sad existence. Why didn't he just do her a favor and kill her?

"Because, Mother," he sneered, "I have plans for you."

Sartorius woke her painfully one morning. She'd barely gotten rest when he dug his claws into her forepaw and pressed all of his weight into it. The bone had shattered beneath the abuse and his claws sank so deep into her flesh that they touched the ground beneath. She snarled and spat, springing to her paws, and he peered back at her coldly, so removed from her startled cry that she was amazed he didn't kill her then.

"We have business to attend to," he announced in a voice full of amusement. He smiled at her, wicked and cruel, and turned away to bound out of the den without a second look. He paused at the entrance, however, when he sensed she wasn't following. She lowered her head to lick the wound, but her tongue never made contact. His voice was so low and furious that she couldn't help but stop short. "I'll heal your paw when you earn it."

Earn it? she thought wildly, bristling as she looked at her son closely. What did that mean?

"You'll find out when you limp along behind me," he snapped, turning around only then to face her. His eyes were drastically cold, like the snow gracing the northern territory, and his mouth was set in a furious expression. "You are wasting daylight and I will not strike fear at night, Mother. I'm too strong for that."

Yubel blinked and hissed softly as she limped forward. "What's this plan of yours?" she demanded. "And why now?"

"It's a surprise," he snarled, watching her with burning eyes. "Now, rise and follow me. It'll be everything you wanted."

Yubel eyed him uncertainly but limped forward, nearly collapsing a split second later. The wound pulsed with agony but her son merely turned his back and led the way.

They traveled for a while, in which dirt caked into the wound and stifled the bleeding but also made the pain a thousand times worse. Every movement sent jolts of pain through her. Her stomach twisted and knotted and her flesh was burning by the time they got anywhere near the destination Sartorius had in mind. The hatchling stopped a little while after the sun had reached its zenith and turned to her.

"Well, well, my timing is superb," Sartorius snarled, drawing his lips back into a sneer as his eyes flashed brilliantly. He tucked his wings into his sides and lashed his long tail, raising his head. "The Clan is preparing for the leader to step down at sunrise tomorrow."

Yubel blinked, then bristled. "You plan to wage war on the camp? Aren't you severely outnumbered?"

"Outnumbered?" Sartorius purred, stalking toward her. "I don't need an army. I am an army, Mother. I'll devour them all."

"Why?"

He watched her, eyes glittering like stars as he leaned closer so that their beaks almost touched. His voice was like claws raking through flesh and her hearts raced as they locked eyes. "You wanted so badly to see Jaden again, didn't you?"

Yubel blinked and a surge of hope tangled with absolute bitterness swelled through her. Did she care to see him anymore? He'd abandoned her. What did it matter if she saw him again? It wasn't important. Jaden had chosen his path…

Sartorius grinned, eyes sharp as talons, and Yubel felt something. It was like a thorn pressing into her side, but it migrated along her spine and slowly forced its way into her head. It was as if something had burrowed through her bones. She blinked, startled, and found herself staring at her son as he smirked even wider, eyes burning into hers.

"What are you doing…?"

He grinned wider. "Why don't you rest, Mother?"

She went to argue, but there was something dark and bottomless that raced to meet her and she collapsed.

Yubel wasn't aware she was moving when they landed in the center of the camp. Sartorius stood and shook himself out, bones popping in his long neck as he purred. The Clan was gathered about, startled, staring up at him in alarm. The leader had turned to him, eyes wide with shock.

"I'm glad you're all gathered here. It would have been a hassle to have to hunt you all down and drag you back here for a meeting," he announced, turning to the leader. "And I'm so happy to see you understand the span of your use as a Clan leader. It's always so much better than allowing a leader to outlive it and waste away before your eyes."

"And you would be?" the leader asked stiffly, almost half the size of the enormous hatchling. He was all wired muscle and strong bones, and yet the Tyrant was absolutely dwarfed in strength and posture. "And for what reason are you here?"

Sartorius grinned, all sharp teeth and burning eyes. He purred as he craned his neck toward the Fire Dragon, lips peeled back to show the dark ridges of his red fangs. "I'm here to take over the Clan," he answered softly, eyes like bottomless pits. Yubel didn't move but for her eyes flickering toward their onlookers. None of them seemed to even recognize her, as if her absence had sent them into disregard…

It did, Sartorius snarled in turn, voice full of hunger and resentment. Your sisters even forgot your existence when you left. There is not a shred of recognition in any of them. Look, the very dragon you thought of as your own father stands before me now and disregards you as a strange entity.

Yubel bristled but didn't respond. It was exhausting to answer him, especially when it made her head throb just to consider it. The sound of claws in her skull made her ears ring dully. She didn't want to think of how truthful he seemed. The Tyrant seemed far too preoccupied with Sartorius to even notice her, and she had the feeling that even if he had there would have been nothing joyful in their reunion. He had taken her in grudgingly, only because her father had been his best friend and he'd begged him to take her in when he'd been too badly wounded to make it another year. She'd begged him not to go, and he'd snapped his teeth at her to stay where she was before limping away to die. She still remembered some of the others taunting that they'd found the body, that he'd rotted like a useless rogue in the desert…

"You?" the leader scoffed, laughing. "You're but a hatchling, no matter how unusually large. How do you expect to take over a Clan?"

"You wish for an explanation?" Sartorius snarled, sounding outraged. He raised his head and loomed over the Tyrant Dragon, the cruel smile growing wider. "You think yourself worth an explanation?"

"Y—"

Sartorius surged forward so quickly Yubel almost missed it. He slammed into the Tyrant, forcing him to the ground so quickly his spine shattered upon impact. He snarled and snapped his teeth into the Fire Dragon's chest, crushing the ribs and almost flattening his upper half. The broken body was tossed forward and Sartorius opened his jaws wide enough to almost swallow the other male's head. He ducked his head at the last second and aimed for the chest once more.

The dragon who had been standing beside the Clan leader rushed forward. She raced for Sartorius, about to sink her teeth into his shoulder. But the Divine laughed and his paw shot out. Blood gushed brilliantly across the air and the female was flung away and into a nearby pillar. She hit the ground, blood flowing in rivulets and several organs lining the tips of Sartorius's claws.

He blinked and looked over. "Anyone else?"

Despite herself Yubel felt the smallest surge of laughter and perhaps even affection for the hatchling she'd so often resented. He was there and he was…punishing the Clan that had abandoned her even as she was growing up in it. Her adoptive father had resented her from the moment she'd arrived, disgusted because she'd looked nothing like her Gandora parents. She looked nothing like her father and somehow that had been her fault. The most she'd inherited from him was the barrel chest and the gem sitting in the center there, as if she meant to mock onlookers with her strange features. When she had left not a single dragon had cared. And none of them had so much as blinked at her when she'd arrived alongside Sartorius.

They didn't even recognize her.

Likely they'd all convinced themselves she was dead and refused now to acknowledge otherwise.

Sartorius thrust his right paw forward, soaking it to the joint in bright blood from the leader's broken corpse. He looked over at the rest of the Clan, then snarled, "Hatchlings are to come to me. Do as you are told and you shall be granted mercy."

They were almost thrown forward, the dragons were so startled and frantic to save themselves. Sartorius looked each of the dragonets over, baring his teeth as he sniffed them. Each breath was sharp and gusting. Several quivered relentlessly and others growled and spat at him in a panic. Sartorius studied each of them more intently, then chuckled. He chose five of the ten, an even half, and smeared blood across each of them from helm to beak. Then he shoved them aside and surged forward to devour the other five.

Yubel flinched and tried to back away, but something held her in place. Remain, her son's voice spat, echoing through her skull and keeping her there at his side. She could barely breathe as the dragonets' bones crunched and their cries of panic were cut short.

Sartorius shook himself out again and turned away. He didn't look back, spitting, Stay here with them. Kill them if they should move before disappearing into one of the tunnels behind him.

She didn't move. They were too shocked to do much but gape. It only occurred to her after the gulping noise and the sound of something breaking beneath claws that he was destroying the nests in the nursery. One of the females moved and Yubel snarled, bristling furiously and baring her teeth. She was shocked by how mindless the action was, as if Sartorius had placed a command over her rather than simply given instruction. It was amazing to her how intense the sensation was, how little willpower she possessed any longer, and how strong his command seemed over her.

She wondered if it was just her son's will suppressing hers or if she really did hate them all so much…

Both, his voice sneered, and she wondered at how true that was. Maybe he was lying. But maybe he wasn't. She didn't know anymore. It seemed to easy to blame him, but she still felt that bitterness she had when she'd originally left the Clan to begin with.

So didn't that make part of it her fault as well?

When Sartorius returned, he was covered in a mixture of mucus, yolk, and blood. His teeth were blackened and his chin dripped sludge of yellow and red. He snarled softly as he stood before them. His eyes shot to the sky, toward the sun, and after a moment he took a seat and lifted a paw to begin cleaning the gore from it.

It was mid-afternoon when the Divine raised his head, looking up again, and stood. The Clan hadn't moved but for breathing hard and staring, crouched on the ground and peering at them both with horrified expressions. Yubel still didn't see any recognition in their eyes, as if somehow they'd forgotten she existed altogether.

The resentment came full force once more.

Perhaps they deserved to die if they could not even recall one of their own.

But then she remembered they hadn't quite thought of her as such, either, because she'd always been the outcast. Being so strange in appearance and barely resembling her Gandora parents had done a great deal of damage as she'd grown.

The female to raise her had hated her upon meeting. Her adoptive father had all but dismissed her existence. Her den siblings had abandoned her to loneliness the first chance they'd gotten. She'd been forced to listen to the ridicule, afraid to flex her claws or show her teeth for fear of reprimand. And now she wondered.

Why had she feared them?

They were all too afraid to interfere now.

Maybe they always had been.

Sartorius glanced at her sideways but did not turn to face her. "Now, the few of you spared…shall shed your blood for my amusement," he announced, stepping forward and raising his chin with a smirk. His eyes had dilated, pupils turned to pinpricks, and his muscles tightened along his shoulders. He snarled softly and flicked his tongue, a disturbingly black muscle which danced in the air before his beak. "Each of you may spill blood to save yourselves. Prove yourselves worthy of the second chances you were given to live."

A Blackland Fire Dragon, likely barely older than Sartorius himself, stood stiffly before them. The dark green scales were a sore sight against the red of the desert sand and the spines along his back rose into a series of furious spears. He peered up at Sartorius with such defiance Yubel was amazed her son even allowed him to keep his eyes in his skull.

Later, Mother; I'll punish them all later.

Sartorius smiled at the defiant hatchling, teeth bared around the blood on his mouth. "I see you'd like to go first," he purred, voice dripping with amusement. He jerked his muzzle toward the only female of the group. "She's your opponent."

The Blackland bore his teeth, snarled and bristled, and snapped, "I'm not laying a claw on her."

"Not to your liking?" Sartorius asked, in that same sickeningly amicable tone. He didn't look nearly as murderous with the expression he wore, despite all the blood covering his face. "Who would you rather fight then?"

The Fire Dragon lunged. Sartorius never ceased smiling. He reached a paw forward, angled it upward, and gutted the other hatchling even as threw him to the ground. The blood spray was enough to soak several of the others standing nearby and Sartorius purred louder than ever, chuckling. The Clan was frozen before him, eyes huge and horrified as they considered the dead bodies. Her son smiled wider, sat up straighter as if he were being presented to a God Dragon for a Blessing, and purred somehow louder.

"I hope we've established my stance on opposition," he announced, smiling at them somehow impossibly even wider. Yubel was statuesque, staring at the severed, bleeding body, and wondered how far Sartorius had dug his claws in. Had he severed their hearts? It was a terrible wound, but it should have begun at least to stop bleeding, to mend enough for the second heart to pump and…

Sartorius turned to her and ran his tongue over his paw. She could see it then. There was a heart on each claw, hooked and flat and weeping. She stared, too horrified to move, and watched him slowly swallow them whole. The smile never wavered and his eyes shone like stars. Yubel wanted to puke but there was nothing in her belly and her head was swimming, caught between horror and fascination.

How had she…created this?

How had she laid this monster's egg?

She remembered the taunts from her siblings, how she looked like a monster. Her sister had said more than once she was glad she was barren. Another had snapped at her they were glad she was so loathsome to look at, as it made them all the more noticeable.

The resentment that came was sharp and sweeping.

The anguish she'd originally felt upon seeing Sartorius kill them was gone almost immediately. She blinked, horrified she could feel something so strongly after watching something so terrible happen. But it passed. She looked at her son and Sartorius peered back, cold and glittering eyes like gems, and her stomach churned as they watched each other.

Are you understanding now? Sartorius growled, pleased with himself. I'm going to make the world pay for my loneliness, my boredom. Your hatred for them overwhelms every other emotion you've ever felt. What does it matter if you are to witness them all pass from this world to the next? You'd have no desire to save them, even if I had not overwhelmed you before our visit.

You killed Zane and Syrus. They were your brothers…

And they were so entertaining, always playing with each other and never me, he snarled, voice growing spiteful. He turned away, looking to the remaining dragons, and stood slowly. He was relaxed and easy in stance, shaking himself out, as he announced, "The females shall remain within the center of the camp. The hatchlings shall return to their nursery, and all but Otogi, Paradox, Pegasus, and Necrophades will remain to stand guard of the dens the rest of you will be spending your time in. Understood?"

A moon passed. The Fire Clan was down to almost bare bones, with the majority of the females succumbed to illness and exhaustion as the males were starved to death. Sartorius had mounted every female in the camp so many times most of them had not recovered from the gouge marks lining their sides, nor the pain of having the Divine Dragon forced upon them so often. Eggs had been laid prematurely, hours after the mountings, and he'd eaten more than half of them. Yubel was not even sure what was driving him to these extremes any longer. She didn't understand why all of this kept happening. It was an endless cycle. He mounted, they laid their eggs, he ate them, and then it began again.

The males confined to their dens were constantly starved and kept at their weakest so that they slowly died much as Zane had. She'd wondered at one point if he even knew what he was doing anymore. She knew at nights, when she was forced into the den beside him, that he watched the water.

He kept watching the dragons he claimed were gods to come, staring as if it might somehow bring him answers. Yubel was sure at some point he'd forgotten why he'd begun his tirade, and why he was there to begin with. More than once he'd muttered about the visions changing, and she'd seen Jaden striking the one he had so affectionately named Death. Instinct had then killed Jaden, while Determination seemed shattered and listless upon watching.

The vision in the water for Death had changed the most, from what she understood. He'd been struck down by Jaden, devoured by a dragon of dark scales and strange blue crackling energy, with immense jaws wide enough they seemed able to swallow a lion whole. He'd been killed by Instinct, and struck down by Determination, his throat ripped out by Yusei, and the dark blue dragon had only grown stronger and stronger. Instinct seemed to die fighting the blue dragon, and Determination was killed long before…

"You should get up and give the eggs a moment to breathe," Sartorius growled without looking up from the puddle. She bristled slightly but he didn't turn to her. The task of incubation had been put on her, because Sartorius said she had no further future as a mother but perhaps one opportunity he would reveal later, and the other females were not to be trusted. They were only playthings, to be forced to his will and die slowly of infection.

She did as he bid, craning her neck.

Instinct had ripped Death's throat out, Determination long dead in the image. His rotting corpse lay feet away as the two red males scrabbled, and Instinct stood with blood gushing from his jaws as he dropped the hatchling and turned to take a seat beside the corpse.

"I think my ability is twisted around," Sartorius snarled suddenly, standing and turning to her. "I only see the shifter every now and then, and he's the one I want. He's the one that must exist."

She blinked. "What?" She tilted her head. Was there a fourth one? He'd only ever spoken of those three. But she'd noticed more often that the dark blue one and that strange gray and black one with enormous jaws had become more apparent recently.

Her son blinked back at her, eyes dark and glittering like lava stones, and then slowly looked to the water. She wasn't sure what had crossed his mind, but the images changed rapidly. The blue one was shaking the limp body of the deity he'd named Death, and Instinct lay dead feet away. Sartorius watched the display for several more minutes, then turned back to her with a sneer.

"Well, look at that, Mother," he purred. "I have more use for you than I originally thought."

Yubel licked the gouge marks lining her right side and watched the camp as the two hatchlings were selected to be thrown into the center to fight. The Red-Eyes had just hatched a moon prior and the Tyrant was several older, standing tall and staring defiantly back at Sartorius. Otogi had been feeding him more than the others, taking pity on who seemed to be the former leader's son.

Sartorius had known the entire time but pretended otherwise. He'd laughed and sneered at him, but overall had seemed underwhelming in his punishment. He'd knocked him around a few times and declared he was to starve for a few days. It had been much smaller a punishment than expected.

Yubel thought him distracted. Sartorius didn't seem to care much about what was going on in the camp but for the bloodshed. And even that had slowed substantially as of late. She almost wondered if he was bored. He seemed disinterested in the Clan and more involved in her misery than anyone else's.

She still didn't quite know what had changed, but for the fact that he'd dug his claws further in and made her life that much harder.

Her son looked over, studying her, and smiled cruelly before turning away again. He was dismissive and lazy as he padded across the camp. The females nearby flinched, desperate to avoid yet another mounting, and she herself almost snarled with displeasure. Her sides still ached and the gouge marks had remained despite the constant grooming since they'd been inflicted.

"Are you ready, Mother?"

She blinked and looked up. "For what?" she spat, exhausted.

He purred. "You'll see," he snickered, turning and heading toward the nursery to retrieve the two hatchlings he meant to pit against each other. She bristled and shook herself out as he wandered away. The remaining Clan members were small where they watched Sartorius move about. His eyes were like embers as he approached the nursery and Yubel swore he saw his jaws move as if he were saying a word, but she felt she must have been mistaken…

The Tyrant Dragon hatchling sprang for him but never made contact.

Sartorius chuckled and raised his head, teeth bared into a furious smile. Yubel felt her legs tremble beneath her, entire body seized with shock. The remaining Clan members raised and turned their heads, startled and hopeful.

"Hello, Father."