Chapter 1: The Crash
(Setsuna Damius Before chapter, notes: So this is my first actual story, and not a fanfiction. I’m used to writing about creatures, since I like my pokemon fanfictions >.> This is a story, a love story, between an anthro-dragon and an anthro-wolf. If you don’t like the pairing. I’m sorry, just don’t read it. I’m a writer, and I shall be free to write as I please. However if someone doesn’t like it, like one of the forum manager’s they’re free to delete it, or tell me to change it. They’re the police, and I respect them for creating an awesome forum. Since it’s their forum, I will do anything to comply by their rules. Everything in this story will NEVER EVER go past PG-13. I swear on that. Delete my account if I do. I will say though, I’ll sometimes write about blood. Not like psycho insane amounts of blood, but I mean, some violence is in this story. Well otherwise ENJOY!)
I opened my eyes. My head hurts. Just the right side of my head. Something came down over my right eye. Something wet, warm and thick. I lifted my left hand up, and noticed how much pain was in my body. My arm felt like lead, my body felt like it was light. Not good. My vision was blurry, and it looked like the trees were swaying much more than they should’ve. I felt my head with my left hand, since it was hurting less. I used my fingers to rub my helmet. The helmet was strangely hot and then I felt a dent that was shaped like a line.
Then I curiously poked around and discovered a claw like dent along the right side of my helmet. My helmet was made out of steel, reinforced by magic, and the inside was lined with soft cotton. I pulled off my helmet slowly. My ears jumped out, in rejoice to the freedom. The air, as if greeting my ears, came and tickled the fur in my ears. It felt good, and I relaxed my muscles. Pain shot up my arm like static electricity and I looked at my right forearm. I could barely recognize it. It was charred with burns. Probably third degree burns. It looks nasty. I attempted to revitalize my arm with magic, but I couldn’t feel anything from it. I urged my arm to twitch just so I know I still could use my arm, and my fingers screamed with damage calibrations. The pain was so strong, I felt the pain run up my ears. The fur on my arm was so grotesquely damaged, I decided to not think about it. Then I felt my head with my left hand. The damage had gotten through my armor and went to my head. I could feel a bruise on my head, and blood was speeding down my head. I looked down, at myself, and saw blood had soaked my vest. My black vest felt heavier on one side and, it had a red tinge. I slowly stood up, balancing myself against a tree. And soon I was off on a dizzy walk through the forest.
The silent trees of the forest surrounded me, almost hiding me. It was a good thing. Most soldiers would argue otherwise, since they want to be found. I on the other hand, don’t. Up in the skies there could be anthro-dragons. And I think there are enough good reasons, why I wouldn’t want an anthro-dragon to find me. I looked around, I need water first. I was alone, on this summer day. It felt like it’s been a while since I was alone. I looked back. No one was there.
I looked up at the sky, and I could’ve swore I felt my mind just rocked back. Not good. Need water. And definitely for my arm, if I don’t do something soon, I was probably going to lose my arm to infections. It was just my luck that I heard the water. I bounced forward, and ran towards the sound. Water!
The gurgling water came from a small river stream, which was better than nothing. I pulled off my vest careful, not to touch my right arm, and dipped my left hand in the water. It was cool especially in the summer heat. I splashed the water on myself. True my fur would weigh more if I do so, and I would need to be dried, but right now I just wanted to beat the heat. Then I took a sip from the water. I could almost feel the difference in temperature going down my throat. When was the last time I was comfortable without my clothes. I reached back behind my ribs. I could feel the scars from a time much before this fight. They were still there, and I was still embarrassed about presenting myself to anyone, without a shirt. I took a sip of some more water and then braced myself to clean my wounds. I dipped my arm in the cool stream and I cursed under my breath while doing so. The pain more intense than the burn itself. But soon I got used to it, but I dared not touch my arm. Then I rubbed some water on my head. That hurt as well, but I could live with the pain.
Suddenly I heard something move in the trees above. I paused, my ears twitching softly. I reached back and grabbed my vest. I looked up, there was nothing there. I put on my vest. If it’s in the trees and it’s hiding, there’s two explanations. One it’s a native that I have not yet heard about. Or two, it was an anthro-dragon. I’d put my money on an anthro-dragon. It knows I’m somewhat injured, but it doesn’t know that I have minimal access to magic at the moment. Or it was a grunt that had no idea what it was doing, except following protocols. Whatever the case, I was weaponless. I even left my helmet, which was one of the worst things to do. If someone was going to track me down, they would do it by scent, and it would be easy to find me with my helmet.
With my arm, still in pain, I decided to keep my ears on alert. When suddenly from the sky a dear fell and splashed into the water before me. It was dead, due to a large bite wound on its neck.
“Ah!” I gasped.
I rolled back and landed on my feet, half squatted, instantly sticking out my right arm, ready for spells. Except my arm was in no condition for spells. Then suddenly a cold talon touched my shoulder.
“Boo!” said a blue figure behind me. I rolled forward and twisted around. I stuck my arm out, ready for spells. Once again my arm was very well useless. The anthro-dragon was small and no taller than me. Most dragons this day and age, were probably a couple feet taller than the average anthro-wolf. The only reason we were able to keep at them in a war, was because of our trained weaponry, our access to destructive and healing magic, and our strong teamwork. The dragons on the other hand were much stronger than us. They had access to magic that allowed them to beef up any part of their body, including the ability to breathe whatever. Acid, lightning, steam, fire, ice. History even recorded one that had an invisible breath that would turn opponents into crystal. However we also had a strong access to technology, and that kept us alive in this war.
“Oh please, I know you’re so hurt, you can’t use magic.” Said the being as I relayed the information to myself. “You guys can’t use magic from a portion of your body that’s too injured. Hence you can’t heal yourself. Unlike you guys we can still use magic.”
This is where I die, I suppose. I will refuse to become a slave to a being of scales. The muscles in my face pulled as I bared my fangs.
“Really, now you’re bearing your fangs at me?” she said, chuckling. Actually a dragon this small I may be able to defeat her if I just had a sharp object. Unfortunately our vests had little inside them except armor. “Cute.” She jabbed sarcastically.
“Silence.” I said angrily.
“Really now you’re ordering me around?” she asked insulted. “You’re already fell for a trap.”
My eyes stared at hers. Those slit pupils, she seemed to tell no lies. Then I felt it. From my stomach. A numbness that felt like static churning in my body. “The water.” I groaned. But how? There was no scent.
She poked her head and said, “What is your nose focused on?”
The burning smell. I answered immediately. Of course, my blood and the smell of my own arm burning would cloak my sense of smell.
“And now good night.” She said.
I ran at her, but the poison took hold of my legs. Then the poison tripped me, and put me into a deep slumber.
My eyes opened. I looked around, where was I? I sat up, the strange air-headed sensation had been replaced by pain, which felt somewhat better. I looked around at what seemed to be the walls of a cave. Light, from a fire, danced across the cave mouth. I tried to move my arms, they seemed to be stuck. I looked down at my arms, some kind of steel gauntlets connected them together. Though I noticed, there were many books and notes stacked haphazardly everywhere.
I looked towards the source of light. A dragon sat down, she hummed to herself softly. It was the sky-colored dragon that had sedated me. She seemed to be cooking in a pot, over a fire. I looked around the room. The walls were covered in bookshelves that held notebooks and books. The cave was shaped like a tunnel and I sat towards the entrance. I noticed that a single blanket was put over my body. Was I going to get tortured or something?
The dragon turned around, and walked towards me. I attempted to act like I was still asleep, by slamming my body into the bed and closing my eyes. The dragon yawned, bored, and said softly, “You suck at acting.”
I kept quiet but she said,” I have no interest in torturing you or something. I just want to know what’s going on in the world.”
I gave up and opened my eyes, I sat up and remained silent.
“I’m an estranged dragon.” She said, softly. She sat down by the bed and said, “If I wanted to. You could’ve been the broth in my soup. Wolf tastes well when cooked correctly.” She smiled at the thought, as if suddenly cooking me wasn’t such a bad idea. And there were more than enough teeth, in that smile to gnaw my head off. “But, I value information over anything. So tell me how the war is coming along.”
I stared at her, almost dumbfounded. Almost. I’ve seen some weird things in my life, she was going up the rankings like a hit record.
“Hey, it’s all I’m asking for.” She said with a shrug.
“The war is a stalemate,” I said breaking. “There’s not that much information here. I just joined recently.”
Looking disappointed she walked back to the fireplace. Whatever she was cooking smelled a bit spicy. Wolves like spicy.
Then without turning her head she talked to me. “So what happened to you?”
I raised an eyebrow, and as if she had eyes on the back of her head she said,” What? As an estranged dragon, I’ve got nothing to hear. It’s boring and quiet. No sign of intelligence. It’s quite depressing actually.”
I decided to start my story off. “I was a newbie in the pack I was with. However I was an ace straight from the magic academy. We were a group of five. A spec ops squad that was trained to get as much information and cause as much damage as possible, before leaving. There were spies that said that a fort was being built nearby.”
“So that was what they were staging. Sorry, continue.”
“Me and this other guy, we went in with a set of bombs. The mission was supposed to be quick and easy, but then suddenly they appeared from behind us. My teammate to my right was immediately killed. I jumped forward and turned around. I let loose a quick bolt of lightning, forcing them to back up. The alarms of the fort construction site went off and I ran. I didn’t care which way, I just needed to escape. It was just my luck that I ran towards the edge of a cliff. I was cornered, about 4 dragons had backed me to the edge. I was about to fire a spell, but one of the dragons suddenly spewed fire at my arm. I barely dodged, but I couldn’t move my arm in time and I got roasted. With a final attempt I jumped off and tried to use my other arm to slow my landing by shooting fire, with my other arm, to propel myself upward. I was halfway down when a dragon must’ve slammed my helmed really hard. I remember, I fell and landed into multiple trees. And with the final bit of conscience I had, I moved under a tree, and fainted.”
“Hmph,” she grunted softly. “Sounding not so interested.”
“What?” I asked.
“Well it sounds like dragon and wolf relationships never change.” Said the sky-colored dragon with a bored sigh. This dragon was definitely weird.
“What are you going to do with me?” I asked, curiously. I tried to filter out any emotion that I had in my voice. But it was hard to do so, when your enemy could easily roast you over a fire and cook you for breakfast. Or eat you raw. Or fly me to the sky and drop me. Or all of the above. So my voice sounded almost like a whimper.
“I guess I’ll keep you around for science experiments.” She said, once more sounding bored.
“Science, experiments. Hold on, did you just say science?” I asked. “Better yet, you can speak our tongue.”
I had just remembered, dragons and wolves have different languages. I had gotten so used to people speaking my language, that I completely forgot dragons have their own language. Once again, this was my first time on a mission, so of course I’m not used to it.
“Nope I just said, ‘let’s cook you over a fire and roast you.” Said the dragon.
“That’s more like it.” I said.
“No I was being sarcastic.” She said, frustrated.
“Oh. So, you’re a dragon, that has interest in… Science?” I asked raising my brow. Okay, that does it, she just entered, my top ten weird events list. I think she broke the record, and she’s going to hold that record. From our point of view, dragons are like primitives. So long as something works, they’ll keep using it. We wolves, have interest in ways of making things better and more efficient, hence the whole technology gap. We have printers, they have writing utensils. We have light bulbs, they have oil lamps. We have toilets, they don’t.
“This dragon’s name so happens to be Ceara. And yes I like science. As the weird one, I got banned from my kingdom.” She said, looking back at me. She sounded displeased by my surprise. Dragons get violent when they’re not ‘pleased’.
I looked around. These notes were hers I guess.
“I’m quite glad to have a guinea pig that can speak a language. My last guinea pig was that poor deer. Not so good for experimentation.”
“So what kind of experiments are you going to do?” I asked.
“You’re already in one.” She said.
I raised my brow again. I swear, this dragon seems to always be one step ahead of me. Did she have some sign of ‘intelligence’? We were raised and taught that dragons were not intelligent. They can speak a language, sure, but they never advanced in terms of technology. We always thought of them as these beings that just so happen to speak a language, and understand some kind of technology. Like Apes. Just somewhat smarter and understand how to use crossbows and cannons.
“Those gauntlets you’re wearing are specially made for extracting magic from a being.” She said. “And since your arm is useless, I’m sure this is going to be something interesting to you.”
“Why do I need the other gauntlet?” I asked.
“Oh just to make sure that you won’t try to escape.” She said. “And oh yeah, if you try to run, that gauntlets will blow up on you. Taking both your arms and a portion of your body. It’s like holding a bomb, so please don’t stray too far from me.” She says this happily and nonchalantly as if this was not so important.
“So what do you want me to do?” I asked.
“Take that gauntlet for a go. Shoot fire, water. Do something!” she said.
I aimed my arm at her.
“I should probably warn you aiming at me is also a bad idea. I die, those gauntlets go ka-blooey, got it?” she asked.
‘So another words, you’re going to be my slave forever.’ I imagined her saying this in her happy voice.
I stood up and felt the weight of these gauntlets. They were heavy. Imagine trying to stand up out of your bed with twin four year old little brothers clinging onto both of your arms. That’s how I felt. I aimed my two hands towards the mouth of the cave. Outside I could see an orange sky, the sun was setting. The purple was abnormally purple but beautiful like mixed paint. I looked out of the cave. The cave was at the top of a small grassy hill. Down the hill, was an empty field of grass. And then, looking further out was the dense forest.
I used both of my arms, to fire a fireball towards the sky, which quickly burned out in the air. It felt like my magic was filtered. I guess the gauntlets weren’t perfect. I took a better look at the gauntlets. These things were thicker than the rest of my arms and felt like like they were made of pure metal. They were attached in such a way that I can’t figure out how I would take them off. Somehow though the gauntlets weren’t making my arms sweat, they made them feel cool. The iron was very simple, not much design was put into this. It was like wearing over sized cans.
(Setsuna Damius: Alright, the name’s Setsuna, or Damius, or Setsuna Damius. I’ve been a writer for maybe two to three years. I tend to make these notes on my fanfictions, so far I’ve made 4, and I haven’t finished any of them because two of them are past twenty chapters. Each above 3,000 words. Some can cross over to 6,000 words. I’m proud. Anyway I like to write, and I like feedback. I’ll post art on here to when I can. Sometimes maybe certain scenes from this book, sometimes a comic version of this book. Who knows what I’ll do. I don’t know how often I’ll post a chapter. So here’s what I’ve been told on another website, by one person: That I overuse said and I need to explain the history of my story more. I’ll most likely get more into that sooner or later. So give me some time, on that. As for the overuse of said, I didn’t change the amount of said’s being used, simply because I thought it was best to see myself improve, you know?)