by Paul Cude
Stomping straight over to his mother’s green and black form, his heart almost broken, everything about this felt... WRONG! With a capital W. But nothing about the last few minutes made sense, from the smouldering naga corpse on the icy, white floor, to his father ordering his thugs to kill his mother, to this. It was inexplicable, unimaginable, the very worst nightmare possible. Stuck in an unfathomable position, he did the only thing he could... he trusted those around him, his brother and, unfortunately, his father. And so, leaning over his mother, he tapped into all his supernatural power and brought forth the lightest, least dense, purest form of flame that he’d known, and very slowly started washing it along his mother’s prone form.
Instantly she cried out, screaming in absolute agony, his efforts appearing to make things much worse.
“DON’T STOP!” yelled his father over the cacophony. “IT’S THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE HER!”
Reluctantly, and being torn apart by his mother’s abject misery, he continued to subject her to the flame, watching as undamaged parts of her skin turned to charcoal, as pockets of poison bubbled and popped. It broke his heart. It was supposed to.
From close by, Josh watched his brother, willing him on, briefly wondering what he was doing, having no memory of their conversation.
‘Odd,’ he thought, ‘that Man has chosen to do that to her. It doesn’t seem right.’
A short way away, Marg received the lightest telepathic touch, almost as if a search party was trying to contact him. In his weakened and delirious state, all he could do was respond in kind, something that would have huge ramifications not only for his race, but for the planet at large. The dragon leader looked on, taking it all in, knowing that his plan was about to come to fruition, with nothing able to stop it now.
Arching her back, the boy’s mother let out a horrific scream that seemed to last forever, much to her son’s dismay. That nightmarish, out of control, something is totally and utterly wrong feeling that Man had felt from the offset exploded inside him. Against his better judgement, he stopped what he was doing, and turned his giant prehistoric head back over his shoulder to look straight at his father. Taking in the self satisfied smirk that now emboldened his face turned Man’s insides colder than the chamber they now found themselves in. Flame nowhere to be seen, he took a step forward towards his mother, ready to flood her with all the magic he had, having absolutely no idea if that would do anything at all. Healing magic hadn’t been dealt with over the course of his very incomplete training, and so he had no idea whether he could do it or not, or even if it was a possibility.
It was then that it happened, and his world changed forever in an instant. A chain knock-on-effect caused by the flame heating the poison reached a critical point deep within her broken body. Atoms merged as a catastrophic chain reaction that could no longer be stopped took over. Out of nowhere, her left leg exploded, chunks of flesh and muscle flying up into the air.
“NO!” screamed Man, remorsefully, making a beeline for the rest of her body.
It was a good job he was in his dragon guise, otherwise it might just have been the end of his short life.
Two simultaneous explosions, one in the middle of her chest cavity, one smack bang in the centre of her forehead, knocked him back off his feet, no small feat in itself. All that remained of the woman loved unconditionally by the two young boys that had never known anything else was a pile of poisonous goo, spread across quite a wide area. As toxic steam from the remains started to fill the room, the reality of the situation began to sink in. Josh dropped to his knees, tears freezing his eyes open, sniffling and sobbing, desperate to once again see his mother. Across the way, the boy’s father maintained his well practised smirk, standing stoically still, waiting to see how this would play out, confident because of the binding agreement that he’d forged beforehand that no harm could befall him. That only left Man, who was only now realising what had just happened. His father had tricked him into killing his mother in the most painful way possible. A righteous fury and anger the likes of which the world had rarely seen erupted throughout every molecule of his body, boiling his blood, stoking his rage, priming him ready for revenge. Magic ebbed and flowed, fired and flared, filling his body from head to tail. But that wasn’t all that happened, as those around him could bear witness to. The crystalline structures that covered his body started to retract and disappear, forcing him to cry out in pain.
Looking on in disbelief, it was at this point that the leader started to become worried, not liking anything he didn’t understand or have control over. And truth be told, he, just like everyone else, had absolutely no clue as to what was going on.
“Aaaarrrrggghhhh!” cried out Man as scales and blood ripped from his body in the aftermath of the crystal spikes disappearing out of nowhere. Tortured by physical pain and pounded by the psychological pain of having caused his mother’s death only moments before, his huge dinosaur-like body crumpled to the floor, wings outstretched, the whole cavern shaking like an earthquake had just hit nearby. The booming sound was monstrous, as the leader was tossed back off his feet. Josh was thrown across the room, smacking his head into the wall. Their mother’s remains scattered, merging with the surrounding ice and rock. The concussion wave from the impact was enough to end Marg’s life, his serpent-like body thrown up in the air, before crashing down unceremoniously. As the cavern continued to shake, and screaming in the far distance assaulted their ears, magic ignited another change deep within the dragon form of the boy who’d just lost his mother.
Whether through magic, love, betrayal, revenge, anger, rage, loss or a combination of them all, a cold, calculating darkness spread out from the tips of Man’s wings, slowly encompassing his entire body, changing his colour from fantastic shades of brilliant blue, to one all-embodying shade of matt black. It was staggering, unreal, and as frightful as you could imagine. And his outer colour wasn’t the only thing affected. Deep inside, at the core of his very being, where his magic resided, the supernatural power itself was influenced. It too had become corrupted, as that’s what had happened, and it too changed colour, from blistering shades of blue, green, red, purple, yellow and orange, it was now just a dark, dull black, still flaming away, now a menacing source of unpredictable evil.
After thirty seconds or so, the rumbling of the surroundings stopped, and the humungous, matt black dragon stirred.
Josh still lay unconscious at the far end of the cavern, their naga guest curled up, dead not far away. Aside from the deceased thugs, that just left Man and his father, the leader, now gathering up his magic, astounded at the turn of events and not sure what to make of anything.
As his son stumbled to his feet, outstretched black wings helping him with his balance, the leader knew that the time had come.
“You will desist and obey me now!” he ordered, flooding his words with just a sprinkle of magic.
Rising up on his feet, looking down at the insignificant form of his father barking out orders, a righteous fury, at least that’s how it felt, rushed up inside him. With the binding agreement at the back of his mind, something felt different deep down inside him. Rolling his monstrous jaw, squirting out flame this way and that, finally he turned in his father’s direction, intent on having his revenge. Plodding forward despite the orders to the contrary, he smiled as the sudden discomfort appeared on the leader’s face.
‘So the magical binding doesn’t work after all,’ he thought as he whipped around in a three hundred and sixty degree arc, his tail brushing his father’s legs away from under him, causing him to crash to the floor, knocking the wind right out of him.
Full on panic at the thought of being killed rushing through him, the leader, prone on the floor, raised both hands and fired a rapid series of fireballs in the gigantic black dragon’s direction. Man didn’t move a muscle, just standing there, letting the ancient magic bounce off him.
‘It tickles,’ he thought, as yet another fireball scorched his belly.
Terrified
beyond belief, believing death to be only a moment or so away, the leader resorted to the worst magic he knew, giving everything, putting all his willpower behind the effort to kill his son, using up every last drop of power he had.
A sizzling bolt of ethereal green lightning sliced through one of his wing membranes, causing him to cry out in agony, catching him off guard. It was enough however, to detach him from thoughts of his mother, startling him back to the present, refocusing his mind on making his father pay for what he’d done. And so without further ado, he attacked as he’d been shown how by Marg, and with the full force of his dark magic behind it, let rip with a shower of flaming projectiles.
Power spent, he watched in horror as magical mayhem headed his way from the outstretched hand of his son. This was it, what a way to go. But as the supernatural power approached, getting within only a matter of inches from his face, unbelievably, one by one, the projectiles puffed out of existence. It was hard to tell who was the more surprised... the leader, or his son. Both looked on in utter disbelief. In a frenzied fit of anger, Man launched yet another barrage, this time with as much magic and power behind it as his body would allow. The exact same thing happened. More than a little cocky now, the leader rose to his feet, a harsh laughter echoing from his mouth. This just enraged Man even more. With more speed than either of them would have thought possible, the giant dragon form whirled around one hundred and eighty degrees, and with the talons on his feet, kicked the leader straight in the face, sending him ten metres into the air, smashing into one of the side walls. Hitting with a THUMP, before sliding comically down the wall, the young boy dragon was sure that he had inflicted massive amounts of pain. And he’d been right. Broken ribs, a shattered knee cap and three long bleeding gashes across his face from the raking talons was enough to have the leader doubled over in distress. Immediately, Man moved in to finish things off, knowing that one more strike now would surely be enough. Hovering over the pathetic little form, the youngster lifted up one of his massive legs, with a view to bringing it down atop his father, finishing him off once and for all. But with his leg wavering in the air, there was simply nothing he could do about bringing it down, despite putting all his will and focus behind it.
From the ground, another taunting laugh echoed, this time accompanied by a few well chosen words.
“Hahaha... it appears that the magic worked to some degree. You can inflict a reasonable amount of pain, but it won’t let you kill me. How funny is that?”
Now even angrier, Man tried again, putting the full force of everything he had into bringing down his leg and crushing the life out of his father... NOTHING! Frustrated beyond belief, another course of action presented itself. Searching his enormous belly for the tiniest spark of magic, he found it instantly. Commanding it to do his bidding, the spark turned into a roaring fire, which instantly started to make a break for it. As the confines of his throat tried to expand, due to the size of the fireball heading at speed towards his mouth, his mighty jaws opened of their own accord, pointing in the direction of his father. Pleased with the solution he’d developed, he savoured every second, looking forward to the giant ball of flame warming his teeth on its way to incinerate the one being on the planet he hated the most. As the swirling mass of heat and flame exited his throat, into his mouth, the warmth and flame died out with the faintest of puffs, leaving smoky residue lingering in and around his tongue.
‘NO!’ he thought, slapping his wings together in frustration.
“I’m sorry son,” echoed a voice, catching his attention, “but you just can’t do it. The magic won’t let you.”
In that instant, he knew his father was right and that any chance he’d ever had of killing him was gone forever.
Despite the leader’s injuries and the acute pain he was feeling, he was very much the dragon of old, full of cunning and always thinking, noting that Man had absolutely nothing in the way of a mental defence blocking any kind of attack. And so with that in mind, he used the same trick he had on the boy’s brother, but instead of planting a memory he subliminally planted a couple of ideas, ones that were yet to bubble to the surface, but should with just a little encouragement. This particular approach wouldn’t work on most dragons, but Man and his brother were particularly naive and had no real world experience, unlike their father. In essence, the youngster had absolutely no chance, not even able to recognise the attack, let alone defend against it.
The first idea was that the nagas were fully responsible for the death of his mother... not too much of a leap given the poisonous projectiles that had killed her had originated from one of their own. Vengeance and wrath should be brought to bear against them, no matter what.
The second was that the dragons and their domain had a huge part to play, not only in his mother’s death, but in all of their suffering. After all, they’d been confined here by them, all that time ago, left to endure the absurdly low temperatures, left to die a shameful death with no chance of redemption. Again, it wasn’t much of a stretch, but these subconscious suggestions, tempered with just a touch of magic, should infest every living part of Man, driving him on to deadlier deeds, giving him that edge that his father knew was missing from the boy.
Rising unsteadily to his feet, brushing off the ice, the leader winced as he stretched, turning to face his son, hoping that his little deception had started to take root.
“Join me, son. Together we can work out a way to leave this place, visit a whole world of pain on the rest of his race,” he said, nodding in the direction of Marg’s corpse, “have our revenge on the dragon domain, given what they’ve done to us all, and finally take our rightful place in the world order, at the top table, so to speak.”
Conflicting emotions ran riot throughout Man’s huge dragon body. When his father had nodded towards the naga cadaver on the floor, his first thoughts were of sorrow and pain. Suddenly though, bubbling up from nowhere, a dark, crashing wave of resentment, bitterness and hatred washed over him, allowing him to contemplate disgraceful, deadly deeds. As the seconds passed, his mind relished those thoughts... revenge, redemption, retribution... it all made perfect sense, at least to him anyway. In that moment, every last part of him had gone dark... his body, his magic, his character. There would be no coming back from this... EVER!
Echoes from the memories of what had happened over the last few minutes faded in and out of his mind, causing sorrow and pain, anger and rage. A few of the things stood out more than others. Of course his mother’s agonising death, but one other thing as well... his brother’s acknowledgement that he was doing the right thing by trying to cure her with his flame. That had spurred him on, tipped him over the edge. Had it just been his father’s voice saying so, he’d have never done it, never believed it to be right. But Josh’s verification that he was doing the right thing had been enough to spur him on. And so it was, there and then, that he made a conscious decision, one that would see the sibling’s relationship change forever.
“I’ll join you in your quest,” stated Man. “But there are conditions.”
“Really?” replied the leader.
“Yes.”
“I don’t doubt they could be accommodated.”
Man nodded his head.
“We need to get started. I can sense that they’re almost here. Undoubtedly you’ll have to get your hands dirty. Are you up for that?”
“I’ve already agreed haven’t I? My word should be enough for you.”
Sensing that the magic had well and truly taken over, and not even an inkling of deception from his son, the leader smiled, his first true smile for a very long time, knowing that this would be the start of something very special, and that sometime in the future, together, they could look forward to ruling the world. Father and son, governing the planet side by side... didn’t that sound good.
Two hours later, they arrived, unceremoniously shooting up out of the stream, close to the dragon prisoner, a cadre of bodyguards first, swiftly followed by a magnificent look
ing monster of a naga, dripping wet, a keen intelligence clearly visible behind both vertically-slit pupils. Obviously no ordinary specimen, he looked regal and majestic, the very tip of his tail the darkest blue possible, whilst in concentric circles moving upwards, the scales of his body gradually lightened until the palest sky blue beset his head and ever moving gills. Marg’s monarch had arrived, and although he wasn’t there to greet him, a party from the stranded dragon colony was
Man stood silently beside his father, a swirling mass of emotion, cloaked in his human form, trying to remain as neutral as possible, shielding his mind from any sort of probe or query, in case they attempted to get to the truth. Deep down, he felt alive, invigorated and ready to dish out redemption when the time should come. But he knew that it wasn’t now, not least because they could all easily slip back into the stream and disappear out of sight, never to be seen again. Following the plan remained the best bet he knew, so for the moment he would go along with his father, at least until the appropriate opportunity presented itself.
Aware of the conflict inside his son, the leader hoped to hell he’d hold everything in place, at least until they were far away from the stream. After that, he could have the revenge he thought he sought, that would prove to be just desserts for both the nagas and the wicked boy. Until then, he had to be diplomatic, and starting now, he would be.
“Greetings, gentle beings,” he announced, stepping forward towards the legion of nagas that made up a wall directly in front of him. “I am the leader of this small colony. I assume Marg told you all about us.”
“Weeeee reeeeeceeiived hiiiisss meeesssaggge,” announced the most stunning of them all, the wall in front of him parting as he did so.
‘Odd,’ thought all of the dragons simultaneously. ‘Why on earth does he talk like that?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ thought the leader to himself. ‘Soon, he’ll have plenty of time to work on his pronunciation.’