From the Ashes (Black Harbour Dragons)

by Jadyn Chase

  Her soft, muffled, panting breaths chased the subtle steps of her running feet. I couldn’t be sure why she was running, I just knew she needed me. It wasn’t until I got closer, leaning into the turn on my bike, I saw who she was running from … The Onyx Skulls.

  Their breed of Scalers managed to find a way to keep their wings while in their Anthros form. Those black metallic wings glistened in the light but draped over their human bodies like leather trench coats. If any of them scaled, they’d open up while releasing their more reptilian nature. The Onyx colored, cracked, scales wrapped around their eyes and down their snouts, while the rest of their bodies filled out with matte black scales. Thankfully enough, it was only two of them and one of them I knew personally.

  It was a rare thing to see Finch Skinner out in the rubble. The leader of the Onyx Skulls rarely did his own dirty work, but here he was trying to make a meal out of my ward. She didn’t know she belonged to me, but she was certainly about to find out.

  “What are you doing over here, Skinner?” I called out. The girl cowered in fear as smoke billowed from Skinner’s nostrils.

  His black tar coated fingernails were at least an inch long as he waved them in front of his face while bowing to me, “Excuse me, Your Highness. We’re simply out here gathering succulence for our dinner tonight. But I saw this delightful morsel and couldn’t help but want to add her to my playpen.”

  The sliver of drool in his mouth as he spoke of it made me sick. I shook my head, “She’s off limits, Skinner.”

  “Oh no,” he sucked his teeth and clutched his chest, “You know the rules. No mark, no limits. Now if you have a problem with that …”

  He was going to give me trouble and if I only fought his lackie then I’d leave her open and vulnerable. I parked the bike and shut it off. Cracking my neck as I got off the hog, I barely let my other foot set on the ground before I took off at full speed. Leaping through the air, my greyish blue scales erupted all over my body. Charcoal grey wings sprouted from my back while hints of my royal blue underbelly reflected off of several pieces of broken glass littering the floor.

  I grabbed both Skinner and his crony taking flight into the sky, letting my fiery beast out of my Anthros shell. Skinner didn’t take this lying down as he broke free of my grasp, opening his wings and spinning into his dragon. He was considerably smaller than me, but those damn talons were sharper than any blade I’d ever felt. But, my flames were hotter.

  He attacked me while his worker scaled and did his best to hold his own. He was no match for me. One swat from my tail sent him scurrying away. It’s a rare thing for Black Sapphires to be traveling alone. I’m sure it’s the reason he didn’t want to hang around thinking I had reinforcements coming. Skinner, on the other hand, loved a good fight. Setting himself up to charge me, he roared into the early afternoon sky.

  I braced myself as the brunt of him hitting me mid-air knocked the wind out of me. I couldn’t believe a puny little thing like him packed such a punch. He didn’t throw me off for long as I spun around, flipping him off of me. The clean swipe of his talons through my skin irritated me as it burned while the cold air sliced through the wound. I locked my teeth around his throat and tossed him against the side of a building. He wanted to charge back at me, but I saw the defeat in his eyes. He couldn’t survive another hit like that.

  Instead of attacking me again, he climbed the side of the building until he reached its makeshift rooftop. There were only two or three floors still intact as he found his way toward a guarded space. Skinner dropped to his knees while his Scaler faded into his Anthros form. Those wings remained just as they were, wrapping around him once again. It was like a cool wind blew forcing him to pull his jacket a little tighter. They engulfed him but couldn’t mask the bloodied lip and injured arm. He must have hit the side of the building hard. That’s what he got for challenging me. He knew better.

  “You know you can’t just go around taking whatever you believe is yours,” he shouted to me.

  Landing on another rooftop, I scaled back, shouting to him, “I can do whatever I want. I’ve never interfered with you guys, but her? She’s off limits.”

  “You’re going to have to do much more than that to keep her off the menu,” he sneered, “The first thing you should do is get her a decent leash. You can’t claim something you can’t find, or that doesn’t stay put.”

  With that, he took off into the building. My eyes scanned the area below looking for her in the spot I’d left her. She was gone. Even worse? So was my bike.

  After making my way back to the street, I couldn’t help but inhale deeply. Her scent never took long to hit me, but in the heat of the battle, the only scent I could focus on was that of Finch and the stench of his filthy scales seeping out of the open wound on my arm. I had to take care of this first.

  Want to know the costs of doing battle with an Onyx Skull? Their cuts and bites didn’t heal as fast as others I’ve had. Normally I could watch my wound close up without a second thought, but these were different. So I headed toward the only person I knew could help me.

  The docks of Black Harbor were abandoned like the rest of the city and off-limits to most. You had to know where you were going; who you were looking for. Even as a Black Sapphire, I only came down here in the daytime.

  With every single inch of me ready for war, I walked around an abandoned building and headed toward the only dock standing. The waves were dark with hues of blue and green. I wouldn’t dare set foot or talon in it. The first post holding the dock in place held a ladder that stretched down to the river bed. Low tide kept it visible, and in a few hours, if I wasn’t out of here, I’d be swimming out.

  Under the dock, the darkness made it feel later in the day. A steel door, obviously out of place, stood a few feet in front of me. Without saying a single word it opened up, and one of the most beautiful creatures I’d ever seen welcomed me inside.

  “Morning Aya,” I grinned.

  With grey coils spilling from her head down to the floor, her eyes flecked with sparkles of emerald green in a sea of light blue. The soft brown trails of freckles wrapped around her eyes, down to her neck, and presumably around the rest of her body like a swirling tornado. The honey complexion buried under them glistened as the lights of her dwelling kissed the peaks and valleys of her silhouette. A sheer silk gown clung to her slender frame revealing just enough but hiding everything all at the same time. She was the only Scaler I knew with gills. If it weren’t for those three tiny slits on both sides of her neck, I’d imagine she’d be someone’s pet as an Anthros. But make no mistake, Aya wasn’t weak. She couldn’t be held by anyone or anything. She was special, and it’s why I went to see her.

  “Come, come boy,” she waved me into her kitchen area. The smell was a mixture of flesh and cinnamon. You weren’t allowed to ask questions. You were only allowed to greet her, speak when spoken to, pay, and then leave. She turned on a light before yanking my arm out into it. She groaned, “Them Onyx Skulls are nasty little things aren’t they?”

  “Yeah,” I grimaced as she dragged her fingernail through the cut. I watched her drop a bit of my blood into a vial. It shimmered an all too familiar shade of gold, but those Scalers were supposedly extinct or very rare. “Is that Golden Imperial-”

  She cut me off, “No, no, no.”

  I forgot the rules.

  She pulled a few drops from the vial, poured it into the gash, and massaged the flesh together. The last time I came to get fixed up, she used a salve and some stitches. The wound was healed in a few hours. This? This was different.

  It burned for a few seconds, but then like I’d never ran into Finch, the slash was gone. Flexing my fist, opening my hand and closing it tight, I turned my arm in the light, there was nothing. Not even a scar.

  “Two,” she grunted. Aya, with all of her beauty, spoke very little, if at all. I handed her two of my royal blue scales. Every so often Scalers would shed, molt, whatever... and for someone like Aya, those scales we
re useful. I don’t ask her what they’re used for. It’s not like she’d tell me anyway.

  Just as I began to leave, a shift in the air swept through her cavern under the docks. Aya and I both looked to the door. The tide was coming in. It was most definitely time for me to go. Bidding her farewell, I left her dwelling. I climbed the last rung of the ladder in time to see the water wash onto the shore beneath me. Relief overwhelmed me; grateful I didn’t have to deal with the murky waves.

  I couldn’t recall the last time I’d been so happy to have my feet on dry ground, I headed back toward the scene of the battle. I wanted to find her. I needed to find her … she had my bike.

  Chapter 2: Whisper

  The streets of Black Harbor were empty, and the skies were clear. The afternoon sun left a bright haze across the city that I’d thought was lost long ago.

  One…

  Two…

  Three…

  Taking a deep breath, I darted out from behind a huge block of cement to chase after the rabbit I’d just seen. At least ... I thought it was a rabbit. Being human no longer meant being at the top of the food chain. The Scalers now held that title. And what did they eat? EVERYTHING!

  So when something furry scurried out in front of you, you nabbed it. There was no other way. It’s an eat or be eaten kind of time, and I chose to do the eating.

  Some Anthros thought the best solution was to become a pet. Then there was no need to hunt or scavenge.

  I’ve heard the stories. I could never… yuck. Who would want to be used, defiled, relegated to wearing the leash of a Scaler?

  The pets did enjoy the luxuries of living in the Towers with their electricity, running water, and overabundant supply of food. But you’d have to survive being the property of a Black Sapphire. The ones who were disappointing often landed with a resilient splat on the ground … some fifteen stories or so below the occupied floors. Scattered remains left for the hungry. My stomach growled loudly reminding me that I was one of them … one of the hungry; not looking for scattered remains. Back to the hunt.

  I swore the rabbit ducked into a pipe. Dropping down on all fours, these light brown eyes of mine did nothing for my sight. I couldn’t help but squint, clenching my teeth along with every other muscle in my body to reach inside the dark space. It had to be trapped in there. The other side was pushed against a steel beam leaving nowhere else for the critter to go.

  “Now that is a position I love to see all of my pets in,” a voice leered from behind me.

  Snatching my hand out, I took off running. It didn’t take me long to break into full speed, but I knew it would only delay the inevitable. Leave it to me to simply think about pets and their cushy existence, only to have a Scaler land a couple feet away from me. I couldn’t hear him anymore. The sound of my own breathing, my feet scraping and skidding across the ground echoed around the barren buildings. I couldn’t keep this up for long, so I ducked behind a wall, crouching to get closer to the ground.

  “That was sweet,” the same voice chuckled, “Are you done now?”

  I turned around to see a familiar face. He always lurked around the underground hideaways collecting Anthros like … well like pets. His wings wrapped around him like a coat. It made my skin crawl. Those long black fingernails twirled in a circle before pointing to me and then motioning for me to come closer. I stayed exactly where I was, desperately scanning my surroundings for the nearest exit.

  The Scaler’s pale complexion contrasted against his wardrobe like a ying-yang symbol. His strands of blonde hair were almost the same shade as his skin. His dark purple eyes grew wide as they took in the length of me. I slowly rose to my feet and began backing away from him until I hit the wall.

  “Easy, Scrumptious,” he laughed, “I won’t bite… unless that’s what you’re into.”

  “I don’t want any trouble,” I called out to him. It was then that I saw another one behind him. He donned the same black wings draped over him like a cape. His eyes darted around as if they weren’t supposed to be here, or like someone was coming. Someone came alright.

  I’d seen him every once in a while; caught a glimpse of those brilliant blue eyes. Those eyes swallowed my entire soul as if I’d dove into the bay off of those Black Harbor docks. But he was one of them. He was a Scaler, and I wanted nothing to do with any of it. I just wanted to live my life. I wanted to hunt my rabbit and finally taste a piece of fresh meat. I wanted to get the hell out of here.

  Bold Blue Eyes was riding a black motorcycle, trimmed in chrome with a motor that revved louder than I’d heard any of them roar. His jeans hung off his body just right, and that shirt he wore didn’t do much to disguise how ripped his muscles were. A healthy body like that told me all I needed to know.

  Anthros, the men, they struggled to eat and didn’t look like him in the slightest. Most of them weighed less than I did, unless they were pets of course. That other one? Dressed in black? Who preyed on anything without scales? He was skinny like most men I knew. However, even with his slender frame, I knew not to test him. I could feel the strength as he motioned toward me. I could see it in the way he defied Blue Eyes, but he wasn’t one to be disregarded.

  Watching him scale from that rugged, handsome hunk of flesh into a ravenous beast of scales and wings did something to me I never thought it would … it impressed me. He sped from his bike to the one appearing to hide behind Skinner, grabbing him and forcing him into the air. Skinner took off into the sky as well. Curiosity certainly made me wonder how Bold Blue Eyes would handle the two of them, but that was the least of my concerns.

  I watched them for a moment before I realized I stood directly under them. At any moment, flames could erupt, they could fall, or even worse … they’d remember they were fighting over me and come to claim their prize. Well, I wouldn’t be the prize pet to either of them.

  Taking one glance at the bike, I decided that it would be the quickest way out of here just in case skinny Skinner broke away from the Black Sapphire tossing him across the sky. It begged me to take it for a spin. At the very least, I could take it to get away from the duel going on in the skies.

  It took me awhile to get the thing started. My training up until now had been reserved to pictures and rough sketches. It’s rare for any Anthros to get a live test drive. Luckily for me, it roared to life just as its owner roared into the air. It sounded painful, but that was no concern of mine. My life was my priority, and right now I had to get out of there.

  Riding through the ash paved streets of Black Harbor felt amazing on that motorcycle. I didn’t have to keep my eyes plastered to the sky. Stepping on stones, glass, and pebbles were an afterthought. The wind whipped through my hair and the sun beamed on my skin. Peace washed over me.

  By the time I arrived at what had been home for the last few years, the sun was higher in the sky than I ever remembered it. Somehow Scalers doing battle in the sky made it an even brighter day. Perhaps it’s because they weren’t hunting us for a change.

  With one and a half floors, the building looked like the shell outside of a complete crater, a waste of space. It’s a good thing Anthros didn’t live above ground. A solid door stood erect in the cinder block wall. It was thick. It was black. It was heavy. A doorbell sat discreetly next to it. Pushing it, a voice erupted from a hidden speaker, “What do you think you’re doing with that thing?”

  “Jasper, come on, let me in! I can’t hold this thing out here for long!” I told him desperately sneaking glances over my shoulder and to the skies above.

  The soft sound of the lock clicking out of place let me know to take a step back. That heavy black door never opened, but the eight by eight space in front of it did. It dipped down into the tunnels just under the foundation of the abandoned building I stood in front of. The square piece of steel, masked as cement, allowed me to roll the motorcycle down into our humble abode.

  Yeah, humble was the word for it. The dark walls wreaked of sludge that seeped down from the street after the rain washed a
way the battles of the Scalers. A string of L.E.D lanterns lit the long tunnel which brought me to another thick black door.

  Jasper didn’t wait for me to knock. His bald head gleamed, even in the dim lighting of the tunnel. With an eyepatch over his left eye and one long scar that traveled from the side of his face down to his neck, he held the door open wide for me to roll the metallic beast into our domain.

  A single ladder stood in the center of the receiving room of sorts. It stretched up to a manhole cover dozens of feet above us. Two streams of daylight found their way through the grates of the steel plate cover, letting the smallest bit of natural light stream into the room. You could never tell how deep underground you were going with that tunnel. But it didn’t matter, it kept us off the menu and comfortable enough just to survive.

  “I almost caught a rabbit,” I smiled to Jasper.

  He was my caretaker for as far back as I could remember. I didn’t have parents. I didn’t have siblings. Sure there were others who came and went as they pleased, but I had a Jasper. He’d always been there for me, and I couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t.

  Jasper was kind of tall, taller than me at least. He reminded me of that old children’s tale I used to hear about. I even saw pictures of it once, a jolly old guy in a red suit that delivered toys one night a year to every kid across the globe. It was a wonderful tale until the Scalers showed up and ate the reindeer. That was my Jasper… the jolly old man, not the Scaler. He brought me gifts and kept me alive for more than one night a year. And today? I managed to bring him something for once.

  “Are you serious, Whisper? Come on now! Instead of a rabbit for us to eat, you come back with a hog you can barely ride?” he chuckled. “Where’d you find that anyway? It looks pristine.”