Seventh Talon_Dragonrider's Fury

by James Patton

  “Look at her; she is so frail I do not even know how she walks. I admit I have never seen a Champion up close before, but I expected more.” He was not sure if his queen was even listening.

  “You will not fight usss on thisss.”

  “You bond the fleshling.”

  The Shroud contracted and moved dangerously close, few understood the darkness itself, but it was very much alive. It was part of his Matriarch, and it radiated emotion like the sun radiates heat. It was threatening him, and he almost agreed with her out of fear.

  His head was a mess because he hated his Matriarch, vehemently so. He did not doubt this hatred, but he still wanted her validation. It confused him, and in his weakness, he usually did what she wanted. But not this.

  “I will not!” His voice rose a little higher and became more adamant. “Even if the two-leg was worthy and I was willing, abusing a dragon’s bond is an even greater sin than invading a Champion’s Trial.”

  Pop! Pop!

  The sounds were so close together and so loud that he thought someone fired off two rounds from a handgun. Pain pulsed through shoulders and body as his wings fell limp to his side. Roaring in pain, he felt the bones grinding in his wings as he tried to engage them, raise them up in defiance. The attack was so sudden that he had not even pieced together what was happening yet.

  “Sssilence!” She hissed at him as more popping sounds rang out.

  A jaw break is the is ungodly painful, and she broke his in multiple places. The jaw swung limply as the segments of his jawbone no longer supported the flesh around it. His scream of pain turned into a soft mewl as he could no longer formulate sound, and his throat closed as the muscles around his mouth and throat went slack with the lack of bone structure.

  “Do you still refuse or shall I break more bones?” His matriarch asked, and he pictured her smiling gleefully at him.

  The bones in his jaw reknit back together, and he choked as he tried to get his breath back. The muscles in his jaw and throat were still extremely sore, but he could talk. His wings, on the other hand, were laying limply against his body causing him to gasp in pain with any sudden movement.

  The power his Matriarch wielded remained a mystery, but he knew she could break bones on a whim. And she could fix them just as quickly. She had no healing capability because even reknitting the bones left his tendons, muscles, and flesh damaged.

  “Why?” He struggled to speak. “You owe me that much.”

  “Kill him,” She hissed. It was the hissing persona, the one that had the most control lately. He was not sure if his Matriarch knew or cared.

  “Enough. We will tell him.”

  “You don’t have control anymore do you?” He asked softly, hoping the last voice he heard did, in fact, belong to his queen.

  “I have control, but I choose to let them do as they please. Until now anyway. Now, I have a way to get us free. To bring down the barrier holding the Talons hostage, and so much more.”

  “This little elf provides you all that?”

  “She can see Elemental Magic.”

  “So? There are plenty of Seers in the world, and they can all see magic to some degree.”

  “Yes, but none of them have the ability as their Primary. Imagine a dragon with the ability to see magic; they would be unstoppable. Maybe the gods have finally answered my prayers, and no one will deny me my revenge.” She said the last part so softly he was not sure he had heard it.

  Part of him did not react right away, but he felt his eyes reassessing the girl. An ability like that would elevate a dragon up to Elder status with little effort. Maybe the gods were not as foolish as he had thought. There was no doubt the elf could land a dragon with an ability like that. Hell, even he was tempted by it.

  “Get away from me. I will not consent.” The elf was awake and staring at him with her silver eyes. Her face was scrunched up, and she looked like a feral beast. The girl had heard their conversation, and witnessed his humiliation and yet still had to courage to be defiant.

  “What about the Code? If I take a rider, I become one of the Tainted.” He asked the darkness. The rules were simple; if he activated his second heart, he was no longer welcome. It was an act that would get him excommunicated from his father’s supporters.

  “There are exceptions.” His queen told him in a neutral voice, and for the first time, he wished he could see her lying face.

  “If that were true, you would have taken her.”

  “You have little choice!”

  The elf started squirming and to his surprise was wiggling out of the tail’s grip. The tail twisted and turned trying to keep the girl captive, at least until the girl bit down into his Matriarch’s flesh.

  The skin parted, and he saw dark blood splash across the elf’s face. White teeth glowed in the magical light as she smiled. Unbidden he shivered at the feral look in her eyes, and the dark blood provided a sharp contrast to her pale skin. Made her appear more like a ghoul than an elf.

  “Fleshling eats us; I eat her.”

  Boh

  Chapter 19

  Bone Breaker

  I kissed a boy when I was ten, a year before I was told I had Multiple Sclerosis. We were swimming in a pool and went under water when I pressed my lips to his. He was freaked out, but we laughed about it afterward and managed to kiss fifteen more times that summer. It was innocent, fun, and exciting. A lifetime ago and I remember wondering if adults still experienced moments like those. Still experienced Magic.

  -from Boh, Audio Roll 1031

  The blood tasted like death and ass, and she nearly gagged as it hit the back of her throat. The dragon’s skin smelled like it bathed in sewage and its lack of scales was disturbing.

  It was doubtful that she did much damage, but she did manage to get free. No way was she going to become their pawn. She would rather fight and die, but she had no weapons. Not that it mattered, she could not see through the darkness.

  Laughter echoed all around her, but she had no idea where in the room she was. She tried to run and found herself face to face with the male dragon she had seen briefly.

  He did not seem as impressive in size compared to the little she had seen of the Dark Queen, but his scales were impressive. Each scale was a glossy black with a beige spiral running through them, and each spiral’s unique design gave off a light glow. The glow was only visible if she was close, but it was there.

  “You cannot essscape.” Hisser was practically in her ear.

  “I do not have to escape. I can just die.”

  “NO!” The queen screeched.

  She heard a popping sound. It was not as loud as the male dragon’s wings, but she had a split second to brace herself for the pain.

  Her arm fell limply to her side, and she bit back a scream, refusing to give into it. She held her arm close to her chest and kept going until she heard another popping sound and fell to the ground. Her leg had snapped, and the bone tore through flesh as she fell.

  Laying on her back, she refused to whimper. The slightest movement sent off waves of pain, and she could not stop the tears that leaked out of her eyes. Rolling over, she let her anger deaden the pain as she attempted to crawl away. She dug her fingers into the tiny cracks of the smooth stone floor and pulled herself along.

  Magic started to infuse her fingers, and she watched in horror as each individual bone in her fingers snapped. The worst was the when the bones under her palm broke, and her skin rippled like a turbulent sea. The pain became her reality.

  Blood filled her mouth as she bit her cheek to stop herself from screaming out. The pain was too much for her brain to handle and she was sure she had blacked out for a few moments.

  All her bones felt whole once more. She took a deep shuddering breath and started coughing, and spit out blood. She could not tell if it was hers or if it was from the bitch that was torturing her.

  “Accept the bond.” The Dark Queen tried to seduce her, but that trick would never work again.

  �
��Go to hell!” She called out weakly, as she started banging her head against the hard stone. Hoping to get lucky and end the suffering.

  “Accept the bond.” The Seducer said once more.

  “Stop this.” The male dragon said, clearly uncomfortable with what was happening. “A bond should not be forced in this way.”

  “If you wish to get your wings back and healed cleanly, you will remain silent.”

  She could not be sure, but the voice speaking now was new. The queen was all kinds of crazy, but she could see a source of energy she was not quite sure she understood. Deep in the darkness, she spotted little specks of intense light and had she not remained very still she would have missed them. Dark energy made up the core of each mote, and as she watched one slid into the energy source.

  The motes were real, and they were using the body, hovering around like vultures. A tether connected to the mote that just exited the dark source of energy. She knew this mote was the real queen.

  Laughter erupted from her, and it caused her whole body to shake sending jolts of pain through her. She could not stop. Maybe striking her head against the ground created an aneurysm. Or perhaps she finally snapped and lost it, and now she was as crazy as the Dark Queen.

  “You laugh at me?” The same seductive voice rumbled, and this time she knew it was Queen.

  “Yes, because you are about to lose control again. Here comes the Hisser.”

  “Ssshe seessss usss.”

  “Not possible.”

  “Ssshe knowsss, kill her.”

  “Fleshling dangerous. I like her.”

  The voices continued their debate, but she lost track of it as they took turns breaking her bones. Femur, tibia, fibula, ribs, hips, and more. Each fractured bone brought a surge of pain that finally broke her stoicism.

  She did not know how long it went on, but at some point, she had screamed herself hoarse. Her face was a mask of dried tears and blood, and pain coursed through her entire body. At this point she begged, pleaded, cursed, and threatened for it to stop. She knew she had no power here, and realized she never did.

  “Bond with Malinite, and it stops.” The Dark Queen was back, but she could barely comprehend her words anymore. She was laying there and at times felt herself drowning in her blood, and gagged as she tried to speak.

  “Did you say something?”

  “Bite me.” She choked out and laughed at her own joke, her mind no longer connected to her body and no longer able to care what they did to her. She could not stop laughing, and coughing up blood did not stop it.

  She recognized what she had become, the thing she feared the most. Ever since they deliver her MS diagnosis, she had always seen herself as a victim. It was the reason she never logged out of Neuroma, the fear that she would be a victim once more.

  The therapists lied to her, they said she would go through stages of anger, denial, and depression, but in truth, the emotions cycled. Hope would bloom with a new treatment and then she went through the cycle again, but mostly she felt anger. She often said or did things out of spite and hated herself for it.

  It was the fear of being the victim again that defeated her and made her weak. She prayed for the end to come soon and cursed herself for her failure.

  “Stop it!” The male voice growled. “You will kill us both. I can barely keep her healed as it is.”

  She felt the tingle of the bone magic working through her body fixing all the broken bones. The knitting process was worse than the break as it caused an intense need to itch below her skin. The healing of her flesh was closer to euphoric, possibly even better than the drugs the doctors used to give her.

  None of it mattered because she was still not whole. No amount of healing would fix the damage to her mind.

  “Please elf, end this. Female or not, I have never seen a two-leg fight as you do. You might be crazier than my Matriarch, but you have the willpower of an Ancient. I would never want to take you in this way, and I am truly sorry for what has occurred here. Please, you have proven yourself and then some, accept my bond.”

  With the pain gone she was aware, this would never stop until the Queen got what she wanted. It was foolish to fight her, but she felt something harden inside of her. A firming of her resolve and the spark of anger changed into something cold, something different.

  The queen awoke a beast inside of her that she did not know existed. Anger had become rage, mostly at being the victim, but she understood something important about herself. She was done being a victim, and she would tear this world apart to find the power she needed to take down those that opposed or wronged her. If dragons did not want to change, she would make them.

  Slowly standing up, she fought past the muscle aches and stared defiantly at the male dragon as his eyes widened in surprise. She did not trust her voice, so she nodded to him.

  “A bond is formed through blood.” The male dragon started to tell her, but she barely paid him any attention. She knew where the queen was now and stared her down. As the queen moved, she followed her around the room.

  “Stop it, child.” The queen was in charge once more.

  “I see you.” Her voice was hoarse, but it carried. “You won the day, but no amount of shadows can hide you. We will meet again, and I will kill you.”

  The room went silent; even the queen seemed to pull back into herself. On shaky legs, she walked over to the male dragon and lifted his talon and sliced her palm open without flinching. She never took her eyes off the queen. “Do it.”

  The dragon cut the soft flesh on the underside of his talon and pressed it against her palm. As their blood mingled, she felt fire enter her veins.

  “A dragon’s bond ignites the dragon’s second heart. That heart pumps the blood of his rider and will let the dragon know where his rider is at all times. If the rider suffers pain, the dragon suffers pain, if a rider suffers the true death, the dragon may follow not long after. Do you understand and accept this bond of your own free will?”

  She snorted at the last part, but she felt powerful with the dragon’s blood coursing through her. “I do.”

  “And so completes the bond between rider and dragon.”

  You have formed a Drache Bond with Malinite

  Malinite [Dragon Bond]

  Drache Type: Dragon

  Dragon Affinity: Dark/Light

  Dragon Age: Adolescent

  Empathic Connection: Low

  Telepathic Connection: None

  Trust: None

  Affinities Impacted:

  - Affinity with Dark +5%, Dark Affinity is now 80%.

  - Affinity with Light +4%, Light Affinity is now 79%.

  Shared Ability:

  - Dragon Primary Active: Transfusion

  One Time Bonuses:

  - Magic +1, Magic is now 9.

  - Cognitive +1, Cognitive is now 5.

  Congratulations! You have learned the skill Transfusion.

  Congratulations! You have learned Drache Bond.

  Drache Bond – This is a blood bond between you and the Drache. The bond strengthens over time, which increases the Empathic and Telepathic connections. Trust is a big part of the bond and greatly influences honor upon a Drache’s death.

  - Drache Types: Dragon, Drake, Wyvern, Salamander

  - You may only bond one of each Drache Type at a time.

  - If your Drache dies, the bond is reset.

  - Honor is assessed on the Drache’s death, and will affect the way that Drache Type will respond to you.

  - The Drache Bond and your Rider Class are not the same thing.

  Currently Bonded:

  Dragon [Primary]: Malinite

  - Honor: 0

  Drake: None

  - Honor: 0

  Wyvern: None

  - Honor: 0

  Salamander: None

  - Honor: 0

  On her interface, she could see the image of a dragon in the top right of her vision, deeply into her peripheral vision. Below it was his name. She could see ano
ther Active Skill slots in addition to the ones she already acquired. The new slot was filled with Transfusion and locked.

  Malinite flinched at the spot where she knew the queen to be, and she realized he was seeing her magic for the first time. The Dark Queen’s ability used all elements, and she knew multi-element spells were of the Radiant variety. That bone skill was dangerous, and the Queen had no right to it.

  She watched curiously as the magic seeped into Malinite and mended the broken bones in his wings. While the Queen fixed his bones, she saw Malinite cast Transfusion, and he sucked health from the queen to repair the damaged muscles in his wings. It was subtle, and she was not sure if the queen even felt it.

  “You know what you need to do Malinite. Do not fail me. Elf child, we will meet again.”

  “If you see me again, it will be the last thing you see.” She hissed at the dragon, her eyes still locked onto where the queen hid. The queen did not laugh or say anything, and even her voices were silent. The Queen went out the door, and the Shroud disappeared.

  Malinite stood staring at her, and his smooth short-snouted head swiveled as he assessed her. There were not very many spikes or horns on him, and it gave him a sleek younger look.

  “I owe you a debt I am not sure I can repay, but I do accept you as my rider. I will take the ridicule and taunts from my peers because I deserve no less for my part in what happened here today. I can feel your anger and hate-“

  “Not against you. You caved much faster than me. You are weak, not stupid. But weak I can fix.” She had no idea why she said that but felt no sympathy when the dragon winced at her words.

  “I have to assist her this one last time. I am cursed until I complete her mission. After I finish, I will find you and make this right. I just hope you can forgive me.”

  Malinite looked defeated as he trudged toward the balcony, and she wanted to say something, to make it right. The new her, the colder version of herself, refused to acknowledge his pain. Malinite jumped out into the dark sky and disappeared into the night.