Chapter 15: Arrival
Early Morning - Mid Spring : Year 10 : Above The Nest | Home
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"Uuuugh…" Waking with a strained groan, I lethargically rolled onto my side before stretching for what felt like the first time in centuries. *Cr-r-rackle—P-P-Pop* "Ooooh~..."
It felt truly incredible, but at the same time I couldn't shake the uncertainty contaminating my mind. -Just what did that woman do to me..?-
Finally opening my eyes, I stretched my leg out to find a paw different from any I knew to be my own. -Woah…-
My scales had darkened significantly, the amethyst glow infesting them retreated more to the gaps of exposed hide, while the scales themselves had seemingly shrunken in size and multiplied in number.
Even if.. they hadn't actually shrunken at all. -What the…-
Having an image of Mother's paw flash through my mind, finding it eerily similar to my own, my mind stuttered… -That.. can't be right..?-
Finally rolling onto my stomach and sitting up, comparing myself to one of the bison skulls that laid nearby, I almost didn't believe it. -If I stand I'll probably be close to.. 18 meters tall..?- It sounded simply ludicrous. -How in the world..?-
To merely say I grew a ton wouldn't do it justice.. after all, at that size, I could put on that metric ton with a single meal. -I wasn't out for a decade or something, was I..?-
However, while my mind raced to find a way to verify the 'few years' my internal clock told me it had been, as I was looking around, a chilling noise reached me. *Wrraaaash*
It was distant.. sounding something like wind tearing around a diving falcon.. but despite being so subtle I'd have ignored it as a human, the moment it reached me, my mind flushed with not words or thoughts, but numbers, estimates, and visualizations.
All of which went to paint a massive object ripping through the sky.. headed straight.. at.. me…
*—rrrROOOOO-WOOO—CRRACCKLE* Closing the distance in a blink, it slammed to the lip of the terrace like a meteor, blasting a wall of wind and a shower of rocky rubble over me, only to follow it with a moment of skin-crawling silence.
That thing.. wasn't mom…
Finding the massive shadow draped over me, my head coiled sharply, but slowly.. just enough to catch a glimpse of the looming figure in the farthest edge of my peripherals…
But that was plenty…
After all, that dragon was completely devoid of the icy, snow-white scales I had always known to belong to family…
And to make it even more damning, he was a male. "Who are you?" A male whose voice was dripping with rage so thick my neck tensed as if preparing to get bit. "You better pray to Bahamut you have a good excuse for why you're here."
My mind instantly sparked with activity. -Is this.. a misunderstanding..?- I needed to speak.. to break the hold my instincts had on me and be rational…
But despite using every drop of control I had left to try and speak after I forced my maw open, nothing came out…
I just stood there like a crocodile waiting to snap.. slowly lowering my posture as if preparing to dart.
And that was not the correct answer.
*Crrrrunch* Digging his claws into the terrace, he climbed up, raising his head almost a dozen meters higher than I ever could, and spreading his wings as if to drill into me the futility of running.
But my body didn't listen to the warning. *Woosh—* Suddenly spreading my wings to take to the air, my legs tensed to jump…
But my paws never left the ground.
*CRRR—WHAAMMM* Plunging my head through the ground like the rock was soft as mud, the stone splintered and the mountain quaked.
It rang my skull like nothing I'd ever known, but feeling his claws digging into the side of my skull as his grip tightened like a vice, instead of everything blurring.. it almost seemed to sharpen...
*Crrrrunch* Forcing my head to the side, grinding my jaw against the rock to shoot me a glare, he paused as if to debate how to dispose of me.
But despite having clearly shown he was in an entirely different weight class from me.. the instincts that were controlling my body didn't care.
*Crunch—* Digging my claws into the ground, the glow between my scales brightened, my wings spread, and in the lapse of a single blink, everything I had was thrown into him. *—FLAP-WOOOOSH*
"HOOF-!" The impact blew the wind out of his lungs instantly—loosening his grip on my skull for an instant as we both went hurtling off the terrace.
But I wasn't going to give him a chance to catch up.
*SNAP* Ripping my head out of his claws, I snapped my jaw onto his wrist, slamming my teeth through his scales and hide, before suddenly coiling and twisting like a feral animal…
"W-WHAT THE-?!" A feral animal that was using every drop of weight and strength it could muster to hurl him at the ground. *FWIP-WOOOSH—*
He ripped through the sky like a meteor—clearing the few hundred meters of mountainside to slam into the field outside the nest with an earth-shattering quake. *—KRAWHAAMM*
Like a building of iron had slammed into the ground, a shockwave buckled the earth—rattled the forest—and kicked up a blinding plume of dust as he ricocheted and tumbled across the field.
But as I caught myself, trying to regain control of my body as I swayed in an unstable hover.. I heard something else…
*Th-Th-Th-Th-THUMP* Like a giant was running below me, the ground began coiling, and I looked down just in time to see the several-ton marble bar laid across the doors of the nest get hurled to the side like a toothpick, and for a figure to emerge. *WWWOOOSH*
It was covered in a burst of fog, a glitter of frost and snow.. but I recognized it instantly.
"VASILIAS?!" Mother's voice ripped out with a roar so violent it scattered the frosty haze around her, but even without that, her eyes were already locked on me...
On the blood that dripped down the side of my head.. and the subtle quiver I simply couldn't suppress…
Her eyes thinned to needles so fast it was almost chilling—her gaze falling into the wall of dust and debris that screened the entire field without care for what stood on the other side of it.
She was simply going to kill it.
But as she lifted her wings to clear the dust, silver wingtips pierced the cloud on the other side of the field as well, and… *WOOOSH* With a synced flap, the dust around them caved like the atmosphere had collapsed, and with a towering clash of force at the center of the field, the dust between them cleared.
Though, that was the moment everything changed.
"ZACHARI!" Clearly recognizing Mother, the silver-scaled dragon jolted before beelining it for me. "GET INSIDE!" *WOOSH*
But long before he could even get close, Mother intercepted him, gripping his bleeding wrist with one paw, and his neck with another before, like me, coiling and whipping him into the mountainside. *SMASH-CRRRACK*
But she didn't stop at that. "YOU STUPID BASTARD!" *FWOOSH* Zipping to where the silver dragon was embedded into the rock, she grabbed his snout before plowing it into the rock. *WHAAAAM*
Watching a nearly hundred-meter-wide section of the mountain cave in with the impact, my mind simply froze.
It was a display of power I simply couldn't even begin to conceive.
But in the end, she acted like it was normal. *WOOoosh* Throwing the silver dragon out of the dust with blood coming from the top of his like me, she leapt out of the crater to glide to the ground, elegantly landing as the silver dragon tumbled, and landed with another slam. *Woom*
-Is it.. over..?-
Seeing Mother motion me down, I did what I could to shake my nerves before shakily gliding down.
But despite being certain the man was knocked out cold, if not dead as he laid still on his back, seeing him blink, my tension returned like a tsunami.
Though, it was nothing to be so anxious about.
"OSTO!" Letting out another furious, but faintly calmer roar, Mother let out a name I recognized instantly.
-F..Father..?!- *Wo-Woosh* Finally landing with quaking legs, Mother gave me a quick look before clearly trying to force herself to calm down.
Even if it only barely helped. "What the fuck do you think you're doing, Osto…"
Almost instantly, the man's eyes snapped from the sky to Mother—the confusion refusing to leave them. "W..What..?" He was just as confused as me. "That guy.. isn't a nest raider?"
But Mother wasn't happy with the excuse. "That's your SON, DUMBASS! That's Vasilias!"
Unable to even squeak out a word, I just watched in silence—the glow in my scales settling as my pupils relaxed.
Giving me another, more careful look, Mother's worry thickened. "Did he wake you up from your sleep early?"
But with a quick shake of my head, her worry washed with an immense wave of ease.
"Thank Bahamut…" Taking a moment to catch her breath as the air around her seemed to ease as well, she turned back to Father with a scornful look. "If you did that shit even just a couple days ago…" Her claws tensed, but finding the strength to hold back, eased a moment later.
Not that Father seemed to notice. "In what world is that my s-" *CL—AM*
Cutting him short by slamming her paw into his jaw again, she held his mouth shut with a glare that looked like it could cut, "We will not discuss this in front of them." And like a prophet, turning toward the nest.
"M-MOM?!" Running up to the open marble doors shrouded in silence and shadow, Krystallo ran out into the sunlight. "Is everything alr-" But stuttered as she stopped.
She had grown to just over 9 meters tall with her scales glistening a sparkling white, and her stature maturing quite elegantly.
However, despite me having become an entirely different being in comparison to her, she wasted no time to shine her smile over me. "BROTHER!" *Flutter-WOOSH* She darted to me like a rocket. "YOU'RE AWAAAAKE—" *—THUD*
Slamming into my chest, she practically pancaked herself into my scales before climbing up to my head like I was a rock wall, and spreading her wings like she was preparing to bear hug me.
Though, the moment she saw the blood, no longer dripping, but still wet on the side of my head, she froze.. and like Mother, the air around her snapped.
Terrifyingly, so… "I-I'm okay, Krystallo!" Pulling my head back, I moved my wings up to hold onto her, hoping to calm her down.
And while she thankfully settled—resting herself on my crown like it was her rightful perch, her gaze never dulled.
And by the looks, it cut into Father like a knife.
"Krystallo, Vasilias…" Speaking with a palpable annoyance, Mother finally lifted her paw off him. "Allow me to introduce you to your Father."
But Krystallo didn't buy it. "Why would Father attack Vasilias…" Her tongue was still sharp.
"Because he's a fool that didn't read my letters."
Father instantly jolted with realization.
And Mother caught it. "As I thought, the messenger was doing his job getting the letters to you too."
"I-I read them!" His steeled, almost iron-forged stature folded instantly. "I just forgot what you told me to-" *Tap*
Planting her paw on his jaw again, her neck coiled to lock her eyes in his. "You forgot the one thing I reminded you of in every single letter I've sent over the last two years? Your son was in the middle of a dragon sleep, and despite telling you not to even disturb a bird with your arrival, you-" Gritting her teeth, her voice vanished.
At least to me.
Clearly hearing something, Father's eyes shied from hers, and his posture shrank.
But thankfully, it seemed to end there.
Pulling her paw off his jaw again, Mother finally turned back to Krystallo and I, though with a much gentler, warmer, relieved look. "I'm sorry, sweetie. Come here and let me see the wound…"
And with my approach, sitting beside her to find myself only a bit more than a headlength below her, things finally began calming down.
Even if the air itself almost seemed.. a bit stiffer than what was natural.
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