Awakening A Beast
The warmth still a painful prickle through her body, Kemeneth's worry finally broke out through the cage she had kept it in, and large waves of it cleared her mind of everything else... "Ybbele!" Gasps, from the one who sought to help. Finally, proper motion... and the distance to her mother was only a few metres at most. Time to put an end to this headache. Time to help.
Kemeneth drags herself forwards, moving on shaky legs and as she reaches the older dragoness she knows that she has no time to waste and so starts to weakly tug at the rubble covering the other dragoness, hopefully sending some of the smaller chunks to cascade to the floor out of the way. Her eyes drift closed as she works, her lungs hurting from the warm air and sudden swift exercise.
"By the Mother, I found it!" Vimal pushed rubble aside, casting rays of scattered light through a glass-like substance and inside the citadel. "Kanti! Kanti, come quick!" It was a strangely hushed call. They were both like scavengers - the thin atmosphere of their home supported little. This? This was like a jackpot. A brotherhood citadel, buried under dust - a wealth of information, and, far more important for the hungry stomach, magic.
The brotherhood dragons were long gone, of course, to fight their wars elsewhere. What they had left behind, the survivors sought to scavenge from. But a citadel? Talons curled to a fist, Vimal's eyes light up as he swings his hand against the glass. The sound of shattering - a passageway into the dark citadel. "Kanti! Come on!" Enthusiasm made him forget to look up to check where his sister was in the first place, amongst this dried up hill of fewest shrubs.
Kanti looked up from where she had been digging as her brother called. She stood up straight then and peered around a large boulder. She rubbed at one side of her face then before bounding towards her brother, skidding a little on the stones."What did you find...?" she asked, lowly as she reached his side.
Pushing gingerly through the hole, Vimal flops onto the fine layer of dust covering the Citadel floor. The only light in here is filtering in from the very hole he just created, and he shifts to a sit to wait for his eyes to adjust, calling up to answer Kanti: "The citadel!" And adding, uninformatively: "Over here!"
Kanti blinked and peered down at her brother before carefully jumping down to land beside him. Grinning, she looked around. "At last..." she breathed, quietly. Almost awed she moved a little away from him, her bronze hide rippling as she moved.
Slowly, slitted eyes widened and became round to capture most of the sparse light. Vaguely, contours became visible. A room. A doorway. "Let's go," Vimal gestures in the dark to the doorway, before beginning a stride on all fours towards the opening, excitement causing his heart to hammer in his chest. He didn't mind - he was elated.
Kanti nodded then and moved to follow after him, the pupils of her green eyes widening. She doesn't say anything, excitement rippling through her, making her tremble soundlessly. She continued to move, lowering her head and shoulders slightly, eying the roof almost uncertainly.
The citadel was vaster than expected. Sure, there had been tales that hundreds of a brotherhood had lived in each of the citadels, but still, what their imagination had woven seemed tiny. Turning another corner, the darkness almost all-consuming by now, Vimal's expression wrinkled to irritation. They would have to come back with a torch, in hopes they would find something of use- abruptly, his thought process halted. Eyes wide, he focussed on the shred of glowing blue, like a strand in the inky blackness.
"Kanti..." It was a breathy whisper, so soft it probably didn't carry across to her. Something glowed at a distance, further into the darkness of the citadel. There was a bend in this corridor - or hallway, whichever it was - and so his advancing revealed more of what was obviously hidden by the corner. And then it clicked. "By the Mother," Vimal's voice was drained by horror. A moment later, he was lunging forward, hurtling himself into a rushed gallop towards the network of blue, radiating strings... in its midst hung a dragon, illuminated to a deep royal blue by the magical threads, frozen.
It was hard to tell in the darkness and the alien light emanating from the strings of the spiderweb structure, but there was no immediate clash of colour. As he approached in haste to free the dragon, he saw black strands were laced cross its hide, a slightly different blue lashed across the same - wait, no... silver. Reflective scales. A half-breed, blue and silver. And from what he could tell, without the black blotches of the brotherhood dragons. A fellow scavenger? All thoughts of competition fell away from him, instinct to help stronger. He skids to a halt beside the web, raising his forepaws to cushion what would otherwise have been an impact with the wall.
Kanti didn't hear her brother but as she heard him movign away she turned and gasped, lowly running after him, horrified. Shivers of fear ran through her then before she skidded to a stop beside him, her forepaws resting against the wall, or almost as she eyed the trapped dragon.
The halting is abrupt, and once his speed has been cushioned to a stop, Vimal reaches out for the web, a paw passing through some of the strands. He knew trap webs. They were, fortunately, easy to deactivate - as he just had done. The blue flickers erratically and extinguishes, leaving only the faintest outline of the captured dragon to collapse on the ground, no longer supported.
Kemeneth gasped very softly, so soft that it was unlikely it be have been heard. She shifted a bit from paw to paw, eying the crumpled shape before flicking a look to Vimal. Dragging a forepaw across her face she edged closer to the dragon, her head lowering.
Almost instantly after its release, the dragon utters a soft groan. Foreclaws stretching in brief disorientation, its snout swivels around, slowly at first, then, as though thawing out of the forced paralysis only slowly, whipping up and to the side to inspect the darkness around him.
Suddenly, forepaws shove sideways, then down, the entire body shifting and pushing away from the two others, a cry escaping his throat, and wings lash at air to gain distance as he scrambles to rise. Astonishingly swift to gain distance, the dragon stands erect at a rough twenty metres from the scavengers - foreclaws twirl, and without warning, white fire pops into existence, twirling into a bright, blinding sphere, the room illuminated, rushing to fill with colours. And now, they can see the azure skin, a fine texture of breathtaking flawlessness, laced with pure silver in labyrinthine patterns, bizarre. And lashing across those opened eyes is a threading blackness, closing around the last white of the eye, turning the eyes by appearance into oily pits.
Something sags softly and quietly to the ground beside Kanti. The previously trapped dragon's tail lashes. And then, the remaining picture fades into the brightness, forming contours and lines. Without comment, crimson liquid stains a transformed tailtip, having lashed out like a spear, now at distance, moving with the unease of disorientation. And that black stare, glistening in the light.
...the light. The dragon had twirled its claws and summoned light. Realisation upon realisation clicked into place. A brotherhood dragon. A flawless brotherhood dragon, without the deformations, without the physical weakness. A Hzataalar Kaea. Kanti would lose her life like Vimal had just done - with the swift efficiency of a knife cutting through butter. Everything was going wrong simultaneously. Shock and horror forcibly froze her to the spot. A million thoughts.
Kanti reared backwards, backing away as the formerly dragon moved. She had been fairly worried about them but currently she was more worried for her brother and herself. She half closed her eyes against the light, backing further. The dragoness cringed as then as what could only be her brother fell to the ground. She stared across at the other dragon, whimpering deep in her throat and unable to move.
The black eyes narrow. "You are no Davir Sria," the blue lips move subtly, forming hissed words, tone carrying a hint of confusion. Without warning, the creature is upon her, and her spine rattles against a hard surface, strong grip at the nape of her neck, clasped around a fold of skin, effortlessly heaving her weight from the ground. Antennae curl, and the delicate blue-silver snout wrinkles into silent snarl. "Where are they?" Scales bristle, and the air seems to be filled with the tang of electricity, uncomfortably prickling against Kanti's scales.
Kanti whined raggedly as she was grabbed but she didn't struggle before she cringes."They're all dead... gone..." she shuddered then, sobbing raggedly and letting her shape go limp. "I don't know anything else..." She coughed a little then before adding, "Please..." An antennae twitched before the dragoness became still and silent.
Something shoves against her mind, intruding, scraping across her mental landscape like sandpaper, if only for the briefest moment, even as the silent snarl ever so gradually dissipates. Content at least that Kanti's not lied to him, the azure abruptly lets go of her. In the same instant, the white light extinguishes. Visibly, the black uncurls from those eyes, receding, revealing clear blue eyes streaked with silver highlights, befitting for a dragon of his colouring. "Then I've done you wrong," the dragon huffs out, discontent with the realisation, and the implications of Kanti's words. His rage is almost tangible, a frightening energy crackling in silence through the air. But despite its overwhelming presence, it's not directed at Kanti.
Paws raise to the azure's skull, wrapping around it as though to crush it. "I'm... confused..." the dragon utters, tailtip lashing the air nervously. A breath like a gasp. Halfmoon shaped eyes as he squints at nothingness. Wings fold only reluctantly and with a twitch, gaze drifting through the nearly impenetrable darkness. A ripple through his hide - the labyrinthine patterns seem to shift and realign to reflect the disorientation.
Kanti sobbed softly then flinched, crumpling in a heap next to her brother's body, silent tears streaming down her nose. She looked up then and swallowed hard, pushing herself to her feet. Almost nervously she approached him, efore stopping and looking up into his face. "How can I help you...?" she whispered. In theory she should want to hurt this dragon who slaughtered her brother but she just can't find the energy, shocked to the core - plus, she wasn't sucidal.
"I must apologise," the azure speaks, though its tone breaks from the concentration it takes to form words past the turbulence in his mind. "I thought I was still in battle." He glances towards the fallen dragon, eyes narrowed. Remorse? No amount of imagination could mistake the glance for such an emotion. A regret about the mere act of having made a mistake, however, was well present. No shred of it was empathic, though.
"I am Shahrivrath." His tone, though friendly, is laced with the hint of a hiss, obvious, but - strangely - alluring, as though it had its opposite semantic implication... not resentment and the will and wish to backstab, but reverence. Yet, clearly, rationally, this was not the case. An empathic paradox.
"Tell me, Animal-That-Speaks, what is your name?" he asks. The words? An insult. But the tone spoke such a vastly different language... this dragon was confusing.
Kanti looked away, angrily swiping at her still falling tears. She trembled a little, shifting uneasily. She narrowed her eyes at the almost insult before she sighed heavily. "I'm Kanti..." she said, finally. "And that was my brother, Vimal..." her voice shook and she swallowed hard. She flicked a look up to the taller dragon, feeling and likely looking a bit confused.
Stepping towards her, he reaches out a paw and strokes the palm of his left hand across her slender forehead, the gesture a touch too powerful in pressure to be perfectly soothing. "Worry not, you shall be spared." Pompous arse. "You cannot help what you are, after all." If he wasn't sounding so genuinely friendly all of a sudden, it would be far easier to hiss, spit and claw at him for the implied insults. "And you're certain the vermin are dead?" he asks, free hand still rubbing quietly at the side of his skull as though to do away with the confusion still tugging at his mind. Confusion, disorientation, and a deep loneliness.
The others. Interrupting any possibly started answer, he inquires: "Where are my brothers?" meaning the other Hzataalar Kaea.
Kanti flinched at first, then became still, the power encouraging her to be so before she flicked her tongue across her lips. A forepaw flexed before she was still again, listening to the dragon who was looming over her crouched shape. "Yes, I'm sure..." she shuddered a little more. "I don't know where they are." She raised her head to look up at him.
Scrutiny, a strange rainbow effect travelling across his eyes so briefly it might have just been an illusion. "Can you fight?" he asks, head tilting slightly. It was highly irritating that his aura, now that he wasn't fighting, seemed almost warm. Like a light attracting flies, perhaps.
Kanti flinched a little then lowered her gaze, her scales tingling slightly. Hearing him she shakes her head. "Not really..." She drug both forepaws across her face then, shaking slightly, shock making her cold as it starts to take effect.
A growl rumbles from the azure, before he waves a paw dismissively. "If you can't be my weapon, then you'll have to be my shield," he says, matter-of-factly, and - oddly enough - still without insult in his tone of voice. Then it clicks. Clearly, he thinks nothing of his words - he doesn't think them to be insulting. Maybe telling him kindly of his effect - but then... this is one of the Chosen. He could snap her spine without second thought, and without even physically touching her.
Kemeneth cringed, the small dragoness hudding a little befores she licked at her lips. Raising her head, she looked him straight in the face before tearing her gaze away, a wordless sob of pained grief slipping from her as she rested on forepaw on the then cold shoulder of her dead brother. She shook then in fear, her eyes drifting closed and her bronze hide seeming slightly duller in colour.
"Oh, don't be silly," Shahrivrath's brows furrow, and his left hand extends across her skull again, giving it an approving pat. "Consider - you're making yourself useful." He smiles down at her, gaze warm, the blue in his eyes swirling with a hint of red softening their coldness. "And if the vermin are truly gone, you have no combat to fear."