Story The Dragon Within

Seeker

Eater of Worlds
There'll be no introduction for this story, but I'm just letting people know that each chapter will be through the eyes of a different character, I look forward to hearing responses about this new story!

For my good friend, Sophie, who really did love her dragons

I stood there on top of the zip line towers that were erected on the rim of the dormant volcano's crater. I peered down from the high towers at the village inside the crater, Lancer's Haven, my home. I looked around and there were other towers to my sides about sixty feet away from me, to my left was Kit and to my right was his best friend Drayce.
"This has to be the worst thing a slayer does!" Drayce yelled, he turned to look at me, he was still strapping his harness over his armor.
"Should've stayed with ground support!" I teased him.
We heard a blood-curdling roar coming from our right side.
Drayce connected his harness to the zip line wire that was heading downward onto a shorter tower, Kit and I had already connected ours. I looked around to see if our other teammates were ready for battle, they were. We were going to kill a horde of dragons that had been traveling to Haven to wipe out one of humanity's last settlements, as we traveled down back into the village by zip line we'd kill however many dragons we could with our spears and continue the battle on the ground. I looked up again to the towers opposite of us. Michael, our leader, lit his torch and signaled for us to descend.
"Al-alright guys!" Kit yelled nervously as he traveled won the zip line. I followed him and we began to see some dragons approach us, the dragons attacking were pale and skinny but had razor sharp teeth, perfect for tearing off flesh.
"Flesh Reavers?" Drayce asked. "This'll be easy!"
We stabbed the dragons to death with our spears and watched them all fall, one of the Reavers began to try to chew Kit's zip line wire. Little did it know these wires were covered in steel.
"Keep trying!" I taunted it as I saw a spear puncture its chest and send it falling to its death.
I looked up to see Annette was the one who threw the spear, she was right next to Kit.
"You know it wouldn't have broken my wire right?" Kit asked her.
"Can't take any chances." She replied.
"Its the alpha!" Drayce called out, pointing to Cayde, the most skilled slayer battling with a dark blue dragon with black spikes protruding out of its skin.
Alpha's were unique dragons that usually lead hordes, this one was a Lead-Skin Drake.
"Stop toying with it already!" I cheered Cayde on.
Cayde swiped his halberd around, cutting the drake several times. It flew backwards and charged for Cayde's wire, its spikes made a terrible noise as they cut through the wire.
"No!" Kit cried out as he watched Cayde fall through the sky.
He turned around in mid fall and threw his halberd at the alpha, it tore through the wing and sent it plummeting downward. Cayde grabbed the neck of a Reaver that passed by him and steered downward to Haven.
"I'll be damned." Annette chuckled as she watched him get to safety on the dragon.
We all made it to the short towers and climbed down to Haven to continue the fight.
"That was way too close!" Kit took his harness off.
"What was?" Drayce asked him.
"If Cayde hadn't taken down that alpha we would've been killed!"
"Not true, I'm sure Michael or maybe Annette would've saved us."
"Lets get moving, I see a few dragons making their way down here." I interrupted.
We traveled throw the streets looking for more dragons to kill but didn't find any.
"Holy crap did we kill all of them in the sky?" Drayce asked.
"Probably, those ones I saw must've been dead." I shrugged.
We continued to walk around the village, there was no villagers walking around, great all of them went underground like they were supposed to.
"What's that?" Kit asked the ground began to shake.
"Hopefully not the volcano." I looked at the ground, I got myself a little nervous.
"Worse!" Drayce yelled. "Run!"
I turned around and saw the alpha dragon was still alive, it couldn't fly but it could crawl. It bared its teeth at us and charged us.
"Not today!" Kit threw his spear at the dragon, it simply bounced off one of its spikes. "Crap!"
We ran away from it as far as we could until it backed us into a dead end. I stared at the dragon as it slowly crawled over to us, seeking vengeance.
"This is probably the end of the line." I thought to myself.
I readied my spear, Kit was backed up against the wall behind us, and Drayce threw his spear at the creature. The spear became lodged in the dragons eye, angering it even more.
"Drayce! Do it!" Kit yelled.
"She's right here!" Drayce yelled.
"Do what!?" I questioned them, I don't care what he did, as long as it got us out of here alive.
Drayce ran in front of me, he took a deep breath and began to breathe fire. His flames incinerated the dragon in a matter of seconds. I threw myself against the wall to get away from him.
"What the hell!" I yelled in disbelief.
"Calm down!" Kit tried to calm me down. "That's all he'll do!"
Drayce turned around, his eyes were glowing orange.
"Don't tell anyone..." He looked at me. "Please."

Things were tense between the three of us. Kit and I were afraid that Alyssa would tell everyone about my condition, and she was afraid of me and what I was capable of.
"Told you he wouldn't do anything." Kit said as he took off his helmet. "Ouch!" Some of his orange hair had gotten caught in the helmet.
"Yeah I guess so." She said quietly.
"Everyone al..?" Persephone, another skilled slayer asked as she walked down towards us. "Burn marks? That alpha didn't breath fire though?"
"I used magic to kill the alpha!" Kit lied.
"Magic? You? Ha! Last time I checked you could only make a ball levitate?" She teased him.
"Well he's been practicing of course." I covered him.
"Hmm, alright. We better get going, there wasn't any casualties today so I think a celebration is in order." Persephone smiled. "Lets all meet up at my place in an hour or two?"
"Sure." I glanced at Alyssa, she was staring at me still.

As I got ready to meet up with my friends at the quarters Kit and I shared I began to question my origins. Dragons have been at war with humans for what seems to be centuries now, no ones sure what started it anymore but one thing is certain the war won't stop until one of our species is dead. I tied my long brown hair into a pony tail and looked into a mirror, how could I be a dragon? No, why would I be a dragon? I hated myself for being part dragon, they've taken so much from me, my father and friends were killed by these things.

I remember when I first transformed, it was before the zip line towers were finished, during a dragon raid. Reavers had found their way underground into the dragon bunker and they started to kill everyone. Kit, Franz, and I were running from them, trying to find anywhere to find. Eventually we found an extremely small cave in the wall and climbed in, we were safe there. Everyone else had barricaded themselves inside a supplies shed.
"Wait! Where is he!?" Franz looked frantically around for her young brother, she leaped out of the cave yelling "I'll be right back!"
A few minutes passed by and things had gone quiet, had the raid ended, did the slayers kill the dragons? I looked outside the cave and saw that the raid never ended, but a feast did.

There were six Reavers, all chewing on corpses, most of them I didn't recognize. But as I kept looking around I saw a small dismembered corpse, a Reaver was close to it but it was chewing on the chest of another person. That person was Franz.
"Franz... you said..." I murmured in disbelief, I should've protected her. "I'll kill you!"
I rushed out of the cave and ran for the dragon, I didn't care if I got killed, as long as I took that one with me. My fist came up to punch the dragon, all of the Reavers stopped eating and began to look at me. I thought one last time about killing them, and then it happened. I blinked and suddenly everything felt warm around me, when I opened my eyes a large olive green fist was in the ground. There were burn marks everywhere and all the Reavers had been knocked back. I stood up and looked at my tail and talons. Then I wasn't a full dragon, more like a humanoid dragon, I was shocked but I never intended on walking away from that fight. I rushed the dragons and tore to pieces with my bare hands, and as I crushed the last one I blacked out. Kit told me that I turned into a human right afterwards and that he took me to his house to rest after the raid ended.

I looked in the mirror and remembered what Kit told me:
"Maybe some good could come from this?"
Maybe so,
I walked over to Persephone's quarters.
"Just drinks?" I looked at the various glasses in front of me. The liquid they contained came in various flavors and suppressed hunger.
It was Annette, Kit, Alyssa, Cayde, Persephone and me. Alyssa was still staring at me, Cayde wiped his long black hair away from his blue eyes and glanced at both us, he then looked at Kit.
"You guys can drink this crap all you want, nothing can beat a steak." Cayde gave a genuine smile and began to cut his meal.
"Its not that bad, in fact I think there's a beef flavored drink!" Persephone said.
"So Kit, I heard you've been practicing magic. I also heard you burned that alpha to death." Cayde glared at him.
"I did, sir." Kit replied.
"No need to call him sir at the dinner table, Kit." Persephone chuckled.
"You killed the alpha Cayde couldn't?" Annette asked.
"Well I wouldn't have fought it if Cayde hadn't taken it down, but yeah I did." Kit scratched his head.
Annette continued to look at Kit, as if he was all she came for.
"Why is everyone so quiet?" Persephone asked.
"They clearly have nothing to say, don't even know why you brought them here." Cayde stood up and left the room.
"Cayde lives with you?" Alyssa asked.
"Ah conversation! Yes he does." Persephone gave a smile. "Speaking of which do you guys think its ok for a girl to propose to a guy?"
"I think its fine." Kit sipped his drink, Annette raised an eyebrow.
"Who're proposing to?" Alyssa grew curious.
"It was just a question." Persephone smiled.

It was a quiet day, there was a warm breeze that'd mess with my hair on occasion. Michael and I sat on some crates drinking coffee and watched our comrades train for the next battle.
"Someone's missing..." I thought to myself. "Someone from last night at my house."
I looked around, Kit was there and so was Alyssa. Drayce was there too. I looked at Drayce, he still made me wonder. How could he be a dragon? Is he a human who could turn into a dragon, or a dragon who could turn into a human? I still remember when he first transformed, how I almost killed him.

"What the hell is that thing?" I looked at a partially transformed and unconscious Drayce, I looked around at the dead Reavers. "A rogue?"
I lifted my spear above his head and prepared to impale him, but Kit stopped me.
"Stop! Don't do it! He's my friend!"
"Friend, this thing is your friend?" I asked as I pointed my spear at him. "You better explain what's going on here."
"I-I'm not sure what's going on but my friend after my other friend who-" He started choking up, there were tears in his eyes.
"Tell me what this thing." I said.
Before Kit could come up with a lie I saw Drayce turn into his human form again, he was completely naked.
"So he transforms? Can you do this?" I asked.
"N-no!" Kit said. "See he's human like you and me! You don't have to kill him!"
"Alright. Don't make me regret letting this thing live." I strapped my halberd into the holster on my back and walked away. "Some good better come from this."
On my way out I looked down at burnt corpse, it looked female.

"What's on your mind, Cayde?" Michael asked as he sipped from his mug.
"Nothing, sir." I looked at him. "Just enjoying the da-"
I heard a loud roar coming from the other side of Haven, dragons?
"Dragons?" Michael stood up.
"Sounds like it." I said. "Better handle it before someone dies."
"Grab your spears!" Michael roared. "Prepare for battle! We don't know how many there are or where they are coming from so be prepared!"
"Or where they are coming from?" I thought, the sky's were clear, not even birds were flying. "Where are they coming from?'
Our boots made a clopping noise as we ran on the cobblestone streets towards the roars. As we got closer, dismembered corpses became a more common sight and screaming nearly drowned out the roars.
"Oh my God!" Alyssa screamed.
I turned around to see someone being gnawed in two by a dragon, a Frost Wing to be exact. It chomped down on the person in its mouth and flew away.
"Hel-why like this..?" The slayer gasped for air, his lower body was gone.
"I'll try to stop the bleeding!" Alyssa kneeled next to them, holding her hands over the massive wound. Kit and Drayce joined in, everyone else just watched them.
"Don't waste your time." I finally said, I looked at the slayers lifeless eyes.
"Waste our time!? We're trying to save a life here!" Alyssa screeched at me.
"He's already dead." I said, Persephone looked at me. "Everyone continue."
I turned around with many other slayers and ran towards the roars again.
"You're sick..." Alyssa stopped me. "You just left him there, even if he was going to die, you should've comforted him!"
"Comfort him? That's impossible." I said, she looked like she was going to punch me. "Listen, that isn't the first person I've seen die, and he won't be the last. Almost every time I saw someone die, I wanted to try and comfort them like you just did, and most of the time I did. But you do you know what I learned from doing that? No matter what you say, no matter what you do, people will always die. And until you realize that early on, you'll end up like me."
As I prepared to turn and join the slayers lead by Michael, she asked me:
"What if he was someone you cared about, someone you loved?"
"No one I care about will ever die. Not under my protection at least. And the few people I care about, are always under my protection."
I ran away from them.
"There are at least four dragons, none of them are Reavers." Michael said as I caught up to him, the Drayce, Alyssa, Kit, and Persephone were right behind me.
"We should split into two groups, one will evacuate the villagers underground while the other defends against these dragons." Kit said quickly.
"You took the words right out of my mouth, decide amongst yourselves who'll be in these groups, if you think you handle these dragons stay up here! If not go help the villagers!" Michael yelled.
A lot of slayers ran to go gather up villagers, a dark purple dragon with glowing pink tendrils attached to it landed next to us and sliced a slayer in half. The frost dragon from before shoved another slayer into its mouth and then spit its remains out at one of us.
"Spitting?" I thought to myself. "They don't usually do that..."
I jabbed my halberd at the purple dragon and forced it back into the sky, Michael and a few other slayers had some difficulty forcing the other one away too. A few of them died too. I turned around, Persephone and her friends were still fighting alongside us.
"Go help out evacuation." I ordered them.
"But-" Persephone resisted.
"No buts! Your a lot more safer helping the other team then helping us fight these things." I explained. "Now go."
They ran away from the group quickly.
"If something goes wrong, you better transform." I looked at Drayce run away.

Half an hour passed as we waited for another encounter with the dragons, but nothing happened.
"I'm going to go patrol the village, sir." I told Michael.
"Be vigilant, Cayde." He nodded.
I ran around the village looking for a fight and still found nothing.
"Where's evacuat-" I turned to see countless corpses getting chewed on by Reavers near the entrance to the underground.
Near a wall Alyssa was defending a wounded Kit, they were getting corned by Reavers.
"Stay away! Kit hang in there!" She yelled as she poked the dragons with her spear.
The purple dragon appeared and roared at the horde of dragons, they looked at it with fear then turned towards me. They began to crawl for me, I saw one of them step on a corpse near Alyssa, they turned it around and revealed its identity.
Persephone.
Her chest was torn open and her hand was frozen in a defensive position.
I let out a sigh, I flung forward and stabbed one of the Reavers to death then swung my halberd at the rest of them. As I bounced around from dragon to dragon, stabbing all of them I made eye contact with her corpse.
"I'll miss you..." I thought. "The choice I made, was obviously the wrong one. Forgive me... please!"
Eventually I too was corned by the Reavers, Alyssa was tending to Kit who had become pale. Was she letting me die, or did she believe that I could kill all these monsters? I believed in Persephone, I believed in my choice and in the end I was wrong to. Or maybe her death was fate, something unavoidable. Doesn't matter now, with all these dragons, I'd be joining her soon.

Even after transforming I couldn't protect them. Persephone is dead and Kit is bleeding out. I flew through the sky chasing after the Frost Wing and that purple dragon, they made a sharp turn and in the corner of my eye I saw a big figure on the ground where I had left Alyssa and Kit. I swooped down towards it and as I grew closer I saw it was already in combat with someone, Alyssa? No, it was Cayde. I slammed down onto the streets and looked up at the dragon, it was covered in bright yellow plates of skin, an Armadillo Dragon.
"These things don't have any wings!" I thought. "How the hell did this thing even get inside Haven!?'
I stood up on my hind legs, it did the same. It raised its arms and charged me, ignoring Cayde. I raised my arms and we locked our claws together, trying to push each other back. The dragon and I snarled at each other, eventually I blew fire into the dragons face and forced it to back away. It yelped in pain as it frantically crawled away, I raised my claws and made a fist.
"You're dead!" I slammed my fist into the creatures head, shattering its armor and sending its brain flying out of its skull.
I got back on all fours and let out a roar. I turned around to see that the purple dragon and its companion had landed.
"Drayce!" Cayde yelled.
"How the hell does he know?" I asked myself.
"Watch my back, and I'll watch yours." His eyes were burning with anger, there were several dead Reavers around him.
As I roared at the dragons I felt Cayde run up my tail and jump off my head, I watch him spin in the air and plant his weapon into the head of the Frost Wing. He removed the blade and kept jabbing the dragon to death, the other dragon and I could only watch as he slaughtered it.
"Your next." He whispered to the other dragon.
The dragon roared at us and charged, Cayde threw himself to a wall to avoid getting trampled and the dragon approached me I jumped up. I landed on it and held it down with my claws, I turned around and we made eye contact. Its bright blue eye was looking up at my orange eyes. It let out a massive roar as I prepared to scorch its head, suddenly Reavers started appearing. Behind me I heard hissing, then something quickly wrapped itself around me. I looked down, it was a massive grey snake, its face was a few feet away from my mine. The creature hissed at me and exposes its wings attached to its head.
"What the hell kind of dragon is this!?" I questioned.
Acid sprayed from its mouth and burned parts of my face as it let me go, I became blinded and stumbled back, a few Reavers were crushed by my falling body. I felt a few dragons picking at my flesh, my eyes opened and I saw Cayde stabbing the snake dragon to death. It slithered away from him and flung itself towards him, he raised his halberd and gutted the snake as it flew over him. The dragons continued to pick and my flesh and then suddenly flames spewed from scales, I was on fire. The Reavers were all burned to death as I stood up, my wounds were covered by radiant flames.
"What's going on?" I looked at myself. "I feel like I'm about to change back into my human form, gotta make this quick!"
The purple dragon was hovering above us, I flew upward with Cayde on my back, he jumped up with his weapon ready. As I prepared to strike the other dragon it spun around and slapped me down to the floor with its tail. I looked up at Cayde who was still in the sky, as he was about to stab the dragon, it vanished in a purple flash of light. Cayde came spiraling down to the floor but I caught him in the palm of my hand before I lost consciousness.

"So you encountered a Void Dragon?' I heard Michael ask.
"Yes, it teleported away from the battle once we had it cornered." Cayde responded.
I opened my eyes and saw that I was resting on top of a crate, wrapped in a blanket.
"And the evacuation team?" Michael looked at the corpses.
"Th-they all died, sir, almost all of them." Cayde winced. "They were devoured by Reavers the Void Dragon called."
"Drayce, your awake." Michael looked at me.
"Y-your not going to kill me..?" I looked at him in fear.
"Why would I? Cayde tells me while you were a dragon you killed about 11 dragons." Michael said.
"Where's Kit!?" I remembered.
"Over here." I heard him call.
"Kit!" I turned around. "Are you ok?'
"Fine, lost some blood and my arm hurts a lot." Kit smiled the pain away, there were bandages on his shoulder.
"Still a Void Dragon, don't we have the last one under confinement?" Cayde asked.
"Yes, but that one has no legs, you said this one had all four." Michael pointed out.
"What do you mean under confinement?" I asked.
"About a decade ago I managed to lead this dragon into a cave where my team was ready to chain it up with inhibitor chains, these would prevent the dragon from using any of its powers." Michael explained. "Its still there I hope."
"We still need answers though, something wasn't right about that Armadillo Dragon we encountered." Cayde glanced at something.
I looked to where he was and saw Annette tending to Kit.

A month had passed since the raid and humanity had recovered. I had become more comfortable hanging around Drayce, he didn't show any signs of ever being hostile.
"Is Kit feeling any better?" I asked Drayce as I walked him to his quarters.
"Way better, he's almost completely healed!" He smiled.
"Glad to hear that, mind if I stick around for a bit? Got no where else to be." I hoped he'd say yes, I started to really enjoy the boys company.
"Sure thing." He nodded, I smiled at him.
As we walked up the steps to their quarters we heard voices behind the door, one of them was Kit's but the other didn't sound too familiar. Drayce pulled his key out of his pocket and unlocked the door, we peered in and saw Kit speaking with Annette at the dinner table.
"Hey guys!" Kit waved at us, Annette's cheeks were flushed and he black hair was tied up.
"Hey. What's up Annette?" Drayce waved at her, the color vanished from her face and her cold blue eyes focused on us.
"Just wanted to say hi to Kit." She lightened up.
"Annette sure does look like Cayde." I thought to myself. "Maybe they're related."
"Well we just stopped by to get a snack." Drayce walked over to his kitchen and picked a roll of bread from his basket.
"What's he talking about, weren't we going to hang out here?" I thought.
Drayce lead me outside and closed the door on Kit.
"What was that about?" I asked him.
"Its just kind of awkward with Annette there." He explained. "I'm pretty sure she's only friends with Kit."
"Fair enou-" I looked to the Havens exit, Cayde was on a horse and Michael was talking to him. "What's going on over there?"
We approached the duo, Cayde was wearing most of his armor except for his helmet.
"Hey, what's going on?" Drayce asked.
"Be safe and Godspeed." Michael dodged the question and walked away.
"Noisy bastards..." Cayde muttered to himself. "I'm going to go see the Void Dragon."
"You mean the one trapped in that cave?" Drayce asked.
"Yes." Cayde prepared to leave.
"Can I go with you?" Drayce asked. "I need to see this thing."
I was surprised that Drayce wanted to see this thing, but I decided I wanted to go with him.
"Can I got to?" I asked.
"If you want to, its really your decision." Cayde sighed.
"Then off we go." Drayce said. "Lets go get our armor and some horses."
"Hold on, where's Kit?" Cayde asked.
"At his quarters sir." Drayce answered.
Cayde got off of his horse and walked to Drayce's room then returned.

We rode down the volcano, I looked over to the grasslands and saw an innumerable amount gravestones.
"Its a lot isn't it?" Cayde asked.
"Yes, sir." I answered.
"Tell me, what did you two join the Dragon Slayers for?" He stared straight ahead.
"To protect people." Drayce and I said in unison.
"Me too." Cayde answered.
Not too long after he said that I felt a drop of water hit my cheek, I looked at Cayde, he let out a small sniffle. I looked up in the sky and saw the shadow of something flying in the distance.

"We're here!" Cayde announced, we had been riding through rocky terrain for a while but we finally came across a cave. There were people guarding the mouth of the cave.
"Its Cayde." He rode up to them.
"Oh hey Cayde!" One of the guards chimed behind his helmet. "How's the girlfriend?"
"Fine." Cayde shivered.
We got off our horses and they let us enter the cave, it went deep underground. We finally walked into an empty area where rooms had been carved into the walls.
"Jaxon!" Cayde called. "I'll do the talking."
Someone from one of the upper rooms walked down to us, he looked like Michael but he was missing an arm.
"Hey, bud! What's with the straight face?" He hugged Cayde with his one arm. "Who are these guys?"
"These are some of my men, skilled slayers." He answered.
"Hi." I waved.
"Skilled, huh? Who taught them?" Jaxon smiled.
"I did."
"Did she help you? You've never been much of peoples person."
"She did help me."
"How i-"
"Dead."
"Oh... I'm sorry for your loss..." Jaxon's cheery expression faded away. "So what are you doing here? Did my brother send you to spy on me?"
"I'm here to see the dragon." Cayde said.

Jaxon lead us into a deeper chamber.
"I'm not really sure why Michael had me be in charge of this place" He tried to strike up conversation with Drayce and I. "Maybe he trusts I can hold down the fort, or maybe he just doesn't want to talk anymore."
"I can assure you he's not holding any grudges." Cayde opened the door to a large chamber, there was someone already in there, it was a woman standing against some railing.
"Cayde? How's it going kiddo!" The woman hugged him as we entered, he pushed her away with one finger.
"I just need to see the dragon Rory." Cayde looked down behind the railing.
I looked over the edge to. There was a massive snake with wings that resembled the purple dragon in the raid. It was rapped in huge metal chains that had strange symbols on them.
"What the hell..." I gasped.
"Yeah he's not getting out of those chains anytime soon!" The woman snickered, her hair hung over the rails. "Wait, is he smiling?"
Sure enough, the dragon was smiling, its eyes had lighted up and its teeth were exposed.
"Why!?" Jaxon sounded worried.
"Not sure, we'd have to take those chains off for him to speak to us, but then he'd teleport away no doubt." Rory said.
The creatures eye was focusing on me, no not on me, but someone standing close by. I looked to my right, there was no one. I looked to my left, there was Drayce.

A day had passed since I met the dragon. My hunger for answers grew worse each time I thought of its smile, why did it smile? Did it create me or does it know me? What if I really am a dragon who just turns into a human? Could I have forgotten my mission, whatever it could have been? That girl Rory could have the answers, she looked like she knew a lot about dragons. I lifted my head off the table I was resting on and turned to look at her, tears were running down her face as Jaxon explained something to her. I waited for her to go back into the dragon room until I went to talk to her.

I walked into the room and saw her leaning over the railing, still crying.
"What's wrong?" I asked awkwardly.
"Hey kid, its nothing. Just found out a good friend died is all." She sniffled.
"I-I'm really sorry to hear that." I said as I approached the rail. "But I have a few questions for you."
"Shoot."
"Alright, before I start asking though there's something you should know." I let out a sigh. "I think I'm a dragon."
Without a second thought she grabbed my shoulder and threw me over the railing, she caught me by my ankle and dangled me over the Void Dragon, who seemed to be surprised.
"What did you just say?' She looked down at me.
"L-let me explain! I'm not a dragon but I can turn into one for some reason! I thought maybe you could tell me about dragons!"
"Well I can tell you now, I've never heard of a human turning into a dragon." She lifted me over the railing and dropped me on the ground. "But I think I know someone who has."
"Who?" I asked frantically.
"Tell me, do you know who gave us the chains to wrap up this thing?" She asked.
"N-no."
"Vindex the Betrayer." She said, she looked at the dragon who appeared to react to the name. "He's a sorcerer, who is also a dragon. For some reason he betrayed his own to help humans catch this bastard. Vindex lives in a jungle far away from these stone dunes."
"How far?" I asked, I was ready to leave.
"Well if you can really transform into a dragon it shouldn't take you more than an hour flying to the east." Rory explained. "He's really pale and has no wings, but make no mistake he's still plenty deadly. If you approach him as a dragon he might try to kill you."
"Thank you Rory!" I grinned, ready to find out what I really was.

I walked out of the cave, the sun was just rising.
"Maybe I should go say bye to Alyssa." I thought, but as I was ready to turn around I saw Cayde sitting on a rock, peering through binoculars.
He got up, armored, and approached the caves guards.
"Go get your superiors, tell them there's a trio of dragons approaching. One of them is Void." He ordered them, he didn't seem too surprised. "Drayce stay out here, I'm going to need you to transform."
"For what!?" I asked.
"The Void Dragon and two other unknown dragons are approaching the cave, you have to hold off its companions so I can deal with it." He explained. "We can't let them find the big one."
"Wait, WHAT?" I was still confused, the last time I faced the Void Dragon it teleported so what chance did we have against it and two unknown dragons.
"I didn't stutter!" Cayde grew impatient. "Prepare for battle, Drayce!"
I looked up at the shadows cutting through the clouds.

The dragons had landed about a quarter of a mile away from us, everyone was outside, I remembered the last time I tried to fight the Void Dragon. My fists shook as I hesitated to transform, then I felt a hand grasp my shoulder.
"You'll be fine, we'll be fine." Alyssa said.
My hands stopped shaking.
"Everyone stand back..." I warned them, remembering how the area goes up in flames after my transformation.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, everything became warm around me as I transformed, I opened my eyes and saw that I had transformed but not into an incomplete dragon, still humanoid.
"Not like this!" I thought to myself. "No! I need to stay calm, I've got to kill those things!"
I looked at the Void Dragon, it began to approach us, to its sides were unique dragons. One had red skin with horns and was covered in fur, the other had a skin made of rocks. Suddenly the Void Dragon vanished and appeared behind me, I turned around quickly with my fist raised but it had vanished as quickly as it had appeared. I heard stomps coming behind me, my fist swung around and met the hairy dragon, sending it stumbling away. The rocky dragon charged my comrades with a great amount of speed, crushing a few of them.
"Dead!" I yelled as I attempted to punch it too, but I missed.
"Not yet!" Cayde ran after the Void Dragon as the hairy dragon got back on its feet, like the Armadillo Dragon we encountered, it got on its hind legs.
It launched itself forward at me, I took a punch then a kick. The dragon managed to get me to fall on my back, it aimed its horns at my chest and tried to stab me, I caught the horns and tried to push it back. I was pushing the horns back with so much force I was sure that this dragons head was going to crack. Instead it jerked its head to the side and sent me flying into a boulder that shattered on impact.
"Get away from him!" I heard Alyssa scream as she charged the dragon.
I looked up at her run at it alone with her spear, the dragon turned around and faced her, its teeth bared.
"No!" I took the biggest boulder shard I could find and ran a the dragon, I broke the rock on its head.
It squirmed on the floor in pain, as I prepared to strike it again I saw it shrink and change. The dragon became humanoid like me.
"Impossible..." I muttered. "Your like me!"
The dragon got up and punched me in the face, sending me back into the rubble, its horns plunged into my chest as I grabbed them again. I pushed them back again, this time I had the upper hand. The dragon was on its knees, its horns still in my hands. I pushed down on its shoulder with my foot and tugged on the horns once, decapitating it. I turned to see that the rock dragon had already fallen, Michael was throwing javelins at the Void Dragon who was chewing a slayer in half. This was all happening as Cayde let blood from his halberd drip into a vial. The Void Dragon turned its gaze to me as I charged it, without a second thought it teleported away from the area.

I was still in my dragon form as I approached Cayde who held the vial of blood close to him, Michael was walking towards him as well. I couldn't believe he let that person die instead of fighting the dragon back, that wasn't the Cayde I had come to know.
"What the hell were you doing!?" Michael grabbed Cayde by the collar and lifted him up.
"What are you talking about?" Cayde replied calmly.
"You got that blood as your comrade was torn to shreds!"
"That's correct, that's why I lead that dragon here."
"Lead it!" I yelled in anger, looking at the several corpses around me. "You basically killed these people, why!?"
"For vengeance." He said. "What would you do if Rory was killed? How far would you go to avenge her?"
"I don't know but I know I wouldn't kill innocent people!" Michael let him go then punched him.
"As they say, the end justifies-" Cayde said as I roared at him.
"Tell me how you feel when you get your revenge!" I growled, I turned eastward and flew away from the area.

"How long have you known Drayce?" Annette asked me as we walked down the quiet streets.
"Pretty much my entire life" I chuckled. "Our mothers were good friends so we met at a really young age."
"That's nice, where are your parents?"
"They died. During a raid a few years ago."
"I'm really sorry to hear that, Kit."
"Yeah." I lamented. "We're each others only family."
"That explains why you two are so close."
"The strange thing is, the same dragon that killed our parents saved me the raid a month ago." I thought back to when the Void Dragon scared the Reavers away from Alyssa and me. "The Void Dragon they call it."
Annette's eyes widened as she let out a small gasp.
"Why though? That's all I ask, why?" I got a little emotional. "If it would've let me die I probably would've been able to see my parents again, in some kind of afterlife. Its like it wanted me to live, to live with this grief."
"I lost my mother when I was young too." Annette said. "After she gave birth to me she died, but I still had my father, he taught me everything I knew. He was like a mother, but still a father. A parent, but a great friend."
"That's horrible! Any loss is horrible!" I exclaimed.
This world has become so horrific. Ever since the war began death has come into everyone's lives. But then again, stories from the peaceful times tell us about humans who did horrible things. Things dragons could never do.
"It's alright, I didn't know my mother anyways." Annette leaned over and hugged me arm.

"Just as I suspected..." I heard Cayde whisper as we walked past an alleyway.
I turned to my right and saw Alyssa standing next to Cayde, they were both armed. Cayde was holding a blood compass, a magical tool used to find the source of spilled blood. Alyssa had a shocked expression on her face, Cayde was calm.
"Annette..." Alyssa gasped. "Its her..."
I looked at the compass, it was pointing at Annette.
"You might want to step away from her Kit." Cayde sighed.
"Why what's going on?" I looked at them, Annette was silent, her expression was angry, but that's how she always looked around other people.
"I'm sure you know what a blood compass is Kit, you pour blood in it and it points you to who the blood was taken from." Cayde glared at Annette. "As you can see the compass I'm holding is pointing to Annette, but the funny thing is this blood was taken from a dragon! The Void Dragon!"
Cayde attempted to stab Annette but she disappeared and then reappeared several feet away from us.
"How?" I questioned in disbelief. "How!?"
"We aren't sure yet, but the compass doesn't lie." Cayde growled.
"Maybe it does." Annette taunted him.
"But why... why did you save me!?" I yelled at her.
I thought I had found a friend in Annette, another family member, a life partner. But instead underneath it all she was just a dragon! The same dragon that killed them!
"I didn't want to save you." Annette coldly answered. "Well, my dragon side didn't want to. My human side, whatever's left of it, wanted me to save you because it appreciated your existence."
"No riddles please." Cayde readjusted his halberd to point at Annette.
"You don't see what Kit is?" Annette asked, what the hell was she talking about.
"Is he a dragon like you!?" Alyssa questioned, Cayde swung his halberd around and pointed it at me.
"Don't! Kit, is too special to kill!" Annette became angry.
"So he's not a dragon, but what the hell is he!?" Cayde grew impatient, he didn't lower is weapon.
There was silence.
"Kit is the perfect human. That's why I didn't want him to die." Annette said. "He is the kindest person I've ever met. He's not strong buts he's brave enough to make a stand if he needs to. I kind of regretted letting Kit live after the raid, but now I don't."
"So you care for him? If I kill him would that hurt you?" Cayde offered.
"Sir!?" I asked, scared for my life.
"What are you?" Alyssa asked, there was fear in her voice.
"I'm a dragon, who has some human emotions." Annette replied.
"She's not going to say anything, we'll get all the answers we need if Drayce returns." Cayde pointed his weapon at Annette. "So lets get to killing this dragon, shall we?"
Cayde threw himself forward with his halberd, Annette disappeared. I heard a roar behind us, Annette had reappeared in her dragon form.
"Lets end this!" Cayde shouted.

Huge trees came into view as I flew in the sky, it was the jungle. Thinking back to the hairy dragon I faced I began to wonder why I was different? Why am I fighting against them, other dragons, other humans? The question arose again, was I dragon who simply forgot his mission, to kill humans? Even if that were true that doesn't explain how humans could turn into dragons, or the other way around. Maybe all dragons could turn into humans? Hopefully it'd all become clear when I spoke with Vindex.
As I prepared to land in the jungle, a vine shot out of one of the trees and latched onto my leg.
"What the hell!?" I roared as it pulled me into the jungle.
The vine slammed me on the leaf covered floor and held me upside down. I tried to grab onto whatever was holding me but the vine raised me higher then threw me onto the floor with even more force this time. I blacked out for about a minute, when I opened my eyes I saw the vine was dragging me deeper into the jungle.
"Let go!" I roared, I had my entire body light on fire for a second to burn the vines.
They let go of me but they didn't catch on fire like I had expected them to. The vines were merely singed, more of them shot out at me as if they were angry.
"What the hell I this!?" I growled as I grabbed vines and tore them from the trees.
As I was about to be overwhelmed again I began to breathe fire to kill the vines. The flames danced around the trees and leaves but nothing caught on fire. I tried to tear done the trees but they wouldn't budge, the roots seemed to go far below the mud.
"Hmm?" I heard a swishing noise behind me.
I turned around the see vines coming together to make one big one, before I could even think about burning them the vine swooped forward like some kind of animal and tangled me in the vines. The vines moved me further inside the vine monster like I was a mouse sliding down a snakes throat. I tried to breathe fire but the vines covered my mouth so the only thing I was burning was myself. There was light coming in between the small gaps between the vines as I struggled inside the coil. Finally the vines released me in some kind of dome made of vines, there were torches imbedded in the ground that lit the place up.
"Where..." I gasped for air, I peered upward and saw a figure standing before me. A pale dragon, with no wings. It was the betrayer, Vindex.
"Come to destroy me?" The dragon asked me.
"No..." I answered.
"Good, so what are you here for child?" Vindex walked around me.
"I came here looking for you, Vindex, I need answers."
"To what questions?"
"For starters, I'm a human who can turn into a dragon, why?"
"Ah." He inspected me. "The Flaming Dragon, you were supposed to be our ultimate weapon."
"What? Why me?" I asked him.
"Not just you, there are other humans who could turn into dragons." Vindex explained. "That is if humans haven't killed all of them yet."
"So... I'm human? How? What the hell did you do!?" I yelled.
"There is something you don't understand yet, Flaming Dragon, the dragons are nearly extinct." Vindex turned away from me.
"That's not true! I don't know how many years you've been holding up in this jungle but just last month I saw around a hundred Reavers!"
"Reavers?"
"Pale and skinny, really big teeth."
"So that's what you call them." Vindex's expression saddened. "Tell me, how many normal dragons have you seen? Or unique dragons."
"I've only seen about ten dragons that weren't Reavers."
"It's because Reavers aren't dragons, they are humans." Vindex sighed. "You see, for a while humans were winning the war, you had killed most of us. We hid our losses well and sought out a way to increase our numbers without waiting for eggs to hatch and such. The dragon legatus, Midgardsormr, instructed me to fuse humans and dragon remains using magic in hopes that we might get our dragons back. Instead we received the dark creatures you face now, they were still more human than dragon though. So we continued to look for ways to increase our numbers. Finally we decided to kidnap pregnant women and fuse their developing children with living dragon hatchlings, so when they were born they could assume two forms, human and dragon."

I was at a loss for words, this entire time I was killing humans. I mourned for every last Reaver who was killed and looked up at Vindex.
"Your mother found time to escape and found her way back to your fortress in the volcano." Vindex looked into my sad eyes. "I'm sorry, there's no way to turn them back. You could try fusing them with humans until the dragon within them dies, but more humans would be lost."
"Why? Why are you against the dragons?" I asked him.
"Well, before you were born, dragons were losing the will to fight. Midgardosmr had another task for me, create a dragon that could control others minds. I made it, then we launched a large attack on a village with our dragons. We killed almost everyone. After the battle I inspected the village and saw a father mourning for his son who had died, just as I had, that's when I realized we weren't too different. Coexistence was possible." Vindex explained.
"This mind control dragon, does it still exist?" I asked him.
"As long as dragons fight you, it does. In order for the war to end, you must kill it and Midgardsormr. If I'm not mistaken Midgardsormr was captured by humans some time ago. The mind control dragon is heavily protected in an old human fortress not far from here." He nodded.
"Thank you Vindex." I prepared to leave. "I have one more question though, does have Midgardsormr have a son?"
"A son? No, he has a daughter. She is like you, a human and a dragon."
"And this girl, she's a Void Dragon right?" I asked nervously.
"Indeed." Vindex nodded. "I believe Midgardsormr named her Annette."

Haven was in sight, nothing appeared to be happening from a distance. But as I got closer I saw them, Annette in her dragon form fighting Cayde and Alyssa.
"No you don't!" I growled.
I swooped down and threw a punch at her face, my throat was in pain from roaring so loud at her. Alyssa covered her eyes, Cayde just watched Annette struggle to get back on her feet, satisfaction lurking in his eyes. I looked down at Alyssa, she returned my gaze.
"Where's Kit?" I asked angrily, I kept my voice down. "Is he even here with you guys?"
"He was, but Annette teleported him somewhere else!" She explained.
"Go get reinforcements!" I roared as I charged Annette, Cayde was already in combat with her.
Cayde climbed halfway up a building and bounced off the wall, attempting to lodge his halberd in Annette's face. He missed and fell to the floor, Annette raised her claws and prepared to stomp Cayde but I came from behind her and got her in an arm lock. She teleported behind us and prepared to charge us.
"Toss em!" Michael yelled, Alyssa and him were leading a team of slayers.
They all threw javelins at Annette who teleported before they could hit her, I grabbed Cayde and jumped away from the javelins.
"Look out!" Alyssa looked upward.
Annette had teleported above Michael's men to crush them. Only Michael, Alyssa and a few others were able to run away from Annette.
"More death..." I looked at the crushed corpses. A slayer was still squirming beneath Annette's heel.
"Haven't you had enough!" I ran towards her.
She jumped back once to avoid me.
"You took our parents!" I roared, I punched stone from the streets to her face. "You sent Reavers to kill Franz and Persephone!"
She cowered backward, cocking her head as a snake preparing to attack would.
"I'll kill you!" I took a chunk of the street up and slammed it into her neck. "Your dead!"
She ignored the wound I inflicted on her next and struck me anyways, sinking her fangs into my already wounded chest. Her head bolted backwards, and our eyes met again. I saw the reflection of my burning orange eyes in her icy blue eyes.
"Your just another dragon." I thought. "Just an animal!"
I raised my fists, this humanoid form gave me a kind of advantage when fighting dragons. This form made me more agile and I was a lot more faster than my opponents, in the end I guess I turned out to be the ultimate weapon. But not for the dragons. For humans.
"Go make sure the cities is evacuated!" I head Michael yell, stomping followed.
"Don't worry I'll kill her quickly!" I caught Annette's tail as she swung it at me.
I spun around, for a while as I prepared to throw her, my muscles were burning hot and steam was coming from the gaps between my scales. Finally I let got and slammed her into a building, my arms felt like they would melt off at any minute. I opened my mouth and threw myself forward to try and bite her as she was laying down. Before she teleported away her eyes were focused on something, as I slammed into the rubble I saw a human hand erected in the debris. I couldn't take my eyes off it, and that was bad. Annette swiped her tail and my side, sending me flying through the air. I struggled to keep my form but in the end I turned back into a human and crashed through the side of a home.
"Damn it..." I tried to get up on my feet but I fell on my face.
My chest was open and there were several other cuts on me.
"No! I have to..." I stopped struggling. "Who am I kidding?"
I heard people panicking around me, there were still people in the house, but my thoughts drowned out their voices.
"Ever since I was born, I'd try to protect things. But I never could." I contemplated about my failure to protect Franz, Persephone and many other humans. "And todays the day I let them all down, everyone in Haven, including them. Kit and Al- no! Never!"
Everything around me was getting hotter, fire was coming from all my wounds but I didn't feel anything, I began to hear screaming. I felt something tug at my arm and I let out a roar.
"I'm taking her down with me!"
Everything around me went up in flames, even the people. I stood up, my wounds were healing and looked at the dome of flames and ash that had formed around me. The ashes surrounded me and made me a kind of shell. The shell was in the shape of a dragon, flames were spewing out of cracks in its skin.
"What is this..?" I questioned, my real body was in a pocket somewhere in this ash dragon.
I took a step forward out of the ruins of the house, but I didn't want to. I watched as this body moved on its own towards Annette.
"What the hell is this! What's going on!?" I struggled to try and gain control of this dragon.
The dragons mouth opened, releasing flames, embers dripped from cracks in the dragon as it let out a sigh and muttered:
"Die..."

An evil creature emerged from the building Drayce had been launched into. It was a dragon, made of ash with flames spewing from cracks in its skin. As its opened its mouth, smoke shot out from its mouth. Everything around it was catching fire, the stone it stood on was becoming red hot.
"What the hell is that thing!?" A slayer pointed at the flaming nightmare.
"Its clearly related to Drayce somehow." I said.
Annette was staring at the creature with fear in her eyes. She was distracted. This was what I was waiting for, a chance to kill her myself. Before I could even raise my halberd though I felt the heat of the monster behind us. The dragon pounced forward with its mouth open at Annette who quickly teleported into the sky. Her opponent snarled in anger, it flew after her almost immediately. The dragon latched onto her and threw a few bites at her face, she dodged them but with great difficultly, Annette freed one of her burnt arms and slashed part of the dragons throat area off. Nothing happened though, ashes just fell to the floor. Annette was hurled at the rim of the volcano, she broke through it and continued to roll downward, her attacker followed.
"After them!" Michael ordered, we all ran through the new opening and saw that Annette was transforming.
She quickly reverted back to her human self, unlike Drayce though she wasn't naked, she was wearing black undergarments that didn't look like humans made them. Annette quickly surrendered.
"Now's our chance, our chance to kill her!" I smirked.
"Kill her?" Michael looked down at me. "We can't. Not now at least."
"Wh-why not!?" I protested.
"She's a dragon who can give us information about the dragon world."
"Drayce just went to go talk to Vindex so he has all the answer-"
"Wrong. Vindex's information is outdated, and I'm not even sure that monster is Drayce."
I couldn't believe it, even now I couldn't kill her. I still ran through the opening with my halberd ready, the dragon approached Annette with its mouth gaping wide open. As I approached it, the monster turned to me and roared, it clawed at me and I saw fire build up in its mouth, forcing me to back away.
"Damn it. I guess it won't be so bad if this thing just kills her." I scowled, my attention turned to Alyssa who was running down the hill after speaking with Michael.
"Stop it! Don't kill her!" She ran in front of the dragon while waving her arms.
The dragon hissed and it readied its mouth to kill Annette.
"Drayce!" She called out, the dragon was hesitating.
The dragons head jerked forward as it tried to bite Alyssa, but she dodged the attack quickly. Her eyes darted back to see that the dragon had crushed its own head by slamming into the floor, it tried to get up but it quickly collapsed into a pile of ash, revealing Drayce.
"Drayce!" Alyssa called again as she fished him out of the ash.
This time everyone was distracted now was my chance. I looked at Annette and raised my weapon, but I felt a hand grasp my shoulder, I turned around and looked at Michael.

A day after that the villagers returned to what remained of their homes in the village, like always we just told them that dragons had attacked. We couldn't risk letting Drayce's and Annete's secret get out. Its not that we were afraid of what would happen, it was because we didn't know what would happen. The atmosphere was gloomy and quiet in the village, but not at the Dragon Slayers headquarters. I sat on my bed, depressed that Annette had just been shoved into a prison cell with inhibitor hand cuffs rather than being executed. I raised my mug of warm coffee to my lips and heard my name being called. There was a slayer with his arm in a sling standing in my doorway.
"Michael wants to talk to you..." He hissed, there was anger in his eyes.
I followed him to the circular room where we usually held announcements. The floor was made of stone and wooden beams were erected to support the building. Everyone was sitting on the ground or chairs waiting for me, Michael was in the middle of the room as usual but something was different. As I looked around I saw anger in everyone's eyes. Alyssa and Kit were close to Michael, she avoided eye contact with me.
"Is it true?' Michael looked at me with wide eyes. "Was this entire battle a result of your plan to kill Annette?'
There was silence, I glanced at Drayce who was sitting in a chair. He looked like he had just made a horrifying realization.
"It is true." I answered.
"God damn you!" I heard someone yell.
"Your going to hell!"
"Kill him!"
"Have him hanged!"
Almost everyone in the room was calling for my execution except for Michael, Alyssa, Kit, and Drayce who was still lost in his own world.
"You could have warned the slayers you were going to assassinate Annette." Michael sighed. "A large amount of villagers died because of you, Cayde. I'm sorry but I just can't let you walk away from this."
"Yes, that'd be going against our laws." I looked at him, surely I'd be executed for this.
"Just kill him!" Drayce stood up from his chair and threw a punch at me.
I quickly dodged it and kneed his stomach. Sending him stumbling backwards. Drayce recovered me and tackled me to the floor, his eyes were turning orange and his teeth were sharpening. He raised his fist and attempted to punch my face, I dodged. The skin on his arm was separating, as if it were turning into scales, smoke was coming out between the gaps.
"I killed innocent people because of you! This isn't the first time I killed someone, but they didn't deserve to die!" He roared at me, before he attempted to bite me.
Alyssa grabbed his arms though and held him back, Drayce continued to snap his jaws and snarl while he was being held back.
"Cayde, when the sun goes down, you have to leave Haven. Forever." Michael looked saddened.
Everyone protested his decision, and I just stood there, neither surprised or relieved.

"I'm sorry I have to do this Cayde." Michael told me as he escorted me out of Haven, he had my halberd holstered.
"Its alright, Michael. Life's not really worth living anymore if you guys are going to keep Annette alive." I tried to not to look at him.
"I know what your going through Cayde." He looked down at me. "I've lost people to the dragons too and I would always try to avenge them. But when your vendetta is hurting other people, innocent people, you have to wonder if what your doing is really right. Right now your probably thinking that everything is expendable when your trying to avenge your loved one, but say you did kill Annette, in the end would it have really been worth it? Sure you avenged her but you killed people to do it. So tell me, is what you did right?"
"What the hell are you talking about... you sound like my father." I dodged his question and changed the subject. "I'm not sure why you would even banish me, banishment and death are basically the same in this world."
"I know. That's why I'm giving you this." He offered my halberd to me.
I took it from him slowly.
"Thanks..." I looked down at my weapon. "The last thing I want to do is go down without a fight."
"I figured you wouldn't." He gave me a smile to hide his sadness. "Goodbye my friend."
I felt strangely emotional, I wanted to say goodbye but no words came out of my mouth, so I just nodded. I turned around, I wasn't wearing armor but just a trench coat, and walked out of Haven. Walked down the gravestone covered hill and into the wild. My mind couldn't stop thinking about Drayce though, he wanted vengeance against me but I denied him it. Just like Michael had done to me.
"Hopefully you find me..." I sighed.
 
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Since I know how it is to have a story not get much attention, I'll go ahead and be your first poster :)

This is actually pretty good and was decently interesting all the way through. Do let me know when the next chapter comes out? I'd like to read it
 
Since I know how it is to have a story not get much attention, I'll go ahead and be your first poster :)

This is actually pretty good and was decently interesting all the way through. Do let me know when the next chapter comes out? I'd like to read it
Never did this for attention but I'll notify you when the next chapter comes out.
 
I'd like to be notified for new stories as well, if it's not much problem. I much enjoy this and will be reading this for as long as you can justify making a new story!
 
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