Chapter 45: Chapter Forty-five: How to catch a dragon
The dragon stood before them like a living mountain. Its eyes burned like molten gold and it had grey horns sweeping back from its skull in elegant, dangerous arcs, and black powerful pair of wings.
Damien and Lucian looked in awe at the magnificent creature in front of them. The dragon had its eyes fixed directly on the two brothers, unmoving.
It had wings stretched out behind its back like an elongated bat’s and red, flaming hot skin that covered its body in rough patches. Its eyes were blood red, like lava heated over and over again with five horns arranged in lines on both sides of his head. The dragon loomed over them, dark, thick smoke tumbling out of its nose like rain.
The air that came out was so thick that any human there at that time would die from suffocation.
The dragon’s gaze settled upon Damien and Lucian, its eyes burning with an inner fire. It took a step forward, digging its massive claws into the earth making ground tremble beneath their feet. The two of them stood frozen as the beast’s presence seemed to draw the very air out of the market.
Lucian brought his hand on the hilt of his sword and took a cautious step forward with his eyes locked on the dragon’s. He could feel its power radiating off it, like a palpable force that pushed against him. The dragon’s wings seemed to stir, as if already sensing what he wanted to do before he even did it.
Before Lucian could take another step, Damien grabbed his arm before casting him a death glare. "Do you want your head to come off?. We can’t take on a dragon."
"Then should we just stand here and do nothing?" Lucian whispered harshly to him. Despite their hushed tones, the dragon remained fixed to the ground without moving an inch. All it did was stare at them.
Lucian shook off Damien’s grip, his eyes never leaving the dragon’s. He could sense something in the beast’s gaze, something that could see through them.
Before Lucian could take another step forward, the dragon took another step forward.
Damien could feel the vibrations through and he knew he had to act fast before the dragon acted first. He raised a hand with his palm facing the dragon and took a slow step forward.
"Wait," he said, his voice firm but calm. "We mean you no harm."
The dragon’s gaze didn’t falter even a bit. Its eyes seemed to study the man in front of him . For a moment, the air was thick with tension, and then the dragon’s head cocked to one side, as if intrigued by Damien’s words. The movement was subtle, but Damien sensed a glint of understanding in his movement.
Damien approached the dragon with measured steps, still leaving his arm out in front of him. The dragon traced his movements with its eyes, unblinking.
Lucian watched in awe when he saw Damien approach the monstrous beast. His voice came out afterwards, laced with incredulity as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. "Damien, what the hell are you doing?!"
Damien ignored him, keeping his eyes locked on the dragon’s. He could sense a connection forming between them, a thread of understanding that seemed to grow stronger with each passing moment.
Then the dragon took another step forward towards Damien and Lucian instinctively stepped back. Damien didn’t move from his spot even when the dragon continued taking more steps.
After two more steps, the great beast was just inches away from him. Then to his very surprise, it lowered its head bringing his full glare to him. Its eyes like burning, liquid miasma fixed unto him growing hotter than hellfire. Damien could feel the massive amount of heat and energy radiating from the great beast but still didn’t divert his gaze.
He tightened his hold on the ground, holding the beast’s gaze even as its hot breath blew against him.
The dragon remained in that position unmoving, momentarily holding its breath before releasing it hard against Damien. The air that came out of its snout rushed through the air against him, even meeting Lucian who stood at the back, ever ready to pounce on it.
As its third breath was released, Damien instantly felt a strong pull lurch in his heart. He tried to hold it in at first but couldn’t and ended up gripping his chest hard with his fingers. He fell to his knees as the pull tugged tighter at his heart as if wanting to rip the air out of his lungs.
Suddenly, the dragon’s wings stirred, and it raised its head, as if sniffing the air. The pain intensified now, ripping through his spine and chest as the beast’s gaze settled upon him once more.
He felt a strange sensation course through his entire body with dashing force like he was collecting something indirectly from the dragon.
His vision blurred and his ears began to ring with strange sounds without any meaningful hint. Damien grabbed his head and growled out loud, tugging at his hair like that was where the problem laid.
Damien was in so much pain. All of a sudden, something even stranger began to happen. His shirt was ripped from his strained back all the way down to his pants. As he gripped his head tightly with his two hands, tiny, almost invisible insects began to sprout out from the ground, latching themselves to his body as if they were being summoned. The small insects began to form strange markings and patterns on his bare back. The lines from the whips were covered by the tiny, insects who ran over his back in thousands.
Lucian remained rooted to the spot, unable to even move his hand as he watched Damien mutilate. Thousands and thousands of these small insects kept up coming straight out of the ground, etching themselves into him until his entire back was covered with them. An inhumane, excruciatingly harsh cry tore from his lungs as they continued moving inside him.
Then with a loud, shattering cry, a burst of energy shot out from him and the insects stilled their movements. Right there on his back was a life-size drawing of the very dragon in front of him. It looked so real that it seemed like it was popping out of its back. Its body took up half of them back length while the neck, head and horns extended to the back of Damien’s neck.
The dragon just continued staring at him even as Damien was breaking out in madness right in front of it from the intense pain. Then, in a movement so swift it was almost imperceptible, the dragon lifted up its great bat like wings, flapping it slowly but powerfully. A great wind so strong was released from its wings, blowing away anything within the radius. It continued this for a few seconds before dashing to the sky and vanishing leaving the two brothers staring at the empty space where it had stood.
Lucian let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding before settling his eyes on Damien. He rushed towards him, sheathing his dagger.
"What just happened?" he asked in a low voice, creasing his brows together. Caught in the moment that had completely left him shaken, Lucian grabbed his brother by the shoulder and shook him, trying to break him from his trance like state.
Lucian’s eyes caught the alive looking dragon etched into his back and gaped at it.
"Wh-what is this?" Lucian, who was never one to show surprise or shock couldn’t contain his amazement. The sight was utterly bewildering and so magnificent it was almost too real to be true. He couldn’t believe that what had happened had actually happened.
Damien didn’t reply him and just kept clutching his chest that was now bare of any clothing. What was that? What was that intense pain he had felt just minutes ago? He shook his head, his eyes still fixed on the spot where the dragon had disappeared. His entire body ached from exhaustion and an underlying power altogether. "I’m not sure. That dragon..." he trailed off, unable to continue.
As they sat there, the black smoke that had dissipated earlier slowly began to crawl on the ground again. Damien and Lucian held their breaths and the foggy, thick smoke enveloped the entire marketplace.
They knew they had to get to the palace, to warn the king and gather the troops of the dragon’s appearence.
A dragon hadn’t been seen in the kingdom for thousands and millions of ears. The last dragon to ever exist was defeated by the first ruler of Zerathane. A myth did exist that the dragon slain was the greatest dragon that ever lived. According to it, after the other dragons saw their leader die, they flew away, disappearing to no one knows where. Since then, there had never been any appearance of a dragon...till now.
Even at that, Damien couldn’t shake the feeling that the dragon’s disappearance was just the beginning, that the real battle was just some moments away. He traced his
As the thick smoke covered them, everything blurred into darkness