Post by Arrowbid on Aug 22, 2007 17:47:10 GMT -5
Prologue
Lotan gasped for air as he crashed onto the cold stone of the cave floor. His neck thrashed on the smooth tablet in spasms before he stopped coughing up blood. Lotan had not rested for days, flying endlessly in the torturous storm. Black clouds covered the reddening sky, and thunder and lightning bellowed in the freezing wind. The bitter temperature had taken its toll on him. His mouth fumed with a stinging rasp at the back of his throat, a feeling of nausea, as if he had been struck by lightening. The feeling caused him to revolt into even more spasms; the sudden pulse caused his head to shoot forward. He spat up more blood and gasped as if all the air in the cave had suddenly been sucked away like a vacuum.
Lotan shook himself out of the stinging revulsions; cold panic had stripped him from the skies and made his mind go blank. All the jade dragon could evoke was his last desperate attempt to lead the black one away. Her clan had chased him ever since he had won his mate. Now, that they had a clutch of their own she had pursued even more frighteningly than before. Lotan was suddenly shocked to his feet as another burst of lightning split the sky. Like a spear, it bore into the clouds releasing even more of the torrent. The giant being worked his muscles into knots and strained himself to the caves cracked and tumbling entrance. Lotan peered out into the vile storm, it was too unnatural, like it had purposely been sent to force him from the skies and bring him to his knees. The land was engulfed in turbulent clouds of black, and purple veins of pure lightning that bleed across the sky.
A being was at his back and Lotan had opened the proverbial Pandora’s Box, as the nightmares brought forth by the demons presence wouldn’t stop. Another flash and a satisfied roar tore through the skies in a furious yet miraculous departure. A nearly invisible black figure dove through the heavens like an angel cast down from the dragons heaven and turned demonic. Lightning flashed at the perverted creatures back, illuminating her so she looked as if decorated with a million streams of faded light. Her giant head bristled with rage and her tongue lashed at her frothing mouth. The angel came screaming down. She circled the black skies for a couple rounds, then dove down to the cliff and landed nimbly at the caves entrance. The strong queen was easily twice Lotan’s size, and Lotan was nearly fully grown. Her lithe body was rimmed with spikes jutting from the spine, and her eyes gleamed red in the dank cave’s recesses.
“Congratulations Lotan, your little ruse worked.”
Lotan hissed and spat as the black queen approached him, “Get out of here Zeara!”
Zeara lashed her tail back and forth with agitation, “I’m not going anywhere. Not until you tell me where they’re hiding!”
“I pledge no allegiance to you! I don’t have to tell you anything!” A low growl rumbled from deep within Lotan’s gullet and he spread his jade wings threateningly.
Zeara seethed, “I don’t expect you to pledge anything to me. You have defied me time and time again…! Still, Lotan I think it’s time that you accept the reality of your situation.”
Lotan cursed under his breathe and shot back, “The line between reality and deluded fantasy is as thin as the waters surface. Do not confuse the two, as fools like you so often do.”
Zeara growled but her attention was momentarily distracted. Shadows rippled across the cave floor displacing the dim light as another group of her dragons soared past. She shot her head back to Lotan and narrowed her eyes as if to scrutinize him.
“It is you Lotan who is the fool. You and your family cannot hide forever.” She turned away from him and stared out across the broken moor, a small coppice of trees was all that remained of the forest. The rest was up in ablaze of conflagration, at an undue attempt to drive any remaining free dragons out. The strong queen glanced over her shoulder at the fuming Lotan. “You are an invaluable warrior Lotan, and though you lack prudence I am feeling generous. So I will inquire you one last time, will you join us?”
“Satisfy my curiosity Zeara, but what would befall me should I refuse?”
“Then I must dispose of you. I cannot afford any confrontation; the free dragons must join me or perish.”
Lotan became shocked with detestation, how could he ever submit to joining her? Fighting for what he didn’t believe in, even if he did feel a similar scorn for the humans. His sons and daughter were so young that they would undoubtedly die simply in training. He even heard tales of how mates were forbidden from meeting; they were kept separated upon the terms that the hard won lovers were mere distractions. Lotan could never condemn himself or his family to that, not when there was still hope for their kind. Yet how could Zeara ever comprehend that? She- being a vile thing that never cared for a single soul- would never understand how he felt.
Zeara seemed to know what Lotan was thinking, her sharp eyes bore into his thoughts as she was well trained in the skills of an acumen mind. A talon testily clicked on the cold dank floor, which was suddenly illuminated by another burst of blue electricity from the growing storm. Zeara sighed shrewdly and looked down upon Lotan with a certain fondness. However this peculiar feeling was nearly instantaneously replaced by a look of pleasure and maybe even triumph, “Not to worry about how your mate would feel, Lotan. Though it was a ghastly thing… I’m sorry to say that during the chase she was killed by one of our generals.”
Lotan stood up abruptly as if he had been given a blow to the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Zeara swiftly guised her smug grin with one of a satire-like sympathy. The switch caught Lotan off guard who then stared at her with an unreadable expression. At first he thought she was lying in an attempt to persuade him to join her. Yet as the look of satisfaction slowly curved across her maw he realized the unbearable truth. Lotan broke down and snapped into a fit of rage, his head lowered to the ground becoming twisted and distorted into a horrendously ugly snarl.
Zeara was not impressed by his show, nor in the mood to give him any respite, “Come now Lotan, you may be pleased to hear that though Ashire is dead your sons and daughter have still managed to elude my scouts.”
Lotan glared at her, red eyed with grief, “If I go with you, will you leave them alone? Promise to give up your search?”
Zeara looked down at him coldly, “No, I cannot take any chances.”
“Then I will never join you!” he roared and leapt at her in a fury of jade scales.
Zeara reared up, and in one swift move she toppled the mighty Lotan back onto the stalagmites. A slice echoed against the caves bat ridden walls, causing the black leathery creatures to take to the night in a vehemence of shrieks. When the flurry of bats ended, Zeara could see Lotan’s lifeless body, skewered through the spine. She approached it casually. Zeara examined the body, it reflecting serenely in her dark impassive eyes. Lotan had known, and now Lotan was dead.
If we could see the future, what would we see?