Dragon's Roar - 3. Chapter 3

Mordred watched the boy from afar. His mother hid him well almost in plain sight. He was so close but far from his true destiny, yet he knew nothing. Mordred smiled to himself; perhaps things would be that much simpler; however, he needed to gather his thoughts on the matter at hand.

The color drained from the woman’s face as she stared up at her visitor from the open door. It had been years since she was visited by these creatures; something she hoped would never come to be. “You come for the boy, and you have come for our lives.” The woman was resigned to their fate and offered little resistance. “Please do not let us suffer.” The dark dragon simply nodded as it was over in an instant with no pain or screams only death. Mordred sat up as he felt the boy approaching unaware of what he would find within.

“Parental units you are...” his words caught in his throat as he looked up upon the towering being standing in his home. This familiar presence was like that of the day Levi disappeared. “Where are my parents?” he asked, although deep down he knew it was already too late.

“They were never your parents my dear boy. They were simply placeholders until fate brought me to you. All will be revealed in time, but you will be coming with me.

Tears strolled down the boy’s face, he did not get a chance to say goodbye to them, he hugged them less than an hour ago, and now, this brute took all that he had left from him. His pain turned to anger, anger into a rage, and rage into hatred. Mordred froze as dark tendrils of energy emerged from beneath the boy. His power was seeping through, always there beneath the surface, but the darkness found something to grasp and feed, now it only needed direction. Mordred smiled as the boy wailed releasing his suppressed rage claiming his birthright, a glimpse of his dragon roaring. The boy looked on at the ruins of the only home he had known, which now lay in shambles. Soon, he succumbed to exhaustion and faded from consciousness.

“Be wary of this one mistress. Do not underestimate the dragon before you. Darkness flows freely and strongly around him, so we must take precautions,” Mordred found himself tossed aside no sooner had the words left his mouth. She regained much of her power quicker than he anticipated.

“You dare to imply the mistress of darkness has something to fear from this boy. Hear me now, I was only bested by those hatchlings due to the weakness of the vassal. I have almost returned to my former glory, and there is hardly anyone who could stand before me. The darkness this one carries within is all that is left for me to complete my accession and claim what was rightfully mine. Pendragon will roll over in his grave as what he feared most will come to pass. There is only one ruler of darkness, and she stands before you as the only rightful queen of this land.”

**** 

Levi faltered as he flew beside Merlin, something was not right, yet he neither knew nor understood its significance. “Perhaps we should rest for the time being since the journey to conquer the elements is not one, we can take lightly,” Merlin stated with Levi offering no argument to his master. Lost in thought, he searched for the source of what felt like a probing presence in the back of his mind.

Merlin studied his disciple as he rested against a nearby tree. Something had shifted within the balance; however, it was too soon to say if this turned things against them or in their favor. Merlin knew that mastery of the foundational elements was essential, but he understood the toll this journey would take on the wielder.

****  

“So, you are indeed the source of this disturbance,” Jin declared. Jayce who had reverted to his humanoid form lay grasping where his arm once resided; his gaze never leaving the ground ashamed he had been bested so easily even with the other wyverns at his command.

“Uncle, it would do you well to keep your distance. Though you may be the leader of these reds, your words hold no weight in my presence. I am no longer the young drake you can command as you see fit. I will not repeat myself; I do not wish to see any more bloodshed of my people.”

“Such arrogant words from someone who holds a title only given to him by his bedmate's willing tail hole,” Percival grunted in disgust. “We reds are known for our power and ferocity. We are not handed control; we take it. This has always been our way, and you, dear nephew, seemed to have lost sight of that in place of flashing scales and willing flesh.”

Jin was surprised at the calm which surrounded his mind as such words would have spurred him into action destroying everything in his path for the sake of his beloved, but here he was calm, collected, and calculating. “It did not have to be this way uncle; together, we could have made a place for the reds in the new world that I am helping to create. You have shown me my decisions were of sound body and mind as you are nothing but an obstacle which breeds destruction and death.”

“You dare threaten me. You are nothing but a mere child living off the fame and reputation of your late mother, who herself was nothing but a hindrance to my late great brother. Were it not for the fact that his blood flows through your veins, I would have cast you aside myself.” Percival’s words rang on deaf ears as the reds around him looked up in shock. Their ruler cleanly ran through with the blade protruding from his chest as his blood gushed onto the ground. “A shadow dragon,” he coughed out turning to see Vicky behind him. “You dared to attack your leader. I raised you, and this is how you repay me.”

“No, your words mean nothing before that of my King. Your fate was sealed the moment the order was given and the moment you dared speak my King’s name in such treasonous fashion. Your death sentence is hereby carried out.” Vicky’s words were cold and callous as she efficiently retrieved her blade and was gone as quickly as she appeared.

Jin sighed as he looked out over his clan afraid of what may come next. He firmly grasped Caliburn as Jayce roused himself to his feet.

“Hold...my King. Your uncle no longer speaks for us. We will retreat to whence we came; the Capital is in no danger of attack from us, not any longer.” Jayce bowed his head avoiding eye contact with the King before him.

“That will not be necessary as the reds are more than welcome in the Capital. However, hear this once and only once, should there be any inkling of a rebellion of any kind, you will be put down swiftly by my hands, and I shall show no mercy. Collect yourselves and send word when you wish to come. There is a place for those who wish to live and stay in our homelands; ample support will continue to be provided.”

His words received; he spun on his heels leaving the lands he grew up in behind him, and his uncle in a pool of his blood. Out of sight of the reds, Jin was barely able to catch himself before he found himself being caught by his shadow dragon. “You are experiencing the aftershocks of change like Sune before you. You must be barely conscious at this point. I must get you out of sight and allow you time to recover.” Jin was unable to respond to Vicky as the world around him faded and the warmth of his mate’s spirit comforted him in rest.

**** 

“We have got to stop meeting like this,” Jin jumped awake knocking Sune to the floor. “I hope you are somewhat more graceful when Levi is the one crawling to wake you up,” Sune laughed and dusted himself off. “I, for one vote, we stop with these impromptu meetings in your bed chambers.”

Jin rolled his eyes laying back down. He lifted his hands towards the ceiling in awe of what appeared to be flames dancing down his arm.

“That is a neat trick – might have something to do with the bright red ruby attached to your chest. You just had to go and copy my style,” Sune mocked. Jin reached up feeling the jewel beneath his hand before panic began to arise within.

“When you had a jewel appear, you nearly blew us away had it not been for Merlin. Oh no, the reds, were they wiped out?” Jin yelled out.

“Calm yourself, my King, I have reason to believe that you were able to channel and release that excess increase in energy mainly in part to you being in the middle of a battle with your brethren. Had this event taken place while you were set on the throne, the outcome may have been...different,” Vicky deduced witnessing Jin’s sudden increase in power in the heat of battle.

Jin once again breathed easy knowing he did not cause further harm to his clan. He still had a bitter taste in his mouth having his uncle killed. “I am sure that I wasted enough time in this bed, bring me up to speed on the situation. I am aware that the elders would have been keenly aware of my absence.”

**** 

Sune laughed to himself as he walked out of the King’s chambers. He could not help but notice a feathery stalker. He had to admit to himself that toying with Zephyr was quite entertaining and served as a solid distraction over the last few weeks. “Keep stalking in the dark, and one might begin to assume that you are after Vicky’s job,” Sune whispered much to the surprise of the unsuspecting dragon.

Having collected himself and straightened his garments, Zephyr eyed the sparkling dragon before clearing his throat. “I came looking for you to see if you could spare a moment of your time,” Zephyr bounced on his feet with his signature bravado all but gone in this moment. “I understand that as a member of the crown’s inner circle you are busy with other matters.” Zephyr let out a cry in shock as Sune flicked the end of his nose.

“There will be none of that, come with me and speak your mind. It seems about time that our way of life seeped through that thick skull of yours. Although…not as thick as a certain red I know,” Sune laughed as he attempted to tap Zephyr’s skull only to be rebuffed by the green dragon who looked at him with a mixture of annoyance and something else.

**** 

“You think that you can bring the knights over to our side,” an elder asked as they all sat around the table for yet another meeting as the King ruined their plans.

“Of course, we know those humans are nothing if not predictable. We feed them information that this is for the greater good, and suddenly, we will have loyal and powerful pawns at our disposal. Our direction should be to do away with the crafty one; I would wager that he will be more of a thorn in our side than I wish to contend. Once we have the support of the knights, the remaining council members will easily fall into place. This King of ours is already more of a headache than this naïve little drake should be. Who would have thought that we would lose the support of the reds so easily with Percival’s death!”

“We will need to rethink our moves going forward; we have underestimated these champions, and it is beginning to cost us resources and support. One could dare hope that Lady Morgana will surface once again resulting in mutual annihilation saving us all the headache.”

“You seriously need to watch your tongue; you never know where an agent of Morgana may be present lest you forget that her rise to power was not of her wits alone. We are arguing in circles. Let us remain on task and replenish our dwindling resources with new young candidates.”

The elders present nodded in agreement, at present, there were too many wildcards for them to make a significant move that would not blow up in their collective faces. Their frustrations were growing as scheme after scheme was thwarted with ease.

**** 

“Those dragons view me as extremely gullible,” Bastion huffed having read Sage’s report. “I had quite enough of playing the loyal follower with a big sword. I will play no part in their schemes; however, we can very well use this opportunity to weed out the traitor,” Bastion steadies his eyes on Sage, who was spread across their bed exhausted from countless hours of espionage. Bastion softly stroked the cheek of his partner knowing that he worked himself to exhaustion to ensure that they were pulling their weight. They allowed the King to carry too much of the burden, and it was high time that they started acting like adept protectors.

“Urgent message for the captain, it is imperative that he receives this information quickly and discreetly,” the drake bowed to Bastion before quickly moving along on his way.

****  

“Where am I”?

“Oh, dear child, you are home.” The boy looked up at Morgana strangely as recent events slowly processed through his mind. “Ease your mind dear child, after all, we share more in common than you know.” Morgana smiled; she decided to keep Mordred away for the time being to avoid an uncontrolled encounter with the powers of darkness. “There is much to discuss; let us start from the beginning and how we came to be in this situation. It is good to have you home, Urien,” Morgana again smiled as the boy’s face filled with confusion, he looked up at her with expectation.

“Urien? You must be mistaken as I do not know anyone by that name, and it most certainly is not mine.”

“I am correct since Urien is indeed your name – long-forgotten never to be seen or mentioned in this place again. The blood that flows through you was not meant to survive but here you are before me; their plot failed, and you will exact your revenge against those who have wronged your family and had them hunted down and killed.”

“Killed, my parents were already killed by that brute of a creature who brought me here,” the rage was clear in the boy's voice, and once again, darkness began to seep effortlessly from his very being.

“An even greater slight was committed against your true family; your mother gave her life to see you safe from those who should have served to protect her. Your mother was hunted down by the very dragons who were said to be her family.”

Urien’s mind was filled with thoughts and emotions that he simply was not prepared to handle. The death of his parents was still a fresh wound, and now, he has learned that his true parents were murdered in cold blood by his own family. His mind ran in circles as a dark voice echoed within his mind growing louder and stronger with every beat of his heart. “We will rise, we will make them pay, and all will be lost as the price they will have to pay.” Urien clasped his head between his hands to keep his sanity, but he once again slipped into unconsciousness as Morgana watched with anticipation.

“The dark energy that swirls around this boy is most delicious. Once I consume this vassal, I will be reborn stronger than ever before.”

Mordred pushed himself off the wall as he had been listening in on the encounter. “Tread carefully mistress, else you could find yourself lost to the darkness as there is only one true master and that would not be you,” Mordred stated as a matter of fact.

Mordred thought, “This boy, unlike many others, is not displaying fear in their presence. It is almost as if he is being amused. Just maybe, he can be a powerful ally…”