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From Badlander to Branded One

Chapter 1

For lightsun168

By Draconicon

It was rare to find a place without smoke in the Badlands. Either it came through vents from underground, roared out of the ancient caves where monsters of some sort or another lived, or it puffed from the campfires of the few people crazy enough to live in the Badlands that just wanted to keep the worst of the cold off for the night. Kero was thankful that it was limited to the campfire tonight, though his warrior instincts told him he'd be better off with more smoke and less proximity to the Walled City over the ridge.

Just thinking about it drew his eyes from the fire to the tip of the gray walls that loomed over the world around them. He couldn't see their base with the ridge in the way, but they couldn't be more than a quarter-mile off. Even from that distance, he could see the silhouettes of the Branded Soldiers that guarded the tops of the walls, enhanced and enlarged as they walked the battlements from one side to the other. The walls themselves glimmered with runes and sigils that had been carved out of the strange stone centuries before, leaving them as monuments of power and protection to those that lived within the walls.

Kero snorted as he looked back at the fire, the red dragon poking the black wood as the fire consumed the outer layers. It would need more soon enough; the inner layers of the black roots were too tough and thick for the fire to actually catch, and useless as fuel, but the bark outside was sufficient to get a fire started. He'd need more to keep it burning through the night, but -

A soft crack at the edge of hearing pulled him to his feet. Kero pulled his dagger and sword from his waist, fingers tight around the hilts as he turned in place.

No more sound, but there was something under the smoke. Something bitter, something a little bit...sweaty. Living, then, and not just the idle musk of a passing animal. Someone was out there.

Spinning the dagger around, he sheathed it a moment later, but kept his sword free. He pretended a casualness that he didn't have as he sat by the fire again, breathing evenly even as he looked as he kept his ears open.

There wouldn't be much to hide a stalker. He'd put the ridge between him and the city, but other than that, the land was flat. He'd left the charred western Stacks behind him, their black smoke endlessly spewing to the heavens some two days' march to the west, and there was little between them and the Walled City of Duba just beyond the ride. The land rolled here and there, with some bits of scraggly dead black wood, but that was all.

If someone was following him, they were good. Very good.

He poked the fire again, breathing slowly. It was not a good idea to spend time near the cities. The Walled Cities proclaimed themselves as the bastions of civilizations, the last citadels of comfort and life, where one didn't have to be on-edge and could still hold onto the traditional learning of the past. They were the last things standing against the encroaching wildness of the Badlands, he'd heard them brag.

Kero snorted. Load of crap was what that was. Sure, life in the Badlands wasn't what you'd call safe, nor happy, but at least you had the freedom to do as you wished. You fought for yourself and the people that you chose, but in the Walled Cities -

Another sound, this time of shifting sand. Kero whipped his dagger-hand out, the blade flying from his belt. It connected with something and the sound of shredding leather filled his ears. The dragon smiled as he pulled himself back to his feet, blade at the ready.

"Come out. I know you're there."

"Hmmph. Should have guessed a savage would know when he was being hunted."

"Show yourself. I have more daggers than that."

There was a moment's silence and stillness, but only a moment. A hyena in dark-brown leather pushed himself up from the blasted sands, shaking his head as the dust slid down his back.

"You almost got me there. If I'd been a split-second slower..." The hyena lifted his arm, showing a slash across the leather over his ribs. Some blood still came free, and Kero shrugged. "No regrets, huh?"

"You brought it on yourself."

"I guess I did. The name's Chidike."

"I don't care."

"You should. I come from Duba."

Kero's jaw clenched tighter, and so did his hand around the sword hilt. The hyena nodded to himself.

"That's got your attention, right?"

"Speak quickly. What do you want?"

"Frankly, you. Consider it an invitation. A chance to come inside. A chance to leave this behind for some security."

"Not happening."

"Please. You're getting a choice. Not everyone gets that."

"That's why I'm saying no."

He was already measuring his chances. The hyena looked strong, but the Walled Cities did not breed soldiers that could match Badlanders. They avoided the smoke, had their own food, kept everything clean. They didn't have to survive out here, and didn't know how to find the gifts of the Badlands.

The smoke of the campfire filled the air behind him as much as the distant Stacks filled the sky to the west. Those that had wandered such places knew the power of the smoke as much as its dangers. The hyena, for all that his shoulders were broad and his armor well-padded, didn't have the strength to fight him, and Kero doubted that he had the speed, either.

"Leave, or I'll make you leave," the dragon said.

"You aren't going to take the invitation? You could be safe. Even a Branded Soldier has some privileges. It wouldn't be so bad as you think."

"Then you take the brands."

"..."

"That's what I thought. Now. Leave."

He took a warning step forward, only to hear the sound of more movement. He whipped around, red hair falling over his face and past his horns as a dozen other silhouettes popped up. Six came from over the ridge, and three others on either side of him popped up from underground. Moles, he realized, having dug their way to him from some distant place to avoid making a sound.

Chidike chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest. The spotted hyena cocked his head to the side.

"We can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way."

"So, that's my choice, then. Surrender, or be taken."

"It's still a choice."

"It's no choice at all. And there's a third option."

"...Oh, for the love of -"

Kero lunged forward before the hyena could finish that sentence. The moles responded with blow-darts, spitting drugged needles through the air. If he'd been a winged dragon, he would have been able to flap them away, but as it stood, he had to improvise.

Slicing his blade through the sand, he kicked up a tornado of dust that blocked the first wave of darts, only to immediately leap through it as they hit the earth. Every mole was in the middle of finding their next needle, but it was too late. He was upon them.

Cut, cut, cut, and the three to his right were down, bleeding through open holes in their throats. He turned, ready to leap for the other three nearest him, but Chidike blocked him, lunging in with a sword for his guts. Kero brought his own down, blocking it from getting any closer, and brought his elbow up. The hyena dodged the blow enough to keep from getting knocked out, but still took a glancing hit to the cheek.

It was enough to send him stumbling back, and Kero ducked into a low kick, sweeping the hyena's knees out from under him. His opponent became a launching pad as he jumped and kicked off him.

Three more moles died with three more cuts, but the other six had already reloaded. He spun to face them, only to hear the whistle of a dagger coming for his back.

Kero spun again on instinct, bringing his sword around to block it. It tinged off the edge of the blade, but the trained block left him open. The shnikt sound of the blow-darts flying through the air was his only warning before six pin-pricks of pain bloomed in the side of his neck.

"Nngh," Chidike groaned, shaking his head as he sheathed a second dagger. "I knew you Badlanders were dangerous, but that was even more than I expected. But even you can't resist that much sedative, I'm sure."

"...You...will not..."

"You can't still be thinking of resisting."

"You...do not...understand."

Kero lunged. His blade was slower, but still faster than a warrior of the Walled Cities. Chidike barely blocked his first strike, but had more luck with the second. They settled into a duel, their blades clanging off each other as the dragon fought against the drug circulating through his system.

It burned in his veins as it attacked his muscles, making him feel the weight of things more than he should. What should have been effortless strikes and moves were weighed down by the drugs in his body, leaving him panting even as the hyena groaned and fought back.

Yet, even then, he felt pride for pushing the soldier. He could see the motions, the training, the musculature of someone else that had been trained for battle. Even now, taking as much sleep-potion as would have taken down a young mammoth, he was still forcing the hyena to fight him and not take it lightly.

He lashed out with a tail swipe, taking the hyena in the side, but he didn't go down. He coughed blood, though, and Kero leaned in, bringing his blade in close.

He almost caught the hyena's neck when the warning sound of the needles came for him. This time, he rolled, avoiding it, but he left himself open from behind.

Badlander or not, an armored gauntlet to the back of the head still worked. He fell and drifted into darkness.

#

Kero woke to the sound of arguments. He shook his head, trying to push the fog of pain and whatever remaining drugs were in his system out of the way, but it was remarkably harder to push something with the mind than it was with his arms.

Still, at least he could make out voices. One was the hyena that had taken him down. Chidike, he remembered the name. The other was new, someone that he didn't know.

"He put up a fight, but he'll make for a good soldier, or even a bodyguard when we're through with him," the hyena said.

"Hmmph. That remains to be seen. Badlanders don't train well."

"They train well enough for the wall, once they've been branded."

"That's because they never seen anyone but their officers. If he gets loose -"

"He won't. He's drugged, and we'll start his conditioning soon."

"Hmmph. Perhaps. We shall have Faarax over see this one."

"Him? But -"

"You are capable, Chidike, but you are an officer. A soldier. We will ensure that he cannot cause more problems. Faarax will handle this. As he has handled the others."

Faarax. What was Faarax?

It didn't matter. Whatever, whoever that was, he had bigger problems. He hung from the arms of two other soldiers, he could tell; their grip was too tight to be anything else. Worse, he could feel from the stone under his feet that he was no longer in the Badlands. They'd brought him within the walls, or worse, upon them.

With the greatest effort, Kero made himself look around. They were on the battlements of Duba, and behind him were the lines of smoke that he had been staring at just hours ago. All around him, however, were the Branded Soldiers.

Unlike the hyena, the Branded Soldiers consisted of a variety of species, anywhere from a lowly mouse to a great elephant. They stood in a disunited cluster of individuals, none of them bothering to maintain formation or discipline, and all of them wearing an armor that was as terrifying as it was potent.

They were marked with brands, each burnt mark a different magical symbol that exerted a different power over the one that wore it. The dragon didn't know how to read the language of the sigils, but he knew from one that had escaped a different Walled City that some of the marks empowered others, while some weakened them. They were used to break Badlanders and empower the people of the cities.

Most of all, the marks were meant to ensure that the Branded Soldiers never questioned their orders. They were slaves, protectors of the walls, meant to keep both the threats of the Badlands on the other side, and keep those that lived in the cities from ever leaving.

And they wanted him to be one of them.

Kero gritted his teeth as he looked at one such warrior, a wolf that had the scars of someone that had lived beyond the walls. The man wore a pair of rough leather pants and nothing else, his fur burnt in places, his coat a patchwork mess. They had seared away his fur in so many places to allow for the branding, and it meant that he looked like nothing more than a mutt, his dignity lost. Such was the case for so many of them.

"How is he awake, Chidike?" the second voice asked.

"What - impossible. He was drugged - my apologies, Great One. He will be dealt with."

The hyena grabbed him by the hair, twisting his fingers through it. Before Kero could complain, that armored gauntlet hit him again, this time in the nose. He blacked out instantly.

#

The next time he woke, he was within the Wall. He knew it from the darkness of the room, broken only by the hint of clean fire that burned through a window to another room. His arms were held overhead, and the fire lacked the smoke he was used to. Though it burned with a clean steam rather than a full black or gray plume, he hated it. It was a reminder of how much he had lost already.

The prison cell was not large, nor was it small. It was precisely ten paces by ten pages, large enough for him to walk if he had been free of the chains around his wrists, and more than sufficient in size for him to be comfortable if he had been given anything to be comfortable with. The only way in or out was through a wooden door that looked to be thick enough to resist an axe, and with a lock in the corner that implied someone had to carry a very large key to turn an equally large deadbolt.

He gritted his teeth, feeling the light bruises along his wrists. He must have been hanging for some time. Glancing side to side, he saw that there was a second hole in the wall, a second 'window' that matched the one on his left. They both burned with the clean fire, and both were too small for anything but a rat to slip through. He gritted his teeth, shaking his head before slumping down against the chains. His toes barely touched the ground, but he put his weight on them more firmly, taking some of the discomfort from his wrists.

He had barely had a chance to fully wake before the door clicked and opened. Kero lifted his head to meet Chidike's eyes, the hyena shaking his head.

"Well, you're awake. Badlanders; you can't keep your folk down."

"Let me loose and we'll see how quickly you go down."

"I'll pass. I'm in enough trouble for you waking up in front of the Great One."

"You decided to bring me here. It's your fault."

"We need soldiers. Best we get 'em from outside the walls instead of inside. Easier to sell it to the public."

"Hmmph. And next, you'll want me to believe that you did me a favor."

"Hardly. You didn't believe that out there, so why would I try and convince you now? But I am, whatever you think about my methods. It's safer in here, it's more comfortable, and even a Branded Soldier can get something. You could become a bodyguard if you get the right attention."

"Hmmph."

Chidike shook his head, putting some kind of package down by the door. The hyena walked right up to him, dagger in hand, and held the blade to the edge of the dragon's armor.

"This will have to go."

"Touch me, and I will kill you."

"What will it take for you to understand your situation? You don't have a say in anything anymore."

"I will."

"Now who's the liar?"

He growled as the hyena cut through the layers of his armor, slicing through the straps that held it together before throwing them to the side. The layers were all but useless without the straps, the old leather already damaged enough that he should have thrown it aside long ago, but he'd kept it for modesty if nothing else.

Kero gritted his teeth as his body was gradually stripped. The top came loose first, revealing a creamy yellow to his stomach and chest, one that stretched all the way up to his chin and contrasted with the red of his other scales. Tiger-stripe markings ran over his shoulders and - once his leggings came off - his outer thighs and tail. He growled as the leather was pushed away like so much garbage.

"Be careful with that."

"You're not getting it back," Chidike said. "It's trash. You'll be given proper attire once you're broken in."

"You think that it will be that easy?"

"It's Faarax. He'll make it easier than you think."

"He'll be wrong."

"If you'd just listen to me -"

"I will never listen to a liar."

"Ugh. You Badlanders. I swear." The hyena shook his head. "Let's get the rest of this off."

The knife dropped to his waist. His pants and boots had already been taken, leaving just his loincloth. Kero growled in warning as the blade pressed to his hip, but the hyena didn't listen. He just...cut.

Leather and cloth fell at the same time, hitting the ground and exposing him. The yellow-cream scales of his belly ran down between his legs, coloring his cock the same shade. His foreskin covered the tip of his cock completely, just enough to keep anyone from seeing it too intimately, and it hung low enough to make Chidike whistle.

"I heard you Badlanders had plenty to offer, but usually it's just talk. Looks like you beat the odds."

"Give. Me. My. Clothes."

"You aren't getting anything until you're broken. Since I can't order you around yet, I heavily suggest that you just go with it. The faster that you take the brands, the sooner you can get the hell out of here and have a decent life."

"You will not break me. I will not become one of them."

"You don't have a -"

He was done listening. Kero kicked off the ground, toes colliding with the hyena's chin and sending him flying backward. He hit the stone wall so hard that he hit the floor, unconscious, while Kero hung from the ceiling upside-down. Bracing his feet against the new 'floor,' he grabbed at his chains and pulled.

It took all of a second for him to break them free, and he spun as he fell, landing on his feet. The shackles hung from his wrists, chains dangling from them and ending with a rough, cracked link nearly four feet from his hands. He nodded.

"That will do."

Badlanders were known for their strength; such acts would not have been impossible for others. He knelt by the unconscious hyena, rooting through his pockets until he found an iron key that was nearly twice the size of an ordinary key, and much heavier. He stood up and walked to the door, pressing it into the lock and giving it a quick turn. As soon as the door opened, he was on the run.

The inside of the Wall was its own world, he realized, opening up to an open plaza only a short hallway from his cell. It had to have been almost three hundred feet across, perhaps more, and he stared as he realized that they were still covered, that stone still arched overhead and kept them from seeing the sky.

How did they live like this? Was there even a city within the Wall, or was it all just an illusion from the outside?

He didn't have long to think about it. Screams went up as the people in the plaza saw him, screaming at the naked dragon, shouting about the Badlander that had gotten loose. Some called for the Branded, while others screamed for the guards as a whole.

He took it as his cue to run, and run he did, darting forward and pushing through the crowd before they could overwhelm him. They parted before him in fear and panic, and the few guards that came close were thrown over his shoulder or back the way they'd come without thought.

Kero had almost reached the stairs at the far end of the plaza - a sure route to the top of the Wall, as far as he was concerned - when someone new stepped into view. It was a wild dog, black, red, and white, who wore a leather vest and leather trousers. Barefoot and wild-eyed, he looked half-crazed, slender and wiry.

And he smiled. He smiled like someone who'd been chewing red-root for years, and Kero hesitated.

"Prisoner, hmmmmm?" the wild dog said, grinning and showing every fang at once. "Prisoner trying to escape?"

"Get out of my way, and -"

The dog moved, and he moved impossibly fast. Kero barely got his arm up to block the punch in time as the dog leaped off the stairs right for him, and even that hurt more than it should. The dragon slid back by nearly twelve paces, pushed away from his escape route, and his arm felt like it would have broken if he had been any more braced.

He spun, bringing his tail up, and he managed to knock the dog back, but it was as much the dog leaping back as it was his own blow that did it. If it caused the stranger any pain, he didn't show it.

"Mmm, gotta put you away. Gotta put you away."

"What is wrong with you?!"

"Can't leave. Have to do my job."

"I'm leaving, and you can't stop me."

"Try."

The invitation was all he needed, and he lunged forward. Kick, punch, kick -

Blocked.

Blocked.

Blocked.

He stared in shock as the wild dog caught him every time. The kick to the stomach was turned by a raised thigh. The punch to the face caught in the dog's hand. The second kick to the knee caught in mid-strike, calf to calf.

This man was impossibly fast, and worse, impossibly strong. Kero panted just keeping up with him, and the mad dog was still grinning, still showing every single fang.

"Prisoners belong in a cell," the dog whispered.

"I...am not...a prisoner!"

He slammed his head forward and connected, the blow nearly making him black out but at least sending the dog back a pace. Kero leaped into the fray, following it up with every attack he could think of. Tail-swipes, claw slashes, gut-punches and crotch-kicks. Anything and everything that might get him a little bit of an advantage, he used, and he pushed the dog back slowly but surely.

Eventually, they were back at the base of the stairs, but as he kicked out, toes curled and claws flashing to disembowel the dog, his opponent finally got his wind back. Those too-fast arms grabbed him by the ankle, stopping his kick instantly.

"Bad boy."

Before he could say anything, the dog up-ended up, flipping him head over heels and slamming him down against the stone stairs. The blow slammed the air right out of him, and the second one - flipping him around the other way - kept it from coming back.

He was nothing more than a plaything as he was turned, thrown, and beaten by the wild dog, and the canine's mad laughter chased him right down into darkness.

#

For the third time in too short a time, he woke up to the sound of hot metal. He groaned, shaking his head. He felt beaten and bruised, his entire body in pain from just how brutally he had been handled.

"He's awake," Chidike said, and the hyena's voice sounded more subdued, less annoyed and hyper-confident. "Asshole."

"Mmm-mmm..."

And there was the mad, slightly high and whiny voice of the wild dog. Kero was not ashamed to admit that he flinched as he heard those tones again, lifting his head with more pride and defiance than he felt.

The wild dog had shucked off his vest, and he stood by one of the clean fires, holding a long iron rod in the flames. Now that he had the vest off and Kero wasn't fighting for his life, he could actually see who he'd been fighting, and his moderate discomfort at the sight of the powerful man deepened to something approaching fear.

It was not just a warrior that he had fought. The dog was branded with so many sigils that he looked like he was more brand than living being. There was not a square inch of flesh that had not been touched by some brand or other, to the point where they all overlapped and his fur was more painted on than it was real. The only places above the waist where he was not branded were his eyeballs, lips, and nose, with even his muzzle and scalp marked by the heated brands.

"What...are you?" Kero whispered.

"Me? I'm the Breaker. The Marker. The Ender. I am Faarax."

Faarax. Now he had a face to go with the name, and he felt no better about it. After that fight, he felt worse.

There was no way that someone that strong should be allowed to freely roam inside of the Walled Cities. To hear that he had been assigned to break him...Kero finally felt a twinge of fear in the depths of his heart. The confidence he'd felt when he was just up against the warriors that the city had to bring to bear against him faded, and he started to wonder if he would actually be able to fight back.

He had been handled so easily. Even his most powerful blows had done almost nothing once the dog had recovered. How would he -

The hissing sound of hot metal broke his frenzied thoughts, and he looked up to see Faarax holding a branding iron. The metal at the tip was too hot for him to make out its shape, but it was doubtlessly the first of many.

Chidike groaned, stepping into view. He walked with a limp and he sounded out of breath, and Kero took some small satisfaction there. At least he had robbed one opponent of his confidence.

"Careful. He's stronger than he looks."

"I know, I know. I felt it. Very strong. Very good."

"Just saying. He -"

"He won't be a problem. Won't be a problem."

The wild dog smiled, pushing past the hyena. Chidike shook his head, and the way that he glanced back at him, Kero almost thought that he was getting a look of sympathy. But that was impossible.

The heat of the branding iron was so strong that he could feel it from nearly three feet away, and his scales warmed in anticipation. He gritted his teeth as Faarax stepped in arm's reach, and growled deep in his throat.

"Try it," the dog growled back. "Try kicking me. I'll take it. I'll take it and give it right back. Here? Or here? Or here?"

Each 'here' was followed with a near-stab of the iron, almost hitting him in the stomach or just under either rib. He hissed, each time fully believing that the hot metal was going to land and make its mark, but each time it pulled back before it could.

He hated the fear in his heart, feeling it climbing up his spine like some little monster, but there was no slowing it down. It just kept coming, and it got worse knowing that he was already about to be branded. Once that metal touched his scales, its magic would start working on him. He wouldn't be able to get rid of it without breaking the brand itself, and if Faarax was as good at applying them as he was at fighting, then -

"Here."

And then it was there, the hot metal pressed right against the center of his chest, right at the dead-center of his pecs. Kero screamed, clenching his hands into fists as the pain seared through him, his scales burning against the heat and deforming from the pressure that it brought with it.

It kept going on and on, the heat and the pain and the wrongness of the brand. It pressed down on him, and the magical weight behind the pain followed, pushing him down, making him feel...

Weak.

It was the only word for it, the only thing that could come to mind. He felt like he was being drained, like when the needles had been in his neck, except so much worse. It was like the strength was bleeding out of his limbs, drawn towards his core and getting trapped inside of the fiery mark blooming on his chest.

Then, Faarax pulled the branding iron away, and it was like someone had ripped the scales off with it. Kero slumped against the chains, gasping for breath, the heat refusing to fade and the mark refusing to go dim.

"Which was that?" Chidike asked.

"Binder. Too strong to stay in chains without it. Now, he can't use his strength without permission."

"Handy."

"Keep him weaker. Let him learn. He needs...permission."

"Orders, you mean."

"Yes, yes."

Kero groaned, flexing his arms and barely feeling a quarter of his strength. He had been mighty. He had been powerful. He had been something that few would dare to threaten, even if they didn't know what he was.

And now, he was less. So much less. They had taken it all from him, and he could do nothing to get it back. All he could do...all he could do was hope that they made a mistake and let him have it back.

Worse, the dog looked back at him with a knowing eye, and Kero flinched before he realized what he was doing. He growled as soon as he realized it, forcing himself to glare at the dog instead, but something had already changed between them. He had already been afflicted with fear.

And he didn't know how to make it go away.

The End

Summary: Kero, a dragon Badlander, makes the mistake of camping too close to a Walled City and attracts their interest.

Tags: No Sex, Male Nudity, Dragon, Hyena, Dog, Death, Fighting, Magic, Branding, Pain, Bondage, Series, Origin Story, Marking, Prison, Kidnapping,