A Task Begun
#5 of The Last Dragons, Revisited
Alrighty, time for the third installment of the new version of the 'Last dragons' story series. Once again, I hope you will enjoy it.
As always, comments are appreciated and requested.
Continued from "Old Threats Renewed"...
Using my magic to smooth the edge of the boulder that I was standing on before sitting down on the edge, I looked up at the pale stars above me, trying not to think about what I was about to do. My mate was seated beside me and I put an arm around her, grinning broadly. Despite being out in the wilderness, and despite our deep desire to be in our true forms once again, we were in our human forms. Of course, there was a very good reason for that, namely that my older brother was in the process of tending our campfire in the clearing behind us. The month since I had become a dragon had been...actually, there wasn't an adjective in any language good enough to describe it. Every experience, even ones that I had long ago accepted as routine became new and wonderful once again. And being a dragon was only part of it. My mate, having spent so long alone, isolated from the world, had been eager to explore the things that she had only seen from afar as the world had changed. Something as simple as going to a movie became an experience of wonder that couldn't be matched; everything took on a new fantastic luster when I was with her. But the thing that had caught the most attention was food.
In all the centuries that had passed since she had taken up her vigil, the culinary arts had made incredible leaps. Every meal was like an adventure for her, and for me as well, her naivety making me attend more carefully to the tastes and textures of food. Even simple things like soda were new and different. But the one food that Scarlon adored above all else was pizza. She couldn't seem to get enough of it. New York style seemed to be her favorite, but she delighted in exploring toppings and styles of all sorts. Not that I would ever say it out loud, but there was just something funny about seeing an anthro dragon devour an entire slice of pizza in one bite.
We spent as much time as we could in our anthro forms, usually during the day when my family was out and about or late at night when they were all asleep. It actually hadn't been difficult to hide the fact that my mate was living with me, magic allowing us to hide her presence whenever it was needed. She would hide in the mornings using magic and then 'come over' during the day and no one was the wiser. Although, my brother, typically more observant than the others, had once remarked that she seemed to be over a lot these days. Fortunately, my mother had dismissed the comment, saying that there was nothing wrong with that. I had been a little worried at first, but my parents seemed to approve of Scarlon, or 'Sarah' as she was known. But I doubted that they would have approved if they had known exactly what we were doing at night, when everyone else was asleep.
The moment it was safe, we would transform into our anthro forms and with a barrier of magic walling off my room from the rest of the world's hearing, we didn't hold back. Just about every night, we spent hours exploring each other's passions and fantasies before curling up together in a tight knot of scaly limbs to sleep until the earlier hours of dawn. The flame of passion never seemed to diminish between us, leaving us so eager we barely had the patience to wait until the house was quiet before we were making love. We had been so caught up in exploring the pleasures of the modern world and more importantly, each other, that I had hardly noticed the passage of time. Everything had sort of become a hazy, pleasure filled blur. A couple of nights ago, while we had been curled up in each other's arms, Scarlon had finally reminded me about the task that awaited us and we had begun planning for tonight, albeit reluctantly. Every year around this time, my brother and I went backpacking for a week, and he hadn't had any objections to having my mate tag along this time. But still, though I had rehearsed how I would bring up the subject, I was still reluctant to start talking about it. A gentle kiss on my cheek drew my wandering thoughts back to the present and I looked at my mate with a grin.
"Are you ready?" she asked and I nodded.
"I think so." I replied, my tone of voice hardly convincing even to my own ears and she nuzzled my neck comfortingly.
"You'll do fine." My mate said, and I sighed, drawing her into a hug before slowly getting to my feet once more. Arm in arm with my mate, we walked back into camp and sat down on the other side of the fire from my brother, who smiled at the closeness of our embrace. None of us spoke for a while, and I went over it again in my head. Honestly, it might have been better if I had chosen one of my parents to awaken first, since then my mate and I could have been together as we desired to be, but my brother was the most obvious candidate to anyone who knew us well.
As most brothers did, who were as close in age as we were, at any rate, we shared many common interests and though he wasn't a furry himself, he was far more tolerant about the idea than most people our age were. What was more, when we had been little, we had made a pact, a solemn vow, that if one of us ever became a vampire or a werewolf or any sort of magical creature, then he would turn the other into one as well. It was a silly vow to make, since as far as anyone had known, there were no such things as werewolves and vampires and so on. We had often laughed about its ridiculousness over the years since we had made it, but it didn't seem so ridiculous now.
"Got a question for you," I began and my brother looked up at me in surprise. "Do you remember that pact we made when we were little? About bringing the other along if either of us were to become a mythical creature?"
"Yeah I remember," he said, grinning ruefully. He nodded after a few minutes. "What about it?"
"I was just wondering if you still held to it." I continued, the magic flaring in my body as I gathered it with practiced ease. The ridge we were camping on was large enough to accommodate three dragons in true form, barely, and a glance to my left told me that Scarlon was doing the same, preparing for the transformation.
"I don't know. I guess so." He answered after a moment then looked at me with a sort of sideways look. "Why? You trying to tell me something?"
"You could say that." I stated and released the magic to do its work. The familiar feeling of limitless power suddenly swelled to life in my limbs and I grinned, feeling my clothing split and tear. I had to admit, despite all the reservations I had had, the look on my brother's face made the anxiety worth it. For a few moments, as my body swelled beyond the confines of my puny human form, he sat motionless, his eyes looking like they were going to pop out they were so wide, his mouth working silently. Finally, as the bony spikes along my spine grew out of my back, he leapt to his feet and backed right into the bole of a pine tree.
"Wha...who..." he finally managed, his voice almost strangled from surprise and I grinned at him, lowering my head, which was actually bigger than his chest in my true form and stared him in the eye. "What the hell is going on?"
"What do you think is going on?" Scarlon asked, making him jump as he looked over to find that she was a dragon too.
"This can't..." he began, reaching out to touch my forehead with trembling fingertips. When his fingers encountered hard, warm scales, he shook his head, his face going pale. "You can't be...This has got to be a dream."
"Its no dream, brother." I replied, pulling my head back and giving him room to move. When my mate followed suit, my brother relaxed a little and took a hesitant step forward. "And before you ask, I am still your brother, just, as I was meant to be."
"How did this happen?" he asked, still staring at shock at us, "For that matter, when did this happen?" "Well, in a way, I guess you could say it always was." I replied and his eyes narrowed in confusion. As he took another couple of steps towards the fire, I continued. "As for how, well, way back in our family tree, some of our ancestors were dragons who had taken on the form of humans to protect themselves. About a month ago, when I went to the cabin for a few days, I hiked out to the place where Scarlon, my mate, was in hiding and she simply awakened what lay within me."
"I..." he started to say, then cleared his throat, looking between us with a curiously lucid look in his eyes. "I thought there was something odd about her."
"You aren't getting it." I said and his gaze returned to my face. "We are of the same blood, you and I. Deep inside you, a dragon lies sleeping, just as it did in me. If you will allow it, it can be awakened."
For a few moments, my brother was silent, obviously not comprehending what I was telling him, but then, his eyes went wide in comprehension. He still didn't say anything, but instead, he started to pace, back and forth across the ridge top. His eyes were flicking back and forth, and he kept making small movements with his hands, like he was carrying on a silent argument in his head. Scarlon watched him with amusement, but I felt only concern. I hadn't ever seen my brother do that before, and while we had certainly never been in a situation like this one before, it still wasn't like him. Usually, he was fast on the draw with decisions. He carried on his pacing, back and forth, occasionally stopping to look up at the stars or to look us over, then he returned to pacing. Finally, he stopped walking and looked at us with a strange expression on his face.
"I have always felt like we were different than other people." He began, staring down at his palms and turning them over as if seeing them for the first time. "Stronger; tougher maybe. I thought it was just my own confidence in myself, but it's not, is it? The two of us have always stood apart and this is why." Finally, he looked up at me with conviction in his gaze and I smiled. "What will I have to do?"
"Embrace it." My mate replied, giving my shoulder a nudge. "If you will do the honors, my love."
"Gladly." I replied, coming towards my brother once more. My mate had explained how awakening a dragon's descendant would work, so I wasn't quite working from scratch, but it still made me nervous. My brother didn't flinch, but I heard his breathing pick up as I got closer. Then, when I was close enough, I raised one great front paw, reaching out towards him. My brother, as much as he trusted me, couldn't stop himself from wincing as my hand came towards him, the tip of one great claw gently touching his forehead and I couldn't say I blamed him for it. Then, guiding the flow of magic within me, I reached out to my sibling. When the probing tendril jumped from me and touched him, his eyes went wide, the pupils dilating and images exploded into being in my mind's eye.
I could see my brother's thoughts, and I marveled at how different they were from mine, and yet, we still thought almost the same way. I understood then how my brother thought about the world, but my mission wasn't to pry into my brother's mind. Instead, I sought deeper, probing into the distant recesses, feeling for my target. And then, without warning, my thoughts bumped up against something alien, something inhuman but familiar. It was like finding a boulder sticking up from the earth and knowing that it reached far down inside, a vast, dormant presence. Bringing my magic to bear, I breathed life into the vastness and it was like poking a hole in a dike. The presence flooded outwards, surging to life in my brother's body. Pulling back before it, I returned to my own mind and put my hand back on the ground, watching as my brother's form changed before my eyes. Barely a minute later, my brother was a dragon in true form, one that looked a lot like me. His scales had the same color pattern, but they were shaped differently, sort of like a shark's tooth, arranged so their edge flowed back from his head towards his tail. I grinned at him as he examined his new body admiringly, then he looked at me and cocked his head to the side, a questioning sort of look on his face.
"You're big." He stated, and I frowned, looking between our two bodies in surprise, instantly getting his point. He was right. Even though he was the elder between us and as humans he had always out muscled me, now I was much larger than he was. Suddenly suspicious, I looked over at my mate only to find that she nodding to herself, as if something had been confirmed in her mind.
"Uh, Scarlon, do you have any light you would like to shed on the subject?" I asked and she smiled, seeming to be almost embarrassed.
"Well, as you might imagine, size tends to vary between us as much as it does in humans, even among close kin." She began and my brother raised a spiky eyebrow, sitting down as he waited for an explanation. "But rarely, there will be a dragon that is hatched, or in this case, born, with far greater size and natural magic ability than the rest of us. We call such dragons 'Dragon Lords', and they have always been our leaders. From the moment I saw you Argil, I suspected you were one, but your size could just have been a natural trait of your family. It does happen from time to time. But now there can be no doubt."
"Wait a minute..." I said, surprised by her announcement. "Let me see if I have this straight. No matter that there are older and much wiser dragons than I am, I'm the leader of all the dragons?"
"That's right." She confirmed and I shook my head, settling in on my belly, staring into the glowing coals of the fire. While I was still trying to wrap my head around the concept, my mate began guiding my brother through the exercises to learn how to control magic. By the time the dawn rose, I still wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of suddenly having leadership of an entire race thrust on me. I had a feeling it was something I would have to get used to quickly, especially when, to hear my mate tell it, Dragon Lords were very rare, like, literally one-in-a-million sort of rare. Which meant that I was probably going to be the one and only leader for a while. When we returned out of the wild a week later, my brother was able to assume all the forms as well as my mate and I, and his skills with magic were gradually improving. I still wasn't entirely comfortable with my new status, but I had at least accepted it. So, all in all, it was a good start...
***
When the month of July was drawing to a close, along with our summer vacation, I found myself finally meeting up with my DnD group, the DM at last having come back from his extended holidays. In the weeks since my brother had become a dragon, I had tackled my task in earnest, seeking out those who were of the blood, and I had made an interesting discovery. All of my friends, both among the furry community and outside it, were dragon-touched, as were their families. Already there were more than a hundred who had been awakened, including the entirety of my DnD group, with the single exception of Josh, the DM. Since he was the cousin of one of the other players, it was obvious that he would be a dragon as well, and Alex, one of the other furs who were a part of my group had suggested a prank that was just too good to pass up. The campaign that we were playing had us all playing Dragonborn characters, a race that were, for all intents and purposes, anthro dragons, minus the wings.
Anyway, I was one of the first to arrive at the DM's house that night and, after surreptitiously probing Josh's mind to confirm that he was a dragon-touched, I contacted the other players with my mind, briefing them on the idea as they arrived. Alex, or Talon as he was known among the dragons, of course loved the idea, since he came up with it. Eric or Skye as he now preferred, grinned rather evilly as I explained and I could tell he was on board before he said anything. Each dragon, even the DM's cousin, were likewise into it, although Katiya (the only girl in the group, and who now called herself Beryl) was more hesitant than we were. By the time the six of us had settled around the large table in the basement where we played our games, the DM was already sitting down, hidden behind his screen, scribbling his last minute notes on the coming game in his notebook. Looking across the table at Alex, I gave a slight nod, which he returned. As one, all six of us shifted into our anthro forms, having long ago gotten into the habit of wearing clothing that didn't restrict our wings or tails when transformed, so it was a completely silent transformation. Taking a quick look around the table, I suppressed a grin, everyone taking care to act normally. A moment later, the DM spoke, the usual mantra coming from his lips with the same familiarity it had before he left.
"Sorry guys, be right with you." He said, waving a hand blindly from behind the DM screen and I heard Beryl snicker quietly. He always started the game at least fifteen minutes after he said he would, constantly changing his mind about events and traps and adding things at the last minute. Finally, he spoke again, looking over the screen at us. "Alright, everyone remember where..." He trailed off, his eyes going wide and his jaw dropping open. It was all I could do to keep a straight face, the laughter bubbling up in my chest until I felt like I was going to burst. The DM looked at each of us in turn and I looked where he did, finding that everyone was pulling it off exactly like I had planned. Talon, the red and grey dragon sitting across from me, was toying with his character's tabletop avatar, spinning it on the edge of its base like a top, the tiny character changed by magic to look exactly like him. Skye, the blue dragon who was next was idly stacking a set of dice into a tower, carefully setting a four sided die on top of the others before it toppled over. Nightshade, the DM's cousin, was doodling on a slip of paper, apparently not paying the slightest attention. When his gaze finally settled on me, I regarded him evenly.
"What's the matter?" I asked, looking down at myself as if expecting to find a stain on my shirt. "Did I spill something?"
"You...you're..." He said, looking wildly around the room. Finally, he looked down at his own arms, as if expecting them to have sprouted scales.
"We're what?" Talon asked, looking around at the rest of the group as if in confusion.
"You're..." Josh tried again, and he said something so quietly that even we couldn't hear it.
"I'm sorry..." I said, leaning in towards him, unable to fight the grin working its way onto my lips any more. "I didn't catch that."
"Dragonborn." He whispered. Looking taken aback, Skye looked down at his character sheet and then back up at the DM.
"Yeah?" He prompted. "What's the matter? Did you forget? It was your idea to have an all Dragonborn party in the first place."
The DM rubbed his eyes, shaking his head as if to dislodge the apparition, then looked around at us once again. Every member of the group were looking at him as if he was the one who was acting weirdly, and as if it were totally normal for the entire group to be anthro dragons. But everyone had a smile tugging at the edges of our mouths and I knew we wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. I could feel the laugh coming, and I wondered who it was who would crack first. Turns out, it was Nightshade, the black dragon unable to stand his cousin looking so bewildered. With a great booming bark of laughter, he broke down, and then we were all laughing. By the time we got ourselves under control again, a good two minutes later, Josh was beet red and glowering around at all of us. All things considered, when he had the truth explained to him, he took it rather well, allowing me to awaken him without any objections.
"You should have seen the look on your face." Nightshade said, embracing his cousin, which set off another round of laughter. Josh, now covered in black scales like his kin, grinned as well, chuckling at the joke. "That is what you get for going away for the summer."
"You guys got me good, I have to admit." He said, shaking his head in good natured chagrin. "Looking up and seeing all of you in this form, and looking at me like I was the one who was off was classic." Then he smirked and shook his head. "Well, are we going to play? I mean, we may not have a dungeon, but we sure do have dragons..."
Finally, after a quick tutorial on the uses of magic, we all settled down to play. Of course, in our haste to set up the joke, we had all forgotten the cardinal rule of DnD. Never, ever, piss off the DM. Three minutes into the adventure, Josh suddenly summoned a trio of ancient red dragons to attack the party. Now, considering that one ancient red dragon was a match for about ten characters well above our level, we got slaughtered. It was all in good fun though, and Josh agreed to start a new campaign the next time we met and we spent the rest of the evening rolling new characters and laughing at each other's antics. We didn't run into trouble until about midnight, when Josh's dad was usually asleep and our games were usually wrapping up.
Skye, being the imaginative sort, had taken a trio of goblin figurines from the box of NPCs and then had enchanted them until they ran around realistically on the table top, growling and waving their tiny swords. Then, with everyone watching, he did the same with his avatar, the Dragonborn fighter shouting a war cry before charging into the enemies. The four small figures were soon fighting it out on the table, and then everyone was doing it. Before long, we were cheering on our characters as they battled waves of enemies. Of course, we didn't realize how much of a racket we were making until we heard the basement door open and the footsteps of Josh's father coming down the stairs. We all froze and stared in sudden fear as the man, dressed in a bathrobe and wearing a scowl that would have curdled milk, came around the corner into the main room and suddenly stopped. It might have been funny under other circumstances, a lone human coming around the corner to find six dragons and about thirty miniscule warriors of various races staring at him in shocked silence. The silence went on for about thirty seconds as his eyes went suddenly wide. Before he could cry out, Nightshade and his cousin both shifted back to human again and started explaining things as fast as they could.
It turned out ok, the adult accepting the whole thing with the air of a man who is sure he is trapped in some bizarre dream. We ended up staying around all night, the others going back to playing with their avatars while I taught the new dragons about magic and our history. I don't think Midnight, as Josh's dad became known, really accepted that it wasn't all a dream until the day after that, when he woke up to find he was still a dragon.
Not all of the transformations went quite so smoothly of course. Some refused to even consider it until I patiently explained every single detail of it several times. And some dragons, who only had one parent of the blood, were tricky to transform, their human relatives obviously being a sticky complication. We couldn't risk having regular humans find out about us, not yet at least.
Fortunately, every one of the dragon-touched wanted to go through with it, at least, eventually. And still, I was careful when I went to my dojo, careful never to use magic, never to allow my draconian instincts to come to the surface. And as I found more and more dragons, I found myself settling into my role as a leader. Of course, I suppose I should have known that things would change again before long...