The Journey of the Dark Crystal: Chapter 11
#12 of Journey of the Dark Crystal
The Eleventh chapter of Avila's Journey to the Dark Realm
Avila and the rest of the Dark Sentinels are mine. Cynder is copyright of Activision
The Feather Winged Black Dragon
Avila again woke up the morning, feeling fresh after everything that happened yesterday. She stretched her draconic body, stiff after the long night. Cynder had waked up earlier than her, and then she saw her back and saw that her wings weren't there. Instead, they were replaced by the sinister-looking, crow feathered, dragon wing appendage. Though at first when she saw them they were surprising, she felt light with the additional avian feature. When she lashed her tail, though, she was still surprised that they increased in length and split into two, which move independently on her command. She still had a problem with moving both tails, though, since she was still accustomed with moving one tail.
"Guess I'll try to move it later...with a bit of training, of course," thought Avila while she flapped her wings a little, making some feathers fell.
When she went to the open hall, though, she was greeted with cold expression on most of the Sentinel dragons. Almost all of the dragons tried to keep away from Avila's sight, some pretended to not know she was there, or even some stared at her as if she was something dangerous, which it was.
Avila was now a full death dragon, so she could bring death to anything, although she didn't even try. The fact that she was making them scared was because of her aura, being deathly and foul, and also of her long dual tail that was swishing away like they were happy. Moreover, she was the only dragon there with feather wings, and many knew ravens were bad luck.
Not only had she had to endure the fact that she had become something to fear, but also to her eye problems. After the transformation, her eyesight got worse, and the day before when she tried to focus on the water she saw bright white marks on some parts of the lake, while the scenery became dark. She was annoyed by it, knowing her inversed contrast made her blind every moment she got.
Luckily, she wasn't entirely alone.
The black dragoness walked through the dark corridor leading to the forest where Yrelka lived with the anthropomorphic bats she guarded. Avila had never revealed the hidden race of Fuzandres to her comrades in respect on Yrelka's request for not removing her memories about the great race. Then, she smiled when she stared at the ceiling, seeing the demon dragon watching her upside down like a spider.
"Morning," said Yrelka while walked down to the floor. "Not a nice start of the day, huh? Your expression told me that."
"Yeah...many dragons looked at me as if I'm a monster of some sort," said Avila while staring at the ground. "It really sucks."
"How about your small friend?"
"Cynder, she...she's traumatized by the fact that the demon trying to kill me was taking over my body and tried to kill her with the cutting wind. I...I don't know anything about her past. Beyond the fact that her scales were more like something that was a slave from another dragon...I don't know."
"How can you say she was a slave?"
"Those bracelets she got were more like shackles, including the tail tip. Her forehead was decorated by a sign, also with her left thigh. I tried to ask her about them, but she dismissed them as her style of decorating herself. Well, she has her past, like me."
"About her...why do you think she's very much like you?"
"Because somehow, her elements are the same with mine...and she looks like me."
"She's slimmer than you, and more streamlined."
Avila didn't reply her then. The scenery started to get dark in Avila's perspective, and she was now in the opening before the Black Forest. Being a place reserved for death penalty and small dragon's hunting ground, it was quiet, despite of being very populated by Fuzandres. The dragons somehow believed the forest was Yrelka's domain, and based on their belief, Yrelka stayed in the middle of the forest, so dragons could only hunt some two acres on the forest vicinity, except for Avila, of course.
Walking through a vaguely neat pathway leading into the Fuzandre village, Avila could see wildlife all around her like foxes, birds, and small critters. She could also see lesser reptiles like lizards, chameleons, and others smaller than them. But, while seeing those small things having their reptilian features intact, Avila could only became sad as she saw what she had become.
While walking, Avila said, "What happened to Yorloka? Is he fine?"
"Thanks to you, he's now having a mental breakdown and the Fuzandres were taking a good care on him. Since you're the only one that can be trusted, I'll let them erase..."
"Whoa, whoa, wait! I thought he's your brother."
"I know he's my brother, but we haven't talked for almost 100 years. The other reason why I trusted you is because of your heart. I felt the pain in your heart...like you lost something very important. I can't read your mind, so I trust you if you can have more friends than the dragons, and my decision was correct. You are now in a state where dragons start to fear you and resent you, and you only have that small dragon, me, and my brother by your side."
Yrelka then put her left paw on Avila's right front paw, then she said, "Don't lose that hope you've been trying to find, Avila...death dragon."
The term death dragon was very disturbing to Avila. She wanted to be at least a normal dragon, but everything that happened to her made the black dragoness' twisted fate became more twisted, as now she became a combination of a raven and a dragon with slightly mutated limbs.
Kanesh'ak greeted them with his usual bowing, but then he saw Avila's wing, and said, "Your wings...they're from a raven, right?"
"Raven? Oh, you mean the wings? It's okay..."
"It's one of her growth," interrupted Yrelka. "She grows feather by time."
The vampire fuzandre just nod and gave them way. Avila could see Yorloka was sleeping in the middle of the ritual table, feeling calm. But Avila was unsure. He could had freaked out if he saw Avila.
"Hey, are you planning on sleeping all day long?" said Yrelka. "C'mon, wake up and smell the air."
Having a feeling that Yrelka wanted to make Yorloka saw Avila, the death dragoness panicked and said, "Wait!"
But it was too late. Yorloka woke up and saw Avila. He suddenly opened his eyes wide and tried to jump, but there were shackles all around his limbs, magically tightening his limbs together to the four poles on each sides of the ritual table, spread-eagled him left his under part exposed.
"What the fuck is going on?! Why am I...wait, why IS that monster is near you, Yrelka! Moreover, who the fuck are these bats?"
"Calm down, you big asshole," said Yrelka while giving a nice slash to Yorloka's chest, giving a mark on him, but they quickly disappear. "This ritual table is normally used for humans so they could heal from wounds, which I'm trying to help you. That 'monster' you're talking about is Avila, okay?"
"I don't give a shit to that! She's dead, I can be sure! I saw her being killed by a demon from the portal!"
"He saw that demon too?" thought Avila. "Yes, I did feel that demon which has my body now pulled my heart...and I felt like I died...yet, I'm still alive."
"Just stop that, brother! This ritual table is also enchanted so slight aggression caused these magical chains to sprout out and bind you...and yet, you've never been bound...after so many years...right?"
"Just what are you trying to tell me?"
"You're in my domain now, Yorloka, and normally no dragons are able to get in here coming out alive...if you're lucky, you won't even remember being chained here while you got your denial."
"Denial, what..."
Yorloka didn't have the time to say something before they were changed into a moan when he saw that his malehood started to sprout because of a weird magic that stimulate his orgasm very quickly, yet not giving him the time to even release. He moaned loudly when he wanted to cum, but another magic blocked it and denied it, giving him even more pleasure.
"Wait, stop! You can't do this to me!"
"I'm not even trying to meddle with you. Ask the Fuzandres. At least, until that mind of yours able to take on Avila's current condition, you'll have to endure this shit...even forever."
That whisper sent shiver to Yorloka. He knew his twin was also a sadistic dragon and without her trying to tease him, he was afraid his lust had been building before she even started to do something to him. Though they didn't have incest-like relationship, they liked to tease each other, but then only Yrelka was effective on teasing him, and that was into the long night.
While Yorloka was being played by the bat-people, the demon dragoness turned to Avila and said, "Well? Don't just stand there! You're still too young to watch!"
"Oh?! I...I don't know.... It's just like mating, right?"
"Wait, you mated already?!"
"I'm around 36."
"Oh...but your body..."
"In my world, I'm still considered a pre-adult dragon, but not a dragonling. You can call me a whelp or what. I'm still considered in this world, though."
Avila rested for a while there while talking with Kanesh'ak, which somehow liked dragons from the fact that they had webbed wings, despite of being a reptile. But the vampire black fuzandre never found a dragon with feathers growing over the webbed wings.
"You're still the first dragon I know with that kind of anatomy, though," said Kanesh'ak while flexing his wings. "Aside from you and that dragon at the pedestal, the leader is the only dragon I really respected. She had made a truce to us when my ancestors had tried to wage a war with the humans. Because of her convincing both sides, we managed to live longer and thrive. Luckily, not all humans knew our existence."
"Oh." Avila couldn't think of anything to discuss with the brown vampire fuzandre, but then when Kanesh'ak wanted to leave, the black dragoness said, "Hey, do you know the differences between those changed by the ritual and genuine one?"
Hearing that, Kanesh'ak stopped at the second step, and turned his bat head. From there the dragoness saw that he was actually giving a sad expression. He then said, "To be truth, it's ironic, to know those changed by An-Erkh-Sa...were genuine fuzandres. You know Hos'kak? That flying fox? He was a death convict from what I heard from him, said it was unfair for him just because he crossed the borderline between the light and darkness. He's a genuine Flying Fox, while me, the one born in the forest, is a half fruit bat."
Kanesh'ak then opened his jaws, revealing two pointed fangs like the one Avila had. "My fangs and my black eyes are the only indication that I'm a vampire bat. It's hard to find genuine Flying Fox like Hos'kak, but it's harder to find fuzandre-born Flying Fox. It's an ironic twisted fate our gods are playing, and we're just their pawns."
As he left, Avila felt sympathy to him. While the race thrived because of the choice Yrelka did, the fact that genuine-born Fuzandres weren't even genuine made her almost cried. She wanted to get back to her quarters, not wanting to get even sadder than that day.
When she wanted to leave, Yrelka saw her and said, "Hey, wait up."
"What, Yrelka?"
"Don't space out with us, okay? You're welcome to be here anytime you want to. You're lonely, right?"
"Yes...but, I gotta go. My sister is waiting."
"Sister?"
"Yes...."
She then turned her body to the opening and left without any words. When she had found a clearing she saw Cynder and Coraero stood there waiting for her.
"Hey...sorry for spacing out," said Coraero. "You're not alone."
"Yes, I'm not alone," thought Avila while she smiled and with the three of them, walked into the shadow. "I can be a half-bird, but knowing that there's one being I can trust beside my own mate, I won't be alone here until I find my way back to my world."
Cynder then turned her head to Avila, and while smiling at the light part, then said, "I never got any sister in my entire life."
"Not really a sister, Cynder. You're me...from an alternate universe," replied Avila