The Dragon Within

Drayce, The Vengeful's wont

A day had passed since I met the dragon. My hunger for answers grew worse each time I thought of its smile, why did it smile? Did it create me or does it know me? What if I really am a dragon who just turns into a human? Could I have forgotten my mission, whatever it could have been? That girl Rory could have the answers, she looked like she knew a lot about dragons. I lifted my head off the table I was resting on and turned to look at her, tears were running down her face as Jaxon explained something to her. I waited for her to go back into the dragon room until I went to talk to her.

I walked into the room and saw her leaning over the railing, still crying.

"What's wrong?" I asked awkwardly.

"Hey kid, its nothing. Just found out a good friend died is all." She sniffled.

"I-I'm really sorry to hear that." I said as I approached the rail. "But I have a few questions for you."

"Shoot."

"Alright, before I start asking though there's something you should know." I let out a sigh. "I think I'm a dragon."

Without a second thought she grabbed my shoulder and threw me over the railing, she caught me by my ankle and dangled me over the Void Dragon, who seemed to be surprised.

"What did you just say?' She looked down at me.

"L-let me explain! I'm not a dragon but I can turn into one for some reason! I thought maybe you could tell me about dragons!"

"Well I can tell you now, I've never heard of a human turning into a dragon." She lifted me over the railing and dropped me on the ground. "But I think I know someone who has."

"Who?" I asked frantically.

"Tell me, do you know who gave us the chains to wrap up this thing?" She asked.

"N-no."

"Vindex the Betrayer." She said, she looked at the dragon who appeared to react to the name. "He's a sorcerer, who is also a dragon. For some reason he betrayed his own to help humans catch this bastard. Vindex lives in a jungle far away from these stone dunes."

"How far?" I asked, I was ready to leave.

"Well if you can really transform into a dragon it shouldn't take you more than an hour flying to the east." Rory explained. "He's really pale and has no wings, but make no mistake he's still plenty deadly. If you approach him as a dragon he might try to kill you."

"Thank you Rory!" I grinned, ready to find out what I really was.

I walked out of the cave, the sun was just rising.

"Maybe I should go say bye to Alyssa." I thought, but as I was ready to turn around I saw Cayde sitting on a rock, peering through binoculars.

He got up, armored, and approached the caves guards.

"Go get your superiors, tell them there's a trio of dragons approaching. One of them is Void." He ordered them, he didn't seem too surprised. "Drayce stay out here, I'm going to need you to transform."

"For what!?" I asked.

"The Void Dragon and two other unknown dragons are approaching the cave, you have to hold off its companions so I can deal with it." He explained. "We can't let them find the big one."

"Wait, WHAT?" I was still confused, the last time I faced the Void Dragon it teleported so what chance did we have against it and two unknown dragons.

"I didn't stutter!" Cayde grew impatient. "Prepare for battle, Drayce!"

I looked up at the shadows cutting through the clouds.

The dragons had landed about a quarter of a mile away from us, everyone was outside, I remembered the last time I tried to fight the Void Dragon. My fists shook as I hesitated to transform, then I felt a hand grasp my shoulder.

"You'll be fine, we'll be fine." Alyssa said.

My hands stopped shaking.

"Everyone stand back..." I warned them, remembering how the area goes up in flames after my transformation.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, everything became warm around me as I transformed, I opened my eyes and saw that I had transformed but not into an incomplete dragon, still humanoid.

"Not like this!" I thought to myself. "No! I need to stay calm, I've got to kill those things!"

I looked at the Void Dragon, it began to approach us, to its sides were unique dragons. One had red skin with horns and was covered in fur, the other had a skin made of rocks. Suddenly the Void Dragon vanished and appeared behind me, I turned around quickly with my fist raised but it had vanished as quickly as it had appeared. I heard stomps coming behind me, my fist swung around and met the hairy dragon, sending it stumbling away. The rocky dragon charged my comrades with a great amount of speed, crushing a few of them.

"Dead!" I yelled as I attempted to punch it too, but I missed.

"Not yet!" Cayde ran after the Void Dragon as the hairy dragon got back on its feet, like the Armadillo Dragon we encountered, it got on its hind legs.

It launched itself forward at me, I took a punch then a kick. The dragon managed to get me to fall on my back, it aimed its horns at my chest and tried to stab me, I caught the horns and tried to push it back. I was pushing the horns back with so much force I was sure that this dragons head was going to crack. Instead it jerked its head to the side and sent me flying into a boulder that shattered on impact.

"Get away from him!" I heard Alyssa scream as she charged the dragon.

I looked up at her run at it alone with her spear, the dragon turned around and faced her, its teeth bared.

"No!" I took the biggest boulder shard I could find and ran a the dragon, I broke the rock on its head.

It squirmed on the floor in pain, as I prepared to strike it again I saw it shrink and change. The dragon became humanoid like me.

"Impossible..." I muttered. "Your like me!"

The dragon got up and punched me in the face, sending me back into the rubble, its horns plunged into my chest as I grabbed them again. I pushed them back again, this time I had the upper hand. The dragon was on its knees, its horns still in my hands. I pushed down on its shoulder with my foot and tugged on the horns once, decapitating it. I turned to see that the rock dragon had already fallen, Jaxon was throwing javelins at the Void Dragon who was chewing a slayer in half. This was all happening as Cayde let blood from his halberd drip into a vial. The Void Dragon turned its gaze to me as I charged it, without a second thought it teleported away from the area.

I was still in my dragon form as I approached Cayde who held the vial of blood close to him, Jaxon was walking towards him as well. I couldn't believe he let that person die instead of fighting the dragon back, that wasn't the Cayde I had come to know.

"What the hell were you doing!?" Jaxon grabbed Cayde by the collar and lifted him up.

"What are you talking about?" Cayde replied calmly.

"You got that blood as your comrade was torn to shreds!"

"That's correct, that's why I lead that dragon here."

"Lead it!" I yelled in anger, looking at the several corpses around me. "You basically killed these people, why!?"

"For vengeance." He said. "What would you do if Rory was killed? How far would you go to avenge her?"

"I don't know but I know I wouldn't kill innocent people!" Michael let him go then punched him.

"As they say, the end justifies-" Cayde said as I roared at him.

"Tell me how you feel when you get your revenge!" I growled, I turned eastward and flew away from the area.