Heir of the Dragon

In the Belly of the Peaks (part 2)

I took a few tentative steps away from the rock wall, trying to digest this.

" ...two guards and one prisoner found dead in their own blood; Your cell empty... To the world it was escape. The little cursed wench suddenly became the only possible obstacle standing in the way of Gherian empire dominance" he continued. " At this moment, every guard, every scout, every being with claws or teeth is combing the woods for the little dragon girl,"

I shuddered, images of Kellei's last soul-piercing look flashing around in my head. I shook my head. He was lying through his teeth. I was no one. There wasn't a reason in all seven realms for an entire empire to want me dead. His story had holes.

"...but...the feathered man...he was one of you..." I said, the questioning obvious in my voice. He finally turned to face me. The look on his face, though it still held the solemnly fierce undercurrent, was pinned up in humorous disbelief.

" Foul. You thought he...?...." He shook his head a little " Someone needs a history lesson,"

I gave him an apprehensive look. He was acting human. How dare he.

"So he wasn't Ghere."

He went back to staring at the dreary sky.

"No. His ancestors may have been, but he and his kind don't much agree with any government," He said stiffly. The devil was back.

"You saved me from that death just to give me a different one."

"Maybe. It wasn't about saving your life, it was to save mine,"

"...Leverage." I nodded to myself. I knew I should never have thanked him.

" ....Every day it worsens. He no longer has any reason to keep me alive,"

I was slowly piecing things together. There was only ever one servant, only one to know I existed. The rough-skinned woman was keeping my existence a secret for the man's sake, like she had agreed to. The guards from the dungeon had been talking about he and his father. He had kept me a secret.

"...Ha...ironic," I said quietly to myself.

"How is this in any way funny to you?!" he whipped around and growled in my face "Do you have any idea why I brought you here?"

Fear vice-gripped my spine again as the burning in his eyes was again echoed beneath my skin.

" I am going to kill you." He sneered " To take your corpse-" he spat the word in my face "- to my father. Maybe then he will let me out of my own halls; maybe THEN he will see something other than his own demise when he looks at me,"

I was retreating toward the wall again trying desperately to keep some distance between us, my heart pounding in my ears like the venom in his words.

"no...no! I just...." I stumbled around my words as my heel struck against a big stone that lay between me and the cliff wall. "..your father....parents...wanted to put me with you....before Foul..."

His face was closer than ever and my wits were crashing down around me. I could feel his breath chaffing against my skin as he spoke.

"And now..." His voice was a growling whisper "I know exactly the hell they meant to put me through," The acid in his eyes churned and flickered in mine, too close, and all at once he was gone. He took a few hurried steps backward then stood rigidly still, hands balled in shaking, white fists. He'd gone too far, come too close. My breathing was raspy as I watched, trying to regain control of my senses. Something was wrong. His eyes were half closed and they flicked madly beneath his eyelids, unseeing and crazed. He was breathing hard and the heaving muscles in his chest seemed to slither under his skin. My mind still raced with his words. My life to appease his father. My life for his honor.

"Why?! Why do they want you dead?!" I yelled, breaking down in terror. Anything to make him stop. Anything to breath a few more times. Anything. A shudder ripped through his figure and at once the air filled with the wretched noise of cracking bones and fleshy ripping. His figure was growing, the muscles and joints in his arms and legs swelled, ripping him out of his boots.

" Because. I." His voice echoed off the rocks, labored and hoarse, pushed through clenched teeth. His body began to sprout thick black fur and his clothes tore violently and hung off him in rags. His spine cracked and he was thrown forward onto all fours.

"am." he growled. His clothes were on the ground in shreds and his hands and feet had become massive clawed paws digging into the damp soil as he continued to grow. I watched in horror as every last shred of humanity disappeared.

"A MONSTAAAAAHR!" He thundered as his mouth grew long and his teeth sprouted into incisors as long as my thumb. The beast's roar rang around me and I fell, paralyzed with terror, onto the rock behind me, the beating of my heart deafening. The sounds of his tearing body had finally stopped and he stood, teeth bared above me, his sides heaving. My every limb trembled as I stared, mortified, into it's large, boiling yellow eyes. I waited for the end. I saw the hunger in his eyes, brutish and wild, swirling around like an acidic storm. Time slowed down as the crawling moments passed, each becoming more sickening, as we stood there, breathing hard. Then, so slowly that I almost doubted I saw it, the human started coming back into his eyes. The hunger was steadily overcome and his eyes softened, if only a diminutive amount. He took a step away and lowered his head. I sunk down onto the ground, tears of relief running across my skin. He hadn't killed me.

I clutched my pounding heart and swallowed the sour taste in my mouth, half of me still waiting. The huge creature stood watching me. There truly wasn't any other animal in his form. He was four legged, each leg as thick as my waist, and at his haunches he was a head taller than me. His face was long and he had strange ears, like instead of any flesh, there was only longer fur that cowlicked around them. The most peculiar thing about the beast was the scales that ran down his spine, beginning at the top of his head and trailing down to his hips and then pooled on what would have been the front of his thigh. All but these spots was covered in thick, wavy, ink-black fur. The wind was playing through it sending the reflected blue- grey of the sky and greens of the plant life around the clearing. Protruding out of the vertebrae on his neck were short horn-like bones and between each stretched scaled webbing. The sun shone through it, like when you hold your hand over a candle, glowing as red as the blood within. He had been staring back at me, the humanity obvious in his eyes. All at once he turned his hulking figure toward the pale tree, gave me one last backward glance, and bounded, using the tree's branches as a stepping stool, up onto the cliff, latching his claws on the edge of the rock and pulling himself out onto the ground, massive muscles bulging with the effort.

As soon as he was out he was gone. I was left, suddenly alone, with the pile of his shredded clothes and the sagging willow tree. His smell still lingered but I could finally breath. Yet, above everything else, one realization stuck out in my mind. I was still breathing. Something made him stop. I had to get away before whatever it had been ceased to exist.

***Here's the other half of the chapter...hope you liked it!! And I just finished another illustration ....for this chapter! Please go take a look this one...it kind of took me forever....and besides, I know youre all wondering what the creature looks like! d: Just follow the link on my profile to the photobucket album! Thanks so much!! and dont forget to VOTE if you liked it....thanks so much! ****