Cloudless~

Chapter Three - Goodbyes of a Sharp Blade

 

Chapter Three

 

 They stared at him for a short moment. He had the normal shape of a dragon: lizard-like tail with fox body. He had small, perky ears and a buzz cut mane, all of which was orange, except for his piercing green eyes. Saedy glanced over at Chloreya for her reaction. She seemed a bit worried that this “Rosh” had overheard.

 

 “Rosh . . .” Sashu contemplated the name. “Reminds me of heavy metal. ‘Tis your name, right?”

 

 “Yep.” He sat back on his haunches and continued with a smile, “I s’pose you all have names, too? Or was your memory wiped of them?”

 

“Er, I’m Saedy Ledlix, this is Zeek Jetmarr, Sashu . . .” Saedy trailed off, looking to the smallest dragon for his last name.

 

Sashu stared right back. “Uhhh, I think it was Rockwood, but I . . . I can’t really remember.” His eyes got all big and shiny, “Did they really wipe my memory?! I don’t wanna forget anything!” he wailed. He looked at a ground for a few seconds, then said dismissively, “Carry on.”

 

 “Er,” Saedy began awkwardly, “and this is Chloreya, as you probably know.”

 

 “Yep, that’s her!” Rosh said triumphantly. “So what are y’all up to?”

 

 Saedy and Zeek stared at each other blankly for a moment. What were they trying to do? Survival was an obvious priority, but what else was driving them?

 

 “I guess all we really want is to get back home.” Zeek said quietly.

 

“Pfft, maybe you two, but definitely not me.” Sashu said defiantly, “I remember my parents, even if not my last name. They were totally insane. And not the good kind of insane, either. I used to have a big sister, but they did freakin’ experiments on her, and she died before I was even born.” He glared at the ground, deep in his memory, “Then they experimented on me. That’s why I’m so young; they turned me into a dragon and got me exiled to this place, not even caring that I was their son. All they thought was how well their experiment went. I used to listen to them talking; that’s how I know so much about dragons.”

 

All four of them stared blankly at him for a moment. Soon, all of their stares turned sympathetic, except for a slightly confused Rosh, who said, “Wow, I can’t go five minutes without hearing another sad back-story, eh?”

 

 Nobody laughed.

 

 "Well then,” Saedy said, breaking the awkward silence, which Rosh silently thanked her for, “back to business. Who’s up for going back to the mainland?” she looked around desperately for someone who would go with her, stopping on Zeek.

 

“Sure, why not? My family ought to miss me a bit.” Zeek shrugged. Saedy turned to Sashu.

 

“Okay, I’ll go. But under one circumstance: I don’t have to go to my parents again.” Sashu said with finality.

 

 “Sure. Gem will probably be happy to have a son,” Saedy said. She turned on Rosh and Chloreya.

 

 They looked at each other for a long moment before Rosh said, “Dude, I seriously have no idea what you’re talking about. Why would you want to go there? Those humans’ll shoot you down without a second glance.” Chloreya nodded in agreement.

 

 “Oh, it’s nothing,” Saedy said. Obviously, Rosh and Chloreya were born and raised as dragons. “We just . . . uh, we have business there. Weird, huh?” A nervous chuckle erupted as Saedy tried not to give away the fact that they were human once. It seemed odd. “But yeah. You two can stay here. These two are enough manpower,” Saedy said, glancing at Zeek and Sashu. They looked up from their game of tic-tac-toe in the dirt.

 

“See you guys later,” Chloreya smiled, and then she and Rosh trotted off towards the tree line to wherever they were going.

 

“We should get some rest; it’s almost sundown,” Zeek said, standing back up. “After all, we’re leaving tomorrow, right?”

 

“Uh, tomorrow? Isn’t that a bit soon?” Saedy said quickly. Zeek stared at her as if she were mad. “Okay, okay. Tomorrow at sunrise,” she started to lie down on the ground. “I just hope we’re not like werewolves or something and transform at night.”

 

 “My guess is no,” Sashu began, “but I can’t be sure since my parents never talked about it. We could be stuck in these dragon bodies forever.” He said with a shudder that continued to the other two.

 

 The three of them curled up on the ground and fell asleep slowly, every sound making them jump.

 

~

 

 Saedy was in a grown man’s body, standing in a burning town filled with illness and famine. She had the feeling that she had caused it; that it was all because of her. Soon, a boy about seventeen emerged from one of the buildings. She realized she was smiling, and dropped it immediately. She had a sudden urge to strike him; make him suffer. It was as if the boy was an enemy, and had been for a long time. She scowled and ran towards him, still a man with auburn windswept hair and piercing blue eyes that stood out from the flames. She ran towards the boy, stick in hand, and battled with him for what seemed like centuries. More like three generations. As they fought, Saedy returned to her normal self and the boy transformed into a tall man with short cropped red hair. This new man nipped at her memory as if she had once seen him. Just as he seemed like he thought he had won, she swung her stick behind his legs, causing him to fall. She put the stick to his throat. It transformed into a sharp sword.

 

 “Goodbye, Venire,” she sneered with a harshness she didn’t know was in her. She plunged the sword forward before she even knew what she was doing, and everything went white.