‘in scales’; Triumph or agony.

Fight? Dion wondered in his mind as his clawed foot stood solid on the ground. the morning sun made its gaze through the trees, greeting the two dragons in warm rays. Rakshasi was standing opposite to him with spread out claws, her look was fixated up on him. “Come on, you have been standing there for too long already. Pray not to be afraid” She challenged him to come forward, it did not put his mind at ease. He was at all not sure of the training technique that Rakshasi applied. She had forced him to come out in the open at the ground before her lair to fight her. Normally it might have helped if he did come of the place where he was now. A spoiled city boy without fighting skills, now a dragon and had to fight for his life. Hell he did not know if he could even survive Rakshasi’s attack. Rakshasi kept on coaxing him out to make the first strike; it helped a bit Dion ran at Rakshasi to strike her but even before he could try to hit her he tripped over his own claws and tripped face down in the dirt. Rakshasi gave a disappointed growl, through she expected as much it was like training a hatchling. “and dead” she said as she helped Dion on his feet again. “if you can’t run it is best you don’t try to in battle.” She gave a small hit on Dion’s shoulder to check he was stable and then coaxed him out again.  “come on, you can sleep after we killed the hunter beast” she spread her feet to absorb any attacks Dion might throw at her.

Dion moved his left hand to strike at her, his hand clenched strongly in a fist as he was only centimetres away from striking her in her left cheek. She was fast however, faster than Dion expected. Her left arm blocked the attack by moving it aside, in the opening that was left she pulled on his arm making him fall forward. With a quick move of her right hand she pressed him down on his back and closed her jaws around his neck. Her hot wet breath over his cold scales, her teeth gently scraping along his scales. “dead…do you have more lives than a cat? I hope so” her voice was filled with sarcasm. Dion rubbed the back of his head “you said it wouldn’t hurt” he complained, Rakshasi did not let him go however. “I said you should not be afraid….you might get used to the pain. You can’t ask your enemy to stop because you have a bruise” she said sternly as she closed her jaws more tightly around him. “alright….now let me g…” he was interrupted “no, I will not” she growled around his neck. A hint of panic came over him, she could easily choke him to death like lions would do. in all his might he tried to struggle free by moving on the floor but Rakshasi would have none of it. she used her weight and strength to keep him against the floor. Dion tried to kick her off but his claws only scraped along her scales. He hissed as he tried to get in a more defendable position but she was in control with her strong jaws on his neck.

A punch knocked all air out of Dion’s lunges, in his struggle one of his claws scraped along her thigh and she did not appreciate that at all. She broke off, leaving Dion to gasped out for air. some blood dripped from his neck onto the ground. “again!” Rakshasi hissed at him, Dion did not move however. his neck hurt and he could only breath shallowly. He did not care how dangerous the treat of the hunter was but he would have none of this. “come, stand up and fight me” she hissed at him with much urgency. “no” Dion hissed with pain “I will not” in the most unpleasant way he came to realise that she did not appreciate it at all. Her head appeared in his field of view, under tension with anger. Her hot breath ran over his face. “what are you? Coward? Shall I just kill you myself?” Dion pushed her away from him with the strength of his draconic body. he scrabbled on his feet best as possible “I don’t care! I am not a dragon! I never needed to fight, no one ever taught me to” he hissed back with anger that Rakshasi did not expect “I just wanted to go home, you know I had a good life before the train crash and this happened! I will just go to the village and ask the mage myself since you are to busy worrying about yourself to think I don’t like to fight or stay. In his anger he hit a tree with his claws, deep grooves where cut by his claws in the bark. “I can’t help you when I am dead!” she flinched in defence “He would have no mercy for you and you will bring the whole village in danger!”

“what is it with you and the village anyway, I don’t believe that you just happen to have a business relation with the villagers. They treat you more as one of them.” Dion turned himself towards Rakshasi, looking her dead in the eyes. He felt the warmth of small streams of blood from his neck all the way down his scales. “you don’t need to know” she answered dismissive “no, for once I like to know! I want to know if you are going to throw me in the lion’s den.”

Rakshasi took a deep breath, a moment to calm herself. “before the fall of the empire my kind lived in the village” she looked past Dion who threw up his hands in satisfaction. “finally! Was that so hard” he leaned against the same tree he hit before, rolling his head back a bit to relieve the aching pain in his neck. “but you don’t life there anymore….so what happened” he did not care if it might be an touchy subject for her to talk about. “the empire crumbled, a new king was crowned, a new religion was embraced.” She walked to him and poked her claws on his chest “you have any idea how it feels to go from Leader to outcast!?”  her voice was sharp and filled with different emotions so mixed that Dion could not make out what she was feeling. “let me guess, about the same as being ripped from everyone you love, everything you care for and everything you know into an unknown environment in an unknown body?” He had to oppress an snarl towards her. her face turned sour at the comment “something like that” her voice was reluctant. Dion’s noise flared at the scent of his own blood but he paid little attention to it. “Rakshasi, I have known you for just a day now. In that day I learned to be a dragon, learned I am far away from home and I learned that my life is at great risk. All I want to know is the truth.” Rakshasi did not show any signs she understand, her gaze moved to glare past Dion. A shiver ran over his back from discomfort. “My family was killed by the king’s soldiers, I am the last of my blood line Dion. That is why; the grandfather of Jarl Arryn saw how my people were murdered. I was still a hatchling, fresh out of the shell, he hid me to the cost of his own life.” Her voice shivered of grief to even think about the lost she suffered.

Dion was struck by an unknown disturbing feeling. “Grandfather...I mean no disrespect; you should never ask a lady after her age but how old are you” Rakshasi did not answer immediately, like she had to think about the question “not so old, I believe around seventy years give or take.” Dion was himself shocked by this revelation, she sounded so young of spirit but she could easily have been his grandmother; if he was a fire breathing dragon, if he was born one he must correct. A silence fell between the two, Dion could see Rakshasi had grown uncomfortable to talk to him. he could only  fish for reasons, sharing her emotional past, or something else. A ton of questions he wanted to ask but he was not the first to break the silence with an unsure voice. “How old are you?” Dion took a swallow, her age was nearly twice his; would he be just a hatchling in her eyes? Must be, he couldn’t speak draconic, fight, fly or even run. He spoke slow and soft, hoping she would misunderstand “nearly thirty” yet she could understand it perfectly clear, her only emotion was her eyes that widened a bit. “thirty and still so young of spirit, you should nearly be at your deathbed…” it was a thorn in his mind to think she would think that fifty was an age to die, again this was a more medieval setting and no crazy fantasy story. “heavens no, we generally age to seventy or eighty. But I still must seem a hatchling in your eyes” he lowered his eyes to gaze at a snail feasting on a fresh fallen leaf. “You do not act like one, besides you would be a teenager if you count the dragon ages.” Her voice was too strongly deformed by underlying emotions of loss and grief that Dion failed to notice other more hopeful emotions within the same tone of voice. Her heard a soft dripping noise up on some leaves on the ground. as he looked down he noticed it was the blood from his neck; it made a small stream over his scales and was now dripping from one of his claws. Blankly he started at the blood, the pain in his neck had been overcome with the discussion at  hand. Now that he remembered his neck the pain came slowly back. “let me help” Rakshasi insisted while drawing him toward her, her tongue ran out of her mouth along the cut of the neck, cleaning the blood away. Dion gave a pained shiver but didn’t complain, rather afraid with her sharp teeth close to his neck again. “we need to get the wound closed” she said quickly during her darting into the lair to get some herbs. With some string made of tree vines and odd smelling leaves she patched up his neck “this will do” she commented quickly on her handy work. “are you now prepared to continue the training?”

“and to have you throw me down again like that? no thank you” Dion rubbed his neck, the pain faded away until it was nothing more than a small stinging sensation in his neck. “Come on Dion, I can’t protect you always” she snorted quickly, convincing Dion to at least try to. Something that was rather successful, Dion went into fighting position. His eyes darted around to find something he could use, with a quick move he tried to hit with his left claw again, but at the same time moved his right to hit her in the chest. He had taken Rakshasi with surprise with this move. He hit her in the stomach making her groan out  but just as Dion though he was able to push her against the ground something hit against his knees. They failed him and he fell on the ground like a bag of salt. Dion hissed in pain as he rubbed his knees, Rakshasi standing above him with a little smile “you forgot the tail” she smirked and helped him on his feet again.

The two kept on sparring like this for the better part of the day until Dion stopped unable to do much as he was covered in bruises and shallow claw marks. At the end of the training he gave Rakshasi some nasty blows to her side and chest. With great difficulty Dion had to, almost, drag himself into her lair. He took his place near the three eggs and the fire. He tried not to move much as each movement hurt, he never had such an intensive training before. “Food…I should hunt” Rakshasi announced to Dion, expecting not much of a return comment. “stay here” with those words she darted of into the forest. Dion used the time to obverse the eggs more. He was not able to do that much besides the one night before he was transported to wherever he was. His claws gently slid over the eggs. He wondered who or what sent them here and with which purpose.  If they are dragon eggs why they would send it to a human in another place? Or why bring him here as human. He could not help to feel like he was part of a grand design of something, he did not like it for a bit. He was used to be a manager, to be in charge. Here he could not defend himself and to top it off he was with a rather dominant dragoness. It made him feel all teenage again, trying to kick against a mighty grand design of society that demanded him to do what they told. He came not so far in live to life up through, he would surely be missed and people would be looking for him…but how could they even find him in the middle of nowhere while he being a dragon…

“dinner!” Rakshasi called, she threw a medium sized deer on the ground, freshly caught in the forest. The prospect of a meal kept Dion’s mind of things, at least for a while. The blood filled meat warmed his belly and lightened his spirit, the pain with in his bones ebbed away into something more durable. “Rakshasi” he started with great care, words he never knew would be his flowed out. “Why can we even talk?”

“How do you mean Dion?” She had put her part of the dinner away to look at him with great interest a question she feared he would ask all along. “Our minds, we can talk with our minds. But what use if dragons and humans are at war” Dion looked past the dragoness onto the wall behind her afraid look her in the eyes. Afraid for a anger or a sadness, for he had learned so much about dragons but so less about being one. “The species of the earth weren’t meant to be separated. Once among a time the ancestors were ready to bound with humans.” Raksashi did not return any look her eyes were focused on the fire, absorbing it’s gentle dance. “Before we took this form we roamed the earth as the beasts you might read in your fairy-tales; walking on four legs, breathing smoke and fire. Our species was powerful and strong. Humans where nothing but just a small species, irrelevant to us.” She aborted her story for a moment to look at the fire “If you want to know our tale…You have to accept a faith I do not wish to enforce up on you Dion. For if you know your tale you can never be allowed to get human again” her eyes darted up to meet his, hers filled with pain and sincerity. Her voice was not shaking of fear, her voice was strong, determined, free of dark emotions and filled with hope of songs. Hope of the dragon-empire. Dion looked from his dinner back at Rakshasi, he took a bite even though his stomach was knotted. As he chewed up on the meant he let his mind wonder and his voice soften. “Often I fantasized what it would be like to be one of your kind…” he started like a kit asking for something embarrassing. “But now I am a dragon I do not feel home. In the end I will be a human, maybe my soul was never meant to be a dragon in the first place” he could not continue however since Rakshasi interrupted him before he could make any more assumptions. “You travelled beyond what I can comprehend Dion, you have granted a dragon body. I do not believe you would be talking if your soul was not ready to be a dragon. I have learned that sometimes our lives are taken by a change of events. I pray for you not to give up on your hopes. Once we defeated the beast we will go on the quest…”

Dion interrupted her “what quest” Rakshasi waved aside at the cave wall “our people used to have more culture” Dion thought she was deferring the subject but did not interrupt her anymore “we used to be interested in art and architecture too. For who looks enough would sometimes find remnants of the ancient empire. The humans have built up on it; the City of Harcu’al, the Captial and where the king made his throne is built on a city of the Empire of old. Those who gone into the catacombs of the city never returned sane or at all. I do not believe Dion you are brought here by a change, the eggs your transformation are speaking for any design to be at play. Once we killed the beast we go into the catacombs of the old city.” Rakshasi pried at Dion, fearing he would run away. “Do I have much choice?” he surged without a moment of thinking. “Yes you have Dion; Any wizard can undo the spell up on you, transform you back into human form. We might not be able to send you back but at least you have your body back” Rakshasi did her best to hide it but fear taken over her voice. “wouldn’t that spoil the plans of whoever did this to me?”

“yes it would” Rakshasi had to answer fair, she could not think of any other way nor any other method but forcing him would be just as wrong as slaying someone for sport. “I want to know why I am Draconic” Dion concluded with a rather icy tone in his voice “A great change will be that my life will end at your side but I already know that I would never see my old life back” a grim tone underlined his voice. “Even if I get back as human in my correct place…I will never be Dion again, not the same Dion who disappeared that night.” Rakshasi made her way to Dion to press a clawed hand on his shoulder “why would you think so?” she asked with the same grim tone in her voice as he had, her gaze passed his head and into the warmth of the fire. “because I am already changed, who can be normal when you meet a species who should not exist.” His own gaze left the fire to gaze up at her. “my change might have been more then I dare to believe. Experiences is what makes us; I will be declared insane by the people I love once I return to my place.” He took a deep breath, until now he never though what changes might be his nor what his loved once would do once he comes back with these delusions. “Your heart is strong Dion, maybe a bit Draconic if I might say so” Rakshasi directed her attention once more at her food. Dion was left cold to what to think about it, if it was a compliment or an insult. Through the first was more logical. Even with the knot in his stomach he forced himself to eat the food he had left.

Dion was woken up by the gentle sunrays that light up the cave with warm rays. Rakshasi was already outside, he could see her form practicing ancient forms of combat. For two weeks now he had trained with her. Every training session was concluded with pain in all his joints, but as the weeks had progressed Rakshasi herself was no longer out of the danger zone. Dion had learned to fight back, to use his tail to whip her. One he threw her against a boulder, damaging her skin. He felt awful for doing so. Rakshasi only petted him on the shoulder, telling it was nothing to worry about. She was an interesting character for Dion. She spoken with a great wisdom yet could not read or write anything. She taught him some basic Draconic, mostly commands needed within a fight. These two weeks only consisted out what was needed for him to fight the beast that would be up on them with just a few weeks of time. Each day he felt Rakshasi grew more and more anxious. She hoped her kin would have killed him but feared the worse. Dion spread his wings to examine them, he flattered them twice just to get the feeling back. he wished there more time, maybe she could teach him to flight with in the following weeks. But as he was going to wear armour it would be unlikely she would waste energy on it. Dion came out into the light, watching Rakshasi controlling her breath and balance in an almost meditating way. The fighting style reminded him strong of some oriental one. “mel'nakit” she said without even opening her eyes. “Mel’nakit” Dion repeated the greet, he placed himself next to Rakshasi; mirroring her training. It was a welcome change from his beaten up body. he felt his muscles move under his skin and his joints pop into the correct places. “someone is coming” she interrupted the training and prepared for an attack. Dion just slightly behind her opened his mouth to bare his teeth.

Out of the bushes came the message boy again. he wore a more copper coloured pair of trousers and shirt of leather. “The jarl says that your amour is done” he was panting heavily, he added afraid “the hunter has been spotted in the next town. He is resting, he wants to leave tomorrow for us” Rakshasi growled in a shock. “Vinxa, wux nomag gethrisj” she growls. Her gaze moved from the boy to Dion. He glared after the boy that made himself be gone before meeting up to her glare. “we must go Dion” her voice shaken, Dion did not trust his own voice and nodded quickly. Within a few minutes the two dragons where prepared to leave towards the town. Rakshasi spread her wings, she offered to go in front to check if it was safe, Dion would run behind her. He was hesitant to agree up on it but he was left with little choice. Thus said Rakshasi spread her wings and took off in the sky, fear did not overtake his system he might just wonder a moment how wonderful it looked.

His clawed feet dig deep into the dirt as he sprinted between the trees. He has a great control over his body, his tail not out of control. he was nothing more than ruby shade that darted between the trees. He reached the end of the forest much quicker than any time before that. Rakshasi was already waiting for him near the dirt path. She was partially hidden between the trees. “get down” she hissed at him, forcing him in the dirt “messengers of the King” she pointed at two knights that where standing near the gate, chatting up with the guards. They wore full plate armour with blue decorations painted on the steel. Dion swallowed in fear, what if they were spotted. It would end up in a fight before the hunter would even arrive. “how long they are standing there?” Dion asked, Rakshasi moved to get more convertible and pulled him down before he could have a better look. “Ever since I arrived, god knows how long before that. Maybe the King got a hint of us and the village. maybe not but we cannot enter the village with those two standing there.” The voices in the distance died of as a third female voice silenced them. Dion could recognize it as the Jarl’s voice. He could not hear what they were saying only that the Jarl was not all too happy about the knights. A little squirrel was heard next before the hooves of horses could be heard near Dion. Rakshasi slowly peaked over the barrier that kept them hidden. “they are leaving” she tooka  deep breath of relief.

They waited some moments before walking towards the gate. The Jarl still standing in the entrance, looking out over the road. She waved at the two dragons “Lady Rakshasi, Sir Dion. come quickly, we do not have time. The knights patrol the road they will be back for supper within an hour.” Jarl Arryn said between her teeth in an urging tone. They wasted no time what so ever to follow her to the smith. On the working bench he had two chainmail armours laid out. He glazed at the two dragons “there you are” he suppressed his voice, like someone would spy up on them. “you have no idea how much the knight gave me trouble with this.” He surged and showed them to a place where they could try it out. He handed the armour to Dion and Rakshasi. It was heavy and Dion did not know the slightest how he could ever get into it. But with some help of Rakshasi he slipped in. of course she herself did not know how to enter it. With some awkward struggling she finally slipped in herself. She shook her body a bit to feel the armour up on her scales. She bowed to the Smith, “vinxa, si owe wux sia tobor” her voice was a bit more sure of her position now she was wearing some armour. Dion himself did not know if it would safe them, it made his movements more difficult and would be a great deal of trouble with the fighting technique she learned him. in the end he was happy through, at least the sword would not cut directly into his scales. “now quickly, before the knights come back” Arryn pressed them to move onwards. Rakshasi now too heavy to fly could not do anything but to run along. The two dragons raced through the village and out of the gates just moments before the knights appeared in the distance. “We need to eat and rest” she hissed to Dion as they moved through the forest, the chainmail clattering along their scales. “Tomorrow we fight”