‘in scales’;  Clash of Titans

The day moved ever so slowly for Dion. Rakshasi had caught a good pile of deer and other gain. She told Dion that if they were to survive this she might not feel inclined to hunt for some time. It only just struck Dion that she didn’t taught him to hunt. Not that he wasn’t confident to hunt; with all the fighting Rakshasi taught him he could at least hunt down something slow. Rakshasi looked around out of the cave. Dion could feel her emotions reminded him, speech was not necessary. His hand found its way up on her shoulder to help her calm down. He did not trust his voice when she looked at him. He gave a small nod. More was not needed for her. She deemed herself lucky to have Dion around. She still had to do most of the fighting herself but he could keep her comfort. Waiting for the fight was horrible, her mind was playing and repeating possibilities and most were her demise.  She could only try to keep her anxiety under control with some careful meditation, but it was not enough.

Dion glared out into the forest. Each sound made him jump. He feared the hunter would arrive at any moment. Tomorrow the hunter would arrive in the town and even then it was questionable if he would go straight to them. They might have to wait a day or two like this, he did not dare to dream how it would end. He could not even think about sleeping that evening and he was right. Both he and Rakshasi leaned against each other, staring into the fire, unable to sleep. They had not spoken for a day but just the presence of them together was enough to keep them from going insane. The moon slowly made its pass over the forest. Shadows and rays of moonlight flowed through the trees. Dion had to focus himself on the fire not to be spooked by the shadows cast by the moon, but he kept listening. The sounds of the night consisted of howling wolves and owls flying around. For the past weeks Dion would have sworn he heard more noises in the forest, but it was as if tonight the whole forest was aware of the fight and kept quiet. For the first time Dion missed having a watch to see the time on. He wanted to know how long they waited near the fire, he only could measure time by how fast the logs ran out. Periodically he had to fetch new logs. Rakshasi did not want him to do so, but he insisted. It was the only walk he had and the icy night air did wonders for his anxiety.

While Dion was gathering another round of logs to burn he saw the sun slowly climbing over the mountains, casting its shadow over the forest. Dion took a deep breath of air. This was the day. He walked back with the logs and lit up the fire again. He looked at Rakshasi as the rays of the sun entered the cave. She looked back at him, she was exhausted. He could see it in her eyes: the lack of sleep would surely not do anything great for both of them. He only hoped that the fight would would shake them awake enough to fight with a clear head. A small voice of rationality came in his mind; something warm to eat or drink. Dion wondered if it would brighten up the mood, so with the fire alight again he took a rabbit from the pile and removed the skin with his claws as knives. Rakshasi looked with rather strange interest at what he was doing. He skinning the rabbit and removed its guts. Which he threw in the fire. He made a point on the stick and pressed it through the rabbit. Dion held the rabbit at the fire to roast it. He poked the stick in the dirt to hold it in place. His chainmail rattled as his fingers slid over the chainmail. Occasionally he moved the rabbit to make the skin brown all over. The juices dripped out from the rabbit and the cave started to smell wonderful of roasted meat. Dion’s stomach growled with the need for food. He looked at Rakshasi, ashamed at the noise but he noticed she was thinking the same about the food.

The sun stood above the mountains as Dion removed the rabbit. It was well cooked, not even blackened at all. He split the rabbit and gave a part to Rakshasi to eat. She sniffed the meat a few times before eating. It she had never eaten cooked meat. She could not complain, for it was easy to eat and rather tasty. She did longer for a good bloody piece of meat but this was a welcoming change in diet. Silently she wondered what spices would improve it, the way the humans ate their meat. With bellies filled, he started to relax just a enough for sleep to get to him. His jaws opened to let out a draconic yawn. He gave her an apologizing look but she was way ahead of him. She crept closer to Dion and rested her head on his shoulder.  His glare moved over her body, watching her eyes close softly. He could not keep his eyes open for long after she drifted off to sleep. His anxiety still didn’t got less but his body’s demand of sleep was too powerful for him to resist. His mind slipped off to a violent dream of blood and chaos.

“Rakshasi where are you?” Dion screamed out as he ran through a red forest. His hands spread the leaves out in front him. No scaled hands, no claws but skin and fingers. Dion caught his breath up on a small rock, looking at his body. Did he just had a dream? Was Rakshasi not real? He wondered as he looked around the strange place. How did he even came here? He did not recognize any of it. It was not the forest he had known. It was not the home he lived in. His mind filled with pain and anxiety once more. “Rakshasi!” He screamed on top of his lunges. But no reply came. She couldn’t be real. Dragons weren’t real. He convinced himself while turning around. The trees looked like they had changed shape. The road back had changed. Overcome with doubt he walked the dirt road that appeared. The trees where distorted, making all strange and unnatural shapes once they moved to the corner of his eyes. At the end of the dirt path he saw a clearing. He rushed to it only to see a coal black shape sitting in the middle. “Hello?” he asked unsure at the shadow. Two red eyes appeared in it, glaring at Dion. The shape stood up: it was a black dragon. Dion jumped back in fear on the moment the dragon pointed at him and screeched: “Egg breaker!” the dragon roared, “you deserted us!” Dion could not get his mind around what the dragon meant but before he could ask it disappeared into the fog. A cold shiver ran over Dion shoulder. He tried to run the way he came but the dirt road had disappeared. He could only walk the way he was heading before. With gentle steps he continued over the road. His body made uncontrolled spasms of fear. The forest was silent unlike he ever heard before. Only his breath and the beat of his heart seemed to echo throughout forest for eternity. Just before Dion thought to lost his mind he could hear a voice “You killed me!” it was the voice of Rakshasi echoing through the trees. Dion tried to ran forward but the ground gave way underneath him. His legs trapped and sinking, vines shot out and pinned his human form against the ground. from the distant a figure came out of the mist. “You killed me!” Raksashi’s voice echoed through the mist. The figure came closer and closer. Dion could see it was a horse with a knight on top of its back. A sword raised high above his head. Dion yelled in fear “No stop!” He tried to turn around and pull himself away but with no success. He heard the blade swinging down at his neck. Just moments after her felt…

A pain in his neck woke Dion up. He could feel something had struck him at the side of his neck. The Chainmail rang at the movement of something slim and heavy against his neck. His head struck the ground. Only distorted heavy noises gave way to what was happening. His body was not responding his commands. His mind still drunk with sleep he tried to discern what was going on. He could make up the roar of Rakshasi, and the sound of the steel chains as she moved to jump against something big. It fel to the ground with a voice of anger. Dion could not place what was happening because it was too fast for him. Something metal struck something else of metal, followed by the ear-deafening high-pitched sound someone would get if he clawed at a chalk board. He wanted to cover his ears but he could not. Another thud was audible. This time Rakshasi cried out in pain. She called out some insults as a strangers, he could not make up what she was screaming about.  Another sound of metal on metal with a twist of something breaking. It reminded him to the sound of breaking bones, but not quiet. Dion feared the worst as Raskshasi coughed up something fluid. The odd wet noise filled his ears and mind with the need to do something. A need that was remained unanswered by any of the limbs in his body. a low pitched voice of a man echoed through the lair.  To distorted for him to recognize, it was a human voice none the least. His mind did not seem to progress the turn of events that unfolded meters from him.  the human was cut off from his monolog by a wishing sound. A heavy thud of something metal against the rocks of the walls was what he could hear next. Quickly followed by claws scraping along the cave wall. Clearly Rakshasi missed who ever she was attacking. Metal on metal again, this time she did not roar out in pain but she gave a slight cry of discomfort.  Dion tried to open his eyes with all his might but he was only caught in a dreamlike state. A border where dream and reality where one and separate at the same time.

“you murdered me!” a voice filled the mind of Dion. Still unable to open his eyes he could not know what was going around. He felt the soft dirt of a forest floor or a cave under him. he could not make up what it was. He could only try to scream for help, a scream that held where his mouth ended. His jaws opened to emit just a breath of air. “all you love will die” the same male voice he heard speaking against Rakshasi said to him. this time the voice was much cleared. “all you love will die, I will wear your scales as my new armour beast” the male said. Dion wanted to protest how he was not a dragon, how he was a human but his mouth would not move anymore. he could do nothing but to await a death blow from the male next to him.

Suddenly a loud roar and a thud right next to him. he could hear two people wrestling not t0o far away. Rakshasi growled and the human shouted back and forth. The voices deafened his hearing to other signals. For moments he was stuck without knowing what was happening just centimetres away. He could feel the warm breath of one of the two brushing along his face. The feeling that he could not know what was happening right next to him filled Dion with claustrophobic fear. His hearing slowly sharpened, he could finally make and what the two were saying through the distortion that clouded his mind. “Fueryon! Jaseve!” Rakshasi yelled with a growl at the human. She sounded a little impressed, maybe even amused. “Beast, you can’t talk our tongue!” he taunted her. Dion wondered if Rakshasi wanted to talk to him why she didn’t do that through a mental link with him. Not that it sounded like the two would settle for a civilized conversation; Raksasi made a growl that clear she was out for blood. The human grunt made it clear he wanted the skin of them both. Dion realized that his life was in Rakshasi’s hands; a feeling that was answered in indecisiveness. He could not think of anyone more capable to defend him, but on the other head he was useless again. The feeling made his stomach knot up. Dion started to twist and turn, finally regaining control of his body. His head tilted to the side. “Dion!” he could hear the voice of Rakshasi in his mind. “Be dammed, are you alive?” a cry of joy made way between her aggressive, feared voice. Before Dion could answer he heard another thud and a pained growl by Rakshasi. He cursed internally: he clearly distracted her from the fight. Afraid he would distract her more he did not answer the question. Rakshasi in her turn did not ask again. Sounds of claws on steel emanated through the cave as Rakshasi was fighting for her life. The stomping of the human filled the cave every time he charged for Rakshasi. Most at the time he could hear him dodge the attacks, and she had to pay it with a great deal of pain. Dion tried to do something, He moved his hand to grab at the human feet that were placed next to his body. The human yelled in surprise. The feet lifted, Rakshasi roared “thric!” but it was too. Dion could feel something blunt strike his chest. The air was knocked out of him and once again he entered the half conscious world of his dreams.

A strange Clear fluid covered the ground while Dion looked around. He was still in the forest. This time he was on a cobble stone flood. His hands human, his body human. The switch between Dragon and human made his mind more and more confused. He could not even walk as a human anymore. Every step he did he was seeking his tail. Face first he struck the floor. The clear liquid covered his face. It was gelatinous foul tasting. He tried to get up again, but the floor had become too slippery. The only way he could move was on his hands and knees. Carefully, he slid over the floor, forward into the unknown. He thought about returning, going another way but the forest played with him. Every time he turned, the trees would close in on him.

A sudden noise came from behind him, Dion wanted to yell in fear but the words choked in his mouth. The shade moved in the distance. A shriek filled the night sky of the forest. Dion’s bones shivered in response to the loud noise. He was not going to lay around to find out what it was. So far he knew everything in this forest was against him. From the human to Rakshasi his guardian dragon. He crawled forward as fast as he could, in opposite direction of the creature. But as he moved the creature shrieked again. Fast paced footsteps echoed from the distance, the creature came towards him. The following shriek of the creature was closer to Dion, closer then he would have liked in such a situation. Desperation mastered him causing him to crawl away without any control of his limbs. His nails dug in the gelatinous ground every time he lurked himself forward. In the distance he could see yet another circle of cobble stones. In the middle some sort of altar with a blue thing of some sorts on it. Dion knew those altars did not promise anything good but he was not about to stop and wait. With great leaps he tried to get away from the creature. Closer he came to the altar but the creature came closer and closer, as well it was gaining on him and he did not know if he would reach the altar, or if it would help him get away from it. Dion was almost in touching distance from the altar. He leaped forward are more to get on the edge of the cobble stone circle. He looked back to see what was chasing him, for the first time since he started crawling. He could see nothing but black smoke and red eyes. A few moments more and the creature could reach him. Dion dragged himself quickly to the altar, clinging to it as if it was the last solid pole in a whirlpool of mad water threatening to drag him along. The creature stopped at the circle, red eyes prying his very soul. It disappeared into the forest. Yet Dion could still hear the creature circling around him. He was safe for now but what on earth would stop such creature. He slowly raised himself on the altar. The blue object lay in a silver light. It was not just any object: it was an egg. The same egg Dion had found on the train. Why the eggs would appear each time he visited the forest? Why each time he looked at the egg. At the moment he thought about that he braced for whatever was coming. On queue the egg started to crack. The shell fallen away, the same liquid as on the floor oozed out of the cracks. Dion held his breath while look at the hatching of the egg. But as the shell disappeared he could see no movement. A sapphire blue hatchling laid where the egg laid before. It didn’t move. It didn’t breath. For another time a loud shriek filled the air. A voice of a thousand thunders made the world around him shake. “eggbreaker!” The creature that was stalking him came closer and closer. The circle of protection was broken as the creature lurched at him, claws spread out from the black fog. The only thing he could feel was…

A pain shot through his body as his lungs finally filled with air. Dion gasped for air. He did not know how long he had been laying on the ground without air, but his lungs burned. Slowly he tilted his head, his eyes still not able to look around. He could hear the sound of fighting in the distance. Rakshasi and The human had moved outside, by the sounds of breaking wood. Rakshasi did not sound well. Often she coughed up something that sounded liquid. The ratio of blows to the human towards blows to her had reversed. Almost every time the human luched himself at Rakshasi he could hear her growl in pain. The human laughed in a victorious sadistic laugh. Dion rolled around, his eyes still closed but his body responding to the amount of morphine and adrenaline rushing through his body. The pain in his neck was almost unbearable but he had to endure it for Rakshasi. He could not leave her alone in the fight for her life. The human cried out in pain as something hit him. Dion was not sure what had hit him with but the sound of the human in pain filled his heart in joy. Maybe Rakshasi could still win this fight. She sounded tired, panting heavily. With each inhale he could hear something fluids moving around in her maw. It was not her saliva for sure, and Dion feared for the worst. He feared for blood, and yes moments later as he came closer to the two fighting persons he could smell blood. He was not sure if it was from Rakshasi or the human. He didn’t recognize the smell just yet. A fire stirred in his heart, a fire of anger and hatred towards the human. Rakshasi growled, followed by the sound of fire, and and the human shrieked. A thud was audible of metal against the bark of a tree. Dion cried in joy internally, but his joy was of short notice. Rakshasi roared in pain again. Something had hit her. It was not a sound of metal on metal but a sound of something organic on metal. Dion feared her chainmail was destroyed. He was stuck between wanting to look and wanting to keep his eyes closed. He feared his body’s reaction when he looked. Images of a blood covered, half cut open Rakshasi filled his mind. The images made him sick, he wanted to throw up on the ground. Yet he silenced his stomach, he could not give into this now. His claws dug in the ground in anger. He had to lay low, he would show to the human that he was alive he might get himself killed. He that Raskasi was the only reason he was not dead yet. The human couldn’t kill him when an angry fire-breathing dragoness was trying to tear him apart.

The fierce sounds of Rakshasi however had slowed down now. She was no longer fast and nimble. Her moves sounded slow and without energy. The human could easily block her every attack and counter. Maybe Dion should try to get away? But to where? If he was discovered to missing the human would go back looking for him. His would be killed anyhow and he could not leave Rakshasi to her fate. He brain stormed what he could do with his eyes closed and without causing instant death for him. Each time Rakshasi was hit more fuel was thrown on Dion’s fire of hatred. It was no longer just burning, it was an inferno. Once he could look, once he could move, he was going to let it all loose. A thud vibrated through the ground, followed by a smaller thud. Liquid splashed on the ground. Dion could not know which of the two was. But he feared the worst and once he heared the human laugh again he knew his fear were coming true. He heard a wet kicking sound followed my another heavy thud on the ground.

Suddenly Dion’s eyes snapped open. Quickly he looked around. He could see Rakshasi laying on her back. she was covered in blood and cuts. Almost nothing remained of her chainmail but a few narrow bands around her body. Blood was drooling from her mouth. The whole scene was maddening to Dion’s eyes. “May Satan greet you, beast.” the human said as he launched his sword forward.