Chapter 8;
Demonheart.

One…Dion took a deep breath, tensing up his body
like a spring…Two…He crotched low
against the ground and spread his wings. His legs ready to jump at any moment…Three… Dion leaped up into the sky. His
powerful legs unleashed the full force that was caught within them moments ago,
leaping his body into the sky. Dion's wings unfolded and he started to beat
them furiously. Gushes of wind blasted from under his wings, trying to hold him
in the sky. His mind was only focused on one thing; to fly. He leaned forward
trying to get some more lift, generating more altitude. To no avail, he leaned
too much, his wing beats where unregulated and he fell into the grass. With an
loud uhmpf he landed flat on his chest. The impact knocked the air out of
lunges.

“You are improving" Rakshasi complimented Dion's 'flying' skills. “But do try to feel the beat. Do not flail
your wings around. Make each beat smooth and controlled" She helped Dion on
his feet again. He took liberty of the break that Rakshasi created with the
tips to get some fresh air in his lunges. “Easy
for you to say you are born a dragon" Rakshasi punched him in the side. The
force of the punch reminded Dion how much he had strengthen over the past
weeks. A human would have been seriously hurt, even a few weeks ago his scales
would not have handled the punch so well. Now, it was a different story. His
scales formed a tough barrier to resist the punch to turn it into nothing more
than a friendly punch in his side. They took each moment they can to train
Dion's wing muscles up to strength. Days where a whole lot easier since they
had lefts the human kingdom and into what the human called “the wilds." The
wilds where a large area to the north of the kingdom. No one know exactly how
large it was or what was on the other side. Rakshasi told stories how strong
dragons flew over the wilds for many days. However she did not remember what it
was like on the other side or what the dragons encountered on the way.

“Again, you see yourself as human" Rakshasi used a smooth tone in her
voice. “No I do not" Dion protested “I merely state the fact you are hatched a
dragon, grown up as one, fought as one." Rakshasi could not help but to
supress a small chuckle at the protest of Dion. It sounded a bit like the
defence a hatchling would give. Maybe he was just an hatchling, given that
dragons ages more slowly than humans. “Okay
then mister dragon. Try again" Dion, not wanting to admit defeat, spread
his wings to take himself to the sky again. He counted his wing beats up from
one “Ir" His large wings moved down to replace an large quantity of air.
“Jiil." He folded his wings slightly to minimalize the profile and moved them
up again, ready for the next beat. “Ir" he growled again as he pushed his wings
as fast down as he could. He could feel his feet momentarily leave the ground.
“Jiil" he moved his wings up to trust down another time. He stopped counting
out loud, it restricted the airflow to his lunges. The frequency of the beats
increased to a pace that he could keep himself hovering. He felt light on his
feet as most of his weight was carried by the wings. He paused his beating to give
a run up. His powerful legs carried him around ten meters away before
powerfully leaping into the air. Dion caught the rushing air under his wings
and propelled himself into the air. He could feel the rush of air created by
his flight over his scales. He was struck by a moment of euphoria. A feeling
that could be easily described as a slave who got rid of the chains of
captivity for the first time. He turned his neck to look back to Rakshasi. She
was waving her hands and shouting something to him. The rush of wind and the
beating of his wings distorted the words of Rakshasi. Most likely she was just
happy, for the moment that is what Dion had in mind. What he did not pay
attention to was the fact that moving his neck caused him to turn in flight.

“Dion!"  He could
hear Rakshasi suddenly shout in his mind. “Tree"
Dion snapped his head back to see where he was flying to. Just in time, he
could barely fold his right wing against his body in time. The sudden drop in
lift on his right side caused him to told and roll on his side. Now with no
lift under his wings he tumbled two meters to the ground. Dion tried to restore
his flight but the tree was to close by, causing his right wing to hit the tree.

“Dion?" he could see Rakshasi kneeled besides him. A
worried look on her face as she was trying to get his attention “Are you alright?" Dion growled in pain
for his answer. He could feel a numb sensation in his back. With a little
effort and the help of Rakshasi he stood on his legs again. Shaking the dirt
off his scales. He did not really mind that he just crashed the only thing on
his mind was the fact he managed to fly. Out of joy he embraced Rakshasi who
gave a gasp from surprise.

“Demon!" A
child's voice shouted in fear. Dion had to break the embrace to look around,
across the field near to the backpacks with the eggs he could see a child of
perhaps seven years old pointing at them and shouting for help. Dion growled,
knowing the parents would not be far. Rakshasi hissed as they could hear two
other shouts coming from deeper in the forest. A man's and a woman's voice,
obviously the parents. With little thought of how the child would react Dion
rushed to the backpacks. He did not pay attention as his long tail smacked the
child away. The child started to cry even more and Dion could see the parents
armed with short bows appearing from the forest edge. With the bags secure Dion
rushed away towards Rakshasi. The two adults rushed to their child, their bows
ready to shoot. In a smooth motion Rakshasi took one of the backpacks from Dion
and lead him away to disappear into a tree line. Leaving the shouting humans
behind them. A short while later Dion paused to get a break, he still had to
recover from the rush he got for flying and the fact he had hurt his back in
the fall. He kneeled down on the ground to catch his breath. “We have to move" Rakshasi pressed Dion
not to take too a pause to long. Dion replied only once his heart stopped
pounding in his chest. “You said this
region was uninhabited" he grunted to Rakshasi. “Well apparently it is not" she snarled rather agitated back at
Dion. Who stood back on his feet to face her. “Is there something you would like to tell me?" He tried to hide
that he had grown a rather annoyed by the fact that they did not seem to get
rid of humans. It was not her fault that the humans where constantly near them,
or was it?  Rakshasi gazed straight in
his eyes, her stand soften. She too taken control of her emotions. “Like what dion?" she replied calm with
a cold undertone . “What I have to say to
you about this dion?" Dion took a deep breath. He had grown rather tired of
confronting Rakshasi to get a better idea about what was going on. The fact
that most of the times she was rather closed off about her pas did not make it
easier for him. “Well like how we are at
least a week's walk away from the borders of the kingdom and still we have
people calling us demons…why?" Rakshasi gazed past Dion. For a moment Dion
did not know if he gotten any answer at all or if she just changed subject. “Dion" she said after a long pause, her
words came out un easy. Dion could feel a great deal of discomfort trough the
mental link. He could remember only one time before he felt this level of
discomfort: When he asked about his families past and it turned out that a
great uncle was an Nazi collaborator during the second world war. “It is a long story Dion.." She tried to
dismiss the question, hoping that he would drop it. Dion however would not. “For once I would like to hear it. It might
as well be that I never become human again…" While he said the words he
realized he did not feel the same amount of sorrow for it. Every single step
they took where to make sure that dragon's would survive this era.  With the promise that Dion would become human
again, yet he felt that with every step they took Dion wanted more and more to
stay dragon. “So that is what you care
about" Dion could see a flare of anger in Rakshasi's eyes.  Before her anger could grow Dion spoke again “What do you think yourself? I been ripped
from my own world into a strange body and feared like I am the devil himself."
He looked stern into her eyes, not blinking, not showing any emotion. He did
succeed partially, her anger did not grew anymore., it turned into embers
slowly smouldering. “And thus you want to
easy way out?" she gave a small growl to him. “Rakshasi, I do not know. I can feel my own humanity slip by the day. I
do not know that if the time comes I want to stay dragon or become human
again." A small hiss escapes his mouth. He bared the teeth subconsciously,
a sign he felt threatened. “The least you
could do is tell me why we are being hunted like some kind of demon." He
could tell that Rakshasi was perplexed by his answer. He could see a small tear
forming, it rolled from her eye in the grooves of her scales until it fell down
on the ground.  Her breath became slow
and deep before she replied to him. “Alright,
I will tell" she turned around, away from Dion and facing the depths of the
forest. “But I don't have to tell you
that soon there will be guards, or worse hunters behind us." Dion got the
hint and followed Rakshasi deeper into the forest. For him it was an
achievement that he gotten her to talk without making as big a fuss like last
time. “It all started long ago"
Rakshasi told Dion with a twisted tone of anger and sorrow. “Before the humans started there kingdom. Dragons
and humans did not combat each other. Not that we were friends or allies at
that time. There was always competition between the species. Humans blamed us
for eating away all the wild gain, over the course of years while they started
to try and pry more and more hunting grounds from us. We quickly saw what the
humans did to the lands, their hunting techniques diminished the amount of wild
gain available. In return we tried to chase the humans away. It happened a few
times that a human or a dragon got killed but never there was an vendetta
between the two species" she took a pause to avoid a low hanging branch. Her
claws dug in the ground as she accelerated her pace over the ground, not
wanting to stick around for long. “It
changed however when the humans started to burn and chop down forests to make
land free for farms. They might not even realized that their actions gave food
shortages in the territories of dragons. When it became mating season and many
of us needed to feast to survive without food long enough to lay the eggs the
problems started. With barely enough wild gain with in a territory the female
dragon's where forced to hunt down the cattle of the humans. They could always
eat plants if they had shortages. The humans however did not shared our opinion
about food. Specially the rich who couldn't get a nice part of meat anymore
started to ask their subjects to deal with the dragons. By the time the first
king was crowned a feud had grown between us and them. We were openly burring
down farms that where on our territory. Human where never strong enough to deal
with us. The kingdom brought change in that. Not all humans had to work hard in
the field and more and more soldiers joined the army. We quickly became
demonized by the humans for our behaviour. A behaviour they started. Many
humans who are not with the kingdom still remember this past, the past of
burning villages."  Dion listened
with great care to the words. The story together with the emotions that seemed
to seep through the mental link of the two put him in a trance.

A twig hit
Dion's face, snapping him out of the trance the story brought him in. He looked
dazed and confused. The world around him felt like a dream to him. He brushed
the twig out of his face. He could feel his mind sitting in two different
states of consciousness. Like his mind was in two different places, two
different bodies at the same time. He could feel where the twig had hit him,
yet when he touched the scales of his body it felt like he was touching
something completely strange. Panic rushed in his mind as he tried to piece
together what was happening to him. Could one story really change the fabric of
what he knew as reality. Did he believe this was his reality at all, being a
dragon, walking around on an quest. Dion felt a cold tingling sensation running
down his neck, his vision started to face. “No!"
He growled to himself. His focus snapped back to the world only to fade
again. “No!" he would not let himself
be victimized by delusions. A glimpse of reality that he did not care for, that
he did not hope for to be real. His steps became heavy, a battle with in him as
the two parts of his mind started to war inside of him. “Dion!" he could hear Rakshasi's voice, it was a like a lighthouse
on an foggy night. A clear beacon of hope guiding him home to his own mind. A
blacked of darkness was lifted, his mind became free of the pressure.
Rakshasi's voice had a tone of great concern. “Are you alright?" Dion could not reply to her. His own mind to
divided, to mixed up to transmit even a single thought. A throbbing pain
started to come to his mind, like strokes of a hammer to his skull and into his
brain, into his sanity. He would not lose it now, after all he was not alone.
He had eggs to care for, he has Rakshasi near him. It was all he had left of
the reality he believed in.  two beacons in
the strange world. “Dion?" her mind
touched his own. Again he could feel a weight lifted from his shoulder. Would
she be the key to his sanity?  “Dion?" His eyes glazed up on the scales
of Rakshasi. Claws on his body lifted him up. A Blur of scales passed his eyes
until he was face to face with Rakshasi. He could see concern in her eyes. Dion
could just lie to her, then she would not be worried. Would she buy such a lie?
He could feel the world spinning around him, his only focal point where
Rakshasi's eyes. He could feel himself being guided, Little could he do then
just stumble along. He could feel the bark of a tree against his shoulder. It
offered him the support he needed, something strong and sturdy to lean against.
He hardly noticed that Rakshasi removed the backpack. His legs started to shake
as he lost. His ears started to fill with a high pitched tone that hurt his ear
drums. The world started to spin around once more as he spiralled down into a
blackness. With the sanity still left in his mind he fought back this closing
darkness. Only vague, somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear
Rakshasi. She was nothing more than background noise in the spiral of his mind.
An self-destruction as two worlds started to collide in him.

Time seemed
to stop for him, the world a blur. He could feel, he could see but he could not
interact. He found himself laying on the ground, motionless. Within his view
was a blue blur of what must be Rakshasi bend over him. they sky and trees all
blurred into one greenish blue. The sounds around him where distorted beyond
the point he could hear what was happening. He could only see that he was
moved, not feel it through his numb body. Any sensation of touch, of pain, of
heat was numbed out by a mind in constant war with itself. His own emotions of
fear where nothing more than a fire to an blaze that was set out to consume
him. the shadows moved, the sky changed from a completely blue blur to
something grey. A cold sensation could find its way into the still conscious parts
of his brain. He did not know how long he had been in this trance, only that
his the last bits of his mind and soul that were still in one peace where
falling apart. As the surrounds seemed to become darker and darker he could
hear less and less. He feared it would be the end, that this was how he would
die. A rhythmical thumbing sound sometimes would keep him distracted. It lasted
for a time and then it stopped. He could try and count how long it lasted but
it was no use to him. He could barely even count past ten before he lost it.
Often he tried to just sleep but sleep was something that was foreign to his
state of mind. He could only drift to a state that seemed less conscious to
him, he could not rest completely. In fear that his mind would be fully
consumed by the ongoing rage. Often he could feel something being pushed into
his mouth. only with great effort he could force himself to lifelessly chew on
something and swallow it. hoping his stomach would not protest as his body
started to go into shock. He could feel no feeling in his legs, he could feel
his arms become weak. He could feel his body grow cold. In the side of his
fission a blur of orange, something to heat up his body. he could not even come
up with words to describe the warmth he felt. He could feel losing the fight to
stay in one part. More and more of his mind was consumed by the darkness. He
could no longer see just from his dragon body. he started to shift back and
forth between the bodies. One dragon, one human laying in the hospital. The
Thumbing sound in his dragon form starting to blend in with a soft rhythmic bleep
of an heart monitor. His eyes started to close up on him, both his sets of
eyes. The hospital started to become a blur. His dragon body became cold and
motionless. With the last remaining breath Dion had he welcomed the death he
was sure that was to come. Little did he know that his fate was worse than
death.