Something for the followers of my Star story<Are you serious about this?>
The young man hidden in the bushes pushed aside a branch so that he could look his tigress companion in her golden eyes. <Of course I am,> he sent back to her, <what better test of my power and knowledge than this? And I would do the world a favour if I won.>
<Yeah, yeah. Just don’t get too above yourself, Magey boy.> He grinned at that familiar sarcasm and peered through the thick foliage once more.
<How else do I gauge how much I’ve learned, Sasha? This is the best way.>
<Huh, right. Death or glory. You are always so obsessed with your knowledge.> She looked back where their camp was situated, a pile of bags heaped up in the middle, at least half of them filled up with books, and another few full of Diozar’s own books. The boy was obsessed. Only 34, a baby in Mage terms, and he was after this…thing. He’d probably measure it up and record everything afterwards. But it could also make his name in the world.
It was 3 years ago that he had created her. Suddenly she had existed, but she was, and these were his words, ‘perfect’. He had examined every part of her, made sure that her body worked like it should, and probed her mind with questions, feeding it with knowledge of the world at the same time. At first, he had seemed cold and unfriendly as he examined her like an alchemist probing the results of an experiment, but then when he realised that the spell that – as she had learned later – had taken him several months to plan and several days to actually speak had worked…well. He had actually thrown his arms around her armoured neck. She had warmed toward him from then on.
And now he was leading her right into danger. But she would follow him. It wasn’t because she was bound to him – if he died, he had made sure that she would live. She had no obligation to him, unless you counted that she owed her existence to him.
<Come on Sasha.> She followed her master and friend as he crept out of his hiding place, wizards staff in hand, runes burnt into the wood, binding the power inside it. It was an old implement, but one you could count on. She padded lightly behind him, paws soft against the dirt, claws retracted so as not to make a noise. And now for the hunt, which would quite possibly turn on them. They slipped silently into the cave that they had been watching, and she watched her master rest his back against the wall. A good tactic, when something might creep up behind you. He cast a quick spell, using sorcery for silence, and his eyes suddenly glowed faintly, the pupils changing to those of a cat. Night vision. He knew what he was doing, which was really quite reassuring. They sneaked into the darkness, both with eyes glinting in the gloom.
Suddenly Sasha’s sensed threw up warning signals. She could smell something not unlike musk, mixed with dirt and the tang of metal. It was their target. She could also hear its breathing, a rumble across the cave walls. It also wasn’t the slow breathing of one asleep.
<Diozar…it–>
“I have been waiting for you, mortal. I could smell your scent around my lair.” The voice was a rumble of thunder, made all the louder by the acoustics of the cave walls, making the sounds rebound again and again. “What are you? Treasure seeker? Thief? Or Dragon Slayer?” It let out a bellowing laugh at that last sentence. “Do you know what happened to the last mortal who tried to kill me? Well, do you?” It thrust its head toward them, and suddenly it was visible in the gloom; a horn crowned brow, scales across the skin that glittered crimson like purest ruby, and the eyes on each side. The eyes of a demon. This was Gradacikous, the largest, most powerful Red in the Dynasty. He had personally killed several Silvers, a Gold, and some small Green dragons to further his gains, but no one had ever defeated him.
Diozar activated the light spell on his staff and the cave was suddenly flooded in a brilliant white, reflecting a rainbow of colours off the jewels and spoils of Gradacikous’s war. He looked up at the dragon, studying him. Sasha could see his mind working, noting strengths, weaknesses, interesting points to be mused upon later. He seemed utterly unfazed.
“Well,” he said after a while, “I supposed I could be a bit of each. I am thief, because I am here to steal your life, similarly, that would make me dragon slayer. The treasure would be a nice bonus.” The monstrous Red just laughed, lifted a clawed hand and swiped at the young Mage. He brought up his staff to meet it, activating a shield to protect him and send a shock of cold up the Reds arm. It recoiled suddenly, into the recessed of the cave. Suddenly a tail with vicious bone spikes shot out of the darkness, pounding the earth where Diozar had been but a moment ago. He was running into the darkness, Sasha next to him.
<If he tries any magic, as I have heard he does, nullify it,> he said to her.
<I will,> she said, thinking of the jewel mounted on her forehead, with its power against magic. Diozar halted near the dragon’s bulk, and hit his staff against a pile of silver. It seemed to absorb it, the silver stretching itself out to make a sword out of the soft metal, but Sasha knew that it would be hard as diamond. Diozar was no fool, despite his age. He raised it to strike, an icy mist surrounding it, just as Gradacikous started the words of a fatal spell. Sasha leapt for the dragon’s vulnerable belly…
Just for aleana, and anyone who is confused by the name Gradacikous, it’s said: Grad-ass-ee-koo-ss ^_^ ‘kay?