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Taran'Kha
Chapter 1 - Legacy

Chapter 1 - Legacy

This is the first official chapter and I hope you like it :) as I said I am german and english is not my main language so please point out what i wrote wrong. 2nd chapter propably coming thursday because I have to work wednesday. 

Chapter 1 – Legacy

„Satisfied?“ the dragon asked with a slightly amused voice.

 Drake was shocked to death because of the sudden appearance of this monster. “What the hell…what are you? A Dragon??” he shouted loudly and with a little fear in his eyes. “Dragon…hah-“ the monster sighed angrily “Dragons are just mindless creatures who can’t do anything except of sleeping and eating! I am not a Dragon I am a proud member of the Taran’Kha!!” the last words were shouted to the ceiling of the cave. “A Taran’Kha?”  Drake asked doubtfully

“To me you look exactly like the Dragons I read in fantasy novels from!”

The Taran’Kha slowly returned his view to Drake and said

“These lousy creatures are just imitates of my race! They can’t compare in the slightest!” he puffed a big cloud of smoke out of his nose as he came even nearer to Drake.

“The Taran’Kha were the Gods of every beast! No beast was a match to us and even Gods from other races weren’t strong enough to threaten us! We ruled over this small part of the universe…! Countless worlds worshipped us and we were satisfied with this!” the being said and his voice got louder with every word. “Were…?” Drake asked quietly “Yes…” the Taran’Kha sighed sadly “Were…we are not anymore. I am the last of my race…unbelievably mighty beings descended one day and started killing my brothers and sisters. My love was brutally impaled by a spear of dark light right in front of my eyes. I couldn’t save her, I couldn’t save anyone of my race, even though I was the strongest out of all of us! After I saw my beloved dying with pain and helplessness in her eyes, something clicked in my mind and I entered a blinded mode of rage…I killed everything in front of my eyes and managed to wipe out a large amount of the evil gods!” he said and with every word his voice turned darker until it was almost hoarse. “The almighty beings noticed my power and decided to capture me…I was impaled by three of these evil dark lights and couldn’t move anymore. The pain was the worst I have felt in my entire life. The almighty beings just laughed at me and shot more of these spears into me. I was going crazy from the pain and lost consciousness. When I woke up I was on a different world, chained to the ground. The Evil creatures captured me to study my body and discover my secrets. The examinations were cruel, almost like torture. The pain was unimaginably high. The worst thing was that every time they sliced my belly open or broke my scales apart these parts healed almost immediately. They tortured me like this for a very long time…I couldn’t think anymore and the only thing I felt was pain and the urge to die”. The words shocked Drake. He had an unreal feeling and without him noticing, tears started to flow out of his eyes.

His story was unbelievably sad and Drake understood the Taran’Kha, because he suffered from a similar experience. He felt like the mighty being before eyes wasn’t the least bit scary anymore. The only things he felt were unbelievable sadness, pity and rage at these unknown evil creatures. “How did you escape…?” he asked with a hoarse voice almost whispering: “At some point these creatures started to lose interest on me and someday they impaled me with hundreds of dark light spears and left me to die on this foreign planet” the Taran’Kha said with a growling voice “I lay there for an eternity, at least in my mind it was. After a long time slowly my consciousness returned and I could think again…I pulled every single spear out of my body and the pain was even more terrible than the pain I’ve felt before. My only thought was revenge but the years and years of torture and lastly the removing of the spears let me pay a high price. I lost almost all of my power and I could not cultivate anymore. My power couldn’t be regained and it leaked more and more with every passing day. It was like my soul was ripped to peaces. I couldn’t find revenge myself so I wandered through the universe searching for a compatible successor…my power is almost used up completely now and I can’t even fight weak gods anymore, which was like a piece of cake to me before…” The Taran’Kha slowly laid down on the ground and another cloud of smoke accompanied by a small flame escaped his nose “Then…someday… I found you, a being that lived through similar experiences as I did… your mind was already broken when I first set my eyesight onto you, but slowly I repaired your soul. I woke you up and guided you to me…” “Guided? What do you mean I didn’t even have a choice” Drake thought quietly but chose to not say anything and listen “ I let you pass through the Soulfiregate…something that normal beings can’t survive, but I knew you could do it. The Soulfiregate is meant to cleanse the body and reform it, making it stronger. This was a secret of my race and I didn’t know what it would do with your body but I had to gamble, because you shall be my successor and inherit my legacy!!” the last words were almost roared accompanied by flames coming out of the mouth of the Taran’Kha. “Why…why couldn’t I become your successor with my old body?” Drake asked after some time of thinking. “Your old body was destroyed, you wouldn’t have live past 30. Also no one ever imparted the power of the Taran’Kha into a human being. I wanted to make sure that it will succeed and the person who crosses the Soulfiregate will get the best possible body to cultivate magic power or martial arts. Without this new body you wouldn’t be able to bear the power of my bloodline!” the golden creature said. “Soo…if I would agree to be your successor and inherit your legacy, gain your bloodline and so on…what would I get? And what is the hook in this?” Drake asked with a sharp look. “These are good questions…for the first one I don’t know…no one ever tried to impart their legacy and bloodline to a human, at least not from my race. I can only say that you will become a lot stronger…and if you train hard you will rise up to be a god and maybe even a true god…!” the Taran’Kha said  “ And for the purpose of imparting it to you…that is that you have to take revenge…you have to kill every single follower every worshipper of these evil creatures and lastly the creatures themselves!! I know that that is not possible in the short term, but you will get the power slowly, rise up in rank and become strong enough to threaten them! Aside from that you can do as you wish. I know you always wanted to be a pirate when you were small…It happens to be that the planet we are on right now is almost only water…the kingdoms and empires are island states, so it would be perfect to fulfil your dream…” the Taran’Kha said with a small grin, which looked really scary. “Wait…how do you know what I wanted to be as a child?” Drake asked confused. “I saw all your memories when I found you…I know everything that you know…didn’t you wonder why you could understand me even though I am firstly from another race and secondly form a whole different part of the universe?” the creature answered lightly “Wait…wait..wait…you saw everything? Are you a freak or something? And, by the way that is a major break into my privacy!!” Drake shouted.

The Taran’Kha sighed and said: “That is of no importance…the important thing is the question if you will succeed me and inherit my legacy?”

Drake started to think. If he inherited the legacy and became the successor of this dragon, what would he get? Strength and power to protect what is important to him and the strength to kill everything that stands in his way. The downside was that he would have to fight against evil creatures that were countless times stronger than even a mighty golden dragon. “Oh…I almost forgot…if you inherit my legacy and gain my bloodline you can’t die from age anymore…you will be immortal…” the Taran’Kha interrupted Drakes thoughts “you can still die from everything else but you can’t die from age, which means you would’ve the time to do anything you want as long as you want. And you have a lot of time to train and become strong. Only after that you have to get revenge for me and my race!” Drake looked up into the eyes of the golden creature and excitement could be seen in his own ice-blue eyes. If he could live forever, than didn’t that mean that he could wait for thousands of years before he waged war against the evil creatures? And to be honest which human being wouldn’t want to be immortal? And he would get magic powers…his decision was set.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“I, Drake, swear by my life that I will inherit your legacy and bloodline to fulfil your revenge. I shall be unbending, killing everything that is evil, rising up to be a god and be merciless to my enemies. Do you, mighty Dragon, accept this oath?!” Drake swore with a stern and determined look. “What Dragon…do you see a dragon here?? Ah nevermind then I will accept your oath and let you inherit my legacy and bloodline!”

With these words the Taran’Kha stood up and spread his wings to both sides. He cut open the scales in the middle of his chest and golden blood started to drip out of the wound. A vase appeared out of nowhere and slowly floated under the cut. The golden blood dripped into the vase until it was almost full, then the wound closed. The vase floated to Drake who took it out of the air and with a determined gaze he started to drink the blood. Big mouths full of golden liquid entered his mouth and were swallowed by him until the vase was empty. “I don’t feel any different” he said doubtfully while looking up into the eyes of the Taran’Kha “Don’t worry you will feel something soon…” the being said and without a warning opened his mouth. A long breath was heard and air was sucked into the mouth, then a bright white light could be seen in the mouth. From one moment to the other Drake was bathed in bright white flames dancing wildly around his body. As soon as the flames touched his naked body he felt unimaginable pain inside his body. He looked inside and saw how his soul left the place in his dantian and moved upwards while constantly reshaping. The flames were the soulflames of the Taran’Kha and they were changing his soul together with the blood, which changed his organs until all of them were white. Slowly Drake’s soul melted and tried to merge with the white flames. At first they were rejecting each other but the breath of flame from the Taran’Kha held on and after some time the two different soulshards merged together. The whole time Drake was screaming as if he was in hell. After an hour the pain suddenly started to lessen and as Drake looked at his soul again it was almost completed. Five breaths later the last bit of flames merged with his soul and the soul started to transform completely. At first it looked like a ghost but then it reshaped and looked like a human, then it changed again looking like a mighty dragon and at last it changed into a ball of white flames which danced wildly in the middle of Drake’s chest. As his soul finished merging a pattern was slowly forming on Drakes back. At first one couldn’t see what it was supposed to be but after some minutes the strange pattern turned into the shape of the golden Taran’Kha. Soon a mysterious dragon formed out of scars on Drake’s upper back. It looked like a withe tattoo.

As the tattoo finished, suddenly something emerged out of the face of Drake, covering his mouth, his cheeks and his nose. It was a completely white mask, seemingly out of bones. The mask looked like a demons mouth and was grown together with his face. It seemed like it couldn’t be removed until one used great force. The mask settled itself quietly and a few breaths later Drake opened his eyes. A silvery light flashed in his eyes and he now had a wild and unbending gaze. His long black hair that was falling plain on his back before was now forming a new hairstyle. It looked like dreadlocks but the hair seemed to be alive like snakes. That was only an illusion of course, but it made him look even wilder and a little bit fierce.

 Drake stood up slowly, feeling the changes on his body. As he tried to rub his eyes his hands touched the mask and he almost jumped from the edge out of shock. “What the hell is this…?” he asked with a hoarse voice and looked to the Taran’Kha. To his horror the former mighty golden dragon who seemed like he could destroy a planet by himself, was now almost brown coloured and his eyes were dull. “What happened to you…?!” he asked alarmed and jumped down near the Taran’Kha. “I bathed you in my soulfire…that is equivalent of stabbing myself with a knife until I’m bled out, but a little more painful. If I hadn’t done this you would’ve never gotten the chance to get revenge…! Take this…” The Taran’Kha said slowly and under pain. He bent his claw and a silver chain with a small statue of a dragon connected to it could be seen. “This is the Chain of the Dragongods…the last remaining treasure of my race…we originally had a human friend and we forged this chain as a sign of our eternal friendship, but he died before we could gift it to him. The chain has 4 stages, first the opening stage, secondly the stage of arrogance, third the stage of enlightment and lastly the stage of ruling. You are not qualified to even get to the first stage yet, but this chain has another use. It can store almost an infinite amount of things in it. Only living beings can’t survive in it. This will be my gift to you…! Never lose it…..”. The voice was getting weaker. Drake took the chain with trembling hands. He understood that the Taran’Kha had sacrificed his life to him. Tears were slowly rolling down his face hitting the mask as put the silver chain over his head on his neck.

“One last thing…you aren’t in the real World right now….you are in a plane created by me, specially for you to train. There are a lot of monsters in this plane to help you get stronger, I captured them from all over the universe. They will all try to kill you and some of them are almost on the level of a god. You can get to the first stage of the Dragon god chain while killing a lot of beast and consuming their powers. You will have to depend on yourself all the time, although there are some Beastman tribes inside this plane. You should try to recruit them if you are strong enough, the are naturally born killers. To leave this plane you have to reach the opening stage and learn the dimensional incatation inside it. After you have learned it you will have a safe harbour and can come and go with your ships on this world as you wish. As for the mask….you can never remove it yourself. You will get you full strength for ten breaths of time but after these breaths you will die! I once saw a…similar….” The Taran’Kha said and his voice was getting lower and lower until Drake could only hear it in his head. “You shall be named Drake Cal’anar, as I am named Cal’anar, the cursed one…it was an omen….may you have a better ending as myself Drake….” These things were said in a whisper in drakes head. Suddenly the flames in the crater all vanished and the body of the dragon started to turn into dust. Sadness was seen in Drakes eyes as he noticed that Cal’anar was already dead. He bent down on one knee, put one of his hands over the place where his soul was and the other one on the ground.

“Thank you…! May your journey be peaceful” Drake said under tears and with a trembling voice. He remained in this position for almost halt an hour, with closed eyes, tears streaming down his face. Slowly his eyes were opened and Drake looked up. A tunnel had opened and at the end was daylight. A determined gaze coupled with rage and sadness locked onto the light.

Drake stood up, bowed a last time to the place where the Taran’Kha laid before and walked with a straight back into the tunnel.

His destiny starts here.

Btw I dont know why the writing is as big as this I hope you don't mind^^