Chapter 11 – The Consequence of War

“You’re awake, right?” An obnoxious but strangely familiar voice asked, a voice that was accompanied with an annoying tapping to my scaled forehead.

As I ignored the annoying tapping, and resisted the urge to remove whatever finger was responsible, I lifted my heavy eyelids.

What greeted me was not like anything I was expecting, what stood before me was not Mother nor Silvia, but was the boy from my strange dreams.

Getting a closer look at the strange boy, of which I was unable to do in my dreams, I noted off his various features.

He stood at about the same height as my Beastman and Elven form, but had neither the animal nor pointed ears of each respective race. Instead his ears were similar to an Elf, but instead of being pointed, had a smooth, rounded edge. He was assumedly, as described to me by Mother – human. His face was unremarkable, boyish and young, befitting his visage of a small human boy. Yet, one of his most important features betrayed this notion – that of his eyes.

His sclera was a normal white, but had strange, bright red veins bludging through them which stopped just shy of his pure red eyes; but even this was not his most striking feature.

His hair, which stopped just short of his eyes and ran down to the back of his neck, held not one but two distinct colours – violet and gold – both of which were split evenly, violet on his left, gold on his right. A truly strange occurrence, but then again, so was meeting the boy in my dreams.

With my profiling of the boy completed, I asked, “Who are you?”

The boy’s face quickly blossomed into a wide grin as he responded, “Names are boring, and in my experience, often fleeting.”

An odd answer befitting an odd boy. I thought before he continued.

“Regardless, I wonder what you should call me…” The boy paused briefly as he pondered, then suddenly proclaimed his name in a loud, yet excited voice, “Janus!”

“Where are we then, Janus?”

“Hmm…hard to say.” Another vague answer, “What do you see?”

Following his question, I swept my gaze over the scenery and listed off its various features, “A forest, an annoyingly vague boy, and a stream. Nothing special.”

Ignoring my jab, Janus raised an eyebrow, seemingly amused by my answer, “Is that so?”

More vague musings

After a brief pause, I asked the most important question, “What are you?”

Janus’ bright smile grew radiant, “Now that is a better question.” I patiently waited for him to continue, but Janus remained silent.

“Well?”

His head titled slightly to the side as he responded, “Well what?”

I scowled, “I’m asking, what are you?”

The boy then sneered, “I’m telling you, that is a good question.” He mimicked.

This boy is really getting on my nerves…perhaps I should eat him.

The boy still had that mocking smile plastered across his face, “Well aren’t you the grumpy one.”

My scales felt as though they were trembling along with my rage, “I have a very strong urge to bite you.” But instead of fear, the boy just kept up that mocking smile.

However, before I could make true to my words everything just started to feel…wrong.

The boy’s smile quickly faded, as he obviously sensed whatever I did too. “Hmm, seems like our time is up.”

“Time?” I asked, “What are you talking about?”

He ignored my question and just eyed me with pity, and instead of answering my question, remained quiet.

I recognised the strong sense of wrongness before. It was dark, slick and cold. It felt exactly like the force that battered against my core, it felt exactly like the magic that tried to kill me, it felt exactly like…the void.

The boy then spoke yet again, “Know this, Lumina.”

Wait how did he know my name?

I tried to ask, but the scenery shockingly changed, distracting my already scrambling thoughts. Now, instead of lush forests everything like looked dead. Trees became blackened and brittle, flowing water dried up, and a thick black fog was closing in around me.

The boy, seemingly unfazed, continued, “Know that your life is about to change. You feel alone, afraid, and broken.” His voice then became strained, yet soft, “However, know that you will not truly be alone, and you will find a place among strangers.” He then began to fade as the darkness closed in, “Be strong.”

Then, once again, everything became black.

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My eyes rapidly shot open, and thankfully I was back within my familiar room.

I wished to ponder on what Janus said but I had more pressing matters – Mother.

Unlike every other time I had awakened, Mother was nowhere to be seen. She had never left me along while I slumbered, and this bothered me immensely.

Where was Mother?

Why isn’t she here?

Had she abandoned me?

Is she hurt?

These thoughts whirled through my mind. I felt anxious, afraid, and alone.

Was this what Janus meant?! Has Mother left me?!

My mind now grew panicked, and my body involuntarily started to shake. My breathing grew hitched, my core released a flurry of glowing power, and even my wolf joined me in my worry.

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As my mind raced and my wolf howled, something broke me from my trance. A rumbling, loud and ear-splitting roar rumbled through the room.

It roused my wolf into a frenzy, and I understood why – that roar was the sound of battle.

Breaking through my panic I noticed the door starting to swing ajar, and to my horror, something came through.

This something was not a dragon.

This something was not an Elf.

This something was not a Beastman.

This something was horror.

The Horror started edging towards me, a writhing black mass that resembled nothing of comparison, was edging towards me.

It kept coming, darker than a shadow and as hollow as the void.

Looking at the Horror, I felt a sense of true fear, a sense of true hopelessness. I was a dragon, a race so strong they named the world after them, yet I trembled.

I tried to move, to roar, and even to whimper. But I could do nothing as the mass stopped directly in front of me.

Then, as it was about to snuff out my short life, it was engulfed in flames. My eyes still glued to the mass, I watched as it howled and screeched as it was consumed by the fire, and felt a wave of relief wash over me as it was quickly reduced to ashes.

I turned my head to the entrance, and found exactly what I expected to see – Mother.

Yet...something was wrong. She looked pained, hurt, and sluggish as she walked towards me. Then, after a few moments I noticed – she was injured.

Blood flowed from between her black scales, and her visible hide held large gashes throughout the tissue. Her usual bright, red eyes were dark and she looked as if she was barely remaining conscious.

I bolted towards her, worry freeing me from fear, “Mother!”

As I rushed towards her, she staggered and collapsed against one of our walls.

Quickly taking account of her injuries I noticed it looked far worse than I feared. I let both my wolf and dragon instincts take over, and began licking the sounds clean.

Although I tried, I helplessly watched as the blood gushed down her sides, staining her hide and scales further.

“Mother!” I pleaded, “What do I do?!” I didn’t know if dragons could cry, but I felt as though I was about to.

Mother weakly opened her eyes and displayed a cocky, albeit weak, smile. “Who do you think I am? I’ll be fine in a fe-” She was interrupted by several harsh, bloody coughs.

I gave up on cleaning her wounds, they were too severe and too numerous. I instead approached her snout and nuzzled my own against it, “What do I do…?”

Mother’s cocky smile faded, “Lumina…listen.”

“What do I do…?”

“I’m sorry. But you must survive,” her voice grew gruff, a hard task for a race of naturally grumbling dragons.

“No! Just tell me what to do!”

Mother struggled to her feet and lifted a small smile, “Stand beside the wall.”

Without thinking I obeyed her, following her instructions to the letter and replaced her position against the wall.

Without a word I felt her magic, and large stone encased me, “Mother, what are you doing?”

“I’m so sorry, Lumina.” Her usual deep commanding voice was soft, gentle.

The walls coiled tighter around me, “Mother! Stop!”

Her dark, warm magic sifted over me.

I felt her magic tug me towards the safety of sleep, “Mother…wait…” I drowsily protested.

“I’m sorry, my daughter. But this is the only way.”

I felt her magic still weaving through the stone, morphing and shaping the thick material. The stone fully encased me now, blocking me from the view of my mother, but then suddenly began to morph.

Starting from the centre, the stone turned to a strange, transparent crystal, spiralling outwards slowly, replacing the dull stone.

Soon enough, it expanded enough that Mother became visible again, “Mother…please…” Her magic was still washing over me, pushing my body towards a deep sleep.

Eventually, the rock was completely crystallised, and the new crystal was being placed within the wall, I was being placed within the wall.

But that was not what concerned me at the moment, but rather, the dozens of Horrors pushing past the doors and converging on Mother. “Mother…behind…you…” I tried to warn her, but I doubt any sound escaped from this crystalline shell.

Her entire magic power, which was diverted from the task of creating the shell, now converged on me. The drowsiness now being pushed upon me could not even compare to that of before.

I slowly started to drift off to what I believe would be a long sleep, and the last thing I saw was the horrors ripping apart my mother.

Once again, I succumbed to darkness.

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Author Note

Well, here we are another chapter.

It seems most of you guessed this sort of outcome, and some of you said I hadn't added a tragedy tag, so it might not happen...

Well, sorry...it happened.

I honestly forgot to re-add a tragedy tag to the story after my tags got wiped. So I'll go add that right now.

Sorry if some of you have read so far hoping for a non-tragedy story, but you know, I kind of wanted to kick an adorable dragon a little, slaughter her mother, and encase her in a crystal wall. Is that too much to ask?