DragonZ chapter 5 & 6
--Running Home--
"All of us have our inner demons, you can't get ride of them they will stay with you so long as you live. The only way see past that demon is to open your eyes to the past and shut your eyes to the future, but more importantly live the present." ~Sasha McHardy~
I woke up with sand in my eye, and greeting the dawn of the new day. "Oh god Vanessa. That was some..." She wasn't there, "Night." she had probably left sometime before I woke up. In her place was a note which read
"I'm sorry Adrian that I left so early. I have to tell you that you surprised me last night. That was quiet...amazing! Oh boy, I have always wondered why the girls would be all over you but, now I know why! He he my legs are still shaky. And as much as I love you it kills me to say that I know what you're looking for and I can't give you that. I can't be there for you when you need me and I have some holes that I need to fill. I hope this doesn't anger you, please don't let this anger you. We can still be friends.... and I dare say a friend with benefits ;) So when you wake up and read this note please tell Kiddo that I'm sorry for leaving without saying hello...properly lol. With love and care, Vanessa." She left a kiss for me at the bottom of the page still fresh with her scent. I breathed her in and kissed the reddish pink lips on the paper.
I got up off the couch and went to the kitchen and dug around for food. I found eggs, bacon, milk, and ham. Why not. I thought to myself. Who knows how long it's been since he has had a hot meal. I got pan, cracked the egg and placed bits of ham and bacon in the egg and started to make omelets for Kiddo and I. As soon as the egg started to sizzle I heard grunts and groans from my room. I smiled and turned on my cd player to let him feel more at home. I had a mix CD inside and it started to play Even Rats by The Slip.
"Good morning Kiddo. How did you sleep?" I asked
"Like a hatchling. I what is that amazing aroma." He sniffed around the air and walked toward me.
"I'm making omelets. I bet it has been a long time since you have had a good breakfast..." I caught myself and thought about what I just said. "Oh sorry. I forgot."
"It's ok. You didn't mean it. Uh...do you go to work today?"
I hesitated "No why?"
"Just wondering. So where is the fox? What is her name?"
"Her name is Vanessa Miller, and she already left before I woke up."
"Where did she go?"
"She had to...go out of town for a while."
"Oh that sucks. I meant to apologize for last night."
I chuckled, "Yeah she wishes the same to, and she almost slapped the fuck outa you too." I began to laugh.
"What for?"
"When you passed out, you fell face first in her tits and she thought you were making a failed attempt to hit on her." I laughed hysterically.
"What?! Oh shit I did didn't I?"
"Yep!"
The CD player changed songs to Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen. And Kiddo started to move and dance a little. It was quiet funny like one of them warm humor moments.
I chuckled "You like this song?"
"Yes. Who is this?"
"This is Bruce "The King" Springsteen" I answered
"Hm...This is catchy. I like it," he continued dancing until I put his plate of omelets in front of him on the counter top. He danced over to the food and sat down on the stool he had nearly tripped over. This made me laugh harder, "Don't judge me" Kiddo joked.
"Too late ha ha!"
He picked up a fork and took his first bite, "Oh wow...this is good. Really good."
"Aw shucks don't flatter me." I waved my hand around as if trying to shoo away the comment.
"Seriously!"
"I wish Vanessa was here to say the something."
"Yeah it does kind of suck that Vanessa left in a hurry. She seemed like a very kind fox, I would have liked to have met her." His eyes showed something deeper than the liking of the song, I turned off the CD player. "Why did you turn it off?"
"There's a story that your not telling me here Kiddo. There had to be some reason why that wolf had you." I wanted answers. I knew it was going to hurt Kiddo but I had to in order to help him. "You can trust me"
He was deeply depressed. He walked to the other side of the kitchen, and pulled a stood. I put a plate in front of him and laid down his omelet on the plate. I walked around to the stool next to him and sat down with the pan as my plate. "Oh wow." He was talking with food in his mouth "This is great!"
"Don't change the subject, what happened?"
He sighed and pushed his food away from the table and looked away from me. "Ok. But promise me this Adrian, if I tell you what happened it does not leave this house or your mind ok?" I nodded to him and he started to speak, "Ok...I never knew my parents. I don't know if they died, abandoned me or what, but I did have a mother. She was a wolf, I guess she found me in some cave if I remember right. She took me back with her to a wolf clan were she raised me like one of her own along with her other son. Turned out that her mate was the alpha and he wasn't to fond of me and he mistreated me, abused me, and punished me. Everyone in the clan thought of me as an outsider, they made fun of me for having a bitch for a mom, and how my real mom and dad abandoned me because I looked like a freak, a dragon in a wolf clan didn't fit but my foster mom had always been there defending me and trying to get alphas help but he would always turn away."
"And what about you step brother?" I asked.
Kiddo seemed a little content at the question but still down. "He was also made fun of for being too quiet and self-centered but not as much as I. He was neither supportive of me nor against my presence. I always thought we had a weird connection."
"Well I guess that was ok then. So keep talking."
"All my life she had protected me like a Guardian Angel until I turned a 18. For all those years she defended me until the alpha killed her," His eye started to flow out with tears of sadness. "He killed her, the only family I ever had. The only one who I had ever loved and loved me back! THEY KILLED HER AND I WAS NOT THERE TO PROTECT HER AS SHE DID FOR ME FOR SO MANY YEARS! SHE GAVE ME SO MUCH AND I WASN'T THERE TO RETURN IT! THEY TOOK EVERYTHING AWAY FROM ME! THAT GOD DAMMED MONSTER RIPPED OUT MY HEART AND STOMPED IT INTO THE GROUND ALONG WITH HER, HIS OWN MATE!"
His tears poured out of his eyes and I noticed he started to clench his hand into a fist, his teeth bared with rage, and wings opened backwards tensed. "So you wanna know what I did? I took revenge for her. I killed the alpha and 20 of his followers AND EVERYONE ELSE THAT HAD RETICULED ME AS A CHILD! I spilled their intestines all over the ground for insects to feed on and watered the grass with blood drained from their lifeless bodies. But I left the alphas 17 year old son stranded and alone like I." He loosened his grip, relaxed his jaws and wings and started to speak again. " For 2 years I ran from my past, until it finally caught up with me, The Alphas Son had come for me. And for 4 painfully long months, I was starved, lashed, drowned, gagged, hung to near death, and raped because of what I did." He looked back up me.
A thin line of tears was creeping out of his eyes. "And now that you have saved me, like my mother had done when I was a hatchling, I owe you my wings, my arms, my legs, and my heart. I am forever in your debt, I will protect you as I should have done for my mother." There was confidence in his eyes, it gleamed brightly like a star on a clear moonless night.
"Thats why you reacted to Dalton and Mark last night...isn't it?" I asked
He nodded "I only did that because I thought you were in danger."
I gently placed my hand on his shoulder, "You have no reason to run any more Kiddo. As long as your with me...you are safe." Once again he thrown himself onto me giving me a hug, this time he wept heavily on my chest. He couldn't stop crying and his horns on top of his head started to jab at my skin but I didn't care at the moment. "There there. Its ok your safe."
He looked up at me still crying uncontrollably, "Can I stay with you?"
"yes" I whispered. He hugged me tighter and kept saying thank you and went on with our days. For 3 weeks it was good, I taught Kiddo how to shoot and taught him some Tai-Chi I had picked up from a ferret martial arts master. For these 3 weeks we both prospered and became like blood brothers but, little did we know that a ripple in the pool of peace had stirred and a storm was on the horizon.
--War Veteran--
"On my home world, we drank to our fill, fought with each other, AND THEN DRINK SOME MORE! Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go to the bar AND DRINK TO MY FILL!" ~Wolfgang "Wolf" Rasputin~
One day while Kiddo and I were watching The Goonies, we were suddenly startled by a knocking at the door. It was loud and quiet obnoxious then as soon as it started, it finished. I got up off my seat and walked toward the door, the knocking continued again. "For the love of god! I'm coming!" I finally got to the door and peaked through the eye hole only to see a giant gray wall outside the door. "What the fuck?" I opened the door and standing before me was a 7 foot timber wolf. He was well built, looked like 215 pounds of all muscle and had a thick gray fur coat and his head had two parallel, thick white lines that covered down his eyes almost like a badger. He had a worn wife beater and stained blue jeans on and a couple of bottles of vodka in each hand. "WOLF! My old friend!" I gave him a welcoming hug. "Where have you been all these years?"
Wolf replied in his native Russian accent and returned the hug then broke off, "I have been away. Doing some missions for the movement on my homeworld. I had no way of contacting you but, word came around that you and Sasha were going to get...what's the word you humans say uh..." he moved past me thinking hard, "HITCHED! yes this is the word hitched." When he walked into the kitchen to set the vodka down on the table, he found Kiddo on the lounge chair drinking mead. "So...are you Sasha?" he was confused.
"What?!" Kiddo snapped
"No no," I was laughing at the question "No this friend is Kiddo. He's...a friend of mine." I didn't want to say how I met Kiddo to keep him from being humiliated. Kiddo looked at me and I read his face, he said thank you without words.
"Oh Im sorry Kiddo. A little misinterpretation. I am still a little drunk as you see." He apologized.
"So I see. And its ok no harm done. Your...not surprised that I am a dragon?"
"Not really no. I have seen some of your kind in the movement on my homeworld, Snowforge. They are helping us fight and are pretty good at what they do I must say." Wolf seemed like he already knew Kiddo from the way he spoke to him. "Oh by the way I am Wolfgang Rasputin but, you may call me Wolf. All my comrades do."
"It's good to know I have friends that fought with my kind and not against. What are my kind doing on Snowforge anyway?" He asked.
"Yeah that seems odd seeing how Snowforge is a Wolf colony." I was curious about the topic.
Wolf took a swig of vodka and responded, "Well comrade I am not quiet sure. One year they were on Ragnarok and the next they are on Snowforge living alongside my people. They didn't say anything, their elders asked my elders if they could stay for a little while. And so we let them stay, we traded valuables and let me just point out that your kind has a lot of amazing items let me tell you! Anyway for about 3 years things were good, no oppression amongst the two and no killing of the other, quiet peaceful if I may say until they came..." He took another drink of his vodka
"Until who came?" I asked
"These...reptile-like creatures. I do not know what they were, I have never seen them before in all my years of meaningless battle after battle. They came so swiftly, when they arrived it was almost like a black hole ripped through space and out came these carriers and battleships. They came out wave after wave, it seemed like it would not end!"
He paused for a brief moment then spoke again, "Then this...anthro came out of the portal...it slammed down in the dead center of Julius, our planets capitol, and it was one of our kind but, something happened to him. He had these tentacles reaching out of his back and spawned small holes where beasts came through. This was 2 1/2 years ago and we are making our final stand."
"Then how did you get off the planet?" I asked again.
"They sent me to go get help. But this is why I am so drunk and drowning in vodka..." He drank again
"Thats a bad thing? Going to get help?"
"No. The douche bags up there wont let me through and its been almost a week AND I have failed my people."
Kiddo slammed his hands down on the table and slid off his chair in a fit of rage. "WHAT WAS IT?! WHAT ATTACKED US?! TELL ME!" He was really pissed. Within a flash he grabbed Wolf by neck and lifted him clean off the ground without breaking a sweat. Wolf was taken by the surprise attack and tried to release himself from the dragons grip but, could not. Kiddo seem like he was in a bloodlust.
"I told you! I don't know!" Wolf uttered without breath in his lungs
"LIAR! TELL ME!" Kiddo's voice, crackled and audioable, echoed through out the house
"KIDDO! Let go of him!" I shook Kiddo around to get his attention but, nothing worked. "KIDDO YOUR GOING TO KILL HIM!" I tried to break Kiddos grip on Wolf by pushing his arms off of Wolf, then I tried punching his flexed stomach but that didn't work either. Then out of nowhere I felt a sudden burst of energy flow through my body, not like adrenaline, no this was much more powerful. I couldn't stop to think about it so I gave one final punch to Kiddos stomach and he went flying backwards. There was a red wave just fading through the air where I had punched him, it was like a force that was alien to me. It felt like I had a power growing inside of me. He went through the couch, destroyed the TV, and knocked over all of Marks DVD's that were on the coffee table next to the TV.
I looked around at what had just happened and could only stare in awe. How was this possible? I thought. How did I do this? "Kiddo!" I ran over to him and picked him up off the floor. He coughed a little and looked at me not in fear but, in amazement.
"How...How did you do that?" he asked
"I don't know. You saw it right?" I pointed to wolf and asked him.
He was wide eyed, "Yes. I did." We went quiet for a few moments not knowing what to say until the door beckoned me again. It pounded 3 times before stopping, then a voice was deftly heard on the otherside.
"Mr. Raines....Mr. Raines open up." By the sound of his voice he was probably a German Shepard. Shepard are one of two things, one they work for the UGAC or they were A-Sec, this one sounded like UGAC. I walked up to the door still shacking about what had just happened and opened it, there stood an black and red armored Shepard with two silver aches on each side. He was standing at attention and saluting me for why I didn't know. "Mr. Raines sir."
"At ease soldier. I'm not in the UGAC anymore." I did not salute him back.
"Sir. There's an terrorist organization threatening to attack the Ark," He put his hand down and replied sharply. "You have to come with me now."
"What attack? Who's asking?"
"Chancellor Black and Commander Talieus Sir. Now if there are no more questions we have to go now."
"Ok. but, I'm bringing my two friends with me."
"Sir with all do respect..."
"I said I AM bringing them with me."
"Sir I can't..."
"They are coming with me." I glared into his eyes and I sensed fear.
"Ok. Right this way sir." He pointed to a dropship that was hovering inches off the ground. I signaled Kiddo and Wolf to follow me into the ship and they did just that. "Watch your heads gentlemen." We ducked into the compartment and took a seat on the worn, bruised and battered leather seats. The soldier held his hand up to his ear and spoke, "Package has been retrieved over." He paused for a brief moment. "Understood," He slapped the blast doors shut and looked to me. "Change of plan sir. We are taking you to the Sword of the Star instead of the council tower. There you will be briefed on whats going on."
"What is going on?" Kiddo asked.
"You will be briefed at the capital flagship sir."
"Just tell us!" Wolf yelled in annoyance.
He stared at us with a look that none of us thought to be good, "War. We are going to war."