Wages: Chapter Eight
#8 of Wages
Finally got this uploaded.
Even as conformist I was at the time, I knew what we had witnessed that day needed to be kept a secret. Celsko reminded me of this many a time on our slow walk back. The whole time she spoke of nothing except how wonderfully interesting the little man was. Yes, how interesting he is, the fucking liar! You and he go and destroy the fucking colony, see if I care! See if I care when you lay dead on the ground!
Again I brought myself back to that sunny day in the meadow. We bounded after the rabbit, sometimes even gliding on our wings (Such a thrill for whelps!). Just her and I.... No, wait, there was one other whelp with us, a little ruddy-red fellow named Veexer. Yes, yes, Veexer, a good friend was he! Whatever happened to Veexer?
After a while, the horrid truth came back to me.
I remembered hiding behind a boulder in the summer heat, three, four years ago? Oh yes, remember it all so clearly! I remembered watching Veexer and a young female, whose scales were like that of the winter sunset, purr and croon over each other. Veexer had always been somewhat of a reclusive drake, that is perhaps why we shared a friendship. Yet upon this day I saw not the quiet, shy drake that was my friend, but a happy, jubilant creature.
Yes, yes, such happiness! Such happiness shared they. Happiness I do not and shall never know. Condemned by my own oddness to an mundane existence of petty loneliness. Jealousy felt I, as I watched him curl his wings around her. I watched unmoving, whilst the jealousy, as if it a river in the spring, swept me along. The jealousy forced me to watch, it did! Forced me to watch him take her beneath him. I was captivated as the two rolled in the heights of pleasure, none the wiser to the fact that a horrible, perverted, jealous drake watched from afar.
As they experienced their pleasure, as did I. But the pleasure I indulged in was nothing of what they felt. Mine was utterly horrible. Later, I vomited and tore at myself for doing something so atrocious. Still, I had lain there and had experienced pleasure that I so wished I could share with a mate. Only now, as I trotted alongside my last friend, did I realize that I would never do so. No, Nimbus shall never have anyone to love! He has only his lust to live for! Lust to indulge in sick pleasure with! Such a bloody, bloody mess he is!
"Nimbus..."
Celsko's warm voice pulled me out of my thoughts. It was as if I had been asleep whilst walking, not realizing that time had passed, and we had arrived at my cave. Behind us, the world was being encapsulated in evening dimness as the sun sank low in the spring sky.
My cave was nothing like that of Celsko's. Where hers possessed warmth, mine held only coldness. Where hers had her beautiful stones and odd discoveries, mine was utterly barren. The only thing that gave any indication that it was inhabited was the spread of pelts in the back corner; remnants from past meals that made a wonderful nest for sleeping.
I had found the cave about seven or eight winters ago. Before then I had lived with my parents. Their cave was possibly the most comforting place of all, for it was where I had first pushed my way out of my egg to meet this horrid new world. My earliest memories were of my mother, with her beautiful red scales, curled around my brother and I. She had sung songs to us and kept us warm, safe from the cruel world that surrounded us.
She was no more, and I was here, in a cave that sat high on the mountainside, away from all comfort.
"Nimbus..." Celsko spoke again, "How's your cut?"
"Fine." I grumbled, walking past her towards the sanctity of my nest.
I lay down, curled my tail tightly around me, and rested my head on my forepaws. Celsko stood and watched me from the entrance of the cave, her emerald eyes regarding me with a calm look of thought.
"You ought to go back to your cave, Cel. Don't want to get caught by the Trilslet after dark." said I, returning her gaze.
She looked at me, sighed, and then, the most amazing thing happened.
Celsko walked over and lay down less than a pace away from me, so close that I could swear I felt her body heat.
And I hated her for it.
How dare she! How dare she show kindness to such a despicable creature such as I! This was it, the moment you, the hypocritical observer have been waiting for! For Nimbus to just fucking erupt! And erupt he shall!
"What are you doing?" I hissed.
"I thought it would be best if I stayed here tonight, just in case something-"
"No, No!" I shouted at her, standing up. "Who the fuck cares if something happens!"
"Nimbus, I ca-"
"No you don't, you fucking half-breed cunt!" I scraped my claws against the stone and snarled at the beautiful hypocrite. "You think I'm sooo fucking odd don't you? Yes, yes, sooo odd! You probably tell all your friends about how I'm nothing but a crack-brained fuck!" I gave my voice a high pitched tone, "'Oh yes, Nimbus is just a lonely, crazy fuck, he is!" Dropping my voice back to it's low, crazed tone, I asked, "Do you want to see what I really am, Celsko? I'll fucking show you!"
I thrust my right forepaw out, then, using my razor sharp claws on my left, tore a great gash down the length of it.
"This what I fucking am! I'm a fucking monster! And you're nothing but a hypocrite!" I shook my torn foreleg at her, spraying my enemy with a hundred droplets of blood.
"Look at this!" I screamed at the dragon, who was hiding her face beneath her paws, "Fucking look at this! Do you see? Do you see what I am now? Do you see what you do to me? DO YOU?! Every fucking day you say you care! Every fucking day you say that you're my friend! And every fucking day it hurts me!"
I paused, relishing her sobs.
"I never want to see you again Celsko! I never do! You go and conspire and find a mate and fuck! Get out of my cave! Get out of my fucking sight!"
I didn't wait for the hypocrite, who had been reduced to a sobbing mess, to leave under its own power. I roughly shoved it out, using the top of my head, which had yet again begun to bleed, to push, all the while screaming insults and curses at the creature. Oh, how beautiful my blood was on her scales! Once it was outside my sanctity, I left it in the leafs to sob.
"Leave me the fuck alone, you bloody, bloody mess!" I snarled over my shoulder as I crawled away.
You should be ashamed of yourself, you- the reader- scream as this unfolds before you. Ashamed, as you have been in the past when you have done such things! But no, oh no! I felt no regret. Internally, I rejoiced. I had succeeded, I had! Succeeded in severing my last tie to the colony. You see, I had come to the conclusion that it was what needed to be done! Never again would my dear Celsko bother herself over me, never! No, no, far more important things than Nimbus, yes? Like finding a mate to fuck, you damn half-breed! Pollute our colony with more half-breeds, you will! Lay a fine clutch of sub-draconic eggs, The Provider ought to smash the whole lot of them!
Back in my cave, I curled up in a tight ball. Outside, I heard sobs and the fading sound of paws on leafs as my enemy walked away. Yes, goodbye Celsko! Goodbye, you damn halfbred hypocrite! Good-fucking-riddance!
Stifling a pleasured coo, I drifted off to sleep.
Falling. I was falling.
The air, hot and moist, rushed around me. I tried to open my wings, only to find that the leathery membrane rippled in the wind in tatters, useless. Screaming, soundless I fell.
The ground! Oh, great earth, how it came at me! Below me lay the valley, the river, the meeting grounds. Such beautiful facade you have to hide your ugly face behind, oh cruel world! The valley below came at me like a great enemy, drawing nearer and nearer, larger and larger. My body, numb, came crashing down in a beautiful meadow. My bones, shattering upon impact, tore through my flesh and out into the cool evening air. The pain was almost blinding, it was! I attempted to lift my head, but could not. It was as if I had no body, I was a mere entity of pure, unrelenting pain.
I wished for death, but he would not come unto me. When my mother had done the exact same act, I knew she had died instantly upon impact, and I was glad for it. Yet I did not. I lay in that meadow, alive, but dead.
There was a great tremble that ran through the earth, shaking me to my very core. It was on the horizon that I saw it, two great wings rising up from the earth. A massive drake, larger than the mountains themselves, was taking flight.
Sephive.
Sephive, god of all dragons! Sephrive, the great drake that had driven back the darkness in the ancient days! The one who had conquered the night, breaking it with his golden scales! Sephrive was coming for me, he was. Coming to carry me away upon his great golden wings! Carry me away, my lord, carry me away from this hell! This cruel world!
I roared these words with all the might my broken body still possessed. Roared them at the drake.
And he did nothing.
I gawked in horror as he flew away. Abandoning Nimbus! Abandoning his own kin, kin not worthy of his presence!
The great golden glow of my lord faded as his form disappeared over the horizon, and I cried as it did. Screamed and cried, like a fucking whelp. Not worthy, Nimbus is! Not worthy of great Sephive's epic presence! Forever damned to lay here, wishing for death, wishing for an end to his pain!
The darkness surrounded me, swirling in the wind. Out of the blackness I saw a single form. It stepped forward, red eyes narrowed, lips pulled back in a malicious grin.
Sephive had left me, and Kiven had come.
"Well, well..." the black drake hissed, "Abandoned at lassst, you mangy s-scaled freak."
I whimpered as he put his snout right up against mine, acrid breath burning my nostrils.
"Yesss, yesss, whimper for your preciousss Sephrive, he can't hear you!" Kiven sneered, "You d-don't know what pain isss."
"You're not real!" I spat back.
"Not real? NOT FUCKING REAL, YOU SAY?" he screamed hysterically, "Is this real enough for you?"
He reached down, below my ribcage to my soft gut.
"I'll show you fucking real!"
I cried out as I felt his claws, razor sharp, tear through my scaled hide. Blood, and something thicker, spilled from my wound and onto the cold ground. He pulled my innards out, like a hungry wolf on a deer, as I screamed in utter shock and pain.
"Yes, scream!" The drake shrieked, "Scream for me, you fuck! You fucking excuse for a dragon! Scream, fucking scream for me!"
I awoke with a start, panting heavily and shaking. Outside the world was still black. The pain was gone, yet still there.
And I was alone. Always and forever.