The Dragon of No Shape(Updated)

Chapter 5

Pyro chuckled nervously. “Um, well, mom said that the name ‘Pyro’ sounded better than ‘Black Flame’ and that she didn’t even want to name me ‘Black Flame’ in the first place. So when no one else who wanted my name to stay ‘Black Flame’ was around anymore, she changed it to ‘Pyro’.” He explained, looking sheepishly up at Sear.

“That old hag…” Sear muttered, and I looked at Pyro to see his reaction. He looked completely unaffected by the insult, and I guessed that this was either normal or Pyro didn’t care much for his mother. “This is preposterous, she has no right to do that!” He grumbled, and Pyro sighed.

“Pop, she’s my mother. Of course she has the right to do that.” He told Sear, but he wasn’t listening.

“You ran away, didn’t you?” Sear’s sudden question made Pyro tense, and I stared at him. “Ash would never let you out of the kingdom, and I doubt you found her-” He pointed at me, “-in the Flame Kingdom.”

“I-uh-well-” Pyro stuttered, glancing at me. ‘What would she think of me if she knew everything that happened?’ I jumped at his thoughts, and I jumped on him in a hug. “Woah!” Pyro yelped in surprise. “W-what the-?!”

“Pyro, you’ll always be my friend! Ok?” I told him, my face still buried in his chest.

“W-what? How-” He stopped and I knew he must have remembered that I could read his mind. “Oh. O-ok.” He said, wrapping his wings around me. We pulled away again and Sear cleared his throat.

“Yeah, of course you two are just friends.” He said, and my underbelly turned pink again. “Anyways, I’ll take that as a yes, Black Flame.” He looked down at Pyro sympathetically. “I know you couldn’t do anything about the name changing, but there’s another reason you ran away, isn’t there?” Pyro looked like he was forcing a mask with no emotion in his face, but I could feel his tsunami of guilt, fear, grief, and anger. I flinched and even took a step back at the mix of emotions, and he glanced at me in surprise. ‘I’m sorry.’ I heard his voice in my head, and it took me a second to process that he was apologizing for his emotions. I shook my head and smiled at him, showing that I was just unprepared for the sudden wave.

“Y-yeah, there is another reason…but maybe we could catch up later? We have a bloodthirsty Alpha to defeat, and a bloodline to restore.” Pyro told Sear, smiling at me again.

“Sure, but what do you mean an Alpha to beat and a bloodline to restore? You mean the royal bloodline?” He asked, glancing between me and Pyro.

“I’m actually supposed to be the new Alpha apparently, I guess, so I’m going to train so that I can beat Iejir.” I told him, and he…honestly didn’t look very surprised.

“Ok, let’s start training then!” He replied, grabbing me and Pyro and pulling us into the air. He led us to a huge stone battlefield in the middle of the city, where several dragons were sparring and learning new battle tactics. “This is the training area, where dragons keep their skills sharp and spar for fun.” Sear explained as we landed, the dragons around us making room for the huge Flame dragon.

“Cool!” I breathed, taking in the whole thing. The radius was at least 10 dragons long, and it was slightly lower than level ground. There were even perches around the large circle with dragons on them watching the spars and training. “This place is amazing!”

“Yeah, I can’t wait to start training!” Pyro agreed, taking a few steps forward. “When do we start?”

“Right now.” Sear replied, before making a sharp whistle sound. A Searow nearby perked up before running over.

“Hey Sear! What’s up-” He broke off with a gasp as he saw me and Pyro. “OH MY MOON DRAGONS!!! WHO ARE THESE CUTIES!” The deep blue Searow had bright seafoam green spots lining under his eyes, the smallest starting at the inside corner of each eye growing bigger each dot. On each of his white, slim, slightly curved horns were golden bands, inscribed with an ancient text I couldn’t make out from where I was standing. Under his ears, connecting them and his jaw, were web-like frills with more of the seafoam green spots. Along the sides of his body were even more of the spots, but they were much bigger than the others, and across his spine was another web-like frill. His wings were almost transparent, you could see through them but there was a tint of blue to them. He crushed me and Pyro in a hug, and Sear rolled his eyes.

“Whirlpool, this is Black Flame, my grandson, and his girlfriend Emerald.” Sear explined as Whirlpool let us go.

“W-wait, she’s not my-” Pyro started but was cut off by Whirlpool.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both! But…” He trailed off, examining us a little closer. “You look a little young to be dead, so…” He tilted his head inquisitively.

“Oh, we aren’t residents, just visiting with my powers. Ocean and Forest are my parents.” I explained, my underbelly and underwings still bright pink from the ‘girlfriend’ comment.

“Really?!” I flinched at his high pitched screech, but he seemed unaffected by the movement. “They’ve been looking for you for so long! They must be so happy right now, oh I’m so glad you guys have been reunited!” He said, grinning brightly at me.

“Anyways.” Sear interrupted, glaring slightly at Whirlpool. “I called you over so that you could help train Emerald here while I train Black Flame.”

“Oh! Of course, it’ll be my pleasure!” He stated, before grabbing my talon and leading me over to where he had been before. “Ok, so we’re going to start slow while we figure out what you need to work on and what you already are really good at.” He said, and he seemed almost like a different dragon. He was more serious than before, and he held himself differently.

“Ok!” I nodded, forcing the mindblock up. It was cheating if I used mindreading to counter everything he did, because this was the chance to improve my strengths without my powers. He waited a heartbeat before charging at me with the speed and power not unlike the beats in the Toxin Jungle. I easily sidestepped, watching his body language carefully to try and figure out what he’d do next. It seemed that he was expecting me to move and his body twisted to attack but I was faster. I ducked underneath him and attacked his underbelly, sending him a foot into the air before hitting him again with my wing and forcing him a few feet away from me so that I could recover my defensive stance.

“Wow! That was surprising accuracy for someone with little to no contact with other dragons!” He said, shaking himself off. I felt pride flowing through my scales, turning my underbelly a bright cobalt blue.

“T-thanks!” I replied, before remembering that we were in the middle of a duel. I decided it would be a good time to show off my offense. I rushed towards him, flashing my scales a bright red and flipping into the air, leaving my stomach exposed. I saw the amusement glint in his eyes and knew that he fell for it. As he leaped for my underbelly, I twirled mid-air and slammed him into the ground. I pinned him down and held a claw to his throat. I knew he could easily push me off, but not without a fatal gash across his neck – if he was still alive. He chuckled, holding his talons up in surrender.

“Alright, you win.” He said, and I got off of him helping him up. “This time, at least.” He added, eyes sparkling with anticipation.

}{

I sat, gasping, as the sun slowly sank over the horizon. Whirlpool had gone to report to Sear about my abilities so far, and I could see them at the far side of the ring. I couldn’t see Pyro, however, and was wondering where he and the others were when I felt someone staring at me. I used my powers to look around me without actually moving, so that if anyone was looking they wouldn’t look away. I couldn’t find anyone looking at me and realized that someone was looking at me in the waking world. I jumped to my feet in alarm, running to Sear and Whirlpool.

“Sear! Whirlpool!” I called, still panting from the training. They turned to look at me in confusion and concern. I skidded to a stop in front of them and quickly explained the feeling I was having.

“Someone in the waking world?” Sear repeated incredulously. I nodded before stiffening as I felt a tingling feeling through my body and eventually realized that whoever had been looking at me was now touching me. I shuddered, feeling the world start to blacken around me as I started to wake up.

“Uh, guys…?” I felt myself sway on my feet. “I think I’m waking up.”

“Ok, well protect my grandson, will you?” Sear asked, watching me with soft eyes. I nodded, everything going black as I felt the world collapse around me. It was still, silent, and cold for a few seconds before I felt that tingling sensation again, this time more focused on my wings and back as I slowly realized that someone else’s wing was draped over my back. I also felt a tail intertwining itself with mine and another body snuggled up to mine. As I was registering all of this, I was also trying to force my eyes open, and when I finally did all I saw for a second was black and red scales. I blinked the sleep from my eyes for a moment before realizing that it was Pyro’s neck. My vision cleared and I studied the black flames on his neck with a content sigh. His scales were so warm I wanted to stay there forever, but then he shifted.

“Emerald?” I heard him whisper, and realized that he had been awake the whole time and was staying still while I was asleep.

“Yeah?” I asked, snuggling closer to him as I felt him stiffen slightly before relaxing again.

“Ah, I, uh, didn’t know if you were awake.” He stuttered slightly and I giggled.

“So it was you who was watching me.”

“W-what?! I-I’m sorry, I was just-” He broke off when I giggled again and I lifted my head to see his face.

“It’s ok, Pyro, I was just confused for a while in the Void.” That was a lie. I had been terrified that someone had broken into my hideout somehow, but I wasn’t about to make Pyro feel guilty about making me scared.

“O-oh.” He breathed, and I felt his scales get warmer. “So, i-is this…ok…?” He asked, and I realized that he meant us cuddling, being this close. I saw my underbelly glow pink again and I swallowed, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to hide the color.

“Y-yeah.” I whispered, and he finally moved. He lifted his head and turned to look me in the eyes, and only then did I notice how close we actually were. His face was only a few inches from mine and I felt my breath hitch.

“So…” I shivered slightly as I felt his breath on my face, my gaze never leaving his. “Are you sure that we’re ‘just friends’?” He asked, leaning closer, and my eyes widened. I opened my mouth to answer, only to snap it shut again when we heard the door to my hideout open as we both turned to it.

“Oh, you’re awake now!” Gourwin exclaimed happily, turning back around to pull in a bag of the poisonous lizards from before.

“To be continued.” Pyro whispered in my ear in the short moment that Gourwin’s back was turned before standing up. He sauntered over to Gourwin to grab the bag from him and started chatting with the Catslick, all the while with a satisfied smirk on his face that Gourwin didn’t seem to notice. I just sat and stared at the handsome Flame dragon in shock, trying to bring my brain back online. I wasn’t really sure how long I sat there with my underbelly glowing a dark shade of pink, but I snapped out of my daze when I heard a yawn.

“Emerald?” Galaxy murmured sleepily, rubbing at her eyes with her talons.

“Oh, hey Galaxy!” I said, hopping off my bed and helping her up. I turned to Everest, who was also getting up. “Morning!”

“Good morning, Emerald.” Everest greeted, smiling brightly at me.

“Oh good, you’re up.” I jumped at Pyro’s voice next to me. “Gourwin collected some more food that’ll last us a week, so we won’t need to stop to hunt or collect any more food for a while. But first we need to figure out what we’re going to do to stop Iejir. Any ideas?”

“I think it’d be good to find allies.” I told them, finally calming down the colors flashing on my underbelly. “Dragons who want Iejir gone as much as we do.”

“That’s a good idea.” Gourwin said, nodding. “The Skyrests are the only known kingdom who are out of reach from the Alpha, so maybe we should start there.”

“We would need to be careful, though, because there are dragons there that Iejir chose as guards that are loyal to him, with and without the mind control.” Everest reminded us, looking uneasy.

“Of course, and we’ll also need to…” I blinked a few times as Gourwin’s voice started to fade away, my vision starting to blacken. I shook my head, trying to clear the sudden fuzziness I felt in my brain, only to be met with an unmeasurable amount of pain shooting through my temples. I let out a yelp, clutching my head as I tumbled backwards, fighting the flashing lights that threatened to take over my vision. Then I heard a deep, rumbling voice that took over all of my senses.

“Polymorph!” It spat as I tried to keep from blacking out. “I thought I’d killed all of you. No matter, I’m coming for you. You can’t run, you can’t hide, I will find you wherever you go.”

‘WHO ARE YOU?!’ I screamed back at the voice, but I didn’t get a response, the pain finally taking over and leaving me in darkness.