Fell Dragon
Greetings Readers
I hope you all had an awesome break this weekend! I am in the final stages of completing that book that drove me up all the wall. Now I get to relax with another survival book! I really enjoy doing those!
But enough about me and work, you're all here for the next chapter of Fell Dragon, and here it is. There's a nice twist in the end, which I hope you'll enjoy.
Barik had his son on his shoulders watching the young woman training in the gymnasium for all those that lived underground. He watched her movements. They were stiff, uncertain in the way she wanted them to move. She was out of practice clearly.
“Barik be nice dear. She has not had it easy these four years,” was what his wife had told him before they had met.
He had not liked Saita at all when they first laid eyes on each other. He had not known why at first but now that he watched her, he understood. She was a fighter. He had sensed that.
“Poppa?”
“Yes, Saita?”
“That girl has my name.”
“Yes, she does.”
“Who is she?”
“Someone very dangerous,” he whispered below his breath.
“Hmm?”
“She is your mother’s cousin,” he said louder as he set his son on the ground. “Go find your mother.”
“Okay!”
Barik let his mind wonder as he watched the woman start forming balls of what he thought was energy. They spun around her until they came to rest over her head. She sat down suddenly, and they continued to spin around her.
He didn’t trust her. She was the reason this war had started. She was the reason he was hunted and was forced to live below ground with his son while his wife handled all the planning above ground. If Saita joined them, she would have to live down here too. Where her father could never catch a glimpse of her.
Banishment.
He shuddered. He knew the crime on his planet was serious, but for the human king to casually threaten his daughter with it bothered him. Saita. She also bothered him. She smelt wrong and acted wrong. She was wrong. Kiai had tried to explain to him, but he could not understand the problem. He knew about augmented warriors. Augmentation happened with those who had suffered serious injuries and wanted a better quality of life or simply wanted to return to the fronts with their brothers in arms. She had been augmented. She was strong. He didn’t need to be his Queen to feel the amount of power that radiated from her. Yet, she still felt wrong.
“She is training,” a voice interrupted his thoughts.
He turned his head a little to see the warrior Gaylum. He had been led to believe that this was one of the old warriors that had trained Saita when she was younger.
“Looks like she is playing with energy spheres,” scoffed Barik.
“We are not like you, Saith. We are not that efficient in controlling our energy in the way that you can,” the warrior scratched at his cheek. “Poor girl.”
“Why is it that augmented warriors are frowned upon?” asked Barik.
“Augmented?” the warrior stopped scratching to look at him in confusion. “She isn’t augmented. She was an experiment against her will. Why do you think she was missing for four years?”
“She was kidnapped, and then she escaped.”
The warrior slowly shook his head in disbelief and said. “Clearly your grip on our language is still lacking. She is not augmented. It was never a choice for her. She was taken as a child, experimented on, and released into the wilds only to be taken again and kept for four years to complete the experiments. She was a lab rat.”
“A rodent?”
“She was a creature that was experimented on.” Gaylum sighed, “I want to go say hello to her, but I don’t know what to say to her. What if she asks me why I am here? Why I turned against her father?”
“You are not against my father but with my mother. I can hear you!” yelled the woman as she got to her feet.
She tossed the energy balls to Barik, who caught them in his hands. Each ball was something different, and he instinctively separated them and placed them on the bannister. Gaylum looked to the balls with distrust.
“I thought so,” said Saita as she came to look at Barik. “You are also an energy user.”
“I thought you humans referred to the gift as force.”
“From what I have learned, force and energy are the exact same thing but different names,” she looked at the balls gathered before tapping each one and they disappeared.
She looked up at Gaylum. “You got old.”
“You got tall and rude,” chuckled the man.
Saita stepped up onto the lower part of the bannister and hugged the man over the top. “I heard rumours that you have died.”
“Misdirection. Your father would have sought me out if he knew I was alive.”
The grip between the two humans was strong, and it took a while for Saita to be willing to release the old man.
“I don’t think we can afford to think of this as betraying Karesh,” said Saita after some time. “Not when we are trying to prevent an all-out war. If Barik is anything to go by, the Saith will eat him alive.”
Barik frowned and said. “You humans are not bad with your weapons. They do damage. They kill. Your force can be as strong as ours except for one thing.”
Barik set a hand before and curled his fingers towards himself to form a yellow ball on his hand.
“How’d you do that?!” demanded Saita.
“Your source of power comes from a core, as with all humans. Us Saith can gather energy from around us. We can steal your energy if needs be.”
Saita paled a little and said. “Does Karesh know this?”
“Oh, he does, but he is hoping that his numbers will contain us.” Barik chuckled. “But he doesn’t know our King and Queen.”
Saita lowered her eyes and said softly. “This must be difficult for you. Not being able to return to your people.”
“I will see my wife and son through this war. I could have gone home but I won’t abandon them, and she will not abandon her family,” he said sternly.
“Good man.” Gaylum patted Barik’s shoulder.
Saita half smiled and said. “Very well.”
She returned to her training by herself, her movements more fluid now and no energy being used.
“She is still the same old girl,” said Gaylum.
“I doubt it.”
Saita had had some time to think about what Kiai had said. She would stay and help. She needed to make her father see reason without actively ripping his soldiers apart. She still wasn’t sure of her mother’s involvement in everything, but she would remain. She had nothing else. On the surface, there was only misery.
She had been given a tiny room with nothing more than a bunk bed that hung over a small desk and chair. Food would be served in the mess hall at certain times of the day which was announced by a tolling bell. She generally ignored all of that and lay in her bunk thinking and more thinking. She didn’t know what else to do.
She wanted her family back, but with her father acting like a megalomaniac and her mother overly concerned for her she thought that perhaps taking a step back from the whole situation was better. In her little room, no one bothered her, and she was able to be alone with her thoughts.
“A total of 15 000 people on the planet. Over 10 000 on the surface and five thousand below,” she muttered.
All of them were working against her father. No one hated him, okay some did, but this wasn’t about hate. People were tired of war and now Karesh was bringing a massive enemy to the table. Saita had asked Barik if there would be any way to plead her case with the King and Queen of the Saith, but he had laughed in her face. He hadn’t spoken to his own family since the birth of his son much less anyone else on the planet since the war had started.
“Dad why?” Saita buried her head into a pillow.
She was confused. She was angry, very angry, but she was also sad, scared, and just wanted her father to be happy to see her again. She was not going to get any of that, and there was very little comfort to be had here. She wondered if staying was a mistake, but she didn’t know what else to do. She was so tired of seeing people whom she loved looking at her with pity or distrust.
And she was tired. Bodily she was exhausted, but her mind was flashing multiple images at her as she lay with her head on the pillow. She wanted to sleep. She desperately needed to sleep and eat, but her body rejected both each time. She wished that she was able to copy Beatrice's technique, but it seemed that some powers were just beyond hers.
She rolled to her back and frowned at the metal ceiling. She set her legs against the ceiling and pushed against it. There were several miles of dirt between her and the outside, and she was so curious. Yet, Kiai had explained to her that seeing her face outside of the compound would cause problems for the plan, and she would need to remain inside for a few more days.
It was late, two or three in the morning, and she already felt the burning under her skin and knew that she would need to get some training in before the day started otherwise the burning would develop into something far more painful. She didn’t know how she knew that, but she knew it. There were many times she just knew things and would simply chalk it up to her mind absorbing things that were spoken about around her when she was held captive.
She grumbled and rolled from the bunk to land on her feet. A run, yes, that always helped for some reason. She left her room and wandered the halls until she found herself at the open gymnasium she had been at yesterday. The equipment was all in the centre while a track went around it. Where she had been earlier was meant for grappling and had been an open area to train with a partner.
“A good workout would be preferable but can’t wake anyone,” she said as she made small bubbles of energy before releasing them into the air.
She then started on the track with the bubbles following her. Every now and again she would allow the bubble to float free, and she would have to avoid it or suffer a painful burn. She tried to lessen her control on the bubbles to have a more effective training session, but it was difficult as, without the control, they would float wildly, damaging anything they encountered.
“You need a partner?” came a voice from beyond the bannister.
The light was low, and Saita could not make out who was there until she was right at the bannister. She saw Barik lounging on one of the benches. He must have come for some private training himself. She could not stand him, but he made Kiai happy, so she let it go.
“My control of energy is better than most, and since we do not like each other you know I will not go easy on you,” he said as he sat up and looked her in the eye.
“I never said I didn't like you,” she snapped.
“Your body language does. It completely changed when you realised who you were talking to,” he pointed to her. “You do not have to have a tail for me to be able to read you. You don’t like me, and that is fine. Do you want a training partner or not?”
She turned away from him but paused for a few seconds. “Fine. Show me what you have.”
“Gladly.” he hopped to his feet. “You heal fast right?”
Kiai was furious. She was the unofficial leader of this operation, so when someone woke her that morning telling her that Barik and Saita were having a full-on fight in the public gymnasium, she just about lost it. By the time she had gotten there, the fight had already been decided. Saita looked very pleased with herself while Barik was sitting on the ground panting heavily. Both were covered in bruises, cuts, and burns.
“What the hell!” Kiai shouted.
Saita sat down heavily and started laughing. Then Barik looked at Saita and joined her.
“It is four in the morning. I have a toddler who is now wide awake and a compound of people complaining about the noise you two are making. What is going on?”
“My skin doesn’t burn,” sighed Saita as she lay down on the ground to look up at the ceiling.
“This is the first time I have felt like I didn’t have to hang back!” Barik looked exhausted. “I’m happy to have her.”
“ARGH!” Kiai threw her hands in the air. “Get to the medical ward. Both of you.”
“Can’t, you don’t have any of my meds here,” said Saita. “Remember?”
“Go!”
Barik climbed to his feet and pulled Saita up. “Best we do. Her temper is worse than her twin’s.”
The two limped off still chuckling. Kiai kept the frown on her face until both were gone. Then she turned to the creature sitting just slightly into the dark. “Well?”
“Yes,” it confirmed. “You were right. This is disturbing, rather extremely so. I’m glad you let me know.”
“Don’t let anyone see you here,” she said as she started walking away. “I am tolerating you but only just.”
The figure stood up, flared its wings once then grinned a toothy grin. “I was worried about what the doctor did to keep her compliant, but it seems that was corrected. As for the burning skin, well, as long as she is training then she will be fine. She is growing far quicker than what I had imagined she ever would.”
“You ruined her,” said Kiai as she turned from the creature. “You took away her life.”
“She is granting life to so many others.”
“I am not going to be your go-between. I don’t want her to ever know we spoke; that I am telling you about her. Do you understand? She must never know.”
“Agreed. But you are the sensitive I approached, and if you keep her safe, I will keep my end of the bargain.”
“Where is he?”
“Safe.”
“You agree that you will not experiment on him?”
“As long as S-AY-8-A does as she was designed to do there will be no need for the back-up. He will remain safe.”
“Call her by her name,” Kiai hissed. “She is a person!”
The creature nodded his head. “I spent too long with Sellious. Saita is meant for…”
“I know!” hissed the human as she squeezed her eyes closed. “You are not the only one who sees flashes of what is to come. Pura saw it too late to keep her out of your clutches and I will be damned if you take her from us now.”
“Keep her safe, and it will not be necessary.”
“Go to hell,” Kiai walked away from the gym.
“I already came from there,” grinned Edzeeker as he melted back into the shadows.
Oh Kiai, what are you getting yourself into? And who is the mysterious he? Guess you'll have to continue reading to figure all of that out.
For those of you just joining us, please note that this is the follow on book from Fell Dragon. Follow this link to read it
Fell Dragon Book 1
As the series continues, it will combine with another book series I wrote. To avoid confusion about what is happening, introductory chapters will be introduced separately so that you don't have to be lost. However, these chapters will contain spoilers. You can find these chapters here:
Races Explained
Banishment
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Haven't read the other parts yet? Follow these handy links:
Part 10>>You are Here>>Part 12
Oooooh damn. Exquisite story telling as always Lex!
Aww! Thanks :) Only going to keep getting better.