//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: The Journey Begins // Story: Ancient Wings, New Soul // by Kowlickkid //------------------------------// The Journey Begins As it turns out, adventure was not just over the horizon. First, we explored more of the castle. At one point, Flare went off on his own and came back carrying, of all things, a ukulele. After strumming it a few times, he did something which astonished me to no end: he put it away. Why is it surprising? He didn't have pockets or a bag. He just put it behind his back and it disappeared. After staring open-mouthed for a few minutes, I dismissed it as cartoon logic(best reason ever) and continued exploring, finding my favorite room: The Library. The black hole brain was engaged, reading about olden times. Evidently, this was not the only castle of the ventolians. There were a few others, with a council ruling over each one, and many ventolians moved from one place to the next. Every once in a while, representatives would meet up in one castle and discuss matters. Contact with the lords of the earth and of the water were not particularly abundant, but it wasn't taboo or unusual to have friendships or even in some occasions, a marriage. Sometimes, a chosen ventolian would go and talk of an important matter, if there was one, with two other lords of the land and sea, in a traditional spot at high sea, on platforms raised out of water and surrounded by a hurricane. Unity and harmony was key, contrary to the relationship of Kyogre and Groudon in Pokémon. If there was not trust and agreements between land, sea and sky, the planet would be destroyed in the resulting battle. Cooperation spawned things such as mountains, clouds, the tide, tornadoes, waterspouts, and a few other natural occurrences. "Kinda makes you wonder what the land was like before the beasts.", said Flare. The dragon was an interesting kid. He never stopped trying to remember, but he pored over some of the books in a manner similar to my own, hungry for knowledge. Perhaps he thought it would help him remember. I noticed that his tail, that twitched slightly almost all the time, was slim and had a serrated, barbed, arrow-shaped tip. 'Okay, let's count up the points of Flare. Little size: Cute. Fiery red with orange stripes: Awesome. Big, round eyes: Cute. Purple-black slitted irises: Awesome. Steady, slightly high-pitched, non-nervous voice: Cute. Slim, twitchy tail: Cute. Barbed, serrated tip: Awesome. Adventurous disposition: Awesome. Orange, sharp spikes running down back: Awesome. Sharp claws: Awesome. Full count: 4 Cute, 6 Awesome. So far, the tyke is Awesome.' "Uh, Truenis?" I snapped out of my thoughts. "Pardon, Flare. You caught me thinking. Yes, it does beg the question of what the planet was like." He hopped over to a shelf and picked a book at random, marked Krystar and the Goblet of Scrotl. "Ooh, adventure book, what fun!", he remarked, delving into the pages. I returned my gaze to my own book. It implied that every ventolian went through the ritual of having to kill a powerful creature with an evil intention, initiating the process of maturing. 'So, thanks to the fact that I magically poked a giant hole through a reptilian beast and ate it's power source, I have been set on the path to maturity. ... Do you ever hear the words coming out of your own thoughts and think 'What's that guy talking about'?' A few hours later, we had begun to get tired, though I had learned a lot. For instance, the song that the birds on the Zebra Isles had sung to me was called The Prime Avian Melody, which was set into the memory of all birds when they were in their eggs, and which tune varied according to the class the bird was in. For instance, there was a class including some delicate songbirds that cheeped out a high melody, and another one composed of a few parrot species that added their normally raucous voices to the song perfectly. In olden times, one bird of all the species of the avians would be present at an important event. There was also a dance 'programmed' into the brains of all birds. Flare came up to me, yawning. 'Cuteness level has increased by 1! Cute is now 5, and Awesome is 6 "Truenis, I'm getting kind of tired." He scrambled up my side and curled up on my back, already asleep. 'Cute and Awesome are now tied.' I gently lifted into the air silently with my wings and went through a few tunnels, finally finding the room where some guests slept. Grasping Thunderhilt, I let magic flow through me, through my weapon and into the air in front of me, where water condensed into a white cloud. 'Naaaaaaah!' With some more magic energy, it turned into a black stormcloud, which I alighted upon and closed my eyes, letting sleep overtake me. -------------------------------------- My eyes snapped open at the time I knew was exactly 5:55 AM. When the girl in charge wakes everybody up at 6 o'clock sharp with buckets of literal icewater, some people tended to learn how to get up before that happened. I rose to my claws and stretched, sighing in satisfaction at the numerous pops that went off in my back. "Flare, wake up. Morning has come, and I believe we should get a move on." He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "First thing's first, do you have any food? I'm famished." My own stomach growled in response. I reached into the purple dragonskin bags I had on(they are seriously awesome) and brought out a sky-fruit. He took it and bit into it. "Mmmm, cloudfruit. Different taste to different species, flying ones enjoy it more." "How do you know that?", I asked. He shrugged. "I dunno, it just came to me." I pulled out another fruit and started munching on it, a sweet taste filling my mouth. After we had finished breakfast, I flew through a few holes, trying to find my way out of the castle. "I feel like Alice in the Looking-glass Garden." "Who in the what?" "A reference to a book that I once had to read for educational purposes. Quite wacky and random, though." He gave a small laugh and then became somber up, screwing up his face in effort. "Searching for memories?" "Yeah. It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't say it. It's weird knowing you have a name, but don't know what it is." I left him to think as I finally found my way out of the castle. The thing was freakin' ginormous. The familiar mist came into my sight as I walked away from the monolithic structure. Eventually, I left it behind, and came upon the silent waterfall. My skin crawled a little as I looked at it. Turns out, it wasn't water or anything similar. It was part of the spirits of the ancestors. So, earlier, I had been bathing in ghosts. Creepy. I left those thoughts behind and continued walking until I got to the edge of the cliff. "Are you ready, Flare?" "We'll just have to find out, won't we?" Have I mentioned I love this kid? With a leap, I jumped into the air, wings flapping to prevent extreme acceleration. Turning my head, I saw that Flare's head was whipping around wildly with the wind. "THIS IS AWESOME!", he screamed. I grinned evilly. 'How awesome would an aileron roll be for him?' Tucking my wings, I began spinning around, taking note of the thinning mist. Accelerating more and more, I dimly heard Flare screaming: "RIGHTEOUS! RIGHTEOUS!" The air became clearer as I sped down, my clear second eyelids(yeah, I got those. You jelly?) protecting my vision as my speed increased. I saw the ground in the distance, and prepared myself to adjust my angle. Close to the ground, but not squeezed up against it(I'm not stupid, nor a daredevil), I opened my wings just as a thunderous BOOM echoed around me. I realized that I had broken the sound barrier. 'Should I be surprised I just did that? Nah, I'm in a cartoon world and a lord of air. It's completely logical.' I slowed down to a more reasonable speed and checked up on Flare. He was a bit dizzy, but he gave me a thumbs-up sign to signify that he was okay. I gently touched down on the ground. "That was awesome.", declared the small dragon. I chuckled lightly before the ground erupted in front of us. Vines wrapped around us and pinned us to the ground. Then, out came the head of my old buddy, the plant monster. Flare snapped his fingers and pointed. "Oh, oh, I totally know what that is! It's on the tip of my tongue! Yes! It's a venus grandvine! Has a poison on it's thorns that causes pain and suffering but doesn't kill, and is highly vengeful against all those who... hurt it..." He gave me a deadpan look. "What? He attacked me first!" "Dude, this thing tortures those who it hates before slowly ripping them apart." I racked my brain for a way out. I looked around feverishly, position changed to bound wrists and ankles spread apart. Thunderhilt was being pulled away from me. "Bad move, carnivine. Thunderhilt is attached to me." My weapon coursed with blue energy and the vine holding it hastily dropped it... right into my claw. "Okay, gotta think fast." One of the thicker vines covered in thorns pulled back, ready to cut me. I began charging a spell, and released it around me and Flare. "Air Slice!" The vines holding us were sliced by the shockwave coming from Thunderhilt, dropping us to the ground. "Does this thing have any weaknesses?", I asked as we hopped away from erupting ground vines. "Uh... Let's see. The main vines are it's most important limbs. If they're cut, it hurts it, but it's not fatal. The minor vines are easily replaced, not a lot of feeling in those. Only way to kill it is to go for the brain, in the head, whether through burning, stabbing, or anything else. Why is it suddenly dark?" I looked up to see that the mouth of the monster was bearing down on us. I picked up Flare and threw him to the side just as the monster caught me in it's mouth. By a great misfortune, the beast spit Thunderhilt out. I was crammed down the beast's throat. 'So, this is how it ends. Eaten by a plant.' 'Not on my watch, birdbrain!' I rolled my eyes. The voice in my head was starting to get old. Suddenly, I heard a noise like a knife plunging into a watermelon. Looking up, I saw that Thunderhilt had somehow been cleaved above me, through the plant skin. I hurriedly grabbed it. 'Now hurry up and use me!' Realization struck me like a lightning bolt... or maybe that was just the electric weapon. 'You're the voice in my head?!' 'You figure that all on you're own, did ya? Stop stalling and do something!' 'I can't just be struck by brilliance! I need time to think!' I slowly began moving downwards at a jerky pace. It took a while, but I finally got my mind off of thinking of the sliminess. 'Thunderhilt is too long to be swung. My claws slip on some sort of membrane here, which is disgusting. What I have left are spells. Let's see, I don't want to light him on fire, 'cause I could get hurt. Water definitely wouldn't work. Lightning might not affect him. Ice could hurt me or block my exit. Let's see... Idea. Meheheheheheee...' "Vomito" A good chunk of magic flowed till the monster bagan to shake. Then, well, can ya guess? It barfed me up. I landed by Flare, who was, to my surprise, defending himself quite well, judging by the amount of charred vines and the way he was spinning that ukulele. Yeah, you heard me right. He was using a ukulele to keep away the vines. Also, his fire breath. Even as I landed, he unleashed an impressive blast of purple flames with black highlights. He saw me and smiled. "Truenis! You got out!" I cut a stray vine with Thunderhilt. "Was there ever any doubt?" He grinned as he dodged a few vines. 'HOLY COW! Did he just do a double backflip?' My thoughts were interrupted by something slamming into me. To my horror, it was one of the big vines. And it had left a big slash on my body. My eyes widened. "Oh, crud. This is gonna hurt. Sadistic plant." I screamed as the pain set in. Adrenaline started pumping. Big time. At least my scream was cool. Not a girlish, high-pitched scream. A loud eagle screech. Loud enough to make the monster writhe in pain itself. Flare was also holding his ear flaps. After 7 minutes of intense pain, I finally recovered enough to stop screaming. "I WILL DESTROY YOU!" I flapped into the air, paying no heed to the remaining pain. Pink tinted the edges of my vision. I was mad. I reached a high altitude and zoomed towards the plant monster, cutting everything coming in my way. I screeched, and held out Thunderhilt in front of me. Time seemed to slow down for a bit as I came next to the monster's head. "Time for this weed to get whacked." I swung my sword down and touched down behind where the monster was. To the untrained eye, it seemed as though the monster was fine. Then, slowly but surely, as I maintained my pose on the ground, the beast's head fell... in different directions. Cut clean down the middle. I gave Thunderhilt a little twirl before putting him back on my back. Flare trotted up to me. "I got an idea." He waltzed up to one of the thick vines of the now-dead creature and started tugging on one of the large thorns, which were almost as big as he was. He finally succeeded in uprooting it and handed it to me. "What say we make a weapon out of this?" I looked at him and grinned. Carefully taking the thorn, I looked around for something for a hilt. I took some of the vines and began weaving them together. In time, a hilt began taking shape. Taking a bit of sap from the dead monster, I glued the thorn to the hilt. "Now there's just the issue of making it stay together." In response, the young dragon took the makeshift weapon and dipped it into a pile of sap. After that, he let loose a small belch of flame. The result was a sturdier-looking weapon. "If the sap of the venus grandvine is very sticky, but fireproof. It is only present inside the head, which is why it's vines burn. Anyways, if subjected to high temperatures, it hardens a lot. Something between the durability of diamonds and dragonscales. Now it just needs to be sharpened." "Well, can you channel magic?" "Uh, maybe, perhaps just a little bit." "Okay then, this is good. Channel magic through your weapon, and then say 'Lacero'. It will give the dagger a temporary sharp edge. It won't last very long, but you can cast it over and over again." "Why do I say 'Lacero'?" "It's from the same language as 'Ignis'. It triggers a magic release that differs depending on the word. The reason you have to cast it again after it wears out is that if the spell lasts longer, it has less effect. Same with area and distance. The farther away from your target you are, and the bigger your target is, the harder it is to cast, and the less effect it has. By the way, what happened to the uke?" I had just noticed that the instrument was missing again. He shrugged. "I put it away." "...Right. Well, that spell-casting sure took a lot out of me. I need a nap. Or something. And, you can keep the short sword. All I need is Thunderhilt." 'A wise decision. And here I was, planning on gutting you alive. Nah, just kiddin'. You die, I die. But I could've given you a little punishment, if ya know what I mean.' 'So, we basically share a soul bond?' 'Actually, it's more like I am you. Or part of you. I represent the inner you, the you that is your real personality.' I mentally groaned. 'Oh, joy. I have a doppleganger that I use as a weapon that is really annoying.' 'You know it, toots.' "So Flare, you can give that a name if you want." He put his finger to his chin. "Hmmmm... I name this blade... Viper!" About the late update: You know how it is, summer, vacation, mother using you as a slave, faulty internet, yadda yadda yadda. Oh, you don't accept those excuses? Fine, I'll say it. I'M SORRY! Okay, we good? We good. On an unrelated note, the bumblebees are starting to scare me. We've counted 814 dead, but they're not coming that fast anymore. I think that they've got some evil bumblebee scientist or toxic waste down there because although they're not coming as fast, they're HUGE! These things are almost as big as my thumb! And I got a pretty big thumb. And they're juicy too. Juicy enough to spray if you hit 'em good, midair. For their big size, one good hit with the squash racquet sends 'em flying like an eagle, and those that we've recuperated are frequently either decapitated, debuttitated or both. And we've got a corpse that's creeping me out. No head, no butt, almost no guts. Guess how long it's been twitching. MORE THAN A FREAKIN' DAY! AND IT'S STILL GOING! But seriously, these things are so big that they have trouble flying. No exaggeration. Anywho, I used some of the time that I had to draw some pictures. Cut me some slack on these, okay? They're made with colored pencils by a teenager, and the scanning didn't do too well with the result on paper, and I know about squat about Photoshop. But they turned out alright. Here we have the cute little dragon, Flare. Isn't he adorable? And awesome? One of my better works. Frankly, Truenis could've turned out better. I have a little trouble with beaks and wings. But Thunderhilt is perfect, so it's not too bad. Bear in mind I'm not a professional artist(though I wish I was, or at least had one drawing for me). Again, sorry for the delay. I'm not very good at churning out chapters, but I'll try my best. Thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.