//------------------------------//
// Meet the Athenaeum bloodline part 1: Jackal. 
// Story: Dragon's Tale: The city of Darkrise 
// by IMN 
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	I think I may have signed my death sentence, of all the dragons that lived in that house, I may have pissed off the most dangerous one of them all. Ignore Wound and her sadistic ways, or Blade and his need to cut everything, those are just normal occurrences in comparison to some of the legends I heard about this guy.

He knocked again, I knew that if I slammed the door in his face a second time, he'll present me as a rug to my parents. So I opened the door very slowly, and flashed all my teeth hoping it would appear as a smile.

“Jackal, Night Blade, so good to see you both.” He's ignoring my previous insolence, that's a relief. Though, I'm not out of the woods yet. “How are you both?” he always talk in a cheerful upbeat manner, which makes every other creature cower in fear of what he might say or do next.

“Good afternoon, mister Bookwyrm.” We reply unanimously.

Meet Bookwyrm, head of the Athenaeum bloodline, and the second strongest dragon in Darkrise. He is a teal colored, glasses wearing dragon with onyx scale and usually carries a book between his claws. If you thought that a dragon with books for a hoard is weak, think again; strong doesn't begin to describe him. He became so because he inherited his grandfather’s entire hoard of books, then managed to triple it within a hundred years time.1 

In shorts, you don't mess with him.

“Jackal, sweetie, would you mind stepping aside so that I may enter my home? And don't worry, I will not hold what just happened against you.” He kept smiling at me, that smile, that dreaded, dreaded smile.

“Sorry.” I literally mewed that word as I stepped aside, my feet almost giving away as the adrenaline washed away from my body after knowing I will live to see another day. Which, now that I think about it, might have been embarrassing if it wasn’t for this whole situation.

Turning to his kids, who are suddenly sitting in a neat line like the very good kids they are supposed to be, he greeted them, "Children, how good to see you all."

“Good afternoon, father.” Since when did Wound sounded so innocent? “How was your trip to the capital?”

“Oh it was just divine.” He swayed the book he was carrying in front of everyone, “I found this lovely hard cover edition of a book2 I’ve been searching for, and look.” He knocked on the cover with a resonated metallic clang that made everyone jump, “It’s made of titanium.”

“Impressive, father.” Said Blade in a good boy tone.

“We knew you could do it.” Replied Frost, cheering? That can't be right.

This turned exciting rather quickly, this is the first time I have seen the Athenaeum kids acting so docile, and well behaved, and so out of character. If I knew they could pull the good kids act maybe I should come here only while he's around.

“Anyway, enough about me,” let the games begin, “tell me, dear children, what have you been up to lately?”

There was a long moment of nerve wrecking silence before Sparks3 decided to voice his concern: “I think something is wrong with Frost.”

“Hey…” Frost was about to protest before Sparks gave her a glare.

“She’s been acting weird lately.” Sparks explained.

“Weird how?” his father questioned.

Sweat Silence could be heard as each and every one of the dragon kids bit their lips, hoping that their dad wouldn’t catch what they were doing, Sparks was about to say something but was cut short by the house’s fairy, Tinkerbell.

“Does this have to do with the baby dragon that jumped through the window a while back?” the shock was visible on all of them. This is getting too exciting I can feel myself tingling.

“Don’t smirk you two,” he said while glancing at us and I froze, he just flashed at us his creepy smile then looked straight at his kids. If that is his way of putting us in our place....who am I kidding, it worked perfectly.

“Or the fact that Blade pinned Frost right about here.” He pointed to the broken part of the floor, then tilted his head toward the scorch marks on the stairs before stopping abruptly, “Or how Sparks and Wound were fighting right about here.” pointing at where the scorch marks stopped.

“Sparks used lightning in the house.” Frost was the first to turn over.

Shocked by his sister’s betrayal, Sparks accused, “well I wouldn’t need to use lightning in a tree house if you weren’t acting so much out of character lately, you threatened to gut the guy for being in your sister’s room.”

“And whose fault is that?” Frost reacted defensively.

“Well to be honest,” Tinkerbell interfered, “Wound brought him to her room.”

“Shut up.” Wound blushed immensely as she felt the inquisitive look of her father, “I didn’t do anything with him, To him.” She corrected as her father leaned closer to her, "You know what I mean."

Wound looked to her left and right, trying frantically to find an escape, “Well the reason he jumped out of the window was because Blade nearly stabbed him with his new claymore.”

“Oh, very rich of you sis, blame the big brother for everything.” Blade reacted in annoyance.

“Well you do have a tendency to overreact sometimes.” Frost commented and everyone started to argue at the same.

Then suddenly, amidst the cacophony of arguments, Bookwyrm decided to intervene, “kids, Kids, KIDS.” He yelled and when his children fell silent he resumed, “It’s not like I am putting the blame on any of you.” Suddenly the book he was holding started to levitate in front of him, then it opened at an unknown page and a magical whirlwind started to pick up, “I blame all of you for the mess you guys made.”

Suddenly the four dragons plus fairy were sucked into the book, and without any further fuss, the book closed itself trapping everyone inside.

Damn.

I'm scared.

“Now stay there until further notice.”

I swear I can still hear the muffled sound of his kids coming from the book, I gulped as he suddenly turned toward us.

“Does any of you have a comment on this situation?”

I feel my heart pumping so hard I think it's about to burst open.

“NO SIR.” I yelled, wanting to be as far away from here as possible.

“Actually what about Spike?” Night Blade almost shrieked when he turned toward her with his eerie smile.

“And who is Spike?” Damn it stop being so happy all the time.

“The dragon that jumped out of the window, please don’t turn me into a book!” wait, did I just say that out loud?

“Oh, him.” Bookwyrm broke off his gaze and I exhaled, when did I held my breath? “Don’t worry, I left him for the professional.”





1. Big hoard = strong dragon magic, in other words that guy has the biggest hoard in Darkrise.

2. The book is titled "the complete list of mythical creatures of the Everfree."

3. The youngest brother.