//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: The Sigil // Story: Drake the Dragon // by Immortan Joe //------------------------------// The griffon stood above Drake, his eyes piercing through the holes in his helmet. “It is useless to flee, accept your fate and judgement shall be swift!” Drake shifted and snarled. “I shall never submit, for I have done nothing to deserve such treatment!” He bared his teeth. The griffon rolled its eyes as one of its companions approached, a massive double bladed axe held between its claws. “Tell that to the villagers below!” The griffon wound up the axe, before he could deliver the final blow, Drakes vision swayed as he clenched his eyes shut. “Now isn’t this little one adorable,” Drake heard the familiar, feminine voice which he had ever so slowly been coming accustomed with. He found himself staring down at a sapphire in the claws of the dragon’s body he had now had within his possession. Out of the corner of his eye Drake noticed something move, glancing over he saw a much larger and intimidating dragon crawl over to his side on all fours. “Looks rather tasty if you ask me,” the large, red beast chuckled. The dragoness that Drake was observing through its point of view clenched her claws around the sapphire. “Maybe not this one, it’s too cute to eat,” the beast giggled softly and he felt it smile at the much larger one Drake could only assume was her mate. The red hulk snorted, smoke shooting from its nostrils as it shook its head. “You’re an odd one, Cinder, I’ll tell you that.” The dragoness snickered once more and sat the sapphire aside. “What?” The dragon, Cinder, sat back on what seemed to be a pile of jewels and treasures. “A dragon such as myself can’t find things to be cute? What about you, Scar, don’t you hold onto of your special gems?” The red beast named Scar smiled at Cinder. “Nah, I mainly hold onto any weapons I find,” he crawled over and laid beside the dragoness, his large claws resting on her soft chest. “Y’know, the cool stuff.” He smiled and showed off his various rows of sharp teeth. Cinder snorts and rolls into Scar’s arms, her wing draping over him. “Oh? So just the ‘cool’ stuff?” she smiled slyly. “Yeah...for the most part––” ... Drake’s eyes snapped open and he jolted as a large crack of thunder tore him from his sleep. His eyes lifting off the ground along with his head, movement feeling much slower in what he had recalled to be his new body. Gritting his new and razor sharp tooth, the space marine glanced back at his new form, his brain, which really wasn’t his brain, finding it hard to comprehend this new shape of his before jolting when he felt something touch his side. “Whoa there, Nessie,” The small pony named Emerald said to the Marine as she shifted to look at something at the base of his long neck. Drake subconsciously lets off a small, irritated growl. “What is that you are doing down there, little creature?” he asks as the pony rolls her eyes. “I told you, Drake, my name is Emerald. Right now I’m just making a few checks here and there.” ” The pony pursed her lips softly and sat back, she had noticed a small symbol on the dragon’s neck, one she hadn’t noticed the other night. A black patch that resembled oozing paint that had dried. “And I believe I just saw something,” Emerald muttered softly as she reached out with a hoof and touched the dark marking. “Grragh!” Drake’s entire body shifted, teeth baring as he felt a sharp pain shoot up his neck and down into his body. The dark spot shifted on his neck, a black ooze seeping gently out of the marking as if it was hole, yet it wasn’t. “What in the Chancellor’s name was that?” He growled. The pony blinked as she gazed at the black marking, a dark feeling settling over her as she grimaced a bit as she watched the ooze go down the dragon’s scales. It was as if t was some kind of dark sigil, perhaps a branding of some sorts? It was clearly generated when she had performed the transporting spell, she would need to look more into this. This was something she had not expected, then again the warnings in the ancient scriptures hinted at some sort of possible symptoms and or side effects. Perhaps she should of heeded those warnings? Emerald shook her head, nothing bad has come of this marking so far, perhaps it may just be something similar to a birth defect? “Well?” Drake snarled as he lowered his head to gaze down at the small pony who seemed to be thinking deeply. Emerald looked up at him and shook her head once more before smiling widely. “Oh it's nothing, just a wound the dragon had suffered before I had transported you over to its body,” Emerald briefly explained. Drake’s expression flattened and he took a breath before raising his head once more. “Tell me, Emerald, where haps have you stumbled upon this ‘dragon’s’ body?” Drake asked as he watched the pony stop above her saddlebag, Drake couldn’t see it but the pony’s face was a little surprised by the question. A moment of silence past. “It was here before you––” “Do not play me for a fool, Equine,” Drake said softly, yet his voice cut through Emerald like a razor blade. The pony gulped and turned to face Drake. Hoping she was playing her cards correctly she stated softly. “I hired a mercenary warband to slay the beast due to it terrorizing my hometown,” she half lied, just then Drake tilted his head slightly in thought just as a brief image from his dream flashed before his eyes, the griffon with the axe. “Tell that to the villagers below!” “Oh?” Drake smiled softly. “Is that so? Well then, that was pretty bold of you to hire such men, it must’ve been a pretty hefty bargain.” Emerald hummed softly as a large weight lifted off of her back and she relaxed and nodded her head. “Why yes it was, twenty five hundred bits really.” Emerald smiled. “Luckily I had been saving up while working as a nurse down at the general hospital.” Drake titled his head once more as he slowly shifted to face the pony, the wounds on his body having not fully healed, yet surprisingly, compared to just earlier...had it been a day already? He couldn’t recall how long he slept, perhaps he should ask. “Say...how long was I out for?” He asked Emerald who had turned her back on Drake and was riffling through her saddlebag. “Oh jeez,” Emerald muttered as she lifted her head out of the bag and thought for a moment. “Like three days at most, you dragons––I mean dragons in general can sleep for days on end, especially when injured. Their bodies are able to heal much faster when resting compared to most species. It's like an instinctual thing,” She explains before turning back to going through her bag, trying to find some medicine she had gotten from her day job. Smiling as she finally remembers which pocket she had stored the vial in she steps back and holds a small vial out in front of her with her magic. The liquid inside a purplish color, and rather fizzy looking. Drake blinked, he had slept for three moons? Thinking on this for a moment, he took a breath, that would explain the rate of his wounds no longer hurting as much. A few moments of silence would pass as Drake gazed upwards at the clouds. “So you’re a nurse you say?” Drake asked looking back down at Emerald, the silence making him a little shifty. “Yes I am, here drink this, it's a pain reliever for you dragons.” Emerald floats the vial of medicine up to Drake’s face, causing the dragoness to go cross eyed. Drake made an unpleasant expression and glanced down at the unicorn. “Could you please not refer to me as a dragon? I do not feel right when referred to something I am not.” Emerald scoffed. “What do you mean you are not a dragon? Look at yourself, you’re a big lizard with wings and teeth, heck, you have the reproductive organs of one too!” Drake curled his brow upwards at the mention of reproductive organs, reminding him that he wasn’t inside the body of a male beast either. “Yes, yes, I understand that...” he muttered softly, now taking notice of the femininity of his own voice as well again. “But I do not feel as if I am a dragon...if you get what I mean.” Emerald rolled her eyes. “Yes. Just drink the medicine,” She ordered and wiggled the vial. “it's a pain reliever, you’ll feel much better!” Drake nodded his head and opened his mouth, his arms too weak to move. Emerald would tilt the vial after popping the cork and drizzle the medicine onto Drake’s tongue, who would barely taste it, he could hardly feel the medicine even making its way down his rather large throat. Gulping Drake sighed softly and sunk back down, his neck and head resting on the stoney ground of the mountain. “So where would this village you reside in be located?” He asked. “Base of the mountain,” Emerald said softly as he stuck the vial away in her bag. “You can actually see it from here.” He hummed as she closed up her bag and flung everything onto her back with her magic. Drake looked over and indeed took notice of the rather small and colorful town down in the valley with a rather vast woods by its side and a river that cut through. There were even large farms along its edges as well, it looked rather quaint and peaceful. In the distance he could even see a rather odd looking train approaching the town. “It looks nice,” Drake muttered as he began to feel drowsy. “It reminds me of my old home, strangely enough.” he let off a rather deep yawn and subconsciously stretched his massive wings out wards a bit, the right one that had been broken, yet now bizarrely healed, only stretched a little bit. Emerald nodded her head as she stamped out the embers of her small campfire she had set up. “It is a nice town,” she said softly, her mind still focused on the dark sigil on Drake’s neck. “So uh...you said you didn’t feel like a dragon?” She glanced at the very sleepy looking dragoness who nodded slightly. “What do you feel like?” Drake yawned once more and began to curl up on himself. “I am human...” he mumbled softly. The unicorn stood there silently and blinked, her head tilting, an interesting name for a species, she had thought. Wanting to pry further she sat back on her haunches, her thoughts setting the dark sigil aside for a few moments. “What was your home like?” she asked softly the sleepy dragoness stirring a little in thought. “A beautiful place...” Drake muttered softly. “A peaceful world where the fields of red daedras bloomed yearly, and the pink tommy trees blossomed every month. I can remember the purple mountains towering in the distance, encompassing my family’s colony...” he yawned and smiled in memory. “Did your home have a name?” Emerald asked softly, her eyes wide as she tried to picture what a daedra flower or a tommy tree looked like. Drake hummed peacefully, his eyes heavy to the point he couldn’t open them. “Elysium,” he muttered before finally drifting off the medicine having taken fool effect. Emerald blinked a bit and smiled. “Well then, that’s quite interesting.” The pony pushed herself back onto her hooves and glanced at the dark sigil that was also on the exact opposite end of Drake’s neck. “Time for studying.”