//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Legion // by DarthMalentai //------------------------------// +_ Legion _+ As I stepped around the corner, I saw something I wouldn’t think would be possible. Along each wall were piles of gold, gems, the occasional bone, and many other things. ‘Had my home become a dragon’s den?’ I thought to myself, eyeing everything in the general area. “Who dares enter my domicile?” a large voice spoke out. A large white orb appeared near the center of the room, and the sound of lots of bits cascading followed. Then a large near pitch black head loomed out of the darkness, and I could think of one thing to say. “Hey bitch, you’re on my house.” The head stopped moving in my direction, and turned sideways. I could feel the eye look towards me, checking me up and down. Silence reigned for what seemed like years. We looked at each other, wary of any sudden movements. I stood, hand on hilt, ready to fight to my death, and the dragon stared at me, waiting for something to happen. *Snicker* The dragon started to laugh, its head bobbing up and down. Eventually the sound laughter subsided, and the dragon reached towards one of its eyes, and flung a tear away. “It’s good to see you are yet still alive, my troublesome friend.” The dragon spoke. The dragon’s voice sounded somewhat cheerful, and I couldn’t exactly place it. I mean the voice sounded familiar but I just couldn’t place it with those I knew. “I’m sorry but who were you again?” I asked, somewhat confused. “You remember naught THAT dragon migration where you saved a runt from a few guards? The runt of darkened iron, with the white eyes?” The dragon asked, starting to sound vaguely worried. “I… sorry not to sound rude, but I do not remember that much from the dragon migrations,” I spoke, somewhat confused as to what this dragon was getting at. “James. Do you not remember me?” The dragon spoke once more. I sorted through memories of what he was talking about until... “Wait…Leoran… YOU GREW UP!” I stared at the large beast before me. The last memory I had was… the day I had found the little guy. +_ Legion, 1671 years and 3 months ago _+ I had wandered around near my cave-home. The sisters had no idea where I was, and that was a bonus. Like hell I want to be caught again. That white pony kept looking for me, but thanks to being out at the right time of day, my armor was concealed somewhat by the local vegetation. Occasionally she would look my direction on one of her outings but I rarely made a noise when I could hear wingbeats. Fortunately for today, she seemed to be occupied with something, as I heard nothing for a good few hours. “Creepy stalker lady,” I mumbled under my breath. “ I mean if she had any common sense, she’d leave me alone.” The lack of any familiar noise did partially worry me but I paid no mind to it. Looking around, I waited to see the tell-tale sign that, instead of her looking for me but an ambush, yet nothing appeared. Settling myself down, I proceeded to walk for who knows how long. “Wh..t I ..er do ……serve …is,” I heard faintly off to my left. Curious, I wandered in that direction. I started to hear a thumping sound. As I walked, I cut notches into all the trees so I had a path to follow, and a few trees actually fell. “STOP *uhg* Stop IT!”I heard a young voice call out, his voice still being blocked out by something. The sounds became clearer; the dull thumping now sounded more like something hitting a big bag of flour, the cries of pain becoming evident. A break in the trees was all I needed to know what the ruckus was. A small group of guards were wailing on a small lizard like creature, and said creature was feebly trying to hold them off. As I watched, one guard kicked the creature to the ground and held his hoof on its back. The little group were solely focused on making the little guys day bad, so I don’t think they took it too kindly when I stuck one of them through the back of the neck, nearly lopping off his head in the process. “What the…,” the guard to right of me blurted out before I jammed my sword into his gut. He reached out with his arm and grabbed me, and looked past me. The other guard had already drawn his sword and was swinging towards my head. ‘Well… this is bull.’ I thought, closing my eyes, and waiting for the sword to make contact. Then I heard a grunt. I opened my eyes to see a ghost-like forearm holding a sword similar to mine, and the blade was connected to the guards. Then in a flurry the guard was cut to pieces. I stared wide-eyed, looking towards the ghost like ligament, completely confused. Keep your eyes wide, Marius. Don’t want these barbarians taking you down too easily. I heard someone say. Then in front of the little creature started moving a little. It was bleeding from several wounds, one of its arms looked broken, and both legs looked busted. Then pain seared through my back. I looked behind me, and I saw yet another guard behind me. He hefted what looked like a short bow, and was about to notch another arrow. Wrenching the sword out of the, now obviously dead, guard and flung my sword at the archer. ‘WEEEEEEEeeeeeee!’ came the sword’s voice in my head. As the sword struck the guard in the chest, I wished the sword back to me, wondering if that was even possible. What took me by surprise next was that the sword did comeback….but also had the guards heart jammed onto the blade. ‘Eeewwww….’ I thought, flicking the heart off the sword in a random direction. I looked back down towards the lizard-like being, remembering the wounds, and started trying what I could do. I looked around me for spare fabric from anything, noticing that the guards had some, and ripped it off. I then proceeded to tie up some of the wounds on the little guy. The pain in my back started to grow worse, yet I ignored it like the rest of the pain I knew I would have to endure. After a small amount of time finding what I could, I noticed that this was simply too much for me to handle on my own. I had only basic first aid training, and I was definitely not capable at handling broken bones. The next thought that popped up into my mind was one I didn’t want to do but to save this one’s life, it was the only option. I had to go visit the ponies, and ask for help. I gingerly picked up the…lizard boy, and started jogging towards the castle. As I jogged, my mind started to blur, the throbbing pain in my back expanded more, and my sight started to fade. The trees, shrubs, and then road became a giant blur for me as I went. The castle started to come into view more clearly, and as I neared I heard faint calls, and a few shouts, then a white being appeared a little ways ahead of me. Once that being popped up I slowed down, came up somewhat close to her, mumbled something incoherent, motioning with the thing that lay in my arms, and proceeded to pass out. +_ The next day _+ As I started to awake, I had the strange feeling that I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. The light past my eyelids were too bright, I didn’t feel cold, the ground was too comfy, and there was no sense that something bad was going to spontaneously happen. When I opened my eyes, my fears became reality. I saw a very light grey room, a tapestry on a wall, red drapes over the windows, and the bed… was big enough for quite a few people. Then I heard the door open, and looked to my left. Like a deer in the headlights look. The being to enter was that tall white being again. The power that flowed from her made me start to get nervous once more, and when she raised her hand, I thought I was done for. “Calm… Don’t scare yourself,” I heard her say. I didn’t calm down in anyway. I looked around and saw that the window, even though probably the worst way, was the only way to get out. I started moving towards said window on wobbly legs, and was about to push it open when I couldn’t move anymore. “What part of ‘calm down’ down didn’t you get?” I heard her voice speak up again, and slowly the window inched away from me. “Come back here, your wound isn’t fully healed. Do you really want to bleed yourself dry that badly?” “I…I just want to live, Miss,” I responded. The bed was below me now, and I was slowly being lowered towards it. “W-why am I here?” I asked, and then she came closer and sat upon the bed. “Well, when you ran up to the castle, I heard guards shouting and went to look, and I saw you slowly making your way. I decided to finally try and meet you, but you looked ever so pale… well paler than when I first meet you. As I landed in front of and saw the dragon you held in your arms, you then mumbled about ‘cats and a tree, then fell face first into the ground, and then I saw an arrow in your back. Could you please explain to me how you have a standard arrow in your back? The same type of arrow used by my Sol guards?” She questioned me; I was slowly backing away from her while she talked, and the question filled me with fear. “I-I…. You might not exactly like my response…” I murmured. She looked at me, unease starting to show. “Pray tell, so I can rest these fears. I only care for your wellbeing at the moment,” She said back, and I looked to her ‘Huh..’ clear on my face. “I mean until you get better… Nothing else…” She turned her head away for some odd reason. “Oookay… Well to answer your question. I got shot in the back by one of your guards. I-” I started. “What? I only told the guards to contain you and notify me. Not KILL you. What had you done to cause that?” She asked, leaning in closer, which made me lean back. “I may or may not have killed three of your guards who-” “YOU WHAT!” she shouted. Her whole ‘kind’ façade fell off in a matter of moments. “WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO KILL OTHERS! I SH-” “They were beating upon that ‘dragon’ that I brought with me. I can’t stand the sight of those who can’t stand for themselves be beaten by those who can just do it for the sake of being able to show dominance over others, and if that is a crime here, then you and yours are begging for Fate to come and bring ruin,” I retorted, not angrily, not fearfully, but calmly. “If I didn’t stop, they would have killed the youngling. Were you in my shoes, you’d have done the same I bet.” “T-They were..” She took on a pensive composure, her left hand supporting her right, with one of the cuter faces that could… ‘Cuter… god being here is softening me up.’ I thought to myself. She then got up and went out of the room, silent all the while. When she was gone, I got up on my feet again, and noticed that none of my things were with me but the basic garments I had worn to the convention. I started towards the door, about to go through when she rushed back in. And we kissed. Oh god how fucking embarrassing that must have been. Well that and she had bowled me over making me land on my arrow wound again and cry out in pain. When my eyes reopened I saw that she laid on top of me. Her face completely blushed, and I felt a little bit of heat upon my face. “Umm… If you don’t mind,” I nodded in the ‘Could you please get off me before I toss ya’tense. She hastily got off and scampered off. I just laid there, wondering what the fuck just happened, when all of a sudden I felt a warmth right above my lips that went to the left side of my face. I raised my finger and swiped along the path and brought the finger in front, and noticed that I was bleeding. ‘Great…’ I thought. +_ Present day _+ I forgot that was the day that she started hunting for me in earnest. The endless sessions of me running the hell away from her as she would chase me. The memory wasn't all that bad but just more awkward. “You seem distracted, man. What’s wrong?” Leoran spoke up. “Nothing. I think I might have done something REALLY bad the day I saved you from that small group of guards,” I said. The dragon’s eyes lit up. “What kind of bad are we talking about?” Leoran said, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “Bad as in pissing off the guard?” I shook my head. “Pissing off one of the pony princesses?” Again I shook my head. “Both of them?” Shake. “The whole of pony kind?” I flipped him off, to which he did the same to me. “What did you realize you did so bad that you won’t say?” And as I was about to say something he interrupted. “You didn’t. Please tell me you didn’t do i-l” I look mortified at him. ”HOW THE HELL DO YOU GET FROM HAVING PISSED OFF PRINCESSES TO DOING IT WITH THEM?!” I shouted. “Well if it wasn’t that then what?” he questioned me, completely lost at what I was trying to say. “I may have accidentally, incidentally…. kissed Celestia,” I admitted. “You what… with who?” Leoran asked. “You heard me,” I said defensively. “I truly didn’t-” “You want me to say it again but I know you heard me,” I stated. I felt off, like I was acting different, it was cold and I felt uneasy. “I heard something about you and Celestia… I just didn’t hear what it was,” Leoran said, genuine irritation starting to ebb into his voice. “Fine… I. Kissed. Celestia. COMPLETELYbyaccident,” I hurriedly spoke. What I didn’t admit. I kinda liked it… well not the face getting smashed into another or the falling on the wound. But I liked the accident. Accidents are funny.