The first order.
One week later.
Its been one week since my return as mini me, and I got some shit done. I cleaned and repaired my ship from any damage caused by the former residents,'which was little.' I collected my two million bits spending half of it on a private island on the eastern coast near the crystal empire, I set up the positions for my ship, I spent a day collecting information on everything; from grade one history to theoretical physics, schematics of my ship to smithing via my emerald eye. Now all I need is some more ships, upgrade them, get more loot, and start building my secret project and really begin my search for Aqua marine. I can get more ships by building them from the ground up, I just need the materials. The materials I need requires some dragon hunting, which is where I could get some loot from their hoards. So my first stop is the volcano wastes.
Moonlight during the week was very affectionate. When ever I was done with the things I had to do, she would always be at my side making sure I was alright. It was a bit annoying--And Azura didn't know what to make of it, nor did I. 'At least she still cares.' Heather was a bit distant, Brownie stayed far away from me, Rose was at a constant livid level, and the rest of the crew was terrified of me. I understand how they were feeling towards me. Rose mostly. Heather took the fact that I couldn't save them from their paths with my magic. I tried. But they are just some things you cannot change, and the way they turned out would just happen again. Brownie was trying his best to find a way to take me down with sabotage, while Rose glared at me non-stop, or yelling at me.
I might as well give them some breathing room, so I will start my dragon hunting. I left Azura in Moonlights care. She hated the idea, but she understands. I gave heather the order to keep a course for my island, but before I left. I had to have a chat with Rose. Walking through the ship as my dragon half, which I showed everybody yesterday. In a full suit of armor just like my favorite dragon slayer Ornstein wore, but I had Nix and not his spear. I had the helmet tied to my side like my sword, feeling like a badass.
Rose was in the area style sparring deck, training one of her bunching bags how to fight. I sat on the bleachers having a birds eye view of the fight. Rose was sparring with one of the survivors. I believe his name was, Micky. He was a full grey griffin, fairly built, and fast! He and Rose were at equal terms. Each landed a hit at lightning speed. I am surprised at how well they could handle themselves. Even I would have trouble fighting them. If I didn't have several different martial arts; Fencing, Hemac, Iaido, Kendo, kenjutsu, Judo, and kung-fu up my sleeve. 'Best six years of my life. Even though I had to steal to pay for it all.' Their match ended when they saw me watching. Rose gave her opponent a cheep shot in the face knocking him out cold for losing concentration. I jumped down and walked up to her. I am surprised she wasn't intimated at my dragon self in full armor. I smiled away while she tried to glare me to death.
"Hey Rose, up for a round?"
"With you? FUCK NO!" she spat.
"Scared?" I teased.
"Scared? Really? I could kick you ass two ways from sunday!"
"Ok, but lets make it more interesting."
"Who says I would go a round right now?" Not listening, I kept talking.
"If I win, I want to know why you hate me so much."
"I said, not now." she ordered.
"If you win, ill do anything you want me too." I said not listening to her. She stopped to think about it for a moment and cracked a dark smile.
"Fine."
"Good. Ill just take this off."
I snapped my fingers casting a spell to take off all my armor, placing it in my room. I moved a few feet away from her levitating sleeping beauty out of the way. Rose stretched all her fighting muscles, while I flex my neck back and forth. Rose glared happily at me, while I just smiled away. I counted down with my fingers from five. When I hit zero, she charged at me at full force. Using her wings to speed her up, she broke the distance between us ready to land a hit for my face. I side stepped bringing my right leg in a hard sweep colliding with her gut sending her back to her original position coughing for air. I lunged at the recovering Rose grabbing with one hand on her tail. I yanked her back and spun her around till I hit a good speed, and let go. Rose hit the wall hard, falling limp, struggling to get back up. I had won at that moment, but then I saw something. While she tried to get back up arms shaking, coughing for breath. I walked over to her crouching down in front of her.
"You alright?" I asked. She looked up at me and glared.
"I'm fine! I can still fight! When I get back up, you are in a world of hurt!" I reached out with a hand to help her up, but she didn't want it. Rose smacked it away staggering back to all fours. 'Interesting.' I thought.
She charged again while I got back up, tackling me to the ground. She lifted a fist holding me down by the throat, Then dropped the hammer, only to be stopped by my free hand catching the swing mid flight. She let go of my throat and did the same with her left. I caught that one two. She struggled to break free, that's when I saw it again. The fear of losing. But it was not like a typical type of losing when you lose a game like a sore loser. This was different.
"Let go so I can punch you!"
"No." I replied.
"If you don't I swear ill..."
"Beat me good?" I cut her off.
"Yes!"
"How? You can't win in the state you're in." I questioned.
"Because!" 'Time to see what I saw.'
"Because if you lose, someone close will hurt you?" She broke from my grip and slammed down at my face. I moved my head just enough for her fist to hit the ground, causing her knuckles to bleed from the hit.
"Because if you can't be the strongest, you are stripped of all dignity?" Tears welled withing her livid eyes as she missed again.
"SHUT UP!"
"Because if you can't win in a fight, you are not worthy of being a protector?"
"I SAID SHUT THE FUCK UP!" She yelled landing a hit against my muzzle making my nose bleed. I brought my face to continue looking into her eyes.
"Because, you are afraid of being left behind with no one to hold you close when you need it most!?"
"YOU DON'T KNOW ME!" she cried punching the floor again with her left.
"Because you think your life was hell, and no one came to save you! And when you see me! You are jealous of my strength to make hardest decisions! To have a chance to even survive in a world like this!" I challenged. She missed another punch keeping it where it landed, and started to bawl.
"Yes." she whimpered.
"What?"
"I SAID YES!" she yelled. "All of it..."
"Then why do you fight me all the time?" I asked.
"Because...I look up to you... Even though what you do is a bit morbid at times. You at least go out of your way to help, even though people don't see it or deserve it. Watching you laugh at being a kid again, when you do all the heavy lifting, watching you keep calm in the face of death. I give you a hard time because you HATE me!"
I knew I saw something. Now I know. Rose gave me such a hard time, threatening to kill me and out right try to beat me into submission, just because she sees me as something to admire, to look up to. I thought she gave me a hard time with how I handled the crew, but it's not that. It was the fact that, I was able to go through it without breaking. Sure it sucked, killing was my least favorite last resort for those types of people. I don't hate her, I wonder why she thinks that?
"Why do you think I hate you?" I asked softly.
"Because I tried to kill you..." she sniffled. "... both before with silver, and now."
"Can I say something?" She nodded.
"I don't hate you Rose. It take's a lot for me to hate someone." Rose gave me a look of utter confusion.
"You don't?"
"No." I say. "By the way; as much as I like a girl on top, my wings are starting to hurt." Rose blushed getting off, but her head hanged and she was still relatively crying.
"Rose?" I ask getting back up to my feet.
"Yeah?"
"I won't tell anyone about, you know what, but if you need someone to talk to about the other things--Please come to me for support. And sorry for pushing you, it wasn't right of me. I know you must have been having a hard time since you got here. Friends?" I smiled. She smiled weakly.
"Yeah, sure." she said wiping away her tears with her arm. I wrapped my arms around her in a hug, making her squeak.
I let go after a minute had past giving her soft smile. "Better?" I asked. "DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!" was her reply.
I put my armor back on and fled to the volcano waste for some dragon hunting. Rose went back to her daily duties happier then she was before. I was glad I could help her out, though she wasn't happy that I figured out a bit of her personal life. How she was beaten for losing anything by someone close in her family. It made sense for her anger issues to have a past like that, but what really set me off guard was the fact she looked up to me. I never had someone like me that way before.
When I arrived at the volcano wastes, I was greeted by molten lava, hot air thousands of mountains, and dragons. Lots and lots of dragons. Just by looking over the rim of this inactive volcano I jump to, a bunch of kids were in the crater, protected by a bunch of full grown dragons of various sizes and types. From my understanding, they're two types of dragons with their own subclasses; Fighter and breeder. The fighter class has six types of subclass, Basic, Brute, Ranger, Sentinel, Noble, and Guardian. Basic the weakest and guardian the strongest. The breeder class has four subclasses; Basic, Lust, Reaper, and Valkyrie. Each subclass gives the dragon their own special tool to use. Color also gives a dragon strength other than its class. Just like the order of the color spectrum; Red is the weakest and purple is the strongest, with the exception of white and black. White is stronger than purple and black is stronger than white. I am learning this with my green eye from the oldest of the bunch, who saw me and is assessing me. From the conclusion this dragon has made; I am a black guardian class dragon. The strongest of the strong. This made me really happy. I thought I was the weakest. With helmet at side and sword holstered to my waist I walked down to meet my kin.
I walked into the group of teenagers. Most of them were either as tall as me or shorter not many taller though. Many of various sizes colors and classes. They all stared at my armor, the females more than males. The guys of the group were more into fighting each other. A trio of dragons walked up to me with a whitey leading a brown and gold. He walked straight up to my face laughing.
"CHECK OUT THIS GUY! Where are you from? The ZOO!" He laughed, and the other dragons joined in. Not wanting to waste time, I charge my fist with a simple spell. 'Falcon punch 2.0 mother fucker! You don't dis this dragon slayer!' With lightning speed, I connected my fist to the center of his chest and released the spell. The white dragon was sent flying out of the volcano leaving behind a trail of shit, and puke from the impact of my punch. The other dragons stopped laughing and stared in horror. I smiled at his friends and walked on past. 'Now where is the biggest baddest dragon here?'
I walked around receiving curios looks from the full grown dragons, but they took no heed. It was the dragons my age or younger that gave me a hard time. 'At least the girls aren't so bad.' I sighed. After walking around, I found what I was looking for. A full grown guardian class white dragon. I walked up to him about to chop of his head, but the asshole I punched came back and he was pissed. He stood beside my kill on top of the little mound the dragon was laying on. He gave me a look that told me,'You dead now boy!' Rolling my eyes, I continued my path.
The big white dragon didn't like it though, thus he shot a torrent of fire out his mouth. I jumped into the air putting on my Ornstein helmet and unsheathing Nix. Hovering over the pissed off daddy dragon, I aimed for his neck. The other dragons saw that I was going to kill him and was fine with it. Even the other kids. 'Maybe big one here has a lot of enemy's?' Not wanting to give this one a chance. I bolted down to him. The white dragon realized that I wasn't there and looked up. When he saw me, he opened his wings and flew up to me, maw opened. I flew down into his throat. Half way down his throat hole I decided I was going to cut my way out.
His head fell of from the clean sweep of my blade. I stood on top of his corpse covered in his blood. I took of my helm and tied it back to my side and sheathed Nix. I walked up to where his head rolled to, checking to see if I could use it as a trophy. The other, older dragons looked at me impressed, as did the younger dragonessess. Sadly his head was too big for a trophy, so Ill just make due by collecting his scales and bones for ship building. I trotted over to his body carrying his head over my shoulder, further impressing the girls, where his son,' I guess' was waiting. He wasn't so happy that I killed his big man. I touched the dead dragon and teleported both the body and head to my ship. The whitey glared at me. I turned on silver eye and searched where the hoard is located. Once found, I teleported the ten's of thousands metric tons of gold, jewels and silver to my ship in a safe location. I turned on golden eye and turned around giving him the finger.
"Wait!" asked the whitey. I turned around from my search for another white guardian.
"Why?" I asked.
"Why did you have to kill him?"
"Because he ate me." I deadpanned. He didn't have anything to say after that.
"Anything else? I have more dragons to kill."
"No... get lost."
"Can do." I saluted.
I took out ten more white dragons, five purple, and three gold, placing their body's in my ship for extraction, and looting their hoards. Happy with the one mile long and two mile high loot pile filling up the hidden launch deck on my ship, I went for a bit of exploration. From the last cave I looted within the volcano wastes, I saw a unique structure coming from an inactive volcano just a mile away. Stretching my tired wings, I pushed myself to check it out.
I flew to the base of the mountain where a bunch of dragons of my size were standing. From my height, it looked like an opening into the mountain. I landed behind them and check what they were daring each other to go into. The opening was carved to resemble a gate way of some kind. They're was many tribal curves and curls making an image of wolves howling at a moon hovering over top, protecting the entry way into the mountain. The architecture looked very familiar, like I saw it before. The other dragons noticed me, I gave them a cheeky wave.
"Hey look! Its another chicken!" spoke the male blue dragon.
"Hey, this place is for real dragons blacky!" spoke the other blue male dragon.
"I bet you aren't brave enough to walk five feet into the forbidden mountain." challenged a white female dragon. The pink dragon of the four just smirked away. 'Forbidden mountain? Sounds like my kind of place.' I started to walk into the cave waving a good bye to my mockers.
"See'ya losers!" I called back.
"Hey don't let him beat you Rex!" ordered the white.
"I'm not going in there!" was his reply.
"Well I am! Come on Ruby." order the white.
"Hey wait up Saphira!" begged Rex.
"Me too!" said the other blue dragon.
All four of them caught up too me, all nervous. The girls did a good job in hiding it, especially Saphira. While the boys...I could hear their teeth clattering. The cave was fairly dark once all five of us got a good distance in. If it weren't for my enhanced night vision, I would have tripped on every crack in this cave. Thankfully I didn't. The others were doing their best to stay close, but once we entered a chamber with more wolves carved into the walls, the boys ran for their lives out of the cave. I saw were a stream of black ooze was lined against the wall. Using my brain I sent a little spark of fire to it. The room lit up from the oil stream, lighting the way. I looked around the newly lit room the size of a standard gym, except their was a statue at the far end of the room. Saphira and Ruby searched frantically for anything that might hurt them. I took one step further, only to stop in realization that we were trapped within a booby trap, that we just walked into.
"Don't move." I ordered the girls.
"Why?" asked Ruby.
"Because if you want to live, don't move."
"I ain't listening to you!" said Saphira. She got about five feet ahead till the trap came to life. The statue at the far end of the room burst in fire, then erupted into a ten foot tall mechanical wolf that breathed fire. I t howled and rushed Saphira on all fours. 'Just a normal day in the life of; Winter the danger prone!'