Ancient Wings, New Soul

by Kowlickkid

Chapter 15: Pasts

Pasts

Suddenly, I heard a large amount of sizzling.

"Flare, please don't tell me that more sticks are burning."

"Uh... okay."

"...You're just telling me what I want to hear, aren't you?"

"Yup."

"Curses."

Rapidly, I blanketed Flare in my front right wing and pulled him in close. I briefly doubted doing the same to Soria, but did so all the same.

"Oi! At least give me a warning!"

I bunched myself up as best as I could and began muttering 'Protego'. A shiny sphere appeared around us. I put my head down and waited for the inevitable boom. It didn't come. I dared to peek out from under my hands. Nothing. Still I held my two companions. The fizzling died out. To my chagrin, Flare poked his head out.

"What's the suspense for? Nothing's happening."

And there was the straw that broke the camel's back. The entire room blew up.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

The air erupted into orange flames, the heat devastating on the room. The few sticks of dynamite that had been ignited had caused a chain reaction, and, well, the whole room full of TNT exploded. Our little shield bubble was sent flying, and we burst out of the jail into the sky, all the way... yelling in a manly way. Yes, that's it, yelling in a manly way. Not screaming.

Anywho, there we were, flying through the air. The protect spell had managed to keep us alive, but we still had the odd burn in some places. We soared over the city at an uncontrollable speed, until we slowed down at a part of the city that was extremely far away from our starting point. Dimly, I noted that my wings were very burned. However, those were just the front ones. The back ones were completely fine. I opened them and allowed them to control our descent.

It was pure coincidence that we landed in a dumpster in an alleyway. Definitely not one of my best landings. Soria stood up and started brushing herself off.

"Smooth flying, birdbrain."

I slowly got up, exhausted.

"Yeah...*pant*... well...*pant*... you just try...*pant*... landing with a magic drought...*pant* and a cargo of two other people...*pant*"

With that snarky comeback, I collapsed into the dumpster.

"Oooooooh, my aching everything!", I complained.

Flare stood up and wobbled around.

"Why is the twinkie eating around?", he said, stumbling.

"...What?", I asked him.

"The gumball won't stay still!"

"Flare, I don't really think you're fit for duty right now..."

"Nonsense!", he replied. "I'm as juxtaposed as the next hamburger!"

In a miscalculation, he fell over the side of the trash bin and ended up on the ground. With a shake of his head and the random sound of cowbells, he was back on his feet.

"Graceful...", I heard Soria mutter.

She herself hopped down with the ease of falling off a log(I never use 'Candy from a baby' because I once met this real tough toddler, and I think he was the child of Goliath and a female bear, because when some other dudes tried to take his lollipop away... I'm rambling, aren't I?).

"Right, then. If you two chimps can handle yourself, I'll be out of your hair."

"Hold up.", I said, appearing over the edge of the tub of trash. "Before you go, I want to hear how you got in jail, at least."

"Fine, I guess I owe you that much. I was careless. Happy? When I was getting lunch, I failed to notice the high-ranked guards around. They hauled me off."

I leaped out of the dumpster.

"So how did they get you? You don't play softball."

"Pfft, on a day when I'm watching, I can take 'em. Knock 'em out before they see me coming. But today, they saw me first. Like I said, I was careless, and I payed a small price for it."

"How did they defeat you? You can go into stealth mode in a fraction of a second!"

"They were unicorns!", she snapped suddenly. "I don't have magic! They just cast a spell and I'm revealed! Then they come out with their electrified chains and shock me beyond reason, and THEN they start giving me a beating! It's not easy to live like this, looking for someone who cares about someone else enough to actually DO something that you need, when nearly the whole population wants to see you behind bars!"

She stopped yelling and looked down at the ground.

"When your whole past is a nightmare, and there's no waking from it, why do people make it worse? Is it not enough for them to see me suffer, they also want to cause it? And on top of that, they have an unfair advantage. It's not as fair a world as it seems..."

I put a claw on her shoulder, and she looked up at me. I could see a great deal of pain behind those eyes, masked behind arrogance and pride. I could tell she had been through a lot in life.

"I didn't have the most stellar past either. It might not even come close to your's, but know that I feel for you. The few people that cared about me died not too long ago."

"You wouldn't know my pain... what I went through the first nine years of my life... the pain, the fatigue, the torture... just horrible."

"Try me.", I said, and we walked over and sat down with Flare.

****************************

Soria's POV

'Should I tell him? Telling others what I am has only ended badly before. I shouldn't. But he seems different. Like... he actually cares. The look in his eyes... He should know. I'm gonna tell him.'

I was almost shocked at myself. To trust... something I hadn't done for a long time. Would it be worth it? Worth the risk?

"Alright," I began. "The first thing you should know is what I actually am."

"I was beginning to wonder that myse-Oof!"

The red dragon was cut off by the bird giving him a light slap.

"Don't interrupt."

The hatchling rubbed his head and began listening again. I decided to start by stretching my wings out of the holes cut in my cloak for that purpose. My wings... black as coal, almost as big as me height-wise. Lengthwise, they spanned bigger than my height. The looks of wonder I was expecting weren't as impressive as I had expected. But that was to be expected, seeing as how the expectations of the bird I had expected to be impassive. He merely raised an eyebrow, while the dragon blinked to make sure he was seeing right.

"Yes, I have wings. Figured out what I am yet?"

Shakes of the head were their answers.

"Of course not."

I took the next step and took off my cloak, my gloves and the mask I wore over my beak. This time there were more evidences of surprise. And who wouldn't be startled at me? Pitiful me. Doomed to walk as a low-class freak till my death. Sometimes I wish I was never born. But if that was true, there would be next to no hope for mother. Sweet, kind, caring mother.

The faces of my companions were now curious. Like I said, I wasn't very likely to win a beauty contest. Black fur all over my body. Of course, they didn't know that, because of my suit. I'll have to get in touch with Geirmund sometime to tell him how it all works out. I also had the reddish-orange left leg, courtesy of my mom's species. My lion's tail made itself known by laying itself out. I sighed at them. The sight must have looked abnormal, with my dog ears on the top of my head and my yellow beak stuck right in the middle, black fur surrounding everything, but letting my chestnut-colored eagle eyes show through. My oversized left d-dog paw hung from my left arm while my quick eagle claw arm stood at the opposite side.

"So now you know." I told them. "I'm a hybrid. An ugly, useless hybrid. My mom was a griffin, and she was the best mom in the world. Father's on my naughty list. Alpha of a diamond dog clan and an all-around bad guy."

Truenis spoke. And it wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting something along the lines of 'Weirdo', 'Loser' or something less malicious, like 'Aren't d-dogs and griffins incompatible?'. But he had to do the unexpected. As was expected of him.

"Why do you consider yourself ugly?"

The question made me pause.

"Everyone considers me ugly. Who could think of a hybrid as anything but ugly? I've got a face only a mother could think of as nice. Father used to tell me I had a face like five miles of bad road."

I heard a loud snorting sound, like an attempt to supress laughter, coming from the drake. I glared at him. He didn't alter his facial muscles. Then, Truenis spoke again with another unexpected statement(guy's just full of surprises, ain't he?).

"I don't think you're ugly. In fact, you look pretty cute."

I gave him a blank look.

"Are you hitting on me?", I asked with a mixture of disgust, rage, and, though I hate to admit it, a little happiness.

"No, merely stating a fact. But why do you care so much about what other people say about you? Why do you care if someone you don't know or don't like insults you? You should only care about what those who truly like you say. I was insulted daily. Over time, I learned that just ignoring the insults that other people threw at you was the best way to go. You wouldn't get emotionally hurt by lies. I only cared about what my friends said about me."

Who was this guy? How could he speak so calmly about these things? Why did he think I was cute?

He detected that I was lost in thought and spoke again.

"Why don't you tell me your whole story. Tell me about your mother."

'Does this guy think he's a psychologist or something?'

"Alright, I'll tell you. But this isn't something I tell any random person. Despite my better knowledge, I'm trusting you."

*********Soria's Past**********

My mom is a griffin named Elyssa. Before I was born, she lived with her mate and her son in a cave up in the mountains. Did I mention her mate was a dragon? Yeah, I know how that sounds, but life was corny and the two of them fell in love and settled down together. After a while, they had their son, J'orin. Evidently, dragons are compatible with anything because of their high magic content.

Anyways, all was good and well in that household until the day when it happened. Mom was out gathering gems for the others, she told me, when out of nowhere came diamond-dogs. She fought back as best as she could, but she wasn't armed, and one griffin can't do much against a horde of dogs if it's not armed. Before they drug her under the earth, she said she saw her family coming. Evidently, they arrived too late.

When she woke up, she was in a slave room with people of practically every species there is. Ponies, zebras, d-dogs, griffins, all there. She was put to work, digging and hauling gems, with just enough nutrients to keep her alive.

Then came the issue with the alpha. He was a gem-loving dog, and cared nothing about slaves. He also loved power. So, when one day the workers broke through a wall that led to a magic pool, he jumped at the opportunity.

It's known to d-dogs that there are a few pools of magic water around the world. It's not known where they're from, if they're old extensions of the river Styx or just water that got infused with magic. Either way, putting it into your system will give you enhanced strength, speed and brutality, but it has side effects. Your sanity is drained, and if you get an overdose... it's not pretty. You mutate. That happened to the alpha. One minute, he was a buffed up hound. The next minute, he was a nine-armed freakish being with a deformed body. He still had enough sanity to run the operation, and run it he did. Anybody who didn't obey his orders... he ate 'em.

That's when his son came in. Before he came upon the magic pool, he had a few mates and a few offspring. The firstborn was the one that was most considered his son. He was ruthless, cruel and strong, as well as having a good set of brains. When the mutation happened to his dad, he didn't care about his dad. He just plotted on how to be alpha.

When he saw an opportunity, he went down to the magic pool. There, he slit his hands and forearms and held them inside the water. That caused his paws to grow beyond normality. His forearms became invincible shields, and the water had no side effect on his sanity.

Straight after that, he went to confront the alpha. They say that the battle collapsed a few tunnels. I'm not sure if that happened. But what did happen was that there was a cave-in leading to the magic pool. The path was blocked, and when they finally dug it out, the pool was gone. The end result of the battle was that the son won. Put his own father down like a wild beast.

From then on, the son told everyone to call him Alpha Dragonfist. He went on to take over, and he took over bad. He elected certain slaves to... entertain him and his friends. My mom was one of these. When ma started to have me, she was given respite. When I was born, it was a shocker to everybody. Evidently, dad thought one of the other griffins had done it. He never recognized me as his daughter. He knew it would degrade himself. Anyone who had such thoughts were beaten.

Mom raised me well. Taught me how to survive. She didn't care who my father was. All she cared about was that I was her daughter. I remember how she used to sing to me, and comfort me... And then they punted us both into the mines again. And that wasn't the worst part. When they considered me old enough... they used me. I still hate them for that. The Betas, and that moronic Alpha. Anything lower in rank I pardon. They didn't do anything of their own free will. It was all under the name of the two high ranks.

Nine years old was when I escaped. I was always one of the more rebellious slaves, always looking for a way out. For me and mom. After one of these escapades, the Alpha himself decided to punish me. He asked for a bow and arrows. I had to avoid getting shot by him. He showed all the slaves how good their aims were, and how they would get killed if they tried to escape. I got off lucky. Nothing touched me. That's when the Alpha made a mistake. He ordered me to pick up the arrows. Normally, I would refuse, but today I had an idea. I went around on my knees, picking up the arrows. When noone was looking, the Alpha lecturing, I hid an arrow in my beak. After picking up all the arrows, I returned them to the Alpha, but remained on my knees. When he turned round to say how good my behavior was, I spit the arrow into the back of his knee.

Then I ran. But I paused. Long enough to say to my mom: 'I'll come back for you'. Just that. Then I ran. I ran out the tunnel, I ran to the surface, I ran far from that den. I ran away. I've been out since. Training, equipping, but over all searching for someone to come with me to sack that den. I can't do it alone, no matter how hard I try. How I got my gear is another story. I might tell it to you sometime.

***********Truenis' POV***************

I looked at the girl in front of me. She was young. She couldn't have been much older than 15 or 16 years old. But she was still a child at heart. Despite all she had seen, all she had experienced, she never truly grew up. She was still young inside. I watched as a tear came out of her eye. She hastily wiped it away.

"I can't compare with the tragedy of your story. My past was that I was an absolute orphan. Didn't even catch a glimpse of my parents. My life mostly had people pushing me around. I grew a sort of a shell to people who weren't my friends. And then, we all died."

"What!?"

I gave a wry smile.

"Story for another time. What matters now is that I'm going to help you."

She suddenly became attentive and curious.

"What?"

"I'm going to help you save your mother. If she's still alive, she deserves freedom."

She smiled(How the heck do we do that with beaks?).

"Thanks."

She stood up.

"You know something about that Alpha?"

"What?"

"I think I can take him. After all, I beat him once, I can do it again. He used to be my boss... but then he took an arrow to the knee."

Dat last line. I had to use it. And I haven't even played Skyrim! Anywho, sorry about another late update(maybe I should stop apologizing for those...). So, who wants to see some pictures of Soria? Hey, you in the back there! I see that your hand isn't raised. Too bad, you get my images.

Here's Soria without gear on. Turned out very well, in my opinion.

And here is Soria with gear on. Didn't turn out too shabby either.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Comments

[RubberBrony]

dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Lyra_ooh.png *looks at pictures* MY EYES!!!
Anywho, nice story.

[SebasMarolo]

cool chapter, how do you make to write soo good??

[ArTic]

Stick to writing.

[6flyer]

BUCK YOU AND YOUR 'ARROW TO THE KNEE,' AND MAY YOU BURN IN TARTARU- *Ehem* I mean, uh, good chapter, but I did not really appreciate that last line.

[Kowlickkid]

1647410>>1649013

I had to do it. 'Sides, the Alpha's arms are impenetrable, and the knee is such an attractive entry point.

[6flyer]

1649095 I know, I know, but still, that joke got killed AGES ago.

[dawn_rising]

1649118 If used well, such as this, it is not as much as a pain...

[6flyer]

1651954 It's really more of a personal problem with me, actually, as I cringe every time I see that joke.//dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Luna_apple.png

[AppleTank]

I would redraw your pics (especially the top one)(in black+white) if I wasn't so lazy. Maybe later. I got afraid of coloring after butchering Glassed cover page. They say cameras add 15 pounds. I say scanners punish you for every missing detail.

Edit: Hmm. I actually started drawing this. Hey, are you still alive?

[Subatomic Seal]

I'm not exactly sure what to think of that d-dog alpha. Is he Lawful Evil? I think he is, because he rewards good behaviour, but heavily punishes bad behaviour, plus he's just a dick.