Dragon Bound

Chapter 31

“We have been waiting for more than twelve hours straight, where have you been?!” Ryoka demanded fro Damien as he cane into the house, their latest safe house, he looked around, probably looking for Adrian since Ryoka had said we in her statement.

“You guys didn’t see it fit to inform me of your movements anymore, so why should I do the same?” Damien asked indifferently, Ryoka on the other hand was unbothered because she had expected such a response.

“We tell you everything about our movements Damien, well we tell you most of it, the only reason why we don’t tell you all is because you have chosen not to join in our fight against the WIC!” Ryoka said standing her ground.

At that point Damien saw his opportunity to kick start his convincing act, one other good thing was that Adrian was nowhere to be found for the time being, meaning he had a free slot free of external influence, now all that remained was convincing Ryoka; first to drop the fight against the WIC and second was to convince her to join the WIC.

“Ryoka” Damien started with her name which got her attention as she looked at him, a bit surprised with the way he had called her, “Why do you fight so hard? You say the WIC is evil, you say they are the cause of so many suffering, but let me tell you, there has been evil and suffering in the world long before even the WIC came along, so why not just let up, leave them be and live your life?” he said with a calm demeanor, trying to appeal to her better nature.

“What are you saying, Damien, actually I know what you’re saying, so I guess my question is why are you saying it?” Ryoka asked, the back of her mind was filled with dread at the possibility that she might come to be right about not giving Damien her full trust, there was something that always felt off about him but she had managed to suppress feeling like that about him to some extent, but now hearing this from his mouth brought forth all those feelings again and they kept creeping into her throat.

“Think about it Ry, you are only about twenty years of age, you look way younger, heck you could pass for fifteen if you can really sell it, yet you haven’t lived, I mean really lived, before now you were always on the move and didn’t have the time and luxury of experiencing the teen life, you are growing into an adult now and still you’re picking up a fight that is way above your head, I mean there are elders that have tried fighting this out and after a pretty long while they failed and still succumbed to the pressure and power that is the WIC, you still have the chance to live first before engaging in such a struggle” Damien said pleadingly still hoping he can appeal to her and get her to listen, not just listen but agree with him as well.

“So what you are telling me now is to stop fighting? To give up the cause for the search of justice and vindication, you’re telling me to forsake my father at the hands of his oppressors, to leave the likes of Adrian that was being held against his will and experimented upon? Do you even know how many could be in that position? Are you seriously telling me to let the WIC continue to oppress my race, wait our race and use them, use us as they see fit just because they have the knowledge of our existence and also how to bring us to our knees?” Ryoka argued panting hard, she was getting angry.

Damien winced at the last words of Ryoka about being brought to the knees, he himself hates having to kneel and bow to the lesser race who only became superior through utilizing his own race, but then, they had the upper hand now and there was nothing to be done about that, not even the futile effort of Ryoka and Adrian could stop that, although after he saw what they did to the warehouse they had hit, he really had a slight wavering thought on whether they could actually pull it off after all, but that was just one warehouse.

“So what would you do uhn? Would you continue to hit warehouses, blow and burn them up and try not to kill the people when you hit everywhere you plan to hit and do you actually know how many more places like that place you hit that the WIC control throughout the world, what I’m telling you is that it is FUTILE! So just Stop!” Damien said now he was angry at that point and only after yelling did he realize it and started to calm down.

“How did you know exactly what we did to that warehouse Damien?” Ruoka asked in a very low voice, her suspicions suddenly seemed to have filled over to the brim, “I never told you the details, we haven’t even seen since then, so how did you get the details Damien?” Ryoka asked again when Damien did not immediately answer.

“I followed you ok? What does it even matter? you are going off point here Ry” Damien countered trying to wave off the digression, he noticed he had messed up by giving up himself as to knowing their actions at the warehouse, that was something she shouldn’t know yet.

“Till what point did you follow us? How long were you on out tail?” Ryoka asked again she was still on high alert, her senses were blaring red light towards Damien at the moment and he can’t easily wash himself clean of it this time.

“Just till the destruction of the warehouse and I saw you guys fly away, after this I came back straight here, before venturing out again and coming back to find you here” Damien said but he himself could feel the noose tightening around his neck.

“So you followed us, by car right? Or did you run after us? Or how exactly did you do it, I really wanna know Damien” Ryoka said, she was calm now as she slowly backed Damien to a corner.

“Listen Ry, this really doesn’t matter yet, my initial topic is what we should really talk about, c’mon Ry” he said as a means to get her off the trail she was on lest she really uncovers him, he wouldn’t want the uncovering to go this way though, not by her discovering him, he wanted to be the one to tell her by himself.

“Don’t call me that” Ryoka said, still calm but dangerously teetering, “I am Ryoka, not Ry, and I still demand an answer to my question, how exactly did you follow us?” Ryoka asked still adamant.

Damien stuttered a bit before falling silent again, he really didn’t know how to turn the whole situation around anymore, he started thinking hard of a way out, but just then Adrian walked in, he looked askance as he noted the situation and tension in the room.

“What’s going on here?” he asked Ryoka pointedly, he acknowledged Damien’s uneasiness and lack of confidence and he noted the defiance of Ryoka as well.

“Well Damien here just gave me a solid picture and description of the havoc we wreaked at the warehouse, I asked how he could have possibly known and he actually confessed that he followed us, now my question to him was; how did he follow us to a location that was near impossible to reach by land without knowing some passages created by the WIC and is backed up into the sea?” Ryoka explained in a nutshell.

“Well it’s obvious” Adrian said “He must have flown as well, I guess Damien here is a full blown dragon as well unlike what he has led us to believe” Adrian surmised.

*

“Hello father, I’m here with the recent update on Damien and his charge” a burly looking man in a white trench coat said to another older man in an all white three piece suit and walking stick, there wasn’t any resemblance between the two, especially seeing the scarred face of the older man and his slightly smaller frame compared to the bulkier build of his son.

“Apollo, dear son, what do you have for me that I do not already know?” the older man asked, “That Damien is currently failing in his assignment of getting his charge, the spark dragon to be a part of us? Or that the spark dragon herself is now leading a rebellion against us, destroying a warehouse in its totality, as if that could change anything” the man said and at that point he removed his white framed glasses with a gloved hand and brought out a small white piece of cloth to clean its lens before returning the glasses back on his face.

“Well it’s no wonder you’re being nicknamed Odin the all seeing father, but I do have something you might not know yet” Apollo said to his father who pressed down his head from where he was sitting so he could look above his glasses at his son and then made a hand gesture for him to continue.

“I found out that the other person released by the spark dragon is no other person than the son of commander Dai, they are now cohorts and they handled the warehouse situation together, you know what this means don’t you?” Apollo said to his father.

The old man started to chuckle and then it turned into a hearty laughter, he brought up the same white piece of clothing to his one good eye to wipe the tear that came out from laughing so hard.

“So you mean to tell me that the son and daughter of the notorious double danger siblings, the most feared commanders till date, are together now and leading this rebellion? Do they even know that they are related? Cousins? Was it planned? I mean this is all so comical and way too coincidental, we are in trouble aren’t we?” the man asked his son while smirking in a way to show that he only found the whole thing amusing rather than threatening.

“Not to worry father, a team is already on the way for the extraction of them both, there is no way I was going to leave such assignment to Damien after failing twice” Apollo said, he seemed to be enjoying himself on the issue as much as his father is.

“Well Damien is a valuable asset too, it’ll be sad to lose him just yet, I would like to see the end of the catastrophe he has built for himself, falling in love with his aunt who killed his mother and also falling in love with her daughter whose father he got captured, it is really comical, this family and their blood ties” the man said.

“Indeed father, Eldrians are messed up, well, that’s thanks to you I guess” Apollo said with a nervous laugh, while he has mostly received the gentle and loving side of his father (if it could be said that he had such sides) he knows how the man’s bad side can be, more of a evil side even, he knows how much fear and dread follows the name Allister Blanco, the man in white with a blackened heart.