Dragon Bound

Chapter 34

“My little burning flame” a sweet silky voice riddled in Ryoka’s dream, the dreams she was having were so intense it made her tousle and turn about on her bed, they were vague and without actual form or meaning, she was sweating just by trying to figure it all out.

“Listen dear daughter, I don’t have so much time” the voice resonated and suddenly everything else calmed, the other dreams gave way and the only dream left was that of greyness and nothingness all about and facing her was an obscured figure bound up from head to toe with shackles all about her and even an helmet on her head, the only thing visible on the figure was the strands of hair falling out from the helmet in front of the person's face, white hair.

Suddenly Ryoka recognized the voice, she had heard it in a dream as well, once or twice before, the dream of the sisters, on with white hair and the other with dark hair, and at that point Damien’s explanation and the dreams she had now made a whole lot more sense as they came together like puzzle pieces, forming a whole story, Ryoka’s origin story.

“Mother” Ryoka replied and this time she didn’t mean the other entity that once riddled her dreams as well and demanded she be called ‘mother', no this time, Ryoka was sure she was facing her mother in this dream that felt like a distant reality and memory.

“Oh my goodness” Ryoka’s mother said weepingly, “Last I saw you and held you, you were but a babe, now you are all grown, into your own woman, I’m sorry, I wish I could have been there for you my little burning flame” she said to her daughter still sobbing but the what was odd was the her figure did not move or shake or even waver as she spoke, Ryoka guessed she was communicating with her with mind speak as if in dragon form.

“Where are you mother? We can come get you and set you free, we are doing that now, fighting back, freeing their captives, we’ve tried to deduce where they might be keeping you and Dad but we are only coming up short, tell me where you are, please” Ryoka said close to tears as well.

“Wait your father has been captured as well? He isn’t with you? Since when? Oh how I wish I knew where I was, but I do not, I’ve been moved a couple of times and I’m always under sedation, last time I tried to contact you, the sedation was wearing off but then they quickly filled me with more that is why I failed that first time, even now I’m not sure how I’m able to do this but I know it would not last for long so I sought you out immediately” Ryoka’s mother said to her, she seemed to be rushing her words because of the fact that the link might fail anytime.

“I was with father all my years till a few months ago, don’t be worried he protected me and fought for me till we got separated, but why are you under such harsh conditions, I’ve seen a few of their captives, they are not so bound” Ryoka asked feeling pity for her mother, she could not even see her face, just the flowing strands of hair.

“I am a threat to them if I am awake and cognizant, a mistake they won’t ever make again, you see that is why I’m trying hard to reach out to you, there are things you should know if your fight is going to have any impact and make any headway, please listen attentively while I tell you as much as I can with the time we have” her mother said and Ryoka consented.

“I have something called the WIC call the spark, in elder tongue we call it something similar to that, Draugh fuh, it roughly means 'the charge’ in the common tongue, this is an ability that comes only once in a millennial and only to the dragon queen or would be dragon queen, this is how the next queen is known amongst the royal lines of all breeds, this ability allows the user to have absolute command of all dragons with the range of her voice, before the WIC came along and it was just Eldrians, the old generation dragons, this ability was known to only affect them” Ryoka’s mother explained lengthily and Ryoka listened with rapt attention, she knew that as her mother had said, there waa something in this explanation that would help turn the tide around.

“When I got my ability, I fled the dragon continent, my sister knew and sought after me along with some if our cousins and other relations, You have to understand that I was scared and didn’t want such commitment or burden that comes along with being the dragon queen especially considering the fact that I was already feared amongst my peers and even the elders, a white dragon was very rare, one that was meant to be queen even more so, I didn’t know what it could mean for me so I fled, and a just about a month and some weeks after, the continent froze over thanks to the WIC” she explained further

“Immediately that happened, we gathered ourselves, my family -those that came for me after fleeing- and we also got in touch with many of our people that had already been in the human continents, we gathered ourselves and fought back, we almost won, we almost crushed the entirety of the WIC, but somehow, they were able to use the present dragon queen’s charge -or spark as they called it- against us, of course I wasn’t affected being a spark wielder myself, but all out might was brought to their knees and captured, I couldn’t fight alone, so I succumbed as well, after all, my remaining family had been captured as well and I couldn’t flee and leave them to the mercy of the WIC” at this point a few sobs escaped her mouth as she kept on explaining.

“They tried everything, every form of experiment on the dragon queen so as to replicate the spark so they can control us Eldrians and they successfully developed a serum that works for a particular amount of time, three types, one for control only to listen to orders and carry them out, the other for control over the ability to shift and the third made Eldrians go berserk, out of control in a blind rage, of course they couldn’t make so much of the serums, the resources for it were too scare and they only had the dragon queen to produce some of the key resources they needed since they didn’t know about me” she kept on explaining, she started to rush her words more for worry that she might not get to explain all till the link collapsed.

“Their first problems came with the first set of dn mutants they created after discovering the elder gene in abundance in some humans, the serum didn’t work for them, they tried using the queen herself but that failed too and they had to kill off all they created except some for experimentation, after a while they successfully created a serum that controls them to an extent as well but it wasn’t so effective and over time some grew resistance to it” she said.

“Like father I guess” Ryoka put in, it was all making sense to her now, why there are some in rebellion against the WIC, they couldn’t control them all.

“Exactly, but even before your father, there had been some as well, another issue arose yet again when the special generation dragons came along by result of Eldrians mixing with dn mutants, the gene strain was purer and this time no amount of experimentation could bring them under control, no serum worked, nothing worked, I tried in secret to use my charge as well against dn mutants and special generation dragons, but I failed on both fronts as well, my spark was meant for Eldrians only after all, the WIC had to use insurance like family members and brainwashing methods to control the special generation dragons since there was no other way to really control them” Ryoka’s mother stated and paused a bit to see if Ryoka was getting the point.

“So what changed?” Ryoka asked and her mother was satisfied because she expected that question.

“You” her mother said simply surprising Ryoka

“Me? How?” Ryoka asked, she really had to clue as to how she could have affected the tide of things as at then, heck she hadn’t even been born.

“Yes you, you see when a royalty with the charge is born, at birthing the charge is used by the infant as it cries and those present will be affected and they will know but will never be able to say anything about it, not that they don’t want to talk about it but they just can’t, no one knows why the spark works that way but that’s just how it is” Ryoka’s mother enlightened.

“On the night you were born, we planned an escape, but somehow the WIC knew about it and tried to stop us, you never cried as I gave birth to you, Eldrians never cry immediately after birth after all, as we fought to make it out of the facility, I and your father became overwhelmed by the WIC agents, by luck, chance or fate, you chose that particular time to cry, and suddenly everyone started fighting against each other because the dragons were converted to our side, so they turned against the humans, in the confusion we escaped before coming to face my sister and cousins, before that your father told me that when you cried, his need and urge to protect you increased almost a thousand fold and he would have faced everyone on that field singlehandedly if need even though that would have been a suicide mission” as she said this Ryoka’s face lit up in realization.

“You mean to say that I used the charge? As an infant?” Ryoka asked in astonishment.

“I couldn’t believe it myself at first and thought of many explanations as to why the events of that night turned out that way, but I found none other, a particular breed has never had two dragon queens in succession, the one before me was a Dark froth, a different breed from me so I have no explanation as to why it happened like this, to continue my explanation though, the WIC got to know about it and after a lot of inquisition and tortures, they got to know about me having the charge, but then I could only use it on Eldrians as well so my usefulness became limited to being used, harvested for resources to make the serum for the Eldrians and to an extent the dn mutants” Ryoka’s mother furthered in her explanation.

“They came for me, wanting to experiment on me and harvest resources of the charge, but I had trained and grown my Draugh fuh so even though they made sure there weren’t any Eldrians nearby, I still called to those that are far away using this medium we are using to communicate right now, I would invade their dreams if they were sleeping at the moment or their minds if they were awake and I would charge them, commanding them to come for me wherever I was, eventually through sheer force of will I suppose, I was able to use it against certain dn mutants as well, those with even more potent elder gene” She explained.

“After these attempts and their continuous failure, they decided to sedate me heavily for the harvest, but anytime they tried to I would always wake and call forth dragons to my aid, I felt remorse for using my people like that, making them go berserk so as to attack and break free from wherever they were and then come to me where I was and attack as well, most died doing this but then I had no choice, it’s better we died than to be in continuous b*****e of the WIC, worse thing was to also be controlled by them, so I kept doing it every time they came for me, till they decided to abandon me here, never conscious so that I don’t still pull dragons to my rescue” Ryoka’s mother explained sadly.

“I understand Mom, without that the fate of the Eldrians as a whole would have been worse, should they get to you with such advanced charge that even that of the present dragon queen” Ryoka said.

“You get the point, but not in full, they’ve already gotten to me, very soon they will find a way to stop me from calling for aid anytime they want to experiment on me and that’ll be it, but you are the key to this warfare between the Eldrians and the WIC, they must never lay their hands on you even for a bit, that night, you controlled all generations of dragon present, even your father, even the special generation dragons present, none were spared, I’m sure that to them, you are the most precious thing, once they get to you, they win, that is why I have sought you out time and time again till this successful link occurred, I need you to stop” Ryoka’s mother said.

Although Ryoka knew what her mother implied at that moment, she absolutely could not comprehend it or rather she refused to comprehend it.

“Stop? Stop what? What are you asking of me?” Ryoka asked with a tremble and strain in her voice.

“Stop the fight, go far, hide out for as long as you can, live out your life out of the reach of the WIC, don’t offer yourself up to them on a platter of gold by fighting and getting caught, our fate, our destiny is decided by you, so please just stop” Ryoka’s mother pleaded, although deep down, she knew that if her daughter resembles her in any way, she would never listen to such a command, she would keep on fighting till her last breath and if it came to being captured she would rather take her own life.

Ryoka smiled sadly at her mother at that point, “You have my answer to that already mother, I am your daughter, and the same way you still keep on fighting even while bounded up to the teeth like this, the same way you will never willingly give yourself up to them, the same way you keep fighting to prevent them from having anymore gains over us, that is the same way I am going to keep fighting till I liberate us or at least till there is no more breath in me” Ryoka answered.

She felt her mother smile sadly as well and once again she really wished she could see her face, just this one time, even though it isn’t totally real but then it wasn’t possible, her mother didn’t say anything again after that and then the imagery started to fade giving way for the other dreams to fill up the space once more.

“I’m coming for you, mother, I’m going to save you…” Ryoka said but as the dream collapsed and other dreams invaded she woke up with a start shouting “Mother!” she looked around and could see the sliver of the rays of dawn just creeping in, ‘Time to go and fight' she said in her thoughts.