Dragon Bound

Chapter 18

Ryoka was in a daze but she was conscious enough to know that she was falling, she had been falling for a while now, is this the end for her? she thought, will it all just end here?

“Wake! Wake!!” Mother’s voice urged and pleaded, but it sounded so far away, was she dreaming? She thought, maybe this wasn’t real after all since she was hearing Mother’s voice.

“Wake!!!” another voice said and this one sounded closer and sterner than Mother’s, it as well sounded familiar, a voice she had heard in one of her weird dreams, that particular dream that had been different and had felt like a memory instead.

This time though the other voice was loud enough to get Ryoka to become fully aware, and she discovered that she really was falling, and she could see the ground drawing in closer and closer, how had she gotten to this situation? She thought, it took a while for her to recollect;

She had been searching through the blaze of the burning forest for Damien and the gas breathing dragon whom she was sure would still be around, she was being careful and she kept switching into different visions of her dragon’s eyesight to help see through the smoke and blaze, the blaze that she had caused.

She noticed one thing though, she wasn’t bothered by the smoke, or fire, she didn’t choke, she didn’t cough, her eyes didn’t sting, her skin felt no excessive heat or burns, and this was the first time she would notice this, she made a note at the back of her mind to ask Damien about it.

Speaking of Damien, how had he gotten so far away from her, she kept wondering, did the inferno chase him away or was he searching for her as well, she really couldn’t figure out what had happened, but then she knew she needed him, if the gas breather really was still around, she sure as hell would not be able to take him on alone.

As she moved a bit further though, trying to make it clear of the fire which seemed to now have a life of its own as it kept blazing and spreading on and on, just then she spotted a figure, just a few distance away from her, but the smoke obscured him.

“Damien?” she called trying to confirm who he was, but then she herself realized it wasn’t him from his silhouette and posture and hazy appearance and at that moment the person ran towards her.

He closed the distance between them within seconds and engaged Ryoka in a hot close quarters combat, for Ryoka, instincts and training immediately kicked in and she started to defend herself from his really quick and successive attacks.

A couple of strands of green hair from her opponent flew past Ryoka’s eyes and the only thing she thought at that moment was ‘Oh he must be a green dragon’ and how beautiful he must be whilst transformed, at that she felt a pang of regret at not being able to transform yet as well.

She countered a few of the guy’s attacks with a few of hers as well and managed to land a few successful hard punches and a strong kick that separated them by putting a bit of distance between them both.

The guy wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and checked it to see if he was bleeding from the hit that landed there, and sure enough there was blood, Ryoka had not spared any force to her hits, this guy is not her sparring partner like she would have considered Damien to be, no, he is her foe, one who would stop at nothing to kill or capture her, hence she must fight for her survival, as Damien had taught her, but then again where was Damien?

“You have been well trained, I have to admit I wasn’t expecting it to be this hard, I mean, you took on two bronze-backs and won all while still human, that is something, I really must say” the guy said with a thick accent she couldn’t quite place, she was sure it was European though.

“Leave now and you might be spared and maybe you won’t suffer the same fate as the other bronze-back dragons” Ryoka threatened even though it was just a bluff, she is running out of ideas by the minute and from their tussle, she already knows he is a very seasoned fighter and the only thing that had helped her in that first bout was the fact that he had under estimated her.

She is sure that he wasn’t going to do that anymore now, which means she will start losing the fight, hence why she needed another tactics to play at, she can’t just keep facing him head on, that would be equivalent to suicide.

“Big words from you, well, I’ll accept your offer to make me suffer the same fate as you have quite done to my brothers in arms” the guy said and came for her once again.

She got her guard up quickly once again, but then, just so as to give her an edge against him, she reached deep and called forth her dragon, she got its strength and speed and toughness, all without showing a patch of scales, no transformation whatsoever.

Up till that point, even she did not know she could do that, picking just the quirks without actually transforming but she had given it a try because she could actually feel herself evolving, first had been the inferno she had been able to breathe out, then the heat and fire that didn’t burn or even affect her in any way.

Surely the guy noticed there was a change about her, but then he couldn’t pinpoint the exact cause of the change, he landed a few strong blows on Ryoka and she as well was able to get some in on him as well, because with what she had achieved from her evolution, she had leveled the fighting ability of them both.

“What, won’t you shift?” he asked her getting frustrated as they tied up in the fight “Did you think you could take me without shifting? Then you are deluded” he said again trying to get her riled up enough to shift into her dragon.

Ryoka felt that pang of pain and regret again as he said those words, of course he wouldn’t know she can’t shift yet, so he is actually expecting a battle both in human form and dragon form, she also suspected at that point that the guy unlike her, could not call forth his dragon abilities without shifting, and that had to be why he wanted her to shift so that the fight would shift to his favor.

“Pity, I’m going to end this without even shifting” Ryoka said covering her faults yet still dishing out a threat to him, probably there was something she could get to do this way that would give her a greater advantage over him, since it is now being apparent that she just might be better than him in this form.

The guy roared in anger after Ryoka landed a couple of successive hard hits on him, placing him off balance and drawing blood as well again.

He looked at her with a wicked smile at that point and then took a deep breath, she immediately knew what was coming and responded in the same manner.

Right amongst the inferno, more flames joined the already blazing fires as both of them breathed fire aimed at each other, Ryoka’s was a blazing orange while the guy’s fire was tinted green.

Ryoka didn’t form any hand sign or seal as at when she would breathe out the fire, but then it still came out more than she had expected, it was almost the equivalent of what the guy breathed, almost, so as their fires met it spread sideways and joined with the ones burning the forest.

When they stopped and Ryoka could see her front once again, she couldn’t find the guy anymore, she scanned about quickly but then he was nowhere to be found, it was by the beating of wings she heard that she suspected that he must have shifted into his dragon.

She got her confirmation when she started to smell the noxious gas, and as the gas mixed with the fire burning all about her, she started to feel the heat and the flame that licked her next burnt her.

She yelped in pain as she realized that the change in the fire has now made it unbearable to her, and then she started to run, looking for a way out lest the inferno become her final resting place.

She finally got clear of the fire although she had a couple of burns on her body, she ran a bit more through the bushes and trees that weren’t affected by the fire, yet, and made some distance away from the burning bush.

Just as she spotted a cliff in her front though, she felt a strong push from behind her, not knowing the source, she stumbled and hut her head as she rolled off the cliff and fell.

“Who are you?” the other voice asked and Ryoka could finally place who the voice belonged to, it was the voice of the lady who was the white dragon in her dreams “Find yourself” the lady said once again.

Ryoka felt a sudden strong rush within her from her core, that plus the rush of endorphins at the fact that she was about to die if nothing changes for her at that point, then she felt a click like a latch being pried open and for the very first time after weeks of trial and failure, she shifted and transformed into a full actual dragon