章 6: Wounds x Connect
Silver flames danced in the air. An eerie whir accompanied a blazing inferno that shone like iridescent pearls. With a sway of his tail, Tian Ci released cascading sheets of fire and ice. Condensed into beams that charged toward the dragons, En and An were slammed into the earth. Black tears trailed their cheeks as they crawled along the dirt, not to escape..but to draw near..
"Master!" En spit out a mouth full of blood and shouted to the sky. "It's us!"
Tian Ci ignored the dragons and swept his gaze toward the only things that mattered. A ball of white fur and a human covered in blood.
"Ci Ci!" Jinxing tottered over and under the magnificent form, arms raised and animated. The blanket wrapped around his waist was now dripping crimson. Deep claw marks decorated his chest and back. Pointing to the two injured dragons, he exposed their plans and demanded retribution.
"Taking Yun Yun!" He pointed again at both and made a fist. "Fight!"
Yinyun had long since escaped the palm of the foreign dragon, and flew up to the silver mane that fluttered gracefully in the wind. He hid and nestled in, only two round eyes visible.
"Don't you remember us?!" An recovered enough to speak, and yelled against the pain of his injuries.
Looking from child to human, and from human to dragons, Tian Ci closed his eyes and began to shrink. "Of course I remember. Two treacherous lizards.." The dragon turned, small enough to interact with the human who was still urging him..to beat people up. He grabbed the blanket from his waist and pulled at it with his fangs.
"No!" Jinxing held on in response, trying to pull it back. "Miiiine!"
"Let go of this bloody thing. You'll attract headaches."
"No!"
"Jinxing."
"Mine!"
"Don't be difficult!" Aggravated, the dragon bit through the garment and raised his head forcefully.
Jinxing flew into the air and cascaded into a lake nearby..
"Ao!" Calling in excitement, Yinyun floated up from his father's mane and went after the human who had touched down with a splash.. and was currently wading in glowing lake waters. Tian Ci did not stop him, and instead focused on swallowing the blood soaked fabric and licking his fangs clean.
"....."
"...."
"Still here?"
Tian Ci angled his head towards En and An with narrowed eyes, the full length of his scaled form blocking sight of human and child. For the two injured dragons, who knew the dragon before them very well..If he was giving them time to escape, it meant they might still have a chance to reach him.
"You nearly killed us..and just ate something strange!..How could we leave?!" An spoke first, impassioned and upset. He quickly backpedaled and got to one knee, bowing low to make up for his outburst.
En turned his silver eyes to the juvenile dragon beside him with a weary expression. "What An means, Master..is that you attacked us despite knowing who we are..and you committed violence against a human and consumed something with his essence on it..So..naturally we have many questions.."
Tian Ci was quiet, amethyst eyes raised as he thought and gazed at the sky above. The air once again filled with bird song as he sighed, and clouds drifted lazily overhead. "..Look at yourselves first. To know why I disposed of his blood."
Confused by this answer, the dragons frowned. An looked down at himself and gaped, getting to his feet abruptly. "It's not blood?!"
En also noticed, and stared down at his robes with furrowed brows. "We're.."
"You're 'both' salivating."
"I would never eat a human!" An gathered a portion of his silk garb and tore it off to wipe his mouth and chin..
"When you destroyed the last scourge of humanity, we took a soul oath and have kept it these 900 years. How could we desire a human now?" En defended himself calmly, knowing outbursts would get them nowhere.
Tian Ci was unmoved and responded frankly. "That human is temptation for the average dragon. Exposed to his blood for any longer would have driven the two of you mad. This is the nature of past humans..to turn celestial beasts into animals."
Tian Ci regarded them with a cool expression, and then drew closer with an ominous leer. His tail enclosed the two dragons, and both fell silent, breaths strained and eyes to the ground.
"That aside. WHY have you come.. to Dragons Eden.."
"To find you, Master." En answered quickly
"After all this time?" The scales on the dragon's tail began to raise and sharpen.
"Your brother shut everyone out!" An panted, helpless. "..he used the authority you gave him as prince of Azure kingdom..We couldn't go against him. He said you were 'sleeping'..healing!"
"...."
"Not only that.." En picked up where the other left off. "..he told us it was 'our' fault.. the Celestial court's fault, that you fell in love with a witch from the Human Empire..were ..deceived..tortured..and ultimately ruined!" En could only hang his head low after saying so, falling silent with red eyes.
Tian Ci thought about the dragon prince that ran around in a fox's body and shook his head. "I was deceived, but not abused or ultimately ruined.." His voice was but a whisper, laced with pain. "..Ah Yun was." Annoyed, he took a breath to calm himself. "..and for that..she suffered..as did the Empire that groomed her."
"I was told it was a merciful passing.." Mystery still surrounded the complete saga that occurred between dragon and witch; Rumors still circulated. En felt he should know the truth of at least this piece.
Tian Ci looked at the dragon with eyes devoid of warmth. "It was not merciful. It was slow, and agonizing..as only I can deliver."
En and An visibly relaxed. That justice had been served thoroughly left an overwhelming joy.
Releasing his hold on the two, Tian Ci turned his attention to the lake where two young beings were playing around. Not looking at the dragons, he still regarded them with some skepticism. "If he kept you away, then how did you find me.."
En and An looked at each other. The dragon's tone had lightened and he turned his back to them. The danger to their lives had passed.
"We followed a tale from the Gem Road. It said that ..for 8 days and 7 nights, an onyx dragon fought with a star of heaven! The onyx dragon dwarfed the mountains and shined like a moon shrouded in silver silk." An recounted the tale with reverence, and stood behind the dragon with gleaming eyes. "Who else could it be?"
"As soon as we heard, we left the Celestial Den and went to the site of the battle. From then on, An and I have been following your trail."
"You were lucky. But it changes nothing."
Leaning his head over the lake and lowering it, Tian Ci growled, calling both human and child.
The waters of the lake shimmered and were warm to the touch. Jinxing had been floating along on his back and Yinyun simply enjoyed the view from his forehead. Asked to come out, Jinxing was reluctant, but reached up to hold to the dragon's head and was hoisted up.
The wounds covering him had not healed, and strangely, as soon as he left the water, they began to sting and bleed in earnest.
"Ow.." On the dragon's back, Jinxing curled up like a shrimp and trembled against the pain, eyes shut tight.
"Ao ao ao!" Yinyun whirled back and forth with an anxious cadence, hovering over his vessel in distress.
"Little Yin." An couldn't bear to watch his master suffer..even if it was over some troublesome human.
"..Master.."
"It's nothing to worry about."
Tian Ci angled his neck and head to assess the human on his back properly. "You've reached your limits." He nudged him until he was lying stomach down, and exposed his fangs. "You can't heal this on your own.."
"..!"
Startled, Jinxing opened his eyes at the strange feeling buzzing through his skin. He felt something rough and dry.. but comfortably warm against him. "Ci Ci?" Craning his neck, his eyes widened as he saw something long and red rake across his back.
"NO!" Jinxing flailed, trying to do anything to get away from the dragon's mouth. Tian Ci was casual and uncaring, laughing at the human's expense.
"Hold still."
He slowly drew his tongue across each wound, lapping up the blood and stray flesh hanging from them.
"Wuuu.."
"Not food!"
"Not eat!"
"DUMB DRAGON!"
"I'm not eating you!" Tian Ci growled in warning, but didn't become violent. The sight of ivory white fangs was more than a deterrent. Jinxing settled down, if only to preserve his immediate life, looking up with pitiful eyes to the only one who might give him attention.
"Yun Yun.."
"Ao.." Yinyun floated over and nudged his cheeks with affection.
Jinxing felt calmer with the dragon child beside him and continued to receive 'treatment' without much fuss.
His wounds quickly stopped bleeding, the sharp enduring pain fading to a lingering ache. With each pass over his back, energy surged through the wounds and flowed into the network that gave him power. Cells began to renew at a rate visible to the naked eye and he felt warm from head to toe.
"You.." Tian Ci broke his focus for a moment, when he noticed the human going slack. Feeling the limbs lose tension and seeing heavy lids fighting to stay open, his brow furrowed. "You really have no sense of survival.." With the wounds on the human's back now only thin slivers, he turned him chest up and continued to lick.
"Ci Ci.."
Jinxing now had the dragon's head right in front of him. He could see the scales gleaming like black pearls under sunlight..and the diamond horns shining with prisms.. and the silver mane fluttering around and behind, and the amethyst eyes ice-clear and glowing softly. He could see the dark red tongue and ivory fangs..He could see everything..but felt very at peace..
"...."
"Ah."
"He fell asleep."
Having watched the spectacle with baited breath, En and An turned to one another and huddled briefly.
"I ..didn't know Master could heal. Did you?" An asked hurriedly in a whisper.
"No. I've never seen him do it." En frowned "..then again, we've never seen the full extent of his power.."
"And..whose that human? Master clearly values him ..and the young master does too."
Both dragons thought in silence about many things..
"Could it be..a companion?" An spoke first, sounding more excited than he meant to.
"But..the relationship looks.. rough. I doubt it." En waved his hand to dismiss the thought, but An continued to watch his master's expression and wasn't convinced.
"En, just hear me out.This is 'Master', we're talking about. 'Master'. Would he ever do any acts of personal kindness to humans? That human 'is' special to him."
En rolled his eyes and tapped the shorter male on the head. "Did you forget? HE was the one who drafted the protocols for coexistence with humans. The foundation for the era we now enjoy with them is thanks to him. Its not odd that he's healing a human or keeping one close. What 'is' odd..is the power and abilities of that human.."
An frowned, and nodded in agreement. "Yeah. We 'have' to make sure we find out who he is and what.."
"So you still shamelessly gossip when I'm in earshot."
In a flash of light, En and An saw a familiar sight..
Robes the color of space.. embroidered with spun silver.. fluttered in the wind behind a man.
The tall dragon with snow skin took graceful strides..neither dallying nor rushing toward them.
Black boots adorned with an unmistakable crest, struck their hearts as they recalled the vows made to it's owner. The dragon eyes set in beautiful and haunting features.. brought tears to their eyes as they remembered it's vibrant expressions. Silken obsidian, the dragon's hair fell in a regal trail that swayed gracefully. Brows thick and shapely like wings, flush lips hiding elegant fangs..
'This' was the form they had followed since youth. This was the visage they knew deeply and intimately.
"Master!" An morphed to his original form and flew in high speed, only the size of a noodle.
Tian Ci aptly reached out, catching the daffodil colored dragon, who wrapped around his fingers and sobbed against them pitifully.
"Master.."
En was much older and didn't have the heart to be so shameless, and yet still fell to his knees before the dragon, clasping his other hand with both of his own, forehead pressed against them as he wept quietly.
Tian Ci looked up at the sky and sighed. He could neither bring himself to comfort the dragons nor withdraw his hands from them. With the human and dragon child dozing on sun-warmed grass, nothing interrupted the silence for a long time.
"Master.." An, the youngest dragon, piped up after shaking his scaled head of tears. He unraveled himself and reverted to second form. Not to fall behind, En also stood and let go..the two rubbing at their eyes for a bit.
Standing side by side, they got to one knee and bowed deeply, a solitary scale on the back of their necks in plain view.
"Looking vulnerable doesn't excuse your boldness just now."
Rolling his eyes, Tian Ci turned and picked up his human headache with child attached. His steps were silent and didn't disturb the lively grass beneath. Wind surrounded his movements, creating vibrant gusts that sent flowers flying.
"Master wait!" An quickly ran after the man who crossed several yards with a single stride. This manner of traveling..Even after ages he couldn't figure it out.
Both faired better in their dragon forms, one red, one yellow, trailing just a foot behind.
"Are you going back to the Vine House, Master?"
"Where?"
"..the place we tracked you and little Yin to. It's covered in vines so.." An trailed off and cleared his throat. "..the vine house."
"Yes. Jinxing requires a 'human' environment. Dragon dens aren't appropriate. He's unhinged enough as it is."
En gave a careful glance at the dragon who sounded both annoyed and yet not at this fact. He looked at the sleeping human in his arms. "This human?"
"Jinxing."
"What's his family name?" An asked, shifting mid flight to see if he could recall this human's scent.
"Tian."
"Tian what?"
"Just Tian."
"Justian?"
"..."
Stopping abruptly, Tian Ci narrowed his eyes, annoyed. "Tian Jinxing."
The two dragons blinked twice and looked at each other.
"YOU GAVE HIM YOUR LAST NAME?!!" An exclaimed suddenly and his eyes widened.
"For my plans, he'll need a family name with some influence."
En nearly choked. " 'Some', Master? ..Some?"
"You don't even know him! How could you give him such a title!" An sputtered helplessly
"I know him well enough." Tian Ci looked down at the face leaning into his clothes and breathing softly. "I suspect..he is someone's well concealed pawn. Binding him to my name is security. And leverage."
"Since he's suspicious, why not seal him in your den?" An stared at the human in earnest.
"Or give him an obedience bite and 'make' him confess.." En added with a dark expression
Tian Ci lowered his lashes as he looked at the white fur ball rolling in slumber on the human's chest. "..Ah Yun has taken the human as a vessel. He wants to be born properly. So this human is serving both our needs. And, since he is a victim of ritual abuse, an obedience bite would not work. He must be awakened, to his humanity."
The dragon continued his ethereal pace and left the dragons in the dust, ignoring frantic calls for clarity on many matters.
From ancient emerald forests to the turquoise roads of Dragons Eden, En and An followed at a distance.
Approaching the vine house, the door was shut in their faces, so they flew in through the window instead. Inside Tian Ci treated them as air, taking the human and child upstairs. They could hear the sounds of running water for awhile and then the movement from one room to another. An hour later the dragon came down with Yinyun awake and resting easily on his shoulder.
"You're growing quickly." Tian Ci picked up his fur ball and held it gently, his expression warm as Yinyun happily nudged his palms. From the size of a tangerine to a small melon..Yinyun had increased by several sizes since gaining a human. Underneath the fur that would one day be the whole of his mane, little mounds had formed in strategic places.
"Horns, claws, tail.." Tian Ci touched the spots hidden beneath snow colored fur. Yinyun shook happily and made a few 'aos' before floating over to the table where the pink meat from earlier was left unprepared.
"You can't have it little Yin." An flew over in his small form to talk to the pup that would be 'his' master in the future. Tian Ci glanced at the yellow dragon and sighed. After blowing a stream of silver flame over the meat, it gave off a fragrant scent, turning crisp and juicy. "He's developing anatomy. Solids are fine now."
En, back in his second form, approached the marble counter with a somber countenance. "Master. How is he developing anatomy, without his pearl?" Pearl was another term for a dragon's egg, since in appearance and shape, they looked exactly alike. Many humans coveted pearls for the same reason, hoping they might get lucky and a dragon would come out.
"He has a powerful vessel. Jinxing is his pearl." Tian Ci turned to his son who was floating and chirping at him incessantly. He pinched off a small part of the smoking flesh and brought it to the tiny mouth that opened as wide as it could. A pink tongue and little white fangs aptly turned the piece to mush and called for more...
"Ao.." After several bites, Yinyun turned his face away and fell to his father's palm. Big amethyst eyes shrunk as he began to close them. "I take it you're full." Tian Ci smiled gently, massaging the little form until it burped a small plume of smoke.
"Think he'll have silver fire too?" An asked while lapping at the leftovers on the table. The pink meat that turned bronze was actually a rare and nutritious delicacy.
En frowned and reached for the noodle sized dragon openly eating other's food. "Of course not. Each dragon has their own flame and properties. The young master will have his own..if he's burping smoke it means we'll see it soon."
Tian Ci nodded in ascent, and waved a hand to signal the leftovers could be done away with.
An wriggled free from En's grasp and took his place as chief scrap officer. Reclining in a high backed chair of black leather, Tian Ci gently stroked Yinyun's fluff and closed his eyes.
"Master?" Approaching to ask more questions, En paused, watching an iridescent mist gather around dragon and child.
When Tian Ci opened his eyes, they were glowing.
"I wish to rest with my son in peace." He turned an eye towards the dragon munching away on the counter and the man standing several feet away from him still full of inquiries. "Alone."
"Of course, Master." With haste, En rounded up the yellow dragon and scrammed.
On the outside of the Vine House again, An swallowed his food and snorted. "After all this time.. he still won't let us nap with him. How stingy!"
"Don't be an idiot. Master was clearly about to perform 'transference' on the young master. It is a valuable exchange of energy to the offspring.. so they receive the abilities and genetic memories of the dragon lineage. It is also so they grow up without deviations and abnormalities. When it isn't done then you end up with dragons that pillage and burn the world." En spoke with an air of one well versed in these matters.
"Booo. This isn't the lecture hall. Dragon scholars are the worst!" An stuck out his small tongue and created spirals with his body, taunting his spike haired companion into a rage. En grabbed the dragon by the neck and threw him, resulting in a fight between the two who were actually well matched in power and ability.
"You might be a youth to Master, but WE are several years apart! Show respect!" En opened his jaws to spit the yellow dragon's tail out. His wine red scales were battered and covered in scratches. For An's part, he had similar injuries, but was more scarred from the blow of being in a dragon's mouth.
"Whatever." Lashing his tail from side to side, the carefree dragon looked up at the window of the vine house that was on the second floor. "Hey. The human's up there."
En looked up as well. "And?"
"And master won't be getting up right away either." An continued, eyes shining.
"What do you want with that human?"
"Nothing! But now's a great time to get some intel! Just, hear me out.."
En furrowed his brows in silence, thinking as the younger dragon rattled off all the pros and hopelessly small cons of going up to see the human.
"Your presentation is one sided. And you forgot the biggest con..that Master wakes up and we get a worse beating than before. Though, because Master's judgement may be clouded due to little Yin..it's worth seeing the human for ourselves. It may be this innocent guise is a ruse to get Master to lower his guard."
An nodded his scaled head up and down in agreement quickly. "Exactly! I was 'just' about to say that. If it's to help Master and little Master..the choice is obvious!"
Two small dragons, red and yellow respectively, flew up to the highest window of the vine house and broke in. The room was foreign to them but their Master's scent was the primary presence, an indication that he had spent a lot of time at the residence.
"It's hard to imagine Master had a secret life. I wonder who he spoke to when he had problems?" An glided to the charred remains of something that was now ash and sniffed it. "Looks like he got mad."
"At that time, the Great War was just beginning, and the council wanted nothing more than to stop him from gaining a companion. Even though all signs were pointing to the fact that he needed it most. We listened like fools and didn't leave room for him to confide in us. So..I guess he spoke to no one." En felt the words sour in his heart and fell silent.
"That's enough En. Don't ruin Master's space with your brooding!" An whooshed past the dragon who caught a second hand spin from the force. Now En could only think about bonking a lizard on the head. An happily flew to the bed of white silk, where Jinxing lie, fully clothed and done up, sleeping deeply on his side. The flower hued dragon leaned down and sniffed his neck at an angle..trying to gauge blood type and other biological data.
"He smells like a human. But..different. It's a very good scent." An rolled around and stuck his head under the human's collar. "I don't think he's bad.."
"Idiot! That's what master was saying..he's a.. 'temptation' to dragons. Of course you don't think he's bad. Come here, and keep your distance."
"No way. This is little Yun's vessel. I have to make sure it's safe too." An plowed ahead with his investigation, diving into the human's clothes from one side or end and popping out another. He sniffed and nudged and nibbled where appropriate, eventually getting wrapped up in the loose coils of the human's hair.
"What did you even come here for?" En, watching in disbelief as his companion clearly played around, flew over to pull him out.
"Let go, En!"
"His hair is not for you to wrap your lizard body in and hang out!" En hissed "It's for Master's enjoyment at the very least!"
"He's Master, but he's also brother Tian! He always shares with us! Why should hair be different!"
"Playing in a human's hair is only appropriate if you have a close bond with them. Weren't you paying attention in the course on Human Boundaries?"
An ignored the dragon and shook his head, wrapping his tail around a long and voluminous mane that smelled of ylang ylang. "..It's bouncy and soft and spirals like my tail. We 'have' to get Master to accept this human!"
"You're..losing your mind." En dove into the human's hair to pull the dragon out by force, resulting in the two becoming hopelessly tangled in the seductive locs. Yelling at each other and moving about, they quickly grew still at the sound of a quickening heart beat and a sleepy sigh.
"Crap."
"Now you've gone and done it."
"What do we do En? ..We're stuck and..he's waking up.."
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