Of Fates And Fetters Ch 14

Whoo! A day before the deadline!

I am so tired! Lemme tell y'all, work was hell, but I wrote my greasy heart out during lunch and got...erm...a good chunk of the way done by Friday! So today was finishing touches and editing! ^_^

Here is chapter, hope you enjoy. Wiring Update Soon(TM) declaring which side story won the vote.

Here is chapter, hope y'all enjoy.

=][=

The sound of Shana arguing with someone woke me up from an awesome dream where I was a flying Power Ranger. Which was too bad, because Power Rangers were so stupid they were awesome.

I opened my eyes to the sight of Lavitz looking like he’d gone nine rounds with life having a bad day.

“You should be thanking me.” Said a pretty lady that I immediately recognized as being the woman who saved me from the dragon near Seles. She had her arms crossed and her resting bitch face was the very picture of standoffish. “I understand you are upset, but have some respect.”

I sat up, making Lavitz and Shana jump. I blinked blearily at them before rasping. “May I have some water?”

“Dart!” Shana said and threw herself at me, driving me back to the bed and knocking the wind out of me. “I was so worried! You wouldn’t wake up!”

“Ow.” I said informatively.

“Shana, let the poor man breathe.” Lavitz said with a sigh. Good friend that Lavitz, very solid, saving my life from thoughtless childhood friends who are actually secret moon-powered princesses.

I should probably take his classes about avoiding lèse-majesté more seriously, I wasn’t certain Shana’s future subjects would take my bonking her on the head when she got uppity all that well.

“You’re awake, good.” The pretty lady said. “Took you a while, but faster than some.”

“Lavitz?” I asked. The lady looked put off.

“Yeah?”

“Please tell me you see a pretty lady in an armored blue dress, I don’t want to alarm people but considering what my memories of last night are, I think I might be hallucinating.”

Lavitz barked a laugh. “Yes Dart, she’s real.”

“Oh fuck a duck that’s a load off my mind.” I said with a sigh, I sat up again, making Shana squeal as she lost her place on my chest, I did maneuver her so she was laying on my legs rather than tumble off the bed. “Hey there, didn’t catch your name back in Seles, and I don’t think I took the time to thank you.”

The woman hummed. “Don’t need thanks for something I did on a whim. My name is Rose.”

“Wait, Dart, you know her?” Shana asked.

“Yeah, she’s the passing warrior I told you about that saved my life from the dragon, back in Seles.”

“Oh.” Shana said, her face turning red.

I narrowed my eyes at her, she did not meet my gaze and started poking her fingers together in the way she did any time she did something she knew she shouldn’t have and knew I would not be happy with her.

“Shana. What did you do?” I asked.

“Urk! N-Nothing?” Shana asked.

“She was somewhat rude to me.” Rose grunted. “Go easy on her. She was just worried about you. Besides, I’m used to being disliked.”

I held my stare to make Shana squirm a little longer, then dropped it and gave her head a pat. “Don’t ever change, Shana.”

“H-Hey! I’m not a kid anymore!” Shana said, though she didn’t fight off the headpat.

“Speaking of, how long have I been out?” I asked.

“Two days.” Lavitz said.

I blinked, twice. “I’m not nearly hung over enough to have been out for two days.”

“Shana took care of you for those two days.” Lavitz said.

“Ah, thanks, Shana.” I said, resuming the headpat dispensation.

Shana mumbled something.

“If I may.” Rose said, pulling out a shiny smooth stone. “I believe you have one of these?”

So…she had a formerly haunted rock too. Which, considering she’d made me into a Power Ranger last night, meant my initial thought of her being some mysterious mentor was right.

Were we supposed to be a new generation of guardians in preparation for Shana to inherit her rulership of the world?

I pulled the rock out of its pouch and was subsequently blinded as it released five hundred fucking thousand lumens of red light.

Okay maybe I exaggerated a little, but it and hers glowed blindingly for several seconds before dimming to something that could actually be withstood.

“Okay, Madame Rose?” I asked.

“Don’t ever call me ‘Madame’ again.”

“Whatsoever in shit the fuck is this?” I asked, waving the shiny rock about.

“That.” She said, standing straighter. “Is a Dragoon Spirit. The proof that you are one of the few who are worthy to command Dragons.”

I blinked and looked at the rock.

Then to her.

Then back to the rock.

Back to her.

“Come again?” I asked reasonably.

She raised a slender eyebrow. “Did the Giganto hit you too hard?”

“I don’t know, shiny rock decides I can command dragons? Seems a little arbitrary is all.” My mouth said while my mind whirled.

Rose grunted. “You are worthy, boy, if you weren’t, you would have died as soon as your transformation into a Dragoon ended.”

“That…but…you…what…”

Rose sighed. “Look, you are a Dragoon, there aren’t exactly many of us around. I’ll teach you the basics, show you the ropes, then be on my way. The power of a Dragoon…” She scowled and shook her head. “The power of most Dragoon Spirits is not kind or gentle, without proper instruction there is every possibility it will consume and destroy you. You are worthy, you should at the very least learn enough to survive this power.”

Growing tired of the shiny rock damaging my retinas, I put it away.

“Yeah okay.” I said.

“Dart!” Shana gaped. “But…that…”

I shrugged. “I dunno, turning into a flying fire dragon hybrid creature seems pretty neat.”

“I had expected you to be a little more reticent.” Rose said, leaning against the room’s wall. “But I guess it’s better to have an eager pupil.”

I hummed, then turned to my battle buddy. “Yo Lavitz, you’re suspiciously quiet.”

He blinked. “I…Didn’t think I had the right to speak, to be honest.”

I stared.

His face flushed. “Dart…You are a Dragoon! And so is Rose! The mythical heroes who freed the world from the tyrannical Winglies! Warriors of myth in the flesh! I’m but a mere knight! I literally do not have the right to stand, let alone speak in your presence!”

“Shana, please get off my legs.” I said calmly.

Shana, recognizing my tone of voice, rolled off my legs and hid behind the bed.

I then jumped off the bed and delivered a Knife Hand of Justice to the top of Lavitz’s head with a hearty ‘thwack!’

He looked at me wide eyed while cradling his cranium.

“Did I successfully knife hand the stupid out of you, or do you need another one?” I asked.

“I…What?” Lavitz asked.

“Just say yes Lavitz!” Shana encouraged.

“Y-Yes? No wait, no?” He asked, still cradling his head.

“Hmm…Maybe I hit him too hard.” I muttered.

Over in her corner, Rose sighed. “Quite the pupil I got myself.”

=][=

“The hell do you mean the secret is ‘fighting spirit’?” I demanded.

Our conversation had moved out of the inn to one of the few undamaged plazas that were still in Hoax. My turning into a warrior of legend through the creation of a small star over the town had not exactly been anonymous. I’d overheard a few of the guards saying I was Basil’s savior.

I hoped nobody was stupid enough to make a religion out of it.

That’d just be awkward.

That said, the experienced warrior of mythology had demanded privacy, as what I was to learn ‘was not fit for those who do not bear this burden’ and when a literal myth walks through the door and asks you politely to leave, most people happily comply.

“It’s how I was taught.” Rose said with a shrug. “The man who taught me also screamed and made whooshing noises as he tried to explain certain concepts. If I were to try to put it in other words…Dragons are creatures of conflict, they thrive on it. Win or lose, they will throw themselves into battle with wild abandon. It’s how they learn, how they survive, how they mate. As a Dragoon, you too are now a creature of conflict. Or perhaps you already were, and this is merely a reflection of that. The point being, you have to be in the mindset of ‘battle’ in order to draw the power of a Dragon, out of the Dragoon Spirit.”

I scowled and crossed my arms. “So, almost like some kind of self-hypnosis? Convince myself that battle is imminent and use that to transform?”

Rose nodded as she began to walk a circle around me. “Or you could wait until you are in a life-or-death struggle, but that is unreliable at best. That said, sustaining a Dragoon transformation outside of battle is difficult. When you become a Dragoon, a Dragon’s rage flows through your veins, most Dragoons are not constrained by their stamina, but rather by how long they are able to channel that rage before losing control of it. A Dragoon lost to rage is, perhaps, the most dangerous thing in the world; a creature that lives purely for battle, one that will cut down friend and foe alike, but unlike a Dragon, a Dragoon’s rage is not mindless, a Dragoon lost to rage is capable of applying critical thinking and a greater strategy to their violence.”

I grunted. “I take it a few of those myths about Dragoons ‘bringing the wrath of the Gods upon a city’ were not, in fact, apocryphal?”

Rose shook her head. “With the power of a Dragon flowing through your veins, it would be the work of an afternoon to destroy a kingdom. This is why you must master it, why I am taking the time to teach you how to utilize this power. If I do not, there is every possibility you will become nothing more than a violent, crazed, but nonetheless intelligent monster.”

“Why gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.” I muttered; she came to a stop in front of me. “So…I’m not really feeling the ‘fighting spirit.’ So how are we gonna practice that part?”

Rose hummed, then an impact had me stumbling back, my ears ringing as my eyes watered. I came to a stop, my jaw aching, and saw that Rose was holding her sword, having struck me on the chin with the pommel, not hard, not even enough to split skin, but enough for it to smart.

I grit my teeth in a sudden wave of utter fury, my hand grasping the grip of my sword and drawing it, I stepped forward with a snarl on my face as I got ready to tear—

I stopped.

Yeah, what she’d done smarted, but it wasn’t a reason to go ballistic, she’d been careful, exceedingly so. That strike could have torn teeth out of me, instead it would likely barely leave a bruise. So why was I so angry?

And that’s when I realized that I wasn’t angry, at least, not that much. The white-hot rage I felt came from something outside of me that was also me. The fiery little stone in its pouch, it thrummed, ready to roar to life, reveling at the prospect of a fight. With a scowl, I wrangled that rage until it was shimmering to the ‘side’ of me, I could still feel it, but I could also differentiate where I ended and that rage began, as well as where it and I were one and the same, and with a huff, sheathed my sword.

“Huh, looks like you get it.” Rose said, tilting her head. “You are rather talented.”

“Was the cheap shot wholly necessary?” I asked, rubbing my aching jaw.

“It was.” She said simply. “Knowing it is coming often results in your mental defenses drowning out that connection. Most freshly bonded Dragoons received a beating by their mentor without explanation until they transformed, afterwards realizing that not all of their anger was their own. The fact that you realized it so quickly is a rare talent.”

I grunted. “Was that how you learned?”

“We’re not here to talk about me.” Rose said, taking up a fighting stance. “Now, transform.”

I almost flippantly asked how, but in truth, it wasn’t difficult. It was like moving a limb I hadn’t had before. A not entirely alien concept.

It was simply a matter of tracing that burning anger to its source. I could feel it judging me, daring me to bend it to my will.

I considered asking, but Rose had said that Dragons thrive in conflict, that even their mating ritual was battle. Asking would get me nothing. I drove down into it, grasping a hold of it in a mental grip, and pulled.

I expected it to hiss and bite back, to resent my attempt at dominance, but power surged through my veins, heatless flames enveloped me, solidifying into hardened plates of organic looking armor. The process was fast, and with a beat of a pair of wings I vanished the flames, my body wholly encased in what I could best describe as bright red, organic power armor.

Running a clawed gauntlet over my vambrace, I realized I could somewhat feel when the armor was touched, though tapping or scratching it only gave me a sensation of pressure and touch, not pain.

This is so fucking cool.

My wings beat faster and I had to rebalance myself as my feet momentarily left the ground.

“You are just full of surprises.” Rose said disinterestedly. “Most do not take to this quite so quickly.”

“It’s a gift.” I said easily, before closing my hand into a fist and dramatically stating. “And a curse.”

She ignored my melodrama, transforming into her Dragoon form, her body enveloped in dark blue plates of the same material as my own. Her wings flared, and she was suddenly twenty feet in the air.

“How are you doing that part?” I asked, beating my own wings with an awkward, alien-feeling instinct and barely managing a hop. “These wings don’t have the surface area for self-propelling flight. Not to mention that you’re not moving them enough to offset your weight, our bone structure is not as porous as a bird’s so there must be something else at play…is it an anti-gravitic effect?”

“You talk too much.” Rose said.

“Oh come on! How am I gonna get the whole ‘flight’ thing without understanding the exact mechanics!?” I demanded, shaking my crimson-plated fist.

“Easy.” Rose said, flying in a slow lazy circle around me. “Just fly.”

“It doesn’t work that way!” I growled.

Then she dove, and I backhanded her foot before it could collide with my head. “Hey!”

“If you don’t want to get hit, get up here and make me stop.” Rose said.

She then dove again, and again, and again, forcing me to bat her away each time. Quickly soaring above my hopping attempts at retaliation.

“Get down here so I can punch you!” I snarled, frustration making me grit my teeth.

“Talented in some ways, severely lacking in others, I see.” Rose said, floating lazily out of my reach. “Pretty much everyone I’ve ever seen took to flying faster than they took to walking.”

“There’s a lot of careful consideration that goes into flight!” I growled.

“Consider this.” Rose said, rising a bit higher. “I’m going to go pick up that girl who insulted me earlier, and then I’m going to carry her to the nearest cloud and drop her. And if you don’t want that t—”

Her eyes barely had a chance to widen before her wings twitched and their membranes glowed a bright green, rocketing her away from my grasping hands.

I snarled and rushed after her, my frustration bleeding into a red rage as she avoided my every straight-line charge with the meekest of movements and fancy areal acrobatics.

I started expelling fire from my feet and hands, adding thrust in order to go faster, but all that got me was a momentary widening of her eyes before she immediately adapted.

I was spitting in rage by that point and merely wanted to wring her neck until her head popped off!

Between one instant and the next she stopped dodging, I registered an impact, then another one as the ground seemingly teleported up to me and hit me so hard I bounced off it.

Rose then landed on my back on my second bounce and drove me to the cobblestones of the plaza we’d started practicing in. The combined impacts enough to drive the air out of my lungs and stun me.

It also made the red veil that had overtaken my vision lift, and I forcefully let go of the burning power that sang in my veins. With a flash of bright red light, I was back to just being plain old boring me.

“Congratulations.” Rose said conversationally, hopping off of me. “You flew.”

I took a deep, lung-stretching breath, and coughed it out painfully, barely managing to hiss. “Dick. Move.”

With a flash of Dark Blue light, Rose joined me in being merely flesh and blood. “You’ll need to learn to rein in the rage of a Dragon. You seem to have quite the temper on you, that’ll be a detriment. The rage from the Dragoon Spirit mounts much faster when it can feed your own anger.”

“Noted.” I grunted, standing up. “Should we go again?”

Rose shook her head. “That’s enough for now, you don’t look about to pass out this time, but transforming into a Dragoon is taxing at first. It’s best to build up to multiple transformations in a day. Not to mention, tell me, do you really think you’d be able to handle the rage within your Dragoon Spirit if you were to transform now?”

I scowled and ‘looked’ for the space within me that held the power. And I was surprised by the sheer level of anger I felt radiating from it. Becoming aware of it made it feed my own, and I found myself having to push it away to be able to answer calmly. “No, no I could not.”

Rose stared at me for a long time before nodding. “It’s good that you understand your current limit.”

I snorted. “I am painfully aware of my weakness, yes.”

“Not what I meant.” Rose said with a shrug. “But if that drives you to improve, feel free to think of it that way.”

I stretched my aching back, belatedly realizing that I should be dead, the fall alone should have shattered every bone in my body, there was a suspiciously Dart-shaped spiderweb of cracks where I’d impacted the ground. Rose landing on my back should have shattered my spine.

Instead, I felt a little sore.

Being a fantasy Power Ranger was awesome!

I blinked as I caught the tail end of what Rose had been saying. “Waitwaitwaitthischairwaitwait! Could you repeat that?”

She raised one elegant eyebrow in a way that perfectly expressed that I’d managed to fail to meet her admittedly low expectations.

“I said we’ll go over spells tomorrow.” Rose said.

Rose sighed.