RD-02
Chapter 3: Dragon Rider
"Uwaaaahhh hahahahaha! Waaaaaa hahahahahaha! Wow! Wow! Waaaaaaa!" Twilight's scream of fear soon became cries of joy as she flew through the skies at immeasurable speeds, becoming the first Dragon Rider in hundreds of years. She felt exhilarated and alive; the horror of the summoning ritual, an emotion that was Whiskered back and forth until it reached an intensity that could unravel the rules of reality, were washed away by the pure, cleansing air of the sky rushing around her.
"This is it! This is my destiny! I was meant for the sky!" Princess Twilight's ecstasy was paused when the dragon came to a stop. Not thinking it was possible that they could have reached their destination already (but also desperately hoping it was true), Twilight made her way forward on the Dragon's head so that she could peek through its fur and see below. She moved in the clockwise fashion unique to Dragon Riders, unhooking and rehooking the claws in her armor in such a way that did not get her stuck in, or yank the long fur from the Dragon's head.
It appeared that the Dragon only grew this thick fur so a rider could ride, and Twilight was grateful for it; if she lost her grip for a moment while the Dragon was in flight, the fall was far enough to kill her many times over. When she finally poked her dark purple snout out of the Dragon's dark, curly fur, the sight she saw killed all of her newfound positive emotions. Before she could scream, the Dragon started a dive at a mind-melting speed that made the world a blur of color around her.
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(A few minutes earlier)
Unable to see the forest floor beneath layers of blue-green leaves, Sean at first started out slowly. He was wary of stepping on pinecones or rocks with his bare feet. He only encountered smooth, comfortable leaves. They could be slick on a rainy day, but for now seemed dry and pleasant to walk on. At his head-squirrel's telepathic urging, he made haste, moving at a speed-walk just under a jog. He meant to go faster, but Twilight seemed quite happy about this pace so he stayed at it out of caution, for now. If the squirrels were as slow and plodding as they seemed, he figured this would already make him a jet-liner.
Around them, the forest was full of life, but life that was very small. Except for a giant spider as big as his hand, whose web he almost walked into, every other being was, in fact, smaller than the squirrel on his head. Unfamiliar insects with familiar forms were common. Tiny, furry, hopping animals rooted through the fallen leaves with a single horn on their head. A herd of tiny snakes/worms slithered by in a tight group, sparkly bodies giving the image of a traveling pool of water. Tiny frogs clung to the trees and fed on passing clouds of insects that hovered a few feet above Sean's head. Above him was a gentle glow from the canopy of leaves and branches that started far above, but not once did a speck of sky show itself. Up ahead, Sean saw something like a tentacle with spikes or spines reach out of a damp spot in the leaves and nab one of the rooting, horned creatures, pulling it swiftly and silently under and out of sight; Sean decided to avoid the wet spots from then on.
Everything was miniature except for the trees; the smallest was larger in diameter than himself and the biggest were wider than he was tall. With no visible young trees, he wasn't sure how the forest could keep producing enough new trees to sustain the several feet thick layers of dead tree matter beneath them; the sunlight was completely monopolized by older growth, so how could new growth survive to reach the sky? The mystery was solved when he saw a vine grow violently out of space between two trees. It grew in bursts, spiraling, dragging sticky black leaves along the ground as it approached the nearest tree. When it reached the nearest tree, it started growing vertically up around it and the bursts of growth became much further apart. The sticky black leaves had picked up some forest debris, and many, many wriggling termites, presumably a snack to feed the hungry vine until it managed to reach the sunlight far above.
Sean couldn't help but think about how his great size made him more of a threat to the animals around him then they to him (they could be poisonous or venomous, he realized. He certainly wasn't going to mess with that spider, that seemed large for a spider on any world). But the forest seemed like a really dangerous place for creatures the size of the squirrel on his head. He was glad he could at least keep her safe up there.
While finding her painfully annoying (and just painful) in their first encounter, now that he had a little while to listen to her hooting and hollering and self-conscious prattling, he found her cute. She sounded like a little girl trying to talk formally like an adult (if "talk" was still the right word), but one still little enough to unabashedly enjoy the rollercoaster ride that was the top of his head.
His observations and musings were interrupted by coming across his goal. Pieces of dead squirrel littered the ground in front of a huge tree with a hollow base. There was dirt packed up like an anthill at the entrance and a bizarre creature that seemed a mix between a cat, a rabbit, a human, and one of the squirrels he had just met. The creature was rapidly digging into the packed dirt like a dog digging under a fence. While he watched, it reached in the hole and snagged something with its claws.
A fluffball of a little blue squirrel, looking very similar to the dancers from earlier, rolled out from under the tree. It tried to run back to the safety of the great hollow tree but didn't make it. The larger creature grabbed it in its mouth, shook it like a dog might, then tossed it over its shoulder at its four companions that were waiting behind it. The four predators chased it, nipped at it, batted it with their claws like playful cats, and it just sort of...fell apart. Once it was in four or five pieces, it finally stopped moving and the cat-things instantly lost interest, looking for new prey that was still moving around and entertaining. The digging cat-thing backed up and shook itself off as a section of the packed earth blockade collapsed around it, causing a dozen little fluffballs, some no bigger than Sean's thumb, to tumble helplessly out of the protection of the hollow tree.
In the next instant, Sean the Dragon realized a few important things at once: 1. The squirrels that were more fluffy and less metallic were children. 2. These cat/rabbit things were going to torture all of them to death for fun. 3. He didn't want that to happen.
He took aim at what were obviously male genitalia hanging from the bare butt of the cabbit still digging into the dirt under the hollow tree. He dashed forward as fast as he could, near-silently, bare feet making little noise against the soft, dry, squishy layer of leaves on the forest floor. He kicked as hard as he could and the great difference in body weight (the cabbit was the size of a medium-sized dog that only came up to his shins) caused the animal to lift up into the air, rabbit-like back legs kicking, bounce off the tree, and land somewhere behind the kicker. When Sean tried to put weight on that foot, it buckled underneath him and he awkwardly fell to one knee, hissing in pain.
Chapter 4: The Titans
Princess Twilight peered from the Earth Dragon's hair in time to see the first whelp brutally tortured to death. When the entrance to the House of the Young began to collapse and she saw her younger sister Dawn tumble out of safety, she went to scream and wail in despair. But her breath was stolen as the Great Dragon of Humanity became an avatar of fury and vengeance, swooping into a dive attack with a speed and power not of this world. With divine judgement, Sean, the Earth Dragon of Lust, dealt Anthrax, Titan of Destruction, a blow that would forever take away its ability to mate and create offspring of its own. The Titan hit the ground running, feet throwing leaves for a few moments before getting traction and carrying Anthrax away in a high-speed retreat, never once even laying eyes on the one that delivered the blow. Twilight felt Sean the Dragon give a mighty hissing roar of righteous rage as it took a combat stance and invited the Titans to battle.
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Sean expected to be attacked now that he lost his greatest advantage, height, but instead the nearest cabbit ignored him and ran by. One of the larger fluff balls recovered quickly, grabbed one of the smallest ones in its arms, then took off running for the hollow tree. This triggered the instincts of one of the cabbits, and it rushed to pounce on the fleeing prey. The cabbit bit into the little squirrel and Sean heard it squeak.
<Dawn, Nooo!> Twilight screamed telepathically, <Save my sister, Dragon! Save her NOW!>
Not wanting to see another baby squirrel torn to pieces, Sean was happy to comply. The cabbit's claws snagged the little squirrel's clothes and it had clamped down its teeth on the squirrel's left leg. Before it could tear her leg off, Sean grabbed the cabbit's disturbingly humanish face, fingers in its mouth, and pried it open with difficulty. The bitten squirrel slipped free, bleeding blue from its leg, but still managed to hold onto the tiny fluffball in its arms and run to safety. The cabbit put its front paws on Sean's arms, gouging deep lines with its claws. This just made Sean angry, and he continued to pull apart the animal's jaw with all his strength. There was a snap, crackle and pop, and the strength suddenly left the cabbit's jaws. It screamed like a rabbit and Sean immediately felt the other three jump on his back.
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To Twilight's surprise, the White Dragon instantly followed her commands and swooped in to save her sister. She saw the Titan Famine wound her Dragon's arms as they grappled and she tried to find an opportunity to assist with her Aural magic. It wasn't necessary; the Dragon Sean easily overpowered the Titan, breaking its jaw, ensuring that it would never again bite one of his protected people. Then, it was all Twilight could do to hold on as the Titans War, Pestilence, and Death pounced on the Dragon and sent it tumbling.
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The first volunteer soldier was an instant from cutting her own whiskers to make herself immune to the horrible emotions of war when she was stopped by a galvanizing tidal wave of Whiskered awe; she threw down the cutters knowing that they were no longer needed. She would be able to fight to the death shielded from the disabling emotions of wounded and dying soldiers, as long as she focused on that awe, Whiskering it back and forth with her comrades.
She assumed this meant that the Occultists had somehow returned in time to join the fight and were creating awe-inspiring miracles to combat the titans. She knew that she and the rest of the army would have to make a mad dash to put their own bodies between the Titans and the Occultists and provide what cover they could for the valuable magic users. As she picked up her weapons and prepared to make her suicidal sprint out of the hollow tree her legion had retreated to, she was briefly stunned by levels of awe she had never before experienced, redoubling and redoubling as more encountered the awe-inspiring event.
"Princess Twilight rode a white dragon into battle with the Titans!" Someone screamed from the group of soldiers crowding the entrance to the hollow tree. There was more shouting: "Princess Twilight and the Dragon defeated Anthrax the Destroyer in one blow!" "We finally have a Dragon!" "Praise its name!" "What is its name?" "The Dragon grapples with Famine to save the young!" "The Dragon bleeds a Royal Red blood!"
The soldier shouldered her way forward to try and see. She caught glimpses of a titanic struggle between beings so large that the mind could hardly comprehend. "Famine has fled the battle." "Princess Twilight will save us all!" "She's so valiant and brave!" "Noooo! The Dragon falls!"
The soldier made her way to the front in time to see the three remaining Titans jump on the Dragon's back at once, shredding flesh and sending red blood all over the battlefield. Fear and horror again began to be Whiskered about. The Dragon launched itself into a tumble to try to dislodge its foes, and the four beings engaged in an epic struggle.
"Is Princess Twilight ok?" "I hear her magic!" "The Dragon is losing!"
It was a day in which many heroes were born. The unnamed soldier discarded her helmet and became, in that moment, Warla the Warlord. She rejected the fear and horror outright and Whiskered a righteous fury so immense that all fell to silence around her.
"Did you expect our Dragon to defeat five Titans all by itself?! Do you plan on standing here behind the safety of a phalanx of spears while Princess Twilight and our Dragon sacrifice themselves to save our young?! We waited hundreds of years, praying for a Dragon to save us. If this one falls, Humanity will not survive to get another one! ASSIST THE DRAGON!!"
With that battlecry, Warla charged, all by herself, screaming righteous fury and awe at the top of her whiskers. The armies of Humanity followed.
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"Breath fire! Shoot lightning! Take flight! Don't give up, Sean!" Twilight shouted encouragement and tried to save her magic for the best possible moments. She knew the situation was grim. Her Dragon's blood was everywhere on its body, bleeding from claw wounds on its back, arms and legs. Pestilence had dealt the most serious blow, taking a chunk of flesh from Sean's left calf.
But she couldn't blame the Dragon for losing; it had put up an unbelievably ferocious fight. After wounding and defeating Anthrax and Famine (she hoped those monsters died from their wounds) War, Pestilence, and Death had pounced all at once. The Earth Dragon had taken the worst wounds at that moment, including gouges on its back and the bite Pestilence had taken out of its leg. But it then had thrown itself into a furious tumble, dislodging all three Titans. The melee that followed was too chaotic for Twilight to fully perceive, but the White Dragon had somehow gotten its right hand around Death's throat, left hand around Pestilence's throat, and was holding them both at bay as they shredded his arms with their claws and repeatedly lunged for his own face and throat.
The Great One might have righted itself and fought back, if not for War who was doing battle with his flailing legs, slashing and constantly threatening to get a solid bite. Whenever War managed to close its jaws on Sean, Twilight used her aural magic to make an explosion of sound right between the Titan's eyes, stunning it and making it retreat. But as powerful an Occultist as Twilight was, she could only do this a few times a day and was nearing exhaustion. She was saving her final spell for when a Titan inevitably came for Sean's throat, hoping to give him the chance to bite out the Titan's throat instead. Twilight regretted not having more time to soar the skies with her new friend, but was more than happy to fall in battle at its side, defending the House of the Young.
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Sean was losing and the thought made him pissed. If only he could get to his feet once, he could use his vastly superior bodyweight to slam and crush and at least take one of the ferocious and powerful cabbits with him. He decided that cabbit was too cute a word for these ferocious beasts. These Titans were faster and stronger than he could have possibly guessed from their size. He could only hold one back with the strength of one arm, but not forever and not without getting the skin on his arms torn up. The individual scratch wounds weren't serious on their own, but he was accumulating damage without dealing any of his own. He wasn't strong enough to crush their muscled necks with one hand alone; he needed to stand up, but every time he tried, the Titan at his feet would get a bite (another wound like the one on his calf and this fight would be over) and the only thing that saved him was the bizarre, loud, popping vibrations that Twilight seemed to be throwing at the face of the Titan to stun it.
She was so small and seemingly insignificant, but she was just as active a participant as he in this battle, shouting encouragement and actually buying him time with her magic. He liked Twilight, now; brave and noble of spirit, pushing herself past exhaustion to do what she could. If he was going down, he wanted to at least wound the Titans so that she had a chance to escape and live.
He desperately examined his situation, looking for a chance or advantage. He finally got a good look at the Titans; they were a bizarre mix of animals that he was familiar with. They had blue-black metallic fur and a short tail that looked very similar to that of the squirrel's; but it was short and close to its body like that of a rabbit's. Its powerful back legs were also like a rabbit's, giving it a strong, hopping thrust, supported by the strength of large rabbit feet, thick legs, and a round, bare butt of muscle. The face, butt, and genitals were disturbingly human, allowing Sean to instantly think of kicking the first one in the testicles. The body was covered in fur, except for the face and the butt, as well as a strip of skin, which was a unique color for each Titan, that ran down the front of its body from face to crotch.
This battle was determined by the first, decisive blows; if he hadn't given terrible wounds to two of the Titans, he would already be overwhelmed and slain by now. If he didn't hurt one foot with his kick and have the other leg given a serious bite, he would be able to gain his feet and stand a real chance of winning. His whole body was on fire, but Twilight's encouragement kept him going. How did these small, weak squirrels possibly survive until now against these bizarre cabbits that were unreasonably strong and fast? As soon as Sean had the thought, he received the answer.
A thousand little blue squirrels charged the Titan at his feet all at once. One of them got a lucky hit in the cabbit's foot, causing it to hiss like a cat and hop away. The distraction allowed the Titan held by his weaker, left arm to lunge at his face. He got a close look at its face, flat and covered in Sean's own red blood, with humanlike lips and thick eyebrows, a rat's ears and vertical slit pupils, a nose and long whiskers very similar to the squirrels', and a mouth of sharp teeth gnashing with bits of gore from Sean's own leg.
*POP* Both the Titan and Sean were stunned by the loud spell of Twilights that exploded between their faces, but Sean still managed to use the opportunity to push the cabbit away from his face back to an arm's length away. Sean's hope was that sheer numbers would allow the squirrels to slay, or at least chase away, the titan they were engaging. Then, he could keep holding those two in place while the army cut them apart with sword and spear.
But it was not going to be that easy. The cabbits were obviously a highly adapted apex predator in this world and the squirrels were its natural prey. The Titan, War, hopped nimbly around the edges of the Squirrel army, swiping, batting, biting, slaying squirrels one, two, or three at a time, bringing into question the purpose and usefulness of the armor that the warrior squirrels wore.
A detachment of dozens of pike users broke off and made their way to the House of the Young, clogging the entrance with enough pokey sharp points to make admittance costly, even to the Titans. While he was watching this and holding onto the two Titans still shredding his forearms, the Titan War batted a squirrel soldier through the air to land right next to his head. Correction; the top half of a squirrel soldier.
<Daddy, Nooooo!> a little blue fluff ball that hadn't made it back to safety and had instead buried itself under similarly colored leaves to hide, emerged from hiding, almost right next to Sean's head, and ran to embrace the fallen soldier. To Sean's horror, the upper half of the soldier embraced the child back, promising <The Dragon will save us...>. Death, the Titan held back in Sean's right hand, surprised him by suddenly kicking off to the side and pushing Sean's straight arm into a motion that landed the Titan right on top of the dying soldier and its tiny fluff ball child. Before Sean could react, it struck, biting the child's head off.
Chapter 5: The Birth of a Dragon
A wordless roar many times louder than anything that any living creature had ever heard rocked the forest, stunning Human and Titan alike. Princess Twilight became entirely senseless in shock for a few moments, only still hanging on to her Dragon's fur by the claws in her armor. The stunning roar was all the Dragon needed, and it was able to once again take flight, bringing both disoriented Titans that it held by the neck into the air with him.
The roaring continued as The Great White Dragon turned, took one step, then began slamming the titans into the great tree of the House of the Young, one at a time, over and over, left, right, left, right. With their powerful hindlegs no longer finding any purchase, the Titans did not have the power to try and break free.
Slam. Slam. Slam. The Earth Dragon continued to roar as the battle suddenly turned around. The army recovered before the Titan War, thanks to a certain clever Warlord who led them into a formation to block the separated Titan from coming to the aid of its sisters. It began to make a cat-like yowling of distress as it kept taking wounds to the limbs and was unable to save its sisters.
Slam. Slam. Slam. Pestilence and Death had a look of dumb shock on their faces as they were repeatedly bashed against the tree. Their thick eyebrows only added to the dumb look.
Slam. Slam. Slam. The Dragon was finally able to use its superior weight and leverage to its advantage again. These were serious blows and the Titans would not be able to survive too many of them.
Slam. Slam. Slam. Pestilence, the Titan in the Dragon's left hand, began to choke on the chunk of Sean's leg still in its mouth.
Slam. Slam. Slam. She went limp and unconscious, claws finally retracting from the White Dragon's no longer white arm. Twilight sensed something change in the commotion behind her, and she risked dislodging her armor, standing up on the Dragon's head and turning to look. War had finally bulldozed through the army of squirrels, taking dozens of wounds in the process. It was heading straight into a leap for the Earth Dragon's already wounded back.
Out of magic, all Twilight could do was scream, "Turn! Swing! Now!" Her Dragon obeyed, turning and swinging Pestilence's limp body like a weapon. It collided with the leaping War mid-air and the two tumbled away, crushing hapless squirrel soldiers in the process. War recovered her feet, grabbed Pestilence by the scruff of the neck, and took off bounding into the forest in full retreat. The Dragon roared.
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Sean saw one cabbit get rescued by another but didn't care. He still had a death-grip on the one he really wanted.
Slam, Slam, Slam. "That's enough!!" he kept screaming over and over. But it wasn't enough for him, not yet.
Slam. Slam. Slam. He made a bigger turn and bigger, slower hits, now that his left hand was free and he could do so.
Slam. Slam. Slam. Blue blood dripped down from where the Titan Death hit the tree, joining his own red blood running from his body to make a purple puddle at his feet.
Slam. Slam. Slam. Death vomited and Sean clearly saw the head of the child he had just seen killed, tumbling from her lips. She went limp and her claws retracted from his arm, but he still wasn't done.
Slam. Slam. Slam. The swarm of squirrels surrounded the pair to make absolutely sure that this Titan would not also escape. They stood there, silently, solemnly, bearing witness to the end of an era.
Slam. Slam. Slam. The army began to stamp their feet in rhythm with the beat down. Sean started to get lightheaded.
Slam. Slam. Slam. Twilight screamed her rage, hatred, and sorrow. Most of all, she demanded that Sean not stop until the Titan was dead. He complied.
Slam. Slam. Slam.
