The Boy and the Black Dragon

The little boy ran through the jungle, headed for the beach, where the sands remained disturbed from the incoming tides. The air was warm, and the skies bright, as he moved through the trees, and pushed away the big leaves and thick brush. He appeared to be about the age of seven or eight, with bright blonde hair and blaze-blue eyes. His body was covered in a light tan coloring, the usual appearance of those closer to this section of the Scale. The Scale was the name of the field; the land varying from open clearings, to thick trees with hot air and occasional humidity.

From behind the boy came a loud buzzing, that (as it got closer) eventually turned into a strange humming sound. When even closer, and just above his head, it became the sound of wings, beating above him, like an enormous bird. But, unfortunately for the youth, it was surely, not a bird. It was actually, a very dangerous and powerful being - that happened to be an Angel.

The child stopped and pushed away some leaves that were almost as large as he was. He could see the beach now, and worked his way through the jungle, climbing over a few fallen trees. He panted and stopped just to turn behind him, to see if he'd lost the person whom he believed was hunting him. He had not. And there before him, just overhead, was this Angel, his enormous light glowing from his wings, causing the trees to bend away from his ever-glowing light. The raw power that ripped away from this creature was unmatched, and as he hovered there, the boy was able to make out his character.

Long, blue, flowing hair hung and blew in the winds from the Angelic male. His eyes were that of a sinister red, and his teeth were sharp, like a vampire's fangs. In his pale clawed hands was a long lance, that ended in a spear tip. His nails were lengthy, and pointed, like his strangely elfin-looking ears. He looked more like a monster than an Angel, but an Angel he surely was. His massive wingspan stretched for what felt like miles, the boy's eyes hardly able to look upon them without squinting. Though it only a short moment, the boy was able to make out the being's regal robes, which were white and dark blue in color. He was beautiful. But he wore a threatening appearance, and said something in another language that the boy could only assume was a threat, or his own pending doom.

A moment went by, and the boy's eyes seemed to blink as if everything had come down to a slow motion. As his eyelids came back up and his bright blue eyes came into view once again, he was able to make out the Angel lunging for him - his wretched right claw outwards ready to snatch up the small lad. The Angelic's lips curled into a snarl, and soon the boy's mind shifted, forcing him to turn in reaction to the terror surely on its way. Bolting from where he was, he pulled himself over another fallen tree, screaming and panting, as he shoved his way through the rest of the jungle. He just had to get to the beach. He had to.

This Angel was mad at him for whatever reason, and the boy was sure that the Angel would kill him as he were alone, and surely defenseless. He had no one to save him, and his only hope was the water, and shifting tides. Perhaps the Angel, would not go into the water. The boy had no idea if the Angel could swim with such massive wings, so it seemed like a logical idea.

The Angel was gaining on the lad now, gliding through the trees at almost ultimate speed. He knew the kid had no idea why he was after him, but it was his mission, that he would not fail.

The blue-eyed boy tripped over some vines, and fell face-first into the sand. Getting to his feet, he wailed, and realized he'd skinned his knee rather harshly, on a mess of rock just beneath him. Shaking he pulled himself to his feet again, running, and limping towards the water. Huffing and running towards the sand he looked back again, afraid that the Angel was just above him now. But strangely, he had vanished...?

WHOOMPH!

The boy cried out and fell backwards, the force of something causing him to do so.

A massive black force groaned, and moved from the sand, it had been covered, and now came into view upon smelling the boy. It was loud, and easily mistaken for a threatening snarl. Possibly a territorial sound, the boy did not know. Slowly the creature dragged itself closer to the boy, who backed up towards the Angel, that surely reappeared behind him. It was a dragon. And what a ghastly-sized beast it was. The boy looked upon him in fear, and then surely in curiosity. For the dragon, was not growling at the boy, he was almost wailing. Crying out - in pain. The boy panted and continued to shake, what could he do? There was danger no matter which way he was trying to go. He froze, and took only one step back, hearing the Angel whispering his curses, just above him. He kept his eyes on the dragon, which was black, and laying there on its side. It's eyes were open, hollow black eyes now on the boy. It snarled and noted both creatures, noting the Angel hovering there, who was not making a single movement other than to flap once or twice.

Without even knowing it, the boy soon found his arms in the air. Strangely, he wanted to help this being, perhaps if he befriended the dragon or served it - that it would protect him from the Angel. It was a long shot, but maybe it could work.

The dragon was black, thick, muscular, and shadowy. He had a very long tail, that ended in some vast spear with tons of barbs and spikes the whole way down. His tail occasionally and weakly flicked up and down as the beast breathed, daring someone to get too close. His body looked as though it were smooth to the touch, but one would surely be shocked at just how rough his scales were. It had two very large black wings, that cast dark shadows over the sands beneath him. They were leathery to the touch, and, for the moment - flexed outwards due to the creature being in some strange state of agony.

As the dragon lay there dying, shadows rolled from it's body, like smoldering flames or smoke. Carefully the boy spoke out, his young voice causing the beast to snarl and huff at him. The boy stopped and closed his eyes, peeking once in a while to see where the beast was. He knew he could be eaten - or perhaps speared alive from the wretched Angelic not so far behind him. Perhaps even the Angel feared this beast - or... maybe he was the one that put it there, the boy didn't know. All he knew, was that this huge behemoth of a dragon was injured, and that it hadn't eaten him yet, which meant that the kid had a shot at making a difference. So he took his chance. After all, couldn't really hurt him that this point...

The Angel knew what the dragon was. It was a dying Draconian God, no mistake. He knew that making a move was illegal before such a God of such power (dying or not), and he halted, awaiting the moment that would surely come. Steadily controlling his breathing, he flapped slowly, his lance in his right hand, pointed downwards, a symbol of indirect respect. His long flowing hair and robes, seemed to silently blow back in the air, as his energy writhed and moved around him. A thick ray of circular light seemed to protect him, his shield there just enough for him to protect himself, should he need to. He kept his hateful red eyes on the boy, and the dragon that he so cautiously inched on forwards to.

When the boy opened his eyes to look into the dragon's - it had truly begun. Slowly but surely, the shadowy energy blowing off of the dying beast, began to flow over to the boy, twisting and turning around him. For a while, it seemed just to circle the boy, as though there was a rather faint tornado of darkness surrounding him. The blackness found the boy's finger tips, swirling and moving like a snake around them. His small and bright blue eyes watched, as the energy began to cover his fingers, as though painting them black. It was almost as soft as ash, though see-through as the wind. Slowly but surely, it began to cover his skin. Then it turned totally black, and his flesh began to look like he'd rolled around in soot.

The power of the dying dragon was truly irreplaceable when it came to things. His body began to thin out, until he were almost ghost-like in some areas, his massive head moving, as his claws gounded themselves into the sands. The tides could be heard here and there, but the low bellows from the dragon, shook the grounding beneath them, echoing out into the jungle louder still. His resounding calls were the calls of the dying, and everything for miles would hear it. He kept his eyes on the boy's eyes, and the two of them never even blinked.

The Angel watched as the blackness flowed from the dragon into the boy. It was almost done now, and his job was merely completed. He almost grinned, though stopped himself, as a simple smirk was all that was needed. The boy's hands began to turn a deep black, the shadows claiming his body as the Draconian God continued to die off. Soon the lad's arms were black, and his blue eyes - had begun to glow. The dragon's massive wings flexed up and outwards, dissipating into the air, turning from ash to airy shadows. The smoke writhed and continued to move towards the boy, and colored up to his elbows. They had turned black as black as an endless vortex of nothing, leaving the boy began to feel strange and light-headed from the shock of it all. When the entire dragon had vanished, the boy fainted, and the Angel - smiled. He morphed into a mass of light, fired off across the skies, and returned to his homeland; the Angel's special mission was complete. For now.

The Angel, would not be seen or heard from again, least, not for a while anyways.

Three Nights later~

The tides were coming in harder now, and the boy was still blacked out in the sands. It was when the night had come on the third day, that he had finally awoken. A loud resounding howl had woken him, shaking the earth below, a rumbling soon to follow. As he forced himself to sit up, he realized he had been out for a while now, the first thing to make him aware of the situation - being his stomach, which growled angrily at him. He shook his head, sand flying from his hair, which caught his attention as he looked around for the howler. Each folicle of his hair - it was glowing! But how? How was this possible? He was no one special... he had no powers... How was he able to do this?

The boy's hair glowed a bright blue, much as his eyes were, though he was unaware of this for the moment. He reached up to touch a piece of it, and it felt strangely warm to the touch. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned and opened them. A mass of trees began to part, and soon a large creature had exploded from the area - beyond where he'd seen that dragon. He swallowed hard and got up, backing up towards the water. Now what?

The large beast had four legs, and - a lot of injuries. It looked like a massive wolf - and collapsed there on the beach, lying there in the sand as the dragon once had. The youth had no idea if he should help this beast. What would happen to him? The small boy slowly remembered the last beast he had tried to help. He remembered it evaporating before his very eyes. Looking down at his hands, his bright eyes widened, when he saw that they were permanently black now. (He had taken his left hand and tried to rub some of the black off of his right hand, but it was to no avail.) Shocked, he gasped, and then the wolf-thing lifted it's head up, snarling because he hadn't noticed the boy beforehand. The boy quickly said that he wasn't going to hurt the wolf, and tried to tell it that he was lost. But the wolf didn't seem to understand, and got to his feet and snarled loudly.

From the trees came the sounds of Hunters. How many of them, was untold. The wolf turned around angrily, the moons lighting up his fur, which was apparently a bright blue. The boy couldn't help but awe at the beast, so beautiful, though covered in gashes, and thick scrapes. The wolf turned back to the boy, who covered his mouth immediately. Slowly, the beast maneuvered himself over to the lad, and gently sniffed his hair. The boy couldn't help but giggle from the sensation of his hair moving, and tickling his face. The wolf would snuff and slightly snarl, a response to the strange laughter. The boy reached up to grab at the top of his head, and felt the snout of the wolf just above his hands, its fur ever so soft to the touch.

The hunters carried tons of weapons. Everything from spears, to bows, and blades. They looked almost human, though a lot of them came with ferocious wings and teeth. The wolf was apparently in just as much of a danger as the boy, and quickly snatched up the child in his maw, and threw him onto his back. The boy gasped and grabbed onto the wolf's fur, and... feathers? This beast had wings! He was a flying wolf! How immaculate... but the beast couldn't fly. As the child looked around, his young eyes were able to find about a dozen spears larger than himself - slammed into the mighty wolf's wings, keeping them closed and down. It was a tactic hunters used to keep big game on the ground, and from flying off to defend themselves. The child almost felt bad for the creature, and sadly grabbed onto his fur, the wolf wasting no time and heading back towards where the boy had originally come from when the Angel had lashed at him.

The wolf ran until one of the many suns had come up, the clouds clearing and shifting away from the blazes in the sky. The wolf seemed to move more like a powerful steed, his legs strong, and his paws large enough to pick up more speed. The blue fur seemed to just blow back perfectly, wavering as the fiend moved through the trees. Its large tail seemed to curl up behind the wolf, giving him total leverage so that he could keep on plowing through the strange forest. His eyes were a bright orange, though unseen until daytime had come to greet them. Tiredly the beast made his way through the jungle to a new-found clearing; a place the boy had never seen before. The massive wolf headed towards a single hutch at the center of the massive open clearing, and collapsed immediately afterwards, panting from exhaustion. Until the wolf eventually blacked out completely, unable to move, and barely breathe.

The boy slid down the side of the wolf's huge shoulder blades, and landed over beside the wolf's left paw, which was by his massive face (which had tons of teeth). He fell backwards onto his ass and yelped, covering his mouth immediately, afraid to wake the creature. But the beast was out cold, and had not heard him. Carefully, the boy ran over to the hutch, beside it, an open campfire. He remembered the last time he'd seen fire - something in his dreams had told him that fire would be important to him one day. He didn't know why now though; he wouldn't know why for a great many eons. But for now he warmed his hands, and ate about six fish that had happened to be cooking there. He took the other dozen, and brought them over to the wolf, who was still not awake. Setting it down before his nostrils, the boy then turned and ran - towards the hutch of course.

It had no windows, and was made from sod, leaves, hay, and trees. He yelled out as he banged on the door, desperate to help the fiend that had so kindly saved them both. With a sigh he pushed open the door, to find that the place was a tiny house inside. He rummaged around until he began opening cabinets - each filled with different things. When he crouched down beneath some of the food doors, he found something of interest. Glowing bright green, and bright blue - viles. What were these? And where did they come from?

The boy had an instant flashback, remembering how he'd touched his hair earlier. It too, was glowing. And as he found his reflection in some standing water, in a wooden bucket - he realized, his eyes were glowing now too! How strange. Grabbing some of those, he wandered out back for the wolf, fighting the urge to drink one of them. Maybe they were medicine! He didn't know, but he wanted to find out. For whatever reason, he just felt drawn to the unique glowing liquids inside. The lad shook his head, and pushed the door to outside open.

But when he got back, he realized, that the wolf was missing. Where did he go?

The boy scratched his head, and cautiously walked past the campfire, looking both ways, as he made his way a bit closer to the treeline. Surely an injured creature this large couldn't have just up and vanished right? He let out another sigh - and then gasped loudly, almost dropping the viles completely.

There, at the center of where the massive wolf had collapsed, was a .....was a girl!

The girl was pale, with long, long blue hair. It wasn't glowing like his, it was just blue, almost perfectly matching the skies above. She had tons of scratches, and was bleeding from her arms, and her back. All of the spears had seemingly vanished, as though they'd been ripped from her body. They laid all around her, scattered in the surrounding grass. Her feet were pretty scraped up, and her sides were bruised and ribs appeared broken, or at least badly swollen. Her back looked like she'd been flogged, skin open and cut deeply. Her eyes slowly opened, ice-blue in color.

The girl was naked, and cold, the grass brushing up against her body no thanks to the light winds. As the boy grew nearer he reached down, trying not to notice that she wasn't wearing anything. He noticed that her hands, were very blue claws, covered in fur, like her blue legs (well, from the knees down), and even her wolfish feet. She had a very long bushy tail, wrapped over her body, covering her midsection. Her long blue ears flicked ever so weakly, atop her head, as though she were still attempting to listen to the world around her. But she didn't say anything. Moments later the girl's eyes closed, and she seemed to loose her consciousness again.

The boy looked around for the fish, and found the stick completely ripped apart and empty. Assuming that this was originally his wolf, he tried to wake her, gently stroking her face, and hair. He begged her to wake up, and she did, her icy eyes fighting to stay open. Her voice was frosty-cold, and the language she spoke was ancient - something the youth was unfamiliar with. Why was it that no one spoke his language? He would ask himself that for a long time. With a frustrated groan he held out some of the viles, shrugging and offering them to her.

The (hybrid) Wolf-Girl flicked her ears, and gently sat up, her massive tail fluffing over her body so that she was not revealed to the child. She gently nodded and took the viles, unscrewing them, and drinking them slowly. Her eyes began to radiate, and go from that icy-blue, back to their normal orange-red. She watched the boy back off at the sight of those eyes, and offered him a bright lime green vile. He slowly took it, bravely drinking it without question, but in complete fear. Soon his knee and other scrapes healed, just as the girl's before him were. His eyes opened wide and glowed brightly, a huge smile over his face now. The girl smirked and ran her fingers through her hair, the closest sun glowing down at her, almost happily.

But that wouldn't last.

The hunters were awake now too, and coming back for what they had looked for. About ten of their group's best hunters burst through the trees at the two beings, sitting before their hutch. The Wolf-Girl backed up, trying to shift forms, though she was not strong enough to do this just yet. She could still barely move, the girl's injuries so severe internally, that the viles hadn't had the time to fix her yet. The boy bravely wandered over to the girl, and stood in front of her. Shaking he put his hands up, and yelled for them not to take her away from him. He hadn't ever made a friend before, and without his knowing - this female would eventually be so much more than a friend to him, but in due time.

The hunters were skilled demons, trained in the perfect art of killing.

They yelled and slobbered in their ridiculous, nasty language, daring the bigger ones to get closer. One of the alpha males howled, and growled at the girl, who got to her feet nervously. She reached out and grabbed the boy, her flowing blue hair falling down her chest, down to her waist. It was soft, and lively, and completely stunning in such lighting. The boy reached up and touched some of it, then looked up at her and smiled softly. He turned back to see the demon getting closer, and wanted nothing more then for them to disappear.

The girl's tail flicked back and fourth, and she backed up, pulling the child back with her. They would have to make a run for it, but in her condition, capture was almost impossible to avoid. She took a deep breath, and allowed her massive wings to appear from behind her, ripping from her back and flaring out in a stunning display of awesome. But they were cut up, and the injuries shown through the feathering along with the blood and gore strung from them. She hissed and bared her fangs, her ears curling angrily into the shape horns as her eyes blazed with hate.

The demons waved rope, and one of them brandished a blade before the two. Several archers with poison-covered arrows stayed back in the brush, yelling and scowling at each other. Without warning the alpha lunged for them, and the child felt the tall hybrid suddenly grab onto him and pull him away. The two then went backwards, and fell into the grass, the young lad rolling to his side to avoid being struck. The girl got up and shoved the beast away from them, the others hunters coming in after her. The boy got up and ran over to help her, but it was impossible to get past the demons standing in his way. Two of them had large wooden bows, aimed directly at his small body. He cried out watching them tie the female up, grabbing her and trying to put her down while she angrily fought them as hard as a hybrid would.

The boy wailed out in pure rage, and angrily threw up his hands, remembering that dragon from the other night. Could it somehow help him? It had vanished into air and had gone into him right? And sometimes it even spoke to him in his sleep. Though he didn't understand the language that meant something... didn't it?

The boy closed his eyes and called out to the dragon, loudly, begging it to help him.

The demons turned as a massive, black, writhing energy flowed from the kid, and twisted and turned into the air before them all. The energy still remained attached to the lad's hands, but shifted into the formation of a onyx-colored dragon. It was see-through and almost ghost-like, and angrily flew out over all of the demons - ripping right through them. All of the hunters began to scream and fall over in agony, as the dragon-thing sliced through them like a thousand knives. Some of them - were even ripped apart completely. The dragon almost seemed to be alive again, though connected to the small child attempting to control it. It angrily made sounds and opened it's mouth at the flailing demons, shooting more black shadow from it's mouth, plaguing all of the boy's enemies. The remainder of the squad still safely at a distance in the trees attempted to escape, but the ghost dragon only glided over and through them, inhaling their souls, and then dissolving their bodies.

When the boy was sure they were all dead, he thanked his strange black dragon spirit, and it vanished back into his chest and soul. Immediately, he ran over to the girl, and began to untie her. He didn't know why such beings would be after something so beautiful. Then again, he had no idea why the fuck some Angel was picking on him either. As he removed the last of the ropes and helped her sit up, he crawled into her arms, and rested his head against her body. She casually ran her clawed fingers through his hair and kissed the top of his head, then picked him up and wandered back into her hutch.

This would be the start, if a very, very - important friendship.