Under The Mask (A Raya and The Last Dragon Fanfic)

Chapter 1: The Lonely

"Come on, the party is about to begin." Says a dragon as she is pulling her friend towards the wooden castle that is shimmering with light."Alright alright, stop pulling me." Her friend said.Once they are in front of the castle's doors, they were greeted by the guards as they happily let them in and what the two friends saw behind the doors was beautiful. Walking through the entrance, they stop and stare at the wonderful decorations that are hanging on pillars of wood. There were long rows of tables filled with food, which is big enough to feed the whole room. Then lastly, there was the upbeat music being played on a nearby stage, where every musician, who is either a dragon or a human, would each have their turn performing their song to the dancing audience. At the very end of the room, there stood five thrones belonging to the royal family of The Dragon Country of Draagun and only one of them is sitting down. His tired eyes watch his lively guests twirling and bouncing around the room, including his siblings, who wanted to join in and enjoy, however for him, he doesn't feel even a hint of enjoyment. Before he even moves a muscle, his youngest sibling skips towards him with a wide smile on her face, then, she grabs his paw and begins moving them left and right while singing the song that is being played right now. "Come on, Pengy, dance to the rhythm." She said.He sighed and puts his paw away from his sister's grasp, who looks at him in confusion."Sorry, Sisu, I'm... Not in the mood. You go ahead and have fun with your sisters and brother.""But, Pengu, it's your birthday, you suppose to have fun on a special day like this. Come on, just party with us, please?" Sisu said while she made a cute face.Pengu smiles as he pets his little sister's head and said. "Alright, fine, I'll join, but only for a moment."Soon enough, Pengu is seen doing a little dance in the middle of the dancefloor with his friends and family, and yet even though he is being surrounded by the people he loves, nobody acknowledges how lonely he felt in their company but except for one. Staring through a crack on a wall of the castle, a glowing eye can be seen, gazing upon the miserable prince. Knowing of Pengu's pain, they wish to be there for him, but alas, there is one thing that prevents them to go near Pengu or any other living being that walks and talks, and that is that they are Druun, mindless and unfeeling creatures that take the lives of both human and dragon and turning them into stone. However, this single Druun that I'm talking about is quite different from the rest of their hive as they seem to wander around on their own, traveling throughout Kumandra and Draagun, while hiding among trees and caves from humans, yet there are instances of this Druun consuming their life essence if they irritate them. Other than, them wandering throughout the lands and seeing brilliant things that all life could do had given this Druun thought, next feelings, and lastly a conscious mind. The lone Druun watches Pengu for a moment until they have enough of seeing Pengu's bland expression as it hurts them from inside and, like every single day, she hopes that Pengu feels better as soon as possible. They slither down from the tree branch they sat upon while ignoring that their deadly touch had made the tree old and horrid. They soon move on, traveling from Draagun and to the very edge Kumandra and, when they are at their final destination, and when the moon is floating in the middle of the starry night sky, they saw their fellow siblings who all came from all directions and together they all move towards their home. A cave. A cave filled with countless tunnels and rooms, and right now, every single Druun (including The Lone Druun) is advancing towards the center of the cave, where the Druun was birthed into existence. The Throne Room of Father Druun. Father Druun, a giant eldritch dragon of a thousand eyes (and some of those eyes are in his big verticle mouth) and god and father to the Druun race. In his throne room, his children walk towards their father whilst he sucks out the life essence that they have stolen from their unfortunate victims, while their father looks into their victims' memories and comments on the way they live. "Lazy. Greedy. Gluttonous. Indecent."Soon enough, it was The Lone Druun's turn to feed their creator and as Father Druun takes their stolen life essence, he was taken aback by what he had eaten, and then, he slowly closes his eyes as he spoke."Ah... The simple life of a tree." After that, Father Druun moves his head down towards the Lone Druun as he continues to say more, calmly. "It is marvelous but... What the hell is wrong with you. I'm tired of you. Get out of my room and rest like the rest of your siblings."Straight after hearing the soothing, yet harsh words of Father Druun, The Lone Druun did what he told them as they went to one of the millions of rooms that they were birthed in. In said room, their siblings are being fed by the Mother Druun (each room has a Mother Druun) her appearance isn't so different from Father Druun, but they are much smaller, and once their siblings are finished eating, they all went to their burrows and sleep, while some of them went out in search for more life essence to appease their creator. "Ah, Eyes, haven't seen you for days." Says the Mother Druun to The Lone Druun. Yes, she nicknamed The Lone Druun 'Eyes' because one night, after The Lone Druun traveled throughout the neighboring lands, the Mother Druun notices a change in her Druun's physical form but wasn't bothered by it."Come here." The Mother Druun said as she gently holds her offspring and proceeds to give them their meal. She begins to violently vomit out a black gooey substance from their mouth and it covers The Lone Druun's shapeless body till the Druun absorbs all of it.The Lone Druun was about to get out from The Mother Druun's hold and head to its burrow, yet The Mother Druun quickly grabs them."No no no, please stay, let me see what you've done in your journey." Next, The Lone Druun moves closer to the Mother Druun while the Mother Druun puts her head against their offspring's body, then The Lone Druun shares their memories with their mother. "Hmm, every single day, I always see you looking at that same dragon. Not that I'm complaining or anything." After that, The Mother Druun lets go of her child as she watches The Lone Druun hurrying themselves into their burrow.Inside, their burrow is like every Druun's room, but it is a great place to chill in though. Next, they place themselves into the middle of the burrow and dig themselves a hole big enough for them, and soon, their violent twitchy and twisting body begins to slow down and, right after a few moments, their whole body stops in place, meaning that the Lone Druun is resting in peace.