Darkstalker's animus experiments

Chapter one

As the two animus dragonets fought on palace ruins, a head splitting ring rang in their ears, Turtle crouched down to cover them, looking over at his younger sister doing the same.

The seawing siblings seemed to sink into the sand beneath them as it simultaneously swirled around them in a cloud.

Squinting to keep the grains out of his eyes, he could make out the tall, black figure of darkstalker materializing in front on him.

Turtle clutched his the stick in his pouch, the only thing keeping him safe.

"Enchant this room so no animus can enchant spells but me!" He motioned towards anemone "Anemone! Who were you fighting?!" Darkstalker leaned in and roared in the dragonet's face, "no one!" She stuttered, "those were battling spells!" He turned to stonemover, He was about half darkstalker's size, she was shaking so much you could hear his stone-scales clacking against each other.

Darkstalker pointed at the trembling dragon "You! Tell me, how many dragons are on this room?" It took a second to realize what darkstalker was asking, but once he realizes he tried motioning to the dragon to lie, it was foolish however, as darkstalker most likely enchanted to tell the truth.

"Four" the stone dragon shuddered, Darkstalker growled and grabbed at a sword hanging on the wall, "find the dragon our secret animus cares about the most and bring them here! keep them alive, for now" color drained from turtles scales as the sword darted out the door.

Seconds later kinkajou dashed in being poked by the sword "jeez, I'm going!" Her eyes caught turtle's realizing the situation, darkstalker lifted her up as if she weighed less than a flower, "alright animus, reveal yourself before eyesore gets it!" Anemone and kinkajou eyed turtle he reached in the pouch and took out the stick

"anemone, take the stick alright?" She slightly nodded, darkstalker caught the negotiation and as turtle threw the stick, he smashed it with his tail.

Turtle watched in horror as his only protection was reduced to splinters of marble floors.

"FATHOM!" Darkstalker yelled, the ground and walls quaking. Turtle flinched, resisting the urge to curl into a ball and shrink "I'm turtle! fathom went missing centuries ago!" Panic scratched at Turtles lungs, it felt like he couldn't get enough air.

"Ugh you're a splitting image of that traitor," Darkstalker growled, and pointed at kinkajou "you will go back to your— suntime or whatever it is, with no memory of what has happened here" kinkajou glanced at turtle, a head full of questions she couldn't ask, Darkstalker then held out his talons "enchant these dragons to obey anything I say"

Darkstalker smirked at them like ants, the exact spell he cast on his father, was that how turtle's story ended? "Now sit and listen!" Turtle felt his body shift into a sitting position, it felt forced, stiff, uncomfortable, and wrong.

"I've always wondered what the limits of animus magic was, is there some daily limit? What if two animi try enchanting something at once? And obviously how many spells one dragon could cast before, insanity" turtle quivered, this all felt so wrong, "not much for any of you I'm guessing"

he swiftly appeared in-front of turtle causing him flinch, "you, go to fathoms old room, that is now your room, don't try anything and just go to bed," turtle got up and had a little more control over his body, his eyes already felt heavy, when was the last time turtle slept, "he heard darkstalker give similar commands to anemone, and talons scraping on tile behind him.

He pushed open the door to the room and saw a dirty bed in the center of the room, there seemed to be an old pool of water indented into the ground, along with various fountains and dressers.

Turtles body led him straight for the bed, once on the mattress he covered himself with a blanket. He had enough control now to get into a comfortable position his eyelids quickly fluttered shut and he drifted off.