The Bloodmoon Society [2/12]

Chapter 24) A Leaf's Past

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       Luna sat down at the table while the humanoid dragon cooked, waiting patiently for the vampires to return with the books. "So..." She said, "You're into cooking then?"

       "Yeah, I'm not very good, though. Not that it's awful or anything, but it's fun. Hope you don't mind, Francis has gotten used to it. He usually helps though, which, you know, helps."

       "It'll probably taste fine. My bro eats dead deer straight off the table, can't be any worse than that."

       Ovzu laughed, "Well, I think that's because of his power, Luna. Do you know if he's affected by taste?"

       "Nah, he'll straight up eat sewage, he just doesn't care."

       "That's disgusting."

       "Tell me about it! I once watched him eat diapers out of a public trash can. He’s also eaten his school books. And his toenails. And licks his own butt after shitting.”

       “Well… at least he cleans himself?”

       “I guess that’s one way to put it… Say, what was it like for you growing up? You know, if you're okay with talking about it. I'm kinda fascinated by LXNX and am rather curious, I'm sorry if that's offensive."

       "Oh no, you're alright, Luna. I can answer questions... Growing up was awful. I spent hundreds of years in cages being monitored, and scanned, and poked with needles. I was the second dragon after ol' Torch, it was very much still the experimental phase. Nowadays that place can probably pump out dragons as efficiently as a snap of the fingers. I believe they made four of us originally. Torch, me, and a water and air dragon. You know, to play around with the elemental magic they had. We were all tier 1. After us they worked on T2s, which they tried to make obedient, but they had enough sense in them to rebel. Once they made tier 3 dragons, that’s when they struck gold.”

       “LXNX uses them as fighters, right? I’ve heard they sic 'em on people who don’t listen, and have them rip ‘em to shreds.”

       “Yeah, they really do. It’s not just that, though, it’s an entire event sometimes. Most of the time they'd use their dragons as hunters. We were made to be their beasts, in Drago’s image, to get their dirty work done. They would track people down. They would rip them apart. They would bring targets back to LXNX. Whatever they were made and trained for. As I said, sometimes it was a spectacle. They’d get some poor unfortunate soul who went too far in the wrong direction, put them in a ring with a dragon, and watch them get eaten alive. I’ve seen them.”

        “Dude that’s fucking metal!... I mean traumatizing, yeah, trauma.”

       “Heh, I swear Drago would’ve said the same thing. It was traumatizing for most, but he always thought the spectacle was cool… Sad and evil, but still cool. He was always intrigued by the dragons at LXNX. His friends once told me that when they were first introducing Torch, he dragged them all out to see. As in, it was only supposed to be for the Centaur Section Leaders, but they snuck in and watched, because Drago wanted to see what they were all about. Deep down he’s always had the connection with them, with us.”

        “I can see it. But what about you? How was your childhood?”

       “I spent a good amount of my childhood, or as I like to call it, ‘growing period’ performing various tests and tasks. Being monitored. In cages. All that good old nostalgic nightmare stuff.

       “And then you eventually got out, right? Well, I mean, obviously you did, but, you know."

       “Yeah, they eventually moved me onto a Section when I was fully grown. I helped the farmers move things around. That was my life for an uncomfortable amount of time. Everyday, as terrible as things may get here, I am SO glad that that is all behind me and over with. I don’t think I could handle going back. I think I would just, like, die if I went back.”