Here Be Dragons: The Protector

Chapter nineteen: Turned

They hadn't been in the air long before Vaylerie burst out of her reverie with a gasp. She felt the wrongness again. A sudden surge came from behind her, and it was close. The pained roar that followed soon after told her just how close.

Lukas felt his partner's pain slice into his gut like a knife. His eyes had already shot open by the time her roar split the air. He felt the instinct that was Kaolin's subtle way of communicating telling him the source of her pain was on her back just behind him. Summoning a sharp sliver of stone, he made two deft sweeps to cut the straps binding him to the saddle. He spun around to find a sight that overwhelmed him with sorrow. Green, luminous eyes glared out from an ocean of bubbling grey stone. A feral snarl pushed through lips that were rapidly losing their feminine curve. With a loud tear, the expanding shoulders ripped through the green Rider's jacket, and the simple black trousers split along their seams. But the Turned that was once Jenna was not the worst of it. What she had done felt like a knife through Lukas' heart. He had driven her hand down into Kaolin's back – shattering scales and ribs alike. Having jammed her fist within the wound, some of the greyness seemed to be running off into a spreading grey pool within the dragon. Lukas threw himself at the stone monster, and they both went flying from Kaolin's back. 'I'm too late. Jenna is gone, and Kaolin isn't far behind.'

He knew what he had to do. Kaolin was strong. The Turned couldn't be allowed to control her. As he fell, he spun in the air. Tracking her path, he reached out to the patch of ground she was heading for. When he summoned spikes there, he felt like he ripped out his own soul. Worse – it felt like it had been ripped out, turned upside down, and forced back in again. Like all the pieces that interlocked were knocked off in the process, and he was left a half-person. She cascaded closer to the wicked points, and he was already in mourning. 'Sylas, Jenna, even Marie... I could survive losing them. Eventually I could bear it. But you... I can't lose you.' His heart rebelled against his mind. It flung itself out at the spikes, instead transforming them into mounds of soft dirt. He landed on the edge of those mounds of dirt. Most of his body was cushioned, but his leg hit solid ground with a loud snap.

He dragged himself over to Kaolin. The grey pool was spreading – it was like her skin was burning, bubbles forming and instantly popping to leave harder, darker skin behind. The scales didn't escape the transformation. They sank beneath the surface of the pool, then reappeared with a fizzing sound. Their bronze radiance was replaced with dark shadows, the rough skin still visible between their swirling mists. The grey pool swept through the wings. The wings were already a dark colour, but after the infectious pool, black veins were visible through them. He could only look upon what had happened to his partner and whimper, "I'm sorry. This is my fault." He leaned his head against her bubbling snout.

He flinched slightly at the pain in his leg. Looking down, he saw a long black talon sticking into it, a grey pool spreading through him just as it had her. The last thing Lukas saw were the glowing brown eyes of what had been his partner.

The first thing the Turned that had been Lukas saw were the glowing brown eyes of his partner. He grinned. The world felt right again. It wasn't quite that his soul had been righted again – more like the rest of him had been inverted to match. Closing his eyes, he briefly looked over everything he had had known before his birth. Then he raised his head to the sky, appraising the rapidly diminishing red dot. 'White Rider... This should be interesting.'

Stay tuned for Part Two: The Soldier -- hopefully coming soon (and with better cover art XD)

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- T.D.