The Fields of Fire

Chapter 9: Tau Adana

"You're going to get yourself killed!" Rex said, his voice seemed to be filled with actual worry. His concern might have been fake for all that Tau knew, but she still wanted to stick it to him. Of course she understood the gravity of her situation, but she also understood the gravity of the alternative. It was either fly home on the back of this dragon, or accept being a civilian on the other side of a war she was supposed to be fighting in. Maybe she really would rather die than accept that she was out of this war for good, or maybe was simply afraid of being afraid. She shrugged off that thought, what's bravery if not the fear of fear? She couldn't help but admit, part of her motive was definitely a desire to stick it to that dog named green haired asshole who doubted her.

She did her best to muster a confident swagger as she walked slowly up towards the dragon. From far away she could see the dragon only for its beauty, its rainbow lit wings and the black trance of its scales, but like most things in life, it was a far scarier picture up close. Its scales were like an overlapping patchwork of bent razorblades contorted over a muscular body, tipped with talons at the end of its feet. It opened its mouth as she approached, its teeth were sharp and long, a faded ivory color that looked stained slightly red from decades of consuming raw meat. It's eyes seemed as beautiful and multicolored as the wings, but distance clouded them with grey. From what she could see however, they looked to Tau as if they saw her more as prey than as a potential friend.

    Before making it 4 feet from the dragon, it reared its head up into the air and looked down on her, making a low pitched shrieking sound that sounded like it belonged more in some factory in Drona than out in the wilds of Atheria. As its head was raised into the air it mouth widened even more, the throat between its jaws looked like a dark black void. Tau found the darkness comforting, because it was better than the alternative, that alternative being a torrent of fire. It was as at this point that Tau began to question the wisdom of her decision. Before she may have thought the worst case scenario was that the Dragon would simply fly off, but now Staring into its gaping jaw, bracing for the moment where it would ignite yellow and orange, and where her body would turn black and charred under the wrath of its flames, she knew the worst case scenario was not a fun one.

But she stepped forward anyway, because fear hadn't ever done her any good. Being brave was the only thing Tau had ever known, the only way she knew how to fight for herself. The rainbow beast ahead of her finally seemed to lower its guard a bit, closing its jaws and bending its head to the side, as if trying to get a better look at the girl brave enough to stand before it. Tau was about to seize the opportunity to move a step closer, before she heard the light shriek of another dragon near her, she turned her head to see Xaren, staring down a dragon that was clearly showing no interest. The boy extended his hand but the dragon just seemed to be having none of it, clawing its way backwards and screeching. The Dragon didn't just seem uninterested as it backed away from the boy, it almost seemed afraid, no, terrified of him. As if he was diseased, like something to be avoided at all costs.

Tau very quickly thanked God and her Stars, whoever had made sure she wasn't as unlucky as him, and then returned to the task at hand. She stepped closer to the dragon, who seemed more curious than anything. Now she was close enough to see the detail on the Dragon's shimmering wings. They were like a wave of rainbow, all the colors in the universe flowing down through the dragon's wing. But that was nothing compared to the dragon's eyes. As the dragon became less defensive it lowered its head towards hers, she was now in distance of touching the creature, but she was stunned, her body locked into place as she gazed into a hole so deep an unending, a portal to something else. The colors of the dragon's eyes seemed to be an infinite explosion of every shade imaginable. She swore that she could see colors that had never before existed in her mind, colors she could not put to name. The ebony black scales that covered its black body only appeared to add contrast to the tsunami of color that lied within. She thought about how nothing in the world could ever compare to what she was seeing, how no God nor any Man could ever put into words what she felt in that moment. The Dragon spoke to her, something within it, that thing inside, the place where Color and Darkness battled, a place she knew within herself all too well. In that moment she felt incomplete, she knew something was missing from her, and missing from the dragon as well.