1 Birth of the Black

Destorianaxe was not always the imposing creature she had grown to become, a millenia before Xing Lei crawled out of one of her eggs she too crawled forth from a clutch of eggs. Her chubby scaled body so foreign to her, her brothers and sisters the only comfort that she was not some misshapen wretch as they all shared that same chubby new born dragon look. As her yellow eyes blinked open for the first time a world of desolation was her homeland. A cave in a distant mountain peak protected the nest from the outside world but it also gave a bleak landscape.

For Destorianaxe, her early days were past much like her siblings, wrestling over each other in playful, ignorant bliss. There was a yearning in each of them to prove to their absent parents that they were the master or mistress of this brood. It was in their very blood to dominate their siblings, to show themselves as the best new wyrmling. Destorianaxe herself preferred less strenuous bouts that her bigger brothers favored, using her mind to outwit her challengers, to offset their stance and strike when they believed she was out played.

Yet for each win or loss came no satisfaction, the young wyrmling felt their stomachs growling in pain. How long had it been since they hatched? Where was their momma? Destorianaxe curled up away from the others listening to their hungered complaints. A few of her braver siblings had explored the nest and found no exit... well no exit they as new borns could reach. A looming cave stood open some three hundred feet above the floor of their nest pit. They were safe, but they were trapped. Days rolled on, the rumble of hungry bellies got louder.

Destorianaxe didn't know what day it was, was it even day? When she awoke from her slumber and looked around she saw the nest in shambles. To the side her smaller brothers and sisters were huddled together, a unified force against something. Turning her head she looked to the other side of the nest and cringed wishing she was still asleep. She was now a sister less. A trio of her larger brothers was tearing into the fatty remains of what was once their sibling, her glassy yellow eyes staring out at her clutch mates in death, her youthful body shuddering every time one of their brothers dug his short snout into her torn open belly to chew out a grisly mess of internal organs.

Destorianaxe was quick to back further away from the feasting trio, but she did not join the herd. She looked to the smaller siblings grouped together and shook her head, they were no match for those three, especially now that the trio had feasted. Oddly enough, while she felt some remorse at the passing of one of her sisters it almost seemed a natural thing to her, like something in her blood told her this was a natural occurrence for her kind. Slinking into the shadows, she continued to watch the three gorge themselves on the choicest bits of their sisters body before moving off together to rest.

Destorianaxe watched this, her eyes studying her brothers, larger they had been but they were all dragons, their sister had resisted her demise and left wounds on her killers. Turning to regard what she considered the 'herd' she noticed they huddled together in fear, the gruesome death and consumption of one of their own had shocked their young selves. Destorianaxe wasted no more time, darting out from where she watched to dive on the carcass, giving a last look into the saddened dead eyes of her sibling, her own head lowered to feast on the meat, it was a bitter sweet meal, to gorge oneself on the former sibling that you played with just days prior, but this was now survival.

Now and then her bloodied muzzle lifted to check the opposing sides, the three brothers huddled together speaking quietly, while they took note of their sister helping herself to their kill they made no effort to stop her. On the opposite side the herd trembled as a fourth sibling had appeared to ravage the remains of their mutual sibling even more. Too scared to challenge this sister the wyrmlings huddled together even closer. Destorianaxe could understand their idea, but it was not destined to work, her blood was telling her as much. The reason her brothers did not stop her, they saw her as one of them. True she was more scavenger than predator but at least she recognized that to survive she would need food and the only source here? The weak of the clutch.

They just realized it first, Destorianaxe had also realized the situation but had still not come to terms with being able to slay her playmates, her siblings. Part of her realized this was the natural way of things but something inside her rebelled against this forced slaughter, screamed against the culling of her family because they were weak. There had to be a different way! Yet days past, the joyful and playful air of freshly born wyrms was gone. Each week the trio would pull from the herd the weakest of their siblings and before the eyes of all kill and devour them. Each week Destorianaxe waited till the three had finished to take her fill, her remaining siblings watched her with loathing, reviled at benefiting from their brothers fratricide.

The first month past like this, the clutch that had born some twelve young dragons now stood at almost half that number. Destorianaxe herself, her three predatory brothers and four smaller siblings. Had those four or more banded together to fight the trio, perhaps they might have saved that first sister, but they had scattered and cowered each time leaving each victim to fend for themselves while cursing the unjustness of their big brothers bullying them. Often they whined and growled, asking why they did not hunt the loner, their exiled sister but the trio ignored the pitiful mewlings of the weak.

Destorianaxe herself kept busy, while the three hunted and rested, growing fat on the blood of their weaker siblings, she had other ideas. While they rested she sprinted around her side of the nest, getting use to her body. Some day, and likely soon, the three would come for her. She had to be ready. Unlike the starved herd who reluctantly ate the meager scraps of what the prior four left, she was strong and getting stronger. When both hunters and prey slept she was awake trying to climb the wall to the cave. Her blood demanded freedom, to not be food to sustain others!

Half way into the second month, one of the trio fell. As cowardly as the herd had become they were all dragons. Faced with their impending death the would be prey gouged the predator with their horn, tearing open the base of the throat. His former companions were quick to shift targets. The scent of fresh blood especially from a reasonably well fed source appealed greater than the rail then prey they had secluded. Destorianaxe realized this was the beginning of the end. The herd was down to three, the pack was down to two, but the unity of the pack was shattered, feasting on the third and the sustenance a well fed carcass could now provide meant the brothers were after each other... and her.

She would get no food this time she knew, the brothers tore their sibling in half each taking a part and moving to different areas, the herd moved to the central area, ringed now by the two feral brothers and the scavenger sister. The whole setup was one that would explode soon, as the brothers ate the herd crouched low talking amongst themselves. Destorianaxe was eying the exit, tonight would be the night. Hours trickled by, the sounds of gorging quieted in the distance, the whimpers of the weaker wyrmlings fell into an uneasy sleep. It was time to escape.

Turning and eying the wall her youthful claws reached out to grasp the claw holds she had been digging out each night, preparing to climb she froze, her head swiveling as a larger form shuffled over. The first brother, the largest of the siblings stalked her way, excited sounds came from the center, the second brother was picking off the herd but by the sounds of it three on one was not being handled well by him. "Sister, whatever are you doing?"

His voice was the reapers mocking grin, those cold predatory eyes watched her every move, "It appears I'm leaving brother, do you intend to stop me?" She did her best to keep the nervous rattle from her voice trying to keep a brave front as the vicious killer that was her clutch mate stalked closer.

"Leave? There is no leaving sister. This is our world, only the strongest can remain... or the strongest and his mate..."

Destorianaxe felt revulsion building in her throat, if she understood him he didn't eye her as food, but instead as a biological source of food. He'd breed her and eat their young. Grimacing she pressed tighter against the wall, her tail tucking tightly to her hind legs, that also meant he intended to... Gritting her teeth she lunged upwards, she was prepared to fight for her life, to not end up like her dear first sister but never had she suspected their first sibling was such a vile beast!

Grabbing, clawing at the rock face she felt claws sinking into her haunches. The mocking look in her brothers eyes as he leanded in and licked the blood from her scales covering her backside. A shiver running right up her spine as she fought to maintain her hold and buck off this monstrous beast latched to her ass. Tears rimmed her yellow eyes as her blood gave her images of what he intended, forcing her to fight harder, to struggle for life, for her freedom.

On instinct her short serpent like neck turned her head back, looking down into the maddened gaze of her brother, her maw opened wide and she exhaled. A thin jet of pale acid squirted from a gland in her throat, spraying down into the shocked visage of her brother. Screaming in pain, the claws digging into her backside withdrew, his claws swiping at his sizzling face as he fell back rolling on the floor in pain trying to get the acid that burned his eyes and muzzle.

Destorianaxe ignored his agony, she ignored the burning inside her mouth and climbed. No thought given to her prepared hand holds, now she slammed her claws into the rock and pulled. Wincing at one point as a claw broke off as it hit a hard metallic mineral she ignored the pain and clawed herself upwards. Below a hideous shriek forced her to look back. Her brother stared up at her from the floor some hundred feet below, his muzzle a scarred ruin, one eye gone, dissolved by the acid or gouged out in his frantic movements, regardless a single baleful yellow eye was locked on her, "SISTER!!!!!"

The ungodly scream, the sheer anger in it rolled up her back and forced her to climb faster, her own eyes closed as she forced herself upwards, if she fell, she knew he'd kill her. He'd destroy her first then take his time eating her broken still concious form... and that is if fate decided to be merciful towards her. Cresting the ledge lip she hauled her tired aching bulk up into the cave mouth and looked back down into the nest. Second brother had fallen to the herd which now delighted in devouring him but their feast would not last long. First brother prowled around the base of the cliff briefly before snapping around and rushing back to the center.

Turning away as the first screams of the herd sounded out Destorianaxe closed her eyes and limped along the passage, the dying screams of her kin were mixed with the vehement shouts of first brother, "Wait for me sister, I'm coming for youuuuu!!!!!"

Shuddering she staggered as she collided with something. Lifting her tear stained and blood crusted muzzle she looked into the yellow eyes of a beautiful dragon, thin of body her long neck was arched in amusement as she stared down at Destorianaxe a soft seductive chuckle escaped her slender muzzle, "It would seem my childe you have left an obsession in your brother. The apple does not fall far from the tree."

Destorianaxe whimpered almost collapsing, "Mother?"

The large dragon chuckled softly, her slender head bobbing lightly, "Yes childe for what it is worth, I am your mother."

"Mother..." That one calming word was the last thought Destorianaxe had before her young mind fell into unconsciousness and knew no more...