6 Solitude

Reaching the end of the corridor Destorianaxe looked into the gloom, the room beyond was huge, obviously nothing natural and definitely fit for a mature dragon, her sires would easily live comfortably inside here from what she could see. Springing forward with claws and fangs bared, the wyrmling gave a roar that echo'd in the emptiness. Her head whipped left and right, wondering where the owner of this lair could be. Closing her jaws and reclaiming her composure she moved forward slowly, sniffing the air, surprised, much like the entrance that there was no scent, just the flat scent of earth and stone.

This situation was completely unrealistic, how could there be so perfect a lair just existing here untouched? Were there no other dragons in this region? A foolish thought, her kind were everywhere were they not? Exploring the room she couldn't find any sign or scent of a prior owner, nor of anything that could have made the lair, she wasn't likely to believe that with this layout this was a natural cave, especially so when she found a shelf that was shaped like it was meant to hold bedding, raised off the floor by several feet on stone supports.

Climbing up and curling around herself her eyes narrowed before dropping and closing. Slumber claimed the young dragon in a peach she'd not experience since the early time of her hatching before the culling had started. A shudder coarsed through her sleeping form recalling those days amongst her siblings, recalling how they looked, how they smelt... and in the end, how each tasted. Her face creased as the dream became a nightmare, the acts of her siblings preying on each other haunting her rest and then her own part, the scavenging rat who ate the others cast offs, the scavenger. The dead look in a siblings eyes that the day prior had shared company with.

Destorianaxe started, leaping up on the bed slab and breathing hard. Her yellow eyes wide dismissing that haunting image of her first friends dead gaze, almost a look of judging and damnation as Destorianaxe had torn into the remaining meat to survive. The young dragon breathed hard, feeling vile rise in her throat as the self damnation for surviving ripped through her truly for the first time as her freedom had relaxed those mental barriers.

Looking around she noted another passage and rushed for it, noting a shaft that would take her down further into the depths of the mountain, but her need for this now was more simple as her head leaned over the edge and expelled the half digested snake meat from her belly. Stretching into the seemingly bottomless hole coughing up her one true meal and a great deal of raw fluid from her stomache. Coughing, Destorianaxe did her best to not breath in the scent of what had just escaped her jaws, stumbling weakly back to the main chamber on shaky legs.

Collapsing on the bed slab she laid there and shivered, for the first time able to think back on how she had survived, what she had to sacrifice to claw her way out of that pit intact and the lives of her siblings which had been left to rot in that darkness. Tears escaped her closed eyes as she screamed against the darkness, she didn't want to remember this now! She was free! She had left that life in the past! So why did the faces of the younger siblings she had initially befriended but later took part in devouring now come rushing unbidden into her mind?!

Destorianaxe raged in the solitude of that chamber. At times crying, sometimes roaring in savage hate at the fate that had been thrust upon what in essence was no more than a child. Part of her wanted to go back, under that constant threat of her brother and sires she didn't have the peace to think about the cost of her survival, yet another part of her mind welcomed it, recalling those hazy faces in clear detail and at the same time vowing to never forget the injustice that had determined those faces would never feel the sun's heat warming their scales...

Several hours later a tired and haggard looking wyrmling emerged from the open maw of the cavern high on the mountain face. A brilliant sun illuminated the view, the sea of golden grass stretching out like a true sea that rolled and shifted with the slightest breeze. Her legs trembled as her jaws moved, she needed to hunt, she needed water. Her yellow eyes glared at the offending brightness that mocked her sour and miserable mood, steeling herself she leaped outwards, her wings stretched wide as she rose into the sky. Banking higher up she swung around the mountain to head into the small forest that stretched behind her new home.

As she flew over the forest her eyes scanned the woods for suitable meals, feeling her stomache gurgle the wyrmling dipped lower, her claws brushing through the tree canopy tearing at branch and Leaf, startling the animals that were also out foraging for food. Predator and prey alike scattered beneath her shadow, a small herd of green colored beasts bounded into the bushes startled by the dragons rather idle tearing of the tree tops. Her head swept back and forth considering the larger beasts flushed from their carefree pursuit of existence before sweeping low, claws stretched as she fell heavily open a swift striding beast, it's long antlers spoke of a long life, a life that ended this day as the wyrmling brought it low, her jaws dropping to tear at its muscled throat.

When the beast stopped twitching Destorianaxe looked around, a pair of savage eyes was watching from the brush, another predator who wanted this meal, yet wise enough to not tempt fate. With a blink the eyes vanished, slinking away for better prey elsewhere. As for herself, Destorianaxe looked to her kill, it should provide a decent feast for awhile but the trick was to bring it back to the lair, the serpent, while thick and long, was easy enough to wrap around herself. This beasts structure denied such ease of transport. It would take several tries and much humiliating failure before she not only arose to the air, but also carried the carcass aloft.

She truly envied her sires size at this time, a wyrmling was decently sized but the carcass of the Fleetfoot deer was almost of equal size. She was only slightly larger but the strength of what she was was unparallel. However, the flight back was anything but smooth, hunting was second nature... getting the prey home was a touch more finesse based. When at last she dropped the carcass on the ledge, and almost dropped it down the side of the mountain at that, she then had the struggle of dragging it down the passage. Leaving it just within the room she collapsed upon the bed slab and breathed deeply, dragging the carcass in had sapped much of her strength, perhaps going for the largest of the bunch had been a mistake.

Turning to look at the carcass she shook her head, no. It wasn't a mistake. She had food to last her a few days, she could explore without wasting time hunting more prey. It had been hard work to bring it back but the reward would be worth it... after a nap... Collapsing on the slab her eyes closed, exhaustion and hunger stealing her senses as a blissful, dreamless sleep fell over her. It would be the next day before she woke and fell upon the carcass in her hunger, finally revelling in the taste of the animal she had slain the day prior.

Compared to the serpent, this large antler beast was of greater delight. The meat wasn't tainted by life in a swamp or the pythons poison. She relished this meal, wondering how a man thing would compare? Despite having no instinct related to the things, something in her very bones demanded she seek out a man thing, to taste of its flesh. She couldn't understand it. Other than that 'daughter' the rest simply lacked that certain something that made her lose all reason.

Lifting her head from the carcass, Destorianaxe looked about her home and finally relaxed a bit. Maybe it was the full belly, or simply the quiet, she couldn't be sure. Something here calmed her. Though with the relaxing of her mind, that night would again revisit the horror of her birth. Again, she would awaken resisting the urge to empty her belly, her claws scraping the hard stone as the visage of her first friend, her sister, rotting in a distant darkness, dead by her actions, her inactions, her greater will to survive. Yet now left there to rot.

Such these early days past for the wyrmling, exploring the lands by day, every few killing and dragging back a larger beast to fill her belly and keep her strong. Yet the solitude attacked her mind each night. Reliving that brutal time at her birth, of watching her brothers slay their siblings and reaping from what they slew. Destorianaxe didn't understand guilt, nor that she shouldn't feel such. It was no crime to survive that time but there was none to bring solace to her wounded mind and soul. Just a dark cave, slowly filling with bones and further more nightmares as every beast skull took on the likeness of a siblings that sat in judgement over her.

Freedom in her early weeks was nothing but torture of another sort. She no longer feared her family beating her down or her brother having his way with her. She feared sleep more these days. Feared the ghosts that demanded her to give up her hard fought life so they could once again exist. A mere fantasy of course, nightmares that plagued a young mind, but to Destorianaxe they were a new cage, one that had walls as distant as the horizon for there was no escaping the deeds of the past.

Days turned to weeks, weeks passed into months, finally a year past. The days had seen the young wyrmling exploring her new domain, ranging further and further from the solitary mountain that she had claimed. The land around her lair had, for the most part, remained unchanged. Larger predators now found hunting grounds further from her territory as competing with the young dragon had not ended well for some of the more arrogant beasts. They had challenged her presence and, in the end, ended up in her belly.

This night Destorianaxe sat at the edge of her lair cave feeling the winds brush over her scales, her eyes were cast to the heavens, her yellow eyes searching the myriad twinkling lights that covered the dark canvas of the moonless night. A year had seen little change in her physically, for a creature that expressed its lifespan in potentially millenia, these past months were no more an eye blink for her body. Yet she had changed in some ways.

Leaving behind her family, achieving her long desired freedom she was now alone. As far as she could tell, no other dragons made this part of the landmass their home. She was far from any of her kin, perhaps never to see them again until that dragon man thing came for his favor. Laying down on the stone, she exhaled deeply. Between her over bearing family and this loneliness she wondered which had truly been worse. Growling at herself, Destorianaxe shook her head to dispel the melancholy that had settled within her mind. She was free, instinct told her to make a lair but while it had kept her alive it truly had not saved her.

Looking out into the dark night her yellow eyes narrowed. Tomorrow would be different, this she demanded of herself. She would fly across the sea of tall grass again, seek out the mountain ranges near her arrival point and truly explore this land. Laying down, her head resting on her fore legs she continued to plan, only rising and seeking the cave when clouds rolled in and began dumping a veritable oceans worth of fresh water across the local landscape. Glancing back at the sheets of rain beyond the cavern mouth she wondered if fate had been listening to slam the jail cell door in her face...

avataravatar
Next chapter