Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Dragon Rising ❯ Chapter Three ( Chapter 3 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
In which Yugi has a dangerous encounter and meets a friend
Half black dragon demon. He kicked a stone over the grass as he walked. Ridiculous. My mom died in another world. Okay, a bit far fetched, but given previous evidence, possible. My dad is from another world—alright, I'd love it to not be true, but still, it's possible. I don't really know much about him. He stopped in front of the pond that took up the center of the park and inhaled deeply. If I'm not human, then what am I? I have to be human. There's no way I can be…something else. I mean…if I was, wouldn't I…show it someway?
The mental image of himself with black bat wings, horns and a barbed tail popped into his head. It danced around laughing madly and waving a black pitchfork. “Oh, please,” he muttered and started walking along the pond's edge again. He continued to walk and mull things over for awhile until he paused again under an old oak tree.
“Wouldn't a dragon demon look more intimidating?” he muttered in reference to his little mental image. He raised an eyebrow then shook it off. Something sparkled under the pond's surface in the fading sun.
He squinted and crouched to get a closer look.
The glare from the setting sun was a bit annoying.
He leaned down.
Then his foot slid on an unseen patch of slimy pond algae.
His foot shot forward and he fell back, arms flailing for balance. “Wh-whoa!” he fell with a thud, a splash, and a yelp of pain as something poked into his hand.
“Ow…” he muttered, sitting up and grimacing at his now wet pant legs. He sighed and held up his hand.
A thorn, nearly an inch long and needle thin, poked from the soft flesh in the heel of his palm. “Great,” he said before yanking it out. He winced and threw the thorn into the water while a dot of cherry red blood appeared. Yugi licked a finger to dab it away, then stopped and looked closer. Was there black mixed in with the red of his blood?
Splash.
He glanced up, saw nothing, and went back to examining his hand.
Splash.
Closer this time. He ignored it.
Splash.
There was black mixed within the red. It was faint, but there were definitely streaks whirling through the trembling red dot.
Splash.
That was getting really annoying…
“Who has summoned me?” a whispery voice said. Yugi jumped and looked up, then scrambled several feet backwards.
The top half of a face peered over the water, the eyes a solid green so dark it was almost black. Two pin pricks of white settled in the center were pupils. Wild, tangled green-blue hair braided with bits of algae, water plants, bones and shiny bits of tumbled glass sprouted from its crown and were plastered to the skull by water. Finned, pointed ears knifed up through the hair, parting it sharply. The skin was a mottled grey, blue, and green, with scales peppering its temples, brows and cheek bones.
Yugi gaped for several seconds, mouth opening and closing several times in an attempt to speak. He gave himself a good pinch to make sure he wasn't seeing things and yelped when it hurt. “Ah…wonderful…uhm…h-h-hello?” he finally managed. The thing's strange eyes half lidded and it moved closer, gliding through the water like an eel until it reached the shore and levered itself out. It was distinctly female. The scales continued to scatter over her shoulders and bare breasts and down her sides and hips and along her legs, which ended in strange, long, slender webbed toes. Her hands were just as strange, with an extra joint and delicate membranes stretching between the fingers. Her teeth were thin and sharp and translucent when she opened her mouth to speak.
“You summoned me, dragon-child. I smell your blood on the water as I smell it on your flesh,” she said. Her voice reminded him of water whispering over a beach of pebbles.
Again with the dragon thing? He thought even as he asked, “Uh…what…are you…exactly?”
She hissed with annoyance and he saw gill slits on the side of her neck flutter. He gulped.
“Do not bother me with stupid questions. Why have you called?” she demanded. Yugi scrambled for something to say.
“Uh…well…I, uhm…well, it was sort of an, uhm, accident, I suppose…h-how did I summon, exactly?”
The woman stared at him strangely for a long silent moment before a feral smile spread on her face.
“The dragon-child does not know about the Folk?” she asked slyly. He shook his head.
“The dragon-child does not know of his true nature?” Again, he shook his head.
Something gleamed behind those eyes that were like black holes.
“Come with me, then, dragon-child. I can teach you,” she purred, gesturing with a slender hand, beckoning him into her water home even as she slid her legs back in. Her fingertips caressed his face, moving down his jaw line. Her skin was cool and slick.
He blinked. He half way wanted to get up and follow her into the water, to listen to what she had to say. Also, she wasn't half bad looking and didn't look that much older than him...he didn't mind the cold hand touching his face.
The other half didn't want to go. In fact, it wanted to yank her out of the water and make her tell him what treasures she had hidden down there. That, or just throw her into a hot fire and watch her steam and sizzle. Whatever it was, it was telling the first half not to go.
“Come with me, pretty one,” she cooed by his ear, now leading him by a hand clasped in her cold, slippery grasp.
“Shut her out!” came a sharp command from somewhere in the hazy distance. “Don't listen!”
It didn't matter what that voice said. The woman was singing now, softly and sweetly.
Yugi felt his eyes blinking shut, barely registering the cold water around his knees, the half of him that was telling him quite forcefully to stop being such an idiotic human and get the hell out of the water or to hurry and broil the woman where she stood.
He snapped out of his reverie suddenly as the woman gave an unearthly, ear piercing shriek. Yugi snarled and clapped his hands to his ears, stumbling backwards and falling up to his mid torso in water. He shook his head and looked up, then stared in shock.
A man, just under six feet with skin black as pitch and hair the color of pure snow, a well built, almost broad, chest and shoulders and powerful looking arms, held the woman up with one hand by her tangled, wet hair. The other held a gleaming, gracefully made scimitar to her neck. She scrabbled to free herself from his grasp but it was useless. “Get back to your liquid home,” he said in a firm, low voice. She squealed and hissed, sharp nails scrabbling at a wrist wrapped in a sturdy leather arm guard. He shook her forcefully once and hauled her higher, “Get back to your home. You will not show yourself for fourteen days and fourteen nights.” With an angry squeal, she was dropped with a splash. She eyed the dark man and edged towards Yugi, who scrambled back. The man moved swiftly between them and placed the sword's tip to her throat. “Home,” he commanded.
The woman shot the man a dark, poisonous look and slunk away, hissing as she vanished under the surface.
Only then Yugi saw the man relax as he returned the scimitar to a sheath on his back along with a second blade. He turned and offered a hand to Yugi with a grin that shone pearly white against the black of his skin. Yugi hesitated, eyes lingering on the man's pointed ears, before slowly accepting the hand. He was hauled to his feet before he could push himself up and helped to the shore. “Next time a siren asks if you know about the Folk, say yes,” he advised, “Actually, next time one asks anything, don't ask questions and either kill her or force her back to the water. And think of the most annoying thing you can to block her out.”
“Uhm…thank you?” Yugi said as a dark brown and green cloak was dropped over his shoulders.
“You're welcome. And until you get that magic around you under control, don't put blood in the water. That's why she came. She smelled the blood from your hand and followed the magic taint in it,” the stranger continued, briskly bandaging Yugi's hand with a strip of cloth the stranger tore from his tunic.
“Why did she want me to come with her anyway? And what was she doing to me?”
“She had enchanted you. Frankly, I'm surprised you resisted as well as you did, but then again, with the aura I'm seeing around you, it's not hard to figure out why. As for the reason she invited you home, you only wish it was for a little fun and games (Yugi blushed here). After she was done drowning you, she would've first consumed your magic, then your body. Of course, since I Impelled her not to surface for fourteen days and fourteen nights, she won't be bothering anyone for awhile.”
“She…wanted to eat me?”
“After she figured out you hadn't meant to summon her or that you knew to be careful. Although, you'd think she'd know better than to pick on someone with dragon demon in them.”
Yugi didn't bother to ask how the man knew about that, even if he was still in denial about it.
“My name is Drizzt by the way,” the man said, extending a hand.
“Uh…Yugi,” the boy replied, taking the hand and nearly being shaken off his feet.
“Right then,” Drizzt clapped him on the shoulder (Yugi nearly fell) and spun him around in the direction of Yugi's home (Yugi nearly did a triple pirouette), “Let's get you home then. It's dark out and more than siren's stark poking around once the sun's down.”
Yugi began walking as Drizzt did, taking two steps for every one of Drizzt's long, graceful strides. “So, what are you, exactly, if you don't mind me asking?” Yugi said. Drizzt grinned, “Not at all. I'm drow, although I'm not one of the nasty types I'm sure you've read or heard about, if you read that genre. I rather loathe others of my kind. Well, except for Jade, but she's more drow-ish than I am when she's in the mood. But she's nice enough in her own way.” It occurred to Yugi that Drizzt was a companionable sort of fellow who probably got into lots of trouble with his buddies.
Drizzt continued to answer Yugi's spoken and unspoken questions until they got back to the game shop and upstairs apartment. Then Drizzt demonstrated his dramatic side by throwing up the door, ushering Yugi and announcing, “Ali, I'm ho-o-ome! `Evening, Solomon.”
Alianna came over to hug the charismatic drow while Solomon stood with a grin. “And look who I found wandering the park,” Drizzt continued, gesturing to Yugi, who stood staring awkwardly at the floor. Several minutes passed as the room fell silent.
“Sorry about walking out earlier,” Yugi finally said.
“No you're not,” Alianna replied, “Because you were told something that sounded like lunacy. But welcome to the world.”
Solomon grinned, “No harm was done. Now let's eat. Alianna's made something that smells delicious and my poor old stomach is starving.”
Alianna and Drizzt laughed as Solomon walked over and Yugi noticed that Alianna's ears were also pointed. He blinked, then sighed and let it fall. It seemed that things were only going to get more confusing as he went along, no matter how much he wanted to stop them in their tracks, so he might as well accept it or at least live with it. So, he helped Drizzt set the table while Alianna and Solomon set steaming dishes of wonderful smelling food out.
While Drizzt was placing silverware on napkins, Yugi nudged his arms. The drow looked at him curiously and Yugi noticed that he had purple eyes as well. “About the siren…” Yugi began. The older male grinned. “What siren?” he asked with a wink. Yugi felt his mouth turn into a grin as well and he pulled his chair out as the last dish was set. “Dig in!” Solomon said and the food was promptly attacked.
******
Here I am again, to give some more notes.
1.) First, I am going to make another disclaimer.
** The character Drizzt is, indeed, loosely based on R.A. Salvatore's character from his Forgotten Realms books. I'm a big fan of Salvatore and of Drizzt, but his and mine are not the same. So, I am going to say that yes, I did take the foundation for my Drizzt from Salvatore's brilliant writing and character, but there are some differences. They are similar in the fact that both wield a set of scimitars with magical properties, they are both named Drizzt Do'Urden, both are superb swordsmen and can handle many weapons and both have a sense of compassion and integrity. However, my take of Drizzt is called the Destroyer in one of my other stories, because he will kill with little provocation if he feels it necessary. Yes, Salvatore's will kill too, but the character in this fic can be a blood thirsty berserker in the literal sense. He will go into a battle rage and not stop until none stand against him or he is destroyed. Another difference is that my spin on Drizzt is that he is a very minor magician beside his normal innate drow abilities (while I'm at it, the drow are not mine, they are the product of…someone else's imagination). And I could bore you with more differences, but I'll just summarize. I do give credit to R.A. Salvatore for the one and only Drizzt Do'Urden that many people know and love, for he did give me the ideal for a Drizzt of my own—so, I only own the tweaks in the Drizzt of this story, I guess. Something like that.
2.) I know, I know, sirens usually just lure people in with singing and then drown them, but I decided to take the more sinister side of faery tales and use it to my advantage. So sirens lure men in for their fun and sustenance, and other faery will probably come up throughout this story too. If you only like the more modern, happy fairy stories where little bright pixies grant wishes and everything is frolicky-happy-cheerful filled with pretty prancing unicorns, then I suggest you either ignore what I have, not read this fic, or just accept there's an older version and move on. Faeries were not always nice things in the old stories. Some were just better left alone all around and some were just not good to piss off.
3.) And, just in case there's some people like this out there, any of you who are like “Oh, well, if he's part dragon and demon in this fic, he should be immune to the siren,” just hold that thought for one second while I explain why Yugi was vulnerable. Yes, he is part dragon demon. He is also part human and that's the part that got him in trouble. If you take note, I wrote that half wants to go with the siren, the other half doesn't want to go and wants the first half to stop being a “stupid human”. He'll have some inner conflicts, obviously. The human half was the half that was being enchanted.
Apologies for boring you, I just wanted to make some things clear so I don't get sued or have my ass fried for something I accidentally pissed someone off with. If you have any other questions or any comments (or flames) go ahead and leave a review, because I don't mind if you have an idea or something like that. I'll either reply by messaging or most likely reply in a post of the story here.
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