Dragon Bound

Chapter 14

How do you smoke out a dragon? Ryoka thought to herself, she needed a way to expose the creeping dragon that she was sure was on their trail and tail these past few couple of days.

It only just added to the worries she had already, there was the dreams that she kept having, the very same one she had during the flight here, only in these ones the voice of Mother was getting more and more agitated and persistent and demanded a whole lot of urgency.

Then there was the issue of her powers, she had been able to get herself to breathe fire a couple more times although it came out in little streams even lesser than the one she unintentionally blew out at dinner the other night, and then it always left her with a sooty tangy aftertaste in her mouth.

But still she hasn’t been able to attain the shift, everything else she really excelled at it, but no transformations for her, surprisingly she started to feel incomplete without attaining her shift, she had no idea it could make her feel so broken in a way.

Then there was the issue of Damien, hot Damien, the longer they spent together, the more they trained together, the more they spoke and ate together, the more attached to him she is starting to feel, the more affection she is feeling towards him, but then there this alarm ringing at the back of her head, telling her to run the other way.

And now, she caught the dragon that was spying on them during archery practice the other day and now because she had caught it, she kept looking out for it and would always catch a glimpse of it, be it in dragon form or a cloaked and hooded human figure.

What made matters worse was that Damien seemed oblivious to it, even whenever they were together and she catches the glimpse of it, she looks at Damien hoping he would notice as well, but alas he just keeps on going like nothing was there. But then there is something.

Ryoka was getting to the point of deciding that either Damien knew about it and was feigning ignorance or he truly had absolutely no idea, the latter couldn’t be true though, which then brings her to the conclusion that the person was either a friendly, that was meant to keep an eye on them after all she hasn’t seen the person in any white clothes or garment, but then why wouldn’t Damien tell her about it?

Or Damien was… she scraped the thought out of her head, she didn’t even want to think of him in that regards, no way he could be that, no way, right? She thought to herself totally confused about what to think and conclude about the whole issue.

A knock sounded on the door to her bedroom and immediately she was up from the bed with a hunting knife in her hand she tiptoed to the side of the door and listened.

“Hey, are you in there? C’mon out and let’s have some more training” Damien’s voice said from the other side of the door, then she relaxed and sheathed back her knife before opening the door.

As she open the door, Damien made a sudden move for Ryoka aiming to grab a hold of her, but she was quick witted and instead used his momentum against him and judo flipped him, landing him inside the room.

Damien groaned out loud in pain, while he had been expecting a reaction from her, he hadn’t expected the reaction to be so strong and aggressive even.

“Oh, oow, that was good, you learn fast don’t you?” Damien asked with a grin as he got up from the floor still groaning and grinning, apparently he was satisfied with his work.

“Of course I learn fast, what you thought that was going to work the second time?” Ryoka answered also satisfied with her work, the first time Damien had done this, it had been after training, he had acted as if it was over for the day then called her to him as if he wanted to tell her something important, all of a suddenly she was flipped into the air and landed hard on the floor, winded and feeling betrayed.

Ever since then she had been looking for an opportunity to return the harsh favor who knew it was going to come as another prank from him.

“Alright, alright, let’s go out to train” he said admitting defeat and stating his actual purpose of coming.

“This night?” Ryoka asked, they had trained in the day, but they stopped early and she wondered why, now she knows it was so they could pick it back up in the night.

“Yeah, of course, this night, so let’s go” Damien replied and headed out, he whined his shoulder and stretched it back and forth to set it well, it felt as if it had dislocated, she had really went all out on him.

Ryoka wanted to complain and if possible escape from the night training, but she had no choice seeing as she has no excuse, she had night vision thanks to her dragon eyesight, she was well rested and had eaten a few hours ago, in short she was in the best possible state to train, and she knew Damien had intentionally made it happen that way so she would have to comply.

Huffing out a breathe of resignation, she went to dress up and met him outside and as usual they jogged down to the open grounds that they use for training, of course it was a couple of miles away but then, the both of them never feels its fatigue.

Even after training for so long, they hardly break a sweat and it was only when Ryoka wanted to achieve something particularly difficult that she perspires a lot from the effort, otherwise she could go long hours of the normal training and hardly huff in a tired manner.

Once they got to the field, they started their routine and threw themselves into training, close combat, weapons; the sword in particular today the katana, a tool Ryoka had grown to love, and then they started the abilities training, where Damien was trying hard to make Ryoka maximize her abilities and better control them.

All through the training though, Ryoka had felt the presence of the creeping peeping spying dragon, all she is waiting for was the moment she would actually spot it again, and as usual, Damien was totally oblivious to it all.

She got annoyed and decided to confront him about it “Ok Damien, just tell me if you’re messing with me, or can you really not notice the shadow on our tail all these days?” She asked defiantly.

Damien looked truly shocked at the sudden change in her behavior and tone, he was beyond perplexed but the he had caught the gist of the matter that caused the change.

“Wait what? What are you saying?” Damien asked and looked around confused and questioning, he raised his shoulders in a shrug and it made Ryoka seem dumb, she didn’t like that he was the dumb one especially if he hadn’t truly noticed.

“You don’t know? You don’t know that a hooded figure has been trailing us day and night, and sometimes even as a dragon? Really?” she asked again for the sake of being sure.

Now Damien scowled, his look and demeanor turned serious, “When did you notice this?” he asked and picked a couple of weapons casually and with a nod of his head, he prompted Ryoka to do the same.

“Since we left the airport, truly I’ve always had this sense of being followed since the incident with my dad, which was why I had thought it to be nothing but that but then I have spotted the person over and over again this time around” Ryoka replied and as well picked a couple of weapons casually as well as if they wanted to do some more training.

“Are you sensing the person now?” Damien asked to which she nodded in reply “Ok then, if you spot the person again in human form, attack straight away and aim to kill, right now, right here, it’s kill or be killed, if you fail at it and the person gets to shift then we are both done for, do you understand?” Damien charged her.

Now Ryoka thought about a couple of things, first she was glad that what it had turn out to be was that Damien wasn’t really aware of the person and that could probably be because he wasn’t a full dragon like Ryoka was.

Secondly, aim to kill? but then he was right, if she doesn’t kill the person and he or she manages to shift into a dragon, the person automatically gains the upper hand in all ways and could kill or capture them both.

Ryoka signed and nodded to Damien to show her consent, then they continued warily with their training, Damien was now even so much on high alert, making it all the more convincing to Ryoka that he had no prior knowledge of the entity whatsoever.

Just a few moments later, Ryoka spotted the figure amongst a couple of trees a little ways away from where she and Damien trained, she had spotted the person from her peripheral vision and even though the person was a bit of a distance away, she was sure the distance was still a knife throwing distance.

Immediately Ryoka spotted the person, she spun around and flipped two throwing knives in quick succession with all her strength and accuracy using the aid of her dragon eyes.

Even from where she was, Ryoka heard the thud and squelch of the knifes hitting their mark of flesh and bone, the figure stumbled out from among the trees and cane forward a bit then fell to it’s knees.

As that happened though, the cloak came off and revealed long flowing dark and grey hair, and a lady face so tender yet harsh, but it was the eyes that got to Ryoka, grey eyes that bored straight into hers.

Immediately, Damien rushed towards the lady with sword in hand, they hadn’t brought guns this time around, but before he could get to her, the lady shifted into a diamond-back dragon, so large and menacing, but rather than attack them back, she flew high up un the sky and flew away with just a few beats of her large wings.

“C’mon Ryoka” Damien said rushing back and started packing their weapons and all “We have to leave here now” he said to her, but she only heard him from far away, something about that lady dragon really got to her.