mindcracklove | Fated (Chapter Seventy-Nine)

tanadin posting in

In which Mokdal has a gay dragon crisis, Vechs fears for his life, and we visit a character we haven't seen in a very long time.

Chapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Map of the continent: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Fated-map-544073443
Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RKoeOLYhQctmZ5McNHc_kid0tjfb1BxyuD8i95FmFQE/edit?usp=sharing

Chapter Seventy-Nine

Kingdom of Kalt’on, Minecraftia. November 16, year 573. Time instance 483Z.

Mitven was grateful that there weren’t very many wounds to treat within the group. She didn’t want to have to deal with changing six billion bandages every dawn on their way north. She was also glad that they were heading out of the desert- its wide open areas unnerved her, although she wasn’t complaining about walking at night due to both the oppressive heat and Marcus’ sensitivity to the sun. She preferred the darkness, but light didn’t particularly bother her.

She had noticed, however, that Nessy was acting very oddly. She would land periodically and run around for awhile, scratching whatever inanimate objects they encountered (usually in the form of rocks) before taking off and flying near Mokdal again.

It was certainly odd that she was remaining in dragon form for this long- prior to training with Mokdal, she had only transformed when it was necessary. Now, she had remained in her dragon form for at least two full days and was remaining oddly close to Mokdal except when she landed to scratch at something. Mitven made a mental note to talk to her next time she landed.

Her eyes roamed around the group as she walked before landing on Zekara, a frown appearing on the skettisren’s face. It hadn’t been a great move for the woman to cut off her own arm, but it was better than death, she supposed. Zekara was now just about useless in a fight, however, being trained in two-handed weaponry and not one-handed like she was now limited to. Arra seemed to be giving her pointers, but Zekara just wasn’t as skilled as she once had been.

Mitven sighed quietly. They needed every bit of ability they could get, and she doubted that the north group had picked up any great warriors along their own quest. Onai had mentioned the loss of Xullos, Valkan, and Trymdas, and that all thirty descendants had been found, and by Mitven’s calculations, they had probably lost more than they had gained since splitting up.

And losing Zel…that was particularly devastating. He was a strong earth elementalist, and without him, their journey was going to be a lot more difficult. They needed every elementalist they could get, and Katrin seemed to be mostly out of commission as well, not speaking to anyone if she could avoid it and barely sleeping as she sat alone in her tent.

Poor girl. Mitven shook herself to try and rid herself of her more depressing thoughts and her eyes set on the two Skullblades accompanying them. A grin spread across her face and she made her way over to them, walking next to Blade.

“So.” She said evenly. “How are the lovebirds doing?”

She ignored the toxic look Blade shot at her.

“We’re not lovebirds. And we’re fine.” Fate told her.

“Mhm. Have you guys even kissed yet?”

“No.” Blade snapped. “It’s not like that.”

“If you say so.” Mitven raised an eyebrow at him.

A suspicion.

“Hey, wait a minute.” Fate frowned. “Didn’t your eyes used to be the same color?”

Mitven blinked. “What?”

“Your left eye is yellow. Wasn’t it orange before?”

Mitven’s eyes widened. “It’s yellow?”

“Yeah.” Fate frowned. “Are you okay?”

Mitven took a step back, shaking her head. “I…I…” She noticed Nessy landing and pounced on the opportunity the half-dragon provided. “I have to go diagnose Nessy! Gotta go!” Mitven darted around the Skullblades, breathing heavily as she lightly raced across the sand over to her friend.

I can’t BELIEVE I lost a contact. I can’t believe this!

Nessy looked up curiously and stopped walking momentarily as Mitven approached. “Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know.” Mitven stopped next to her friend, raising an eyebrow and shoving aside her own issues. “You’ve been acting really weird lately.”

Nessy tilted her head. “I have?”

“Yes. You’ve been in dragon form for a very long time, where previously you only transformed when you absolutely had to. You’ve been very clingy when it comes to Mokdal and you have been landing a lot to run around or scratch at things. It’s very weird and I’m just worried. What’s going on?”

Nessy blinked. “I don’t know? I don’t feel like anything’s wrong.”

“What about just…different?”

“Um…maybe? I don’t know?”

Mokdal, having seen them stop, frowned and circled down, landing beside them. “What’s going on?”

“I’m worried about Nessy.” Mitven told him, launching into a list of what she had noticed. Mokdal frowned slightly as she began, but started to look sheepish as time went on.

When Mitven finished, he looked rather embarrassed, and turned to Nessy. “I am so sorry.”

Nessy looked confused. “Sorry? What about?”

“I’m…oh boy. You don’t have any idea, do you?”

“What? What?!”

“Mokdal, what is going on?” Mitven demanded.

The older dragon looked at her, gaze steady.

“Could you excuse us for a moment?”

“Um…sure?”

“Nessy, let’s follow the group and just stay back, okay? I need to explain something to you…”

-~-

Vechs was arguing with Zisteau about the logistics of how one would trip (dramatically or not) through a second story window when he heard Doc make a quiet surprised sound. He paused mid-word and looked up. “What’s up?”

“Mitven.” He mumbled. “One of her eyes appears to have changed color.”

Vechs leaned over to look. “So it has. Maybe it’s always been like that and you never noticed before? She could be heterochromatic, like Z.”

Zisteau waved.

“No. I would have noticed that- skettisren do not succumb to that mutation. Males have yellow eyes while females have orange eyes, and, suddenly, one of Mitven’s eyes is yellow.” Doc frowned thoughtfully. “Interesting…”

Vechs paused as Mitven frowned and let the two dragons fall to the back of the group, and glanced up at Nebris to notice that his face was totally red and his hand was over his mouth.

“Nebs? What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Um.”

Vechs tried to get a look at Nebris’ orb but he held it away from the Davion. Pouting, Vechs fumbled in his toolbelt to retrieve the orb used for watching Mokdal. “Fine. I’ll figure this out myself.”

Nebris’ eyes widened and he tried to snatch it, but Vechs darted away. “Vechs, I don’t think that’s a good idea!”

“Bullshit! I’m curious!” As he watched the orb, he raced around the room, Nebris chasing him in an attempt to take the orb from him.

As Mokdal explained, however, Vechs began to slow and eventually stopped. “…Oh.”

“Yeah. I wanted to spare you.”

“Oh. Wait, Nebris, why did you already know this?”

“I…I…I didn’t!”

“You’re a terrible liar!” Etho called.

“I was curious and had access to a library one day, okay?!”

Vechs pushed his goggles up his face to wink at his friend before running around the room again, this time fearing for his life as Nebris roared and chased him.

-~-

Mokdal really did not want to discuss this, but he know that he needed to. It wasn’t really his place to explain to a young female dragon why she was behaving oddly, but it wasn’t as if she had another parent, or even a female dragon of any description, to explain it to her.

Four above, I’m a gay male dragon! I don’t even want to think about this!

“Well…you see, Nessy, when a female dragon reaches a certain age, they tend to hit…what I suppose translates to a ‘heat cycle’ in the human language.” He was regretting this conversation already, and based on Nessy’s expression, so was she. “This happens once every one to two years, and usually lasts for two months. Due to you being a half-dragon, I imagine it’s not as severe and will last only half that long, but I can’t be certain. During this time you’re a lot more drawn to male dragons, and tend to scratch various surfaces with your claws- rocks, trees, anything- as a way to sort of…show that you’re there, I suppose.” He paused. “You tend to get a lot flirtier, as well.”

Nessy didn’t respond, only able to take in his words and walk forward. She was a bit mortified to have to be told this by what was essentially her mentor.

“I believe yours kicked off late due to you not spending a lot of time in your dragon form, but also due to, er, my presence. Having an unrelated adult male around likely didn’t help your situation any. I’m very sorry.”

Nessy started at him.

“Are you taking any of this in?”

“Unfortunately.” The purple scales on her face were flushed with red. “I…don’t think I want to talk about this anymore.”

“Erm, no.” Mokdal flicked his tail. “I don’t want to either. Just…know you’re a bit…different, for now. Um…yes.”

Well, that could probably not have been any more awkward.

“You should probably ask a human if you want the details of how huma-”

“No, no, I don’t think now is really the time or place for people to be educating me in all the ways I can reproduce!” Nessy yelped. “I’ll pass on that! And I’ll pass on this! Can we pretend this conversation never happened?”

Mokdal nodded, hiding his relief. “Yes. I think that’s….best for everyone.”

Nessy took off without another word, feeling awkward and slightly mortified. Mokdal wasn’t far behind, shaking himself as if to be rid of thinking about that.

Ew.

---

There is another’s tale that I have been neglecting to tell until this point.

Let’s go back to when this began.

Back to when the Hostiles emerged.

Kingdom of Traz’madar, Minecraftia. September 18, year 573. Time instance 483Z.

Velana sat back in her favorite chair, opening a book to its first page. She ignored Fey, the spritedarter that accompanied her everywhere, perching on her shoulder in favor of beginning to read the first chapter.

It wasn’t long, however, until her mind settled back into a recently beaten path of worry.

What did the creators mean, exactly, when they said things would become clearer for Adrian and Nia? Clearly they’re running off to Ashwatch with a Skullblade to witness the hatching of the valk’vanor, but why? There was something about their destinies, but it wasn’t at all clear… They’re not ready to be running around on their own.

She shook herself slightly, apologizing to Fey as she was almost thrown to the floor. “Sorry, Fey. I’m just worried about them is all.”

The spritedarter chirped quietly and began to settle into Velana’s shoulder, before a shout shook the house and rumbled across the continent, disrupting the relative peace that Minecraftia had experienced in recent times.

“WE ARE FREE!” Hysterical, hollow laughter echoed, followed by a sound like nine other beings laughing in unison with the voice.

“MAKE PEACE WITH YOUR ENDS, MORTALS, FOR THE HOSTILES HAVE RETURNED! SOON, WE WILL BURN YOUR WORLD TO THE GROUND AND THERE WILL BE NOTHING LEFT BUT ASH AND SORROW!”

The laughter continued for several more seconds before fading, leaving the air still and cold.

Moments after the hatching of the valk’vanor.

Fey screamed and buried herself in Velana’s hair. The short mage jumped to her feet, eyes wide and terror in her heart. The Hostiles…. The name rang a bell and she had a pretty decent idea where from. She stormed up to the mirror that hung on the wall behind her desk and sat in her chair, already barking the magical command.

“Skera, you better be awake…” She mumbled.

The mirror’s surface rippled to display Velana’s friend and the wooden wall behind her. Skera had an eyebrow raised. “I wondered if you’d be contacting me.”

“Skera, what is going on?! What are the Hostiles? I know you’ve mentioned them before, but…”

“Do you remember the stories of Vechs Davion?”

“I- what?”

“Vechs Davion. The founder of Dalania?”

“Yes. What about him?”

“Without going into detail, he accidentally created twenty-one malicious monsters called the Hostiles that wanted to destroy the world. Together, he and his friends defeated eleven of them before locking the other ten within the Shattered Zone of the Nether until the Bloodshadow reached its zenith. Their descendants, led by ‘she who bears the name of the shattered kingdom’ are destined to kill the remaining ten Hostiles.”

Velana stared.

“Meaning Nia and Adrian are going to run off, find twenty-eight other unfortunately fated assholes, and fight ten doomsday monsters to the death for the fate of the world.”

Velana jumped to her feet, not really changing her elevation at all. “No. I can’t let them do that.”

Skera shrugged. “You can chase after them, if you’d like. You know where they are.”

“I will.” Velana crossed her arms, glaring. “You knew this would happen?”

Skera looked at her like she was nuts.

Velana sighed. “Of course you did. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you wouldn’t have let Nia and Adrian leave otherwise, of course!” Skera said this as if it was obvious. “It’s imperative that they complete this mission. There’s nothing stopping you from helping, though, so feel free.”

“I’m going to. I’ll pack a few things and I’ll be off as quickly as possible.”

Not an easy task for one who does not know the path they will take.

“Have fun, then. You’re fifteen days behind, so you’d better get to walking. Don’t die!” Skera laughed, smiling, before the mirror’s surface rippled, replacing Skera’s face with Velana’s reflection.

Velana growled quietly, retrieving a bag and shoving the mirror, a few books, a map, and several other essentials into it. Fey chirped nervously and circled her, head tilted.

Velana turned and looked her small companion in the eyes.

“We’re going after them, doomsday monsters be damned. We’re off to Ashwatch.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

tanadin

To the Nessy thing- SEVEN MADE ME DO IT

From:

scara

Thanks to Seven then, lol :>

Also Tanadin when you mentioned Mokdal's gay dragon crisis in the chapter description I thought that you were going to go down the track of Mokdal realising he was actually bi and being attracted to Nessy. I don't know which situation would have been more awkward, the one Seven came up with or what I was thinking.

Edited Date: Wednesday, January 27th, 2016 02:53 am (UTC)

From:

tanadin

That would have been ridiculously awkwar- WAIT HANG ON YOU GOT AN ACCOUNT OR LOGGED IN OR SOMETHING YOU WERE AN ANON BEFORE

From:

scara

I got myself an account, no more am I an anon. Check the comments of Jiminee's last chapter of Blood and Gold for my conversion :)

"isn't much different than the subreddit" -Guude / http://tinyurl.com/l7gbxah

Fated (Chapter Seventy-Nine)

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