Chapter 7: RD-08

Chapter 9: Cromag Invasion 

It was early morning on the first day of spring when Sean, the Great Blue Dragon of Earth (Sean was finally able to get squirrel-manity to drop at least part of his long-winded title) saw the sun for the first time. He stepped over the shallow creek that marked the end of the forest and the territory of the squirrels and immediately covered his eyes with his human arm as they adjusted to the massive increase in brightness and the direct rays of the rising sun on his left. He glanced at it out of curiosity and thought it looked a little bigger and a little redder than he remembered, but figured it might simply be an effect of viewing it right at dawn. The radiation on his skin made him feel as if he would receive a sun burn soon enough and he immediately missed the cool, dry shade of the forest.  

"Gah, I hate the Father." Princess Twilight complained from atop his now longer head of hair.  

(Father?) Sean asked, confused.  

"The bright, hot thing in the sky. Did the world you come from not have a Father, my love?"  

(Can't remember,) Sean answered. It wasn't the truth, perhaps, but he didn't really want to think about it right now. He wanted to focus on the battle ahead. He couldn't ever remember hearing about the "Father" sun in squirrel religion, if it could be called that. He figured it was your run of the mill Father Sun, Mother Earth kind of deal, and filed it away as inconsequential to ask about later.  

His 300-squirrel heavy phalanx finished crossing the "river" behind him and took their positions to his right, left, and rear, leaving a couple feet of space to prevent being stepped on, but still close enough to each other to link their great shields together and make a pincushion defense. Except for Twilight, all of the Occultists held back at the tree-line before the stream along with Humanity's entire armed forces, attempting to stay hidden behind trees and under leaves, along with the massive amounts of supplies that had been secreted to the border over the last couple weeks.  

The Southern Kingdom of Humanity had successfully sent a message to the Cromags, requesting a duel. A Cromag messenger had returned with the squirrel messenger's head in his teeth as a gesture of acceptance. The only stipulation had been no mages, not counting the Dragon Rider. And so, the plan was to have Sean engage the enemy Dragon just outside the border, close enough to receive support or healing as necessary. The Cromags were bigger and stronger and more numerous; Squirrel-manity did not want to engage army vs army on the level plains of Cromag territory. They would stay on their side of the river and attack those Cromags trying to cross, giving the squirrels the strongest possible advantage outside of defending their own capital.  

The squirrels would not rush out to help the Dragon; they didn't expect that they could really harm the enemy Dragon and didn't want to be caught on the wrong side of the river and slaughtered. That was the job of the 300 strong heavy phalanx; to sacrifice themselves to extract the Dragon if necessary. No squirrel could move as fast as the Dragon, nowhere close, especially not the overencumbered, heavily-armored, shielded, long-speared phalanx troops. Their body-length shields were curved in such a way that if they managed to get entirely under it before a Dragon accidentally stepped on them, they had a chance to survive. It was hoped that they could make a field of shields to slow down a Cromag onslaught, or a field of spikes to slow the enemy Dragon.  

It was up to Sean whether he felt he could try to retreat and fortify on the squirrel side of the river; perhaps the phalanx or the occultists could at least slow down the enemy Dragon enough to allow Sean to retreat to the capital for healing and a second chance. But Sean didn't plan to retreat; he and Twilight wanted to at least go down fighting and take the enemy Dragon with them; it was their responsibility as privileged members of society, Princess and Dragon, to make that sacrifice in order to earn the luxurious lifestyle they had enjoyed up to this point.  

This left three most likely outcomes:  

1. Sean is overwhelmed and slain, and Humanity goes back to paying tribute to the Cromags. At least he killed the Titans.  
2. Sean and the enemy Dragon slay each other. Sean dies having fulfilled his purpose, saving Humanity from their worst foes.  
3. Sean is victorious, undoubtably wounded from the most epic battle in history. Even if he isn't, his job is to retreat under the cover of the Phalanx to Humanity's side of the river, to avoid risk of injury from the Cromag's hordes. If he can bring the expensive phalanx unit with him, great, if not, just get himself to safety and treatment. The Phalanx Unit is honored to fall in defense of their Dragon.  

Humanity will hold the river if the Cromags attack (hopefully with Sean's help), after which they are free to wage a war of attrition, Dragon versus No-Dragon, and perhaps bring the Cromags to surrender within the year. The Cromags arrogantly assumed Humanity couldn't produce something worthy to face their Dragon, or maybe they welcomed the challenge. In any case, Humanity would force them to surrender then eradicate their shamans to remove the threat for the foreseeable future.  

They also promised to feed the Cromags to their Dragon; they seemed insistent on this, so Sean didn't disagree right away, despite being grossed out at the idea of eating sentient creatures. But the more he thought about it, the more appealing the idea was. He was a Dragon, after all. Perhaps that made it OK. Also, he had been getting grumpier and grumpier the last month as his food had less and less meat, and it felt less fresh and more preserved. When he complained, his nervous squirrel cooks seemed to stop holding out on him finally and for the last couple of weeks he had large amounts of fresh mystery meat again, allowing him to build up his strength for the battle ahead. 

Dragon part 3 –edited by another 

Sean felt a breeze on his ankles originating from the East to his left. He raised his human arm to block the rays of the rising sun, turned and saw his first Cromags. They were chasing a dozen lightly armored squirrel scouts and Radiant, the Arch-Aerialist, who was using his magic to create a wind, pushing the scouts and himself into a faster pace. 

Ah, transportation magic, Sean thought. It was the same brand of magic that the Terramancers had used to give him a hardened, muddy layer on the bottoms of his feet. The Squirrels were carrying something as they ran; one tripped and dropped the item. He saw that it was the red grapes called "Ambrosia". The pursuing Cromags, plump guinea pigs the same tan color as the grasses of the plains that they lived on, pounced on the slightly shorter and significantly less massive squirrel and tore its legs off. Sean waited until he was sure that the squirrel was mercifully dead before yelling. 

"That's enough!" he roared. The fleeing squirrels seemed bolstered by the voice of their God while the guinea pigs froze and stared up at him in horror. Sean jerked towards the guinea pigs as if to give chase causing the little tan creatures to flee in a panic of burbled guinea pig noises. The runners dropped the grapes at his feet, including the one from the fallen soldier, then fled back to wade over the stream and into the safety of the forest. 

Sean thought about how the way the Cromags ran on all fours made them seem more bestial than the squirrels while he collected up the grapes left for him. 

"Eat them, my Dragon. The red ones will make you stronger for a couple of hours." 

He didn't remember anything from the first time he'd had some but that day had been a rather intense one, as it was the day he had been summoned to this world and first fought the Titans. He sliced off a squirrel sized portion with his clawed thumb and carefully offered it to Twilight. Refreshing, he thought as he ate the juicy grapes freshly stolen under the cover of the rising Father. A few minutes later he noticed that his heart rate had increased and he felt more alert. Huh, he mused, caffeinated grapes. Right when it kicked in, the Cromag Horde emerged from the tall, tan grasses one hundred yards away. They extended in a line from horizon to horizon, as far as Sean could see, their real numbers still hidden within the grasses beyond. 

After a brief conference the Cromags sent forth an honor guard of approximately the same numbers as Sean's Phalanx. These Cromags walked upright and wore light leather armor and carried with them large (relatively) two-handed great swords with no hand guards or pommels.  

Barbarian warriors. 

Sean had no doubt that if he just stood there and took hits from those crude, six-inch swords they would eventually break skin and cause damage, especially since there were so many of them. He was relieved to see that the guinea pigs, like the squirrels, appeared to move in slow motion. More the speed of humans their size instead of the frantic, hyper speed of the small furry animals he was used to from his world. 

The Cromag's honor guard made two lines, then their Dragon suddenly rose up from the tall grass and walked down the middle. Sean and his Phalanx likewise approached. When he was halfway there Sean made a signal for his troop to stop so he could approach alone. The other Dragon did the same. As Sean came close to the other Dragon he noticed that he wasn't quite twice as tall but was certainly a good deal taller and far more massive. He was surprised to see the Cromag's Dragon was a young woman who appeared somewhere between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-four years old. She was nude except for a loin cloth of suspiciously familiar material and once he was closer saw it was the same metallic blue fur of the little creatures he had come to love. Her body was lean and muscular giving him the strong impression that she led an athletic life outdoors for many years. She was deeply tanned with long, tangled black hair and a lean face with a long straight nose. Dark black hair grew beneath her arm pits and along her legs as nature intended. Sean could also see the bushy hair peeking up from beneath her loosely worn loincloth. 

There wasn't a spare ounce of fat visible on her short, trim body except on slim, perky breasts. She casually held a brutal club over her shoulder. It appeared to be made of several pieces of the super hard bark of the trees in the squirrel's forest, all of which had been lashed together around a large rock (or boulder depending on who you asked.) Screwed into it at regular intervals in the bark around the tip appeared to be the claws of Titans. Dried blood and strips of skin hung on the club and the claws demonstrating that the crude club was effective and dangerous. 

"It bares the legendary stone-in-the-sword, Excalibur," Twilight whispered in fearful awe. Something seemed off about that but before Sean could think further on it the strangely miniature young woman raised a bushy black eyebrow and spoke from her chapped lips in an accent he couldn't begin to place. 

"So, you're the Dragon of the food animals. I wonder if today is the day I die and am finally free from this hell." 

"I suppose I could say the same thing to you," Sean replied. The young woman looked thunderstruck. 

"You can speak English? What are you?" She held the club in front of her in her right hand as if to protect herself from the truth. 

"Last I checked I was human," Sean responded. "What do I look like nowadays?" 

"You tell him, Sean!" Twilight added in a fury, completely unable to follow the flow and content of the conversation. "He's a short, skinny, pitiful Dragon and you are much more manly and fierce!" 

I should hope so, Sean thought as he chuckled internally. The female Dragon squinted at Sean, the wrinkles under her eyes exaggerated by the sun. 

"No, wait. I see it. Human hair, one human eye, one human hand, a human...dick." Sean suddenly remembered he was naked for the first time in months. She continued. "You look like you were dipped in radioactive goo and merged with a lizard. You're glowing blue-green and where you aren't glowing your skin is bursting open and a lizard is coming out. You look real fucked up, man. Doesn't it hurt?" 

Sean was closing one eye at a time. It seemed like he saw differently with one of his eyes but he wasn't sure. He picked at the skin on his left forearm and found some ready to come off revealing scales beneath. He saw on other parts of his arms and legs isolated patches of skin with scales pushing up through cracks making it look like a lizard was indeed trying to come out. He raised his right arm, the one part of his body that had completed its transformation all the way to his bicep. 

"I'm beautiful," he declared, admiring how the sun's rays reflected off his glorious scales. He began to carefully clean the fingernails of his human hand with the pinky claw of his draconic appendage. 

"I do not want to get hit with that," the female Dragon said as she eyes Sean's claws warily. He had been practicing with those claws in the past few weeks. They were too long for his comfort, extending out from his fingertips as far as the length from the tip to his second knuckle with the exception of his thumb claw which was a little shorter and wider. He had thought they would break off easily since they just grew from the tips of his fingers like normal nails. When he had slashed at a tree, though, they hadn't broken. Instead, he felt his scales compress from fingertip all the way to the elbow in a line somehow supporting the claw with a layered structure of scales. 

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"I don't want to get hit with Excalibur over there either," Sean responded eyeing the brutal, gory club. 

"I think it's more of a Mjolnir, you know, Thor's Hammer? It's much more a hammer than a sword, don't you think?" she replied. Sean nodded his head in agreement. 

"So, what are we doing here?" he asked lowering his claw. The other Dragon shrugged, club in hand. 

"Looks like the smurfs are invading to me. Isn't that what your guys are doing?" 

Sean chuckled at that. He was starting to like this wild, hairy little woman. "Smurfs, I like that. I suppose I'm turning into one myself." 

"No. Smurfs are blue. You're blue-green like the leaves of the trees." 

"That's what I've been telling them but they think it's all blue for some reason." 

She gave him a suspicious look at that comment. "Enough of the bullshitting. Why are you guys here?" 

"They didn't tell you? The squirrels told me the guinea pigs have been forcing them to give up tons of squirrel babies every year. Not sure what happens to them though." 

The female Dragon suddenly grinned and rubbed the fluffy, downy fur of her loincloth. "Oh yeah, we do that. Fatten them up real good then eat them. The smurfs taste way better than the piggies, you know? Why don't you join us and we'll feast on them together?" 

 

 

Choice 2: Path of the Cromag, Rejected. 

In a different story Sean would accept the female Dragon's offer. In this story though, Sean instead raised his scaley right arm and signaled Twilight for flame. She was ready to do her job.  

"They take so many whelps and we never see them ever again," she began, her whiskered words dripping with rage. "Sometimes they send back some of their fingers and toes, and they never tell us what that means. Does it mean the whelp is dead? Are they alive and suffering? Their parents never find out and get peace." 

Sean was already smoking but now he was billowing white plumes from his nose. He couldn't make a fist with his right hand anymore, his claws were too long. Instead his fingers curled in like the talons of a bird of prey and he began stalking towards the other Dragon with violent purpose. 

"I guess that's a no," the short woman said going into a crouch, her eyes wide and alert. Sean lunged forward and slashed at her face rapidly but each time he swung she took a quick step back as she parried his claws aside with her club. Sean stopped and inhaled deeply preparing to breath fire. "You're kidding me," the woman complained as her eyes grew wide and she instinctually understood what was about to happen. Sean jerked his head forward and coughed igniting his breath and spraying molten phlem. 

The woman reacted faster than Sean had expected and somersaulted forward rolling under the fire and passing by Sean's side. With his breath now a roaring inferno Sean tracked her movement, the flames from his mouth burning a line as he attempted to follow her and bathe her in the flame. But she was too fast, too agile. All he accomplished was burning a line in the tall grass and starting a fire. The line of flame suddenly ceased; his breath expended. 

As the female rolled to her feet and turned to face him he noticed a pink hairless guinea pig burbling angrily as it struggled to hold onto the opposing Dragon's hair after almost being crushed from the roll. Sean went to take in his next breath but the woman was faster and stabbed the tip of her club into his solar plexus with both hands. The blow knocked the wind from Sean and sent the blob of lava he had been building up soaring harmlessly over the woman's head. Before he could process what was happening he had doubled over right into her next blow, a two handed baseball swing to the side of the face. 

The world went white for Sean for a brief moment before he came back to and found himself on his back, ears ringing. As his senses returned he heard Twilight in his mind screaming frantically at him. "Sean! I'm almost out of magic. Get up, get up now!" 

He obeyed, pushing himself up with his arms and making the other Dragon jump back from his sudden recovery. But he hadn't fully recovered. The world around him spun as he stood up and he struggled to regain his composure. "Sean? Are you alright?" his Rider's voice echoed in his head. He swung at the female in a daze trying his best to bluff that her blow hadn't affected him as much as it had. At the same time he reached up with his human hand and touched the side of his face where Anthrax had clawed him. All the human skin that was there was gone, torn away by the female Dragon's weapon. Nothing but scales were there now. 

The female Dragon looked at him with horror plain on her face. Her attack seemed to have done nothing but piss Sean off. But that was far from the truth. As Sean removed his hand from his face several scales peeled off and tumbled to the ground. He plucked from his face a Cabbit claw that was lodged in his flesh and blinked in surprise at it. That's when he understood. His scales worked like armor protecting him from slashing weapons and all but the luckiest of piercing attacks but had limited protection against blunt force trauma. There was obvious bloody pieces of flesh stuck to the scales that had fallen off and as he flicked the bits off his fingers the other Dragon took notice. 

A wicked grin spread across her face as she realized he wasn't as invincible as she had feared. She gripped her weapon tightly and closed back in to attack. She swung the weapon and Sean went to catch it to try and remove it from her possession but her move turned out to be a feint and she quickly angled the weapon away and jumped backwards. She wagged a finger at him as if to say 'Oh no you don't, you naughty Dragon' then made a gurgling guinea pig sound and sprinted towards his left side where he couldn't as easily defend with his clawed right arm. 

The last thing Sean saw was the pink, hairless guinea pig poke its head out from the massive tangle of black hair on the woman's head before everything went black. Her club smashed into his unarmored arm sending pain exploding across his left side as bones broke. His vison returned just in time to see her swinging around and aiming at his right side. Just before the blow landed his vison went dark again. He stumbled back flailing his armored arm around in an attempt to protect himself. The onslaught continued and with each brief flicker of returning vision he saw his arm was a mess of torn scales and blood. Even though the scales on his arm were tougher than the ones on his face they couldn't continue to withstand the fierce blows his opponent was dealing. 

"What's wrong Sean? Why aren't you attacking?" Twilight asked within his mind. He tried to sign to her that there was another Rider but both his arms were a mess and he struggled to give her the appropriate sign while at the same time trying to dodge the oncoming blows from the opposing Dragon. He was lucky that Twilight was so bright because she quickly picked up on what he was trying to tell her. "Another Rider? I'm on it, Sean!" 

He heard the little snap of her little flash-bang magic and saw it hit the other Rider square between the eyes. With the other magic user out of the way for the moment he was able to see the next swing coming and instead of trying to block it he leaned back letting it scrape harmlessly across his chest. The move overbalanced the woman and in that moment Sean willed the claws he could no longer feel to curve inward and used all his strength to slash at her face. He wasn't sure if he had mustered enough force to kill, but the other Dragon perceived a possibly lethal blow. In the last second she ducked low, his claws missing her head but tearing through her hair, and the Rider entangled in it. 

His claws ripped the opposing Rider in half. But with no unbroken line of scales from hand to elbow to support his claws, they tore free from their roots as they caught in the enemy Dragon's hair. He jerked his hand back in pain taking with it pieces of guinea pig and clumps of hair. He howled in pain as he stumbled back, his left arm hanging broken and useless at his side and his right mangled and barely functional. The female Dragon swung her club blindly into empty space before leaping back in retreat. 

When blood dripped down into her face she reached up and felt the gory remains of her Rider. Her eyes opened wide in horror. "Dildo no!" she screamed in rage and loss. Sean was still reeling when Twilight saw an opportunity and screamed a command. 

"Get close now!" Sean reacted without thinking and charged into the smaller Dragon while she rubbed the blue blood out of her eyes. He plowed his right shoulder into her knocking her off her feet then landed atop her with his knees on her arms. She immediately began thrashing round, her body bucking as she tried to heave him off but the size difference was too great. He made an attempt to grab the hammer that was still clutched in her hand with his mangled right arm but his fingers wouldn't work properly. He tried with his human arm but when he tried to move it he was overwhelmed with blinding pain. With neither of them able to attack or move, it was a stalemate. 

"You killed my only friend you piece of shit!" she screamed at his face, spittle flying from her lips, veins sticking out on her forehead and neck as she continued to resist him. Sean sat tiredly atop her as she continued to thrash until she finally wore herself out and went limp. After a few seconds, she spoke. "Do we have to do this?" she asked, her face still contorted in anger. Sean went to speak but was suddenly surprised as she managed to slip the arm free that was holding the club and smashed the weapon into his exposed back. Claws raked across his back tearing scales and flesh alike and sending fresh agony down his spine. He felt something crack in his right shoulder blade and he knew something had broken. Now his right arm was even more useless. 

"I think I'm winning," she said swinging again but Sean was able to maneuver his knee to her shoulder, weakening the blows, if not the immense pain. Sean growled, teeth clenched in agony. "Tell you what," she said ceasing her attacks. "I really don't want to kill you. You're the first man I've seen in I don't know how long. Maybe we could...team up," she offered, licking her lips seductively. "Why deal with these stupid little animals when we could have each other?" she leaned her head forward and kissed the inside of his thigh then licked his skin with her tongue. "What do you say?" 

Choice 3: Path of the Dragon, Rejected 

In another story, Sean would accept the other Dragon's offer. In this story, he recoiled from her offer, knowing he could never betray Twilight or his fluffy harem. He didn't get a chance to deny her thought. Twilight did that for him. In an instant the tiny squirrel was on the woman's face, claws tearing at her flesh and gouging one of her eyes out. The dragon shook her head violently, screaming in a rage as she tried to dislodge her furry attacker. Twilight gripped tightly to the woman's face and started working on her other eye when the female Dragon managed to free her arm and swatted the tiny squirrel off her face, sending Twilight tumbling end over end into the tall grass where she lay motionless. 

A terrible rage filled Sean at the sight of his Rider and lover laying in an unmoving heap. It wasn't until that moment that he realized how much he loved the tiny, blue-furred creature and he couldn't envision living in a world where she didn't exist. With his anger peaked, Sean coughed molten phlem into the female Dragon's face. She wailed in agony as her skin began to sizzle and burn, the flesh literally melting off her face. Sean continued to cough heaving globs of molten spit at her even as she thrashed and failed to get out from under him or escape the pain. She used her free hand to try wiping the burning spittle off, but only succeded in spreading the horrible stuff into her remaining eye and over the rest of her face. Her screams became gargles as more of her face melted away revealing muscle then bits of bone. Smoke wafted up into Sean's eyes and nostrils, the stench gagging him. He couldn't stand it any longer and he rolled off her, which sent fresh agony exploding throughout his body. Soon her thrashing stopped and her body ceased to move. He knew the fight was over. 

He looked around for Twilight but had lost sight of where she had fallen within the tall grass. It was then that he noticed the fire that was quickly spreading all around him. Smoke was visible everywhere and in a panic he realized that Twilight was somewhere near him, possibly being burnt by the flames he had created. Desperately he scanned the tall grass for his love hoping that she wasn't already dead.

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