#Dragons Shadows Duality Truth Auldhurhaven

[bornfromscarletcords]

A Dragon’s Paradox

Well I suppose introductions are in order, I’m pretty famous in certain places so I don’t know if you know me or what name you might know me by, but I’ll just play it safe and start from scratch. Most people know me as Shadowsky, which is short for The Dragon Who Shadowed The Sky, or The Wings of Darkness, or Night Cloak To The World. Still that’s a little formal and as I’m trying to make a fresh start so to speak, really turn my life, well since I’m sort of dead, I suppose we can call it “my existence”, around. So you may know me as Benjamin Aldhurhaven. You may have seen my antithesis, or perhaps my “match” or “foil”, who goes by James Wolkinder, but who is more well known and hated, in my circles at least, for his other alias “The Silver Wolf”. I absolutely despise him, which is why I always cherish the moments when we can really go toe to toe, pouring or potent molten emotions into our blades, fists, and occasionally, poisons. I’ll admit James is weary of the latter, but I don’t mind to much, some people deserve to have their innards melted out from the inside. Our rivalry goes way back, or forward depending on your view of time or optimism vs pessimism, the short version is we exist in a type twisted duality or fated bond of confrontation. When we do collide or whatever, it’s pretty entertaining, and usually we fix more things than we destroy, though I admit there is more than your average amount of explosions and swooning young maidens. It would be hard to thank us for this work as most of the resulting benefits were mostly only hypothetical consequences in our mind from the moment we arm our souls to the moment we fall, burning and bleeding, like clashing torrents of heaven and hell. Supposedly we look similar, though as a person who deals more in essences and aura’s I’m pretty good at telling the difference between myself and that other aforementioned bastard. Then again I’m pretty tricky so who knows. As far as physicality goes, I’m fit I suppose, like a football player or perhaps a secret agent man. Generally my skin runs on the darker side being a lord of shades and horrors and all. My hair tends to be longer than James’ and perhaps that has to do with my natural wildness and roguish charm. Someone said I was attractive once or twice, and I in the mind to accept any compliment about my bearing as fact, and I dare you to argue with my hardwon evidence of hearsay. My eyes are purple, violet or lilac if we’re getting fancy. Don’t worry there’s nothing wrong with them besides being gorgeous and charged with emotional depth. I like armor, and large swords, as well as the screams of my captured and shamed foe’s to lull me to bed at night; it makes the cookies and milk that much sweeter. I drive fast cars with the top rolled down to show that I got it more than other people, and so that when I drive off into the sunset it looks like I’m in a movie or something.

Well I suppose that’s enough about my more basic traits, I suppose we can get into the meat of why we’re here today. You see, life, and death, are pretty complicated, full of contradictions, trials and tests, that make you want to quit or check out early, the only problem is, from what I’ve seen checking out just checks you in to somewhere else so if you really want things to change you usually have to do it yourself. I suppose you could summarize the dilemma with the following rumination. A people are give the ability to shape the world, their reality, with the power of their words and the strength of their core. Because of this one people says it is their obligation to be truthful in all things, lest the world deem them false and unworthy, subject to being forgotten by existence itself. Another people says, well that’s all well and good, but if words create as they are spoken, then a lie becomes true as long as it is believed or as long as it is feared as being possible. The latter bit has a lot to do with the fact that emotions are not black and white subjects, and are prone to tipping the simple into complicated extremes as feelings are not limited by logic. You could even say liars are some of the most faithful people in existence, though I’m sure James would want to clock me on my noggin just for suggesting it. Bringing it home a little bit more, a person could lie about something as in believe inside that it is false and still say it, and come to find that their lie was in fact a truth upon further investigation. A person could always tell the truth, believing inside that what they say is right or correct, and come to find out their truth was wrong or false, though not necessarily a lie. I suppose you could say it’s almost like asking, is it more important not to do bad things or not to be seen as a bad person. Bad things can help a lot of people when good things will not, and good people sometimes commit the most awful atrocities. Just something to mull over as we drift through the unknown for a little while.

Well, James, being a total goody two shoes tends to leave a lot of the more questionable work to me, I mean to his credit, it’s not like I give him much time to intercept, people are fond of their habits after all and evil does become me. I’d hate for him to think of me as predictable, but when we raise our forces, when it’s the whole pot on the line and we both got the hand we’ve been dealt to our name, well then I can’t say I hate having my familiar despicableness at the ready. I should say that my sleeves are usually lined with spares, in case I fear he might start cheating, the lazy bum. Oh don’t give me that look, he pulls his out of thin air half the time. With this said, I suppose I should tell you a little bit about our destination. Well, in many of the cultures I’ve visited, female werewolves aren’t always that common, it’s not an absolute, it’s just a bit of a subtlety that surfaces a little more clearly depending on how you look at things. So...I went to a world where male werewolves were uncommon. Pretty swank right. Well I thought so. 

First step in I faked a car accident, well in truth it was a real car accident, I even heard guy shout “my leg!!!” in the background which really sold it for me. The fake part was that my car was more or less sentient and can regenerate itself from a shattered windshield shard, so the fanfare of me going to find a mechanic, and limping around and chatting up the pretty paramedics about the wonderful daughter and family I’d left behind so I could find a job, here in the land of the free and home of the brave in order to provide for them. Oh how difficult this would all be with a seemingly shattered hip and missing eye. I died that night at 12:30 am, on a saturday. I know what you’re thinking, I blame the sabbath and the jewish god as well. My car swung around a couple hours later so that I could get a good siesta in, before I had to well, be a little different than I was before. I will say it wasn’t a huge change but most of the dynamic things are pushed into motion with the subtlest of actions. Devil’s in the details as they say, well I heard someone call them “deets” at some point and I figure, that’s pretty neat, pretty avant garde cha know. To hammer it home a little it’s like the subtlety of stunt doubles, or a magicians sleight of hand, it works partly because people want to be fooled, or need some doubt, the truth of it all might destroy them.

So I woke up, my luscious locks shorn like a wooly lamb out to pasture, I looked so un-kept so in need of refinement, so poor-esque. If I were a black man I could have been a call back for the audition of Toby, I mean kunta kente in the reboot of Roots. Ah but lo and behold I was merely a native american man-ish. I was fit, which was good, it’s always a burden when you have to try to impress people, looking pretty, even if a vagabonds prettiness, always inspires people to see you as more redeemable, or possessable. And goddamnit I was a pretty beast. My eyes were still purple which was great, though humans wouldn’t notice if I didn’t want them too, just like that paramedic I was thinking of kidnapping wouldn’t notice what should have been a startling resemblance I would bear to the dead man she’d pried from the car wreckage. Let it be known children, ignorance kills.  

Speaking of bears, I decided that I was a werebear. I know what your thinking, Benjamin, stop fibbing, but guys bear with me for a sec. I am a shapeshifter, and I have shifted into something resembling a bear before, and most importantly, I am handsome. So it wasn’t exactly a lie. I picked up some shades from the lost in found, as well as some clothes nobody would miss mostly because they smelled of the grave, and proceeded to sneak my way out into my dragon-mobile. Let it be said children, never trust a man in glasses.

Well, although I was incredibly eager to search out those lovely wolf babes, I also knew that it would be best if I pay my respects to my fellow darklings...and or blow up their stuff. A quality explosion goes a long way. Although I could have chosen from dozens on dozens of night creatures, I decided vampires would be pretty entertaining. The sun wouldn’t be up for about five more hours, and I could hear the trouble calling my name “Sadam” it said “I mean Shadowsky” it corrected.

I have a pretty good nose, and though vampires are good at hiding their resting places from the more sinisterly challenged, I can sniff out evil from sea to shining sea. It always smells like home to me, all that fear, all that hilarious blood shed, like skeleton kittens laughing, it’s just precious.

I was nearing my quarry, so I parked the dragonmobile in some old man’s backyard, it’s okay, if he didn’t expire that night, he’d probably be too blind and senile to care. I love when things just work themselves out, it’s the joy of nature’s sado masochistic design of heinousness. I felt like that guy who got killed by that stingray on the animal channel, ya know he had like that blue dog that used to hide clues all over the house or something, ah well, suffice to say I was the man. I put on my super secret agent vision, by cupping my hands around my eyes and making super cool and super funny noises and observed two vampires arguing in their natural habitat, pseudo suburbia at night time.

“He said he sensed something.” Said one vampire. She looked like she could have been a teenager, or one of those adults who always seem to smack of innocents no matter how decrepit they were inside. I liked her immediately. She had tawny hair a dark t-shirt and a coat that looked too big for her. There were other nuances, like the hand cut jeans, or the feather in the hair that looked more out of place than necessarily stylish. It was all the little things, all the slight yet potent nods of evil and tyranny that just set my ol’ soul a flutter. I nearly shed a tear, “god curse her heart”, I whispered inside.

“This isn’t star wars, last time he said that we nearly gutted for his candy cause you said it may have been a bomb.” Said the other vampire, she had long dark hair and though she looked pretty enough, she also looked she’d spent much of her life and afterlife slaughtering those who just happened to be in her way, for better or worse. I got the faintest impression of a suit of mail surrounding her, like a knight or a templar or something.  

“It was quality candy.” said the younger looking one.

“I’m not an errand boy.” Said the  army looking one.

“Yes you’re an errand girl, I’m glad you’ve finally accepted this. You’ve opened up a whole new chapter in your life, well unlife, the world is your oyster. Eat it, fuck it, sell it, or some combination of all three, I don’t know go nuts.” Said the younger looking one. She licked her wrists not unlike your common house cat might before stretching in very interesting ways, to be honest I’d forgotten bodies could bend like that, ah a sleazy lesson a day keeps the genocide away.

“Sabre, please do not make my first act of this, ‘new’ discovery as you put it, be to chop your head off.” Said the army looking one.

“Sandra, please do not insult me by implying I couldn’t simply reattach said head upon separation. I don’t mind violence, but an insult to my know how, and resourcefulness, that just hurts my feelings.” Said the younger one who must have been Sabre. She started climbing up a tree, and lounging in the leaves with low purrs.

“Sabre, get down from there, get down now.” Sandra said.

“Maybe in an hour or two, It’s pretty comfortable.” Sabre said.

“Well if the firemen have to come to get you down, don’t say I didn’t offer my assistance.” Sandra said.

“All you do is shout and pout and stuff, that’s not helping that’s just being bleh…” Sabre said sounding half asleep. Sandra clenched the air for a frustrated moment before stomping off. That was when I made my approach, wish me luck...what? The tense doesn’t make sense...you’re wondering how I could request assistance, for something that’s already happened...well can’t I just want some moral support...well I understand that but if I’m being honest, it is magic.

I approached the very sexy, most likely underaged, at least in appearence, vampiress who was more and more reminding me of a cat. Sometimes it was a simple creature, like your common alley feline felon, and other times it was something more like...oh I don’t know… a sabre toothed lion. Opened her eyes slightly at my approach.

“Hey you’re the guy aren’t you, darn, Sandra already ran off, and I’m indisposed right now. Could you like come back tomorrow or something so that we can fight or like extort you or chase you off or something. I know it seems like a lot to ask but boss’s orders ya know,” She sniffed the air, “You smell good, I mean bad, but tasty,” Sabre said.

“I’m sort of a jack of all trades, I sort of taste where I’ve been, or what I’ve eaten like in that old saying or something. I’m sorta a bear though if you wanted my resume, a werebear.”

“A warbler, that’s nice, I like those.” She said sounding half asleep and mewing yawns with teeth that both looked cute and primally deadly all at once.

“Hey, I got a nice place, that’s warm and I’m pretty sure there might be a mouse or two to eat, want me to take you there, you can sleep for as long as you want.”

“Gee mister, you sure are nice,” she yawned again turning onto her back and exposing a bit of her luscious girl stomach, “I guess I might not eat you then, whisk me away to from this jungle.” She said rubbing her forearms across her face and wiggling here or there. I half climbed the tree and petted her stomach gently, because cats need firm tenderness, then I sort of grabbed her around the waist and by the scruff of her neck and took her to my car, all the while she muttered “I’m flying, dude are you seeing this, it’s a miracle, like it’s so crazy, but if this is possible maybe vampires and werewolves exist or something. I know it sounds impossible but, I mean wow.”

I got Sabre into the car and she lounged on the leather seats, and though I was mildly afraid she might start tearing at the fabric, I knew I needed a pad and some paper more. I jotted down a message “I have stolen your cat, if you do not bring me a box full of a million dollars, and or a peanut chocolate caramel pretzel treat of your choosing, her safety is forfeit. I’d make some reference to eating her but if you didn’t sense the imminent sexual innuendo approaching then I am disappointed and you should be ashamed at tarnishing the title of vampire.” Then I let Sabre leave her signature on the note, it was a single “meow”. I left the note on the tree and drove off real dramatic like so that the tires screeched and everything, if this was a movie this is where all the kids would secretly start routing for me.