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safe-from-sharp-teeth · 1 year ago

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Trying my hand at some writing! This is a very new world I have, called the Heartlands, featuring a human kingdom of the same name in a world of monsters. (In Hiding actually takes place nowhere near the kingdom, but far up north.) This is a character prologue for someone you'll see more of later! Details and designs might change down the line. Enjoy :)

CHARACTER PROLOGUE: ASYR // IN HIDING

Asyr wishes on a comet to meet a human.

3k words, unwilling pred and unwilling prey, dragon vore, a lot of anxiety, angst, some good times that are quickly ruined, soft, safe, nonfatal vore only, blood mention

I wish to be a human.

Atop the cliffside overlooking the endless crater below lies a man. More accurately, a creature that looks like a man rests with fingers dug into the grass and soil below. A curious object stays cupped within his other hand, a light glow emanating from within his fingers. Stars glitter overhead, and what looks like a passing meteor shoots across the moonlit sky before burning, invariably, to dust.

No, no, that’s asking too much…I, uh…wish just to talk to a human. Face-to-face. Before mom gets them, at least.

That happened all too often. A passing soul would venture into the cave systems below in search of glittering gems or relics of ancient civilizations, and they would never come out. If the traps didn’t get them, the dragons would.

My kin.

Asyr’s legs - currently dangling over the edge of the cliff - started swinging in place. It was the best way he could get that “tail waggle” energy out in this form without a tail. Pretending to be a human was just so fun! And dangerous. If Mom were to see-

His train of thought was interrupted as something felt very, very wrong. Anxious energy shot through his veins. What is it? Is something there? My hand- He opened his palm, perplexed, revealing the rock shard he had been holding. The glow had faded completely, leaving the stone with a dull blue hue. Wha…?

"Kid! Psst! Get away from the edge!"

Asyr scrambled. He nearly flung himself off the cliff, finding that these human fingernails were not nearly as good at hoisting himself up as his claws. But he managed to get himself away from the edge in a panic, his breathing erratic. A pale, human face watched him from behind a tree a good few yards away.

The human scrunched up his nose. “What are ya doing out here? If one of those creatures sees ya, you’ll…uh-” he stopped. He stepped out from the tree, revealing his full form: tall, medium build, with tangled brown hair and an unshaven face. He had a small pack on his back and a knife sheathed on his belt. In a swift motion, the man produced a crossbow from his pack and aimed it at Asyr.

“What…are ya?”

At this moment, Asyr was on his back, recovering from the scare. The human looked upside-down to him. He turned to be on his stomach, dirt mixing with his otherwise well-kept golden hair.

“Ah….Aghah…I’m…” The fledgling weighed his options. Dragons are methodical, nigh immortal creatures who can spend weeks, if not years pondering the best course of action for a certain event. Asyr didn’t have that kind of time, so he chose the option that he thought was less likely to get him killed.

This choice would eventually be proven wrong.

“I’m…I’m a human,” he wheezed. “Same as you!”

“Mmm, ya don’t look like any human I’ve ever seen. Black eyes ‘n all. And are those horns?” The crossbow was still trained on his face.

“Native! I’m….native. One of the, er, descendants… of the humans who lived here. Doubt you’ve ever seen one of us; we live…underground…?”

The human pondered. “So,” a gleam entered his eye, “yer saying ya know the area?”

Asyr shuddered. He knew where this was going. He could say no. But this was a real human! When would he have this chance again? “Like the back of my talo…-hands.”

“Cool.” The human lowered the crossbow and retrieved a small object from his pocket. He walked over to Asyr, who was still lying in the dirt. The man grabbed him by the collar and yanked him to a standing position.

“I’m Jay,” he beamed. “And,” he placed a coin of solid gold into Asyr’s trembling hand, “how about ya lead me down there?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His chest felt like bursting as they descended into the pit. Typically, Asyr would just fly down, but for obvious reasons, he had to take the perilous, spiraling ramp that ran around the edge of the hole. At many points, the pair came across entrances to tunnels unknown to the fledgling, which he would simply shoo off, saying their prize was further below. The journey was awkwardly silent - Asyr had spent years daydreaming about talking to a human, and now that the chance had come, no words came out. His throat felt remarkably dry.

Instead of talking, he looked at the items that had creased his hands from holding onto them so tightly: the gold coin from Jay, and the dull, sharp rock from earlier.

“Whas’ that.”

Once again, he almost jumped in his skin. “AAh, ah, it’s…a lucky charm, I guess? It’s a piece of a comet from long ago.” Maybe I can get some information from him. “What do you know about this area, Jay?”

“Mm. Full o’ treasure, it is. Now crawling with dragons. What happened before doesn’t interest me,” he chuckled.

A sad look overtook the fledgling’s face. “W-well, you might be interested in this: it’s said that a comet struck this land a long time ago, imbuing the area with magic. Even the humans who moved in here could wield it using tools and tomes.” His eyes sparkled. “They’re long gone now, but it’s said that if you can find one of the pieces of the comet and make a wish on it, it’ll come true.” He was too embarrassed to admit how many times he had sat atop that cliff, doing this very thing.

Jay looked at the shard in the boy’s hand. “So thas’ one of the magic comet pieces, is it?”

“Well…It’s useless to me now. I think the magic’s gone if there was any-”

“Yoink.” Jay snatched the piece too quickly for Asyr to react. “Magic rocks, eh? Thanks for the tip. Could make a fortune on suckers,” he snickered.

A sparkle grew in Asyr’s eyes, his imaginary tail threatening to wag. Maybe humans have hoards, just like me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, the pair reached a familiar tunnel to Asyr. Home. Charred remains of some former creature lie at the entrance. Mom’s warning to intruders. Oh Gods, MOM. The weight of exactly what he was doing hit him like a boulder, and Asyr struggled to breathe, his body rebelling against him.

“Are - Are you quite sure this is a good idea?” Asyr wheezed. “I know the dragon who lives here. She - it’s dangerous. Like, really dangerous. ‘No-one-has-made-it-out-alive’ dangerous.”

Jay stiffened. “Kid, ya gotta learn a bit about treasure hunting. Dangerous izza whole point. ‘Nothing in the world is worth doing ‘less it means effort and pain and difficulty’, ‘kay? S’what we chase to feel alive.”

He steadied himself on Jay’s words. Humans believe they can do anything. He thought about the night after night that he trembled at the idea of hunting, hiding from his mother. If only I had that confidence.

“C’mon kid, let’s get a move on - while the beastie still sleeps.” Jay pat Asyr on the back, and they headed in, the dark finally swallowing them whole.

These tunnels may have originally been built by humans, but the dragons expanded when they moved in. Now they were massive, easily 30 feet tall by 30 feet wide. The ambiance felt…lonely.

This should be easy. I know the way…don’t I? As the pair ventured further in, the fledgling couldn’t help but feel a rising panic setting in. These human eyes couldn’t see in the dark like he normally could, and Jake’s paltry torch only disoriented him further. The smells were all weird, and he felt so small. A few steps as a dragon could be a few dozen for a human. Rounding a corner, the two came across a corridor lined with stone tiles. Strange holes lie between many of the tiles.

Panic set in for Asyr. “I…I have no idea where we are. I’ve n-never seen this before.”

Jay once again patted the boy on the back. “Not to worry; ya’ve done well to lead us down here. This is a basic spike trap!” he grinned. “See the tiles that look more worn than the others? That's the path we should follow. I’ll show you.”

“Wha-wait!” Asyr whisper-yelled as the man skipped across the stones with ease. To his surprise, Jay wasn’t skewered.

“Yer turn, kid.”

I could turn into a dragon right now and fly across. Or I could leave and never look back. But…Asyr looked at Jay’s face, a smirk lining it. He believes in me. Just pretend I’m human. I’m human…And he leaped.

Asyr ran across the tiles with an unbalanced, awkward gait. Human bodies were quite hard to control, after all. Unfortunately, this started setting off spikes mere inches from his body, causing him to barely hold in a scream. In slow motion, Jay’s smile fully turned into a grimace, expecting his partner in crime to turn into a kebab. He was pleasantly surprised(and immediately annoyed) when Asyr bounded over the last tile and scampered straight into him, knocking the two of them over.

“GAH - KID,” the human exclaimed, ready to shove the anxious mess of a person off of him. He stopped when he felt tears plop onto his shirt. “...Ya okay, kid?”

“I-I’m alive,” the fledgling sniffled, a smile spread across his face. “Th-that was the scariest th-thing I’ve ever done. Second scariest,” he rasped.

Jay patted his head. “Here, les’ get up.” Asyr removed himself from the human, and the both of them stood back up, dust clinging to their outfits. “Not bad for your…presumably…first trap ever. (How in the world are you still alive down here) Ya know, how about…when we get the treasure, I give ya a share…like 10% for your help. And ya know that gold coin I gave ya?” Asyr nodded.

“Les’ go out after this. Get a nice meal together. Ya can use that to pay.”

Tears welled in his eyes, and Asyr hugged the roguish human. It was the first hug that the fledgling had ever experienced. Warmth flooded through the cold-blooded creature, turning his cheeks a rosy pink. My first friend.

Jay groaned. “‘Kay, kid, c’mon. We got through one trap.”

Asyr tentatively let go, laughing. Joy couldn’t help but overflow from his face. “And we’ll get through a dozen more!” They started their path forward. Jay rolled his eyes as Asyr continued, “With you, I think we can beat any-”

The net underneath them, currently hidden between the tiles, sprung upwards. In a split second, Jay and Asyr were dangling 30 feet above the ground.

“-traps.”

Jay’s demeanor began to change. “Ha, ah, um, didn’t see that one coming. L-luckily, I have a knife just for moments like this.” he unsheathed the knife from his waist and began to cut at the large net holding them in place.

Asyr felt panic rise in him for what felt like the hundredth time on this mission. But look, Jay knows what he’s doing. He’s a seasoned adventurer. It can’t get any worse.

And then, an alarm started blaring. A bell, ringing and ringing and ringing. The fledgling’s eyes went wide. He had only heard this bell a few times before when some poor soul had come for Mom’s hoard. She would always come back with blood around her mouth.

“J-JAY, can you get us o-ouT OF HERE-” Asyr said, terrified.

“It’s a huge fall! I-I’m not sure we’d even make it!” Jay stammered in response.

“PLEASE,” Asyr sobbed, reaching to wrestle the knife from his hands.

But it was too late for them to escape, even if they could survive the fall. A low growwwwllll echoed through the corridor, a huff of smoke accompanying it. Asyr tried to back up as far as he could, but the net made the situation impossible to get away from. He couldn’t even transform back into a dragon without potentially strangling himself in the net, or crushing Jay. He could only watch in terror as Ervyr, the Firebreather - his mother - leisurely crept into view.

Ervyr had a terrifying air about her. She’s one of the only Lung Dragons to still exist, and even rarer, one of the few of her kind to have been consumed by greed. She’s jet-black in appearance, with fangs larger than a human head. Her hoard is legendary and encompasses much of the Northern Crater. To try to pillage even a speck of gold from it is a monumentally foolish decision.

“Two humans,” she rumbled, “after my hoard.” She stepped on the spike trap, the spikes piercing upwards into her skin. It didn’t make a dent. “How would you like to die? Boiled? Charred?” Continuous smoke exited her nostrils. She reached out towards the net, easily slicing the top of it with a single claw, a paw underneath to catch her prey. Now, Jay and Asyr were “free”...in the hands of a dragon that wanted to kill them, of course.

“M-Mama,” Asyr croaked. There is no way to get out of this. There is no way to get out of this. We’re going to die.

“Oh look,” she puffed out a breath of smoke. “This one’s calling for their mama. Does the other one have anything to say?”

Jay was petrified. He looked like the wind had been completely knocked out of him. Still, he tried to respond. “‘S the kid. H-he brought me here; he knows about the hoard - G-gods above, kill ‘im, not m-me. I’ll tell me friends n-not to ever come ‘ere, ma’am.”

Ervyr grinned, picking up Asyr by the shirt and holding him above her mouth. Asyr squirmed, barely even registering Jay’s betrayal. “I loooooove humans. So deceptive. And so tasty, too. Looks like your time is up, kid~” she opened her jaws, her massive forked tongue lolling out.

“Mama!! Mama!! MAMA!!!” Asyr wailed, snapping out of the shock of the situation. In an instant, he was back in his dragon form, resembling a much smaller and less fearsome Ervyr. He squirmed out of his mother’s grasp, floating in place.

She blinked with all three of her inner eyelids, Jay still cupped in her hand. Silence filled the corridor. Asyr dared not move, speak, or touch her. She had never caught him in any other form before, and a pit of dread lay in his throat thinking about what she thought of him gallivanting around as a lowly human. She had taught him to believe dragons were superior to all others.

“Asyr.” she breathed, smoke exiting her nostrils. “What a great teachable moment you have thrust yourself into.” She uncupped Jay, who was currently stabbing at her paw with his knife. It did absolutely nothing. She grasped the knife between two claws before throwing it to the side. “You see, I will forget your little…transgression just now, under one condition.” Her claws sliced off Jay’s pack, and it unceremoniously fell on the floor.

“You eat this one.”

Asyr tensed, a shaky breath escaping him. “Mama, please-”

“YOU EAT THIS ONE,” she ROARED, the cavern walls shaking from the tremor. Smoke billowed from her mouth. The only other noise was Jay babbling to himself, praying to any god that might hear him.

“Yes, Mama.”

“First lesson: humans carry weapons. I took care of it for you. How loving am I,” she spat, flinging the human at Asyr. The fledgling wasn’t nearly as big as her, so the human smacked him in the maw, pain shooting through his face. He managed to catch the human by the shoulders, holding on as Jay squirmed.

“E-eat me and I’ll punch and kick and end ya, beastie,” Jay jabbered.

“Now,” she sat back, still floating in the air. “Go ahead. Your first human. How exciting.”

Asyr trembled. He couldn’t. He simply couldn’t. This was the first human he had ever talked to, his wish upon a comet shard. No matter how Jay acted, Asyr could not find it in himself to hate him more than he hated himself. I will not kill him. I REFUSE. And yet, that refusal would mean Jay would get eaten by his mom. There is no way to get out of this. There is no way to get out of this.

And yet…

He looked down at the sniveling human, just big enough to fully fit into his maw. I could eat him in one go, and then release him outside as soon as I could. Trepidation filled his body once more. He had never done anything like this before - would he choke? He didn’t exactly have a choice. I will keep you safe.

He tentatively opened his mouth, gingerly pushing the human inside. Jay squirmed further, kicking and screaming until his arm caught on one of Asyr’s fangs, slicing into him. Jay gasped and held his arm to his chest. The dragon winced. No! Don’t squirm! He wished he could tell him as blood slid down his gullet. He shivered, hating every gulp as he forced the human further and further within him.

“Euuuaugh.” Asyr exhaled, his last gllp audible as the human slipped into him. It was awful. Whatever enjoyment could be had in this process was overshadowed by the massive stress of this entire ordeal.

“Whole and alive?~” his mother laughed. “Perhaps you’ll be able to leave the nest earlier than I thought.” She turned away, looking back at the young dragon. “I’m off to find my dinner. You’ve given me quite the appetite.” With that, she turned a corner and disappeared.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vomiting out Jay was as uncomfortable an experience as eating him in the first place, Asyr found. And yet, he persisted, spitting Jay out on the same hill in which they first met. Once he was fully out of him, Asyr transformed back into his human form, wiping the saliva and stomach juices from his lips. In the distance, the sun was beginning to rise.

“Jay!! JAY!! I didn’t hurt you, did I? Oh gods, please don’t tell me my stomach hurt you. I can’t,” he sniffed, “I can’t bear any more heartbreak.”

Jay scrambled backward, protecting his arm and rising groggily, falling back onto the ground.

“Yer SICK. Yer a FREAK!” he yelled, furiously wiping slime off his face.

“I HAD to,” he quivered. “B..But look! We’re both safe now.” He reached into his pocket, producing the gold coin he was gifted before. “We can go…out…somewhere…” he trailed off as the human sprinted away from view. The fledgling’s lower lip quivered. Heat bloomed in his face.

No one likes a dragon.

No one likes….me.