#not to mention in I think dragons rising? he pulls the whole parachute in his golf bag thing!!

[transk0vsky]

there’s nothing behind those eyes/ affectionate

[dragonrajafanfiction]

The Last Dragon

At five in the morning in the early spring night, the world was still steeped in deep darkness. The few stars that were visible through Chicago’s light pollution shined in the clear velvet sky. The winds coming off the lake Erie were fierce and screamed and thundered in between the buildings, rattling the bare branches of the tall trees.

All the buildings on the campus were dark save the Gear Department equipment warehouse. The large garage door was open and shining bright like an illuminated cave.

Brian strode inside. The wind tugged at his scarf, whipping it horizontal from his neck. The lifted garage door shook in its tracks as he passed under it.

The cold winter nights gave way to warmth in the well-heated expansive space. Mr. Baldwin stood, his coat draped over his arm, looking up at what seemed to be a half built elongated fighter jet. Its wings were short and it was tilted up vertically like a rocket. Technicians in white coats were looking up at it and checking their clipboards, others were bent over computer screens, pointing at them. 

Brian yawned. “Is this what we’re training in? Doesn’t look very airworthy…”

“You know the gear department. They’ll have it ‘airworthy’ within the week. So yes, training starts now. I appreciate that you’ve finally chosen to wear your uniform.” The stoic head of the Executive Department looked him up and down. His dark brown hair was well combed and expertly clipped and he was still in his professional suit even this early. Brian wondered if the man was just a vampire who never slept at night.

“Of course. This is serious. It’s not like I’m herding college students to class any more.” The official executive department uniform took after that of the Royal Navy. A light blue button down shirt, black tie, and belted black slacks. On his chest was the crest of the half-wilted Yggdrasil of Cassell College.

Mr. Baldwin tilted his head slightly. “Are you saying the work was beneath you?”

“No, sir.” Brian replied. “The work was beneath the uniform.”

That coaxed a smile out of him. “The vessel needed reinforcing. We sent out a scout plane to the coordinates and found an area of disturbed weather. It appears that this atmospheric anomaly will continue to intensify in the coming days.” Mr. Baldwin folded his arms, eyes fixed on the rocket-like plane.

“Can’t we just wait it out?” Brian asked.

Mr. Baldwin huffed and lowered his eyes. “I said the same thing. But the Vice Chancellor insisted that we reinforce the ship. Something that could withstand the winds of something far beyond the eyewall of a category 5 hurricane.”

Brian’s eyes widened slightly. “Is there such a material?”

“Not naturally. We’ve resorted to alchemy.”

Brian gave a low appreciative whistle. “So he thinks we’ll encounter something like that?”

Mr. Baldwin took a deep breath. “I’m not sure I should say this. I trust you’re level-headed enough to handle this information. Every time I brought out some observation from the field, the Vice Chancellor would insist on preparing for something ten times that.”

Brian nodded and an uneasy silence fell between them.

More students walked in, at least two dozen of them. They were a rowdy bunch happily chattering and openly admiring the towering air vessel. The sight of it filled them with excitement. Mr. Baldwin smiled. He wasn’t old enough to remember the day when the Execution Department of Cassell was nearly obliterated in Tibet. He knew about it because it was his business to know about it. 

They’d just now gotten their feet under them and here they were, back into the fray. Only Brian seemed to have a clue about the danger they were in. He wasn’t sure how, but it was nice to have at least one student here he could share the truth with.

Brian kept his knowledge to himself, joining the group and quietly fist bumping his colleagues. He stood among them as they lined up in front.

Mr. Baldwin cleared his throat. “This week we received a missive from the Chancellor and we held a meeting. We have what we believe in the first sign of the Lord of Sky and Wind that we’ve seen since the first fall of the Four Lords, a first generation awakening that will be the last one.”

The students roared with applause and Mr. Baldwin let them have it. “Naturally your classes are canceled until further notice. You’ll report here every day for your aerospace training.”

“Hey is the S-Ranker not coming?” The question came from the back, from Shimoda Masato, an exchange student from the Japan branch. Brian wasn’t very familiar to him other than the fact that he had a habit of speaking up sharply and stating the obvious that others were too deferential to bring up. At time that made him an asset, at times that made him a thorn in everyone’s side.

But Masato never wilted under the gaze of the crowd or his superiors when he felt he had a valid point. HIs eyes stared straight at Mr. Baldwin.

“The students were handpicked by the Vice Chancellor and I.”

“So she’s S-ranked, but not good enough for this mission?”

“Student assessments are classified.” Baldwin turned away to wave over the technicians who were bringing over the flight suits.

Brian tried to avoid eye contact with the student next to him who was glancing over. But he dug his elbow in his side and whispered. “Hey, you’re kinda close to Ru’Yi, is she okay?”

“She’s fine.” Brian grumbled.

“Then why isn’t she here?”

“I trust the decision of the Execs.”

“Is it ‘cause she’s unstable?”

Brian felt his hackles rise and he pinned his fellow student with a sharp glare.

“I… I mean like mentally… She seems kinda… erratic.”

Brian refused to respond to that, he placed his hands behind his back and stared straight forward, clasping his hands tightly.

“I mean, you would know right? Aren’t you two…?” 

“Can I have everyone’s attention please?” Mr. Baldwin stared at the other student, cowing him into silence.

Brian suppressed a sigh of relief.

“I’ll have Engineer Robinson explain the details.”

A svelte young woman approached with long ebony hair. “These flight suits are custom manufactured for this mission. The interior lining is made your typical cut proof fabric, but we also have an exterior lining for warmth at high altitudes. IT is not cut proof but is made from a special self healing fabric.” She pulled out a sharp knife and demonstrated on a piece of cloth, cutting it easily in two, then she pressed the edges together and the cut was healed, just as if someone were sticking together two pieces of clay.

“We’ll also be outfitting you with flight helmets, oxygen supplies, emergency oxygen supplies and parachutes, flares and locating beacons in case of emergencies. You will be trained in the use of all of the functions of this suit”

The students started murmuring to themselves. Mr. Baldwin cast his eyes on all of them. While some still maintained the eager enthusiasm, the smiles were gone from others. 

Finally one raised his voice: “Are we going to be fighting this dragon in mid-air?”

-------------

Tom dug his claws into the spiny bark of the coconut tree. The hot afternoon sun burned into his back and he squinted into the light of the sun. Just a few more feet and he would arrive at the succulent green fruit at the very top. Far below, Mr. Lu waited for him.

This island was so flat, that this high up on the tree, he had a complete panoramic view of the entire island shore. It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight. Bright blue waves under a bright blue sky, with puffy clouds here and there. A ring of golden sand, dark volcanic rock and patches of green tropical plantlife.

A sudden gust of wind made him dig his claws. The wing extensions coming out of his hands were like kites. If they opened just a little bit, he would pull the rocking trunk even further. He pressed himself to the wood and closed his eyes until the wind let up.

“Hey! We don’t have all day!” Mr. Lu shouted at him from far below.

This whole exercise was his idea. They’d been walking and looking for shells when Tom mentioned that he never knew that coconut palms could grow so tall. In fact, these were massive spires swaying a hundred feet overhead.

He focused on his surroundings, a sea of emerald green palm fronds and a cluster of light brown and green coconuts.

He gripped with his toe claws and carefully pulled one hand from the tree to retrieve his machete. He lifted it up started to hack at the connection between the coconut at the trunk. “Look out below!” He shouted.

The coconut dislodged and fell.

Tom made the mistake of looking down. He couldn’t even see the coconut hit the ground. The earth seemed to rush away from him in a swirling vertigo.  He pressed his cheek against the trunk again.

“I got it!” Came Mr. Lu’s voice.

“Great…” Tom squeaked.

He reached up and started to hack at the coconuts again, shouting a warning each time one fell to the ground.

On his fifth coconut Something fell. It wasn’t out of the ordinary. Each strike sent dead brown leaves and other woody debris onto his head. 

But this had a decidedly different weight and as soon as it landed, it moved, pressing little feet on the back of his neck, over his shoulder and his chest. Tom frantically batted at this red colored hairy tarantula about 3 inches long.

“Get off me! Get off me!” Tom’s world suddenly tilted. The wind pushed at him, rushing into the space between his body and the tree trunk and catching the leathery wing folds under his arms. They billowed out like sails and pulled hard. The tree bent forward as Tom clung to it. His claws scored the bark in a desperate bid to stay on the tree, but the wind suddenly gusted and he was torn from it. The tree then snapped away from his searching fingers.

Eyes wide and world spinning, Tom plummeted. Instinctively, he reached for the ground to catch himself, but when he did so his arms were yanked back upwards with a terrible jerk and the ground fled away.

Panting with terror, he looked around as the trees were below him. At that moment, the steady tropical breeze was sending him in a steady rise into the sky. His wings were supporting him and he was scared to move them. If he folded them he would fall. But he kept rising. 

“Help! Help!” The wind was sending him out over the island towards the ocean. Tom despaired wondering if he was doomed to soar out forever into the sea.

He’d looked at his wings before and wondered if he could fly. But he was too nervous to even try it. He assumed they wouldn’t work that way. Didn’t someone say that humans couldn’t fly? How was it that now that he was in the air, he didn’t know how to get down? How does one stop flying? The wind bounced him up and down in the shifting current, maintaining the lift of his arms. But as he got out to sea that lift started to diminish. 

“Um… Um…”

“Lift your legs behind you.”

“What?!”

“Keep your gaze forward! Don’t look back!” Mr. Lu’s voice was commanding and slightly mocking.

“I can’t stop! I can’t…”

“You’re going to end up in the water, if you don’t do what I say. Lift your legs.”

Tom whimpered and did as he was instructed. The drag created by his legs vanished the moment he lifted him and he started to rise again. The water started to distance itself. He saw his own shadow, two wings and a long body, just like a dragon. And right behind his shadow, he saw another, far bigger shadow with wings that dwarfed his own.

Mr. Lu had wings? Since when?

“Now, can you see the shore? Look with your eyes.”

Just out of the corner of his vision the dark line of shoreline was still visible. 

“Yeah…”

“Turn your head slightly in that direction. Your head is your rudder, you’ll go where you look.”

Tom turned his head to the shore and sure enough, he started to turn in a wide arc. His heartrate slowed as safety and security in the air grew. He wasn’t even moving his arms and yet the wind seemed to want to pick him up to carry him. He couldn’t fall if he wanted to.

He looked down again. The massive shadow was gone. He lowered his legs slowly and felt himself slow and start to descend looking for a soft patch of sand to land on.

The land grew closer and closer. He could feel himself shaking. His feet hit the ground, sending up a shower of sand in front of him and he fell to his knees and leaned on his hands, gasping. He swallowed hard and his mouth felt like sandpaper.

He did it. He actually flew. The reality dawned on him and he couldn’t help but smile a little and laugh. “Well… That happened.”

He flopped into the sand, not caring that it was going to stick to him and he would have to shower later. It was warm and soft and firm and let him rest while the thought of flying sank into his mind. It felt good.

“So. Still want to go back to being human?”

Tom scrambled to sit up. Mr. Lu was standing there, sipping from an open coconut.

“Is that what this is all about?”

“This’ as in ‘this just now’? Or ’This whole island’? Regardless, the answer to both of those questions is yes.”

“You made me climb trees all day just so I could fall off?”

Lu Mingfei just sipped his coconut milk and smiled. 

“Where did your wings go?”

“What wings?”

“You were flying with me! Don’t play dumb!” Tom snapped.

Mr. Lu stared at him. “Answer my question first. Do you want to go back to being human?”

“I can’t go back… it doesn’t matter.” Tom looked at his hands. “I… won’t be able to play guitar like this. Flying is nice. It felt good for a bit. But you know… if anyone else saw me, they would probably try to shoot me.”

“I know. And the way you are now? You’d let them.”

Tom raised his eyes to look. Mingfei was staring at him, all amusement gone. Tom’s shoulders sagged. He shook his head. What was he supposed to feel. He raised his hand to look at his wings. Flying felt scary and exhilarating. 

“You’re very important Tom. You just don’t realize it yet.” Lu Mingfei joined him on the sand, offering him the coconut.

“Can I tell you a story? You’re Japanese… right?” He squinted. “Well, never mind. Do you know what the Sengoku Jidai is?”

“Yes. It was the Japanese civil wars.”

“Exactly. They spent years and years in some of the most fierce and bloody battles in history. Thousands of people died. Weapons technology and battle tactics took a great leap forward.”

“By the time the flames died down, you had an entire society built on war. People were soldiers through and through. But now they couldn’t fight each other. So you know what they did?”

“Um… They attacked Korea.”

“Exactly. They didn’t just stop fighting when the Sengoku era came to a close. They just changed their enemies. So Tom, what do you think will happen to Cassell College once the last dragon falls?”

“The same thing? They’ll change their enemies?” Tom’s eyes widened slightly.

“Anjou was never truly concerned about that. Oh sure, he never tolerated Hybrid society’s constant drive for power in his own presence. He was single minded in his destruction of the four lords and the revenge of his friends. But he knew that once the last dragon was dead, Hybrids wouldn’t be content to live in human society. They already occupy the highest levels of wealth and power in many regions.”

“So what did he do?”

Lu Mingfei grinned at him. “Project Nibelungen. Designed byProfessor Franco. It fused advanced biotechnology and alchemical arts. Then it uses a serum refined from dragonblood to enhance a Hybrid’s potency. It allows them to transcend blood thresholds while maintaining consciousness.”

“I was the first one it was used on.”

Tom’s slack jawed stare made him chuckle. “Surprised? Yes, I was an unwitting guinea pig for his project. As well as… other projects. But it was an arms race, both against dragons and against other Hybrids. I wasn’t the only one seeking this same ability. I’m not the only one who has it.”

“Carli has taken a route taken by others. Getting the consent of the desperate and the dying, to complete what Anjou started… her motives are compassionate… and a bit naive. I want to tell you the truth though.”

He stood up and brushed himself off. “War is coming to Cassell.” He offered his hand and Tom took it.

“Am I going to have to fight?” Tom asked.

“That’s what we’re trying to avoid. Or at least put off. I can’t give you too many details. Things are still in motion. But we’ve made progress!” He gave him a slap on the back. “I’m in the mood for some… pina coladas…”