A Dragon's Tale #Watty's2015

Pain

I woke up sometime later that evening, not really sure how long I had been out. Emelia was laying in the corner of the bedroom with a blanket draped over her long skinny body and she had her Shemagh tied around her ears, my guess was that we were balling in our sleep and she needed a way to drown it out. Sozenn was the one who had taken watch over us in her place and he looked very, very tied and like he was fighting just to keep his eyes open, they were red as well, telling me he'd taken it pretty hard as well. I didn't blame him. Sozenn hung out over night a lot and my parents had come to view him almost as a sort of step son, just like his parents did me.

For some reason, I couldn't help but notice that everything seemed very, very clear. The colors in the room were bright, vivid and I could see tiny little details in the paint on the wall, blankets of the bed and the carpeted floors that I had never seen before. As I picked my head up off my tear soaked pillow, I couldn't help but notice how light I felt, like I was almost weightless. I still felt like a freshly carved thanksgiving turkey, but I felt considerably and noticeably stronger, almost overpowered, as crazy as I'm sure that sounds.

"Sozenn?", I asked.

He turned to face me, "hey brother. How are ya holding up?"

I didn't answer and lay my head back on my tear soaked pillow.

"Bad huh?", he asked sitting beside my bed.

I nodded, "I feel empty inside, like someone carved me like a jack-o-lantern. There's this sharp pain in my chest like I broke a rib."

"You too?", Sozenn asked, "I've never really hurt like this before and I've actually cracked my chest plates before."

I wiped the tears out of my eyes, "it hurts...it hurts so bad."

Sozenn hugged me, "I know. By the way, Hudson and Fireclaw are gonna bring dinner over. You hungry?"

"Maybe a little", I said quietly. My voice was raspy and my throat hurt a little, probably a result of my crying. Sozenn hugged me tighter. I felt numb everywhere, like I had no control over my own limbs.

"I don't know what to do Sozenn", I said, "was Lung telling the truth?"

"What he say?", Sozenn asked, "chances are that it's a lie."

I sighed. Sozenn made a good point. Was my mother being pregnant a lie just to try and sway me into killing Nolan? It almost had to believe it, just from the way Lung talked and the sick smile on his face when he murdered her.

"He said my Mom was pregnant", I told him.

Sozenn looked at me and sighed. The look in his eyes told it all. I felt the tears start to run down my muzzle again. My friend held me tighter as I started balling.

"They were going to tell you in a few weeks when you turned 28", Sozenn said, "I found out by mistake and your old man threatened me with a slow, agonizing death if I talked, so I kept my snout shut."

"Why did she go on the mission!", I whined, "she knew she could get hurt and she went anyway! WHY!?!?!"

"I couldn't tell you brother", Sozenn said, "I couldn't tell you."

It took me forever to get myself back together after that train hit me. As if losing my parents and then watching my mate go through the same thing wasn't bad enough, now I had to find out that I had lost my little sibling. Why? I could feel the clouds and "The Black Wind", as my Dad called it, start to set over me. The Black Wind was an old Mountain Dragon legend from millions of years ago. It was a sort of Feral instinct that only Mountains possessed and it was rumored that it was triggered by extreme sadness, anger or hate. While it controlled you, legend says that all your senses are heightened to levels that no amount of mental or physical training could match and that you were nearly invincible. Rage was the only thing that spoke while you were in this state, determining every action you made towards every dragon around you. I was never one to believe in old legends, but Dad always said that all it would take for a Mountain to become a Black Mountain was one loss, one traumatic experience, I always thought it was just a legend. Now...not so much. I was beginning to feel it's effects, they were much over shadowed by the empty and numbness of losing my parents, but I was feeling it.