Chapter 73: The Dragon and the Crow |
Doomwing soared through the sky with the dragons he had recruited. Concluding his business at the plateau with the other primordial dragons had been no easy feat. There had been many tasks to perform, some major and some minor. Most had been completed to his satisfaction, but others would have to wait until later. Leaving such things unfinished displeased him, but he had already been away from his domain for longer than expected. Moreover, the incomplete tasks were better handled separately, rather than at a large meeting where so many were present. He knew better than anyone that no magic could guarantee perfect secrecy.
Besides, he needed to get the dragons he had recruited settled into his territory. The sooner he did that, the sooner he could focus his attention elsewhere. It was also for the best that as many of them accompany him as possible. Dragons were powerful, yes, but dragons of the First and Second Awakenings were far from invincible. It was only at the Third Awakening and above that a dragon acquired the strength to either face or flee the dangers that often occurred during long journeys.
Near a primordial dragon's domain, even if a dragon did not pledge loyalty, they were unlikely to be attacked by the creatures that considered dragons their enemies. To do so would incur the primordial dragon's wrath, and for all but the very mightiest of creatures, that was a death sentence. And such creatures would have little reason to prey upon a dragon of the First or Second Awakening. It would be like Doomwing taking time out of his day to blast some random drake out of the sky. Such thoughts had occurred to him more than once, especially on days when his research or plans went poorly, but he had never acted on them. Doing so would have marked a pathetic loss of self-control. Of course, if a drake had done something to earn his ire, then he would not hesitate to make his displeasure known.
But regardless of how strong or weak the dragons he had recruited were, so long as Doomwing himself was present, none would have the audacity to harm them. Indeed, he had already sensed multiple groups of drakes, griffins, manticores, and great birds veer away after realising the dragons they might have been willing to fight were accompanied by a dragon they could not hope to challenge. Regardless of their numbers, if they had made any hostile moves, Doomwing would have annihilated them long before they could lay so much as a claw on any of his new followers.
Of course, travelling with younger and weaker dragons meant he could not fly at his full speed. Indeed, he had been forced to use magic on many of them just to ensure they could maintain a decent pace. Fractal Reign had offered to open a portal to his domain, but Doomwing had politely refused although he appreciated the offer. Most of the dragons he had recruited did not know each other well. A journey of this kind was an excellent opportunity for them to get to know each other better. True, not all of them would be working together, but all of them would be working for him. A certain degree of familiarity would only benefit both them and him.
A shift in the air and the currents of magic made Doomwing slow his pace slightly. The other dragons adjusted swiftly, and he cast scrying and detection magic ahead.
One of his new followers, a dragon of the Second Awakening, glided next to him. "Is there danger, great Doomwing? Should we prepare for battle?"
Doomwing almost chuckled. If there was a danger so great that even Doomwing himself had to be wary, then the rest of them would stand little chance, regardless of how much they prepared for battle. "Not a danger... more a... curiosity."
"Oh?"
The dragon complied. Doomwing watched his magic form. It wasn't bad. The other dragon's scrying and detection magic were not especially powerful, but the precision was impressive for a dragon of the Second Awakening, and there was almost no wasted power to speak of. Truly fitting for a dragon who had mentioned his prowess in tracking and scouting when pledging himself to Doomwing.
"The storm... it is no normal storm," the dragon murmured. "Should we go around?"
"I am here, so there is no reason to fear its wrath." Doomwing did not speak boastfully. He simply stated a fact. "What you are sensing could be described a temporary magical nexus. The currents of magic that flow through the sky have, if only temporarily, converged in such a way as to massively influence the surrounding weather. The result is a storm born as much of magic as of wind and rain. Such storms can be quite beneficial to those with certain powers." Doomwing bared his teeth. "And there is already one there who hopes to take advantage of it."
The other dragon peered at Doomwing for a moment. "Is it... someone you know?"
"Hah!" Doomwing chuckled. "You have good intuition. Yes. It is someone I know." He gestured and raised his voice. "Follow me. Stay close. Do not wander away once we enter the storm. But do not fear. My power will protect you."
Doomwing continued onward, toward the storm, with the other dragons following closely behind.
It did not take them long to reach it.
They were greeted by a great bulwark of black clouds that seemed to stretch from one end of the horizon to the other. Great, jagged bolts of lightning crackled amongst the clouds and then raced between the sea and sky. The rain was less a downpour and more a continuous, endless barrage of water. The wind howled. Had there been any trees below, they would have been torn out by the roots and thrown skyward. The currents of magic did not flow. They surged, great rivers of power that flowed through the sea and sky with enough force to shatter lesser magics. Now and then, the wildly thrashing currents would meet, and a shockwave of mystical energy would ripple out as the powers of sea and sky clashed. An Unawakened dragon or a dragon of the First Awakening could not have stayed airborne in the tempest. And even a dragon of the Second Awakening would have struggled.
But Doomwing was beyond such things. His power settled around the group. Within his sphere of influence, the winds became calm, the rain grew gentle, and the raging torrents of magic flowed smoothly. It was a combination of spell craft, telekinesis, and other, more esoteric, techniques. As they drew close to the heart of the storm, Doomwing's eyes narrowed again. There, fighting to reach the very centre of the converging currents of power, was a giant crow.
The crow's wings flapped furiously as it sought to ascend, but the merciless wind and rain continued to drive it back. The crow's objective was simple: further Ascension. Beyond simply growing to tremendous size, one path that a crow could take, should fortune and talent prove favourable, was the path of the storm crow - a great bird that could command the power of storms. To ascend to that level, the crow would need to absorb the power of a storm, and that was no easy task. Normally, Doomwing would not have cared if the crow succeeded or failed, but this crow was no stranger although it had been more than an Age since they last met.
The crow sensed his presence and descended on the verge of complete exhaustion. Doomwing motioned for the other dragons to hold position and went forward to meet the corvid.
"It has been a long time," Doomwing rumbled, his voice carrying clearly over the storm.
"It has," the crow replied, his voice akin to a wizened, old man's.
"You were smaller then," Doomwing said.
The crow chuckled. "So were you... although you were still enormous."
Doomwing laughed. "I had thought you dead, Rusty Wing."
"I almost perished," Rusty Wing replied. "But I lived."
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"And now you are on the cusp of taking a great step forward in your Ascension."
"It is difficult."
"It is meant to be."
For several long moments, the two simply stared at each other. The last time they had met, Rusty Wing had been the size of a normal crow, but even then he had been special.
"Do you still remember him?" Doomwing asked quietly.
Rusty Wing cawed softly. "How could I not? When I was only small and broke my wing, it was Brother Tiger who found me and nursed me back to health. It was he who gave me my name because, for a long time afterward, even after my wing healed, it always a bit stiff, like a rusty hinge." He gazed evenly at Doomwing. "I am glad you have not forgotten him either. You have lived so much longer than me, and the lifetime of a beast-man must seem like a blink of an eye to such as you."
"He was my friend," Doomwing said simply. "Regardless of how long or short his life was." His mind drifted back to those long-ago days. "You know, Brother Tiger always thought it amusing. A crow-man gave him a new life... and he helped save the life of a crow. He thought it fitting, a sort of... karmic circle."
"It was a small kindness to him," Rusty Wing replied. "To me, it was everything. It was my life."
"I thought you a mere beast at first," Doomwing said. "But you would often find us when we were travelling, bringing little gifts."
"I was young then, young and foolish, and only scarcely more than a regular crow. My gifts were shiny things I found or nuts and berries. They were worthless, but he accepted them anyway."
"Because they were from you, they were not worthless to him." Doomwing thought back to other gifts he had received in his life. One time, when he had been only small, he and Stormtooth had gone fishing. He, being slower and less skilled, had not caught any fish. She had caught five. Out of friendship - or perhaps pity - she had given him three fish, saying he needed to grow more than her. Compared to some of the gifts he had received in the years since then, three fish were nothing. But to the Doomwing of that day, a young hatchling with an empty belly and wounded pride, they had meant everything. He could still remember the taste of those fish, and there were few meals he had eaten since that had tasted better. "That was when I began to suspect you might be able to ascend further. But I knew... I knew you would the day you visited his grave."
"It took me a long time to find it," Rusty Wing replied. "I kept going to the monastery or to the places you liked to travel, but I couldn't find him. In the end, it was the crow-man who told me although he didn't seem certain I would be able to understand."
"You placed flowers on his grave," Doomwing said.
"I wish I could have given more," Rusty Wing replied. "But flowers were the best I could give at the time, and I saw many beast-people do the same at the graves of those they cared for."
"The flowers you brought were not the kind found near his grave," Doomwing said. "You must have brought them from afar. It could not have been easy to bring them."
"They were the best flowers I could find," Rusty Wind said. "Because he was the one who saved my life. However troublesome it was to bring them, he deserved that much - and more besides." The crow turned his gaze to the heart of the storm. "I am old now, and I do not know how many more chances I will have to swallow the heart of a storm. This is my third attempt. The first time, I was too young and overconfident. The second, I was frightened because of the pain of my earlier failure. Now, at last, my heart is clear and my mind is firm... but my body is too old." He inclined his head at Doomwing. "I have strength enough to attempt one last ascent. If you could stay to watch..."
He was not asking for aid. He was asking for someone to watch, so at least if he failed, then someone would know what had happened to him. Someone would remember.
"I will watch," Doomwing replied. Then he called for an item with his magic. "I have only visited his grave once, but when I spoke to those who built a village there, they said that every year, for many years, a crow would visit and leave flowers by the tree that was his grave. Yet... after a while that crow stopped coming. That is why I thought you had perished."
"I changed," Rusty Wind said. "I began my Ascension." He laughed ruefully. "I grew too large. I did not want to frighten the villagers. He would not have wanted that."
"No, he would not." Doomwing gave the item to Rusty Wing. "This... is a thunder opal, a gemstone made when a rare kind of stone is struck by the heart lightning of a magical storm until it transforms."
Rusty Wing's eyes widened. "With this...!"
"Eat it," Doomwing said. "And your body will be able to absorb the energy of the storm around you. With that added strength, you will be able to reach the heart of the storm." He bared his teeth. "Whether you can swallow that heart and live, well, that is up to your own talents and fate to decide."
"Thank you." Rusty Wing swallowed the opal. His black feathers crackled with lightning, and his eyes glowed blue. "I searched everywhere for such an item, but I could never find one."
"Thunder opals are rare, and the dragons who find them have no desire to share them with others." Doomwing's eyes gleamed. "But Brother Tiger was my friend, and you visited his grave when I... could not. That is devotion and loyalty worthy of praise. That thunder opal is something you earned through your own efforts."
Rusty Wing nodded and turned his gaze toward the heart of the storm. He cawed. "If I cannot succeed even with your aid, then I was never meant to succeed in the first place."
And then up he went, up and into the heart of the storm.
Doomwing watched as Rusty Wing descended. The storm was gone, and in its place was a storm crow.
Rusty Wing had grown. His wings measured roughly three hundred feet across. Instead of the black common to crows, his feathers now mirrored the storm he had consumed - a deep, storm-hewn black riven with streaks of blue that resembled lightning. The wind around him ebbed and flowed, and electricity crackled over his body. His eyes were turbulent, shifting restlessly from sharp, tempest blue to an actinic white that reminded Doomwing of the flash that heralded thunder. Each flap of his wings carried the smell of the storm and a hint of rain.
"You succeeded," Doomwing said.
"I did. Thank you." Rusty Wing's voice was deeper but sounded younger. He gazed at the dragons who had watched his Ascension. "You have followers now?"
"I do. And now, what will you do? Where will you go?"
"I'm not sure," Rusty Wing said. "In truth, I was reasonably certain I would die trying this time, but I thought it better to die trying than to slowly fade." He sighed. "If Brother Tiger were still alive, I might seek him out. I was never able to repay my debt to him. But now that I have the strength to do so, he is gone, yet I remain."
"Is that so?" Doomwing's flame kindled in his jaws briefly. "What if I told you that you could meet him again."
"Resurrection?" Rusty Wing shook his head. "Impossible. Then..." His eyes widened. "Reincarnation? Rebirth?"
"Something like that. He serves me now, but he is different. He has lived a new life, and he does not remember the old one. Knowing that, would you still wish to meet him?"
Rusty Wing grinned as best he could. "Whether he remembers his old life is irrelevant. I swore, long ago, to repay him, whether in this life or the next. I assumed it would be my next life, but it seems fate had other ideas." He nodded. "Very well. I will go with you. And if he serves you, then I will serve you also." He beat his wings happily. "And if he cannot remember, so be it. I will simply have to befriend him again, right?"
"Indeed. Indeed."
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