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MY KATANA CONNECTED with the steel of a broadsword. The sparks and the sound lit up the darkness and I was staring into emerald green eyes that were a mirror image of my own. The face, though now carrying a few more scars was also unmistakably one I would never forget, as I saw a version of it every day.
I tried to pull back, but he came for me again. I parried and he rushed me, I countered and our swords connected again. I raised my scales to protect myself, my black sails blocking his blade’s teeth with a crisp clang.
“Ferdinand! It’s me, Siegfried! Don’t you know your own flesh and blood?”
“I have no family, and that is not my name. They call me Alewar.”
“I don’t give a fuck what they call you, I know you as my blood. Please, I don’t want to fight you!”
I spun, unsheathing my wings to further defend myself, catching him unaware. His face unprotected, he growled as I made the connection.
“So much for stopping.” He unfurled his wings but they were not the wings I remembered as children. His colors were corals, he was a Dragon of rivers and seas. Now his wings seemed to be burned and scorched, each feathered tip kissed by flames.
“What happened to you? You have feathers?”
“Oh, me? They say that I died.” He rushed me, throwing his weight into me and we tumbled as Aella screamed.
I threw my weapon as he had and we went to blows. He was testing my resolve, as I was testing his. His brutality was impressive as he ploughed his fists into my abs, going for my kidneys, my spleen. I’d probably piss blood in the morning and have some internal damage, but he would too if we kept this up. I landed a clean hit on his chin and he went down.
I rolled over, “Some things never change, you always had a glass jaw.” I coughed. Yup, blood. Aella ran to me, helping me up. I stood, walking to him and putting out my hand. “Come on, no hard feelings then, brother.”
“I’m not your brother.” He smacked my hand away, getting up on his own.
“I don’t know Alewar, the resemblance is uncanny. You were a Dragon once upon a time,” Mary, as Aella called her, quipped.
“What is she jabbering on about?”
He sighed, blowing out painfully. “I’m not a Dragonborn. I’m a Phoenix.”
“That’s a myth told to hatchlings to put them to sleep. They don’t exist.” Aella laughed. “The transmutation doesn’t actually happen, it’s impossible. It’s a metaphor for the afterlife.”
“And yet, here my brother stands, Aella. I burned the body, I scattered the ashes myself.” I was beginning to lose my cool, my voice was quaking. I didn’t know if I was going to scream or cry. I began to pace. “First a son, now a brother, and a crazy Fey trying to usurp the Vampire’s hold on the college, all while Keegan is off trying to get a hold on Ryane and her issues. What a day I’m having. How the Hell am I supposed to solve all of this? I’m just one Dragon. One Dragon! I tell ya. I’m so ready to just pop my wings and disappear. Let you all solve it yourselves, but then what kind of man would that make me? A fucking coward, that’s what! Fuck me, damn it all to Hell. Shit, fuck!” I stood there with my chest heaving as the three of them stared at me in abject horror. “What are you staring at? This is all your guys’ fault! Wait, no, I take that back! It’s all Keegan’s fault! Excuse me! I have someone’s ass to go and kick! I’ll be back in a few hours!” I unfurled my wings and took off, leaving them there wondering if I’d lost my mind.