Part V - Revised and edited for my own peace of mind! xD
"Hello darkness, my old friend,
Ive come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence."
-The Sound of Silence, Simon & Garfunkel
And so her foresight had been correct. Everything she’d prophesized to happen had now come to pass as she lay broken and twisted on the grassy valley of the small island, the last of her life’s water draining from her chest and throat. She’d died plenty of times before. One could say that it was a customary way of life, but this one was different. With this passing, she could feel her essence, was not departing to it’s checkpoint in order to be thrown back into the body. Not even the magic of Recall could bring her body back to the shrine. The purple haze and blue smoke would only fizzle at her paws and cause her limps to fade, but then it gave out.
With the last of her energy, she turned her remaining eye toward her murderer, her son. Silhouetted by the bright moon behind him, he looked to be only a black void shaped into a dragon’s outline. Standing on his haunches, he was massive and with his giant wings splayed behind him, he could’ve passed off as the Sleeper’s younger brother. The sight was both awesome and frightening.
And she was so proud of him.
Focusing her vision, Hraefn could tell he was channeling the last of her soul past his chest and into his dark, crystalline heart. The opaque and colorful sphere of it churned just a few inches away from her body before streaming through the triangle shape Hrajiel formed with his digits to finally plunge past dark chest plates. As the process continued, his form grew; she knew he was taking her ancient form in this grizzly rite. Consuming what power she had in her elder age, he took an ancient body – with or without the blessings of their god.
Absently, she questioned what Drulkar would have to say about it. He would likely be furious. She imagined all the different sorts of punishments the First One could dole out and found she was thankful that her soul would not return to him. No, it would stay safe and useful inside her son’s artificial heart. It was a good death, she’d prefer to die by no other weapon than a dragon’s talons and teeth and she was even happier that those talons had been born of her blood and effort.
As the land shook and the sky grew red with his ascension, the dying dragoness managed to form a smile on her maw. Glad to see her son take his final form; contented to be a part of it. It was a good way to die. And death took her as soon as her single amber eye closed, the last of her soul being sipped away by Hrajiel’s black heart, leaving him to stand alone over her corpse. The last bright white beams of energy where still fading back into the ground, the energy of them too great to just fizzle into the atmosphere.
Hrajiel tipped the front portion of his body forward. His forelimbs crashed against the earth and crushed the blades of grass beneath the course calluses of his paws. Small rivers of steaming blood coursed through the maze of small green leaves. The liquid appeared black in the ghastly light of the moon. It scorched and burned every blade it touched, its heat like liquid dragon’s fire. Even the dirt beneath it began to blacken then glow.
The male’s visage was hardened; cruelness ruled his gaze while looking over the corpse of his creator. To anyone that knew him well, the expression might be surprising. Even the lines of his face seemed to strain under it. It was a foreign mask for him to wear and all his facial muscles cried out as they contorted to the uncomfortable fitting. And the woes of his face only made the look appear all the more frightening; furthering the tense and ready air it already held.
His wide, forked tongue ran over the side of his maw, committing one last image of the ripped and tattered corpse to memory before beating his wings once, twice, thrice, then jumping into the air, leaving the body to its fate under the moon.