Dragon Soul Part One

Dragon-Soul   PL    By: Pok`eLord
----------------------------------------Chapter 1

I swore under my breath as Talik screamed at Elkholm... does he ever do anything else other than annoy Elkholm? 'look over here.' I thought. Talik turned and glanced over in my direction. his malevolent face turned suddenly to shock. His awareness of other people around him was incredulously pathetic. I gave him a stern look as Elkholm nodded thankfully and slunk silently out the back door of the temple. Then he took off in a rush running pel-mel down the back steps and then a blinding light, that only Drago-morphs could see, flickered intensely as Elkholm morphed in to his Half Demon Dragon mode. See, Elk is the only Drago-morph that has a limited time human. the other Drago-morphs, like me, Ino, Sotoro, Foras, Neota, Hiroku, Mitsuki, and Aang, can stay human for as long as we like. "Kova! What happened to Elkholm?" Talik queried angrily, obviously suspecting me for Elk's dissaperance. "I don't know." i replied shrugging, and then my temper took a turn for the worst... "Why don't you ever leave him alone? He needs his own space and time to be by himself you know! Give him a break! your so incredibly mean, Talik!" I yelled in his face, almost morphing with rage. his face was of pure horror. i guess i intimidated him a bit too much... "S-s-sorry... Kova... I didn't know you felt that way!" Talik muttered, head down. then he hurried off to a room and slammed the door. the sign that said "Drunes Room - Drunes Only" swung and slammed back on to the dark grey painted door. I heard Talik start talking to him self, stuttering. I sighed walking towards the back door to meet Elk.
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As I came up to the dark huddled figure, it turned suddenly teeth bared, growling furiously, flames licked the sides of his face. His silver and black scales flickered in the firelight. as Elk recognised me he stopped growling and sighed deeply. The crisp air brushed softly against my face as Elk relaxed.  Little plumes of smoke rose up silently towards the darkening sky. (Who said poetry was dead?) 'I wish Talik would leave me alone. it seems as if he knows when I'm losing my human form...' Elkholm thought, upset 'if you weren't there to distract him... Oh, I don't even want to think of what would happen...' I looked at his dragonic face, covered in soft scales, and stared at his deep, all knowing, golden eyes. they seemed as if they wanted to suck you into their deep quiet depths... I shook my head to clear my thoughts and to shake the trance off. 'what is it?' Elk asked inisintly. "it's just that... well, Talik gets on my nerves so much that sometimes i have to force myself to calm down or i might Morph right in front of him, or someone around him..." i trailed off. 'Hmmm... your right. we have to do something about that nosy punk... And since he doesn't know yet about our, umm..., problem... Oh what to do about him...' Elk replied with a touch of annoyance. "well, we can't do any thing about it now... let's go find the others... they said they would be at Thao's Bar & Grill..." i stated, licking my lips with my tounge. Elk nodded and we set off.
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Ino looked up as we approached. Thao, the bartender/owner, nodded silently, he knew about the secret... well he only thought Ino and Elkholm had it... "What will it be today?" Thao asked with a slight tone of fright. He still hadn't gotten over Elk's appearance. we always came way after closing time, for if we came during hours, well you should know what would happen... "Sparkling cider, Thao." Ino replied. We all nodded in agreement. Elk's, larger than normal head, shook back and forth. "Then what do you want?" I asked him. 'I want Ginger ale.'Elk replied mildly. "He wants ginger ale, Thao. Make it a extra large one." I translated to Thao. "Oh-key-day."Thao said with a smile. We never paid for our food because, Talik paid for it. That was the only reason he was around us at all. He sometimes wondered how we racked up such a ginormus tab. Well Elk's the reason, but you already guessed that, right? Thao slid the top-heavy glasses along the highly polished redwood bar toward us. His expert bar skills shone, as sliding top-heavy glasses was increadably hard to do. I tried it once and, let's just say, there was broken glass everywhere... Don't try it. Elk's huge clawed hand grasped the "filled to the brim" bucket like glass and slurped it down like, umm, a super thirsty dragon... Elk plopped the glass carefully down on the bar. Thao hurried off to the back room to get another bucket-full. Foras sighed, staring at Neota. Those two were a couple. I swear, if they don't stop staring at each other, I'll... I'll... I sighed. Aang rubbed his hands on his jeans and started talking to Mitsuki rapidly. Soroto yawned and stared at the wall, and started humming "100 bottles of beer on the wall" to himself. Hiroku sighed and took slow little sips of his cider, apparently day-dreaming. Ino walked off to the bathroom to morph. I glanced back at Elk, he was asleep... He started drooling on the bar. I grabbed some napkins and began mopping up the substance. Ino came back into the room. Her sky-blue scales had an un-earthly shine to them. Her jet-black wings were folded neatly on her spiked back. She purred a hello and sat on the other side of Elkholm. She started helping me wipe up the growing collection of slobber. 'Talik has been bothering Elk again.' Ino whispered with a touch of sympathy. 'I can see it in your eyes. You love Elk, don't you?' I gave her a look of innisentness. 'It's obvious, well to me anyway.' She replied calmly. I grinned. "yes, i do. but i don't know if we could be together..." i whispered, just loud enough for her to hear. 'what do you mean? we're all drago-morphs, you already know that. Is it because he has so little time human?' Ino asked, concerned. "yeah. i guess thats it..." i replied, sadly. 'hmm... he's a good guy. you'll manage alright.' Ino replied, patting me on the back with her clawed hand. Thao came back in and plopped the glass down in front of Elk. Elk's eyes snapped open and he slurped the ale down. I heard a noise, like a old man who dropped something and couldn't get it. I spun around, bumping into Elk, making him sputter and cough. Then I realized the worst of all things was about to happen... Someone burst right into the bar... "Talik?!" Elk coughed, spraying cider allover the counter, "What the...?"
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Ino spun around and hissed loudly, her flames licking the air. Thao jumped back in surprise and bumped into the wall of glasses... A huge crashing of cups and glasses fell down onto him Mitsuki, Aang, and Neota ran over to help him. Foras morphed into his huge white dragon form, his appearance almost frightening me, and roared at Talik. Sotoro morphed into his flame-red dragon and lunged at Talik, jaws gaping. Hiroku morphed into his forest green dragon and went after Sotoro, knowing that Sotoro could murder Talik, and that then we'd have a murder on our hands... Or so to speak. I stayed with Elk and morphed into my grey dragon. Talik screamed as Sotoro attacked him. Hiroku jumped on top of Sotoro, dragging him off of the stunned Talik. Mitsuki walked calmly over to Talik and wiped his memory by two minutes. we all hoped that would be enough time. then Elk said, "I wonder why he came here?" I nodded. Aang and Mitsuki took Talik back to the temple. Thao now knew that all of us where Drago-morphs... Oh well... But he was okay with it. he knew now why we had such a ravenous appetite. we helped him clean up the mess of broken glass and we all apologized for the excitement. "it's okay. i only have some minor cuts and scratches. it's my fault i forgot lock the front doors..." Thao apologized with an upset look on his face. I demorphed and so did all the others, except Elk. "Thao, may we spend the night here? it's too dangerous to go home now. we don't know if anyone might see us. And Mitsuki can't wipe everyone that sees us."I asked Thao sheepishly. "Uh-huh."Thao muttered under his breath, still sweeping up the glass. we all treged up the back stairs to Thao's spare bedroom. Elk slept on the bed and the rest of us slept on the floor. Mitsuki and Aang came back, telling me all went well. Later, Thao poked his head in carfuly and I nodded to him. i heard him go into his own bedroom and shut off the lights. i yawned and closed my eyes.
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When i woke, i could smell the sweet scent of French toast with syrup. That moment i almost forgot where i was. i smiled at Mitsuki as she walked in with a platter of food in both hands. Sotoro seemed to be in a better mood, and Neota yawned as she stretched. "Good, finally being out of that cramped position!"She said grinning. Hiroku's head popped up on the other side of the bed. "What's that?" he asked Mitsuki, head tilted. "It's French Toast, Hiroku. You dunce." Came Ino's playful voice from the far corner. Foras yawned, tounge lolling, and rolled onto his back. "Smells good, Mitsuki. You make it?" He asked, staring at the ceiling. "No and yes. Thao made the batter, and I cooked them. he's not so good with a grill, espsialy a  portable one..." Mitsuki replied, still grinning." Aang went to buy syrup at Killox's General store, when we took Talik back." Aang strode into the room and plopped down on the bed next to Elk. "Mmmm..." Elk hummed, licking his lips hungrily. Thao popped his head in behind Mitsuki, making her jump. "Hi, guys!" he said smiling. "Oh! Sorry Mitsuki... Hope you enjoy breakfast! Mixed the batter myself!" After Mitsuki gathered her self and passed out the toast, Aang said, "I'll go clean up the grill." He strode out of the room quickly. Elk kept asking for seconds, although he was WAY past second servings... After breakfast, we all said thanks, Elk morphed human, packed leftovers, and headed for home.
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It snowed while we were at Thao's. as we treged through the deep banks of snow, Sotoro muttered furiously, "I hate the cold." Hiroku laughed. Ino looked back at me. a look of amusement lit up her face. finally we reached home, of what a home it was... The little shack with a lean-to chimney, looked even more pathetic now... they all shivered in the cold as i fumbled with the key. i eventuly managed to open the door, and as i did, they all ran-over me in a rush to get inside. However, it wasn't any warmer. I spotted our dragon-head shaped masks, that I made, hanging on the wall. Mitsuki quickly started trying to make a fire and Aang helped her. Hiroku, Foras, and Soroto grabbed the make-shift snow shovels and headed outside. Neota and Ino went to look for our old-but-good heat blankets, which were somewhere in here...  Elk, who had demorphed, went outside to gather firewood for Mitsuki and Aang. Aang was already demorphed and was trying to light some twigs with his fire. Mitsuki was directing him. I sighed and sat on our out of proportion couch. I don't know what happened, but I guess I fell asleep.
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When I woke, the others were laughing and joking over their dinner. I smelled a fresh chicken noodle soup, with homemade broth, Mitsuki's specialty... Mitsuki was the first to notice i had woken up. "Come on Kova! Your dinner's getting cold!" She called over to me. I yawned, cracked my neck, and shuffled over to our round table. "You look awful, Kova."Sotoro laughed at me, almost falling out of his chair. "SOTORO!" Foras bellowed, "Do NOT un-salt your elders!" Foras then turned to me and said, "But, your right Sotoro, Kova, you do look horrible..." He burst out laughing. The others snikered, giggled, and snorted."You've got a BAD bedhead, Kova." Neota muttered between her wild and random bursts of laughter. "You need help with that?" Ino asked, finaly managing her laughter. "Sure, with all the fuss about it, it has to be bad..." i replied with a weak smile. Ino got up and lead me to the bathroom, the only room in the whole "house" that looled like part of a model home. i could still hear the never ending stream of laughter from the other room as Ino struggled with my tangled bedhead. "I don't know how you do it, Kova... All this trouble making sure we're all safe and secure... Oh, Kova... But, Mitsuki helps take care of us as well... But trust me, she'll never replace you." Ino smiled at me in the mirror. i managed to give her a weak grin. "But, i haven't done much lately... Mitsuki's been doing most of it..."I corrected. Ino sighed and continued trying to untangle the mess of what was my hair. "Kova, I just wanted to say something encourageing..."Ino said strugleing with a huge knot of hair. Then someone knocked on the door. "What!"Ino yelled iritatedly. "I need to use the bathroom." Aang's tiny voice replied. "Don't you..."Ino said, but I cut her off, "Sure Aang, can you wait till were finished?" Aang's mumbled cry of agonny told me he probly couldn't. "My hair can wait, Ino." I said opening the door, and nearly getting killed by Aang as he rushed in. Ino followed me, a little sad we couldn't talk with out some kind of interuption...
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Mitsuki smiled as we rentered the room. "I warmed up your food."She said as she started to pick up the empty dishes. Ino's soup still sat there untouched. "It's in the microwave. Ino, you want me to warm up yours too?"Mitsuki asked us as she began washing the dishes. "Yeah...Thanks, Mitsuki."Ino replied sitting down. I heard Aang open and slam the bathroom door. Aang lumbared in the room and called to Mitsuki, "Foras said you're going to make snowcones tonight." Mitsuki nodded and grabed the bottle of soap. Neota appered in the doorway, all bundeled up in her winter jacket. "Mitsuki, the others want snowcones ready in ten minutes." She said and walked out. Ino gotup and got our soup. I slurped the soup down, Ino looked up as Aang went to get his coat on. "Mitsuki, are you coming?"Aang asked looking back over his shoulder. "Yes. Just let me finish the dishes."Mitsuki replied, her arms covered in soap bubbles.
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"Duck!"Foras yelled as a huge snowball hurteled towards my head. Hiroku shoved me to the snow covered ground. "Oof!" I was winded. I curled in a ball, trying to catch my breath. "Kova! Are you okay?"Hiroku's urgent voice came from beside me, he was on his knees. "Yeah..."I squeaked, coughing. "I will avenge you!"yelled Foras from his stockpile of snow balls. "Barage!"He yelled, his hand spiking the snowballs over Aang's snowbank. "Ah!"came the voices of Aang, Ino, and Neota from the other side. "Got you!"Hiroku jeered sticking out his tounge. SPLAT! Hiroku turned to me, his face barely visable through the mess of snow. "Ha!" came Neota's voice from their fort. "Come on guys! Stop playing around. I've got snowcones with your names on them!"Mitsuki yelled from the front door. we all went inside, the snow almost melting imeditly off of us as we steped in. We took our soked coats off and sat down to eat the snowcones. They were drizzeled with strawberry and chocolate syrup. Tall mugs of steaming hot chocolate with marshmellows sat on knited costers. "Wow, Mitsuki!" Aang's delighted voice echoed from beside me. After the tasty "food" we all got ready for bed. Elk and Sotoro were already asleep on the floor. "I think he slept the whole time..." Neota wispered, tiptoeing past the drooling Elk and Sotoro. Our two beds only held two each, so we had to take turns. Ino demorphed and relit the dwindeling fire. Foras and Neota climed in one bed, (remeber they're a couple, and don't think that perverted thought!), and Hiroku and Aang clambered in the other bed. Mitsuki, Ino, Elk, Sotoro, and I slept on the thread-bare carpet.
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I woke to loud banging and screaming outside the house. I looked around, the others already demorphed and had their masks on. I morphed and crawled over to the window... "Oh... God, No..." My breath caught in my throat. The city was on fire... And that wasn't all... Griffins... and lots of them. They flew around, circling the city, yelling their cries of triumph. I burst out the door, the others right behind me, and roared at them. I jumpped into the air, my great clawed wings gathering air under them, I let out a furious blast of flame, torching the nearist griffin. Another griffin launched itself at me, claws exstended. Foras rammed into me, sending me flying into Mitsuki. Foras roared as he lashed the griffin with his spiked tail. It screached as the tail sliced into the griffin's dark brown hindleg. It plummeted to the ground, crashing into a fire hydrant when it landed. the hydrant exploded, ripping the griffin apart, it's blood colored the water red. Aang uttered a discusted "Oh... Gross..." Hiroku swooped down, dodging a huge black griffin. I turned quickly, spotting a human watching us, and I made the mistake of useing my dragon sight, because i was blinded by a huge blast of light. In the place of the human, was another dragon...
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The dragon bounded into the air, huge copper colored wings outstreched. It came up beside me, "I'm Azoh."He said, "Looks like you need help." I nodded and he sped towards the nearist griffin, which happened to be a giganto grey one... Sotoro screeched in triumph as another griffin plummeted to the ground. I turned back towards the newcomer, who was just grabbing the griffin's wings and yanking them together sharply. I heard the snap as the wings broke and the cry of the huge griffin as it screamed in terror as the ground came up at him. the sickening thud, and then silence, except for the "wOOt" of triuph from Azoh... "now that's some move I should try." I said, nodding. Nevertheless, my chance to try that wing-crunch move came quicker than expected... I was bowled over, when a griffin yelling, "Hobo!", attacked me. His claws ripped into my scaled skin, sending me into crazed screams of pain. I saw blood start oosing out of a fresh wound in my arm. I felt myself demorph into a human and start to lose altitude fast! His horrid laughs of happiness faded out as i started to lose counciceness. I last remember the gasps of my friends, and someone or something, with soft scales on their arms, catching me. then every thing went dark.
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I woke with my head pounding and my arm stinging. I glanced and saw Foras and Neota, his arm encircling her protectively. I spotted Mitsuki sitting with one leg up on a chair in the far corner. Aang was curled up beside her on the floor. She smiled at me and continued strokeing Aang's dark brown hair. Ino was leaning against the wall, Hiroku's head in her lap. Her hand placed on his shoulder. Elk was on the floor with a "Fruits Basket" manga covring his face. Sotoro was sleeping by a stack of "Shoen Jump" magizens, one in his outstreached hand. Azoh was at the foot of my bed, his back to me. My mask hung on the bedpost. Nothing but chirping of crickets outside the window. Mitsuki yawned and smiled at me. "Go to sleep."she wispered. I gave her a weak smile and I fell asleep.
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I woke to the sun pouring in on my face and the smell of sweet buttermilk pancakes. Birds chirped outside and, sure enough, Mitsuki and Aang were missing from the room. Foras and Neota were just waking up. "Good sleep I'd say." Foras said smileing. Neota nodded and streached. Ino was coming out of the bathroom and Hiroku was waiting for her outside the room. Elk was awake and reading "Fruits Basket" again. Sotoro was awake too, and was drooling over his "Shoen Jump" magizen. Probably turned to the "Naruto" part. Azoh was still asleep at the foot of my bed, except he was facing me now. I got out of bed and strolled to the bathroom, the smell of the buttermilk pancakes getting stronger when I left the bedroom.
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"Great pancakes, Mitsuki!" Neota said, her mouth full. Foras nodded and shuved another pancake in his mouth. "Whoa! Whoa! Take it easy, Foras!" Ino yelled as she cut her pancakes into bite-size pieces. Azoh looked up when Elk came into the room. Sotoro motioned Elk to sit beside him. Hiroku and Aang were sitting next to each other, shareing a "Naruto" manga. Mitsuki sat next to Aang, reading over his shoulder. I sighed and sipped my orange juice. "I want to go to Thao's today." Hiroku blurted out, his face still turned to the manga. "Fine, fine..."I replyed, watching Foras ask Mitsuki if there was any more pancakes left. She shook her head and returned to reading the manga. Foras looked back at Neota, then at his empty plate. The dish looked like it had never been used...
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"Whoa! This place is cool!" Azoh declared as he walked into Thao's. Thao looked up from polishing a glass and smiled at us. However the smile faded when he spotted Azoh. "Who's he?"Thao asked conserned. "This is Azoh, Thao." Ino said as she sat down on a barstool. "Ah! I see... those griffins yesterday... Oh man... All the drunes here lost their minds. They were all screaming and running around in circles. Eventully they went out the back door and headed for the hills. Thats why there is no one in town."Thao commented, putting down the now highly polished glass on the redwood bar. "So, Azoh what do you do? Do you have a job at all?"  turned away and muttered, "I was a drune. But not the ones that were here. I could sence some thing bad was going to happen so I stayed at the temple. Then I heard the noise and I went outside and saw you guys." He motioned to us. "The usual, Thao." I said, folding my arms on the bar. The bandaged arm sticking out like a sore thumb, next to all the undamaged people around me. Thao raised an eyebrow and went to the back room. I knew he was wondering why I was the only one injured out of the whole group. Mitsuki sat next to me, Aang on her other side. Hiroku sat next to Ino, and Foras and Neota were rambling loudly about something. Soroto and Elk were still reading their manga at a table. Thao came back with my apple cider. As I sipped the crisp cider, Aang leaned aganst Mitsuki and fell asleep. Mitsuki brushed his dark brown hair off his face and put her head on top of his. Ino was sharing a "Fish n' Chips" combo with Hiroku, who was stuffing his face with the fries. Thao turned on the TV and immedeatly Azoh's head turned to the flickering screen. Thao smiled and asked Azoh what he wanted to watch. Then the screen turned black and the lights went out. "Not again..." Thao muttered under his breath.

Chapter 16

Roaring and screaming of griffins broke the silence, sending all of us, except Thao, into our Dragon forms. I felt my face elongate, my skin becoming scale-like, and my wings growing quickly but painfully out of my back. My tail sprouting from my tailbone. Then the sudden rush of my back spines standing up, then the power of a dragon hit imediatly, making me roar in plesure of my new strength. Ino was handing out masks and Thao was packing up the glasses so they didn't fall on him this time. And it was a good idea too, except he didn't have enogh time... The bar doors burst open and a stream of griffins rushed in, all armor clad this time... A grey one lunged at Elk and Sotoro, who were real pissed that something had interuped their reading of "Naruto". Two brown griffins attacked Foras and Neota, and imediatly after I saw that, Azoh shuved me out of the way of an attacking black griffin. I landed on top of Mitsuki and Aang, who were already dealing with a pair of small light tan griffins. I hopped off them and landed a well placed kick to the side of one of the griffins skull, sening it sprawling across the floor, crashing into a heavy redwood table that fell over onto the other griffins foot. The griffin screamed in pain and collapsed on the ground. "BOOYAH!" I shouted in triuph, but two more griffins leaped in their place. I spun, sending a flurry of kicks into their faces, making them holler in terror when they saw their blood gushing out onto the floor. They ran around and crashed into each other. Two more griffins leaped into their place once again, except Mitsuki and Aang attacked this time. I left them to it, and picked out a strong looking black griffin in shiny metalic red armor. I charged, raming into the surprized griffin, causing a chain reaction of other griffins lined up beside him to topple over onto the next closest one. The black griffin sprang up, it's talons reaching for my face. I dogded, flinging my tail at him. It hit with a "THUNK!" and he flew into the griffins that were coming in the door, causing a blockage in the doorway. "Here you go!" yelled Azoh as he flung a black griffin in battered silver armor at the door, which happened to be blocked at the time... I flung myself out of the way, barely getting out of the way. "Oh! So sorry, Kova... My bad..." Azoh appologized. I got up and shruged, "It's okay, I'm not hurt anyway..." I stopped and turned to the doorway, the pile of defeated griffins bulged and shifted. The outside was quiet and still. [Go to File 5 for story]