《Fragment of a Dragon Soul》Chapter 37: Happy Under the Sun
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eX-0281 and eX-0704 slept for a long time in order to recover from yesterday's ordeal.
When one began to stir, so did the other. The little vul kits had already woken up, slipped away from them, and ventured into the house. eX-0281 groaned and tried grasping for the furry presence that he missed. In reaching out his arm, he also flicked out his tail and inadvertently thwacked eX-0704 in the face.
"Hey," he grumbled groggily. As eX-0704 stirred and woke up more, a tone of great awe encompassed his voice. "Hey…! My head feels all better!" He sat up with a lurch and banged his head against the nearby lamp. "Ow." Even though a lamp shade could not hurt his horns, he still said that as a reaction.
In contrast, the lamp was irreparably injured by his horns. It fell over with a clatter and some shattering glass.
"Uh oh," eX-0704 said. Both his claws were reached out, about five seconds too slow to avert the catastrophe.
"Good morning, boys!" a chipper voice called. Josie sashayed into the room and greeted them with a smile on her face. The broken lamp did not faze her for a second. "Or should I say good afternoon, you sleepy heads."
eX-0281 stretched and yawned. His narrow, serpentine tongue lolled out of his mouth and curled back inside.
"Would you guys like some breakfast?"
"Would I?" they both repeated. eX-0281 and eX-0704 chuckled and regarded each other with an excited flick of their tails.
In the kitchen, they sat at the table and watched Josie bustle about. "Would you like pancakes—?"
"Yes!" they said.
"Or waffles?" she finished.
"Yes!" eX-0281 and eX-0704 said again.
"Do you like orange juice or apple juice?"
"Yes," eX-0281 said.
"And yes," eX-0704 said.
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"Are you boys going to say yes to everything I offer?"
"Yes!" they roared.
"I'm starving," eX-0281 said. Without meaning to be rude, he pounded on the table from sheer enthusiasm.
Home-cooked food was something that characters got from their happy families in TV shows. eX-0281 always ate the rations provided through the box in his room. The more he thought back to his living quarters at the company, the more his isolated room seemed like a cell in retrospect.
Dramatically, eX-0704 put a faint hand against the base of his horns. "I'm so hungry, I could eat the vuls."
Sheer terror fell over eX-0281. For the first time in this conversation of food, he had to howl, "No!"
An awkward laugh tittered from eX-0704. "Relax. I was only joking. I'd sooner make a soup out of my own scales."
"Yuck." Such a concoction would be an abomination against soup.
Batter was mixed, and Josie hummed a pleasant tune while she started pancakes in a pan and the waffles in an iron. A few wrinkles entered her smiling face, just a touch around the eyes to make her look wise and beautiful—the perfect motherly image. It was obvious why Charlotte had put so much faith in her mom; she was perfect.
"How's Lottie doing?" eX-0281 said.
"She's still sleeping."
"How about the Disco Menace—er, I mean—Victoria?" eX-0704 asked.
"She's sleeping as well."
"What about her brother? Is Marcel going to be okay?"
A long, tenuous sigh left Josie's lips. "I could heal him everywhere, but not here." Two light fingers tapped at her temple. "It's really hard for children to go through traumatic experiences, especially because they're not equipped to understand it yet."
eX-0281 and eX-0704 looked at each other. To them, it sounded like a human problem. They both knew the horrors that they endured in their workplace—how they never fully acknowledged the insidious situation for what it was—yet it never bothered them. The two of them had just begun to realize how little they understood about the world.
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For now, they were content to gobble down breakfast. Every dish of food that Josie set in front of them, they made it disappear.
"You guys should head outside before it gets dark," she suggested after they had finished stuffing themselves.
"Did we really sleep all day?" eX-0704 asked in panic.
"Charlotte said she'd give us a tour of the town!" eX-0281 said.
Josie patted each of their shoulders. "That can wait until tomorrow. I think you boys should enjoy the last few hours of daylight."
eX-0281 and eX-0704 searched the house for the vuls first. Then, they wandered outside and looked for a place where the trees did not block out the sun. They found some large rocks in the backyard, and one was the perfect sunning stone.
"Ah," eX-0281 bounded onto the rock and moaned happily. Right when he tried to settle in, eX-0704 charged forward and slammed him aside.
He tumbled around in the grass. When eX-0281 sat up, he snapped, "Hey. I was there first!"
"I deserve the big rock," eX-0704 said. "I was the one who got stuck going after the Disco Menace."
"Fair enough," eX-0281 grumbled. He perched on the small rock with his claws scratching to keep himself balanced. His body curled around it the best he could to sun himself.
eX-0704 sprawled out on the big rock and got to more thoroughly enjoy the last rays of daylight. Per their agreement yesterday, he even got to have two vuls. One was tucked under a wing each.
Though he might have wanted the big rock, eX-0281 had nothing to complain about. Both of them derived extreme pleasure from the simple landscape of a backyard on the surface.
"Do you remember…?" eX-0281 asked. "The lamps in Grandesia were like our sun."
eX-0704 made a humming sound and nodded along.
"We never would've met each other or tried escaping if the lights didn't go out like that." eX-0281 sighed, supposing they had the Disco Menace to thank for that. "We never would've seen the real sun."
"Mhm,"
"It always looked pretty in pictures and those old-timey movies."
"It's gorgeous," eX-0281 said with a delighted, gravelly sound running up his throat. "Better than a lamp."
More than just the Grandesia lights, if his heat lamp had not gone out, who knew how long it would have taken to motivate him to leave the company. Thankfully, his impulsive decision had been rewarded with the grandest lamp of all: the one, true sun.
"Ah," eX-0281 and eX-0704 sighed in unison.
They enjoyed the hot rocks beneath them, the sun above them, and the toasty bundles of vul fur in their arms. The day finally passed. The setting sun bid them goodnight in its golden, fiery hues.
"D-Do you remember how you said we're like brothers?" eX-0704 asked.
"Of course."
"Did you really mean that?"
"Of course!" eX-0281 repeated. "You're like another part of me. I wouldn't want to go anywhere without you."
Out of sheer happiness, eX-0704 squirmed a bit. "I feel the same way. On all counts. You're my brother."
As if on cue, eX-0281 and eX-0704 did their secret tail flick together which had started this all. They laughed because they were best friends and brothers.
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8 199Corinth
This is the story of an expanding empire, not understanding its reach, unfulfilled by its goals, and misled by its gods. It follows a group of travellers as they try to expand the empire, and probe the edges of its control. It is set in a world in which power is directly connected to origins, ancestry, and the gods of a culture. It examines the effects of conflict on a people when they can’t be disconnected from their surroundings, and thus true mobility is not possible. The first book will be focusing on a group trying to explore and settle the lands east of their empire. Deciding that a new push is needed, groups are being funded to take and farm the near-empty land, and this group of four is heading out ahead of many of the settlers. The four - Sojo, Mirrel, Eyn, and Brehen - hope to find and chart something of importance in a vast, nearly unexplored landscape, and bring the knowledge back to make their fortune. This story will be focusing on the people that make, inspire, and ultimately shape the course of an empire's ambitions. It is hosted at https://thecorinthianman.wordpress.com/ and updates Wednesdays.
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8 144The legend of the sun guild.
Durning the age of darkness it was said that four people of great power were born. The first man of great might. Who hunted the monster and saw them as know more than a means to an end. He fought to simply feed his hungry for blood and power. He challenged both the heavens and the darkest depths of hell. He made the world know meaning of the word fear. He was a strongest swordsman of the world. During his time their were few who could say otherwise and by his end their was know to be only one who claimed to be his better. There were none who love the sword like him. And there would be none who his blade would love like him. They said that number did not matter to him. That all who face him blade would die without exception. They is a legend of him bringing death to an empire so he could claim the life of widow of a soldier who died of his own blade in the face death so that the sword man would not now the satisfactory of taking his life. They called him the sword of death. The second was a man of great rage. An noble avenger to the weak and and terror to the strong. He was a berserker but unlike most who would attempt to control they rage he would reveal in the through of it controlling him. He would streak across the battlefield ripping both friend and foe apart alike and he would do so with nothing but his bare hand. They called him an immortal they said the more be bleed the more his power would grow. And they spoke of the power to he he could trade his blood for death. They said that no mortal weapon could kill him and that he would rise to fight no matter the injury. There was a legend of him ripping off his own head and using it to club his enemies to death. They called him the immortal wrath. The third was a woman of madness and magic. She was a hated witch. They say that her only objects was to spread misery and hate. It said she lead many a good man from the right path to one of great evil just to she if she was capable of such things. Her experiments left only detestation in their wake as she tainted the lands in some way worse than the worse then the void or darkness ever could. Her magic was a foul and dangerous thing that saw all her enemy become her enemy. That she enter the territory of both the formed of order and the gods of Chao us would not go. That she played with the energy of the void. Legend speaks of a place where she corrupted the very darkness that that claim both the land and the people. Some say light would flee from her presence in fear of the shadows fate for that was her name she was the fate weaver. The forth was a man. He was simply known as… the hero of the world. But this is not his story. No this is a story that speak of the other three The unrelenting swords man The undying wrath The unquantifiable desire But it mainly speaks of their second life. For the age of darkness has long since pases and the age of fire is coming to a close. But as the age dies a new one must be born. ( the idea is that this story will be told from the perspectives of the bad guys. Their motives ,objectives, rise to power, struggles and what they want to achieve. But yes they are the ‘bad guys’ of the story it’s also probably important to note that for the time being it’s going to be written on my phone then edit later when I have the time and feel like it but you should probably think of whats here as a draft until further notice. )
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