The Shadow Dragon is native to the Shadow Planes, and appears as a pitch-black dragon with pure darkness wafting off of its lithe form. They are reclusive creatures that find the largest open space that is touched by as little natural light as possible to occupy. They are instinctual masters of Illusion and shadow magic of all kind. They tend to use hit and run tactics in conjunction with shadow walking and calling the lesser denizens of the nearest shadow plane during combat.

Adrian

I wake up before anyone else as has almost always been the case since becoming a dragon. I spend the hour or so before anyone woke up thinking of and attempting to do things with Light and Darkness. Just as my mother woke up I managed to make a ball of physical darkness by a connection to the Sphere of Transmutation.

“Are you feeling better mom?”

“Yes, you know you didn’t have to stay.”

I don’t say anything, mentioning why I needed to would just upset her. I wake for a moment before standing up.

“Mom, do you mind staying here for a few days as I get everything prepared?”

She has to think for a while before remembering what I am talking about, “I thought you only needed that dragon.”

“Technically, yes I don’t have to do more preparations but it will be better if I do.”

“Okay, but please come back every day.”

I nod to her request, before getting up and walking to the kitchen. I’m feeling hungry and if I don’t get something soon I’ll end up snacking on the dragon meat in Void Cache.

No one spoke as breakfast was made, a simple meal of bread, butter and jelly.

“Bryan, I’m going to get what I need for my mother, can you watch those that stay here and keep them safe?”

He nods, and Lysan answers my question before I ask it. "Sister and me will stay as well to teach her to fight.”

I nod, she really need to learn. I turn to Abagail and Ria.

“I'll be staying” Abagail says and I didn’t think she would have made any other choice.

“I want to be helpful. How can I help?”

Could I use an illusionist? Yes, but I glance over to K. She is the one who will be doing the ritual and probably a decent amount of the tracking.

I can see the slightest nod before I answer, “can you trick some Althaen patrols into running into some traps?”

She nods enthusiastically.

“We should be back tomorrow, probably the afternoon.”

K whispers something in Talia’s ear before glancing at Ria. “Adrian, I’ll be out shortly.”

I nod and walk over to the door, thinking of what will be the best ways to test my theories on my soon to be prisoners. I don’t want to think about what the girls are no doubt going to talk over.

Talia

When Kythia whispered in my ear that sister and me needed to have a talk with Ria, I frowned. I don’t think I’m going to like the outcome.

Adrian walks outside as if he was completely oblivious and while I doubt he is it is probably the best thing he could have done. Kythia leads Ria, sister and me to the bedroom we didn’t get to share with Adrian last night.

“Ria saved Adrian’s life when we fought the dragon” K says as soon as the door is closed.

“What? How?” I can’t help but ask.

“She swapped places with him just before he was going to be crushed.”

My sister hugs the kitsune and give a truly heartfelt “thank you” as soon as Kythia finishes her sentence.

“We didn’t need to meet away from the others for that, what else is there?” I aks.

Kythia turns to Ria, she doesn’t look completely happy with whatever is going to be said.

“Can we be pole sisters?” Ria asks in excitement.

“What?” I say as I look at her in confusion, my sister having an identical look.

“She wants to join us as one of Adrian’s mates” Kythia clarifies annoyed by having to do so.

“How is what she said ev. . .” my face turns as red as sister's sometimes gets as I realize just how her question means what Kythia said.

“Please, can I?” Ria asks and the jealousy that I sometimes get of my sister and Kythia surface. I don’t want to share.

“I don’t mind if Adrian wants her” sister says.

I look at her, “why sister?”

“To make him happy.”

I look at Kythia to be some sort of voice of reason in this. “I don’t like her but she is loyal to our mate. I've already accepted it, if Adrian wants her he can have her.”

“Don’t worry sister, Adrian isn’t going to love us less if she is with us” sister says, pulling me into a hug, one that Ria decides to join.

“Please, I promise not to take away from his love for you” she whispers and rubs her tails against me.

I make the mistake of looking into the kitsune’s eyes. I couldn’t say no to her after that, not from any magical compulsion but from the innocent desire in her eyes as she begged.

“Okay but the next girl has to be Bryan’s” I say and Kythia nods and mumbles something I can barely hear.

“Yes, it wouldn’t be good for the next generation of the pack to all have the same sire.”

Ria runs around all three of us to give us hugs as she says, “thank you” over and over again.

Adrian

K and Ria walk out of the house a few minutes after I do, Ria seems happier than normal. Whatever they talked about must have gone well for her.

“Alright, we need to set up another location for some prisoners and capture some. Kythia can you track down some Althaen?” I ask.

She shakes her head, “the moon isn’t full enough for me to call on my wolf.”

“Then we will have to use Ria’s magic or search manually.”

Ria begins to chant something for a few seconds before smiling, “bad men are that way” she says and points in a direction.

I shrug and try to do a pulse of life energy to sense other living things. This seems easier than what I’ve usually done as far as telling what direction something is in. There are a few life forces in the direction she pointed. I have no idea who or what they are but it is a place to start.

Whatever they are it is only a few streets over so I motion the girls to follow me. A few short minutes later I glance around the corner of a building to see a few men in Althaen clothes. No horses, no armor, they just have tunics and some light weapons hanging on their belts. Nobles? If there are then where are their guards?

This is a stupid way to do this but I need to know if they are enemies or a neutral party. I step out into their view, “names and allegiances, tell me them now!” I say while trying to be intimidating.

They answer but do not seem distressed, I only halfway listen. They named an Althaen house, not one I remember attacking me specifically but they are Althaen and that is enough for me.

I turn their shadows solid to hold them as I rush to knock the three men out. They end up breaking out of the physical shadows before I reach them, but it did keep them from drawing their swords before I hit one of them on the side of the head. I hear something crack and his head is at a weird angle on the ground. Did I hit him too hard? Whatever so long as his heart is still beating I can fix it before K does her ritual.

I took out the guy on the right so I wouldn’t be surrounded and try to block a drawing strike from the man who can hit me with my forearm as it manifests its scales. My arm gets in place fast enough though the flash of pain tells me either that sword is really sharp or the scales didn’t come out fast enough.

The man whose sword is not stuck in my arm begins to fight against something that is not there while K charges at my opponent. He pulls his blade and I fail to move inside his reach, his footwork is better than mine. He is not however able to prevent both me and K from flanking and knocking him out after I take another hit, this one not even scratching my scales.

“So, will you need more than these three?” I ask K as she turn to knock out the man trapped in an illusion.

“Two maybe three more, just to be safe. It’s better to have a surplus than a deficit” she answers and I nod.

“Alright then, let’s take these three into a nearby building. Then I’ll bring Ria to get some more while you set up.” The two girls nod and I grab two of the men.

I think I could carry all three but it would be bully and a problem if one woke up.

It took us another thirty minutes or so before Ria and me found another group of people, this group being several US soldiers. I don’t know is they are working for whatever general attacked me last and I have no idea if that situation has been resolved or not.

[It’s close enough that K won’t ask questions, lets just do it.]

[What of the possible repercussions of the government?]

[Then shut down all their tech and have Ria blind the area in an illusion. Nobody will know who took them and when we are done with them we just have to be careful in disposal.]

I think for a moment, dragon-me is right. If I do this carefully there won’t be any repercussions. “Ria, get ready to bring up something to stop anyone looking at the area.”

She chants something in a tongue I don’t know before she nods, the area is being covered in a dome of shadows. Now I need to act, I suppress electricity and fire in the area as the men begin to panic and call on their now nonfunctional radios.

I manifest my claws, wings and tail charging into the small band of soldiers. They try their guns for a moment before abandoning them for combat knives. They are too skilled for me to beat easily but I manage to catch one of them with a tail sweep and knock him to the ground. No opportunity to disable him but it is an improvement. I should start sparing with K again. . .

Two of the soldier turn against each other and start arguing, Ria is trapping some in other illusions. I smile and twist my suppression of electricity and fire to reverse, all of the soldiers’ radios release a bit of blue smoke.

The electronics are fried and none of the soldiers are using their guns, now I can start disabling them with my magic. Rather than chance killing them by frying nerves with electricity or a botched manipulation of Life I accelerate the time around myself. Their skill isn’t enough when I’m several times faster than them.

I break the nearest soldiers arm before doing the same to the opposite leg. The arguing soldiers are now chocking each other out and I grab one of the two remaining soldiers in a blur of temporal speed. I wonder how long it will be before they come up with ways to offset the supernatural advantages.

It does not take long for me to finish disabling the soldiers, I send their weapons into Void Cache and drag them back to where K is setting up, with a little help from some rope.