The Dragon-Heist (The Hobbit, possible Future...)
Dracul opened his eyes as he beheld the new world...a world that was filled to the brim with the slightest taint, an echo of a ancient evil almost as foul as the four, yet weaker then them in all but name. He turned his gaze upon a lake that held a semi-medium sized town with a lonely mountain in the back-drop and watched patiently for his quarry to appear...and appear his quarry did. First was the beating of the wind like a hurricane, then he felt the heat-wave as the Flying dragon similar to that of a Wyvern fly passes over the town on the lake. Each pass and the town was bathed in Dragon-fire, or something akin to close of the Regular Fire-Dragon of his home-world, though it lacked the raw power and passion of the Dragons Touch by Aqshy. A pity, such devastation would have been done far faster with the Red Wind then without it. However the destruction was a testament to this worlds dragonic might as it was displayed in full...if only it was against a true worthy foe rather then hapless peasents.
A annoying pity...that child could have done so much more with what it had and it squandered it. At least he had been allowed to drag them home for a proper teaching, though he would have to take them one by one, sometimes in their dens or from their own "deaths", as decreed by the Over-god of this world (not that he could even hope to argue with THAT being when he had first poked his nose at looking into other dimensions of this...omni-verse...yes that was a good name). As it was, simply standing on a small hill gazing with his sight enhanced by the Lore of Heavens was annoying, yet necessary for the deal that had been hatched.
To spare his children from this worlds final battle, he was to take them away as long as he did not reveal himself to the worlds inhabitants...this dragon was obviously the last of his new "adopted" children, Their previous Father had been all but a failure in all things...he scowled deeply as he pried himself away from those thoughts, it seemed that most worlds he went to Every Father of Dragons had either been killed early on, captured and torture, or simply uncaring of their children. All the more times he could add them to his own collected children, and of course add more power to his Domain of Dragons from his God-hood.
Still, it was amusing to watch the Bow-man try his hardest to pierce his soon-to-be Childs scales with simple marksmanship, while admittedly good he was doing rather poorly in shooting the obvious weak-points in his child's defenses...not that he would try to whisper the answer to him. Though he was alarmed at the gap in the armor done by the so-called Black arrows...something he would need to fix later on in this worlds children's soul-physiology, as the anti-Dragon potentcy of these weapons was alarming, and if any of his foes attained them...
He would shudder to think of the mayhem of how many of his children would pass from the material world.
Still, he waited patiently, until the moment arrived...
"Who are you who would stand against Me!?!" the child Snarled out amidst the flames of its carnage as it glared down the mortal who had been shooting it for the last few minutes.
When the bowman tried to pick up his tool of war and of the hunt...he found it broken in twain much to the Dragon-Gods amusement, and something his child picked up on.
"That is...a pity..." the dragon hissed out lowly as it began to crawl towards him, its very movements and tone in a mocking voice "What will you do now...Bowman? You are forsaken! No help will come." The Child snarled as it began to walk towards him...Dracul narrowed his eyes as he spied the threads of fate moving about with the lore of heavens...combined with the lore of light and the other winds he began to spool them together subtlety to prepare his spell's.
Noticing his child humming and licking his chops Dracul wanted to sigh out loud...Children...he really needed to discipline this one wouldn't he?
"Is that your son? You cannot save him from the Fire, He...Will...Burn!!!" The Child nearly roared out as his own subtle magic rumbled...so strange they were, then again this Childs power was equivalent of a powerful Spirit, not a Greater one but one still worthy of respect...in this world at least. He would need to work on this Childs magic later on along with the rest of them.
Dracul watched as the bowman rammed the edges of his former bow and made a makeshift ballista from it and with his son standing in as the aiming device...he truly wanted to slap himself in the forehead, but considering how...mad...adventurers back in his home-world and other worlds he had visited were...it would work with a bit of divine intervention, and low and behold, he could feel the strings of fate tighten on his Childs throat.
"Tell me...Wretch...How are you to Challenge ME?!" The Child Snarled out mocking as it walked towards its prey, playing with them as a cat would a mouse, and Dracul watched the proceedings with a patient glare as he began to work his magics.
"You Have Nothing Left, BUT YOUR DEATH!" The Child Roared out as he began to charge forward, picking up speed as he crashed houses and turned timber into splinters as they were consumed by Dragon-Fire.
And then, Fate decreed that the Bow was fired, the father and son embraced as the arrow flew true and hit its mark into the dragons heart...only...one had decreed otherwise. Unknown to the group of three, and those that watched, Dracul Cast his spells in rapid fashion, using the Winds of Magic to turn fate upon itself and rewrote what must have happened to what WILL happen. The Blow was dangerous, yet not fatal, the shock to turn the dragon unconscious, not dead...more of a near-death state that could be revived from.
Still, it hurt...in a deep part of his being to see the near murder of one of his children, even as foolish as they have been, they had been twisted by the powers here...what pride had turned to arrogance without cause, what power became wane and weak, what magical might faded with time as their minds were filled with only a lust for gold and physical power. Something he would need years of work to undo this...Discord...
He actually snarled as he beheld the agony of his child and almost Blighted the Land in return for the damage caused, to curse the mortals who had done this and strike them down for their...heresy...Yet he would not, could not, and only wait as he watched his child tumble about then climb into the sky almost begging for aid that might not have come...yet...his spell took root deep in his flesh, his heart warded against the black arrow that would have spilled his life-blood through his flesh.
Dracul waited again as his child fell...and then when the time was right he Moved.
With a patience of ages, he cast his magic so that time all but slowed down, and transformed into his titanic form...he fished out his child from the ruins of the lake-town. Then carefully guiding the wounded and in a death-coma state child into his maw like that of a cat carrying its own child, the Father of Dragons began his journey westward...away from the mountain where his child could recover.
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Smaug was in Agony...his body ached as he opened his eyes slowly and painfully, his throat parched with want for water, and his belly ached for flesh. With a deep breath he remebered what had happened...the moutain...the burglar...the dwarves...the hunt...the sniveling cowards tricking him! The murderous wretch! THE BLACK ARROW!!! with a roar of pain and rage the dragon abrutly yanked itself up and looked upon its surroundings...and was confused beyond a doubt. This place...
This place, a vast valley filled with ash, the wind swept moutains...and the numerous other dragons, barely in the hundreds looking as confused as he was. So many of his kind gathered, from the cold drakes, fire drakes, and even the fabled Ice Drakes of the North-most lands whos chill was that of the deepest winter. Smaug could hardly believe his eyes as he beheld the numbers, not even during the rare breeding seasons did this many dragons come to the all but sacred grounds of their kind.
Wait...the Black arrow...turning quickly to the damned missing scale of his armor he noted that it was...patched? the arrow itself on the ground nearby covered in his blood, yet he knew the wound was one of death...damn the lakemen...damn the dale-men and their wretched black arrows! yet he still lived, he ccould recover...and if they thought him dead...he would not play with his prey again, and slaughter them all once more! He would reclaim his mountain!!!
But first...he had to know why his kind had been gathered...and look and behold, Urgost the dragon of the west was there, his almost Rival for his dominion of the Greatest Fire-drake of the age.
"Urgost...why are we here?" Smaug all but demanded as he got up from his positon on the ground glaring at the other firedrake nearby.
"Smaug...how wonderful..." Urgost muttered under his breath as he turned to adress his...Rival? "Have you Recovered from you little spat yet? Surviving a Black Arrow...that is a feat not easily done alone, but with aid..." the amused dragon sarcastically growled out as the two fire-drakes began to almost ritually size each other up...only one could be dominate when dragons meet, and these two had the sheer temperament and will to NOT allow their pride to go untrampled.
Smaug especially so since his defeat at Lake-town Needed a win to assuage himself as the greatest dragon of the age, while Urgost had noticed the pain Smaug was in, and plotted to teach this Drake a Lesson he would never forget. The two began circling with deeper snarls and spiteful bites, their fires glowing from their chest up to their mouths waiting for a chance to roast the others hide. The other dragons began to circle around watchful of the soon to be entertainment...
Untill the ground abrutly rumbled in such a way that the dragons around them stumbled in confusion, Smaug and Urgosts concentration was shattered and they stumbled about like hatchlings out of the egg...then they realized something that the other dragons were to panicing to notice...the rumbles in the air sounded like...breathing? And the quakes...erythematic...like tapings of claws on stone? The two fire-drakes turned to where the sound was loudest and the moving air was most noticeable, which case the rest of the dragons turned as well...and beheld a moving mountain as it rose...rose...and continued to rise.
Until with widened eyes every dragon within the Withered Hearth beheld the spectacle of a Dragon the Size of Ancalagon the Black...a Mountain Sized Dragon that was still laying on its belly as its long neck craned forward, its wings half spread and it was tapping its front claws on the valley wall's like it was impatiently waiting for them to finish gawking at the beast before them.
"Are you two quite done yet with your hatchling-spat? Or will you continue your little game to a conclusion i had intervened against?" The great beast rumbled out, each word weighing them down as a living God Among them spoke, they then noticed that they could hear...FEEL...something on the wind, a echo of something they as a species of this world had never heard before.
The Dragon noticing this seemed to frown deeper then before...
"How sad of you children, to not know your true heritage...i suppose that will have to be added to the Grudge i shall bring to Bear Upon Morgoth and his ilk once they return to this world..." The dragon grumbled as it thrashed its tail in irritation. The nearby hills and small forests were shattered and wrecked, boulders flying through the sky without thought of annoyance to the dragon, for how would he care for a being as large, mighty, and powerful as he?
Smaug, Urgost, and the other dragons began to slowly show more and more submissiveness then what they had ever felt before, ancient notes of discord demanding them to bow before the beast before them. The Dragon noticed this with a greater frown on its face as it beheld the lost children...and with a deep sigh gave the slightest motion of his head of acknowledgement. What happened next was equivalent of children running to a long lost parent as these dragons not only clambered towards him, but also spitefully began...fighting...to claim the most prime spots on the enormous dragons form.
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Something Dracul had to put up with plenty of times back home as he bonded with his children, especially with every migratory wave the hierarchy of his children changed as Emperor Dragons began to try and dominate one another to show the "Pecking" order of things, with the strongest, smartest, and largest dragons taking the space on his head and back while the rest with clambered on his legs, wings, and tail. TO be fair, he had been expecting something like this...though it would take time for him to...deprogram...the discordant notes within their Dragon-Song. Thankfully he had time to correct this wrong, and that he could then bring them to bretonnia once they had settled down enough for his teachings.
This was going to be a long decade...thankfully the overgod of this world had given him leave of this land and of his children...and not to mention he would CHEAT with the winds of magic to ensure things went smoothly.
Yet another Day as the Father of Dragons...he dearly hoped the next world he went to the dragons there will be more sensible in their approach. He wasn't holding his breath though.