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Chapter 19 - Love & Hate

How many times are things going to go haywire? Yes, I know I use many American English words, phrases, idioms, and the like. Much of my English learning from my childhood was from older American movies and TV dramas. I remember when my dad brought us home a television and VCR with boxes full of videotapes from a Christian Mission in Thimphu. My father wanted us to see western culture upfront. He felt it was important to know how people from the richest country in the world lived. Watching movies like Ghostbusters, Superman III, and The Breakfast Club taught me about western culture, or at least the United States, and made me even more confused in a lot of ways. The USA scared me.

Back to haywire. The word that brought that all to mind. Probably because what I'm going to tell is quite haywire, and devastatingly upsetting at the same time. And it plays to the themes of said movies in a lot of ways.

Be warned.

The way our tangled situation went from an easily planned mission, the beginning of it anyway, to absolute anarchy in seconds was horrid.

This is how I found myself in the position of choosing, again, and this time it was not only real but there were no allies to appear and help me fix everything.

I stood on my own.

Those voices in my dreams? They became real. As I sat upon the mountain top alone, knowing what I should do, yet not acting. Not yet. The voices of Liba, Ihar, and grandpa all reaching my mind and all fading away. This was what needed to be done. This is how the power should be used and how those unworthy should be dealt with. I knew it to be right.

Overhead, in the darkness of the dusk, the black clouds formed into the dragon creature, Ala, who shot lightning out of her mouth, scorching the earth below, and leaving a ramshackle of Bogatyr's home. The legendary warrior strode from the ashes, white and golden armor gleaming under the last rays of sunshine to cascade down from the parting clouds before the night took hold.

In his right hand was his gleaming long sword with a golden hilt, and in his left was the head of Bada, whom he had slain!

My eyes, taking the color of blood red, drowning out the emerald green, glowed and watered with what looked to be blood running down my face.

Ala, my new ally, shot lightning down upon Bogatyr, the living embodiment of all the bogatyrs of the past, simply causing the warrior to lose a couple of steps. He then unleashed a stream of energy from his sword, a neon blue that streaked from the ground to the sky, striking Ala and causing her to jettison upward into a fetal position and let out a pain-filled howl.

Unleashing my fire breath towards Bogatyr, I, at the same time, engulfed myself in flame and rode my own stream of breath to the ground where the warrior stood. The fire had pushed him back again and he dropped Bada's head, with her face still looking as lovely as ever, and had his shield raised deflecting my attack. After touching feet to the ground just in front of the powerful fighter, I ducked down just in time to dodge his swing of the blade and let out two small fireballs that caught him in the shoulders of his armored chest.

He mere staggered back slightly, unphased.

Catching me off guard with his shield as he back swung it, hitting me full force, I dropped to my backside and suddenly had the point of his shimmering sword, the Serpent Slicer, pointed at my neck. He could have gored me right there. He didn't.

That moment of pause by Bogatyr saved me. He could have cut me to shreds. Why he paused, I may never know. Yet, he did, looking into my eyes, now their natural glowing emerald, with a confused glance overtaking his hardened and ancient face.

Ala swooped down, flying at unearthly speeds towards Bogatyr, changing from a dragon to a pure wind storm which picked the mighty warrior up, off of his feet, and drove him backward until he hit a rock cliff and penetrated it shattering the stone, and disappearing inside. Ala then formed back into the dragon and shot her lightening breath knocking rocks over the hole to seal it. This, after I unleashed the most vicious firestorm I could muster to fill that hole before it was sealed.

I hopped onto her back, taking one last look at what was left of Bada, and we flew up into the clouds towards Asia, towards Korea, to destroy Zmei.

This was our deal.

Ala and I would destroy Bogatyr, and then we would take out Zmei, her oldest and most formattable enemy, and rule on his throne together!

I wouldn't let the people of Korea suffer even though their dragon protector was now gone. Yet, I felt no sympathy for those innocent people. I only wanted to accomplish what Boda would have wanted. This was my blinding obsession.

And what of Ihar?

Oh yes, I must tell you the beginning of this tale, which is just as hard.

When we awoke, Bada and I, held each other in a transcending comfort. The feeling was even more magical than the days on the mountain cliff with grandpa. It was different. Back home, as a child, I thought I had found heaven at an early age. Grandpa always told me there were more, stronger feelings of happiness and joy to come in my life, and I didn't believe him.

It was true.

For just a small fraction of time, I felt them.

Then they were ripped from my soul.

Ihar was staring at us from the window with an enormous dinosaur's eye, which held a sense of peaceful delight.

He was unarmed.

That second of the loveliness he felt after seeing Bada and me in our peaceful embrace cost him everything.

Bogatyr had come to us. Not to parlay, no, to destroy us.

I saw the glint of a long sword shimmer from above Ihar's head, then saw it pierce the top of his skull, causing a roaring wail, and saw him fall from the sky with an armor-clad warrior sitting on his back, gripping the killing weapon.

Bada and I shot up from the bed, opened the window, and in our dragon skins, we saw them crash to the ground below with Bogatyr pulling free his blade, and Ihar immediately turning back into his human form.

Ihar, the old and wise leader of the heroes, the Order of Honor, was finally, after nearly one hundred years of life, dead.

Bada reacted with her heart, not her mind, and jumped from the window using torrents of water to ease her fall. Bogatyr was too experienced and too fast.

As soon as she touched the ground, the warrior swung his blade and severed her head.

After a pause, a pause that cost Bada her life, I used my flames, as Bada had used her water, to reach the ground. Bogatyr grabbed Bada's head and sprinted away.

Why did run? Did he fear my fury after such a heinous act?

No. The light of day was coming. People were starting to turn on their apartment lights and some were coming outside to begin their days. He didn't wish to be seen by them, nor for them to see the carnage he left behind. Strangely, as if Bogatyr knew it would happen by his reaction, both the bodies of Ihar and Bada vanished.

Bogatyr vanished as well.

And I was picked up by the giant claws of a soaring cloud and brought up into the sky out of view of any people.

Why did I pause? Why didn't I hold Bada back? Why didn't I leap out just a second after she did? Why did I let her die just after my soul melted with hers?

Hours later, after landing, the cloud lit up with streaks of lightning, and shot down just before me onto the ground, leaving behind yet another gorgeous creature!

With bright blue skin, long silver hair, a tight-fitting white dress, and a face that the heaven's themselves must have forged, she said to me,

"I am Ala! A demon of the night's sky! For centuries the dragon, Zmei, has kept me at bay, defeating me, and keeping me from having my proper feasts! I wish for him to be destroyed! I wish to take his place on the dragon throne! I will do this, with you!" she exclaimed, with wildly exasperated facial features.

Normally, I would have thought her suspicious. Searched my mind. Meditated. Found solace and answers from grandpa, or from Liba.

My mind was swimming in despair, however, from losing the love of my life, so soon after meeting with her. And the death of Ihar boiled my hate even further. I was not in my right frame of mind.

"Yes. First, though, help me. Help me destroy Bogatyr! Then we can go and take out Zmei! We can do this together!" I called out, with an evil grin, and the beauty of Ala hitting my feelings of darkness and desire.

She approached me slowly, looked directly into my glowing red eyes, smiled maliciously, kissed me upon my mouth, pulled back, and said,

"Perhaps my new throne doesn't have to be a single seat?"

Then she shot up to the sky with a shock of lightning and formed in the clouds as she formed into her darkened dragon self.

The voices from my past, from my childhood? It was time to grow up and change!