Broken

[Lynx]

Amid the twilight gloom in the rocky mountains of Darvon, something moved. A shadow stalked across the rocks, a dark creature, a huge creature. Wings larger than the sails of the great ships hovered above the sinister form, a tail as thick as a large tree following it. A few rocks clattered, disturbed by giant claws that crushed them beneath the giant body. A rumbling growl shook the mountain. Karsha was in a very bad mood.

The giant head turned, a huge snout sniffing the air. Another growl filled the air. Her tail lashed, knocking off a few sizable boulders. The giant dragon didn't even notice. Her silver eyes gleamed in the setting sun, tinting them a rose red. Spreading her wings, which measured easily at sixty feet, she jumped up on a strong downstroke. Clearing a peak easily, she no doubt looked like some harbinger of doom to the small settlement below. With a thud she landed, sliding down the mountainside amid a wave of rocks. Opening her cavernous maw, she let out a huge roar that made the trees tremble. Karsha was in a mood to destroy something. With a swipe of her giant clawed paw she reduced a small group of trees into splinters. The town was less than one hundred feet away. It would go next.

[micaylah]

Kia fell from her bed as she felt a sudden great anguish and rage drawing near. She had stopped in the village long enough to assist with the birth of a child and provide what comfort she could for the poor villagers before moving on. Now, she felt a sudden apprehension as she scrambled to her feet pulling her cloak about her and gathering her pack. She took the long wood staff from the corner and walked cautiously outside. Her eyes turned toward the direction of the feelings she sensed.

Kia moved slowly along the edge of the town and stopped suddenly as she saw the large, dark creature. She stood firmly in the path between the dragon and the village, her mind struggling with the surge of emotions swirling within the large beast. “What is your plan for these poor villagers large one?” she asked in a strong resolute voice.

[Lynx]

As she cleared the trees with ease, she saw a small human in her way. Female, with long dark hair, she actually dared oppose her! If it hadn't been for her utterly anguished and angered mood, Karsha would have laughed. The fleshy creature thought she could stop someone forty times her size! Slamming a huge paw down in front of her, Karsha growled, revealing a set of teeth as large as the human herself. "My plan is none of your business," she snarled, pain and anger tinging her earth shaking voice. With that, she galloped over the woman, easily clearing here. There was at least another six feet between her expansive belly and the girl, so she wasn't worried about hurting her. Karsha rarely killed anyone - hurt maybe, but not kill.

Reaching the nearest hut, the giant purple-black dragon halted. Her huge claws dug into the roof, lifting it off effortlessly. Amid the rubble falling and the cracking of wood, she roared. The roar shook the dwellings, the trees trembling at her voice. She waited for the screaming family to vacate the building, then smashed it to splinters. Her giant tail swiped out nearby trees as debris flew everywhere, the village suddenly awake. Karsha went about destroying more, this time ripping up two houses. Waiting again until the dwarves had left the building, she demolished them as well. Arching her massive neck, she shot a gout of burning fire into the air, illuminating the hellish scene. Karsha was on the rampage and nothing would escape her wrath.

[micaylah]

Kia stood firmly as the large dragon stamped her foot in front of her. She could feel the warmth of the dragon’s breath as she growled and spoke to her. The force of her simple act of breathing caused Kia’s hair to rise as if on the wind itself. Kia felt the weight of the dragon’s emotions with a vengeance. It struck her worse than any blow she could imagine. Her voice cried out in a pained scream as she felt the pain and anger flowing from the dragon like a huge gaping wound within the depths of its soul.

Kia fought to contain the feelings, drawing back her empathic ability some but not able to block the dragon’s emotions entirely. They were much too strong. She staggered to her feet as she reached out to the dragon with her mind. She let the feelings of concern, calm and genuine caring roll out from her like a strong wave cresting over the ocean itself. Kia looked to the dragon and spoke softly knowing the great beast would hear her without difficulty. One word echoed from her lips as she looked at the destruction and the people fleeing in every direction. “Why?”

[Lynx]

Three more houses, countless trees, and a few other structures later, Karsha was just getting started. Something niggled at her brain. Her massive head turned, stony silver eyes finding the woman who had stood before her wrath. Caring and calm tickled at her consciousness, but she brushed it aside. Anger, rage, grief, and hate for all things joyful and content overpowered any other emotions. "Why? WHY?" she thundered, outraged further. Picking up a house in a giant heave, she hurled it to the mountainside, where it smashed to pieces. A small doll lay battered beneath the giant dragon, a few chairs scattered about her tail, and everywhere dwarves fled with screams and yells to hide in the forest. Karsha ripped up trees, roots and all, just to watch them flee. "Because I will not be alone!" she roared, shooting another raging ball of flame into the sky. Her scales glittered the deepest, darkest purple, wings half spread as she rampaged on. Her large silver claws scraped the ground, propelling her about in a mass of destruction. Her tail buffeted a few stocky dwarves off their feet. They rolled like marbles, bringing a devious guffaw from the giant dragon's throat. Flame snorted from her nostrils, setting alight smashed debri. Karsha did not want anyone living tomorrow with joy. If she could not have peace in this world, neither would anyone else she came into contact with.

[micaylah]

Kia stood as the feel of the mighty dragons emotions reeled her. Never had she felt anything so strongly. She reached out, gripping the purple dragon’s tail and used the momentum of the tails thrashing movements to propel her into the air. She somersaulted a couple of times to cover distance then landed on her back. With cat-like speed and grace, she traversed the distance to the dragon’s head. She leapt again, taking to the air and came to rest of the bridge of the great dragon’s nose. Kia leaned forward, her legs holding her in place on one of the ridges across her snout. She looked into the large eye as her hands lay on the smooth, smaller scales. Kia let the power flow from her. The feelings and emotions of the dwarves below flowed through her as a golden glow began to emanate from her form. “Feel great dragon. Is this what you seek?” Anger, fear, sorrow, pain, all flowed strongly through her. Kia watched as she tried to read the look within the dragon’s eye. “You are not alone.” She spoke calmly.

[Lynx]

Something had attached itself to her tail, but then within seconds it was gone again. Probably nothing. The massive appendage swung about, demolishing five houses in one blow. Her wings flared wide as a feeling she hadn't felt in five years descended upon her. Someone was on her back. Letting out a moan of anguish and pain, she burned a section of forest to a crisp. Too much pain...the feeling of a person on her back again just brought all the hurt and sorrow of her Rider's death to the surface. It boiled over like a scalding pot of water, spattering everything within reach. Her teeth chomped down on trees and houses, demolishing them and crushing them to bits. Anything that would relieve this pain in her.

Something occluded her vision, making Karsha halt her rampage. That girl again! She just couldn't let well enough alone! Shaking her head a bit, Karsha snorted, the bridge of her nose becoming hot with flame. Strangely, the girl began to glow, and Karsha felt all her emotions double. Reaching up a hand, she plucked the girl from her snout. It was done so, however, with gentleness one would not have thought possible. Karsha wasn't out to kill someone - dead people couldn't feel pain. Her other paw crushed a house. "Oh but I am alone!" she growled, thunder rolling in her chest, "and you have no idea what alone truly means." Snarling, she torched some more houses. The village was almost completely demolished, the dwarves fleeing, most gone in the forest. But her pain was no less.

[micaylah]

Kia let out a breath as she raised a brow. “And how would you know whether or not anyone else knows what truly alone is like?” she asked calmly. “You are too wrapped up in your own pain to know anything but.” She didn’t struggle under the dragon’s grasp. Whatever happened she was accepting. If the mighty beast ended her life this day then it was what the fates demanded. She was accepting that her death was inevitable. Everyone died eventually.

“Tell me about him great dragon.” Kia said in determined persistence. She didn’t know why and it didn’t matter. The dragon was hurt. The hurt may not have been in physical form but there were many types of pain. “Please.” Kia added as she looked her in the eye. “I am not going anywhere. I have no one in my life. You loved him greatly. More than your own life.”

[Lynx]

Karsha roared out a defiant cry. "Do not speak to me as if you know how to live, young one! You are but a child in this world, and yet you assume yourself wiser!" she bellowed, contemplating hurling this young upstart against the mountains. Her claw, larger than the girl herself, was resting dangerously close to her neck. Such a fleshy creature...it would be the work of a second to slit her throat and end all her thoughts for good. But then the girl spoke once more. Him? HIM? Karsha's dark grip tightened just a bit, but stopped before the girl was crushed.

Her eyes narrowed with devious cunning and malice. "You know not of what you speak, child," she rumbled, "for I have mentioned no one." The girl had crossed the line - she'd tried to console her. Heartache like this, the pain that made her wish to rip out her own heart, was only deepened by the mention of it. Letting out a utterance of deep pain, she shot another flame into the sky, smoke coiling around her snout. Of course the girl wasn't going anywhere - Karsha had her firmly in her grasp. With one last snap of her jaws, she cleared the land of houses. Everywhere burned fire, consuming the rubble that Karsha had created. She sat in the midst of it, uncaring as her scales protected her from the crackling flame. The dwarves, she knew, would not return until she left.

[micaylah]

Kia continued to rest within the dragon’s mighty claw. “Forgive me wise one.” She continued in a calm voice. “A hurt such as you harbor I have only felt twice before. One was a mother’s love for a taken child. The other…a woman’s love for a man.” She pulled her arms free of the dragon’s grip and rested her head against them. “I know you could easily crush me or toss me aside. If it would bring you peace or semblance of solace then so be it. I seek nothing from you and I do not fear death.” Kia continued to watch the dragon though she now steeled herself from the force of the dragon’s unbridled emotion. “I am Kia great one. Will you at least tell me your name? Unless you prefer great one.”

[Lynx]

So now the human was trying to patronize her?! Karsha did not ask for sympathy, she just wanted to spew her pain on the surrounding world. Kia, was it? Her eyes narrowed to mere silver slits, black cutting through the centers like the pain that cleaved her heart in two. Neither of the loves she spoke of were what Karsha felt. It was not the pain of losing a being she'd nurtured and cared for, watched grow with a motherly pride. Nor was it the love of someone who had found their other half. It was all these and more, and the heartbreak was too much to bear. Slowly the anguish had poisoned her brain, turning it as black as the shadows that encompassed her soul. "My name is Karsha," she growled, baring her fearsome teeth, "and I do not want your patronizing words, petty human. You may wonder what has made me this way, but you will never fully know. It is not something you will experience." No love was like the bond of a dragon and Rider, so no pain was greater when that bond was cruelly severed.

[micaylah]

Kia let her breath out in an exasperated sigh. “My pardon Karsha. My intention was not to patronize. I shall sit quietly in your mighty grip while you continue your rampage.” Kia settled in to watch Karsha. She would just wait and see what happened next.

[Lynx]

Kia was an impudent human - it was odd that she had lived this long with her attitude. The girl was an enigma, at first seeming concerned but now switching to frustration and sarcasm. Raising a scaled brow, she pondered the human. She supposed, by human standards, the girl was pretty. However, she had none of the sheer magnificence of the dragon who held her. Kia was not strong, she was not extraordinary, in fact she was just another face in the crowd. Shooting another gout of flame into the midnight sky, Karsha laughed. Her laugh was deep and malicious, mirthful only to her. It shook the flames, making them quiver before the one who had borne them. "There is nothing left to destroy!" she proclaimed triumphantly, wings spreading to their fifty foot span. Beating hard, she fanned the flames to a fury, then took off. Her claws still held Kia in their grasp as she soared over the trees, her belly almost brushing them. The girl would not be so upstarted after a few encounters with the unforgiving tree branches.

[micaylah]

Kia rolled her eyes as the purple dragon took off, purposefully flying low over the trees so that she would feel the effects of the brushes with them. She moved her arms to cover her face as the branches occasionally grew up in such a way that she was hit with them. She felt the sting as some of the larger ones scraped flesh from her arms and the pull as others became twisted within her hair flowing behind her as the dragon cut effortlessly through the air. She resigned herself to the fact that this was penance for approaching the dragon all wrong. The fates had a lesson in mind for her with this encounter. Of that she was certain.

[Lynx]

Another rumbling laugh built in her massive chest as she felt the branches hit her claws. Due to her scales they were completely ineffective in hurting her. She held onto Kia firmly - she wasn't done with her quite yet. After about ten minutes of this, Karsha gained altitude. The girl had no doubt sustained some kind of injuries and Karsha didn't want to let her bleed to death. Higher she flew, backlighted by the growing fire in the valley. Eventually it would run out of fuel and burn out if the dwarves didn't stop it. They were industrious little buggers and Karsha had no doubt that they would reassemble their lives. However, they would always remember dragons as a harbinger of destruction. Grinning to herself, the purple dragon was pleased. The Riders would have to work doubly hard to regain the trust of the earth people. Higher and higher she flew until the stars blazed as if within reach. The air was so thin Karsha dared not go any higher. The human would have a difficult time with this, but Karsha didn't really care.

[micaylah]

Kia breathed a sigh of relief as Karsha finally rose higher. The trees no longer hitting her, she moved her arms so that she could see. She smiled wide as the familiar feel came over her again. She began to laugh at the feel of flight. It was amazing as always. “Karsha…Thank you! This is amazing!” Kia held her arms out as she felt the air rush around her. Though it was thin at this altitude, Kia found it exhilarating. She felt alive and free. She was happy. Flying always made her feel at her happiest.

[Lynx]

Amazing? The girl was not supposed to find joy out of this! Well, she wouldn't be feeling it for long. Suddenly, she released her grip on Kia. A sardonic grin crossed her huge muzzle. "Enjoy the feeling now, human!" she roared, breathing a spurt of flame. The girl hurtled towards the unforgiving mountains, much to Karsha's amusement. Flapping her wings, she hovered for a bit. Considering their altitude, it would take over half a minute for the girl to fall. For five seconds she hovered there, then ten. Finally she folded in her wings and dove, her tail trailing like a streamer behind her. She was much larger than the girl and plummeted like a boulder to the earth below. Right as the girl was going to hit the trees, a massive paw came and snatched her out of the air like she was a tasty morsel. Karsha banked hard, no doubt giving the girl some major whiplash and bruises, maybe a dislocated shoulder.

[micaylah]

Kia closed her eyes at the feeling of free falling through the air. The rush of the ground before her was exciting. She felt her body wrench as Karsha snapped her sharply from the fall then banked hard. Kia felt the warmth beginning deep within her as her body began to glow its soft golden hue. She moaned slightly as she felt the healing power mend her battered frame. She opened her eyes to look at Karsha again. “Is that what it feels like for you? To be truly free. I envy you.”

[Lynx]

"Freedom," she growled, "is not something I have. I may be untethered by the world, able to go where I choose unhindered, but I will never be free." The girl had done the glowing thing again and didn't seem injured, Karsha noted. Was she a mage? If so, that explained why she had been able to sustain no injuries. Karsha wondered how far a mage could heal themselves. How long did it take to heal broken bones? If near death, would their power work or did they have to be conscious to summon it? It was a most intriguing thought process, one Karsha wished to test. Flying over another mountain peak, Karsha spotted the large cave where she'd been dwelling for almost a fortnight. Increasing her speed, she flew towards it with no sign of slowing. Reaching within fifty feet of the yawning cavern, Karsha suddenly let go of the girl. The speed and the force would mean Kia would hurtle through the cave opening, landing on the bumpy stone surface. Immediately shooting upwards, Karsha circled around and gently descended upon the cave, landing with a shaking rumble. Her dark silver eyes watched the girl with interest, wondering what would happen now.

[micaylah]

Kia’s joy of flight left suddenly as she felt the dragon’s words. No, she wasn’t truly free. Her body was but her mind, her heart and her soul were tethered to her pain and grief as surely as if someone had chained her physical body to the earth itself. She felt a sudden rush of curiosity from the dragon as her body healed itself. As the dragon’s speed increased toward the direction of a cave in the mountainside before her, Kia readied herself for what she thought was to come.

Suddenly, the massive claw holding her opened and Kia felt herself tumbling toward the cave. The speed with which her body traveled would surely kill her. She relaxed as best she could, arms raising to provide little protection to her head. Kia readied herself for death. She felt blinding pain as her body impacted the stone floor of the cave. Her arms and legs flailed as the momentum carried her end over end along the unforgiving hardness of the stone. Her body skidding along like the limp rag doll Karsha had trampled back in the village. The last thing she remembered was coming to an abrupt stop as cold stone stopped her forward movement sharply. Every inch of her screamed out in blinding pain and agony. Blood poured from her head and the various cuts and tears caused from broken bones piercing the delicate skin that had contained them. Her voice called out barely audible as she saw the dragon land. “I’m sorry.” She said as darkness overcame her in welcome relief from the agony of her physical body which now matched the spiritual agony she felt within the dragon.