Dragon's Garbage Pile

            Dark, viscous blood poured onto the damp grass. Residual droplets dribbled down the body of a young woman with sunken eyes and a frail disposition; the knees of her ragged cotton pants rested on the ground beside her hands. She desperately attempted to hold the minuscule weight of her emaciated body up from the floor, nearly losing consciousness from the effort. Neck torn wide open, one could hardly see inside the wound through the mess of stringy red flesh.

“You!” Her shrill voice screeched, “You did this to me!”

            Nearby stood a boy holding a bloodied knife, doubled over and panting while closely embracing his stomach. A thud sounded when he fell backwards onto the trunk of a large mossy tree, barely able to stand back up. His lips pursed for a response through the waves of pain. No words could encapsulate the message he wished to convey, so the two remained silent. Melancholy flooded the dark wooded area, the sun long gone in the sky, and starlight unable to reach through the leaves. The boy looked somberly, clutching his bleeding abdomen and slowly sinking to the ground. His eyes couldn’t help but meet with the poor woman, coughing and sputtering as her body began to shut down.

“Never needed to end up like this, Sora,” He scowled, “Should have stayed out of my way.”

“I protected you!” The sounds of her wails pierced through the boy’s skull, barely comprehensible through the sound of blood gurgling in her throat.

“Hush. You may rest now.”

Light began to fade from Sora’s eyes, her limbs slowly going limp. She still struggled to remain upright, but eventually could hold herself no more. Collecting her last remnants of strength, she crawled forward towards the boy. He flinched, unsure of her plan, but Sora collapsed onto his lap and fell still. Coagulated blood stained his lap and offered a strange feeling of comfortable warmth. A sigh of relief fled his lips as he realized the conflict was finally over; his hunched shoulders sagged down, and his breath began to steady. Knife in hand, still firmly grasped, he stared intensely down at the bloodied weapon and contemplated. Frail fingers tapped the hilt in a soothing pattern, keeping the boy busy as his mind wandered.

After all this, what else is a broken tool worth?

An unnatural smile spread across his lips, clearly unpracticed and rarely seen. There was a quick snicker, then a chuckle. Within a minute, he was laughing to himself hysterically, tears beginning to run down his face as his body strained with effort. Sora’s corpse slid off his lap while his entire body shook, quivering with both fear and excitement. A deep inhale, then the sounds stopped.

“Gods!” He shouted into the sky, face wet with tears, “I give myself to you, willingly, and ask for your forgiveness.”

I will see him again.

            Knife raised to his chest, the boy braced himself, teeth clenched and eyes squeezed shut as he quickly attempted to force the blade into his heart. Willfully ignoring the rustling sound amongst the bushes was a mistake.

Before he could even push the blade past his skin, a large paw pummeled into the side of his head. One loud thud sounded as his skull hit hardened earth, his ears pounding as blood rushed to his head. Claws barely pierced his flesh as the creature loomed ominously closer, breath hot and heavy on his neck. As his eyes opened, all he could see was a lean, furred leg blending perfectly in the nighttime atmosphere, its dark purple hues practically invisible within the shaded woods. Terrified, he felt his heart race as the creature hesitantly prodded his neck with its rough nose. He’d seen this creature before, too intelligent to be merely an animal.

“Wh-,” He stuttered slightly, shifting himself to look at the thing’s face, “What are you?”

The creature stood still for a moment, staring intently with intense purple eyes.

“Well,” The new voice spoke, raising its paw off the boy.

            He watched in horror as the beast’s fur shrank and disappeared, limbs cracking and deforming as it stood up on two legs. Its snout shortened until the previously canine nose sat on a flat face, removing large ears and fur in exchange for a thick head of hair with one side shaved. Paws shifted into hands and feet, bones audibly elongating with a sickening crackle noise. Bare skin was slowly covered by militaristic clothing that seemed to appear from within the beast’s body. At the end of this transformation, she was an intimidatingly tall woman with dark skin and slanting purple eyes. Thick, curly hair covered the right side of her head, complementing a wicked scar etched through her left eye. The woman smirked at him, leaning to one side and waving a hand in the air.

“I’m just like you, really!” She exclaimed.

            The boy’s eyes widened in disbelief, his arms scrambling to escape from the strange woman who now leered over him. In this weakened state, he couldn’t get far. The woman stepped towards him and gripped his entire face in one hand.

“Don’t worry, I’m only allowed to hurt you a little bit.”

            And with that, she swung his body upwards and smashed his skull against a tree. The entire world faded into black as the ringing in his ears overtook all other sounds. Before falling completely unconscious, he saw the figure of a much shorter woman rush into the clearing and shout at his attacker. Overtaken by fear and left with many questions, he had no time to react as his body quickly shut down and went limp.