#dravanians

At the sound of his true name, the dragon’s eyes flared darkly, somehow turning blacker as he reared back his head and raised his wings and let out an ear-piercing roar that made Katsum wince. The sheer force of his voice pushed her backward, sending her back to where Alphinaud and Aymeric were standing in front of Hraesvelgr. They too seemed to be struggling to keep their footing, even at this distance. The great white wyrm snarled and roared in response, counteracting the younger Dravanian’s voice.

“Dear child of Ratatoskr, how lost thou art. You hath even made thine own name and instrument of thine rage.” He mused, lowering his head low over the three children of man before him, looking to meet Katusm’s gaze, “Though thine strength is great, thou shall find no victory in waging war with him.”

Katsum sighed and nodded, “Yes, I saw.”

“You saw…?” Ser Aymeric began to ask, but then paused, “The Echo…?”

Katsum nodded, “It is how I learned his name. I saw the past, the peace between man and dragon, the matriarch of my kingdom, everything...And I also saw him fight Nidhogg.”

“You saw him fight Nidhogg!?” Alphinaud sputtered, his gaze taking on a more frightened air.

“Yes, which is why I know fighting him isn’t going to wake him.”

“Then what will?” Both eleven looked at her strangely when she pulled off her cape and coronet, dropping them beside her as she knelt down and tightened her greaves, her eyes trained on the red dragon ahead of them.

“What are you doing?” Alphinaud asked frantically.

She stands to her feet again as she tightens her gauntlets and answers, “You won’t like what I say.”

Aymeric takes a step towards her, “What do you mean by that?”

Katsum took a deep breath and turned to them, looking between Alphinaud, Aymeric and Hraesvelgr, “I don’t have time to hesitate, and we don’t have many options left.”

“Katsum, what are you going to do!?” Alphinaud shouts.

“Lady Katsum,” Aymeric commands, his stance a bit more open as if he was catching on.

The Miqo’te woman takes a deep breath, “Do you trust me?”

The two Elezen look at her strangely, Alphinaud with a child-like look of shock and Aymeric with a more skeptical expression.

“O-of course, but what…?”

“Then don’t stop me.” She looked straight at Aymeric when she said this, knowing he was figuring it out. After she had jumped off of the top of the Vault after the young girl was tossed over it by the True Brother, she was sure that he was figuring it out.

“Katsum…” His eyes pleaded, and for a moment, she almost hesitated.

“Just trust me...please. This is my only chance to save him,” she pleaded back, her emotions shown in her eyes alone, just as his were; his gaze narrowed in response, yet he said nothing. She had one chance to do this, and she had to do it now. No more hesitating.

She took a deep breath, turning to look at the red dragon out of the corner of her eye, “(A dragon’s heart is found in flight)...(when all he has is the sky and his wings)...” She knew only Hraesvelgr understood, and that was the point. She looked back at them and nodded, seeing Aymeric take a slow step towards her and Alphinuad look between them curiously. One chance…

With a final breath, she spun on her heel and started running, her eyes set on her target and setting a course straight for it. Behind her, she heard Aymeric lunge forward to grab her, felt his fingers just brush through her hair, but he missed. She could only imagine the terror he felt again, watching her slip through his fingers again and taking a dive that could mean losing her life again. Yet even so as she blinked away the tears, she kept her gaze locked with the darkened eyes of the lost Dravanian, seeing him rear back his body again like he was preparing to attack. Hraesvelgr’s roar from behind her caused the red dragon to falter and shift his attention, giving Katsum the window she needed. Her breathing was heavy, and she felt her heart shake. The world seemed to slow as she drew nearer to the dragon’s side. His most frequent memories were those of when he and Bridgette flew together as one. If anything would help him remember, it would be flying, yet in the state of how it was now, it would not be a peaceful flight.

As she ran, she prayed, Heaven, help me wake him. Savior, give me strength…

Katsum leaped into the air, reaching up and grabbing onto the dragon’s neck and pulling herself up. Raihogg hissed and chased her with his teeth, but she pulled at his horns, turning his head away and knocking him slightly off-balance where he took a step back to regain his footing. He tried to turn and grab her again, and again, she made him back up closer and closer to the edge as he tried to shake her off. As Katsum fought with him, her eyes turned to Aymeric and Alphinaud again, seeing that Alphinaud had finally figured it out and screamed for her to stop and Aymeric had to reach out and hold him back. The sadness in Aymeric’s eyes broke her heart, and it made it worse when he nodded to her. Even as he could not stop her and as he feared for her, he still believed in her...

Help me to come back from this…for I have a most loving heart that I must return to….

With one final movement, Katsum wretched back his head, and Raihogg reared back, falling backward over the edge of the platform, falling into the mercy of the open air.

All the stories she had ever heard had painted the Prince of Crimson thunder to be a kind dragon, one that sought to protect her people from destruction, yet there was only fury and rage in his blackened eyes now. He never spoke a word to her either, not even when he had chosen her to rule. She’d only seen him in a flash when he’d protected her in the past, but never for very long and he had never answered when she called. What had made him lose his mind to where he was more beast than dragon?

“Bridgette...”

Suddenly, a voice echoed in Katsum’s mind, one that spoke in a Dravanian language.

“Bridgette...my friend where have you gone…? Why can I not find you…?” The angry beast before her suddenly looked more frantic than furious, like he was looking for her and trying to find her, “I will find you, Bridgette. I will bring you home and keep you safe as I promised...as I promised...but where have you gone and why...can I no longer hear you…?”

Now she began to understand. No one ever spoke of the day Bridgette died though it was known that she passed of old age, surrounded by her children and with her husband beside her. It was a peaceful passing, one that everyone always wishes to have, yet it broke the hearts of all in the kingdom for their beloved queen and savior was gone.

A great roar split the silence and made the Miqo’te jump. Never had she heard a more heartbroken sound, yet she had felt it once before as it had been her own not long ago. Now she understood. He was lost in his own mind, driven to madness by his grief when his dearest companion faded and disappeared from the world. It was why his eyes were black, devoid of the life and color they held when he knew her. So lost was he that even his soul had surrendered to a beast of rage and primal nature, fighting only to survive and destroying anything that woke it from its slumber. It was why she only saw him when she was seconds from death because she was his charge, the one who had a pact with him because unlike the last king, she did not force him to appear. Not until now.

As the echo faded, Katsum found herself kneeling on the ground, looking up into the dragon’s blackened gaze. She stood slowly to her feet and he hissed and crouched low, lifting his wings in a most threatening way, promising death at every angle.

Yes, she could see just how lost he was, how alone he was.

And she knew that only she could bring him back.

“Can you hear me, o Prince of Crimson Thunder?” The dragon growled in response, swiping his tail around as she dropped her sword and shield beside her, unclipping her cape and removing her cornet too and laid them down.

“My name is Katsum Aurora Almor, a descendant of your beloved Bridgette,” She expected some kind of response to her name, but he offered none and she sighed, “I know you are still there, and I intend to find you again...one way or another.”

Fighting with force would not win this battle. No, she would need other means of awakening his lost soul.

And the only way she knew to tame a dragon...was to ride them.

“I know you are lost, so allow yourself to be found now. It’s time to wake up now, Raihogg.”

- - - - - - - - - -

In the dark cover of night, there was naught but pain and sorrow. Thick moon beams fell upon the highlands of Dravania, her soils soaked crimson from the blood of Ishgardian and Dragon alike. The Dragonsong war raged on, with no end in sight.

The wyvern child of Ratatoskr did not frequent the battlefields. Instead, he was generally found on the higher tiers of Zenith, enjoying the simpler things in life; food, company, playing, flying; but tonight, there were family members to be mourned, and no one to mourn for them. In the cover of darkness did he slip from his elders, moving silently through the dried grasses. It didn’t take him long to smell the scent of death, to see the glistening pools littering the roads like macabre jewels, fading as the earth drunk deep of tragedy.

“Please…”

A broken, cracked syllable caught the youth’s attention from the right. An unnamed knight, with his armors shredded and his spirit broken, reached with an outstretched hand. The digits wavered for a moment, his elbow buckling, before the limb fell back to the dust, followed by a groan of despair. With haste, Erethys picked his way past the deceased and fell to his knees beside the man, his soft yellow eyes already welling with tears.

It was terrible; too awful to bear. It was the least Erethys could do to keep his emotions, and thus his glamoured form, in check; the last thing this man needed was a dragon hovering over him, after all.

“I am too f-far from home. I… I will never see my f-family a-again. My f… my f-friends… my s-sins will never be heard, and thus never... f-forgiven.”

Gently, the brood of Ratatoskr knelt down, pulling the man’s head into his lap. Thin fingers combed through the dying man’s hair, coming away with crimson lines and clinging soil on each pass through the strands.

“I am no priest, and while I cannot absolve your misdoings, I will hear your final words.” Erethys swallowed thickly, running his tongue over too-dry lips. “You will not pass alone, this day.”

The soldier’s last moments were just that; moments, and fleeting ones. He spoke of the people he'd killed, of the dragons he'd slain. As his words began to fail him, so to did the faith in his actions, and in his goddess. Was so much slaughter really what she wanted? The death of so many innocent lives…

The last spoken syllables were inaudible, slurring into nothingness as the light left the man's eyes, locked on the horizon in a sightless focus. Erethys gently slid the nameless knight's eyes closed, finally releasing a broken sob that had been festering in his chest, allowing the sorrow to wash over him like a suffocating wave.