A/N: Hello again, here's what I've been working on lately. Sad to say, apparently not too many people liked the end of Forgotten Freedom. It was sort of lame with that addition, wasn't it? But Ineeded something to pass it on into a trilogy. Well, to answer a question, the person who made the collars didn't set in the counterspell, it was one of the Higurashi priestesses who opposed the collars. She was powerful, and alone in her opinion, so when she tried to add a counterspellher powerscould only make a near impossible, and also cruel, one. Anyways, on with Curse of Dragons.
.:Curse of Dragons:.
.:By: Darkwolfgal:.
.:Prologue: The Eyes of the Dragon:.
"Where did he go?" a voice cried.
A swoosh of wings, the clicking of talons on the cobblestone road.
"No clue, we must've lost him." Came the reply.
More clicking, a grating sound that hurt his ears.
"Cut that out Taimen, we must keep searching." Said the first voice.
"Searching to do our jobs, or to please the Lady Kikyo?" Jeered the second, though in good humor.
Pathetic humans, thinking if they controlled their dragons they were invincible. Dragons were their weapons, their steeds, no better than those equines that were of use only to the poor. It made him want to rip their throats out, and if they weren't Riders he would do just that. As long as they were dragon riders their beasts would protect them, even these small weaklings that were the police squads.
Pity to see such creatures being transformed into no more than intelligent equines. He knew what they were, he had found out what hideous things that had been done to them, and he was determined to stop it. If only-
"Hey, what was that?"
There was a breathy snort and the clicking of talons.
"Taimen's on his scent. Lets go."
With a growl he leapt from the sheltering branches of the tree and out onto the roofs, his feet making a small array of pattering sounds as he ran, feeling more than seeing the dragons behind him.
Both were in the air already, as dragons could be, their shorter legs tucked close to their long undulating bodies, where the neck and frame were of the same thickness, carrying their riders were the neck joined with their chests. Both riders were urging their mounts on, and not at all gently.
There was a tensing in the air, a slight pause as the dragons neared, and he leapt for the sky… Only to have the sting of the whip around his ankle bring him back down to earth where he was promptly chained and tied by the humans, their dragons watching carefully as he was strung between their necks, a chain and cuff binding each of his arms in a separate direction. He was helpless.
The dragons unfurled their wings and leapt into the air at the same moment, dragging him between them with taunt chains, stretched tight and hooked well to the links on their collars, there was no way out.
Half and hour later they landed in the center of a complex. He recognized it, it was a dragon complex where the creatures would be bred and then sold, trained or untrained, and he knew the complex's mistress too. He knew her all too well.
"Inuyasha." Said the voice, right on cue, and sending chills up his spine.
A priestess emerged from one shadowed archway, her skin pale in the moonlight, her hair of a dark brown-black and her face of chiseled ice.
"Kikyo." He said with a growl as she came closer, unable to believe he had once loved this woman. All she had done was betrayed him, used him, and now she wanted his head so he wouldn't reveal what he knew.
"I'm glad you remember, I thought you'd deserted me when you found out about this place." She said, her words monotonous though there was a sneering sound to them. He bared his fangs.
"It's wrong, how could you do it?" He growled, struggling but the two dragons held him fast and he could only watch as the priestess drew closer, close enough so that he could have grabbed her, if he could move his arms.
"How? For the profit, for the status, for what I could gain, Inuyasha." Kikyo sneered again, "You, who have no place in society, would never understand."
"Oh I understand, you're just a worthless b-" He stopped as she clamped a hand on his shoulder, sending a wave of purifying magic pulsing through him. It took everything in him not to cry out.
"Oh Inuyasha, you are only a fool, a fool with information I would much rather keep secret." Now her words were tinged with malice as she removed her hand from his shoulder and snapped her fingers to the guards, who blinked like mind washed servants and urged their beasts to drag him forwards.
They turned through hallways twice the size of the dragons that held him and then into a large room with only a single candle to light it, illuminating the table it stood on and the articles on the table.
A large and heavy collar with iron barbs on it, an earthenware bowl of an inky red-black substance, and a brush of polished cherry blossom wood, soaked in blood.
Kikyo strode across the room and lifted the heavy collar, its halves sealed with a hinge, and turned to him.
"Information, Inuyasha, that you'll never be able to reveal." She said and snapped the collar around his neck before stepping back and taking the brush, dipping it into the inky red-black substance, painting a strip of color across his chest from his left shoulder, forming a cross by painting another stripe from his right. He wrinkled his nose.
"Dragon's blood, Inuyasha, a prime ingredient." She sneered, a circle being drawn on his chest, over the intersection of the first two strokes. A vertical stroke across his forehead left the disgusting stuff dripping down his nose, a flick on each cheek made him growl. With a menacing smile she stepped back to eye the results.
"Change Inuyasha, change and know you will never turn back." And with that last sneer she blew out the candle and left with the two dragon riders, leaving Inuyasha alone to do as he pleased, if his limbs hadn't been aching with sudden pain.
Two amber eyes glowed in the darkness, elongating as the shadows shifted, becoming feral, wild, deadly, the eyes of a dragon.
A/N: Well? What do you all think? It's a bit of a different approach. I'll wait a day or two before adding Chapter 1, which Kagome will be in.
Snapshots:
-She was doomed, she knew she was, but she had to keep running.
-"There are people who would give anything for this jewel."
- ...Andsmashed against the bridge, shattering into who knows how many pieces.