245 Dragons II : The First Temple

So the dragon bowing to me was a weird turn of events, and I almost didn't know how to react. But this big green iguana just tried to kill me, so I was not letting down my guard, not until I was sure I was okay, and safe. Though to be honest the dragon bowing to me, made me feel weird.

"Are you okay? I mean you just tried to eat me, and now you're bowing.....are dragons bipolar?" I asked him, keeping a close watch on him, and using my [HEAL] rune on Soren, just in case we needed to run the fuck away.

"Well most dragons are bipolar, it's why we're always do moody and have violent mood swings. Though most of the time it could be because of a change in nature, hunger or arousal. But I like to believe we have a very good handle on our emotions, we're dragons man! We're supposed to be complicated and awesome."

"Riiigggghtt?"

And then he blinked his big yellow reptilian eyes at me and took a step forward. But just as he took a step forward, I took ten backwards, making sure to keep him in sight, and at a respectable distance. He noticed, so he stopped his advance and then let out a sigh that almost knocked me off my feet, a freaking sigh! I wouldn't admit it, but he's right. Dragons are awesome.

"My apologies your Majesty, I had no idea it was you. Please forgive me my transgressions." The dragon said as he bowed his head again.

"Sure no problem, but who am I supposed to be, and why am I your Majesty?"

It was too late by the time I realized that I should not have asked that question. What if I'm not the person he thought I was, then it would open season on my ass again, and an all you can eat Kael buffet. The dragon narrowed his eyes and asked.

"Aren't you the Dragon King of the soul, you know....the king of the soul dragon?"

"Oh! Thank God, for a moment there I thought you were going to say something else. Anyway, as a matter of fact, I am the Dragon King, or at least I'm going to be, since that's the reason why I came here in the first place. Kael Cor at your service."

I said to him, giving a nice noble bow in the process as I chose to trust my gut, and deactivated my weapons. The dragon came closer and bowed again, looking all nice and stuff even though he was freaking intimidating with his immensely huge size.

"Please your Majesty! Say no such things, it is I Bobo who is at your service. What would you have me do?" he asked me.

"Your name is Bobo?" I asked incredulously

"err.....yes your Majesty." He answered as he brought his head down in shame.

"What did you ever do to your parents that they'll name you Bobo?" I asked him,trying hard not to laugh.

"I never knew my parents.....it's the other hatchlings who started calling me Bobo, because I'm the only one who didn't have parents or siblings." He answered, with his head bowed.

This turned awkward really fast, and for the most part, I had no idea what to say to him. So I walked over to him, ignoring Soren's repeated warnings in my head, and patted the dragon on the snout.

"It's okay Bobo, I never knew my mother, and my father died when I was really young, so I understand how you feel. Everything's going to be okay."

"(sniff) thank you so much your Majesty, you're so kind(sniff)."

A dragon was crying, and I know what you're thinking. Such a sight would be beyond cute and heart warming, but all I could see was teeth, sharp rows of fangs and an obscene amount of mucus. It made me realize that I would rather slay a dragon than comfort it when it's crying, the sight was the stuff of nightmares.

"You said you can help me right, can you lead me to the soul dragon?" I asked him, putting an end to his crying.

"Oh! I'm afraid I can't do that your Majesty, and not because I don't want to, but because the soul dragon is missing!" Bobo said to me as he folded his limbs and laid on the ground.

"What do you mean he's missing Bobo, he's a dragon, dragons don't just go missing!"

"Well I don't know really, the soul dragon has multiple temples all over the realm, and it is said that only when the dragon king of the soul dragon activates those temples, would he reveal himself. So basically you have to find his temples, activate them, and awaken him. The dragon king of the fire dragon has to do the same thing too. Wait is he here with you?"

"He, is a she, and yes she's here with me, but she's gone on to look for the fire dragon alone. If what you've said is true, then that means she's probably gone towards a temple of the fire dragon."

"Oh! So she's a queen, that's splendid. Please your majesty allow me to accompany you on your noble quest, there would be many a dangers and ignorant fools on the way, allow me to be your herald and clear the path for you." Bobo said with a flourish as he raised himself to his full height.

"I though you said you hated a so called hero's prissy way of talking and their ramblings about noble quests and all that shit. You talking like that makes you really hypocritical Bobo." I said to him with a smile.

"I don't understand what you mean your majesty, I am my king's noble servant...…..I should stop right?" he asked with a sheepish look on his reptilian face.

"Yes Bobo, you should stop. Come on, I think I know where to find the temples, I could use the company."

"Really? Thank you my lord, it would be my honor to accompany you on this quest!"

"You did it again Bobo."

"Sorry your Majesty."

I got on Soren and continued on my 'quest', but coming along with me was a new companion. At first there was nothing much to be said as we made our way through the forest, I would have preferred if were a little bit more silent, but due to his huge bulk, Bobo made the very ground shake with every step he took. It was quite annoying, but at least he kept predators away.

The forest was green, like really green, in a vibrant almost unnatural sort of way. It was weird, and that was because usually you would see dead leaves and twigs on the ground, but the forest floor had nothing but soft green grass. Like this was a park that had thousands of trees placed on it, and many of the trees were insanely tall, and their branches were connected to each other, creating a network of boughs, stems, flowers, and leaves. It was a very pretty sight, last as if there was an entirely new world on the branches of the trees, completely cut off from the ground.

We kept on going for an hour, before we came upon a ruin. At first what we saw were pieces of broken statues, and due to how broken and aged they were, we could tell exactly what they were a part of. It wasn't until we went in a little deeper that we realized that the statues were of elves, dwarves, humans and dragons. It was rather generic fantasy like ruin.

I don't know if the broken statues are meant to tell a story, but it didn't matter. Because at this point there was nothing to tell due to how worn put all these statues looked like. Soren, Bobo and I made our way forward until we got to the middle of the ruins, where only a single carved pillar remained standing.

It could have been the support for whatever building used to stand here, but now it was just on it's own. However as we got closer, I realized that this pillar had three sides to it, one was real living flesh, warm to the touch and pulsing with blood and power. The other was just the normal stone used to carve the pillar, and the last was metal. Three different sides made up the pillar from top to bottom, and it was somewhat spooky.

I could feel this tower, hear out how it calls to me and how much my soul energy and my soul itself rumbled and vibrate to a call I couldn't understand. I turned to Bobo and Soren, looking at them and so daring if they felt the same thing, but they just looked around, enamored by the sights and not at all drawn to the solitary pillar at the middle of the clearing. Heck if I didn't see Soren look at it a little closer, I would have wondered if I was the only one actually seeing the pillar, or if it was invisible to them.

I looked around the ruin, hoping to find something that would make any sort of sense or give an explanation about the rather peculiar pillar, but there was nothing, just rubble and pieces of broken statues that weren't whole enough to tell a significant story. I was going in blind.

I moved forwards towards the pillar and just placed my hands on it. At first nothing happen, the metal was cool to the touch, and the stone part of it just felt rough. I chose to ignore the part with the skin, because to be honest I don't think anyone would like to touch a pillar that had skin on it.

Then suddenly I heard a click, and the pillar seemed to ripple on it's own, as it's three parts seemed to change their positions. Soren and Bobo jumped back, keeping their eyes wide open and watching out for any sort of danger. I so badly wanted to take a step back with them, but both my palms were glued fast to the pillar, and no matter how hard I pulled, even to the point of pulling arms out of their sockets, I couldn't pull away.

"Your Majesty are you okay?" Bobo asked with a worried and yet wary voice.

"Does he look okay to you, you over grown lizard!" Soren shouted at him, talking with his mouth rather than his mind for the first time ever!

"You can talk?" both Bobo and I asked at the same time

"Hurrah! give the lizard a prize! Master what the fuck's going on?" Soren asked me as he tried to walk towards me, and then.

DOOOOOOOM!DOOOOOM! ROOOOAARRRRRR!

Two massive drum beat like sounds resounded around the area of the ruins, and then massive tower of white light shot up out of the ground, creating a perimeter of about 40 meters, with me and the pillar in the center of it. Soren and Bobo were pushed back, with the tower of light serving as a barrier and keeping them away from me.

Soon the light from the tower became so bright that I couldn't see anything outside of it, and the roars and drum beats I heard got deeper and louder. The tower shot up into the cloud filled sky, parting the clouds aside and exposing an endless black void with no stars, no moon and no sun.

I think that explains why Baeki and I didn't even feel any sort of discomfort from the sun when we first came here. I mean normally as a Dhamphir I could walk under the sun without much problem, but my skin, and my mind would be startling perceptive of it. So while I won't get burnt, I'll feel worried being exposed under the sun.

Being completely cut of from Soren and Bobo, all I could do was focus on the changes around me. As if someone had reminded time, the broken statues began to fix themselves, and an impressive domed temple began to build itself over my head. I looked forward to see that the pillar was done arranging itself, with my both my palms hanging between the stone, skin and metal part of the tower. Somehow it had arranged itself until every single part of it, was in contact with me. And then came the pain.

My hands burned, and it hurt, like nothing I've ever felt before.This pain was just in my hands, but I was screaming my throat hoarse, as I frantically tried to pull myself back. But no matter how hard I tried, or how frantically I pulled, I couldn't get loose. And then the pain began to spread, going up from hands, all the way up my arms, to my head, down my chest, my waist, back and all the way down to the tip of my toes. I felt like I was going to die the very next moment, and I wished that I could just pass out.

But the unconsciousness I wished for wasn't forthcoming, I was awake throughout the entire ordeal, and then suddenly I was in my soul form. Soaring high with the pillar of light, as this place, this realm was exposed to my gaze. Apart from the tower of light that I was stuck in, I could see five others, spread out, allover the realm, shining brightly like a beacon.

And then to my east, south and west, I could see pillars that reached up to the sky just like mine, but these were not made of light, they were made of fire, huge sweltering columns of burning red, orange, green, black and blue flames. I guess Baeki's found her own temple, but from the look of things, we still have to find five others.

And then I was pulled back into my body, the pain was gone, and I was in the middle of a pristine looking temple. The pillar in front me, seemed to dissolve into black ink, and said ink fell on my left forearm and quickly coalesced into the figure of snake. I didn't understand why I had a snake tattooed on my forearm, but I did not want to dwell to long on it.

But I noticed one very peculiar thing about this snake, it was Incredibly life like, almost to the point that I felt like it was looking at me. But maybe that was just my imagination, because as I was right now, I could still feel my body shaken from phantom pains. This ordeal was unlike anything I've ever experienced before in my life.

Soren and Bobo, who I now realized was actually small enough to enter the temple ran towards me, looking worried and somewhat ready to tear any attacking enemies to pieces.

"Your Majesty!"

"Master!"

They both called out to me, Bobo even went as far as sniffing me to check for injuries. When they both confirmed I was relatively safe and unharmed, they took a step back and started bombarding me with questions. But I couldn't answer them, I just brought my head down and looked at the snake on my forearm, wondering just as they were about what the fuck! Just happened!