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Living With Balance Chapter 1
A world is large and grand, ours is no exception. No one debates that. Yet what we truly see is different for all. The greater majority can easily see the three land masses that make up the world, two on one side and one giant one on the other, with a great many amount of islands all around.
Neither half really talks to other, all know that distance is still something to be worked out. And like the others on the half of the world with the two land masses, I know very little of what goes on for the other side of the world and thus, that area is not the subject of this story just something that is randomly mentioned in life.
Our little corner of the world is complex as any other, with so many cities scattered around the landmasses, so many different environments. This story concentrates and starts in one of the many cities of the larger of the two landmasses, a city that is many days journey from the sea and half a day’s journey, if that, from a region of intense forests and dark foreboding mountains.
When you look at the city, you can easily see how our civilization is made up. There all the different species and then the strange differences in technology.
Confused? Well then let me clarify a few small things: there are five different “sentient” creatures on this planet, and this city has all five moving about in ever day life.
You got the tall, skinny and swift Cheetahs (or as they like to be called Cheetumies).
Then you got the short and stout Moles (Moulementies).
Next you got the creatures that everyone calls Aviaries, for they are like walking birds minus the wings, yet the only ones that can say their species name correctly are themselves (based on spelling it should be Tetioshiomeneamt, and when you try and get them to pounce it for you it comes out more as a squawk than anything I can understand).
In fourth spot is the sneaky/cunning, medium size, yet always reliable Foxes, (foux, easiest name to spell but needs the mother of all accents to say without insult).
And then you have the last of us, Dragons. Now granted we aren’t the dragons of old, but that doesn’t make us any less strange. Histories still can’t pin a time line down for when we started to change from our big four legged ancestors to our current two legged, part mammal, part reptilian hybridization. Now granted, we still have our wings, our tails, clawed paws, annoying scales, natural cold blood, elemental powers, and most of the strength our ancestors had, but we are still changed.
And because of this change, our technology has shifted greatly from what it could have been. It can be said that our level of electronic technology has far surpassed what is should have been, but when you suddenly have hundreds of electro using creatures you start wondering what you can do with that power. And then there are the poison dragons, wonders of medicine. Add in the fact that our society hasn’t had a war for many centuries you can see how we got where we are.
We are a world with advanced medicine, and electronics. Then you add in the fact that our people like walking and only use vehicles for mass or emergency transport and you get a city where massive amounts of people are out in the open. And just to add something on top of all that, this world has some of the strangest crystal formations that scientist can imagine.
And yet, it is these crystals that allow us to do so much. They are our long range communications, our energy boosts, a quick power cell, a few even get used in building and weapons, and there is believe that there is even more uses for them.
And yet with this area of advanced science, our weapons are stuck. We have been using swords, bows and the like for many thousands of years, and no one is interested in trying to improve on our weapons. That isn’t all that bad, but it always is an interesting thought point.
Now I’ve gotten way off track, this is a story about balance and I’m lecturing about what makes up our world, let’s go back a bit.
Now to truly tell this story, I can’t actually start at the beginning, that would prove far too difficult. No, to truly tell this story I need to start somewhere in the middle…And I think I know just the place.
I had said how we all see the world differently earlier on, well keep that in mind as we proceed.
I had pointed out a city before, the city for which I will be starting this story and where most of this story will originate from; the name of the city is Muchupin. An old city, quite large in comparison to other inland cities, it has stayed alive through all these years for its ability to draw in major business, of all types to within its strong defensive walls.
To start this story, well look at one such business creature…
Bieany Ignoramity was the CEO of a massive shipping company; its home base was Muchupin, as was Bieany’s home. As a fox he knew his way around just about any situation, and had gotten the better on many a deal.
His daily routine was much the same day in and day out. Wake up, do morning stuff, leave the house become surrounded by his bodyguards, head off to his office then proceed with business. All surrounded by some of the best security gems could by. And once all done he gets to make his way home.
As he does he stops to talk to a few creatures he knows, the conversations being hidden by his bodyguards.
He passes a few beggars, ignores the random looks, bypasses a few other creatures, and eventually gets home where he resides in even more security and leaves his bodyguards outside.
His home is left with nothing out of place and well decorated, as someone with his money should be.
On this night, like all nights, he goes to his office to do a few more personal workings before getting ready for bed. But on this night, a night in the late summer almost early fall he is not alone.
For not long after Bieany sits in his chair, a shadow glides from behind him and runs a dagger across Bieany’s throat, and our business creature is dead near instantly. With the creature dead, the shadow leaves without a trace, a contract complete.
Now I’m sure I’ve lost you again. Why would this creature, who seems to be well placed be suddenly killed? And how could he not have known someone was about to do so? Well, let us go back a bit…
At his place of work, one of the contracts Mr. Ignoramity looked at was a smuggling agreement for a substance called Greeocho, a crystal substance that is very dangerous drug, and more often called Crystal Meth on the street. This drug is illegal in all manors: making, buying, moving, selling, using, etc. and can rack major time in jail.
Then you got the conversations on the walk home. All of them were with different gang groups that are in the city. One was with a gang that got burned by one his contracts and thus got mad, another was a current contract holder and was checking up on workings, and the third was a hopeful group that wanted a contract. All the men were wanted, and by talking to them Mr. Ignoramity was racking up quite a rap sheet.
And then there is what you don’t see in this single day, Mr. Ignoramity had been doing this line of work for a long time. How long is a mystery, but over the years the Law had been interested in trying to take him down, but could never get a warrant for the evidence. But he also made a lot of enemies in the criminal world. And in that world, if you want someone gone, you don’t always follow the Law.
I realize you haven’t figured out how this secret criminal was unable to notice he was being target. So let’s continue shall we?
Mr. Ignoramity would have never known, and even if he did he would not have seen who was coming for him. And ironically enough, the assassin had actually crossed paths with Mr. Ignoramity several times that afternoon. A few of the beggars on the street, a few of the looks thrown his way, and a few of the bypasses, a great many of all of those was one creature, conducting surveillance. And the only way he could have known, was by the fact that the creature had on a cloak, a simple brown cloak with a hood that covered his entire being.
When the kill happened, the creature had already slipped inside Mr. Ignoramity’s house and had been waiting in the office hidden. When the opening presented itself, the creature struck. And with his target dead the creature slipped back out of the house, not even registering with the security that the house had.
It would not be until morning that someone would find the body. It would be one of his security guards, coming to look for him, after waiting a good while past the normal time that Mr. Ignoramity would leave his house.
When the guard finds the body, he does two things, one call the Law, two call a person at the now ex-CEO’s office so that certain information can be related to the special…clients.
When the Law arrived, the police cordon off the area while the detectives try and figure out the crime. You know what they find?
All they find is that Mr. Ignoramity died and how he died. They cannot find a single thing out of place, a single mark on the victim’s body aside from the cut, nothing. And this leads them down a rabbit hole of cold cases and to a large file of similar killings, from all over the landmass.
And thus the crime goes from the Local law’s control to a group called “The Criotic Family”, a sort of Landmass wide Anti-Criminal/Mercenary group. They have contracts with near all the cities on the two landmasses, and in doing so they are a group that can apply criminal pressure from one city to the next allowing for few criminals to get away from some form of the law. They are also a special operations group that does assists Local Law groups in major busts as well as assist in keeping a city’s crime in check. And they themselves are kept in check by the cities they work for, and different groups within the group itself. Its size is its own strength, for that helps in many ways.
And yet the family is more than just a Giant arm of the law, they are a vast group of creatures that are in all areas of life, except criminal areas. Their biggest and most known arm is the Law group, but they are more than that, but few ever know if they have met a member of The Family. And they truly are a family, they look out for each other in every way they can. With new members coming in all the time, that creates a large support net for many creatures.
One such creature, a young dragoness that had just finished going through what is best called Family Boot Camp, where you learn to be a member of the Family. This young Dragoness became a member while under the still extremely young age of 15, which puts her still in school. But she also has a job outside of school with the Family, she is a member of the Law Arm, and is one of the few that the family considers able to handle herself in any and all fights.
And it is thanks to this confidence that gets the young dragoness transferred to Muchupin. But more on her later.
For elsewhere in the city, we have another Dragon, and it is this dragon that most of the story revolves around, for it is him that the world hates and it is him that is forced to survive in this harsh world…
Living With Balance Chapter 2
Every creature has to live through some form of hardship. But for others, life is their hardship…
In a semi worn down All Boys Orphanage in a rather hard part of town, a youngling of a dragon begins his hammering on the bedroom door of an older dragon that he wants to see.
This “elder” dragon would still be considered young being near sixteen but in this Orphanage, that is considered “The adult of Orphans.” And yet this dragon did not care, he wanted to sleep, but knew that by now, he would not be getting any more sleep.
So with a groan he opens his eyes and looks at his closed door, with the still hammering youngling behind it. “Alright, I’m up! The door’s unlocked!” The dragon’s voice is lightly deep, it has a natural draw to it that makes you easily miss the guy.
The door opened slowly to reveal the youngling Dragon, “Ms. Fretchen wants your help finishing breakfast.” He looked slightly frightened for some reason and this caught the elder dragon’s attention.
So the elder dragon got out of bed, and went up to the youngling before he squatted in front of the youngling. With a genital hand on the younglings shoulder and spoke in a very comforting tone, “Hill, What’s wrong? You looked scared.”
Hill looked down at the ground and shuffled his feet, but he knew he could trust the elder dragon. “I’m just worried about school today. Hank has been in a bad mood this week and I don’t want to be his vent again.”
The elder dragon sighed lightly, “It’s not fun being the subject of a bully.” Hill nodded but said nothing so the elder dragon continued, “But, I believe me and your brothers have taught you well enough to either avoid or prove to Hank that it would just make his life more…difficult if he went after you.”
“But you always said to never start a fight and to always do your best to stay out of trouble.”
The elder dragon smiled, glad one of the younglings he always saw as a younger brother had actually been listening to his lectures and lessons. “That’s true, I do say that. But I also say that if someone is trying to hurt you, it’s alright to defend yourself and stop them. How far you go is what really matters. Hurt them a bit; knock them out maybe but no more…”
“Because killing is something to do only when absolutely necessary.”
“Correct. And if you are afraid of getting in trouble, just know that as long as you didn’t start the fight all your brothers will support you.”
Hill finally let himself smile, and not long after it showed he held his elder brother, who hugged back. But it was soon over as the younger let go and ran off to the kitchen knowing he had been away long enough.
The elder dragon chuckled at the actions of the always energetic youngling and held a silent prier that the youngling would remain so energetic and innocent for many years to come. But knowing he could not stay where he was praying all day, he got up and closed his door.
His room was rather sparse, with a single bed, a plain desk, a single chair, a small dresser, a mirror and surprisingly a full closet. To most it would not seem like much, but it was enough for him.
It was to that full closet that the dragon went to, he had to get ready for the day and that meant getting dressed. Not much could be said for his sense of style, everything he owned was plain, ragged, or just old. Then again, as an orphan it was not often that he could get the “stylish” cloths even if he wanted them. He did not stay in there long, he just grabbed the first shirt he could find, and a pair of pants. And after a visit to the dresser he tossed his cloths on the bed and looked at the mirror in the room.
The dragon would never say he was a looker, no matter what dragoness said. He was a Shadow Dragon, and quite possibly the closest to a Pure Shadow Dragon as there could be left in the world.
There was no debating that he has muscle, it was easy to see, and with being 6 feet 5 inches he filled in well. As were his obsidian eyes, and the four obsidian horns (two on top that looks like a corkscrew and one on each side of his head which are in the shape of one of the most obtuse triangles you can have with the long end with a sharp sheen to it). His scales were the darkest black that it could have been, one could almost say it shined with darkness as all forms of light refused to touch those scales, and his chest scales were not much brighter. And a tail end the shape of a triangle, sharp on edges with a nasty metallic shine to it.
The only blemish on his body was hard to see unless you knew what it was. It was a simple scar that ran along almost the entire bottom ride side of his ribcage.
The dragon looked at himself in the mirror every morning, thinking about the way his life had gone through. But these times were short, for he always had something to do, and today was no exception.
So throwing off his bedtime attire of only pants he put on the cloths he would get to wear this day, a plain blue shirt and black jeans. He so did love the magics worked into cloths now a days, for without them, his wings would be stuck underneath, or he’d be forced to rip the shirt. The magics on the cloths allowed for his wings to go through the shirt undisturbed by either item, and then his tail was easy to slip through a small hole that was also magiced into the jeans. The world was full of magic, and cloths was just one of the ways the world had figured out how to use it.
Knowing he was already taxing the amount of time he should have to get to the kitchen, the dragon left his room almost the instant his cloths had been thrown on.
He expectantly navigated the hallways of the orphanage heading towards the loudest part of the building only find complete chaos. Younglings of all five species were running around, some playing, others just being a pain, and a few thankfully trying to help. It was the same thing every morning, and like every morning the elder dragon could not help but let out a laugh at the chaotic sight.
“If you have the time to laugh Gwiton you can got the time to help me out over here.”
The elder dragon, known as Gwiton looked to the source of the voice, and saw the Matriarch and owner of the orphanage trying to hold back a fox youngling while also trying to cook…something. It was a sight that got another laugh to come from Gwiton before he could respond, “This early in the day and you’re already having problems? What would you do without me Ms. Fretchen.”
Ms. Fetchen was what the younglings knew her as. It can be said that the only creatures who knew her first name were long dead. And she seemed to like it that way, she may be considered a fossil of a dragoness but she still had life in her 900 year old bones. She was a rather plain Earth dragoness, no horns, bulb tail end, and deep green scales with brownish green chest scales, if you ever saw those chest scales though you should really look away and run for the hills.
“I’d be a right mean grouch who would be trying to get rid of these younglings as fast as I could manage.” Though there was steel in the response, Ms. Fetchen had a smile on her face.
Gwiton could only laugh, shake his head and head over to help her. He grabbed the youngling and tossed him onto his shoulder while relieving the matriarch of the cooking utensils. “As long as you aren’t the one cooking I think we would all be fine.”
“And what is wrong with my cooking young dragon?!”
“Nothing, as long as it comes from a box with easy to read instructions. Otherwise we’re better off eating cardboard.”
Ms. Fetchen tried to glare down Gwiton but he had a bright smile on his face as he worked on the breakfast, while also keeping the youngling on his shoulder occupied. And no matter how much of a grouch Ms. Fetchen tried to pretend she was, she could never keep up the act. “Damn, I can’t win against you young whippersnappers can I?!”
Before Gwiton could even respond, one of the younger creatures running around spoke up with a squeal, “Hey, Ms. Fetchen actually said Whippersnappers, you owe me two gems Mike!”
Ms. Fetchen huffed, but Gwiton laughed, “No you can’t win Ms. Fetchen, because we all know you.”
Ms. Fetchen let out a sigh, shook her head and then let out a light chuckle, “Your right, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Though I do wish Nitron would stop with his puppy dog eyes.” And just like that the whole room exploded into laugher.
It was the same way every morning. Good hearted laugher, everyone talking over one another, one of the boys trying to control the cooking so that they could actually eat. It was a giant family for all of them. Ms. Fetchen was their caretaker, and in doing so tried to be their Aunt. She would never admit to being a mother figure, for if she went there then attachments would form and that just could not happen, not in an orphanage. But that did not stop her from taking care of them, and having enough fun to keep her old bones going.
Breakfast was a circus, in many ways. The only one that could keep any form of control on it was Gwiton, the eldest of the boys, and Big Brother figure for them all. Gwiton was the only one there who could jump from one set of conversations to the other and not be lost, no matter what the boys tried. It was one big family. Crazy and happy, and that was the way it always seemed to be and would always be.
When breakfast ended all the boys worked on cleaning up, and then dashed off to get ready for school. Money was tight at the orphanage, but that was not a reason for them not to be in school.
After each had finished getting ready the boys would meet at the front door to the building, all crowding around Gwiton who was always ready first. He would count and make sure they were all there before he even thought about opening the door to leave. By the time he opens the door, all of the younglings are there and with everything they need. So they exit the building walking right past a sign proudly displaying “Ms. Fetchen’s Orphanage for Boys.” As they passed each one of them would pat the sign, for good luck they always said.
Most would say trying to keep control of the 30 odd 5-11 year old would be near impossible, and yet for Gwiton, it was an everyday thing. It was something he did well and loved doing. He watched and helped each every one of them as he walked them all to their different schools scattered within a mile of the orphanage. Thankfully they were never late, always leaving early. It is made even easier by the fact that 24 of the younglins went to the same school, with six others being close to that one. The last bit however were dragons and thus had to go a school a larger distance away.
When the others were dropped off the dragons of the boys had to rush a two miles to get the schools they needed. And there they could go about their day.
Before each of them left the group, Gwiton would talk to each of them, comfort when needed, words of advice, or even a quick talk to. It was how he looked out for them all.
But the problem with being four years older than the second eldest, while the 11 year old was starting Mid Schooling, Gwiton was starting in Finishing School (or more fondly referred to as High school for non-Dragons).
So because of this difference, Gwiton has to almost sprint to get to the closest of three Dragion Finishing Schools. With the school positioned five miles from the Dragon Mid he left the second eldest, bring it to near eight miles from the orphanage, he had no more time to take it slow. He used his free time to get the other boys to their school, leaving him the bare minimum to get to his.
Yet even with minimum time, Gwiton arrives at his school with ten minutes to spare. Every day that seems to happen, always rushing to make sure he gets to school after dropping the boys off, and he makes it with ten minutes remaining.
And he was not the only who would notice, “Ten minutes again! It’s like you have an internal clock stuck somewhere in you that tells you when you need to magically appear to be here TEN minutes before school starts! How do you do it!” The voice had to be on the perfect balance of deep yet high, and always annoying.
Gwiton smiled, chuckled, and looked at the speaker. The speaker being a rather scaly looking electric dragon who always has one a shirt related to his favorite band at the time and is considered average height at 6 feet. And beside him, the biggest damn Fire dragon Gwiton had ever seen, who always has on a striped shirt of some kind and truly is big with a height of seven feet.
Gwiton heads on up to them, his pack thrown over his shoulder, nodding to the electric dragon, “Vechan, you can try and figure me out all you like, but I’ll never say how I get here with such timing.”
Vechan let out a groan and slaps the fire dragon on the chest, “See, not even after being friends for four years does he tell us. Hey Magron, how do you think he does it?”
Magron rolls his eyes, and he does chuckle light, “The same way I do. “ His voice is low and deep, “We time our travel here and use that as an idea of when we should leave.”
A light laugh that has a fun tone to it goes off behind Gwiton forcing him to turn around and see the “tiny,” 5 feet even, poison dragon behind him, “Oh I’m sure Gwiton does that to some degree, but there has to be more to it. Hello Gwiton”
Gwiton smiles at the poison dragon and simply says, “Good Morning to you too Rougptiongentren.” After saying that he has to hold in a smile.
“Why!? Why must you say my full, extremely, annoying name, every damn day. I’m more than happy if you just say Roug!”
Gwiton was too busy smiling so Vechan took over, “Oh that one is easy. It gets you to react!”
Magron was not one to be left out of the action and had something to say himself, “Though personally I like nickname everyone uses, Tiny.”
“Hey, I’m alright with Tiny, just NOT MY FULL NAME!”
And that caused Gwiton to finally start laughing, and soon after the three others in the group of four friends start laughing. And as they laugh they head on into the school to begin their day of education.
Living with Balance Chapter 3
Let it never be said that school was boring. Something is always going on. It is where we learn to live our lives, hopefully. And is where we make our lives. Though for some, it is just another part of life, and others it’s a place where you learn everything could ever need to survive in the world.
Gwiton’s school life was as complicated as it was simple. Every day full of going through all of the different subjects the school said they needed to move onto the next stage of life. You had PE, Math, some form of science, grammar, language, history, magics, elemental learning, and if one was particularly well off with money, some minor combat training. Gwiton and many others were thankful they did not have to take all of those subjects in one day, just different levels scattered amongst the many years they were there. There were a few classes they had to take every year, but that was the same no matter the school.
Gwiton himself had a full work load, if only to keep himself busy and to try and free up time he knew he would need later down the road. It was extremely far ahead thinking with how long Finishing School was and how many different subjects he had to take, but he was a very forward thinking person in this regard. Do what he could now so that he could get ready for the harder times that were coming his way. He was a Shadow dragon, the most look down upon species of dragon, simply because of their ancient past that stacked them as…well the best way to say is that society saw them as the trouble makers of the world and that there was no such thing as a good Shadow Dragon.
This caused many a problems all throughout Gwiton’s life, especially school, but he would always work through it. Sometimes it came from the teachers, but mostly it was fellow students. In time, the teachers learned to let him be his own while the students learned to never mess with him, and those he watched out for, which also meant that if anyone did anything closely related to bulling in his sight, they would find themselves face to face with Gwiton’s paws. This would normally turn into a giant fight that needed to be broken up by the school staff. Said staff would try to punish Gwiton as he was always the only one still standing, but the voice of the one Gwiton had just helped would stop them and instead they would have his teachers give him a harder work load. And those that he fought, they were let off with the injuries they had (it was well figured they had learned their lesion though it did take a few “beat downs” before they got the message).
This day was one of his more peaceful ones thankfully. Which more or less meant Gwiton went through the motions of life without a care in the world, well sort of. He was always forced to be thinking about one thing or another. Mostly it was about his little brothers or his overall life. But even while thinking about this, Gwiton spent time with his few friends and enjoyed watching the population of the school, and the craziness that was always happening right under the teacher’s noses.
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A good ways away from Gwiton, but still at the same time, a dragoness was putting the last of her things down in the apartment she had just received. And as she looked it over, her superior was finishing giving her an impromptu briefing. In all honesty she had only been half listening to her superior the whole time, and her superior knew it too.
“Neega! Did you understand a word I said!?”
The dragoness looked at her superior with a sigh, “Yes ma’am.”
Neega’s superior, a rather tall and well-built female fox, rose an eyebrow, “Oh really? Then give me a basic rundown on what I told you.”
Neega sighed yet again, and turned to face the fox, “My job is to figure out who is behind the ‘no evidence killings.’ And once discovered, attempt arrest, if unable to, kill. But while I am working, I will be living here in this apartment, and during the day I will be going to school at the local Finishing School. And there begins my secondary objective, look out for the students there as well as look for potential members to recruit into The Family.”
The fox nodded, “And you are also to live a life. Remember, the family wants you to do your job, but you are a living being, not an emotionalist warrior. Make friends, do stupid things, be a young dragoness for crying out loud. Just make sure you are still able to help the family when needed.”
Neega rolled her eyes and turned back to the apartment. “I could probably guess that I am not to let those at school know of why I am here. And that I will most likely be starting soon.”
“Correct on both. You will actually be starting tomorrow. Your work load is going to be full, but we still expect you to get through it and your do your job.”
“Yea, yea, reminds me of training.”
“Don’t get too sure of yourself, Finishing School is nothing like Mid, no matter what species you are.”
“Oh alright. Now are you going to help me unpack, or do I have to do all of this myself.”
Neega was a bit surprised when she did not hear a response, and was a little exasperated when she turned around to find her superior was gone, leaving behind a folder full of information she knew she was going to have to memories.
Neega said one thing before she was forced to unpack and set up her apartment. “Why do they always do that!?”
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Gwiton’s school day was rather uneventful, but that was the way he liked it. When school was done, he walked to the front with his friends, where they all went their separate ways. The four of them had different lives, and after school they always had someplace to be.
For Gwiton that meant the Orphanage to take care of his brothers. They all ended school before he did, and he trusted them by now to get back to the orphanage, and help their other brothers get there too. But even still, he needed to get back or else things would probably go crazy really quickly.
The path Gwiton took to get back was the same every day, for it was always the fastest rout available to him. But this made him predicable, and on this day that was a problem.
Now, inside of school, no one messed with Gwiton, for there were always rules to follow. But outside, well in a street fight there is only one rule, there are no rules. And with a rule like that, many felt more comfortable with taking others on. So it was no real surprise when Gwiton found the ally way he was using blocked by four beings. And when Gwiton tried to turn around he found the other side of the ally blocked six others. And with the mesh overhang, Gwiton was unable to fly up and away even if he wanted to.
Gwiton surveyed his ambushies, recognizing several of them. They were creatures from school who liked to bully, but with Gwiton around they normally reframed. He could tell from the group’s body language that they were slightly nervous, expect for one who he figured was the leader.
It was to this leader that Gwiton turned to, the being was a buff Earth Dragon (a bit of cliché really) and it appeared he had a weapon of some kind hidden away. Gwiton did not really want to fight, he hoped talking would work. “Mete, wasn’t exactly expecting to come across you, or those with you.”
Mete’s eyes narrowed at Gwiton, “Funny, because we were. We’ve had enough of you being around. You’re a good for nothing Shadow dragon who only ever wins in fights because of school regulations. We’re here to force you back into your place.”
Gwiton could already tell that trying to talk Mete and his group out of fighting was impossible. So he switched tactics and went for delay and annoying, more or less riling his opponents up for the fight to come. “Oh? And what place is that? Standing on top of your broken bodies as you scream for you mommy?”
He got death glares for that, and Mete ground his teeth together, “No you stupid fool. You belong in the gutters begging to even be looked at. Your kind has no place here, and we will show you that.” He then pulled out a short sword, it was actually close to a large dagger, but it was still a short sword.
Gwiton tried not to laugh at seeing Mete hold it, “If that is how you plan on taking me on, you should know you are holding it wrong. And not only that, that weapon is SOOO not suited for you.”
Gwiton actually had more to say, but Mete wanted to shut him up and so attempted to strike Gwiton with a sloppy swing. Gwiton saw the attack coming and easily moved out the way, he did not fight back, he still had more to say.”
“Yup, definitely not your type of weapon. Too short, the grip is too small for you paw, and your body posture just doesn’t match with its use.” Gwiton had to stop shortly to move out of the way of another sloppy swing, “I would actually recommend a broad sword, or a battle ax, but fail that, a Long sword with an extra-long handle would have worked just find as well. Wo…” He had to side step out of full body jab at the end there.
Mete was already getting frustrated, and annoyed. Gwiton was only moving, literally moving, out of the way of his attacks, and his “buddies” were standing around. Not liking that, he turned to them and shouted, “Well don’t just stand there, take him down.”
Finally remembering what they were there for all of the ambushers pulled out their own weapons and charged at Gwiton. Two had daggers, one had a small whip like thing, three had metal knuckles, another short sword, as well as a long sword and one had actually brought a broad sword to the fight. Out of the group, only the ones holding the long sword and the broad sword looked like they knew how to actually use the weapons they had brought.
For most creatures this fight would be considered heavily one sided, but for Gwiton, he considered it an “even” fight. Two “trained” fighters and eight others with different degrees of weapons. It reminded him of worse days on the streets during the Gang Wars. And in reality, those creatures had been harder, he was less experienced then and his opponents were actually trained. Now…well it was more of a joke.
The knuckle users went down first, they had to get around the swords and whip which put them up first, but when they tried to hit Gwiton, he would dodge, then grab their arm and swing them around and into something. One of them he straight up broke their arm before he broke a rib and caused the creature to lose its breath and drop. The two went down from straight knock out blows to the head, both quick and high round house kicks.
After he took the knuckles down, the whip tried, but Gwiton just grabbed the whip. With a firm grip he pulled it towards him, and as the creature on the other end never let go, the creature went flying towards Gwiton. Gwiton used the creatures moment and struck him in the gut, broke two rips and dislocated the creature’s pelvis, but he was out of the fight (that was a problem with Moles, when you hit them somewhere and brake a bone, it is never just one bone).
All that was left was the two daggers, the two short swords, the long sword and the broad sword. Gwiton had to be more careful here, for a wrong move could send the swords places he did not want them to be, namely into something living.
Sadly, his opponents did not know how to fight as a team, so the daggers and Mete charged him at the same time, and tried to attack him at the same time. This caused their weapons and bodies to block each other. Gwiton only really dodged and watched the show.
One of the daggers elbowed Mete in the chest sending him to his butt, while the other accidently slashed the other dagger. Dagger number one was a weakling to pain and froze, and Dagger number two got shocked from hurting a friendly, this allowed Gwiton grab the two and ram their heads against each other. Say what you will about Aviaries, but they have some thick skulls, so when the two had their heads slammed together they were merely knocked out, their heads would hurt when the woke up but that would be it.
Mete got up and ignoring his follow buddies went right back to trying and hit Gwiton. But his first attempt was going to be an overhead two handed swing. And as he tried to bring it down Gwiton simply reached out and grabbed Mete’s wrist in an iron grip.
Mete got a slightly scared look on his face while Gwiton had a small smile on his face. Gwiton gave Mete little time to process what was going on as he used his control of Mete’s wrists to slam them into the side of the ally, breaking the sensitive bones there and causing Mete to cry in pain as well as release his sword. Gwiton then gave him a knee to the gut taking another of his opponents down.
The Last short sword was a complete idiot, he charged at Gwiton with his sword by his side like it was a spear, and appeared to be trying to ram him. Gwiton more or less acquired a sweat drop as he side stepped and tripped the idiot, he then kicked the downed fighter lightly over the head, just enough to knock him out.
With all of the untrained fighters down he turned to the only trained ones, who had maintained a respectable distance from the fighting.
Gwiton actually raised an eyeridge at the two dragons he was now left facing, “You persfully waited for me to take them down, didn’t you?”
The Long sword wielding dragon smiled a creepy smile, “Of course, tires you out a bit while you take out the cannon folder. Then we come in and clean up. So to speak.”
Gwiton shook his head, “You remind me of some Crime bosses I’ve crossed paths with in my younger days.” He sighs, “Anyways, let’s get this over with, I actually want to get him home soon.”
The Broad Sword snorted, “If at all.” And then the two came at him.
These last two really where much better than the others. Their training must have gone over how to work as a team, for they actually knew how to work together. The long sword let the broad sword strike while he got around and attacked Gwiton from the other side.
Dodging attacks from two sides is not as easy as one would think, though Gwiton did so with style. His only problem was that in being attacked from two sides, he was unable to counter attack for if he wanted to he would have left himself opened to his other opponent. And with being unarmed, he could exactly get within easy reach anyways
But Gwiton was a Shadow Dragon, and anyone who knew anything about the history of Shadow Dragons, it was that they were NEVER unarmed. Thus when he fully decided he was frustrated enough with not being able to strike back, and not wanting to use any of the crappy quality weapons laying around, Gwiton literally pulled a Long Sword from what seemed as nowhere, but was actually a hidden scabbard on his back and underneath his shirt.
With sword in paw, Gwiton went into quick flowing yet powerful striking motions, causing the Long sword he wielded to move with precision and speed. He disarmed the opponent with the Long Sword, before he hit the dragon outside the head with the flat of his sword, scoring a knock out, but also giving the guy a light gash. He then out maneuvered the Broad Sword and gave that dragon a few good cuts to sensitive areas of the body causing immense pain. And when the Broad Sword wielding dragon slowed down enough, Gwiton kicked the guy in the chest with his best kick, cracked a few rips and took the last opponent out of the fight.
With no more opponents to fight, Gwiton stashed his weapon and looked at the battle scene around him. All ten of those he faced were on the ground, a few groaning in a pain, their weapons scattered and a few objects that were in the ally were also tossed about.
His sharp eyes also spotted a Communication Crystal, a good one too. But he did not want to take, he other ideas in mind. Most liked to call Communication Crystals Mobile Phones, for they were more than just Crystals now a days, but they still had the same basic function. So when Gwiton picked up, he powered it up, then had the phone call emergency services, the response was quick as always.
When he did hear it, he was quick to talk, “Ten medical transports are needed, one for a mole, four for dragons, three for Aviaries, and two for cheetahs. Send them to Vengeta Ally way between Hongon Way, and Himlet Walk.” He then turned it off, not wanting to get into more details. He then took a piece of paper and pen from his pack and proceeded to write a quick statement of what happened, he did include a way to be contact if needed but he figured just putting his name down was good enough. When done he left the paper where it would be easily found and left. He hated dealing with cops and medical personnel, and he really wanted to get home.
Thankfully he was able to get home without any more distractions. And when he got the orphanage, he found an utter mad house. Apparently someone had found away into Ms. Fretchen’s personal stash of cookies and distributed them out to the others. With that much sugar running around, no youngling could stay still, and none could do school related items.
And thus began Gwiton’s afternoon, an afternoon spent control his crazy little brothers.
A world is large and grand, ours is no exception. No one debates that. Yet what we truly see is different for all. The greater majority can easily see the three land masses that make up the world, two on one side and one giant one on the other, with a great many amount of islands all around.
Neither half really talks to other, all know that distance is still something to be worked out. And like the others on the half of the world with the two land masses, I know very little of what goes on for the other side of the world and thus, that area is not the subject of this story just something that is randomly mentioned in life.
Our little corner of the world is complex as any other, with so many cities scattered around the landmasses, so many different environments. This story concentrates and starts in one of the many cities of the larger of the two landmasses, a city that is many days journey from the sea and half a day’s journey, if that, from a region of intense forests and dark foreboding mountains.
When you look at the city, you can easily see how our civilization is made up. There all the different species and then the strange differences in technology.
Confused? Well then let me clarify a few small things: there are five different “sentient” creatures on this planet, and this city has all five moving about in ever day life.
You got the tall, skinny and swift Cheetahs (or as they like to be called Cheetumies).
Then you got the short and stout Moles (Moulementies).
Next you got the creatures that everyone calls Aviaries, for they are like walking birds minus the wings, yet the only ones that can say their species name correctly are themselves (based on spelling it should be Tetioshiomeneamt, and when you try and get them to pounce it for you it comes out more as a squawk than anything I can understand).
In fourth spot is the sneaky/cunning, medium size, yet always reliable Foxes, (foux, easiest name to spell but needs the mother of all accents to say without insult).
And then you have the last of us, Dragons. Now granted we aren’t the dragons of old, but that doesn’t make us any less strange. Histories still can’t pin a time line down for when we started to change from our big four legged ancestors to our current two legged, part mammal, part reptilian hybridization. Now granted, we still have our wings, our tails, clawed paws, annoying scales, natural cold blood, elemental powers, and most of the strength our ancestors had, but we are still changed.
And because of this change, our technology has shifted greatly from what it could have been. It can be said that our level of electronic technology has far surpassed what is should have been, but when you suddenly have hundreds of electro using creatures you start wondering what you can do with that power. And then there are the poison dragons, wonders of medicine. Add in the fact that our society hasn’t had a war for many centuries you can see how we got where we are.
We are a world with advanced medicine, and electronics. Then you add in the fact that our people like walking and only use vehicles for mass or emergency transport and you get a city where massive amounts of people are out in the open. And just to add something on top of all that, this world has some of the strangest crystal formations that scientist can imagine.
And yet, it is these crystals that allow us to do so much. They are our long range communications, our energy boosts, a quick power cell, a few even get used in building and weapons, and there is believe that there is even more uses for them.
And yet with this area of advanced science, our weapons are stuck. We have been using swords, bows and the like for many thousands of years, and no one is interested in trying to improve on our weapons. That isn’t all that bad, but it always is an interesting thought point.
Now I’ve gotten way off track, this is a story about balance and I’m lecturing about what makes up our world, let’s go back a bit.
Now to truly tell this story, I can’t actually start at the beginning, that would prove far too difficult. No, to truly tell this story I need to start somewhere in the middle…And I think I know just the place.
I had said how we all see the world differently earlier on, well keep that in mind as we proceed.
I had pointed out a city before, the city for which I will be starting this story and where most of this story will originate from; the name of the city is Muchupin. An old city, quite large in comparison to other inland cities, it has stayed alive through all these years for its ability to draw in major business, of all types to within its strong defensive walls.
To start this story, well look at one such business creature…
Bieany Ignoramity was the CEO of a massive shipping company; its home base was Muchupin, as was Bieany’s home. As a fox he knew his way around just about any situation, and had gotten the better on many a deal.
His daily routine was much the same day in and day out. Wake up, do morning stuff, leave the house become surrounded by his bodyguards, head off to his office then proceed with business. All surrounded by some of the best security gems could by. And once all done he gets to make his way home.
As he does he stops to talk to a few creatures he knows, the conversations being hidden by his bodyguards.
He passes a few beggars, ignores the random looks, bypasses a few other creatures, and eventually gets home where he resides in even more security and leaves his bodyguards outside.
His home is left with nothing out of place and well decorated, as someone with his money should be.
On this night, like all nights, he goes to his office to do a few more personal workings before getting ready for bed. But on this night, a night in the late summer almost early fall he is not alone.
For not long after Bieany sits in his chair, a shadow glides from behind him and runs a dagger across Bieany’s throat, and our business creature is dead near instantly. With the creature dead, the shadow leaves without a trace, a contract complete.
Now I’m sure I’ve lost you again. Why would this creature, who seems to be well placed be suddenly killed? And how could he not have known someone was about to do so? Well, let us go back a bit…
At his place of work, one of the contracts Mr. Ignoramity looked at was a smuggling agreement for a substance called Greeocho, a crystal substance that is very dangerous drug, and more often called Crystal Meth on the street. This drug is illegal in all manors: making, buying, moving, selling, using, etc. and can rack major time in jail.
Then you got the conversations on the walk home. All of them were with different gang groups that are in the city. One was with a gang that got burned by one his contracts and thus got mad, another was a current contract holder and was checking up on workings, and the third was a hopeful group that wanted a contract. All the men were wanted, and by talking to them Mr. Ignoramity was racking up quite a rap sheet.
And then there is what you don’t see in this single day, Mr. Ignoramity had been doing this line of work for a long time. How long is a mystery, but over the years the Law had been interested in trying to take him down, but could never get a warrant for the evidence. But he also made a lot of enemies in the criminal world. And in that world, if you want someone gone, you don’t always follow the Law.
I realize you haven’t figured out how this secret criminal was unable to notice he was being target. So let’s continue shall we?
Mr. Ignoramity would have never known, and even if he did he would not have seen who was coming for him. And ironically enough, the assassin had actually crossed paths with Mr. Ignoramity several times that afternoon. A few of the beggars on the street, a few of the looks thrown his way, and a few of the bypasses, a great many of all of those was one creature, conducting surveillance. And the only way he could have known, was by the fact that the creature had on a cloak, a simple brown cloak with a hood that covered his entire being.
When the kill happened, the creature had already slipped inside Mr. Ignoramity’s house and had been waiting in the office hidden. When the opening presented itself, the creature struck. And with his target dead the creature slipped back out of the house, not even registering with the security that the house had.
It would not be until morning that someone would find the body. It would be one of his security guards, coming to look for him, after waiting a good while past the normal time that Mr. Ignoramity would leave his house.
When the guard finds the body, he does two things, one call the Law, two call a person at the now ex-CEO’s office so that certain information can be related to the special…clients.
When the Law arrived, the police cordon off the area while the detectives try and figure out the crime. You know what they find?
All they find is that Mr. Ignoramity died and how he died. They cannot find a single thing out of place, a single mark on the victim’s body aside from the cut, nothing. And this leads them down a rabbit hole of cold cases and to a large file of similar killings, from all over the landmass.
And thus the crime goes from the Local law’s control to a group called “The Criotic Family”, a sort of Landmass wide Anti-Criminal/Mercenary group. They have contracts with near all the cities on the two landmasses, and in doing so they are a group that can apply criminal pressure from one city to the next allowing for few criminals to get away from some form of the law. They are also a special operations group that does assists Local Law groups in major busts as well as assist in keeping a city’s crime in check. And they themselves are kept in check by the cities they work for, and different groups within the group itself. Its size is its own strength, for that helps in many ways.
And yet the family is more than just a Giant arm of the law, they are a vast group of creatures that are in all areas of life, except criminal areas. Their biggest and most known arm is the Law group, but they are more than that, but few ever know if they have met a member of The Family. And they truly are a family, they look out for each other in every way they can. With new members coming in all the time, that creates a large support net for many creatures.
One such creature, a young dragoness that had just finished going through what is best called Family Boot Camp, where you learn to be a member of the Family. This young Dragoness became a member while under the still extremely young age of 15, which puts her still in school. But she also has a job outside of school with the Family, she is a member of the Law Arm, and is one of the few that the family considers able to handle herself in any and all fights.
And it is thanks to this confidence that gets the young dragoness transferred to Muchupin. But more on her later.
For elsewhere in the city, we have another Dragon, and it is this dragon that most of the story revolves around, for it is him that the world hates and it is him that is forced to survive in this harsh world…
Living With Balance Chapter 2
Every creature has to live through some form of hardship. But for others, life is their hardship…
In a semi worn down All Boys Orphanage in a rather hard part of town, a youngling of a dragon begins his hammering on the bedroom door of an older dragon that he wants to see.
This “elder” dragon would still be considered young being near sixteen but in this Orphanage, that is considered “The adult of Orphans.” And yet this dragon did not care, he wanted to sleep, but knew that by now, he would not be getting any more sleep.
So with a groan he opens his eyes and looks at his closed door, with the still hammering youngling behind it. “Alright, I’m up! The door’s unlocked!” The dragon’s voice is lightly deep, it has a natural draw to it that makes you easily miss the guy.
The door opened slowly to reveal the youngling Dragon, “Ms. Fretchen wants your help finishing breakfast.” He looked slightly frightened for some reason and this caught the elder dragon’s attention.
So the elder dragon got out of bed, and went up to the youngling before he squatted in front of the youngling. With a genital hand on the younglings shoulder and spoke in a very comforting tone, “Hill, What’s wrong? You looked scared.”
Hill looked down at the ground and shuffled his feet, but he knew he could trust the elder dragon. “I’m just worried about school today. Hank has been in a bad mood this week and I don’t want to be his vent again.”
The elder dragon sighed lightly, “It’s not fun being the subject of a bully.” Hill nodded but said nothing so the elder dragon continued, “But, I believe me and your brothers have taught you well enough to either avoid or prove to Hank that it would just make his life more…difficult if he went after you.”
“But you always said to never start a fight and to always do your best to stay out of trouble.”
The elder dragon smiled, glad one of the younglings he always saw as a younger brother had actually been listening to his lectures and lessons. “That’s true, I do say that. But I also say that if someone is trying to hurt you, it’s alright to defend yourself and stop them. How far you go is what really matters. Hurt them a bit; knock them out maybe but no more…”
“Because killing is something to do only when absolutely necessary.”
“Correct. And if you are afraid of getting in trouble, just know that as long as you didn’t start the fight all your brothers will support you.”
Hill finally let himself smile, and not long after it showed he held his elder brother, who hugged back. But it was soon over as the younger let go and ran off to the kitchen knowing he had been away long enough.
The elder dragon chuckled at the actions of the always energetic youngling and held a silent prier that the youngling would remain so energetic and innocent for many years to come. But knowing he could not stay where he was praying all day, he got up and closed his door.
His room was rather sparse, with a single bed, a plain desk, a single chair, a small dresser, a mirror and surprisingly a full closet. To most it would not seem like much, but it was enough for him.
It was to that full closet that the dragon went to, he had to get ready for the day and that meant getting dressed. Not much could be said for his sense of style, everything he owned was plain, ragged, or just old. Then again, as an orphan it was not often that he could get the “stylish” cloths even if he wanted them. He did not stay in there long, he just grabbed the first shirt he could find, and a pair of pants. And after a visit to the dresser he tossed his cloths on the bed and looked at the mirror in the room.
The dragon would never say he was a looker, no matter what dragoness said. He was a Shadow Dragon, and quite possibly the closest to a Pure Shadow Dragon as there could be left in the world.
There was no debating that he has muscle, it was easy to see, and with being 6 feet 5 inches he filled in well. As were his obsidian eyes, and the four obsidian horns (two on top that looks like a corkscrew and one on each side of his head which are in the shape of one of the most obtuse triangles you can have with the long end with a sharp sheen to it). His scales were the darkest black that it could have been, one could almost say it shined with darkness as all forms of light refused to touch those scales, and his chest scales were not much brighter. And a tail end the shape of a triangle, sharp on edges with a nasty metallic shine to it.
The only blemish on his body was hard to see unless you knew what it was. It was a simple scar that ran along almost the entire bottom ride side of his ribcage.
The dragon looked at himself in the mirror every morning, thinking about the way his life had gone through. But these times were short, for he always had something to do, and today was no exception.
So throwing off his bedtime attire of only pants he put on the cloths he would get to wear this day, a plain blue shirt and black jeans. He so did love the magics worked into cloths now a days, for without them, his wings would be stuck underneath, or he’d be forced to rip the shirt. The magics on the cloths allowed for his wings to go through the shirt undisturbed by either item, and then his tail was easy to slip through a small hole that was also magiced into the jeans. The world was full of magic, and cloths was just one of the ways the world had figured out how to use it.
Knowing he was already taxing the amount of time he should have to get to the kitchen, the dragon left his room almost the instant his cloths had been thrown on.
He expectantly navigated the hallways of the orphanage heading towards the loudest part of the building only find complete chaos. Younglings of all five species were running around, some playing, others just being a pain, and a few thankfully trying to help. It was the same thing every morning, and like every morning the elder dragon could not help but let out a laugh at the chaotic sight.
“If you have the time to laugh Gwiton you can got the time to help me out over here.”
The elder dragon, known as Gwiton looked to the source of the voice, and saw the Matriarch and owner of the orphanage trying to hold back a fox youngling while also trying to cook…something. It was a sight that got another laugh to come from Gwiton before he could respond, “This early in the day and you’re already having problems? What would you do without me Ms. Fretchen.”
Ms. Fetchen was what the younglings knew her as. It can be said that the only creatures who knew her first name were long dead. And she seemed to like it that way, she may be considered a fossil of a dragoness but she still had life in her 900 year old bones. She was a rather plain Earth dragoness, no horns, bulb tail end, and deep green scales with brownish green chest scales, if you ever saw those chest scales though you should really look away and run for the hills.
“I’d be a right mean grouch who would be trying to get rid of these younglings as fast as I could manage.” Though there was steel in the response, Ms. Fetchen had a smile on her face.
Gwiton could only laugh, shake his head and head over to help her. He grabbed the youngling and tossed him onto his shoulder while relieving the matriarch of the cooking utensils. “As long as you aren’t the one cooking I think we would all be fine.”
“And what is wrong with my cooking young dragon?!”
“Nothing, as long as it comes from a box with easy to read instructions. Otherwise we’re better off eating cardboard.”
Ms. Fetchen tried to glare down Gwiton but he had a bright smile on his face as he worked on the breakfast, while also keeping the youngling on his shoulder occupied. And no matter how much of a grouch Ms. Fetchen tried to pretend she was, she could never keep up the act. “Damn, I can’t win against you young whippersnappers can I?!”
Before Gwiton could even respond, one of the younger creatures running around spoke up with a squeal, “Hey, Ms. Fetchen actually said Whippersnappers, you owe me two gems Mike!”
Ms. Fetchen huffed, but Gwiton laughed, “No you can’t win Ms. Fetchen, because we all know you.”
Ms. Fetchen let out a sigh, shook her head and then let out a light chuckle, “Your right, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Though I do wish Nitron would stop with his puppy dog eyes.” And just like that the whole room exploded into laugher.
It was the same way every morning. Good hearted laugher, everyone talking over one another, one of the boys trying to control the cooking so that they could actually eat. It was a giant family for all of them. Ms. Fetchen was their caretaker, and in doing so tried to be their Aunt. She would never admit to being a mother figure, for if she went there then attachments would form and that just could not happen, not in an orphanage. But that did not stop her from taking care of them, and having enough fun to keep her old bones going.
Breakfast was a circus, in many ways. The only one that could keep any form of control on it was Gwiton, the eldest of the boys, and Big Brother figure for them all. Gwiton was the only one there who could jump from one set of conversations to the other and not be lost, no matter what the boys tried. It was one big family. Crazy and happy, and that was the way it always seemed to be and would always be.
When breakfast ended all the boys worked on cleaning up, and then dashed off to get ready for school. Money was tight at the orphanage, but that was not a reason for them not to be in school.
After each had finished getting ready the boys would meet at the front door to the building, all crowding around Gwiton who was always ready first. He would count and make sure they were all there before he even thought about opening the door to leave. By the time he opens the door, all of the younglings are there and with everything they need. So they exit the building walking right past a sign proudly displaying “Ms. Fetchen’s Orphanage for Boys.” As they passed each one of them would pat the sign, for good luck they always said.
Most would say trying to keep control of the 30 odd 5-11 year old would be near impossible, and yet for Gwiton, it was an everyday thing. It was something he did well and loved doing. He watched and helped each every one of them as he walked them all to their different schools scattered within a mile of the orphanage. Thankfully they were never late, always leaving early. It is made even easier by the fact that 24 of the younglins went to the same school, with six others being close to that one. The last bit however were dragons and thus had to go a school a larger distance away.
When the others were dropped off the dragons of the boys had to rush a two miles to get the schools they needed. And there they could go about their day.
Before each of them left the group, Gwiton would talk to each of them, comfort when needed, words of advice, or even a quick talk to. It was how he looked out for them all.
But the problem with being four years older than the second eldest, while the 11 year old was starting Mid Schooling, Gwiton was starting in Finishing School (or more fondly referred to as High school for non-Dragons).
So because of this difference, Gwiton has to almost sprint to get to the closest of three Dragion Finishing Schools. With the school positioned five miles from the Dragon Mid he left the second eldest, bring it to near eight miles from the orphanage, he had no more time to take it slow. He used his free time to get the other boys to their school, leaving him the bare minimum to get to his.
Yet even with minimum time, Gwiton arrives at his school with ten minutes to spare. Every day that seems to happen, always rushing to make sure he gets to school after dropping the boys off, and he makes it with ten minutes remaining.
And he was not the only who would notice, “Ten minutes again! It’s like you have an internal clock stuck somewhere in you that tells you when you need to magically appear to be here TEN minutes before school starts! How do you do it!” The voice had to be on the perfect balance of deep yet high, and always annoying.
Gwiton smiled, chuckled, and looked at the speaker. The speaker being a rather scaly looking electric dragon who always has one a shirt related to his favorite band at the time and is considered average height at 6 feet. And beside him, the biggest damn Fire dragon Gwiton had ever seen, who always has on a striped shirt of some kind and truly is big with a height of seven feet.
Gwiton heads on up to them, his pack thrown over his shoulder, nodding to the electric dragon, “Vechan, you can try and figure me out all you like, but I’ll never say how I get here with such timing.”
Vechan let out a groan and slaps the fire dragon on the chest, “See, not even after being friends for four years does he tell us. Hey Magron, how do you think he does it?”
Magron rolls his eyes, and he does chuckle light, “The same way I do. “ His voice is low and deep, “We time our travel here and use that as an idea of when we should leave.”
A light laugh that has a fun tone to it goes off behind Gwiton forcing him to turn around and see the “tiny,” 5 feet even, poison dragon behind him, “Oh I’m sure Gwiton does that to some degree, but there has to be more to it. Hello Gwiton”
Gwiton smiles at the poison dragon and simply says, “Good Morning to you too Rougptiongentren.” After saying that he has to hold in a smile.
“Why!? Why must you say my full, extremely, annoying name, every damn day. I’m more than happy if you just say Roug!”
Gwiton was too busy smiling so Vechan took over, “Oh that one is easy. It gets you to react!”
Magron was not one to be left out of the action and had something to say himself, “Though personally I like nickname everyone uses, Tiny.”
“Hey, I’m alright with Tiny, just NOT MY FULL NAME!”
And that caused Gwiton to finally start laughing, and soon after the three others in the group of four friends start laughing. And as they laugh they head on into the school to begin their day of education.
Living with Balance Chapter 3
Let it never be said that school was boring. Something is always going on. It is where we learn to live our lives, hopefully. And is where we make our lives. Though for some, it is just another part of life, and others it’s a place where you learn everything could ever need to survive in the world.
Gwiton’s school life was as complicated as it was simple. Every day full of going through all of the different subjects the school said they needed to move onto the next stage of life. You had PE, Math, some form of science, grammar, language, history, magics, elemental learning, and if one was particularly well off with money, some minor combat training. Gwiton and many others were thankful they did not have to take all of those subjects in one day, just different levels scattered amongst the many years they were there. There were a few classes they had to take every year, but that was the same no matter the school.
Gwiton himself had a full work load, if only to keep himself busy and to try and free up time he knew he would need later down the road. It was extremely far ahead thinking with how long Finishing School was and how many different subjects he had to take, but he was a very forward thinking person in this regard. Do what he could now so that he could get ready for the harder times that were coming his way. He was a Shadow dragon, the most look down upon species of dragon, simply because of their ancient past that stacked them as…well the best way to say is that society saw them as the trouble makers of the world and that there was no such thing as a good Shadow Dragon.
This caused many a problems all throughout Gwiton’s life, especially school, but he would always work through it. Sometimes it came from the teachers, but mostly it was fellow students. In time, the teachers learned to let him be his own while the students learned to never mess with him, and those he watched out for, which also meant that if anyone did anything closely related to bulling in his sight, they would find themselves face to face with Gwiton’s paws. This would normally turn into a giant fight that needed to be broken up by the school staff. Said staff would try to punish Gwiton as he was always the only one still standing, but the voice of the one Gwiton had just helped would stop them and instead they would have his teachers give him a harder work load. And those that he fought, they were let off with the injuries they had (it was well figured they had learned their lesion though it did take a few “beat downs” before they got the message).
This day was one of his more peaceful ones thankfully. Which more or less meant Gwiton went through the motions of life without a care in the world, well sort of. He was always forced to be thinking about one thing or another. Mostly it was about his little brothers or his overall life. But even while thinking about this, Gwiton spent time with his few friends and enjoyed watching the population of the school, and the craziness that was always happening right under the teacher’s noses.
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A good ways away from Gwiton, but still at the same time, a dragoness was putting the last of her things down in the apartment she had just received. And as she looked it over, her superior was finishing giving her an impromptu briefing. In all honesty she had only been half listening to her superior the whole time, and her superior knew it too.
“Neega! Did you understand a word I said!?”
The dragoness looked at her superior with a sigh, “Yes ma’am.”
Neega’s superior, a rather tall and well-built female fox, rose an eyebrow, “Oh really? Then give me a basic rundown on what I told you.”
Neega sighed yet again, and turned to face the fox, “My job is to figure out who is behind the ‘no evidence killings.’ And once discovered, attempt arrest, if unable to, kill. But while I am working, I will be living here in this apartment, and during the day I will be going to school at the local Finishing School. And there begins my secondary objective, look out for the students there as well as look for potential members to recruit into The Family.”
The fox nodded, “And you are also to live a life. Remember, the family wants you to do your job, but you are a living being, not an emotionalist warrior. Make friends, do stupid things, be a young dragoness for crying out loud. Just make sure you are still able to help the family when needed.”
Neega rolled her eyes and turned back to the apartment. “I could probably guess that I am not to let those at school know of why I am here. And that I will most likely be starting soon.”
“Correct on both. You will actually be starting tomorrow. Your work load is going to be full, but we still expect you to get through it and your do your job.”
“Yea, yea, reminds me of training.”
“Don’t get too sure of yourself, Finishing School is nothing like Mid, no matter what species you are.”
“Oh alright. Now are you going to help me unpack, or do I have to do all of this myself.”
Neega was a bit surprised when she did not hear a response, and was a little exasperated when she turned around to find her superior was gone, leaving behind a folder full of information she knew she was going to have to memories.
Neega said one thing before she was forced to unpack and set up her apartment. “Why do they always do that!?”
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Gwiton’s school day was rather uneventful, but that was the way he liked it. When school was done, he walked to the front with his friends, where they all went their separate ways. The four of them had different lives, and after school they always had someplace to be.
For Gwiton that meant the Orphanage to take care of his brothers. They all ended school before he did, and he trusted them by now to get back to the orphanage, and help their other brothers get there too. But even still, he needed to get back or else things would probably go crazy really quickly.
The path Gwiton took to get back was the same every day, for it was always the fastest rout available to him. But this made him predicable, and on this day that was a problem.
Now, inside of school, no one messed with Gwiton, for there were always rules to follow. But outside, well in a street fight there is only one rule, there are no rules. And with a rule like that, many felt more comfortable with taking others on. So it was no real surprise when Gwiton found the ally way he was using blocked by four beings. And when Gwiton tried to turn around he found the other side of the ally blocked six others. And with the mesh overhang, Gwiton was unable to fly up and away even if he wanted to.
Gwiton surveyed his ambushies, recognizing several of them. They were creatures from school who liked to bully, but with Gwiton around they normally reframed. He could tell from the group’s body language that they were slightly nervous, expect for one who he figured was the leader.
It was to this leader that Gwiton turned to, the being was a buff Earth Dragon (a bit of cliché really) and it appeared he had a weapon of some kind hidden away. Gwiton did not really want to fight, he hoped talking would work. “Mete, wasn’t exactly expecting to come across you, or those with you.”
Mete’s eyes narrowed at Gwiton, “Funny, because we were. We’ve had enough of you being around. You’re a good for nothing Shadow dragon who only ever wins in fights because of school regulations. We’re here to force you back into your place.”
Gwiton could already tell that trying to talk Mete and his group out of fighting was impossible. So he switched tactics and went for delay and annoying, more or less riling his opponents up for the fight to come. “Oh? And what place is that? Standing on top of your broken bodies as you scream for you mommy?”
He got death glares for that, and Mete ground his teeth together, “No you stupid fool. You belong in the gutters begging to even be looked at. Your kind has no place here, and we will show you that.” He then pulled out a short sword, it was actually close to a large dagger, but it was still a short sword.
Gwiton tried not to laugh at seeing Mete hold it, “If that is how you plan on taking me on, you should know you are holding it wrong. And not only that, that weapon is SOOO not suited for you.”
Gwiton actually had more to say, but Mete wanted to shut him up and so attempted to strike Gwiton with a sloppy swing. Gwiton saw the attack coming and easily moved out the way, he did not fight back, he still had more to say.”
“Yup, definitely not your type of weapon. Too short, the grip is too small for you paw, and your body posture just doesn’t match with its use.” Gwiton had to stop shortly to move out of the way of another sloppy swing, “I would actually recommend a broad sword, or a battle ax, but fail that, a Long sword with an extra-long handle would have worked just find as well. Wo…” He had to side step out of full body jab at the end there.
Mete was already getting frustrated, and annoyed. Gwiton was only moving, literally moving, out of the way of his attacks, and his “buddies” were standing around. Not liking that, he turned to them and shouted, “Well don’t just stand there, take him down.”
Finally remembering what they were there for all of the ambushers pulled out their own weapons and charged at Gwiton. Two had daggers, one had a small whip like thing, three had metal knuckles, another short sword, as well as a long sword and one had actually brought a broad sword to the fight. Out of the group, only the ones holding the long sword and the broad sword looked like they knew how to actually use the weapons they had brought.
For most creatures this fight would be considered heavily one sided, but for Gwiton, he considered it an “even” fight. Two “trained” fighters and eight others with different degrees of weapons. It reminded him of worse days on the streets during the Gang Wars. And in reality, those creatures had been harder, he was less experienced then and his opponents were actually trained. Now…well it was more of a joke.
The knuckle users went down first, they had to get around the swords and whip which put them up first, but when they tried to hit Gwiton, he would dodge, then grab their arm and swing them around and into something. One of them he straight up broke their arm before he broke a rib and caused the creature to lose its breath and drop. The two went down from straight knock out blows to the head, both quick and high round house kicks.
After he took the knuckles down, the whip tried, but Gwiton just grabbed the whip. With a firm grip he pulled it towards him, and as the creature on the other end never let go, the creature went flying towards Gwiton. Gwiton used the creatures moment and struck him in the gut, broke two rips and dislocated the creature’s pelvis, but he was out of the fight (that was a problem with Moles, when you hit them somewhere and brake a bone, it is never just one bone).
All that was left was the two daggers, the two short swords, the long sword and the broad sword. Gwiton had to be more careful here, for a wrong move could send the swords places he did not want them to be, namely into something living.
Sadly, his opponents did not know how to fight as a team, so the daggers and Mete charged him at the same time, and tried to attack him at the same time. This caused their weapons and bodies to block each other. Gwiton only really dodged and watched the show.
One of the daggers elbowed Mete in the chest sending him to his butt, while the other accidently slashed the other dagger. Dagger number one was a weakling to pain and froze, and Dagger number two got shocked from hurting a friendly, this allowed Gwiton grab the two and ram their heads against each other. Say what you will about Aviaries, but they have some thick skulls, so when the two had their heads slammed together they were merely knocked out, their heads would hurt when the woke up but that would be it.
Mete got up and ignoring his follow buddies went right back to trying and hit Gwiton. But his first attempt was going to be an overhead two handed swing. And as he tried to bring it down Gwiton simply reached out and grabbed Mete’s wrist in an iron grip.
Mete got a slightly scared look on his face while Gwiton had a small smile on his face. Gwiton gave Mete little time to process what was going on as he used his control of Mete’s wrists to slam them into the side of the ally, breaking the sensitive bones there and causing Mete to cry in pain as well as release his sword. Gwiton then gave him a knee to the gut taking another of his opponents down.
The Last short sword was a complete idiot, he charged at Gwiton with his sword by his side like it was a spear, and appeared to be trying to ram him. Gwiton more or less acquired a sweat drop as he side stepped and tripped the idiot, he then kicked the downed fighter lightly over the head, just enough to knock him out.
With all of the untrained fighters down he turned to the only trained ones, who had maintained a respectable distance from the fighting.
Gwiton actually raised an eyeridge at the two dragons he was now left facing, “You persfully waited for me to take them down, didn’t you?”
The Long sword wielding dragon smiled a creepy smile, “Of course, tires you out a bit while you take out the cannon folder. Then we come in and clean up. So to speak.”
Gwiton shook his head, “You remind me of some Crime bosses I’ve crossed paths with in my younger days.” He sighs, “Anyways, let’s get this over with, I actually want to get him home soon.”
The Broad Sword snorted, “If at all.” And then the two came at him.
These last two really where much better than the others. Their training must have gone over how to work as a team, for they actually knew how to work together. The long sword let the broad sword strike while he got around and attacked Gwiton from the other side.
Dodging attacks from two sides is not as easy as one would think, though Gwiton did so with style. His only problem was that in being attacked from two sides, he was unable to counter attack for if he wanted to he would have left himself opened to his other opponent. And with being unarmed, he could exactly get within easy reach anyways
But Gwiton was a Shadow Dragon, and anyone who knew anything about the history of Shadow Dragons, it was that they were NEVER unarmed. Thus when he fully decided he was frustrated enough with not being able to strike back, and not wanting to use any of the crappy quality weapons laying around, Gwiton literally pulled a Long Sword from what seemed as nowhere, but was actually a hidden scabbard on his back and underneath his shirt.
With sword in paw, Gwiton went into quick flowing yet powerful striking motions, causing the Long sword he wielded to move with precision and speed. He disarmed the opponent with the Long Sword, before he hit the dragon outside the head with the flat of his sword, scoring a knock out, but also giving the guy a light gash. He then out maneuvered the Broad Sword and gave that dragon a few good cuts to sensitive areas of the body causing immense pain. And when the Broad Sword wielding dragon slowed down enough, Gwiton kicked the guy in the chest with his best kick, cracked a few rips and took the last opponent out of the fight.
With no more opponents to fight, Gwiton stashed his weapon and looked at the battle scene around him. All ten of those he faced were on the ground, a few groaning in a pain, their weapons scattered and a few objects that were in the ally were also tossed about.
His sharp eyes also spotted a Communication Crystal, a good one too. But he did not want to take, he other ideas in mind. Most liked to call Communication Crystals Mobile Phones, for they were more than just Crystals now a days, but they still had the same basic function. So when Gwiton picked up, he powered it up, then had the phone call emergency services, the response was quick as always.
When he did hear it, he was quick to talk, “Ten medical transports are needed, one for a mole, four for dragons, three for Aviaries, and two for cheetahs. Send them to Vengeta Ally way between Hongon Way, and Himlet Walk.” He then turned it off, not wanting to get into more details. He then took a piece of paper and pen from his pack and proceeded to write a quick statement of what happened, he did include a way to be contact if needed but he figured just putting his name down was good enough. When done he left the paper where it would be easily found and left. He hated dealing with cops and medical personnel, and he really wanted to get home.
Thankfully he was able to get home without any more distractions. And when he got the orphanage, he found an utter mad house. Apparently someone had found away into Ms. Fretchen’s personal stash of cookies and distributed them out to the others. With that much sugar running around, no youngling could stay still, and none could do school related items.
And thus began Gwiton’s afternoon, an afternoon spent control his crazy little brothers.
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Not exactly the story I had planned on working on, but I got a bit interested in this and wanted to work on it. Took a bit of time, my computer is not in the best of moods, but I got what I wanted done. Most was actually already done except for the last part. And about three in one chapters...well I was getting tired of shortish posts and decided to throw several of them together to create one bigger one. Also gives you more to read.
Now like normal I talk a bit about the story. It is here I start introducing many different things, ideas and more or less setting the whole story up. You know, normal beginning stuff. I will admit I elude to a lot of different things, and foreshadow so much crap, but this is the beginning, of course that is going to happen. I just hope you guys like it to some degree.
Prolog: fav.me/d71audm
Part 2: fav.me/d7ufvav
The ideas I will be using come from a large area of areas, but over all this story is my property.
Now like normal I talk a bit about the story. It is here I start introducing many different things, ideas and more or less setting the whole story up. You know, normal beginning stuff. I will admit I elude to a lot of different things, and foreshadow so much crap, but this is the beginning, of course that is going to happen. I just hope you guys like it to some degree.
Prolog: fav.me/d71audm
Part 2: fav.me/d7ufvav
The ideas I will be using come from a large area of areas, but over all this story is my property.
© 2014 - 2024 eemhp31
Comments1
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Looking good so far. You've improved a lot in grammar and spelling. Looking forward to more 