Through The Fire And The Flames (2/20)
Title: Through The Fire And The Flames
Author: thanku4urlove
Pairing: Hikaru-centric, side pairings to come!
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Um... Dragons?
Genre: Fantasy AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: The village where Hikaru and his friends live has a bit of a dragon problem. While most of the people in the town want the dragons wiped out, Hikaru believes that there has to be some good in the creatures. Through a shocking near-death experience, he comes to find that there is more to the dragons than even he could imagine.
A/N: This is a bit of a monster! I wrote it for National Novel Writing Month, which is all about writing 50,000 words (the minimum length for a work to be considered a novel) in one month. I finally got through editing the whole thing, so I decided to to begin posting it. The idea was taken a bit from How To Train Your Dragon (if you care about that idk) and I hope you enjoy it! Banner cred: ryosukekoibito
Previous Chapters: 1
They didn’t get the chance to visit Yabu the next day because he came to visit them instead, walking into Daiki’s parents’ armory with Takaki. Daiki, Hikaru, and Inoo were spending the day there, manning the store while Daiki’s parents helped with cleaning up the wreckage that had accumulated after the visitation they had received yesterday. Helping out and generally spending time in the armory was commonplace for them, Hikaru leaning against the scythe stand and trying to say something about sword hilts, glaring every time Inoo made a dirty joke.
“There is nothing funny about sword anatomy--”
“One new sword please!” Yabu’s voice rang in, cutting Hikaru off as he and Takaki walked through the doorway.
“Are you sure you should be up and walking?” Hikaru asked as the two came to a stop in front of them. “I thought you were injured.”
Though Yabu had a large and fluffy coat on, it was evident that the bandages he had peeking over his collar were covering a larger part of his torso and back, as well as his right shoulder.
“It’s nothing, really.” Yabu answered. “Just a scratch.”
Takaki was rolling his eyes in the background, making Hikaru ask again.
“Are you sure?”
Yabu sent him a grin. “Positive.” He affirmed.
“How did it happen?” Inoo asked, jerking his thumb in Hikaru’s direction. “This guy got all worried.”
Yabu laughed at that, Hikaru kicking the bottom of Inoo’s foot as the five of them made their way to the sheathed swords in the back, making him stumble and mutter curses at Hikaru under his breath. Yabu answered Inoo’s question, enthusiastic about his tale.
“There was this green dragon making its way on to the Yamashitas’ farm--a little, skinny thing--so I ran after it. It didn’t attack me at all though, not really. After I actually caught its attention it mostly did a lot of dodging my attacks, and when I finally got a clear slash at it, it knocked my sword away, nicking my shoulder with its claw in the process. When it saw I was injured, it almost looked surprised. Kind of stopped and stared at me. Then it just took the pig and flew off. I’m glad it didn’t just kill me or something, but now my sword is at the bottom of the sea somewhere.”
“That happened to me too!” Hikaru exclaimed, the surprising show of benevolence from a dragon sounding familiar. “I mean, no pigs, but a dragon let me touch it yesterday.”
His statement was met with a round of confused, blank looks, so Hikaru figured he should explain. “During yesterday’s attack, my sword was on the ground and I was cornered and pretty sure I was dead meat, but then the dragon calmed and stepped towards me, and… I touched its nose.”
Yabu’s eyebrows were raised, his expression suggesting that he couldn’t tell whether to deem him stupid or impressive. Hikaru hadn’t yet told Daiki or Inoo about this misadventure, getting shocked looks. Takaki however, was the most surprised.
“How do you still have both of your hands right now?” he asked, both looking and sounding baffled. Hikaru shrugged.
“It could tell I wasn’t going to hurt it, so it didn’t try to hurt me either. Their scales are really smooth, by the way. And they’re extremely warm. That probably has to do with their ability to breathe fire, or something.”
Takaki was still caught up on his first sentence, eyes narrowed.
“It was a dragon.” He deadpanned.
“So?”
“A dragon.”
“Yes, you’ve said that twice now.” Inoo cut in.
“They’re not bad creatures.” Hikaru said, chest puffing up internally as he saw Yabu nodding along with his words. His friends knew the strange opinions he had about dragons, but it was nice to have someone new agreeing with him.
“They’re animals.” Takaki answered, the word calm in tone and volume but loaded with negative connotations.
“But they’re not aggressive and malicious, just instinctive.” Hikaru responded. He could see Inoo mouthing his words out of the corner of his eye as he said them, so he hit the back of Inoo’s knee with his own, making him stumble again as his leg bent under him.
“Either way,” Inoo said once he had regained his footing and cleared his throat, shooting Hikaru a look that made both Yabu and Daiki laugh “We won’t be seeing them until the snow melts, and that’s all I care about.”
Just like his friends--and the majority of the townspeople, to be honest--winter was Hikaru’s favorite season as well, and not only because of the lack of dragons. The beginning of the season brought a huge festival with it, where everyone gathered around fires and told stories, curled up in their thickest coats and staying awake until the moon went down and the sun came up, as a way to ring in the coming snow and hope for a calm winter. For Hikaru, the event usually ended with overtired giggling from his friends, interesting lore being told by elders, and at least one child asleep in his lap. Everyone was comfortable and relaxed and left their weapons at home, the entire event filled with a sense of unity and security that Hikaru always loved. Unfortunately, this time their lack of defenses proved almost deadly.
Yabu saw the dragons first. He and Takaki were slowly being more and more integrated into Hikaru’s close circle of friends, walking up to them at sundown the night of the festival to chat. Hikaru had managed to sit next to him, wanting to engage him in conversation when his eyes widened, looking above his head and past him, pointing into the sky.
“It’s… They’re…”
“What?” Hikaru followed Yabu’s finger with his eyes, hearing Takaki curse next to him. Hikaru’s legs felt frozen, a gross mix of fear, confusion, and disbelief pumping through his veins.
It was dragons. A huge hoard of them, all flying in their direction, their humongous silhouettes black against the fiery sunset.
“Aren’t they supposed to be asleep?” Takaki shouted. Inoo just stood still, watching.
“Come on!” Daiki gathered his wits together first, grabbing Hikaru’s arm tightly in one hand and Inoo’s wrist in the other. Hikaru barely had time to snatch Yabu’s hand in his own before they were all dragged into the armory. Daiki yanked the door open, slamming it closed just as familiar reptilian screeches began cutting the air.
“I hate this.” Inoo was saying, muttering to himself, but loud enough to hear. “I hate this. I hate fighting, I hate dragons, I hate--” Daiki handed him one of the weapons that was closest, which only increased his grumbling. “I hate axes, I hate…”
“Oh, quit it.” Takaki said, clapping Inoo on the back hard enough to tip him over a little. “No one here is allowed to complain but me.”
In spite of everything, Hikaru heard Yabu laugh at Takaki statement from somewhere on his left. Hikaru grabbed his own swords, which he had left in the armory overnight for sharpening, and strapped them to his back.
“Hurry. We need to get back out there.”
Once Yabu found a weapon that fit his grip--something long, hooked, and sharp--they were out of the door and into the fray. There was plenty of frantic running about, which was perplexing and rather unsettling. Only half of the dragons that had descended were actually close enough to come into contact with anyone though; the other half seemed to be actively avoiding human contact, skirting around and behind houses.
Hikaru didn’t try to engage any of the beasts, instead working to help get people into safer places. He scooped up a crying girl with pigtails, trying to comfort her as she squirmed in his arms, taking her into a bunker. By the time all the little ones were stored away, Hikaru had completely lost sight of his friends. Picking up his feet, he decided to go find them.
There was so much yelling and running that it was difficult to get anywhere, not that he really knew where he was going. He helped with a sword stroke or two as he went, ducking around and trying to look over people’s heads. It would be near hopeless to find Daiki, seeing as the stocky brunette was much shorter than he was, but Inoo, Takaki, and Yabu were all around his height, so he kept his eyes open.
He had managed to reach the other end of the town square without seeing any of them, feeling rather hopeless, when he ran quite hard into something solid and fell to the ground.
“Can’t you watch where you’re going?”
Hikaru breathed a sigh of relief. It was Yabu’s voice and he was happy to hear it, despite how annoyed he sounded. He was on the ground a few feet away, and he realized they had knocked into each other. Honestly, it was so comical, taking place in the middle of a battle like this, that Hikaru almost laughed. Until he saw a green and gray dragon that seemed nearly as big as their entire town itself flying straight at them, sharp mouth opening mechanically, red-hot embers already burning in its throat.
Yabu let out a loud burst of nonsense, running over to Hikaru and tugging him up by his shoulder. Hikaru nearly felt like sitting down again--not only were his legs about to fail him, but he knew that they wouldn’t be able to move fast enough to get out of the line of fire. He would be burnt to a crisp, his mother would find a little pile of ashes, arranged by the wind to spell out his name--
“For the love of all that is holy, come on!”
Yabu had to yell in his ear to bring him back to his senses, and the dragon was so impossibly close that by now, running truly was futile but he did it anyway, chest tightening with adrenaline, feet pounding the ground in such rapid succession that after a few moments it felt as though he wasn’t even making contact with the dirt below at all.
The sensation was so strange that he looked down, shouting in surprise, his entire body freezing. The ground below was passing under him at an impossible rate, growing smaller and farther away. The compression in his chest wasn’t adrenaline at all, but the very real feeling of the sword straps that went across his torso being tugged, hoisting him into the air.
Yabu was still next to him, letting out a short, high-pitched noise, Hikaru finally able to get a full grasp on the situation when he saw dragon talons clenched around his skinny body, holding him in a safe but firm grip. He looked up, letting his mouth gape open. The dragon’s colors were difficult to make out against the setting sun, but the muzzle and the wing shape were painfully familiar. This was the blue dragon that Hikaru had met in the previous attack. This dragon had saved their lives.
“Put me down!” Yabu shouted, squirming enough to pull his weapon from its sheath. He lifted his arm, about to strike the foot holding him when Hikaru shouted for him to stop. He gave Hikaru a look that suggested he was out of his mind, so he explained.
“If we get dropped, we’ll die.”
They had left land, now soaring over deep, near-freezing water.
“We’re going to die anyway!” He shouted back. His eyes were blown wide in poorly suppressed panic. Hikaru shook his head, wanting more than anything to calm him.
“No, we’re not. I know this dragon.”
“Do you know that dragon?” Yabu asked, pointing.
“What?”
Sure enough, another dragon had soared up to meet them, lightly knocking the flat of its nose against the face of the one carrying them. It was an affectionate gesture, Hikaru could tell, and it would have been sweet if Hikaru hadn’t noticed that the new dragon was bleeding, rather profusely, from one of its shoulders. It was holding two dead sheep in each of its back talons, and after the greeting the dragons continued, knowing where they were headed.
“Where do you think we’re going?” Yabu asked. Thankfully, his voice had calmed, at least a little. Honestly Hikaru had no idea, because they were headed west, and every time the dragons arrived they came from the opposite direction. He hoped that meant they weren’t headed to any sort of home, or lair. Wherever they were going, Hikaru hoped they would get there soon. The ache in his shoulders and back was becoming too painful to ignore.
They climbed past the clouds, wind cutting into Hikaru’s cheeks, when the dragons finally came to a stop. They had reached the mouth of a very high cave. The blue dragon let Yabu and Hikaru down lightly, flapping its wings a few times to keep itself up for a moment before landing. The second, newer dragon’s landing was more of a collapse; flying must have been rather painful on its shoulder.
The two dragons didn’t give the two of them any notice, immediately retreating deep into the cave. Hikaru and Yabu just stood where they had been deposited, staring at each other for a few moments. Hikaru peered over the lip of the cliff. They were so high up that the wind was incredibly cold, and the sea below was dizzyingly far away.
“What should we do now?” Yabu asked, pulling his coat tighter around himself. “Do you think they’re going to eat us?”
After a moment of serious consideration--because honestly, that was a very real possibility--Hikaru shook his head.
“I don’t think so. That blue dragon is the same one that let me touch it a few weeks ago. It saved our lives back there, pulling us away from that bigger dragon like that. I’m not sure why it brought us all the way here, but I think that it means that we’ll be okay.”
“Just because it let you pet it doesn’t mean it didn’t think you looked tasty.” Yabu countered, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Besides, even if it doesn’t eat us, we could starve, or freeze to death up here. We can’t jump down or anything, and trying to climb would be crazy.”
As soon as Yabu finished saying this, the blue dragon emerged, carrying a piece of meat lightly in its teeth. Both of them froze, watching, not wanting to move a muscle. The dragon didn’t even look in their direction, simply depositing the meat on the floor and turning, going back in where it came from. It was a piece of sheep meat, ripped from one of the four that had been carried, slightly wooly and singed, but cooked through. It was for them. Hikaru was speechless.
“Okay, maybe we won’t starve.” Yabu amended. Hikaru was rather grateful that by now, the sun had almost completely gone down, because he didn’t really want to get a good look at what he was eating. He felt better after the meal but Yabu was still nervous and very tense, sitting with his arms around his knees and staring at the mainland, the stretch of ground only slightly bigger than a speck in the distance.
“We should get some sleep.” Hikaru said. “I know this is going to sound dumb, but try not to worry too much. We’ll figure it out, and then we’ll go back home.”
“You’re right.” He said, looking up and giving him a little smile. “That does sound dumb.”
Hikaru extended his hand down to him, and despite his words he took it anyway, standing. They found a little corner of the cave that was far enough in for shelter from the wind but not too close to the dragons either, and they curled up closely.
“This sucks.” Yabu declared, voice surprisingly loud in the darkness, his simple statement making Hikaru laugh.
“I’m serious!” He exclaimed, rolling on to his back, his shoulder touching Hikaru’s own. “I’m really cold, really thirsty, on a cliff that’s about a million and two miles away from any sort of land... I’ve been kidnapped by dragons, for crying out loud.”
“You sound like Inoo.” Hikaru remarked, still chuckling.
“I sound like Takaki.” Yabu countered with a sigh. Hikaru reached around, finding Yabu’s hand in the dark and taking it in his, rubbing circles on the back of it with his thumb, trying to be comforting. When Yabu fell silent he grew worried, but the apology for maybe being a little too strange died in his throat as Yabu curled his body up to him, pressing close. When Hikaru mustered enough courage to look over at him, his eyes were already closed in sleep.