Fledgling: Part 76

Greeting readers

I hope your week is going well and that the weather is treating you well from wherever you are. I am going to be taking the time with the next few pieces to wrap up the story of Aidan and Bolx before starting the next section.

Originally, Fledgling was just supposed to be about Saita finding Aidan and Bolx and then becoming the Fell Dragon. However, the story has had different ideas, and I will be continuing it for a little bit longer.

I hope that all of you will continue to read as the story progresses.

It was hours before Martin was done healing Kay. He wasn’t happy, but he had done it. Saita had waylaid him before he disappeared to find his sister.

“I need to talk to you and your sister at length about what happened to bring you here.”

He grunted and tried to pull away, but she grabbed his arm.

“And then we need to talk about where we go from here.”

“I am going nowhere, where she is going.” He snapped as he pointed to the room where Red-Eye and Kay were.

She nodded her head. “I understand, but I can’t leave you stranded on this world.”

Martin paused, then sighed. “Let me talk to my sister.”

She released him. “How is the patient?”

“She’ll live. Beyond that, I don’t care.”

“Thank you, all the same. I know this was hard.”

“I don’t understand!” snapped Martin. “You should hate her. You should have wanted her dead.”

“And I would have agreed with you over 200 years ago, but time has passed. There is more fear than anger now. And a lot of sadness.”

“Don’t make excuses for her!”

“I haven’t and I won’t.”

“I need to rest. You can see her if you want, but she is likely not to wake for a few days. Her System is very much like my mother’s was, but there is an extra component at the base of her head. It’s not functioning as it should, or it’s off. I can’t really tell. She’s also missing parts of the System and her own internal workings.”

“Go rest. We’ll talk later.” Saita was curious as to what he meant, but she had something else she needed to do first.

Martin paused, as if wanting to say something, but stopped and pulled away. Saita sighed. She wasn’t sure how she was going to fix any of this. She moved into the room to see Red-Eye curled around Kay protectively. The bed wasn’t made for this, and any movement by the Wolven caused it to creak.

“You need rest.” She said.

“Mistress needs to be protected.”

“They won’t harm her, not while I am here.” Saita stepped forward and lightly shoved the Wolven’s shoulder. “Go get something to eat and drink, then rest. I will be here.”

Red-Eye seemed to hesitate for a second before he slowly climbed from the bed.

“None of you can understand her. She was made into a Dragon of Want. She couldn’t help herself. She hadn’t wanted this path. She was willing to remain in the cage, but then a Champion was made, and she had to defend her life. The previous Dragons didn’t help the…” Red-Eye started.

“Red-Eye, go rest. That’s not important right now.”

“As you didn’t deserve your fate, neither did she.” He hissed. “But no one sees the broken child; they only see the monster that the universe birthed.”

Saita placed a hand on his snout and said softly, “I understand.”

“No, you don’t! You still stink of fear and hate for her. You think you hide it, but you don’t.”

“Then help me understand her.”

“I can’t.” he hissed. “She doesn’t want this. She never wanted this. She was meant to be dead. I honoured her death, but now she is back and there is no honour.”
Saita gripped his snout tightly before saying. “I am going to fix this. I just need to know more, and I can’t do that with you here.”

“She will never forgive you.” Growled Red-Eye.

“I will need to find her a home. I swore to take up the mantle of the Fell Dragon after this, and I will not drag her with me. I must know her better. Know where she can grow.”

Red-Eye growled once more before shaking his head and limping from the room. He said nothing further, but his tail caught the edge of the door and slammed it after him. He knew what Saita was about to do, and he didn’t like it.

Saita had been truthful. She didn’t want Kay to follow her further on her adventures, but she couldn’t leave her to a universe where she still had the tendencies of her previous Dragon title. She still had the System, and except for the controller module not working, it was still functional. She could make energy, but seemed to be in a lesser capacity than Saita was capable of.

Curiosity burned within Saita. How had Kay come to be? She understood Bolx’s Kaiden and Queen Kay were moulded by Edzeeker, but she never understood how Kay was drawn into all of this. If Saita was the last, was Kay perhaps the first? Was she the first who inspire the original blueprint?

Saita looked down at the sleeping Kay. It was hard to believe that she was responsible for the loss of so many timelines and universes. She looked so young, no more than a young adult starting out.

“I need to know what made you. If it wasn’t Edzeeker or another Dekai, I must know. It could help release you.” She sat on the bed.

Kay had hinted at a terrible upbringing, and Saita mentally prepared herself for what she was to see if she entered the woman’s mind. She reached out and placed a hand on the Dragon’s shoulder. She was cold and covered in a thin film of sweat. It must have been some time since she had been injured to this extent.
Doran had eventually told Saita how he had sat at Kay’s side as she died. For all her madness and fervour to kill Saita and end the universe, in the end, she had just been a scared and lonely person with no one other than an enemy to sit at her side as she died.

Saita knew that she shouldn’t be doing this, but she was so desperate to know about the birth of the Fell Dragon, she saw no other way. She closed her eye and concentrated on what she needed to do.

She hadn’t been prepared for the wounded mind that she entered. It felt like crawling into a tight cavern with crystals growing into it. Every move Saita made was met with physical, mental, and emotional pain. She watched through the eyes of a child as she was beaten, humiliated, and mocked as soon as she had some sort of understanding.

Saita was horrified to see the father she had learned to love from the stories those on his planet had told, break Kay over and over. Drought and drink were his driving forces, and no one stopped him. While they didn’t condone what he was doing, they understood the pain he was going through. It was no excuse, but it was the excuse that made people turn a blind eye to the creation of what Kay would be in the future.

Saita got about as far as the young girl ripping the military man’s lower lip when the scene changed. It was a dank and rotten-smelling alleyway. Saita got the feeling that Kay had managed to give her military captors the slip. She knew Kay was young, not even a teen when she had escaped and expected to find the child within the alley, but it wasn’t so.

“You know, I fed the boy information about me being the Dragon so that he would leave me the hell alone. You, I see, are not going to be as easily dissuaded from running through my memories.”

Kay is not happy.

For those of you who have never heard of Fell Dragon you can find Book 1 here, Book 2 here, Book 3 here, and Book 4 here, Book 5 here, Book 6 here, Book 7 here, and Book 8 here
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I love discussing my books!
As the series continues, it will combine with another book series I wrote. To avoid confusion about what is happening, introductory chapters will be introduced separately so that you don't have to be lost. However, these chapters will contain spoilers. You can find these chapters here:
Races Explained
Banishment
Royal Guard
Saasha’s Direct Family
Saith Characters Recap
Human Characters Recap
Alternate Timeline Brucel
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Part 75>>You are Here>>Part 2
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