Chapter Text
“Dragons at the southern walls!”
The cry was punctuated by a chorus of thunderous roars, mingling with the shouts of samurai as they drew their swords. Falling into formation, the archers lined up a ways behind the swordsmen, stationed atop the great stone walls, notching their arrows and taking aim.
“Fire at will!” Roared Corrin, fist raised amongst her warriors. A cacophony of high pitched whistling followed, as a tide of arrows shot overhead, aimed for the dragon armada at the opposite end of the fort, whom were advancing dangerously fast.
Corrin leapt forward, drawing her Yato with a resounding, metallic shing. Flanked by Kaze and Rinkah, she advanced on the drooling wyvern storming towards them, fire spouting from between its gleaming fangs. The three of them dodged the flames with practiced ease, and raising her sword, Corrin fearlessly slashed down across the beast’s chest with a shout. She didn't flinch as blood splattered her face, the beast toppling to the side and sending a tiny tremor through the ground.
The samurai followed her lead, charging forth with the kinshi knights accompanying them overhead. Plumes of fire set blazing trails alight, flames twisting and writhing, brilliant in the late dusk light. Leading the samurai's charge were Hinata and Oboro, the latter's spear slicing a wyvern's throat with a graceful twirl.
Takumi stood with the archers at the northern wall, every muscle tense and poised to leap into action at a moment’s notice, fingers curled tightly around the Fujin Yumi as he awaited his cue.
“We can’t let them reach the Capital!” Shouted Corrin, wiping a streak of scarlet from her face as she suddenly whirled around, her dark mane twisting around her. “Takumi, now!”
“Right!”
The Fujin Yumi’s bowstring flared to life as he gripped the bow tightly, divine light weaving to either end of the bow’s neck. A brilliant arrow formed soon after, aligning perfectly across the string as he leapt into the chaos, lifting the bow to his face and staring down the glowing shaft with a tawny eye for a split second before letting the arrow fly, watching as the celestial barb plunged into a dragon’s throat. A sputtering, gurgling shriek ripped free from the confines of its chest, as it uselessly struggled to keep airborne, soon thrown to the ground by a sky knight.
Takumi sprinted past its weakly writhing body, relishing the agonized wails of the beast as it perished, a silent victory raging in his chest as he leapt up, taking aim impossibly fast and landing another arrow in another dragon’s wing joint, sending it plummeting to the ground. There, Oboro’s naginata pierced its skull, and Hinata’s sword sliced across its throat. His heart was pounding, his ears filled with the howls of dying beasts and the roars of the living ones. All around him the chaos flourished, warriors screamed as teeth sunk into their shoulders, snagging around their legs and dragging them away to be torn apart. A woman wailed as her pegasus' head was ripped from its neck, pristine white coat splattered with crimson, still struggling for her fallen companion as a kinshi knight swooped down to rescue her from the approaching group of wyverns.
Corrin spun between two of the beasts, cutting one down with Yato and the other with the second blade in her free hand, a technique employed only by the most skilled of swordmasters; no doubt Ryoma taught her such a move.
The battle raged on, the ghastly howling of the dragons mingling with the roar of their warriors. Gradually, they were cutting back their numbers, injured soldiers returning to the fray with the help of the priestesses. The larger dragons, as Corrin had planned, were less mobile and were thus specifically sought out by the ninja, who could avoid their heavy swipes. The samurai and spear fighters were to take on the agile ones on the ground, whilst the airborne units fought off those who took to the sky. The dragons were scattered and reckless, breaking off from their groups to hunt down the soldiers, only to find themselves surrounded on all sides, and slaughtered.
Subaki dove down and drove his naginata through a wyvern's neck, in turn rescuing the wounded diviner whom it had been about to devour. A basara hauled her over her shoulder and took off for the healers, pursued momentarily by a dragon before it was shot in the eye by a priestess, driving it right into the waiting samurai's blade. The beasts were even more unorganized than usual, howling in rage as they were pushed back by the advancing army.
Hinata stabbed through a dragon’s chest, tearing his katana’s sharp edge through its sinewy flesh with a sickening drag. It choked out a quivering growl, and collapsed to the bloodied grass with a heavy thump.
Suddenly, a piercing roar came from above, resonating through the sky like a clap of thunder. Immediately, it captured the attention of the remaining dragons, and as well the soldiers, heads turning to find its source. For a split second, the battle came to a complete standstill. Takumi's eyes narrowed; there. Atop the fort's wall perched a lithe, serpentine beast, and lining its body were obsidian scales, curved and sharp like plates of armor, accented with luminescent, brilliant gold. Murmurs of 'what in the hell is that?!' and 'let's kill it!' filtered through the crowd.
Corrin, armor stained crimson with dragon blood, lowered her swords as she neared Takumi's side, and in a low voice, ordered urgently: "Shoot it, quickly!"
Takumi inhaled sharply, and held his breath, lifting the Fujin Yumi to his face.
All the dragons were staring intently at it, the air thick and broiling with tension. The fearsome creature angled its head, staring down Takumi with fierce, dark eyes. Its back arched, and for a split moment he was worried it was poised to strike.
The beast's head turned away from him and it let out a shrill roar, its long body bunching up in an arc before it launched into the air, two sets of wings unfolding and lifting it further into the night sky. Instantly, the remaining dragons erupted into chaos, all taking off into the sky after it, scrambling over each other to escape the confines of the fort. Soldiers and other dragons alike were shoved aside in their haste, many of them crippled by their injuries but refusing to slow their desertion.
Wordlessly, he pulled the woven, brilliant string back until it was fully taut, its magic brushing ever so softly against his face, raising goosebumps along his skin. His eye stared down the arrow as he took his aim, fingers curling tighter around the string.
Seconds crawled by excruciatingly slow, the magic brimming in the bow becoming a painful sting against his skin. He exhaled, and fired the arrow, the power that he had accumulated in the divine weapon catapulted the missile with enough force to knock him back to the ground, the breath stolen from his lungs as the celestial arrow rocketed into the sky.
A sudden, excruciating howl echoed in the inky black sky, a twisting wail that assured him that his aim had been accurate. The silhouette of his target, a thin shadow glimmering with gold, and from its jaws spouted a magnificent torus of fire, its cry startling the others. Its shape grew smaller and smaller as it plummeted to the ground, the horde of dragons surrounding it scattered, all shrieking in disorganized panic in their haste to get away. Takumi trembled in disbelief.
“Woo hoo! We won!” Takumi heard Hinata shout, somewhere behind him. “Oboro, we won!”
Oboro yanked her naginata’s blade out from between the ribs of a felled dragon, the shing of metal accompanied by the squish of flesh. “We showed those dragon scum, didn’t we-” She let out an ‘oof!’ as the ever-enthusiastic Hinata bounded to her side, crushing her in a hug tight enough to make her drop her spear.
“What in the world was that thing...?" Corrin wondered aloud, her words echoing his own thoughts. She sheathed her swords and, after a moment of silence, grinned and clapped him on the back. "Well, we'll worry about that later. You did amazing, Takumi! I can't wait to tell Mother and Ryoma about your victory here!" Takumi felt a sheepish smile form on his lips, despite the unease in his stomach.
"Ah - thank you, sister."
The sky and kinshi knights descended, the samurai sheathing their katanas. The battle was over; it was time to rejoice in their victory. Yet he still couldn’t suppress the itching beneath his skin; what was that dragon?
“Takumi,” Corrin spoke, approaching him with a hand resting on the pommel of Yato. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that dragon you shot down at Fort Jinya today.”
Takumi glanced at his elder sister from where he stood in the grove flanking Shirasagi. He hadn’t been expecting her to seek him out here. He nodded. “As was I, sister.” Corrin drew to his side, her brow furrowed deeply.
“I’m just -" Corrin pinches the bridge of her nose with a sigh. "I'm perplexed, honestly. Kaze told me it never attacked anyone... he himself hadn't even noticed it until it revealed itself. I've never known any dragon to just sit back and watch, or whatever the hell it was doing."
"It's odd, to be sure." He agreed. "And the other dragons listened to it! That's the thing that disturbs me most."
Corrin met his gaze. “I know, it’s… strange. Its coloration, too. It doesn't look like anything we've seen before. When I returned home, I took this straight to Yukimura, and he told me that Hinoka reported sighting one similar to it a few months ago - but that was it. A sighting."
Interest piqued, Takumi narrowed his eyes. "There's another one? How many of these damn things are there?"
She sighed. “It’s truly baffling. And what’s worse, we don’t even know where it landed. Perhaps if we could study it, we would have a better idea on how to deal with them."
“The body?”
“Yes. Kaze and Yukimura estimated it probably fell to the northwest of Shirasagi; it was still trying to fly as it fell, you know.”
“It’s not dead?”
The early dawn grass was wet with dew, soft under his feet as he hurried through the underbrush, the Fujin Yumi resting loyally on his back. Its weight was comforting as he ventured further and further into the forest, heading deep into its heart. It was still dark out, his breath coming in translucent, soft clouds spilling from his lips. It was cold, but that didn’t keep him from traversing the thicket, the canopy overlapping above him and leaving him enveloped in rippling shadows.
He knew this forest well. These trees were familiar to him, like old friends, as he had spent many a day wandering in their depths. They were his hunting grounds of the early morning, a safe haven where even his family knew not to follow him.
Even as he moved quietly, with the swift, practiced stealth of an experienced hunter, the forest was absent of the usual early morning birdsong, and there was no chatter of woodland fauna as there normally was. The deer hid in the thick underbrush, the squirrels and birds tucked away in the canopy, and the entire forest was drenched in a heavy, almost choking silence.
The animals were scared of something.
Speaking with Corrin last night led him to realize that the dragon he had shot down might not have been slain by the arrow, like he’d thought. And if Yukimura and Kaze were right… the dragon would have crashed somewhere around here. The search parties had failed to find it in the other areas surrounding Shirasagi - even Suzanoh and Jinya. It was as if the creature had vanished; nowhere to be found. There were no blood trails to follow, or scorched paths of fire, or shed scales that could be traced back to the monster.
And since it was rumored to be alive, and near Shirasagi - the heart of Hoshido… it set the people on edge. Everyone was on high alert back at the castle, preparing themselves for a possible dragon attack. The damage even a single dragon could deal to Shirasagi, and the Capital, would be catastrophic.
The dragons hailed from Nohr, lands that lay far to the west of Hoshido. No human had dared to set foot there in decades. From old reports, Nohr was expansive, with an almost unbearably cold climate and impossibly tall trees that never lost their needle-esque leaves. It was covered in forests, mountains, and tundra. Dragons had existed for a long time; some scholars even speculate they existed since before the formation of the four kingdoms known today - Hoshido, Izumo, Mokushu, and Nestra. They were solitary creatures, he had read once, and if they did live or travel in groups, they exclusively consisted of family, to which hierarchy applied.
Before these attacks became common, it was not unheard of for people to sell dragon eggs. Not common, but it happened. People would steal dragon eggs from Nohr and raise them on their own, and from this, a whole new group of people emerged: dragon riders. Skilled individuals who had forged bonds with the dragons, enough for the fearsome beasts to allow them to fit them with saddles, harnesses, and ride them.
Some riders joined the military, offering their services to the greater good. Some remained isolated, like their steeds. Others, inevitably, used their new mounts for malicious purposes, becoming brigands and thieves. Then, thirty years ago, the Nohrian beasts were suddenly far more aggressive than they had ever been, and began attacking small villages in large groups. Then, they attacked strongholds, cities, capitals. Even the most talented of dragon riders could not tame them. Many lost their lives, and even more lost their dragons.
The people of Hoshido were rightfully terrified, and fled inland with each attack. For years, the dragons drove them further and further to the heart of Hoshido, like they were trying to claim the kingdom for themselves. Suddenly, all the research scholars had collected on the beasts was invaluable, priceless. It was only due to these reports that they knew their weaknesses, their strengths, that the majority of dragons hunted at night, how to tell what sort of attack an individual dragon had, whether it spewed ice, fire, poison, magma, or, in the most deadly cases: lightning.
The recent attack at Fort Jinya was the closest the dragons had ever attacked, the furthest they had ever ventured into Hoshido. Other cities in neighboring kingdoms had already been devastated, as Izumo and Nestra did not have the military strength to fight off these threats for a long time. Hoshido and Mokushu were strongholds of sorts, and harder for the beasts to penetrate. Needless to say, everyone was at least a little shaken by the rather short distance from the capital this siege had taken place at.
Takumi was shaken from his thoughts when he stepped on a branch, the sudden snap yanking him back to reality. Slightly startled, he glanced down, and was met with the sight of an utterly scorched, blackened tree branch, cracking in half beneath his foot. Inhaling sharply, he stepped back, Fujin Yumi in hand.
There, beside him, was a tree, broken completely in half, the trunk splintered and charred, as if it had been struck by lightning. He noticed the tree opposite of it was in a similar state, blackened and burnt, with five distinct, deep, jagged gashes in its trunk. Between the two trees was a path of destruction. The forest floor was scorched, once verdant shrubbery now wilted and brown, and torn to shreds. There was a broad score in the earth, dark, rich soil turned up in a deep, lengthy trench, with a girth that had to be at least four or five feet wide.
Heart pounding in his chest, Takumi lowered into a crouch, summoning the Fujin Yumi’s bowstring and arrow as he crept forward ever so silently, taking care to keep his breath quiet and in check. Years spent hunting in these woods paid off in this moment, as he advanced through the trench without a sound. His footsteps quickened as he came to a incline, climbing up the slope and preparing to loose his arrow it he was met with slashing claws and vicious spouts of fire, like he so anticipated.
A sudden, pained groan made him stop, the sound grim and harsh against the silence filling the woods. He peered over the slope’s peak, tawny eyes wide with what he would never admit to be fear, the divine arrow’s light illuminating his face in the dark.
Takumi froze at the sight awaiting him; the trench lead down the slope and into a clearing, where it ended. In this clearing in particular was what shocked him, laying limply in the upturned soil and grass, streaked with mud and scarlet splatters, was... a person. At first, he couldn't tell if they were even alive, and instantly he lowered his bow and hurried down the incline. As he approached and got a better look at them, he realized they were alive, thank the Gods. He was naked, laying on his side and curled slightly inward, his face pressed into the ground. His breathing was heavy and labored, his body twitching occasionally.
There was a deep, ghastly wound in his side, between his ribs. He could barely see it, the lesion nearly covered by his pale, almost skeletal hand, which was clenched over it, his nails digging into ghostly white flesh.
Takumi slung his bow over his shoulder and knelt beside him, ever so timidly resting a hand on his shoulder. The boy tensed under his touch. "What happened to you? Can you hear me?!" He didn't shake him, for fear of injuring him further, but his hand clamped down on his shoulder unintentionally as he spoke.
At first, there was no response but ragged breathing. Then, painfully slow, he turned his head, mussed blond curls falling over his face as they looked at him with dark, half lidded eyes, which widened momentarily as his seemed to take in his face, recognition passing over his features before he squinted again, grunting in pain. He could see the blood smeared over his chest, and quickly he untied the fur wrapped around his waist.
"Oh Gods, hold on, just hold on a second longer," He sputtered, holding him up with one arm and hurrying to re-wrap the fur around the boy's torso with the other, staunching his bleeding as he secured the knot. "I've got you, okay? I'm gonna pick you up now, you're gonna be alright. Can you still hear me?"
Blood immediately formed a stain in the thick fur. Before long, it would seep all the way through. "...Yes..." The boy whispered, almost too quietly for him to hear.
He slid an arm under the boy's knees and another around his back, lifting him up with a worrying effortlessness. His head lolled back, and he nudged it to rest on his shoulder, both not wanting him to hurt his neck and to try to get his attention. The boy groaned but complied, his head tilting forward and against the crook of his neck now.
"Ugh..." He was nearly completely limp in Takumi's arms. "Who are... you..." His voice was weak as he gasped out his words, jostling in his grip as he hurried back through the thicket. He had to get him to Sakura, and quickly.
"My name is Takumi," He said between breaths, almost lamely. "Don't worry, I'm going to get you help, okay? Just hold on!"
The boy fell silent at that, but he could still feel him breathing, however shallowly.