Headed by a Snake

Revek Rexeris dragged his body across the cavern floor, scraping the rocks with his skeletal ribs... and he stared into the pool of white fish... at his reflection.

Instead of magnificent red scales and powerful curvature of his horns... he saw... the skull of a defeated dragon.

Green flames in the black sockets of his eyes... weathered bone, yellowed by age... marred with cracks from the crushing blows of the Leviathan's heavy limbs. His left horn... sawed off... by men... with naught but evil and greed in their hearts.

Revek Rexeris was no longer fit to call himself a dragon... not even a pathetic excuse for one.

He was... undead... a dracolich. A cursed existence to both men and his kin, alike.

Her ghost stood behind him... her green eyes sparkling in the pool's reflection... still as beauteous as he'd remembered. She... was the greatest treasure he'd ever known.

⊰ Why, then Revek Rexeris... have you not yet moved on? ⊱

Stepping away from the pool, he placed his head down upon the stones and covered his claws over his skull...

"Don't, my love..." He pleaded hoarsely... "Please... it is far too cruel."

⊰ Revek Rexeris... I have loved you for all of my life... and even now... but I remain no longer. You, my love... still live... ⊱

"This... this is not life, Ran Ravell!!" He roared.

The cave shook with his fury... and he stood up, seething... the stone below cracking and groaning underneath his weight.

⊰ Run away, my love... Live the rest of your life in peace. Our kin may not accept you as you are, but you may still hide away... to learn of the ever-changing world... to enjoy the pleasures life still has to offer... ⊱

"I... CAN... not..." Revek Rexeris laid his heavy head on the ground... "I refuse..."

He felt his eyes burn hot with soulfire... yet no tears came... "Not... not without you... my love. I care not for another... not for a mate... not even for a friend..."

⊰ You cannot live the rest of your life, alone. ⊱

"You are wrong, my love," He whispered.

With his death... the Dragon God gave him... sight... beyond sight.

A power... he'd thought was only granted to the descendants of Neerin Neelia... the Sage of the Draconic Court from ancient times.

He dreamed... of his past love... of his present self... a mockery of life...

...He dreamed of future suns... of things that would come to be.

Inevitable things.

The Dragon God... he would soon awaken.

Within the century... perhaps in epochs... perhaps in one.

Revek Rexeris... he needed not act in haste.

His... vengeance... still burned...

The longer... he slept... the stronger he'd become. The more that came to his island of death and forgotten memories... the greater his power would grow.

All he needed to do... was bide his time.

"I... was once... a great... and mighty dragon," He lamented...

"So still... I know... how to wait. So... here... I lie... until the roar of the Dragon God bid me wake..."

And when that sun came... and he, Revek Rexeris... would finally achieve his revenge.

Only then... would he choose to rest.

A torch lit ablaze in the darkness... and he winced, covering his eyes with his skeletal claws, out of reflex.

"Who... dares... trespass..."

"Cool story, Bro. Tell it again."

A man... a human male... he carried a feeble branch, the acrid reek of cloth and oil filling his cave.

Though his sense of smell had decayed long ago... he could sense his pathetic mana... one with the shadows.

Cunning. Guile. Only by subterfuge could a human prowl so close, undetected.

Shadow mana or not... the man... he was... just like them. The men... and women... that belonged to Guillaume De la Croix.

Sailors... and their cutlasses... their white sleeves... and the light touch of water mana...

Revek Rexeris' cold, unbeaten heart brimmed with rage... of fire... and destruction.

He stood... towering over the mortal creature. Greater. Above. Still as he was... he was nothing like them.

"You... tarnish... my cave... with your presence..."

"Whoa, you're pretty heavy there, guy," The human quipped. "Wouldn't think of it, since you're all skin and bones. Been eating too much?"

"I consume the SOULS OF THE DAAAAMNED!!!" Revek Rexeris roared. "Your PEOPLE!!! Your KINNN!!! My power grows every moment of every sun, until I am called to END YOU ALLLLLLL!!!!!!!!"

He slammed his right claw adjacent to the man.

He demanded... obeisance. He demanded... fear.

He wanted... the human to piss himself... to cry out... to beg for mercy.

And what he'd find then... would be slow... and painful torture... his limbs... torn from his body...

Like... like his love... lost her wings.

Like him... his horn...

Revek Rexeris' dreams. His life... all were taken from him.

The human would suffer THE SAME!

"BOWWW DOWNNN IN FEARRR!" He bellowed.

"Whew," The sailor waved his hand in front of his face, "s'that what the stories call dragon breath? I've laid with whores with worse... and more'n one at a time."

"You... MOCK ME?!?!?"

"I was sorta... expecting you to look different," The human shook his head. "Say, are you a boy lizard skeleton or a girl lizard skeleton? Y'see, if you're a girl lizard--"

"Before you, stands A DRRRRRAGONN!!!!!" Revek Rexeris slammed a heavy fist against the wall.

When the rumbling slowed and stopped...

The cave was filled... with laughter?

"Haha ha! Hahahaa!"

The squeaking noise was... unpleasant... disgusting to the senses. The sound was as... the creature was choking on his own saliva.

"That's funny," The man scoffed. "Dragons don't exist."

One human.

Not an army.

Not a Beast Contractor with a Leviathan in tow.

It was... a single... fat... and ugly human male.

Some dragons... they sought... to speak with that which interested them... to learn... like his mate once loved to do.

But not Revek Rexeris.

He had nothing... but hate... contempt... unwillingness to bear the sight of the vile creatures.

He reared his head back... gathering all that he commanded... of death... of pain... and suffering... and ever... flowing... HATRED.

And he breathed.

Vicious... green flames... that turned his piles of trash to dust... that melted the stone... that turned the shadow man in front of him to nothing but a memory...

...and of mocking laughter he'd hear in his nightmares... forevermore.

The man... he did not even scream.