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Welcome to the world of the divide! It takes place in a parallel universe of our own, where the Eurasian continent is separated by a fence that marks the border between human civilization and vast uncharted lands. Not a single person who ventured there has ever returned. In this universe the divide is a cause of strong social and political issues. In the story we follow a university student who gets to experience them first-hand and, as a result, becomes the first person in history to uncover the truth about the world beyond the divide. This student finds out that humanity lived parallel to an evil dragon society for many centuries and teams up with two of them to save the world.
I have to admit, I never really read any books or watch any films or series. I am not sure if topics, events, names or characters have occurred in any other fictional world, but in this world they are all the result of my own imagination. I am also quite an unexperienced writer and English is not my native language, so if you have any feedback on that it is always appreciated. The entire story will stay SFW, but with a few swearwords and a little bit of mild violence.
Link to chapters:
Prologue - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44696663/
Chapter 1 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44696814/
Chapter 2 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44696915/
Chapter 3 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44696989/
Chapter 4 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44716958/
Chapter 5 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44760319/
Chapter 6 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44839669/
Chapter 7 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44927717/
Chapter 8 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44941237/
Chapter 9 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44998449/
Chapter 10 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45015943/
Chapter 11 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45027925/
Chapter 12 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45073316/
Chapter 13 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45169699/
Chapter 14 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45199701/
Chapter 15 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45219588/
Chapter 16 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45321654/
Chapter 17 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45358876/
Chapter 18 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45390378/
Chapter 19 - you are here
Chapter 20 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45494588/
Epilogue - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45509586/
For some reason the website could not generate a text preview so here it is as well, so you don't have to download the file:
"It looks like we are here!" sergeant Shostakovich called as someone in the cabin of the truck knocked on the back wall right after we stopped.
It was nearly half an hour after we crossed the final checkpoint. The first fifteen minutes consisted of driving on the desolate highway that directed straight towards the city centre. As soon as we reached the city limits the convoy took the first exit off the highway and proceeded to drive over a smaller road during the next ten minutes before taking a turn and driving the final distance to the depot.
During the whole trip Zera appeared to be increasingly anxious. She already told me that that wasn't because there were any other dragons in the area at that time. Khivven confirmed that as he said that he didn't feel other dragons close by either.
"Do you still think that you are ready for it?" I asked Zera while the other soldiers passed her in order to get out of the truck.
"Don't worry about it" she assured me. "I just wish that it will be over sooner rather than later. Then we can finally be together under normal circumstances. No king. No conflict. No worries. Just us."
"I promise you, if we make it back safely and the king is defeated I will get us to a beach far away from here as soon as I can."
"A beach, huh" the dragon remarked. "Why would you want to go there?"
"You don't like beaches?" I asked surprised. "That must be impossible, they have something to offer for everyone."
"Well, I don't know" the dragon thought. "I have never been to a beach."
"You know what, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner you will find out" I told her to get her excited for it.
"Are you bargaining me?" Zera asked confused.
"Come on, the others are waiting for us" I said as I jumped out of the truck, being glad that I managed to distract her at least a bit.
When I set my foot on the ground the first thing I noticed was that a layer of clouds was slowly driving the sunny weather away. As I heard the engine of the other truck disappear in the distance I started to feel how desolate the premises of the depot actually were.
I had an excursion close to the depot two weeks before. Back then it was already an unwelcoming place to be. Maintenance of the road and fences seemed to be non-existent. The main difference between then and now was the absence of noise from cars speeding over the cracked asphalt.
The air was almost completely silent when I was there for the second time. There was only the sound of the rising wind rustling through the leaves of the trees and the cawing noise that the crows made. There was the chatter from the Russish soldiers as well, of course.
As I made my way around the truck I saw that most soldiers were gathered around a metal gate that was shut tight by a strong chain lock. One of the soldiers made her way to me and signed that I should move to the side. It turned out that I was standing right in front of a storage box that was attached to the side of the truck.
The soldier opened a box and obtained a large tool from it. As she passed me while she walked back to the others I saw that the tool was a powered chain cutter.
The sergeant stood among the other soldiers in the group and pushed one of his men forward, forcing him to help the other soldier with the removal of the chain.
"I bet that you dragons would also need a tool to break that lock" I said to Zera, noticing that she suddenly stood by my side and also observed the process.
"You realise that we can fly over the fence, right?" she said as she looked at me.
"But of course you can" I said in myself, feeling slightly grumpy because of the fact that Zera found another solution to circumvent my argument.
The two soldiers cutting the chain caught our attention again as they were screaming so they could force as much of their strength on the tool as possible. Finally, the chain broke in half and some of the surrounding soldiers started cheering while others opened the gate.
Following the others, I stepped over the cutter and the broken chain that they left on the ground as I made my way through the gate. When I briefly looked back at the truck I saw that the soldiers who followed us in the armoured vehicle remained where they were. The sergeant probably ordered them to stay behind and guard the vehicles in case we had to use them to escape.
Turning my head back forward and passing the gatehouse of the premises of the depot, I could hardly fathom the size of the main building. Metro depots were among the biggest buildings in cities by footprint. That was especially the case in cities like Nokiv, which had extensive public transport networks with many lines and a highly frequent service. A lot of space was required to house all the trains that were needed fulfilled these standards.
As soon as the team reached the service entrance at the back of the building they found out that the door was conveniently left unlocked. I wanted to follow the others as they made their way inside, but the sergeant halted me. He started pressing some buttons and turning a knob on the radio box that I was carrying. It started to make some static noise at first, but it quickly changed into audible sounds.
Shostakovich tried to speak into the microphone that was attached to the radio. After a few attempts a voice on the other side of the connection started to speak in Rusish. The sergeant appeared relieved by hearing that and placed the microphone back in the holder before hitting me on my back.
"Let's go inside and find us a train" he said. "Someone from the other team told me over the radio that they just reached the substation. Stick close to me so I can reply as soon as they give us further updates."
Once inside the depot appeared even bigger than it did from the outside. A seemingly endless row of trains filled the entire space, together with all the equipment that was needed to maintain them.
All of the trains in the depot were still of the same old type that has been operating ever since the line has been constructed. They have been constantly maintained to keep them running as long as possible, but eventually they would reach the end of their lifetime. A lot of money was required to replace the old trains. In order to afford it, the transport company had to do it line by line over the stretch of many years. It meant that the current trains what we were passing still had to keep up for a bit longer.
The offices were located halfway on the back of the building. As soon as we reached them Vladimir ordered two of his men to head up the stairs and find the first best keys that they could find that belonged to one of the trains. It didn't take long for them to open a window on the top floor and scream a number down to us. Because it consisted of four digits I instantly knew that it had to belong to one of the trains. I previously noticed that big silver numbers were glued on each separate car.
Some soldiers already headed out in both directions to find the correct train. Only a few seconds later one of them already screamed something in our direction from where he stood, a little further down the building.
"They found it" the sergeant said to me as he started to make his way in their direction.
By the time that we reached the other soldiers they had already forced one of the doors open. Vladimir said something in his own language to one of them, whereafter he received a nod and pointed his attention to me.
"The doors on the other side of the building are automatic, but we should be able to get them open by hand" he told me.
"But what about the electricity?" I wondered. "We can just open it as soon as the power is restored, right?"
"The substation only works for the power of the tracks" the sergeant said.
"In that case, nothing held us back so far" I said optimistic. "We have two strong dragons with us. It should be a piece of cake."
"That's right" he agreed as we followed the concrete floor that was laid between two tracks to the other side of the building. As soon as we reached the front of the train I could see that handles were conveniently attached to both halves of the door.
With the absence of electricity there was no pressure to keep the doors shut anymore, so I thought that it should have been easier to pull them open. I approached one of the two heavy doors and held tight to the handle as Vladimir did so for the other one. It took us a lot of effort, but very slowly we managed to pull the massive gate open.
The dragons recognised that we were struggling and decided to come to the rescue. Khivven folded his claws around the edge of the door on my side and started pulling it while Zera did it on the sergeant's side. It even took the dragons a lot of effort as well, but with their help we managed to open the triple folding door in a matter of seconds.
Right before we fully opened the doors a voice started talking over the radio that I was carrying. Shostakovich released the handle and rushed over to me, picking up the microphone on the radio and blasting his voice through it.
As soon as the person on the opposite side of the line replied the sergeant placed back the microphone and screamed a phrase at the other soldiers who were boarding the train.
"The other team is about to restore power to the tracks" he quickly said to me. "You have to stand clear from the third rail now. It can deliver a deadly voltage if you touch it on the wrong part."
"The same goes for you" Vladimir said after turning to the dragons and pointing at the powered rail. "Don't touch that yellow beam from now on."
"Yes sir" Khivven complied.
"This means that we are almost set to go" the sergeant said as he looked back at me. "The only thing that is left to do is to check if the switches are in the right direction and flip them if necessary. With the control room out of electricity someone has to do it manually."
"Sure, I can do it" I offered without hesitation.
"Are you sure?" Vladimir asked. "Do you even know how it works?"
A woman aboard the train whistled at the sergeant. She leaned through the door that was situated on the front side of the train and held a stake in front of her.
"I have read that they keep those things in the driver's cabins in case a switch ever fails" I mentioned as I took the tool from the soldier. "I just have to insert it in the lock and pull it to the other side."
"Sounds about right" Vladimir said before he detached the radio from my armour. "Let me at least take this from you then. We shall already board the train and prepare it to leave."
I raised my hand before turning around and making my way down the tracks to reach the first switch. By the time that I arrived I realized that I had no idea how the tracks were laid out before they entered the tunnel. I only knew that the metro in Kyiv was running on the right side of the tunnel, so it made sense to set all switches in that direction.
The first switch turned out to be in the right direction already. Walking further, I recognised that it was the case for the second switch as well. When I arrived at the third one I noticed that it was pointed to the left. At the end of the switch there was a small box attached to the tracks. It contained an opening on top that was the perfect size for the end of the stake that I was holding.
I inserted the stake in the box and moved it around until I heard a clicking sound. I had to put a lot of force to flip the switch to the other side. Looking back at the tracks, I saw that they were now pointing in the right direction. Therefore, I removed the stake and continued to follow the tracks to the next one.
As I approached the following switch I heard that wheels were clenching against the tracks in the distance. The sound vibrated along the entire length of the tracks, into the tunnel. I turned my head around and, to my surprise, saw that the train was already slowly exiting the depot. I thought that they would wait for me!
I directed my focus back on the tracks ahead and started running towards the next switch. Fortunately, I saw that it was pointed in the right direction already. As I heard the loud mechanical motor of the metro coming closer I had to sprint the final distance to the last switch before the tunnel. I felt the adrenaline rush through my body when I saw that it was not in the right position.
As soon as I reached the switchbox I smashed the stake in the opening and forced it sideways to connect it to the mechanism. Again it took me a lot of effort to flip it over, but it was right in time before the first carriage slowly reached the switch. I quickly removed the stake and stepped closer to the tracks.
Zera was leaning out of one of the open doors on the first carriage, waiting for me to reach her and pull me in. I had to run to catch up with the moving train. As the door reached me I held the stake to my side so someone could take it over from me. It was the sergeant who swiftly leaned out and grabbed it before I jumped at the door as Zera grasped for my arm and pulled me inside, right before the metro entered the narrow tunnel.
"That was a close call" I said as I took my breath. "Couldn't you have waited a little longer?"
"Time is of the essence, remember?" sergeant Shostakovich said while he walked backwards to the the driver's cabin. "This way you didn't have to walk all the way back to the depot."
"I appreciate that, but you could have given me a few more seconds to flip the final switch" I mentioned while I followed Vladimir to the front of the train.
"Sorry!" I heard a feminine voice call from the driver's cabin. "It was my fault."
Vladimir made his way through the doorway and placed the stake back in it's designated spot. I followed him into the cabin and saw that it was the woman who passed me the stake earlier who was driving the metro.
"I have never controlled a train before" she said with a flawed accent as she briefly looked at me.
"Yulia here used to be an engineer for the national railroad" the sergeant explained. "She is the only one who has at least a little bit of experience with trains."
"No offense, but it is really assuring to know that someone with no driving experience is the one in control of this train now" I said to the sergeant.
"It is not too difficult" Yulia answered me. "I just have to get the hang of it. I already managed to accelerate, now I only need to find out how to stop. The first station is coming up quickly, I will prove that I can do it when we are there."
I peered through the front window into the tunnel ahead. With the lighting in the tunnel not working it was completely dark around us. The headlights of the metro weren't able to illuminate the tracks and tunnel far ahead of us. For that reason, the tunnel tube unexpectedly ended and made way for a dark open space that was the station. Yulia started to pull the lever that controlled the speed of the train down.
The mechanism turned out to be much more sensitive than the former engineer expected. The metro started to falter and quickly came to a full stop at a spot from which the end of the station couldn't even be seen. The sudden braking effect caused both the sergeant and me to lose our balance in the cabin.
A second after the train stood still a soldier in another carriage screamed in our direction. Vladimir noticed that there was a microphone built into the control panel of the train and activated it before saying something to the passengers.
"At least you know how to brake" the sergeant said to Yulia after he delivered his message. "It would even be possible for us to get out at the station... partially."
"You see, nothing to worry about" Yulia told us as she shifted the handle to accelerate the metro again.
"We will notify you when we think that we should get out" I told her as I wanted to take a step backward through the doorway that led to the rest of the train. I was surprised when something sharp suddenly pressed the back of my neck.
I turned around swiftly, only to see that it was Khivven who peeked with his head through the doorway into the cabin. Apparently his pointed nose was right behind me without me noticing it, causing me to accidentally bump right into it. Seeing him there like that made me laugh a little. The big dragon had just the right size to fit inside the metro. There was zero chance that he would have been able to fit through the small doorway that allowed access to the driver's cabin.
"Everything still okay here?" he asked.
"No need to worry" I replied before the dragon pulled back his head, probably recognising that I wanted to get out. "Our driver here was just trying to master the controls. All should be fine from now on."
"Thank you for letting me know" Khivven said while following me with his head as I walked through the door and stepped around him. "I was already afraid that we ran into some sort of trouble."
"If it were caused by any of the other dragons you would have sensed that they were close, right?" I noted after grabbing the rod that was situated above the chairs to use as a support in the shaking metro. "We rely on you and Zera to warn us for them."
"Yes yes" the dragon spoke in quick succession. "We don't have to fear about them for now. I thought that the tunnel may have collapsed ahead of us. It didn't look so strong to be honest."
"Why not?" I wondered. "The tunnels are made in a way that they optimally support the mass of earth that weighs on top of them."
"The part that we just passed didn't look like it could" he remarked. "What was that even? It reminds me of our own cities."
"Oh, you are talking about the station?" I said, now realising what he meant. "Open spaces like that are used for passengers to enter and exit the trains. We use these underground systems to travel across the whole city. It is very efficient. I'm sure that you would like it for that reason."
Khivven didn't reply for the moment. He appeared to see something through the window behind me. He stepped closer to take a better look.
"I still don't get how a space like this doesn't collapse" he mentioned as he stared into the darkness.
I forgot that his eyesight was much better adapted to low-light conditions than that of humans, until he said the latter. This way I could deduce that we passed the following station.
Now I recalled that I did take the metro to the last stop of the line for the excursion near the depot. From what I remembered, the last few stations of the line were the shallowest in the whole system and for that reason they were dug out from the surface, unlike the others. That must have been the reason why the supporting structure of the stations appeared unnatural to him.
"To be honest, I don't even know it myself" I said to the dragon. "The builders must have used a lot of concrete."
"Concrete?" he asked curiously.
"Humanity's favourite building material" I clarified. "Cheap and strong, which is just the way that investors like to see it. If you are interested, I can show it to you when this is all over."
"Your world is so complicated" Khivven said after pulling back his head from the window and sitting down, now that the station has already passed. "I want to understand all of it but I fear that I will never be able to."
"A strong motivation to do so is already a great start" I assured him. "Just give it some time and who knows how far you will come."
I took a deep breath before looking to my left and seeing Zera sitting by one of the doors. I made my way over to her and sat down on the bench that was next to the door that she was sitting by.
The dragon appeared somewhat dejected. From what she told me previously I knew that she would have a hard time the closer we got to the king. The best that I could do for her at the time was simply to be there for her and hopefully work as some sort of distraction. I wanted to hold her claw but she refused to give it to me.
Zera kept staring into the darkness of the tunnel through the window of the door behind me as the metro came closer to the city centre of Kyiv. I couldn't tell if she focussed on the passing structure of the tunnel walls and the stations that we drove through. Maybe she wasn't focussing at all, because I could see that she didn't move her eyes or her head. Maybe she was just looking at her own reflection on the window. I decided to leave her be. It felt like the best to do since she wasn't herself. I was there for her if she needed, but she didn't seem to desire it at that time.
"He is here" Zera suddenly said after some ten minutes of remaining silent and passing a dozen stations.
"Okay then" I nodded at her. "I will tell the driver to stop at the next station."
I got up from the bench that I was sitting on and passed Khivven as I made my way to the cabin. The sergeant was still there and talking with the driver in their own language. Both of them turned around as soon as they noticed my presence in the doorway.
"Did we reach the king?" Vladimir asked me, apparently recognising that that was the reason why I was there.
"Yes" I confirmed. "We have to get out at the next station, whichever that may be."
"We have no idea" the sergeant said as he peered down the dark depths of the tunnel. "There are no guidance systems on these old trains so we will find out as soon as we reach..."
Right as he said that Vladimir didn't finish his sentence because he saw that the tunnel ended and made way to the open space that was the station.
"Brake!" he called to the driver.
"Yeah yeah, I got it" Yulia answered while she pulled back the handle much slower this time. "I have eyes myself, you know."
Now the braking process was much more gentle. The closer that we came to the end of the station, the more apparent it became that the train was driving too fast. As we were about to overshoot the station, Yulia pulled back the handle as far as she could and initiated a swift final brake, stopping the train right before the entrance to the tunnel.
Yulia grabbed the microphone and spoke a sentence into it before pressing the button to open the doors. What she said sounded awfully familiar. It took me a second to remember that the automatic announcement system of the metro broadcasts the same sentence when the train stops at a terminus station.
"This is it" Vladimir said as he flipped the night vision goggles on his helmet over his eyes and activated them. "Our future will be defined when we reach the surface."
I walked back into the passenger compartment and picked up the radio box before attaching it to my armour. When I looked in the direction of the back of the train I saw that the other dozen soldiers whom were present already activated their night vision as well and loaded their weapons right before exiting the train.
I did the same as the others and flipped my own goggles over my eyes. After activating them my whole vision was covered by the typical green haze. Since the lights inside the metro were activated the whole carriage appeared nearly as bright as the sun. It was the moment that I stepped through the doors into the station that my vision adjusted and allowed me to see the space around me.
Looking up at the sign at the centre of the platform, I could vaguely determine the name of the station. 'Ploshad Konstitutsii' it read in Cyrillic. 'Square of the Constitution' was what I remembered that the announcement system in the metro translated it to. It was the biggest station of all. Five of the eight metro lines converged on this point, which amplified that it was the absolute heart of the city.
"You are absolutely certain that the king is up here?" I heard sergeant Shostakovich ask Zera.
"He has to be" she answered. "I can feel his aura flowing through my senses now stronger than ever."
"It doesn't make any sense" Vladimir pondered. "The exit of this station is right in the middle of the biggest open square of the whole city! Your king has no reason to expose himself there in the open air."
"I can only be sure if we go up to the surface" Zera said.
"It is too much of a risk to enter the surface here" the sergeant warned. "The way that the square is constructed would cause us to be exposed on all sides. It is perfect for an ambush."
Vladimir approached a map of the transit network and carefully studied it. The map was attached to one of the many pillars that were in place to support the mass of rock that rested on top.
"The closest station to here lies in front of the old parliament building" he noted before looking at the two dragons. "Do you think that this is where he could have gone?"
"If that is the place where he thinks that he can find your leaders, then you may be right" Khivven replied.
"It is the most remarkable building in the whole city" Vladimir pointed out. "If the king isn't at the square, he must be there."
The sergeant whistled in the direction of the other soldiers and shouted something to them before turning around and making his way towards the escalators.
"Yulia is not coming with us?" I noted to him as we started to climb up the seemingly endless set of stairs.
"I ordered her to stay behind and keep the train running in case we have to vacate quickly" he responded.
Two minutes passed before we reached the top of the escalator. The stations in the centre of Nokiv were among the deepest in the world. Once we arrived at the end we were greeted by a big open space that connected to the hall with the ticket barriers and two other lines. One of them was line one, which we had to take to reach the parliament station.
The escalators that descended to the platform of line one weren't as long as the ones that allowed access to line that we came from. As soon as we reached the bottom we had to jump down on the tracks that were on our left side.
Walking through the tunnel gave me a sinister feeling. It appeared much bigger while being there on track level than on platform level. From what I could see, the walls of the shaft appeared old and rusty. I tried to focus down the length of the tunnel, which was completely straight on this section. Still, I was unable to see the next station.
Roughly a minute after we left the previous station the team was caught completely off-guard by a loud roaring sound echoing through the tunnel from the far distance. My heartbeat started to rise and I was fully focussed within a second.
"They may know that we are here" I head Khivven say, who was staring straight ahead of him into the dark depths of the tunnel.
"How could that be even possible?" one of the soldiers wondered.
"You humans have a typical smell, remember?" the dragon reminded him as he continued to stare forward.
"Let's not wait here any longer then" Vladimir said before proceeding to move forward.
The further that we walked through the tunnel, the more I started to notice how Zera picked up the pace. It indicated how she sensed that we were getting closer and closer to the king. As I started to chase after her, the others did so as well.
By the time that we reached the next station, Zera already jumped on the platform. It was rather high, forcing me and the soldiers to climb on the third rail in order to reach it. The dragon briefly stood still and looked after us as we did so.
"I sense the king stronger than ever now!" she called with a tone that I recognised as a mixture of excitement and anger. "He is up here. It has to be!"
Zera started to rush up the escalator before half of the team even made it over the edge the platform. I sprinted after her up the stairs with Khivven and the sergeant the closest behind me.
As soon as we reached the end of the escalator we already lost Zera. After jumping over the ticket barriers I found myself in a long underground passage that extended to two directions. There was light on both ends, making it impossible to see where the dragon went. Flipping back my goggles allowed me to see the silhouette of the dragon in front of the light that came from one of the exits.
"Zera, wait!" I screamed at her while sprinting in her direction as she wanted to run around the corner.
The self-compelled dragon halted and looked back one final time.
"I have to do this!" she shouted back.
"You are putting everything at stake here!" Vladimir shouted.
"You will never be able to defeat the king!" I screamed as we ran closer to her. "He can easily defeat you and escape! Then we will never be able to find him again! Everything will be lost!"
"You have seen him with your own eyes!" Zera shouted back to me. "He is old and weak!"
Vladimir made a faster sprint and swiftly reached for my shoulder to slow me down.
"We know what to target now!" he shouted to me when we almost reached the dragon. "Call the colonel before it is too late!"
Don't come after me!" I heard Zera scream. "I don't want you to risk your life for nothing!"
"Don't do it!" Khivven yelled at her as a final attempt to change her mind.
It was too late. Zera disappeared behind the corner and up the stairs to the surface. I knew that the jets needed some time to reach Kyiv. It was too late for us to go after the dragon. It was now up to her to find the king and deliver him the justice that she desired before making it out of the building, if she would succeed at all.
I desperately switched on the radio that I was carrying and picked up the microphone that was attached to it.
"Hello, is anyone there!?" I called through it.
The only sound that came through the speaker was a static noise.
"We are still too deep underground!" the sergeant shouted at me. "Try it again at the exit!"
As soon as we reached the end of the underground passage I did as he told. I screamed at the microphone that I was holding and this time a more audible sound blasted through the speaker.
"This is command, we hear you" the voice said calmly.
"The king is in the parliament building!" I screamed at the device. "That is what you need to target! It is possible that he is going to escape! You need to send everything that you can to stop him if that happens!"
"Got it" the voice said. "ETA is ten minutes."
"I hope that she can make it out in time" Khivven said as the three of us had to catch our breath while walking up the final steps.
The former parliament building was already dominating the view in front of the cloudy sky before we even reached the surface. It was an absolutely massive building that was the pinnacle of the socialist architecture from the sixties. It stood at the end of a long and broad avenue that stretched all the way back to the Square of the Constitution and beyond.
As soon as my head stuck out above the surface, I saw that Zera was flying to the building and even almost reached it. Right at that moment a vague shadow passed right over our heads. Looking up, it appeared to belong to a vicious dragon that looked awfully similar to a hunter. He was approaching Zera and rapidly caught up with her before she was able to make it to the parliament building.
Zera noticed the presence of the large dragon when he was only a few meters away from her. She seemed totally surprised when he reached out for the smaller dragon with his big claws and crashed right into her, taking her down to the ground.
Zera was a stubborn one. From what I could see the much bigger dragon struggled to keep her restrained. A similar big dragon emerged through the large entrance of the parliament building to aid his congener in taking her back inside. For the second time in only two days I thought that I would lose Zera forever.
I have to admit, I never really read any books or watch any films or series. I am not sure if topics, events, names or characters have occurred in any other fictional world, but in this world they are all the result of my own imagination. I am also quite an unexperienced writer and English is not my native language, so if you have any feedback on that it is always appreciated. The entire story will stay SFW, but with a few swearwords and a little bit of mild violence.
Link to chapters:
Prologue - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44696663/
Chapter 1 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44696814/
Chapter 2 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44696915/
Chapter 3 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44696989/
Chapter 4 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44716958/
Chapter 5 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44760319/
Chapter 6 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44839669/
Chapter 7 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44927717/
Chapter 8 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44941237/
Chapter 9 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44998449/
Chapter 10 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45015943/
Chapter 11 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45027925/
Chapter 12 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45073316/
Chapter 13 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45169699/
Chapter 14 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45199701/
Chapter 15 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45219588/
Chapter 16 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45321654/
Chapter 17 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45358876/
Chapter 18 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45390378/
Chapter 19 - you are here
Chapter 20 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45494588/
Epilogue - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45509586/
For some reason the website could not generate a text preview so here it is as well, so you don't have to download the file:
Chapter 19
"It looks like we are here!" sergeant Shostakovich called as someone in the cabin of the truck knocked on the back wall right after we stopped.
It was nearly half an hour after we crossed the final checkpoint. The first fifteen minutes consisted of driving on the desolate highway that directed straight towards the city centre. As soon as we reached the city limits the convoy took the first exit off the highway and proceeded to drive over a smaller road during the next ten minutes before taking a turn and driving the final distance to the depot.
During the whole trip Zera appeared to be increasingly anxious. She already told me that that wasn't because there were any other dragons in the area at that time. Khivven confirmed that as he said that he didn't feel other dragons close by either.
"Do you still think that you are ready for it?" I asked Zera while the other soldiers passed her in order to get out of the truck.
"Don't worry about it" she assured me. "I just wish that it will be over sooner rather than later. Then we can finally be together under normal circumstances. No king. No conflict. No worries. Just us."
"I promise you, if we make it back safely and the king is defeated I will get us to a beach far away from here as soon as I can."
"A beach, huh" the dragon remarked. "Why would you want to go there?"
"You don't like beaches?" I asked surprised. "That must be impossible, they have something to offer for everyone."
"Well, I don't know" the dragon thought. "I have never been to a beach."
"You know what, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner you will find out" I told her to get her excited for it.
"Are you bargaining me?" Zera asked confused.
"Come on, the others are waiting for us" I said as I jumped out of the truck, being glad that I managed to distract her at least a bit.
When I set my foot on the ground the first thing I noticed was that a layer of clouds was slowly driving the sunny weather away. As I heard the engine of the other truck disappear in the distance I started to feel how desolate the premises of the depot actually were.
I had an excursion close to the depot two weeks before. Back then it was already an unwelcoming place to be. Maintenance of the road and fences seemed to be non-existent. The main difference between then and now was the absence of noise from cars speeding over the cracked asphalt.
The air was almost completely silent when I was there for the second time. There was only the sound of the rising wind rustling through the leaves of the trees and the cawing noise that the crows made. There was the chatter from the Russish soldiers as well, of course.
As I made my way around the truck I saw that most soldiers were gathered around a metal gate that was shut tight by a strong chain lock. One of the soldiers made her way to me and signed that I should move to the side. It turned out that I was standing right in front of a storage box that was attached to the side of the truck.
The soldier opened a box and obtained a large tool from it. As she passed me while she walked back to the others I saw that the tool was a powered chain cutter.
The sergeant stood among the other soldiers in the group and pushed one of his men forward, forcing him to help the other soldier with the removal of the chain.
"I bet that you dragons would also need a tool to break that lock" I said to Zera, noticing that she suddenly stood by my side and also observed the process.
"You realise that we can fly over the fence, right?" she said as she looked at me.
"But of course you can" I said in myself, feeling slightly grumpy because of the fact that Zera found another solution to circumvent my argument.
The two soldiers cutting the chain caught our attention again as they were screaming so they could force as much of their strength on the tool as possible. Finally, the chain broke in half and some of the surrounding soldiers started cheering while others opened the gate.
Following the others, I stepped over the cutter and the broken chain that they left on the ground as I made my way through the gate. When I briefly looked back at the truck I saw that the soldiers who followed us in the armoured vehicle remained where they were. The sergeant probably ordered them to stay behind and guard the vehicles in case we had to use them to escape.
Turning my head back forward and passing the gatehouse of the premises of the depot, I could hardly fathom the size of the main building. Metro depots were among the biggest buildings in cities by footprint. That was especially the case in cities like Nokiv, which had extensive public transport networks with many lines and a highly frequent service. A lot of space was required to house all the trains that were needed fulfilled these standards.
As soon as the team reached the service entrance at the back of the building they found out that the door was conveniently left unlocked. I wanted to follow the others as they made their way inside, but the sergeant halted me. He started pressing some buttons and turning a knob on the radio box that I was carrying. It started to make some static noise at first, but it quickly changed into audible sounds.
Shostakovich tried to speak into the microphone that was attached to the radio. After a few attempts a voice on the other side of the connection started to speak in Rusish. The sergeant appeared relieved by hearing that and placed the microphone back in the holder before hitting me on my back.
"Let's go inside and find us a train" he said. "Someone from the other team told me over the radio that they just reached the substation. Stick close to me so I can reply as soon as they give us further updates."
Once inside the depot appeared even bigger than it did from the outside. A seemingly endless row of trains filled the entire space, together with all the equipment that was needed to maintain them.
All of the trains in the depot were still of the same old type that has been operating ever since the line has been constructed. They have been constantly maintained to keep them running as long as possible, but eventually they would reach the end of their lifetime. A lot of money was required to replace the old trains. In order to afford it, the transport company had to do it line by line over the stretch of many years. It meant that the current trains what we were passing still had to keep up for a bit longer.
The offices were located halfway on the back of the building. As soon as we reached them Vladimir ordered two of his men to head up the stairs and find the first best keys that they could find that belonged to one of the trains. It didn't take long for them to open a window on the top floor and scream a number down to us. Because it consisted of four digits I instantly knew that it had to belong to one of the trains. I previously noticed that big silver numbers were glued on each separate car.
Some soldiers already headed out in both directions to find the correct train. Only a few seconds later one of them already screamed something in our direction from where he stood, a little further down the building.
"They found it" the sergeant said to me as he started to make his way in their direction.
By the time that we reached the other soldiers they had already forced one of the doors open. Vladimir said something in his own language to one of them, whereafter he received a nod and pointed his attention to me.
"The doors on the other side of the building are automatic, but we should be able to get them open by hand" he told me.
"But what about the electricity?" I wondered. "We can just open it as soon as the power is restored, right?"
"The substation only works for the power of the tracks" the sergeant said.
"In that case, nothing held us back so far" I said optimistic. "We have two strong dragons with us. It should be a piece of cake."
"That's right" he agreed as we followed the concrete floor that was laid between two tracks to the other side of the building. As soon as we reached the front of the train I could see that handles were conveniently attached to both halves of the door.
With the absence of electricity there was no pressure to keep the doors shut anymore, so I thought that it should have been easier to pull them open. I approached one of the two heavy doors and held tight to the handle as Vladimir did so for the other one. It took us a lot of effort, but very slowly we managed to pull the massive gate open.
The dragons recognised that we were struggling and decided to come to the rescue. Khivven folded his claws around the edge of the door on my side and started pulling it while Zera did it on the sergeant's side. It even took the dragons a lot of effort as well, but with their help we managed to open the triple folding door in a matter of seconds.
Right before we fully opened the doors a voice started talking over the radio that I was carrying. Shostakovich released the handle and rushed over to me, picking up the microphone on the radio and blasting his voice through it.
As soon as the person on the opposite side of the line replied the sergeant placed back the microphone and screamed a phrase at the other soldiers who were boarding the train.
"The other team is about to restore power to the tracks" he quickly said to me. "You have to stand clear from the third rail now. It can deliver a deadly voltage if you touch it on the wrong part."
"The same goes for you" Vladimir said after turning to the dragons and pointing at the powered rail. "Don't touch that yellow beam from now on."
"Yes sir" Khivven complied.
"This means that we are almost set to go" the sergeant said as he looked back at me. "The only thing that is left to do is to check if the switches are in the right direction and flip them if necessary. With the control room out of electricity someone has to do it manually."
"Sure, I can do it" I offered without hesitation.
"Are you sure?" Vladimir asked. "Do you even know how it works?"
A woman aboard the train whistled at the sergeant. She leaned through the door that was situated on the front side of the train and held a stake in front of her.
"I have read that they keep those things in the driver's cabins in case a switch ever fails" I mentioned as I took the tool from the soldier. "I just have to insert it in the lock and pull it to the other side."
"Sounds about right" Vladimir said before he detached the radio from my armour. "Let me at least take this from you then. We shall already board the train and prepare it to leave."
I raised my hand before turning around and making my way down the tracks to reach the first switch. By the time that I arrived I realized that I had no idea how the tracks were laid out before they entered the tunnel. I only knew that the metro in Kyiv was running on the right side of the tunnel, so it made sense to set all switches in that direction.
The first switch turned out to be in the right direction already. Walking further, I recognised that it was the case for the second switch as well. When I arrived at the third one I noticed that it was pointed to the left. At the end of the switch there was a small box attached to the tracks. It contained an opening on top that was the perfect size for the end of the stake that I was holding.
I inserted the stake in the box and moved it around until I heard a clicking sound. I had to put a lot of force to flip the switch to the other side. Looking back at the tracks, I saw that they were now pointing in the right direction. Therefore, I removed the stake and continued to follow the tracks to the next one.
As I approached the following switch I heard that wheels were clenching against the tracks in the distance. The sound vibrated along the entire length of the tracks, into the tunnel. I turned my head around and, to my surprise, saw that the train was already slowly exiting the depot. I thought that they would wait for me!
I directed my focus back on the tracks ahead and started running towards the next switch. Fortunately, I saw that it was pointed in the right direction already. As I heard the loud mechanical motor of the metro coming closer I had to sprint the final distance to the last switch before the tunnel. I felt the adrenaline rush through my body when I saw that it was not in the right position.
As soon as I reached the switchbox I smashed the stake in the opening and forced it sideways to connect it to the mechanism. Again it took me a lot of effort to flip it over, but it was right in time before the first carriage slowly reached the switch. I quickly removed the stake and stepped closer to the tracks.
Zera was leaning out of one of the open doors on the first carriage, waiting for me to reach her and pull me in. I had to run to catch up with the moving train. As the door reached me I held the stake to my side so someone could take it over from me. It was the sergeant who swiftly leaned out and grabbed it before I jumped at the door as Zera grasped for my arm and pulled me inside, right before the metro entered the narrow tunnel.
"That was a close call" I said as I took my breath. "Couldn't you have waited a little longer?"
"Time is of the essence, remember?" sergeant Shostakovich said while he walked backwards to the the driver's cabin. "This way you didn't have to walk all the way back to the depot."
"I appreciate that, but you could have given me a few more seconds to flip the final switch" I mentioned while I followed Vladimir to the front of the train.
"Sorry!" I heard a feminine voice call from the driver's cabin. "It was my fault."
Vladimir made his way through the doorway and placed the stake back in it's designated spot. I followed him into the cabin and saw that it was the woman who passed me the stake earlier who was driving the metro.
"I have never controlled a train before" she said with a flawed accent as she briefly looked at me.
"Yulia here used to be an engineer for the national railroad" the sergeant explained. "She is the only one who has at least a little bit of experience with trains."
"No offense, but it is really assuring to know that someone with no driving experience is the one in control of this train now" I said to the sergeant.
"It is not too difficult" Yulia answered me. "I just have to get the hang of it. I already managed to accelerate, now I only need to find out how to stop. The first station is coming up quickly, I will prove that I can do it when we are there."
I peered through the front window into the tunnel ahead. With the lighting in the tunnel not working it was completely dark around us. The headlights of the metro weren't able to illuminate the tracks and tunnel far ahead of us. For that reason, the tunnel tube unexpectedly ended and made way for a dark open space that was the station. Yulia started to pull the lever that controlled the speed of the train down.
The mechanism turned out to be much more sensitive than the former engineer expected. The metro started to falter and quickly came to a full stop at a spot from which the end of the station couldn't even be seen. The sudden braking effect caused both the sergeant and me to lose our balance in the cabin.
A second after the train stood still a soldier in another carriage screamed in our direction. Vladimir noticed that there was a microphone built into the control panel of the train and activated it before saying something to the passengers.
"At least you know how to brake" the sergeant said to Yulia after he delivered his message. "It would even be possible for us to get out at the station... partially."
"You see, nothing to worry about" Yulia told us as she shifted the handle to accelerate the metro again.
"We will notify you when we think that we should get out" I told her as I wanted to take a step backward through the doorway that led to the rest of the train. I was surprised when something sharp suddenly pressed the back of my neck.
I turned around swiftly, only to see that it was Khivven who peeked with his head through the doorway into the cabin. Apparently his pointed nose was right behind me without me noticing it, causing me to accidentally bump right into it. Seeing him there like that made me laugh a little. The big dragon had just the right size to fit inside the metro. There was zero chance that he would have been able to fit through the small doorway that allowed access to the driver's cabin.
"Everything still okay here?" he asked.
"No need to worry" I replied before the dragon pulled back his head, probably recognising that I wanted to get out. "Our driver here was just trying to master the controls. All should be fine from now on."
"Thank you for letting me know" Khivven said while following me with his head as I walked through the door and stepped around him. "I was already afraid that we ran into some sort of trouble."
"If it were caused by any of the other dragons you would have sensed that they were close, right?" I noted after grabbing the rod that was situated above the chairs to use as a support in the shaking metro. "We rely on you and Zera to warn us for them."
"Yes yes" the dragon spoke in quick succession. "We don't have to fear about them for now. I thought that the tunnel may have collapsed ahead of us. It didn't look so strong to be honest."
"Why not?" I wondered. "The tunnels are made in a way that they optimally support the mass of earth that weighs on top of them."
"The part that we just passed didn't look like it could" he remarked. "What was that even? It reminds me of our own cities."
"Oh, you are talking about the station?" I said, now realising what he meant. "Open spaces like that are used for passengers to enter and exit the trains. We use these underground systems to travel across the whole city. It is very efficient. I'm sure that you would like it for that reason."
Khivven didn't reply for the moment. He appeared to see something through the window behind me. He stepped closer to take a better look.
"I still don't get how a space like this doesn't collapse" he mentioned as he stared into the darkness.
I forgot that his eyesight was much better adapted to low-light conditions than that of humans, until he said the latter. This way I could deduce that we passed the following station.
Now I recalled that I did take the metro to the last stop of the line for the excursion near the depot. From what I remembered, the last few stations of the line were the shallowest in the whole system and for that reason they were dug out from the surface, unlike the others. That must have been the reason why the supporting structure of the stations appeared unnatural to him.
"To be honest, I don't even know it myself" I said to the dragon. "The builders must have used a lot of concrete."
"Concrete?" he asked curiously.
"Humanity's favourite building material" I clarified. "Cheap and strong, which is just the way that investors like to see it. If you are interested, I can show it to you when this is all over."
"Your world is so complicated" Khivven said after pulling back his head from the window and sitting down, now that the station has already passed. "I want to understand all of it but I fear that I will never be able to."
"A strong motivation to do so is already a great start" I assured him. "Just give it some time and who knows how far you will come."
I took a deep breath before looking to my left and seeing Zera sitting by one of the doors. I made my way over to her and sat down on the bench that was next to the door that she was sitting by.
The dragon appeared somewhat dejected. From what she told me previously I knew that she would have a hard time the closer we got to the king. The best that I could do for her at the time was simply to be there for her and hopefully work as some sort of distraction. I wanted to hold her claw but she refused to give it to me.
Zera kept staring into the darkness of the tunnel through the window of the door behind me as the metro came closer to the city centre of Kyiv. I couldn't tell if she focussed on the passing structure of the tunnel walls and the stations that we drove through. Maybe she wasn't focussing at all, because I could see that she didn't move her eyes or her head. Maybe she was just looking at her own reflection on the window. I decided to leave her be. It felt like the best to do since she wasn't herself. I was there for her if she needed, but she didn't seem to desire it at that time.
"He is here" Zera suddenly said after some ten minutes of remaining silent and passing a dozen stations.
"Okay then" I nodded at her. "I will tell the driver to stop at the next station."
I got up from the bench that I was sitting on and passed Khivven as I made my way to the cabin. The sergeant was still there and talking with the driver in their own language. Both of them turned around as soon as they noticed my presence in the doorway.
"Did we reach the king?" Vladimir asked me, apparently recognising that that was the reason why I was there.
"Yes" I confirmed. "We have to get out at the next station, whichever that may be."
"We have no idea" the sergeant said as he peered down the dark depths of the tunnel. "There are no guidance systems on these old trains so we will find out as soon as we reach..."
Right as he said that Vladimir didn't finish his sentence because he saw that the tunnel ended and made way to the open space that was the station.
"Brake!" he called to the driver.
"Yeah yeah, I got it" Yulia answered while she pulled back the handle much slower this time. "I have eyes myself, you know."
Now the braking process was much more gentle. The closer that we came to the end of the station, the more apparent it became that the train was driving too fast. As we were about to overshoot the station, Yulia pulled back the handle as far as she could and initiated a swift final brake, stopping the train right before the entrance to the tunnel.
Yulia grabbed the microphone and spoke a sentence into it before pressing the button to open the doors. What she said sounded awfully familiar. It took me a second to remember that the automatic announcement system of the metro broadcasts the same sentence when the train stops at a terminus station.
"This is it" Vladimir said as he flipped the night vision goggles on his helmet over his eyes and activated them. "Our future will be defined when we reach the surface."
I walked back into the passenger compartment and picked up the radio box before attaching it to my armour. When I looked in the direction of the back of the train I saw that the other dozen soldiers whom were present already activated their night vision as well and loaded their weapons right before exiting the train.
I did the same as the others and flipped my own goggles over my eyes. After activating them my whole vision was covered by the typical green haze. Since the lights inside the metro were activated the whole carriage appeared nearly as bright as the sun. It was the moment that I stepped through the doors into the station that my vision adjusted and allowed me to see the space around me.
Looking up at the sign at the centre of the platform, I could vaguely determine the name of the station. 'Ploshad Konstitutsii' it read in Cyrillic. 'Square of the Constitution' was what I remembered that the announcement system in the metro translated it to. It was the biggest station of all. Five of the eight metro lines converged on this point, which amplified that it was the absolute heart of the city.
"You are absolutely certain that the king is up here?" I heard sergeant Shostakovich ask Zera.
"He has to be" she answered. "I can feel his aura flowing through my senses now stronger than ever."
"It doesn't make any sense" Vladimir pondered. "The exit of this station is right in the middle of the biggest open square of the whole city! Your king has no reason to expose himself there in the open air."
"I can only be sure if we go up to the surface" Zera said.
"It is too much of a risk to enter the surface here" the sergeant warned. "The way that the square is constructed would cause us to be exposed on all sides. It is perfect for an ambush."
Vladimir approached a map of the transit network and carefully studied it. The map was attached to one of the many pillars that were in place to support the mass of rock that rested on top.
"The closest station to here lies in front of the old parliament building" he noted before looking at the two dragons. "Do you think that this is where he could have gone?"
"If that is the place where he thinks that he can find your leaders, then you may be right" Khivven replied.
"It is the most remarkable building in the whole city" Vladimir pointed out. "If the king isn't at the square, he must be there."
The sergeant whistled in the direction of the other soldiers and shouted something to them before turning around and making his way towards the escalators.
"Yulia is not coming with us?" I noted to him as we started to climb up the seemingly endless set of stairs.
"I ordered her to stay behind and keep the train running in case we have to vacate quickly" he responded.
Two minutes passed before we reached the top of the escalator. The stations in the centre of Nokiv were among the deepest in the world. Once we arrived at the end we were greeted by a big open space that connected to the hall with the ticket barriers and two other lines. One of them was line one, which we had to take to reach the parliament station.
The escalators that descended to the platform of line one weren't as long as the ones that allowed access to line that we came from. As soon as we reached the bottom we had to jump down on the tracks that were on our left side.
Walking through the tunnel gave me a sinister feeling. It appeared much bigger while being there on track level than on platform level. From what I could see, the walls of the shaft appeared old and rusty. I tried to focus down the length of the tunnel, which was completely straight on this section. Still, I was unable to see the next station.
Roughly a minute after we left the previous station the team was caught completely off-guard by a loud roaring sound echoing through the tunnel from the far distance. My heartbeat started to rise and I was fully focussed within a second.
"They may know that we are here" I head Khivven say, who was staring straight ahead of him into the dark depths of the tunnel.
"How could that be even possible?" one of the soldiers wondered.
"You humans have a typical smell, remember?" the dragon reminded him as he continued to stare forward.
"Let's not wait here any longer then" Vladimir said before proceeding to move forward.
The further that we walked through the tunnel, the more I started to notice how Zera picked up the pace. It indicated how she sensed that we were getting closer and closer to the king. As I started to chase after her, the others did so as well.
By the time that we reached the next station, Zera already jumped on the platform. It was rather high, forcing me and the soldiers to climb on the third rail in order to reach it. The dragon briefly stood still and looked after us as we did so.
"I sense the king stronger than ever now!" she called with a tone that I recognised as a mixture of excitement and anger. "He is up here. It has to be!"
Zera started to rush up the escalator before half of the team even made it over the edge the platform. I sprinted after her up the stairs with Khivven and the sergeant the closest behind me.
As soon as we reached the end of the escalator we already lost Zera. After jumping over the ticket barriers I found myself in a long underground passage that extended to two directions. There was light on both ends, making it impossible to see where the dragon went. Flipping back my goggles allowed me to see the silhouette of the dragon in front of the light that came from one of the exits.
"Zera, wait!" I screamed at her while sprinting in her direction as she wanted to run around the corner.
The self-compelled dragon halted and looked back one final time.
"I have to do this!" she shouted back.
"You are putting everything at stake here!" Vladimir shouted.
"You will never be able to defeat the king!" I screamed as we ran closer to her. "He can easily defeat you and escape! Then we will never be able to find him again! Everything will be lost!"
"You have seen him with your own eyes!" Zera shouted back to me. "He is old and weak!"
Vladimir made a faster sprint and swiftly reached for my shoulder to slow me down.
"We know what to target now!" he shouted to me when we almost reached the dragon. "Call the colonel before it is too late!"
Don't come after me!" I heard Zera scream. "I don't want you to risk your life for nothing!"
"Don't do it!" Khivven yelled at her as a final attempt to change her mind.
It was too late. Zera disappeared behind the corner and up the stairs to the surface. I knew that the jets needed some time to reach Kyiv. It was too late for us to go after the dragon. It was now up to her to find the king and deliver him the justice that she desired before making it out of the building, if she would succeed at all.
I desperately switched on the radio that I was carrying and picked up the microphone that was attached to it.
"Hello, is anyone there!?" I called through it.
The only sound that came through the speaker was a static noise.
"We are still too deep underground!" the sergeant shouted at me. "Try it again at the exit!"
As soon as we reached the end of the underground passage I did as he told. I screamed at the microphone that I was holding and this time a more audible sound blasted through the speaker.
"This is command, we hear you" the voice said calmly.
"The king is in the parliament building!" I screamed at the device. "That is what you need to target! It is possible that he is going to escape! You need to send everything that you can to stop him if that happens!"
"Got it" the voice said. "ETA is ten minutes."
"I hope that she can make it out in time" Khivven said as the three of us had to catch our breath while walking up the final steps.
The former parliament building was already dominating the view in front of the cloudy sky before we even reached the surface. It was an absolutely massive building that was the pinnacle of the socialist architecture from the sixties. It stood at the end of a long and broad avenue that stretched all the way back to the Square of the Constitution and beyond.
As soon as my head stuck out above the surface, I saw that Zera was flying to the building and even almost reached it. Right at that moment a vague shadow passed right over our heads. Looking up, it appeared to belong to a vicious dragon that looked awfully similar to a hunter. He was approaching Zera and rapidly caught up with her before she was able to make it to the parliament building.
Zera noticed the presence of the large dragon when he was only a few meters away from her. She seemed totally surprised when he reached out for the smaller dragon with his big claws and crashed right into her, taking her down to the ground.
Zera was a stubborn one. From what I could see the much bigger dragon struggled to keep her restrained. A similar big dragon emerged through the large entrance of the parliament building to aid his congener in taking her back inside. For the second time in only two days I thought that I would lose Zera forever.
Category Story / All
Species Dragon (Other)
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 31.8 kB
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