Rites of Passage

"So you are a creature of magic too?"

"Yes, but I cannot wield it externally, only carry it and pass it on to the next hunter."

The detective considered this in silence for a while as the car entered the town. He had no family and few friends outside of the force. It might be interesting to live that life for a century or three. "It's a lot to think about. Can I get back to you later?"

The hunter smiled and said, "Of course. You can drop me off anywhere. I will see you in the morgue tomorrow."

"How old are you, anyway?" asked the detective.

"When I lost my name, I lost my past. I could only guess. Let us say that firearms had yet to be invented." he answered as he climbed out of the car.

Arlen had reached the lake by nightfall and immediately walked to the water to take a look. What he saw pleased him beyond his imagining. His suspicions were confirmed. He was becoming a dragon. He laughed with glee as he took in his look from all angles. It appeared that once his wings developed he would be complete. He hoped that it wouldn't take too long. The thought of flight excited him

.

"Hello my mate." the voice of Sep came to her from nearby. He was leaning against Arlen's old pickup and wearing jeans, a tee shirt and boots. Standing on the hood of the truck was Feene. "I trust that your journey was not too difficult."

Arlen rushed over to greet him and they kissed. Arlen had grown somewhat larger during his trip. If Sep's size was any indication, he must now be about the size of a horse. "I missed you my love." Arlen told him as he nuzzled the man's head. "When do I get to see you for who you really are?"

"So, not all of your memories have returned." Sep answered sadly. "I had hoped that they would have by now. This is one aspect of who I am, the person I was when you made me your consort."

"Wait," exclaimed Arlen, "you made me!"

"No my mate, no one could make you. You are Arleniochevasa-an, the mother of all. I only brought you back to your true self. You had been hiding so long that you had forgotten who you were. We were afraid that we had lost you to the humans forever. I still worry that you may not regain the old knowledge that is you."

"I'm so confused. Please hold me."

"Of course my love." replied Sep. "Which form would you prefer?"

"I want to see you as a dragon. I've been feeling pretty lonely these past few days."

"Anything for you." he answered as his form changed. As he was still in practice, his form changed rapidly. First his clothing, or what had appeared to be clothing, blended into his body. Then a black reptilian form emerged to replace the human one, gaining weight as it did so until he was a little larger than Arlen was. He then rubbed his cheek against Arlen's as he placed a foreleg on the base of her neck. She shuddered with pleasure at the touch.

Instinctively Arlen turned her body and raised her tail and watched him in lustful anticipation as his cock emerged from his body. When he mounted her she roared with abandon and quivered in ecstasy as he filled her with his perfectly shaped maleness. Throughout the night they mated repeatedly until neither wanted more. They then lay together and slept, Sep's wing covering his mate protectively. Feene kept watch.

The hunter met the detective at the morgue. The bite wound indicated that the dragon which killed the man weighed in at about seven tons. It was a greater dragon, and ancient one. The genitals showed the tell-tale signs. The hunter feared that she had a consort with her. He passed along this information to the detective.

"I'm guessing that we should call in the National Guard and get them involved." he told the hunter. "We received a report that an unusual sound, roaring, was heard near the lake last night. It scared some of the campers right out of the woods.

"Just be warned that there is at least one dragon out there that cannot be harmed by the soldiers. I recommend that you avoid endangering too many of them." advised the hunter as he fished around in his pack and withdrew a spear point and a short sword. "I need a good quality shaft for this point."

"I'll get you a shaft for that spear. I'm going to call the Governor in any case, let him decide. That is assuming he believes me."

"That should not be a problem." the hunter assured him. "Someone just caught them on camera, look."

The detective followed the other's finger and watched the video feed. It showed two dragons lying on the ground along the shore of the lake. One of them launched into the air and let loose its fire. The feed went dark. The news anchor, clearly excited, did her best to describe what she thought was going on.

"They were smaller than the pickup nearby and her wings are not fully developed." noted the hunter. "She's not yet finished her transformation. Call whomever you have to, but we need to get there. We need to move now!"

"How much bigger will she get?"

"When she has finished, she could knock that pickup halfway out into the lake."

"Oh!" replied the detective as he stuck his dagger into his belt and ran toward the door, the hunter right behind him.

Arlen and Sep woke to the warning cries of Feene and looked out to see a commercial helicopter approaching. Sep immediately launched in defense of his mate. She could not yet fly, and her powers had not fully emerged. He flew to intercept the aircraft and loosed his fire upon it. Half of the helicopter vanished instantly and the remaining half fell out of the sky in a blazing fireball. He returned to his love.

"We must get deep into the woods. Follow me." he said to her. All three ran, surprisingly quickly to the fisherman who had just stumbled onto the scene, and disappeared under the tree canopy.

The hunter and the detective raced up into the mountains, lights and siren blazing. They may not get there before the Guard did, but they knew the others didn't stand a chance without the help of the magic that they carried with them.

"Do you remember yet?" Sep asked Arlen as they worked their way into the woods as far from roads as Sep could manage.

"No, I'm sorry." answered Arlen as she followed. "I want to, I just don't know how!" As small as she was, Feene kept pace.

"I will protect you with my life, my mate," replied the black dragon, "But if you could remember we would not have to run. You are the Dragon Mother."

They hid as best they could, but without Arlen's magic the modern technology of the humans would detect them eventually. Sep focused his magic and assumed his full size. They waited.

The Guard had spotted the dragons and soldiers had begun unload from a helicopter that landed in a nearby clearing. One gunner inside the airborne copter spotted a black dragon approaching them and opened fire. The bullets from the heavy machine gun hit it, but merely glanced off of its heavy scales. The dragon passed overhead and raked its claws across the path of the spinning rotor blades, tearing them loose and sending one helicopter down into the trees. The second helicopter, its soldiers having disembarked, left the area at top speed as the pilot called in for a ground strike to be readied.

Sep returned to his lover to wait for the soldiers who had managed to reach the ground safely. He would not use fire as the forest around them would surely burn and injure his mate. He expected ground attack aircraft to arrive at any moment. Dragons were powerful, but could be overwhelmed by weapons such as heavy artillery and bombs. He felt he may die today. He was happy to do so if that meant his mate would live. Arlen didn't know what to do. She had been told that she had the power to stop all of this, but the memories wouldn't come to her. Feene was hiding somewhere. Her small size made that easy.

The hunter and the detective were working their way down a trail that led to where the dragons were reported to be holed up. They could hear weapons fire and men screaming as they approached. By the time they had gotten there they saw a horrific sight. There were bodies scattered about and some of the soldiers, those whose masks had been removed, were firing on their own men. There was a tiny dragon running amongst them and pulling masks off as fast as it could. The black dragon was swatting away any soldiers that got close to his mate and otherwise attempted to place his body between the soldiers' fire and her.

The two men donned their own masks and walked into the fray; their target, The Mother. Twice the detective found himself firing on soldiers that had been turned against their own kind. The thought sickened him, but didn't seem to faze the hunter. He waded through them, sword flashing, until he had reached the target.

"No hunter!" shouted Sep as he charged through soldiers to place himself in front of his mate.

The hunter readied his spear and threw it. Sep caught it in the throat and fell with a sickening gurgle.

Arlen watched her mate fall. Grief struck her like a hammer. Something inside her snapped. Memories came rushing in. She was no longer Arlen, she was Arleniochevasa-an, and her last surviving consort Sepredoniusmaka-au had just died. Jet aircraft could be heard overhead. Now that the soldiers were dead, the ground strike was imminent. She summoned the magic to her, which was of her after all, and caused it to build around her, expanding her senses. The hunter retrieved his spear and readied to thrust it into The Mother. She sensed his approach and brought her tail around to slap the hunter away. He was caught unawares and the tail caught him in the chest, breaking his body and slamming it against a nearby tree.

The detective wasn't sure what to do. The soldiers had pretty much killed each other off and the jets would soon blow this place to smithereens. He began a careful retreat, his dagger in his hand. He was turning to run when he noticed the tiny dragon blocking his path. "Do not leave," it told him. "you still have a task to do." He thought to kill it but stopped and turned around. His mask had been knocked loose during the fight. He could only watch.

Arleniochevasa-an had gathered her power to herself and had begun to grow. Her wings grew out and spread open to fill the clearing. Her body was increasing in size and soon dwarfed the black one lying dead in front of her. Her magic expanded in all directions, like an invisible yet tangible dome of incredible power. The dome expanded ever more quickly until it had reached the airplanes flying above. The Mother would not tolerate such devices in her territory and willed them to stop functioning.

The detective heard the airplanes' engines stop and heard the planes crashing to the ground some distance away. He then heard a weak voice calling to him, "You have not given me an answer yet." said the hunter as his breath rattled. "Yes or no?"

The detective hesitated for a moment. He saw that Arleniochevasa-an was distracted by all she was doing at the time. He answered the hunter's question, "Yes"

As the hunter died, unseen power rushed into the detective and he recognized instantly that the source was the green dragon standing in front of him. For a brief moment he could sense his surroundings as she did. He could feel everything, see everything around him in perfect clarity and hear the slightest sound for miles. The dragon no longer held him in its sway. He rushed toward the dragon and plunged the dagger into it clear to the hilt.

Arleniochevasa-an roared in pain and then looked down on the human who had broken her spell on him and injured her. Surprisingly she then smiled at him, shrugged the knife free from her body and gently picked it up with two massive claws and handed it to him. He took the knife and stared at her.

She spoke, "Do not believe all that the hunter has told you, for the truth becomes sullied as it is told and retold. I do not wish to destroy your kind, for that will also destroy us. I and my kind only wish to live. The knife that you hold is very powerful, but the magic it contains was given by me so its effectiveness against me is limited. Your own strength of will broke the spell that held you. You now have three choices, brave warrior. Take up that spear from the hunter's hands and run it through my heart, take the mantle of The Hunter and follow that path or become my most treasured consort; one who's will is completely his own. To end my life is to break the cycle of magic in this world for all time. If magic is to remain here, The Hunters must also be, for that is the only way to maintain the balance between humanity and dragon-kind. To become my consort is to experience unbounded pleasure and all else that life as a dragon has to offer. Choose now, for I must expand my territory if magic is to thrive."

The detective did not hesitate, "I choose The Hunter."

"Of course you do, you already had." replied Arleniochevasa-an. "I just felt obliged to inform you of your other options. Since I have spared your life I ask two things of you. If you grant me these two things I will be in your debt and you can ask a favor of me at a time of your choosing."

"What do you want?" asked the detective.

"I ask that you never hunt on my lands. That is one favor that I will not grant you. I will also know the instant that you do so. The second thing that I ask of you is that you provide me a consort. He must be strong and intelligent like you. Feene will help you determine whom you should choose. She is my first-born daughter; ever-living and ever-young. When you think you have found a suitable consort, she will act as your test. Arrange for the subject to find her in a position of mortal danger. If he is willing to risk his own safety to save her, then you may send him to me. Have Feene escort him so he will be granted safe passage through my lands. Of course being a creature of magic you will always be welcome here provided you do not hunt. Do this for me and I will never leave my territory."

"That seems a pretty harsh way to treat your own daughter." commented the detective.

"It's my choice." answered Feene, who had silently crept up beside him. "I have exchanged most of the powers of dragon-kind, including great size and the power of flight, for the ability to recover from any wound. I have been killed so many times that I hardly feel it anymore. Besides, this way I get to travel and to see the world outside." The ancient-young dragon smiled as she said the last sentence.

The detective took a breath and said, "You have a deal."

The dragon drew up to her full height and blew her fire on him. It didn't burn. In fact he didn't feel anything at all. She then declared, "Detective Albert Cross, I take your name and your old face from you and call you Hunter. Aside from the knowledge you carry that would benefit a hunter, your life and your memories begin today. By the time you reach the boundary of my territory, a hunter is all you have ever been and all you will be until you relinquish the mantle to the next in line. Take all of the possessions of your predecessor and leave in peace. Do not bother with the vehicles and other modern technology that you pass along the way. None will function here." As if to punctuate this last statement, another jet plane was heard to shut down and crash somewhere in the distance.

At that the great Arleniochevasa-an turned away and concentrated on the task of expanding her territory further. Detective Cross gathered up all of the weapons and supplies that the other had carried into the forest, situated them in his pack and about his person and began his journey to the human lands. It would become a very long walk for Hunter before he would finally reach the boundary of her territory. Her territory was growing larger than any she had claimed before. He didn't mind the walk though, no hunter ever does.

Dawn arrived on a beautiful spring day in the land of the dragons. The Mother sat and watched over her most recent hatchlings. They played and hunted among the ruins of the recently abandoned human city while she read her books. She hoped to read all within the library before the elements took them away from her. Hunter had yet to send her a consort, and that vexed her somewhat as she could not scratch the itch herself. But after all she had not specified a time frame and her previous consort had provided her with many strong, healthy offspring. She would wait at least another decade before venturing out to find one. Who knows, maybe some brave adventurer looking to make a name for himself would come along on his own.

Hunter sat in his camp as he tended to his weapons. No dragons had yet ventured into the human lands and he had plenty of time for wandering around and exploring the border. His phone rang.

He answered, "Hunter. You say what has come across the border? Well that's new, where? Give me two days; maybe less if I can hitch a ride." He shut off his phone. "Let's go Feene, or are you going by Claire today?" he asked as he noticed she had assumed human form. "Maybe we'll find a consort for your mother on this trip." he told his companion as he gathered up his belongings.

Hunters need no sleep, and dragons could go without sleep for days, so there was no reason for him to wait until morning. He had yet to hunt an ogre; this could be exciting. As he put his maps away he had to chuckle at the latest edition. In place of the cities, towns and roads that maps once showed in what was northern Oregon and southern Washington, some cartographer with a sense of humor blanked out a large circle and wrote in a fluid script, "Here there be Dragons".