Death Court candidates

The caverns nestled deep within the Healing Den had almost never been visited by the humanoid population, even before the hydra and dragons residing there blocked off corridors that led up into the power supply and maintenance areas. Those were habited infrequently; the Den kept itself fixed up and only rarely needed aid to make adjustments to its climate or configuration.

It had not ‘fixed’ their destruction of those corridors. It seemed... content to have this pocket of non-bonded somewhat dangerous creatures wandering around down there. It was absolutely the case that it allowed them to occasionally spot ‘lost’ pets or pet-potential creatures for their meals, though they usually relied on the dragons who could teleport to pick up beasts to bring back into their lair.

That lair had grown thick with skulls of their prey. Every once in a while they would clear it out, rip out stacks or fused pyramids of bone and rot, but frankly some of them rather liked it: it was warm while it was decaying, after all. Not that the Den allowed the place to be inhospitable, not that it would push them out with the airless exterior temperature.

Some unbonded... or formerly bonded dragons drifted through their halls as their mood dictated. Hakkath and Hissth would remain more and more, while Trick and Treath or Pierth and Trilibeth weren’t able to commit to the ‘lifestyle’ down here. They still wanted interaction, of some kind, with those above. Some of them thrived on it.

And then there were the rest. Those who came here, and stayed because they had little left above or out there. Over the years, they’d been hatched, and over the years... they returned. Dejected, sad, broken at times. Some wandered here quickly enough - as hatchlings. Others seemed to be half-grown, and a rare few adult dragons made it and seemed the worst off.

Hakkath did most of the hunting, and she’d returned with a very tasty six-legged deer-thing to drop at Kalkenoux’s feet. Several of his smaller heads immediately darted at it, pulling back sharply cut chunks with ease. The green dragoness was almost always in a decent mood when she had hunted, a fact which Kalkenoux could appreciate. He liked digging his claws and teeth into meat. He liked feeling the snapping of bone between his jaws.

She was not in a great mood right now, however. And like a fool, Kalkenoux tilted his crowned head and looked at her calmly, and asked, “why do you fret, this meat is fresh, a good kill.” He had found his voice long ago, learned the Human tongue, but they all rarely spoke in words when they could directly connect mind to mind.

Thus it was that Hakkath mentally stung the much larger hydragon with her emotion, I need more than this, and I know something is happening. Something out - there. She tilted one of her heavy and strong wings, seeming to indicate the exterior, the worlds beyond the nothingness that was actually outside the Den. Her wing still had blood spatter on it from whatever enthusiastic motion she’d used to dispatch this meal, it was bright against the frosted white of her green hide.

While his other heads were occupied with consuming a haunch here, a neck bit there, Kalkenoux focused his crowned and central head on the green dragoness. Tell me more.

It did not take long for the aggressive dragoness to give what information she had gathered: that there were other discontent dragons, some who had been abandoned, some who had escaped the grip of their biology, who wanted to help rid their kind of the tethers of these two-leggers that called themselves ‘bonds’.

I know things have changed out - there - but also in here, the hydragon thought carefully, but broadly. His mind reached several of his kin, his clutch siblings that had come back either with him or were here even before he’d felt dissatisfied and gone his own way. He knew that his comments would be heard by her, She of Many Mouths, nearby, but did not wait for ‘permission’ to continue. Hakkath hadn’t brought her a meal. I know we are all restless. I feel that the humans know this as well.

Then I desire more than this, Hakkath bespoke. Though she was in essence an ‘old world’ dragoness, she had, like many here, resided on the Healing Den all her conscious life - and that had definitely affected her in more ways than ‘surviving unbonded’. She wasn’t satisfied with flying off-world or teleporting around the multiverse alone any more. She wanted something else. Kalkenoux knew that what she really wanted, deep down inside, was a bond. Though they were in their place of birth, where a great many bonds might have been found among the people up in the inhabited area above, she could hardly stand the sight of a human, the sting of that loss so early in her life really remained all this time, and yet that was the core of her desires.

Kalkenoux’s own loss seemed both softer and more recent, if he called it a loss, and if he could say it was ‘recent’ in a place that had no discernable passage of real time. A parting of ways - similar, he knew, to that of their nearby ‘queen’. The hydragons’ clutch siblings had bonded to one another, and had occasionally left the Den to attend mating rituals, they had eggs and descendants in the multiverse. It was fairly clear that Hakkath also wanted such a thing, but had never been able to stomach attending a flight, too many human eyes on her, too many memories. She was sick from the lack of a mind-bond, better only when she was on her own and killing prey. All of her instincts centered around things that humans desired dragons to be. Loyal, behaving themselves in a particular manner, unable to harm humanity, reliant on them in fact.

Though he was hardly known to be a kindly soul, Kalkenoux felt something akin to pity for his companion, one would never dare call it compassion, when he said, then we should find more than this.

He rose, shaking off spare rubble and bringing life into his short wings. They did nothing more than look good, or fan off dust in here. He did enjoy swimming: his wings actually allowed him to speed along under the surface in ways that he couldn’t possibly achieve in the air. They weren’t weak, but they weren’t big enough to even hope to let him lift off the ground in gravity - even in the Den. Kalkenoux’s smaller heads snapped at the air, displeased that they were no longer within range of that tasty deer. Perhaps She would feed on it; for now the hydragon nudged his green companion into the larger chamber nearby.

A waterfall was the only significant source of sound, it was apparently part of the atmospheric control system in the Den. They had a lake, well they had a large deep pond, in here, below it. It drained... somehow, recycled into whatever upper levels that the Den required. And though it would occasionally run red or black with blood and gore as they bathed, the dragons down here had never caught trouble for that: it was supposed to be cleaned when no one was watching. Apparently that meant it would clear itself practically the moment the dirty beings turned their backs on it. Kalkenoux rinsed his own bloody mouths and chest off. Hakkath barely realized she was still messy from her hunt, but shortly she too dove into the pool and refreshed herself, the chill water appearing to clear her head as well as clean her skin.

Do you have a plan then? She asked, knowing that he already did. Hakkath felt like she had her place in this small family - she was a provider, not a thinker. She liked it when she was praised for her hunting or her ferocity, Kalkenoux considered her endearingly simpleminded - and still those features were bound by her genetics. She was certainly smarter than she appeared at times, but it was more cleverness, bursts of inspiration. Not long-term plotting. Not like his mind.

And not like Hers, but that would wait.

“I will see about contacting these... others,” Kalkenoux announced. Several in the cavern took note, as his hissing voices echoed. The bonded pair of Yasashii and Joakarat lifted their sleepy heads, and entwined necks and tails while they watched the bronze and red hydragon geared himself up to teleport. He first sought ... something, with his three crowned heads raised in unison and the other six remaining alert to watch around him. Whatever he looked for, mentally, he did not find; he seemed as disappointed, perhaps, as someone who expected there to be a particular dessert at a dinner party and found it lacking.

Up in the smaller cave where he and Hakkath had been, crunching and rending sounds could be heard. So She was awake now. Everyone knew She had heard what the nine-headed hydragon had said, but whether She was privy to what he’d earlier thought to Hakkath, who knew?

But that was true of anything She might do: who knew what it would be? She was partly why Atrocity and his crew were no longer around - too many screaming matches and bloody fights with the massive twenty-eight headed true hydra Bahut and her brood. Atrocity decided to pull up and move to somewhere a little more quiet... Though where they’d gone was a mystery. He still showed up now and then, everyone knew it.

Usually, by the screaming and fighting.

But he and his group hadn’t been seen just now, so She got to enjoy Her meal in peace. She’d want more, of course, She always did - always so hungry. And since She was awake, of course, the others were on edge; ready to fly or race off to safety out of reach of Her jaws.

The disparate green and red hydragons kept to themselves, quietly - mentally - wondering what was going on, and whether they were going to be in on it. Sometimes they would have to shoulder their way in, others they were freely invited. Sometimes, they did the inviting or snubbing. To that pair, life was reasonably good, even if a little dull most of the time.

Punctuating their dusty day with whispers and an unpredictably awake She, well, this was going to be entertaining.

***

When Kalkenoux returned to the Den, it felt like ‘evening’. Hard to say, since there was no sky, sun, or much else to judge by. (That wasn’t true. The Den provided light and humidity in addition to everything else, probably for the Humans above, but it served the same purpose down here.) His presence was noted by the bonded pair, but then by Hakkath, who gave an unexpectedly chipper trill. That was certainly a sound that had been rare around here.

What have you found? She asked, though he was still mulling over what to say in response.

“I will need to discuss this with Her,” he said, gruffly and simply.

If the dragon watching him had eyebrows, they would have quirked upwards and then furrowed angrily, but Hakkath said nothing more, as he made his way back into the upper sleep den. The others didn’t dare follow him: She was up there.

Kalkenoux had never displayed fear of that hydragon, even when She was on a rampage. He was always able to either console Her, subdue Her, or distract Her away from too much localized destruction. This was their home, after all, and if She tore up their walls and beds, no one would be happy.

Not that She had ever been ‘happy’.

But now?

Whatever he was telling Her was on a mental level that only they could hear. The trio, Hakkath, Joakarat, and Yasashii, waited. To enter that den without a gift of food or supplication was suicide - and they all liked being alive. While She was not mated to Kalkenoux, most folks - including the humans who knew they were here - considered Her to be his queen. Most humans thought She was the one that led them.

Kalkenoux let them think that, too. Hell, he sometimes let Her think that. But it was always clear to at least Hakkath, that it was the bronze who was their sensible leader. She was ... too chaotic, those black diamonds on Her crowns proved that much. She was very big, they could hear Her weight shifting the stone itself above on that ledge, when She approached the brighter and bigger room beyond.

The trio near the water turned and looked up at Her, more than half-expecting Her to be bloody or to dive at them as She was wont to do. But She did not. Instead, She seemed to collect Her wits and sat almost-regally, beside Kalkenoux who was only a hair smaller than She.

Many of Her heads hissed and growled, the most they might manage as far as communication went. Her gold-crowned violet-red head squinted down at the others, while Her blue and violet heads forced themselves to not snap at Kalkenoux who stood by on that side. She had to clear Her throats, and Hakkath did note that she’d finished off that deer - there was literally nothing more than a stain left over; Her smaller heads were a bit bloody and one had a chunk of fur still dangling from its teeth.

She Of Many Mouths looked faintly disappointed that there weren’t more down there below Her, and let off a shrill hissing sound with Her orange and green heads.

That heralded the arrival of another who had hatched at the same time as the hydragons, but who had arrived here earlier than them. Hissth sometimes strode on his hind legs, but today, at the summons of She Of Many Mouths, he flew out of a dark tunnel over the waterfall and landed with his horned head low, looking up as was proper of a subordinate. His violet hide looked dull, he needed to get out more.

His arrival seemed to satisfy Her, and by the time he’d landed and collected his wings by his sides, She spoke.

It was not clearly from one head, though usually everyone assumed it was the gold-crowned one, which answered sometimes to Hoten Matsu. Each of Her other heads could be said to have different names, not just those with the crowns; few knew them all, hardly any ever dared use them.

“We will need a new place to roost,” She declared, Her wings rising into their sharp-pointed warning posture. Those below suitably cowered; Kalkenoux as per his normal, did not. He was just far enough away from Her that neither Her heads nor Her wing claws could reach him without lunging.

It took a moment for the others, particularly Hissth, to realize what She had said. What did that mean? They were leaving the Den? Was it permanent? Was She serious? She had never given such an order before, but Kalkenoux hadn’t challenged Her this time - did he agree? Why then hadn’t he delivered this news? It looked as though everyone was thinking the same thing.

Probably because She would have fought for it anyway, Joakarat realized.

“First,” Kalkenoux added carefully from Her side, “we will be heading to a special place, a place that must remain secret from others.” He didn’t even bother moving his main heads, his six snakelike smaller ones did that, surreptitiously glancing around the chamber and finding everything to be in order. No spare dragons, no two-legged intruders, good.

And then what? Yasashii boldly demanded, finding his mental voice while his snake-like heads could not do more than hiss. What will we do? Where are we settling if not here in our place of birth?

She answered, Her mental voice bearing as painful a sting as any of her poison-dripped teeth. We may find a new ... family. All of us. Together. You are mine, my siblings and my companions.

It was very strange, that She would address them thus, She’d hardly done more than try and kill most of them in the past, but still? She relied on them for entertainment, news and rumor, they’d felt Her prying mind rip memories of locations they’d visited or people they had encountered out of them. Even if She wasn’t very social, She was still... their Queen indeed. And She acted like it, particularly when She was not in one of Her rampages.

But the thought of them all going out somewhere - with the goal being this? Yasashii and Joakarat seemed the most pleased. Hakkath, whose wanderings and rumor-hearing had led to this, was proud of herself, even if She didn’t acknowledge her directly. Hissth seemed to be mulling over whether to just leave, or to screech, or fight, or - something? But in the end, the violet dragon opened his wings and raised up on his long hind legs, a kind of ... draconic salute.

The dragons and hydragons geared themselves up for a trip, not like they had anything to collect or bring with them. They weren’t sure how long of a flight, or how many teleports, or which dimension to gate through would be right, so it did require a touch more planning than just ‘here it is’.

But it was the Healing Den that delivered them directly to their destination.

***

They hadn’t even needed to fly or teleport away; it was somewhat anticlimactic. But when the large cavern opened into a much bigger one blended with a sort of brighter-sandstone and red sunlit one, only Kalkenoux actually watched it happen. As their Queen leapt from the ledge into the shallow part of the pool (it was all shallow to Her) the others were busy either preparing for Her to tear them apart or bowing in proper respect. Behind all of them, the Den’s walls shifted gently, from the semi-natural darker and rougher rock, to that smoother sort. The kind one might find in a more arid locale on a lush world. Carved by water - and... by claw.

Normally when the Den moved, everyone on it would feel a gentle sideways bump. This time, that bump was, at least here in this cavern, disguised by Her landing thud. Kalkenoux then jumped down, didn’t make as much noise when he landed; he kept a joking thought to himself, that She needed to lose a little weight. While all of them had sort of gotten a little less toned, none of them were what could be considered fat. The Den didn’t allow them to waste away, but neither did it challenge them for their food gathering. Only when they teleported out - often they went back to whatever world they’d...

Wherever they had been brought originally by those humans or humanoids who had subsequently abandoned them. Usually that was where they’d hunt. It was the only other familiar ground that they had.

Where the Den had opened to, however, was both familiar and entirely different than they had experienced.

Mostly, different: none of them had been on this world. But familiar... in the sounds they heard, the smell in the air, of drifting cries of dragons hunting or ... or playing? And a variety of musky scents of those dragons, having left behind a kill here, their own marking scent there.

It was orderly, this place, in its own way.

And Kalkenoux wondered: how would they feel about order, when they met their new, highly chaotic, visitor...

*** some portions from hatching ***

They had gathered at the call of trembling eggs. Quite a few locals were there, which surprised Kalkenoux a little - how many of these volunteer Death Court dragons were there? It seemed that one of those young dragons was... an Imperial? He’d only heard faint rumors, whispers from the Den’s inhabitants, about such a thing. But here one was. And it looked like he was painfully annoying.

Several eggs shook themselves open, including a black-streaked green that moved toward Hissth and sat staring at him. Obviously, they were communicating privately.

I’m Galulith,:: she proclaimed, ::And you are mine. And I’m never going to leave you. Never ever ever!

Hissth did not respond in words, but nodded his head and bent down to nuzzle the hatchling.

Beyond this, as they watched from their clumped grouping, too many heads to go around, they could view everything from that central point. A bonus for being part-hydra.

Among those three first hatchlings was a bright yellow of Hexeth’s brood, a blood court indeed. And that one... Moved toward the group as well. The yellow stalked back and forth before the hydragons, always just far enough away to be out of reach of their many heads. She narrowed her eyes and huffed at the lot of them, and seemed ready to turn away.

Stop stalling, Faiyarionth, Kalkenoux said, lashing his whip-like tail ends against the sand. He knew her name already. He felt something deep, but denied it until she could prove she was worth having.

I need a strong bond, she shot back. Are you sure you’re strong enough? Apparently, she had the same idea.

Kalkenoux bent his central head down to her level, lips peeling back in a rictus grin.

Why don’t you come closer and find out?

Faiyarionth seemed hesitant a moment, almost wavering in her confidence. Then she lifted her head high and stalked up to Kalkenoux until she stood snout to snout with him. This seemed to amuse the bronze hydragon and he drew back his main head to make room for her at his feet.

In the time it took Faiyarionth to make her choice, five more eggs had hatched. They all spread out, and more followed. They were so... bouncy. Some downright cheerful. It sort of made many of these hydragons a little queasy with how ‘nice’ they turned out.

Over by the hydragons, two more hatchlings were gaining a significant amount of attention. One of them, a red drenched in other shades of red as if she’d been turned inside out, stood with paws splayed, eyes narrowed to slits, in front of Hakkath.

Hakkath matched the hatchling in pose and expression, and for one of the few times in her life, she held the size advantage.

Are you going to leave me, the hatchling demanded.

Not if you don’t leave me, Pisruth, Hakkath replied.

Are we gonna have fun, Pisruth continued.

Depends on what you think is fun, Hakkath replied.

I wanna smash some things.

Then we are definitely going to have fun.

Pisruth accepted this answer with a sniff, lifting her head and tail high as she stalked up to Hakkath’s snout and gave her a playful bop. Hakkath responded with a snort of hot air that nearly knocked the red off her feet. Together they slunk toward the back of the group, there to get away from prying eyes.

So many of those eyes were on another hatchling nearby. All of them from one hydragon. The little dragon slunk and stalked around the feet of the hydragons without a care, ignoring the suspicious looks of his siblings. His eyes were for one being alone.

She was glorious. The largest and most impressive creature he’d ever seen in his life. All of her heads turned in his direction as he approached, and all of her eyes burned with amused light.

You are a bold thing, She of Many Mouths said.

You would not tolerate one who wasn’t, the hatchling replied. For one so young, his mental threads were surprisingly calm and collected in the face of such a hulking creature.

She of Many Mouths lowered her central heads, each of them taking a different point around the hatchling.

Hagomilth, she said. Yes, you’ll do.

Whether she ‘felt’ motherly or wanted a partnership, whether he was relieved to be alive or overjoyed to have impressed this massive queen, neither of them let on.

There were quite a few other dragonets wandering the sands - some of them were shy, others dramatic. None of them came to this group, until...

Only seven hatchlings remained by the nests. All of them had broken their shells, though a few still picked pieces off their hides. Of those that remained, there were two purples, two blues, two reds, and a green. The lighter of the two blues moved first, angling straight toward a similarly marked green hatchling who had spent much of the hatching waiting halfway between the nests and the hydragons.

Finally, the green cried, nipping at her blue brother. You took long enough.

You could have helped me, the blue shot back, returning her nip.

Together they crossed the rest of the distance to the hydragons, moving up to two of the great beasts that sat side by side. Joakarat and Yasashii looked down at the flea bitten siblings, a collective of nine heads lowering to be on a level with two.

Joakarat, the blue spoke first, bolder and louder than his sister. He stepped forward and lifted his head high to the green hydragon. I am Zeyirth.

And I am Laindainth, Yasashii, the green added. She lashed her tail in the sand, her soft voice spreading spiderweb thin strands across Yasashii’s mind. I may be quiet, but that is only because I choose to watch first. I won’t be caught off guard.

The bonded hydragons nodded and made room for the hatchlings between them. This would not be like what happened with the humans. These two would be with them for life. They would learn how to fly with their own wings, hunt with their own teeth and claw. Oh this would be a joy.

It went well until... the end. The little Imperial was asserting himself in a way that was distinctly innocent - no, naive. And he was turned out. When he had cleared out, followed by one of the Death Court, Naxi’im congratulated all of them, those who cared to listen anyway.

Kalkenoux and She paid closest attention. The others scampered away to the feast outside, while these two remained watching the King and Queens of this Death Court reestablish their bonds and conferred with one another. Finally they did leave - their new little hatchlings were hungry. Something was up with the group, and they knew it wasn’t going to be good for any Humans that might cross their paths.

***