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Chapter 8 {Ignatius}

Ignatius's eyes fluttered open slowly from the excruciating pain in his head.
   That man was stronger than he looked and hit like a bloody redcap with its club.
   He tried to sit up but surprise. He was tied to a tree, again. This day was just getting better and better by the second.
   "Ignatius." Someone hissed quietly to him. "Are you awake?"
   He turned his head to see Anahita tied to the other side of the tree.
   "Ya." He responded quietly, not liking the sound of The Hunters coming back from whatever they had been out doing.
"Why were they after us? Well me. You're human, so why are they still keeping you tied up? Why don't they let you go?" Anahita asked quietly.
   He didn't know how to respond. How could he. Was he just suppose to flat out tell her he was a Draconigena? All of Elementa believed they were practically extinct. She probably wouldn't even believe him if he told her. She would think he was crazy.
   "Ignatius, are you okay? You went silent." Anahita asked him in a concerned voice.
   He didn't want to lie to her and destroy the body of trust that had already formed between them in their short amount of time together.
   He was split between two decisions. Tell her and face her judgement. Or don't and hope The Hunters don't say anything. If they did then he would face her judgement and feeling of betrayal all at once.
   Ignatius didn't want to hurt her. He just didn't know what to do.
   "Ignatius?"
   Just hearing the concern in her voice for him made him want to tell her the truth, but it was so hard to explain. How was he going to explain he was Draconigena without showing her?
   "Ignatius, is everything okay?" She asked again, her warm fingers touching his.
   Guilt rose in his throat as he closed his eyes.
   He couldn't keep this from her any longer. It was tearing him up from the inside. His secret and the fact that if he didn't tell might hurt Anahita. He had to let someone know. Someone who would understand. Someone like Anahita. She was like him. A magical creature in a world full of hate and danger. As well as a dangerous secret that could get them killed. She was the only one he knew he could trust with something like this. She trusted him with her secret and now it was time for him to do the same.
   "Anahita," he said, opening his eyes, "there's something I need to tell you, but you need to keep it a secret. You can't tell anybody."
   Anahita was quite for a second.
   Then: "Of course I will keep it a secret. You've kept mine. It's only right that I should do the same for you."
   "Anahita, I'm a—," he was interrupted by the bleeding corpse that fell on the ground not to far away from him and Anahita. It was a chimera. They were often found on the outskirts of the lava lands in Et ignis in Terris. So they had to be near Et ignis is Terris.
Then the seven people emerged from the dead forest. All of them covered in blood from the chimera's and their own.
Five of The Hunters were male the rest were female. All of them having visible scars poking out from shirt sleeves and collars. One limped from an old injury. Another had an eyepatch. The one that looked like he was portus maris was missing his left hand and had a hook instead. A purple eyed woman had a straight scar along the left side of her shaved scalp. He couldn't see any prominent ones on the other two.
"What kind of heartfelt conversation did we walk in on lads?" The one with the eyepatch over his right eye asked.
"Do you ever shut up, Kiran?" The woman with the straight scar on her scalp asked.
"Do you ever shut up, Bedalia?" Kiran shot back.
   Kiran was about to respond back when the man that had knocked him out put a hand on both of their shoulders.
   "That is enough fighting out of both of you." He said calmly.
   "You know since you two are so inclined to fight so often, you can work together to skin the chimera yourselves." The man with the limp said, seating himself by the smoking fire.
The two didn't say no more, and set about doing as they were told.
   The man, who was obviously the leader, walked over to him and Anahita.
   "You two must be hungry and thirsty." He said with a sympathetic look in his orange-gold eyes. "Can I offer you anything?"
   Neither he or Anahita said anything.
   The man seemed to be watching them both like he was trying to find some evidence that they were hungry and thirsty.
   He would switch his penetrating gaze between him and Anahita before he finally settled on Ignatius. More specifically, his leg.
   The man rolled up his pants leg to reveal the bloody gashes on the crus part of his leg from the iron trap.
   He had completely forgotten all about it and the pain.
   "That looks bad." The man said, touching his leg and making him wince. "Irving, get the rum."
   "Why are we waisting perfectly good rum on a dragon-blooded monster like him. Let's just kill these two and move on." Irving grumbled.
   The man got up, and walked over to the man named Irving, who was missing his left hand.
In a low tone, the man with silver-blonde hair began taking to the one named Irving.
As they talked, he noticed that the sky had become darker and darker by the second till the dark storm clouds blotted out the evening sun.
The troubling looking sky seemed to make some of The Hunters anxious by the curious and worried expressions on their faces.
"It looks like a big one, Rhys. Maybe we should find some better shelter." The man with the limp said.
   The silver-blonde haired man named Rhys looked up at the foreboding sky with an unreadable expression on his face.
   "This ain't no natural storm," Rhys said. "This is the work of a thunderbird...or a Storm Dragon."
   "We're not too far from Sands ignis in deserto Iudaeae. So a thunderbird out here isn't too inconceivable. But a Storm Dragon. I don't know why they would be down here, this close to Et ignis in Terris. Usually they would stay up north in Montes, et impenetrabilia." The man with beryl green eyes said.
   "I don't know. But I do know that we shouldn't take any chances. Terre, we're going with your plan. Move out."
Before any of The Hunters could move a muscle, he felt the air grow heavy with electricity as his arm hairs stood on end.
"Look away." He told Anahita as quietly as possible.
Anahita didn't say anything. She must be mad at him for not telling her about him being Draconigena.
He did, however, see her turn her head.
Doing the same thing, he waited to look back till he heard the boom as a bolt of electricity struck the earth, knocking all The Hunters to the ground.
Suddenly the ropes holding him and Anahita were cut.
He turned his head to see a figure in a black cloak, standing over the groaning Hunters.
"Run. I'll find you two later." The muffled voice commanded them.
   He tired to get to his feet but every time he tried his leg screamed in pain.
   "Come on," Anahita said, grabbing his arm and throwing it over her shoulders.
   She helped him get to his feet, and limp away from the ferocious fighting going on back there.
   Every step felt like his injured leg was splitting open more and more. Hot blood was already gushing out of the wounds.
   "Why are you helping me? I thought you were angry with me." He said finally after awhile.
   "I wasn't angry. Just trying to gather my thoughts." She said, not looking at him. "Is that why you were unconscious when I found you?"
   "Yes." He said, not holding anything back. She deserved the whole truth.
   Anahita didn't say anything else.
   Then all of a sudden he felt like someone or something was following them.
   He looked behind him and saw no one.
   "What's wrong?" Anahita asked.
   "I don't know. I felt like someone was following us."
   "Smart Draconigena." A voice rang out from the lurking shadows. "Too bad you won't be smart for much longer."
   He heard the slight whistling of a projectile coming towards them. But before before he could tell Anahita to hit the dirt, a dagger was embedded in her upper abdomen.
   Anahita gasped in pain, and stumbled backwards, clutching at the dagger as crimson blood trickled down from the wound.
   Then they both fell down as Anahita lost her balance.
   "Why did you attack her? Why not me?" He asked in anger, as he tried to stand up. "You were talking about me, not her."
   "Awww. Poor little Draconigena cares about his little friend." The Hunter said in a babyish voice as she stepped out from the trees.
   The Hunter had to be at least eighteen and from The Impenetrable Mountains by her physical features. She had long, choppy jet black hair, storm grey eyes, and pale skin. A bow and quiver of arrows were attached to her back and a sword strapped to her side.
   He knew better than to understand estimate her. Even though he was taller and probably stronger, she was more slender and lithe, which would allow her to more quicker than him, and slide behind his defenses. And he was in no condition to fight anyway with his injured leg.
   "Well, Draconigena, are you gonna fight or sit there?" She asked with a smile on her face. "You know, I've never fought a Draconigena, and I would really like to. But you just don't seem motivated enough to fight. Hmm." She said, with a thoughtful look on her face. "Oh, I know. Maybe I should kill your little friend to get you motivated to fight." A slither of steal followed after she said that.
   He glared at her.
   She was sick. Killing others just to motivate her prey to fight. This lady was insane and had no humanity. At least Rhys had humanity.
   He wasn't going to let her kill Anahita.
   Ignatius glanced at her form laying on the ground in pain as blood continued to flow from her wound. She needed help and fast.
   But he couldn't get it without getting rid of The Hunter in front of him.
   Summoning up whatever strength he had left, he pushed himself up to his feet, and took up a defensive position.
   "Oh? Now you're ready to fight?" She asked.
   He nodded.
   She only smiled.
   Then she was upon him in a flash.
   She slashed at him with her sword, cutting him on the cheek, the arm, and shoulder.
   He tried to fight back, but only got a punch to the face. 
   Then she kicked him flat on his back.
   She hovered over him with her sword gleaming with his blood, like it was ready to have a taste of more.
   Raising it above her head, she jabbed down towards his chest.
   With quick reflexes, he grabbed the blade and stopped it from piercing him.
   She only laughed, and continued to push the blade closer and closer to his heart.
   His fingers screamed in agony as the blade slid past them.
   Blood dribbled onto his shirt from his bleeding fingers.
   "Stupid Draconigena. You're not even using your full power. You aren't even worth the kill. You're just a pathetic waste. I might as well put you out of you misery as an act of mercy." She said, still heading for his chest with the crimson tipped sword.
   Knowing he couldn't stop her, he wrenched the blade away from his heart and allowed it to sink into his shoulder.
   He cried out in pain as the cold steel was ripped out of his shoulder without a touch of gentleness.
   "You stupid, beast. I don't know why you won't just give up. You're worthless. You won't amount to anything. You just had yourself an easy way out but now you've squandered that chance and I'm going to make you regret that decision for whatever time you have left."
   Every word she said stung him deeply. They were the same things Ignacio, Enya, Haco, and Flint used to say to him all the time. But hearing it from a compete stranger hurt the most. It felt like she saw how to hurt him most and used it to do so. The pain was all to much to bear. He just had to let it out.
   Then something stirred from within him, and a haunting feeling returned.
   He screamed in pain as his bones broke and reformed.
   He could faintly hear The Hunter getting all excited because she was going to get to fight the dragon side of him.
   Well if it was the uncontrollable monster she wanted, then she was going to get it.
   He didn't fight the pain like he did during his first transformation. He let it go along as it should. As a result, it was less painful and in a matter of minutes he had completely transformed into the raging dragon.
   He watched as his dragon side blew streams of fire at her and slash at her with its—their claws and tail.
   It felt like someone else was controlling him while he just sat back and watched along with the occasional burst of pain from The Hunter.
   The fight finally ended when dragon-him caught her with his wing tip and sent her flying over a dozen feet away.
   He heard Anahita's gasps of pain like he was right next to her.
   Dragon-him heard them too, and walked over to Anahita, and picked her up.
   She seemed frightful, and looked like she rather face The Hunters than him.
   He wished he could tell her he wasn't going to rip her head off but he couldn't.
   "I-Ignatius?" Anahita asked in a shaky voice.
   He looked at her, and the dragon dipped his head to her.
   Ignatius wasn't sure if that did anything to convince her that the dragon wasn't going to eat her. He would have to tell her later that he would never eat her.
   Then, like instinct, his fiery red wings with veins of gold running through them unfurled, and his muscular legs shoved him and Anahita off the ground, and into the dark sky.
   Rain pelted them as dragon-him gained more altitude.
Anahita didn't say anything. She must have been too scared to.
When he looked down, he saw that she had passed out from blood loss.
No! He thought desperately.
In his rage, he roared into the dark sky, and sent out a jet of flames that tickled the inside of his throat.
Then, like the sky was angry at him for blasting it with fire, it sent down a bolt of white-blue lightning right in front of him, temporarily blinding him.
He roared in despair as he tried to find his way to the ground.
He felt the air slipping from under his wings, and excruciating pain as he hit a tree.
Feeling himself going down fast, he held Anahita to his chest and wrapped his wings protectively around her as they plummeted towards the ground.
When he hit the ground, his wings and body screamed at him for letting this happen.
Then darkness clouded his mind as he passed out.

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