Vex ran about the herd, trying to seperate the ones he'd chosen using his untrained eye. He had started out with twenty of them, he was down to fourteen of them now. His tongue was still numb and swollen from eating the last ones, his anger was getting the best of them. Herding them north was proving to be more of a challenge than he'd anticipated, Reyna had wanted a few for her military experts to inspect and assess, at this rate she'd be lucky to get one.

He was changing from man, to Wolf-Dracgon in an attempt to scare them and send them running north. He'd done it numerous times and had only gotten a few miles from the Rani's villa, out in the open of the desert expanse he felt vulnerable. He'd waited till cooling hours of the desert night before embarking north with his small herd of keetones, hoping to travel by night and have them burrow during the day.

That plan was shot to Hada, he'd killed all the herders, so now he had no way of controlling them. He'd tried to get a herder to help him, but the man had tried to kill him the instant he'd turned his back, having three war-tones attack him at once. It had ended in a gorey, venomous mess for the herder, Vex killing the war-tones first, and then bathing the herder in their venom.

The people of the Scorch were intent on keeping the keetones to themselves, willing to die foolishly in their attempts to keep the north from having them. It was an oversight on the Queens handling of the Scorch, she'd been content to just chase the wolves to the sands. Leaving them in relative peace these for many years, underestimating them these many years. The Queens spies and magic had failed her, somehow the draca had let her down!???

After the wars, it was all about infrastructure and defense. Mankind had next to nothing to start from so it was a long, and tedious process. Queen Lesna worried about keeping what they'd won, and not so much concerned with the lands beyond. That wasn't the case anymore though, numerous air-ships were now navigating the desert skies, mapping and intelligence gathering. It was a sad thing to say, but they learned more about the Scorch in the last year than they had, in almost eight centuries.

The Queens always said that vampires, werewolves, and dragons had a place on Nazra. Why she said this remained a mystery to all but the Queens, and perhaps Gillilion. Vex watched as a baby keetone followed its mother, at least he assumed its mother, he still had not figured out how to tell which sex they were. He kicked at the sands in frustration, the day had started out so enjoyable, but had turned into a boring trek across the vast sands.

The keetones once again began to migrate south, in the direction of the Rani's villa. Vex took in a deep, resigned breath, herding keetones was a dull task, one that his fit filled thoughts didn't take to. He shifted once more to the Wolf-Dracgon, roaring and growling sending the keetones running off towards the north. The baby keetones short, stubby legs running deftly atop the sands, struggling to keep pace with its mother. It reminded him of the dirty, lil fat girl he'd eaten earlier in the day, kinda cute.

Howling and growling he guided them north, dodging the many volly's of keetone venom spit in his direction. His anger got the best of them again, as he snapped off one of their heads. His strong maul and diamond sharp teeth biting through the keetones protective neck shell, chomping and crunching against his palate, before swallowing it down. He was chomping in bloody bliss, but suddenly stopped, sniffing at the air.

He smelled her, the curs sour, burnt, dead smell filled his snout, a repulsive stench. She was still alive! Vex morphed into jester form once again, staring south he watched as the Rani's wife's servant stumbled towards him.

"You're a persistent bitch, I'll give you that!" He yelled to her once she was within shouting distance.

So stopped in surprise, although still far away, his keen draca vision picked up on the blank empty stare, deaths stare. Vex grinned, a killer's smile, wanting and ravaging. He watched the woman intently, she still stood unmoving, swaying as if she might fall. She was weak, hurt, this wasn't going to be much of a fight. He slowly began making his way towards her, bauble laughing in bloods lust.

"Alngin, wills all be Scorched." She yelled, and with that her last words were swallowed up with the roars of the damned.

Vex cringed, the shrieking coming from this lone she wolf. He covered his ears as the growl became more of a high pitched howl. The keetones scattered in fear, a few of them burrowed in hopes of escape, the baby and mother galloping north.  He stumbled a moment and fell to a knee, he could feel the sands rumbling, a dragon inhaling that great last breath before erupting and bellowing fire.

Vex's legs and knees felt like they'd turned to mutton pulp, his thoughts dashing and confusing. The she-wolf's howl, the wanton lamentation of the damned. The force of the howling, picking Vex up and throwing him. Her howl becoming a force all its own, scattering his thoughts, he crashed into the sands tumbling and rolling to a spitting halt.  The bauble laughing even harder now as its master was tossed about the sand.

The screeching, now shattering the grains of sand, Vex felt his bones wanting to snap, his head spinning, battered and confused. He peered in the she wolves direction once again, his jaw dropping in awe.

The form of a dark wolf, a flaming shadowed wolf erupted from the sands, engulfing the she wolf, the howling louder now. A loud 'popping' noise drew Vex's attention to his left, a keetone, shell shattered by the reverberating howls from Hada's tormented.

The wolf loomed in the distance, her size and mass growing, the shattered grains of sands raced maddeningly around her, growing in size, equalling that of a mature dragon now, she was growing fast though, a few hundred feet tall. Dark, empty flames licked about her waist, she was hundreds of feet tall, and he still could not see her legs from the waist down hidden beneath the sands.

In his confusion, the she wolf reminded him of himself. Her upper half was here on Nazra, but her lower half was still part of a malevolent phantom, drawing her power from somewhere deep within the the smoldering sands. He could see the large, angry, yellow flamed eyes, scanning the sands looking for something. Her eyes darted feverishly, panicked she'd lost what she'd come for!

The burning eyes of Alngin came to rest on him, the she wolf roaring in delight once she'd spotted him, he was the prey she hunted.

Her last roar, garbled his thoughts even more, pain racked his body, both his kneecaps shattering with the pitch of the high decibel roar. Vex rolled to his stomach trying to crawl away, confusion, fear, anger, dread, all wrestled with his psyche, he'd have been lost, had it not been for the darkness that lurked within him.

He seized the draca with a violent yank, twisting the malcontent powers within to bid as he willed, drawing upon the power bestowed him at the Reckoning so many centuries ago. The Alabastar lighting licked and split the sands, Vex howled in a high, decibeled pitch of his own, his body consumed by the draca, Alabastar, and flames of the cursed, transforming into Dracgon-Wolf.

Vex's mind was shocked to clarity by the Alabastar's lightning strike; rage, hate, anger, pride, vengeance, lust, hurt, he consumed them all. His Dracgon-Wolf senses now flooding him, the Scalders movements, scents, and violence.

The she wolf shirked in an even higher pitched anger, as Vex transformed into the Dracgon-Wolf, his size increasing with each pull, twist, tug, and raping of the draca within him. His now Dracgon keen ears hearing several more of the keetones 'popping' and exploding as they fled.

Vex smiled, his large Alabastar-diamond fangs reflecting the moon's sheen, a killer's lust filling him, his mouth wet and salivating, drooling from his blackened, Alabastar Dracgon chin. He spewed a plume of Dracgon's fire, his own saliva snapping and crackling inside his head. The Alabastar Fire lashed into the large shadow wolf, striking her...it, in the chest, with a violent thunder. The Alabastar engulfed her and just when she looked to be about to fall, the sand twat pierced the air of the bright desert night with another bone shattering howl.

Vex watched in lustful jealousy as the she-wolf howled, straining her throat to a cooking meat raw, drawing on even more power. The Forever Flames now erupted from the sands, he could feel their heat even under his Dracgon skin, and Wolf hide. He should fear this, he knew, the predator within would not allow it, he wanted this fight, this battle, this challenge!

He smiled, envisioning ripping her apart from twat to skull top, he slobbered and drooled in excitement. His large Dracgon tongue stripping the saliva from his teeth as he licked them in anxious want. He stalked the giant she-wolf from the sands, darting about the pulsing sands, looking for a weakness to lunge and plunge his Dracgon's gob into.

The blast of a hornsman was just audible through the increasingly louder winds. Another, than another. That meant the Dracgons would be her shortly. Vex bashed his Dracgon head off the sands in vile frustration, the winds were beginning to pull him towards the she-wolf, a few more moments and he'd be close enough to engage with a bite!

He thought only a moment, before doing what he knew he must. The queen was already cross with him about Avery. If he let the Dracgons see him, the queen would kill him. He was an original secret, one gleaned from the Reckoning, and it was a secret guarded as closely as that of the original sins of Lesna's. No Dracgon's knew of his altered existence, and those that had were no longer amongst the living of Nazra. The Queens had their Alabastar throne, the sword Ladys Wrath, Dracgons, Reighns, Braids, blah, blah, blah... They all served her well enough, but when the kingdom was truly in peril, it was he whom she turned to...him!

He could no longer see the she-wolf, or the shadow wolf, or whatever she was. All he could see now was the Forever Fires igniting the winds and sands becoming a fiery monster, hungry to consume all unfortunate to be in its path.

Vex let the winds and fire pull him in, basking in the fiery souls of death as they pulled harder, howling to consume him. The heat grew to within combusting him, just as the flames went to envelope him, the draca turned him to mist and he sank gracefully beneath the sands.

The Scalder bellowed with the anger and rage of a million lost souls, the jester had escaped!

He darted under the sands panicked now.

Keetones! Keetones!

Where were the shell backs??

He ran under the sands, using the draca magics to peer through the sands and see the world above. It had taken him years to master it, the draca acting like a bitch back in those days, now it was a skill he used often. Beneath the sands, as a ghost, he searched for the baby keetone and mama.

He could feel it, a cold burning, but not just outside his body, but inside. It was a sensation foreign to him, not really painful, but damning. It put him ill at ease, he felt hunted, even violated, it scared him. He would grab a keetone and get out of here, he'd been at this task long enough. He was ignoring other duties and knew he'd have Hada to pay for it, his life wasn't just about jingling, dancing, and dice...duties, he had duties.

The keetones that had decided to burrow payed with their lives first, the only ones standing a chance were the ones that had ran, but even they would not make it.

As the Scalder grew bigger and bigger, the feelings of vile dread grew. He had to find a keetone fast, and flee the Scorch. He shook his head, hating the way that sounded, him, fleeing the Scorch. He spotted momma and her wobbler baby keetone still chewing up the sands in their flight of terror. He smiled, picturing the the dirty, little fat girl running on her stubby legs.

He had to give some respect to wobbler baby, the little thing pumping its legs in sand spitting speed. Wobbler wasnt the weight of his mother so he raced smoothly above the sands. His claws barely making a light sound, sinking very little, able to maintain a pace even faster than the mother.

Vex loped beneath the sands increasing his pace, abusing the draca once more to gain his needs. He sped ahead of the Scalder now, the dark feelings ebbing a bit. Momma keetone was just getting sucked up into the galing winds, the mug bellowing in horror and loss of her babe as she was sucked up.

He was a sands Wolf-Drcagon now sprinting beneath the sands and directly under the squealing babe. He reached with two hands grabbing the back legs babe, his hands becoming solid just amidst the sands for an eye blink before once again returning to mist beneath the sands, with the babe in haul.

The babes bulging eyeballs met his for a brief instant before it shelled up, cutting off its own terrified squeal violently tucking its head into its shell.

He didn't have time to look at it to be sure it was alright. He just clamped down, on the shell with his great maul and began sprinting, floating and then flying. The draca his bitch once more, bending to his whims. He flew high in the clouds still ghost like in body, the baby keetone silent and still within its shell. He thought about chomping down and 'popping' it but figured it'd be a waste with the thing being so small. Probably be no louder than a three or for year olds femurs and pelvises breaking and snapping.

It wouldn't be worth the Queens wrath for that weak a pleasure. She was going to be mad enough with having to teleport him back to Queens Lance, each time she used that much power it would take from her life, days, months, years? No one knew, but those close to the Queen could tell, when she wielded the magics too much.

Opening just the smallest of cracks within his mind he reaches out to his Queen, cautious to only open just a small hole for her to view into his mind. He'd learned long ago to be wary of the Queens, many times over.

"I've the keetone m...my Queen!"

For a moment he heard nothing, felt nothing. He was beginning to lose hope, perhaps she'd make him fly the little mug? Brute? Back to the Lance?

But then the familiar tingle and lights of the draca caressed and cascade down upon him, a lovers whisper, softly exploring every molecule, every cell that was him pulling them apart within the time of a kiss, and then tying and binding them together once again, within a the gasped breath moments before that kiss taken.

He found the binding part of reforming, after place travel to be, almost erotic. Every living part of his being, carressed in a God forming way, bound in an embrace so peaceful, so ......

*********************

He opened his eyes, now merely Vex, the Queens jester. Sitting up amidst the sands, but surrounded by the Alabastar walls Queens Lance. The baby keetone was still shelled up, silent and quiet. He got to his knees, and pushed the shell further into the sands, hoping the familiar grains of sands would coaxe the creature out of its armored home.

They were within one of the castle's under mountain stables, accessed by few, and kept by that few. The stalls had been removed and now was just one, very large room filled with sand, sands brought in from the Scorch on numerous air ships.

"It's okay my little desert treat, it's okay." He cooed, bending on his knee, trying to peer into the head hole of the Keetone's shell, closing one eye, squinting to see within the darkened hideout.

"Come, come little one, it's okay."

He coooed, and coaxed, bribed and begged the beast to come forth for the next hour or so. By then one of the stable men had noticed him and came over to investigate.

"What do we have here master Vex?" Asked the dullard sounding, man boy.

Vex stood up shooing the man away, and walking a few feet with him to talk.

"This is the desert beast the Queen has coveted for sometime now. Its had a long journey and lost its dear mother to a Scalder. Care for it more than you do your own life," he gently padded the mans cheek "it's far more valuable than yours."

The stable man gulped nervously, "Yes my lord Jester." Trying,but unsuccessful in cracking a smile.

"Good." He padded the man on the chest, "Now let's give the thing some space, maybe you make it nervous."

The stable man nodded, "Yes, my lord, or course." The both of them walking further away, almost out of its sight.

"So what's it eat? What's it drink?" Asked the man.

"Your job to find out ...?"

"Bart my lord, my names Bart." he said meekly.

"This beast is ours now Bart, figure out what it eats, drinks, shits, does...I don't care! Just don't let it die, I'm growing rather fond of it. Do I make myself clear stable man?"

"Alabastar clear, my lord." croaked the man.

Vex turned to leave.

"A name my lord?"

"What?"

"A name, my lord? Does the beast a name."

Before Vex could answer the stall was filled with the bellows of a boweling keetone, a babe's first shittings. The bellows themselves were disturbing to somes souls, the noxious fumes of months within the womb and the first three of four months upon Nazra, gave the spoils even a wider range of the senses.

Bart, tasting it now turned away, "The Known's anus!" He exclaimed gagging and turning away, trying to spit the fumes from his mouth. His eyes widened in shock and terror, realizing the curse in front of his master. "Sorry my lord." he muttered sincerely.

Vex smirked, the smell rancid, rivaled that of eating a maggot infested cadaver. But he would not flinch at the smell.

"Drusa Frae."

"My lord?" Gagged Bart.

"Its name Bart,  its Drusa Frae."

"A ferocious name I am sure, worthy of our little desert monster! One to instill fear, and terror, its meaning if I may ask my lord?"

"Ferocious indeed Bart." He muttered, thinking of little Frae, the toddler in her desert garb, running for her life, her chubby and determined face would live with him for a few turns of time.

"Its meaning? My lord? The name."

Bart pulled him from thoughts of her.

"To you, nothing.  To me, dirty fat girl, Bart. It means dirty fat girl."

Bart chuckled uncomfortably, gulping nervously once more.

"So its a girl my lord." He declared, questioning.

Vex turned and once again headed towards the stables exit.

"I've no fucking clue Bart." He said over his shoulder.

Bart went to ask another question raising a hand as if to speak, but then bit his tongue, instead pulling his shirt over his face heading out to grab a shovel and barrow.