The Dragoso Series 3: Peace in Agony
Chapter 3

Trevor was shaken awake in the middle of the night. He groaned and found David’s face in his view, tears flowing from his eyes and he sniffled.

“What’s wrong?” Trevor asked. He blinked a few times and pushed himself up somewhat.

“Am I annoying?” David sniffled.

“What? What makes you think you are, come here.” Trevor pushed himself off his stomach and sat with his legs crossed, David crawling up onto his lap and Trevor hugged him close. “You are not annoying. You never will be. You’re my little brother and I love you to pieces, buddy.”

“Promise?”

“I promise, David.” Trevor yawned and rubbed his eyes. He probably wasn’t going back to sleep anytime soon, neither was David. “C’mon, grab your shoes.” Trevor shoved David off of him playfully and got up.

“What? Why? Won’t we get in trouble for being up after lights out?” David asked.

“We’re members of the team now. We don’t have to follow Voutneth’s rules exactly.” Trevor pulled his shoes on and tossed David’s on the floor in front of his brother.

“What are we even doing?” David slid off the bed and pulled his shoes on.

“Going for a flight.” David paused tying his shoes.

“What are you, crazy? There’s things out there looking to kill us and you want to go out there?” Trevor scoffed.

“David, we’ve faced the worst of it. I doubt there’s nothing worse than Hell Dragons, a psycho with the power of the Underworld, and another psycho who wanted to kill all dragons in the world.” David let out a small “huh” and looked at the wall in front of him.

“I guess you’re right.” David finished tying his shoes and stood up. Trevor swung his arm over David’s shoulders and the two brothers started downstairs and out to the back of the Academy.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve come out late at night for a flight. When I’ve had a bad Flight Class day, I come out here after the daylight crew goes to sleep and fly it off.”

“Daylight crew?” David raised an eyebrow, something he picked up from Trevor.

“Darkie covers security at night. Scared the crap out of me the first time I ran into him. He’s good at low key surveillance. He hides in the shadows after all.” David nodded and Trevor’s body glowed. The light consumed his human form and he shifted to his dragon form. David followed in suit and they both stood as dragons. Trevor grinned at his younger brother and took off into the night air, David close behind him.

Trevor glided past the Academy’s fence and over the forest. He looked back at David tailing behind him before a sound of satisfaction rumbled in his chest and he sped up. David laughed and kept up with Trevor.

“You’re right, this is awesome!” David exclaimed and Trevor chuckled. Something roared in the distance and Trevor stopped short, David almost ramming into him. “What?”

“Did you hear that?” Trevor looked around for a moment before the creature roared again. He started to dive down.

“Trevor wait!” Trevor stopped short and looked back. “I don’t hear anything, it might be a trick.”

“Maybe, but it doesn’t hurt to check. Malice said griffins live in the forest. We’ll stay together, look around, then leave once we figure out what it is. Okay?”

“I guess...” Trevor continued to the ground and David hurried after him. The two landed below the trees and Trevor sniffed the air.

“Reeks of griffin and deer. Don’t get lost.” David nodded and Trevor looked around. He heard the familiar screech of a griffin and David swallowed.

“I heard that.” Trevor led the way towards the sound of a griffin in distress and they came to a clearing. “Where is it?”

Out of nowhere, a flash of green flew past them and trailing behind it was a pale fleshy humanoid creature, but its fingers were long and looked almost like claws.

“Trevor look out!” David exclaimed and the creature charged at Trevor. Trevor snarled and swiped his claws at the enemy. It screeched at Trevor and lashed out with its own claws, cutting through Trevor’s scales as if they were warm butter. Trevor stumbled back a few steps and David jumped forward, perching on Trevor’s back and spitting water at the beast. It screeched and ran off into the trees. “Are you okay?” Trevor panted as he held his chest where the creature had clawed him.

“What the hell was that?” Trevor looked at his hand, dripping with his blood. “We better get out of here before it comes back. I want to help that griffin, but if it can do this much damage with one attack, I don’t want to see it severely pissed off at us both.” David nodded and stepped off his brother and let Trevor lean against him.

The two made their way out as quickly as they could on foot. They came to the fence of the Academy and David looked to Trevor.

“Can you fly over it?” David questioned. The creature screeched in the distance and Trevor looked back before flapping his wings quickly and getting over the fence, David following behind him. The creature came through the trees and slammed into the fence, reaching through the bars at the two. David hissed at it and opened his wings to appear bigger.

“Give it a break, David. It can’t get in here,” Trevor mumbled. Out of nowhere, a jet black dragon appeared out of the ground and roared at the creature. It screamed and ran into the woods. Trevor huffed and smirked. “Took you long enough, Darkie.”

“Why was a Wendigo targeting you?” Darkness questioned.

“Wendigo?” David asked.

“Cannibals that were once human, transformed by the raw evil of eating their own species. They like dark, damp, locations and feed off humans. But since we smell partially like humans, they target dragons too. Did it get you?” Darkness looked at Trevor’s chest and grimaced. “Get Sereph to look at that, it might get infected. Those things have a ton of bacteria in their claws.”

“Was that always back there?” Trevor questioned. Darkness opened his mouth to respond, but froze and looked at the fence where the Wendigo had been a moment ago.

“No...I mean, in legends they are said to hang out in the Great Lakes region and we are in that area, but Wendigos have never been around here, ever. One sniff of alpha traits and they turn tail and run.”

“Alpha traits?” David questioned.

“Don’t look into that too much, Trevor let’s get you taken care of before you get infected.” Trevor nodded.

~oOo~

Trevor flinched as Sereph pulled the needle through his skin as she stitched the wound closed. He laid on one of the tables as she worked, still hurting from the disinfectant she had flooded the wounds with. He was lucky none of his insides were showing, so Sereph said.

“I know it’s my job to take care of you guys, but come on, some of these wounds are ridiculous!” Sereph snapped.

“How was I supposed to know there was a Wendigo running around in the woods?” Trevor grumbled and Sereph paused mid stitch.

“Wait, it’s behind the school?”

“Yeah?”

“Son of a hellhound...” She finished treating Trevor’s wound and injected him with an antibiotic. “Get some rest, I need to talk to Kathey.” Trevor nodded and started for his room. Sereph watched him walk for a bit before heading upstairs herself and to Kathey’s office. She knocked twice before opening the door and Kathey grumbled from her bed as the light flipped on in the room.

“This better be good or I’m gonna-” Kathey stopped mid-sentence when her mind was flooded with Sereph’s memories from a moment ago. “Wendigos in the woods?”

“Just the one,” Sereph corrected.

“If there’s one then there’s more. There’s always more.” Kathey rubbed her face. “Gods be damned, I need to pry at that soldier’s mind, Agony must be behind the Wendigos too.”

“Is he?”

“You know very well they avoid that forest because of me, if they’re there, then no doubt Agony is trying to whittle us down so we can’t fight him. Trevor and David have been having nightmares, the griffins are on edge and getting spooked at something we can’t see, who knows what else is going on. Agony is a master of illusions, it’s how Brokenstar and Cenod used their powers, just off him.”

“But Brokenstar is a Nega Dragon, can’t he use illusions too?”

“Yeah, but not in the magnitude we’ve seen. That’s Agony’s expertise.” Kathey rubbed her eyes before looking to Sereph. “Tell Darkness to wake the team early tomorrow, I need to call a meeting to discuss what’s going on and what we’re going to do. If we don’t act soon, he’s gonna launch an attack on us. If we lose any battle against the Council, then it’s the end of Earth and Dragoso as we know it.” Sereph nodded and hurried out, closing Kathey’s door behind her. Kathey exhaled slowly and fell back, staring at her ceiling. “What the hell brought these psychos back and why are they attacking now?” She rolled over and went back to sleep.

Only a few hours later Kathey was awake and drinking Sereph’s rejuvenation tea as she looked over the plans she had finished writing up. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something. She’d have to consult Kaylano and Deathbore about the Council and what they do for their takeover attempts. If anybody would know, it’s the leader of the Gods and the King of the Underworld.

Kathey looked up as the team trickled into the conference room, looking like nobody had even slept. Trevor was still cringing from pain when he moved too much to aggravate his recent wound.

“Sorry to call you all this early,” Kathey apologized. She gestured to the tray of mugs holding the same tea she was drinking and everyone grabbed a mug.

“This better be good, Kathey, cutting into my workout time is annoying,” Arkin grumbled.

“Shut up about your workout already, Arkin. Nobody caressss,” Samual snapped.

“Hey hey! I know we’re tired, and I know why. Agony wants this,” Kathey stated. The feuding men looked to her.

“Agony? What doessss he have to do with thissss?” Samual questioned.

“I’m not completely sure yet, I have to talk to Deathbore and see if Kaylano can give me some insight from their previous tyranny. For now I want you guys to train and rest when you can. If Agony continues his rampage of weakening us, we’ll need as much sleep as we can get.” She looked at the faces of her team before nodding. “I also wanted to make an announcement.” Kathey looked to the door of the conference room and it opened and in walked the four most recent newcomers to the Academy, Vatuna, Ractor, Ferentar, and Comeli. They lined up next to Kathey. “As you all know, the Exotics had been with us since we rescued them from the Hunters. They have been recovering very well and have accepted my offer to join us in preventing something as bad as that from happening again. Welcome our new members.”

After pleasantries were exchanged, the team and its new members walked out of the conference room, Kathey staying behind. She rubbed her face and collapsed on one of the couches in the room.

“Kathey?” she looked up at Trevor standing in the doorway.

“What?”

“Are you okay?” Kathey huffed a laugh.

“I should be asking you that. Wendigo claws to the chest aren’t fun in the slightest, I would know.”

“Has one gotten you before?” Trevor approached and sat next to her on the couch.

“Yeah, when treated immediately they heal up as though nothing happened. It sliced up my tail pretty good, caught me in the middle of my own attack and I suffered for it. After I killed it, the rest of them learned to back off, they flee anytime they catch a whiff of me.” Kathey stood and stretched her arms up. “Get to training, Trevor. No doubt we’ll have a lot on our hands when Agony decides to get stupid and attack us directly.”

“Yes, ma’am.”