Valerian, The Legendary

Fortuna said, “Valerian, no matter what happens, do not get ten steps closer to me.”

The young man was surprised and froze in his steps, while the dragonling rushed ahead to open up a distance between the two of them. Suddenly the space shook with a thundering snort. The two people looked around, this part of the trial cavern was well lit but their was no figure visible to them.

Valerian wanted to move ahead, but since Fortuna has told him not to come close, he will follow her idea. A deep voice echoed in the surroundings, “Young ones, you dared to step into the trail path. Should I call you brave or should I call you foolish? To think that a young dragon princess at the verge of losing her identity as a dragon, asked a human to step up for her, stake his life.

What surprises me is the fact that you two do not share a magical bond. What a wonderful and unique duo you two are.”

Valerian seemed to have become a statue, when Fortuna suddenly said, “You speak too highly, renegade.”

The deep voice burst out in a rumbling laughter and then it replied, “Renegade, indeed you are the dragon princess. Others did not dare to even stand in front of me, for the past hundred years I have been guarding the river of time. Neither has any of the young ones have passed the trial.”

Fortuna let out a hum, and said, “Indeed, calling you renegade is not to humiliate you, but to acknowledge your strength as well. In the past, you were called by another name, the bane of dragons, were you not.”

A human walked out of the shadows, wearing tattered clothes. This man had long hair, and a thick long beard. However, the color of his hair was grey. Fortuna said, “You are the only person in this world who dared to steal the egg of a dragon and feast on the embryo inside, however, the curse you gained from this action is quite something as well.”

.....

The man frowned and said, “I have stated million times that it was not me. I was being controlled by that fucking apothecary. He thought consuming the dragon egg will enhance the powers of the gifted humans, however, that was not true. He did not get the chance to verify the results. After he fed me, your dragonkin appeared and the apothecary was simply eaten after they found that I have consumed the egg.

The so called righteousness of your scaly folk is nothing but hypocrisy. Understand, now come let me eat you as well.”

That said the man vanished from his place and appeared ten meters away from Fortuna, who said, “Val, do not look into his eyes.”

Valerian hurriedly nodded and lowered his head. He was simply shocked by the appearance of this guy. This man was sending his entire senses into a disarray, it was like a siren going off in his head, tell him to stay away from this beast or human, whatever this thing was.

Fortuna gazed in the eyes of the human in front of him and said, “I cannot help but applause in your ability to pose in front of me.”

Valerian was shocked and he could not help but shiver, he wanted to smack the head of this young dragon for the first time since they have met. The ragged human being in front of them, however, chuckled and said, “Dragon Princess, what makes you think that I am posing?”

Fortuna walked a step forward towards this guy and said, “Your internal organs were removed, now you are just a husk of your glorious undying self. The curse that I mentioned was this, a life worse then death, was I wrong?”

The man clicked his tongue and said, “I wondered what was so different about you from the other lizards. It seems that your inherited memory is much more complicated than the others in your kin.”

Fortuna shook her head and said, “I have no interest in wasting my time with you, can you please get lost to the shadows you came form? I need to go and take a dip in the river of time.”

The man shook his head and said, “Only when you can blame me will you be able to proceed. I can sense that you do not have much time left, if you do not let that human kid work it out for you, you will become a mound of bones here too. These dragons all died because they could not kill me.”

Valerian realized what was going on here. He did not intend to speak between the two creatures. Fortuna tilted her head and asked, “Is this trial that simple?”

The man opened his eyes wide and said, “Is it really easy for you?”

Fortuna nodded and walked forward to stand in front of the man and said, “Val, come and give this man a hug.”

Valerian was shocked and so was the old man. He did not expect this young dragonling to say such a thing. Just when the young boy was hesitating, Fortuna glared at him, as if saying, did you not hear what I just said?

The silver-haired child walked forward and asked, “Can we do a hand-shake?”

Fortuna nodded and said, “Just go and do what you want to.”

Valerian walked closer and closer to the old man, they were both standing face to face when the young man extended his shivering hand. The old man followed the action. They both held their hands but nothing happened.

Fortuna said, “Do you remember the gift my mother gave you?”

Valerian nodded and instantly a fuse went off in his mind. He closed his eyes while holding the hand of the old man, and channeled the mana of decay through his body to the body of the old man. The eyes of the old man opened wide. He could not believe what this young man was capable of. He was a person who had stood at the peak, being called the Grand Magnus magister, but when he was tricked by the old apothecary and caught by the dragons, his organs were removed.

His life was worse than death, his body was that of a dragon, his source of magic was sealed by the curse of the dragonkin. A corpse of a dragon would not decompose, but the effect of the river of time made the corpses here to decompose very quickly.

As the power of decomposition acted on the old man, he smiled, and said, “Finally...”

Valerian did not know what to say or even how to react. He never thought he would see a man giving off such a relieved reaction when he was about to die. Fortuna said, “Life is not a gift for all of the people. Some of them seek death more than anything else. Death can be a relieve too.”

The young man nodded as he looked towards the dragonling, then suddenly he felt that his hand has lightened up. He turned around and found that the old man has vanished, in his spot there was a mound of ashes. He gulped and asked, “Fortuna, did you know this all along?”

Fortuna did not reply, he looked at her and found her curled up on the ground. He reached over and picked her up, only to hear her mutter, “Fucking as if I knew shit about this. I was betting it all on a hunch.”

Valerian sensed his eyebrows twitching. Fortuna did not give a damn about his expression and said, “Go, follow the trail of light.”

Valerian understood that she wanted him to carry her delicate body to the river of time. He could also sense that her breathing was getting shallower. It seemed to him that the problem was more than just losing her wings or mana core, she was going to die. He looked around and quickly found a route that was particularly lit up. It was like a ray of sunlight falling through the skies.

He ran forward at the fastest speed possible, but as he got closer to the end of the path. He found that his speed was getting slower, Fortuna muttered, “You will only be safe from the effect of times when you are inside the waters.”

All of a sudden, just when he thought his speed was falling to the point of walking, he moved forward at the speed faster than ever. He could not comprehend what was the essence of time and the effects it would have on things. He used this chance and accelerated even more to exit the end of the pathway.