Fell Dragon
Greeting Readers!
I hope this week finds you well. It's only Tuesday and I'm already running out of time to do everything that needs needed before Friday. I will post when I am able to, so for now, enjoy this chapter of Fell Dragon. I hope you enjoy it!
Doran found the two women in each other’s arms, and he let out a sigh he had been holding onto. Jarah had indeed told Myla about Saita but had asked her to give him time to look over her before descending onto her. That had perhaps been a bad idea. As he watched the mother-daughter reunion he knew that had she been in that hospital room when the girl woke up this would have ended far more different. He took the twins’ hands as they reached for his.
“Uncle Doran why is Mommy crying?” asked Kristen in his little voice.
“Do you remember the story I told you about your sister that was taken?” he said softly.
Barbara looked at her mother weeping with the young woman on the floor and nodded her head. “It is Saita, isn’t it?”
“It is Saita, young one.” Said Doran.
The twins nodded their heads and then Kristen asked. “Why are Saita crying?”
Doran sighed softly then smiled softly at the boy. “It has been four years, three months, and fourteen days since they last saw each other. She just realised how long she has been gone.”
Eventually, the two women calmed, and they were able to get to their feet.
“You have gotten tall,” said Myla, not knowing what else to say to Saita.
“They got big.” Saita indicated the twins that held onto Doran’s hands.
“You are in pain.” this wasn’t a question but rather a statement.
Saita couldn’t look at her mother but rather just said. “Constantly.”
“Here, look at me.” Myla took her hands and held them tightly.
“Mom…?”
“It’s a dissociative ability, used for patients who can’t be treated with pain meds immediately. Tricks the brain into thinking that you are not in pain. If nothing else, it will ease some pain.”
“I don’t know if I can copy anything anymore…”
Myla would not release Saita until she at least tried. The pain had subsided enough for the girl to concentrate on the technique. This was likely the first time she had been able to think for herself in ages.
“I want you to try, Saita,” she begged.
Myla gripped the side of Saita’s head, and her eyes implored the young woman to try. Saita was too busy trying to think as her mind was starting to clear from the fog of pain. She had known some of her mother’s extensive healing techniques, but this was a new one. She could copy it. She should be able to use it. She let go of her mother’s hand and made to touch the back of her head.
“Does it have to be through touch?’ she asked.
“For me yes.”
The pain didn’t disappear, but it dulled to nothing more than a throb, akin to the start of a headache. An annoyance but not debilitating. Free! Finally free from the burning, she felt a sob build in her chest again, but she squashed it. This only tricked the brain into thinking that it wasn’t in pain. Her body was still in pain, and a lot of it.
“This isn’t solving anything,” she said through clenched teeth.
“It gives us time,” whispered Myla as she stroked her daughter’s face. “You are home, I...I…”
She covered her mouth, and more tears came. “I was prepared to bury a body after all this time, but here you are.”
“You may as well have a body on your hands,” said Saita softly.
Myla had not stayed long with the twins. She had had other pressing matters that needed her attention, and though she had not wanted to go Saita had made her go. Doran knew why but remained silent as Myla gave the girl one last hug swearing that she would be taking Saita home soon.
Saita had kept a half smile on her face during this interaction but once her mother had left, she had let it fall from her face. She looked at Doran and said. “I can think again, but nothing has changed. I am still burning on the inside.”
He walked her back to where Jarah was still reading the notes with a look of disgust on his face. He turned to see a calmer Saita and asked. “Did your mother find you? I was hoping the technique would work, but where is she?”
“I can still mimic other people’s abilities but faster now.” said Saita ignoring the question.
“Well, you sound far more lucid in comparison to earlier. Could you sit?” Jarah patted a seat next to him. “I want to talk.”
“I honestly remember nothing Jarah,” she said earnestly, not moving. “I remember going with Edzeeker and then one day waking up and killing the doctor. I don’t remember the years in between.”
“I realise that,” he said gently. “I want to see something.”
“I don’t want to know!” she said suddenly as she hugged her body. “Don’t make me remember!”
“Not my intention.” he once more said gently. “Please, sit.”
Saita reluctantly sat and looked at the doctor. He gripped her along her jawline with both his hands and looked at her with a frown. He sat like that for a while before he said. “I think I know what is happening here.”
He let go of her head and flicked through the pages on his data pad. “A chemical restraint. Likely the dear doctor implanted something to make sure you stayed subservient while he needed you to be.”
He twisted Saita’s head so that he could see the right side of her head. After digging in her hairline for a while he said. “Here is a scar I don’t recall and isn’t in the surgery notes I have.”
He motioned to the scan he had taken earlier and looked over the head region and frowned once more. “But I don’t see anything.”
“What are you going on about?” asked Doran.
“You do not make a super soldier with debilitating and constant pain. This was caused by something. A chemical constraint or a mechanical one. I don’t see anything though. However, if the brain is being affected directly it might be getting a dose of something that keeps part of it in pain. Likely before Saita killed Sellious he activated it and there is no way to turn it off unless it can be removed.”
“He did,” said Saita softly as she rubbed at the side of her head. “It was not something I saw but if I disobeyed there was pain. Always pain and sickness. So much sickness.”
“This is likely concealing something.” Jarah tapped the slight scar at her right temple.
He turned back to the scan and said again. “But I cannot see anything.”
“Likely because it is made from her own bone.” came a voice that made Saita smile.
“Beatrice!” she exclaimed and got to her feet.
The large black woman practically bowled the two men over to reach for the girl. She picked her up, crushing her to her large chest before spinning her around and around.
“Saita, Saita, oh my Saita what have they done to you?” she cried.
Saita was unable to answer. Beatrice finally sat her down and said. “Myla told me to make sure these two didn’t harass you too much.”
“I am fine,” said Saita.
“Lies girl!” Beatrice tapped the centre of her head. “Look at you, gone for almost four and half years, and you return practically glowing with pain. What was done to you?”
“It was Sellious,” said Jarah softly.
Beatrice went spire white then spat. “What!?”
“Sellious was the one that did this to Saita,” said Jarah as he clutched at his table.
Saita had to help Beatrice to the bed as the woman practically fainted.
“That monster, that beast, that…” she gripped Saita’s face and asked. “What has he done to you?”
Jarah brought up the scan and pointed to it. Beatrice looked at it, understanding only some of what she was seeing, and it sickened her to her core.
“Aye baby girl.” she gripped Saita once more and held her tightly. “You are home now. You are safe.”
“Can’t breathe,” mumbled Saita.
“There,” said Doran, pointing to the scan.
“There, what?” asked Jarah.
“Behind her right eye. Looks like a shard of bone. I remember her x-rays after the surgery for her eye. There had been no bone. That must be it.”
Jarah looked at the scan from multiple angles and nodded his head. “Likely, yes. It doesn’t seem that deeply implanted, but I won’t know how it is wired until I open her up.”
Jarah refused to look at Saita. The girl finally broke away from Beatrice’s grasp and simply asked. “Will it stop the pain?”
“I honestly don’t know. This is just my suspicion.” Jarah took a deep breath. “But it is the only thing that seems out of place with what else has been done to you.”
“For the love of all that is holy take it out!” begged Saita.
“I’ll need your mother’s permission…”
“If I have been gone for as long as what I have then I am no longer a minor Jarah,” said Saita. “I’m telling you. Take. It. Out! Take everything out!”
The silence in the room was deafening, and it was Beatrice that said. “He can remove the shard Princess but the rest he cannot.”
“And why not!?”
“It will kill you.”
She hadn’t wanted to sleep, but Jarah couldn’t operate on her while she remained conscious, so Beatrice sang to her. The song had only changed a little in the past few years. It had been one with the promise of dreamless sleep, and Saita didn’t fight it. Beatrice had at first insisted that the young woman lay with her head in her lap until she finally slumbered. Then she was taken to her surgery ward.
“Will you need more than an hour?” asked Beatrice.
“No, if I do, however, I will call for you,” said Jarah.
“I will stay and look.”
Doran had been right. A tiny shard of bone had been inserted through the right temple until it came to rest behind the right eye. Perhaps it was a way to disguise what appeared to be nothing more than bone but was actually a microchip, which was releasing a chemical to trigger pain. It was only later discovered that the microchip was able to synthesise this chemical with what was already readily available in her body.
After the surgery, Jarah had insisted that Beatrice keep Saita in a dreamless sleep for a few more hours. If for nothing else but to let the girl recover from the trauma of the last few days. Saita was sprawled out on her left side, clutching a pillow to her chest snoring softly behind Jarah as he worked. He wondered if this was the first time she had been able to sleep peacefully in years.
He continued to read the notes as she slept. He was not willing to watch the videos again, not while she was here. He would do that later to try and find answers. He was starting to make heads and tails of what Sellious was on about the further he went in the notes. Saita had been the only surviving child in these experiments that had been taken as a toddler due to her strange ability to copy powers. According to the notes, her parents were ‘not a problem anymore.’
Jarah shuddered when he read that. It was clear from those words that her genetic parents were no longer around. Hundreds of children were taken. Millions of clones were made. Saita was the only success. The only child that would have the system grown in their body. The system. That was what the doctor called the strange mixture of discs and wires that littered Saita’s body. Jarah had hoped that with enough research he could find a way to remove it from Saita but the more he read, the more he realised that there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell.
From the day the first piece had been inserted into her body, it had grown into her muscles, bones, and organs. It was more of a parasite than anything else. It lived off of her blood and gave her immense levels of force that she could make use of, but her body wasn’t right. This wasn’t meant for a human. The nerves were constantly being attacked by the build-up of energy and the marks were being created.
That was another thing Jarah noticed that had irked Sellious. The marks, that’s what he called them. He felt they had marred his creation, but he could not seem to get rid of them, even if he scraped them away. He found a particular paragraph that really showed the true irritation of Sellious.
That idiot sharp-eared bastard keeps telling me that the reserved energy is good, but the marks look hideous on it. It doesn’t need the marks on the outside. The energy can be stored deeper where it cannot be seen. The bastard laughed at me. He is happy it has managed to live this far. After the second bout of illness, he was concerned, but now he is smiling saying how finally he will be able to do something. And they say I am crazy.
“Sick prick,” muttered Jarah as he continued to read.
He was hoping to find more information about the system, but it was as if some pieces of information were just not important to the doctor, and he either skimped on the details or simply didn’t mention them. Edzeeker suffered much verbal abuse from the departed doctor, who clearly was only using him to get the resources so that he could complete his “masterpiece.”
Though with that said, the early surgeries had been failures before the system seemed to “recognize” its host and finally bonded with Saita. Then there was the sickness caused by the system. Several times after a major surgery Saita had been left vomiting nonstop or fought a fever for days. The doctor always described her as too stubborn to die even though her body was trying to give up.
The system, once bonded with its host, started feeding back into it. A human was not its preferred host and it made that well known. Yet, Saita fought, and she fought hard, never giving up.
And the idiot thought I was wrong in releasing it the first time. With the bonds that it formed its body fights in hopes that it will see them again in the future. Even now, sick as a dog, crying out for its ‘mother’ and ‘father’ what a joke. Well, at least it fights.
“Poor girl.” Jarah looked over her shoulder to see the girl shifting her position to lie on her right side.
He waited to see if she would wake, but her breathing deepened and she was once more sleeping a dreamless sleep. He got to his feet to draw the blanket over her shoulders. Her shirt had ridden up and he noticed that the tendril-like marks didn’t completely cover a long scar that extended from her spine to her left kidney. He had seen the video of that surgery. Her screams still echoed in his head.
“I’m glad you don’t remember,” he whispered as he covered her fully.
For a moment he rested his hand on the girl’s head. He didn’t sense pain in her at this moment, but he wasn’t sure if it was because she was asleep or if he had helped her somewhat.
“I hope you never remember what he did to you.” he hissed under his breath.
And where would the fun be if she doesn't? However, you'll need to read all the way through to the next book to find out what happened!
For those of you just joining us, please note that this is the follow on book from Fell Dragon. Here is the link to that book:
Fell Dragon Book 1
As the series continues, it will combine with another book series I wrote. To avoid confusion about what is happening, introductory chapters will be introduced separately so that you don't have to be lost. However, these chapters will contain spoilers. You can find these chapters here:
Part 1
If you want to join the Reader's list, just ask or follow me for updates on this and my other stories.
Reader's List
@weone, @merenludick, @clairemobey, @therneau, @blitzzzz, @pravesho, @joetunex, @captainquack22, @irisworld, @braaiboy, @sketchygamerguy, @fuego-oscuro, @felt.buzz, @dibblers.dabs, @beeber, @brittandjosie, @tamacvet, @alonicus, @joetunex, @zakludick , @thinkrdotexe , @pixelhuntersam, @alonicus
Haven't read the other parts yet? Follow these handy links:
Part 4>>You are Here>>Part 6