The Charidian Trilogy Part II
Onward and Upward
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-- the second one shot in the trilogy, here at last. Though it isn't necessary to read the first section - hence them being separate - I'd recommend it for full reading pleasure. ^.^
Onward and Upward
---
-- the second one shot in the trilogy, here at last. Though it isn't necessary to read the first section - hence them being separate - I'd recommend it for full reading pleasure. ^.^
Charidian Trilogy Part I - Change of Fate
Overall Rating: Pg 13 for suicidal thoughts.
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Sasha opened her angled blue eyes to the glare of the noon-time sun. She groaned, slowly standing up and blinking as the harsh sunlight reflected off of hot white hot sands. Peering around through half closed eyes, she inspected her surroundings.
The sand around her was part of a beach, stretching from the edge of the ocean up to the beginning of the trees. A jungle, thick with vegetation, restricted her view of what was beyond. In the other direction, though, the sea stretched out as far as the eye could see.
As Sasha looked out at the wide blue expanses, she felt a pang of fear. How she had gotten to this place, she did not know. She did know that something was missing, though. Someone else should be here with her.
But they weren’t. They were still out there, somewhere, perhaps drifting on the waves just beyond sight. Sasha would fly out there and find him!
She stretched her wings in preparation to fly off, but as she did, a sharp pain ran through one of them like a lightning bolt. Digging her hind claws into the sand with the pain, she turned her head around to look at it.
The leathery blue membranes that stretched between her bones were fine, it was the bones themselves that were hurting. One of them, the one just before the joint was sticking out at an odd angle, making Sasha’s stomach roil in disgust.
She turned away, growling as she realized she couldn’t fly. The injury must have happened after the accident...
Sasha paused for a moment, straining her memory. What accident? Why had she suddenly remembered an accident, even though that was all she remembered? The only thing she knew was that her loved one was still out there, perhaps hurt and unconscious, but still alive, just waiting to be rescued!
Sasha paced back and forth at the edge of the water, swinging her flame-tipped tail back and forth and growling in frustration. No Charizard would willingly enter water, it was their worst fear, but Sasha’s agitation grew with every passing second. She needed to rescue him!
Changing into her other form wouldn’t help either. Its puny, weak arms and frail legs wouldn’t get her there fast enough. Besides, she could see by the size of the waves rolling in that she probably couldn’t withstand the beating as a human.
She made up her mind. She had to rescue him! No matter what the cost, she knew that she had to do it, she had to swim out and save him. She couldn’t even remember who he was, just that she loved him with all of her heart.
Steeling herself, she dashed forwards, the shock of the water eliciting a gasp from her. But she kept going. The first wave hit her knees, stinging her fire hot scales painfully, but not enough for her to stop. So she kept going. The next wave struck her midriff, but her fear for Jake egged her on, through the pain and anguish.
Completely swamped by the next wave, she was forced to begin swimming in the atrocious liquid. Her efforts to keep her tail flame out of the water failed now, but whoever said that ‘when a Charidian’s flame dies, so does that individual’ obviously didn’t know Sasha. Instead, she used her tail as a method of self-propulsion, like a crocodile.
Thus, paddling, kicking, and swishing her tail, she pushed her way forward. Each wave seemed to push her back further than she swam, but the longer she swam, the bigger they got, so she assumed she must have been getting somewhere... right?
A huge breaker hit her now, rolling her over and over backwards before slamming her into the ocean floor. Starbursts filled her vision as she struggled fruitlessly towards the surface, clawing at the water and opening her jaws in a roar of defiance. Salty, sandy ocean water filled it immediately, making her choke.
Bubbles now rushed out of her mouth in a stream, and she thought, “What a sorry way to go...” But one more burst of energy and insolence to this horrid ocean made her spread her wings, broken or not, underwater, and thrust them downwards as if she were flying.
Breaking the surface with a huge roar, she filled her lungs with precious air, and began to swim again, towards the open ocean, towards her beloved. He had been shot out of the air not too far away from here, she knew it. She vaguely remembered a speck of land on the horizon in her panic filled dive as she tried to save him.
But most of her vision had been filled with him, bleeding, broken, falling from the sky as she watched, horrified as the men on the boat shot him again and again.
As the next wave pushed her underwater, she didn’t even fight it. The bitter truth had drained her energy. Jake was dead; no matter how savagely she fought these waves to try and reach him, it wouldn’t undo that fact.
As she slowly sank into the depths, she recalled her memories with him, of how he had helped her realize her true self, how he had fought off another suitor, of how he had saved her life by giving her hope. As she thought about it, she wondered if all of this, of being with her, of saving her, had given him hope as well? Surely, by saving him from a fate worse that death, a fate called loneliness, she had returned the favor?
Flashes of memories flickered through her mind: a picnic, with Jake laughing hysterically as he sprayed whipped cream into her mouth; laying in Jake’s arms, watching the stars dance across the sky; flying together, the wind whipping past their horns; Jake, stepping in front of her to protect her when she most needed him.
Would he have hope, even after death? Would she be betraying it, by giving up? By dying? The truth of her thoughts sunk in just as she hit the bottom with a muffled thump.
Her eyes shot open, narrowing in anger at this sea that had tried, and almost succeeded, in crushing her hopes, her dreams. Standing up on the bottom of the ocean floor, she spread her wings, drawing in a huge breath, regardless of the water.
With a roar, she shot out a huge stream of fire, which sizzled and hissed with the contact with the water, but she kept going. The water around her dissipated, turning into steam.
It started with a feeling, a warm glow within her, almost like the love she felt when she was with Jake. But with one difference. This time, she could smell the glow, hear the glow, see the glow. Still with a seemingly ineffective flamethrower shooting from her mouth, she felt herself growing, changing, evolving. Wait, evolving? But Charizards were a final evolution! Charizards couldn’t evolve!
Nevertheless, evolve she did. She couldn’t see herself, just the shine emanating from her body as it had done before. And her flamethrower suddenly increased in power, a veritable explosion of fire. The water around her turned to steam, rising up into the clear blue sky above her bejeweled head. Once more, she spread her dazzling wings, fully healed, and flew up into the infinite blue.
She circled around, gazing down at her would-be deathbed. The next wave to come along filled in the valley she had created with her fire, as if it had never been there. As if no miracle had occurred there.
As Sasha soared along, towards home, she glittered in the sunlight like a thousand jewels. Which, of course, was an apt description of her new form.
Each of her formerly dull orange scales were now faceted, reflecting the light every which way. Her claws, her teeth, all were clear now, but the pure clear of perfect diamonds. The horns upon her head were more reminiscent of a crown; all four of them were adorned by a single, sharp crystal at the top, same with the spines running down her back. The fire at the tip of her tail was now blue at the base, showing the true power of its intensity, and her wing membranes were a color to match it. The little claws at the peaks were diamond shards, sharper than anything else in the world. The wings themselves were a wonder, fire-blue stained-glass rimmed with a lining of orange crystal scales; clear, yet opaque.
Her eyes matched as well; blue as the fires of life itself, the fires of hatred, passion, and everything in between. A deep sadness and wisdom could be seen in her eyes, a small indicator of what she had to go through to become what she was, an evolved Charizard. No, the evolved Charizard, the Charagon.
That was now who she was. In this new, flawless form, she was Charagon, the legendary, the first, the only. Who knew who had decreed that this should happen to her, and her alone?
“Who knows...” Charagon thought to herself as she beat her magnificent wings and soared off into the skies, leaving behind her old beloved, her old form, her old life. Now she could ascend into her new life; and hopefully, it would be as wonderful as the last.
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Fin.
That concludes the second segment to the Charidian Trilogy. If you've read this and liked it, I'd love for you to post responses and reviews on both threads, if it wouldn't be too much to ask, and I hope you'll stay with me until I post the finale, Truth Be Told (already finished).
;196; ~Chareon