Having finished chapters so far in advance but part of chapters in between is torture! Truly. It kills me because I just stare at them wistfully, wishing all the words in between could just magic onto the screen. If I could just, I dunno, sneeze and all the droplets were the words instead of the plague! I have this character in Dragon Tamers that I can't wait to introduce to you guys. He is messed up on every level. I hope you hate his guts. He has no redemption arc. He is forever fucked in the head. But, boy, is he fun to write. Not all heroes wear capes, and not all allies are friends. He does what he does for his own entertainment and benefit and no one else. When the other Q'Hu say "touched by the Q'Ra," they mean him. Just so happens, he wants the same thing as our good guys. That's good for them. Enjoy this little slice about one of the most dangerous men on the planet.
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“What’s going… on…? Oh my god,” she breathed the last part in horror at the sight before her.
An enormous Q’Hu did indeed stand there, towering over the guards with the most sinister grin that made every hair stand on her body. There really wasn’t much about him that made him any different than a Q’Ra, down the dull yellow glow as his dark gaze swept the growing crowd. His ghastly face was marred by centuries of fights for dominance and countless victims.
Besides being an utterly terrifying sight to behold, it was the young female Spindle clutched in his vicelike grip around her head, exhausted and barely moving, that made S’re gasp. The oozing darkness of the broken Bond coiled about them both, but the dragon had no strength left to fight. Its claws had proven useless; many oozing marks already etched into his forearm with innumerable more puckered scars beneath them like a written history of this same deed over the centuries. The Q’Hu, however, seemed entirely unfazed by any of it.
His manic gaze snapped to her like lasers. Knowing that they would, she had kept her eyes on the Spindle with an aching sadness. The Q’Hu’s grin grew devilishly, showing yellowed teeth, dulled only a little over his extensive lifetime, a few missing entirely.
Holding up the nearly limp dragon, his dark, deep, seductive drawl carried over the discord of the guards and made her skin crawl. “Why hello there, dovlin. I have need of your services.”
Feeling the blood drain from her face when he stepped towards her, she gulped and quickly retreated a few steps. The guards rushed at him to keep them separate, shouting more and pointing their weapons at him, but none of them wanted to get close. Stopping, his grin fell into a cold scowl at the gathered men.
“Like a bunch of Rattlers,” he drawled low and slow before suddenly feinting at the group. “Boo!” It made him giggle in wicked glee when the soldiers nearly tripped on each other trying to back away.
“Jack Jackal!” called Captain Jonathan with a steadiness that belied his unease. “By order of the Speakers, you have hereby been banned from entering the mountain main of Academy. You are not permitted use of the Tamer.”
His intense gaze crushed her despite the distance. She did not need to look into his mad eyes to know he was well aware she was drawn to them like Drawgs are drawn to gunshots.
“Why don’t you let her make that choice?” Again, he held up the defeated dragon, pouting sweetly with a tone like dark honey. “Just a moment alone, dovlin. I promise I can be a good boy. Just– for– you.”