Independence

A/N A slightly longer chapter this time for my lovely reviewers and anonymous readers in celebration of the over hundred reviews I got for this story. Enjoy!


Chapter 5: Of Plans and Failures

Every eye remained transfixed on him as he studied the dominants standing around the hall. But when he met their gaze however, they broke eye contact preferring not to meet his stare straight on.

Lucien knew of quite a few dominants in that hall who had the ability to challenge him. There weren’t many and most of them were of his old acquaintances such as Mathew. If only for the sake of friendship, Lucien was positive they would allow him to proceed unchallenged.

Then there were those who considered him a rival. They weren’t enemies per say, merely annoying pests that Lucien was only too happy to stay far away from. He mostly ignored them and only sought them out in times of great necessity but those were far and few in between. They were the people who stood up against his decisions and questioned his position as head of the council. But as most of them knew what he was capable of doing, Lucien was certain they would not challenge him unless they had taken an interest in the Ri themselves.

But there were others as well, those who had more guts than brains and who mostly wanted to test out their abilities against him. They were the types that were easier to handle. He would just have to give them a taste of what he could do and they would back off. But if their decision was to continue on with the challenge, Lucien would show them why he had held the position as head of the council for almost six centuries.

So it was with mild surprise that the form of one Reeve Blackforest stepped up in front of him and answered the challenge.

Blackforest was from the Clan of Ruk or better known as the warrior clan of Dragon Country. The clan was the heart and center point of the country’s military operations. Dragons from that clan specialized in the physical art of war and defense. It was also the largest clan in the country and it occupied the largest state. Lucien was never sure why but his clan and the Clan of Ruk had never really been fond of each other.

Surprisingly though, Lucien got along famously with the leader of the clan ever since they had met over six centuries ago. Blackforest, his second in command however, was a different story altogether. He wasn’t sure why but Blackforest had always intentionally provoked him and criticized his decisions. The two of them got onto each other’s nerves sometimes even without meaning to and were mostly glad to stay as far away from the other as possible. In situations where they couldn’t help but meeting however, they chose to simply ignore the other.

Lucien would definitely admit that they weren’t the best of friends but even Blackforest wasn’t someone who would choose to engage him in a fight without having enough of a reason to do so.

Lucien narrowed his eyes and studied the dominant, wondering if Blackforest had somehow taken an interest in the submissive as well. Blackforest had been a thorn in his side ever since he had been born over three centuries ago but Lucien knew that Blackforest wouldn’t have accepted the challenge if he merely had the intention of defying Lucien.

Even he had to admit that the dominant had more intelligence than that.

“Blackforest,” Lucien acknowledged.

“Forgive my impudence Lord Crescent but I must admit that I for one am not willing to lose the right of claiming the submissive without a fight,” said Blackfrorest, unwilling to back down from the eyes of steel that were drilling into his own brown orbs. He had never shied from a challenge before in his lifetime and he wasn’t going to start now. In all his years, he had never been attracted to a submissive. But something about this submissive intrigued him and letting one Lucien Crescent claim the Ri without a fight was something that he couldn’t allow to go on unchallenged.

He had never liked Lucien Crescent. The dominant had always been much too arrogant for his liking. Many other dominants in the country were much too afraid to stand up to the elder but Reeve for one knew that he wasn’t one of them. He had to admit that the dominant had more than enough influence and power to back his rule as head of the council but every once in a while, Reeve knew he needed someone to pull him down a peg or two. And who was to say that Reeve couldn’t be the one to do it?

“Till dawn then,” said Lucien, his face a blank mask. The only feature that revealed his annoyance was the look in his grey eyes as he stared stonily at the other dominant.

Mathew however saw the slight crease on his forehead which he knew to be a typical trait of Lucien’s when the elder got into the mood for bloodshed. His fingers that were curled into fists was a huge giveaway as well.

“Till dawn,” Blackforest acknowledged with a brief nod.

Mathew found himself smiling inwardly thinking that things would only get more interesting from now on.


(break)


Lex groggily opened his eyes to find himself staring up at a large canopy of leaves and branches. Sunlight peeked in from the treetops, creating a pattern of shadow and light on the forest floor where he lay. He could hear the wild call of birds and the cheeping of insects, reminding him of a tropical rainforest. The sounds were familiar to him, as familiar as it had been back when he had lived on the island. It was a peaceful serenade, a natural symphony which he had enjoyed simply listening to as the hours flew by back then.

Lex stretched his long limbs and mewled out a small cat-like yawn as he breathed in the scents of the forest. The air was humid with dense vapor and stretching out his senses, Lex could even smell the scent of the many exotic plants and trees growing around him. Lex smiled almost dreamily as he simply sat there on the forest floor reminiscing about his days on the island. He had missed the sounds and the scents the most ever since he had left for human society, and now that he was back on the island, he would spend some time there to simply enjoy these small wonders which he had missed so much.

Lex almost toppled over as he backtracked on his earlier thoughts. Island? What was he doing back on the island?

Recent events flashed through his mind and memories of his and his brother’s capture by the hunters reminded him that he couldn’t possibly be back on Naga. Angel and him had been caught and taken to Dragon Country. They had been kept in ridiculous glass boxes and displayed butt naked in the Hall of Viewing. Even now he could feel goose bumps tingling along his skin as he recalled the way the dominants had been leering at him. So what was he doing in a forest? What had happened after the whole episode with Crescent and Blackforest?

The feel of a warm body snuggling deeper into his own almost startled Lex out of his own skin. Small hands were wrapped loosely around his right arm and warm breath tickled his side, alerting Lex to the presence of his dear brother currently snuggled up sleeping against him. Lex looked down at his sleeping brother, wondering why he had not noticed Angel earlier. It was obvious that his companion had been sleeping next to him for quite some time based on the amount of drool he felt on his skin. How long had Angel been sleeping?

His mind was rather foggy and it made it hard for Lex to think straight. Perhaps that was the reason why he could not recall the events that happened a night ago. But Lex really wasn’t even sure if the Viewing had been last night at all; it could have been days ago. How long had they both been asleep? And where in the world were they?

Lex remained sitting upright, shaking his head in an attempt to clear the sense of numbness from his brain. It felt like he had been shot by another one of the hunter’s darts. His body felt almost lethargic and parts of his body still felt very much like lead. Perhaps that was what had happened? Had he been given another dose of those knock-out darts?

When his mind began to clear, Lex’s mind finally caught up to the pain he felt on his left thigh. Surely enough when he glanced down at his thigh, there was huge purple bruise marking his lightly tanned skin. The sight of the bruise triggered something in his memory and he finally recalled how he had gotten it.

(break)

As soon as Blackforest had accepted Crescent’s challenge at the night of the Viewing, they had taken a last glance at him and left the hall. Lex recalled whispers breaking out then with the other dominants in the hall murmuring excitedly about the fight that was to take place the next day. No one had seen Lucien in his reptilian form in centuries and the fight was surely a battle to look forward to.

It was when the other dominants left hall that Lex had finally gotten over his misery and stared up, taking in the sight of the empty hall and the other submissives who were mostly lounging about in their boxes. Lex had then glanced at his brother, who he noticed looked awfully thoughtful for someone who didn’t understand anything that had happened throughout the night. Angel sat quietly on maroon pillows with a small frown on his face as he stared out of his glass box, towards the doors of the hall. He looked like he was looking for something.

Lex cocked his head to the side, wondering if perhaps his brother was hungry and was looking for a way to get out and search for food. Angel was always hungry anyway, so it wasn’t anything new.

Lex too found himself frowning, were they ever going to feed him? Angel looked so crestfallen it hurt Lex to see him that way. Yes, Lex knew that he had an awful brother complex, but you really couldn’t blame him. Who could resist not pampering his adorable little brother? Okay, so Angel was born at the same time as Lex but really, Lex thought of him as a little brother anyway. He looked like it too with his small stature and large blue eyes that contrasted Lex’s own form.

The sound of someone at the back of his glass box trying to get it to open, made Lex scramble towards the front of the box. What were they trying to do now? He could hear them sliding out the glass panel and pretty soon, the mirror was removed as well. Lex studied the exit out of the box; it was cleverly built so that only someone from the outside could open it.

The sight of two human guards standing outside the box, made him growl out loud. What were they planning to do with him? Manhandle him? Lex never liked anyone touching him and he certainly wasn’t going to go obediently and let them take him away without a fight. He wasn’t some timid little submissive that would go along peacefully, they would have to drag him out kicking and screaming before they got him to go anywhere with them.

Lex growled out dangerously the moment one of the guards stepped into the glass box. The guard seemed to have heard him as he stood still, halting his progress and studied Lex with a frown.

“Hey, Josh. This one doesn’t look too friendly,” said the guard as Lex glared at him with his teeth bared. They weren’t the jaws of a predator but Lex really couldn’t care much at the moment. He was agitated enough to even bite anyone who so much as touched him. He hated this situation and these humans treating him like an animal didn’t make it any better. But if they were determined to regard him as an animal, he was determined to act and defend himself like an animal. It beat smiling at them and batting his eyelashes like the other Ri’s were doing anyway.

“He’s a submissive, he can’t possibly hurt you. Why, are you afraid?” taunted the other with a teasing grin. The other guard seemed to sniff at that and proceeded to move ever closer towards Lex.

“It’s okay little guy, I’m not going to hurt you,” cooed the guard as he approached the growling submissive.

Lex almost launched himself at the guard. Little guy? He was almost as tall as they were. He looked normal, not like some sniveling little submissive! How dare they mock his size? He had trained for years to get to the stature he was now. He looked like a normal male specimen of the human race. Oh sure, he wasn’t like a bloody dominant or a body builder, but he did at least have some muscles on him! Lex’s growl deepened and the guard stopped approaching.

The guard threw a pleading look towards his partner only to get a smirk right back. With a sigh, he moved to grab a hold on the submissive. What he did not expect was getting hit and being knocked down to the floor by said submissive. The Ri ran right passed his fallen form and rushed towards the exit. His partner who had gotten over his shock in time, made a grab for the submissive only to find teeth sinking into his arm. His partner yelped in pain and in his state of frenzy, jerked the submissive off his arm and onto the floor.

Lex hissed in pain when his left thigh hit against the side of the glass box and his naked body fell to the floor. He knew that it was definitely going to leave him with a few bruises.

Ignoring his pain, Lex pushed himself off the ground and tried to run towards the doors leading out of the hall. He was however, stopped by the two guards who grabbed onto him from both sides and held him fast as he struggled wildly to push them off of him. He was tempted to bite them but they kept their appendages as far away from his teeth as possible.

“Somebody, get us something to calm him down,” ordered one the guards. A piece of cloth was soon held in front of his nose, covering his nostrils and Lex found his eyes growing heavy. He had pretty much recalled the sight of Angel rushing out of the grasp of a guard and heading straight for him before passing out. The last thing he recalled feeling was the soft body of his brother as he held tightly on to Lex in desperation.

Lex sighed, that was pretty much how he had ended up drugged. Bloody humans, did they have to drug him again? He hated them, hated every last one of those bloody dominants and their human minions. He’d turn into a junkie if they kept up with the drugging!

Lex rubbed his temples in frustration.

He knew that he would have to get up and find water soon. His throat was already aching and the inside of his mouth was as dry as a desert. Lex moved his hand to touch his achingly parched throat while his eyes scanned the surrounding area for signs of water.

Lex knew that he was unclothed from the way he could feel the slightly chilly air in the forest on his bare skin. So, it came as a surprise when his touch met a leathery surface as he reached for his throat. Lex’s hands immediately moved to investigate the odd piece of accessory round his neck before realization smacked him hard on his face.

It was a bloody collar!

Those bastards had put a bloody collar around his neck! What did they think he was? Some house dog that they could collar at their whims? Submissives had feelings as well, were they so cruel that they would degrade and humiliate them to such an extent? Were submissives merely possessions, mere objects to the dominants? Were they only worth as such? As tools to satisfy the dominants? Didn’t they give a damn how Ri’s felt?

There was a hurricane of feelings and emotions raging in him, he felt disgusted, traumatized, angry and even a little afraid. He didn’t want to live like this. He couldn’t. This was too cruel. To have a collar around his neck, a sign of ownership, was too much to bear. He would rather die than be collared his whole life.

He didn’t know if submissives were collared after they were mated. Dominants kept their submissives on a tight leash and humans rarely if not never saw them. Back in human society he had never even caught a glimpse of a submissive in pictures or photographs and there was very little information in books about Ri’s so Lex never really knew what went on between mated pairs. But what he did come to gather from the many books was that the dominants controlled the submissives, making all the decisions for them and basically dominating their lives. The collar around his neck only amplified the idea.

Lex turned to glance at his sleeping brother, snuggling into his side. And this time, he didn’t miss the sight of the collar that was around Angel’s neck as well. The collars were rather thick and although it felt out of place on his skin, it was made to be worn comfortably around the neck. It was also rather light and Lex would never have noticed it if he hadn’t touched it. That, he supposed, took some of the trauma away. If he didn’t feel it, he could simply ignore it. But that of course, didn’t change the fact that it was there.

Lex stared sadly at his brother; his poor Angel was collared like an animal too. His sweet innocent brother who had never done anything to anyone in his whole life was captured and brought away from his home just because of those selfish dominants who only wanted to satisfy their own needs. Wasn’t there anyone who would help them in the face of this injustice? Lex shook his head furiously. No, he thought, there would be no one to help them. Lex couldn’t trust anyone; if they wanted to escape they had to rely on themselves. No one would think to help submissives anyway. They would probably be too afraid of the dominants to even think of standing up to the large fire-breathing race.

Lex didn’t know where they were, books never mentioned about where the submissives were kept after the Viewing. But what he did know was that submissives were kept away from the dominants, secluded away from the rest of the world. He had originally thought that they would be locked in a room until the day the winner of the fight for the right of mating a submissive came to collect the ‘prize’. That was what he had concluded from the books but seeing himself surrounded by trees on all sides made him wonder if his conclusion had been wrong. He was certainly not in a room but in a forest. Would the dominants simply allow the submissives to roam free and perhaps escape their clutches?

After all the trouble of kidnapping them from the island, why did they put them back into another forest? It didn’t make sense. Lex had thought that the dominants would be keeping a close eye on them during the weeks when the battles between the dominants raged on. What were the dominants up to?

It didn’t matter anyway. Lex thought with a shake of his head. He was going to escape; it didn’t matter if he was in a room or a forest. And he knew that he had to do it soon. There were only two dominants fighting to claim him so that didn’t give him much time to escape before the winner came to ‘collect’. He really didn’t care who won, only that he escaped mating.

He wasn’t going to be someone’s sex pet if he had anything to say about it. And he for one definitely knew he had tons to say. Crescent and Blackforest could fight all they want, he certainly wasn’t going to be staying long enough greet the winner. It didn’t matter to him if they were both rich and good looking, they were dominants and not in his list of approachable bachelors. He preferred staying as far away from either of them as possible.

The colour of smoldering silver grey eyes that flashed through his mind made him start in surprise. Why was he thinking of those eyes? Furiously erasing the thought from his mind, he put on a determined look on his face and turned to wake Angel. He would have to start finding a way out soon and he was determined to take his brother with him. They were both in a forest and not some heavily guarded room like he had originally thought. The dominants wouldn’t be able to tell if there were two submissives missing so he didn’t have to worry about them both being tracked by the dominants. If they had been kept in a room however, escape would have been hard if he took Angel along. Angel wasn’t as agile or as fast as him, so Angel would most likely end up caught if they ran from some sort of a prison like centre were there were dozens of guards observing them. Lex would have come back to save him when he had the right equipment but as ‘plainly dressed’ as they were, Lex knew there was nothing he could have done.

But now however, they were in a forest and this was the perfect location to escape from. The dominants couldn’t have stationed guards along the whole forest and the thick foliage offered them covering to sneak away. Lex smiled in satisfaction. Escape seemed almost too easy.

Large blue eyes greeted him as his brother looked up from his curled position at his side. Angel smiled happily when he saw Lex, moving his head so that they brushed their cheeks against each other. It was an affectionate greeting, one that calmed Lex from his tensed state with its familiarity. Angel purred happily and snuggled his face into the crook of his brother’s neck, taking in the familiar scent of his sibling. His brother always smelt like clear running water, calming and with a touch of fierce protectiveness. Angel was only too happy to remain with his sibling and away from those nasty strangers that had tried to separate the both of them. Angel had won of course, by grabbing tightly on to his brother until they had given up and left them both in the same area in the forest.

Lex smiled adoringly down at his brother, Angel was almost too cute sometimes. But knowing that his brother and him needed to find something to drink soon, he nudged his brother and pulled him up from their crouched position. “Let’s go look for some water,” said Lex as he dragged Angel with him to explore the forest. Angel didn’t even stare at him questioningly, merely following his brother’s lead deeper into the thick foliage. Lex was grateful for that. Even if Angel didn’t understand him, they still shared a special link that clued them most of the time to the other’s thoughts and desires.

Angel sniffed around in an animal like fashion as they went in search of something to drink. Lex knew that it was habit as they could scent out fresh water miles away when they were in their animal forms. But in their human form however, it remained an impossible task.

It was about half an hour later that they came across a running stream. The water was clear and there were fishes swimming about, making Lex wonder if they could catch a few for a meal. But there would be no fire and starting one would only give away his secret. He wouldn’t want a dominant to stumble onto them while they roasted their fishes on a fire. It was the human’s way to eat meat cooked, but submissives usually shape-shifted into their animal forms when they ate raw meat. Their animal forms could safely digest the meat so fires were unnecessary to Ri’s.

Lex and Angel couldn’t shape-shift even if they wanted to as the week hadn’t passed yet so Lex decided that fish and other forms of meat were definitely off the menu. They would simply have to make do with any fruits they could find in the forest. They took their fill of fresh water coming from a waterfall nearby and went on their way. Lex knew that the sooner they escaped the better. Who knew how long they had slept? The battle might have already ended and the winner on the way to ‘collect’ him for all he knew. So, with Angel trailing dutifully behind him, Lex lead them further into the forest.


(break)

They had been walking for hours before they finally reached a dead end. Lex growled in frustration. A large fence loomed high above them, stopping them from leaving the forest and escaping. ‘So that was why the dominants had felt it safe enough to leave us here,’ thought Lex dourly. They had erected a bloody fence around the whole forest! Lex kicked at the fence in frustration, it wasn’t an electric fence as the dominants would have thought it too dangerous to build one when there were submissives wandering around.

Lex folded his arms and glared at the fence. What was this? Some kind of a forest reserve? Were submissives some kind of a protected species?

Lex tapped his foot agitatedly on the ground as Angel merely picked at the berries growing along the fence. He was happily munching, oblivious to his brother’s current state of frustration. Lex glanced at Angel in annoyance, sometimes he wished he was as oblivious as his brother. That way he wouldn’t be feeling like murdering the next dominant that entered his range of sight. Planning murders gave him stress and increased his blood pressure.

The sun was beginning to set and Lex knew that they would have to find a place to take shelter for the night. He wanted to pursue their escape route but his night vision was practically at a zero percent when he was in his human form.

Lex sighed, they would have to look for a way to escape the next day.

Just as he was about to pry Angel away from the berries, a flash of movement to his right caught his eye. He turned, moving to place his body in front of his brother’s. Who knew what type of wild animals there were in the forest? He knew that the dominants wouldn’t dare place anything harmful inside the forest but it always paid to be cautious.

But when he caught sight of the figure standing merely a few feet away from the both of them, his entire body froze.

Smoldering grey eyes burned into his own blue orbs, seemingly to see right through his very soul. His thoughts and feelings were jumbled in his mind as he remained locked in the figure’s intense gaze. Lex was never one to figure out what a person was feeling based on the look in their eyes but for the first time in his life, he saw overflowing emotions swirling in those smoldering depths. There was a sense of possession, satisfaction, victory and a look he did not care to interpret as he remained staring into those silver grey orbs. Lex didn’t know a person could feel such strong emotions.

Those emotions scared him, creating a sense of uneasiness as well as sped up the beating of his heart. He had never felt this way before, not in all his twenty three summers. What was happening to him?

He stayed rooted to the ground, not even moving a muscle as he found himself caught in the overwhelming gaze of one Lucien Crescent.

‘Oh, crap,’ was the thought that ran through his mind.


A/N I would like to give all my reviewers a big hug. *hugs* You guys are just so supportive. Any author would love to have readers like you. I’m so happy to have gotten over a hundred reviews for this story and I owe it all to my readers. So thank you! And do please keep supporting me. (hint)(hint)

Life has been rather busy for me and it is really hard to find time to update. To the people who were asking for me not to abandon this story, don’t you worry. It’s not on hiatus nor will I abandon it if can help it. I’ll try to update it as often as possible, maybe every week or so? So be patient with me ‘kay? ^_^

As to your other questions, you’ll find most of the answers as you continue reading the story. So, until next time folks!