Chapter 293 - Liravalennan, the Shining Star of Val I (2/2)

”Dear shining star, you will come to understand,” said father as he sensed Lira's discontent. ”I have bred you from my own being. All other high dragons drink from my blood to reach their ascendant status, but you are blood of my own blood, flesh of my own flesh.

And your existence is far greater than simply yourself. You have a destiny to uphold. There will be great darkness to come, and you are the only star capable of standing against it.

For seven centuries, I have seen this world bicker among themselves, all its lesser, foolish creatures snapping their dull and primitive jaws at each other, knowing not that the darkest night to come will draw near.

For seven centuries, I have ensured that all dragons, all that are tied even to the thinnest to mine original Elder blood, d.e.s.i.r.e from birth to become strong and ascend my body to reach my head. The head that you, my shining star, were born in to begin with.

Countless dragons have spent centuries attempting to scale my body so rife with danger, and in all that time, only twelve dragons have managed to become high dragons, ascending to this head of mine. These, your elder sisters and brothers, are still nothing to you.

Mere experiments of evolution. They are the twelve strongest bloodlines forged from centuries of conflict I have engineered all so that I may have the most powerful of bloodlines to gather into a perfect vessel – you, my dear shining star.

You are the strongest of us all. The best of us all. And you will lead us against the darkness even as the primitive world around my great body burns.”

”Whatever, father. I'm going to sleep,” said Lira with a sigh. She had heard that lecture perhaps a million times by now. Every single time she wanted to leave or do something other than eating and training. So much drivel about destiny and fate and how much of it rested on her shoulders and blah blah blah.

Why did she not ever get to choose her own destiny? Why did she have to bear the burden of her people? Why could she not live for herself?

=====Another scene.

Liravalennan clutched at her c.h.e.s.t, her breath drawing in hoarse, choking whistles as she tried to repair the gaping hole where most of her lungs and organs should have been. She staggered through the forest.

She did not know which forest, just that it was a forest. But at the least, it was not the same magically generated forest she had seen far too many times with her father.

Was she going to die? The Omniscale at her c.h.e.s.t glowed, but she could not draw power from it.

Maybe father was right. Maybe she should have stayed until she could handle the Omniscale better, that way, she could at least get herself to heal.

Was she not ready for the outside world? No, it was not that. If it had not been for her elder brothers and sisters attacking her when she tried to escape, she would have been fine.

She bit her lip and held back a tear.

They had attacked her because father told them to. He wanted them to kill her but to take care so as to take the Omniscale back intact. He never cared about her to begin with, only that complicated and far off dream he always talked about.

She was the vessel for that dream. Just that - a vessel. Nothing more.  Replaceable.

She winced as she smelled the smoky char of her own burned flesh. She learned painfully today that big sister Valerikynthimos had always been holding back. The full brunt of her lightning was not something Liravalennan could handle.

Then, she could no longer hold her tears back. Thesselaval had come back for her, fighting off everyone else. He sent her off into the waters he controlled and bid them to carry her far away, hidden and out of sight.

And now, after days of barely keeping alive with a hole in her c.h.e.s.t, the waters had washed her up to this forest. She could finally live her dreamed d.e.s.i.r.e of roaming the world.

Maybe she would not live much longer to enjoy her freedom, but at the least, she was free. Free from the destiny her father had put on her. She crumpled down to both her knees, her vision blurring.

She knew Thesselaval, the only high dragon that ever truly cared about her, was dead, and soon, so would she be. At least she would get to thank him when she saw him.