Fetch Quest
Jul. 18th, 2020 12:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonv2Fandom: Noblesse
Summary: M-21 has his orders to find a lost prince. It doesn't go how he expects.
Notes: Dragon AU
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General
Word count: 1,365
Status: Work in progress
M-21 scowled as he stared at the expanse of trees reaching away from him in all directions.
'Find the prince' he'd been told.
Fucking find the spoiled brat how? He hadn't been told anything else about his mission except that the prince was called 'Frankenstein', was tall and blond, and had gotten himself fucking lost in a forest to the north.
That was it.
The Union wanted him to fail. He fucking knew it. Sent him on a mission that he couldn't complete, and he couldn't return until he had the brat in tow.
Maybe they wanted him to curl up and die somewhere they wouldn't have to deal with him and where no-one else would find him.
He exhaled, pursing his lips.
But...being essentially exiled was better than the Union finding out he could transform and holding him in a cell in their dungeons. They called it a 'laboratory', but it was a dungeon with stone walls where all he could do was stare at the damp spot in the ceiling as it grew while he waited for the next round of torture to begin.
This was the freest he could get under the watchful gaze of the Union, but they would still want reports. Some kind of proof that he was trying to fulfil his mission.
Squaring his shoulders, M-21 headed into the forest.
* * *
The forest was as M-21 expected: a fucking forest, filled with bugs that tried to eat him alive and a bunch of animals that scattered as soon as he sneered at them.
There was no fucking way a prince could survive by himself in a forest. He was looking for a corpse, if he was lucky. A pile of bones scavenged by animals and spread to all fucking corners.
That wasn't the thing that kept M-21's mood foul. There was something in the air that set his teeth on edge, a soft pressure brushing against his skin. It was stifling, like humidity that made it harder to breathe, but it wasn't warm.
M-21 squinted at the sky - it was overcast, clouds moving fast enough that he should have felt some kind of breeze.
And he could. He still felt like there was something wrapping itself around him, waiting for him to slip up before strangling him.
...He'd make camp at the edge of the forest. That might help get him away from the oppressive air.
* * *
It had been a couple of weeks and M-21 had found nothing.
Was this even the right forest? Doubtful. The Union hadn't sent anyone to chase him up on his lack of progress, and that was all that mattered.
He strode over in the direction of the river, kicking every rock that stood in his way. Making noise didn't matter to him - maybe if he pissed something off he could take his frustration out on its hide, and he's get something for dinner as well.
M-21 looked up at a rustle, seeing a deer jump away.
Whatever.
He heard an irritated sigh to his right and M-21 snapped his attention to it. That wasn't an animal.
M-21 flexed his fingers when someone straightened from a crouch from under the cover of a mass of ferns.
Someone taller than he was. And blond. Who was carrying a bow, an arrow notched. It was pointed at the ground as the man stood, the string not drawn.
"Excuse me," the man said, and his rich accent made M-21 curl his lip again, "but you're disturbing all the animals."
"Does it look like I care?" M-21 said. "You're Frankenstein?"
The crease between the man's brow disappeared as his eyebrows raised in surprise. "Yes?" The prince peered at him, studying him before sighing. "Another Union Knight?"
M-21 stilled. He wasn't the first? What had happened to the others?
Frankenstein must have ran away - there was no way he would be able to deal with a modified Union Knight.
"Come on," M-21 said, lips pursed, not caring to address the prince properly. If the Union wanted someone to not ruffle the prince's feathers, they would have sent someone else. "Your family's worried about you."
"They are?" Frankenstein said, his tone soft and amused. "Is that what they told you?"
M-21 snorted. He didn't give a fuck what the prince had gotten tied up in or what he'd discovered. "They didn't tell me shit - just that I needed to bring you back." And he was going to do it. He'd asked and the prince wasn't coming, so now he'd just drag the prince back. His orders hadn't specified the prince had to be unhurt either.
"Really now," Frankenstein said, his bow still by his side as he watched M-21 approach. There was a smile on his lips M-21 would enjoy punching off. Pompous fucker.
M-21 took all of two steps when a cloud passed overhead. Except it was accompanied by distinctive wingbeats. But M-21 had never heard wings that sounded like that before, that created a gust so strong the branches above them creaked.
Something landed behind him and M-21 jumped out the way, hovering between transforming. He couldn't transform in front of the prince in case he talked to the Union but if he was being attacked he needed to-
His thoughts died as he gawked at the dragon that stood there. It was so tall M-21 doubted even two of him would reach its shoulders. Covered in silver scales, its triangular head had three horns that came out from the front of its head, arching back and following the shape of its skull.
A dragon. He'd been a fucking dragon's territory the whole time? Was that why the air felt so different?
Shit. He could deal with humans easily. His claws could pierce through metal like it was paper, but dragonhide? He'd never tried, because he wasn't stupid enough to stay near anywhere a dragon could be.
The dragon lowered its head so it was eye-to-eye to him, lips peeled back to reveal gleaming rows of teeth that were longer than M-21's hand. He wasn't going to survive this. He could run, but one lunge would-
"You found him!" the dragon said, its breathing hitching in a way that...seemed like it was laughing?
"Oh?" Frankenstein said, looking at the dragon, surprised. Only mildly, as if the dragon had said something interesting, not that he was staring death in the fucking face. "He's the one you've been looking for?"
What? Why the fuck was a dragon searching for him? M-21 only carried a few pieces of paper and a pen to send a report back, along with money to pay for it. Everything else was the clothes he wore. Unless the dragon could sense the coins he held?
"Yeah!" The dragon shook itself, like it was trying to get rid of a layer of dust on its scales, except it was shrinking down like its mass was getting pulled off elsewhere. It pushed itself up so it stood on two legs, skin replacing scales, red fabric covering the dragon's body.
When the dragon stopped changing, a grinning youngish man stood in its place, with long loose silver hair waving in the wind. His horns were still there over his hair, and he'd kept his wings at his back. He was criss-crossed with deep scars and - M-21 didn't care about that. Didn't care that he'd just seen something people didn't live to tell about.
He couldn't stop staring at the dragon's arms. That was the other thing that hadn't changed between forms, the dragon's arms still silver. Still claw tipped.
M-21's heart ached, the pressure in the air increasing, making his skin prickle.
Now that he wasn't distracted by the dragon's sheer size, he could see the similarity between the dragon's arms and his own transformation.
What...? It didn't make sense. Why the fuck did his transformation look like a dragon's? Why the fuck was a dragon looking for him?
The smile the dragon had faded as he crossed his arms, studying M-21. "Yeeeah, we're gonna need ta have a talk."
"It would appear so," Frankenstein said.
What the fuck was going on?
Spent a while trying to wrestle this into a single scene fic, because it kept trying to grow into a much bigger plot, but it was directionless. XD Didn't keep it to a single scene, but it's more contained this way.
The way this currently is, it doesn't work for a longfic, but maybe I can figure something out in time for nano.
Summary: M-21 has his orders to find a lost prince. It doesn't go how he expects.
Notes: Dragon AU
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General
Word count: 1,365
Status: Work in progress
M-21 scowled as he stared at the expanse of trees reaching away from him in all directions.
'Find the prince' he'd been told.
Fucking find the spoiled brat how? He hadn't been told anything else about his mission except that the prince was called 'Frankenstein', was tall and blond, and had gotten himself fucking lost in a forest to the north.
That was it.
The Union wanted him to fail. He fucking knew it. Sent him on a mission that he couldn't complete, and he couldn't return until he had the brat in tow.
Maybe they wanted him to curl up and die somewhere they wouldn't have to deal with him and where no-one else would find him.
He exhaled, pursing his lips.
But...being essentially exiled was better than the Union finding out he could transform and holding him in a cell in their dungeons. They called it a 'laboratory', but it was a dungeon with stone walls where all he could do was stare at the damp spot in the ceiling as it grew while he waited for the next round of torture to begin.
This was the freest he could get under the watchful gaze of the Union, but they would still want reports. Some kind of proof that he was trying to fulfil his mission.
Squaring his shoulders, M-21 headed into the forest.
The forest was as M-21 expected: a fucking forest, filled with bugs that tried to eat him alive and a bunch of animals that scattered as soon as he sneered at them.
There was no fucking way a prince could survive by himself in a forest. He was looking for a corpse, if he was lucky. A pile of bones scavenged by animals and spread to all fucking corners.
That wasn't the thing that kept M-21's mood foul. There was something in the air that set his teeth on edge, a soft pressure brushing against his skin. It was stifling, like humidity that made it harder to breathe, but it wasn't warm.
M-21 squinted at the sky - it was overcast, clouds moving fast enough that he should have felt some kind of breeze.
And he could. He still felt like there was something wrapping itself around him, waiting for him to slip up before strangling him.
...He'd make camp at the edge of the forest. That might help get him away from the oppressive air.
It had been a couple of weeks and M-21 had found nothing.
Was this even the right forest? Doubtful. The Union hadn't sent anyone to chase him up on his lack of progress, and that was all that mattered.
He strode over in the direction of the river, kicking every rock that stood in his way. Making noise didn't matter to him - maybe if he pissed something off he could take his frustration out on its hide, and he's get something for dinner as well.
M-21 looked up at a rustle, seeing a deer jump away.
Whatever.
He heard an irritated sigh to his right and M-21 snapped his attention to it. That wasn't an animal.
M-21 flexed his fingers when someone straightened from a crouch from under the cover of a mass of ferns.
Someone taller than he was. And blond. Who was carrying a bow, an arrow notched. It was pointed at the ground as the man stood, the string not drawn.
"Excuse me," the man said, and his rich accent made M-21 curl his lip again, "but you're disturbing all the animals."
"Does it look like I care?" M-21 said. "You're Frankenstein?"
The crease between the man's brow disappeared as his eyebrows raised in surprise. "Yes?" The prince peered at him, studying him before sighing. "Another Union Knight?"
M-21 stilled. He wasn't the first? What had happened to the others?
Frankenstein must have ran away - there was no way he would be able to deal with a modified Union Knight.
"Come on," M-21 said, lips pursed, not caring to address the prince properly. If the Union wanted someone to not ruffle the prince's feathers, they would have sent someone else. "Your family's worried about you."
"They are?" Frankenstein said, his tone soft and amused. "Is that what they told you?"
M-21 snorted. He didn't give a fuck what the prince had gotten tied up in or what he'd discovered. "They didn't tell me shit - just that I needed to bring you back." And he was going to do it. He'd asked and the prince wasn't coming, so now he'd just drag the prince back. His orders hadn't specified the prince had to be unhurt either.
"Really now," Frankenstein said, his bow still by his side as he watched M-21 approach. There was a smile on his lips M-21 would enjoy punching off. Pompous fucker.
M-21 took all of two steps when a cloud passed overhead. Except it was accompanied by distinctive wingbeats. But M-21 had never heard wings that sounded like that before, that created a gust so strong the branches above them creaked.
Something landed behind him and M-21 jumped out the way, hovering between transforming. He couldn't transform in front of the prince in case he talked to the Union but if he was being attacked he needed to-
His thoughts died as he gawked at the dragon that stood there. It was so tall M-21 doubted even two of him would reach its shoulders. Covered in silver scales, its triangular head had three horns that came out from the front of its head, arching back and following the shape of its skull.
A dragon. He'd been a fucking dragon's territory the whole time? Was that why the air felt so different?
Shit. He could deal with humans easily. His claws could pierce through metal like it was paper, but dragonhide? He'd never tried, because he wasn't stupid enough to stay near anywhere a dragon could be.
The dragon lowered its head so it was eye-to-eye to him, lips peeled back to reveal gleaming rows of teeth that were longer than M-21's hand. He wasn't going to survive this. He could run, but one lunge would-
"You found him!" the dragon said, its breathing hitching in a way that...seemed like it was laughing?
"Oh?" Frankenstein said, looking at the dragon, surprised. Only mildly, as if the dragon had said something interesting, not that he was staring death in the fucking face. "He's the one you've been looking for?"
What? Why the fuck was a dragon searching for him? M-21 only carried a few pieces of paper and a pen to send a report back, along with money to pay for it. Everything else was the clothes he wore. Unless the dragon could sense the coins he held?
"Yeah!" The dragon shook itself, like it was trying to get rid of a layer of dust on its scales, except it was shrinking down like its mass was getting pulled off elsewhere. It pushed itself up so it stood on two legs, skin replacing scales, red fabric covering the dragon's body.
When the dragon stopped changing, a grinning youngish man stood in its place, with long loose silver hair waving in the wind. His horns were still there over his hair, and he'd kept his wings at his back. He was criss-crossed with deep scars and - M-21 didn't care about that. Didn't care that he'd just seen something people didn't live to tell about.
He couldn't stop staring at the dragon's arms. That was the other thing that hadn't changed between forms, the dragon's arms still silver. Still claw tipped.
M-21's heart ached, the pressure in the air increasing, making his skin prickle.
Now that he wasn't distracted by the dragon's sheer size, he could see the similarity between the dragon's arms and his own transformation.
What...? It didn't make sense. Why the fuck did his transformation look like a dragon's? Why the fuck was a dragon looking for him?
The smile the dragon had faded as he crossed his arms, studying M-21. "Yeeeah, we're gonna need ta have a talk."
"It would appear so," Frankenstein said.
What the fuck was going on?
Spent a while trying to wrestle this into a single scene fic, because it kept trying to grow into a much bigger plot, but it was directionless. XD Didn't keep it to a single scene, but it's more contained this way.
The way this currently is, it doesn't work for a longfic, but maybe I can figure something out in time for nano.