Dawning Skye

Cu Sith hadn’t liked Zas very much after their first meeting, but she’d come to call him friend over the past year. He had drank with her and Jonathan on his limited days off, as well as just visited to chat while Skye and Tidas had been in the Highlands. Cu had truly thought that Zas was her friend, which made the situation all the more painful for her.

Feeling her heart break as she ran at him, Cu let out an ear-shattering roar. Anger and sorrow swirled within her, making her rage at both Zas, and the situation he was putting her in. The falling snow barely registered as she sunk her claws into the cold ground, and lept at him with her jaw open.

Zas flinched at her ferocity before bracing himself for impact. The pain in his friend’s eyes and voice made him hesitate, causing Cu’s fang to drag across his hand before she clamped down on his forearm. He’d jammed it into her mouth to stop her from biting his head off, then swung their bodies sideways.

The force he’d used didn’t stop Cu’s death grip on his arm, so they wound up spinning in a circle. Zas could feel his bone beginning to break under the pressure of Cu’s bite, so he spun around again, and slammed her into a random stagecoach. She released her grip with a loud whimper, then snarled as she got back onto her feet.

They stood staring at each other for a few seconds before Zas huffed, then growled at Cu in a threatening manner. The pain in her eyes switched to rage before she ran at him, snarling with teeth bared. When they collided, Zas tried to hit Cu, but after all the extra training they’d done together; she knew him well.

Zigging and zagging to the sides right before pouncing at him had thrown Zas off, and it cost him the corner of his ear. He howled in pain as Cu landed, then pivoted to slam into him with the whole of her body weight. As Zas tumbled into the side of a building and crashed through the wall, Benzo watched on with growing concern..

The townspeople and soldiers had stopped killing each other, and were watching the fight unfold. Waiting to see how fate would swing it’s sword. If Zas lost, then the military would most-likely leave, and their mission would fail.

The thought made Benzo nervous, especially if his King found out that he’d lost caused it by playing his games with Zas. If the only Pillar he could manipulate was rendered useless in any way, then Marco would blame Benzo, and most likely kill him then and there. The thought made the back of his neck where his master’s mark was burn.

.....

Shasta was refusing to cooperate, even after being tortured. Zas was their only way to keep the RMC in line, as well as help maintain the new king’s hold on the military in general. If Zas died, they would all flock to Tidas upon his return..

‘If this mangy cat can’t kill that thing, then I may need to step in.. Don’t want my brand to kill me for disobedience..’

As the thought crossed his mind, Benzo scoffed at it.. ‘Marco should just name ME as head of the RMC already.. The troops would learn to respect my authority, one way or the other.. I guess that’s another reason my King told me to look as ‘chummy’ as possible with Zas in front of people..’

As much as he hated it, Benzo understood that it was the perception they were friends; that was the point of the rouse. When Zas eventually outlived his usefulness, Marco would name Benzo as head of the RMC. If it appeared that Zas approved of Benzo, then the military would accept him as their new commander much easier..

‘But that’s only if I can make it seem as if he likes me, which isn’t going to be easy, Especially after all of this.. I need to make it seem like we have a bond, somehow..’

As Benzo’s mind churned, Zas and Cu Sith’s battle became increasingly destructive. They had nearly demolished two buildings by slamming into, or throwing each other. Dragonhorn was old, as were many of the buildings. So the level of destruction was similar to the incident in the forest, where Zas and Cu had met.

A wall had collapsed, and kicked up a massive amount of dust into the air. Blocking their view of each other for a few moments. They’d been fighting each other hard for well over ten minutes, leaving both exhausted already. As both panted and tried to catch their breaths, Zas felt his anger rising..

‘Why do I have to go through this?! Why me?! Haven’t I been a good soldier? A good father? Why do I deserve this?! Why does my home?! My family?!’

Right as Zas’ self-pity started to switch to full-blown anger, he heard a fast-approaching crunching noise from behind. Knowing that it was Cu, Zas funneled all of his rage and anguish towards her..

In a fiery flash; Zas had lost his cool, and tapped into his Zhang powers. A massive blue flame sprouted from his forehead, and his fur changed color. As his nails sharpened and grew, Zas stared at Cu Sith, and said; “Let’s end this..”

With an earth-shaking roar of defiance, Cu lunged at Zas. He’d instantly wrapped his arms around her as her teeth sunk into his shoulder, then slammed her onto the ground. A loud whimper echoed out upon the hard contact, but Cu didn’t stop.

She jumped to her feet and readied herself for another exchange, but winced in pain when she’d put weight on her front paw. The split-second distraction was all Zas needed to gain the upper hand in their fight. The moment she glanced down to see the damage, Zas slammed into Cu, and sent her flying into an already-wrecked building.

As she laid on the ground, Zas ran over to her, ready to tear into her. On instinct, Cu used her magic, and made a barrier around herself with thick, thorny branches. Zas couldn’t stop, and ran right into the thick of it. Trying to spare himself less damage and pain, he’d tried to jump over the tangled mess, but it did little to help.

He still wound up sliding across the top of the thorn pile, leaving painfully deep gashes in his arms and legs. He’d even gotten a long scratch across his eye, which was lucky. If he had turned his head just a hair more, then Zas would’ve lost his eye.

Cu knew that her defense would only buy her a few moments, which was all she needed to assess the damage done. It wasn’t as bad as she’d thought it’d be, which added to her confusion. Cu had sparred with Zas on many occasions, and knew when he was using real intent.

Throughout their entire fight, Cu had noticed that Zas hadn’t been hitting as hard as he was capable of. It gave her a small shred of hope that he really didn’t want to fight, but she shook the idea from her mind. Zas had used his power on her, which was something he said he only did when his intent was to kill.

After realizing that the damage she’d taken was reaching it’s limit, Cu sighed heavily. She was really hoping to have one more drink with her best friend, but she could sense that her time was nearing it’s end. A mental image of Jonathan crossed her mind as she dug her claws into the ground, and sensed around for where the General was.

Zas was wiping the ever-trickling blood from his eyes when the branches suddenly parted, and Cu lept out at him. They hit the ground and rolled around, causing Cu to cry out in pain from Zas’ flames. They clawed and bit each other like crazed animals until they rammed into the side of another building.

Cu pushed back the pain as she snarled and snapped her jaws at Zas from above him. She had temporarily pinned him down, despite the fact that he was practically setting her on fire. Zas struggled to push her off, but she had shifted her upper body to keep him in place.

Drool dripped down onto his cheek, causing him to look up, and into Cu’s mouth. Zas could feel death reaching out for him as he stared down her gullet with true terror. Right as she went to bite down on his head, Zas closed his eyes and waited for pain, but it never came: Cu had stopped..

As Zas opened his eyes, they were met with the tear-filled ones of his friend. Cu couldn’t bring herself to kill Zas, despite what he was doing to their home. She stared at him for a split second, as if pleading with him not to make her hurt him anymore.

That was when Zas saw a small light shimmer above her head..

Cu made a low whimper-like sound as Benzo’s dagger pierced her skull, then nothing. Her body went limp, and all movement stopped.

All noise in Dragonhorn stopped.

Soldiers and civilians alike were frozen as the General and Benzo rolled Cu Sith’s lifeless body away from him. Benzo offered his hand to Zas, whom was already returning to his normal state. He stood up on his own, then looked down at his dead friend with sorrow.

Cu laid on the ground with her eyes open, and her tongue unfurled outside of her mouth. She looked like she had died in shock and pain, which infuriated Zas. He turned towards Benzo with a low growl, and yelled; “Why did you do that?!”

With a grin and a shrug, Benzo jovially replied; “Come now, I couldn’t let my buddy have his head bitten off, now could I?”

The pure rage that flashed across Zas’ face at that moment was a warning to Benzo, so he got in close before whispering; “You do know that if you die, your family dies, too, right? I mean, next time I could just let the beastie rip your head off, but it won’t be just your head that’s lost.”

The reminder of his family’s position lifted the rage-fueled haze that Zas was under. Benzo sighed with relief.. ‘That mangy animal’s pity was about to ruin everything..’

Putting on his best fake smile, Benzo patted Zas’ shoulder as he said; “Glad to help, now let’s get this thing wrapped up. I’m sure the good doctor will be able to make something truly horrific with this thing’s corpse.”

Zas wrinkled his nose, then glanced down at Cu. In an instant; Zas had decided not to let his friend suffer a worse fate past her death..

Without warning, Zas lit Cu Sith’s body on fire with his tail before she could be taken, or before he could be stopped. The suddenness of it scared Benzo so bad that he’d jumped back with a fearful expression. Zas smirked as embarrassment covered his features, then fury.

Zas shrugged; “I’m not disobeying, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna bend over for him. Cu is Done, understand?”

Benzo grinned mischievously; “That’s fine, my fuzzy buddy. One less monster doesn’t matter, so long as we have the worst one on our side..”

Zas bent his ears back at the jab, but he didn’t say anything. Glancing at the smoldering pile of his former friend, Zas couldn’t argue the fact that he now truly felt like a monster..