Matrix
Matrix is a Candidate for a Lantessama Shadow Dragon
See Matrix and Small AIR Huldra

It was a cold, yet beautiful night. The stars were shining with their comforting light, forming a safe blanket over this shivering world. Everything looked peaceful but things aren’t always what they seem. Matrix’ soul was restless and he couldn’t catch his sleep. His alter-ego wanted so badly to come out that it almost hurt. If hypnotized, he was drawn to the moonlight.
‘Oh Luna, my beautiful queen, heal my soul because cruel faith has torn it apart.’
He felt like he was drowning in the pale light and a thrill of excitement rushed trough his veins. The beast inside of him gave a roar of joy and its strength empowered him. The desire of the animal to freedom was overwhelming and finally he gave in to the scream of lust. Suddenly the man had disappeared and a silver-grey, mysterious wolf was howling a tribute to the moon. The wolf was much larger than his prairie-brothers and of course much more intelligent, because man and wolf were one.
Excited by his gained freedom, the wolf smelled the nightly air. A mix of new and strange aromas reached its nose. He ran towards his new utopia… at least for as long this night lasted. But he tried to put this dark thought out of his mind and to enjoy this night with body and soul. And he did! Oh man, what was this experience of freedom soul-healing! All those aromas and sounds, feeling the life of Mother Earth beneath his paws and the never ending energy and strength while he was running trough the woods and over the fields.
A familiar smell waved in the air: a deer! Now, that would make a nice midnight-snack! Although he wasn’t much hungry, but hey, why not doing it for fun?! He simply couldn’t resist the rush of mightiness he felt when he could overpower such a mighty deer. He would take the meat home, they sure could use it! As he followed his nose, he knew that, with every step, he came closer and closer to the hunting domain of Lord Nirvon. Trespassing Lord Nirvon’s domain and especially poaching was signing for your own death when they caught you. But Matrix laughed danger in its face when he had to! He was the man (or wolf?) without fear; at least, that’s what he wanted to be. When the smell of the deer came closer, he slowed down. Man, what a big deer, a true beauty! It was a large male and probably a worthy opponent! The deer felt his presence and started to run for his life. The thrill of excitement for the hunt revealed an ancient strength in him. Every muscle in his slender body tensed and his senses became extremely sensitive. He hunted down the deer and when his jaws closed around the neck of the animal, the smell and taste of warm blood overwhelmed his senses. A strange feeling overpowered him. Was this the reason of his existence? Was this his destiny: a precise killer?
After a few sips from the blood he regained his strength and started to pull the carcass towards the village, although it wasn’t worth to be called that way. It was rather a small group of people living there in fear since Lord Nirvon had taken over the power in Randret. Overpowered by his thoughts he hardly noticed the fact that he had already reached his ‘village’. Luckily because he could smell the thin morning-air and soon the moon would be gone. The wolf howled sadly inside, but there would be another night and another and another…
Tired but with a feeling of fulfilling and content, he entered his room. He curled himself up and tried to pull a blanket over him, because in the morning the nice warm fur would be gone. He couldn’t stop thinking about this fantastic night. And man, that deer will taste good tomorrow and especially because it was one of Lord Nirvons! He grinned about this fantastic stunt he pulled and his professional killer-skills. He had done this more often, but never with a deer, only small game like rabbits and poaching such a beautiful deer felt damn good! Maybe he could try that again another time, he was sure strong enough for it! Finally he fell in a deep, dreamless sleep, waiting for what the new day would bring to him.

Next morning he woke up by the surprised shouts from Chanta. Then he heard the low voice of Trovin mumbling something. He got up and dressed himself in a hurry, because he wanted to know where all the fuss was about. When Chanta saw hem, he noticed that she had that irritating look on her face: Trouble!
‘What is that deer doing in our home, Matrix? And above all: where does it come from? Don’t you dare telling me that it comes from Lord Nirvons hunting domain!’
Matrix bowed his head, which said more than a hundred words.
‘Oh Matrix, how could you be so stupid?!’ Chanta yelled with a furious rage of disbelieve in her voice.
‘I only did what I thought was right. And don’t say that we can’t use it!’ Matrix tried to defend himself.
‘I know you meant it well boy, but you have to know that by pulling this stunt, you have endangered the entire village. What do you think what will happen if Lord Norvin finds out who took this deer?’ Trovin reasoned.
‘The village can eat three days from this! I’d rather wait for Lord Norvin than starving to death! By the way, he won’t catch me. It wasn’t a man who poached his deer…’
When Matrix saw the look on their faces, he knew that it wouldn’t matter what argument he’d come up with. Frustrated he left the house in such a rush that he almost bumped into Godric.
‘You, son of Satan! Don’t even think that I would touch your filthy deer which comes straight from hell!’ and he made a cross with his fingers like he wanted to swear Matrix of.
Pissed off by this gesture, Matrix ran into the woods.
‘At least there isn’t anyone who dislikes me! Who do they think they are? Chanta and Trovin aren’t even my parents!’ But then he stopped that thought abrupt. That wasn’t fair! If it wasn’t for them, he’d probably wouldn’t be alive. And living with him isn’t exactly easy. When they took him in their house, they got a free pet with him!
Matrix was the last member of the Wolfclan. His father, Wolfix, was the legitimate Lord of Randret. Nirvon was his younger brother who didn’t had the incredible powers because they were only given to the firstborn. One day, they went hunting and Nirvon killed Wolfix with a cross-bough and the arrow was drenched in poison, so the wolf inside Wolfix couldn’t safe him in time, and when the wolf dies, the man dies too, and vice versa. By that time, Matrix mother was pregnant of him and because Nirvon didn’t want to take the risk of losing his throne to a baby, he stabbed Matrix’ mother in cold blood. Chanta worked in the castle and saw everything from nearby. When she approached Matrix mother, she knew that it was too late. In a moment of despair, she took the knife, which was still in the queen’s chest, and opened her belly. That was Matrix’ birth. He was premature but because of the power he inherited from his father, he survived. Chanta and her husband Trovin took care of him like he was their own son, but everyone (except Nirvon of course!) knew he was Wolfix’ son because he looked so much like his father. He was a tall, slender boy, but nicely muscled. His half-long black hair, which ends in silver-grey and white, surrounds his beautiful and powerful face. But there was always a certain sadness in his black eyes, which had seen and lived the many lives of his ancestors. Maybe that was also the reason for his intelligence. He knew things no one else knew. But deep inside of him, there was a power which frightened him: the furious rage against his ‘uncle’, the desire to take vengeance. Every time he thought of Nirvon, he felt this uncontrolled anger. The wolf also felt it and sometimes even empowered it, which made him longing for blood.
But was that so strange after all that Nirvon did? When he became ‘Lord Nirvon’, he ruled with an iron hand. The people feared him, because he demanded high taxes and when people couldn’t pay it, they were executed. This wasn’t the way it should be! And no-one was man enough to face Nirvon. But he would if he could, he wasn’t such a chicken! He knew that that day would come some day, because Nirvon knew that there could be a threat to his throne out there.

After wondering how this incredible fight against Nirvon would be, he noticed that the sun had almost disappeared. He would better get home before they got worried. The wolf inside of him was already grinning by the thought of the upcoming night. When he came closer to the village, the wolf inside of him became restless. A sudden feeling of danger tightened every muscle. But what caused that feeling? Suddenly an icy scream reached his ear. Without thinking he ran towards the place. He saw Godric assaulting a girl. Matrix got overwhelmed by his rage. Without noticing it, he had transformed himself into the wolf. Strange, normally this only happened when the moon was shining. The big silver wolf growled towards Godric and prepared to attack. The man said he would never do it again and begged him to let him go and was even swearing to stop harassing him. But the wolf didn’t want to stop: this was his fight. With a big leap, he landed on Godric, who tried to push him away by kicking the wolf in the stomach. But the wolf wasn’t going to give up that easily. Enforced with the pain of the kick, he stormed again at the man. This time he dug his teeth deep into the mans shoulder, which was followed by a cry of pain, but that didn’t stop the wolf. He was outraged by anger and attacked every limp the man tried to move: arms, legs and even the head underwent the painful torturing. When the taste of blood and the cries of despair finally got through to him, Matrix took control over the wolf and forced the beast to transform again into human shape. Godric was severely injured, but he managed to get up and hobbled away in fear, but when he noticed that Matrix wasn’t following him, he shouted: ‘You truly are Satan’s child! Burn in hell! Go back to your evil father! One day, when you’ll expect it the least, God will come down to punish you!’ Matrix just looked at him and the wolf showed his face through him. In fear of getting attacked again, Godric ran of as quickly as his painful body could carry him. Matrix turned around. The girl had been laying there in horrific fear. It was Freyana, the girl whom Matrix fancied secretly. When he took her in his arms, she started crying.
‘Oh Matrix, I was so scared! I thought…’ she couldn’t speak any further because of the overwhelming emotions.
‘It’s OK. I’m here with you. He’ll never hurt you again.’
She seemed a bit terrified when she looked at him. Then he realised that he was covered with blood from the fight, not his blood but Godrics. After he sent her to the village, he decided that it would probably be better if he first took a dive in the river. He could already imagine how Chanta would react when she saw him like this!
When he arrived at the village, almost everyone already knew what had happened and was staring at Matrix like he was an extraterrestrial or something.
‘Damn, rumours go fast in this small, stupid village!’ mumbled Matrix a bit cranky. Oh yeh, there you got it all! Chanta was already racing towards him to check if he was OK and probably to give him a dressing-down. She nearly dragged him into the house where Trovin was waiting.
‘You had quite an interesting day, hadn’t you?’ Trovin asked with an imminent tone in his voice which warned Matrix that there was no use in denying everything.
‘I did the right thing, Trovin. Ask Freyana if you don’t believe me.’
‘If already heard her out, Matrix, but now I want to hear your version of the story.’
So Matrix started to tell the entire story of his fight with Godric, while Trovin and Chanta were listening attentively
(except for Chanta of course, who enriched his story by giving indignant comment!). When Matrix had finished his story, an deadly silence was hanging in the room.
‘So the story was true, every word of it.’, mumbled Trovin.
‘I can’t believe Godric would do such a thing. He seemed to be so piously, a bit extremely maybe, but still…!’ Chanta murmured unbelievingly.
‘No one is who he seems, my darling.’ Trovin replied.
Matrix was still wondering wetter this was good or bad. He sure hoped that he didn’t have to stay in tonight for punishment!
When he saw the doubt on Matrix’ face, Trovin said with a faint smile and a bit of proud in his voice: ‘You did the right thing, my boy! If I were you, I would have done the same thing.’
Feeling good about Trovins approval (and of course for not getting punished!), he eat with taste from Nirvons deer and then went to bed for a quick nap to regain his energy for tonight. He fell in a beautiful, heroic dream, where he saved Freyana again (and she was of course very grateful! ;) ).
But he didn’t realise, that in fact he had made an enemy he’d better not underestimate!

An terrifying feeling of menace icily grabbed him by his throat and took his breath away. He heard horses, and many of them! The wolf inside got really upset and desperately tried to get the overhand, to come out. A second later, he heard people screaming and smelled smoke. He ran out of his room to see what was going on, but the wolf inside of him urged to be careful. When he came outside, the village was turned into a battlefield: houses were on fire and soldiers were fighting against civilians. One tall knight in black armor was shouting orders. Matrix would recognize that voice everywhere: Nirvon! Next to Nirvon, there was a man on a pony: ‘Godric, you little, pathetic snitch!’
Outraged by this treason and this brutal invasion, he started to fight with the villagers. Chanta saw him and pulled him away, back in the house.
‘Are you out of your mind? They’re here looking for you! That despicable traitor went straight to Nirvon to hand you over!’
She saw Trovin defending the passage to their house when she looked outside. Suddenly a soldier pulled a dagger and hit Trovin in the heart. Mad of grieve and anger, Chanta ran outside and attacked the man. But soon also she fell in the claws of Death. That moment, Matrix felt again the uncontrolled rage inside of him. The wolf felt it to and welcomed it as an old friend. The urge to take vengeance overpowered him and he let the beast out. When he jumped out of the window, the battlefield seemed to be silent for a moment. Everyone was stunned by his impressive appearance. Nirvons breath stalled for a moment. So it was true: Wolfix’ son was alive! An evil grin appeared on his face: now he would correct his mistake once and for all!
Matrix attacked the men who killed Trovin and Chanta with deadly preciseness. The smell and taste of blood empowered his yearning to kill. Blinded by fury, he butchered everyone who dared to stand in his way. He made mincemeat of trained soldiers like they were newborns. Suddenly the despicable and terrified face of Godric caught his eye. He had to get even with that lowlife insect! With a fast snap, he had torn the artery of the pony apart. The animal fell down with an agonized cry of death while the puffing, warm blood left its body. Godric had fallen from his mount and tried to escape from the furious wolf. But this time Matrix wouldn’t show mercy, he wouldn’t make the same mistake: he had to finish him off! He ran after Godric and jumped on his back, so the man couldn’t keep his balance and fell on the ground. The mighty jaws of the wolf closed slowly around the neck of Godric, so he could stare Death in its face. With ease, Matrix felt the neck snap between his teeth and a feeling of victory welled up in his body. Drunken by his taken vengeance, he heard a scream: Freyana! As he turned around, he saw a huge sword coming down on him. A terrible stab of pain went through his shoulder and chest and he transformed back into human shape. Then he saw Nirvons determent face and bloodshot eyes. Dazzled of pain and surprise, he couldn’t react fast enough on Nirvons second attack which was aimed straight to the heart. Suddenly Freyana threw herself between Matrix and the deadly charge.
‘Run now you can, Matrix!’ Freyana whispered, weakened by her injury.
‘No, I can’t leave you behind like this! You’ll make it. I’ll get you to a doctor. Please don’t leave me alone!’
‘I’ll always be with you.’ Freyana replied with a faint smile and she went to the other side, where she’d never feel the pain of this dreadful earthly life.
Blinded by his tears and grieve, he transformed back to the wolf and started running like hell. Nirvon and his soldiers were on his heels. Arrows were flying around his head and one arrow touched his flank, leaving a flesh-wound. If only he could make it to the border, there Nirvon wouldn’t dare chasing him with an army because it would look like he was invading that country. Slowly he came closer to his aim. Because of the sever blood loss, he started lacking of energy, but then he saw the border. With one supernatural effort he jumped over the border and ran for his life. After he made sure that they weren’t following him, he lied down behind a rock in the open sky. Suddenly he was back in human shape because of his weakness. When he was lying there, he started thinking the events of tonight over and felt the pain and grieve over the loss of his loved ones. But he had taken vengeance! Then why didn’t it feel as good as he had expected to be? Maybe Godric had been right: maybe he was Satins son, because everything he could was killing people and getting his loved ones killed. He looked up to Luna, his queen, hoping that she could comfort him. Suddenly he saw a shadow gliding over the moon: a dark beast with large wings.
‘Yes, creature of the dark, come and take me home. Take my soul were it belongs.’
Then he fell in a long, dreamless sleep.

In the distance he heard some soft voices whispering and a strange aroma he had never smelled before reached his nose. When he opened his eyes, he saw a tall woman with long brown hear and beautiful blue eyes.
‘Hi, there. Did you have a nice sleep?’ she asked with a sweet smile.
‘Is this hell?’ Matrix murmured stunned.
‘Hell? Oh no, this is Lantessama.’ she replied laughing, ‘You’re on TriPeak Island.’
‘So there is our sleepyhead! So what’s your name? And what were you doing there? And…’ an exciting voice asked.
‘Please Cyan, give the boy a break! He has just waken up. He needs to rest.’ a tall man said and he smiled as he wanted to apologize for the nosiness of that other girl, Cyan.
The woman with the long, brown hair started to talk again: ‘Forgive my sister for being so impolite, but I have to admit that we’re all very curious to hear your story, but Donriven has right, you should rest now. Not a while ago you were hovering between life and death.’
‘Yeh, but you’ve risen from the dead!’
‘Cyan…!’ the long-haired woman gave her sister a look of disapproval.
‘By the way, my name is Trix. My sister, Cyan, and I are the laeders of Lantessama. You may stay as long as you want. But first catch some sleep, we’ll talk later.’
Although Matrix wanted to know everything of this new place and its people, he was glad that he could fall back to sleep.
He woke up late in the afternoon and felt refreshed.
‘So how are you feeling?’ Trix asked.
‘Much better and thank you for your hospitality.’
‘You’ve been very lucky you know. If Maira hadn’t found you…’
‘I must say that we never thought that you would make it. Such injuries would kill any man, how strong he may be. You’ve made a remarkable recovery.’ Donriven said.
Matrix looked down. He couldn’t tell them, at least not now, maybe later, when he got to know them a bit better. But of course they were waiting for an explanation. Cyan and an other man, named Lucas, entered. She was already looking at him with excitement, hoping that he had a fantastic story to tell them. So he told his story, just the way it happened (except for the wolf-part, because he thought that they wouldn’t believe him anyway and maybe they were accomplices of Nirvon. When he got to the part of the death of Trovin, Chanta and especially Freyana, he had to bite his lip so he wouldn’t start crying. Also Cyan had a hard time at that point.
‘You’ve been through a lot, Matrix. But you’re safe now. Like I said before: you’re welcome here as long as you want.
There is maybe one thing you have to know: we have dragons.’ Trix said.
‘Dragons???’
‘Yup: dragons! Don’t worry, they won’t eat you. Well at least when they aren’t hungry.’ Cyan said, trying not start laughing.
‘Is that the animal I’ve seen? It was large and had wings.’
‘That’s right, it was Dresynith, Maira’s dragon.’ Lucas answered.
‘But the rest we’ll explain to you at dinnertime, because I’m starving.’ Trix said.
While they were eating, Trix and Cyan told everything about Lantessama and TriPeak Island. Matrix listened fascinated to their stories and was thinking by himself that he had been damn lucky that he had been found by such kind people. It seemed that everyone lived in peace here, the way it should be.
After dinner they went to their beds, because they had lost track of time while they were telling and listening to each others stories. When he was alone in his bed, Matrix felt the presence of the wolf inside of him. The animal was trying to convince him to let him get out. It was a fool moon and then was the desire to transform even greater. The lust was aching inside and after the talk with Trix and Cyan, all the emotions he had experienced in the fight (and he now desperately tried to suppress!) popped up. His soul was begging for some peace that much that it was craving inside.
‘Oh Luna, comfort me. Give me the strength to go on. Take away the thorns of the rose of my life.’
Searching for some relief for the aching torturing of his restless soul, he let the wolf out. He felt the strength and freedom flowing through his body and empowering. He wondered if the strange smell came from the dragons and he wanted to get a closer look at those mysterious animals.
Donriven woke up with a restless feeling. Was there something wrong?
‘Ensith, what’s going on?’
‘Nothing, I just saw a strange animal I’ve never seen before.’
‘How did that animal look like?’
‘Like a dog but much, much larger and beautiful silver-grey.’
‘A wolf??? What’s a wolf doing here and so close to people?’
‘Why are you so upset? He doesn’t harm a thing. He’s a friend.’
Friend? Donriven hated when his dragon spoke in riddles! Now he probably couldn’t catch his sleep before he’d know what Ensith meant, so he’ better try to find that wolf. After a little walk Donriven saw the wolf sneaking into the left mountain. Wauw, he had never seen an animal like that! The wolf was much larger but really beautiful and definitely impressive. Matrix instinct led him towards the Shadow Cavern where Donriven had his laboratory. There he saw some big black-grey eggs. How strange? The only eggs he had ever seen were chicken-eggs, but they were small and white. Were those eggs from a dragon?
‘Yes, these are dragon-eggs, Matrix.’ Donriven said.
Stunned by the fact that Donriven had seen him through so easily, Matrix transformed back to human shape because it
had no use denying it.
‘How did you…?’
‘Know that you were the wolf? Simple: first: you survived those injuries, which no one else could have done, so I already suspected that you weren’t a normal human being and second: Ensith told me that there was a wolf out here. Normally there are no wolfs nearby and if there were, they definitely wouldn’t dare to come that close to humans, unless of course that wolf was a man.’
Matrix was angry that he had made it so easy for Donriven to find it out, but above all that he had underestimated him.
‘So what are you going to do now? I understand that you don’t want me to stay here. People usually think that it’s freaky and ran away scared of they think that I’ll only cause trouble. I can’t blame you when you do the same. I’m not easy to live with.’
‘Don’t worry, I don’t want to send you away. In contrary! Tell me what your doing here.’
‘I don’t know. I wanted to check this place out after all those fantastic stories.’
‘Yes, but why did you check out this cavern?’
‘I have no clue. In fact, I just followed my instincts.’
‘Then I think you’re the right man for the job!’ Donriven said excited.
‘What do you mean?’ Matrix asked, worried that he had to play sheepdog or something like that.
‘I’ve waited for so long to find an appropriate candidate for this dark clutch. But I think you’re worthy Matrix.’
Matrix didn’t had a clue what that meant and how it would change his future. But when he looked up he saw the moon shining bright and he knew that Luna (and Freyana!) were watching over him. Inside of him the wolf and his soul had finally found rest and peace.

Continue to the Hatching