The Und-Gang
When
you are born you're afraid of the darkness
Then you're afraid of the light
But I'm not afraid when I dance with my shadow
Tonight I'm gonna get it right!
The two leather-clad men road into
the mid-west town on their classic Harleys. Both their bikes were black with
flames erupting from the edges. The same flames were stitched on their
jackets along with the words: ‘Und Gang’.
The two-member motorcycle club stopped at a local diner that was stuck in
the 50’s time spirit. Deverang, the oldest sibling with his long black
hair in a ponytail and classic brown leather jacket below his gang-vest
removed his helmet and fastened it to his motorcycle. At the same time, his
brother Stadurm ran his fingers through his shoulder-length blond hair and
removed his sunglasses and leather cap.
"Ready?" he asked.
"As ever." Deverang nodded, put on his pair of sunglasses and took
out the shotgun that had been fastened to his Harley. The setting was
perfect, open spaces and not a car in sight. Looking at the parking spaces
in front of the diner, there was no-one there.
In a few swift paces both brothers reached the entrance of the
rectangle-shaped trailer where a lonely cactus stood in the harsh sunlight.
Quickly Deverang pulled open the door and Stadurm rushed through it, fire
arm in hand and calling: "Everybody to the floor!"
Deverang entered behind his brother and focused on the cash register. There
was only one woman behind the counter, and two regulars sipping some beer on
the other side. All of them were ducking for safety.
Stadurm pointed his gun on the people sitting in the booths. Even though
there were no cars on the parking lot, two women were enjoying a cup of
coffee in one of the cubicles. They didn’t seem to have noticed the hold
up yet.
"Draca, I tell you, coffee is the best thing ever invented." One
woman said, smiled and then said, "Ok, Dresynith, ice cream is on the
same level."
the other woman, who was sitting with her back toward them smiled, then
suddenly tensed and turned around. One side of her face had a black dragon
tattoo that strangely obscured her features. The other woman had caught on
as well, she stared at Stadurm wide-eyed, but rigid. Neither of them seemed
like they were going to lay down any time soon. These were potentially
dangerous witnesses. Neither of the siblings were wearing ski masks for the
kick, they had never had a problem before. That was the good thing about
Americans, shove a gun in their face and they don’t even see who’s
behind it. They knew what to do: duck, hand over the money and forget what
had happened. But these two women appeared to not know the drill.
As Deverang was cleaning out the register, the tattooed woman came into
action. She walked fast toward Stadurm and was barely fast enough to dodge a
shot aimed for the top of her head.
"Down!" Stadurm called, "Next time I won’t miss."
Draca reluctantly kneeled down, but started to get up as soon as Deverang
and Stadurm were walking out the door. Stadurm fired one last shot into the
ceiling, making the people inside cringe.
"We’ve got to move quick."
"And ditch the bikes." Deverang added, pointing at the other woman
who was busy noting down their licence plates.
Stadurm nodded, stepped on his bike and took off, followed by Deverang. They
were gone from sight within five minutes, riding to a place where they could
hotwire another couple of bikes to escape. Their little heists might not
make them rich, but at least it beat working.
Meanwhile in the diner Maira and
Draca walked out, Maira leaving the note with the licence plate numbers.
"But you should stay for the police." The cashier stammered.
"We will go after them." Draca said soothingly.
"But you don’t even have a car."
"Our friends will pick us up." Maira added, putting a hand on the
woman’s arm to reassure her.
Outside Maira added, "I despise these lowlifes."
"I’m not too fond of them either, but you heard Ryuen and Dresynith."
"Yeah, they’d be perfect for some hydras. Sometimes I think we should
have never allowed them in the run."
"Shadows alone being worse enough?"
"At least shadows occasionally take good bonds."
Draca smirked, "But still, we need to get them before the cops
do."
"If we must." Maira shrugged.
The two dragons of the finders came running from the desert, both rested and
warmed up for the impeding chase. Both helped their riders mount and took
off, following the highway as a lead. Soon the two bikers came into view,
but also the edges of another town.
"We’ll need to be quick." Maira said, asking Dresynith to swoop
down. She landed in front of the motorcycles, blocking the road on both
sides. Draca followed her example and blocked the way back.
"We need to talk." She called to them.
Deverang looked at the large green dragon in front of him. The same two
women from the diner rode them like they were oversized winged horses. The
one behind them stepped down and said: "Don’t let them get past you
Ryuen."
"So boys, we have an offer to make you."
"Why would we even talk to you?" Deverang asked while Stadurm
loosened the shot gun again.
"Well we did write down your licence plates and I can assure you we put
down the right numbers."
"Why should we make a deal with people who betrayed us."
"That’s just extra motivation." Maira snickered, "We come
with an offer to bond a dragon just like the ones we’re riding."
Dresynith snorted, "Ok, they’re not like ours. You’re found for the
hydra clutches."
"Hydra? As in cut off a head and two grow back." Deverang asked.
"Hydra as in more heads than is necessary."
In the distance a siren started to sound. "Time is running out. Either
you come with us, or we leave now and you get caught."
"I say we stay!" Stadurm called, "I don’t want to go."
"Wait a sec, bro." Deverang said, "I’m not going to
jail."
"If you put it like that…"
"Ok, we will come with you, but don’t try anything funny."
"Dito." Draca nodded, extending a hand toward Deverang.
"Climb on."
They took off and just saw the first lights appear in the distance when they
winked through the elsewhere. But one of them didn’t quite keep up their
promise. Stadrum startled when they entered the black space with very little
air. He panicked squirming to get off. Maira felt he was slipping and about
to take her with her.
"Dresynith!" she called, "Enter!"
"But I don’t know where we are…"
"Never mind, it’s our only chance."
Carefully the green dragon entered the airspace of a nearby planet. She came
in high, but the sudden light didn’t calm Stadurm, he pulled Maira off and
fell behind her. They both crashed on the ground. Maira cried out in pain as
she felt her legs break. Draca landed with Ryuen and jumped off to tend her
friend. Stadurm ran off and Deverang followed.
Stadurm’s wild run didn’t stop for some time, but finally Deverang got
close enough to hold his brother back.
"What did you do?"
"They were going to kill us!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Do you know how easy it would be to just drop us of in that dark place…
I mean I was almost falling before we came back."
Trying to reason with his brother Deverang started talking. "I felt no
such thing, besides they need us."
"You believe that?"
"They have no reason to lie."
"I can think of one: they’re stone-cold killers."
"You don’t mean that."
They talked for 15 more minutes before sounds came from the bushes. Before
they knew it, the two dragons were on them and the women, three now came
running from the wood.
"Revenge boys." Draca said, her body twisting and elongating until
she shifted into her second form. The black dragon with white marked face
that stood where Draca had been, grinned evil and spoke out loud: "No
more will you enjoy the nice transport of a dragon’s back. We’ll see how
you like dragon claws when we pass through the elsewhere… who knows, I
haven’t done this in a while, I might drop you."
"I have never done this."
Ryuen chuckled now that his bond had started the taunting, "You
better not squirm."
Fan’al, the young woman that had been found while Stadurm and Deverang
where away didn’t seem to be at all perturbed by the sudden change of
Draca. Not so unphased were Stadurm and Deverang who generally didn’t see
people transform to dragons. They looked wearily at Maira who mounted on
Dresynith and helped Fan’al up.
"I hope I see you guys on the other side… I don’t know if I’d
like to see you in one piece, but I don’t like losing people in the
elsewhere… the screams are always so deafening." She cackled at the
look of the guys’ faces and gave the sign to take off.
And off they were to Lantessama. To their relief Deverang and Stadurm
arrived there each in one piece. Fan’al didn’t even look at them as they
were dropped off in the care of Donriven who got them to work ands watched
them with eagle-eyes. Still they managed to sneak of at a point to impress
firelizards – lookouts for future heist before they were called for the
hatching.
Erin
Meringue and Saylin
Stadurm and Devrang are candidates at Lantessama Isle
Credits:
Lyrics taken from 'Taste of India' by Aerosmith
Fonts used are called Abaddon
and Carolinga
All background images found with google search engine, dividers
here