Venos

Venos
The teeth in the dark
"Beware, the hunger spreads."

{Info}

Clan Dark-Blood's flag

Venos begun life as a mirror dragon, spending most of his days crawling in the dark of the caverns and caves that the clan called home. One day, a group of the dragons that resided in the depths of their home were called upon to assist in a hunting expedition. Venos was with another dragon- a guardian. The hunting trip went smoothly at first- Venos was an excellent tracker by scent and by following the tracks left behind. However, when it led into the darker segments of a thorny thicket, shaded by the tall pine trees of the Tangled Wood, things began to turn dangerous. The guardian dragon that was paired with him was about to pounce onto a tender looking prey-beast when he suddenly stopped and raised himself to full height. "What is it?" Venos had asked him in frustration. The prey-beast had fled when the guardian revealed himself, leaving their hunt empty-handed. Now they needed to start the hunt over again! Without a response, the guardian had turned and ran as fast as he could, quickly taking to the sky. "Hey!! Get back here!" Venos couldn't believe that his hunting partner fled like a coward! What was he running from, anyway-? When the mirror turned to see what had spooked the guardian, he saw a brightly glowing set of eyes- five glowing eyes in the dark. A creature he had never seen before tore from the shadows, barreling right toward him. Then, teeth. Venos didn't remember much after that as the weight of the new predator slammed him into the ground, both sets of jaws digging into his neck flesh. The sheer weight of the abomination kept him crushed into the ground, hardly able to even twitch. One of the taloned hands shoved his head into the ground and he heard a muffled but otherworldly chuckle from the jaws around his throat. As they bit harder into his flesh he could feel a burning in the wound. It started as just a low warmth before it started to grow hotter. Soon, the teeth released their grip on his neck and the weight vanished from his battered back. Sudden sharp gust of wind buffeted his broken body as the five-eyed beast took to the sky, leaving him with the pain, and the otherworldly laugh lingering in his mind. Venos tried to get to his feet, but no sooner than he had the ground rushed up to meet him and he fell into unconsciousness.

When Venos woke, he was in a cave, dimly lit with sickly green candles. The mirror moved to stand when the crinkling of chains broke the silence, and he found that he could barely lift his head. He was chained by the neck and every limb, including his aching wings. As he became more conscious of his surroundings, he could smell the sickly tang of infection. The scent could be coming from him, he noted, as he struggled to get to his feet. Where was he, why was he chained? The thick chains held him to the floor, barely able to move from his position flat on his stomach. Agitated he lashed his tail from side to side, trying to crane his head to see his surroundings.

Besides the fact that it was indeed a cave, he could only see scrolls scattered about on various flat surfaces, vials of ink, and vials of... some sort of shimmering liquids, all in various colors. While he was so busy trying to figure out where he was, a dark figure prowled into the cave from the darkest corner of the room. In the gloom, all he could really see were the faint embers of incense sticks nestled around the neck and shoulders of the dragon. As they came closer, he noticed the faintly glowing red vial around the figure's neck. Venos tried to look up and see the face of the approaching captor, but it was difficult due to how he was chained. His captor had stopped in front of him with his large, claw-tipped gloved paws stopping mere inches from his muzzle.

As though his captor could see him struggling to look up, the hefty dragon took a step back and lowered their head into his view.

A wooden mask, adorned and shrouded with feathers, branches and fabric loomed into his vision, the pale pinpricks of their eyes staring into him. He could see that way their eyes shimmered a sickly, pale green that was not natural. It was likely an enchantment of the mask, to hide their identity or true element. The scarf that they wore was held into place with the branches that seemed to coil around their neck, keeping the hooded scarf from slipping away. Venos' captor being so close to him only highlighted the vial of shining red fluid dangling from their neck, along with locks of deeply red fur curling around the vial with the dragon's movement. He bared his teeth at his captor before the massive paw in front of him lifted and settled on the top of his head, pushing it into the floor.

The captor said nothing but held his head there for a moment before another of his massive paws seemed to pull something out of one of the teeth wounds on his neck. It ached sharply when it was pulled free, and he could feel the warm blood ooze out of it. A deep hum rumbled from the burly dragon's throat before the weight on his head was lifted. Venos strained to see the figure as it moved away, but it wasnt long before it vanished back into the gloom, like it was never there.

--
The next few days felt like years. Maybe they were. Venos is not sure anymore. The agony seared through his body as the bite and the magic within festered like a poison. He changed, violently, into something he had never seen before. No, that was wrong. He had seen it, but only once.

It had been the thing to bite him, back what seemed like years prior. The teeth and the eyes in the dark. The thing that had caused him to succumb to the thirst.

Ever since he had changed, bitten by that dark, five-eyed beast, he has craved the blood of others. In his dreams, the beast that bit him that faithful night warned him that he will need to learn to control his hunger, otherwise he will infect others with the same hunger as him. Were his dreams really his own? Was he still himself? Well... with the second head came a second personality and its own mind. Constantly waging against the hunger of the other.

Soon, he would find another soul to sink his teeth into, just as he had been bitten.