by Eric Vall
“I’ll make sure she’s careful, try not to worry,” Laika offered as she wiped off her swords on the corpses of the echidnas.
“I know you will. Make sure to take care of yourself too, though, okay?”
The wolf nodded with a small smile. Then an agonized scream pulled our attention away from each other and toward the fight.
“Go,” Laika said to me. “Help whoever that was, I’ll make sure both of us are safe.”
“I’ll find you when I can,” I said instead of a goodbye.
Then I took off into the air and left my lovers behind.
The fight had lasted for a few hours by now, but the echidnas continued forward like it was nothing. At this rate, they would easily surpass us here and make their way to Nike. In fact, I was sure a few had already made it to him and his unit, and I held back an irritated growl.
I scanned the lush green area until I saw my father next to Ravi. Echidnas swarmed around them in a circle and pushed the two of them back to back. Trees and shrubs were thicker here as we crept closer to the city, and I broke a few limbs off the tallest trees as I flew into the air above them. Ruslan brandished silver swords in each hand while Ravi stood ready to strike with a small dagger.
“Pops! Ravi!” I yelled down to them.
“Evan!” Ravi called up to me when I flew overhead and cast a shadow over them. “Ruslan has been burned!”
I looked down at my father and realized he favored his left arm. His hand still gripped a blade, but it hung limply at his side.
“Pops, stand back,” I shouted down to him. “I’ll heal you in a second, but I don’t want the echidnas to take advantage of it.”
Ruslan finished off one last echidna before he stepped away from the battle and grabbed his arm, and Ravi continued to fight in front of the fox to prevent any echidnas from reaching him.
I sent my healing magic out to my father in a wave of glitter and could feel the burn as it ate away at his skin. His right forearm was exposed down to the bone, and I was surprised he hadn’t passed out from the pain. I knew firsthand how badly the burns of the echidna’s blood hurt. I felt my magic work as his muscles and tissues began to reform over the wound, and before too long, there was nothing but a faint scar over his arm.
“Better?” I roared down to him.
He smiled cheekily and gave me a thumbs up. “Thanks, son!”
“No problem!” I bared my fangs in relief as he ran back into the fight with both arms healed. Then I turned my attention back to the phoenix princess. “Ravi!”
She glanced up, and I noticed how tired she looked. Her orange hair was covered in green blood and black pieces of echidna, and she had a few shallow cuts along her arms and legs, but otherwise seemed okay.
I sent magic to help her sore muscles, and she smiled gratefully.
“Thank you,” she called up to me, and I could hear the exhaustion in her voice.
I nodded and flew higher into the sky as Ravi began to attack with vigor once more. Then I looked over to where the city sat, and I saw Nike and his unit fighting against a few echidnas as they waited for the onslaught of the colony.
The moat Valerra and I had made sat just behind Nike and his fighters, and I watched as the first few echidnas broke through the last unit and crawled toward the moat. They sunk quickly, but I realized the moat wouldn’t last for long. The echidnas continued to crawl into the water to their demise without a second thought, so the moat would fill up with the bodies quickly, and then the beasts would have zero issues reaching the city as they clambered over the corpses of their fallen comrades.
We needed a new plan of action, and we needed it now.
Suddenly, a bright light distracted me, and I looked down to see Alyona. Then I had an idea.
I landed back on the ground near Alyona and Laika.
“Alyona, get on!” I yelled over the sounds of battle.
The princess looked at me curiously but didn’t argue before she climbed onto my back, and then I looked to Laika.
“Laika, have everyone fall back to the city. The echidnas have reached the moat, and it won’t be long until they can find a way over the wall. We need to be there when it happens.”
“Of course,” the wolf Demi Human said and took off. Then she began to bark orders and push people back toward the city.
I took off into the air with Alyona on my back and flew high enough to see for miles.
“Look out into the desert,” I yelled to the princess over my shoulder.
A moment later, I heard her gasp into my ear as she looked at the mass of echidnas that still approached the city.
“What should we do?” she asked over the wind.
“Do you think you can amplify the spell you’ve used to take out a larger number of them?” I questioned.
“No, I’ve tried,” she explained. “I use too much magic at once if I make it any bigger.”
“Okay, but what if you could borrow magic from someone else?”
“I guess that could work. I’d need a lot of pure magic … ” She stopped, and I felt her hands clench around the spike behind my head. “Wait! The book Ravi brought to me the other night! The pages she had marked were about phoenix magic and how it can be used to amplify any kind of purification spell! If I could borrow a fraction of her power, she could give me the extra boost I need. We would be able to take out quite a number of them.”
“Then let’s find her,” I roared as I dove down to where I’d last seen the phoenix princess.
“Over there!” Alyona shouted, and I glanced behind me to see the priestess pointing off to the east. “I can see her!”
I followed her line of sight and quickly found the phoenix. Ravi moved quickly through the echidnas as she lashed out with her dagger and struck the insect monsters in the nape of their necks. Her orange hair smoked behind her and made her look like a flame come to life.
“Ravi!” I yelled, and she used her dagger to stab an echidna in the back of its head before she lifted her face to look at me.
“What’s wrong?” she called out with wide blue eyes.
“We need your help,” I growled as I landed and stooped low to the ground. “Climb on.”
Ravi nodded once and grabbed onto the hand Alyona offered to help her climb up. Then I took off into the sky once more.
“What happened?” Ravi shouted as she perched behind my neck.
“I think we have a plan!” I quickly yelled back. “Alyona can destroy most of the echidnas, but we need your help.”
“How can I help?” Ravi asked.
“I need to borrow your magic,” Alyona explained loudly. “Phoenix magic is one of the purest forms of magic in existence. I can’t create a strong enough spell without your help.”
“Of course, take what you need!” Ravi answered immediately.
“Thank you, Ravi!” Alyona replied before she patted my scales roughly to get my attention. “Evan, get as close to the desert as you can. When we do this, we need to be as close as possible so we can destroy as many as we can.”
I nodded, flew out over the desert, and hovered above the hundreds of thousands of echidnas that were on their way to my city. The sun had begun to set slowly, and the angle nearly blinded me as the light perfectly reflected off the scaly bodies of the echidnas.
“Now what?” I called back to the princess.
“I can perform the spell from here!” Alyona shouted in reply. “Ravi, give me your hands.”
I felt the women on my back shift slightly, and then felt a pulse in both of their magic.
“Okay, Ravi,” Alyona continued loudly, “focus on your magic and try to send it to me.”
They were both quiet for a minute before I could feel a strange shift in their magic. It was like the signature of Ravi’s presence began to seep into Alyona.
“It’s working!” Alyona exclaimed. “I can feel your magic, Ravi. I’m going to start the spell now. Stay as still as possible, both of you.”
I almost wanted to tu
rn my head, but I kept my attention on staying above the echidnas and out of reach. Still, I could sense Alyona’s magic as it slowly grew inside her, and then her soft voice filled the air as she started the chant. The magic built up, and I saw a bright blue light begin to glow around us. The light spread out from us and continued to grow outwards into the desert, and it continued to grow until it was too bright for me to keep my eyes open. I could hear Alyona continue her chant until she finally finished, and I was overcome with a sense of peace as I felt the power wash over me like a tidal wave.
Then I opened my eyes as the magic rushed out from Alyona and Ravi, blew out across the sand, and sent up a giant dust cloud behind it as it traveled. The light flashed once more, but I didn’t look away.
After the light dimmed to nothing, and the dust settled along the desert floor once more, I looked over the area. Every echidna that had been headed toward us was gone, and I exhaled in relief.
“Alyona, it worked!” I called up to the two women on my back.
“That’s great,” she replied, but I could barely hear her.
“Hey, are you okay?” I asked, and I finally craned my long neck around to observe the princess.
Ravi held Alyona tightly as my lover swayed on my back. The phoenix pulled the princess upright and wrapped her arms around Alyona’s middle.
“Yes, I’m just tired,” Alyona replied as she smiled up at me wearily. “I want to rest.”
“Okay. Hang on for a second. I’ll take you back to Hatra. Ravi, are you okay?”
“I think so,” Ravi said, but her blue eyes fluttered, and she started to sway on my back as well. “I just feel funny.”
“I’m sorry, I think that is my fault,” Alyona murmured. “I took more magic than I intended to.”
“It’s okay, I’m just glad it worked,” Ravi replied, but her voice was tinged with exhaustion.
“I think everyone will be happy once we tell them the rest of the colony is dealt with,” I told the women on my back. “Now, all that’s left are to deal with the echidnas that had already reached the city, but I think we all want to finish this and go to sleep.”
The two women both hummed in agreement, but didn’t respond with words.
I flew toward Hatra, and the carnage below was mind blowing with endless amount of echidna bodies piled along the ground. I wondered absently if the earth would be poisoned by the amount of acid that leaked into it from their blood. As we flew above Hatra, I could see the fighters slowly finishing off the last of the echidnas while I landed us within the walls of the city, near the airship. The makeshift army we’d made seemed to have done a decent job of keeping the echidnas at bay, since I didn’t see any around us.
“I’ll come find you when it’s over, okay?” I told the two women as they slid from my back. “You two should go rest for now.”
Alyona and Ravi nodded before they walked toward the airship, and they leaned on each other as they went to keep their balance. The ramp slowly descended from where it had been sealed, and Alyona and Ravi patiently waited until it was fully extended before they slowly climbed upward. The guards stepped aside when the women finally reached the top, and they vanished inside. Then the ramp began to slowly seal back up.
Once I was sure they were safe, I spread my wings again and soared into the sky. I quickly spotted Nike outside the walls near the moat as he and his unit found any surviving echidnas in the water. Then I quickly transformed into my human body, pulled the Sword of Healing from my storage space, and walked over to him.
“It’s over once we kill the last of the stragglers,” I told him as I walked close to the edge of the water.
Echidna bodies flooded the moat, and I grimaced.
“How?” Nike gasped out as his silver eyes went wide.
He was covered in the green blood of the echidnas as well as the black bits of their guts, and his long hair was pulled back into a ponytail and was more green than white at this point. Yet, he still wore a giant smile on his face.
“Alyona and Ravi. I’ll explain later. First, let’s finish this. I am so sick of these fuckers.”
“Agreed.”
We made are way across the length of the moat and killed any survivors we found. Since most of them were already drowned, it only took around thirty minutes.
“Come on,” I sighed as the last echidna squealed and died under my claws, “we can return to the city.”
“Let’s hope everyone else has finished with their sections as fast as we did.” Nike yawned and shook his head. “I’m ready to rest.”
“You and me both,” I answered.
We walked back to the entrance of the city and strolled through the gates. Laika was the first person we found. She sat with her unit just inside the walls, and they all laughed loudly as they presumably regaled stories from the recent battle. Echidna corpses surrounded them, and everyone wore tired, yet happy grins.
“Laika,” I greeted with a wave, and I could hear the smaller airships above us as they made their way back towards the city. “The rest of the swarm has been taken care of, thanks to Alyona and Ravi.”
“We heard, that’s great,” she gasped, but then her brow creased with worry. “Is Milady okay?”
“Alyona and Ravi are both fine,” I assured her. “I made sure they were safe in the airship before I helped Nike with the stragglers.”
“Good,” the wolf Demi-Human sighed, and her ears dropped in relief.
“Is everyone here?” I asked as I looked around at the gathered unit.
“Nearly,” Laika replied. “Ruslan and his unit stayed outside to prevent any more echidnas from coming too close.”
“I guess I should go find him,” I said as I turned back to look at the walls.
“I’ll come with you,” she said instantly.
I nodded with a smile, and we walked toward the desert, careful to keep an eye out for any stray echidnas. When we finally found Ruslan, he was sprawled out on the ground, with a giant pile of echidna corpses next to him, and his ears twitched as we approached.
For a moment, my heart skipped a beat, but then the fox sighed like he was incredibly bored.
“What are you doing down there?” I asked him as we got closer.
I could see the rest of his unit as they sat along the ground, similar to Ruslan, and a few mages played aimlessly with their magic as they awaited orders.
“We rallied and came out here to meet the rest of the colony head on before they reached the city but … ” the fox shrugged, “there was nothing to find. Just ash and sand.”
“Yeah,” I chuckled, “that’s because Alyona, Ravi, and I dealt with the problem.”
“Shall I assume this means we won?” he asked as his green eyes stayed glued to the sky, but a smile crossed his face.
“Yeah, Pops. We won. It’s over.” I rolled my eyes at him and offered my hand to help him up.
“So, shall we return home then?” he asked as he stood.
“That’s the plan.” I looked up at the sun as it began to set below the horizon. “We just spent the entire day fighting those damned bugs. I think we all deserve some sleep and food.”
“Evan!” I heard a voice suddenly screech my name, and I barely had time to turn before the three dryad sisters tried to tackle me in a hug.
“We’ve missed you!” Marina cried as her arms circled around my neck.
“So much!” Polina added. “We haven’t even seen you since you’ve been home!”
“Did you see us fight?” Trina asked as her arms snaked around my middle.
“We did a pretty good job at killing those things.”
“I missed you three too,” I chuckled as I tried to quickly answer all their questions. “I’m sorry about not finding you earlier, I was kind of busy, and yes, I saw you fight. Also, you all looked incredible. Marina, I didn’t know how good of a shot you were with a bow and arrow. I’m really impressed.”
Marina blushed and released my neck. “Thank you.”
“Co
me on,” I said to the three sisters with a smile, “we are going to head home, and you three can update me on everything I missed while I was gone.”
The dryads shrieked loudly and agreed. Then they latched onto my arms and began to explain how much they enjoyed helping Afra with the fields.
Laika, Ruslan, and the mages began the trek back home while I stood in the back with the dryad sisters. We passed through the different areas where the fights had been, and the air reeked of death and the guts of the echidnas. We had to carefully step to ensure we didn’t tred into the blood that soaked the ground, but we finally reached the city when the sun started to lower behind the horizon.
Valerra soared above in the sky as we walked, and she landed just outside the walls of the city. I broke away from the sisters as they and the rest of the group continued inside the gates.
“Hey,” I said as I approached the other dragon, and I noticed she held her sister’s egg gently in one of her clawed feet, and the red diamond I’d given her was clutched in the other.
“The fight is over,” she said simply. “I’m headed home.”
“Oh, okay.” I cocked an eyebrow at her. “Thanks for all your help with everything. I’m sorry I took you away from your egg for so long.”
She huffed and looked away from me across the desert.
“I suppose it wasn’t the worst thing to hang out with you, even if I had to deal with the phoenix girl,” she finally muttered.
“I knew you liked me,” I teased her with a grin.
“Try not to do anything foolish after I leave,” she growled as she curled her talons protectively around her egg.
“Good night, Valerra,” I told her with a smirk. “I’ll come by sometime soon to check up on you.”
“Fine, just not tomorrow, I plan to sleep the day away,” she replied as I laughed.
Then she took off into the sky and vanished into the darkening twilight.
After she was gone, I walked quickly inside the city. The bodies of echidnas were still littered along the ground, but there was no sign of any of the people. Confused, I walked toward the airship, and when I reached it, I could faintly hear chatter and an upbeat melody coming from within the bowels of the ship.
