Bentwhistle the Dragon Box

by Paul Cude

  Beyond the magical barrier, telepathic orders had gone out, very different to the call to arms Manson had issued only minutes ago. A huge swathe of space opened up like the parting of the Red Sea as dragons flew back into whatever gaps in the air they could find, and nagas slithered away into any small hole available. As the path revealed itself further, as that's very much what it now was, two beings holding hands strolled indifferently along it, slowly making their way closer to the light sided heroes sheltering behind their shield.

  Behind the barrier, the king had a suggestion for his friend.

  "I guess we're going to need to hear what they're saying. Perhaps now's a good time to reverse the effects of that mantra."

  In the blink of an eye it was done, with the sound of wings flapping and tails swishing echoing throughout the confined space once more.

  Watching the sickening couple approach the shield, Richie fought off the urge to forget about the magic she was channelling and just run out there and kill them. In her usual confident way, she was pretty sure she could do just that, but knew it would be at the expense of every being there. Even she wasn't that cold.

  Pulling in a deep breath, she wondered how her best friend was holding up. His history with the deeply despicable Manson far outweighed her own, and she knew for a fact, even in the brightest of times, something this most certainly wasn't, Peter still had nightmares about his evening on the Astroturf. It must hurt him to see the villainous scumbag strolling casually towards them all without a care in the world. Using the tiniest part of her mind, she channelled some love and understanding in his direction.

  Deja vu rattled his brain and tweaked his nipple nuts as his nemesis, hand in hand with his vile and murderous queen, strode slowly in their direction. Inside, Peter desperately tried to hold things together, not only his emotional stability, but his bladder's urge to release itself there and then. Fear caused his arms and fingers to shake badly, as his jelly-like legs wobbled ever so slightly, something he hoped the love of his life wouldn't notice.

  Brave as he was, with little equal on the rugby pitch, except maybe for Tank, Hook was scared here and now, and not just a little. Watching the couple, who he'd been told were both dragons, amble aimlessly towards them, was like watching a video of a fatal car crash, over and over again. You knew something bad was going to happen, but you just couldn't look away. And despite the brave, fearless and powerful beings he found himself surrounded by, the young rugby playing human was utterly convinced that this was the end, and that they were all about to die. Every atom in his body simultaneously longed to be on the surface.

  Pretending not to notice the effects the couple were having on her prehistoric other half, Janice instead preferred, as she always did, to look on the bright side. Right now, that involved closing her eyes and reaching out for a certain futuristic looking weapon that was still carving its way through clusters of dark dragons and nagas on the outer edge of the now packed battlefield. During the eye wateringly slow passage across to rescue the king and his defenders, the young bar worker had tried reaching out to Fu-ts'ang on a number of occasions, only to be summarily ignored. The telepathic connection was there, it was just as if the consciousness of the weapon itself had chosen not to answer... which to her felt odd, because in the short time that they'd been together, they'd most definitely formed a bond, sharing key moments of their past, as well as her hopes and dreams for the future. Why he'd ignore her now was anybody's guess.

  "I'm busy killing your enemies child," came across the link, in a slow methodical kind of way.

  "I just wanted to know that you're okay."

  "Why wouldn't I be?"

  "Something's going on here. The leader and his queen are making their way towards our position. It doesn't feel right, almost as though they have a secret we don't know about tucked away. I was hoping you might keep an eye on them for me."

  A short blast of silence had Janice wondering if she'd gone too far and asked for too much. That, however, didn't appear to be the case.

  "I'll take a look in a moment. Although I've exterminated many more of their kind, for every one of them I kill, two more always seem to take their place, and although the crowded arena provides me with more than a little anonymity, I'm doing little to reduce the actual number of adversaries you're facing. I'm sorry, my friend, I'd hoped to have almost ended it all by now."

  "It's not your fault, you've done an amazing job and it's been a pleasure being joined with you. Why don't you conserve some of your magic and take a look at the murderous couple to see if you can fathom out what they're up to? Stay safe and as much out of trouble as you can."

  "Touché," replied Fu-ts'ang, diving off into the nearest shadow, which extended all the way up one wall. Screaming at speed under the cover of darkness, the fabulous ancient weapon continued to head up in an effort to discover exactly what duplicitous plan the happy couple were hoping to enact.

  Multitasking as only he could, healing broken bones in two dragons whilst at the same time knitting together torn ligaments and scales for a third, Yoyo's mind wandered off topic just a little. Through what had now become rather a crowded and confined space, he could just make out the vile dragon Manson and his devil bride. Momentarily a shudder juddered down his back, sending a tingling through his scales, something his vast experience considered a warning of sorts. Evil was here and out to get them, and somehow he couldn't shake the feeling that their time had all but come to an end. In an uncharacteristic show of emotion, whilst still attending to his patients, the knowledgeable healer opened up a telepathic connection to all his young charges, something they'd prearranged to use only in the most dire of circumstances, and started to speak.

  "Listen up all of you, we don't have much time. I wouldn't have thought it possible to get any more dangerous, but every sense within me tells me that it's about to. Your actions over the course of this unfortunate adventure have proved you all to be a credit to your race. More courageous, daring and cunning dragons would be almost impossible to find than those hidden behind this shield. I could have all day and still not have enough time to explain exactly how proud I am of each and every one of you. Whilst I know that your DNA and mine don't match, and that all of you have had the most horrendous upbringing, for many years now I've regarded you as the sons and daughters I could never have had. Know this! I love everyone of you with all my heart, and while I regret, to my very core, getting you all involved in this, it was at least the right thing to do. What you've done today has made a difference beyond belief. Without all of you, none of us would have got this far. Continue to fight with everything you have, right up until your very last breath, and hopefully we will be reunited again on the other side. As the king has already said, ready your magic and use all your initiative. Good luck!"

  Wonder, worry, sadness and joy flooded the invisible link, at least for about a thousandth of a second, before it was terminated and Yoyo's full focus returned to the wounded in his care.

  "I'm not liking this one bit," whispered the king to his newly recovered best friend.

  "Neither am I. But our hands are tied at the moment. We need to let it play out and just hope we're adaptable enough to deal with whatever's thrown our way. As long as the shield maintains its integrity, we should be able to stay safe, take a pounding and at least be able to give them a bloody nose, something I'm really looking forward to."

  "I'd forgotten how much sense you can make at times," added George.

  "I'd never forgotten our friendship, even in the darkest of times. You and Peter were all that kept me going... kept me sane. I wouldn't be here without you."

  "I know, my friend. I've missed you terribly. Not a day's gone by without me thinking of you, wondering about your fate. I only hope we can avoid the future our friends out there think they have in store for us, long enough to return the domain and the planet to what it once was, and celebrate long into the night."

  "On that we're agreed," replied Fredric, smiling at his friend
as they both clasped hands.

  Knowing that the eyes of every being in the king's private residence were on the pair of them only increased the magnitude of madness trickling through Manson's veins. Earth, on the other hand, worried little about anyone else, whether they were watching or what they were thinking. One thing and one thing only dominated her thoughts... her father, and all the different ways in which he could die.

  Stopping some twenty or so metres short of the front of the magical barrier, Manson looked inquisitively at the cowering heroes, wondering how they would react to what was about to happen. Not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things, he just liked to play things out in his mind, hoping to look back later on and realise he'd predicted the turn of events. With a long, deep breath and a wave of satisfaction rolling through him, his default, smug smile wrapped itself across his lips as he began to speak.

  "Here we are, at something of an impasse," he announced for everyone to hear.

  'Imp ass!' thought one of Yoyo's young charges behind the shield, conjuring up images of a wicked demon's bottom, something that briefly brought a smile to his face in this darkest of times.

  "In some ways I have to admire your fruitless heroics," continued Manson, Earth standing beside him, all the time grinning inanely. "But as you can now see, it's all been for nothing. You're heavily outnumbered, with only finite reserves of magic, and with nowhere to go. Communications across the planet have been cut off, and by the time the worldwide dragon community realises exactly what has happened, it will all be too late. The dragon domain and the planet at large will all be mine... I mean, ours," he said, turning to face his queen, much to her pleasure.

  "Get on and say what you have to say numbnuts," demanded Richie, still channelling the magic from the dagger and the necklace, attempting to be as disrespectful as possible, "before we all fall asleep from boredom."

  Being a dragon, you'd have thought that Manson would have had a thicker skin and be relatively immune to a barb like that. Not so.

  A rising rush of red flushed from his neck up into his head, warming him up like a superheated volcano at just the thought of being spoken to in that tone, particularly in front of his entire army.

  "YOU... YOU... YOU... half dragon, half human, weak willed, lily livered, dumb ass, stupid lacrosse playing halfwit," Manson managed to stutter furiously, determined to regain some sort of respect from those looking on.

  From behind the magical barrier, Richie let rip with the biggest cheesy grin she could, knowing full well from his reaction that she'd succeeded in her effort to wind him up and hopefully keep him off guard. Muted admiration from Yoyo's young charges rang throughout her head, as those that accompanied her admired her brilliance.

  Wrapping a comforting arm around her king's waist in an effort to keep him from actually exploding, Earth glared daggers in Richie's direction, fully understanding what the young woman was trying to do.

  "It's alright, my dear, they're trying to get a rise out of you. Calm down, otherwise you'll be letting them win. And we don't want that, do we?"

  Responding well to his queen's sage wisdom, Manson calmed himself down, dispersed all the heat he'd built up and eyed his father's killer with what can only be described as murderous intent.

  "Now where was I? Oh... that's right, you're all... DOOMED! No rescue coming, no hope of escape, no life beyond that which I grant you here today. So I will offer you this only once. Surrender now, and stop this travesty."

  This time it was Fredric's turn to mock the wicked, dark dragon leader, which he did by bursting into a raucous round of mock laughter, whilst at the same time rubbing his taut muscled belly in a circular motion, much as Santa Claus would at Christmas.

  "If you had the ability to take us down, you'd have already done it by now," boomed Fredric's deep, gleeful voice through the magical barrier. "We have enough magic to survive indefinitely, something that clearly throws a spanner into the works of whatever you've got planned. As far as we're concerned, you can kiss our giant, scaly asses."

  "DRAGON FILTH!" Manson screamed.

  "ENOUGH!" screeched Earth, pulling back her king, who was intent on charging the barrier.

  Turning to Manson, very gently she caressed his cheeks.

  "You can see what they're trying to do. Hold yourself in check. Don't let them get to you. It's what they want. They're trying to keep you off guard and divide us. You know that."

  "I'm sorry, my love, my temper got the better of me. It won't happen again, I assure you."

  "It's okay, it's nearly all over. Things will be better then. What say we get on with what we came here to do?"

  "I'd like that, I really would."

  "Then let's do it," answered Earth, grabbing Manson's hand, turning to face the group of beings standing between them and planet wide domination.

  Fleetingly, silence encompassed everything within the king's private residence. No beating of wings, wriggling of tails, hissing of tongues, barely even a breath as events rested on a knife edge. Now was the moment, the one they'd all been waiting for. Whatever had been planned was about to come into play. It was now or never.

  Clasping her king's hand, Earth opened herself up fully to him, the madness inside them both colliding, rebounding, their separate forms of magic intermingling, unifying, together becoming more than the sum of their parts. Around their physical bodies the air became infused with magic, looking as though it had been ignited. Yellow, orange and red streaks of light danced and twirled, wriggled and twisted, weaving in and out of the couple's bodies, through their arms, fingers, hands and legs, almost engulfing them, but not quite.

  Quiet panic at unrecognisable supernatural power out beyond the shield and their control, threatened to swallow up the light sided heroes, but in solidarity, they stood firm, readying their magic, prepared to fight for their lives.

  Losing herself in channelling the power from the dagger and necklace, Richie formed the mother of all cohesive bonds with Yoyo's band of young dragons, melding with each of them, sharing memories, feelings and fears, their magic together giving the barrier an extra element of protection. Whatever happened, they knew the shield would shelter them, at least for now.

  Hundreds of dark dragons and nagas watched in anticipation, wondering what was about to happen and whether or not they'd get their chance to attack the interlopers.

  Behind the barrier the air crackled, hissed and sizzled as magic thrummed into life, ready to be dispensed at a moment's notice. With the exception of Janice and Hook, everyone else had an offensive spell ready, including Yoyo, who was still multitasking, this time healing deep tissue muscular injuries that three of the King's Guards had picked up fighting alongside their monarch.

  "Aaaahhhhhh..." sighed Earth in rapture, the snakes from her head nipping and snapping, this way and that.

  "Ohhhhh..." moaned Manson, fully consumed by what was going on.

  And without warning, it happened.

  For Richie and Yoyo's band of talented young dragons, it felt like having their magic snatched away instantly. Like opening the floodgates of a dam, all of the mana contained within Aviva's dagger and the laminium necklace surged out at breakneck speed, threatening to drain both items dry. Momentarily stunned, Richie's mind leapt into action, fighting to hold onto what was left with all her will and might. Shocked beyond belief, the cadre of youngsters sharing the lacrosse playing dragon's mind reinforced her belief, adding all their own power to hers, redoubling their efforts, hoping it would be enough to save at least some of the mana they were relying on to power the shield behind which they all sought safety. It wasn't sufficient. And as if that weren't bad enough, what little power they all still retained individually got siphoned off as well, leaving them completely defenceless in the shells of their prehistoric bodies. In a final, futile glow, the last of the supernatural power was ripped from the confines of the laminium dagger, sending a surge of superheated energy into its hilt, burning and blistering Richie's hands, forcing her to cry o
ut in excruciating pain, as she dropped clumsily to her knees, instantly disconnecting the link in her mind with the other dragons. Looking to stave off the pain from the burns, the young lacrosse playing dragon reached into her well of magic to do a touch of healing, only to find the source of her power had run dry. Unconsciousness took her as she crumpled to the floor. Sharp intakes of breath were all that could be heard as the steadfast energy barrier that had kept their enemies at bay, saving all their lives up until now, flickered into nothing.

  George and Fredric, their most powerful offensive magical spells already lined up, opened up their hands and thrust out their arms in the direction of the gruesome twosome. Instead of the brilliant, bright display of colourful, powered magic they'd been expecting, a few dying, supernatural embers sparked across the lifelines of their palms. They too, had had all the magic sucked right out of them.

  Witnessing the earth shattering events that seemed to be playing out in slow motion, and against everything the healer in him believed in, Yoyo, still tending to the unconscious Vasuki, leapt to his feet, turned to face Manson and with all the willpower, experience and anger that flowed through him, rattled off the most vicious, most despicable and evil mantra he knew, looking to kill the rogue dark dragon leader there and then. Nothing happened, except a sense of total and utter bewilderment consuming the experienced dragon physician.

  One bound from his powerful legs had his magnificent new form surging through the air, heading out through the shield on course to tackle Manson and his psychotic queen. That is until every atom within him had its supernatural power torn asunder, leaving him bereft and alone. Too much for any normal being to take, even for Flash it was a shock. So much so, that instead of maintaining flight, which in theory should have been possible even without all his magic, he just crashed nose first into the marble, tumbling to a halt against a massive pile of debris.

  Aghast at what had transpired all around her, Captain Battlehard sought the magic of her birthright and prepared an all out attack with everything she had, in an effort to keep the king and his friends safe. Suicidal at best, she could see no other way out with beings around her losing their magic left, right and centre. Grasping the power within herself as she’d done thousands of times before, she attached her iron force of will and prepared to strike with everything she had. Just as the words started to form deep within her consciousness, the magic itself started to slip away. Desperately she tried to cling on, but it was like water slipping through her hands. Nothing she did stopped the undeniable leak through which her power was being drained. In an instant it was done, with every last particle being stripped from her body. Despite her training, panic threatened to take her. It was all she could do to remain frozen to the spot. All around the fearless captain, others suffered the same effect. Those that she’d fought alongside, and Yoyo’s brave band of young dragons, underwent exactly the same ordeal, none of them coping nearly as well as Amelia Battlehard. Dragons behind the shield dropped to their knees like chestnuts falling from a tree during a storm. It wasn’t just their magic that had been siphoned off either. Any vestige of hope had all but disappeared, replaced instead by a deep sense of terror, dread and overwhelming apprehension.