“You dare…” Valace began to yell at Cass.
“I said enough.” Kirin spoke quietly but with such a firm tone that no one dare speak.
“We have a war about to start out there and I will not have one started in here.” This time she looked from Cass and Shane to Valace. “We are going to need every little bit of help we can get, including both the few Metallic Riders we have befriended and any Sea Serpents that will join us.” As Kirin spoke the room fell deathly silent and she stared hard at Valace to see how he would respond to the news of the Sea Serpents.
“You are asking help from the Sea Serpents?” Valace asked, stunned and confused by her statement.
“We are.” She nodded.
“We will never fight alongside the villains of the sea, they cannot be trusted and are not even worth our arrows but you would have us stand side by side in battle? How can you possibly know that they won’t kill us the first chance they get?” Valace looked disgusted at Kirin and made like he wanted to spit at the base of the throne but instead thought better of it. Instead he turned to leave and he motioned for his fellow elves to join him.
“There are many things that I do not know: what will happen in the upcoming battles and what the future of the elf nation holds. But there are a few things I do know. I do know we cannot hope to win this fight without help from the Sea Serpents.” Kirin stood up in front of her throne as Valace ignored her statements and was about to walk out of the throne room.
“And hear me once and for all Valace, rider of Nithogg. If you leave this room without kneeling to me, if you leave this room without swearing fealty to me and joining your warriors to my army, then I will be forced to expel your clan from our nation and ban your people from Eytherka.” Valace stopped as his right foot stepped out of the room. He slowly turned around with his mouth slightly open in shock.
“You wouldn’t dare.” He began but once again Kirin cut him off before he could finish speaking.
“Not only would I dare, but I will do it. Your entire clan, all your people, men, women and children will be hunted as long as the stay within our forest. Your people will never find help from the elf nation and we will burn your city to the ground. You and your clan will be erased from Arvain.” Kirin slammed the words down Valace’s throat as she slowly took steps closer to him until she was mere feet from him.
Valace opened his mouth and tried to speak but Kirin shook her head before a sound could come out.
‘No. no deals. No more talking and playing this game you think you are so good at. You either kneel before me or you turn around and leave forever. If you choose the latter I would recommend you run, and run fast.” Valace looked around for help from the painted elves who all slowly fell to their knees to bow before Kirin.
Valace lowered his head and dropped to his knees with a thud. “We are yours my queen.”
Hayden and Draek tried to think of any way to get out of the storm. Draek seemed more worried about the looming storm than Hayden was but Draek claimed it was because he could see it better.
Well do you think we could fly around it? Hayden asked, looking at the dark horizon.
No, it’s too wide and if we did there is no telling where we would end up. Draek’s head looked from side to side as he tried to see the ends of the storm.
Well then let’s just go over it. Hayden said, watching Draek’s head raise up to see the top of the storm.
We could but you would freeze to death and then I would die. Draek replied.
Hayden saw no other way around it so he tightened up the blanket around him. Well then let’s go through the storm. How bad could it be?
The rain pounded Hayden and forced him to close his eyes, wiping them just made things worse. The wind ripped at them and was finally able to pull the soaked blanket free of Hayden’s numb fingers.
How can this get any worse? Hayden asked as he did his best to tighten up against the saddle. Draek was having a hard time flying in the constant shifting winds so they were being thrown everywhere. Hayden thought they had fallen back into the water because he was breathing in water instead of air. It turned out they had flipped upside down and all the water off Draek flooded Hayden.
Draek we have to do something. Hayden pulled together all his will just to get his thought out.
We are doing something; we are flying through the air. Draek shouted back. Draek righted himself and dove back into the storm.
Hayden did his best to hold on to the saddle as Draek struggled to read the storm. The constant wind change and ever present rain made it all but impossible.
Lightning struck all around them, blinding and disorienting them. As the sky to Hayden’s right began to sparkle and light up Hayden felt his hair stand up on end.
Dive left. Hayden shouted with all his might.
What, why? Draek asked to late. Lightning struck so close that Hayden felt the heat from it. Draek folded in his wings and fell like a stone, trying his best to avoid the lightning.
For a few seconds Hayden didn’t feel the constant rain as they fell through the storm. Draek snapped open his wings and they continued their fight against nature. As Draek flew higher into the storm Hayden felt the same tingling sensation from his left side but this time Draek listened to him.
Right! Draek pulled his right wing in and quickly rolled to his right. The streak of lightning shot right above them.
There was no escaping the lightning but soon Draek could feel the same sensations that Hayden was and although the lightning was still a threat they were able to dive away from the blasts.
Draek pulled both wings in for what seemed like the sixth time. Hayden was freezing cold and soaked all the way through his clothes. Hayden couldn’t imagine the storm getting worse until he heard a sound that broke through the raging storm.
Hayden looked towards the source of the sound and had one thought in his mind. Draek fly faster Draek. We need to get out of here. Hayden turned away from the fear that was behind him. A tornado was forming and reaching down to the water just a few hundred feet behind them.
Draek looked over his back and redoubled his efforts to get away from the storm. The tornado screamed and roared behind them as Draek slammed his wings up and down with all the ferocity he could manage.
Draek roared in his anger, in his pain and muscle fatigue, he roared in his fear. Hayden looked behind him again and saw the tornado, now more water than air, leaning towards them and tearing across the water’s surface.
Draek, please faster, we need to go faster. Hayden begged as the air around him did all it could to pull him out of his saddle and into the spinning vortex.
The sound grew louder and louder until, with one last push of his wings, Draek and Hayden were pulled into the tornado and Hayden was ripped out of the saddle.
Chapter 15
Shane and Cass stood behind Kirin as they looked over the edge of Out Post at what had once been a full and lush forest. The trees had thinned out as more elves had poured into the surrounding area and now the forest was no more than a few patches of trees.
The painted elves had all sworn their fealty to Kirin with minimal complaining. After Kirin had given the leaders of the painted elves orders for their people, Kirin, Shane and Cass had made their way to the top of Out Post to clear their minds. As they stood there Kirin looked to the sky to see her own dragon trying to keep up with Rilora and Shaylin.
“Do you think we made the right decision, joining up with the three of you?” Kirin asked as she tried to remember a forest untouched by impending war.
“I hope so.” Shane replied. Cass elbowed him in his side before he could say any more.
“You did make the right decision.” Cass said.
“I keep asking myself that question. I keep wondering if my father had lived would he have done the same things.” Kirin turned her back to her kingdom and faced her two friends.
“He was very clear that he did not want our nation involved with a war. He was willing to hand the thr
ee of you over to avoid it and here I am preparing my people for a war we can only hope to survive.” Kirin looked at her friends for comfort.
Instead Shane turned and made his way to the trap door.
“Shane wait.” Cass shouted as she ran to catch him.
“What’s wrong?” Kirin asked as she should stood stunned at her friend’s response to her.
“You are what’s wrong.” Shane said with a calm voice but his words hit like punches.
“What…..how could you…….how dare you I am the queen!” Kirin lashed back, even more shaken up from Shane’s response.
“You are not my queen, and you are not acting like their queen.” Shane raised his voice as he pointed out over Out Post. “They need you, now more than ever.”
“They have me, all of me. Everything I do is for my people.” Kirin shouted back, title and rank were thrown over the edge of the landing pad.
“But every time you make a decision you stop and worry about it. Every step forward you take for your people you doubt yourself and if you doubt yourself what are your people going to think of you?” Cass added her voice to the argument.
Two guards overheard their arguing and came rushing out of the trap door. Kirin shot them a look that surpassed anything she could have said and sent them running back down into the tower just as fast as they came up.
“You don’t understand, I grew up with them and I was raised with them. They are my family and I am asking them to send their children to war, possibly to their death.” Kirin finally broke out of her queen attitude and was yelling like a child.
“You think we don’t know what’s coming for us?” Cass shouted back, fighting back tears. “We see the children that are on this side of the army, we see who will be sent to fight and we know that is because of us that they must fight.”
“But you don’t love them like I do. You were not brought up here in the forest.” Kirin argued back but Shane cut her off before Cass could yell again.
“That’s right we were not raised here. We grew up in Celestial City, the kids we grew up with we will be fighting soon.” Shane said, still angry but now in better control of his anger since he had watched Cass start yelling.
“It might feel like you are sending your friends to their deaths but Cass and I will be the ones killing our friends, with our own hands.” Shane looked down at his hands as he spoke. “I fought in play battles as a boy with other kids, dreaming war. Now I am a man grown and standing at the edge of a battle just like the ones I used to pretend to fight in. The only difference is I am on the other side.” Shane spoke to himself as much as he did to Kirin.
Cass realized that there was one thing that all three of them could agree upon and that was Hayden and what he had sacrificed.
“Hayden is the first dragon rider to come from outside Celestial City, on top of that he was raised an orphan and has no real home or friends to call his own. He will fight people he has met since becoming a dragon rider but the only person he truly cared about besides the three of us was taken from him by the Metallic Riders.” Cass did not move any closer to Kirin as she spoke.
Even though her voice had gotten softer and kindness could be felt where rage was before, she had to make Kirin understand just what was at stake and what they had given up.
“Hayden is brave and reckless. He thinks with his heart instead of his head and because of that we are here. We were willing to give up everything just to get away from the Metallic Riders, just to be free of them. But it was Hayden that killed you fathers murder.” Kirin looked up at Cass and it was clear she was beginning to understand what she was saying.
“Hayden and I fought the dwarves just before we fled from Celestial City. We saw the carnage and gore that stained the snow. We heard the screams and the shouts of victory and we both took lives that day. War is not pretty, it is horrible. It will show you things no one should ever see and it will test you and break you but somehow put you back together so that you are a walking shell of what you used to be.” Shane looked away from Cass and Kirin and memories flashed before his eyes of what the battle had been like. He could still smell the smoke from the burning dwarves.
“Do not lecture us on the cost of this war. Do you think that we have not already sacrificed for this cause? Do not think that we will not sacrifice so much more for this.” Shane turned and stepped closer to Kirin, close enough that she flinched back away from him. “Remember that we are in this together, till the end whatever the outcome.”
Cass walked up and put her left hand on Kirin’s shoulder as she stood next to Shane.
“Lead your people wisely and stop looking back on every decision you make. We have a battle coming up and you need to be looking forward.” Cass said. All the anger had washed away from them as tears fell freely from Kirin’s face. She had done wrong and she knew it.
“I am sorry.” Was all she mumbled out and then Cass quickly hugged her and together the two riders began to cry while Shane awkwardly patted them on the back.
Kirin and Cass finally broke apart and together the three riders looked out over the changing world around them. “It will be hard fought but I believe it will be worth it.” Kirin said confidently.
Shane and Cass smiled at each other as they already saw Kirin taking steps in the right direction. “It will be hard but yes, you are right, it will be worth it.” Cass agreed with her.
“Let’s just hope Hayden brings help, that will make the fight easier.” Shane nodded in agreement with what Kirin said.
It will make it easier but that does not mean that the battle will be easy. He thought to himself. Like always Rilora’s thoughts shoot in like a sword slash, quick and to the point.
It wouldn’t be fun if it was easy. Her voice was not that of a soft spoken female, but rather the voice a warrior eager for battle and slightly raspy as if she was speaking just after giving a battle cry.
Shane shook his head and smiled. He loved Rilora even though she was a little too eager to fight in a battle. She had been so excited during the battle with the dwarves that Shane had had a difficult time pulling her away from the first dragon she had killed. It got worse after the second dragon she killed because by then she was deaf to his commands and she killed anything that got near to her.
Thinking about that reminded Shane of how Hayden had saved both his and Rilora’s life that day. I hope he has made it to the Sea Serpents by now. Shane thought to himself.
If it was me I would already be on my way back. Rilora commented but Shane did not respond. He was lost in thought about where his friend was.
Hayden coughed up water that tasted like salt and bile, a combination he never wanted to taste again. He struggled to open his eyes that were crusted shut. Hayden realized he was laying facedown and he did his best to sit up. His hands slid into the sand and Hayden fell back onto his chest.
He tried to wipe the crust out of his eyes but instead he just rubbed more sand into them. Hayden felt water spray over his feet and, without opening his eyes, Hayden pulled himself back into the water. As the cold water crashed over Hayden, the water that had almost killed Hayden suddenly rejuvenated him and allowed to him to clean the sand and crust out of his eyes.
Hayden pulled his head out of the water and opened his eyes to a blinding light. It took Hayden a few seconds to adjust to the light but once he was able to see again, he looked around. Hayden had half expected to find himself back on the main land somehow, or at the ends of earth for all he knew. Instead he found himself on the shore of an island.
Hayden fought the waves to get back up on his feet and stumbled his way onto dry land. The island coast was covered in thick trees that grew like walls. The rest of the island was hidden from Hayden so he couldn’t tell how large it was.
Draek. Hayden thought. Draek, where are you? Where am I? Hayden turned and sat with his back up against a tree. His body felt like it had been thrashed and beaten. He looked up at the sun a guessed that he had fallen into the water just over an
hour before.
Draek, where are you? Hayden asked again as he began remembering being ripped off of Draek’s saddle and thrown into the water. He remembered surfacing and watching Draek get slammed into the water as well. The wave that Draek had made sent Hayden spiraling back under water and after that his memory got hazy.
HAYDEN! Draek’s voice boomed in Hayden’s head. Where are you? Draek asked. Hayden closed his eyes and listened to Draek’s voice. He knew that Draek was alive because he was still alive. If Draek had died in the storm then Hayden would have been a statue on the ocean floor.
Hayden where are you, are you still out in the ocean? Draek asked, panic rang in his voice.
No I am on an island. Where are you? Hayden looked around to make sure he did not miss a giant silver dragon basking on the beach. As if right on queue Draek came flying over the tree line, looking side to side for Hayden.
Hayden got to his feet and waved at his silver friend as Draek passed over head. Haha you passed me. Hayden laughed as Draek flipped in the air and came back to land in front of Hayden.
Hayden was constantly being amazed by Draek but when his dragon landed in front of him he was overjoyed just to see him. Hayden walked slowly over to Draek and hugged his scaled neck, even though his hands could no longer touch on the other side.
Where are we and how did we get here? Hayden asked.
From what I have seen of the island I think this is where we were supposed to meet the Sea Serpent at. Hayden was happy just to be on dry land but the idea that they had somehow made it to the one place they were trying to make it to where they had been trying to go was unthinkable.
“There is no way this is where we are supposed to be. How did we even get here?” Hayden asked out loud as he looked around the island hopping that there was some sign that would tell him where they were. There was no such sign.
I think this is where we are supposed to be. After the storm I guess we hit a current that pushed us to the island. Not to mention my navigation skills. It was only a matter of time before we were bound to find the island. Draek said proudly.
The Clash of Land and Sea_The Dragon Riders of Arvain Page 16
