by DM Fike
It took everything inside Avalon not to burst into tears. If she did, she would give herself away. Using every ounce of willpower she had, she dusted herself off, attempting to slap a neutral expression on her face. She didn’t trust herself to talk, so she merely folded her arms against her own trembling torso and waited for the others to gather themselves.
It took Isolde a long time to recover from her disbelief that they would not find the answers they sought at the temple. As the elf muttered to herself, Kay flew to the top of the ceiling. He assessed the damage the eternal flame had created, peering up into the fist-sized hole.
He whistled. “This goes straight through to the surface.” He stuck his arm in part way until it almost got stuck. “I almost wish it had created a bigger hole because then I could fly us out.”
But given the circumstances, they were stuck with walking back the way they had entered. Kay insisted Avalon follow behind him, Isolde taking up the rear. As they marched through Bedwyr’s earth-made tunnel, she wondered how Kay would feel if she told him the whole truth. She even tried to push the whole ordeal from her mind, if only for a while, but Isolde’s constant stream of frustration won’t let her.
Everyone felt absolutely exhausted when they reached the slopes of Mt. Hornley again. By now the sun had lowered into late afternoon upon the grasslands. “Where to now?” Isolde asked, a hint of bitterness in her voice as if anywhere they chose would be fruitless.
“Back to Emerged Falls,” Kay said with conviction. He glanced pointedly at both women, waiting for an argument.
Avalon shrugged. It didn’t matter where they went now.
Isolde groaned. “There must be some other place we can investigate.”
Kay tugged on an earlobe. “I’m listening if you have suggestions, but until that comes up, it’s our best bet.”
The fairy led the way down the mountain slopes, hoping to make it back to the trees to camp for the night. Instead of taking Mutt’s original path, Kay cut directly downward, only stopping to walk parallel to the mountain summit when the incline became too steep for Avalon. Isolde had no problem no matter what terrain, her boots stomping down all angles like a mountain goat, her temperament roughly equivalent. She lagged behind them both.
Avalon wondered if Isolde would ditch them during the night. She wouldn’t really blame her if she did. Isolde did not seem ready yet to confront her biological father. More guilt piled on Avalon as she thought of Isolde running around on a wild goose chase to look for answers that Avalon already had.
Avalon tried to focus on the advancing skyline to distract herself from the burden she carried. The forests underneath Mt. Hornley stayed mostly evergreen with only a few bare branches sticking out here and there. As they hiked across the last stretch of empty meadow, a motion in the air caught her attention. Far to the west, outlined by the setting sun, a flock of animals flapped their wings, heading in their general direction. They appeared as five small dots at first, enlarging as they bridged the distance.
“Are those bats?” Avalon asked aloud. They weren’t birds, not with their long wings, swarming together in graceful swoops.
Kay frowned, shielding his eyes as he stared at the incoming flock. “Perhaps. Isolde, do you know?”
Avalon and Kay glanced around immediately behind them, but the boulder elf wasn’t there. They found her high up the hill, frozen stiff, staring at the horizon.
“Isolde?” Avalon called up to her.
The elf’s mouth dropped open and she whispered something, but they were too far away to hear it.
Kay slowly turned back around, following her line of sight to the incoming flock. He squinted, then paled, startling Avalon by grabbing her by the wrist.
“Run!” he yelled, pushing her forward toward the trees.
“What?” Avalon asked.
“Run!” Kay repeated, taking to the air after Isolde. “Dragons!”
The word hit Avalon harder than a slap to the face. They finally came into focus. Leathery wings attached to lizard bodies painted in a predictable pattern—yellow, silver, red, blue, and brown—all the colors of the elements. A roar rang out from their ranks, accentuated by a flash of lightning that cut across the cloudless sky.
Avalon sprinted, fast as her feet could carry her, toward the relative cover of the trees. She glanced back behind her as she whizzed downhill, catching the barest glimpse of Kay picking up a terrified Isolde by the armpits and soaring with her. As Avalon slipped underneath the canopy, she lost sight of the dragons but could hear their cries mounting up above. As Kay sped toward her, hindered by Isolde’s weight, Avalon huddled behind a trunk.
“C’mon,” she prayed. “C’mon, before they see you.”
She waved at Kay as he scanned the underbrush for her. He charged into the forest just moments before the first dragon soared overhead, a silver wind dragon, snaking through the air like a centipede. The trio dropped flat onto the ground as a gust of wind whistled over them, bending a few of the younger trees on the outskirts of the grove almost parallel to the ground. Kay motioned them all into a batch of bushes, keeping them effectively hidden from the dragons as they emerged. Lightning crashed, hot air blew overhead, and the ground shook. The final ice dragon blew snowflakes down to the forest floor in its wake.
They huddled in fallen leaves and pine needles until the dragons had fled past them up the side of Mt. Hornley. The dragons swooped upward, paralleling the slope.
“They’re heading up the mountain.” Kay pushed himself off the forest floor until the dragons abruptly landed a third of the way up the mountain. He then crouched back down again, even though they couldn’t spot them at this great distance.
“What are they doing here?” Avalon asked, hunched over. “There’s no human city to destroy.”
Isolde’s wide eyes never left the dragons as she remained prone on the forest floor. “They’re searching for the Temple of the Heavens.”
“That can’t be,” Kay muttered.
But the dragons did land in the general area of where they had exited the mountain. The brown dragon roared, the entire mountain shaking underneath its claws. The earth upended on itself as the dragon slowly sank down into the dirt. As it disappeared from view, Isolde’s prediction seemed reasonable.
“The eternal flame,” Isolde whispered to Avalon. “It shot clear through to the surface as you regained consciousness. It must have acted as a homing beacon.”
Avalon blanched. “Why would that summon dragons?”
“Because they are made of Indulia,” she said. “Born of the Child of the Statue.”
Suddenly, the other four dragons snapped their heads back and let out a bellow of screeches straight out of nightmares. Leaving the earth dragon to dig its way into the Temple of the Heavens, the other four took to the sky, scattering in each of the four cardinal directions. The ice dragon zipped their way.
“Get back down,” Kay hissed, pulling Avalon back into the bushes. As they huddled in the underbrush, the temperature of the air cooled several degrees. Avalon held her breath so that it wouldn’t spurt out a telltale fog. Bits of snowflakes fell as the pale blue dragon screeched overhead. It scanned the forest, methodically flying past but apparently not finding anything else of interest. It quickly sped off north, still roaring.
Once the temperature assumed its normal fall briskness, Kay helped them all stand. Avalon rubbed the scratchy fibers on her arms. “What are they searching for?”
“We’re not going to stick around to find out,” Kay said. “I don’t like our odds against five dragons.” He gestured toward the south, where Forgotten Bend lay. “Let’s move.”
Kay set a rapid gait through the forest that Avalon would have normally found draining, but with dragons on the loose, her adrenaline allowed her to maintain a steady clip alongside her more robust Aossi companions. They did not encounter any dragons for a half hour, jogging in the underbrush with Kay occasionally flying to the treetops to scan for enemies. Their pace never let up
until they came to a break in the trees, where a wide meadow surrounded the river that ran through the valley.
“Sadus,” Kay cursed as they paused within the final grove of trees. “I don’t like exposing ourselves out in the open.”
“We could keep to the trees and cross farther upstream.” Isolde pointed back into the forest. “But it will add an hour to our travel time.”
“Better to keep going forward then. Stay here.” Kay had the women remain huddled in the brush as he once again poked his head above the treetops, scanning for any dragons. When he returned, he indicated the coast was clear.
“I can fly you across the meadow and over the river, but I will have to take you separately. Who wants to go first?”
Isolde motioned toward Avalon, so Kay grabbed her by the waist. “Hold on,” he instructed as he jerked back upward. Her arms wrapped around his neck as he flitted over grass, the sound of river water gushing in her ears.
“I’m sorry you’re always putting yourself at risk for me,” Avalon whispered into his ear.
“Nonsense,” Kay grumbled back. “I am your Guardian.”
He let her down gently next to a stand of pine trees. “I’ll be right back with Isolde.” Then he took off again.
Avalon stretched her arms and legs. They had a lot more distance to cover. She watched Kay step back into the trees on the other side and re-emerge with Isolde in his arms.
Halfway back toward the river, the temperature dropped sharply. A cold chill not related to the climate took hold. Avalon spotted the flurry of pale blue wings rise over the trees behind Kay before the Aossi did. Isolde shrieked, her voice clear even over the river as Kay doubled over, attempting to outfly his pursuer.
“No,” Avalon gasped as the dragon let out a predatory cry. It bore down on the pair, ice daggers forming in its claws and raining toward them. Kay twisted in an arch, keeping Isolde safe in his embrace as he flew backward and held up one hand toward the ice daggers. A gust of wind knocked the sharp edges away from them, but it threw the pair off balance. The two crash-landed in the grass at the river’s edge, still on the opposite side.
The ice dragon recognized its chance, limbs drawing in toward its chest so it could bomb the prone Aossi. Avalon could not watch them die. She ran out into the open.
“NO!” she screamed.
Her voice cut like a knife through the mountain air, forming a cloud of vapor in front of her lips. The dragon threw its limbs back out, halting its charge at Isolde and Kay. It cocked its head toward this new sound. Kay pushed his torso off the ground, a look of terror on his face as he realized Avalon had created a diversion.
For a split second, Avalon did not know how the dragon would react. Below it were two easy-pickings: Isolde and Kay, completely vulnerable to attack. But the dragon did not seem to care, focusing its full attention on Avalon. It roared again, a horrid sound like ice cutting into sharp metal. It sent a glittering ball of snow into the sky high above, where it exploded like a firework, raining down ice particles through a huge swatch of the surrounding woods.
In response, four other faint dragon calls sounded in the distance, all equally terrifying, some closer than others. Avalon trembled as she realized what the ice dragon had done.
It had called for backup.
A flash of light. Kay brought down a bolt of lightning upon the ice dragon, blinding everything for a moment. But when the light faded, the dragon had once again taken to the air. It dove for Avalon, claws outstretched, an eagle coming in for the kill as beautiful, deadly daggers hurtled in her direction.
Avalon did the only thing she could think of. She ran.
Back into the trees. Crashing through the underbrush. An unexpected gust of wind hit her back. Kay shifted the dragon’s icy daggers away from her. Ice shards rang out as they hit foliage around her, shattering into trees, chopping a few smaller ones down. The sound of trunks splintering reverberated through the forest. More lightning strikes sounded behind her. A beautiful symphony of destruction. As terrifying as it was, Kay had at least ensured that the ice daggers did not strike Avalon directly. Avalon earned only a few scratches as she continued her mad descent away from the ice dragon.
The ice dragon soared overhead next, sending a shower of shards downward as it passed. Avalon threw herself against a large pine, the branches above taking most of the damage as branches rained down, landing in a pile next to her feet. Only one dagger managed to hit her, a superficial scratch down one thigh, but it stung with scalpel-like precision. Once pine needles stopped raining, she ran again, taking a sharp turn to avoid running straight into the dragon.
The dragon pursued her hundreds of yards into forest, always raining down ice daggers from above, never entering the forest itself. Avalon avoided most of the damage but still sustained some cuts, each of them stinging in the bitter cold. Her blood trickled over her clothes as her breathing grew haggard. She had no idea how long she could keep this up.
And that’s how she managed to be routed back to the river. So intent on avoiding her pursuer, she hadn’t heard the unmistakable sound of raging water. She jumped right into a clearing next to the river, far from where Kay and Isolde had been attacked, as the ice dragon surged overhead. The calls of its companions, growing ever closer, echoed above as a set of ice daggers whistled toward her.
There was nowhere left to run. Avalon threw her hands in an X over herself, hoping to at least protect her chest.
Someone popped up next to her. “My way, going?” a cheerful voice asked. Then something nabbed her, and the world slipped away.
The next thing she felt was her backside slamming into a pile of twigs. The sound of dozens of ice daggers thudding into something solid made her wince, until she realized it wasn’t her body. The ice dragon screamed in the distance, not above her. Only filtered sunlight through branches swayed up above.
Mutt threw his hand over her mouth before she could say anything. She stared at him with wide eyes as he pointed with his other hand toward the clearing.
Avalon watched the ice dragon have a hissing meltdown as it stomped at a space near the river. It was only then that she realized Mutt had saved her from certain death, teleporting her out of the ice daggers’ path just before they would have ripped her to shreds. They had sunk into earth instead.
But the rescue was only temporary. A squall ripped through the trees as the wind dragon appeared overhead, joining its cold companion. They roared, settling down on their haunches as they sniffed the forest, obviously not ready to give up their prey.
Mutt’s smile wavered as he spread his fingers out in front of him, palm facing somewhere to the south, past the dragon. “Loudly as you can,” he whispered into her ear, “scream.”
Avalon didn’t quite understand. Mutt still had his other hand over her mouth. Why would she scream?
“Into my hand,” he insisted. “Do it.”
She might not have if the wind dragon hadn’t swung its neck in their general direction. Its nostrils flared, as if it had picked up her scent.
The scream escaped Avalon’s lips, filled with the terror of taking on two dragons at once. Her cry should have given away their location, except, for some reason, it didn’t. Instead, Avalon had the eerie sensation of hearing her own voice calling out from somewhere far away, the pitch higher than what it sounded like in her own head, but definitely her voice.
The dragons swiveled both their heads in its direction. The direction, Avalon realized, where Mutt had his palm held out. A direction opposite from where they stood. Silently, the dragons took to the sky, aiming to find the source of her scream, slithering away from them.
“For good measure,” Mutt whispered. “Once more.”
Avalon obeyed, and her scream, breathed into Mutt’s hand, caused the dragons to pick up their pace, dashing away toward Mutt’s projection.
The gremlin chuckled once the dragons flew out of sight. He let go of Avalon’s mouth, and she breathed in air not tainted by a stinky gremlin hand. “L
ike a charm,” he giggled. “Works every time.”
Avalon panicked. “Where are Kay and Isolde?”
“No more, say.” Mutt slapped his hand on her shoulder, and before she knew it, Mutt sent her on a dizzying spin of rapid succession teleportation. They would land for a brief moment—next to a rock, beside the river, on top of a log—before speeding off again. Avalon lost count of how many times they shifted, disoriented as she simply tried to keep her thoughts straight during the dizzying ride. It lasted until Mutt finally stopped, and she collapsed in a heap on the forest floor.
Mutt offered her something like pink taffy, half-shoving it in her mouth. The stuff tasted like an eraser, and she grimaced.
However, it also calmed her stomach. Her vision stopped spinning, and she could collect her current surroundings. The trees had receded, replaced by open soil with sporadic patches of grass and vegetation. A few blackened plants lay strewn about like skeletons upon a desert landscape. Avalon recognized it as the entrance to the Quawash. Nobody had once led Avalon and Kay through this part of the barren landscape.
“Why are we here?” she demanded.
Mutt ignored her, teetering on a cliff’s edge, peering downward. She crawled up next to him, staring at the forest below. Far away she could make out a few rooftops of Forgotten Bend, no smoke curling from them now as it lay abandoned. Her blood froze as she spied the distinctive red hue of a fire dragon, a tiny dot, sending flames into a copse of trees.
“What about my friends?” she cried.
“For it, wait.” Mutt said.
A few beats passed. Avalon was about to demand how long she needed to wait when a blue-haired gremlin teleported next to her, carrying a pale and horrified Isolde with her. A few seconds later, an elderly grandma gremlin popped out of nowhere, cackling as she deposited Kay to the ground, his gauntlet over his mouth.
“Kay!” Avalon kneeled down next to him.
Mutt wandered over to the two Aossi, splitting the pieces of pink taffy with his fingers. “Last of drak, it is,” he declared. “Expensive, this stuff was.”
