by Bob Dattolo
“That’s not what we heard!”
Kynal pushed harder, “C’mon, they’re coming!”
“Who’s coming?” Neither of them responded, “Who’s coming!”
She jerked into motion, pulling the two guys with her, “Don’t follow us!”
“There’s only one fucking hallway here, Angelica!”
“I don’t care, go back the way you came. Or the way we came. If you can survive it.”
“What the fuck is coming?!?”
A roar announced just what’s coming. A dragon.
Kaylee screamed, “We gotta go!”
Angelica and the guys broke into another jog, heading past us, weapons pointed at us.
I can’t help it as I inch back towards where they came from to see if I can see what’s coming this way. There’s a turn not too far down, but the sound is much clearer. At least two dragons in the hallway.
So, so not good.
“C’mon, we don’t have a choice. We gotta follow them.”
She stayed right on my side as we broke into our own jog, making it around three more turns before the room opened a little. There’s a challenge in the middle of the space, Gage looking things over. Kynal and Angelica are staring around them, with Angelica watching this way. She sees us immediately and her magic spread out, “I told you not to follow us!”
“There’s like two dragons back that way, Angelica! I don’t know what problem you have with me, and I don’t really care. Get the fuck through that challenge and keep going, or we’re gonna meet a shifted one of us!”
She stepped closer, “Don’t make me kill you!”
“I’m not making you do anything! Just get through the fucking challenge!”
Kaylee screamed as the noise behind us got worse. Now it sounds like one dragon. That could mean that they took separate paths. Or one killed the other? Either one isn’t great because it means they get here quicker.
“I don’t know what we have to do!”
Kynal hit Gage’s arm, “What the fuck? You don’t know?”
“I don’t get it!” He pointed to the far wall. “I don’t get what that means! Three fucking balls? Then they go in the holes? Balls of what?”
Fuck. “Light! We have to make three balls of light that big and put them in the holes on the floor!” They followed my point, “Get with the light-fucking-making, or some pissed dragon is gonna kill us!”
Gage swallowed hard, “I don’t know if I can make three balls of light that big! I’ve only ever made two!”
Angelica paled, “This isn’t good.”
Kynal stepped away, “I can’t…I’ve never made one that big. Or three. Of anything.”
Angelica swayed, “I might be able to do it.”
Kynal hit her arm, “Then get through the fucking challenge.”
“I can’t leave you guys here! Not with her! Not with a dragon coming!”
“Then we’ll all die.”
God dammit to hell, “Kaylee? Can you do it?”
She didn’t give me a big nod, but I got one, “I think so?”
“Don’t come over here!” Angelica’s power came out more.
“Angelica? Seriously? What the fuck did I do to piss you off?”
“You planned to kill us!”
“No I…”
“Maddie!” Kaylee nearly yanked me off my feet as she hauled me farther into the room. I didn’t get why until her terrified gaze locked back the way we came.
Revealing a pissed water dragon coming around the corner.
“Get through the fucking barrier!” I shoved her back from me as we moved, with Angelica, Kynal, and Gage not seeming to know what to do.
“We’re not sure we can get through!” Angelica sounds freaked, as you’d expect.
“Then get your asses ready to fight a fucking dragon!”
The dragon reared back and then roared into our huge room, sounding like a jet engine, and making me wince from the power. I don’t know what to do. If I go for the dragon, the other three could kill Kaylee.
I whirled on her, “Can you get through the challenge quickly?”
“I don’t know!”
“Dammit!”
Angelica and the other three are holding their weapons out, leaving us two as the only two not armed. Dammit to fucking hell. We have three people here. A challenge. And a shifted fucking dragon.
“I can’t fight whoever that is and protect you. Can you get into that corner over there and stay there? Unless you can get through the challenge quickly?”
“I don’t think I can with those three there!”
“Then get in the corner. Now!” She ran from me, ending up a good 70 feet away, standing in the corner. A trail of piss followed her for at least part of it.
I know how she feels.
I turned back towards the dragon and moved away from the other three, leaving them closer to the challenge. I can get through, but that’ll leave them here with a dragon and no way to get through. Kaylee will be stuck here.
Dammit, you fuckhead, whoever you are.
“Hey!” The dragon blinked at me and continued walking, huge feet making the ground thump, “You don’t have to do this! We can all get through the challenge and keep going! We don’t have to fight!”
Angelica called from the side, “Give it up, Maddie! Everyone already knows what you planned.”
I looked at her, then back at the dragon, “I’ll say this one more time, Angelica. I don’t have a fucking clue what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t let the dragon kill me, please!”
Kaylee sounds freaking terrified, which I can appreciate.
“Don’t do this! I don’t even know who you are, don’t do this!”
The dragon roared again, making it brief, as they continued to come towards us. I can tell by the set of its shoulders that they plan on attacking. The body language is all about killing everything in front of them.
No, of her. It’s a her. Whoever she is.
“Please, you don’t need to do this! We can all get through this together!”
“Why the fuck do you keep trying? We all heard about it. Now you think you can get people to change their minds?” Gage had the same look of resignation on his face.
“Fuck you guys and your lies. I didn’t do anything! I didn’t turn on you, you guys walked away from me.”
“After you planned to fuck us!” Kynal’s accusation hurt the most for some reason.
“I never, not even once, planned to do that.”
“That’s not what everyone was saying.” Angelica stepped back, “If I shift, I might be able to help. She’s a water dragon, but I’m more powerful as a bronze dragon.”
Kynal swallowed hard, “You said you wouldn’t do that!”
“I don’t know what else to do! We have a shifted fucking dragon coming at us, and we don’t know that we can get through the challenge!”
God dammit to hell. I started forward, “Get working on your fucking magic. Right now. If any of you three go after Kaylee while I’m fucking with this dragon? I swear to Jesus H Christ that I will eat your fucking intestines while you’re still alive. Get. Through. The. Challenge!“
Angelica sounded fucked as I turned away, “You can’t fight her!”
“You guys aren’t about to do it! Kynal and Gage can’t trust you if you shift. So that means it’s up to me. Get through the fucking challenge!”
Their magic started flowing, although it was weak at best, leaving me facing the water dragon.
“You don’t have to do this!”
Instead of answering, the dragon darted forward as magic came to life around it. I picked up the intent of the spell at the last moment and yelled, “Light!” as I dove to the side, narrowly missing being chomped by the massive teeth. Kaylee must have misunderstood, because she screamed as the huge ball of light went off, right in front of where I had been standing. Had I been there, I never would have seen the dragon coming.
The huge thing whipped ar
ound, coming in and chomping again. This time I jumped back, shifting mid-movement, and then jerked my wings, propelling me forward again, where I rammed my fist into the massive face.
Her huge head actually jerked back from me. It sounded like a pile driver hit a cow, and I swear I broke part of her snout, but she’s nowhere near out of this. She roared in pain as she flared her wings, then came back at me, moving like quicksilver across the floor as I ran backwards. I swear I wasn’t expecting the wall to be so close, so when I hit it, it rang my bell hard enough to see stars.
Unfortunately for me, she knew it was coming and timed a lunge with a flap of the wings, meaning she came in with her head down and rammed me into the cinderblock wall with the top of her skull, right where the ridges are. Think horned dragons, and you’d be right. They all have huge horns jutting out in various combinations, and they fucking tore into me, sending a gout of blood out across her head from my mouth and wrecked ribs.
I swear, they’re all broken as she stands, hauling me up with her as she roars again. Definite victory. Definite happiness.
Fuck you, water dragon.
She’s not prepared as I flap away from her, sending magic into me and rushing through healing at the same time I create two huge lights in front of her eyes. I blocked them with a cone of darkness, so she got all of the light.
Another roar, this time of pain, as she jerks away from me. I don’t think so.
More power flowed from me, and the metal I sucked up earlier appears as daggers, which ram into her neck and throat again and again as she tries to jerk away from me. Her magic flashes out, and a jet of water hits me, sending me tumbling to the side. We can withstand magic, but it’s harder when the magic causes something physical to happen.
My right wing is broken from the water, but it heals as I shove my way up. I lost track of the knives and they’re gone now, with the dragon coming in at me hard again.
Behind her, Kaylee is in the corner, cowering away. Kynal is trying to get his magic to work but isn’t getting large enough lights to satisfy the spell. One is, but the others? Too small. Too weak.
God dammit to hell!
The dragon jumped up, flapping, and taking off, lifting higher and higher as I stared up in horror.
I don’t know what to do. At all.
The dragon sends out more magic at me, hitting me with six spells, one after another, all of which break on my scales without causing me any damage. Thankfully.
The magic back by the challenge is still fluctuating, with Kynal also trying to do it at the same time.
And failing.
Then the dragon above me is coming at me. I wasn’t expecting the fucking thing to drop. Yet here she comes.
Rage fills me, overriding the panic and fear that had been tearing at me. A scalding hot jet of steam rips from her huge jaws as she comes, enveloping me in a cloud of white that doesn’t bother me.
Then my own jet of breath is unleashed as my magic goes insane, with things happening that I barely thought through. Most of me wants to dodge, what with a multi-ton monster dropping on me, but the other part of says fuck that and really goes to town.
Then the ground ripples and crashes as the huge dragon hits. Her roar turns to a screeching scream of agony as more power rips out of me, my breath carving into something I can’t even see, then magic flows into me. My spells continued to go off, creating chaos around us, then other spells begin to retract, letting her huge body fall to the ground.
She never made it.
She impaled herself on huge spikes of solid cement that she never saw in the explosion of white around us. Her chest is mostly gone from my breath, and I can’t help but be thankful that my other spells sent out even more steam to keep the others away.
Which lets me shift back to human and stagger through the cloud as it fades, leaving behind a dead dragon.
I never learned her name.
The others are still in the same place as I head for them. My magic healed me, thankfully, but I’m sore now. “Get. Through. The. Challenge!”
Angelica pushes the guys behind her, “How did you kill her?”
“Why does it fucking matter? Get through that thing already!”
“No, tell us how you did it! You fought fire and won. You faced ice and walked away from it. You’ve taken water head-on and walked away. How did you do it!”
“It doesn’t fucking matter!”
Another roar down the hallway. Make that two.
“Angelica? I say this with all of the love in my heart that I have, but I need you three to get through the fucking challenge and go. Now. If two more dragons show up, I’m not sure I can fucking kill them. I just want to get out of here. Graduate. Now get your fucking spells working!”
Power flared around her, “How do I know if we can get through that you won’t attack the last here?”
“Oh my fucking God! Because we were allies until a few days ago?”
She stepped closer, “You planned to betray us!”
Magic swamped the space around us without me planning it, and the entire room shook as I reached her. She didn’t seem to see me move until I had my arm under her nose.
Kaylee yelled, “They’re coming!”
“I know!” Angelica stank of terror at realizing that I’m this close to her. “Smell my fucking arm, Angelica. I never planned to double cross you. Ever. I thought you guys were already fucking with me. I thought everyone was fucking with me. I had no plans to attack you three and drain you.”
She jerked away from me as Kaylee yelled for me.
“What the fuck? Was she lying?” Kynal was still trying to work his magic.
“No. No, she wasn’t!”
“Maddie, please!” Kaylee’s crying in the corner still.
“I don’t have fucking time for this. We have to get out of here. Now.”
Gage jerked back around, “We can’t get through! We can’t create three balls of light!”
Oh my fucking God! “Pay attention to me. For the love of Jesus, listen to me. When you guys do your spells, when do you focus?”
“We don’t have time for this!” Gage slashed his hand through the air, “We’re all gonna fucking die in here!”
Huge orbs of light appeared around us as I spread my arms. Dozens of them. “Pay. Attention. To. Me!”
“What the fuck? How did you do that?” Angelica looked lost.
“Fuck your question. I mean that. Pay attention to me. When. Do. You. Focus?”
She stammered, finally getting out, “When we’re supposed to? At the end?”
“God dammit to hell. Please fucking listen.” Roars are getting closer, and I can feel stomps through the cement.
“Focus to start. Focus throughout. It’s everything. Do it, and then get those fucking orbs up and get through this thing before I get Kaylee up here and leave you three behind.”
They shared a look before Gage turned back around and started messing with his magic. Kynal did the same. Angelica stepped closer, stopping right in front of me, “You meant what you said?”
“I never planned to turn against you guys. Someone was fucking with me. Has been for more than a week. I have no idea who.”
She backed away, “This will help? It’ll work?”
“Yes. It damn well will. Now get that fucking challenge won and get moving.”
Kaylee appeared at my side, startling me, “I can feel them coming! There are four dragons behind us!”
God dammit!
“Get through!”
I left them behind and ran back towards the hallway, listening to Kaylee scream for me. I have to hope to God that she’s safe with them there. For now. I need to distract these assholes before they get here and someone gets hurt. Or dies.
Especially one of us.
I made it to the hallway just as a dragon rounded the corner heading this way. A jet of fire engulfed their tail as they roared and raced my way. They’re running full-out, and their magic is working hard at something. It’s o
bvious when they see me and realize who I am. It’s also obvious when they realize there’s someone hot on their ass trying to kill them.
That’s when my magic goes off, and a ridge of cement rises from the ground, tripping the huge earth dragon. They hit the ground, sliding towards me, only to stop as they ram into a massive metal gate that grew out of the floor and walls. It has gaps small enough for a human form to get through, but not a dragon.
The fire dragon cleared the corner, racing this way, which had me turning and hightailing it back towards the challenge. Kaylee’s against the wall, with the other three by the challenge. Gage has three orbs created, but one’s too weak. Kynal has two, with a third forming. Angelica doesn’t have anything going yet. “No time like the present! That’s not gonna hold them!”
Angelica’s mouth is hanging open, staring back behind me, “How the fuck did you do that? You manipulated cement and metal!”
“I swear to Christ, Angelica, now isn’t the time to question me on this shit! You want to know? Fine, I don’t have an affinity. In that I’m not restricted to one. As far as I can tell, I can cast in any affinity.”
“That’s impossible!” her voice rose, momentarily going louder than the dragons behind me.
Orbs of each affinity appeared around me that she gaped at, then I let them fade. “Get with your spell, Angelica!”
She stared at me long enough that the two dragons behind us began tearing into each other. Once she heard that, she spun around and worked her magic like a madwoman, creating three orbs of light that worked perfectly. Then they were in the holes, and I literally threw her through the barrier. “Kaylee! Get your ass over here!”
She joined me, although she didn’t want to.
“Gage? Kynal? Now, please. Now now now.”
“We’re trying!” Gage is sweating up a storm.
“I get that. I do. But unless you want one of those angry fuckheads back there to eat you? I think you need to focus more!”
He yelped as three orbs appeared that I think were good. The spell agreed, and he was tossed through as well, to slide across the cement into Angelica. “Kaylee? Can you go through?”
“I don’t want to leave you behind!”
“You should be safeish if you go through! There are two of them, I don’t think they’re gonna go for you!”
