by LJ Davies
"Kill us or be gone, traitor, don't waste our time," Soaren snapped, shifting his wings.
The dark-scaled fiend at least had the sense to look mildly insulted.
"Why be so swift to invite your own demise?" he cooed, and Soaren snorted sparks.
"You had no problem trying to kill us a moment ago," Ice Feather growled, ruffling her wings.
"Do forgive these savages, they aren't ones for subtlety." He gestured to the rather disgruntled orkin rabble. "Had it been I to find you first, I'd have simply snapped your neck like the poultry featherwing you are," he added.
"I'll show you poultry, you traitorous wyrm!" Ice feather hissed, lurching forward.
Meadow held her back while the ebon wing revelled in her reaction, his sharp fangs flashing as he smiled.
"Traitors to what, exactly? Surely you don't still believe that what remains of the old alliance is anything worth upholding? Neither of your kind has concerned yourselves with the other for centuries, and now you hope that what is left of your fragile friendship will prevail?" He laughed, pressing a forepaw to his chest. "I see you've even recovered your pale-skinned pets, how quaint," he added, waving a talon at Tarwin and the others.
Despite being oblivious to his words, I saw Tarwin's grip on her bow tighten, and for a moment, I really wanted her to shoot him in his smug face.
"Such things don't concern you, traitor," Soaren interrupted, stepping between us all.
"I think you'll find such things concern me and my fellow ebon wings very much, as does anything that defies our master," Sceptre hissed, craning his neck round to peer at me.
I felt the eyes of my companions, bar those who were oblivious to his words, all settle on me.
"You still think such a pathetic hatchling will save you from all of this?" he questioned, opening his wings and motioning to his allies. "No, you have no idea what's coming."
"And you do?" Soaren challenged. "Have you so readily devoted yourself to something that you don’t completely understand?"
Sceptre’s muzzle curled into one last smirk.
"You speak as if it were by choice that we follow the Great Master. No, the weak soldier your pathetic ruler sent to Frostwrath is no more. All that remains now is perfection in my master's image. Purity and order, the very reason he created us. For what are we if not what we were made to be?" he added, pulling back to address his companions.
"Leave this bold leatherwing to me, take your pick of the rest."
The orkin roared and ushered their winged steeds to jump from the trees.
This is it, there's more fangs, claws, blades and barbed stingers than even I can stand against.
Everyone shifted, ready for what may be the last fight of their lives. With the painful grinding of rocks persisting in my mind, I ducked under Soaren’s wing and leapt forward.
He'll not stand between them and the others, I will. It's my responsibility!
Before I could act, the trees shuddered and the wind began to roar. The welcome sound of wing beats thundered through the air, heralded by loud calls as a small army of dragons and griffins smashed through the canopy.
Gleaming armour, claws, teeth, beaks and talons dropped from the sky, dragonfire and lightning burning bright as the new attackers bore down upon our enemy and their mounts like the beating rain of a thunderstorm. In a flash weapons rang, and magic seared as they met with stone-hides and savage swords.
I heard Sceptre roar a fit of curses before he snaked away into the gloom, while the vulpomancers about him scattered to bring their deadly claws to bear. Without a second thought, I identified them as my primary target and took off into the midst of battle.
Unfortunately for me, reality didn't take kindly to my eagerness, and before I knew it, a set of claws plucked me from the sky. Heavy wing beats blasted air over my back, and as I fought to turn all I could see was the putrid flesh of the manticore’s underbelly as it dragged me over the trees. I bit down on the forepaw wrapped around my left wing, sinking my teeth deep into the foul-tasting flesh while simultaneously burying my burning claws into its hide.
The retaliation ushered a guttural howl of pain from the creature, and with one flick of its paw, it threw me from the air. Its claws cut bloody scars through my exposed wings as the force sent me into an uncontrollable spin. I was crashing through branches with a series of bone-breaking crunches and wood-splintering cracks before I knew it. Had it not been for my armour, I'd have been a broken mess, and as I rolled to a halt, with my limbs burning and blood trailing from my tattered wings, I knew I couldn't stop.
Through my daze and the maze of trees, I could see the dancing lights of dragonfire and elemental magic. The din of battle was unusual. From where I lay, it looked less chaotic and more like an unscripted dance. A heavy thud dismissed my focus as the manticore landed beside me, the glowing wounds I'd inflicted hindering its movements.
"I's got's yous, you stinkin wyrm," the grisly rider declared.
Gritting my teeth, I lifted myself, before the orkin gave the reins a jolt and ushered his mount forward. The beast didn't hesitate, leaping onto a fallen log with a fearsome roar, rotten wood splintering under its weight as it came at me. Darting to the left, I tried to slash across its outstretched limbs with a swipe of my wing blades. Unfortunately, my wounded limbs were less willing to cooperate and the strike was only fleeting, doing little more than angering my opponent.
Recovering from the near miss, the rage-filled creature swerved to face me. Savage or not, the manticore was proving a match for me in my current state, and before I could steady myself, it dealt a heavy blow against my side.
"Is that's all you's got?" the rider laughed as his mount thudded towards me once more.
I pressed all four of my paws close to the icy ground, anchoring myself as I raised my tail. The glowing blade at its tip sliced through the monster’s underside as it charged over me. The gutted creature fell silent as its steaming innards spilled across the ground behind me, and its rider roared angrily.
Wobbling as I stood, I caught my breath just in time to see several more manticores darting down from the trees. I coiled back, diverting fire toward them before exhaustion demanded I pause to recuperate. Several of my attackers easily avoided the flames, only to be met by more jets of elemental fire combining like a rainbow of heat, as several dragons flew by.
Maybe it's not so bad having an army watching my back? I thought, taking the opportunity to regain more of my depleted strength as I gasped.
An awful smell met my nose, seconds before I saw the shadow of an enormous axe swinging my way. I leapt aside, narrowly avoiding the jagged blade of the rider whose beast I'd just dissected. Having missed, his weapon embedded in the frozen earth, allowing me time to face him. He slammed a boot down on my tail, the corrupt metal pressing my armour against my scales in a tight pinch.
"You's nots doing that again," he growled, grabbing my muzzle tightly and yanking my head down. "I's been dealing with wyrms like you's for a long time, you's no different, demon!" he declared confidently.
Retrieving his axe, he attempted to swing at me again, clearly aiming to cut off my head. I squirmed in his grip, really not wishing to find out what happened if I suffered an injury like that. Suddenly the sharp crackle of a steaming-cold ice shard embedding itself into his hand forced him to drop his axe.
"Don't you dare touch him," Risha roared, leaping from the undergrowth and landing on his back.
Her agile form snaked between his spines as she coiled and unleashed a torrent of blue flame.
"Is everything okay, Guardian? I cannot help but deduce that you have been having some trouble," Apollo chimed, wings humming as he appeared beside me.
"Well, you deduced right," I muttered, little concern for his observations as I charged forwards.
Risha’s target was still distracted, and with all my strength, I kicked up into his chest. My burning claws sank deep into his hide, sending him sprawling across the ground, while Risha leapt from his b
ack, slashing her tail blade across his throat.
"Thanks," I uttered through my exertions, as she landed at my side.
"Indeed, it seems that without this descendant’s intervention, you would…"
"Enough, Apollo!" the pair of us snapped in union, then without warning, Risha wrapped her wings around me.
"I really, really hate you right now," she scolded, "But we have to fix this!"
My eyes followed hers, watching as the small army of dragons and griffins battled the orkin.
This is the New Order, what's left of the old alliance?
Mordrakk's illusion scoffed at the idea, grinding his stones while he tallied up the lives I'd just ended. I tried not to care, pushing every doubt I had to the back of my mind.
I need to focus on saving as many of them as possible.
"Come on, this isn't just some orkin rabble, Sceptre and the vulpomancers are still here," I urged Risha, before moving back toward the hilltop and the dozen or so manticores swarming above it.
"Yeah, and you're still keeping me in the dark about why they keep coming after you," she cursed as she ran beside me, while Apollo beat his wings to keep pace.
"There's no time for that now," was all I could offer, but her look was far from satisfied.
"Yeah, you could have told me days ago!" she retorted.
The anguish in my mind flared at her lack of understanding, but for the first time the storm of other emotions overcame it, and right now, it really didn't matter. That only became more evident when several manticores dived down at us through the trees.
Apollo's wing tips glowed and what met our attackers wasn't what they'd expected. The lightning bolts seared the first's flesh to dust before arching to the next victim. As the initial few riders fell, the others pulled away, but Apollo was fast when he wanted to be, and he always hit what he was aiming at. One shot was enough to fell another, and as he moved to target a fifth, I diverted my attention to Risha.
"We have to get back up there," I stressed, gesturing to the hill side.
She nodded, and without another word, led on. The pair of us swiftly made our way toward the heaviest fighting, cutting down a pair of dismounted orkin as we went. When we reached the road and came upon a group of fleeing humans, something shouted out in my mind.
Where's Tarwin!?
Instinct took hold, a surging determination I'd felt only a few times before. Looking around I saw Soaren beating back orkin attackers with the help of Talvana. While Ice Feather pinned another and Neera darted around like a moth. There was no sign of my human friends.
"We need to find Tarwin and the rest of her people. They can't just fly away like us," I announced.
Risha set to scouring the battle as I swiftly moved back from the fray.
"Blaze, wait!" she called out, seizing my tail. "The last time you left to find her, you came back ready to give up," she responded, and I recalled the night in the village months ago.
"I won't give up. I can't, not anymore," I assured her.
"Is that just another part of what you're not telling me?" she asked, her eyes scouring mine for the truth.
A sharp shriek and a flurry of shadow cut short our conversation, and I shoved her away from the vulpomancer’s formidable claws. Its talons locked with mine as we collided, and the ghastly veil that surrounded it bit at my scales like a bone-chilling wind. The dark beast hissed, its jaws snapping as my molten claws cut deep into its hide.
No, you're not going to lay a claw on anyone, you monster!
My scars burned in its presence, but I ignored the pain and twisted in the air, forcing it beneath me. It screeched as I shoved my rear paws into its underside, kicking it down into the dirt. The impact turned most of it to black dust, before I finally sliced its remains to pieces with a flurry of claw strikes.
Maybe next time you come after me, you'll think twice! I thought as I back pedalled.
With a scurry of paws Risha was beside me again, as I muttered.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to push you so hard," I admitted bashfully.
"Yeah, well, better than dying," she panted, and I huffed.
"Exactly, you see my point now?" She frowned, but I knew she'd be hard pressed to deny it.
"Get to cover, go now!" I suddenly heard Tarwin command, immediately drawing my attention from Risha's disgruntled expression.
It took me a moment to home in on my friend's voice amidst the chaos, but I found her and several other humans fighting at least half a dozen manticores within an open space between two trees. All the while vulpomancers circled above like hungry carrion.
Neera and Boltock were stuck on the ruins of a wall above them, both battling a creature of their own, while directly below, a shallow cave was filled with the rest of Tarwin’s wounded companions.
"Can you help them?" I asked Risha, motioning to her brother, Neera and the cowering humans.
She didn't want to leave me, but I knew she wasn't one for letting anyone down either, especially her brother.
"Yes... But…" she huffed, glaring at me. "By the skies, you better come back in one piece!"
As she made her way to the others, my attention locked onto one of the manticores as it reared up ready to slash at Tarwin. I leapt forward, spreading my wings as I collided with its neck. Digging my talons and wing blades deep, the beast howled, toppling to the ground. I heard Tarwin call my name, reminding me that despite our recent revelations, she didn't fully know of what I was capable of.
Then I'll have to show her. She was always one for showing off!
With a final whip of my tail, I knocked the rider from his toppled mount and brought the blade across the beast’s neck. The disorientated orkin got to his feet and I rose up to meet him, but not before an arrow pierced his skull and he staggered to the ground. I glanced at Tarwin, nodding in recognition, before another manticore lunged from the sky.
Without warning, a swift and bone-crushing strike ripped the rider from his saddle, as more dragons descended into the fight, setting the edges of the battle alight to prevent their escape. Freed from the inconvenience of its rider, the manticore thudded down and growled at Tarwin. In retaliation, it took her no time at all to send an arrow its way, before drawing her father's axe. Her assault only angered the beast, and with the power of its hind legs it lunged forward, claws outstretched and teeth bared.
I leapt at its side, knocking it off balance while the axe found a home in its right forepaw. Battling disorientation, I heard the beast's pained roar, then the unmistakable sound of Tarwin readying another arrow. Before she could release it, a bolt of searing red flame, followed by a torrent of dragonfire scorched the flailing creature as a wing of fire order soldiers flew by.
Staggering, I looked at her as she retracted the arrow and despite all the fighting and bloodshed, I knew that this was the world she'd always wanted to see.
She never liked being trapped in the village, she's wanted to be part of this for so long. I almost wished she could have seen it as I saw it, to the stars and beyond. At least back when it was a bit more peaceful.
Even so, my thoughts were interrupted as an orange dragoness landed beside me with a flurry of cinder-spitting wing beats.
"Good to see you again, Blaze," a familiar voice announced, a hint of relief in her battle-hardened tone.
"Ember!" Boltock shouted before I even had time to think.
I didn't expect anything less of him when it came to her, it was as if her presence was a beacon no matter where he may be. Yet our fiery friend looked different than the dragoness she'd been before I left. Black armour covered her scales, similar to that which Pyro had once worn. Its edges glowed red with inscribed ancestral battle runes, unmistakably that of the Fire Order.
So she's a true soldier now, just like he was? I didn't know how to feel. She'll never be like him, surely?
She took a fleeting look at Boltock, then at me, and the green dragon's eagerness faded as I recalled that the two of them hadn't been so close for some tim
e. Moreover, as Ember's eyes met mine; they didn't fill with the same relief the others did, more a stern hope.
She thinks I'm just as much a war hero as Soaren does. No, I'm not a soldier like them! I recalled how she'd not viewed me as strange the day we'd met in the training cave. So much for all my friends just being my friends!
Another roar cut short our reunion, and before any of us could react, a jet of purple flame engulfed the ground around us. I instinctively forced Tarwin back, covering her as the flames kissed my scales.
"Don't go into the fire," I suggested, but she shot me a knowing look as she deadpanned.
"You don't say."
"Ebon wings," Ember hissed as she patted out the fire and snorted a jet of her own from flared nostrils.
Making her opinion of the traitorous dragons clear, the knowledge of Pyro's fate momentarily stung.
I'm going to have to tell her at some point just... I glanced around at the others, both Boltock and his sister saving the humans from the fire, while more dragons attempted to put it out. Just now is really not the time!
Meanwhile, a set of black claws swiped overhead, as a second blast of flame and an unnatural wind scattered dragons from the sky.
"I’ve had enough of this; how dare you defy your Great Master so boldly. I will see that you all burn," Sceptre declared as he swooped in with his mouth wide open, expelling more flames.
"Get down!" I called, and Tarwin took cover behind a rock as the ebon wing ignited the battlefield.
Amidst the chaos, I caught his smouldering eyes fix on me, yet as soon as they did, plumes of flame and volleys of arrows graced his dark scales. He coiled back, opened his mouth and blasted a bolt of purple flame. With his adversaries stunned, his cruel laugh caught my ringing ears and I sat up to see him thud to the ground, his body marred by dusty wounds.
"All of this is so unnecessary. Accept that you will lose. You cannot fight the Great Master," he proclaimed, leaping forward and pinning me under one forepaw.
He was larger and heavier, peering down his wrinkled nose while his white fangs were stained red with blood.
