War Dragons

by C. K. Rieke

  In the background to the upcoming attack, the four Aridons were continuing to maul the red dragon as it thrashed its neck, wings, and tail with thunderous roars. The Aridons’ claws and teeth seemed unable to penetrate the thick, sharp dragonscale, but they did a wonderful job of distracting and frustrating the mad dragon.

  “Yes,” Lilaci said, her eyes now glowing in the violet flames. “I’ve got them. What is your plan, Veranor? Are we going to try to tame these ones, or fight them off?”

  He fell silent for a few seconds. “Kera was the only one so far that was able to tame Wrathwing. But she was only able to because of the stones she wears around her neck.”

  “I can do it again,” Kera said without hesitation.

  “Well, you aren’t going to try until after we at least slow down one of these,” Lilaci said, moving her arms around each other at the Aridon before her as it took a slow, stalking step forward with its hefty paw.

  Purple flames crept up from the ground, and they started to swirl with swaths of sand. The Aridon paused its approach in confusion, but that didn’t deter the Aridon at the other side from coming in. Its head and shoulders were hunched low, and the fur on its back stood up straight.

  Lilaci turned quickly to let loose a flurry of biting sand at it, which to her surprise, leaped to the side of the rushing sand with sly agility, leaping forward toward Veranor. She turned again, sensing the Aridon before her was heading in for an attack. She could hear Veranor and Burr’s grunts as they defended against the Aridon, that easily weighed as much as both of them combined, plus some.

  The Aridon before her was in mid-air, flying with its maw opened wide and its front claws ready to sink in. Just before it reached her, she threw up her hands, and with them a wall of sand and fire erupted from the ground before her and Kera, sending the surprised creature up, its white wings tumbling upwards, unable to escape the storm of the Sanzoral.

  She saw the Aridon that had attacked Veranor had Burr underneath it, with Veranor holding it back with his sword lodged in its mouth. Veranor sat atop its neck, holding both ends of his sword, pulling the creature’s head back as it tried to snap its jaws onto Demetrius. Burr slashed his sword frantically, trying to keep the Aridon’s teeth and claws at bay.

  “Tame it!” Fewn yelled to Veranor.

  “I can’t,” he said through clenched teeth. “I don’t have a free hand.” He used every bit of his strength to hold the lioness back.

  Lilaci’s eyes then shot to Kera—or rather where Kera was supposed to be—but wasn’t.

  “Kera!” she yelled. “Kera?” Her eyes darted around frantically, but then she spotted the girl’s black hair blowing out from behind Veranor. She’s on the Aridon!

  But Lilaci had to turn her attention back to the Aridon that she sent rising into the air in front of her, as it had escaped the storm she’d sent up at it, and had angled itself so it was gliding down at her again. She let out a burst of violet, twirling fire at it from her left hand, which it evaded by rolling to its side quickly. Lilaci let out another pillar of fire from her right hand, which again, it evaded. As a last effort, she threw up both her hands and sent a wall of hardened sand between her and it. The Aridon crashed into the wall, which was only three feet in front of her, and its head and paws of sharp claws ripped through it, like a knife through parchment.

  Lilaci stumbled back as the wild Aridon tore through the wall, lumbering through the sand, and toward her. Above her, she could see the other Aridon had taken to the sky again, but this time it had Veranor and Kera on its back, as it thrashed wildly to shake them free. In front of her, she saw that Fewn had burst forth and was attempting to fend off the Aridon’s attack, but her sword brushed off the thick fur of it helplessly.

  “Lilaci,” she said, “get up!”

  She leaped to her feet, with Burr getting to his feet behind them. The Aridon tore through the Sanzoral’s wall of sand.

  “Swords are no use against them,” Burr said, holding a bloody wound on his bicep. “Got to tame it. That’s our only—”

  As he said that a shadow formed on the ground between them and the Aridon. However, looking up, Lilaci saw that it wasn’t the Aridon with Kera and Veranor on its back, no—it was a slightly familiar sight—only much larger than she recognized. Between them landed a black figure with glistening red scales, with sharp black horns on its head and back, and had a white tip on its tail. The dragon’s neck curled back at the Aridon, its red wings with white tips spread out wide, forming a barrier between them and the lioness. Its tail swayed back and forth as it let out a great roar at the Aridon who paused at the sight of the dragon. Lilaci even noticed that the great red dragon, and the other Aridons paused to watch the new creature that’d entered the fray.

  “Is that—?” Fewn asked. “He’s so much bigger.”

  “Yes, it is,” Lilaci said with a wide smile. “It’s Kôrran!”

  Chapter Eleven

  The dragon Kera had hatched a little over a week earlier dropped to the ground with a startling thud. It’s grown wings scraped against the hard dirt, and its winding tail slithered next to Lilaci’s boot. Kôrran stared at the Aridon before them, then let out a savage roar. The Aridon didn’t flinch, but it did pause its advance. The young dragon was brimming with ferocity as it snapped its jaws and flapped its wings, covered with tough, red scales that shimmered in the sunlight. The Aridon let out a growl and swiped with its front paw.

  The Aridon leaped at the new dragon in the fray with both of its front claws curled out, ready to sink themselves into Kôrran. Kôrran turned his body and sent his wing crashing into the side of the lioness with the wings of white feathers. It wasn’t enough to send the Aridon to the ground, but it repelled her to the side, knocking her away harmlessly.

  Still with Blackfire in her hand, Lilaci took that moment to look back to the sky. The Aridon with Veranor and Kera atop its back had flown high—very high—into the air as it shook and struggled to be free of their grip. If Kera fell from that height, it would surely spell disaster, and Lilaci would certainly need to use her Sanzoral to keep her from plummeting to the ground. She glanced briefly at the large, mad dragon being swarmed by Wrathwing and the Aridons. It hissed and roared as it swung its massive tail from side to side to try to knock the biting and clawing Aridons. She knew it was only a matter of time before the dragon decided to let loose another blaze of dragonfire, and she would have to be there to protect her friends from it.

  “Aye! Yes!” Burr yelled with his fists shaking in front of him, his one eye wide with excitement. “Get her, Kôrran! Show her what it means to come after us!”

  Lilaci moved to his side, Blackfire still at the ready. “Is it natural for dragons to grow this fast?” she asked him. “I thought it was some form of magic making them grow this quickly, but it seems to be happening to all of them.”

  “Tough to say, lass,” he said, and then smiled, “perhaps it is the Arr. These lands have been starved of the free-flowing water long enough. They’re tired of these wretched gods ruining the deserts. Or it’s been so long since we’ve had dragons that we just don’t remember how dragons grew.”

  Above, twirling up higher into the air and bright sunlight the Aridon with its two unwanted passengers flapped its wings wildly. It shot in flight back and forth, kicking its hind legs trying to shake free Veranor and Kera.

  “Hold tight,” Veranor said, holding on firmly with one hand onto the black fur on the Aridon’s back, and gripping onto Kera’s arm, as she held onto the raging lioness with both hands.

  “I can’t get to the neck,” she said. “I’m too far back. Let go of me and tame it.”

  “Do you have a firm hold?” he asked, looking back at her, her black hair undone from its bun and whipping in the winds.

  “Yes,” she said, ducking her head down to the Aridon’s back.

  Veranor released her arm and reached up to stroke the Aridon’s neck, and the Aridon instantly went wild in a mad panic. It screeched and roared in a
feral wildness. Veranor quickly reached down again and caressed its neck. He reached again to stroke it as the Aridon took an unexpected turn and shot down toward the ground. Veranor’s hand dropped back to hold onto its fur like velvet reigns.

  “Veranor!” Kera screamed from behind.

  With the quick change in the Aridon’s flight, the commander failed to notice that Kera had lost one of her grips and was holding on by strands of fur with her left hand as they shot directly downward. He quickly reached back to grab onto her arm, and as his fingers wrapped around her wrist, her soft skin brushed through his hand, and she was flung clear off the Aridon’s back, her eyes wide and her face stricken in panic. “Veranor!” she cried, “Lilaci, help me!”

  Lilaci looked up at the girl hurtling downward in the air high above, and readied her Sanzoral, but she could also tell that the Aridon to her side sensed it and was running at her. “Burr!” she yelled. “Hold it at bay, it’s gotten past Kôrran.”

  Burr pointed his sword at the oncoming beast. “I’ll do my best.”

  Veranor wasn’t about to wait for Lilaci’s magic. Too much was on the line, and Kera was falling. He didn’t hesitate, even though both hands were needed to hold onto the Aridon as it shook and twisted—he released the grip of his left hand, reaching up toward the neck, which the Aridon sensed, shaking and kicking violently. Veranor had to grip its back again so as not to be flung off, but then in a moment of strong determination, he stared down at the neck that was only two feet in front of him and said, “All or nothing!” He dug his heels into the sides of the flying lioness and burst forward with both hands, one wrapping around the front of its neck, the other; stroking its back.

  The Aridon quickly relaxed and went to a smooth glide.

  “Grab her!” he yelled to the Aridon, whose eyes fixed upon Kera as she tumbled end over end toward the ground, yelling out for help.

  Lilaci could sense the Aridon on the ground was flying at them, slipping past Kôrran, and she knew Burr’s sword would be of no use to stop the beast, so she held up hers at it, keeping the other hand toward Kera. She was raising a plume of soft sand to catch the girl, but she couldn’t help but keep her gaze at the oncoming Aridon with its mouth agape and its claws fixed upon them.

  Veranor, atop the Aridon’s back, readied his hand to grab onto Kera, who was still ten feet below them, and closer to the ground with each second. “Faster!” he yelled in the rushing winds. “Faster!”

  The Aridon’s wings closed into its sides, and Veranor felt the rush as they dropped at an alarming rate, but he quickly found that Kera’s hand had found his. He gripped onto her arm with as strong of a grip as he’d ever mustered. He pulled her up to sit in front of him, and she wrapped her arms around him, crying.

  “Take us down,” he said.

  Lilaci saw this, and with a calming feeling washing over her then, from Kera’s safety, she took that same, soft gust of sand and flung it with both hands now free at the Aridon. The soft sand quickly turned to a storm of biting, hard sand like thousands of small needles. The beast didn’t expect it, and the sand crashed into it with the force of the harshest of sandstorms, blowing it away with ease in its flight, knocking it to the ground as it tumbled end over end helplessly.

  Kôrran lunged then on top of it, mauling it viciously, biting into its neck as its claws ripped into its sides.

  “Swords don’t do nothing to those things,” Burr said. “But good old-fashioned dragon claws do it just fine.”

  Behind them, the Aridon landed gently to the ground, and Fewn helped Kera dismount. She wrapped her arms around her. “There you go,” she said. “You’re safe now.”

  Veranor’s eyes shot to the large dragon still battling the four Aridons only fifty feet away, ruthlessly biting and clawing at each other. Lilaci followed his gaze, and saw the dragon was indeed filling its lungs, and the light of the dragonfire began to creep between its expanded scales. “We’re not safe yet,” he said.

  As Lilaci readied her magic to repel the deadly dragonfire, the Aridons atop the red dragon rose to the air. Even though they’d been extinct just as long as the dragons, they seemed to remember the havoc that dragonfire could wreak. The four of them flew swiftly, directly upwards, Lilaci assumed this was because the dragon’s fire could only reach a certain distance going up like that, and perhaps they even knew the exact distance it could travel.

  Lilaci moved her hands in slow, trance-like circles as they burned in the majestic purple flames with wisps of lilac and white. While her sight was focused solely on the massive dragon before them, it curling its neck back and expanding its huge wings outward, she heard Fewn say, “Kera?”

  Lilaci looked over her shoulder to see Fewn behind her with both her arms out, in the direction of the downed Aridon, with Kôrran laying all of its weight upon the winged lioness. She saw Kera creeping low over to the Aridon.

  “Kera,” Lilaci ordered. “Get away from that.”

  “She’s fine,” Veranor said, without concern in his voice. “She still wears the stones. Focus on the dragon.”

  She didn’t have a choice, as she turned to see the dragon’s eyes brimming with their ferocious glare of death. Its head then lunged forward with its mouth wide open, sharp teeth shining in the sunlight. Then, it brought its wide wings into its sides, and the white-hot flames erupted from its mouth with a roaring sound that drowned out the rest of the world as the fire shot directly at them.

  Lilaci dug her heels in, and with both hands extended before her, she let loose the full fury of the Sanzoral once again. This time she let out a loud grunt, as the pain in her hands returned. As the two fires collided in a brilliant explosion that made the flames rise high into the air in a mix of intertwined reds and violets, Lilaci’s grunt turned to a scream.

  “Lilaci?” Fewn said softly, placing her hand on Lilaci’s back.

  Lilaci could feel the dragon fire’s heat, and the pain in her hands was running up into the muscles and bones in her arms. Fight through the pain. It is only temporary. And there is no other option. But she knew she wouldn’t be able to fight through it much longer. The pain was intolerable, and she noticed that she’d stopped breathing, from holding her breath from the pain.

  She inhaled and exhaled deeply, letting out another burst of the fire of the Sanzoral, pushing the dragon’s fire back briefly. The dragon noticed and lunged forward itself. It was unrelenting, and Lilaci could feel her hands giving out. Whether her mind was planning to fight through the pain or not—the pain was winning.

  She looked to the sky, hoping the Aridons may have found their opportunity and went back on the attack of the dragon focused only on her. Her heart sank to find the Aridons were only circling overhead, like a volt of vultures, waiting for its prey to weaken before feasting.

  “I—I don’t know how long I can fend off the fire,” she said, beads of sweat rolled down her cheeks and chin. “You should all get back—move away.”

  “We’re not leaving you,” Kera said, her voice firm.

  The dragonfire continued blasting at them, raging and roaring from the dragon who took wide steps forward.

  “I can’t keep this up,” she said, “I said get back!”

  “This dragon is unnatural,” Burr said, in a gruff, low voice. “No dragon from the tales could keep this up. The gods have created a monster.”

  Lilaci’s hands had moved from painful to numb, as she couldn’t feel them, even as she moved her fingers with the violet flames pouring out of each one. Her shoulders felt as if she carried the weight of an Iox atop her back, and she could see her arms were lowering, and as much as she fought it, she couldn’t keep them up.

  “Come,” Veranor said. “We need to get back.”

  “No,” Kera said.

  “We’re not going anywhere,” Fewn said.

  “Yes, we are,” Veranor said. Lilaci could hear them shuffling behind her.

  “What’s the matter?” Lilaci heard Gogenanth’s voice. “The dragon has to inhale soon,
surely.”

  “I wouldn’t plan on it,” Burr said. “We need to move.”

  “Come,” Ezmerelda said. “Follow me.”

  Lilaci’s hands were halfway down toward the ground now, “Get out of here. Move!”

  “I’m not leaving you,” Kera said.

  “She could stay,” Veranor said, “she should be unharmed if the flames come.”

  “We don’t know that,” Burr said, “and we are not taking that chance. Come.”

  Lilaci heard Kera fighting behind her, and she knew Burr was dragging her off against her will. “Lilaci!” she cried.

  “It’s OK,” she said softly. “You need to go. I’ll keep the flames at bay as long as I can—”

  Then Lilaci’s arms gave, and even though she was pushing every bit of fire from her hands that she could, her fires receded. “No!” she yelled.

  They all looked up at the dragon, ready to see its flames rip toward them, burning flesh from bone, and ending the war directly where they stood. But they saw the dragon’s fire fade and fall to the ground harmlessly. The red dragon’s eyes moved toward the sky, and it was not the Aridons it was looking at, it was another figure.

  The silhouette of a creature whose sharp wings were spread out wide against the light of the sun, casting down a shadow onto the group, it appeared. Its long neck and head with curled horns stared down at the great red dragon as it let out a sharp, ear-piercing roar that rippled through the air.

  The red dragon on the ground in Voru roared back, louder and more viciously. Then, with a flap of its wings, the gray dragon that was hovering in the sky soared down at the other on the ground. The flying dragon crashed into the red dragon at a frightening speed and knocked the larger dragon to its back with an explosive force. The smaller, gray dragon with the five red stripes on its back attacked the downed dragon with a feral rage that took Lilaci’s breath away. Then, the Aridons flying overhead all glided down to join the battle that was raging on. The two Aridons that were behind Lilaci then went flying from both sides into the battle. Lilaci’s black and gray hair whipped in front of her face from their strong, rushing wings.