Legends of Avia: Nemesis

Prison Break

"Eh, dragons..."

Kiirion smirked as he glanced down at the stout dwarf that stood next to him. The ornery dwarven King was glowering down at the massive pit where his kinsmen and hundreds of elven workers were busy chipping away the rockface. It was a slow process, a delicate one, as a certain lead excavator had constantly reminded Oonra about.

"I find them fascinating," Kiirion replied.

"You be the only one, elf. I be keepin' me feet on the ground."

Kiirion shrugged. "You're missing out."

"Not missin' a damned thing! Ye fancy folk can keep yer flying rats. Give me a stout big-horn an I'll show ya how it's done," Oonra huffed.

"That 'stout big-horn' would be lunch."

"Stow it, ye pointy eared fancy boy!"

Kiirion stifled a chuckle. "Remind me again why you agreed to help retrieve the bones of an ancient dragon then?"

Oonra grumbled something about the excavator being a 'pretty lass' and having a 'fine way with words'. His side-long glare told Kiirion to think twice about offering his opinions on that particular subject. Kiirion shrugged and turned his attention back to the workers. Protruding from the side of the pit was an enormous, partially uncovered skull. The snout of the beast was the largest he'd ever seen. Legends of the dragon's race having been three times the size they were presently were apparently true.

And if legends held any other truths to them mixed in with the embellishments; it was said that their bones held memories of the past -and insight to the future, though Kiirion was inclined to toss that last bit out. He was curious though, to see what past memories such an ancient find could possibly hold.

He watched the pulleys as they moved the pounds of rock up to the surface and out of the way of the diggers. Oonra grumbled again, scuffing his boot before he sighed and asked his question louder for Kiirion to hear. "An' how are we suppose to get this thin' out?"

"Maybe your big-horns could drag it out," the elf replied without hesitation.

"A lot better than yer tree hugging fairies could," retorted the dwarf.

To that, Kiirion did laugh. "I concede. Just don't tell them that. They pack a nastier bite than your goats."

"Goats! Ye thumb twiddling, lanky, tree monkey! They're not goats! They're fine fightin' beasts! Call me big-horn a goat one more time an I'll have it ram so far up yer arse-"

The rest of the insult was cut off into a hail of dwarven swear words as the earth rolled beneath their feet. Kiirion stumbled forward before catching his footing. Screams and shouts echoed up from the excavation site as the earth split where the massive dragon skull was situated. Scaffoldings crumbled, their occupants tossed into the deeper parts of the pit. The ground rocked hard to the right, the skull directly below Oonra and Kiirion split in half with a deafening boom. Kiirion lost his balance and dropped to his hands a knees to keep from tumbling into the pit.

The skull shattered apart as the earth pulled open. Oonra stumbled on the other side of the sizeable rift, hardly keeping from falling. Throwing himself forward, the dwarven king rolled onto his back and took a moment to catch his breath from the sudden earthquake. "Oye! Ye damned dragons! Cursed, I tell ya!"

Kiirion's chest was tight. The explosion of power, though probably unnoticed to the dwarf who was immune to such things, was far too apparent to the elf. "That was no dragon..." He muttered. A light tremble set in his limbs; something had found its release. He watched the last bits of the dragon skull fall away and from the dark crevice that had been created, something crawled out and latched onto the side of the rockface. It looked up and Kiirion threw himself to his feet, backing away from the edge as quickly as possible.