Chronicles of Carnezia (Book 3): Rocks and Sand

Chapter 7: Fire and Smoke (title change)

Chapter 7: Fire and Smoke

This dragon... it couldn't be but it had to be. The lack of pearlescence in the spikes and horns told me it had to be. It was the dragon Frain had shown me back in Fordem. How it appeared as a mere shadow against the night sky. No moonlight or starlight shone on the dragon at all, not its scales or its spinal spikes. Every dragon I had ever met, even Torrin and Jeta, had pearlescent bodily protrusions. This dragon was both an exception and a mystery. I did not understand. I felt scared, not just from the way Arja was looking at me but also because I did not have Frain next to me to protect me. I wish there was a way I could let him know I needed him. Dragons had a form of magic about them but that did not, in any way, extend onto their Tamers (not even mentally).

'Do you not have anything at all to say, Carly?' Reina asked.

I gave three short, blunt shakes of my head. 'N... no,' I managed to say. My brain decided to kick in at that point and I did have something to say, or ask rather. 'How is it she looks so different?'

Reina turned around and leaned elegantly backwards against Arja's foreleg. 'That I cannot tell you. I do not know myself, nor does anyone it seems. Still, I believe it gives her an edge. Especially at night, not many people notice her as they would your own dragon.'

My lips curled into a one-sided smirk. 'That is where you are slightly wrong.' She looked very much taken aback. 'See, I was in Fordem awhile back and my dragon came across something unusual near a hill to the east. He took me to investigate, of a sorts. It wasn't noticeable at first but once my eyes had adjusted, I could see her. A shadow against the starry backdrop. A dragon's shape without dragon telltale signs. I was baffled.'

'Well, now you have your answer.' Her fingers trailed over the seemingly scaleless body behind her. From the distance I was to her, Arja looked as though she had no scales at all but rather a hard looking skin like that of a rhino or elephant. Of course, I knew that would not be the case if I was as close to her as Reina now was. Arja was a reptile, same as Frain and Hydra and Torrin, and she had to be covered in scales even if I could not currently see the outlines of them.

Arja suddenly grunted and pulled away from her Tamer. Reina casually stepped back over towards me. 'No, Arja. Leave them be.' I did not know what she meant. 'Go and venture, I need you at your full strength.' With a side glance, she gave me a tantalising smirk.

I don't know how I knew but I knew as soon as her lips formed that tormenting smile. 'No! You can't.'

'Oh but I can. And the best part is... my timing couldn't come at a better time.'

I tried to run, I did. Without taking even a single step, I was detained by strong arms; they wrapped tight around my chest, constraining my arms from movement. My hair billowed about my face as Arja took off with a gust of air from her gigantic wings. 'No! Frain!' I screamed from the depths of my lungs as I saw the black tinged flame that Arja poured out into the air before her snout. Her wings swirled it out of existence as she soured through the same space off towards the north.

Somehow, some way, one of them heard me. At this point, I was being held tighter though not enough that I couldn't breathe. The first sign that told me one of my scaled friends had heard my cry was a clatter of gigantic bodies slamming into each other and then an accompanying, bellowing roar from each of the two as they crashed into the sand. The person holding me released their grasp at the sudden shudder through the ground. I too fell away and landing softly onto my knees. Pushing my hair out of the way, I looked up to see who it was that had purposefully collided with the black dragon. From this distance, there was just a huge mass of black dragon parts; tails, wings, necks and then, they separated.