Pupandaka 2

Chapter 13 - An Open Window

Drele sat down on the frozen ground, his face hidden in his hands. He'd dropped the vial and it's hidden somewhere among the ground or some little crevice he didn't know about. When he looked up, he spotted the purple spark of the vial as the sun shone through it. He must have been slumped down long enough that the sun shifted a few feet. He dashed over to the vial, picked it up, examined it, and did a sigh of relief when he finds it's still fully intact. He continued on his trek at the base of the mountain, making his way up.

Derka stopped him halfway up the mountain. "Halt!" she said. "You better have a good reason for trespassing this forbidden mountain." Drele showed her the purple vial. "I have been ordered by Tanark, the Dragon of Dragons, to deliver this vial to the altar which perches atop this mountain," he said. Derka looked at the vial. "Is this some kind of sick joke?" she said. Drele widened his eyes and repeated his words. "I need to deliver this vial to the altar. We need to stop this war at once." Derka backed up a little bit, a tad fearful. "Uh- and Tanark ordered you to do this?" Drele nodded, "Yes, it's the only way to trap this entity which surrounds our world in ice."

She looks at Drele for a long moment and finally clears the path. "Go on. I'm sorry I stalled you. Go, hurry, now." Drele gave her a nod and proceeded on his journey. Upon reaching the top, there stood an altar of ice. It was frozen. He could not remove the limestone like this. Even the imprint has been flattened by the ice. He used his hands to emit his body warmth onto the ice and used his breath. After a while, this seemed to have worked and he scooped away the remaining ice from the embed. He then took out the dragon amulet and set it carefully inside the imprint. Something clicked and the limestone gave way, sinking to the ground, revealing a beautiful jade altar protruding from inside the mountain.

In the jade was a little makeshift bowl, in which he poured the vial. The jade lit up and a voice echoed. It was an ancient voice. A language he could not decipher. It must be Old Viktorian, which was the language of the dragons of the Long Ago. It said, "Zhwi renaza kwikkan loin tikitolla hukto cinzina tuvolu pantunet loin sakkezwizehmanak." He had no clue what any of that meant, but he's definitely asking Tanark about it after this is all over. A dim, purple glow seemed to penetrate through the jade and reach down into the ground. He heard a series of clicking noises that seemed to tell him that the seal was activated.

"I did it," Drele said. "Sapta can be trapped."

Tanark pushed away a group of five with her tail. Pandora has returned. "Your Majesty, the troops are on their way. However, their base needed to be located a safe distance away from the war, so I told them to set up at the Garden of Dragons," Pandora explained. "Good, good. I'm still waiting on Drele to activate the-" And just that moment, the purple glow radiated from the side of the mountain, signaling that the seal was active. "And he did it. The seal is back up. All we have to do now is somehow take care of all these clones and push back the real Sapta behind that seal."

"Tanark!" Fril called. "We found the Queen, but she's unconscious." Tanark rushed over, the look of dismay in her eyes. Tearlach's face was mostly intact, but her nose appeared to be broken and was bleeding profusely. Her arm was broken, too. "Take her to the port house. She'll be safe there while we fend off the enemies," Tanark ordered. Fril stepped up, "She needs medical attention immediately. She's losing a lot of blood for her size." Tanark gave one last look at the Queen's face then gave a sigh. "Alright, take her to the medical bay. Do what you would perform on dragons." Fril flew off to the East with the Queen gently in her mouth.

"Now listen here, everyone," Tanark said. "The seal has been activated and we must narrow down these clones to the real Sapta. This is a war we must win. Think of this as a reoccurrence of the Talon Wars thousands of years ago. We've done it once, we can do it again! Let's end this once and for all!" The twenty-two dragons cheered and have begun using their tails to push away the clones.