Burning Sky

Chapter 18

Instantly, Mo darted in front of her holding his arms up as if he was trying to shield her from the beast, but at this point nothing could help them.

The dragon's mouth split open and Sora shuddered in fear. She clamped her hands over her ears expecting a horrendous roar or hiss to burst forth. Instead she was shocked to see in the black depths of the dragon's throat, a flicker of red and yellow light. A horrifying realization washed over her, and Sora knew she needed to run and take cover, but her feet were rooted to the spot, refusing to move. Instinctively, Sora cowered down behind Mo. Normally, she was the type of girl who faced her threats head on, but not when she was facing a huge fire-breathing dragon with a bad temper. All bets were off in this situation!

After a few moments, Sora rose tentatively on her tiptoes to sneak a peek over Mo's shoulder. That was when she was it. A red blur blazing across the sky, crashing directly into dragon-Ben.

At first, Sora thought that Drake had thrown some type of fire at Ben, but then she realized that she was seeing Drake in his dragon form. Drake was clawing to stay on top of Ben's back. Sora could see the flickering of reds and oranges in Ben's throat, a fire was imminent.

Drake's jaw snapped around Ben's thick, long neck. The blue dragon let out an ear piercing scream, and its jaws snapped shut, vanquishing any hint of flames. Sora let out a shaky breath of relief. No fire, for now, she thought relieved. Ben quickly retaliated by slapping his muscular arm across Drake's thin, elegant neck. He hit Drake with such force that Sora feared something might be broken. Drake managed to keep his teeth buried deep in Ben's fleshy neck. He wrestled Ben down and pinned him to the ground. The claws of the blue dragon dug furiously beneath the scales around Drake's neck and Sora winced.

Can he really win? she wondered.

As a reply to her question, Drake whipped his tail around so fast that it looked like a bolt of red lighting as it pummeled Ben hard, directly in the snout. Drake wasn't finished with his attack. The end of his long tail snaked around one of Ben's horns, dragging the blue dragon's head down. Then with one perfectly synchronized move, Drake released his grip on Ben's neck as his tail yanked on his horn.

Sora never thought that would be enough to stop Ben, but when she saw the huge blue dragon being thrown around like a limp rag doll, her heart filled with hope.

Ben quickly recovered, and he was once again on all four feet with his tail swinging wildly behind him. He stared down Drake, and Sora couldn't help but think that Ben's fierce posture reminded her of Kiba when he was angry. Ben let out a low, throaty, threatening growl laced with anger. There was no doubt that he was furious. Drake was unwavering as he mimicked Ben's posture and returned the growl.

Sora secretly hoped that the growls were not signs of aggression, and that they were speaking in dragon and working things out. Suddenly, she noticed the wisps of smoke leaking from the holes in Drake's neck, where Ben's claws had pierced through. Sora watched in horror as Ben lifted his scaly neck toward the sky turning the night into day.

A thick wave of reddish-yellow flames flooded the night sky. The heat was so intense that Sora could feel it burning her skin and her eyes, but she was still unable to rip her eyes from the scene. She held her breath, not daring to move for fear she would break the spell and hinder what was unraveling in front of her eyes. Even though she was terrified, part of her found it beautiful and exciting.

She finally tore her eyes from the flames rolling out of Ben's mouth to check on Drake who was still in the same place, unmoving, just watching the other dragon with trepidation. Sora could see his tail tucked between his legs, his stance indicated fear. Just as she started to worry, Drake flicked his pitch black eyes to her, and with confidence, he rose up on his back legs and spread his wings. He bolted into flight, barreling straight toward Ben's bulk, gaining momentum until he collided into his side. Ben's jaws snapped shut in surprise extinguishing the fire.