When Clayton woke up the storm had stopped. Aaron was laying next to him, covering him with his wing. Clayton felt something that was almost scalding hot seeping through the kinks of his armor. He reached down and touched and when he looked at his hand he saw dragon blood on his gauntlet. He looked at Aaron who was still awake his large ruby read eye trained on Clayton with unwavering focus. "You did very well old friend" Clayton said. Then, he drew upon his and Aaron's strength and healed the wounds on Aaron's wings. Aaron's expression softened. Thank you he said. "It was nothing" Clayton said.
Clayton looked around. The others were already up but Traci was still dozing in the saddlebag. "Morning sleeping beauty" Mark said "It's about time you woke up, that crazy dragon of yours wouldn't let us wake you up". "We should probably get going" said Naomi. Clayton looked up. The trees and their branches had completely covered the opening in the forest canopy. "We should probably look for another clearing to take off" he said. No argueing there Dezzi said. Naomi, Clayton, and Mark mounted up and then the dragons began to slowly walk through the forest.
As they walked Clayton kept looking around. The forest seemed strange and unnatural somehow. The others must have sensed it to because their dragons moved up closer to Aaron whose nervouseness Clayton could feel.
Suddenly, Clayton heard something in the trees nearby all three dragons stopped dead in their tracks. For just a moment nobody moved. Then Clayton saw some trees shaking. Then three large creatures walked out from behind the trees. Clayton immediately recognized their long beaks, leathery black skin, and hideous bat wings. Letherblaka. Each had a rider on their back. Clayton recognized two of them as Ra'zac but the one on the largest Letherblaka was a human.
Clayton cast out his mind and invaded this person's consiousness and studied his thoughts but then he was forced out by a powerful mental barrier. All he grasped was the person's name. Then the Letherblaka that Cameron was on (For his name was Cameron) charged Aaron.
Aaron and the Letherblaka both reared up on their hind legs and locked claws pushing at each other with all their might while Clayton clung to Aaron's back and Cameron clung to the Letherblaka. Then Aaron and the Letherblaka separated and started squaring each other up while the other two Letherblaka and Bonnita and Dezzi engaged in combat. Knowing that they couldn't win in the little space they got on the forest floor Aaron released a pillar of red flames straight up, burning a huge hole into the forest canopy. Aaron threw his wings open and leaped through the hole and then flew up, up, until he was high in the air. Looking down he saw the Letherblaka coming stroight at him. He folded his left wing shut and corkscrewed to the side missing the Letherblaka by mere feet. The Letherblaka twisted in the air and dove right at Aaron from above and Aaron spun to the side and dodged but as the Letherblaka came back up Aaron clamped his jaws down on it's neck, it shrieked in agony and started slicing at him with it's claws drawing blood in several places, Aaron started to hit it with his tail while they fell and while Clayton and Cameron grappled with their swords. Finally, right before hitting the trees the two mighty beasts separated and flew back up into the air. They then began two try to best each other with more and more complex flight maneuvers until both the Letherblaka and Aaron were panting hard. Aaron drew his head back like a snake about to strike and released a jet of fire straight at the Letherblaka. Then, suddenly, the Letherblaka turned and started to fly away as fast as it could. Don't worry it can't hope to out fly me! Aaron said I'll catch it. "No" Clayton said "we should land and help the others". They flew back down through the hole and found that the other two Letherblaka and their rider's, the Razac, were already dead and Dezzi, Mark, Naomi, and Bonnita were healing themelves. "What was that?!?!" Naomi asked. They somehow knew we were here Bonnita said. "Well whatever is going on we need to get out of this forest" Clayton said as he healed Aaron's wounds. Whatever happens next Traci said I want to ride on a different dragon this overgrown lizard is going to make throw up. "Well I guess this means the riders are needed in Alagaesia once again" Clayton said. And like that the group took off and headed for Alagaesia.
