Shadow of the Raptor: Part 1

Part 5: Duncan's Plight

(Image above: Sneak peek as to what's to come.)

"What exactly are those?" Alexis asked Tacticus "Ogres, the bull variety, by the looks of them." "Well, we'd better get across to our traitorous friend as soon as we can." Yellow-Tooth ordered, he seemed to always be moving forward. "At least the ogres smell pleasant." Thalian said sarcastically, his sense of smell wasn't great, but when he could smell things, it was usually a horrid smell. Thalian sighed, the sooner he could get out of the open plains, the better, the plains made him feel insecure, open to attack from all sides. Thalian limped along, trying his best to keep up to the rest of the group, the ogres hadn't noticed them yet.  The plains, luckily, were not considerably large, it would only take about an hour for them to cross to the Glacial Halls. Yellow-Tooth got back on his hind legs, and sniffed the air "Smoke, lots of it, it seems our friend may have an affinity for fire, or he has some friends with dosage of pyromaniac in them. We need to go through the more dangerous part of the Glacial Halls if we wish to reach the heart of the mountain our friend resides in, it will probably be billowing with smoke." Yellow-Tooth turned to Thalain "You will ride on my back, as you might hinder the speed at which we can go." He turned back, but again, turned to face Thalian "This is the only time I will allow you to do such a thing to me. Allowing a being to ride on a bear in my culture is humiliating, unless it is of utmost importance." Yellow-Tooth turned around and got on all fours, Thalian awkwardly climbed onto him, and Yellow-Tooth faced Alexis "You may get on as well, Tacticus can run just as fast as I can, but humans are much slower than bears." Alexis got on next to Thalian "Ready?" asked Yellow-Tooth "Too bad if you're not, because we're off!" he yelled, taking off towards the sheer cliffs of Glacial Halls. The bear's speed was exhilarating, they sped towards the halls like a bullet, with Tacticus close on their tail. The hour Thalian had hypothesised to take them to get to the halls was shrunk down to three minutes, with no obstacles, and the ogres being incredibly slow, they were going to get to the defector in no time. They neared the cliffs and an incredible cold hit Thalian like a brick wall, Thalian struggled not to shiver uncontrollably. A larger than normal mountain of thick glacial ice seemed to be filled with a grey substance "There," Thalian pointed at the mountain "That's where we'll find the defector." Yellow-Tooth grunted in response and turned from his straight line to a diagonal, towards the smoke filled mountain. As soon as they got to the mountain base, Thalian leaped off and started sprinting up towards a large cave mouth, he drew both of his weapons. My gun and sword will help me more than the elements, Thalian reasoned with himself, who knows if I can control ice with my water gem? The mountain rumbled beneath Thalian's feet, and a large explosion erupted from the cave. Several beings were hurled back down the slope "Aw, c'mon!" Thalian growled angrily, he slid back down the slope, to the creatures. The rest of the group was engaged in combat, Alexis, who had ran up the slope with him was perched on a flat area and was picking off several of the enemies. "I'm glad you made it, friends!" a deep, rumbling voice said "I wouldn't've lasted much longer on my own!" Thalian assumed that the voice was the defector, in the center of the battle, a large reptilian creature was helping Yellow-Tooth and Tacticus fend off the attacker. The reptilian had a black suit on with golden floral designs on the cuffs of his sleeves and his collar. Much like the floral patterns, his scales and his wings were a glistening gold, while more reptilians were attacking his friends. Thalian leaped off the slope and  landed on a reptilian that looked similar to their new-found friend, but instead of gold scales, this individual's scales were a deep black, and he had massive wings, and a massive tail "Get off of Destruction!" it roared "The Dragoon Emperor will not be disrespected in such a way!" The dragoon took flight, taking Thalian in it's wake. Thalian's right hand gripped Destruction's should, causing his revolver spinned off to the icy ground, while his left hand gripped onto his short sword. Thalian jabbed the sword into the massive reptilian's back, causing it to let loose a mighty roar. Destruction grabbed Thalian's right hand, and threw him towards the ground. The golden dragoon flew up, catching Thalian, gently setting him on the ground. Thalian recovered his gun, his sword was still in Destruction's back, Destruction dived for the golden dragoon, who swiftly stepped out of the way. The black dragoon crashed through the ice, revealing a lush green blanket of grass beneath his feet. The golden dragoon drew his sword swishing his golden tail, challenging Destruction. Destruction roared "Destruction rules over Prosperity!" Prosperity shook his head "You need to learn some things, first, no need to shout everything you say, second, your name is Thadius, third my name is Duncan. I'd greatly appreciate if you called me by my birth name, not the name given to my entire bloodline." Thadius shouted, once again "I only lust for destruction of every race and kingdom except for my mighty civilization in Maelstrom!" Duncan took this time to lunge at Thadius. Thadius dodged the lunge, slamming Duncan with his tail. Duncan flew and thudded against a slope, cracking the ice. Thalian heard loud shrieking sounds from the smoking cave, and an entire legion of dragoons erupted from the cave. Tacticus put a hand on Thalian's shoulder "We need to go, we're heavily outnumbered!" Alexis had made her way back to the group, "We really should go!" she yelped. Thalian ignored the urge to tell her that Tacticus had already said that. Yellow-Tooth scooped them all up, and put them on his back. Duncan squirmed off Yellow-Tooth's back "I'll fly ahead, to the bridge, then I'll wait!" He yelled, then he proceeded to jump in the air, and shoot off. Yellow-Tooth set off at a terrific speed, it felt as if he was a in a car that was speeding as if it's driver's life depended on it. They made it as far as the jungle before they were forced to get off Yellow-Tooth's back. A dark cloud of dragoons were right behind them, and they descended like a swarm of bees going for a large field of flowers. Everyone had started sprinted towards the bridge, which was barely visible. Thalian tried to keep up, but everyone else was much faster than he was.  Several dragoons dived at him, barely missing him, one even got his talons around Thalian's head, but that unfortunate individual lost several toes. Thalian passed beneath a thick canopy of leaves, forcing the dragoons to land, pursuing him on foot. Thalian leaped over a fallen tree, only to land and stumble on several roots. When Thalian reached the bridge, he realized that the group wouldn't be able to make it just by sprinting. Everyone else was waiting at the start of the bridge, and when Thalian neared them,they turned and went at a brisk walk across the bridge, furthering his realization. Thalian went about halfway across the bridge, then turned. and drew his pistol, he checked his barrel, "Six against an army. Great odds right there." he mumbled to himself. Thalian raised his pistol, and shot the first dragoon to set foot on the bridge, sending a clear warning. The dragoon stumbled and fell, blood corrupting the plants around him. Instead of making the dragoons hesitant, Thalian only succeeded in making them angry, causing them to rush at him.He let loose his last five rounds, and then holstered his gun. There were no elements to draw from here, so he resorted to hand to hand combat. Thalian had stayed long enough for his friends to get across, so he turned and ran to the end of the bridge. Alexis was yelling at him, goading him to the end of the bridge. The bridge lurched, throwing Thalian off balance, forcing him to grab onto a rope so he wouldn't waltz over the side of the bridge. He turned and saw two dragoons chopping at the ropes. The left rope had already snapped, and both dragoons were now working on the right rope. An ax blade connected, snapping the right rope, while all other dragoons glided back to the safety of the ridge, Thalian could only grab a board and hope to live. The bridge fell, and collided with the canyon wall, nearly making Thalian fall. Thalian started climbing back up, he had fallen down to the bottom of the bridge when it had collided with the wall, so he had to start from the bottom up. The left rope anchor snapped when he was halfway up, and the bridge lurched to the right. Thalian kept climbing, he looked up and saw Yellow-Tooth extending his paw,and the left rope anchor was fraying. Yellow-Tooth bellow at him "JUMP!" Thalian climbed one more plank, and took a second to get ready to leap. He extended his legs with as much strength that he had left. As soon as he leaped, the bridge gave way, falling into the abyss of leaves below. Thalian reached out for Yellow-Tooth's paw, his hand brushed Yellow-Tooth's fur, giving him hope to survive, but it wasn't enough, Thalian's hand had only grazed the bear's paw. Gravity seized Thalian as a lion would his prey, and Thalian plummeted into the canyon. He faintly heard Alexis screaming at him, the world, and how cruel fate was. Duncan tried to fly to him, but a spear hurtled through his wing, launching Duncan back to the ridge. After that, everything went dark.