You Are My Romeo

Chapter 4: Night Fury

~Astrid~

The fortress shook as another blast hit the main structure, spraying scorched stone all over the courtyard. I watched as men were buried by the debris, while others were burnt alive simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was gruesome to watch, but I had to remind myself that this was the true life of a warrior and death and suffering had a central role in that.

Another blast hit my tower, causing it to shake so hard a few of the roof tiles loosened and I had to grasp onto the railing to not lose my balance. It was then that true chaos erupted beneath me as I observed a troop rushing out the heavy wooden doors of the main hall to face the dragons that had landed in the courtyard and were in the midst viciously spewing fire and lava all over the lower parts of the fortress. A large, crimson monstrous nightmare held off the Berserkers with a tall wall of fire as an unusually lumpy gronckle spewed lava like there was no tomorrow all over the walls of the fortress. Could it be that these dragons were ... cooperating?

In my 19 years alive I had never witnessed two different breeds of dragons cooperate, nor had I seen dragons attack anything they didn't know whether stored food or not. That was when it hit me, those dragons weren't out for food, they were simply there to cause destruction.

A fire ignited in my veins as images of the village just beyond the fortress walls flooded my mind. Burning rage filled me as I watched them rebuild their homes only for them to be torn down the next day because of some particularly vicious dragons. Simply knowing that those dragons had no true motivation behind their attacks put me in a certain mood ... the mood for slaughter.

Rage filled me as I clawed my way up to the roof of my tower, my nails digging into the small cracks in the stone as I hauled myself up before burying my axe deep in the wooden roof and using it to help me climb over the edge. I may not have been Dagur's biggest fan, but his people had done me no harm, which was why I felt an incredible urge to protect them by slaughtering these beasts that were wreaking havoc just for the fun of it.

I climbed all the way up to the peak of the roof where I waited, balancing my axe in my hands as I scanned the night sky for any sign of a dragon. Seconds later, a hideous zippleback came flying out of a thick cloud of smoke that rose from the courtyard, gas pouring out from one of its mouths as it coiled it's large, green, brown-spotted body over to my tower. Gaze locked on the monster, I tightened my grip around the handle of my axe, crouching ever so slightly as I prepared myself for a long fall.

It was in the moment that I was going to launch myself off the top of the tower that a loud whistle rang through my ears, the very same one from earlier. Immediately, I stood up straight, brows furrowed as I gripped the handle of my axe in preparation for a fight and looked around in search of the source of the sound.

The tower shook violently as it was hit by yet another blast, the sound of stone crumbling and falling the long way down to the courtyard clung through my ears right before the tile beneath my feet came loose, causing me to stumble and fall face first onto the roof, which I was now clinging to for dear life.

My heart was racing in my chest, adrenaline pumping through my veins as I attempted to calm myself by taking a few deep breaths. Don't look down, don't look down. I had never been particularly scared of heights, but the thought of tumbling off the edge of the roof and having to fall at least a hundred feet before being splattered on the ground like an old pie was not a very tempting one.

My thoughts were interrupted by something that sounded like a high-pitched scream, which in turn made me realize that whatever I had heard moments before was probably coming back to finish me off. Suddenly, the darkness of the night was lit up by a flash of bright purple, which made spots dance around my vision as the tower shook once more, loosening the roof tile that had become my life line and sending me tumbling down the roof. A dozen roof tiles followed as I desperately attempted to slow my fall with the help of my axe, which was of no use. It was as I hit the edge of the roof that my life seemed to flash before my eyes. My parents, my island, my friends and everything I had ever held dear seemed to have been left at the top of that roof, right along with my stomach and as I tumbled over the edge of the roof, I readied myself for a very long and hard fall.