Chronicles of Carnezia (Book 2): Wilderness

Chapter 12: Brawling

Chapter 12: Brawling

            One day, in the middle of the year as I believed, there was a bit of an incident between Frain and Jeta. Neither Jan nor I really knew what the cause was but all of a sudden, whilst we talked about general things, they both hurled their wings out and Jeta breathed a wild jet of fire towards Frain. Luckily, for me, he jumped out of the way onto the nearest building. There was black smoke as the fire filled the air; Jan and I started choking so we ran down the street until our eyes stopped watering.

            ‘What is that about?’ Jan asked quite loudly, still rubbing her eyes.

            ‘I have no idea but we better stop them before they hurt someone,’ I replied, coughing the smoke out of my lungs. ‘Frain!’ I shouted but all I got in response was a high pitched roar. It clearly wasn’t aimed at me but all the same, I became angry and frustrated.

            Somehow, and I couldn’t figure it out, Jan had disappeared and was now clambering along the roof of the nearest building. Jeta had, similar to Frain, leapt onto a roof and they stood opposite each other holding their heads extended out on their slender necks. I stood on the ground, now watching Jan more than the dragons and trying to think what I could do. My head was saying there wasn’t much but just let them run out of fire (if that was possible) or just see what Jan tries and then follow suit.

            Then, I tried something of my own. There wasn’t much point in running as all the dragons seemed to be doing was starring each other down. Neither seemed to be breathing in to cast up more flames so I thought things would be safe for now. As I watched, trying to come up with something to do, Frain pulled his head up; unfortunately, Jeta took it as a bad move. He breathed out another stream of fire and it just missed the top of the roof as he turned his head up to follow Frain. The purple dragon had flown out of the way, just in time, and was now circling above; I was happy that he didn’t return the favour of throwing his own stream of fire at his rival.

            ‘Frain! Come down,’ I shouted up to him. His response was a shake of the head and a sharp sweep of his tail through the air behind him.

            Jeta roared up and then joined him in the sky; as he flew up, the movement of air pushed out of his way hit Jan as she stood unsteadily on the roof top.

            ‘Ah! Jeta!’ she screamed then yelled in anger. ‘Carly, get help!’ she shouted to me as she clung to the guttering of the building.

            ‘Hold on, Jan.’ And I ran down the street to find the nearest dragon who could get her down; there was, luckily, one round the next corner and in my haste, I hoped he or she would understand.  They did and rushed past me with me running behind them; the red dragon was a little taller than Frain and Jeta and so could easily extend his neck up for Jan to hold onto.

            As I made sure she was alright, the raucous roaring and growls were continuing above. The battling dragons had now changed tactics. They were now engaged in close combat and were scratching and biting at each other whilst trying to stay airborne. Now and again they would pull apart but then would engage again or there would be a few spouts of fire lighting up the sky.

            It was getting out of hand and neither I nor Jan, now grounded again, had any idea of what to do. The dragon, who had helped her down, turned his head to the sky and grumbled to himself.

            ‘Is there anything I can do?’ he asked.

            Jan had just finished catching her breath when she answered. ‘If you can tear two raging dragons from killing each other and get them back on the ground then go ahead.’

            He bore his teeth but up at the sky not at us. ‘Let me have a try.’ And he was soon up in the sky with the other two.

            I wasn’t really sure what they said to each other. Firstly, the red dragon flew straight up and between them both, pushing them apart very forcibly. There was a bit of hovering for a moment and then the red dragon flew back down and forced them down with his wide wings. Each of them took a perch on the rooftops again. Whenever Frain or Jeta would try to growl or release another burst of flames, the red dragon would swipe a wing in front of their face. There was a bit of a crowd around Jan and I after all the loud fighting that had just finished.

            There was one final grumble from the strange dragon and the younger two dropped their heads and that seemed to be the end of it. The red dragon dropped onto the ground. ‘Those two won’t fight again,’ he told us. ‘Now, you are welcome for the help but I must get going.’ And he went off the way I had got him from.

            ‘Who was that?’ Jan asked.

            ‘I have no idea; I just got him to help you. He offered to sort those two out,’ I replied, pointing up to our dragons.

            Looking at them now, they seemed edgy and tense and Jan had the brighter idea to split before they began fighting again. We said goodbye and she went one way with a snarling Jeta whilst I stayed where I was; Frain was watching his rival walk away with a bit of a double limp in opposite legs.

            He hopped off the roof and joined me. ‘Are you alright?’ I asked, not sure of what else to say.

            ‘Yes, thank you. I’m sorry about that but he started it.’ He sounded a little childish.

            ‘Would you like to tell me more? Or do I have to make you apologise?’ I warned him, rather harsh with my words.

            He shook his head, very slowly and then we made our way to the square. ‘He insulted me and I just gave him a smart remark back, that’s when he tried to fry me.’ I tried not to laugh at that description but hearing that from a dragon was a little amusing. ‘It’s not funny. I didn’t fight back until he grabbed me, though I don’t doubt he will tell Jan something else. Ah!’ he growled which shocked me.

            ‘What is it?’ I gasped.

            ‘Just this scrape from up there. It will heal,’ he said as I fussed over him to see where his scratch was. It didn’t take long to find it; there was bright red blood dripping down his left flank. Pushing his wing down (he had obviously raised it so I couldn’t see) there were three deep gorges in his muscle.

            ‘Frain, you need to get this looked at,’ I told him, trying not to cry out or anything.

            He flinched when I touched his scales near the wounds. ‘Don’t touch, it hurts. Don’t worry, this is nothing. Think of Hydra’s scars.’

            I knew exactly what he was on about but that didn’t help what I was thinking. I didn’t want him to end up with similar marks or worse. ‘Frain, we are going to a healers, whether you like it or not. Come on, I’m sure there’s one a few minutes away.’ And so we started walking again and I was found to be right about the healer’s shop.