The Terror of the Raiders

Prologue - Pain (Revamped)

Pain. It was all that I could feel and all that I knew. A shattering, burning agony that had taken over every nerve of my being without warning or reason.

It was consuming me.

The pain continued to spread throughout my body, clawing its way outwards from the depths of my chest and leaving an empty cavity behind. I did not know what exactly, but I did know that something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

The winds had tasted bitter all morning, a lingering taint that the scent of young, spring prey could not clear from my tongue. I had not heeded this instinctual sign. And then the pain had come, striking me from the sky like a powerful thunderclap.

It had chained me to the earth with invisible bronze. Piercing through every inch of flesh and alighting along the marrow in my bones until I could know nothing else. It forced me to lie still upon the compact dirt as the sun woke from his sleep until he disappeared over the distant mountain range, twice. Not until the third sunrise did the relentless pain abide enough that I could begin moving.

It retreated back into my core, burning me as it went until it forged itself with the flames behind my throat. I was left spasming in the dust with dread chilling my heart.

As soon as I was able to control my wings again, before I could even feel my legs, I began a desperate flight back to the isle. Land and sea I raced past quicker than ever before, refusing to allow the exhaustion to dig her talons too deeply into me as I pushed myself beyond all of my limits.

I prayed with wilting hope to the sliver of moon high above my head.

I paid no attention to the warm breeze under my furious flapping wings. Nor did I see the waves that I had so lived ever since I'd first laid eyes on them. I did not remember the way that they would dance and clash against each other, reflecting more colours than a rainbow against the sun's harsh caress. I did not notice the way that the water would play with itself and everything within those waves.

I had always adored the ocean, but now time rode hard against me. I could not spare the shallowest of thoughts for the expanse below me.

Minutes stretched into hours. I beat my aching wings faster and faster but I could go no quicker than I already was going.

Despair dragged me down, and I struggled to keep my splintering soul together. But I could not go fast enough.

Hopelessness soon joined her sisters exhaustion and despair in sieging my heart. They dug their claws int my bleeding soul and teared ruthlessly through everything that I have left; hope, desperation, my reserves, and any shreds of energy that remained. Soon I could do little but glide.

It was not until my claws were dipping into the salty waves that I was startled enough to lift my head. Once my eyes, tired but still sharper than any human's, were able to fix upon a distant rocky outcrop, I found a few last scraps of energy to begin frantically flapping one last time.

Finally I had reached my den.

I landed on the large, flat stones outside the cave's entrance. But despite my sense of urgency I did not rush straight in. there was an unnaturally coloured puddle of thick mud under one of my paws. The bright cobalt blue had dulled as it started to dry and I knew even without scenting it, that the blood was my mate's.

Boot prints as small as a single of my claws lead away from the pools of blood and deeper into my home. Humans. Despite their small size, they were amongst the only creatures able to kill a dragon, and my mate had been a strong dragon, as well.

But amongst those footprints, there was also a cobalt trail too large and smooth to be made by anything other than scales. So, they had not killed him outside, at least.

But there in the far corner, where I had lain our eggs, his battered body rested. His foreleg had almost been hacked off, the tip of his tail was missing, and his throat had been cut so many times that it more closely resembled minced meat. At least the human thieves had not dishonoured him so much as to have taken his head as a trophy. It was irrelevant, but I needed something to comfort me in this impossible nightmare.

What awaited behind my poor Tai Shan was worst of all. His broken body had slumped protectively around undisturbed straw. Every strand was where we had left it.

But it was what rested in the middle that terrified me beyond reason, as it would any mother. Nothing. All three of the eggs from my clutch had been stolen. The beautiful babies that Tai Shan and I had been waiting for almost a century were just gone. The blood of my thunder, of my mate and kits.

The den's rocky terrain was splattered and soaked with it. From the other half of my broken heart, his ash coated the ceiling and his scales littered the ground. But he had fought hard in his death.

A dozen charred skeletons were scattered around the edges of the room, leaning against the walls. Melted flesh and melted bronze dripped from cracked bones and had cooled into a disgusting mess. The beautiful home that I had so carefully decorated with shiny rocks and soft pelts had been forever ruined. This place was now tainted and cursed, and the reason why had broken my heart into more pieces than I could ever put back together.

I roared my pains to the heavens, but I had not a flame to accompany the sound. For my thunder was dead. And my mate's heart had beaten for the last time.

Author's Note:

This is for you sosnavy - Happy Birthday Susie!