Mystia

MYSTIA

A novel by

CheetahPrint

PROLOGUE

STRIKE

Amethyst couldn’t see anything through the flurry of wings as the battle that blurred before her eyes went on and on around her. No sound could be heard but clanging armor and the screeching of the wounded.

The griffin felt a stinging pain in her right foreleg. Not stopping to look down, she roared and reared up on her hind legs, beating her enormous wings ferociously. Then she let herself fall back down. Her front paws crashed to the ground with a force that sent the pebbles around her trembling.

Her left paw had landed on a furry body. Looking down she saw that it was a werewolf, and one of its teeth was stuck in her leg. The little beast was now lying dead on the ground, crushed beneath her claws. Her eyes narrowed as she looked around for any other little werewolves that decided to be so stupid as to try to wound her. At the moment, there were none. Good choice, she thought.

“Amethyst!” someone screamed. “Look out!” Amethyst didn’t stop to look around and see why the warning had been shouted. She rose straight up into the sky so fast that it made her head swim. From here she saw the danger. A dragon at least twice her size had been about to land on her—to crush her. He growled and cut through the sky, straight toward her. His eyes glittered with hatred. Amethyst snarled and rammed the dragon head on, throwing him backwards. She spiraled higher into the air.

The dragon wasn’t discouraged. He roared, sending a ball of fire that was almost as big as Amethyst’s own eight feet tall straight for her. She dove downward in the blink of an eye to get away from it. As it was, the fur on the tip of her tail was singed off. Athianase is attacking me! her thoughts screamed. Athianase was the most vicious dragon alive. Pure evil.

“Cobalt!” she roared to her king on the battlegrounds below. Cobalt understood. He closed his eyes for an instant and ever so subtly raised one paw into the air, the motion growing into a wave of energy that reached her in less than a second. Amethyst heard his voice in her head, speaking in a language she didn’t understand, and felt some of his power surging through her own body. She felt it seeping down into her limbs, then into her claws. Amethyst didn’t hesitate. She hurled herself straight toward Athianase and sliced through his stomach with her now lethal claws, injecting an icy fluid into his body. He fell to the ground with a low, rumbling growl, red scales shining in the moonlight. Everyone scattered beneath him.

“Retreat!” Cobalt shouted. “Athianase won’t stay unconscious for long!” While the others in their little army flew in a frenzy back to their island of Mystia, Amethyst and Cobalt stayed back.

“Your majesty,” said Amethyst, “why not just kill him now, while he’s vulnerable?”

“Because I’m showing him the kindness he has never shown me. And if he attacks again…well, next time there will be no mercy.”

Athianase woke up minutes later and looked around. The battlegrounds were deserted. The Mystians were gone—out of his grasp. He roared in scorching fury toward the night-darkened sky. “Someday, Cobalt,” he growled, standing up, “Someday I will find your home…and I will destroy you.”

* * *

The dragon flew off in search of some water to drink and somewhere to rest for the night, until he could once again prepare his army to attack. He looked down and spotted an inconspicuous clearing in the middle of a thick forest. He flew down into it, his wings stirring up a small dust devil as he touched down. Maybe there will be water here, he thought. He looked around and saw the moon’s reflection shimmering on the surface of a small pool. He walked over and dipped his head in, slurping up the clear, cold water. Hearing the low growl of another creature, he flew off to find another forest to rest in. I am not yet ready for another battle, he thought, thinking that the creature might be a spy for the Mystians.