Tomes of Nevermore: Shattering Light

Chapter Twelve: The Mechanized Black Dragon

Omi continued to talk for several minutes about what life was like when he was young while Tarah and Ty rested their aching bodies after a long hard day of training.
In the distance they heard the fiery sound of an engine. Up above, high in the sky, a stream of smoke formed above them. "Oh good." Omi said. "Alister has returned with our ship."
Tarah and Ty looked up as a huge mechanical bird flew by before flipping upside down and coming billowing back down toward them. The ship hovered in air above them for a moment as the mech bird landed next to them, the bright red metal it was made of glistening beneath the light of the three suns. The engines shut off as the bird touched the ground and let out the savage scream of an eagle as the glass head of the bird popped open and Alister climbed out.
"What a beautiful mech." Pal said in an excited tone as a new feeling began to form inside of the tiny mech. "This poor thing has been through so much. It's emotions are completely all over the place. I... I have never encountered such an interesting creation."
Pal laid an egg full of flowers and tried to hover over toward the ship. "Hello. My name is Pal-z-Wallzi but my friends call me Pal. I have never encountered a creation of such beauty and finesse. Please accept these flowers as a token of my appreaciation and I look forward to climbing inside of you to embark on the rest of our journey."
Tarah stared at Pal with shock and awe as he looked back at her and then reached out one of his arms with a thumb up.
"You do realize that the ship doesn't talk right?" Alister said jumping to the ground. "It's just a ship."
"It is more than just a ship." Pal said laying an egg with some kind of ship polish inside it. "This is the Phoenix X7 with an omni drive option. It is the perfect mode of transportation. Devoted to its cause and worn from battle. I believe I am in love."
"Aw Pal." Tarah said confused. "I don't think that..."
"Sh." Pal said scrubbing the outside of the ship as the big mechanized bird let out another scream up into the sky. "It is all okay. Did you fall from one of the realms of the god's? A different love from my best friend Tarah Weird but I am sure that she will not mind." Pal turned crooked and rested his big twenty sided glass dome against the ship. "I promise to love you forever and ever. Do you like stickers? I like stickers. Especially stickers with flames and flowers."
"A love story for the ages." Omi said nodding. "Okay moving onto bigger things. Everyone, this could be the last time you are here for a while. Take your time and prepare, we have a long journey in a cramped space to deal with."
"You are not cramped." Pal said rubbing the outside of the ship. "No one likes too much space. It's simply unnecessary." The mech phoenix X7 let out another loud caw.
"I have to admit I've never seen my ship make that kind of sound." Alister said.
"Love makes all sorts of strange things happen." Omi said.
"I don't need a minute." Ty said bouncing his skull up and down like it was a ball. "I'm the Squire of Skull and Bones now. This place is already in my past. The sooner I can get out of here, the sooner I can become a knight."
"That's the spirit." Omi said. "What about you young Tarah Weird? Do you need a moment for sentimental release or..."
"No." Tarah said wiping a single tear from her eye, not wanting to cry in front of Alister and Master Omi. "Ty's right for once in his life. This place is already in our past now. There isn't anything to do from here on out besides move on."
"Very well." Master Omi said as he backflipped into the passenger seat of the ship. "The master never drives, but always gets the front seat." Omi bowed as if he'd given some kind of profound wisdom.
"Alright let's get this ship moving." Aliser said starting the engine as everyone was piled inside the tiny cockpit of the mechanical bird.
"The mechanized ship has a name." Pal said. "It is Phoenix."
"That's great." Alister said without a single care. The engines fired and the two giant metal wings began to flap.
Before long the ruined city of Alfereon was in the distance. After that The Clockwork City of the dead god Willtechnik was next. Then the forest where Tarah and Ty had grown up followed after. All those things they knew and loved shrunk in the distance before finally vanishing, replaced with newer and brighter images as the land beneath them began to blur.
Higher and higher they soared until the ground beneath them became a distant memory. The further away from their old home they became the sadder and more tired Tarah began to feel and the more excited and eager Ty began to feel. But after an hour the feeling of endless travel began to settle in as they accepted how long and boring their journey north was actually going to be.
If you have ever traveled, then you know this feeling as well. It is not the traveling that people actually are usually excited about, unless those people are a bit weird, which some are. But when people say they like traveling they actually mean they like being in different places. The actual traveling to get to the different place is usually borderline horrible in most cases.
Hours went by and soon Alister was the only one awake, still flying the ship through the black of night just above the lowest layer of clouds. Pal had practically not stopped talking since they'd gotten onto the ship. Pal was discussing stickers and flowers with Phoenix, which was a topic that Alister personally didn't care very much about but Pal could talk about for close to forever.
"I am detecting a object closing in on us." Pal said pointing to one of the seven screens of the phoenix's dashboard.
"That's weird. It's too high up for an elephant hawk or a bird to be up here." Alister thought as Tarah began to stir behind him to the sound of her last name. "I flew high because their shouldn't anything flying this high."
Alister flipped on his rear view camera and stared at black clouds in silence. "Nothing is there." He thought. "But according to the scanner..." His heart sank into his shoes as he watched a giant black steel head pushed through the clouds behind them.
The term heart sank into your shoes doesn't actually refer to the organ that sends light through your body falling into your shoes. But it actually refers to the sort of nauseous sinking that a person feels in their chest when faced with a great danger or surprise. 
"We are being chased." Pal said.
"Thank you for the obvious information mech." Alister said grabbing the wheel and ripping it straight up into the air sending everyone else tumbling toward the back of the cockpit in their sleep.
"What is wrong with you!" Ty shouted falling apart as Tarah and Omi slammed into him. "Can't you fly this stupid thing?"
"The phoenix is not stupid." Pal said. "It is perfect in everyway. You just do not understand its complexities."
"There's a mechanized black dragon behind us." Alister said angrily gritting his teeth. "It's closing. If it gets us we're dead."
"Oh dear." Omi said rolling over and going back to sleep on the floor. "That sounds very bad. I'll have to deal with it in five more minutes."
Alister jerked the entire ship to the left sending everyone tumbling onto their sides. "I'd buckle up if I were you guys. This isn't going to be pretty."
Behind them, the giant black head of the metal dragon was reaching forward and snapping at the back of the ship as Alister jerked the wheel from side to side evading each attack. "It's not shooting us." Alister said taking a deep breathe. "It's trying trap us in it's jaws. It wants us alive. If it wanted us dead we'd already have been obliterated."
"What did we do?" Tarah said. "Mechanized dragon's are warships."
"Northern warships." Alister added. "And we're still nowhere near the north. This ship is looking for something."
"Use the boosters!" Ty shouted as he looked back. "We can blast passed that giant freaky metal thing back there! Look at how slow it's going. If it wasn't so big I bet it'd have no chance!"
Alister said nothing and instead just held the wheel tightly, his eyes locked on the sky in front of them.
"What are you doing!" Ty said as one of the ship's engines was crushed between the giant black jaws of the mechanical dragon sending the ship spinning around as Alister lost control of the wheel.
"Oh no my beloved Phoenix!" Pal shouted as black smoke spewed from the broken debris of the engine. Behind the the mechdragon flew in closer and closed it's giant black jaws sealing them inside.
"We're dead!" Tarah shouted in panic. "What are we going to do!"
"I told you to use the boosters!" Ty shouted.
"My beloved Phoenix is hurt!" Pal said as the phoenix let out a mechanized scream.
"I said five more minutes!" Omi shouted still asleep.
"Everybody shut up!" Alister shouted as he smashed the boosters down and the back of the phoenix lit up with bright red flames.
"We're gonna crash!" Tarah shouted holding on as the ship billowed towards the giant black metal jaws.
"Not if my ghost powers can make us intangible." Alister shouted still holding the boosters and shutting his eyes. "Everybody hang on!"
Alister tried with all of his might to make the whole ship intangible. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn't save the entire ship in time.
The mechanized phoenix bursted through the jaws of the mechanized dragon. The glass of the cockpit shattered and icy cold air came rushing in freezing the snot to their faces. They tried to scream but the air was too cold to even speak. They came hurdling toward the ground with a trail of black smoke and debris following behind them.
"We're all gonna die!" Tarah cried holding Pal in her arms.
"True." Omi said agreeing with Tarah. "But not today."