A Dragon's Bond

Chapter Twenty Six - Time

     The cold wind ripped through our thin clothing as we flew silently through the air, our forms hidden from view behind dark clothing, every wing beating silently. The Queens camp becoming visible in the distance, a sea of fires and flames consuming the horizon, each flame dancing about in place, taunting out cause with each shake of itself. Our two teams paused for a moment, taking in the enormous camp in front of us, this must have been the Queen's entire Army, and it was only an hours flight from Retribution.

     We leaned in as close to one another as possible, speaking in as hushed tones as we could, formulating a plan, we needed to get much closer.

"We split in to the five man teams, each team goes down a side and we meet each other in the middle. Be careful to stay out of sight and no more speaking."

     They all shook their heads in confirmation then began to follow my commands, each team heading down their respective side, one dragon behind in a long line. The men a dragons below paying absolutely no attention, they were so arrogant they believed we would never come close intentionally; they didn't have a single guard. No one patrolled throughout the night, now towers were set up on defense. It was just a bunch of men and dragons lazily drinking, as if there wasn't a care in the world.

     Frankly it was insulting, I wanted to blast them with fire right now, but there was no way the ten of us could take this sea of enemies. We needed to located the Queen, and any other strategic advantages we could find.

     The camp was in no particular order, the tents were strewn about randomly, paths between them mazing through the rows. It did bring me some slight satisfaction at seeing rows of empty tents, the men we had killed in the last battle and the one before that. We had taken out close to one third of the army that was here, but that was defended behind a wall, not on open ground. We would need to get some sort of advantage over their greater numbers.

     Draioct's head scanned through the crowds, searching hard for the Queen and her dragon, he was supposed to be large like Draioct, and a dark red color. Currently we weren't having any luck, nothing jumped out and stated it was the Queen, we had already been flying for twenty minutes, a very long time to fly over an army.

     Suddenly something stood out within the crowd, in what seemed to be the center was a tent, much larger than the rest of the tents, huge banners flew from the corners holding the Queens insignia; a flaming skull with wings.

     Our hearts raced, instinct pulled at us to attack, here and now while we had the chance, no one knew we were coming. Draioct and I could both feel it. Our entire purpose in life was to take down this vile woman, disband her army and free the people. Now was our chance.

     Draioct froze in the air, his silent wings beating, our bodies facing the Queens tent, sweat beginning to form on my skin as the adrenaline coursed through our veins.

     The other Scout riders noticed we had stopped and followed suit their eyes glancing between us and the Queen, they silently waited to see what would happen. We had told everyone no heroics, stick to the plan and come home together, there was only one issue.

     I didn't know how we would react when seeing her; Bellock's voice rang in our head, deep and ancient.

"This is what the two of you were created for. Size this moment and strike. Strike hard and fast. This is your moment."

     Instantly Draioct banked and dove, our sights set on the Queens tent, a whistle, then scream coming from his wings as we gathered more and more speed, the Queens tent growing in size as we got closer.

     We were within a hundred feet when someone saw us, they shouted into the night a loud warning of our approached, it would be too late, we would be there in seconds.

     Suddenly the Queen stepped form her tent hurriedly and looked up, her eyes locking on mine as a growl formed on her lips, the tip of her dragon's nose breaking the entrance of the tent.

     Just in time I leapt from Draioct's back and twisted myself, pulling my spear from my back and coming down hard, the spear above my head in a chopping motion. Draioct slammed into Volaris, both dragons roaring loud enough to make the ground shake.

     In the last second before my spear connected the Queen kneeled and half drew her sword from its scabbard, getting it just high enough to block my blade, the force alone still sending her rolling away with a grunt. The dragons tumbled and rolled away from us, their massive bodies crushing and crunching men and dragons in the way.

     The battle of the ages had begun.