Curse of the Phoenix

Ch.25 -Breaking The Ice

~Iara

Verdana's mouth was slightly open, exposing her fangs. A soft growl was emanating from Grimm's chest. I sensed what he was about to do. I screamed, and Luke yelled at the same time as Verdana jumped at Grimm. Now, Grimm as an egg had hatched maybe an hour before Verdana had, and even though it was a small difference in time, the difference in size is what mattered. It only gave him an extra foot or so in length, but as he was also a male, he gained a couple hundred pounds or so in weight. Not that it would help much.

When Verdana jumped, she slightly opened her wings to give herself more of a lift. Grimm had to act fast, so he flattened himself against the ground, and Verdana barely went over him. Verdana roared and twisted, and her claws scratched his tail. Lightly, but the screech of ivory on scale was loud, and it hurt my ears. She landed in a couple snowdrifts, the air from her landing pushing the snowflakes up in a great white, cloud.

Verdana snarled and snapped at his tail. He pulled it away, and then cracked her across the snout with it. Scale upon scale. I saw a few of hers and a few of his come loose and fall into the snow. After that, he clambered to his feet and leaped towards her, his claws outstretched. She rolled onto her back, and then her back legs collided with his chest. She shoved him off and then roared, snapping her jaws at his snout.

Grimm!

What?

Stop it! Stop it right now!

I can't, I told you this would happen! We should have stayed on Vroengard! She attacked me first!

Well stop fighting back! Then she'll back off! He couldn't reply as Verdana opened her jaws wide and covered him in flames. I had no idea she was even capable of fire. I thought that she would have to wait anther month, at least. His eyelids snicked shut, to protect his eyes from the flames. After that, Grimm was barely able to react as she jumped onto him, and dug her claws into his side.

He snarled, and bit one of her paws, while whipping his tail at her. She was the one attacking, he was defending. I looked over to Murtagh, Eragon and Arya. Eragon was staring at the fight, Arya was yelling at them, and Murtagh had a hand on his sword. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but I could assume. Eragon seemed like he wanted to intervene, Murtagh wanted to intervene only if necessarry, and Arya seemed to be convincing them not to. Well of course, I would be doing the same thing.

Here you had two dragons, fighting, and you had no idea of their backstory, so see if they can work it out. Suddenly I heard a hiss, and then Grimm was breathing flame. For the first time. Ever. A small part of me was happy for him, for his new found ability rather than the situation he discovered it in. There was a major difference in his flame to hers, his was a deep dark black, like his scales, so it looked like smoke, rather than flame.

Glowing smoke, of course. Verdana closed her own eyes and battered him with her paws. He was bleeding much more than her, he was trying to bruise her, not make her bleed. Then another roar sounded, and a white shape flew over us. Dru, Alice, Luna and the others had gotten far away from the fight. We didn't want to be ripped open by a misplaced blow.

The white shape was Virtue, Marumen's dragon. Marumen was my twin. And Virtue was Grimm's, literally. They had hatched out of the same egg, which I had asked Eragon about during one of our long talks about dragons, and he said it was entirely possible, if only a rare occurrence.

Virtue was close to Grimm. Of course she wasn't going to stand back while Verdana beat him bloody. Verdana wasn't bad, she was just angry. Angry because most likely, when Grimm ferried me to Vroengard, Luke thought Grimm was taking me to my death. Virtue landed on top of Verdana, who currently had her teeth buried in Grimm's leg. Virtue pummeled Verdana's head with her wings and tail, while snarling and snapping at her, but not actually drawing blood.

Verdana clambered off of Grimm and backed off. Grimm got to his feet, but Virtue was in between him and the angry red dragon. Virtue hissed as Verdana backed away. Verdana lowered her wings, and her tail stopped lashing. She walked around the fire to settle behind the other dragons. Virtue calmed, even as Grimm did. Underneath him, the snow was red, and the blot was spreading from the half dozen wounds he had suffered during their spat.

Virtue turned her head and sniffed, then laid down next to Giligan.

Grimm, are you okay?

I'm perfectly fine, just a little banged up, that's all.

But you're bleeding.

Barely.

Still....I don't know how to heal you.

Eragon does. And I assume Murtagh does as well, even Arya.

Well I hope so!