Streams - Book 1

Chapter 13

Death ride

Tlaloc shouted back to the twins, "All guns have power." Immediately, both sets of guns began firing. "And we're off," he added as the ship flew forward knocking the approaching Leatherwings over as they flew silently across the open field. "Whoops," Tlaloc whispered, as he looked over at Jenni, who shrugged her shoulders playfully as the Leatherwings tumbled and flipped through the tall grass.

"Oh no," Lilly gasped. The sight that met their eyes was not encouraging. Fires burned out of control, consuming everything along both sides of the river. Villages, farmland, and forest alike were all engulfed in the Dragon's flames. Rotating towards the waterfall, the group sat in silence as the destroyed remains of the great tree stood smoldering. The top section was half submerged at the base of the falls, a burned out husk.

"I'm sorry," Jenni said, her eyes damp with tears. "This happened because of me, because they were coming for me. And now your home is destroyed."

"Don't be silly child, how could you be to blame," Lilly said, as she stroked the top of Jenni's head lovingly. "Until waking up here in our stream, you didn't even know we truly existed."

"You being here is going to do more good for more beings, then these old Dragons can do bad," Aakil reassured. Jenni nodded and dried her eyes, hoping he was right about that.

Suddenly, the ship was hit hard from the side, causing it to spin wildly out of control. "What was that?" Tlaloc yelled as he began frantically checking his flashing gauges and the airspace around the craft.

"I've got nothing down here," Ava called from the lower gunner compartment.

"There!" Jenni yelled, pointing to a pixilated splotch in the sky.

"There, where?" Tlaloc asked, ripping his glasses off.

"Right there, it's like someone scrambled part of the sky." She pointed up and to the right. She glanced around, but no one seemed to see what she saw.

"I think someone scrambled her brains," Mia snarked.

"I saw the same thing before at the tree, after the leather-wings attacked." Jenni watched as the patch shifted quickly from side to side, before racing directly at them.

"Here it comes," Jenni screamed, as she braced herself for the impact. With more force then last time, the shape collided with the craft, sending it sailing backwards with the crew screaming at the tops of their lungs.

"What was that?" Ava yelled from the lower guns as a black streak raced past.

"Nero," Tlaloc replied as he grabbed the controls, using the craft's momentum to steer clear of the Dragon. Nero had obviously been flying under the craft to sneak up on them.

"I think it's trying to save us," Jenni said happily as the pixilated mass rushed up and sent them sailing up over the treetops, out of Nero's range.

"Well tell it to stop," Aakil shouted as Tlaloc franticly tried to regain control of the craft.

"Where is it?" Tlaloc called to Jenni as he pushed the controls forward, sending the craft racing back towards the waterfall.

"It's disappeared into the trees," Jenni replied.

"We got company, lots of company," Ava yelled. Jenni looked back to find hundreds of leather-wings catching up to Nero, who was hot on their tail. The large Dragon maneuvered from side to side and spun in circles, effortlessly dodging the blasts of blue light that shot from Ava's guns. The leather-wings were not so lucky. They collided with the shots head on, their smaller bodies were stunned and then fell to the ground below.