Daughter Of The Dragon / PUBLISHED

Chapter 29 - Repetition

I turned over, body battered and bruised. My wings ached as I stretched them outwards. My vision blurred and I staggered sideways. I leant up against a boulder and sighed, my breathing laboured and head pounding.

I looked around and there was little movement to be seen. Some dragons lay lifeless, others dragging their battered bodies. It took me a few minutes to orientate myself and I realised they all were heading to the healing caves.

I pulled myself together and swayed across the valley. Every step had me wishing for death. As I rounded the corner I felt the gentle hum of the healing dragons flood my mind. I sighed in relief and curled up on the ground and closed my eyes.

Within minutes, my surface wounds were closed and the aftershock that wreaked for havoc on my body than the battle was wearing off. I opened my eyes blearily and looked around me. Dragons were bustling about with more ease now, the healing dragons relaxing their aura, most likely eager to rest.

I sat up and stretched out my wings and sent a long, icy breeze swirling around me. The cold air settled the remaining burns that had penetrated beneath my scales and I finally relaxed. There were still wounds that needed attention, but right now, I had more pressing matters at hand. Rising slowly to test my balance, I made my way further along the valley to the elder caves.

"Elders, ach!" I coughed at the raw and scratchy feeling of my throat when I spoke. I hummed for a moment before attempting again.

"Elders! I must speak with you yhis instant! We have much more pressing matters at hand!" I called out but there was no movement from the caves. I huffed and turned around, running straight into Elder Rucktus. More cracks than ever littered the surface of his body, making him seem far more aged than I could remember.

"No one is there. I know you find us useless my boy, but we would never sit out an attack on our clan," he aaid knowingly. I nodded curtly and followed him as he walked back out.

Destruction was everywhere. Most of the fires had been put out, but smoke still hung in the air. Nests were strewn every which way, and a few water dragons were doing their best to wash away the blood stains. Rucktus shook his head in dismay.

"We have not had this kind of destruction in centuries," he pushed aside a few fallen trees and helped a young forest dragon up from a ditch.

"What happened the last time?" I asked as we pushed aside boulders blocking a cave entrance.

"That was when Buphas left us and the rogues were born," Rucktus started "as you know, there are 5 elder types here, Alatnor is mind, I am soul, Meknas is the beyond, Radira is of health, and Thesra is wisdom." I nodded as he listed the dragons and their powers, I knew all this already.

"Buphas was the sixth elder," he said heavily.

"Let me guess," I said wryly "of death?"

Rucktus snorted but shook his head.

"Meknas deals with the dead and dying, communicating with and easing the passage to the other side, I imagine hes quiet busy today. Buphas was of the creation elders, a small and powerful few. There are fewer creation elders than any other type of elder dragon." Rucktus explained as we stopped by the lake. To say I was shocked by the revelation was an understatement.

"I know what you're thinking," Rucktus continued "but there was a time when Buphas created extraordinary things. He made many of the worlds beauties that we know of today himself. He manipulated life force with the bat of an eye, moved the Earth and soared across the seas experimenting with his powers.

He grew very powerful as he aged and finally, he settled down amongst our clan. Creation elders across the Earth began manipulating elements with the few dragon eggs that we elder had lain to create the dragons you see today. Many creation dragons were killed through fear unfortunately, their powers often inflating a dangerous ego that Buphas too developed

But we ignored it, in fact, we encouraged it. As generations of dragons began to sweep the land, Buphas began manipulating their new powers to make more powerful dragons, dragons like Eron, rare fledglings with unstable powers. Im sure you've witnessed the birth of a Rare in your time, it is a violent and unforgiving process that usually kills instantly, but Buphas could control it."

I shook my head and looked around at the variety of dragons that lived around me.

"He did not stop there," Meknas said from behind me. The large, grey elder was tired as he sat beside us. "In the years he spent cultivating rare dragons, I found an increasing number of dead fledglings. But these were not rares who died during their hatching. Buphas, ever efficient at manipulating life, would bind his soul to the fledglings and drain them, a practice we have and always will frown upon here."

I nodded as the remaining elder dragons found us and sat down. A few other dragons also settled close by to rest and hear the rest of our buried history.

"The magic he consumed from the rares was unstable and powerful, and it twisted both his mind and soul," Alatnor added "we tried to reach out to him first and stop this practice, but he was admant that he must do it, lest we turn on him like the other creation elders."

"Then we tried to shun him, threaten him with exile, but his battered mind would not hear reason. One day, he left, he said we were already turning against him and he must leave at once to be safe." Rucktus said, his boice still filled with pain from the old memories.

"What did he do?" I asked, looking to Alatnor.

"He had been breeding rogues, desperate, mindless creatures on an Island not far from here. He returned that same evening with every intention of ending us. He did not anticipate the strength of the dragons that we did have and he fled far from us and we did not seek him out."

"You never attempted to kill him?" I asked.

"We tried a few times, when he attempted to return, but he has been steadily growing stronger since that day."

"Was he at this battle?"

"No," Radira spoke up and she stretched her wings "this seems to have been a diversion."

Fear struck me, almost knocking the breath from my lungs.

"Hes heading for humans, for Sapphire," I said "hes going to have a feast before he returns to finish you all for good."

I lnow I was supposed to post this yesterday but I had a super busy day. Plus I had to pay a lot of attention to this chapter and make sure I didnt leave any plot holes.

What do you all think?

We're super close to our 2k reads target and I'm so excited!!!

Love you all,

Orange

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