The Dragon of Charred Scales

Into the Deep End

Jacob

Seeing Oculeera give up, lay down and curl into a ball sapped me of any strength I had left. The cold, the fall into the lake, the realization that dragons had died around us, for us, hurt my body and my soul more than any training or goodbye. What more could I do but curl against her for warmth? Together we cried. Quietly, but not completely silent. At the moment tears, thoughts, and each other are all we have. That, and some unknown amount of time until we are found.

Is this what everyone wanted to warn us about? This type of danger? They always said others want to take us, to use us, or even kill us. We note it, but with all the measures taken, and with competent magic users around us, it never truly sank in as much as I thought it did. Now I know. The true cost of being the duo of the prophecy. And we were never ready.

Somewhere around, wingbeats tell of an approaching Lakis, but it means little now. It could be another dragon from Hasinji rescuing us, or one of the attackers come to do whatever to us. Neither of us make a move or cease our sobs. It means nothing for us to act. In our states we could do nothing.

More wing beats. Now I hear voices. I feel Oculeera shift a little, but with the invisibility spell I cannot see her. "We're doomed," she whispered.

I opened my eyes to see if I could find the source of the sounds. The source of our fate.

"I'm sorry you had to... had to experience... that," Oculeera said. "The deaths, and..."

"You did too, and it hit you hard as well. Neither of us could deal with that. I... never want... to go through this again."

"No, never. But now we may doom the world, if we die."

A shudder ran through my body. Even those around us, trained to keep us safe, had no chance of survival during this attack. Those same individuals could kill us with little effort. How could we ever hope to face these shadows to save the world? Why did anyone hope we could?

Something landed very hard right beside us, shaking the ground a little. A large, dark shape broke up the stars, walking along the ground without an invisibility spell. Only one thing is this big: a strength dragon.

"Do not try to escape. I'll take you to safety," it said in English.

I undid our invisibility spell because it already knew we were here. Neither of us moved, though. Is this dragon a friend or an enemy? I did not know, and I do not think Oculeera did either.

One paw dug into the ground, picking me and some rocks up. The other grabbed Oculeera in the same instant the dragon leaped from the ground. Talons curled tight around my body after the rocks filtered out. Why tell us not to escape when it has an iron grip?

Not even a full moment passed before another dragon nearby roared. "Let them go!" someone around said in Draconian. To our left, a small flock of Lucoras, Zhenniao if I remember correctly how they are called in English, slowly fell behind the strength dragon's pace, though they squawked a shrill tone that hurt my ears. Some may have been casting spells at us, but then I saw a swift dragon ram into most of them.

The strength dragon roared a challenge at some unseen foe around, then dived to near the ground. A different swift dragon flew in front, trying to land on the strength dragon, but to no avail. Flames from the strength dragon flowed around the swift dragon's bubble shield but still made the pursuer roar.

Another strength dragon landed on the swift dragon, collapsing a wing on the faster flier. Both tumbled towards the ground and quickly out of my sight. At this point, I just closed my eyes. Nothing made sense.