Flight

Part 11

This time he did not let go and tore.  Hestia stopped dead and screamed as he kept tearing and tearing… and that wrenching memory of the hell she endured as a hatchling came converging upon her.  Her screams frightened him even more and he tore into her with haste.  

But even with all that unspeakable pain, there was still a spark of anger.  When Hestia’s muzzle came into contact with the dragon’s face, she ripped away his eye.  His shriek tore a hole into the sky and Hestia wondered if it was the devil himself.  There was barely a second when he zipped toward her and slashed at her as much as possible.  Hestia mirrored his attacks and managed to stay out of his blows.  When she gained some distance she let loose a fireball at him and he fired back.  As the flames collided, Hestia used the smoke as a shield.  She used this moment to sink her teeth into the red one’s body and once again he continued to emit that unearthly screech.  His sturdy scales had no use here.  The blood that was being ripped away from his body eventually immobilized him and he fell down into the burning earth below.      

The dust dispersed and there Hestia stood, bruised and wounded, over her enemy.  The other dragon lay beneath; a river of blood leaking from him.  Hestia could not help but once again stare into those piercing amber eyes, trying to comprehend his reasoning for attacking her in the first place.  It was then, when she peered closer, she came to a heart stopping realization.  It was the eyes of her beloved companion - Icarus.  

The gods had taken vengeance upon her after all, in the most despicable way possible.  Although he was transformed; the dragon Icarus had regained his human conscience in his dying moments.  He looked up at Hestia, with that same calming smile. “Dear Hestia,” his voice was deeper, but weak.  “Please forgive me… my mind was taken from me…”.  He paused as blood spat from his throat.  “No…no…” - it was all Hestia could mutter, too struck by the immensity of the situation to say anything else.  “I hoped… I could have stayed with you longer…”.  His claws entwined with hers, red and golden.  

A tear trickled down his face, but he still wore that naïve smile.  “I am glad though… that I got to die by your fangs…”with his last words spoken; the breath of life left his body and his red claws left Hestia’s.

Hestia’s actions were so dark and gruesome that it forever etched itself into the eternal memories of the gods.  She stayed clean for so many years with Icarus.  The thought of tearing her own skin had only been a faint memory.  Now, she relapsed as if to tear out every feeling she had.  Her fangs dug deep into her stomach, the excruciating pain was her only substitute for her magnitude of grief and esteem.  “Die, you pile of shit!!”  Came the screeching dark voice.  So she kept on, digging and scratching past her bones until her internal organs spilled from her.