Dragon Days MxM (Staten Krown)

13

These were dragon days. On days like this, things burn.

Under the chill of the mist that spreads over this Dragonov castle flames begin to expand. Maxim fumbles the cold barrel of the fort where the knights have already begun to sling catapults high into the air. I put the base plate at my feet on the mud floor of the trench and Maxim reaches over to take up the bows.

"Shoot...we have to shoot," he's saying.

It's hard to hear him. There is chaos in the air. Chaos everywhere. That's when I see Silva leading a bunch of men to the walls where the siege is happening. Altogether this new weapon is over a hundred pounds, but it can fire over twenty-five wooden bolts a minute into the enemy dragons from over eight hundred yards away.

Silva may not have been trustworthy but he was smart.

"If those dragons reach the city, we're fucked," Maxim tells me, "Do you hear me? We're fucked..."

"What do you want me to do?" I ask Maxim.

Why was he looking at me the way that he was?

"The Queen believed in you...say something," Maxim tells me.

I look over at the crowd. These men were warriors. They were bigger than me. Stronger than me. They had more experience than me. What did I look like saying something?"

"Eh..."

It's the only thing that comes out of my mouth. I am beginning to choke on the smoke. I can smell it all around me. The danger is getting closer and smoker.

"Say something," Maxim repeats, "Say something."

Nothing. Nothing is coming out. I'm panicking. This was going to be the day that I was going to die. I could tell. In the distance, there was a thunder of dragons. Where the fuck was the smell of burning coming from? Where the fuck was the smoke coming from? It was so hard to breathe. I was sweating so much that I can barely keep my eyes open. They are full of tears. My eyes were burning.

I can't breathe.

I can't breathe!

How the fuck did he expect me to speak?

"He's not ready," Natasha states.

Just at that moment, something is breaking down. I'm not sure what it is at first. I think it's maybe someone literally falling on me. But I realize it's a piece of a carriage falling apart and almost crashing into me. It would have clobbered me to death if Maxim doesn't arrive right in time to push me out of the way.

"Goddamit!" Maxim states in return

I know he's pissed at me. I can tell.

"I'm sorry."

"It's OK," he states, "Just...just stay behind me."

I know he wants me to be better than I'm being right now. I know he wants me to help. Right now though I feel useless. I feel like there's nothing that I could possibly do. He's speaking loudly. Sweat rolling down his face because there is a building on fire not too far away from us. Somehow a dragon managed to spit fire this far and the flames are coming faster than the fires. They are coming faster than the rest of us could possibly imagine.

"We need the dragons," Natasha states as loud as she can, "They can do what the catapults cannot, it can reach into the enemy hiding places with its curved path."

Natasha is silent by nature. She doesn't have a demanding voice. She can barely speak over another Dragon Knight who has gone about talking about how fucked up a situation all of this was. The man is clearly spreading panic and Natasha's voice isn't resonating the way that it should.