The Dragon of Charred Scales

Storm of Shadows

A/N: Mentions of blood and gore

Oculeera

     The moment his claws cut through Jheecu like her body was insubstantial, cold shivers of fear engulfed my body and I nearly lost my concentration. So close. The spell is so close. And now he has hurt both Novayar and Jheecu. I am not sure how bad he got Novayar, but Jheecu is seriously hurt. Again, he turned to me.

     "What are you doing?" he roared again. More and more brown was appearing on his hide. But the black was not disappearing, just lifting up. His paw swept towards me, and I ducked to dodge.

     "Stop this, or I will kill you too," he growled. His muscles prepared to swipe at me again, but for some reason he paused.

     I try to push the boundaries of how far I can stay and still build the spell. Without Novayar and Jheecu, I am his sole focus and I could easily join the other two falling if I am not careful. I start to stumble on my words with my focus so divided, but I would rather start over than get hurt.

     The edge of the black spread to one of his never healing wounds, and Harogbas roared in pain. The sound nearly deafens me, despite being quite far away. Somehow this must be really hurting him. The bloodless gash opened further, turning a brighter crimson. His wings locked and his whole body tensed. Good.

     I sigh with relief, then focus on the spell again, hoping to take advantage of his lapse. But then he dives away from me, heading in the general direction of where Jheecu thought Talbagu's entrance was.

     It takes all of my concentration and skill to maintain what I have of the spell while I try to push myself faster with magic. Otherwise I cannot keep up. My wings whistle from the air passing over them, and turbulence is trying to thrash my tail around. Some of the black wisps rising from Harogbas catch me as I chase. They sink into my scales and burn, but they quickly go away.

     Still, no matter what I do, he gets just a little farther away, and my hold on the spell tries to slip away. But I cannot fail. And the other two are still nowhere to be found. Hopefully they can heal themselves and help me catch this shadow dragon.

     I snarl. Why do spirit dragons have to be the slowest?

     Without warning, Harogbas snapped open his wings. They halt his fall, but I cannot get mine open in time to stop me from slamming into his back. One of his spikes nearly impaled my tail.

     Harogbas tumbled, shaking me off in an awkward orientation. Wings out, I was falling face up, looking right at him as a spell left his lips. Whatever he tried to do, never happened.

     Instead, a sudden rush of Raw Magic flowed through me, unbidden. As structured as untamed magic can be. I cease my efforts with the spell as I right myself in the air, wearily eyeing the ground below. We are not very high.

     I shift my gaze up to Harogbas just in time to see, what was the human expression, all heck break loose? Something like that. I heard Novayar say it once, and he explained the meaning. And it fits exactly.

     Harogbas roared again, curling himself into a ball. More brown than black on his scales, but the gashes spilled an unhealthy amount of blood. Something holds him in the air in place, not letting gravity pull him down.

     Four blobs of darkness burst from his body, one heading to the sky, one descending to the ground, one heading towards Talbagu, and one heading towards me. It had no physical presence, but it felt like the wind was knocked from my lungs when it made contact. Just like the smaller wisps when I chased Harogbas, this burned inside of me. I could not stop myself from crying out in pain.