the young boy of thirteen or so, possible one-day chief of the islands village, trapped as he was, barely, just barely, avoided the repellant claw with gray banding that would have neatly sliced him to ribbons. yes, this day could be described as possibly not the best day of blueflames life so far but it sure was turning out to be quite the day nevertheless. his opponent, a rather large four-legged dragon called a night fury, with a blue stomach and gray bands spreading the length of its legs, eye and down its back to its tail, was unfortunately not here to be friendly. "foolish foolish boy: did not your elder tell you not to wander the woods alone?" the dragon inclined its muzzle skyward, where the first signs of nightfall were approaching. "especially...at night?" blueflame couldnt understand the dragon tongue of course but he certainly caught the tone behind the errant growls directed to him. "boy that thing is angry at me..but why? i didn't upset these things they came attacking us. i just don't get why they are trying to kill me. i guess i better be on my guard" he said to himself. he looked around for something to defend himself with as the dragon paced leisurely closer. "i think unlike her, who plays with her food and can't see fit to kill it already, i shall have to take the duty up myself." by 'her' the dragon ment the other two dragons of muddy brown and black pelts rolling around exchanging blows. "get off you young inexperienced bafoon. don't, agggg, make me ask you again, errrrrrrr, because when i have to ask twice, ooomphhh, i get angry. stand still already; you're making me frustrated" scowled the ugly voice of skitiiva loaw ranak branarr down onto her opponent, obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss. now you see; not all night furys were bad. some were unwilling to be converted but converted nonetheless through not of their own wills, no, their leader loaw okar kahuakhaun had killed all the weak furys of his kin and forced the stronger ones to turn their heads to the stars above to be assimilated. obuekhov was such a fury who had retained enough willpower to slightly resist the moons pull to retain enough of who she originally had been on her mind...but not her body.
"what are you doing?" hissed the god protectors voice in her mind. "aren't we all alike you and i? fellow creatures should not be harming other creatures should they. that will have to be addressed." and quite suddenly just like that, she found she could not move, akin to being paralyzed. luckily for her, blueflame came to her rescue, probably because his felt those gouges and that fireball to that dragons face had been ment fo him and needed to repay credit where credit was due. he threw a cupped double hand of dirt into the gray-and-blue banded winged dragon menacing him and ran to obuekhovs prone body, yelling feebly "buddy...im here." caught by surprise but quickly realising what was happening, ranak branarr whirled her powerfully built body to face the boy and grinned darkly, extending her retractable teeth and snapping them open and closed. "heheeheeeeee! dinnnnnnnnerrrrrtiiiiiiiimmmmmme! is the big string knight trying to save the wounded hapless ugly princess? my my what stupidity." then she pounced at him. calmly brushing dirt clods off his eyes so he could see, loaw okar (who was blueflames opponent he had smacked that log on) made no move to retaliate against the humans distraction as he realised what happened. "she needs a lesson in obedience it seems" lanced the voice of the stars and moon in silvewingthefurys mind. kahuakhaun had understood what happened; what the sky could and would do to its followers and for its followers such as provide their bodies with power, markings and a sence of delicious delightful blood lust, it could also take away. he grasped it well and now knew what the sky was doing, draining obuekhov whom kahuakhaun himself slightly trusted of all her life and the power it had bestowed upon her when she had been forced to look at the moon. in all his existence as becoming loaw okar, he had not seen the god protector directly intervene in skirmishes like this. what was happening before his eyes was enough to make even him hesitate in padding too close to see just what was transpiring.
obuekhov arytiss didn't care about any of that. she was too busy trying to ignore the awful horrible weakness that had started in the pit of her tummy and traveled all through her quickly like a virus, feeling so weak she toppled over onto her side like a statue, limbs locked up unable to move her legs as they should be moved. finding that her eyes still moved she sought out the figure of the human child she had sought to protect from harm trying to duck past ranak branarr, who was now toying with him 'playfully' as a cat would a mouse that had chosen to unwisely leave its mouse-hole at that moment, and cooed a heartfelt plea. "help me, human...please...i need your help. i might not be around much longer if you do not help me, im here to protect you from these two, who are evil; but only if you can break the god protectors hold over me." she thought harder and then uttered "im here for you." she hoped the human would understand her words, grasp the pleading note in her moan that was all that the child could hear. but it wasnt blueflame who saved the day! a hard-edged double-sided axe whirled from the leafy shadows with pinpoint precision and nailed the unsuspecting loaw branarr with her tail pointed toward it right in her tail. forgetting that she had been playing with her prey she lashed out instinctively in awide arc with her unwieldy evil claws and hit blueflame full in the chest, unleashing a spray of vermillion and hurling the boy into a tree across the clearing with a sharp crack. he slumped to the meadow floor, ether dead or unconscious. still seething like a wild uncontrolled animal, skitiiva branarr ignored the immobilized obuekhov and turned toward where the axe had been thrown from, the axe blade still stuck into the black creatures tail, causing continual pain to spike up her veins, and stopped in surprise: Ixora jackon had returned!
"nightflight!?" exclaimed the albino dragon in utter shock, horror and surprise. her adventure had begun with her and obuekhov arytiss meeting up with this dragon after realising that she wasnt a threat and, in fact, wanted to help her. hearing the distant screams of a young boy unknowingly to them belonging to blueflame, Ixora Jackson having split off from her earlier to head south to her village, obuekhov arytiss had taken after the boy and whomever had probably heard him as well to protect him. that left her partner of the pelt of white free to chace after nightflight loaw shar versel, the 'eyes of the alone but powerful' night fury. Nona had taken to her wings that probably were like a beacon to attract other of loaw okars twisted lot to her; where as they blended into the sky with darker pelts hers was as white as snow, only her paws and around her eat plates were black markings, hardly to be called a camouflage. a big storm full of rain and even worse thunder and lightning had converged on Nona shortly after winging her way into the eastern mountain region in search of loaw versel. as it rapidly became apparent to Nona, nightflight had found her. so far dodging and weaving had helped Nona survive the first few successive assaults on her from the sky. lightning didn't help her sight recover any quicker nor those overly loud thunderclaps that sounded like it was booming inside your ear receptors. not to mention the ratio of 2 to 1 in opposition, she thankfully had managed to temporarily disable the lesser skilled of the two, a massive big ebon-scaled brute that looked frightening to battle against but not much could be said about his fighting skills. with him out of the fight for now recovering, Nona had to work hard to stay alive from those flashing claws that would slink from the cloudy sky and try scratching her! while the brute was average level at hiding himself, minus the shouting boasting voice Nona had found out to be very irritating to listen to, her other mysterious silent flying attacker was extremely good at scouring hits on Nona with a style of fighting that was almost...elegant, Nona had finally decided it was. no longer caring to hide her identity during the next lightning strike, nonas ace fighter had finally revealed herself, claws ready to rend her throat, evil grin twisting that dragoneses sky blue muzzle into something of a nightmare. "yesssssss" purred nightflight loaw shar versel, in full beautiful splendour, wings hovering, poised to their full extent as she reared up, her white strip of stomach stark against the darkness of that ashen cloudy background. "it issssssss i."
Nona luckily manged to evade in the nick of time those wicked daggers extending from versels paws aimed at her vulnerable neck. loaw shar reared up again after her miss to nail her and flapped those majestic blue-white sprinkled dotted wings slowly, eying Nona with a goast of a smile on her jaws. she took a long while to respond, and Nona knew she was at long last about to hear something from an enemy she once considered her friend, who had sacrificed herself to kahuakhaun willingly to give nona more time, more time to save the remaining lives of those free night furys left. in the end only she was the sole remaining dragon ever spared with continual running and eluding her former kin. "you know...it doesnt have to end this way" whispered loaw shar with an evil gleam twinkling deep in her orbs. "im tired of following orders. loaw okar kahuakhauns too blind to see it but i know no matter how many hunters i send after you never will abide and surrender to the inevitable will you? i admit, you have managed to whittle our numbers to four thousand or so. so i conceived an entirely different approach to our problem; why not lure you to us? it would be so much simpler for us to lure you in than waste needless lives to end by your claws, wouldn't you think?" Nona flapping her wings a distance away took the hint offered to her versel havent voiced yet and cursed aloud her foolishness, the other offering a nasty smirk knowingly.
"so at last do the pieces of the puzzle fall into place for you, little dragon? we never wanted to hide ourselves to you this day. we never wanted to assimilate you now. allow me to elaborate for your confused, frail mind to comprehend, my little white dragon; i and a few others such as the rather admittedly dumb mass of muscle you dispatched earlier are tired of kahuakhauns bland nearsighted way of doing things. he's never quick enough, never sly enough, like i have always been to rule over the unspoken masses of our god protectors followers. they need a true leader. a real ruler. someone they will all bow in reverence to. i and my select group have become discontent with his methods so we will seize the right opportunity to take the position away from him. then only then, will this land know true fear and the error of their ways to any of those who refuse to see the truth. yes, i and my partner have been tracking you since shortly before you set wing in these mountains. 'tis a pity, i thought you were so much more skilled and a worthy opponent than i had guessed you were." she grinned nastily, claws gleaming evilly in the darkness, wich seemed to suit her just fine, and Nona grasped what versel was here for. "im going to kill you, dragon. im going to kill you and all you have done to all the followers you have wiped off this earth. kahuakhaun would have seen you become one of us; up until recently i would have agreed with him with all the beats of my heart. now i see differently. i will rid this whole land of free dragons...and ill start with you." versel righted herself and shot toward Nona lightening fast, plowing into her midsection and sending both rocketing through the air. she fought back at half strength: after all that loaw shar had just said she still didn't want to harm her, just subdue her and make her see reason. Nona conjured up a fireball in her throat and launched it at her, blowing the attacking dragoness off her and stopping the acceleration loaw shar had been shoving her with her wing power.
if only she could pin that sky blue elusive twisted-minded demon in somehow. "you wont even stand a chance, little dragon. as one of the most powerful nert furts ever to grow up and live, i have beaten loaw okar, seen in his eyes that i would have taken care of him efficiently if not for his sudden choice to let me live that day. he was afraid, just as you will be before you cease to be a threat. i am too powerful to be beaten. at last all our problems will have been..taken care of." the dragonesses leader! of course! there was the opening Nona had been looking for, a door, a way in, the beginning of a seed of doubt to box her opponent into, make her unsure about her motives in all this mess and finally make this once proud free independent elegant creature see what she has take a massive effort to wedge her foe into sutch a precarious place.
"nightflight...i refuse to call you that ugly twisted evil name you have been givin...come back to us. remember your old self and how you beat him, that twisted dragon. remember how afraid he looked when you were allowed to escape! he was afraid of you. remember who you are!" Nona choked on her last word emotionally, trying to get this lost dragoness to stop. trading swipes thrust at her, she traded blows with nightflight versel who tried at every opportunity to find an opaning and end this quickly: versel wasnt one to waste her time toying. Nona opened her jaws again and continued while grappling. "yes you beat that tyrant once...you can do so again. obuekhov, your supposed follower? she told me the entire story, all that i am telling you, right now. despite all this evil you have done, and your overwhelming obsession to convert me or kill me over the course of your ambitions, i still believe in you." loaw shar landed a gash on nonas shoulder, the pain agonizing and drawing red liquid, but to her worth that injury. "i wouldn't know that nor do i even care. all that matters is ridding myself the likes of you. since the partner i brought along was the distraction and easily disposable to me failed to do his job, i will have to finish this myself" maybe it was her imagination as versel flashed a grin at her but this time it seemed slightly more strained than it had been.
Nona tried again as their wings interlocked and drove loaw shar backward by her momentum as she lightly aimed to scratch her opponent on the chest. "i don't believe that and i don't believe you do, ether. you want to remember me because i was the only other of my whole kin of furys to not have been killed by kahuakhauns corrupted force on that dreadful day, nightflight. and it was because of that made you hate me wasnt it? a...after all the sky has whispered in your mind surely you of all night furys are a leader! just...the wrong kind of leader." her voice was laced with a heartache that she hadn't chosen to show in the face of such a monster but she did. maybe then she would break through the trance the god protector had enduced on her. "i know you can understand me, despite your opposing view that you cannot. snap out of this web of lies and deceit you have been unceremoniously thrust into! you may think you have seen the truth when all the while you have been blinded by them. what the sky tells you isnt truth. trust me, they are an enticing sight to look up and never be what one was again, its easy to lose yourself to things that draw you in...you were tempted by kahuakhaun. i know the feeling, nightflight, i know and i understand this, what you're going through." this time nonas opponent looked slightly flushed upon hearing all this as she managed to flip Nona off her body and fluidly dodged a counterattack. then, for just the briefest of a second, there it was...something...just the faintest briefest smidgen of that friendly twinkle in versels eyes. Nona caught that barely seen twinkle and hope fluttered in her stomach that she might have broken through to the dragoness. the next instant a wicked appendage ripped open a jagged cut on the albino toned furys wings, causing her to stumble from more pain. her foe was cunning. the usual hissing elegant silken voice was replaced as her will broke like a torrent of anger, unleashing nearly a year of roiling hatred that she had masterfully concealed and crushed away inside of her.
"YOU KNOW NOTHING! NOTHING! ALL THE WHILE YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I USED TO BE: NO RECOLLECTION OF MY PAST! WHO I WAS DOES NOT MATTER! ONLY WHO I HAVE BECOME WITH THE HELP OF THE MIGHTY MOON AND STARS! YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY COMPREHEND THE PAIN I FELT FOR THE FIRST TIME WHEN LOAW OKAR OUR LEADER TOLD OBUEKHOV ARYTISS AND SKITIIVA BRANARR TO RESTRAIN ME WHILE I LOOKED UP INTO THOSE STARS!" her voice was laden with outright bloody hatred. "you can understand nothing of the link! for a year ive been like this and i am utterly and happily content! the god protector has shown me the way to enlightenment! i am who i am for a reason! when your blood is spilled tonight i will no longer worry and became restless every day about a threat to us to undo all that we have worked so successively to build! i intend to keep it that way!"
Nona could hear the tell-tale wing beats of another night fury, the massively built brute-with-wings was about to rejoin the fight, a 'luxury' Nona could really do without right now. even though the other was only really a moments annoyance, that fury might just be able to gang up on her enough for loaw shars treacherous attacks to find their marks enough times to end her. Nona had one last chance to try something. she suddenly stopped trying to defend herself, marely letting versel do her worst, abrasions and lacerations quickly covering her all over, but if she was about to say next worked, it wouldn't even matter. versel blinked in apparent surprise as she saw Nona drop her bleeding paws and simply hover close to her, making no move to further defend herself. "im sorry it has to be this way. if your rage makes you so evil as to harm someone you used to know and care...then...you have me, nightflight, you have me...youve won. i am your prize? then end me, here and now with no one but the clouds betwen us and the earth below. just you me and the god protector, if it's watching. you wanted me so bad as the last free dragon known and you have her...im her." Nona held up her head high in a gesture of one who had fought valiantly and was about to await whatever fate befell her. "i will not fight...just...just...end it...here...now...just us two...alone. im ready to accept my destiny."
it was as if nightflight loaw shar versel, 'eyes of the alone but powerful' and mass deceiver, well known dragon to all of 'the others' assimilated by the sky, had been hit by a jagged bolt of lightening. she threw back her head and roared at deafening decibels, feeling like her heart might burst inside of her. she roared and roared for a long time. "whats happening? are you safe?" called the gruttel brutes voice a ways out and closing the distance to rejoin the seemingly already won battle. but no one cared about him at the moment. when at last Nona could un-press her ear plates from her head to listen again after versels roaring abruptly died down, she was greeted by a sight that shocked her into wordless silence. a flash of lightning stabbed through the clouds behind the figure in front of her: versel drooped, her wings flapped slowly almost with a life of their own, battered and bloodied by their battle in the sky, her head sagged listlessly toward her chest almost limp-like. even her steering sub rudders that usually looked so beautiful were slick with sweat. loaw shar was panting with exhaustion, looking like she had screamed her entire heart out and there was nothing left to vent out. nona was shocked, she didn't know what to think, wether it was a trick or something else, so she stayed at a safe distance from her to be sure. slowly, still panting hard enough from her lungs to be audible to Nona across the distance, loaw shar looked up into nonas muzzle again. what she saw there gave nona shivers: versel looked...weary...tired...like the world had taken too much out of her normally so uplifting springy evilness. like whatever unspeakable things she had put into the world was now emptying itself onto her shoulders and she was unable to take it all at once. when she spoke it was full of something Nona also hadn't heard in her voice in over a year: regret. "s-so i...i beat...s-silverwingthefury? i really d-did that all on m-my own?" Nona didnt know what was exactly going on but she had made her move, now it was time to see what would happen next...
...TO BE CONTINUED...