Dimmadreki's Quest Chapter 13

"No," Dimmadreki whimpered. "This can't be happening!"

"Everything is fine," his mate said reasonably. "All I'm saying is that it's wrong for you to harm a dragon who never did you any harm. The Titan keeps order in the nest, which is better than we ever managed to do! She keeps us safe, she looks out for the..." Her cloudy eyes went wide. "The children! I've got to bring them in before you poison their minds any worse than they already are!" She turned on a wing and headed for the lake where Næturvon and Mánarskuggi were waiting for them.

She suddenly found an angry Night Fury blocking her path. "No, Myrkrid. I won't let you do this. Not to my children!"

"They're my children too, Dimmadreki. Don't I have a say in where they're raised and how they live?"

"You can't lead them into slavery! I will not let you."

She gazed at him calmly. "What are you going to do? Kill me? Shoot me down so I can never fly again? I don't think you'll do that to me."

Slowly, agonizingly, he relaxed his aggressive posture. "No. I can't do that to you. But I will still look out for my children, the best way I can. If I've lost you, then they're all I have left."

She smirked. "But don't you see? You've already lost them! While I was in the nest, I told the Titan all about you, and what you've done, and what you intend to do. She's rousing the entire nest against you! Why should she risk her wings and her life against you when her dragons will gladly do the fighting for her? Even if you wanted to fight them all, how many could you take down before they overwhelmed you with all that firepower?" He glanced beyond her, and saw the beginnings of two clouds of dragons pouring out of the nest's two entrances.

"It's over, Dimmadreki. Leave me my children, and run away before the flock shoots your wings full of holes and lets you fall to your death. That's how you planned to kill the Titan. Isn't justice poetic?"

For a moment, he prepared to spin and dive toward the lake, warning his children at the top of his lungs to flee; he'd round them up later. But he heard the telltale sound of a Night Fury building up a firebolt, and he knew that, as soon as he turned his back on Myrkrid, she'd shoot him. He had to believe that she'd shoot to kill, too – she'd aim for his wings, and Night Furies never miss. "Myrkrid, please, come back to me!" he sobbed.

She shook her head; she couldn't talk with her fires building inside her. The fastest of the nest's dragons were getting closer. There was nothing he could do now except to save his own life.

"I'll be back for you," he swore as he looked her in the eyes one last time. "I promise!" Then he tipped up and flew for his life, gaining altitude as fast as he could. A few fireballs from the Rumblehorns and Gronckles passed close beneath him. He didn't think any of those fireballs was from Myrkrid, seeing how they all missed, but he couldn't tell for sure and he didn't want to know. Once safely in the clouds, he made a hard right turn to throw off any pursuers and accelerated to his full speed. He had to squint; the tiny droplets in the clouds stung his eyes when he flew that fast. He counted to ten, then dipped down so he could see.

As he'd planned, he came out right over the lake. One glance told the story. Two dozen dragons had landed on the shore, and Myrkrid was one of them. They would certainly take his children away so the Monster could enslave them, and there was not one thing he could do about it. Well, there was one thing, but it probably wouldn't work.

"Kids!" he roared as loudly as he could. "Get away from those dragons before they enslave you!" Would they listen to him when their mother was telling them to do the opposite? He doubted it, but he had to try.

The dragons on the ground looked up at him, startled. A few of them shot fireballs at him; he dodged them easily, but more dragons were joining them and it was just a matter of time before one of them scored a lucky hit. He turned away from his family, his eyes blurry from tears, and headed for the safety of the clouds again.

"Dad! Wait!" came the most welcome voice in the world.

Dimmadreki spun on his tail. "Mánarskuggi! Get up here, fast!" More fireballs whizzed by. The other dragons weren't shooting at his son, but he could easily get hit in the crossfire. He shifted his position to draw their fire away from the little Night Fury. One Gronckle lava-ball scored a grazing hit on his forepaw, burning it painfully. But he held his position until his son caught up with him. Then they rose into the clouds together. They were safe there; other dragons wouldn't dare take him on. A Night Fury's heat-sensitive vision gave him the advantage in cloud battles against everything except another Night Fury. He didn't think Myrkrid would chase him here; the Monsters seemed to prefer defensive fighting, and as long as he wasn't acting like a threat, the enslaved dragons would most likely let him go.

But he was a threat, whether they knew it or not. The Monster had taken away his mate and his daughter, and he would not rest until he'd gotten them back. How he would do that, he had no idea at all.

"Dad? Why did Mom want me to go into the nest? What's going on down there?" His son's puzzled voice broke into his troubled thoughts.

"The Monster has enslaved your mother, and she's about to enslave your sister. Her dragons attacked me, and you just barely got away. I am so thankful that you're still enough of a baby that you don't always listen!"

"They got Mom and Næturvon? What are we going to do?"

"Son, I don't know."

"Well, where are we going to go now?"

"I don't know that, either. But somehow, we are going to find a way to get your mother and your sister back!"

"Let's just do it, Dad! Right now! You told me it takes two Night Furies to take down a Monster. You're a Night Fury, and I'm a Night Fury. What are we waiting for?"

Dimmadreki had to smile at his son's innocence, even though his heart was breaking. "We're waiting for you to grow a lot bigger. I know you miss your family, but you've never been in battle before, and your firebolts aren't strong enough to bother a Monster yet. I'd love to take out that Monster as father and son, but that can't happen today." He sighed. "The first thing we'll do is find a safe place to rest, where those dragons won't find us. Then I'll come up with a plan of some kind, and we will pay back that Monster for what she's done to us." He had no plan at all, but just knowing that he had to come up with one gave him some sorely-needed strength. So did the sobering realization that he was now his young son's sole means of support and protection.

"We'll go south," he decided. "The Monster will make your mother tell her where we came from, so we shouldn't go back in that direction – that's the first place they'll look for us. We need a place near water, so we can go fishing, and we need a cave so we can't be seen from the air. Mánarskuggi, I'm going to need your eyes to help us find a safe place."

"I'll look as hard as I can, Dad." They cruised south for a few miles, then dropped out of the clouds for a look around. There were no dragons nearby, but there were no mountains, either, so their chances of finding a cave were slim. There were some hills to the southeast, so they flew in that direction. Neither of them had much to say.

After searching for nearly two hours, they finally found a cave. It was already occupied by a young brown bear, but with some snarls, some pawing of the ground, and one or two small, well-placed firebolts, they "persuaded" the bear to sleep somewhere else. They lay down side by side, the younger dragon almost engulfed in his father's wing. Dimmadreki was very close to tears, but he held them back so he wouldn't upset his son. But it might not have mattered; Mánarskuggi was disconsolate, now that he realized what had just happened.

"I want my mother back!" he sobbed.

"We're going to get her back," his father reassured him. "I survived a terrible childhood, I survived being turned into a dragon, and I am going to survive this! In fact, I'm more motivated now than in any of those other problems, because now I have someone to live for besides myself."

"Are you going to kill that Monster?" the young dragon asked hopefully.

"I don't know how, but yes, that Monster is going to die screaming. She took my mate and my daughter, she took away a young dragon's mother, she's subjected two of the nicest dragons who ever lived to a life of slavery and servitude..." He stood up suddenly, stuck his head out the cave entrance, and roared out his frustration and anger.

Then he stopped. He'd had an idea.

"That's it, son. We'll sleep here today, and then we're going to start a long, long journey. It will be humiliating and uncomfortable for me when we get there, and there aren't any guarantees it will work, but at least I have a plan now."

"Yay, Dad! What's the plan?"

"We're going to get help."