Chapter 14: Battle of Sky's End
The Condor hurtled through the immense storm systems desperately, going between the cyclones' twisting wind-forces. Lightning flashed through the darkened air around the ship as it struggled to pull free of one typhoon's powerful pull, only to fly straight towards another. Stork screamed loudly at the helm, as the ship slowed and was dragged backwards, straight towards the eye of the swirling storm.
"Grab onto something, guys!" Aerrow called out to everyone as the whole ship shook around them. Pipes were creaking, their joints hissing steam under the pressure.
"Can't… hold it together…!" Stork grunted at the helm, struggling with all the strength in his hands to take control.
"I got you, Stork!" Stork looked back at the sound of the voice, one second before Junko was lightly pushing him aside, taking command of the helm. To Stork's amazement, the wallop's strength won out against the storm; Junko took the Condor forcing its way out through the great tornado's twisting walls, and within a few seconds, the ship was sailing safely away. The storm's thunder and oppressive darkness were rapidly giving way to comforting daylight. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they got clear of the storms.
"Good work, you two." Aerrow congratulated Stork and Junko with a smile, then turned his eyes onto the sight beyond the bridge's windshields. "Now, any idea where we are?" The region outside was thick with banks of dark-green clouding all around, while jagged barren rocks that looked like nothing had ever grown on them, jutted out below.
"Way off-course," Piper murmured, looking at the map on the table. "Here." She pointed right to the marked red line that encircled the known regions. "We're at the very edge of the charted Atmos, Aerrow," she said, looking up. "A place called Sky's End."
"Yeah," Stork murmured, suddenly at Piper's side, looking at her before giving everyone else his bulging-eyed stare of dread. "Our end! More likely." Across the table, something caught Finn's eye as he pulled the map towards himself; looking at the sigil and the writing in the bottom corner.
"'Here there be dragons'?" he read. Junko and Radarr's faces both crossed with fright. Piper saw their reactions and quickly reassured them with reason:
"Relax, guys, those pictures are just decoration," she said dismissively, her voice calm and soft. "The only dragon that's been seen in hundreds of years now is Smaug. We don't have anything to worry about meeting any dragons out here."
"Then… anyone want to tell me what that is?!" Aerrow pointed, wide-eyed. Sure enough, outside the Condor's windshields; a large red dragon that the Storm Hawks had never seen before, was flying on the green skies.
"Not good…" Finn squeaked out in a very high voice. As if in answer, the dragon swerved in its course, coming straight for the Condor; a deep, grating shriek of a roar hissing out from the creature's lipless jaws. In the brief space of time before the dragon reached them, everyone on the ship could see that this beast looked as different from Smaug as its roar sounded. Pupiless red eyes glowed in its very short-necked head, whilst a tail no more than half its armoured body's length draped out behind it.
Roaring again, the dragon reached the Condor, smashing its large hind-claws down from its turkey-shaped body. The force of the attack sent everyone on the bridge sliding along the floor, crying out. Piper looked upward from the floor, through the bridge's skylight, in time to see the dragon's silhouette flapping upwards to the air with a growl – then suddenly, Finn's wide-eyed face was filling her field of vision.
"Let's get out of here!"
A second later, the dragon came pounding down on the Condor again, shaking the ship hard. Though rather tough, the dragon's attacks were nowhere near as ferocious nor intelligent as Smaug's were. By comparison, Piper actually found this dragon's attacks sloppy.
"Stork, evasive manoeuvres!" Aerrow called over to the helmsman, who was already acting.
"Aye-aye!"
"Junko, Finn, to your Skimmers!"
A few moments later, three Skimmers flew away from the Condor onto the green skies. The trio were expecting the dragon to at least regard them as they soared outward – but the creature ignored them rather dumbly, keeping its attention on the Condor.
"It's not noticing us," Aerrow murmured as he looked back at the beast. "Finn, get its attention!"
"Aye!" Finn pointed and fired his energy crossbow, the blue-glowing shot aimed for the dragon's back. The energy bolt dissipated on the dragon's dull-reddish hide, but it got the beast's attention as expected. Turning its red gaze upon the three Skimmers, the dragon pushed itself free of the Condor and came for them.
"There's something on its torso!" Aerrow exclaimed; seeing the tiny, blue-glowing circular hole on the dragon's underside. Then, shouting into his radio: "I'm going to aim for that… belly-button looking thing!"
"Aerrow, dragons hatch from eggs!" Piper snapped over the radio. "Even if that thing's real, it can't have a belly-button!"
"Well, then… Finn, Junko-" Aerrow called out to the other two Skimmers "-you distract it while I am for its imaginary belly-button." He emphasised the imaginary word, rolling his eyes.
Sure enough, the dragon went for Junko and Finn like a fish to hook-bait. As the roaring beast was distracted chasing Finn (and successfully getting a bite out of the back of his pants); Aerrow and Radarr's Skimmer flew directly underneath the dragon's belly. Aerrow leapt up from his ride and unleashed a blue energy-bolt from his twin lightning-blades; hitting the glowing target on the belly square-on. Touching back down upon his Skimmer, Aerrow looked up as the dragon's whole body seemed to seize up, the blast's blue energy blazing over it. Then, the dragon was falling right out of the air as the life seemed to go out of it. Junko and Finn cheered as the creature fell.
But the dragon's fall took it whooshing vertically past, in full view of a dirty-looking trader's ship. The eyepatch-wearing pilot at the wheel shared a shocked look with his tapeworm-like crewmate; before wheeling his ship 180 degrees around, flying off in the opposite direction.
As the Storm Hawks came down to the jagged, lifeless rock of a terra where the dragon's body had fallen; they couldn't help but feel disappointed at how easy taking this beast down had been, compared to escaping and fighting off Smaug. Gathered round the fallen thing, the squadron could see up-close that this new dragon was about the same size as Smaug, perhaps a little smaller. Though still very elegant, its body was somewhat more chicken-like in shape than Smaug's. A purple crest decorated its head, its muzzle was more lion-like than crocodilian, and the tail and wingspan were proportionately shorter.
"Huh, we actually took down a dragon!" Finn exclaimed, grinning a little. "Sweet!"
"I didn't think dragons could have brass vacuum engines and titanium turbine drives," Junko murmured aloud as he and Piper inspected the dragon's jaws.
"They don't," Piper answered with a hand on Junko's shoulder, both of them looking at the metal piece Junko had removed from the jaws. "It's a ship…" Their attention was drawn by the sound of Radarr chirping. He was frantically pointing to the glowing-buttoned belly; it was hissing like a hatch opening. Finn and Stork winced fearfully. With a few more clicks, the belly section circularly fell away on a hinge, revealing a dark, pipe-like tunnel to the dragon's inside. Aerrow had his hands on his back-mounted blades as everyone heard footsteps. After another second, a muscular figure climbed out of the hatch. He wore golden armour that evoked the image of a dragon, and had a circular hat over his head. The strange man didn't seem to notice the Storm Hawks right away, as the first thing he did was look despairingly at the dragon-wreckage he'd just crawled out of.
"Everything is ruined!" he groaned loudly in a gruff-sounding voice. "Years of work!" Then the man finally rounded on his surprised audience, to growl out: "You've doomed them all!" He was a black-haired man with gold eyes that, together with his dragon-themed armour, brought the unpleasant thought of Smaug to Piper's mind; making her physically wince.
"Sorry about your ship," Aerrow apologised to the man. "But you attacked us first!"
"And exactly whom have we doomed?" Piper asked. The man grumbled defeated, before responding.
"It's true that I attacked you first," he admitted, "and for that I… I beg your pardon, as I see now that you're the Storm Hawks." He gestured with his eyes to the silver Storm Hawk medallion on Radarr's clothes-piece. "But I have good reasons for my actions," he insisted; chest puffed out and finger pointed upwards, almost like a patronising teacher, as Piper stared, unimpressed.
After a short moment thinking with a hand to his chin, the stranger said, wagging a finger; "I need to show you something…" He started off into the barren landscape as if to lead them on, then he suddenly stopped and turned back to the baffled squadron as though he'd remembered something. "Ooh, by the way, the name is Rinjin; last of the Dragon Knights!" Aerrow looked over at Stork, who just shrugged his shoulders in confusion; before the squadron followed after Rinjin, heading away from the fallen dragon-ship.
It was stormy-dark as night near the border of Sky's End, at the old shack of a stopping post, when a one-eyed sky sailor walked in.
"I just seen, with me one good eye," he proclaimed loudly, garnering all the laughing patrons' attention; "a dragon, took down by the Storm Hawks!" Everyone reacted with surprised murmurs, even though superstitious talk of dragons were prevalent in this part of Atmos. But none showed more interest than the dreadlock-haired captain at the bar, who turned with a surprised growl.
"Dragon, you say?" Captain Scabulous addressed the sailor directly, the pirate's eyebrow raised above his one good eye. Then, turning with a sharp-toothed grin to his fellow Murk Raider sat next to him: "Eyeball, take a crew to Sky's End and return with a report."
"Right away, Captain Scabulous," the broad one growled as he finished his jug, before walking out right past the one-eyed sailor who'd brought the news.
"I've lost three ships to that cursed creature," Scabulous growled to the sky-sailor, who listened. "More than a little of my own skin," he added with a snarl, looking down at his metal claw of a left arm. Scabulous didn't seem to be addressing the sky-sailor anymore as he murmured aloud: "With the guardian gone, who knows what treasures await when he thumbests…"
A loud cackle echoed out from the watering hole a moment later.
Rinjin had led the Storm Hawks away to a seemingly-specific clearing in the area, where he stopped and started explaining to them.
"My dragon-vessel was used to frighten away any ship that came too close, taking advantage of the fact that people in these parts are superstitious," he told them. Pointing back over his shoulder to the dark cave behind him: "It was the best way to keep my little ones safe…" Rinjin turned round to the cave and, cupping both hands to his mouth; he let out a high, trumpeting call. A shrill chirp echoed back from the dark cave; a second before several shrieking, green- and copper-coloured creatures that the Storm Hawks recognised on instinct, came swarming out of the cave like bats on their winged forelimbs.
"Dragons!" Stork pointed with a shriek like their impending doom was upon them, as the creatures flew over an unfazed Rinjin's head towards the group. Aerrow's response was automatic. Leaping into the air, he unleashed a blue lightning-bolt from his twin blades at the dragons. The bolt didn't hit any of them, but the creatures instantly scattered, squeaking, at the attack, most of them flying straight back for the cave they'd come from.
"No, wait, stop!" Rinjin pleaded loudly with his arms raised. Most of the tiny dragons flew back into the cave, but one scuttled along the ground to hide behind Rinjin's legs. Aerrow and the battle-ready Storm Hawks instantly stopped, confused as they looked at Rinjin.
"The dragons are not dangerous," Rinjin half-insisted, half-pleaded to the group. The Storm Hawks looked at the small dragon cowering behind Rinjin's legs, the creature's large eyes looking frightened, and the adolescents' initial hostility halted.
"The dragons are truly harmless," Rinjin half-insisted, half-scolded, gesturing to where a few of the baby dragons were flying high above them. "Even more-" his gold eyes looked angry "-they're now defenceless!" One of the dragon-hatchlings was approaching Radarr on its flapping wings, the youngling creature's face growing bright and innocent now that the danger had passed.
"I thought dragons disappeared from Atmos hundreds of years ago," Piper said, seriously puzzled.
"They did," Rinjin said gravely. "The skies of Atmos were once dark with dragons! When Atmos built wings and took to the skies, dragons were considered a deadly threat that had to be stopped! They fought back in self-defence, only to be hunted… to extinction!" Rinjin spat the next part with disgust in his tone: "Bedtime tales of, of dragon wickedness filled young minds, and hardened young hearts! The age of dragons was over.
"So," he finished, "when I came across a clutch of unhatched eggs, I knew it was my destiny to care for them. In doing so, I have learned that these are not beasts, but friends." He scratched the head of the dragon at his legs, the hatchling practically panting for affection.
Looking closer now, the Storm Hawks saw that Rinjin's hatchlings were as much unlike Smaug as Rinjin's dragon-ship were. The younglings were about half the height of a grown man, with their reptilian skin being copper-bronze and reptile-green colours. When the hatchling with Rinjin crouched at a certain angle, the Storm Hawks could see it had the same unmistakable serpentine quality to its build, as Smaug had. The hatchlings' faces were more like puppies'; with their big, wide, round-pupiled eyes and the small muzzles. They had a strange reptilian down, crowning their heads and running the length of their spines, in place of Smaug's spikes.
Rinjin gestured out to the craggy landscape around them as he told the Storm Hawks: "This place has been the dragons' sanctuary against those who would hunt, or harm them." He glared a little angrily at the last two words, reminding the squadron of their earlier attack on him.
"Then you don't know about the grown, live dragon that's been running amuck on the skies," Aerrow told Rinjin neutrally.
"And he has plenty of dragon wickedness," Finn added, his tone unhelpful.
"Hmph, I have heard the rumours coming this far out from the Atmos," Rinjin snorted dismissively, frowning.
"They're not rumours," Piper insisted, stepping forward. The dragon hatchling at Rinjin's feet remained slightly shy to the newcomers as it still sensed their uncertainty, even if immediate hostility had gone. "There's a fully-grown, intelligent, talking dragon in Atmos named Smaug, and he's been destroying ships and devastating terras to take their gold and rare crystals!"
"We've seen him ourselves," Finn said.
"Barely gotten away with our lives!" Stork supported grimly. Rinjin scowled at them all, though he seemed more troubled than angry, before speaking again.
"I have never heard of such wild tales as a dragon that can speak or comes for gold and crystals of all things," Rinjin spoke slowly, brows furrowed. "But what I know is that these creatures-" he looked down to the affectionate dragon at his legs "-mean no harm, and need to be protected."
The Storm Hawks looked at the adorable hatchling themselves, then up at its fellows circling in the air. They knew what Rinjin had said about these younglings being harmless was true, but after what the Storm Hawks' brushes with Smaug had taught them, Aerrow remained concerned…
"Can you excuse us for a minute?" Aerrow asked Rinjin politely, before leading his squadron several metres away. They huddled together to quietly discuss.
"So what do we do about this, those little dragon-babies are harmless," Finn pointed.
"Finn's right," Aerrow said. "Whatever Smaug is, those dragons are innocent babies that haven't harmed anyone, and we've just taken down the ship that was defending them."
"Who's to say they won't change their ways when they get bigger?" Stork said gravely. He voiced exactly what more than half the squadron were thinking.
"They seem friendly enough," Junko commented jovially, agreeing with what Aerrow had said. So at that, the Storm Hawks broke up their meeting and turned back to a frowning Rinjin, who awaited their response.
"Rinjin, we won't leave until we've helped you fix your ship," Aerrow declared to the Dragon Knight resolutely. Gratefulness passed over the man's hat-shadowed face. Meanwhile, the same dragon that had been curious about Radarr was now practically cuddling him, brushing the animal Storm Hawk's face with its own. Radarr growled unenthusiastically at the contact and moved away, but the hatchling wasn't giving up.
"Easy, my small friend," Rinjin soothed Radarr calmly, observing the whole scene. "Rebuilding trust is just as important as rebuilding this ship." At that same moment, the dragon hatchling suddenly came upon Radarr with a non-aggressive shriek, and was hoisting the ferret-creature into the air; the youngling's hind-claws holding Radarr's shoulders. Finn pointed and softly laughed, whilst Aerrow, Piper and the others all likewise looked up with smiles. The dragon-hatchlings started playing toss-and-catch in the air with Radarr, then they took him on one of their backs, flying elsewhere to the green-clouded skies.
But when Radarr and the dragons returned from their fun flight a few minutes later, Radarr was near-frantic; chirping and shrieking to the Storm Hawks about something, and soon initiating a word-gesture game to make them understand.
"First word," Piper translated as Radarr put up one finger. Radarr pointed a finger to his bulging-wide open eye.
"Look?" Aerrow guessed. Radarr shook his head.
"Uh… see!"
"Saw!"
"Seesaw!" Radarr drooped his long ears at the last one as if to say, really? He pointed at his wide eye again.
"Eye?" Radarr practically threw up his arms at Piper's answer, giving a chirping cheer. "Eyeball!" Radarr nodded, then raised two fingers.
"Second word," Finn registered. Radarr made a gesturing line from his eyeball with his finger.
"Eyeball!" Radarr made a purring groan; he'd already said that. "But you just… Okay…" Radarr instead tried making a sawing motion.
"Piston!" Then after a pause of confusion: "Eyeball piston?"
"Ooh, oh, ooh, the death throes of a Three-Armed Swamp Gobbler?" Radarr groaned, rolling his eyes again, before resuming the sawing-motion.
"Reaching? Grabbing?"
"Sawing?" Radarr chirped to confirm Finn's answer. "Seesaw!"
"Eyeball saw!" Aerrow pieced together.
"Eyeball saw?" Stork sounded piqued. "Is that some kind of torture device?" Radarr shook his head, moving straight to the fourth word with as many fingers up. He pointed straight to the dragon hatchlings circling overhead in the sky.
"Um, dragons?" Junko guessed. Radarr shrieked, putting both thumbs up. "Yes! This is fun!"
"Eyeball saw dragons!" Finn realised.
"Eyeball saw dragons…?" Stork echoed. Piper realised.
"Eyeball saw the dragons!" The Storm Hawks looked with dread as she exclaimed: "That means this place is about to be swarming with Murk Raiders!"
At the sky-sailors' watering hole, Captain Scabulous was playing a similar game with Eyeball.
"Second word. Seesaw! Saw! You saw!" Eyeball stopped the motion to nod in confirmation, then put up all three fingers on his left hand. "Third word. Sandwich? Swamp Gobbler!" Eyeball made a flapping motion with both arms. "Wings? Wings! You saw… wings?"
"Ooh-hoo, almost," Eyeball said, before making a loud roaring impression.
"Ah-ha!" Captain Scabulous clutched one fist together, a grin across his face as the answer clicked. "The dragon!" Eyeball cheered, hands thrown above his head.
"Yes!"
"You saw… dragons?" Scabulous hissed intently for confirmation, coming in closer.
"Ooh-hoo, yes, Captain," Eyeball confirmed goofily. "A whole flock o' young hatchlings!"
"Assemble the fleet!" Captain Scabulous yelled out through the watering hole, following up his command with a loud cackle.
Unbeknownst to the Murk Raiders, another was already flying straight for Sky's End; another dragon besides the ones that Eyeball had brought back news of. He was propelled on by desire both to reclaim a stolen piece from his treasure hoard (and to punish her miserably for her actions!) and to claim revenge upon the insolent whelps who had crossed and stolen from him.
The night the Storm Hawks had stolen from and escaped him, Smaug would have turned an entire terra to ash to make them suffer for taking from him; had he not suddenly felt so, so weak after they'd escaped. He knew it to be a side-effect of being separated from Piper after a week feeding on their connection to make himself stronger.
But it mattered not now. As soon as he'd recovered his strength, Smaug had set out to find the Storm Hawks and the treasure that was his alone! He'd mostly followed word of their passages, trailing them from one sector of the Atmos to another with utter relentlessness. The mortals who'd crossed paths with Smaug had more-than-happily spilled word of the Storm Hawks' recent passing to him; right before he'd killed them all and eaten their ashes once he was done with them.
The Storm Hawks' trail had been on the verge of going cold, when Smaug had heard word that they were headed into a storm system near Sky's End, further out to the corners of the Atmos than Smaug had ever bothered to go before. Smaug had flown straight for there; calculating from the neighbouring region's geography that there was no other place for the filthy thieving wretches' rusted ship to escape from the typhoons to.
And when Smaug found them, he would burn them all to ashes to teach his little princess what happened when she defied him; right before he took her back, and sealed her safely away where she would never see the light of day again until he'd seen her soul wither away!
The Storm Hawks had all set hard to work, repairing Rinjin's dragon-ship before the Murk Raiders arrived, whilst Radarr had led the dragon hatchlings back to the cave where they'd be hidden from sight. Though as everyone worked, while they never voiced it nor showed any other indication; all the Storm Hawks save Radarr were troubled over what would happen to the hatchlings after this was over. Rinjin had insisted they were harmless, and the Storm Hawks had seen it with their own eyes; but what about when the hatchlings grew up? Would they still be harmless then, or would a whole flock of more destructive monsters like Smaug be unleashed on the Atmos?
"Well, Rinjin, we're almost done," Aerrow told the Dragon Knight, after much hard work on repairing the joints and systems (and, in Finn's case, brushing the metal teeth).
"Just a bit more time to patch up the hull, and…" Rinjin trailed off at the sound of ships flying overhead. He and Aerrow looked up to see five Murk Raider ships coming in, casting shadows from high up in the green-tinted sky.
"Time's up," Aerrow said. "Now, we fight."
"Surrender the hatchlings, or I'll burn ye where ye stand!" Captain Scabulous' amplified voice shouted over the megaphone-like speakers of the lead ship, The Blood Crow. Aerrow and Finn were already taking to the air on their Skimmers, flying for where the five ships loomed; whilst Stork and Piper flew on the Condor under the cover of the clouds.
"Uh… at least with this many ships, it's impossible to miss," Finn said nervously, seeming none too confident about the odds. Bringing out his Skimmer-mounted crossbow, Finn fired two blue energy-bolts with the flick of a switch; hitting the centre of The Blood Crow dead-on.
"Big mistake," Captain Scabulous growled on his ship's bridge, eyes narrowed. Aerrow and Finn were about to dive straight at the fleet to take them down; when a loud, bone-shaking roar exploded through the air. Aerrow and Finn stopped their rides, Stork stopped the Condor's approach, and Junko looked up to the sky; as the Storm Hawks all recognised the sound.
One second after the roar, the dragon to whom it belonged came flying out of the thick clouds at great speed; his molten fiery eyes shining, his beastly silhouette a dark, refined shadow under the sun as he flew towards the ships.
"Is that…?" an awestruck Rinjin began to say, on the ground.
"Smaug," Aerrow murmured lowly, on the skies.
"You!" Captain Scabulous growled at the huge dragon's arrival; turning as if he could glare through the hull at the beast. Smaug came upon the fleet, pushing a smaller ship with his hind-feet to send it smashing straight into The Blood Crow; which triggered a loud explosion between them. The smaller ship instantly went down.
The remaining ships started firing at Smaug, but the energy-projectiles dissipated in constant flashes on the dragon's crimson hide. Smaug flew by another ship's cannon-deck, bathing it in the orange fire that erupted from his jaws. The Raiders at the cannons were vapourised before they could scream.
"Um, what do we do now?" Stork asked in a gravely-high voice over the radio, wide-eyed as he and Piper watched Smaug massacre the Murk Raiders.
"We can't fight off both the Murk Raiders and Smaug…" Aerrow murmured aloud, floating on his Skimmer. Quickly assessing the situation, he tried to figure out a new Plan B.
"Well, at least he hasn't seen us yet," Finn murmured gratefully. About three seconds after he'd said that, Smaug was flying away from another ship straight towards the two Skimmers. They barely swerved out of the path in time to let Smaug shoot past them, his jaws snapping shut on air. Smaug began a semicircle back around, bringing him flying in front of the Condor. As he shot by the windshields, Stork and Piper felt the intelligent gaze of Smaug's molten eye momentarily flash over them. A shiver ran up Piper's spine at feeling that dark gaze again. Smaug's completed turn brought him flying back towards the Murk Raiders.
Only three ships remained as Smaug came towards the fleet. Smaug swooped upon the top of a larger ship, running along the ship's spine without stopping his momentum. Another ship's cannons shredded its comrade's hull trying to hit Smaug, who leapt off the ship's end back to the air; the ship was left to crash and burn. Oh, how Smaug relished the bloodlust and the fighting, as his fiery eyes shone and a savage grin spread on his muzzle. He'd been surprised to find not just the Storm Hawks, but a whole fleet of Murk Raider ships, though right now he didn't care for why either were here. Murk Raiders were always marauding, scavenging scum, and Smaug was pleased with the opportunity to both make further sport for himself and taste the seldom-savoured smell of burning Murk Raider.
Twisting, Smaug made towards another ship, when a blast of energy harmlessly hit his scaly brow from elsewhere; making him stop, hovering. Whirling his blazing gaze, Smaug saw two Storm Hawks including Aerrow; flying above him like pestering flies. Growling out loud as he craned his long neck, Smaug unleashed a firestorm from his jaws, which the two sky-rides barely avoided at full-speed.
In the moment the Storm Hawks had Smaug distracted, The Blood Crow trained its weapons on Smaug's armoured back. Captain Scabulous wasted no time having the ship's two metal harpoons fire, aimed clearly. The projectiles gave a very harsh clang against the scaly hide as Smaug cried out in pain and surprise, the dragon momentarily jarred before regaining his hover. The harpoons hadn't even left a scratch on Smaug's back. Twisting round, Smaug looked at the ship that had fired; fiery eyes bright, savage and gloating. He flew fast towards it, pumping his wings-
"YE'LL NOT KEEP THE DRAGON HATCHLINGS FROM ME!" the amplified voice of Captain Scabulous screeched. At those words, Smaug's eyes widening in surprise, then he halted in a hover again. His great brain was whirling and processing through the calculations. Dragon hatchlings, the pirate captain said?! Smaug was well-aware that Atmos had seen its own allegedly-dragon creatures in the past, but they'd supposedly disappeared ages ago; so what wretched trick was this?!
"Dragon hatchlings?" Smaug echoed questioningly in his powerful voice. The dragon said in a crooning, black, patronising tone: "Don't humour me, Captain." Before Smaug could give much further thought, a carrier ship that was about the same size as him came brushing rather brutally across his back behind him; shooting away in a diagonal line at high-speed. Enraged, Smaug glared at where the Condor flew fast.
"And THAT is for MY SHIP!" Stork screeched triumphantly back at the dragon who'd twice before cut his ship out of the sky; whilst Piper held hard onto the railings, hoping Stork would come down from this crazy-high before they brushed too close to death.
"FIRE EVERYTHING!" Scabulous yelled to his crew. The Blood Crow started firing volleys of energy-blasts at Smaug. The dragon roared back at the ship, accepting the challenge, then flew straight towards it. Smaug reached The Blood Crow faster than the ship could bank, swooping and landing on top of its hull, hind-claws digging into the metal.
After checking that he had a firm hold, Smaug pumped his open wings hard to drag the ship in the direction that he wanted it to go, against its own propulsion: towards the other remaining ship. As Aerrow and Finn regrouped on the air; Smaug slowly but not-slowly-enough, dragged The Blood Crow straight into its comrade as he flew over the latter, a loud BOOM sounding as an explosion ripped through the ships. Both vessels went drooping downwards like dropping flies, smoke trailing behind them in their descents, whilst Smaug climbed away.
As the ships fell in different directions, Smaug stopped his ascent, hovering. He turned his gaze onto Aerrow and Finn looming far away, his eyes obsessively alight with his bloodlust-fuelled intent. The two Skimmers wisely fled in different directions, whilst Smaug swooped straight after them. The dragon was a thin silhouette behind them, but rapidly closing distance.
"Finn, Stork, Piper," Aerrow called over his Skimmer's radio; "we need to keep Smaug occupied until Junko and Rinjin are finished with the repairs!"
Whilst Finn and Aerrow fled from Smaug, making complicated air-manoeuvres to try and shake the dragon off; The Blood Crow's crash-course took it careening down to a barren, spiky-peaked landscape, kicking up a cloud of dust as the ship violently slid to a stop, lopsided. Captain Scabulous and his few-dozen or so crewmates came stumbling out of their defeated ship's wreck, groaning and clutching their aching bodies' parts.
Scabulous glared, sharp teeth bared bitterly, up at where Smaug was flying high above. That was twice that dragon had taken down his ship! But the captain's thoughts left his defeat when his one eye was drawn by the sound of a chirp ahead. A quarter-mile down the hill they'd crashed on, Scabulous could see shapes sheltering in the shadow of a cave. Dragon hatchlings, dozens of them; all looking up at the sky with wide, frightened eyes. A greedy grin spread across Scabulous' face as he saw his prizes sitting utterly defenceless!
"Ah, the dragon hatchlings are ours for the taking, boys!" Captain Scabulous yelled, rousing his crewmates as he pointed with his metal cutlass. "Get them!"
Rinjin and Junko were both finishing the dragon-ship's repairs, when they heard a rumbling sound. Looking up from their work, their eyes widened – dozens of Murk Raiders were charging down the grey hill towards them, yelling battle-cries.
Up in the air, Aerrow saw what was happening on the ground. They had to do something, Rinjin and Junko hadn't repaired the dragon-ship, and the Murk Raiders greatly outnumbered them!
"Finn, get down there and help Rinjin and Junko keep the Murk Raiders back!" Aerrow yelled.
"Aye!" the sharpshooter responded; more than happy to get away from Smaug, who was relentlessly flying after him. Finn's Skimmer dived, shooting vertically downwards. His gaze following the Storm Hawk's descent, Smaug's eyes momentarily widened in awe at what he saw lying far below – some sort of construct in the image of a dragon, but far too different from any drake Smaug had ever seen. The calculations of the suddenly-increased probability that Atmosian dragons were alive here ran through Smaug's brilliant mind, before he turned his physical efforts to cutting down Aerrow's Skimmer.
With a slashing motion, Aerrow unleashed a blue blast from his lightning blade at Smaug's face, aimed to try and blind the dragon if not just get his attention. Smaug ignored the blast that dissipated on his scaly cheek, and shot right past Aerrow, headed straight for the Condor. Smaug flew upon the ship before Stork could move it to escape, Smaug's hind-claws digging into the ship's roof - the dragon was so quick that he hadn't properly slowed, hitting the ship with such force that it was jarred several metres backwards by his momentum. Stork and Piper both cried out as the ship shuddered. With the Condor momentarily shaken, Smaug twisted his body, throwing the ship down on a collision-course with a high-reaching peak looming nearby. The ship hit the top within two seconds, falling on a downward trajectory with smoke trailing.
Smaug quickly dived after the falling Condor. Aerrow shot downwards after him, his streamlined ride going faster than the huge dragon. As he vertically passed by Smaug's flame-coloured eye, Aerrow swiftly shot a blue bolt into it before Smaug could react. The dragon cried out in rage, thrashing in the air as Aerrow surpassed him. Smaug's face was boiling with fury as he glared after the wretched worm. Aerrow levelled off before he could crash into the ground, Smaug doing likewise, chasing after the Skimmer.
Below Aerrow and Smaug, Piper and Stork were emerging from the crashed Condor; looking upward when the dragon roared. Piper looked across the landscape to where Rinjin and Junko were battling a horde of Murk Raiders right by the hatchlings' cave. Seeing the threat, Piper's face set in determination, and she went running towards the fight. Stork groaned miserably behind Piper, before following after her.
Above the grey land, Aerrow barely managed to avoid another fiery torrent Smaug unleashed his way. It was only when Smaug had almost burned two of the wings on Aerrow's Skimmer; that the dragon unexpectedly dipped away from sight to the green clouds, leaving Aerrow to look back in surprise.
Dozens of Murk Raiders fought the four Storm Hawks and Dragon Knight with violet-glowing weapons, trying to get to the cave mouth they defended. Inside, the squealing hatchlings shrank further away from the threat outside.
Junko punched out several Raiders' lights at a time with his knuckle-busters glowing, and threw several more through the air at their comrades. Piper traded blocks and blows with her crystal-staff, sending many Raiders flying backwards. Radarr leapt upon Raiders savagely, making them scream for their mothers as the animal Storm Hawk clamped his jaws on their limbs. Rinjin was fighting with physical combat to protect his little ones from the foul pirates. Finn shot Murk Raiders down at long range with his energy-crossbow. Seeing a vicious strike coming at close quarters, Finn raised his crossbow like a shield just in time to block the energy-cutlass. Captain Scabulous' face was less than a foot from Finn's, glaring over their locked weapons with his one eye.
"You stole something o' mine last time we met, matey," Scabulous growled, his voice deathly low. Finn performed an improvised disarming move with his crossbow, sending Scabulous sliding several feet backwards with a kick.
"Oh, yeah?!" Finn challenged, pointing at the captain. "Well, you were an awful dancer! You waltzed like you have two left feet!" The fearsome pirate's expression shifted to one befitting a heartbroken child, giving out a hurt gasp like a six-inch pin had stabbed his heart. "You'll pay for that remark!" he screeched in a cracked voice, before coming at Finn with a loud cry.
In the middle of the two sides' fight, Smaug's roar seemed to come out of nowhere, before his shadow swept over the battlefield. The Murk Raiders all started fleeing, screaming in fear, as Smaug swooped closer towards the ground.
Piper leaped clear of Smaug's oncoming hind-claws, which missed her by an inch – and instead caught Radarr, the screeching ferret-creature being taken away as Smaug climbed, flying away from the battlefield.
"Radarr!" Piper called after the much-valued Storm Hawk. Aerrow saw what was happening from on his Skimmer, and a stormy expression immediately came over his face. Swerving his ride, he went straight for where Smaug was flying a great distance away.
His mind whirring madly, Smaug swiftly found a high-up hill to land on; throwing his catch forward to the ground, before he came in, landing just behind. After seeing the dead-looking metallic fake of a dragon, Smaug had scented familiar hormones in the many scents on the air near the battle-site – his calculating mind had instantly recognised those hormones as being disturbingly similar to the smell of his own kind. On the ground, the ferret-creature made to scamper away from under Smaug like a caught mouse. Smaug's foreclaw caught him flat to the ground.
A deep, very threatening growl rumbled in Smaug's chest, as he brought his head very close to Radarr. The dragon's hot breath washed over Radarr's wide-eyed face looking at the predator looming above him. But instead of killing him, Smaug angled the side of his head directly over Radarr's face, so that Radarr had nowhere to look but at that fiery yellow eye; which was sharply intelligent, but wild almost with madness. A pleasant, dreamy sensation overtook most of Radarr's senses, and everything but the bright eye began to blur and become meaningless to him.
Peering directly into the creature's mind, Smaug rifled fast through Radarr's memories like skimming through the pages of a picture book. He took in all the recent information quickly. Smaug became aware of the so-called Dragon Knight, as the filthy human audaciously dared call himself! And then a great wave of emotion swelled within Smaug to learn of the hatchling dragons, hiding in the cave the Storm Hawks were defending. However, it was anything but a positive emotion that Smaug's mind responded with. The feeling may have been laced with a slight pleasure to know that his great kin weren't entirely extinct apart from him. But more than anything else, Smaug felt what he supposed was the way many humans felt when their desperate grasps on illusions of power crumbled. It was what any animal felt to know another of their kind was encroaching on their territory. Threatened. And that was not all either. Smaug had seen how these puppy-faced but definitely dragon-related hatchlings had been so friendly, keening, so easily-terrified into fleeing from a fight. And it DISGUSTED him to see that such weakling, mongrel dogs were what survived his mighty breed!
Smaug turned his gaze back onto the Storm Hawks and Murk Raiders, who had resumed their fighting – Smaug noted the Raiders seemed to be fighting that much more desperately, now they knew he was here and ready to wipe out the last of their miserable brood. Flying off the rock, Smaug already knew exactly what he was going to do, leaving Radarr lying dazed behind him.
Captain Scabulous saw Smaug flying towards the battlefield again, and instantly broke off from his crossbow-cutlass duel with Finn. "Retreat!" he screeched to his men. A second before anyone could respond to the command, Smaug's fire was cutting a line of burning flame through the battlers from one side of the plain to the other. The Storm Hawks leapt out of the way just in time to avoid being roasted alive, but many of the Murk Raiders weren't so lucky.
The pirates that remained all started fleeing for the grey hills, running away into the barren landscape. Though Scabulous stopped to spare a hateful glare back, as if to say, this isn't finished. In less than fifteen seconds, only the Storm Hawks were left standing by the cave.
Circling low over the battlefield, Smaug sensed the power of the bond building to Piper, who was balling her charged fists. The dragon bared his vicious teeth down at her, seething to see her once again. Aerrow glared up at Smaug, in what the dragon thought with a disgusted mental scoff was supposed to be a dominant display by mortals' standards. Though Piper was building an impressive amount of power, Smaug dismissed her foolish hopes to stop him.
Piper sent an invisible shockwave that could have made a mountain tremble, blasting out from her hands to the air. Smaug banked to let the blast shoot past him, before swooping upon the Storm Hawks, roaring; sharp-toothed jaws open, eyes shining…
Her fists aimed to the ground, Piper let out a residual energy-blast, propelling her directly towards Smaug. Specifically, right towards the golden-scaled front of his chest, as she outstretched her hand to touch it. Piper moved too fast for Smaug to act, and the moment her hand touched the clear-silver scale, a flash erupted as a vision consumed them both.
The wooden town was a watery, ruined wreckage; more like a mass grave to whomever hadn't survived its destruction than anything habitable anymore. What buildings (or at least their skeletons) had survived the blaze that had blackened all the wood like charcoal, were now crumbling into the lake waters, their structures weakened by the fire. Driftwood filled the waters as the waterlogged shells were slowly rotting and falling away to the lake.
As hard to tell as it was for most, Piper recognised the same town she'd seen burning in her earlier visions. On the other end of the bond, Piper felt an impression of Smaug's own emotions which indicated he too recognised this place.
But lying close to the edge of the town ruin, partly submerged in the waters – was the body of a dragon. And not just any dragon, but indeed, Smaug himself.
Smaug's huge body lay draped across the wooden ruins, the whole front of his torso above the waters. The stocky hind legs were also visible, splayed out dead. The same nock and fletching of the giant arrow that had hit him, stuck out of the opening in his chest where it had penetrated. Smaug's long wings were arched, their tips pointing almost to the sky above the decaying shack remnants they rested on; while his tail just draped away underwater, beyond sight to the depths. At the end of his long neck, Smaug's head lay with his eyes closed and his jaws hanging open, as if from a last cry during a painful death.
But what was most curious about Smaug's body, was the way it looked for a corpse (if it was a corpse, that is). Piper thought his flesh should have been rotting away to the waterlogged conditions, but instead, the dead Smaug's crimson- and golden-scaled skin was... almost cracked and dried up, in a manner. Patches of it looked like they were closer to stone than flesh; as though some horrid grey form of gangrene, or perhaps some stony-grey fungus, had set in all over Smaug's body under the scales' outermost layers. This looked very, very close to dead, but it certainly didn't look like any natural decomposition. Nor did it look like decomposition at all so much as the beginnings of cement hardening…
But Piper couldn't wonder further on Smaug's state before a gentle sound on the lake's water, originating away from the town wreckage, caught hers and Smaug's attention in the vision. A small wooden boat was slowly rowing in through the icy fog on the vast lake. Two silhouettes were in it – one standing and rowing, the other sitting – ever gently going right towards the edge of the burnt town where Smaug's body lay. They talked quietly, inaudibly to Piper's ears.
As they emerged through the fog, and the rowing man slowly brought the boat to stop against the rotted wooden town's edges; Piper was shocked to see the man's face. It was a long but rather handsome face, with long brown hair, and a moustache that was thickening to indicate the man was growing out a beard. It was the man she'd seen shoot the arrow into Smaug's chest. Smaug seemingly recognised him too, by the way Piper felt his own emotions flare along the bond. Besides now lacking the sweat and dirt upon his face, the man wore golden armour; consisting of decorative pads, leather, and chainmail visible at the lining. It looked rather lordly on him. The clothing was surprisingly similar to that of the man at the ballista in Piper's last vision. Only then did Piper notice how surprisingly alike, though not identical, that man and this one's faces were…
The rower's companion meanwhile, was sitting rather comfortably in the boat. He wore thick grey robes, and a pointed hat upon his head, with a five-foot wooden staff held in one hand poking up in the boat. A curly, grey beard came down from below his hat. As he turned up, Piper saw his ancient-looking face, which seemed both youthfully-jovial and incomprehensibly-wise.
"I apologise that no-one else would take you out here, Master Gandalf; many folk are still very fearful of the Dragon, even a dead one," the rowing man said to his companion.
"Indeed," the old man said. His voice was incredibly elderly yet powerful; it sounded kind, strong and sharp-tongued all at once to Piper. "Though it would not do so well to forget one's fears and go charging in headfirst either.
"Which reminds me, how are relations with the Dwarves of Erebor coming along with the Men of the North having rebuilt?" the old man, Gandalf, asked. He had a very genuine, kind spirit to his question; as he stood up in the boat, on his staff like it were a walking stick.
"Quite well," the boatman murmured, smiling under his moustache. "We were off to a somewhat difficult start, with Dain ruling as King Under the Mountain after King Thorin's death in the Battle, but Man and Dwarf have been settling these last few months. Old friendships have been reforged as we've re-tilled fields, planted new trees, rebuilt houses in the lands of Dale and Erebor." A warm, genuine smile spread through Gandalf's thick beard, like this were the simplest, best news he could have wanted to hear. It seemed to last an eternity, but in a pleasant way; before Gandalf's facial features naturally faded to grimmer matters. The rowing-man looked down at the dragon's partially stone-greyed body before them.
"It has been nearly eleven months since the Dragon was slain," the row-man said. "Since he destroyed this town and the Mountain was reclaimed from him."
"Indeed, it has…" the old man in grey murmured, looking down at Smaug's body himself.
"This is not what I would have expected the fallen Serpent's body to look like," the row-man added, his eyes not leaving Smaug's body. He looked troubled, a dread building like a small storm over his face as if he feared something; that this menace were not truly vanquished.
"No…" Gandalf agreed, those ancient-seeming grey eyes never leaving the dragon for a second as he too seemed brooding, concerned. "It is not. I have never seen any craft of magic that could do such a thing as this before…"
"You fear that the Dragon is not vanquished?" the row-man asked, looking up to the old grey man with fear.
"Oh, no, I said no such thing as that," Gandalf assured his companion in a suddenly-gentle, jovial tone; as though he were clearing up a misinterpretation about the weather forecast. But then his eyes became brooding again as they shifted back onto Smaug.
"However, this is no craft of nature, this strange affliction upon the Dragon's body," Gandalf murmured, gesturing with his free hand to the bizarre stony complexion that seemed to be taking over Smaug's body. "Smaug was the greatest dragon of the Age, the last great fire-drake known to live in Middle-Earth-" Gandalf turned to the row-man with a grave look in his ancient features "-he was said by some even to be descended from Ancalagon the Black himself…
"When I met with Thorin Oakenshield in Bree and arranged the dwarf-prince's Quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain, I did so with the fear that such a creature could be used to devastating effect in the Enemy's hands…" For a moment, Piper had the strangest impression that Gandalf was talking to someone else listening, besides the bow-man with him. She almost didn't notice the flash of frightening red along the bond as Smaug had also heard what Gandalf had said.
"Questions!" Gandalf suddenly murmured, already looking in a different direction from Smaug's body, out to the shore. The row-man seemed confused before Gandalf said: "I have questions that need answering! I must see the others of my order about this matter; if this is near what I fear it may be, then they must be alerted with great haste. Trust me, Lord Bard, they will know what to do." A few moments later, the row-man Lord Bard was gently pushing and rowing the boat away from the rotten wooden town, away from Smaug's body; no doubt rowing himself and Gandalf back to shore.
Piper heard her name being called out as she returned to her body in a momentary fuzz of mind. As her vision refocused and her mental senses fully kicked back in, she heard a rumbling groan that she recognised as Smaug's. It sounded like his thickly-built chest were just behind her as she got up.
"Well," Smaug's terrible voice purred right behind Piper. She turned to see the dragon rising onto all fours, snaking his head on his long neck above her, "that was most educating!" Smaug's eyes blazed in his skull and he bared his savage teeth at what he'd learned from the vision – of the wizard that had admitted to being responsible for the filthy dwarves' return for Smaug's treasure; the revelation of Thorin Oakenshield's death, which brought Smaug great pleasure; and the Lonely Mountain's reclamation by the dwarves, which brought Smaug a great bite of anger and bitterness. It was then that Smaug remembered the girl who had shown him that vision, whirling his fiery eyes onto her tiny form below him. She looked up wide-eyed, like a lamb in the sights of a wolf.
"Piper!"
Piper and Smaug both turned their gazes to see Aerrow, Finn and Junko running straight across the ground for their friend. Smaug let out a savage roar before swiping his long tail at them, aiming to crush their bones to dust.
"Look out!" Junko, remembering the last time he'd been struck by that tail; leapt in front just in time to take the brunt of the blow. The strike sent the guys hurtling more than a dozen metres away, landing the length of Smaug's body across the grey plain; unconscious or severely-dazed.
Before Piper could try to run towards the guys, Smaug's tail smashed into the ground directly in front of her, sending an earthquake-like tremor through the land. The meaning was clear. Piper had nowhere to go as the tail remained there like a wall, and she felt Smaug's hot breath washing over her back.
"Piper…" Smaug purred her name in a suave, bone-chilling tone. Whirling around, she saw Smaug's huge eye looming six feet from her body, regarding her. "I've been looking everywhere for you since you ran away from me."
Piper glared back into the fiery yellow orb, angry. "Run away?" she echoed bravely. "I was rescued from you!" The dragon's face pulled into a sneer, but Smaug didn't press it further. He craned his head away on his neck, turning his attention to a place that immediately made Piper anxious – the dragon cave, where the hatchlings were hidden.
"Tell me, Piper, why do you defend those dragonkind hatchlings, hmm?" Smaug questioned, giving her a mind-piercing look. Piper tried to hide any reaction to learning Smaug knew about the hatchlings. "Have you already forgotten my words of what dragons are? Or do you foolishly dismiss them as nothing?!"
"What do you mean!?" Piper spat in denial; though she could already feel the words Smaug had spoken when she'd been his prisoner pressing through the jelly-like haze of her mind.
"Oh, I think you know very well what I mean!" Smaug growled darkly. "Do my words of what my great and terrible kin are suddenly mean nothing to you? Or were you perhaps merely enchanted by some sordid thought to keep the adoring little whelps for yourself, perhaps even to housetrain them as pets?!" he snarled disgustedly.
Piper suddenly shook her head as though shaking her thoughts clear – which she was. "You're not getting those hatchlings, Smaug!" Piper shouted defiantly. With another ground-aimed blast, Piper shot high over Smaug's head through the air, coming down on two feet in a protective stance in front of the cave mouth.
"How are you any better than me or the Cyclonians for defending those creatures?" Smaug pressed in his compelling, dark voice, undaunted. The dragon saw the shift in Piper's features which told him he now had her. "After all, what do you think will happen when those pups grow up? How many more of me will you be letting loose on the Atmos, to tear and smash and burn it all down?!" Piper barely noticed Smaug's head and neck snaking low to the ground around her, like a snake ensnaring its prey. He murmured in a rumbling, whispering volume: "How many of the mortals you care so much about will die because you defended these creatures?! And then…" Smaug's lips, distorting over his snapping teeth, were practically a foot from Piper's ear now "…how will you tell yourself you're any better than the Cyclonians that took your parents?"
That hit a certain pressure point within Piper, bringing anger breaking through the confusing fog of Smaug's words. Her amber eyes were burning defiantly as she wheeled round to look Smaug in the eye. "You're not going to get those hatchlings, Smaug!" she shouted.
"Oh, I don't think you will stop me in either case!" Smaug growled frighteningly at her, reeling his head upwards as a dark look passed over his face. But then he was completely calm as he said, "It matters not." Suddenly, Smaug turned his molten yellow gaze back onto the cave, with a look in his eyes that promised murderous intent. "These miserable whelps that you so dearly care about will disgrace my kind no longer!" Mentally stumbling for a second, Piper spoke just before Smaug could spring for the kill.
"What kind of disgrace would make you want to murder your own kind to get rid of it?!" Piper shouted up at the dragon.
"Those cretins are NOT my kind!" Smaug snarled venomously back at her, his fiery yellow eyes white-hot with rage.
"They're dragons," Piper pointed out, genuinely needing to know the root.
"They are weakling, mortal-befriending wyrms!" Smaug raged so fiercely that spittle could have been flying from his jaws, his eyes shining bright. "Nothing compared to a true dragon's breed!" Quite abruptly, Smaug's blazing gaze, and all its rage and fury and intent, were directed back onto the cave. "And rest assured, I will not allow their degenerate weakness to shame my kind for another second!"
Before Piper could do anything, Smaug, with speed faster than a thought in her head could process; snatched Piper up in his foreclaw and threw her away across the grey ground. Aerrow shot an energy bolt from his blades at Smaug to get his attention. But Smaug came right upon the small cave, roaring, the light of his fire shining at the back of his throat…
ROAWRRR!
Smaug's jaws snapped shut. He looked back to where the sound had come from, as did the Storm Hawks. Everyone saw the rust-red dragon flying low above the spiky-grey landscape. It unleashed another roar from its lipless jaws, which didn't have to be a real vocalisation for any intelligent creature to interpret the challenge.
Within the ship modelled after a dragon, Rinjin narrowed his gold eyes with determination as he manned the ship's controls. Whilst behind him, Radarr was holding the entire ship's repairs together by two pipes on either side of him, the animal Storm Hawk's eyes bulging under the strain like he were tied in a sideways torture rack.
Grinning savagely and growling at the challenge, Smaug quickly abandoned his immediate task for later. Bounding forward along the land, Smaug took to the air with a downward-thrust of his wings, flying straight towards the fake dragon.
Rinjin piloted the dragon-ship to fly straight at Smaug. Grazing acrobatically right past Smaug, the fake dragon slashed its hind-claws along his unbreakable hide. The Dragon-Dread glared back through a fiery eye at where the fake dragon was now slowing and circling round for another clash.
"Rinjin and Radarr are distracting him," Aerrow exclaimed as he, Piper and the others watched the dragons' battle overhead. "Now, let's get the hatchlings out of here!" The Storm Hawks ran to the dark cave mouth. They were thankful when coaxing out the dragon hatchlings didn't take as long as they'd feared; five seconds into their attempts, dozens of bat-like copper- and green-coloured shapes were swarming out en masse. Stork, at the centre of the dragon swarm, shrieked as though he were being surrounded by Vulca-Bats.
"I have an idea of where we can take them that they'll be safe!" Piper shouted to the guys, as they all sprinted ahead along the ground with the hatchlings swarming around them.
Smaug and the dragon-ship locked hind-claws in the air, twirling together in a flurry of reddish colours. As they did, the fake dragon unleashed a red jet of fire from its flamethrower directly at Smaug's face. The actual dragon roared in fury at the close contact, even if the fire could not seriously harm him. Springing like a viper, Smaug snapped his jaws tight upon the dragon-ship's wing-joint, evidently aiming to wrench it loose. The wing-limb locked up, and the dragon-ship started falling in the locked dragons' dance; Smaug falling with it as he held on.
Inside the ship, Rinjin struggled to pull them free of Smaug's hold. He just managed it before the two dragons could plummet to the grey land below. Smaug, whose glide levelling out of the descent brought him shooting behind the dragon-ship, lashed it with his tail as he flew past, causing serious damage that made the ship's interior hull shudder dangerously. Regaining its flight, the dragon-ship went flying away. Smaug roared and went after it, quickly closing the distance between them. Coming upon the dragon-ship from above, Smaug buried his hind-paws' talons deep in the structure's metal back, putting his full weight down atop it.
The dragon-ship lost its stability like a plane shutting down in the air, falling in its glide towards the ground. Smaug pushed off its back, gliding away; a second before the dragon-ship crashed brutally through a low rock.
No more than a few seconds after the crash, the circular hatch on the dragon-ship's belly opened. Rinjin and Radarr came staggering out, groaning. Their gazes were drawn to the skies by Smaug's roar, and they saw the victorious dragon circling, then diving straight towards them. Swooping low, Smaug unleashed fire from his jaws to consume the human and animal, who were helpless to escape in time. But in the split-second before Smaug's fire could vapourise Radarr and Rinjin, Aerrow's Skimmer swooped straight out of nowhere and picked them up without slowing. Smaug whirled his hateful gaze; seeing the sky-ride reach the Condor, which hovered in the air again. One thing Smaug's keen eyesight could clearly pick out at this distance, was Piper surrounded by several dragon hatchlings on the bridge, sending Smaug a teasing wave.
Grinning at the helm, Stork immediately took the Condor shooting away so fast it was several hundred leagues away in a second. Roaring in boiling rage, Smaug twisted and flew after the fleeing ship, furiously pumping his wings hard.
The Condor flew west back out of Sky's End, with Smaug pursuing – he was leagues behind the ship, but overcame the initial efforts to shake him off. There were a few comical points when the Condor stopped to refuel, at which the Storm Hawks had impatiently tapped their feet, waiting to be on their way before Smaug caught up. The Storm Hawks made sure to guide the Condor in a zigzag pattern through several intense, specific storm systems Piper had tracked; intended to scatter their trail and give Smaug a tougher time keeping up.
Although the Storm Hawks and Dragon Knight didn't know when they shook off Smaug, it was after they'd passed through about a dozen of these storms; that the Dragon-Dread had lost the Condor's trail, and was left to screech his uncontainable fury to the skies.
When the Condor finally reached its destination, it was close to dawn in the far-off, secluded region of Atmos. The ship landed on the uninhabited rock of a terra that Piper had told the guys they could take the hatchlings to. The rock was surrounded on all sides by a constant storm system which produced eerie, swirling winds and unearthly-looking flashes of light. It had given the gloomy-skied and otherwise-uninteresting terra a haunted reputation centuries ago, which held up to this day among the few sky-sailors who passed by this sector.
Rinjin looked out to the dark-clouded skies and the far-off ring of ghostly storms, the dragon hatchlings at his feet as the swirling winds brushed over them.
"Yes, this place will do quite fine for sheltering the hatchlings until they've matured," Rinjin murmured in his ever-gruff voice, looking back at the Storm Hawks with an approving grin.
"Ataraxi is secluded way out of any nearby sky-traders' routes, and it doesn't have any minerals or materials worth mining," Piper told Rinjin. "So you and the hatchlings won't have to worry about anything bringing the Murk Raiders or Smaug, or anyone else that might threaten them, looking here."
"Perhaps," Rinjin murmured, looking troubled. "But the beast that I saw today threaten the future of dragons proves to me that Atmos needs someone to teach them. To spread the word, to make people understand when the time is ready, that dragons are our friends."
Aerrow nodded sincerely, like it were a promise. With all the terror and destruction that Smaug had caused around the skies, Atmos needed to understand when Rinjin's dragons grew up that these creatures were not monsters.
"You can count on us to spread the word," Aerrow said.
Removing his conical hat, Rinjin gave a sincere bow of gratitude to the Sky Knight squadron before him that had aided and done so much for him and his little ones. "Thank you all," he murmured earnestly. Aerrow nodded back, then he and the others turned on their heels and were walking back towards the Condor, leaving Rinjin and the dragon hatchlings to their new sanctuary.
"Exactly how long do dragons take to grow up?" Finn asked, none too keen about the task they'd just promised they'd do.
"Sixty years," Stork told him flatly.
A/N: Please review and tell me what you all thought of: the Storm Hawks' AU reaction to the dragons at Sky's End; Smaug's hunt after Piper and the Storm Hawks; his unexpected arrival at the battle; Smaug's attack on the Murk Raiders; the battle on the ground and in the air; Piper and Smaug's new vision; Smaug's reaction to the dragon hatchlings; Smaug's battle with Rinjin; and my AU resolution to the events at Sky's End?
Also, some of you may notice that I've gone back and made a slight correction regarding Smaug and Piper's eye colours, and the colour of Smaug's flame; and that I've made a slight adjustment to one bit of content in Chapter 2.