So excited for this chapter; that's why it's out so soon. And it's almost four thousand words! Yes!

RenThePyro—I have so much planned for Yorrick! And Azure. They're both really important to the story. I hope you like how they turn out.

AzureAngel14—I COULD'VE SWORN I TYPED 14. S-sorry…I know what it is, I don't know why I—ah, never mind. Yes, Azure is Amazingly Awesome. I wouldn't be surprised if she became the readers' favorite character. Her and Yorrick.

Anyway, we've changed POV's again. Read, you'll figure out who it is.

-{0}-

It was probably the tortured screams that woke Sadie up that cold morning. The sounds that seemed to come from the Nether itself, the agonized cries. The cries that carried through the air, paralyzing its listeners, freezing them, so they weren't able to move. Couldn't save the sources of those screams. Couldn't do anything—till it stopped.

The cry, cut short. It was what sent Sadie shooting out of her bed, grabbing an old stone sword and flying out the door—and most people would never do that; no, most people would stay in their homes, shivering, uttering feeble prayers to Notch that what was happening was just part of their dream, and that they'd wake up soon and forget about it, and go about their daily lives as normal and…and…

No. Sadie knew it was real.

She burst from her house and to the gravelly path, clutching her sword hilt till her knuckles turned white. She cast anxious glances around the tiny town. But it was all still as ice, silent as stone. There was nothing.

And then she heard the crackling sounds. The subtle noise that struggled to reach her ears from wherever it came from—and that was behind her.

She whirled, unkempt dark hair flying.

And she immediately wished she hadn't.

Far behind the miner's house were the giant jungle trees, stretching their green canopies to the heavens. Those canopies that weren't so green anymore. Now, they burned black.

Burned. With a heat Sadie could almost feel from this distance. Brilliant orange flames were wrapping around the once-brown trunks like blankets, rising towards the sky and spewing their vile fumes into the air. It was a wall of pure flames, yellows, oranges, reds, blacks.

No green. Not anymore.

Sadie stood gaping. Forest fire? No, that wasn't natural, not those flames. Not those hungry flames that scraped the air like fangs, greedily licking the dawn sky and turning it a smoggy orange color that mixed with the gray, turning into a disgusting pale brownish hue.

She gagged on the smoke she could smell from here, coughing in an effort to clear her lungs of it. She knew people had started the fire; that was pretty obvious. But who? Who would do that?

Suddenly, she remembered the scream. She became more alert, eyes scraping the area around her for any signs of disturbance besides the fire. There was nothing; the fields between the houses and trees were empty of everything but grass, and closest to the trees, tiny embers. Those would grow. Then they'd spread. Tellun was mostly made of wood; the place would be toast.

Toast. Bad metaphor.

Still looking around, Sadie ran towards the back of her house(and ultimately towards the blaze), still trying to find out where the scream had come from. However otherworldly it sounded, she knew it was human, and the thought made her sick. Human, most likely from her village. Someone she knew. Someone she knew.

Again, not many other people would even leave their homes, but Sadie knew she was braver than them. Years mining underground had kept her sharp; she could think on her feet. She knew how to swallow her fear and fight with all she had.

And if she had to, that's what Sadie planned to do.

Reaching the back of her cobblestone house, she continued to whip her head in all directions, till her eyes fell on a body.

A body, lying just a couple blocks behind her home. It was dressed in iron armor, and a sword lay a little ways away. The helmet had fallen off his head, which was covered in pale brown hair. Two long, sharp objects protruded from his lower abdomen and upper chest. Blood still spurted from said wounds, pooling and staining the grass crimson.

A shudder of revulsion passed through Sadie's stomach, but she dismissed it, instinctively running towards the body and falling next to it, not caring about the rancid smell—blood and fumes.

"Hey! Hey!" She yelled the words in vain, in hopes that whoever it was that lay next to her would hear and respond. Sadie examined the wounds and arrows, uncertain hands hovering over them, unsure of what to do. She looked at the face, exposed to the morning air, which was both freezing cold and burning hot at the same time.

It was young, masculine—the boy couldn't have been many years over twenty—permanently twisted in an agonized plea, a plea for help that was never answered.

Or at least not fast enough.

His lips were parted, teeth grit and eyes screwed up as if defying death. Fat lot of good that did. He wasn't blinking, so Sadie knew, without a doubt in her heart, that he was dead.

He was part of the guard, a boy Sadie only faintly recognized. He had graduated school six years ago, and his name…his name….

Sadie felt a rush of guilt; this boy had lived alongside her for some twenty-two years, and she couldn't even remember his damned name. She let out some kind of faint cry, dropping her head and letting her hand rest on the dead guard's iron-clad shoulder. What had done this? Who?

The lower arrow was just under the chestplate, and the higher was just above it—just beneath the collarbone. The angle of the projectiles was diagonal, shaft tilted towards the blazing forest, as if they had been fired from above.

Above?

What, from the trees? The trees that burned hotter and brighter than the surface of the sun? No. Impossible. Couldn't happen.

Sadie realized then, that whoever had fired the arrows was behind her. Dumb move, she told herself as she bolted to her feet, sword held vertically straight in front of her face.

It was the best technique for fighting archers—keep your blade in front of your face, flat side angled towards your attacker. Most shots would bounce off it.

Well, skeleton shots did. No doubt what she was dealing with wasn't one.

She stood with her knees bent, face molded into a challenging scowl. I'll flay whatever's done this. Or whoever.

Suddenly, a screech sounded, roaring in Sadie's ears, making her knees weak and making her want to collapse to the ground. Because it was that loud, that terrifying. The sound changed frequencies, volumes, tones, like it was every sound she'd ever heard, mashed into one bloodcurdling wail.

A sudden explosion jumped Sadie, one that came from the canopy of still-burning trees. Gasping, she almost dropped her sword as she watched a dark shape erupt from the high leaves, spreading giant bat wings and shooting into the sky, trailing arcs of flame from its body.

Sadie's eyes widened as big as they could go, and her jaw dropped to the ground.

The creature was a freaking dragon.

It began a diagonal dive down towards Tellun, corkscrewing as it went, its great wings spiraling around its body. It still trailed embers, which tumbled to the ground like flaming rain. They landed in the field, and the grass caught fire quickly.

Sadie could see its body clearly now—it was a maroon red, like dark netherrack, with shocking orange claws on its wings, feet, spine, its teeth, face, and tail tip. Yellow patterns traced down its body, mostly on the inside of its wings, which seemed to glow gold. It opened its gaping maw as it got closer and closer, and Sadie saw a reddish glow deep in its throat.

It was a firedrake, and it was about to burn her to a crisp.

Her quick reflexes kicked in. Crying out, she tossed her sword at its face and dove as far away as she could push herself, headfirst. She heard the beast's shriek again, and it being this close to her ears almost made her go deaf on the spot.

Ears ringing, she hit the ground hard, rolling as she did and coming up into a clumsy standing position. She whirled around again, watching as the dragon tried to torch her stone home. Her blade must have hit it, but bounced off. She couldn't see it anymore. The dragon, quicker than it should've been able to move, snapped its head upwards to soar over her house just before it crashed into it. It cut off its fire, moving vertically upwards and spinning again. As it did, Sadie could make out a small, dark shape on its back—a person.

Looking back at the village, Sadie watched as guards ran from house to house, dragging people from them and herding them to the guards' quarters. Underground's smart, she thought.

The people of Tellun were screaming and yelling, standing out in the open with mouths agape, pointing at the dragon as if they needed to indicate that it was there.

The Notchdamned dragon—they were extinct. It'd been that way for many years. Possibly centuries; Sadie didn't remember.

Everyone was in shock but her and the guards, and some even had to be dragged from their houses, screaming and clawing at the guards.

The dragon whipped out its wings when it reached its peak in the sky, a Y-shaped silhouette in the dawn light. It was facing Sadie, and she let loose a string of curses, flinching as she felt the dragon's rider lock eyes with her.

She could feel them. Even though she couldn't see them, she could feel them.

It dove towards her again, crying its horrible cry and spewing its fire before it was even close to her, a plume of magma shooting towards her at the speed of sound.

But at the speed of light, Sadie rolled away, letting the fire scorch the ground where she once stood. And she did what any reasonable person in her situation would do. She ran.

Not towards the village, which she cursed herself for not doing about two seconds later. It was too late to turn around, so Sadie forced her legs to move as fast as they would and bolted.

The fire followed her, always just a few inches behind her, licking at her heels. Unable to stop herself, she let out terrified yells of her own, making her way to the burning forest.

Anyone would call her stupid. But Sadie knew what she was doing; in this direction, just a bit past the forest's edge was a lake. The lake would save her.

So she didn't stop, even when the wall of orange loomed in front of her. Knowing she was insane, she ran through it, screaming when she felt herself catch fire. Her clothes, hair, face, it was all burning. No, she wasn't on fire, she was fire, a moving human-shaped pillar of the stuff. She was running blind, crashing through scorched foliage, barely missing tree trunks, feeling her feet hit sand.

Feeling her flaming body hit water. Instant relief; instant agony. The fire died out, but now her body hurt, it hurt like she had never hurt before. The water only enflamed the burns, which covered ninety percent of her entire being. Her voice didn't carry underwater, but she shrieked anyway, curling up under the water, muscles tensing, wanting to shoot from the little lake, because Sadie knew if she didn't touch the water, she wouldn't hurt. Simple logic—don't touch what hurts you. But the dragon was still there, maneuvering impossibly between the blazing pillars that were the trees.

Run = die.

Stay = hurt.

No contest, really. Sadie knew how to keep her head in a crisis, and her only hope for survival was to stay under the water's surface, hold her breath, endure the agony, and wait.

Pressure started to build in her chest, not real pressure, but the kind you feel when you don't breathe. Sadie knew she needed air, so she pushed off the shallow bottom of the lake, her head erupting from the surface. She gulped down the much-needed oxygen, and immediately began to dive back under, into her painful safe haven in the middle of an inferno, the inferno she had run into.

But something dug into each of her forearms, something sharp, and when she looked, she realized it was something orange.

And she began to rise, lifted effortlessly by something out of the water, lifted up parallel to the blazing once-trees into the space of empty sky just above the lake. And then she was above the forest, dangling from something orange, connected to something dark maroon, connected to something massive.

The firedrake.

Sadie yelled, screamed bloody murder, wondering if it was going to drop her over the blaze. But it didn't. With powerful flaps of its yellow-patterned wings—that Sadie could hear and feel—it headed back towards Tellun, to which trails of flame were extending towards like fingers, reaching at the tiny settlement as if the whole forest wasn't enough for it.

It dove down, flying fluidly, towards the collection of small houses. In the wooden homes, small pens were built behind them to contain animals that said house's owners would care for, and those animals were going senile with terror, crouching to the ground, letting out unearthly wails, or running in circles.

Sadie's voice rose to join theirs, but instead she was calling out at the drake's rider, knowing that her cries would do no good.

The dive picked up speed, and Sadie thought the rider was going to smash her into one of the buildings—an impact that would shatter her bones and smash her to pieces. She'd die. So she braced herself.

Instead of doing that, the dragon flew parallel to the gravel path, wingspan extending inches above the roofs of the nearest houses. It dropped her when her feet were close enough to the ground, and she stumbled forwards, tumbling onto her stomach and scraping her hands and bare feet badly on the tiny stones. The dragon tilted back to the sky in a perfect arc, performing a spectacular midair flip, and Sadie wondered how the rider hung on. It corkscrewed again, turning back over and shooting towards her.

Sadie dropped her head, sure this time that the end was nigh for her. But the dragon still let her live, flapping its wings again as it swooped down to land with a heavy thump on the schoolhouse roof, the building right next to her. It hooked its wing claws into the soft oak wood, putting its back legs on either side of the pyramid shape where it stood. It glared down at her, eyes a solid orange, head boxy and long, muzzle wrinkled in a snarl.

"What do you want?" Sadie shrieked, directing her voice at the dragon rider, who she could faintly see behind the beast's neck.

The dark figure didn't respond immediately; instead he slowly hopped of the red creature's back, standing on the roof next to its head. He was tall, thin, dressed in a black bodysuit with iron boots and a helmet that shaded his face being the only piece of armor he wore. A bow was slung over his shoulder. He killed the guard, Sadie realized, with a burst of anger.

"What do I want?" he repeated her question, voice confident, yet slightly soft. He looked at the dragon, before resting his left hand on its head. "What I want…" he murmured, "has nothing to do with you."

"Why try to kill me, then?" Sadie growled, hauling herself to her feet. Her burns ached, but she was afraid to look down at herself to see how bad they truly were. "Why save me?"

"I didn't pull you from the lake to save you," he said, speaking casually, as if they were discussing what to have for dinner. "I pulled you from the lake because…well, not just anyone can escape a Helldragon like you did. I figure, you're of some use to this village. So you're of some use to us."

Us? Sadie looked around, surveying escape routes. "You can't get away," said the figure. "If you want to try, I'll kill you then."

Slowly, Sadie wrenched her gaze back to him. She couldn't really make out his face, but his voice sounded very young. It was rough, jagged, even though it was quiet.

"W-who are you? Why did you burn the jungle?"

He smiled a slow grin, showing brilliant white teeth. "It's all part of a bigger plan," he said, happily. "It will become clear to you soon."

He gave a single clap of his hands, and the dragon reared up, towering way above the boy's head. It spread its wings wide, yellow patterns glinting with the glow of the slowly rising sun. The beast let loose a thundering roar, so loud Sadie dropped to the ground, covering her head. But the boy hardly flinched.

There was a moment of heavy silence, a silence similar to the one there had been after the scream. It pressed down on Sadie, and she shuddered, still crouching.

A yell erupted from the forest—no, many yells sounding at once. A crunching, a rustling—and then, the still-going flames spat out of legion of men and women, dressed in different kinds of armor, all wielding weapons—whether it be swords, bows, axes…you name it.

They all ran at once—through the fire like Sadie had—like a tsunami, closing in on the village. They swarmed, jumping with serene grace over the trails of flame, and streaming into Tellun.

Within seconds they surrounded her, giving her a wide berth. All of them had hard, fierce faces, and whenever she locked eyes with one, they glared back, and Sadie was forced to look away, intimidated by the sharpness of that glare. Their skin held a faint orange glow, and Sadie knew why—fire-resistance potion.

"If you must know," said the boy, walking to the edge of the roof and leaping down. His legs barely gave when he hit the ground, a graceful landing. "We are the Sky People." He spread his arms wide, gesturing to the men and women gathered around them.

"S-sky People," Sadie repeated. "Why—where—I…I…" She couldn't form the words. She forced herself to breathe deeply, ignoring the rattling sound in her chest—the smoke had gotten in her lungs, but just a small bit. "Why are you here?"

He smiled again, but didn't answer her question. "Why so fearless, Sadie Paladin? Truly, you are as tough as I heard."

Shock hit her, right in her heart like a forceful punch. "How do you know my name?" she rasped, voice barely audible.

He didn't stop smiling. He took some slow steps towards her, and she slowly picked herself off the ground to be level with him. "How ignorant you are…how you don't know what's coming…it amuses me, Sadie."

When he said her name, shivers lanced down her back. Her fear pounded with the beat of her heart, pulsing in her ears, showing in the tremor of her words. "What are you…talking about…?"

He clapped again, and there was movement in the crowd of black-suited armored people. Someone shoved to the front, someone tall and heavyset.

He had no helmet. And Sadie knew who he was.

The head guard.

The realization made Sadie instantly nauseous, and she felt sick to her stomach. Oh, no. Oh no no no.

"You—" she choked out.

"Me," said the all-too-familiar voice. "I've been a spy for years. You people never suspected a thing." He came to stand next to the dragon rider, towering over him. "I've worn the mask of your head guard for a long, long time."

Sadie no longer had words, and she knew why. There were none.

"We're taking over your village," said the guard. Not my village. Your village. Like he hadn't lived in it for years.

Sadie knew she couldn't let them do that. But with the slowly creeping fire on the field to her left and the hundred or so armed men and women in every direction, she really could do nothing. She couldn't even ask why, because her voice was gone.

"The East Capital has already been taken," the dragon rider explained. "Just two days ago. Now the Exilcinus Legion has been working on capturing all villages. We're part of that legion. It's been particularly difficult, Sadie. People seek safety in numbers, don't they? The ones that escape us—like you almost did—are probably grouping together now. We don't know where they are. Our bounty hunters, the Venators, should find them soon."

An idiot might ask what the so-called Venators would do with the escapees if they found them.

And Sadie was no idiot.

"The sad thing for you, Paladin," said the head guard, who still stood next to the dragon rider. "is that there is no escape for you. Or your village people. The same thing is happening in the other countries. In Naetheer and Wynar and Xirnies. You have no choice but to surrender this place."

Sadie's chest heaved; she was breathing hard, like she had run ten miles. Her face felt warm, her ears stung—she was experiencing terror like never before. What the former head guard was telling her made no sense, it made no sense…

"I'm…not the village…leader," Sadie rasped, beginning to turn full circles to look at the people gathered around her, to see their glaring faces. She looked at the entrance to the guards' quarters, which was blocked by seven or eight men, wielding swords and axes. Her people were trapped.

"No," agreed the dragon rider, calm as anything. "But your true village leader is dead, no? Taken out by the arrow of your daughter. Your head guard was taking the place as leader because no one else could. And he is with me. So, Sadie. You're the closest thing to a leader Tellun has."

It was true, but Sadie's thoughts were too clouded by fear for her to think straight or realize this. She turned back to face the dragon rider. His eyes focused on a point behind her head, and he gave a brisk nod. Next thing Sadie knew, she was on her knees in the gravel, head pushed towards the ground, arms pinned roughly behind her.

"Surrender Tellun," said the rider. "Do it now, Sadie. Or we will bring your friends out from where they hide. And we will slaughter them, one by one. And when their bodies lay strewn upon the ground, when their blood pools at your feet, we will let you live."

Her mouth was dry. But she said, "I surrender Tellun." Because she had no other choice.

The dragon rider sighed. "Thank you, Sadie."

The Helldragon on the roof reared again and spread its wings, spitting a plume of red flames into the sky and screeching. The sun reflected again off the patterns on the underside of its wings, creating a blinding white flash that forced Sadie to close her eyes.

She dropped her head again, whispering to herself, the same words every time: This isn't right, this isn't right, this isn't right.

It wasn't. But there was nothing she could do. Nothing.

-{0}-

My longest yet chapter.

Review, please!

-Angel