The Great Scream in Nature

Edvard Munch

I was walking along the road with two friends

The Sun was setting - the Sky turned blood-red.

And I felt a wave of Sadness – I paused tired to Death – Above the blue-black Fjord and City Blood and Flaming tongues hovered

My friends walked on – I stayed behind – quaking with Angst – I felt the great Scream in Nature

The Spyro and Cynder Adventures: Eternal Slumber

Chapter 21: The Blood of Draxis

Three hours before present time

"That's all I need from you."

"Yes, sir," said the dragoness. She bowed and left the room.

Peron sighed and shook his head, placing his paw on his head at the same time. It had been an exhausting day up to this point for the Fire Dragon. The dragoness that had just left the room was a scout for the village. She had reported seeing mass troop movements coming from the direction of the Bloodclaws' camp, and something that had put the entire village on edge.

The Bloodclaws had somehow managed to sneak siege weapons into their camp.

The original scouts that Peron had sent out to scout the settlement had turned up no signs of siege weapons. They only returned with reports of massive amounts of wolves in the camp, which was of course concerning on its own, but the reports of siege weapons only made matters worse for the tiny village of Draxis.

What did the wolves even need the weapons for? Draxis' walls were well built, but poorly defended due to the lack of manpower. The weapons were completely unnecessary to take the village. This left a main question lingering in Peron's mind. Just what was Kameron planning?

The Fire Dragon shook the thought from his mind. There was no way of knowing, and Draxis needed more help setting up its defenses. Opening his wings, Peron dove off of the balcony outside of his home and flew down towards the wide cobblestone streets below.

The village was in a state of panic. Peron observed families of dragons, wolves, moles and other creatures running in and out of their dwellings frantically, probably gathering last needed valuables, possessions or weapons. Nearly all of the village's tiny population was staying for the fight, but some of the residents were either too old, too young or physically incapable of fighting, and had left the village a few hours before. Despite this, the rest of the village was ready for war; for whatever good that would do.

Peron shook his head at the thought and landed near the western wall of Draxis and looked around at his surroundings. A few armored troops dashed to and fro from the walls, but they were far and few in between. Peron moves his own head around, looking for one dragon in particular.

"Peron! We're up here!" shouted a booming voice from above, which Peron immediately identified as Retrion, father of Niere and temporary leader of the guard on this side of the wall.

Peron flew up to the gray Electricity Dragon, landed, and said, "Are they all prepared?"

Retrion sighed and closed his eyes as he said, "Can you really prepare any of them for a day like this? With the odds stacked against us like they are?"

"No, but you can inspire them to fight for what they value the most."

"And what would that be?"

"Their lives, Retrion."

"Hmph. You're a straightforward one, I'll give you that, Peron."

"Comes with the job. Where is your mate?"

"She was back helping Belinda with some of the healing needs of the older ones. Haven't seen her since they evacuated."

"Making her peace, perhaps."

"Perhaps. Is there anything you needed in particular, Peron?"

"Besides surveying things, no. We need to be as prepared as possible for this, Retrion. We won't get another chance."

"I'm aware. I'll handle things here, Peron. Go be with your family for now. You'll know when the Claws get here."

"I barely have any family left, Retrion."

"Your son's not dead."

Peron took off, back towards the city, but not before saying:

"By the spirits of my Ancestors, I hope you're right."

Two hours later, one hour before present time

"Make sure those supplies are stocked, and double check that the others are still ready."

"Of course, Belinda," replied Pirsan, the village's wolven healer, bowing as she turned around and left the room.

Belinda sighed and put a paw to her head. It had been an excruciatingly long day for both her and her mate. She hadn't seen him since extremely early in the morning, and that had only been for a few moments. Peron had been devoted to the cause, on this day especially. He was not only to be coordinating all of the defense efforts, but planned on fighting himself. He was a skilled fighter, with both his element and in closer range with his claws and horns, but Belinda still worried. The numbers of the Bloodclaws and the siege weapons were too much for the tiny Draxisian militia to handle, there was no doubt about it. They had no chance of winning the battle, and Belinda was sure that not many of the Draxisians were going to survive this day.

The Earth Dragoness shook her head and continued on with the task at hand. Being both the mate of Peron and one of the most skilled healers in the tiny village, she had one of the most difficult jobs in front of her. She faced the momentous task of not only keeping the healing staff, which only included her, Pirsan and perhaps Tamara, in line as well but also protecting any of the wounded that may enter her home during the battle.

With that thought coming into her mind, Belinda reopened her eyes and peered around at the room she was standing in. She was in the living room of Pirsan's dwelling where Pirsan usually cared for her patients. The normal operating beds were still present, which Peron had declared earlier in the day were to be used for the most injured patients only, but the room also had many makeshift operating beds on the floor as well. These relief beds were simple fabric folded under a few slants of woof(Wood) that kept the patient from falling to the floor. There were quite a few of them in the room, the Earth Dragoness had not bothered to count them all.

Pirsan was on the other side of the room now, presently tending to another bed, making sure that it was in top condition. Tamara was also present at the moment, finally having been forced out of her room after the news of Richter's condition. Despite the good news, the young Ice Dragoness had maintained a level of silence since she had left the room without Richter. While it was obvious that the Earth Dragon still plagued her every thought, the young dragoness had been crucial in setting up of the temporary field hospital inside of Pirsan's home. Despite her limited medical training, she was still going to be a huge help in the upcoming battle.

At least, that's what Belinda hoped. The Earth Dragoness had her doubts on the Ice Dragoness' willingness to participate in the preparation and healing process of the battle while Richter was still present in his coma-like state. However, there was no way to prove this theory until the time came

Shaking her head once again, Belinda began to walk slowly over to where the Ice Dragoness had placed herself.

"Tamara? Are you alright?"

Looking up at the Earth Dragoness, Tamara replied, "Hello, Belinda. Well, I presume you know that I'm not feeling at full…health right now, but I'm focused. Thank you for caring for me."

"Oh, Tamara. It's the least I can do for you."

"What do you mean?"

"You were the only one that didn't give up on my son. I never knew you shared such a deep bond with him. I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for keeping faith in him."

Tamara looked away for a moment, clearly embarrassed. A slight tint of red still showed on her face as she turned back to the Earth Dragoness and said, "Th-Thank you, Belinda. He-he means a lot to me."

"I know, young one. Remember him while we do our job today. We're doing it for him."

Thirty minutes later, thirty minutes before present time

Adriano yawned sleepily at his post. The village guard had been sitting in the same place on the wall of Draxis for three hours now, simply waiting for whatever the Elders believed was headed their way. He was a fire dragon, mildly skilled in combat, but he wasn't sure if the Elders knew what they were doing this time around. Many hours after they had given the sign that the Bloodclaws were headed to invade the village and still nothing had showed up to challenge the small defense force of Draxis.

Adriano shook his head at the thought and yawned again. He looked down at his set of iron armor, adjusting it in places that it needed to be adjusted in. He had done this very same thing about three dozen times over the past few hours in an attempt to stave off his boredom. Peron had made it exceptionally clear that he did not want any of the guards falling asleep during this 'important time in the history of our village.' Honestly, Adriano had paid very little attention to what had been said in the briefing. He had been paying more attention to dragoness on the other side of the crowd at the time.

By this time, night had begun to fall on the village. Despite the encroaching darkness, the village still remained alight. Adriano couldn't recall a time where there had been so many torches being lit around the village at this time of night. Peron had lit most of them with his element, another 'defense tactic' he called it during the 'mission briefing'.

To say the least, Adriano couldn't have cared less for what the old coot had called any of it. He still remembered his old military days, apparently. Peron was a good commander and a great leader, but the jargon that he used to describe guarding techniques and military maneuvers were a bit beyond the twenty year old fire dragon; Adriano was no soldier.

The young Fire Dragon closed his eyes for a moment and shook the feeling from himself that just wanted to fall down on the deck and go to sleep.

The Fire Dragon heard some leaves rustling below the deck, and he craned one eye open to investigate lazily. Seeing nothing, he closed it again and said, "Cut that out, Turion. I have enough to deal with right now."

The rustling sounded again this time, closer than it had been before. Groaning in annoyance, the Fire Dragon lifted himself up off of the wooden chair and walked over to the far side of the wall.

Leaning over the wooden railing on the side of the wall, Adriano said, "Turion, come on now. You're not a hatchling anymore. If you don't cut that out, I'll come down there and kick your-"

The Fire Dragon's statement was cut short as a sharp pain resounded through his neck. The pain and momentum of the strike made the Fire Dragon clutch his neck, stagger backwards, and fall to the ground. Looking down, Adriano's eyes came into contact with a wooden shaft with a metal point on the end, which was hanging out of his neck.

Someone had shot an arrow at him, and he was bleeding badly.

Suddenly, a demonic cry was issued from below the deck as Adriano heard a crashing from below that sounded like the rickety wooden gate below being forced open by someone…by force.

Adriano's consciousness began to slip, but he was still able to turn his head to look at the village as dozens of Bloodclaw troops began to pour into its tiny streets. He could hear sounds of metal clanging from below and screams of terror, war cries and other horrible sounds.

Suddenly, a paw landed next to his range of vision. Looking up, Adriano's eyes came into contact with a black robed wolf bearing a shortsword. He was grinning from ear to ear and staring at the Fire Dragon with deep red eyes full of hatred, excitement and malice. The evil wolf raised his shortsword and quickly swung it at Adriano.

He never felt the shortsword hitting his neck.

Present time

Tyron ran through the tiny streets of Draxis as fast as his legs would carry him. The defense forces on the walls had sounded the alarms that the village was under attack, and it was already becoming prevalent. Fires were already sprouting all around him in what appeared to be coming from fire catapults stationed outside the city. The siege weapons were dangerous and had the chance to destroy the entire village just by themselves, but there was next to nothing the Draxisian defenders could do about them; their attention was focused purely on defending the village and its occupants. There were no extra forces that could be spared in the defense of the village. Every skilled warrior was already in combat inside the village.

Speaking of which, Tyron had already seen his own fair share of action. Wearing a simply set of steel made armour, crafted especially for the Fire Dragon by the village blacksmith, Monterro, he had already killed a dozen Bloodclaw troops. Blood was spattered all around the armour, belonging to that of both the dead wolves and Tyron. He had been hit on a bare spot on his leg that Monterro had left exposed for whatever reason. Tyron cursed the ailing Fire Dragon before continuing on.

Refocusing his attention on the street in front of him, Tyron turned a corner only to find more fighting going on. This time, four wolves were engaging an Ice Dragoness that looked to be about his age. It wasn't Tamara, it was another dragoness entirely that he had never met. Not taking any more time to think about the situation, the Fire Dragon sprang into action.

Using his position behind the wolves to his own advantage, Tyron fired a quick pair of fireballs to strike down one of the wolves and stun another. One struck dead on and burned a hole through the target's back. The Bloodclaw quickly fell to the ground, dead. The other fell over, but the fire strike did not burn through his poorly constructed leather armour, and seemed to only stun him for a short amount of time. All of the fighters were temporarily stunned by the action, which gave Tyron time to spring another attack on one of the other wolves, but he was interrupted. The wolf furthest away from the Fire Dragon darted his eyes under a steel full-face helmet to his partner and swung his short sword. The Bloodclaw, taken off guard, was stunned to see his partner trying to kill him and stumbled back in shock as the sword crossed his poorly armoured chest and fell to the ground, either unconscious or dead.

Tyron growled at the traitor while the Ice Dragoness had not stopped staring at the Fire Dragon since he had killed one of the other Bloodclaws. The final wolf raised a paw and beckoned Tyron to come closer.

"Tyron, I mean you no harm," the traitor said quickly.

"Wait, I know that voice. Damn you, Silas. You can't do that to me," replied the Fire Dragon.

Silas, a wolf that had turned traitor to his comrades and begun to fight for the Draxisians, laughed and removed his helmet, revealing a young and well-polished wolven facial structure.

Silas then said, "It's better to surprise your opponent when they least suspect it."

"And here I thought you were honorable," replied Tyron as he approached the Shield-Bearer quickly.

"Not with these sons of scavengers, no."

Tyron smirked and kneeled next to the Ice Dragoness. He examined her body for wounds, but found none except for a few minor cuts and burns. There was something different about this dragoness, however, which caught Tyron's attention. Her body was unlike anything the Fire Dragon had seen in the past, which surprised him greatly.

She was beautiful, to put it in a word.

"Uh…hello, Miss. Are you alright?" asked the Fire Dragon, trying not to sound nervous.

The Ice Dragoness coughed and nodded. She said, "Yes, thanks to you two."

"Hmph. I did most of the work," Silas replied with a smirk, which drew a giggle from the dragoness.

"Can it, Shield-Bearer. Can I help you up, miss…?" Tyron said, slightly nervous in his tone.

"Selena. Thank you, both of you," the Ice Dragoness replied, taking Tyron's paw and returning to her paws.

"I don't believe we've met. I'm Tyron."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Tyron. You're probably right that we haven't…I just came a few days ago from Warfang."

"What made you come here?"

"There was some talk amongst the guards back home that the Draxisians needed help. I felt obligated to help."

"Well…that's a new one. Pleasure to have you with us, miss," replied Tyron with a bow of his head.

Selena giggled and seemed to flutter her eyes slightly, which made Tyron's heart lurch ever so slightly. She said, "Strong, muscular and courteous. Maybe I should have come to Draxis earlier…"

"Uh…" replied Tyron, his voice faltering and a slight tinge of red forming on his scales.

Before the Fire Dragon got a chance to respond, an explosion sounded nearby as another fire catapult struck the city.

"We're out of time. Let's go!" said Silas.

All three nodded at each other and took off down the street as the village around them began to crumble.

The dragon ran through the streets as quickly as he could. He had awoken to a scene of mass murder and chaos, with his own room being engulfed in flames when he had awoken. The Bloodclaws had apparently staged an excellent ambush, killing a few Draxisians before they even had time to react to the invading forces.

He had to find his family, and quickly.

He turned down a side street of the village and darted his head back and forth quickly. There were Bloodclaws on either side of him, either attacking other Draxisians, burning some structures to the ground, or looting others.

On one side of the street, the dragon could see a wolven resident of the village defending himself from a group of Bloodclaws. He was holding out, but not for long. Springing into action, the dragon, using his natural Earth element, fired a quick earth shot at one of the closest invaders, which caught the wolf by surprise and forced him into a nearby wall, impaling and quickly killing him. His two comrades stared at the body in shock for a few moments before one issued a war cry and charged at the Earth Dragon. Using a feinting maneuver, the Earth Dragon narrowly avoided swing of the wolf's battle axe, rolled out of the way of another strike and summoned an earth pillar with a stomp of his paw. A pillar quickly sprouted up from below the wolf and ripped his chest open, killing him.

Two down, one to go.

Turning his attention back to the Draxisian wolf and his opponent, he noticed that neither wolf was still present in the street. Unwilling to take the extra time to look for the dueling pair, the Earth Dragon quickly took off down the street once more.

He was heading to the home of Pirsan, the she-wolf healer of the village. He hoped to find at least one of his family members present there.

Turning down another street, the Earth Dragon stopped dead in his tracks. Straight ahead of him, there were a pair of Bloodclaws holding a she-wolf against a wall. He turned away in disgust for a moment after realizing what they were doing, but this only ignited a rage inside of him.

Screaming a primordial war cry, the Earth Dragon charged at the pair of Bloodclaws and tackled the offender of the she-wolf to the ground. Acting quickly, he clamped his teeth down on the wolf's neck, and pulled. Using his teeth as leverage, he ripped out the Bloodclaw's neck.

His partner, unwilling to see his brother-in-arms murdered, drew his weapon, a narrow long sword, and swung it at the Earth Dragon. Unable to react in time, the Earth Dragon felt the blade come down on the protective scaling on his back. He screamed out in pain, but reacted quickly before the wolf had another chance to strike and set an earth shot through his skull. The wolf's head shattered and he fell to the ground, dead.

The Earth Dragon winced in pain and looked back at his back. There was a light cut there, nothing he had not seen before, but it was enough to the point where he was going to suffer some blood loss. He slowly returned to his feet and looked around for the she-wolf. For whatever reason, she had run off during the fight and left the three fighters to their fates. The Earth Dragon simply shook his head at the action and continued on towards the home of Pirsan, where he now had two reasons to go towards.

The village was alight with fire, from both the strikes of what seemed to be fire catapults outside of the city, as well as the burning of the village itself. The defense of the village would have to ramp up their efforts if any of the village was going to be saved.

The Earth Dragon rounded another corner and finally set his eyes on the place that he had been looking for, the home of Pirsan. Moving quickly to the door, he knocked a few times. After a few moments, the door opened.

Inside the doorway, a blue and white dragoness with sky-blue eyes stared back at him.

"If you have more wounded, please set them…down…" said the dragoness as her eyes did a double take and her maw fell open.

Out of all of the things that could have happened tonight, this was the last thing Tamara expected to see.

"R…Richter?"

A/N: Yup, he's still alive despite what happened in his Eternal Slumber. You know that ambiguous ending to the last chapter? That was Richter waking up from his Eternal Slumber. How will Tamara react? What will happen to Draxis? Just who is this new Selena character? Where in the heck is Niere, Peron, Belinda, Terrador and the others? All will be revealed soon!

The next few chapters are going to be a wild ride, folks. If you thought the climax was earlier in the story, you are DEAD wrong. The ending of this story, despite all of the cliffhangers I've already had…well…let's just say, no one (except for you Shadow, damn you) will see coming. I hope you stay with me and see the end of this story and the beginning of the next!

Thank you to all of my loyal readers that have stuck around through this mess despite my failures at continuous updates. Prosecute me as you will.

Thanks to (insert your name(s) here) for Beta reading yet again!

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for Chapter 22: Fire in the Streets!

Δεν υπάρχει όριο στην ανθρώπινη φαντασία. -μονάδα όμικρο