Act 1, Chapter 9

Tina and Cyrus flew to the northern part of Warfang, just flying around having a good time. The whole time, Cyrus tried to show off by using his wind element to boost this speed. He then flew all around in the air in front of the dark yellow dragoness, pulling off he usual batch of aerial spins, flips, and other such nonsense.

"Pretty cool, huh, Tina?" He boasted, grinning. Tina just looked at him. She raised an eyebrow, and her eyes glowed white. Suddenly, Cyrus came to a complete stop in midair, and couldn't move forwards.

"Hey, what the-?"

Cyrus tried all that he could to move, but he could only wiggle his limbs around. Tina started laughing. She was using her telekinesis to hold the black dragon in place in the air.

"Let me go, Tina!" He demanded. She smirked.

"Say uncle, Runt!" She exclaimed.

"What? No way!"

"Say uncle!"

After wiggling around for a moment, Cyrus finally gave up.

"Okay, uncle!" He shouted.

Immediately, Cyrus fell a short distance, but then righted himself. The dark yellow dragoness burst into laughter.

"I am so getting back at you for that!" He yelled, charging towards Tina. The dragoness turned and flew away, still laughing. Cyrus couldn't help but start laughing too. The two dragons flew to a small, unpopulated part in the Northwestern part of Warfang. They were being followed…

Down in the streets of Warfang, Tyrrany chased after the two dragonesses in hot pursuit. At one point, the two dragonesses did stopped in the air and proceeded to behave in an odd manner. Tyrrany couldn't fathom what would make the two behave in such a way. But that wasn't important. She continued following the two dragonesses, seeing where they might lead her.

Flame and Arthur struggled to keep up with Tyrrany in her pursuit.

"Anny, wait up!" Flame shouted, breathing heavily.

"You need to slow down, girl!" Arthur added, flying near the red dragon.

"I can't let the black dragoness get away!" Tyrrany called back to him. "Pick up the pace!"

Flame and Arthur sighed.

The trio continued their chase, following the two airborne dragonesses across the city. Eventually, the two flew down to the ground, landing in an unpopulated park in the northwestern part of Warfang. Tyrrany, Flame and Arthur entered the park, hiding behind a patch of the trees to spy on the two dragonesses. The dark yellow dragoness had their back to the trio, while the black one was hidden from view.

It wasn't long before a voice called to them from behind.

"Hey!"

Upon turning around, Flame and Arthur spotted Johnathan approaching.

The earth dragon was followed by a golden Time drake and a brown Memory drake, both of whom were dressed in rags and carried tattered pouches around their necks.

"Nice of you to show up." Arthur remarked.

"We would've been right behind if you didn't run out of view so fast." Johnathan snapped.

"Shush." Tyrrany sneered. "You'll blow our cover."

"What are you doing?" The earth dragon demanded.

"We've run into a black dragon and her friend." Flame answered. "Anny felt like tailing them."

"A black dragon?" Johnathan repeated, astounded.

"SHUT UP." Tyrrany snarled through gritted teeth. "You'll alert them to our presence."

Without another word, the white dragoness resumed watching the two in the immediate clearing.

The two dragonesses just talked to each other as they sat down on the grass, overlooking a nearby pond.

"You're too slow, Cyrus!" The yellow dragoness chuckled.

"You're just lucky that I ran low on magical energy!" Her companion snapped, breathing heavily.

Flame had to struggle to keep from bursting into laughter.

"What's wrong?" Arthur asked the red dragon.

"The black dragon's a GUY." He said, still fighting back laughter.

"Say what?" Johnathan asked incredulously

"Didn't you hear him speak? It's a guy!"

Finally, Flame gave in and started laughing to himself. Arthur, Johnathan and the two thugs were about to start laughing too, but Tyrrany growled at them.

"Put an end to it." She commanded. "You'll give us away."

Immediately, the others shut up, and Tyrrany resumed watching the two dragons from behind the trees. As they started walking around a little, Tyrrany finally got a good look at the black dragon. She gasped.

The black dragon was a male, despite having a body similar to a female's. He had four silver horns; two large ones that curled backwards on his head, and two more smaller horns behind his jaw that curled under and forwards, similar to Tyrrany's. He had bluish-green eyes, with a radiant look in them. He had four red birthmarks on him. Two of them were on his front upper legs, in a shape she didn't recognize. But the birthmarks on his sides were immediately recognizable. They were in the shape of two number 8's, combined together at the center. They were the same as Tyrrany's birthmarks.

There was no mistaking it: The black dragon was a child of Elenar.

The disguised dragoness began to growl in anger. For the longest time, Tyrrany knew that Elenar abandoned her and left her father Bergan to run off with a dark dragon. But now, she finds out that her mother ran off with a Black dragon, the most cherished of breeds. Elenar even had a child with the black dragon. Tyrrany wasn't just abandoned: She was replaced.

Tyrrany shook with rage. Flame looked at her, concern on his face.

"Anny, are you okay?" He asked.

"She replaced us." Tyrrany said, gripping the ground between her talons.

"What?" Arthur asked, confused.

"Mother replaced my father and I!" She snarled. "And not with just any dragons: Black dragons!"

Tyrrany glared at the dragon that was her half-brother, fire in her eyes.

"I'll kill him!"

Immediately, the dragoness burst out from her hiding spot, roaring.

"Anny, no!" Flame shouted. But it was too late.

Cyrus and Tina heard a loud roaring coming from behind them.

"Huh?" Cyrus asked.

The two dragons turned around, and were surprised to see a strange young dragoness charging towards Cyrus, her face filled with rage. She was dressed in a strange black outfit that covered most of her body. She wore a hood over part of her head, which pockets for her horns. From what Cyrus could tell, her hide was purple.

Cyrus dodged to his right just as the dragoness came rushing up to him, trying to tackle him. The black dragon then tucked and rolled onto his feet to face his attacker. Tina started growling at her.

"Who the fuck are you?" Cyrus demanded. The strange dragoness stood in a fighting stance, as if ready to lunge at any moment. Seeing her standing relatively still, Cyrus could tell she was older and bigger than him.

The dragoness looked directly at Cyrus.

"You must think you're soooo important, don't you?" She snarled. Cyrus cocked an eye ridge.

"Well, I am a Black dragon!" He said, smirking.

"SHUT UP!" the attacker snarled. In an instant, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke, to Cyrus's amazement.

"What the-?"

The dragoness reappeared directly above Cyrus, falling downwards to grab for the black dragon. Instinctively, Cyrus activated his Time Element, changing the world to a bluish tint. The young dragon casually stepped out of the way as the attacker gently fell to the ground.

When time returned to normal, the dragoness crashed into the ground. Tina laughed at the sight.

"You missed." Cyrus said, smirking. The dragoness snarled.

"Damn you!" She bellowed.

She proceeded to use her Space element multiple times, trying her best to attack Cyrus. Each time, the black dragon would use Time Magic to step out of the way.

"WHY DON'T YOU FIGHT LIKE A MAN?" She roared.

"My mom says I'm not supposed to fight girls." He said.

"Even though you look like one?" Tina asked.

"You're not helping, Tina."

The disguised dragoness roared in anger, continuing her pattern of teleporting, while Cyrus continuously used Time magic to avoid her. This only succeeded to make her angrier.

As Tyrrany continued to try and attack the Black dragon, Flame and Arthur stepped around the trees and walked towards them, though they kept their distance.

"Should we help her?" Flame asked the dragonfly.

"Well, our job is to prevent her from getting hurt." Arthur stated. "However, the black dragon isn't fighting back, for some reason. And the dark yellow dragoness isn't fighting either."

"I guess we'll just stand on the sidelines until They start attacking her."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. But it looks like Johnny's got other plans."

Johnathan and his thugs chose to walk off to the left, staying out of sight. They proceeded to circle around so that they were directly behind the fighting dragons, hidden in the bushes.

Flame and Arthur watched the Tyrrany and the black drake teleport and jump all across the park. The red dragon sighed.

"I hate when she seeing her like this."

Eventually, Cyrus's magical energy started running out. His time freezing bursts started getting shorter and shorter, until he could only freeze time for a few seconds at a time. Tina took note of this.

When Cyrus's energy finally ran out, the dragoness was finally able to teleport close to Cyrus and slash him across the back. The black dragon hit the ground, bleeding.

"What do you want from me, anyway?" He demanded.

"I want you dead!" She snarled.

"WHY?" He asked. "What did I ever do to you?"

The dragoness didn't answer. Instead, she opened her mouth and struck the downed dragon with lightning breath. At the sight of this, Tina immediately charged at the dragoness, slashing her back and knocking her over.

"That's our queue!" Flame shouted, running forwards. Arthur charged forwards as well.

After Tyrrany fell onto the ground, Tina helped Cyrus onto his feet. She handed him a red crystal from her satchel.

"You alright, Cy?" Tina asked

"I am now" Cyrus answered, grinning. As Cyrus drew energy from the gem, he and Tina turned to face Tyrrany, ready to fight back.

At that moment, Tyrrany got back onto her feet, resuming her battle stance. At that moment, Flame and Arthur ran up and stopped just behind her. At the same time, Johnathan charged out of the bushes, followed by his thugs.

"Stop right where you are!" Johnathan shouted to the two in the center, a knife in his right forepaw. The thugs spread out to cover more ground.

"Oh great! There's more!" Cyrus sneered in annoyance.

"Who are you people?" Tina demanded.

"It doesn't matter who we are." The earth drake snapped. "What matters is that the black drake ain't leaving alive."

Tina got on her guard, snarling. Tyrrany snarled as well.

"Leave, and we won't kill you!" She snarled at Tina.

"NO!" she snapped. "I don't know what your deal is, but nobody messes with Cyrus but ME!"

"You don't know who you're messing with!" Tyrrany roared.

Tina spun around. She was about to lunge forwards at the clothed drake. However, Flame stepped in front of Tyrrany, blocking her from the other dragoness.

"We can't let you lay a paw on Anny." He said.

"Our boss would kill us." Arthur added.

"That's a shame!" Cyrus yelled. "But your friend here picked a fight, and now we're going to finish it! How's about I take you on, red?"

"Fine." Flame responded.

"I don't need your help!" Tyrrany yelled at her friends. "I can take them both myself!"

"I know, but we're supposed to aid you, Anny!" Flame said to her.

"Oh! Got the hots for your friend there, red?" Cyrus chided. Flame glared at the black dragon.

"Shut up!"

"Oh, did I make get you all fired up?" Cyrus smirked.

"I said, SHUT UP!" Flame bellowed, snarling.

"Make me!" Cyrus stuck his tongue at him.

During that conversation, Tina turned to face

Flame shot fire breath at Cyrus, who rolled to the side to dodge out of the way. He jumped back a few yards. The black dragon then motioned with a paw for the red dragon to come forwards, whistling at him. Flame untied his cloak, letting it fall onto the grass, and then ran forwards to attack him, while Tina lunged at Tyrrany, who began to fight back.

As all this happened, Johnathan glanced between his two thugs.

"Keep a lookout for me." He ordered. "I'm going in to help Flame."

"Gotcha J." They said together.

The earth drake charged forwards, a confident grin on his face. However, that grin soon turned into a grimace.

I hope I can do this.

On one side of the park, Flame did everything he could to hit Cyrus with his Fire breath attack.

"You must think you're real hot stuff, huh?" Cyrus smirked.

"Stop making those stupid puns already!" Flame demanded.

"Wow! You're white hot with anger!"

Flame snarled. He opened his mouth and released the biggest blast of fire that he could. A giant burst of flames flew towards Cyrus. The black dragon responded by unleashing a blast of Wind breath from his mouth. The wind forced Flame's fire backwards, blowing it across the red dragon's face. Flame fell backwards in recoil.

Cyrus started laughing at the red drake's misfortune.

"What's the matter, red? If you can't take the heat, stay out of the-!"

Before he could finish, a sharp pain pierced his left wing membrane, causing him to cry out.

"Learn to watch your back, blackie!"

Cyrus turned his head to see Johnathan standing behind him, with a knife stabbing through his wing. Blood pooled around the wound, and his wing was aflame with a burning sensation. The black dragon snarled.

Cyrus attacked Johnathan with a sonic blast. The earth drake tried to cover his ear frills, but was slightly struck. While he was distracted, the black dragon backed up to try and examine his wound. As he was pulling the knife out with his teeth, he bumped into Flame, who had recovered from the previous failed attack.

"You're dead meat!" Flame growled.

"Damnit." Cyrus grimaced. He spat the knife onto the ground and used his pain element to null the sting in his wing. He then tuck-and-rolled to evade an oncoming fireball.

Meanwhile, Tyrrany assaulted Tina with a barrage of earth blasts: She believed the mustard-colored girl to be a lightning dragoness. After dodging around the other girl's attacks, Tina used her psychic magic to levitate herself into the air. Tyrrany snarled in anger.

"Coward!" She bellowed

"What's wrong?" Tina goaded. "Can't fly in that getup?"

Tyrrany proceeded to attack from the ground with a barrage of ice breath, hoping to freeze her opponent. Tina flew around in the air, dodging Tyrrany's attacks. The dark yellow dragoness then swooped around Tyrrany and slashed at her back before she could get out of the way. She scratched the scales underneath Tyrrany's cloak, but the cloak itself remained unharmed. It must have been protected with wards, similar to the robes worn by the deep shadows.

Tyrrany roared in anger.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" She screamed.

Tyrrany decided on a more unpredictable tactic. She started attacking Tina with multiple elements: She constantly switched between fire, earth, ice, wind and sound. Tina had to constantly move to avoid getting hit.

At the same time, Cyrus was dodging away from Flame and Johnathan, who were ganging up on him with their respective elements. The black drake noticed Tyrrany's attacks, and was amazed.

"That's not possible!" He exclaimed. "How does a purple dragon have more than four elements?"

"That's none of your business!" Johnathan snapped, lunging at him with his knife while Flame charged with a claw swipe. He and Flame had run out of magical energy, so they resorted to physical combat.

Cyrus had waited for this all along. When the two got close, Cyrus activated his Time magic yet again. As Flame and Johnathan were frozen in time, Cyrus walked up to him, preparing his coup de grace.

"This is going to hurt in a minute." Cyrus said, smirking.

He stabbed Flame's shoulder, unleashing a small amount of his pain element into the red dragon's body. Cyrus then followed this up by doing the same to Johnathan. When time returned to normal, the duo immediately fell to the ground, twitching in pain.

"What did you do?" Flame groaned, struggling to regain control of himself.

Cyrus only grinned. Johnathan tried to get up to attack again, but Cyrus countered by striking the green dragon with more of the pain element. Johnathan was rendered unable to fight anymore. He just twitched on the ground in agony.

"That'll teach you not to mess with a black dragon!"

"You damn nightmare spawn!" Johnathan growled.

"You bastard!" One of the thugs shouted from behind.

Cyrus turned around to see both thugs charging across the way towards him. They leapt around Tina and Tyrrany, the latter still attacking with multiple elements at random, and still at full force. Tina, however, had gotten too tired to fly, and was now on the ground, struggling not to get hit.

Cyrus got back into a battle stance as the thugs came running, their bodies glowing from their elemental magic. He groaned

I can't fight off those goons AND help out Tina! he thought to himself. I'll have to move fast. Shaking his head, he charged forwards.

Cyrus used his Time-slowing again to try and gain the upper hand. However, the gold-hided thug used his own Time magic to obtain the same effect. The two glared at each other as the whole world slowed around them.

For a brief moment, the two exchanged physical blows, each one trying to gain the upper hand. The thug made several slashes at Cyrus' wound, forcing him onto the defensive for a brief time. Luckily, a moment of opportunity arose when the thug's magic began to wear off and he slipped back into normal time. Cyrus charged forwards and delivered a barrage of blows on him, sending the thug flying backwards in slow-motion, landing in the nearby pond.

As the black drake's time magic wore off as well, he turned to face the other thug, a memory dragon. Once he was close enough, the brown dragon unleashed a torrent of psychic strikes upon Cyrus' mind. Cyrus recoiled into his mind, putting up a defensive shield around it. The prince held his ground as the thug came at him with a dagger.

As Cyrus was defending himself, the other thug got up from the water and came running back, angrier than ever. Cyrus retreated backwards as one thug tried to get behind him while the other tried to slash is face.

"Why're you pussying out, high-and-mighty black dragon?" The memory drake snickered.

Grimacing, Cyrus began charging up what little energy he could into his breath. When the thugs least suspected it, he let go of the guard on his mind right as he unleashed a mighty roar. He poured Sound magic into his breath to create a sonic wail in all directions.

The thugs grabbed their ear frills as the pain wracked their heads. Several nearby birds in the trees immediately fled the area in alarm. Flame, Arthur and Johnathan were just far enough away to avoid being harmed, but they still groaned.

With the problem finally dealt with , Cyrus ran over to aid Tina.

"Anny, look out!" Arthur shouted out..

Tyrrany instantly turned around to see the black dragon approaching from behind. She immediately assaulted Cyrus with the same assortment of random elemental attacks that she attacked Tina with. Cyrus used his earlier strategy and dodged away again. The disguised dragoness had completely forgotten about the dark yellow dragoness. Seeing an opening, Tina quietly snuck up on Tyrrany as the latter attacked Cyrus.

The black dragon spotted Tina, but didn't give her position away. Eventually, Tina got up to Tyrrany's left side and slashed the disguised dragon's back with her foretalons. Tyrrany roared in pain, turning to see what attacked her. Tina immediately continued her attack by swinging her front left paw hard to the right, punching Tyrrany across her face. Cyrus then combined his Time and Pain elements to instantly appear in front of Tyrrany, jabbing her in the middle of her chest, sending Pain magic throughout her body.

As Tyrrany writhed in pain, Cyrus and Tina panted heavily.

"We did it." Cyrus said.

"Yeah.." Tina added. The dragoness looked down at her front paws. Suddenly, she saw something odd: Purple goo was smeared allover her front left paw's palm.

"What the…?" She asked.

"Where did that come from?" Cyrus asked.

The two dragons both got the same idea. They looked down at Tyrrany's face: a large patch of her face was white in color. Tyrrany gasped, realizing what was happening.

"Get away from me…" She choked out.

Curious, Cyrus reached down and pulled back Tyrrany's hood. He and Tina jumped back in surprise.

Tyrrany was wearing purple makeup allover her face. The scales that came after that were White as snow. She had a pitch black mane. Her four silver horns were styled just like Cyrus's

Still curious, Cyrus pulled the dragoness's cloak back.

"No!" She protested. But it was in vain. Her white hide was revealed. It was a surprise for Tina and Cyrus. But the latter gasped in complete shock when he saw the red birthmark on Tyrrany's side. It was the same as the one on him.

"Who are you?" Cyrus demanded. "What are you?"

"Leave her alone!" Flame shouted. He was able to get back onto his feet. He ran forwards to the other dragons. "Arthur, you okay?"

The dragonfly was able to get back into the air now.

"We are so screwed." He said.

Flame pushed past Cyrus and Tina, helping Tyrrany get back up. He pulled her hood back over her head.

"You okay?" He asked her.

"I'm fine." Tyrrany said coldly. But it was a lie: Tyrrany still ached all over. She was in no condition to fight any longer.

Suddenly, the feint sound of clanging metal filled the air somewhere outside of the clearing. It steadily grew louder with every second.

"What the-?" Arthur asked.

"Soldiers!" Flame cried out.

"Soldiers?" Johnathan repeated.

The earth dragon tried to get up, but could barely move. The two thugs couldn't move very well either.

"This isn't over!" Tyrrany growled. She turned to flee from the clearing.

"Hold it right there!" Cyrus exclaimed.

Before the black drake could stop her, Tyrrany scooped up her cloak off the ground, grabbed hold of Flame and Arthur, and teleported away with them in tow.

Seconds later, a squadron of six feline soldiers and four dragon soldiers rushed into the area. They were led by Grail, who immediately stood before Cyrus and Tina.

"Grail?" Tina asked, confused.

"Your Highness, what's happened here?" The Deep Shadow demanded. "There was a loud commotion here a few moments ago."

"Well, uh…" Cyrus mumbled.

Grail turned his attention towards the three downed dragons across the way. "Who are they?"

"We don't know." Tina answered. "They came out of nowhere and attacked us."

"What?"

It was around this time that Grail and Tina took notice of Cyrus' injured wing. The blood had stopped, but it was still in bad shape.

"By the ancestors!" Tina cried out. "Are you alright, Cy?"

"I'm okay." Cyrus replied. "It only hurts a little, thanks to my magic."

Grail, meanwhile, glared at the three downed dragons. He signaled for the soldiers to surround and arrest them. The memory and time dragons did little more than snarl, but Johnathan was in a state of panic as a metal muzzle was slipped over his maw.

"You three will pay dearly for assaulting and injuring the Prince!" The Deep Shadow snapped.

"They weren't the only ones." Tina said. "Three more got away just before you arrived."

"Three more?" Grail repeated, turning around.

"Yeah." Cyrus answered. "There was a Fire dragon, a dragonfly, and a purple dragoness. Only, she wasn't really purple: She wore a disguise. She was actually… Well…"

"Well what?" Grail demanded.

"White!" Tina exclaimed. "Her hide was White!"

The Fauna dragon's eye lit up. "White?"

"Just like how Rune's was when Malefor possessed him!" The memory dragoness exclaimed.

"And her face…" Cyrus said.

"What about her face?" Grail asked.

"And that red glowing symbol on her." The Prince continued. "She looked almost like….."

"Like who?"

Cyrus shook his head. "Come on. We've got to tell my Mom and grandfather about this. Immediately!"