A week had passed and it was the night before the council would meet to discuss Nithogg's clan. Highdragon Tempest was awake late at night, still practicing his speeches over and over as he had been all week. Deep down inside, he still felt conflicted about the threat of Nithogg's clan. Part of him wanted to believe that Nithogg and his clan wished for peace but he knew better. Nithogg was not one to live in peace, not one to be content. The only way the sadistic Highdragon could ever be satisfied is if all the lands belonged to him. As Tempest thought things over, his new mate, Eclipse, slowly approached him to put her wings on his shoulders. Upon feeling his mates warm touch on his body, Tempest let out a deep warm hum as he closed his eyes.
"Something still troubles you. I can sense it." Eclipse said as she tried to calm his nerves.
Tempest nodded. "Of course. Killing is something that I take no pleasure in. If I do nothing i fear they will grow until they can take us over, but at the same time if I strike to soon it will be a massacre. I truly wish from the bottom of my heart that their clan will keep to themselves but I can't risk the lives of my clan." He said, resting his touch upon Eclipse's cheek.
"If they truly wished peace they would have moved far away. They insist on living next door to us as if to taunt us and test our willingness to act." Eclipse said as she moved around him and laid on her side facing him as he laid on his side facing her.
"Many many years I have lived and yet through all this time that has passed, the decision to deal out life or death has not grown easier." Tempest said as he stared at her. "My vote is as important as the rest of the council's. Should I be the deciding vote, I will have to choose whether or not to condemn tens if not hundreds of dragons to their deaths."
Eclipse tilted her head. "I've never known you to be conflicted like this before."
"That's just it." He sighed. "Many times I have dealt out punishments to those who have committed wrongdoings but this situation is different. Normally the punishment comes after the crime but in this case I have to deliver the punishment before the crime." He said opening his eyes. "A crime which may not ever happen. Is it wrong to punish one who has thoughts of murder yet never acts on it? Is it wrong to hold onto hope that they might change their ways and not act upon their impulses?"
"Shall we not parlay with them? Is that not one of our options?" Eclipse asked.
Tempest shook his head. "The time for negotiation has passed. The deal was that we would let them live if they agreed to leave Stormheim and never come back."
"Then they have already committed the crime." Eclipse said.
Tempest looked down as he knew that she was right. He had made tough decisions in the past, but never before had so many lives hung in the balance.
"Follow your heart." Eclipse said, moving closer to him to press her forehead against his. "What you do you do for your clan...for the safety of those you swore to protect. Whichever way you choose to vote, your clan will back you up. You will not be thought of as a monster. The clan trusts you as their leader. Whever you go, they will follow... Wherever you go I will follow because I love you, Tempest." Eclipse said as they touched foreheads.
Tempest moved his head upwards to kiss Eclipse on the lips for a brief moment. "I will. Thank you." He said placing the tip of his wing on her cheek as the both of them smiled at each other happily.
"Earlier today you wished to tell me something?" Tempest asked.
Eclipse shook her head. "It can wait. I'll tell you after the council meets. For now you just focus on your speech." She said, having a big surprise for him but wanting to wait until after all his stress had passed.
Back at Aurora and Cyclone's cave, Daisy was sound asleep but the two of them were still up and growing anxious as to what the council would decide.
"I wish we were still on the council." Aurora said.
"Why?" Cyclone asked. "Is the council meeting tomorrow gnawing at you?"
Aurora nodded. "I want the strike to be called off." She said.
"What for?" He asked.
She looked down for a moment and bit her lip before looking back up towards him. "If we do strike, you'll be called out to go with them." She said, knowing that they would need all the warriors to overwhelm Nithogg's camp but she would be left behind due to her inability to fly. "I don't want you to go off and fight without me. If I ever found out that you fell in battle I... I... I don't know what I would do." She said with a faltering voice.
Cyclone quickly wrapped her front feet with his to soothe her. "Hey hey hey hey." He said using his claw to perk her chin him. "Don't think like that." He said.
"How could I not?" Aurora inquired. "When I awoke after being healed from the Battle of Stormheim, we promised each other that we would always work together in everything... that we would always have each others backs no matter what. If you go out to war, I won't be able to keep that promise." She said.
Cyclone didn't know what to say. Normally he had an answer for everything to calm her nerves but this time he grew silent.
"Even if the mission is a success and we wipe them all from the face of the earth, will you be able to live with yourself after slaying countless defenseless warriors, nursery attendants, young dragons and old dragons who may or may not even be guilty of any crime?" She inquired.
Cyclone shook his head. "I can't answer that. The only thing I can do is trust that the council will deliver a fair, justified, and honest verdict after considerable debate. If they decide that our best chance of keeping this clan safe is to strike at Nithogg's clan, then I will trust them. No matter what happens tomorrow, I will stay true to our clan so that I can keep you and Daisy safe." He said as he tenderly caressed her front feet and legs, trying to easy her nerves.
"You and Daisy are my life...my everything. I will do whatever it takes to keep you two safe and happy." He said looking into her eyes. "Whatever it takes." He repeated.
Aurora nodded slowly and the two of them embraced, hugging each other for comfort as they prepared for the day ahead.
Slowly but surely, the next day came and everyone was talking about the council meeting that was happening soon. As Aurora attended her duties in the infirmary, she was soon approached by her former mentor, Eclipse.
"Hey!" Eclipse said, setting foot inside the infirmary to greet Aurora. "Up all night?" She asked as she started to help Aurora with her morning preparations.
Aurora nodded. "Yes, unfortunately. I think everyone in camp is a little tense today." She said.
Eclipse nodded also. "Tempest has been practicing his speech for a week now. Not a day goes by where he doesn't fret about the council meeting that is supposed to happen today."
"Really?" Aurora said. "I never knew him to be the conflicted type." She said.
"That's what I said. But I have a feeling he'll lighten up after I tell him the good news today." She said with a happy grin on her face.
"What good news?" Aurora said but Eclipse didn't answer. She looked up to Eclipse. "What news?" She asked again.
Eclipse wasn't saying anything, only grinning happily.
"No way..." Aurora said, catching on. "You're pregnant?!" She exclaimed.
Eclipse couldn't help but giggle and nod. "I found out two days ago." She said.
Aurora covered her face in shock but soon started to smile along with Eclipse. "I can't believe it! I didn't think that could happen to a dragon of your age." She said, still surprised.
Eclipse shrugged, still smiling. "It's not unusual. I have a feeling Tempest will be pleasantly surprised..." She said, almost shaking with excitement as she couldn't wait to get the good news off her chest.
"My god... I'm so happy for you, Eclipse! I'm happy for both of you! Hopefully one day our children will be able to play together!" She said happily.
Eclipse nodded as the two of them continued their morning preparation. "That sounds wonderful. I've always been a glass half full kind of girl... I have a feeling that everything is going to turn out for the better." She said confidently.
A couple hours later, Tempest was waiting outside the Throne of the the Council of Dragons. The time had come for the council to meet. All the other councillors were seated and waiting for their Highdragon to show up. He took one last deep breath before walking forward into the field of of view of the other councillors. He bowed to them respectfully before taking his seat amongst them.
"Shall we begin?" Said Tempest with his normal charismatic, deep, and friendly voice. Deep down, he was still nervous. After a nod of approval from the rest of the council he nodded himself. "Alright. Before we begin, a bowl has been placed in front of each and every one of you. Let us drink, in honor of our fallen friend, Thunder." He said gesturing to their drinks.
"To Thunder." Tempest said.
"To Thunder." The rest of the council said before drinking their water.
After finishing his water, Tempest wiped his mouth before speaking up. "Councilman Typhoon, would you like to begin?"
Typhoon nodded. "We are here to decide whether or not to attack Nithogg's clan. I would like to remind you all that Nithogg and his vile crew kidnap dragons from all over Stormheim and force them to battle in an arena to the death. We aren't dealing with civil and reasonable dragons like Vethir and his clan to the east. We're dealing with murderers and savages."
"Do the sins of one Highdragon merit the deaths of so many others?" Councilman Twister spoke out. "Should we so brashly label each and every one of his clan members a treacherous evildoer from the orders of one mad Highdragon?"
Councilor Monsoon rubbed his chin. He didn't know which way to feel despite the other two councilors feeling so strongly. Amongst everyone on the council, Monsoon was most likely the least biased and reasonable. "They don't have to follow him." He said.
Typhoon nodded. "Exactly. No reasonable dragon would ever stand alongside Nithogg. If a Highdragon becomes corrupt, it is the clans duty to overthrow them."
Twister huffed. "Sounds easy when you say it like that. Try and put yourself in their place. Perhaps they are too scared to stand up to him. They may secretly oppose him but are too afraid to speak or act as they or their families might be targeted by Nithogg."
Councilman Storm nodded in agreement. "I share the same sentiment. A dragon will say or do anything under duress especially if their families are targeted."
"Tell me." Typhoon said. "Why is it that so many dragons attend the arena battles? Hmm? All of us have heard Aurora's story of what happened to her in Nithogg's camp. Nobody was under duress there. Every single person in the crowd was cheering and rooting for Aurora to be violently slaughtered and brutally ripped apart. Nobody was just casually sitting around, they were all on their feet, rooting for blood and guts to be spilled. These aren't normal dragons who are just trying to keep a low profile. They're animals and they have been brainwashed into following Nithogg's crazed footsteps." He said angrily.
Councilor Monsoon spoke up finally. "You make a very valid point, Typhoon. Aurora had no reason to lie about her experience and I believe her. If everyone in Nithogg's camp can root for a captured female dragon to be gutted and ripped to pieces, perhaps they are all savage." He said.
"How do you know it's not an act? What if they are trying their best to please their Highdragon and put on a show for him to make him believe that they truly believe what he believes in." Tempest said.
"You'd be surprised how convincing of a show one can put on under extreme circumstances." Storm said.
Typhoon rolled his eyes. "Hunches and guesses. That is what all this is. None of us can know for sure what they truly believe. What we know for certain is that they all..." Typhoon said but he paused for a moment to cough.
"My apologies. I must have ate something bad this morning." Typhoon said as he tried to pick up his previous line of thought. "What we know for certain is that they all will happily jump at the chance to..." He said, being cut off once again.
"I...What I..." Typhoon said breathing heavily as his vision narrowed. "I know that...they..." He paused again to look down and see his feet were shaking and it was getting harder to breathe. "I ... I... oh..." Typhoon said as he slowly fell forward onto his face, curling up into a ball in pain. He started to foam at the mouth as the rest of his body began twitching and jerking violently as he started experiencing seizures.
Immediately after Typhoon fell over, Councilman Twister, Storm, and Monsoon all quickly fell over as well and started convulsing violently. Tempest looked on in shock and horror as they all started seizing uncontrollably. Before he could step forward to help them, Tempest felt his own feet shaking. He grunted and grasped his chest as he started to feel a deep pain. He took a few staggered steps forward but collapsed onto his chest in the middle of the council floor. He started coughing violently as he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He quickly grasped his chest to ease the pain.
Tempest continued to cough violently for several seconds and started breathing heavily as his body started twitching and jerking. He very slowly raised his head to look around and see that all the other council members had stopped moving and were no longer breathing.
It was at the moment Tempest knew that they had all been poisoned. Since Tempest was a lot older and much larger in size than the rest of the council, the poison dose wasn't enough to kill him. Nevertheless, Tempest was still reeling in pain. The poison coursed through his body, but it wasn't enough to kill a dragon of his size. Slowly, Tempest started crawling on his belly desperate to find some help.
One of the guards outside the Throne noticed Tempest crawling toward her and she quickly leaped in fear.
"Get..." Tempest said with labored breathing as he was still shaking. "Help... Lock down... the storage...cave..." He said before resting his head on the ground, still wracked with pain.
The guard quickly took flight to alert the camp. The Infirmary was the closest cave to the Throne and the guard quickly stepped inside. "Help!" She screamed. Aurora, Cyclone, and Eclipse were all in the cave when she arrived.
Eclipse looked up in shock. "What is it?!" She said with a worried tone of voice.
"The council has been poisoned! Tempest is still alive but he wants the storage locked down immediately!" The guard said.
"Get the other guards! Take Tempest to a safe cave, we'll be right there! Do it now!" Eclipse yelled.
Eclipse, Cyclone, and Aurora quickly rushed outside of the cave and stopped by the storage cave where the fresh water was stored and found the attendant backed up against the corner.
Aurora quickly stomped forward and grabbed the storage room attendant by the throat and slammed him against the wall. "You had access to the water! What have you done?!" She demanded.
The attendant quickly shook his head in fear as he trembled nervously. "I wasn't me! I...I...I swear! She threatened me! She threatened to kill my entire family!" The attendant said, gulping nervously.
Cyclone and Eclipse got closed to him and slammed him against the wall again. "Who threatened you!"
The attendant started shaking even more. "I-I-I-I... I can't! She'll kill me!" He said, almost in tears.
Aurora growled in his face. "If you don't tell us, I'll kill you right here and now!" She said holding a claw to his throat. She started pressing her claw against his neck, causing him pain.
The attendant cried out nervously. "It was Glade!" He yelled out as Aurora started hurting him.
Aurora's eyes widened and she slowly let him go. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Almost immediately, her heart started to sink as she began to stumble backwards and shake her head in disbelief. The recalled the first time she ever met Glade, back when she was almost raped in Nithogg's camp and Glade came her rescue.
"No..." Aurora said, shaking her head. "It can't be..." She said, feeling a deep sense of dread.
Cyclone and Eclipse both had their jaws dropped in disbelief as they came to grips with the betrayal.
Outside the gave, a guard started yelling. "Go! Everybody get down!" He shouted. Immediately afterwards, the grounded started to shake as lightning began to crackle.
Aurora, Cyclone, and Eclipse rushed outside the cave and looked around at the horrific scene unfolding.
A swarm of purple dragons were flying overhead, bombarding the area below with blasts of lightning. To the shock of everyone, Vrykul were also storming into camp, shooting, stabbing, and tossing nets onto any blue or red dragon they came across.
There was no one to lead the defenses of Tempest's camp so everyone just starting fighting for their lives. Most of the warriors and hunters took to the skies to battle the dragons up above while below, the other hunters and warriors clashed with the Vrykul on the ground.
Eclipse, Aurora, and Cyclone were quickly assailed by purple dragons and Vrykul. They braced themselves for combat and began to fight back.
Aurora spun around, striking at least three Vrykul warriors with her tail but was quickly tackled by a male purple dragon. The male dragon tried to get at Aurora's throat to kill her but he was quickly knocked off and killed by Eclipse who saved Aurora's life.
Cyclone started blocking lightning blasts and firing blasts of his own as he started fighting for his life. All around them, lightning blasts exploded as fiery death rained from above. Vrykul arrows starting flying across the once peaceful camp which had now turned into a battlefield.
Aurora was struggling with another dragon before quickly tossing the dragon aside and impaling him with her claws. Before long Aurora was caught in a net but quickly struggled and cut herself free so she could continue fighting. She overpowered a Vrykul hunter and crushed his skull with her jaws.
"Stick together!" Eclipse said to Aurora and Cyclone. "Back to back! We have to go find Tempest! Glade is going to kill him!" She said as she started advancing forward.
After defeating a couple of Vrykul and purple dragons, a large lightning explosion landed just to the left of Eclipse, missing her barely but striking close enough to deafen her for a moment. The force of the blast knocked Eclipse off of her feet onto her side.
Eclipse's vision got hazy and all she could hear was a ringing in her ears as she tried to come back to her senses. When she looked up, her vision was still narrowed but she could see the bloody corpses of her fellow clanmates all around her. Nursery attendants, hunters, and warriors alike were starting to fall one after another. Right in front of her eyes, a fleeing hunter was pounced on by a large purple dragon. The purple dragon flipped him over and started tearing into his belly, ripping out his organs one by one. The ringing in Eclipse's ears still persisted as she looked on in horror as her clanmates were being slaughtered left and right. She couldn't believe that this was happening. It almost seemed like a horrible nightmare and she expected to wake up at any moment but she didn't.
All around, trees were catching fire and the grass that had once covered the peaceful camp ground was starting to wither away and die as the intense battle raged. One by one, dead dragons started falling from the sky, plummeting towards the earth. The camp ground began to run red with blood as Tempest's clan desperately fought back against the purple dragons and the vrykul who had now joined forces. The skies, which were once blue and calm, now started to turn black as lightning magic pulsed violently throughout the air and thunder echoed throughout the land.