"Ready?"
Rynn let out a deep breath and looked at her Bonded. "Yes." She drew Runeblade and followed Arokh outside. The others were waiting around the symbol of the Order Star had drawn in the dirt. The humans were prepared to fight. Glaive and Ebontyne had removed hood and helm, and stood with their hands free and magic-ready. Star had his bow out with the string half-drawn. The misty outline of an arrow could be seen between bow and string. The three dragons watched the sky. The Great Spell of Protection involved a lot of bright light effects, which were bound to attract unwelcome attention.
Rynn and Arokh would be unable to defend themselves during the casting.
Rynn looked up at Mount Tibor's summit where the clouds were beginning to roil. "Here we go."
She stood on the central circle and closed her eyes. Arokh crouched behind her, just outside the symbol. Human and dragon ackowledged the presence of the other, their entire souls joining as two hands clasp, fingers lacing tightly together.
They summoned all five elements at once.
"Steady them," Arokh's voice rumbled in Rynn's mind.
Fire was first. Hardest to control and dangerous to leave unattended, roaring a mental storm fuelled by tension and nerves, Rynn and Arokh forced away their anxiety. They would do this. The elemental fire, fed now only by steady determination, became a golden blaze in their minds' eyes.
Air, calmed already by the cessation of nerves, became a fresh strong wind.
Water and Earth, drawn from the surroundings, were patiently waiting for release.
Ether, kept under firm control by Rynn, Arokh and Runeblade, was a sense of absence in the minds of human and dragon. A doorway to nothing.
"Now," Arokh thought.
The five elements twined with each other in their thoughts, forming a beautiful, primal dance.
Rynn spoke the first part of the incantation: "This spell of my casting, I cast for the hope of the future."
The elements swirled in response. The topmost circle in the symbol of the Order of the Flame burst into a column of crimson light.
The second line: "This power I summon is in the face of true danger,"
Another mental clash of colour. The left circle blazed amber, shooting orange light into the sky.
The third: "A decision founded on my own integrity,"
Golden incandescence...
The fourth: "Until justice can be done and the spell broken..."
"Keep a good look-out," Ebontyne shouted over the noise. "We won't hear any unwelcome visitors over this."
"Speak for yourself, human," Kang-shi said, green eyes lighting. "I hear them."
"Go, then," Glaive said, and the golden dragon launched herself into the sky, Nashiva and Morghus at her sides.
"I vow that I have the courage to face death,"
Emerald light flared from the symbol.
"Doing well, Rynn," Ebontyne whispered. She glanced up at the summit where dark clouds spiralled and flickers of lightning lit the edges.
"And that I honour life."
Brilliant sapphire light...
...four blade dragons flapped above the rocky edge of the Bondeds' hide-out. One was taken out immediately by simultaneous bursts of fire from Nashiva and Kang-shi. It fell down the other side of the mountain, trailing smoke.
The other three croaked with their crow-like voices and separated, steel-feathered wings zinging at every beat. One breathed a ball of toxic gas at Rynn and Arokh.
Nashiva flew into its path, catching most of the fumes against her back...
"In me, my words and my str-"
She coughed.
The elemental structure trembled.
"In me, my wor-"
Dizziness made her falter. She suddenly felt like she couldn't stand upright.
Fine fracture lines appeared across the partially formed dome...
"Arokh, I c-can't..." Rynn gasped for air and started to choke, panic clawing her insides as she felt the fire in her mind flare up into a raging maelstrom.
"Breathe," Arokh's voice whispered in her mind. "I've got them. Breathe, Rynn."
Rynn felt the dragon attempt to steady the spell. His own breath was erratic and his mind slightly unsteady, but he kept control of himself. She took a shallow gulp of air and felt it, clean and pure, fill her lungs. She breathed again, gripping Runeblade tightly and feeling Arokh looming behind her. All she could see was colour, and her senses were drowned in warmth and cold, the taste of clean water and the feel of rushing wind, the smell of newly turned earth, the sound of crackling flames... a sense of being both nowhere and everywhere.
She heard Arokh say with her: "In me, my words and my strength, my companions trust."
The elements wove together a seventh time, generating a blaze like sunlight through amethysts, then the symbol of the Order of the Flame burned white... and the Great Spell of Protection waited to be moulded.
"That's it!" Glaive shouted. He threw a bolt of gold lightning at a blade dragon in pursuit of Morghus. "Kang-shi! Keep those creatures off our backs!"
"You heard him," the dragon roared to Nashiva and Morghus. "Guard the humans and our dragonkin!"
As the three dragons engaged the enemy then swooped aside to draw them away from the humans and Arokh, Glaive, Star and Ebontyne hurried to the blazing symbol. They stopped just short of the white light, and Ebontyne pointed up at Tibor's cratered peak. Barely visible, a transparent silver film enclosed the entire summit in a gigantic bubble.
"I thought that wasn't supposed to happen yet!" Star exclaimed. Then he frowned and took a step back, still looking but not through the spell's light. "Now I can't see it."
"It's not up yet," Ebontyne told him. "We have to-"
"By Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Ether, I put this place under my protection!" Rynn shouted. She appeared, striding from the light, and went straight to Arokh. "Take all the crystals but one," she said to her companions. "Take that last one out when you see Arokh breathe fire."
"After that," Ebontyne said as she pulled the newly-formed barrier crystal from a circle in the symbol, "don't let the enemy catch you."
Rynn mounted and Arokh said, "When it's over, I'll spread my wings and breathe fire again to signal you to replace the crystals and end the spell."
A few seconds passed silently before a blast of gases hit the ground nearby.
"Good luck," Ebontyne said, and the two men nodded.
"To you as well," Rynn said. She looked up at the sky, past the battling dragons to the mountain's storm-touched summit. "Let's fly!"