Silence.
Terrible dread silence reigned filling all with fear of what was to be. Even the storm had calmed which made the blow when it came much more fearsome.
Lightning tore the sky asunder, renting the darkness with blades of white light. The thunder that followed it was tremendous and it seemed to go on forever. Snow White felt it reverberate through her entire body and the creatures it summoned were out of the worst nightmare.
Seeming to rise from the torrid earth itself came a beast the likes of which she had never seen, made entirely out of smoke and flame it roared in echo to the passing thunder, calling another to its side.
This next rose with a shriek, the very King of Rats it seemed, as large as a man with a thick bald tail, huge tulip shaped ears and monstrous chisel-like front incisors. His diminutive subjects swarmed all over and around him, squeaking and biting, clawing and fighting in a living sea of vicious rodents.
Another, a creature of the swamps swathed in the foul flora and stinking sludge of the marsh, arose from another direction, its large pointed teeth erupting from its jaws in all directions and the sound that emerged therefrom was like the guardian of the gates of hell.
The fourth seemed to be made of nothing but bones - the skull of a ram was its head and ribs encased its chest, on the outside. Decomposing flesh and skin still hung in malodorous tatters from its blue-white carcass. In the sockets where its eyes should have been there was nothing, only grim, dark holes.
The fifth was probably the worst of all, instead of having one head it had three. An extra dark identical snake-like head sprouted from either side of its neck, huge fangs resting against their chins, and all three chattered and spat unintelligibly and gnashed their long sabre teeth.
There was a sixth, but only Luna could see Him. Cloaked in a black robe, his eyes glowing like hot coals, he stalked around the others in macabre silence, choosing and watching. When she had said that the Dark One was with them she hadn't been lying. His presence did not induce fear now, He was her ally, her master, her mate who had given her the strength for her last task. They worked together now.
The flame-beast advanced upon the Stepmother. She was shaking, she had no defence against the demons of the underworld, at least not all of them at once. A gaping black hole appeared in the monster's belly as it reached out a burning claw for the wriggling wolf cub. It disappeared into the smoking void before the flames closed in about it.
The other four moved in on a command from the wolf she had called her underling - fool to have been so trusting - now the leader of all the hidden horrors of the night. The wolf howled and the fiends called with her, creating a cacophony of fear so powerful that she felt the ground shake and her heart pounded fit to burst.
Just before they reached her she was seized from above. Powerful claws sank into her thin shoulders, through flesh and bone, and bore her aloft. The personification of the lightning had come down and flew her up towards the oncoming storm. Then her dropped her.
She screamed only once as she plummeted downwards and her body shattered on the sun-hardened earth outside the castle grounds.
Arc landed as a bolt of lighting struck in the gardens - and a single rose bush exploded in a sea of blue flame.
Luna was swaying now, her mammoth fight against the poison that flooded her body almost over. 'Be gone now. Your work is done. I love you all.'
The vengeful spirits departed with respectful bobs of their heads as the first sheets of rain fell. All but one. Luna welcomed him now, 'Come to me, my Lord.'
Luna toppled backwards into his sweet embrace, her fight ended and her spirit already flying before her body hit the solid ground, with two words before she took her place upon the other way. 'Forgive me.'
The starlit pathway was bright before her now, a white wolf already upon it along with another that she knew, but it was to the white wolf that she bowed, 'My Lady of the Moon.'
* * * * *
It was as Luna fell that Snow White understood what she had given - everything - blood, body, soul and life. She cradled the dying wolfs' head in her lap and wept the bitter tears Luna had promised after killing the chickens at what she had done to this poor beast, no woman, mother, that had made her turn to evil ways in order to protect herself and her child. A child that was now an orphan and abducted by terrible fiends due to her selfishness. She had forgotten her own lesson of the glass coffin - that obedience was not a virtue - and hadn't thought it applicable because Luna was part wolf, and therefore inferior. The part wolf who had given her life to protect the one who had kept her caged. The wolfs' yellow eyes were misted and Snow White wished with all her heart she could call her back so she could apologise for everything.
Arc reached the cage and what he saw made his heart sink. Luna had bought her reconciliation with her life. With the strength only a dragon can muster he wrenched the door off its hinges, breaking the lock, and threw it aside with barely a thought.
Snow White looked up at him, pathetically needy, 'Save her Arc.'
He examined her tenderly, 'Poison?' he said, looking at the many scratches on her body, some deep, all bleeding, 'This is beyond my skill to heal, but there may be one chance.' His pale eyes searched the turbulent sky. The storm had changed direction, almost as if pushed by great wings.
Great wings? That meant.
Arc ran out of the cage and beat his own white wings, pushing himself rapidly upwards, soaring when he hit a thermal. Once at an adequate height he almost seemed to stand on the air, his wings outspread to make himself as obvious as possible. He roared, roared to rival the storm in strength.
Snow White watched, not understanding the performance and feeling Luna die beneath her hands.
The clouds cracked and parted and the most beautiful dragon Snow White had ever seen emerged from the boiling mass. He shimmered with all colours at once. He was double the size of Arc in body, but his wings were eight times the length of his and trebly as broad.
The dragons roared at each other seemingly in a challenge and flew at each other. They locked hind claws and let their wings drop. Snow White choked in horror as the pair hurtled out of control towards the ground, spinning round and round, twisting and turning like a bolas flying through the air. At the very last moment they let go of each other and flicked open their wings, Arc pulling up slightly earlier while the rainbow-hued dragon's belly scales brushed against the tips of the long grass cutting a swathe the width of his mighty wingspan. Snow White had always thought that Arc was big, but he was a mere dwarf compared to that graceful giant of the skies.
With powerful backward sweeps of their wings, both dragons came to a smooth halt just outside the menagerie.
The dragons shook claws and clapped each other on the shoulders in a chummy fashion while conducting a conversation in ancient Dragontongue - mere growls, hisses and roars to the uncomprehending ear.
'You've improved, son of the glacier. You wheel almost as well as me.'
'It's good to see you, Raisho. We haven't flown together in a good forty years.'
'A mere blink of the eye to me, Arc. Years come and go without my noticing.'
'How fares my Lord Daeconduras?'
'You know him, Arc. Old as the mountain and twice as indestructible. Did you call me down from the skies just for this? Not that I mind, you understand. Where the storm travels I am bound to follow. Besides, this isn't exactly a place I'd call welcoming.' A sapphire blue eye glanced disdainfully around the lines of cages.
'Help me and you'll put an end to it.'
'What favour do you ask?'
Arc led his huge kinsman into the cage where Luna lay dying. She was fading fast now, Lord knows how she'd survived this long. Raisho nodded slightly to the Queen before turning his full attention to the wolf. He examined every cut and abrasion in minute detail, and while he did so Snow White inspected him. His skin glowed with all colours at once and his eyes were the most gentle and wise that she had ever seen. Unlike Arc's short, sharp horns, Raisho's curved down elegantly to his shoulders where they twisted into an almost complete semi-circle, their tips just touching each other.
The great dragon started rocking backwards and forwards, chanting gently in a way that calmed everyone down before breathing gently on the wounds, sniffing them lightly and massaging them soothingly with his delicate claws. Before long clear liquid began running from the lacerations, poison drawn out by his skill, and with subtle motions it crystallized and fell to the stony ground where the wind blew it away.
While he worked, Arc explained what he was doing to the Queen, 'Poison is an Earth art, and therefore not in my power to reverse. It needs an opposite to do that. To Fire is Ice, to Earth is Air. That's what Raisho is, a great Air dragon. If he cannot cure her no one can.'
Raisho whispered a blessing over her that she find her way back from the starlit pathway before her time. He lifted his noble claw and for the first time spoke in man-speak, 'Poison like that is hard to make, it takes as much skill to manufacture as to remove it. However, if it is fought it can be slow acting, although I've never known anyone to survive that long. She is not just a wolf, who is she?'
There was no hesitation in Arc's voice, 'The Shadow of the Moon, and a mother.'
'Then we have done right.' There was pride in what Raisho said, 'It will take a Shadow's strength to survive, but even this one may not last. I have done all I can but do not hold out much hope.'
'My thanks to you, Raisho. This family has already lost one daughter today, I will do all in my power to make sure that they don't lose another.'
Arc's dwelling had been the site of bloody murder. Mira had been left to look after the cubs, she had given her life defending her sisters' young against the evil old crone who sought to kidnap them. Her fallen body had shielded the female, but the witch had stolen Luath. A single tear rolled down her cheek even as she died. The bone dagger was covered in poison and would have killed her even if it had not pierced her heart. Arc's revenge had been swift and brutal.
'Will you stay, sky-brother?'
'Perhaps for a few days. Soon I must chase the storms again.'
Dawn broke with a red and bloody sun as lives hung by a thread.
Terrible dread silence reigned filling all with fear of what was to be. Even the storm had calmed which made the blow when it came much more fearsome.
Lightning tore the sky asunder, renting the darkness with blades of white light. The thunder that followed it was tremendous and it seemed to go on forever. Snow White felt it reverberate through her entire body and the creatures it summoned were out of the worst nightmare.
Seeming to rise from the torrid earth itself came a beast the likes of which she had never seen, made entirely out of smoke and flame it roared in echo to the passing thunder, calling another to its side.
This next rose with a shriek, the very King of Rats it seemed, as large as a man with a thick bald tail, huge tulip shaped ears and monstrous chisel-like front incisors. His diminutive subjects swarmed all over and around him, squeaking and biting, clawing and fighting in a living sea of vicious rodents.
Another, a creature of the swamps swathed in the foul flora and stinking sludge of the marsh, arose from another direction, its large pointed teeth erupting from its jaws in all directions and the sound that emerged therefrom was like the guardian of the gates of hell.
The fourth seemed to be made of nothing but bones - the skull of a ram was its head and ribs encased its chest, on the outside. Decomposing flesh and skin still hung in malodorous tatters from its blue-white carcass. In the sockets where its eyes should have been there was nothing, only grim, dark holes.
The fifth was probably the worst of all, instead of having one head it had three. An extra dark identical snake-like head sprouted from either side of its neck, huge fangs resting against their chins, and all three chattered and spat unintelligibly and gnashed their long sabre teeth.
There was a sixth, but only Luna could see Him. Cloaked in a black robe, his eyes glowing like hot coals, he stalked around the others in macabre silence, choosing and watching. When she had said that the Dark One was with them she hadn't been lying. His presence did not induce fear now, He was her ally, her master, her mate who had given her the strength for her last task. They worked together now.
The flame-beast advanced upon the Stepmother. She was shaking, she had no defence against the demons of the underworld, at least not all of them at once. A gaping black hole appeared in the monster's belly as it reached out a burning claw for the wriggling wolf cub. It disappeared into the smoking void before the flames closed in about it.
The other four moved in on a command from the wolf she had called her underling - fool to have been so trusting - now the leader of all the hidden horrors of the night. The wolf howled and the fiends called with her, creating a cacophony of fear so powerful that she felt the ground shake and her heart pounded fit to burst.
Just before they reached her she was seized from above. Powerful claws sank into her thin shoulders, through flesh and bone, and bore her aloft. The personification of the lightning had come down and flew her up towards the oncoming storm. Then her dropped her.
She screamed only once as she plummeted downwards and her body shattered on the sun-hardened earth outside the castle grounds.
Arc landed as a bolt of lighting struck in the gardens - and a single rose bush exploded in a sea of blue flame.
Luna was swaying now, her mammoth fight against the poison that flooded her body almost over. 'Be gone now. Your work is done. I love you all.'
The vengeful spirits departed with respectful bobs of their heads as the first sheets of rain fell. All but one. Luna welcomed him now, 'Come to me, my Lord.'
Luna toppled backwards into his sweet embrace, her fight ended and her spirit already flying before her body hit the solid ground, with two words before she took her place upon the other way. 'Forgive me.'
The starlit pathway was bright before her now, a white wolf already upon it along with another that she knew, but it was to the white wolf that she bowed, 'My Lady of the Moon.'
* * * * *
It was as Luna fell that Snow White understood what she had given - everything - blood, body, soul and life. She cradled the dying wolfs' head in her lap and wept the bitter tears Luna had promised after killing the chickens at what she had done to this poor beast, no woman, mother, that had made her turn to evil ways in order to protect herself and her child. A child that was now an orphan and abducted by terrible fiends due to her selfishness. She had forgotten her own lesson of the glass coffin - that obedience was not a virtue - and hadn't thought it applicable because Luna was part wolf, and therefore inferior. The part wolf who had given her life to protect the one who had kept her caged. The wolfs' yellow eyes were misted and Snow White wished with all her heart she could call her back so she could apologise for everything.
Arc reached the cage and what he saw made his heart sink. Luna had bought her reconciliation with her life. With the strength only a dragon can muster he wrenched the door off its hinges, breaking the lock, and threw it aside with barely a thought.
Snow White looked up at him, pathetically needy, 'Save her Arc.'
He examined her tenderly, 'Poison?' he said, looking at the many scratches on her body, some deep, all bleeding, 'This is beyond my skill to heal, but there may be one chance.' His pale eyes searched the turbulent sky. The storm had changed direction, almost as if pushed by great wings.
Great wings? That meant.
Arc ran out of the cage and beat his own white wings, pushing himself rapidly upwards, soaring when he hit a thermal. Once at an adequate height he almost seemed to stand on the air, his wings outspread to make himself as obvious as possible. He roared, roared to rival the storm in strength.
Snow White watched, not understanding the performance and feeling Luna die beneath her hands.
The clouds cracked and parted and the most beautiful dragon Snow White had ever seen emerged from the boiling mass. He shimmered with all colours at once. He was double the size of Arc in body, but his wings were eight times the length of his and trebly as broad.
The dragons roared at each other seemingly in a challenge and flew at each other. They locked hind claws and let their wings drop. Snow White choked in horror as the pair hurtled out of control towards the ground, spinning round and round, twisting and turning like a bolas flying through the air. At the very last moment they let go of each other and flicked open their wings, Arc pulling up slightly earlier while the rainbow-hued dragon's belly scales brushed against the tips of the long grass cutting a swathe the width of his mighty wingspan. Snow White had always thought that Arc was big, but he was a mere dwarf compared to that graceful giant of the skies.
With powerful backward sweeps of their wings, both dragons came to a smooth halt just outside the menagerie.
The dragons shook claws and clapped each other on the shoulders in a chummy fashion while conducting a conversation in ancient Dragontongue - mere growls, hisses and roars to the uncomprehending ear.
'You've improved, son of the glacier. You wheel almost as well as me.'
'It's good to see you, Raisho. We haven't flown together in a good forty years.'
'A mere blink of the eye to me, Arc. Years come and go without my noticing.'
'How fares my Lord Daeconduras?'
'You know him, Arc. Old as the mountain and twice as indestructible. Did you call me down from the skies just for this? Not that I mind, you understand. Where the storm travels I am bound to follow. Besides, this isn't exactly a place I'd call welcoming.' A sapphire blue eye glanced disdainfully around the lines of cages.
'Help me and you'll put an end to it.'
'What favour do you ask?'
Arc led his huge kinsman into the cage where Luna lay dying. She was fading fast now, Lord knows how she'd survived this long. Raisho nodded slightly to the Queen before turning his full attention to the wolf. He examined every cut and abrasion in minute detail, and while he did so Snow White inspected him. His skin glowed with all colours at once and his eyes were the most gentle and wise that she had ever seen. Unlike Arc's short, sharp horns, Raisho's curved down elegantly to his shoulders where they twisted into an almost complete semi-circle, their tips just touching each other.
The great dragon started rocking backwards and forwards, chanting gently in a way that calmed everyone down before breathing gently on the wounds, sniffing them lightly and massaging them soothingly with his delicate claws. Before long clear liquid began running from the lacerations, poison drawn out by his skill, and with subtle motions it crystallized and fell to the stony ground where the wind blew it away.
While he worked, Arc explained what he was doing to the Queen, 'Poison is an Earth art, and therefore not in my power to reverse. It needs an opposite to do that. To Fire is Ice, to Earth is Air. That's what Raisho is, a great Air dragon. If he cannot cure her no one can.'
Raisho whispered a blessing over her that she find her way back from the starlit pathway before her time. He lifted his noble claw and for the first time spoke in man-speak, 'Poison like that is hard to make, it takes as much skill to manufacture as to remove it. However, if it is fought it can be slow acting, although I've never known anyone to survive that long. She is not just a wolf, who is she?'
There was no hesitation in Arc's voice, 'The Shadow of the Moon, and a mother.'
'Then we have done right.' There was pride in what Raisho said, 'It will take a Shadow's strength to survive, but even this one may not last. I have done all I can but do not hold out much hope.'
'My thanks to you, Raisho. This family has already lost one daughter today, I will do all in my power to make sure that they don't lose another.'
Arc's dwelling had been the site of bloody murder. Mira had been left to look after the cubs, she had given her life defending her sisters' young against the evil old crone who sought to kidnap them. Her fallen body had shielded the female, but the witch had stolen Luath. A single tear rolled down her cheek even as she died. The bone dagger was covered in poison and would have killed her even if it had not pierced her heart. Arc's revenge had been swift and brutal.
'Will you stay, sky-brother?'
'Perhaps for a few days. Soon I must chase the storms again.'
Dawn broke with a red and bloody sun as lives hung by a thread.
