The beast emerged from its refuge of darkness, the light that penetrated from the mouth of the cave licked the skin tenderly. It was an enormous female, towering greatly over the girl with her nearly twenty meters of length, one of the largest dragons. Her body was covered with scales the colour or polished argenta, a light colour that glimmered with the pressence of stars. The scales were soft and velvety, and they seemed to merge with the glittering suroundings, sparkling with the ice that was the essence of the beast. Her face was noble, friendly, elongated and slim, with a pair of sharp and long horns, and a crest of strong, white fur running across her back. On her face's sides were a collection of thorns, united by a delicate skin that gave it the appereance of a fish's fin.
"hello Elisabeth!" said a gentle voice, a spark of knowledge glittering in the dragon's eye.
"who are you?" said Liz trembling intensely. She felt weak, cold and stunned. Her skin hair stood on ends when the frozen breath of the beast reached her weakly.
"can't you recognize me? Have you forgotten me? I, bred by griffins, who fought against the Nit Kyrum" said the dragon gently, inflating her chest proudly, hence her voice was calm and tranquil.
"I...!" started a confused teenager, scratching her head and gripping her wound strongly. Then it hit her, "Eikasia!" snapped Liz stunned.
The dragon rumbled with a sound that was a deep purr, contented at the woman's discovery. Liz beamed, all her fears gone, all her fantasy comming true, her wildest dreams turning to face her and greet her with open arms.
"fascinating! And what happened? Tell me the end of the battle, what was of Aura, and Shai? And Koe?!" snapped the girl excited, swinging her arms and containing a gasp from the sting of pain that shot through her shoulder.
With a gentle smile, Kasia began to relate the events ocurred during that battle, Aura's valiant fight, Shai's transformation, and the very much needed intervinience of the always cheerful Koe. Liz listened closely, her eyes glimmering with interest, lost with fascination into that space of icy stars that seemed to illuminate Kasia's figure as she spoke. Her face was a book of emotions, reflecting the pained at some bad news, or the excited at the expectation of a result, the reliefe, and the euphory at some enemy defeated.
"fantastic, so where are Shai? And Koe? Where is Koe?!" Liz snapped excitedly, jumping on her feet lightly, nervously.
"Shai is out there, hunting, and Koe was gone for a long time, but she is here now!" explained Kasia looking at Liz with an indulgent glimmer in her eyes, knowing features shinning through her velvety scales.
"fantastic! Where is she? I want to see her!" snapped Liz with a hyperactive shaking that made her forget the pain that was still present in her muscles.
"she is right here!" Eikasia mentioned calmly looking at the ice covered wall.
One of Kasia's claws moved forward, with a gentle but swift movement she rubbed off the frost that had formed over the stone. The pieces of ice fell gently, in a calm sway like the feathers of a bird, shining briefly like the blazes of a flame. With a faint, magickal glow, the polished surface of ice appeared in a way it resembled a mirror.
"she is in there!" said Eikasia calmly, solemnly piercing the hawk eyes of the girl.
Taking a deep breath, Liz walked forward, torwards the polished surface, observing with hesitation the glowing surface, and the darkenned corners glimmering lightly with the faint rays of light that, playfully, sneaked through. She took one glance torwards Lightning, who bowed gently, urging her to go on. Liz then penetrated the tense silence and ventured into looking through the magickal surface of the window torwards that beast who reached her heart. Then she saw it, looking back at her was the beast, the beautiful dragon. Her face resembled that of a dog, with a sharp mouth, pointed, wolf ears, and a thick, flaming mane that seemed to sparkle with the blaze and dancing life of a fire. Two straight horns followed the direction of the wind, bent backwards, the same as her mane. The eyes observed her in a wondrows way. They were beautiful, a dull green sparkled in honey which resembled the eyes of a prey bird. The beast's body was decorated with scales the colour of copper, bright and blazing in the faint light.
Liz smiled gently at the dragon in the window, and the beast did the same. The black lips curled into a smile and the eyelids fell lightly, pleased at the woman's vision.
"hello Koe!" Liz said gently, with a shy voice. The girl saw te dragon attempting to speak to her, and her eyebrows narrowed in confusion, staring intensely at the lips.
"what are you trying to tell me?" the girl said a little louder, seeing the dragon's face frown in frustration as well.
"VO-CA-LI-CE!" Liz exclaimed nervously, moving her lips slowly so the beast could undertand her as well.
Her heart stopped, and the woman recoiled, eyes widdening in surprise when she finally understood what the dragon was saying. The animal's lips formed the word, vocalice. It was no window. It was a mirror. Looking down at herself Liz saw a golden copperish chest, and a pair of front paws keeping her standing, finished in sharp claws.
"do you understand now?" said Kasia's gentle voice. Liz turned to look at her, feeling her large wings twitching nervously, "you are Koe!" finished the large, argent dragon calmly.
Liz looked back at the mirror, examining her figure, the image of that beast she always dreamed to be. Her wings expanded lightly, trembling with anxiety, with the need of trying them out. Her eyebrows narrowed upon seeing an item next to her, reflectd on the mirror but not in the reality. It was an egg, a copperish egg floating lazily next to her, glimmering with the fire that irradiated from it's depths. Liz turned torwards Eikasia, observing her intently, an inquiring frown reflecting upon her features.
"Kasia, why is that egg in the mirror, but not in the reality?" Liz asked calmly, yet curiously.
Kasia's eyes stared at her, penetrating, intensely, with a glint of worry and knowledge dancing in unision inside the depths of her ice orbs.
"arg, I'm tired of waiting for that girl, little bitch!" snarled captain Hook showing Kelly his threatening fist with the silvery hook, the metal glinting maliciously.
Kelly stared at the menacing claw with widdened eyes, her little body tensing, and her blood freezing with fear. She felt the fetid scent of the captain's rotten body, and the glare tinted with blood in the large, pale eyes.
"I'll start slowly, by ripping you lmb by limb, and then I'll tear open your abdomen to let your intestines pour out! Yeah...a slow, painful death!" comented the pirate, his gaze was glossy, dreamy, and his smile was a vicious snarl.
"Hook, leave her alone, she's just a child!" Peter's voice called back bravely.
Hook was startled at first by the boy's insolent yell, but then his words sank in into the captian's putrid soul, and a grim smirk that was all but pretty appeared into the greenish black lips. He turned to face the valiant teenager, lowering the metal hook, and eyeing the boy's soul while licking his lips hungrily.
"well, well, well Peter, if she's a child...what are you Peter?" inquired the man maliciously.
Peter inflated his chest only briefly, yet he remained silent, his own words reaching his conscience. He lowered his gaze with shame and worry, he hadn't meant that, yet he had at the same time. He was turning sixteen very soon,or perhaps it was seventeen for he had forgotten. He was not a child any more, but he would not admit it. Peter had never expected to develop so quickly in the five years he had spent down, in the Mainland. But he had.
The young teenager looked up, his intense blue eyes glaring deeply into Hook's pale ones, piercing the captains integrity and soul. A knowing smirk appeared in the child's lips, a smile sideways of knowledge, narrowed eyebrows of malice and mischief.
"I am a man!" Peter called back truggling against the chains that were wrapped around his body, and playing with the lock in an attempt of opening it.
"wel, Peter! You admit it? However I dont think you will get sufficient strength to tear open the chains just by admiting your...growth!" snarled the captain in a venomous hiss.
Hook's attention was abruptly called with the strident and terrified yell of a pirate. The shriek of utmost fear was accompained by the shrilly song of ice, and the profound growl of fire.
"Captain, DRAGONS!" yelled the frightened pirate, pointing at the sky.
Hook looked up only to focus his gaze on two enormous sillouettes, one of the brightest argenta, and the much smaller one of the intensity of flaming copper. He narrowed his eyes and growled like a rabid wolf.
"you are very smart, little child!" he hissed in Kelly's direction, trembling with rage.
Kelly gulped lightly, and felt her body shiver with fear, yet mantained her integrity and courage, and her tiny chest inflated with pride.
"load the cannons! Prepare to fight! Fill'em with venomous arrows! Anything but get rid of those things!" yelled Hook frantically, walking past his crew and waving his hook back and forth, imparting instructions.
"we got them where we wanted!" said Kasia keeping her wings steady in a hover, and her neck arched pridefully.
"they are going to shoot us down!" growled Liz flapping her own wings unexpertly and frantically, her hawk eyes glaring at the phantom Jolly Roger.
"relax and keep your control, just fly away from the trayectory of the cannonball!" Kasia commented calmly and knowing.
The booming sound of a thunderous roar echoed in the distance, the rumble of an earthquake shaking the sky, making the clouds tremble. The urging shrill of icy song, the triumphant yells of pirates upon seeing the copper's confusion. But things happened as they were supposed to, because it was the way Liz wanted them to happen. She regained control over her frozen body, tilting her wings she slithered away from the zooming ball like an enormous snake. Kasia raised her body and spined in the air, in such way that the metal beast flew past the gap left between her semifolded wings and the front part of her body.
Peter struggled to release himself. He had tried everything, sneaking through the chain was futile, splitting them off was hopeless, and opening the lock was turning useless. He yelled enraged, frustrated, gripping each corner of the chain where the lock had been placed and pulling with all of his might. He gasped shocked when he felt them split apart, when the chain whimpered with it's faint, sprinkling sound of faeries.
"what the...!" gasped Peter pulling off the heavy chains, and turning quickly to find the cause of such miraculous event, and to break Kelly's ropes to free her.
Peter whimpered in surprise when he saw the enormous and thin body of a white griffin tearing open Kelly's ropes, freeing her. The animal's violet eyes looked at Peter, and the shadow of a smile seemed to illuminate his face. Peter bowed in gratitude, seeing how one of his old enemies had just saved him from captivity, and possibly death.
Kelly needed no words, she rushed torwards the beast and mounted the powerful back, gripping onto the fluffy, white feathers of the griffin's neck. Lightning looked at Peter and nodded, asking him to ride on his back, to fly away torwards safety. The eyes of the griffin saw terror, a pleasant terror, a necesary fear, but it was such anyways, at it meant danger.
"Peter, come on!" called Lightning with his violet eyes sparkling angrily.
"NO! I have to finish this once and forever!" yelled Peter searching with his gaze for any form of weapon.
"you fool! Come on! You can't kill Hook, he's a monster, he's dead!" snarled Lightning, pouncing on the demency of Peter and making the boy snap out of his state of wild craze, and thirst of revenge.
Expanding his wings, the griffin took off into a flight, Kelly mounting expertly on his back, and Peter being tightly, yet tenderly gripped into the claws of the handsome animal. His figure emerged from the density of mist, only to be gazed by the acute sight of the two dragons. The wind slashed and gnashed at the white feathers viciously, clawing at the body with the rejection of it's speed. The griffin's velocity was such that Lightning became nothing but a faint blurr, blending in with the blueish mist that fogged their way through.
"know that I?m not doing this for you, but because Liz asked me to!" shrieked Lightning coldly, clipping his beak angrily.
Peter looked up briefly, and inmediatly he felt a pang of guilt piercing through his heart with cold, vicious fangs. He looked down shamefully, and inmediatly he understood that his games and jokes were nothing but cruel mischief. He thanked Wendy silently for stealing his heart, and forcing a research that ended up in a five years of age and maturity increase.
Hook smiled with his rotten teeth and black, putrid lips. In his hand, gripped lovingly was a small flask. The glass contained a liquid that was of an intense crimson, like freshly poured blood, yet also it was thick like a venom. It was indeed a deadly poison brewed with hathred and malice, and which could kill instantly.
The captain poured a few drops of the venom over the sharp edge of an arrow. Inmediatly he placed such arrow into the cannon. He grinned with madness, and laughed a terrible chuckle. Hook had noticed the departure and escape of Peter and his hostage Kelly Adams. This fact had done nothing but boost the thirst of revenge to a level of craze and madness it turned frightening. He now seemed more imponent than ever in a sad way, greenish drool trickling down his foamy mouth, and the eyes bulging out, wide pupils and thick red veins.
"here, my men, fire at the dragons!" he growled, pointing at the menace that could destroy them, for the magick of dragons bloomed with strength and effectiveness.
A pirate that was nothing but bones, engulfed in tattered old clothes, ragged and dirty, picked the arrow attempting hopelessly to grin pleasantly at Hook. He placed the arrow into the cannon, inmersing it into the depths of the black hole that was the dangerous mouth. With great accuracy they pointed at the hovering dragons, trying to decide which of them was the beast to destroy them. Finally they decided upon the flaming blurr of Koe, or Liz as she was known to the Mainland.
"FIRE!" boomed Hook's thunderous voice into an order that was to be complied.
With a loud, thunder roar that was brief yet loud and powerful, the cannon spit the load of his stomack, vomiting a deadly poison into the sky. It flew, dripping venom the colour of blood, eyes fixed on the small but quick figure of the copper dragon. Liz heart the booming howl, and saw the crimson sparkle, but only did she realize the peril she was in.
To Be Continued…
AN: Ok, before you throw poisonous arrows, or whichever item you wish at me, let me make up an excuse for my late posting. I had exams, therefore could not write, and to make things worst my computer decided he had had enough of my constant yelling and died. Actually the refridgerating system died so I was nearly two weeks without it. Right after that, the disquette where I saved my in process stories would not work, and I lacked time to work on that until today. But finally I fixed it and you can enjoy one new chapter. This and the next will culminate the story.
Thank you for your attention.