Chapter 31: Make the Half-Breed Pay

Doubloon looked at the two sisters and said, "Well since we have guests here, I might as well show you around the village." He got off his slab and told them, "Follow me younglings, I'll tell you everything you need to know."

"Okay," replied the hatchlings. Danielle and Kylie followed the chief out of his room and together they walked through the tunnels, learning what the various rooms are for.

Going to the largest room where a bunch of dragons were mingling with each other, Doubloon informed, "This wide place is where many dragons hang out in their leisure times and also where we have meetings as to what's going on. We will be having one about you hatchlings shortly after the tour."

"Weally?" asked Kylie.

Doubloon nodded answered, "Yes, so that everyone here will know who you are. Now come, we have some more to go see." Going down the tunnels, the hatchlings looked at all the cave as the chief explained, "These caves are nests belonging to our residents. The section we're at is where daytime dragons like you and me sleep at when night falls. The other section we'll be going next is for the nocturnal dragons; they're nighttime dragons, so they sleep during the day and wake up at night."

"Why?" asked Danielle curiously. She thought it was strange for dragons to be nocturnal. She and her sister always believed that everyone was awake during the day and only slept at night.

"Well it's because some breeds of dragons are like that," answered Doubloon. Then the chief and hatchlings went on their way to the nocturnal section as Doubloon said, "We shall have a room built for you two later."

Kylie inquired, "Is it going to be wike da other caves?"

"Yes it will be," the chief answered. Soon, they got to the beginning of the nocturnal section and said, "Now do you see these dark crystals at the start of the tunnels? They lead you to the nocturnal section. Whenever you see these crystals, you are to never go beyond them during the daytime. You'll disturb their sleep if you do. Do you understand?"

Kylie nodded as Danielle promised, "Okay Doubwoon, we won't go dere."

"Good girls," the chief said. "Now let's go over to the large room. The whole village needs to know about you two." Then they all went over there.

With Atlas and Axle gone to finish their quest, Aeolus looked to his horde and told them, "Vulture Horde, we shall commence our training from Mekarth and Juna immediately."

Yopple perked his ears up and eagerly said, "Training, eh? Well it is about time, sir." The magi cassare walked over, craning his neck. "So, Aeolus sir, how shall this work?" the dragon asked.

The horde leader answered, "I don't know. We'll just have to hear it from Axle's siblings. They're the ones teaching us what to do."

Juna stopped and turned her head to Aeolus to shoot him a defiant look. "No, we are not and for a few reasons. One, we don't have a big enough area to make a small section of Shadow Wind. Two, you are not yet worthy of my training. And three, someone a little to eager to train. Till all three are met, no one is training under our wing except for that small pygmy that is flying around," the dragoness said as she turn back and continued to talk with her brother.

The atmosphere was filled with various complaints by the horde at Juna not wanting to teach them. Bam whined, "Oh come on, that's not cool!"

Orion growled, "Don't you care about your city?!"

"What's her problem?!" huffed Fakoo.

Aeolus frowned at her and thought, 'Looks like I'll need to work hard at gaining her trust if I am to liberate my fellow dragons and slaughter off the humans.' The question was how he would be able to do it. The first requirement, he can do easily by migrating the horde to a different place. But the last two were going to be difficult with the second being the most hardest if he was to try at it alone. Good thing there was Baltia for the job. Juna did make an exception for her, so the dark myst would be free to get trained by her and then pass on that training to the rest of the horde. 'Looks like she's more useful than I expected,' the horde leader thought.

Then Baltia fluttered around Aeolus with a hopeful look on her face. "Where are you going?" she repeated. "Can I come too?"

Where are you going? These words got the horde leader thinking about where they needed to go right now. He thought about the Eternal Wind clan's village; the very place that Rina used to live in. The caves would be temporary homes to the horde and the surrounding desert would provide a very large space to train the dragons; thus fulling the first requirement. "We're going to the desert, Baltia," the horde leader answered. "And yes, you're coming, too," he added. Yopple nodded in agreement at the sound of going to the desert. Aeolus looked to everyone and made an announcement, "Vulture Horde, it looks like we won't be getting our training soon, but can still meet one of the objectives by going somewhere else. And I know just the place in mind."

Kekul asked him, "Really? What is it?"

Aeolus answered, "A desert, a place that I'll give you a mental image of right now." Then he telepathically sent him and Enamora the image of the Eternal Wind clan's village. 'There's also empty caves there for when we need to cool off from the heat,' he said.

The magma magi smiled and said, 'Well that looks like a perfect place to be on. Okay, my mate and I will send everyone there.'

"Yes sir. W-" Yopple couldn't even finish before he and the rest of the horde were teleported to a village.

Atlas and Axle appeared at the spring cave and went to edge of the cliff. Looking at the silhouette of a mountain at the very far distance, she asked, "Hey Axle, you think that's Trident Mountain over there?"

"Maybe," the white dragon said as he looked at the mountain. "But there is one way to find out. But we are not going by air," he said as he looked at Atlas. "Mind if we just walk there?" he asked. "It would provide much needed time for Juna and Mekarth to train Aeolus and the others. Maybe." He was talking about if they passed Juna's test.

Atlas liked the idea and replied, "Well okay as long as I'm going there as a human." This would give her more experience in being in human form. Before she could go down on ground, she smelled a human scent nearby. The magi looked behind her to see if Spinx or anybody else was in the cave. But there was no one there. Then she looked down to see if a human was climbing up. Again, she didn't see anything. So when she moved her head up to see if one was above the cave, she spotted a teenage halfling hovering in the air. He appeared to be part black dragon from the looks of his horns and wings. She also noticed that he was staring at them. "What are you looking at?" she asked.

The boy smiled before he replied back, "You and your friend, who else?"

The magi was about to respond when she heard an echoing voice from somewhere above, "Hello?"

Atlas turned her head around to see a dirt-covered lumina dragoness looking down at them. "Yeah? Who are you?" asked the magi.

Axle shook his head and telepathically said to the magi, 'Atlas, the lumina dragon looks as if she is about to collapse, it seems.'

Judging the lumina's appearance and nervousness, the magi agreed, 'Yeah, I could have sworn she was neglected and abused.' Some dragons, especially the docile breeds, tend to fearful of others after getting touched by their cruel slave owners.

The lumina sorta jumped at the magi's question. "I-I am Ohimia, and it is nice to meet you!" she shifted before coughing.

The halfling smiled at the lumina and joked, "Looks like quite the party down there!"

Ohimia shifted again and responded, "Party? I don't see a party? O-OH, I see what you mean." She looked around after realizing what he meant. "So, like I said, I am Ohimia. And you are?" she asked, slightly bowing.

Axle introduced himself and his companion, "My name is Axle Incarus. This is Atlas Firestar."

Atlas asked the dragoness, "So Ohimia, you look like you've had a rough time. What happened? Did you suffer in a human hellhole or something?"

Ohimia had an unsure on her face and said, "Only a fraction had to do with humans." She sat down and started to tell her story, "You see, I had finally met up with a dragon I hadn't seen in a while. A glowing orange cassare named Yopple. We were raised by a kind human together, a tamer by the name of Esko. Though, he is dead now; killed by dragon haters." She looked down at her feet sadly.

Atlas's memory took her back to the huge cassare who was glowing orange at the lake. It could have been him, but she dismissed it as highly unlikely as the cassare was in Solomos and the lumina's friend was in Rudvich. For all she knew, that cassare could have been anyone.

The lumina continued, "But he had found two beings. Two beings that, with power combined, could stop the war. However, they didn't listen and doubted their trouble. I had tried to go after them as well, and I ended up running into two hybrids. One slashed my throat, but one of the two Yopple found healed it." She gestured to her throat.

Immediately, the magi started growling with anger and seeing red. 'Those bastards, they tried to kill another dragon after I warned them!' she thought furiously. They disregarded her, so now it was time for them to pay.

Ohimia told the rest of the story, but the magi didn't care much about that now. "However by that point, Yopple had changed in personality. He was stone cold and he hated both humans and dragons. It was all too strange; way too strange. He left and I tried to make friends with the pair. One of them shooed me off and I left. I was traveling through forest and dirt for a long while, and I guess that is why I look like I have been through a lot of hell." Looking back at the two dragons, she asked, "Did I bore you?"

Atlas snarled, "No! Ohimia, which hybrid did this to you?" She didn't care who it was; she wanted that hybrid dead and she was not about to let anybody stop her this time.

The lumina began to describe her attacker, "Well, the one that attacked was... black and wore a blue scarf." Then she started shuddering in fear as if the bad memory had came back to haunt her.

Remembering one of the hybrids she fought some time ago, Atlas thought, 'So it's that same hybrid from Windfall. Okay, now I know who to go after.'

The halfling boy flew up and landed next to Ohimia. He spoke, "Well, since it seems we are all doing introductions, I may as well introduce myself. I'm Garin; it's a pleasure to meet all of you."

The lumina dragoness looked up at Garin and slightly stepped forward. She asked, "Hello. Did you overhead my name? I-I was going around looking for training."

Garin answered, "Yes Ohimia, I overheard your name."

Axle turned his attention to the magi and coldly said, "Atlas, don't do anything stupid. Remember why you are here and who you do it for." He sounded just as pissed as she was. His eyes had lost their softness and kindness in them and was replace with sorrow for the lumina dragoness, but anger as well. Axle put himself between the cave entrance and Atlas to block her way. Too bad, it wouldn't be much help anyway as she can teleport.

"Don't worry, I'll make this really quick," the magi told him. She was pretty sure the fight with the black hybrid would be easier this time, since he probably won't have the help of some allies this time. Plus, he was no Spinx or dragon lord either, so no dark magic or extremely tough to worry about. She pictured the hybrid in her mind and cast a tracking spell. Now knowing where he is, she would teleport right over to where the hybrid was at.

The lumina saw the magi's rage and cried, "No no no!" Too late! Atlas has already warped off to punish the attacker.

Yopple looked around the desert village in confusion. "Sir, where are we? Is this the place?" he asked the disaster dragon.

"It is," Aeolus answered. Then he told them what that place was, "The home of the Eternal Wind clan."

Corona heard what he said and reasoned, "Um Aeolus, I'm not sure if we should be warping onto someone else's territory like that. Won't they be angry with us?"

The horde leader assured her, "Relax Corona, the clan met their extinction at the hands of humans some time ago. We will be alright." Then he went on to an important matter at hand, "Anyway, now that we're in the right place, we may as well do a different kind of training at hand until Juna and her brother feel content teaching us. We're going to be sparring against one another so that we can learn how to fight dragons such as ourselves." He looked out beyond the village and continued, "This training will take place outside the village." Looking back to the horde, he said, "I will arrange who's against who, so that we can overcome our weaknesses and learn to fight different breeds. But while we train, I will be taking a small group with me to go look for new recruits to build up the horde."

Stormy the gray dragoness asked, "So who's going?"

Aeolus answered, "I shall take Kekul and Cirrus with me, since I'll need teleportation, a tracking spell, and healing magic for when things get hectic. But before I go, I need to assign different partners for this training. Let's go out into the village." The horde went out the village and into the open desert. There the disaster dragon started telling them, "Alright listen up for who get paired up with." He looked to the pure cassare dragon and said, "Pyro and Enamora will both spare with each other." Then he looked at the other cassare and said, "Yopple, you will be up against Eatorn." At the red and ember dragons, he told them, "Sargoth and Udiya will spare."

Curious about his partner and not wanting to wait, Bam asked, "So cous, who am I up against?"

The horde leader paused in displeasure at his cousin interrupting him. So to punish him, he answered, "Tavurth."

The navy blue looked dumbfounded with disbelief and answered, "Huh?!" There was no way he could take on a big brute dragon like him. Then Aeolus finished up listing the sparring parents.

With all that done, the disaster dragon then said, "Everyone get with your partners right now." The horde split into groups and made spaces between one another so that they don't get in the other groups' spars. Then Aeolus said, "Good! Now I shall take my leave to find new members. Try not to hurt each other badly during your sessions. Should anyone sustain an injury, don't hesitate to tell Hewey about it." Turning his attention to the magma magi, the horde leader told him, "We'll go with the dragons I know first. This is the one I want you to take us to." He telepathically showed Kekul the image of a green dragon with a lilac underbelly and said, 'This is Gneiss; a relative and member of my clan. He should also be able to create earthquakes like me. I need you to track him down and warp us to him.'

'Got it, sir,' Kekul replied. He placed a tracking spell on Gneiss and learned where he was at. He teleported the trio over to that place there.

It took Minerva a while to get the article done. With the article on the city hall magic program done, the woman started to work on the one for the dragon literacy program. She wrote down the address to where the ADR is having that program and wrote what it was all about.

Megan's car had reached the outskirts of Windfall, where it parked on the side of the wall bordering the city. Kathia got of the car and said to the driver, "I hope you have the patience to wait for me, Megan, because this will take a long time since we can't drive cars there anymore."

The woman assured her, "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I brought a book with me to read." She took out a novel out of the compartment as she said that.

"Well good for you; that should be easier on your mind," the girl said to her. Then she went to the gates, where the guards let her pass in. She made her way through the streets to look for a horse cab that would take her to her home. She found one with no passenger inside on the right side of the street. She quickly ran over to it before the man lets someone else on. "Stop!" she cried. The coachman made the horse halt in its tracks. Kathia went around the horse and told the man, "I need a ride over to my mansion."

The coachman moved aside to make room for her, in case she needed to sit in the front. "Well hop on it," he said. The girl got into the passenger seat next to him and paid him money. She then told him the directions to her mansion, which the horse cab started to follow now.

Once Doubloon and the sisters got to the large cave, the chief called all the dragons to the meeting and told them about their guests, "Everyone, these are our two guests, Danielle and Kylie." The audience looked to the hatchlings briefly before turning their attention back to the chief. He continued, "Their aunt brought them here for protection until she and Aeolus defeat a tyrant who has his iron claw over a city. I don't know how long this will take, but if anything happens to her, then these hatchlings will be kept here as permanent residents."

The nocturnal horde members, who had been listening to the chief, started their own conversation. Eitri said, "Sounds like we'll be going to Shadow Wind next."

Zylanon looked confused and asked, "We're going to help a city with humans living in it? Why? That sounds a bit counterproductive to our cause?"

Uvanis, one of the non-residential horde members, answered, "I don't know, but we'll have to hear what Aeolus says later." They agreed to ask their leader later when night comes.

Doubloon ended the meeting with these words, "So as long as they are here, I will need everyone to treat these two with kindness at all times. Thank you." With the meeting over, the dragons went back to whatever they were doing earlier. The chief smiled at the sisters and he dismissed them, "Now off you go. Feel free to play with the other hatchlings you find." Then the sisters bounded off to go look for dragons their age.

A bright flash appeared in the woods and revealed Atlas glaring down at the hybrids. The black hybrid glanced up, seeming more or less unphased at magi's sudden appearance. The other hybrid, the white one, however, seemed more alarmed if anything, though it didn't last long. The magi was snarling at the black one, "You bastard! You went and tried to kill an innocent dragon! Now you're going to pay!" She cast a fire aura around herself, letting the flames rise as high as they can.

The black hybrid stared at Atlas flatly and asked in an uninterested tone, "Who? I mean I've killed a lot of people. You're gonna have to be more specific than that, sweet cheeks."

Atlas snarled, "I'm talking about that lumina dragoness, whose throat you slashed." Then she asked, "Does the name Ohimia ring a bell to you?"

The black hybrid blinked once before responding smugly, "Oh, that imbecile. Yeah, she's lucky I didn't finish her off. The fool asked for it. Prattling on and annoying me after I gave her a merciful warning." The magi growled hatefully; that bastard sounded just as bad as Ramkot. No remorse for hurting or killing others. He was a psychopath like all the other hybrids; he needed to be killed off right away before someone else gets hurt. Then she cast a volley of fireballs at him. The black hybrid stood still as the fireballs shot at him. They hit him head on, though they slid off his scales like water over oil. "Thanks for the breeze, peasant. But I'm immune to fire," he chuckled lowly.

The white hybrid moved closer to the other one and asked sternly, "What do you want?"

Atlas yelled, "I want that friend of yours dead!" Seeing as how fire was useless against the black one, she swapped her fire aura for a light aura, which made her body shine brightly like the sun. Then she cast a volley of light balls at the black hybrid.

He moved out of the way this time, letting the balls hit and scorch the ground. The other hybrid moved back away from the attack as well, avoiding the blast radius. The black hybrid extended his claws, licking his teeth with a smirk. "And it looks like another moron will die in her place," he cracked his knuckles.

The magi thought challengingly, 'I'd like to see you try.'

The white hybrid glared at Atlas with his claws extended. He warned, "You're a killer yourself! Don't you dare threaten my brother after what you've done. We saw you try to kill our kin for no reason other than his breed. You're no better. Leave now or face both of us; you're outnumbered!" The black hybrid flickered his eyes over, looking rather amused at his brother.

Atlas roared defiantly, "Never!" Then she cast a light beam at the two hybrids, who split up to avoid the spell. She moved it along after the black hybrid, who was trying to run away from the attack. Atlas originally planned to leave the white one alone, but if he was going to get in the way, then he was going to pay the price. Then the hybrids rushed forward at the magi. The white one breathed his ice breath and the black one his fire breath as they drew closer.

Atlas got burned and frosted by their respective breaths. Feeling the intensity of the damage, she wondered why her armor wasn't doing anything to protect her. But then suddenly, she realized why she felt that kind of damage. 'Ah crap! I left my armor back there!' she thought, feeling stupid for forgetting it. Oh well, it was too late now. She started this fight, so she must end it. Besides, she knew that Axle would heal her later. Then they drew closer with the white one going for her wings, while the other tried for her underside. It looks like they were willing to risk getting blinded by the light, if they were going to come at her with physical attacks. Just as they were within a foot, the magi had cast offensive light rays from her light aura in an attempt to let the rays burn them.

Both hybrids skidded to a halt before the rays. A few hairs singed on the white hybrid's tail before both managed to pull away. The brothers looked at each other briefly and the black hybrid sprayed spurts of magma at Atlas's side. The white one shot his ice breath onto the spurts, turning them into a spray of rock daggers, which then hit her side and stuck into her body. The magi roared when another breath of lava hit her side and burned it. Now she was brimming with even more rage.

The black hybrid started to chuckle, "You may have some high esteem for hunting invalid hybrids like that kid, but all misplaced." Then he scolded smugly, "Those were invalids. Duds. Failures. Need I remind you they were failures because they could not perform in combat. You are foolish if you think you can take both of us on by yourself. And as a fool, you shall perish. Or tuck your tail between your legs and flee like the maggot you are; whichever comes first."

No way was she running from this fight; not until the black bastard was dead. Atlas roared back at the black hybrid, "So what?! I've handled lots of tough fights before and won them all! This will be no different!" Hybrids were very fast, but teleporting was much faster as it can go one millisecond. Let's see if these half-breeds could handle her next move. The magi warped on top of the black hybrid and pinned him down under her front foot between her claws. Then she charged up her magic energy to blow down another light beam at him. The black hybrid snarled and retaliated by digging his claws into her foot. The magi winced in response, but she didn't bother to let go. When he tried to lift her foot and let himself move a bit, she pushed back down against him with all the strength of her larger size and weight.

Then the black hybrid started to blow his magma breath at her in a steady stream. The white hybrid came to his side and added his ice breath to his brother's again, hardening the magma to obsidian. They were apparently trying to aim for her throat, but the light beam connected with the obsidian pillar and saved everyone's lives. The white hybrid said, "Don't think you're going to get it so easy trying to focus us one at a time." The magi tried this again by casting light lasers at the brothers. The black hybrid continued his own assault with his magma towards her mouth. The white hybrid helped him create more obsidian with his own ice breath united with the magma. The light beam fractured the obsidian, causing the edges creeping towards the magi's mouth to become jagged and sharp. She moved her head out of the way to avoid the sharp black pike. While doing so, she had looked up at the sky and decided to take the fight there. These hybrids had no wings, so Atlas will be able to attack the black one there, while the other one is left stranded on land. She teleported herself and the black hybrid high up in the sky way above the trees.

Once there, the black hybrid was set above her and Atlas below him. The magi soared up towards him with her claw ready to slash at him. But knowing how fast these hybrids reacted, the dragoness would have to get creative to deal damage to him. She focused on him and paid attention for any sudden moves he made. After getting close to him, she teleported right behind the hybrid and made an attempt to swipe at his back. But he twirled around and swung his searing blade out in an arc behind him. The magi yelped when it touched her claw. It seems like he had anticipated her move. Guess she'll have to try to give him a death by falling. The black hybrid adjusted his posture, aiming for the ground where his brother is was. "Typical typical. Is no one creative these days?" he asked casually as he fell.

Atlas growled and thought, 'Let's see if this is creative enough for you.' Seeing the creature trying to get back to the ground to rejoin his brother, the magi warped herself and the black hybrid to the lab ruins to cut off his support. Then she started flying up as she teleported the black hybrid off the ground and higher up the last altitude she originally placed him. She didn't stop there; the magi kept going and going as she soared higher above in the sky. She had a good enough distance between the hybrid and herself so that he wouldn't attack her with his claws, katana, or his magma breath. When they reached the clouds, Atlas noticed that the air was getting heavier, making it a bit difficult to breath. After going above the clouds, the magi was about to cast down a beam of ice on him to encase him in thick solid ice and make him drop down to his doom faster. But suddenly, she started seeing an image of a familiar boy being pursue by a bunch of angry dragons. 'Oh no, Henry's in trouble,' she thought in alert. The tracking spell she placed on him had warned her just in time. Speaking of time, Atlas did promise Axle that she was going to make this fight quick and she didn't want to make him wait any longer.

The magi sneered at the hybrid, "This looks like a good enough fall for you. I'd stay and watch you die, but I can't keep my friends waiting for long." She used the tracking spell to bring Henry's location to her mind. "Ta-ta, half-breed!" the dragoness said before she teleported over to Henry to save him.

Author's Note: I wasn't sure long these sections and the previous ones from the Firestars and the Vulture Horde would take after Minerva's story in chapter 29 in real life time; so I decided to put her part in this chapter. I really wanted to get back to her and Kathia. Also, I was originally going to have Atlas use her wind powers in the fight as well, until Eveeoni told me that this RP was sticking to only two elements in fights (something that I had been unaware of this whole time). So from now on, unless someone says it's okay for their case, I'm only choosing two elements to fight with during RP battles. Sorry if it would make Atlas and Kathia look a bit dumb storywise, but that's the rules.

But don't worry, they'll be free of these limits once we get to the "Big Event", where everything will go on an alternate path from the RP. After all, there are no rules to when it comes to writing your own stories. And finally, I've removed the part in chapter 30 where Atlas takes her armor with her. I forgot that she was wearing it before the fight, so now I made it to where she accidentally leaves her armor behind.

Gneiss (c) me
Ohimia and Esko (c) Esko_the_Wolf
Garin (c) DJVoxel