Dragon(s)layer

27


Cold Hearts Lost


{Mechassault OST - Tundra Ambiance}


When thunder started to roar through the gray overcast above, the Fallen began to worry himself over the possibility of more chilling rain before they even got to where they were going.

He was initially surprised when snowflakes started to patter onto his face and chainmail.

Oh, wait, he remembered after a strange moment of dizziness, that makes sense…

Looking past Ignitia's crown, he examined their flightpath and the terrain below, flinching when she underwent a particularly forceful flap of her wings around him, the beat of her membranes cracking like a pair of giant whips on either side of them. Still, he would've taken the jarring nature of dragon-riding (different from the human-riding dragons normally did with him) -over the inhospitable, and evil looking terrain far below.

Jagged foothills made the flesh of the geography here. The landscape looked tortured, in contrast to the lush woodlands ringing Oversight's coastal cliff peninsula. Here, gentle slopes gave way for cragged and rough formations of stone, uplifted from the earth over centuries of continental bundling. Temperate, bushier breeds of trees were overtaken by seas of pine trees, and the white blankets of snow began to grow in size and thickness the closer they got to the imposing peak-ranges making the horizon. It was hard to identify anything small down there, through the winding alcoves among the rocks and the toothpick-ponds of the forests, being this high up on Ignitia's back. For some reason, despite this, the Fallen detected nothing but malice emanating from the area beneath his feet, like there were little eyes looking up at the flight of dragons from dark, hidden places among the wilderness.

Terradora had said that several hundred Dark soldiers had escaped into the wilds since the attempted advance through Solemn Pass. The Fallen had no doubt that the realms around Oversight would remain haunted by stragglers for quite some time.

The land dipped between two dwarfish peaks suddenly, the grassy valleys to the city's east forgotten, now replaced with fields of blanketed white, where not even weeds or thin brush grew.

Soon, the mountains began to drag under the dragons' bellies, the flight swerving to pass between the immeasurably tall heights of the great bastions of snow-veined stone. The mountains were a humbling presence: sentries protecting the warm climates south from the frigid expanse of this realm's polar north. The Fallen could already feel the chill settling in on his face through the visor of his helmet, and on his hands, the only portions of his body exposed from the jumpsleeve under his patchwork armor.

The fighting had also produced quite a few tears and rips about the sleeve's reflective lengths, bearing now heeled strips of pale skin to the elements too. The sleeve was doing enough of its job in regulating his temperature, but without his normal attire, the Fallen was feeling the sting of winter regardless.

Nearby, Spyra sneezed as snow began to clog up her snout, a brief whip of flame singing it away in a flash of amber light. She glanced over at the Fallen on Ignitia's back, and gave him a look that was somewhere between wonder and concern.

He hoped it was reassuring when he only gave a slight grin and a nod. He didn't know what else could have sufficed.

"Keep your eyes peeled." Ignitia called over the yowl of the cold. "We're coming up on Solemn Pass!"

"The cliffsides have navigable pathways we can use." Colcrus announced, not even blinking through the biting chill he was literally spearheading through. With his white and aqua scales, the snow almost rendered him invisible, save the darker flesh making his wings. "It's the only place we can land."

"Which is inevitable." Terradora barked over her shoulder. "Look alive and follow me down. Slowly. I abhor casualties seen before contact with the enemy."

Up ahead, the mountains were strangled into a series of high-rising ridges that sidled up a narrow, sloping, and snow-drowned alley that slipped between the crags below. Recent signs of what at first the Fallen thought was an avalanche were everywhere. The base of the pass was sealed with a jagged crumbling of snowy debris. It was as if one of the mountains had had a gigantic piece cracked off of it that had closed up the valley.

But then, he started to see the bodies. At first, they were small and barely noticeable, appearing as black strips and dots in the plains and cliffsides. But as Terradora gestured with a paw and nose-dived for one of the mountainous pathways overlooking the pass, the proximity showed through the mist various corpses sprawled in the wintery dust.

Ignitia landed with a crunch into the snow, immediately shivering her tail off from the chilling sensation overtaking her feet.

"Brrrggghh~!" She trembled, coughing as she began fanning her wings and casting reams of white smoke everywhere. "I never liked winter…"

"Tell me about it." The Fallen brushed slush off his face as he dismounted.

"I couldn't imagine living without it, actually!" Colcrus jogged after his own landing behind her, looking around eagerly at the mountain they straddled, his mood seemingly bolstered just by having his feet in the biting snow. His expression dampened the moment he laid eyes on one of the dead dragons frozen in the same white ground nearby. "-But this time it's too different... Ma'ams? I know this isn't the right time, but… these wyrms deserve better."

"When hostilities cease, we can discuss the recovery of the dead." Terradora folded her wings after flapping them clear of buildup, and trotted closer. Her austere gaze swept over some of the casualties, but any impact these lost souls had on the dragon were unseen nor announced, as her face showed nothing aside from indifference. She'd seen it a thousand times already. "For now though, we must remain focused on the task at hand. We cannot continue to fly through this. We will be weighed down by the snow and crash against the rocks."

"No offense, guys, but that might be because some of us are a little bigger than the rest." Spyra grinned as she galloped to a halt in the fluff by Terradora's flank. "Not this nimble girl here, though!"

The purple dragoness laughed, and plunged into a rise of snow with a minute crackle, her cackles muffling out around her exposed hips as she kicked and waved her tail madly.

"This cannot be the savior of our world." Terradora's eyes were as wide as roundel shields as she observed the purple dragon's antics.

"You can't really blame her." The Fallen chuckled, reaching up to snap off a tiny, developing icicle from the tip of Ignitia's horn.

"Oh! Because she's never-" Ignitia shifted and clicked her tongue in musing. "-Of course she hasn't. Then it is an expected reaction. If only we had more time."

"Yes…" Terradora gawked awkwardly at the display, flinching when Spyra burst out of the snow and rolled onto her back, making a snow-dragon with her wings. "…but we do not. And speaking of which: we're wasting it right now. I suggest we move."

"-PFffffftttt~!" Spyra ate a mouthful of snow and spat it out in a fine stream of vapor as her internal works flash-melted it. "…killjoy..." She muttered, slapping her chops.

"Terradora's right, unfortunately," The Fallen held a hand out, and helped her out of the snow. "we can throw snowballs later."

"I can't see anything, not even to the other side of the pass." Colcrus called over. He had surmounted a boulder on the edge of the cliff and was squinting into the whipping blizzard-mist to try and get a glimpse at the other side of Solemn's aisle. Nothing, of course, met his eyes, as everything was shielded in the immense flesh of Father Winter. "We're going to have to go with our guts."

"I have reasons aplenty to no longer trust that method of thinking…" Ignitia sighed sadly, wiping her mouth as she brought her hacks under control. "Terra', you've been to the entrance caverns more recently than I have. Do you remember the way?"

"How could I not? I never forget places I spill blood over." Terradora grunted.

"What place? Nobody ever told me the intel' we may or may not have." Colcrus hopped down from the rocks and trotted closer. "Really, I came out here to find my commander, circumstance or not, but still…"

"Guardian Cyrila is being kept in the Crystal Tombs." Terradora grumbled, surveying the cliff path herself as snow whitened the creases of her chiseled snout. "There is not another place of interest out here otherwise. These mountains are a deathtrap."

"That's why the Ices built them here millennia ago: to keep out intruders." Ignitia shivered, wincing as she stood over a dead Wyvern, its dull flesh frozen solid from exposure, and its snarling face forever locked in a hideous death-snarl. "They never expected anything like Malefora's dark creations to go searching for it. Cynder knows that, and she knows that it's the first place we would look."

"If Cynder's occupying the tombs, that means she'll- she'll-" Colcrus gawked at them. "-She'll defile the cists!"

"We can only mend what we are able to." Terradora huffed. "No crime here will go unavenged. Let us move."

They took a route through the scattered corpses of Wyverns and dragons. There was only a small comfort in the fact that the dead numbered more of the prior than the latter by a huge margin. The snow came up to the Guardians' and Colcrus' knees and to Spyra's chest. The Fallen luckily was able to get away with hiking halfway up the ankle. Still, it was an effort to be made without his usual attire. At least the jumpsuit sleeve kept him from freezing mostly, his exposed hands even with the mail gloves started to go numb and a dull ache burned behind his eyes as his head froze up.

"This ain't so bad!" Spyra called, turning her face away from the wind. The party was climbing an incline in the pathway and the blizzard was funneling down it like it was a tunnel. "-I've dealt with worse back home!"

"Cockiness killed the gladiator." The Fallen grit his teeth, trying futilely to shield his face with an arm. "Evidently, it'll kill me too. I can't feel my lips."

Ignitia trailed soot from her snout as her rotund breast began to glow a fervent amber, from an internal flame broiling inside her body. Spyra saw what she was doing, and after a moment of huffing, she was able to duplicate the practice, the two Fires acting as organic lanterns in the dark glaze of the storm.

"A-Alright, m-maybe I t-t-take it back-" Spyra's fangs chattered.

"Think of a warm beach." The Fallen grunted.

"I don't know what all of you have to worry about, this weather is rather pleasant." Colcrus trotted through the whipping wind like it was nothing. He even dared to shoot the Fallen and Spyra a toothy smile, before a snarl from the human made him jump, and silenced his efforts. "…So, uh… you're the warrior and the dragon everyone's talking about?"

"I don't suppose I can point the finger at anyone else." The Fallen nodded as he fought. "Your name's Colcrus, right?"

"Yes."

"Pleasure. Real pleasure." He groaned in torment. "Agh~! Forget the lips, I'm gonna' lose a ball out here."

"Hey! Don't go losin' none of those, I like those!" Spyra called over. "When everyone started talking about snow, I was thinking they meant like a bit of it or something, but this is fuckin' ridiculous!"

"It's a mountain range!" The Fallen balked. "You're too sheltered."

"Hey! I lived it up rough in the bog-boonies', you turd!" Spyra shot back. "I ain't got nothin' on being "Sheltered" -and shit! Everyday, back home, I had to worry about giant mosquitos eating my face, giant killer plants, poisonous mushroom trees, and-!"

At that second, a wad of snowflakes smacked into her face, and sent the squealing beastess tumbling in a blast of powder. The Fallen only stopped snickering when she chucked a ball of the stuff into his chest with a dull thwack~!

"You two seem pretty acquainted." Colcrus said. "How long did you travel to find Spyra, Fallen?"

"I didn't travel." He grumbled, brushing snow off himself and resuming his hike.

"So then how did you get to the realms?"

"I fell. Think about the name for a second, friend."

"It's that literal?" Colcrus blinked.

"Can you please tell your rabble to shut up?" Terradora growled over her shoulder at Ignitia, soldiering through the cold with a stern look. She still couldn't hide the slight shiver, even with her beefy musculature and huge wings shielding her flanks. "They're going to give us away."

"Technically, Colcrus is part of your rabble." Ignitia chuckled, smoke slipping through her teeth from her internal furnace-ing. "No one is hearing us over all this howling anyway. And, Terra', I didn't get a chance to ask you back in Oversight, about my earlier concerns."

"Which ones." Terradora chuffed.

"Very funny."

"So easy it is to rile you up, sister." Terradora shot her an uncommon smirk. "See? I can do humor too. Now, what was your query?"

"When are you coming home?" Ignitia hiked closer to put herself beside Terradora. "And I mean home home, Terra', the place you once worked so hard to go."

"Desires shift with the flow of life." Terradora refused to make eye contact for the statement, even though she turned her snout to face her. "My presence is met when it is necessary, and no shortage of students educated in the element of Earth have been experienced. I hardly see the problem."

"We all fill in secondary roles as soldiers of the Dragon Realms, but we also have lives." Ignitia said. "And friends. You were the only one who would meditate with me during the afternoons, you know."

"Lies." Terradora chuckled. "Cyrila subsists on silence."

"True, but she subsists on solitude just as well."

"Volteera gorges on the smallest ounce of interaction."

"I could never get her to sit still long enough for it." Ignitia shook her head with a grin. "Really, I express it for a reason, and it's because I miss it. I never wanted you so far away, and neither did Cyrila or Volteera. When we were hatchlings, we once said to one another- 'May duty seal us, but love bind us' –I yearn for that again, and I think somewhere deep down you do as well."

"…I…" Terradora snapped her fangs and snorted. "…maybe. This isn't important right now."

"Hey, Big-Green-And-Terrible, mind if I shoot the shit for a sec'?" Spyra drew by Terradora's other side with a sharp quip. The Earth Guardian cringed.

"What did you even say to me just now?" She winced.

"If Ignitia's gonna' teach me how to master my Fire, how are you gonna' teach me to master my Earth?"

"It will not be a one-day process." Terradora assured, ignoring the amused grin flashed from Ignitia as she watched. "You will have to work, and work hard to attain even the slightest bearing of professionalism. And do not expect me to go easy on you for even the slightest imperfection. If you truly desire to become one with my Element, you must live and breathe it."

"…Ugh…" Spyra crinkled her snout. "You sound even older than Ignitia."

"-I'm not old!" Ignitia burst, earning even a surprised glance from Terradora. "I'm only thirty-six! Thirty-six! How is thirty-six old?!"

Suddenly, over the howl of the wind, a sharp cry rebounded through the peaks, and the covered-up thrum of wings beating etched out through the mist.

"What the hell was that?" Spyra gasped.

"Five-o-clock." The Fallen announced, slipping his gladius out and pointing at a spot in the air. "Dreadwing."

Snow and rocks crunched somewhere in the distance, followed by another shrill shriek. The thudding of heels in the dust foretold the large abomination skulking through the storm.

"They're landing." Colcrus said. "They mustn't be able to fly in this weather either!"

"Move faster." Terradora snapped.


{Epic Fantasy Music - Battle in the North}


A triangular and crag-tipped ridge ended the incline and emptied out into a large, caterpillar-shaped peninsula hugging the cliffside. The dragons and human hopped over the breakage and crunched quickly through the ankle-deep slush.

The wind buckled under the sharp arrival of a Dreadwing's freakish scream. A shadowy bulge materialized from inside the mist overlooking the perilous drop to the west. Snow burst everywhere when the Dreadwing landed in the center of the peninsula and skid to a halt in their path. The monster was hunched briefly as it rose from the wintery packing, its fur wavered in the blizzard wind, caked in snow dust. The Ape rider on its back sneered behind a grilled helmet, his and his mount's breaths misting phantasmally in the whipping air currents.

The rider barked and pointed with a spear, urging the Dreadwing to scream again, and heavily gallop towards the party with its fanged mouth ajar and trailing spittle.

"Take its flanks!" Terradora cried. "Ignitia!"

"I've got it!" The Fire Guardian suppressed a fresh bout of hacks from her healing chest as she strode closer, and breathed a cone of cindering flame past Terradora's side and into the charging Dreadwing's face.

The bat monster shrieked and clambered face-first into the snow, nearly throwing its startled rider off his saddle.

Terradora spun around and brought her tail-mace down in a vicious swing. It hit the Dreadwing's skull and spattered its black and red contents into the snow with a repulsive crunch. The massive body spasmed and looked like it was melting into the snow as its exposed brains started to steam.

Colcrus vaulted over the Guardians and tackled the Ape rider out of his saddle and into the ground, tearing his throat open with his claws.

Another Dreadwing leapt from the west and crashed through the snow, followed by a second one. They shrieked and charged.

"They're jumping over the gap!" Ignitia shouted.

"Bastards landed on the wrong side." The Fallen frowned as he did his best to hurry through the slush. "At least they were expecting guests."

"I'd hate to surprise them!" Spyra groaned, bounding gazelle-like by his flank. "You're with me, sky-man."

The Dreadwing thundered the ground as it closed the distance, rearing up with its clawed wing-arms to bring them down on the two of them.

The Fallen threw himself and tucked right between the monster's legs as the blow landed and shot snow-dust everywhere. Spyra fanned her wings and leaped, bathing the Dreadwing's face in a blast of fire.

The Fallen climbed up the screaming monster's spined back, he bellowed, and decapitated the rider with a two-handed swing as he looped around the saddle throne.

He drove the gladius into the base of the Dreadwing's neck soon thereafter, and twisted, as Spyra zipped under its smoldering chin and sliced open its throat with one of her claws. The beast gurgled, yanking back and forth unnaturally as the duo shredded its flesh with blow after coordinated blow. Flesh crunched as the Fallen yanked his gladius free, an arterial and black spray of blood misting into the blizzard winds in the blade's wake. The Dreadwing squealed like a stuck pig, and collapsed with a thundering crash into the snow, the Fallen riding the corpse down to impact, before rolling off its shoulder.

The air clapped nearby, as if thunder had burst in the very spot of the engagement, when Terradora roared and stood on her hind legs. Her forepaws locked with the bestial claws of the other Dreadwing with a frightening clash of scale and leathery hide. Her arms trembled as the massive monster leant into her, opening its ugly mouth: a sonic scream piercing with a wide cone over the Guardian's head.

Terradora grit her fangs as an unnaturally potent migraine stabbed into every part of her skull. An invisible gong had been smashed right into her ear-holes, rippling through her cranium with white-hot undulations of agony that sickened her, and threatened to have her empty her guts in the snow.

However, she did not falter, her muscles and tolerance for pain gaining close to their taxing limit. She kept the Dreadwing on its feet, even taking a step forward as the Ape rider struggled to stay seated in his harness.

Ignitia galloped from the flank and shoulder-checked the Dreadwing, sending it and its rider tumbling with enraged screams.

Colcrus opened his mouth, and a beeline of glowing white air shot from his throat, and froze one of the Dreadwing's wing-joints solid in a glistening block of Ice. Terradora brought her mace down and crushed the other wing's arm. Spyra followed through with a charging sprint and rammed the prone Dreadwing in the stomach horns-first, leaving a pair of blood-spewing holes.

The monster rolled to the edge of the peninsula before it and its rider slipped off the cliffside in a blast of dust, their howls echoing out briefly as they fell to their deaths.

"More of them." The Fallen shouted. "Infantry coming from the north."

"Spread out!" Terradora fanned a mighty wing against the chilling wind. "Do not let them surround us!"

A scattered mob of lumbering, hunch-backed shadows danced out of the mist down the path of the peninsula that they had been heading. Apes wreathed in animal furs with deer bone fetishes dangling from their arms and necks came sprinting from cover, howling, hooting and barking as they swung with axes and clubs.

The Fallen stepped back and winced as he wrung his fingers in a double-grip on his sword. The breaks may have been mended by the magic back in Oversight, but hell, his hand still burned. Hopefully this time he could prevent himself from smashing the thing.

One can only hope…

The first Ape waded through the snow in a long turn and leaped with a meat-cleaver raised over its head, its long snout twisted in a yellow-toothed, eager and deranged smile. The Fallen slipped into his enemy's space, parried the blow with an upturn of his blade, and swept under the Ape's arm, bisecting it from hip to breast in an uphanded drag. He elbowed the convulsing body from his path and stuck out his wrist, grunting as an Ape punched his own forehead right through the blade up until the hilt, stringy brain-gore ejaculating out the incision wrought through its scalp on the opposite end. The corpse twitched and deflated, hanging limply face-first from the sword. The Fallen twisted, and ripped free, tearing away the whole upper portion of the Ape's face in a spurt of blood.

Bolts of Lightning scythed down a trio of foes at his flank. Spyra leapt into the fray and started using her claws, slashing open bellies and throats before swatting the soon-corpses away with her tail or wings.

Another Dreadwing jumped the gap and landed behind them. Terradora made the beast swallow its brain when she pushed its head into its own shoulders from a heavy swing of her mace. Ignitia vaporized a squad of Ape soldiers with a precise jet of flames, and Colcrus froze an officer solid before throwing him off the cliff's face.

Blood stained the snow, and the rattle of the melee echoed throughout the mountains, blending with the animalistic cries of the Apes and the roar of angry dragons.

This racket was only beaten by the hideous shriek of the largest Dreadwing any of them had ever seen.

The Fallen ran his blade through an officer's groin, before shattering his teeth with the hilt of his gladius. He surmounted the corpse as soon as it crashed down into the snow, and then the massive Dreadwing landed right in front of him, making him stagger back from all the debris thrown about. It was armored, even possessing a helmet carved crudely from snarling iron that left its glowing eyes exposed via a pair of daggered slits.

"Well well well, it looks like dere be one of me new favorite best friends." Chieftain Jute called over the rush of the storm from Charlee's back. "Hoo-man. I gots a score ta settle with you and that purple drag."

"I thought he was dead!" Spyra cried right as her latest victims collapsed all around her as blackened husks.

"Get in line, shitbreath." The Fallen took a hand off his sword and flipped the Chieftain off with his middle finger. "I'll bend your mother over your corpse and fuck her with your axe."

Jute whipped Charlee's reins, and the large monster shrieked, striking out with one of its claws.

The blow shredded the cuirass protecting the human's torso, and sent him rolling raggedly through the snow. He twisted and skidded on his heels to rise again. Charlee shrieked and covered the distance with a heavy, thundering leap. The Dreadwing slashed again, but the Fallen tucked under the blow and ran his sword to the handle through Charlee's breast.

Black blood misted from the connection as Charlee howled and tore back, ripping the gladius free with a blast of black, stringy gore.

"Dah! Charlee! Don't take dat from some sharr-la-tahn twig-person like him! Kill him! Da Mistress will jus have ta deal wit his corpse!" Jute barked. "We can split da meat aftehward!"

Charlee shrieked as he missed again, and the Fallen responded by slashing him across the mouth, the blow nearly dislodging the Dreadwing's bulky helmet.

"Gotta do anythin worth doin meself." Jute leaped off the throne mounting and landed with a mighty crash in the snow, dragging out a large, two-handed battleaxe. "Talk bout me mum again to me face."

Right as the Fallen finished ripping his sword free of Charlee's flank, he vault-kicked the Dreadwing in the chin and sent the massive beast back a step. He didn't get a chance to rise before Jute's axe drove for his head.

The Fallen rolled and dodged the downwards slash. He attempted to parry a summary strike, but Jute laughed as their blades met in a flash of sparks, and the Fallen was tossed onto his ass with a pained cry. It felt like his arm had almost been torn out of its socket, and it was a miracle the gladius hadn't been ripped from his fingers.

"Some weakling little fing like you ain't got that kinda punch." Jute snarled, nimbly avoiding a slash for his leg. He raised his axe. "This is fer Sparkles, yu murderer."

"You named one of these things Sparkles?" The Fallen gawked.

Just then, a bolt of Lightning sent Jute flipping away with an arm of soot marking his flightpath. Charlee shrieked when another struck his helmet in a flash of sparks.

Spyra landed by the Fallen's side and nudged him back up to his feet.

"How many times do I gotta' bail your ass out, boi'?" She smirked.

The Fallen wrapped an arm under her gut and threw the two of them back right as an Ape Commander thundered over and brought his greatsword down where they had been standing.

"Call it a joint effort." He winked as they recovered.

Nearby, Terradora released a thundering cry as she completed a loop on her heels, her mace crunching away a quad of limp Ape corpses.

"Ignitia!" She shouted. The Fire Guardian incinerated two foes, bit down on a third and spat him over the cliff's edge before listening. "It's Chieftain Jute!"

"What?!" Ignitia shrieked. "He's alive? He must be leading the ambush!"

"He is certainly a part of it, if you both must know!"

Snow burst as a black blur slammed into the peninsula between them.

Rising from the mist, Cynder released a horrifying scream as crimson Fear energies knocked Terradora off her paws, throwing the Guardian onto the ground with a great crash.

"Come for that ice-hag, Cyrila, have you? Over my corpse, Ignitia." Cynder swung around and caught the roaring Fire Guardian's paws when she leapt. The two dragons snarled as they locked talons and yanked one another about. "You really are- gah-! –a thorn in my side." She snarled through grit fangs.

"A-As childish as it might sound-" The Guardian shivered as she slowly forced Cynder down. "-you started it."

Ignitia drenched Cynder's sleek body in flames, ripped free of the lock, and slammed her across the face with the girth of her tail in a vicious swing of her whole body.

Cynder's head was thrown into the ground and she skidded, eating the snow. The black dragoness dug her tailblade in and used it to vault from the impact. She landed by Ignitia's flank and spat a glowing green projectile of Poison.

The Guardian cried out as the magical attack hit her flank and exploded in a green mist of burning miasma. She worked through the stinging agony, and was able to dodge a flurry of swipes from the infuriated black dragon's claws.

Terradora came back with her mace, but Cynder slithered under the assault like a dark snake, vanishing into the very ground with a black burst of Shadow energies.

She reappeared on Terradora's opposite side, eliciting a pained roar from the Guardian as she opened her long beak, and bit down across her scaly neck.

Cynder pumped her wings, and with a heave, brought her and her foe into the air. She leaned Terradora into her chest and proceeded to doggy-paddle with her hind paws, raking the Guardian's hips with bloody slashes over and over, and shredding the armor there.

Colcrus bounded over, jumped, and bit down on Cynder's tail, dragging the screeching Cloud Ripper before crashing her into the snow, Terradora rolling free of the deathlock.

"Why wontchyu jus die?!" Jute hollered on the other side of the field, swinging with abandon.

The Fallen danced past his hip, and Spyra vaulted over his shoulder. A bolt of Lightning frying over his back and a jagged slash of steel over his waist sent the Chieftain reeling. He landed in the snow with a pained yip, quivering as he tried to rise, breathless, steaming, and bleeding.

"Charlee~!" He cried.

The massive Dreadwing bowled the Fallen and Spyra over as it stampeded between them, scooping up its master and tossing him onto the saddle above.

Spyra pumped the monster's legs full of Electric bolts, but the Dreadwing was still able to spread its wings and leap into the misty air, disappearing into the storm's howl.

"Damn it!" Spyra barked, frying an overeager Ape soldier instead. The monkey's screech was cut off by a fleshly sizzle. He stood bolt-upright, like a stick of black charcoal, before flatly falling into the snow. "He ran away!"

"I don't think so." The Fallen breathed as he killed more of the simian barbarians. An Ape screamed horrifically as the human hooked a jugular, and yanked the gladius free with a splatter of blood. "They've all come too far to give up that easy."

"Indeed, that's a truth if dere evva was one." A deep, new and guttural voice said. "I herd from some of me fellows that you gutted Visigoth. He was a cock, but also a friend uv mine."

The Fallen grunted as a bolt of white, luminescent power struck him in the chest and laid him out in the snow. It was indescribably cold and stung his flesh through the sleeve and his chainmail.

A huge Ape covered in furs and wearing a horned Viking-styled battle-helm stomped out of the swirling blizzard-mist, wielding a wooden totem-staff carved to resemble a monkey's screaming maw. A ragged white cloak flapped ardently over his broad shoulders, and in his other paw he brandished a large hatchet that was still stained with drying blood.

"Vandal! Gimme a hand wit these two, aye?" Charlee and Jute crashed in a landing on the other side of the Fallen and Spyra, penning the heroes in between two very displeased Chieftains. "Ya said ya wanted a good hunt. The Mistress was kind enuff to bring us it!"

"That I dih." Vandal grumbled, his sunken eyes darting between the human and dragoness over his fanged, piggish snout. "Never tasted hoo-man or purple drag meat beforr. Furst fer everythin I'm supposin."

"We'll share the cauldron." Jute cackled. "I get the hoo-man's legs."

"This armor is very deceiving, sir: there isn't much off the bone on me I'm afraid." The Fallen shrugged as he shakily stood. "Call me guilty of false advertising."

"Jeez', he's big… Do we have a plan?" Spyra raised a brow at him, hunching and preparing for the fight as she darted her gaze between the two imposing Apes. "Or is this just a wing-it sorta' deal?"

The Fallen paused, glancing at each Chieftain in turn. He coughed, and looked down at her.

"Wing-it."


{🐉}


{Epic Fantasy Music - Battle in the North}


Cynder snarled when a pair of teeth clenched painfully over her ankle, and another set clamped down across her wrist.

Colcrus drew, and Ignitia quartered as the two dragons yanked in their efforts to tear her apart. The Cloud Ripper shrieked, and then twisted, sending them both off with quick lashes of her tail. A magical barrier prostrated itself around her the second she landed, flaring crimson when a trio of stalagmites shot through the air and burst against her defenses. Terradora roared and thundered through the snow towards her.

Cynder screeched as the large Guardian tackled her, landing them both in a blast of smog and crumbling rocks.

Maybe once before in Oversight, Terradora had been keen on beating answers out of her in some measure of restraint. Now though, that she was aware of her sister's whereabouts, she couldn't have been bothered with any incentive to hold back.

Pain bloomed in Cynder's head as Terradora battered her skull into the ground with a series of heavy punches and slams. Her world rushed and she felt dizzy as the barrage laid her flat. One punch elicited a cringe-worthy crack~! –as the tip of her upper right horn broke off with a dusting cloud of cartilage.

The Cloud Ripper's prehensile tailblade sliced across Terradora's ribs and opened them to a gushing river of dark dragonblood. Her tail ensnared the Earth Guardian's throat and cut her roar of pain short into a sharp gag.

"Get off of me." Cynder snarled, throwing Terradora away with an enraged whip's crack.

Terradora spat into the snow and shook her head about to try and get her bearings as she staggered back. Cynder shrieked like an eager hawk and threw herself forwards. She shot the Guardian in the face with a spat bolt of green Poison, slashed open her cuirass with her claw, and rose to her hind-legs to deliver a crushing uppercut with her fist into Terradora's chin.

Crnchhh~! –the connection sounded like a gunshot, and it saw Terradora flip head-over-heels twice before she impacted the side of the cliff and landed at the base in a painfully loud rockslide of dislodged stones, smoke and snow.

"Nobody touches me, you uncultivated harridan." Cynder reached into her beak and snapped off a loose tooth. She flicked it away and spun around. "You all realize you're fighting for a dragon you'll soon find unrecognizable."

"What have you done with her?!" Ignitia sprinted over and slashed for Cynder's head with her talons, each missing blow whistling in the cold air. "What have you done to Cyrila?"

Cynder caught Ignitia's wrist and cracked her in the sternum with a quick punch. She snickered as the breathless Guardian flapped her wings to displace herself, ragged coughs and hacks wresting her fight from her.

"I'm turning all of that horridly wasted Mana of hers into something of great use." Cynder glanced over at Colcrus, as the angry Ice Dragon flanked her. "I wouldn't expect any of you to understand. But that does not excuse you from my wrath in the least."

She roared when Colcrus slipped around a Poison bolt from her and shot Cynder's shoulder with a clump of spat Ice.

The blade of cold shattered like glass and speckled Cynder's flesh with bloody gashes from the shrapnel. She snarled through the pain and used her tail to bat away a claw-strike aimed for her hip. The Cloud Ripper thundered the ground as she hopped out of the engagement, and her wing smacked Colcrus in the snout, causing him to swing completely around and crash.

Weaklings, Cynder's crimson chest pumped as the adrenaline settled in her veins. She heard the blast that was unmistakeably the sound of an ice-based spell being cast, and shot her gaze across the peninsular field.

Vandal.

He was right on time, as was Jute. Their eagerness was no doubt influenced by all the destruction wrought upon their tribes by the intended victims.

But that still didn't absolve them from her whims.

She wanted the Fallen alive.

Cynder- through all the wear and tear of the battle-strain –watched him fight with a sudden flutter in her chest. The human grunted and snarled, creamy skin flexing underneath his jumpsuit and the chainmail he'd gotten no doubt from Mole artificers as he battled for his life.

Chieftain Vandal bellowed a magical cant and struck out with his quarterstaff, the monkey's mouth tipping it flashing white as a bolt of cold energy whipped across the snow. The Fallen tucked and rolled, barely avoiding the blow as he landed in the slush heavily.

The Fallen slowly pulled himself out of the snow, spitting a mouthful of it from his lips with an angry sneer. For just a second, his eyes met hers and Cynder saw that same recognition of her own in his face. He muttered something she couldn't hear, and then threw himself backward as Vandal stampeded over and brought his booted paw down to try and stomp on his head.

"-No-!" Cynder choked off her cry and forced it down her throat.

She couldn't allow what happened with Zargos to occur again.

The moment the Apes thought she was in any way colluding with the enemy, they would turn on her. She would have to deal with whatever injuries the Fallen sustained once he was beaten, if she ultimately wanted what she desired.

Which is him.

It certainly didn't feel like winter in her nethers right now. Cynder shuddered and galloped through the heavy snow to join the new fight. She was able to force away her bubbling emotions by laying eyes on the Fallen's battle-partner.

Cynder snarled as Spyra danced back and forth with Chieftain Jute and his terrible Dreadwing mount. The beast tore rents through the snow every time it brought a wing or foot down to try and squash the zipping dragoness, and Jute howled in rage every time he swung with his mighty axe and ultimately missed. Spyra was too quick and too slippery. Cynder would never admit that it reminded her of herself.

She did come from the same clutch of eggs…

The Cloud Ripper shrieked and banished these thoughts, giving her wings a flap to gain height.

There was nothing alike between them. And Cynder hated that. She hated Spyra. She hated all of them.

Spyra vaulted off Jute's face, and sent the Chieftain staggering. She knocked him off his feet with a blast of Lightning, and jarred over to meet Charlee. The Dreadwing shrieked and hit her in the chest with his great wing. The blow sent Spyra skidding- still on her paws –through the snow. She and Cynder practically magnetized to one another.

Cynder grappled the smaller hen's wings in her paws and chucked her across the ground, skipping Spyra like she was a polished stone across the surface of an immeasurably white pond.

Spyra soldiered the hits, leaped to her feet, meeting Cynder as she drove the attack. She stole the purple dragon's breath with a blow across the snout, and caused her to spit ribbons of blood with a mule-kick to the chest.

"You~!" Cynder screamed. "You die today, purple-worm!"

"I was wonderin' where you'd sauntered off to," Spyra, recovering from the blows,, dodged under her tail, and jolted every inch of Cynder's body as she drove a Lightning bolt into her ribs with a staticy clap! "-ya' antisocialite, lip-piercing slut!"

Cynder grunted when Spyra threw herself into her breast. The Cloud Ripper sent snow everywhere as she slammed onto her back, and Spyra straddled her.

"Y'know, the other day," Spyra punched her across the face. "-I smelled you're skanky-ass on my male!" She batted away Cynder's paws with her wings, and then decked her in the nose. "And I gotta' say," A blow right below the jaw. Cynder's head was batted around like a punching-bag mounted to a ceiling. "-ya' just made it real personal-like!"

Cynder snatched a fist tightly over Spyra's throat, nearly squeezing her eyes out of their sockets.

"-ULP-!"

"The human's mine." Cynder frothed at the mouth. "Mine mine mine mine! You fucking, stupid bitch! Mine."

Spyra ate the cliff-wall in a blast of rubble. She coughed on her own spit, and on grimy tasting rock-dust, rolling to the side as Cynder's heel cracked the very earth where she had been lying.

"You think I'm going to let a little village-bumpkin like you steal my king?" Cynder slashed left and right, up and down, and Spyra zipped around all of her blows perfectly. "You've already taken so much from me. My pride, my confidence, my power, my conjugal privilege-!"

Spyra raked her claw across her beak, and a burst of flame reared Cynder up onto her hinds.

"The next thing I'm takin' is your life." Spyra darkly gloated. "No more Mrs. Nice Dragon: I'm gonna' murder you."

Spyra opened her jaws wide and dove for Cynder's exposed neck.

The Cloud Ripper's eyes had a second to widen.

She was exposed.

The jugular.

-A bolt of ice-magic swatted Spyra out of the air and sent the mighty Purple Dragon into the cliff's wall with a blast of white smog.

Cynder righted her quadruped stance, and whipped her head over to see Chieftain Vandal lowering his quarterstaff and giving her a brief nod as he turned to face the Fallen.

The human was locked in a slashing match with Jute and his Dreadwing. Rings of mail scattered from his chest like a bushel of thrown coins when Jute got a good blow in on his torso with his axe. The Fallen cast the frontal skirt of his cuirass off in one fluid motion and threw it in the Chieftain's face. He tucked and opened Jute's thigh with a downwards slash, and then impaled his foot right into the ground, pinning him.

Jute howled in agony and started to teeter over. The Fallen abandoned his gladius, stepped back and caught the Chieftain's head in his hands, before bringing him down into his knee with a sharp crack. The Ape's massive body tumbled backwards in a cloud of snow-dust.

Charlee screeched and pinned the Fallen under a massive wing-claw, opening its jaws to bite down, as Vandal stormed closer with his staff raised, another cant bellowing out of his mouth.

"No~!" Cynder screamed, making to run after him. "-Don't kill hi-"

CSSSHHKK~!

Cynder yelped and fell on her face.

She breached her head out of the snow with a gasp and shook it about to cast away the slush. The dragoness' foot was caught on something! She had tripped.

When she turned over to glare angrily at the disturbance, Cynder saw what it was, and immediately daggered her brow in confusion.

It was a wad of Ice.

It was encasing her rear-paw and affixing it to the ground.

Her first thought was…

"…Cyrila…? H-How-?"

From the blizzard's mist sprinted Spyra. She opened her mouth, and when Cynder expected Flames to billow forth, instead, a washing cone of unbelievably cold Mana burst in a concentrated stream.

Ice Element.

Que the stereotypical exclamation:

That should be impossible!

God damned Purple Dragon.

Cynder cried out as her tail up to the midpoint was frozen in a growing chunk of solid, crystal-clear Ice, as Spyra's breath washed over her scales. It heavily clomped into the snow, and when she tried to raise it, it felt like an anvil was pinning her.

Spyra leaped past and slammed her across the face with a quick punch. When Cynder reeled, she yanked her legs and shattered the ice pinning her foot.

Bingo.

Cynder shrieked and opened her own maw as she gathered Fear Mana in her chest.

Spyra's breath whooshed out like a gust of mountain wind, and for a moment, Cynder didn't realize that all the whiteness covering her eyes wasn't just from the actual snowstorm going on around them.

Ice crackled, her face felt like she had dipped her head in freezing cold water, and she went deaf.

Spyra had frozen her head.

Cynder's muffled cry etched out as the chunk of crystal containing her skull hit the ground with a stone-like thwock~! –and pinned her there. The black dragoness spread her limbs and fought with the block on her tail and the new one over her head, whipping, yanking and muffling out screams as she fought desperately, her sinewy, black body writhing, like that of a beached leech.

Spyra cackled at the display, and held up her paw, breathing sensually onto her scales, she watched in wonder as a tiny ice-gem developed in her palm. She flipped it like a coin and watched it land in the snow before mysteriously melting.

"Guess I don't have to be hot to solve everything."

She galloped to Cynder's rear, stood on her hinds and literally kicked her in the ass. The black dragon muffled a shriek, and collapsed in a disorganized heap in the snow, wriggling as she fought with her frozen bodyparts in agony.

"Nice chatting with ya'. I'd love to stay longer." Spyra spat on Cynder's hip, and sprinted towards the battle. "But I got things to do."

"Visigoth ad his moments he did, when I struggled an all ta see him fer da brother he really was to meh." Vandal grumbled with his foily voice, ripping off the Fallen's leather pauldron with a glancing slash of his hatchet. "But none that evva made it acceptable ta see his end. I'll avenge his ole tribe when I gut yu."

A blast from his quarterstaff knocked one of the Fallen's legs out from under himself. He stumbled, and Jute cackled as he leaped into his pathway, and crashed the butt of his axe across the human's head.

The Fallen bellowed and tumbled into the snow.

Vandal thundered over and brought down his cleaver for his neck.

The Fallen intercepted with a kick to his wrist, and the cleaver whistled as it flipped free of the Chieftain's grubby fingers, landing with its handle in the air in the snow.

Vandal roared in rage, but his response was thwarted when a block of ice cracked into existence, and froze the hand carrying his staff solid.

The Chieftain had a second to blink at the peculiar sight, before the Fallen jumped to his feet and ran for the cleaver.

Jute couldn't catch him as Spyra bounded over and sent him sprawling with a blast of cold that impacted his flank with the sound of shattering glass. He yelped and landed face-first in the slush, leaving Vandal on his own.

Vandal howled, and tried to use his frozen limb as a blunt object, swinging it at Spyra, and missing, as she rolled like liquid under the strike. She slashed his belly armor and the furs there to ribbons, and knocked him back with a headbutt to the chest.

The Fallen appeared by Spyra's flank, Vandal's cleaver in both hands as he hollered and raised it over himself. Vandal had a split second to gawk, before the blade sank to the hilt directly above and between his eyes with a wet crack. His horned helmet kicked sparks and tumbled down his back with a few metallic clacks. The Chieftain thudded loudly onto his mighty knees, his arms draping weakly by his sides.

The Fallen sneered and twisted the bisecting blade, before ripping out through the side. Vandal's head gushed gore despite outwardly appearing in fine clarity. Then, it loosely slid apart in two separately eyed halves to allow gray-colored brain matter, and even the Ape's now exposed tongue, to dribble down his neck and chest, riding a torrential river of blood and ichor.

Vandal collapsed into the snow and lay there as a large bundle of dead, furry meat. His brains spilled for over two feet ahead of him, staining the slush a grotesque hue somewhere between pink and red.

The wail that belted out of Jute's throat was indescribable.

It would've gone on longer had his witty mount, Charlee, not thundered over and plucked the large Chieftain by the scruff in his fangs. The Dreadwing extended its bat-wings and leaped across the cliff gap with a rush of blizzard-ridden air. It landed somewhere on the opposite pathway and could be heard galloping away, Jute's tortured howls gradually becoming lost on the blizzard wind.

"…Agh…" Spyra growled, nursing a bloody snout. "-he definitely ran away that time."

"Yeah," The Fallen wheezed, collapsing to his knees and dropping the cleaver as he doubled over and gagged. "-he did."

Nearby, Terradora was growling as she clawed her way out of the rubble and snow. Ignitia shook herself like a dog, and rose from the nearby drift mound. Colcrus was washing off the side of his snout with snow to get rid of some drying blood.

Glass shattered as Cynder swung her craning neck over, and slammed her head into the cliff. The ice-chunk broke into a million pieces, exposing the panting dragoness as she sucked in rapid breaths. She repeated this motion with her tail and leaned against the rocks for support.

Terradora growled like a displeased dog as she and Ignitia stalked closer from one direction, Colcrus from the next, and Spyra from the other side. The dragons penned her in like she was mere defenseless, wild game, and for a moment, Cynder actually felt the comparison.

Heaving, she glanced over their wings at the Fallen as he shakily stood himself up among all the Ape corpses, his gaze fixed upon her as he stumbled closer.

Cynder bowed her head to him, her jaw quivering as the realization of her failure set in.

"-C-Cynder…" The Fallen coughed, startling Spyra as he gripped her wing for support. He reached out to the black dragoness with an open hand. "-Wait-"

Cynder vanished into the ground in a burst of black, tarry Shadow smog. The snow whipped in plumes of white and then settled.

The Terror of the Skies was gone.

"Tah." Spyra clicked her tongue, shaking her head at the display as she helped stand the Fallen up. "That's right: run! Stupid bitch."

"-I-Is everyone *cough* a-alright?" Ignitia coughed and sputtered, surveying the four of them.

"Aye, Lady Ignitia." Colcrus grunted, wincing as pain shot up from the fresh bruises developing under his scales.

Terradora made a grunting noise, and glanced at all the dead Apes now slowly being buried by the falling torrents of snow. She spat a bloody wad away and started trotting, ignoring the lacerations on herself even as they bled.

"Keep moving." She snarled to them all.

"You good, dude?" Spyra had to breathe with her mouth open as she exhaustively gazed at her mate.

"I'm good." The Fallen put a reassuring hand on her flank as he forced himself to stand up. His heart was heavy, as he briefly stared at the spot Cynder had Shadowed herself from. There was still a faint imprint of her paws in the snow, the only signs of her presence, which he silently longed for. "I'll be better when we start walking again."

"The guys weren't- uhm…" Colcrus gave a tired grin. "-weren't lying, when they said you two were like supersoldiers… maybe when this is done and over with, I can get an autograph."


{🐉}

The damage wasn't bad enough to cripple any of them. What limited healing spells Ignitia could muster sufficed for the majority of the contusions, and luckily, Colcrus had been proactive enough to keep a small healing potion from Oversight on his hipsash right by his canteen. Though, the latter was a good reminder: as a similarly driving concern was thirst.

The Fallen had made up for this by holding Ignitia's own canteen to Spyra's chest after filling it snow, and drank the whole thing when it finished melting. They repeated the action for the purple dragoness herself, then Ignitia, then Colcrus.

"Come on, Terra', even a big strong warrior like you needs to stay hydrated." Ignitia shivered in the snow, holding out another canteen full of chest-melted snow water.

Terradora merely responded by taking the canteen with a grimace on her snout, evidently: disgusted with how much of a mother Ignitia sounded like right now.

Other than that,, Terradora refused any other help, and only after Ignitia soothed her with a long moment of talk did the Earth Guardian finally relent, and take a swig of Colcrus' potion to deal with the damage dealt to her hide in the battle. She let no one else but Ignitia touch her, however, and so many of her cuts continued to weep thin trails of blood as they got back on track.

Nobody spoke as they braved the harsh blizzard again and trudged up the mountain path through ankle-deep snow.

Oh god, the Fallen started to shiver, feeling his lips turn blue, as he tried to shield his mouth under the thin gorget of his mail. Too freaking cold.

He glanced over at Spyra to see how she was holding up.

And was shocked to see her trudging through the sea of white without so much as a twitch. In fact, the dragon looked almost… peaceful. Serene, her gaze curiously darting about the blizzard, her wings freely opened and taking the full brunt of whipping winds, like they were harmless, and nothing to her. She looked like she was seeing the blizzard itself for the very first time.

"Spyra…?" The Fallen muttered. "A-Aren't you cold?"

"…Uh… not… really, actually?" Spyra blinked at him awkwardly, not understanding the answer herself. She puckered her chops, and blew a thin waft of icy breath in front of herself, watching it dissipate into the rest of the blizzard. "I-I think now that I have the Ice Element I-…. ever since I got it, the cold just isn't bothering me anymore…"

"Traits of being one with the Ices." Colcrus marveled. "Ancestors, you really are something different from the rest of us."

"She still has to master it." Terradora sourly snapped, her judging gaze resting on Spyra for a brief while.

"All she's missing is your Element now, Terra'." Ignitia smiled, leaning down to nuzzle Spyra's snout with her own. It was more surprising when the purple beastess tiredly reciprocated. When Ignitia rose again, the smile was gone, but not because it had died with sadness. There was… something else in her eyes. "Spyra, I'm so proud of you."

"Me too." The Fallen smirked down at her. Spyra suddenly jumped in front of him and stood up, her forepaws on his chest as she leaned in and locked their mouths in a long, stilling kiss.

Spyra smacked free, panting as she touched her forehead with his. The wind seemed to howl with a bit more quietness, expended snowflakes rolling off of their shoulders and her wings.

"That was another close one." She mumbled to him.

"I know." He frowned, almost falling asleep as he leaned into her.

"That's the second Chieftain I've seen you kill."

"I know."

She licked his lips.

"Keep it up. And don't die."

The other dragons stared, as she plopped back into the snow and fell into step beside him again. Colcrus appeared shocked, soon to be catching flies with how low his jaw was hanging. Ignitia looked jealous, and was literally fuming embers out of her nose as she tried to find something else to focus on over the edge of the misty cliff.

Terradora's initial expression of disgust noticeably wavered, and turned into something maybe even beyond confusion.

Intrigue, perhaps? Whatever it was, she'd sooner have died than she would've acknowledged it with any of them, even Ignitia.

Another hour of walking, and the storm began to settle. The whiteout cleared and the driving snowfall became nothing but petty, carpeting flurries. It revealed the true majesty of the Solemn Pass in its entirety.

The mountains were hundreds of stories tall on either side of the narrow trench, and the drop to the snowy valley below was steep and massive, making the Fallen dizzy whenever he glanced at it, only because he was the sole party-member without wings.

He'd never have flinched if he had his jet-thrusters.

But those had been taken from him, along with the rest of his gear.

The defeat he'd suffered was still a sore background pain in his mind. He had plenty of time to brood on it, but everything that had gone on had prevented those times from lasting long.

-That, and despite the fact he was already fucking exhausted, all the snow and cold mountains did was remind him of the Furies.

Toothless loved snow too…

"Jesus, you really are a man-whore!" Conscience said by his side, startling the Fallen, as his second-half gestured to Spyra. "What's she, like, number bajillion-and-one?"

"God, would you shut up?" The Fallen grumbled. "And no: she's more like seven."

"Did you say something?" Spyra glanced at him.

"No." He shook his head, staring at her purple hips as they rolled with each step in front of him.

Seven.

He really was a son of a bitch.


{Neighsayer - I'm Proud of You}


An abandoned and crumbling watchtower was scabbed into the pass' side around a tumbling foundation of stone. It protruded from the snow like an unnaturally sculpted, artificial ulcer made out of the mountain's own flesh. The top had caved in, and a single, weak banner-mast occasionally tugged as the wind whipped a torn, blue-colored flag that gave off cloth-sounding smacks everytime it was pulled taught. The murder-slots rounding its top were dark and lonely, the whole sight exuding the feeling of abandonment. The party took a risen ramp alongside the ruins' inward fringe.

"We aren't far at least." Ignitia said. "We could fly through this, make the rest of the way quicker."

"Soon, the air will be too thin." Terradora shook her head. "We are already dangerously above normal altitude. We also do not know when and if the storms will harry us again."

"I don't mind the walking," Spyra said. "I'm beat anyhow. My wings feel like they're made of lead."

"What does the outside of Chrysalis look like?" The Fallen stared at a nearby ridge when rocks crumbled quietly down it.

"It's probably tricked out with gems and royal-looking architecture and shit." Spyra followed his gaze. "I think it'll be awfully hard to miss, if you ask me."

Terradora gave a scoffing rumble and grinned at the purple dragoness.

"If only the Ices took after such a view." She chuckled.

"There is power in modesty." Ignitia stated. "Those tombs were erected to be free of the molestations of politics and petty desires. I think too that it's the least that could've been done for those wyrms. Life in that age was hard."

"I've only heard stories about the tombs, but every Ice knows about them." Colcrus added. "I know some others in my unit that wanted to make a pilgrimage there if the war ever ended. I guess I'll have to do it for them while it's still going."

"You never wished to witness it for yourself, Sergeant?" Ignitia glanced back at him.

"Fleetingly." Colcrus' gaze was glassy, and he didn't focus on any of them as he fixated on something over the cliff-side. "Dedicating your life to defending your home doesn't leave a lot of room for uh… pleasantries."

"We have arrived." Terradora huffed, gesturing with her tail to a sprawl in the mountains just ahead. "And damnation, if it isn't on the other side."

"We can manage brief flights." Ignitia reassured. "But we have to make it quick."

Seated atop a great scar left in the aftermath of an ancient landslide, or perhaps the migration of a glacier, was a rough-hewn gash that went deep inside the flesh of the mountain. It was arched by cleanly carved stone, and the top of the arachnid and squat structure was capped with a massive, silver-trimmed blue gem that glowed even without the sun bearing down on it.

A pair of braziers rose out of the gravel-coated ground of the entryway burning with blue flames, and a long, winding and treacherous pathway leading up the cave tunnel's foot was lined with small, stone archways. The arches had support struts that were chiseled centimeter by centimeter in unreadable draconic script. The calligraphy was shockingly astute, and it was almost painful to witness such masterpieces slowly being eaten away by time and winter, their "Story of Steps" -soon to be lost forever.

"…Eh," Spyra raised a brow and cocked her head. "I was half right. Still kinda' looks a bit like a dump."

Colcrus gave an insulted glare, and Ignitia giggled, like she was watching the naïve actions of a toddler.

"Hey," Colcrus intoned delicately. "that's my people's ancestral burial grounds you're talking about."

"Well then, maybe those stone-workers or whoever the hell they had up here, shoulda' put more effort into the architecture." Spyra creased her chops. "What is it with ancient civilizations and sucking at housekeeping? My room-nook back home was tidier than this."

The winding pathway up to the arch terminated at the very chin of the trench dividing their side from the other. There were cracked pillars on both sides of the pass that might've once shown the beginnings of a long collapsed bridge linking across the gap.

"Uh… wasn't the bridge still here when you last journeyed to the tombs?" Ignitia stepped to the edge, and gazed over the cliff balefully.

Terradora sighed through her nose and gave a small, annoyed: "Mmhmm." –before trotting towards the two crumbling pillar-markers on their side of the gap.

"I will cross the distance first and make sure the area is secure. Colcrus will come next. Then Ignitia and Spyra." She listed. "You will have to decide among yourselves who shall carry the burden of the parasite. Because I will certainly not."

"Well, that wasn't very nice." The Fallen blinked.

Terradora spread her massive, creaking wings, and leaped over the side, giving them a good flap as she glided over the perilous drop passing beneath her belly.

Even though they weren't in the air with her, the rest of them could detect that something was a bit amiss. Terradora's efforts were more strained than they would have been normally in flight. She seemed to be heavier and her wings had a harder time catching the wind.

Eventually, though, the Earth Guardian touched down at the base of the sprawling pathway with a crumble of gravel. Now distant, Terradora folded her wings, and glanced her snout around the little clearing, before walking towards the first arch, not even looking back at the rest of the party.

"Holy fuck, she's really an uppity bitch. Is she like on the rag or something?"

"Spyra!" Ignitia gasped. "Please do not speak of Terradora in such a way! She's worked hard to keep the realms safe."

"Colcrus?" The Fallen glanced at the Ice Drake.

"See you guys on the other side." Colcrus took a running leap off the cliff-face and experienced the same difficulties as he jaggedly soared. When he reached the other end, they could see his chest pumping as he panted. He scrabbled onto the clearing, sitting down like an exhausted cat.

"Thin air?" Spyra looked at Ignitia.

"Thin enough to impact flight." The Guardian glanced up at the cloudy gray sky. "A little higher, and it would make breathing more difficult. It makes the wind thinner: harder for the wings to catch onto it so we can use momentum."

"Remember those islands?" The Fallen patted her on the shoulder. "What were the words you used? It's fun, right?"

"…Pah. …Off you go, flippin' my own shit back on me, and fuckin'…" Spyra grumbled a tirade as she trudged to the edge herself. "Cynder ambushed us there too."

"A past encounter down south, I'm assuming?" Ignitia sidled up beside the Fallen.

"Yep." He grunted. "Spyra, be careful alright? You'll do fine."

"Thanks for the reassurance mom." Spyra spread her wings out, gulping when she took a look at the drop.

The snowy valley of Solemn looked like a large, mini-model of the geography from where she stood. Tiny finger-sized trees speckled around clusters of sharp, black rocks that pointed up at her in threatening arrays.

The purple dragoness closed her eyes and grunted, shaking her head to clear it of all the nervousness and hesitation, and all the other shit…

She jumped and pumped her wings.

-And immediately starting falling.

Spyra heard Ignitia and the Fallen yell behind her as she yipped and felt the air literally melt under her wings. Where it was normally firm, here it was not.

She flapped madly for a moment as the air whistled, and the black cliff-face rocketed upwards behind her like the passage of a speedily moving giant, mechanical tread.

This was a strangely familiar place to be.

Her nightmares… the flaming meteor crashing to the earth. Had that been a premonition? To which event? The Fallen, or this?

If Spyra had been focused on anything but panicking, she might have debated the answer. Thin or not, the updraft saw her struggling to realign her wings against the tide. She bent the bones awkwardly, straining her muscles and membranes to their very stinging limits.

Spyra was able to find some vantage, but not before dread stabbed into her gut and weighed down into her feet. She flapped and pumped her joints, her scapulas aching.

Eventually, she leveled out into a lazy foray, having to give a few more kicks, before she was level with the other side of the gap. She hit the edge, sending rocks and snow crumbling down the drop, as she scrambled to catch her footing. Colcrus hurried over and gripped her paws, hauling on his hinds until both dragons tumbled into the snow and away from danger.

"-Oof~!" Colcrus had the wind knocked out of him as he landed on his back in a sprawl. He came to, and gawked when he saw Spyra peering down at him. "…U-Uhh…"

Spyra was straddling him.

"Whoops." She scrunched her brow.

"-You motherfucker-~!"

Both of them glanced over to the other side of the gap as the Fallen's explosive insult echoed around the mountains.

Fucker….fucker….fucker….

He appeared to leap almost ten feet in the air, with his arms swinging in exasperation.

"-Get your filthy paws off my sexy purple-derg~!"

Derg….derg….derg….

"W-What did he just call you?" Colcrus swallowed as Spyra snarled and sprang off of him.

"Thanks for the save, new guy." She spat. "And I dunno', probably somethin' else I'll struggle to accept. By the way, you should probably run."

"Wait, what? Why?" Colcrus dusted himself off with his wings and preened them to cast all the snow off.

"My mate's possessive." She wing-shrugged. "Eh, I guess I sorta' am too."

"-Ouch! F-Fallen! That was my foot…" Ignitia grumpily complained as she touched down beside them. The Fallen looked like a spring as he appeared to leap clear from one dragon to another in an inhuman display of acrobatics.

Before Colcrus could even blink, there was a crunch of snow in front of him, and a slightly taller, yet more imposing being was looming over him and in his face.

The Ice Drake had faced OgreOrcs in frontline combat.

He'd seen some shit.

Yet, somehow he found himself shrinking under the angry gaze of the human, whose face had turned nearly as crimson as Ignitia's scales. His eyes were big and focused entirely on him, and his mouth was a thin, unreadable line.

"…-u-uhm…" Colcrus squeaked. "…a-are you alright-?"

"If you ever touch my goods again, I'll pop your head off your shoulders like it's a wine cork." The Fallen growled.

"…I-I was only trying to help-"

"Like. A. Cork." He jammed his finger into Colcrus' nose with each syllable. Then, he made a loud popping noise with his lips. Colcrus yipped and scurried away in terror.

"H-How protective." Ignitia stuttered, rooted in place as Spyra brushed the Fallen's hip and followed after Terradora with a happy bounce to her stwp. "That's a-always a good trait in a-a- u-uhm… a male."

"YO-DA-LAY-HEE-HOOOO~!"

The Fallen dropped everything, and peered in horror at one of the mountaintops overlooking the pass.

Conscience stood high up there, dressed in a full-fledged pair of Lederhosen, holding up a sign that showed a blown-up photograph of a running river.

The Fallen quivered with after-rage, and the apparition vanished as quickly as it appeared. When he blinked it all away and refocused on Ignitia, he saw that the dragoness was still standing there, wide-eyed and hungrily staring at him.

"…Uh, yes." He cleared his throat and straightened his posture. "A guy's got to keep an eye on his treasure, especially when it's pristine, matronly and sweet on the inside."

Ignitia moaned.

She instantly slapped her paws over her snout and fell on her backside, trembles wriggling their ways up and down her crimson-scaled body.

"Hurry up, you two!" –Spyra echoed from the pathway.

"Hm, an adventure delving inside an ancient burial ground." The Fallen harrumphed, hands on his hips as he blinked at the distant tunnel entrance. "This could be interesting. What do you think, Ignitia?"

The poor Guardian let go of her own mouth for only a second, before a pathetic 'eep!' –came out, and she shut it with her claws again, shivering with half-lidded eyes.

"Real interesting." He patted her shoulder. "Spyra says you people have ice cream back inside the city. I'm getting a tub of the shit when we get back. You and me and Spyra can share it. So let's go, Guardian, come on, on your shaky, delectably frail paws you go."


{🐉}