Thirty years ago, the Blood Night; thirteen after the return of the Dragon Prince, Azymondias.
Xadia:
Something was wrong, Janai could sense it. The full moon had just begun to rise, and even though half of her forces were moonshadow elves (running on full power), it set her hackles up. She called forward a guard from their post at the mouth of the cave.
"Inform the King that something is off. I want to call for reinforcements." She ordered the guard, Kulja.
"Right away Captain Janai." Kulja responded. He began to run deeper into the underground complex, his footsteps echoing. She watched the entrance of the complex, pondering what could be wrong. Thirteen years ago, the previous king was assassinated, but the dragon guard had learned from their mistakes. Yes, there was peace with the humans, a true peace. Not even so much as a skirmish in ten years, and the dragon guard had increased tenfold. But something was wrong, her every sense screamed- Wait, where is the echo of Kulja's footsteps?
Janai spun around quickly, to observe in horror an unmoving Kulja laying on the ground. A growl called her attention back to the entrance to see twenty hazy, purple beings. Ten bipedal, and ten quadrupeds. She did the only she could do, "Intruders! Protect the King!". With that, the purple figures rushed towards her, and she quickly drew her sun forged blade. If she was to die, it was be with a weapon in her hand.
She charged forward, ready to fight, and as she neared a wolf, she gave a mighty swing. Only for her great blade to pass through the wispy creature. She barely got her left arm up in time to protect her vulnerable head and neck as it leapt at her with its ethereal jaws wide open.
"Dark magic!" She tried to shout, only to be foiled as she hit the ground hard enough to drive the air out of lungs. The pain was intense as the shadow creature bit down onto her arm and shook its head side to side. She heard screams from behind her, as she could only assume the creature clashed the frontlines of more guards.
Luckily for Janai, a quick-thinking Skywing Elf recognized the wispy nature of the creatures and used a wind spell, banishing the beast on top of her just before its teeth could shred an artery. A few men rushed to picked her up as she took a moment to survey the area. Of the group of about two hundred soldiers, six were not moving, and another ten were on the ground, but moving. She needed more men, there were two thousand soldiers here, and if they were dealing with dark magic, she wanted every single one of them.
She pointed at a random skywing elf, "You, go rouse the others from deeper inside the complex, and warn the King and the Queen Dowager to use the escape tunnels. Warn every one of the dark magic in use." She winced, as another soldier began to wrap her wounded arm. She wasn't sure what to think, there were obviously humans here, but weren't they at peace with the humans? Footsteps from the mouth of the cave complex drew her attention, there stood close to fifty humans.
Her eyes narrowed, as the humans began moving forward. "Charge!" she hollered as she rushed to meet them. Various spells began to fly as she and her troop clashed with these humans. Dodging spell and sword, cutting through foe after foe Janai was like a demon in combat. The human ranks cracked, and their formation as well as hers broke. Turning an organized battlefield into absolute carnage and chaos. Magic throwing around, and the wounded were used by the humans to cast even more powerful spells. Janai's confidence was beginning to fade, shadow beasts plagued the field, busying the small number of Skywing elves. While many humans were wielding weapons, weapons of her fellow elves, with one hand and casting dark spells with the other. Earthen spikes were erupting from the ground here and there, some made of earth and some purple.
Janai always had a love of battle but this? This wasn't a battle, it was carnage. Screams filled the air, human and elfin, as the five-minute mark passed. 'Where the hell were those reinforcements?!' Janai wondered. They weren't going to last much longer, she thought, as took advantage of short lull to quickly survey the situation. She only 75 elves still fighting, another twenty were crawling or moving slightly on the ground. Of the human, she saw about 60 left, and witnessed in horror as one mage sucked the life force out of another who was attempting to crawl towards an injured elf, just 15 feet from him. Chunks of earth, arrows, bolts of magic, were whistling through the air, striking elf and man alike, dead.
She could the survival instinct kicking in, as combatants attacked anything that turned towards. Elf killed elf, Man killed man, elf killed man, and man killed elf. It was horrifying. Janai was so preoccupied that she almost missed the blade meant for her neck. Almost. She managed to parry, and reacted on instinct, and ran her sword through her would be killer. It took a second for her to reign her panic reign, before she realized what happened. Seeing only blood lust, a skywing elf had attacked her, and the elf was now dead at her.
She was a veteran to fighting, but this fight… It turned her stomach. Her horror and revulsion were compounded by a sense of grief and stark conclusion. No reinforcements had appeared. Somebody had to warn King Azymondias and his mother. So, she did the only thing that she could do, she ran.
She bolted down the complex towards the lair of the dragon king, passing several more scenes of carnage. All the same, no survivors, just dead elves. As fast as she could she run, she arrived too late. The doors to the Throne room were wide open and smeared with blood. With a sense of duty only possessed by either a fool or a hero, she charged through the doors only too witness a horrific event.
The Queen Dowager was dead, her usually blue scales and white fur where painted red. On the opposite side of the Throne Room, maybe fifteen elves held the King down on his side. Any relief she might have felt at that moment was eviscerated as the elves loudly chanted, "Htaed leef won, srou si lous, dnim, ydob rouy!"
She has started to run towards the King the moment the chanting began, but it was too far. When they finished the chant, one, a star-touched elf turned towards her. His purple eyes burned in hate, and with a single motion sent out a bolt of magic. Janai began to run even faster, and when it hit the ground and exploded behind her, she thought that she was in the clear.
However, she felt a sharp pain in her back, which quickly grew. Suddenly she lifted off her feet and exploded forward. She was stunned, as she looked down to see a purple, earthen spike protruding from her gut. Janai failed to notice the ground getting away as her ride came rest nearly thirty above the young, Banther-sized Azymondias. His once noble main was splotched with red, his body covered in stab wounds and burn marks from sun forged blades. The natural colors of the King were gone, they had stolen the magic from him. Roused from her nightmarish reverie, she looked into the King's eye as he weakly twitched and gasped for air a few times. The King shuddered, as his eyes rolled up into his head and his body grew still.
As Janai's consciousness quickly began to fade, she realized that she only saw elf bodies. They had disguised themselves as humans! And as the only survivors of the Dragon Guard, those men would be the only investigators of this night. With no oversight, they could say whatever they wanted. The war that almost was, would truly be. With that last thought, she was plunged into darkness.