Chapter 5 – Vildouleur Revealed
"Who – who are you?" gasped Percival.
"I am the destructor of tranquility," began the dragoness. "Bringer of pain and fear, I am Queen Vildouleur, supreme leader of the Obsidian Devourers, ruler of dragonkind, and master of darkness!"
The Pyre Squad and even Bowser bowed down respectfully to Queen Vildouleur.
"So we finally meet, Queen Vildouleur," said Cynder with great disgust. "You must be the one behind all this."
"Oh, Cynder, you have clearly made a huge mistake!" declared Queen Vildouleur. "You've picked the losing side! I have had hope that you would think and feel like a proper dragon! Now it is too late, and you shall suffer the consequences all dragons will face when they associate themselves with lesser beings!"
"There's more to being a dragon that being all powerful, you know," said Cynder. "I have learnt that from my mentor, my sister, and my friends,"
"Don't make me laugh!" snapped Queen Vildouleur. "Might makes right, and that's what it takes to be a dragon! It's the strongest and cruellest that prevail! We are the future!"
"You just want to bring forth the Dark Ages into this time!" shouted Cynder.
"It was the golden age for all dragonkind, if you don't understand that," retorted Queen Vildouleur nastily. "We need medieval imagery, not all this modern-day Japanese rubbish! By the way, that village you lot have been sleeping in was all just an illusion I fabricated in order to dispose of you while you're exhausted!"
Queen Vildouleur's eyes glowed bright yellow, and with that, the dragons saw the entire village crumble before them. They were horrified.
"So this was all a trap," trembled Lily. "My beautiful hut is ruined…"
"I knew this way too good to be true!" growled Torden.
"I'm getting tired of all this chatting," said Queen Vildouleur. "The time has come for you dragons to meet your fate! Bowser! Pyre Squad! Finish them off!"
"I shall do as you command, my Queen," droned Bowser.
"This is going to be satisfying getting rid of those scum!" laughed Ciara. "We'll finally have our retribution!"
"What a fine day that we get the chance to defeat those meddlesome dragons," grinned Scorcher. "This will be our finest hour!"
As Bowser and the Pyre Squad drew nearer to the dragons, they tried to think up of a way to keep them at bay. Torden, Jakkin, and Percival tried to attack them with their breaths, but it was no good. They were still in a tired state, that they didn't have enough strength to knock them back. Their breaths just bounced off Bowser and the Pyre Squad as if they were nothing.
"Losing your steam, aren't we?" mocked the Pyre Squad. "It's all over for you! Payback time for all the humiliation you put us through!"
"Darn it!" pouted Torden as the situation increasingly became hopeless. "We're just not completely fighting fit!"
"What are we going to do now?" asked Percival as he panicked. "They've got us outmatched!"
"We got to think up of a plan, Cynder!" exclaimed Draco. "This is quite a predicament that we're in now!"
"He's right," said Jakkin. "We can't be able to fight 'em since we're all still pooped."
"I'm trying to think, you guys," said Cynder. "Guess we have no other choice but… RUN!"
Cynder and her friends started dashing past Bowser and the Pyre Squad before they could attack. They could just look on as the dragons flee for their lives out of where the fake village entrance used to be.
"Don't just stand there!" barked Queen Vildouleur. "Get them, and make sure they're all destroyed!"
Obediently, Bowser and the Pyre Squad began pursuing the escaping dragons.
Cynder and her friends ran as quickly as they could through the woods, hoping to lose tail of Bowser and the Pyre Squad. Draco felt reluctant to escape as he wanted to help Bowser and bring him back to normal, but knowing that he is unfortunately enslaved by Queen Vildouleur, he had no other choice.
"Faster, you guys!" panted Cynder. "I know we're tired, but we've got to move quickly so that they won't be able to track us down."
"Do you have any idea where we're going, Cynder?" asked Percival.
"No, I don't," replied Cynder. "But let's just make our way through the forest before they catch us!"
Percival wasn't assured by Cynder's words. Torden looked behind his back, and was shocked when he noticed something coming.
"Don't look back now, guys!" he exclaimed. "But it looks like they're catching up!"
When Cynder looked back curiously, she could see that sure enough, Bowser and the Pyre Squad have managed to catch up with them and were pursuing them rather fast.
"We're going to have to pick up the pace now!" she called. "We should be getting close to exiting the forest!"
The dragons have finally managed to escape the forest. It was already sunrise. They continued running as fast as their feet could carry, but there was trouble up ahead. A root of a tree was protruding out of the ground. None of the dragons noticed it, which proved to be a huge mistake. When Draco ran by as he followed his friends, his leg tripped over the root and he fell to the ground. He wasn't seriously injured, but his leg so sore that he was unable to run.
"Draco!" shouted Cynder, and she hurried back to help her fallen friend. He groaned in agony. "Draco, are you alright?"
"I think I've crippled my leg," choked Draco as he tried to get up. "Ouch! That hurts so badly!"
"We've got to get you somewhere safe!" exclaimed Jakkin. "Come on! Let us help you back up!"
"No, just go on without me," said Draco. "I don't think I can carry on any more."
"Don't talk such nonsense!" snorted Cynder. "We're a team, and we shall stick together!"
In a minute, Bowser and the Pyre Squad arrived to see Cynder and the others tending to the injured Draco. They grinned evilly as they knew that this means that they can finish them off very easily.
"So, tired of running now?" laughed Ciara.
"Looks like you've reached the end of the line!" declared Scorcher. "All of you are through!"
"This is very bad," gulped Lily. "We can't leave Draco and now they've managed to reach us."
Cynder realised that they're really in trouble and there was no way out. With Draco incapacitated and her team including herself not in shape to fight, she could only hope that a miracle would save them from their perilous situation.
Ciara grinned nastily. "Pathetic how you all could be so weak," she said. "A weak dragon is a dead dragon. We'll make your loss one that you'll never forget!"
"I shall destroy the enemies of the Dark Queen," growled Bowser menacingly. "Every single one of them will die."
"I'm so sorry for this, Bowser, but you have given me no choice," said Cynder bravely. She opened her mouth to deliver a plasma burst towards Bowser, but when she tried, nothing happened.
"Don't waste your breath, dragon girl," rasped Bowser as he uttered a horrifying evil laugh. "You and your friends are finished!"
"Do it, Bowser! Kill them all!" urged Queen Vildouleur's voice as it echoed throughout the plains.
"As you command, my Queen," droned Bowser. He set his sights on Cynder and her friends while they watched him with horror and disbelief as he began to deliver the finishing blow with a devastating fire breath.
Just when it seemed that it was all over for Cynder and her friends, a wall of flames suddenly burst out between them and Bowser. The Pyre Squad could only wonder what was happening while Bowser was simply knocked backwards. After the flames dissipated, the dragons were nowhere to be found. Bowser and the Pyre Squad looked around for them, but to no avail.
"They must be around somewhere!" boomed Queen Vildouleur's voice. "Find them and destroy them on sight! They must not interfere with my plans!"
"I will obey your every order," growled Bowser as he and the Pyre Squad began their search for the dragons.
Author's Note: I should have mentioned it in the first chapter, but I decided to save it until to this point - Vildouleur is a portmanteau of the French words vil (vile) and douleur (pain), which is a fitting name for Queen Vildouleur as she is vile and delivers pain, grief, and all that stuff. Pretty clever, I must say.