A/N: So I've been listening to music all day, and I feel that a particular Breaking Benjamin song kinda fits this fic. Blow Me Away is the song, and if you haven't heard it, you should run and check it out. Anywhoo, enjoy it dudes. Or not. Just let me know what you think. :)

Chapter 18

"Hold on!" Silas roared. He tipped forward into a nose dive and tucked his wings to his sides, gaining speed but losing altitude. The trees approached rapidly, and just before we crashed into them, Silas unfurled his wings and stopped our descent. We skimmed quickly above the treetops for a mere few seconds before Silas pulled up sharply and used our speed to gain more altitude than we had before.

The frost dragon roared a challenge as it approached, winging its way towards us as quickly as it could. I pulled my bow from my shoulders and nocked an arrow, prepared to fight. Silas' body trembled beneath me as he roared in return. He beat his wings hard, almost climbing the wind to gain the advantage.

I had never before seen two dragons fight each other. I had no idea how dragons fought whilst flying, and wondered just how this was going to work. And if we would survive. Silas may have been the more powerful dragon, but he was inexperienced.

I drew my bow, aimed it at the frost dragon, and waited for it to come within range. Silas roared again beneath me, and a strange feeling came over me. I felt… powerful. Like nothing could stop me. I was riding a dragon. I laughed.

I unleashed the arrow and drew another, firing at the frost dragon. One arrow bounced harmlessly off of a tough scale, but the second hit the dragon in its right eye. Lucky shot, I thought to myself. The frost dragon roared, but continued on its path. Straight towards us.

"Silas!" I screamed, but the wind swallowed my words. He pulled back, coming to almost a dead stop in mid-air high above the ground. The frost dragon didn't stop, instead releasing a burst of ice from its gaping maw. And then it slammed into Silas with a sound like thunder.

I held on as tightly as I could, but Silas' scales were all hard and smooth. We fell, the two titans locked in combat, growling and snapping their jaws. I slid down Silas' neck and onto his back, the fingers of my free hand searching desperately for anything to grab onto.

They found no purchase, and so I slid farther down. Silas' legs were kicking at the frost dragon, and I heard a shriek as his talons found purchase in the softer scales of the dragon's underbelly. I chanced a look around, but the world was spinning dizzyingly fast so that I could not make out what was up and what was down.

Still sliding, I began to panic when I felt Silas' body grow narrower. His tail. I gave up trying to find hand holds and instead wrapped both arms and legs around the thick appendage. I slid down a bit more before coming to rest against the spade-like end of his tail. I clamped my eyes shut and hoped the fight would end soon.

There was another shriek, some thrashing, and then we slowed drastically as the two dragons parted. I heard Silas grunt in his effort to stop our descent, and we leveled out. His legs straightened, and I noticed a long gash running along the outside of his left leg. But his talons were coated in the thick red of his opponent's blood. My heart swelled with pride.

I slowly inched my way back up to his neck, taking my place just behind the great horns protruding from his skull.

"Are you alright?" he called.

"Fine," I replied. "Can you still fight?"

"Yes." The frost dragon circled some ways from us, working to regain altitude.

"You have to use your fire," I yelled to Silas.

"I've tried," he said in a hopeless tone. "I don't know how."

"How did you do it before?" I asked. The frost dragon turned and started flying towards us, ready for another go. "You can do it, Silas! I know you can."

I tried my best to be encouraging despite my fears. Silas beat his wings furiously, working hard to gain height. And then something changed. It was like Silas wasn't Silas anymore. He became something else. Something terrible and ferocious. Something dangerous.

It scared me.

The frost dragon drew near, preparing to lock with Silas in combat once again. But he would never get the chance. Silas opened his mouth, a powerful jet of flame engulfing the frost dragon. It was weak when it came to fire, and the half-blind dragon was no match for the angry heat spewing from between Silas' dagger-sized teeth.

The dragon tried to turn away, to escape the killing flames, but never got the chance. Silas cut off the flames mid-stream and reached for the dragon with his teeth. His jaws clamped tightly around the frost dragon's throat, cutting off the roar of pain.

Blood spewed from the wound, and again we fell. The frost dragon thrashed in Silas' grip, but it was futile. Soon, the dragon stopped moving altogether. I watched as its one good eye glazed over in death. Silas released the dragon and spread his wings to stop our descent.

In the fading light, I watched the dragon fall the rest of the way to the ground and land with a crash, toppling a few trees on impact. Silas circled once, and then began his descent. He chose a cleared spot not far from the dead dragon and flapped his wings to gently bring us to the ground.

The talons of his back legs touched the ground first, and then steadily he lowered himself until he was crouched on the ground. I made to get off to inspect his wounded leg, and almost fell from his neck when he released the loudest roar I had ever heard from a dragon. It spoke of his triumph against the frost dragon, of his first victory in this new body.

When his mouth finally closed, echoes of his cry could be heard from all directions. I slid slowly from his neck, my knees wobbling from the stress of the battle and from holding on so tightly. Silas turned his head towards me, and I almost braced myself for battle. He had changed up there in the sky. It was almost like he was someone, or something, else.

But when I saw his eyes, that same forest green that I had come to love, I knew it was still him. Still Silas. I heaved a sigh of relief.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly. His muscles trembled with exhaustion, and his chest heaved with each breath he took. I nodded, unable to find my voice.

I swallowed and moved to inspect his wounded leg. The gash was as long as my arm, but it was not deep. A glancing blow in a desperate struggle to gain the upper hand. I slung my bow across my back and held my shaking hands to the wound, dredging up as much magic as I could to heal his wound.

My eyes closed in concentration, and I heard Silas sigh. My eyes opened a few minutes later to find that the wound had disappeared. He shifted to a more comfortable position, and in the light of the recently risen moon, the scales where the wound used to be flashed silvery-blue.

I felt as if I would collapse from exhaustion. The day had been long and stressful, and all I wanted was to escape into the refuge of sleep, even if it meant that I wandered the mists of Sovngarde in my nightmares.