Ten years have passed since the peace between water dragons and fire dragons was made, the wars were nearly gone, there have even been reports of more water and fire dragons mating since the peace had begun, and life on the island was perfect as always. Over the years ther weren't many new dragons to the islands, but a few have been brought in as well as new hatchings. Tidal and Sting had a hatchling around six years ago and Naga has grown into a fine serpent dragon; we also had the arrival of a firestorm dragon about nine years ago by the name of Zeal, I think my son is beginning to like her although I don't try and go into his business, I do poke fun at him from time to time. Speaking of Heatpool, he's definitely matured over the years, still not into adulthood but he has grown and has magical abilities many magic dragons don't learn until many years of practice, he probably has this from Atlantia training him in some magical arts. Breeze an Blaze also had a hatchling, a fireflower dragon by the name of Pedal, she's about a year older than Naga but the two girls have already become best friends. My days with Atlantia and our friends have slowed down a bit, but they're far from boring, every day is a new adventure we have, even if it's a small one, although I wonder what we're doing today? I woke up to find Atlantia already up and hunting, this has become a normal thing around here, since now we work together to help out with each other; the island's been in very good condition throughout the years since we do try our best not to let it overgrow. Atlantia returned with a freshly hunted deer and a big one at that.
"Well good morning Lanti, you're up early." She gave me a kiss and smiled.
"Well some of the best catches are done early in the morning, I'm just glad you're awake, you sleep like a bear sometimes."
"Hey, don't judge, I like sleep, anything wrong with that?"
"No, nothing wrong, now how about we eat, wanna cook it up?"
"Do you even need to ask?" She stood off to the side while I let loose a jet of fire at the deer and after about 20 seconds it was done. "Now we can eat." We dug in and ate our fill which was the entire thing, we then decided just to lay down and stare at the sky and clouds; but our peace was only shortly lived, I felt a slight tremor in the ground and I'm guessing Atlantia felt it too. I flew up to the volcano that was on our island and saw that the rock seal that we made so many years ago was glowing orange with the heat of the lava, I flew down and pressed my ear against the rock where I could hear slightly faint bubbling coming from within.
"Inferno, what's going on up there?!" I flew down to be able to talk to each other better.
"The magma from within the volcano is beginning to heat up the rocks and melt them from within, we need to cool it down before it erupts."
"How do we do that?" She had some fear in her eyes, I could tell.
"I need you to try and summon as much water as you can to the top of the volcano while I fly around to keep it all within, we need to cool down the rocks before anything bad happens." She gave me a nod of understanding and went to work, she stood at the edge of the island and summoned a large mass of water and launched it up to the top of the volcano with surprising accuracy I must add, but I made sure to do my work and flew in a vortex that contained all of the steam as it turned back into water and fell down, but eventually I tired out and stopped. I hovered over the site and saw that the rocks were no longer glowing but the water was still bubbling, I then flew down towards Atlantia who was a little tired after that little display.
"Hehe, we did it Lanti."
"Yeah, we did." We laid down on the grass to recover when I felt the very earth shake to its core, I then looked up and saw that there was lava running down the sides of the steaming volcano, and in an instant, the entire top of the volcano exploded in a mass of lava and flaming rocks; I only had enough time to yell one word.
"Run!" She flew off while I trailed at the same time blasting away any blobs of lava or chunks of flaming rock, I was doing fine, until I missed one, a large flaming rock managed to escape my fire and was heading straight for Atlantia, I couldn't say anything, I couldn't do anything except chase after it as fast as I could, but too slow, the rock hit her right on the side of her chest, even from this distance I could hear cracking and the thud when it hit, she fell from the sky and landed in the water. I flew down towards her and picked her up to carry her to land, I dropped her gently and assessed the damage, she was severely charred and with a bleeding wound as well as her ribs on her right side being broken, I looked at her and she just barely managed to look at me and utter her final words.
"I-Inferno, p-ple-ease protect yourself an-d th-the others, I l-ov-ve y-y-you..." Then just like that, she was gone, her breath didn't draw again and her eyes stayed closed.
"No, No this can't be, no, Atlantia!" I laid down by her body just crying all I could, the dragon I tried so hard to protect, the one I had found to spend my life with, was gone in an instant, with no way to bring her back. I then realized that Heatpool might be able to help, I wiped my eyes and carried Atlantia's body to the habitat where Heatpool was, luckily nobody saw me, I then entered and found my son inside his small hut reading a spell book, he looked at me then dropped the book and floated over.
"Dad, what happened, is mom?..." I stopped him before he could continue.
"Yes, there was a volcano eruption, one of the rocks hit her with enough force to kill, but that's why I came here. Do you know of any spells to revive dragons?"
"There are plenty, but there is one that can revive a dragon with no negative consequences to the one being revived, although with dark magic there always is a price to pay."
"What's the price for this spell?"
"The memories of the one being revived will be erased from the mind of the one dearest to them and transformed into their life force, that means you won't be able to remember mom, or any of the times you two had together and instead they'll be replaced with artificial ones, that also means you won't remember I'm your son. Dad, are you really sure you want to do this?" I thought about it for a bit before looking at him with a serious face.
"Yes, I'm sure, let's do this." He seemed a little sad but got the book that contained the spell, he laid it on the floor and began the chant while his claws extended and his eyes glowed red.
"Spirits of death listen to me, you have a spirit that I want freed, the mind of their dearest has come to pay the price, accept the offer as it shall suffice! I ask of you, bring back the dragon Atlantia Oceanus who shall be revived by the memories of Inferno Nova, let the ritual commence!"
While this was happening, Heatpool's claws had extended with the shadows and pierced the mind of Atlantia as well as mine, we were in a white void where all I could see was her, I then saw many projections of scenes that contained us float around, I then realized these were my memories. One by one they were entering Atlantia through the wound, I relived every moment as it passed by like it was the first time it happened. The day she moved to the island, the time we seemed to float on a lake of stars, our first encounter, Heatpool's hatching, our lives on our island. Each memory was precious to both of us, but they were slowly fading, our first Valentines day together, when she saw our island for the first time, the unification of the clans. Slowly more and more had been absorbed into her, every memory was gone except one, the most important memory of them all, the one that sealed us together forever, our first kiss, I saw it slowly float over to her, just as our lips touched and the memory was absorbed, just before everything went white, I uttered three final words.
"I love you"
Author's note: Oh yes, I went there. Funny thing is, I've had this chapter and this idea for as long as I had the idea of these two being together, also the scene where Inferno is giving up his memories, I recommend imagining it yourself while at the same time listening to "Let her go" by Passenger. I'm sorry if this made you maybe cry a bit, but you have to admit it is a good point in the story, now I think the next one might be the final chapter since I'm starting to run out of material here, but anyway I will see you guys next chapter I hope you enjoyed, peace!