Kain: Trouble in Dragon Realms, and a Breakout in Jacy's!
Wolf: Exciting!
Jacy: Do you two have any idea how hard it is to swim from a desert island back to here?
Kain: Nope, and we don't care!
Wolf: On with the chapter!
Jacy: I just hope I can rescue Kera soon, otherwise I'll go mad!
Kain: You already are!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use, I do however own my OCs and this story!
xXxXxXxXxXx
Chapter 3: Matter of Trust
Talea awoke from her sleep when she had a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. She quickly ran to where Dex was sleeping to make sure he was still there. He was and Talea let out a sigh of relief before beginning to wonder where her feeling of alarm was coming from. She picked up Dex, being careful not to wake him, and placed him in the spot between her wings.
She was about to go back to her room and return to sleep when she heard a frantic knocking on her door. She quickly made her way over, knowing whoever it was had a big problem. She'd informed everyone of Blane's departure with Jacy so whoever was at the door had something to tell her, and by the sound of it, it was pretty important. She opened the door and was greeted by a panting Deryx.
"Deryx? What's the matter?" Talea asked, worried.
"We…received…a….warning," he wheezed, "To…hand over…you and Dex…or the city…will be…destroyed!"
"If you think you can just hand over my son and I you're sorely—" Talea growled, baring her fangs.
"No, no, no, no," Deryx said, recovering and holding his hands up in surrender, "I'm trying to get you and Dex out of here. The others are trying to convince the city not to, but things aren't going so well; they're not even listening to the Guardians!"
"They're not?" Talea echoed, her anger turning to surprise.
"No, the warning also said that everyone in the city will die as well," Deryx explained, "It didn't go over so well. I guess either people forgot that you helped save the world, or they're choosing not to remember."
"Do we know who sent this warning?" Talea questioned.
"A group calling themselves 'Death's Embrace,'" Deryx said, grimacing, "What's more is that they're humans with Dar Magic, and some powerful Magic it is."
"But I thought you were the only pure-blood human in Dragon Realms," Talea said, shocked.
"That's just it," Deryx said, "they're from Jacy's realm, but how they got here I don't know. And right now isn't the time for this anyway, I need to get you out of here."
"Alright," she said, nodding in understanding.
xXxXxXxXxXx
"People, please! We cannot give into these peoples' commands and give them Talea and Dex, it would make us no better than them!" Terrador shouted to the mob of elves, cheetahs, moles, and dragons.
"You'd rather us all die than just two?" someone in the crowd yelled, everyone in the crowd roaring their agreement.
"Those two happen to be the mate and child of the one who defeated Ragnarok!" Spyro bellowed.
"And to get anywhere near them, you have to go through us!" Cain agreed.
"It's over a thousand of us, and ten of you," someone in the crowd said, "You're mad!"
"Maybe, but the ten of us are much stronger than all of you," Nguyen said, watching the crowd with fury in his gaze.
"Indeed, if you wish to test your power against ours, then have at thee!" Cyril said, frost coming from his maw. Roars of anger and challenge came from the crowd, but were quickly silenced by Terrador's booming voice.
"Now hold on a moment," he said, "There is no need for us to fight each other, not when the real enemy is outside our walls!"
"How do we know they're still outside?" someone in the crowd demanded.
"For all we know, any of us could be on their side!" another agreed. Several people in the crowd began to roar and shout at one another, accusing others of being traitors.
"Stop it, all of you!" Arcaein shouted, causing everyone to be silent, "Can't you see what's happening? They're making us turn on one another, that way it'd be all the easier for them to take the city!"
"Indeed, we must retain our conviction to our fellow denizens of Warfang!" Volteer said, "The lack of it will cause our collapse, otherwise!"
"Volteer speaks the truth," Arlyn said, "Our friends and family are the only ones we can trust in these dark times and everyone here is either one or the other, if we are to survive we must count on them!"
"No one will die if we keep our heads and think!" Ixenra added, "So think of where you could be of use in the city and get there, otherwise get out of here!"
Most of the crowd hesitated, but after a burst of flame from Ixenra's maw they were quick to disperse and go to wherever they believed they were needed.
"We must go to the wall and make sure that nothing gets through," Terrador said.
"Indeed," Arcaein agreed, "but I want Spyro, Cynder, and Nguyen to go with Deryx to wherever he is taking Talea and Dextran. I fear that not everyone in the crowd accepted just leaving them be."
Everyone nodded in understanding before Spyro, Cynder, and Nguyen took flight and headed to Talea's home. Once there, they found that the two of them had left only moments before and saw the two of them flying away not too far in the distance. Deryx rode on Talea's back with Dex in his arms, and Spyro and the others caught up quickly and explained what had happened.
"I know where we can go," Cynder said, "it should be uninhabited, but easily defensible even with how little of us there are."
"Where exactly?" Deryx questioned.
"The fortress that I lived in when I was still under the Dark Master's control," Cynder said, shuddering as she remembered the feeling of the Dark Master corrupting her thoughts, "I just hope that it's still in good condition."
The group said no more on the matter and followed Spyro and Cynder, both of them knowing where the dark castle lay.
xXxXxXxXxXx
Blane stood in the armory as he attached his sword to the belt on his waist and placed his knife into the small sheath he'd found here in the armory and had attached it to his belt as well. Also inside the armory were the twenty gladiators that he and Aaron had freed. They were a blend of genders and ethnicities, though most were between the ages of eighteen and thirty. Aaron seemed to be the youngest gladiator there at only sixteen years old, but all of the gladiators seemed to hold him in high regards.
Blane had yet to change back into his human form so many people were gawking at the half-dragon as he waited for them to be ready. He felt their gazes on him like hot irons, but said nothing. Aaron watched him out of the corner of his eye, as if waiting for him to react to their stares.
"People are the same here as they were back in my realm," Blane sighed to himself, soft enough that no one else heard him, "At least here they aren't calling me names and trying to harm me."
It was a bit longer before everyone was ready to go, but when everyone was, Blane and Aaron took the lead and began to guide the group out of the armory and back through the corridor. The armory was at the back of the compound so there was a great distance they had to travel before they reached the exit at the front. Once outside the armory, Blane grabbed the guard that he'd bound and gagged after questioning him about where all the weapons were. He slung him over his shoulder like a potato sack before he began walking once more, figuring he'd have some use later on be it as a decoy or a future ally if he proved himself trustworthy.
As they walked, Blane felt himself grow tense because of the lack of resistance as they walked through the hallway towards the exit. He wasn't the only one as he heard several of the freed gladiators ready their guns, in preparation for the ambush they knew awaited them soon.
"Where are all the guards?" Aaron asked softly, speaking the question everyone was thinking.
"I don't know," Blane answered quietly, pulling his sword from its sheath with the arm he wasn't using to hold the captured guard over his shoulder, "and that worries me."
"You don't think they're planning an ambush for us, do you?" he asked, putting another question from everyone's minds to words.
"Most likely," Blane responded, his eyes scanning everywhere as they walked, "they outnumber us greatly, but a head-on attack would be foolish. They'd lose many, if not all, of their comrades before they'd take us all down."
Aaron remained silent after that, which Blane was grateful for; it was hard to concentrate on looking for hints of an ambush while answering questions. The feeling of trepidation he had in the pit of his stomach grew with every step he took, knowing that a trap could lay in wait in any room. Suddenly, he heard the sound of several guns loading and his eyes widened in realization.
"Everyone, get down!" he shouted just before he dived to the floor. Just after he did, a rain of bullets came from in front of them and took out a few of the gladiators before they could duck. The rest, however, were able to move quickly enough and made it to the floor without injury. Blane slid the guard off his shoulder and let him lay on his back before he waited for the guards to reload. When they were, he got to his feet and charged towards them. He felt bullets whiz by from behind him and hit several of the guards, but he didn't even flinch.
When he reached them, he slashed through numerous guards' chests and sent them to the ground in death. He pulled his knife out from its sheath and stabbed one of the guards in his temple with it before pulling it out and piercing another through the eye. When he pulled it out of that one, he stabbed through the guard's body and stabbing another through him.
When he pulled his blade out of both of them, all of the guards had been killed. Blane turned around and was relieved to see he hadn't lost any more of the gladiators other than the two or three that had been shot during the initial ambush. The entire fight had only been about five minutes, but to all of them it felt like an eternity.
Blane wiped the blood off of his knife and sword on one of the dead guard's bodies before sheathing both of them. He made his way back over to them when he noticed the bound guard was missing. To his surprise, he found the guard behind him with a pistol pointed right at his head.
"If any of you move, I'll kill your freak of a leader!" he threatened, making Blane's blood boil. Before he could react, though, there was a gunshot and he felt the guard slump to the ground, a bullet between his eyes. Blane looked at the crowd and saw Aaron holding a handgun, still pointing it forward and a bit of smoke coming from the barrel.
"Nice shot," Blane commented, "but I didn't need your help."
"Of course," Aaron responded, chuckling, "but from where I was standing you looked like you did. Sorry if I took your kill."
"Whatever," Blane said, turning around, "Let's get out of here and find the Survivors. I just hope I haven't lost any of my tracking ability."
xXxXxXxXxXx
"So, what do you have planned for them, Master?"
"Pain, suffering, loss, and fear, my loyal servant, after all, they are all my specialties."
"Fear, might I help with that one, Master?"
"Of course, it is your specialty as well."
"Thank you, Master."
xXxXxXxXxXx
Jacy: I'm going to go take a nap, don't disturb me.
Kain: Are you sure you want to leave me and Wolf alone while you sleep?
Jacy: Yes, because if anything is out of place you two are going to be in separate cages until I finish this series!
Wolf: But who knowswhen that'll be?
Jacy: Then you better be careful!
By the way, some of the submitted OCs will show up in chapters pretty soon, send me a PM or review on which side you want your OC to be on and which realm they're in!