The mood in the twilight base was anxious. Some cultists were busy summoning elementals before the battle, while drakes flew overhead, scouting out the battlefield and sending messages back and forth between the various twilight camps. One could tell that something was coming just by the feeling in the air.
Araxion and Sariona were brought to a tent with around a dozen other drakes. A high-ranking cultist was there to address them, a tauren. "You all have met with Kerelion and Lady Irissia," he said. "And they have chosen two of you for their own purposes. Today, however, you have one final test. Go out there. Live. Make us proud, make the Master proud."
Araxion and Sariona returned outside to rest before the battle. In a corner of a camp, they laid down, both clearly quite nervous. "It sounds like the green drakes are going to be giving it all they've got," Araxion said.
Sariona nodded. "And we're going to be throwing all we have back at them."
Araxion glanced around, then lowered his voice. "Aren't you scared, Sariona?" he asked. "Just a bit?"
She snorted, flicking her tail nonchalantly. "No, of course not," she said. "Why would you think that? This is what I was made to do. What we were made to do."
Eyrigos's words passed through Araxion's head: "As long as I did what was right, I could not get hurt, I could not die." He wondered, briefly, if Sariona had a similar train of thought.
"You shouldn't be so afraid, Araxion," Sariona added, and Araxion gave her a strange look. "We're good at what we do, and you have me with you. The Master is on our side. There's nothing to be afraid of, nothing."
Araxion rose to his feet, flicking his tail in annoyance. "You think I'm afraid?" he asked, indignantly.
"I know you too well," Sariona said.
Araxion's expression softed, and he laid down once again. "They have so many more than us," he explained. "And all they have to do to win is summon in their demigod, summon in Cenarius. Like the High Priestess said. They already have the advantage in this fight."
"They're lesser dragons, they can't stand up to us," Sariona replied. "Spawn of a lesser god. We have nothing to be afraid of, Araxion."
He nodded. I hope you're right, Sariona.
The call to battle came, after a while. The drakes began to gather at the camp's gates, after a while, anxiously awaiting battle. There was a clear current of unease, a clear nervousness, among the twilight forces. Nobody, however, was shying away from the battle. Everyone was wholehearted devoted to the Twilight's Hammer and to the Old Gods.
The greens launched their attack first, a storm of green and gold and amber across the dawn sky. On the ground, the mortals were already fighting, and the sound of the conflict could be heard even from the camp. A murmur swept through the drakes; all of them knew it would not be long until they were called to the battlefield. The Green Dragonflight awaited above.
The High Priestess appeared upon the camp's ramparts. "Dragons of twilight," she said. "The children of Ysera wait above, seeking to call their false god, Cenarius, back into this world. The Master has spoken- we are to end them. Take flight, and prepare for a long battle. There shall be no rest for the unbelievers."
The drakes took to the skies in waves, careful to avoid each others' wings and tails. Already, drakes from other camps had begun to engage the Green Dragonflight, and their corpses fell to the ground like drops of night, crushing any mortals unlucky enough to be caught below the fighting. Araxion and Sariona's group flew to the side to flank the green forces, avoiding the brutal fighting at the front lines. They caught the green drakes by surprise, tearing into their scales and sending them back down to Azeroth.
"Stay close," Araxion warned Sariona. "These are not the same drakes we've fought before. These are seasoned veterans, battle-tested."
"Oh, Araxion," Sariona crooned. "There is no need to be so afraid."
Regardless, she stuck by his side, and together they knocked many of their enemies from the sky. Together, it almost felt like they were unstoppable, with hardly any dragon able to stand up to their combined might. Sariona flew up above the battle periodically, surveying the situation elsewhere on the battlefield in case of new developments. One time, however, she flew up and did not return. Araxion finished off the latest drake foolish enough to challenge them, and moved to join Sariona above.
"I thought I told you to stay close," Araxion said.
"Look," Sariona said, and gestured towards a cliff near the border of the valley, not more than forty wingbeats away. All alone, above the battlefield, was a blue drake. A twilight had come up to it, and the two locked talons, battling in midair.
Immediately, Araxion knew what she was thinking. "Sariona, that's not her," he said. "You know what the green said."
"You can't trust the lesser flights," Sariona hissed. "And even if that's not her, it's one of her kin. I will have my vengeance, Araxion, you know that."
There was a cry, suddenly, and both the twilight drakes turned in its direction. A massive shape had emerged far from the front lines, behind the chaos of battle, a terrible behemoth with the all-too-familiar green scales. Ysera herself had taken to the battlefield. Throughout the valley, the greens were calling to each other, celebrating their victory. Cenarius was summoned; the battle was soon to be lost. There was no doubt in any twilight drake's mind.
The blue had thrown off her attacker, and Sariona bolted forwards to take her on. That drake looks so much like Eyrigos, he thought, and a distinct feeling of discomfort welled up inside him. Araxion hesitated just a moment, then followed after her. "Sariona!" he called.
But Sariona would not listen, could not listen, her mind fixated on the blue. Sariona locked talons with the drake while Araxion was content to hover at her side, aiming for the wings. He was doing very little of the fighting; it was all Sariona and her anger. Then, somehow, the blue managed to rake her claws along Sariona's wing, tearing out huge amounts of membrane. It was the most serious injury she had ever received in combat. The twilight recoiled, unsteady for a moment, but moved to continue fighting, hardly fazed.
The blue drake turned to Araxion, calm as ever, and unleashed a powerful ice breath attack. He let out a cry, blinded for an uncomfortable stretch time, and heard Sariona's pained wingbeats as she flew away. Why, he wondered, but just for a moment; he opened his eyes to behold Ysera's tail sweep across the sky, crashing into him and a few other drakes across. The next thing he knew, he was falling, his body out of his control, at the mercy of the sky.
He closed his eyes, and suddenly the fall did not feel as fast, not as horrible. Araxion felt himself crash into a pool of water with a large splash, and then another thud echoed in his ears. He opened his eyes, trying to see just what had happened.
She knocked me into a cave, a pool of water in a cave, he realized. What are the odds?
The pool of water was too shallow, he realized, far too shallow. It shouldn't have been able to save me.
There was a groan, and it wasn't his. Claws scratched against the cave floor, and Araxion became aware of a faint blue glow a few steps in front of him. The blue drake struggled to her feet, and the twilight's blood ran cold. He stepped back, and the drake's eyes fixed on him, silent and unreadable.
"I didn't do this," Araxion said, and it sounded so foolish, foolish to think it would help him any. "It was Ysera. Her tail."