Mutants Misplaced
Chapter 11
Lokdrogyol
*Dragon language*
After the mercenaries had had their fill and retired to the large sleeping hall underneath the inn, the mutants spent another hour cleaning up before going to bed. Hulda provided them with a few unused rooms to rest in, free of charge. The next day, after breakfast, they were ready to set out to Winterhold.
Hulda kept her promise regarding the blankets, and she also gave the reptiles a good amount of food, mostly leftovers, as an extra thank-you and compensation for the mercenaries' bad behavior. Now at long last, they were ready to leave. As they were preparing for the journey ahead of them, a courier arrived at the inn with a note to them. It was from Farengar, he excused himself for not finding anything that could help them and wished them the best of luck on their travels.
Saying goodbye and thanking the new friends they had made, the seven reptiles left Whiterun and started walking to the north.
It took almost half the day for them to reach the foot of the mountains where the passage that would lead to Dawnstar were. Taking a break to eat, they could feel the cold winds blowing down from the mountains ahead of them, they carried with them a soft and refreshing feeling for the reptiles. It was almost like a picnic.
Putting a slice of roasted beef on a piece of bread, Sephie noticed something at the foot of the mountains, further away from the passage.
"Hey, what's that?" she said, pointing at said thing.
"It looks like a cave." said Leo. "No, wait, I think it's man-made, could be a mine."
Donnie pulled out the map they had and examined it for a while.
"It's called the Red Iron Mine, but it's crossed over with red ink, might have run out of ore."
"Why's it called that? I've never seen red iron, unless it's rusty." said Mikey.
"Who knows, but I doubt that it's because of the ore being red. There's another mine called Embershard Mine far to the south of Whiterun, close to a town called Riverwood. Like with this mine, I doubt that the name really have much to do with its contents."
"Well, I don't know about you guys," said Tyroth, taking a short pause to roast a piece of meat with his fire, "but I don't feel like spelunking, so I say that as soon as we have finished our meal, we'll keep moving towards Dawnstar."
"No arguments from me." said Raph, "I can't wait to get home to good old New York, and away from this cold land."
As the mutants continued to eat, a faint thundering sound was heard from the sky.
"Was that... thunder?" asked Mona. "It sounded strange."
Looking at the sky, they couldn't see any form of storm clouds, which puzzled them. The thundering sound was heard again, coming from the west of them. Turning their eyes in that direction, they spotted something flying roughly towards them. As it got closer they finally saw what it was.
A dragon.
They couldn't but look in awe at the mighty beast as it soared through the sky on its large wings. The closer it got, the more details the mutants could make out. It looked rather different from Thaenia, the only other dragon they had really seen up close, if only in the spirit. Its front legs were its wings and the scales were of a grayish olive green color and much more jagged than Tyroth's, a round crest adorned its head and it had a sail on its back, much like a Spinosaurus, while its tail ended with a large leaf shaped fin.
"Wow." said Sephie. "This must be almost like back when dragons still lived on Earth."
"I'll say. Hey, you think it's a relative of yours, big guy?" Mikey asked.
"Don't be ridiculous, we're in another world, I highly doubt that I have any relation with any dragon here. However, I think that we should hide before it spots us, Torleif said that they are a greater threat than the war."
"Agreed, let's take shelter in that mine for the time being." said Leo.
A loud roar echoed among the mountain walls as the dragon started to descend and circle around something further to the south west of the mutants. Swooping down on whatever it was, the dragon caught it in its fanged mouth and started to flap its wings to gain altitude again. With a shake of its head, it threw away its prey and the mutants stared in horror when they saw that it was humanoid. The dragon once again circled the area and swooped down and breathed fire at whatever was there, probably more people.
"Oh shit! Hurry! To the mine!" said Raph.
Another roar was heard and to the mutants' dismay, the dragon had spotted them and was on its way towards them, embers dripping from its mouth like drool.
*Cower before Lokdrogyol, mortals! I shall burn you to ashes!* the beast roared before spitting a fireball at the mutants. Luckily for them, the dragon overshot and the fireball hit the mountain wall to their right, exploding with great force.
Not certain whether or not they would make it to the mine, or if it would even protect them, Tyroth stopped and turned around facing the dragon.
"Keep running to the cave, I'll keep my 'cousin' busy!" he shouted to his friends as he drew his sword and took to the air.
"What?! No! Don't go!" Sephie shouted.
"Come on, Sephie! We must hurry!" said Donnie.
"But.."
"If anyone can take on a dragon, it's Tyroth."
As Tyroth flew towards the dragon, it noticed that something was different with this mortal.
*A mortal that can fly? And with the looks of a dragon? You must be the Dragonborn.*
Flying towards each other, the two dragons roared as if to show who was the strongest. Lokdrogyol unleashed a torrent of fire at Tyroth, but he deftly avoided it by rising above the flames. Once the fire stopped, Tyroth dived towards Lokdrogyol and slashed it across the back of its neck and back, leaving a gash. The tough scales absorbed most of the damage and no blood was spilled, but Lokdrogyol still cried out in pain.
Turning around for another attack, Tyroth breathed fire, hitting Lokdrogyol on the back once again. But, even though the flames left Lokdrogyol's scales scorched, no real damage was made.
"He's fireproof too?!" Tyroth exclaimed. "This might be even harder than I thought."
Lokdrogyol did a wide turn and flew back towards Tyroth, spitting a fireball at him that just barely missed and exploded as it struck the ground below. Hot on Tyroth's tail, Lokdrogyol snapped its mighty jaws, trying to catch the smaller dragon. But being smaller meant that Tyroth was more agile and he evaded the bite attacks. Opening his wings as much as he could and pulling up a bit, he decelerated rapidly. As he passed Lokdrogyol, Tyroth slashed his sword at the large dragon's face, cutting deep into the flesh just under his left eye and drawing blood. Lokdrogyol shrieked in pain while Tyroth grabbed on to the rough scales on his back, aiming to clip the wings of the beast.
But Lokdrogyol would have nothing of that, diving at the ground, he reach an incredible speed which he used to preform a looping. The sudden act of air acrobatics caused Tyroth to loose his grip and fall off as the large dragon was still flying upwards. As he tried to regain control, Tyroth spotted Lokdrogyol just coming back down from the loop and diving towards him, spitting yet another fireball at the smaller dragon.
With no time to avoid the fiery projectile, Tyroth attempted to counter it by breathing his own fire against it. The two fire attacks collided three meters before Tyroth, the fireball detonating when it touched the flames. While Tyroth escaped the worst of the blast, he was still struck by the shockwave and was flung towards the ground.
Once again trying to regain control, Tyroth saw that Lokdrogyol was still diving against him, mouth wide open and lined with razor sharp teeth, he was also much closer than before, so close that Tyroth wasn't sure if he'd be able to avoid it. Putting all his effort into it, he just barely dodged the jaws, but he wasn't able to avoid the rest of the large dragon's body and collided with its shoulder.
The impact was great and Tyroth felt how some of his ribs broke as he was sent crashing towards the ground. Using what strength he had he was able to pull up just enough to avoid crashing straight into the ground and only graced it, followed by him rolling across it at high speed before coming to a stop.
Groggily, he tried to stand up and get his bearings. He was bruised and had lots of scrapes, not to mention that his right leg hurt quite a lot. On the bright side, at least he had managed to hold on to his sword, and he could see the entrance to the mine where the others had taken shelter.
A roar from above caught his attention, as Lokdrogyol soared the sky, circling around in a taunting manner while Tyroth hurried towards the mine, limping as fast as he could.
*Is that all? I thought that the Dragonborn was supposed to be our greatest threat.* it said. *Alduin will give me a grand reward for slaying you, even if you are a weakling.*
Tyroth didn't care of Lokdrogyol's taunts, his only concern was to get to safety before his foe decided to stop playing with him. He did however have a nagging feeling that he wouldn't make it in time.
A whistling sound echoed through the air and an explosion tore a big hole in the thin membrane of Lokdrogyol's left wing, forcing the mighty beast to the ground. Looking over his shoulder, at the downed dragon, and then at the mine, Tyroth saw Sephie standing in the entrance with her bow drawn. She had fired one of her explosive arrows at Lokdrogyol in order to help Tyroth, and he wasn't gonna let that be in vain. He forced himself to hurry even more, racing for the mine while Lokdrogyol used its wings as front legs and crawled after him.
Reaching the entrance, Tyroth was supported by Sephie as they hurried deeper into the mine, with the dragon right behind them. Lokdrogyol, however, couldn't even fit its head through the entrance and almost got stuck when it tried to follow. Furious that its prey was out of its reach, it breathed fire after the couple. Seeing the flames behind them, Tyroth quickly picked up Sephie bridal-style and jumped into a side passage to get away from the fire.
The rest of the gang already waited in the passage, when they saw Tyroth with Sephie throw himself into said passage, right before fire filled the main tunnel. Opening his wings as much as he could, Tyroth shielded Sephie and the others from the worst of the fire that came into the passage by blocking it with his body.
Outside, Lokdrogyol was tired of breathing fire and backed away from the mine.
*If you intend of hiding in there, then this cave shall become your grave!* the dragon roared before unleashing a mighty roar at the mountain wall.
"Fus Ro Dah!" the dragon shouted, time and time again until the shouts caused the rocks to crack and crumble, even the old wooden support beams in the mine, already weakened by the flames, snapped and fractured under the shout's power, causing the mine to collapse. Satisfied that the mortals would never be able to dig their way out of the mine, if they even survived, Lokdrogyol withdrew to tend its wounds in peace.
Inside the mine, the mutants coughed violently from the dust that filled the mine after it collapsed.
"Everyone alright?" Leo asked, not being able to see anything in the pitch black darkness.
"Looks that way." said Tyroth. Thanks to his dark-vision, the darkness was no hindrance and he could see that the worst injuries anyone had were light scrapes and bruises from some of the debris that fell from the ceiling, aside from his own wounds from the battle.
"Did anyone bring a torch?" asked Raph.
"Uhm... no." said Donnie. "We completely forgot about that."
"Hold on, I got an idea." said Tyroth. A few seconds later, his right fist started glowing with mana, spreading a weak red light. It wasn't as good as a torch, but it was enough for everyone to see what lie ahead of them. While Sephie and Donnie looked over Tyroth's already healing wounds, the others inspected the collapsed tunnel.
"So, do you think we can dig our way through this?" Raph asked, moving a piece of a support pillar.
"I'm not sure. We don't know how much that has caved in, and it might again if we're not careful." said Leo.
"What other choice do we have? We can't just stay in here." said Mona. "But do we have enough air to make it?"
"I don't think air will be any problem." said Donnie. "I just felt a draft over here, somewhere there must be an air intake of some sort, maybe even another exit."
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired of being trapped like this." said Mikey.
"Wasn't it you who thought that this kind of things were awesome?" said Sephie.
"Hey, there are times when you can get too much of the good stuff."
"Apparently that has never happened to you with snacks." said Raph.
"There are some exceptions."
"Come on, let's get going. It might be a long way." said Tyroth.
"You're sure that you're alright, love?" Sephie asked.
"It's nothing worse than what I've had before, I'll walk it off, don't worry, hun. But that guy, girl or whatever, wasn't a pushover, that's for sure."
"They certainly seem to live up to their reputation. Wonder how many there are." said Donnie.
"Who cares, I just wanna get out of here." said Mikey, walking ahead of the others.
"Mikey, wait up!" said Mona.
"Don't worry sis, what's the worst that can happe.. ahhh!"
With a cracking sound, the floor underneath Mikey's feet gave way and the turtle fell down a deep hole.
"Mikey!" the others creid and ran over to the hole. Tyroth shone his light down into the hole, but it didn't reach more than a few meters. Regardless, he could see that the young turtle clung to a protruding rock for dear life, which he told the others.
"Help me!" Mikey yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Hold on Mikey, I'm coming!" Sephie yelled back as she scaled down the wall, carefully searching for solid parts to grip onto with her gecko grip.
"Please hurry, I don't like the sounds coming from below!"
"What is it at the bottom? Can you see anything?" Raph asked Tyroth, who narrowed his eyes and peered down past the mutants and he didn't like what saw.
"It's an underground river! With powerful rapids! If Mikey falls, there's no telling where he might end up!"
"Oh no! Please hurry Sephie!" said Mona.
"I'm going as fast as I can, but I can hardly see! Do you think you can give me some more light, love?"
"I'll see what I can do." Tyroth focused more mana into his glowing fist and the light grew brighter, almost to such an extent that it blinded those close to it. Reaching down into the hole with his glowing hand, Tyroth hoped that it would be enough.
Aided by the extra light, Sephie picked up the pace and was almost at Mikey when she heard a cracking sound from the wall beneath her. Looking down, she saw that the rock that Mikey hung on to wasn't part of the wall, but merely stuck in it, and Mikey's extra weight, combined with all the debris that must have hit it, had made it into a lever that was causing a fracture in the wall. And the fracture was growing. She had to hurry.
Finally, she reached Mikey and told him to grab on to her. With his arms and legs wrapped around her, Sephie began the slow climb back up, praying that he could hold on until they were safe. Grabbing on to a section of the wall she had used on her way down, the extra weight of Mikey proved to much for it and it broke of, falling into the rushing water below together with the two screaming mutants.
"Sephie! Mikey!"
The rest were horrified, but they didn't have time to think about what to do next, as more fractures spread across the walls of the hole and upward into the ceiling. Shortly after the floor gave away and the five mutants also fell into the hole and was swept away by the rapids.
Well, things certainly took a turn for the worse there, now didn't it? Join us next time when we see just what kind of fate that awaits our heroes.
In case any of you wonder, whenever sentences are written within these * * symbols, it is in the language of dragons, translated for your convenience. Will not be doing this for Shouts and the occasional draugr however.
And speaking of dragons, Lokdrogyol's name is made up by the words Lok, Drog and Yol, which means Sky, Lord and Fire respectively, so the whole name basically means Skylord of Fire.