War ravages his territory. The world has never been so tumultuous. His territory has never been so breached.
The ocean currents carry him as he approaches the new enemy. The Stranger. The longer the wings beat at the sky, the larger the Stranger's storm grows.
The clouds gathered have become black as the darkest depths. He can feel the immense weight of them swirling and whirling in one place. The oceans, his oceans, have been stirred up into a frenzy. Their color and shape have shifted like a bruise upon his flank.
Water rushes through and over his gills, and the weight of the sea diminishes as he ascends. The enemy rages nowhere near the deep hollows of the earth. The eternal rhythms below remain unbroken. However, he feels the beating of the Stranger's wings as their wind drives back the waves of the ocean along his dorsal plates. Thunder cracks the sky as the heavy clouds continue to gather. He continues moving up through the water.
The enemy has taken control of multiple islands. Its clouds now choke the life out of them. Where once, they softly caressed the island chain's curves, the waves now pound them ceaselessly. Chunks of rock tumble into the water. A silver, flaring pain slashes him as forests come apart under the enemy's wings. The pain quickly ebbs away, cooled by the seawater around him. He swishes his tail, driving himself forward. The ocean begins to brighten as his rage grows. His white-tipped dorsal plates, alive and hot with vibrance, break the surface. He feels the rain lash against his back as he swims on.
The storm extends out in every direction. In the distance the storm touches the earth's surface, both ocean and rock, in the form of tornadoes. He searches for the sun, but it has been driven far away by the Stranger's influence.
His eyes break the surface, seeing with clarity as he sheds his meditative state. His jaws open in a roar as he races along the surface. Somewhere out in the storm-wracked darkness, the enemy will hear him. But the response to his challenge doesn't come from the enemy. It comes from the Others.
Many of them are awake, having heard the enemy. He reaches out his senses to the Others as he swims. He hears the feathered serpents cry out. The Scavenger walks on six prickly legs, attempting to seek out the enemy. The Rock Ones start on the move as well, but they flee from the path of the enemy.
He also hears the calls of the little ones, the smaller creatures that give him things. The creatures that made one of his resting places. They call out to him now. This time he answers their cries. He bears down on the island chain where the enemy dwells. The storm's termination is only one fight away. He will see to that.
He feels the land grow closer. The sea heaves and coughs under the lightning storm. The current's salt bonds are broken by a sudden golden inferno that belches into the water. His feet meet the shore of the island. The ocean froths and boils with his rage as his body rises, sheeting currents of sea water down. He hears the rending of trees, torn apart by the rain and wind. He feels the ocean water licking between the many hives of the smaller creatures. He hears the cries of countless tiny lives as they are ripped from the earth.
He sees it, not with his physical eyes but something buried deep in his mind. The enemy's shape floats in the midst of the hurricane, hovering inside the eye of the storm. Its wings flap with their own discordant rhythm. The clouds swirl around it, black as the depths of the earth. He sees the golden sparks that give the enemy life. The shards of broken yellow light arc across the clouds. His eyes finally find the rival.
High in the clouds, three silhouetted faces with horns swept back look down on him. The eyes glitter with malice beneath burning brows. This one gleefully wounds his territory. He lets out a rage-filled bellow that rings throughout the world. Flashes of yellow broken light come again. He begins his walk forward. Stone crumbles beneath his feet. The winds buffet his chest and carry the scent of his foe into his nose. His tail lashes once the foreign smell touches the back of his throat.
The enemy is not from here.
The massive, heaven-spanning wings beat down from the twisting clouds. Lightning flashes repeatedly, revealing the Stranger's ghastly visages in harsh golden streaks. The enemy lands with an immense thud, sweeping the air with its wings and flattening numerous trees. Then the three heads raise high and unleash their own cry. It is a shriek that boils his blood as well as the oceans. The shriek rakes his ears with a high pitch rather than shaking the ground like his own roar. The enemy's voice, so unlike the voices of the Others, sends awful tremors through his bones. Its howl is a declaration, a promise to not only injure his territory but also take it from him. The storm carries the echo of its war cry for all the world to hear.
Lightning punctuates the rolling darkness as the three-headed enemy faces him. He stands up as tall as he can, snorting. Then he leans forward into a head on charge. The enemy, the Stranger, stands taller than him. It doesn't deter him, and he advances quickly.
The enemy spreads its dark wings but doesn't move or even flinch from his charge. With his claws outstretched he crashes into the enemy. Its long necks ascend above him and he collides with its chest. The three-headed shriek comes again as he sinks his claws into the scales of its wings. The scaly hide comes alive with electricity as he pushes the enemy back. Teeth from all the razor jaws bite at his shoulders. Twin tails rake at his hide, but nothing dissuades him as he snaps his jaws at the base of the middle neck. His teeth part hardened scales. Immense wings beat at him as he drives the enemy back. The hives of the little ones burst open in his path. With every step he pushes the three-headed foe closer to the water.
That is where he will truly have the advantage.
But the Stranger's resistance begins to build. Pushing it backwards becomes harder and harder. Just before he gets to the island's edge, golden bolts hammer him from above, having come from the clouds. He stops, stunned momentarily. That is when the enemy presses back. One set of jaws bites into his left shoulder, then another mouth clamps down on his right. He looks up at the remaining head just before its jaws open and gold electric fire blasts into his face. The burning reaches his eyes and he takes a few steps back. All three heads draw back from him and coil up on their serpentine necks. Glimmering, golden energy begins to pulse into all their throats.
Golden beams erupt from the enemy's mouths and blast his chest and neck. He staggers back. The burning pain explodes across his hide, driving him backward. He looks up to see the enemy's baleful light gathering in the three necks again. His own rage rises into his dorsal plates.
The heat of many suns rises as the energy builds from the tail tip and radiates through his body. The Stranger makes a rumbling, rattling growl and steps toward him. But the left head of the enemy balks at the blue light from his tail and rears back on its serpentine neck. He sucks in a massive volume of air, swelling his chest. His vibrating rhythms come as his dorsal plates channel all his energy. In a matter of seconds the energy spreads, touching every region of his being like wind touches every corner of the world. He finally lets go, unleashing his power as blue fire from his jaws. It blasts the enemy's chest, driving it backward across the rocks. Caught by surprise, the three heads scream and the wings flap in distress. His blue beam continues coursing from his mouth, pushing the enemy back still. Its feet desperately churn at the rocks until there are no rocks anymore and it falls into the gaping ocean, massive wings, tails, necks, and all. It throws up a great plume of water and steam.
Lightning jets across the sky in massive arcs and the salt-filled waters rise higher on the ground. The cries of numerous lifeforms echo from below. The serpentine necks and immense wings thrash in the water, flinging vast waves every which way. Lightning lances from its body with the shrieks as its thunder. The sea comes alive with electricity. He makes for the water, intending to carry the enemy to the lower depths. To drown it there. Just before he reaches his enemy again, the massive wings explode from the roiling sea.
As he watches, the Stranger tears away from the water to flap high above him, letting out a howl of its own wrath. It turns and soars back over the island. He looks up, eyes tracking it. From within himself, he draws the heat of the blue energy again. It builds from his tail into his dorsal plates. The heat extends into every corner of his body. The curves and wrinkles of the land glow beneath him, reflecting his pulsing energy. The vibration arrives-
A blinding yellow flash arrives first.
Like the flame of three suns, the force hits him like thunder. He crashes to the ground like a mountain has been flung at him. The earth and rock crumble under his scales. Pain explodes into his head, neck, and chest. The burning, choking smell fills his throat. He lets out a strangled shriek. His tail writhes and his forelimbs claw for purchase. The Stranger's energy beams have hit him again. As he tries to get up he hears another three-mouthed surge of yellow energy. He sees the golden glow of the electric fire again as it razes across a portion of the dying island. In that instant the cries of all the little ones are silenced. Their echoes become drenched by the storm's downpour. The Stranger's wings flap somewhere above him.
He does not tire. But before he gets to his feet the enemy dives on him again. Scales slam into his side while claws bite his hide. He rolls, feeling objects splinter beneath him. His head pounds the rocks as the Stranger pushes him. The wings buffet him and lightning assaults his back and belly. The three jaws fasten into his shoulders and head before the wings heave to lift him up. The enemy drives him back down into the ground, then takes two steps back. The familiar energy wells up from his tail to his chest again. His white-tipped dorsal plates begin to rumble before the vibration spreads to every corner of his form. But the three mouths also crackle with energy. They rear up high and let their golden lightning go. The beams streak toward him and he cannot move out of the way in time. The deadly beams all hit him in the chest. The searing pain saps him of energy and he lets out a groan. He swipes at the air with his arms uselessly. The beams finally stop, leaving his chest scales in a smoking, darkened ruin.
The enemy flaps its way toward him, finally slamming into him with its foot claws. One set of jaws pins his right arm as the other two necks dart down. He growls in pain as teeth clamp onto his snout. As blood flows into his nostrils he tries jerking his head away, but another scaled neck coils around his own throat. Teeth bite deeper into his nose and the blazing orange eyes glare down at him. He wells up the power inside him, but drawing breath becomes difficult as the coil around his throat silently tightens. The energy inside him retreats.
He lifts a feeble arm and paws at the golden scales as they attempt to crush him. A choked squeal sputters out of him as he senses a shallow darkness encroaching all around him and inside of him. The darkness grows into the edges of his vision. He tries fighting it off, but the enemy only bites and squeezes harder. He scratches at the golden scales as the thunderstorm rages above with the twisted yellow lightning. Finally, his arm falls as he sinks into the darkness beneath his scales.
Everything goes black. It becomes darker than the space behind his eyelids.
He awakes with his head pounding the rocks again. With its massive wings cracking the air all around the enemy pushes him across the rocks, obliterating everything in its path with his body. The world swims around him as his vision drifts up. A golden bolt from the Stranger rips the sky open, causing the earth to scream in response. Beside the blackened islands, the icy sea opens up to catch him. With a great splash he goes under the waves. His pulsing energy stops. He doesn't stop himself from falling into the depths.
He doesn't come back for the island chain. It has finished bleeding. The islands are dead.