Chapter 10
Fercius must have fallen unconscious, because he woke up with Darko kneeling down next to him.
He woke up… he was alive.
“I’m alive.” he muttered.
“Good job Fercy, we saw the flash, hell of a flamestrike, we can’t even find the hostile vulcan dragons.”
“How’s Scar, Trifoot? How’s Siege?” Fercy asked.
Darko – of course – didn’t understand.
“To hell with this.” Fercy growled, getting up on his feet, nearly falling to his other side from the sudden momentum. He could feel himself succumbing to his weight, so he quickly made his way over to Siege, who was lying only a few meters away from him. Gently laying himself down again, he whispered into his ear.
“Are you alive?” he asked.
“Ugh… I wish I wasn’t.” Siege replied, groaning. “I’m so… tired.”
“But you’re spotless.”
“Wow, I am, there’s no pain. Swell!”
Fercius then walked over to Scar, who was lying on the ground with Trifoot right next to him, they were both spotless, no blood on either one of them, where before they had been nearly disemboweled by the enemy dragons.
“Fercius.” Scar muttered.
“Your leg.”
“There’s no blood.”
“It must have been the building.”
“What building?”
“The building Siege and I hit.”
Scar growled and whipped Fercy with his tail.
“You were knocking down buildings while we were dying?!”
“I – it, well – “
Scar laughed, “No I’m kidding, whatever you did… it… Lorna! Maybe she’s.”
“I’m fine. Oh, and don’t tell Fercy anything I said while I was all… you know.”
“Yeah.” Scar nodded.
“Of course.” Trifoot said.
“What? Oh about – “ Fercius sentence was interrupted by Siege’s glare.
“About what, Fercy?” Lorna asked.
“It must have been a restorative spell!” Nolan exclaimed.
“That spells a myth!”
“It appears it isn’t Darko, they fell back to the capital, seeping the energy from our wounds to compensate.” He pointed at his heart. “There was a spear, right here, right through me. I was a goner Darko. It had to be a restoration.”
“It’s strange.” Lorna said.
“What is?” Siege asked.
“I – I thought death would feel different.” she continued. “Cervantes never came.”
Cervantes was the dragon realm’s reaper, Fercius remembered stories about him, their tellers long forgotten.
“Maybe he knew you didn’t truly die?” Trifoot asked.
She nodded, avoiding eye contact with Fercy. However, as he walked away she noticed and called for him, “Fercy.”
She knows, and now she’s going to ask me.
“What is it Lorna?” he asked, trying to mask his uneasiness.
“Nothing, let’s go, since we’ve been hit by a restorative, I heard Darsch say we can head for the capital right away.”
“It’s another week of travel.”
They moved out the day after, once the reinforcements for garrisoning the building had arrived, and began the journey to the capital. The closer they came, the shakier they became, knowing that the entire army they fought in the previous city would be there to greet them, along with the capital city’s natural garrison.
“So what are you going to do once the war ends?” Lorna asked Fercy.
It was a common question nowadays, with the Sedonii Coalition having taken all 5 of the R and B’s major cities. The battles were a distant memory to Fercy, boring and monotonous. His standards for ‘epic’ had risen succeeding their initial attack.
“Most likely what Darko wants me to do.”
“A convenient dragony answer.” Trifoot commented.
“Haven’t you ever had goals of your own, Fercy?”
“Have you?”
She laughed.
“We’re dragons, they’re lancers, we do as we’re told and we do it efficiently.” Fercius replied, looking over at Darko, who was talking with Nolan a few strides ahead of the front line, “Why are you still laughing?”
“I remember when this war first started Fercy. Months ago.” Lorna said speculatively.
“Ay,” Siege said, “was quite the experience.”
“Remember, Fercy? You weren’t too fond of it back then.”
Fercius looked back at Lorna, slightly irritated by her implications.
“I’m still not fond of it. But…” He looked back at Darko, and beyond the mountains where their forward base was, “I’ve grown to accept it.”
They all silently nodded.
“No worries though.” Siege said, breaking the silence “t’all be over in a few.”
The trip to the rally point was uneventful, only having run into minor patrols that were quickly destroyed. They knew they were coming, but – of course – it didn’t take a master strategist to realize that.
The forward base itself was… efficient. It had all that was needed: Barracks for the soldiers, shelters for the dragons, and plenty of grassland all around where livestock grazed. Without the array of armed men along the perimeter, you would have thought it was a farming post. Fercy saw the massive town square of the enemy capital, it stunk with magic and the mage’s presence. A scout was already using a telescope to reconnoiter it, reporting his findings to Darko.
“We’re going to move out tomorrow at 0800.” Darko told his men. “Get well rested, down that road lies victory.”
“And revenge.” Trifoot muttered.
Fercius couldn’t sleep that night, the nightmares keeping him awake. No doubt this was another strategy to fatigue him. As he opened one eye, uncomfortable from his inability to sleep, he noticed that Lorna and the others were also wide awake, quietly talking to each other. He wryly got up and trudged over, dragging his wings behind him.
“Can’t sleep Fercy?” she asked.
“Nope.”
“Neither can we.”
“It’s that damn mage.” Fercy replied.
“Indeed, that city will be difficult.” Scar said.
“Why don’t we have magic like the mage?” Trifoot asked.
“I don’t know, magic isn’t something the Sedonii pride themselves in.” Siege answered.
“Probably because they aren’t very good at it.” Lorna commented.
“Neither are these R and B.” Trifoot added.
“That mage is like the crutch for their incompetence.” Siege scoffed.
Fercius grinned, “And they’re still losing.”
He didn’t remember when he woke up the next day, nor how he fell asleep, but within minutes the soldiers were equipped and they were moving out, mounted and ready.
The flight down would take half an hour, with the soldiers taking twice that time to get there. Darko had said that the initial plan was to have the dragon lancers harass and probe the targets while the soldiers arrived, inflicting as much damage as possible. Darsch was put in charge of the infantry division, with Lorna walking the route due to her wing injury. The restoration spell seemed to only cure immediate ailments.
There were two wings, each consisting of a hundred dragons; Nolan was watching the other wing, with Trifoot and Scar simply in random squads. Fercy couldn’t see any of them. He felt alone as he traveled with the wing, staying a few hundred feet above the ground to avoid the enemy sentries. If anyone were to see them now, they’d see a carpet of colors converging on the city walls.
Five minutes away from the city, it began to rain arrows, with the lancers leaning forward into the shield to stay protected. Fercius sensed an inbound flame-strike.
Impossible… he thought, there’s no dragon that can lead targets moving this fast.
It wasn’t a dragon, however, and as he traced the trail to the source, he saw the mage, standing on the city walls, nearly a kilometer away. He moved out of the flame’s trajectory, but the fireball exploded as it approached, a wave of heat knocking him and several dragons back.
He was falling…
And falling…
Too disoriented and damaged to control this spin. The sudden surge of light having singed his senses. His ability to sense heat had vanished, and he had an undying feeling of vertigo as he spun out of control.
He woke up with a terrible headache, perhaps all that transpired was merely a dream… of course then the walls he was in would need an explanation. It was cold, damp, with the trickle of water and echoes of combat outside. He could feel his right side bleeding, and saw a trail of it going around a corner. Someone had dragged him here. The walls shook from explosions emanating from what he assumed was the capital, in a battle that he should be participating in.
His thermal senses weren’t working, nor were his legs – for that matter.
Sounds seemed slower… more distant.
He woke up again and there were no more sounds, had he gone deaf?
He snorted, he heard himself, and the echo.
Thermal senses failed, however, but he felt someone lying up against him.
“Darko.” he muttered, inspecting him.
He had no stab wounds, but he was pale, and he didn’t appear to be breathing.
The cave was darker than the last time he remembered waking up in it, of course he wasn’t sure what was merely a dream and what wasn’t. Without thermal senses he couldn’t even tell if Darko was alive or not.
He has to be alive. He thought to himself.
“Darko!” he growled.
There was no response, but that was expected, he was unconscious, he’ll wake up… he has to wake up.
For a day, Fercius lay there waiting, but there was no answer.
Distraught, he explored the cave the next day, realizing it had three tiers. He was on the second, the third – a ledge along the edge of the second, led to an exit… a caved in exit.
The first tier was quite a fall from the third, and held water, a small stream in fact, with fish… with food. The underwater stream was the only exit out of the cave, but sadly he couldn’t swim, in fact – he had an inherent hate for water.
The third day, Fercius’ thermal senses had returned, but he held off scanning Darko, hoping there was a chance he’d be alive. He practiced flying between the first and third tiers, and tried firing flame bursts at stalactites. He couldn’t do either.
Finally, Fercius scanned Darko the fourth day, and spent the rest of it mourning, knocking a hole in the cave out of anger – he took advantage of it and made a tomb. He rubbed the shield off his horns, and placed it in the tomb with Darko’s body and sword.
After a week in the caves, fish tasted like grass, and Fercius had flameburst every single hanging thing in the cave. He would have been proud under different circumstances, but with the hate for the R and B fresh in his mind, he started flamestriking the cave entrance, trying to clear the entrance. Every time he did, however, the tremors would chip off sections of the roof – foreshadowing a cave-in.
He sighed and laid down by Darko’s tomb. It was on the first tier by the small stream.
The next morning he awoke neck-deep in the stream and nearly drowned from the panic before he realized he was by the foot of it – in shallow waters.
I don’t normally prance around in my sleep, he thought. But then again, things haven’t been quite normal these days.
He spent the next week sleeping on the third tier, however, in case he was indeed losing his mind.
He lost count of the weeks, things began to change, and one evening, while he was going down to the first tier to drink and eat, he noticed that there were fish heads washing up along the shore of the stream, in fact, the water had a tint of red, and as Fercy inspected it, he heard something – sensed something – beyond the entrance of the stream, down in the depths below. Waiting and wanting, a lurking leviathan.
“Who’s there?” Fercy growled, he could see a thermal signature just below the mouth of the stream exit.
His signature responded with a ferocious growl as it shot itself out of the stream, splashing Fercius and knocking him back into the water.
He desperately tried to stay afloat, knowing that something was in here with him.
He was hit, sent flying several meters into the air. Softening his landing with his wings, he turned around, only to be knocked against the cave walls by the creature’s tail.
It was five times his size and bestowed a dark blue. It was a serpent, a massive snake of the waters. He had never seen one before, but he immediately beat himself up into the air, keeping his distance.
She laughed.
“I thought dragons were combative.”
“I thought serpents ate dragons.”
“We do.”
“You do?”
“I don’t – well, rarely… sometimes…”
“Heh.” Fercius said, knowing it was most likely a trap.
It was time for him to think.
“Well if you want a fight – “ Fercy said, using some immediate logic.
Serpent eats fish, I eat fish, I can’t be sustained without the fish… so…
“Here I come.” he tucked his wings in and dove on the serpent, flamestriking her.
She smiled and lunged, knocking Fercius into the ground and trapping him with her two front teeth.
“That was easy.” she said.
Fercy laughed.
“What?”
“You sound funny, as if you had a lisp.”
“Well it appears dragon’s caught my tongue, I’m sorry.”
He was a fifth her size; she could swallow him whole. She began to press down, and he pressed back at the roof of her mouth with his forelegs.
This situation should be slightly more nerve-wracking, Fercius thought to himself.
Perhaps he had lost his will to live?
No, for even when she clamped her jaws shut, there was enough of a gap between her incisors to keep Fercius from getting harmed.
“Now what are you gonna – whoa” and he was pulled through the river under the water by the Serpent. The water burnt as it glided along him, forcing his wings back in an awkward angle.
She let him go.
It was dark, with Fercy’s eyes working underwater, he was able to discern a relative depth which amounted to: very deep.
She opened her mouth and lunged, the force from her lunge pushing the water and him away from her mouth.
She’s not very good at this, he thought, wishing he could swim.
Second try worked, and she dragged him behind a series of rocks by a beach near what had been the R and B capital. This place seemed rather secluded, but dangerously close to the war zone.
“Are you crazy?” he panted, getting back on his feet as she dropped him on one of the rocks.
It was slippery and he dug in with his claws, leaning up against the rock that stuck perpendicularly out of the one he was standing on.
“You’re bleeding!”
“I would be – after that… biting, and pulling and whatever else you did.” Fercy replied, inspecting his wings. “One day someone’s accidentally gonna break one of these things off.”
She laughed, “I envy you. I wish I can fly.”
“I …” he looked around, not quite sure what to say, “did you try to… were you – what… why didn’t you eat me?”
“Arctics aren’t that tasty. Too hot too, I think I burnt my tongue on you.”
“The cave, you – “
“Sorry about that, but I sensed a cave in, I had to get us out.”
“I’m grateful.”
“Yeah… what kind of treasure were you guarding anyways?”
“What do you mean?”
“Dragons always guard treasures in caves, what were you guarding?”
“I – what are you talking about! Dragons don’t guard treasures.”
“Well, I heard a rumor that the cave had a prince’s enchanted sword in it, and that you were sworn to protect it, you’ve obviously heard of the people trying to get in, peaking through the cracks by the cave-in.”
“Hearsay…”
It wasn’t too difficult for her to see the truth in him.
“Who was he?”
“My lancer.”
“Well you’re a rather royal dragon then. What segment of the R and B do you serve?”
This question took him by surprise, he jumped to his feet as he responded, “I’m Sedonii, not R and B!”
“Ah the Sedonii echelon, a good group of dragons. They serve the R and B well.”
“What are you talking about!”
“Oh…”
“What!”
“Sorry.”
Fercius waited for an explanation.
“You’ve… been in those caves for a while haven’t you… but wait… that means.”
“What?”
“That prince was… Prince Darko… King Darko! His body was never recovered.”
“He was the meaning of my existence. I was sworn to protect him.”
She scoffed. “I see more than loyalty in your eyes.”
“What do you mean?”
“I see more than duty in your eyes. I see that flare that only love can spark, a true pairing.”
He looked away, towards the Appalenes, she followed his gaze.
“She’s Vulcan, she’s not worth it.”
“How do you know that!” he roared, slightly frightened yet curious.
“If you think of something hard enough, I can feel it too.”
“Oh…” he looked down towards the ground, missing Rinny.
“I can feel your love. It was soothing. T’was why I came into your cave.”
“You were hungry.”
“For the feeling… maybe.”
The silence exponentiated the awkwardness of this situation.
“Yeah…” he scratched the back of his head with one of his wing-tips. “I’m going to… go find her.”
He pushed himself off the ground but felt the Serpent’s tail wrap around his and drag him back down.
“Let me go.” he said quietly… annoyed.
“You won’t make the trip airborne.” she said.
“I’m a dragon.”
“So are they.” she said, looking up at the squadron slightly masked by the clouds.
“And if you are a true Sedonii, then I doubt you’d want to meet them. In fact, I’m sure the King’s steed would fetch quite a bounty.”
He sighed and rode on her back along the Oceanside to the Appalenes.
“In fact there are probably countless stories about you, imagine the romance, the intrigue… the – “
“Can you… stop talking for a bit… so I can rest, and you can’t be this slow on purpose?”
She submerged, and the sudden change in temperature as Fercy dropped made him yelp out in surprise and anger.
“Niddy!” or so he’d call her, as her actual name was Nidorassonomatan.
He wasn’t a very proficient swimmer, and drank gallons of this salty water as he tried to stay afloat…
“I – “
“You’re very rude. I hope your Vulcan girlfriend will teach you some manners, I hear they’re quite – “
“NIDDY! Pick me up!! I can’t swim.”
“What was that… I can’t hear you over your drowning.”
“Not funny!” his wings caught air for a second, but then scooped more water and actually pushed him under it. The thermal shielding on his eyes allowed him to see underwater, so he kept his angry glare up even as he held his breath. She saw him open her mouth and clench him in her jaws, gently carrying him to the beach and putting him down.
“We’re right by the mountain-side, in fact, we haven’t been moving for hours.”
“My wings feel heavy from all this salt. That wasn’t nice.”
“It’s in your head, there’s barely any salt in these waters.”
“Hmph.”
“You were good company.” she said, nudging him with her massive head. One of her eyes was as big as half of his body.
“Was that a kiss?”
“Would you like one?”
“No.”
She looked disappointed.
“… fine.”
She pecked him in the face, her incisors knocking him back.
“That was a painful kiss.”
“Ha, you can remember me by the mark it’ll leave.”
“I hope Rinny doesn’t notice.”
“She won’t.” hiding her thoughts with a smile.
“Hmm.” Fercy thought about this one for a bit.
“Well I wish you the best of luck my dear Fercius, but I’m growing hungry, very hungry.”
“Didn’t you just eat?”
“I did.” She dived back and disappeared into the water, taking several seconds for all of her to submerge, the very tip of her tail being the last he’d see of her for a while.
They were both off to soothe appetites of a different nature.