The dark fog of war drifted behind her, cries of both human and beast anchoring an anguished mind. The hilt of an ancient grew very heavy as wetness, one that could only be described in the cruelest of words such as crimson blood, covered her palm. There was a bellow of rage, a sword blade crashing clumsily down on her armored back. Star Song lurched forward and spun, slashing the empty air. Her attacker went to her left, stabbing at the joint in her cobalt blue armor.
Star Song closed her fire colored eyes, waiting the for inevitable releasing pain. A harsh chorus of frightened voices and irate roars followed a brief gale that curled all around her. An anguished scream rose above all others, one of lost opportunity and death. Her wondering eyes opened slowly to gaze upon a great dark, demonic claw the size of an ox cart, the ebony talons as tall as herself. Dying horribly beneath them was the black lord Dolomine. The owner of the deadly fist was a great dragon of smoky, dark emerald tall as a modern castle. Black smoke bellowed from his snout and eyes much like her own and a yellow iris were elegantly set in a graceful head as large as a mid sized cabin. The long neck snaked down to let him gaze upon the small humanling that had emerged from one of his eggs so long ago.
Ignoring the hand that fell as the man finally subsided in death, the sounds of deafening battle around them and the fires of destruction, Star Song trotted on light feet to smile into the whirling depths of her father.
‘ So the Wise One falls from the sky and glorious battle to help his tiny, powerless humanling.’ She whispered to him in the quiet of their two minds.
‘ So I have, will and shall always.’ he replied, nuzzling her gently. She laid her forehead on the tight, soft and warm hide.
‘ I am worried.’ She confided. Her head tipped forward, allowing loose strands of hair the color of the twilight in summer fall over her face.
‘ Your mother worries for you. For what do you worry?’ A blast of magic cut off any reply of hers as he shook his wings open and shielded her with his thick neck.
“ Die you horrid beast!” A man yelled, waiting to get at the vulnerable chin of her father.
“ You shall not!” Star Song bellowed back her challenge, jumping back as a shot went wide over her head. Vermian, as known for over two millennia, howled but she sent him into the black, smoke choked sky to hide from this murderer’s attacks.
There were bellows of encouragement from above and around Star Song in the noisy din and stagnant atmosphere. The tall knight before her in steel gray armor set his feet, Star Song pointing her sword at him in salute.
“ Those beasts are all going to die here and now. Join your own kind.” He stated solemnly. She put both hands on her dark, stained blade and caught his eyes.
“ This is my kind. I am of the Draco!” She put the sword out and tried once more to pull her aura free to this plane, to change into her ever elusive form. It didn’t work, the power rose around her, rushing like a waterfall. A blast of cold sliced into her chest, invading her lungs. Star Song’s eyes ripped open to let fire flicker and burn in the glowing pools of them. The knight flew forward, his sword careening down across her sword, towards her throat.
Fire shot up her blade as Star Song slipped under his arm and rammed her sword into his gut, piercing armor, chain mail, leather and silk. As the fire flowed out of her eyes, Star Song turned to the sky and called to every mind she could catch in her mental fist. Her message of urgent and hasty retreat from this land reached them all, bringing her family swooping from the dingy heavens.
‘ Quick, climb on my back. We will quit this world and go to another.’ Her mother’s shining head lowered to allow Star Song to mount. She shook her head.
‘ No, go while all of you can. Escape with the others.’ Avalier, as the great female dragon is known, unfurled her midnight blue wings and set one green, glowing eye upon her humanling.
‘ You must come! They will kill here. You are of the Draco.’ Gavalier, the only one not of her blood, put a glowing gray foot before her but she glared at him in rage.
“ There is nothing you may do short of killing me that will stop me. I will either die with you or hide here until I too can escape. It is your decisions to make for I am resigned to do both.” The stern tone of voice could hardly be heard by human ears but Star Song knew they had heard her. Her young hatchmates were clinging to her mother and father’s back. Their eyes were soulful and filled with ignorance at what their loved ones were doing in this changed world they had known.
Soon her parents finally lowered their heads to give her their farewells and grief. Her hatchmates whimpered, not knowing why their loved one was not joining them.
‘ Be brave young ones, I will see you soon.’ Their soft questions reverberated in her mind but she turned away. Gavalier gave her a stubborn look before dipping his nose to nuzzle her.
‘ Farewell, I will come to you when I may.’ The two dragons behind her spread their translucent pinions and winged into the dark expanse of space. Together they rose, following the other hordes of dragons, setting the sky a brilliant orange. Gavalier went last, casting his line of sight to watch her run swiftly up a path strewn with the fallen to a small ridge. There she stood, face upturned into the fiery sky.
That was the last any of the dragon race saw: a young humanling with fire red irises ringing a dark emerald center; adorned in a man’s cobalt blue armor; covered in the dirt, blood, grime and sweat of war.