The ground shook, and the ancient dragon roared.
"You will take what you can, and you will flee this place! Now!"
The young dragon was defiant. "I can fight! The orcs, the drow, the
drugar, none of them can stand before me! I've fought in countless
raids!"
"You Fool!" With a visible act of will, the old dragon reined in his
temper. "If this were a simple raid our walls would not be crumbling
arround us. They have called in xorn, maybe full elementals. The
Eternal Emperor did not come against us unprepared. And even one
such as I can not stand against his leutennants. You must leave.
Quickly. Stealthily. Yes, stealthily, that's it!"
Before his son could react, the ancient dragon willed his spell into
being, pouring this new flicker of hope into the strange engergies
engulfing his son.
"They will never rest if I live, but you, my son, have a chance.
Escape with the slaves, as one of their own."
The young man unsteadily rose on his two unfamiliar feet, eyes wide
with a building terror. "Escape! Live, and exact revenge! Run!
Hide! And most importantly, prosper! Let him have his victory for
now, but in a thousand years that corpse that calls itself Emperor
will rue the day he set his twisted mind apon Drakkaris!"
As if to add urgency to his father's command, the ceiling shook once
again, dislodging some ammount of dirt and stone. He ran to the
slave quarters, doging the scurring small races among whom he now
numbered. He ducked into a room that had been hastily abandoned, the
posessions of it's former occupents strewn arround hastily. He
hastily donned a slave garment to cover his naked and most un-scaly
body and rushed to join the fleeing slaves.
Hampered by the ill-fitting clothing, and still unused to this mode
of locomotion, he stumbled into a slave. "Well, lad, I'm not
thinking that wearing a dress will get you any better treatment from
the dark ones!" The gruff looking slave helped him up. They
certainly are more intimidating from down here! The slave's eyebrows
drew together as he peered into the young man's eyes.
"Hmmph. So. Ye've got enough of yer father's eyes still, ye do.
Come with me." The grizzled slave had a grip on the youth's arm and
draged him into another dwelling.
"My own son is not so much bigger than you. His things will fit
ye." He shoved some items of clothing at the young man.
"Aaron. I'll call ye Aaron. It's not so good a name as you might
have had before, but it be a safer name to have."
"Your son?" Aaron asked, struggling with the clothing. "He will not
mind me using his things?"
"He won't be needing them anymore. He thought he could fight the
dark ones." Squinting eyes peered at the former dragon. "If I'd had
a spell to turn him into a rat to scurry away, I'd have done it too.
The dark ones have come for the treasure hoards, make no mistake
about it. Rats like us are not worth bothering with, if we stay
hidden and don't try to bite them."
The stone groaned. A distant crash and screams came from the
corridor. "Come on, lad!" Once again, the young man found himself
being dragged through the corridors. The slaves, now in a full
panic, raced for the ways out, stumbling down hastily dug tunnels
leading away from the city and into the deeps. The fierce sound of
battle came to them, as the dark ones poured into the city behind the
xorns and elementals. The slave held Aaron back from entering a
blazing fire in the corridor.
The distant defiant roar of the ancient dragon found them there, and
the frightened slaves hunched low as a palpable magical pressure
built. "Hurry lad!" The slave hissed. "I'm thinking his lordship
dosn't mean to leave much left for that rotting thing to take!"
They ducked down a side passage, stumbling over the fallen bodies of
defenders, dark ones, and slaves.
A second power flung itself against the first. Twisted and seething
and vile, it blanketed everything and damped the rising rage of the
first power.
The corridor lurched. The raging power suddenly stilled, cut off,
leaving the sickening taint of the second power to sap the strength
of the fleeing masses.
"Father!" The young man halted in his tracks, and turned back
against the paniced rush. "No!"
A strong arm pulled him up short. "There's nothing ye can do, lad!
That... thing has won. We can only hope to escape. There is no way
to fight something like that. Come on now!"
The rock trembled and the panic redoubled. Numb, the young man
allowed himself to scurry away with the rest of the rats.
(
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