Dragons and Mages: A Limited Edition Anthology

by Pauline Creeden

  “Everyone knows not to mess with female witches,” Elan said, a smile in his tone.

  “Apparently I’m a slow learner, or just didn’t get the memo,” Daimon said.

  Glad the clouds were just clouds and nothing else, Daimon made a game of dipping and diving, flying in and out of the large mist-filled things until the kids were both whooping and laughing.

  Then he entered another.

  "Whoa!" Elan yelled.

  "Brace yourself," Daimon warned, and turned sharply to avoid burying his face, nose first, in a tangle of ... tree roots?

  Below them the rock fortress sprawled out, the same one they'd seen a few days before, and shooting out the top of it was a massive snarl of thick, twisted roots. Like vines they shot straight up through the cloud.

  Daimon's first instinct was to get as far from the place as possible, but he was also curious, and knew that Caro would insist they check out what was above them.

  "Daimon, we need to find out where this leads," Caro said, just like clockwork.

  "I'm on it." Careful not to get caught in the tangle, he slowed to a hover, then backed off and cautiously followed the roots upward to see where they were going.

  They led to another tree above them. It was also huge, though not as big as Celtylight and size was the only thing they had in common. This tree appeared to be normal. With brownish-gold bark, it also had thousands of branches.

  Daimon's heart sunk as he realized the branches were covered in thin, neon-green oozing webs. "I'm really tired of weird trees."

  "You think this is where the MB's live?" Elan asked.

  "Probably." Though Daimon didn't see a single one of the mutants, it didn't mean they weren't here. Then he thought of the thousands of eyes in the fortress below. The holes they hid in had been very small. So, either the eyes didn't belong to the mutant butterflies, or the large flappy-flappies could shrink in size.

  Either way, the putrid stench was beginning to make his stomach churn.

  "Watch out!" Elan shouted as Daimon circled the tree.

  Something stung his wing.

  It was the green goop, and sure enough, a mutant butterfly was about to spray him again.

  Daimon shot dragon-fire at the thing. "Take that, you big blue butt-face!" Daimon shouted at the thing.

  The butterfly burned up, and part of the tree caught fire.

  Wing stinging, Daimon eased further away and noticed that the green web-goop had begun to melt where his fire scorched it. As it slid down the trunk and into the roots, the whole tree shuddered.

  A sudden rending sound pierced the sky with a howl that set Daimon's teeth on edge. He gazed upward and gaped. "What the—?"

  A hole had opened up, and a large, dark shape began to descend, followed by tendrils of red.

  "What's that?" Elan gasped.

  "That's the fog, go Daimon, get us away from here!" Caro shouted.

  "I'm going," Daimon said, racing away as fast as his wings would carry them.

  He hurried straight back toward the cave, flying over another site where a battle had obviously just been fought. Crops that had earlier been blooming and full of food, were now a large, green, smelly marsh.

  A group of Irod were in the process of retrieving their dead when Daimon came upon them.

  For a split second they prepared for another attack, then seeing it was him, and not the butterflies, they went back to work, loading bodies on wagons pulled by the same eight-legged animals. There were women and children with them.

  Though they were the enemy, Daimon couldn't just let them get eaten by the evil fog.

  He circled around, flying low to the ground. "The fog is coming, you need to get to safety," he yelled, just as a loud boom lit up the sky behind him. The sun was nowhere near setting, but the thick black clouds had begun to roll in, quickly cutting off the light.

  "It's too early!" But they stopped what they were doing and climbed upon their steeds. Within seconds, demons, beasts and wagons were racing away from the devastation littering the ground.

  Daimon watched them for a moment, surprised once again at the speed they were able to achieve.

  "We need to go," Caro said.

  Daimon turned away from the wreckage, but not before he spotted a small, motionless gray-garbed body. A couple feet away a small Irod child sat beside what must've been his father, but who was also no longer breathing.

  Daimon hoped that the twins didn't notice the dead witch child as he snatched up the demon young.

  Then he flew fast after the retreating Irod.

  As he drew close, arrow's shot up at him, a few pinging off his scales.

  "Stop!" Daimon roared, protecting the young from their barbs.

  Seeing the child in his talons, the demons quite shooting at him, and a couple males in the back of the wagon held out their arms.

  Daimon swooped low, and careful to time it just right, dropped the boy.

  Chapter 11

  Ghost Snake with Teeth

  Daimon rose back into the air, banked to the left and flew fast. Then he glanced back and seeing the fog a good distance away, turned again and headed away from the cave.

  "What are you doing?" Caro asked.

  Daimon skimmed low over a small field of crops that weren't destroyed. "Getting us something to eat," he replied, and swept along the stalks that had berries growing all along it. He reached down with his talons, and grabbed up four of the stalks.

  "Daimon, the fog is coming fast!" she said.

  "We'll be fine." Though he picked up speed and darted through the canyons.

  Then they shot into the cave.

  As the twins climbed from his back, lighting illuminated the sky a bright, blood red. Once again, dark clouds billowed and rumbled, while red streaks punished the ground with loud furious cracks. A moment later, the red fog rolled in and blocked out everything in sight.

  “That was too close,” Caro snapped and disappeared into the inner chamber.

  Elan walked over to stare outside. "How far do you think the fog reaches?"

  "That's a really good question," Daimon said, and one he'd been wondering himself. What would happen if they got stuck out there miles away from the cave?

  A moment later he and Elan followed Caro into the smaller cave.

  "I'm thirsty," Elan said. "Can you make us something to hold water?"

  It took a bit of work, but Daimon finally managed to make three jugs with lids, and they went down the tunnel to fill them up.

  While Elan led the way, Daimon followed behind Caro. "You're awfully quiet."

  “I’m mad at you. That was a big chance you took.”

  “I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think we could get back in time,” he said.

  She was silent for a moment, then glanced up at him. "Did you see the dead witch child?"

  Up ahead, Elan hunched his shoulders but kept walking.

  "I did," Daimon said grimly. So much for hoping they hadn't noticed.

  "I don't like what the MB's are doing, and when we're around them, I get an evil vibe. I did as well at that stone monster castle. But I also don't like how the Irod are using my kin to fight the nasty mutant insects.

  "I don't like it either," Daimon replied, thinking about the two trees they'd encountered. He got the feeling they were linked somehow, though that could have been because the energy inside him had awoken as he'd grown close to the second one.

  Daimon let Caro and Elan fill their jugs first, then stuck his into the water.

  While he waited, Elan went over and dipped his fingers into the large pool of water, then shook them off. "If I wasn't so cold, this would be great to swim in." He stood and drifted toward the far wall. "Hey, there's some kind of mist coming through here."

  Daimon and Caro joined him, and sure enough there were fine tendrils of steam escaping through a crack in the rock.

  "Well, at least it's not red fog," Daimon said, holding his fingers above the vapor. If it ate them, they'd proba
bly grow back. Nothing happened, other than his fingers ended up covered in a damp, warm sheen. "Just water."

  Daimon used his senses to see past the chamber they were in, and then smiled. "Move back, I'm about to try something that I've never done before."

  "What?" Caro asked, though she and Elan both went to stand near the tunnel.

  "There's another cave behind this wall. Dragonkind have the ability to take a cave and expand it, making it into homes."

  "Can this be dangerous?" Elan asked. "What if you cause it to collapse on top of us?"

  "I won't," Daimon said, remembering his father talking about how he made their home back on Tartaria. It had a lot of large, dragon-made chambers. "At least, I don't think I will." He drew on the very essence inside of him, and exhaled dragon magic at the wall.

  Nothing happened.

  He tried again, and this time the cavern they were in shook.

  "Daimon!" Cara growled.

  He sighed as the wall in front of him remained solid. "Okay, so maybe it would be a good idea to practice when you aren't both here."

  That night while the twins slept huddled under his wing again, Daimon worked on conjuring up a few items, though the only thing he got right was a small pot.

  "Well, this is better than nothing," Caro said and held up the dented pot, similar to the one they'd seen in the monkey infested spider forest. "You couldn't have produced a better one?"

  "It was what came to mind," he answered.

  The next morning Daimon looked outside as they prepared to head out once again. "Shall we try the other direction today?" The pull to go back to Celtylight was strong, and the last thing he wanted to do.

  "Yes," Caro said, and Elan agreed.

  They hadn't gone far when they found a pasture filled with hundreds of carcasses—some sort of large-boned animal with four tusks. They were all picked clean, the white gleaming under the sunlight. Just after that was miles upon miles of destroyed crops and very little drinkable water.

  Finally, after hours of flying, they spotted what looked from a distance like a mountain range. As they got closer, they could see that from the base of each mountain, to about a quarter of the way from the tops, were spindly trees, all a dull gray in color.

  “It’s kind of dismal, isn’t it?” Elan said, regarding the leafless forest.

  “Creepy is more like, but we need wood for a fire,” Caro said.

  Daimon landed and shifted. “If ever there was a haunted forest, this would be it.”

  “It appears to be dead,” Elan said as the carefully entered. “There’s no living vegetation, only dead remnants from a better time.”

  “Which is perfect for our needs, the drier the wood, the better it will burn,” Caro said, already collecting sticks.

  Daimon gazed around uneasily, though he wasn’t sure if he was still just disturbed over the carcasses that they'd come across on the way here, or if it was something else setting his dragon senses on high alert. “I think we need to be careful, keep our eyes peeled.”

  “Agreed,” Elan said. “Wonder what happened here? Do you think the MB's could be responsible for this?"

  "No idea, possibly. We still don't know why they're killing the crops like they are," Daimon said.

  "It could have been the fog," Caro added. "I'm pretty sure that's what killed that herd of animals back there."

  The forest was eerily quiet, not even the sound of insects could be heard, and as they quickly collected the firewood they needed, something tickled Daimon's mind. He looked around but didn't see anything. "Here, put it all in this," he said, and laid out a tarp he conjured up.

  His skin began to itch. Daimon gazed around slowly and drew on his senses, but other than dry wood, he didn't pick up the presence of any other living beings either.

  He laid more kindling on the tarp, and was turning around, when he spotted movement, and froze. "Hey, I ... think we should hurry up."

  "Why?" Elan asked. "It’s kind of nice not to be in danger for once."

  Yeah, it was, too bad it didn’t last. Daimon remained silent as he watched the ghostly snake with one big head and many smaller ones running down each side of it. Lots of long white fangs glistened as the thing slithered down a tree not far from him. A silvery, shimmery gray, to match the trees, it appeared nearly translucent. Though it's beady yellow eyes—the only color on the thing—were definitely focused on him. It was getting close to the ground, and as it wound around the base of the tree, the hundreds of small teeth snapped at everything in its path. They were almost like tiny legs, but much more deadly.

  Then Daimon spotted long silver quills protruding from its back. In the grand scheme of mutant freaks in this realm it wasn't overly large, but he had a very bad feeling that it would be extremely fast.

  And the way it watched him laid claim to the fact that hungry or not, he was dinner.

  I've got scales in my other form, really not editable, he thought at the thing, but got the impression that didn't matter.

  He was dragonkind, not much ever scared him. But right now, every instinct in him said to get away fast. Only running, or any quick movements around predators wasn't a good idea.

  "Twinsies," Daimon whispered and slowly inched closer to the twins. "It’s time to go now." He tried for calm, not wanting to freak them out—any loud outburst or movement would make the slithering apparition attack.

  "I know you didn’t just call us Twinsies, besides, we just about have what we need," Caro said.

  As the ghost snake with teeth touched the ground, it let out an eerie wail.

  Scrap that, it was a ghost snake with teeth that could howl. Nice. Not!

  Caro and Elan jumped and spun around.

  "What was that?" Caro demanded.

  "Our latest friend who wants to eat us. Can't we ever catch a break?" Daimon drew on his power, conjured a ball of fire and shot it at the thing. It went right through Mr. Toothy, a snake of the ghostly variety, and kept coming.

  Yup, definitely deadly creatures.

  About five feet long, its tail was raised up over its back, the wicked barb on the end poised to attack.

  It slithered fast over the dry ground toward them.

  Caro blasted it with her magic, which seemed to freeze the thing momentarily. Then with another wait, it was after them again.

  More ghostly cries joined in, filling the air with a gut-clenching symphony of haunted creepiness.

  With a shiver, Daimon glanced around. No, things were not looking good at all! Thousands upon thousands of the toothy ghost snakes, both large and small, were slithering down trees all around them. "C'mon, let's get out of here." He quickly gathered up what they had collected.

  “Don’t have to tell us twice,” Caro muttered, as they all started to back out of the forest.

  The snakes were gaining on them, the first one Daimon had seen in the lead.

  “I say it’s time to run,” Daimon said.

  “Agreed!” Caro yelled.

  At the edge of the treeline, Elan stumbled.

  Daimon caught him, but the hesitation was just what the snake chasing them needed.

  Daimon inhaled sharply as the snake sank its fangs deep into his forearm.

  It tried to get him with its barbed tail, but then its body went flying through the air, spinning end over end to land on the ground.

  Daimon blinked at Caro.

  "What?” she said. “I can’t help it if I like this knife you made me." She shoved at him as all around them snakes were gaining on them. “We’ll get the head out later, now go!”

  They cleared the forest, expecting the rest of the evil apparitions to follow them, but suddenly everything went quiet.

  Daimon glanced back, then halted. “What—?”

  “Why’d they stop?” Elan asked.

  “No clue, but I’m not complaining.” Daimon looked at Caro. “Can you get the fangs out of me, my arm’s going numb.” It was also getting harder to draw air into his lungs, and his heart was thundering too
fast in his chest.

  Caro used the point of the knife to pry the snake teeth from his flesh, then tossed the head away as well. "Got it."

  "Just breath," Elan suggested.

  "I can't. My arm is going numb, what if it poisoned me?" What if he couldn't get the twins back to the cave, and the fog came? The thought of the twins dying out here because of him drove panic into his heart.

  Caro waited, ready to blast any more of the ghostly serpents if they emerged from the forest, but so far, nothing else came for them.

  Elan used a stick to pick up the body and study the translucent creature that had attacked Daimon. "I think you're good. I believe the teeth have a paralytic, while the venom is in the tail’s barb, and since you weren't pierced with that, you should be fine in a few minutes.

  Before Elan finished speaking, Daimon started to regain the feeling in his arm. "That was close." His panic subsided, though it was going to take a few minutes for his heart to stop racing.

  He calmed even more once they were in the sky, a place he was at home and few could equal him. He carried the tarp with their wood in his talons and since they had a bit of time, let himself glide on the air currents a little more than he normally did. But it was soothing, and something he needed.

  "We should grab some more food," Caro said when they were only a few miles from the cave.

  Daimon detoured to a field of crops, and they quickly got enough to last them a few days, then he took to the sky once again and they started home.

  Chapter 12

  Heavy Responsibilities

  Daimon soared over an exceedingly tall ridge, and right into the middle of another fight between the Irod and butterflies. He swerved to avoid a collision, and then managed to smack into another butterfly.

  As the blue winged mutant fell from the sky, part of the swarm turned on him. They began to spew their venom his way, their razor tails swinging at him.

  "Hang on," Daimon yelled as the green goop hit him and his wing drooped. They began to tilt sideways.

  "I got this!" Caro chanted something he didn't understand, and a moment later Daimon felt a shield slide into place around them.