Ashes of Verdenheld

by Jack Wright

  “But don’t you think magic is-”

  “Ah! You said it yourself, your conventional weapons can get ‘the same results’ as magic!” Caesia laughed, as Eris realised how much she’d played herself. “In fact, you seemed convinced that they were superior.”

  “Fine, I’ll prove it!” Eris grabbed a handful of snow and stormed towards Caesia, shield up. Caesia bombarded her, scooping up snowball after snowball, pathetically exploding against Eris’ shield. Caesia tried to back up, but Eris was far faster than her.

  As Eris got within a couple of feet of Caesia, she lowered her shield and swung her arm all the way back. She flung the snowball with all her might into Caesia at point-blank range. As the snowball left Eris’ hand, Caesia dived and suddenly went up in a blinding green flash.

  She reappeared about a metre away, tripping clumsily and skidding face down into the melting snow, which began to sizzle and crackle at her residual heat.

  “Alright, now that’s just extreme cheating.” Eris moaned, playfully kicking snow over Caesia.

  Caesia rolled over in a daze, seemingly startled. “Wha- what happened…?”

  “You just vanished and reappeared over there! Where was that when we were stuck in a tomb?”

  Caesia was baffled, staggering up off the ground. “Y-you’re sure?” Caesia stammered panickedly, overcome with confusion.

  “Yeah, you were here, now you’re there.” Eris muttered stroppily. “Cheater.”

  “Eris, there’s no magic that does anything close to that…”

  “What?” Eris gasped. “Well what was that?”

  “I-I don’t know!” Caesia cried, completely confused. “It seemed like some kind of… I mean, there’ve been theories about magical translocation, but they’ve all been proven impossible!”

  Caesia held up her hands confusedly, looking herself up and down, hoping to find some kind of answer.

  “Well, can you do it again?”

  “I… I don’t think so. I’ve no idea how I even did it!”

  “None at all?”

  “I-I don’t… I don’t want to think about it, not yet. I’ll worry about it later.”

  “You sure? ‘Cause it looks like your worrying about it right now.”

  Caesia was clearly a combination of confused, scared and fascinated. Her eyes were tortured and terrified yet alight with curiosity, her mouth trembled in uncertainty yet formed a shallow smile. Whatever had just happened, it meant something.

  “No, I’m… I’m fine.” Caesia took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts. “We shouldn’t be wasting time like this, come on.”

  Caesia blocked the thought from her mind for now and turned to continue up the mountain, Eris following closely behind. She would concern herself with the implications of what had happened once they were done here.

  “You enjoy that?” Eris asked, lightening the mood as she always had done expertly.

  “The snowball fight? Yeah, it was nice. It was good to finally blow off some steam, what with the imminent threat of death being around every corner.”

  “I still can’t believe you’ve never even made a snow angel before. My people don’t even believe in angels and I’ve made one.”

  “Ah, snow angels are but a childish novelty. I can however, see the allure of a snowball fight. It’s not often you get to throw stuff at people without consequence. It’s satisfying.”

  “Yeah, can’t go wrong with a good snowball fight.” Eris concurred. “Plus, I’d say that was a pretty good warm up for the fight!”

  Caesia giggled quietly. “I guess so.”

  “You think we’re ready for this?”

  “I don’t think we could ever be truly ready, but I don’t think we were particularly ready for any of this. Yet, here we are.”

  Caesia and Eris reached the top of the slope and stood once again on flat ground. The area before them was a maze of jagged, black rock, many formations of which protruded high into the air. The ash was easy to see in the snow, leading south through the field of rocks.

  “Tell me we don’t have to fight a dragon in the middle of all these rocks.” Eris moaned.

  “Now don’t be so quick to complain.” Caesia rebuked. “This environment could be an advantage to us, it would impede the dragon’s ability to make full use of its flight.”

  “And take away its advantage!”

  “Exactly. Come on, we’ve probably still got some distance to go.”

  They headed south, through the maze of icy rock, across the area of flat ground which seemed to stretch around the mountainside.

  “Alright, the dragon could be around any corner.” Caesia cautioned. “So be ready.”

  “I was born ready!” Eris declared heroically. “You?”

  “Ready as I’ll ever be.” Caesia murmured with uncertainty.

  “And how ready is that?”

  “I’d prefer not to question that.”

  “Wait!” Eris snapped in a hushed tone. “You hear that?”

  Caesia listened closely. She could hear only the sound of a distant gust of wind. “I… don’t think so.”

  “I can hear breathing.” Eris whispered anxiously. “Really heavy breathing.”

  “Breathing? I’m pretty sure that’s just the wind.”

  Eris rolled her eyes and stormed off around the rock formation ahead of them. Caesia watched her in confusion momentarily before reluctantly following.

  Eris stepped out from behind the rocks as Caesia caught up. Caesia watched curiously as she jumped in fright and scampered back behind the rocks.

  “Get over here!” Eris hissed, pushing herself up against the wall.

  Caesia hurried over and pressed her back against the rocks alongside Eris. “Found it?”

  “Yeah. I think it’s asleep, have a look.”

  “Me?!” Caesia hissed “I don’t want to look! What if I get incinerated?!”

  “You have magic shields, you’re less likely to die!”

  “Ugh, fine.” Caesia groaned.

  She stuck her head out from behind the rocks and surveyed the area. Ahead of them was a towering cluster of rigid rocks, atop which sat their quarry.

  The dragon was enormous, she estimated it was bigger than at least five houses. Its jagged scales were black as night with vibrant yellow accents, yet were battered and aged. Its wings were a leathery black and peppered with holes and punctures. It did indeed sleep, its serpentine neck coiled around a protruding rock, its every breath rumbling the ground on which it was perched.

  The mere sight of it made Caesia weak in the knees, thinking back to the corpse they had found in Jordenholm. She shuddered at the thought of it.

  Caesia ducked back behind the rocks. “Bloody hell, that thing’s big.” She stammered.

  “Well, the bigger they are…”

  “Oh, shut up. Look, I don’t know about you but I’m beginning to have second thoughts about this.”

  “I think it’s a bit late for second thoughts.”

  “Not necessarily, I’m sure if we head down the south side of the mountain we could find our way back to Verdenheld. You know, go and do something a little less suicidal?”

  “Caesia. We’re seeing this through. We have to.”

  Caesia sighed irritatedly. “You’re right. It’s just my sensible side trying to talk me out of this.”

  “Sensible side?” Eris smirked. “You won’t be needing that when I’m around.”

  “I gathered. Well, how do you want to do this?”

  “Well since it’s asleep, why don’t we just creep up on it and shoot it in the mouth?”

  “That’s… a surprisingly sound plan.”

  “You know, I can do things other than charging at people.” Eris muttered in offence.

  “That’s yet to be seen.” Caesia sneered. “Shall we?”

  “Let’s kill ourselves a dragon!” Eris declared triumphantly.

  The pair stepped cautiously out of cover, Eris moving her hand for her sword and Caesia subtly ch
arging her hands with energy.

  The both of them froze, Eris turning to Caesia. “Caesia… where’s the dragon?”

  The dragon had vanished from its perch. Eris and Caesia looked around in confusion.

  “How… were we too late?” Eris stammered.

  “Bloody fantastic.” Caesia spat, throwing her arms stroppily to her side. “Hundreds of thousands of people are doomed, all because we had to have a bloody snowball fight!”

  Eris stood speechless. She had accepted the possibility of dying here, but being powerless to do anything? “Caesia, did we-”

  Eris was interrupted by a colossal crunch behind them, shaking the ground beneath them.

  Caesia and Eris turned to one another. Eris bore a look of relief, while Caesia’s face was rigid with distress. They turned around to see upon the rocks above them, the colossal form of the dragon peering down on them with serpentine amber eyes, an unnerving toothy grin on its face.

  “Your attempts at stealth were admirable.” The dragon growled, his calm, gravelly voice echoing throughout the barren landscape. “Yet equally laughable.”

  The pair backed away from the rocks cautiously. Eris reached panickedly for her sword but was stopped by Caesia’s hand. “Wait.”

  The dragon seemed pleased, nodding his head in acknowledgement. “Restraint? A pleasurable change.” He smiled. “In all of four hundred years, no human has ever saw the wisdom in hearing my words. I greet you, humans. I am Xeracrir, eldest of what few dragons your people spared. Or should I say, failed to kill.”

  “I’ll do the talking.” Caesia whispered to Eris. “I look a lot less threatening.”

  Xeracrir leaned forwards, extending his neck and analysing the duo carefully. “You have come to my mountain to slay me, no doubt. But why, I wonder, do the humans send a pair of female youths to assail me?”

  “We decided to take the situation into our own hands.” Caesia declared as confidently as she could. “We hoped that there could be a peaceful resolution to this.”

  “I appreciate your tolerance.” Xeracrir sighed. “But there can be no peace between dragon and man. The war ended for mankind long ago. For the dragons, the war is eternal.”

  Caesia stiffened herself stoically, as to not appear as fearful as she truly was. “But why attack now? Why wait so long?”

  Xeracrir chuckled mockingly. “Foolish little human, so blind. Change is coming and your pitiful race will be helpless against it.”

  “Change?”

  “Hm… you know why the dragons were massacred, yes?” Xeracrir asked, slithering with a series of colossal cracks and crunches from his perch. “Why our mates and young were butchered mercilessly by those your kind call heroes?”

  “Because you sided with the Oppressor.”

  “Indeed. Do you know why we sided with him?”

  “Because he threatened you with des-.”

  “Wrong!” Xeracrir growled impatiently, slamming to the ground in an avalanche of snow. “It is true what they say - history is indeed written by the victor. No, we joined Valkyr because of who he was, a hero of the oppressed, the only human to see the evil in his kind.”

  “Valkyr was a tyrant-”

  “Valkyr was our saviour! His methods were brutal, yes, but he saw the world as it was. He saw the races of Elaria being ground under the iron boots of man, that they in fact were the oppressors! Valkyr saw that the only path to peace, the only solution, was an end to humankind. To let his own people burn so that the rest could live free. That is why we joined him. Was there anything wrong in fighting for our freedom?”

  “Perhaps not, but that was hundreds of years ago!” Caesia urged, continuing to back away as Xeracrir crept closer. “The people of Jordenholm did nothing to deserve this!” Caesia urged, sympathetic to the dragon’s woes at the hands of humanity, but equally disgusted by his lack of empathy.

  “All of your pathetic kind deserve nothing but extinction!” Xeracrir spat, the claws of his feet cracking the mountainside beneath him as they clenched in anger. “To this day, those you call innocent spit on those different from them, calling them freak and mutant. Humanity is corrupt, a plague that must be cleansed - and now that Valkyr has returned anew, you will all burn!”

  “What?”

  The dragon paused momentarily, withdrawing his neck with a groan. “Ah, a slip of the tongue, I have said too much. We dragons have a weakness in monologuing, such is our enjoyment of the spoken word.” The dragon sighed reluctantly, reared his neck and poised his wings. “I had intended to give you a choice to leave, but now you know too much.”

  Eris whipped her sword out of the sheath in preparation.

  “I have so enjoyed our exchange, but I am afraid you will have to die.”

  “So be it.” Caesia pumped her arms to her sides, igniting them with crackling green light.

  Xeracrir curled back his neck. From his chest to his mouth, a fiery yellow glow pulsed up his throat. Eris threw herself behind Caesia, who thrust out her hands in front of her.

  An enormous torrent of roaring molten fire spewed from Xeracrir’s mouth, slamming Caesia’s shield with incredible force and blasting chunks of rock from the ground. The shield crackled and pulsed under the heat but held fast. Caesia could feel the intense heat as the storm of fire parted around her, the snow beneath her turning rapidly to vapour. She fell to one knee, trying to fight the pressure of the attack.

  The dragon ceased, reared up on its hind legs and opened its wings, thrusting Eris and Caesia into shadow. Launching himself from his perch, Xeracrir swooped over them, his colossal wings beating air into the ground and displacing the undisturbed snow.

  “You all right?” Eris asked in a daze, her eyes still adjusting from the light of the fire.

  “Yeah…” Caesia gasped, already somewhat out of breath from warding the blast. “I could- I could take a few more hits. I think.”

  Xeracrir glided around, back to facing the girls, his throat once again aglow with fire.

  “Run!” Caesia snapped, spinning around in panic.

  Eris followed closely behind her. As they threw themselves back behind the rocks from which they’d came, another onslaught of flame battered the ground behind them, showering them with shattered rock as the fire ploughed effortlessly through the ground.

  As Xeracrir soared overhead and began to turn for another pass, Eris turned to Caesia.

  “So, I know I said there was no turning back…” She stammered panickedly.

  “Seriously?!”

  Caesia grabbed Eris by the arm and swung her around to the other side of the rock formation. Xeracrir unleashed another torrent against the rock itself, blowing a huge chunk out of its side. With a series of cracks and crunches, part of the rock crumbled and fell out from behind them, exposing them to the dragon.

  “Yeah! How are we going to hit it in the mouth when all it does is fly and spray fire at us? There’s not much point in being here if we can’t do anything!”

  Eris hated to say it after all they had been through, but she only now realised how pointless their efforts were. She hoped that as they fled, an opportunity would arise.

  “Fair point.” Caesia gasped breathlessly. “Run then?”

  Caesia and Eris darted from behind the shattered rocks and made south, into an area more sheltered by rock. As they fled, the beating of wings drew closer, although Xeracrir could not be seen from behind the looming rocks.

  Suddenly, one of the walls exploded into shards of stone as a pillar of fire struck the other side with a brutal crash.

  Caesia skidded to a halt and thrust her hands out above her head, projecting another shield as they were showered with jagged shards. The stone pattered against her shield, dissipating in tiny green flashes.

  As they were pinned down by the hail of stones, Xeracrir threw back his wings and came to a halt, the ground quaking violently beneath him as he landed.

  “Caesia!” Eris yelled in terror, as the dragon drew back its neck for another blast. />
  Caesia retracted one of her hands and turned to face the dragon, still holding her shield up with the other hand. As Xeracrir’s opened his jaws to unleash the fire, she flicked her hand towards him, letting slip a bolt of lightning. The lightning bolt streaked across the icy wastes and straight into the dragon’s maw, striking Xeracrir in the back of the throat. The dragon reeled back in pain, spewing fire into the air as he staggered backwards.

  “Come on!” Caesia urged, yanking Eris’ arm to prompt her to move. She drew back her other hand as the shower of stone ceased.

  “Stars!” Eris exclaimed in amazement. “That was awesome!”

  “Run now, praise later!” Caesia snapped.

  The pair ran as hard as they could, hoping to lose Xeracrir before he recovered. The dragon shook himself off and glared after them with burning eyes.

  “Pathetic girl!” Xeracrir boomed from afar. “I will not be felled by your worthless light show!”

  They felt the ground tremor as Xeracrir took flight again, the beating of his wings reverberating throughout the rocky maze.

  “Will this guy just give up already?” Eris hissed.

  “He said it himself, we know too much! If we escape and tell the wo-”

  Eris skidded to a halt and thrust out her arm to stop Caesia, who staggered clumsily into her. Before them was a battered rocky verge, overlooking a steep snowy hill wrought with jagged rock. A dead end.

  Caesia looked back fearfully as she heard a distant roar. Xeracrir swooped into sight and made directly towards them, gliding across the wastes from which they had come. There was nowhere to go but back from here, into Xeracrir’s path.

  “Well, I guess this is it.” Caesia sighed, burying her feet defiantly in the snow. “Our final stand.”

  Eris peered over the edge curiously, racking her brain for a solution. She had an idea - a stupid, likely suicidal idea, but that tended to be her specialty.

  “At least I can die happy.” Caesia gushed dramatically. “I can die free, knowing that I finally got to live my life, that I broke from the shackles of my family.”

  Eris rolled her eyes at Caesia’s over-dramatization. She grabbed her shield in both hands and placed it firmly on the ground, the edge looming closely over the verge. She fitted her foot tightly into the handle and stood with her other foot on the edge. Second time’s the charm.