Resurrection Dawn

by Marc Secchia

  “I … it felt like ice slithering inside of me,” she said, touching her belly.

  “And how did you avoid their notice?”

  “They didn’t seem to trouble me, Ssirinssar.” He vented a disbelieving hiss. “I was too busy trying to survive. I called them Stealth Raptors.”

  The great Serpent’s eyes hooded.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” she said. “I can’t explain. I have physical sensations sometimes, like a tingling in my ears or my gut. My father commented that I was able to reach conclusions at hyper-speed – I can tell you more about that if it helps. I don’t know if it is intuition or not. This might be a long-term effect or detriment of the vitamins you made me take, Mom. Sorry.”

  Samodeé and Ssirinssar discussed this at length in the Pyromelodic tongue. What she did not say, but she knew they pondered, was how if she was truly Dragonkind, she could have avoided these creatures. How had they not noticed her?

  Maybe she was the Stealth Raptor, she joked, earning herself a thunderous telling-off. In stereo. The little ruby dragonet made to join in; Emerald and Platinum hid behind Mama Dragon.

  Great.

  She did not understand, however, until Ssirinssar explained in his beautiful, fluting alto, that the Humanoid colonists might be in grave danger. Decades before, there had been a phenomenon called a super-migration amongst carnoraptors, a gathering of millions, which had swept across the vast territories formerly claimed by Dragons and decimated them. Histories told of large migrations in the past, but nothing on this scale. For this reason, the Dragons had gathered here at Dyshaulu, the World’s Eye, to recoup their strength and had since remained in this land despite that numerically they were too many to live comfortably in the space.

  During the super-migration, they learned that the carnoraptors were being driven on by the Obsidian Shaman Flyers, perhaps in order to flush their enemies out of hiding.

  Alodeé said, “Do you really think there’s going to be another super-migration?”

  “I am certain,” Ssirinssar fluted in reply. “Are you? Describe once more what you saw. Be specific about numbers –”

  She silenced the great Serpent with her account of the oddly geometric, complex black shapes peeling away from the cliff in vast numbers. She described the way they hunted; how she had felt as she watched them flitting across the night sky, occluding the stars. Utterly silenced.

  Finishing, she whispered, “Surely, this realm must be defended at all costs?”

  Rousing himself, the Serpent Dragon whispered in a rough travesty of his previously melodic tones, “Six times in the history of my kind, this event has been recorded. An explosion in carnoraptor numbers always precedes a migration. Indeed, just this last season, a troubling report reached us on this score. A mathematical analysis of frequency suggests that a super-migration is overdue. The danger might be to your people and colonies. It depends on the direction they move.”

  “We have weapons like photon cannons and our tech,” she began, but paused as a violent shiver passed through her body. “Oh. That’s not good.”

  “Against millions?” Ssirinssar spat.

  Samodeé said, “What’s not good, Alodeé?”

  She shook her head, for the first time, drawing against the Dragoness of Emerald for comfort. “Just a bad feeling that I know exactly where they’ll be headed. Maybe it’s just fear?”

  She could picture such an event. Carnoraptors were tough, durable foes. As individuals or small groups, the automated defence systems usually took care of attacks. The colonies had never come under concerted assault in the numbers they were suggesting, however. They’d be overwhelmed, overrun, destroyed. Tears sprang to her eyes as she considered the danger. Please, please let it be nothing. Please let them be wrong; yet she could not shake this chill from her bones.

  “How – how would we find out?” she stammered.

  Mewling at her distress, the dragonets pressed in close. Let her never think these were animals, unfeeling, insensitive to her needs.

  She stroked their scaly heads gently. “Thanks, lovelies.”

  The golden Serpent nodded. “A wise question. Let me assure you, Alodeé, that we already had twenty-three volunteers ready to fly with you to discover these Humanoid creatures and make contact.”

  “Oh! Thanks, Ssirinssar.”

  He smiled grimly, “There is only one place where the flow of the world’s soul may be discerned – ah, that is what we Serpent Dragons would say. My winged brother and sisters would call it, ‘smelling the atmospheric tides.’ We must fly into Dyshaulu, the World’s Eye. Quickly.”

  Chapter 22

  Standard 1301.07.20 Estimated – The Beginning.

  PERHAPS THE MOST ALARMING aspect of all she had learned was not the nature of an unspecified existential threat against her kind. It was the haste with which Ssirinssar of Gold moved to set events in motion. Visceral. Thrilling. It put a tremble in her knees. The scouts must be recalled; all Dragons summoned.

  Samodeé drew her close with a great paw as song rose among the Serpents, rousing them the length and breadth of the great lake. “Are you alright, Alodeé?”

  She said, “My friends and Dad, call me Alo, or Alomonster. Did I forget to tell you?”

  The violet flame churning inside her eyes stilled and lightened. “Alright. Alomonster, are you avoiding the question?”

  “Yep. Totally.”

  They chuckled as one.

  She held her mother about the snout, pressing her forehead against the scales beside her eye. What an odd sensation. She could not even reach around her neck or head. Yet there was comfort here; warmth, a soul at once alien yet familiar, like a dream she had once had. Her memories of that time before her fifth year were precious few, more scattered images than detailed accounts of events or happenings. A desperate, hot upwelling of grief, loss and hope caused a sob to rise from her throat.

  I missed you so much, Mom.

  “Me too, precious Alodeé. I love you.”

  “Love you more.”

  “Impossible.”

  I’ll tell you what’s impossible around here, Mama Dragon!

  Dragons responded to Ssirinssar of Gold’s urgent calling by racing along the lake in great, churning bow-waves of motion. His kind were several hundred strong in this lake and each of several others, he said; the flying Dragons numbered in the region of 9,100 individuals over the age of one year. Once, they had been a mighty nation of over 17,500 individuals. When she asked, Rainflash told her that her people were a collected tribe of about 5,000 persons, living only around this lake.

  At once, numbers of the Serpents dived deep to speak with their scouts via the waterways. Sound travelled at close to 1.5 kloms per sec in water, but the issue would be interference – successful communication was unlikely.

  Alodeé focussed narrowly on her feelings. Ears. Gut. The nausea …

  “What is it?” Samodeé asked, eyeing her narrowly.

  Rainflash chirped in Pyromelodic, “Do it feeling, Alodeé.”

  “We might be too late already.”

  “What do you mean? They set sentinels up on the heights. Nothing can come against us without our knowing.”

  “Where are those sentinels? Have they reported yesterday, or today?”

  Alodeé hated the glare the Dragoness of Emerald directed her way. Yep. Flame the messenger, why don’t you?

  2 secs later, a green paw gripped her waist and they rocketed skyward. Samodeé yelled at her dragonets to stay put. Rainflash popped into being beside Alodeé. Ridiculous skill, that.

  Up and up they drove, racing toward the cloud cover, many kloms overhead. Worst possible weather for trying to spot any enemy, Alodeé realised. The four wings creaked and vibrated under the pressure she exerted with every immense wingbeat. She still had breath enough to carol song-communication at every Dragon in sight, however. The faraway dots of colour scattered to the winds, sending warnings rippling across the Home Lairs faster than she would have credited.
Excellent system. Would the Dragons be able to organise themselves in time?

  “What are you thinking?” her mother grated.

  “Ssirinssar of Gold said that there were not enough carnoraptors within the barrier to stage a super-migration. Those are still very large numbers, however. My guess is that the Obsidian Shaman Flyers will be on the move. That’ll create a disturbance, a ripple effect. If the sentinels haven’t responded, then there may be a bigger problem than we thought.”

  Samodeé howled something that sounded very much like a curse.

  Yep. Too right.

  “Mom, if the Eye’s the way out, then the Dragons should prepare to evacuate the Pygmies and Serpents.”

  Rainflash chittered something furious, showing Alodeé her long daggers. Nasty weapons, with one longer straight blade and two further blades protruding crosswise from the handle, creating a weapon that could be wielded effectively from multiple angles. It sparked with the lightning generated by her natural powers.

  “She says, ‘We fight with the Dragons!’ That you do, little one,” Samodeé smiled fiercely. “No sign of anything –”

  “Look north,” Alodeé gasped, pointing.

  Mom spat a word she had last heard Dad use in relation to her accident with the garbage compactor. No need to rise above the level of the peaks to see beyond. Even at this great distance, they observed orange spotting on the cliffs, like fiery motes drifting down from a thicker orange brow above. The visual effect was much as if the rim of the cliffs had caught afire, Alodeé decided; already, it had spread over a width of perhaps 8 kloms. Several Dragonesses lurched away from their cliff roosts and grottos, clutching what she assumed must be precious eggs to their chests. Clumps and swirls of carnoraptors gave chase.

  Chest swelling, Samodeé bugled an immense warning, swivelling in the air as she repeated it several times.

  “We’ll go help!” the Dragoness snarled after. “With me?”

  “The kids?”

  “Ssirinssar promised to take care of them.”

  True trust must be so difficult. Alodeé nodded. “Let’s do this, Mom.”

  Her fierceness appeared to infuse her mother’s wings with fresh power, because they shot away from a hovering start, rapidly catching up with and overtaking many other Dragons who were also heading north. Samodeé pointed out the great silver Dragoness from the gold Home Lair, called Iztharni, winging ahead of them. She bugled orders, organising flights and teams of Dragons to relieve those Dragons fleeing from the onslaught. Already, Alodeé saw knots of fighting Dragons and carnoraptors falling from the cliffs. Orange dots poured forth like rain now, tens of thousands strong.

  “Take us in there,” she snarled, pointing ahead.

  Iztharni’s howls sent several knots of Dragons scudding along the cliffs, bugling warnings to roosts as yet untouched by the wave. Others swooped to catch falling eggs as they dropped. Alodeé flinched as several cracked against the rocks.

  As they sped toward a dense knot of fighting, Samodeé’s chest swelled so mightily that the battle spikes popped out all over her body – even the tail, she saw with a thrill of shock. Kneeling in her mother’s paw, she drew her bowstring and let fly, picking targets in the mêlée of bodies troubling two Dragonesses. Whurr-whap! Whurr-whap!

  The Dragoness of Emerald let rip, BRRROOOAAAARRRGGHH!!

  Melodic thunder smashed into the carnoraptors, sending many spinning, stunned. Rainflash disappeared, then reappeared 2 secs later, her daggers dripping with green ichor. Aggressive grin! Alodeé finished her arrows in a blur, then plucked out her nanoswords.

  “My back!” Samodeé tossed her into the air.

  Whirling, she stabbed a carnoraptor which had gained purchase on her upper right shoulder. Rainflash zipped off again. Another carnoraptor – she flashed from head to head, stabbing eyes, slitting throats. Freaking amazing! That girl had some ace moves. So did Mom. She used her four paws, wings, tail spikes and fangs to wreak havoc as they swirled through the knot of fighting. Which sort of left her waving her swords threateningly, while not getting close enough to any of the carnoraptors to do any damage.

  Freak this! I can do more!

  “Alodeé!” her Mom gasped, losing focus as a green blur shot off her back.

  Straight at a beleaguered Dragoness. Gorgeous carnelian colour, three eggs weighing down her forequarters, nine carnoraptors mobbing her upper body and paws. Try to rip those eggs free, would they? Incoming! Flame spurted involuntarily from the female’s nostrils as Alodeé smacked inelegantly into the base of her neck. Her foot blurred into a front-kick, smashing a carnoraptor like a hammer beneath the jaw. Bits of fangs and blood sprayed out of its mouth before the creature slumped and slid off, unconscious.

  Recoiling from a talon strike that aimed to introduce air space into her lower spine, Alodeé fluted, “I top!” About all the Pyromelodic she knew just now. She sprinted up the Dragoness’ back, confusing two bright orange mouths into snapping at one another as she raced between them at hyper-speed. Flash! Rainflash cleaned up to her right. The jewellery did indeed function as armour, she noticed peripherally, swerving to direct a straight thrust into the brain of a carnoraptor which hung four-pawed onto the Dragoness’ left wing.

  The tiny girl snapped away again, somewhere beneath the Dragoness of Carnelian’s body. Alodeé recovered her balance, checking the two carnoraptors still clinging to the mounded shoulder muscles. If that girl could move, think and react at the speed of lightning, what could a crazy green girl do?

  Did she know herself at all? Her capabilities?

  Mama Dragon barrelled by, cleaning up carnoraptors left and right. Go Mom!

  From her standing start, she was suddenly at those carnoraptor’s fangs. They barely had time to champ their jaws before they realised, to their surprise, that their throats had been slit.

  Crud! Not thinking fast enough. How –

  Slithering down the Dragoness’ shoulder, she swung down onto one last raptor. The Dragoness chomped another between her fangs. “Nice!” Alodeé dropped onto her victim’s back and sliced through both of its wings at the same time. “Fly free, lady!”

  The Dragoness of Carnelian might not understand her words, but the tone was clear enough. She bolted for open skies with her precious clutch of burning red eggs clasped close to her chest.

  Mom, incoming!

  Samodeé spun between one breath and another, seized two carnoraptors which had been chasing her wings one in either paw and smashed them together. GNARR!

  Somersaulting free, she landed lightly on the midsection of her mother’s left wing-bone and danced over to her other side. Dive! Slash!

  “Thought I was supposed to be catching you,” she grumbled, cleaning up beneath her daughter before adjusting her flight to provide a landing spot. “That’s this lot. Excellent work.”

  Alodeé landed deftly beside Rainflash. “Phew. Nice. Hey girl, wish we had a thousand of you!” She slapped the Pygmy’s arm. “What’s next, ladies?”

  Rainflash slapped her right back. Chrrr-izzt!

  “Yep, sounds good.”

  * * * *

  Four sharp encounters later, the last of the egg-laden Dragonesses plus their mates winged to safety. A huge flight of Dragons and Pygmies had arrived to relieve the first responders to the attack. Overstretched by the sheer numbers of the orange tide, dozens of Dragons had been mobbed and slain. By far the greater numbers, however, were dead carnoraptors.

  Rainflash on her own was impressive. 1,500 of her people spelled carnage. Little assassins! Every 5 to 8 secs they flashed off, ambushed a carnoraptor out of nowhere and disappeared again. Casualties mounted up as the enemy attacked in dense knots of creatures, but on the whole, the technique was brutally effective. Alodeé had never imagined a ground littered with so many dead they lay heaped one atop another. The orange tide had slowed at last, but that still left north of a quarter-million carnoraptors on the ground and in the air.

  Samodeé said, “They’re here to buy tim
e to retreat. Come on. They’re calling a regroup.”

  “Third wave in reserve,” Alodeé noted.

  “Trying to keep casualties to a minimum by cycling out tired defenders,” her mother growled bleakly. “Nice work, kiddo. I had no idea that you moved like a Class 4 – faster than a 4, if I’m not mistaken?”

  “Probably faster.” She gave that the embarrassed shrug treatment. “Still struggling to work out how my brain might learn to keep up with my body. Check out these dents. I’d be dead twenty times over if it weren’t for this armour. You alright there, Rainflash? Couple of cuts?”

  She nodded.

  “Need binding?”

  “They don’t bind cuts. A healer will flash-stitch them in a min,” Samodeé put in.

  “Oh. Mom, we weren’t too bad together were we?”

  Alodeé winced at the longing note in her voice. Way to put it out there, girl.

  Oh and Mom could overhear everything she thought. Great. She really needed to figure out how to keep her more ridiculous or vulnerable emotions in check. Telepaths. Yep. Another impossibility the entire galaxy had been searching for – oh, the last millennia or thereabouts.

  “Alo, we were great together,” the Dragoness whispered.

  “Thanks, mythical beast-Mom.”

  “Sure, hyper-mode Alomonster. I had no idea they taught ancient forms of combat over at Settlement Central. Thought you were all CLB-4001 and personal blasters and such. Swords? Really? Oh, don’t tell me – comes with the Oraman adoption? They do fancy their photonic war hammers. Brute of a weapon, if you’ve ever seen one used in battle?”

  Alodeé chuckled, “Not so far. I’ve always had a facility for edged weapons, however.”

  “We share that.”

  “Oh.” She laughed when Samodeé held up a pawful of those ridiculous talons. “Right, Mom. Nice set of cutlery you have there.”

  “Skewers,” Samodeé grinned.

  As they flew back south toward the canyon lake, she observed a nation in motion. The golden nets found use as egg carriers; the Dragonkind did not appear to otherwise carry much with them. She supposed carnoraptors had little interest in treasure or plunder. What was the plan? Evacuate everyone and go … where? How?