The Amphibian suddenly jumped at Whiteswirl. Whiteswirl scratched him with his claws, and then kicked him away. The Dusk jumped on Whiteswirl then, so he also scratched him, aiming for his belly.
Once he had gotten the Dusk away from him, Whiteswirl started backing down the tunnel. He did not want the battle to continue for another minute in his cavern, so he tried to lead these three dragons down the tunnel. It was working so far; the Dusk, Dwarf, and Amphibian were all following him.
Whiteswirl turned and ran down the tunnel, trying to make them chase after him. After he had run a few dozen feet, Whiteswirl noticed that there were no footsteps behind him. He looked back and saw that he was not being followed. Hissing in annoyance, he turned and ran back into his cavern.
When he arrived, the three dragons who had been fighting him were fighting Redclaws. The Dwarf was lying on the ground, but did not look seriously injured. The Wind was also on the ground, knocked out.
Redclaws was not losing against the three dragons still fighting her, but the Dusk apparently thought she was. He stopped helping the others to pounce at Whiteswirl again. The Amphibian also came to help the Dusk.
Whiteswirl backed towards the tunnel again. The Dusk and Amphibian started following.
This time, he would make sure that they followed him. He kept reaching out his front feet to claw or kick them, and then moving out of their reach. The Dwarf got up and followed the others down the tunnel.
The three dragons started running towards Whiteswirl, so he turned and ran back down the tunnel. When he got to another cavern, this one near a tunnel that led to another cave exit, Whiteswirl stopped running. This was where he wanted to fight.
The Dusk lunged at Whiteswirl, so he flew up to dodge him. His three pursuers flew up after him.
Whiteswirl grabbed a stalactite and held onto it, using his weight to drag it down. Then he let go, and it fell towards the Dusk, who dodged it easily. He decided to try to make a stalactite land on the Amphibian instead, so he flew to one that was right above his head. He knocked it down, but this one was harder to move than the last one, so the Amphibian had time to move out of the way.
By then, the three dragons had flown up to Whiteswirl, and they began an air battle. Then Redclaws and the Tiger came down the tunnel and were also battling in this cavern.
The Amphibian flew down to help the Tiger. Whiteswirl landed on the ground, where there was more space to move, and the Dusk and Dwarf also landed.
The cavern suddenly lit up as Redclaws started breathing fire. Then the Dusk bit Whiteswirl's wing again, refusing to let go. Screeching, Whiteswirl tried to kick the Dusk away, but he stayed out of range, not letting go of his wing. He stabbed the Dusk with his tail, forcing him to let go.
The Dusk and Dwarf were advancing on Whiteswirl, so he kicked at the Dusk. The Dusk bit his foot hard, breaking some of his bones. Whiteswirl kicked the Dusk's chest with his other foot. Then he turned and flew out of the cave. He could not go very fast, because his wing was torn, and he heard the Dusk and Dwarf chasing after him. He flew as fast as he could, and they stopped chasing him, going back to the cave to fight Redclaws.
Whiteswirl kept flying for a little while, and then circled back. He landed in a large oak tree where he could hear what was going on in the cave.
He heard fire-breathing for quite a while, and then a loud roar. He was injured too much to go back to help Redclaws, but he did not think that she needed help. After the roar, which was definitely not made by Redclaws, everything quieted down.
Whiteswirl landed softly on the ground and slowly walked towards the cave. He heard the voices of his enemies, which he could not understand. He knew what they were saying, of course, but had they actually won against Redclaws? Had she flown away, planning to come back to fight them again later, when they were not expecting it? Or was she injured, needing his help?
The voices stopped, and Whiteswirl heard footsteps. Four dragons were walking back down the tunnel, toward his cavern. He walked into the cave, intending to stop them, but then he froze. He saw Redclaws lying on the ground. She was completely motionless, not even breathing.
Whiteswirl stared at the dead body of Redclaws for a long time, too shocked to move. How had those four dragons actually beaten Redclaws? Especially since one of them was a Dwarf, it would have been almost impossible. Redclaws could take on more dragons than that and still win. So how could she be lying there, unmoving and dead?
Shaking off the shock of Redclaws's death, Whiteswirl went down the tunnel to his cavern. He had to make sure that their attackers were gone before doing anything else. He just walked past his empty cavern as if in a trance, not noticing anything. He kept going back to the main cavern that he and Redclaws had lived in. All the dragons were gone, but he knew that Redclaws had killed one of them. He could smell death near the entrance; he was right when he guessed that Redclaws had killed the Storm.
There was a lot of blood in this cavern, but Whiteswirl hardly noticed it. He did not really care.
After making sure that the dragons were not in the forest nearby, Whiteswirl went back into his own cavern. He looked around the once beautiful cavern, which was now ruined. There was blood everywhere, and some of the crystals had been knocked out of the walls. The cavern was not such a perfect place anymore.
Then Whiteswirl slowly walked back to the third cavern that they had been fighting in, where Redclaws's body was lying on the ground. Sniffing her body, he discerned that the smell of the Dusk dragon was strongest, especially on the wound in her neck. It was the Dusk that had killed her, then.
Whiteswirl took Redclaws's body outside and buried her by the cave entrance, as soon as he had reached soil that he could actually dig in. As he buried her, it started raining, but it soon stopped.
Whiteswirl was still too shocked to take in everything that had happened. But it was getting light again, so he went back into the cave to fall asleep. He chose to go into a cavern that there had not been any fighting in. It was easier to sleep there.
CHAPTER TWENTY: BITTERSWEET VICTORY
The next morning, Waveripple decided to tell his parents all about the Vampire dragons–how they had been looking for them for so long, and about the battle that had happened when they found them. Splashsail and especially Flowerwater were shocked that he had fought Vampires, but glad that he had not been seriously hurt.
“We moved here so that you would be safe from Vampires,” Flowerwater said, “but you just go looking for them anyway!”
“I had to help; they would have kept killing other dragons if we had not found them,” Waveripple said.
“It's good that you helped,” Splashsail said. “But please don't go into any more battles.”
“Yes, don't fight any more dragons,” Flowerwater said. “I couldn't stand it if we lost you.”
“Okay, I won't,” Waveripple said. “But one of the Vampires did get away. What if he comes back and tries to kill us? I would have to join up with my friends again to fight him.”
“That would be understandable,” Splashsail said, “but if that does happen, tell us, so that we can help you.”
Flowerwater hesitated, and then nodded in agreement with what Splashsail had said.
“I will,” Waveripple promised.
In the evening, he went into the forest to visit his friends again. Nightsky, Streampebble, and Emeraldeyes were all in Indigowings's cave with him when Waveripple arrived.
Indigowings was still depressed because of Stormcloud's death. Stormcloud had been Indigowings's first friend since moving to this forest, and the dragon that he had known the longest, ever since he was a very young hatchling. Stormcloud had been like Indigowings's father. Waveripple could not imagine what it would be like if one of his parents died, but both of Indigowings's had, plus Stormcloud.
The five dragons had won against the Vampires, so they were all happy. But their happiness was tainted heavily by the death of Stormcloud. Their victory did not seem complete without him.
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A few months passed by, and they did not see the other Vampire again. There had been no missing dragons during those months, either. Maybe, if they were lucky, the Vampire had died of his injuries. But more than likely, he had just left, and dragons were still being killed by him somewhere else.
For now, as long as they did not see the Vampire again, the five dragons rejoiced over their victory. They had killed one of the Vampires, the one who had killed Stormcloud, avenging his death. No more dragons would ever be harmed by her.
EPILOGUE
Whiteswirl never found out if Redclaws had cared about him. Vampire dragons did not speak of their emotions, never saying if they loved or even liked each other, so it was hard to tell. But Whiteswirl had admired Redclaws, and without her, he would just be a normal, weak water-type dragon. She had changed the course of his whole life when she had bitten his egg, and it had not been a bad change, as far as he was concerned.
If all that the attacking dragons had done was killing Redclaws, Whiteswirl still would have tracked them down and taken revenge on them. He would find each of them, one by one, and kill the dragon they cared about most. Then he would kill them.
But they had ruined his whole way of life when they had attacked. His beautiful cavern was ruined, with blood everywhere. He was not safe living in his own home anymore, because they already knew about it, and would have come back to kill him if he had stayed there, probably while he was sleeping during the day. Whiteswirl had had to find a new cave to live in. This one was much smaller, and there were no beautiful caverns in it; he had explored the whole thing. Nothing even came close to his former cavern.
Because of those six dragons, Whiteswirl had to find a new home, his cavern was ruined, and, most importantly, Redclaws was dead. Everything was so different without her. He did not even feel safe anymore. When she had been alive, he had been certain that the two of them could take on a large group of dragons and win. But they had lost. By himself, he could only fight a few dragons. And in the time that it took to recover from the battle, he was even more vulnerable.
As time went by, a plan of revenge came into Whiteswirl's head. He would go after the Wind dragon first, and kill all her friends, of the ones who had not been in the battle. If she had any eggs, he would change them into Vampires, so that her babies would become something that she abhorred. He would kill any and all hatchlings that she had, making sure that there was no one left that she cared about. Then he would kill her, after letting her suffer the loss of her friends for a while. Afterwards, he would do the exact same thing to all the other dragons. He would go after the Tiger, then the Dwarf, then the Amphibian, and last the Dusk. Or he might do it in a different order, but he would still save the Dusk for last.
In any case, Whiteswirl would have his revenge.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Westphal lives in Minnesota. This is her first book, which she wrote when she was 14 as a NaNoWriMo project. For updates on upcoming books, visit her website: https://elizabethwestphal.blogspot.com
Dragon Land: Two Dragon Brothers # 1: The Beginning Page 17