Seventh Talon_Dragonrider's Fury

by James Patton

  “That’s it?”

  “No. Casting at the same time is hard enough on its own. Ya also gotta focus your mind on merging the two spells. They gonna resist ya, especially if they be spells that oppose one another. The first time is by far the hardest because ya gotta learn to feel it in ya bones. Everyone knows how to Dual Cast instinctively, but it requires ya full concentration. Jus’ like breathing, ya do it naturally, but when ya focus on it ya struggle with it.”

  “Ok here goes nothing.”

  “Not so fast, ya gotta go over there. Ya fail and I ain’t gonna get hurt, I’ll just toss a bolt of lightning from here. Oh, last bit o’ warning. Let ya Feedback rest full after each time. A successful Dual Cast uses Feedback from each spell, including the merged one. I woulda told ya to just focus on feeling the magic, but I know ya won’t listen.”

  She practically skipped away from Aila to the small road leading up to the farmhouse. After about twenty feet stopped. The pixie was right; it was much harder than it looked.

  Aila

  Chapter 53

  Night Terrors

  A guilty pleasure of mine was zombie movies. Sure I love dragons, but Mondays my dad and I watched zombie movies, and some of them just awful. However, there was no such thing as a bad zombie movie.

  -from Boh’s Journal, June 21st, N139

  Ramerin had grown dark and silent. The only sounds were the occasional fighting deep inside the mountain and Boh cursing when she failed. Dual Cast had finally slowed the girl down, and she struggled to line both spells up.

  She kept a watch out on the girl and leaned against the sleeping drake to stay warm. The big beast was always warm, and its skin and scales muted the fire that ran through his veins. Several times she started to nod off and moved away from the drake to let the cave’s chill air wake her up.

  “Grrrr,” Boh growled in a soft tone, still trying to Dual Cast Flame and Spark. The girl did not know it yet, but she was trying to cast Sizzle.

  Sizzle - This is the Novice ranked spell of the Discharge spell line and is a Dual Cast spell.

  - Affinity: Fire and Air

  - Restrictions: Caster must have learned Spark and Flame

  - Damage: 2% per tick

  - Range: 10 feet

  - Feedback: 1% per tick [Channeled]

  - Effect 1: Creates waves of heat. Typically used to cook food and boil water.

  - Verbal Incantation: Sizzle

  Watching Boh’s single-minded determination reminded her of when she was a child. Sparkles had been the first spell her mother taught her, but pixies do not get to choose to be mages. It all came down to the test, and she could cry about how hard her childhood had been, but every pixie went through the same thing. Fairness had nothing to do with it.

  Failing the test meant death. It meant the pixie had not been strong enough to survive the awakening. Her hands still bore the scars from where she had tried to tear through a steel door of the testing chamber.

  What has that girl done to me? I have never been nostalgic. She froze, and despite the drake’s warmth against her back, her entire body went cold. She stared at Boh in shock.

  The forest and the larva had distracted her from the most obvious truth. The girl had touched creation magic, and by so doing had touched all magic, including chaos.

  Is it even possible? A pixie who loses her mother is not left alone long, and not because they were a close community. The chaos magic chooses a surrogate for the orphaned pixie, and the proxy had little choice in the matter.

  Why would she need—?

  “Rune help us,” she whispered.

  Her eyes snapped up as she felt a wave of heat wash over her. The girl was standing with her arm extended and sweat beading her forehead. The girl had just successfully Dual Cast Sizzle which should not surprise her at this point.

  Boh has learned Sizzle.

  “Did you see? I did it!” Boh told her.

  She was chuckling at the girl’s exuberance and innocence. Boh was fragile and just wanted validation, and that was something she could give the girl.

  “That was impressive. Do ya understand why hybrid spells are dangerous to learn on ya own?”

  “I do, my Feedback was almost entirely used up.”

  “More’n that, ya are trying to cast two spells to make a third. That is gonna provide more points of failure. Check ya skill book, now that ya learned it, ya gotta relearn the single gesture.”

  “Really? That’s not fun.

  The girl looked so deflated. One hand held her Skill Book, and the other rubbed the tip of her ear.

  “I’ll help ya. Watch me.” She told Boh and then demonstrated the cast several times. The girl’s fingers were so nimble that the gestures themselves were almost effortless. She felt a twinge of jealousy, but she could not begrudge the girl for natural talent.

  Hybrid spells were the most straightforward spells to learn— if the caster used Dual Cast to gain the knowledge. Boh technically already cast the spell once, so the fact the girl was able to learn it after a few tries was not unusual.

  Was she jealous of Boh? The thought had bothered her for a while, but in the end, she decided it was concern for the girl. The idea triggered her truth sense, and she felt wrong somehow. Boh needed her, but she was not sure why.

  Too many years spent away from the affairs of people and dragons, and now she had no idea how to contact the pixie council. Collectively they had more information on Chaotic Magic than anyone. They had to know what was going on.

  Boh also needed to know the truth about her, but this was not the place. With everything going on, it would not do to ruin the trust she had built. It was not a story that flattered her in any way.

  There is a reason some called her the Witch of the Woods, but while others called her the Lady of the Woods. It all depended on which side of the Usurper Wars they were on. Pixies loved war; it brought them out in droves because the chaos was intoxicating. It was powerful, and it incited the berserker side of herself that she wished to keep buried.

  Pixies on a battlefield chose no sides, and they killed anything threatening near them. She was no different and had killed friends and foe alike. After that, she left the world of dragons and retired to her wooded sanctuary. A place where there was more order than chaos, and where she did not lose control of herself.

  Here she was again, in the middle of events. Drawn to the chaos like a moth to the flame, or maybe she was an addict. She sighed again and rested her head back against the drake and must have dozed off because Boh was shaking her awake.

  “Something comes.”

  She was awake instantly, and the sense of danger caused her hair to crackle with static electricity. Her Shotel was in hand and her hand ready to cast.

  “Smells like charcoal,” Boh told her.

  Out of the dark one of the plant zombies shambled towards them. Smoke rose off of it as if it had been part of a bonfire, and its charred flesh cracked with each movement. She did not have night vision Boh did and had a hard time recognizing anything like a face under the burnt flesh.

  Boh’s upraised hand was shimmering from the heat of her Sizzle spell. She angled her palm towards the creature, and the sound of bubbling organic material was unmistakable. Smoke was billowing from the center of the zombie’s chest, and the hissing sound reminded her of seared meat on a hot metal surface.

  It fell over after only a few seconds, sections of its arm shattered on impact. The pieces of the plant man’s arm revealed that the charred exterior went deep. It might have died on its own in another few minutes, but Boh’s spell finished off whatever thread had held it to this world.

  “Is it dead?” Boh asked surprised as she ended her spell. “And are they all that weak?”

  “No idea. Never tried to kill one before, but ya can see it was pretty much dead already.”

  The rapid decay of the creature surprised them both. One second it was a charred plant creature, the next it was withering, and the skin curled up like dry leaves
. It then crumbled like old paper and collapsed as if it had never been.

  “The bigger question is what burned it? If I had to guess, I would say Keahi’s minions are nearby. I got no idea what’s gonna happen if he finds Vegeta here, at this point I would guess the dragon is probably an Ancient on par with Uro.”

  “Is everything hiding under this mountain big, old, and scary?” Boh asked.

  Taro was laughing, so they did not need to wake him. “I agree with Boh. Who knew all this was under here? I’ve traveled this pass many many times and never ran into a goblin, much less an Ancient.”

  “Well hop on, time to ride- Boh?” Taro was on his feet and running towards his bonded. “Bonded!”

  Seeing Taro panicking she turned and saw silver blood coming out of Boh’s eyes and ears. Her skin took on a green tinge, and the girl started working a spell with both hands.

  It did not take long to figure out what the elf was doing. The girl’s hands turned towards her pale body, and the sizzling sound she associated with the plant zombie was universal. The girl was cooking herself alive.

  “Boh, Stop! What are you doing girl?” She yelled, readying a spell to disable Boh. How? She asked herself. The girl was not bitten and had not even been close to it. How did she get infected?

  “Get me to—“ Boh gasped, and her face went whiter than usual. If she was about to scream she bit it back and instead growled, “To a healer.”

  She realized what Boh was doing and canceled her spell. It did not change her opinion that the girl was insane, and the act itself was horrifying. The girl might be saving her life, but it was disturbing to watch.

  “Contam- ahhhh.”

  Boh moved away from them and vomited. One of her hands shifted and was directed at the liquid that ejected from her mouth. The smell was horrendous, but they all saw the plant fibers in the vile liquid leaving no doubt of contamination.

  “Will using that spell help her?”

  “I dunno. That girl is boiling her insides. Ya know how painful that is? We need to get her away from the source before that fungus takes root in her brain, and to a healer. We might be able to save her.”

  Boh’s spells dropped as she stumbled forward and fell to her knees and then fell over to the side. The girl was barely breathing, and she remembered she had some potions that could stem the spread of the fungus. It had to be enough.

  “Use her scarf, and wrap her face. I am not stopping until I reach Crosspointe. You are going to have to carry her up to my back, and do not let her go, witch,” Taro growled menacingly.

  It took some doing to ignore the threat implied but decided it was the fear talking. She had enough Chaotic energy that lifting Boh and flying up to the back of the drake was not an issue, but she was not sure how to hold the girl in a way that would prevent getting contaminated. “Go!”

  Taro took off with new vigor, and he did not even bother going around. He went right back to the main avenue and ran. It did not matter because they did not see any of the plant zombies. Fighting reached them as soon as they made it to the avenue, but they never stopped.

  Taro

  Chapter 54

  Crosspointe

  Dammit Boh, I hate recording myself. How about we just go hunt? Or swim? You could use a bath, and why are you all covered in blood agai—

  -from Taro, Audio Roll 0002

  “She ok?” He rumbled more harshly than intended. Angry at himself, not the pixie.

  “Doubt it, but she is not dead, and her eyes remain clear. I’m going to keep shocking her system with steady current. She might scream, and you might feel it, but its the only thing I can think to do. My potions have helped, but the effect is too weak.”

  “Boh has a lot of willpower, can she fight the effects?”

  “You talk funny. Like a boulder and an opera singer had a baby, that is you.” Boh said giggling uncontrollably.

  Aila laughed before she realized what she was doing. “Sorry, that’s—that’s not funny. She is talking, so that is a good thing maybe. It is like she took a strong medicinal potion, she is incoherent mostly. I do not think it is something she can fight, but maybe?”

  They said nothing else for a while. He couldn’t fail those who depended on him again. He refused to let Boh die and put on more speed. A warrior should never let down their pack, and every bit of fire he had in him went into his limbs, willing them to move faster.

  Congratulations! You have increased the rank of your innate ability Run to Expert.

  One Time Bonuses:

  - You have gained the Secondary Active skill Dash.

  - Speed +2, Speed is now 21.

  Dash – This skill must be added to your Active Skill slots to use.

  - Effect: Increases your speed by 25% while active.

  - Feedback: 1% [Channeled].

  - Note: If your Feedback is over 60%, then Dash is disabled, and it cannot be used until Feedback drops below 30%.

  Do you wish to add this to a Secondary Active skill slot? Yes or No

  Yes! He growled, registering the skill to him. It would take half an hour for it to be useful, but he would get some benefit immediately. As soon as it was in his Active skills, he engaged it and felt an immediate boost.

  Hold on you foolish girl, don’t you die on me. He cried out to her. His bonded was screaming in his head, and his second heart was beating erratically. Whatever Aila was doing to her was killing her, but he trusted the witch to have Boh’s best interests at heart.

  “You know I am going to have issues getting through Crosspointe. My kind is not well received in dragon run towns and cities.”

  “Tough. I’ll destroy the town if they oppose us.” Aila said coldly as she brushed Boh’s short hair back. “Her skin is turning greenish brown.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Mercury Elves adapt because of Wanderlust. However, her skin had been much darker than I had thought and her skin is quickly shifting to the color of a wood elf. It could help her fight this.”

  “Hopefully we are ahead of that pack.” He said as he ran into the late morning sunlight. His eyes adjusted quickly and he scanned his environment. They came out at a different exit than he knew. On the positive side, he was high up in the air and on a cliff overlooking the forest below. Maybe a mile away was the road, and off to the right, he could make out the small wood elf village.

  Sighing, he turned to look back at Aila.

  “Crosspoint or the village below?” He asked Aila, pausing at the edge of the cliff. He saw several stones bouncing down the side of the mountain and looked to the left and saw another cave tunnel going into a wide cavern. He was standing on the rock shelf an old dragon hatchery.

  “Taro the Brash is not the drakeling I remembered.”

  “Do not toy with me witch,” he growled. “Who can save my rider.”

  “Crosspointe. That village looks too small to be of much use, and we need a doctor.”

  “I was an aide once, worked for this tycoon that had several wives. Dr. Rahn.” Boh started mumbling incoherently as she lost her line of thought.

  Taro ran and launched himself off the cliff, his wings snapped out, and he brought up his shield. Activating Glide came naturally, and his shield flattened around him creating significant air resistance. It was an old drake trick for staying in the air longer.

  Banking right he headed for where he thought the Crosspointe outpost was. The road below him was getting closer and closer, but his glide was taking hours off their trip.

  By the time he started sinking below the tops of the trees, he could see the outpost ahead, but it was too far to glide over the palisade.

  “I need to kill Malinite,” Boh said randomly. “He will never let me fly. I should pop him right in the eye. Bang.”

  “Boh, you gotta stop talking. If the dragons hear you talk like that, they might kill you. Calm down, and we will get it all sorted.” Aila kept talking soothingly to Boh.

  “To the wall! A drake incoming.” A guard shouted
.

  The sun had crested its zenith by this point, so his trajectory from west put the sun somewhat behind him. It was impressive that guard had not only spotted him but knew what he was.

  “Hold on, going to drop fast,” Taro grumbled, hoping to get closer. Mountains surround this entire area, except for the pass that Crosspointe guarded and the one to the west. The drakes would follow the road and wind around to here eventually. Even though it was afternoon, the mountains blocked the sun, so it got dark fast. He did not need any more reason than being a drake to antagonize the dragons.

  He tucked his wings closer decreasing his wind resistance and felt gravity speed up his descent. At the last moment, he pushed his wings out letting the wind pull the leathery skin taught. His shield expanded out once more to soften the landing because he did not want to hurt his rider. His feet touched down lightly, and neither woman on his back had moved.

  The remain distance he used Dash and really felt his speed boost now that the skill was attuned. He slowed when he was in the range of their snipers.

  “Stop right there!” A two-leg said standing almost as tall as a small dragon.

  The oversized man eyed them cautiously as he stepped forward. The man must have giant’s blood in him, it was the only thing that made sense, and he was wearing scaled armor that made him look even more massive.

  “Woah, that building is moving!” Boh slurred out, and Ailo snorted trying to contain her laughter. Hell, even he almost laughed.

  “We bring a warning. I need to speak to whoever is in charge.” Aila bellowed out, and all eyes shifted from the drake to her.

  “I am in charge. I know you Aila, Lady of the Woods, and you are welcome here. Your mutt stays out here.” The guard called back gruffly.

  “No, I need him to carry the girl, his bonded. She suffered an infection, and I will not have the two separated.”