Ethmira appeared on his left and smiled at him.
“I was so happy when the mage told me you were alive,” she said warmly.
“Thanks. I'm glad it worked. Did you lose anyone?”
“Thankfully, no. A few broken limbs, some cuts and bruises, but nothing more. Our healers will repair the damage in no time. What about you and the mages?”
“We're good. Bumps and bruises, but that's all.”
He nodded at the shattered body of the primal. Its white flesh was torn open in a dozen places and its yellow eyes glared sightlessly at the purple sky.
“This was a close one,” he said somberly and she nodded.
“It was that.”
Ethmira looked slowly along the length of the dragon, her brow furrowed.
“What? What are you thinking?” Simon asked quietly.
“I'm thinking that if the primal white dragon was this powerful, how much stronger are the brown and red? And what about their queen?”
“I know,” he said as Tamara and Sebastian moved forward and stood next to them. “I don't know how we're going to defeat dragons that are even stronger than this bastard was.”
“You'll think of something, sir wizard,” Sebastian said with a lop-sided grin. “After all, you always have.”
“Yeah? I think my bag of tricks is pretty much empty at this point.”
He leaned over to shake the dust out of his hair and then whipped it back out of his face.
“Your hair has more white in it after this battle, my friend,” Ethmira told him with a teasing smile.
“I kind of like it,” Tamara said. “It's sort of...cutting edge.”
“Yeah, that's me. An icon of fashion.”
They all laughed and then caught their breaths as a flame appeared on their left and a second shape made of mist appeared beside it.
“That was well done, guys,” Simon said heartily to the elementals.
“Wait a second here,” Tamara said. “You mean these two are responsible for killing that monster?”
“Credit where credit is due,” Simon said with a nod. “They combined their powers and took it out from the inside.”
Aethos bowed slightly while Incendus just burned a little brighter.
“That amazing!” Sebastian said. “Great job!”
Ethmira and Tamara added their congratulations and Aethos looked very pleased.
“We appreciate the accolades, but thank the wizard. It was his idea to combine our strengths. It has never been done before and we certainly would never have thought of it.”
“Aethos speaks the truth,” Incendus added in his crackling voice. “The wizard has earned your gratitude. And ours. Call on us again if you need us, sir wizard. We are now your allies.”
“As am I and mine,” the air elemental said firmly. “If you require our aid, simply call us by name.”
“Thank you both for that. And for what you did. Hopefully though we'll get a long respite before we have to tackle the next primal dragon.”
The elementals said farewell and then both faded and were gone.
“You've earned the respect of the elementals, Simon,” Ethmira said. “Not an easy thing to do.”
“Well, it's good to know that we have allies in our fight. We're going to need them.”
He stretched painfully and looked around.
“But not tonight. Are you heading back now?” he asked the elf.
Ethmira nodded and looked toward her archers. Next to them, several earth elementals waited quietly.
“Yes. The earthen have agreed to take us down to the plain before they return to their own realms.”
She took Simon's hand and squeezed it gently.
“Take care. Hopefully we'll see each other again soon.”
“Under better circumstances,” he added with a smile.
She laughed lightly, shook hands with Tamara and Sebastian and went back to her people.
“So what about you two?” Simon asked. “Can you make it home all right or do you need a lift?”
“Oh no, we're fine,” Tamara answered for them both. “I'm a bit knackered, to be honest, so Bastion is going to Gate us back to London. I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
“You've earned it. Listen, I wanted to thank you for coming back tonight. You obviously guessed that the primal hadn't actually left the area. Good call. And your willingness to join in the battle was, well, awesome.”
“Hey, did you hear that, Bastion?” Tamara said, winking at the wizard. “We're awesome.”
“Well, I know I am. Can't really speak for you, big sister.”
“Watch it, kid,” she growled and punched him on the shoulder.
Her brother just snickered.
Tamara extended a hand to Simon, who shook it firmly.
“If you need us, you know where we are, right?” she asked.
“I do.”
Simon shook Sebastian's hand as well and thanked them both again.
He watched as they clasped hands and then their Gate pulled them into the void.
“You can come out now,” Simon said as he rolled his eyes.
The mesa was empty, except for the enormous carcass of the primal, parts of it still smoldering, and Simon felt exhaustion start to creep up on him.
“How did you know I was here?”
“Where else would you be, Aeris?” he asked as he turned and saw the little guy floating toward him. “You're much too curious to have waited down below with Kronk where it was safe.”
“You have an odd definition of safe, my dear wizard. Why, a white dragon could have swooped down on us at any time. Besides, the paladin was in good hands. The elvish maiden left one of her people to care for the woman until the battle was over.”
“How is she?” Simon asked anxiously.
“Resting comfortably and very cranky that she couldn't rejoin the battle. Hard to do with broken ribs, is what I told her.”
“She has broken ribs? Ouch.”
“Had broken ribs. She's almost completely healed now and waiting for you to transport her home.”
“Amazing the way her powers work. Well, we're done here, I suppose. And the end of the primal means the end to all of the lesser white dragons. Plus, the water elementals will have been drawn back to their own realm with the death of the primal dragon. I wonder if it affected the battle at the dwarven capital? We'll have to find out.”
“But not tonight, my dear wizard. You look done in. Worry about that after you take the paladin home and then head home yourself for some food and sleep. Tomorrow, as they say, is another day.”
“You're starting to sound like Kronk, you know that. One worrywart is all I can handle, thanks.”
“Bah, I wasn't worried,” Aeris said as Simon began to chant the incantation for the Gate spell. “Well, except for when I thought you'd been eaten. And then it was only because I knew Kronk would blame the whole thing on me when I told him.”
“Thanks so much. It always makes me feel so warm and fuzzy when you share your true feelings.”
They exchanged a long look and then both wizard and elemental burst out laughing.
“Okay then,” Simon said. “Grab hold. We'll head down and pick up Liliana and Kronk and then head for home. It's been a very long day.”
Afterword
Massive wings stirred up dust and crusty snow as the dragon landed on the flat mesa. It was almost a third as long as the plateau itself and every step shook the ground as it moved its immense bulk.
On either side of it, two lesser dragons landed more gracefully and hung back, allowing their leader to move forward alone.
The dragon approached the remains of the primal white dragon. Weeks had passed since it had been killed and its carcass was covered with thin snow and patches of ice.
The dragon glared down at the remains and then lifted its heavy head, yellow eyes blazing and scanned the rest of the area.
It saw the frozen bodies of red and white dragons, drakes and the mutate
d dragonoids. As its eyes fell on these, it snorted with clear disgust.
“So the reports were true,” it rumbled, its thick bass voice making the frigid air tremble.
“Yes, great one,” one of the escorts said respectfully. “No sign of any white dragons for weeks. No communication between our people and them.”
“Hmm.”
The dragon stomped forward several more paces and lowered its head to sniff at something on the ground. It was a broken arrow, tipped with shining steel that seemed to glow in the cloudy light of the overcast sky.
The dragon sniffed again and then reared back, roaring a challenge.
Its escorts unfurled their wings and rushed forward, seeking an enemy that wasn't there.
“What is it, master?” one of them asked timidly as their leader stared at the ground, its neck arched and its eyes bulging.
“Elves. I smell elves here. It is they who attacked my sibling.”
“But master, we have reports that humans are responsible for...”
The huge head, as large as the lesser dragon itself, swung around and slammed into the speaker, sending it rolling, its wings flailing around it.
“Humans? Humans are but rats waiting for their final extermination. They are only surpassed in stupidity by the lowly dwarves. No, the only race that has the prowess and weapons to launch an attack on a primal dragon are the elves. Oh, perhaps they had a few humans along, as servants, but they are responsible for this.”
The lesser dragon righted itself and slunk back to huddle near its leader. The massive head turned to look at it and the dragon shied away. The leader chuckled.
“There, there. Forget my anger. You are young, You have never faced elves before. But I have. It was I who led the attacks that drove the cursed elves back into their own realm, never to return. But see? The snake slithers out of its hole, feeling safe and strong once more. Well, we must teach these snakes a lesson and remind them who the true rulers of this world really are.”
“What will you do, master?” the second dragon asked.
“I will do what should have been done those thousands of years ago. I will pursue the elves into their own realm and wipe them out at the source.”
It looked down at the shattered body of the primal white dragon.
“They have dared to kill a primal. They must also be responsible for the deaths of my other two siblings. Well, now they shall see what true power is.”
The dragon reared back again and belched out a torrent of sticky black liquid across the body of the fallen primal. The carcass collapsed in on itself and began to melt away until there was nothing left but pools of scummy liquid.
“I shall spread my rot from one end of the elvish lands to the other. And then, then I shall finally exterminate the last of the humans.”
The dragon spread its enormous, rust-colored wings to the wind and, with a mighty leap, took to the air. The two lesser brown dragons exchanged a look of evil glee and followed their master into the sky.
“This,” one hissed at the other as they struggled to catch up with their leader, “ is going to be fun.”
The End
The Dragons of Decay
by
J. J. Thompson
“Do not run from a battle with dragons;
rather turn and face it.
For even if you die,
you die in glory.”
Simon O'Toole
The Dragons of Decay
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Links
Chapter 1
“Are you insane? No, you are not coming to help! Understood? I've lost enough, I won't lose the last friend I have.”
“Look, I may appear to be a child but I'm not. I'm a big boy and I make my own decisions. And if I want to help, then damn it, I will!”
The old man in the mirror pushed back his wild mane of white hair and sighed in frustration. Behind him was a forest clearing. The trees were limp and brown, looking like they were made of rubber as they sagged, lifeless.
“Simon,” he said. “You can't enter the elven realm. You know that. Look at me for heaven's sake. I was young and strong before I came here. Then I returned to Earth and aged forty years. If you enter, you will never be able to leave. No human can. Is that what you want?”
The young man hissed in frustration. He was staring into the hand mirror that he was holding as if looking at a computer screen. But it wasn't technology, it was magic.
He sat back in his chair behind the desk in his study, and glared at his oldest friend. He pushed back his own hair, dark but streaked with white, back over his shoulders and frowned, his too-young face flushed with frustration.
“It doesn't matter what I want, Daniel. You may only be human but I'm not. I'm a Changling, remember? The difference in the flow of time between here and there may not affect me at all; have you thought of that?”
“Of course I have. But if it does, you will be trapped here. And how exactly are you going to be able to continue your battle against the dragons on Earth from the elven realm, hmm?”
“I can cross that bridge when I come to it. Look, the battle isn't here right now anyway. It's there. You and Ethmira and the elves are being hunted by the primal brown dragon and its followers. I should be there to help!”
“And I would like nothing better than for you to be here, believe me. But then what? Say we do somehow defeat the browns.”
Daniel looked around the dismal forest dejectedly and shook his head.
“Absurd as that sounds at the moment. Fine. You will have helped save the elves and their homeland. Bully for you. Well done, hero.”
Simon felt himself blushing at his friend's sarcasm.
“And then you'll get to watch, using the lovely Magic Mirror spell that you are using now, while the red dragons turn our home world into a cinder. Good job there, Simon.”
The young wizard narrowed his eyes as he stared at Daniel.
“Are you done? Aeris is the king of sarcastic comments around here, thanks. I don't need another one.”
“I think I resent that,” the little air elemental said from Simon's right.
“Why? It's true,” a second voice spoke up from the wizard's left.
He glanced with a quick grin at the earth elemental standing on the desk next to his left shoulder.
“Thanks Kronk,” he said. “Now please, shush guys. This is important.”
“I may sound sarcastic, Simon, but my point is true enough. If you could help stop the brown dragons here, you would probably be unable to return home. No, I think the elves have the only proper solution. It may not save them or their world, but it will erase the threat of the primal brown dragon and its servants from the Earth forever.”
Simon leaped to his feet and began pacing around the room, staring into the mirror while the elementals watched with deep concern.
“You can't let them do that, Daniel!” he said insistently. “You will die. You and Ethmira and the rest of them will all die!”
“Don't you think we know that?” his friend said wearily. His wrinkles were much deeper than the last time that Simon had spoken to him and he was pale with exhaustion.
“But if the elders seal this
plane entirely, the threat is over. The brown dragons will reduce this world to a rotted and decayed horror, but will then be trapped for all eternity with their own handiwork. Much joy will they get from it,” Daniel added bitterly.
The wizard sat on the windowsill and tried to think of a solution. For some reason, the primal brown dragon and its horde of lesser dragons had invaded the elven lands two months ago, Earth time. He couldn't keep the time differential straight in his head, but that had only been about a week or two in the elvish realm.
Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to contact Daniel in all that time. After his battle with the primal white dragon, the elves that had aided him, including Ethmira, had withdrawn to their realm and everything had, supposedly, gone back to normal.
The other Changlings who had participated in the fight; Liliana, the paladin from Moscow, Tamara and Sebastian, the sibling mages from London, and the two warriors from Nottinghill, Malcolm and Aiden, had all gone back home and gotten on with living their lives.
Simon had done the same. Winter was setting in before he tried to call Daniel using the Magic Mirror spell and had been unsuccessful. But he hadn't worried too much. Contact with the elvish plane was hit and miss; sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. Besides, the elves and Daniel were safe, he thought. Why would the dragons threaten them? And even if they wanted to, how could they possibly cross over into another world to attack them?
It was only within the last week that Simon had made contact with his oldest friend, and had learned the truth.
The primal brown dragon had somehow opened a portal into the elven home world and his horde of lesser dragons, hundreds and hundreds of the foul creatures, had spewed into that green and peaceful land and had begun to ravage it.
As for why, the story had come from Daniel himself.
“The brown dragons and their leader were the ones responsible for driving the elves from Earth thousands of years ago,” he'd told Simon. “They have a special hatred for them. Now, we don't know for certain, but I believe the brown dragons learned that the elves were part of the group that attacked and helped destroy the primal white. That leaves only two groups of dragons on the entire Earth now; reds and browns. It is quite possible that the browns blame the entire thing on the elves.”
Tales from the New Earth: Volume One Page 119