by Sarah Hite
“If we could separate them from the males, it could give us an advantage we could use against them,” Haru said join them.
Lyong Ryou looked down at the enemy. “If we decide to do this, I would suggest we ambush them, take them by surprise.” One of the Pebblines looked up at his larger companions. There is a lake not far from here. It may be where they are going.
It would also be a good site for the ambush. The stones are large and cover most of the canyon walls. They turned to see the little dragon Torak had been helping earlier.
“I thought you were going to stay with Alamine?” Haru asked, a little confused.
I was, Pali kicked me out. Alamine is in labor, I thought you would want to know.
He spotted Alani standing between Elder and Aarto. Your Majesty! You are all right.
“Kero. Keep me posted on Alamine?”
Of course, your Majesty. She will be glad to know you live.
After a few more minutes of deliberation, it was decided that a group of six dragons, a combination of Fire and Ice, would take the females to a secured location while three dozen other dragons kept the males distracted. They sent the warriors to the lake in order to be in position before the dralics arrived. Kyeon, Seoung, and Lyong Ryou would be among them.
They reached the lake and took their positions. Kyeon hid behind a large boulder on the edge of the lake; Seoung and Lyong took positions nearby. They waited quietly as the dralics came into view. As they approached, the female in the middle tripped on a fallen log and fell. The group stopped and the other two females helped her back to her feet. She was trembling slightly and seemed off balance. Steady, hold your positions, Lyong told the warriors. The males led her and her companions to the water's edge where she took several long droughts of the cool water.
Now! the general shouted. The dragons sprang out from hiding and engaged the dralics. Five were cornered before they could react, the other two tried to defend the females. They were taken by surprise when the females were suddenly airborne. They quickly disappeared and the males were forced to defend themselves. Each of the seven males were facing roughly seven full grown dragons of different breeds. The male Kyeon's team was facing was a little larger than the rest. He seemed particularly angry at the females’ sudden departure.
He swung at them with a great amount of force; the dragons dodged and found themselves ganging up on the dralic using the same tactics the Kenjin had used on them. Unfortunately, this did not last long, the dralic quickly adapted. One of the Ocean dragons in this group identified him as the same dralic that held Aatu Haru captive for three days, trying to force him to surrender. Kyeon was called to help a group of Ocean and Forest dragons fend off a counter attack from their opponent. Three other dragons took his place. There were plenty of dragons now; three of the dralics had retreated after being injured, leaving only four. Now each dralic was fending off nine dragons.
Kyeon dodged another blow and ducked as the next attack flew over his head. He jumped away from the dralic as he swung his wing at them in an attempt to fight them off. Kyeon got the impression that this dralic was new to fighting, and was probably no older than Pai. He swung a giant paw at Kyeon, but Lyong shoved the king out of the way, taking the blow himself. An audible crack was heard as the dralic struck the small dragon. He fell to the ground with a thud. Two other dragons pulled him to safety while the rest fought back.
The dralic Kyeon had been fighting earlier suddenly threw his opponents aside and launched himself into the sky. At first the warriors thought his was retreating, but after gaining a little altitude, he dove strait at them. He caught Kyeon by the horns and picked him up off the ground. Kyeon fought back the best he could, but the dralic’s hold on him was straining his skull; if the pressure was not alleviated soon, the king could potentially suffer spinal injuries. He clawed at the dralic, trying to get him to drop him. He growled, and clawed his captor with both his front and back legs. He dug his back claws deep into the dralic's side and belly.
The dralic growled and let him loose; he fell to the forest floor and rolled a few yards before stopping at the bottom of a hill. He shook his head and tried to stand, but his vision went white, and he fell back down. He was sure one of his horns were cracked. He waited until his vision cleared and slowly tried again. This time he made it to his feet, but the dralic found him as he steadied himself.
You of high authority, should know better than to anger a dralic. You have no idea what you have done, he growled.
Kyeon glared at the larger creature. "Do you know…what you have done?"
The dralic glared right back. He growled and standing up on his hind legs, swung at Kyeon. He ducked and jumped to the side, but stumbled as pain lanced up his spine. The dralic snorted and lunged forward. He grabbed Kyeon, and pushed him to the ground. The king growled and bit the dralic's ankle. He roared angrily and released him; Kyeon rolled away from his enemy and struggled to his feet. He dodged another blow and leapt to the side, but now the dralic was furious, and the king was injured. The dralic reared back and discharged a stream of acid.
Kyeon jumped away from it, but in his deteriorating state, he was not fast enough. The acid hit his foreleg and dripped down to his paw. He hissed as it burned his flesh and tried to back away from the dralic, but found himself cornered. The dralic turned to him and hissed, You think you dragons are so clever? You may have managed to take our females, but you will not have them for long. The dralic pulled his head back and Kyeon prepared himself for the next attack; but just as he was about to release the next bout of acid, something threw him off balance.
The acid missed Kyeon's face by an inch. He limped away from it and looked for what had caused him to miss. Torak rolled away from the dralic and leapt to his feet. He raised his wings defensively, and moved in front of his father. “Don't touch him,” he growled. The demand, and the youth's appearance caught the dralic off guard. He stared at Torak confused, but after a minute he growled and took a step forward. “I said, don't touch him. I have spent too long looking for him just so you can take him away,” the prince demanded again.
The dralic snorted and took another step. Torak growled a warning, but he was ignored. He growled again, another warning. It too was ignored, so Torak did something none of them expected. He let loose a jet of flame and blasted a large bush into flames. The bush was directly in front of the dralic. It singed his nose as the dry leaves erupted into flames. Torak slammed his mouth shut, smoke still trailing from between his teeth, and growled again. This time the dralic stopped and looked at Torak; Kyeon could see the shock in his eyes. The dralic hissed, but lowered his head and left.
Unable to look elsewhere, Kyeon stared after the dralic, but was quickly brought back to reality when pain lanced up his leg. He hissed painfully and looked down at it. The front of his foreleg, from the elbow down no longer contained scales. The skin had deteriorated where the acid was more concentrated. In another few minutes the skin would be completely gone. The top part of his leg was not much better. The acid had only splattered lightly across it, so the burns were not as bad, but where it had landed, the skin was hot and contained only a few scales. He tried to step down on it, but his leg would not hold the weight.
Torak looked up at his father. He could see the burns and knew they would only get worse. He looked back toward the lake, but it was a good distance away and there was a great number of boulders and trees to climb over. The prince also knew his father would not be able to make the climb. He thought quickly, knowing that it would not be long until he collapsed. Between his leg and neck, he would be in too much pain to go anywhere far away. He also knew that they would have a better chance of getting help closer to the lake. “We need to get to the lake. Water does something to the acid so it can't keep burning. Can you fly?”
Kyeon nodded; he was in too much pain to speak. He took off slowly and made his way to the water. Torak launched himself airborne only a moment later. He watched his father carefully as they flew. K
yeon landed heavily on the beach. He lost his balance and fell into the water. He stayed where he had fallen for several minutes, letting the water wash over his leg. Finally, he slowly climbed out of the water, and lowered himself to the beach. Torak had landed next to him and was now watching him; the king was barely awake.
Torak mentally called to Seoung. The prince answered quickly, and upon hearing that the king was injured, he immediately sought out Ketowa and Elder. Torak stayed with his father until the elders arrived. By the time they reached the lake, he had passed out. Seoung and Torak watched from a distance as Elder and Ketowa examined their leader. They treated the acid burns and examined his neck. The tendons and vertebrae had been stained when the dralic picked him up, and were swollen. There was nothing they could do about the crack in his left frontal horn. After they had treated the injuries, they debated on how to get him to safety. Seoung called for another large breed to help Ketowa move him back to rest of the army. They carefully set him down next to Lyong, who had already been treated. News of the king's injuries quickly spread throughout the ranks. The Middle Kingdom dragons were enraged by this, but they restrained themselves from attacking their enemy.
Precautions
Late into the afternoon as the shadows beganto lengthen, three days after the battle at the lake, Seoung and Alani called the councils together. They needed to decide what to do with the wounded, so they could recover without the chance of further injury. They knew they should be taken somewhere safe, but where in the islands could they go?“Can we take them to the Eastern Caverns?” Haru asked.
“That may be possible. It would at least serve at a temporary situation,” Aarto replied.
Alani looked over at Seoung,“They are correct. The Caverns are easily defendable and hard to find. We have lived in these islands for hundreds of years, and only discovered them about fifty years ago. We could move them there, and not just the wounded, the whole army. It would give us a chance to regroup and plan.”
“Are the caverns large enough?” Seoung asked.
“The Eastern Caverns are almost as large as the Mountain Keep. It is our largest clan, but not that many live there. There will be enough room for everyone,” she assured him.
Seoung looked over at Elder for advice; with both Kyeon and Lyong injured, he would have to lead the warriors into battle. Lyong was the tactician; Seoung had only led the preparations. Elder knew that he was unsure of what to do, so he said,“It is a good plan Seoung. If we need to move the wounded to another location, we will have time to decide if further actions should be taken.”
Seoung looked down, thinking.“Let's go to the caverns.” He did not stay to hear Alani give the command, but went to check on Kyeon and Torak. The boy had not left his father's side.
Elder watched the prince leave. He knew that all of the responsibility of leading the warriors had fallen to him, and he was not prepared for it. He would do his best to guide the prince, but it was going to be hard for Seoung. He turned back to the Southern Council when Aarto asked,“Is he alright?”
Elder looked down at the smaller dragons. Only three members of the Middle Kingdom's council were able to fight, although Kwan was concentrating on finding Shaelynn.“Seoung has a lot to think about right now. He just inherited the responsibilities of both the king, and ourchief general. He may have also lost his niece, and the queen is not in the best of health.”
“Why would he inherit both of their responsibilities? Is he not just a general?” one of the other council members asked.
Elder looked over at the Ocean dragon, and focused his attention on him until he squirmed.“Seoung is not always a general, but only when it’s called for. He has not been trained for war as Lyong has, nor has he been trained to lead our people like Kyeon. In their raising, he was given a different set of responsibilities. While Kyeon was being trained to take over as king, Seoung was given the responsibility of caring for their younger sister, after their mother was killed by a human hunting party.” He looked over at Kwan.“It was this incident that started the war between our races. It was only after one of our elders convinced Konjon to listen to Evander, that there was peace between us.” It was obvious the Southern Council had not realized that Seoung was a member of the Royal family.
Even Alani seemed surprised. However, she changed the subject and said,“Haru, Aarto, organize the warriors to move out. I want to leave this ridge before the dralics find us here.” Everyone agreed and the orders were quickly followed.
When they were sure they had been, Elder went to see Seoung. He was sitting with Torak, next to Kyeon. The king was asleep, as he had been since the lake fight. Shaman Ketowa had put a lite coat of cormin on his neck where the head joined the spine. As a precautionary measure, he had kept both the king and Pai sedated. The injuries to their necks could prove dangerous if not dealt with carefully.
He walked over to the remaining members of the Royal family and sat down next to them.“How is he today?”
Torak looked up at Elder,“He hasn't woken long enough to do anything, not even to eat. He needs to eat.” Even without training, the boy seemed to know more than he should. He watched and learned from those around him, both aspects of battle, and medicine. He knew that his father would only get weaker if he continued to go without food. Elder quickly came to understand that he had the potential to be a great king, when the time came.
“His leg will heal, but I'm worried about his spine. That dralic could easily have severed it. If Kyeon had not gotten the beast to drop him when he did, he might not have been able to fight back at all,” his uncle added.
Elder signed,“Then it's a good thing we knew the dralic had taken him. I understand the search was immediate?”
Seoung nodded.“We knew we had to help him, but those of us not still fighting the dralics couldn’t find him. I came back here to see if he had returned, and to see how badly Lyong had been hurt, just to find out that Lyong was suffering from broken ribs, a broken leg, and a fractured wing, and on top of that, no one had been able to find Kyeon. I was about to organize another search when I heard Torak's call.”
He was quiet for a minute, then said,“We should move the warriors to a safer location, but those who suffer from severe injuries, I think they should be moved to Altera. They would stand a better chance of a full recovery as far away from the fighting as they can be, and the humans would be able to see to their recoveries without risk of further attack. Kyeon should go too, he won't like it, but I'm not going to give him a choice.” He looked down at Torak and added,“You should go as well. He'll need your help while recovering, and I'm sure your mother and sister could as well. It's been two weeks, your siblings will hatch in another four, and your parents will need your help to take care of them.”
“I understand,” Torak answered.“When are we going back?”
“It wouldn't be for a while. First we need to reach the Eastern Caverns. Once there, we will have time to plan the move; but before we can do that, we will need to figure out how we will move those who have been more severely injured. Alani is having Aarto and Haru organize everyone to move out as we speak, but I doubt we will leave before nightfall, probably not until tomorrow night. There is still much to do before we leave,” Elder replied. He looked over as Aarto and his nephew approached.
Aarto acknowledged Elder then turned to Seoung.“Your Majesty, I have a question for you. May we speak in private?” Seoung nodded and the two dragons moved to a quieter place.“Would it be possible to ask Torak if he would look after Akio? I have seen him fight and he would be able to keep the boy safe. I cannot always be with him and I do not want him to be alone.”
Seoung signed,“I'll ask him. He has cared for his sister for years without help, and the boys seem to have become friends. It would also help Torak keep his mind off of his father.” He paused as an idea came to him.“Although, there are other children here as well, Torak could look after all of them while we move, and since he and Akio are the oldest, maybe Akio could he
lp him. It would give them both a distraction.” Aarto agreed and they returned to the children.“Torak, I have a special task for you while we are moving.”
“What is it Uncle?” the boy asked.
“There are several children here and they need someone to keep an eye on them. Do you think you could do that? The two of you are the oldest, maybe you could work together?”
The boys looked at each other. Akio nodded and Torak looked up at his uncle.“Where are they?”
Aarto led the boys over to a section of camp where the children had been staying. The ten children had been found over the course of the last week; they had been separated from their families during dralic attacks. One of the female warriors had been assigned to care for them, but she would be helping move the wounded. Torak looked over the small group; they were mostly Ocean dragons, but a few were Pebblines, and one, a hatchling, was an Ice dragon. Even as an infant, she's was twice Shaelynn's size. They were all frightened and had grouped together. The boys began organizing the group so they would be ready to move with the adults.
When they were ready to travel, Torak sought out Elder. When he found the old dragon, he asked,“Elder, where did the Ice dragon come from?”
“Ice dragon? There are several Ice dragons here. Some have come from our kingdom, while others were called in from the far reaches of the Southern Kingdom. Why do you ask?” Elder asked in return.
“Because one of the children is an Ice dragon hatchling, and I think there might be something wrong with her. Where are her parents?”
Elder had not known there was an Ice dragon hatchling among the group. He followed Torak back to the children, who had been carefully organized so the youngest were in the middle of the group, to keep them from being left behind. Akio watched the two come in, he was sitting on a small rise where he could easily see the whole group. Elder carefully picked up the hatchling and examined the pale little dragon.