The Dragon's Apprentice

by Ben Marble

  A quick inspection by Ember and they were ready to cross the line. Everyone felt their nerves tighten and Xander once again questioned the plan. They were going to make sure there was no immediate threat. As soon as they determined they were safe, the dragon was going to enter the dream while her apprentices kept watch over her. As soon as the other dragons had been informed of what had happened with Torch and their group she would wake and teleport them all back to their cave. Excitement lit Xander's frame as he realized in a couple hours they might be home. It would all soon be over and for the first time in what seemed forever they would be able to sleep and get some rest in their own beds.

  So engrossed by the thought Xander almost did not realize that Ember had already crossed the line and his fellow apprentices had followed her. It took him a moment to catch up to the others, and he gasped in shock when he crossed the border of the elven lands.

  It felt like walking through an icy sheet of water. One moment he felt fine, then the chill curtain of the edge of the shield that keeping the elves free of outside intrusion washed over him. It was strange having been shielded by the magic, but not realizing it until you stepped outside. Some part of him felt freer, like something had been restored. He knew he had been affected by the shock, but strangely none of the other reacted. Ember turned her head when he gasped, and he swore those large green eyes regarded him curiously. Deciding not to bring any more attention to himself Xander just trudged on and stayed quiet.

  "There is a cave about another mile along this mountain where you can rest with some cover." Pinenut looked up at Ember, his voice full of respect. It should keep us away from prying eyes." The elf regarded the group for a moment then turned back to the dragon. "I suspect unless Nightfire has an elf with him, he won't find the us. I won't lie, it will be a tight fit."

  "It sounds adequate to our needs, thank you." The dragon walked slightly ahead. "I haven't spotted Nightfire from the air, if he's close by he's hidden. I suspect he may have left us to pursue other interests."

  "Or, I could have been waiting for you to leave the safety of the elven shield." Nightfire shimmered and appeared. Xander was amazed none of them detected him through the cloak of magic in broad daylight. Gone was the large man who had followed them, like Ember he was in his dragon form. Seeing the two so close together Xander could not help but notice that while Ember was all elegant lines and angles, Nightfire seemed more ragged and feral. There was a wildness to their enemy radiating around his form. All the apprentices started gathering energy in preparation.

  A ragged cough made the group turn their heads and another chaos dragon appeared from behind them. While Nightfire had been black with silver highlights, this one was a molten silver with charcoal markings on the edge of his scales. Dragons did not have facial muscles in the same way humans did. Despite this, Xander could have sworn their new enemy was smiling.

  "I imagine you are going to try and talk us to death again." Ember's voice was cold, passionless. Her body was tense, and her wings spread ready to lift her to the air.

  "I'm done talking hatchling." Nightfire laughed. He sprang straight at Ember who took to the air quickly enough to avoid being hit. In a few breaths, both dragons were in the air above them spitting fire and magic at each other. That left the other dragon to the apprentices

  Xander was not going to waste any words. He recognized this dragon. He had dreamed about him every night, remembering the wings beating the air above his parent’s car. He simply let a large fireball fly and prepared to counter whatever was thrown his way. He only took two steps before something from behind smacked him across the head throwing him off balance. Barely keeping his feet, he turned to see Chandler laughing.

  “You?” It was the only word that Xander could form on his lips.

  "Really? You think Nightfire would just return me to you if I wasn't allied with him?" The other apprentice laughed again and Xander noted out of the corner of his eye that Both Sierra and Brianne were managing to keep the new chaos dragon occupied. He ached to destroy the dragon himself, but he couldn’t leave Chandler at their back.

  "I've been lied to enough,” Chandler grinned. “Our saviors have been nothing but dictators in disguise from the beginning."

  “Sounds exactly like what I’ve been telling you for years.” Reaching out with his magic Xander tried to trigger the neck chain around Chandler's throat. His eyes widened when nothing happened. He knew the spell had been laid correctly, it should have worked.

  With a disdainful smile, Chandler reached up to his neck and simply clicked the necklace free. He held the chain up so that Xander could see it clearly, and to his surprise Xander realized an energy bubble had been wrapped around the neck chain itself. "So clever, Xander. You never think about the fact there are ways around every spell if you can figure them out." The apprentice threw the necklace at Xander and broke the energy bubble. Xander barely had a chance to strengthen his shield before the blast threw him backward. Shaking his head to clear it, he stood and prepared to face his former friend.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  It was laughably apparent to Brianne they were outmatched. Sierra kept working the offensive throwing spell after spell at the newcomer, and Brianne worked on deflecting spells and strengthening both shields. The only thing saving them was the chaos dragon they fought seemed to be taking his time and playing with them. The same vampric energy flowed through this dragon's magic causing the energy expended to be drained every time they attacked or defended themselves. They were going to lose quickly unless they changed their strategy.

  A hot wet splash on her cheek made Brianne almost lose concentration and take a lightning bolt straight on. She wiped her face as she ran and realized the liquid had been dragon's blood. Somewhere overhead one of the dragons had scored a hit, but she had no way of knowing which one. She deflected another bolt of energy that flew at Sierra and the dragon roared.

  Both felt the ripping in the energy between them and suddenly their magic just didn't work. Fighting to draw energy from the void that seemed to surround them, Brianne could just watch as the dragon charged them.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Ember bled from several scrapes and scratches. Nightfire had sustained more than a couple of hits at her claws, and so far she felt the fight had been fairly even. The Chaos dragon had size and strength on his side, but she was far more agile. She had yet to find an advantage to take him down, and she needed to find one quickly. Her apprentices were not equipped to deal with a chaos dragon.

  There was not much time to see what was going on below, but she had seen Chandler's betrayal and noted how Brianne and Sierra were paired off against the other dragon. She was weaving in and out of clouds and trying to strike at Nightfire before he could strike her. The fight was a mix of switching between throwing spells, physical clawing and biting, then some hide and seek whenever they broke apart.

  A rush of air behind her was all the warning Ember had causing her to barrel roll to the side. Despite the roll she still caught claws across her wing. The gold dragon panicked for before she was able to confirm the delicate membrane was still intact. Blindly she breathed a fireball and threw lightning towards her attacker while turning to meet the next slash of Nightfire's talons.

  The larger dragon reached forward and grabbed her around the body and started biting at the back of her neck. In response she raked her rear talons down Nightfire's stomach forcing him to release her and breaking them apart. The dragons split off in the air and both once again sought the cover of the clouds.

  Breathing in deep Ember tried to listen for the distinctive snap of the other dragon's wings. Or to see a stray bit of cloud part as Nightfire moved through the fluffy cover. All seemed still causing her to strain just a bit harder for some sign that might give the large black dragon away.

  The air chilled around her, and before Ember could react the cloud she was hiding in condensed around her and froze. The ice encased her body and wings, and Ember was rushing downward at the groun
d as she fought to break free of the ice.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The Chandler that Xander fought here was not the same Chandler he had fought against in Ember's cave. His fellow apprentice managed to keep him pinned down spell after spell. All Xander could do was defend himself.

  He received a momentary reprieve as Pinenut rose up behind Chandler and started striking wildly with his sword against Chandler's shield. His fellow apprentice took a few blows and then turned striking the elf with a large burst of energy that threw him up into the air. Pinenut flew twenty feet before he thunked back down to the earth.

  "Go help the girls!" Xander called to the elf as he stood back and up and shook his head. Pinenut gave him a small look of contempt then rushed to do as Xander had asked. He was not happy, but at least the elf was going to listen to him.

  "You sure you don't want him to help you?" Another laugh came from Chandler. "I was tired of letting you guys beat me down. It feels good to finally get to cut loose."

  Xander decided a flurry of lightning strikes was the best answer to that comment. He managed to rock Chandler back onto his heals and followed up by throwing a Fireball, then splitting the earth beneath Chandler's feet. He realized his energy was being drained by Chandler like it had against Dell. He quickly shoved a bubble of energy up through the drain and blew it as it entered his fellow apprentice's shield. It was not nearly as much energy as they had used to blow Dell up, but it should have had a pretty good effect none the less. The explosion caused a large burst of light and fire. For a moment he felt victorious but Xander's sense of accomplishment was short lived when he saw Chandler standing unscathed.

  "Really, you should only depend on tricks once. It's not hard to make a second shield to catch extra energy." A large flurry of ice lances appeared and launched at Xander causing him to dive and roll out of the way. Several scored hits on his shield. This was not going his way.

  "Well, I guess you'll have to help me learn some new ones” Xander growled as he tried to find the best angle for a counter attack.

  "Oh, I'm sure after we catch you there will be plenty of time to teach you everything you need to know."

  Xander launched a new flurry of lightning at Chandler as he ran and tried to find a better position.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Brianne watched helplessly as the dragon swatted Sierra to the side and turned on her. All she could do was hold on to her faltering shield in the hope she could maintain enough energy to keep from getting flat out crushed by the giant creature.

  "Pathetic." The dragon snarled. "You think after so much work the other dragons could have taught you to mount a proper defense. You’re almost not worth keeping."

  "Well, if that's how you feel how about we both go our own ways with no hard feelings?" Brianne tried to sound bolder then she felt.

  "If it were up to me, I would take you up on that offer. As it is," The dragon casually swiped a claw at her and broke through her shield throwing her back. "We must obey orders, mustn't we?"

  She clawed her way up to a sitting position and looked over to see Sierra working on recovering. There had to be a way to grab energy beyond the spell the dragon had dropped. In the battle practice Michael's spell had left a dead spot for two hours after he had attacked Xander. She had no doubt that the dragon's spell would be even more effective.

  "I am not going with you." She finally found her feet and looked defiantly at the dragon as she continued to grasp at magic that was beyond her reach.

  "I'm afraid you are pet." The dragon reached a clawed hand out to grab her, and suddenly screamed in pain. As it drew back Brianne realized there was an arrow sticking out of the dragon’s lower jaw.

  Pinenut stood fifty feet away loosing another arrow even as she turned her head to see the elf in all his glory. Her first thought was something akin to, "Where was he hiding that bow?" Followed by, "I hope he can run!" Pinenut to his credit stood his ground and loosed another two arrows before the dragon was on top of him. As the dragon snapped down, the elf jumped to the side and disappeared. This left the dragon pounding the ground in frustration trying to hit an elf it could not see.

  While it was distracted Brianna pointed to Xander and tried to get Sierra's attention. The other apprentice looked across the small meadow where Xander and Chandler were fighting it out. Sierra stood to run and help the head apprentice out.

  That was when the dragon turned its attention back onto the two girls.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Ember felt the ice cracking and managed to break free about a hundred feet from the ground. She snapped her wings out and managed to grab altitude quickly, as the ice shards flew down into the mountainside.

  Nightfire was waiting in the sky above her, lazily gliding around. Most of the clouds in the area had been cleared from his quick freeze, and it would be a while before the cover moved back in. She could take the fight further away, but she wanted to stay close enough to help her apprentices should she get the chance.

  "Why do you keep fighting? This war began before you hatched, you should have no part of it." Nightfire started to flap his wings moving towards her. "You could stay out of the way and wait for us to win, then you would have a safe place among us."

  "There is no safe place among you. I have seen what your magic did to the old world." Ember threw a fireball at Nightfire to keep him from diving straight at her and rolled to the side. The chaos dragon refrained from attacking.

  "Our magic made the old world. I'm sure they showed our destruction in the dream, but what about their own? Did you see what your parents did in the name of order? They sank cities and burned mountains. We are no more destructive than they are." The dragon did dive at her this time. Ember did another roll and managed to dodge the large black dragon while scoring a hit on his side.

  "I know that Evelon fell because of you."

  "Now that my child, is completely true. We did raze Evelon." The black dragon charged her again and this time she was not quick enough. Nightfire grabbed her and their bodies tangled. Both dragons fell together this time towards the earth.

  ✽✽✽

  "You know; this would be much easier if you weren't trying to capture me." Xander taunted Chandler with a confidence that had left him a couple of spells ago. Nothing he hit Chandler with was working and the other apprentice was easily dodging any traps and pitfalls Xander created to slow him up or stop him.

  "I agree. It would also be easier on both of us if you just gave up. Are you ready to give in?" Chandler still had a smirk across his face.

  Not feeling like giving much of an answer Xander split the earth beneath Chandler in answer. He took a second to look around himself and sighed inwardly. What had been a pleasant little meadow on the mountainside was now a bunch of burnt and churned earth. All the fighting had left the area completely wrecked. There was no helping it now, and hopefully everything would grow back eventually.

  "I guess not then." Chandler threw another ice lance at Xander and this one dropped him to the ground, making him fight to keep his shield up. "Pity, we may have to lock you away for a while since you're not willing to surrender." The other apprentice then cocked his head. "Nightfire is particularly interested in you, do you know what that's about? I was told to bring you in alive even if it meant killing the girls."

  "You would kill your friends?" Xander spit.

  "What friends. Other than Michael the rest of you tolerated me at best. I was the lucky rich boy whom you hated because I loved the dragons." Anger filled the other apprentices face. "You have done nothing but put me down. Now I'm doing what you don't dare to do, and you still fight against me."

  "What I didn't dare to do?"

  "You openly question the dragon's and their motives. Now that you have seen how false they are, you are still fighting for them. Why? What did they ever do to earn your loyalty?"

  "They have done a lot of questionable things, but there are two things seperating them from your masters." Xander reached behind himself and grabb
ed a club of wood. "One, they did not lie to me. There are things they didn't discuss, or won't, but there were no outright lies."

  "And what was the second thing?"

  "They did not kill my best friend." Xander put all his energy into his shield and started beating the other apprentice with his makeshift club.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  A hollowness filled Brianne's stomach when the dragon turned back towards them. The beast was angry, and she was not sure there was going to be any capture at this point. Smoke rolled up from nostrils leaking blood. One of the dragon's eyes was gone, and an arrow stood out of the beast’s head. The elf had hit his mark, but he had been unable to penetrate the dragon's skull.

  The dragon roared as it charged her and Sierra, they both ran. Sierra was quickly driven by the cliff while Brianne went the other direction. The beast stopped for a moment looking back and forth between its two targets. Another arrow flew at the beast, and it answered by lifting a boulder and throwing it at the area the elf at fired from. There was a grunt and Pinenut appeared, lying on the ground unconscious.

  "I grow tired of this. You will surrender or I will put you down." The dragon started marching calmly towards Sierra, obviously seeing her as the easier catch with her back to the cliff. Her fellow apprentice was trying to muster up some magic, but could not manage in the chaos ripped area. Brianne put her hands in her pockets looking for something, anything that might save her friend.

  Her hand closed on the green marble.

  Brianne still had it from the other day when she had picked it up off the counter. A crazy idea formed in her head.

  Madly she held the marble in her hand as she charged the dragon. The dragon undoubtedly heard her, but probably did not think of her as a big enough threat to turn its head as she approached.

  With a roar she jumped at the dragon and pulled open the pocket dimension attached to the marble. She would have to pull the dragon in, as it was not going to go on its own. All it took was a handhold on the beast for her to do so. Jumping in the air she hit the dragon’s side and snagged a handful of scaled flesh causing the dragon to finally glance back at her in annoyance.