A Selfless Sacrifice

by Paul Cude

  Eyes wide open, ready to direct the supernatural power at his disposal, he positively yelled the words inside his head, adding a huge dollop of magic as well as a considerable amount of his willpower. Closing in at speed, arcing bolts of brilliant, fluorescent green lightning splayed out in front of him from his fingertips, not aimed at the creatures themselves due to their immunity, but at the rocks they’d taken shelter amongst, that now, almost as one, splintered and fractured apart as they exploded en masse, causing the earth to quake and the air to scream.

  Not a million miles away, at precisely the same time, Keesha reached the point of no return, and praying that they wouldn’t harm the dragons below beyond repair and that they could somehow be brought out from under the control of those blessed unicorn lookalikes, dropped the two giant rocks that she’d been holding in both of her feet, before banking around and heading north with as much speed as she could muster. Orac, (very much within DRS range... it’s a Formula 1 joke) a split second behind her, followed her lead and let go of his payload, again banking round, flapping his wings as hard as he could in a concerted effort to keep up.

  BOOM!

  Landing amongst the throng of sleeping dragons, the four rocks and their splintering fragments did untold damage, ripping wings, severing legs, breaking arms and ankles, busting heads as well causing fear and anxiety on an industrial level. Under normal circumstances, dragons being attacked would be formidable opponents, even coming straight out of a deep sleep, but don’t forget these had another obstacle to overcome... the fact that they were being controlled by the ra-hoon, their minds not their own, and so they were pitifully slow to react to what had happened. In fact, it took them nearly a full minute to determine exactly what had gone on, and that they should give chase, something that only about half of them were able to do, which had indeed increased the odds of survival for the three courageous heroes out to stop the unicorn lookalikes from harming any other beings.

  Spectacular would be an accurate way to describe the explosion, or correctly, explosions that had resulted from For’son’s fluorescent green, magical lightning strikes on the rocks, sending razor sharp superheated stone in every direction, acting as an improvised explosive device would in our modern world, sending tens of thousands of tiny fragments every which way. Not particularly subtle or clinical, it was at least as effective as anything could be, maiming three of their kind there and then, wounding at least two others badly, the last of which remained unharmed through sheer luck and absolutely nothing else. About to move in and rake one of the injured ra-hoon with his talons in an attempt to finish him off, suddenly a piercing wail, followed by the utmost pressure imaginable encompassed his mind, forcing him to veer off course, almost crashing him into the ground... ALMOST! But not quite. For’son was able to sweep around in a tight loop, his gigantic prehistoric frame almost on autopilot, his outstretched talons clipping the ground, but nothing more than that, after which he took to the sky, his wings flapping as hard as they ever had in a desperate attempt to get away and shake off the crushing pressure on his psyche.

  Heading in the opposite direction full of anger, rage and venom, the three dozen or so dragons to survive the rock dropping attack unscathed were now in full pursuit of Orac and Keesha, their wings flapping ten to the dozen, each and every one of them expending far more energy than was either healthy or wise, their clouded minds still under the influence of the unicorn lookalikes, despite their masters themselves having more pressing issues to deal with.

  “They’re gaining on us. I don’t think we’re going to be outrunning them anytime soon,” screamed the stunning golden female over the howling breeze they found themselves flying into.

  Against his better judgement, Orac looked over his shoulder. Clapping eyes on all those dragons sent a chill racing from his head down to his tail, one that he could well have done without.

  ‘Talk about seeing the whites of their eyes,’ he mused, noting that not a single one of them had an iris showing, something he knew meant they were still being controlled. So much for the theory that they might well have been out of range this far out... if only.

  ‘There’s so many of them,’ was his next panicked thought, quickly followed by, ‘and they’ve made up quite some ground. What the hell are we going to do?’ Just as that popped into his head, half a dozen stray fireballs from the pursuing mob lit up the air all around them as they streaked harmlessly past, a warning if ever there was one about just how much danger they were in.

  Against the background noise of the onrushing air, Keesha yelled,

  “Follow me,” before dropping like a stone and vectoring in on a huge, dark fissure in the ground up ahead.

  Without having time to even think about what he was doing, just as another flaming orange and red fireball zipped past his right shoulder, only the heat alerting him to its presence, and terrified beyond belief, the librarian gave himself over to the tug of gravity and, spiralling as he did so, dropped right onto her tail, the G forces involved making his chin and cheeks rattle. It wasn’t graceful, it wasn’t something to be proud of, but it was necessary if he wanted to stay alive. And he very much did.

  The caves were all she could think of, the ones where she’d played and explored as a dragonling, all those decades ago.

  ‘If we can make it to the entrance, they’ll only be able to follow us one by one because the narrow passageways make it impossible to do anything else, and my expert recall will give us a huge advantage. Come on, come on,’ she urged herself, heading towards the ground like an out of control fighter jet, way too fast and ungainly. Nothing about that mattered though, only getting through the entrance.

  While Keesha and Orac headed for the surface at speed, almost the direct opposite could be said of the third of the trio, For’son, who was now powering his way skywards, straight up, determined to put as much distance between him and what remained of the ra-hoon contingent. With the snaking, all consuming pressure attempting to pierce the defences of his mind, it was all that he could do, his flying ungainly and uneconomic, something that everybody that knew him would attest was very much out of character.

  Sun rays reflecting off the sweat pouring across all the different shades of his brilliant blue scales, despite the chilling effect of the wind and the upper atmosphere, still his brain felt like a nut in the unyielding grip of a nutcracker, muddling his thoughts, all of his magic diverted, reinforcing that which protected not only his intelligence, but what felt like his soul as well. He could almost feel the deadly, devious minds behind the onslaught, the occasional thought and the sound of horrid laughter barely audible in the background. They wanted to break him, control him, harm him... all of this came across as more of a feeling than one specific thought. Powering on with his mighty wings, one flap at a time, he licked his parched lips in an attempt to take his focus away from the burning muscles and the vicious mental assault. And then it happened, after what must have been nine or ten miles of flying directly up, not quite reaching the troposphere. In a gradual wave of relief, the heaviness haranguing his mind began to subside. Thirty seconds later For’son hovered to a halt, sure by now that he was out of reach of the dastardly unicorn lookalikes, grateful to have survived and inflicted such devastation on their number, but by now, well aware of the threat the beasts posed not only to him, but others of his kind.

  ‘They must be destroyed,’ he thought, catching an updraft, gliding along on its warm current, letting it tickle the scales on his belly, his mental defences still very much up, despite the threat seeming to be over, for now at least. Taking stock, allowing his magical reserves to recover just a little, not so much from the new lightning mantra that he’d used, the one procured from the land only just brought under their banner from his last adventure with the king, more so from holding the barriers around his mind in place for such a long period of time, he counted himself lucky to have survived and wondered how his two comrades were faring against the dragon puppets they’d been tasked to distract
.

  Pulling an almost complete one eighty, Keesha, talons first, hit the peach coloured rock plinth hard, sending snippets of stone flying in all directions, her muscular thighs and knees taking the brunt of the impact. Knowing that her companion was hot on her tail, she leapt down and with as much speed as she could, scrambled sideways through a dark gap between two massive boulders that appeared to be part of the cliff face itself.

  Skidding precariously off the plinth that his friend, yes that’s how he now thought of her... friend, had landed on only a moment or so before, his body never having ached before as much as it did now, Orac bounded down onto the sandy path and followed it up to the gigantic stones and into the dark in between them both.

  “Hurry,” urged Keesha, knowing that the mob of murderous dragons were still hot on their tail, the white’s of their eyes still showing, much to her disappointment, understanding that they were still under the influence of the despicable unicorn lookalikes.

  “I’m right behind you, I’m right behind you,” babbled Orac, scared out of his wits, not knowing where they were or what they were doing.

  Almost as if sensing this, the stunning golden female tried to tell him her plan whilst they were on the move.

  “After the next cavern, the passageway narrows down considerably, with only one of us being able to fit through at a time. That’ll slow them down, and maybe give us a chance to get the drop on them.”

  “Where’s the exit come out?” asked the librarian, eager to understand just what they’d got themselves into and whether or not some of their murderous pursuers would be waiting for them on the other side.

  Silence... not of the stone cold variety, because they were both moving as fast as they could, kicking up sand and pebbles, brushing against the rock walls on either side of them, more the... awkward kind, something the guardian of all things written picked up on immediately.

  “Uhh... there is another way out, isn’t there?”

  “Umm... not really, no.”

  “WHAT!” exclaimed Orac. “No way out, what on earth were you thinking?”

  “I just thought it would buy us some time, and that maybe they’d give up and return to their masters.”

  “I can’t believe for one second that’ll be the case,” panted the librarian, suddenly feeling a huge burst of heat from behind him, before being thrown forward at a tremendous rate as the rock wall they stood against exploded into a thousand pieces, peppering them both with stony shrapnel.

  Rising to his knees, Keesha pulled him to his feet as the resounding blast echoed around the underground cave system they’d been drawn into, dust and sand filling the air, making it all but impossible to see more than a few metres ahead.

  “Come on, quick, we need to make it through the next cavern to the passageway on the far side,” insisted the young female.

  Knowing that it was less than ideal, but with little alternative, Orac started off after her, concentrating on putting one giant foot in front of the other, as that was about all that he could manage, his ears still ringing, the scales on his right shoulder damaged and burnt, something that really shouldn’t have been possible.

  Out in the open blue sky, a short way away, For’son’s mana had almost fully regenerated, meaning he was all but good to go. But what to do next, that was the question he asked himself. Having gotten a taste of just how powerful the ra-hoon were, he wasn’t keen to take them on again. Just having his mind squeezed like that was painful beyond belief. But he knew that for the sake of all the beings in this part of the world, he had to do just that, if he wanted to not only return to his friend the king, but sleep well in the future. Not knowing what else to do, he circled around, caught yet one more updraft in his favour and headed back towards the start of the valley, all the time wondering what he could conjure up that would physically harm the rampant ra-hoon.

  Now out in the open deep inside a gargantuan cavern, Keesha and Orac, still some way ahead of their pursuers, dodged fireball after fireball as they sprinted for all they were worth towards the path at the far end, the one that should narrow considerably and at least buy them some time.

  Following the waggling golden tail in front of him, weaving this way and that, trying not to be hit by any of the enemy’s fearsome fiery ferociousness, in the midst of it all the librarian suddenly realised that the subterranean grotto they found themselves in was full of crystals, growing out of the rock in almost every direction, in a myriad of different colours, sizes and shapes.

  ‘Fascinating,’ he thought, all the time on the move, his wings tucked in by his sides, talons scrabbling for grip on the soft, sandy path. If only he’d had more time, he’d definitely have stopped to investigate the awesome looking gemstones further.

  Abruptly an almighty BOOM resonated around the underground space they found themselves trapped in, quickly followed by two more and the sound of crashing rock and stone. These dragons controlled by the will of the unicorn lookalikes had taken to targeting the ceiling above the entrance to the tucked away footpath that they were heading for, clearly hoping to bring enough material down to stop them from escaping. Dangerous couldn’t do justice to what they were doing, because they could very easily collapse the entire construct.

  Gasping for breath, legs burning with fatigue, Keesha, about to pass the threshold of the narrow footpath, was suddenly sent flying forward by a deadly trio of fireballs from some way back hammering the ceiling directly above, sending tons of debris down in a cloud of dust and devastation. Quickly getting to her feet, she grabbed Orac’s hand and pulled him into the narrow passageway, just as the wreckage from up above smashed into the floor, filling most of the entrance.

  “That should keep them busy for a while,” stated the beautiful golden dragon.

  Orac was too busy choking on the dust and remnants to reply, but nodded his understanding as they padded off, hoping to put some distance between them and those chasing.

  Reaching the beginning of the valley, aware that he would be well out of range of the ra-hoon’s deadly mental abilities, For’son touched down on the warm yellow sand, his bright blue feet relishing the feeling as his mind wondered what he should do next. He was sure that there were only three of the monstrous beasts left, but given what they could do, even one would have been a challenge like no other. And the fact that they couldn’t be touched by anything supernatural presented a real problem. Of course he’d already gotten around that by exploding the rock with the fabulous lightning mantra that he’d picked up from the tiny dank library on his last mission, but that wouldn’t work a second time. Briefly, he wondered what would.

  Thankfully, at least for the librarian, they’d slowed down to a walk, sure that at least for the time being, they weren’t being followed.

  Having switched over to her infrared vision some time ago, Keesha led the way, memories of the crystal lined walkways from her youth filling her mind, games of chase and hide and seek with her friends and family, those that were even at this moment hunting them down with a view to doing goodness knows what, tainting everything. Pushing all that aside upon reaching a slightly wider part of the passage, the golden, yellow and orange coloured female stopped to see if her companion was alright.

  “How are you holding up?” she asked.

  “Okay... I suppose. I have to say though I didn’t expect to be trapped underground facing a mad horde of ra-hoon influenced dragons. Are you sure there’s no other way out?”

  “I haven’t been down here for a couple of decades, but I’m absolutely certain there’s nothing, no other exit. In about a kilometre, the path opens out into one single cave full of crystals which is just a dead end. That’s it, all that I have. I’m sorry if I’ve made a mistake in bringing us down here,” she said, her lips wobbling just slightly, the repository guardian picking up on her momentary distress.

  “It wasn’t a criticism, youngster, far from it in fact. I don’t doubt for a moment that had we stayed out in the open, we would, by now at least, be surro
unded and captured, or probably worse. I’d much rather be in here and alive, thank you very much.”

  That did at least seem to do the trick, a slight smile creeping over the golden female’s face.

  “Come on, let’s get down to the cavern at the end, you’ll be blown away when you see it.”

  And with that, the two strolled off in the direction of the dead end that might well prove to be their last stand, all the time listening out for any sign of pursuit.

  Reinforcing the mantra that should protect his mind, feeling it enclose his intelligence immediately, For’son, having already stretched out with his magical senses to try and find his friends, without any luck, wished them well with whatever it was they were facing, unwilling to even consider that something bad had happened to them. Knowing that he could put a stop to all of it by once and for all defeating the unicorn lookalikes, he readied his magic, took one huge breath, and with the focus and determination of a true warrior, bounded into the air in the direction of the beasts that were his primary target.

  Cutting through the humid morning breeze about three metres off the ground, the king’s friend and prodigious warrior selected what he regarded as the right mantra for the job, whispered the words in his mind, all the time applying his considerable will and no small amount of magic. Suddenly in his wake, all hell broke loose as sand, boulders and stones leapt into the air behind him, all seemingly of their own accord, swirling, whirling and twirling around, almost as if he’d snagged the mother of all hurricanes, towing it behind him.

  Twelve or so miles away, three very angry, upset and injured (well... two of them anyway) ra-hoon stood over the cadavers of their kind, understandably distraught at what had happened. Their leader, a being that went by the name of Stuffi, the only one to come out of For’son’s unexpected attack unharmed, knew that now was not the time for mourning, not with the dragon responsible for all this still out there somewhere, protected to some degree by unfamiliar magic. And as he’d attacked once, Stuffi knew there was a good chance he would come back and try to finish the job. And so against his instincts, he rallied the other two, startling them out of their grief, reminding them of their responsibilities and triggering their inborn need for revenge. Should their unidentified aggressor return they’d be ready and waiting, the full might of their combined powers on standby, knowing that nothing and no one in the past had ever resisted that.