DOPD Chapter 6 (End of Part 1)
And this is the end of what I have written thus far, and coincidentally the end of the first half of the book. Now to find what I've written for Residual Hate, and then lj will have the equivalent of a bunch of paper. Or more anyway.
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
The siren’s whoop of joy made Ilee smile as they raced across the marshlands on a road of ice. A team of four reindeer pulled the off-white sled, great beasts that the ice-queen had rescued on a journey northwards. The sled itself was extremely comfortable, with lush upholstery and a secure frame. The hydra did not make an appearance, sensing the presence of two of the Seven.
Normally she would not have left her domain, but the dragon’s summons possessed all the power he could muster. Also, the siren’s depression affected her, making her think of her loss when all she wanted was to barricade herself in a ice-cave for a century or two.
When they did reach Mr. Mirrar, the dragon was waiting.
~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~
After a fruitless afternoon of trying to figure out Krasnar’s goals and discussing where he could be holding Anar captive (the dragon had lost the scent through walls upon walls of unmagic and hidden stone passageways), the three beings headed to the lower caves. The siren slipped into the stream Anar had been doing his laundry in to relax, and immediately picked up the scent of a wolf, a rat, and a non-human child. “Mrr…”
“I feel them.” The dragon rumbled, “and I can feel the filth’s magic too.”
They all heard the excited whoop of a child and the reproachful growl of a wolf just before they rounded the corned. The wolf would have crashed into the ice-queen if she did not have great reflexes, skidding to a halt. Camelia quickly changed shape, allowing Tifa to slide down her bac onto the floor behind her.
“Cammy!” The Siren was about to tackle-hug the shape-shifter but the dragon was quicker, putting an arm in front of her body.
“You better have a damn good reason for coming her Camelia, or I’ll send you back to your master in pieces.”
“I brought Anar back to you, Mrr.”
“Don’t waste my time changeling.” Mrr rumbled,his cat-like irises thinning as his anger grew. The siren twisted her head around to look at him, hearing an undertone of fear in his voice.
“Give me a minute and I’ll show you.” Camelia begged, keeping her body between Mrr and her daughter.
“Get out of here!” The dragon roared.
“Calm down.” Ilee’s voice was frosty, sending an actual chill into the air. She walked past the dragon and the siren, creating a shield of ice from the air when the dragon tried to grab her shoulder. “Do not touch me, Mrr.” She hissed, making him wince.
“Icy?” The siren asked hesitantly.
“The child has a rat in her pocket that has elven blood.” She explained, looking into Camelia’s wide eyes. “I have a distant kinship with the elvish high kings, so I can feel the call in my blood.”
“You transformed Anar into a rat!”
“His chains were magic-resistant and I didn’t have much time. “Camelia told Ilee, subconsciously making her fingernails longer and sharper. The dragon was an obvious danger, but Ilee was a potent one. Her beautiful body belittling the power of winter’s heart, and was an unknown variable to Camelia.
“Change him back.” Mrr ordered.
“Only if you vow to protect my child from Krasnar.” Camelia said, noting a flash of amusement in Ilee’s eyes.
“Done.”
“Say it. I need an oath of power.”
“If you have brought Anar back to me without causing permanent damage to his being, I hsall protect the child from Krasnar the demon. Thus, I am oath-bound. The dragon swore formally, binding his promise to his power so that it would be halved if he broke his vow. Oaths of power were not made often for that reason.
“Thank you,” Camelia bowed, and turned to her daughter. “Can I have him back now?”
“Okay.” Tifa handed the rat over carefully, still staring at Ilee in awe.
“That’s Ilee of the Seven.” Camellia told her daughter, running her fingers through the rat’s coat, remembering how she had transformed him in the first place. “That’s Coral, the Siren; and Mrr, the elder dragon.”
“I’m Tifa!” The child held her hand out to the ice-queen, her wide eyes stuck on Ilee’s cool blue ones. Her ernest expression faded to uncertain hope as the ice-queen simply looked down at her.
She started to lower her eyes in shame when Ilee knelt down on one knee and took her hand, expression resigned in the face of the child’s adoration. “Pleased to meet you Tifa,” the former nymph answered formally. “What power does the daughter of a shape-shifter have?”
“Haven’t decided yet!” Tifa answered cheerfully, trembling in excitement.
If this answer confused the ice-queen, she gave no indication as she patted the child’s head. Her attention went to Camelia as a flare of wild magic erupted beside her. The rat’s whiskers shrank as his paws grew, joints reversing their angles. The rat’s tail melted into his lower body as it grew longer, hip bodes creaking as the adjusted angles. Camelia set the rat/elf hybrid on the floor when it got too big for her to hold, but never broke physical contact. Sweat trickled down her body at the effort, but she did not pause. He could die if he stayed between forms for long. She forgot how taxing external transformations could be.
A hymn started to reach her ears shortly after she started to show signs of a strain, words of power energizing her body. ‘Thank you,’ she thought.
“What’s taking so long?” Mrr asked gently, sensing her hesitation as she worked. He put a scaly hand on her shoulder.
“I’ve never taken his form.” She explained hastily. “It feels different when you’re trying to remember another perosn’s true form.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” The dragon closed his eyes for a minute and shoved a three-dimensional figure of Anar’s body into her consciousness.
Gasping, she shoved magic into Anar in one large burst, and then he was himself, albeit only semi-conscious.
The dragon went to the elf, giving the shape-shifter a quiet nod before he picked up Anar. He could smell Krasnar’s magic on the elf, a lingering taint of pain. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll get better.” The elf’s usual melodious voice was more of a croak. They winced. “It’s coming.”
“How?” camellia asked curiously, eyes widening in fear.
“It burns. The accursed magic burns.”
“Carol, bring the child, Camelia and Anar to where Nina sleeps. The wards there are the strongest.”
“Nina the thread-mage? She’s still alive!” Camelia started.
“And don’t you dare spread the word.” The dragon rumbled, turning to Ilee. “Will you protect them?”
“You want to face Krasnar alone?” She verified neutrally.
“I’ve wanted to obliterate that dreg of humanity for eons.” The dragon said, his eager smile showing off his long canines. Power coursed along his skin, filling the underground space with protective energy.
“Don’t be rash.” Anar spat, apprehension running odwn his spine. “The weight of the Seal is much greater for you than for Krasnar and you know it.”
“And fighting Krasnar’s best done alone because of his lust magic. And aside from you, the people who could stand beside me have water-based magic. Don’t worry about me Anar, I’m older than all of you.”
“Doesn’t that mean you’re getting senile?” Tifa asked curiously. “Because- mpf!”
“Where did you hear that?” Mrr growled, eyes fixing on the child.
“Mommy’s boss calls you a senile old lizard.” Tifa answered helpfully, giving her mother a ‘why did you do that’ look. Camelia just groaned as the siren giggled.
“Well I guess I have to show that pesky demon what a senile old lizard can do.”
“But-“ Camelia protested.
‘Krasnar killed Hyacinthia, tried to corrode Nina’s soul, kidnapped Anar, forced you into his service, and has annoyed me since it came into existence. Kidnapping Anar will be its last mistake. Now go!”
Ilee waited with Mrr until the rest were down the tunnel. She then crossed her arms, the only trace of nervousness betrayed by her body. After another moment of silence, she sighed. “Don’t die on me.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.” The dragon replied, leading her to a smallish cavern.
“You’ve gotten lazy, Mrr,” Ilee did not look at him. “Everybody risks their hides to protect you from assassins because of the Spell.”
“And I’ve spent the last few eons fighting for my life.” The dragon pointed out. “Why are you worrying about me now?”
“It would be troublesome if Nina woke up.”
“She won’t. Now go keep an eye on the children for me. There’s something about Camelia’s child that reminds me of a hatchling.”
“Dragon blood?”
“I’m not sure. Krasnar’s magic clouds her power.”
“I shall keep an eye on them.” Ilee nodded, gliding away.
~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~
It did not sense the dragon until the second before claws ripped through his throat. Rolling out of the way, the demon suddenly felt weighed down by the sheer force of the dragon’s presence. Dense as a heavy mist under a canopy of trees, it pressed against his false form’s body, cloying his magical senses and giving him a sense of foreboding. Oh, he had known that Camelia would run to the dragon as soon as he felt Anar escape his bonds, but he had not known that the dragon could control his aura so well. The demon shed his false form, using his true body to resist the dragon’s powerful blows. In this type of physical combat, they were tied for strength; the dragon could not resume his true form due to the lack of space, so his magical power was cut by a sixth.
That was true until the dragon formed a layer of fire around his claws and his tail (or at least where his tail would be if he had one). The dragon burnt the magic around Krasnar’s flesh, weakening an area long enough that the dragon’s law tore through the demon’s stomach-area.
With a burst of speed, the demon back-flipped away using his left hand; his right was pressed to his stomach, directing the healing. He did not have time to heal the whole wound before the dragon’s tail almost crashed into his chest, and then he needed both arms to defend himself. Slowly, he started to weave a lust spell around the dragon. Creatures with gender always had trouble focussing when their genitals were screeching at them.
Just as he was about to seal the spell around his enemy, the dragon whistled sharply. The high pitched-sound resonated through the cave before bouncing back and shredding the careful trap.
“Don’t you know anything about dragon magic?” Mrr asked conversationally as he tried to back the demon’s head in.
“You fell for it before.” Krasnar was thinking quickly. At the rate, Mrr was going to win. He needed to throw Mrr off-balance for a second. The dragon’s thick hide could be breached if he applied pressure at full strength for at least a second, but the old creature’s reaction time was too great.
“For a few seconds,” the dragon rumbled, nostrils flaring at the memory. “I possess the last of the pure draconian bloodlines. Such petty magic will not win this fight. I am going to end your filthy existence.”
“Hyacinthia seemed to think it was your existence which should end.”
The dragon froze for an instant in fury, and that was all the demon needed. Using his full power, he stabbed the dragon in the lower belly where the scales were the weakest. The thin blades went through his body to the other side before hitting a wall on the other side. Mrr roared, unleashing a blast of dragonfire from his mouth as he doubled over. It hit the demon’s upper body, burning through the protective magic and engulfing his more sensitive wings.
The dragone fell face-first onto the ground as the demon retracted his claws. Blood poured onto the ground as he struggled to breathe with punctured lungs. A numbness spread through his body where the demon’s claws had torn nerve clusters. Unlike his skin, his insides were sensitive to the taint of demonic magic, and now it was spreading through his blood like a deadly slime, shutting down his organs even if the original wound was not fatal.
“I win this time lizard.” The demon gasped, using the dragon’s pain as an ambrodisiac to drown out his own. “Now I’m going to find your pet mage and make her break the seal.”
“So that was why.” The dragon forced himself to think. He was running out of time.
The demon extended his claws again. Mrr waited until his foe was standing beside his chest and started to change. It took a couple of seconds for the demon to realize what was happening, and then dragonfire was pouring out of Mrr’s maw into the cavern. The demon screeched as the fire tore away flesh and magic at once, instinctively fleeing back the way it came as the cavern’s floor became molten rock.
When he looked back, the cavern was a blue inferno and the dragon’s true form blocked the entrance to the upper levels.
The magical backlash released by the dragon’s death hit the remining allies almost immediately. Camellia caught Anar as his legs gave way, thinking it was just his injuries until Ilee stumbled and the Siren started to wail.
“That idiot,” Ilee muttered, recovering her balance and grabbing the siren’s arm before she could race back to the cavern. “We have to get Nina.”
“But Icy!”
“Mrr definitely sealed the way and I bet he weakened the mountain’s infrastructure in the process. We need to get Nina out of here before there’s an earthquake.”
“But it’ll get away!” Anar snarled, pushing Camelia away. Bright blue magic flared around his body, and his hair wavered in the still air. “It’s weak now!”
“So are you.” Ilee pointed out ruthlessly. “Nina’s been under a dragon’s spell for fifty years, we have a child who will be used as a hostage, and Tifa’s magic is weak in the mountain. I’m the only one who can crush Krasnar right now and I have to get you all to safety first.”
“Why do you suddenly care about us? You hated Mrr too!”
“I have my promises to keep.” Ilee answered coolly. “We have a few minutes before Nina wakes up, and that will definitely mess up the magic running through this mountain further.”
Camelia watched Ilee take charge with a certain degree of surprise. She had expected Anar, the dragon’s second-in-command, to take charge. ‘What kind of promise did she make? And how are they supposed to get down from the top of a mountain?’
“Who’s Nina mommy?” Tifa asked, holding her mother’s hand as emotions flared throughout the room.
“A human who helped the Seven save magic,” she answered, extremely aware of Ilee’s scrutiny. ‘That one really needs to relax a little.’
“Oooooh… what’s she look like?”
“I… don’t know.”
“Well mini-Cammy,” the siren began, a small smile forming on her face even as tears ran down her cheeks. “Nina’s a decent-looking human with wrinkles near her eyes and short brown hair that gets fizzy when its damp. Her eyes were a pretty colour though… Icy, what was it called again?”
“Indigo.”
“Yes, indigo like the darkening sky and she has this little brown dot at the corner of her right eye. She’s smart like Icy-“
“Giving her a lot of credit aren’t you?” the sprite muttered, giving Anar a cool glance as he smirked at her.
“-and she can touch magic with her hands and that’s really cool because I can’t really see magic but the water in the air kind of wiggles when she does something. There was this one time that she and Hyassy-“
A shriek interrupted the siren, scarring the air around them with frightened bursts of magic that made them all cringe.
“Owie!” The siren and the child chorused.
“She woke up.” Camelia stated the obvious, picking Anar up and cradling him in her enlarged arms. “Bitch later.” She whispered.
“My father would have you hanged if he saw this.” Anar sniffed.
~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~
End of Part 1
~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~
Prologue *** Chapter 1 *** Chapter 2 *** Chapter 3 *** Chapter 4 *** Chapter 5 *** Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
The siren’s whoop of joy made Ilee smile as they raced across the marshlands on a road of ice. A team of four reindeer pulled the off-white sled, great beasts that the ice-queen had rescued on a journey northwards. The sled itself was extremely comfortable, with lush upholstery and a secure frame. The hydra did not make an appearance, sensing the presence of two of the Seven.
Normally she would not have left her domain, but the dragon’s summons possessed all the power he could muster. Also, the siren’s depression affected her, making her think of her loss when all she wanted was to barricade herself in a ice-cave for a century or two.
When they did reach Mr. Mirrar, the dragon was waiting.
~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~
After a fruitless afternoon of trying to figure out Krasnar’s goals and discussing where he could be holding Anar captive (the dragon had lost the scent through walls upon walls of unmagic and hidden stone passageways), the three beings headed to the lower caves. The siren slipped into the stream Anar had been doing his laundry in to relax, and immediately picked up the scent of a wolf, a rat, and a non-human child. “Mrr…”
“I feel them.” The dragon rumbled, “and I can feel the filth’s magic too.”
They all heard the excited whoop of a child and the reproachful growl of a wolf just before they rounded the corned. The wolf would have crashed into the ice-queen if she did not have great reflexes, skidding to a halt. Camelia quickly changed shape, allowing Tifa to slide down her bac onto the floor behind her.
“Cammy!” The Siren was about to tackle-hug the shape-shifter but the dragon was quicker, putting an arm in front of her body.
“You better have a damn good reason for coming her Camelia, or I’ll send you back to your master in pieces.”
“I brought Anar back to you, Mrr.”
“Don’t waste my time changeling.” Mrr rumbled,his cat-like irises thinning as his anger grew. The siren twisted her head around to look at him, hearing an undertone of fear in his voice.
“Give me a minute and I’ll show you.” Camelia begged, keeping her body between Mrr and her daughter.
“Get out of here!” The dragon roared.
“Calm down.” Ilee’s voice was frosty, sending an actual chill into the air. She walked past the dragon and the siren, creating a shield of ice from the air when the dragon tried to grab her shoulder. “Do not touch me, Mrr.” She hissed, making him wince.
“Icy?” The siren asked hesitantly.
“The child has a rat in her pocket that has elven blood.” She explained, looking into Camelia’s wide eyes. “I have a distant kinship with the elvish high kings, so I can feel the call in my blood.”
“You transformed Anar into a rat!”
“His chains were magic-resistant and I didn’t have much time. “Camelia told Ilee, subconsciously making her fingernails longer and sharper. The dragon was an obvious danger, but Ilee was a potent one. Her beautiful body belittling the power of winter’s heart, and was an unknown variable to Camelia.
“Change him back.” Mrr ordered.
“Only if you vow to protect my child from Krasnar.” Camelia said, noting a flash of amusement in Ilee’s eyes.
“Done.”
“Say it. I need an oath of power.”
“If you have brought Anar back to me without causing permanent damage to his being, I hsall protect the child from Krasnar the demon. Thus, I am oath-bound. The dragon swore formally, binding his promise to his power so that it would be halved if he broke his vow. Oaths of power were not made often for that reason.
“Thank you,” Camelia bowed, and turned to her daughter. “Can I have him back now?”
“Okay.” Tifa handed the rat over carefully, still staring at Ilee in awe.
“That’s Ilee of the Seven.” Camellia told her daughter, running her fingers through the rat’s coat, remembering how she had transformed him in the first place. “That’s Coral, the Siren; and Mrr, the elder dragon.”
“I’m Tifa!” The child held her hand out to the ice-queen, her wide eyes stuck on Ilee’s cool blue ones. Her ernest expression faded to uncertain hope as the ice-queen simply looked down at her.
She started to lower her eyes in shame when Ilee knelt down on one knee and took her hand, expression resigned in the face of the child’s adoration. “Pleased to meet you Tifa,” the former nymph answered formally. “What power does the daughter of a shape-shifter have?”
“Haven’t decided yet!” Tifa answered cheerfully, trembling in excitement.
If this answer confused the ice-queen, she gave no indication as she patted the child’s head. Her attention went to Camelia as a flare of wild magic erupted beside her. The rat’s whiskers shrank as his paws grew, joints reversing their angles. The rat’s tail melted into his lower body as it grew longer, hip bodes creaking as the adjusted angles. Camelia set the rat/elf hybrid on the floor when it got too big for her to hold, but never broke physical contact. Sweat trickled down her body at the effort, but she did not pause. He could die if he stayed between forms for long. She forgot how taxing external transformations could be.
A hymn started to reach her ears shortly after she started to show signs of a strain, words of power energizing her body. ‘Thank you,’ she thought.
“What’s taking so long?” Mrr asked gently, sensing her hesitation as she worked. He put a scaly hand on her shoulder.
“I’ve never taken his form.” She explained hastily. “It feels different when you’re trying to remember another perosn’s true form.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” The dragon closed his eyes for a minute and shoved a three-dimensional figure of Anar’s body into her consciousness.
Gasping, she shoved magic into Anar in one large burst, and then he was himself, albeit only semi-conscious.
The dragon went to the elf, giving the shape-shifter a quiet nod before he picked up Anar. He could smell Krasnar’s magic on the elf, a lingering taint of pain. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll get better.” The elf’s usual melodious voice was more of a croak. They winced. “It’s coming.”
“How?” camellia asked curiously, eyes widening in fear.
“It burns. The accursed magic burns.”
“Carol, bring the child, Camelia and Anar to where Nina sleeps. The wards there are the strongest.”
“Nina the thread-mage? She’s still alive!” Camelia started.
“And don’t you dare spread the word.” The dragon rumbled, turning to Ilee. “Will you protect them?”
“You want to face Krasnar alone?” She verified neutrally.
“I’ve wanted to obliterate that dreg of humanity for eons.” The dragon said, his eager smile showing off his long canines. Power coursed along his skin, filling the underground space with protective energy.
“Don’t be rash.” Anar spat, apprehension running odwn his spine. “The weight of the Seal is much greater for you than for Krasnar and you know it.”
“And fighting Krasnar’s best done alone because of his lust magic. And aside from you, the people who could stand beside me have water-based magic. Don’t worry about me Anar, I’m older than all of you.”
“Doesn’t that mean you’re getting senile?” Tifa asked curiously. “Because- mpf!”
“Where did you hear that?” Mrr growled, eyes fixing on the child.
“Mommy’s boss calls you a senile old lizard.” Tifa answered helpfully, giving her mother a ‘why did you do that’ look. Camelia just groaned as the siren giggled.
“Well I guess I have to show that pesky demon what a senile old lizard can do.”
“But-“ Camelia protested.
‘Krasnar killed Hyacinthia, tried to corrode Nina’s soul, kidnapped Anar, forced you into his service, and has annoyed me since it came into existence. Kidnapping Anar will be its last mistake. Now go!”
Ilee waited with Mrr until the rest were down the tunnel. She then crossed her arms, the only trace of nervousness betrayed by her body. After another moment of silence, she sighed. “Don’t die on me.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.” The dragon replied, leading her to a smallish cavern.
“You’ve gotten lazy, Mrr,” Ilee did not look at him. “Everybody risks their hides to protect you from assassins because of the Spell.”
“And I’ve spent the last few eons fighting for my life.” The dragon pointed out. “Why are you worrying about me now?”
“It would be troublesome if Nina woke up.”
“She won’t. Now go keep an eye on the children for me. There’s something about Camelia’s child that reminds me of a hatchling.”
“Dragon blood?”
“I’m not sure. Krasnar’s magic clouds her power.”
“I shall keep an eye on them.” Ilee nodded, gliding away.
~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~
It did not sense the dragon until the second before claws ripped through his throat. Rolling out of the way, the demon suddenly felt weighed down by the sheer force of the dragon’s presence. Dense as a heavy mist under a canopy of trees, it pressed against his false form’s body, cloying his magical senses and giving him a sense of foreboding. Oh, he had known that Camelia would run to the dragon as soon as he felt Anar escape his bonds, but he had not known that the dragon could control his aura so well. The demon shed his false form, using his true body to resist the dragon’s powerful blows. In this type of physical combat, they were tied for strength; the dragon could not resume his true form due to the lack of space, so his magical power was cut by a sixth.
That was true until the dragon formed a layer of fire around his claws and his tail (or at least where his tail would be if he had one). The dragon burnt the magic around Krasnar’s flesh, weakening an area long enough that the dragon’s law tore through the demon’s stomach-area.
With a burst of speed, the demon back-flipped away using his left hand; his right was pressed to his stomach, directing the healing. He did not have time to heal the whole wound before the dragon’s tail almost crashed into his chest, and then he needed both arms to defend himself. Slowly, he started to weave a lust spell around the dragon. Creatures with gender always had trouble focussing when their genitals were screeching at them.
Just as he was about to seal the spell around his enemy, the dragon whistled sharply. The high pitched-sound resonated through the cave before bouncing back and shredding the careful trap.
“Don’t you know anything about dragon magic?” Mrr asked conversationally as he tried to back the demon’s head in.
“You fell for it before.” Krasnar was thinking quickly. At the rate, Mrr was going to win. He needed to throw Mrr off-balance for a second. The dragon’s thick hide could be breached if he applied pressure at full strength for at least a second, but the old creature’s reaction time was too great.
“For a few seconds,” the dragon rumbled, nostrils flaring at the memory. “I possess the last of the pure draconian bloodlines. Such petty magic will not win this fight. I am going to end your filthy existence.”
“Hyacinthia seemed to think it was your existence which should end.”
The dragon froze for an instant in fury, and that was all the demon needed. Using his full power, he stabbed the dragon in the lower belly where the scales were the weakest. The thin blades went through his body to the other side before hitting a wall on the other side. Mrr roared, unleashing a blast of dragonfire from his mouth as he doubled over. It hit the demon’s upper body, burning through the protective magic and engulfing his more sensitive wings.
The dragone fell face-first onto the ground as the demon retracted his claws. Blood poured onto the ground as he struggled to breathe with punctured lungs. A numbness spread through his body where the demon’s claws had torn nerve clusters. Unlike his skin, his insides were sensitive to the taint of demonic magic, and now it was spreading through his blood like a deadly slime, shutting down his organs even if the original wound was not fatal.
“I win this time lizard.” The demon gasped, using the dragon’s pain as an ambrodisiac to drown out his own. “Now I’m going to find your pet mage and make her break the seal.”
“So that was why.” The dragon forced himself to think. He was running out of time.
The demon extended his claws again. Mrr waited until his foe was standing beside his chest and started to change. It took a couple of seconds for the demon to realize what was happening, and then dragonfire was pouring out of Mrr’s maw into the cavern. The demon screeched as the fire tore away flesh and magic at once, instinctively fleeing back the way it came as the cavern’s floor became molten rock.
When he looked back, the cavern was a blue inferno and the dragon’s true form blocked the entrance to the upper levels.
The magical backlash released by the dragon’s death hit the remining allies almost immediately. Camellia caught Anar as his legs gave way, thinking it was just his injuries until Ilee stumbled and the Siren started to wail.
“That idiot,” Ilee muttered, recovering her balance and grabbing the siren’s arm before she could race back to the cavern. “We have to get Nina.”
“But Icy!”
“Mrr definitely sealed the way and I bet he weakened the mountain’s infrastructure in the process. We need to get Nina out of here before there’s an earthquake.”
“But it’ll get away!” Anar snarled, pushing Camelia away. Bright blue magic flared around his body, and his hair wavered in the still air. “It’s weak now!”
“So are you.” Ilee pointed out ruthlessly. “Nina’s been under a dragon’s spell for fifty years, we have a child who will be used as a hostage, and Tifa’s magic is weak in the mountain. I’m the only one who can crush Krasnar right now and I have to get you all to safety first.”
“Why do you suddenly care about us? You hated Mrr too!”
“I have my promises to keep.” Ilee answered coolly. “We have a few minutes before Nina wakes up, and that will definitely mess up the magic running through this mountain further.”
Camelia watched Ilee take charge with a certain degree of surprise. She had expected Anar, the dragon’s second-in-command, to take charge. ‘What kind of promise did she make? And how are they supposed to get down from the top of a mountain?’
“Who’s Nina mommy?” Tifa asked, holding her mother’s hand as emotions flared throughout the room.
“A human who helped the Seven save magic,” she answered, extremely aware of Ilee’s scrutiny. ‘That one really needs to relax a little.’
“Oooooh… what’s she look like?”
“I… don’t know.”
“Well mini-Cammy,” the siren began, a small smile forming on her face even as tears ran down her cheeks. “Nina’s a decent-looking human with wrinkles near her eyes and short brown hair that gets fizzy when its damp. Her eyes were a pretty colour though… Icy, what was it called again?”
“Indigo.”
“Yes, indigo like the darkening sky and she has this little brown dot at the corner of her right eye. She’s smart like Icy-“
“Giving her a lot of credit aren’t you?” the sprite muttered, giving Anar a cool glance as he smirked at her.
“-and she can touch magic with her hands and that’s really cool because I can’t really see magic but the water in the air kind of wiggles when she does something. There was this one time that she and Hyassy-“
A shriek interrupted the siren, scarring the air around them with frightened bursts of magic that made them all cringe.
“Owie!” The siren and the child chorused.
“She woke up.” Camelia stated the obvious, picking Anar up and cradling him in her enlarged arms. “Bitch later.” She whispered.
“My father would have you hanged if he saw this.” Anar sniffed.
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End of Part 1
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Prologue *** Chapter 1 *** Chapter 2 *** Chapter 3 *** Chapter 4 *** Chapter 5 *** Chapter 6