One last chance
One of the very first stories I wrote near a decade ago. unedited
One Last Chance
I'm the last. Me and this last nest of over two hundred eggs. It all began two years ago. Some warlock broke one of the ultimate taboos, resurrection Not for love, to have undead guards, or for a fee for someone else. Just so he could. Of course the spell backfired. All anyone knows is that he has a purple cape and a strange crown of black. We called him the king of the dead. The only known way to end the nightmare is to destroy him. In the beginning when they were few in number and the humans were still vast we had a chance. I tried to rally the others to aid in the fight but not even my love would help them. They all said it was their problem so they would fix it. Besides human oriented spells did not affect us. So I went alone and joined up with the best leaders of the living army. Fought along side their greatest warriors. Watched as their mightiest sages died. When the risen outnumbered the living humans they considered other options. Around that time an ironic justice occurred. In their unending hunger they started eating everything they could. Including us. The first died and it was a call to war. Still none listened to me. They went out there and met them head on. For hours they burned them, then for hours they fought them with claw and fang. After they grew tired is when they started listening. I held back and saved as many as I could. As I guarded them they watched the others become eaten. When they got the strength to move again they wanted to fight again. I was near my limit as well so I started flying away. Not many followed. We went to all the nests and gathered whatever eggs we could into one location. Not all the eggs were saved. We gave enough to revitalize our kind to the humans twice. Once when their final fortress was built. Where the last of their known living resides. The second time was when the great fleet left soon after. To look for a new home past whatever sea charts were made. One by one we fell. No matter how far we flew, how much we burn them, how high we hid. The last my mate. Only three days after laying our eggs in the collected nest did she engage them where we had the eggs. First they ate her wings. Right down to the bone. Then they started pealing off her scales one at a time. When they could get into the flesh they dug their rotten hands into her. That is when she screamed. One I've heard many times. When she opened her mouth they crawled inside and kept it open and they ate her tongue and went down her throat. Yet the worst I believe is when they they go after the eyes. They force them open and pull them out. The last thing you see is yourself being eaten alive as teeth clamp down on your eye. Yet she died giving me time to rest. Before they finished with her I managed to leave them and re-enter the cave with the eggs in it. I narrowed the path by using almost all the fire I had built up. Those mindless monsters are easy to predict. They always take the easiest pass to take. I've seen them dig threw solid rock to get to their prey. I'll do what I can but I knew the effort was futile. Days before this whole thing began I bred with a young white scaled female who just went threw her forth shedding. When our gender are revealed to us. She was easily wooed and we had much fun together. I slash the top off of ones head who ate her left eye. They the next that took it's place. For an hour I did what I could until my body refused to work again. I collapsed and closed my eyes like all before me did. As always they went for my wings first. Then my eyes and scales. As they pealed off the skin that covered my eyes I saw him. With his purple cape and black crown. I surprisingly stood up and started gathering what fire left to me as they continued pealing off my scales and digging into my flesh. It wasn't parental instinct or self-preservation that drove me but pure rage. The kind that makes the one do things they could not normally do and those things are usually impossible to do. I formed one last fireball before my heart failed. One last chance to end this nightmare. One last chance and I ...