Chapter 19: The New Age
#20 of A Dragon's Final Song
"This is it. The key for our race's salvation."
Gothen stood in front of a lone pedestal in the middle of the forest. The trees were the same one they saw at the disguised prison. In addition to that, the pedestal was right in front of a giant stone gate with inscription all around the keyhole. They were written as this:
"Beyond this gate is a treasure beyond comprehension. But, one who opens it is doomed to know a forbidden knowledge."
The treasure was, of course, the lost knowledge of Northern dragons, one that had been passed on as legends. The gate was the only one separating the two of them and imprisoned dragons, their comrades of old.
Again, Akkelas approached Gothen, feeling worried. Gothen noticed this, and said, "Are you worried that this is not the key we have?"
"We don't know if they are our foe or ally."
"Then how about if we believe in luck?"
Gothen lifted the stone key in ease. It was many times bigger than a normal key, almost one meter in length. While it looked ancient, the key wasn't worn by the weather and nature, a testament of powerful mages of the North. While it was indeed heavy if a human lifted it, it was around the same weight of a key to a dragon.
Upon inserting the key, Gothen and Akkelas murmured some old draconic phrases. The door started to glow at the crevices, but it quickly died down. Akkelas was surprised by this, but not Gothen.
"Safety measure," said Gothen. "It won't open to drakons, but it will to a human. Fortunately, they couldn't sense my soul. This will take a while."
Akkelas sighed and walked toward the way they came. Blood was decorating most of the trees. Two of their bodyguards, or what left of them, splattered all around the human-disguised dragon. Feeling hungry, Akkelas partially turned into a dragon and started eating the meat chunks of what once humans. He was fortunate it was Gothen that killed them; he wouldn't even leave any trace.
3 hours after, Gothen called Akkelas and the younger drakon came to him. The door was opened wide and inside, they saw a magnificent, but sad view.
There were five Northern dragons. Three were around the same size of Madsen, and two of them were clearly younglings. All of them were inside their own respective cages, hibernating because of the room itself draining their magical energies caused by shackles around their limbs and their wings. Like the one the four of them were trapped, they didn't age, despite of the place being older than the one Gothen and the others were first awakened.
"Awaken, my brethren," said Gothen with a booming voice of a dragon. There wasn't any response, except one of them, opening its blue eyes to meet with Gothen. It sniffed him and said, "You're not human, are you?"
"I am not. My name is Gothen, and this is Akkelas..."
"Yes, I know you," said the feminine voice. "We are vowed to follow your leadership. When do we start?"
Gothen smiled. "Time for you to earn your freedom."
Meanwhile, Shirdan felt something unpleasant coming from the North. Being a light dragon made him able to sense any dark aura, how small it was. It was clearly miles away from Qeveriyt to the place he sensed it, but he knew it wasn't good.
"Is there something wrong, Shirdan?" said Andelhaus beside him.
"There's a dark aura from the North. I can't fathom what it is, but it's faint."
"Maybe you need a rest. You have been awake all night trying to help that silver dragon sleep."
Due to his deal with Seraphor, Shirdan now helped the couple baby-sitting Rhaynis and Vyrenis, their offspring, while the both of them discussed about the Northern dragons. With one of them dead and the other lost, it was true that the two remaining dragons were even more dangerous. He wasn't feeling annoyed by the two young dragons, but since they were acting like adults themselves he didn't have any qualms about it. Yet, young dragons were always young, and they couldn't sleep early, still full of energy.
Shirdan was intimidated by Vysrenis' apparent darkness inside him, and was worried if the black fire he used could actually cause even a light dragon like himself be consumed by it. He could fight with Xiciro and barely won, but he wouldn't be able to fight against a darkness flame.
Following Andelhaus' suggestions, Shirdan walked slowly towards a dragon shelter, trying to at least catch some sleep. He then met Avila. Despite of his surprising kindness and tender made people believed him, Avila need more effort to be convinced. She somehow held a long time grudge to his father that she couldn't forgive Shirdan.
"What do you want?" said Avila coldly.
"I'm just going to sleep," replied Shirdan. The dragoness gave him a cold shoulder before she left. Feeling that this antagonism must end, Shirdan said, "Why are you insisting on making me the villain?"
Avila stopped in her path. Without turning around, she said, "I may have forgiven you for the misunderstanding, but the fact that you almost killed my father, whether under influence or not, greatly distressed me. You almost killed another Argoon dragon, and I am not planning to be the last. Oh, and you still need to think about that flash-bang trick of yours."
While Shirdan was not sure if his revenge-driven self was either because of Cordandar's influence or his own selfish life, he was surprised when the dark dragon told him of her race and the fact that only the two of them were still alive. As she left him, he had been thinking of actually committing a racial genocide, and the thought of it scared him. He didn't want to live under a burden of that.
But knowing that he couldn't undo what he had done, he sighed and accept that he's not always the best dragon, despite of redeemed by Seraphor. He went to lay down on the comfy haystack, thinking about Rhaynis and her family....
A sudden sensation came to him, numbing his body. It was something that he never felt before. The aura and the darkness was too strong for him to handle. His light was dimming and he couldn't move. There was a giant draconic skull in front of him, trying to eat him. He made a roar, then he woke up.
"That wasn't a nightmare...," thought Shirdan. He frantically move his head around, trying to find something. Just as he wanted to turn towards the south, the same dark aura from the North overwhelmed him and he fell down, stunned. The sun wasn't up yet, but it was the hours before dawn, past midnight. Yet, one of the dragons saw his agonizing stature and approached him. He was the half-wyvern dragon Shirdan had been getting friendly to.
"Shirdan, are you okay?" said Ramusk while patting his back with his wing.
"Something's coming this way...from the North," said Shirdan. "Something ancient...and deadly."
"What are you talking about?"
He forced himself to stand, but he was still numb from the sensation. He managed to make a very loud, panicked voice that caused nearby dragons to wake up annoyed.
"Tell everyone that the World Eaters are coming!!" exclaimed Shirdan.
Avila approached him because of his noise, but before she could talk, she felt the same thing that Shirdan did. Only, this one made her agitated instead of numbing her (since she's a death dragon).
"Ramusk, prepare to fight." She raised her voice. "All of you, wake up and open up your wings! Get ready to fly!"
"I'm at the loss here, Avila. What the hell is..."
"I can say that a light dragon as weak as him wouldn't be able to hold the sensation. The North is attacking us."
"You mean the Dragonsbane?!"
"No, but the World Eaters! Now get the hell out of here and take command!"
As Ramusk opened his wings and flew upward, Avila approached Shirdan and said, "Now prove to me that your attempt to redeem yourself is not a fraud."
"After all this time you still don't believe in me? And what is your call saying that I'm weak?"
"In front of an impending death, no one is able to escape, even a dragon."
Not even an hour after that initial roll call, a human rider spotted some groups of dragons flying towards them. It wasn't a very big group, but seeing their imposing size and their aggressive flying made some of the riders afraid and almost lost their will to fight if not for the dragons helping them to stay determined.
Based on some scouts, the dragons were counted as around 15 of them. Most of them were grey scaled and blue-eyed, a pure Northern dragon. It would be 3 hours from their position to reach Qeveriyt, not to mention the Dragonsbane were backing them up, which would prove a problem since dragon slayers were quite a problem about their weapons. Yet, while the Order had known of the danger (without exposing the fact that Shirdan was responsible), they had no idea how to deal with it, especially 50 years of peace had caused their fighting capabilities to go dull, yet still formidable to be able to stand up against conflicts.
Ramusk was trying to take command, but then he realized that he had retired and the current command was Riant. The dragon was frantically trying to make up a plan that made him overwhelmed. Ramusk couldn't blame him; he may be a strong fighter during the Pol Hain assault, but he had no experience in making up any strategy. His rider, though, was more competent that he was.
Riant approached Ramusk and said, "I don't think you retiring is a good idea."
"You just need time to understand the plans. I'll help you when necessary."
When everything was set, it was still one hour before the dragons arrived. Avila and Seraphor volunteered to be at the front, knowing that the Northern dragons weren't something they should be looking down upon. Shirdan flew around and was not calm as he flew around like crazy.
"That young dragon is not helping us panicking like that," said Avila to her husband. "I really miss this."
"How long was it? 150 years?"
Avila chuckled. "Nah, we are not even that old yet. Hey, thinking of this...could Rex's prediction be true?"
"You mean about you dying?"
"I am not afraid of dying...but the fact that it could happen so anyone we know make me feel bad."
"Don't be. The time traveler is someone we can trust to see our future. In fact, he changed the timeline for the sake of saving you. You're going to survive this, Vila, for our kids."
"I guess you're right," said Avila while smiling. Whatever fixed timeline they would experience, it would be best if they could see what would happen-
Avila saw something moving through the land. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was a fissure coming right at them. The fissure somehow broke the land apart, as if splitting the earth. Knowing the danger, Avila opened her wings and teleported upward, trusting Seraphor on whatever 'Run' he's trying to do.
The silver red saw the coming fissure and said, "You think something like this can make me lose my hope? Well, think again!"
With a stomp, Seraphor forced the fissure to close in itself, undoing the damage. Nothing seemed to happen until a gray-scaled dragon landed and was apparently surprised.
"Wait, you closed the fissure? How did you..."
"You're one of the Northern dragons, right? We will not let you destroy the peace the humans and the dragons have so hard trying to protect."
"What do you think you are, commanding me like..."
Suddenly the same fissure opened up and caused the dragon to trip. He quickly fell through, and with a smile, Seraphor crushed the dragon by forcing the fissure to close around him.
"One down, 14 to go," said Seraphor.
On the sky, Avila saw what happened and smiled. "Now that's how my husband do things, the old way."
On the other hand, Shirdan was surprised by the sudden defeat of the first dragon. He said, "Did that dragon...just..."
"See what his move was? He's right on sparing you. Yet, that dragon was basically a scout. The true hell begins when the rest of them come with...holy shit..."
By the time the dragons came, there were a dozen of other dragons flying with them, totaling 30 dragons or more. It was not as much as the Order dragons were, but knowing that a dragon caused Seraphor to almost lose his life again, a dragon defeated two formidable dragons (well, a dragon got an anti-climax death), 30 Northern dragon was...true hell.
Behind the dragons, Gothen and Akkelas watched the three dragons in front of the other dragons hovering around a small city started to panic. Gothen then licked his lips when he saw the silver red dragon, and said, "Let's see how you face the new age, silver red dragon."