The Last Dragon part 4
#4 of The Last Dragon
A/N: Beware! TLD is not going to supply you with constant happy endings at the end of each part *gasp* I was luring you all in for a little bit of a shock :O
Also, I'm soooooo sorry for the huge delay on this one, even if it's short... =D but I have some kind of good news regarding something I will post in a Journal if anyone is interested. It's of the personal life variety so you will get to know a little bit about me.
=D
The Last Dragon - 4
By GreenEonDragon
Hylena murred happily as she woke, rays of sunlight rippling across her body gently in a criss-cross pattern. She looked around at the surrounding trees and flowers. Grass swayed in the gentle morning breeze and she shoked quietly.
The last thing she remembered was falling asleep with a human in the village, Orlan. How had she gotten here?
Something felt wrong, terribly wrong.
She scrambled to her feet and leaped into the air, beating her wings to gain altitude in order to work out where she was, ignoring her mother's instruction to stretch before flight.
As she turned her head and tried to discern where she was, she turned int the direction of the sun, which typically rose close to the mountains which would give her a starting point. All she had to do was find the ravine in the distance and follow the river that flowed from it and past the den.
As she peered across at the mountains, searching for the ravine, she felt a terrible chill creep into her bones. Again she felt something was horribly off and couldn't shake the feeling that time was of the essence.
Suddenly she saw the ravine and traced the contour of the river which snaked through the forest and hills.
With out hesitation, she beat her wings heavily and tried to find a thermal so she could rise up and glide a fair distance, saving her energy for the trip. Soon enough she found one rising weakly from boulders below and rose up closer to the clouds, locking her wings in glide position she glanced around her, hoping she'd see something familiar.
For the better part of the next two hours she spent her time gliding from thermal to thermal before finally finding that she would have to fly on her own wings the rest of the trip as sources of reflected heat became scarce.
The village came into view and as it drew closer, turning from a blurry speck to a small dot, she saw smoke rising from it, thick billows of acrid smoke. Buildings were on fire. Suddenly the feeling she had earlier rushed back at her and she squealed in fright. Something was terribly wrong. The village had been attacked!
She powered her way towards it, gradually drawing close enough to see that a small army of men were patroling the ruins. Using her superior eyesight, she watched as a man surprised a pair of soldiers and drove a pitchfork into one of them, the other was quick to draw his sword and slash the farmer's chest open.
The sight of spurting blood made Hylena gag. She directed her attention elsewhere whilst the short and bloody fight concluded. Spotting a vacant area behind a house on the edge of the village, she dived in and landed. Quickly and quietly trotting in towards the town center where she had spotted most of the men milling about.
As she closed in on the center, she heard voices speaking in human which she understood quite well.
"The warlock says a dragon was in the village recently sir. But he cant tell where it went, all trace of it vanished."
"So, there was a dragon in the village, someone or all of you peasants have been lying to me and my good men-"
"THERE WAS NO DRAGON YOU MONSTER, I HOPE YOU ROT-" The voice was suddenly cut off and a few screams cut out across the air.
"Now, someone will come forth and tell me of the dragon, or I will begin killing you one by one."
Silence followed, a sinister chuckle floated through the smoke and Hylena's blood went cold.
"Kill them all."
Everyone began to clamor for mercy just as a deafening roar shattered the morbid scene. Hylena had to clamp her forepaws over her ears to stop her eardrums from bursting under the pressure, but while she stifled the noise she didn't block the sight of a livid purple dragon raging forward, claws flashing violently as he swung his forepaws and bashed aside soldiers with ease.
Hylena removed her forepaws from her ears in time to hear her father shout.
"Lord Richard, you have no right to do as you will here! Leave this land at once!"
"Ahhhh so it is true, the mortal boy did indeed find a way to turn himself into a dragon to spend the rest of his pathetic life with his dragon mate... ahh what a touching story. However I do not think I shall leave, unless you are willing to surrender yourself to my warlock?"
Hylena moved forward in time to see her father rear up and beat his wings, the air blasted forth knocked all the soldiers over just as a fierce bloom of flames jetted from the dragon's throat and incinerated the man standing before him.
The human toppled to the ground and rolled frantically as his clothing burned, his screams chilling Hylena, scarring her.
It was then that a blast of energy crashed into Hynsten's back and he roared in pain, turning in time to feebly dodge another blast. Hylena watched as a man in a dark cloak walked calmly toward the dragon.
"Finally, I can obtain the dragon heart I have been so sorely needing... Stay still beast so I can remove it from your chest."
Hynsten roared in defiance, scales cracking and falling from where the magick had collided with his back.
The warlock prepared another attack but before he could lob it at Hynsten, Gruffel charged out from between burning houses and locked his claws onto the man's chest and back, intense blasts of magick shrowding his paws as they sank into the man.
He fought to get the young dragon off him, but as he put a hand on Gruffel's side, Elmyra charged forward clamping her jaws over his legs and tripping him.
Hylena ran out and Hynsten grunted, "You're alive!"
Elmyra released her hold on the warlock's legs to cry a word of thanks to the divines, but was disrupted as a boy ran into the fray, sporting a dagger dripping with blood. Hylena's heart stopped as she recognized him.
"ORLAN!?"
The boy had the dagger raised over the warlock and looked up in surprise for a fleeting second before driving the dagger down. But instead of driving it into the warlock, he drove it into Gruffel's side.
The whole world seemed to slow down around Hylena as her parents began to freak out. She could see their faces contort with shock and then rage, Orlan's from glee to fear. But he was looking at the older dragons, not the younger female who was now charging at him, teeth bared. Leaping she caught his neck between her jaws and slammed down into the ground, drawing rivers of blood from the soft flesh.
"YOU BASTARD TRAITOR!" she screamed through the flesh.
He tried to stab her too, but she lashed out with her hind paws, the talons cutting deep enough to severe the tendonds in his arm and dislocate the elbow.
The bloody dagger dropped from his grasp and out of reach as Hylena released her hold of his neck and rose so she could easily slash at the male, his skin ripping apart under her claws. Blood gushing from almost every square centimetre of his upper body.
Her mind was clouded, her brother had been stabbed, his brother who was sweeter than honey, she'd horrible disfigure the monster and then rip his heart out and show it to his dying eyes.
She was so far gone that she didn't even realise her parents were trying to tear her away from the dying boy, but she resisted too strongly until finally the life left Orlan's eyes. The rage quickly subsided into horror and then a depression, she turned away from the barely recognizeable body.
Instead she gazed at her brother, his side was bleeding, his breathing labored and his body weak.
She vaguely heard her father saying they had to get Gruffel cleaned up and then treated with some herb she didnt know about.
Her mind was swimming with questions. Had she been here just last night? Was that real? was it the reason those people had come? Why did everything from last night not seem real? Why was this happening!?
Her head felt heavy. She staggered towards her brother before dropping to the ground and blacking out from shock.