Chapter 22: The Dragon City of Gale
#22 of The Spyro Chronicles SE
Chapter 22: The Dragon City of Gale Dragon Realms, Uncharted System March 10, 2204 1322 Hours Plains of Mandobar
The tanks rolled out onto the fresh green rolling hills of the Plains of Mandobar. Marines and Alliance Soldiers alike strolled through the grass as the clear fields stretched on for miles in every direction, trees occasionally dotting the area. Sunlight floated from the sky above as the clouds parted to give way. Light struck their faces and a few dragons flapped their wings to land in front of the assault group.
As they did so, a pair of UERMC Raptors flew above them and flared their engines as they flew over the expanding plains, the expanse going on for as far as the eye could see, a few mountains dotting the background.
"So... what're we supposed to do now?" A black dragoness beside a purple one asked. The purple one sighed.
"I... I'm not sure.... The answer was supposed to be revealed as we came here..."
The others looked at the purple one for a moment before looking out to the plains once more. The Marines with them looked around, some checking their weapons while others shouldered their rifles and removed their helmets, enjoying the sunlight as it passed over them.
The Sergeant in the group rubbed his head and put his helmet back on and walked over to the purple dragon.
"Spyro... I need to report to the Lieutenant, what's the word?" He asked.
"I... don't know..." He said. He was at a loss for words. He had no real clue what to do next. However, he was sent here for a reason. He needed to find out why and where to go next. He sighed before turning to the Sergeant once more.
"Tell your commander that we need to keep going North." As Spyro said this he flapped his wings and he flew outwards to the trees, the black dragoness- Cynder- following. The others in the group took off after them with great speed.
The Sergeant sighed and keyed his mic.
"Yes, I know Sir... he said to keep going north..." He said to his Commanding Officer. There was a moment of silence before his commander replied and the Sergeant keyed off his mic before walking with the rest of the group towards the plains. The word soon spread to the others and the assault group moved into the plains beyond the pass, several UERMC Nighthawk drop ships landing and picking up soldiers to transport them back to base- the UERNS Typhus hovering above the pass now.
"Where are we going?" Cynder asked Spyro who just kept flying.
"I'm not sure... I'm looking for anything... a sign... a note... anything..."
"Spyro... there's nothing here... maybe you've been lied to..."
"No! This is where we need to go! I'm... I'm sure..." He said, slowing his flight as he passed through a cloud and coming to a hover.
"Spyro..." Cynder set a paw on Spyro's shoulder. "Sometimes not everything we've heard is true... maybe we should go back..." Cynder said to him. Spyro nodded and sealed his eyes. Without warning, a screeching sound broke the calm. It sounded like metal scraping against ground.
"Ow! What is that sound?!" Roxy said as she hovered nearby in the cloud.
"I don't know, I just know it hurts!" Aaron said as he gripped his head.
"Whatever it is... it is near..." Krypto said. The others flapped their wings to investigate.
1337 Hours 3000 feet above the Plains of Mandobar
"This is drop ship Bravo 7-7-2, checking in. We've hit some cloud cover over the rally point, we should be breaking through shortly."
"Roger, keep us posted."
Nighthawk Pilot James Mason sat at the controls while his co-pilot Lieutenant Heaverson sat in the seat beside him. The clicked at the controls and flared the aircraft's engines. They were ordered to scout out the skies above the assault area, which was proving to be a daunting task due to increasing cloud cover.
"Hold on, I got something on radar..." Heaverson said.
"Hostile?" Mason asked.
"No... it's large... really large! Like a land mass!"
"Wait, what?! That's impossible! We're half a mile up!" Mason said as he flared the engines once more to get through the clouds. However, the cloud cover was not letting up, his efforts only giving way to more and more of the thick clouds. The dark grey clouds started to fill with rain and the cockpit panels were getting fogged up.
"I don't know but it's there, and we're nearing it!"
"This is impossible, how would a land mass be-" As he said this, the Nighthawk slammed into something, its belly scraping along something and a loud scraping sound entering the cockpit.
"What the hell is going on?!" Mason asked as he tried to get the aircraft to regain flight.
"I think we've ran aground!" Heaverson yelled from his seat.
"How the hell is that even possible?!" The alarm started to blare and both pilots tried to override the controls and get the aircraft aloft, but to no avail.
"Damn it! I can't get the engines to fire!"
"We're running out of ground!"
"How can you tell, I can't see a damn thing out of these clouds!"
"On the radar, look!"
"Damn it, kill the power!" With that, Mason and Heaverson both scrambled to kill the power to the engines and shut the aircraft down and caused it to screech to a halt. They both lurched in their seats as the aircraft did so and they both breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Mason unbuckled himself from the pilot's seat and gripped at his head before drawing his pistol from his holster and walking towards the troop bay. Heaverson soon followed and had his side arm drawn as well.
The two hopped from the troop bay and hit solid ground. This troubled Mason. They were more then half a mile in the sky. This should have been impossible! They walked on through the clouds, their weapons drawn and ready.
Soon the clouds parted and the sun shinned upon their faces, temporarily blinding them. When they pulled back their arms they saw something that both amazed and astonished them.
"Uh... Captain... am I seeing...?"
"I don't know... I seriously don't know..."
1339 Hours 3000 feet above the Plains of Mandobar
The group of dragons flew onwards, flying through the thick clouds as they went to find out the source of the sound.
"Wonder where the sound came from..." Zephyr said as he flapped his wings to gain more flight through the clouds. They kept flying until they heard a grunt and looked down to see Aaron smash into something. He groaned as he went stomach first into something hard.
"Ow..." He said. The others chuckled.
"What'd you get yourself into this time?" Roxy giggled as she flew over to Aaron and helped the dazed dragon off of whatever it was that he had hit.
"What'd he hit?" Spyro flew over to them, only to whack his head against something and recoil back, gripping his head. Cynder exploded in laughter.
"Nice one..." She said in-between giggles. Spyro smirked.
Spyro reached out and touched the object he had hit and found there to be something solid in the clouds.
"It's a rock..." He said. The others looked at him and a few chuckled at the thought of that. Spyro flapped his wings and flew upwards, scaling the rocks until he found an end to it. He flew forward and landed on the supposed floating rock. The others did the same and their claws clacked as they touched the concrete top to the rock.
"Where the heck are we?" Aaron asked. The others didn't respond, unable to figure it out themselves.
"Uh... guys...?" He asked once more.
"What?" Krypto asked. It was then they noticed the cracked concrete they were walking on and saw the silhouette of a Nighthawk drop ship lying ahead of them, the engines inactive.
"C'mon, they might need help!" Cynder said as she ran off, the others following.
"Guess they found this place too..." Zephyr said as he ran. The clouds began to part a bit and they arrived at the Nighthawk to find that it had landed on this large rock and had scraped its belly on it as it made a hard landing.
"Did anyone make it?" Roxy asked.
"I hope not..." Krypto said with a slight snarl. Roxy glared at him before walking and setting a hand on the drop ship's metal hull.
"Look, over there!" Aaron said as he walked over from the opposite side of the drop ship. The others went to the opposite side as well and looked on as the clouds parted. Before them stood two Marine pilots. Beyond them, lied a large floating series of islands, each housing their own city, or rather chucks to a much larger city.
"Holy..." Aaron said as he walked up.
"A floating city... only heard stories of them..." Zephyr said as he looked on.
"When I worked for the Dark Master... I looked for floating cities... dragons had been rumored to have taken shelter there to elude the Dark Master's forces... I could only find one... never thought one was right here... all this time..." Cynder said. Aaron nodded.
"I also searched... never found one for myself..." He said.
"Wait, if the planet was cracked open, wouldn't this city just have formed from it?" Zephyr suggested.
"Well... according to the stories... in the last... 'great event'... they were formed." Cynder said.
"I'm guessing the last 'great event' was a Great Cleansing..." Spyro muttered. Aaron walked over to the Marine Pilots who stood near the edge of their particular island.
"Uh... you two alright?" He asked. Neither of them responded. They only continued to look out onto the city that floated before them.
Aaron tugged at one of their pant legs.
"Uh, what?" He said.
"Uh... you alright...?" Aaron asked again.
"Uh... yeah..." The Pilot answered.
"Sir, we better call this in." The other pilot said.
"Where the hell are we anyway?" The first one asked.
"Uh... about 6 miles Northeast of the rally point..." The other responded.
"Wow... the cloud cover must have driven us off course by a great deal..."
"I'm going to contact the Colonel... we need to get our Nighthawk airborne again..."
1412 Hours City Above the Plains of Mandobar
Three Nighthawks flew through the clouds, high above the ground below. They flew between the floating islands that made up the city and they flew towards the largest one with a large tower perched in the center, several other towers branching off and several other buildings lying nearby.
Along the outskirts of the islands the buildings were crumbled and destroyed, suggesting that the islands were once conjoined. The three Nighthawks flew towards and over the buildings, the city being almost the size of Warfang. They flew until they reached a large courtyard and the aircraft flared their engines to slow down and they lowered onto the concrete ground beneath. The landing gear deployed and the Marines inside the troop bays hopped out and walked on the courtyard.
Spyro and the others hopped out of another Nighthawk, Wagner, Karson and Allison following them. Krypto flapped in behind them, being too large to fit within the troop bay.
"All right, let's see what we've got." Wagner said. As the highest ranking Marine there, Wagner was in charge of the operations once more.
Sergeant Malarkey walked behind and Lieutenant Buckman and Lieutenant Jackson, the platoon leaders followed behind. The courtyard was silent, devoid of life. The Marines landing grasped their rifles tightly, looking around.
"It's quiet... too quiet..." Karson said as he un-shouldered his shotgun and put his M74C on his back. Allison grabbed her M74D and Wagner held onto his own M74 rifle. Spyro walked forward, his talons clacking on the hard ground. Cynder strolled in from behind and the Nighthawk pilots emerged from the aircraft, side arms in hand.
"Let's go." Wagner simply said and motioned his hand forward. The Marines nodded and a squad moved forward, their rifles pointed outwards.
"Where is everybody?" Aaron asked in a whisper. Roxy shook her head as if to say, 'I don't know'. Krypto sniffed their and returned his gaze to the advancing Marines.
"We have company..." Wagner looked at him and motioned for the Marines to halt, them going into a crouching position and keeping their rifles outward as they did so.
"I don't see crap..." A Marine said. Roxy reverted to her Human form and dusted herself off a bit but gasped as her sword began to glow.
"Uh... guys..."
As she said this, arrows pinged off of the concrete nearby to the soldiers.
"Contacts!" One yelled out. The others raised their rifles and fired off short bursts at wherever the arrows had originated. However, the supposed contacts were unseen to the others.
"What the hell is shooting at us?!" A Marine said as he fired his rifle randomly three times as he searched for a target.
"I have no clue!" Another said as he ducked to avoid a flying arrow.
"Form up, form up!" Wagner yelled. An arrow hit a Marine in the chest but his body armor deflected the arrow and he grunted as he shrugged off the hit.
The Marines continued to fire their rifles in short bursts until they saw a contact at last rise from the nearby bushes on the opposite side of the courtyard. It was a female anthropomorphic dragon with cloths and armor plating covering her body. She held onto a bow and arrow and a sword hung at her side. Around her neck lay an amulet with a beautiful blue gemstone in the center.
She held up her hand and the arrows stopped firing at them. As soon as she had risen from the bushes, the Marines had her right in their gun sights. Wagner saw her act of non-aggression and acted fast.
"Wait, hold your fire!" He said. The Marines lowered their rifles at once and let the empty shells fall from their rifles as they looked to their Lieutenant.
Wagner turned to the Female who hopped from the bushes and darted to them with great agility, her legs moving with grace as she dashed at them and came to a stop in front of Spyro.
"It's the Purple Dragon..." She said as she stood in front of him.
"Yeah, my name's Spyro!" He said to her with a slight smile.
"Pleased to meet you Spyro." She said. She then turned to face Lieutenant Wagner as he approached.
"And... who and what might you be...?" She asked.
"Could ask you the same thing. My name's Lieutenant Jonathan Wagner, United Marine Corps." He said as he extended his hand. She smirked and took it, shaking it in her own.
"Charmed..." She simply said.
"Young purple dragon, what brings you here...? Do you know anyone by the name of... the Dark Master...?"
"Yes... we know him..." Aaron said with a bit of anger. Krypto huffed.
"We came here because we wanted to know more about this place. We found this place by accident." He explained. She looked at him oddly before turning.
"So... who are you?" Spyro asked.
"My name is Sarah of Gale. This is the Dragon City of Gale." She explained.
"Wow..." One of the Marines said silently. Many of them looked around, taking in the sights of the beautiful city, its pearl white marble and concrete structures... its stone walkways and stairs...
"Gale? So only dragons live here?" Cynder asked as she walked up.
"That is correct. My ancestors built this city before it was erected into the sky like it is now. That does not hinder us. Though I've never really seen a dragon of your kind before..." She said as she eyed Spyro and Cynder.
"Likewise." Cynder said in return. She motioned with her hand and several male and female anthro dragons rose from behind garden bushes, stairs, columns and other forms of cover, all holding weapons and wearing armor. They walked casually over to the Marine Company and group of dragons.
"So... you are a... United Marine...? Never heard of that race before... or is that the name of an organization?" Sarah asked Wagner as she turned back around to him.
"No, the United Earth Republic is our government. The Marine Corps is the Military. Our species is called Humanity. I am a Human."
"Interesting... how is it we've never encountered your kind before...? She asked once more.
"Because we're... " He took a glance around the city and his fellow soldiers.
"... not from around here..." He said.
"And where might you come from?"
"A far off place... called the Colonies." She eyed him with interest before turning to Spyro.
"So... you're the legendary purple dragon... I suppose you're the one who stopped the Dark Master and his armies before... correct?"
"Yes..."
"Thank you so much! You've liberated the world from a tyrannical evil!"
"Well... its not that good... he's back..."
"Oh... thought something was amiss down below... our sages could feel something stirring beneath Gale..."
"That's why we've come north... to get rid of him." Spyro said and Cynder smiled.
"Oh... you must meet my father! He would be so pleased to meet you!" She grabbed Spyro's hand and lead him off towards the main stairs in the courtyard that lead to another courtyard on a higher level.
"Wait!" Cynder said and she ran off.
"1st and 3rd platoons, stay with the drop ships! 2nd on me!" Wagner said as he ran off to follow, the Marines of 2nd falling in behind. Aaron, Krypto, Zephyr, Roxy and Tom dashed to follow as well, the Marines with the drop ships watching and scratching their heads as they watched them run off up the stairs.
Sarah lead Spyro through several courtyards until they reached the base of the large tower that sat in the center of the city. The guards at the door saw Sarah and nodded as they stepped aside and opened the doors. She lead him down through marble clad hallways adorned with columns and several beautiful statues, mosaics and artworks.
"Wait up!" Cynder called as she dashed after them, the Marines running in as well before the guards could close the doors.
They reached an enormous hallway with a chair at the end, a male anthro dragon with a royal cape sitting atop it.
The dragon stood up as he saw his daughter drag in Spyro.
"Who is this dragon, and why have you brought him before me?" He asked in a gruff voice.
"Father, this is the legendary purple dragon Spyro!" She proclaimed.
"The legendary purple dragon? The one who defeated the other purple dragon... The Dark Master...?" He asked.
"Yes! He is!" She proclaimed once more. The royal figure bowed before Spyro.
"We shall prepare a feast!" He proclaimed.
Spyro closed his eyes and laughed in an embarrassed matter. He wasn't used to being treated with such fanfare.
At this point the others ran in, very winded from their run towards the tower.
"I assume these are friends of his?" The King asked.
"Yes... we... are..." Wagner huffed.
"Spyro... she... runs... too fast..." Cynder panted before bringing herself together and walking back up to Sarah who still clutched Spyro's hand.
"Excellent! Guard, have the chef prepare a royal banquet for them! At once!" The King said to a nearby guard who nodded and left to an adjacent door.
"Please, I am Lord Macaban. Pleased to meet the legendary dragon known as Spyro of the Surface..." He said as he walked down to meet them, his cape draping along the floor.
"Excellent! We shall invite all to the feast! You all must be tired, you should rest at once! Guards, show them their new rooms!" As he said this the guards grabbed their equipment and items and showed them to their rooms.
"Nice..." A Marine said.
"You can say that again..." Zephyr commented.
"Go get the other Marines and have the Nighthawks on guard with a circulating squad." Wagner instructed, pointing to a Marine Corporal.
"Yes sir!" He said as he darted out.
They walked down the halls, viewing the beautiful marble columns that lined the halls. Windows lining the walls allowed sunlight to illuminate the corridors and a few Marines peered out over the city.
As a vast contrast to Warfang, which used traditional brown/tan colored bricks and structures, Gale used white marble, concrete and masonry. Several green bushes and plants lined the buildings, walkways and staircases. There were no streets in the city. Instead, the city was composed of several courtyards connected by staircases, walkways, and other methods of connection. All the courtyards were conjoined and lead higher and higher into the city.
Several anthro dragons walked inside the courtyards and walkways, some adorned in armor and others in a 'civilian' outfit- cloths that covered their private areas. Some males wore a cape, but many chose not to and had a toga-like outfit on them. The Females only wore cloths over their private areas.
They reached their rooms, beautiful rooms built in marble, like everything else, and had a large bed in the center, a large window overlooking the main island of Gale filtering light in. The Marines paired in twos into the rooms and split on down the corridor.
"The feast will be served later today. I urge that all attend..." As the Macaban left, Sarah strayed around Spyro, Cynder, Wagner Karson and Allison as they crowded into one of the last rooms available. The other dragons had gone off into their own rooms, and they ended up the ones being left over at the end with one room left.
They sat in the room, Wagner, Karson and Allison lacking their combat armor but still wearing their uniform and their rifles tossed to the side. "So... what's it like... on the surface...?" She asked.
"It's... not that different..." Spyro said.
"Well... the solid ground is different down there, its not all concrete or marble." He explained.
"Really?! I've heard stories from foragers that there are trees that grow naturally down there... that there's 'grass' that grows everywhere and things called rivers... "
"Yeah... rivers, grass, trees, it's all down there..." Cynder said with a smile.
"You've never been down to the surface?" Spyro asked.
"Father doesn't allow me to accompany the foragers that go down to hunt for food to stock up our supplies... he says that it's way too dangerous... sometimes our foragers do not return..."
"Oh... well its really beautiful down there..." Spyro said.
"It's beautiful up here." Karson said before peering outside once more.
"What's it like on your world? There rivers, trees and grass there too?" She asked the Humans in the room.
"Yes, we've got lots of that." Wagner said while munching on a snack bar he foraged out of his backpack.
"Is it much different from this place?"
"Well... we could say that this place is very much different. We've never had things like 'floating cities' or creatures attacking."
"So you all know of the Dark Master, correct?" She asked once more.
"Yes, we're... all too familiar with him..." Spyro said, a bit of anger in his voice.
"I've heard that he's the scourge of the surface world... but he never did do much to our city..."
"He never attacked the city?" Spyro asked, interested.
"Well... there were some instances... but he never drove us to the point of suffering or extreme destruction from it... only instances of skirmishes and what not... but other then that he left us alone..."
"How did you guys survive... the... er... Great Cleansing?" Cynder asked, interested on how the isolated region such as Gale survived the planet cracking.
"You mean the Great Event? We hid in our homes and we were shielded by the base of the islands from it... we weren't harmed too much..."
"So... you guys have never really been at war with The Dark Master?" Allison asked, turning her view away from the window.
"No... we've never really had a reason to really be afraid of him... our warriors always fended off whatever creatures found their way up here... they did harass our travelers that went below... but never too bad... we've been pretty much untouched by him..." She explained.
She turned her attention to Wagner.
"So... how did you guys come here... if you're not native to this place as you say..." Wagner thought about it for a few seconds.
"Well... we're at war ourselves. We were defeated and were forced to come here. We've been stuck here since." He didn't mention 'space travel', because she wasn't sure she was familiar with that concept or that a 'space' existed other then stars that dotted the sky.
"Oh wow... who're you guys fighting?"
"A race of draconic creatures called 'Lakadors'. For some reason they decided they didn't like us and attacked us, destroying a few of our colonies."
She pondered on his statement. It was so exciting! To mix cultures with another creature... another race! It was definitely something new for Sarah. For someone who had been restricted to the palatial island almost her whole life, she had been so curious about other civilizations... about other cultures... other lives... other species... to meet a non-draconic race was just so exciting to her!
For years she had snuck off the island and gone off to the others, sneaking into the library at night and learning from scrolls and books that had been there for centuries or found on the surface. She had read so much but had never met a 'surface dweller' before. Now she was sitting before farel dragons and non-draconians... ' Humans'... this was just so much for her!
And none other then Spyro sat before her! She had heard stories of him from travelers and foragers... how there was this purple dragon destined to save the world... destined to save them all... from ironically another purple dragon who was out to destroy the world. Even though she had heard awful stories of The Dark Master, he had never really come up to bother them... only small skirmished between the Dark Armies and their warriors had ever been recorded. She couldn't help but look at Spyro with awe... and admire him... in more then just his accomplishments... he was a good looker...
But sitting before her was a real legend... wow... her friends would be delighted to hear this! Well... that is... if she could really meet them. She had been isolated her whole life that she had to sneak out to just make friends with others outside of the palace or the local guards. It had taken MAJOR nudging just to convince her father to let her join the Guards. Even at that, she could only really be around the palace. That didn't mean she didn't... sneak... out a few times.
Boy... and the other dragon with him... 'Cynder'... she wasn't sure if she was the 'Serpent of Horrors'... or 'Shadow Queen'... as told by the foragers... the evil Dragoness that actually had harassed their foragers to a great degree, forcing them to divert away from the Peninsula of the Dragon and to the Mainland. She had been afraid of her as a little girl... and now there was a 'Cynder' sitting before her. VERY much similar to the one who she had been terrified of as a little girl... she just had to know...
"Cynder... do you by any chance know of a 'Cynder' who used to work for the Dark Master?" She asked. Cynder looked up in shock and stared at her for a few seconds, her eyes suggesting she was living a horrible memory. She shook her head and finally opened her mouth to reply.
"Yes... yes... I am the 'Cynder' who worked for the Dark Master..." She sighed.
"But that's all behind me now, I never want to relive those days again!" She threw in before Sarah could reply to that. She shrugged, thinking about the things she must've done back then to garner such hatred of her past... then again... most anyone would do the same... after all... she had been a servant of the Dark Master...
"Is there any way to see the city? Would be something to see..." Allison asked.
"Sure! Follow me!" Sarah said, grabbing Allison's hand and taking her down out of the room. The others got up and quickly followed her.
They ran down the hallways until they reached a balcony overlooking a courtyard, a fountain beneath, a few citizens walking and doing daily routines beneath them.
Sarah flapped her wings and flew down from the balcony and landed in a garden that ran along a wall that was on the outside of the courtyard boundaries. The others looked at each other before continuing, Cynder and Spyro flying down, Karson, Allison and Wagner going down a rope that they had tied to the railing and landing down in a garden, stumbling a bit as they recovered. They drew the curious stares from citizens walking about.
A few murmurs from the others caused the Humans to smirk as Spyro, Cynder and Sarah strolled over.
"C'mon you guys! I want to show you guys something!" She grabbed a hold of Spyro's arm and led them across the courtyard, getting an agitated glance from Cynder.
"Where're we going?" He asked as she led him along.
"To this place, it's one of my favorite places in the city!" They went through several different areas until they reached a high platform with a railing. Once she released Spyro's arm he rubbed it and looked out and saw why she loved it so much.
The view encompassed a few islands but a full view of the Main Peninsula, or the Peninsula of the Dragon- the area where the Dragon race had once reined supreme- now a loosely populated region with the occasional settlements, such as Warfang and the small and dwindling population of dragons. Gale was probably the single largest population of dragons in a single area.
From that vantage point he could see Warfang, the Burned Lands, the Silver River, The Valley of Avalar, the Mandobar pass... the islands that lay far beyond... Tall Plains in the far distance... they were even higher then they were when they were perched atop the 'Floating Islands'- the area they were at before they took on Malefor only a few weeks ago.
"Wow..." Cynder said as she saw it. The way the clouds parted and the atmosphere curved created a beautiful blue aura to cover the landscape, bathing it in a level of awe that they had never seen before.
"This is my favorite spot... to just sit and see..." She said as she looked out.
"Hard to believe we've only been down there... seemed so big... now it seems small now..." Allison said as she looked out as well.
Karson let out a long whistle at the sight. Wagner merely just kept looking out. He usually wore ballistic goggles over his eyes. This time, he viewed the area with his bare eyes, his hair brushing in his blue eyes and the beauty of the region setting in.
"Well... this is just one part of the city... there's more..." She said. "I'd love to see it all!" Allison said.
"Well follow me!" Sarah proclaimed. Once more they were off... going through passageways and hallways... passing courtyards and other areas. Sarah showed them through many different areas, including the library, a restaurant, and even a small stadium where there was a race going on.
As they were watching the race, a Guard appeared nearby. "Attention miss... the feast is set to begin... Macaban requests your presence..." He said.
"Well let's go then..." Sarah said as they stood up and walked back to the Palace. They entered and walked into a grand hall where the food was. Various smells and other scents assaulted their noses as the food was laid out before them.
"Holy shit..." One of the Marines muttered.
"One moment sirs... the lord will be here shortly before the feast will begin..." A servant said before leaving the room, Guards standing watch nearby. Everyone began to take their seats.
1745 Hours Dragon City of Gale, Palatial hallway leading to Grand Hall
Private First Class Andrew Tamez walked down the hallway, rubbing his hand on his uniform. He had to divert from the feast for a second to use the bathroom. It had taken him forever to find the freaking restroom and now he was on his way to the feast. The hallway he was in was dark, only lit by the light coming from outside.
One of the doors nearby was slid open slightly and a few voices filtered out from within the room. Tamez kept walking, not wanting to stumbled upon something not in his business.
"So... are they... ready...?
"Yes Master... they will be dealt with easily..."
These words suddenly caused the Marine private to stop in his steps, turning to look at the door. The young Hispanic walked closer to the door, trying to hear in on the conversation.
"How many of them are there...?"
"About 120 of their combatants... and about 6 Dragons..."
"Excellent... is he... with them...?"
"Yes... and the black one... Cynder... They're both here..."
"Excellent... enact the plan immediately..."
Tamez needed to hear no more. It was a trap! The whole thing was! He had to warn the others! He drew his pistol from his holster and ran off, only to stop when he saw those Orcs and Grublins run down the hall towards the feast hall. Undeterred he ran off, itching to get there before they did. As he ran the corner, he ran smack dab into a group of Dragon Guards. They were the guards for Macaban. They growled at the sight of him, their spears pointed directly at him and swords already at his chest. Unarmored, he posed no threat at all.
He groaned and growled with distaste as he dropped his side arm and lifted his hands up to surrender.
End of Chapter 22