He didn’t think that the matriarchs would answer a call of distress like this in such force. Why had they only shown up now, not when the dragons were being taken? He wouldn’t know. They could have been shielding them someway or maybe it was because of their own influence in the attack.
It felt as if the air around them dropped several degrees as the winds were picking up from the incoming matriarchs. He worried about the one from Lord Cronley’s temple. They had to soothe that one before when it had shared visions with Kaden. Now, only days later, they were fighting corrupted dragons.
The matriarchs must have been feeling the magic winds changing. It was the only way that they could have known that the battle was raging. He wondered how connected to the world they truly were.
A wave of air hit them hard, tossing Zuma through the air. The winds the incoming matriarchs were producing were like nothing he could have anticipated. They had to land, or they’d be blown away. The angry power of the storm that had swallowed them so many weeks ago was present again. Nature itself was upset.
He saw his companions making the same choice as they all descended toward the ground, away from the buildings and population of the surrounding city. Landing at the castle wasn't even a consideration for them. They were completely avoiding its half destroyed towers. They needed earth, not man-made stone that could shake and shutter from corruption inside and out.
Xada was following them down, dwarfing their dragons in shadow while still fighting off the corrupted dragons. They were still attacking as if they were still capable of victory. They couldn’t feel the air vibrating with terror. Nor could they feel sense the changes in the weather. If anything, they were getting more frenzied.
Their darkened fog was getting more intense, more deadly as it was choking them out. Zuma had to fly through a massive cloud of smog as they descended. Kaden could feel it invade his lungs, pulling something in him he thought he had buried. Swirls of darkness invaded his vision.
He could feel the cold tendrils wrapping around his body, around his mind, and around his will. If they didn’t get out of the smog, he, too would get corrupted. He had thought the dark clouds they were breathing as harming their opponents in some way he had yet to experience. Instead, they were corrupting them.
All Kaden had to do was wait a little long. The Matriarchs were coming, he could feel it. The magic in his bones was coming alive. It was shocking the darkness away. The closer they got, the hotter his skin felt. His body was flushing with heat. If he was the chosen voice of the dragons, they were making sure he was able to fight off the infection their corrupted children were spewing.
Another loud roar boomed through the air just as they were touching the ground. Beelin slammed into the earth next to them, the boom causing them to stumble and crash as they landed. He hoped it wasn’t too serious. He heard Taldor’s roar and his head whipped above to see them hurtling down with a corrupted dragon in their claws.
They crashed into the earth, dust billowing out and swallowing the rest of them. Panic filled him as he worried for Sayori on the back of the dragons. In an instant, the dust was stripped away and Sayori was on the ground. He watched as she performed her signature stomps, forcing the earth to engulf the corrupted dragon, pinning it to the ground.
The wind from the matriarchs pushed them all over. Even Sayori couldn’t keep her feet planted. Giant wings blew over the top of them, swallowing the last light. Thunder boomed around them as the storm raged. Sparks of lightning shot out, illuminating the scene.
Another blast of wind blew them in the other direction as the second matriarch arrived. Kaden couldn’t remember a time in history when so many matriarchs descended upon the same location. IN the battles between the realms, they would fight in tandem, but since then, the ones that had survived had been given their own regions, and they rarely interacted.
The fact that the citadel had two matriarchs of differing breeds mingling when even the same breeds never bothered with one another was a marvel itself. He wondered what was about to happen to all the corrupted dragons.
They were pure, chaotic energy in dragon form. Even their movements were jerky as they flew in the air. They had flown away from their assault on Xada as the matriarchs arrived. He watched as they swarmed, moving like a flock of birds through the air.
They dove all at once toward an incoming matriarch. Kaden waited to see what their fog of darkness would do to the dragons. As if in one unit, they all blue their cold, dark fog at the matriarch. With bated breath, he watched as it swelled around her before fading away entirely.
Another Matriarch landed nearby, causing the world to shake from her weight. He recognized this one. It was the first temple matriarch he had met. The one that had helped protect Zuma when the darkness was consuming him. Their scales shone brilliantly as the lightning exploded through the skies.
More Dragons and their riders were coming in behind them, having road their wind streams. They were coming in from the various temples. There were dozens and dozens of dragons from every temple coming in behind their matriarchs. Whatever call went out, whatever silent cry, the water dragon clan had heard it and responded.
A chill ran down his back as another roar bellowed out. One last matriarch was answering the call. None of the mages, none of the other dragons knew this one. His senses were on fire, his will was sparking and popping into his hand. Those large eyes had stared at him, bore deep into his heart and mind. It was that matriarch that had judged him. It was that one that put him on the path to become the voice of the dragons.
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The whole earth shook as she touched down. Her size was nearly double the other Matriarch she stood next to. Her scales were shimmering in the lightning as the thunder sang a song of wonder. It was his wild matriarch.
He looked to his companions and every one of them had their mouths dropped open in awe. What they were witnessing was historic. So many matriarchs in one place.
His mind flashed, and he had to pull his head into his chest with the pain. The scene was almost exactly like what he had seen before. Except there was another matriarch in the background. Just as quickly as it appeared, it faded away.
Why would there be another situation where they would need to call upon the matriarchs to help? Wasn’t this it? Wasn’t this the event he had seen where they were needed in battle? The vision told him that this was only the beginning.
With a chomp, his matriarch ate half the attacking dragons. Just devoured them whole, right out of the air. His eyes widened with shock. She ate them.
The under belly of her chest began to let off a faint light. Growing in brightness, it grew more and more. He watched as the other matriarchs followed in kind, devouring the darkened dragons right out of the air.
Every dragon that wasn’t corrupted was keeping their distance far and away from the matriarchs, watching as they consumed the tainted dragons. He didn’t know what they were going to do, but he didn’t think they’d do that.
Their bodies glowed as they swallowed the creatures whole. None of them had been very large. Most had been smaller than Zuma. Kaden had once wondered if the matriarch thought of eating him when he stood before her judgment. Now he knew she could have, but chose not to.
In a few moments, all the corrupted dragons were gone. They had done a lot of damage to Xada and yet the matriarchs were able to fly in and take care of them with ease. The skies didn’t stop rumbling; the thunder continued to roll.
Motion caught his eye below his perch on Zuma. Sayori was running up to him. As she neared, she yelled, “what do we do now?”
“I don’t know! Bow?”
She looked back at the glowing dragons as they started letting out a vibrating hum. “I think we need to get further away! I think we’re too close!”
“Close to what?”
“Whatever the hell they’re doing!”
His matriarch looked to the skies, bellowing out a roar. From their mouth spewed a glowing fog. Maybe Sayori was right, maybe they needed to get away from the cannibalistic Matriarchs. The glittering fog shimmered as it fell around them.
“Riders.”
The voice of a matriarch echoed across the plains they had landed in. Sayori whipped her head back toward Kaden, looking to him for an answer. She had heard the voice as well. He wasn’t alone this time. Others had actually heard a dragon’s voice.
“Get to Taldor. Now!”
She didn’t hesitate as she sprinted back to her dragon. The other two came sliding over to them, trying together. Reese’s mouth was in a line as he shook his head all wide eyed. He pointed to the large wild matriarch and motioned with his hands. Kaden assumed that he was trying to ask if that was his original matriarch. He gave a confirmation nod and saw Reese mouth an expletive.
Kaden looked around to see if any other rider within eyeshot reacted the way they had to hearing a voice. If they did, he couldn’t tell from their behavior.
“Young riders, come forth.”
They weren’t talking to the others. The Matriarchs were talking to them. Evonne was just shaking her head in disbelief as she ordered Jerri back into the skies. Kaden took a deep breath and pushed for Zuma to join them. The four of them flew back into the air. They couldn’t be seen on the ground by the large matriarchs, not in the destruction that had been wrought.
His heart was beating wildly in his chest as his breath came in fast, nervous gasps. They had swallowed dragons whole and spit their magic back out. He wondered what would stop them from doing the same to him and his team.
The four of them flew silently in front of several matriarchs as they watched them. Kaden didn’t know what to do, how to behave in front of them. His body took over and he gave a small wave. A wave?! Pulling his hand back awkwardly, he tried to bow instead.
“You fought corruption.”
He looked to his companions, who were wide eyed and focused on the dragons.
“Humanity has been making mistakes.”
He didn’t like where they were going with this.
“It is not our place to intervene directly in the whims of mankind.”
Yet here they were, intervening. His breath continued the come fast and heavy as he tried to hold in his nerves.
“The corruption of our kind will not be forgotten.”
Kaden didn’t think they would. The dragons they saw today were corrupted. Someone, something, had done so. These matriarchs were saying it was humans and Kaden believed it. Their existence was an atrocity, an affront to nature.
They had tried to take over the seat of power of all realms and failed. Today they pulled out the dragons themselves as a last attempt at trying to seize the water nation’s power and failed once again.
Kaden fully thought they could have defeated the corrupted creatures if they had more time before the matriarchs had arrived, but there would have been more casualties. His team was going to stop them or die trying.
“Our voice needed heard. We gave you warning, and you did not stop this.”
Were they referring to him? They had been cryptic with him. How was he supposed to stop it if he didn’t even know who was attacking? That was a bit unfair of them. He wasn’t about to argue with them that fact, though.
“You could not stop this. We had to, as you lacked the power.”
His heart was sinking further with everything that was being echoed into their minds. The dragon’s voice was both horrifying and enchanting at the same time.
“Even so, you fought it head on. You fought to protect our kind. You fought to protect innocents and guilty alike.”
Kaden wondered how they knew this, how they had seen all this already. The link between all the dragons was confusing and baffling. The power of the matriarchs was even more so.
“For your compassion and heroism, we bless you.”
His head whipped to his companions. They looked at each other in confusion as they all let the shock of what was said roll over them.
Beneath him, Zuma let out a roar. Beelin, Jerri, and Taldor joined in. He had to cover his ears from the noise as they sang a song to the Matriarchs. All the dragons around them, the ones in the distance and the ones nearby joined in.
The air shimmered around him, and he knew exactly what was happening to his companions. The water matriarch was doing the same thing she had done with him. She let all the dragons help in their blessing.
His eyes were watering as emotions overwhelmed him. Not only did one matriarch deem them worthy, but five of them did.
The air started to sparkle and shimmer with a blue glow. Sticking his hand out, he tried to touch the magic as it fell around them. He looked to Evonne and she was sobbing, completely overcome by the event.
They were getting blessed today after such tragedy.