A gale of cutting wind spun violent between the mounds of ancient rubble and fallen stone. Dirt and debris was stirred into a wild frenzy, sending stone flying through the air. Ellis and Mary tucked their faces and pressed their backs into the shadowed ruins of a fallen building. A great trembling spread across the ground and the rubble mound beneath which they hid groaned threateningly. Together, they held their breath. With fearful eyes they looked on one another, and were careful not to utter a sound. Then, a bone-chilling undulation, moaning and deep with callous rhythm, reverberated in the forgotten valley like some long lorn lamentation from the earth itself.

And then it was silent.

The two could scarcely breathe. Beads of sweat gathered at Mary’s brow and Ellis’ heart beat so forcefully as if it might explode from his chest. The air suddenly rushed passed them, gentle and swaying, as a limb of great size and length moved from side to side. The ground shook once again.

It was moving.

Smelling.

Tasting the air.

Ellis managed to shake himself of his nerves and turn to Mary. She was pallid and trembling, her hand still held tightly over her mouth.

It can’t end here, he thought. Not like this. Not her.

Ellis braced himself against the debris and moved carefully toward the edge of their hiding place. He nearly let out a yelp when he suddenly felt something grab his vest— Mary had wrapped her hand around the buckle on his armor.

She shook her head at him and mouthed the word “No”.

He wanted nothing more than to stay put, but he knew that it would do nothing in the end. They were here because of him. He could not let her die as a result of his foolish action, even if it meant offering himself up as bait. He squeezed her hand gently before removing it from his chest. Forcing a smile, Ellis nodded his head towards her. He then continued to creep, inch by inch, toward the edge so as to peer around the corner. Mary felt an unimaginable tension as Ellis’ head moved slowly toward the light. It was silent again for but a moment before another loud tremble shook them.

Ellis snapped back to the shadow of the rubble and the two gasped quickly before closing their mouths. The trembling continued, one onerous rumble at a time, as four monstrous, clawed limbs worked to move its beastly heft between the fallen buildings.

“It’s coming this way,” Ellis said, barely above a whisper.

“Oh…”

Mary’s body relaxed as she resigned to her fate.

“We’re going to run for it.”

The absurdity of the idea gave Mary a moment’s reprieve from her utter terror and she turned out of habit to scold Ellis for his stupidity.

“What!?” she hissed. “Are you mad!?”

The trembling continued, closer now.

He shook his head sternly at her. “When it passes right by us, we’ll be underneath it. It won’t see us.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

The trembling continued to approach, growing louder with each step.

“On the count of three, follow me.”

She shook her head frantically at him.

“One…”

Mary held her breath as clumps of dirt and rock fell onto their heads.

“Two…”

Beside them, a great force impacted the ground—

“Three!”

Ellis grabbed Mary’s hand and the two dashed out from beneath their hiding place. Mary dared not look behind her, but instead focused all her efforts into stepping as lightly and as quickly as she could. Ellis tugged her one final time and lunged, nearly collapsing behind the ruins of an adjacent fallen building. Mary panted softly, waiting for a screech or a pillar of fire to burn them both, but no such thing occurred. Another tremble sounded throughout the valley, but it was further away this time.

Mary, the adrenaline coursing through her, turned to Ellis and smiled through her tremulous breaths. He managed to return a smile of his own.

“Alright,” he whispered as he leaned in close. “Just a little bit further and we can get to the bridge.”

“What about the horses?”

He shook his head. “I couldn’t see them. They must have ran off.”

Just then, a large sound of rushing air turned their attention back from where they had come.

Ellis stepped silently over Mary, who was kneeling against the ground, and peered once again toward the creature. It was standing tall; a truly awesome and terrifying sight to behold. Though, Ellis found himself troubled by something else entirely. Its massive, reptilian head was lifted fully, drawn back on a thick muscular neck over fifteen feet long; but its attention was held completely by the narrow mountain pass that led away from the valley. The same foreboding hollow set between those mountain walls that had lulled Ellis toward its beckoning gloom.

“Ellis?” Mary whispered to him. “What’s it doing?”

“It’s just standing there…”

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Ellis hesitated for a moment, wondering.

What are you seeing—?

“Then let’s go!”

Mary appeared behind him, put a firm hand on his arm and pulled him back slightly.

“You’re right,” he answered. “Let’s go.”

Together, the two sank low to the ground and carefully made their way toward the remnant stone bridge that stretched over the chasm and connected to the forest. They lingered a minute or two beneath the shade of a fallen pillar, which provided the last bit of cover before reaching the bridge.

The dragon had not moved.

Ellis and Mary nodded to each other and took a deep breath; then they charged.

Ellis urged his body onward as fast as he could, heading full force toward the tree cover that welcomed them so enticingly.

Just a little more—!

A sudden quake shook the earth and a gust of wind slammed at their backs, knocking them both onto the ground. An aura then enveloped them both, sinister and drenched with murderous intent— a pressure of malevolence that crushed the breath from their lungs. Ellis rolled over onto his back and felt his soul sink with fear. Two impossibly piercing eyes of swirling black were fixated on them both; red slit pupils that seemed to glow unholy were trained in their direction. As if trapped within a never ending nightmare, that calamitous thing then gave vent to a rumbling sound, which bore within it the unmistakable rhythm of intelligent speech.

“Iim vn szlag ahz ash Ke’shaiyr.”

The dragon’s head tilted curiously to the side as if waiting for a response.

Ellis and Mary remained frozen beneath its oppressive glare.

With a sudden, serpentine movement the dragon snaked forward, clearing nearly a hundred feet in an instant. The two gasped and crawled backward.

The dragon’s eyes widened and a torrent of hot, dry air left its flaring nostrils. Ellis heard a resounding vibration from within the creature’s throat— as if it was laughing at them. Claws the length of swords and ten times as thick tapped sequentially against the ground.

“Yliarin ual el’menoth.”

Ellis and Mary shared a terrified and confused look. Ellis then slowly stood up and shook his head at the dragon. Another powerful snort was the only response. Then the dragon lifted its head toward the sky and shook itself, sending a powerful wave down from the base of its skull to the end of its tail.

“W-we can’t understand you,” Ellis called out to the creature.

Mary shot up from the ground and stepped closer to Ellis.

“Ellis! What in the hell are you doing?”

“It is the Szlag’s tongue, then.”

Never before had the language of the Omnirian people given such a sense of penetrating dread. Ellis could understand very clearly what the dragon had said; but still, he felt as if he shouldn’t have. It was not the sound of language as it was meant to be heard by human ears. It was a demonic mockery— a morbid puppeteering of speech made to dance unnatural.

Ellis shuddered to answer.

“Szlag? What is that?”

The dragon cracked open its massive jaw to let out a low growl.

“Vermin.”

From their place on the stone bridge, Ellis and Mary were roughly twenty feet off the ground, with another thirty more to go before reaching the forest glade.

“Vermin?” Ellis offered as he slowly backed away, “What makes you think that?”

The dragon lowered its head so as to be level with Ellis. Its skull did not alter position in the slightest, held fixed and unyielding as it followed Ellis and Mary’s movements.

“Your kind scurries oh so eagerly about the ground. You build feeble enclosures within which you hide away from a world you are so incapable of contending with. Is that not so?”

Ellis peered over his shoulder at Mary, who was still a couple yards ahead of him.

If I can slow him up, even just a little…he thought to himself.

Ellis stopped and stood between Mary and the dragon.

“That’s a bit harsh…” he said through a shaky voice.

Good. She might make it.

The dragon halted its predatory advance; its tail flicked back and forth and its gaze moved between them.

“Ah…” the dragon sighed greatly, “A courageous act from the little mouse.”

Shit.

“Go, Mary,” Ellis told her as commandingly as he could.

Mary drew the bow from her back, notched an arrow and pointed it at the dragon’s head. Ellis turned around in frustration and yelled up to her.

“Mary! This isn’t a game! GO!”

She held her position and drew back her bowstring so tight she could feel the muscles in her arm begin to burn.

“I won’t, Ellis. I won’t leave you again.”

“MARY!”

“I told you before, didn’t I? I’m not leaving you.”

The stone bridge shook violently as the dragon’s massive claw tore into the adjacent rock face, cutting through stone like cloth.

“A splendid display!” The dragon reared back its head and in an instant let forth an incinerating pillar of flame that burst from its open mouth toward the sky. Even at such a distance, they could feel a rush of hot air singe their skin. “Come, then, little mice,” the dragon purred, “Make your futile stand against me.”

Ellis drew the sword from his sheath, struggling greatly to keep his hand steady as fear gripped him once again.

“Please, Mary!” Ellis pleaded. “It’s no good with both of us dead!”

She shook her head firmly.

“If you stay, I stay.”

The dragon lowered its body toward the ground, digging its claws into the rock, poised like a snake about to strike. Ellis watched as its jaw slowly opened, muscles rippling and tightening to pry open this massive cage of a thousand razor sharp teeth.

Ellis sank low into his stance, legs still trembling.

If it was to end this way, he hoped it would be quick. Visions of his life with Perry and the others flashed before him; Perry, Avenell, Ingrid and the Starspawn soldiers, Ma and Telhari, and especially Mary. He cursed himself for being so stupid. To wander blindly into an unknown mountain forest chasing phantoms? He was sure his uncle would scold him for his foolishness.

Ellis’ hands relaxed. The trembling ceased and his sword lowered.

The dragon’s eyes flashed mercilessly as it studied him; no doubt it had seen this behavior innumerable times before.

“Szlag after all, then?” it mused. “Rejoice. To have met your end by such magnificence as I truly is a blessing.” The words left the dragon’s throat as sickening vibrations, but its jaw remained open, never once closing, only widening slowly and dripping with anticipation.

Ellis’ hands trembled with fear, anger and regret. Even staring down the face of certain death, he couldn’t find the will to fight.

“Let me savor you…”

The earth shook violently as the dragon launched itself off the ground; a great force of wind blew around them as its massive body wormed through the air. Mary loosed her arrow with all her might, aimed for the dragon’s eye. But the wind was too great and blew her arrow off course. It bounced instead off the dragon’s scaly hide and was sent spinning into the nearby forest. Mary threw down her bow and grabbed at Ellis, but it was too late. A wall of wind impacted them both and nearly lifted them into the air. A gaping maw surged toward them and the two gripped each other tight—