< Rylar >

Roused from my slumber by a soft rustling, I leaped to my feet. My heart raced a little quicker in anticipation as I approached the sound, hopeful that it was the dark elves returning. I turned around a final tree trunk and was greeted with an entirely different sight than the one I was expecting.

A creature that I hadn't even known existed stood before me, completely oblivious to my presence. It looked almost like a Farralyn with how its wings and two legs were structured, but that was where the similarities ended. Its scales, for starters, were colored green, fairly small, and no larger plates were present on its body. Its claws and two horns were ivory, but the rest of its body was smooth and serpentine, without any more spikes or adornments. The very edge of its tail looked extremely sharp and was shaped like a humans arrow tip, obviously a defense mechanism. It was also much, much smaller than me, maybe even less than half my height.

As if it could sense my gaze it swung its head around, revealing pale yellow eyes and a snake-like tongue that slipped between its jaws and back in the blink of an eye.

Fear was instantly apparent in its expression, and not even a second later it was gone, bursting through the tree cover before I could even speak.

What. Was. That?

~~~

Eleven Hours Earlier

< Fyrlia >

"Rylar run! They're here for you! Run! Fyrlia and I will hold them off."

I watched as Rylar raced away, a large part of me wishing I could do the same. The attacking dragons changed course, ignoring Cryhn and me and going straight for Rylar. Luckily they were still a ways off and we were able to intercept them in time before they could get too far in his pursuit.

I thudded into the side of a sky-blue Avelth, my outstretched talons pushing her off course and sending her spiraling as she struggled to regain control of her flight. While her blue stripes were a couple of shades darker and more advanced than a Beginner, I wasn't worried. Her eyes were green, marking her as an earth element, and seeing how high we were above the ground, I doubted she would be able to do much of anything with it.

Turning my attention away from her, I surveyed the rest of the battlefield. While greatly outnumbered, Cryhn was using his element to slow our opponents down and boost his own flight to catch up to them.

Is that how he managed to fly so much quicker than us during training?

I shook my head. You need to focus, this is a real battle, not training.

Despite my best efforts to refocus, my mind wandered, idly tracking a flock of pigeons that were flying among the city below.

This is even worse than trying to focus during the Trials, I thought irritatedly.

Around the age of five my parents had discovered that something about me was...different than other hatchlings. I could never sit quietly and focus during lessons in Instruction and remembering to do the simplest of things was always exceedingly difficult. When it became obvious that the current schooling method wasn't successful in teaching me anything, the teachers finally agreed to have private sessions after the normal Instruction hours geared towards my learning style.

For years I was outshone by my younger sibling, my parent's pride and joy, but eventually, I was able to excel in the one thing she never could: combat. It might take me a bit, but once I settled into a focused state of mind, I could do anything. I felt powerful, untouchable, immortal, and I loved it.

A dragon suddenly dived past me from above, tearing into my wing membrane with their talons and instantly snapping me back into the present.

The damage wasn't much, just a scratch on my wing, but it carried a threat that belied its size.

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I could have just been grounded if that dragon had managed to tear the wing.

The dragon in question was a wind element Lyzian, its body covered in cloud-grey fluff with darker grey across the majority of its wings and body, marking it as a dragon with high mastery, perhaps Exemplar or Master rank.

I eyed the Lyzian carefully. Even if the dragon's first attack missed me, it didn't mean the second one would. Luckily — for me at least —, the Lyzian seemed to be having a pretty miserable day and missed me for the second time, the gust of wind pulling at the tip of my left-wing but no more.

Seizing my chance I shot for him, pushing my body to its highest speed possible and still straining for more. My adrenaline ticked up alongside my heart rate, and suddenly the whole world was mine.

Anything that would have usually thrown my attention away was now no more attractive than rocks on a mountain. For a moment, the world slowed down as I thundered toward my target. I flared my wings out, flung my talons forward, and thudded into my prey, just like an owl. He snapped his rounded beak at me and tried to push me off with his element, but I clung on firmly as if my talons had become encased in stone around his body.

We plummeted toward the ground, his squirming body getting more frantic the closer we got to it. At one point he managed to slip out from beneath me, but before he could recover I thudded down on him once more, plummeting like a rock.

Nearly to the ground, I finally released my quarry, pushing myself off his body to help switch my direction from down to up. I didn't dare look back, not even as a sick crack echoed from the ground beneath me.

As I spiraled back up toward the action my brain finally caught up and I nearly plummeted out of the sky unprompted.

You just killed a dragon.

I was at war with myself. Half of myself felt what I had done was justified while the other half was screaming insults and curses at me. A third, near nonexistent part of me still held out hope the Lyzian hadn't died.

I didn't have time to think about it for long though because Cryhn needed help. He was getting attacked by four other dragons, and while he was holding them off with his element for now, I knew he wouldn't be able to do it for long.

Closing in on a white-based Farralyn with golden splotches on its wings and horns, I prepared to ram into it with my signature move, only for my body to suddenly freeze. I hung suspended in the air, unable to move or speak, as terror coursed through me. My wings locked up, and now I was tumbling downwards, unable to recover.

And then I wasn't alone. Kazlar was falling with me. My mother and Cryhn too. Everybody was falling, everyone I knew, all with the same terrified expression locked on their faces.

Something heavy hit my head, almost like rain but not quite. With jolting movements, I managed to lift it just enough to see what the source was and instantly wished I hadn't.

Rylar was falling, blood seeping from gashes all over his body. His head was nearly severed, his eye dull, and as I opened my mouth to scream he passed right through me.

Its...fake? Somehow this isn't real.

"It's all fake!" I roared, slowly but surely regaining control of my body now that the oppressive fear had left me. I beat my wings harshly, straining against the air as I neared the ground.

Just as I thought I was too late, I finally felt my body shift, breaking out of the nosedive and into flight not a second too soon. As I pulled back up to the sky, my tail whipped across the leafy branches of a lone tree, leaving my body quivering from the adrenaline rush.

I approached the fight warily. Cryhn was still fighting, though his motions seemed sluggish and it took him longer than usual to summon his element. Three dragons remained in the fight, including the Farralyn I had been unsuccessful in attacking, and the onyx-colored Ryzinthin still circled above, his eyes tracking everything.

Our eyes locked as I drew near, and a quiver of fear passed through my body. I forced the feeling away, letting it fade to anger as I glared daggers at him.

He's the one who did it. But how? Dragons can't conjure illusions, let alone to that extent.

As if he could sense my predicament he smirked down at me, and I bared my teeth back at him in silent rage. Tearing my gaze away, I shot toward my previous target, this time making contact.

The Farralyn easily slipped away after my initial attack and turned to face me, a chuckle breaking free as he saw who I was.

"You're young so I'll give you a choice. Submit now and live to fight later, or die. I would much prefer if you took the first option — I'm not one for killing hatchlings."

I could feel the dark Ryzinthin's eyes boring into my back. Fear squirmed through my body, but before my wings could lock up again, I threw myself at the Farralyn.

His eyes widened slightly, but before I reached him a sharp snap echoed from behind me. I paused, turning to see what had happened.

The Ryzinthin was in between the two remaining dragons who had been fighting Cryhn. His eyes watched me carefully, calculatingly, while my own drifted lower, settling on Cryhn's lifeless body, his neck twisted at an awkward angle.

As if that was his cue, the Ryzinthin relaxed his hold, letting Cryhn's body slip from his talons and towards the ground far below. The noise from the impact reached us all the way in the sky, but I was too numb to react.

Cryhn's murderer edged closer, my fear rising with each beat of his wings. He stopped just before me and I cringed, expecting him to send me to my death too. Unexpectedly, he spoke, and his voice, though deep and resonant, was gentle.

"Come with us, young one."

I knew I should protest, fight back, do something, but in my current state I could scarcely form coherent thoughts, let alone overpower a dragon even stronger than Cryhn, so instead I nodded dumbly, following him like a lost puppy while my mind struggled to process what had just happened.

Cryhn is...dead.

I hadn't known him for long, but he had still managed to impact my life in ways no other dragon ever had. He was nice, he had cared, and he hadn't given up on me when I couldn't summon my element because I was too busy watching the fireflies flash across the plains, or the frog getting eaten by a snake.

A tear slipped down my snout for the first time in years.

He was like the father I never had, and now he's dead.