Everything good needs to eventually come to an end, and the weather must have recalled that stupid saying the next day. It decided to cry itself out as if it never did it before, the rain greeting us already early in the morning. Sometimes we could hear a murmur of thunder somewhere in the distance, the wind angrily wrinkling the lake's surface. The waves intruded higher than usual, between the littoral greenery, filling the gaps between rocks and softening the soil underneath the solitary boulders that were scattered here and there along the shore.

Despite all that, Yasenka decided to be merciless, saying that we need to be able to handle any circumstances. At least she spared us the flight to the sea this time though, and I cheered myself up with the perspective of nice tea in the hot bath afterwards.

"Yasenka?" Siaril's voice broke through the noise of the stirred lake, tearing me away from my fantasies. "Don't you think we are quite defenseless in such a situation?"

"Exactly," I shoved my drenched bangs away from my eyes. "We can only dream about using fire..."

"If you do only what you are capable of doing, you'll never improve, dear Sigrian," the rain seemed to be unable to wash away Yasenka's optimism. "That's why I asked you to bring the swords today." She hesitated for a second. "But there's something else... I actually once succeeded in summoning fire in rain. It was just once and I haven't been able to do it since. I must have accidentally triggered some different part of the magic... which is why I want to try a bit today," she smiled at us. "You might think that it's not true, but even I don't know everything yet."

And so we started the arduous attempts of striking a fire in streams of rain.

Despite all efforts, it seemed futile, and I started to lose my patience very quickly. The downpour immediately extinguished every flicker that came to life in my hands, and I eventually dropped them, sighing heavily. I was drenched as if I just came out of the lake. I was jealous of Ertralia who hid herself underneath Yasenka's blanket first thing after breakfast, and was probably napping there still.

"This is pointless," I declared. "It's against all logic."

My friends paused their fruitless efforts as well. "There has to be a way," a hint of resignation stained Yasenka's voice. "If I could do it once, then it has to be possible."

"Maybe it requires some specific words or movements, like with a spell?" suggested Siaril.

"Look, you could've asked me for a dance the day before yesterday, at the party. Right now I'm not really in the mood," I joked.

When I gave him a mischievous smile, something in his eyes immediately gave away what was going to happen next. I turned around with a single beat of my wings and fled. I didn't have to look back to know he darted after me straight away.

"Get back here right now!" I heard his amused voice behind my back.

"Why do you always say that even though you know far too well that I won't?! And what do you want from me anyway?!"

"Nothing!"

"Why are you chasing me then?!"

Siaril's next words were drowned out by Yasenka's pearly laugh and a distant, deep thunder. When we eventually ran out of energy, she decided to spare us any further strain and ordained hot tea or milk with honey. I was already envisioning a fresh set of dry clothes and a fluffy towel...

We didn't even cross half of the distance separating us from the mansion when Siaril suddenly looked over his shoulder, his hand reaching for his sirath. Upon seeing that me and Yasenka turned around before he even managed to say a word.

In the distance, above the panorama spreading further beyond the western shore of the agitated lake, we noticed three strange, bright shapes. They were slowly gaining in size... I frowned. Despite the rustle of the droplets on water and leaves being quite loud, some weird sound started to break through it. Something like rhythmic, low growling... We exchanged glances and silently spread out a little, so we would be able to surround whatever that was with a semi-circle if needed.

When we finally saw it clearly though, all three of us almost froze in place.

Three enormous wild felines... or rather three creatures that could be taken for wild felines, if it weren't for the unusual size and the wings that grew out of their backs. Wings so similar to ours in shape, but copper in color, with a few streaks of burned scarlet here and there... Their slender, muscular bodies were covered in scales instead of fur. They were entrancing in their majesty and peculiar beauty, but at that very moment they awakened only a feeling of dread. The reason for that was probably the figure sitting on one of those creatures' back...

"Sharish!"

The mage smiled and bowed his head slightly. "What an unexpected encounter," he said almost cheerfully. His dark robe, flapping in the wind, was completely dry, as if he didn't exist for the falling rain.

"Unexpected?" Siaril's hand rested on the hilt of his sword. "You came to us like following a string."

"I expected something else on its end though," the mage's eyes left us for a moment to scan the surroundings, eventually coming to rest on the mansion. "Is that the work of one of my kin? The magic is quite fresh... and at the same time it isn't."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"I'm afraid that's none of your business," Yasenka was calm, but watched him like he was a venomous snake ready to attack. "And what even is that?" she pointed to one of the beasts. "Your first step in the direction of your dreams? I'm sorry, but this is pretty far away from being a dragon."

"That's because the components are imperfect. But you can't deny that I'm on the right path, can you?"

"You've never been on one..."

"Enough," Sharish's voice became slightly harsher. "Since we so conveniently met again, I'd like to talk about that shameless ruse of yours first..."

"It's your fault that you fell for it like you've never seen magic before. And don't think I'll hand it to you just like that."

"Don't you understand that I don't want to harm you? All the more because you're so helpless in this weather..."

"Leave her alone will you?!" I finally found my voice again upon hearing that hint of a threat and drew my training sword. The crystal clear sound of Siaril's blade being pulled out of its sheath matched it from my left.

"You know this isn't just about her. I need all three of you to be my allies."

"And we already told you we're not interested."

Sharish let out a small sigh. "I understand you two," he glanced towards me and Siaril. "You come from the human race, and feel the need to protect your own, even if you're not really human anymore." His gaze returned to Yasenka. "But why are you so hell bent on risking your own life for them? You need to hide your face wherever you go, and if they got a chance, they would burn you on a stack."

There was a short moment of silence between them. I could see Yasenka's hands clenching ever so slightly at her sides. "You want to know why...?" her voice dropped a few tones. It was calm, but like there was fire raging underneath. "Because you and most humans have something in common. If you feel threatened or don't understand something, you don't ask. You just immediately draw your weapons," the illathan's eyes narrowed. "And I refuse to become like you or them..."

I felt a shiver run down my back along with the rain. Not really at the thought that Sharish could get furious at comparing him to the race he despised with all his heart. Rather at how strongly Yasenka was determined to stand by her conviction, even if half of the world would try to go against her...

The mage just sighed. "You should really give this a bit of a deeper thought. The good and the bad can sometimes have the same appearance. How they are perceived depends solely on the moment in our lives in which they cross our path. Humans keep going deeper in their mindless destruction, even more so since they succeeded at putting an end to the draconic race. It's not enough for them that they are destroying themselves, they rise their hand against anything they see a potential danger in, even if that danger exists only in their minds. They think they have the right to decide about everything because they beat us all in their numbers... they fell to their own stupidity and longing for control. I on the other hand am merely answering the threat they already pose to us. I can correct the mistake of my ancestor and rid the world of them. And with your help..."

"Don't even count on it."

There was another moment of silence. "So you definitely refuse my offer?" Sharish's question was calm, but there was something else in his voice beside the disappointment...

"By all means, indeed. Get out of my sight as long as I'm still politely asking you to do so."

The mage watched Yasenka for one more moment before his eyes shifted to me. I involuntarily gave my wings one stronger beat and lifted my hand that wielded the sword. "Well..." he finally said, "I guess I will have to use more 'colorful' methods then..."

He snapped his fingers, to which two of the beasts answered with a loud roar and leaped forward... right at Siaril. What came next happened in splinters of seconds.

Siaril deflected the first blow from a powerful paw with one seemingly delicate strike of the sword, sending a spray of blood after the droplets falling from the sky. But the other monstrosity was already on his left flank. Before I could shake off the terror and do something against it, Yasenka appeared as if from nowhere. She shoved Siaril away and evaded the second beast's fangs with a flick of her wings. She didn't manage to escape the claws though.

Time seemed to start flowing slower as I watched the beast swing at her, hitting her back and spraying blood and shards of fabric in a wave-like arc...

It was her agonizing scream that brought me back to my senses. When the beast jumped back and Yasenka started falling towards the lake, I instantly leaped after her to prevent her from falling into the water. But my path got blocked by one of the monsters, the one Siaril first drove away. I saw my friend dart past me to do what I couldn't, but suddenly a flash of copper-gold appeared in front of him as well...

I jumped away to a relatively safe distance with one panicked flap of my wings and bit my lip. I could see the rain wash off the fresh blood from the huge claws... Dread clenched my throat as I threw panicked glances towards the lake. I couldn't think of a way...

Siaril found it for me.

When one of the felines leaped at him with a heavy roar, he evaded swiftly and swung his sword in a slanted cut upwards. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the blade accidentally brushing the edge of his sirath that flew up due to the sudden motion...

The crystal and the sword flashed a brilliant shade of azure and jade-green, and suddenly the beast got enveloped by fire. Huge, unstifled flames of flawless, bright-orange that seemed to mock the falling rain... It started at the paw that was extended towards my friend, then sneaked to the head and torso in the split of a second only to soon envelop it whole to the very tips of wings and tail. The beast started thrashing around, growling in pain, and soon darted in a random direction of the sky.

The second monster must have instinctively sensed the danger, because when Siaril turned to face it, it backed away and flew behind its companion, the one Sharish was still sitting on. The mage threw us a displeased stare, not quite furious but angry enough, turned the beast he was riding around and withdrew quickly towards north.

"How the heck did you do that?!" I finally tore my gaze away from our enemies, slowly vanishing behind the curtains of rain.

"I... I have no idea..." Siaril stared at his sword for a moment, bewildered. Then he shook his head and lowered the weapon, gazing down. "That's not important right now."

He folded his wings completely and dove towards the stirred surface of the lake at astonishing speed. I followed his example and started frantically looking around. The only thing we were able to find after a few moments were blurry stains of blood among the grass on the nearest shore...

"Where'd she go...?" I didn't stop scanning the surroundings for even a second. "She couldn't have just flown away with a wound like this..."

It was then that I picked up someone's voice, barely coming through the noise of rain. I might have noticed it only because of the panicked high-pitch calling my name. I glanced toward the mansion. Ertralia was standing on the balcony of the top floor of the residence and waving at us, her movements having something urging and desperate to them... Then I frowned, squinting at the sky.

Why was there a bird circling above the balcony in this crazy weather...?