Cavua’s eyes went wide, her hand lifting slightly off the cave floor before dropping. Oncian turned and reached toward her. The top of his throat opened up, read gushing down his long neck as his muscles seized, the momentum carrying him over onto his side. He hit with a grunt, dust and dirt glittering as it puffed into the air.
Arianrhod crouched, snarling like an angry dog. Viseral dropped the steak in his hands and darted toward the side tunnel he’d come through.
Peacock watched. His mind refused to grasp what had happened as a huge, bloody hand appeared from thin air and snatched Viseral in mid-stride.
Viseral’s usual hubris was gone. He writhed in the clawed grip, howling in pain.
“Enough!”
Peacock covered his ears against the booming voice. It rolled over him, deep, dangerous, and rough.
A long, scaled arm materialized at the hand’s wrist, quickly followed by the rest of an adult dragon. Bloody crimson shone off every scale. It took Peacock a second to realize it was the dragon’s color.
It narrowed its eyes at Viseral. “Be silent and still, worm, or I’ll paralyze you, too, and pick off your scales one by one.”
Viseral went limp.
Paralysis? Peacock looked at Cavua and Oncian. Both remained rooted to the spot, eyes open, a slight tremor along their limbs.
Another dragon, this one a pale tan, materialized behind Oncian and Cavua. Despite its short, muscular neck, its head nearly scraped the cave ceiling. It turned sideways, showing a row of carved blades down the bulk of its back. It shifted, raised an equally sharp-looking tail, and swung it into Cavua’s head with a sickening crack. She shimmered and vanished.
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“No!” Arianrhod shrieked and launched herself at the bulky dragon as it wound up to attack Oncian. She didn’t get far.
The crimson dragon struck, balancing on its back legs, and captured her with its other hand. Peacock looked away as the spiked tail came down a second time.
“No, no, no! Let me go, you monster!” Arianrhod clawed at the hand that held her. When that didn’t loosen its grip, she bit it.
The crimson dragon snarled, smacking her against the wall. She wobbled, then shimmered away.
“Idiot!” the bulky dragon rumbled. “We’re supposed to bring the juveniles back alive.”
The other dragon laughed, revealing a mouthful of thin, needle-like teeth. “Sorry, don’t know my strength, sometimes.”
“Then learn it, or you can explain why we didn’t meet our quota.”
Peacock’s tail curled under his body. He didn’t understand. Why were they being attacked? Phantom pain erupted along his body, the sound of the tan dragon’s spiked tail as it hit Oncian and Cavua's skulls echoed in his thoughts. He hunkered closer to the ground. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.
Two pairs of eyes settled on Peacock. “What about you?” the crimson dragon asked. It licked its lips. “Are you going to struggle, too?”
Peacock shuddered and didn’t respond. Even if he wanted to, the tightness in his throat barely let air through, let alone words.
The bulky dragon laughed, an odd sound halfway between a cough and a growl. “I think this one’s too scared to move. All the better for us.” Its feet made a squelching noise as it moved over to the blood pools where Oncian and Cavua once stood. With a slow, cumbersome movement at odds with the precise aim of its tail swing, it reached out a blood-soaked hand and wrapped it around Peacock.
I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. Peacock didn’t resist. He didn’t have the strength to. With all he’d known in his new life dying, and the phantom pains of his past death, Peacock’s consciousness slipped away long before the invaders ever left the cave.