Eiren was moving around impatiently, wringing his hands while scouring the sky for any sign on another dragon; he had been waiting for a long while and was starting to indulge into the idea

of slipping away for a quick fishing run, when he saw him: a shining white dragon, slightly taller than he himself was; the white color of his scales was interrupted only by the shiny gold of

his jewels and the underside of his wings, of a deep blue like that of ice which slowly faded into silver toward the end of the wing.

He landed gracefully, on his hind legs, and immediately bared his teeth in a welcoming manner; his face was really beautiful, with an elongated profile and long, thin nostrils. He had immaculate

ivory teeth and two long symmetrical horns, which had a slight curve inward. He wore little, a simple belt with a small dagger, a gold wristband with engraved hunting scenes and a tailband

decorated with 2 precious opals and small rubies nestled around them. He flared his wings, showing their mesmerizing pattern. “you should be Eiren, right? I think we have been assigned to this hunting pair” he said, Eiren hadn’t bothered checking who he had to partner with.

“My name’s Kharl” he said cheerfully.

They took off and started silently moving in circles, looking for any prey when he saw it: an organized encampment, crawling with men and the sounds of war; his eyes widened and his nostril flared with fear; he flew toward Kharl and caught him, spiraling them both toward the ground “what the HELL are you doing?” Kharl said with a frown and a hint of worry in his voice, “you have to trust me, I'll explain everything” he said before opening his wings wide and braking them both before hitting the ground, harder than he expected in fact, and tumbling down before he could get up.

“We’re in danger, I saw a force of humans, they're here for us” he said still shocked, but he knew what he had to do “you have to alert the City, I need to go back to see what’s happening” he continued with no space for reply; he took off all of a sudden, leaving his companion stumped.

He didn’t worry about being followed, his wings were some of the most powerful in the kingdom and his sky-blue scales made him hard to distinguish from the morning sky, he flew large circles, wary of enchanted arrows and slowly moved inward.

The picture was grim: thousand upon thousand of humanoids, hundred or long pikes, piercing war machines and a seemingly endless column of soldiers; he was under the cover of a large tree, barely seeing glimpses of them and hearing the cheerful songs of war they chorused.

He had to go back, he took off, skimming the top of the trees, when he saw a vanguard, too late to deviate he saw in slow motion their faces harden as they saw a dragon; almost as if flying through molasses he turned, slowing down and mustering fire in his belly, but the soldiers were as fast as him: one arrow was launched and hit him in the torso before he bathed them in flames.

He crashed down in pain but he had to continue, he took off despite of the flaming pain under his heart because he couldn’t stop, like how he couldn’t have stopped to explain everything to his friend, friend? When did he think of that dragon as a friend? He kept flying, the sun felt so hot on his scales, more than ever, he kept flying but he felt like every wing beat propelled him forward too little, his mind was beginning to feel more clouded, his tail slumped, his wings felt like lead, the world started going dark and his thoughts slumped, every second of pain was hours, the scorching heat and the pain mixed in a vortex of nauseous fever bringing him down and down each wingbeat, he closed his eyes as the sweet relief of sleep caught him.

He woke up in his bed, he got up immediately and winced for the pain but he could move freely and the arrow was gone; I need to find the General he thought as he started walking out of the hospital and through the stone halls of the mountain.

through a stroke of luck he found his hunting companion, Kharl, "Do they know?" he asked immediately "Yes, yes they do" said Kharl panting, evidently he'd been searching him for quite a while; "they want to see you".

They walked for some time more, save for a stop where Kharl had talked to a soldier which was now leading the way, he also noticed Kharl had ditched the tailband and the dagger but still kept the bracelet right before they arrived: he looked up at the door, covered entirely in obsidian with silver spirals.

He saw neither Kharl nor the soldier were entering with him and he was left with the ticking of his own talons as his only company, wandering through the obsidian corridor he finally arrived in a hall: tens of columns surrounded the dark table in the middle, his heart jumped when he saw the golden color of the king and the scarred face of the General among those sat at the table.

He felt out of place with his bring blue scales in the shining beauty of this obsidian cave but he proceeded, finally arriving in front of the table he bowed and the General spoke with a rasping voice: "you must be the dragon who saw the armies of men, so tell us: what did you see?" he spoke briefly, without any care for formalities "my lords, they come from the west; I saw thousands upon thousands of men, dwarves, elves, they come to destroy us: I saw their war machines and their numbers." various dragons shifted around uncomfortably, some frowned, but the kings gaze alone was piercing, almost as if he was searching for clues thought his own eyes.

"We shall meet them in battle as soon as we're ready" said the king, interrupting the murmur that had steadily been growing in the quiet hall, "we shall arm everyone capable of fighting, every dragon and dragoness".

Eiren felt like a stone had been dropped into his stomach, he did nothing other than lie in his den and think about what that meant: he had chosen to survey the army of man but if a war meant mobilization he would be stuck as a mere pawn, chosen to live or die on the whim of a general. 

He decided to go to hunt to put all those thoughts in the back of his head *at least for a while* he thought grimly about his future, the hunt was a relief, his body had already healed thanks to some arcane cure they had given him, he flew high in the sky, flowing with the winds, becoming one with the sky itself as he kept going higher and higher; he danced among the stars and the clouds,  then as immaterial as the wind, as quick as a thunderbolt he plunged down on the forest; tearing down a tree as he expressed his power to the endless nature of the world, he came back with little prey but that had only been a mere distraction, an excuse to express his love for the sky.

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Right as he landed outside the ground entrance he was met by a military-looking dragon, "You will be part of the wings of steel, but it's better to explain everything in front of a flaming hot steak" he said, and started walking as if he expected Eiren to follow promptly.

He had brought him to his house, on a fancy balcony near the top of the mountain, they had been served both a large steak; "My name is Commander Asger, I command one of the special units of our army, as you know we will be mobilizing and I've been looking at you for a long while" he stopped to take a bite out of the steak "you see, the average soldier is not able to fly properly with an armor of these times and therefore they're earth bound" he shuddered at the thought of being bogged down by the weight of his arms, unable to escape to the skies "this; is where we come in, especially large dragons, with larger wingspan than most, this lets us fly, while carrying even more weight" he continued "I won't accept a rejection, there is more to this war than petty opinions" he said imperatively, Eiren had barely touched his food and went home hungry.

He woke up to the drums of war, thousands of normal dragons like him were being distributed weapons and armor, ready to be trained in the days that remained before they met the humans,

he would have puked if he had had any food, the scale of this was sad to think about, if they won how long before another army? and what about the next? for how long could they keep winning?

he flew out toward the morning sun and landed in a flat spot near the mountain, he saw black grass, it had been cleared out recently; he heard the dragons exercising, the clamor of the camp that was being set and the clanging of metals but that was all fuzzy, far.

He was dressed up in full armor by some valets, he had to fly and hit a target with a spear as hard as he could; immediately as he he started flying he felt the weight of everything he was carrying but he flew up nonetheless, his armor was lit up like polished bronze by the morning sun, he felt the wind as he stopped climbing and launched himself down upon one the mannequins: he felt the impact as the spear splintered; the whole thing was gone, and the mannequin was spread across the ground, he picked up the shattered helmet and tossed it on the ground, admiring the power of the weapon; he took spear after spear, and armor after armor he shattered.

He returned to his den after heating a frugal dinner, he felt numb and flaming under his scales at the same time, he collapsed on his bed and fell in a deep well of dreamless sleep. 

For the next days as they left the looming presence of the mountain for the shade of the trees and eventually the grasslands of the east, he could see the camp they were setting up for the night, stretching far and wide, he could see the weary faces of the dragons whose talons had been consumed under the weight of their armor but he also saw the steel in their eyes, their determination for victory and the fire that lit their hearts; he was about to walk to his tent when he heard orders being shouted and the assembly bell being rang, almost like a single mind the dragons started flying outside the camp.

He could see the General and the King both in front of the army "today we fight, we fight for our kingdom and for our kin; The drums of war call and we answer with our roars!.

Today men will taste the mighty steel of the dragons, and out talons their blood"

He joined the cries and the roars with his own "Blood! Blood! Blood!".

He could see the red scout coming down after it's survey, landing gracefully in front of the commander "they are deployed in a line formation, stronger on the left and loose formations of archers; our formation is a curved line as you know, you are on the leftmost part of it" he continued after a few seconds "you have orders to skirmish the left flank where the bulk of their army is located and then form a land formation when a contact happens" he flew away, probably to report everything to the council.

Asgar called "fly loose, don't take unnecessary risks and don't engage in land combat; GO" they all took off roaring.

Eiren felt the fresh wind from the cloudy sky, he climbed until the height of the clouds and he retracted his wings; he started falling like a rock and he opened his wings again and straightened his tail, he felt the strong winds that his wings were cutting as he gripped the spear even harder, he could see the enemies as more than a grey clump as he threw down the spear, he jerked his tail, moving his whole body and he turned upward, immediately he rose toward the sky again, but he could hear the spear exploding on the ground, hundreds of spears were being thrown like his own as he flew back to take a new one.

He lost count of the times he launched himself down like thunder and hail, immune to any spear or arrow as he kept decimating their ranks; their faces and their eyes began to falter as hundreds were killed by the dragons from above, useless were arrow and spears, their war machines were too big and slow to hit the sleek frame of the armored dragons; but their advance continued nonetheless.

Contact was looming as they regrouped on land "CHARGE" yelled Asgar, they flew from behind the lines, his spear hit the first line of the humans, the momentum from the flying dragons stumped the men as they landed, "SHIELD WALL" they made a line and they took out their weapons one by one, their teardrop shaped shields forming a barrier, threatening to encircle the side of the human formation, they were met efficiently by the trained human warriors, the shock from the unexpectedly strong hit threatened to make him fall but he kept pushing nonetheless, he hit where he could with the powerful war axe, they pushed through the humans slashing and bashing in a mosh pit, but it still came with a cost: he could see dragons falling some to lucky hits of the powerful bows, some to the hit of the terrible maces, he killed men upon men in a what felt a timeless battle, he came close to death by the spear of a man, by a hammer hit to the shoulder, he kept going as they advanced, their height and the presence of the rest of the army made them slowly gain momentum until one final bash finally broke them, their faces showing fear and anger, running to no avail as they were picked off one by one; he collapsed on the ground, fiddling with his bloody armor to finally take it off.

The battle had been won, the army of men absolutely annihilated; but the price was one of blood: hundreds of dragons lay on the ground, helpless in their still lament, he flew away from the maddening sounds of the living dead as he flew back into the encampment, to rest.