Valen awoke to the scent of smoke.

Pushing himself groggily into a seated position, he looked through blurry eyes to the cave exit and took in a sharp breath at the orange glow that shone like a beacon in the night.

It came from the direction of their home.

Suddenly fully awake, Valen leapt to his feet, yanking aside the light blanket that he’d been sleeping under and looking around to make sure his siblings were alright. A bit further back into the cave, Hera grumbled in her sleep, Aevra curled up against her. Her eyes were still shut, though her face was twisted into a grimace, as though she were in the middle of a nightmare. He would have woken her up, but he was afraid that she’d be even more scared if she saw what he did.

At the mouth of the cave, Raenelir sat, head extended to get a better look at whatever it was that was on fire. His eyes darted back towards his flightbrother as Valen sleepily stumbled towards him, trying to wake up his brain and assess the situation. By the time Valen reached the wyvern, the Highborn’s gaze had turned back towards the flames in the distance.

There, Valen found Aiden just outside the mouth of the cave, leaning against the mountain face and his expression a stony mask.

“I heard the riders when they passed over us. I don’t know how you and Hera slept through it - it sounded like thunder. I wanted to see them, wanted to see if… there were at least a hundred of them, Valen, and the beast leading them… I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It was at least as big as Maelienas…” Aiden said, his voice a whisper. There wasn’t even a twitch on his face as he spoke, but something about his tone made Valen’s heart break.

“Aiden, I…” he began, but truthfully he had no idea what to say, and his sentence sputtered out unfinished. Instead, he did the only thing that he could and sat next to his brother. Watching. Waiting. Hoping that they weren't seeing everything they knew and loved turn to ash.

Then two massive shapes were suddenly soaring up, into the sky, circling one another in a tornado of rending talons and flames. Even from where they were, the two gigantic drakes could easily be made out. One was Maelienas, their Matriarch, proud and wonderful, and the other was a dragon that looked straight from a nightmare.

Aiden had been right. It was as big as Maelienas. Larger, in fact, he realized as the monster’s massive wings buffeted the Matriarch down before it lashed out with a swing of its massive spiked tail. The cry of pain that Maelienas released was so loud they could hear it as though it happened mere feet away.

Yet the powerful Matriarch would not give an inch, the longer reach of her bite coming into play as the huge black dragon opened its mouth to unleash a torrent of orange flames, only to have her teeth bite deep into its neck at the base of its skull, forcing its mouth shut and then yanking it through the air to keep the claws on each of the beast’s four feet away from her body.

The sounds of the clash, however, had apparently been enough to wake up Aevra inside the cave, because the squealing cries of the hatchling suddenly rent the night. Both brothers were on their feet in an instant, looking at each other in panic before turning and racing back into the cave. Raenelir was already up, snarling, wary eyes scanning the night sky for enemies as the brothers ran to try and quiet Aevra.

Hera, of course, was now awake as well, looking around in wide eyed confusion as the hatchling’s wails continued unabated.

“Hera, you have to get her to stop!” Valen yelled, trying to snap his sister out of her daze so she could take action. Aiden, however, did not seem interested in waiting for her. He dove for Aevra, clamping a hand around her jaws and forcing them shut even as he wrapped his other arm around her wriggling body to force her into submission until she calmed.

“What’s happen-“

“SHH!” Aiden hissed, and immediately Hera grew quiet, though from the hurt expression on her face it was obvious that the anger with which her oldest brother had spoken had stung.

For several long, tense moments, the only sound was that of their breathing. Raenelir made no sound at all as his body remained balanced to leap into action at a moment’s notice. Several tense moments of quiet followed before Valen allowed himself a sigh of relief.

Then came the roar, and Raenelir was up in the air, rocketing directly upwards. Valen started running immediately, getting out of the cave and looking up just in time to see the Highborn collide with the armored form of a dragon that he actually recognized, and his eyes grew wide with fright. The two drakes spun through the air, smacking into the side of the mountain twice and sending rocks, mostly small but still painful, skittering down to rain on Valen’s head.

Despite the stings as some of them left cuts on his exposed skin, he didn’t care. The aerial combat above had his rapt attention, until finally the dragon and wyvern struck the ground and broke apart, Raenelir peeling away looking a bit worse off than the dragon.

"Damn it," he hissed. While the Highborn’s wounds had certainly healed quite a bit in the time that he had spent at the Hatchery, he was still not at one hundred percent. He had taken that rider out the other night thanks to the element of surprise, but this was something else entirely.

Of course, he didn’t notice that this dragon’s rider was not in the beast’s saddle until it was too late, and the all too familiar jagged edge of his sword was pressed up against Valen’s throat. Eyes darting to the left, he took in the man’s face behind his horned helm, remembering the blood of Aevra’s mother still fresh on his weapon, and in that moment instead of feeling afraid, he became angry.

“Ah hah, you do remember me! I see it in that self-righteous rage on your face right now. Do you remember my name, too?” the rider asked, lifting his free hand to remove his helm and then allowing it to drop to the ground at his side as he raised a questioning brow. It took Valen a moment to think back – he’d been a little distracted by a million emotions flooding his brain and the adrenaline pumping through his body at the time, but still it came to him.

“Olivus,” he spat, gritting his teeth in frustration. He wanted to do something, anything at all, but he knew that it would have been fruitless right now to try and struggle with a sword already at his throat. In all likelihood he would just die. He might anyways.

“That’s a good lad. You know, when we got to the Hatchery and fought our way through your pitiful wyvern defenders, and you were nowhere to be found, Lord Velitarii thought it would be a waste of time to come searching for you. But I told him, I knew, that wherever you had gone that overprotective beasty there would be with you, and that was a risk he couldn't take. It seems that you've got some bad luck, boy. I never would have found you if not for that squealing. Which reminds me - you’ve got others with you, don’t you?” the dragon rider continued, grinning as he spoke before he gestured toward the cave.

“In there, aye? It’s a nice hiding spot. Especially since we don’t know the area well. It’s too bad, really, that your weakness got you caught. Whoever or whatever else you brought with you blew your cover. You should have just cut and run while you had the chance,” Olivus chuckled, before turning his blade and smacking him in the neck with the flat, cutting him just a bit with the edge before motioning with his other hand to the cave again.

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“In you go now, nice and slow. Move too quick and I’ll kill you.”

With no other choice, Valen carefully turned and started walking towards the cave, losing sight of Raenelir’s battle against the dragon as he did so. He had to hope that Aiden and Hera possessed the good sense to have simply turned and run deeper into the caves; the tunnels in the mountains might be widespread and confusing, but at least they had explored it a little bit. The riders would have no idea how to make their way through.

When they stepped into the cave, however, his heart sank; Hera stood, shivering with fear, several yards back into the cave, clutching Aevra protectively to her chest. The hatchling, for her part, let out a defiant, high pitched challenge at the sight of the dragon rider, but made no move to try and break free of Hera’s arms.

Where in the Fade was Aiden?!

“Oh ho, and who are these little ones?” Olivus asked, smirking even as his eyes slowly meandered from Valen to Hera and then back again. Then he seemed to make the connection, and his smile became a full grin.

“I’m fourteen, I’m not a 'little one,'” Hera snapped, defiant, though her words only made the dragon rider laugh.

“Little enough, girlie. But excuse me, boy,” Olivus paused, smacking Valen again with the flat of his sword. “This is your sister, isn’t it? Hah! I have to admire the bonds of family, even if it might have just gotten you killed.”

Then, turning his gaze to the wyvern hatchling in Hera’s arms, he corrected himself.

“Though I suppose it was the little drake there I heard before, not her. A shame, really. The very thing you tried to protect, now the reason for your deaths.”

Thankfully, finally, the rider pulled his sword away from Valen’s throat, shoving him forward. Tripping over his own feet, he hit the ground hard, but turned as quickly as he could and managed to get into a crouch. Olivus simply shook his head, his smile finally falling away.

“If your filthy pet hadn’t killed Royce, I might have let you live tonight. Instead, you can join your ugly little lizards in the Fade,” he snarled, bringing his blade back, ready to swing.

Then there was a wet thud, and the rider’s entire body jolted. He stumbled forward, eyes widening in shock, and his blade falling from his hands. Slowly, Olivus turned, until Valen could see the arrow sprouting from his back. Then it was his turn to be shocked as another arrow flew through the air and struck the rider right between the eyes before he careened to the ground, where he lay still.

Behind him stood Aiden, hunting bow in hand and looking as though he was about to be sick, yet a fierce hatred in his eyes.

“You aren’t dying tonight, Valen. Hera.” Aiden said, his voice rough but, despite their situation, calm.

And his face didn’t change as the dragon’s jaws clamped shut around him, pulling him up and into the air, legs dangling out and quickly going limp as fire erupted out of the drake’s throat around his brother’s body.

Hera screamed then, and Aevra began to cry out again as well. Horror was all that he felt, and yet Valen's mind was still turning, and he knew that to stand there and mourn now would make his brother’s death meaningless. So instead, he turned, wrapped his sister and Aevra up in his arms, and lifted them with a grunt.

He thought to run deeper into the caves but knew then that while it might help them to survive a while longer, eventually the riders would find them if they truly wished to. Instead, he turned to the cave’s exit and watched as Raenelir came back into view, leaping atop the dragon’s back and closing his own jaws around its neck, even as his claws rent at the beast’s back.

The two warring drakes stumbled and rolled away once more, giving Valen an opening.

“Hera, close your eyes and whatever you do don’t open them again until I tell you to, okay?!” Valen cried, doing his best to sound both commanding and loving, knowing that what she had just witnessed would scar her forever just as it would him. She might only be two years his younger, but right now all that Valen could see was his little sister hurting.

So, taking a deep breath, he took off running. He knew that if he waited any longer, he might change his mind, and he couldn’t afford that right now. A moment later he was out of the cave, running past Raenelir and the dragon as they fought, across the small overhang and then off along a small path that led back through the trees to the more travelled road below. He didn’t go far, however, before stopping and setting Hera and Aevra down, glancing back as the sound of the battling drakes continued.

“Hera, wait here. I have to go help Raenelir,” he said. He stood, turning to go, but felt Hera’s hand close around his arm.

“Please, Valen. Please don’t leave me,” she begged him, tears streaming down her face. His heart hurt to look at her then, understanding her pain and knowing that, right now, he couldn’t afford to sit and feel it with her. Not until they had made it to safety.

“I’ll be okay, Hera. I promise. But Raenelir needs me right now, and we need him too if we’re gonna make it out of here. I need you to trust me, okay?” he asked. He instilled every ounce of confidence that he could possibly stir up into those words, and despite everything that had happened so far, despite the horror that she had just witnessed up close, Hera somehow heard him and understood..

“I understand, Valen. Just be careful. Please,” she said, her voice still shaky, but her eyes growing hard like iron. Valen smiled at her, the only other thing he could do, and nodded.

“I’ll be careful,” he assured her. Then he was off, back to the overhang, moving as quickly as he could. It wasn't hard to find the wyvern and dragon again.

To his absolute delight, Raenelir had the beast pinned to the ground, holding its head down with his teeth while his powerful legs were planted in the dragon’s stomach, possibly a dragon’s most sensitive area. Once again, Valen was astounded by this wyvern’s intelligence.

“Raenelir!” he called, getting the Highborn’s attention. His flightbrother’s eyes, wild and angry, locked with Valen’s and in that moment, for just a second, he thought that the wyvern was about to turn his rage towards him. Yet then the moment passed, Raenelir recognized him, and the rage left his eyes. There were a few moments where the wyvern tore into the dragon's belly with his claws, and then finally the dragon’s form went limp.

The Highborn lifted his head, blood oozing from the litany of small wounds all over his body, and roared into the night sky, announcing his triumph to anyone that could hear. Which might have been okay, if not for the fact that other dragon riders were still very, very close.

“Quiet, Raen, please!” he called out, speaking as loudly as he dared. Thankfully, the wyvern listened, lowering his head and locking eyes with him. It almost felt as though the Highborn was trying to communicate something to him, though he knew that wasn't possible.

“We have to get Hera and get out of here, Raen,” Valen said, this time keeping his voice at barely above a whisper. A glint of something like agreement flashed through Raenelir’s electric eyes, and at that Valen turned and started to descend along the path again, not having to go far to reach Hera and Aevra. They were still shivering, but at least Hera's fear was mixed with something fierce now.

“Let’s go, Hera,” he said, smiling. She was visibly relieved when she saw him again, but thankfully understood the urgency and only hugged in for a short fifteen seconds before letting go and falling in step behind him. He led the way back to the overhang one more time.

There, Raenelir was waiting, crouched down with his front half lowered as he looked at them expectantly. It took Valen a moment to realize that the wyvern was waiting for them to climb onto his back. Eyes wide in a mixture of terror and delight, he looked between Hera, Aevra and Raen, his thoughts quickly landing on the fact that he had no idea how strong the Highborn was after that fight, not to mention still not having fully healed from the previous wound to his wing.

Yet they had no choice, not if they wanted any hope of escaping the Divide with their lives. So he stepped up to Raenelir, thankfully not having to pull his sister along despite the bodies and blood around them. With how well she was still moving she had to be numbed from the shock, which for now was a blessing

Kneeling down, Valen held his hands out so that she could use them as a footstool and then lifted her up onto the Highborn's back.

A moment later, he was pulling himself up as well, though trying to steady himself on the back of any kind of drake for the first time was not an easy task. Still, with no other choice, he did the best that he could and took a deep, calming breath.

“Alright, Raen. Please… get us out of here,” Valen whispered, running a hand slowly along the wyvern’s side as he did so. There was a rumble in response, and then the Highborn was moving, pushing himself up on his powerful legs. The drake’s whole frame tensed, and in that moment it felt as though Valen's deep breath was in sync with Raenelir's.

Then his wings swung up, down, and they were flying.

For a moment everything horrible that had happened in the last two days fled his mind as they took to the sky and shot away from the mountains faster by far than he had ever moved in his life.

They were leaving their whole lives burning behind them, but despite that, despite the urge deep inside of him to look back one more time to see what had become of the Hatchery, the wind took his worries from him as it ripped at his clothes.

He didn’t resist, knowing that they would be waiting for him soon enough. He wanted nothing more than to take this chance, at least for a while, to forget.