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“You are both great warriors, traveling through the wilds for seven days to save your Clan,” the King of Windstorm city said in reply to Titus and Zachery once they had finished their story. “My deepest condolences go to Zachery. Tairek will never be forgotten by any of us.”
The Fighting Master Rei stood by the King, trying to hide his grief. Apparently he was going to grieve for Tairek the great druid physician. Titus remembered him from his last visit to Windstorm City when he was just a child. Rei had barely been in his early twenties then.
“Sire, we are very in need of your knights. If you could join our fight to live, you would be in our debt forever,” Titus dipped his head respectfully.
It was different when he was staring nobility in the face then when he was just relaxed in his clan.
When he was relaxed he was a smug, pompous jerk even if he didn’t want to admit it... but when he was here, in Windstorm City, he felt as if he played the part of his mentor King Avyrus of the Druid Clan.
Dragomir seemed to think for a moment, contemplating whether he should send out his knights to Aerulis to fight a cause not his own. But Titus knew that King Dragomir and King Avyrus had always been allies in the past, and it would be a betrayal if he failed to send out his men to rescue them from the murderous King Xanthus.
“Very well,” the King agreed finally. “I will send my knights. However, if the battle becomes unbeatable for us, we will retreat. Understood?”
“Yes, your majesty,” Titus answered, nodding.
“Good,” Dragomir said and then gestured for his knights to go, “You will leave for battle immediately.”
“Yes, sire!”
The dragon flew closer to her, nearly touching the ground with its huge legs and tail and wings. Dust was kicked up from the wind caused from the rapidly approaching dragon’s wings, or at least where the dust could be kicked up for most of the land was in flame now.
This was it... she couldn’t handle another dragon. Harloc was almost more than she could handle.
It had been a good shot, with Tairek’s inspiration and her own determination to save the druids; and so, she prepared to let go...
But the dragon roared over her, heading for Harloc instead. “What?” She whispered to herself with confusion. What was the dragon doing?
Wasn’t it going to kill her?
Instead it was heading for its leader.
She turned to see what the dragon was doing exactly and was surprised to see it slamming into Harloc and knocking him to the ground. Sascha saw that Harloc’s throat did not appear to have been damaged.
Harloc quickly dislodged his warrior’s pinning grip and kicked him almost all the way across the fiery field.
Now that had to hurt!
The poor dragon had probably broken a wing or two... after all, he was trying to help her and the pack, or at least she thought he was.
“Kuro, you bloody traitor!” Harloc was already up and flying toward Kuro the dragon that had tried to help her, not a scratch on him aside from the wounds that Sascha had inflicted. “All traitors will die!”
Not while I’m here, she thought furiously. The white she-wolf raced after the dragon and leaped upward over the flames. Just as she had sunk her fangs into Harloc’s leg another dragon came out of nowhere and pushed its leader to the ground, this time with its long teeth dug in tightly.
Now all those dragons that had seemed to disappear had come back. One dragon, a blue dragon with purple eyes, lent Sascha help; it picked her up and flew over the field of flames.
It blew white breath out its mouth hastily, and she was surprised to find that it turned the blazing hot fire to freezing blue ice.
Sascha saw the opportunity and leaped out of the dragon’s hands and down onto the frozen white fire, sliding almost unstoppable on the ice. She struggled to regain her balance and at the same time tried to dodge all the wavy formations of former fire jutting out.
The ground rumbled wildly as the broken dragon struggled to break free from the ice that froze him to the ground, and with a shatter he flew up into the red sky. Ice shards were sent everywhere and pierced the ice like a sword slashing skin. Sascha leaped out of the way of every one of them, swift as a fox.
“Harloc, I’m down here!” The white wolf snapped up to Harloc who flew in the sky looking at all the dragons headed his way.
They were turning against him! Now the pack had the power of over fifty dragons against Harloc!
The sinister Ituic turned, his face radiating with the most heated rage she had ever seen on someone. He was about to charge down at her, to collide with her into the solid ice.
“Harloc…!” Kuro’s enraged voice rang out before the big creature could attack Sascha and he immediately smashed into his leader, falling out of the sky.
Kuro was okay!
There was not a scratch on him! As she ran to the site where they would crash to the ground, she saw Kuro get a hold of Harloc’s shoulder. He ripped out a chunk of shoulder flesh, blood pulsing out of the gigantic dragon’s wound. Sascha was very pleased with this.
She would not have expected Harloc’s entire horde to turn against him so quickly and willingly like that, but it was very nice of them. She would have to thank the survivors for what they’d done after the battle was over.
Sliding quickly out of the way the two dragons crashed to the ground, frost and sharp ice shards being sent up in the air as they impacted. Kuro flew instantly out of the ice cloud, leaving his half dead leader covered in icicles and blood. Harloc moaned in pain, struggling to stand.
“You shouldn’t have tried to kill my pack!” An angry voice roared over the ice.
Sascha looked beyond Harloc’s massive body just in time to see Thor leaping up a few feet attempting to sink his teeth into the horrible creature. To Sascha’s terror, Harloc immediately lifted his huge hand and slashed the Twilight Pack alpha away powerfully.
But... wait!
A long spatter of blood shot up from Thor’s neck as he crashed to the ground twenty feet away from the dragon. Sascha raced passed Harloc to come to a halt at the alpha’s side.
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“Don’t bother, you pathetic white blob!” Harloc snarled painfully, blood pooling below him from his severe shoulder wound.
Sascha didn’t reply and just checked Thor for his wounds. “Are you okay?” She asked frantically. He didn’t reply and that intensified her concern for him. Thor’s upper body was already covered in scarlet red blood. When Sascha found his wound her eyes widened. His... throat was...
“Thor!”
“It’s about time I killed one of your warriors!” Harloc snapped. “My own warriors are as weak and stupid as you are!”
“Shut up!” Sascha whipped around, white fur bristling with hatred. She stared straight into the Ituic’s red eyes, not noticing how the dragons of Doragontaigun were surrounding the two from a distance. “It ends now, Harloc! You’ve built up all your god-like power, but it counts for nothing now!”
Harloc seemed to brace himself for Sascha’s attack, standing up straight and balanced, awaiting the white she-wolf’s move. The Ituic’s giant teeth were bared, and Sascha had to admit that they definitely intimidated her a bit. But she didn’t care.
Thor was dead because of this monster! She charged forward, digging her claws into the ice for better balancing, and when she was in striking distance she jumped up.
It must have been the determination, or maybe the anger that pulsed through her right now, but all she knew was that she was going higher than she had ever seemed to go.
Outstretching her right paw Sascha unsheathed her claws to their full extent, hearing Harloc’s roar as he extended his head toward her as she flew toward his upper neck.
When they impacted together, Sascha drove her claws deep into his neck, eventually reaching his windpipe.
Just like that, it was over. Less than two or three seconds’ worth of recent combat and Harloc was about to die. At long last, the surrounding kingdoms of this barren wasteland were at peace.
Thor’s death had been avenged.
Sascha ran up toward Harloc’s massive head, where it lay almost lifeless on the cold ice that was numbing to the touch.
She looked into the Ituic’s blood red eyes, the depth of them being so deep it was like staring straight into a crystal clear ocean all the way to the bottom, thousands of feet down. It sent chills down her spine, and she felt unease well in her chest.
Did Harloc really have that power in his eyes alone? To make others feel fear when facing him eye to eye?
“You really think you've won? If I die, you've only killed my first life,” the dragon’s old ear piercing voice choked out. "I am more than I appear. I am a god! I... will never... die, I will... come back again to destroy you, and your very spirit..."
“How can that be?” Sascha asked with concern, just before the light in his red eyes died away. Could he really come back to life somehow and kill her? Right now, it didn’t matter... she chose not to believe it... it was time to celebrate, for she had won the battle!
“Thor! Thor, wake up!” She heard a very familiar voice and turned around to see the gray speckled she-wolf and the rest of the huge platoon gathering around their dead alpha’s body.
“Akemi,” she ran over to her, leaving Harloc’s body on the frozen plains of ice. Akemi did not look up at first, still looking at Thor.
She never liked seeing her friends suffer, as the Twilight Pack leader’s death was a great loss for the gray she-wolf. Sascha pressed her muzzle into Akemi’s shoulder, as if to reassure her it was going to be alright.
Tears streamed down the face of Sascha, and she gazed up at the sky with deep grief. Her heart tore in two as she saw her friend even more heavily sorrowed than her.
“I’m glad to see you, Sascha,” Akemi said quietly, filled with bittersweet emotion. She sat down and curled her fluffy gray speckled tail over her big paws. “Thank you for doing all this to save me... all of you!” She added and turned her head around to address the entire platoon.
Only then did Sascha realize with horror at how low the numbers had dropped; there seemed to only be around fifty total warriors in the pack now!
There had been nearly two hundred before the battle! So many lives had been lost to kill just one dragon.
“Wait a second,” Chino came up behind Akemi, followed by a slim black and brown dog with pointy ears. “Who is the leader of the Twilight Pack now?”
“Yes… who will take over?” Akemi asked the huge mastiff. “I never got to see who became next in line.”
Then, a familiar face emerged from the crowd of wounded warriors. “I am,” said the solemn white faced male wolf. “I am Talomi, new alpha of the Twilight Pack.”
Akemi’s eyes brightened with pride and affection, coming over to bow before the ice blue striped male. “Talomi is the new alpha of the Twilight Pack! Does anyone have any objections?” The gray speckled she-wolf yowled to the platoon.
Everyone howled their approval of their new alpha. Sascha would not be surprised if their howls had reached back to Aerulis with how loud they were.
“Talomi! Talomi! Talomi!” she called into the cheerful air of victory and happiness, letting the wolf in her take over as she howled to the moon above her.
It had been a few minutes before the howling died down. Talomi came up to face Sascha. “I must thank you for saving my pack,” he said gratefully. “We all wish you luck on your journey to save your druid clan.”
“Always, Talomi,” she told him. “If you ever need my help again, you can find me in Aerulis, perhaps in Rosewood Forest.”
Akemi approached the white she-wolf happily. “My loyalty will always be to the Twilight Pack. Thank you all for trusting me enough to rescue me from Harloc. However, I must make a complicated request to my leader,” she said and turned to Talomi with wonder in her aqua blue eyes. “I would like for your permission to take a battle patrol to Aerulis. You know of Sascha’s prophecy, right?”
Talomi flattened his ears with uncertainty. “We’ve just barely won this battle,” he said softly. “Are you sure we’d be able to handle another battle?”
“I don’t know,” Akemi responded, lowering her head. “But the prophecy is very important to Sascha, and even to us in a way. We don’t know what Xanthus could end up achieving in his lifetime if he remains King. After all, he is still young.”
“So you think Xanthus will try and conquer more than Aerulis’ territory?”
“Yes, he might... and the fact that he hates druids and wolves scares me...” Akemi said. “He might try and kill us if he gets a hold of Windstorm City.”
Talomi sighed, very reluctant to let a patrol travel to Aerulis to fight. “Very well,” he said, dipping his head. “You have my blessing.”
“Thank you, leader,” Akemi responded, dipping her head respectfully.
Suddenly all of the dragons came into view and settled down from their flight beside the huge pack. “Wolves not have to fear,” one of the dragons said, lowering its big head down to see the wolves better. They apparently didn’t entirely know the wolf language, but enough where Sascha could understand. “We bring wolves to battle.”
With the moonlight shining on Sascha’s glistening white pelt, she couldn’t help but let out a smile. There was no way they could lose now with dragons on their side.