Fighting The Flood #6 - Gale

Gale

Just like the previous day, the sky was hidden by a thick layer of clouds floating low above the ground. Without being able to see the sun and with the landscape lit by weak monotonous gray light, it was difficult to tell the time of day more precisely than 'before noon'. Although the rain stopped, droplets caught on grass blades gave the plains a slightly shiny look, emphasized by small puddles scattered everywhere as far as the eye could see. A mountain, alone in its flat surroundings, almost disappeared against the cloudy horizon as its rocky slopes gained a much darker shade of gray from being wet. The silhouette of a red dragon contrasted starkly against the mountainside, sitting and watching the sky. Any viewer would have to pay a very careful look to discern a second, green dragon lying only a few steps away from the first one.

"It doesn't look like it's going to rain again," Flara shared her findings with Dak. "I can't say what will happen tommorow or in the evening, but we should have enough time for now."

"Good," the green dragon responded, stretching his back with a satisfied grunt. "We need to reach either that western desert or the mountains on the east by tonight. We can't risk spending another night on these plains when a storm like the one we seen yesterday can come at any time, and each day we lose can mean another dragon murdered by those two-legs."

Flara nodded. "That's right.. We were lucky to be close to this mountain when the storm came."

"That is exactly why we need to get out of the plains today. Only fools depend on luck." Dak stood up and unfolded his wings. "But first we need get something to eat."

Flara jumped in excite from his words. "Hunting! Are you going to show me how do you do it?"

"It won't delay us since we have to hunt anyway, so why not?" Dak asked, glad she valued his hunting skills so much. "If you teach me weather and navigation later.."

"I will, I will!" Flara almost yelled, wagging her tail from one side to other. "Let's go already!"

Dak chuckled at her passion. "Fine. Follow me closely and listen to what I say." He spread his wings and jumped, lifting himself into the air. Flara took off only a second later, catching up to him very quickly. She flew close enough to almost touch Dak's wings with each wingbeat, but the dragon didn't seem to care. The two ascended until they the clouds were only a few paces above them, then leveled their flight and began looking for prey.

"Try to fly high when you hunt; you will soon find out that no prey looks far above itself when checking if it is safe. The ability to fly is your greatest advantage as a hunter, never forget to use it to its fullest potential."

"But I saw you fly lower when you chased these tapirs two days back," Flara protested. "And it's hard to see what's down there from this high."

"That was a different situation, I already knew where the prey was and wanted to route it to a good place to sweep down at. I'm not going to teach you that today - it's fairly complicated and you won't need to do that frequently. As for being hard to see, well, get used to it! We would be flying much higher if it weren't for those low clouds."

"Ah, I understand," Flara replied a bit sheepishly.

"Oh, don't worry," Dak replied with a short chortle. "One day you will see it as natural as flying is. You expected to know it all after a single hunt, didn't you?"

"Maybe.. Yes. Yes, I think I did.."

"That's not a problem, I can give you more lessons along the way and after we get to the Hatchery too. Now listen again: Always look everywhere around yourself, the prey can be anywhere.."

The pair of dragons continued their search for prey, debating whether to go east or west after the the hunting lesson. Even as they left the lone peak that sheltered them in the night far behind their backs, the landscape below didn't seem to change at all, being the same grassy plain dotted with rainwater puddles and scarce ponds. No memorable terrain features came into their path, no forests or even single trees, no exposed rocks, no rivers, no animals. Somehow, the plains felt barren..

"Look, Dak!" Flara yelled, pointing one of her paws to her left, making the green dragon look in the same direction. Something was moving in there; after a while, they recognised two strange, large animals moving south-west. The creatures were a peculiar kind: angular and almost as wide as long, with a low but very wide snout close to the ground and a small bump on their flat backs; not a single pair of legs was visible on their fat bodies.

"What are those animals?" Dak asked, suspicious of their strange looks. "I have never seen anything like that."

"It looks like a gigantic turtle.. a little bit."

"Well, I have never seen a turtle," Dak admitted. "Aren't turtles supposed to live in water?"

"They are," agreed Flara. "They are also supposed to be much smaller. How far do you think they are?"

"About ten minutes of flight away, possibly a bit less."

Flara tilted her head to the side, thinking. "Maybe they are the reason we couldn't find any prey."

"At least they haven't seen us yet- Forget I said anything," he corrected himself when he noticed both of the animals began racing towards them.

"Let them come! This will be one hell of a hunt!" Flara beat her wings excitedly.

Dak shook his head. "They must know they have a chance at fighting dragons if they come towards us without fear like this," Dak disagreed. "Neither of us knows what kind of animals live in this place. Let's just fly south until we lose them."

"Nobody in this land can win over a dragon!" the red dragoness argued. "Dragons and the Kin have ruled over this world for ages, and no overgrown turtles challenge this rule!"

Dak growled in impatience. "Need I remind you of our mission? If any of us gets wounded, we will have to wait somewhere until the injuries heal. We can't afford that kind of delay!"

"True," Flara concurred, and to show she fully realised what Dak just said she headed south. The other dragon followed right behind her. However, the animals were faster than either of dragons thought was possible. After a minute of flight, the distance between the dragons and the creatures halved. Seeing it, the pair of dragons hastened their flight as much as they could; this finally made them gain some distance between themselves and the pursuing creatures, but soon both of them felt intense stinging in their wings and lungs.

"Enough.. enough!" Dak cried between his heavy breathing, slowind down to a full stop. "Those damn things clearly can move faster than us!"

"What are they doing?" Flara asked him, motioning towards the creatures. Both caught up to the dragons shortly after they stopped trying to get away, and now idled on the ground far below them, making no tries to harm the flying reptiles.

"I think they want to wait us out," explained Dak. "They know that sooner or later we will have to land, and then they will attack."

Flara threw him a look. "That means we have to attack first, doesn't it? Use all the advantages we still hold, pick our own way of approaching them and be the first to strike."

"That is exactly what they want us to do, so.. be swift enough to deny them any chance to react. I don't see any claws or spikes on them, most likely they will try to bite you. You should be safe if you aproach them from the side or from behind. I hope your words about dragon superiority were true.."

The two dragons began swooping down, each aiming for one of the strange creatures. About midway through the dive, Flara suddenly spread her wings to break the fall and yelled a warning at Dak, but the wind rushing around the green dragon denied him any possibility of hearing her words. He kept his wing folded until very close to the ground before fanning them out fully. The force of air lifting his wings jerked him upwards and made him crash into the top of the enemy creature. The force of the impact knocked the breath out of him and made him lose stability and tumble while a cacophony of terrible noises sounded behind him. Acting on instinct, Dak immediately drew the wings close to his body to avoid breaking them in the fall.

Standing up, he took a quick look at the beast behind him. It was turned upside down, it's body warped unnaturally with many pieces torn off entirely. Dak smirked, glad to know this creature wouldn't be standing up to another fight.

Suddenly, chill went up his spine as he heard a startled dragon roar behind his back, accompanied by another terribly familiar sound. He turned to its source and saw a known sight: Flames periodically spat out from the bump on the back of the other of the enemy beasts, each of the outbursts accompanied by the sound of a rumbling thunder. His eyes darted to Flara, who was desperately trying to dodge the attack.

"Hold on, I'm coming!" he cried and leapt towards the foe, approaching it from behind. He spun around, using the momentum of his tail to strike the bump. A loud crunch told him the strike was successful, which the sudden lack of the thundering sound confirming he struck the right spot. However, he was not finished yet. He swept his foreleg at the body of the creature, but to his surprise, the claws merely glanced off, producing a hollow, metallic noise. He tried again and was met with the same result. Angered, he unleashed a flurry of strikes at the enemy creature. Much like before, most of the swipes did little damage, but one managed to hit a transparent spot which promptly shattered into a thousand pieces. Dak jumped closer and put a foreleg into one the opening. He flailed the leg inside and torn the interior of the creature apart, pulling it out only when the deathcries stopped. Taking a few steps backwards, he looked at what he has done. The creature stood there as it did before, looking almost unharmed save for the smashed bump on its top and a hole in its front. Somewhat discontent with this, he frowned and began licking his blood covered claws.

"Dak! Behind you!"

The dragon turned around. To his shock, one of their two legged nemeses was standing near the beast Dak killed earlier, aiming directly at his head. He leaped to his left straight away, but at the same time it dawned to him this would not end well - at this distance, the enemy creature simply couldn't miss, no matter what he would do. He cursed his luck and gritted teeth, preparing for the pain that would come immediately after.

Two short streams of fire whizzed low over his head, meeting directly on the hostile biped and erupting into a violent explosion. When the fire and smoke dispersed, both the bipedal creature and the carcass of the larger beast were gone, replaced by a wide, shallow crater in the ground.

For a while, Dak stared at the crater, struggling to understand what happened. Then he noticed two smoke trails, each left by one of the fireballs that saved his life a moment earlier. Slowly turning his head, he followed the trails to their origin - the red dragon, standing several dozen steps behind him. She had her wings fully outstretched, and each of the smoketrails led to one of her wing hands.

"Just.. how?" asked Dak, perplexed by what he just saw. "How did you do this?"

"I don't know!" the dragon responded, both her voice and expression showing as much confusion as Dak felt. "I saw the two-leg crawling under the beast you killed and tried to warn you but you couldn't get away in time so I got worried and beated my wings and it-" She paused to take a breath and sort her thoughts out. "I don't have the slightest idea about what just happened."

"Flara," Dak began slowly. "How long are you aware you can use magic?"

"I- I did what?" the red dragon asked, astonished. "Magic? But I can't- I didn't-"

"Well, I think that answers my question," Dak responded. "What else can you call two balls of fire burning everything that comes into their path?"

The red dragon tilted her head. "I guess that is true.. But I still understand nothing. How? Since when can I use magic? Why did it never happen earlier to me?"

"Try it again," Dak interrupted her thoughts. "The magic. Try throwing the fireballs again," he added when he noticed her inquiring look.

"But I told you already I have no idea how I did that."

"That doesn't matter, just try it." He made a few steps sideways to get out of the way and sat down, watching her.

Flara took a deep breath and fixed her eyes on the dead body of the second creature Dak killed, drawing the still extended wings closer to her body. Her eyes narrowed as she focused all her attention. She stood almost perfectly still for a few long seconds before spreading and beating her wings very quickly. The mighty gust almost lifted her off the ground and levelled the grass in a wide radius around her, but nothing more happened. No fire flew from her wings, no explosion rocked the ground and the carcass of the beast she tried to destroy still lied on the same spot.

"I can't do it," she said, afraid she disappointed her friend.

"Don't worry about it, I didn't expect it anyway," Dak tried to comfort her. "The fact that you can use magic is astonishing in itself. I have heard about dragons using magic, but I never believed these stories. In fact, I never believed in magic at all.. And you say you never did it before?"

"As I told you, I had no idea I could do these things."

"I am sure it will be better if you practice. Nobody can be good at something they have no skills in."

"How can I practice this if I can't do it on purpose? How can I even know I will be ever able to repeat it?"

"We will see," Dak replied and then jumped to all four. "Flara, are you alright?"

The change in his tone startled Flara a bit. "Uh.. yes. Why?"

"Good!" he replied simply and took to the air. Wondering what was going on in his mind, she did the same a second later and caught up to him quickly.

"What is happening?" she asked.

"The creatures! We made quite a lot of noise when battling them and that explosion must have been visible from a long distance away. If there were any of these things nearby, they are surely going our way right now." He began scanning the horizon. Almost immediately, a light reflection in the distance caught his attention. "No. No, NO! NO!"

"Do you see them?" Flara asked, but then she too noticed more of the large creatures heading their way. This time, she counted nine of them and she was still unsure whether she could see all of them.

"There are at least eleven of them!" Dak stated in disbelief, before turning the other way. "We were lucky to have beaten two of them! No matter what happens, we'll need to run this time!"

"But that way is south! We can't-"

"The Misery Plains, I know! But we don't have much of a choice, do we?"

Once again, Flara had to agree despite being unhappy about the reality of their situation. "A grave danger is still preferable to a certain death.. South we go, then." She swung her tail around to help her change direction quicker. "How far are they?"

"At least half an hour of flight away. We still have some time before they catch up to us, but it's not much."

With a sense of growing desperation, the two dragons began to make their way south.