Terror Fifty - Dragon

Livonas isn’t small.

Actually, I don’t think ‘small’ is a word that can describe any dragon, but especially not Livonas.

Her toes flex, and cobbles crack and splinter apart beneath claws that are longer than my entire arm span.

Wyverns circle above, flying around the dragon’s head. They look as big next to her as a pigeon would next to me.

I hear a heavy crunch and glance over to the far wall of the courtyard, a wall that’s crushed near the middle. Livonas’ tail waves above it, flicking with annoyance to loosen the stones caught in her scales.

“What,” Lily says.

I don’t think she expected a fifty-metre long purple-and-black monster to come crashing out of the sky.

“What,” Esme echos.

“Oh, shoot, you probably weren’t expecting it either,” I say.

“Ex... There’s a dragon right there!” Esme says with her outdoor voice right into my ear.

“Yeah, that’s Livonas. Mom sent her.”

“She sent a dragon! That... that thing’s a Scourge! Those destroy cities!”

Livonas shifts around, her head turning to look down at the three of us currently in her shadow. She sniffs, then two eyes focus ahead and lock onto me. They’re like cat eyes, if cats were the alpha predators they thought they were. “Valeria,” the dragon huffs.

Esme’s mouth shuts with an audible click.

“Your mother sent me to you.” Livonas blinks. “Who are these?”

“Friends!” Esme shouts. “We’re her friends!”

I giggle and rub Esme’s head. Her hair’s a curly mess, nearly a full afro at this point. “Hi Livonas! These are my friends, Esme and Felix. They’re coming with us. Oh! And you see that cart over there?” I point to the cart next to the fountain. I didn’t think about it, but it’s a good thing that Livonas landed where she did; she might have crushed it. “We’re bringing that too.”

“Wait!” Lily screams. She shifts into a fighting stance, but her fire doesn’t look as impressive, and her legs are doing a good imitation of two tubes made of gelatin in an earthquake. “I can’t let you leave.”

“But... I have a dragon,” I say. I admit that I’m a bit confused.

“Is this one a friend?” said dragon asks. She turns her head towards Lily. It’s a good thing dragons have such long necks, it lets her look around without breaking even more of the local architecture.

Lily screams and launches a fireball at Livonas.

It roars ahead, a ball of brilliant flame scorching through the air until it rams into the dragon’s snout and explodes.

Livonas goes cross-eyed for a moment to inspect the lack of blemishes on her snout, then looks back down at Lily. “She’s not a friend, then?”

“She’s not, but she’s... not food either.” I probably should let Livonas do what she wants, but... there’s something about Lily. I can’t put my finger on it, but I don’t want her to become a dragon snack. Not that she’d do much to fill Livonas’ tummy.

There’s screaming from the edge of the courtyard...

Okay, so there’s been screaming from there ever since the dragon landed, but I’ve been ignoring it so far. The distant ringing of alarm bells is just as easy to ignore, and so is all the shouting from the other sides of the wall.

This screaming is different though. More combative.

I twist around to see past Livonas’ legs. There’s a group of older acolytes walking forwards in formation, arms swinging even as stone bursts out of the ground and is crushed into large balls before them. They shout, and the projectiles shoot out towards Livonas and burst apart on her flank and sides.

She growls. “One moment, child,” she says, her head rising up.

“Don’t kill them all!” I shout up to her. It’s mostly for Esme’s sake. She’d feel bad if we burned this part of the city down. The building that housed the books is already burning up in the distance, but that’s not our fault.

Livona’s chest expands, and I find myself ducking down as a great heat engulfs the area. Livonas’ black-scaled tummy glows from within with purplish light that slowly travels up and towards her neck, then she opens her mouth and a beam of violet fire strikes the ground.

I flinch away. It’s way, way too bright to look at, and hot besides.

Lily’s fire doesn’t even begin to match that heat coming off of those flames.

When the heat dies down and Livonas’ roar subsides to a low growl, I can finally look back. There’s a wall of fire cutting the courtyard apart now, most of it gushing out of a trench dug across the flower gardens and statues and cobbles. The flames are taller than most people.

“We should go, child,” Livonas says.

“N-no!” Lily says. She has tears in her eyes and is glaring with bared teeth. “No, I... I won’t lose.”

Livonas puffs and Lily screeches as she’s sent flying butt over teakettle.

“Time to go!” I say.

“Where?” Esme asks.

“That’s a good question,” Felix says. “She doesn’t have a saddle.”

“I don’t think my legs could handle a saddle that wide,” I say. Livonas’ back is way too broad. The dragon shifts to the side, her weight moving back so that she can bring a hand down next to us. “Come on!” I say before I scramble up and into the dragon’s hand.

Felix jumps up after me, then we both help Esme up. She’s a bit reluctant about the whole thing.

“Don’t forget the cart!” I call out. I’d feel real dumb if I came this far and then left the books behind at the last moment.

Livonas reaches down and grabs the cart in her other hand.

We’re lifted up close to her chest, Esme screaming at the motion, then Livonas’ hand closes so that we’re caged in by her claws.

The dragon tenses, then we’re in the air.

Wings as wide as the entire courtyard beat down, and I see the shingles on the academy roofs torn apart as we rise. Then Livonas’ rear claws dig into the tower in the middle of the cathedral and she shoves up and into the air.

We leave with the clatter of stone behind us. Livonas climbs and climbs until we’re far above the city. The wyverns that were flying around her earlier join us in the air, some of them darting ahead while others are content to trail out behind us as a sort of strange honour guard.

I should be worried while in the air. Last time there was an angel. But I’m pretty sure that Livonas is a lot more capable than the wyverns I flew on last time. I bet she could give an angel a run for its money.

[Livonas – Bearer of Misfortunes – Greater Servant of the Dark God]

Scourge of the Burning Skies

Bane of the Night

Bane of the Unburnt

Terror of Crawling Dread

Monster Nope

“Hmm, Esme, how will people react to Livonas popping up?” I ask. I settle in as best I can. Scales don’t make for good cushions, but it’s not that bad. At least the flight is more or less even and smooth.

Esme is clutching to one of the smaller fingers. “Valeria,” she says. “I.... I think you might be an okay person, and maybe you’d make a good friend, but I’m busy trying not to faint so maybe we can talk later.”

“Okay,” I say. That sounds very reasonable.

“Where are we going?” Felix asks. Compared to Esme she seems totally fine with all of this.

“Home,” I say. “At least, my home.”

“Oh no,” Esme says. “Gertrude’s going to kill me.”

“Oh, it’s not that bad,” I say. “You'll love my mom. And I bet you’ll love the library. And I’m sure we can get you back to your place all safe and sound, no problem!”

Esme shakes her head in denial and... I’ll let her work through all of that for a bit. I think she needs a bit of alone time to process things.

I glance down, through two of Livonas’ fingers and to the ground far, far below. It’s a patchwork of greens and browns from up here. Soon that’ll give way to the deep blue of Ares Pond, and then... home.

I can’t help but grin.

We succeeded. I got some books, made from friends, accidentally destroyed Mom’s rival’s cathedral.

I bet she’s going to be really proud of me!

***