“Wretched fools, you dare pin me against this mediocre creature? I’m a Dragon!” The drake growled in a feminine draconic voice, going uncomprehended by the surrounding masses. “Fine then”, she snorted in annoyance as they also kept shouting incomprehensibly, she wondered how was she supposed to communicate with these apes.

The drake turned her gaze upon the frenzied manticore, almost twice as large as her. Sensing the drake’s gaze, the manticore also turned, licking its lips hungrily.

The drake’s eyes narrowed, watching as the manticore slowly prowled towards her. She took a defensive stance while sensing around her body for magic yet just as the several times she had tried before, not a drop of mana was available.

She glanced at the chains and shackles about her body, etched with runes she did not recognise. She did not have the strength to tear these thick bindings off, so she knew no magic would be available. But she wasn’t afraid, she had known fear and this creature was nothing compared to it.

No, she wouldn’t be the extinction of her race. She couldn’t let that occur, (“This will not be my last…”) she inwardly vowed not to. Baring her fangs at the encircling manticore, she prepared herself for the clash. (“One chance, one strike.”) She thought as they both stared each other down.

“One with the forest,” She began to chant in draconic, ”I am the mountain and I am the earth. Tremble before each of my steps, for when I wake the world shall quake! Draconic School; Ivyieth!”

Calling out the power within her name.

Ivyieth leapt forwards, the ground rising with her, the sand surrounding her body like armour while crystals of all kinds formed longer claws over her own, blade-like horns over her snout and a large ball at the end of her tail.

Then the ground exploded, propelling her forwards with great speed as she flipped forwards. Bashing her enhanced tail end like a mace into the manticore’s surprised forehead and slamming it down into the ground, the creature’s forelegs unable to withstand.

Ivyieth continued with the tail bash and landed herself over the manticore’s back, gripping onto its thick hide with her elongated claws she slammed down her tail once more onto the creature, nailing its head lower into the ground as it whined in pain.

Dizzy from the attacks the manticore tried to rise but stumbled to the side instead, Ivyieth rolled off its back as it did, immediately spinning about to now face the manticore’s wide open chest.

“That you may rest in peace, oh tortured beast.” Ivyieth said as she lowered her snout, aiming her crystalized horn, the blade-like protrusion suddenly growing twice as long while gaining a green glow.

The drake charged forwards, the sand exploding beneath its feet once again.

Her enhanced horn digging into the dazed beast’s chest, perfectly aimed beforehand, it stabbed right through the manticore’s heart and then shattered its spine. Barely tearing through the second layer of hide, the horn’s shrinking tip briefly poking out as Ivyieth backed away.

“Now, for these ignorant pests.” Ivyieth said, glancing up at the obviously important balcony. The sandy armour around her fell apart, dispersing about her into piles alongside the now the shattered chains.

The armour’s pressure had broken her bindings.

Ivyieth met Ramzi’s impressed expression, grinning much to her chagrin. “You,” she growled, “I see you for what you are. I allowed these apes to capture me, and who knew, I’d actually make it to you so easily.”

Ramzi’s grin widened, as he suddenly appeared before Ivyieth, the crowd growing quiet in suspense as they watched the man everyone feared approach the powerful beast.

Ivyieth snarled, “You don’t belong in Faeterra.”

Ramzi chuckled in amusement, “And what will a young drakeling like you do? Barely old enough to know its own name. All alone, bondless, wingless and unlearned to your people’s ways.” he spoke in a strange language, similar to her draconic yet his human voice differed it slightly.

Ivyieth did not respond with words, instead, she attacked. Sand rose to engulf her form once again, this time it was imbued with flowing mana, a misty blue energy surging through in the shape of rivers. Her newly enhanced claws, horns and tail also glowed much more brightly as mana was infused into all of them.

She exploded forwards with movement, slashing her claws ahead in a downward swipe. The crystal humming with power as it sliced through the air.

When chains abruptly burst out of the ground, dozens of them breaking out of the sand and entangling themselves about her body. Ivyieth roared and struggled, her claws merely centimetres away from ripping a grinning Ramzi to shreds. Yet the chains fully restrained her while even more slithered out of the sand, as if having a will of their own they gripped onto her.

“Poor little lizard, forgotten by the world, abandoned by the gods. Nobody watches over your star, Ivyieth, you are my-“ Ramzi said, his grin turning ugly as he stared up at the small drake. “You are my sire’s tool.” he corrected himself, raising his right arm forward before slowly lowering it.

With his gesture, Ivyieth began to sink into the sand. The chains pulling her body down while the grains seemed to flow out of the way.

She never stopped struggling, glaring with hatred at Ramzi the entire time. “No! I might’ve been forgotten but you did not hear his roar! Mark my words! He is coming for you De-”

Unable to finish her sentence as her head fully sunk into the sand.

-

-

Druvia,

The Glowing Woods by The Gilded Mountains.

-

Erik approached the next frozen wyvern, struggling against its own magically formed prison. A detrimental flaw in this being’s power, yet it seemed to do little from stopping its race’s increasing population.

He had never seen a flock of wyverns so large before.

“W-W-WHAT?!”

Hearing Nerick suddenly scream out, Erik glanced back to see him with Thea and her new ‘follower’, as she explained to both of them Erikathyr’s situation. He had told her to tell Nerick mostly everything. Now also apparently telling Shizuka, as Erik had never told her not to.

He didn’t mind Shizuka knowing, unbeknownst to the Bestia, he had already set a powerful tracking curse on her. He could kill her at any moment he wished to, well…the three dark elves set on watching her would if he couldn’t.

Erik turned back to the frozen wyvern, gazing into the ice he noticed Makaela appear behind him through its reflection. Looking grumpy, the xilfir commander leaned into his back while wrapping her arms around and over his shoulders.

“I am against this situation, master.” She said in elven, “Why give the human a pet? I do not understand, that animal will only get in your way…”

“You think I do not know that?” Erik said in common, annoyance in his tone telling her to speak in it too. “Yet, I believe it will be a good learning experience for my first chosen. If not, and she gets killed? Then she was never worth much in the first place.”

Makaela pouted at his words, she actually wanted the pet herself and was slightly jealous. “As you wish master~” She then said melodramatically.

Erik shrugged her arms off his shoulders, the xilfir dissipating into shadows as he did. Returning to his task, Erik met the wyvern’s eyes. A cold cyan, intense as they stared back at him with primal ferocity.

His own lit up a golden hue while he continued to stare into its eyes. “A drop within a well it might be, but you are Drakon too. You sense what I am, do you not? You do, I can feel your fear, I can sense your agitation. Bend the knee, beast, and I shall show you mercy.” He hissed in draconic.

He held eye contact for several long moments until suddenly the wyvern’s eyes lit up gold.

The creature had allowed itself to be bonded with, a bond not as deep as his and Thea’s but closer to his bond with the xilfir, a bond through draconic blood.

“This was the last one!” Erik said with a raised voice, making sure Thea and the rest heard. He then placed his right palm over the wyvern’s prison of ice, focusing on their connection he flowed his own mana into the creature and willed it into a singular element.

The wyvern’s body glowed red hot as the ice encasing it suddenly blasted out into steam, dispersed by the wyvern’s flapping wings as it stretched out its body, relieved by the freedom.

His task done, Erik glanced about at the many wyverns he had already tamed. Counting fourteen wyverns in total, he then turned to see Nerick and Shizuka staring at him with pale expressions. He sighed in annoyance, (“What? Do they want a demonstration or something? I can see the disbelief written on those apes’ mugs!”) he thought in frustration while approaching them.

“Did you explain correctly?” Erik asked with a raised brow.

“I…think I did?” Thea responded sheepishly.

“You think or you kn-” Erik began, stopping midway through his words as a sudden sensation dawned on his mind. His eyes widened, his mouth freezing in place as his expression turned to utter surprise.

“E-Erik?” Thea tried to get his attention, confused.

Erik did not respond, he stood frozen in place. He felt it, a draconic name was called out, a name other than his own. (“But I’m the last…aren’t I?”) he thought, yet the sensation was unmistakable. The attraction he felt towards the calling’s direction, the sudden rush of energy that filled his body along with the heightening of his senses…

There was no mistake, there couldn’t be.

Erik realised, he wasn’t the last.

That out there, somewhere, another dragon lived and breathed. Another dragon…that thought themselves in enough danger to fully call out their own name, to unleash their full power.

Erik faced the direction he had sensed the calling coming from, “What’s in that direction?” he asked as the sensation slowly faded away.

“That way?” Thea asked, following his eyes. “The village of-”

“No,” Erik cut her off, “Further, much much further…What continent lays beyond the ocean that way?”

“Sinroz?” Thea said as if it was obvious, “It’s where we’re going…why?”

Erik flicked his fingers, the wyverns that had been lying about suddenly rising fully and approaching his position. “Get on, we’re leaving immediately.” He ordered, and without a glance, he leapt up onto the nearest beast’s back. “Makaela, fit as many of your men on the wyverns, quickly. We’ll transport the rest after.” He said to the invisible xilfir, now glancing back at two confused humans and a bestia.

“Get on,” he repeated with urgency, “I’ll explain on the way!” he said and Thea urged the other two to move. Shizuka shivering under her touch, caught off guard due to her confusion.

Erik impatiently watched as Thea and Nerick climbed up his wyvern, Shizuka simply leaping up with ease and then turning to help them. He glanced about as Xilfir materialized out of the shadows, hundreds of them appearing over the tamed wyverns.

“Not even half my unit fit, master…” Makaela reported as she appeared kneeling before him awkwardly, the wyvern’s large scales making it difficult yet she somehow managed.

“Doesn’t matter,” Erik said, seeing more than a dozen xilfir sitting over each wyvern. “Cloak us, then we’ll leave. We must not be seen leaving Druvia, much less seen approaching Sinroz.”

Makaela nodded, before lowering her right palm onto this wyvern’s back. “Cloak the mounts.” She told the rest in elven, before turning back to focus on her own. “Blend with the light as shadows blend with darkness, become part with your surroundings, become your surroundings… Shadow School; Illusionary Branch; Chameleon!”

With her chant, two xilfir with hands together also chanted above each of the thirteen other wyverns, Makaela powerful enough to cast the spell on her own. Finishing their chants, each wyvern other than the one they stood on suddenly dissipated into a burst of misty shadows.

“I think you need a second?” Thea tried at being snarky, seemingly annoyed at the xilfir for some reason.

She had seen Makaela cling onto Erik earlier.

Makaela though snorted in amusement, “No, I can take care of myself.” she responded with a smirk before laying down, like the rest she gripped onto a couple scales and placed her feet in between others. Not exactly comfortable but she wasn’t falling off until she let go and displaced her legs.

“Wha-What is that supposed to mean!?” Thea demanded to know, although she knew the dark elf was taking a stab at her mistakes.

“Enough.” Erik growled, causing Thea to look away in annoyance while Nerick and Shizuka’s eyes widened, their expressions paling further as they stared at him. Both of them terrified and still very much in denial.

Erik turned to face the wyvern as it glanced back at them, the creature’s long and very flexible neck allowing it to look on its own back. He walked to the front, the creature’s wide back giving no comfortable sitting place, and he’d rather not lay down like the rest.

He climbed up the beast’s neck, gripping onto its thick and spiky scales as he did. Stopping at the top where he sat down, the scales losing their edge and allowing for a less spiny seating space. He grabbed onto the wyvern’s long horns, holding on tightly before looking forward.

“To the coast, as fast as you can manage.” He told the creature in draconic, the beast smart enough to comprehend his words as it immediately and obediently straightened its neck.

All around them blasts of dirt blew out, the other invisible wyverns leaping up into the sky.

Their ride briefly leaned down while looking up, lowering itself from its winged forelegs before pushing upwards. It flew up into the air, several dozen feet up before opening its wings and flapping them, the creature’s massive wing span propelling it higher and higher before it fulling elongated them.

They glided forwards, starting out slowly as the wyvern leaned downwards. Falling briefly, air breezing by them before abruptly blasting into their face with great force. The wyvern flapped its full wingspan as it fell, propelling itself forwards with speed far surpassing a common bird.

They continued to glide forwards, the ground below going by in an unrecognisable blur.

Erik faced forward, barely able to keep his eyes open from their speed. He gripped the wyvern’s horns tighter, (“Another…”) he thought, excitement and dread bubbling up within him.

(“I must find them…at any cost.”) He vowed.

Thea stared at Erik’s back as they flew, pondering his sudden hurriedness.

Yet her mind couldn’t help but wander off, (“Was he right?”) she thought while glancing at a panicking Shizuka briefly before turning back to him. (“No, no matter who, and whatever someone has done…Torture is unacceptable, he doesn’t understand that. I will make him understand!”) she vowed to herself, (“People can change”) Thea told herself.

…

(“Dragons can change too…I think.”)

…

(“This might take a while…”)