Master of the Mind

PART 2: BINDING PROMISES

Part Size

Chapters: 14

Words: ~49,000

Exert

The humans hiding in the snow let out a 'huh!' of conquest, digging themselves out of their snowy hideaways as they triumphantly walked toward the downed dragons. They poked the still form of Eldawin with the butt of their gun, as though to make sure he was really dead.

"We got him!" a woman called out to her comrades.

Their victory was short-lived. The world around them began to waver and contort. The still dead form of Eldawin flickered in and out of existence. Each hunter froze as the world around them tilted and darkened. Pure fury seemed to pour down from the sky, accompanied by the wrathful snarl of a dragon, one that echoed from all different directions at once. The humans raised their guns, looking around in terror as the snow around them began to turn black as if diseased.

'You thought... you truly believed... that you were protected from me?' Eldawin's voice ruptured the conscious of each of them, speaking in their language as he used their minds for understanding, accompanied by a wave of dizziness and nausea, 'You think... that you evil creatures... dare... that you dare...'

He could feel their panic rise. He gripped the emotion, pulling at it, expanding it, running it through their minds as their breathing rate began to increase. The black snow around them began to claw at their legs as though to draw them deep into a never-ending freeze. Cries began to echo from the humans as they chopped and dug the ends of their guns into the snow, several of them firing into it as though they could kill whatever was controlling it.

'That you dare invade my home!' Eldawin's roar echoed through their minds.

Rational quickly fled their thought process. Gone was their plan of attack, their triumph, their determination. There was no thought toward leadership or helping the other. The panic overwhelmed them, flooding them with only one thought, the need to survive. A thought governed by a single emotion that seemed to rise from the core of their very beings. Fear.