The Dragon Magnet | Embers of Destiny 2023

Here Be Dragons

The ship lurched violently side to side, the cabin's door banging shut. Edan put his claw on the lever and pulled, trying not to rip the door from its hinges. The serpent had three steel-gray coils wrapped around the ship. Edan saw the muscles start to squeeze and heard the crackling of wood. There was no time to waste.

He hurled through the door and launched into the air, surveying the damage. He was just in time to see a large black head rising off the starboard side. It let out a staggeringly loud roar, seemingly stunning everyone still on deck. Edan was glad he'd gotten some distance from the thing.

With menacing yellow eyes, the beast stared down at Thales, who was trying desperately to keep the ship's mast from being ripped off. He was trying to take the sails down, but Azalea was screaming at him to keep them up.

"We'll never get out of here without wind!" she yelled.

"Wind doesn't matter if we have no sails!" he shouted back.

The black-headed monster lunged at Thales, and Edan knew he'd never get out of the way in time.

Edan dove down. He took in a deep breath and unleashed a jet of flame at the creature's massive head. He hadn't really wanted to do that so close to a wooden ship, but it was clearly his best weapon. The light and heat from the flames was enough to cause everyone on the ship to stare skyward.

"My god!" Azalea shrieked, gazing up at him.

"Looks like the beastie brought company!" the captain said. Well, this wasn't what he'd hoped for, especially since he was clearly trying to get rid of the black-headed monster. Did they not see that?

Edan let out a low grumble and shook his head. Why would a water beast be allied with a dragon?

Unfortunately, his attempts to assure the crew didn't seem to help in the least. He probably should have warned them before he changed, but he hadn't exactly had the time. He could only hope Colin would prevent them from doing anything too drastic to him.

He turned his attention back to the monster at hand; the crew's low opinions of him didn't matter nearly as much as the serpent trying to drag the ship under. It was staring at him, looking disturbingly hungry.

The best roared, shaking the very air around him. Edan did the same, trying to pretend he was just as intimidating. The beast didn't seem nearly as terrified as the crew.

He spit out another jet of flame, but the serpent dipped to the side. Edan turned his head, following along. He tried to burn the beast, but he had to stop as he got disturbingly close to the ship. He heard shouts from the deck, but he was pretty sure they were fine. And with the serpent lunging at him, he didn't have time to worry about the crew anyway.

He flew high up in the air, out of range of that giant, gaping maw. He needed time to formulate a plan. From so far up, he couldn't hear what the crew was saying. But he could see that they weren't arguing about the sails anymore. If Edan had to guess, they were forming a plan of their own. He wished he knew what it was.

The beast lunged upwards, his jaws snapping shut a hair's breadth from Edan's back foot; he only just managed to pull it up in time. Edan flew higher, looking down. The serpent had loosened two of its coils from the ship in order to focus on Edan. Now that he knew the ship was relatively safe, he could concentrate on dispatching this beast. He flew in a downwards arc, breathing flames as he did. The beast snapped at Edan, and he had to jerk away to keep out of range.

Edan turned in time to see the black-headed serpent's mouth open, fangs horrifyingly close. And Edan was too close to be able to get out of the way in time. But the serpent didn't strike. Instead, its eyes seemed to get wider and it reared back, shaking its massive head.

Edan didn't bother worrying about what had the beast so frightened. This was his chance. He took another deep breath. But instead of a plume of fire, only smoke came forth. Edan's eyes widened. This had never happened to him before. He went to try again. But when he tried to take another breath, he discovered the problem: there was no oxygen to sustain it. Or to fill his lungs. He turned his head and saw Azalea chanting something while staring him down.

He wanted to yell at her, but she wouldn't have understood him even if he'd had the air to do it. Was he really as big a threat as the serpent?

Suddenly, the air around him disappeared. He started to plunge towards the water. If he survived this, he'd have to kill that dryad.

As he fell, he reached his claws out towards the monster. It might have been injured, but it wasn't letting go of the ship just yet. And Edan was not giving up.

His front claws dug into the beast's flesh, close enough to the head that it couldn't turn and bite him. He dug in his back claws and bit down.

Finally, the black-headed beast let out a shriek, releasing the ship. Together, the beast and Edan plunged into the water. Edan let go, watching the Beast with the Black Head sink back into the inky depths.