The Silver Dragon (Unpublished, unedited version)

Chapter 31: Silver's Sorrow

Silver felt her heart thud in her chest with each pulsing beet of engine jets. There were more of them? Despite being healed of all her previous wounds she was feeling rather exhausted of fighting. She had spent most of the day in the air, and the sun was high in the air. The pounding she had taken just a moment ago didn't help. Her body was throbbing slightly and she was wobbly in the air.

But, as before, she forced herself upwards toward the coming threat. Elron rose next to her, glancing at his daughter worriedly. He hadn't expected this. They didn't tell him that they had a spare hundred or so machines ready to fight off any dragons that defeated them.

The other dragons in the valley slowly rose up as well, some looking extremely frightened. A muttering rose around them, speaking of surrender, or retreat. Not many of the dragons their had been part of something like a battle, and now they were faced with one of the most dangerous armies in the known world.

"Don't fall now!" Elron yelled, "Stand and fight! We have no chance if you retreat! All of you will be captured, killed or worse, if you fall now. Would you do that to yourself? To your mates and hatchlings? Don't let yourself be frightened by them, use all the power you have. Don't think you can't win! You can!"

A few of them looked at him in surprise and the fear of fighting dissipated somewhat, though it was still there in a few dragons. However when they saw Iraliene rise up from a mountainside all that fear completely vanished. If their own leader was going to fight with them, then the fight was worth it. She nodded at Elron, a mutual understanding passing between them. As bad as the dragoness was, she understood what it was like to fight for something she believed in. She had been doing so all her life.

Raize flew up beside his sister and the two exchanged a small smile.

"Think that the same idea would work?" asked Silver.

"No, Gravon feinted," replied her brother.

She snorted, "Of course."

They laughed slightly, both shaking out their nervousness. The army was approaching quickly, and there was something different about it, or more specifically one of the robots in the midst. It was different from the rest, more sleek and humanoid, and instead of a completely metal shell it had a glass pane at the head, revealing the human inside.

It took a moment for Silver to recognise him but when she did her heart leapt an extra mile. It was the scarred man that had she had fought all that time ago. He had the same looks and crazed grin. His eyes sparkled with inhuman insanity. The throbbing scar on his throat didn't look any better then before, and if anything stood out from the rest of his body like an unnatural growth.

A growl escaped the silver dragon, and Raize looked at her in confusion, wondering where this sudden anger had come from. He hadn't seen the scarred man before, having made it out before then.

"It's the hunter that captured father before," Silver explained, "And nearly defeated me, without even breaking a sweat."

"What?" Raize frowned, having not heard this story before.

"You two ready?" Zepos said, flying to meet with Silver and Raize before the dragoness could say anything else.

Silver nodded her head at him, this time not smiling. Her hate for the scarred man made her blood boil and her nervousness completely dissipate. She was going to destroy him, along with his fancy looking machine, making sure there would be nothing left.

Zepos frowned at her, wondering what had got her so worked up. He glanced at Raize, who shrugged back, not quite understanding himself. The three dragons began to move with the others, beginning to fly toward the approaching army in readiness to protect their mountain.