Dragon of Legend: Fate (BK4)

Chapter 26

“In the Heat of Battle”

A boy and a girl, no older than seven summers, were crouched down, poking at the insects that scuttled past with sticks. As the boy flipped one on its back the girl paused to watch, giggling as the insect helplessly waved its legs in the air.

Suddenly a shadow passed over them. The girl seemed to not notice, still giggling as she poked at the bug, yet the boy looked up. Seeing nothing he blinked and slowly got to his feet. He was sure that something large had passed by only moments ago.

Then, a large shape swooshed past again. The boy let out a gasp, his eyes following the body of a large, orange dragon. The insect forgotten, the girl looked up just as another dragon followed the other. Another followed after it.

Dropping his stick the boy turned and ran towards a hill that lay before him, excitement in his eyes. The girl followed, the stick still clutched in her hands as she tried to catch up to the boy, wanting to see the magnificent dragons before they disappeared.

They ran, legs pumping as fast as they could go up the hill. The boy, reaching the top first, came to a halt. He stared in awe after the rapidly disappearing shapes of three dragons. As the girl came up beside him another two dragons suddenly passed overhead. This time it was easy to spot that they were wearing magnificent armor.

The boy stood in awe, unaware of when his companion turned around and froze, dropping her stick. Slowly the girl reached for the boy and wordlessly tugged his sleeve.

Feeling annoyed, and not wanting to give up the last glimpse of the dragons, he brushed her off. Yet when the girl tugged again, this time harder, he gave in and turned around, ready to scold her. Instead, his eyes widened and his mouth fell open.

Before him, almost as far as the eyes could see, the sky was filled with dragon after dragon. Each was dressed for battle and had a rider perched on its back. Slowly the boy reached up his hands, stretching as he stood on his tiptoes, as though trying to touch the dragons that flew high above, wonder in his eyes.

The dragons flew in no particular formation and yet in such a way that they stayed out of each other’s way, passing over the small boy and girl below without seeing them. Ahead, beyond the dragons, beyond a small row of rocky hills, and across a large flat plain, there stood a gigantic cliff overlooking it all.

On its edge sat a lone figure, her legs lazily dangling over the edge. She kicked them back and forth while sucking on a piece of grass, her eyes looking over the flat plain with anticipation. Akira hummed to herself, and yet that humming cut off as she caught sight of a shape in the sky approaching. Her legs stopped moving, dangling still.

Her eyes watched intently as the shape grew closer, no sooner was she able to make out that it was a dragon than did she suddenly spotted the hundreds of shapes suddenly appearing behind it. With a smile spreading across her face she simply resumed humming and kicking her legs back and forth once more.

She watched, seeming unconcerned as the dragons grew closer. Below her, at the base of the cliff, stood about a hundred dragons, all a shade darker than the approaching ones. They were bearing their teeth at the approaching group while their riders looked fierce, armored with an assortment of fierce looking weapons.

Akira watched as dragon after dragon, with riders perched onto their backs, poured onto the plain, landing one after the other and then slowly walking towards her. She raised her eyebrows as she saw more following behind. It seemed to be an endless flow.

Below her she heard the darker dragons growl while their riders suddenly seemed to get nervous at the number of approaching dragons. They shot unsure glances at each other. It was easy to see that they were outnumbered and yet still, Akira showed no concern.