The Silver Reckoning

Chapter 16: Control part 1

Eldawin sat on his haunches, looking out over the destroyed island that had once been the greatest A.O.D.H base ever created. He didn't care about the sand that was getting into his scales, or the fact there were at least a hundred humans on the island with him. The occasional glance was thrown his way, but no one could see past the illusion he had created over himself.

The ocean water roiled, creating something of a whirlpool right above where the base had once been. It was like it was still struggling to grow accustomed to the changes in its now far deeper floor. Even if a week had passed. There seemed to be a steadily growing ecosystem below the waves however. Fish, sharks and other sea dwelling creatures had started making a home around the area. Already kelp and other weeds were begging to form along the edges of some of the open tunnels of the drowned base.

The mind dragon snorted softly. He wouldn't say he was angry. Annoyed maybe, but not angry. He knew he had made a mistake, the classical error of revealing too much of his plans. He had known Silver was close to a breaking point, and had still given her a cause to push herself. He had been overconfident, though a little surprised at the same time. He hadn't realised she had felt so strongly about what he aimed to achieve. A small sigh escaped him.

"Sir," said a voice, causing his head to snap up.

He glanced back at the human, resisting the urge to snarl. He had always hated the sight of the creatures. They were so small, so weak. All he would need to do was step on them and they would die. It infuriated him that they had managed to take over world, and was even angrier at the fact that they had pushed dragons from their place, and caused them to live in fear.

"Yes?" he grunted.

"We have located the machine sir," said the human.

He seemed a little nervous, as was expected. Even though Eldawin had an illusion around himself to make him appear human, there seemed to be a general fear around him. Sure, none of them had ever seen the leader of A.O.D.H before, and even as a human they would be extremely intimidated by him.

"And?" asked the mind dragon.

"It's mostly intact, with a few minor scratches and bumps. We should be able to retrieve it momentarily," said the soldier.

"That is good. Have you found any survivors?"

"We located a number of water dragons that had some how broke free. They attacked us as soon as we found them however, killing a number of our divers, but after a small struggle we managed to subdue them."

"That is good. How about down in the lower levels? Any of our scientists or the dragon hatchlings?"

The man seemed to hesitate, "No sir. We have an accurate record of all the deaths there, compared with the numbers prior to the attack. Everyone's dead."

"Including the dragon hatchlings?"

"... Yes sir. We recovered all their bodies. Most of them were either... drowned or crushed. A few of them their cause of death was unknown, but we assume it was the electrical current you said passed through the base."

There was something in the human's voice that suggested he was horrified at what had happened. He had likely been down there sifting through the bodies of dead dragons and humans, trying to figure out what was what. He knew many of the handlers actually cared for their dragons, much like one would for a dog or some other pet. While it annoyed him, it did help with making the dragons hate humans with a greater ferocity. Well, some of them anyway.

He was sad about the deaths of all those hatchlings, especially the two voids and the gravity. Those species were already as rare as they came, but it couldn't be helped. Besides, once he had done away with the human race, it would only be a matter of time before the species began to thrive in his new world.