The Silver Reckoning

Chapter 22: Call to War

'There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way,' Raize said over and over and over again, the words bouncing backwards and forwards across the emptiness of the void. The echoes filled it up until the words were like a chorus, ever repeating and never ending. Heat began to rise up from the blackness, followed by the orange light of an inferno, rising upwards. The fire sizzled and cracked and burned, spreading throughout the void. 'There is no other way.'

Silver woke up with a roar, startling the dragons around her. Without thinking she pounced from the position she was in, tackling the nearest one and pinning him to the ground, snarling. Spikes grew along her wings and tail as she spread them out, looking through the room that had now fallen silent.

"Silver... calm down, its me. It's Retrix," spoke the dragon she had pinned down, "You're safe."

Her vision cleared, revealing the purple dragon pinned under her claws. Zepos, Celestia and Blaze were also in the room, watching her with wide eyes, hesitating, not sure whether to intervene in her sudden movement, or to let her be. Horror rushed through her and she stumbled backwards, letting the void dragon go, and fell back onto her haunches, breathing heavily.

"I...I...I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she stuttered, shaking her head and trying to rid herself of that horrid dream.

Retrix rolled to his feet and took a hesitant step toward her, "Are you alright?"

Silver nodded her head, looking around as she slowly calmed down. They were in a smaller cave, with a single nest where she assumed she had been sleeping. There was another dragon in the room. A life dragon, who seemed a little frightened at the moment. He gulped, looking at her in an attempt to read what she would do next.

"Hey, hey," Retrix nudge her with his snout, "You'll be okay. What happened?"

She flashed back to what had happened. The fire. The explosion. The anger. It all came back to her at once, and she growled lowly, dangerously. The void dragon took a small step back, as did the others. Blaze gulped. He had seen that look in her eyes before. It was the same look that she had had when she killed Tetrad. Unbridled fury.

"I'm going to kill Eldawin," she snarled lowly, "I'm going to rip that damned lizard into a thousand pieces."

"Silver...?" gulped Zepos, a little frightened.

Taking a deep breath she forced herself to calm down. The spikes along her wings and tail retracted back into her shell and her heartbeat settled. She couldn't let that anger take hold, not yet. She would use it when the time came. She turned to look at them, and sighed.

"Raize happened. He... he has been brainwashed by Eldawin, and thinks that the only way to be free is to destroy the human race," she explained, the words seeming strange as they came out of her mouth, "I confronted him, and we fought, but he's more powerful than I thought he was."

Blaze let out a grunt of surprise, "What?"

She looked at him, "Our brother has betrayed us."

"No. Raize may be a bit of a fool sometimes, but he wouldn't do that. He... he wouldn't!" the fire dragon insisted, though his voice broke as he talked.

Silver lowered her head, "He's done a lot of things I thought he would never do lately. Out of the three of us Blaze, he's changed the most."

"Well... we... we have to get him back. We have to go after him!"

"No. He's dangerous and unpredictable," the dragoness shook her head, "He's lost Blaze. When he was speaking to me... he was truly convinced that he was taking the right path."