The Dragon King

Phantom's POV - This Isn't Over

I flew through the well lit hallways, heading towards the training room. Ceylon was the best of the best and although I wanted to stick by Amy, I also knew I needed to kill Ceylon. If he died, the army would have no leader, only his subordinates. My mind turned to how I could defeat Ceylon. He would be very tactical and I knew he was vicious. As I flew, my mind drifted back to what Heffres had told me, about how he came to be commander. . .

A black dragon, with multiple scars running along his body and wings, is curled up in a cramped room with a lightning dragon. The black dragon speaks cautiously, glancing at the door as if fearing he might be overheard.

"Heffres, how did Ceylon become leader of the army?". The lightning dragon looked up.

"Been hearing some rumours recently?".

"Yes,".

The lightning dragon sat up, wrapped his tail around his body and began:

"As you know, I've been here since I was an egg. My parents were both whipped for insubordination and died from their injuries. I never met them. When I was about eight weeks old, I went to my first beheading. It was compulsory, and it was the beheading of the old army commander. He had been watching over his mate's eggs and a Sarsian came too close. He burnt the Sarsian and it died. After the beheading, which traumatised me as a dragonet, there was an official announcement. All the dragons had the next three days off, to watch the new captain of the guard ceremony,".

"A ceremony took three days?".

"No. The choosing of the guard took three days. The ceremony was at the end of the third day. We all came to the arena on the first day, excited and intrigued. No living dragon had ever seen a changing of the captain ceremony and no one knew of it. I will spare you the gory details but in short, you had to kill all the other dragons to win. It was a melee - all the dragons were in the same arena together. They all started attaching each other but Ceylon was clever. He stood at the corner and covered the whole arena with fire. No one could see a thing but when he came out, Ceylon had blood on his teeth and nose. He had bitten off every single one of the dragon's heads, whilst the arena was engulfed in fire, because they couldn't see him. He was crowned that day, at dusk and we lost our other two days off,".

The black dragon sat bolt upright. "The rumours were true!". But the lightning dragon was already asleep, breathing in and out, in and out. The black dragon didn't close his eyes for longer than a heartbeat that night, his mind in turmoil.

I was broken out of my flashback as glass rained down on me from the windows. I twisted and turned, before diving to the end of the hallway; blood streaming out of the multiple cuts on my body.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the shadow dragon. Are your friends waiting for you outside or are you here to issue a challenge?".

I stood up. "Hello Ceylon. Great to see you again. Enjoying the little battle here waged by our Queen?". Ceylon sniffed.

"She is no Queen of mine,".

I stalked forwards. "We both know why I'm here Ceylon. My job is to kill you before you can get to Quaem,". I flew up slightly and readied myself into a battle stance. The hallway was quite wide, with multiple alcoves. Glass littered the floor - you could no longer land. I was bleeding quite badly, and I had aches all over my body. Ceylon was the picture of health, majestic, practically glowing with power and authority. I lunged forwards and Ceylon swooped to the side,  clipping me on the nose with his wing. I backtracked so I didn't hit the wall and spun round, swooping up to curve upside down with the dome ceiling. Ceylon was by the alcove and as I dived, he shot out a fireball, gleaming golds, yellows, oranges and reds. I swept to the side as the fireball hit the wall and exploded on impact. I was thrown into the statue of a dragon, my black scales shiny, almost burnt by the heat. Nevertheless I was still in pain, the impact with the statue throwing me off balance. I raised my wings, and, thinking about Heffres' story as a bang resounded. Glancing out of the glassless window I watched as the Northern Tower collapsed, roof tiles cascading down. Ceylon, distracted, didn't notice as shadows formed, snuffing out the light. The shadows cascaded down my back, covering the window, the hallway the floor, everything. Ceylon whipped round to discover he couldn't see anything. He flung himself out of the window as the shadows dissipated. I watched him fly away, furious, when he turned around and roared out to me:

"Phantom, this isn't over!"

I backed away and was about to leap out of the window as the stone crumbled and blocked it off. I spun round and flew quickly down the corridor, the castle quaking.

I need to get out of here, I thought to myself.