The Dragon Wars (Book 1)

Chapter 23: To The Death (Jangra POV)

Everyone in the tribe went silent and they were all sending looks back at me and Penta expecting a fight. I knew that the tribe loved to do fights and watch them. She looked extremely upset and I could tell that everyone in the tribe realized it and they were all looking happily to both of us just waiting.
I knew that if I beat Socra, I would easily destroy Penta, besides, every single play fight we had always had she had never stood a chance against me. I looked at her though, she smiled as she noticed that I was hurt. Ipse ran over to her but not before my father began talking again.
"Tell me Penta, why a dragon as smart and as gifted as him does not deserve to be the next leader of our tribe?" My father asked her. She looked around for a few moments realizing that all the dragons in the tribe were looking at her and a few of them were laughing at her.
"He is a weak pathetic dragon... Kota, he deserves to be the next deputy of our tribe." She yelled out loud so that everyone could here it. All of the dragons laughed and they all looked at Kota who was with his wife looking very confused as to what was going on.
"Kota, he appreciates your gratitude, but he has said on several occasions he never wishes to be leader, we have been watching Jangra for a long time, he has also beaten Kota in a fight, but if you wish for them to fight for deputy we can arrange that." He said out loud. My father was right, none of my friends of dragons ever really stood a chance against me in a fight.
"Yes, go ahead... Kota will destroy him, he is the greatest dragon out here." She yelled to every dragon in the tribe, a lot of the dragons held back giving us space ready for us to do a fight. Kota looked at Penta with a great deal of surprise and then he shook his head.
"I do not wish to be the next deputy, it is too much time and work for me, Jangra deserves it, I would not like to fight to the death for a dragon that is my friend, which I cannot say about you." Kota said back at Penta. A lot of the dragons in the tribe laughed it off, but I could tell a lot of them were genuinely upset about it.
Penta looked at him for a few moments before she looked at the ground surprisingly hurt. I wanted to laugh with all the other dragons in the tribe at her but I could not bring myself to doing that, I used to call her my closest friend.
Ipse ran over to her and pushed up against her trying to make her feel better. I could see him saying words to her but I could tell that she had him drowned out completely. He looked at me sadly at then he looked at my father and nodded to him.
"Please do not blame Penta... She has mental problems, you can take the blame on me for letting her come to this meeting, I did not realize that she was upset at your son Jangra." Ipse said to my father. My father looked at him, I felt bad for Ipse even more since he was one of the elder dragons.
My father shook his head which surprised me a bit because I was sure that my father would have done what every leader would have done, put the blame on the father, or the grandfather in this case and remove them from their role and have them be a cave dragon for the rest of their life.
"It is okay Ipse, we have known this for a long time. Take her to your cave to get some rest and then we will continue on with this meeting." My father said to him out loud. A lot of the dragons in the tribe were laughing at Ipse but not me nor him or my father were paying them any attention.
I could tell that Kota was and he looked at the ground feeling a bit sad and upset at Penta, I knew if she ever did something like this, that was the exact response that Kota was going to give her. He had every right for that, he was already with a dragon... Penta did not deserve a dragon like him, and she did not deserve a dragon like me. She deserved to rot in the cave and clean up other dragons messes.
Suddenly Penta attacked at Ipse and cut him right in his weak spot, Ipse fell to the ground and Penta looked at my father and smiled at him. Every dragon in the group fell into deep silence, Penta had just killed Ipse... No one did anything and it took my father a few moments to respond.
"I think I deserve to be the next leader, I just killed that dragon, an important dragon none the less... I request that I fight Himla for leadership of the tribe." Penta said to everyone. No one said a thing, they all looked at her a bit scared, even though she had got Ipse off balance and he did not know what was going on, that did not make her a strong dragon.
I looked at Ipse's body laying on the ground sadly and then I looked at Penta very upset. How could she just kill a dragon who dedicated his whole life with love and care for her? I felt disgusted and I turned to the left not wanting to see it. I looked at Ipse as a role model to me, and now he was gone.
"I need a medicine dragon to see if he has any heart rate. Penta, I request that you leave the tribe right now." My father said to her, trying to keep his calm as much as possible. No dragon in the tribe knew what was going on, and I could not blame them, none of us had ever seen something like this before.
"No... I request a fight Himla, your spot for leadership." She said to my father. I expected some dragons to laugh at the request but no dragon said a single word. My father looked at her and then he shook his head at her. I wanted to see my father fight her, he would destroy her so easily, she deserved it, she had just killed her grandfather.
"You are not of the age... I refuse to kill you." My father said to Penta. Penta looked at him very upset, I wanted to be the one to fight her, to fight her to her death, she did not deserve to live, I did not like my fathers decision to let her just leave the tribe.
"I killed my grandfather, did I not? I could easily destroy you." Penta said to him. My father looked at her a bit sad but then he shook his head. I saw a medicine dragon run over to Ipse and she began checking his pulse to see if he was still alive. I doubted it, it was a pretty rich cut to that spot.
Every dragon in the tribe looked at the dragon waiting for an answer. I knew that all of the dragons in the tribe looked up to Ipse, he was a big role model for many of the dragons. He always was helpful and made every dragon feel better about themselves and made them feel like they always stood a chance.
"Penta... If you want to be a part of this tribe... You better pray that your Ipse is not dead." My father said to her. She looked at my father and smiled, that was not the response that my father had been hoping for.
The medicine dragon got up and looked at my father a bit sadly, my father lowered his head and bowed to her. But she then shook her head trying to make my father feel at least a little bit better.
"He is in very critical condition, the odds of him living are slim to none. If we try and save him, it would cause him a lot of pain. We could just let him go..." She said to my father. My father looked at her for a few seconds and I waited for his decision.
"Ipse lived a good life... Let him go." Socra said to my father. My father looked at her for a few seconds. I did not agree with Socra on this one, he still had at least another 50 years left in him, a lot of the tribe looked up to him, we couldn't lose him yet.
My father looked at me, which surprised me a bit. He looked at me dead in the eyes and then said a quick few words to Socra that I could not hear. Socra nodded to him, now I felt the worst for Ipse, I lowered my head to the ground for him.
"We will do the surgery. He has life still left in him. The pain he will feel will be pain that every dragon in this tribe has felt already today." My father said to the medicine dragon. She looked at my father and then nodded at his decision telling him that it was the right decision. Any other dragon in this case it was not.
"Let me finish what I started then." Penta said loudly for every dragon to hear. She then lunged towards Ipse but a dragon quickly ran in front of her and pushed her back. I realized who it was, it was Yikla, she was big but she was also surprisingly fast which surprised me from a black dragon.
Every dragon in the tribe then basically stood in Pentas way to try and stop her from doing another attack on Ipse. I felt disgusted that she could do something that terrible to the only dragon that had shown her nothing but love and support. Growing up with Penta I would have never have expected her to do something as terrible as this.
"Get this pathetic ugly purple dragon off of me." She yelled loudly. She tried cutting against her but Yikla had her held to far down. I lot of the dragons were looking at her a bit disgusted by her. But every dragon in the tribe knew what Penta had just done to Ipse so they did not say a word about it.
I looked at Penta a bit confused, was she stupid? I looked at Yikla, black and red dragons made purple dragons I knew that. But this was clearly a black dragon. I looked at her more closely, I could see a bit more dark purple, I did not realize that is what they meant when they said purple.
"Penta... You are banned from the tribe, do not ever come back. If you do, we will kill you." Himla said to Penta. Every dragon in the tribe nodded in agreement and they all looked disgusted at Penta. Penta yelled loudly and Yikla took her off, she expected her to just leave but Penta did not.
"If I can not fight you, Himla, I will fight Jangra. If he loses I will gain the next deputy." She said loudly. Every dragon in the tribe looked at me, a bit surprised to see that I was not afraid at all of her. They did realize that I was going to be the next leader for a reason right?
"No... I will not let my son kill you. Leave the tribe if you know what is best for you." Himla said to her. Penta looked at my father very upset, my father was making the right decision, and I knew that no one blamed him. No one thought that he was a coward, they all just looked at Penta sadly.
This time I was the one to step in, this was my meeting and I was not going to let every dragon here control what was happening for something that was for my future. I was not expecting it to get so bad that it got to this point either though.
"No... I will fight her, I am no coward and I will not be looked on as if I was one." I said to every dragon in the tribe as they were all looking at me. I knew that no dragon here would think that I was a coward if I said no. They all knew that I would destroy Penta in a fight. Which was also the reason why I was going to be the next deputy.
My father held me back for a few moments looking at me dead in the eyes, I knew he was going to try and stop me. But I wanted this, I had been hurt so badly because of her. I was ready to destroy her, I knew that she would stand very little chance.
She had attacked me just a few hours ago, I dont know why all of the sudden she would think that she would be able to kill me in a fight. Ipse was not wrong when he said that Penta had some sort of mental issues. I lowered my head when I thought of Ipse once again. He was likely going to die, no matter how good our medicine dragons were.
I knew that hardly any dragons survived a cut to their weak spot, it disgusted me that a dragon I once thought I loved could so easily kill someone that loved her even more. I was ready to kill her, she did not deserve to live.
"No one will blame you if you so know Jangra... They all know that you will win." Himla said to me. I looked at him for a few moments and then I shook my head at him. He sighed and then nodded at my decision to continue on with the fight.
"I hate her... She just tried to kill a dragon that I love." I said to him. He looked at me, he had a big frown on his face, he thought that I would regret this decision, but there was nothing to regret. She would likely come back and try to kill another one of us anyways.
Himla walked back up to the top of the rock and put every dragon in the tribe to silence. He then began talking and I looked right at Penta and saw her smiling at me. I wanted to laugh at her because she actually thought out of all the times I had beaten her she would beat me this one time. I couldn't bring myself to it thinking about the surgery that was going on in the medicine cave.
"We will start the fight tomorrow once both dragons have gotten some rest... I want every dragon in the tribe to be there and to watch it." My father said to every dragon in the tribe. I nodded, I was pretty tired I had a very long die and I did not some sleep.
"Why can't we fight now... Is your son to big of a coward?" Penta said to my father. A bunch of the dragons had already left, Socra was sitting there rolling her eyes wanting this to be over with. She knew that I had beatn one of the best warriors in a fight and had not been trained, I would destroy Penta.
"Because my son... Has had a long day of being tested and he needs his sleep." My father said to Penta. A few dragons that were still here laughed and then they began leaving some of them looking at medicine cave praying that Ipse would make it out alive. I hoped that as well.
Penta looked at him and then shook her head as she began heading her cave which was now going to be empty for her tonight. My father then nodded and hopped down from the small cliff, he nodded for me and Socra to follow him.
It was already getting very late, the sun had already set but luckily unlike humans and black dragons, red dragons could so easily through the dark. Me and Socra hopped down and followed him to his cave.
I looked around at the clearing sadly, maybe I should have never taken this role, I knew that Penta was going to pull some bullshit like that, she had made it pretty obvious based off of earlier when she had ran over to me and tried to attack me.
I was not expecting anything this bad though. It disgusted me and I had never expected something this awful from her. We then continued walking over to the cave, it was not far away but we walked there fairly slowly which I could not blame him for, my father was probably thinking about what to say to me.
Once we were there we sat down and steadied ourselves. The last few ours had been heptic. I was so tired, I wanted to say this day had gone good but I could not bring myself to it. Once we are all settled in my father nodded to the both of us making sure we were listening before he began talking.
"This will not be about Penta or Ipse so go ahead and get that out of your thoughts." My father said to the both of us. Socra nodded and so did I and then I waited for what my father was going to say next but Socra was the first one to speak.
"Good... I've had enough of that today. I will stay in the medicine den and make sure that Penta does not attack Ipse again. I want to be the first one to make sure that Ipse stays alive as well. He is a good friend of mine." Socra said to the both of us. Himla nodded and then he began were he left off in the conversation.
"I want you to make sure that you are going to continue with the medicine training based off of what I saw with Ipse today." Himla said to Socra. I looked at Socra expecting her to say something about what happened earlier when I was not paying attention to what she was trying to teach me about that part.
"Socra, you must train him to the best of your ability... You trained me when I was younger... Now you must train him." My father said to her. I had not realized that Socra had trained him, she was not the deputy the same time when that happened. Otherwise she would be the leader and my father would be the deputy right now. Normally it is the deputy that trains the next deputy.
"I promise that I will do so..." Socra said to Himla. He nodded to her looking her right in her eyes and then he looked at me and then he smiled. It was a nice feeling to have, everything that had happened so far today had just been terrible. It felt nice to see that there was still a dragon that did care about me.
"Jangra... You are the dragon of destiny, not all destinies come to pass the way that you expect. I want you to do your best to be trained by her, one of these days you will take over the spot as the leader of this tribe." My father said to me. I nodded, it did not seem like it, but Socra said she had seen me do things that no other dragon could do so I had to believe them.
"Father... I don't want to kill Penta, but I will if I have to." I said to Himla. He looked at me and then he nodded at me and then pushed up against me trying to make me feel better. He did a good job because it took my mind to another place for a few moments.
I saw love and affection and then I saw my family growing up happily together. Suddenly, something else same into my thoughts. I was in another place, I saw my fathers dead body laying next to my mother, then I saw my brother Plok fighting a large purple dragon. I blink my eyes trying to remove myself from those thoughts then I looked back at my father.
"Jangra... Sometimes we have to choice but the face the path that we are destined on..." He said to me. I looked at him, he had a bit of a sad look on his face and I nodded at him.
I tried taking my mind off of what I had just seen, I was no Odyssy dragon so I knew it was just my mind going off in another place. I looked at him and did my best to give him a smile. He smiled back at me and then he looked at Socra and nodded at both of us.
"Jangra... Get some sleep, you will have a busy day tomorrow." Socra said to me. I looked at her and then I nodded, I realized how much she had been ageing and was surprised that I had never noticed it before. She was friends with Ipse growing up, she probably had maybe a bit over 100 years left in her because she was in such a great condition. It wasn't that Ipse was not, she was the leader so she always had be.
I nodded to her and then looked at my father, he nodded at me and I then left the cave with my father following right behind me. It surprised me a little bit, he did sleep with my mother in our cave but it was very rare, especially in a day like today.
I flew over to the cave because I was just so tired I wanted to fall alseep as fast as possible. Once I was there I turned around to see that my father just smiled at me and then continued walking.
I heard Plok grunt when I walked in but he quickly fell back into a deep sleep. I looked at my father and waited for him to come in. Once he was in he layed right beside my mother and then smiled at her. I could see nothing but love for her, what they were telling me earlier was nothing but a test. I realized it now.
I layed down to try and fall asleep. I was so tired I really needed the rest. I heard my father say one last thing to me however before I fell into a sleep.
"Jangra... Remember, you can still cancel this. This is a fight to the death."