Inkway to Albreton

Chapter Thirteen

It took a while before Ellindris faltered. In fact Kingdom Albreton was in sight, the white grasses reflecting the rising moon, when she plummeted towards the ground in a nose dive, Jasmine still clutched in her mouth.

"Ellindris," Kur called, and that was what snapped the Dragon Queen back to attention. She puffed out her chest, gave one decisive flap of her wings before she landed heavily on all four of her feet, her tail smacking the ground with enough force to stir the wildlife of the albino grasslands. A great scurrying flowed from where she had landed like a shockwave as Kur descended quickly but with far more control to land next to her.

"Sorry," said Ellindris, tensing her muscles and stretching her wings to launch once more. Kur fixed his eyes on the bloody hole in Ellindris' left wing.

"Stop. That is enough," he said, curling himself over her to keep her on the ground. "You need rest, my love. How is your wing?"

"There is no time to fret over me!" Ellindris said curtly, "We cannot pause for even an instant! That wizard could already have—"She had to stop, shut her eyes to wait out the wave of pain that had silenced her. Her left wing twitched. She could taste Jasmine still limp on her tongue. And Kurventhor was not budging.

"Ellindris, put Jasmine down. We are no good to anyone if we are fatigued when we arrive." He added with a dragon's toothy smirk, "And there is always time to fret over you!"

Ellindris scoffed, but she put Jasmine down in a flattened section of grass. "Your priorities have always been questionable," she said, trying to sound as spiteful as possible. Finding this adorable instead of off-putting, Kur pressed the rest of his weight down on top of Ellindris, careful not to touch the hole in her wing. Soon he was sprawled entirely over her, nuzzling her neck with his snout.

"My priorities never bothered you before," he said, shifting off of her back but remaining snuggled to her side. He waited for Ellindris to settle down, for her to relax completely with her head on the ground, and then he rested his own head atop the slope of her long snaky neck. Watching over Ellindris and Jasmine, Kur didn't notice the peculiar cloud that traveled against the wind so high in the sky.

It was Enkaiein's whinny that woke him when an equestrian silhouette eclipsed the moon. Ellindris stirred in her slumber at the sound, instinctively tensing, scales rising hot and prickly. Kurventhor took a moment to glance at Jasmine, still deep asleep, and then he calmed Ellindris with a soft, chilly breath to her forehead, right between her horns in the divot that defined the top of her snout. Immediately her scales flattened, cooling to the mild temperature of the air in the field. She breathed in and then out, long and content.

Kurventhor looked back at the sky, wings half-unfolded, teal eyes squinting to make out Enkaiein and something smudgy whirling over and around each other in a violent dance. Kur knew it was Enkaiein, whom he hadn't seen in the longest time, because the winged black horse bled rivulets of ink in the entrails of its flight path, some of them encircling the thing—a cloud, it seemed—he was fighting. Just knowing it was his old friend Enkaiein, whom Kurventhor presumed to be dead, alive and kicking through wisps of the cloud, was enough to launch Kur into action. He spread his wings and flew, frigid air cutting the cloud in the middle of its path towards Enkaiein.

"My old friend!" Kur said, placing himself next to the inky horse with a few precise mighty beats of his wings. As the cloud, grey and conglomerating, folded back over itself a safe distance away, Enkaiein answered.

"Kurventhor, Dragon King! How fortuitous that you come to my aide!" The cloud formed a wicked face at its center now, filled with sparking lightning and menace. It crackled towards Kurventhor but Enkaiein got in the way.