Starlight, Starbright

Chapter 5

Flashback

 

I awoke to screaming. The light of flames coming from my window danced along my walls, taunting me as a wave of pain rolled over me, coming from the people. I slipped to the ground, groaning in pain and crawled to the door.

“Zora!” I tried to find where Slade’s voice was coming from. Arms hooked themselves under mine and dragged me to my feet. “Wake up! Come on, girl get up! War has come.”

“I don’t know how anyone can sleep in this,” I murmured, opening my eyes. My wings struggled to escape the binds. Slade gently let me stand on my own as I slipped a dagger from my forearm sheath. I deftly slit the binds and my wings were free.

My wings were not feathered. No, otherwise I would definitely be mistaken for an angel, even more than I already was. No, they were scaled, with every color imaginable. And wicked claws gleaned from the curved bone. They shone in the light, shining like a grim reaper’s scythe.

“So, which one was it, Prince/Mage Erebos or King Orpheus?” I asked, flapping my large dragon wings to clear the smoke away from our fronts.

“Both,” Slade shrugged. “Doesn’t matter now. Rumor has it that they’re both dead.”

“What am I supposed to do?” I began to descend to the first floor.

“Well you have 2 options, One you can come with me, or two you can go with  your mother. The choice is yours, choose wisely.”

“Come now, Slade. You know she stopped being my mother after she gave me up. I think you already know my choice,” I shook my wings out, clearing away dust as one of the ceiling beams cracked and fell to the ground in front of us.

“Then lets get going I don’t want to be here when the royal army gets here. And I don’t think that we can afford to lose you.” Slade said strongly.

“I appreciate the concern, but I know how to fight. I’m decent enough with weapons,” I said cheerfully.

“Weapons don’t count, your skill with them does.”

“And here I thought that was what I said,” I muttered under my breath so he couldn’t hear me. I jerked my head up as more cracks resounded through the hall. I glanced at Slade, who nodded. The building was coming down on top of us.

Slade suddenly turned his head toward the hall, as if there was some invisible thing there. Without turning to face me he said, in a surprisingly calm voice, “Run, turn around and run!”

“No. I can’t leave you!” More cracks.

“Save me from your stubbornness. I will catch up to you later, just run.”

I growled and turned, sprinting as fast as my legs allowed, leaping over other collapsed beams on my way outside. I got outside and realised why Slade said to run. There was a dragon tearing through the building. I stood there frozen with amazement at the size of this creature.

I stayed there for another moment. But I heard inhuman screams, coming for all around. The Dragons were still inside. I was about to run back in when I heard Slade yell. “Zora if you can hear me then keep running!” It took a little while for me to realise he was talking to me, but by then I saw why....

There was a second massive dragon rising from the rubble. It was far larger than the other one. They started to fight, at first they were fighting like you would expect them to. Biting and scratching each other. That’s when I noticed that the bigger one wasn’t a normal dragon. Running suddenly seemed like a great option.  But I was still frozen with amazement.

The way I could tell the larger one wasn’t normal is because it stood on two legs, that’s not unusual, but what happened next was. It reached down and grabbed a large piece of a pillar and smacked the other dragon with it.  

That’s when I noticed something strange. This dragon had the same marking as Slade. A massive burn scar on his left side. But it couldn’t possibly be Slade, he is just my protector….