The Dragon Savior of Tone: World of Tone: Book 2 (21 page)

Terra wanted each dragon Flight to fly in a straight line on the way to the nymph's valley. He took off and watched as the Flights formed their lines. It was impressive how they aligned themselves. They flew all day forming and reforming the lines. They arrived at the spot where they stopped for the sunset. He had the dragons feed on the great northern groups of prey beasts. They roamed this area in the thousands upon thousands.

The next sun-rising they left for the valley. He did not have the dragons practice over the mountains. The updrafts were powerful and would make keeping a straight line difficult at best, so they flew in loose groups. They landed on the mountain peaks around the green valley. The land nymphs were amazed at the sight of thousands of dragons overlooking their valley.

Rammy had set up an orderly area for the dragons to drop off their food harnesses. They had brought empty water bladders since there were water sources throughout the valley. As sunset approached, the dragons had finished dropping their burdens. The guard dragons that had remained with Rammy led the dragon Flights to the perching areas they had found in the nearby mountains. Each Flight was assigned a specific area. Terra had planned for each dragon Flight to take off from these areas and fly directly to the dwarf's village. He would fly over the village first. He would use his sounder power to destroy as much as possible. Hopefully, this would help protect the dragon Flights from any weapons the dwarfs possessed. He would then fly to a point in front of the village, directing the dragon Flights.

Fienna followed Terra the next sun-rising. She followed his example with the practice of the Flights. By the time they arrived at the sunset layover area, the dragons were nearly perfect at straight line flying. The next sun-rising, they flew to the valley and duplicated the drop off of their burdens, and then were escorted to their perching areas.

Hectise followed and arrived the final sunset before the first fight. Hectise and Dawra would lead two of the Flights and Fienna would align the flights and send them over the great wall. She would lead the last diving Flight.

On the final sunset, Terra flew the Flight leaders to a high vantage point. There they could all see the layout of the box canyon and the dwarf village beyond the wall. Terra had prepared them as well as he could. He hoped it was enough to protect them all.

Chapter 36 – The First Fight

(A time to fight, a time to die.)

- The Time of the Draman -

The Solan had seen the dragons flying over the nymph's valley and knew the fight was coming before she could leave. She felt a present beyond the wall that the old wizard was using his magic to protect. She had looked forward to breaching that wall after his power failed. For many seasons, he had been weakening, but now the power from beyond the wall was pulsating with an unbelievable strength.

She knew that the dark wizard feared someone, but whom she did not know. Her sister thought it might be the Draman. If this was the case, she could not stand against him. On top of that, dragons were resistant to magic. They could be hurt, but it took a powerful strike of pure magic to do so. She decided to send a few hundred dwarfs to attack the wall to see what would happen. She sent out the order to attack just after first light.

The dwarf leader of the attack group was slow to react. He was controlling his fighters with a whip and magic from a stick given to him by the Solan. He could barely get them to move in the correct direction. The only thing that made them fight was their fear of the Solan and the dark wizard. His fighters were finally ready to open the gates in the rock wall after a little persuasion.

Terra perched on a mountain peak with his eyes closed. He was using his mind sight, as he had started to call it, to look over the box canyon and the dwarf's village. He saw the panels in the rock wall slowly start to open. As he looked behind the wall there were several hundred dwarfs in a group. They were heavily armed and were obviously about to come to attack the wall. They had several types of weapons ready for use. These weapons could kill the nymphs and badly wound a dragon. It was time for this to start, so he exhaled the fire flash that would start the dragons taking off and form the first Flight into the fire line.

Terra had instructed his guard dragons to stay behind him at least twenty dragon lengths. The first Flight would be another twenty dragon lengths behind the guard dragons. Terra's thought went back to all those he had killed to this point.

“
Terra, it is not the time for such thoughts,
” Fienna's powerful thought entered his mind.

“
Yes, you're right,
” he thought back.

“It is
time to fight,
” she replied to his thought.

Terra took off and flowed into the lead of the Flight. The guard dragons follow behind him. It was time for Terra to take on a destiny he did not desire.

The dwarf leader stood behind the fighters driving them toward the great wall. He used his whip and the small energy bolts from his magic stick to force them forward. He assumed it would be the same thing they had done a hundred times before. He would force his fighters forward and they would attack the wall. He would throw a few bolts from his stick, then they would simply return to the village.

As he drove them around the edge of the mountain and into the box area before the wall, there was a commotion in front of the group. They had stopped and were pointing up. He looked up as a huge white dragon flew over the wall, followed by ten more dragons. Then, more than a thousand came over the wall, a sight beyond his imagination.

As all the dwarfs froze in place at the sight of the white dragon, it opened a great maw. The dwarf's leader thought fire would come, but instead a sound beyond understanding came forth. The world seemed to stand still for a moment from the physical force of the sound coming from the great white. It was the last thing he ever heard as his body and that of his fighters turned to a green mist. The ground below them disintegrated into a fine dust.

Terra flew on and saw the panels in the rock wall of the dwarf’s village. He again said the killing word ‘SILLA.’ This time it struck the wall and panels and a hundred or so caves turned to dust in an instant of time. Then he aimed at the tall structure in the center of the village.

The Solan stood atop her hut, staggered by the two sounder attacks. She had her amulet mounted on her staff. The sound came again and struck the shield she had created around her hut. The amulet turned white hot as it fended off the powerful blast, but it held. The next blast was behind her. She turned to see two hundred or so huts turn to dust.

Then a wall of fire came from the sky. The Solan expanded her shield to encompass her home. She was able to fend off the fire. The dwarfs' stone huts withstood the first firewall, but wave after wave came. Each time hundreds of huts collapsed, killing those within. Fienna circled around with her Flight. She returned with them to their assigned perching area. As her Flight began landing, she flew off to join Terra.

As the last of the fire cleared, the Solan pulled her shield back to protect only herself. She then aimed an energy bolt at the nearest dragon. Terra saw the thin shaft of dark purplish light heading toward one of his guard dragons. He breathed a pure orange ball of fire at it. They met just before the shaft would have struck the dragon. The fire consumed it, burning both out in mid air. She then aimed at the great white. She would have to hold the dark shaft as long as possible; perhaps she could at least injure it.

Terra pulled forth the magic from within himself. He could feel enormous heat building within his chest. It quickly seemed to infuse his entire body. It did not hurt; it actually seemed to energize him. He saw the Solan aim her amulet at him. His eyes saw three stones in the amulet radiate their light down the spokes to the amulet’s center. A dark shaft of magic, then cast itself toward him. He released a thin streak of bright orange flame toward the beam. Those looking on said that Terra's flame was so bright they had to look away. The flame struck the shaft, head on, and drove it back. The flame finally reached the shield surrounding the Solan and pierced it. The thin flame followed the beam to its source.

Time seemed to stand still as the Solan looked at her amulet. The thin flame spread over its entire surface. She could feel it resisting the magic from the great beast. Then her world narrowed to a single moment as the last thing she saw was pure white light burst from the center of her amulet.

A flash of light, brighter than the sun, erupted from the center of the dwarf’s village. It was deathly quiet for one beat of a dragon's heart, and then a sound louder than any had ever heard came forth. A wave of power that erupted from the village blew Terra back thirty dragon lengths. He felt the thin membrane in his wings shred, but his magic was healing the rips as fast as they occurred. Through the pain, his mind was filled with Fienna's fearful and overwhelming thought.

“
TERRA!
”

What returned to Fienna was his total love for her. She could see from her position in the sky and feel in his mind his attempt to find his dragon guards. She felt Terra force his magic out in all directions to find them. What she saw was his entire body glowing orange. The glow spread out, touching the dragons falling from the sky.

Terra felt his magic reaching out and touching the six that had been in the line of the tremendous force coming from the village. He felt them falling from the sky. He supported them all with his power and slowly lowered the six to the ground.

Terra summoned his healing power and concentrated it into his flame. He directed his fire to the six dragons. He healed five, but the sixth was gone, his neck broken by being blown into a cliff wall. Terra landed next to the fallen dragon. It was Glon, the young dragon Terra had first met when he was healing the dragons of an illness that came from a tethered prey beast.

In utter anguish, Terra lifted his head and shouted, “NO!” The top of a mountain in the direction of his shout exploded into dust. All heard the pain of loss in his outcry. Fienna landed next to Terra and looked down at Glon.

“
My love, I will take care of Glon. You have other things to deal with. Go and see what is happening,
” Fienna thought to him.

He nodded and took off. Several dragons landed near Fienna. She had them gently lift the body of Glon and fly off. Fienna directed twenty dragons to escort Glon to the volcano, where Lowlack had been taken after his death. Several others were sent to tell his mother.

Terra took off and flew high to see what had happened to the dwarfs' village.

Chapter 37 - The Land Nymph's Attack

(A time to fight for the future of all.)

- The Time of the Draman -

Ten thousand land nymphs had gathered at the base of the wall. They had used vines to lower themselves and their weapons to the ground. The old wizard had just been lowered to the base of the wall. He and several thousand of his fighters had been on top of the wall as Terra and the first Flight passed over. He saw Terra destroy the group of dwarfs with a single blast of his sounders power. When Terra used his power, the wizard felt the world’s magic fluctuate. No one, not even that bastard human wizard, had caused such a waver in the world's magic.

The dragons had just finished their last wave of fire. He had just reached the base of the wall when he saw Terra destroy a beam of energy directed at one of the dragons. He knew it was from the Solan and her amulet. As he watched, Terra directed a thin line of sun bright fire toward the dwarf’s village. He was thinking he had never seen a dragon control its fire in such a way when the flash of light occurred. Even though they were not in direct line of the flash, it nearly blinded them all. The light seemed to penetrate the mountain rock itself.

Then the sound of the blast reached them, deafening all the nymphs. The ground didn't shake it moved in a wave as if it were made of water. The great wall above them cracked and buckled but held. All the nymphs were knocked from their feet. Many looked up at the wall and could not believe the power of the explosion that it took to move the massive structure. They all knew it only survived due to the magic that was interlaced through its structure by the old wizard.

The wizard lay on the ground, dazed by the shock of what had just happened. It seemed to him that all the magic on Tone vanished for an instant and then returned in a massive wave. As the nymphs recovered, several rushed to their wizard and helped him back to his feet.

The remaining nymphs slowly came back to themselves and reformed back into their fighting groups. They then began to move toward the entrance of the box valley. As they came around the edge of the mountain, an unbelievable sight came to their eyes. Most of the dwarf's village was simply gone. A great bowl shaped crater lay where the village had once existed. They could see one corner of the village still stood. It had been behind a large rock outcropping, which was now mostly blown away. A few thousand dwarfs were stumbling around, apparently stunned by the blast. They also saw several thousand more dwarfs beyond the remnants of the far wall. The wall was blown over and the dwarfs were staggering but still somewhat organized.