The Dragon Savior of Tone: World of Tone: Book 2 (28 page)

By sunset, the dwarfs reached the edge of the trees. They made their way to the outer ring of mountains, where the black mountain dwarfs found them. They told their story to the lead dwarf. He passed the information to those who attended the great human wizard.

The two were brought before the wizard, where they told their story once again. The wizard listened without saying a word. As they finished their story, the wizard looked into the small fire burning before him. He raised his staff and two dark bolts leaped toward the dwarfs killing them both. A hideous laugh came from the darkness, as the ashes of the two dwarfs drifted to the floor.

Across the world in a small cave located on the edge of the Barrier Mountains, the old Solan felt a death. Her amulet glowed upon the destruction of her dark sister. A single tear fell from her right eye as she remembered when they were young. She could see in her mind's eye their mother preparing the seed loaves to be heated. In the corner, her little sister played in the ground seed powder, laughing as she threw the powder into the air. She was such a beautiful and loving young one. The Solan still could not understand her turning to the darkness. Perhaps now, she would be at peace.

Chapter 51 - Terra Reaches the Humans

(An arrival to remember by both foe and friend.)

- The Time of the Draman -

Terra and his fighters were no more than one sun-rising from their destination. They had settled down for the sunset. Terra seemed far away to Fienna. He had blocked his thoughts, and she didn't like intruding the few times he had done this. She knew he was thinking about the killing he was about to perform.

Terra’s thoughts went to all those he had killed and all those he was about to slay. He knew most would consider what was about to happen a great and heroic victory over the darkness that gripped Tone. He thought it was a hideous waste of life. He knew he would never fully forgive himself for the deaths he would bring upon this world, but what else could he do?

Since this fight had started, he had tried to come up with a solution that would not compel him to kill so many. The best he could do so far were ways to minimize his fighters from being harmed. Perhaps, somehow, he could at least save a few of the dwarfs; at least he had hope he could.

Terra then opened his mind to Fienna and he pushed his mind to the underwater cave where they looked in on their daughter, as they did each sunset. It gave them both hope for their family's future.

The next sun-risings' walk was unusually uneventful. The dragons that had flown in advance of the ground fighters had found the humans. The humans had fully set up the valley. The dragon and human food was stacked neatly throughout the area. They had split the valley up into four sections, one for each group of fighters. Barriers had been placed at the valley's entrance.

The barriers were large logs in a cross shape that sat on its edge. The top of the crosses were sharpened and faced out. A gate in the wall of crosses was guarded by at least a thousand humans. Three thousand more stood behind the wall with their weapons ready.

As Terra approached the log wall, he was pleased at the arrangement. He walked up to the gate and the humans bowed to the Draman, while opening the gate to all the fighters. Naron and Rammy met them just inside the gate. Rammy assigned small groups of humans to show the fighters to their areas.

Terra decided to allow the fighters to rest for two sun-risings. He met with all the leaders and told them he would be gone for the first sun-rising. Terra and Fienna planned to visit their daughter. He put Naron in charge of all the fighters.

In a private meeting with Naron, Rammy, Hectise, and Dawra, he told the humans to practice lining up the ground fighters. He then described exactly what he had planned for the next fight. They understood his plans, but had a few suggestions. Terra accepted most of what they recommended, but not all of them.

At sunset, Terra and Fienna made their way through the cave system. When they arrived at the Coastal Valleys, they were met by the dragons that had escorted Rammy back to the caves. Terra took his dragon form and Fienna climbed on his back. In the darkness, the great white dragon flew to the great waters, followed by his dragon guards. Terra landed on the surface of the water and changed to his human form. He grasped Fienna's hand. As they were surrounded by an orange glow, they dove to the underwater mountain. The dragons flew above the area, awaiting their friend’s return.

As they dove under the water, the sea nymphs met them and took them to their daughter. The sea nymphs had been alerted by the old land nymph wizard and were expecting the parents. Terra and Fienna climbed through the opening in the crystal cave. Terra's mother was waiting for them sitting next to the sleeping Cardana. As they approached, the child awoke and held out her tiny hands. Fienna reached out and picked up her daughter as Terra put his arm around them both.

At first light, Terra and Fienna walked up onto the sandy shore. Fienna began her change to her dragon form as Terra watched. He then began his own change. The two took off and headed to the Lake of Solan, followed by their guard dragons. They flew across the lake and up over the great Solan landslide. Terra wanted to see the three lakes with his own eyes.

As Terra looked down, he saw the first lake shrouded in a thick fog. The fog moved and swirled around the edges of the lake, like a living thing. The lake seemed calm. He flew on until he saw the next landslide. This slide separated the first lake from the second. The second lake seemed a dragon's length lower than the first.

The fog swirled and appeared to penetrate every crack and crevice throughout the shore area of both lakes. It moved as if it were hunting for any intruders who may consider crossing to the coastal valleys. The second lake was smaller than the first, but the winds seemed to be causing its' surface to be much rougher than the first.

They came to a mountain peak in the center of the lake with landslides on both sides of the mountain. The slides had come from two large mountains on either side of the lake. The falling of rocks and rubble had created two walls separating the water into two individual bodies.

The third and final lake was, perhaps, two dragon lengths lower than the second, but it was by far the largest of the three. It was nearly as large as the Lake of Solan. The fog thinned as they approached the final avalanche. They turned as they reached the lakes end and headed toward the valley where the fighters were gathered.

As they began their spiral to land, Terra saw the fighters practicing their attack formations. Naron and Rammy had made good progress in getting the fighters ready. They landed, and Terra returned to his human form.

The next sun-rising, he had all the fighters rest for the upcoming conflict. He finally explained in detail his plan for the fight to all the leaders. He then sent them to prepare their fighters.

Chapter 52 - The Next Step

(Each enemy death comes with a price to one's spirit.)

- The Time of the Draman -

Terra stood with his arms around Fienna, awaiting the sunrise. As the sun came into view, he stepped away from his lover as she changed. The sun glistened off her green-blue scales. She looked back at her human as he began his change. The two great dragons now stood together watching the land before them slowly emerge from the darkness. They took off and landed on the peak of the nearby mountain.

They looked at the dwarfs' village. The dwarfs had not only cut all the trees away from the massive walls, but they had also burned out the stumps. It must have taken a hundred set of seasons to accomplish this type of total eradication of the trees. The tree line was at least four-thousand dragon lengths from the village. The trees had leafed out, but they were simply to far away to be of any help. Terra could see fifty or so of the odd rock-like domes. They were sitting just inside the closed large panels that opened to the valley leading to the Solans' first landslide.

The dwarfs had been preparing for this fight, but they had no idea what was in store for them. The dragons had aligned themselves in their Flights as they were flying above the mountains. Fienna took off and flew to join the first Flight who was trained in the fire dive. Terra had directed them to dive on the shell-like domes. He would be the first to dive followed by the entire Flight. The remaining Flights would fire the entire village.

Fienna circled around and joined the fire dive Flight. Terra saw through her eyes and at the correct time took off. He climbed higher than he had ever flown. As he reached the zenith of his flight, Terra checked his wings and started to drop toward the village. His speed increased with each blink of an eye. In moments, the great white dragon look like a sparkling blur. As he approached the village, he drew in a massive breath and let lose his fire. Terra extended his wings and slowed as his great body curved up and away from the village.

The flame struck one of the shell-like domes, crushing it into dust with the force of the blast. The fire flowed across the ground like a powerful wave of water upending and breaking four more of the shelled domes. Fienna took the fire dive Flight up, perhaps half the height Terra had reached. She dove following her love's flight. Her fire forced one of the domes to the ground cracking it in half. By the time the dragons completed their fire dives, all the shelled domes had been destroyed. Terra had noticed that hitting the shells directly worked, but when the fire blast hit just in front of the shells, it flowed up under them. This would often crack the shell with the heat of the flame. The dome's shape would also concentrate the flame under it, killing the dwarfs who thought they were protected. Terra would have to redirect the dragons to hit the ground in front of the shells.

The dwarfs guarding the village had set off an alarm, causing all the dwarfs to flood out of their caves into the village paths. They quickly armed themselves and began to form into fighting groups. Others ran to the walls and climbed to the top, awaiting an attack.

The remaining dragon Flights were starting their firing of the village. Terra took off, knowing Fienna had safely flown back over the mountains. He flew down the valley and up and over the landslide. The lake lay below him. He dropped down and settled on the surface of the water. The orange glow that allowed him to breathe underwater surrounded him. He dove to the base of the landslide.

Terra could easily see the rock and debris at the base of the landslide through the clear water. He had never used his sounder power below the water, but he hoped it would work. Terra swam back a bit and then opened his mouth and said the word “SILLA.” The sound traveled through the water like a volcanic blast. The water seemed to amplify the sound as it hit the base of the landslide. The rock and soil erupted upward in a column of dust and water mixing into mud. The surface of the lake above erupted into a column of mud.

The water was now cloudy, but he could still see the base of the landslide. His blast had taken a huge gouge out of the slide. Another blast would take out the entire base and sweep him down the valley with the water. He swam to the water's surface, exploding into the air and climbing above the slide.

Terra turned in the air, positioning himself for the final blast of his voice. He hesitated for a moment, thinking of the hundreds of thousands who were about to die. His spirit ached over this thought. Fienna felt Terra's profound sadness as she heard the word that seemed to stop the entire world, for a second time this sun-rising.

After Terra's second use of his sounder power, he watched as the soil and rocks turned into dust at the base of the landslide. For what seemed to be an eternity, but was only a moment in time, nothing happened. Then the top of the landslide collapsed into the hole formed by his voice. The water at first seemed to simply flow over the top of what was left of the slide.

It then turned into a living, ravenous beast clawing its way through the valley. Its roar was a thundering nightmare of sound rushing before the great beast. It took the rocks, soil, and anything else in its path along in its headlong rush to the valley's opening. As it approached the end of the valley, it grew in height until it was fifteen dragon lengths high.

The dwarfs standing upon the top of the wall saw the beast rushing across the ground toward them at a terrible speed. They froze in terror, unable even to consider running for their lives. A ravenous beast of rock, soil, and water struck the village wall, tearing it asunder with its deathly power. The dwarfs and all they built were eaten by the beast as it carved a path of utter destruction.

The final walls collapsed before the hungry beast as it rushed into the flat plain beyond the village. Finally, the beast lost its power as the water spread across the empty horizon, disappearing into the thirsty soil.

Terra watched as hundreds of thousands of lives were extinguished from the world, and his spirit collapsed with the village's walls. Fienna felt his despair and flew to her mate. He flew to the peak above the fighters and looked down to see them ready for their attack. Fienna landed next to him and waited for Terra to issue the attack order before she could comfort him.

The order, “Go” was said in a soft, gentle tone that spread into the valley like a cloud, causing all to look up at the great white dragon of Tone. The elf king roared a killing cry and ran with his fighters toward the gate.