The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (19 page)

They climbed the slope through the trees, stubbing their toes on unseen rocks and banging their heads on unseen branches, but it was hard to make any of them take a serious fall, forewarned as they were and walking uphill.  Onward they came, with the occasional cry and curse.

Vanakit emerged from the trees nineteen meters below the peak and paused, and he held his spotter back as well as he waved the rest forward and upward.  The rock was craggy and steep there, and the Sylvan had to climb with one hand as they made their way up, weapons at the ready in their free hands.

To the twins, peeking past the peak, all of the glowing golden slitted eyes looked like fireflies moving up the slope, and they realized that they could now see the Sylvan visually.  They were no longer bothering to remain hidden behind the gift of their god.

As the Sylvan came within seven meters of the peak the rock was only eight meters wide, and they began to bunch up, having to wait for each other to find a path to climb on.

As they came within four meters, the twins attacked.

They cast an Illusion of Fire three meters deep, encompassing the top fifty or so Sylvan.

It was incredibly realistic in sight and sound, roaring around the Sylvan who were immersed in it.  They couldn’t see anything for the fire in their faces, and the fear of inhaling fire struck all of them.  The twins even managed to convince the weaker-minded among them that it hurt.

As they cast the fire, the twins popped up from behind the peak and began throwing darts, Scout swooped into the precarious crowd of blinded Sylvan and began pulling them off the rocks, and Stripe leaped into them from the side and began laying waste to them with claws and teeth.

“Fight!!!  Advance!!!” Vanakit screamed in rage.  “The fire isn’t real, damn it!  It’s just two babies and two animals!  Just kill them!”

The twins took their time and made every dart count, despite the overwhelming excitement of it all.  They had thirty darts, and they hit thirty Sylvan in the eye, but then they were reduced to throwing rocks, at which they were far less effective.  The Sylvan kept swarming up the rock toward them.  They moved the wall of Illusory fire up and towards themselves to keep the lead Sylvan within it.

Stripe was now between them and the Sylvan, just in front of the peak, killing and maiming any who came near, roaring and snarling with deafening volume.  But he’d taken many small wounds, and a couple that were more serious.

Then one of the Sylvan got lucky and cut off most of Scout’s left foot.  He wanted to continue fighting, but the twins sent him away, and he hurt so much that he went.

“This is it!”
Reggie cried.

“I’m going to GET Vanakit Lamitkeze, if it’s the last thing I do before I die!”
Helemia vowed.

They let their rage take them, and let the fire Illusion dissolve, and struck with psionic attacks.

Helemia struck Vanakit first, crushing through his psionic Shields and shredding his mind, while severely injuring six Sylvan at the pass who had been bolstering his psionic Shields.

In the next minute they attacked the highest seventy-two Sylvan on the mountain, leaving them with broken psionic Shields and crippling, blinding headaches.

And then, suddenly, the twins were too exhausted to continue.

Almost eighty Sylvan remained of the attacking formation, all of them filled with their battle rage.  They screamed their hatred as they surged up the hill, sensing victory.

Stripe roared his defiance as he prepared to meet their rush, Scout gave a piercing cry and turned back toward the battle despite his pain, and the twins grimly stood together, looking over the peak and panting for breath, waiting for the end.

“That’s quite enough of that, I think.” Quewanak stated as he appeared hovering just above the slope between Stripe and the advancing Sylvan.  He froze them with a glance, held them immobile long enough to make them realize they were helpless and for their emotions to cool a bit, and let them go.

The Dragon God of Dreaming looked around and Healed all the injured, including Stripe and Scout.  “None of your fallen compatriots are dead, and I have Healed them.” he announced in Blezogeth to all of the confused Sylvan, many of whom were picking themselves up off the ground all over the valley.  “Were it not for my efforts, three hundred and seventeen of you would be dead or severely injured at the hands of two babies and their pets.  I hope you’ve learned something from this.  You don’t want to anger the rest of us.  Now go, all of you, except that one.”  He indicated the immobile form of Vanakit Lamitkeze.  “We’re keeping him.”

Slowly, then more quickly, the Sylvan moved away and began heading home.

Quewanak Translocated himself, Stripe, Scout, and the twins down to the valley floor.

Reggie and Helemia let themselves collapse to the grass and cry, venting some of the overwhelming emotion that they felt.  They hugged each other as they cried until Stripe nuzzled them and Scout landed beside them, then they hugged their beloved pets with gratitude and affection, while the animals soaked up all the love they were getting.

“Thank you, oh thank you both so much, you’re both such good boys, such great friends, we love you so much…”
the babies babbled.

Quewanak looked around, then Restored the goat shed, the chicken pen beside it, and the dead livestock.  He even Retrieved the twins’ darts and put them away in the shed, then lounged on the grass.

Finally Helemia and Reggie turned their attention to the green dragon.  Their bodies were still crying and hugging the animals, but their psionic ‘voices’ seemed calm enough.

“Thank you for saving us.”
Helemia told him.

“You’re welcome.” Quewanak chuckled.

They considered him a moment.

“I know you can’t resurrect dead people unless you know them absolutely, and you have to be in psionic contact with them when they die.  Or you have to be a god.”
Reggie stated accusingly. 
“We know that from Father.”

“Yes, that’s true.” Quewanak admitted.

“So, you either saved those Sylvan with god-power, or you were aware of what was happening here the whole time.  Or both.”
Helemia said, sounding as miffed as her brother.

“Also true.” The dragon smiled.

“Maybe you
are
a god.”
Reggie accused. 
“Father and Mother and Aunt Alilia have been hiding something about you, now that I think about it.  And none of us have ever noticed that you’ve never been introduced to us, and we’ve never met you before today, even though you live right next door to Kragorram and Povon and Karzog and we go there all the time.

“And whether you’re a god or not, I’d bet my lunch that you knew what was happening here, and you could have stopped it anytime!”

“Yes, I could have.  But it was an interesting event, and once I saw how well you were doing I wanted to give you the chance at victory.  I must say that I’m incredibly impressed by the two of you.”

“Thanks.”
Helemia grumped, still trying to sound angry.  Then she considered what he’d said.
  “Did we really have a chance at victory?”

“You did indeed, though it was a very small chance.  You did better than anyone would have predicted, including me.  Still, if you’d had some intensive training in psionic warfare, you could have prevailed.  Your initial tactics were extremely efficient uses of your power, those being the Illusions and extending your perception to Stripe and Scout.  But your final psionic attacks were understandably crude.  You wasted strength in clubbing them with a big psionic hammer, when you could have stabbed many more of them with a slim sword of thought.”

“I’m still upset with you.”
Reggie told him determinedly. 
“You let Stripe and Scout get hurt for nothing.  You let us think we were gonna die at the end there.”

“There was purpose in my actions, your friends were not hurt for nothing, and they aren’t capable of remembering pain once it’s passed at any rate.” Quewanak patiently explained.  “I learned things of great value.  I am not a humanoid, I’m a dragon, and we test our young on the hunt and in battle when they’re ready.  You were ready.  A young dragon who cannot bring himself to kill is soon a starving and useless individual.  You were ready to kill.  You fought to your limits against overwhelming odds, and when you could fight no more, you faced your deaths with dignity and courage.

“Beyond all that, you didn’t ask for help.  If you had, I’d have helped you sooner.  I have rather extraordinary perception, and I’d have heard you, but it might interest you to know that if you had used your strength to get a message through the Sylvan barrier at the beginning of your battle, the best six psionicists in the community would all have heard you.  Even while engaged in battle training exercises.”

“Huh.  What are Mother and Father doing?”
Helemia asked.

“They’re preparing dinner, visiting with the others of the Command Group, and discussing today’s exercises.  They know that I’m always keeping an eye on you.  Otherwise they’d never allow you to be by yourselves out here at your ages, even with your advanced abilities and with Stripe and Scout to guard you.”

“What’s gonna happen to Vanakit Lamitkeze?”
she asked.

“The mind of Vanakit Lamitkeze is gone forever.  You’ve wiped him clean.  He’ll need a week of physical recovery and Healing before he’ll even be able to move, and then he’ll need to learn everything all over again, including how to walk, how to speak and understand a language, how to feed himself, and how to dress himself.  He’ll be a new person.”

“Huh.  We might as well feed him to Karzog as a treat.”
she snickered.

“I think not.” Quewanak chuckled.  “I’ll try to find someone suitable to deal with him, and if not I’ll simply make him sleep and put him in storage until a suitable caretaker is found.”

“Why haven’t you come by to see us before now, and why haven’t our parents ever brought us to visit you?”
Reggie inquired. 
“And why didn’t anyone ever notice that they hadn’t?”

“Your development has been as fast as is healthy for you, and you weren’t yet ready to meet me.” Quewanak said as he scratched under his chin.  “For that matter, I wouldn’t be taking this opportunity to get to know you if you weren’t both psionicly exhausted.  Like all psionicists, your subconscious gathers far more information than your conscious minds are aware of.  And the shared subconscious psionic awareness that the two of you have is amazingly insidious.  It’s almost impossible to block completely; it just slowly and passively seeps into everything around it.  Even I am not certain that I could block it completely if you weren’t exhausted.  And I have over one hundred and twenty million years of life experience.  Accessing even a tiny fraction of my thoughts or memories would surely have a harmful effect on your minds.

“And no one noticed because it was simply more convenient for me that way.  I try not to affect the minds of others without their permission, but sometimes I don’t notice it.  I’ve developed some rather remarkable new abilities lately, and I’m still not entirely used to them.  I’m sure you both can understand that.”

“Ha!  We sure can!”
Helemia laughed. 
“And I want you to know that I wouldn’t have faced death with dignity.  I’d have been biting and scratching until the last second!”

“I believe you would have, little one.” Quewanak chuckled.

“That was really no fun at the end of the fight when we realized we were going to lose.”
Reggie said, angry at the memory. 
“I don’t want to take even a little chance that it could happen again.  Who can give us the intensive psionic warfare training?”

“Ah, the question I’ve been waiting for!” the dragon grinned.  “With your permission, I’ll begin teaching you myself while you dream, the next time you and your parents are all deeply asleep.  It should only take an hour per lesson, and you won’t even remember it.  You’ll just know it happened, and you’ll retain the training.”

“Thank you.”
Helemia said as she and Reggie stood. 
“We should go home now, and tell our parents what we’ve been doing.”

“Yes.  But I want you to know something.”
Reggie told the dragon with a nasty little grin. 
“Now that I’ve thought about it for a while, I’m glad you don’t treat us like babies just ‘cause we’re babies, like everyone else does.”

“Thank you.  I’ll bid you goodnight then, and leave you by your house.” Quewanak told them with a warm smile, and a moment later they were in their back yard, and he was gone.

When their parents heard what they’d experienced, Mark got so upset that he resorted to a Tranquility spell to steady his nerves, for the first time in many months.

As a mercy to their elders, the twins stayed close to home for the next week.

On Thirdday of that week, Talia and Mark were out late helping build coastal fortifications on the east side of Hiliani.

Alilia stayed home with the babies, since she was eight and a half months pregnant.  After the evening meal they curled up on one of the Mark-sized sofas for a nap, but didn’t sleep.  They stayed relaxed and cuddled up together for over an hour anyway.

Then Alilia softly spoke.  “I wish my daughter was like you.  You had already contacted Talia two months earlier in her pregnancy than this, and it was so beautiful Linking with you then.  I’ve tried to contact her myself, but I can’t.”

“We can feel her mind, but we haven’t really contacted her, and she can’t initiate contact with anyone else yet.”
Reggie told her. 
“She’s not like us.  I think she’d have to have a twin to be like us.  But we could help her just a little bit, and then we could Link with her, and then you could Link with her through us.”

“Ah, sweet gods but that would be beautiful!” Alilia sighed.  “But what changes would you have to make in her, and how sure are you of the safety of the work?”