The Ten Guardians: Sacrifice©

Chapter Twenty-One: Showdown

Sparrow bolted awake while clutching his chest and screaming! He screamed until he was out of breath and started gasping as if he couldn’t get enough oxygen to keep up with his racing heart. His vision was whirling and spinning as if his brain had been completely drained of blood and was suddenly filled again by his overactive heart.

As his vision slowly cleared, he could see a human man kneeling on the ground next to him. The man held an odd-looking contraption that appeared to be a small empty glass vial with a plunger attached to one end and an extremely thin piece of metal protruding from the other. He was taking the contraption apart and tying its pieces on a flat piece of leather with several more vials of unknown liquids. The vials were all on their sides and tied to the leather with small strands of cord which seemed to have been sewn for that very purpose.

The man seemed young, close to Grey’s unnaturally young age, and wore various animal skins over his body. Sparrow immediately recognized him as a druid and didn’t know how or why he knew that information. There was just something about the man that told Sparrow he could talk to trees and animals just as easily as people. The man put a hand on Sparrow’s shoulder.

“Slow and deep breaths, my Lord. The stimulant will wear off quickly. Slowly now…” the man said while breathing deeply as an example of what he wanted him to do.

Sparrow was fully aware of who he was now and accepted his role as celestial traveler and guardian, but it still unnerved him when this stranger called him ‘Lord.’ Sparrow matched the man’s breathing and felt his heartbeat slow. After a few more examples of how to breathe, the druid returned to his satchel of vials, rolled it into a tube, and returned it to a small pouch at his waist. Sparrow could hear a roar that sounded extremely familiar in the distance, and the earth began to rumble slightly. He knew he was feeling the vibrations of a dragon thudding against the earth as it battled on the ground.

As Sparrow’s heartbeat and breathing returned to a normal rhythm, he could focus more on his surroundings. He was in a large tent that must have belonged to Lin and Lon, or Donner and Regnan as he now knew them. Two ornate beds were covered in animal furs on one side of the room. The other side of the room had a table and two bone chairs. Sitting on the ground next to the table and chairs were the fire demon that Sparrow had seen before the battle had commenced.

The demon seemed completely pacified, sitting on the ground with its legs crossed. Its mouth was closed, but fire flickered in its hollow eyes as it stared at Sparrow.

Sparrow felt something in his left hand and looked down to find two green seeds about the size of his fingernail in the palm of his hand. One seed had the same symbol that had been sewn onto the back of the cloak that Jareth had given him shortly after they left Dule Van. The other seed had an unfamiliar gray symbol of a closed eyelid set before a crescent moon. He did not know what they were for but felt power emanating from them, so he put them in his pocket to figure out later.

“It looks like the lich had started a spell to pull out your soul, leaving your body intact and unharmed. I tried dispelling it but was only partially successful. I was finally able to bring you completely out of it with a shock spell and a strong stimulant,” he said casually as if discussing the weather.

“Thank you … I think,” Sparrow said, rising to his feet. “What about this fire demon? Why is it not reacting to any of this or trying to stop you? They were fairly aggressive before.”

“Is that what they call this abomination? This is a fire elemental, a prince actually, of the primal plane. He has been confined to the body of a human corpse to perform manual labor for fallen guardians. He has promised to aid us in our battle if we free him,” the druid said while walking around the bone chair, inspecting them in open curiosity.

Another familiar roar echoed through the meadow, followed by the sound of lightning striking the earth.

“If you are finished hawking, we could use some help!” Jaya’s voice drummed in their heads.

“Go help her! I will be there shortly!” the Druid shouted as he knelt near the fire demon, pulling a dagger out of his belt and tracing mysterious runes on its blade.

Sparrow ran out of the tent and found himself near the crater’s edge. He ran up the slight hill to the edge and found that he was near warlock camp, and in the center of the massive crater, a battle was taking place. Jaya was in the seeker’s form of a lich with a purple sword in her left hand and a black staff with dark blue runes in her right. She was floating above the bodies of revenants on one side of the massive crater, gasping for breath as if she had been running incredibly fast.

On the other side of the crater was Regnan, the Guardian of Water, but he was in his true form as a massive deep-blue dragon. His scales shimmered as if flowing water was streaming down his body, yet no water dripped off it when the shimmering reached the ground. His tail was barbed with four massive white spikes and was held in the air over his shoulder, ready to fly at the next attack. He was crouched on all four legs, hunkering defensively, patiently waiting for Jaya to make the next move.

He had a set of webbed leather wings folded against his back. One of the wings blending so well with the flowing water effect of its scales that it almost disappeared, and the other wing appeared to have been burnt in some way and was hanging partially away from his body as if it was painful to fold completely. This was most likely why he was not using the advantage of flight against his foe.

On the other side of the warlock camp from where Sparrow was standing stood Izreea, Jareth, Myrum, and Colson. Even from this distance, Sparrow could see a soft glow coming from Jareth’s chest, which immediately gave Sparrow insight into the situation, which was not something he would have been able to piece together the last time he was with Jareth. He somehow knew that Jareth’s body had been the human lich he had seen through the portal, but it had been controlled by whoever was responsible for the glow coming from Jareth’s chest. He also surmised that the lack of Jonathan’s presence, combined with his brother suddenly having a second soul within him, meant Jonathan had done something cruel to his brother to stay alive.

The entire group had a shield around them which crackled periodically with electricity. As his eyes fell upon the group, a massive bolt of lightning slammed into the shield and was funneled harmlessly into the ground around them. Although the shield had held, it had wavered with the impact, indicating it was weakening.

Sparrow looked up to see Donner in his true form as the Guardian of Lightning, a light blue dragon, flying past the adventurers and banking at an angle so he could turn around for another attack. His massive wings crackled with electricity which illuminated the thin bones of his webbed wings as it shot through his body.

*****

Jaya dashed across the ground without touching it, gliding in a random zig-zag pattern, hoping to land a blow without being skewered by his deadly tail. As she drew close enough to start the swing of her attack, she saw the dragon’s tail flicker toward her. Instead of following through with the attack, she pivoted to the right with an underhanded swing, which was not nearly as strong of an attack, but was also better than nothing.

Regnan jumped into the air and over Jaya, knowing he would take a glancing blow, but satisfied that his feigned attack had put his foe off balance. As he flew over her, a torrent of boiling water rushed from his mouth to envelop Jaya. Jaya was indeed caught off guard, and the only thing that saved her from boiling to death was Jareth and Jonathan’s staff in her hand. She found its power transformed depending on her form, and she had happily taken on the form of a seeker’s lich, so the runes of ice were illuminated to battle a water creature.

She held up the staff, and a ray of ice shot from the staff to impact with the boiling water, freezing it wherever the streams connected. The connecting beams created a lopsided bubbling pile of frozen water between them, obscuring their view of one another.

Jaya had paused to catch her breath behind the mound of frozen water when Regnan’s tail crashed through the wall, flinging massive chunks of ice in her direction. Jaya shot backward from the flying ice boulders but knew she was too late to avoid being crushed. She was contemplating the end of the world when a massive wall of flame engulfed the ice boulders with the hiss of water turning into vapor.

Fire was technically weak against ice and water, but the force of the blast was strong enough to melt and push against the boulders, just enough so they would not rain down on Jaya.

Jaya’s eyes caught a glimpse of the dragon’s underbelly under the flames above her, and she could see the wound she had created was more damaging than Regnan had realized. Her flaming purple sword had cut through his scales, and the blow of the ice runed staff directly afterward had shot veins of frozen water inside his body. He would quickly recover, but she had a moment of respite.

Jaya turned around to thank the source of the fire that had saved her life, and her jaw dropped. Standing on the crater’s edge was a man made entirely of fire, engulfed from head to toe in flame. He had a massive spectrum of colored flames adorning his body in patterns, so he appeared to be clothed in some form of military uniform. Most of the flame on his head and hands were orange except for his teal-colored facial features. His clothing burned white, with darker grays and blacks for buttons, and there was a golden crown above his head with matching symbols on his chest as if he had been decorated with flaming medals.

Jaya knew that this was what her people called a flame walker, a creature from the elemental plane of existence, but she had never met one that was not wild, mostly one color, and hell-bent on burning anything and everything around it to ash. This creature instead had a civil intelligence to it that belied all of her past experiences.

“Thank you, flame walker. I owe you a debt,” Jaya said to the creature cautiously.

“On the contrary, this battle will settle my debt of freedom. My name is too hard to say in any language on the terrain plane, but call me Flamme. Fighting a water beast is suicide for one such as I, but I will assist with the overly polite one in the air. Take Care,” Flamme said as he soared into the sky, his body flowing into a new form as if he just needed to bend to be something else entirely. In a heartbeat, he was a giant flaming bird soaring into the sky as a phoenix.

*****

Sparrow had reached the other adventurers and stood just outside the lightning shield.

“About time you showed up!” a voice called to him. The voice belonged to Gray and was coming from the bubble the others were inside, but Sparrow couldn’t see her anywhere.

“I noticed you had changed when you were unconscious on the ridge, but the difference is much more apparent now that you are standing,” Jareth said with amazement.

It was only then that Sparrow realized that he was looking Jareth in the eye and was indeed taller than he had been when they started this journey.

“Much has changed, isn’t that right, Jonathan?” Sparrow asked Jareth with a disapproving tone in his voice.

The skin on Jareth’s face seemed to go thin and pulse with energy for just a moment but then subsided.

“He says ‘bite me,’ whatever that means,” Jareth replied with a smile. “Well, then, don’t think things you do not want to be said out loud,” Jareth said defensively to the air as he conversed with his brother.

A bolt of lightning struck the shield, close enough to send the hairs on Sparrow’s body shooting up, with a concussive sound wave that knocked him off his feet. Sparrow was only dazed momentarily and returned to his feet quickly to assess the shield. Izreea was now holding two scythes in the air above her head. The runes on the scythes were light blue runes of lightning power, and she was returning to her feet from being driven to one knee when the bolt of lightning struck her shield.

“Enough gossip!” Izreea shouted at the group with much more authority than Sparrow had remembered her carrying. “Sparrow! We need the one in the sky to land so he is grounded with the earth, then Colson can fight him with water. Once that happens, I can use these scythes to take down the other one, but until then, I am stuck here keeping everyone else alive!” Izreea said passionately.

The group looked over to see a giant bird made entirely of flames, a phoenix, take off from the crater’s edge. A massive stream of fire was coming from its mouth, shooting toward Donner in the sky.

“Fire won’t do much to dragon scales, but it’s a start,” a voice said from behind Sparrow.

They all turned to find the druid, his hands on his hips and his face upturned to watch the battle above them.

“Lord Ultaris, you know what to do about Lord Donner. I will help the Mother Seeker with Lord Regnan until the others can assist,” the druid said with a bow to Sparrow.

He then jumped into the air and transformed into a falcon, shooting across the sky toward the other nearby battle. Sparrow noticed that this druid somehow knew the true name of the guardians, but he was gone before he could comment on it.

*****

Jaya had heard a warning tone in Flamme’s last words of ‘take care’ which sounded similar to the tone someone would use when shouting “watch out!” so she instinctively threw herself to the right without taking the time to search for the incoming threat. Her instincts had been correct, and she felt the barb of one of the spikes on Regnan’s tail draw blood on her arm. It was only a flesh wound, but had she not dodged at that moment, this fight would have been over.

Since Jaya was floating off the ground, she had no need to tuck and roll from her sideways dive, so instead, she used the momentum she had created and bent in an arch towards Regnan and was able to catch him off balance from his last attack. She struck him across the belly as she darted underneath him with a mighty overhead strike. Faster than lightning Regnan whirled around and caught her in the back with a massive claw as she ran past him, sending her flying through the air toward the other end of the crater.

Jaya landed in a heap on the ground, her revenant transformation failing her and warm blood trickling down her back from where Regnan’s claws had raked her. The staff in her hand was white with green runes again. Jaya could see that Regnan was also injured. Her blow on his underside had cut quite deep, and great ice fissures were protruding from his belly as the magical ice from the staff spread into him.

Jaya tried to stand up but must have hit her head when she landed because she immediately became dizzy and fell to her side again. She had no choice but to wait for the dizziness to pass or fight from the ground. Regnan roared in pain as he ripped the clustering piece of ice out of his abdomen with one claw and threw it aside. He ignored the blood from his wound and strode towards her, speaking as his giant legs shook the ground with each step.

“Donner said to draw the fight out, bide our time until Ultaris is empty, but I grow tired of this game of cat and mouse. You have fought well for a mortal. Now it is time to die like one,” he said as his mouth opened to end her.

Jaya saw the falcon darting across the sky at incredible speed. Just before it impacted the dragon, it altered in the air, expanding larger and larger until it turned into a drake half the size of Regnan. The drake sunk its teeth into Ragnen’s neck in a massive bite as its weight came crashing down on top of him. The momentum flung Ragnen forward over Jaya with his mouth still gaping wide from when he tried to bite her, and Jaya struck his mouth with the staff while pushing some of her life force into the weapon to increase its power. The dragon’s mouth erupted in thorns several feet long, pushing their way through his tongue and lips as they spread, forcing his mouth to open wide as he crashed into the ground with the drake on top of him.

Regnan moved significantly faster than he had when he was fighting Jaya alone. He rolled away from his new threat while planting a hind foot on the drake’s chest and simultaneously kicking him across the battlefield. He was on his feet, and a torrent of boiling water was coming out of his mouth as he tried to dislodge the massive thorn bush from his mouth.

Although she was still dizzy, Jaya could scramble out of the way of the gushing flow of water, flinging herself to the side. The thorn bush eventually dislodged itself, and the Dragon looked around for Jaya. The massive thorns ripping from his face had caused Regnan’s mouth to drip with a mix of blood and hot water through holes in his lower jaw, and the effect was quite terrifying.

The beast lifted the one good wing from its back and used it to thrust his body forward along the ground, his jaws snapping for Jaya. At the last second, he spun off to the right as the drake lunged for his neck again, flicking the drake’s shoulder with his tail as he swept past him. The drake stood protectively over Jaya, letting out a challenging roar at Regnan standing on the crater’s edge across from them. Regnan threw back his head and laughed at the drake, then attacked.

It was more obvious now that the Guardian of Water had been holding himself back. He moved with intense speed, using his powerful tail and one good wing to pivot and dodge. He attacked mercilessly with small quick jabs of his tail, dodging the drake’s attempts to use its jaws and feet to bite or kick him as if he was playing with a child. The drake was outmatched, and his body was quickly covered with blood.

Jaya was no longer dizzy and had used the drakes distraction to steal away from the battle. She transformed into the living version of a revenant, and the staff in her hand seemed to glow with anticipation. Jaya took the staff and slammed it into the ground towards Regnan, and a massive vine shot from the ground as wide as Jaya was tall, grabbing Regnan’s leg. Where it gripped, massive thorns ripped into his scales, cutting deep enough to hold him in place. As the dragon turned and tried to bite through the vines holding him, Jaya rotated to his other side and struck the ground again, causing his other hind leg to be held fast. Jaya had intended to continue casting vines at the dragon, but she could sense that the staff was temporarily drained of its power and needed to recharge.

Jaya slammed the staff into the ground, connecting it to the earth so it could recharge as fast as possible from the element it currently embodied. Once that was done, she transformed into a seeker’s lich, and a great staff of purple flame came to life in her hand. Jaya circled behind the dragon, facing his tail and preparing to attack her pinned foe. The drake was on one side of Regnan, with Jaya on the other.

They both attacked at the same time. The drake jumped into the air with a roar, hoping to distract Regnan from Jaya’s attack so she could land a blow. Jaya forwent the zig-zag pattern of attack and dashed directly at the beast, skimming the ground as she closed the distance as fast as she could. Regnan decided the seeker was a more dangerous threat. Instead of fighting with both of his attackers, he vaulted onto his hind legs and twisted in the air as hard as he could while flapping his one good wing to add to his momentum. He landed facing Jaya with a gaping maw of teeth and a barbed tail coming directly at her.

The drake was knocked out of the sky by a bolt of lightning from Donner, who had come to his companion’s aid, with two winged creatures chasing after him. One of the winged creatures must have been flamme, but Jaya was too distracted to see what the other one was. As the drake collapsed to the earth, Jaya threw her flaming sword in the air as a bolt of purple flame towards Regnan’s face as a distraction and simply stopped where she was instead of continuing her forward assault.

Although this would prevent her from causing meaningful damage, her strategy worked. Regnan was temporarily blinded by the fire and forced to close his eyes, landing his tail in the location he expected Jaya to be in had she continued to charge toward him. She retreated in a wide circle from her foe, circling to reach the wounded drake while scanning the sky for Donner.

*****

Sparrow knew they had a few moments now that the fire phoenix was assisting them with Donner, so he felt comfortable asking probing questions to help understand their plan of attack. He started by asking about biggs, who could fly and use magic, which would be very helpful in this fight.

“Where is Biggs?” Sparrow asked after the druid had left as a falcon.

“He is keeping Grey hidden from sight, don’t ask why because we do not know,” Jareth said.

“I can speak for myself, Jareth!” Grey barked as Jareth hunched over from a jab to his ribs.

A low growl from Izreea seemed to pacify the situation.

“Why doesn’t Jaya summon her own lightning to attack Ragnen with? The battle would be over in minutes,” Sparrow said with a confused look.

“As soon as the warlocks turned into dragons, our spells stopped working. It’s as if there is a damper on magic in the crater,” Jareth said with a curious tone of voice.

“The only thing that seems to be working right now is our enchanted weapons and the dragon’s natural powers of lightning and water,” Izreea said quickly, preceding the curiosity as to why their spells would not work in favor of what was working.

Sparrow knew that this crater was the exact location for some of the strongest sources of magic this world had ever seen. Those forces must have altered this place, and somehow Donner and Regnan had found a way to dampen magic through that alteration. Just in case, Sparrow tried creating the same staff of lightning in his hand that he had created before when he was fighting the revenants, and it worked. This was greeted with surprised looks and at least one audible gasp from the group.

“It’s still not working for me,” Jareth said while holding out an empty hand in front of him as if he had expected something to appear in it.

“Why does it work when you do it? And why can that kanidian still make her flaming sword?” Grey demanded in her typical frustrated tone.

“As far as Jaya is concerned, I do not know. However, Biggs is currently using magic to shield Grey from sight. Maybe he can tell us,” Sparrow said.

Biggs’ head appeared floating in the air, with the rest of him a circular haze that appeared to be wrapped around nothing.

“Dragons and dog-sword-lady are like Biggs’ is is. Magic a part to command, not force to askes of,” Biggs said confusingly as if he was intentionally not wishing to be understood.

“Rechan Datlin Kreatin don Leere,” Sparrow bellowed with an authority that commanded respect.

A horrified look on Bigg’s face surprised Sparrow, but he managed to hide his surprise from the creature.

“What did you say to Biggs?” Grey asked from the air, with much more caution in her voice than the last time she had spoken.

Sparrow continued staring at Biggs while waiting for him to respond when it occurred to him that he needed to be more specific. Biggs would weasel his way out of any command if he had the chance.

“I said, ‘Speak plainly, creature of the void,’ and I meant to add ‘Now!’ to that command.

With the repeat of his command and the added time limitation, Biggs’ horrified surprise immediately became a seething hatred. His eyes turned completely red, and he hissed openly at Sparrow. His voice dripped with hatred when he spoke, and every word was spoken as if it had to be dragged from his lips by some unknown force. All pretense of stuttering or silliness was gone.

“Speaking plainly … dragon … you and I are part of the magic around us and not subjects to it. We think, and the arcane powers serve us. Mortals, on the other hand, are subject to those arcane powers and must request, manipulate, coerce, barter, and plead with those powers for the arcane to acknowledge them, let alone do what they want from it. Likewise, the Kanidian’s fire weapons are not spells, but a byproduct of her transformation.”

They were interrupted when Donner approached from the sky. Sparrow felt him approaching long before he saw him. There were massive black spots on his body and one wing, but the damage seemed superficial and was not slowing him down. The Phoenix was following him as best it could.

As Donner approached, the air around him began to darken, and streaks of cascading lightning raced through his body and up his neck, illuminating his skeletal frame as it traveled and pulsing as it grew in power. He was clearly about to shoot a torrent of lightning directly from his mouth. Sparrow somehow knew that Donner had been holding himself back, although he was unsure why. Previously, the dragon had just been casting bolts of lightning, but this was an entirely different attack that would devastate Izreea’s shield and kill everyone below it.

Without thought, Sparrow turned into his true form as a dragon and leaped into the sky to shield his friends from harm with his body. The lightning struck his massive wings that he had spread into the air as a shield, and somehow, he altered time as if it was natural to do so. He could stay suspended in the air as the lightning funneled into his wings, then he twisted in a circle and threw the entire ball of lightning back from where it came from. Donner had no chance to dodge the sudden attack, and the ball of energy slammed into his chest, knocking him backward. Lightning did no damage to its master, but the sudden counterattack was a surprise, to say the least.

 Sparrow’s time spell dissolved, and he landed on the ground directly over his friends with an earth-shaking crash. He stood tall enough that Izreea’s spell shield did not touch his underbelly. He spread his four legs out in a protective stance and let out a mighty roar into the sky, letting Donner know he had found himself. Donner immediately turned and began to bank into the sky away from Sparrow when his entire body was engulfed in flame from the enemy he had forgotten about behind him. As the flames engulfed Donner, obscuring his vision, Sparrow launched himself into the air directly to the torrent of flame. Donner had to dive down out of the flame, and Sparrow met him in the sky, claws ripping, tails slashing, teeth biting as the two fought a battle of force in the air.

Just before they hit the ground, they both let go and banked away from one another to assess the damage they had taken. Donner had landed a few blows, but Sparrow had the advantage of size and strength over the other Dragon and was not nearly as tired from the long battle, so he had caused significantly more damage to his foe.

Donner’s head lifted as if he had heard a message of some kind, and he bolted away from Sparrow and the Phoenix in a direct line towards the battle taking place on the other side of the massive crater. Sparrow and the Phoenix were in hot pursuit.

*****

“They grow up so fast,” Colson said whimsically to Jareth, who nodded his head as he chuckled.

Izreea released the spell shield around the group and holstered her weapons. She didn’t understand half of what she had just witnessed and was exhausted, but she knew they had to help Jaya. So she shook off the thought of rest and turned to the group.

“Alright, let’s go help Jaya with the water one, then we can all work on the lightning one if Sparrow hasn’t defeated him by then,” she said, too tired to try and remember the guardians’ names and titles.

 Jareth, Colson, Myrum, and Izreea all started jogging after the trio of flying creatures in the sky. Izreea was exhausted and had difficulty keeping up with the others, so she started to fall behind the others. Suddenly an orange bubble appeared around her, cutting her off from the rest of the group. She shouted for the others to wait and help her, but it was obvious that they could not hear her through the bubble. The rest of the party was so focused on their destination that they had not noticed her fall behind or the orange bubble and continued to run to Jaya’s aid.

Izreea turned around to find that the bubble was roughly twenty paces across, and Grey was standing at its center of the bubble with her eyes closed and a dagger in each hand. Feeling threatened, Izreea instinctively drew the scythes she had previously holstered and stepped forward.

“Seriously, woman! Now? You want to hash out a decades-old feud about lost love in the middle of a fight to save YOUR race from being wiped from existence?” Izreea shouted at Grey in defiance.

“The sacrifice must die, dardwain female. He must die to ensure he is never used for his intended purpose, or I will cease to exist,” Grey said in a voice that sounded nothing like her own.

Grey opened her eyes to reveal that both her eyes were blood red, just like Biggs’ eyes when he was angry at Sparrow for forcing him to speak.

“Biggs, let her go,” Izreea said firmly.

“Why? You kill her, I make you my new host, and the broken dragon dies alone. She kills you … well, you see the point,” Grey said in her altered voice.

Grey launched herself at Izreea, jumping and somersaulting as she had been trained to do during her years with the warlocks. Izreea countered with her own style of combat, which was just as effective, if not as flashy. They lunged and feigned in a circle around each other, neither finding an edge over the other.

Izreea’s mind was racing with possibilities. If Biggs was a parasitic creature, then he must be feeding off of something. Typically, it was emotions; the stronger, the better, and what was better than jealousy and hatred? If Grey had any awareness that she was being controlled to fight Izreea, it was probably buried in years of resentment against her, resentment that Biggs had been feeding for decades.

Izreea landed a blow that shocked Grey and flung her into the wall. Biggs must have done something because Grey bounced off the wall as if it was made of rubber and rolled forward to slash Izreea across her left leg.

“Grey! Snap out of it! Biggs is controlling you! I am not your enemy!” Izreea shouted as she fell back.

Without taking an eye off Grey, she inspected her leg with her finger and found that it was a deep wound but had not severed any nerves or arteries.

Grey attacked again, using the advantage of Izreea’s wounded left leg to press harder on that side. Izreea was beyond exhausted from the lengthy battle and her wound and knew that without magic, she was outmatched. She tried launching a bolt of lightning from her scythes, but the bolt was sucked into the orange barrier around her. Izreea desperately sought a mental connection with her husband to call for help or at least warn him about Biggs, but either the crater or the orange barrier dampened the attempt.

Grey was able to get close enough for a fatal blow, and Izreea sacrificed her left forearm to avoid death. It was a deep wound, and Izreea dropped her weapons, grasping her arm to stop the bleeding as she fell on her back. Grey stood over her and held a knife in the air with a twisted smile below her warped red eyes. She brought the knife down.

“I’m pregnant,” Izreea said firmly, clutching her bleeding arm above her while looking at Grey’s face.

Thanks to her conversation with Life, Izreea now knew why she had been so emotional, moody, and exhausted for most of this trip. She was finally pregnant after all these decades of trying, and this wasn’t how it was supposed to end. She dared to hope the news would break through Biggs’ influence on Grey. She wasn’t bringing the knife down, so Grey continued talking as the blood dripped down her wrist onto her stomach.

“I’m pregnant, Grey. Jareth’s going to be a father. Please don’t take that away from him. If you ever cared about him, you know how badly he wants to be a father. Please … ” Izreea said with tears welling up in her eyes.

Grey looked down at the blood on Izreea’s stomach, then Biggs’ voice spoke.

“Two for the price of one.”

Grey brought the blade down to end her, but just before it struck, Grey jerked backward. Her eyes flickered black, then to her normal color, black, and red again. As the colors cycled, she put her hands on either side of her head and dropped to her knees. It was clear that Biggs and Grey were fighting for control, but who was winning was not clear.

Izreea picked up a fallen scythe, used it to cut the sleeve off at the shoulder, and wrapped it tightly around her bleeding forearm. She then shakily came to her feet and looked at Grey. Grey was moaning with her eyes closed and speaking incoherently as she fought the beast within her. Izreea picked up her scythes and thumbed the marble over until they shone white. Then she ran over to Grey and touched the harmless curved sides to Grey’s shoulders and slammed their healing energy into the Grey.

Grey reached up and took hold of a scythe in each hand, ignoring the scythe’s inner blade that dug into her flesh. Izreea wasn’t sure if Biggs was trying to push the scythes away or if Grey was trying to hold them against her body. Grey began to scream as if she was being ripped in half, a scream which seemed to last for an eternity. Then a brilliant white light emanated from the scythes and enveloped Grey until all Izreea could see of her was her bleeding hands gripping her scythes, and then the light was too bright, and Izreea had to close her eyes.

Then there was silence.

Izreea opened her eyes to see Grey kneeling in front of her with tears in her eyes. Her face was changed somehow. She seemed … clearer. She looked almost happy for a moment, then she smiled warmly and took Izreea’s hands in hers, forcing her to drop her scythes in the act.

“You’re pregnant?!” Grey said with sincere happiness.

The image of the other woman holding a knife over her head with blood-red eyes only moments ago was still fresh in her mind, so Izreea could only nod in surprise. Grey swept Izreea up in her arms and laughed. Then she set her down and started talking very fast!

“That is wonderful! I am so happy for you! Is it a boy or a girl? A human wouldn’t know, but you are a dardwain, so I have no idea if you would know. When is the baby due? Oh, my! Does Jareth know?!”

Izreea was dumbstruck. She had only met Grey once, and they had come to blows then, and they had certainly come to blows now. It then occurred to her that Biggs must have been a massive weight on her shoulders. She had been under his influence for more years than not, and the thought brought additional tears to Izreea’s eyes. Then without warning, Izreea collapsed.

Grey caught her as she fell and laid her down gently before scooping up her scythes. She was without Biggs’ limitations on her abilities for the first time in a very long time, so she could sense the weapons in her hands. She could feel their power, and she knew how to use them. She turned them around and placed the harmless edge against Izreea and was amazed to find she could see the dardwain’s body as if her injuries had been laid out before her.

Grey had no idea how to heal someone and was mortified at the thought of accidentally harming the baby, so she only thought about stopping the bleeding in Izreea’s arm and leg. The moment she thought about the cuts healing, they began to seal themselves as if they had never happened. She then thought about restoring her fatigue, and Grey could see her body begin to react positively by her breathing and heart rate adjusting. There was a small amount of energy taken from Grey as if using the scythes was somehow exerting, but she was more than happy to make that sacrifice for Izreea to be healed. She thought briefly of waking her up but decided to push that thought from her mind.

“Fighting revenants, warlocks, lich, dragons, and possessed ninjas all while pregnant. Sleep on, mama, you earned it,” Grey said softly to Izreea as she smoothed her blood-matted hair.

Izreea was sleeping peacefully as Grey looked around at the battle taking place on the ground and in the sky in the distance, and she started running in that direction with the scythes. As she ran, Biggs appeared next to her, sitting cross-legged in the air, floating effortlessly beside her.

“You know you still belong to me, Dream Walker. We are still connected as surely as ever. The dardwain female only limited my influence for a short time,” he said passively.

“You sapped me of my arcane gift. That is what you wanted all along,” Grey responded while running to the battle.

“Magic, emotions, dreams, all forms of energy in one way or another. I harness one until its taste bores me, then I try another. I brought you to the warlocks to find new sources of stress, then moved us to the meadow to … well, you get the picture. All to keep you … safe,” Bigg’s replied with a grin.

“You ruined my life,” Grey said without anger, speaking her mind freely for the first time in memory.

“On the contrary, I gave a great gift in return. You have truly not aged since we were first bonded. Does this mean nothing to you?” Biggs asked with shame and injury in his voice.

Gray had previously thought the warlocks curse was responsible for her not aging, but it made more sense that Biggs was responsible.

“You ruined my education and career. My relationships. My friendships. You tricked me into living with savages for over a decade. Then I lived alone … in a hole in the ground… in a deserted meadow … for fourteen years. That isn’t living Biggs. At least now I can start over,” she said.

“You are mine, Dreamer, and I protect what is mine,” Biggs hissed.

“We shall see,” Grey said as she approached the battle, refusing to let him cause another emotional reaction from her.

She was truly enjoying being in so much control of her emotions, not to mention her magical abilities, which made her smile. Biggs made no indication that he was going anywhere or that he was going to take any action, so Grey put him out of her mind to focus on the battle she was approaching.

She could see that Regnan was anchored to the earth with a single, massive vine wrapped around his leg, protruding from the earth like a giant worm. A second one wrapped around his foot, but its vine had been severed. The part of the vine still attached to the dragon had huge thorns coming out of it that were digging into his leg. The thorns ran along the stem where the dragon was currently trying to gnaw through the vine, cutting his mouth in the process.

Although it flickered with fading power, Jareth stood ready with his green runed staff. He was standing far enough away from the battle not to be considered a threat but close enough to use his staff to cast another vine if the dragon broke free. He knew his staff only held enough power for a single shot, so he waited until it was absolutely necessary.

Myrum was trying to take out the dragon’s vulnerable eyes with green runed arrows, but it was clear that the earth-based runes were not doing much to the water guardian.

Colson had created a massive wall of water and was holding it down and out of the battle like Jareth was with his staff, patiently waiting for that moment when the water would be needed as a weapon against Donner.

Jaya was trying to save the life of the druid, who had transformed from his drake form when he was struck with Donner’s lightning bolt, in addition to all the injuries he had sustained. His body was covered with cuts and puncture wounds, and he was unconscious. The distraction of Jaya trying to save the druid was why Regnan could work on cutting his bonds. Colson and Jareth were no match for the dragon in any way, one weapon being the wrong element to injure this particular dragon and the other being almost spent in power.

In the sky above them, a battle was taking place between three winged beasts dipping, diving, and tearing at each other.

Grey took in the scene and knew they would lose if Regnan could break free since he was much faster than his opponents on the ground. He could easily overtake and end Jareth, Colson, and Myrum. Jaya would be no match alone without a weapon of some kind. Grey had seen Izreea use her thumbs to change the color of the runes on her weapons, and it was not difficult for Grey to find those same marbles and figure out how they worked.

Gray changed the color of the scythes to light blue and started running in a direct line toward Regnan. The others saw what she was doing and started providing cover for her. Colson attacked the dragon with his wall of water, which did nothing to the water guardian, but it caught Regnan’s attention as the water seemed to renew his strength.

“Thank you for the bath, mortal,” Regnan said as he opened his mouth to fling boiling water at Jareth.

An arrow caught him in the side of the mouth, landing directly in one of the many holes the vines had made in his face, letting the arrow sink into his tongue.

Regnan howled in pain, turned towards Myrum, and tried to cook her alive with his boiling water, but the vine still anchored him. She was far enough away from him to avoid the attack.

Biggs called out telepathically to Donner, broadcasting so that everyone could hear, saying, “Save your brother, Mr. Thunder,” in a taunting voice.

Donner did a sudden nosedive, kicking Sparrow aside as he dove and ignoring the Phoenix as an acceptable threat. As he dove, his body lit up and crackled as he charged another massive onslaught of electricity to spray at Grey before she could reach Regnan with her scythes. Sparrow turned and followed his prey downward, invigorated in the pursuit, when he felt … he was missing something.

Without realizing he was doing it, Sparrow cast his vision into the future and was rewarded with possible outcomes. Dozens of possible outcomes, all of them slightly different from one or the other, and each of those outcomes had a spiderweb of intricate alterations in the future that he could see as a map in his mind. All of them spread before him as if taunting him with his limitations, ensuring he knew how insignificant he was in the scope of time. Yet he was also made aware of the power a single action … or inaction could have on the future.

Sparrow remembered well what his mate had said to him before the druid had woke him, that a new generation of guardians was being shaped to take over the stewardship of this world. There was an endless mix of possibilities in the future, but an extremely remote thread of that pattern did include new guardians taking over the protection of this world. The result of that thread seemed obscured from his vision, almost as if he had no right to see past what may no longer be his rightful domain since the responsibility would have been passed to another.

The only way any of that would happen is if the stewardship of this world was passed to new guardians, guardians made up of the population of this world instead of mythical, ancient beasts with their own lofty aspirations. Sparrow saw all of this in the blink of an eye and knew that he could slow time enough to catch the stream of lightning Donner was about to fling at Grey and direct it to Regnan. He could end this battle now, saving his friends. He would be the hero, their savior, and he would end up staying in this world to protect it.

Instead, he decided to do nothing. The new guardians needed to believe in themselves. They needed to trust each other. They needed to accomplish great things without the aid of mighty, otherworldly beasts. It was risky, but he knew the chance of success and was willing to take the risk for the sake of the future of this world, not to mention his own future.

Grey had heard Biggs call out to Donner and looked up to see the lightning dragon diving towards her. His entire body was crackling with electricity which funneled inward and up his neck to his throat. Grey knew that shooting a bolt of lightning with the limited power of the scythes would only injure Regnan, which is why she had been planning on sinking her blades into him to finish him. Either way, she was out of time and needed to defend herself. She halted where she was, a stone’s throw from Regnan, who was still in the act of spraying boiling water at Myrum.

Grey remembered how Izreea had used her scythes to create a shield around herself and the others. She hit the scythes together and used the magical knowledge about elements she had learned in school, although never been able to use thanks to Biggs, and willed the energy of the scythes to become a shield around her. Instantly a shield sprang up around her, crackling with energy and electricity. Grey pulled her scythes towards her, bending the shield until a narrow cone just barely surrounded her body. Then as the spray of death left Donner’s throat, streaming towards her, she slammed the scythes into the ground directly underneath the shield on either side of her and let go of the scythes.

Letting go of the scythes should have stopped the shield from existing, but instead, the scythes started absorbing the lightning energy from the shield around it. On its own, this would only have lasted a moment, quickly depleting the power of the scythes, but Grey had timed letting go perfectly. Donner’s massive bolt of lightning impacted the shield like a giant cluster of explosions, the heat of it burning the grass around Grey in a wide circle. The energy of his attack was funneled into the shield, which sent it into the scythes, which sent it back into the shield, and around it went.

The energy made the scythes begin to burn with heat, and a light-blue glow shone around Grey as the energy grew, drowning out her screams of pain as the energy coursed in a circle around her, assaulting all her senses at once. Unbeknownst to Gray, the scythes had followed the connection of the lightning to its source and were draining energy directly from Donner, far more energy than he had intended to direct at the simple mortal he had been trying to extinguish.

Donner hit the ground next to Grey in a heap, drained of most of his electrical energy and completely exhausted. She felt the massive impact of the dragon next to her and opened her eyes to find the aura had receded to the scythes in the ground. The scythes were crackling and vibrating with the immense amount of energy they held. She quickly grabbed the scythes, one in each hand, and canceled the shield around her. She touched the scythes and pulled them apart as a massive bolt of energy the size of a house grew in the air before her, and she launched it at Regnan. He died instantly, his smoldering body charred and blackened from the inside out.

Jareth turned and used the last energy of the staff in his hand to create a massive vine to hold the weakened Donner to the ground. As the vine snaked its way around Donner’s neck, slamming his head into the earth, Colson brought the fury of water onto the lightning dragon. The water’s connection with the earth acted as a conduit, funneling his electrical energy from his body and into the ground.

Colson had been prepared to drown the dragon with the torrential amount of water he had collected while its head was held fast by the giant vine, but everyone there could sense the beast’s death the moment the energy left his body. It appeared that the energy drained from the battle, Izreea’s scythes, combined with the total loss of energy from Colson water, had simply been too much for the guardian of lightning to handle.

Both the dragons were dead.