Prologue
On the firm, rocky grounds of the Crescent Planes, a wood dragon was running.
She’d just swum out of a pond she accidentally fell into within her flurry. Her cape was soaked to an extent that it was failing to hide away the sharp, metallic edges hidden below it, yet she did not slow down. She knew she’d be exposed and possibly interrogated if any dragon sees her in this state, but she didn’t care.
She couldn’t stop. She couldn’t take the risk.
And that’s when she saw a distant orange glow. It became brighter and brighter as she neared it, and she could smell the bitter scent of burnt wood and seaweed.
Something was on fire. On the barren fields of the Crescent Planes, where trees or grass or anything flammable was the rarest gems on the crown.
Her heart instantly sank, and she did nothing but quicken her pace. She climbed atop of a small hill, and nearly gasped out loud as she looked beyond it.
Below her was what was left of a once luxurious caravan, chunks of wood and seaweed scattered across the field, most of them still burning. Gold coins, gems, and crystals were laying all over like unwanted trash, glittering eerily against the flame.
Then she saw glints of dark green, lime, and blue, and she instantly noticed they were dragon scales. Dead dragon scales.
Her irises shrank into two dark green dots.
I’m late…
“Oi—” A voice came from below. A red-scaled fire grounder stepped through the debris, his eyes darting all over, “quit ya whining and gather what we can! The day will dawn soon, and I don’t want the sea dragons to find us before that!”
She felt her teeth clashing against each other.
Fire dragons. Robbing something that will ultimately be theirs.
Accursed greedy lizards…!
She cursed mentally, before secretly snatching the handle of her bronze double-edged sword with her mouth. Her eyes scanned the field—she counted four enemies, and they were all standing too close to each other. This won’t be too hard.
She quietly jumped down the hill, hiding behind a piece of wood that appeared to be a wheel. She sneaked forward, silent like a rattlesnake swimming through the grass, coming to a stop right behind a red-scaled wyvern.
It was impossible to hide now—she was too close and had run out of cover. The gaze of another fire dragon soldier—a drake, fell onto her, and she could see his widened eyes and half-open muzzles.
He won’t get his chance.
Letting out a roar, she pounced forward and rammed into the wyvern’s back, sending him flying away and crashing into a boulder. She heard the unmistakable sound of a snapped spine as the drake screamed out and lunged at her with his talons, which she only addressed by softly leaping to the right and holding back her sword.
The talons slid harmlessly beside her, while she could feel something warm splattering onto her face. She didn’t bother looking back—she’d calculated it. That cut would go clean through his throat. Reaching out with her front claws, she grabbed the drake’s life-slipping body, swung it around, and threw it right at the third dragon’s direction. They collided violently mid-air, then both dropped down to the ground with a burst of dirt. Her horns flared with bright green as thick vines erupted out, gripping onto their bodies and holding them into place.
Then a flame engulfed her.
She’d missed one.
Pure pain blazed through her body. She could feel her scales burnt to crisps and reduced into charcoal, her own flesh and blood sizzling and oiling. She staggered back, bumping into a rock, yet she never lost hold on her weapon.
Damm it!!!
Clenching her teeth, she quickly closed her eyes, and, as hard as she could, threw her blades towards the direction the breath was coming from.
There was a shriek, and then the fire drew black. Then a thump occurred, and there was a ting of metal plunging into rock, and then all went silent.
The pain gradually resided. Panting, she crawled back onto all fours, frantically looking around.
There was no sign of movements, either friendly or unfriendly.
The pain was still there, but she simply ignored it. Her cape was nothing but burnt cloth now, so she flung it away. She rushed to the battlefield’s center, where she instantly froze into a flaming statue.
An elegant sea wyvern was lying in the very center of the field, her eyes tightly shut, a pool of blood beneath her body, and a spear right through her heart. The necklace of pearl she was wearing was nearly drenched by crimson.
She was dead. The Queen of the sea dragons was dead.
“We are late,” a voice called behind her.
Caped dragons were gathering towards her. A sea serpent was in the very front, his tail swishing uneasily to the sides.
“The intel was correct,” he said, pausing on every word, “…the fire dragons were really…that…”
“I knew this would do nothing at the very beginning!” The dragon beside him threw his cape away, exposing his flame-colored scales and furious red eyes, “I know my kind! I TOLD YOU ALL THESE WILL DEFINITELY HAPPEN!!!!”
The serpent was dazed.
“I don’t understand…” he mumbled, “…why would they risk over something that will ultimately be theirs…?”
“Because this is the way of fire dragons,” A third voice sounded. A yellow drake stepped to the front, scanning the dragons with his golden eyes. He was not wearing a cape, “they never accept gifts. If they want something, they will trade for them when they are feeling like it…or…” he glanced around, “…forcefully take them most of the times…”
He then turned towards the green grounder.
“That’s enough, my friend,” he said, “come back. We’ll discuss further actions in the remote base. If the sea dragons catch up to us, we’ll never see tomorrow’s sun.”
“I quit,” the grounder replied.
“What now?” the serpent shook his head dismissively, unaware of this statement.
“I SAID I QUIT!!!” she roared.
“What do you mean?” The drake calmly asked.
“What have we become?” She hissed angrily, “We should work towards creating a peaceful world, bringing the five elements together instead of TEARING THEM APART MORE!!!”
“Sentinel of wood,” the serpent said, ’calm down—”
“AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” She ignored him, glaring at him, “YOU SENT OUR ALLIES TO THEIR DEMISE! YOU ARE STOPPING BLOODSHED BY SHEDDING MORE BLOOD, AND YOU CAN’T EVEN STOP THE GOD DAMN BLOODSHED!!!!!!”
“That’s it,” she concluded, breathing heavily, “I’m not doing this anymore. If we have to kill and hurt more dragons for this future—”
She stepped up to the golden drake, staring into his eyes,
“Then I’d rather not want it.”
She turned away from him, walked to a boulder, pulled her weapon out, shot one last pitiful glance towards the bleeding fire serpent struggling beside it, before clamping it to her side and running away into the night.
The fire grounder immediately pounced forward, but the drake stopped him with a wing.
“Let her be,” he said, “we can’t force our will on others. We’ll have to complete the tale without her.”
“What do we do now?” The fire dragon asked, “if the sea dragons find out who did this, then—”
“Then we won’t let them,” the drake replied, “we clean this field and blame the mercenaries, as we always do.”
“Still, this plan was not for nothing,” he continued with a sigh, “it proved how ridiculous all our previous attempts had been…We can never bring about the second golden age in this way…We’ll have to switch to…the backup.”
“Are there no other means?” The sea dragon asked, “if only—”
“You saw it yourself,” the drake glanced at the queen’s body, “this world is beyond repair…and the worst sickness…”
He looked up to his remaining colleagues, eyes burning with determination.
“…requires the strongest potions…”
“…Very well, then…”
The sea dragon fell silent, while the fire dragon nodded.
“Should’ve done that long ago,” he commented.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” the golden drake said, “I’ll send a message to Silver Town. One of the targets is heading that way. We’ll start with him while we try to locate the others. If this world lacks heroes…”
He grinded his teeth.
“Then we’ll just create some.”
The dragons nodded, then put their capes back down. They turned away from the burning field, galloping off.
Unknown to them, on the top of a nearby high rock, a pair of ember eyes was watching. A ghostly pale figure materialized from the air, squinted his nostrils, and dissolved into the darkness again.
Nine hundred body lengths from them, within the dimming lights of Silver Town, a young pink drake had just woken up from a nightmare. She sat up on her bed and rubbed her stiff, tiny wingcases. Rolling a few rounds in bed, she hopped to the floor and walked out of her room, instantly spotting the wide-open door to the room across from it.
She rolled her eyes.
“Oh, Breeze…not again…”
Outside, on a rooftop above the town’s main entrance, a young silver serpent was sitting next to a young green wyvern. The silver serpent had a claw upon his forehead, looking into a distance.
“I see…a dragon!” he happily announced,
“Really? Where?” The green wyvern asked.
“Beyond the forest, in the planes!”
“I see her!” The wyvern squeaked, then gasped, “wow, what happened to her scales? It’s like she’d fallen into a fireplace or something!”
“No idea, Breezy!” the serpent excitedly answered, leaping into the air, “but I bet it’s because of something cool! REALLY COOL!!!”
Before them, within the Heartwood Forest, a feathered golden-red wyvern was entangled by vines. She was bleeding badly with thorns penetrating her body everywhere.
Yet she laid perfectly still. She knew if she failed to do that, she’ll die instantly.
She let out a startled yelp when she saw a pair of brown eyes approaching her. A huge spirit wolf emerged from the trees, pacing to her side. She watched as the wolf closed his jaws around the vines, prying them loose.
She dropped to the ground, groaning after her pain. The wolf went to her, supported her up, threw her onto his back and started carrying her into the forest.
“Thank you…” she weakly managed.
“You are welcome,” the wolf responded in her mind.
A little farther, on the other side of the forest, an elder ice drake was standing before the tree lines. The sound of fluttering wings came as three dragons, two armored wyverns, and a young drake, swooped down and landed in front of them.
“Uncle,” the young drake said.
“Thanks, gentlemen, I’ll take it from here,” the elder drake clapped his claws to the two guards, who saluted and flew off towards the North. He then leaned forward, picking the drake up and gently kissing on his snout.
“Don’t you worry, young Blizzard,” he said with assurance, “you will become the inheritor your mother had wanted you to be…”
Unknown to all of them, unknown to the fled grounder, unknown to the caped dragons, unknown to the ghostly watcher, and unknown to all the living grounders, wyverns, serpents, and drakes all over Dragonista, within the deepest clearing of the Heartwood Forest, a worn-down tablet stood. A seven-colored light came from within, lighting up the forest window above it.
And then, beneath the ground, came a roar.
