A Dawn of Dragonfire

MORI



As they flew up the mountain, heading toward its granite peak, Mori wanted to think about the task ahead. She wanted to steel herself for battle, imagine seizing the Moondisk from its demon guardian, prepare for a long flight over the sea and back to Requiem. Yet as her wings stirred the cold air over mountainsides of pines, she only thought of Bayrin's kiss.

Stupid love-struck girl! she scolded herself. You think of kisses and love and romance while your people burn, while your brother and father lie dead?

She looked at Bayrin who flew beside her, his eyes narrowed, mist swirling around his green scales. Mori felt a chill invade her.

No, she knew. This was not how romance felt. Lyana had told her about love—she said how when Orin was near, she would tremble, her heart would flutter, how warmth would spread through her, how joy bloomed inside her. This felt different. Mori felt no flutter, no warmth, no joy.

She lowered her eyes. She felt shame. She felt unclean.

Would Bayrin love me if he knew my secret? she thought, soaring over mountainsides of chalk and leaf. If he knew how I let Acribus claim me, and how I didn't even fight him, how I… how his filth still clings to me? He thinks I'm just sweet Mori, the young princess, like from the fairytales… but I'm not her anymore. Not now. Not ever again. Her shame burned inside her like a demon child in her womb. Was that Acribus's child, a babe with cruel eyes and a white tongue, that festered inside her?

"Mori, are you ready?" Bayrin called to her.

No, she thought. No, I'm not ready to kill a demon. I'm not ready to fly over the sea again, to return home and find more dead. I'm not ready to face this world and keep flying. She growled, thought about the old heroines from her stories, and nodded. But I will do these things nonetheless.

She gave her wings three great flaps, filling them with air like sails, and soared toward the mountaintop. Bayrin soared beside her. Smoke streamed between his teeth, and the thud of his wings blasted her. They cleared the mountain's peak, and Mori found herself looking down upon an ancient ruin.

Pillars lay fallen and chipped. Their capitals were shaped as bucking elks, but smoothed with centuries of rain. An archway rose from a tangle of ivy and bushes, the wall around it long fallen. Bricks lay strewn. Shattered wood, snapped branches, and boulders littered the ruins. Wild grass grew from a smashed mosaic. Whatever structure had once stood here, nature was overgrowing it; the fallen bricks were more moss than stone.

"There was a temple here once," Mori said, circling above it. She had seen enough temples in Requiem to know them, even when ruined; she could feel the old holiness of the place. The Children of the Moon had worshipped the night here.

"Where is the Moondisk?" Bayrin said, flying beside her.

Mori flew above the ruins, fanning the grass and mist. She squinted, seeking the glint of bronze and gold. Did the Moondisk lie hidden among these tufts of grass, fallen trees, and ruin of an ancient temple?

"And where is the demon who guards it?" she whispered. She saw no life here but for the plants; no call of birds, no chirp of crickets, nothing but the rustle of grass.

Bayrin grunted. "Maybe the demon left years ago, and the Children of the Moon had never bothered checking." He began spiraling down toward the ruins. "Come on, Mori, let's start overturning rocks, find this Moondisk, and get out of here."

Mori puffed out smoke, uncertain. This place was too quiet. Yet Bayrin was descending, and so she joined him, throat tight.

A moan shattered the silence.

The ruins shifted.

The fallen columns began to rise.

Mori screamed and banked, shot across the ruins, and soared. Rocks flew skyward. The fallen walls rose like a marionette on invisible strings. Columns formed legs and arms. The archway rose like shoulders, bedecked with a cloak of ivy and grass. The roots of fallen trees entwined, forming a great head with blazing eyes of blue crystal. Arms lashed out, ending with claws of leafy branches. Mori flew backward, gaping at the beast. The creature twisted and formed before her, and soon stood as a giant, three hundred feet tall, a behemoth woven of wood, leaf, and crumbled ruins.

Ral Siyan, Mori knew. The demon of stone and wood.

"Bay!" she screamed. She trembled and her heart thrashed. Where was Bayrin? She could no longer see him. Her wings thudded madly, billowing the demon's leaves. Its blue stare transfixed her, burning her eyes.

"Mori, it has the Moondisk!" came a cry, and Bayrin flew around the demon, eyes blazing.

He seemed so small compared to the creature, a mere bird flying around a tree. The demon of wood and stone howled, a sound like a collapsing dam. It lashed an arm at Bayrin. Its bricks creaked like joints, raining dust. Its branches twisted and groaned. Its fingers of wood missed Bayrin by a foot. The green dragon flapped his wings, blasting the beast with air, sending leaves flying.

When the demon turned toward her, Mori gasped. She saw the Moondisk! A circle of bronze, the size of a shield, it lay within the archway that formed the demon's torso. Vines and brambles held it like veins around a heart. Upon its dented and dulled surface, a golden moon and stars still glimmered.

Bayrin soared, turned, and swooped toward the beast.

"Time to burn," he said and blew fire.

"Bayrin, no!" Mori cried. She soared and slammed into Bayrin, pushing him aside. His flames rained upon the mountaintop, missing the demon. The beast of wood and stone roared, a sound like cracking boulders, and swung its arms. A log slammed into Mori, and she gasped for breath, head spinning.

"Mori, what are you doing?" Bayrin shouted, smoke billowing from his maw. He rose higher, dodging another blow from the demon. Mori flew beside him, panting. Her side blazed with pain where the beast had struck her.

"You'll burn the Moondisk!" she managed to say. "It's surrounded with branches. The bronze and gold would melt in dragonfire!"

Ral Siyan howled, a deep cry, the rage of forests and oceans and buried rock. The demon leaped, columns swinging. The two dragons scattered, and Mori found herself growling, anger pounding through her.

I won't let my family die, she thought. I won't let Solina cut open Elethor too. I won't let Acribus rape Lyana like he raped me. Her growl turned into a roar, and she swooped, claws outstretched. I will grab the Moondisk.

The demon spun toward her, all twisting roots and vines. Her claws glinted. She reached toward the Moondisk. Her claws almost closed around it… but the vines and brambles that encased the disk twisted. A branch lashed out, and its thorns slammed into her, each like an arrowhead. She screamed as they pierced her scales, fell, and her back hit the mountaintop.

The demon swung its arm like a hammer. The stone column came crashing down, as wide as an oak. Mori screamed and rolled aside, and the column smashed into the ground, shattering rock.

A roar pierced the air, and Bayrin swooped. His tail swung and slammed into Ral Siyan's head of root and leaf.

Wooden chips flew. A branch cracked. The demon turned. The stone archway—its torso—creaked and rained dust. The branches within the archway bound tighter together; Mori could barely see the Moondisk within them now, but she drove forward. Her howl rose. Her claws slashed at the brambles.

The Moondisk loosened. It fell a foot within the archway. Before Mori could grab the disk, the branches and vines wrapped around it again. The demon spun, arms lashing. One column slammed into a swooping Bayrin, knocking him to the ground. Another roared over Mori's head.

"Bayrin!" she cried. "Bayrin, get up!"

He lay on his back, wings flapping too feebly for flight. His tail flopped weakly and his eyes rolled back. The scales along his left side were cracked. Ral Siyan laughed—a grumble like an avalanche—and raised stony arms above the fallen green dragon.

Mori howled.

"You will not hurt him!" she cried and drove forward.

She slammed into the beast, cracking the stones of its archway. It tumbled forward and crashed down, and its leg—a column of stone and ivy—slammed into Bayrin.

Horror exploded inside Mori. Stars, no, stars, please don't let Bayrin die, please please. I killed him, stars….

Ral Siyan rose to its feet, the stones of its body shifting and rearranging themselves. The vines inside the archway coiled like a nest of snakes, wrapping tight around the Moondisk. The demon's mouth, a mere crack in wood, opened in a mocking grin.

Mori screamed with all her rage, all her pain, all her fear. It was the cry she could not utter when Orin died, when Acribus raped her, when her home burned and crashed around her. It was the cry of Requiem, of loss and wrath. She shot forward like an arrow, howling. Her claws reached out. Fire streamed from her maw, trailing behind her as a wake. A battering ram, she crashed into the demon, breaking through its archway. Roots and branches snapped against her. Her teeth closed around the Moondisk, and she shot out the archway's other side, scattering splinters of wood.

Howling, she spat the Moondisk into the air, where it spun and blazed in the sunlight. Before it could fall, Mori spun and blew her fire.

The stream of flame crashed into Ral Siyan. Its branches and leaves ignited. It howled, consumed with fire, a living torch the height of a palace. The mountain seemed to Mori like an erupting volcano.

"Bayrin!" she cried, tears in her eyes, and dived down. She saw him lying on his back, head drooping, wings limp.

Is he dead? Stars, please, let him live.

As the demon lashed its arms and howled, Mori grabbed Bayrin with her claws. She grunted with effort, pulling him back. Her feet dug into the mountainside. With a howl, she managed to drag Bayrin ten feet back, then twenty, until they were sliding down the mountainside. His eyes were still closed, and she wrapped her wings around them as they tumbled. Pebbles cascaded around them. With a thud, they slammed onto a rocky outcrop and lay still.

A hundred feet above her, Mori saw Ral Siyan still thrashing and burning. Smoke billowed from the demon. Its cry pierced the air, a cry of mourning, of endless pain. The cry was wordless, the cry of a wounded beast, but the more she listened, the more human it seemed to Mori. She thought she could hear words within it.

"Maaaa!" it seemed to cry. "Maaaa! Mother! Mother, please!"

It raised its hands to the sky, and Mori saw the moon there, a pale disk in the soft daylight. Blazing branches tore off the demon and fluttered, a thousand fireflies. It cried to the moon, its mother, a dying child. Mori wept for it; suddenly the creature was beautiful to her, a wonder she had slain.

With a great crack like snapping bones, Ral Siyan's archway crumbled. The stones crashed. Columns fell and shattered. Branches landed, crackling with fire. When the rocks settled, nothing remained of the demon but more ruins and scattered flames.

Tears in her eyes, Mori lowered her head toward Bayrin. He lay still, head tilted back and scales dented. Mori wept and shook him.

"Bayrin!" she whispered, throat tight. Her tears fell upon him. "Bay, wake up! Come on! Wake up, please!"

She cradled his head. He couldn't be dead. Couldn't! In death, Vir Requis returned to human forms. He was still a dragon. He had to live, had to, otherwise his magic would fail, he couldn't die like this, not in her arms, not like Orin had died. She sobbed and trembled.

"Bay?" she whispered.

As she held him, his scales melted. His wings pulled into his back.

He turned into a bloodied man.

Sobs racked Mori's body.

Dead…

She shifted into a human too. She sat upon the boulder, cradling him in her arms. Her hair covered his face, and she shook him.

"Bay, Bay, wake up!" she whispered, unable to speak any louder. "Please, Bay, please. I love you." She kissed his cold lips and held him tight. "I love you, Bay, please, don't leave me."

He moaned.

He moaned! Mori's heart leaped. Fresh tears fell and she shouted and shook him wildly.

"Bay!" She touched his cheek. "Bay, you're going to be all right. I'm going to take care of you."

His eyes fluttered and he moaned again. His lips moved, but only a hoarse whisper left his throat. Mori leaned closer to hear his words.

"What is it, Bay?" she whispered.

"I… I fell on my lamp." His face crinkled up. "Ouch."

Mori laughed as she cried, body shaking. She touched his cheek and kissed him again, a peck on his lips, and felt his hand in her hair.

She thought that they would kiss again, like last time, and she wanted to. She ached for it. But she pulled back, and once more her shame flooded her, ice inside her. But then his arms were around her, and she was kissing him, and she melted into it.

And it feels right, she thought. It feels good. Her tears streamed down her cheeks, mingling salty in their kiss. She lay down beside him, arms around him. When she looked up, she saw a glint. The Moondisk lay on the mountainside above them, a beacon of light for her home and her life.