"DragonFire Part 5" by Renee LeCompte

"Brother?" she asked. "Brother Dragon?"

Rhogg stared at Valida blankly for a second, but then something clicked. He grinned, showing a jaw full of yellowed, but deadly sharp, teeth. "Yes, Sister Dragon, how could I forget you?" Rhogg's eyes took on an incensed look. "How could I forget the Dragon who left me to die?" Without warning, he leaped on Valida with a defiant scream.

Her instincts kicked in, and Valida dodged nimbly out of the way. The much larger dragon skidded to a halt at the very edge of the precipice, not being able to stop. Yidraik saw his chance, and pushed Rhogg over the cliff. He grinned at the Dragon's shriek of surprise, and took to the air himself. Valida followed.

The two flew quickly, but somehow the old Dragon, with his large bulky body, was able to keep up. Valida flew closer to Yidraik, and shouted, "He wants me! Shift in something smaller!" Suddenly, the great blue Dragon was replaced by a tiny swift, which darted down closer to the trees. Time to exercise every trick in the book, Valida.

Abruptly, Valida began to climb, trading speed for height. Rhogg became a mere pinpoint as she winged toward the sun. Good, she saw that he was following. The sun blinded Rhogg's one good eye, and he couldn't see her. She made a tight turn, and pulled her wings close to her body. Practicing a move she often saw with falcons, she stooped.

Rhogg never saw what hit him, she was sure. A blinding bolt of red, and a sharp blow with a fisted talon to his snout, the most tender part of his body. She heard a sickening crack, and then she veered back towards the sky. Rhogg, still alive, roared in rage. Time to make her escape.

The mountains were no longer safe, being the home of Rhogg. Certainly he knew every inch of them. She stooped again, but not at Rhogg, at the forest below. Perhaps the trees would provide a haven. She glanced back, and saw Yidraik, once again in his Dragon form. Following her lead, he turned to the right, heading away from the mountains. The further they got from the peaks, the better.

Valida scoured the land, hoping to find a place to hide, for a while. Her Brother was insane with anger, and pure evil. She had seen it in his red eye, and she knew he would stop at nothing to kill her. Suddenly, her keen eyes spotted a rather large hole in the ground, hopefully big enough to admit two Dragons. If not, they were goners.

She tilted her wings, and swerved to the left. Yidraik followed her, also seeing that hole. The Dragons landed, and squeezed themselves quickly into the deep, twisting tunnel Rhogg, being much larger, could not fit into that tiny hole, but fireballs could. He took a deep breath and blew, hard. Maybe he wouldn't get to have the pleasure of eating his dear Sister, but he could watch her burn to a bloody crisp.

Valida heard a scream of pure agony behind. She redoubled her efforts, knowing very well what Rhogg was doing. Yidraik would have a good burn to attend to.

"I need to lose some weight," he panted, and then grimaced as he rubbed a burned spot. That burn did hurt, even though a Dragon's tough scales could stand up to fire. Naturally, a Dragon would develop protection against themselves.

"Why didn't you shift, dummy?"

"When one is as frightened as I am, one doesn't have time to think, let alone shift!" He glanced nervously and the opening. "Speaking of shifting, does Rhogg know how?"

"No," she growled. "Rhogg was too impatient to learn the art of shifting. He probably forgot the little he learned."

"So, that ugly beast was your Brother? I saw no family resemblance!" Yidraik chuckled.

"No, that is not my Brother anymore. He is a demented, anger-driven monster." Valida shuddered. No Dragon ever tried to kill another.

Yidraik poked around in the cavern, looking for another egress. He found none. "Looks like we're stuck here for the time being." He shrugged.

"Perhaps not," a new voice interrupted. A long, convoluted serpent untwisted his glimmering sliver coils, and approached him. It grinned, showing white, pointed fangs. "Chaos Serpent, at your service."

Before Yidraik or Valida could reply, the Serpent waved a stubby foreclaw. "No need to introduce yourselves, I already know you. I know everything, and everyone here." The Chaos Serpent slithered up to his entrance, where red flames were licked the walls. He smiled slyly, and opened his mouth. A white ball of flame shot out, and hurtled itself up the tunnel. There was a flurry of wings, and the fires came down once again, twice as intense.

"Keep it up, old boy!" he yelled up the tunnel, and made his way back to the two Dragons. "The Serpent smirked, and pointed to the flames. "The guy you love to hate, that's my Rhoggy." He opened his mouth once again, and blew a fantastic ball of white at a stalactite. It froze, and shattered to the ground. "My cold fire," he explained. "It's so hot where I come from, fire seems cold anyway.

"Now, back on the subject of your little problem, Rhogg. Or maybe he's your big problem." The Chaos Serpent poked around his cave while he spoke. "I have a backdoor about here somewhere. Help me look."

Yidraik and Valida were stunned by this new creature. Who was he, and how did he know them? Yidraik voiced his burning questions as they searched.

"Ahh, it is my nature to know everything," he hissed. "I could be an Archivist, if I wanted, but I find that work boring. I do not keep my books in this particular cave. It's too near Rhogg, and you know Rhogg all too well." The Serpent grimaced, a strange expression for him. "That Rhogg, I knew he was trouble the day I saw him. More trouble than I am." More fangs showed. "I named myself, you know. I love to cause Chaos. If there is ever Pandemonium about, I either caused it, or am laughing at it."

Valida regained her tongue finally. "Where do you come from?"

"The South, below the great Black Sands, near the sea. I migrated North just before the arrival of Rhogg. Luckily, I decided not to vacation where the Black Sands are now." He chuckled. "Or I would be an extinct Serpent."

Chaos put his foreclaws on a large boulder. "Here it is. I knew I had it." He pushed the rock aside, and a glimmer of moonlight showed. "Before you leave, let me give you two words of advice. One," he ticked off a talon, "don't mess with Rhogg anymore. He's not a Dragon anymore, nor will he ever be again. If he is a Dragon again, it'd be a miracle." Another talon flicked up. "Two, perhaps you should venture to the Black Sands. I have a feeling your destiny awaits you there, and those evil scorpions cannot reach flying creatures, unlike myself." He winked, and continued, "And now I wish you a good day. Farewell, mayhap we shall meet again." With that short parting, the Chaos Serpent disappeared into one of the dark recesses of his cave.

Yidraik looked at Valida. "Well," he said, "I suppose we should do what the Serpent suggested. There's no where else to go, now." Valida nodded.

"To the Black Sands. He said they were South?"

"Yes. I think we should be invisible for the time being, seeing as Rhogg would rip us to shreds the moment he saw us." He shifted into a large black crow. "Let's go," he cawed, and Valida shifted too. The two flew out of the black cavern, into the dim light of the moon.