The Elemental Chain Saga Book Two: Dragons Ascending

Chapter Eleven: As Fate Would Have it

It had been over a week since the Alerdreamian scout force had been ambushed. The plan had gone horribly and more than half the party had been killed, almost all of the rest severely injured. It was a tragedy.

The hospital tent was still brimming with the injured. The hospital tent was a dark place were people either where restored to their formal glory or succumbed to their illness and injuries, letting them fade them into a shadow of there formal selves before, finally, even that to disappeared into nothing. The tent was somber, the ill crying out for mercy, for good health, the injured hoping to keep their limbs intact, hoping not to hear the cruel words of 'amputation'. Sad as it is, Cooper had been among their number.

He lay on the soft cotton sheets of the bed in his tent, silently remembering. It had taken many days to get his strength back. But his injuries couldn't all heal so easily. Some never would and he would just have to face that from now on, he would always be a little different. He chuckled softly, resisting the urge to touch it. His mother had always repeated the same thing when he got himself hurt as a little kid, 'Cooper, be glad, better this then dead, and better dead then Capricornia'. Cooper couldn't resist, his hand hovering over it, was this better than death? He hoped so.

Cooper put his hand over his eye. His blind eye.

The eye was covered in an intricate eye patch. It was the color of his aura, a deep purple. It had beautiful runes on its surface scrawled in a radiant azure in a dialect unknown to Cooper. The eye patch had been a gift from Captain Kosta and he wore it with pride, even though he wore the wound with shame.

Cooper found it hard to believe he had lost his sight in one eye, but he remembered it all very clearly.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

During the brawl, a knife had been hurled at him. It had sunk deep into his eye and the pain had been excruciating, unbearable. He had fainted from the pain to the sound of the earth ripping apart and a bestial roar shattering the air. He thought he had died.

When he had finally awoken he was in a cocoon of stone; It was very dark so he hadn't known one of his eyes was blind. The pain still thrummed like crazy, though. He had had to blast his way through with water, and even then it had held up for quite awhile.

He had crawled out to a scene that would forever remain in his mind.

The earth was in complete ravage. A hill had been split in two and stone precipices had ripped through the surface of the ground, marring it horribly. Bodies of the dead littered the ground. Cooper had searched and searched but he could find no sign of Soren nor Max. He had gone into a panic, screaming their names until he lost his voice.

It was still dark and he had curled on the ground among the stones, his strength having failed him, his hope having left him.

And then it all changed.

With a voice of care, it spoke to him, its voice mystical, as if there was a certain reverberation to its words "Don't be afraid. I'm sure whoever you're looking for is okay."

Cooper looked up and his mouth dropped open in awe.

A dragon looked down at the curled boy. It had large dark brown eyes and it's scales glistened ruby red. Huge wings were sprang open, like outstretched arms; it's wingspan was long, almost eight feet in all. They were the same ruby color but streaks of yellow went over the red like lightning across a sunset sky. The rest of it's elongated body stretched far back.

"Your...you're a..." Cooper stammered as slowly edged himself backward.

"Dragon, yes," The beast answered. "No need to run, I'm not a brute, you know"

Cooper found it hard to believe he was in the presence of such an animal. When he didn't respond, it had tilted it's head to one side and he swear it had grinned a little. It looked about the stones, seemingly looking for something. With a shake of it's head, it gave a sigh of disappointment.

It turned to face Cooper one last time, snorting, sending a waft of smoke from its nostrils "See you around, kid."

And just like that, it took off into the air, wings flapping intensely, stirring the earth, whipping leaves and dust about, taking off into the open sky, leaving Cooper to look up and watch it leave, his eyes evident with wonder.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Cooper hadn't seen the mythical creature since. He had waken up in the hospital tent a couple days ago. Apparently, he had collapsed after meeting the dragon and Soren had come back to carry him to safety. Soren had been out searching for other survivors of the attack when he had found Cooper, passed out and presumably dead.

Cooper had questioned him on Max's whereabouts to a large extent, but to no avail. Soren had no clue where he had gone. All that he could find was his sword, Cometfell, stuck in a crisscross of stone precipices, miraculously unscathed by the cruel earth.

Cooper looked beside his bed. The sword lay on his nightstand, sheathed. Cooper didn't know what else to do with it. He didn't know what to do period. All he knew was that he missed his friend like nothing else. He wondered if he would ever see him again. At least if he's gone, Cooper thought, holding back tears, he's with them, when I'm stuck here, alone again.
***********************************

DragonDog1: I'm sorry that chapter was so short but that was all I had too say on that. I hope that you continue to read on and will find out even more. Sorry if these chapters have been too sappy recently. Please comment and vote because your opinions matter to me greatly. Thank you!