Dragon Sync

Chapter 17 The Crystal

Liam ran down a natural ramp to the books as Zekoa sighed with content. Rakier watched the entrance in case of an intruder (although they were technically the intruders) as he glanced over at Zekoa.

   "So what's up with that sphere?" Rakier finally said, "I feel weird around it."

   "I do too, like my mind is clouding and all care about is protecting the sphere," Zekoa said. The brothers were doing their best to not look at the sphere as they heard movement above them.

   "Hey Liam? Be careful I think something is coming," Zekoa said quietly.

   Liam dove for cover in the shadows immediately.

   "Stay back, I'll handle this," Rakier said, facing the entrance.

   A Red appeared at the entrance. His eyes were wild in filled with fury as he snarled at Rakier.

   "Get. Away. From. My. CRYSTAL!" The Red roared and charged Rakier. Rakier braced himself as the Red crashed into him. He twisted and tried to get outside as the Red bit and clawed at Rakier's scales. The Red slammed Rakier against a wall nearby and Rakier took the opportunity to get the the Red outside of the library.

   The Red was about the size of Rakier, even though Rakier wasn't done growing yet according to Liam. Rakier bit into the Red's leg as a warning but the Red didn't care as he tried to bite the top of his shoulder. Rakier threw the Red off, but the Red bit into Rakier's tail and with surprising force threw him across the canyon floor.

   Before Rakier could react the Red was on top of him again. He tore at Rakier's scales,  chipping at them until his sapphire blue skin showed underneath, blood trickling as well. Rakier did his best to do the same but Rakier didn't know how to fight a dragon.

   He had fought before, but it was always against wolves, or deer, or mountain lions, things that were relatively easy to kill for him. Dragons had hard scales and Rakier had never fought against a scaled dragon before, he didn't know how to pierce the scaling and he didn't have fire to help him.

   He really wanted his fire now.

   His instincts told him to dig his claws into the Red's belly, which worked in drawing blood, but the Red was insane, Rakier could see that now. His eyes told Rakier that the Red was not in his right mind, the Red didn't care about his injuries, or the pain, he cared about killing Rakier and protecting that sphere.

   Rakier slipped slightly and the Red used that opportunity to sink his jaws into Rakier's neck. He had a powerful bite but Rakier twisted and struggled so the Red could never truly break the hard scaling on his neck.

   Though it was beginning to break.

   Rakier let out a roar in panic, not caring who heard at this point. He felt his scales crack as he began to tunnel vision, all he could see was the Red.

   Fire erupted from Rakier's mouth.

  The Red snarled and let go of Rakier's neck so Rakier shot to his feet in challenge again. Rakier braced himself again and let instincts take over as a stream of fire shot directly towards the Red. The Red dodged it by climbing the canyon wall and launched towards Rakier with startling speed.

    He was blocked by Zekoa tackling him and pinning him down. Zekoa looked at Rakier shakily as Rakier took a step closer. The Red struggled under Zekoa's weight as Rakier sensed more movement above.

    "More?" Zekoa whispered as he heard claws against rock.

    Rakier blew fire in the direction he heard the sounds. "Show yourself! We've already taken down one of you!" Rakier roared.

   "The crystal. It must be protected," a voice said.

   "It's my crystal!  And YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!" The Red was filled with new strength as he flung Zekoa off easily and slammed him against the wall.

    A blur of gold slammed into Rakier as the Red charged Zekoa. Zekoa tried to take flight but the Red grabbed his tail and slammed him onto the canyon floor, making Zekoa feel searing pain in his wing. Rakier tried taking flight but the Gold blew her stream of fire in his direction. She had similar eyes to the Red as she charged after Rakier, who was scaling the canyon wall. She blew her fire again, this time blindly hitting the ledge Rakier was on. It began to crumble as she climbed to reach him. Rakier thought fast and blew his fire where the ledge was failing. He jumped out of the way as the ledge gave way.

   The ledge crashed into the Gold and sent her to canyon floor, crushing her when they landed. Rakier tried not to look as he went to help Zekoa.

   Zekoa dodged the Red easily. Zekoa could tell he was insane, and he was willing to guess the crystal had something to do with it. He looked back at the strange crystal as his vision began to cloud again. Zekoa tried to look away but the crystal seemed to hold him in place as it took control of his mind.

   He wanted the crystal for himself.

   Zekoa turned and spat a fireball directly at the Red. the fireball exploded with force on his body and flung the Red backwards. Zekoa charged madly at the Red but felt another force knock him aside. His head hit a rock which made seeing even harder before the fog in his brain faded away. Zekoa blinked lazily as vision came into focus again.

   He watched as Rakier took the Red's life.

  Rakier had the Red's neck in his jaws while the Red was unconscious from the fireball. He closed his jaws as hard as he could as he felt scale break. Next Rakier felt the skin on his neck and blood entering his mouth. He kept closing his jaw even further as he felt muscle snap before finally reaching his vital artery and wind pipe.

    He snapped those as quickly as possible.

    Rakier dropped the lifeless body as Zekoa took a cautious step closer. When Zekoa was sure his brother wasn't mad from the crystal he relaxed a little, as did Rakier when he saw Zekoa's eyes. They both turned towards the entrance of the library and looked at each other.

    "We need to destroy that thing," they said in unison.

   Liam poked his head out as five or more dragons surronded them.

   "You need to come wih us," one of them said as the others tackled them and knocked all three out.