Events of Arrival

Episode 4: Rightful Spot

Forty-five seconds on the clock.

It was Cloud, raring to go. Nola jumped up and whipped his scarf from around his neck. One or two good shakes later, it was solidified into his scythe, held over his shoulder like a batter at home plate, eyeing the circling dragon with unease.

Then he looked away, seemingly reevaluating his play, and let the scythe revert to being a scarf. Calder eyed him curiously, warily, as he backed away from her. She jumped back into animation, waving her hand in an airborne circle and then ending the signal with a point straight at Nola. Cloud heeded her command, tucked in his wings, and swooped low.

Nola braced himself, arms raised as if to catch...

And Cloud's momentum was destroyed by the giant pastel pink demon that stood where Nola had just been, dark horns protruding from his eyes and curving back over his head. Previously neat fucsia hair was now a spiky, matted, almost bloodred mess. And the hands, now wickedly clawed, were holding Cloud's jaw open as the seven-foot temporary monstrosity heaved the juvenile dragon over his shoulder.

This was one of those times where multiple heads might've been better. Goddammit. When would she learn which dragon was the right one for the job? She huffed and yelled to her dragon, who was shaking off the shock of the attack.

"CLOUD! Eyes on target at all times! Tail-whip!"

The dragon's orange eyes flared up and he obeyed, smacking Nola hard in the face with the meaty, armored end third of his tail.

"Again!" A second smack was delivered, but this time Nola's claws gripped the tail and yanked, loosening Cloud's grip on the ground he squawked, and Calder came up with another command.

"Bellow! Pushback!" Two moves in one. The first order of business was to drench the target area in Cloud's yellow-hot breath. The second, once Nola continued to hold fast on the tail, was to take flight, almost dragging the demon along. Cloud only hovered as high as he could, beating his wings hard in order to stir up the flames below. One perfectly-controlled wingbeat was all it took to loosen Nola's grip on the tail. A single compressed clump of air.

They shouldn't have expected Nola to just give up after that, and they didn't. But they definitely didn't expect him to leap twenty feet straight into the air and tackle Cloud around the neck. They fell and tumbled, dragon sustaining scratches to the armored part of his back and belly, but all it took was one claw coming a little close to the vulnerable wing for Calder to scream "FIGHT BACK!" at the top of her lungs.

Cloud's jaws clamped hard around Nola's bicep, puncturing the jacket that was already straining against the mass of flesh within it. The dragon, with one great motion aided by his forearms, ripped Nola away and tossed him back towards Calder--with only ten seconds left on Nola's timer. He caught himself, skidded in the dirt, set his sights on Calder, and roared.

Oh, and charged, too.

This time, she was ready for it. Seven seconds. He pounded the ground with such force that the clay beneath the layer of dust cracked and Calder's leap to safety was aided by the blow. Five. She slid between his legs as he tried to grab her, but only succeeded in shearing off a lock of hair with his claws. Three. She jumped and ran up the length of his back as he stood upright again, taking a flying leap from his shoulder and performing a beautiful front flip. One. His fist flew at her, a devastating downward blow that would've caved her skull in, if not for the tiny detail that his time was up and he was already shrinking. The blow hit strong enough to send Calder to her knees, but not too strong for Calder to catch it.

But now there was the issue that she was on her knees--or almost there--and had Nola pushing down on her from above. She wasn't physically strong enough to push back or even sustain her position if she broke away with one arm to send Cloud a signal. So she was down to two options: scream for her dragon or yield to Nola.