Lion's Flame

Chapter Twelve

Gwen coughed and winced in pain as she gripped her bruised side. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth, her hands were burnt and charred, her eyelids drooped and her feet stumbled.

She inhaled through her nose and hunched over, gripping a tree for support. She looked ahead; the trees wavered in her vision and the sounds of the forests echoed in her pointed ears.

She knew she wouldn't be able to carry on much more with her injuries, even with increased senses and healing abilities, "Mother..." Gwen wheezed. She coughed up more scarlet blood, before collapsing onto the bed of leaves on the forest floor.

The Empress watched on through her crystal ball, she stood on the ledge jutting out from a cave entrance. She sighed and sheathed her bloody sword, she chucked the ball in the air and caught it again before turned and walking into the cave.

"Thane." She said sternly. Thane looked up at her with teary eyes.

The dead dragon lay next to him; her orange scales were once sparkling, until she was brutally killed. Dry blood stained her scales and her eyes had been cut out, her claws had been taken and scales from her tail had been stolen. The back of the cave was covered with blood where the Empress had killed the dragon hunters that had remained to guard her corpse.

"What was her name?" Thane whispered, the Empress's eyes softened and she knelt down in front of Thane.

"Her name was Solis. She was a kind dragon, her fighting skills were incredible... She lost her rider in a battle nine years ago." she said sadly.

"How do you know so much about her?" Thane stood up, "She was my sister's dragon." the Empress whispered.

She mounted Nesenth and waited for her apprentice to mount Fern. Nesenth picked Solis's limp body up in his four sets of claws after he was hovering in the air. They flew to a clearing close to the coastal border of the country.

Nesenth set the dragon corpse down in the clearing, the Empress jumped off his back and landed on top of the gravestone already occupying the clearing. "Start digging." she said, before jumping of the gravestone and striding into the trees.

Nesenth asked no questions and began churning up an area of earth and dirt large enough to hold the small body of Solis but still making sure to not dig up the other grave in the clearing, Thane groaned and began scooping pitiful amounts of dirt into his large hands and throwing them aside, Fern flew away to find a boulder large enough to be the dragon's headstone.

"Who's buried there?" Thane asked, nodding his head towards the gravestone a good way away from him.

Nesenth looked up, 'Anolis. The Empress's twin sister was buried here nine years ago, she was Solis's rider.' Nesenth went back to digging.

By the time the sun sunk below the horizon; Solis was lying peacefully in her grave. Her headstone was a massive, jagged boulder with shards of crystal jutting out of the top, with words etched into the rough surface.

R.I.P
Solis,
Dragon of Anolis;
Sister of the Empress.
May this dragon find eternal peace in the skies,
Forever.

The Empress emerged from the trees, evidence that she had shed tears was obvious by the look of her face. The Empress stiffened, she cursed herself for not noticing earlier. The clearing was empty of living beings besides the Empress herself, the two dragons and the human boy.

The Empress grinned and started to laugh loudly, Thane stared at the woman who was usually masked off from any emotion. She gripped her stomach and cackled, "Ha! That wolf will be the death of me!" She shouted up to the sky and smiled.

The Empress turned to Thane and chuckled when she saw his confused face, "she's gone after Gwen."