"Why! Why would you do such a thing!" a dragon cried out from within the crowd.
It was the acid dragon, the one Silver had prevented from killing the humans that had rescued him. He was growling, obviously angry. It seemed as though they were back in the halls of Sky Mountain, the crowd of dragons part of the group they had freed from A.O.D.H. They were all angry, furious even.
"How dare you?! You realise what they've done to us? What they've put us through? We've been tortured, ridiculed, reduced to mere animals!"
"No... It's Eldawin that did that. He was the one that put you there in the first place," Silver tried to reason with them.
"That may be true, but he didn't make the humans do anything. They chose to put us in cages, to breed us, to control every moment of our lives. That just proves that they don't deserve to be in charge of us, to be in this world. Any race that decides that they are more important than another deserves to be destroyed!"
"You're wrong! None of that would be possible without Eldawin," growled the dragoness, but taking a step backwards as they began to advance.
"Oh, but it is. It happens all the time, in different shapes and forms, from D.E.D, and even the power they attempt to put over others of their own race!"
"Dragons do the same thing. We are just like them, only in a different body."
"No, we are much more than them! And we will not let you continue. We will destroy all who defend the likes of them!"
Slowly the crowd began to advance on her again. Silver snarled at them, pulling herself into full-metal form, but knowing that even she wouldn't be able to stand against so many. With a cry the acid dragon launched himself at her. She knocked him away with her wing, dodging passed, but that was all she managed before she was tackled from the other side, and crushed into the ground under the weight of hundreds of dragons.
* * *
Silver woke with a start, gasping for air and looking around with a start, taking in her surroundings instantly. As soon as she realised she was in a cave and not being swarmed by other dragons, she let out a groan, laying her head back down on the straw nest she was laying in. A wave of dizziness passed over her, and she closed her eyes with a small snarl. If felt like that time when she had been hungover.
When it passed she allowed herself to open her eyes again. She didn't recognise where she was at first, but she assumed she was in one of the caves of Sky Mountain. She shuffled slightly in her nest, letting out a small hiss of annoyance as one of the pieces of straw poke up through her scales. Why anyone had thought that putting her in something like this was a good idea she didn't know.
Slowly she forced herself to her feet and stepped out of the nest. She staggered to the left, leaning up against the wall and shaking her head again. She was so tired, but she knew that the moment she closed her eyes again another nightmare would be waiting for her, likely a lot worse than the one she had just had.
She looked around the cave, evaluating the area. There were a number of dragons lying around in straw nests. Snores echoed through the chamber, followed by the occasional flickering light of fire from one of the dragoness's in the cave.
Silver turned to look back at the nest she had been sleeping in, and hesitated when she saw Zepos lying beside it, deeply asleep himself. She felt herself blush deeply when she realised that he had carried her all the way back from the battle, likely refusing anyone's help to do so. She sighed softly to herself and carefully walked over to the edge of the exit leading into The Nest. She wobbled slightly, looking down, and second guessed herself. Was she really fit enough to be flying?
With a grunt she shook her head and leapt of the edge, opening her wings and just gliding to the ground below. Zepos was rather high up in The Nest, getting closer to the top all the time. It made her feel slightly proud for the lightning drake, but it was also a longer way down to the bottom. But she dealt with it.
As far as she could tell, it was early morning, around the time when the sun would start to rise. She guessed they had arrived back at the mountain not too long ago, and wondered where all the new dragons were sleeping. They were beginning to run out of caves inside the mountain.
Landing as gently as possible, Silver began to make her way through the Tunnel connecting The Nest and The Centre. She needed something to wake her up, and the river winding its way through The Centre would be just the thing she needed. She made her way up to the small lake and plunged her head in, the cold shock it created doing wonders. With a small grunt she back off, shaking her head with a huff.
There were a few dragons about, but not many were up that early in the morning. A few gave her strange looks, but she ignored them, instead blinking her eyes rapidly as she got over the self-imposed shock. She turned and looked around with a small sigh.
"I thought I would find you here," a voice startled her, and she turned to see Celestia sitting by the edge of the river looking faintly concerned.
"Celestia?" Silver shook her head, "What are you doing up so early?"
"I would ask you the same question. You look exhausted."
Not wanting to directly answer that question the metal dragon tried to change the subject, "Where are you hatchlings?"
"Still sleeping," the light dragoness snorted, "Don't try to change the subject. You should be sleeping, why are you up?"
Silver gave a tired look at her friend, "I... just... I don't want to talk about it."
"Silver!" growled Celestia, startling her slightly, "We are worried about you. I know you haven't been sleeping much lately. Ever since you arrived back from the Syndicate you've been tired. Your shell has been duller then usual, and all you've been doing while here is training, and rather horribly at that. Even Iraliene is worried about you, but we've refrained from saying anything because you have been silent about it. But no more, what in the world is happening to you Silver?"
"I..." she hesitated, not exactly wanting to open up about it just yet.
"And don't lie to me! Give me the truth, Silver."
The two dragoness's glared at each other for a moment. Silver could see that her friend wouldn't back down from this. With a sigh she lowered her head, giving in. It wouldn't hurt to tell someone, but she was tired of having everyone worry about her.
"I... I've been having nightmares," she admitted, giving at least half the truth, "Every time I close my eyes, I get assaulted by them."
Celestia tilted her head, as if not entirely convinced, "What about?"
"Lots of things, everything. About what I've done, what I will do. Of failing and watching the death of everyone I know," the metallic dragon shivered softly.
Her friend sat down, a little concerned, "I didn't think you, of all dragons, would be suffering from those sorts of things."
A small smile crossed her maw, "I guess there are some things about me that are unexpected."
"Do you know of anything that could be causing these terrors? Have you been eating properly?" asked the light dragon, taking a step forward.
"Of course," snorted Silver, yawning softly, "It's not something you would be able to help with Celestia, so... can you please stop worrying."
"You are making that very hard right now," growled the light dragoness, "Silver, you obviously need some help."
"There are more important things to worry about."
"No! Would you just stop it!" Celestia suddenly snarled, causing Silver to take a small step back in surprise, "We are all worried about you. You are deteriating Silver. You may be one of the most powerful dragons in the world, but mentally you are weaker then you have ever been. I don't know if it's because of these so-called nightmares or not, but I can see it. You can barely stay awake during the day. You rarely talk to anyone as much as you used to. What is happening Silver?"
The metallic dragon hesitated, surprised by the sudden outburst, "It's... Eldawin."
"Eldawin?"
Silver nodded her head, "About a month ago, when I went to the Syndicate, I met with him. He ambushed me, and threatened to break me if I didn't stop trying to fight him. Well, I haven't stopped, and his idea of breaking me is plaguing me with nightmares night after night."
"Oh... have you told anyone?"
"No. I didn't want anyone to worry. I'm tired of everyone worrying about me."
"Well that's just something you are going to need to accept," grunted Celestia, "Cause we ain't gonna stop."
Silver chuckled slightly, "I guess so."
The light dragon thought for a moment, "Have you tried using one of those new Mind Breaker things. Maybe they will stop the dreams."
"I have," Silver sighed softly, "I thought it would work as well... but it didn't. I still had some horrible dreams, and when I woke up the device had... stopped working. I don't know how... but it scares me a little that Eldawin might be able to break through those things."
Celestia seemed a little worried at that, "Oh."
"But they were useful anyway," Silver smiled grimly again, the tiredness making her a little less reactive to emotion.
Her friend sighed, "You are going to need to talk to someone Silver. Let others know what is happening to you. Maybe then we can find someway to fight it."
The metallic dragoness shook her head, "No... I'm the only one that can fight this. It's my head he's messing with, my problem. You guys can't help with this, no matter how much you want to."
"Silver..."
"No, don't try, please," Silver looked at her, "He won't break me. I swear it. But defeating these... these dreams. It's something I need to do alone."
"But you aren't alone. Let someone help."
"How? How can someone help me with this Celestia? It isn't something that I can stop just by sleeping beside someone, or being around others. That won't help. The only way to beat this is to become stronger."
Celestia hesitated again, before nodding her head softly, "Just... just don't push everyone else away as you as you do. This fight may be yours... but this war isn't. Maybe you could use these nightmares against Eldawin in a way. Learn about him from them."
Silver nodded her head, "I'll try.
"That's all I can ask for," the light dragoness sighed.
* * *
Heat blasted throughout the massive cavern, turning rock walls red. The very air was seared from existence, but was quickly replaced by the vents on the roof of the cavern. Burning magma leaked into a pool of lava surrounding a small island of rock.
On this island sat The Machine, menacing and ominous, the elronium metal gleaming brilliantly with the red heat. Other pieces of the metal were lying around, some also burning red with blistering heat, and more rock melting below it. If one were to walk into this room, they would instantly die from the heat.
Yet, in the midst of it all sat a young fire drake, looking eternally frustrated. He growled softly as another small part of the island melted away. It was useless! No matter what he tried he just couldn't get it to work. He had tried everything, but there wasn't another substance on the face of the earth that could withstand the heat that elronium could.
The problem hadn't been melting the metal. As hard as that was, with the heat he could produce it had been relatively simple. The problem was that nothing could hold the elronium once it had been melted. Other metals such as iron and steel turned molten within seconds, and rock didn't do much better. He had tried to control the heat so it didn't release into the other substances, but that turned out to be far more difficult then anything he had learnt so far. He would need years of practice, even with his power. Those were years they didn't have.
With a sigh he opened his wings and leapt over the small lava lake into an opening at the other side of the cave. They had long since given up on doors, as they always melted with the rest of the magma. Raize was just thankful he hadn't done any major damage to the surrounding base with his fire.
As he left the heated room behind he felt a small chill run down his spine, and he shook himself a little. While being in the room with over one thousand degrees of heated metal was quite comfortable for the fire dragon, it definitely had an effect as he moved into a far cooler area. Though he was usually able to adjust quite quickly, it was still rather uncomfortable for a couple of minutes.
He walked into a far smaller room, still relatively large, and was surprised to find two other dragons waiting for him. One he instantly recognised, how could he not. Eldawin was sitting patiently and smiled almost kindly as the young fire dragon walked inside. Raize nodded his head politely to the elder. Although he was working with the mind drake, he was still very much afraid of him. He knew what Eldawin was capable off, and was just beginning to realise the full extent of it.
The other dragon he didn't recognise. It was a telekinetic drake, without a mind-controlling device. The drake was rather large, with scars covering numerous areas of his body and an angry scowl covering his face, as if he didn't exactly like having to meet up with Raize. So the fire dragon ignored him, and simply turned to Eldawin.
"I was wondering when you would decide to take a break. You can spend days in there without even realising," said the master of the mind.
"Well... this machine needs to be finished doesn't it?" grunted Raize in reply.
"Very true," chuckled Eldawin, "How have you been going?"
"As well as last time you checked," sighed the fire drake, "No matter what I try... I can't meld the elronium with The Machine. It simply won't work."
"Have you tried using an ice dragon to help cool everything else down a bit?"
"Yes... but she didn't last long," Raize shivered at the memory.
A couple of weeks previous he had bought in an ice dragoness to help, wanting her to keep everything else cool while he heated up the elronium. It had worked, for an hour, by which time the dragoness had burnt to death under the heat he had produced. The worst part about it was that he hadn't even realised until the metal she was supposed to be keeping cool started melting again. The week after had left the fire drake feeling horrible for what he had accidently done.
Eldawin nodded softly, already knowing of the incident, "Well, I have someone else that could help with your work. This is Zoralth, the leader of... Eldawin's Syndicate, as it's called nowadays."
He seemed faintly amused at the name. Raize turned to look at the telekinetic dragon with renewed interest. Of course, he had heard of Zoralth before. Silver had spoken rather venomously about him when she had returned from her first trip to The Syndicate. When he had heard about this dragon then, he had half the mind to travel to the Syndicate and give him a piece of his mind. But now that he understood what this drake was fighting for, he was willing to give him a second chance.
"How will a telekinetic dragon help me?" asked Raize, glancing at Eldawin.
"Zoralth here happens to be quite skilled with his element. He could use it to mould the elronium while you heat it up."
Raize tilted his head. He hadn't thought of that. There was one problem however.
"Umm... what about the heat? If an ice dragon wasn't able to withstand it then how would he?"
"I won't be anywhere near you young dragon," grunted Zoralth, speaking for the first time, "I will be able to control the liquid from a distance, with possibly an ice dragon there to keep me cool. I will hold the liquid in the general area while you mould it if it needs to be."
Raize frowned slightly, before nodding his head, "Okay."
The idea might actually work, if Zoralth was as good as he said he was. The less solid matter was, the harder it was for a telekinetic dragon to control it. To be able to lift magma at a safe distance from the heat... that would be extremely difficult.
"Now, lets begin. I am eager to see if this works," grinned Eldawin.
They collected another ice dragoness from the base above. This one was a little older, maybe twenty or so, with a bit of a nervousness about her. To keep himself a secret, Eldawin cast an illusion to appear as a human, and gave Raize and Zoralth imaginary devices as well, before they began to walk back to the room.
Raize hopped over the lava once more, most of it having become solid once again, but still very hot. The other three stay near the entrance, just watching the fire dragon. Raize, landing on the small island in the middle, looked back at them and gestured to one of the elronium pieces. Zoralth seemed to ready himself, narrowing his eyes at the piece. Steadily it began to rise from the ground, hovering in midair.
Taking a deep breath the fire drake opened his mouth and let a heated flame burst forth. He focused on it, narrowing the stream and watching as it flickered, tickling his throat with the heat. Gathering his power the fire dragon let it flow into the stream, the fire becoming hotter and hotter and hotter, until the ground below him was beginning to warm to melting point. The fire changed colour as well, from a red/yellow to near white from the heat, and steadily... the elronium at the centre began to melt, long before anything else around it did.
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Hey guys! New chapter! I am so sorry it took so long to get out. I've been very... distracted lately. I should be getting chapters out quicker now though... should be. Anyway, vote if you enjoyed and comment what you thought. The next chapter will be out as soon as I can get it. See Ya!
Pennator^^