Penny wiped her forehead and spat out a mouthful of blood. Her tongue burned where she'd bitten down on it, but it was better that than the alternative.
Silently, she finished tying a bandage around her leg, breathing slowly in an attempt to quiet the pain. I know she hates me, but this is absurd.
The mountain peaks around Penny glistened with snow, gorgeous and ethereal, but she was in no position to appreciate them. A shrieking roar sounded and Penny ducked behind a rock to avoid being seen. A brilliant rush of light, white with rippling colors in it, thundered past the rock; Penny felt the heat and force of the blast from where she sat and held her breath.
After aching, horrible minutes, another roar echoed through the valley and wingbeats glided away. Penny spat the blood that had pooled in her mouth and risked a burst of restoration magic to patch it up. The wingbeats did not return; clearly, her pursuer had left.
Penny stood and cursed mentally as her leg began to burn. She had blocked most of the force of the blast and kept her leg, but it had taken a lot of her strength. She began to appreciate what the ancient warriors must have gone through while clearing Crista Magna of its red dragons. This was a smaller nest, but it still was not easy.
With a sigh, Penny started back to her base camp. When she arrived, she tucked into her camouflaged lean-to and began slowly working restoration magic into her leg. She couldn't afford to be careless with it; such injuries had been linked to madness.
The Queen is definitely after blood. There was no other reason for Penny to be sent to do such a risky thing alone. She had been told that the Kaster Pass nest was exhibiting odd behavior and sent to check on the dragons inside, but somehow the entire nest had been sharded. What could have broken an entire nest to the point that every dragon in it grew a heart shard? Whatever had happened, it must have been devastating.
After about six hours, Penny sat up with a groan. That had taken a lot of magic out of her, but the dragon burn had been healed and the residual contamination had been expelled. She could safely rest for now. Even now, the dragons had not completely sharded; if they had, her base camp would be in the center of a vast area of destruction. Something was keeping them restrained, for which she was thankful.
Unlike Crista Magna's Red Age dragons, these were white dragons. They did not breathe fire, but rather an incredibly powerful and forceful light that burned things away. When sane, they were powerful protectors and had a vibrant culture, especially fond of poetry and snow sculpture. When sharded, they were capable of more destruction than any other dragon. And there was now an entire nest of sharded whites in Kaster Pass.
Penny reached into her pouch and pulled out a dragon shard the size of her fist. This one had been young, and not too hard to release from its misery. Even so, the shard was an indisputable treasure, and she felt a tinge of guilt over what she was about to do with it. But there was no other way.
Quietly, Penny cracked off a chunk of the shard and swallowed it, feeling it break apart in her stomach and release vast amounts of dragon magic. Thanks to her father's draconic heritage, she could use the stuff, though she still had to be wary of insanity. If someone who wasn't descended from a dragon attempted to eat a heart shard, they would go instantly mad; the risk was lower with Penny, but there was still a chance. Heart shards were dangerous things.
Penny focused for another hour on slowly collecting what she could from the chunk of heart shard and letting go of the rest, before it started to burn her internally or drive her insane. Finally she opened her eyes and stood; the remains of the small shard she'd broken lay glassy and magicless on the ground in front of her, as all heart shards did when broken. With a sigh of regret at the waste, Penny pulled out her sword again and began to run up the mountain toward the dragon's nest.
Wingbeats from the side warned her that the dragons had spread further down the slope. Whatever was containing the dragons, it seemed to be weakening. She needed to act quickly, and undoubtedly more shards would need to be broken and most of their contents wasted in the attempt.
Off to her left, white light flashed and a cluster of evergreens burst into flame; the golden glow of fire vanished immediately as the trees were incinerated in seconds. Penny changed course for the burned area and plunged into the remaining plume of smoke and ash, holding her breath.
A glint of white showed through the darkened air; it was a wingtip. Penny caught hold of it as it rose and slid down it to the dragon's shoulder, feeling the beast shake with the force of the radiant blast coming out of its mouth. She climbed onto its shoulder and raised her blade.
I'm sorry. I'm sure you were amazing. Her blade sliced through the dragon's neck cleanly. A spray of dragon's blood leaped out and turned to dust midair. In seconds, the dragon had crumbled into scraps of ash and faded away, leaving a heart shard the size of Penny's forearm. Penny picked up the shard, whispered the Plea for the Dead, and started back up the mountain.
There should be about fifteen left. Penny had already dealt with over twice that number, but those that stayed close to the nest were mostly the largest, and they were clustered closely together. She had confidence against them one on one, but if two or more showed up together, she might be driven into a corner again. The last time, she had escaped with a burned leg, but if it happened again she might not be so lucky.
With her heart beating a bit fast, Penny scouted around the edge of the devastated area, searching for a dragon on its own. There was one flying a bit up the slope, but it was too close to the nest. Fifteen dragons were no joke, but they paled in comparison to the nest matriarch. Penny felt her heart sinking at the thought and her limbs slowing, and she turned her thoughts resolutely to the mountains and focused on just the next dragon.
A glint of white showed through the trees and Penny stopped, then dashed to the side. She found herself thanking her falcon instincts as a thunder of white light roared down the mountain, evaporating trees in a flash of flame.
That... is impressive. The dragon hunting her was much larger than the ones she'd seen so far; its wing could cover the throne room of Crista Magna. Penny was unsure if her blade could completely cut off its head. If it couldn't, the dragon shard would take effect and regenerate the wound with crystallized flesh, leaving it uninjured and even angrier than before.
With a sigh, Penny sheathed her blade. It wouldn't help her in this fight. With such a dragon, she could only strike once and ensure that that would be enough, and her Champion's sword, though strong and keen, could not provide her any assurance.
Penny stopped short, the hair on her arms standing on end, and a thunderous rumble of heavy light poured down the slope in front of her. Penny felt the heat on her face as she launched backward, pouring magic into her limbs. No more time to think. There were two.
With a rush Penny launched herself into the air and turned in a circle, marking the two dragons on her mental map. As her feet hit the ground, she veered to the right and began to circle around the smaller dragon, putting it between her and the other.
In Penny's right hand, she created a single-edged blade of light; it was still quite dim, but hopefully it would be enough. She was far from mastering this magic.
The smaller dragon lunged at Penny, and she threw herself backward to avoid the giant head that plowed through the trees. She took advantage of this perfect chance and swung, neatly removing the dragon's head. It faded into dust and Penny reached for its heart shard.
With a roar and a thunderous weight, the breath of the second dragon rushed toward her; Penny's eyes widened and she flung herself backward down the slope, abandoning her weak and flickering sword entirely and pouring the magic into her speed.
Instants stretched out to infinity as trees and rocks flew past; Penny hardly noticed them move, her eyes fixed on the slope above. She didn't dare look where she was going; the loss of an instant could mean the end.
A crack rang out on the slope above, and birds leaped into startled flight, far too late. Penny took every scrap of her magic and poured it into a shield in front of her, praying she could hold it against the blast. She had made the shield as small and dense as possible, but there was no assurance that it would be enough.
The world went white, crammed with heat and pain. Penny tumbled like a rag doll, bouncing down the slope. Her shield cracked; all she could do was pour more force into it and pray it held.
Some time later, Penny's eyes slowly focused and she discovered that she was still alive, very dazed, and in unrelenting pain. Her eyes were badly damaged from the brilliant light, and at least one leg appeared to be broken. She heard nothing, but felt a trickle of warmth in her ears; her eardrums must have burst. From the pain, most of her skin had probably been severely burned. But the pain told her one thing; she had survived.
Tears leaked out of Penny's eyes, not from pain but from joy. She was still alive. The heart shard had been the length of her arm, or even longer. All that magic, released in a single instant by the second dragon's breath, and she had survived. It was practically a miracle.
Penny lay still for a moment, breathing the smell of soil and burned skin and smoke, relishing the sting of the sunlight and the cold air. She was alive. There would be agonizing work ahead, restoring and repairing the damage, staying away from the remaining dragons while she did it, but for now she had survived the detonation of a white dragon shard, and that was more than enough.