Chapter 31
I watched as the two titans fought. I frowned, trying to remember something, but that thought fell away as the two battled. Spells were cast. I saw them bounce off of bodies, as if they were shedding water.
Finally they closed, and fought man to man. Or, in this case, demigod to demigod. They grappled. The sun moved in the sky, and still they fought. The sun set, and moon rose, and still the two fought.
First one, then the other would be thrown by his opponent. The ground shook as a huge body hit it. The one thrown would scramble to his feet, and meet the rush of the other. It was a draw. Nether could get an advantage over the other.
The moon traversed the sky, and still they fought. Finally, at daybreak of the third day of battle, they started to use large amounts of power. They were trying to disrupt the body of the other. They glowed.
I watched, fascinated. Then it happened. Every movement slowed to a crawl. It was a peculiar happening. I watched as one demigod started to compact on himself, while shooting a beam of light at the top of the skull of his enemy.
I saw an explosion starting to happen. It was as though I was watching a video replay, slowed many hundreds of times. The compacting demigod was now almost gone. He appeared to be encased in a green gem of some sort.
The explosion got bigger. The demigod who was a gem was being blown away by the force of the explosion. I followed its flight as the explosion completed. I watched the gem glance off a rock face nearly a quarter mile away, and land in a pond of some sort. When I looked back at the other demigod, I noticed the top of his skull was gone. One of his hands was missing, along with several chunks of flesh. He was dead.
I sat up with a start, gasping! What a dream! My heart was beating as if I had just run 5 miles. I was shaking with fear, excitement, and knowledge. I knew where to find the demigod who had compacted and changed into a green gem!
Vostich Landkur was not dead! He was changed, but he was still in this world! Lord, if I could just get to him, find his changed body and retrieve it... Well, I would worry about that, if and when it happened.
I was to excited to sleep. I got out of my bedding, dressed, and exited my tent. I looked around. I was at a Landkur-Minturi encampment. I still could not believe that we were helping this man who had been a thorn in my side since my return to this land.
Hell, it wasn't so long ago that he had cast an excruciating spell at me, forcing me to change from dragon back into a human. I shrugged that thought away, and surveyed my surroundings.
Tents. Thousands and thousands of tents were set up on this plain. Fires were burning low in many places. It was about 4AM. A shadow passed in front of the moon as a dragon flew overhead.
I was thinking furiously about the dream I'd just had. I had had a front row seat of the fight between the two demigods, Landkur and Minturi! I had a feeling the goddess of nature, Vostich Landkur's mother, my great great grandmother was once again exerting her will and power.
Everytime I thought about the power she had demonstrated to me, and through me, I was amazed anew. To be able to put me into someone's memory... or was it her memory of the battle?
I felt a slight pull. I turned until I found myself facing northwest. The pull was in that direction. It was the direction of the battle of my dream. I knew exactly what it was... had to be. I was being shown the way to the demigod's transformed body.
I was in the middle of a war, and the goddess was nudging me to go off on another mission entirely. I couldn't believe it. I had seen action twice since I had arrived here. We had actually repulsed a large force, estimated to be at least eight thousand warriors the day before.
The dragon riders and our wizards and magic users had done a good job. The dragon fire went through almost every single defense that the enemy had put up. The dragon riders pulse lances shot a ball of light that exploded, and took out large groups of people, and animals. It also destroyed most of the equipment that the unfortunates were carrying.
I counted over sixty-two people and animals dead from one single explosion of a ball of light launched by a dragon rider. Both the dragons and their riders concentrated on groups of people clustered together. The opposing enemy had been decimated. If even 800 of the 8000 had survived the attack, I would have been surprised.
After the enemy had turned and ran, our forces went out and collected whatever was useful. I had spent my time as a dragon, spitting fire deep behind the enemy front lines. I had been hit by spells quite a few times, which my draconic body had shrugged off easily.
I had prepared and cast several defensive spells on myself, prior to my changing into my dragon form. There had been some mighty colorful reactions from my spells when they had been hit by enemy mages. I had also zeroed in on them, and incinerated quite a few of them. I had confirmed killing 12 enemy magic users by myself.
I wondered over to the officer's mess tent, and asked for something to eat. Shortly I found myself with eggs, sausage, and bread. I ate that and went back for more. I noticed that I had a huge appetite of late.
After finally eating another helping of eggs, sausage, along with some stew left over from last night, I felt my hunger appeased. It was starting to get light by now, and I started to wander over to the command tents.
While my tent was located within this area, several tents were off to one side, and these were heavily guarded. After I ran the gamut of guards, I found myself next to the headquarters tent for the combined forces.
Despite my exalted rank, I did not rate a tent in this area. It was reserved for the force leaders alone. Mirwanna had a tent here, as did Salvadi Minturi. We also had two field commanders who occupied tents in that group.
My tent was located with the dragon riders. I was actually pissed off with how they had relegated me to a minor role. Well, maybe not minor, but I had no direct access to the mission leaders, without actually going to them.
I made my way to my sister's tent. I had only a short wait. She came out to me dressed in a robe.
"Mirwanna. I had a dream and I think I know what I am supposed to be doing, and this war is not it," I told her.
"What do you mean? We need all the dragons, yourself included," Mirwanna said firmly.
So I explained my dream to her. She listened intently. She questioned me over a few things, but finally agreed with me.
"I think you're right. You need to follow this to its conclusion. I hope you do find what you seek. We could use his help if what you dream is true," she said hopefully.
We talked a bit, and she had breakfast brought to her, and I ate a bit with her. When we finished, it was full day. I took my leave of my sister, and made my way to a rising air current, and prepared myself mentally for the coming trip.
Fithian had gone back to Landkur after the battle yesterday, but would return today. I had a feeling if I were going to do this, it had better be now, while he was gone. I quickly changed into my dragon body, and launched myself into the rising air current.
I rose to almost ten thousand feet very quickly, and then I angled my way towards the northwest. I felt the pull. I concentrated and teleported myself in that direction. The feel was stronger, but I was still some distance away. I teleported, again.
I glided and watched for the landmarks of my dream. There! That rock face! That was where the gem had glanced. I saw from my height, evidence of tress that had gone down years ago. The local land and people had reclaimed or taken most of the fallen trees.
I had my location spotted, though. I spiraled down and down. I didn't see any rising air currents nearby, but I was not going to let that bother me now. I came in for my landing, and did it well. I was pleased. I was really getting the hang of this!
I looked at the little pond. It was partially dried up. Let's see, it had been in there for years, so it would not be on the muddy bottom of this pond. Ok, I was going to have to dry this thing out.
I changed back into my human self, and cast a spell over the pond. I wanted to get a feel of how much water was in there. I sort of linked myself to the pond, and felt how much water was within it.
I also was conscious of the small animals that depended on this pond to live. I pondered this information. Ok, draining it would be a last resort. It wasn't very deep, just mid calf high on me, at its deepest.
I could feel the object of my desire located close to the center, but a little off to one side, and down a couple feet. Ok, I cast a spell, and the water started to part before me. Soon, there was a muddy path direct from me to the location of the gem.
It was rather strange. Almost like that movie where Charlton Heston parted the red sea. I had water to my left and right, and a circular area at the site where I had to dig out the gem. It was very interesting really, the way this spell kept the water parted.
I needed to dry out the area of mud before I could walk on it. The movie didn't address how this was done. I thought about the power Bel had told me dragons had, and tried to concentrate on taking the moisture out of the bed of the pond.
It didn't work. I could feel the moisture leaving, but it was being replaced constantly by the water that was resting over the rest of the pond. Ok, time to go to plan B, as soon as I came up with it.
I pondered what to do. I needed to get in there. I had already tried to grasp the gem magically. It kept... well, drinking my power is what it felt like. I knew it was down there, and I was definitely going to have to fetch it manually.
I changed back into my dragon form, and walked through the mud. The power of my dragon body was not hindered by the slight sinking into the mud bottom at all. I made my way to the spot where the gem was, and started to dig with my claws.
I found it the third time I sent my right forward leg digging down into the mud. I carefully closed my claws around the gem, and hauled it up and out into the light.
It was mud and slim covered, but it was what I was looking for! I could feel power radiating from it, like sunlight on my skin. As I watched, the sludge covered gem shed all the crud that had encased it.
I made my way carefully back to the shore, and released the spell that held the water at bay. With a rush, the water quickly covered the bottom of the pond once more. Soon the surface was calm, but the water was very dirty looking.
I heard a frog croak. "Same to you fella," I told it with a hiss, and laughed my draconic laugh.
I changed back into my human form. I examined the gem as I held it in my right hand. It was easily as large as my fist, maybe a little bigger. I found it difficult to hold comfortably with one hand.
It was also a very vibrant green color, and it shone with an inner light, which pulsed with that beating power I felt. Ok, I had it/him now... so what did I do next? I pondered if I should take it back to the camp. No, that wouldn't be good.
I went over to a downed tree that hadn't been cleared away, and sat on it, contemplating what to do. As I did, I felt that approach of the goddess, that I had felt before. I stood.
I was in her PRESENCE. She entered my body, and took me over. I was once again a non-participant in my own body, but I wasn't worried. I saw the goddess reach out, and grab a line of POWER, and connected it to the gem.
Still another and another line was connected, somehow. Soon, the gem was floating in mid-air, right in front of me. Then with an outward rush, the gem expanded. I stepped back two paces.
I felt another sense of PRESENCE. There, standing before me, was my great grandfather, Vostich Landkur. While his presence was not as overwhelming as was the goddess's, it was definitely there.
I felt the goddess leave me, and enter my grandfather. He stood there, with eyes still closed. I knew he was communing with his mother. I felt a sense of loss when she left me.
I took this opportunity to study my great grandfather. His clothing was a bit worse for wear. It was what he had been wearing during the battle. His hair was a light brown. He was about seven feet tall.
I felt the goddess leave him. I felt her caress me. When I turned my attention to Vostich, he was looking at me. I felt an overwhelming urge to bow to him, so I did.
He smiled at me.
"Well done, great grandson. I am pleased with you," he said with a mellow sounding voice. His eyes were a glowing green.
I felt like a puppy whose master finally noticed him. I tried to think of something to say, but was totally speechless.
"Mother has told me all that has happened, and is happening now. We must get back to your camp. There is a great battle raging, and our side is being hard pressed. Come, we go," he said, and created a gate to a place he had never been. Sheesh! Must be nice to be able to do that.
We stepped forward, and found ourselves close to the command tents. The sound of battle was coming from about a half mile away to the south.
"Assume your dragon form. I will ride you into battle," Vostich told me.
I didn't even think about arguing. I wanted to be there in battle with my friends. Even as I changed I saw a dragon get hit with something that caused it to scream, and burst into flame. It and its rider fell to the earth and out of my sight! I roared in anger.
"Calmly. We will avenge them soon," Vostich told me as he mounted me.
Now how the hell did I suddenly acquire a saddle and accouterments for a dragon rider? No matter. Vostich gestured, and there before me was a rising current of air. I ran into it, and rode it up.
I felt Vostich communicating with the dragons. I felt the startled reactions from the dragons as their long missing and thought dead master communicated with them. I angled my way towards the battle.
As we flew up to the battle, dragons joined me and we flew as a group, Vostich protecting us. We flew towards the center of the enemy force. I could see and FEEL the Presence there.
I felt Vostich gesture, and then a very powerful beam of light lanced down towards the bubble of protection at the center of the formation. Other dragon riders added their own balls of light towards a specific spot. I roared and spat at the enemy troops below me.
With all this power we were concentrating on one place, the emperor was forced to withdraw his protections from other areas, and firm up his local shield. This let our wizards and magic users counter-attack and start killing the enemy, as their protections were dropped.
Still, we dragons and riders poured fire onto the bubble, which was contracting. More and more of the troops that were near the bubble were being incinerated by dragon fire. Then it happened. One second the so-called emperor was there, the next he had teleported and was gone.
With him gone, the way for our troops to press forward in the attack was opened. I strafed enemy troops by the hundreds. I finally ran out of fire. Vostich told me to return to our camp. The other dragons returned also, as they too started to run out of dragon fire. Their riders had exhausted the charges in their lances. The damage was done though. The enemy was routed and ran.
I flew towards camp, and descended close to the edge of camp. After landing, Vostich gestured, and I was no longer saddled. I sighed with relief. It had been a strange feeling, to be saddled. I changed back into my human form. People were running towards us. This was going to take some explaining. One of the first to reach us was Fithian, who had been directing the dragons in this fight until our arrival.
Edited by TeNderLoin