I awoke to the blaring of an alarm. Did I set an alarm? I don’t think so- we were up kind of late last night talking… OH SHIT THAT’S THE ALL-HANDS-ON-DECK SIGNAL!

I bolted up out of bed, snatching my lightsword from its place near my nightstand. The ship rocked rather violently underneath my feet, as if we were in a violent storm. As a result, I lost my balance and nearly slammed into Ella, who came flying out of her door at the same time.

“Okay, what the hell is going on?” I asked Ella, bracing myself against the wall as the ship lurched again.

“Do you really think I know?” she responded, yanking the door to the deck open.

The problem became evident immediately, because… well, they were attacking the ship. “They” happened to be a pair of Lesser Zhonua dragons, their long, graceful bodies snaking through the air like ribbons dancing in the wind. I stood mesmerized for a moment as I watched their jade scales glimmer in the mid morning sun.

Then, one of them let out a ear piercing roar. I winced and immediately went to cover my ears. Ow. The sound hit my sensitive ears like a physical blow.

Shei was at the control panel, frantically pushing buttons. Nadrire, who was in the middle of casting a spell of some sort, glanced over and spotted us.

“ELLA! REVEILIA!” she roared. “DON’T JUST STAND THERE! DO SOMETHING!”

Nadrire finished casting what turned out to be a shield spell. The dragon chomped at her, its teeth hitting the shield with a dink. It roared again, then dove at my friend. Its nose smushed into the barrier, this time with a much louder thunk. In a weird, twisted way, the whole scene was much akin to a bird hitting a window.

I drew the lightsword - a long, slim blade that, upon closer inspection, was segmented. The magic in the cracks between the segments gleamed faintly in the morning sun. Just as I was about to swing it, one Nadrire’s shields had popped up in front of me.

“VELIA, DON’T!” she yelled. “THEY’RE PROTECTED UNDER CONSERVATION LAW!”

“OH. RIGHT.”

Ella had unbuttoned the front of her blouse to reveal the red, heart shaped panel that made up her chest. The keyhole above her “heart” glowed with energy from the twin magic cores that whirred within. I also happened to know that hooked up to those two cores and located just below her heart was a very small energy yet powerful cannon (which was probably what she was trying to get at). She paused, about open her chest compartment.

“WELL, HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO STOP THEM, THEN?!” she shouted at Nadrire.

Nadrire didn’t answer, as she was too busy trying to shoo the dragons away with a wind spell.

I looked around, frantic, and then spotted the cannon. It was mounted on the other side of the ship, and therefore couldn’t hit the dragons, and it was very noisy. Perhaps it would scare them away? Well, time to find out.

I darted over to the cannon and slid a pair of headphones on to protect my ears. Fitting my hand into the divet on the panel on the cannon, it whirred to life. Aiming as far from the ship in as possible, I fired.

I couldn’t tell the full scope of the resulting boom with the headphones on, but I knew everyone else could. Especially after I heard a (somewhat muffled) pair of roars.

And then. A loud boom that very much did not belong to the cannon.

“Oh, fuck,” I said under my breath.