He wanted to go home.

He really wanted to go home. Pretend this was all a bad dream and wake up from it.

Rustam didn’t know how long he was hanging on. It could’ve been hours. It could’ve been a few minutes. It didn’t matter. This fight felt like it was going on forever and he was terrified.

He didn’t even feel the pain in his bloodied hands anymore. The dragons butted their heads and he felt the vibrations from the hit run down the Bronze Horror’s body. Rustam screamed when the gray dragon’s claws almost hit him, but got the back of Yamanaereus’ shoulder. The claws dug deep into the bronze dragon’s shoulder as they scratched him. Yamanaereus roared from the pain and brought his right foot up to slash at the other dragon’s thigh. The gray dragon roared and flew away to keep the larger one from injuring it further.

The Bronze Horror flew further up to put some distance between them. Rustam saw blood spill out of the wound and some landed on his left shoulder and back. He bit his lower lip when he felt how hot it was through his shirt. As much as he wanted to cry, Rustam kept himself from doing that so he wouldn’t be a distraction.

Yamanaereus spared a quick glance at the shaking boy before looking down at the gray dragon and saw it flying quickly toward them. The bronze dragon dove down and grabbed the smaller one’s leg with both feet when it tried to go under him. Their bodies spun around as the bronze dragon shot his fire breath directly at its neck and body. The gray dragon cried out in pain and slashed at his chest with its claws. Yamanaereus screeched in pain and released it. The gray dragon released its own fire breath, hitting the other directly on its neck scars. The bronze dragon snarled and slashed at its face, leaving deep scratches across its left eye. When it was stunned, Yamanaereus quickly spun around and whipped it with his tail.

The gray dragon plummeted to the ground as it screamed in pain from the attack on its face. It hit the ground hard enough that even King Padraig and others felt the vibrations in the earth from far away. Rustam gasped and held on even tighter when Yamanaereus dove down. The Bronze Horror shot his fire breath as he got lower. The gray dragon whined and started crawling away while trying to flap its wings, but it wasn’t fast enough. Yamanaereus clamped his jaws on its left wing. He dug his claws into the sides of its body and flew back up. The gray dragon shrieked as it desperately tried to get out of the legendary dragon’s grip, but to no avail. 

Rustam shook as he watched the Bronze Horror’s teeth slowly go deeper into the wing bone of the gray dragon. Even with all the growls and shrieking coming from the beasts, he heard the shattering of bones. The gray dragon started frantically clawing at the bronze dragon’s hands to get free. When that proved useless, it started whipping its tail around and hitting Yamanaereus’ legs and hips. The little Dwarf boy felt every hit’s impact run through the bronze dragon’s body, but the dragon never released the wing in his mouth.

The gray dragon stopped struggling and focused its next tail attack to hit the Bronze Horror’s back. Rustam yelped and almost lost his grip when he felt the hit. The tip of the tail hit near his feet on the next attack and he tried to crawl further up for safety. However, the tip of the tail managed to hit right next to his body from its third hit.

“NOOOO!!!” Rustam screamed as he lost his grip.

“RUSTAM!!” Daelyniel watched in horror as his cousin fell off the bronze dragon. He started running and flapping his wings in a desperate attempt to save him. A hard hand gripped his arm, and he saw his father holding him back. “Let me go!”

“You can’t, Dael!” Luvern shouted.

Daelyniel saw one guard holding Ignacia by her shirt to keep her from running. He glared at his father and tried to get free. “Father! Please!”

A loud roar rocked the ground and everyone looked up to see that the Bronze Horror had ripped the gray dragon’s wing off. It released it and quickly flew down to Rustam. Daelyniel felt relief when he saw the dragon catch his friend in its large hands. 

But that relief was short-lived.

His lilac eyes widened as a large fireball hit the back of the bronze dragon and sent it plummeting to the ground. Daelyniel saw both beasts fall into the forest and could only wonder if Rustam survived. He started struggling to get free again, but his father’s strong grip didn’t lessen. “Father!”

“I said, LET ME GOOOO!!!” Ignacia screamed and swung her thick book at the guard with all her might. The hit to the side of his head sounded like a blacksmith’s hammer hitting metal. Everyone was stunned when the now-unconscious guard fell to the ground, but Ignacia didn’t care. She quickly ran to Daelyniel, who used this moment to break free of his father’s grip. 

The Pixie boy grabbed her hand and flew off. He wasn’t the best when it came to flying, but he hoped he could put some distance between him and the Nymph guards. He felt Ignacia get lighter and looked to the side. The Nymph girl from earlier flew next to him and held Ignacia’s other hand.

“I’ll help!” she told them. “Focus on flapping your wings as hard as you can!” She saw the violet-haired boy nod and they flew as fast as they could. The Nymph guards could catch up to them, but she hoped their armor would slow them down.

“Princess Galenova!”

The three kids didn’t look back and quickly flew to the forest where the bronze dragon fell.

Rustam woke up with a loud gasp. He rolled over to his side as he caught his breath and saw Yamanaereus lying not too far away. His mind replayed the events right before everything went dark. He remembered falling and seeing the gray dragon’s wing getting ripped off. After that, the Bronze Horror caught him and he remembered feeling safe for a few seconds. He slowly sat up and clutched his right arm when a sharp pain ran through it. Rustam feared it was broken and looked down to see that he was more injured than he thought. His forearms, torso, and legs were covered in scratches from Yamanaereus’ spikes. He hadn’t noticed them because of the pain in his hands and fear from the fight. He felt some stinging on his shoulder and back where the dragon’s blood landed on him.

Something loud was coming toward them. He looked over and saw the mutilated gray dragon slowly walking to Yamanaereus, who was unconscious. Its back and sides were heavily bleeding, leaving a large trail of blood behind it. It focused only on the bronze dragon and started charging its fire breath.

Rustam stood up and looked through his satchel, which was surprisingly still intact, and pulled out Ignacia’s wooden bird.

“Just throw it at the dragon if it gets too close. It’ll distract it for a short time.”

He shrugged to himself and ran at the gray dragon. “Leave him alone, you ugly beast!” He threw the little toy at it and saw the wooden bird hit its nose.

The dragon shook its head and looked at him in confusion. Rustam wondered what the little trinket was supposed to do. It fell to the ground and didn’t do anything. The gray dragon growled and turned its attention to him now. Rustam shakily backed up and gulped. When he saw it raising its hand, he curled up and prayed that his death would be quick.

When nothing happened, he dared to look up. Instead of the beast focusing on him, it was now looking at something else. Rustam saw the little wooden bird floating around the dragon’s face. The gray dragon swatted at it but the bird gracefully dodged it and flew to its good eye. Rustam could only watch in disbelief as the wooden toy started pecking at it. The dragon roared and continued swatting at the toy. The bird dodged all the attacks and floated down to peck at its nose. Rustam winced when the dragon swatted at it and hit itself so hard that he heard a crack.

The gray dragon roared in pain while the bird kept fluttering around its face. It pecked at the corner of its mouth and dodged another strike. The dragon ended up breaking its jaw. Rustam was so distracted by what was happening that he didn’t even notice Yamanaereus waking up. The bronze dragon quickly got up and grabbed the other dragon by its broken jaw. Rustam wanted to look away, but couldn’t as he watched the legendary being pull the top half gray dragon’s head from his lower jaw. The gray dragon let out one last whine before Yamanaereus ripped its head apart. Its body twitched as it fell to the ground and the bronze dragon tossed the top half of the head next to it. His bright green eyes saw a group of Dwarves and Nymphs running to the forest and he growled irritably.

Rustam jumped when the Bronze Horror looked at him and gulped. The dragon reached down to his leg and plucked a small spike. The dragon held it out to him and Rustam took it from his large hand. The child looked at it in amazement and smiled at him. “T-Thank you!"

The bronze dragon nodded before flying away.

The little Dwarf held the small spike close to his chest before putting it in his pack and letting out a sigh of relief.

“Rustam!” 

Rustam looked behind him and saw Daelyniel and Ignacia running to him with a Nymph girl who looked about the same age as them. He tried to walk to them, but his legs gave out from under him. Daelyniel caught him and helped him sit down. Ignacia and the other girl looked at him in concern. “I-I’m okay,” he assured everyone.

Daelyniel frowned when he felt his cousin’s body shaking. He saw all the cuts on his body. “No, you’re not! We need to get you to a healer!”

“I-I can heal some of his injuries,” the other girl offered.

“Please do!” Ignacia begged.

Black spots were blurring Rustam’s vision as the other girl gently grabbed his hands. A soothing feeling warmed them and he looked at the Nymph. He couldn’t see her well, but her eyes were bright and vivid. Her eyes reminded him of fluorite because of the indigo at the top that faded into a seafoam green. He wanted to compliment her, but his exhaustion won and everything faded to darkness.