“I remember the day my father left for the nearby fortress city Gaelabeinne, ten years ago. I don’t remember much from that day, but I remember the moments leading up to and during my father’s departure.”

A little girl with loose red curls ran through the crowded marketplace, dodging between the legs of the crowd as they gawked and tittered at the festival stalls. A loud call from her mother behind her made her giggle as she ran further into the crowd. Her mother’s voice grows aggravated at her continued mischeif.

“I cannot for the life of me recall what the messenger said, I had not been paying any attention to the stranger at the door of our countryside home. It wasn’t until a crashing sound drew my attention to my mother standing next to father with shattered pottery at her feet.”

The little girl giggles and spins in place, watching streamers and confetti float through the air as a group of performers crosses the streets. She watches in fascination as a man in a funny outfit juggles many small items in the air, constantly adding to the number as he walks through the crowd. Many of them cheered at the stunt, and the girl clapped her hands in delight. Her joy was cut short when she heard a voice calling out her name behind her. She pouted as her mother began scolding her loudly. 

“Though I cannot remember any spoken word, the face my father wore as he stared at the stranger has haunted me ever since. It was the first time I'd ever seen my father so incomposed. So….”

The crowd around the city froze in their places at the sounds of the bells, conversations breaking off mid-word at the first sharp ding ringing out over the streets. An eerie silence settled over the marketplace, interrupted only by city bells echoed by their counterparts in separate city districts. The eerie calm was broken suddenly, whispers turning to mutterings turning to raised voices. Despite all the voices and the noise, one word echoed loudly through the streets.

“Drakes!”

“...Scared”

A series of deep roars, sudden like the crack of thunder and with the wrath of an angry tornado, wrung out in the air. The roars rumbled the very stone of the cobbled streets underneath the crowd with its sheer intensity. While the roaring’s echo drifted off into the distance, the entirety of the crowd became unfrozen, everyone sprinting in different directions as their life depended on it.

The little girl cried out for her mother, clutching onto the older woman’s arms as she was led to safety in a nearby alley. A dark shadow passed overhead, blotting out the sun for a brief moment. The girl startled and threw her head back to look at the sky.

A massive beast hovered in the air, each flap of its mighty wings beating back gravity and forcing it to hang impossibly in the air. Its massive body was like a shadow, light seemed to avoid the beast and left its scaly body looking like a hole in the bright blue sky. Its red eyes glared at the city below it imperiously. The ground rumbled as the beast slammed down on top of one of the buildings, which cracked under the beast’s weight, and the air began to physically tremble as a low growl reverberated from deep within the monster’s chest. It opened its maw wide, a sickly aqua glow building up from the back of its throat. Then it began to breathe in.

The few people who had still been frozen in the street despite the appearance of the monster finally turned to run, most likely realizing the direness of their situation. But by then it was much too late for them. The street erupted into many beautiful colors, flames of many different hues and shades bleeding out of any living organism along the street. The flames seemed to dance in place for but a moment, hovering as if unattached to time. Then, quick as a blink, all the flames in the street began streaking towards the beast’s maw like the inverse of a towering fire. 

The little girl watched as a man who had almost made it to the safety of their narrow alley was caught in the stream of the drake’s attack. His body seemed to ignite of its own merit, the part of his body closest to the great beast catching before the furthest side. His body did not burn like a log in a hearth, but rather his body seemed to dissolve into flames, leaving nothing but ash to drift away in the wind. The flames the man had become were sucked into the winged demon’s maw like all the others. It finally closed its maw and let out a deep thundering rumble, and all that was left of the marketplace were ashes and crumbling stone.

The girl’s mother creeped down the alley to avoid the crumbling buildings around them, shushing the girl from making any sort of noise. The girl’s head was forced down into her mother’s shoulder and she felt her mother’s head holding it there, preventing her from seeing anything as more screams sounded out before being abruptly silenced. A cracking sound like that of broken pottery but much deeper wrung out before what could only be the great beast flapping away on its wings reverberated in the girl’s skull. Her mother’s shaky voice uttered assurances that did not work on the terrified child.

Suddenly her mother was running, no longer able to hold the girl’s head down any longer. She looked up at the crumbling city, the empty streets smoldering as ash swirled at her mother’s feet. She looked up at the sky and whimpered.

More of those monsters in all kinds of shapes and sizes flew over the city, some sitting atop crumbling towers to breathe in the flames while some smashed through buildings, scratching with their wing’s claws at the foundations to reach something underneath. Still more flew in lazy circles overhead, looking down at the city with some sort of perverse hunger.

The girl screamed when she noticed another of the beasts swooping down at them, watching in horror as the dark scaled beast perched itself on the smoldering heap that had once been an inn. The dull wine colored membrane of its wings contracted into itself as it slammed its winged claws into the glassed stone below it and dug in. Its head turned directly at the child and her mother, fixing the singular great eye atop its forehead towards where the mother continued to run. It let out a fierce roar that knocked the mother clear off her feet, and the girl and her mother both let out pained cries as they collided into a maple tree at the end of the cobblestone street.

Before they could even think about moving, the beast was already over them, having charged through the breaking city to hover menacingly over the mother and her daughter. It’s body towered over them, easily taller than the maple tree the two now took cover below. The girl felt her mother grab her shirt and roughly drag her closer, positioning her body under her like her mother could protect her from the dangerous beast. It let out a low warbling rumble, one that shook the loose stones around them and sounded suspiciously like laughter.

The beast eyed them for a moment, before its maw slowly inched itself open, revealing long jagged teeth that dripped saliva. A sickly aqua light built up in the beast's throat and the little girl felt a fresh wave of cold fear. She scrunched her eyes closed and threw her face into her mother’s neck. She no longer wanted to look.

As the air around them began to get noticeably warmer, she felt her mother shift over her, before the girl was suddenly atop her mother. She snapped her eyes open and looked up, only to let out a yelp as she felt herself fly up into the air and her mother’s leg kicked her away. She collided with the ground less than a stone’s throw away, roughly rolling atop the jagged cobblestones before coming to a rest. The girl looked up in time to see her mother one last time.

“RUN!” her mother yelled out, her arms and legs still in the position of having thrown the girl away. The woman’s body and the maple tree she rested against violently dissolved into flames, the maple tree lasting but a moment longer than her mother as the flames sputtered upwards like lightning. The flames streaked down into the beast maw, who seemed to devour them greedily. Its head snapped to look at her, it's great big eye locking with her own gaze.

She turned and ran, tears leaking from her eyes as panicked gasps tore themselves past her lips. She could hear the great beast lumbering behind her, and despite how fast she knew she could run the little girl knew she’d never outrun the beast. Terrified sobs racked her shoulders as she cast a quick look back and screamed. 

Its great big eye was nearly in her face, its maw gaping open in a cruel and malicious grin as saliva dripped off its large fang like teeth. The beast was close enough to devour her easily if it chose to.

It clearly did not wish to, at least, not yet.

The girl twisted back around and let out a big heaving sob, throwing herself underneath the rubble of a nearby building. She curled up into a ball, squeezing her eyes shut and covering her ears. She told herself this wasn’t real, like the monsters in the shadows of night her mother assured her were figments of her imagination. But the ground rumbling from the beast’s stomping claws and the air warbling from the beast’s roar worked against her wishes, no matter how hard she wished the evil away.

The girl felt the air warming around her and let out a large heaving sob.

A loud and high pitched crack like thunder set the beast screaming in agony, and the ground rumbled underneath the girl as if something large had fallen. The girl chanced a hesitant look out from the hole she had jumped into and gasped.

The monstrous drake lay squirming on the ground, some sort of blade lodged itself deep  into its winged shoulder, where it met its neck. She followed the chain leading from the blade. Another gasp left her lips and fresh tears blurred her sight.

An armored man sat atop a large beast similar to the drake only in its build. As opposed to the monstrous nightmare that had chased the girl, the beast the man sat atop of was noble and elegant. Its entire body was covered in feathers with similar coloring to a snowy owl, from the large flight feathers neatly groomed on its front limbs to the tiny plumage feathers that looked more like fur atop it’s chest and back. Its long graceful neck supported a noble draconic face, and its horns gently curved around its mane. The man held some sort of lance, which the chain was wrapped around.

“Wyvern!” the little girl breathed, her voice wobbling from the sheer relief and hope that filled her chest.

“Whatever message the man at the door brought my father, it set him into hurriedly packing his gear. He did not stop to address anyone except my mother, whom he only spared enough time to give a rushed kiss. His entire focus was set on gathering his gear and donning his armor. Then with a hurried farewell, my father climbed his Wyvern and set off for the barely visible Gaelabeinne.

The man atop the steed bellowed an order, and the beast he rode atop set flight again. It didn’t go far, only high enough that the chain that connected the two tangled the monstrous beast that had nearly righted itself. The drake screamed in fury as it collapsed onto its back once more. Another command from the man, and the wyvern let loose a bright ball of flame that collided with the thick scales of the drake. The beast let out an agonized roar before opening its muzzle and breathing in.

The Wyvern seemed to sense the danger, smoothly twisting its body midair to dodge the drake’s attack. The only evidence it had been in danger was its smoldering primary feathers. The monstrous drake looked up at the wyvern, before it’s singular eye glanced down at the chain. It bit the metal and pulled.

The man tumbled off his steed, who was quick to follow. The drake moved to pounce on the man, but was tackled by the wyvern. The two beasts viciously tore into each other while the man recuperated.

The man stood, grabbing the chain and yanking. The blade yanked free of the drake and flew to the man, who plucked it out of the air. Then he stalked the two beasts, looking for an opening.

The drake was larger than the wyvern, using it’s greater bulk to buck the feathered beast off it’s body. A sharp painful whine broke free from the smaller beast’s maw as the beast rent a large bloody path down it’s feathered wings with its own claws. It then pinned the wyvern down, opening it’s maw in what would be a deadly attack.

The armored man silently charged forward, using the rubble to launch himself silently into the air towards the beast’s back. His blade angled down for a killing blow. Around them, the air buzzed with wyverns and drakes alike, fighting in the air and on the ground.

“I never did see my father again.”