[rework] Minglings - Book 3 chapter 10: Rebels

"You are telling me you know the Queen?" Baudron shouted for the third time. "But you haven't even been here before!"

Mason didn't reply, concentrating on flying deeper into the mountains. His mind was still busy processing what he had heard.

The chances of a local dragon being named Sandra should be zero… right? he tried to convince himself.

He already knew the answer, of course. They could barely even pronounce it right.

How did she become a dragon queen in such a short time?

His mind wandered off as he remembered their escapades while in the jungle. When they had both still been Kobolds, they had been drawn to each other by some natural instinct and had had some fun. It hadn't meant too much to either and was more a way to alleviate tension.

I never even got a chance to tell Jake and rub it in, he thought.

Then again, he hadn't really thought about anything but finding Jake and then surviving ever since his change. No, food had been the only thing on his mind.

I wonder if we'll have some fun again, he suddenly thought, wondering how that would even work now that they were dragon. As his mind imagined odd scenes, he sensed a response from his body, and he barely managed to suppress it before he'd make a laughingstock of himself. What would it even look like if he flew with his dragon-hood in full swing? He grinned widely at the prospect.

"Why are you grinning like that?" Maru shouted from where she soared beside Baudron.

Looking aside, Mason saw both of them looking at him with worriedly.

"Just remembering the time I spent with Sandra, nothing more!" Mason shot back without a care in the world.

The other two dragons just stared at him, and he shrugged, an odd feeling while flying as it made him wobble slightly. Focusing his attention back on the mountains, he realized the hot air had caused them to rise even higher. His sharp eyes made out slight movements, and his stomach rumbled. They would need to go hunt soon.

"Mason! Another drake!" Baudron shouted, pointing with his claw at a small dot shooting up toward them.

It was too far to see what color the dragon had, but if Mason had to guess, he'd say it was roughly the same size as they were. He could hear muted shouting, but it was still impossible to understand. They began circling on the spot, waiting for the other dragon.

"... d..n … ls!"

Almost understanding what was shouted, Mason frowned. What was that last thing?

“..et…own….ls!”

Something like, get down? Mason thought, seeing the dragon pointed at them. No, not pointing at us-

Mason's head snapped up, and he looked at the massive, grey, and brown cloud cover above them. He didn't see anything, and he frowned.

Perhaps I was wro-

Something massive swirled through the clouds in the distance. A dark wing tip appeared briefly, and a massive, milky white eye stared at him from inside a swirl of fog before disappearing back into the swirling mass of gas and fog.

"Down!" he roared, folding his wings and plummeting into the depths.

Looking back between his legs, he saw Baudron and Maru were right behind him, their faces distorted in panic. Further up, the cloud cover parted, and a massive dark grey dragon fell after them. A dim red glow came from eyes that looked like curdled milk. It was so big that it could swallow each of them in a single bite and probably swallow without chewing. Parts of it seemed rotten, slowly disintegrating, and it gave a vibe of something that should have long since died.

It was also gaining on them.

Fuck!

Mason turned his attention back below, feeling his heartbeat erratic. The dragon that had warned them had his wings folded back and was falling down like a brick. It was still far but close enough for him to make out some details. It was brown with grey stripes covering its sides, and even from this far, Mason realized they were scars.

Halfway down to the mountain, the scared dragon extended its wings, and its dead drop started flattening out. It was heading towards three massive peaks that looked like they had been one whole at one time, long ago but had been split apart by some massive force. When the striped dragon reached one of them, it stopped and began flapping mid-air, staring up.

Mason took another look behind and immediately wished he hadn't. The monstrous dragon was much closer now, its maw a vast gaping mass of teeth and red flesh. Lightning cracked between its teeth and in the back of its throat.

Gauging its speed, he looked back at the mountain.

He is waiting, so it has to be safe there, he thought. It had better be because he had no idea what to do otherwise. A look at Baudron and Maru showed they were keeping up with him.

They should make it… probably.

The striped dragon, male he saw as he got closer, waited until they were close enough to communicate.

"Follow me," it roared, "and whatever you do, don't stray from where I fly!" Then it turned and shot down between the three peaks, flying close enough to the side of one mountain that its wingtip nearly touched it while his belly almost touched the ground.

Mason gritted his teeth and dropped as low as he could before spreading his wings. The strain on his ligaments became painful, but he flattered out just in time. A bubble of air pressed between him and the ground as he straightened his wings and flew as close to the ground as he could without hitting it with his wings. They shot into a wide, shallow canyon, pillars of stone and large rocks dotting it.

The striped dragon turned around a rock, then shot through a smaller canyon before starting to wind its way through a seeming labyrinth of narrow passes. Mason rushed after him, barely keeping up. The only way he knew Baudron was still there was from his heavy flapping.

Then all sound was drowned out by a dull rumbling roar that caused boulders and pebbles on the mountain to jitter and move around.

Mason looked up, fearing what he'd see.

The monstrous Dragon covered the whole horizon above him and seemed ready to slam into the side of the mountain to crush them between its bulk and the stone.

We won't make it! Mason thought, fear taking hold as he looked around anxiously for a way out.

A soft keening came from the top of the mountain, and the roar stopped as if the dragon was suddenly muzzled. All around him, things began glowing brightly. Initially hidden from sight between boulders, crevices, and under debris, pillars started pulsating with a deep blue light.

A massive gust of air followed thunderous flapping and an insane airflow slammed into him.

Mason flapped like crazy and barely avoided being slammed into the side of the mountain. From below, he heard a strangled cry.

No! Baudron!

He looked between his legs just in time to see Baudron and Maru crash land, their wings folded as they skidded and rolled forward. Baudron slammed into a massive outcrop while Maru rolled into a crevice and disappeared from view.

No, Mason thought, feeling an insane urge to help them.

He looked up to try and see if he could come up with something, anything to do to help when he saw the striped dragon was slowing down. His surprise grew to stunned disbelief when the dragon landed between two of the glowing pillars.

They were pulsating so fast now that Mason could barely see the moments between them, and he quickly landed. He looked at where Baudron was slowly crawling back up, his head hanging low as he tottered, almost toppling over again.

Above them, the massive Dragon had managed to stop itself from slamming into the ground. Now it hung above the ground, its massive bulk blotting out the sun and its maw gaping wide. A ball of red lightning was cracking between his jaws, aimed at a nearby pillar. The intense hate in its white eyes made Mason shiver. Then the maw snapped shut, squeezing the ball of lightning like a ball.

A streak of red lightning shot at the pillar so fast that Mason only saw the afterburn on his retina.

O shit!

He dropped down, expecting a massive explosion, but all that happened was a soft 'twump'. The pillar absorbed the lightning and stopped pulsating. Mason barely noticed that all the others also stopped when all of them began burning in such a bright blue light that he involuntarily closed his eyes.

The sound of hundreds of discharges came from all around him, followed by explosions and a long, drawn-out roar. The hatred in it was beyond anything Mason had ever heard, and he could barely fantom it.

Looking through slits, he saw bolts of blue energy pelt the massive Dragon, ripping small chunks of meat away. Its roar of anger changed to agony, and it flapped its wings with such force that Mason flattened on the ground. He barely managed to keep his eye open to see the Dragon shoot up and away, blue electric bolts following after it, piercing small holes in its wings or ripping little chunks of flesh out.

The bursts of blue lighting continued for what felt like a long time before finally dying down. Still, the pillars kept glowing.

"Don't move too much. We need to wait for the defense system to stop working."

Mason blinked as he turned to the striped dragon that quietly sat some distance away.

"Defense system?" he said, the words not something he had expected to hear.

"Don't bother asking. I barely understand it myself. Something about runes that harness ambient mana? Perhaps the Queen can explain it. She seems to have a knack for these things," the striped dragon said with a wide grin.

"You three were really lucky that I was passing by on inspection! Most  of the time, the Hound catches newlings like you before we can reach them."

So many questions surged into Mason's mind that he didn't even know where to begin.

"That was the Hound?" Boudraon's dumbfounded shout came from where he had slammed into the ground, echoing just one of them.

Looking over, Mason saw that his brown-scaled friend had remained on his feet or scrambled back up. He was staring at the sky with a look of pure and utter terror, seeming unable or too afraid to move. There wasn't any sight of Maru yet, but a loud moan came from the crevice she had rolled into.

"Yes. Well, not all of him. According to the Queen, it's his physical shell working on autopilot... don't give me that look! I don't know what she talks about half the time. I parrot her well, according to her, whatever that means!"

Mason barked out a laugh. That sounded like Sandra, alright. His mood dropped as fast as it raised. What the hell was going on here? Some giant dragon flying around on autopilot? He could almost imagine what that could mean, but he shoved his own ideas away. He needed answers!

"Who are you?" he asked, deciding to leave the questions about Sandra for herself to answer.

The striped dragon suddenly looked mortified, and with a quick look around, he rose to his maximum height, spreading his wings until their tips almost touched the pillars beside him.

"You don't know? Look, the stripes, the massive scar on my chest?" he protruded his chest a bit more, seeming to expect that to say it all.

A crap... not one of these guys.

Mason grimaced, about to shake his head, when Maru's voice crooned from behind.

"Salvo the Savior!" she was partially hanging out of the crevice, mid-climb, her eyes big as she stared at the striped dragon.

The Savior? Mason thought with a frown. He hadn't heard a lot of titles in this world yet, and this one sounded a bit over the top.

"Yes! You had me worried there, but luckily the smart one came in time," Savlo said, furling his wings back up, his eyes gleaming.

Mason took a quick look at Baudron, raising a scaled eyebrow, but he only got a look of utter confusion in return.

Guess it's a local guy, he thought.

With the sound of an engine whirring down, the glow on the pillars faded, and they sank a little bit into the ground. Just before the glow dissipated, Mason thought he saw tiny symbols on them. Then the mountainside returned to its previous dull, lifeless, and gloomy state.

Salvo got up, moved to an open spot, and turned to them. "Right! Let's get out of here and return to Haven. It's been a while since we got multiple refugees in a single day."

Mason stared at him. He wanted to ask about runes, about the Hound, about Sandra, but he decided to wait for now. Something about the way this dragon was behaving was too strange. Still, with the Hound gone between the clouds and the pillars inert, his fear had faded.

"Alright, lead on," he said, curious.

Salva nodded and jumped into the air without even asking if they were all alright.

Slightly amused, Mason followed him up.

When the others, tottering at first, got into the air, Salvo turned and began slowly flying away.

"Make sure to stick close and follow my path! There are more odd things on this mountain that we don't want to meet right now!"

The striped dragon flew slowly, giving the others a chance to keep up. It stayed close to the ground, nimbly dodging between the many stone outcrops and canyons.

He reminds me of some jet fighter pilot, Mason thought, and he grinned as he pictured Salvo with a helmet on.

Deep down, he knew he was distracting himself from his own worries, but he couldn't help himself.

They continued across the mountainside, through a canyon bordering another mountain, and deeper into what almost seemed like an endless mountain range.

Eventually, a massive mountain became visible in the distance, towering over the others to make them seem like mere piles of stone. It had a sharp, white-colored tip, and as they drew closer, Mason saw a carpet of brown bushes along its foot. The vegetation stretched up the side, and thousands of small dots moved between them.

Etag, Mason thought, and his stomach growled.

"Don't even think about it," Salvo shouted from beside him, where he had been flying since they started heading towards the massive mountain.

"All of the Etag on Juana mountain are under strict hunting regulations! The Queen decided when it's mealtime!"

Mason frowned, wondering if there was a shortage of food or something. He didn't see Sandra as someone that would keep things from others.

"Then where am I supposed to eat?" he shouted back.

"Don't worry. Just keep your stomach in check until we get there, and all will become clear!"

That's not cryptic at all, Mason thought with a snort.

Taking a last look at the herdes of Etag they flew across, he decided that if he weren't going to get fed when they reached Haven, he would go hunting further away. Then he recalled the massive white dragon. Perhaps his stomach could wait for a bit.

As they flew up along the side of the mountain, the temperature dropped rapidly, and halfway to the top, Mason shivered. It had been weeks, months, even since he had been anywhere that wasn't smoldering hot, and he didn't like it at all.

"Ahhh, it's much better up here, isn't it? We just passed the hot-head castle. You won't have seen it because the entrance is hidden, and the temperature should drop even more soon."

Salvo's shout made Mason worry a little. How cold was it going to get? He could feel the temperature continue to drop, and it didn't feel pleasant.

Another long stretch further, the mountains surrounding them had turned to a beautiful, chaotic, and red-stained backdrop far below.

Mason felt his wings slow, and he knew if he continued much longer, he would be in trouble. He was about to tell Salvo he couldn't continue when he felt heat bubble up from the muscle that controlled his magic. His hunger grew slightly, but at the same time, a sense of warmth spread through his body. He could see the steam roll from him, and as he snorted, he blew out plumes of hot air.

Great, now I really need food, he thought as he gritted his teeth.

They continued up, the cold increasing, and the stone below had turned white-stained by frost. Annoyed and getting hungrier by the second, Mason looked further up. A thick blanket of snow was approaching rapidly.

"How much further?" he shouted, not for the first time.

If this continued for much longer he wouldn't have a choice but to return down and feed first.

"Don't like the cold, do you? No worry! We are almost there, if you knew what to look for you could see the entrance already!" Salvo shouted back.

Mason looked up and around, but all he saw was frost-covered stone and snow.

You better be right, he thought, feeling his temper flare up.