Ashes And Ashes

Sand flew everywhere. So did pieces of wood and stone. Bodies were lifted from the ground like they were ascending to the heavens. Chaos can't even begin to describe what was happening. It was hard to tell if they were even in Otane anymore. In that short moment, gravity ceased to exist.

Iris swung her arms and legs, thrashing to get back on the ground as she was lifted off her feet. It was as if everything was turned upside down. It was a crazy feeling that she could not describe. She opened her mouth and called out to her sister, who was also floating in the air. "Wompa!" Reaching out to each other, the two sisters grabbed ahold of each other's hands, and the second they did, gravity returned and brought everything back crashing down.

Both of them fell to the ground, their backs and sides hurting from the impact. All around them, objects fell as well, breaking and exploding like firecrackers. By some sheer luck, none of the falling objects hit them.

A loud roar shook the entire city, followed by the body of the massive dragon slamming full speed into the city like a meteor. Buildings were uprooted from their foundations and tossed into the air like they weighed nothing.

Clutching her sides, Iris stood up first and help her younger sister onto her feet as well. With all the sand kicked up into the air, it was impossible to see anything, but it was over now. The dragon that terrorized the city for only minutes but yet caused so much death and destruction was now dead.

A low-pitched growl rumbled the air. To both Iris' and Wompa's shock, the dragon survived the attack. It was impossible but her eyes were telling her that it was possible. Through the thick sandy fog, Iris saw the blurry outline of the dragon's head. It was still alive and kicking after getting hit by that attack.

The mighty ferocious dragon whose name was passed down in history was as exaggerated as the stories said. A beast that was so powerful that it is only rivaled by the Gods and can do whatever they so pleased with no repercussions whatsoever.

The two are so fixated on the dragon that they are unaware that a figure was coming toward them from the cloud of sand and behind them. Neither of them heard the approaching footsteps until the figure is directly right on top of the two. As Iris spins around to see who it is, the figure grabs her.

"Ah! Let go!" She kicks the unknown person in the leg, forcing him to drop her. Weaponless, Iris calls upon the flames and turns her entire left hand into a blazing torch, and strikes the person in the stomach. The figure manages to grab onto her wrist to stop the punch, however, the fire burned the figure's hand, causing them to let go instantly.

But before Iris could slug the assailant, he opened his mouth and screamed, "Wait!" Recognizing the voice, Iris stopped her fist right in front of the man's face and Wompa lowered a broken steel sword she scavenged off the ground.

Still shaking his hand to cool off the burn, Sirks gave the two girls a very enraged glare. "Do you know how much trouble you two caused me!?" As much as he wanted to scold them for their idiotic and reckless behavior, this wasn't the time for that, not when a giant fire-breathing beast was tearing up the city.

Sirks took a moment to look up at the enormous thing, feeling his heart drop when he realized that it was even bigger than he thought now that it was up close. "So even that wasn't enough to kill it..." he murmured in disbelief. He turned back to Iris and grabbed her wrist with his unburned hand. "Come on. We need to take shelter," he ordered her.

Not awaiting a response, he led her back into the wrecked inn with her younger sister following right behind them. The ground shook a couple of times, making them stagger and trip as the dragon moved its large body within the city. From time to time, Sirks turned his head to see if the dragon was looking their way and each time, the dragon was seen breathing fire down at its feet.

Whether it was soldiers challenging the mighty beast to an unwinnable fight or poor civilians who were unfortunate to have been in the vicinity of where the dragon landed, Sirks pitied them. There was zero chance that any of them would survive an encounter with it.

Iris had her eyes glued to the beast the entire time while running, almost falling over numerous times, and one time, just barely avoided getting impaled by a random piece of sharp metal jutting out of the ground. "Hey, look ahead!" Sirks warned her after she stumbled for the hundredth or so time.

"Sorry." Despite just having avoided death, Iris was still paying little attention to what was in front of her. She was more focused on the battle happening, though she think that it would be more of a one-sided massacre than a battle. Or maybe not...

Flashes of teal and blue indicated that the Iceblade was confronting the dragon. Giant chunks of ice pelted the dragon's body from all sides, doing nothing to the thick scales of the dragon. While the battle looked intense, Iris did not care much about that. She was looking for a certain someone who was nowhere to be seen.

Iris grew more worried by the second. Did he perhaps use some sort of self-destructing magic to create that massive explosion to knock the dragon out of the sky? She hoped that wasn't the case. No, he didn't seem like the kind of person to do something as dumb as that.

Unfortunately, Iris never found her answer to whether or not Kies was still alive as they made it to the inn before she could find out anything. Sirks pulled both of them in. Inside, they found a soldier staring out the window, shaking at the sight of the dragon decimating her home. When the soldier noticed the three's presence, she quickly greeted the princesses, her voice trembling, "W-welcome back, your-"

The soldier's formal greeting was cut short by the dragon's bellow. The house jolted and tiny bits of wood fell from the ceiling, wedging themselves into everyone's clothes and hair. Everyone looked back out the window to see a several-meter-long ice spike sprouting out of one of the dragon's shoulders. The Iceblade managed to inflict a rather significant wound on it. While the dragon still looked pretty lively, it was a small victory, nonetheless. By hurting the dragon, the Iceblade had proven that the situation wasn't as hopeless as they thought.

Iris watched in awe as more giant spikes of ice burst from within the sands, shredding the dragon's scales and digging into its flesh. Red blood flowed down from its body. She and the rest were astonished by the sight. The dragon saw the threat that was the Iceblade and started to use its big body to crush everything underneath it in an attempt to kill her.

It swept its tail, clearing an entire chunk of the city, and sent debris tumbling in all directions, including the inn. Upon seeing this, Sirks pushed everyone onto the ground as the entire upper half of the first floor and everything above was taken away by the wave of debris.

The two sisters were frozen stiff, shaken by what was happening. Sirks grabbed them both down and yelled, "Take shelter in the basement! It isn't safe up here!"

As if on cue, the trapdoor in the kitchen slammed open and a head popped out of the underground food storage, investigating the loud noise that he had heard. He turns his head in a full arc, spotted the four, and called out to them. "Over here!"

Without a moment's hesitation, all four people ran to the small hole and climbed down one by one. Sirks was the last one, and he urged the soldier, who was the second last to climb down the ladder to hurry. It was then that Sirks heard rumbling again and he turned his head to discover that another wave of houses was sliding right into them, about to take what was left of the inn with it.

Seeing that there was no time left, Sirks ducked into the food storage, jumping and grabbing onto the handles of the ladder. His foot almost missed the steps of the ladder and almost slipped. If it weren't for the strong grip he had on his hands, he might have fallen. Sirks slammed the trapdoor shut, and just in time. Vibrations could be felt as the debris rolled passed the storage. Unable to support the weight, pieces of the trapdoor break off. Wood and stone, grounded to nothing than dust, combined with the sand, pour through the gaps of the trapdoor. Some got into Sirks' eyes and mouth.

Cursing, Sirks twisted his head left and right as he tried to find an angle where the dust wouldn't get on his face, but it was to no avail. The rung of the ladder that he was holding onto with his hand snapped and he fell, crushing the female soldier that just made it to the ground.

The grounded-up debris from above continued to pour on top of them and bury them. The other soldiers rush to their aid and dragged them out of the way. The sound stopped and the dust also stopped coming after a few seconds and they are both helped onto their feet. "Sorry about that, soldier," Sirks apologized to the soldier while spitting the gunk out of his mouth.

The soldier grunted, accepting Sirks' apology, and started to wipe the dust off of herself and he did the same. Looking above, Sirks was glad that he made the right call of jumping down. Had he been a moment late, his head would have been detached from his neck.

"Welcome back," Jackal bowed his head at the return of the two princesses. He held a lantern in one of his hands as it would be too dark to see anything otherwise.

"Yes, indeed," the queen also said weakly. She hadn't recovered fully yet and her mind was still hazy, but she was regaining her strength rapidly. "How's the situation up there," she asked them.

"Not good..." Sirks told them after a brief silence. "It would be a miracle if even a quarter of the kingdom remained, and that's assuming we kill the thing."

The room grew silent. The severity of the situation was a lot graver than anyone had initially thought. The queen sighed and said, "The only thing we can do is pray then." It was truly painful for her to see this. She woke up to see her kingdom under attack, and by a dragon of all things. Lacking the power to do anything right now, she could only hope for a miracle as Sirks said.

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