The Beginnings Omnibus: Beginnings 1, 2, 3 & Legend of Ashenclaw novella (Realm of Ashenclaw Beginnings Saga) (118 page)

Triniach scanned the sky watching the drakes screech in protest. Another minute passed and the snow quickly heightened as an icy hail rained down upon them all. The winds began to pick up, its chilly gale blustering loudly and with great force, sending many of the drakes reeling out of control. Several more drakes fell under the sheer onslaught of ice and sleet.

Triniach continued the spell and felt a sense of tranquility overwhelm him as he felt the wintry gusts of the wind brush upon his skin, raising goose pimples on his flesh beneath his clothing. But, before long, the landscape around them darkened even more, but it was not from the clouds. Triniach did not know what to make of the sudden darkness and glanced around to discover the source.

Suddenly, his stomach felt hollow and he held his breath unwillingly as a beast the size of which he'd never seen before, burst through the clouds, casting its own dark shadow over the land. A spray of fire caught both he and Azbiel in its wake and the wizard barely had time to throw up a protective barrier. Even so, the blast sent him tumbling away and he felt the heat as if the sun itself was thrust upon him—even through the Sphere of Protection!

With that, his concentration waned and it was barely enough to keep him aloft. The blizzard began to fade and he could no longer see Azbiel. What he
did
see was the largest dragon he'd ever seen—perhaps Wothlondia had ever seen. It was a dragon that was possibly the size of a small mountain. Its wingspan was as far as the eye could see in both directions.

Triniach noted that this drake was not only the largest, but it was different in other ways, too. Its markings were notably different than the rest of the drakes that he’d seen. Its scales were sleeker somehow.

That’s when the drake landed upon the surface. It sat on its haunches and in doing so Triniach could see the underside of its claws clearly. He noted that the bottoms of its front claws as well as the tips of those claws were of a light, silvery gray shade, which stood out against the crimson of its scales.

Ash
, he confirmed. It was different than all of the other drakes he'd seen to this point, not only in size, but its demeanor, look and size.

Then suddenly, the massive drake flapped its wings once and was airborne again. It circled around the remains of the village and flew around the lake's edge before making the wide turn back. With one flap of its wings, it propelled itself across the entire town's ruins, ending at the opposite side.

Triniach stared intently at the village more closely and noted something of interest. There were many huge eggs lying tucked away amongst the ruins at the far end of the village, he realized, seeing them for the first time himself. Beulah had mentioned something about them earlier, but he never had time to follow up with her about them before the drakes attacked.  He also noted that in this particular area, the soil seemed warmer. It was more than a feeling.

Then it all clicked for him.

“She is very angry with us, I’d have to say,” Triniach stated taking in a deep breath.

“Why’s that?” Figit asked him.

“I am recalling that Beulah mentioned something about seeing eggs earlier?” Triniach stood silently and pointed to many egg-shaped shells that looked like they could have a full grown human encased within them. They were dark and blended within their surroundings, perhaps an innate defense mechanism, he guessed, but he wasn’t sure.

Figit looked around and his eyes widened and his expression was of wonder or disbelief.

“These are her children. That massive dragon is their mother.

She is
Ashenclaw
.”

“Frag. That ain’t good. How we gonna kill her?”

“That is a good question, my diminutive chum. A good question, indeed.”

"So...it’s a
she
?"

"Aye," he nodded confidently.

"Makes sense. So…yer thinkin’ she's protecting her young?" Triniach simply nodded and looked to the floor. “That why the ground feels so hot?”

Before Triniach could even give that theory any consideration, a roar filled the air around them, deafening them as they all moved to cover their ears. The other drakes that had been hovering in the air or engaged with the elves on the opposite side of the plains all took to the air and scattered, as if responding to Ashenclaw. Triniach watched in awe as the creatures all disappeared. He wasn’t sure if they were all here children, her mates or a mixture of both, but they certainly listened to her.

Their queen
, he concluded with a nod.

"She may not hurt her children if we threaten to harm them,” suggested Jon Veinslay.

“I don’t think that’s the best strategy either,” Triniach suggested.

Azbiel nodded his agreement, too. "Not sure if that is the case. She' probably got other nests of eggs all over Wothlondia."

Before they could ponder the subject any further, the drake known as Ashenclaw took to the air and was upon them with one flap of her wings. Morgrim and Beulah immediately threw up their shields of solid radiant light.

Barnabus and Twarda charged the massive dragon as Jon watched and then followed close behind them. Ashenclaw landed in the midst of the ruins and set down on all fours. Figit made his way around her wide flank, slinking into the shadows and disappearing beneath her underbelly. Serifel and Bain, the death priest, both moved to opposite sides to give her more targets.

Her tail came up and Triniach instinctively knew that it was the precursor to her spewing fire from her maw. He’s noted that some of the others had lifted their tail, too, even when airborne. He cringed and brought up his sphere of Protection, as did Azbiel. He mouthed a spell and pushed forth a wall of arcane force in an attempt to envelop the dwarves in the spell. The timing was not good. He watched as a wide surge of fire consumed them instead.

Panic ensued and a great sense of both failure and loss overwhelmed the mage as he believed them all dead, burnt to ash under the onslaught of that great conflagration.

The ground erupted all around him and he was pulled from his own remorse, forced to witness what was happening around him. Triniach observed both within and without the ruins, several tyrantian worms sprouting from the soil. There were at least a dozen.

"It seems we have also woken a nest of tyrantians," Serifel mentioned with a crack of his knuckles.

"Just what we need," said Figit nearby. “More problems,"

A few of the worms raced to attack the queen of the scorching drakes, spitting acid at her as more still moved to attack them.

"Brace yourselves, my friends. Things just got interesting," Triniach said.

Azbiel launched a volley of arcane bolts into the closest tyrantian worm, dropping it instantly. Absolute mayhem commenced as Triniach floated into the sky, watching the carnage unfold.

He watched the priest of death, Bain, summon a cloud of insects that surrounded and swarmed one of the worms.

Serifel the monk launched another series of blows that must have landed ten times within each beat of his heart. The final blow exploded with the sound and force of thunder, dropping the tyrantian to the ground.

Twarda, Jon, Barnabus and Figit all moved to engage the tyrantians as they emerged from the hot soil. Morgrim and Beulah remained close to them, giving them support in the form of healing and prayers to aid or protect them.

Triniach himself launched a ball of fire directly into a cluster of worms that just emerged from the soil and watched as the blazing orb exploded upon impact, incinerating all of them at once. It was then that he noted a buzzing sound in his ears and saw a swarm of Tyrantian skimmers heading their way from the east and several huge tyrantian crawlers began to emerge from the holes made by the worms. Several larvae followed the crawlers out of the ground.

"Things just went from bad to worse,” he said as he looked to Azbiel. “There appears to be a tyrantian nest below the surface of Shalratha’s ruins.”

"They don’t like the heat either," supposed the mage with a shake of his head and a laugh as he headed toward the skimmers. Triniach looked after him as several of the skimmers swarmed Azbiel, a Sphere of Protection still surrounding him. The mage disappeared beneath their numbers and Triniach winced, hoping that the protective magic held.

A burst of fire emerged from the center of the swarm and they all fell toward the ground in flaming embers, leaving only Azbiel floating in the air once more.

Triniach breathed a sigh of relief. That reprieve turned to horror as he witnessed a tyrantian worm slash the dwarven priest Morgrim in half with its mandibles. It then proceeded to swallow him.

"No!" he heard himself yelling as he fired bolts of arcane force into the tyrantian creature that had slain the dwarven priest.

He managed to glance toward Ashenclaw as she too shredded the enormous tyrantian worms with her claws. He continued to watch the colossal drake as she incinerated multiple tyrantians with one exhale of her breath. In its wake were the ashes of what were once a throng of tyrantian worms. He could not help but admire her sheer majestic supremacy.

Yet still more made their way toward her and them both, the others still fighting upon the ground and even more of the skimmers moved to attack her, coming from another direction.
He wondered if the tyrantians would even soften her up for them. Sadly, he doubted it as she managed to incinerate the entire swarm of skimmers in one breath.

No greater test of his power was ever presented. No more powerful a beast has ever been seen or recorded in history. It was then that another realization crept across his consciousness: perhaps she had graced Wothlondia many times before, but not one soul had ever survived to tell the tale.

He shuddered at that thought.

Figit turned to see many tyrantian crawlers emerge from the holes made by the worms and he cringed. He hated tyrantians in their many shapes and sizes and when he saw them, it made him feel like something was crawling on his skin. He wasn’t sure what was worse: tyrantians or dragons!

Jon was on his left, vigilantly turning tyrantian worms to dust with his divine powers. He recalled how the paladins of any religion could offer divine judgments to aid in their ‘cleansing of the world,’ which was how Jon Veinslay explained it to him numerous times.

And Twarda was to his right, tirelessly planting her axe head into any creature that wandered too close. She never tired, he knew. He’d seen her swing that axe tirelessly in many a fight and still those massive dwarven arms kept going.

Barnabus was directly ahead of him, engaged with a crawler or three, he could not tell how many. Several larvae began creeping toward Barnabus and Figit was bothered that they might make it to him before he could intercept them. As his thoughts considered going over to offer him aid, the wily dwarf spun on the ball of his foot and cleaved through them with the massive head of his axe, yelling something in dwarven.

Both Figit and Barnabus were surprised when the larvae exploded, discharging a green ooze that sizzled when it hit the dwarf’s armor, burning several small holes in the steel and singing the dwarf’s beard as well.