Gatekeepers Book 2: Galeforce

“Draycos! Are you okay down there?!” Galán called. He hovered above with his cane held above his head, the shaft split into something like a helicopter propeller that rotated at high speeds.

“I’m okay!” Draycos called back. He was a little rattled by this new development, but he’d managed to get a solid grip on his stalagmite, so he’d been able to completely avoid the sudden sand pit.

Guerrino and Madniga suddenly flew at Galán. The Gatemaster readied some magic in his available hand, but Guerrino shook his head.

“Now’s not the time to be focusing on killing each other,” he stated flatly.

“Oh, really?” Galán wasn’t quite ready to accept the words of his opponent from a few moments ago. “Why should I believe that?”

Madniga shook his head as he floated in the air, arms crossed over his chest. “It’s it obvious?” He pointed down at the bottom of the pit. “Whatever’s down there is hell-bent on destroying everything; I can tell that much by that vicious magic coming off the thing. We can’t do our jobs if that thing’s in our way.” Madniga held out a hand to Galán. “We know when our jobs or our lives come first no matter what situation we’re thrown in, so how about we call a truce until this is over?”

Galán eyed Madniga warily before exchanging a glance with Guerrino. The small dragonoid nodded his head, and Galán sighed before releasing his magic. He firmly grabbed Madniga’s hand and they shook.

“Don’t make me regret trusting you.”

“Hey, don’t look at me like that!” Madniga protested, holding up both hands in front of him. “I’m not gonna backstab you, promise!”

“That’s rich, coming from the guy who just stabbed me in the heart a few minutes ago!” Draycos yelled up from below. Madniga glared down at him while Galán and Guerrino chuckled softly.

Another ungodly roar shook the cavern, much louder than last time. Dust fell from the ceiling as large cracks ran over the cavern walls.

“We need to get out of here first!” Galán announced, taking action. His normal carefree attitude was gone in this serious situation. “Draycos, get the hell up here already!”

“Roger!” Draycos answered, saluting from his position on the stalagmite. He stretched out his right hand and was preparing to summon a magic transport blade when he suddenly shivered. Glancing down, Draycos was hit by an icy blast of air blowing up from below with tremendous force.

Where do you think you’re going?

“Huh?!” Draycos felt goosebumps come up all over his body after hearing a rather sinister voice ask him a question. It felt like someone had just whispered in his ear. A cold, clammy feeling crawled over his skin as unease set in.

During this, Draycos lost focus on creating a magic sword, and the spell broke apart. Instead, the black markings covering Draycos’s right hand and arm suddenly grew thicker, covering the rest of his arm until the skin could no longer contain it and it flowed out into the air. Draycos watched in half fascination, half horror as his right arm was completely enveloped in a solid black bat-like wing. A sudden weight pulled down on the skin over his middle back, and Draycos craned his neck over his shoulder to see what caused it. The markings on his right arm traveled over his shoulder and down his back until they extended from his skin, forming a long tail like a tower of spiky thimbles stacked on top of each other, growing ever smaller until they reached the tip. The tip was shaped like a trident.

A third tremor, far larger than the rest, rocked the cavern, and the stalagmite Draycos held onto broke off and began to fall. Without any time to grasp what happened to his broken spell, Draycos was left with no choice but to flap his accidental wing. He merely flapped it once, but he shot straight up in the air and would have skewered himself on a stalactite if Guerrino hadn’t flown into his trajectory and caught him, wrapping both arms around Draycos’s torso.

“Whew! Thanks for the save there!” Draycos cried.

Guerrino snorted. “Don’t mention it,” he growled, and he gave Draycos an odd look. “I was thinking you were just going to conjure another sword to ride on like you did when you came down here. Looks like you were caught off guard by the wing, as well. What happened?”

Draycos shrugged in Guerrino’s embrace. “I was going for that, but I thought I heard a voice from down there. I panicked, and my spell fell apart. This ended up as the result.”

Guerrino eyed Draycos curiously but eventually let him go. Draycos tried flapping the wing as lightly as possible and managed to maintain his current altitude, but he kept losing his balance in the air with each flap and struggled not to fall.

“I don’t know if that tail’s for show or not, but try using it to keep your balance,” Guerrino advised him. “Use it to stabilize your center of gravity.”

How the hell am I supposed to control a magical body part I’ve never had before? Draycos sighed and gave it a try. He tried moving the tail around by straining the muscles in his back. He was met with a fair amount of success; he managed to manipulate his tail enough so as to keep his balance to a sufficient degree, although he was still shaky.

Guerrino turned to look over at Galán. “Alright. We’re all airborne now, so how do we get out of here?” he questioned. “The stairwell has been completely blocked off, and I didn’t find any other exits when Madniga and I checked the place when we got here.”

Galán opened his mouth, but before any words got out, a loud explosion rang out as the ceiling above the four literally disintegrated into dust. Coughing loudly, Guerrino and Madniga flapped their wings hard to disperse the dust surrounding them.

“Hello down there!” a familiar voice echoed out from above. “Is everyone alright?!”

Draycos looked up and saw a perfectly circular shaft had been carved out of the rock above. Peering over the edge of the shaft above was a familiar dark grey dragon head with sky-blue eyes. The sight of the Dragon made Draycos crack a relieved smile.

“Vertex!” he cried. Flapping his wing as hard as he dared, Draycos shot up through the shaft like a rocket. In no time he had reached the top and shot out past where Vertex sat. Taking a look around, Draycos noticed they were in the courtyard of Drageon Castle. A weak light fell through a shaft similar to the one he just flew up placed above in the distant roof of the massive cavern. Glancing down, Draycos quickly descended and landed on the ground before Vertex as Galán, Madniga, and Guerrino flew out of the shaft and landed next to him.

“Vertex!” Draycos cried again, a bright smile all over his face. He couldn’t help but to be happy to see a friendly face in this situation. The tail and wing vanished with a loud pop as they exploded just like a balloon, reverting Draycos’s appearance back to what it was before. “What are you doing down here?! I thought you’d still be up in the castle!”

Vertex returned the smile. “Theravor feared the worst and sent me down here to get you some immediate aid after you got stabbed in the heart.” The smile vanished as he gave Draycos a look over, staring at the crest over his heart and the black-scaled hand in particular. “But it looks like that fear was unwarranted.” Sighing, Vertex shook his head as he gave both Draycos and Galán a stern look. “Can either of you explain this to me?”

“Nope,” Draycos answered simply, shaking his head.

“I wish I could tell you,” Galán answered with a sigh, rubbing his cane shaft off with a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. “But I honestly have no clue what happened, either. One moment, Draycos was on the ground after being stabbed, and the next, he was back on his feet and fighting.”

“What the hell are you?” Vertex growled at Draycos.

“I know, right?!” Madniga suddenly piped up, interjecting himself into the conversation. “I’ve asked him that several times already!”

Vertex’s attention finally fell on the two human-sized dragonoids. Madniga’s jaw dropped open as he realized what he’d done while Guerrino covered his face with a hand and sighed. A deep, low growl rumbled in Vertex throat as he stared at the two.

“And I take it that you’re the ones who’ve been interfering in the Dragon King’s investigations the last several months, ignoring the fact that you just tried to assassinate Draycos?” he hissed. A dark grey aura flared up around his body. It was insanely intense; it caused Draycos and Galán to back up in surprise as the other two cowered. “I bet it was also the two of you that snuck into the coliseum during the games and messed with the lottery-system spell used to determine matches so that Draycos ended fighting that orc in the very first match of the Games!”

“That wasn’t me!” Guerrino cried. He pointed an accusing finger at Madniga. “That was all his idea! I had no part in that incident!”

“Hey, man! Why are you leaving me out to dry like that?!” Madniga snapped. “In case you’ve forgotten, you’re the one who tried dragging Draycos down through that hole this morning! And what happened to group penalties, since we’re partners on a joint assassination contract?!”

Draycos and Galán watched in confusion as the three dragons bickered back and forth with one another.

“What’s going on?” Draycos whispered, leaned close to Galán and covered his mouth with one hand so the others wouldn’t see.

“Beats me,” Galán whispered back, mimicking Draycos. “But it’s rare to actually catch members of the Mercenary Union and Shadow Strikers. Who knows how much trouble those two will be in after everything they and their groups have done.”

Without warning, a loud, ear-splitting screech filled Draycos’s ears. With a startled shout, Draycos fell to his knees and bent over, covering both ears with his hands as a look of intense pain crossed his face.

“Hey, Draycos?” Galán cried, getting down on one knee as he gave Draycos a worried look. The three dragons stopped arguing at the sudden commotion and turned their attention to Draycos.

“What’s the matter? Hey, Draycos! What’s going on?!” Vertex demanded.

“My...ears!” Draycos gasped out, a vein bulging on his forehead. “Does anyone else hear that?!”

“Hear what, Draycos? What are you talking about?!” Galán questioned, grabbing Draycos’s shoulders.

The screeching hit its peak, and Draycos let out a scream as his everything around him went black. He was on his knees in a place completely void of anything except himself. Realizing the screeching had stopped, Draycos looked up and glanced around.

“Hello?” he called. “Is anyone there?!”

“I found you!”

Draycos glanced down after hearing the same voice as before. A massive set of jaws appeared from the void without warning and snapped shut around Draycos before he could even react....

“Oi, Draycos! Wake up!”

A sharp pain suddenly stung on his left cheek, and Draycos’s eyelids snapped open. He realized he was laying flat on his back on the ground, and the other four were crowded around him with worried expressions on their faces.

“What happened?” Draycos asked.

“You conked out for a second there,” Madniga told him. “You were only out for a second, but--oof!”

Madniga’s sentence was cut off as Draycos delivered a swift kick to his jaw. Madniga staggered back a few steps as he gingerly rubbed his jaw.

“What was that for?!” he snapped.

“What do you think?!” Draycos threw back, leaping to his feet. “What gives you the right to be worried about me not even ten minutes after you tried to kill me?! Are you insane?!”

“Well, excuse me for being concerned,” Madniga quietly muttered, still rubbing his chin as he looked away and pouted.

“Are you frickin’ kidding me?! Are you an assassin after my head or not?!”

A loud roar rang out as the ground shook beneath their feet. Draycos and Madniga came to their senses and prepared themselves as the howling continued, growing louder and louder with each passing second. The ground shook violently, and a sudden sensation of unease came over Draycos again as the hairs on the back of his neck prickled.

“Everyone get away from the hole!” Vertex shouted. “Draycos, get behind me!”

Galán, Guerrino, and Madniga took to the air while Draycos took shelter behind Vertex’s leg. Vertex unfurled his wings and wrapped the front of his body with them just as the mouth of the hole exploded, sending rocky debris everywhere. Bracing himself against the gusts of winds threatening to knock him over, Draycos saw a black silhouette emerge from the hole. But he couldn’t make it out through all the dust.

“Who’s there?!” he demanded, squinting through the dust. “Show yourself!”

The silhouette stood up. It towered above Draycos and Vertex. It was even taller than Theravor; it stood about six or seven times Draycos’s height. The silhouette’s outline suddenly grew much wider, and there was the flapping sound of beating wings as a strong gust blew throughout the cavern. As the dust dispersed, the appearance of the figure grew clear.

A massive black humanoid dragon stood above everyone, its enormous dark blue eyes fixed on Draycos with a stare that made Draycos’s skin crawl. It was like a beast that had cornered its prey. Large drops of saliva fell from its maw as a low growl made the very air tremble.

“It’s about time I got out of that seal,” the dragon growled. “A thousand years of no food has really whetted my appetite. Thanks for the wake-up call.”