epilogue

The War Begins

A dragon’s roar echoes through the dark forest as it burns, sending black smoke hurdling towards the already dark sky. The fire brightens as it greedily devours the trees surrounding the wounded dragon, revealing the dark crimson blood leaking down its side as it wavers, struggling to stay on its feet and continue fighting. The purple beast snaps at the small black figures darting around it, but it is too slow and for its efforts it gets nothing but another swipe from a sword across its muzzle.

The dragon’s dark eyes reflect the fire as the flames of anger and fury erupt in them. The dragon stops holding back, attacking with all its might- no matter what the consequences might be for itself. It charges at the nearest man in black and kills him as well as the man next to him. The dragon then charges at yet another man while roaring at the sky, calling for help. None comes. This dragon must fight alone, for the other dragons that were fighting with the first have been separated and are each fighting desperate battles of their own.

The dragons, known for their wisdom and power, are losing this battle against the evil humans. They are even being slaughtered by the dozens.

Finally, a loud trumpeting call echoes through the woods, calling a retreat for all those dragons who can still flee. The group flaps weakly away from the burning section of the forest, leaving with less than half of the group they began with. The leader of these dragons, a large black dragon, snorts angrily and flames flicker from his nostrils.

We should have won this fight, easily! He rants to himself. This is just humiliating. We are stronger than those puny humans- and we always have been! …It’s all Gale’s fault. He put me in charge of these weakling purple dragons. They can’t fight! He should have let me lead the BLACK dragons into battle! We would have been the ones slaughtering the humans rather than the other way around! This isn’t right! He continues ranting and raving to himself as they retreat back to the volcano they named Dragon Mountain.

When they finally arrive, more than half the survivors faint as soon as they touch down, exhausted. The large black dragon stalks away from them, into the mountain, leaving them to be taken care of by the green dragons that had been waiting there from the direction of Gale the Gold.

The black dragon’s snout wrinkles and he snorts in anger again. We wouldn’t NEED the green dragons to help take care of the survivors if Gale had either had the blacks join us- or my clan to go alone, themselves! Our clan is the strongest as well as the largest, besides the greens. It isn’t right! Dragons are not to be calling a retreat when fighting those puny weaklings! I don’t care if they are led by a man who’s name is Patrick! I don’t care if one of them suddenly has a ton more power and is his runner up; I don’t care! We should have destroyed them easily! …I will have to talk with Gale about this.

He stalks towards the council room where Gale and the other council members wait for his report. When he enters the vast room, he heads straight towards Gale, the largest of them all. The black dragon had been taught to respect him, but he was too proud. He had heard that Gold dragons can have immense power when needed, but he doesn’t believe it. If he has that kind of power, then he would use it to protect us, to destroy all humans off the face of the planet and rid us of their power-hungry wars forever! But he hasn’t. He is a weakling and a disgrace to all Dragonkind.

With this attitude he approaches the leader of the dragons, the one dragon he resents the most. Except, perhaps, the Dragongirl. She had one mission, and she had failed. He would never forgive her for that- or for the council for foolishly trusting her to save them.

Gale lifts his head at his approach. “Ah, very good. You are back, Vincent the Proud. How did it go?”

Vincent snorts flames once more to show his boiling anger. “We had to call a retreat. Half of the attack party is dead. Most of the survivors are out cold and being tended to by the green clan. We lost this battle. …And it was all because of you, you stupid, weak, pathetic excuse for a dragon!” he continues, his anger unable to be contained any longer. “If you had let me lead MY clan out into battle, then we would have been victorious. We would have succeeded if the council had fought as well- that is, if you are as powerful as you have lead everyone to believe. We lost because the purple clan is weak. They were slaughtered like lambs. It was pathetic and I am disgusted by your neglect. We cannot win a war like this. The Sohos, despite what you believe, will not be able to help us. They are weaker than us and are weaker than the Dragon Hunters as well. The mermaids may be fighting their underwater war, but they are losing as well.

“Soon all of Zilferia will be at war with these humans, and we will all be destroyed. We are the most powerful of all the other creatures in Zilferia, yet we cannot stand up to them because of weak leadership.”

Gale sighs wearily. “What do you mean to do about it? If the Dragon Hunters are too powerful for us, then they are simply too powerful for us. There is nothing we can do.”

“Wrong. We are not weak, we are the most powerful of all creatures on Zilferia. We are only losing because you do not know how to direct an army.”

“And you think that you do?” The sapphire dragon bites back.

“Yes. The black dragons are known for their great abilities at fighting.”

“Maybe so, but they are not good at strategizing and planning ahead.”

“Well, look at how far that’s gotten us in this war! We are losing because you just sit in here and think! Well, thinking will not be what wins this war. It will be the amount of power and strength we can muster. Thanks to your failures, we won’t even have as much strength as we had to work with before.

“…I ask, for the good of our very race, to be a part of this council. I also ask that the council will join us in fighting. The dragons have no heart to fight when their leaders are cowering and hiding. They need someone to lead them. I will lead them, but if you join me they will be more courageous and therefore have the power and drive to defeat these rebel humans.”

The dragons fall silent, stunned by Vincent the Proud’s forwardness. They then begin arguing among themselves. Grinning to himself, the black dragon lowers himself to the ground, content to wait for them to reach a conclusion. It doesn’t take long. The silver dragon steps forward to deliver their answer.

“Vincent the Proud,” he starts. “We have considered your offer and have discovered that we are divided. Some of us would have you join, but some of us would not.” Gale, the sapphire, and the white dragon glare at Vincent while the rest of the council glare at the other three. “We are very sorry, but this will cause a delay until we can all have a more unanimous vote. We would still be very pleased if you would continue to lead a part of our army.”

Growling, Vincent finally manages to lower his head. “Very well. I trust the council has their reasons for not wanting to let me help my way. I will continue to lead the dragons into battle on the hopes that we may be able to win this war despite our lack of leadership. Good day,” he says, then stalks away from them before flapping up to the hole at the top of the mountain.

He perches on the highest section of the rim and gazes out over what used to be a beautiful view. Now it is nothing more than something to inspire him to never give up, or else the future could be even worse.

Vincent looks out sadly at the burning section of the forest where the Dragon Hunters are cheering after yet another victory. The last few rays of light from the sun catch the smoky air and reflect on the metal machines the Dragon Hunters had created to destroy the dragons. A tear slides out of his eye as he pictures a future with no dragons; no life. He feels an immense sadness weighing on his heart. I will do all that I can to prevent that from happening, he promises himself. I will never let these humans completely destroy the world. If I have to, I will stop them all by myself. It shouldn’t be that hard. I just have to kill the one called Patrick and his underling, the one called Hunter. I know that Hunter recently gained strange powers, but they will NOT be enough to defeat me.

…I will save all of Dragonkind, even if I have to do it alone. Reaching a decision, Vincent launches into the air and starts toward the burning section. He knows just where to find this ‘Hunter.’ He had seen him disappear when fighting one of his dragons, and he also saw him talking to a liger that then attacked a dragon- which was completely against its nature. He knows that wherever there is a clump of animals, he is likely to be there. He flies around the area until he spots a man suddenly lift into the air and begin moving forward. He is followed by five others.

There he is… Vincent follows them and quickly catches up. He swiftly kills the five in the back of the group. The one in the front spins around, his brown eyes wide with fear. He promptly disappears. Growling, Vincent whirls around, trying to find him. Then he suddenly feels a strange weight at the base of his head. Startled, he quickly dives toward the ground, hoping the strong wind would tear the boy off.

When he lands, he finds that he is still clinging onto him, panting for breath. Angry, Vincent tilts his head back and loses a torrent of fire which then rains back down on his head. It doesn’t affect the boy. Oh, that’s right… these Dragon Hunters have some kind of removable scales that protect them from fire…

He suddenly hears the boy’s voice in his ear. “Be calm, dragon,” he sooths. Against his will, Vincent’s muscles slowly relax. “Yes, very good. Now listen to me, dragon, I am a Dragon Hunter. That means I kill dragons… in fact, I killed many of your friends today.”

“They were not my friends,” Vincent bites back.

“Ah… I see. You are a proud one, no friends, full of yourself… did you think you could kill me yourself?” Vincent snorts and doesn’t answer, trying to buck the boy off of his long neck. He clings on stubbornly.

“Calm down, I won’t hurt you,” he assures. Vincent’s mind rolls. He knows the boy is lying, and yet he is still calming down and relaxing. What is going on?

“That’s better… you know, I could kill you… but I think it would be better to keep you as a pet, eh? Sound like fun?” At this, Vincent stands again and roars, shooting fire into the sky.

“Never, puny human! I will destroy you! You may as well surrender now!” The boy just laughs at the threat.

“Yes, I think I will keep you… then I can try out these new Gifts I’ve received… my name is Hunter. Tell me, dragon, what is yours?”

Against his will, he replies. “I am Vincent the Proud, Prince of the black dragon clan. …Get out of my head! I will not answer any of your questions!”

Hunter laughs. “Oh, but you will, Vincent, you will… I will use my new Gift of ‘befriending animals’ as controlling them… I already have gotten quite good at it, in case you couldn’t tell…” Vincent growls and wriggles underneath him, but he can’t knock him loose. “…Although in case that doesn’t work- which is doubtful- then I shall just read your mind and pry it out. …I can even make it fun and make it hurt,” he laughs wickedly.

A werewolf then bursts out of the undergrowth. He freezes, eyes wide as he sees the huge black dragon in front of him. “Stay,” Hunter commands it. He remains frozen, although he looks like he very much wants to run.

“Now then, Vincent, let’s see what you can do… kill the werewolf.”

Vincent’s second stomach instantly starts rolling as he fights to disobey the command, but after only a few seconds, a stream of fire erupts from his mouth, shooting toward the werewolf and incinerating him in less than a minute.

Hunter laughs gleefully. “This will be fun.”

THE END

The Crystal Dragon Series will continue in the next book:

First Earth

Thank you for reading!

-Katie Lorrigan