Music drifted through the
isolated spaceship, two dragons performing in duet to let their crooning voices
fill the empty corridors, much to the annoyance of the third dragon who
inhabited the ship. The craft was large and elegant, a sweeping design that was
vaguely reminiscent of a dragon’s wing. Towards the front of the ship was its
identification number, 602-19. Beneath the number was a single word in the
complex dreykonii language, reading ‘Astral Victory’.

The Astral Victory was a long way
out from the expansive dreykonii empire, in a star system that had been largely
uncharted. Long range scanners had detected signs of life on one of the planets
surrounding the large, yellow star, and it was those readings that interested
one of the dragons on board.

Omega had been able to convince
two of the closest dragons to him to accompany him on an unofficial mission to
the isolated system and explore the new planet, eager to see the alien life
that was unknown to the dreykonii. His older brother Pyro, the First Prince of
their clan and of the empire, had provided the clearance to go offworld, while
his oldest friend and companion Maz supplied the Astral Victory.

They were approaching the unnamed
planet, and Pyro was in the bridge by himself, head in his paws as he listened
to the constant singing from his two companions. He still had a smile on his
face though as the lilting voices rose and fell. Though he had told the two
younger dragons on multiple occasions to be quiet so he could hear the ship’s
computer, he actually rather enjoyed their voices, and was pleased to hear them
continue.

“I still don’t understand our
mission,” the ship’s computer said, cutting across the singing. Her voice could
almost be confused for a female dragon’s voice, speaking through an intercom.
There was perhaps just a little flatness to her tone that gave away her
synthetic nature.

Pyro rustled his wings and shook
his head. He glanced out the front windows, towards the distant planet that was
slowly starting to draw closer, and beyond that the bright yellow star. “Nor do
I, Avee. I’ve learned not to question my brother sometimes.”

The computer was a highly
advanced AI unit, capable of flying the ship by herself without any input from
the dragons onboard. She was designed to make tactical decisions in warfare,
though was also programmed to always defer to the ship’s captain should their
opinions clash. The only time she was capable of disobeying her captain was
when it would result in the certain destruction of the ship or the death of another
dreykonii.

After a period of silence between
the two, she spoke up again. “I never knew my captain could sing. He and Omega
have lovely voices. Did you know this, First Prince?”

Pyro chuckled to himself. “Of
course. They love showing off whenever they can.”

“I have never heard him sing
before,” Avee commented. “I wonder why that would be?”

Pyro shrugged, glancing down
towards the dashboard, where a small holographic display of a dragoness stood.
While he knew he didn’t need to look at any particular location to speak to the
AI, he found it oddly comforting to look towards her physical manifestation
when addressing her. It made it feel more like a conversation with a real
dragon. “I guess singing isn’t really done too often one military missions.
Don’t think he has many chances to get out with his ship by himself.”

“I’ll need to check the logs,
but… Yes. This is the first time,” Avee replied, only a momentary pause needed
to check her extensive mission logs, saved within her powerful core.

Another period of silence fell
between them as they listened to the other dragons sing. “You should know,
First Prince. We are approaching the gravity well of the target planet. I’ve
started running some scans to determine information of the surface.”

“How long until we’re in orbit?”

“Two hours, three minutes, and
seventeen seconds,” Avee replied without hesitation.

“Two hours would have more than
sufficed.”

“But that would have been
inaccurate information.”

Pyro rolled his eyes as he stood
up. “Never mind,” he assured the AI. “I’d better go fetch the others so we can
work out just what Omega’s plan is going to be.”

“Of course, First Prince. I shall
keep our course true.”

***

The three dragons gazed down at
the planet below them, eagerly taking in all the details they could. It was
always such a thrill getting to see a new planet for the first time, the
unfamiliar landscape laid out below them, and yet, some things were also so
familiar, so consistent with almost every other inhabited planet the empire had
come across. The oceans were blue, and the land was a mixture of lush green and
arid reds and yellows. Even on the night side of the planet there was no sign
of any advanced technology, no bright lights indicating any cities. Avee was
certain there was life down there, and she was busy scanning the planet to
detect as much information as she could. A few probes had been sent down to the
surface as well to pick up on vocal patterns from the natives.

While they waited for the masses
of information to come back, the three dragons talked, and once more Pyro had
his head in his paws.

“You can’t just go down there and
wander around,” the First Prince exclaimed, shaking his head as he pawed at his
muzzle in exasperation.

“Why not? How many chances do we
get of walking on an uncharted planet like this?” Omega replied, his tail
twitching back and forth in his excitement. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the
planet, imaginatively named G3V-4. He was currently looking at a pair of
parallel mountain ranges running up the middle of one of the continents, two
ragged lines of brown and white like a twin pair of spines. Clustered around
the peaks were large swathes of clouds. Between the ranges was a large, open
expanse that looked like lush plains fed by the mountainous rains. To the
north, that eventually changed to dry tundra and then gleaming white ice caps.
To the south, a wide open bay cut across the eastern ranges just above the
equator.

“Are you even listening to me?”
Pyro snapped, flicking his tail against Omega’s and drawing his attention away
from the windows.

Omega blinked and looked up at
his older brother. “Huh, sorry. No, I was thinking about what it must be like
down there.”

“Well, get that thought out of
your head. We came here to observe, not to interfere. Those are natives down
there, unaware of anything beyond their planet, if even they’ve come to realise
there are people beyond their own borders,” Pyro said, trying to drag his brother
away from the front of the ship. “We’re aliens to them. They see us, and there
are going to be all sorts of questions asked. Natives can be savage when they
meet something they don’t understand or can’t explain.”

“Then we can go down and make
sure we aren’t seen at all,” Omega grumbled as he twisted his arm in an attempt
to loosen Pyro’s grip on his wrist.

Pyro scoffed and released Omega,
folding his arms across his chest. “Not be seen? I don’t trust you not to interfere
if you see something down there you don’t like. Remember that time on Ursa 7?”

Omega scratched at his muzzle
idly, not quite able to look up to his brother’s eyes. “Yeah, I remember. I
promise it will be different this time though.”

“The answer is still no, Megy.
It’s not going to change,” Pyro said with a snarl. The older dragon spun around
and approached Maz, who had started to go through some of the information that
Avee was starting to provide.

“This is incredible,” Maz
muttered, flicking across through several screens of information about the
native species on the planet below. “There’s such a massive variety of species
down there, many of which appear to have developed sapience and technology
already. Both bipeds and quadrupeds seem to have evolved, some with six limbs
too. Incredible, I know a lot of scientists would love to study how they all
developed.”

At the press of a few buttons, a
holographic screen obscured the windows and projected some of the images Maz
was looking at. They showed a few of the different species. Some were bipedal
and covered in fur, though one was mostly hairless and wrapped up in different
fabrics. They looked oddly familiar.

“Are they humans?” Pyro asked,
his earlier frustration with Omega largely ignored now as the fascination of
discovery overwhelmed him.

Maz shrugged his shoulders. “They
look like them, yeah. They seem to be native to this planet though, so it might
just be a lucky fluke. Certainly no evidence of humans ever settling anywhere
near here.”

The next species shown was one of
the quadrupedal, six limbed species Maz had referred to. Their front half was
covered in fine feathers, which gradually blended into something more like fur
on their hindquarters. Large wings sprouted from their shoulders, which Avee
calculated were easily strong enough to support flight. They were far from the
most interesting though, and as Avee flicked the screen over to the next, the
three dragons all paused and looked towards each other.

“Now that’s intriguing,” Pyro
muttered.

What was displayed before them as
a large, scaled creature with four strong legs and two wide wings with a
membrane of skin between each elongated digit. Its shoulder height was almost
as tall as the three dragons. According to Avee it was also capable of flight,
as well as the ability to spit fire.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d
say that’s a dragon,” Omega said. He smirked up to his brother. “You still
think we won’t be able to fit in down there?”

Pyro groaned and covered his
eyes. “Just because we look kind of like them, doesn’t mean we can go down
there and expect not to be caught out. It’s foolish and irresponsible.”

“And we’re going anyway, aren’t
we Maz? We’ll go and have some excitement while grumpy here stews alone in his
spaceship, not knowing what fun is even if it bit him on the tail,” Omega said,
placing a paw on his brother’s shoulder. “Just for one day. It will be fine.
We’ll just sneak down there, have a look around and observe some of the natives
from a distance. I want to see if these dragons really are as similar to us as
they appear.”

Pyro hissed and shook his head,
before throwing his arms up in exasperation. “Fine. Go down there, but I’m
staying up here. If you two go down there, you’re on your own. Avee. What’s the
air like on the surface?”

“Safe. Non toxic. Mixture of
mainly oxygen and nitrogen, with-”

“Alright, alright. That’s more
than enough,” Pyro said, cutting across the AI before she started delving into
the more precise measurements from within the atmosphere. He turned to face Maz
and Omega, the latter of the two was hopping from foot to foot in excitement,
only too eager to descend down onto the unexplored planet.

“We’ll be good,” Omega promised,
before turning tail and heading down towards the shuttles at the rear of the
ship.

Pyro reached out and took Maz’s paw
in his own before the other dragon could follow. “Look after him and make him
behave,” Pyro warned. “I know what my brother gets like, especially with
dragons. He might get… protective of these primitives.”

“We have no intention of
interfering, I promise,” Maz said with a small smile. “I’ll try to keep him on
a leash, but you know how hard that is.” Pyro nodded and sighed, releasing Maz.
He turned away, slumping down in front of the computer terminal and started to
flick through the information Avee was uploading.

“Looks like it’s just me and you
now,” he said to the AI as he heard the loud clunk echo through the ship as one
of the shuttles disembarked a few minutes later. He got no response back from
Avee.

***

Omega could barely contain
himself as he waited for Maz to catch up, waiting by the storage room by the
shuttles. Maz picked out a few small, flat discs of metal from the computer
terminal in the wall, holding them carefully between his claws. He gave two to
Omega, keeping two more for himself. They were engraved with two slightly
different symbols, one indicating sound going in to a small hole, the other
sound coming out.

“Are these fully calibrated,
Avee?” Maz asked as he placed one disc on his throat, where it quickly attached
to his scales, blending in so it was almost invisible. The second was put in
place just beneath his ear.

“Almost,” came the instant reply
from the AI. “I’ll continue to download information onto the translators as I
encrypt it. They speak a lot of different languages down there, but I shall
prioritise work on those near where you land.”

“You’re amazing, have I ever told
you that, Avee?” Maz said, before checking Omega had attached the translators
correctly. He then picked up a couple of communicators, making sure they had
more than enough charge to last them the planned full day on the surface. Avee
had already informed them the rotation of G3V-4 was similar to that of their
homeworld. The length of the day would be nothing untoward.

Omega made a small move towards
the armoury, but Maz held him back. “We’re going down to observe, not to
interfere. There aren’t any threats down there we need to worry about, so we’ll
go down unarmed,” Maz said, to which Omega reluctantly nodded.

“Fine, if you insist. Now come
on, let’s go,” Omega said, pulling Maz into one of the shuttles. Launch was
quickly authorised thanks to Avee, and it was only a few moments before the two
dragons felt the distinctive tug of acceleration on their bodies.

Maz piloted them down into the
atmosphere of G3V-4, aiming then towards the continent Omega had been
inspecting before. Scans of the terrain had pinpointed a remote area to land
near the eastern mountain range, about one hundred miles north of the sparkling
waters of the large bay. The shuttle bounced and rocked with the turbulence of
their entry, but neither dragon showed any concern as their view was obscured
by red and white light as their vessel heated up. The dull roar of their
engines gradually increased as they fell further into the oxygen-rich
atmosphere until their vision suddenly returned.

Omega let out a whoop of delight,
clapping his paws together as they got their first, proper look of the land
below. Rolling hills led into a massive range of tall mountains that stretched
as far as they could see to the north, truncated by the ocean in the distant
south. Lakes and rivers made themselves known, and it wasn’t long before they
spotted a few signs of civilisation below in the forms of roads and tilled
fields.

“Look, over there,” Omega said,
pointing out towards the western horizon. A few wisps of smoke had attracted
his attention, and soon it became clear that there was a settlement of some
sort there. Immediately Maz tugged on the controls to guide the shuttle away
from the settlement, much to Omega’s disappointment.

“Really? Why not?” Omega whined.

“I think flying right over a city
unshrouded will be a bad idea, don’t you?” Maz replied with a chuckle. “We’ll
land on the edge of that forest over there and have a look around on foot.”

Omega reluctantly agreed with
this, and he started to pace around the small shuttle as he waited for Maz to
land them on the borders of the large forest that covered most of the nearby
foothills. After what felt like an age, he heard the landing thrusters fire,
and the shuttle came down to a gentle halt on its support legs. Before Maz had
even had the chance to power down the shuttle, Omega had opened the door and
stepped outside, making sure he was the first dreykonii to take a breath of
this new, alien planet’s air. It smelt crisp, and sweet somehow. An odd scent
was on the air, and there wasn’t the single hint of pollution at all. This world
was pure.

Closing his eyes and taking in a
deep breath, Omega spread his wings wide to absorb as much of the light coming
down from the single sun. He heard Maz step out by his side, before something
was placed in his paw. He squinted open his eyes to look down at the small,
white pill.

“Immunobooster. You’ll want to
take that quickly. Should have had it before we came down,” Maz said. Omega
nodded and quickly swallowed the pill. New planets meant a new range of
diseases and illnesses his body wouldn’t be prepared for. What might be totally
harmless to the local population could be utterly devastating or even fatal to
him.

Closing the shuttle door behind
them, Maz activated the shrouding system that would keep it hidden from any
natives that happened to pass by. They didn’t want to run the risk of some poor
native stumbling upon the ship and starting a panic.

Looking up to the sky, Omega gave
a small wave to the hidden Astral Victory, invisible in orbit well above them.
He knew Pyro wouldn’t be able to see them, but still he had to give that little
wave, just so his brother knew they were both safely landed.

“Right. I suggest we explore the
area on foot for a while, then go and look at that city when it gets dark,” Maz
suggested as he clapped his paws together. He glanced around, before pointing
towards the nearby trees. “How about a walk through the forest first?”

“If there are any of those native
dragons nearby, then sure,” Omega replied. He scanned the skies, but couldn’t
see any sign of the two large, flying creatures this planet possessed. He was
tempted to contact Avee to see if she could track their habitat, but decided to
wait until she had finished compiling the planet’s many different languages
first. Even though they didn’t want to interfere, communication could still be
important if they wanted to listen in on any natives they met.

Omega bounced on ahead of Maz,
darting into the trees and exclaiming in delight as a couple of birds erupted
from the foliage, squawking their displeasure at being disturbed. He attacked a
few overhanging branches with the blade on his tail, slicing through the wood
with ease.

“Did you really need to do that?”
Maz muttered, shielding his face from the falling branches that clattered off
his scales. “There’s no need to brandish that about. There’s only primitives
here and they’re not going to hurt you.”

“Primitives can still be
dangerous,” Omega replied, pausing for a moment to tug his tail free from a
piece of wood his blade had embedded deep into. It took him a few tries before
he was able to free himself, tossing the offending wood deeper into the forest.

There were other animals making
their presence known amongst the trees, but few came forward into the light.
Most were evident just from a few scurried pawsteps amongst the fallen leaves
and branches rustling from their movements. That didn’t stop Omega exploring as
much as he could, sticking his muzzle through every cluster of leaves and
peering around every tree. On one occasion he could his face swiped at by a set
of viciously sharp claws belonging to some small, fuzzy creature he couldn’t
identify. That drew an amused chuckle from Maz.

“You’re like an inquisitive
hatchling, Megy,” he said with a shake of his head.

Omega rolled his eyes. “How many
times do you get to see a brand new planet, Maz?” he asked, running his fingers
down a nearby branch and feeling the sticky sap exuding over his scales.

“A few times, but just be
careful. You don’t know what’s dangerous and what isn’t,” Maz cautioned,
resting his paw on Omega’s shoulder and pulling the other dragon back a couple
of steps. “Remember we’re here to just observe, and not to interfere. We don’t
want to leave any trace of our presence behind.”

“Yes, I know. You’ve told me
already,” Omega muttered, shrugging his shoulder free of Maz’s grip. They
walked in silence for a bit longer, the ground starting to slope upwards
beneath their feet as they neared the steep sides of the mountains, a small
trail emerging in the grass, trampled down by previous walkers through the
forest. The peaks of the mountains loomed up tall beyond the canopy of leaves
above their heads. Clouds were gathering around the distant snow-capped peaks,
threatening the possibility of rain later on.

Without any destination in mind,
the two dragons just walked to see where the little trail led them. It led
steadily uphill, though amongst all the trees it was hard to tell just how high
they were climbing. That was until they emerged suddenly back into the
unfiltered light. They’d climbed all the way up one of the foothills, a sheer
cliff face climbed high above them with a few hardy trees clinging to the
near-vertical face of rock. It gave them a much better view of the surrounding
land beyond the borders of the forest. They could see two roads sweeping their
way through the undulating farmlands. On the nearest of the roads they could
just about make out a cart of some sort, a few figures driving it on. They were
too far away to make out properly, whether human or one of the other species
that populated the planet.

“Do you think they can see us?”
Omega asked, pointing towards the distant cart.

Maz shook his head. “I don’t
think so. I doubt their vision is as good as ours. But just to be safe, we
should keep moving. This trail has to lead somewhere, so we may as well follow
it.”

“I can’t smell anything nearby
either. I doubt anyone has been this way for a few days at least,” Omega added.
The air was clean and fresh with just the scent of the trees on it, the wind
coming down from the mountains crisp and cool. “Further up?”

“Yeah, let’s see what’s up there.
See if we can find one of these dragons for you, as I know you won’t be happy
until we find one,” Maz said, chuckling and giving the other dragon a playful
shove. Omega responded in kind, giving Maz a little push back.

“And yet you and Pyro are being
mean and won’t let me go and talk to one,” Omega muttered sullenly. Maz grinned
and slapped him lightly on the shoulder.

“Come on, let’s go. I think I saw
a route up into the mountains not far above us,” Maz said, giving Omega a tug
on the paw to get him moving again. The two dragons began to head up into the
mountains proper. Trees gave way to rough grass and long heathers as the slope
began to increase, the landscape becoming a little harsher as they climbed.

The mountains rose tall around
them, cutting off most of the sunlight as they walked, descending them into a
gloomy shadow. Still they saw no trace of any sapient being, just the
occasional bird flying overhead, or the scampering sounds of a small creature
fleeing in front of them. It was a sparse terrain, and Omega was beginning to
give up hope that he’d even get to meet a dragon. He wondered if Maz was
leading him up this way to deliberately avoid running into one. Probably under
orders from Pyro.

Omega was just about to question
Maz about this when the other dragon suddenly stopped and flared his wings,
raising an arm to warn Omega to stop. It took a moment for Omega to hear what
Maz had. Approaching footsteps.

Silently gesturing to the darkening
sky, Maz kicked off and took to wing. Omega followed just behind, not wanting
to be seen by whoever approached. There must be another path close by, as the
footsteps seemed to be coming from further down the hill, yet they were sure
nothing could have caught up to them and they hadn’t passed anyone along the
way.

Maz looked set to fly well out of
range and disappear, but Omega didn’t go far. He found a ledge up a nearby
cliff that mostly obscured him from view from the path below, but gave him a
good vantage point to see what approached. He settled down and peered over the
rock, hearing Maz land by his side a minute later with an annoyed hiss. He was
sure the other dragon was about to berate him over staying back, but Omega held
out his paw. He’d seen a glint of metal in the sunlight. Something approached.

A biped was climbing the
mountain, though it wasn’t clear exactly what species it was just yet, as it
was clad in bright, shiny armour. A horse was by the biped’s side, plodding up
with his master, laden down with supplies and equipment. There even appeared to
be a large pike strapped to the beast’s side, with a wicked hooked tip that
looked like it was designed to do a lot of damage.

As they approached, Omega could
see that the biped didn’t wear a helmet. He appeared to be a human male, fairly
young with long black hair. Immediately Omega didn’t like the man. He didn’t
know what it was, but something gave him an uneasy feeling.

“Do you have your sword on you?”
Maz whispered in Omega’s ear, evidently feeling the same sense of unease. Omega
grimaced and shook his head, his hip bare.

“You told me to leave it behind,”
Omega hissed. His blade would be useful here, a powerful artefact that was
capable of warning him when someone with ill intentions against dragons was
near. He hadn’t expected to face any sort of danger down here amongst the
natives, but this human put him in mind of others he had fought in the past.

Omega’s tail twitched as he
crawled forward to the edge of the ledge, preparing to leap down to the
travelling human below, but he was stopped by Maz’s paw on his tail. He
growled, but held still.

“Don’t interfere,” Maz snarled,
keeping his voice low and quiet.

Omega gripped his claws into the
rock, but he obeyed the other dragon, growling under his breath as the human
passed by with his horse. It wasn’t until the biped was completely out of sight
did the two dragons stand back up again.

“We really shouldn’t be here,”
Maz said, standing with his paws on hips and wings slightly flared as he looked
down into the narrow valley the human had been walking through. “We should go
back to the ship. You’ve had your chance to look around.”

“But we haven’t seen a dragon
yet,” Omega said with a growl and an annoyed swing of his tail. “Pyro isn’t
expecting us back until tomorrow anyway, so why don’t we find somewhere and
camp out for the night?”

Maz sighed and shook his head,
but he didn’t offer any vocalised protests to Omega’s suggestion. Instead he
glanced up to the sky, where clouds were starting to gather and descend, a
stronger wind blowing from what Maz believed to be the north. “Fine. But if
something goes wrong, you’re taking responsibility for it. Now let’s get into
shelter before any rain comes in. I don’t feel like getting wet.”

Omega whooped in delight and
leapt off into the air, spreading his wings and catching a thermal to keep
himself aloft. Maz reluctantly followed after, and the two dragons started to
ascend again, this time keeping to wing and maintaining a firm eye out for the
human somewhere below. They fortunately saw no sign of him, and it wasn’t long
before they found a wide cave to take shelter in from the rain that was
starting to sweep in from the north.

The cave mouth was wide, with a
large flat shelf that descended into a steep incline in front of the entrance.
The two landed together and looked around, a light mist of rain starting to
fall around them. It felt like they were in the clouds, and their vision was
drastically limited now, unable to see the rolling countryside at the bottom of
the mountain. Instead they turned to the cave, stepping into the darkness and
flicking their wings to clear them of any moisture. The weather had largely
suppressed the scents in the air, and neither Maz nor Omega could detect any
indication of life within the cave.

It was dark inside the cave, as
they expected, but Maz soon extracted some small portable lights from within
the supply pouch he carried at his hip. What they saw led to two completely
contrasting reactions, with Omega bouncing on his heels, and Maz taking a step
back towards the cave entrance. It was clear that this was an inhabited cave,
with a bundle of blankets in one sheltered corner making a nest, as well as
many other trinkets scattered throughout. One wall was charred and blackened,
with a pile of dried branches scattered beneath.

“We should leave,” Maz said,
taking hold of Omega’s arm, but the other dragon just shrugged him away.

“Are you kidding? We just found a
dragon’s lair. This is what we came for,” Omega said, taking a couple of steps
forward and ignoring Maz’s protests.

“Just to look, not to go and
break into their home,” Maz hissed, taking a few more steps back until he felt
the drizzle on his wings again. “Come on. We should go before…”

He trailed off, hearing wingbeats
outside. Reacting quickly, he scampered into the cave and dimmed the portable
lights. He grabbed hold of Omega and dragged him deeper into the cave, hoping
against hope that the shadows would be able to hide them from sight.

The two dragons had a good view
as the cave owner descended out of the misty rain to land on the shelf outside.
The native was a large, copper scaled creature. Just as Avee had suggested, it
was a six-limbed quadruped, with two massive, sail-like wings that were quickly
tucked up against his back. Immediately his nostrils were flared as his eyes searched
through the gloom of his cave. Omega could clearly see the spark of
intelligence within those eyes. This was not a beast. It was a sapient being,
and his heart hammered in his chest at his excitement.

The native growled beneath his
breath as he took a couple of steps inside the cave, before spitting a ball of
fire towards the gathered foliage. The dried branches immediately burst into
flame, casting flickering light around the cave and sending Maz and Omega back
a couple of steps to avoid being seen.

The dragon was a few inches
taller than Maz and Omega, with a stocky body and long, slender tail. All four
of his copper-scaled legs were powerfully built, and he had an array of natural
weapons. His claws looked sharp and deadly, gleaming in the amber light of the
fire. His tail possessed two rows of three spines near the tapered tip, and a
crown of short horns adorned his head. It was clear he’d make a dangerous
adversary, one Omega was suddenly a little nervous about being caught in his
home.

“I’m not a dumb hatchling. I know
you’re there.”

The dragon’s voice was a low,
rasping growl, the language guttural and harsh. Omega was glad Avee had done
her job, as he found himself able to understand the native’s words despite the
harshness of his voice. Of course, then there was the matter of what the dragon
had said. The native was glaring right into the darkness at the back of the
cave that was sheltering Omega and Maz. He knew they were there.

Before Maz could stop him, Omega
stepped forward into the flickering firelight. Immediately the native leapt
back with a squawk. His tail was raised up threateningly next to his head,
showing off the six vicious spines. Omega made an effort to keep his claws and
tail lowered, not wanting to appear a threat to the native. When Maz came up to
stand by Omega’s side, the native parted his jaws slightly, flickers of flame
emerging between his teeth.

“By the Three, what are you
both?” the dragon growled, his eyes flicking from Omega to Maz.

“We’re dragons, like you,” Omega
said, his voice quick and excited. “Only we came from-”

Maz slapped Omega with his tail
to silence him. “From across the sea,” he said, completing Omega’s unfinished
sentence and trying to deflect from the grave error Omega had nearly made.

The native seemed less concerned
about that. Instead he was tilting his head to the side and narrowing his eyes
as he peered at the two invading dragons. “Your words don’t match what your
mouths are saying. What sort of magic is this?”

Maz pushed Omega back a couple of
steps, glaring at him harshly to warn him to remain quiet. “We speak a
different language across the ocean. We have… magic that allows us to speak to
you normally, and you to us,” he explained, hoping that the dragon would accept
that answer. He had no way of knowing whether the translation of the word magic
had been accurate, or even if it meant that magic was something prevalent on
this world. Thankfully, the native seemed to accept it, nodding his head a
couple of times and letting the flames spill from his jaw.

“You are a strange one, and I
have never heard of that kind of magic before, but then I have also never heard
of anyone to fly over the great ocean and return. I wasn’t even sure there was
more land beyond it, unless you live in the sea,” the native mused. Then a
growl returned to his voice. “But why are you here?”

“We came to explore,” Maz
answered, keeping one wing partially flared to keep Omega behind him. “We too
had never been across the ocean, and we wanted to see what it was like.”

“I mean here, in my cave. You may
outnumber me, but I will protect what is rightfully mine if you seek to take it
from me,” the native snarled. He lowered his head down, his legs braced and
tensed, ready to spring if he needed to.

Maz held his paws up, taking half
a step back from the angered native. This time it was Omega who answered. “We
just came in to shelter from the rain. We didn’t realise it was claimed by
anyone,” he said quickly.

The native snorted. “The rain?
You definitely don’t live in the ocean then, if a little water is enough to
send you scampering for shelter.”

Omega bit his lip on the retort
that rose to the tip of his tongue. He didn’t want to draw the dragon back to
anger so soon after placating it. “May I ask for your name, dragon?” he said
instead.

The native peered down at Omega,
a judging look in his eyes, as though determining whether or not Omega was
worthy of knowing his name. Omega didn’t dare look away from the native, but
after a while he had to concede, his eyes briefly flicking towards the fire.
The native rumbled, showing off his teeth. “I am Axil. And just who am I
welcoming into my home until the rain passes?”

“I am Omega, and this is Maz. We
would be grateful for your hospitality, and to tell us a little more of the
land around, if you would be so kind,” Omega said. He cautiously approached
Axil, stepping closer to the warmth of the fire and sitting down on the cool,
stone floor. Maz followed his lead and sat down by his side, hoping that their
actions would indicate further to Axil that they meant to threat to him.

“Omega. Your name is a strange
one, but Maz, that sounds a little better,” Axil said, swinging his head
between the two dragons. Instead of sitting down, he added more fuel to his
fire from a large store of wood near the back of the cave. There appeared to be
enough wood to be from several large trees hidden in the depths of the cave,
all torn apart by Axil’s claws into chunks each as big as Omega’s arm.

Axil didn’t speak as he built up
his fire, carefully tending to it with a deft touch and complete precision.
Omega was about to offer to help the native with the fire, using his own
abilities, but he was silenced by a shake of the head from Maz, as though his
companion had been reading his mind. Omega let off a low hiss, impatient to
hear from Axil and eager to stoke a roaring fire to warm the cave, but he
respectfully leaned back on his haunches and watched the native work. From
outside came a rumble of thunder. Storms came rapidly to these mountains, it
seemed.

“What is there to say?” Axil
eventually muttered. The copper blinked his eyes a few times as he pulled back
from the fire, watching it grow and spread over the new fuel he had added. The
blaze filled the small alcove now, the smoke being drawn up through a few small
cracks in the wall and keeping it out of the cave. “There’s too many humans,
for starters. They’re growing bold and setting up their farms in territories
that have long belonged to dragons. Not sure what’s worse, them or the culvari.
At least the humans don’t have any fur that gets stuck between my teeth. Do you
have them on your side of the great ocean?”

“We have humans, yes, though not
many of them. But I’m not familiar with culvari,” Omega said, scratching his
head and furrowing his brow. He didn’t know if they were the other sapient
quadrupedal species Avee had shown them, or if they were some other species she
hadn’t analysed at the time.

“Small furry thing. Loves the
water, so probably not something you’d like,” Axil said. The copper growled in
a way that sounded like a chuckle. “Must be a desert on your side of the ocean.
Don’t know how you even made it across. Didn’t look down?”

Omega fought hard to suppress a
growl of annoyance. He hadn’t come down here to be taunted by the natives, but
he forced himself to remain polite. This was Axil’s home after all.

Maz showed no such concerns,
laughing openly at Axil’s words with genuine amusement. It was all a lot of fun
for him. “Worst flight I’ve ever had,” he said, nudging Omega in the ribs as he
spoke. Omega rolled his eyes.

Axil snorted, finally settling
down and slumping down on the pile of blankets he had gathered in one corner of
his cave. He didn’t offer any of them to Omega and Maz as he yawned and stretched
his legs out. “So, the other side of the ocean. Is that why you walk as a human
would?”

Maz shrugged his shoulders. “All
dragons are like us there,” he said simply, hoping that Axil wouldn’t want any
further elaboration.

Before the native was able to question
him more, Omega leaned forward and gathered Axil’s attention. “We saw a town
not too far away. Is that a human town?”

“It is,” the native said with a
snarl. He spat out a ball of fire, which struck the ground and sent a shower of
sparks across the rock. “That’s Akhram. If you value your scales, you will keep
as far away from that place as you possibly can.”

“I don’t fear any humans,” Omega
said. His wings twitched at his back. He had fought many of them before, and he
doubted that any primitive species would pose any threat to him.

This time it was Axil who
laughed, and it was a cold, mirthless sound. “Do you not? Tell that to my
brother. He went down to Akhram to offer a truce to the humans there, to set
aside borders so that we didn’t have to worry about being shot out of the sky,
and the humans never had to fear us accidentally taking their livestock. His
head now decorates their tavern. They murdered him with a hundred pikes before
he even had the chance to speak. No. If you do not fear the humans of Akhram,
then you will learn or perish.”

“If they’re so close, why do you
stay?” Maz asked. His paw found Omega’s tail, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“Because this is my home,” Axil
snarled. His tail thrashed around behind him, the spines scratching into the
wall and leaving several small gouges in the rock. “If they want me gone,
they’ll have to kill me. And believe me, they have tried. One thing Akhram is
not short on is noble adventurers coming from across the land to try their paw
at slaying the evil dragon in the mountains.”

“Dragonslayers,” Omega spat. He’d
met those before.

“Dragonslayers, yes,” Axil
confirmed. A dark look crossed his face, before he suddenly smirked. “They’d have
an easier job on your side of the ocean. Throw a bowl of water at you and you’d
melt into the rock.”

“It would take a lot more than
that, trust me,” Omega muttered beneath his breath, before he turned to glance
up at Maz. “That human we saw on the road, do you think he may have been a
dragonslayer? I knew I had a bad feeling about him.”

Axil twitched his ears. “A
slayer? I hope he didn’t see you two. I wouldn’t want him to go running back to
Akhram with tales of two more dragons to kill, especially ones as exotic as
yourselves.”

“He didn’t see us, we made sure
of that,” Maz said, though he was filled with a sudden doubt that perhaps the
human had been aware of their presence. They had seen no trace of him after he
had passed them by. Perhaps he had circled back down to the village, or even
gone on over the mountains and to whatever lay to the east. But then again, he
could still be on the mountain with them.

A sense of unease fell over the
three dragons, though they tried to hide it as Axil continued to tell them
about some of the local area. He told them of the four species that lived in
the area; as well as the dragons and humans there were also the kaur and
culvari. He was glad there were no gryphons nearby, as they could talk for
hours about how beautiful they looked, right down to the positioning of each
last feather. From his description of them, Omega could tell that they were the
other quadrupedal species Avee had identified.

After a while though, Axil
started to yawn and stretch his legs and wings out. He blinked and looked
towards the mouth of the cave. While they had been talking, darkness had
fallen. “Dirus is hidden tonight,” the native murmured. A flash of lightning
briefly illuminated the cave, followed almost instantly by a deafening peal of
thunder. “The storm will likely be with us all night. Even I would be hesitant
to fly in this weather. You are both welcome to shelter here until morning
comes, but I’m afraid our talk must come to an end. I have been flying all day
and my wings are weary. I did not intend to remain awake for so long.”

“We are grateful for your offer,
thank you Axil,” Omega said. He glanced out towards the cave mouth and the rain
that poured down the lip, producing a curtain of water. “Would you like us to
maintain a watch for you?”

“A watch? For one human? No, that
won’t be necessary,” Axil said with a smirk. “Or do you fear the rain will come
in to get you? Don’t worry, the fire will keep it at bay.”

“You know I’m really not that
scared of water,” Omega said, snapping slightly at the native dragon. He then
sighed and settled down on the hard floor, draping his wings wide. “Are you
sure you don’t want me to keep watch?”

Omega turned to Axil, but the
native was already curled up on his nest of blankets with his wing held over
his face. He gave no response at all, though Omega could tell from the rise and
fall of his chest that he wasn’t yet asleep.

Sharing a quick glance with Maz,
the two dragons lay down together, paws resting on top of each other. It took
just a tap of their claws to temporarily deactivate the translators at their
throats to ensure a quiet conversation with each other, and judging from the
look in Maz’s eyes, he expected just as much.

“He’s adorable, isn’t he?” Omega
said, his tail slapping the rocky floor behind him.

“That doesn’t matter. We
shouldn’t even be in here with him. We don’t know what consequences our
presence could have on the entire future of this planet if we’re discovered, or
when Axil finds out we’re not really from across the ocean,” Maz hissed, the
ferocity of his glare forcing Omega to look away.

“There’s no harm in it. We’ll
just stay here for the night then head back up. No one else needs to see us,”
Omega said quietly, hoping to stave off Maz’s anger.

He was partially successful, as
Maz sighed and covered his face with his paw for a moment. “If we’re lucky,
then sure.” He peeked out at Omega through a couple of fingers. “But yes, he is
adorable. But don’t get any ideas with him, alright?”

Omega stuck his tongue out. “The
thought hadn’t even crossed my mind.”

“Yeah, sure it hadn’t,” Maz said,
softening a little and scratching Omega behind the ears. “You wait in here with
him, alright. I’m going to head out and see if I can get some signal on my
communicator. I want to let Pyro know where we are for the night. Think the
storm is affecting the signal somehow.”

“You sure you’ll be safe out
there?”

Maz smirked. “It’s only a bit of
water.”

“I meant the slayer.”

“I’ll be careful. Like I said
before, I’m trying to avoid being seen, remember?”

Omega sighed and nodded. “If
you’re sure. Don’t go too far.”

“I won’t. I’ll be back before you
know it,” Maz said, before hauling himself up and towards the cave mouth. He
gave one distasteful look towards the weather, before stepping out into the
rain. He was gone from view almost immediately, swallowed up by the darkness.

Omega switched his translator
back on, but if he was hoping for a conversation from Axil, then he was out of
luck. This time it looked like the native was truly asleep.

A little silence allowed Omega
the opportunity to think about where he truly was. He had visited many planets
before, but none had ever had any species that equated so closely with his own.
He was sleeping with a dragon, a real, alien dragon that as far as he knew, had
never been influenced by the dreykonii empire. It was thrilling, knowing that
he and Maz were probably the first non-natives to ever set foot on this planet.
No one could ever take that away from him.

He didn’t mean to fall asleep. He
meant to simply close his eyes for a little bit and keep his ears trained to
the sound of the rain falling outside, listening for any disturbances out
there. And yet, the next thing he knew he was woken up by a piercing crack of
thunder that felt like it shook the entire mountain. Maz still wasn’t back, and
he had no idea how long he had been out for, whether it had been just five
minutes or several hours.

He was about to sit up and check
if Axil was awake when he picked up the faintest of noises from outside. He
couldn’t work out what it was, sounding somewhat like metal and wood clicking
together. Nothing was visible beyond the sheet of water pouring over the mouth
of the cave, no source of light at all to illuminate what was making that
sound. The clicks stopped and for a moment when the only sound was the rain,
but then there was a snap and a whistle, and suddenly Omega’s shoulder exploded
in pain. He roared in agony, feeling blood on his scales.

Axil leapt to his feet, awake in
an instant as Omega groped to pull out the bolt that had buried itself between
his scales. He hissed in pain as he felt the jagged tip of the metal shaft tear
out some of his flesh, but the bolt was pulled free and tossed to the ground to
clatter against the rock. The two dragons immediately knew what was going on.

“Come in here and fight, you
coward,” Axil roared to the darkness. The native dragon took in a deep breath,
and when he exhaled an intense inferno erupted from his jaws, a stream of
fierce flames that jetted out into the darkness. Steam hissed from the cave
mouth, and for a brief moment they could see outside. A human stood out in the
rain, clad from head to toe in silvered armour, and a loaded crossbow in his paws,
aimed right for them.

As the light from Axil’s flame
faded, the slayer fired his crossbow again, the bolting flying through the
darkness. With a moment of warning, the two dragons were able to flatten
themselves against the floor, though Axil still yelped in pain as the bolt
skidded over his back and knocked loose a few scales.

Omega didn’t give the human the
chance to reload. He charged out into the rain to where the human had been, but
the slayer had the advantage of eyes that were used to the darkness. He had
easily sidestepped the onrushing dragon and dropped his crossbow in exchange
for a more practical sword. He felt the bite of steel against his belly, but
his scales were strong enough to protect him.

He spun around, flicking his tail
out towards the human, but the slayer ducked and sliced his sword up,
clattering against Omega’s tail blade. The human grunted. His armour looked
strong, but it didn’t hinder his mobility at all.

Fire engulfed them both as Axil
unleashed his flaming breath on them. The heat prickled over Omega’s scales but
left him unharmed, steaming in the rain. He slowed for a moment, expecting the
vulnerable human to be hindered by the flames, but he soon regretted that
decision.

The human’s blade struck Omega’s
wounded shoulder, piercing in beyond the damaged scales. He shrieked as the
blade dug in deep, but through the haze of his pain he was able to crack his paw
over the human’s head, a powerful blow that caused the slayer to slump even
with the protection of his helmet.

His paw hurt from the impact, but
as the human fell backwards, clearly dazed, Omega blinked the water from his
eyes, growling down at the slayer as he drew his tail up, ready to slice into
him with the bladed tip.

“Leave him alive,” Axil barked,
momentarily distracting Omega. The dragon shook his head. He wanted blood. “If
you kill him, you’re killing yourself.”

That caught Omega’s attention a
little longer. He swiped at the human’s legs, knocking him to the ground. The
man gasped as he hit the rocks, his movements quickly ceased by Omega’s
powerful foot pressing down on his chest.

“Give me one good reason,” Omega
growled, turning the focus of his ire to the native dragon.

“You’re wounded. If he used
poisons then we need to know which ones,” Axil said, approaching the two and
standing over the attempted slayer.

“Poisons?” Omega snarled. He
pushed his weight further down onto the human. The satisfaction of hearing the
slayer moan in pain was enough to sate his bloodlust for the moment.

Raising his foot, he quickly crouched
down to grab the human, taking hold of him in both arms and pinning him to his
chest, making sure he had no opportunity to escape his strong grip. He was
easily able to carry the human back into the cave, despite the wound to his
shoulder. The slayer didn’t even struggle.

Axil remained outside a little
longer, sniffing around for any potential accomplices to the human.

Flinging the human to the ground,
Omega shook some of the standing water from his scales, wincing as the movement
flicked some blood against the cave walls. He glared down at the human. “Why
have you come?”

“To slay the dragon,” the human
whimpered, too scared to even look up at Omega. “What even are you? I’ve never
seen a beast like you.”

“I’m your worst nightmare,” Omega
snarled. He chose to ignore being called a beast for now. He had enough to go
against the worthless, cowering human already. His foot pressed down into the
human’s chest again, feeling the metal armour buckle beneath his weight. “Now
tell me, and tell me truthfully. Did you use any poisons on those blades,
because I swear to you, if you lie now and I feel myself dying because of
poison, I will draw out your agony and long and as painfully as I can.”

“There was no poison. I swear by
the Three, there was none on my blade,” the human whimpered. His paws gripped
around Omega’s ankle, trying to push the dragon off him, but his strength was
pitiful compared to Omega’s. “I swear to you, by Ha’Ti the First I did not try
to poison you.”

“Just to kill us,” Omega growled.
He didn’t ease the pressure on the human’s chest.

“I was told there was only one
here. I didn’t expect there to be two. Please, can you remove your foot, you’re
breaking my ribs,” the human gasped.

“There are three.”

Omega glanced behind him to see
Maz stalking in to the cave with Axil by his side. Maz carried the human’s
crossbow, while the native dragon dragged the large, wicked looking pike they
had seen from a distance earlier in the day.

“Think this will make a good
weapon to keep other slayers away,” Axil said with a growl, tossing the pike
down onto the floor. Flames licked around his lips as he looked towards the
human. The crossbow was dropped down with it as Maz approached Omega and the
human.

“What is your name?” Maz
demanded. He knelt down and ripped the human’s helmet off, revealing a
dark-skinned face with long, jet black hair.

“I’m Ara’Saly,” the human said in
a quiet voice.

“You’re from Suhn’Na? That’s a
long way to travel for a dragon,” Axil growled. Maz and Omega glanced to each
other and blinked. They didn’t know where Axil was referring to, but the human
understood and confirmed the native’s question.

“The bounty on your head would
have given me enough to buy my village free of all its debts to the chiefdom,”
Ara’Saly said. Again he grunted as Omega’s foot pressed down into his chest,
buckling his armour and making it dig down into his flesh. His ribs started to
crack and he struggled to draw in breath.

“Let him up, Omega,” Maz ordered.
“Let me deal with him.”

Such was the force of Maz’s
command, Omega immediately lifted his foot off the human, but he couldn’t
resist giving him a swift kick in the ribs first. Ara’Saly curled up and
groaned in pain.

Omega reluctantly stepped back
from the stricken human as Maz pushed him back. He retreated back to stand by
Axil’s side, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice should the human show any
signs of aggression towards his companion.

Maz reached into the small pouch
he carried at his waist and pulled out a small, flat disc of metal embedded
with many precious stones in the shape of the rune of his clan. He held it out
to the human.

“This is made out of the purest
metals and the most brilliant gems. It was made by the finest artisans of my
people. There are no impurities, no flaws,” Maz said in a soft tone, turning
the sigil over in his claws before gently pressing it into the human’s paw.
Then his voice turned harsh, and he spat, “It will fetch you more than your
bounty. Get up.”

Ara’Saly rose to his feet,
wincing and holding an arm across his chest. As Maz turned to the side, he
gestured to the cave mouth, telling the human where to go without any words.
Nothing needed to be said, though Omega growled. He thought Maz was a fool for
letting the human go free, but he trusted his companion’s judgement.

The human then stumbled and fell
with a pained cry, landing at Axil’s feet. Omega didn’t realise he’d hurt the
pitiful creature so badly, as it seemed he could barely get up.

Axil growled and kicked out at
the human, before taking a couple of shuffling steps away. That was what the
human had been wanting.

Before any of the dragons could
react, Ara’Saly gripped his fingers around the base of the pike that Axil had
just exposed. He spun it around, butting the shaft into Axil’s throat before
piercing the dragon’s belly with the blade. The human roared in victory,
pushing his weapon hard enough that the pike pierced up through Axil’s back
with a burst of blood and gore. The native dragon didn’t even make a sound. He
just collapsed to the ground.

Omega was instantly consumed with
fury. His mind burned white hot. He extended his paws to the side, and from the
burning embers of the firewood, the flames leapt up to his scales. The fire
sheathed his arms as he paced towards the human, a calmness in his gait despite
the anger his mind was trapped within.

Ara’Saly scrambled back. His
weapon was useless now and he knew that. He fumbled around, trying to grab the
crossbow before Omega reached him.

One paw extended out and flame
lanced towards Ara’Saly’s chest. The human cried out in pain and panic as the
flames spread around his body, engulfing his armour completely. No matter how
much he moved, the fire stayed still and constant around him, never moving up
to his exposed head or dripping down to the stone floor.

Under Omega’s furious gaze, the
metal heated rapidly, searing the human’s flesh beneath. Ara’Saly cried out,
tearing his throat raw as he begged for the mercy that was never coming. His
flesh slowly cooked, destroying his organs from the outside in. Blood leaked
into his throat, and he started to choke on it, coughing it up until it
dribbled from his lips.

Just as the light was fading from
Ara’Saly’s eyes, Omega lifted his arm and returned the flames to the firewood.
The human’s armour glowed red hot. The dragon stared down at the wasted,
shivering hunk of cooked meat that had, until a few moments earlier, been a
human. A pathetic excuse of a creature that didn’t deserve to live. Omega
plunged his tailblade through the human’s throat, tearing through flesh and
bone with ease.

With one last, juddering gasp,
Ara’Saly fell still, then Omega sliced the head clean off the shoulders.
Picking the head up by the locks of black hair, the dragon hurled it out into
the rain with a savage roar, before spinning around and jabbing his
blood-soaked tail in the direction of Maz. “That’s what you get for trying to
make deals with dragonslayers.”

Maz was crouched down by Axil’s
side, his paw on the native dragon’s head. “He’s still alive, Megy.”

“Can you save him?” Omega
growled, taking a few deep breaths as he tried to calm his anger, but every
time his eyes glanced up to the twin wounds on either side of Axil’s body, he
was overwhelmed by another wave of rage against the human he had cooked alive.

“Not with what I have here,” Maz
said, a little panic creeping into his voice as he ran his paws over Axil’s
shoulders. The native barely even reacted, just a couple of twitches from his
tail. His breaths were short and sharp, chest hardly moving at all.

“Then get him up to the Astral
Victory,” Omega snarled, tapping his tail blade against the floor.

“Pyro will have our throats.” Maz
started to plea with his companion, but one look into Omega’s eyes and he
relented. “I’ll call him again. Watch over him. Don’t let him move. Yell if
anything happens.”

Omega nodded and took vigil at
Axil’s side as Maz stepped back out into the rain. He tried to control his
breathing in an attempt to suppress the rage he felt. It didn’t matter that he
had already destroyed the human responsible for this act. He held his paw on
Axil’s shoulder, feeling, but not looking at, the stricken dragon. The pained
whimpers and small breaths were enough.

He reached down and gently
squeezed Axil’s paw. His anger felt like it was fading away. “We’ll get you
through this, I swear,” he said in a small voice. “We can heal you, we can save
you.”

Axil’s lips moved, his voice so
quiet that Omega had to lean right down to place his ear next to the native’s
mouth to hear him. “Not bad… for someone who’s scared of water…”

Omega shook his head and closed
his eyes. He could feel tears of anger and sorrow forming, but he couldn’t help
but laugh at the same time. “You are something special, Axil. I promise you
that you’ll be alright.”

“Don’t make… promises you can’t
keep. It was… nice… meeting you,” Axil whispered. He fell still, only the
smallest movements of air coming from his nose.

Omega snarled and looked up as he
heard movement coming from the cave mouth, ready to defend the ailing native
with his life from any intruder. His heart hammered in his chest as his
adrenaline and fury spiked again. It didn’t fade when he saw it was Maz returning,
shaking off the water from his scales. “He’s locked onto our co-ordinates. He’s
sending down an emergency portal, but there’s only enough power for two,” he
explained, holding out his paw to forestall Omega’s response. “I’ll go through
with him. You stay down here and work off your anger. I can see the fire in
your eyes still, and Pyro doesn’t want that up on the Astral Victory. Calm
yourself down and make your way back to the shuttle.”

Omega growled and glared at Maz,
but he slowly nodded. A pinprick of light appeared in the middle of the cave,
which slowly grew and expanded into a sheet of shimmering light. There was a
flash of green, and then Pyro was looking out from the other side. The portal
slowly moved through the air, and Omega took a couple of steps back as it moved
over Axil’s head. The dragon disappeared through the portal until there was no
trace left of him in the cave but for the pool of blood he’d been lying in.

Maz then approached the portal.
He paused for a moment and looked up at Omega, then stepped through without a
word. With a gentle pop, the portal was gone and Omega was by himself.

Left alone with his anger, Omega
roared in frustration again, summoning the lingering flames from the alcove.
Once more he aimed them towards the headless corpse of the human, intensifying
the flames until the metal armour started to glow white hot. He snarled into
the burning heat that prickled his belly. He didn’t stop until the body was
utterly incinerated, with nothing left but a small pile of ashes that was
slowly drifting away on the swirling wind in the cave. A molten pool of metal
that had once been the slayer’s shining armour was all that remained. After
sending one last blast of fire into the ceiling of the cave, Omega dropped down
onto his haunches.

He held his head in his paws as
the fires around him all extinguished, leaving him in almost total darkness,
except for the occasional flashes of lightning from the storm outside. Slowly
he rolled back until he was lying down, staring up at the shadowy ceiling. He
could smell Axil’s blood. There had been so much of it, he didn’t know how the
native could possibly survive.

Omega scorched the rock several
more times that night. He carved a drekyonii symbol for peace into the ceiling.
He knew no one on this planet would ever know what the symbol meant, but still
he hoped that somehow it would be able to fill at least one person who saw it
with peace and calm. But it was not the only gift he could give this planet.

He cradled the molten metal as it
started to cool, shaping it with his paws to form a crude box, setting some
aside and keeping it hot with a circle of flame. He placed the earring he wore
as a symbol of his status amongst his people inside. Before sealing the box
back up again, he had a quick look around the cave, his eyes catching sight of
a small glint of metal.  It was Maz’s sigil.

Omega picked up the small disc of
metal, turning it over his claws. It was truly beautiful. Maz had clearly been
willing to part with it, so it wasn’t like the other dragon was ever going to
be expecting it back. He placed the back of the sigil into the remnants of the
molten metal, letting the two fuse together until he’d made a lid for the
simple box. He then sealed the box and lid together with another careful blast
of his flames, ensuring he didn’t damage the perfection of the sigil on top. He
knew the intense heat would harden the metal so that it likely would not be
opened by any tool on this planet for many generations to come.

He worked long and hard, ensuring
that his box was crafted to perfection. By the time he was done, dawn had come
and the rains had stopped. Secreting the box away in a hidden corner to the
back of the cave, Omega then slowly stood up and stretched his aching limbs. He
had been sat hunched over the freshly made box for too long. He stepped outside
the cave and looked around. There was not much sunlight, as the clouds were
still thick and the mountains were covered in fog. But there was light to see
by.

Just down the hill a little, a
horse was tied to a jutting piece of rock. It had been the slayer’s mount.
Slowly, so as not to spook the beast, Omega approached it with one paw
outstretched. The horse was skittish around him, but he was able to calm it and
untie the rope that kept it in place. Though the beast struggled at first,
Omega was soon able to guide it back up to the cave.

The dragon started to empty the
heavy packs that adorned the horse’s flanks. Most of the slayer’s possessions
were weapons, all of which got tossed to the side and forgotten about. There
were a few packets of food and water, and even a small flagon of what smelt
like beer. There wasn’t much in the way of supplies. Clearly the human hadn’t
intended to be on the road for very long. He must have had a room rented in
Akhram, as Omega couldn’t recall another settlement nearby.

Out of all the slayer’s
possessions, Omega kept just one thing. He retrieved a small, leather pouch
tied with a piece of string. He had opened it up to find a pile of dried
aromatic leaves inside, the scent of which made his nose twitch. He grinned a
little, bouncing the little pouch in his paw. Maz would like it. He placed it
to the side before starting to refill the large packs with some of Axil’s
possessions and blankets, hoping that the familiar items would help placate the
dragon when he woke on their ship. It was bound to be a massive shock to the
poor native.

Once he had had filled the packs
as much as they could hold, he saddled the horse up once more and took hold of
its reins. He started to walk back down the side of the mountain, following the
lone path that twisted its way down through the rock. Though he had flown the
last bit of distance to the cave, it wasn’t too difficult to find his way back
to the path he had been walking on the day before with Maz.

Omega sighed and glanced to the
horse as it trotted along beside him. “What’s going to happen to you?” he
muttered quietly. He reached out to gently stroke one finger down the back of
the horse’s neck, feeling the coarse fur rub against his scales. “I suppose
you’ll be free now. I certainly can’t take you with me.”

The horse made no indication that
he understood the dragon’s words. The beast probably held no sapience at all,
though it did seem intelligent enough to follow simple commands. “Pyro will
already be after my scales for what I’ve done. I don’t think either of us would
survive if I took you up too.”

Omega fell silent for a few
minutes, his head bowed in thought as he gripped onto the horse’s reins. “Was
he a good owner?” he said eventually. “Did he treat you harshly?”

The horse snorted.

“I thought so.”

Omega fell into silence again.
Everything was quiet around them, with just the sounds of the dragon’s feet and
the horse’s metal-shod hooves against the rough stone ground to break the
silence.

“What did he call you? Did he
even have a name for you, or were you just a beast to him?” he asked, but once
again the horse was silent. “What is it humans tend to call their stallions…
mares… what are you?” Omega stepped to the side and glanced down. “Oh, mare.
Buttercup. That’s something humans call their horses, isn’t it? That’s what
I’ll call you.”

Buttercup didn’t seem to
disapprove of her new name, so Omega decided that it would remain. At least
until he set her free once they reached the shuttle. Until then, she could be
the ears to listen to his worries.

“I didn’t just destroy a life. I
obliterated it. It could have been quick and painless, but instead I made him
suffer. Was I right to do that? Was I too cruel?” he asked the horse, but she
just kept plodding on, her head nodding up and down with each step. “He just…
he hurt my friend. Badly. Might have killed him. I couldn’t let your master get
away with that. I hope you understand that. I didn’t have any choice. But it’s
just… should I be feeling guilty for it? You depended on him. He’s probably got
some family somewhere too. But… I feel… nothing. I don’t feel bad, and that
makes me feel bad. I should at least feel guilty for torturing him, right?”

Omega sighed and shook his head.
He glanced up to the cloudy sky, before looking around to see how far they’d
walked. To his surprise, he was fast approaching the tree line, about to
descend down into the forest that covered the foothills of the mountains.

Though his mind was still far
from clear, Omega didn’t have anything further to say to the horse. He walked
with her in silence, not even lifting his head to look up at the wildlife that
perched and scurried through the trees around them. He just wanted to get back
up to the ship so that he could oversee the treatment of Axil, and discuss
matters with Pyro and Maz.

Once he made it through the
forest, it was a simple matter of finding the shuttle again and deshrouding it.
He unloaded Axil’s belongings from Buttercup’s back and carefully stowed them
into the shuttle. The horse was then unharnessed and set free. He gave her a
firm slap on the rump to get her running, hoping that she would be able to find
somewhere safe to graze. Then, with one last look around at the planet, he
stepped inside the shuttle and closed the door behind him. It was time to
return back up to the Astral Victory.

Running a quick scan of the
surrounding area to ensure there was no one nearby, Omega prepared the shuttle
for launch and reactivated the shroud to keep it hidden. He then sat down and
held on to the chair as he was pressed back as the ship quickly accelerated up
into the crisp morning air. He glanced down to the receding landscape for a few
moments, before he turned his focus up towards the sky above.

It took just ten minutes for the
shuttle to return to the Astral Victory. By the time the ships were docking and
the shuttle was being transferred back into the Astral Victory’s small hanger,
Omega was already waiting by the airlocks, hopping on his feet as he willed it
to move faster. He growled softly beneath his breath, tapping his claws on the
metal walls.

When it finally opened, Omega charged
through into the Astral Victory, but he smashed right into another dragon. Pyro
staggered and almost fell back, before recovering his composure and standing
before Omega, arms folded across his chest.

“I thought I said not to
interfere?” he growled, before his eyes flicked down to Omega’s shoulder. “You’re
wounded? Maz didn’t mention that.”

Omega tensed his arm, glancing
down at his shoulder. Blood stained his scales, several trickles of it all the
way down to his elbow. In the heat of the fight and horror at Axil’s injury, he
had completely forgotten about the wound.

“It’s nothing, I’m fine,” Omega
mumbled, hoping to avoid the wrath of his older brother if he could, keep him
distracted with other matters. “How’s Axil?”

Pyro frowned, but extended out
his arm to place on Omega’s uninjured shoulder so the two could walk through
the corridors of the ship side by side, heading towards the medical bay. “He’s
stable. We’ve got him in temporary stasis to allow his body time to heal, but
he should make a full recovery. He was incredibly lucky the spear missed his
critical organs, but even so he probably only had minutes more to live before I
got my paws on him.”

“Can I see him?”

Pyro frowned as he looked down on
Omega. “He’s in the medical bay at the moment, so you can see him while I patch
you up,” he said, before sternly adding, “But you may not touch or even
approach him. I don’t want you undoing all the work I’ve done.”

Omega nodded. For once he would
listen to Pyro’s order and obey it without question.

The doors to the medical bay slid
open, and Omega followed Pyro inside. Immediately he found Axil, suspended in a
stasis field and completely unmoving, with Maz standing vigil by his side.
Though Omega longed to reach out and hold his paw, he kept his arms down by his
side to limit the temptation. At least there was no more sign of the horrific
wound in the native dragon’s belly and back, with just a discolouration of his
scales marking a scar where the great rents had been.

Omega’s own wounds required just
a quick patching up with a healing unit, knitting the scales back together
until all that lingered of his wound was the blood staining his arm. When he
was healed, he was coerced back out of the medical bay to get some proper rest.
He reluctantly left Axil behind, confident that under Maz’s careful eye he had his
best chance of survival.

Under Pyro’s orders, they would
not return to dreykonii territory until they had the chance to return Axil back
home, though Omega had tried to reason with Pyro that he couldn’t be allowed
back down. Once he woke up, the native dragon would soon realise what they
were, and he couldn’t be returned to the surface with that knowledge. After
that brief discussion, Pyro had fallen silent and retreated to his quarters and
requested not to be disturbed.

Omega and Maz shared guard duty over
Axil, the two sat together in the medical bay so they could watch over the
injured native. For a while they remained silent, with Omega not wanting to
meet Maz’s eyes, for he knew the inquisition that was surely to follow.
Instead, it was Omega who broke the silence first.

“I got you something,” he mumbled
quietly. He reached into his pack and pulled out the small pouch of leaves he’d
retrieved from the human’s belongings.

Maz raised his brow as he took
the pouch from Omega, before he carefully opened it with his claws. He took in
a deep breath of the potent smell. “Oh, now that’s an interesting aroma. Never
had anything smell like that before,” he said, before closing the pouch back up
again. He glanced across at Omega, one ear perked up. “Are you trying to bribe
me with gifts?”

“Of course not. Just thought it
would be something you’d like,” Omega said quickly, keeping his head held low, paws
clasped between his legs. “I don’t know why I did it.”

Maz sighed. Slowly, he reached
out to place a paw on Omega’s knee. “Your powers scare me sometimes, Megy. You
lose control too often.”

“I never lose control over my
powers,” Omega quickly retorted, but Maz shook his head.

“No, but you lose control of your
temper. What if it was me, next time? Or Pyro? Or if I hadn’t been there to
calm you down, where would it have stopped? Would you have taken revenge on
Akhram? On any human you met? Would you have destroyed every non-dragon on this
planet so you could get revenge for Axil?”

“I wouldn’t,” Omega said with a
shake of his head.

“Wouldn’t you? I’ve seen your
eyes when you get truly angry. There’s no thought there. It’s just instinct and
fury. Sometimes it scares me,” Maz said, squeezing his fingers around Omega’s
leg.

“What can I do about it though?
These powers… they’re a part of me,” Omega replied, resting his paw on top of
Maz’s.

“You can learn to control it. You
have to. Or else you risk more lives than you save.” Maz sighed. He moved his
paw up to place it on Omega’s chest. “I still trust you. I know your intentions
are in the right place, even if you scare me from time to time. I believe in
you.”

“I know,” Omega said with a quiet
nod.

Maz extricated himself from the
other dragon. He stood up and stretched his wings. “I’m going to have a few
words with Pyro again. Keep your eye on Axil please.”

“I will,” Omega muttered beneath
his breath. “I’ll try not to ignite him.”

Maz flashed a smile at Omega,
ignoring the sullen joke before leaving him alone with the injured native.
Standing outside the door for a few moments, Maz sighed and shrugged his
shoulders. He wasn’t sure who he’d rather see right now, Omega or Pyro. But he still
had words to exchange with the first prince. There was no point delaying any
further. His feet dragged as he trudged through the ship, before he quietly
knocked on the first prince’s door. The command to enter followed just after.

“What do you want?” Pyro snapped
as Maz poked his head into his quarters.

“I just wanted a quick word with
you, First Prince, if you would speak with me,” Maz said, bowing his head and
tail, keeping his wings tight to his back as he looked down at the floor.
“About Axil.”

Pyro sighed. “Come on in then,”
he said, waving the other dragon in. The door slid shut behind Maz. “Say what
you want to say.”

“I understand how difficult it
would be, and that there’s so many things to consider, but I think we should
offer him the opportunity to come with us,” Maz said, speaking before Pyro had
the opportunity to say anything. “We owe that much to him at least.”

“We owe him? I don’t think
whisking him away from everything he’s ever known is exactly repaying a debt,”
Pyro replied sternly. He narrowed his eyes and looked down at Maz. “And even if
we did take him, where would he go? What would he do?”

Maz struggled to resist the
impulse to quail away from Pyro’s firm gaze. “I’ll take him in. Welcome him
into my clan. He’ll have access to all the support he could ever need,” Maz
said, hoping to assure the first prince. Of course he knew it would be
difficult for the native to adjust, but he also knew that there would be many
dragons who would be eager to help him adapt to an entirely new way of living.
Omega of course being one of them.

Pyro started to pace the small
room, his tail occasionally striking Maz across the legs, but neither of them
commented on it. Maz didn’t even move, waiting for his first prince to sort his
thoughts out. Finally he stopped pacing, half-turning to face Maz.

“This is no small thing you’d be
volunteering for. The dragon would need almost constant care to begin with.
Everything he has ever known will have been taken away from him. He will be
alone in a new world without any idea who or what anything is. This is not
something to be taken lightly,” Pyro warned, extending a single claw out to
gesture at the other dragon.

Maz nodded. “I understand, First
Prince. We will look after him for as long as he needs,” he said.

Uttering a low growl, Pyro turned
away and started to pace again. “But even so, the decision is not yours to
make. Nor is it mine. Axil alone can choose what he wishes. And that is
non-negotiable.”

“Of course. We’ll make sure to
explain everything to him when he’s well enough,” Maz replied, trying to keep
the annoyance out of his voice in response to Pyro’s borderline condescending
tone. One paw extended out towards Pyro, stopping just short of the first
prince’s arm.

“Speaking of which, how is he
looking?” Pyro asked, a little softness returning to his features.

“No problems so far. Everything
seems to be going fine. Omega’s looking after him at the moment. He’ll call
should he need us for anything,” Maz said. They shared a few moments of silence
before Maz stretched his wings out as much as he could in the tight confines of
Pyro’s quarters. He leaned forward and finally placed his paw on Pyro’s
shoulder, lightly bumping their noses together. “I should get some rest. But
thank you First Prince. For giving Axil this opportunity, should he want it.”

Pyro nodded once. “I still
haven’t made up my mind. But if we take him – if he wants to come – then you
and Omega will be responsible for him. Not me,” he said sternly. He sighed
softly, his shoulders relaxing a little as he leaned forward into Maz’s muzzle.
“I hope Omega understands that.”

After Maz assured Pyro he would
ensure Omega understood perfectly, he retreated back to his own quarters to
rest. His night on the planet had been disturbed and interrupted many times,
and he had barely slept at all. If he were to help Omega watch over the native
as he recovered, then he would need to be well-rested.

It took several more days for
Axil’s recovery to progress enough for Pyro to think about waking the native up
again. Since Maz’s discussion with the first prince, Pyro had barely spoken a
word with either of them, keeping himself locked away and falling into brooding
silences whenever they shared a meal together.

As Pyro prepared to wake Axil up,
Omega laid out the native dragon’s blankets around the medical bay, placing a
few bundled up at his forepaws.

“We should be taking him back
down before waking him up,” Pyro muttered as he checked Axil’s vitals for the
last time.

Omega shook his head. “We don’t
have the equipment we need to make sure he’s stable down there. And besides, we
can’t take him back. I thought we agreed that already?”

“We agreed nothing,” Pyro
growled. “I told Maz it’s Axil’s decision and no one else’s. And even then, I
still haven’t worked out what would happen to him if he came home with us.”

“I said I can adopt him into our
clan. We’ll support him, and teach him all he needs to know,” Maz said,
repeating his offer from the previous day.

Pyro growled, but didn’t say
anything to argue. Maz and Omega didn’t know whether to take that as the first
prince agreeing with them at last or not.

Omega had nothing to add, so
instead he rocked back and forth on his heels, wings partially flared. He
watched on nervously as Pyro started the process of waking Axil up, confident
that his internal wounds were healed sufficiently. As the stasis wore off, the
native dragon started to twitch gently. Omega placed his paw on Axil’s neck.

“Keep your eyes closed,” he said,
giving the waking dragon a few gentle rubs. “Don’t worry. You’re safe here, I
promise. Please, no matter what you see or hear, you’re amongst friends. Trust
me.”

“Huh? Am I… did I die?” Axil
murmured as he slowly roused into wakefulness.

“No, you’re still alive. You
showed great strength in staying alive for so long,” Pyro said.

Axil flicked his ears, his eyes
about to open before Omega placed his paws on the native’s face. “Who is that?
Where am I? It smells very strange.”

“That delightful dragon is my
brother, Pyro,” Omega said, grinning wryly up at the larger dragon. He then
paused and took a deep breath. He wasn’t looking forward to this part. “Though
we may not have been telling you the whole truth earlier. We aren’t from across
the ocean. We’re… well, we’re from beyond the stars.”

“I don’t understand,” Axil said
with a flick of his tail. “Can I open my eyes yet? I can’t make sense of
anything.”

“Alright, but please. Stay calm.
You’re safe,” Omega said, before slowly withdrawing his paws and taking a step
back.

Slowly Axil’s eyes opened. There
wasn’t the sudden snap of fear and panic that Omega had been worried about, but
instead Axil just looked around, confused. His nostrils were flared open as he
took in every new and unfamiliar scent. Eventually his eyes fell on Pyro and
stayed there.

“Welcome to the Astral Victory,”
Pyro said. He held out his paws towards the native dragon. “My brother has
explained where we’re really from, but perhaps it would be better to show you.
See if you’re strong enough to walk, and we can show you a sight no one you
know will have ever seen.”

Axil pawed at his blankets and
tilted his head to the side. His claws dug into the fabric as he carefully
stood up, wincing as his weight was placed on his feet, but he was able to
stand without falling. Holding one blanket in his teeth, he followed Pyro out,
his head swinging around to take in every sight he could.

Omega smirked to Maz. “He treats
that blanket like you do to your pouches. It’s adorable,” Omega said, before
fending off the indignant slap from Maz.

“Come on,” Maz said, before
leading Omega out and following after Axil and Pyro.

They took Axil to the bridge.
Through the wide open windows they could see the massive expanse of the planet
below them. Every mile of land that Axil had ever known to exist was laid out
below them, a beautiful globe of land and water that glistened ever so slightly
in the sunlight from the nearby star. Axil froze when he saw it, his head
tilting to one side then the other as he struggled to comprehend what he was
looking at. The blanket fell from his mouth. “That’s… that’s…”

“That’s your home,” Omega said,
resting his paw on Axil’s shoulder. “You’re flying higher than anyone on your
planet has ever done. You see that bit of land there? That’s where you’re
from.”

Axil pulled away from Omega’s
touch, skittering away a few steps. “How is this possible? You’re… By the Three!
You’re from the stars!”

Omega smiled. “Yes we are.”

Axil looked between the three
dragons, his eyes never resting on any of them for long, before they returned
back to the sight of the planet, slowly spinning below. “You’re from the
stars…” he gasped. And then he fainted.

“By the elements…” Omega sighed.

***

Omega was watching over Axil when
he woke again. The native dragon had been carefully carried into spare quarters
and laid to rest on the bed. A few of his own blankets had been used to replace
the normal sheets, with Maz hoping that the familiar scent would be something
the dragon could use to come to terms with where he was. The one he had been
carrying in his mouth was draped over his back, scrunched up a little between
his wings.

“How are you feeling?” Omega
asked, when he saw that Axil’s eyes had opened.

The native dragon didn’t say
anything. He simply shook his head and stared around the room, taking in all
the unfamiliar sights. He clung to the blankets firmly. “I don’t understand how
this can be real,” he said after a long period of silence that Omega respected.

“I know it’s a lot to take in,
but it’s all true. You saw your planet with your own eyes, something no one
else from G3V-4… uh… that’s probably not what you call your planet, is it?”
Omega said, pausing and scratching his chin with a single claw.

“Farenar. We call it Farenar,”
Axil said quietly. He carefully rolled over and closed his eyes, his wings
draped down over the sides of the bed. “My head hurts, there’s just so much to
think about.”

Omega placed a comforting paw on
Axil’s foreleg. “Of course there is, yes. We are sorry. We didn’t mean for
things to happen like this,” he said. He looked down at the native, who had
kept his eyes closed. “You have a beautiful planet. It must be a lovely place
to live.”

Axil scoffed, opening his eyes
again and glaring up at Omega. “Lovely? No. Every day is a danger, constantly
living in fear that a human or some other slayer was hiding in the shadows,
ready to slay me for some ancient, superstitious belief,” he said with a growl.
His fierce claws gripped hard at the bed beneath him. “Just ask my brother if
you want to know how lovely it is.”

“Do you miss him?” Omega asked
quietly.

Axil didn’t answer at first.
Instead he pulled his leg away from Omega’s grip. His wings flicked against his
back, as though he was about to pull them around his body to hide himself away,
but at the last moment they folded back up again. “We were never very close…
but he never deserved that. No dragon does,” he said, his voice cracking with
emotion.

“Of course, you’re right. I’ve
just… we’ve never had to experience that for ourselves. We dreykonii, we’ve
never had any humans on our worlds. It’s hard to imagine what it could all be
like, living in such constant terror.” Omega said, placing his paw on Axil’s
shoulder before meekly adding, “Is there anything we can do?”

Axil scoffed and flicked his
tail. “Unless you’re about to tell me you can reverse time, no. He deserved…”
he paused and hung his head low. “Our tradition is to burn the dead, to cast
the body into flame so the spirit can join with the Three. Not to be hung up in
some human hovel and left on display.”

Omega bowed his head and kept his
silence. He just wished there was something that he could do for Axil, but at
the same time he knew that Pyro would never allow him to go back down to the
planet’s surface, for any reason at all.

“So what happens to me now?” Axil
asked.

“That’s up to you. Pyro will talk
things through with you once you’re rested, to see what you want,” Omega
replied, lifting his head up a little and patting the native dragon on the
haunches.

“You mean to say I’ll be thrown
back down on Farenar and have my memory stripped so that I can’t even remember
you were even here?” Axil said, dragging himself a little further away from
Omega to break the contact between the two.

Omega blinked and straightened up
from where he sat. “Even if we could do that here, we wouldn’t.”

“You mean… you can’t strip my
memories?” Axil asked in confusion, blinking a few times as he tilted his head.
“What sort of starfolk are you then? I thought you had incredible powers and
could do anything.”

Omega frowned. “That sort of
thing… it would be barbaric to do. I wouldn’t dream of wiping someone of their
memories. That makes up who they are. It’s cruel, and we think you’ve suffered
enough.”

Axil’s head tilted around
further, a little smirk coming to his mouth. “You wouldn’t? I know a kaur who
can do it. Very skilled too. One touch of his finger to your forehead, and you
could forget everything about yourself, even what species you are.” He paused
for a moment to drink in Omega’s shock, his grin growing wider. “Maybe we’re
not as backwards here as you think we are.”

His eyes narrowed in suspicion,
Omega glared at the native dragon, trying to find any evidence that Axil was
lying to him, but he appeared to be truthful. This was a piece of information
he hadn’t been willing to consider, that somehow the natives had access to skills
and abilities the dreykonii had long considered immoral, and were quite willing
to use. The implications disturbed him, and after a short while longer, Omega
excused himself, leaving the native by himself.

***

“Are you sure he wasn’t lying or
joking?” Pyro asked, leaning forward in his seat.

Omega shook his head. “No. I’m
pretty sure he was being truthful.”

Pyro frowned, tapping one claw
against the table in front of him. Omega had been urgent in summoning the first
prince to the mess hall, where they were speaking quietly together, away from
Axil as he rested. “It would be fascinating to study, but we don’t have the
resources here to do anything about it now. I’m sure a science team would be
interested to know the co-ordinates of this planet so they can study this form
of magic, to see if there’s anything we can learn from them.”

“But what else may they know?
What could they do to us?” Omega asked warily. “Even Axil could turn on us.”

Pyro raised his brow as he looked
towards Omega. “You know the native better than I do. You would be the better
judge of his character than I. And I know you don’t believe he would do that,
or else you wouldn’t have brought him here.”

A soft, mechanical voice chimed
in. “I haven’t detected any traces of unusual or unexpected abilities within
the dragon,” Avee said, her holographic presence manifesting between them.
“There certainly is some strange force within him, and all dragons I have
detected on the surface. I haven’t been able to identify yet, but it doesn’t
seem of a threat to us.”

“Yes, thank you Avee,” Pyro said,
waving his paw at the hologram to disperse her. The AI vanished, a quiet
muttering heard through the speakers in the corner of the room. “Let me go talk
to him. I’ll discuss his options in more detail, so he truly knows what sort of
decision he has to make soon. And Avee can monitor the room in case he does
have any hidden powers we weren’t aware of. Does that comfort you?”

Omega nodded, keeping silent as
he clasped his paws over his lap. He didn’t want to doubt Axil, but they had
already underestimated one of the natives of Farenar. He wouldn’t make the same
mistake again.

When Pyro had left him alone,
Omega leaned back and closed his eyes. His mind played through several
possibilities of how he thought Pyro’s conversation with Axil would go, hoping
each time that the native would agree to travel with them, but on a couple of
occasions his mind decided to show what could happen should the native possess
shocking abilities that would easily defeat them all. Each time that happened,
he blinked his eyes open and shook his head, his heart pounding in his chest as
adrenaline coursed through his veins.

He flicked his wings. Only a few
minutes had passed. Pyro would probably only now be opening the door to Axil’s
quarters. As much as Omega wanted to trust the native dragon, this was still
his first prince and, more importantly, brother. He wasn’t going to take any
chances in the matter.

Before Omega really realised what
he was doing, he had started to make his way through to the armoury. This time
he wasn’t about to be without any weapon, and he quickly found out his
metamorphic sword. It had been forged for him by Maz from the remains of a
venerable blade. It had been a truly mighty gift, imbued with a magical
awareness for protection and loyalty. It was still as bright and keen as it had
been on the day it had been forged. Upon the pommel was a flawless gemstone
that seemed to burn with its own inner light, an ever-changing shifting of blue
hues.

Once Omega wrapped his paw around
the pommel, the light burned fierce and bright for a few moments, before fading
down to a barely perceptible glimmer. The sword was attuned to him and no
other, and it responded to his thoughts and emotions. It also warned him when
danger was near, and that was what he most needed now.

Keeping the blade unsheathed, the
dragon stalked back across the ship until he was outside Axil’s quarters. He
remained quiet, leaning close to the door to hear the slightly muffled voices
from within. Both Pyro and Axil were there. Taking a deep breath, Omega lowered
down onto his haunches and held the sword in front of him, the tip resting on
the metallic floor. With his paws on the pommel, he could clearly see the silver
blade. If ever it started to glow, then he would be inside that room in a
flash, ready to…

Well, he could work that part out
when he got there. He could only hope that he wasn’t needed. Everything sounded
civil for now, at least. He couldn’t hear every word that was exchanged between
the two dragons inside, but he understood the gist of what was being discussed.
They talked briefly about the mind wipes, and any other magical abilities Axil
may possess. Omega couldn’t hear the responses, but he did hear the native
laugh at the accusations of hidden talents.

Pyro evidently wasn’t too worried
though, as he soon moved on to the offer of accompanying them back to dreykonii
territory, and the suggestions they had to assist in integrating him into
society as best they could. Again, Axil was quiet and his responses were
muffled by the door too much for Omega to hear. His paws gripped onto the sword
as he stared at the blade, willing it to remain as it was.

He was so focused on the sword,
that Omega didn’t even notice the voices stop behind him until the door slid
open with a hiss. He scrambled up to his feet and spun around, keeping the
blade down by his side.

“Omega?” Pyro said, taking a step
back in surprise. “I didn’t ask you to guard me.”

Omega bit his lip and glanced
down at the floor awkwardly. “Oh, I… just thought that… in case…”

Pyro rested his paw on Omega’s
shoulder. “The thought’s appreciated, but there’s nothing to worry about at
all. I’m going to summon Maz. Meet us on the bridge in a few minutes, would
you?”

Omega nodded as his older brother
walked by, before glancing up at Axil. The native dragon’s brow was raised as
he looked to the sword. “Did you think you’d need to use that on me?”

Suddenly unable to meet Axil’s
eye, Omega’s twitched his muzzle as he looked anywhere but at the native
dragon. “I wasn’t planning on using it.”

“But if I had been a threat… if I
had wanted to attack your brother, you’d have come in and what? You’d have killed
me?” Axil asked, keeping his distance from Omega as he spoke.

Omega sighed and shook his head.
“I don’t know what I would have done. I doubt I’d know until I found myself
doing it.” He sighed again and slowly looked up at the native. “Please don’t make
me make that choice. I don’t know if my heart could bear it.”

Axil snorted, the hint of a smile
forming on his lips. “Trust me, Omega. I’ve had my share of being skewered by
blades. I don’t want to experience that again if I can help it. I am of no threat
to you, nor anyone else here.”

Omega nodded, returning the faint
smile. “I know. I just had to be sure. You worried me with that talk of powers
and abilities we may not have, and I’m honour bound to serve and protect my
prince. If anything happened to him…” Omega trailed off with a small shake of
his head. The punishment would be severe indeed if the first prince was injured
or killed on his watch.

“Come on. Let’s catch up with
your brother,” Axil said, nosing gently against Omega. “I have a proposition for
him, that I want everyone to hear first.”

“So you’ve made your decision
then?” Omega asked, but Axil just shook his head and started walking. “Oh come
on, just tell me already.” Omega whined as he padded after Axil, but the native
dragon didn’t say anything, just flicking his tail to stop Omega walking
alongside him.

Omega grumbled to himself as they
walked, but Axil remained silent with that annoying smirk on his face. His
fingers gripped tighter around the sword handle, gently tapping the blade
against the wall with every step. He wished now that he’d brought the sheath
with him, but he’d left that back in the armoury.

Maz and Pyro were already waiting
for them on the bridge. Beyond them, the vista of the planet below dominated
the windows. Night had fallen on Axil’s home, though there were none of the
bright lights on the surface that developed planets possessed, like Omega was
used to seeing.

For a few moments, Axil stared
entranced out the windows. He didn’t even blink as he looked down at his planet,
most of the visible surface shrouded in darkness. “I will come with you,” he
said in a small voice, before interrupting Omega’s cheer by spreading his
wings. “But there’s something I want you to help me with first.”

“Anything,” Omega blurted out,
before being stared down by a fierce glare from Pyro.

“I want my brother,” Axil said,
turning around to face the three dragons. He pawed nervously at the floor, his
claws scratching at the smooth metal.

Pyro flicked his wings. “There is
no power we possess here that can get him back.”

“I know that,” Axil whispered,
turning his head to the side. “I just don’t want him used as decoration in that
tavern. I want to release his spirit so he can return to the Three. There’s not
much of his body left, but let me at least burn what little there is, so he may
be at peace.”

“We can do that, can’t we Pyro?”
Omega asked, turning to face his brother.

Pyro ran his paw over his
forehead and groaned. “I think that might fall under ‘interfering’, don’t you?
In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t exactly fit in with the natives down
there?” he growled.

The hopeful light in Axil’s eyes
faded. “I understand if you can’t,” he said pitifully, idly tapping his claw on
the floor and turning away from the three dragons completely. His tail curled
up around his hind legs.

Pyro’s other paw came up to his
forehead. He closed his eyes, then steepled his fingers in front of his muzzle.
“Tell me everything about this village, and where the tavern is in it. We’re
going to go down there with a plan in mind.”

Omega and Maz shared a shocked
look with each other as Axil blinked and looked up at the first prince. “You
mean, you’ll do it?” the native asked, hope returning to his voice once more.

“I’m going to regret this, and
it’s on your heads if anything goes wrong, but yes,” Pyro said, giving a couple
of sharp jabs with his tail tip towards Omega and Maz as he spoke, making it
quite clear who he would blame. “Now… how many humans live in this village?”

Though Omega tried to listen in
to Axil as he discussed things with Pyro, he soon found his mind tuning out of
the conversation. He just couldn’t keep up with what was being said, his eyes
flicking around the bridge as he wandered back and forth. Eventually he settled
down in one of the chairs, placing his sword across his lap as he started to
idly flick through some of the information Avee had gathered on the various
species on the planet below.

He didn’t bother reading through
the vast swathes of text the AI had written up for them, instead just flicking
through the pictures the ship’s sensors had taken. Humans certainly seemed to
be the most widespread species, though there also appeared to be a number of
subsets that had confused Avee. She wasn’t sure whether they were the same
species or not, but they certainly looked similar. Omega swiped through those
images, looking down at the humans in their small villages and cities.

There were barely any pictures of
dragons at all, which upset Omega greatly. He couldn’t be sure whether they
were simply elusive, or whether there were really so few of them that Avee
hadn’t been able to find them. He glanced across to Axil, wondering if it was
best they were taking him away, if his species was so rare.

Grouped amongst the pictures of
dragons was another species. They were much smaller, but otherwise looked
rather like dragons without their forelimbs. They were a curious species, similar
to an ancient mythological species he recalled briefly from his classes. They
made Omega scratch his head in confusion. Were it not for the limbs, he’d have
thought they were young dragons. Unless the dragons of Farenar hatched with
fewer limbs than the adults. He’d have to ask Axil about that later.

Distracted by the images, Omega
didn’t realise the conversations around him had ended until he felt a touch on
his shoulder. “We’re all going to go down,” Pyro said, seeming to understand
that Omega’s attention may have been elsewhere. “Axil will go with Maz to his
cave to get the last of his belongings. We’re going to Akhram together.”

“Did I miss anything important?”
Omega asked bashfully, realising now that he probably should have been paying a
bit more attention.

To his relief, Pyro just
chuckled. “I’ll fill you in along the way. Come on, to the armoury. This time
I’m letting you take some proper supplies.”

Omega grinned widely. “Yes,” he
hissed in delight, practically leaping up from his chair and leading Pyro
through the ship. Even if he didn’t need to use them, it always made him feel
more comfortable knowing he had the protection of his weapons and armour close at
paw.

Pyro and Omega both suited up with energy-shielded mail
armour, strong enough to repel against any attacks they could anticipate in
Akhram, and hopefully enough to deal with any Farenar magic. As Maz and Axil
wouldn’t be going near any conflict, they decided against any additional
protection. And a decision had been quietly made not to let Axil be in
possession of any of their technology just yet, in case he decided to flee
after all.

Pyro fitted himself with a spare
translator, before taking a defensive sidearm for himself and Omega, who also
sheathed his sword and hung it from his waist. Finally, a pair of personal
shrouds designed to conceal them were picked up.

“Into the
shuttle then,” Pyro said, shepherding the other three dragons inside the small
transport craft. It was a tight fit, given it wasn’t designed for so many, and
especially not a feral dragon like Axil. Pyro had to squeeze past the native in
order to get to the control panel, pushing Maz out of the way at the same time.
“Seatbelts on everyone.”

Axil was the
only one to remain standing as the shuttle detached from the ship and started
to speed down to the planet. His legs were splayed wide for balance, and he
stared wide-eyed at the rapidly approaching surface. His wings and tail twitched
as the soft roar of the atmosphere around the hull grew ever louder.

Pyro took them
down to the surface at almost the exact same spot Maz had landed previously.
All was dark when the four stepped out onto the planet, with just the soft
light of the sole moon and the stars to light the way. Axil pawed at the
ground, letting the dirt cling between his toes as though to reassure him that
it was really there.

“Back here by
sunrise,” Pyro said, gripping Maz’s wrist in his paw.

“It will take
us almost that long just to walk up the mountain,” Maz protested.

Pyro shot him
a withering glare. “Use your wings.”

“Oh right,
yeah. Of course. Sunrise it is then.”

As Maz and
Axil turned away to get some space to take off, Pyro gestured to Omega to
follow him in the opposite direction. The night was cool and clear, with barely
a breeze to speak of. It was perfect weather for flying.

Kicking off
and powering his wings, Omega followed just behind Pyro as they flew south,
towards the small village. Without much light to guide them, they relied on the
wrist-mounted holographic map Pyro carried, tracking their course via the
Astral Victory in orbit above them. All was calm and peaceful. They didn’t hear
the approaching wingbeats until too late.

The first
Omega knew of the attack was feeling powerful jaws biting down on his shoulder,
razor-sharp teeth puncturing between his scales. Crying out in pain, he rolled
in mid-air to throw his attacker off, but their grip was hard. He couldn’t see
them to strike, but with a savage snarl Pyro had spun around and lashed out
hard with his claws.

Omega heard a
pained yelp, and the pressure on his shoulder was suddenly released. He quickly
spun around to the terrifying visage of a massive, furred creature with
leathery wings almost as large as theirs. It was a monstrous creature, and
blood leaked from its jaws and the wicked fangs that protruded over its lower
lip. It glared at the two dragons with savage bestiality. There was
intelligence there, but no rational thought behind those cold, dark eyes.

With a
chittering squawk, it lunged for them again. Then Omega’s sword flashed from
his hip. The creature’s head fell from its shoulders. The body crumpled
mid-dive and plummeted down to the ground, hitting the earth with a dull thud.

“The wildlife
is more dangerous than I thought,” Pyro muttered beneath his breath as he held
his position in the air, before glancing across at his younger brother. “Are
you hurt?”

“Not too
badly, I’ll be fine,” Omega replied, fending off his brother’s attention.
“Let’s just get to the village before any more of those creatures show up. I’ve
had enough of the natives trying to take a bite out of my shoulder.”

“That sounds
good to me,” Pyro muttered in reply. The two kept a much firmer watch on the
sky around them after that, but there didn’t seem to be any more of the
creatures nearby. Omega couldn’t recall having seen them on Avee’s scans, so it
was clear they weren’t considered to be one of the sapient creatures of
Farenar, but they seemed dangerous enough. The two dragons were thankful when
they swooped down to the ground a few hundred metres away from the outskirts of
the village a few minutes later.

Not much noise
came from within the village. It was late enough that most were already asleep,
with just the footsteps of a few guards coming from the cobbled stone streets.
In hushed tones, Pyro told Omega exactly what building they were looking for,
and just where it was, in the very middle of the village.

“Shrouds on.
And stay quiet,” the first prince murmured. He activated the portable device on
his wrist, making his form seem to melt into the air until there was nothing
left. If Omega hadn’t known where his brother was, he wouldn’t be able to find
him. A few moments later, Omega activated his own shroud and vanished into the
cool night air. After a few seconds, their shrouds linked, allowing the two
dragons to still see each other, whilst remaining completely invisible to
anyone else that happened to be around. In silence, they moved forward.

There was
little in the way of fortifications in the village, despite the apparently
vicious wildlife that lived nearby. A low fence circled the village, but Omega
could see no other forms of defences.

The wooden
barrier provided no resistance to the two dragons, who just spread their wings
and leapt over the fence with ease. As soon as they landed, Omega unsheathed
his sword and kept it gripped firmly in his right paw, positioned so he could
see the blade, alert to any warning from the metal that danger was near. For
now, it remained dark and still, much like the village itself.

Most of the
buildings were constructed with wood. The houses were bunched together in
groups of four or five, sharing a communal garden in the middle of them. In
these gardens, Omega could see signs of vegetable crops. The dragon thought
that they surely had to have larger farms beyond the village, but it appeared
that the humans were trying to become self-sufficient.

The road that
wound between the clusters of houses was cobbled stone, with ruts worn smooth
by the wheels of the horse-drawn carts that passed through. It appeared to be
well-maintained, to a level that surprised Omega. He crouched down as he walked
to brush his free paw against the stones. They were smooth and hard. Whatever
they were made of, he wasn’t sure his claws would be able to break through
them.

Omega wondered
at their origin, where they had been hewn from the rock and how they had been
transported here and cut to the right shape and size to make this road. His
mind was so distracted he almost walked right into the back of Pyro when his
brother stopped. He blinked and straightened his back, lifting his sword up to
make sure the blade was still dark.

“That looks
like the one,” Pyro muttered beneath his breath, pointing towards a large,
stone building right in the centre of the village. Flickering light shone from
around the door, and some noise emanated out from within. A wooden sign hung
just above the door, painted with a crude depiction of a dragon’s head. Omega
growled and tightened the grip on his sword. This was definitely the right
place.

“Come on,
let’s see if there’s a way in around the back,” Pyro said, giving Omega a
little tug on the arm to get him moving again.

The tavern was
one of several stone buildings around the edge of a large, mostly empty square.
There was a wooden podium of some sort in the middle, probably used for
gatherings amongst the villagers to discuss important matters. And the slaying
of dragons, Omega thought darkly. The other three stone buildings didn’t
concern them, and they slipped around the side of the tavern, keeping a close
ear out for anyone emerging from inside, but the door remained firmly closed.

They were in
luck. At the back of the tavern were a couple of storage sheds, blocking view
to the nearest houses. And in the middle of the back wall of the tavern was a
single, small door. Silently, Pyro approached it and turned the handle. It
opened easily.

Omega wrinkled
his nose at the strong smell of beer and whiskey that wafted out. Inside the
small, dark room were a number of barrels stacked on top of each other. While
Omega held a paw over his nose to reduce the alcoholic scent, Pyro dug his claw
into the lid of the nearest barrel and pried it open to get a better sniff at
the intoxicating liquid within. His muzzle twitched and he nodded in
appreciation. “They know how to brew,” he said quietly.

Both dragons
started in shock as something loud crashed in the room next to them. Pyro
gestured to Omega to come in and shut the door behind them, which Omega
reluctantly did. It was almost pitch black when the door was closed, with just
a small crack of light around the doorway to provide any illumination.

Pyro crept
forward to place his ear against the door, trying to listen if there were any
humans around, and if it was safe to proceed. Voices cried out indistinctly,
making it hard for the dragon to work out how many humans there were, and just
what they were talking about. All their words seemed to spill over into one,
incoherent noise. He was just about to place his paw on the handle when a flash
of blue from behind him made him pause.

Omega’s eyes
flicked down to his sword. It had momentarily warned them of danger, but now
the blade was cool and dark once more. Omega bit his lip and nodded to Pyro.

The door
opened, and the two dragons shielded their eyes from the bright light. No cries
of alarm rose up, nor were there any urgent footsteps towards the small
storeroom. Cautiously they emerged from the darkness, taking care to avoid knocking
anything over, even though their shrouds protected them from being seen and
heard. They closed the door behind them, before taking stock of their
situation.

Once more they
found themselves in a store room, but this one was much larger than the first,
and was used for all manners of food, rather than alcohol. From the multitude
of counter tops and kitchen tools, it was also the place for food preparation.
No one was present, but the door out to the main part of the tavern was open. A
few drunken shouts came through to them, and a few moments later a few men
started to sing loudly and poorly.

Omega pushed
past Pyro, but as he neared the door, the two dragons shrank back as a couple
of humans walked by. Neither of them looked inside the storeroom, and while
they wouldn’t have seen anything, the dragons didn’t want to take the risk.

His heart
hammering in his chest, Omega glanced down at his sword to realise that his
fingers were hurting, as he was gripping the pommel so hard. He loosened his
hold slightly, before stepping out into the barroom.

The air was
smoky as a couple of fireplaces burned to heat the room. About a dozen humans
were present, including the barman and a woman who appeared to be serving some
food to the patrons, as well as attempting to clean up after the messes they
made.

With Pyro on
his tail, Omega prowled into the barroom, taking care not to bump into any
humans as his eyes tried to peer through the smoky haze, searching for Axil’s
brother’s head. At first he thought it wasn’t here, but as he turned around he
had to suppress a savage growl and wave of nausea as he saw it. The glittering
green scales were well-preserved, the head mounted on a plaque and hung almost
directly above where the barman was stood. Omega longed to plunge his sword
into the human’s belly and take the head, but caution stayed his paw. He didn’t
know how many slayers may be amongst the drunken revellers. Pyro appeared to
have the same thought, and his steadying paw rested on Omega’s shoulder.

Just as he was
trying to work out how best to proceed, his ears caught a name that interested
him. Ara’Saly. Immediately his attention snapped to two humans in the corner,
sat around a table. One was tall, with piercing blue eyes and long black hair,
while the other was short and wrapped up in a long, dark cloak. The shadows
seemed to be particularly thick around the cloaked human, who was the one who
had mentioned the slayer’s name.

“No sign of
him, my Lord Ha’Ti,” the cloaked man’s companion was saying.

Almost
immediately, Omega’s sword started to glow blue, warning him of danger. But it
didn’t stop there. The glow steadily grew ever more intense, making the dragon
glad that it wouldn’t be seen beyond the shroud that concealed them. And still
it burned ever brighter. A tremor of fear ran through his body. That couldn’t
be right at all. The blade was glowing so bright he couldn’t look at it, lest it
blind him. It warned of a danger greater than any he had previously known, but
it was only a human…

A human
looking right at them. The one called Ha’Ti had turned to face Omega, his deep
green eyes visible through the shadows that covered his body. Not just looking
in his direction, but right at him. The human could see him. Omega took half a
step back, pressing against Pyro as he raised his sword, the blade flashing in
warning.

Then the human
turned away again and looked to his companion, who seemed completely unaware of
the silent exchange that had just taken place.

“The shadows
are watching us,” Ha’Ti said to the other human. “Come, let us retire for the
night. It is not our place to interfere in the business of the starfolk.”

Leaving their
drink and food untouched, Ha’Ti and his confused companion left their table,
walking calmly through the tavern and disappearing up a stairway in the far
corner. Omega stood still, stunned by shock as the light from his sword started
to fade as the threat against them receded. Just who was that human? What was
that human?

His nerves
were shot, and he jumped when Pyro’s paw returned to his shoulder. His brother
seemed equally confused by the mysterious human, but they had a job to do
still. Pyro pointed to the two fireplaces, then clenched his fist. Omega
nodded. He knew what to do.

Pyro silently
slipped through the tables again, skirting around the few humans and moving to
stand behind the bar. If he wanted to, he could reach out and grab the barman,
but the human was lazily wiping down a few glasses with a cloth, brow furrowed
as he looked through the smoke-filled room.

Omega took a
deep breath and extended his left arm out towards one of the fires. He glanced
across to Pyro, waiting for a signal from his brother. It came with a small
nod. Reaching out for the flames, it only took a moment for Omega’s power to
act upon it. He barely had to exert any strength at all to snuff it out,
closing his paw and extinguishing the flames in a puff of wood smoke, throwing
half the room into darkness.

“Oh you
idiots,” the barman snarled. He flung his cloth down and moved around the side
of the bar, almost brushing up against Pyro as he did so. As Omega had hoped,
the human blamed his patrons for the fire going out. He waited until the human
was halfway across the floor before reaching out for the other fireplace.

The room was
plunged into darkness, with just a few flickering lights from the stairway to
illuminate a small corner. Several shouts went out, and chairs scraped against
the stone floor as humans all around stood up suddenly.

“What
witchcraft is this?” the barman cried out to the darkness. Shadowy figures
moved around Omega, and he pressed himself back against the wall to avoid being
bumped into. “Show yourself at once!”

Omega glanced
down at his sword as it started to glow blue once more, a soft light that
mirrored the simmering panic and anger that was spreading through the humans.
The dragon had no intention of revealing himself to them, knowing that while
the shields protected them from harm, their superior numbers would make it
difficult to fight free, especially if any of them was trained to fight
dragons. His fingers gripped his sword, listening out for anything from Pyro.

Wood
splintered and cracked, audible over the humans as they struggled to get the
fires lit again. Hoping that was Pyro taking the plaque from its mountings,
Omega crept along the side of the wall before he came to the front door. He
slammed on it hard, ripping it straight off its hinges and drawing a hushed
silence from the humans as moonlight streamed in.

Even though he
knew the humans couldn’t see him, the sight of every pair of eyes looking right
towards him in the doorway unnerved him. He took half a step backwards as the
barman came forward into the light, squinting as the human tried to see the
unseen. In his hands was a loaded crossbow.

“Whether you
be wizard or warlock, show yourself. We’re not afraid of you and your hocus
pocus,” the human barked. Omega didn’t need to look down at his sword to
believe the barman. He had already felt the full force of one of those
crossbows. He did not want to relive the experience so soon.

Omega leapt
back and turned to flee, feeling the crossbow bolt whistle through the air and
just pass over his shoulder. He grimaced and clenched his teeth as he started
to run, hearing the insults thrown out into the night from the barman. He
didn’t want to wait, and he certainly didn’t want to go back to the poked hive
of human anger, but he wasn’t about to leave his brother behind.

Quickly
sprinting around to the back of the tavern, Omega wrenched the small door open,
only to recoil and dive back. The wrong end of Pyro’s weapon faced him, before
his brother’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Damn it,
Omega. I thought you were a human,” the other dragon said as he holstered his weapon.
Cradled under his other arm was the plaque, the grisly visage of the dragon’s
head thankfully faced the other way for now. Just the thought of it made
Omega’s stomach turn. With his weapon holstered, Pyro reached back into the
storeroom to grab something else, which he quickly tossed to Omega.

“Here, carry
this would you?” Pyro asked, before giving Omega a little push to hurry him
along.

Omega rolled
his eyes. It was one of the small barrels of alcohol. From the smell of it,
whiskey. “Really, Pyro?” he muttered as the two started to run towards the
village boundary fence.

“What? I
wanted to give it a try. If it’s any good, I might be able to get a trading
post infiltrated down here,” the older dragon said, turning his head away a
little bashfully.

Humans were
starting to spill out from their homes, disturbed by the commotion at the
tavern. Glad for their shrouds again, the two dragons were able to pick their
way out through the streets, before taking to the air just by the fence.
Clutching their prizes, the two dragons were glad to stretch their wings and
leave Akhram behind them.

Taking care to
be on the lookout for any of the vicious, bat-like creatures that had assaulted
them earlier, the two flew back to their shrouded ship in silence. Axil and Maz
had yet to return, so the two brothers settled down on the grass, preferring to
wait outside rather than cooped up inside the small shuttle. The head was
respectfully laid down in the shadows, well out of Omega’s line of sight, while
Pyro sat down with his stolen cask of whiskey.

Prying open
the lid, Pyro took a few minutes breathing in the scent of the whiskey, before
taking a small, tentative sip directly from the barrel. His licked his lips a
few times and nodded in appreciation before, as an afterthought, offering the
barrel to Omega. The younger dragon shook his head. Pyro shrugged. “More for
me,” he muttered, but closed the lid and re-sealed it.

While they
waited, Pyro treated the small wounds Omega had picked up from the creature on
their flight to the village. The cuts and bites weren’t deep, and were quickly
closed up again with the aid of Pyro’s light-born powers. Omega protested from
the treatment, but Pyro warned him that they couldn’t be sure there wasn’t
anything dangerous in the creature’s bite. There was no harm in making sure
there wasn’t any infection or poison in the wounds.

Once Pyro
declared him healthy, Omega wandered over to the nearby forest to start
gathering together some wood to fuel the fire he knew they’d need later. He
built up a big bundle, spending the rest of the night arranging it to
perfection so that once it was lit, the fire would be a ferocious and intense
blaze that would keep burning for a good number of hours.

The sky was
starting to lighten when wingbeats finally heralded the arrival of Maz and
Axil. The two were laden down with the last of the native’s horde, ready to
pack into the already cramped shuttle. Though there was certainly excitement as
Axil prepared to leave his planet behind, there was also sorrow there too. The
native’s head was bowed and tears glistened his cheeks as Pyro presented his
brother’s head.

“Thank you,”
Axil said in a choked voice. His eyes didn’t once leave his brother’s, matching
the dead, glassy stare. It was Pyro who turned the head away, resting a paw on
the native’s shoulder.

“Would you
like us to leave you alone?” Pyro asked.

Axil shook his
head. “No. Be here, please.”

A few minutes
later, the three dreykonii were stood around the firewood Omega had gathered. Omega
carried a flaming torch in one paw, ready for Axil to light the pyre. They
waited in silence, watching with reverence as Axil gently placed his brother’s
head amongst the sticks and branches, gently positioning it so that the dead,
glassy eyes stared up to the stars.

“Goodbye, dear
brother. May your spirit live on with the gods. Be free and at peace,” the
native intoned. He then stepped back and reached a paw towards Omega without
looking. He took the torch from Omega and held it above the pyre. “May Tel find
you. May Kyte guide you. May Ha’Ti protect you. Forever and always.”

The branch
dropped and the fire quickly spread over the kindling. It took just a few
moments before a roaring conflagration took hold. He slowly turned and looked
over to each of the three dreykonii, his tears reflecting the firelight. “He is
at peace now.”

Omega stepped
forward and placed his paw on Axil’s shoulder, before gently hugging him. His
mind was racing with many questions, especially at hearing the name Ha’Ti in
the native’s prayer. He was a god. The mysterious human in the bar. No wonder
he had seemed so powerful. There were so many questions he wanted to ask Axil
about him, but he knew it wasn’t the time. Instead, he simply said, “They’ll
look after him. Ha’Ti is close by. I’m sure he heard your prayer.”

Axil gave him
a knowing smile. “He often is. Do you have gods too?”

“In a manner
of speaking,” Omega said with a nod, pulling out of the embrace with the native
dragon. “Come on. I’ll tell you about them on the way.”

“To the
stars,” Axil added, the sorrow slowly draining from his eyes to be replaced by
wonder anew. With his brother at peace, Axil followed Omega onto the shuttle to
leave his world behind. Incredible wonders he couldn’t even dream of awaited
him. Beyond the stars.