\n Another little piece of (non-yiff... gasp!) flash fiction from me!  There's bigger/more stuff coming, don't worry!  Just teasing until we get to the good stuff, heh heh.  Hope you enjoy!

\n  - Adept Faora

\n P.S: This story is best enjoyed while listening to: http://grooveshark.com/s/A+Special+Sort+Of+Bus/3rilXK?src=5

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\n The Bond

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\n The world exploded into being around Kiana.  Light flashed from every angle as the yellow-scaled dragoness felt a stiff breeze whip up behind her.  The edge of a darkened forest lay before her, lit by the crackle of lightning from the swirling white portal at her back.  The topaz-trimmed white robes of a Renthani aeromancer fluttered in the wind as her ice blue eyes scanned across that forest’s edge.

\n Sound was what reached her first.  He eyes zeroed in on one tree, narrowed at the sight as a scream of terror washed across her.  The portal had barely flashed closed before she began to run from it.  The cry was shrill, from the throat of a young male scared completely out of his mind.  It was her destination and the second-last sound in the world she wanted to hear.  The last would be the sound of his death cry.

\n That wasn’t going to come that day.  She wouldn’t allow it.

\n A flicker of motion caught the corner of the dragoness’ eye.  She spun as a black-robed fox slipped out from behind one of the trees.  Flame burned in his paws, red tinged but with an ebon heart.  It lit the vulpine’s face and the cruel smile etched across it.

\n Lightning flashed faster than flame.  It flickered between Kiana’s claws and then arced in a brilliant blue stream from one of her hands to the fox’s robed chest.  Black fire was snuffed as his heart skipped a beat through force of pain.  He fell backwards and out of the aeromancer’s sight, only for two more dark figures to appear in her path.

\n Two fared no better than one.  Another scream from the terrified child ahead of her fuelled Kiana’s power.  Breath hissed between clenched teeth as she brought up both hands, and untempered electricity leaped into their bodies from her grasp.  The forest itself flared to life, illuminated by the force of the dragoness’ fury.

\n That light vanished as a searing line of pain drew swiftly across her left side.  The two figures that hadn’t ever stood a chance fell towards the ground, robes aflame from the lightning as Kiana turned to her assailant.  A tall hare stood before her, black leathers glistening with small flecks of her blood.  His sword was tainted, iron bathed in red as it began to seep into her robes.  The hare raised the sword for a downward, killing swing.

\n Ice blue eyes flickered with repressed electricity as her mind reached into his.  A single, overriding impulse drove itself right into the core of his being, a command so powerful, so deeply ingrained, that he never even felt his sword stab down through his stomach until after he’d fallen to his knees.  His dying breath was spent as he watched Kiana stalk deeper into the forest, one hand on her gashed side.

\n A small clearing lay beyond the branches of a shorter tree, and there she found her quarry waiting for her.  A panther, covered in black leather that matched the feline’s dark fur, held a blade of gleaming silver.  It contrasted with the robes of the feline’s hostage, a young dragon male no more than six years old in sheer robes as blue as his scales.  His eyes were wide, and he gulped as he saw the dragoness enter the clearing.  His mother.  Her son.  His salvation.  Her everything.

\n No sooner had Kiana taken a step into the clearing than another pair of dark elementalists emerged around her.  There was no time to react with the pain in her side.  Ice coalesced around her feet as a ball of black flame slammed into her other side.  A cry of pain tore through the clearing, and Kiana feared for a moment that it was the death cry of the young dragon before her.  It took a second for her to slump down and realize it came from her own muzzle.  She would have fallen, were it not for the dark ice that grew up her legs.  The dragoness sagged as the pair of mages at her sides moved in closer to restrain her.

\n Kiana dimly heard a cry of pain that she knew was not her own.  She forced her head up out of fear that it had come from her son, but the barest glance showed the truth.  The child had bucked his head back, and pointed, draconic horns had plunged back into the panther’s chest.  The cry had come from him, as he dropped his dagger from the dragon’s throat.  The child was free, face soaked in blood not his own.

\n Her captors figured it out at the same time she did.  Their hands lifted to stop him, and Kiana could feel their power bubble up in preparation to be freed.  They couldn’t be allowed to invoke their terrible powers.  Not if she didn’t want to hear the sound her son would make at his death.  Kiana summoned all of her physical strength as their attention left her for him, and she struck.

\n The blows fell truly.  Claws drove into the chests of both elementalists as she snarled deep and cold, and she wrenched them to the ground with all of her might.  The blood of the dark ones splashed against the ground and coated her claws as they came free, and she looked up just in time to see the panther turn to pursue the young dragon.  She was being left for dead, and the little dragon would be recovered in only a matter of moments.  No.  No. 

\n Where physical strength left her, Kiana summoned every reserve of mental power she still retained.  She pushed through the pain of her sword wound, the icy chill of the cold wrapped around her legs and the intense heat that continued to burn into her side.  She stretched out with her senses to penetrate the panther’s mind, but she hadn’t the strength.  She tried to launch lightning, but it wouldn’t crackle.  She tried to will his body into the sky by force of telekinesis, but still his feet beat upon the ground.  Closer to the dragon.  Closer to the child.  Closer to her son.

\n The reminder of what she had fought for sent a rumble through the trees.  The breeze picked up again, and it washed over Kiana’s face.  Her vision locked onto the panther’s back with crystal clarity as he almost reached the other side of the clearing, where her son had fled a moment before.  Dust and leaves kicked up around him as the air bent towards the wounded dragoness and washed over her extended arms.

\n Magic-driven insistence born of maternal instinct strengthened the wind, and it became a gale as light streamed from Kiana’s eyes.  The air itself roared around the panther as his forward momentum slowed and stopped before the growing force around him.  Footpaws scrabbled futilely at the dirt.  She saw his own eyes widen as he glanced back at her, even while he struggled to escape her power and reclaim his prize. 

\n There was no escape.  She wouldn’t allow it.

\n A similar rumble grew in her chest until it exploded out with her power in a ground-trembling roar.  The shockwave rippled out of her and slammed into the panther’s chest, and he tumbled up into the air for the barest moment before the wind itself caught him.  He rolled through the wind, tossed around and around as he rocketed right on back towards the dragoness, the mother whose child he had stolen in the dead of night.  He screamed his last as he righted himself just long enough to see Kiana’s cold stare fill his vision.  Wind whipped through her outstretched fingers, washed across blood-soaked claws.  Her roar drowned out his scream.  He struck.

\n The world exploded into darkness around Kiana.

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