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Damien
He studied Anna for a moment, then nodded.
“Very well. We’ll come peacefully, though we will fight back if attacked. But we will not start anything.”
Anna’s head jerked up and down once in agreement.
“Altair,” he said, waving at the storm dragon to bring everyone over to where they stood.
The group of dragons and young shuffled forward. Meanwhile, Anna was signaling to her team where they stood even farther back from the portal.
Altair and Rane came over quickly, while behind them the group of five young were chivvied forward by Milon, a dragon just come into his powers, but not strong enough to do much with them yet.
The portal shimmered at the same time. Damien felt his spirits leap.
“More must have made it!” he exclaimed excitedly to Anna. “That is why the portal is open still. Another group has made it through.”
Anna frowned. “How can you be so sure? What if they are more of the enemy?”
Damien’s blood ran cold. He’d been so sure that it was more of his people coming through to this new life, he’d never even considered the opposite. That the Infected had control of the portal now...
“But why wouldn’t they have shut it down?” he asked, but in his gut, he knew she was right.
There hadn’t been anyone else left in the chamber when he’d come through. Everyone else had been busy fighting the dragons.
“Milon!” he shouted. “Get back!”
But it was too late. Two figures emerged from the portal, red-rimmed eyes wide as they looked at the buffet right in front of them.
Damien charged forward with a roar, trying to distract them, but he was ages too late.
Milon put himself between the Infected and the five children, a fierce look upon his young face. Flames blossomed in his palms and he lashed out at the nearest Infected.
But he was too young. His powers too weak. Skin bubbled and slowly began to melt, but the Infected just shrugged it off.
“No!” Damien shouted as the brave protector went down.
Lightning blasted from his hands, striking the Infected in the temple, bowling him over and off Milon. Damien leapt over the fallen dragon, aiming to strike again, but he was forced to jump to the side to avoid a billowing sleet of icicles that lashed up as the Infected struck at him.
Cursing the frost dragon with all his might, Damien rolled, coming to his feet and sending a thought out to the winds around him.
Even as he was doing that, he noticed Altair and Rane going after the second Infected. Good. This was his people’s fight, not that of Anna and her team. They should stay safe.
A gust of wind swirled down from the sky and picked the Infected up just as it was preparing to strike at Damien again. The frost dragon was the perfect enemy to send through the portal. It would have the advantage over him now, and he needed to kill it, and kill it soon.
While the former dragon was airborne, Damien looked to the heavens. The gray sky rumbled in response, and then a moment later a blast of lightning struck, entering the Infected at the top of his skull and exiting one foot.
The creature flopped and came to a halt limply. It didn’t move.
The shock of the attack flung all the others to the ground, an unexpected side-effect. The second Infected recovered faster than the dragons and leapt at Altair. He greeted it with a two-footed kick to the chest, sending the creature flying backward.
Only when it got to its feet did Damien realize the sudden danger.
“Anna!’ he shouted as the Infected spied new prey.
Flames curled up the Infected’s arms, and it thrust them both straight at Anna. She brought her staff around in front of her, but Damien knew that the piece of wood could do nothing to protect her. She was going to be burned alive.
He raced forward, determined that this time, he wouldn’t be too slow. He called up the winds as he leapt, and the skies responded, shooting him forward.
He got there just in time to take a fireball to the chest. It altered his arc, and Damien slammed down into the snow-covered rocky ground, bouncing and flipping a number of times as his body screamed in pain.
There was no time to waste, however, and he got to his feet, shunting aside the agony pounding at his skull.
Fighting in eerie silence, the fire dragon noticed its attack had failed, and so it prepared to try again.
Three bolts of lightning struck its head at once. The trio of storm dragons held their attacks until the skull seemed to cave inward and the Infected creature slumped to the ground.
Damien stayed on one knee to recover while Altair and Rane went to the two bodies and ensured that the parasite within was well and truly dead and would not rise again. Then they carefully buried the heads in snow, so that the young would not see.
Nobody that young should have to witness such a thing.
Now came the hardest task. Damien struggled to his feet as Anna came rushing over to his side. “Are you hurt?” she asked, but his attention was elsewhere.
“I’m fine,” he said, brushing aside her concern. “Please, give me a moment.”
Anna’s eyes flickered to where Milon lay face down. Unmoving.
“Oh,” she said in understanding. “Of course.”
Damien, Rane and Altair approached the fallen dragon.
“Young in years,” Damien said quietly. “But he died like a true dragon. Like one of us.”
The others nodded.
Then they burned the burgeoning virus from the young dragon’s skull. They buried Milon entirely. The entire process took no more than a minute. It saddened Damien to realize that he, like the others, was mostly inured to such sights now, so frequent had they become over the past year.
Still, he would remember this one, he knew. The first of their kind to die on this new planet.
“I don’t mean to intrude,” Anna said from nearby. “But look.”
He followed her pointing hand to see the portal shimmer and begin to shrink. It was finally closing. Damien felt another blow to his heart as he realized that Milon would have survived if they had been just a few seconds faster. One more needless death, this time placed squarely at his feet.
There was no elation as the circle dwindled in size. Only resignation. Dracia was lost to them now. Forever. There was no going back.
Earth was their only home now.
“You said the only way to ensure the creatures cannot recreate is to burn them out, right?” Anna asked.
“Yes.”
“I hesitate to ask this, but will you be offended if we completely incinerate the bodies? I do not wish to take any risk that they may live.”
Damien shrugged. “Go for it. The two bodies should burn quickly.”
Anna shook her head. “Three.”
Damien fought back his anger as he realized she was referring to Milon too.
“I don’t want to do it,” she said, her eyes glittering with wetness. “But I must protect my world. I must take all precaution.”
He looked to Altair and Rane. Both were unhappy, but they wore looks of resignation as well. All of them knew the dangers of not being thorough enough.
“Take the children away,” he said to his two comrades. “This is not for their eyes.”
Rane and Altair nodded and escorted the five terrified children over to the rest of Anna’s team. He watched with studied interest as the expressions of the women softened at the presence of the children.
“I’m sorry,” Anna said. She gestured with her staff, and a fireball spat from the tip with each flick, landing on the bodies and quickly engulfing them.
“You can use fire,” he said, surprise complete and total as the fire left little more than a scorched, melted area in the snow within seconds.
“It’s magic,” she said, correcting him. “I have studied it for a long time to be able to do what I can now.”
Damien had many questions, but there was a bigger, pressing concern.
“Look,” he said quietly, pointing behind her.
The portal was almost gone, closing faster now. It was less than five feet across and shrinking.
Damien and his storm dragons stood ready, while next to him Anna held her staff pointed at the portal, all of them watching, waiting for the final moment.
He stifled a low groan as it shrank to three feet. Then two. There was no hope of anyone else coming through now, and the reality of that struck hard.
One foot.
Eight inches.
Six.
He frowned.
“Is it supposed to do that?” Anna asked as it stopped.
“No idea. This is the first time we’ve ever done anything like this,” he confessed. “I...I expected it to vanish in place, without shrinking.”
“You told me it would close.”
“I was told it would,” he agreed, worry overtaking resignation at being trapped on Earth.
If the portal didn’t close all the way, then the Infected must have somehow stopped it. But the opening was too small for anything to come through.
For now. If they can stop it from closing, then they can re-open it again as well.
Damien shivered, realizing that in time, the Infected might be able to come through. Earth wasn’t safe.
“This isn’t good,” Anna said, stating the obvious.
“No. No it’s not,” he agreed. “We should go. Take me to your leaders. I need to talk with them. Now.”
“I thought you weren’t a leader of your people?” Anna questioned.
“I’m not. But your kind can use this magic. We have powers. We need to work together to figure out how to close it, and soon. If the Infected come through in any numbers, Earth will fall too. It would only be a matter of time.”
Anna nodded. “I will leave two of my people here while we retreat, with instructions to incinerate anything that comes through.”
“Rane will stay as well,” Damien said, gesturing at the other storm dragon, trusting him to be able to keep his cool more than Altair. Bringing the grumpy storm dragon along would ensure that Damien could keep a close eye on him.
“It’s settled then. Prepare your people, as it is faster to fly. We’ll bring them steeds to ride upon.”
Damien smiled. “There’s no need.”
Anna tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“Altair and I will bring the children with us. There’s no need.”
“How are you going to do that?”
Damien swallowed nervously, wondering how this would go over.
“Well, you see, the thing about us is...”
