Chapter 94: Tahr

"Hah," Bastian said as he launched himself. "Blue is a sissy color, red is better."
I stood with Sarn as we watched them streak around, charge each other, and then miss by mere inches in an astonishing display of dexterity.
"I suppose it was your father who put the silver-is-better crap into your head," Sarn said beside me.
"It was actually my Uncle Drakon," I replied.
"I've heard of him. My father doesn't like him much."
My father didn't like his brother much either, but I wasn't going to tell Sarn that. "Drakon is a mighty warrior."
Sarn only grunted. "Do you want to fly?"
As much as I wanted to breathe. "Yes."
"Then let's join them. Do you breathe smoke yet?"
"Yes."
"Well at least you have that going for you. Bastian thinks he's hot shit because he can do it better than me and Laryn. Let's see what you got."
We took off and when I was higher, I pushed out more smoke than I had previously had luck with.
"Not bad," called Bastian from above me. "I think you're better at it than these two wannabe dragons."
"Yeah right," shouted Laryn as a thin trail wafted from his nostrils.
I was more than satisfied that it wasn't as thick as mine. Sarn gave it a shot with the same results as Laryn. Only Bastian's was more than mine and I was the youngest. Silver was really better.
That was how our friendship began and thousands of years have passed since. I miss those innocent times of youth. The time before the curse and what directly preceded it. I snuck away often to visit my friends. The times spent with them were the best memories I had of my childhood. We got into trouble, boasted about our prowess at just about everything, and challenged each other incessantly. Our friendship was built on trust and respect.
That was before everything changed.
It began the day my father and Uncle Drakon got in a huge fight. They argued often, but this was different. My uncle was out of control threatening my mother and even me. I thought my father would finally challenge him, but it didn't happen. My uncle planned to mate the daughter of a Goddess. Smoke floated from his nostrils at my father's objections. Drakon had seen the woman and decided she was his for the taking. My father told him to stay away from her and that Goddesses were not meant for dragons. Drakon refused to listen and flew away yelling curse words at us all. He was often unpredictable and my parents hid me from most of his rages. I was older then and understood our situation a little more. My father should be our king, but by the fact of his later birth, our realm suffered at the hands of my cruel uncle.
Drakon returned a few months later and for the first time, I saw true fear from my parents. Drakon, with insanity raging in his eyes, said he killed the woman he mated and her mother would seek vengeance. My uncle left after grabbing bags of gold. I never saw him again. A few hours later, the sky darkened and we could no longer see the sun. It stayed that way as night took over. My mother put me to bed and gave me a long comforting hug telling me she loved me and everything would be okay. I believed her.
My parents' screams woke me. I ran into their room and found them writhing on the floor with deep lacerations afflicting their skin. It was as if an invisible force took a sharp knife to their flesh again and again. I didn't know what to do. Blood covered the room and it seemed their suffering went on forever. My father pushed me away when I tried to approach my mother. He covered her body with his own and no matter his pain, he whispered soothing words as she screamed and bucked against him.
"No, you must leave us Tahr," he said with a strangled whisper. I couldn't leave them and I had no idea what to do. Then the humans who served us began screaming. Their anguished cries echoed off the walls for hours. When my parents were nothing but a whimpering bloody mess, I wrapped bedding around them to try to stop the flow of blood. Finally, everything went silent and that was almost worse. My parents died with their faces twisted in unbelievable pain and their bodies torn apart. This was the first time I breathed fire. I walked to the edge of the tower and screamed into the dark sky as the flames shot into the air and burning cinders of rage danced until they hit the ground far below.
It was two days before I buried them. The humans were all dead in the same horrible manner. I placed the bodies of men, women, and children in a pile and burned them with my newly acquired dragon fire. By this time, I thought I was the only soul left alive. The shroud of darkness remained and I sat for hours watching the sunless and then moonless sky wondering what to do. My grief finally won and the anguish of the last two days took me to my knees. I remained that way as all feeling faded and I became numb to the pain. A ripple of awareness caused by another dragon entering the silver realm made me look up. I expected to see my uncle and rage replaced desolation.
When I could finally make out purple dragon's wings, my fury gave way to relief. Sarn, with his comforting purple sparkle landed with a heavy thud beside me and he shifted. "You're not dead," he said with a trembling voice.
The look in his eyes told me his realm suffered the same fate as mine. Keeping my tears at bay was very hard. Not because of what I'd lost, but because I wasn't alone in the world. "What of Bastian and Laryn?" I was terrified of his answer.
"I'm not sure. I came to check on you first." I pretended not to notice as he wiped tears from his face.
I was friends with Bastian and Laryn, but Sarn and I had a closer connection. It began that first day. "We need to see if they've survived," I said with a heavy heart.
Sarn stared at me and I saw the same look of dread on his face that I felt. "Do you know what happened?" he finally asked.
I had to tell him the truth. Sarn deserved to know that the mightiest of silver dragons, my uncle, caused all of our heartache. "It was Drakon. He killed the daughter of a Goddess." I wouldn't have been surprised if Sarn deserted me at this revelation.
"I hope he isn't dead so I can kill him myself," he responded with clenched teeth and long plumes of smoke drifting from his nostrils along with several sparks of flame. He'd been breathing fire for years and had good control. The sparks showed how upset he was.
I understood his rage. I felt the same way. "I don't know if he's alive, but if he is, we'll kill him together." I placed my hand over Sarn's fist and our pact was solidified.
We flew to Laryn's realm next. His screams could be heard as soon as his castle was in sight. He only stopped when we landed beside him. He stood over the decaying body of his baby brother. Seeing him like this caused my own torment to swell again and this time my tears flowed over. The three of us held each other and cried.
An hour later, we helped Laryn bury his parents and little brother. We removed the human bodies from the castle and burned them like I had with those at my father's lair. We dreaded the trip to Bastian's realm, but hoped he, like us, had been spared.
Bastian stood at the top of one of his castle towers, silently staring up toward the moons that were still not visible. He didn't acknowledge us at first and we stood for a long time waiting for him to speak. "Do you know what happened?" he finally asked in a low, deadly voice.
I stepped forward and told him the story of my uncle. He stared at me for a long time then wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me in close. The compassion of my friends overwhelmed me. None of my brother dragons held me responsible for what happened. We all lost those we loved and as far as we knew, we were the last of our kind. The Goddess's wrath had to have killed my uncle. There was no way he could have escaped. And though I knew this, I couldn't help a niggling sense of dread that this was not over.
We stayed in Bastian's castle that night having no idea what to do next. None of us slept. We quietly spoke of our families. "It isn't over," Bastian whispered early in the morning-echoing my deepest fears.
We were right.