HOME | DD

Description
Path to Chaos - Malefor´s Downfall

Chapter 2

It was late afternoon as they traversed through the forest. The forest around Kor was one of the ancient kind: The trees there probably existed for more than 1000 years. They were massive gnarly in structure. "Vjecnost-trees. They can turn several millenias old if left on their own. They are said to harness the magic that flows through this world to become that old. That s why their fruits seem so refreshing to magic-users." Firion explained to his son, "Those trees only grow in certain parts of the world and only on volcanic ground as you find it here in Kor." They stopped under one massive Vjecnost-tree. Malefor´s magic powers were still weak, but he could feel the strong energy the tree emitted. Veins of energy ran down the bark and emitted an eerie glow that illuminated the surrounding area. The area around the tree was completely silent. Usually when in a forest you could hear all sort of noise and activity: Birds and bugs, rustle of the brush as larger creatures traveled through, weird howling and the like. Malefor remembered hearing all those forest typical noises when they entered the forest. "Why is it so silent?", he asked his father. "So you noticed? Well, you see, magic works in different ways. I´m sure you can feel the magical aura surrounding those trees: This aura can help those, who can harness it to great power. However, more simple minded creatures can get corrupted easily by the presence. All of the surrounding woodland creatures of this area of the forest got corrupted and dangerous over the years. Even right now, they are stalking us -" Malefor looked around, trying to spot said creatures, but he couldn´t see anything. "- however: They do not dare to attack a full grown dragon like myself. And that´s the reason why your mother and I don´t want you to run through this part of the forest on your own." He still couldn´t spot any of the creatures his father mentioned and for a moment he thought, his father was just playing games with him on that point.

A sudden move in the brush caught his attention: Whatever came their way was big. Firion readied himself to attack when suddenly another dragon stood before them: A green earth-dragon that was way to slim for the sturdy stereotype of his kind. Surprised by the sight of the other dragons he changed into an attack-stance before finally relaxing. "Firion, is that you? Man, it must have been years!" By this words, Firion also began to ease up and lower his defenses as he recognized the strange dragon: "Elanoir! It´s been a while! What have you been up to?"

A talk among old friends. Malefor wasn´t to keen in joining that talk. As far as he knew his father, this Elanoir-dragon seemed to be an old friend from military-times. This would mean that they would spend lots of time talking about "the good old times" and other boring stuff Malefor couldn´t relate to. So he spend the time looking around the area looking for distraction. A butterfly came flying his way. He decided to chase it around the glade for a bit. When the butterfly left the glade to go deeper into the forest, Malefor followed it. As he moved deeper and deeper into the forest, further away from the save pathways his father showed him, the forest became more and more dense. The ground also became more muddy, like the ground you would find in a swamp instead of a forest. Large fungi carved the small pathways through the swampland. Suddenly, the butterfly flew away into the evening sky and Malefor came back to his senses. The butterfly must have baffled his senses and made him follow it into the deep part of the forest. As much as he looked around, he couldn´t find the way back and he had to face reality: He was lost. His only hope was that his father would find him out here before something else would. Fear began creeping up in his heart as he was looking at his surroundings. Suddenly, there was a rustle to his left: He could feel an unknown creature stare at him from the brush. Something was out there and it locked sight on him. It was circling him, that´s what he was sure of. Suddenly, with a ear-shattering roar, a dark creature jumped at him from behind a trump, shouting "WHO DARES TO DISTURB THE ETERNAL QUEEN OF DARKNESS?!". All he could do was yelp as the dark creature pinned him to the ground. It was like she was surrounded by a fear-striking aura that would leave everything in it terrified. He babbled something unintelligible as the dark creature sat on his chest. "Whoa, I got ya pretty scared, eh? Sorry, I though you were familiar with the ancient art of role-playing?" Now it clicked: The dark creature currently sitting on his chest wasn´t one of the corrupted beasts of the forest, but a simple, ordinary black/blueish dragoness with glowing amber eyes and a mischievous smile and apparently, she was playing some sort of game. " Oh no, I just wanted you to feel great about yourself" he lied to the young dragoness. "Oh what a gentleman!", she replied smirking as she removed herself from his chest, "I´m Artia, the queen of eternal darkness! And who are you?", she asked him. "Well, I´m Malefor... erm, legendary hero and destroyer of all that is bad!", he replied, putting his chest out. "Is that so? In that case: Catch me, oh "legendary hero"!" She said those last words in a mockingly tone as she ran off. Malefor, never putting a challenge down, ran after her. They chased each other through the underwood, play-fighting along the way as they got lost deeper and deeper into the forest.

Sometimes it´s hard keeping your focus on what´s important while you´re having fun.

Down the river, a small group of ape-warriors set camp for the night. Their mission was a well-kept secret:: After they lost the war against the dragons they weren´t allowed to traverse this part of the world. Their ruthless commander, a huge ape with a dragon-skull for a shoulder-plate and the fitting name Raul the Slayer, didn´t care about the dragons and their little rules to show dominance. They were taking out the old ape-shamans´s orders that would lead them to victory. At least so, the shamans´s said. They send Raul and his small group of warriors to this part of the world to carry out their burden. The camp was constantly nervous since they wandered so far into dragon-territory. They raided village after village on their way, but they could never get a hold on the objects their entire journey to the east was about in the first place. Thanks to this, the overall mood in the camp was bad and Raul knew this just to well. The huge warrior stood on a small ledge overlooking the actions in the camp as Ragnar Stormfeet, the swift scout of his unit, came running through the underwood. "Commander! I spotted two down in the swamp-area!", he shouted giving his commanding officer a quick salute. "Excellent. Seems like we will return with full hands after all!", Raul replied satisfied. He turned his attention to the camp below him and shouted: "Everyone to the weapons! We´re up for a hunt!". The satisfied and bloodthirsty roars of the crowd were enough to ensure him that his orders reached the ears of his warriors. "Lead the way, Ragnar!", he ordered the scout as the small group set course for the swamp, ready to take out their order.

The small team stalked the forest. They moved silently from branch to branch and later, as the environment became more and more swamp-like, from mushroom-cap to mushroom-cap. They were careful not to leave any traces as they moved along. They were still traversing enemy-country after all. Ragnar signaled the small group to stop, as he and Raul moved closer to the edge of the mushroom-cap to look down to the ground where their prey was waiting. Two small dragons were playing down on the ground. One was purple and spiked all over while the other one was of a darkish blue with no big horns or the like. Raul silently gave his team a sign to surround their prey. "Where are the elders? Two suck young cubs wouldn´t be alone out here, Ragnar!". The scout shrugged his shoulders. "You would think so, but those two are on their own. i double-checked the area. No elders in sight. Just the cubs.". Raul wasn´t all to sure if he should believe him, but Ragnar was his best scout. If he didn´t find any older dragons nearby, no one could. With this final report he gave his troops the order to strike.

Malefor and Artia where running through the forest. "Hey, Artia, stop for a second!" Something didn´t feel right about the situation. He knew, he shouldn´t be running any deeper. They were lucky that none of the forest-creatures had decided to attack them yet. "We should turn back! What if the forest-creatures will find us?". Artia starred at him in disbelieve: " You still believe that? Come on Mal! The forest-creatures are a way of the grown-ups to tell you to not "go to that place"! I´ve spend days at this forest and nothing has ever dared to attack me!". "Listen, Artia: I´m sure my dad is already looking for me. it was fun and all, but I should get back...". Artia let go an annoyed huff. "You could just say you´re scarred, I wont judge, you know?" There was the teasing again. Artia was fun to be around with, but sometimes she was just such a jerk! "I´m not scarred! It´s just... something´s out there. I can feel it!". Right at this moment, Raul´s horde broke through the brush, ready to strike at them. Malefor couldn´t move at the sudden attack. He felt that panic again. This feeling of pure terror he felt when he first met Artia. Now he realized, that this feeling radiated from the small blue dragoness herself. He didn´t know, how she did it, but somehow she managed to create an aura of terror around her that affected everyone close to her. A red energy-blast emerged from her mouth. It hit the ape-warrior closest to them. The ape dropped in fear, terror struck in his eyes as he lay shivering on the ground. "Come on, whatyer waiting for?! Run!" Artia shouted as she began to move. After a second Malefor found himself able to move as well. He followed Artia through the brush. In the distance, he could hear the apes´s enraged howl. They would follow them, this he was sure of.

The blue dragoness was a fast runner. With her huge wingspan she was able to run-glide at a fast pace. As much as Malefor tried to keep up, he simply couldn´t. Shortly after, he had lost her and was now on his own once again. He could hear the apes catching up, but he was to tired to run any further. Suddenly, a huge ape dropped in front of him. The ape had a dragon-skull for a shoulder-plate and carried around a huge bone-club. The swing came to fast for his already tired body to doge and he was brought to the ground. Before he could get up, two more of the apes jumped at him, pinning him to the ground. "You think you´re smart enough to outrun us, dragon-cub?", the huge ape with the dragonskull-shoulder-plate asked him in a mocking tone, "Think again!". His fellow apes started howling. They began to tie him up. At least, they didn´t kill him. At least not right away. Malefor´s head started spinning as they lifted him up. The blow he took from the big ape must´ve been harder than what it seemed at first and he was sure, he would black out any second. The angry roar of a dragon could be heard and the apes stopped in their movement as a huge blue dragon came dashing right toward them. With a mighty leap, the horned beast was right in the middle of them. One swipe with his claw brought down two of the apes. Another one got impaled by a massive ice-spear hurled his way. The next got frozen in place. As brutal as his attacks were, they lacked structure and the apes saw it: The panicked pack managed to form a tight circle around Firion. He couldn´t fight them all at once. As they drew closer, Firion pulled Malefor close. He readied himself as he directed all his remaining energy into this one last, final blow. He called upon the power of the frozen north as ice-crystals began to form and dance around him. More and more crystals formed and began spinning faster and faster around him. With a primal roar he sent that raging snowstorm flying in all directions. The sudden explosion of ice caught the apes by surprise as they got impaled by the sharp pieces of solid ice thrown their way. Those who were lucky to not get hit got frozen in place, caught in a snap-shot of their last living moment. The entire forest was covered in a thick layer of snow that reflected the remaining sunlight. It made the carnage almost look beautiful.

Firion turned around to look at his son in anger. Malefor managed to get back up on all fours but still was dizzy from what just happened. "What do you think you´re doing out there?! You can´t just run away like that! You almost got yourself killed! Did you learn nothing from the things I´ve taught you?!" Malefor knew better than to answer. His father wasn´t a force to mess with once he was enraged, he knew that all to well. Firion grabbed Malefor and began to fly away. He didn´t want to stick around longer to find out, if the apes had reinforcements close by. He had seen, that some of the smarter ones escaped into the forest before his final attack shattered the unlucky rest of the attack-force. As a former guardian of Warfang, he would come back with a small strike-force of village-dragons on his own. They would chase down the remaining apes in their forest. But first, he had to bring Malefor to safety. The boy had gotten himself into enough trouble for a single day. "Dad, there is another dragon out there. She might be in trouble as well." Artia might have ditched him, but he still wanted her to be safe. "Someone from Kor?", Firion asked his son. "No, she´s not from the village. I met her in the swamp.". With those words, Firion dropped Malefor off at their home as he hurried away to form his small strike-force to search the forest.

Firion and the others purged the land, but the leader of the ape attack-force couldn´t be found. Kor returned to his usual peaceful state as life in the small village continued.

Malefor enjoyed training with his mother. She had been one of Varian´s top-students and it showed. Her expertize with fire was unmatched in the village. Currently, she showed Malefor her signature-move, the piercing armor-shot. "Range and power. That´s the style of this attack. But it needs lots of time to build up and is only meant to take out a single target at once, so you need to be considering and careful when you use this in a battle.", she closed her explanation of the technique. Malefor readied himself to try this technique on his own. The flame he managed to produce looked nothing like his mother´s straight fire-dart. His fire still was way too weak and this frustrated him. "Don´t worry, you will get the hang of this soon enough!", his mother tried to cheer him up. "Now go and play a bit on your own. I´ll have to go on patrol soon.". With these words she left the training-areas. Ever since he an this dragon-girl got captured by the apes, the security around Kor was pretty tight: In the first weeks, they only wanted to be sure, that all the apes were gone, but after some time it was clear that they wouldn´t yield until Kor fell. Thanks to this, the forest was closed down. The dragons patrolled the forest at any time of the day to make sure, no ape could sneak up on Kor. The entire village relied on the dragons and Kor´s unique location in the middle of the mountains to keep them save from attacks. But even so, most of them already had their belongings packed together in case the situation got worse and they had to flee. Malefor´s family was no exception to that point. The apes were relentless and wouldn´t take a defeat. At least, that´s what his father always said.

Lyrisa was waiting on the landing-deck for Firion and his patrol to return. She had gathered her group as well and was ready for her shift. It was a windy day. The wind carried the smell of the apes right their way, but there was something else that could be smelled: A thick scent of molten paint and scorched wood. It was bitter to her nostrils and seemed to her brain like an abomination to the air. It chokes you with how pungent it was. She was familiar with that smell. "Those lunatics set the forest on fire!", she shouted to the others. Now, smoke and the first flames could be seen in the distance. The fire was huge and thanks to the high winds this day, it spread fast. A bunch of small silhouettes came flying their way. Firion and the others landed right next to them. Firion´s group looked battered with burns and bleeding wounds all over. "What happened down there?", Lyrisa asked her husband in shock. "It was an ambush. They had a few troops on the ground as bait. When we attacked them, we were surrounded by apes on Dreadwings while another group we hadn´t spotted yet lit the fire in the distance. As soon as we had deal with the Dreadwings, it was already to late: They sent their reinforcements on Dreadwings after us. They are many. We can´t possibly win this fight with the resources we got left. Ring the alarm! I will stay behind and buy you some time so you can flee!", he explained bitterly. "Are you out of your senses?!", Lyrisa exclaimed, "You are hurt and you are used to operate on short distances! With Dreadwings coming our way, you need a precise flame-spitter to deal with them from afar! Take Malefor and bring him to Warfang! Varian and the other Guardians are probably able to help us. It´s the smarter approach to this situation." Firion nodded as they bid farewell.

The alarms could be heard all over the city. Something was going on. Malefor ran straight to the great hall as his parents had instructed him. He was afraid. The ringing of the bell meant that something went seriously wrong and they had to flee Kor. The great hall was in pure chaos. Cheetahs were running around, merchants packed their belongings and dragons raced to the landing-platforms to help defend. Malefor climbed on a stone-pillar to look out for his parents. When he spotted his father he couldn´t believe his eyes: Firion was scarred all over, blood still leaking from numerous fresh cuts. "Come on, we have to go!", Firion shouted to his soon. Malefor jumped down the pillar to meet his father. The one grabbed him by the neck and dashed through the crowd to the nearest exit. The fire was now pretty close. The air was black from all the soot and it made lungs and eyes burn. A few platforms down Malefor could see his mother taking out some sort of winged creature. She stood there, precisely shooting them down in the distance. "What about mum?!", Malefor asked in panic as his father took off. "She will follow us later.", was Firion´s short reply. Firion flew higher and higher and soon they were above the clouds and the soot. Breathing became easier once more. From up here, the chaos down below looked even more frightening.

A few more dragons joined them in their flight. All of them looked similar bloody like Firion. They set course for the west. "Where are we heading?", Malefor asked. "To the great city of Warfang. A safe bastion for every dragon. I´m sure, you will like it there.". They kept on flying til Kor was only a distant shadow behind the horizon. In the distance they could finally see it: An enormous city made from white marble and sandstone. The copper roofs reflected the light of the rising sun. The cliff-side city loomed over a rich, green valley with numerous little rivers running through it. On the horizon, a mountain-range and the sea with the great Dam could be seen. With this, it made it almost look like it was right out of a painting. This is Warfang.

Description
Path to Chaos - Malefor´s Downfall

Chapter 2

It was late afternoon as they traversed through the forest. The forest around Kor was one of the ancient kind: The trees there probably existed for more than 1000 years. They were massive gnarly in structure. "Vjecnost-trees. They can turn several millenias old if left on their own. They are said to harness the magic that flows through this world to become that old. That s why their fruits seem so refreshing to magic-users." Firion explained to his son, "Those trees only grow in certain parts of the world and only on volcanic ground as you find it here in Kor." They stopped under one massive Vjecnost-tree. Malefor´s magic powers were still weak, but he could feel the strong energy the tree emitted. Veins of energy ran down the bark and emitted an eerie glow that illuminated the surrounding area. The area around the tree was completely silent. Usually when in a forest you could hear all sort of noise and activity: Birds and bugs, rustle of the brush as larger creatures traveled through, weird howling and the like. Malefor remembered hearing all those forest typical noises when they entered the forest. "Why is it so silent?", he asked his father. "So you noticed? Well, you see, magic works in different ways. I´m sure you can feel the magical aura surrounding those trees: This aura can help those, who can harness it to great power. However, more simple minded creatures can get corrupted easily by the presence. All of the surrounding woodland creatures of this area of the forest got corrupted and dangerous over the years. Even right now, they are stalking us -" Malefor looked around, trying to spot said creatures, but he couldn´t see anything. "- however: They do not dare to attack a full grown dragon like myself. And that´s the reason why your mother and I don´t want you to run through this part of the forest on your own." He still couldn´t spot any of the creatures his father mentioned and for a moment he thought, his father was just playing games with him on that point.

A sudden move in the brush caught his attention: Whatever came their way was big. Firion readied himself to attack when suddenly another dragon stood before them: A green earth-dragon that was way to slim for the sturdy stereotype of his kind. Surprised by the sight of the other dragons he changed into an attack-stance before finally relaxing. "Firion, is that you? Man, it must have been years!" By this words, Firion also began to ease up and lower his defenses as he recognized the strange dragon: "Elanoir! It´s been a while! What have you been up to?"

A talk among old friends. Malefor wasn´t to keen in joining that talk. As far as he knew his father, this Elanoir-dragon seemed to be an old friend from military-times. This would mean that they would spend lots of time talking about "the good old times" and other boring stuff Malefor couldn´t relate to. So he spend the time looking around the area looking for distraction. A butterfly came flying his way. He decided to chase it around the glade for a bit. When the butterfly left the glade to go deeper into the forest, Malefor followed it. As he moved deeper and deeper into the forest, further away from the save pathways his father showed him, the forest became more and more dense. The ground also became more muddy, like the ground you would find in a swamp instead of a forest. Large fungi carved the small pathways through the swampland. Suddenly, the butterfly flew away into the evening sky and Malefor came back to his senses. The butterfly must have baffled his senses and made him follow it into the deep part of the forest. As much as he looked around, he couldn´t find the way back and he had to face reality: He was lost. His only hope was that his father would find him out here before something else would. Fear began creeping up in his heart as he was looking at his surroundings. Suddenly, there was a rustle to his left: He could feel an unknown creature stare at him from the brush. Something was out there and it locked sight on him. It was circling him, that´s what he was sure of. Suddenly, with a ear-shattering roar, a dark creature jumped at him from behind a trump, shouting "WHO DARES TO DISTURB THE ETERNAL QUEEN OF DARKNESS?!". All he could do was yelp as the dark creature pinned him to the ground. It was like she was surrounded by a fear-striking aura that would leave everything in it terrified. He babbled something unintelligible as the dark creature sat on his chest. "Whoa, I got ya pretty scared, eh? Sorry, I though you were familiar with the ancient art of role-playing?" Now it clicked: The dark creature currently sitting on his chest wasn´t one of the corrupted beasts of the forest, but a simple, ordinary black/blueish dragoness with glowing amber eyes and a mischievous smile and apparently, she was playing some sort of game. " Oh no, I just wanted you to feel great about yourself" he lied to the young dragoness. "Oh what a gentleman!", she replied smirking as she removed herself from his chest, "I´m Artia, the queen of eternal darkness! And who are you?", she asked him. "Well, I´m Malefor... erm, legendary hero and destroyer of all that is bad!", he replied, putting his chest out. "Is that so? In that case: Catch me, oh "legendary hero"!" She said those last words in a mockingly tone as she ran off. Malefor, never putting a challenge down, ran after her. They chased each other through the underwood, play-fighting along the way as they got lost deeper and deeper into the forest.

Sometimes it´s hard keeping your focus on what´s important while you´re having fun.

Down the river, a small group of ape-warriors set camp for the night. Their mission was a well-kept secret:: After they lost the war against the dragons they weren´t allowed to traverse this part of the world. Their ruthless commander, a huge ape with a dragon-skull for a shoulder-plate and the fitting name Raul the Slayer, didn´t care about the dragons and their little rules to show dominance. They were taking out the old ape-shamans´s orders that would lead them to victory. At least so, the shamans´s said. They send Raul and his small group of warriors to this part of the world to carry out their burden. The camp was constantly nervous since they wandered so far into dragon-territory. They raided village after village on their way, but they could never get a hold on the objects their entire journey to the east was about in the first place. Thanks to this, the overall mood in the camp was bad and Raul knew this just to well. The huge warrior stood on a small ledge overlooking the actions in the camp as Ragnar Stormfeet, the swift scout of his unit, came running through the underwood. "Commander! I spotted two down in the swamp-area!", he shouted giving his commanding officer a quick salute. "Excellent. Seems like we will return with full hands after all!", Raul replied satisfied. He turned his attention to the camp below him and shouted: "Everyone to the weapons! We´re up for a hunt!". The satisfied and bloodthirsty roars of the crowd were enough to ensure him that his orders reached the ears of his warriors. "Lead the way, Ragnar!", he ordered the scout as the small group set course for the swamp, ready to take out their order.

The small team stalked the forest. They moved silently from branch to branch and later, as the environment became more and more swamp-like, from mushroom-cap to mushroom-cap. They were careful not to leave any traces as they moved along. They were still traversing enemy-country after all. Ragnar signaled the small group to stop, as he and Raul moved closer to the edge of the mushroom-cap to look down to the ground where their prey was waiting. Two small dragons were playing down on the ground. One was purple and spiked all over while the other one was of a darkish blue with no big horns or the like. Raul silently gave his team a sign to surround their prey. "Where are the elders? Two suck young cubs wouldn´t be alone out here, Ragnar!". The scout shrugged his shoulders. "You would think so, but those two are on their own. i double-checked the area. No elders in sight. Just the cubs.". Raul wasn´t all to sure if he should believe him, but Ragnar was his best scout. If he didn´t find any older dragons nearby, no one could. With this final report he gave his troops the order to strike.

Malefor and Artia where running through the forest. "Hey, Artia, stop for a second!" Something didn´t feel right about the situation. He knew, he shouldn´t be running any deeper. They were lucky that none of the forest-creatures had decided to attack them yet. "We should turn back! What if the forest-creatures will find us?". Artia starred at him in disbelieve: " You still believe that? Come on Mal! The forest-creatures are a way of the grown-ups to tell you to not "go to that place"! I´ve spend days at this forest and nothing has ever dared to attack me!". "Listen, Artia: I´m sure my dad is already looking for me. it was fun and all, but I should get back...". Artia let go an annoyed huff. "You could just say you´re scarred, I wont judge, you know?" There was the teasing again. Artia was fun to be around with, but sometimes she was just such a jerk! "I´m not scarred! It´s just... something´s out there. I can feel it!". Right at this moment, Raul´s horde broke through the brush, ready to strike at them. Malefor couldn´t move at the sudden attack. He felt that panic again. This feeling of pure terror he felt when he first met Artia. Now he realized, that this feeling radiated from the small blue dragoness herself. He didn´t know, how she did it, but somehow she managed to create an aura of terror around her that affected everyone close to her. A red energy-blast emerged from her mouth. It hit the ape-warrior closest to them. The ape dropped in fear, terror struck in his eyes as he lay shivering on the ground. "Come on, whatyer waiting for?! Run!" Artia shouted as she began to move. After a second Malefor found himself able to move as well. He followed Artia through the brush. In the distance, he could hear the apes´s enraged howl. They would follow them, this he was sure of.

The blue dragoness was a fast runner. With her huge wingspan she was able to run-glide at a fast pace. As much as Malefor tried to keep up, he simply couldn´t. Shortly after, he had lost her and was now on his own once again. He could hear the apes catching up, but he was to tired to run any further. Suddenly, a huge ape dropped in front of him. The ape had a dragon-skull for a shoulder-plate and carried around a huge bone-club. The swing came to fast for his already tired body to doge and he was brought to the ground. Before he could get up, two more of the apes jumped at him, pinning him to the ground. "You think you´re smart enough to outrun us, dragon-cub?", the huge ape with the dragonskull-shoulder-plate asked him in a mocking tone, "Think again!". His fellow apes started howling. They began to tie him up. At least, they didn´t kill him. At least not right away. Malefor´s head started spinning as they lifted him up. The blow he took from the big ape must´ve been harder than what it seemed at first and he was sure, he would black out any second. The angry roar of a dragon could be heard and the apes stopped in their movement as a huge blue dragon came dashing right toward them. With a mighty leap, the horned beast was right in the middle of them. One swipe with his claw brought down two of the apes. Another one got impaled by a massive ice-spear hurled his way. The next got frozen in place. As brutal as his attacks were, they lacked structure and the apes saw it: The panicked pack managed to form a tight circle around Firion. He couldn´t fight them all at once. As they drew closer, Firion pulled Malefor close. He readied himself as he directed all his remaining energy into this one last, final blow. He called upon the power of the frozen north as ice-crystals began to form and dance around him. More and more crystals formed and began spinning faster and faster around him. With a primal roar he sent that raging snowstorm flying in all directions. The sudden explosion of ice caught the apes by surprise as they got impaled by the sharp pieces of solid ice thrown their way. Those who were lucky to not get hit got frozen in place, caught in a snap-shot of their last living moment. The entire forest was covered in a thick layer of snow that reflected the remaining sunlight. It made the carnage almost look beautiful.

Firion turned around to look at his son in anger. Malefor managed to get back up on all fours but still was dizzy from what just happened. "What do you think you´re doing out there?! You can´t just run away like that! You almost got yourself killed! Did you learn nothing from the things I´ve taught you?!" Malefor knew better than to answer. His father wasn´t a force to mess with once he was enraged, he knew that all to well. Firion grabbed Malefor and began to fly away. He didn´t want to stick around longer to find out, if the apes had reinforcements close by. He had seen, that some of the smarter ones escaped into the forest before his final attack shattered the unlucky rest of the attack-force. As a former guardian of Warfang, he would come back with a small strike-force of village-dragons on his own. They would chase down the remaining apes in their forest. But first, he had to bring Malefor to safety. The boy had gotten himself into enough trouble for a single day. "Dad, there is another dragon out there. She might be in trouble as well." Artia might have ditched him, but he still wanted her to be safe. "Someone from Kor?", Firion asked his son. "No, she´s not from the village. I met her in the swamp.". With those words, Firion dropped Malefor off at their home as he hurried away to form his small strike-force to search the forest.

Firion and the others purged the land, but the leader of the ape attack-force couldn´t be found. Kor returned to his usual peaceful state as life in the small village continued.

Malefor enjoyed training with his mother. She had been one of Varian´s top-students and it showed. Her expertize with fire was unmatched in the village. Currently, she showed Malefor her signature-move, the piercing armor-shot. "Range and power. That´s the style of this attack. But it needs lots of time to build up and is only meant to take out a single target at once, so you need to be considering and careful when you use this in a battle.", she closed her explanation of the technique. Malefor readied himself to try this technique on his own. The flame he managed to produce looked nothing like his mother´s straight fire-dart. His fire still was way too weak and this frustrated him. "Don´t worry, you will get the hang of this soon enough!", his mother tried to cheer him up. "Now go and play a bit on your own. I´ll have to go on patrol soon.". With these words she left the training-areas. Ever since he an this dragon-girl got captured by the apes, the security around Kor was pretty tight: In the first weeks, they only wanted to be sure, that all the apes were gone, but after some time it was clear that they wouldn´t yield until Kor fell. Thanks to this, the forest was closed down. The dragons patrolled the forest at any time of the day to make sure, no ape could sneak up on Kor. The entire village relied on the dragons and Kor´s unique location in the middle of the mountains to keep them save from attacks. But even so, most of them already had their belongings packed together in case the situation got worse and they had to flee. Malefor´s family was no exception to that point. The apes were relentless and wouldn´t take a defeat. At least, that´s what his father always said.

Lyrisa was waiting on the landing-deck for Firion and his patrol to return. She had gathered her group as well and was ready for her shift. It was a windy day. The wind carried the smell of the apes right their way, but there was something else that could be smelled: A thick scent of molten paint and scorched wood. It was bitter to her nostrils and seemed to her brain like an abomination to the air. It chokes you with how pungent it was. She was familiar with that smell. "Those lunatics set the forest on fire!", she shouted to the others. Now, smoke and the first flames could be seen in the distance. The fire was huge and thanks to the high winds this day, it spread fast. A bunch of small silhouettes came flying their way. Firion and the others landed right next to them. Firion´s group looked battered with burns and bleeding wounds all over. "What happened down there?", Lyrisa asked her husband in shock. "It was an ambush. They had a few troops on the ground as bait. When we attacked them, we were surrounded by apes on Dreadwings while another group we hadn´t spotted yet lit the fire in the distance. As soon as we had deal with the Dreadwings, it was already to late: They sent their reinforcements on Dreadwings after us. They are many. We can´t possibly win this fight with the resources we got left. Ring the alarm! I will stay behind and buy you some time so you can flee!", he explained bitterly. "Are you out of your senses?!", Lyrisa exclaimed, "You are hurt and you are used to operate on short distances! With Dreadwings coming our way, you need a precise flame-spitter to deal with them from afar! Take Malefor and bring him to Warfang! Varian and the other Guardians are probably able to help us. It´s the smarter approach to this situation." Firion nodded as they bid farewell.

The alarms could be heard all over the city. Something was going on. Malefor ran straight to the great hall as his parents had instructed him. He was afraid. The ringing of the bell meant that something went seriously wrong and they had to flee Kor. The great hall was in pure chaos. Cheetahs were running around, merchants packed their belongings and dragons raced to the landing-platforms to help defend. Malefor climbed on a stone-pillar to look out for his parents. When he spotted his father he couldn´t believe his eyes: Firion was scarred all over, blood still leaking from numerous fresh cuts. "Come on, we have to go!", Firion shouted to his soon. Malefor jumped down the pillar to meet his father. The one grabbed him by the neck and dashed through the crowd to the nearest exit. The fire was now pretty close. The air was black from all the soot and it made lungs and eyes burn. A few platforms down Malefor could see his mother taking out some sort of winged creature. She stood there, precisely shooting them down in the distance. "What about mum?!", Malefor asked in panic as his father took off. "She will follow us later.", was Firion´s short reply. Firion flew higher and higher and soon they were above the clouds and the soot. Breathing became easier once more. From up here, the chaos down below looked even more frightening.

A few more dragons joined them in their flight. All of them looked similar bloody like Firion. They set course for the west. "Where are we heading?", Malefor asked. "To the great city of Warfang. A safe bastion for every dragon. I´m sure, you will like it there.". They kept on flying til Kor was only a distant shadow behind the horizon. In the distance they could finally see it: An enormous city made from white marble and sandstone. The copper roofs reflected the light of the rising sun. The cliff-side city loomed over a rich, green valley with numerous little rivers running through it. On the horizon, a mountain-range and the sea with the great Dam could be seen. With this, it made it almost look like it was right out of a painting. This is Warfang.