Chapter 9
Terror in the Sky
After my shift was up, which wasn't really a shift at all, I was thrilled. At twelve o'clock exactly, I jumped from my spot on the ground and raced into the unicorn cave. I ran straight to Resda's room and growled at the door. Resda opened the door and looked down.
"Oh, hi puppy." She smiled and suddenly laughed. "Oh, it's you! Come on in, Sarah."
I smiled my wolf smile and entered the room. We chatted through our heads.
[So, you doing good?] I asked.
Resda nodded and answered, [I'm doing great! I can't wait to go to Marana. Are we leaving now?]
It was my turn to nod. [Yeah, we certainly are. Ok, lets get going. I'll tell Brayan, you tell Kiol. Specify that we're going to Marana, another dimension, and that we'll be back in a few days. Alright?]
[Alrighty then. Meet you outside in five minutes.] Said Resda.
We walked out of the room and headed in opposite directions to let the guys know where we were going. After five minutes, I raced outside and waited for Resda. She came out a moment later with a huge grin on her face.
"Kiol thinks I'm lucky to be going with you. So, we going right now?"
"Sure, I'll open the gateway. Step back," I instructed.
Resda stepped back a few steps and waited for me to open the gateway. After a minute, I was able to find Marana and open the door. We stepped through together and found the place looking awful.
I frowned and said,"It isn't always like this. At least, it never used to be."
Resda didn't have to worry about the place being too bright for her eyes, because the sun seemed to have darkened. We stepped around dead unicorns and centaurs. To our horror, there didn't seem to be any dragons on the ground. A shadow came over us, and I pushed Resda to the ground. It swept on by, not seeming to notice us.
[What was that?] Asked Resda.
[A dragon,] I answered.
She nodded and thought, [I'll be more careful about shadows from now on.]
I nodded and told her to follow me. We continued walking and ducking every few minutes. Suddenly, a shadow came over us. We didn't see it right away, but we did when it got bigger and bigger.
[It's getting bigger! That means it's coming down on us!] I screamed in my head.
Resda fell to the ground and covered her head at the same instant I did. The dragon grazed my back with its claws. I jumped to my feet and grabbed Resda's wrist, pulling her up with me.
I looked straight into her eyes and thought, [We can't beat it. I don't want to use up extra energy. Not yet, anyway. Change to unicorn and fly for your life!]
Resda's eyes grew wide and I saw tears of fear drip down her cheeks. She ignored them and began the change. We became unicorns at almost the same instant. I looked in her eyes, she looked in mine, and we agreed to leave each other. We jumped into the air and flapped our wings as hard as we could. Away I flew, away from Resda, my friend. Luckily, the dragon chose to follow me. I had hoped it would, for I knew Resda didn't have the same abilities that I had. I lost the dragon by using my great speed. Scanning the ground, I found a soldier here and there that had passed away.
The longer I flew, the angrier I got. I soon got to the point where I would stop at nothing to kill Clyte. I couldn't wait to get my fingers around his neck. Thinking about Resda, I turned around. I decided to go back for her and make sure she was alright. This was too dangerous a place for her to be.
After about five minutes of flying back the way I'd come, I spotted something unusual looking. I swooped down to the ground to investigate. There was a perfectly square rock sitting on a patch of sand. The ground here was all dried grass and dirt; there was no sand on Marana as far as I knew. The rock was about the size of me. I guess you could call it a boulder. It troubled me that the rock was square and sitting on sand. After a minute, I changed to human and felt the rock for a switch. What I found, was a smaller rock near the bottom of the boulder. I pushed the smaller rock in and watched as the boulder shifted to the side. It shifted, then slid right. I looked down into a dark hole. It was easily wide enough for a dragon to slide down.
I swallowed my fear and jumped down the hole. Covering my mouth to keep from screaming, I slid crazily down the slippery metal. Where the metal ended, water began. I landed with a great ‘SPLASH!' in the water. Sputtering and spitting, I gasped for breath and swam away from the slide. I found that the farther I swam, the shallower the water became. Finally, I was able to walk out of the water and onto a hard stone floor. I shook the water from my hair and clothes as best I could. Then, I stood to my feet and walked down a very long tunnel. Feeling with my hands, I hoped there wouldn't be a hole I would fall down or a creature I would bump into.
I was just getting to the point where I thought it would never end when I found the exit. I peeked around the corner and saw light bouncing off the walls. A fire was lit and many dragons were sitting around it. I took a step. In that instant, things went crazy. My shoe slipped and squeaked. The dragons grew deathly quiet. I had something bump into me from behind. I fell forward and into the light. Dragons jumped up and ran toward me.
The thing that had bumped into me had apparently been a dragon. It had been so dark, that he hadn't seen me and had bumped into me by accident. I hadn't heard him come splashing in, because the tunnel was so long that the sound didn't carry down it that far.
I jumped up and ran to my right, changing to unicorn at the same time. The dragons rushed toward me, but I flew into the air. The ceiling was pretty high which gave me lots of flying space. I knew the dragons had wings too. They began using there wings, so I stopped using mine. I dove toward the ground and made a quick landing. Running down another tunnel, I took every twist I thought would trick them. They kept right on following me. I saw light bouncing off the corner of the end of my tunnel. I jumped toward the corner and swerved left. The stone became extremely smooth and slippery. I slid out into the room and halfway to the throne of Clyte! He jumped from his seat and hissed at me. Dragons came running in from all directions and stopped at the doors. They guarded all five tunnels in the room so that I couldn't escape. I looked breathlessly at Clyte, wondering what I would do now. He descended the stairs that led to his black stone chair and approached me. Clyte rushed at me and swung a hand toward my stomach. I jumped back and controlled myself.
[How can he be sooo fast?!] I thought. [How can this be? What has he gained? Clyte wasn't this skilled the last time I saw him!]
I jumped out of the way again and pawed the ground. Clyte dove at me, with his mouth aimed for my neck. I swerved left and kicked him in the side. He landed on the cold stone floor and was up instantly! I jumped but landed funny and was caught by Clyte's tail. I tripped and landed on the floor hard. Clyte jumped with his claws out. I rolled away and swung my horn in his direction. He dodged it and swung his fist upward. It met with my jaw and knocked me to the floor yet again. He kicked me in the side and let his claws dig into my skin.
I gasped and screamed inside my head, [Help!]
Suddenly, the tunnel to my right was clear. A dark shape rushed into the room and rammed straight into Clyte's side. He was knocked to the ground. That gave me just enough time to get to my hooves. I looked over to see who was helping me. It was Resda!
When I looked back at Clyte, I found that he wasn't there anymore. The guard dragons were all rushing at us. I instructed Resda with my thoughts on how to fight the dragons. I caught a glimpse of Clyte watching the fight from a tunnel entrance. I would have gone after him, but I had enough on my hands with the six dragons I was currently fighting. A kick here, a horn there, Resda and I were really doing some damage. After all the dragons had been taken care of (a total of about 24 dragons), I turned toward the tunnel I'd seen Clyte in. He stood there, thinking over his options I suppose.
Resda trotted up to me and turned human. I looked over at her as she instructed me to do the same. I quickly changed to human and silently asked her why. Resda thought to me the answer. She said/thought it was the right thing to do, somehow. I had an idea pop into my head, and I immediately took action.
[Resda!] I said. [Come to me. Hold my hand. Maybe, if we do this right, this will work.]
Resda rushed to my side and grabbed my right hand. I quickly looked over at Clyte. He had his back turned. I squeezed Resda's hand and instructed her to change to unicorn at the same time I did. When we were both ready and felt that the other was ready too, we began the change. Slowly at first, but the longer we changed, the faster we changed. I looked at Resda, she looked at me. We were still holding hands. She understood, finally, what I was trying to do. Her unicorn head appeared. My unicorn head appeared. We would have crossed our fingers if we could have. Resda and I were hoping beyond all hope that we would merge into one unicorn.
Our hand suddenly attached by more than our fingers. I was pulled to Resda, as she was pulled to me, by our arms connecting. My shoulder connected with her shoulder. In horror, we both watched as our bodies twisted and combined. It was a gruesome thing to watch, but it was also fascinating. We both knew that it would be too close a call for me to fight Clyte on my own. Even if I did win, I might not survive afterward because of the damage he would have done to me. No, with our combined strengths it would go much more smoothly. Resda's head came closer to mine. In the next instant, we both went unconscious. I/We opened our eyes. Resda was inside me, and I was inside her. I told her I'd like to look around first. She agreed and watched as I turned our head to look at our back. We were black with silver spots on our rump and a silver mane. We had a black tail and a crystal clear horn. I spread out our wings and looked at them. They were black with silver feathers mixed in.
"We look simply wonderful!" Exclaimed Resda.
I agreed with her. We quickly worked out a compromise. I would do most of the running, flying, and moving since I had more experience.. She would take over when she had a better idea than I did.
Because we were now one creature, we could sense each others thoughts as soon as the thought popped into the others head.
I turned to look for Clyte. He was slowly approaching us, looking none too happy.
"How is it possible?" He asked. "This can't be! Oh well, I'll learn how you've done it soon enough. Anyway, I could beat you single or double. Lets get this over with. I haven't got all day to kill the both of you."
Resda made us frown. I made us smirk right afterward.
"Let's get going then," I said.
There was a slight chance he could have hit us, but it was a very slight chance indeed. Clyte had dived for us with his clawed hand reached out for our legs. I jumped out of the way and to the side. Clyte was too slow compared to me and Resda combined.
I leaped toward Clyte and slammed my hoof down on his arm. He slid it away just in time and brought it toward my front legs. I panicked. Luckily, Resda was ready. She reared up and came slamming down on Clyte's foot. He jumped up off the floor and growled in pain. I silently congratulated Resda. Clyte slid across the floor and bit our left front leg. I howled in pain, while Resda tried to shake him off. I threw our head in the air and bent our right leg, bringing my horn crashing down into the floor. Clyte had just barely gotten away. He had let go of our leg and was now flying around the room. I opened our wings, but Resda put them away. I understood immediately what she was trying to do. Sure enough, Clyte came flying down to the ground again and slid across the floor, batting his hands at us. I dodged with Resda's help and managed to get away un-scratched. Clyte turned and leaped toward us. He got our side with his mouth. A huge gash was left in our left side. Resda cried for the both of us while I scrambled away. We slipped and slid on the floor. Clyte turned and came running toward us. It happened so fast, but Resda and I will never forget what happened at that moment.
I turned our head, Resda had our feet scrambling across the floor, trying to brace us for impact. Clyte came straight for our throat. His mouth wide open, his eyes crazy with hatred. Together, Resda and I lowered our head and aimed perfectly. Clyte opened his wings to stop himself, but he was too late. Resda and I closed our eyes and yelped as Clyte came smashing into us. Our clear horn drove right into Clyte's chest. He cried out in pain. His head came over our shoulder and blood flowed from his mouth onto our back. We cried out as Clyte's blood dripped down our sides. With all the weight of Clyte on one side, he quickly slid away from our back. He fell with a ‘THUD' to the floor. His leathery wings were in a crumpled heap underneath him. He had his belly up, head to the right, and mouth hanging open. Clyte blinked his eyes and lifted his head slightly.
With his very last breath, he said to me,"There is still another to come."
With that, he closed his eyes and lay his head against the stone. Quickly, Clyte drifted off into an eternal sleep from which he would never awake. Resda and I found ourselves crying over our enemy as he lay on the cold stone floor. After a moment, we changed back to our normal unicorn selves again. I looked over at Resda, and she looked over at me. I changed to dragon and waited for Resda to do the same. Since she had seen a real dragon for herself, she quickly imagined one and became it.
Then, we picked up Clyte and carried him through the tunnel, into the water, and out an exit tunnel by the slide. We gave him a proper burial. With the help of some soldiers we managed to find, we dug a hole in the ground and put Clyte in it. Then, we covered the hole up with dirt and put over the grave the rock that had been over Clyte's secret hiding place. On the rock, I carved with another rock these words. ‘Clyte's Eternal Resting Place'.
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