Chapter 2: Thunderous Desecration
Rain.
It always rained on the days she had something to be done. Most of these chores had to do with something outside and therefore, in the pouring rain.
She didn't mind it though. The slight precipitation reminded her of her father’s rule over the land. He would rise from nothing, become so obsessed with power and just fall flat on his face, just as rain falls when it's at its highest point.
A slight smile spread across her face. It had been so long since she felt happy, even though it had to do with sadistic and pretend thoughts of the King being swatted down off his throne.
She was instructed to wait outside the Dragons cavern while the Alpha was informed of her arrival. This wasn't normal she thought. The dragons normally welcomed her with joy and praise when she came to their home.
The Alpha was a black dragon, just like past Alphas, and seemed to melt out of the shadows as he walked to the entrance and spoke to her, in a deep, rumbling voice, "Please child, come inside. There is a great matter we must discuss." She nodded politely and followed him into the depths of the cavern.
It was quite the distance to the chamber where the Alpha wished to speak to her in. They passed very few other dragons on their path. Such occurrences were rare since the inhabitants of the cavern had no place else to go, and crowded the dark walkways.
One dragon, however had mumbled to the Alpha something about the Draconic remnants on the precipice of another horrible and bloody war. The now terrified mare felt her blood run cold and nearly fell onto the stone floor when her legs decided to stop working properly.
"Another war?" she mumbled to herself.
The Alpha noticed she had heard and reached out to steady her. "Do not fear, child. It is but only a rumour." The Alpha spoke to her in his gentlest voice, knowing that he normally had a presence that put fear in the eyes of his enemies and unfortunately, sometimes his closest friends. He smiled reassuringly at her.
"Come. We are close."
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The chamber was at the lowest point of the cavern and a spiral staircase hugged the walls leading to the bottom of the chamber.
The floor was made of a thick, reflective crystal. and the unicorn stared in amazement as she walked along it's crystalline surface and a large dragon skull came into focus from inside the reflective stone.
"This... This is amazing." she whispered in awe towards the Alpha.
"It truly is one of a kind. This tomb is home to my father, the Savior of the long and forgotten Draconic Empire." The Alpha bowed his spiked head in respect for the dead Empire.
"My father lost many respected members of the Empire before coming to this underground cavern. Not all of the members could make the pilgrimage sadly. My father made it here and this... This is the only remainder of him in this world," the dragon chuckled to himself. A hint of insanity shone through that laugh.
"I was born to protect this cave... I will die protecting it. The war I mentioned before,” the Alpha continued with a sad tone, "the rumors are true. Apparently the king is done with this state of peace and has planned to attack our home in the next few hours. I have had my warriors preparing for this since we discovered what his plan was." The Alpha shook his head and glanced down at the skull buried in the crystal floor.
He looked back up at the mare to see her crying. "I'm sorry it was told to you like this. I was never aware of what you thought of your father."
The mare rubbed away her tears, watching a few fall onto the cold, crystalline surface. She didn't know if it was the insanity the maids said she had, but she began to laugh, the tears rubbed against her cheek again with a shaky hoof.
"I hated my father. I always have and I would love to see him killed. But it's the thought of what that bastard did last time..." She could no longer bear think about it and rose to her hooves, shaking away the memorial disgust.
The Alpha had tried to repress similar, but more precise memories...
His family blown to hell by one monsters' order. The memory came flooding back to him full force, unrelenting in the pain it brought.
Even with his heart full of vigor and anger, he wasn't quick enough to stop the archers and their hellish rain. His son and wife died that day. Despite his orders to stay in deep in the vault of their home where it would be safe from the fighting, his wife went to the hatchery to try and save the eggs. It was by a horrible chance that she was stuck in the crossfire, and blown to pieces by the explosive ordinance.
The Alpha regained his composure. He was a sign of power and nobility; sulking about the past wasn't going to show those attributes. A gentle claw lifted the mares chin to face him.
"I will not lose. I swear on the blood of my ancestors they will not enter and kill any non-combatant. But for this I need your help. You may know that dragons have a basic magical skill." The mare nodded, not understanding where he was going with the statement. "I know of that egg you saved by the riverbed."
Her eyes widened in fear. "How did you know...?"
The Alpha gave her a toothy grin. "From past experiences, we discovered when prolonged unicorn magic mixes with a dragon’s body, the magic seemingly fuses into the dragon. When that egg hatches, the dragon inside will have an advanced magical ability based on how powerful a spell you used. I can sense it's raw power resonating from here. Whatever you did, it is alive and VERY powerful."
The Alpha scratched the back of his head. "Maybe even stronger than me, but not by much."
This piqued the mare’s interest.
"But... How will it be able to help? It's just a baby dragon. I wasn't able to cast a spell to induce rapid maturity. Whatever powers will be uncontrollable if it hatches as a baby."
The Alpha, just realizing this, said to her with a destructive look on his face, "Brace yourself."
He flapped his wings twice and lifted off the ground. As he neared the top of the chamber, his wings ceased their continuous flapping. As the puzzled mare realized what he was doing, she quickly moved against the wall of the chamber.
He fell like a rock and landed on the crystal floor with explosive force, sending hundreds of small crystal shards flying from the floor. The Alpha recovered from the fall quickly and snatched a shard from the air with stunning speed.
"Use this to do your spell. As I understand, that spell requires a medium to travel through." He gave the shard to the mare and she took it without hesitation.
An explosion rocked the chamber sending the mare tumbling into the Alpha. He picked her up in his gentle claws and used his wings to shield them from falling debris.
"The attack has begun! We are out of time!"
The Alpha felt a bubbling anger, an anger that had a reason. Anger fueled by the last time he felt shockwaves like these.
"My child... My wife...”
His eyes began to glow a sickly purple. Wisps of green fire were licking the back of his throat. The Alpha used his unending rage for the King, his quest for vengeance for his loved ones, and unleashed his fire. The beam of super-hot balefire was turned towards the ceiling of the chamber.
The beam collided against the ceiling with the force only very few dragons can control. Sunlight fell through the freshly melted rock and shined against the crystal floor. The Alpha's eyes stopped glowing and his balefire retracted back to his throat.
The mare stared at him in awe.
"We are not out of time. Hang on, child."
TO BE CONTINUED...