Light breezy air floated over the sparse grass, bringing a small chill. It was the simple founding feature of a perfect day and, while the wind was nice, the serene peaceful view was not to be discounted by any means.The sky was blue and the grass was green and all seemed calm about nature on this day. Then, as if in defiance of this beauty, a rapturous roar tore through the scene, landing with cutting anger on the ears of four picnickers
Two of them, the elders of the set, stiffened in response. One of the pair was a muscular female with a smooth face, but adorned in light armor and weapons that betrayed any sense of mercy she might have on an attacker. The second, however, didn’t even put on any sense of gentility at all. Her features were hidden under large bulky sets of armor that covered every inch of her body, all except for a long scaly tail that wound out from her leggings that is.
The other members of the party had been around on one of the rare occasions where she reminded them that the armor on her body was not permanently affixed to her skin, as so many rumors of towns often said. During the birthday of one of the youngers she had worn a simple dress, the children had looked at her in fear, even knowing that it was their adopted mother that stood before them. She had never removed the armor since then. At least, not in public eye.
Displaying that same fear, the two younger ones heard the dragon call and their faces began to betray just how deep down their fear at the sound was founded. They glanced to the sky, then to each other, and lastly to their guardians. A dragon had begun it’s approach, they knew, and that was the most terrifying thing that could possibly happen in their minds. Both their elders stood from the ground, the armored one drawing her weapon first and stopping the other from drawing her’s at all. “Get my daughters out of here.” Was the simple command.
“My Thane…” Started the other, wanting to assist in the kill and beginning to beg that she would be allowed to help.
“Lydia. As Thane of Whiterun. Get. My. Daughters. Out of here.” The tone was absolute and had no rebuttal, a soft hiss betraying the anger behind the words.. Lydia, a bit saddened that the thane still hadn’t learned to accept help, acknowledged the command. She grabbed the children by the wrists and began to lead them away hurriedly, the children following obediently. And leaving their mother to fight a dragon.
The armored figure’s grip tightened on shield and mace and looked towards her approaching foe with growing anger. The daughters were too far away to hear the words that slid past their mother’s lips. “You ruined my picnic. My daughters were looking forward to it.” The dragon bellowed angrily in response. “Fine, if you aren’t going to be civil, I’ll end this quickly.”
The monster landed with a mighty thump, and as it readjusted to it’s ground legs, the suit of armor and the mother inside it closed the distance. It had just steadied itself when the mace smashed itself against the leathery skin of the wing, causing the dragon to roar in pain and try to protect it’s weakened limb. It bellowed a gout of flame at the armored foe and it quickly retreated from the flames. The dragon inhaled to prepare for another when it’s opponent downed several strange potions. Unamused the fire screamed it’s way over the armor and the form within.
With surprising agility the figure burst through on the other side of the flames, the embers licking the skin with a strange endurance. Surprised, the dragon was unable to protect it’s wings from the double blow that met it. A powerful sweeping attack and then a weaker backhand. Nonetheless, there was an audible crack on the return blow and the dragon immediately took the sky, wanting to put as much distance between the terrible mace and itself as it could.
It tore away from the fight, no doubt to try and get a better approach, and it granted the armored form a reprieve. The fires still licked the metal and another potion was quick to drop down the throat, to try and heal the scars that the flames had already inflicted on her flesh. She stood there, her vision slightly blurry, and looked towards the direction where she suspected the dragon would return from.
She was distracted, however, when she felt a pair of small forms hugging her legs. She looked down in a panic, ready to attack, but stopped when she saw her daughters. She looked to Lydia, who stood a fair distance away, in confusion and anger and only received a soft smile on her face. They thought it was over. They all thought it was over. “LYDIA!” She knew it was pointless as the roar of the angered monster echoed again. Lydia was too far away to do anything.
The woman in the armor turned to see the monster, it’s wing flapping uselessly in the wind. It was going to crash. It was going to crash into them, and she couldn’t do anything. Not with both her daughters here. She tucked herself into a ball, putting as much heavy armor in the way of the falling beast as she could, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough.
She closed her eyes tightly and hugged her daughters, this could easily be the last time they saw each other. She felt a growing fear and loss in her gut, and she felt the need to shout her emotions into the air, but she knew no words that would express what she wanted to say. A set of words burned into her head and she barely had time to process them before she let loose a guttural choking roar that shook the earth.
It was dragon, she knew that almost immediately, and the first word she shouted was escape. The second word, she thought, was ‘group’ or as close as you could get in the dragon tongue. The third word though, she didn’t know, it was like horse but not, similar but different, and she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what it was. But it didn’t matter. The magic that roared out of her throat encircled the family, almost as a protection. Lydia looked on in disbelief as this happened, having never seen anything like this ever before in all her adventures with the Thane.
Then, in a blink of an eye, the falling dragon was naught but ash, and the trio who had been there moments before was naught but empty air.
The mother awoke first, her head ringing. It took her more time than she would like to admit for her to notice the most pressing matter on her awakening. That being the fact that she was free falling. She panicked and saw her children, still hugging her legs, some unconscious dedication keeping their grips tight. She grabbed them by their collars and brought them up to her chest, carefully keeping herself positioned between them and the ground, she turned to see what they were heading towards.
There, below them, was a lake that seemed a little too shallow for her liking, and, to the left of it, a purple shape approaching at an astonishing rate. She recognized the form after a few seconds, but was in no shape to attack it at the moment. The purple dragon easily leveled itself and descended with them towards the ground. “I’m sorry.” Came the surprisingly adolescent tone, and the mother saw that the dragon was hardly bigger than she was. “I can only save the little ones.” The claws reached out towards the children, but the mother brought them tighter to her chest and looked at the dragon.
“If you harm them in any way.” She said in draconic, causing the would be rescuer to display a certain amount of fear and shock. “I will find a way to come back and eat your heart and devour your soul. Do you understand?”
The dragon looked at the approaching ground and back to the armored form, then nodded. “Good.” The children were let free, and the dragon grabbed them each with it’s claws, careful not to harm them, then detoured around to land them softly on the ground next to a white unicorn, who immediately approached them to see if she could help. The dragon looked back to the armored form, watching it’s descent into the lake. The fall seemed to last forever, but he knew that he couldn’t save her, not with that armor, not with that weight, he didn’t have the muscles for it. Or the time, since she’d delayed the rescue of the children.
He watched as she hit the water, and the loud splash that followed. He landed on the ground and lowered his head to look at the lake, somber at the loss of a caring parent. The children would be awake in a while, he hoped, and then they would have to figure out what to do with them, but for now. For right now, this mother at least deserved a moment of silence.
The white unicorn approached, occasionally flipping her view back towards the children and then towards the dragon. She let the moment of silence pass undisturbed, until she was forced to remind him. "Spike, we need to begin our trip back to Ponyville. Darkness is falling."
"Okay Rarity." Spike answered, still gazing at the pond but preparing to turn away. "Okay."