Chaos reigned.

Before I could even register what was happening, Endia had launched herself at Baill, a desire to kill glowing fervently in her bright blue eyes. Baill tore through his clothes before she'd made it halfway to the throne, and launched himself back at her, the two of them colliding in midair. Jaws snapping. Claws tearing at one another. Endia's fury unleashed, but Baill's size and strength overshadowing her own, leaving me panicking to try and intervene.

I was stopped before I even had the chance, however, suddenly recalling the four guards encircled around me. I whipped around just in time to see two of the men transforming, almost at once. I hurried, and grabbed a third in my jaws before he got the chance– the one from whom Endia had stolen the sword to set me free. I thrashed him around through the air, and flung him across the room, his tender body crashing against a far stone wall, and slumping to the floor.

Hot on his tail, the last still-human guard raced toward me, screaming, his sword aimed straight at my throat. At the same moment, one of the dragons on the other side was opening his jaws wide, a tell-tale golden glow surging up from his lungs. I leapt into the air just in time, and the billows of fire surged right past me, wholly engulfing the first guard as he ran toward me. The sword he was carrying clattered to the floor, and his screams rang out through the throne room as the fire devoured him.

The dragon, his attacker, stood astonished for a moment, piecing together exactly what it was he'd just done. Before he could get it figured out, however, I'd shot up toward him with the guard's sword gripped in my rear claw. I lunged at him, and sank my teeth into his neck, biting down as hard as I could. He roared viciously in pain, his head flailing, spurts of flame erupting from the newly opened holes in his throat.

He began to snap at me, trying to pry me free. But with a swift kick I drew the blade of the sword forward, slicing through the thick hide of his gut, and managing to plunge it several inches into his belly before he succeeded in pulling away. He staggered backward, roaring in agony, and I hovered for a fraction of a moment, assessing my current situation. The guard he'd just set alight was now extinguished, his flesh blackened and crispy in places, but resolve seemingly unaffected as he lay there, struggling to get back up. The first guard I'd attacked, meanwhile, had already made it unsteadily back up to his feet, and was clearly struggling to transform– his body growing and shrinking, scales erupting and then flattening back out again, but his dragon form lingering just a little bit longer each time.

Finally I jerked my head back around, and saw Baill and Endia, tumbling across the floor in a tangle of thrashing limbs. Biting, scratching, tearing at one another, blood running along their scales– the majority of it, I could tell, Endia's.

Furious, I raced for the two of them, eager to intervene, to tear Baill a new one before he had the chance to inflict any further damage upon the woman that I loved. I was stopped in midair, however, by the fourth guard, who I'd yet to tangle with. His jaws clamped onto my tail, jerking me back through the air, my face hitting the floor as he reeled me toward him.

I wheeled around and ripped my tail free of his jaws, aiming straight for his neck as I hurled my jaws through the air, hoping to make short work of him. Before I had the chance to do that, however, he'd lunged right back at me, snapping his jaws, and it was only by jerking my head back that I managed to avoid a severe neck wound.

We bit and chomped at one another. We jetted forward, then careened backward. Eyes peeled for an opening. Our fury mutual, deep-seated, our determination to see each other dead outshining any and all other concerns.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a vicious bolt of fire was hurled in my direction. I spat back at him, the blasts dissipating together in mid-air. He fired at me again, and I returned it angrily– neither of us sustaining the attacks for long, but only for a few seconds at a time. Blinding, flickering flame, whipping through the air, gone before it was there, the effort to ignite again and again, in such quick succession, rapidly exhausting the two of us.

Strength-wise, I thought that the two of us fought at approximately the same level. It was the randomness of his attacks, the wildly unpredictable nature of his movements, that left me struggling to keep up– this particular guard giving me a run for my money, far more than any of the ones that had come before him.

Back and forth came the volley of fire, until suddenly it ceased from his side. And the next thing I knew he was soaring at me, his eyes aglow, his body rocketing through the air at a dangerous speed.

I tried to brace myself, with no time to dodge out of the way by the point that I'd recognized his approach. Instantly I was slammed to the ground beneath a powerful weight, clawing and biting at him as viciously as possible, but unable to free myself, or inflict any damage against him whatsoever.

I thrashed and tore. I struggled and strained. But the guard had me right where he wanted me, and he wasn't about to relent. His jaws open, I saw another charge of fire rapidly building from his lungs. I strove to retaliate, but had thoroughly exhausted my flame from our little sparring match moments ago– which I realized, now, had been precisely his intention.

I kept on thrashing, struggling for my life to free myself, expecting at any moment to meet my permanent demise, in the form of a steady, relentless face-full of fire.

It was at that moment, however, that a desperately needed miracle arrived, saving me from certain death. The door to throne room slammed open, and in leapt my brother, his eyes wide, his face in a state of absolute panic.

“Fri! Someone told me my brother was here! That he's been accused of murdering the King, and is now awaiting execution– Oh...”

Nol took one look at the ensuing chaos, and seemed to understand instantly what was happening. The fire blackened guard, having at last made it to his feet, came running toward him with a pained expression on his face, sword lifted in his hands, preparing to strike. Nol gave him a single, unconcerned glance, transformed, and poured a fresh mouthful of flame onto the guard, his screams ringing out across the hall once again.

The moment the guard was out of the way, Nol shot through me, slamming into the side of the guard now straddling me, and knocking him off his balance, so that the blast of flame he'd been kindling went belching off to the side, erupting and dissipating against the cold stone floor. Instantly Nol tackled him, bearing down on him with his entire weight, and sending relentless jets of his own flame pouring onto the guard's thrashing head.

Scrabbling back up onto all fours, my entire body aching from the guard's weight, I watched the two of them going at it for a moment, and decided, for the time being, that Nol seemed to have things under control. It was then, by chance, that I heard a vicious roar ring out, and I jerked my head around, to see what had since happened between Baill and Endia.

The two of them had at last separated, and now hovered several yards apart, blood dripping to the floor from their duel, floating bodies. Their jaws wide, they'd each hurled plumes of flame in the other's direction, each massive and formidable, but Endia's visibly the weaker of the two.

Desperate to intervene, I launched myself in the pair's direction, unsure of whether I could even muster up the energy to conjure fire, and even if I could, whether I could get close enough in time before Baill spotted me.

I noticed Endia's left eye pivoting toward me as I rapidly approached her, and then turn back to Baill– and it suddenly occurred to me that she'd as good as read my thoughts.

Suddenly, Endia backed up a few feet through the air, as though taking in a very deep breath as she did so. Then, still pouring out flame in Baill's direction, there was a sudden jolt. The fire still poured from her jaws, but I noticed a flash of something blue and gelatinous, twisting itself around the flame.

Wide-eyed, it occurred to me that she'd somehow managed to pour out both flame and a thick jet of ice-cold water, simultaneously, the effect being a thick cloud of steam rising up, rapidly enshrouding the two of them.

I understood her intention– too weak by this point to hold Baill back much longer on her own, I now had the cover I'd been hoping for to rush forward undetected, and strike Baill while his guard was down.

The fire and water and steam continued, until at last the whole room became clouded over, with nothing but silhouettes visible, writhing around through the obscurity.

The yellow light from Endia's side of the cloud gradually died out, the effort of conjuring multiple elements at the same time evidently exhausting her, draining her of her last remaining strength. I watched her sink to the ground, her features invisible to me through the haze. Then I saw, backing slightly through the air, then plunging forward, down onto Endia, clearly about to finish what he'd started.

I jolted forward from my stupor, moving as I'd never moved before, hating Baill as I had never hated anyone, or anything in the world.

I tore through the steam and felt the impact of Baill's body against my own. He let out a mean roar of protestation, and I kept on going until I felt the force of the stone wall slamming into the two of us, the entire castle seeming to vibrate as I plunged Baill into its surface.

I lashed out at him, ready to end this, but the effects of my assault seemed entirely too short-lived upon him. He lunged back at me just as I approached, and managed to shove his teeth down into my throat before I neared him. I roared back at him, slashing my claws as furiously as I could, determined not to allow his tyranny to prevail. Baill was relentless, however, his jaws locked in place against me, refusing to let go of me no matter how desperately I pulled, and snapped, and bit at him.

And then inspiration struck me.

Desperate for air, I drew my front leg through the steam, and sent it crashing down as hard as I could in his direction, not letting up until I felt the give of something soft and squishy against the tip of my claw.

Baill howled with pain, and jerked away from me, half-blinded, giving me the opportunity to breathe I'd been so desperately longing for.

I gasped for breath, struggling further still to take in air through the thick clouds of steam and smoke that now surrounded us on all sides. If I'd thought I was slowing Baill down at all by clawing out his eye, however, I quickly found that I was dead wrong. For no sooner had I managed to catch my breath than I saw him shooting through the air in my direction, his jaws wide, looking angrier than ever in the seconds before his body collided with mine.

He slammed me down onto the stone floor, a crater opening beneath our collective weight upon impact. His attacks became relentless now, his claws and his fangs digging into me, ripping my body to shreds, tearing off my scales, the blood pouring with such an intensity that I thought I might bleed out before he got the chance to kill me directly.

I tried to fight back. I summoned every ounce of strength I possessed, yearning to fight back, but rapidly growing powerless to do so. I could hardly breathe again by the time I saw him rising up in the air above me, his massive body becoming more and more distant, disappearing through the haze of steam. For a moment, I almost believed he was giving up on me– his defeat of me so thorough as it was that there was really no need to inflict any further damage upon me.

But then, I saw his shadow re-emerge, closing back in on me again, letting me know exactly what was coming.

He threw the whole of his weight down onto me. With a sickening crack, and a dizzying bolt of pain, I felt the force of his foot, slamming my head into the stone, cracking it open beneath me. I thought my skull was going to crack open as well, searing and unbearable as the pain was, but then he lifted himself up off of me, just before the point I was sure my head would burst–

Only to bring his foot back down on me twice as hard, stomping down on the center of my neck.

In that moment, I lost all control.

Everything seemed to become a thorough, inky black, then to flash yellow and purple, brighter and brighter, then glowing with ever color of the rainbow.

When I opened my eyes again I was still lying on the ground, in the center of a crater that was several times larger than I was. I wasn't in my dragon form any more, but had shifted back down, shaking and convulsing, blood dripping along my naked body. I couldn't see straight– my vision, doubling, tripling, weaving in and out of itself, making it impossible to focus.

I could clearly see Baill, however. Rising up over me. Shifted back down as well. A sword in his hand. A look of pure malice in his one remaining eye, the other a bleeding red mess, which only seemed to accentuate the insane grin now twisted across his lips.

I tried to sit up. I tried to fight back. But all I could do was lift my head. And by the time I had done this, the tip of the sword was at my throat, the blade digging into the flesh, ending me in an instant the moment I decided to make any sudden movements.

“You should have stayed where you fucking belonged!” snarled Baill, the throne room eerily silent around the two of us, as though all the other fighting had stopped, and only the two of us remained. “You should have kept your hands to yourself! Off of my woman! You should have kept your goddamn ass out of my throne! But you just couldn't get it through your thick fucking skull, could you Wrecker? This has been, is, and always will be, the Kingdom of the Earth dragons! And anyone who doesn't understand that and respect it, will learn to do so by the time I'm through with them!”

I tried to speak. I tried to delay the inevitable, for just a moment longer, hoping I might still save myself, or at least, maybe, still save Endia. But I knew it was no use. I couldn't breathe a word. I couldn't make a sound. I was coughing up blood, and I knew it was the end.

Baill smiled mercilessly down upon me, thoroughly pleased by my helplessness. He didn't say another word, but put both hands to the hilt of his sword. He drew it slowly, slowly upward. Lifting it over me, the blade hovering for several torturous moments in midair.

Then he threw his muscles forward, arcing the sword straight down at me, set to plunge the metal straight through my chest, and down into the stone below.

I closed my eyes, trembling, and waited for the end.

But the blade never came.

There was no last stab of pain, despite the sickening gush of metal slicing through flesh, and for a moment I wasn't sure what the hell had just happened.

Then I opened my eyes, and it was like I'd just been reborn, all over again.

Baill was standing over me, the sword now slack in his hand. His single eye wide. His mouth hanging open, trembling as he stood there. Something hot was raining down on me, and at last I realized that there was a blood-red blade jutting through a hole in the center of his chest, which hadn't been there the last time I'd seen him.

“I'm sorry, Baill,” said a female voice, “But you never did really understand what it means to be an Earth dragon...”

Baill lingered for a moment, his expression panicky, as though using the last fleeting seconds of his life to come to grips with his own mortality. And then, at last, he tumbled down at my feet, collapsing like a fallen tree, and not a single further sound issuing from his still-gaping mouth.

Endia stood there in the spot where he'd just been. The sword in her hands, which she rapidly tossed aside, and sent clattering to the floor.

“Fri! Oh, God, Fri! Are you alright?” she whispered, the tears already streaming down her face, and I wished so badly I could speak the words to her that she wanted to hear.

She was by my side in a matter of seconds, her hands on my shoulders, her tears dripping painfully into my open wounds– though I wouldn't have dreamed of asking her to stop, even if I'd had the ability to do so at that moment.

I was grateful for her presence. Endlessly grateful for everything she'd given me, and wishing that I could give her the happy ending she was hoping for– though certain, from the extent of my injuries, that my time had come...

“Fri! Fri! Is he alright?” I heard a second voice calling to me, and I saw that it was Nol– his body decorated with a few extra scars than it had been when the battle had started, but overall, my younger brother not looking all that much worse for wear.

“Endia,” I tried to mouth, as she stared deep into my eyes. “Endia, I– I love– “

But I was too weak. She was fading. I was dying. I couldn't hold on any longer.

I felt a single tear, trickling from the corner of my eye, mourning my inability to say what I so desperately needed to.

And then, the next moment I was gone. Slipped into a thorough black oblivion, in which I would remain forever.

It did seem to go on forever. Like a hundred years or more of thorough nothingness. But then, suddenly, I saw it fade.

I felt a strange sensation.

Partly warm. Partly cool. It swept across a body I was certain I'd left behind. I felt the energy of life. The strength returning to my muscles.

And then, at last, I gasped awake.

The next thing I saw in my new life was a crimson red dragon, standing over me, blowing a cool stream of a wispy golden substance down onto me– the same substance, it gradually clicked for me, that had brought that burnt tree back to life in the woods. An event which, I had to force myself to believe, had only been a few short hours ago.

I began to cough, the air flowing freely through my lungs again, for the first time in several moments. The wicked pain in my skull seemed to have all but vanished, and aside from the still bleeding cuts which still decorated me from my head down to my toes, I felt like my old self again, the worst of my injuries healed instantaneously.

The dragon continued to stare down at me, gradually allowing the streams of gold to diminish from her lips. Then, once she was sure I was going to live, she disappeared, and was Endia again– the sweetness in those dark eyes making me fall in love with her all over again.

“You're alive,” she whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“You saved me,” I answered right back, still trying to make sense of this. “I thought you didn't know how to make it work on people...”

She shrugged, her smile broken and trembling.

“I guess there's a first time for everything... And besides– what kind of Queen would I be, without my King by my side?”

I beamed at her. And it was here, at last, that she tackled me, unable to stand it any longer. Wrapping her arms around my neck. Pulling me in close. The heat of her against me, and the gentle smell of her skin, setting me entirely at ease.

I let out a heavy sigh, and hugged her tight, pushing my fingers through her hair, and resting my hands firmly against her shoulder blades, never wanting to let her go.

For the first time since my childhood, I finally knew that I was home. I knew exactly where I belonged, and I was certain there wasn't a force in the world that would ever tear me from this woman's arms again.