Post by newburydave on Jul 21, 2008 0:03:20 GMT -5
I know this is longer than the recommended prologue. I may break some of it off into a chapter.
I wrote this before I started reading Jeff's tips and I've got to figure out what to do with all the exposition in the middle. It has 4 or 5 POV chatacters.
Feedback please. this does set the stage for the action in the book. The rest of the book happens about 4000 years later.
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Book 4 - The Guardian Alliance
Prologue - What Color is your Dragon?
Word count: 8563
THE WAS NO JOY IN MUDVILLE
Lucifer, now known in 4-Dimensional and Transcendent space as Soton, the King of Shadows, the Most Obscure One, was holding court in the Abyss. It was not a pretty sight
"I want to know how you fools could have been so stupid to try to use those Dragonleas as your main body of troops in the Earth invasion." Lucifer paced and raged past the ranks of disembodied Darkest Ones.
Lucifer slashed at the nearest one, the First Marshal of the forces who been first through the Hellhole when it opened in the mantle of Mars. Lucifer's kick caught the Darkest One in the center of his being and hurled his shattered pieces across the width of the Abyss. He was back in his place in an instant.
"You, how could you have been so stupid as to choose the Dragonleas for you main infestation targets. Intelligent dragons," Another vicious kick, dismemberment and then return, "As intelligent as Man they are you fool! Intelligent enough to grasp deliverance whenever any of their Prophets or Seers spoke those cursed ancient words of Power. Who told those words to the miserable Martian scum anyway?"
"It was their Prophet Hsi-Liu, radiance." A lower rank Dark one said toadying up to him.
A vicious kick sent him flying too, "I know that your sniveling fools. Tell me something I don’t know; tell me anything you scum." With another flurry of kicks and slashes he sent the entire front rank across the Abyss in fragments. They were back in rank in seconds. You can't kill or further damage an already dead and damned spirit after all.
"Yes; Intelligent Dragons; Red Dragons yet!" he screamed, "That was supposed to be My symbol. And now it's co-opted by a bunch of praying dragons," he raged into incoherence for a moment, "Intelligent enough and praying enough to have exorcised the lot of you back into the Abyss when you should have been swarming over Earth. Idiots!" He screamed and kicked another line of front rank Dark Ones into fragments.
His old nemesis and second in command, that had been called Othniel before the expulsion from God's house stood up to him, "You were the one who set the example of infesting the Dragonleas!" he shouted. Sneering in a contemptuous voice he said, "More subtle that all the other beasts, you said; Beautiful enough and smart enough to capture her eye, you said"
His roaring contempt made the ranks of Dark Ones tremble, "Lucifer? No the only thing that shines about you now is your stupidity. Soton, you are the one who set us up for disaster with your stupid vanity. If you really wanted to be so beautiful you should have stayed in your place in God's house instead of leading us to our Freedom." He spat after that word, "This freedom of the Abyss, You are the fool Soton!"
Lucifer aimed a kick at him but he dodged it and returned one of his own that sent Lucifer across the Abyss in fragments. When he snapped back, blinded by his rage he demanded, "What's your name Dark one! You're the only one worthy of that name out of the whole bunch."
"You don't remember me, Soton? Your faithful enemy. I'll have a new name, call me fed up with your arrogance Soton!" He snarled in a hate filled voice.
"All right, Captain "FedUp" you're in charge of this useless outfit." You find me a species that can't be turned back to Ya (he spat after saying The Name) by the words of power and that cursed Angel Fire."
"Yeah Soton, the Angel Fire that tumbled you out of your Beautiful Dragonleas back into the Abyss just like the rest of us."
Lucifer swung around on his new chief captain and snarled, "This is my realm maggot, now get out of it and don't come back until you have a species that can't be turned. Get out! Get out!"
Fed-up glared back, his own rage equaling Lucifer's, "I'll go, and I'll come back any time I please, Shadow head, whether I've got a species or not; You tin horned demi-godling."
Lucifer launched a massive kick at Fed-up but Fed-up vanished up one of the Hellholes and Lucifer's kick flipped him onto his back before the troops. The Darkest ones roar of mocking laughter sent Lucifer fleeing up another Hellhole to get away from the incipient mutiny below.
************
DRAGONS IN THE SNOW
It was the frozen world of Dirax IV where Soton finally caught up with Fedup. "What have you found?" he demanded.
Fedup ignored him and continued studying the herd of furry white dragonids spread across the tundra below them.
Soton followed his gaze, "Is this the species we need?" he demanded.
"Will you shut up Shadow head," Fedup hissed. "Use your senses instead of running your mouth and you might learn something."
Soton spluttered in rage; until Fedup rounded on him with a threatening glare. "This is my realm and my project," He hissed in a dangerous voice, "Keep your mouth shut or I'll organize an overthrow in the Abyss and send you back up dimension so the Angels (he spat) can play stick ball with you."
Soton looked in amazement at his chief captain. He'd created a monster. A slow evil smile spread across his face; but monsters were what they needed to overcome those peace-and-love idiots up-dimension. His evil smile deepened, for the first time since the scene in the Abyss he was encouraged. At least this one had a backbone and a brain.
"So Fedup, "he purred in a conciliatory tone, "What have you found us so far."
Fedup looked at him, "That's better, Now maybe I'll tell you."
************
"So the White dragons are too stupid to be useful unless they're infested and even then their usefulness is limited. But if we breed them with the Red Dragonleas their bastard children are Smart and Strong?." Soton mused rehashing the information he'd just recieved from Fedup.
Fedup eyed Soton, "And best of all it will be our kind of Smart. They'll be totally brutal, cunning and already filled with their own darkness. An infested Dragon-Mule wouldn't accept deliverance from infestation even is someone offered it. Even if an Angelfire blast dis-infested one, most of them would be so viscous that you wouldn't notice the difference and they'd go looking to get re-infested as soon as possible."
"But...,"asked Soton, "there's a but at the end of that last statement isn't there?"
"The only problem is that they will all be sterile. They won't be able to reproduce themselves. They'll be one generation wonders. We'd have to set up a breeding colony of White dragons and Red Dragonleas somewhere to replace the ones we use up in combat and the ones that die of old age. The White dragons on Dirax IV only live about 100 years, not till Kingdom Come like the Dragonleas. So I assume their bastards will be shorter-lived as well."
Soton looked at Fedup, "If I told you that you've done a good job--."
"I'd tell you to stick it in your ear, shadow head; just get me some Dragonleas and enough Dark Ones to make it happen. Then get out of my way and let me work. You're too stupid to organize a game of liar's poker at a Political Convention."
If the disembodied spirit had had feet Soton would have stomped away. He shouted back over his shoulder, "Fine I've got other things to do, insolent maggot, you'll get your supplies, but I want results." With that Parting shot he vanished into the Hellhole near their feet.
*********
THE EATING MACHINES OF DIRAX III
The Demon pile in the Abyss that created the Hellhole on Dirax III was supposed to be aimed at the mountains on the western side of the main continent. Due to the vagaries of creating such a worm hole within the mantle of a planet, they missed. The hellhole actually opened in the middle of the forest high up in the foothills. It was just below the rim rock at the base of the mountain range. Nobody knew it at the time but that doomed the operation before it even got off the ground.
There are several top predators on Dirax III. One of those predators is the lizard called Velociraptor. It was a warm-blooded reptile with an outward similarity to the contemporary Terran dinosaur of the same name. From there the similarity ended. For one thing unlike their contemporaries on Terra, they have no real sentience, their cunning and hunting skill is pure instinct, not intellect. For another thing they have no pod loyalty as the Terran Velociraptors do; among them there was not even the slightest notion of family. Not one of them had the intellect to even recognize another individual member of their pod. Like terran sharks they are as likely to attack each other in a feeding frenzy as they are to attack their common prey.
Diraxian Velociraptors run in pods because instinctively they know it's easier to hunt large prey in groups, not because they want to. Most of them were loosely bound into the hunting packs of 10-12 animals that humans would later recognize as pods. It worked for them.
******
The Pod of Velociraptors who found the new Hellhole as it was forming did what they were programmed by instinct to do with anything new; they investigated it as a possible food source. One ventured too close and was sucked into its gravity well. Since the Abyss proper can't accept anything with 4-D mass, the one tonne Velociraptor was ejected back onto Dirax III with a very high trajectory. The Pod followed the flight of it's podmate until the beast crashed back to earth and died. As the Pod closed in to feast on the carcass of their fellow, the question was answered; yes the Hellhole was a source of food, food that didn't fight back. So the pod moved close to the Hellhole to wait for more free food.
Enough animals blundered into the Hellhole's maw in the next few months to establish the Hellhole as a continuing source of food for the Velociraptor pod. As such things do word got around and soon there were at least 4 diferent pods of Velociraptors vying for the "benefits" of living next to the Hellhole. The battles between them were epic. The number of interested newcomers increased by the week, and invariably in the fighting that followed some fell into the Hellhole...supplying more food to fight over.
For the Velociraptors of Dirax III life was good.
******
THIS ISN'T THE RECEPTION WE WERE PROMISED IN THE TRAVEL BROCUHURE
Fedup the Darkest One captain, infesting a Dragonleas female. As the leader of the new colonization effort, he was the first one through the Hellhole with a White dragon bull in tow. Since Dirax IV had proved to be too cold for the Breeding colony to succed there he was towing a bunch of stupid white brutes through an Abyss transit to Dirax III. They had to be towed like sheep because if you tried to drive them they just circled around you like water around a stick.
"If you hadn't been so stupid we wouldn't have to be doing this," Fedup was raging at the big White dragon bull that he was dragging through the Hellhole.
"I built you shelters; but you wouldn't go into the shelters and all the babies froze out in the snow. In the spring hatch when the Mules got big enough to fly you ate them because they weren't white," The infested Dragonleas female kicked the big bull in the side.
The bull looked at her stupidly. _Well_ he thought disdainfully, _that's what you do with animals that aren't White, you eat them._
_I've just gone through Hell and now this scrawny red pipsqueak of a female is yelling at me? If they think I'm going to waste my energy breeding with that scrawny red stick of a dragon they're crazy._
The White bull tried to think of something pleasant to take his mind off the red harridan by his side. _Ah_ now he remembered; _Back on Dirax IV lined up to enter the Hellhole, old Thunderhump had managed to smuggle three of his wives into the tail end of the herd. I saw him just before this Red hag hauled me into the Hellhole on Dirax IV. I'm sure he'll share the wealth. Now those were real females worth the time and effort, big, fluffy, white with beautiful with long necks..._
The Abyss mass rejection factor lofted them both almost 150 meters into the air. Since both Dragonleas' and White dragons can fly, that was not a problem. The landing was the problem.
********
WELCOME TO DIRAX III, YOU'RE LUNCH
The Velociraptor pods around the Hellhole stirred in anticipation as the Red and White food hurtled up through the swirling black orifice in the ground; 50 of them set off at a run following the flight of this new bounty, this amounted to all four of the dominant pods who claimed the Hellhole as their own.
Other pods in the surrounding area also saw the delivery in flight, so they rallied to the expected landing site. It was shaping up to be Velociraptor bar fight of epic proportions.
The area around the hellhole was not triple canopy rainforest like so much of Dirax III. Here the trees had begun to shrink with the altitude and spread out as they climbed the slopes up to the rim-rock. By the glimpses the Velociraptors they got through the gaps in the trees the hunting packs easily tracked the two Dragonids as they fluttered toward the ground. The Dragonleas tried to soar, but the White dragon was too big and don't like to fly, so it reacted like a child on a roller coaster, with total panic.
The two Dragonids crashed through the tree canopy with the grace of an elephant falling out of a swing, and landed…. Well, actually they were not quite on the ground when the first ten Velociraptors tried to hit them in mid air from all directions. What comes to mind is four Labrador retrievers catching the same Frisbee out of the air at the same instant.
Dragon fire really didn't deter the Velociraptors one bit, so when eight of the first ten fell smoking and sizzling to the ground under the lash of the Dragonids combined dragon fire, the next waves of Velociraptors just kept coming; slashing and biting.
Now a fight was something the White dragon understood, with a ground shaking roar the huge white bull started to lash out at his new enemies. Standing the equivalent of back to back the two Dragonids whirled and danced in place and gave a glorious account of themselves. They slashed and burned Velociraptors until they ran out of dragon fire, then they slashed, tore and bit them, piling up heaps of dead lizards around themselves. But still the relentless wave of scaly death pressed in on them. After a valiant last stand, surrounded by heaps of scorched and broken enemies, they were finally overwhelmed by the relentless tide of Velociraptors.
When the Red Dragonleas died Fedup landed back in the Abyss spewing curses and insults.
*******
The plan had been to start the breeding colony with 12 Dragonleas females and 30 White dragon Bulls to do the work of building. The smartest of the Bulls would then be tapped for breeding stock.
Back on Dirax IV the groups of bulls, each led by an infested Dragonleas female, advanced to the Hellhole and plunged in.
After the transiting through the Abyss and being ejected back up the Dirax III hellhole they soared and thrashed down out of their high trajectories into the growing mass of flaming struggling death. In mid-air as soon as the White dragon bulls, smelled blood they abandoned their Dragonleas conductors and charged into the Melee like draconic Berserks. Reptile blood and body parts flew in every direction.
But by now the whole forest was on the move. Velociraptors knew that where there was battle there was food. They were scavengers as well as hunters. Like medieval Terran warhorses they all galloped to the sound of the battle.
At first the infested Dragonleas had dashed after their Bersek charges right into the cauldron of reptile-draconic fury. But when the infesting Darkest Ones saw the tidal wave of defeat rolling down on them, most abandoned their Dragonleas and fled back down the Hellhole. They were not going to be ignominiously dumped back into the Abyss in defeat. The newly dis-infested Dragonleas' shook their heads, looked around and started trying to organize a defense.
Bao-Ti-Li, former Captain in the Guardianship scouts, came back to herself in the midst of battle. The last thing she remembered was the crash of metal as the tight beam of Abyssian darkness cut the impeller rings out of her Scout ship over the Tirrian gate. She must have been infested while she lay unconscious in her crippled ship..
A Velociraptor leaped the wall of dead and tried to latch his hind claws into her back, going for a killing neck bite. Bao-Ti-Li twisted away and leaped into the air. She belched a blast of dragon fire into its face that flashed to plasma and burned all the flesh off of the reptile back to it's mid chest.
From her place in midair she mind-shouted, "Guardians, TO ME!"
The other Dragonleas began to fight their way toward her position. Amazingly the normally mind-blind White dragon bulls, in the heat of their battle Berserk, heard her mind shout as well. Out of the struggling knots of Dragonids and Velociraptors a vague battle line began to form which resolved itself into a battle oval. A Draconic King Harold facing the Reptilian Norman knights.
When White dragons are properly awakened and enraged they actually come on line and stopped being so stupid. They start acting like real Dragonids instead of big dumb sheep. The big bull next to Bao-Ti-Li in the forming battle line bashed a Velociraptor into pulp with one blow of his fore talon and mind thought at her. _Ya know Red Stick, you're really something when you get your war-fire up. We get outta this I'll breed with you any day,_ the mind voice equivalent of a wink followed.
Bao-Ti-Li burned another Velociraptor in half and replied, _Yeah sure Whitey, whatever._ And thought to herself, _Sheesh, what a clumsy pick up line; In your dreams lummox._
She had begun to remember snippets of her experiences while infested. She vaguely recognized that big bull as one she had dragged through the Hellhole. Well he was a good second in the line of battle.
A wave of Velociraptors rolled over the draconic defensive talon wall opposite to where Bao-Ti-Li fought. A half dozen white bulls and two Dragonleas went down under the press. Bao-Ti-Li heard the cries of her nest mates and half turned. The big bull next to her caught the motion as he belched a blast of dragon fire and then smashed two Velociraptor heads together with a satisfying crunch. He turned his head to check it out and saw seven Velociraptors leaping toward them from across the circle. He spun in place, roared and charged them. A massive tail swipe broke three of them in half; he bit the head off another and smashed two more to pulp with his fore talons. His attempt to belch dragon fire fizzled; out of fuel.
The seven were just the first wave of a great tide that continued to sweep into the center of the defensive ring. Where were they all coming from? _Guardians, close it up!_ Bao-Ti-Li mind shouted as she leapt back across the circle to help meet the tide that was closing around Whitey.
She slashed and burned at the struggling mass of Velociraptors that rolled over the big bull. It bore him down under their slashing claws. _Need some help in the middle!_ she mind shouted. Another Velociraptor loomed up and she burned it down. She felt her dragon fire feed sac getting close to empty. _Well talons and tails work too, _ she thought grimly.
Two more big bulls closed on her position and velociraptor parts started flying in all directions. They finally dug down to Whitey and he weakly raised his head. _Hey Red, guess I'll have to take a rain-check till we get to the other side._ Then slumped back. His wooly white hide hung in bloody strips, his back was broken and his massive hind legs and tail were pulled askew. Intestines leaked out of his slashed belly. She looked down at his weak attempt at a smile. _Do White dragons go to Heaven she wondered? _ His smile froze in the rictus of death.
A Velociraptor talon slashed her shoulder, she spun and belched fire in his face, only a half blast came out not able to reach plasma stage. He shrugged it off and kept coming till her tail stroke took off his head. A wave of Velociraptors followed him.
The defensive circle was breaking, dying under the weight of the reptilian attack, The surviving dragonids tried to contract in on her position but too many of them were down. The Velociraptor numbers were finally thinning out but it was too late to help.
With the Dragonids main firepower finally exhausted they were down to talons, tails and teeth. This was still a formidable array of weapons but there were so many more of the Velociraptors. Most of the Dragonids' wings were too shredded to fly by now so they stood their ground and fought to the end, a glorious death in battle awaited them and they embraced it, Red and White dragons alike.
Bao-Ti-Li stood, slashed and bleeding, in the center of the last eight draconic defenders. _Her warriors! Great Ya, but she was proud of them. Valiant souls all of them, gravely wounded every one, but still snarling defiance into the face of onrushing death._ Years later on Terra a Frankish leader named Roland would face the same fate, with the same spark of fire in his heart; But today on Dirax III these draconic warriors were all joining the legion of the mighty.
The final wave of attack closed in on them, leaping high into the air and rushing in on the ground, climbing the heaps of the slain that surrounded them they came Hissing their battle cry. They were fewer than the other waves but still overwhelming. Bao-Ti-Li thought the rest were probably already off gorging on the slain.
Four Velociraptors landed on her, a tail stroke of one of her white bulls swept them into bloody fragments. Six more took their place as her champion went down under a wave of fifteen or twenty of the lizards.
Darkness claimed her consciousness.
******
THE NEW COLONY
On Dirax III only four White dragons survived out of the first herd of 30. They had been in the last group through the Hellhole and when they were settling to the ground old Thunderhump saw the seething mass of Velociraptors below them, like maggots on carrion. He decided with unusual brilliance not to land just there. His three wives and two other bulls followed the brilliant old bull and set off to find a safer landing place.
On the ground below them a pod of 12 Velociraptors who were coming late to the party saw them from a distance. They changed course and pursued.
Once the White dragons got used to flying they decided that flying was good and just kept going. The Velociraptors kept pace easily. The white dragons weren’t working very hard; they were just kind of sight seeing. This strange sensation of not being cold was, well kind of comfortable actually.
Finally the White dragons saw something familiar, the highlands of the rim-rock thrust up before them with mountains in the background. This was like home, except warm. So they flew up to land on top of the rim-rock bluff.
The Velociraptors were a bit puzzled, this was not normal hunting ground... but food was food so they did their reptilian best and started scrambling up the steep slope. The first one at the top was met by Old Thunderhump himself. He'd made enough noise scrabbling up the rock face to attract the attention of even the dull witted old bull.
Now White dragons are incredibly stupid creatures, but compared to the Velociraptors they are all Rhodes Scholars so when the first Velociraptor stuck it's head over the edge of the rim rock with a "Hissss", which in Raptor speech means "I'm going to eat you," The White dragon replied with a roar, which in White dragon speech means "I Don't think so!"
The bloody brawl that ensued, as the other eleven enterprising lizards clambered over the top, wasn't totally one sided. The extra two tons of muscle on each of the White dragons and their higher intelligence eventually overmatched the larger number and speed of the Velociraptors.
The turning point came when the Thunderhump discovered, quite by accident, that you could kill a Velociraptor just as easily by throwing it off the cliff as by biting its head off, and you were less likely to get slashed in the process. After the ensuing rout the four White dragons who survived the battle, Old Thunderhump two of his wives and another younger bull called Bonecrusher, soared down to the base of the cliffs to feast on the remains of the Velociraptor hunting party. After all food was food and they needed it recover from their wounds.
Later as the sun was setting Old Thunderhump was standing on the rim-rock verge. His wounds from the battle pained him but he'd survived worse. Beneath his wooly white coat his body was already crisscrossed with many battle scars a few more would hardly be noticed. He sniffed the rich scents from the forest below mixed with the cooler breezes from the high peaks behind him. There was no snow in sight. Even the evening breezes were warm. Life on Dirax III was going to be good.
*******
A REFUGE IN THE STORM
The Chief healer of the Deep Clan was drawn to the carnage of the battle. He had often reflected on how his race, The Blue Healers, always sensed when some beast was injured and needed their help. It didn't rely on hearing or sight; it was as if they could all sense a disturbance in the life which flowed through all things. There was a particular flavor to the life of each specific species and when one of them was injured that flavor tasted different to their senses. He didn't understand how their blue 'clothing of light' linked them into the fundamental life flow of the universe, he just reacted to the resulting sensations.
That different mind flavor brought him flying to the scene at his best speed. Once men arrived on Dirax III a Xenobiologist would clock the Blue Healer who had adopted his family at well over 100 ArcSecs / hour (100 Knots of airspeed (SI)), but that was far in the future and all the Chief healer knew was that he was flying as fast as strength and art would allow him toward the flavor of immense suffering and dying. His clan mates were coming too but he had been the closest.
The Chief Healer of the Deep Clan arrived at the scene of the terrible slaughter. The Dragonids had finally been overwhelmed by the sheer number of Velociraptors before he arrived. He surveyed the scene of death below him searching for any life among the heaps of the slain.
*****
Bao-Ti-Li looked up from where her broken body lay surrounded by the wreckage of her enemies. The tiny blue Dragonid hovered above her regarding her with swirling golden eyes. "You have come a long way to die Red Sister," the mind-voice flowed through his gaze, "But you have accomplished a great slaughter of your enemies in your dying. Dirax thanks you."
"Who is Dirax blue brother?"
"Dirax is our planet, and these Velociraptors are its scourge. It's good so many of them died here."
"Then I am dying a glorious death in honorable battle, Blue Brother, "she responded. She thought it sounded like liturgy, well that was good.
The Chief Healer settled gently next to her lacerated side, He placed his hands on her and began to sing in a sweet piping melody.
"Why do you sing Small Blue Brother?"
"It is a song of healing; it will at least stop the Pain."
"Blue Brother, pain tells me I still live. What people are you? We of the Guardianship don't know of your kind."
"We call ourselves the Bluey's or Healers of the Blue fire; we heal the broken and wounded creatures around us." He paused and indicated the white dragon corpses near them, "We've never see such creatures as you and these others," The mind voice conversation went on while he was piping the song of healing.
A scintillating blue blur plunged through the trees and flared into a hover on slender wings above them. The Chief Healer looked up and caught the eyes of the hovering Healer, "Bluey Med Two, this one is very broken please come help me."
"But there are others, of this same kind who are also broken," she indicated the direction of the largest pile of dead, "I sensed them in the bottom of that pile over there."
Bao-Ti-Li caught the hovering blue dragons eye, "Other Red Dragonleas still live?"
"They barely live and," a shadow seemed to flow through the iridescent blue fire that danced across her skin, "They both have the Black soul sickness in them. I have to go and sing the soul sickness out of them so they can at least pass to a peaceful rest;" With that she lifted with powerful wing beats and arrowed away.
The dying dragonid turned her eyes back to the Chief healer," So you know of the Darkest Ones already?"
The same darkening in his skin fire flowed across his body, "Yes they came many cycles ago. Some of us feared that they would bring great evil, but Ya in the creation gave us garments of light and they fear us."
As if to make the reference more certain the Blue fire that had been rippling over the Chief Healers skin suddenly thickened and flowed out to surround the body of the Dragonleas. "Red Sister you are marvelously made." He said reverently.
She felt warmth, and the raging pain of her wounds eased," What are you doing?"
"I'm taking you and your sufferings into my embrace of light. I'm sorry I can't heal you, you are too broken, but I would hold you to life for a short while, there's much I wish to learn."
The Dragonleas saw something in the eyes of the Chief healer, He was taking her pain into himself sharing it to ease her agony; taking her wounds on his own life to hold her to life for a time; pouring his own Life and Love into her as she faced the dark crossing to soothe her lonely fears; she would not make the crossing alone, "Blue Brother, you don't have to do this."
His gaze changed, his swirling golden eyes grew deep. An Infinite sadness mixed with limitless joy swept through the mind link, she felt a greater love than any she ever knew existed; "Red Sister I must. I hunger to enfold your pain and your wounds into my healing as if starvation stalked me." She received the picture of a gaunt shivering Blue dragonid.
"I must because only then do I touch the heart of Ya so my life strengtheded by Ya's Joy. Only then is my life renewed. In the healing embrace I can drink as deeply of His love as I need to pour out to meet your need." Another picture flowed over the mind link, this one of a fat flourishing Blue Dragonid cavorting through the sky on wings of fire.
"But why Blue Brother, how can you take the sorrow and wounds of this whole world into yourself, how can one small being do this?"
"Because I am Healing, Sister, that is what Ya has made me. It is the heart of Ya, Red Sister, because it is the burning in the heart of Ya."
He stared into her eyes for a moment, pouring the Love of the heart of Ya into her dying loneliness, for that moment the Chief Healer became an open conduit of the great heart of the creator for His creation.
The Dragonleas rallied for a moment, "What can I give you in return Healer, what do you wish from me."
"Tell me of the distant stars, tell me the future and what I must do to create it."
"Oh healer, I'm just a Guardian, not a prophet,... "she paused and then with the prescience that so often comes to those about to cross the line of worlds she began to speak a prophesy;
"There are creatures coming who will rule the stars. They are the heirs to the universe; but the Dark Ones lust to subjugate and break them. The Dark Ones and the White Dragons hate them with a burning passion, more than any other race. Use your gift of light and your close embrace of Ya to protect them.
Make this planet a place of safety from the Darkest Ones, destroy the Dark mind sickness and ... There is a Hellhole, a portal into the Abyss not too far from here, It can be destroyed with Ya's light. Rally your kind and flood it with light, it will collapse. Don't let any other Hellhole open on your planet.
Stand against the Darkness oh Healers of Dirax III and when the Kingdom comes you will have great honor and joy."
Then coming out of the Prophetic trance she spoke to him in the present "Thank you Healer, you have given me the joy of giving life again, be true my Blue Brother."
With that thought on her heart Bao-Ti-Li, of the fourth hatching of the seed of Mars, Captain in the Guardianship slipped the cable of this life and launched out into the infinite dimensions of creation, questing upward for Ya the giver of all life. How easy it was now to climb the gradient of multi-D transcendent space she thought to herself.
Then climbing higher than ever before the light of God's house began to grow around her, glorious beings streamed out to greet her, She looked down at herself, she was one of those glorious ones. Hope became reality and she heard the voice of Ya, "Welcome home my beloved."
The Chief Healer held her body in his embrace of light, and held her spirit as long as he could. Then as her spirit finally slipped away from him he felt in his own spirit the final crossing and welcome. Another one is safe at home, he relaxed, and the tears of joy flowed.
*****
INTERDICTION, YOU CAN'T EAT THE HEALER
Bluey six hovered above the rim-rock and warily regarded the four creatures standing at the verge. They were wounded from their battle with the Velociraptor pod. Their white furry hide showed the bloody slashes of the Velociraptor's terrible claws. He had tasted the death and terror of that terrible clash from afar and he had come. But they didn't want his help. They were not from Dirax that was obvious, the taste of their life was all wrong. It was cold and hard. There was a viciousness to them that didn't belong to Dirax. It tasted more like the cold orb that swept through Drirax's heavens each fall, the bringer of the cold, Hexatoma, the hated one.
He swept lower and flared into a hover just out of reach of their long snaky necks. The largest one rumbled a warning deep in it's chest.
Bluey six thought, If only I can lay hands and just start to heal his wounds, then surely they will accept me. All the other creatures on Dirax accepted the Healers because they knew that the tiny blue dragonids were the bringers of life and the ones who relieved their pain. Well all accepted them except the velociraptors. The Raptors thought that if it moves you eat it, so they tried to eat them.
The big bull White dragon wouldn't even meet his eyes. It seemed to be avoiding all communication. One of the smaller dragons to the rear did meet his eye. He tried to tell her he was here to heal them. But they seemed to be mind blind, She just returned his stare stupidly.
But their wounds called out to him with a growing painful voice.
The smaller female in the rear had a terrible wound in her leg. She will lose the use of it and infection may kill her; he darted in toward her, hand out stretched...
The old bull lunged for him. His powerful jaws clamped shut were Bluey Six had been a moment before only missing him by Centimeters. Bluey Six twisted in flight and beat wings for the sky, desperately twisting and rolling. The old bull leaped into the air and pounded up after him. His giant wings like like battering rams in the air. The chase spiraled up and up, the old bull snapping again and again with his meter wide jaw.
Amazement flooded Bluey Six, _By Ya's great love, he's trying to eat me, Bluey six thought, he want's to eat a healer!_
He tipped over into a power dive, straight down. The big White bull was slower to react and the snake like strike of his neck and snap of his teeth missed by a whole meter.
Blue lightning from Bluey 6's skin fire took hold of the air and flung him forward with a speed the White bull couldn't match.
The white bull tried to catch him but Bluey 6 distanced him and finally flared into a hover 50 meters above the rim rock. The White Bull swept out of his dive and drove for the hovering Bluey like a bird chasing a dragonfly. Bluey 6's skin fire thickened and gathered itself then leaped in a ball of lightning from his out stretched fore talons into the face of the white bull.
Thunderhump staggered back in the air as the transfer energy slammed him from a full charge to a tumbling retreat in less than a second. He tumbled, fluttering helplessly past the edge of the rim rock, tumbling toward the forest floor below. About half way down the cliff he regained his balance and then flapped his way back up to the top of the rim rock. All of the fight was out of him. As he crested the verge of the rocky bluff he turned his head and regarded the small blue intruder with a growing respect and fear.
Bluey 6, returned the look with a cold stare. By nature the Bluey's embraced all of the creatures on Dirax in their web of healing fire. It was as natural as breathing or flying. But out of all the creatures some, like the Velociraptors, had such a rapacious nature that the Blueys were forced to anathemize them from Bluey healing and put them under interdict. Bluey Two realized he had found another such species, and it grieved him.
Well he thought to himself, I'd better get this over with so someone else doesn't get hurt trying to help these barbarians. The Interdict would warn off any other Blueys like a sign post in the sky.
"White dragon, "he intoned the ancient words of anathema, "Since you have tried to eat the healer sent to help you; seeking to use the gift of Ya for ordinary food; I cut you off from the web of blue fire for healing that we carry. You will be responsible for your own healing from now until three of your generations have died. This is on you own heads, we shake the air of your passage from our wings," he shook his wings in mid hover as if he were ridding them of pollution, "If you approach any of us for good or ill during your time of Interdiction we will blot you from the sky with the fire of Ya."
With that he left the stunned coven of White dragons on the rim rock verge and flew off toward the main battle scene in the forest below.
********
The Chief Healer of the Deep Clan knelt weeping next to the broken body of Bao-Ti-Li. Mourning her home-going but also feeling the joy of her ascension intermingled with his grief. _Dragonleas Bao-Ti-Li, when will we see your beautiful kind again on this world? _ he mourned.
Lost in his grief he didn't notice the Velociraptor as it climbed over one of the heaps of the slain. _Hisss,_ it thought, _a living morsel, oh how tasty looking._
The scintillating blue streak of fire that plummeted through the trees didn't even slow its plunging flight. A ball of lighting leaped out from it and smashed the leaping Velociraptor into smoking ruin in mid leap. The blue streak pulled into a tight turn and flared into a hover on slender wings over the scene of carnage. He looked down on his grieving clan leader and then settled gently by his side. His hands instinctively went to his Clan Chiefs shoulders.
The Chief Healer looked up into Bluey Six's eyes as the younger Bluey's mind voice came to him through the look, _You drink too much sorrow today, Chief Healer._
_Bluey Six, I have drunk more deeply from Ya's heart today than ever before. I am sunk in grief but I rejoice, It is the heart of Ya._
_Chief Healer, I take your grief into myself. Be eased of it,_ and his blue skin fire thickened as it enwrapped the grieving Bluey Chieftan.
_Take my Sorrow, Take my joy,_ The Chief healer spoke the ancient liturgy of sharing and healing. _You will be great among the clans, Bluey Two, as he who takes the sorrow of the stars from the mighty, Thank you._
High above them a descending cloud of blue fire resolved itself into individual Blueys, spiraling down onto the bloody battle field like Draconic Valkyries. Except these came not as choosers of the slain but as angels of life to those who still lived.
Here and there among the dead they found some few still living. A white dragon bull here, another Red Dragonleas there, all grievously wounded. Despite the Anathema, the White dragons who had stood wing to wing with the Dragonleas' received the same healing ministrations as the Dragonleas kind. They were faith brothers in the brotherhood of mortal combat with the Red Dragonleas and thus they escaped the Interdict. But the best that even the assembled clan could do was to ease the suffering of their passing since they were all too broken to save.
And yes Bao-Ti-Li some White dragons do go to Heaven.
*******
PURGING THE PLAGUE
Finally it was done. Nothing stirred on the gory battle field except the wind. 100 meters above the treetops the Deep Clan hovered in a great ball. The blue skin fire flickered over the whole mass of Bluey's binding them into one embrace, sharing grief and joy. All of them had drunk deeply of the joy and sorrow of Ya's heart today and they needed to share and balance for no one being however strong could bear such immense things alone.
Finally the Chief Healer spoke, His mind voice rolled out over the life link of their mutual embrace instead of a specific gaze.
_Clan Brothers and Sisters, we have journeyed far among the stars today as we embraced these fallen ones from the stars in our healing fire, we have seen many strange things._
A murmured agreement came back to him.
_Our sorrow and joy has been deep._
Again the assent came back.
_At the beginning I enfolded a glorious sister dragonid from a world called Mars in my healing fire, she was like no creature I have ever know before._
Those who had eased the passing of the others of Dragonleaskind today murmured their agreement.
_She gave me a prophesy at the moment of her passing._
Surprise and hope surged through the life link.
_In the prophesy she told me that we must cleanse the great evil presence that infests our world. She told me we can overcome this great darkness with the fire of Ya._
Surprise rippled through the life link,
They all knew of the Hellhole but it had seemed so vast that they couldn't do anything about it. Bluey Four-Three had dared to enter it when it was new. He had been flung back out moments later, high into the sky. His stories of darkness that could be felt and creatures of darkness that no amount of life fire could ever heal had made them wonder mightily what this thing was.
_Come with me. United we can erase this evil from our planet and make Dirax a haven for those fleeing from the darkness._
He began to move up. The clan rose around him, never once breaking the embrace of the life link that bound them into a huge blue ball of Life fire.
******
DIASTER TO THE ABYSSIAN PLANS
In the Abyss the darkest ones were startled when a lance of the most brilliant light they had seen since being cast out of God's house poured down into their midst. It was coming down through the Hole in Hells ceiling that led out to Dirax III. They tumbled and fled in terror from its piercing penetrating fire. "Light, Ahhhhhhhhh!" Screamed Fed-up, He tumbled deeper into the bottomless pit in a vain attempt to escape.
The substance of the swirling walls of the stable wormhole linking the Abyss and 4D space started to writhe as if in agony. Even gravitically stabilized Abyssian Darkness could not endure the lash of light so pure and powerful.
With a thunder clap, that momentarily shredded the substance of every Dark One in the Abyss, the Hellhole collapsed in on itself. The very surface of the Abyss writhed with this new wound, it heaved with titanic forces as the binding force of the universal gravity well sought to find a new equilibrium. After what seemed an eternity the convulsions moderated and the outer boundary of the Abyssian shell formed a scar that would never be pierced again. That avenue of transit was forever closed to the Darkest Ones. Dirax III was a closed world to them.
The reeling dark ones reassembled themselves into their proper form more slowly than usual. The whole fabric of the Abyss still echoed with the long rumble of shocks and aftershocks that destabilized everything within.
Out in 4D space many species looked up from their planets into the heavens and quaked in fear as the heavens seemed to reel and tremble before the lash of some titanic hand of doom. On some planets new religious movements were started to stave off doomsday. Darkest Ones who were then infesting religious leaders and heads of state instituted Sentient sacrifice to appease the angry gods. On Terra the cult of Moloch was organized and babies screamed in the fire.
But the time was not yet. Space came back to equilibrium, the suns shone brightly again. This was just the earnest money, the down payment; the title deed would come due soon enough, Across the newly formed Bulwark Across the Stars the waiting continued, How long Oh Lord, How Long?
*****
JUST KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT WILL YOU
The four white dragons watched from the distance as the ball of blue fire poured blue lightning down into the maw of the seething roiling Hellhole. Thunder seemed to roll louder and louder as the roiling darkness in the surface of the Hellhole lashed and tossed more and more violently. Suddenly with an earth shaking crash, the Hellhole fell in on itself. It seemed to suck the walls of its own vortex into itself and vanished. The space where it had been was now a two kilometer circular clearing in the midst of the forest where nothing but the peculiar Diraxian blue ferns and sedge grass would ever grow.
The Ball of blue fire slowly resolved itself into individual hovering Blueys, tiny in the distance.
Thunderhump swung his massive head to stare at his fellow White Bull, Bonecrusher; "Well Boney I guess it's just you, me and the girls eh. Ain't no more of us comin' and we can't go back. How about we go father the race that's gonna' take over this miserable planet."
"Yeah Humpy, we've seen Red Dragons and those Blue knats over there, but White Dragons still Rule!"
The four started to cheer at that and began to chant "White dragons, White dragons."
A single Bluey turned within the slowly dissolving sphere of the Deep Clan, Bluey Six glared in the direction of the four White dragons. The message he put into that glare was clear enough for even the mind blind white dragons to unserstand.
Thunderhump and Bonecrusher caught the full force of the glare, and the message behind it. The bubble of their exultation popped; they tumbled into a retreat and beat wings for the rim-rock. Their females trailed behind.
When they thought they were safely out of range of the Bluey's stare Bonecrusher said "Well I guess first we have to build us some nests and start raising some proper Covens. After we raise up some reinforcements maybe we can take those guys."
Thunderhump looked at his fellow bull. He remembered the lash of that single blue lightning bolt from the Bluey he'd tried to eat. Nests and babies, new Covens; that all sounded good; but he seriously doubted they would ever be able to "take those guys." Those little blue pipsqueaks with that awfully big jolt were just too tough.
"Yeah Boney lets go build us some nests and get those babies in the oven," with a grin he glanced back at their females following them obediently, big, white and beautiful.
Life was good.
Now if he could just keep Bonecrusher from spoiling it by ticking off the Blueys.
==============================================
What color is thy dragon, friend?
I really need to know.
At whose hand does he supplicate
What prayers does his heart know?
What color is thy dragon, friend?
Tell me so I can know,
Art thou my kinsman true or yet
Art thou my foulest foe.
What Color is thy Dragon, friend,
I really need to know.?
(From the Song of the Wind Riders; The Dirax Saga)
==========================
The Guardians; Bulwark Across the Stars
Book 4 - The Guardian Alliance
Prologue - What Color is your Dragon?
by Dave Withe
I wrote this before I started reading Jeff's tips and I've got to figure out what to do with all the exposition in the middle. It has 4 or 5 POV chatacters.
Feedback please. this does set the stage for the action in the book. The rest of the book happens about 4000 years later.
=============================
Book 4 - The Guardian Alliance
Prologue - What Color is your Dragon?
Word count: 8563
THE WAS NO JOY IN MUDVILLE
Lucifer, now known in 4-Dimensional and Transcendent space as Soton, the King of Shadows, the Most Obscure One, was holding court in the Abyss. It was not a pretty sight
"I want to know how you fools could have been so stupid to try to use those Dragonleas as your main body of troops in the Earth invasion." Lucifer paced and raged past the ranks of disembodied Darkest Ones.
Lucifer slashed at the nearest one, the First Marshal of the forces who been first through the Hellhole when it opened in the mantle of Mars. Lucifer's kick caught the Darkest One in the center of his being and hurled his shattered pieces across the width of the Abyss. He was back in his place in an instant.
"You, how could you have been so stupid as to choose the Dragonleas for you main infestation targets. Intelligent dragons," Another vicious kick, dismemberment and then return, "As intelligent as Man they are you fool! Intelligent enough to grasp deliverance whenever any of their Prophets or Seers spoke those cursed ancient words of Power. Who told those words to the miserable Martian scum anyway?"
"It was their Prophet Hsi-Liu, radiance." A lower rank Dark one said toadying up to him.
A vicious kick sent him flying too, "I know that your sniveling fools. Tell me something I don’t know; tell me anything you scum." With another flurry of kicks and slashes he sent the entire front rank across the Abyss in fragments. They were back in rank in seconds. You can't kill or further damage an already dead and damned spirit after all.
"Yes; Intelligent Dragons; Red Dragons yet!" he screamed, "That was supposed to be My symbol. And now it's co-opted by a bunch of praying dragons," he raged into incoherence for a moment, "Intelligent enough and praying enough to have exorcised the lot of you back into the Abyss when you should have been swarming over Earth. Idiots!" He screamed and kicked another line of front rank Dark Ones into fragments.
His old nemesis and second in command, that had been called Othniel before the expulsion from God's house stood up to him, "You were the one who set the example of infesting the Dragonleas!" he shouted. Sneering in a contemptuous voice he said, "More subtle that all the other beasts, you said; Beautiful enough and smart enough to capture her eye, you said"
His roaring contempt made the ranks of Dark Ones tremble, "Lucifer? No the only thing that shines about you now is your stupidity. Soton, you are the one who set us up for disaster with your stupid vanity. If you really wanted to be so beautiful you should have stayed in your place in God's house instead of leading us to our Freedom." He spat after that word, "This freedom of the Abyss, You are the fool Soton!"
Lucifer aimed a kick at him but he dodged it and returned one of his own that sent Lucifer across the Abyss in fragments. When he snapped back, blinded by his rage he demanded, "What's your name Dark one! You're the only one worthy of that name out of the whole bunch."
"You don't remember me, Soton? Your faithful enemy. I'll have a new name, call me fed up with your arrogance Soton!" He snarled in a hate filled voice.
"All right, Captain "FedUp" you're in charge of this useless outfit." You find me a species that can't be turned back to Ya (he spat after saying The Name) by the words of power and that cursed Angel Fire."
"Yeah Soton, the Angel Fire that tumbled you out of your Beautiful Dragonleas back into the Abyss just like the rest of us."
Lucifer swung around on his new chief captain and snarled, "This is my realm maggot, now get out of it and don't come back until you have a species that can't be turned. Get out! Get out!"
Fed-up glared back, his own rage equaling Lucifer's, "I'll go, and I'll come back any time I please, Shadow head, whether I've got a species or not; You tin horned demi-godling."
Lucifer launched a massive kick at Fed-up but Fed-up vanished up one of the Hellholes and Lucifer's kick flipped him onto his back before the troops. The Darkest ones roar of mocking laughter sent Lucifer fleeing up another Hellhole to get away from the incipient mutiny below.
************
DRAGONS IN THE SNOW
It was the frozen world of Dirax IV where Soton finally caught up with Fedup. "What have you found?" he demanded.
Fedup ignored him and continued studying the herd of furry white dragonids spread across the tundra below them.
Soton followed his gaze, "Is this the species we need?" he demanded.
"Will you shut up Shadow head," Fedup hissed. "Use your senses instead of running your mouth and you might learn something."
Soton spluttered in rage; until Fedup rounded on him with a threatening glare. "This is my realm and my project," He hissed in a dangerous voice, "Keep your mouth shut or I'll organize an overthrow in the Abyss and send you back up dimension so the Angels (he spat) can play stick ball with you."
Soton looked in amazement at his chief captain. He'd created a monster. A slow evil smile spread across his face; but monsters were what they needed to overcome those peace-and-love idiots up-dimension. His evil smile deepened, for the first time since the scene in the Abyss he was encouraged. At least this one had a backbone and a brain.
"So Fedup, "he purred in a conciliatory tone, "What have you found us so far."
Fedup looked at him, "That's better, Now maybe I'll tell you."
************
"So the White dragons are too stupid to be useful unless they're infested and even then their usefulness is limited. But if we breed them with the Red Dragonleas their bastard children are Smart and Strong?." Soton mused rehashing the information he'd just recieved from Fedup.
Fedup eyed Soton, "And best of all it will be our kind of Smart. They'll be totally brutal, cunning and already filled with their own darkness. An infested Dragon-Mule wouldn't accept deliverance from infestation even is someone offered it. Even if an Angelfire blast dis-infested one, most of them would be so viscous that you wouldn't notice the difference and they'd go looking to get re-infested as soon as possible."
"But...,"asked Soton, "there's a but at the end of that last statement isn't there?"
"The only problem is that they will all be sterile. They won't be able to reproduce themselves. They'll be one generation wonders. We'd have to set up a breeding colony of White dragons and Red Dragonleas somewhere to replace the ones we use up in combat and the ones that die of old age. The White dragons on Dirax IV only live about 100 years, not till Kingdom Come like the Dragonleas. So I assume their bastards will be shorter-lived as well."
Soton looked at Fedup, "If I told you that you've done a good job--."
"I'd tell you to stick it in your ear, shadow head; just get me some Dragonleas and enough Dark Ones to make it happen. Then get out of my way and let me work. You're too stupid to organize a game of liar's poker at a Political Convention."
If the disembodied spirit had had feet Soton would have stomped away. He shouted back over his shoulder, "Fine I've got other things to do, insolent maggot, you'll get your supplies, but I want results." With that Parting shot he vanished into the Hellhole near their feet.
*********
THE EATING MACHINES OF DIRAX III
The Demon pile in the Abyss that created the Hellhole on Dirax III was supposed to be aimed at the mountains on the western side of the main continent. Due to the vagaries of creating such a worm hole within the mantle of a planet, they missed. The hellhole actually opened in the middle of the forest high up in the foothills. It was just below the rim rock at the base of the mountain range. Nobody knew it at the time but that doomed the operation before it even got off the ground.
There are several top predators on Dirax III. One of those predators is the lizard called Velociraptor. It was a warm-blooded reptile with an outward similarity to the contemporary Terran dinosaur of the same name. From there the similarity ended. For one thing unlike their contemporaries on Terra, they have no real sentience, their cunning and hunting skill is pure instinct, not intellect. For another thing they have no pod loyalty as the Terran Velociraptors do; among them there was not even the slightest notion of family. Not one of them had the intellect to even recognize another individual member of their pod. Like terran sharks they are as likely to attack each other in a feeding frenzy as they are to attack their common prey.
Diraxian Velociraptors run in pods because instinctively they know it's easier to hunt large prey in groups, not because they want to. Most of them were loosely bound into the hunting packs of 10-12 animals that humans would later recognize as pods. It worked for them.
******
The Pod of Velociraptors who found the new Hellhole as it was forming did what they were programmed by instinct to do with anything new; they investigated it as a possible food source. One ventured too close and was sucked into its gravity well. Since the Abyss proper can't accept anything with 4-D mass, the one tonne Velociraptor was ejected back onto Dirax III with a very high trajectory. The Pod followed the flight of it's podmate until the beast crashed back to earth and died. As the Pod closed in to feast on the carcass of their fellow, the question was answered; yes the Hellhole was a source of food, food that didn't fight back. So the pod moved close to the Hellhole to wait for more free food.
Enough animals blundered into the Hellhole's maw in the next few months to establish the Hellhole as a continuing source of food for the Velociraptor pod. As such things do word got around and soon there were at least 4 diferent pods of Velociraptors vying for the "benefits" of living next to the Hellhole. The battles between them were epic. The number of interested newcomers increased by the week, and invariably in the fighting that followed some fell into the Hellhole...supplying more food to fight over.
For the Velociraptors of Dirax III life was good.
******
THIS ISN'T THE RECEPTION WE WERE PROMISED IN THE TRAVEL BROCUHURE
Fedup the Darkest One captain, infesting a Dragonleas female. As the leader of the new colonization effort, he was the first one through the Hellhole with a White dragon bull in tow. Since Dirax IV had proved to be too cold for the Breeding colony to succed there he was towing a bunch of stupid white brutes through an Abyss transit to Dirax III. They had to be towed like sheep because if you tried to drive them they just circled around you like water around a stick.
"If you hadn't been so stupid we wouldn't have to be doing this," Fedup was raging at the big White dragon bull that he was dragging through the Hellhole.
"I built you shelters; but you wouldn't go into the shelters and all the babies froze out in the snow. In the spring hatch when the Mules got big enough to fly you ate them because they weren't white," The infested Dragonleas female kicked the big bull in the side.
The bull looked at her stupidly. _Well_ he thought disdainfully, _that's what you do with animals that aren't White, you eat them._
_I've just gone through Hell and now this scrawny red pipsqueak of a female is yelling at me? If they think I'm going to waste my energy breeding with that scrawny red stick of a dragon they're crazy._
The White bull tried to think of something pleasant to take his mind off the red harridan by his side. _Ah_ now he remembered; _Back on Dirax IV lined up to enter the Hellhole, old Thunderhump had managed to smuggle three of his wives into the tail end of the herd. I saw him just before this Red hag hauled me into the Hellhole on Dirax IV. I'm sure he'll share the wealth. Now those were real females worth the time and effort, big, fluffy, white with beautiful with long necks..._
The Abyss mass rejection factor lofted them both almost 150 meters into the air. Since both Dragonleas' and White dragons can fly, that was not a problem. The landing was the problem.
********
WELCOME TO DIRAX III, YOU'RE LUNCH
The Velociraptor pods around the Hellhole stirred in anticipation as the Red and White food hurtled up through the swirling black orifice in the ground; 50 of them set off at a run following the flight of this new bounty, this amounted to all four of the dominant pods who claimed the Hellhole as their own.
Other pods in the surrounding area also saw the delivery in flight, so they rallied to the expected landing site. It was shaping up to be Velociraptor bar fight of epic proportions.
The area around the hellhole was not triple canopy rainforest like so much of Dirax III. Here the trees had begun to shrink with the altitude and spread out as they climbed the slopes up to the rim-rock. By the glimpses the Velociraptors they got through the gaps in the trees the hunting packs easily tracked the two Dragonids as they fluttered toward the ground. The Dragonleas tried to soar, but the White dragon was too big and don't like to fly, so it reacted like a child on a roller coaster, with total panic.
The two Dragonids crashed through the tree canopy with the grace of an elephant falling out of a swing, and landed…. Well, actually they were not quite on the ground when the first ten Velociraptors tried to hit them in mid air from all directions. What comes to mind is four Labrador retrievers catching the same Frisbee out of the air at the same instant.
Dragon fire really didn't deter the Velociraptors one bit, so when eight of the first ten fell smoking and sizzling to the ground under the lash of the Dragonids combined dragon fire, the next waves of Velociraptors just kept coming; slashing and biting.
Now a fight was something the White dragon understood, with a ground shaking roar the huge white bull started to lash out at his new enemies. Standing the equivalent of back to back the two Dragonids whirled and danced in place and gave a glorious account of themselves. They slashed and burned Velociraptors until they ran out of dragon fire, then they slashed, tore and bit them, piling up heaps of dead lizards around themselves. But still the relentless wave of scaly death pressed in on them. After a valiant last stand, surrounded by heaps of scorched and broken enemies, they were finally overwhelmed by the relentless tide of Velociraptors.
When the Red Dragonleas died Fedup landed back in the Abyss spewing curses and insults.
*******
The plan had been to start the breeding colony with 12 Dragonleas females and 30 White dragon Bulls to do the work of building. The smartest of the Bulls would then be tapped for breeding stock.
Back on Dirax IV the groups of bulls, each led by an infested Dragonleas female, advanced to the Hellhole and plunged in.
After the transiting through the Abyss and being ejected back up the Dirax III hellhole they soared and thrashed down out of their high trajectories into the growing mass of flaming struggling death. In mid-air as soon as the White dragon bulls, smelled blood they abandoned their Dragonleas conductors and charged into the Melee like draconic Berserks. Reptile blood and body parts flew in every direction.
But by now the whole forest was on the move. Velociraptors knew that where there was battle there was food. They were scavengers as well as hunters. Like medieval Terran warhorses they all galloped to the sound of the battle.
At first the infested Dragonleas had dashed after their Bersek charges right into the cauldron of reptile-draconic fury. But when the infesting Darkest Ones saw the tidal wave of defeat rolling down on them, most abandoned their Dragonleas and fled back down the Hellhole. They were not going to be ignominiously dumped back into the Abyss in defeat. The newly dis-infested Dragonleas' shook their heads, looked around and started trying to organize a defense.
Bao-Ti-Li, former Captain in the Guardianship scouts, came back to herself in the midst of battle. The last thing she remembered was the crash of metal as the tight beam of Abyssian darkness cut the impeller rings out of her Scout ship over the Tirrian gate. She must have been infested while she lay unconscious in her crippled ship..
A Velociraptor leaped the wall of dead and tried to latch his hind claws into her back, going for a killing neck bite. Bao-Ti-Li twisted away and leaped into the air. She belched a blast of dragon fire into its face that flashed to plasma and burned all the flesh off of the reptile back to it's mid chest.
From her place in midair she mind-shouted, "Guardians, TO ME!"
The other Dragonleas began to fight their way toward her position. Amazingly the normally mind-blind White dragon bulls, in the heat of their battle Berserk, heard her mind shout as well. Out of the struggling knots of Dragonids and Velociraptors a vague battle line began to form which resolved itself into a battle oval. A Draconic King Harold facing the Reptilian Norman knights.
When White dragons are properly awakened and enraged they actually come on line and stopped being so stupid. They start acting like real Dragonids instead of big dumb sheep. The big bull next to Bao-Ti-Li in the forming battle line bashed a Velociraptor into pulp with one blow of his fore talon and mind thought at her. _Ya know Red Stick, you're really something when you get your war-fire up. We get outta this I'll breed with you any day,_ the mind voice equivalent of a wink followed.
Bao-Ti-Li burned another Velociraptor in half and replied, _Yeah sure Whitey, whatever._ And thought to herself, _Sheesh, what a clumsy pick up line; In your dreams lummox._
She had begun to remember snippets of her experiences while infested. She vaguely recognized that big bull as one she had dragged through the Hellhole. Well he was a good second in the line of battle.
A wave of Velociraptors rolled over the draconic defensive talon wall opposite to where Bao-Ti-Li fought. A half dozen white bulls and two Dragonleas went down under the press. Bao-Ti-Li heard the cries of her nest mates and half turned. The big bull next to her caught the motion as he belched a blast of dragon fire and then smashed two Velociraptor heads together with a satisfying crunch. He turned his head to check it out and saw seven Velociraptors leaping toward them from across the circle. He spun in place, roared and charged them. A massive tail swipe broke three of them in half; he bit the head off another and smashed two more to pulp with his fore talons. His attempt to belch dragon fire fizzled; out of fuel.
The seven were just the first wave of a great tide that continued to sweep into the center of the defensive ring. Where were they all coming from? _Guardians, close it up!_ Bao-Ti-Li mind shouted as she leapt back across the circle to help meet the tide that was closing around Whitey.
She slashed and burned at the struggling mass of Velociraptors that rolled over the big bull. It bore him down under their slashing claws. _Need some help in the middle!_ she mind shouted. Another Velociraptor loomed up and she burned it down. She felt her dragon fire feed sac getting close to empty. _Well talons and tails work too, _ she thought grimly.
Two more big bulls closed on her position and velociraptor parts started flying in all directions. They finally dug down to Whitey and he weakly raised his head. _Hey Red, guess I'll have to take a rain-check till we get to the other side._ Then slumped back. His wooly white hide hung in bloody strips, his back was broken and his massive hind legs and tail were pulled askew. Intestines leaked out of his slashed belly. She looked down at his weak attempt at a smile. _Do White dragons go to Heaven she wondered? _ His smile froze in the rictus of death.
A Velociraptor talon slashed her shoulder, she spun and belched fire in his face, only a half blast came out not able to reach plasma stage. He shrugged it off and kept coming till her tail stroke took off his head. A wave of Velociraptors followed him.
The defensive circle was breaking, dying under the weight of the reptilian attack, The surviving dragonids tried to contract in on her position but too many of them were down. The Velociraptor numbers were finally thinning out but it was too late to help.
With the Dragonids main firepower finally exhausted they were down to talons, tails and teeth. This was still a formidable array of weapons but there were so many more of the Velociraptors. Most of the Dragonids' wings were too shredded to fly by now so they stood their ground and fought to the end, a glorious death in battle awaited them and they embraced it, Red and White dragons alike.
Bao-Ti-Li stood, slashed and bleeding, in the center of the last eight draconic defenders. _Her warriors! Great Ya, but she was proud of them. Valiant souls all of them, gravely wounded every one, but still snarling defiance into the face of onrushing death._ Years later on Terra a Frankish leader named Roland would face the same fate, with the same spark of fire in his heart; But today on Dirax III these draconic warriors were all joining the legion of the mighty.
The final wave of attack closed in on them, leaping high into the air and rushing in on the ground, climbing the heaps of the slain that surrounded them they came Hissing their battle cry. They were fewer than the other waves but still overwhelming. Bao-Ti-Li thought the rest were probably already off gorging on the slain.
Four Velociraptors landed on her, a tail stroke of one of her white bulls swept them into bloody fragments. Six more took their place as her champion went down under a wave of fifteen or twenty of the lizards.
Darkness claimed her consciousness.
******
THE NEW COLONY
On Dirax III only four White dragons survived out of the first herd of 30. They had been in the last group through the Hellhole and when they were settling to the ground old Thunderhump saw the seething mass of Velociraptors below them, like maggots on carrion. He decided with unusual brilliance not to land just there. His three wives and two other bulls followed the brilliant old bull and set off to find a safer landing place.
On the ground below them a pod of 12 Velociraptors who were coming late to the party saw them from a distance. They changed course and pursued.
Once the White dragons got used to flying they decided that flying was good and just kept going. The Velociraptors kept pace easily. The white dragons weren’t working very hard; they were just kind of sight seeing. This strange sensation of not being cold was, well kind of comfortable actually.
Finally the White dragons saw something familiar, the highlands of the rim-rock thrust up before them with mountains in the background. This was like home, except warm. So they flew up to land on top of the rim-rock bluff.
The Velociraptors were a bit puzzled, this was not normal hunting ground... but food was food so they did their reptilian best and started scrambling up the steep slope. The first one at the top was met by Old Thunderhump himself. He'd made enough noise scrabbling up the rock face to attract the attention of even the dull witted old bull.
Now White dragons are incredibly stupid creatures, but compared to the Velociraptors they are all Rhodes Scholars so when the first Velociraptor stuck it's head over the edge of the rim rock with a "Hissss", which in Raptor speech means "I'm going to eat you," The White dragon replied with a roar, which in White dragon speech means "I Don't think so!"
The bloody brawl that ensued, as the other eleven enterprising lizards clambered over the top, wasn't totally one sided. The extra two tons of muscle on each of the White dragons and their higher intelligence eventually overmatched the larger number and speed of the Velociraptors.
The turning point came when the Thunderhump discovered, quite by accident, that you could kill a Velociraptor just as easily by throwing it off the cliff as by biting its head off, and you were less likely to get slashed in the process. After the ensuing rout the four White dragons who survived the battle, Old Thunderhump two of his wives and another younger bull called Bonecrusher, soared down to the base of the cliffs to feast on the remains of the Velociraptor hunting party. After all food was food and they needed it recover from their wounds.
Later as the sun was setting Old Thunderhump was standing on the rim-rock verge. His wounds from the battle pained him but he'd survived worse. Beneath his wooly white coat his body was already crisscrossed with many battle scars a few more would hardly be noticed. He sniffed the rich scents from the forest below mixed with the cooler breezes from the high peaks behind him. There was no snow in sight. Even the evening breezes were warm. Life on Dirax III was going to be good.
*******
A REFUGE IN THE STORM
The Chief healer of the Deep Clan was drawn to the carnage of the battle. He had often reflected on how his race, The Blue Healers, always sensed when some beast was injured and needed their help. It didn't rely on hearing or sight; it was as if they could all sense a disturbance in the life which flowed through all things. There was a particular flavor to the life of each specific species and when one of them was injured that flavor tasted different to their senses. He didn't understand how their blue 'clothing of light' linked them into the fundamental life flow of the universe, he just reacted to the resulting sensations.
That different mind flavor brought him flying to the scene at his best speed. Once men arrived on Dirax III a Xenobiologist would clock the Blue Healer who had adopted his family at well over 100 ArcSecs / hour (100 Knots of airspeed (SI)), but that was far in the future and all the Chief healer knew was that he was flying as fast as strength and art would allow him toward the flavor of immense suffering and dying. His clan mates were coming too but he had been the closest.
The Chief Healer of the Deep Clan arrived at the scene of the terrible slaughter. The Dragonids had finally been overwhelmed by the sheer number of Velociraptors before he arrived. He surveyed the scene of death below him searching for any life among the heaps of the slain.
*****
Bao-Ti-Li looked up from where her broken body lay surrounded by the wreckage of her enemies. The tiny blue Dragonid hovered above her regarding her with swirling golden eyes. "You have come a long way to die Red Sister," the mind-voice flowed through his gaze, "But you have accomplished a great slaughter of your enemies in your dying. Dirax thanks you."
"Who is Dirax blue brother?"
"Dirax is our planet, and these Velociraptors are its scourge. It's good so many of them died here."
"Then I am dying a glorious death in honorable battle, Blue Brother, "she responded. She thought it sounded like liturgy, well that was good.
The Chief Healer settled gently next to her lacerated side, He placed his hands on her and began to sing in a sweet piping melody.
"Why do you sing Small Blue Brother?"
"It is a song of healing; it will at least stop the Pain."
"Blue Brother, pain tells me I still live. What people are you? We of the Guardianship don't know of your kind."
"We call ourselves the Bluey's or Healers of the Blue fire; we heal the broken and wounded creatures around us." He paused and indicated the white dragon corpses near them, "We've never see such creatures as you and these others," The mind voice conversation went on while he was piping the song of healing.
A scintillating blue blur plunged through the trees and flared into a hover on slender wings above them. The Chief Healer looked up and caught the eyes of the hovering Healer, "Bluey Med Two, this one is very broken please come help me."
"But there are others, of this same kind who are also broken," she indicated the direction of the largest pile of dead, "I sensed them in the bottom of that pile over there."
Bao-Ti-Li caught the hovering blue dragons eye, "Other Red Dragonleas still live?"
"They barely live and," a shadow seemed to flow through the iridescent blue fire that danced across her skin, "They both have the Black soul sickness in them. I have to go and sing the soul sickness out of them so they can at least pass to a peaceful rest;" With that she lifted with powerful wing beats and arrowed away.
The dying dragonid turned her eyes back to the Chief healer," So you know of the Darkest Ones already?"
The same darkening in his skin fire flowed across his body, "Yes they came many cycles ago. Some of us feared that they would bring great evil, but Ya in the creation gave us garments of light and they fear us."
As if to make the reference more certain the Blue fire that had been rippling over the Chief Healers skin suddenly thickened and flowed out to surround the body of the Dragonleas. "Red Sister you are marvelously made." He said reverently.
She felt warmth, and the raging pain of her wounds eased," What are you doing?"
"I'm taking you and your sufferings into my embrace of light. I'm sorry I can't heal you, you are too broken, but I would hold you to life for a short while, there's much I wish to learn."
The Dragonleas saw something in the eyes of the Chief healer, He was taking her pain into himself sharing it to ease her agony; taking her wounds on his own life to hold her to life for a time; pouring his own Life and Love into her as she faced the dark crossing to soothe her lonely fears; she would not make the crossing alone, "Blue Brother, you don't have to do this."
His gaze changed, his swirling golden eyes grew deep. An Infinite sadness mixed with limitless joy swept through the mind link, she felt a greater love than any she ever knew existed; "Red Sister I must. I hunger to enfold your pain and your wounds into my healing as if starvation stalked me." She received the picture of a gaunt shivering Blue dragonid.
"I must because only then do I touch the heart of Ya so my life strengtheded by Ya's Joy. Only then is my life renewed. In the healing embrace I can drink as deeply of His love as I need to pour out to meet your need." Another picture flowed over the mind link, this one of a fat flourishing Blue Dragonid cavorting through the sky on wings of fire.
"But why Blue Brother, how can you take the sorrow and wounds of this whole world into yourself, how can one small being do this?"
"Because I am Healing, Sister, that is what Ya has made me. It is the heart of Ya, Red Sister, because it is the burning in the heart of Ya."
He stared into her eyes for a moment, pouring the Love of the heart of Ya into her dying loneliness, for that moment the Chief Healer became an open conduit of the great heart of the creator for His creation.
The Dragonleas rallied for a moment, "What can I give you in return Healer, what do you wish from me."
"Tell me of the distant stars, tell me the future and what I must do to create it."
"Oh healer, I'm just a Guardian, not a prophet,... "she paused and then with the prescience that so often comes to those about to cross the line of worlds she began to speak a prophesy;
"There are creatures coming who will rule the stars. They are the heirs to the universe; but the Dark Ones lust to subjugate and break them. The Dark Ones and the White Dragons hate them with a burning passion, more than any other race. Use your gift of light and your close embrace of Ya to protect them.
Make this planet a place of safety from the Darkest Ones, destroy the Dark mind sickness and ... There is a Hellhole, a portal into the Abyss not too far from here, It can be destroyed with Ya's light. Rally your kind and flood it with light, it will collapse. Don't let any other Hellhole open on your planet.
Stand against the Darkness oh Healers of Dirax III and when the Kingdom comes you will have great honor and joy."
Then coming out of the Prophetic trance she spoke to him in the present "Thank you Healer, you have given me the joy of giving life again, be true my Blue Brother."
With that thought on her heart Bao-Ti-Li, of the fourth hatching of the seed of Mars, Captain in the Guardianship slipped the cable of this life and launched out into the infinite dimensions of creation, questing upward for Ya the giver of all life. How easy it was now to climb the gradient of multi-D transcendent space she thought to herself.
Then climbing higher than ever before the light of God's house began to grow around her, glorious beings streamed out to greet her, She looked down at herself, she was one of those glorious ones. Hope became reality and she heard the voice of Ya, "Welcome home my beloved."
The Chief Healer held her body in his embrace of light, and held her spirit as long as he could. Then as her spirit finally slipped away from him he felt in his own spirit the final crossing and welcome. Another one is safe at home, he relaxed, and the tears of joy flowed.
*****
INTERDICTION, YOU CAN'T EAT THE HEALER
Bluey six hovered above the rim-rock and warily regarded the four creatures standing at the verge. They were wounded from their battle with the Velociraptor pod. Their white furry hide showed the bloody slashes of the Velociraptor's terrible claws. He had tasted the death and terror of that terrible clash from afar and he had come. But they didn't want his help. They were not from Dirax that was obvious, the taste of their life was all wrong. It was cold and hard. There was a viciousness to them that didn't belong to Dirax. It tasted more like the cold orb that swept through Drirax's heavens each fall, the bringer of the cold, Hexatoma, the hated one.
He swept lower and flared into a hover just out of reach of their long snaky necks. The largest one rumbled a warning deep in it's chest.
Bluey six thought, If only I can lay hands and just start to heal his wounds, then surely they will accept me. All the other creatures on Dirax accepted the Healers because they knew that the tiny blue dragonids were the bringers of life and the ones who relieved their pain. Well all accepted them except the velociraptors. The Raptors thought that if it moves you eat it, so they tried to eat them.
The big bull White dragon wouldn't even meet his eyes. It seemed to be avoiding all communication. One of the smaller dragons to the rear did meet his eye. He tried to tell her he was here to heal them. But they seemed to be mind blind, She just returned his stare stupidly.
But their wounds called out to him with a growing painful voice.
The smaller female in the rear had a terrible wound in her leg. She will lose the use of it and infection may kill her; he darted in toward her, hand out stretched...
The old bull lunged for him. His powerful jaws clamped shut were Bluey Six had been a moment before only missing him by Centimeters. Bluey Six twisted in flight and beat wings for the sky, desperately twisting and rolling. The old bull leaped into the air and pounded up after him. His giant wings like like battering rams in the air. The chase spiraled up and up, the old bull snapping again and again with his meter wide jaw.
Amazement flooded Bluey Six, _By Ya's great love, he's trying to eat me, Bluey six thought, he want's to eat a healer!_
He tipped over into a power dive, straight down. The big White bull was slower to react and the snake like strike of his neck and snap of his teeth missed by a whole meter.
Blue lightning from Bluey 6's skin fire took hold of the air and flung him forward with a speed the White bull couldn't match.
The white bull tried to catch him but Bluey 6 distanced him and finally flared into a hover 50 meters above the rim rock. The White Bull swept out of his dive and drove for the hovering Bluey like a bird chasing a dragonfly. Bluey 6's skin fire thickened and gathered itself then leaped in a ball of lightning from his out stretched fore talons into the face of the white bull.
Thunderhump staggered back in the air as the transfer energy slammed him from a full charge to a tumbling retreat in less than a second. He tumbled, fluttering helplessly past the edge of the rim rock, tumbling toward the forest floor below. About half way down the cliff he regained his balance and then flapped his way back up to the top of the rim rock. All of the fight was out of him. As he crested the verge of the rocky bluff he turned his head and regarded the small blue intruder with a growing respect and fear.
Bluey 6, returned the look with a cold stare. By nature the Bluey's embraced all of the creatures on Dirax in their web of healing fire. It was as natural as breathing or flying. But out of all the creatures some, like the Velociraptors, had such a rapacious nature that the Blueys were forced to anathemize them from Bluey healing and put them under interdict. Bluey Two realized he had found another such species, and it grieved him.
Well he thought to himself, I'd better get this over with so someone else doesn't get hurt trying to help these barbarians. The Interdict would warn off any other Blueys like a sign post in the sky.
"White dragon, "he intoned the ancient words of anathema, "Since you have tried to eat the healer sent to help you; seeking to use the gift of Ya for ordinary food; I cut you off from the web of blue fire for healing that we carry. You will be responsible for your own healing from now until three of your generations have died. This is on you own heads, we shake the air of your passage from our wings," he shook his wings in mid hover as if he were ridding them of pollution, "If you approach any of us for good or ill during your time of Interdiction we will blot you from the sky with the fire of Ya."
With that he left the stunned coven of White dragons on the rim rock verge and flew off toward the main battle scene in the forest below.
********
The Chief Healer of the Deep Clan knelt weeping next to the broken body of Bao-Ti-Li. Mourning her home-going but also feeling the joy of her ascension intermingled with his grief. _Dragonleas Bao-Ti-Li, when will we see your beautiful kind again on this world? _ he mourned.
Lost in his grief he didn't notice the Velociraptor as it climbed over one of the heaps of the slain. _Hisss,_ it thought, _a living morsel, oh how tasty looking._
The scintillating blue streak of fire that plummeted through the trees didn't even slow its plunging flight. A ball of lighting leaped out from it and smashed the leaping Velociraptor into smoking ruin in mid leap. The blue streak pulled into a tight turn and flared into a hover on slender wings over the scene of carnage. He looked down on his grieving clan leader and then settled gently by his side. His hands instinctively went to his Clan Chiefs shoulders.
The Chief Healer looked up into Bluey Six's eyes as the younger Bluey's mind voice came to him through the look, _You drink too much sorrow today, Chief Healer._
_Bluey Six, I have drunk more deeply from Ya's heart today than ever before. I am sunk in grief but I rejoice, It is the heart of Ya._
_Chief Healer, I take your grief into myself. Be eased of it,_ and his blue skin fire thickened as it enwrapped the grieving Bluey Chieftan.
_Take my Sorrow, Take my joy,_ The Chief healer spoke the ancient liturgy of sharing and healing. _You will be great among the clans, Bluey Two, as he who takes the sorrow of the stars from the mighty, Thank you._
High above them a descending cloud of blue fire resolved itself into individual Blueys, spiraling down onto the bloody battle field like Draconic Valkyries. Except these came not as choosers of the slain but as angels of life to those who still lived.
Here and there among the dead they found some few still living. A white dragon bull here, another Red Dragonleas there, all grievously wounded. Despite the Anathema, the White dragons who had stood wing to wing with the Dragonleas' received the same healing ministrations as the Dragonleas kind. They were faith brothers in the brotherhood of mortal combat with the Red Dragonleas and thus they escaped the Interdict. But the best that even the assembled clan could do was to ease the suffering of their passing since they were all too broken to save.
And yes Bao-Ti-Li some White dragons do go to Heaven.
*******
PURGING THE PLAGUE
Finally it was done. Nothing stirred on the gory battle field except the wind. 100 meters above the treetops the Deep Clan hovered in a great ball. The blue skin fire flickered over the whole mass of Bluey's binding them into one embrace, sharing grief and joy. All of them had drunk deeply of the joy and sorrow of Ya's heart today and they needed to share and balance for no one being however strong could bear such immense things alone.
Finally the Chief Healer spoke, His mind voice rolled out over the life link of their mutual embrace instead of a specific gaze.
_Clan Brothers and Sisters, we have journeyed far among the stars today as we embraced these fallen ones from the stars in our healing fire, we have seen many strange things._
A murmured agreement came back to him.
_Our sorrow and joy has been deep._
Again the assent came back.
_At the beginning I enfolded a glorious sister dragonid from a world called Mars in my healing fire, she was like no creature I have ever know before._
Those who had eased the passing of the others of Dragonleaskind today murmured their agreement.
_She gave me a prophesy at the moment of her passing._
Surprise and hope surged through the life link.
_In the prophesy she told me that we must cleanse the great evil presence that infests our world. She told me we can overcome this great darkness with the fire of Ya._
Surprise rippled through the life link,
They all knew of the Hellhole but it had seemed so vast that they couldn't do anything about it. Bluey Four-Three had dared to enter it when it was new. He had been flung back out moments later, high into the sky. His stories of darkness that could be felt and creatures of darkness that no amount of life fire could ever heal had made them wonder mightily what this thing was.
_Come with me. United we can erase this evil from our planet and make Dirax a haven for those fleeing from the darkness._
He began to move up. The clan rose around him, never once breaking the embrace of the life link that bound them into a huge blue ball of Life fire.
******
DIASTER TO THE ABYSSIAN PLANS
In the Abyss the darkest ones were startled when a lance of the most brilliant light they had seen since being cast out of God's house poured down into their midst. It was coming down through the Hole in Hells ceiling that led out to Dirax III. They tumbled and fled in terror from its piercing penetrating fire. "Light, Ahhhhhhhhh!" Screamed Fed-up, He tumbled deeper into the bottomless pit in a vain attempt to escape.
The substance of the swirling walls of the stable wormhole linking the Abyss and 4D space started to writhe as if in agony. Even gravitically stabilized Abyssian Darkness could not endure the lash of light so pure and powerful.
With a thunder clap, that momentarily shredded the substance of every Dark One in the Abyss, the Hellhole collapsed in on itself. The very surface of the Abyss writhed with this new wound, it heaved with titanic forces as the binding force of the universal gravity well sought to find a new equilibrium. After what seemed an eternity the convulsions moderated and the outer boundary of the Abyssian shell formed a scar that would never be pierced again. That avenue of transit was forever closed to the Darkest Ones. Dirax III was a closed world to them.
The reeling dark ones reassembled themselves into their proper form more slowly than usual. The whole fabric of the Abyss still echoed with the long rumble of shocks and aftershocks that destabilized everything within.
Out in 4D space many species looked up from their planets into the heavens and quaked in fear as the heavens seemed to reel and tremble before the lash of some titanic hand of doom. On some planets new religious movements were started to stave off doomsday. Darkest Ones who were then infesting religious leaders and heads of state instituted Sentient sacrifice to appease the angry gods. On Terra the cult of Moloch was organized and babies screamed in the fire.
But the time was not yet. Space came back to equilibrium, the suns shone brightly again. This was just the earnest money, the down payment; the title deed would come due soon enough, Across the newly formed Bulwark Across the Stars the waiting continued, How long Oh Lord, How Long?
*****
JUST KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT WILL YOU
The four white dragons watched from the distance as the ball of blue fire poured blue lightning down into the maw of the seething roiling Hellhole. Thunder seemed to roll louder and louder as the roiling darkness in the surface of the Hellhole lashed and tossed more and more violently. Suddenly with an earth shaking crash, the Hellhole fell in on itself. It seemed to suck the walls of its own vortex into itself and vanished. The space where it had been was now a two kilometer circular clearing in the midst of the forest where nothing but the peculiar Diraxian blue ferns and sedge grass would ever grow.
The Ball of blue fire slowly resolved itself into individual hovering Blueys, tiny in the distance.
Thunderhump swung his massive head to stare at his fellow White Bull, Bonecrusher; "Well Boney I guess it's just you, me and the girls eh. Ain't no more of us comin' and we can't go back. How about we go father the race that's gonna' take over this miserable planet."
"Yeah Humpy, we've seen Red Dragons and those Blue knats over there, but White Dragons still Rule!"
The four started to cheer at that and began to chant "White dragons, White dragons."
A single Bluey turned within the slowly dissolving sphere of the Deep Clan, Bluey Six glared in the direction of the four White dragons. The message he put into that glare was clear enough for even the mind blind white dragons to unserstand.
Thunderhump and Bonecrusher caught the full force of the glare, and the message behind it. The bubble of their exultation popped; they tumbled into a retreat and beat wings for the rim-rock. Their females trailed behind.
When they thought they were safely out of range of the Bluey's stare Bonecrusher said "Well I guess first we have to build us some nests and start raising some proper Covens. After we raise up some reinforcements maybe we can take those guys."
Thunderhump looked at his fellow bull. He remembered the lash of that single blue lightning bolt from the Bluey he'd tried to eat. Nests and babies, new Covens; that all sounded good; but he seriously doubted they would ever be able to "take those guys." Those little blue pipsqueaks with that awfully big jolt were just too tough.
"Yeah Boney lets go build us some nests and get those babies in the oven," with a grin he glanced back at their females following them obediently, big, white and beautiful.
Life was good.
Now if he could just keep Bonecrusher from spoiling it by ticking off the Blueys.
==============================================
What color is thy dragon, friend?
I really need to know.
At whose hand does he supplicate
What prayers does his heart know?
What color is thy dragon, friend?
Tell me so I can know,
Art thou my kinsman true or yet
Art thou my foulest foe.
What Color is thy Dragon, friend,
I really need to know.?
(From the Song of the Wind Riders; The Dirax Saga)
==========================
The Guardians; Bulwark Across the Stars
Book 4 - The Guardian Alliance
Prologue - What Color is your Dragon?
by Dave Withe