Chương 15: The First Flame

"You mistook smaller for weaker." The adolescent dragon's bare hand closed around the hatchet blade. Orion had swung for the neck with enough force to split the scales of the creature's full body. The reinforced edge—hardened with fragments of Kindle's and Shale's eggshells—bit into the young man's palm, opened a thin red line, and stopped. The dragon twisted his wrist, and the hatchet immediately tore free. Before Orion could activate Brotherly Bond, the dragon's other hand struck him across the chest.

The blow launched Orion backward through the tunnel mouth. Packed earth caught his shoulders first, then the back of his head. Loose soil rained across his coat as he slid several feet into the escape passage and came to rest against one of the Greenbind-coated supports. The dragon stepped into the tunnel after him as Orion tried to collect his breath. Roy shouted for everyone to move deeper. The order sounded wrong until Orion saw the young man glance toward the open air behind him.

Outside, the adolescent could reclaim his full body. Inside, he could not. The passage had been built for humans and the young drakes. Roots crossed the low ceiling. Packed earth pressed close on both sides, reinforced by timber and hardened strips of Greenbind. If the adolescent expanded into his dragon form here, his wings and ribs would collide with the walls before the transformation finished. The tunnel would bury him along with everyone else.

It was the final advantage left to them, but it did not make the fight fair. Orion forced air into his lungs and dragged himself upright. The dragon advanced through the cramped passage wearing a torn human shape. Mud covered his boots and lower legs. Greenbind sealed one eye beneath a hardened smear extending from brow to cheek. Blood darkened the shoulder corresponding to his ruined wing, soaking through the side of his shirt.

The injuries had followed him into the smaller body, but they had not taken away his certainty. Behind Orion, Roy stood near the tunnel wall with one arm raised protectively across Aurelia. Shale occupied most of the passage beside them, broad body scraped and bloodied from the earlier battle. Kindle remained near Orion's feet, chest heaving but eyes fixed on the dragon. Talia, Garrick, Clover, and the unconscious Nimbus waited somewhere beyond the surface opening. The adolescent studied the family in front of him.

He looked humiliated rather than afraid. The tunnel should have slowed him as he moved. Uneven ground, low supports, and narrow walls left no space for a full stride. Regardless, he crossed the distance in an instant. Orion used all his strength to avoid the strike as fast as he could. The world blurred at the edges as he slipped beyond the center of the incoming punch, passing through the line of the dragon's fist before it reached his heart.

The outer edge caught him across the ribs before he had fully teleported. Pain burst through his side. Crimson scales covered the dragon's forearm, and his fingers had lengthened into claws. He had not transformed. He had simply brought forward the pieces of his real body that he needed.

"Together!" Roy shouted.

"Do not give him room!" Shale attacked low as Kindle went high. The Burrowback Drake drove his shoulder into the adolescent's hips, forcing him backward through loose earth. Kindle sprang from a timber brace and released a concentrated stream of fire into the dragon's face. The flames wrapped around his head and his visible eye closed. The Greenbind across the other side bubbled beneath the heat. Orion moved through the blinded angle.

He appeared beside the wounded shoulder and drove the reinforced hatchet toward the neck a second time. The blade broke through cloth, chipped one red scale forming beneath the skin, and sank shallowly into flesh. The dragon grunted. For a heartbeat, it seemed that the household had him moving backward. Then he answered. He redirected Shale into the wall with a turn of his hips, using the drake's own momentum against him. Shale's broad side struck packed earth and split one of the timber braces.

The adolescent raised a scaled forearm into Kindle's chest and knocked him from the air. Orion pulled the hatchet free, but the dragon's elbow struck his jaw before he could do anything else. Light burst across Orion's vision. He stumbled, and claws passed close enough to open his coat without reaching the flesh beneath.

"Left side before he protects," Roy called.

"Orion, he is following your shoulders. Stop turning before you move!" Orion barely understood the instruction, but he obeyed anyway. The adolescent lunged again. Orion kept his body square until the last instant, then activated Brotherly Bond without signaling the direction through his stance. He reappeared near the dragon's blinded side near Shale and struck once again. Scales spread beneath the blade. The hatchet chipped one, but nothing deeper.

Kindle attacked the exposed cheek with flame while Shale recovered and pressed forward again. The dragon absorbed both, caught Shale by the ridge above one foreleg, and drove the larger drake into the ground. Kindle snapped at the dragon's wrist. A backhand sent him rolling through the dirt. The repeated exchanges were becoming worse. Orion remained standing only because the passage wall held him upright. Shale dragged one foreleg beneath himself. Kindle rose more slowly than before.

The adolescent had lost blood, but the family had lost control. The dragon turned his good eye toward Aurelia. The dragon understood the shape of their resistance. Roy directed it. Orion intercepted it. Shale absorbed it. Kindle distracted it. Aurelia made the damage survivable. He moved toward her. Orion appeared between them and took the strike across his shoulder. Aurelia caught him before his face struck the ground.

Gold spread from her fingers into the joint, forcing muscle and bone back into enough alignment for him to move. The healing ended almost immediately after it began. Aurelia swayed, blood already marked the skin beneath both nostrils. Dark bruising ran beneath the surface of her forearms from the Vitality Channel she had used to sustain Shale during the basin collapse.

"You cannot keep doing that," she said.

"He cannot reach you."

"That is not your choice alone." The dragon attacked again. Roy struck from his blinded side with a broken length of timber. The improvised weapon cracked against the young man's temple and turned him away from Aurelia. The adolescent caught Roy's arm and twisted once. The bone broke with a flat snap. Roy's face went white, but no scream came. The dragon drove a second blow into his chest and threw him against the wall. Roy collapsed beneath a shower of loose soil as Aurelia moved toward him.

Shale forced himself into the space between her and the dragon. The adolescent struck the Burrowback Drake across the head. Shale's legs folded, but his bulk blocked the passage long enough for Aurelia to reach Roy and press one hand to his chest.

"Breathe," she told him. Roy tried. The first attempt produced only a wet rasp. Gold flickered beneath Aurelia's palm. Roy's ribs shifted enough for a shallow breath to enter. Their coordinated attacks had slowly wounded the adolescent, but it had also exhausted nearly everything the household possessed. Roy drifted against the wall with one arm bent uselessly across his lap. Each breath came slowly, and his eyes opened only when Aurelia spoke his name. Shale pushed himself upright twice before his forelegs held.

Kindle remained standing, but one leg trembled and blood darkened the scales along his chest. Aurelia turned back to Orion and placed both hands over his damaged ribs. The gold that formed between them was thin and uncertain.

"Do Roy," Orion said. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"He is stable for the moment."

"Shale."

"He can stand."

"You cannot keep all of us moving."

"No." The dragon heard the answer and that it had come without denial. He approached through the broken passage, dragging one hand along the wall for balance. Greenbind still obscured one eye. Blood ran freely from the wounded shoulder. His breathing had become heavier. But he remained stronger than all of them together.

"You have proven your devotion," he said.

"It will not save you." Orion reached for the hatchet, but his hand missed the handle. The adolescent looked beyond them toward the tunnel entrance and those still waiting outside. The dragon smiled.

"The children may yet learn obedience." Shale stumbled into the center of the passage. His body nearly touched both walls. He lowered his head and braced his injured legs beneath him, making himself the last barrier between the adolescent and the surface. The dragon struck him, which Shale held. A second blow drove him backward, his rear claws cut trenches through the earth. Aurelia started to rise, but not before Orion caught her wrist.

"You have nothing left."

"He will kill Shale!"

"If you keep going, you may die before it helps him."

"If I do nothing, he dies now." The system prompt appeared in front of her. Orion could not read it, but he knew the warning from her expression. Aurelia did not hesitate.

"Activate." White-gold light surged from her palms. Her entire body recoiled as blood ran from her nose and one ear. Dark vessels showed beneath the skin along her throat, but Shale's trembling legs steadied. The Burrowback Drake roared and pushed forward. The dragon gave only one step, then he drove a scaled fist into Shale's wounded shoulder. The drake collapsed, and Aurelia fell with him. The dragon stepped over Shale's neck and continued toward the surface. Roy tried to raise his good arm.

Nothing useful formed beneath his fingers. Orion forced his leg under himself, but it folded uselessly. Kindle remained as the only one standing against the dragon. Around him, the household had stopped fighting. Roy sagged in Aurelia's lap, fading in and out of consciousness. Aurelia remained on one knee, one hand pressed to the ground to keep from falling. Shale lay across the passage, still breathing but unable to rise. Orion could not make his leg support him.

The adolescent dragon continued toward the tunnel exit. Outside waited Nimbus, unconscious and emptied. Clover, too small to stand against him. Talia and Garrick, armed with bows that had already spent their one useful chance. Kindle looked toward Shale first, then Roy, then Aurelia, and then Orion. He did not choose one of them. His gaze held each in turn for the same quiet moment. The Hearth Drake approached the three siblings where they had collapsed together.

He nudged Aurelia's hand, pressed his snout against Roy's shoulder, then leaned into Orion's chest. Orion placed one hand against the ridges along his neck.

"You stay here." Kindle's eyes remained on his momentarily. He took a step forward, light appearing beneath his scales. Not the ember glow that had warmed their home through the blizzard. Not the orange-white flare that preceded his strongest flame. White-gold radiance spread through every seam of his body. Fire withdrew from his mouth and gathered behind his ribs. The glow condensed there until the outline of his chest became painful to look upon. Heat filled the tunnel, and a status appeared above him.

[Kindle — Condition: Core Ignition.] His Health began to fall. [Health: 81%.] [Health: 69%.] [Health: 54%.] Orion reached toward him.

"No." Kindle stepped beyond his hand. Aurelia understood, trying to stand.

"Kindle, stop!" Her voice cracked. Roy's eyes opened. The light reflected in them. His expression sharpened despite the pain and confusion. The adolescent dragon turned toward the commotion. Kindle looked back at the siblings one final time. He had chosen what remained his to give, then he charged. The adolescent raised one arm, expecting another desperate bite or burst of flame. Kindle leapt low instead. He struck the dragon's torso and clung to him with every limb.

His rear legs locked around the young man's middle. Claws hooked beneath the scales forming along the shoulders. His tail wrapped around one arm, and his teeth sank into the flesh near the ribs. The dragon grabbed him, but Kindle held as the white-gold light intensified. [Health: 37%.] Heat rolled through the passage. Fine roots began smoking. Moisture flashed from the walls as steam. Greenbind softened and bubbled along the supports. The dragon pulled at Kindle's body as the Hearth Drake tightened his grip.

The adolescent's visible eye widened. He understood that Kindle was not attempting to injure him through tooth or flame, he was holding him in place.

"Shale," Orion said. The Burrowback's eyes moved toward him.

"Dig away. Now!" The drake hesitated, then he obeyed. His claws entered the tunnel wall. Despite his injuries, he dragged himself sideways and downward, disappearing into the earth one brutal movement at a time. The passage trembled as he burrowed away from the blast. Orion looked toward the tunnel mouth that was too far for any of them. Roy could not stand. Aurelia had almost killed herself sustaining Shale. Orion's own leg would not hold him, and Brotherly Bond had never carried all three of them at once.

There was no escape. Aurelia understood the same thing. She reached for Roy first, pulling his head and shoulders against her body. Orion dragged himself closer and wrapped one arm around both of them. The dragon tore at Kindle as white-gold glow filled the passage. Roy's good hand closed around Orion's sleeve.

"We are not getting out," he said.

"No." Aurelia looked toward Kindle through the rising steam.

"We cannot leave him."

"We are not." For the first time since their parents died, Orion had no plan to protect the others, he could only hold them. Aurelia lowered her face against Roy's hair. Orion bent over them both as much as his broken body allowed. The light became everything as Kindle's core erupted. The first impact traveled through the tunnel floor. Packed earth jumped beneath them, roots snapped overhead, and cracks raced through the walls. The resulting explosion struck the adolescent first.

His scream began as a human voice, then deepened almost instantly into a dragon's roar, vast and distorted within the confined earth. His body tried to reclaim its true shape, but the tunnel gave it nowhere to go. Scales, horns, wings, and expanding bone collided with packed soil and reinforced supports as the white-gold fire tore through both forms. The blast reached the siblings. Orion expected pain. For one heartbeat, there was. Heat crossed his skin so intensely that every nerve seemed to ignite.

He tightened his arms around Roy and Aurelia, waiting for flesh to burn and breath to vanish. But the flames did not consume. Warmth spread through the fractured ribs beneath his coat. Bone shifted. The torn muscle pulled itself together. His ruined knee burned from within, then straightened enough for strength to return. The heat passed through his body like Kindle settling beside the hearth on the coldest night of the blizzard. Magnified beyond endurance. Orion gasped.

Beside him, Roy's broken arm snapped back into alignment. His chest expanded with a full breath for the first time since the dragon struck him. Color returned beneath the blood and dirt on his face. Aurelia cried out as the dark bruising beneath her skin faded. The damage caused by the Vitality Channel reversed in violent pulses, restoring what she had spent from herself. Prismatic Weave gathered around her hands without being summoned. The fire did not make them whole.

Orion still felt every impact in the heaviness of his limbs. Roy remained barely conscious and covered in bruises. Aurelia shook uncontrollably, exhausted beyond anything healing could erase. But the injuries that would have crippled or killed them were gone. A portion of Orion's Weave Reserve returned in a sudden rush. Enough to move, fight, and help the others. The eruption continued past them. Its force tore upward, and the tunnel ceiling vanished.

Packed earth, frozen soil, and broken timber were eviscerated in a column of white-gold fire. The blast opened the ground above the siblings faster than debris could fall, carving a crater through the field and exposing the gray winter sky. The dragon's scream continued beneath the fire, shifting between human agony and draconic rage, then it stopped. The white-gold column began to weaken. Flame curled around the siblings without burning their clothing or skin.

The warmth held them together even as their senses began to blur beneath its intensity. Orion tried to look toward Kindle, but he saw only light. No Health display remained. No confirmation of life or death. Aurelia reached into the fire with one hand.

"Kindle." The warmth tightened around her fingers. Whether it was answer, memory, or nothing more than the last current of the eruption, Orion could not tell. The pillar withdrew into the crater. Steam rolled across the opened field. Burning fragments landed along the edges, but none fell into the pocket where the siblings lay. Golden letters appeared through the white haze. [Evolution Quest Completed: Overcome the Draconic Adversary.] [Communal Hearth Preserved.] [Selfless sacrifice has strengthened the bonds of the Hearth.] The final message shone brighter than the rest. [Second Seal Unlocked.]