- The War In Meadow Springs

"Run!"

People scattered as a sea of flames, growing larger and larger from the small light that tore through the darkness of the archway and down the tunnel, filling the surrounding meadows with ash and soot. The green grass that once waved in the beautiful sunlight was set aflame with orange and yellow, like the sight of death that loomed over them, a world amongst the universes.

Then came the Dragon as he tore open the Arch way, its stone structure cracking and crumbling to rubble as his body broke through its designs, passing pillars that lined his approach. His breath and roar were great and terrifying as he broke pillar after pillar of stone at his approach.

Gilbert watched as many of the army ran for cover as the Dragon's breath consumed the surrounding meadows, burning flowers and shimmering grass into plumes of smoke and ash.

Then he finally noticed it.

The Dragon was not roaring because of them, his breath did not tear though the night, illuminating the world around them because he had smelled the scent of humans at his door. It was because of the woman who was dancing between the flames as her blurred figure made past his feet as they stomped and cracked the stone.

Then his voice came like a thundering boom that broke the sky.

"Did you think you could win, Lia of the Endless?!"

Lia's blurred figure ran at speeds unseen and untraceable by the human eye as Gilbert and Rian watched her fire dance between the seas of flames that surrounded them, as the Dragon reared back its head, smoke billowing from his mouth.

Then his breath came, tearing through the air as the darkness of the night ran for the mountains, their distant forests and rock illuminated by the bright fire that blinded the many of their army. They ran, they ran as fast as they could for the hill's cover, not having once anticipated such a deadly approach by the Dragon.

Rian, in the sea of people pulling him back from the flames that threatened to consume him whole, caught a glimpse of Lia as she ducked behind a large stone boulder in the meadows, the fire racing around her like a river as it spilled over the hills and flowers.

"I am king here and will forever be!"

The Dragon reared its head to the sky and let his breath consume the stars as he roared, a roar that shook the ground and the cracks beneath his feet as he walked, his wings spread widow with a looming fury of strength, a display of his power.

"My breath is fire that consumes stone and iron! The stars and sky tremble before my feet, and yet you stand before me?! A mere human?!"

Rian found his eyes lost in awe at the sea of fire, fire that raged like nothing he had ever seen, lost in the Dragon's rage that echoed through the night.

It was mesmerizing in its own dangerous and deadly way.

"As if I could be afraid of such a human like you! Come! Show yourself and prove to me that you are indeed my end!"

His tail swung along the air and parted the sky with its swing as he tore pillars from the ground, the stone crumbling into rumble as the world shook with his fury, the night dyed in his breathless death.

He was king here, and he would never let a mere human defy him in such a way.

But it was too late for him, when he finally heard the click of the pulley. Before he heard the humans that hid within the forest's edge.

"Now!"

Their voice tore through the night and echoed in his head as he watched as the fire around him, the sea of his control, his kingdom amongst the world was torn apart to reveal hundreds of chains underneath him bound him in place as his eyes widened in fury.

He felt the ropes wrap around his back, folding his wings against his spine as he lost his balance, falling to the ground with a loud and shattering boom that shook the ground and scared the leaves from the trees. Then the pillars fell from their place standing tall against the sky, scraping against the clouds that floated past in the dull moonlight.

The stone turned to rubble, and just as the Dragon reared his head back, his maw wide with a fire that would burn past the world, he caught sight of one woman, one figure standing with her back to the dark mountains of the West. Her eyes watched him with a dull and empty expression as she stood on her boulder covered in soot and ash.

Time slowed as he met her eyes and the fire died within his chest before it reached his throat as he saw not just the woman standing there against this sea of fire and smoke, but a man hiding within her shadow, one with the smoke and ash that trailed past him. They were a mirror of one another, and then the Dragon knew.

He wasn't fighting Lia.

Then the ruble fell on top of him, crushing his body against the ground as pieces of stone rained from the sky, sending a cloud of dust and dirt blowing past the fire and into the clean and calm air.

Then there was silence. The army held their breath as some patted their burns and other carried what injured had met the fire in front with their lives.

Everyone was waiting, everyone was watching the woman who stood fearless amongst the sea of flames, unbothered by their heat with the world at her back. She was their leader. She was their savior in this darkest hour.

She was their Queen of Fire.

***

Lia stood before the many, her army that had brought her here. They numbered in the dozens, near hundreds, but they were small compared to the armies of the Clans. They were nothing compared to the world they had left behind.

She knew they didn't need to be here. She knew that she was the reason they were here and refused to bring them to their deaths by her own hand.

So, as she stood before the many, their eyes watching her in silence, she took a deep breath, and spoke to the world before her eyes.

"I won't bother coming up here and preaching to you all about some false hope. You all know why we're here."

She pointed towards the large fortress that loomed in the distance, a well knowing fear that prickled through their skin ran through everyone who laid eyes upon it. They knew why they were here.

"Within there lies the Dragon, and with him sleeps death. If he is to awaken, fire will race across these lands until everyone and everything he touches dies a horrible death. And that includes us…"

She saw their faces; she saw their hopes and she saw their denial. They would march into this battle dying the very possibility of death that was very much real. It loomed over all their shoulders, like ghouls waiting to kill.

"Many of us will be put in danger, myself included. Some of us may not live past this fight…"

There was a whisper amongst the crowd, for the fear they felt in their bones was now in the air, and with it friends looked at one another, lovers and family held one another close as they all listened closely.

"I won't blame any of you if you want to leave. You can run now. You can go home. Start a life, live it, and die without ever knowing the war we are about to face. I won't lead an army to their deaths if they are not willing."

These were not the words of a general, a leader who led her army to the brink of war, giving them the fire that would fuel their rage. Rage that would draw blood on the dirt and the ground below them, puddling at their feet.

These were people in her eyes, and she would be damned before she would lie to them.

"But to those who want to stay, to those who want to fight, and those who don't, I thank you for coming this far with me. I don't know many of you. I don't know your names, your lives, or the reason you draw your breath. But I am grateful for your company in these hours, because it makes me feel more human inside."

Lia stole a glance at Rian and Lukali who stood a distance away to her side. She didn't need to convince them, they would join her either way, but it was her army that she would lead, and it was her army that she needed to rise from the shadows of doubt and despair.

"I never knew what it was like to have a family, but after I met my friends, I knew what that love was like. I am selfish, because I don't want it to end. But I know that if that monster inside that mountain lives, hundreds more will never know what that love is like. They will wake up each morning alone, haunted by their loneliness until their final moments in this world."

The image was before them all as they could see their own lives, their own families and the knowledge of what it was like to be alone. They knew what the world was like for people without that love.

They knew it better than anyone.

"That is why I will fight. So that the world will go on without ever knowing this fear, without ever knowing what we are doing here. I don't do this for fame, for glory, or for the world to know my name. I do this so that the world will forget me, so that the world will forget this moment, and live on in peace."

She took a deep breath and let the weight of the world flood off her shoulders as she felt peace, reminded of that one lonely man on the mountain who stood against death itself without fear.

"I will fight so that I can give this world a chance to live on. And I selfishly ask you to do the same…"

She bowed slightly before them, a person just like them, not a general leading her men to war. This was a battle they would all face, and she was willing to die alone if it meant they could live.

They knew this, they all felt it in their hearts like a burning hope that took flame from the beating hearts that echoed in their ears. They were not hearts and minds; they were the beating drums of war.

This was why they drew their blades, and raised them high, one after another, chanting as one with their voices to the world so that the gods could hear their shouts. If they were to be forgotten in these final moments, then they would make the world know their names until the very end.

Lia felt tears in her eyes as she raised her head from the ground, watching as steel shimmering in the sunlight, glinting in the world's beauty as the war cry tore through the air and made the earth know their names.

"Even if the world is to forget us…I will remember you all. I will remember you, as you will remember each other. So that even if the world is to forget us, we will always be remembered!"

Their chants of war tore through the sky, as the Gods smiled down on them, as Mother Nature gave them her best wishes, as Father Forest roared with his children.

These were men and women of the mountains. These were men and women of the forest. Of the sky, the sea and the land. These were people of Morden.

These were Concors.

***

The Concors watched their Queen of Fire stand before the sea of flames, unbothered by the world that threatened to shatter and fall around her. Her blade glimmered in the firelight that washed over the land, their eyes tracing along the future of power that gave them courage.

The battle was not over, they knew this well.

But it was her breathless silence, her bravery and her courage that set them aflame with hope and purpose. They heard her voice, it ringed in their ears. They knew the world would never remember this fight, for the world would forget them all as they burned and died in the fire, but it didn't bother them.

For this their leader said, her voice echoing in their ears as they heard the cracking of the stone and ground as the air shifted and parted, the world would forget them…

…but they would never forget each other.

Then the Dragon roared as his figure tore through the stone and the ground, the earth shattering under his feet as he raised his body to the sky, tearing through the chains with fire on his lips as the world burned around him.

"Fire!"

He roared to the world around him, his voice tearing through the minds of the many as they watched in horror as he reared back his head, fire in his breath.

"I shall show you fire!"

He looked to the girl, their leader amongst the flames, and his breath no longer became a river of fire, but an ocean of fury and rage. He would burn her, he would slaughter her, he would tear her to ash and dust forgotten into the wind as the world would soon know his name and revel in the shadows as he passed.

But then her voice tore through the air, and he was faced with the harsh truth. You hit the world; it will hit you back.

"Florence!"

Then the world fell around him, the sky shattered as he turned his head to the figure rising above the clouds and the sky, his robes fluttering to the wind as it soared around him like a typhoon. The sky darkened and in a flash of light, the Dragon saw the blue-eyed man as he brought his hands down to the ground, the world falling with him as lightning fell to the thundering sound.

The legend felt a rush of electricity run through his body as the fire in his mouth died out, his pain field screams tearing through the night, stronger than any nightmare these mortals before him had ever felt.

Then something happened.

The world feared Lia for her power, they feared her for the strength and unexplained might she brought against the world around her. Yet before them now, like a dream coming into reality, the Dragon felt his knees buckle under him as he crashed to the ground.

His wings expanded in the air as the light ran along his chest and his body, across his scales and his horns, echoing off the tips of his claws and his wings as the lighting spread through the air in a brilliant and mesmerizing light. It covered the sky like a world of the gods as the army watched on itn beauty, clinging to a sense of hope that filled their hearts as the Dragon's roar of pain filled the air.

Then the thunder stopped, and the world of light ceased to be as the air claimed and the silence ran through the air, the cracked and destroyed ground settling down from the rubbing that shook the earth before them all.

There was hope, and then the hope was crushed as the Dragon's wings that had fallen to the ground sending ash and flowers fluttering in the wind, rose from their folded-on look. His flesh was burned and torn, his wings had holes in them as his eyes were now bloodshot with fury and rage.

He was alive, yes, but he knew in his heart that the pride of the Dragon he once was, was now dead inside.

And he would die fighting.

"You…"

His voice was a horrid and shattered version of the deep and ominous sound that once carried through the wind, but now to the people and mortals before him, it was different. Where he and his voice were once like a God standing before them, his new appearance and echoing sound was like a Devil from the pits of Hell.

His eyes shone with red fury as he reared his head back, the fire illuminating his dark and shimmering scales that faded with the shadows of the darkness behind him. He was dead in that moment, and to the army before him, hiding amongst the trees, they were helpless before him.

But it was the woman he spoke to, the one who stood atop her boulder, in a sea of flames that surrounded her, the Dragon's dark and threatening gaze staring from the darkness of the night, she still held her blade against him. She was not afraid.

"...I. I will show you power."

Fire filled his mouth as his wings covered the land in shadows, his eyes sparkling with fury and rage, but he felt something prick his heart as his head raced towards Lia with an open maw.

His teeth were sharp and like swords against her flesh, he knew he could win, and he would kill her in that moment.

She had no traps left, she had nothing to fight him with. Yet she still stood there on that rock with her sword to her side, unafraid of his teeth as they tore through the night. Shimmering in the firelight.

But something was still off.

Then he heard her speak, and he knew why she was here, why she was so unafraid of him, and why the world seemed to stop in that one moment.

"If this is it, then I will give it my all until the End."

She had come here to die.

And so, she did, as the world turned as black as the night sky.