with increasing force. Urake’s heart caught in his throat when he saw that Cero was fighting with half his piece. Oddly, a moment later the piece was full sized, but appeared to be made from some bluish crystal. Inadar’s was the next to break, but like Cero’s, it grew back in the space of a few moments. It wasn’t the same bluish color but more like clear ice. The fight shortly escalated beyond using physical weapons to blasting at each other with light.
The air was sizzling with energy when they came together one last time with enough force to shatter their weapons. Urake jumped as a piece whizzed past his ear and another bounced off his side. Picking up one of the pieces, he discovered that it was melting into water. Another fragment was of the same bluish shade as Cero’s weapon had been. This one crumbled and turned to dust when he tried picking it up.
The fight had now reached an intensity that made it difficult to look directly at the combatants. They were smashing waves of energy into each other that made the earth shake. An especially bright flash flung them apart a couple paces, but they were back at it again before one could blink. Urake at last decided that intervention was unavoidable now. Charging into the flashing light, he hoped to grab ahold of one long enough that they could both calm down. When he had reached the edge of the battle field there was a brighter than normal blast. A wave of energy tore through his body, sending him flying towards the barn wall. It exploded a moment before he reached it. Still, he hurdled through a cloud of debris until he hit the ground and rolled to a stop.
Pushing himself up, Urake shook his head. His armor had taken the worst of the fall, but it still wasn’t an enjoyable exercise. He could remember having been passed by Cero who had been twisting in the air so that he hit the wall feet first. That was the reason it had exploded before he had hit it. There had still been plenty for Urake to hit; although, Cero had taken out anything major as he passed through. Looking for Cero, Urake glanced around in time to see his son calmly stepping back through the hole in the side of the building.
“Are you all right?” Cero asked concernedly once he had readjusted his eyes to the gloom inside the barn.
“I'm fine. Tired but fine. You aren’t all right. There is a big gash on your face and I think it is bleeding.” Inadar walked towards Cero with a slight limp. The gash she was referring to was along one of Cero’s cheek bones and was bleeding a bluish liquid. It had hardened into crystalline shards that held the wound together and had almost stemmed the flow by the time she was examining it.
“I hardly feel it.”
“It still looks bad. What is that blue stuff?” Cero rubbed a finger across his cheek and looked at it curiously.
“I'm not sure, but since leaving the dwarves, I bleed this stuff every time I get cut and then it heals quickly. I think it has something to do with how they saved my life.”
“Dwarves? I thought…”
“I said that you know nothing about me. I'm sort of curious, why did you want to fight me so bad? Don’t say it had anything to do with what I did back in the Golden Thistle.” Cero wiped his hand and flexed his jaw as Inadar guiltily looked at the ground.
“I was mad because of what you did to the dragon and because I thought you were a wimp that hid behind your father.”
“My father may be the Asgare, but I grew up fending for myself on the streets of my home village. As for Bani, the only thing I did was hatch him.” Cero laughed and rubbed a knee ruefully. “You pack quite a punch.”
“Aren’t you controlling him?” Inadar frowned.
“Controlling him? That is a laugh. Bani thinks that I am his mother, but that only means that I should be his slave labor. You said that you can speak with dragons. Why don’t you ask Bani?” Cero motioned towards the little dragon that was curled up on his little heap of straw.
“I will and you had better be telling the truth.” Inadar approached the little dragon that was still sitting calmly on his heap of straw as if the entire battle that had