But this meant that I had to hang on for dear life the second the brothers had to freefall to move quickly enough to avoid it. They did this by tucking in their wings and by a fraction of space, they were able to dodge it just enough from it catching them. It was in this moment I almost seemed cocooned, as their legs tucked under their belly at the same time a pair of their wings wrapped around itself… me included.
This meant for a short period of time I couldn't see what was happening, until the wings opened at the very last moment before we collided with the ground. I screamed when I saw how close we were and kept my eyes closed as if waiting for the impact that never came. No, instead the beast rose up back up the hill to where we had begun this flight, and as soon as it came closer to the ground, it opened up its claws without warning. Then, with a little flick of its foot, it dropped me so that I was rolling onto the grass with a bone jarring thump.
I then looked up in time to see the cockatrice lower its head enough to convey with me its plan, silently telling me to wait here while it went to deal with the threat. Something I was assuming it couldn't do whilst it had me in its grasp, and after free falling in a spin and plummeting to the ground, I had to say that I readily agreed. I was just thankful that I wasn’t going to be on that particular ride again as I definitely didn't think my stomach would be able to take round two.
After this, I watched as the combined beast of three flew closer to the men before releasing a long stream a fire, one that came from Vern’s Wyvern. This had the small army covering themselves in an interlocking shell that created a dome of protection above their heads, doing so with their shields. It was also when I realised that whatever those shields were made of, they were obviously fireproof.
“Oh shit, that's not good,” I muttered to myself, and the dragon roared in anger as it too realised that fire was not penetrating the shields like it hoped it would. No, instead it merely left scorch marks in a sunburst shape around where the army stood compacted together.
The beast snarled down at them as it circled the army yet again, and this time came at them with a different approach. Again, it was Trice’s cockatrice’s head that lowered and instead of fire, breathed out a long stream of ice that covered the small army like an oversized igloo. It froze the tops of the shields making them now a large mound of ice, and only left me wondering if the bodies beneath it were frozen too?
Boy, I hoped so.
I didn't have long to wait until I found out. The brothers’ dragon was getting ready to circle back around to take another hit at them. At the same time there was an echoing sound of cracking ice as the army all raised up their shields as one. This caused them to burst from the icy cage together.
But it was in this moment that the dragon had its back to the army, and all they had to do was take only seconds to aim before they were again firing their weapon. It looked like a glowing golden net that flew through the air like a torpedo before opening up big enough to catch its prey. Because the dragon’s back was to them, it left me screaming in a desperate attempt to let them know of the danger flying towards them from behind…
But I was too late.
Because now the beast was falling.
“NO!” I screamed again, as the sight of a tangle of wings, legs, heads and tails all plummeted through the air in a twist of golden rope. And what was worse, was that this time there was no hope of them saving themselves before they hit the ground. I cried out again in horror as the beast hit the ground, tearing up the landscape as if a meteorite had cut through a slice of this realm. The McBain brothers had fallen, and I was just left questioning what would happen to them when the army reached them, as they were now closing in on them.