at them; it wouldn’t hurt anyone but it continued to sow mayhem, causing two more men to fall off their horses.
Then suddenly the message from Arkin came and he sent his spell at the lead horse, ceasing its brain activity. The animal dropped. The other horses running close behind tripped, sending riders and horses all over the place and a gap began to open between them.
That’s when he heard it. He looked up to the gray sky and heard it again, a soft thud. No. Not another Dragon, they couldn’t take the twenty or so men left and a Dragon. THUD. It was overhead now, almost as if it were going to drop on them. THUD. Or behind them?
In the distance a figure dropped from the clouds and his heart skipped as the long body fell, a thin line in the sky with its wings folded close to its body. He squinted ahead, trying to ascertain the appearance of their foe. He knew that Dragons came in every shade and color but he was having a hard time believing his eyes. He felt Sasha’s confusion and then her question.
“Is that Dragon pink?”
It was a vivid shade of pink, but there was more to it than that; its horns were white and its scales glittered in the sun, but there was no direct light hitting it. The Dragon seemed to be producing the light and he felt his heart leap again; it was an Elf! The pink Dragon’s wings snapped open just before the ground and it rushed at them. The men pursuing them scrambled to get out of the way, but too late. It was on them all now.
Legon saw the flicker of pink indicating wards that the other Venefica would not be able to break. He wondered what type of magic it was going to use. He did feel a little apprehension when he saw the huge mouth opening to revel white teeth, then he closed his eyes right before a torrent of pink flames erupted from the mouth.
The fire swept around them; any amusement or doubt caused by the Dragon’s bright color disappeared at the sound of screaming from behind, but he only felt a warm tickling sensation. He opened his eyes, to see a world of total pink. He couldn’t see anything in front of him; he was in the fire, but his wards were not being tested. Why not? Then he remembered what Arkin had said about magical fire: the brighter the color, the more magic is in it. This Dragon was using pure magic, so the flame would burn only what it wanted.
* * * * *
Keither looked frantically at the pink flame that surrounded him, trying to figure how long it would be until he was burned to death, but then it passed and he heard a great whoosh from above and looked up to see a giant pink Dragon. He didn’t feel the regular fear he would with other Dragons. This was in part due to the whoops and yells coming from the others, but also when it passed overhead he saw white claws, not black. This Dragon was producing light around itself as well. The Iumenta dragons seemed to leach light out of the sky and their scales refused to sparkle in the sun. This was not the case for this Dragon; there was a slight glow around it and its scales twinkled even with no direct light.
As it passed, the Dragon turned its head, and for the second time in a few days Keither locked eyes with one of these creatures. The Iumenta Dragon’s eyes were the same color as their scales, with yellow instead of white surrounding the colored part of the eye. With this Elven Dragon the eye was pink but the sounding area was white as snow. It blinked at him… or was it a wink? He felt a rush of air as the Dragon’s large, powerful wings swept it away and off into the distance.
He chanced a look behind him to see the look of awe on all but Arkin’s face, which had a wide smile on it. He waved to him, which was an odd sort of thing to do, but he waved back. They weren’t being pursued any more, or rather there weren’t people on the horses behind them, who looked to be relevantly unharmed. There were, however, blackened and charred corpses on the horses, burned to the bone. He shuddered at the sight. It