Dragtho gave out another loud few coughs after Wedger asked his question, this time blood spewing from his mouth and onto the brown sheets that were covering the bed, leaving a small few splattered dots of blood across the brown colored bed sheets.
Leaning into his son Wedger's ear he whispered "Dranus...is...your...father" which right after those words. Dragtho falls backwards and collapses onto the bed. The grip in Wedger's hand loosening as right there and then, Dragtho had just passed away with those final, yet haunting words for Wedger.
The black and golden dragon's eyes were wide, he was stunned unable to move or speak. Constant thoughts going through his head about his life, why he's been training and what he's been told. When Nuva placed a hand upon Wedger's shoulder, the dragon quickly stood up and slapped Nuva's arm out of the way.
Shouting out in a enraged tone "You knew didn't you! You knew for all these years, my whole life basically! and you didn't tell me!?"
Nuva slowly backed up an away from Wedger, raising his hands up over his chest "Wedger, calm down now. there's no reason to get upset over this, well actually that's not true but you get the picture! Look! What i am trying to say is, we didn't tell you because it would've endangered you and the entire rebellion! Is that what you would want, or what Dragtho would want?!" he himself asked, though not as loudly as Wedger had just done.
This got Wedger to quickly calm down and just collapse to his knees, where he began to burst out into tears. Not from the secret being kept for so long, but the fact that his father. Was now gone, and he wasn't coming back. No matter what, Dragtho was gone...
Several hours passed by, the group of three having decided to stand outside and let Wedger have his space. Nuva being the first to look over his shoulder when he heard the large two wooden doors open from the keep. Seeing Wedger emerging from it in a new suit of armor, polished silver plated armor that was a mix of leather as well. With a long blue cape draping behind him with the symbol of the rebellion stitched into the cape.
The symbol consisted of a phoenix rising from the ashes and two swords crossed over eachother from the back of the phoenix which made an X symbol.
He looked towards Nuva, Valkyrie and Luna first, then he looked over at the crowd of rebels having gathered around him. and the keep. Looking towards their new leader with determination in all of their eyes, but a mix of them also consisted of worry.
Wedger's eyes scanned the crowd to look for his best friend Thornos, only to see that he was gone, which greatly dissapointed him. Closing his eyes to think of what to speak of, he began to see flashbacks of his eighteen years spent with Dragtho. Both the good and the bad times, which also consisted of taking his first bath.
The cold wind that blew against his scales reminding him of just how cold the water was. Though his eyes slowly open when he get's the scent of smoke filling the air.
It takes a little longer for the rebels to smell it as well, but they all recognized what it was. The smell of war machines, and yet before Wedger could make the first order.
A large crashing sounds and hundreds of screams infront of him filled the air as he saw the main front wall completely shatter like glass falling from a high distance. Debris of boulders flying through the air and crushing quite a large amount of rebels infront of him.
"Retreat! Fall back! Fall back!" Wedger shouted as he pulled out his father's two katana shaped blades from both of their sheaths. When the smoke rises, he sees hundreds if not thousands of orcs and shadow guard charging in.
Making Wedger take a step back at the sight of seeing those things for the very first time. Which, his eyes began to see everything around him in slow motion. Seeing that one shadow guard raises his blade to strike Wedger while he was stunned for a few moments out of fear.
"Wedger!" Nuva shouted, lunging over with a great two handed sword, he blocked the shadow guard's strike and countered it with a swing of his own. Cutting the shadow guard in half, but instead of blood it just evaporated with a 'poof' leaving its weapon and armor behind. "Wedger get ahold of yourself! We need to get out of here!" Nuva shouted, shaking Wedger in his frightened state, "Snap out of it!" he added to his shout. Giving the male dragon a hard hit across the face.
This got Wedger to indeed snap out of his trance of fear, looking around his surroundings. He nods his head at Nuva "Alright Nuva you lead!" he shouted.
This got the black and red dragon to nod quickly, starting to lead Wedger, Valkyrie and Luna back towards the main keep. Valkyrie using a nearby shield as cover as he blocked the arrows from hitting the group. Valkyrie was the last one inside the keep as they began to brace it with any nearby furniture or wood they could use to prevent it from barging open.
It took several minutes for this to find the right size and amount of wood to successfully barricade the large wooden doors.
The group giving some heavy pants as they looked around, they seemed to notice that all four of them were the only survivors.
Luna slowly looked down and gasped audibly, kneeling down she lightly put pressure around valkyrie's knee cap, having noticed immeadiately that he had gotten hit by a lucky arrow.
"Oh damn, damn, damn. You Alright Valk?" Wedger asked concerned. He himself kneeling down to check out Valkyrie's knee.
"Yeah im fine. The bloody bastard got a lucky shot though I will admit that" he chuckled. This made Wedger stand up, putting Valkyrie's left arm over his shoulders, while Luna started to do the same with Valkyrie's other arm "Is there no way out Nuva?" Luna asked concerned. Even her face was shown with worry,
There was a long pause from the older dragon, he looked over at them and gave a quick firm nod of his head as he looked over and began to see that the doors were infact being barged against. He could even smell the foul stench of the orcs as they were piling up against the door, trying to force it open with sheer strength of their bodies.
"There is a way out but we must hurry" he said. Starting to do a speedwalk to the painting of Dranus, he raised his right hand and applied pressure against the wall. A secret door opening infront of their very eyes.
Wedger and Luna smiled to Nuva, beginning to start going as fast as they can to the secret passage. Valkyrie giving quite a few limps. Looking behind himself he sees the door's defenses dont hold out for very long and the doors barge open. Several orcs rushing in with war cries.
Nuva stepped behind Valkyrie ready to act as a first line of defense. He swung his sword upwards, parrying an attack only to quickly bring it back down to cut the orc down. Then he swung to his right, cutting each and every orc down quickly and easily. Making even a few whirlwind attacks, Wedger watching in fascination at just how the swarms of enemies would just normally overpower any soldier from sheer numbers. And the fact that Nuva was just so easily deflecting and parrying each attack like it was nothing.
The older dragon began to walk backwards, turning around in the middle of his walking he rushes towards the door seeing that Valkyrie, Luna and Wedger had made it safely. "Look out!" Luna shouted, Nuva turning around and slicing in a diagonal direction to the left right as soon as he entered the passage. The orc letting out a painful 'ack' noise as it fell to the ground.
Again the black dragon applied pressure to the interior wall as the stone door slams shut with a loud 'toom!' sound.
It was now officially just pitch black in the secret passage, though that was soon fixed when Nuva blew his fire from his mouth and lit up the oil railings that served as a guidance system downwards.
Taking a few deep breaths they began to descend down the steps. All of them remaining quiet as they heard their fellow comrades up above starting to get executed. Though Valkyrie was the only one that couldn't hear it due to the fact he wasn't a dragon and didn't have advanced hearing like they do.
"Oh bloody hell it smells like my uncle does after a several hour excersize down here" Valkyrie said, hearing his voice echo down the empty yet dark hall. "Heh, neat I can hear my voice...Echo! Echo!" he shouted.
Nuva groaned in annoyance but began to ignore it for now, once Valkyrie was done making a fool of himself with the echo system down the hallway. He was the next to break the silence "We havent used these ever since an old ally of ours named Spear left our rebellion, mind you that was twenty four years ago. About several months before Valkyrie here was born."
Wedger sighed loudly "I dont care how old this place is, what I do care about is how did they know where we were. How did they find us?" he asked.
"I dont know...I truly dont know" Nuva replied.
For the next thirty minutes of walking, Valkyrie had lost a fair decent amount of blood, though he didn't have to wait long to get the arrow of out his knee. Nuva slowly opened the secret exit that they took which seemed to have brought them out into the forest. In which he was greeted by a spear pointing in his face, looking up he immediately recognizes it was infact the same old ally he had just told him and his allies about thirty minutes ago.
The two males greeted eachother with a chuckle and heartwarming hug, though what Nuva seemed to notice right after the hug was a young dragon about around Wedger's age by the looks of it, except he was feral. Had black scales and a pattern of red scars all over his body that were shaped like lightning bolts. "And who is this little chap?" Nuva asked curiously.
Spear chuckled, looking to his son, noticing that he was giving a very untrusting glare "It's alright, he's an old friend of mine" which got the feral dragon to calm down very slowly. "That's my son, Bolt Cinderflame. I was taking him out hunting with me until well, yeah the ground right underneath me budged and so I thought there was going to be trouble."
Bolt looked over at the other three climbing out, noticing that Valkyrie had infact a arrow lodged right in his knee "He's hurt do you think we should-Wait a second" he said. Leaning forward he immediately spotted the rebellion's symbol on Valkyrie's chest armor. "Dad! These are one of the rebels that you've told me about! I dont think they should be here!" the young dragon shouted out with worry and a bit of almost racism towards the rebellion.
"Ah, still serving the rebels old friend? And here I thought you finally left the rebellion like I did, ya know how dangerous that crap is."
Nuva gave out a loud sigh, he could only nod his head "Aye, that's right im still with the rebellion. But look one of our friend's have been hurt...Can you help him, patch him up a little? Then i promise we'll take our leave" he replied. The dragon's tone filled with honesty in it.
Spear wasn't sure how to respond or take in the situation, he hadn't seen a injury like this before ever once in his life. Since arrows in his experience never even went anywhere near the knee. But the fact it was spot on at the knee but at the side, he gave a slow nod "Alright, but after he recovers you leave. Period."
Wedger gave a re-assuring smile, looking over at Bolt Cinderflame, only to notice that he was giving a very untrusting glare to Wedger as much as he was to his siblings. Before he could say anything, Spear motions for them to follow him and his son towards their home town.
It took at least a few hours on foot to reach the small town but once they were there, they walked throughout the small area. It wasn't as clean as the base, but it was definitely much more populated. The citizens around them giving the rebels a rather worried, fearful or untrusting look. Infact most of them shut their windows and lock their doors when they see them. Wedger having noticed that even a few merchants had their hands upon the rusty steel swords that they were carrying around with them.
Once inside the young male dragon shouted "Mom! Were home!" the black and red marked dragon said out loudly. Which a feral blue dragoness with a white underbelly quickly came down and started to kiss her son's forehead like as if he was still a baby.
This made Bolt thrumm affectionately but yet it also annoyed him when he spoke out "Mom! stop!" he grinned. In which she then looked over at spear, walking over she gave him a soft kiss on his lips. In which Spear quickly kissed back "Laura, can you help our guest here? I need to make us supper, i never was good at surgery" he asked as he walked away to go hang his hunting gear up.
Laura looked over at Valkyrie having noticed the arrow was in the knee. She gave a firm nod. During the seven hours of carefully, almost perhaps a little too carefully of removing the arrow from his knee and bandaging him up several times. Each one having been the wrong way to bandage someone, but the final time was much more successful.
"Thank you madame" Valkyrie said, taking off his helmet and infact tipping it towards her like a cowboy hat. This made Wedger chuckle and roll his eyes, then he looked over seeing that Spear and Bolt come up to join them with dinner in their hands. There were only three plates, making Wedger curious if they were going to get food.
Only for his thought to be answered as Nuva brought up an additional four plates, balancing even one plate on the top of his curved horns "Whoa Nuva, when did you learn how to balance things?" Wedger asked as he grabbed his plate from Nuva's horn.
"Eh before all...THIS, I was a professional stage performer, I would do all sorts of trick. Magic, balancing acts...comedy" he replied as he began to sat down next to Luna that was sitting on a box. Handing the young dragoness a plate of her own.
"You, were a stage performer? You dont seem like one" Valkyrie added to the conversation.
Nuva paused before he could even take his first bite from his food, staring at the young man infront of him with a rather neutral tone on his face. But his voice was saddened "We were alot of things before all this valkyrie..."
This got him to shut up quickly, Valkyrie having just realized he may have upset or reminding Nuva of a life he once had before this whole war started.
Bolt was also the next one to speak "So what in the world brought you rebels out here in the first place? You kind of seem like you dont really want to be out here" though before he could get an answer. There was a loud SMASH at the door, which knocked the door right off its hinges.
Spear quickly got up and began to walk downstairs, grabbing his spear on the way down his eyes widened when he immediately saw it was Thornos. "Run!" Spear shouted, only to get grabbed by Thornos with some sort of levitation power. Which this causes Spear to get pulled through the front door and make him skid across the sandy yet dusty street. Wedger looking out the window he was shocked and surprised to see that Thornos was here. Before Wedger could do anything another painful moment hit's him when he hears Thornos shout.
"By crimes against the emperor Dranus and the god of hatred Malphurion, you are sentenced to death Spear! Here and now!"
Yet right as soon as Thornos pulled out his sword, he gets slammed into by a black dragon which makes Thornos himself go flying into the air. Though instead of like most soldiers, the horned soldier quickly does a flip in the air which makes him land on his feet when he touches the ground.
Spear slowly looked up in surprise, seeing that Bolt was standing infront of him in a defensive stance. The most surprising thing was that his red lightning patterned scars across his body was glowing.
"We have to help him!" Wedger said as he began to get up only to get pulled down by Nuva who whispers to Wedger "No, we need to stay out of this for now...if things go to hell then we'll join in. But for now it's too risky, we cant let this traitor know you're here" the older dragon whispered.
Thornos paced left to right very slowly, twirling his sword within his right hand. Chuckling for several long moments during his small pacing. He stopped as he turned his chest to face Bolt, raising his sword in a diagonal position across his chest. Hoping to intimidate the young dragon infront of himself. Though once he sees intimidation wont work, he says in a rather dark tone. "It's been a longtime since i've had a good challenge, come...little BRAT let us see what you are made of..."
To Be Continued in Chapter 3...
