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The space around them thrummed with power. It pulsed through cave walls, flooding the air with the scent of fire and the taste of stone. The presence was a tidal wave of pressure, each pulse causing a worried tingle to run down the motley green back of an acid drake, unable to do anything except curl up in a ball with his eyes closed, wishing it to be over. The entire planet felt as if it was shuddering, as if reality was slowly fracturing around him, as though the elements themselves had awoken in a fierce battle.

"D...dad," the small terrified voice of a hatchling peeped nervously from under his curled wing.

The drake's eyes snapped open, looking at the top of the cave warily, before raising his wing to reveal the two young dragons underneath. The young dragoness was also looking up with terrified eyes, while her sister lay in restless sleep, twitching with whimpers in the throughs of an unimaginable nightmare.

"Yes, Nyra?" he asked softly, trying to show the picture of calm confidence, but was unable to keep the nervous jitter out of his voice.

"I...is it gonna be over soon?" she asked.

"Hopefully," he replied, "But we are safe here."

She didn't seem entirely convinced, "What about mum?"

The drake, Acre, hesitated a moment, "She'll be alright. Your mum is a survivor."

Nyra nodded, curling up and laying her chin on her tail, "I'm scared."

He reached out with his snout and gently nudged the little hatchling, "I am to, but I think it will be over soon."

"You promise?"

"I promise," he said, unsure if he were lying or not, but he couldn't stand to see her so scared.

If anything, she seemed slightly reassured, and closed her eyes, falling into the same restless sleep as her sister. The world around them continued to grumble and shake. The power refused to rest and wain. It had been like this for days, only growing and growing. As soon as it happened he had fled with his hatchlings underground, as did many dragons who didn't go off to fight in what everyone knew was to be the final battle of the horrific war. He had seen only flashes of it from high in the sky. A horizon lit by a glowing fire. But it was so far away that he didn't think they would be affected. Now, as the power grew steadily stronger and stronger, he wasn't so sure.

He tried to push back the worry growing in his body in favour of some sleep. But he couldn't, not with the planet shuddering below him, nor the waves of power pressing down on him, trying to crush him into the ground. He hadn't been able to sleep for days. So instead he curled tighter around the two hatchlings sleeping beneath his wing, feeling his stomach grumbling in hunger, and his parched throat calling out for a drink. It would be worse for the younglings. The days hidden in the cave were beginning to take their toll.

The hours passed with frightening speed, the power around them growing ever more oppressive. Acre managed to fall into a light doze, his body at least calling for sleep if it couldn't eat or drink. But that didn't last long. He didn't know how he knew, but he could tell somehow that the earth around them seemed to shift and change. It was like the power, instead of only seeping into the cave, originated from it. The very stone beneath his body seemed to gurgle with satisfaction, coming to life with the eagerness of a hatchling breaking out of an egg.

Acre's eyes snapped open as the ground began to physically shake. The hatchlings under his wing awoke with frightened yowls. Cracks began to run through the ground and roof. A stalactite fell, shattering near Acre's tail. It shocked him into action as he quickly sprung to his feet, flaring his wings open instinctually to protect the two young ones from falling stones. They staggered to their feet, struggling under the shaking ground.

"Dad, what's happening?" cried his other daughter, Pirus.

"I don't know," he replied, "But we need to get out now! Hurry!"

The drake felt his panic rising as a large chunk of the cave's roof fell behind them, blocking them off from going deeper. Stones and dust rained down upon his scales as he hurried the hatchlings on, pulling himself into a quick trot as he pulled them toward where he knew the exit of the cave was. Behind them the cave continued to collapse, more boulders falling from the roof as the three of them began to run faster.

The entrance of the cave was quickly revealed, bleeding red and yellow light down into the cave accompanied by the heat of a raging wildfire. The ground became fiercer, making it difficult for the three dragons to keep their footing as they raced to the only place of mild safety. But as they ran Acre heard a scream. He skidded to a stop, looking back to see Pirus struggling to get to her feet through the shaking planet.

"Dad!" she cried, "Help me!"

Nyra had stopped as well, looking back with fear.

"Nyra! Get outside and into the air. I'll help your sister!" Acre called to her.

She nodded fearfully, before turning and running to the exit. Acre raced toward his fallen daughter, opening his mouth to fire a stream of green steaming acid at the falling earth around her, dissolving several of the smaller stones so that they wouldn't hit her. But it wasn't enough. A larger stone boulder fell from the ceiling, and Pirus screamed as it fell onto her tail.

"I'll save you Pirus," Acre said, trying to remain calm as he tried to study the situation with a clear mind.

She was crying, tears on her snout as she tried to pull herself out from the stone.

An idea came to him, an idea he loathed but it was the only option he could think of to quickly save her, "Pirus, hey, look at me. I'm here okay. It's gonna be alright."

She whimpered, looking up at him. He stared into her eyes, those bright yellow, wide with terror in her eyes.

"Look, this is gonna hurt okay. It's gonna hurt a lot. But I need you to be brave okay. Can you be brave for me?"

She nodded her head with a whimper.

Taking a deep breath, not quite believing what he was about to do, he took a step forward, his head over Pirus's tail. He opened his mouth a little, ready to summon the acid that would eat away at the trapped limb. It would leave her with half a tail, but she would be safe.

Before he could the ground seemed to almost warp below him, causing him to stagger backward, causing him to swallow the summoned acid. He coughed, shaking his head. The stone cracked and screeched as it was forced to move in a way that it was never meant to move in. Acre staggered, eyes widening in fear as he looked at his trapped daughter, who was staring at him with the same wild fear.

"Dad?"

The ground erupted below her as a massive wall of earth ascended with savage intensity. Just like that Pirus was gone. Acre was thrown backward, where he lay for a moment, the vision of a panicked hatchling dragoness snatched away by a pillar of earth seared into his mind. In the last moment, she had reached out with her paw, reaching out to him to save her, before being snatched away.

Acre rolled to his feet, the earth shaking beneath him as it continued to fracture and splinter. He began to run, tears running down his snout as he did, that vision continued to run through his mind again and again. With a cry of anguish, he threw himself out into the burning heat of the outside world, flapping his wings as he nearly fell over a cliff, revealing an endless ocean before him. His sorrow was quickly forgotten, replaced by panicked wonder as he stared at what had become of the world around him.

The sky was on fire. A brilliant red and yellow flame that encompassed the planet, horizon to horizon, and still spreading further, a rolling wave of flames hellbent on devouring everything. It was as though the earth had hit the sun and was being swallowed with greedy hunger. Cyclones of flames cascading to the ground in giant twirling flames thousands of dragon lengths in circumference. The ocean hissed in protest as it fell away in steaming tidal waves. Trees spontaneously burst into flames under the overwhelming heat. Entire forests of what was once marshy wetland burned unabashed. Molten rock boiled in lakes of lava.

But the earth was fighting back. Massive spires of stone erupted from the ground like charging spears, piercing the flaming sky with aggressive precision, causing the flames to roil in anger, curling around the spires, and devouring into nothing but molten rock. But then that rock continued to fight, hardening back into stone and metal and spearing back through the flames in desperate action. Mountains curled upwards taller and taller to break through to the open sky if there still was one. Mud and sand from the ocean beds hardened into clay monoliths, spearing out of the ocean and into the twirling fiery cyclones. One spike hit something within the flames, causing an explosion of white energy, from which both the stone and flames roiled back, before once again filling the opened gap in their endless battle. Such events happened often, from giant stone spikes spearing into the fire, or narrows flaming twisters digging into the ground, and each one was accompanied by a wave of power that seemed to shake existence itself.

"Dad!" came a panicked cry.

Acre looked around to see Nyra hovering in the air, looking around with fear. He quickly flew over to her, having to beat his wings constantly to keep himself controlled in the sky as the hot billowing wind tried to draw him higher and into the inferno above them.

"I'm here!" he called to her.

"What is... what is happening?" she cried out.

"I... I don't know," he responded looking around, maybe the elements themselves were fighting.

"Where is Pirus?" she asked, looking back at the cave, which was now torn open by a massive mountain that stretched high into the sky.

"She... she's gone," he could barely say the words, the image of her disappearing still fresh in his mind.

"What do you mean?"

"She's gone Nyra. I... I wasn't able to... I wasn't able to save her."

He could barely raise his head as she looked at him in terror, tears trickling from her eyes.

"You... you said... we were safe."

"I was wrong."

The ocean below them was receding at great speeds, revealing hundreds of dead fish and the broken ground below. The earth itself was moving in waves as it shuddered back and forth. Suddenly, from the ocean, thousands of spires erupted forward, all rushing into the sky in order to push the fire back, and it responded in kind, cascading downward in equally large spirals of flames. The two elements clashed together in a boom, molten rock bleeding back into the ocean while the flames curled around the outside.

"We need to go," Acre said to his daughter, "We can't stay here."

"W... where?"

"Not here."

He turned to the land, the sea now blocked by the thousands of spires that were slowly being melted back to the ocean by the raging fire. More explosions of white energy lit the sky, causing the air around them to shudder. Acre began to fly, Nyra falling in behind them as the two flew back over the land. The burning flames from both the forest below and the sky seemed to surround them. Smoke turned the air black, making it difficult to breathe and see. The earth lurched back and forth, waves of soil and rock breaking over the flaming forest, while the fire whipped back and forth if fiery spears, burning searing holes through entire mountains.

The battle was becoming more violent. Greater shards of the planet continued to be thrown upward at the sky, while greater volumes of living fire fell to the earth in fiery rain. Acre flew over his daughter to try and protect her from the flames above and keep a watch from the roiling earth below, prepared to dive and shove her out of the way. But the heat made it difficult to fly. He could feel it burning into his scales and tearing at his wings. The bright blue on the underside of his legs seemed to be becoming darker, likewise with the red on Nyra. He wished they had a water dragon with them so that they would be able to cool off.

The mixture of the smoke, heat, and exhaustion continued to deplete the dragons' energy. Nyra flapped her wings with ragged determination, but Acre could see her beginning to fail. He swooped in underneath her, and she gratefully landed on his back. He could feel the heat of her own scales as she gripped his side with her claws, breathing heavily.

Acre flapped his wings harder and harder, coughing under the increasing amount of smoke. Sparks of flames from the forest fires twirled around them in what could only be called a beautiful dance, the wind picking them up and pulling them upwards back toward their home in the sky. Tornadoes of fire continued to fall with greater frequency, each one borrowing into the earth below and detonating the white explosions.

Acre could see no end to the flames or the roiling earth. The more he flew the more he began to think that whatever this battle was did expand the entirety of the globe. At the very least, it didn't seem as if he would be able to outfly it. His wingbeats grew more tired. His body grew weary. A snarl appeared on his snout. If nothing else, he had to see Nyra safe. He couldn't bear to watch another child die.

Fire continued to fall to the planet, and at the same time, the earth continued to strike upward. Ahead the ground began to crack and break as a tower of flames crashed into the ground. Almost immediately a massive wave of earth folded upwards from the ground, casting a large shadow over the two acid dragons. The drake stopped, looking upward in terror, quickly backpaddling with large flaps as he tried his best to flee from the crash earth. More mountains erupted from the ground to intercept the continually falling flames.

Acre looked upward and felt his heart fall. The fire above them was gathering in a massive combustion of twisting yellow and red. Then it fell, exploding downward with the force of a shark launching itself from the ocean. Except it was thousands of dragon lengths in diameter, cascading down all around him. He let out a nervous rumbled, desperately beating his wings to try and escape. But it was hopeless. A terrified cry from his back, causing tears to flood his eyes. Why was this happening? What did he do to deserve this? It was as though the world itself were ending around him.

This was immediately replaced by a realisation. He came to a shuddering stop, hovering in the air as the sky descended toward him with a roar of anger. Nyra gripped his scales harder, her whimpering echoing through his hearing glands.

"What... what are you doing dad?" she sobbed.

"Let go Nyra, I want to look at you," he responded, his stomach twisting in sorrow.

She hesitated a moment, before doing as she was asked, hovering in the air as he turned to face her, looking down at her with tears in his eyes. She could see it. His realisation. She knew. A sob escaped her as she looked to the sky and the flames approaching rapidly toward them.

"We aren't going to be safe... are we?" she asked with a sob.

Acre shook his head, "Not this time..."

Nyra began to cry, the hatchling looking to the sky again with fear as it fell toward them.

"Hey, don't look up there, look at me," he approached her, nudging her shakily with his snout, "Look only at me okay."

She looked him in the eyes, her tears reflecting his own.

"I love you, okay," he said, struggling to hold back his own sobs as the heat on his back becoming greater and greater, "I love you. I wish this wasn't happening, I wish we were anywhere else but here, but that is alright because I love you."

Nyra sobbed, turning to look at the sky once again.

"No! Don't look there! Only at me," Acre flew closer, "Just at me."

She pressed her forehead against his chest, "I love you too, dad."

He smiled, embracing her with his forelegs and wings, and closing his eyes. He let out a calming breath as the two of them fell from the sky together, only to be caught by the flames moments later, giving in to the inevitable.

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 Alright, everyone! Here is the Chronicle of the week for you. It's a bit on an intense one, and to be honest it nearly had me in tears at the end. What did you all think of it? It's a bit of a shorter one, but I felt like if I made it any longer it would be dragging on, so here it is. As always, vote on the next story below, and I'll see you all next week.

The Perfect Mate: Shyal, Light dragoness - 16Yrs BTA

Catalyst: Zymre, Fire drake - 20Yrs BTA

The Essence of Equilibrium: Zay'ues, Weather drake - 11Yrs BTA

A Lost Way: Spyral, Spirit drake - 43Yrs BTA

See Ya!

Pennator^^