"Aren.." Jaydon purred, slowly turning around, seemingly unaffected by the sword. "Why can't you just leave us alone?" The words were simple enough- his words smooth as silk. Yet each syllable was laced in almost untraceable venom, his emerald eyes narrowed.
Aren's sallow face and sunken cheeks lent him a haunted look, his bloodshot eyes burning in their sockets as he glared at what he thought to be the devil himself. "I will... Never give up," Aren said hoarsely, thrusting his sword at the dragon, who easily evaded it. "You should have killed me when you had the chance- demon." He spat.

Jaydon growled deep in his chest, his meaty forearms crawling with diamond hard scales. Jagged spikes erupted from his elbows and palms, his fangs curling over his lips. "Well then... Maybe I should finish the job. You are half dead anyway.." He flicked out a forked tongue.

Aren growled just as ferociously, pulling back before yelling a war cry and rushing towards the dragon, his sword slashing towards his midsection. Jaydon raised his arm swiftly, the collision making the skin underneath the scales tingle. "Can't you see that you won't win?" He shoved the sword to the side, almost knocking it out of his hands, his left hand punching him in the gut lightly.

Still it was hard enough to shove Aren backwards a few feet. His eyes narrowed stubbornly.

Jaydon cocked his head. "You really do want death, don't you."

Aren didn't answer but charged once more, his sword slashing through the air- left right, underhand, backslash. Jaydon met each blow with his personal shield of scales, not even perturbed at Aren's fancier moves. Aren's eyes widened as Jaydon crossed his talons to block a vicious backhand slash and the metal sparked on the claws. Jaydon grinned like a Cheshire Cat, kicking him in the gut and sending him reeling backwards.

While Aren recovered himself Jaydon jumped onto the wall, his talons digging into the thick bricks, then he jumped off like a lunging cat, talons spread.

Aren yelled and rolled out of the way faster than Jaydon expected, slashing his sword at Jaydon's shoulder in a split second.

Jaydon grit his teeth as it dug into the soft flesh of his bicep. He rolled away, his useless arm hanging before the muscles quickly reknit. "Good try," he winked at his partner's shocked brother. "But you don't kill a dragon that easily." He lunged again, his talons moving like a blur with such blunt sweeps that it wouldn't do anything other than seriously harm the man if it connected. Aren's breath caught in his throat as he just barely deflected each blow.
Aren knew he was busted. He looked around furiously for back up. They were alone.. In the grand hall, the beast's back was to the great room. He was slowly being cornered... He bit his tongue as he felt the curving claws dig into his side. If he didn't think of anything soon he would be dead. His eyes drifted to the ornate knight armor lining the walls. He ducked to narrowly miss Jaydon's fist, and as he shot back up, he grabbed a helmet and chucked it at the dragon's head with all his might. Jaydon huffed, catching it before a breastplate hit him flat in the face. "Agh!" Jaydon felt his nose break and blood spattered on his face. 'Stupid human noses' Jaydon growled mentally.
Before he could recover, Aren grabbed the knight's ax and swung it as hard and fast as his tired body could allow. Jaydon roared in pain as the ax dug into his gut. Aren's eyebrows pinched as the dragon grabbed his shoulders, talons digging into the shoulder blades. His burning green eyes stared hard into Aren as if the dragon were looking into his soul. "You really would do it huh? Kill your brother?" He mimicked Ralem's voice perfectly as Aren jerked the ax cruelly up his stomach. Jaydon clenched his shoulders harder, a sickening pop filling their ears.
Aren looked back at Jaydon, flinching slightly at that gaze, trying to push the ax in deeper and wondering 'why didn't he just die?'.

Jaydon pushed him to the ground with disgust, his upper lip pulling back with a snarl to reveal his fangs. He pulled out the ax with a sickening noise, one hand keeping his entrails inside his body as he quickly healed.

Aren made a strange noise deep within his chest as he witnessed the bulging muscle of his chest redefine itself, the skin reaching out to connect itself once more. Aren made to get up, swinging his sword.

Jaydon grabbed his sword in his bare hands, hardly cringing as he bent the metal into a U shape as easily as if it were rubber. Then he crouched by Aren, his hand striking like a viper to latch around Aren's neck. Jaydon's face twisted into an intense snarl as he jerked the human to be nose to nose with him, Aren's fingers tearing futilely at the dragon's clenched hand. "You have caused a lot of pain for me and my Rider," Jaydon growled. "You who are his flesh and blood! Is this how humans really are?" His talons tightened on his neck, causing blood to dribble down his Adam's apple, Aren's eyes widening in fear. "Give me one reason to let you live.." He growled.

Aren's eyes searched his own furiously. "R-Ralem wouldn't kill me.."

Jaydon laughed harshly. "You're right. He wouldn't. But you would kill him... Funny how that works." Jaydon jerked on him like a ragdoll, making him wheeze.

"What... Are you?" Aren asked raggedly.

Jaydon leaned his head closer. "Finally you ask... I am the mighty Ventus Rex, your brother's dragon. When I hatched for him I gave him the powers he has now.. Powers your pitiful mind mistook for demonic," Jaydon spat. "But..." His grip on Aren's neck lightened somewhat. "He would want me to spare you.. And I will respect his wishes." Jaydon let go of him, letting him massage his neck and try to gasp for breath.
Jaydon leaned his head closer, letting his fangs brush his cheek. "If you touch my Ralem again and so much give him a papercut I will cut out your heart with my talons and crush it in the palm of my hand. Understand?"

Aren nodded furiously, his greasy black hair hiding one of his eyes.

"Good. However your curse will not go away until I think you have made up for enough of your crime... Which I think won't happen for a very long time," Jaydon gnashed his teeth in pent up rage.

Suddenly a loud noise noise disrupted his speech. The bells were ringing all across the country, filling Jaydon's heart with relief.

The war was over!

'Jaydon come back!' Ralem's voice called in his mind. Jaydon needed no further commands to be reunited with his soul brother. He glanced at the gasping Aren one last time before racing to the balcony and jumping straight off the rails.

-----<3-----------

Ralem felt his heart swell at the sight of his great dragon. He put a boot on the cat's huge chest before yanking his sword out of it's rib cage with a splatter of black blood. He was covered in an art display of his own red lifeblood mixed with the oily black of Felinus all over his clothes. He had ensured that not one of those big cats got their jaws on the ice dragon's body.

Arianna was the first to race to Jaydon's side, wrapping her arms around his pillar-like leg and hugging him as much as he could. "Jaydon!" She cried, digging her face into his scales. He pulled his head down to nuzzle her gently, snuffling into her shoulder, his huge muzzle dwarfing her body. "Arianna..." He whispered so that his voice wouldn't be so incredibly loud. "Are you well?"

Arianna shook her head furiously, fighting back her emotion to say. "D-Daemon's d-dead.."

Jaydon frowned deeply, sensing her grief and shifted quickly back to his human form to wrap his strong arms around her in a reassuring embrace. "Arianna... I'm sorry.." He whispered as she broke down, clinging to his shirt as she sobbed.

Ralem cleaned his sword as he watched them, too dirty to even think of hugging anyone at the moment. A mixture of emotions sprung up in his heart- grief, happiness, and pride. But the greatest one was relief. The war was over. The Felinus were gone. He had done it. He and his dragon. He flashed a light smile at Jaydon. 'We did it.' He thought.
'We did it' Jaydon echoed, his eyes slowly drifting over the battlefield, covered in burning corpses and tattered wings rising up even in death to the sky.
Renaldi swooped high overhead, his majestic white wings like that of an angel as his Rider thundered the bittersweet song of victory into a polished ram's horn. Other Riders joined in, their weary dragons lifting their great wings to the sky once more to add to the chorus. Soon the sky was filled with beautiful colors of a myriad of dragons, some with deep throaty voices while others had a high, sweet song.

"They are singing of the dead," Jaydon whispered as Arianna detached herself from him and raised glassy blue eyes to the heavens. Jaydon's eyes turned to Ralem. "We will sing for Fraylon and Daemon today." Arianna stepped backwards as Jaydon shifted into his gorgeous emerald dragon, crouching for his Rider to get on. Ralem made to help his fiancée up as he clambered to the saddle but Jaydon shook his head. "We will come back for you," he promised. "But this is a sacred song."

Arianna fell back, her arms folded as she looked up at Ralem and he knew he was going to be in trouble. "We left her one too many times," he whispered.

"Don't worry-" Jaydon chuckled as he spread his wings and shot up into the sky. "We won the war. For your family. For you. And for her. That should be enough." And with that he opened his maw and let loose his own thundering voice, circling wingtip to wingtip with his dragon kin, his deep bass voice singing the death song of the small yet brave hearted ice dragon. As Ralem closed his eyes, leaning forwards to listen to the song, he felt peace- as the wind ruffled his hair and kissed his face, his hands resting on the smooth, warm scales of his dragon. He could feel the mighty double heartbeats of the dragon, every syllable of his song thrumming through his entire body.

And he never felt so alive.

((Author's note.... This could be the end. Or I could make a chapter about the wedding. Your choice, audience! XD this is dedicated to @HaloesAngels for giving me the push I needed! )