Akaysha's wings cut through the rain like a blade. The wind passed around her like water, blocked by the ward Ragin had placed in front of them. Lightning crackled around them in long streaks, illuminating the sky in dangerous colour. Below them the forest bent and swayed like waves in an ocean. Leaves were ripped from their homes and flung into the air in a storm, crashing into the flying dragon.

It was hard to see anything in this wind, but the two were determined. They couldn't afford to wait. The other dragon riders would be catching up to them soon, and Ragin hoped to have finished all this by then. Afterwards he would give back the egg... then maybe run. There was no hope of him staying with the riders now.

'Where are they?' the anger in Akaysha's mental voice surprised Ragin.

He had never felt her this angry before, even when she had thrown him against the wall with magic. It was like his near death had awoken her own storm. She wanted, no, needed revenge against the man who had nearly killed her rider. Her distrust in him was gone, replaced by a desire to protect him that was so strong he feared for the person who got in her way. They had been searching the banks of the river for a while, but no matter where Akaysha looked it seemed even her enhanced vision couldn't find the hidden fortress.

'It must be protected by magic,' Ragin replied to her, studying the trees below, 'That's the only explanation.'

'If he is hiding,' the dark dragoness growled, 'Then lets force him out.'

He frowned as he studied her mind, seeing her ideas form through her head, 'Akaysha... remember what happened last time you used too much of your magic.'

'I know... but this time it'll be different,' she growled, 'This time you are going to help me.'

'How?'

'You know how to use magic, and I have the power to provide it,' he felt her slight nervousness at what she was about to suggest, 'If we join that together we should be able to control my magic much easier.'

'And how do we do that?'

'Do you trust me?' the question surprised him, and he studied her for a moment. The last time she had asked this question he hadn't been able to answer it. But something had changed since then. He knew her, every aspect of her. And she knew him, at least as well as he knew himself. There was nothing hidden between them now.

'Yes,' he smiled, speaking in the ancient language.

'Then hold on,' she rumbled a small purr.

He felt her mind begin to pull at his in the oddest fashion. After a moment of resistance, and a reassuring thought from Akaysha, he relaxed, allowing his conscious to be pulled from his body. He blinked, and let out a mental gasp as his vision seemed to switch, so instead of seeing through the eyes of a human he saw through the eyes of a dragon. Everything became so much clearer. The darkness of the storm no longer bothered him any longer. The dark storm clouds seemed to shine, and every drop of rain was visible to the eye. He could feel his wings strain against the wind, and instinctually tilted and flapped in ways that would keep himself from being blow away. He felt the twitches and adjustments made by his tail whenever they turned, allowing him to keep balance in the air.

'Wow,' he said mentally, causing Akaysha to chuckle.

'Don't get too comfortable. It is my body after all,' she told him, 'Now are you ready?'

He could see exactly what she had in mind, and sent excited confirmation to his dragon. Tharin was going to regret the day he crossed them. Together they reached for the gate leading into Akaysha's wild magic. It only took the smallest amount of pressure to release, and suddenly Ragin felt their body flooded with power. It was like electricity, tingling and zapping down their body desperate to escape. Ragin focused on the power, shaping it and controlling it, turning it into what he wanted. When the time was right they gave the magic what it wanted.

With a roar the power flooded out of them, flung at the forest below. It was more energy than Ragin had ever controlled before, but he relished in it, watching his work in his minds eye. The two of them felt a grim satisfaction as the entire forest below suddenly ignited in starlight fire.

* * *

Tharin had just sat down on his throne, studying the dragon egg he had in his grasp. He felt a smirk crossing his features. He had finally done it. Once the egg hatched he would be able to bring down this world. When a dragon with such power revealed itself as a threat, the people of Alageasia would never trust the dragon riders again. They would never trust dragons again. And once they were gone, who would stop the world from falling.

He was snapped from his thoughts as a guard raced into the throne room, a panicked look on her face, "Sir... there's a dragon-"

She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as a wash of power so strong that even she felt it crashed into his manor. Tharin's energy drained dramatically, and he was forced to abandon the wards he had created so he wasn't drained fully. A moment later the roof of his mansion was awash in dark blue, nearly black flames, that quickly changed to the normal red/orange as the wood caught fire.

Tharin stared at the flames for a long moment, tightening his hand into a fist. He had never felt such power before, never felt something that he was so helpless against. There was only one being that could have produced such raw energy, and she should be dead. Her and her rider. The only explanation would be if she had saved him. But that was impossible.

"Sir..." the guard said, her voice shaking, "What do we do?"

"Raise the alarm. Get as many guns as it takes to shoot down that dragon," he growled, standing up from his seat. They still didn't know how to counter his new invention. The guns, as he liked to the call them, should easily be able to rip her from the sky, along with her rider. No amount of magic would stop them.

The woman nodded her head, quickly turning and racing out of the throne room, yelling commands to the nearest guards. He let himself take a deep breath. The people he had hired were brigands and sell-swords. He didn't trust their loyalty to him one bit. But with the amount of money he was paying them he hoped it would be enough to keep them from running. At least for a short while. It would be enough time to figure out a plan to take them down.

* * *

The mansion revealed itself in the inferno. The spells that had hidden it had disappeared. The flames below began to meld into golden yellow and scarlet red as they spread naturally. Steam acted as smoke as the rain was evaporated through the heat, the fire already too out of control for even the raging storm to stop it. Lightning clashed above them, as if the storm was trying to fight the fire by itself, the two forces of nature colliding together.

A loud and familiar bang echoed through the air, and while nothing came of it Ragin knew what it was. The weapons that Tharin was so fond of. He had forgotten about them. This time they had missed, but he couldn't rely on bad aim. Once they got close it wouldn't matter how bad the aim was. Akaysha was still a dragon, and a very big target. So, using the magic again, Akaysha and Ragin together formed a shield of wind below them, using an enormous amount of energy so that the air was almost solid. Anything that entered would be torn to shreds, or at least redirected. He hoped it would be enough.

With a roar they dove down toward the mansion, tucking in their wings in a dive. With dragon's eyesight they were able to spot the sprawling humans below, each of them running around, trying to organise themselves. The dragon and rider didn't let them. Calling upon the wild magic again they slammed the ground with it, sending out a shockwave that threw the mercenaries into the air, breaking bones and sending chaos through their ranks. Fire bellowed from Akaysha's mouth, burning them to ashes through armour and wards while they were still in the air, her fire fuelled by wild magic.

The front of the mansion began to collapse, the supports being eaten away by the fire and weakened by the shockwave. It creaked and groaned, before crushing even more mercenaries below it as it fell to the ground. The next spell the two cast was directed at the crumbling mansion, causing it to explode outwards in flaming debris, leaving only the outer walls standing. The roof, multiple floors and countless artefacts were thrown into the forest. The exotic gardens surrounding the mansion were burning to the ground. Most of the mercenaries were either dead or routed. All that was left was to find Tharin and put an end to him.

Ragin pulled himself back to his own mind, taking out a breath. They needed to be careful. Tharin likely had one of the weapons himself. But he didn't think that it would do much. Akaysha could quite easily save him again with her magic. He let out a grim smile as he looked at the wreckage they had caused. It gave him a twisted sense of accomplishment to know that together, Akaysha and him had wiped out the entirety of the man's livelihood.

Akaysha landed in the middle of the burning wreckage. Ragin cast out his mind, looking for Tharin. He knew the man couldn't be far, and while he wouldn't put it past Tharin to run, he doubted a man of such pride would disappear so quickly after witnessing his house and land laid low.

'I think we should get higher. If he is running it'll be easier to find him up there,' Akaysha suggested, looking around, 'I doubt he would have-'

Her sentence was cut short as a mental blade pierced into their conscious, both at once. The dragon reared back with a scream, hurriedly throwing up her mental shields as she struggled to defend against the intrusion. Ragin clutched his head, focusing all his attention on his hate for Tharin as his shield, feeling his shoulders shake at the effort to keep the intrusion out. They were both immediately immobilized and unable to focus on summoning their magic.

Tharin revealed himself from behind a broken column in his throne room. He was dishevelled, his face and robes burnt. His hair in utter disarray. His mouth in a furious grimace, and his eyes burning with anger. He struggled to hold the two of them, using all of his mental strength to drive them too defeat.

Ragin had not expected a mental attack that strong. It felt like his mind had been skewed by a dagger that was slowly sinking deeper and deeper into his subconscious. He couldn't even focus on what was happening to Akaysha for fear his mind would break. There was only one thing he could do. Gritting his teeth, finding it difficult to shield his mind and move at the same time, he gently put his hand into his pocket, pulling out his ring. What he was about to do would force Tharin's full attention onto Akaysha. He just hoped she could hold him off long enough, for if he didn't do this then Tharin would break them both.

He shoved the ring onto his finger, and let out a gasp of relief as the mental dagger disappeared from his mind, along with all evidence of the other mental battle going on. He saw Tharin stagger and Akaysha let out a snarl, seeming to regain some of her mental ground. It didn't last long however as she lowered her head with a whimper, closing her eyes as Tharin renewed his attack.

Ragin worked quickly, pulling out his sword and sliding from her back. He raced toward Tharin, and with a cry stabbed toward him, aiming to slide the blade threw the man's ribs. Tharin didn't even flinch as the blade was turned away by his wards. Ragin staggered slightly, but didn't miss a beat as he pulled out his dagger and plunged it toward the man's heart. Again the blade was turned away, missing by inches. Ragin did notice a bead of sweat trickle down Tharin's brow as he focused on Akaysha.

Gritting his teeth Ragin threw away the dagger and gripped his sword with two hands, "Haresh!"

He felt himself strengthened by the magic word and swung his sword with two hands, putting all his strength into the blow. Much to his surprise not even that was enough to break Tharin's wards, though he heard the man grunt in the effort to keep them up. Not caring about skill or finesse, the rider attacked again and again, trying his hardest to break through the wards. Every strike took him a step closer, but every strike meant another half second for Tharin to break Akaysha.

Suddenly multiple things happened at once. There was a sudden give in Tharin's wards as Ragin's blade broke through, but Tharin seemed to have prepared himself and dodge out of the way, earning only a shallow cut to his shoulder from the rider's blade. Akaysha let out a keen of pain as Tharin dug into her mind, her focus not enough to stop him from finding the exact information she didn't want him to find. Tharin turned to Ragin with a triumphant grin, breathing heavily at his efforts to keep the wards up.

He then spoke a short phrase, a phrase that sent fear ripping through the rider. Akaysha's true name.

"Stop him!" Tharin yelled after the words.

Akaysha, unable to disobey, directed her next spell at her rider. Ragin let out a grunt as the wild magic was turned on him. It ripped through his wards, paralysing him in motion, his next strike only a moment away from killing the man. Tharin smirked, brushing himself down as he looked toward the dark dragon.

"You will not harm me," he told her, using her true name, "And you will do exactly as I say."

She snarled, her entire body tensing as the controlling effect of her true name forced her to follow his commands. Ragin caught her eye, and she let her head fall in defeat. There was nothing she could do now. Tharin controlled her every move. They had lost.

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Hey guys! New chapter! Hope you all enjoyed. Vote if you did and comment what you thought. I actually felt this chapter was a little rushed, so any feedback would be welcome. Next chapter should be out soon. See Ya!

Pennator^^