Sharrag was woken by the sound of two Shrrg rushing into the cave, out of breath. He twitched his tail in slight annoyance, before getting up and looking at the two Shrrg. In an instant he was alert. By their look he sensed fear in them. Their fur was standing up on end and by the way they were panting it suggested that they had run a long way in a short amount of time, not something the Shrrg were good at.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked the two of them.

Talismen looked up at his leader, ‘A group of humans. Lots of them. More then I think. And they had an Alpha. Scary Alpha. Strange smell from it, and humans feared it. It know we were there.’

Sharrag growled slightly, ‘How?’

‘It felt us. Felt our minds,’ replied the wolf.

The dragon growled again. This meant this new enemy was capable of mind control and manipulation. An enemy like that could not be underestimated. At least they hadn’t sent another dragon. Sharrag doubted he could pull off another trick like the previous one he had with Thorn.

‘How many of them are there?’ he asked Talismen.

‘Ten times ten,’ replied Talismen, ‘If they didn’t have that Alpha, you could fly over and burn them. I don’t think that would work with the Alpha.’

Sharrag nodded his head in agreement. He looked around at the mother Urzhad. She still hadn’t woken up from the attack she had had, and they couldn’t move her either. He let loose a sigh of frustration.

‘We need to move cave, but we can’t leave her here,’ he said.

‘Why not?’ asked Tay’el.

Sharrag growled at her, ‘Because she has helped us. We don’t leave a pack member behind.’ He turned to Talismen, ‘When do you think they’ll try and attack us again?’

Talismen tilted his head in thought, ‘Soon.’

Sharrag nodded again, trying to think of ways to get them off their tail. It all came back to abandoning the cave, but they couldn’t. The Urzhad was far too big for a young dragon to carry, and pushing her would take too long. He growled, he didn’t want to be trapped in a cave again.

He heard Tay’el growl and looked over to her, ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Humans,’ was her reply.

He eyes widened and he looked over at the sleeping forms of his pack, ‘Wake them up and get them ready.’

The two Shrrg nodded and woke the rest of the pack. They tried to wake the Urzhad as well but she was still far from consciousness. Sharrag’s thoughts flew as he tried to figure out a way to get out of this current situation. Humans were closing in, even he could smell the musky scent if them not to far away, and there was a lot of them.

He looked back at the wolves, ‘Stay put and try to get her up and awake. I’m going to by you some time, maybe even lead them away from here.’

‘What you going to do?’ asked Seriah.

‘Fly,’ was the dragon’s reply.

He ran out the entrance of the cave and took off into the air as quickly as he could. A moment later an arrow clattered against the ground right where he had taken off. Shouts were accompanied with more arrows flying into the air after him. Sharrag smiled, he was out of their range now. He twirled in the air before diving down to where he saw the group of humans in the forest. He opened his maw and unleashed a torrent of fire towards them. An invisible shield protected them from the heat, but the forest around them was burnt to a crisp. Sharrag growled in annoyance, these shields, or wards as he now knew they were, were extremely annoying.

He pulled up as more arrows were shot towards him. One or two clattered harmlessly of his scales while another pieced his wings causing him to growl in slight pain. The arrow was nothing more then an annoyance. He sped forward and out of range again. As he hoped the humans began to follow the fleeing dragon, leaving an opening for the wolves.

He continued to dive at the humans with fire and talons. The shields they had protected them from the brunt of the force but occasionally a ward broke and a man fell to the ground as green fire engulfed him. What Sharrag found strange was that none of them yelled out in pain or showed any sign of it.

He scanned the ground for the Alpha that Talisman and Tay’el had told him about. From what he saw all the humans down on the ground were normal. None of them had any special abilities and nothing had attacked his mind as of yet.

As he dodged past another volley of arrows he spotted something on the side of the mountain. He frowned at the creature, for it looked two legged and seemingly had no armour. It raised two arms and yelled something in what Sharrag now knew was the ancient language. The dragon grunted in surprise as some invisible force trapped him in mid air. He struggled against the bounds and roared out in defiance, before staring at the creature and attacking its mind. The creature staggered as it lost a large amount of energy from trying to hold the dragon. Sharrag broke free and dived at the creature, lighting up that side of the mountain in emerald fire. As he suspected the creature wasn’t at all affected from the flames but it did help him fly away.

He growled as a volley of arrows flew from now where and hit him directly. Most of the arrows bounced of his scales but a number pieced his wings and one or two made it into gaps in his scales. He roared again in pain and flew higher into the air away from the arrows.

He snorted and looked down, studying the place he was in. As far as he could tell he may be able to take them on, for it seemed to be a relatively even fight. The only problem was if they took out his wings. He knew that would be there primary target for he knew that they didn’t want to kill him. Another piece of information he had stolen from Thorn’s mind. All this assumed on the fact that these were the same people of course, but he didn’t know any other faction that would want to attack him like this.

He spotted the creature that he had seen before running down the mountain, a bow held in its hands. He growled, not liking the look of this new weapon. It was black and raggedly made, and the arrows on its back looked strange, like something that would be extremely dangerous. He made a mental note to not get hit by one of these arrows.

He tucked in his wings and dived towards the army below with a roar, unleashing flames towards them. Another thing about his fire was any arrow that entered the flame was incinerated, making it extremely difficult to hit him when he was flying at the headfirst.

Another section of the forest was destroyed in the torrent of fire and a few more wards were broken. Sharrag quickly twisted and flew upwards as fast as he could, avoiding the return volley of arrows. The whole while he kept a close eye on the human’s leader, and when he drew and shot an arrow made sure to keep well away from it. He would rather be hit by human arrows that whatever that creature had created.

The fight continued, with Sharrag diving down and attacking the humans below with fire and then quickly flying upwards as the return volley was fired. Every time the creature shot an arrow he kept well clear, sometimes getting hit by other arrows in the process. Rarely they injured him however and Sharrag smiled as he realised that if the fight continued to go this way it wouldn’t be long before the humans didn’t have anyone left and that would just leave the creature down below.

Sharrag watched as the creature took aim again. As he did Sharrag felt a strange shift in the air as magic was cast. The creature let loose the arrow into the air and Sharrag snorted when he saw that it would fly way off. It was the worst shot of the night so far.

Suddenly the arrow turned in mid air and shot straight towards the dragon. Sharrag growled in surprise and twisted in the air narrowly avoiding it. At the same time many other arrows clattered against his scales, one hit a nerve where the wing connected to the body. Sharrag faulted in his next wing stroke and fell a few feet in the air.

He didn’t see as the creature quickly drew another arrow and fired at the dragon. The shot was accurate. It pieced through the dragons wing, causing Sharrag to screech in pain as his wing was suddenly lit up in fire. He flapped it desperately, trying to put the flames out, but it wouldn’t be so. He roared out again and desperately looked for a nearby water whole. Spotting one he quickly flew towards it and dived in. The flames around his wing sizzled out leaving behind a bad burn.

Sharrag swam to the bank of the water whole and stood up, giving his wings a few flaps and winced again.

‘Not again,’ he thought.

He looked at the burnt wing in confusion. Dragon scales were fireproof. He knew that himself since his wings were a great shield against fire. He had used them often enough in the fight with Thorn, why hadn’t they worked then. He growled in pain as a throb went through his wing, he wouldn’t be able to fly now. One arrow had turned the tables in this battle.

He growled as he spotted the humans in the forest running towards him. He roared and let loose flames into the forest, setting it on emerald fire. The ring of fire spread quickly but the humans just walked through it as if nothing was wrong. They started to fire arrows at the dragon, causing him to growl in annoyance as they clattered of his scales, occasionally one would piece through them. Now that he wasn’t flying it he would be a lot easier to hit.

He tucked his wings by his side and charged at the humans. He butted one of them with his head, breaking the wards easily. It seemed that a direct hit from a dragon would break them relatively easily. He watched as the humans discarded their bows and drew their swords, charging at the dragon. He flattened a few of them with his tail, before bighting one in half. He roared a spewed fire outwards as he felt one of their swords cut into his scales. He swung out his wings knocking many of them away but they just kept getting back up as if nothing had happened. He growled.

A voice was suddenly heard through the fight, “LETTA!”

The invisible bounds suddenly captured Sharrag, trapping his wings, legs and tail. The bounds formed over his muzzle as well stopping him from breathing fire. He groaned and thrashed on the ground, trying to break through them but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t break them.

The creature walked through the soldiers, and they parted before him like a wave. Sharrag glared at it and attacked its mind. It snarled at him and attacked back with much more ferocity causing Sharrag to growl and retreat back into defence. As the invisible mind battle raged a battle of strength was also present.

The soldier watched on with solemn expressions masking their faces. The creatures face was becoming read and it began to rasp slightly in exhaustion. Sharrag was finding it more and more difficult to fight of the mind attacks and breaking the bonds of the invisible spell was beginning to take a strain on him as well.

An hour went past. The creature had fallen to his knees but was somehow keeping the spell held. Sharrag’s mind was beginning to crack under the shear pressure of the creature’s mind. Suddenly with a groan Sharrag’s head collapsed to the ground as his body gave up, not being able to sustain the constant thrashing. At the same time the dragon’s mind cracked as the creature forced himself into Sharrag’s mind.

“Your mine,” it said, a smile creeping across its face.

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Hey guys, New chapter out. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I did :) Vote and comment if you did enjoy as well. I now know exactly what will happen in the next few chapters of the story so I may get them out quicker, if school doesn't get in the way. Anyway, until next time, See Ya!

Pennator^^