Sharrag swooped over the tips of the trees, barely scraping them with his claws. He was flying rather slowly for a dragon, keeping a close eye on the ground below. Every so often a streak of grey brown appeared below telling the dragon he was still on the right path.

The valley they were going through looked mildly familiar. Sharrag still couldn’t place together everything that was there, and still was unable to stretch out his mind, thought he was able to withstand the touch of another’s mind. His memories were coming back full force now and almost every minute something new came to him.

They had been travelling for two days. Talismen had already sent Siserl ahead of them so she could tell Tay’el that everything was fine. He had no doubt that the old wolf was getting extremely worried by now. They had been gone for over two weeks while they tracked down Sharrag and waited for him to heal enough so he could at least fly.

Levial and Aradon were also accompanying them back to the cave. Levial was now riding on the back of Talismen while Aradon was on Craves. Talismen felt it was a bit strange with something on his back but had forced himself to allow it, even if it did slow him down slightly.

‘We are here,’ Talismen said to Sharrag and the elves as they turned into the valley that housed the pack.

Sharrag spotted a cave that instantly sparked another memory inside him. With a dragonish smile he descended to the cave, landing with a small thud. The first thing he noticed was the overwhelming smell of blood. He growled. It was fresh. It wasn’t the scent of Feldunost blood either. It was wolf blood. Shrrg blood.

He tried to stretch his mind back to the pack, but couldn’t. He growled in annoyance and looked back to the cave. Something was definitely not right. He padded into the cave warily. The scent of blood was a lot stronger inside. He walked to the end of the cave and stopped, in slight horror. The bodies of wolf pups were littering the cave floor.

To one side was the massive form of the Urzhad mother. She was lying there, dead, with claw marks covering her flanks. Whatever had attacked hadn’t shown them any mercy, and was obviously extremely powerful. One would have to be to be able to kill an Urzhad. Sharrag felt a rage overtake him and looked around, before suddenly flinching as something touched his mind.

‘Sharrag, we found Tay’el and Siserl,’ said Talismen, ‘but the cave has been attacked. Only those two and two pups got out. They also managed to rescue an Urzhad cub. Whatever you do don’t go to the cave. A Shrrg attacked that none of us recognize. It’s still there.’

Sharrag instantly swung around as he heard a deep-throated growl sound behind him. He stopped and snarled. It was a Shrrg, larger then any other he had seen before. Blood mattered its fur and dripped from its muzzle. As it took a step towards the dragon Sharrag noticed it had a slight limp, and there was a large scar running up its left foreleg, a scar that looked suspiciously like ones made from a dragon’s claw.

A deep growl from Sharrag answered the Shrrg’s. This was the wolf that had killed half his pack, and had somehow managed to defeat an Urzhad. The green dragon was not going to give it any mercy. With a roar he opened his maw an unleashed a torrent of green fire. The Shrrg didn’t even flinch as the fire washed harmlessly over its fur. If anything it laughed.

Sharrag stopped and roared in surprise as a sudden flash of pain lit up on his snout. He swung his claw at the Shrrg but it was already moving. It bit down on Sharrag’s leg, the scales snapping like they were paper under the wolf’s grip. Sharrag screeched in pain and battered its head with his tail, causing it to let go and jump back.

The green dragon quickly followed up on his attack and launched himself at the Shrrg. It jumped out of the way but Sharrag wasn’t going to let it go so easily. He breathed his green flames, making it yelp in surprise, before swiping at it with his claws. He landed a hit, which was stopped by wards, but it didn’t stop the Shrrg from being launched into the cave wall.

It was quickly on its feet, and growled at the green dragon. A deep hatred was lit up in its eyes causing Sharrag to frown slightly. This wolf did look familiar. The scar, the way it gazed at him. Another memory suddenly struck him. The memory of a previous leader. A previous Alpha, one that was unable to support the pack and was suspicious of the green Shrrg pup. Sharrag narrowed his eyes and for the first time since he defeated the shade stretched out his mind.

‘You are dead,’ he said with a snarl.

It hardly surprised him when the previous Alpha answered back, ‘I never died. I survived. And now I will kill you and take back what is mine.’

With a snarl of vengeance the Alpha launched himself at the green dragon, aiming for his throat. Sharrag roared at him and twisted around, slapping the Shrrg from the air with his tail. He hit the other wall, his invisible wards protecting him. Shaking his head he snarled at Sharrag, before running out of the cave with speed.

Sharrag quickly followed him but by the time he reached the entrance of the cave the Alpha had disappeared. With a snarling grunt he launched himself into the air and stretched out his mind to Talismen.

‘Look out, the previous Alpha has returned,’ he said, ‘And it seems as though he has someone working for him. He had wards and an unnatural strength.’

The reply was quick coming, ‘You mind’s fixed!’

Sharrag growl as the mental shout hurt him somewhat, but he grinned, ‘Somewhat, but not fully just yet. Don’t shout like that again.’

He felt Talismen’s mood return to being solemn, ‘You said that the Alpha before you has returned? But I thought you killed him.’

‘I fatally injured him, or so I thought,’ replied Sharrag, ‘But it seems that he managed to survive that injury.’

‘Come meet us, we will talk about this when we are face to face,’ replied the Shrrg, sending him a mental picture of where he was.

Sharrag quickly found them, landing in a clearing nearby. Another growl escaped him as he put wait on his injured leg. He looked back at it. There was a bight mark there and several missing scales. Bright red dragon blood was pouring from the wound and onto the grass below. He reached around with his maw and cleaned the wound with his tongue before limping over to where his pack was.

Most of them were lying down. Levial was standing over Tay’el murmuring words in the ancient language. Tae was sitting nearby, her tail twitched nervously as she watched the elf slowly heal her mother. Fang and Brice were practicing with their weapons. They were still a little sloppy but were slowly getting there.

As Sharrag came into their view they all looked towards him. Talismen growled as he scented the dragon’s blood.

‘What happened?’ he asked.

‘I was bitten,’ replied Sharrag, ‘He managed to break my scales somehow.’

Levial sat back from his work on Tay’el. She was bleeding from several different wounds, most of which had been closed up now. She was breathing easily, but was unconscious. The elf narrowed his eyes as he spotted the wound on Sharrag’s leg.

“You need to stop getting hurt Sharrag,” said Levial, getting up, “The amount of times I have had to heal you is getting annoying.”

Sharrag snorted slightly, ‘It’s not like I choose to be attacked everywhere I go.’

Levial walked up to him and inspected the wound, “What happened?”

Instead of telling him with words Sharrag showed him the fight and everything in it. Levial’s frown intensified as he watched the unnatural speed and strength of the Alpha, as well as the wards he had on him. Sharrag shook himself afterward. His mind still struggled slightly with things like this, but it was quickly getting better.

“Can you tell me a bit about this ‘Alpha’,” said Levial.

Sharrag sent his mind back to when he was only two months old, and frowned, finding it slightly difficult, ‘He was the average Shrrg alpha I guess. The pack had just been driven out of their territory when they found my egg and I hatched. I used to think I was a Shrrg back then. The Alpha was extremely suspicious of me. He knew I was growing far faster then the average Shrrg, and was beginning to threaten his leadership. At one point a Shrrg had been injured in a fight against an Urzhad. I defeated the Urzhad but when I offered to take the Shrrg home with me the Alpha refused to let me. The Shrrg died soon afterward. I lost it and challenged him to a fight, and won. I thought I fatally wounded him, but obviously not.’

“So he’s after revenge?’ asked Levial with a frown, not really looking for an answer, “There is something about this that isn’t right. I understand how Talismen and others of your back are capable of mind speech, but how is he. He hasn’t been near you in almost a year now.”

Sharrag frowned at that thought and found he couldn’t find an answer. The only thing he could think of was if the wolf had found a human that had taught him how to speak and fight with the ability he could, but that also didn’t fit in right. Sharrag had been influencing his pack’s mind for a long time. He wasn’t so sure a human or dwarf could teach a wolf all this in such a short amount of time. He looked at the elf, hoping he had come to a conclusion.

“I have a theory,” said Levial, “he may have been mutated.”

At Sharrag’s confused look he continued.

“Sometimes humans, dwarfs or even elves use magic to almost mutate creatures to become extraordinary fighting beings,” he said, “They cast spells over the that increase there strength and speed and also increase the creatures capability for speech and the like. It a strange magic that isn’t practiced often, but its not unheard of.”

Sharrag nodded again, looking out into the forest. If the previous alpha was back, then things were going to be a lot more dangerous around here. Anger suddenly came to him as he remembered the dead pups. A wolf like that needed to be killed.

‘We’re going to have to hunt him down then,’ said Sharrag, ‘Hunt him down and kill him.’

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Hey guys, new chapter. I hope you enjoyed. Sorry it took me a little longer then I expected, I needed a small break :) Anyway, vote if you enjoyed and comment on what you think of the chapter. Next one will be out as soon as I can get it. See Ya!

Pennator^^