Sharrag didn’t know how long they waited within the cave. The Urgralgra didn’t look like they were going to move any time soon. There had been strong smells of cooked meat wafting into the cave signifying that they had made camp. Occasionally a small group of them would come into the cave, but they would either be burnt to a crisp or sliced apart by the Shrrg’s new weapons. They were lucky the Urgralgra did come in because it provided a source of food, even if they didn’t like the burnt pieces.

Sharrag’s wing wasn’t making any progress either. The bone protruded through his wing, taunting him. It refused to heal not matter how much he wanted it to. The Urzhad didn’t take to kindly to the new visitors either. She kept reminding Sharrag that if they didn’t get out of there she would kill him.

He was now sitting at the back of the cave, rather board. That was all that was happening, sitting and the occasional excitement of one or two Urgralgra charging through the cave. He kept a constant visual with his mind however, just in case they figured a new way into the cave, or some way to kill them without entering the cave themselves. He hadn’t found who had attacked him with their own mind, but whenever he did try to take control of one of the Urgralgra the mind attacked him. It was strange.

The pups were the Urzhad cubs seemed to be getting on, which was a big relief for the adults. Two litters of cubs that were enemies weren’t the best company to keep around. They usually spent there time in the pool of water, making as much fun as they could.

Sharrag sat up and began to pace around the cave, a habit he had gotten into. He wanted to be in the fittest condition he could before they eventually attempted an escape. He wanted his wing to be healed however.

As he paced he felt a presence touch his mind. He instantly hardened his barriers and growled, drawing the attention of the Shrrg and Urzhad. The presence didn’t press on in an attack, but instead continued to gently rub against his mind, as if knocking. He didn’t trust the presence, and didn’t open his mind. It didn’t give up however, and as it continued to prod Sharrag thought he felt something familiar about the other mind. Hesitantly he opened his mind, ready to close it at a moment’s notice.

‘About time you let me in!’ yelled a familiar voice, ‘It took me weeks to finally find you, and when I did you are stuck in a cave, boxed in by a small army of urgals!’

Sharrag didn’t understand a word of what the voice was saying, or he did but it was all a blur.

‘Angela. Slower,’ he said to the witch.

It took a few moments for Angela to reply.

‘You big oaf,’ she said, ‘Anyway, how did you get in there?’

‘We’ve got chased by Urgralgra,’ said Sharrag, ‘and ended up at the clearing of water. Met a giant bear Urzhad who helped. Urgralgra found us and trapped us in hear. Only place we could go, got broken wing.’

‘I told you to look after yourself!’ said Angela.

He growled, ‘Well sorry for not doing so. It’s hard to do so with an Urgralgra army of lots coming after you. It was easy to run into Urzhad. I ran into two. They broke my wing, but I breathed fire and burnt them.’

‘Well then congratulations,’ said Angela, ‘Looks like two dragons learnt to breathe fire within a month.’

‘Two dragons?’ asked Sharrag.

‘Yes, the blue female you saw earlier,’ she said, ‘She’s been setting things alight for the past few days. Really quite annoying.’

He tilted his head to the side slightly, interested to here about her again.

‘Well I guess I need to get you out of their don’t I,’ said Angela.

‘That would be nice,’ replied the dragon.

He felt humorous frustration coming from the human as she began to think of a way to get him out.

‘I’ll need a distraction,’ she said, ‘How long can you breathe fire for?’

‘I don’t know,’ replied the dragon, ‘I breathe it in bursts.’

‘Test it and tell me afterwards,’ she said.

‘I will.’

 He felt her presence retreat from his mind. With a sigh he warned the other creatures in the cave what he was about to do. He chose a target, a large rock, and unleashed his flame upon it. After about a minute his throat started to tingle from the continuous flame. After two minutes hit throat started to burn. When he reached for minutes the flame spluttered and went out. He reported his findings to Angela, then got a large drink of water. Breathing fire for a long time wasn’t the best idea.

‘What the plan?’ he asked Angela.

‘Okay, this is going to be harder then I thought,’ she said, ‘I want you to cause a distraction. You are going to breathe your fire out the front of the cave for as long as you can, setting the forest alight hopefully and killing a few of the urgals. This should give me time to hide myself in a position near the front of the cave so I can sneak in afterwards. They’ll be focusing on the deaths and the fire around there camp, trying to put it out. Once you have done I’ll make my way into the cave, hopefully without getting shot in the back.’

Sharrag had trouble understanding everything she said, but understood enough to realise what he had to do. He explained to his pack and the Urzhad what was happening as best he could. They understood enough, which helped. He walked into the tunnel that lead to the outside, and stopped when he saw the opening. He got as close as he dared to the opening, before opening his maw and unleashing his fire. His throat started tingling before long, it was still slightly burnt from the previous time he had done this. There was cries of pain and surprise from the Urgralgra outside. The smell of burning flesh soon reached his nose and the sound of fire burning away at trees. Eventually he couldn’t hold it up any longer and closed his maw, gasping for breath.

He hurriedly retreated from the cave entrance in case the Urgralgra tried to attack him with their ranged weapons. He coughed, his throat now aching badly. It felt like he had just drunk a draught of molten rock. Coughing and struggling to breath he made his way back into the cave and towards the water pool, where he took a long drink, the cool water soothing his throat.

About ten minutes later he heard a few growls coming from the throats of the wolves. He turned around and stretched out his mind to feel the barred mind of Angela. She let him in after a few moments.

‘It worked!’ he said.

‘Just,’ she replied, ‘They did see me as I reached the cave. An arrow struck my wards, but other then that I’m fine.’

Sharrag sighed in relief. He would ask her what a ‘ward’ was later. He coughed again, his throat still agitating him.

‘I can sense other presences in the cave,’ she said, ‘Are you still the leader of the Shrrg pack?’

‘Yes I am,’ replied the dragon, ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’

‘I would think that a wild dragon would want to live by itself,’ she replied.

‘Well I don’t,’ he replied.

‘Well could you tell them I’m not a threat,’ she said.

He did, and they all calmed down. Some of the Shrrg even wagged there tails for they remembered Angela. Many had liked her. The human came through the entrance to the cavern with a slightly dishevelled look, and a few burnt hairs, probably from the fire. The Urzhad growled when she saw her. She didn’t like the two-legged creatures, whether it be dwarves, Urgralgra or humans. Angela glanced back wearily at the bear.  She put up her hand and said something in the magical language. The Urzhad instantly calmed, and seemed to huff before lying down.

Angela walked over to Sharrag, “Now let’s see this broken wing you’ve been talking about.”

Sharrag stretched out the wing hesitantly, wincing in pain. When the witch saw it she gasped.

“This is worse then I thought,” she said.

‘Can it be healed?’ asked the dragon.

“Yes, but it’ll hurt a lot,” replied Angela, “I’ll need to push the bone so it’s connected with the other one. Only then can I heal it.”

Sharrag narrowed his eyes slightly, remembering the pain he had had when he tried to push it in himself.

“I suggest you bight down on something,” she said.

The dragon looked around for something, and found the rock he had breathed fire on earlier. He dragged it over with his tail, and bit down on it. He reached out his mind to the Shrrg and told them not to do anything to harm Angela, and that she was trying to help. The wolves didn’t know what he meant, but they listened.

Angela rolled up her sleaves, mumbling something to herself. She took hold of the spear head of the bone, and gently began to push. The dragon felt the pain shoot through his wing and a moan escaped past the rock. His tail and claws tensed as he gripped the ground. His broken wing moved slightly.

“Don’t move,” she said, “It’ll only make it worse.”

The dragon glared at her. How was he supposed to not move? Shaking his head he bit down harder on the rock and gripped the stony ground with his claws. Angela began again. Sharrag felt the pain and groaned, bighting down harder on the rock. The rock began to crack. She relined the broken bone as quickly as she could, before saying the magical words of healing.

“Waise Heil!”

Sharrag felt instant relief as the bone repaired itself. Angela fell back from the dragon, gasping in exhaustion. The spell had drained a lot of her energy. She took a gemstone from her pocket and focused on it. The energy from the gemstone was transferred into her and she sighed with relief before getting back up.

Sharrag beat his newly healed wing with satisfaction. He could fly again! With a roar of joy he nudged Angela.

‘Thank you,’ he said.

‘You’re welcome, just don’t do anything like that again,’ she said, ‘Healing you nearly killed me.’

‘I won’t,’ he replied with a smug dragon smile.

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Hey guys, new chapter. I hope you enjoyed, vote and comment if you did. New chapter out soon, see Ya!

Pennator^^