Duha has taken a long time to deliver those reports. I suppose she is spending it with those little angels and her sister. I squinted at the tree line. The sun had set hours ago but something told me I needed to keep looking. I saw movement in the trees and frowned at it. "Green Dragon... is there someone there?" I asked pointing into the darkness of the treeline.

He looked through his telescope and then growled. "Soldiers lining up. They have rubbed something on their armour to darken it. What do you think Kyros of the mountain, attack or scouts?"

I sighed looking at the sporadic movement I could see. "There's a lot of them looks like an attack but maybe they are trying to tire us out."

The Green Dragon stared at a point on the wall and then shook his head. "Then why hide?"

I smiled at him. "Should we send the 8 legs?"

He nodded. "Distraction or not it will take out a few people."

"Do it then." He gave me a half bow then ran off.

"A problem kyros?" I nodded pointing at the shapes in the trees. Duha stared at them and then smiled. "Oh dear. Looks like they are going to come for us." I hummed my agreement. "I assume they will start screaming in a moment."

"Yes. How are Reina and the cubs?"

Duha grinned at me. "Eboni sent them all to sleep. Kyanite said to tell you he was coming this way later."

I sighed. "Why?"

Duha shrugged. "He wants to gather the night reports and then take over looking after the pups. He thinks it's unfair on Reina to have to do everything."

I chuckled. "Isn't he sweet."

Both of us looked back at the trees when someone screamed. The scream cut off abruptly like the person screaming died before they finished emptying their lungs. More screams filled the night as the humans started to run out into the open ground facing the trees with weapons out.

Duha smiled. "They are singing our song shall we dance?"

Arrows started to fall on them from the wall and the troops below us turned. I nodded to Duha seeing the ladders coming towards us. "The 8 legs will stay in the trees. These ones are for us! Come then Duha. Let's play."

The few archers we had up here tried to stop the ladders but the first one hit the wall in no time. I used my short sword to stab the first person to come over the top. His body fell down the ladder knocking some of the others down. Duha watched him fall with a smile. "I want some of that armour. He seems heavier than normal." With that, she smiled darting off to the next ladder as the hooks thudded into place.

I unhooked the one near me and pushed as hard as I could with my tool made for this task. It started to move away from the wall with my strength pushed it away. It tiered a moment before falling back on top of the three people climbing it making them cry out.

Screams still rose from the forest joined with the cries of pain below us. Arrows found their mark and ladders toppled. Both wounded and winded lay writhing beneath us. A new ladder appeared next to me. A human is already near the top. I stabbed them shoving him down. Unfortunately this time it didn't take others with him. I was beaten back by the human that arrived at the top of the ladder moments later. Two humans managed to get on the wall just after I stumbled back.

I fought with the two in front of me and others made their way up the ladder. I found myself battling with the growing quantity of humans as the ladder was joined by two others.

I felt the presence of more troops behind as the fight in front got harder. Why are there so many? I wondered as I fought for my life. A sword flashed next to me and I knew Kyanite had arrived from the flash of deep red that followed it. Everywhere his blade landed people screamed and died.

The humans continued to flow up the ladders as we fort them back to where they were hooked to the wall. With Kyanite killing more than one person with each swing causing people and limbs to fly off the edge of the narrow wall, we carved a blood-soaked path through the humans. I realised with some grim satisfaction that I had been holding this side alone until Kyanite got here.

As we moved I saw Duha casually knocking people off the wall with that metal staff of hers.

We finally got to the ladder. It was twice as wide as the normal ladders and made of wood but covered in thin Iron strips to stop the fire arrows from burning it.

I unhooked the heavy metal hooks holding the ladder fast to the wall and started to push it back with my tool. Kyanite's sword thrust over my shoulder to kill the man I was now face to face with. I saw too late the heavy weapon that would tear at Kyanite's unmodified armour coming down towards us from the person below. One last shove sent the ladder away from the wall and put me between Kyanite and the weapon. The weapon collided with my prototype-modified armour. As the ladder fell away from the wall the weapon opened the front of my armour with the weight of the people and ladder behind it.

It tore straight through it revealing the chainmail that attached the two pieces of armour together. My mind seemed to be working fast as I saw the ladder teetering for far longer than It should. The chainmaile layer pulled out and I looked down at the inner layer. It was intact.

Looking up at the face of the man on the ladder I watched as he realised he was falling backwards. There was a twang of a crossbow string and I saw a group of men lined up pointing those crossbows at us. Pain lanced through me as I looked down. A broad arrow shaft vibrated in my gut. Crap... I didn't see that coming. Where are the archers?

I staggered backwards as someone called my name. I slipped on the blood that coated the top of the wall and felt myself falling. My world started to become nothing but pain as my mind slipped away from me and the wall seemed to grow in front of me. At least the modification works... as long as they aren't shot after...words.

I watched in horror as the new weapon ripped open Kyros's Dragon armour then a large arrow impaled him. He stumbled back. "Kyros!" I cried seeing him heading for the edge of the wall. Before I could catch him he slipped over and fell from the wall. I darted to the edge to see if he was alright. I saw a Purple Dragon fly up and catch him taking him safely to the ground. He wasn't moving and a rage filled my whole being with white hot flame. "WHITE FANG FLY!" I bellowed.

As soon as I finished shouting I took off followed by a large group of the White Fang. I gave the humans below me the molten fire that could melt the very rock they stood on. The rock obliged to my will. It turned that steady rock into a river of burning magma. It filled the air with screams as we moved away from the wall.

We flew on to the camp where the humans were scrambling. "BURN THE TENTS, THE WEAPONS! Burn everything!" I roared and breathed fire into the camp below me. People and horses screamed as they met my fire. The ground turned black instantly as I cut a path of burning fury through the unexpecting people below me.

The White Fang took that as the signal to start and swooped into their ugly work. They set fires and dived to the ground pulling people high into the air and then letting them drop to the floor with screams for help before those screams were brutally cut short by the ground.

The large siege weapons shifted to start firing at us. I tucked my wings to drop out of the path of the large bolder with spikes. They did that to me once before and I removed the weapon from them. Could I take out that thing? I growled and headed straight to the nearest one.

I dropped next to it with two White Dragons causing the ground to shake and the humans to stumble. Opening my large maw I poured heat into the weapon while the White Dragons watched my back. The metal started to glow and the wood smouldered. The nasty thing collapsed the wood under the metal turning to ash with the heat of my breath on it just as I ran out of air.

Looking at my work I panted to regain the energy I had used to burn everything so far. Once I had my breath back I took off with the two that had watched my back. As soon as we took to the skies again others did as I had done. Groups of three made short work of the weapons and one by one we dissarmed the humans of these things built to kill my kind.

As I flew to the next I saw the weapons meant to rip our armour to sreads on their rack burning. I was happy to see only three missing. We landed next to another stage weapon and I was burning it when the pain spread through my back. I turned my head breathing fire at the troop trying to pull me down with one of those new weapons. It had court on my wing and had saved my armour. One of my White Dragons freed me and broke that nasty weapon leaving the blade inbraded in the bone of my wing.

"Retreat." I called morphing as one of the White Dragons lifted me to take me back to the castle. As I morphed the blade fell away and I poured heat into it turning the metal into a pool of liquid that would be useless to them now that we had destroyed everything they could use to forge it back into something useful.

The White fang followed still swooping and burning as we left. Now pain had taken my anger, I was relieved to see every Dragon that had followed still flew. There was blood staining some of the white scales but we had undoubtedly done far more damage to them than they had done to us.

As soon as we landed I was handed to a Blue Dragon. I watched as the Blue Dragons started to look at those that had followed me. Duha trotted up to me as I counted the wounded. I morphed so Blue Dragon could tend the wound in my wing. Four wounded Dragons out of twenty. We undoubtedly did more damage to them than they did to us. "Kyros... is he...." I couldn't bring myself to finish the question.

"He's in a bad way. He is too wounded to be flown home so Blue Elder will be called for." Duha said looking at the wound on my back. I started to shiver from blood loss and the energy spent burning as the Blue Dragon sat me down and poked at the wound on my back. "He will be here soon." Duha said then looked behind me with a pained expression.

"He will be here in time." I flinched at Reina's soft voice.

"My gem..."

She stopped in front of me and stroked my face with her warm paw. "Kyros got hurt and you lost your temper. Tell me you at least took out the siege weapons."

I nodded wincing at the pain as the Blue Dragon took more scales off to get to the wound. "You didn't know this would happen, did you?"

She sighed looking at the wound. "Will you be able to fix him up here?"

"Oh yes, Reina of the dragon fire. It looks quite deep but he will be back on the line by tomorrow. No flying though. This wound is to the bottom of his wing. He will be unable to fly for days... maybe even a week."

Reina stroked my face again. "You be good for the Blue Dragon while I go and check on Kyros. Duha has anyone told Eric?" The whole time she spoke with that same soft tone.

Duha nodded. Reina walked away with Eboni and Shadow following behind. "What on earth did you do out there? The sky looks like sunrise and the humans under the wall are all... well." Duha asked me looking at me with wonder.

Guilt hit me like a cave collapsing. "I melted the rock under their feet.... that was probably bad."

Duha took my hand and smiled at me. "You're too gentle to be a general Kyanite. We pulled most of them out before the ground hardened. We rescued a lot of the people. As soon as you took off we had Dragons and Birds in the sky to resure who they could. Their armour was very good at dispersing the heat. They have burns but according to the Blue Dragons most will live as they did before."

"The guilt is a new thing Duha. A thing I hope to sort out with Reina later."

Duha smiled. "You can talk to me any time as well Kyanite. Now I think you are about to be taken to the Blue Dragon's hospital. I need to get the scout report."

"I may take you up on your offer to talk my friend. Would you send a message for me?" Duha smiled and I quickly sketched a note and handed it to her. "Would you make sure this gets to Garnet?" She smiled and nodded.

Duha walked off. "I will need to have you carried Red Dragon." I sighed but lay on the litter he pointed at. I was lifted into the air and covered with a blanket that made me shiver again. "We will warm you soon Red Dragon. Try to stay still in the meantime." The pain in my back was numb now the Blue Dragon had done whatever it was they did, but the movement of the litter still made me feel it as a gentle tugging. "Soon we will have you on a bed with coals under it to keep you warm. Then we will fix your wound up. Is their pain?" He asked smiling. I shook my head. "Then you will not feel it when we work on it. You are lucky I specialise in wounds on wings."