Post by Arrowbid on Aug 22, 2007 18:36:15 GMT -5
A dream within a dream
Wynd’s wing tips were spiked with frost when he sailed over. The mountain chill had slowed him almost into torpor and he had to shake his wavering neck in the sky to free it of the ice and drowsiness. Wynd dove deeper out of the clouds and away from the ominous mines and snowy top. He had seen no living creatures anywhere around the mountain or the desert but this left his mind immediately as he looked out at the scene that now lay before him. Wynd had caught up with the wagon, but it was not as he had thought. It was enthralled with defenses and spiked rims. A cart was being pulled behind it, inside were the lifeless bodies of man and other races as well. Dwarves, and even Triskagin, the skull helmed water people, were heaped in the cart. At the wagons head were two fine war horses, their large muscular bodies trotted along at a brisk pace, and the wagon moved easily throughout the barren stone wasteland. Wynd looked thunderstruck as he saw the wagon stop; the driver pulled the reigns and halted the horses. He was wearing a black cloak and looked around a pointed to something in the distance. The driver then motioned to someone inside the wagon, and the horses snorted with agitation as a muscular looking Triskagin stepped out of the war cart. He brought a large three pronged spear with him and walked out into the blood covered field. Dead creatures lay everywhere mostly armored men, but as Wynd tilted his wings higher and circled over the battlefield, he saw something else. Far beyond the road, there was a dragons body, spears and arrows were thrust everywhere into its body and its giant head lolled in the dirt. Its blue scales were dull with the commence of death, and it was obvious that the creature had died only days ago, as its body was untouched by scavengers. Wynd looked down saddened, he didn’t know who the she dragon was but seeing it lie there defeated only brought back memories of his poor sister. She had long left for the dragon’s heaven, and Wynd wondered if this young blue had joined her.
Then something unthinkable happened that angered Wynd even more, the triskagin man walked over to several bodies and heaved them up upon his strong shoulders. Two young armored men, still clutching their weapons in their lifeless hands, left their families for the call of war, and were simply heaped upon the dead. Then when the triskagin man approached the dragoness carcass he stopped, and simply pulled out the weapons, took them and left. All other dead races were taken for burial, even those of the enemies’ army, but the dragoness was left for crow food.
Wynd roared with uncontrolled anger and launched himself higher into the sky. At the sound, the cloaked man and triskagin looked up into the blue, but saw nothing. Wynd had gone as high as possible, there were no clouds to block him from view so he flew until he was an unnoticeable speck. He turned around and looked down, focusing with his telescopic eyes, he could just make out the wagon and its war horses. Then after letting his talons dangle in the air for preparation, he tilted forward and let himself freefall, clear out of the sky. Thousands of feet zoomed by in a second; he himself became no more than a mere blur. Wynd’s face cut through the wind like a sword and all that filled his ears was the howl of the wind and those hunting stories that he remembered from those days long past....
“How long before it begins, at the speed of sound, the lights go dim. You look up at the night and it’s moving… at the speed of light… Up in the clouds see your chance, like the strong and proud, I come down at the speed of sound…"
Wynd could only hear these words. He plummeted as if in a trance with the howls and cries of the world and its agony calling to him. He crashed through the earth’s atmosphere in a great wave of confusion, leaving nothing but a spectacle lucky to behold. Man and animal alike would shudder as the sky burst open. Splitting its seams and the rain came down like tears from those distant clouds, which had been slowly gathering.
“And nothing else compares… to flight at the speed of light…"
Wynd came into his own, a snarling fit of hunger and thrill that filled his veins and pulled him into a deep spell. His eyes clouded over with red and the anger brought on by hunger rippled through him once more.
Wynd smoothed out his fall and slowly opened his wings giving in to the skies tortuous prying and tortures alike. They opened like a parachute almost ripping the leather if he had not been careful. Then his talons opened up, on his forearms as well as his hind legs. They burst open like an explosion of pitch-black teeth, and he lowered his sledge hammer like tail to keep from injuring himself. The war horses whinnied and neighed as they reared up slashing their huge hooves through the air. And the driver had no time to respond as he didn’t see the dragon until the last second. The poor horses made their mistake; their backs had been armored by the men but their undersides remained unprotected. Wynd opened his jaw and stretched out his claws, and slammed into one of the horses. Almost knocking it backwards on top of the men, if it wasn’t for the fact he had dug his talons deeply into its hide. Even now he was carrying it off; the horse was already dead, killed by the shock of it. Yet it still thrashed about in his grip, as the last of its thoughts and desperate impulses left its brain. Wynd’s long tail had come down hard on the top of the war cart, splitting it down the middle. Weapons and armor clashed about as the wagon was jostled and the horse was ripped from its harness. The man and the triskagin looked up at the sky with shock and hatred as they saw the dragon fly off with their horse. They started to search through their weapon stores, as they had also been traveling to bring supplies for the army camps.
Wynd passed the horse to his forelegs and carried it on slowly, trying to turn around and get back to the forest. But the weight of it pulled him down, he had not hunted in months and his limbs were aching with the new weight that he had to get reused to.