Chapter 43: The Dragon Imposes Himself |
Doomwing scowled as he flew out over the sea. He had sensed power stirring near his territory, and that sensation had grown stronger with each passing moment. This was no ancient titan rising from the depths for a bit of air. This was most likely two ancient giants of the deep doing battle.
Normally, he wouldn't have cared. If the ancients of the deep wanted to kill each other, then let them. Perhaps they'd be spared a repeat of the Third Catastrophe that way. However, he did not want any such squabble near his territory. The last thing he needed was for the tiger-people village to be crushed after some kraken picked up a leviathan and threw them onto land.
He'd seen it happen before. Even setting aside the Lord of the Tides, the oldest and mightiest of the ocean's denizens were more than capable of radically altering the weather and landscape when they fought. He'd once gone looking for a bit of whale to eat only to stumble across a kraken beating a leviathan over the head with what appeared to be the remains of an island before the kraken flung a coral reef at the cephalopod.
It had not helped that Ashheart had been with him.
The other dragon had taken one look at the chaos and had promptly thrown himself into the melee with gleeful abandon. In the end, the kraken and the leviathan had gone off to lick their wounds while Ashheart lounged upon a newly made island.
And Doomwing?
He'd been forced to deal with all irate merfolk who'd fled the area only to return and find their homes destroyed, their coral reef imbedded in a new volcanic island, and a new volcanic island where open sea had once been.
And the worst part?
He hadn't managed to get any whale.
He bared his teeth.
This whole mess was headed toward his territory.
The gathering storm parted before him as he drew closer, the tempest's rage meaningless before his might and his magic. Thousands of merfolk fought in the waters below him, their sleek, swift forms accompanied by giant sharks, manta rays, and octopi. More fought along the surface, riding on the backs of hippocampi, their tridents, spears, and swords flashing as they laid into their foes. Sea serpents roared and sent magic streaking up into the sky after flocks of sirens whose eerie singing threatened to rob them of their wits and lull them into a sleep they would never wake from.
And at the heart of the battle were the two giants of the deep he had sensed: a kraken and a leviathan. They were each bigger than him by a considerable margin although that said little of their power. By and large, the creatures of the deep grew larger than their terrestrial or aerial counterparts.
The kraken was mostly a dull brown, but her body was punctuated by rings of bright blue and green. Her eyes were a baleful orange, and her massive beak was exposed. Her opponent was a male leviathan of similar size. Dark blue scales covered most of his body, with twin streaks of green along his belly.
The kraken brought one tentacle down on the leviathan's head with thunderous force, and the impact sent rain flying outward. A bolt of lightning crackled down from the sky to strike the momentarily stunned leviathan, and it was joined by another and another until it seemed the whole storm was little more than an extension of the kraken's wrath.
But the leviathan recovered, and the waters around the creature trembled before the leviathan's head drew back and he unleashed a beam of water at the kraken. The sheer force of the attack was enough to shove the kraken away, and the gleaming barriers of magic the kraken conjured to fend off the assault shattered in quick succession.
Doomwing had seen leviathans pierce through islands and scour canals into the coast with attacks like that.
Not to be outdone, the kraken hurled herself at the leviathan, and the pair turned the already tumultuous ocean into a scene of utter devastation as they grappled back and forth, heedless of the lesser creatures caught in their path. Sirens were crushed in mid-air as a flailing tentacle swung wildly at a heavily armoured jaw. A pod of horned whales were sent flying through the air as colossal serpentine coils smashed into the water and tried to crush the life out of an island-sized octopoid.
Was there another undersea war going on?
Just as there were kingdoms on land, there were kingdoms beneath the waves. For obvious reasons, most kingdoms either paid homage to or were directly ruled by creatures like leviathans and krakens. Yes, the majority of the citizens would be merfolk or aquatic beast-people, but when push came to shove, krakens and leviathans were the ones in charge.
After all, what were merfolk or beast-people supposed to do when a living island showed up and started smashing everything? Their only real chance for survival would be to find a similarly huge and powerful creature to protect them. And although krakens and leviathans didn't have the same hoarding tendencies as dragons, they were fond of laying claim to vast swathes of the ocean.
Depending on who was involved, these wars could involve more than just two giants of the deep. It wasn't uncommon for the very oldest and mightiest krakens and leviathans to send their children into battle as well, creating battlefronts that could stretch across entire oceans, with each major clash punctuated by raging storms.
The duelling behemoths in front of him were not the very oldest and mightiest of their kind. Instead, they were likely two or perhaps three Ages old. It showed in the way they fought too – all power and fury with little of the cunning and deceptiveness that was common of their older and more experienced kin.
Doomwing was about to announce himself – the fools were so caught up in their petty squabble that they hadn't even noticed his approach – when he caught sight of something that was equal parts baffling and endearing.
A water salamander hatchling was swimming through the battle, his foot-long form riding the crest of one wave after another as he continued to make his way in the general direction of Doomwing's territory. Either through absurd luck or impossible skill, the creature survived near-death experience after near-death experience as he paddled through the maelstrom, a silly smile on his face and a cheerful air about him despite the clash of weapons, the roar of magic, and the monumental thunder of the two warring titans.
Ludicrous.
Yet utterly typical.
True salamanders, like fire salamanders and waters salamanders, were perhaps the most exasperating creatures in the world. They did not raise their young for long. Instead, they looked after their young just long enough to ensure they could survive… and then they sent their young out into the world.
Why?
It was simple. True salamander hatchlings possessed a bizarre form of intuition that would allow them to find a group that would take them in and help them reach their full potential. They would leave their parents and then wander until they found that group, and then they would stay with that group for the rest of their lives.
When Mother Tree had explained that to him, Doomwing had not understood that she meant that literally until he'd seen it himself.
True salamanders were stupidly, fanatically, unshakeable loyal to the group they chose. They could – and frequently would – die defending them. If a salamander joined a group of wolves, that salamander would fight anything and everything that threatened those wolves. It didn't matter if it was a hydra, a basilisk, or a dragon, the salamander would not hesitate to fight.
But the intuition that salamanders possessed was potent indeed. They only ever chose groups of good character, the kind that would take care of them and shelter them… and salamanders did not stay small forever. No. They would grow, and as they grew older and larger, they turned from being simple-minded, almost comical little creatures, to wise guardians of formidable power.
An adult water salamander was usually around a dozen feet long – and capable of shooting beams of water that could carve through granite and creating waves that could sink ships. The greatest water salamanders were powerful enough to give even dragons who had achieved their Second Awakening pause although he'd never encountered any salamander – water or otherwise – who could match a dragon who'd reached their Third Awakening.
Yet despite the power they could achieve, a salamander never forgot the ones who'd raised it and would remain loyal to the descendants of its original group. He knew of a thunder salamander who had been raised by wolves. That salamander had lived in the same area for millennia, faithfully raising and protecting generation after generation after generation of wolves descended from the pack he had joined in the long ago days of his youth. Those wolves had ascended into storm wolves by virtue of their bond with the thunder salamander, and they would only continue to rise further. That salamander was more than three hundred feet long and capable of creating sizeable storms singlehandedly.
Of course, the advantages of befriending and raising a salamander had led many to try enslaving them. That seldom worked. The moment a salamander had the strength, it would turn on those who had captured it and slaughter them without mercy before continuing its search for a suitable group. A salamander's loyalty was a thing of beauty while also being baffling and utterly bizarre.
Still… if the water salamander was headed toward his territory…
He used his telekinesis to lift the water salamander out of the water. Despite the immense disparity in size, the creature smiled happily and chirped a cheerful greeting. It was only later, as they grew older, that they became capable of speech. However, Doomwing had no problems deciphering the salamander's intentions.
The water salamander was indeed heading in the general direction of Doomwing's territory. How long had he been swimming? He wasn't sure. He'd stopped keeping track after about a week.
Doomwing snorted. Utter madness. A week or more? The water salamander was fortunate to have avoided being eaten by a passing shark, large fish or whale.
The water salamander merely shrugged. He knew where he needed to be, and he was confident he could get there if he just kept swimming. But it would be very nice if Doomwing could carry him a bit. He didn't really know who Doomwing was, but he knew that Doomwing was from the place he needed to go to. So if Doomwing could just carry him for a bit and then drop him off once they got closer to shore, he'd be very appreciative.
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He'd even give Doomwing a fish once he caught one to pay him back.
Under most other circumstances, Doomwing would have been insulted. However, salamander hatchlings were simple souls and basically incapable of deception or subterfuge. The salamander had offered to give him a fish because a fish was the best thing the salamander could think of. It was like a dragon hatchling offering up a coin from their meagre hoard.
Doomwing chuckled. He had never understood why the First Gods had made true salamanders like this, and not even Mother Tree or Dion had ever been able to explain it to him either. Yet he could appreciate their determination, their almost suicidal loyalty, and their desire to seek strength in their own way. A dragon often grew strongest alone, for it was in facing the world and its challenges that a dragon grew mighty. Salamanders were different. They sought out the company of others, and their strength grew as a result of their desire to protect those who had taken them in.
"Very well," Doomwing rumbled. "I will take you with me when I return. However… I expect an impressive fish in return."
The water salamander nodded earnestly and wagged his tail. He would be sure to secure the finest fish he could for Doomwing once he had reached his destination.
Wrapping an ancient rune of protection around the tiny salamander, Doomwing turned his attention to the battle raging below him. It was actually disgraceful that the kraken and leviathan continued to fight in his presence. Had he wanted, he could have torn them to pieces with his magic and scattered their corpses across the waves. The moment he had arrived, they should have ceased fighting, if only to ascertain his intentions. What were their parents teaching them?
It was time to impose himself, especially since the battle continued to move toward his territory.
"Enough!" Doomwing boomed, his voice amplified by magic until the sound of it was enough to leave the lesser creatures rolling around in the water in agony whilst the two titans sprang apart and turned their gazes toward him. "Cease your bickering."
They regarded him warily, and he thought, for a moment, that they would have the good sense to depart without any further issue. It would have been the wise thing to do. Instead, they proved their stupidity with the very first words to leave their mouths.
"This is none of your business, dragon," the kraken snarled.
"Begone," the leviathan hissed. "You have no power here, you overgrown drake."
The water salamander made a keening sound. Simple minded as he was, even he could tell that had been the wrong thing to say.
"You are nearing my territory," Doomwing replied. "And I will not have your petty squabbles damaging what is mine. As for my power… I have more than enough to deal with the likes of you, you worthless eel."
The leviathan at least had the good sense to attempt a defence. He called for a handful of ancient runes, along with more than a dozen greater runes. It was an impressive display, all things considered. It didn't matter.
Doomwing simply struck him with the telekinetic equivalent of a mountain-sized sledgehammer. His half-formed runes shattered like glass – proving once again that in conflicts of this kind that speed was of paramount importance – before Doomwing's attack sent him hurtling down into the depths until he struck the bottom of the sea. Doomwing kept him pinned there, exposed to the sky, as the continued force of Doomwing's telekinesis kept water from rushing in to fill the gap.
The kraken could have retreated. It would have been the smart thing to do. Instead, she proved herself as stupid as her foe by reaching for the lightning in the storm. And again, Doomwing was faster. He tore the lightning from the clouds with a twelfth-order spell before she could seize it, and her massive form lit up as a rune of enhancement granted the spell the power it needed to leave her paralysed and floating limply on the water.
The assembled merfolk and other monsters had recovered from their earlier disorientation and were now doing their best to blend in with the waves or to slink away. His lips curled. How amusing. They were acting far more intelligently than their leaders. The kraken twitched as the leviathan strained weakly against his telekinesis, and Doomwing wondered if he should simply leave, or if further instruction was necessary.
However, his attention was drawn by the approach of two much larger creatures than the ones he'd dealt with. Ah. It would seem their parents were coming.
"Doomwing." The leviathan arrived first. He was similar in colouration to the leviathan Doomwing had bested, but he was larger and less streamlined. Instead, his scales were rough and jagged, and dorsal plates rose up from his back like the peaks of broken mountains against the westering sun. "Release my son."
"He was one of yours, Torrentcoil?" Doomwing snorted. "With his lack of intelligence, I wasn't able to make the connection."
Torrentcoil had sided with them during the Third Age, turning against the Lord of the Tides. That was worthy of respect, and Doomwing had stayed out the leviathan's business ever since. It was a pity his son was a fool.
"He is a foolish whelp," Torrentcoil replied. "But he is still my whelp."
"Hmph." Doomwing released his telekinetic hold on the younger leviathan, and he wisely fled to his father's side. "This squabble is nearing my territory."
"That was not intended," Torrentcoil replied. "My battle is with –"
His words were interrupted by the arrival of a second kraken. She was larger than the first and of a size with Torrentcoil. Her gaze went from the kraken twitching weakly upon the water to first Torrentcoil and then Doomwing.
"Stormbeak," Torrentcoil snarled.
The kraken ignored him in favour of tugging the smaller kraken to her. "You have harmed my daughter, Doomwing."
"And your daughter is a fool who should have known to retreat instead of trying to strike at me with the storm." Doomwing made a sound of contempt. "She is at least an Age too young to even think of trying that, and she was lucky it was me she faced. Had she tried that on Stormbringer, she would be dead."
Stormbringer was usually easy-going, but she took any attempt to strike at her with lightning personally. She considered it at insult and would generally retaliate by showing her opponent what lightning was truly capable of. And considering she was a primordial tempest dragon, that demonstration was generally fatal. Even Doomwing would think twice before throwing lightning at her.
Stormbeak glared at him, and he stared back. Both Torrentcoil and Stormbeak were powerful, and they were similar in age to him. But they were both highly specialised in how they fought. They had weaknesses he could exploit, and they both knew it. He was more well-rounded, and if need be, he could simply retreat up into the sky and rain magic down until they were forced to retreat. The battle would not be easy by any means, and he could well find himself in trouble if he was careless, but the odds would favour him.
Besides, neither of them would dare risk battle with their children around. The moment the three of them fought seriously, their children would die. They simply weren't equipped to handle a proper fight between three beings from the First Age.
"I care nothing for the wars you wage against each other," Doomwing said. "Fill the ocean with blood if you wish – but do it somewhere else. You know the boundaries of my territory, and you know how close this battle is to intruding. I will not have your squabbles damage what is mine. Take your children and your followers and go."
They locked gazes with him for a long moment, and the very ocean trembled as their power stirred. He almost snorted. They were posturing, nothing more. They could not afford to look weak in front of their followers, but they also knew better than to push him. No doubt they could tell that his injuries had healed. Perhaps they'd have given him more trouble, maybe even tested him, if he had still been wounded, but they knew better than to challenge him when he was at full strength.
Without another word, they departed, leaving with their children and their followers.
Doomwing watched them go and then turned away, carrying the water salamander with him.
The tiny creature made a grateful sound, and Doomwing chuckled.
"Yes. I can fly much more swiftly than you can swim."
Xiang blinked as a strange creature waddled up the beach toward him and his family before making itself perfectly at home by the fire. It even had the audacity to creep forward and tug a fish off his plate before munching on it.
"What is that, father?" his son asked. "And is it dangerous?"
"I… I'm not sure." Xiang wasn't sure if he should be amazed or wary of the creature's audacity. It was only a foot long, and he couldn't sense any great power within it. It was also oddly adorable with its strange half reptilian and half amphibian features. It also had a silly but endearing smile on its face as it ate.
"He is a water salamander," Brother Dragon said, padding over and inspecting the creature carefully. "And it would seem that your family is quite fortunate."
"A water salamander?" Xiang's eyes widened. He had heard of salamanders before. In fact, he'd encountered several of them over the years although they had all been significantly larger than this one, and none of them had been water salamanders although that would explain the more aquatic appearance of this one. If he recalled correctly, there was a legend about them seeking people out…
"Yes. It appears that he has chosen your family." Brother Dragon chuckled. "You're stuck with him now."
"What does that mean?" Xiang asked. Realising that the creature was not a threat, his youngest child had decided to pat the water salamander on the back. The salamander made a happy sound and continued to munch away on his fish.
"This salamander has chosen you and your family. Protect him and raise him as your own, and he will repay your loyalty many times over. He may be small and weak now, but he will one day grow far more powerful than any tiger-person. When that day comes, he will look upon these days fondly and continue to protect and care for your descendants as you once protected and cared for him."
"Ah." Xiang's eyes widened. So the legends were true then. Setting aside his meal, Xiang gently lifted the water salamander up to eye level. "I am Xiang, little one. From this moment forward, you shall be part of my family. May our days together be prosperous."
The water salamander chirped and nodded before going back to eating his fish.
"He agrees," Brother Dragon drawled. "I'd prepare more fish for him too. He had quite the interesting journey on his way here."
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