a collection of tales [[ chronocompass writing ]]


Authors
Sunlitsecrets
Published
5 years, 3 months ago
Updated
3 years, 3 months ago
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Chapter 12
Published 4 years, 6 months ago
642

So I'm in this group that has me write quite a bit about some of my characters, and I figured I could put that stuff as a series on here! These short stories probably won't connect much, if at all.

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Author's Notes

This chapter was written by https://www.deviantart.com/the7eventhrider

born in flames [ jatau ]


Sundance woke with her blood singing. She stretched languidly on the high mesa she called home. Above her the entire ceiling of the world was bursting with stars. Sundance flared out her wings and leapt skyward, intending to set her teeth around them and bring the skies down around her. 


She was a wild-born dragon, and such whims delighted her even as she knew they were impossible. When the air grew so thin it burned against her lungs, she wrapped her wings tight to her body and dropped like a stone. The wind whistled around her and the desert hurtled up from below. At the very last second she flared out her wings in a blaze of orange glory. When her claws closed around the stone of a hoodoo, she felt them crumble beneath her feet.


“A beautiful night for a fight,” came a sing-song voice from the shadows. 


Sundance whirled, her grip never faltering. Her eyes burned into the shadows and she peeled her lips back from her teeth. “Did you come here looking for one?”


A slender dragon emerged from the darkness. His coat gleamed soft and bright, almost the same color as the moon overhead. Two slender horns crowned his head, and their gleam matched the wicked gleam of his teeth when he smiled. “Sometimes you can feel it in your blood,” he said, pawing at the earth.


Since Sundance had just been thinking the same thing, she lunged forward and tried to close her teeth around the interloper’s neck. She would not kill him; she would shake him like a dog would a rat. He would regret interloping on her territory, and she would-


Feel her teeth close on air. 


Startled, Sundance reeled backwards just in time to avoid being hit with a small blast of flame. The much smaller dragon was much quicker than she imagined. In order to gain and advantage, she would need to get airborne. When she went to lift off, however, she found a quick series of fireballs waiting for her. She flared her wings and the flames were visible through the thin membranes.


If he wanted to play with fire, he only needed to ask. Sundance reached for the singing in her blood and pulled the cinder and the ash from her bones. When she breathed fire, the stones and the earth seemed to sing. Warmth roared up from below and she watched her competitor hesitate for the briefest moment; they were both made of fire. Neither of them would burn.


Still, this is the song that had called them out into the desert tonight. They darted forward and back, challenging one another at every turn. She almost managed to get her claws around the thin, deer-like curve of his ribs. He almost managed to ram his head into the thin skin over her heart. Neither of them gave an inch, and around them the sand turned to molten glass and a haze of ash threatened to blot out the moon and stars.


Eventually they pulled apart from one another and settled for circling one another, eyes wary. “You are a worthier opponent than I imagined,” she said, the admission curling out like smoke between them.


His tail sparked when he grinned. “I could say the same for you.”


Her eyes narrowed, though whether in irritation or acknowledgment it was difficult to say. “I won’t kill you today,” she said at length. “Perhaps you will warn others what trespassing here entails.”


“Perhaps I will,” he said. “Or perhaps I’ll visit again next full moon.” He leaped nimbly to a stone ledge, deftly avoiding the last of the smoldering flames. “Name’s Jatau, by the way.”


She did not give him hers in return. She simply watched him go, the last strains of warrior song singing softly through her veins.