Dragon Fight (OLD)

"Aeolus? Should we be going this far up the mountain? The Grays were making awfully loud noises this morning," Luka said, glancing around nervously. The one-eyed gryphon turned around with a grin. "Don't worry about it," he reassured. "I doubt we'll encounter one. They're usually off hunting this time of day." 

"That does not settle my nerves at all," Luka muttered.  Jay followed behind his uncle, stepping carefully over the loose rock. "Why can't we just fly over this? It would be much easier." "They'd see us," Aeolus replied, jumping up to a ledge. "Dragons have amazing eyesight. We'd be roasted in an instant if one caught us."

 "Lovely," Luka hissed. "Just. Lovely."

Jay and Luka followed Aeolus up the steep cliff, leaping nimbly from boulder to boulder. It had taken Jay a lot of convincing to get his uncle to take them on a lair-raiding trip. Aeolus always came back with the coolest finds, and he knew how to navigate the Gard Mountains safely.  "Aeolus?" he asked. The one-eyed gryphon turned to look down at him. "What's up?" "Can you speak dragontongue?" "I can, but not much," Aeolus jumped to the next rock, showering Luka in a small cascade of pebbles. "Dragons are impossible to talk to, anyways. Their range of hearing is a lot lower than ours, so we sound fast and high pitched to them." 

Jay bunched his muscles, preparing to make the next leap. "Can you say something in dragontongue?" His uncle paused, thinking. 

"Älä syö minua, en maistu hyväksi." 

The language sounded rough and guttural to Jay's ears. "And what does that mean?" Luka called from below. "Please don't eat me, I don't taste good." Jay stifled a laugh, and then fluttered to the next rock. He dared to look down, and a steep drop filled with crags and crevices greeted him. He knew he could fly if he fell, but the sight still unnerved him.

"Now, once we get to the top of this ridge, we have to be careful!" Aeolus raised his voice to be heard above the wind, which had begun to pick up. "The lair of Rogan, brother of the White Wraith, is not far from here." Once all three of them were on the same level, they poked their heads over the edge of the ridge. 

The area was mostly flat, marked with scattered bones and deep claw marks. Each mark was easily as wide as Jay's head, and longer than he and Aeolus standing beak to tail. Jay felt the fur rise along his neck, and he noticed that Luka's pupils were the size of talon-tips and his wings were rattling nervously.

Aeolus glanced around. "I think it's clear-" No sooner had he spoken, two massive shapes rolled down the slopes of the peak and landed in front of them with a deafening crash. The gryphons ducked down as rocks and dust rained down on them. "Everyone stay very, very quiet," Aeolus told them, and Luka's beak shut with an audible clack.  When they looked again, two very large dragons were circling each other, snarling. 

The larger of the two was a pale gray, almost white, and covered in strange red markings that looked like they had been painted on. The smaller one was much darker in color and had blue markings.  "Sinä luulet minun olevan vikani, että Fensalir valitsi minut Stuttgardin herraksi?" the lighter one asked, his voice unmistakably male, and unmistakably threatening.

The darker one hissed, a jet of green fire erupting from his mouth. 

"Kun vanhempi veli oli oikeuteni! Sinulla ei ole mitään, mikä tekisi hänen valitsevan sinut minuun!" 

"What are they saying?" Jay whispered.  

"They're arguing about something, but I'm not sure what," Aeolus replied, his eyes fixated on the two prowling dragons. "Something about Lord Fensalir. He was the lord of the Grays, but he's been dead for decades." 

"Fensalir ei valinnut meitä ikuisesti, Rogan. Hänen kyltteensä olivat selkeät; Olen seuraava Stuttgardin herra isämme poissa ollessa," the light one continued. "Ja sinulla ei ole oikeutta haastaa minua tästä nimestä" 

Aeolus pointed to the darker one. "That's Rogan. The other one mentioned his name. And that means...oh no." "Oh no what?!" Luka squeaked.  "The bigger one there? That's none other than the White Wraith himself."

Rogan had said something while they were talking, but whatever it was had an obvious effect on the White Wraith. He arched his back and flared his wings, baring his massive fangs. 

"Kuinka kehtaat! Aion riistää vitun sarvet ulos!" 

With that, the Wraith leaped across the rocks with a furious roar, talons extended. Rogan reared to meet him, and the two collided.  They spat and snarled as they tussled, uttering dark words in dragontongue that hurt Jay's ears. Soon, dark red splats of blood littered the battlefield and oozed from gashes the dragons inflicted on one another.  With an angry shout of "Tapan sinut tälle!" Rogan lunged at the White Wraith and sank his claws into the side of the Wraith's head. 

The dragon screeched and thrashed like a trapped fish, Rogan's talons carving bloody lines into his face. Finally the Wraith threw Rogan off of him, deep cuts bleeding profusely from the left side of his face. He roared incoherently, and before Rogan could recover the Wraith clawed the darker dragon in the snout with enough force to break a boulder.

A saber tooth, sharp and white, flew from Rogan's mouth and clattered to the ground not far from where the gryphons were hiding. The roars of pain emitting from both dragons made Jay want to fly far, far away from this place.  The White Wraith growled ominously, squinting at his brother through his good eye. Rogan was panting, blood dripping from his ruined lip.  

"Mene ulos," the White Wraith spat, and then spread his torn wings and flew off the mountain, disappearing from sight. Rogan stared after him, shaking with fury. Finally, he too turned around and took off into the clouds, his wingbeats growing ever fainter.  The silence was a welcoming relief to Jay's ears, which were ringing from the racket the dragons had made. His heart was hammering furiously. He glanced over at Luka, who was so tense that if Jay poked him, Luka would probably twist himself in circles. Aeolus broke the stillness by climbing up over the ridge. 

He looked around, nabbed the broken saber and hurried back to them. The root of the fang still contained fresh blood. "Let's head back," he said, sounding a little shaken.  Jay and Luka nodded, following Aeolus back down the mountain without a word.  

"Oh, and Jay?" 

Jay looked up at his uncle, who was clutching the saber as if it were a helpless chick. 

"Yeah?" 

"Be happy you and Haakon don't fight like that," was all Aeolus said.