There weren't always dragons in the Valley.

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley.

But she knew what she saw. The haunted Forelei staff called to her; its hand of black smoke clutching at her neck, suffocating her, and forcing her to see. The dragons had come to end the war.

The claw released its grip from her. Nayeli gasped for air and dashed towards her horse. She grabbed the reigns, lifted herself onto the saddle, and with a kick of her heel, left. Lucille, she pleaded her friend’s name. Be safe. Be safe. Be safe. Flashes of the staff’s vision came to her. Her friend limp body protecting her sons. Warriors impaled on stakes.

Shaking the scenes away, Nayeli veered off the path, away from the castle, as her horse jumped over the stone fences between the large stretches of farm land. Grey smoke lined the horizon, a stark contrast to the black-night sky. She kicked the mare faster, begging for it to sprout wings and fly, but it didn’t. Its short legs throttled forward as fast as they could carry her.

Adrenaline ran dry by the time she arrived to her friend’s house. Lithe bodies of the Tainted felled. Lucille and two boys each had a farming hoe held up, while her eldest and a squad of ten warriors had swords drawn. Nayeli pushed off the horse, almost falling, as she fell into Lucille. “I saw you dead,” she whispered. Disbelief and grief hallowing out each word. Nayeli shaking hand braced behind Lucille’s head. “You, your boys – your bodies --”

“Stop,” Lucille snapped. Then, gentler she added, “We’re okay. Bryce sent men to protect us this morning, and we’ve only had a few… a few of those trickle in.” Lucille’s eyes lingered on a corpse.

Seeing her friend’s fear, she stumbled for the right words. “I want you and your boys to go as far North as you can. Go up where the Gods Pines were.” Lucille’s eyes widened at the suggestion. “Stop it. The woods were never cursed. Take all of the men. Don’t stop. Not for anything.” Nayeli turned to the men, cleared her strained throat, and issued the command again. She approached her exhausted horse; then she climbed onto the saddle and set her focus to the burning horizon, refusing to give her friend time to argue.

Flames roared across acres upon acres of bare farmland. Her eyes and lungs burned from all of the ash, but she pushed forward until she heard them. The drums. She fought to guide her horse, closer and closer until there was a battlefield upon her. Rhone’s army was vastly outnumbered, but from the thundering sounds coming behind her, more were on the way.

Nayeli slid off her horse, feigning bravery she did not have. She removed the sword from its sheath and stalked towards the thin line of Cobb’s protection. She wasn’t trained enough for war. With a deep breath, she calmed the fear that whipped around her like the cold wind.

Cobb and Rhone’s warriors roared against the beating of the drums. One of the Tainted locked eyes with her and vanished into smoke. Memorizing their movements from her last encounter and remembering their preference for ambushing, she turned, swinging her sword behind her until it caught into meat, his side materializing before his mind. The Tainted fully reappeared and looked down at his waist, mirroring her own shock. A close Rhonenian warrior stabbed the coal-eyed being in the throat. Blood sprayed as the man yanked his sword back and focused on what was behind her.

Nayeli resisted the urge to throw up. The Tainted body fell, its insides instantly curdling. She wrenched forward; her sword stuck in his side. Heaving in breaths, she put a foot on his torso and pulled it out. She turned back. More Tainted piled through. Some fought face-to-face, others blinked into oblivion. The sound of her army’s horses closing in.

Please be enough, she begged as her allies neared. She dodged a swing of a curved blade, and the same man from before smashed his sword into her opponent. With a white knuckled grip, she started slashing. Any opening she saw, she struck into. The killing wasn’t hard. It was pulling the weapon back. The blood. The smell. But this was her home, and red water wouldn’t prevent her from protecting it.

The booming came closer, and an animalistic, ear-splitting screech sounded above the hooves, the battle cries, and the drums. A shadow enveloped the grey smoke, blackening everything overhead. Instinctively, Nayeli ducked; then she glanced up, as did the men around her. Two dragons darted through the smoke, one a shimmering silver and the other orange.

Light exploded, blinding her vision as the orange dragon circled near the front lines, fire pouring from its fanged mouth. Nayeli fell. Run! She screamed at herself, ashamed of the fear that paralyzed her. She scampered backwards against the slick, bloodied ground, stumbling over the dead and fighting to stand.

No matter how many times she tripped, she continued towards the approaching bloodless cavalry. Horses stretched fifty acres wide. Fear helped her claw her way through until she shoved past the safety of their line.

The relieved sigh that escaped her was short lived. Everything stopped. The men’s screams were silenced. The horses still. The drums – gone.

Nayeli turned. The silver dragon pushed off the ground. The beast flew until it was nothing more than a silvery spec shining like a star through the clouds of smoke. A piercing ring shattered in her ears and muffled sounds slowly returned.

The red dragon magically vanished in its flame.

Nayeli, confused, walked forward, breaking the perfect offensive line. The few Tainted left behind were either being cut down or tied up. Still, she wandered past them, oblivious to the danger. Numb to the fight-or-flight that she had been engulfed by. She stepped over the small specs of fire and scorched land until she saw it. The massive graveyard of thousands of Tainted. No blood. No fire. All dead.

“Gods be damned, can you no longer hear?” Bryce’s voice snapped behind her.

She turned still shocked. “What did it do to them?” He didn’t have the answers. No one did.

The dragons had most certainly come to end the war. Now how was she going to repay them?