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Peril stood on the ground as a stampede of dragons ran around her, giving her a good birth of space. She was lucky that they had noticed her in time, otherwise her “no killing” policy would have been for nothing.
She looked up towards the sky, wondering if she could get airborne without hurting anyone. She quickly realized that that wouldn’t work with the large number of dragons that polluted the air. Guess I’ll have to find the viper a different way then, she thought.
Suddenly she heard a panicked voice call out for Starflight. That was one of Clay’s friends, right? She took off towards the direction of the voice, her ring of space following her. Not even the over looming death that hung above them all could make the other dragons forget about her own deadly claws and teeth.
Suddenly the wall of dragons disappeared and left her sight open. She spotted Clay near the center of the now open space. A second later she registered a NightWing and SandWing with him. Clay and the SandWing (Sunny, she recalled) were grabbing the NightWing desperately, trying to get him out of the way.
“Hurry!” a distant voice called. Peril turned her head to see a royal blue SeaWing flying franticly towards the three. “It’s right there!” she screamed, pointing desperately at the ground near them.
Peril focused on the spot she motioned at. With a start she realized that the dragonbite viper was just a few steps away, moving farther away from her as it slinked and slithered, seemingly with a purpose. Her eyes widened once she noticed its target: Clay, Sunny, and Starflight
The warrior in her kicked in as she ran through hundreds of possibilities in a short second. The snake was moving too erratically for her to pounce on it; she would probably miss. If she did miss, that would leave her stunned for a split second as she tried to locate it again. That split second could mean life or death for her and her friends. If she used her fire breath, she could accidentally hurt one of her friends or worse.
As she ran through all these scenarios and more, Sunny’s scream jolted her back to reality. The snake had nearly reached the trio.
Clay! Peril thought. In a moment of panic, she leaped forward and into the viper’s path, acting on instinct more than anything else.
A burst of pain
Someone screamed
A trill bell rang
Something slammed into her
Her eyes were wet
As Peril’s eyes refocused on the sight before her she realized somethings:
- The snake had bit her
- She was the one who screamed
- There was no bell, it was just the ringing in her ears.
- The brute force that had slammed into her had been the ground as she lost her balance.
- Tears were brewing in her eyes, leaving her vision blurry.
Dragons gathered around her, their voices getting louder as the ringing stopped. The only thing Peril could make out at the moment was blobs of color and her name occasionally thrown in with the gibberish.
Finally, the ringing stopped as she tuned into the sound around her.
"What do we do?” said a voice. They sounded like they were on the edge of tears.
“Sunny! What are you doing?” said another voice. “You can’t touch her!”
“Let me go, Tsunami!” The voice was definitely crying now. “Please!” It begged, voice cracking.
"Peril,” said Clay—Peril could recognize his voice anywhere— “can you hear us? Are you—awake?” His voice was almost as broken as the first voice.
Peril opened her eyes (When did she close them? Why was she so tired?). She tried to say that she was okay, that she would be fine, but all that left her mouth was a small whimper.
Everything hurt
Peril tried to stand up before crying out in pain a second time. She crashed back onto the ground with a groan.
Peril looked back up at the blobs of color she had seen before, realizing that they were the source of the voices from earlier. She blinked her eyes rapidly in order to clear the tears from her eyes. Her vison cleared, and the colors that surrounded her morphed into dragons. She spotted the SeaWing from earlier, Sunny, Starflight, and of course Clay. The RainWing art had also joined the group. Her scales were a pale green with a red lining her frills, wing tips, and tail. Peril didn’t know much about RainWings, but based off the mortified looks she could tell that the colors didn’t mean anything good.
Three moons, it hurt so much
Peril looked down in the direction they were all (except for Starflight) facing. What she saw was horrific.
The dragonbite viper was now a charred corpse next to her, reduced to the size of a worm. Right next to it was her left arm, her shoulder a black mass, quickly becoming bigger as the venom spread to the rest of her body. Thick veins sprouted out of it like branches on a tree trying to reach the sun, except in this scenario Peril’s heart was the sun. She moved her leg slightly, screaming when she was it by a wall of pain, forming more tears that threatened to fall down her face. She watched as blackened scales fell of her body, revealing the darkened flesh underneath.
She looked back up at the dragons who watched her with heavy breaths. Clay recovered first.
"Starflight, you know how to fix this, right? Stop the spreading?” he asked, his voice filled with a hope that Peril wished she could have even have a fraction of. Maybe it was actually better that she didn’t have that hope. It would be pointless.
She just wanted the pain to go away
Starflight spoke after what felt like an eternity. “There’s nothing we can do.” he spoke softly in a way that made Peril mad. In a way that made her want to tear out his throat.
Wow, Peril thought, you can’t even get over your bloodlust when you’re dying. Some dragon you are. Clay will never love you if you keep that up.
Clay. He should know about Peril's feelings for him. He should know the true about how she felt.
"Clay," Peril said quietly. Her voice was raspy from screaming and holding back sobs. "Clay, please." She reached for him with her good talon.
Clay grabbed Peril's talons with his own, holding on to her as if the moment he let go would be the moment she died. He looked at her with fear in his eyes. It was different then then the fear she normally saw. When she fought dragons in the arena, they were scared that they would die. Clay, however, was scared that Peril would die. That was one of the reasons Peril fell for him in the first place. He was the only dragon who actually cared for her. Who didn't use her for their own benefit. Peril hoped that would never change.
Was this what burning felt like?
"I love you, Clay." Peril rasped out. Her voice was weak and small; only Clay heard her.
Clay's eyes widened. Peril watched as tears began to slip down his cheeks. "Peril, you don't mean that. You can't"
Peril was upset at his response. "I do, Clay." She squeezed his talons.
"You can't!" Clay yelled. "If you do then," he sniffled, "then you're leaving. If you're telling me this it means you won't get another time to! But you will! You have to! You can't go!"
Peril was taken aback by this. First by his yelling, then his denial. "Clay," she said softly, "it'll be okay. Maybe not now, but it will be."
Another thought hit her, slamming into her like a mountain she had just flown into. "Did, did you know? Did you know I liked you?"
Clay sniffled again. "Maybe?" he said, voice cracking. "I don't know. Maybe somewhere in the back of my head, but—"
"Do you love me, too?" Peril interrupted him, her question clawing itself out of her throat.
A moment of silence before Clay answered her, "Yeah, yeah I think I did." he smiled sadly at her.
She returned the smile before loosening her grip on his talons.
The others were still watching them from a slight distance, either fighting tears in a losing battle or letting them flow freely. They watched as the darkened scaled creeped further along Peril's arm and towards her body. Tsunami was still holding onto Sunny, although her grasp had morphed into a hug rather than a restraint. Glory's entire body had turned the same pale green as she dug her claws into the sand, as if it was responsible for Peril's death. Starflight seemed to be trying to make himself as small as possible, curling his tail around his body and his head facing down.
They all watched as Peril's breathing slowed before stopping entirely. Her eyes were still open, as blue as the morning sky. Clay still held her talons tightly, crying softly as she stilled.
I'll see you soon, mom. Can't wait to meet you, brother. Peril thought before she slipped away.
Sunny tentatively reached out a claw towards Peril, no one stopped her. Her golden scales grazing red. Red that did not hurt. Red that did not burn.
The eternal flame had gone cold.