The Gold and Green Dragons

As The ShambElla Saga nears its end, the companions approach a tower with two figures...

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The Gold and Green Dragons

As the companions neared the tower, they saw the two dragons more clearly.

One was green and one was gold.

They descended to the base of the tower and took the form of sleekly dressed humans, standing on either side of the big double doors.

The gold dragon landed on the right and became a man. The green dragon landed on the left and became a woman.

“We could have come after you,” the man said.

“But our master wants to make you an offer,” finished the woman.

“You might call it an offer you can’t refuse,” the man continued, smirking.

“There are two of us,” the woman said, “and we won’t be as easy to take down as our friend.”

“Poor old Wrath was a hothead,” the man said.

“Yes, always getting into trouble,” the woman said.

“Why should we even entertain your offer?” Sam sneered at them. He knew this game. If they were certain of victory, they wouldn’t be making offers but would already have attacked. Diplomacy saves many lives, but sometimes it’s just the devil trying to get out of paying his due.

Sometimes.

What was there left to salvage in this situation?

Everything’s ruined.

Everything.

What more could the devil possibly hold onto now?

“Hear us out,” the man said.

“We want to end this strife once and for all and rebuild the world,” the woman said.

“With your cooperation,” the man said, “we can work together to protect the survivors from any more fallout. You’ve already purged the world of its sin. There’s no need to purge Hell too.”

“Yes,” the man said. “Go your way now, in peace, and our master, who is, after all, the Lord of the World, will grant you free reign to reshape it as you please.”

Ella snarled. “Your master is not the lord of anything but his own hubris!” David mewed agreement. “I see you for what you are. You would pretend diplomacy, but after we agree, you’ll slowly creep back in with your policies, and treaties, and contracts, and take more and more until you have it all and we’ve got nothing!”

Colt and the goons, standing before the woman, used each skeletal hand to extend the one-finger salute.

“I think yur right, Ella,” Siris said. “And I’m willing to die right here, even if it means we lose, cuz we’ll lose it all one way or another.”

“Then die—” the man said.

“—you will,” the woman finished.

It was at this exact moment that Colt did something no one expected.

It jammed both its extended middle fingers into the woman’s eyes.

She screamed, and they both disintegrated into a cloud of falling dust.

All the goons collapsed into piles of bones, no longer tethered to their leader’s magic.

“Remember! Doose knew what would happen!” Sam yelled as he backed up, firing at the man.

The man changed again into the gold dragon and flew back into the sky, but struggled to stay aloft.

His flight was uneven.

One of Sam’s shots was quick enough to wound a shoulder and leave a wing torn after the transformation.

The dragon clung to the top of the tower and stared down at them with glowing green eyes.

A glob of green shot from its mouth, and Siris jumped into Sam and knocked him out of the way just in time.

A pool of acid sizzled and dug a hole into the blasted earth where the miasmic mass landed.

Ella tried to place shots as she did before, anywhere that could irritate the golden wyvern, to keep it from spitting again, but the angle was bad, and it only turned its head to spit her way.

David had a trick up his sleeve, but he knew he could only use it once.

From his ghostly eyes white light shot out and evaporated the falling acid pool. He fortified the light by screeching the oldest and most powerful name with which he had been gifted.

The light intensified and grew.

It struck the dragon fully in its open mouth, making it choke and reel, scrabbling for purchase.

It fell from the tower and landed on its stomach with an earth-shaking thud.

David collapsed, inert but still breathing.

Ella and Siris ran up to the dragon, firing madly, screaming.

Ella shot out its green eyes to blind it while Siris evaporated its wings with ceaseless blasts of blue.

The dragon tried to rise but fell again. It writhed in agony, choking, until finally, it went still.

The golden scales shimmered into a bright yellow light until in its place lay only a useless pile of coins.

Breathing heavily, Ella and Siris holstered their guns.

Then Ella heard Sam mutter a weak cry from behind her. “Ella…”

***** * *****

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