Chapter Five
Fight To The Finish
Fight To The Finish
Giz roared viciously, saliva spewing from his gaping maw. His slitted eyes glared menacingly at his enemy. Donned in glistening war armor, he made a loud clanging when he clenched his claws. Each of his jagged scales was covered with solid gold caps, as were the tips of his horns, talons, and tail. Giz’s tail cap was enveloped in medieval-looking spikes that shimmered in the starlight. A thick helmet protected his face and jaws from any blows to his head. Stout spikes encircled each of his amber eyes, his only unprotected area. Giz’s greatest weapons rose out of the gold helmet; two long black horns jutting back from each side of his forehead. Huge overlapping plates, held together by chain mail, covered his weak chest and underbelly. Intricate designs curled and danced out from the armor, twisting around his body. The moonlight shimmered on Giz’s armor, completing his dark look.
Inconnu, equally evil in appearance, crouched and leapt, claws extended. Shrouded in a cloak of gunmetal chains, the other Dragon had an air of mystery upon him. Old battle scars smattered on the silver hide of the Dragon boasted that he had been through many battles-and had always won. His steel-grey eyes gleamed with malice like two burning coals. Though he had no armor to speak of except for silver bangles protecting his ankles, Giz knew he was a worthy foe. Giz, stunned by the Dragon’s sheer size against him, stood and stared as Inconnu jumped towards him. Unable to do anything else, he prepared himself for his blow; though he knew no Dragon of any size could pierce his armor with neither claw nor fang.
The smoke-grey Dragon’s claws tore into Giz’s impenetrable helmet like a knife through butter and sliced his face open, leaving long bloody wounds. ‘His claws are…! How did he cut straight through my armor?’ Giz asked himself silently, blood dripping onto his claws. Awakening from his daze, Giz growled angrily, lunged, and aimed for Inconnu’s throat, fangs dripping, yearning for blood. The Dragon calmly stepped out of the way and brought his paw down on Giz’s head, knocking him to the floor. Giz’s wounded shoulder ripped even more as he skidded on the grass and hard ground. Dirt stuck into his shoulder, stinging and burning him.
“Good hit…” Giz mumbled to Inconnu as he struggled to get up, a tiny drop of scarlet liquid trickling down his brow. He smiled fiercely and faced Inconnu, his wings spread. He jumped as a violent gust of wind blew over him, catching his wings and lifting him. He flapped as hard as he could, seeing that Inconnu was already flying towards him on wounded wings, eyes afire. Only then did Giz realize that this would be a fight to the death.
Giz tried to blast Inconnu’s face with fire, but the acids simply flew into the grey Dragon’s eyes, temporarily blinding him. Giz flew towards him and clawed his face, the Dragon’s face now bloody. Inconnu roared and retaliated, his claws spread.
Giz hooked claws with Inconnu, stopping him from gutting him. They spun towards the moon together, their blood mixing in midair. Giz lunged towards Inconnu’s neck, but he dodged and whacked Giz’s shoulder with his tail.
Giz hissed and spat fire-acid into Inconnu’s eyes again. Inconnu’s fire-acid covered tongue flicked up to lick the liquid out, but on contact, burst into green flames. Inconnu howled in pain and fell, pulling Giz towards the ground with his weight. Giz let go of Inconnu’s claws and flapped upwards. Inconnnu hit the ground and tossed up a cloud of dirt, thrashing and kicking. He licked the grass, immediately setting the hill on fire. The dew on the grass put out the fire on Inconnu’s blackened and charred tongue.
“Trickery!” roared the King on the ground, beating the ground with his tail angrily. Inconnu jumped and flew towards Giz, his eyes afire. He roared angrily and breathed fire on Giz’s shoulder. Giz roared in pain, looking at the shoulder, which was now black.
“Thanks; you stopped the bleeding!” Giz taunted, his tongue flicking out to lick his wound. Burnt scales fell from the edge of the wound and fluttered to the ground. Inconnu accidentally flew into a smoldering scale, which hit his right eye. Inconnu wailed and clutched his eye, veering to the left towards the King, who ran out of the way. Inconnu hit the ground and hissed, licking his eye, but no amount of saliva could heal his eye. He was permanently blind in his right eye, and therefore could not fly without going in counterclockwise circles. Giz flew to the ground and landed in front of Inconnu, who blew fire at Giz. The flames burnt the air to the right of Giz. Giz felt the hot air on his armor and sighed.
“Inconnu, you can still escape. I can help you,” Giz said, looking at the trees. “Trees are highly flammable. I could help you burn them and we could escape. I could fly on your right side and point you in the correct direction.” Inconnu shook his head.
“The King’d hunt me down. He’d send soldiers after me.” Giz sighed and shook his head.
“Fine.” Giz lumbered over to Inconnu, who was looking the other way, peeled a burning scale off his shoulder, and dropped it into Inconnu’s left eye. Inconnu roared in pain and tried to scratch the scale out. Giz grabbed Inconnu’s paw and said in his ear,
“Use your other senses.” Inconnu sniffed Giz’s burning flesh and lunged towards it. Giz jumped and flew upwards. Inconnu cautiously smelled the air and flew towards Giz, who was hovering above a tree. The Dwarves aimed at the Dragons, who were slowly flying beyond the trees. Giz flew as fast as he could away from the trees and the arrows flying through the air, and then circled back towards the burning hill. Inconnu quickly flew away from the trees, doggedly following the scent.
Twang.
One Dwarf fired his last arrow and hit his target... Inconnu fell to the ground, blood pouring away from the arrow. The arrow’s feathers fluttered towards the moon like backwards snow, pulled off the arrow by a strong gust of wind. Inconnu hit the dirt ground like a great storm cloud falling out of the sky. His blood stained the ground and splattered on the trees like rain.
Giz flew towards the Dragon, dodging the last of the other Dwarves’ arrows. He fell to the ground on his knees, tears streaming down his face, dropping onto the still Dragon. Blood pooled under Inconnu’s lips. Giz stroked his head gently, crying silently.
“....Giz...?” Inconnu whispered, coughing out more blood. The arrow sticking out of his heart and chest dripped the precious scarlet liquid
“Y-yes?”
“D...did we escape?”
“Yes. The sun is rising. It’s beautiful; kind of a reddish orange. A flock of birds are flying in front of it,” Giz sobbed, watching the birds dipping and rolling.
“I’m hungry, Giz.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll catch a bird for you. I will. You just stay...stay here, okay?” Inconnu nodded and wheezed loudly. His closed eyes fluttered open, then stilled. Giz gently closed Inconnu’s eyelids and got up. Several trolls charged towards Giz, shaking huge clubs. Giz sat down again and grabbed Inconnu despite his size and rested his head on his lap. He stroked Inconnu’s horn with one paw and wiped his eyes with the other. One troll sped up and hit Giz on the head. Giz slumped over Inconnu weakly, his paw resting on his horn. Giz watched Inconnu’s spirit rising towards the sun quickly, smiling sadly. The troll grabbed Giz’s hind leg and dragged him away. Real rain began to pour from the sky, dousing the hill.
“Goodbye Inconnu...”Giz whispered. Giz reached towards Inconnu, his paws clutching one of Inconnu’s. Another troll pulled his paws away and kicked Giz brutally, causing him to pass out. The troll dragged him to the King and Racine, who glared at the Dragon hatefully.
“Let Soleil go,” the King commanded, still staring at Giz. Racine sighed and said,
“I said I would. Now I regret it, but it still must be carved. Get me a stone.” One troll began to search for a large stone while another let Soleil go. Soleil collapsed and pulled himself with his arms to Giz. He crossed his paws and put his head on them, waiting for Giz to wake up. Racine walked towards a tree where a troll was pointing at a boulder excitedly. He pulled a strange tool from his pocket and stroked its tip. He sat beside the boulder and angrily began carving strange symbols and swirls on it.
“I can’t believe it...” he grumbled. “He won.”
Giz had indeed “won”.
The End! Sorry it's not longer. I wrote it as a short story. There's another half, but I haven't written it yet.
