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Raw energy split the air, cracking through it like broken white snakes of electricity and coming down with the frequency of rain drops. Jijikko’s pulse beat hard, stuttering up his long throat and making his blood race through the rest of him. Distantly, he heard Amadia’s call to retreat, but — as foolish as the idea of diving in unplanned seemed now, in retrospect — he had started this, and he wasn’t about to let the kiandris hurt her. So, instead, Jijikko roared, shaking off the residual sparks of current and diving for the nearest dragon neck he could spot.

He latched on, sinking his fangs in as hard as they would go and dive rolling sidelong with the squalling monster. Claws raked at his front, tearing over the more sensitive scales of his underbelly; both of their wings beat wildly against and around each other, tangling together, but thankfully, the kiandri did not have the size advantage here. Jiji, young but full grown and sizeable thanks to his gaili heritage, out weighed the small lighting dragons easily, and — despite his inexperience — held his ground marginally well. At least, against one.

After several tumbles through the earth, one over the other, over the other, and back again, each struggling to get the upper hand, Jijikko smashed his hind paws down, using his weight and his vice grip on the beast’s throat to root himself as he shoved. Then, he yanked at his magic, dragging the earth up on either side of his foe and then crushing it in around it. A last, dying ripple of kiandri magic jolted through him with the dragon’s final squawk, and Jijikko stumbled backwards, dizzy and already bleeding across the front.

Maybe this really hadn’t been the best of plans…

Jijikko shook himself, trying to coax his mind back to itself and re-assert control over his muscles. He’d only taken down one. That left…

After looking out at the remaining nest in an uproar, lightning whipping down from the sky in white slits, accompanied by booms of thunderous energy, Jiji felt his posture wobble. Foresight was apparently not his strong point. They had looked so much smaller and weaker from a distance, while they were sleeping.

Jijikko watched with exhausted awe as Kilian and Amadia fought. He knew — from his parents, primarily, but also outside sources in passing — that bondeds were at an automatic power disadvantage to feral khehora. His parents, strongly against the bonding process, had made it out to be a villainous seeping of magic: natural khehora power stolen to be used by the greedy Magescians who forced the bond on them so young. But Ama, clearly, had earned her strength and, little as he liked to admit it, surpassed him in skill by a great deal in spite of her handicap. And the Magescian, Kilian, fought like he was born to spill dragon blood.

As he watched, Jiji felt a rush of new eagerness — only slightly marred by the pain across his front from the still-bleeding chest raking he had so recently received. One day he wanted to fight like that. Switch effortlessly into his own, proud two-legger form and twist blades about like a natural part of his body, then shift back and roar like a true khehora as he took back on his natural shape, baring his fangs and claws for his foe to behold in fear.

This all in mind, Jijikko rallied his courage, shoved back the temporary pains across his chest, and dove into the fray, wings splayed wide and teeth bared. At first, it went decently well. He dive tackled a second kiandri, dragging up an extra protective plate of earth to smash into it first with the hopes that this would stun it, and keep its claws away from his already-injured underbelly. To further that hope, he quickly worked himself around, attempting to latch on the creature’s back and keep hold there, instead of allowing it to rake at him.

The dragon snarled, its scales electric and rippling with natural energy, and it fought, rolling against Jiji’s hold and attempting to flip their positions. Almost as soon as he latched on, too, its defensive magic sparked into life, sending small rivers of current up Jijikko’s claws and making it difficult to hold tight. By the second shock wave, Jiji’s grip failed, the pulse of it sending him flying back with a pained roar and landing him, unfortunately, directly into the paths of two more of the remaining dragons.

One each latched onto his wings, dragging him down out of the sky and pinning him to the earth like a stick-pinned insect on display, their claws burying themselves into the soft, inner membrane of his wings to keep him still. He thrashed, snarling, his tail whipping about back and forth, but between his inexperience and their combined strength, his efforts seemed in vain, and as the third moved in, maw opening up directly before him with a gathering ball of growing, white-yellow electricity, Jijikko wondered, for the first time, if his eagerness to dive in might wind up having been not simply a novice miscalculation, but a fatal mistake.

Jijikko watched, wide-eyed with surprise as his company dove in to his aid, Amadia tackling and slinging one of his oppressors off and then Kilian exterminating the one directly before him with a practiced toss and gouge of his blade. When the third moved, releasing its grip in order to turn its focus to Kilian instead, Jijikko whined, giving a low, rumbling mix between a growl and a mewl as he tried to push upwards and help. His wings failed him, however, pain shooting through them like a shock effect when he tried to lift himself up. His belly, too, was apparently injured enough to provide a growing blood stain to the sand beneath him, which he flopped back down on with the onslaught of pain.

Contrarily, Kilian clearly had control of his own situation, nimbly avoiding the kiandri’s attacks and eventually burying another blade in its side. When he approached, kneeling and running a hand over Jiji’s head, Jijikko’s scales rippled with embarrassment, but instead of a stalwart reply, only a soft keen came from his throat before he managed to gather his voice properly.

“I’m alright. It’s just a little blood. Got to spill some to learn, right?” Jiji winced, the larger, fin-like striped scales along his neck flexing and wavering slightly with abashment as he thought on how much trouble he’d caused his helpers. Despite his initial genuine enthusiasm, he knew now — realistically — he never would have survived the fight without their aid, and his current injuries were the stinging result of his own folly. Not to mention, on top of that, he had endangered them both in the process of endangering himself. “I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have—” Jijikko tensed, snout jerking up and the far tip of his tail twitching sharply at a new, unwelcome scent. Almost immediately, he spotted it, high in the sky but plummeting downwards fast in a sharp dive towards Kilian: one of the last remaining kiandri’s. “Look out!”