Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The person stood atop the reptilian beast as if it were the most natural place in the world. They did not even hold reins yet balanced perfectly amongst the whipping winds.

A mask covered their face with a row of bar-like teeth, every feature exaggerated—the giant black eyeholes, the thick cheeks, and square jaw, all painted in a color scheme of red and white war paint. The headdress and loose tribal clothing over metal armor only furthered a barbaric, or ritualistic, appearance.

I watched, hackles rising on the back of my neck, but I forced the growl to stay in my throat. That dragon was at least as big as Dad, and I was just a tiny puppy clinging to a tree branch.

Once it had passed over my limited field of vision, I began crawling further up the branch. It got thinner and thinner and finally more vertical, but I had to keep going. I had to see.

Soon, I was digging my back paws into the smooth wood, inching up every bit I could. The branch was now thin enough to sway with my added weight, but as I inched a little further up, I managed to see over the canopy.

Mom had gathered my siblings, hiding them behind her. She raised her hackles and barked viciously at the five approaching black birds. They did not fly low, however, instead circling above. One of Dad’s heads watched them, the other watched the rest of my family, and his center head stared down the dragon rider.

The rider crouched lower, stabilizing himself as he raised the spear. Purple lightning crackled along its end.

Then Dad’s center mouth opened, a red glow coming from behind his fangs. The rider only tilted their head, poising their magical spear confidently, as if they were waiting for this.

A beam of fire shot forth, and the rider thrust forward their spear at the same time. Purple energy exploded outward in a similar beam, both blasts meeting in the air and stopping each other. The center point of their impact swirled with reds, yellows, and purples, with energy dancing along the ovaled center, like a knot in a rope that slipped back and forth in a game of tug-of-war.

Suddenly, Dad’s left and right heads snapped towards the rider, one shooting a beam of lightning, the other ice.

My tail wagged involuntarily as I bared my teeth, allowing my growl to rise into an excited bark. I anticipated the barrage overwhelming our attacker and knocking him out of the sky!

But the dragon suddenly twisted, wings snapping against its body as it rolled and dipped. The rider gave up on the tug-of-war, crouching lower and touching his dragon’s back for stability.

As the purple lightning returned to his spear, Dad’s fire exploded across the forest, tearing apart branches and exploding somewhere behind me. The resulting shockwave sent the branch I clung to swaying, and I gripped my puppy arms around it tighter as I slipped down a few inches before regaining my composure.

As I returned my sight to the battle, I saw all three of Dad’s elements making streaks across the sky as the dragon rider flew upwards, spinning and gliding between them, just barely pivoting out of the way in some cases. It was impressive, but nobody could keep that up for long! They messed with the wrong Dog Dad, and it was only a matter of time before one hit and the dragon was taken down!

Then I heard a whistle pierce through the air—was it the dragon rider?

Suddenly, those five birds circling overhead dove down towards Mom.

She didn’t retreat. She charged.

Hackles bristling, she leapt up, bounding once off the mountainside with a snarl that made me yip with excitement, my tail wagging behind me.

Her jaws snapped down on the first bird who dared descend too close. Her teeth clamped down high on its leg. She shook hard, breaking its mid-flight rhythm, and then she let go and chopped down again on its body.

Black feathers burst into the air as the creature shrieked, only to be thrown into the ground hard enough to shatter bones. Mom’s attack was more than enough because as the dust cleared from its impact, the feathered creature lay still with only one twitching wing.

Four more birds descended towards my brothers and sisters, but the moment Mom’s feet touched ground, her paws were throwing up gravel as she charged to their defense. Within seconds, she was over top of them, baring her fangs defensively and daring the birds to swoop in too close.

My siblings huddled tighter against each other, but I could see the way their little tails wagged despite the fear. Even they couldn’t help but be awed, and I felt the same way! Our parents were the coolest!

Then my attention returned to the dragon rider, who took advantage of Dad being distracted by Mom’s attack. It flew way up high along the jagged mountain, nearly to the top, before it flattened its vertical ascent.

The rider rose back to a standing position on the dragon’s back, then casually held his spear to the side. A trail of dust followed them as the dragon skimmed along the mountainside.

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The rider was blasting energy into it, breaking it apart, and soon the cloud of dust began toppling down the mountain and growing like a snowball.

He was creating an avalanche!

Dad saw what was happening, looking up at the descending rocks and back down at our family, all three heads pivoting around as if they were not sure what to do next.

Finally he came to a decision and jumped higher up the mountainside, found a perch, and looked back and forth again as if trying to judge the angle before blasting his elements at the oncoming avalanche. He was trying to carve a hole in it so it wouldn’t land on top of our family.

I growled in anger, hackles raising. That was such a cheap and dirty trick! How dare this human—if he even was human—attack my family out of nowhere and then not even fight fair!

Then, another whistle echoed through the valley, bouncing off the far mountain peaks and back again. This whistle was different, sharper, and coming in three bursts of sound.

I looked to the birds, thinking they were going to attack Mom again, but they just circled overhead as if sizing up their next meal.

Then, something else caught my eye.

A shape crested the far ridge. Smaller than the dragon, with a leaner body and leathery wings. At first I thought it was just another bird, until its long tail snapped behind it and I caught the glint of a rider straddling its back.

Another followed. Then another.

Within moments the jagged peak was crawling with them. Dozens of creatures poured over the ridge—sleek and sharp like hunting bats, their veiny wings stretched wide, their spines ridged with bone.

And every single one carried a rider.

A battle cry began, every rider raising a spear in the air and screaming, their feathery headdresses trailing behind them in the wind. Their masks, each with varying expressions of anger, laughter, or sadness, at the same time all appeared cruel and merciless.

The avalanche was falling upon Dad. He bucked with each rock that made it through and slammed into him, but he kept his feet under himself, and he kept his fire beam going, parting the wave of falling rocks as best as he could.

As the bat riders came lower, his other head arced a beam of lightning across them. They all pivoted away, but some were caught, instantly being burned to a crisp as the ride and bat separated and plummeted limply down the mountainside.

But for all the riders Dad killed so easily, dozens more came, and the deaths of their comrades only seemed to strengthen the chanting roar of their battle cries.

Their screams grew louder as they dove in, spears lowered.

Dad whipped his massive heads around, blasting arcs of lightning and ice, but there were simply too many. One rider ducked under a crackling bolt, another spiraled through the mist of frost, and then a third darted in close enough to let his spear fly.

The weapon sank into Dad’s shoulder. He roared, staggering sideways, and the bat mount carrying that rider peeled back, screeching like a triumphant predator.

Blood sprayed as another spear plunged into Dad’s hide, and he bellowed his fury, the sound rattling every bone in my body.

But he kept fighting! Each wound barely slowed him. His arcing beams of thunder and ice were still knocking riders out of the air! His beam of fire continued cutting through the avalanche until the wave began passing by, leaving him and Mom and my siblings below him only receiving limited damage from smaller falling rocks.

They could still win! The numbers didn’t matter! My Dad was too powerful!

I barked, claws clutching the branch. I denied the sinking helplessness that I felt. Dad always protected us before, and he would now!

I cheered him on. “Keep fighting, Dad! They can’t do this forever!”

Tears misted my eyes.

He had to win.

He had to win!

He had to win!

Every spear that plunged into his hide shocked me to the core and made me want to scream out for vengeance that someone would dare hurt one of my pack.

How could they do this to us?

Why wouldn’t they just leave? So many of them were dying, and surely this wasn’t worth it!

I barked, “JUST LEAVE US ALONE! STOP HURTING MY DAD! DON’T HURT MY FAMILY!”

Some tried to descend on Mom, but she’d snap up at them, backing them off. She kept my siblings under her, trying her best to defend them.

But the riders going after my Mom didn’t throw spears. They jabbed at her with different weapons that were more like poles with purple lightning dancing on the ends. It looked like they were trying to poke her with them, but she was doing a good job backing them off when they got too close.

Still, there were so many!

Dad was starting to stagger, but he kept fighting.

Come on, Dad! You can win! Keep fighting! I cried internally.

Then, I noticed the dragon rider, the one who had started all of this.

He stood atop his dragon as it dove down towards my Dad, arms spread wide as though he were praising the sun, his magical spear in one hand.

Then, his dragon moved to the side, coming out from under him. The rider didn’t seem to care; he just let his feet detach.

I froze, watching as the rider did a flip in the air and then landed on two feet and a single hand—right in front of my dad.

Dad’s three heads whirled around to face the dragon rider, who stood casually, lifted his spear, and pressed it to my father’s chest. The cruel expression on his mask remained unchanging.

Next thing I knew, a wobble of sound exploded across the forest canopy, blowing free leaves from the very tops of the reaching branches, until finally—a beam of purple light.

It was so bright. It didn’t quite blind me but turned everything into silhouettes. It cut across the treetops, right past me, sending my branch swaying violently in the shockwave.

The beam began at the tip of the dragon rider’s spear… and shot right through my Dad.

I was helpless. There was nothing I could do, and I cried out in despair as the branch swayed too hard and then snapped.

As the air lost its whiteness and became normal again, I was again falling through the trees, being whipped and stabbed by branches, though I hardly felt them. That was nothing compared to what I knew just happened.

I lost my Dad… and maybe the rest of my family as well.