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𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙴𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝙰 𝚁𝚎𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗

"𝙸'𝚖 𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚍𝚒𝚗' 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚎,
𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍𝚋𝚢𝚎, '𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛.

𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚒𝚡-𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚝'𝚜 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚎𝚕𝚝 𝚜𝚘 𝚏𝚊𝚛.
𝙷𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝙸 𝚊𝚖 𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛𝚜.

𝙾𝚑, 𝚒𝚝 𝚑𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚜 𝚜𝚘 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍,
𝙵𝚘𝚛 𝚊 𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚍𝚒𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚜
𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚢 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝...
𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚙𝚒𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚜."

|𝙸𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜
𝙱𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚗𝚎|

"Fen Riorson will be at [REDACTED] at [REDACTED]. That will be the best time for an ambush. Now that I have fulfilled my end of our deal, you fulfill yours. Kill Xaden Riorson."

𝙻𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚘 𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚕 𝙼𝚎𝚕𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚗, 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝙰𝚘𝚍𝚑𝚊𝚖 𝙵𝚢𝚛.

𝙸f anyone were to ask Danielle what the most beautiful sight is, she would say the same thing. Every time. The Vale.

Danielle had no idea why The Vale was as beautiful as it was. Maybe it was the large fer trees that reached several tens of feet into the air, or the beautiful lake that resided in the center of it. Or maybe it was the dragons. The Vale, with its sheer size, housed hundreds of dragons ranging from all colors. From red and orange, to blue and black. In her thirteen years, Danielle had met several of the dragons that reside with her in The Vale, ranging from all of the colors. The most memorable being Sgaeyl and a black morningstartail named Tairneanach, the mates of two of Danielle's dragons. Not that she didn't remember every single dragon she had met.

Danielle, like most of the days her parent's were away, found herself at a lake deep in The Vale, a flights away from the Fyr Mansion. This particular lake was a grand attraction to the dragons that reside in The Vale, this day being no different. Leaned on Leughadair's forearm, Danielle gently stroked the onyx scales that surrounded her in a wide half circle. Leughadair, the perfect representation of a relaxed yet alert dragon, curled himself around Danielle in a protective manner, careful about accidentally harming Danielle with the spikes that littered the end of his tail. Danielle had mastered the art of sneaking out over the years, using her mastery over her signets to easily slip past her parent's radar. One thing she had learned about her signets was that the longer she focused, she could use the smoke she conjured to hide her in the shadows.

Not that far away lied Sgaeyl, her form mirroring Leughadair's and finishing the half circle that Leughadair started. Both dragons surrounded her in a full circle, black and blue scales blending together because of their tangled bodies. In a practical mate fashion, Sgaeyl and Leughadair's heads pressed against each other, snout to snout.

Because of both dragon's large bodies, Danielle could see nothing but the bright blue of the sky, and the black and navy scales of both dragons. With their wings tucked in, Danielle could see the single fierce talon pressed against their bodies. Having been at the lake for hours, Sgaeyl and Leughadair both sturred awake, the latter grumbling at Danielle.

"Time to go back, Dràgon beag."

Danielle pushed off of Leughadair, stretching her arms above her head as the giant of a dragon stood to his feet - the ground shaking under his weight. Leughadair stretched, his large stature bending and folding in a way a cat's would. Leaning his head down, Danielle grabbed ahold of the horn protruding from his skull. With one swing of his head, Danielle was pulled from the ground and dropped onto Leughadair's back. In seconds she was settled into the spikeless dip at the top of his spine, in between his shoulder. Grabbing onto the spike she considered to be a pommel, Leughadair gave a powerful leap into the air.

Spreading his grand wings, the black muscle like material stretched and contracted - catching the air with one wave of his wings. With Sgaeyl on their heels, Leughadair made his way back to the Fyr mansion.

------

Blair Fyr, mounted atop her blue swordtail, steered Uisge into battle - her husband having long since dissapeared. Dragons flew from all angles, swooping and swerving, battling from all over. After the children of the rebellion had been ordered to hide, Blair had returned to climb atop her dragon after escorting them to their hideout. Both the Tyrrish and Navarrians circled the skies, dragons of all colors fighting against each other.

Multiple hours had passed, with still no sight of her husband. Humans, and sometimes even their dragons, fell left and right. Blair had begun to lose count of how many Tyrrish had fallen. Still, Blair had yet to catch sight of general Melgren - the one human Blair was most nervous about. Uisge continued to circle around the battlefield, diving and twisting every now and again in order to avoid other dragons. When a rather large red scorpiontail swooped down from above, Blair lifted her hands and let Uisge's powers flow through her like an electrical current. With tingling fingers, a large stream of water shot from her fingertips and struck the scorpiontail's rider in the chest. The man gave a loud scream, his body toppling over his dragon and descending below.

The red gave a loud roar, diving after its rider in a desperate attempt to save him. But it was futile, Blair having filled filled his lungs with water. By the time the red caught him, he would be dead.

The Riorson house came into view, the tall stone structure stuck out like a sore thumb among the fields of burnt grass and charred wood shards. History would regard this moment as Blair's final mistake. As Uisge circled above the untouched mansion, a shadow of a dragon circled them.

In seconds the shadow descended upon them, sharp teeth clamping around Usige's neck in a tight hold. The dragon screeched, blood seeping from the wounds on her neck. Blair shot her right hand forward, using the left to keep a tight grip on Uisge's spiked pommel. Water circled between her fingers, the feeling of coldness between her fingers calming despite the situation. The water shot outward, aimed directly at the rider of the dragon - which in her desperate attempt to save her dragon she didn't realize it was the one person that made her blood run cold. General Melgren.

Codagh banked to the left, sharp fangs releasing Usige to dive down in a nose-dive. Uisge, in a desperate attempt to put some space between them, flapped her wings harder. It was useless.

Codagh, with a loud roar, ascended upon them once again - teeth clamping around Uisge's neck once more. Uisge gave a painful roar, wiggling desperately. A plume of fire raced past her lips, an attempt to force Codagh to let go. The empyrian did no such thing, only clamping his teeth down harder and harder in response to the fire that grazed his hips.

Both dragons were tangled together, a tangled mess of legs and wings. With the angle Codagh had swooped up at them from, Uisge was completely vertical - which prevented Blair from being able to get to Melgren.

With a flick of her wrist, water gathered at her fingertips and shot outwards in the form of several needles. The attack, from the awkward angle, only hit Codagh's flailing wings instead of the intended target. "Coward." Blair scoffed. The needles bounced off of the dragon's wing membrains, the material thicker than the best armor one could have. Blair's heart pounded in her chest, the organ practically beating against her ribcage. Several more rounds of needles, swords, daggers, whatever Blair could form was thrown towards Codagh and Melgren.

Anything she could do to get Codagh to let go. It was all in vain. Blair's heartbeat slowed, uncharacteristically slow as Uisge's movements stalled. Blair and Uisge's merged heartbeats slowed.

Uisge reeled around, her fiery gaze locking onto Blair's silver. Both gazes were soft, both beings knowing that their end was near.

"I tried my best..."

Tears gathering at her eyes, Blair gave a soft, sad smile. "You did good, goodbye my friend..."

Uisge's eyes sunk in, gaze fading to one of lifelessness. As Uisge's heart stopped, so did Blair's. Codagh let go, both dragon and rider watching in sick fascination as both rider and dragon plumeted below.

------

"A' gortachadh..."

Danielle froze, placing the wet brush down onto the canvas in front of her. Dread grew low in her stomach, recognizing Leughadair's tone.

"What's wrong, you only call me that when something's wrong..."

"... Uisge and Griahn are dead."

Numbness hit her like a freight train, Leughadair's words barely registering in her mind. When it finally did, Danielle's world crashed around her. If Uisge and Griahn had fallen... Her insides lit like fire, like acid settling in her organs. Black dots grew around her eyesight, speckled across her vision. For a split second, her entire vision went black. Her head split open, like a canyon built intself in her brain. The black dots spread, assaulting her vision.

All she could hear was screams, shrill high-pitched screams, and glass breaking. It took her a full minute to recognize the screams to be hers. She was screaming.

The physical world around her tore apart at the seams, like a tornado tore through the world around her, a sudden bright light blinding her.  The windows of the entire mansion broke, glass falling in every direction - shredding the inside of the house. Light pulsed around her, a veil of golden light stretching in every single direction. In front of her, to the sides, behind, diagnally, everywhere.

Glass fell at her feet, completely wrecking the paintings she had spent her entire life working on that surrounded her. Danielle's body crumpled to the floor, knees screaming as they harshly landed on the tiled flooring. Glass crinkled beneath her fingers as she placed them on the floor, bracing her body. Blood seeped from her skin, coating the floor in crimson that Danielle didn't pay attention to in her numb state.

Silver curtains blew in the wind, holes littering each one from the glass that went haywire. Tears leaked from her eyes, falling onto the floor to mix with the shards of glass and her blood. Bringing a hand to her face, blood smeared across her cheek as she wiped her tears away. The wounds on her hands instantly healed, the tendrils of light curling around her fingers in a coordinated dance that brought little comfort to her pain, completely emotionally.

The rebellion had ended. Danielle's parents were dead. And soon, all the parents of the rebellion kids would be too.