Upon Wings Of Change

Chapter 10

I rested my chin on my forepaws as I enjoyed the spectacular sunset. I kept an ear open for any potential trouble, although everything seemed quiet. No one trusted it to last long though; we knew that the shadow creature was around since we had caught its scent in various places across the park.

A green dragonet rested beside me; she had stayed at my place last night so that we didn't sleep alone. Just the other night, the shadow creature had tried to dig someone out of their burrow. A few blasts of flame out of the tunnel had made it flee, but we were all sure that it would likely try again. No one was going anywhere alone at this point.

A mindvoice shouted, "The shadow creature is in the clearing where we sang yesterday!"

A hiss erupted from my throat as I threw myself into the sky. The green female was only a wingbeat behind me. We pushed for speed as I heard others letting the caller know that they were also coming as fast as possible.

We entered the clearing to see at least thirty dragonets flying around it with bursts of flame. The black creature was trying to retaliate with its claws and long whip-like tail. It was trapped in the middle of the circling dragonets at the moment. We joined the circle as the raging anger resurfaced at the sight of the creature.

At this point, it had numerous burns and kept trying to strike out at us, but our flame made it keep its distance. Our speed and agility were barely a match for the speed that the creature used when it whipped its tail at us.

All of us were fixed in the same mindset – this creature had to die. We just weren't sure how we could manage it considering that we were barely a fraction of its size, but we knew with a bone-deep certainty that it would keep coming after us. We had seen this kind of persistence with some of the creatures outside of the Kymari walls, and several dragonets had lost their lives to those wild beasts before we took shelter in the Kymari parks. This shadow creature was too deadly for us to let it escape alive.

At this point, simply hitting it with fire barely seemed sufficient. My instincts wanted something more. I flipped upside down and barely avoided its tail as it whizzed through the spot I had just been.

With a shriek of rage, I flew up and came straight down on the back of its neck. Following my instincts, I dug in my claws to keep from sliding off of its slick skin as I swung my head down to bury my teeth in its hide. I felt it start to reach around, and I launched off of its back to escape back into the sky.

I spat a fireball at it from a safe height, letting the flame sear the foul burning traces of its blood from my mouth. That was one of the nastiest things I have ever tasted. My blood was up, and a red dragonet followed my original lead as she landed another bite before escaping out of its range.

The creature went to swat her, but missed and stumbled. It seemed disoriented now, and I swooped in to breathe a stream of flame at it, adding another burn mark on its already blistering hide. More dragonets were arriving, about half of our population was now assaulting the shadow creature.

It launched towards one side of the circling and flaming dragonets, causing those in its path to scatter with superb reflexes. It stumbled and fell down before going into seizures. We circled and kept flaming it as its body was wracked with convulsions.

The convulsions didn't last long before it stilled and ceased breathing. Only then did we land in nearby trees to try and catch our breath. We were all breathing hard as we looked at one another with wide eyes.

A green female panted, "Okay... What exactly just happened?"

A purple dragonet responded, "Well, we killed it."