Rebellion

Cherry's PoV - The Problem With Plans

The atmosphere was so tense, you could cut it with a knife. My job was to oversee the battle, not to fight and I had a guilty feeling of relief mingled with fear for my comrades. And Barney. My heart fluttered as I remembered the way he had looked at me before the battle, when we had just chatted in the tower. I sought him out now, my eyes scanning the ice dragon sector until they caught sight of him, clad in armour. My heart was in my throat as I watched them surge forwards until I could no longer distinguish him from any other ice dragons and riders.

Cedar shifted beneath me and I turned to watch the other side of the battle. "Let's go higher!". I shouted to Cedar and his wings flexed as he rose steadily through the air, hovering high above the palace. To my left was the ice dragon sector, to my right was the lightning dragon sector and in the middle, was the mixture of dragons - plasma, shadow and wind. My brother was in there somewhere. He would be fine - he was the best fighter we had other than Amy. Furnace and the rest of the fire and earth dragons were our second wave. There were no more troops other than that. I turned in time to see Darius, the designated fire messenger dragon.

"Yes?". I asked.

"The fire dragons are holding their own, but the squadrons have dissolved into meagre one on one battles, where the higher amount of dragons is telling. On the left flank, the whole squadrons have dissolved - I found Barney but couldn't get close enough to talk to him - he had just impaled an earth dragon in the eye,".

I nodded. "Tell your section commander to keep pushing through. If you can get through the main mass as a squadron, you can do a lot of damage to the rear ranks by hitting them from behind,". Darius nodded and sped off as I turned my attention to the middle of our army. It was by far the strongest, and I could see pink and green flames flickering in the centre. Lightning bolts regularly cracked and many dragons were plummeting to the ground, already turned to stone.

"Cherry! Look at Striker!". Cedar roared and with a jolt of horror I saw our friend plummet towards the ground. 

"Dive Cedar!". I commanded and we shot down, but I could see we weren't going to reach him in time. All of a sudden Cedar barrel rolled to the side and I slid back, only just grabbing the spine in front of me before I slid off. Electra powered past me, wings folded tightly in as Amy directed plasma balls at the dragons chasing them. Cedar turned tightly, and flung boulders at the nearest pursuers, hitting one of them in the end and smashing it to a pulverised lump of bone and flesh. The other dragons swerved, and Cedar charged into them, allowing me time to hack deep into the neck of one of the other dragons, before creating a boulder with my hands to lob at another dragon who was getting too close to Electra. A sense of horror filled me as I saw Striker, his wings hanging uselessly by his side as Electra gently placed him on the ground. Green flame shot out of Cedar's mouth and the smell of burning flesh filled the air two dragons turned to ashes. A plasma ball shot past me and exploded right in the mouth of the final attacker, killing him instantly. Amy nodded her thanks as she and Electra soared upwards to rejoin the battle.

"Up Cedar,". I said and he obediently flew upwards to hover above the battle.

"Can we ... can we check on the ice dragons flank?". I asked guiltily. He cast me a knowing look before banking left sharply. I urgently scanned the ranks, panic searing through me as I realised Barney wasn't there. 

"Arctic is over to the far right,". Cedar reported and I craned my neck until I caught sight of him. They were fighting a wind dragon, and I screamed as they were blown backwards, with Barney falling towards the ground. Cedar plummeted down, passing Barney in order to hover beneath him. I have never felt so relieved than in the moment I heard the slam of a body hitting Cedar's scales, and I turned around anxiously to check on him. I wasn't going to let anyone die today.

"You ok?" I asked, as he struggled to sit up. I helped pull him to a sitting position and he smiled at me.

"By the way, you haven't seen my brother have yo-". I asked, but he had already gone, leaping onto Arctic.

Cedar steadily flew back up as I looked for the sight of my brother in the left flank.