Page 156 of Dragon Rule (Age of Fire 5)

A ropy mass fell atop them from the upper rim of AuRon’s cave.

Nets! No ordinary fishing nets, either, but dragon-nets of chain and barbed hooks.

Falling on them like an oversized octopus, the nets engulfed Wistala and Shadowcatch. AuRon worked one side with sii, trying to untangle them, listening as arrows sang through the air.

The heavy net may have held one powerful dragon. But two, such as Wistala and Shadowcatch, tore it to pieces. Pieces of it encumbered them still, but they stood on sii and saa ready to fight.

“You!” Ouistrela said, spying Shadowcatch.

With that Ouistrela launched herself at the black.

Her fury spoiled the aim of the blighter and human archers. Some loosed anyway in their excitement and struck their own leader.

The heavy, unknown red stood stupidly, not knowing if he should join the contest below or wait for the archers to bleed their enemies.

“Idiot!” Imfamnia shrieked, backing away from the fighting. “Griffaran, tear their throats out!”

“AuRon, ware! Griffaran,” the Copper called.

Colorful, taloned lances swept down from the heights. Five.

“Only you have a chance against them,” the Copper said.

One against five? AuRon admired his brother’s definition of “a chance.”

Wistala was shielding AuRon with her muscular bulk. Arrows and bolts and heavier projectiles bounced off her armored skin the way rain ran off a cliff face. He could achieve little on the ground—he jumped into the air, beating his wings madly to gain speed and altitude.

The griffaran swerved, coming at him from either side.

Oh, will you!

AuRon felt his wings and spine protest at the backbend, reversing course like a cracking whip.

The griffaran had evidently never flown against a scaleless dragon before. Their heads came together with a satisfying konk!

The third overshot. AuRon got on his tailfeathers. Rage at Imfamnia’s betrayal made running a line of fire down the bird’s back easy.

It screamed as it burned and fell.

AuRon turned to race after Imfamnia, who was putting as much sky between herself and the fighting as possible.

A hard punch struck him across the back. He looked back; a griffaran had its claws dug into his middle back. It extracted a set of bloody talons and reached for the wing joint, ready to tear out his wing—

A flutter of feathers and whoosh—the griffaran’s head was off and the body, dragged by the wind, fell off behind him in a shower of blood.

AuRon, astonished, saw another griffaran drop its comrade’s head.

His brother and sister needed him below. He turned and dove, coming in behind the archers trying to score a hit on Wistala or Shadowcatch without striking Ouistrela.

It felt good to at last to loose his flame. He flapped hard with his wings, arresting his dive and creating a whirlwind of pebbles and dragonfire. The archers shielded their faces and either tried to burrow into the hard earth or fled.

The red dragon, not eager to fight, was jumping up and down and exhorting some human spearmen to close. AuRon whistled to him. When the red turned his head, AuRon struck him across the snout with his tail.

His strange griffaran savior raked the red across the throat. The red yelped and bounded away, calling on dead griffaran to save him. The griffaran fluttered down to come to the aid of the Copper, who was alternately breathing fire and kicking rocks at a line of spearmen trying to close in.

The red ran for his plump life, knocking archers left and right. If that red was representative of NiVom and Imfamnia’s backers, perhaps his brother should have stayed in the Lava-dome and fought.

Shadowcatch and Ouistrela grappled and tore at each other still, swishing tails and batting wings keeping the barbarians from closing in on the little party by the easiest route. Straining saa loosed boulders that rolled and bounced down the mountainside in front of their hatchling’s old cave. Madly whipping tails sent showers of pebbles into enemy eyes.

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