FSE

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Erifor's paws were shaking. Next to him, her sister muzzled his indigo snout, the raging heat of the male dragon filling her nostrils. On the horizon stood the profile of a mountain chain, where the entrance of a cave was visible: their home.

"Please, will you understand we must leave..." Nifor implored him, "it's dangerous to stay here..."

"Not before we burn their bodies," Erifor replied, his voice trembling, "I won't leave them rot like common carcasses..."

"No!" His sister exclaimed, with authoritarian voice, "Don't you realize in your head that those slayers may be still looking for us?"

The dragon's eyes looked at her white and light-blue scales, then lowered down, admitting defeat. He muzzled her as well, but this wasn't enough to placate his spirit.

Suddenly, he launched a furious roar to the sky, like for reclaiming the spirits of their parents, who had just joined their ancestors. Nifor blocked his snout with a wing.

"You idiot!" She growled. "They're gonna trace us now!"

"What..."

"We must leave now more than ever!"

"And where will we go...?" Erifor asked, in confusion. Nifor snorted deeply. They had come from the same hatch, yet it seemed like she was several seasons older than him.

"Far from here," she answered, "deeper inside the mountains, or wherever is not here!"

"Like if they won't trace us regardless!" he cried.

"How about lowering the possibilities for the moment?" She looked at him in the eyes decisively. "They had always told us it could happen. Always. You had one hundred seasons to get prepared."

The male dragon opened his mouth, his eyes annoucing another roar. Nifor readily blocked him.

"Don't - make - it - worse."

She lightened her grip, which became a hug of consolation. "I wish I could give them a proper cremation, too. But we will not honor them if we act like stupid. So, for the love of them, Erifor, listen to me, because you know I'm right."

Erifor swallowed. "Well, yes then, you are right."

Nifor was satisfied. "Then get ready."

The two dragons gave a quick last look at the cave in the horizon before unfolding their wings and leaving the valley of their hatchlinghood forever.

Ten days had passed, the most terrible days the two dragon siblings had ever experienced. The safety of their cave had been replaced by the hunger of the nomad life. The love of their parents had been replaced by the fear of the dragon slayers. Wherever they looked around, humans would appear everywhere, only to discover it was a joke of their minds; their sleep was severely deprived by the need of being constantly alert. Where they were, they did not know it anymore.

"I am tired, Nifor..." Erifor stated, in the cliff they were resting on. The crimson sky would soon turn into dark. If they only could find a new cave where to reside, they would stay better. But luck seemed to have abandoned them...

"Then I'll be on guard first," his sister declared, "take your time."

"I am too tired for everything..." He was beginning again. Erifor had been the most vocal of the tragicity of their new situation. Nifor had done her best to carry on and ignore her sense of despair, but Erifor had had this need of expressing it constantly. This was already the second time he complained about the lack of sleeping; he would still roar his anger for not being able to honor their parents' bodies. "I hate all of this. Why do we have to suffer like this? When we know we once were friends with them?"

"You still believe those stories?" How many times had their parents told them those stories. Tales of the time when humans and dragons would live in peace together. But it was hard to believe that, more than ever after losing the same parents to humans.

"Then they are made to hate us!" Erifor snorted. "I wish they died, all of them, like they did with mom and dad..."

"We can't kill all of them, but we can resist. If we bring with us some of those slayers' eyes then better, but we must resist! Be strong, for the love of the spirits!"

"Aaah! Damn!" Erifor turned his head away from her. "I can't do it anymore! I wanna..." he suddenly stopped. Something had to be wrong.

"What's there? What have you seen?"

"There are lights in that direction..." he said, pointing his snout at the opposite side of the mountains. "They have just appeared..."

"They're called stars, genius. The sun has gone a while ago now..."

"No, no!" He snorted. "There are lights on the ground, over the horizon!"

She turned her head, still skeptic - but when her eyes looked over, they were actually there. Lights. Bright lights. On the ground level. That could mean only one thing.

They had come too close to human settlements.

Nifor readily unfolded her wings. "Quick! Maybe we can find another place before it gets dark!"

The male dragon was getting ready as well, but he suddenly looked strange. No more complaining or defeated like just some moments ago, but colder and determined. "I have a better idea."

"What? Get a move!"

"I will!" Without further explanations, he flew towards the worst direction possible - the human settlement.

"You idiot! What are you doing?"

"I wanna make them pay for their crimes!" The dragon roared powerfully, a roar made of anger and hate. "Let them taste the same misery!"

"We're gonna get killed! Get back!"

"I'm tired of always following you, Nifor! Tonight you won't change my mind!"

Both dragons were now heading to the lights' direction. The female dragon tried to reach him and block his insane flight, but he was too ahead. The lights were becoming bigger. The human buildings' shapes slowly became distinguishable.

It was too late. They would undoubtedly see them.

The human village now stood in front of them, a set of wooden constructions illuminated by torches. Erifor announced their presence with another roar directed towards the ground. The first human screamings arrived to Nifor's ears. This was going to be their last night, she was sure of it...

Then the fire from the male dragon's mouth erupted, and the light around them exploded.

The houses, and the humans, became giant torches, screaming their pain and horror. The loud screechs of those tiny creatures permeated the environment. Suddenly a pleasant sensation hit Nifor like a storm.

Revenge. Sweet revenge. How good it felt to see them cry their suffer. How wonderful it was to see them perish...

She contributed to her brother's work by setting on fire what remained of the village. Not much remained: half of them had already been carbonized.

They were powerful. They were better.

They were dragons.

And now they were showing to those filthy humans what it meant to provoke them.

The fire and the deaths continued until the last building collapsed. With that, Nifor landed over the black ground, next to her brother. She laughed content, for the first time in days.

"You know what? You were right. It was really great."

The male dragon did not answer. His eyes were wide, his mouth constantly on the point of saying something, only to close.

"What's there, Erifor?"

But the only sound that arrived to her ears was the night wind. Then something else came to her nose. There was still a human smell. On the distance, a metal glimpse arrived to her pupils.

"For the spirits! There was a slayer!" she roared. "Erifor! We must fly out!"

"What..."

"There's a slayer!"

"Where..."

"There!" She pointed with her snout, like he had done when first seeing the village's lights. "He has seen everything!"

Erifor finally turned his head to the right direction. The response was immediate. The male dragon unfolded his wings.

"Damn!"

"Don't waste time in swearing! Let's go back!"

The two dragons soared up, towards the mountains, praying their act would not cost their lives as well.

More and more slayers would come for them for a long time. Nobody would come to save them, ever.

The two dragon siblings lay next to a forest inside the mountain range. Incredibly, they had survived the rain of arrows that had arrived for them while flying, reaching the mountain peaks just in time to avoid them.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I'm sorry..." he kept murmuring.

"Stop saying it," Nifor dismissed it, waving her wing, "it was a great idea. I've never felt so good in my life."

"What are you saying!" He exclaimed in shock. "I almost killed you! And..." Nifor saw him frown "...I did not enjoy seeing what we have done..."

"It was you who had wanted to do it. Do you maybe have regrets?"

"I..." Erifor shook his wings in agitation. "It was...it...we must have killed thousands of them!"

"And so? They do just the same."

"Yes but...I don't know...all of this keeps feeling wrong to me."

"Wrong? What you mean?"

"Don't you realize it? We acted like monsters! We acted like those slayers would do!"

"About time! How many times do we pay for what they do, and how many times do they? We have balanced it."

Erifor distanced himself from her.

"I...think I need to stay alone tonight."

"Don't you dare leave this place! It's dang_"

"I KNOW! I just meant I prefer not to talk anymore tonight!"

Nifor remained mute for some moments. Then she limited herself to conclude their conversation. Let his brother solve his internal conflicts for that night.

"Whatever. Thanks for giving me this satisfaction, whatever you are thinking right now. Just let's not do it too often, we have probably attracted dozens of slayers tonight. Anyway, now it's time for one of us to sleep."

Erifor did not reply, limiting himself to contemplate the night stars.

"I take your silence as your consent to let me sleep first."

With that, she closed her eyes without waiting for him. As she let herself drift into slumber, the last thing she could hear was his dear brother murmuring something like 'I'm terribly sorry mum and dad'.