You had the others to help you last time! And it nearly killed Mephous and--
How did you think this would go? Raziel asked softly.
Caden felt like a fool. A real idiot.
I thought that Iolaire would be separate and once we came it would join with me and then we could… fly away. Back to your lair, Caden admitted.
You think I would leave a fight? Raziel sounded bemused.
To protect me and Iolaire? Yeah, I think you’d dance a jig with Xipil, Caden said. You’d do anything. That’s why you’re willing to do this even though it’s crazy!
You thought to cling to my back in battle, Raziel reminded him.
I… I’d do anything too. Just not lose you or Valerius or Iolaire! Caden admitted.
Little Dragon, Raziel chuckled softly, I see, yet again, that Iolaire chose wisely when it chose you.
I wish I could have your back! But I’m just weak and frail and human! Caden practically spat the last word out.
You are brave and fierce and I feel your love. It will fuel my fire, Raziel told him.
Caden was blinking back tears again. His vision was blurring. But he knew that now was the time for him to leave Raziel and fly to the crater’s edge.
I love you, Raziel, Caden said.
And I you, Little Dragon, Raziel answered with no hesitation.
Go get Iolaire and make that crater bigger, Caden said through blinding tears as he leaped from Raziel’s back.
The wind whistled past his ears. He heard the whump of wings flapping as fell past Raziel into the void. He’d been so upset and emotional overall about what was to happen that he hadn’t had a chance to fear flying like this. The ground was far below him. His arms and legs were stretched wide. The wind was pushing his skin back from his lips and causing him to have to squint.
Gotta fly. Gotta fly. Gotta slow the hell down! Caden repeated to himself, trying to remember how he had flown up the mountain, but now there were no handy ledges or even, God forbid, Jasper Hawes to catch him.
He actually started flapping his arms as if they were wings. He knew this was madness. He looked up towards where Raziel was flying away. The Black Dragon Spirit did not even look back. Raziel expected him to fly. Caden looked back down towards the fastly approaching earth. He started flapping again.
Fly. Fly. Fly. Fly. FLY!
And he started to slow and slow and slow until he was stationary. Levitating about 100-feet above the lip of the crater. Caden breathed in and out slowly. He’d made it. Well, he wasn’t falling anymore. That was something. Now he just had to get down. Maybe if he simply thought about it.
There was a roar.
It was so loud that the sound seemed to penetrate his bones. Caden’s head snapped towards Raziel and the Behemoth. Raziel had not made the sound. The Behemoth had. And it had roared like that because Raziel had snuck up on it and struck. One of its massive gray-green wings was now ragged and broken. Part of it was in Raziel’s back claws. The Behemoth was earth-bound because of that.
Time for me to be earth-bound too. Now! Caden realized and started plummeting again.
But it was a controlled plummet. He swooped low and skimmed along the ground. The joy of flying overcame his fear for a moment and he was able to just love the freedom of movement. But he used it to follow the plan. He found a spot on the edge of the crater behind two large boulders. He got behind them, levitating a few feet off the ground, so that he could peer over the top.
Lightning balls erupted from the Behemoth. They burst when they reached several hundred feet above its heads. The lightning formed a dome of electricity over the Behemoth. Raziel soared above it. He sent a ball of fire, massive and glowing, but the moment it hit the sizzling electricity it broke apart, splattering magma that followed the curve of the dome. Raziel didn’t stop though. It changed its strategy and hit the dome in one location with a steady stream of fire. The dome began to crackle and thin there.
But this meant Raziel had to stay in one place. And while Raziel’s blasts couldn’t get through the dome, the Behemoth’s could get out. Water spouts turned into tornadoes by gusts of air rose up through the electricity dome. Even as Raziel dodged four of them, one of them caught the tip of Raziel’s left wing. That was enough to capture the Black Dragon Spirit though and Raziel let out a cry as its wing was wrenched in the opposite direction of its body. Caden’s fingertips dug into the stone as he clenched his teeth as he watched it. He wanted to scream out. But no, that would not do any good.
Raziel is strong. Raziel is brave. Raziel will kick the Behemoth’s ass.
Raziel managed to get out of the water tornado, but the one wing was clearly injured and the Black Dragon Spirit was gliding in a spiral that was going nearer and nearer to the electric dome that the Behemoth kept up with the electric bursts. Raziel flapped harder to soar higher, but it was clearly not able to keep to that higher height. Instead, Raziel would start to spiral back down again before it struggled up once more. It blasted fire at the dome, but it was unable to stay in one place to weaken it enough. And the Behemoth could keep strengthening it because the one head’s only duty was to keep that dome up.
The Behemoth doesn’t want Raziel getting anywhere near it! If it hadn’t turned at that last moment, I think Raziel would have had its main head and not its wing during that first pass. Dammit!
Caden searched for the forlorn white head. Was Iolaire responding to any of this? Did Iolaire know it was Raziel fighting to free it? But the electricity dome obscured his view and he could see nothing.
