Chapter 14 - The First Ember
Zephyr looked down.
Between his collarbones, deep beneath the semi-translucent breastplates that had yet to fully harden into adult armor, a tiny, pinpoint spark was pulsing.
It wasn't the weak orange glow of a camp match.
It was an electric, humming violet.
Every time his heart beat, the spark pulsed, sending microscopic threads of purple light through the veins of his chest, down his forelegs, and into the tips of his claws. It didn't burn him. It felt like cold iron, steady and ancient.
"The fire does not come from anger, Zephyr," Ignis told him, her voice softer than he had ever heard it. "Anger is dry grass. It flares fast and leaves only ash. The true flame comes from the refusal to be chained."
Zephyr placed his claw over the pulsing node. He could feel the raw, untamed frequency of the earth humming inside his own bone marrow. He remembered the mammoth's tusk. He remembered the dwarf's gun. He remembered the terrifying feeling of falling into the abyss.
He didn't hate them. He just understood the rule now.
Up here, you either fly with teeth bared, or you fall and get harvested.
"Can I try again?" he asked, looking up at the back of her towering horns.
Ignis let out a short snort of laughter that sent sparks drifting over his head like fireflies. "Not on my neck, you idiot. You'll singe my crest. Wait until we reach the Western Crags."
As they crossed the boundary line into the ancient territories, a dark shape cut through the moonlit clouds five miles ahead.
It wasn't a dwarven flyer. It was massive, jagged, and flying low—a scouting titan from the southern drake clans, encroaching on their hunting grounds while Mount Karas had been under siege.
Ignis leveled out her wings, her body locking into a long, predatory glide.
"Target ahead," she noted, her voice dropping back into its cold, testing tone. "Two miles. Gliding speed. He hasn't seen us yet."
May you like
Zephyr shifted his grip, standing fully upright on her shoulders, leaning into the freezing headwind. He opened his damaged wing. It still hurt, but the joint locked true.
"Let me take the flank," Zephyr said.
