Calling
of angels, Tears of dragons
Two dragons
flew in silent over the desert. Tanith followed Freya, flying close to the
ground in part to keep Allen's possible headache away and part to make sure they
were not spotted. They were flying deeper and deeper into enemy territory to
complete their cover up mission. Allen was counting and preparing the bombs
they had to drop on their target. Tanith could feel her rider's heard beat when
preparing for a mission that was classified as suicide mission at best. Tanith
and Freya kept silent to make sure that they would not be spotted by a listener
that might be flying around. Tanith was just happy that she did not have to
speak to Freya during a stretchy flight. There was little she could say to
lighten Freya's mood.
It has been
two weeks since they re-joined from the elders and yet Freya had not forgiven
Tanith for her long leave without a word. Even her defence that she did not
know what was going to happen fallen to flat ears. Allen had much better luck
with Admiral Evans, something that was down to the fact he developed quite a
good relationship with the Camari after the tether formed.
He was no
longer unable to speak and slowly getting better at his mental communication
too. Tanith felt alive with him close and felt her self-drawn into the feeling
that flying in such a way caused. Even when they flew into war, she was excited
about flying with her pilot and excited that she shared the feelings of flight
with her pilot or how the Camari would say, rider or bound one.
They were
getting close to whatever they were supposed to bomb, the desert started to
break away into savanna plains that where lightly vegetated. Animals that knew
the fear of the apex predator felt all directions when the two dragons flew
dangerously closed to the ground. Death from above was a real risk here. Tales
of wild dragons that roamed these lands, yet untamed by any human hand. Allen
moved on her back from checking the bombs repeatedly to preparing her turret
guns and making sure they were not dropped in from above.
Freya
started to tilt up to gain some altitude and it was the time. Allen set his
clock to an hour countdown until they encountered their target. Watching the
Altimeter carefully to make sure that they are getting to the correct altitude
for the bombs to drop. Tanith was on edge to see if Allen gotten one of his
migraine episodes again when the air started to thin out.
Allen hold
himself steady while the dragons climbed up in the air. He was feeling like
this was all getting to easy. Trough coming from inland rather than oversees
they would not expect it. Coming up on the city Tanith levelled off. At first
moment nothing seemed wrong, through a group of five dragons had spotted them
and gotten in close. Allen tried his best to calmly manoeuvre his gun without too
much suspicious raised by the group. Only a few more minutes and they could
drop.
With every
beat of his heart he expected the alarm to the sound and them being covered in
flack shells.
"countdown" The command came from Freya. Allen
raced to press the counter on his pilot dashboard. He let the turret go and
waited at the release for the first series of bombs to drop. He could feel a
probing buss as the five dragons came closer and wonder what was going on with
the pilots suddenly out of view. Like they appeared from a fog, he could start
and hear the dragons talk in their native language. Some words he gotten; they
were hailing them.
Without a
doubt he knew that they were trying to get their attention and ask what the
hell was going on. The timer on the dashboard counted the last ten seconds
until the bombs drop. Each second seemed to pass forever. Each wingbeat of the
other dragons signalling a possible cry for alarm.
Tanith and
Freya spread their wings wide to smooth out the ride. Gliding through the air
he could see the last second tick away.
"NOW!" Freya shouted at the same time Allen
pulled the realise cord for the first wave. He moved to quickly pull the second
release cord to drop all Tanith's bombs in one go. Freya would take care of the
second bombing run now they were made. Allen rushed to his turret and fired at
the five dragons before they could react.
He caught
them off-guard as the first salvo from his twin browning guns took the wing
leader out of the sky. The dragon circled lifeless to the ground; his wings
still expanded. There was a total silence between Allen unloading the first
salvos, the dragon falling from the sky and the blast of bombs that dropped on
the city below.
Moments
later the earie screams of air raid sirens called. Freya dived first to drop
her bombs; Tanith short on her tail while Allen kept on firing the guns. He did
not care that he was not killing another dragon. Within the suppressive fire he
laid down for them prevented them for getting a clear line of sight. That did
not prevent them from firing back, a spray of bullets rained around him and
Freya.
"god dammit
Allen! Get them of our tails!" Freya shouted; her wings almost folded to make sure she was flying
maximum speed. She started to slightly outpace Tanith while Tanith was slowly
getting overtaken by the four dragons hot on their heels.
Allen dug
his heel in against the saddle and released a tight burst of fire concentrated
to the dragon who looked most threating with its large bore cannons on the
dragon's flank. While meant for air to ground combat, one hit of the cannons
and they were done for. The burst of fire traced a path along the other
dragon's flank. With its soft tissue pierced with bullets blood dripped from
the dragon's stomach. Dropping away the dragon left a hole in the enemies'
formation that gave them a breather.
"Bombs
away!" Freya
shouted, at the same time Allen felt Tanith jerk up to gain more altitude. From
Allen's position he could watch the bombs drop into a building and blow up. He
couldn't just help to think about the Goliath. How his life got uprooted but a
moment just like this. He looked at the explosion before him, wondering how
many people died, how many wounded, how many got their parents killed in
explosions just like this.
"Allen
focus! You can philosophise about this when we are safe!" Tanith growled at Allen "I
appreciate it if we don't die tonight"
Allen
traced his eyes from the burning pile of rubble to the two dragons that where
still chasing them. He lined the guns of his turret up to give them another
round of lead. His burst of fire ended up flying past the dragons and strikes
the ground.
"Allen
more are coming"
Freya called, Moments later Tanith banked, and two dragons flew past them,
narrowly missing them. Allen in a quick-thinking moment turned his turrets
around and burst his fire to shoot at the dragons. While he traced his guns
towards Tanith's mid flank, he gotten one of the dragons in his full blast. The
dragon seemed to fly onwards for a few moments, trying to clutch to life but
his wings gave out and the dragon rolled around its axis towards the ground.
Allen did not stop blasting his weapons after this. He kept on firing to keep
the now three dragons off their tails.
With the
city waking up by bombs, the air defence started to become active. Not caring
they might hint their own, they fired flack shells at them. The heavy thumbs of
the shells exploding in the air and shrapnel raining down upon them. Allen was
lucky the shells have been set way to high else Tanith's wings would have been
blown into a thousand pieces.
Tanith
growled and banked sharply to her right side; she could see Freya struggling to
fly at her top for so long. Even Tanith could feel the pain of in her wings.
The flack shells that where shot complicated the maters. Her wings strained to
get preform the complicated manoeuvres to keep the flacks of track. She could
feel the pressure of the guns swaying her slightly of course. He looked at
Freya and wondered why Freya was not shooting.
She kept
swaying knowing that if they reached the sea, they would certainly be hunted
down by air ships. Trough back to the desert would provide nearly as many
problems. She could see that Freya choose for the last option. Tanith moved up
to fly slightly above Freya to give Evans room to fire. Looking down she
discovered the reason why Evans was not shooting. She had a first aid pack open
and was frantically wrapping bandages around her arm. Tanith growled softly and
moved back down again to shield Freya.
"Reloading" Allen shouted, moving about and the
guns gone silent. In this silence the chasing dragons took their chance to get
in close.
"Faster!" She shouted at Allen, not wanting
them to get to close.
"Tanith
single line formation"
Tanith sped
up to fly side by side to Freya. She could see Evan with her bandaged-up wing
now standing pained but proud at the turrets. She fired to fill in for the
silence of Allen's guns. The dragons being caught off guard faced the brunt of the
burst. Two of the three dragons where hit by stray bullets and while not dead,
rapidly dropped to the ground in a kind of emergency landing. The last dragon
dropped off, keeping his distance, and swaying to avoid the bursts of bullets
flying his way.
"Allen,
safe your bullets"
Freya called while Evan's gun fell silent again. They were reaching the
boundaries of the city and without backup the Dragon that was chasing them
dropped off to leave them to the flack cannons. With none of their own dragons
around, they started to fire rapidly and without much aim. Black clouds filled
the air of exploding shells.
"Fuck me
sideways" Freya
swore just after a shell exploded close by. She tried to quicken her pace but
seemed to slow down a bit. Tanith changed to lead without giving it much
thought. She kept swaying to avoid the flack shells. When they broke out of the
city, the flack fire slowed down and eventually stopped when they flew outside
of the reach of the guns.
"Freya?
Are you alright"?
The answer
took a while. "No"
Tanith felt
her heart stopped for a moment when the answer came. She broke her leading role
in the two-dragon formation to get on Freya's left flank. Dropping slightly
behind Freya she could see the Damage. While not immediately lethal, Freya's
side was riddled with small wounds caused by shrapnel from the flack that had
drilled into her scales. Trickles of blood dripped from Freya's flank.
"Dammit" Tanith could hear Allen call trough
the link. He had moved himself to give over her neck to inspect the wounds of
Freya.
"how bad
is it?"
"I am
not a Doctor Freya, but we need to remove the metal. and patch them up"
Freya gazed
around to look at a safe space to land. The savanna left little hiding placed
and the desert was even more empty. Tanith tried to think of a place where she
possibly saw a hiding spot. Freya banked again.
"We...have
a spot, it will be a long stretch but there is a mountain on the horizon"
"Just
tell me when I have to help" Tanith offered, wanting to help her wing mate out in any way she could.
"I will" Was the reply, Freya slowed her
beating to give herself a breather.
Freya
started to decent slowly to blend into the environment, to avoid being seen by
other dragons that would hunt them down without remorse. Tanith stayed on her
tail, to make sure the wounded dragon was safe. Tanith could feel Allen's
tension while he was scanning the horizon for enemy dragons that might hunt
them down from the city. His guns moved about always prepared to fire.
Allen was
on edge and suspicious that no hunting party have been send after them. It
might be because of the dragons they shot down. Or where they busy trying to
fight was ever fire, they might have caused with the bombs.
When they
reached the mountains, the desert disappeared to give way to a small forest
that was running against the mountain. The light vegetation was not enough to
fully hide them. But it would give any hunting party a good search for them
first.
Freya
landed heavily in a clearing, noticing the pain of her flanks for the first
time since they flew over the desert. Her partially covered up wounds opened
again to release the scent of blood anew into the air. Tanith landed much more
gracefully, she rushed over to support Freya. Allen gotten the field med kit
and jumped from the saddle in his rush he miscalculated the hight of the jump
and came down rather heavily. He groaned but luckily, he was not injured from
what he could see.
Rushing to
Freya's flank he could see the damage. He counted twenty puncture wounds on her
flank that all had metal shrapnel in them.
"fuck" he
swore and set his field kit down to start prepping. Admiral Evans joined Allen
just a moment later. Her arm crudely bandaged up. Allen looked at her arm with
a glare.
"Admiral,
Do I need to look at you first?"
Evans waved
him off with a firm no. She took a pair of pliers from the field kit and walked
to Freya's flank.
"Freya,
this will hurt a bit. Just hold still" she said while readying herself. Allen
rushed to Evans' side to help her out when she pulled the bullet from her
flank.
"I will
hold strong jan.... Admiral Evans."
"Just call
me Jane"
Allen could
see a single tear roll across admiral Evan's cheek. She looked at the pliers in
her hand before looking at Freya's flank.
"We need to
disinfect these"
Without
thinking Allen took the flacon of whiskey that Evans gave him and handed it to
her.
"Only the
best" he half joked to her. She took the flacon with a wordless thanks and
pored some of the liquid over the pliers. Waiting for a moment for the alcohol
to drip off she braced herself.
The moment
she put the pliers to Freya's wound to drag the shard out, the dragon let out a
roar of pain. It took Evans a moment of struggling to finally get a hold of the
piece of metal. Once she had a hold, she pulled it slowly out. The sicking wet
sound of the bit dragging out flew uprooted Allen's stomach. Trough he
supressed his want to vomit.
The shard
was the size of Allen's middle finger. The bleeding that Freya sustained was
minimal. Allen could thank Freya if that piece hit Evans the story would be all
different. Allen pressed gauss on the wound to suppress the bleeding. Evans put
the sharp piece of metal to one size and grabbed a needled and thread. She was
not the greatest of surgeons, but her rough stitching work made do to close the
wound.
Allen
finished off by applying a dragon size all around bandage on the wound to keep
the dirt out. Without pausing Evans moved to the next wound, cleaning some of
the blood from the plier she set to the skin and pulled the second bit of metal
out.
Slowly they
worked swiftly trough all twenty of the wounds on Freya's flank. She gave a
surprised pained growl with each wound. With the work done, they allowed Freya
to lay on the ground, resting slightly from the attack.
Allen
looked at their bloody hands that must be cleaned off. Evans grabbed a rag to
clean of the blood of the arm. Then she just took a sip of the whiskey without
pausing for a thought.
"Oh, sorry
how rude of me Walker" she offered the flask back to Allen. "I will compensate
you for it"
Allen took
the flask and a sip. The whiskey was smoother than any he ever had among the
sailors. He enjoyed the burn for a moment.
"Is this
why you drink alcohol?" Tanith asked, feeling the burn. She pulled a confused face.
"It's
the closest to breathing fire I will ever get"
"You gave
It as a gift ma'am. But if you wish to compensate, I will ask for a night of
leave when we get back. I could use a night of drinks."
Jane gave a
hearty laugh at his request. "Granted, trough normally airman is not that
upfront about their drinking behaviour. Mostly asking for family time. But they
forget that I wasn't born yesterday. Trough, with the craziness of what
happened today. I will properly introduce you to the corps private bar."
"The corps
has a bar?"
Evans gave
a firm nod. "Yes Walker, It's for aces only. Trough I think that managing to
down three dragons in enemy territory counts of an ace."
Allen
whipped his arm clean of blood before signalling Evans to sit down. "Well with
any bad luck I will get my ace by the time we get home" He unwrapped the shoddy
bandages that Evans did. He could see a mess of dark black blood together with
a lump of lead that had pierced the skin and was pressing against the
underlying muscles of her arm.
Allen took
the flask of whiskey and pored some over Evans arm with little warning to clean
the wound.
"God dammit
Walker, just pull it out" Evans swore to him. A Mix of red blood and whiskey
dripping down her arm. Allen gotten a pair of smaller pliers to pull the bullet
carefully from her arm. With the bullet gone the wound started to bleed again.
Allen pressed the wound close and did his own shoddy craftmanship of a
stitching on her arm. Closing the wound, he wrapped it with a few bandages.
"That will
leave a scar for sure." Evans looked at her arm. "A times keep. About this
lubricous mission. How are you and Tanith?"
"Fine"
Allen said, getting a rest up on fallen tree. "I Tanith is not hit, and my only
pain is in my hands from firing that damned gun."
"Well your
aim could be better Walker."
"It also
could be a whole lot worse" Tanith commented, placing herself into the grass, laying behind Allen
and gazing at Freya in worry.
"Should we
fly or stay here Ma'am?"
"Stay,
Freya needs to heal. Tanith needs some rest. Besides I too can use some sleep.
We rest here until the night, then we fly again. We need to reach the jungle
again. There we can rest before crossing the ocean."
"I will
take care of the first watch" Allen said and looked around for a lookout. He
found one in a tree. With the help of Tanith, he managed to get himself in the
tree and looking over the clearing to the desert beyond. It was a quite
afternoon and the sun was slowly creeping back to the ground. He guessed they
had an hour or four before the night would completely fall. He relaxed against
the tree trunk and kept gazing.
Below him
Tanith had curled around the tree and was closing her eyes to catch some sleep.
Soon she would need that sleep.
Alone with
his thoughts Allen passed the time thinking of possible situations they could
encounter between the desert and the mountain steppe that they occupied. He
occasionally took a small sip from the whiskey flask just to bolster his mood.
It looked all to bleak for him, capture was not an option, death was unwelcome.
The sun was
large and orange low on the horizon when Allen was shaking out of his thoughts
by something moving towards them. It was far to large for a dragon and even not
a hunting party on foot. Allen Slowly slid down the tree and tapped Tanith on
her snout.
"Visitors,
stay quiet"
Allen
pulled his gun and went to wake Freya and Evans with a soft shake. Evans took a
while to stand up and the four of them took a somewhat covered spot behind
trees. For as much you could hide two full grown dragons. But the trees would
block some of the fire.
A single
scarily clothed man came running to the open field. He was covered with fresh
scars, some still bleeding. The scars ran along his legs and arms to his torso
where a Y shaped scar was running. He was thinned out to the point that the man
was more a running skeleton then man. His eyes where hollow and desperate. He
collapsed in the field unable to walk and just kept dragging himself along.
"He is
one of us" Tanith
pointed a tattoo on his back out. Two dragon wings with the text 'Primo Victoria'
above it and '50th air regiment' under it.
Allen
looked at admiral Evans who gave a soft nod and walked out to the man. "My name
is Admiral Evans, admiral of the 39th regiment. Who are you and what
are you doing here?"
The man
just lights up in his eyes even trough his body just refused to work. "Airman"
he started, taking a breather. "Harper."
Evans waved
with her hand for Allen and the two dragons to come forth from their hiding
spots. Tanith started by lowering her back to get some of the food down. Allen
choice for a dry ration cracker, some water, and some cloths.
Harper took
it with great care and slowly nipped at the cracker and took a small sip of
water. He shivered all around when the chilled water reached his core. Evans
helped the airman get in some cloths to warm him up.
"What
happened airman" Evans asked Harper, whose eyes just lost all hope thinking
about something.
"We where
captured" he started "and brought to a camp." He stopped, a tear rolling across
his cheek. Evens looked at Allen with an odd gaze, confusion, sorrow, a bit of
mix of both.
"and then?"
The man
simply pointed to his arms "I never seen my dragon again. Agape was separated
from me, I did hear her call out for help ones but after that silence. I fear
the worse...or well hope that she died and spared my fate"
"your fate"
Evans tried to pressure on.
"I was cut
open" he man suddenly cried out. "Strapped to a table and cut open like some
kind of animal!" tears rolled down his cheek and he grasped cracker that he was
given, hungerly biting down on it only just to hide it for others. He took a
swallow of water and threw the mug away.
"I would
have rather died out here then spend another day in that camp"
Allen
realised something quite suddenly and worrying. "How long ago you escaped"
"I don't
know, not long ago"
Evans
looked at Allen with the same realisation Allen had. "Tanith, Walker. Get him
on Tanith's back. We are leaving immediately."
What Allen
noticed about trying to get the weakened airman on Tanith's back was that he
weighted barely anything and was frail. He was afraid just to break a bone of
Harper by holding him to thigh. In the saddle Allen just strapped him in in a
space with minimal wind. He was sure that Harper could not hold his own.
"Ready" He called out and the five set out
to a long flight away. They watched the sun passing under the horizon while
they flew over the desert back to the jungle. They were slower than before,
keeping to a slower pace not to hurt Freya. Allen's eyes kept gazing into the distance
to spot any enemy on the horizon but as soon as the stars started to shine, and
the sun disappeared that they would be safe from any enemy attack.
It was a
long flight over the desert where the temperature dropped drastically when the
sun had disappeared. Allen shivered from the cold and grabbed some extra cloths
to keep him warm. Just in case he put a blanked around Harper. He noticed that
he was not shivering anymore, and he hoped that was a good sign. He just kept
gazing under the stars.
He could
feel so small compared to the milky way stretched out above him. Countless
stars where seen in the dark, more then he ever saw at home when the light cast
up into the night. He never seen such darkness and still seen light. The moon
had gone dark and only the starlight illuminated them. He wondered how Tanith
could see anything in this darkness. Yet she flew with purpose along the empty
desert. He was aware of the same tingling across his nose that for some reason
never left his one side. He opened his mind a bit to look beyond what he
normally experienced and to what his dragon felt. He leaned against the saddle
and gazed up at the stars while letting his thoughts run around.
Tanith
always kept the tingling he felt on the same side of her muzzle, it moved when
her muzzle moved and it always pointed towards the northern star like beacon,
like a compass.
"because
it is" Tanith
answered his unanswered question. "All dragons are born with this feeling of
what is north and what is not." She enjoyed showing Allen more of her
unique skill. Waving her muzzle around to give him a sense of the feeling that
guided him.
"Tanith
what on earth are you doing" Freya asked when gazing at the weird movements the dragon it.
"showing
Allen our way of direction" Tanith answered
"He can
feel the pull?"
"yes, he
can"
"Eh, he
is only lucky human to feel the pull." Freya paused a bit "Allen you should feel
honoured to feel what dragons always feel."
Allen could
not help but to smile "It is indeed an honour" He gave Tanith a small
rub on the base of her neck. "Thanks for showing me Tanith. I wonder what
other secretes you have hold for me"
Allen could
feel an odd sensation run across his mind, like there was this big secrete she
was keeping from him down in the core of her might. He would not pry, instead
laying on his back to keep his mind wondering.
He drifted
into a light slumber without noticing, hoping that Tanith would be aware what
was happening and warn him. The night further passed without worry, even trough
they where flying calmly. The fear of being hunted down ebbed away the closer they
came to the desert that the Camari called home. It was their rest for the night
before they finally flew back to their home with the hope that something might
have made a difference.
They
arrived at the Camari's capital in the dead of night, exhausted the two dragons
collapsed on the dragon plaza. Allen went on to unstrap Harper form his back,
the sound of landing dragons woken up the Camari who rushed to see what the
commotion was.
Allen
helped the Camari to get Harper from Tanith's back trough he suddenly noticed
something. Harper was not breathing. They put the airman down on the ground and
unwrapped him from his cloths to feel a pulse. He had none, his lips had gone
grey and his eyes where lifeless.
The Camari
bowed before him and Allen just closed Harpers eyes. "We will keep him safe for
your burial of choice"
Allen just
did not care anymore. He placed himself against Tanith's flank and fell into a
deep but restless slumber. What had Harper experienced, he said something about
cutting open but was it true? Could anyone at a pow camp really be so cruel?
His
restless night was disturbed by the sun raising above the horizon again. He
could see admiral Evans already awake, just gazing at Allen and shaking her
head.
"He passed
away he heart"
Allen
nodded softly "He did, when we pulled him off, he had no pulse. I don't know
why but I just know he passed. I tried to help him with a blanked but seems it
had no use"
Evans gave
a small rub on his shoulder. "We did what we could. Let's give our airman a
proper funeral."
It was
Evans who first looked at the body of Harper, she looked for something until
she saw the number. She noted it down, writing 'Harper, KIA' behind the number.
She rolled the body back onto a pile of wood that was gathered on a stone clearing.
"We are
here to say our last farewell to one of our corps. We did not know Airman Harper,
but he died by the hands of our enemies and thus died a hero's death. I am
sorry that we could not be of any help other then burn his body like all the hero's
that have died a hero's death on the hands of our enemies."
Allen did
know little about traditions of the airman regarding death. We were surprised
when Tanith and Freya stepped forwards and breath their fire across the body
until it burst into flames. Allen looked at the fires that consumed the body.
He expected it to smell of burning flesh, instead he could smell the scent of
burning rose pedals. Something to do with the wood Tanith explained him.
He stood
for a few moments before turning his face away from the hot fire and looking at
Evans who was just standing there without much emotion on her face.
"Allen do
me a favour, if we still get captured, please shoot me and Freya before we get
captured."
Allen gave
a soft nod; he could now add two more to his death list who he had to make sure
never died a faith other then they wanted. He did even include himself to that
list. He sighed to think of it. What faith could be worse than death at your
own hands.
"Dying
like Maximius" Tanith
reminded him "At the hands of your pilot who you trusted."
Allen gave
a soft nod and just hold her head. "I am ready to end this damned bloody
war."
Admiral
Evans looked at the two holding each other close and scribbled something else
in her notepad. Another page another scribble. She stood looking for a while
longer before placing a hand on her dragon's flank and walking away.
"I think
she is jealous"
Freya finally spoke when the two where done hugging.
"jealous
of us?"
Freya
nodded softly "jealous that you have found something that she hasn't, and I
must admit I am a little jealous s of that too?"
"What
did we find that she did not got?" Tanith asked
"love
amidst a war that tears all apart"
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