A few hours had passed since they had hidden in the rapidly crowding bunker, but Aztoria was still fighting. At the moment, Zastair had managed to tear up the membranes of her wings, forcing her to stay on the ground along with him. As for her, she had bitten off the end of his tail and ripped the muscles of his left front leg to the point he couldn't use it anymore. Their battleground had eventually moved to being in the town, fire raging around them as they fought with the intent to kill. "You should just admit defeat and let me kill you!"
"Would you leave my children untouched?!"
He tightened his grip, then threw her into a building. "And let a trace of you remain?! Never!" Their roars drowned out the crackling of the flames and the shouts of the remaining people. After clashing several more times, Aztoria paused, the smoke making it far too hard to breathe, while Zastair had been using wind magic to get it away from his face the entire time. Slapped her head aside in the brief moment, he stopped her breath attack and rammed into her, pinning her on her side with a snarl. Blood trickled down her face from the strike, barely missing her eye. "After I kill you, I'll hunt down those vile creatures that look like you. Hmmm...perhaps I'll show them your corpse before I tear them apart."
"Zastair…!"
'(Momma.)' She froze when she heard Zyrtec's voice in her mind, then sadness dulled her eyes. '(Where are you?)'
'(Just be patient. I'll be with you soon, don't worry.)' Growling at Zastair, she said, "You will never get my legacy, I'm content enough knowing that."
He frowned at her, then sighed and took a deep breath before showing her a cruel grin. "Do you know how strong the scent of your children is right now?" Releasing some of the pressure on her, he then pushed down incredibly hard, snapping bones in her chest and legs and the ground cracked dangerously. "Oh, I wonder just where they could be~...Falthgir." The green dragon had been hovering above them the entire time, waiting to see the outcome. Hearing Zastair and seeing his actions, he went lower, then spat powerful acid at the cracks in the ground continuously. "These creatures seem to hide underground when there's danger. It just so happens to be a common behavior." Just when Zyrtec was repeating his mother's response to the panicked Nylotte, a drop of green liquid landed on the floor and all activity, no matter how small it was, came to a stop. Soon after, the ceiling started to break, large pieces falling on the people below. Many screaming, the dragons causing it could hear their voices and smirked.
Zyrtec glared at it, saying, "They know where we are." Silence fell over the cavern and worry set in. Then, the sound of calm footsteps came from one of the tunnels and all eyes turned to it. A young man appeared, standing there with his hands behind his back and gazing at the crowd with one red eye. Zyrtec, recognizing him immediately, froze up, gripped by terror.
Jarkko noticed this and shouted, "Run! That man isn't--" Before he could finish, something crashed down and the ceiling broke all the way, rubble crushing many that tried to flee. When the dust cleared up, everyone there could see a large purple dragon standing on top of a severely wounded gray one, his face smug. Several seconds passed without a sound, and then the first person screamed, setting off the rest instantly. As mayhem spread ceaselessly, Zastair's eyes narrowed in on the young dragons who hadn't moved. Three of them were growling, standing protectively in front of Zyrtec while in their human forms. Darezen was holding onto Zyrtec to try to calm him, keeping quiet.
When Aztoria saw them tears built up in her eyes. "No...don't touch them…" She struggled but to no avail, pain radiating from her wounds and broken bones. Taking a deep breath despite the stabbing agony it caused, she screeched, "Get away from him! All of you, run away! Run away now!"
Zastair ground his paw into her head and she went quiet. "Falthgir, do what you will with them."
"Don't mind if I do…" The green dragon looked down at them from the tunnel and in response to the danger alarms it set off, Jarkko, Qlome, and Nylotte shapeshifted, adding to their defense and offense without hesitation. "Oh~! That will make this fun."
"Hold it." Anger seethed behind Zastair's hiss, his eyes trained on Qlome. "What a foul memory."
Aztoria lashed around again but he put a stop to it quickly. "I will never let your soul rest in peace Zastair! Leave him alone!" Ignoring her completely, he shifted around so he could raise his only working front paw and reach for the younger dragons. They shook in fear, nervous from the power surrounding them. Zastair grabbed onto him harshly, lifting Qlome into the air until he was at eye-level. "Qlome! Put him down!"
His face twisted horribly as he sneered, "This thing looks and has the same name as that disgusting brother of mine? Such a creature...should be purged." The growl in his voice set her off once more and she became desperate, clawing at what she could reach. Even so, his spite only made him increase his grip on Qlome, digging his huge talons into his flesh as easily as cutting butter with a hot knife. Nylotte and Jarkko acted, rushing forward, but Falthgir appeared in front of them in his dragon form quickly, blocking their path and smacking them back against the wall with his wing. Qlome writhed in his paw, giving out blood-curdling cries while trying to become a shadow as he was slowly crushed.
Aztoria was shrieking by now, disregarding all her injuries. "STOP! ZASTAIR!" A crack resonated around them as his spine snapped and he went limp. For some reason, he hadn't been able to morph into a shadow form, something blocking it. Everything was still as Zastair scoffed and dropped his lifeless body rudely.
"A pathetic weakling. Hardly worth my time." He glanced over the remaining ones. "If they're all the same I want nothing to do with them. Do as you wish."
Despairing, Aztoria was lost, her eyes on the body of her son. Pulling together every last ounce of mana in her body to the point it tore at her life energy, she blasted it outward, stumbling Zastair and giving her a chance to bite the leg that had been on her head, latching on and keeping him from moving anywhere. "Run! Just run! I beg of you, run!" Her voice was a tad muffled by her mouthful of scales and his thrashing.
"I don't think so!" Falthgir spread his wings to either side of them, trapping the young dragons and Darezen. Jarkko, using his head how he could, found a way to grab onto each one of the others and pulled them close, then had them disappear along with him. Unable to travel far while putting a shade over another, he appeared away from the older dragons as far as the room would allow. Nylotte, taking her turn, let out an ear-piercing scream towards Falthgir, buying them a bit more time. Jarkko led the way into the sky, Nylotte carrying Zyrtec and Darezen, one in each paw. They went as fast as they could, using their natural speed as young dragons to outfly Falthgir, slowly making distance.
"Falthgir! Get back here! You can hunt them down later, just subdue this dying dragoness!" Reluctantly, Falthgir clicked his tongue and turned around, heading back to assist Zastair. Even after hearing him leave, the two kept up their pace, not daring to slow down no matter what. By instinct, they headed for the dead lands they'd originally come from, the horrible land holding a sign of peace only by the fact they had never been attacked by another dragon there. Darezen watched Zyrtec carefully during the flight, his eyes still full of fear. Flying for quite a while, they eventually landed awkwardly, their young wings tired from traveling such a distance.
Glancing at where they'd come, Jarkko said, "We can probably stop now." They were currently at the border of where the blackened land turned green, having been unable to fly further. Darezen seemed disturbed when he looked at the dead trees and ground.
"Where are we?"
Nylotte sighed and curled up around Zyrtec. "In the only place we knew for the first five years of our life."
"Seriously? You lived here?" He was shocked, almost as much as the fact that he was still with the dragons. "Why did you bring me with you…?"
"You helped us and now you're a target too." Jarkko joined his sister in comforting Zyrtec calmly, a bit dazed. "We aren't strong enough to fight those two, let alone when they're together."
Zyrtec clenched his hands and pushed his way out of their embrace as much as he could while in a human form. "I'm sorry, Darezen." He was still shaking, but the mention of their strength had irritated him. "It's my fault. They have our scent now. We need to remove it."
Jarkko stood back up and stretched his body out, trying to hide his nervousness. "We should hunt a monster and use its blood. You can control blood, right? If that's the case, we might be able to cover our scent that way." Zyrtec nodded numbly, following after his brother as he started to walk off without another word. Unsure what to do with this sudden development, Darezen and Nylotte just gave in and stayed close to them.
Elsewhere, Zastair was scowling at Aztoria, Falthgir keeping her pinned for him. "You've worn out your stay in this world. Here, let me give you one more chance to live. Tell me who possesses your legacy…" with her head pinned how it was, she couldn't speak, and therefore chose to spit the blood on her tongue at him. He frowned at her, then brought his face close to hers. "Fine. It's clearly one of your children then. Whichever one has a body able to withstand such an increase in power and is the strongest is the target." Her eyes widened and she growled at him weakly. "Shut it. Just die quietly." He sank his fangs into her throat just behind her head, causing blood to pour from her mouth and onto the ground.
'I'm so sorry I couldn't stay with you...please keep on living.' She looked at Qlome as her vision slowly darkened. A tear fell from her eye as she thought, 'I'm sorry...so very much…' Finally, a crunching sound followed by a gurgle signaled her final breath, her eyes and scales losing their shine quickly. Her soul left her body while Zastair laughed cruelly over her lifeless body, traveling to an unknown space. Opening her eyes, she found herself hovering over a gray area in a black and white space, steadily drifting to the white peacefully. 'My children…' Suddenly, with the memories of her life crashing down on her, she was yanked back to the gray space and left the strange zone, existing as just an invisible soul in the world of the living. She followed what her heart told her and traced them down, smiling sweetly at the children that could no longer see her, everything happening in an instant of her death.
At the same time their mother died, a chill ran down Zyrtec's spine and he spun around, staring in the direction her soul hovered, but was unable to see it. 'What…?' Then a pressure he'd been ignoring since a few seconds ago built up to an insane point, crashing down on his mind and making him pass out. Darezen, Nylotte, and Jarkko all panicked and rushed to catch him, fretting over him.
Seeing this, Aztoria's wandering soul thought, 'My legacy, passed on to the only one who could survive accepting it.' She drifted down in a human form, reaching her non-existent hand out to caress his cheek before disappearing to an unknown realm to watch from a distance. Now, the young dragons and their friend were on their own in a dangerous world without any form of guardian. They had no-one but themselves to rely on.