Dagon clutched tightly onto Sephtis as they began their dive deep into the hurricane. The black winds instantly began to throw Sephtis off course, knocking the pair from side to side while threatening to tear Dagon free of Sephtis's back.
'Sephtis! This might be too much!!' Dagon screamed telepathically as his arms and legs shook with effort, holding onto his dragon's back as tightly as possible.
'Calm yourself, Dagon, we will be fine!' Sephtis spoke on return, but Dagon could feel the uncertainty in his words. 'I just need to find the wind current and let it guide us!'
'Wind current?' Dagon thought, lifting his head slightly to try and see what Sephtis could be talking about, but he instantly went back down, tucking himself against Sephtis's back when he felt the wind threaten to pull him away.
'There!' Sephtis spoke, tilting to the right as he then descended. A moment later the flight became less violent and the wind seemed to lessen as their speed picked up and they began flying smoothly through the wind.
'I get it..' Dagon thought. The hurricane had wind currents like that of a river, if Sephtis stuck to them the storm was much easier to cope with.
Dagon glanced down, seeing dark waters below them for a brief moment. The waters themselves seemed almost alive, writhing and churning violently and crashing into massive pillars of rock jutting into the air.
'It should be an easy flight from here out.' Sephtis spoke, 'so long as I follow the current, it should lead us to the eye of the storm, and there we will find Liorria."
Dagon slightly lifted himself, relaxing his posture, though not too much, as the winds were till quite strong. 'The Dragon Goddess Queen… you think she will permit us to enter her territory?'
'Why wouldn't she, boy? You are the great and destined king after all.'
'I don't see why you feel the need to be sarcastic, I was being serious.' Dagon spoke.
'And I am also being serious, idiot. There is no reason why she wouldn-'
Sephtis's wing suddenly jerked back violently as he dipped out of the current, a wild wind wrenching at his right wing. Sephtis's body began to spiral, tumbling out of the current as they began tumbling downwards.
Then Dagon could hear the sound of metallic rattling, vibrations running up his shoulder. He realized it was his metallic arm, the force of the winds putting strain on it. Dagon tried tucking himself against Sephtis, but the wind had already took hold of him, pulling him free of Sephtis's back. He held on as long as he could with only one hand, but he wasn't strong enough.
'SEPHTIS!!' Dagon roared, but then he was pulled from his dragon's back and began a helpless descent down into the dark storm before plunging into the black water.
Sephtis too crashed into the inky water a ways off from Dagon, descending deep into the water. Dagon began spinning and spiraling through the water uncontrollably as the currents took hold of him, not willing to let go. He felt a stinging pain as his back was slammed into a sharp rock, and then he was torn away from it, spiraling through the waves as he was pulled in an unknown direction.
He could only wonder then, as he was helplessly thrashed about… was this where he was doomed to end?
— — —
The dragon queen lifted her head. She could hear the fleeting scream from someone beyond the wall of the storm that caged her, but it wasn't someone's voice… more like it was their soul crying out.
Liorria's eyes narrowed, her white scales glistening in the light of the moon above her seem through the eye of the storm, a gap in the writhing darkness that let through the faintest of light.
Atop the massive pillar of stone that served as her deathbed, the Dragon Goddess bowed her head, her regal horns shifting with her movements, strands of luminescent energy, almost like scarves of magical aura, shimmered and flowed from her head, back and shoulders.
"You ask if this is where you end, little one. You know your own fate, yet you doubt it. Do you truly believe you are destined to die here…? Or… shall you hold strong to the strings of fate that bind you to this world?"
The ground began to tremble as Liorria rose from her position, vines and dust breaking away from her scales as cracks of luminescent energy split across the rock below her talons. She then lifted her head into the air, opening her jaws as a tremendous roar tore through the air. The earth began to split open below her and crumble away as the light of her magical energy spilled across the island, and above her, the moon seemed to become even brighter with a brilliant divine light.
"Whether it be a curse… or a blessing…" Liorria spoke, her wings spreading wide and casting a glorious glow across the area, "the chains of fate will not let you die."