A Generation Unleashed

Thunder crashed in the distance and rain poured over the lands as the races spilled blood in the fields. War tore through the earth as magic tore the sky. A portal formed above the battlefield and in a flash of lightning a dragon descended down from the clouds. As it landed resting on the ground smoke bellowed around his claws. Its eyes opened and turned to the blades clashing at every side. The heat of battle had even managed to distract from the horrors that had just landed among them. An instinctive rumble came from the beast, growls echoed, its mouth opened as smoke hissed from between its teeth.

"Rawr!!!"

The heavy battleaxe came screaming down from above, as if cutting the air itself, and crashed into the defender's pauldrons with a deafening clang of steel on steel. The target of the blow reeled backwards, off-balance, struck by the sheer force of the strike. Although the blade did not penetrate, it forced the heavy plate mail into it's wearer's shoulder-blade. There was a loud organic CRACK...the unmistakable sound of separating bone. Gritting his teeth as he fell to the side and unable to right himself, the hapless defender landed with a painful clatter on the ground, worthless. His helmet was tossed free from the impact, and his bare face was contorted in pain and rage as he landed in the thick mud of the rain-soaked battlefield. He was just about to roll onto his back to face his attacker, who he expected to see lumbering over him, readying the final strike of the axe - but the attacker was standing there, looking utterly dumbfounded, his axe hung low at his side.

"What the hell!" The assailant mumbled from underneath his helm. "What is that?!" He was looking off to the side, staring in disbelief at the tiny draconic being that had just descended in the midst of the battle.

No one besides these two soldiers had seemed to have noticed the little dragon sitting amongst them, the rest of the battle raged on around them.

The little form scurried towards the fallen soldier. She looked at him, her little face seeming to be upset, sad even. She skittered up his arm to his shoulder. She squeaked as her little claws skid across his steel armor before finally clamoring to the top. A dim light emanated from the paws resting in his shoulder, seeming to ease his pain and reverse the damage. She didn't pay much attention to the other beings clashing around her until the one behind her shouted. She whirled her head around in concern, her eyes locked on the dumbfounded human.

The man lying on the ground fumbled and cursed, caught up in a tangle of bewilderment and terror as the little creature approached him and starting climbing on top of him. He was in no position to stop it; his shoulder was limp and he couldn't move his arm, even to brush the thing away. His other arm was trapped underneath him under pounds and pounds of heavy armor. He was just about to open his mouth to scream when he saw the glow from underneath the tiny paws, and then felt a wave of relief. What? It was healing him?

The assailant stared, utterly perplexed. This must be some beast, brought by his foe to aid him in the battle. What manner of witchcraft was this?! With rage sparked afresh, the attacker snarled and raised his axe once more, closing in to put an end to his enemy and whatever blasphemous spawn he had brought along with him.

"Your little pet won't save you! Meet your maker, you wretch!" The axe reached the pinnacle of its swing, high in the air and back-lit by the storm clouds above as the rain continued to pelt down upon them.

The white dragon flared out its gold tipped wings and snarled at the approaching man. Her sharp teeth bared as her jaws opened threateningly and her eyes sparked with fury. Despite this her presence was less than terrifying, much like a child waving a sword he could barely lift at a seasoned warrior.

When the axe reached the apex of its swing she dug her claws into the steel armor she was perched on. With a single breath a sound seemed to echo from her very core, sending a shockwave of force out in a cone in front of her and the soldier she stand on. The power forced its way through the battle, knocking not only the attacker but others back a distance from where the had once stood. She gripped the steel but her claws skid, the force also throwing her back a distance from the injured soldier.

The momentum of the little dragon's power sent her would-be attacker hurtling backwards, tumbling to the ground end-over-end like a domino. He landed hard with a clang on the muddy ground, and another one of his cohorts who had been holding the line behind him tripped over him and smacked into the thick mud unceremoniously. Yet another one had just parried a blow from a skirmishing opponent, but then was knocked off guard by the blast - he was not lucky to dodge the second strike, which felled him on the spot. A cavalry officer atop a horse who had been skirting past the edge of the melee was unhappily surprised when his horse suddenly disappeared out from under him, and he went flying forward directly into an abandoned field-cart, ending in a heap of splintered wood.

"Dragon! Kill it, kill it!" Another man shouted, "No! Capture it! It's magical, and rare!" A clamor of voices rose up as the warring men gradually started paying more attention to the little creature than the battle that was raging around them. "I don't care, kill it! Did you see what it just did!"

Meanwhile, the downed man that the dragon had crawled atop was struggling to sit up and look around, fumbling and grasping in the mud to find his sword.

The little dragon toppled through the mud, rolling over herself several times before she slid face first through a puddle.  She coughed, snorting the mud out of her nostrils before looking up to the impending horde that had begun to circle her.  She mewed helplessly scurrying to flap the heavily sodden dirt from her thin wings.  She wriggled and flailed her wings about trying to raise off the ground but the mud stuck to her like glue.  Flying seemed out of the question.

One opportunistic soldier sheathed his sword and rushed towards the little dragoness, trying to clutch her between the cold metal of his gauntlets. Another one cursed him and rushed forward after him, but he seemed to have more of an intention of smushing her underfoot than catching her. Both men clumsily tried to get at her, but had little luck wading through the ever-thickening sheet of mud coating the field as the rains continued baring down upon them.

Her frail little body wouldn't budge from the mud as the men both sloshed towards her. Her struggling only made her sink deeper into the thick sodden earth. Before she even realized she was up to her shoulders in the puddle and virtually unable to move.

All in a panic she shrank away from the oncoming humans fumbling to get to her first. She mewed helplessly as she fearfully looked at the giants calling for her head. All she wanted was to help the man who got hurt and then all of these other people started shouting and trying to hurt her.

The man who she had helped now sloshed around and struggled to get his footing in the mud. He was a few feet away from the little dragoness. He had managed to get a hold of his sword, and was half-crouching as he fought the sheer weight of his armor to rise back to his feet. A growl emanated from deep in his throat, and it appeared that the attackers did not notice him even though he was poised between them and the dragoness. If he could stand, he could rush the both of them from the side as they moved in and protect the tiny creature flailing about in front of him - the peculiar little beast that tried so desperately, and palpably risked her own life, to try and help him. He narrowed his eyes and focused, waiting on exactly the right moment to burst up and shoulder his way through the two oncoming attackers, cleaving and flaying them as he went. He saw them about to cross in front of him, and focused all his might to start the charge forward -

- and then an arrow flying from the advancing assailants whistled through the air and sank directly into the side of his helmet, felling him instantly. His sword dropped worthlessly into the mud beside him, and he fell face-first without a sound.

The general area around her turned from a normal battlefield between two armies into a free for all melee for the little dragoness. Most wanted to kill her, some wanted to capture and sell her to some wizard somewhere, but even fewer wanted to protect the small creature.

One of the warriors in the battle was a tiefling named Azzer, he saw the little dragoness in the center of the battle and looked around at all the people near her furiously. How dare they accost such an important and sacred creature! He lifted his hand and shouted some words no one could make out over the madness and a number of brilliant gleaming lines of energy shot out, spearing a number of these people through the chest. He began making his way over to the dragon.

From within the ranks of the attackers, a hulking half-giant, half-man plowed forth. The two axes in his hands were streaming with blood and chunks of guts, glistening wet in the heavy rain. A defender had sullied forth to meet him, wielding a sword and shield quite valiantly against the brute. He held his own for a few moments, parrying and blocking expertly in order to side-step and deliver a counter-attack. But the half-giant was as fast as he was powerful, and he caught the skirmishing knight with a simple right hook from his axe that slipped above the range of his shield. It snagged him across the top of the shoulder, barely a serious wound but just enough to throw the warrior off balance. The half-giant took the opening mercilessly, and buried his second axe right into his foe's sternum. As he clutched his axe free with a disgusting crunch, he fixed his sights on the tiefling Azzer. A grin spread across his blood-splattered face, and he lumbered forward towards him.

Azzer looked at him and smirked slightly and whispered the words "Sphere of Annihilation..." and a black sphere, two feet in height and diameter appeared before him, and he thrust it towards the half giant brute. It moved incredibly quickly and if it hit him, it would utterly destroy any matter it came into contact with.

The little creature froze for a moment, watching his body fall into the mud. A growl of anger rumbled from her core like a voice murmuring in the ears of those around her.

"Die..." the voice echoed in draconic as her claws broke free of the thick earth. "DIE!" it repeated in a wisp of sound through the battlefield. Her little wings opened and she streaked into the skies above them. She circled blindingly fast back toward the archers before a cloud of lightning raged down upon them. The little dragoness let out an ear piercing shriek as she soared over the battlefield, assaulting the armies below with thundering arks of lightning.

The half-giant dove to the side, rolling to break his fall as the sphere went barreling past him. The lightning arced down hard all around him, felling foe and friend alike. He glanced up into the sky at the tiny dragon, gritting his teeth. Then his attention turned back to the Tiefling - and he charged, roaring and with axes raised.

The tiefling stayed rather still and simply pointed and spoke the words "Stop, and fall to your knees. Wait for the lightning." The half giant would feel this magical force wash over him, and he immediately felt like that was the absolute best idea in the world. After he did that, he erected a wall of force around himself and watched in awe and she fucked up everyone's shit.

The half-giant dumbly sat down, looking at all the pretty colors. The snarl on his face faded into a smug grin and his butt sunk down into the mud. He shrugged and laid his axes down and waited.

An archer in the distance, one of the ones with the unit that had fired not too long ago - perhaps his arrow had even been the one to pierce the downed man, but it was impossible to tell - weaved in and out of the ranks of men that were fighting or fleeing. He avoided a strike of lightning by mere feet, ducking behind the cart that the cavalry officer had plummeted into only moments ago.

"Officer! Thank the gods you're alive! Sir, that's a fucking dragon!" He hissed, barely loud enough to be audible to the wounded man over the roar of the battle around them. "What do we do?! Can we fight it?!"

The cavalry officer, who had a stud from the side of the cart implanted firmly into his left thigh, did not seem to mind. He was preoccupied with stringing out a long pattern of profanities, simultaneously cursing the gods and begging them to grant him some refuge in all the chaos.

"Sir? Hey! Hey! Officer! Listen to me!" The archer reached out a leather-gloved and lightly smacked the officer across the face. "Listen, goddamnit! That's a dragon! What do we do?!"

"How in the hell should I know!" The officer barked, trying to struggle free. "Kill me before you run for your goddamn miserable life, how about that!"

The dragoness circled back again this time only feet away from the cart where the men tried to stay hidden. Her lightning breath struck a nearby pile of wood, broken cart, and whatever else that lay idle in the field catching it ablaze. Rounding the edge again she blasted the earth with a hell storm of lightning again, again, and again.

The cavalry officer whined helplessly as he tried to free himself from the wooden rod piercing through his leg, but his efforts were to no avail. His archer tried to help him, but there was nothing they could do short of pulling the man free.

A stray arc of lightning caught the cart at its side, sending a blinding wave of heat. The archer was thrown clear and to the ground as the side of the cart burst into flames. The cavalry officer screamed as the flames licked closer and closer towards him, and the archer looked on in horror from several yards away.

"I don't wanna burn to death! I don't wanna burn to death! Oh, shit!" He tried hopelessly to bat the flames away, but they crept closer and closer as the far end of the cart collapsed under its own weight in a puff of smoking white-hot embers inside the crackling blaze.

The archer gritted his teeth as he got to his feet. Watching his superior officer's imminent, painful demise drawing ever closer, he mercifully drew his bow and nocked an arrow.

As she circled back she looked down at the burning cart when she felt a shock of sympathy for the man trapped and resigned to his grim fate. She looked at the archer, still feeling a tinge of anger but she managed to pull herself together.

She mewed as she soared faster than lightning to the blaze and rested perched on the board that pierced his leg. She opened her little wings and with a magical energy behind them waves of air burst out and blew the flames into submission. When the flames quelled she turned to the man lodged on the cart and looked at him mournfully.

The archer's jaw dropped and he stared in bewilderment. For a moment, the aim of his bow subconsciously shifted to the little creature perched atop the cart. He hesitated.

The officer's breath caught in his chest and his eyes locked on the little dragon in utter shock. "No, no, no no....no..." He muttered to himself in disbelief. "Please don't, please don't kill me..."

By now, most of the other fighters that had survived were fleeing or had sought shelter. The battlefield had grown mysteriously quiet, with the occasional shout or moan of a dying man, a helpless clang of steel, or the whinny of a terrified horse, all set to the eerie backdrop of the torrential downpour.

The little dragoness plopped down onto the man's leg and circled around the board curiously trying to find a weakness or some way to remove it.  A moment later she squeaked, opened her little mouth and bit the board... Her little teeth pierced the board as she tried to chomp it into pieces, she whimpered and let up only moments later when nothing availed to free the man.

The archer was stricken in a wave of terror, uncertain of what to do. In a panic, he turned and fled as quickly as he could. His heavy footsteps led him away from the beast as fast as he could get.

The officer began to sob quietly, utterly uncertain of the creature's intentions. "Just let me go, please, no..."

Sadly she turns to him as he pleas for his life. She hadn't wanted to hurt anyone, she just wanted to help. She shrank away from him almost crying (donno if dragons can have tears but if they could she does) climbing up his leg. The same glow emanated from her little paws as she tried to at least ease his pain, maybe slow the bleeding in hopes he'd survive long enough to get help. She gave one more look over her shoulder before she hopped down and scurried off toward anyone still in the field who might be able to help.