mother sending him off with a gift of speed.
As Thor squinted through the cloud cover, the immense dragons came into view, circling the Upper Isles, diving down and preparing to breathe fire. Thor looked down and his heart dropped to see that the island was already engulfed in flame, razed to the ground. He wondered with dread if anyone had managed to survive; he did not see how they could have. Was he too late?
Yet as Mycoples dove down, came ever closer, Thor’s eyes narrowed in on a single person, drawing him in like a magnet as he singled her out in the chaos: Gwendolyn.
There she was, his wife-to-be, standing in the courtyard proudly, fearlessly, clutching a baby, surrounded by everyone Thor loved, all of them encircling her and raising shields to the sky as the dragons dove down to attack. Thor watched in horror as the dragons opened their great jaws and prepared to breathe flames that Thor knew, in but a moment, would consume Gwendolyn and everyone he loved.
“DIVE!” Thor screamed to Mycoples.
Mycoples needed no encouragement: she dove down faster than Thor could imagine, so fast he could hardly catch his breath, and he held on for dear life as she did, nearly upside down. Within moments she reached the three dragons about to attack Gwendolyn, and with a great roar, her jaw opened wide, her talons out before her, Mycoples attacked the unsuspecting beasts.
Mycoples smashed into the dragons, her downward momentum carrying her, landing on their backs, clawing one and biting another – and swiping the third with her wings. She stopped them right before they breathed fire, driving them face-first into the earth.
They all impacted the ground together, and there came a great rumble and clouds of dust as Mycoples drove their faces down beneath the earth, until they were lodged so deeply in it that they were stuck, only their rear talons sticking up out of the ground. As they touched down, Thor turned and saw Gwendolyn’s shocked expression, and he thanked God that he’d saved her just in time.
There came a great roar, and Thor turned and looked back up to the sky, and faced an onslaught of approaching dragons.
Mycoples was already turning and flying upwards, launching, heading up for the dragons fearlessly. Thor was weaponless, but he felt different than he ever had entering a battle: for the first time in his life, he felt he did not need weapons. He felt he could summon and rely on the power within him. His true power. The power his mother had instilled him with.
As they approached, Thor held up his wrist, aiming his golden bracelet, and a light shot forth from the black diamond in its center. The yellow light engulfed the dragon closest to them, in the center of the pack, and knocked him backwards, sending him racing through the air, upwards, colliding into the others.
Mycoples, in a rage, determined to wreak havoc, dove fearlessly into the nest of dragons, fighting and clawing her way through, sinking her teeth into one, throwing another, and cutting a path through them as she knocked several of them back. She clamped down on one until it went limp and then dropped it; it fell to earth like a huge boulder falling from the sky, and hit the ground, shaking it. Thor could hear the impact from here as it caused another earthquake down below.
Thor glanced down below and saw Gwen and the others running to take cover, and he knew that he needed to direct all these dragons away from the island, away from Gwendolyn, in order to give them a chance to escape. If he led the dragons out to the ocean, he figured he could lure them away and take the fight out there.
“To the open sea!” Thor cried.
Mycoples followed his command, and they turned and flew through the nest of dragons and out the other side.
Thor turned as he heard a roar, and felt a distant heat as flames launched his way. He was satisfied to see his plan was working: all the dragons had abandoned the Upper Isles, and were now following him out to the open sea. In the distance, down below, Thor spotted Romulus’s fleet blanketing the sea, and he knew that even if somehow he survived against the dragons – he would still have a million-man army to face on his own. He knew he likely would not survive this encounter. But at least it would buy the others some time.
At least Gwendolyn could make it.
Gwen stood in the razed and smoldering courtyard of what remained of Tirus’s court, still clutching the baby, looking up at the sky in wonder and relief and sadness all at once. Her heart soared to see Thor again, the love of her life, alive, returned, and on Mycoples, no less. With him here, she felt a part of her had been restored, felt as if anything was possible. She felt something she had not felt in a long time: the will to live again.
Her men slowly lowered their shields as they watched the dragons turn and fly off, finally leaving the Isles and heading out to open sea. Gwen looked around and saw the devastation they had left, the huge piles of rubble, the flames everywhere, and the dead dragons lying on their backs. It looked like an island ravaged by war.
Gwen also saw what must have been the baby’s parents, two corpses lying nearby, right beside where Gwen had found her. Gwen looked into the baby’s eyes and realized she was all she had left in the world. She clutched her tight.
“This is our chance, my lady!” Kendrick said. “We must evacuate now!”
“The dragons are distracted,” Godfrey added. “For now, at least. Who knows when they shall return. We must all leave this place at once.”
“But the Ring is no more,” Aberthol said. “Where will we go?”
“Anywhere but here,” Kendrick replied.
Gwen heard their words, yet they felt distant in her mind; she instead turned and searched the skies, watching Thor fly off in the distance, filled with longing.
“And what of Thorgrin?” she asked. “Shall we leave him, alone up there?”
Kendrick and the others grimaced, their faces falling in disappointment. Clearly, the thought disturbed them, too.
“We would fight with Thorgrin to the death if we could, my lady,” Reece said. “But we cannot. He is in the sky, over the sea, far from here. None of us have a dragon. Nor do we have his power. We cannot help him. Now we must help those we can help. That is what Thor sacrificed for. That is what Thor has given his life for. We must take the opportunity he has given us.”
“What remains of our fleet still lies on the far side of the island,” Srog added. “It was wise of you to hide those ships. Now we must use them. Whoever is left of our people, we must leave this place at once – before their return.”
Gwendolyn’s mind raced with mixed emotions. She wanted so badly to go and save Thor; yet at the same time, she knew that waiting here, with all these people, would do him no good. The others were right: Thor had just given his life for their safety. It would make his actions worth nothing if she did not try to save these people while she could.
Another thought loomed in Gwen’s mind: Guwayne. If they left now, rushed out to the open sea, maybe, just maybe, they could find him. And the thought of seeing her son again filled with her a new will to live.
Finally, Gwen nodded, holding the baby, preparing to move.
“Okay,” she said. “Let us go and find my son.”
The roar of the dragons grew louder behind Thor, the group getting closer, chasing them, as he and Mycoples flew farther out to sea. Thor felt a wave of flame rolling toward his back, about to engulf them, and he knew that if he did not do something soon, he would soon be dead.
Thor closed his eyes, no longer afraid to call on the power within him, no longer feeling the need to rely upon physical weapons. As he closed his eyes, he recalled his time in the Land of the Druids, recalled how powerful he had been, how much he had been able to influence everything around him with his mind. He recalled the power within him, how the physical universe was just an extension of his mind.
Thor willed his mind power to the surface, and he imagined a great wall of ice behind him, shielding him from fire, protecting him. He imagined himself completely covered in a protective bubble, he and Mycoples, safe from the dragons’ wall of fire.
Thor