Sarah and the Steam Dragon
Chapter 16

Sarah could not help herself, so she hollered with excitement as they raced into the sky. Stanley felt to her like he was on fire beneath his scales and the warmth was growing stronger. Trailers of steam came from his nostrils as they raced upwards, gaining height over the school.

“Can you see the Abyssal?” her dragon asked and Sarah scanned the sky. Below them was the glowing portal to the other realm but she could not see the enemy.

“He must be hiding somewhere” Sarah replied and guided Stanley into a long sweeping curve over the school.

“Keep watching in all directions, especially overhead” Stanley warned. “They like to drop on their prey from above, letting their gas cloud fall over the victim”

“Above?” wondered Sarah. She had not thought to look high over her own head and did so now. “Aaarghh, left, left, left!” she suddenly screamed and jerked Stanley’s head viciously in that direction. He tilted hard and nearly unseated Sarah as they dodged the Dracoris Abyssal, its hind claws flashing past scant meters away.

It flew in a broad arc, curving close to the ground and then rising back up with powerful strokes of its huge wings.

“How come the Black Dragons need wings to fly?” Sarah asked Stanley.

“How about apologising for nearly ripping my horns off!” grumbled Stanley.

“Sorry. He caught me by surprise. It won’t happen again” she said earnestly.

“Anyway, the big dragons like the Black and Red ones need wings to augment their natural lift” Stanley explained as Sarah guided him after the other dragon. “Smaller species like mine can fly without wings of course. If the big ones lose a wing in battle they can’t move very well or very fast”

“So if we can’t get through his scales, how about we damage his wings and slow him down” Sarah suggested.

“An idea worthy of my Clan’s battle instructors” approved Stanley. “I am faster, so you should guide me to an attack from behind. Just stay clear of the tail as those spikes are as sharp as mine but twice as long”

Sarah gulped at the thought of being struck by one of the claws or spikes she could see all over the Black Dragon. With a hammering heart she twisted Stanley’s head in the direction they needed, guiding him with her hands and voice.

The pair raced across the night, flitting between the towers full of people. Steadily they gained on the other dragon and as they closed in it turned its head to regard them with yellow eyes.

“You are still alive, little Vapora?” boomed the voice of the Abyssal dragon. “My black cloud should have snuffed out a tiny worm like you instantly”

“It can speak!” said a startled Sarah from atop Stanley.

The eyes of the black dragon focussed on Sarah and she felt it gaze deep into her.

“So you found a Dracoris Familia, little Vapora? I had not believed they still existed in this world” it said to them. “No matter, I will end you both soon enough”

It spread its wings and turned suddenly to the left, causing Sarah and Stanley to shoot past, his claws meters away from doing any damage. Sarah yanked Stanley’s head to the left, trying to stay behind the other dragon but she was too slow.

As huge as it was, the Dracoris Abyssal banked in a tight circle and bore down on the two friends. Its jaws opened and a huge gout of toxic black gas spewed right at them.

“Stanley, Vapora now! Straight ahead!” shouted Sarah and Stanley barely had time to react. He inhaled and then sent a vaporous cloud of hot white steam ahead of them. It met the oncoming cloud of gas and the two hit with a noise like thunder.

Stanley’s Vapora blew right through the gas cloud, combining with it and rendering it harmless. Sarah and the dragon flew through a fading bank of grey mist that was warm and smelled odd, like flowers and fertilizer at the same time.

“Well done, Sarah” Stanley told her. “We need to try and get closer again, but be ready for the Abyssal to dodge left or right”

Sarah thought for a moment, then whispered a plan to Stanley. He nodded his head in approval and they charged after the black dragon.

They were coming back towards the school, the grounds and buildings fully lit up now. Searchlights were playing across the sky from armoured Troop Carriers used by the Guard, five of them parked in the courtyard. The lights were focussed on the glowing portal in the air and it looked like heavy guns and missile launchers were aimed at it as well.

“Their weapons won’t be any use unless they can see the Abyssal” Stanley told Sarah after she described what was there. “We need to use your idea”

Stanley and Sarah raced at the Black Dragon, coming in from above and on its left side. It saw them coming and started to wheel to the right, hoping to bring its own breath weapon in range.

“Perfect” grinned Sarah and guided Stanley down in a dive, the wind rushing past her, making her school jacket billow like a cape. The Abyssal tried to turn even harder, then Sarah gave Stanley the signal to unleash his Vapora.

The white hot blast of steam flashed across the right side of the Abyssal dragon, nearly scorching its head. So it naturally pulled away to the left, trying to avoid the boiling steam. Directly into the path of Stanley and Sarah’s real attack.

Sarah aimed her friend onto the left wing of the Black Dragon, catching the tightly stretched membrane with his razor sharp front and back claws. Stanley was not big yet he was moving very fast.

“Impact!” shouted Sarah with glee, remembering a Physics lesson with Mr Albright. Stanley’s claws tore gaping rents in the wing and the Black Dragon shuddered and spun out of control towards the ground.

Sarah guided them after the other dragon, urging Stanley to go faster. They dived from the sky and were nearly on top of it when their target spread both wings wide and veered left. Its damaged left wing was ragged and bleeding but it managed to make the turn, barely fifty meters above the ground.

Then it unleashed a massive gout of the black gas, billowing over the streets below that surrounded the school. The crowds of parents and students now outside the school grounds looked up in terror as the sky above them went black.

“Stanley!” screamed Sarah, “We need to destroy another gas cloud before it reaches the people!”

She pulled hard on his horns and Stanley twisted himself painfully to follow her instructions. The cloud was directly ahead of them and drifting downwards rapidly. They would only get one chance to save the people below.

“Now Stanley, Vapora!” she shouted and he blasted the air in front of him with all his might. Another huge gout of white hot steam shot forwards and then they were inside of it!

“Hold your breath, Sarah!” Stanley called to her and she closed her eyes tightly too. They had been so close she felt a sting in her eyes and throat as the black gas was only mostly destroyed when they flew into the cloud. Then they were out in clear sky once more and she opened her eyes.

With tears streaming from her eyes, she looked desperately about for the other dragon. She could not see it anywhere, then with a sense of foreboding looked straight over her head. It was dropping right at them, jaws wide open and huge, vicious teeth ready to rip them both apart.

“That is so not fair!” said Sarah.

=====

Carmody watched the battle from the rooftop of the school, the female Guard sniper beside her. The other Guards were arrayed around them, keeping watch for anyone or anything that might attack them.

“How far can that Rail Gun shoot?” she asked F-Zero-Three.

“Effective range with my Depleted Uranium Rounds is five thousand meters” she said calmly. Carmody liked her voice, it reminded her a lot of Eric’s.

“So the real problem is getting it to stay still long enough for me to aim you, not how far away it is” Carmody pondered. She looked at the massive woman clone and the huge gun she was carrying so easily on her shoulder.

“Can I shoot the Rail Gun?” she asked F-Zero-Three, who gave her a surprised look.

“No, it can only be triggered by a Guard clone” she answered. “It will also be too heavy for you to carry and the recoil will break your shoulder”

“In that case we need to wait for it to be really close to the school buildings” Carmody decided, tapping her cricket bat thoughtfully on the rooftop.

=====

“Hard right!” Sarah screamed and pulled Stanley’s horns hard in that direction. He turned fast and they nearly got out of the way. Nearly, but not completely.

The jaws and hind talons of the Dracoris Abyssal flashed past them as it dived, then the long wicked tail raked across Stanley’s body and laid a long gash in Sarah’s left leg. Both companions cried out in agony as they tumbled across the night sky, so dangerously close to the streets below.

It was too close to the ground for the black dragon. With its damaged wing it tried to swoop low to the earth and nearly made it. Then one of the Guard Carriers parked in the school courtyard was in its path and the dragon smashed into it, sending the beast tumbling across the school grounds. The vehicle was torn in two, both halves flying in opposite directions and scattering Guard clones and Police Auxiliaries away.

“It’s down on the ground” shouted Sarah, trying valiantly to ignore the awful pain in her leg.”We need to finish it off” she added to Stanley.

“What about your wounded leg?” her dragon asked. He could smell the blood seeping from the gash and he knew from her pained voice she was in terrible agony.

“We don’t have time for that” the girl said. “It looks like the Abyssal is getting up again. It is right below the portal, so it may try to get back to your world”

“Okay, hold on tight, and guide me to it” said Stanley. He drew in his breath and charged his Vapora, ready to unleash it.

Then they both heard the Dracoris Abyssal scream in pain as something shattered its back.

=====

Carmody watched the bigger dragon turn and twist, pursued by the smaller dragon. It was hard to see at this range yet she was certain her friend Sarah was riding on the smaller beast. Something in her was angry at her friend for this, as if it was a personal betrayal. Sarah should not be working with the dragon, even if they were fighting the bigger one together.

For now, she concentrated on getting a chance to have the Guard sniper take out the biggest threat. Then the opportunity came. The big black dragon dived too close to the ground and hit a Guard Carrier, demolishing the vehicle and ploughing itself into the courtyard.

Carmody pointed with her cricket bat at the centre of the dragon, invisible to the Guard sniper . Yet the sniper could see the damaged courtyard area just below them, a vague dark blur in her artificial eye.

“Now” Carmody yelled and the Rail Gun fired with a tremendous boom, sending the super-dense bullet at hypersonic velocity exactly where the girl had indicated. It shattered the heavy scales of the dragon easily and tore through the flesh and bone that lay beneath.

It screamed in overwhelming agony as the Rail Gun shell slashed clean through its body and lodged into the dense earth below.

Carmody was about to order a second shot when the smaller dragon soared overhead and sprayed a hot white cloud over the fallen beast. She scowled at their interference and felt a rush of anger towards Sarah.

The girl turned to the clone sniper and told her to wait here and watch for her signal, then dashed to the stairs that led to the ground. Her four Guards followed her, unsure of what she was doing but under orders to protect her at all costs.

=====

Stanley flew low over the school courtyard and when Sarah commanded it, gouted hot Vapora across the stricken Dracoris Abyssal. It screamed once more and Sarah felt an awful guilt over ordering such torment to be done, even to an enemy.

“Let’s land and see if we can help it” she said and Stanley agreed. To fight an enemy was one thing but he could not butcher a helpless foe. Sarah guided him down carefully and they landed a short distance from the huge black dragon.

It was a sorry sight, its wings crumpled and broken by the crash, the spine ripped open and oozing thick blood from where the other weapon had struck it. All of the black scales were now grey and damaged after the final Vapora attack.

The Abyssal dragon’s head lay on the ground, the long neck too weak now to lift it up. Yellow eyes regarded Stanley and Sarah as they approached, dulled with pain but aware of them. If it wanted to, it could have belched a toxic gas at them and Stanley would not have been quick enough to stop it.

Yet it made no such final act of revenge. It coughed and dark red blood oozed from its jaws.

“You fought well, little Vapora” it wheezed. “Of what line are you descended?”

“I am Stanlevitariously the Third, son of Marlevitariously the Eighth, matriarch of the Clan Vapora” he answered, unable to see his fallen foe. “Who are you?”

“I am Vertigore the Sixth, son of Abhorras the Ninth, Scout of the Clan Abyssal” the black dragon said. “You and your human allies have defeated me, Vapora. Will you end me now?”

The breathing of the Abyssal dragon was more laboured now and blood was pooling beneath its great body, running in trails across the coloured paving stones of the courtyard. Human Police officers from the Auxiliary and clone soldiers of the Guard were forming in a great ring about them all, gazing inwards at the blurry sight.

“I don’t want to kill you” said Stanley.

“Neither do I” added Sarah, aghast at the awful wounds they had caused.

“Yet until I die, my master the Abyss will hold the portal open” Vertigore said in a shuddering voice. “You must finish me or risk more Dracoris Abyssal entering this world”

Sarah looked up at the slowly spinning portal, directly over her head, then at her friend Stanley.

“If you go now, you can return to your own world Stanley” she said. “You may not get another chance”

Stanley turned his head towards his young human friend and she saw him smile.

“Don’t be silly, girl child” he said. “I can barely see my nose in front of me, let alone fight my way through the horde of Dracoris Abyssal that will be waiting on the other side”

“Oh, of course” Sarah replied. She stepped close to her friend and ran her hands over his head. “Will your sight recover?”

“Soon enough” Stanley said. “But I would not leave you now even if I could see clearly and the portal exit was unguarded”

“Such loyalty” whispered Vertigore. “It is no wonder the Abyss feared the Clan Vapora so much. Yet you must decide, Dracoris Vapora and Dracoris Familia, will you end me or risk an invasion?”

A new voice rang out, a girl’s voice.

“If the portal can only be closed by your death, then I will grant it to you” said Carmody, standing in the courtyard, flanked by four Guard soldiers.

The Abyssal dragon moved his eyes to the fierce sounding young girl and appraised her.

“What is this? A day of wonders indeed” it breathed. “I have seen a Dracoris Familia, a rare sight by any account, yet here now is a Dracoris Terminus. The path to this world is truly well guarded”

“I am just a student trying to keep her friends safe” Carmody replied and pointed her cricket bat directly at the black dragon’s head. “Now!” she said.

With a boom that resonated across the school, echoing from the surrounding towers, a single Rail Gun shell shattered the dragon’s skull. It jerked violently as its life was ended and the vast body slumped inert.

Even as Sarah and Stanley cried out in horror, the vast body began to fragment and fall apart into black ash. It crumbled and collapsed then blew away in the breeze, vanishing utterly from this world and returning to its own.

Far over their heads the hole torn in the sky grew smaller and smaller until it too was gone.

Carmody shook as if suddenly coming awake and looked about herself. She saw the ring of Police and Guard, her friend Sarah with an expression of regret on her face, and beside her a large blue and black shape. Her eyes rolled up and she collapsed on the ground, hastily caught by one of the Guards.

The last thing she heard was Sarah calling her name.