98 Fall of Fal'sHerim

"Run away…!" Asda's shriek was the most sensible thing Remian heard in the temple as the entire structure began to collapse.

The wolfcats acted far more quickly than Remian could, grabbing him and Asda, her mother and general up in less than a second, all of them scrambling towards Spike. Spike himself was looking in astonishment as the dragon came to life, flexing and swelling as it broke through the walls and the roof, enlarging to twice its size, thrice…

A huge chunk of ceiling fell almost on top of Remian. The wolfcat carrying him by the collar dodged, but pieces of ceiling and plaster sprayed all over both of them. More chunks of ceiling came falling.

Ears flat against their heads, the wolfcats ran for their lives with Remian and his new allies hauled along by the scruffs of their shirts. But nobody complained, not even the Second Queen.

[Everyone, get clear! The temple is going to collapse!] Remian sent out to the rampaging Wilds. [Pull back! Pull back to the South Gate!]

But DD was enjoying himself too much to notice. [CHAOS!! Trample them all!!]

[DD! Pull back!] Remian tried to get his attention. [Dude, there's a DRAGON!]

[G-wuah?!] DD choked in mid-rampage. [Is that… holy bristles, that's…!]

[Khar'al-dras, unless I miss my guess.] Remian said grimly.

The dragon, now five times the size it had been while sleeping, roared, and the entire city shook. Structures all across the horizon crumbled and fell. People were running and screaming all over the place.

[He does not seem to be happy to be awoken.] Remian grimaced. [I think he's the grumpy sort.]

[D-D-D-DRAGON!!!!] DD screamed, and his entire herd turned and stampeded the other way.

[Get the airships out of here!] Remian sent to Mindy. [Everyone, get to cover!]

[We're coming to get you!] Mindy's thoughts were half-frozen with terror, but even before her own safety, her one thought was to get Remian out of there.

[There's no time! Mindy, he can fly! I'll head for the tunnels! Get the airships out of there, NOW!]

The dragon was several times the size of Spike now and lunging upward toward the sky, roaring the entire way. The sound of the roars alone were making the air shake. Every building in Fal'Herim was falling apart, and this really wasn't the fault of the lynxmice tunnels.

Speaking of lynxmice, they seem to be scrambling around everywhere, taking advantage of the chaos to loot everything in sight. Their little party at the harem was nothing compared to the mess the dragon's awakening was causing, and they were going to take advantage of it, enjoying the chaos to the hilt!

The dragon, soaring into the skies and still growing larger, finally stretched and yawned as all of Fal'Herim collapsed to rubble below. [Ahhh. That's better. My whole body feels tight. Now, who woke me up, and why?]

"Khar'al-dras!!" the Queen Mother exulted even as the temple came crashing down around her ears. "Smite our enemies and bless us, your servants!"

BAM! A ton of ceiling rubble came smashing down on top of her, and that was the last any of them saw of the Queen Mother.

But Khar'al-dras didn't seem to actually care. He was looking around, bewildered. [My treasures… where are my treasures? My gold! My fire crystals! Where's all my stuff?!]

"Uhoh." Remian gulped. He could easily guess and did NOT want to be the person who explained to the Dune Dragon exactly what happened to all his belongings.

[My bed! Give me back my warm comfortable bed!] the dragon howled to the skies. [Do you know how stiff my body is after sleeping in the cold for so long?! Where are my fire crystals?!]

Remian ducked into the lynxmice tunnels with Asda, her mother and the general but they were barely large enough for the wolfcats to fit in. They dug hurriedly, doing their best to make more space.

[Somebody! Tell me!] the dragon roared at the city below, and every last structure on Fal'Herim crumbled to rubble.

Tim showed up, popping out of a side tunnel. [Squad B, get Remian and Asda back to Frontier Town!]

[Sir!] ten lynxmice squeaked, and suddenly, Remian found himself hauled away down the tunnels at express speeds.

[Squad C, bring along the Second Queen! Squad D, you take the general!]

"Squiik!" the lynxmice scrambled.

[Everyone else… loot the ruins for all its worth!] Tim ordered.

[Sir, yes, SIR!]

Ruins. That was all there was left of Fal'Herim, now. The dragon's roars alone had wrecked the entire city.

[KOR'AG! MAL'THOR! I know it was you!] Khar'al-dras roared toward the south. [Stop pretending to be asleep!! I know you took them! Give me back my stuff!!]

The dragon had enlarged to roughly twenty times larger than Spike, large enough to cover all of Frontier town with his body if he'd curled up. The length of his serpentine form could reach from one end of the ruins of Fal'Herim to the other. Yet, believe it or not, he was still growing bigger, as if he hadn't quite reached his full original size yet.

Remian shuddered to think about it. Right now, the dragon's size was at Tier 6, but Remian had a feeling his final size was going to be mind-blowingly large.

[Anyone know how big Khar'al-dras really is?] Remian wondered.

There was a short silence as he was borne through the tunnels, then, [Above the lords are the kings. Above the kings are the emperors. Above the emperors are the gods.]

Remian froze. If the Lords of the Wilds were Tier 5, then the Kings would be Tier 6, the Emperors would be Tier 7, so Khar'al-dras, who they swore on, treated as a god, was… Tier 8?!

In other words… expect a creature a thousand times bigger than Spike.

"Blast it, old woman, what have you done?!" Remian groaned out loud.

Nobody, not even Asda, said a word in response.

But at last, Asda had a question. "You don't think… he's going to wake up the other two, do you? I mean… he was screaming at them to return his stuff."

Remian gulped. For all of humanity's sake, he really, really hoped not. "Asda, your great-grandmother knew the words to wake up the dragon… do you by any chance know some words to put him back to sleep?"

"How do you put a dragon to sleep?!" Asda asked. "Besides, didn't he lose his bed already?"

"Can he sleep without it?" Remian wondered.

"Could you?" Asda asked right back. "If someone took away your bed and asked you to go back to sleep, could you?"

Remian sighed. "I guess not. It's just… you'd think people would know better."

"Maybe everyone just forgot, or some past Desert King thought he could get away with selling just a little bit of it… and his son thought the same… and somewhere along the line, after generations of having the dragon never wake up, everyone basically forgot who the fire crystals actually belonged to." Asda figured.

"And now everything's gone and the dragon is grumpy and nobody knows how to put him back to sleep?" Remian groaned. "Surely you must have some ideas? Anything?"

"If triggering a magic crystal and saying some words would wake him up, then maybe it's the same for putting him to sleep? Except the crystal is buried under the rubble and we don't know the words to make him sleep. I don't remember anything of that sort being taught in our family traditions."

"You'd think that those would be the most important words to remember and pass down." Remian groaned. "Seriously? Nothing at all?"

"Not a clue." Asda said apologetically.

"Then again, even if we used it, I'm not sure we could put a dragon to sleep unless he wanted." Remian shook his head. "What are we going to do?"

"I guess abandoning Fal'Herim is really the way to go." Asda mourned. "There's nothing left there for us, now."

[Remian! Are you all right?!] Mindy's thoughts reached Remian.

[We're fine! We're on our way to Fort Spoas through the tunnels. What about you? How are the airships? What's the dragon doing?]

[The dragon's flown away somewhere to the south screaming at Kor'ag-dras and Mal'thor-dras. What do we do now?]

[Pick up the refugees.] Remian told her. [Everyone who wants to come live with us in the Frontier is welcome.]

[You're taking all their people into captivity?]

[We sided with the Second Queen, remember? Call it a liberation. We're just bringing them to a better place and offering them a better life.] Remian thought about it. [Depending on how many survivors are left, we might have to help them build a whole new city.]

[I wouldn't worry too much about that.] Mindy replied grimly. [There don't seem to be that many survivors. At most, New Fal'Herim would only need to be a town.]