The following day, the dragons followed the rising sun back to Kaylor. The two brown beasts, Ladicrum and Secrium, flew several circles over Frontier Fortress, studying the men’s defenses. Secrium the youngling was the first to move in.

“The flying demons return!” an archer on the nearest east wall platform shouted and pointed skyward towards the approaching beasts.

The yell immediately attracted the smaller, more aggressive brown, who swooped in fast and sprayed its deadly needle breath on the platform that the man had shouted from. The small sharp boney daggers pierced the men in several places, killing all four of them.

“Fire!” Lord Prince Jayden ordered his ballista crew to engage. The four-foot arrow flew forth, but missed the retreating brown dragon as it flew overhead. He couldn’t help but admire the stamina and resilience of the winged beast.

“We wounded that smaller dragon several times yesterday, yet now it looks fresh and ready to fight. You have to admire their strength,” Grelly stated what his prince had just been thinking.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I relished the thought that I may very well end up in the creature’s belly,” Jayden said with a smirk.

Secrium glided back around and snatched an archer off the east wall. Several arrows bounced off the brown dragon’s scales while he tore the screaming man in two with his sharp claws. They needed the flying monster to attack the platform in the middle of the west wall for their plan to work.   

“Lookout!!!” Lord Prince Jayden’s thoughts were interrupted when he was struck hard and knocked to the floor; two giant sharp claws missing him by inches. Grelly had tackled him to the ground, saving his life.

The remaining men on the tower scattered, but a hapless crossbowman moved too slow, and Ladicrum the Brown snapped his head off. The ballista crew scrambled to aim their war machine, but were unable to get another shot off. The large brown dragon had flown off as quickly as he had flown in.

The two brown dragons flew about, randomly attacking the fortress defenders much the same as they had the other day. Every once in a while, the men would score a lucky hit and send one of the beasts off with a wound.

Within an hour, several of the under-manned outer wall platforms had been cleared off by the brown dragons, but neither dragon neared the center of the west wall.

“They avoid the west wall. Maybe they can sense danger?” Jayden said to his men.

“Probably just coincidence,” Grelly mused.  

Secrium the Brown flew in low again, coming up on the south wall, and unleased another blast of needles at a platform. The men stationed there died screaming. This time, when the dragon passed by, Lord Prince Jayden’s ballista crew scored a hit on the monster’s side, sending the beast screeching off with the giant arrow hanging from its mid-section.

“Yes! Direct hit!!” Jayden exclaimed, slapping Grelly on the back, while the dragon retreated away from his tower.

Jayden could hear a horse snicker from within the tower below, causing him to think, Maybe my plan isn’t going to work. Time is running out. As if in answer to his doubts, Secrium swung about again and dove for the fully manned platform in the middle of the west wall.

The brown dragon hung in the air, snapping and clawing at the men there, until he had killed them all. A moment later, when the dragon flew gloatingly over the now empty platform, he saw a man with long braided hair and matching beard step out from behind a wall of animal hides placed under it.

The fearless man carried a mighty bow in his hand, and stared straight into the eyes of the dragon, shouting, “Come to me foul dragon!” The aggressive brown youngling could not resist the challenge and dove screeching for King Quaid.

The king took careful aim with the Bow of Togra and fired one of the magical black arrows that had been created in the fires of Mount Esha. Twenty archers, who had also been hiding behind the animal hides under the platform, rushed out and launched a volley of arrows at Secrium. The trap had been sprung!

The magic arrow struck the brown dragon in the neck, the power of the mighty Bow of Togra sending it deep into flesh. The magical blue writing slid down the arrow and into the dragon, causing a blue haze to encircle the beast, who began to give off a slight blue glow.

All of the bowmen’s arrows also scored hits at such a close range, causing Secrium to let out an angry roar and attempt to fly away. Instead, much to the brown dragon’s surprise, he landed with a thud.

The dragon tried to take flight again, but only managed a small hop. This elicited another great roar from the young brown dragon when he came to the realization that he could no longer fly.

Lord Prince Jayden signaled one of his men, who immediately sounded a trumpet. The sound of the horn was followed by a ballista shot that ripped through the webbed part of the brown dragon’s left wing. The arrow passed completely through and stuck into one of the nearby cedar wall posts.

The trumpet also alerted the Frontier Fortress Horse Warriors, who had been lying in wait inside the tower down below Prince Jayden. Lord Cray led twenty of his riders from their hiding place, crashing open the wooden doors of the tower.

His Second-In-Command, a tall lord with an amusing personality named Morris, led another twenty riders out of the doors of a nearby storage building. The forty horse warriors charged at the grounded dragon.

The beast was down, but not out. It launched a blast of needles at the archers in front of him, killing a couple of them and wounding a few more. King Quaid took two needles in his right forearm.

The blast was not as strong as the earlier ones. The brown dragon had overused his breath weapon and was running out of needles. He needed a day or two of rest for his body to replenish them.

The young brown dragon swung about, swinging the spiked ball on his tail into Lord Morris’ charging horsemen, killing two horses, while throwing Morris and one of his men high into the air. The lord landed on his back, knocking the wind out of him.

“Charge!” Lord Cray shouted and led the remaining riders in, thrusting their long sharp spears into the brown dragon. The wounded beast reared up, slicing two riders from their horses with his razor-sharp claws.

“Reload the ballista! Reload the ballista!” Lord Prince Jayden ordered his men, looking for a second shot at the dragon. He could see his father unleashing arrow after arrow into the brown dragon’s chest, with most penetrating the scales.

Lord Prince Jayden knew that his father’s wounded arm must be aching, yet the man did not falter in his attack. The remaining archers also continued firing, but at a slower rate and with less success.

The attacking men managed to push the brown dragon back into the cedar logs of a west wall corner. The youngling let out a hiss, but none of the deadly needles came, so he began to lash out with his claws.

The mounted warriors had lost most of their horses and were now on foot. They bravely rushed in at the snarling creature and swung their swords at his underbelly.

The dragon’s head came forward, clamping his huge jaw around Lord Cray. Only the man’s legs remained in place, after his torso was torn away and disappeared down the dragon’s throat. Secrium spit Cray’s gory chainmail out on the ground.

King Quaid waited for the dragon to finish his gruesome meal, and when the brown raised his head the king shot, putting an arrow thru Secrium’s left eye. The brown dragon let out a screech and reared up, opening his mouth to bite down on the relentless archer king.

This is what Jayden had been waiting for, so he shouted, “Now!” The ballista arrow flew perfectly, entering the young brown dragon’s mouth and tore through the back of his neck.

The brown beast staggered about, clawing at the four-foot arrow protruding from his throat. The creature began flailing about in his death throes. Secrium the Brown had killed over a hundred men of Frontier Fortress, but now he was finished.

Jayden and his men let out a loud cheer. The young prince fearfully caught himself, realizing he had lost sight of the larger dragon. Where’s the big one? Is it coming?? he thought as he began scanning the blue sky for its outline, not wanting to be surprised again. It was too late.

Ladicrum hadn’t been too concerned about the plight of his youngling companion. He had invited Secrium along, planning to use the younger less intelligent dragon as a sacrifice, if need be. The older brown dragon had a different concern now.

Ladicrum had come in very low and snuck up under the shadow of the opposite side of the Ballista Tower. The men above were concentrating on killing Secrium, so no one had seen him.

The large brown had been waiting for the men above to fire the big arrow weapon again. He feared it, and wanted to destroy the contraption, so that he could kill the men here at will. Ladicum began to crawl up the tower after he heard the ballista fire.

Lord Prince Jayden was looking up when he should have been looking down. He froze in terror when the huge brown scaly head came over the rim of the tower.

He could see the milky yellow eyes and the spiked ridges that ran from above the eyes to the back of the neck. The big brown dragon emitted a terrifying aura of fear, yet he was an awesome monstrosity to behold this closely.

Ladicrum reared his head back, preparing to release his massive blast of deadly breath needles. At the last second, Lord Prince Jayden felt two hands shove him hard, knocking him to the ground, which sent him rolling against the two-foot wall that rose up along the edge of the tower.

This provided him protection, but when he looked back, he could see Grelly standing where he had been. He also noticed that the rest of his men were looking over the opposite edge and still had not seen the big dragon.

The needles flew forth, turning Grelly into a pin cushion, and sprayed the nearby archers and crossbowmen. The brown dragon rushed forward, stepping onto the ballista platform, its weight sending the weapon and the now startled dragon spinning.

Catapult and ballista towers were specially designed with large rotating wooden circular platforms in the center of their rooftops. The war machines were placed on these platforms so that they could be easily rotated to fire in any direction.

Lord Prince Jayden didn’t have time to mourn his friend, who had just given his life to save him a second time, because a surreal scene was unfolding before him. He might have laughed if he hadn’t been in so much danger.

The dragon, who was much too big for the tower roof, was spinning around in circles with the ballista, knocking men all about. The creature’s tail flung out, toppling an unfortunate crossbowman off the tower, who screamed all the way down.

Ladicrum the Brown wrapped his large claws around the ballista and yanked on it, popping the bolts loose that held it to the platform. The dragon then leapt off the spinning disk, disappearing from view while clutching the war machine in its front claws.

The creature fell below the lip of the roof, only to immediately reappear when his powerful wings forced him higher into the air. The brown dragon slammed the ballista onto the top of the west wall, splintering it into many pieces.

Jayden swore that he could see a smile on the brown dragon’s snarled lips while it flew away. The battle had ended, with many of his men now dead or dying. The warriors below let out a joyous cheer, while some of them continued to stab Secrium the Brown’s now limp body, just for good measure.

That night, King Quaid held a mighty feast, with the main dish being dragon steaks. The men of Frontier Fortress had only heard legends of dragon meat, and unbeknownst to them, the brown dragon was the most sinewy and toughest of dragon flesh. It did not matter, because they were reveling in their great victory.

“Dragon, I salute you!” King Quaid said, raising his silver goblet to the large brown dragon head that sat as a centerpiece on the king’s table, his men immediately cheering.

King Quaid turned to the lords seated in front of him and said, “If we can kill one, then we can kill the other!”

“Here! Here!” they joyously shouted in unison, banging their silver mugs on the wooden table.

The victorious warriors ate and drank elven wine and dwarven ale deep into the night, celebrating the dragon’s death. Lord Prince Jayden sat quietly, saddened by the loss of Grelly, as well as mourning the destruction of the ballista.

That war machine had been their best chance of beating the larger brown dragon. I also lost most of my men, with only eight surviving the tower attack. I’ll celebrate when the big brown is dead, Jayden swore.

His thoughts were interrupted by several screams. King Quaid and Lord Morris, who had just been singing an old Hogarth lore ballad, jumped to their feet. They scrambled for the door.

Lord Prince Jayden followed them from the banquet hall, his nostrils immediately filling with hot stinging air. Smoke! His eyes focused on a distant red glow. The south wall was burning!

Lord Prince Jayden saw a flash of red pass through the smoke overhead and realized that he was seeing another dragon. This new one was about the same size as the smaller brown one had been, but differed in color.

This dragon was red. Men dashed about frantically and Lord Prince Jayden joined them, heading for his tower. Even as he ran, he realized that his position was basically defenseless without the ballista.

The new dragon, known as Titra the Red amongst her own kind, was a fire breathing youngling of twenty-three years. She flew towards the north wall and unleashed a blast of liquid fire at the center. The large cedar logs immediately burst into flame, along with three unlucky crossbowmen positioned on the middle platform.

The red dragon changed directions, and within seconds the west wall was also burning at the center. A nearby archer managed to score a hit on the red dragon, only to be torn apart by the sneaky large brown dragon that had swooped in out of the darkness and then disappeared back into it just as quickly.

Jayden changed direction and joined several warriors who had begun to form a bucket line from the large well located near the entrance to Hogarth Hall. It wasn’t long before they were dousing the fires with water.

From time to time, Ladicrum the Brown would swoop in, dragging off one or two of the men, greatly hampering their efforts to quell the multiple fires. Still, the survivors fought the urge to run and continued battling the blazes.

“That beast is going to burn down the entire fortress!” the usually happy Lord Morris shouted, after the red dragon unleased another blast of flame onto the center of the east wall.

“She’s getting tired,” Jayden yelled back, realizing that her fire breath was getting weaker, even though it was still starting fires.

King Quaid unslung the mighty Bow of Togra and strung the last magical dwarven arrow, thinking, We’ll all have to charge the fire breather once she is down. Maybe we can kill it.

He took careful aim and sent the magic shaft at the red beast when she flew past. The arrow tore deep into the red dragon’s front leg, just above the claw. The dragon flew another ten feet towards the south wall as the blue dwarven writings flowed into her.

A blue haze formed around the creature and then she started glowing a faint blue. The red dragon fell from the air, smacking onto the pointed top of the burning outer wall. She teetered for a moment, then fell to the outside of the fortress.

No! I wasted the last magical arrow. We have no chance to kill her outside of the walls. King Quaid fell to his knees, clutching the Bow of Togra, disgusted by his mistake. I should have waited for the red dragon to get lower. He could hear her screeching from outside the wall, punctuating his failure.

The men fighting the fires had almost quenched the flames on the south wall, when Ladicrum swooped in and unleashed his needle breath. Twelve of the firefighting warriors fell over dead with another twelve falling wounded. The big brown beast was slowly tearing them apart.

“Cover men! Seek refuge in the buildings and towers! The walls are lost!” Lord Prince Jayden shouted, taking charge after seeing his father on his knees, while he himself began helping the wounded to Hogarth Hall.

King Quaid looked towards the walls and realized that his son was right. The east wall was already breached, and the others would soon follow. He got back to his feet and slowly walked to Hogarth Hall, his walls a burning inferno behind him.

The bell inside of Hogarth Hall began to sound with very loud “bongs”, signaling the retreat from the courtyard areas. Soon, all of the fortress defenders were hiding in their assigned positions. Then another sound could be heard.

“Boo gah, boo gah, boo gah” the goblin drums were sounding out the morning march from down in Frontier Pass. The green filth was stirring, and they would reach the fortress by first light.

The goblins could now enter Frontier Fortress from any direction, because the cedar log walls were burning to the ground. Titra the Red had turned the tide of battle against the men of Frontier Fortress.