Curse of the Garnet Dragon, David Nix II [top 10 non fiction books of all time txt] 📗

and decided that they would join forces but spare all those that surrendered. After the Dragon Lords had come to an agreement over rather or not to join together and take on the Amethyst dragons head on they set apart to return to their broods.

King Gusteria returned to his Obsidian brood to discuss the news with his Generals and prepare them for war. The highest ranking dragon in his army was his General, Kloshtun, he had won many battles against other brood's warriors in single combat, and had even survived encounters against multiple warriors at the same time. He was older than most of the dragons in the brood, being a little over eight thousand years old. King Gusteria sent his proud General to gather his finest warriors together and clad them in the strongest forged hellstone armor they had been able to make. Hellstone was one of the rarest metals they had discovered on their planet and was capable of resisting the heat of dragonfire while still being able to survive multiple attacks from claws and fangs of even the strongest dragon warriors. Hellstone however was also very heavy and very hard to work with. It took them multiple centuries to accumulate as much as they had obtained because the metal was sought out by all the dragon broods and many dragons lost their lives in the process of obtaining enough for even one chunk of hellstone. After a couple of days King Gusteria decided that his army was as prepared as they were going to be for the upcoming war. King Gusteria flew to meet his army at the edge of his territory to finish crushing any remaining forces within his land that were not welcome.

Meanwhile, Queen Delama had arrived back at her border to find her snowy plains where their homes of pure sapphire had been burned for many miles. Her brood had suffered significant losses during her absence. She roared in distress and rage at the loss of her brethren. She rallied what remained of her forces and prepared them for war. Her strongest spell-caster was her personal guardian and commander of her army, General Tolma, Delama had her General gather her strongest spell casters together to enchant their scales with as many protection wards as possible to prepare them for the upcoming war. Queen Delama knew that their armor stores were at a loss because of the many raids in the past decade. The Sapphire brood had suffered many casualties and were becoming less and less powerful as time passed. Queen Delama had a squad of her warriors relocate the injured and the young to a safe distance to avoid collateral damage.

King Fallow was returning to the main regiment of his dragon army after the peace summit when he was attacked by a group of King Brackle's Amethyst dragon warriors. Fallow fought long and hard until the last of the dragons fell to the ground, dead at his feet. He turned around him to see most of his personal guard dead or injured. He continued on with his remaining guards and sent the injured to their homes. He gathered up his army of Emerald dragons and took one last patrol around the land before preparing his army for war. They gathered their hellstone armor, which was painted a lovely burnt emerald, the same color as they flame, and flew their injured and their young to the center of their vast forest where they would be safest from the future onslaught. None of them knew if they would live or die... but they hoped for the best, for the future of their brood.

Queen Santriva returned to her dragon brood where they lived in and around the many volcanoes in the area. Many of the volcanoes had been active recently leaving ruptured earth with fire spurting out of the ground for miles upon miles. She gathered her Garnet dragon warriors together clad in their molten plated hellstone armor that was bright red with a glow that made the sun look dim on a sunny day. Their claws were covered by hellstone and sharpened to a point. The Garnet dragons were the only ones capable of having their claws covered because of the heat from the volcanoes and their resistance to the heat after many generations of adaption around the molten heat from the volcanoes. The Garnet dragons had the hottest fire in all the lands and were known for burning anyone and anything that stood in their path. The hellstone armor they forged was stronger than any other due to their ability to forge using the pure molten heat of the volcanoes in their territory.

The armies began to gather around the Amethyst brood surrounding them on all sides. King Brakle was preparing his strongest and fiercest warriors for battle. He had his warriors clad in rough, thick, amethyst glowing armor. His warriors were proud and prepared to crush anyone who stood in their way. They were fiercely loyal to their king and would die before they disobeyed his orders. The strongest warrior second only to the king was his General, Romento. He was amazingly strong at only five thousand years old. He forged his armor special for himself to cover his wings, his tail, and his body. He wore over five tons of hellstone, more than any other in his ranks. King Brackle sent his General to prepare his army to defend their territory and crush all who opposed them. His orders stood to destroy every last dragon that was not of the Amethyst brood.

Chapter Three - The Amethyst Brood

Sometime before the peace summit, in the central land of Vestom, King Brakle plotted against the other broods to strike at them when they were at their weakest.

The Amethyst brood gained control over the central land of Vestom, where the devastation from the war had caused the most destruction. The land was constantly changing, never staying the same for more than a decade. Due to the lands horrific landscape the Amethyst dragons became the strongest because they had to deal with all of the changes of the land. They fought all the broods around them struggling at first to keep their land to themselves. Before long, the dragon brood became stronger and the other broods stopped attacking them for fear of retaliation. The Amethyst brood used their gained strength and time to try and gather as much hellstone as they could from their land before they were attacked again. They wanted to be as strong as they could as they were the only brood left with the powers of all the broods combined. They had the most ferocious flames, the sharpest talons, the ability to use magic and cast spells, and their ability to maneuver in the air was truly magnificent.

They spent most of their time either obtaining hellstone or training against each other to hone their skills. They were brutal warriors and some died in trial combat because they made a simple mistake. The fiercest dragons were already well over one thousand years old. Dragons can live for up to twenty millenniums. Outside of war, Dragons normally only die to plague, sickness, or an infected war wound. There are some dragons rumored to have lived through the Mortal war and survived all of this time, but they do not allow themselves to be seen by the rest of the broods. These few dragons, if they remain, are the oldest Dragon lords in all of Vestom.

King Brakle gathered a group of his finest warriors together, he would lead them in the attack on a small Sapphire encampment in the North, on the edge of his land. His General asked him, "Are you sure we should attack them while they are at the peace summit? Is there no code of honor against this?" Brakle turned and glared at his General, roaring with rage, "How dare you question my orders! We have been fighting for centuries to get where we are today! Why would we risk everything we have for their petty allegiance?" His General, Romento, cowered backwards away from his King and apologized for the disgrace he had caused him. Brakle told Romento, "Go gather seven of our warriors and send them to engage that fool Fallow and his loyal guard before they can return home after the peace summit is concluded." Romento turned and walked away saying, "Yes sir. It shall be done."

As Romento left his King's side, he went to gather his lieutenants and prepare them for the task they had at hand. He roared his order at them, "You sorry lot shall meet this 'Lord Fallow' and crush him and his loyal guards. Return with his head or do not return at all!" As they started to fly off Romento cast one last spell of sight seeing on them to make sure he could observe them when they finally met Fallow and his guards head on. He returned to King Brakle and told him about his actions and that Fallow would be dead within the week.

Brakle said to Romento, "Gather the finest hellstone armor we have for lightweight aerial combat. I want our troops to be swift in the attack, yet protected from the enemy." Romento replied, "I shall get our armorers to select the best stock for our army, how much shall we need?" Brakle roared, "As much as it takes! I want these weak fools crushed. Do they really think they can group together to take our lands? Since when did you become such an incompetent hatchling!" Brakle roars in rage and flies off in the direction of the Sapphire brood where he plans to make his first attack. Romento flaps his massive wings a few times as he heads back towards the armorer.

At the armorer, Romento's presence is announced by the armorer’s son. When the armorer comes out he was holding a new breastplate in his razor sharp claws. It is newly forged out of the latest hellstone they had retrieved. The armorer, Salem, asked him, "To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing our most glorious General on a day like today?" Romento turned to him and said, "I have unfortunate news in these trying times, the King has ordered all of our stores of armor to be distributed to our finest warriors." The armorer replied, "I shall get them prepared and my son will see that they are brought to your army before the day is up."

Romento turned and flew off, leaving the armorer and his son to the task he had assigned them. King Brakle was waiting impatiently as Romento flew up to meet him. Brakle glared at him and said, "What took you so long? We need to attack them now, before they can gather their forces." Romento replied, "My warriors needed to be properly prepared if we are to attack the sorcerers. They have strong enchantments around them and will not be as easily destroyed as you might think." Brakle roared at him and said, "How dare you mock me. I know exactly how strong they are! If they are allowed to gather their forces with the rest of the broods they will destroy us!" Romento called his hellstone armored warriors to