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Urram was bigger in that he was wider, his wings were longer, his body contained more muscle.
Everything about him was powerful, twice as powerful as Gliocas who was slimmer and more serpent like in his movements.
The problem with being larger and heavier, though, was that it gave the smaller dragon the advantage.
The two of them ascended. A powerful launch from the ground, two matching craters where they had begun their fight, and the beating of their wings were all signs of the climb that they made into the air. For a moment, every single pixie stopped what they were doing, just to watch.
What a horrific sight it was. I was sure that to the others, it was a mesmerizing sight.
The dance-like way that they moved through the air, the quick and tense ways that they snapped away from outstretched talons or approaching fangs, it was nothing more than a beautiful display of true agility and athleticism.
But to me, it was none of those things. It was simply horrible, because, as Killian had once warned me, there was no good outcome with a dragon fight.
Only blood, shattered bone, and torn flesh would bring an end to what we were watching.
Killing Gliocas would destroy Raegan.
Killing Urram would destroy me.
There was no side of this that would leave anyone victorious.
So I wailed, thrashing against unfriendly hands that held me back, and cried my begs to the gods above for them to interject and stop the fight.
Red circled grey, grey blurred around red. Urram’s attacks were tremendous, the skies booming every time his jaw slammed shut and he managed only air. Gliocas’ attacks were swift, the wind whistling each time his talons sliced through cloud and came away empty.
“Raegan,” I pleaded, daring to tear my eyes off of them for only a second to see him staring up with just as much horror in his eyes. “You must stop them!”
His head shook slowly, a ghostly hue to his skin as his eyes refused to blink. “There will be no stopping them, now.”
A snap echoed across the world and I braced myself as I looked up.
There was no deciding whether I was relieved or terrified when I saw that it was Urram, his mouth wrapped tightly around one of the boney limbs that spread down Gliocas’ leathered wing.
The red beast roared in agony as he swung around, snapping his teeth over and over at Urram who locked his jaw and refused to give an inch.
Gliocas, desperate and still screaming in pain, tucked his back legs close to his body and kicked them out, catching Urram’s chest and sending them away from one another. One of his hooked talons much have caught Urram’s hide, because a small wound tore open and blood started to drip from the sky.
“No! No, please! Stop!”
Gliocas took chase, his wings beating rapidly, his body slithering to increase his speed, and then he locked onto Urram’s tail and bit into the end of it.
My powerful caraid let out a heart-shattering cry as the bone along his tail could be heard through the crunch that almost sounded like the sky cracking open before rain poured down.
Brian used the dragon fight to his advantage, rising to his feet finally and finding me amongst the masses. He grabbed the back of my neck, freeing me from the rest of the Rachainn, only to slide me along the ground and stop before Raegan.
There, he put a knife to my throat.
“Pick now, King Raegan,” Brian hissed just as the skies above turned grey. Grey like approaching death, like the smoke that rose from the aftermath of a battle we had not yet started.
Raegan bristled as he looked down from what was occurring above and saw that knife to my throat. Everything about him changed. Everything about him erupted.
“Let her go,” he snarled, his voice a haunting depth of rage. Then, louder and more powerful, his voice carrying across all of Saoghal. “Let Olivia go or I will gut you myself.”
A roar overhead stopped short, followed by an eerie silence. The three of us took note of this, tilted our chins to the sky, and saw that Raegan’s words had reached none other than Urram.
Urram, who decided that saving me from the Rachainn who still had a blade to my throat was far more important than fighting with Gliocas for a moment longer.
Urram, who was no longer protecting himself as he tucked his wings in tight and nose-dived in the sky, prepared to flatten Brian if he didn’t alter his speed.
Gliocas came out of nowhere.
Truly, nowhere. There was no sight of the carmine beast in the sky until he was there, all at once, his fangs glistening as his mouth hinged open.
There was an overly-liquid, squirting sort of noise as he found the flesh around Urram’s throat.
There was a wretched, hollow croak as Urram’s jaw went slack and his eyes of molten silver widened.
There was a scream, coming from me, as I shoved at Brian and watched Urram shake back and forth as Gliocas ragged on his neck like a dog with a bone.
Gliocas, hissing in success, released his oldest friend.
Urram free-fell. While he did, I heard him.
One last time. His voice was old and wise, foreboding and demanding as it tunnelled through my mind.
Because it was not through my ears that my caraid spoke to me but through some alternate path, some way that meant as he fell from the heavens and his wings stopped beating, his throat spitting out the last of his embers, a trail of blood pouring behind him, I got to hear him one more time.
“There will never come a time, Little, where I am not beside you.”
The agony was too much. My body shook at a vibration that should’ve separated meat from bones, as I watched helplessly.
“You and me,” he said. “For the rest of time, caraid.”
And then he was gone. The earth shook as his body hit it, the whole realm of Saoghal feeling as Urram of the Grey Skies descended upon it, as the Silver Wrath released a sorrowful, whale-like noise that shifted the skies above us.
I fell to my knees.
Everything within me tightened up, coiling and coiling and coiling, burning and burning and burning, until it was released through my body in the copious tears that streamed and the roar that ripped from me.
My caraid.
Except Urram had been more, would always be more, because it wasn’t just the bond of Saoghal’s magic that wound our souls together but love and friendship.
My lips trembled as I stared at the empty patch of sky where my caraid had fallen. Both of my hands reached for my face, clawing and scraping as if I could pull the agonizing grief from deep within me.
“You and me,” I whispered, knowing that Urram would not, could not, hear me.