There's a euphoric howl as Vadir and her bronzed foe crash into the ground, and she flares her wings upon impact to launch herself back into the air. Hubris' electric breath lashes against her stomach and she snarls as shockwaves rocket through her body, tensing her muscles and bidding her eyes to roll painfully in her head.

Not our fight, he says. The gold fixes him with one cold eye as she hovers, the aftershocks of his breath rasping through her glimmering frame. Her jaws slide agape again, to release another tornado of flame which she attempts to direct towards the grounded bronze.

"His fight my fight. Mountain stop, I stop." Her draconic trill is just white noise to Volterra's ears, and he assumes she is saying something offensive; he cannot possibly know that she is vowing to fight alongside him until Isopia stops her assault. He sees Vadir cut off her inferno and launch towards the mammoth mare once again, and his heart skips a beat.

He has to stop her. Isopia has not attacked him directly since the earthen fist she slammed against his ribcage, and he thinks she can be placated; if the Mountain was truly intent on destroying him, then she would surely have already taken advantage of his agony-induced immobilisation. There will be no better opportunity to fell the blackened behemoth; he has never been in this much pain before, has never been this helpless before. Volterra usually fights with a berserker rage fuelled by his volcanic temper, which sends steel into his veins and iron into his skin. It numbs his wounds with adrenaline and ensures he can focus on nothing else but victory. But here, he isn't angry. He's confused, hurt, and a little embarrassed; he's ashamed of the fire of hope that he allowed to burn in his heart, now smothered to embers. He's still aching with the unpleasant aftereffects of his fear for Vérzés' life, and he's also feeling the first ebbings of sadness over the child he will never get to meet. There is no rage for him to wield like a sword.

Overall, he's a sitting duck. If she truly wished to crush him, then it would be all too easy.

So why hasn't she?

Is it because her heart isn't truly set on her revenge? Is it because, deep down, she still feels something for him, in that husk of a heart that grief has built a wall around? There's something of kis hollo left in this Isopia, this Mountain, this formidable goddess of earth and fury; she had Vérzés at her mercy, where one swing of a hoof would have ripped a segment of Volterra's soul from his chest and caused him more torture than any broken bone. She has not annihilated Volterra himself when it is her best chance to do so, given his staunch refusal to fight back and his crippling injury. She can be reasoned with, he knows it.

But he has to stop Vadir before she burns whatever tiny splinter of a bridge remains.

He draws inspiration from how he'd prevented Vadir attacking Sikeax that time on the beach, capturing her in a stone cage. With a pained grunt, the goliath summons a curving wave of earth which he aims toward his golden dragon, attempting to use the structure to scoop Vadir gently downwards and hold her in a prison of earth to stop her from harming the Mountain.

But he fails.

Catastrophically.

Hearing the rumble of earth behind her, Vadir turns. She is presented with a great spike of rock, and there's a thunderous scream as it crunches into her. Agony erupts through Volterra's mind as two of the gold's left ribs crack just as his own had; she spirals down to the ground with a sickening thud and they crack more. She flounders against the grass, unwilling to give into unconsciousness like her red brother had. Her ribs break further with her insistent thrashing, and each splinter of bone drives nails of red-hot agony into Volterra's head.

He'd harmed his own companion. "Vadir, shit," he croaks as he hobbles towards her, painfully slowly. Still she flails, refusing to submit to the shattered bones in her side, unwilling to succumb even as bellows of rage and suffering emit from her gaping jaws. Volterra suddenly cares not if Isopia attacks him again; he just needs to get to his dragon.

_______

And today's quote: 'Did you have to do this? I was thinking that you could be trusted'. Vadir ain't gonna forgive.

3/4 - 799 words