[Kor'ag! Mal'thor! Give me back my stuff!]

[What stuff? What are you talking about?]

[My fire crystals! My gold! My bed! I know you took them!]

[You're dreaming! Quit talking nonsense and let us go back to sleep!!]

One roar met two, bodies enlarged and collided, one gold, one gray, one gra.s.s-green, and disaster swept through the deep Wildlands. Smaller Wilds scattered screaming in every direction, entire forests toppled in moments. Dragon Lake practically emptied as the little Tier 5, Tier 6 and even Tier 7 dragons in it fled for their lives. The sheer wind of their battle caused storm and tempest and the earth quaked for a full hour just from the sound of their collisions.

Then from afar, another roar sounded, larger and stronger than anything they had mustered between them. A fourth dragon appeared, steel colored and wearing a pair of huge eyegla.s.ses larger than most mansions. [You guys! What are you doing?!]

[Zor'khan!] one dragon gulped.

[RUN!] the other one yelped.

The three younger dragons scattered and fled in three directions, but magic flared, and all three were tied down and dragged back despite their best efforts. [Isn't it my turn to rule and your turn to sleep?]

Mal'thor gulped. [It wasn't our fault!]

[He did it!] Kor'ag agreed.

[They stole my stuff!] Khar'al raged.

[Quit making a ruckus! If Ra'oul or Nil'rak wakes up, we're all going to regret it!]

[But-!]

[Shut up!] a howl sounded from the sea to the east. [You're ruining my beauty sleep!]

[Sorry, Sel'ea!] Zor'khan sent. [Now, settle down! What's this about?]

It took some time and a lot of grumbling before Khar'al was done, but at length, Zor'khan said, [It's not the twins. It was your servants who took and sold away your treasures.]

[My servants?] Khar'al stared blankly. [Where are those little twerps, by the way? I haven't seen hide nor hair of any of them.]

[Um…] Zor'khan observed the ruins of Fal'Herim. [I think you killed them. They look rather squished.]

[Them?] Khar'al-dras barely spared the ruins a glance. [I don't sense a lick of draconian blood in any of them. It can't be them.]

[I'm not entirely sure what happened either, but draconian or not, that was, in fact, the royal family of the sand people that you squished earlier. Maybe generations of harems had diluted the bloodline. Maybe with all the scheming going on, some non-draconian bloodline took over. In any case, stop blaming the twins for your servants' greed. It wasn't them.]

[Thank you! We're going back to sleep now.] Mal'thor said grumpily, shrunk himself back to hibernation size and slunk back into his volcano. By then, Wyvern Peak looked to be rather battered, but it still stood tall over Dragon Lake, and it still spewed scorching hot red lava.

[But… but… what am I going to do?] Khar'al protested.

[Grow up! Quit sleeping on fire crystals and find a proper lava bed like the rest of us!] Kor'ag scolded, shrinking back to hibernation size and going back to sleep, diving into the lake and through the hottest springs, deeper and deeper into the geothermal vents until he reached his own lava bed.

Zor'khan sighed. [I'll help you make a bed. Just call it another one you owe me.]

Then there was a terrible crash, the biggest one yet, and even the lynxmice tunnels collapsed in on Remian. There was a surge, and an explosion as the dunes exploded and tons of rock were hurled wantonly across the open sands. A volcano arose in the deep desert far, far from Fal'Herim, and dark smoke covered the skies.

[There! Now, go back to sleep!]

Khar'al-dras glumly shrunk back to the size he'd been at in the temple before all the trouble started, then sadly slipped into the new volcano out in the desert.

His work done, Zor'khan-dras flew back to the Dragon Empire, keeping an eye out as he made for his capital. The older dragons still slept; even Sel'ea had subsided. This world had returned to calm, at least for now. So long as n.o.body woke up any other dragons, his rule might just be a relatively peaceful one yet.

[Just one hundred more years. That's all I ask. After that, all of this will be Mal'thor's problem.] Zor'khan-dras shrunk his form, s.h.i.+fted into a whole different shape, and quietly slipped through the clouds. He carefully snuck in through a window onto a grand airs.h.i.+p the likes of which made the Red Fang look like a village child's toy, a Legendary-grade Mothers.h.i.+p larger than all of Fort Spoas put together. He stood for a moment in a lavish bedroom, inspected his reflection in a mirror, then cleared his throat and rang a bell.

"Bring me breakfast!" he called to servants waiting just outside, draconians who were completely unaware of the catastrophe their master had so recently averted.

"Yes, your imperial majesty!" they answered, and scrambled to serve the emperor.

***

[Mindy? Tim? A little help?!] Remian called.

Remian, Asda, Asda's mom and the general were buried under untold amonts of sand and stone. The lynxmice were tunneling, trying to get them out, but they were more like swimming in sand than excavating viable channels.

[Where are you?] Mindy couldn't find him.

[Directly south of my position!] Tim clued her in as he made his way there across the surface with a few squads of lynxmice. [I'm not sure how much help the lynxmice would be in this situation.]

[Wolfcats? DD? Spike? Anyone?] Remian called.

[We're coming.] the wolfcats were the nearest and quickers responders.

Remian himself was half-swimming through the sand, trying to get up and out of the collapsed tunnels, gasping for breath and finding none. Dark spots swam in front of his eyes. Somehow inches tall and sitting on his shoulder, Death hummed a merry tune as if eagerly waiting for something to happen.

How? How did Death suddenly get so close, so fast?! He wasn't hovering about nearby any more, he was literally on top of Remian.

[So. You done here? Can we go back now?] Death asked.

[Not now, Death! I still have things to do!] Remian struggled. [Not now!]

[Come on. You knew your time here was limited. You're living on borrowed time and you know it. You were never going to live a long, healthy life.]

[But it can't end here, now, like this! I still have things I need to do! My family… my friends… my legacy…]

[All those sentiments are very nice, but can you even save yourself? It won't be my fault if we go back early because of a freak accident.] Death mused. [So… one-way ticket to heaven, coming right up…]

[No! Not yet! Not YET!] Remian grasped hold of the sand with his hands and used the last of his breath for one word. "Earth!"

Earth magic triggered. Considering his current emotional state, it was probably fair to guess that soul-boost triggered too…

Whatever the case, there was another eruption in the desert, and the ground opened up like a blossom, leaving Remian, Asda, the Second Queen and her general gasping for air in the middle of a new sand crater. The lynxmice, too, were left wheezing and gasping all around them.

Then the wolfcats arrived, and Mindy, and the airs.h.i.+ps came swooping down to take them home.

***

The ground was shaking slightly all day the next day as Remian and his crew returned and rested at Fort Spoas.

Mindy's airs.h.i.+ps took a few trips and brought back around 3000 survivors. While that was nearly five times as many as the three clans put together, it was a dismal number considering Fal'Herim's tens of thousands.

"Are these really all who survived?!" Remian gaped.

"All who wanted to come with us, yes. Many wanted to stay and rebuild with the Crown Prince, or wanted to go somewhere else, or haven't decided yet." Mindy explained. "Most of these guys are the Second Queen's followers, that is, slaves who want to be freed. Very few are masters who are willing to let their slaves go free."

As for the rest, Remian felt, they were beyond his reach and none of his concern. Circ.u.mstances had provided opportunity; Mindy and Remian had provided the means. It was up to the sand people whether they wanted to take it or not.

With the swell in numbers, KarGoth, Encles, Fort Spoas, and the farms were going to burst. They were going to have to rush housing and development. Also, grain and foodstuffs, clothing and basic necessities…

"I'll offer you the same deal as the rest of my workers. Come work for me. I'll take care of your people, but you'll all need to work for me for a few years. As for removing the slave-bonds, I'll leave that to the experts." Remian offered the Second Queen. "They can conduct their operations at their own pace."

"How many years?" The Second Queen asked, eyes narrowing as if he were the enemy all of a sudden.

Remian hesitated. [Death? How long do you reckon I actually have?]

[Five years, give or take a few months.] Death answered.

"Five years." Remian told the Second Queen.

"Deal." She answered.