Chapter 22.1- The Seadragon's Roar

We banked left before we dove. I felt the air smash against my body, trying to toss me off the saddle but I held on with only my legs to keep me in place. It was a good feeling despite the strain. The feeling of flying and being free while I did it. Mother would never have consented a saddle being made for me without the customary chains but I had not bolted them in years, much in the same way as I had never flown with a whip after the first time. While it was much too weak to actually hurt Igneel so there was no fear of that happening, there just wasn’t any need. People needed the whips to tell their dragons where to go. Igneel moved with my thoughts and when we flew we were one A union truer than any marriage could ever be. We came up to the shanty in a matter of seconds and without any warning, we let loose.

‘Dracarys’, I mentally commanded. Screaming while diving straight down on dragon back was not the best way to avoid swallowing an insect. That one was a lesson I’d sadly had to learn from personal experience. In one boom, the first few buildings in the shanty were gone. It took us two passes to leave the tiny outcropping of homes nothing but cinder. We turned right, continuing to fly. This Island was not even one that I could identify from high in the sky. Mother’s strategy had changed. Instead of taking the Islands one after the other, we were spreading our influence in a circle from around Bloodstone.

Daemon, Mother, Laena, and I all set forth from the Island at dawn and returned at dusk. Instrctions were simple: patrol in an ever explaining circle from Bloodstone (each of us was entrusted to a rough quadrant— after a tiny tiff on the first say with Daemon wondering into my territory and me accidentally straying into his, Mother and Laena had become borders between us) and burn everything in sight. Marching from island to island only made sense when we were trying to displace the existing governments and supplant them immediately.

Instead, we were going to eliminate all the civilization that remained on the islands and any trace of organised resistance, making them fear to pop out from their holes— and then when we finished, Borros and Vaemond would swoop in and put whatever remained to the sword. We burned forests to reduce the chances of another Seaspeaker popping up and whenever it was possible, we demolished caverns and natural hiding spots.

The goal was to make it as easy as possible for the ground troops when they landed. We continued our patrol, noting a small village next. I took a breath in and we dove down again. This was tedious. A lot of flying with small pieces of action in between— and the action was just did. Sitting on Igneel’s back while he roasted some wooden shacks and their pirate occupants.