Thunder of Thanasis The Storm

Bani peered out at the storm through the wide windows of their briefing room. It was a dark, swirling mass writhing just a handful of leagues from the city. It was lit with strobes of lightning from within, the sounds of which reached her ears late and diminished. These thunderous booms were muddled amidst the contant, low background roar from far, far away. She had never seen clouds so black, nor those that seemed to move like tendrils in the sky, lashing out before withdrawing into a central mass. A light rain peppered the lenses of her flight goggles, the only influence of the storm at this time.

“…first noticed at dawn,” their commander continued. Bani wrenched her attention back to him from the window. His voice was boring. Like inhumanely boring. It shouldn’t be possible to be so uninteresting when talking about lightning and booms.

“But it is moving quickly. By our estimates it will be over Thanasis in two hours.”

“We’ve had storms before,” Bani blurted. “Bigger than that.”

“Pay attention, rider!” Was the response she got, and she tensed and moved her goggles to her head. It wasn’t her fault this man’s face deflected attention. Her eyes just… slid off his boring, plain features.

“This storm is highly abnormal, as was explained to you. It is too small, too intense, and moving too quickly.” He took a breath, clearly agitated by both the inattentive rider and the task at hand. “In short - we don’t know what it is.”

“So… what? Are we gonna blow it back with our dragons’ wings? Talk to it? It’s a storm.” Bani’s insolence was not new. The only reason she had not be severely punished at this point was due, not to family connections, but to her niche skill. She was fast, clever, and uniquely suited to certain tasks. She wondered why she had been called for this specifically.

“No,” the officer sneered, and his painfully plain face twisted into something like grim satisfaction. “You are going to investigate in person.”

Oh. Good. So she was being punished. They were sending her to die.

Loathe to give this butterface any form of joy, she snapped her goggles back over her eyes and asked “So when does this suicide mission start?”

“This reconnaissance mission will have you gathering information about the storm’s intensity, movements, and source. This flight squad has been specifically selected for the task at hand. Some of you have speed, others durability, others the intelligence needed to figure out what we’re dealing with.” He looked pointedly away from Bani at this last part. “You will approach the storm, investigate as best you are able, and report back. Gather as much intel as you can, but don’t do anything stupid. We cannot afford to lose dragons for intel.” Bani noted that he had said dragons, not riders. “You have ten minutes to prepare.”

Bani glanced over at the others assembled as he left. “I always figured I’d die in an explosion, but lightning is pretty close.”

Ten minutes. It wasn’t much, but then again being given any time to even mentally prepare for a mission was a luxury. Bani was already in her flight leathers, lightweight and smoothly contoured to reduce drag. She was tiny, as was her dragon by comparison to anything other than feathered breeds. While his fire was potent enough, and her devices were clever, the pair of them had speed as their main offering. They had to maximize that as much as possible.

Leovold said:

"I thought you were the adventurous type, Nhalaryn. Is this not a chance for you to break some kind of new record?"

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Bani wrinkled her nose. He had used her mother’s family name that he knew she disliked. Nhalaryn was too stuck up, and the family was just fine with her not carrying their surname along with whatever nonsense she got into. Then again, she figured they would be conspicuously present if she achieved any true honors. Racing medals didn’t count, apparently.

She opened her mouth to retort but her voice stuck in her throat. She paused, mouth open, as his words hit her. Leo was usually an ass so it took a second for her brain to actually listen, and not automatically be an ass right back.

“Ya know what… you’re right.” She then made a fake retching sound with a hand to stomach in poor theatrics. “Sorry, never said that before. Don’t care for it.” She stepped up to the (much) taller man. “Let’s see who can stay uncooked the longest.”

She pointed a gloved finger at Carlyle after his most astute summary. “This guy gets it.”

“Solherre, you have command in the air.” Their commander stated plainly. He clearly had preference for nobility, but he was not about to let the tiny brat have any more authority than absolutely necessary. He left for the flight field. Ten minutes and counting.

Bani looked back out the window. The clouds continued their approach, growing darker. She wondered what the commander could be “sugar coating,” but didn’t want to give Leo the satisfaction of asking.

“So if that’s not just a storm… we’re not just going to ‘report back’ right?”

Leovold must know that his command over the other two would be tenuous at best. While Bani didn't plan on tempting a court marshal, she was never great at listening to instructions. The orders usually came out too slow, she would always complain.

"Right," she said, saluting Leo in a mocking imitation of his actions to the officer. "Well, I'll meet you two up there. Don't keep me waiting." She snapped her goggles back over her eyes and stepped out of the open window, falling immediately.

Vexillion caught her in well-practiced fashion and his black-feathered wings carried them up to the top of the tower in an easy spiral. Perks of riding one of the smallest dragon breeds included easy mounting outside of flight fields and wide towers. Many dragons couldn't even comfortably perch atop Thanasis' highest spires. Yeah, they would win in a flat-out stomping contest, but they had to catch up first.

Bani directed her dragon at the swirling clouds. She could do a quick jaunt and still be back before the others had mounted up, surely. "Come on, boy, just a taste." Vex chirped an affirmation and swooped forwards.

The wind coming at them was tremendous, thrown off from the maelstrom even at this distance. Bani tucked low, holding tight against the turbulence. Approaching this thing would be half the challenge in itself. The wind was odd: one gust was chilling, while the next felt warm and humid. No wonder the currents were so bumpy, while these conflicting eddies swirled around themselves.

She pulled Vex around to meet her comrades as they rose into the sky, yelling her scant initial report over the wind. "Gonna be an uphill flight to the center. Can't rely on thermals... this thing is shifting its mood every second!"

The light and warmth coming off of the sun dragon was pleasant, and it did offer a small respite from the choppy currents they were being tossed amongst. She gave a salute to the shimmering pair, acknowledging their help without vocalizing a full 'thank you' that would have been difficult to force past her lips.

Zeodag brought the last rider to their airborne group. Bani felt Vexillion subtly shift away from the black titan, though it was calmer behind the large wings. Vexillion would be able to outmaneuver the others when they were in the storm system, but drafting behind on the approach would allow him to conserve his energy.

"Let's get a move on!" she called over the howling winds, tucking herself and her dragon close behind Zeo and within range of Iralux's light. "We're catching a light drizzle!" Indeed, a subtle mist was being thrown in their direction.

It was small for a storm system, but it was still quite large. It was at least half a mile wide and perhaps half as tall, and it was trailing a dark shadow of rain in its wake. The closer they got, the more Bani had to wipe water droplets from her goggles.

The clouds that approached them continued to flicker with lightning, but it was becoming clear that the colors varied. Hot white flickers were the most common, but some were a bit more yellowed, and Bani thought she saw a red flash at the far corner. Bani did not like how the clouds were moving, they were thick and nearly black, swirling and gliding too quickly and too... evenly. She hoped Zeodag could tell them what was inside without them having to enter.

Bani rode the slipstream of the large black dragon, warmed by Iralux's light. Later on she may lament her reliance on not one but two fellow riders, but in the moment she was focusing on not being blown from her saddle.

Her eyes widened behind her flight goggles as Carlyle gave his report. People were doing this? Even if it was only a possibility, the very thought made her blood boil. Who would come here, for no reason, to cause destruction to their city? The Jarlax didn't have this kind of magic, and things had been quiet with Thagretis. She had heard reports of new, foreign peoples coming from the west... could they wield such power?

A thunderclap reverberated through her and her dragon's body. They were very close now, and the constant haze of rain had obscured the ground below. It was like the three riders, their dragons, and this force of nature were the only things to exist.

"Is it solid beyond the barrier???" she yelled back. "If we open a hole, Vex and I can get through!"

She didn't know that for certain. Or rather, she didn't know if they would survive after they got through. But Bani hadn't known she would survive many of the things she had done in her life. After all, if you worried about dying, you wouldn't have any fun.

Vexillion dipped out of the other dragon's protective covers for a moment. He could hold his own against the winds here, for a time, and in a full sprint he should be able to overcome them. The rain hurt badly where it whipped against Bani's skin, and she snapped her facemask into place, drawing the thick leather over her nose and mouth.

Fire. Light. Wind. Rain.

Everything collided at once. While the storm's din could hardly get any louder, there was nevertheless a cataclysmic blast beneath the combined might of Iralux, titan amongst sun dragons, and Zeodag, a ruthless mystery. Bani had only a moment to react, a fraction of a fraction of a tick from a cosmic clock. In that moment the first thing she felt was how very, terribly, frighteningly small she was. The light from the attack was so grand that she saw the bones in the hand she raised to cover her eyes, saw the storm and the dragons and the wind beyond that. The heat threatened to peel the skin from her skull, and the blastwave ripped the air from her lungs. She was nothing. She was a speck of dust against this power. They were but passengers atop the wings of gods.

The next moment, scarcely a breath later, the wind all but ceased. The black and solar dragons had vaporized a tunnel for her... but it would rapidly collapse. Vexillion did not need Bani's command, and he had bolted before Bani's boots even touched his sides. Bani's knuckles strained as she held fast to the harness and watched the rain drops boil from her lenses. She rode as low as she possibly could, and felt the adrenaline push harder.

They were caught in a slipstream now, the collapsing tunnel pulling them forwards faster and faster. She felt their flightpath lock, felt the push of invisible forces at their tail. They could not escape now if they tried. For better or worse, they were going inside the storm. The core loomed at her from a swirling black maw that grew and grew until it swallowed her whole. All the power of their dragons had bought them but a few seconds, and the storm sealed behind her.

Bani had shut her eyes, bracing for the impact of still more forceful winds... but they did not come. It was quiet, or rather quiet enough that the ringing in her ears was overpowering any other sounds. There was wind, to be sure, for she saw it buffeting the feathers of her mount, but she was not about to be torn from her seat. They were in the eye of this storm. She looked ahead.

It was dark. Extremely dark, with thick clouds. Vexillion fired a burst of flame. The tendrils of light shot forwards and were then pulled aside. By their path, Bani figured they would have headed back to the outer wall of this place, where the winds roiled. Vex fired another flare. It punched through the mist, but this time it hit something solid.
"Shit!" Bani pulled up, narrowly avoiding impact with a huge, metallic wall. It shimmered through the clouds and moved as the storm did, blurring its construction and form. Bani could not see the top nor bottom through the clouds. Further fireballs sputtered against it without apparent effect. She tried to follow it, but suddenly it dipped away, further into mist. She swore, and tried to follow. Vexillion kept lighting flares through the clouds. They showed wind currents, but made no contact until suddenly the wall rose up in front of them again.

Bani banked hard and skirted along its side. How could something this large move and float?
Vex screeched a warning, and Bani looked up just in time to see the clouds part above them and see a massive shadow loom. It fell towards them, pulling the air as it moved, trapping them in its vortex. Vex tried to fly to the side but found himself pulled upwards. In desperation, he let loose a stream of fire.

It lit the object. It was made of the same glossy metallic material as the rest of the slithering wall. It was impossibly large, dwarfing even her massive companions. As it fell, it did not end, and appeared to pull more and more of itself out of the clouds. Bani realized that whatever the moving, swirling structure was, this was the end of it. Or more appropriately the front.

She could see tendrils, thick as ancient trees, stretch down from the front of the object and vanish into the mists. Further back, she saw what looked like massive, twisting towers pierce into the heavens. Was this a fortress? A flying war-citadel come to conquer them? Her mind reeled at what magics could have done this, until the much more obvious answer revealed itself when the side of the fortress opened an eye larger than most homes Bani had lived in.

Bani did not have time to process the bowel-watering terror she felt as the turbulence of the creature's jetstream sent her and Vex spiraling out of the way. She and Vexillion punched through the storm's outer wall, whipped back into the howling winds and stinging rain. "Come on!" she thought more than spoke, steadying herself and her mount. Inky black feathers flew in their wake as they fought the winds back to Carlyle and Leovold. Her time within had been embarrassingly short, only a few minutes, but she had been blown far enough that it took another few minutes to even see the outlines of their dragons.

Her chest hurt with every breath. She must have broken some ribs on the way out, and the vision in her left eye was hazy. She pushed all that aside, she had to get back to Leovold and Carlyle. She had to tell them. Warn them. They had to warn everyone. Bani was not accustomed to fear. She had been told that it was related to something she lacked, "self preservation" or something dumb like that. But she felt fear now.

"Dragon!" she called out as she reached them, her voice cracking. "Biggest fucking dragon you've ever seen!" Even that didn't do it justice. Words failed her for how massive this thing was. "Its eye could eat you both!" That was the best she could come up with.

She no longer felt like they were riding on gods.