Titan

The Escape

They began to move stealthily as they attempted to move past the colossal dragon before it awakened. Harold was in front on the left, Atlan was a few paces behind him on the right of the dragon, then Gin was behind on the left side with Harold. As Harold was beside the colossal dragon, it started to awaken from its slumber. As the dragon began to raise its head, they all went to the ground in the grass. The dragon was awake! A few seconds felt like a thousand years. Even breathing wrongly could have cost them their lives. The colossal dragon went back to sleep almost immediately. After a few seconds, they got up slowly to confirm if it was safe to move. After a moment, they continued on their path as quietly but also as quickly as possible.

As Atlan passed the colossal dragon’s head, he looked back to still see it sleeping. But he still had a troubling feeling. Something wasn’t right. It felt as though they were being… baited! With shock, Atlan turned back to see the colossal dragon… still sleeping? Was he just a bit paranoid? Well, anyone would be under these conditions. Maybe it really was sleeping. The worst part was that Atlan couldn’t see the other two on the other side due to how large the colossal dragon was. But they needed to be positioned this way, just in case it woke up and they needed to divide its attention. He continued to move forward, but he was still a bit worried. He looked back one more time only to see the colossal dragon looking right back at him!!!

Atlan was petrified as the colossal dragon blinked two or three times. It tried to study what lay before it. After a few seconds, Atlan regained his composure and slowly reached for his sword. Harold and Gin noticed the dragon was awake and immediately armed themselves. The colossal dragon looked at Atlan’s hand on his sword and then back at him. It was completely unfazed and seemed uninterested in what lay before it. It looked back at Gin before it picked up Harold’s scent and looked at him too. It was completely uninterested in either. I mean, what threat did they really pose to it? It gave off a large breath as if sighing, before going back to sleep.

It became obvious what they had to do. Run! They immediately took to their heels. The dragon was still unbothered. This was their best chance, and they had to make the most of it. Harold came out first, then Atlan, then Gin, by virtue of their initial positions. As Gin passed by the end of the colossal dragon’s tail, it twitched, and an electric current ran through its body from its tail to its head. It immediately got up, enraged. The three of them noticed and scattered in three different directions. As the colossal dragon rose, it wrapped its tail around the tree beside it, uprooted it, and flung it towards Gin. As Gin turned back to see the tree being flung at him, he immediately went to the ground, and the tree barely missed him. Atlan and Harold noticed that Gin was in trouble, and they both started running towards him. Gin was having trouble getting up due to the aftereffect of the shockwave from the tree as it passed him. It seemed that the tree had actually slightly grazed his head, as blood started to drip from his head.

The colossal dragon moved towards Gin as it charged blue fire in its mouth. As Gin noticed he was about to get burned, he somehow managed to get to his feet and jumped hard to his right, evading the burst of fire from the colossal dragon. Atlan and Harold kept screaming in an attempt to gain the colossal dragon’s attention but to no avail. It had its eyes fixed on Gin for some reason. Gin got up forcefully with rage in his eyes. His eyes changed to that of a beast, and slowly some strange markings started to appear on his body. The colossal dragon stood before the beast of the Nura, fully awoken. With much pride in his power, Gin roared just as the colossal dragon charged a second burst of fire. Gin looked more than ready to take this one. Immediately, Harold ran in between the two of them and started shooting arrows at the colossal dragon’s face, which, of course, were harmless to it. He started to move to the side away from Gin while still shooting the arrows at the colossal dragon in a bid to draw its attention, but the dragon didn’t even look at Harold. It was as though Gin was the only thing it could see.

“Come on, look here, you stupid dragon!” Harold cried. The colossal dragon completely ignored Harold and was about to release a burst of fire at Gin, who roared back at the dragon to show how ready he was. Whether it was in a bid to gain confidence or to try to show the colossal dragon that he wasn’t scared seemed insignificant, as things were looking as bleak as ever until Atlan got to them.

“Raila!!!” Atlan beckoned at the colossal dragon as he got close to them. The colossal dragon retracted its flames, and blue fire went through the side of its mouth. Atlan had gotten its attention. It slowly turned to look at Atlan while still keeping an eye on Gin. It then began to move towards Atlan. “I’ve got this,” Atlan said as Harold tried to move between him and the colossal dragon. Atlan stretched his hand towards the colossal dragon. “I am Atlan Deharas, king of the Arvins. You are Raila, aren’t you?” Atlan communicated telepathically with it. Atlan didn’t like to be called king, much less call himself king, but he felt he needed to at this moment. The colossal dragon brought its head down. Its expression changed from rage to curiosity to surprise. Its head was now touching Atlan’s palm.

“I know you. But how?” Raila responded telepathically. Immediately, there was a flash of memories between them, but nothing was clear except the image of a woman with hair as white as snow and her smile as gentle as a breeze, trying to talk to a mega dragon. Atlan couldn’t quite pick out the words, but it looked like they were friends. The colossal dragon immediately retracted its head from Atlan’s palm, and a seal appeared on its eyes. Its pupils turned blue, with a symbol on them. The same seal appeared in Atlan’s eyes, and he started screaming as blue flames engulfed him. Their eyes began to glow.

“What are you doing?!” Harold cried as he loaded his bow.

“Wait! Look closely,” Gin beckoned at Harold, as he noticed that the flames were actually not burning Atlan. Not even his clothes. “We don’t know what’s happening or what will happen if we interfere!” Gin said.

Harold was distraught. Atlan was in pain, and someone was telling him to do nothing. The problem was, would his attacks even amount to anything? But it didn’t matter; he had to try something. “We don’t know what will happen if we do nothing either! I’d rather regret trying and failing than not trying at all!” Harold cried as he decided to attack Raila.

“Harold, wait!” Gin tried to stop Harold but was too late as Harold shot three arrows at the colossal dragon’s eyes. The arrows all burned as they approached its eyes. Raila looked furiously at Harold, but it immediately calmed down as it noticed not fear, but sadness in his eyes. Raila then flew away. Atlan fell to his knees as the blue flames disappeared. Harold and Gin rushed towards Atlan, and Harold caught him before he fell to the ground.

“Atlan, Atlan!” They beckoned at Atlan, but he didn’t respond. He didn’t look so good. His eyes were open, but it looked as though his consciousness was far away. Gin had apparently reverted from his beast form, as the marks had now disappeared, and his eyes were back to normal.

“Mum?” Atlan said before losing consciousness. Rain began to pour.