The Twin Fires: Chapter 2

First Flight

Tholaxxius slowly unfolded his wings, stretching them to their full span, judging from the shadow they cast over the landscape they must be as wide as he was long. Testing them slightly against the wind, he flapped them a few times experimentally feeling the new joints settle themselves. he flapped again, more vigorously now, his wings curving as they went up and down like a skilled oarsman rowing.

Dead leaves and vegetation flew away as his front feet rose a little from the surface. He started to run across the
field, shaking the ground with each footfall as he gained enough speed, the muscles in his haunches tensed and he pushed himself off, leaping into the air like a diver plunging into the water; he flapped down his wings and with a loud whooshing sound he rose.

Such exhilarance, he truly felt like a dragon now, soaring high above the ground, lord and master of all he beheld, those ground-dwellers couldn't possibly fathom it. He experimented a bit with an updraft pushing him higher until he was among the clouds, a whole new world opened up before him, adjusting his wing tips a bit he found himself gliding on the updraft almost weightlessly carried by it, he had never experienced true joy until that moment, the feeling went to his head like wine and he
was breathing hard, not out of labor or exhaustion, but from pure adrenaline.

He folded his wings to his body and made a dive towards the earth, the ground quickly rose up to meet him, just before we would hit the earth he unfolded his wings again and with one stroke he quickly rose again, the tip of his tail slightly brushing the ground.

Tholaxxius flew well into dawn, performing wingovers until his wing muscles hurt as he felt a new sensation gnaw at the back of mind...hunger. His eyes scanned the terrain under him looking for suitable prey until his keen nose picked up a scent, his forked tongue darted a few times out between his canines in quick succession, tasting the air....cattle.

It seemed to originate from a large red barn under him. Gliding down he flapped his wings a few times before touching the ground with his hind legs first before dropping on all fours again. Tholaxxius walked over to the barn and placed his front paw on the roof, his talons dug in the roof like it was made of wet paper, he tore away the roof in one quick pull, sending down a rain of debris and dust as he stuck his neck inside and gazed at the panicking mooing mob of cows.He ran his tongue across his fags has he felt his mouth water at the buffet arranged before him.

He placed his paws on the walls and let out a guttural growl before parting his jaws wide and then clamping down on a cow with a sickening sound of bone being crushed, it offered only weak resistance as he threw back his head and created a sawing motion with his incisors by wiggling his lower jaw and shaking his head from side to side, allowing the incisors to quickly shear
through flesh and bone and literally shake his prey to death before he swallowed.

It didn't even occur to Tholaxxius that he was stealing those cows, after all, if those weak lesser creatures could not defend what they had, they didn't deserve to keep it he reasoned, no doubt they would call it lawless and criminal, but those unenlightened lesser beings fail to realize that he made the laws now, no more need to play it by their rules.


Jon and Joe, the twin brothers who were also nicknamed "the two oafs of the police office", were grumbling in their patrol car as they drove down the road. Apparently some nutty farmer had been screaming over the telephone about some big red monster eating his cows.

"Hey Joe, what you think that farmer has been smoking?" Jon tried to lighten up the mood a bit but Joe, being his usual grumpy self just replied with a mutter.

"Couldn't care less, why do they always give us these lousy assignments nobody else wants to do?" Joe took a sharp turn and continued to stare at the road in front of him.

"Well.." Jon was happy to fill him in, "that's because the Chief doesn't like our faces, you know, after that time where you put a wheel clamp on his car?" In retrospect, it was kind of funny Jon tought.

"Ha-ha, laugh it up" Joe grumbled " I told you a million times already, he *was* double parked!".

"Hey Joe, look at it this way, at least we didn't get fired, let's just finish with this old nut and then we'll go grab a burger."

Joe pulled the patrol car over as they arrived at the farm and he and Jon exited, putting on their caps.

"Alright Joe, you write in the report that the farmer was drunk, senile, high or a combination of those and then I...I..."

Both men looked up and instantly froze with an expression of utter astonishment etched on their faces. A colossal red scaled..beast was standing over the barn and tossed a cow into the air, catching it between it's massive jaws and swallowing it as if it was a peanut.

"Joe...are you, seeing wh..what I am seeing", Jon clung to Joe's uniform jacket,shaking him violently but Joe was just staring at the beast, unable to speak or move.

"W..what we do now? Call for backup? Or rather, call for the army? The Americans? The Russians and the Chinese as well?! Say something Joe!"

Panic was starting to seep into Jon's voice, it only got worse when the beast noticed them and slowly turned it's horned head their way. It turned it's body as the moring sun reflected off it's blood-red scales. It slowly picked up it's feet and took a step towards their position, each footfall was accompanied with a small earthquake. Jon couldn't help but stare at it, each of it's massive paws sported five talons the size of their patrol car, thick muscular legs supported it's body as it's long, swan-like neck curled up to it's head, the small horns around it's eye ridges gradually extended backwards into a sweeping pair of sharp edged horns. the beast halted it's slow advance in front of them and stared down upon them with fiery, orange-yellow glowing eyes, burning in their horned sockets like hot coals.

Nothing in their police academy training or the years of writing speeding tickets could have prepared Jon and Joe for this. Jon felt his fear constricting him, he'd never felt so afraid in his entire life, the beast' fiery stare raked him, the beast looked at him like he would look at an ant. Jon felt his legs growing weak like rubber under him, Jon just wanted to curl up on the ground, his stomach hurt and his sight blurred as he was gripped with this almost unnatural fear. Joe was in no better condition then he was but he fumbled with the holster of his pistol, gripping it tightly as if it was the only object with the power to save him from this nightmare.

"Ha..ha..hands up, erm..freeze, you are...under arrest!" Joe stammered.
"Erm, Joe, I don't think our department can afford a gun big enough for..that."

Tholaxxius just stared at the two gnats beneath his gaze, their fear was almost palpable, a low thrumming rumble escaped his throat, he was quite amused with their fearful reaction, his beak-like snout opened as he spoke:
"Ah, but silly human, How could I possibly fit into that small car of yours? How do you intend to take me back to the office? Hmm?"

Just as he spoke the words, te reached for the patrol car and picked it up without a so much as a shred of effort. Holding it up in his claws like a child's toy, he squeezed and crumpled the car up as if it were a sheet of paper. He dropped the wreck in front of Jon and Joe. A malicious grin crept up his face, revealing his saber-like four canine fangs, followed by a long row of jagged, dagger like incisors, running towards the back. Joe and Jon just stood there and watched the remains of their patrol car crash down in front of them, teeth clattering and trembling on their feet.

"At this point you should run little ones" Tholaxxius began to lower his head towards the two humans.

Jon and Joe didn't need to be said twice, they screamed in union convinced that they would end up as a snack for this beast, Joe dashed to the left while Jon dashed to the right, colliding into each other and falling over into a heap of arms and legs. They hastily scrambled to their feet and ran like they've never ran before. Tholaxxius' chuckle turned into a bellow halfway as he watched the little ants scurry away.They were lucky his hunger had just been sated.

Jon and Joe had run as far as their legs could carry them and jumped into in a nearby ditch to hide. "Joe? is..is it comming after us?" Joe gave his brother a questioning look,

"I am not going to look, you look!"

Jon carefully risked a peek just long enough to assure that monster wasn't comming for them.

"No, it's gone...whatever it was." Jon said with an audible sigh of relief as he slumped back and wiped some cold sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. "That was close, what in the blazes was that..thing?"

Joe had now also worked up enough courage to peer over the edge. "I don't know Joe, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that was;..a dragon, yes?"

Joe raised his eyebrows at Jon and said:"Don't be silly, dragons don't exist, just like fairies, santa claus and ghosts" to wich Jon just shrugged

"Well dear brother, if it looks like a dragon roars like a dragon and flies like dragon I'd call it a dragon." he blinked a few times at Joe "Wait? Santa Claus doesn't exist?"

Joe shook his head and groaned while climbing out of the ditch, frowning as he looked down on his dirt-strained uniform. "Let's get back and tell the Chief, I can already hear him raging.." Joe offered a hand to help his brother out of the ditch.

"Ah, Joe, you think we can stop at our home first....I think I need new pants."