'Slowly, slowly.' Repeated in his mind the long creature as he slowly dragged on the ground, with his body resembling an earthworm about two meters long and thirty centimeters thick, with a red, scaly skin, and what should be his pointy head without visible eyes.
'Where do you think you are going, Uruk?' said the enormous black mountain that obstructed the way of the small, worm-like creature.
'I just wanted to see you sleep, Grandpa Reivax.'
'Yes, of course! Larvae, gather on, it's class time.
'Ahhhhh!' complained the rest of the creatures.
'You never learn, do you, Uruk?' A gray larva complained.
'Very well. I'll ask you again. What happens if an immature larva consumes a flame of life?' The black dragon asked the little ones.
'They die,' replied the larvae in unison.
'Or?'
'They turn into salamanders instead of dragons.'
'And what is the problem with the salamanders?' Reivax asked again.
'They have no flame, they cannot lay eggs, they are small and weak, and they live short lives.'
'That's right. So, Uruk. What were you trying to do?' The dragon asked, lifting up the little larva with its front leg and bringing it closer to his face as he looked at it.
'But, grandfather, I am a big larva. I'm going to be a great dragon, not a salamander.'
'Uruk, you are the youngest of all your brothers. Do you understand?'
'But grandfather,' replied the larva.
'But nothing. Let's make a deal. I promise you that when you're mature, I myself will take you to the All Father.'
'Do you promise?'
'I promise, I swear by my flame.'
The red larva rubbed her pointy head against the old dragon's scaly and broken skin in a sign of affection.
'Go play with your brothers,' said Reivax, descending the larva to the ground and seeing it drag alongside the other larvae, which began to intertwine one on another.
Reivax turned and looked at the mouth of the great volcano behind him. His sight was no longer good, but he could still appreciate the majesty of the All Father and feel his power.
'Reivax, Eo, Reivax,' another dragon had to shout twice to draw the attention of the old dragon.
'Ah, Meneol, is everything all right?' asked Reivax.
'That's what I wanted to ask you. You've been very distracted lately.'
'It's probably just nonsense from an old fool, but something's making my scales tingle, the All Father... Something isn't right.'
'Do you think it has anything to do with the many eggs we've had lately?'
'I don't know; maybe, I haven't seen so many eggs and larvae in all my ten thousand cycles of the sun; it's a blessing, but I can't take away this feeling that something bad is going to happen. The All Father wouldn't give us...'
Reivax interrupted his words to look again at the volcano's peak and then at the sky. The blue had disappeared, and the sky had become white. Seconds later, there was the noise of something cracking and breaking, the sky broke and then again presented its usual blue.
'What was that?' asked Meneol.
'I don't know, but it's bad, really bad.'
The earth trembled slightly, the All Father had weakened, and white smoke came out of its peak.
'Meneol, the eternal night is advancing.' A grey dragon flew to Meneol at full speed.
'Why didn't you stop it?'
'No, you don't understand. It's not a part of it. The whole eternal night began to advance out of nowhere. Valek, Remo, Daramis, and Demulaer are on their way there to stop it. It's weird. It moves faster than ever before.'
Meneol looked at Reivax in the eyes with concern.
'Go,' said Reivax.
'Trurk, I'll go ahead. You go look for Floo and the others. They're gathering food for the larvae. Join me in the eternal night.' Meneol took flight.
Reivax looked at the larvae approaching him.
'What is it, Grandfather Reivax?' a gray larva with red stripes on its back asked.
'Nothing, Darm, everything will be fine; we are the strongest creatures in the world, and no one is stronger than your uncle Meneol, except maybe your uncle Baham, but don't tell him, you know he's half crazy.' Reivax took his tail to his head and hit himself with it in the skull as he crossed his eyes and pulled his tongue to the right.
The larvae laughed at his impressions and returned to their games. Reivax again drew his attention to the smoke on the top of the All Father.
Moments later, in an area far away from the nest.
'By the All Father!' exclaimed Meneol, seeing his world ruined by the black cloud that spread relentlesly.
Nothing remained of those green valleys, the crystal-clear rivers with trees on their banks, on the ground, The animals fled at the greatest speed their feet allowed them. The Marmalos, herbivores, and lanudous and horned hexapods, the main part of the dragon's diet, fled in panic, causing a stampede.
In the distance, flames came out of Valek's and the other dragon's maws; the flames temporarily delayed the advance of the chaos and the eternal night over the earth.
Demulaer went down to the ground, right in front of the dark tide, opened his maw, and fired his flames against it. A few seconds later, he was forced to stop. He breathed deeply and was preparing to attack again when branches that moved like tentacles surrounded his body. A creature like a dry, dead tree dragged him into chaos, trying to pull him deep into the eternal night. The branches covered his maw, preventing him from attacking. The strength of his muscles proved insufficient to free him from his bonds, and the branch thorns clawed into his skin through his hard scales.
Meneol's flames burned the tree from the air, giving the hurt Demulaer time to move away from the black cloud.
'Thank you,' said Demulaer, now back in the air.
'Are you hurt?' asked Meneol.
'I'll be fine. Be careful; those things are strong. Look at my scales; the thorns of that tree are dangerous; don't come near them.'
The dragons continued to attack the black cloud that spread despite their best efforts. It was the beginning of the night when Floo and the other dragons arrived. The chaos intensified with the sunset; that black fog became denser and a lot more difficult to control.
'Floo, you're the fastest of us; go back and bring all the clans. Explain to them what's going on; we need everyone here. If they can fly and their flame still burns, bring them over.'
Floo turned around, flying as fast as his wings allowed him. He was surprised and scared at the same time; the eternal night had consumed almost ten percent of his world in just a few hours. That had never happened before; the eternal night had always existed. A mass of black fog that was usually static in this world. Sometimes some segments expanded, and the dragons burned them. But now it was expanding in all directions. The area they had to defend was too wide, even for them.
The rest of the dragons arrived on the battle front almost at midnight and launched directly at the attack.
'Meneol, we have another problem.' A dragon with green and blue scales drew Meneol's attention.
'worse than this, Levi?'
'I don't know if it's worse, but we have a whole world on the other side of the infinite desert and the mystical forest. It appeared from nowhere; there was nothing there at sunrise. I sent Torla and Maudre to investigate it. I don't know what relationship this new world has with eternal night and chaos, but it's better to be cautious.
Meneol half closed his eyes; it couldn't be a coincidence.
'Levi, I leave you in charge; I'm going to see this world that you speak of with my own eyes; maybe Reivax knows something about it.'
Meneol flew towards the infinite desert. At dawn, he saw this new world from the sky. Weak-looking, two-legged, small creatures inhabited it. They lived organized in stone colonies, which made Meneol remember the insects of his world.
Meneol returned to his nest to consult Reivax. Although his memory was no longer the same as before, he was still the oldest and wisest of the dragons. His generation had perished too many cycles of the sun ago; his eyes had lost their luster; his scales were cracked and fell off on their own; his claws had neither strength nor edge; his wings had lost their membrane; however, Reivax flame still burned, though reluctantly.
'Meneol, what has happened?' asked the old dragon.
'The eternal night is advancing; chaos is intense, but that is not all; there is a new world beyond the desert and the mystical forest.
Meneol described what he had seen in the new world: the similarities with their world and the differences, along with the inhabitants.
—Hum! There were legends long ago, when I was barely a larva. Stories of dragons who had gone out to explore the infinite desert. They never reached the end of it, but they once told me that they had seen an illusion, a blurred reflection of a stone structure, or a small creature with two legs running scared after seeing them and disappearing in a few steps. Same thing in the mystical forest. Once upon a time, a dragon encountered little creatures among his trees.′
Reivax remained thoughtful, trying to recall events from a very distant past.
'I think this world you're talking about already existed; it might be as old as our world and the eternal night.'
'Do you think they have anything to do with all this?'
'I don't know; the possibility exists. We should watch them for the time being.'
Torla and Maudre are on it. The others will concentrate on stopping the eternal night. Take care of the larvae. Floo will take care of collecting food for them. If you remember anything else, tell Floo.
Meneol turned around, ready to take off.
'Will we defeat the chaos? What does your instinct tell you?'
Reivax looked at Meneol and moved his head in denial. Meneol flew off. Reivax looked again at the All Father. Then he looked at the rocky formation that was their nest. This hole in the volcanic rock had been carved by the claws of hundreds of thousands of dragons for several generations, including his own, long ago, when he still had strength in his legs and edge in its claws. He passed his worn-out claws along one of the marks on the rock with a feeling of defeat, like he's saying goodbye to his world.