The six dragons decided to look again in the caves they had already found, to see if they had missed the Vampire's cave before. There were a lot of caves that they had already found to search again, but since they already knew where they were, they were able to check them all again within two weeks.
By then all the dragons, especially Waveripple, Indigowings, and Emeraldeyes, had started to lose hope of ever finding the Vampire. They had searched all this time, for all these months, without a trace of the Vampire. There had not even been any more disappearances. If it were just Waveripple and his first two friends who were looking for the Vampire, they probably would have given up. But Stormcloud, Nightsky, and Streampebble insisted that they keep looking. The Forest dragon, Oakleaf, had been their friend, and they wanted to avenge him.
The dragons continued to search for the Vampire, at day and at night. It got later in the year, and the nights became longer than the days. They occasionally rechecked the caves and cliffs that they had already found, and one night they noticed something different.
One of the cliffs, which had had vines growing all over it, now had about only half of its vines left. The six dragons flew down and landed to get a closer look at the cave.
There was a cave that they had not noticed before, which the vines had blocked them from seeing. When they came closer, Waveripple noticed that there was dragon scent around it. After taking a few more steps, he could tell what kind of dragon scent it was–Vampire dragon scent. The five other dragons had also noticed, and were approaching the cave slowly and cautiously.
Stormcloud was in the front, and reached the cave first. “It's empty,” he said. The other dragons relaxed some, except for Nightsky.
“We have to make sure that they're not just deeper in the cave,” Nightsky said. She walked into the cave and started looking around.
Waveripple approached the cave and looked inside. There were a few tunnels, one of which was a dead end for sure. He did not see any dragon other than his friends.
“We'll wait for it here,” Nightsky said. “When it comes back to its cave, we'll attack it.”
Streampebble nodded. She stood near the entrance to the cave, preparing to jump out at the Vampire when it approached.
Stormcloud, Nightsky, Streampebble, Indigowings, Emeraldeyes, and Waveripple waited tensely for about an hour. They all stayed near the entrance, but none of them were standing where they could be seen if a dragon looked into the cave. They stood just around the corner of the entrance.
They heard wings flapping and froze. Suddenly, a dragon flew down from the sky and landed outside the cave. It was a dark gray dragon, and Waveripple was sure that it was the Vampire. He knew that female Vampires were gray, and males were black. She had yellow eyes and two dangerous-looking horns on her head. Her claws were the sharpest things that Waveripple had ever seen.
The sky suddenly filled with stormy clouds, and it started to rain lightly. Waveripple guessed that Stormcloud was going to try to make lightning hit the Vampire.
The Vampire entered the cave too quickly for Stormcloud to do anything. If he made lightning strike too close to the cave, they might all get hit by it. The Vampire noticed the six dragons, although they had been out of immediate view. Waveripple realized that she must have smelled them. So much for their ambush. The Vampire seemed completely undisturbed by the fact that she was up against six other dragons. She sprang at Nightsky, who was one of the dragons closest to the cave entrance.
Nightsky dodged by jumping backwards into one of the tunnels. Then the Vampire turned to Indigowings, who was now closest to her. She sprang at him and grabbed him with her claws. She was about to bite his neck and kill him when Stormcloud slammed into her, knocking her away.
The Vampire turned towards Stormcloud and pounced at him faster than he could dodge. She landed on top of him, pinning him to the ground. Before anyone could do anything, the Vampire bit down on Stormcloud's neck.
“No!” Indigowings shouted. Roaring, he pounced on top of the Vampire, and all the other dragons attacked as well.
The Vampire breathed fire at all five dragons, making them jump back from her. She kept breathing fire in their direction, so they ran down one of the tunnels. The tunnel they chose, luckily, was not a dead end, but it was very long. At the end was a cavern Waveripple, Indigowings, and Emeraldeyes had been in before. It was the same cavern they had found after the earthquake, the one with a small hole in the ceiling. Waveripple just barely had time to notice this when another dragon jumped out at them from the only exit tunnel.
This new dragon was black, but otherwise looked exactly the same as the female Vampire that was chasing them. They were trapped now, with this Vampire on one side and the other coming into the tunnel after them.
The new Vampire roared ferociously and crouched down. He looked around at the different dragons as if deciding which to attack first. Waveripple noticed that he was looking at Emeraldeyes, a second before he jumped at her. Emeraldeyes was small enough that she could fly up into the air away from him. She had enough room to in this cavern, while the others did not. The Vampire landed on the ground where she used to be and looked up.
The first Vampire was fighting Nightsky and Streampebble at the same time. They looked like they did not need help, so Waveripple lunged at the second Vampire. He stepped to the side and pushed Waveripple forward, into the stream that ran through the cavern. Then he roared angrily again.
Waveripple stood up in the water, which was shallow enough that it did not even reach his chest, and crouched down to spring at the Vampire. But the Vampire jumped at him first, dunking him under the water and making him crash into the rocks on the side of the stream.
Feeling dizzy, Waveripple tried to get up, but the Vampire had him pinned to the bottom of the water. Waveripple's wings retracted into his body, and his gills opened to allow him to breathe. In his water form, Waveripple continued to struggle against the Vampire, but he could not move. Then the Vampire's weight on top of him was gone, and Waveripple surfaced, looking around.
He saw that Indigowings had attacked the Vampire and made him get off. Emeraldeyes was darting around, occasionally getting close enough to the Vampire to bite him. That did not do very much damage to the Vampire, but at least it was distracting him.
Waveripple got out of the water and tackled the Vampire, knocking him to the ground. The Vampire clawed Waveripple with his razor-sharp claws and shoved Waveripple off of him. Indigowings then jumped on top of the Vampire.
Waveripple looked around to decide who needed help the most. Nightsky was still fighting the first Vampire, but Streampebble was lying on the ground, bleeding. She was either unconscious or dead. Nightsky was doing pretty well against the Vampire so far, so Waveripple decided to keep helping Indigowings and Emeraldeyes.
He stalked towards the Vampire, who was now backing away down the tunnel that he had blocked them from escaping through. Indigowings and Emeraldeyes were also moving forward towards him. Then the Vampire turned and ran down the tunnel.
Waveripple, Indigowings, and Emeraldeyes turned around to help Nightsky. The three of them pounced at the female Vampire, but she was a much better fighter than the other Vampire had been. She knocked Emeraldeyes out of the air with a wing. Emeraldeyes lay on the ground, looking dazed but not very hurt.
Just then, the other Vampire came back into the cavern. Indigowings turned back to him and pounced, and Waveripple came to help. The Vampire started backing down the exit tunnel again. Waveripple and Indigowings chased after him to make sure that he was really retreating this time. A few minutes later, Emeraldeyes came down the tunnel also. The Vampire kept scratching at them but then backing off before they could attack back.
Waveripple started running more quickly after the Vampire. Indigowings and Emeraldeyes also picked up their speed. The Vampire turned around and ran, with Waveripple, Indigowings, and Emeraldeyes chasing after him.
The Vampire suddenly stopped running through the tunnels a
nd turned around. They were in another cavern now, with an exit to the whole cave on the other side of them, being blocked once more by this Vampire.
Indigowings jumped at the Vampire, but this cavern was large enough that he could fly up out of the way. Indigowings, Emeraldeyes and Waveripple, who was now completely in his land form, flew up after him.
The Vampire, having flown up first, was higher than them. He grabbed on to a stalactite in the ceiling, which came loose. The Vampire then let go of it, and it fell down towards Indigowings. Indigowings flew to the side, and the stalactite crashed harmlessly to the ground.
Waveripple did not know how the Vampire and Indigowings could see each other well enough to fight. Both were such a deep black that only their yellow eyes could be seen in the darkness.
The Vampire then sent another stalactite crashing down. This one was over Waveripple's head, so he flew to the side. It smashed into the ground.
Waveripple, Indigowings and Emeraldeyes had flown up to the Vampire by now, and he was too busy fighting them to break off more stalactites.
After a few minutes, the female Vampire and Nightsky also came into the cavern. Nightsky looked weakened, and seemed to be injured more than the Vampire.
Waveripple flew down to help Nightsky, jumping at the Vampire dragon. The Vampire kicked him away with one of her front feet, scratching him at the same time.
Waveripple heard three light thuds from behind him. He turned to see that Indigowings, Emeraldeyes, and the Vampire had landed on the ground. There was not enough space for them to be able to fight well in the air. Then Waveripple heard a crash behind him, and turned around again. The Vampire had tried to jump at him when he had turned away, but Nightsky had blocked her, so the Vampire crashed into Nightsky instead.
Waveripple jumped at the Vampire again, landing on top of her. Nightsky started clawing the Vampire. The Vampire scratched both of them, and tried to stab them with her scorpion-like tail. Waveripple pinned her tail down so that she could not stab them with it.
Then the Vampire breathed fire at Nightsky's face, making her jump back. The Vampire turned towards Waveripple, still breathing fire, so he also moved back quickly. He heard at least two sets of wings flapping behind him, but he did not turn to see who it was.
Indigowings suddenly jumped in front of Waveripple and started breathing fire at the Vampire. Both of their flames clashed in the middle, but the Vampire's fire was stronger, and started pushing Indigowings's flames back.
Waveripple also started breathing fire at the Vampire, and Nightsky and Emeraldeyes joined in. Waveripple wondered briefly why Indigowings and Emeraldeyes had stopped fighting the other Vampire. He hoped that they had killed him or chased him away.
With four dragons breathing fire at her, the Vampire backed away. She was still breathing fire back, but no dragon could do that forever. She had started breathing fire before any of them had, so she would get too tired to continue before any of them did. Or at least, that was what Waveripple hoped.
The fire of the four dragons against the Vampire's fire pushed it backwards towards her, almost as fast as she was backing away from it.
Suddenly, Indigowings stopped breathing fire. Waveripple worried for a second that he had gotten too tired to continue, but then he flew straight at the Vampire. While she was busy trying to keep the other dragons' flames away from her, Indigowings attacked. He jumped on top of her, roaring loudly, and sent her crashing to the ground. Then he bit down hard on her neck. The Vampire stopped moving, and the fire that she was breathing disappeared.
The three dragons still breathing fire at her stopped.
“She's dead,” Indigowings said. He seemed shocked; after all, he had never killed a dragon before. But he also sounded satisfied. He had gotten to avenge the death of his friend, Stormcloud.
Waveripple looked around for the body of the other Vampire, but did not find it.
“Where's the other Vampire?” Waveripple asked urgently.
“He flew away,” Emeraldeyes said. “He was injured, and we chased him some to make sure that he was not planning to sneak back.”
“We beat the Vampires,” Waveripple said, surprised and triumphant at the same time. “Now no more dragons will be killed by them.”
“One of the Vampires just flew away,” Nightsky reminded him.
Trying to keep his optimism, Waveripple said, “But one of them is dead, and the other is gone.”
“But Stormcloud was killed,” Indigowings said, sounding grief-stricken.
Waveripple suddenly remembered Streampebble. “Is Streampebble all right?” he asked.
“I think so,” Nightsky replied. “She was knocked out, but she did not have any serious injuries.”
“We should go back with her,” Emeraldeyes said, walking back through the tunnel. The other three followed her to the cavern where the battle had taken place.
There was blood splattered over a lot of the cavern. When he had first seen it, Waveripple remembered thinking that the cavern was beautiful. Now it was horrifying, with all the blood.
Streampebble was lying on the ground with her eyes open. She seemed to be okay, except for a few cuts that did not look deep. She got up slowly, appearing dizzy.
“Did we win?” Streampebble asked. “Are the Vampires dead?”
“One of them is,” Indigowings replied. “The one who killed Stormcloud. But the other Vampire escaped.”
“Are you all right?” Emeraldeyes asked Stream-pebble.
“Yes, I think so,” Streampebble replied, standing up. “I have a terrible headache, but I don't think I have any serious injuries.”
“Good,” Emeraldeyes said, looking relieved.
“Now we have to go bury Stormcloud,” Indigowings said quietly, his voice sounding like it was about to break.
The other dragons followed him down the tunnel to where they had first come in. Stormcloud's body was lying on the ground, with a lot of blood on and around him. Indigowings walked up to him slowly and tried to lift him up to carry him out of the cave.
Nightsky and Streampebble went over to help, and the three of them carried Stormcloud out of the cave. Waveripple and Emeraldeyes would have helped, but the other three were being able to carry him by themselves. More dragons trying to help would have made it take longer.
The five dragons walked through the forest until they came to a cave that Waveripple had not seen before.
“This is where Stormcloud lived,” Indigowings said. “So I think we should bury him here, right outside the cave.”
Waveripple nodded. No one said anything; they just started digging a hole to bury him in.
When the hole was deep enough, they laid Stormcloud's body down inside it. Indigowings did not say anything at Stormcloud's funeral; he seemed at a loss for words. None of the other dragons said anything either.
They finished burying Stormcloud. Just then, it started to rain. The storm clouds that Stormcloud had made to try to help in the battle were giving off their water. It rained lightly for a few minutes; then the sky cleared, like it had been before Stormcloud had made the clouds.
The dragons agreed to look for the other Vampire again the next evening, since it was already night now. They all went back to their homes, thinking of Stormcloud. Waveripple had not really known him much, but he knew that he was a great, noble dragon. He had given his life for someone else.
~~~
As time had gone by, Whiteswirl had gotten impatient for the battle. He and Redclaws removed the vines from the cave entrance one night, and planned out their ambush. Redclaws would chase the six dragons deeper into the cave when they arrived, and Whiteswirl would be waiting to block off their path.
It took a few nights for the dragons to come back to the cliff. At first, Whiteswirl did not even know that they had come. He and Redclaws were out hunting when the other dragons went into the cave, probably planning a pathetic ambush of their own. Redclaws had noticed them when she flew past the cave, and told Whiteswirl to go
into the cave from one of the other entrances, and to get ready to block the dragons.
Whiteswirl stayed just outside his cavern, waiting for the dragons to be chased in. He did not plan to let the battle take place in his cavern; he would walk through it to block the dragons at the end of the tunnel instead.
After a few minutes, five dragons came running down the tunnel. They came faster than Whiteswirl had expected them to, so he was not able to stop them from entering his cavern. Redclaws must have already killed the Storm dragon. The remaining dragons were a Tiger dragon, a Dwarf dragon, a Wind dragon, a Dusk dragon, and an Amphibian dragon.
Whiteswirl ran into the cavern to stop them from getting any farther. He roared at them, angry that the battle would have to take place inside his beautiful cavern, where he had thought that there could only be peace. He crouched down and looked at the approaching dragons, deciding which one to attack.
The Dwarf dragon would be the easiest to kill, so Whiteswirl jumped at her. The Dwarf seemed to disappear; he did not know where she went. He looked up and saw that she had flown above him.
The Amphibian dragon pounced at Whiteswirl. He just stepped to the side and pushed the Amphibian away from him, accidentally pushing him into the stream. Whiteswirl roared angrily again. It was bad enough that they would fight in his cavern without fighting in the stream, too.
Then the Amphibian crouched down, and was about to jump at him again, but Whiteswirl pounced first. He tried to push him across the water and out of it, but he just managed to slam him into the side of the stream instead.
The Amphibian dragon tried to get up, but he was too weak to push Whiteswirl off him. Another dragon bit into his wing and yanked on it. Snarling, Whiteswirl turned to face his attacker, which turned out to be the Dusk. Up close, he recognized the Dusk as the hatchling he had found in a cave when he and Redclaws were looking for a new cave. He was an adult now, but Whiteswirl knew that he was the same dragon.
The Dwarf darted down at Whiteswirl and bit his head. For a dragon her size, she was surprisingly strong; it felt as if a much larger dragon had bitten him. The little Dwarf kept darting down and trying to bite him, while Whiteswirl attempted to bat her out of the air.