The Dragon Princess Will Stay Alive!

Its eyes were lifeless, still, glazed over glass beads, and she no longer saw its rib cage rise and fall to breathe. The red needles of fur were furrowed and frozen with spit and blood. The dying growls and w.h.i.n.es that were hard to tell apart echoed in her head.

She'd gone too far.

Normally, she would have gone for the neck, or snapped the head clean off, but she hadn't really focused on trying to kill this one quickly and painlessly. As a result, part of the fox was charred beyond reclaiming, and the hair and flesh was mangled together from all the fighting and biting. She'd been so consumed by her anger, she'd messed large portions up so badly they would be hard to salvage.

The dragon licked a small cut on her lip, sitting down with a huff as the final threads of her anger and unease receded back down into her c.h.e.s.t, where she once again locked away. In its place, a small, quivering thread of remorse lingered in the void.

Well, it was a dead fox now.

The dragoness sat down comfortably and began picking at the remains of her catch, l.i.c.k.i.n.g at the blood before it froze and tugging away at what fur she could with her maw alone. She was only a couple of bites into a small section she'd only just cleared when she heard the sound of bushes rustling and snow crunching behind her.

Mouth still covered with blood, the dragon spun her head around.

A pack of ashen black wolves stood just beyond the dip of a hill, only a couple of yards away. She's probably been to immersed in her meal to notice them, but why were they here?

Sonata looked back from the wolves to her meal.

It couldn't be... had they followed the scent of blood?

No. She'd worked just as hard as any other creature for this meal, and she wasn't budging. It was a cold, lifeless winter, but she knew that as much as anyone. They were probably hungry, but she was starving just as much as them. And today, she wasn't feeling particularly gracious.

GRRRRRRRR

The young dragon rumbled and bore her teeth, releasing a comparatively higher and yet larger sound in comparison to the wolves.

The wolves growled back, continuing to circle and inch closer. They didn't seem to have to put fire breathing dragon vs small animals through their heads and see the outcome, but the aftertaste of letting her anger out on the fox still left a bad taste on her tongue. She just needed to scare them off before they ignored her anger for real. The small dragon filled her lungs with air.

GRRR....RRRRROOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!

She let out the scariest warning she could, standing up to seem as intimidating as she could, letting the wolves see her large, scary teeth.

Surely they wouldn't want to fight that for such a small catch, right...?

GRRRRR, the wolves seemed to only grow angrier, shoulders hunched as though some of them were ready to pounce. They were inching dangerously closer, the ones on the side of her pacing.

It was at this point that the dragoness began to question if she could take on all four angry wolves at once. Sure, she was a dragon, but she was only about as big as, what, two of them? They were bigger than the fox, their maws were visibly bigger, and they seemed coordinated and confident with their abilities.

Maybe she could take down a few of them to scare the rest away, but by that point in the battle his injured would she be? Even threatening them with another roar felt like it would just draw their anger further.

The dragon inched backwards, slowly, trying to ignite the fire in her lungs as inconspicuously as possible.

So the only way to get out of this was to burn them all at once, was it? That was such a waste of

The dragon huffed a small puff of smoke, letting the cold blizzard air in from her nostrils, the smoke teasing out from her lips.

CRACKLE

She felt as a wad of pressurized fire uncompressed from her mouth, like a small crackle at the tip of her tongue before all the weight suddenly left. In no time, the area where the wolves had been was covered in flames.

Huff.

The dragon's tensed shoulders dropped. That should take care of it. Her tail snuck catlike wag against the snow as she began to turn around to resume her meal, but her eyes caught something from the side of her vision.

Black...?

Among the dying flames, one head emerged, and then another, and then another. Fully intact, growling wolves.

The dragoness jolted slightly before regaining her composure. That wasn't enough for them? Whatever were they, some sort of magical creature? She recomposes her posture. They didn't look that strong, she whatever resistance they had, she could just power through it. She would make sure to burn them thoroughly this time.

She filled her lungs completely with air, feeling just the productive particles of the energy molecules around her gravitate to met up with the heat at the back of her neck. She could feel the surge of concentrated ball of warmth and light manifest, like holding back a particularly dense yawn.

CRACKLE-CRACK!

It tickled a bit, almost like tiny sparks in her throat, threatening to break out into bigger ones. Almost like little zaps of lightning. It was then that it was about time to let go.

PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSHH

The sound of wind mixed with the crackling of fire as the dragoness blew forwards with all her might, controlling the exhale of her breaths to release as much fire for as long as possible. She didn't stop until she was sure her foes were absolutely completely entirely dead, and she felt a little lightheaded from the air loss.

The forest in front of her was a mess of fire and slush, branches caught afire and snow melting off the treetops and evaporating off the ground putting it out. She'd been more powerful than she'd expected to be. Sonata internally patted herself on the back

Now that her foes were taken care of, she could return to her quickly freezing meal in peace. Her tail swished back and forth.

CRUNCH-

The dragon finished munching on that bite of her catch, l.i.c.k.i.n.g her lips as she curiously turned around. Surely that hadn't gotten so out of hand she'd started a forest fi-

Her heart sank.

The dragoness turned around to the remains of her attack. In the wake of where the wolves had been was only a stash of charred bones and ashen remains, the snow burnt from the ground and puddling to fill the void.

And yet it was still standing.

The embers of her fire floated down like little twinkling fireflies, except instead of settling into the ground they were lifting up again, traveling in swarms of pieces that brushed and bumped into one another a little uncertainly. They took some time, but we're slowly and certainly reforming a nose, a head, a paw.

The dragon shivered slightly, taking a step back. What were these?

SNAP! SNAP SNAP! CRACK!

The dragoness winced as another bone snapped into place, watching in horror as the beings she'd just taken down reanimated before her eyes. The bones shivered, levitating into place as the ashes worked around them.

Her body shivered as she watched the ashes pull together and reassemble, the bones levitate slowly and click back into place. All the while, the floating parts seemed to be able to walk despite not being remotely put back together. Though it was with a little unsteadiness at first, by the time fur began to manifest at the ends of one of the wolves' front legs, it was already prepared to growl and b.a.r.e its teeth at her. It was like these things didn't even have muscles or organs or blood.

Shadow wolves. That was the only way to describe the beings before her.

It began to make sense why they had no fear facing her rage, and how her fire didn't deter them. Right now, the power dynamics between her and these wolves was the same as between her and the fox.

She was scared.

And they were angry beyond reasoning with.

Get away. She needed to snap out of it and get away before they reformed completely. This was her last chance at escaping before they were completely mobile again.

A pale glow enveloped the young dragon's body, and in its place was a girl with long green hair and dirty clothes, her face stained with blood.

She was frozen in place, her c.h.e.s.t moving up and down quickly, her hair falling onto her face, her eyes wide and dilated. Her thin arms tugged are the fabric of her skirt, almost trembling.

Run, she urged herself. It didn't matter where, just run. Run!!!

The dragon princess pushed herself up off the ground and ran with all her might, gasping for air after all that her previous fire show had taken from her. Not that she'd been in the best of shapes to begin with.

She heard the clapping of paws and the growling of several wolves coming back to life, but didn't dare turn back as she lunged with all her might. Lighter. She willed her body to become lighter with all the strength she had. With all that fire she'd just exhaled and the energy she was diverting towards becoming lighter, she suddenly felt so, so cold.