The group landed in Drakemyst and met with the Ancients in the town square, where a small crowd had gathered.

“Hey!” Azier chirped, “Zolt, you’re here! Guess you finally asked the Dragonguard for help getting off Ardenfell, huh?”

“Is there a place we can go where we aren’t being bothered?” He said with an annoying tone.

Ryvak chuckled and said, “He’s not used to being famous, is he brother?”

Nyrak laughed, “Guess not.”

The crowd dispersed when Lleah, the Ancient necrodrake strutted in.

“Ah!” She spoke, her voice always sent shivers down everyone’s spine. “Pleasure seeing our esteemed Dragonguard team is here!”

“The Dragonguard base in this town is over there,” Azier said, pointing in the direction of the base.

“Good, let’s go already,” Zolt pressured the others.

“Let me guess, he doesn’t want to be out in the middle of town with the humans, does he?” Lleah chuckled.

They all headed toward the base, and Nyrak said, “No. No, he does not.”

The Sentinals at the entrance let the Ancients through and assembled in the courtyard.

When Lleah walked in, she spotted Sphyii chatting with a guardian. “Hey, girl! It’s been a while.”

Shpyii perked up and greeted her friend. The two of them started chatting, along with the rest of the guardians and Ancients. Shortly after they congregated in the courtyard, Hallard landed in the base and addressed them.

“Alright, we need to deal with Anaq before he becomes a bigger problem. Despite what the public thinks—that this isn’t our problem, and it’s beef between you Ancients—it will become all of our problem if he does fight. Drakeridge will likely be the first to be hit, as it’s the closest to him right now.”

“What about Vexx?” Lleah asked excitedly.

“He’s still wanted, dead or alive,” Hallard responded.

Lleah stood up, lowered her head slightly, and laughed maniacally, “Oh, I’m going to bite that little sausage in half. That bitch is getting cooked if I see him.”

Sphyii gave her friend a concerned look and said, “Lleah, sometimes you scare me.”

Lleah laughed and sat back down.

“Preferably in one piece,” Hallard said.

“Ah, you’re no fun,” Lleah responded to the Archon’s statement.

“Alright, let’s head out to the Drakeridge Pass just outside of town. That’ll be our initial staging point.” Hallard commanded.

They all moved out, ascending to the sky, and the drakes ran through town. They got to the gate, and Hallard and [SENTINEL COMMANDER] told the Sentinels at the gate about the situation and their orders.

While setting up the checkpoint, a surveillance team blasted over their radios.

“He’s out! He’s in the forest! He’s here!” A guardian cried over the radio with an ungodly sense of urgency.

Everyone, including the sentinels, took their positions behind the cover of various objects and the walls at the checkpoint, all looking into the frosted forest.

Before too long, they heard trees cracking in the distance, the tense moment only increasing as the giant wyrm approached ever closer.

“Ah, shit,” Hallard exclaimed. A few of the Ancients stepped out in front, in the open, to confront Anaq directly.

He came slithering down the pathway, his weight crushing the stones beneath him. He came right up to the gate and the Ancients that were standing guard.

Airigold shouted at him, “Anaq! Stop! Any further, the humans will have to defend their city.”

Anaq lowered his head and looked directly at them.

“You know an attack on humans is a grave breach of the Draconian Concord, and we’ll have to intervene,” said Nyrak.

Anaq’s deep and gravelly voice echoed through the valley and was somehow even more menacing than Lleahs’.

“You and what army,” he responded. Even the ground shook as he spoke.

“The Dragonguard, dumbass, you cannot pass through here,” Lleah said insultingly.

“I surrendered all those years ago, and this is what you do to me? Put me in the most inhospitable place on this forsaken planet,” Anaq said.

“You terrorized us for twenty years,” one of the Sentinels shouted.

“I have been in Frostcrest for a hundred!” Anaq shouted, shaking the trees and echoing through the city.

He continued, “My horn has frostbite, my scaleplates are cracked, the food is scarce here, and I can’t swim around this mountain ridge. I’d kill every last one of you Ancient assholes if I could; if you weren’t hiding behind the humans and the protection of the Concord.”

He scoffed, and his anger increased as he continued to monologue, “You bastards sit high in the Shatterscale Mountains, and the few who don’t are too close to human civilizations. I have been left here to starve and freeze to death. The very least you Ancients could do was help with that. Not a single one of you stayed with me in the caverns.”

He moved in closer, “Hell, Nyrak isn’t native to this area either, and yet, he stays by Drakeridge to ‘guard the pass’!”

“Cut the bullshit, Anaq,” Airigold said sharply. “You want to take out Eldrya and cripple the Dragonguard so you can resume your tyranny.”

“The ‘dragonguard’,” Scoffed the wyrm. “What an asinine name. And your “legends”? Tuh! None of you are legends; I am a legend. I ruled over this land for twenty years. You humans are small and weak like the rest of the fauna.”

Sabretail stepped out into the open and stood beside Airigold; Zella desperately tried to reel him back in.

“I will not hesitate to end you if it’s the last thing I do,” Sabretail spoke, to everyone’s surprise. His voice had a tone and intonation similar to Airigold’s. Whispers started flowing throughout the crowd of guardians at the gate. Even the other Ancients had a shocked expression. No one knew that Sabretail was an Ancient himself as he never talked before.

The wyrm laughed maniacally and said, “The broken one? Take me out?” He leaned in close to Sabretail; the warmth of his breath was evident. "I’d like to see you try."

Sabretail lowered his sleek head, his eyes narrowing as he bared his sharp teeth in a low, warning growl. The sound rumbled deep within his chest, vibrating with the same intensity as any other Ancient his size. With a swift flick of his long, muscular tail, the blades hidden within his prosthetic tail fins extended outward, the blackened steel gleaming menacingly in the light. His stance became more poised and threatening, prepared for whatever might come next.

Vexx flew in from over the mountain range and approached the enormous wyrm.

“What are you doing? Just run through them!” He yelled out.

Aanq turned his head and said, “I have done this once before, and it did not end well; why would you think it would be any different? I was defeated once; I know the next defeat will be my death.”

“Then you’d be smart enough to turn around and go back,” growled Lleah.

Vexx yelled out, “We had a deal, wyrm!”

“Who do you take me for?” The Ancient Wyrm said, becoming more irritated with each passing second.

“In what way did you think that I, the Wyrm of Chaos, would ally with you? I’ve seen what you’ve done with other humans and dragonkin, my own kind. You are a disgrace. You, Vexx, have no place on Azlov.”

Vexx furrowed his brow and turned his dragon to fly away when the Dragonguard intercepted him. As he was taken out of the sky, Vexx pulled out his pistol and shot at the giant wyrm, hitting one of his scaleplates on his neck. Anaq became aggravated and swiped his tail at them, taking out the group of guardians. The other Ancients standing at the gate jumped into action, and Zella climbed onto Sabretail’s saddle.

The guardians that were knocked out of the sky scrambled to get up and detain Vexx. They kicked the back of his knee and forced him to kneel as they tied his hands.

Vexx yelled at Anaq, “You were supposed to bring me the amberstone!”

The wyrm responded, “I wasn’t supposed to do anything; I don’t work for you. But your ‘kinshit plan had me thinking about my freedom from Frostcrest. I only came here to do that on my own and nothing to do with you.”

The Archon flew over to the guardians, holding down Vexx. He looked up and said, with an irritated scowl, “Labeling me as “an enemy of mankind” has ruined my life. I could sue the Dragonguard for this.”

Hallard leaned in and said with a firm tone, “Everyone knows that any Dragonbane member, or anyone working with them, is labeled as such, just like with pirates. This is no one’s fault but your own.”

Vexx stared at Hallard with a piercing glare, his anger insurmountable. The guardians hastily hosted Vexx to his feet and escorted him into a jail in town.

Hallard turned to the gigantic wyrm and said, “I’ve had enough of you. You attack my guardians like that again, and you will be taken down.”

He started to walk back to the gate, stopped, turned around, and said, “This seems like something between you and the Ancients, not with us, but I cannot let you destroy any city or town.”

Before Hallard walked away, the wyrm responded, “There is no other way. The only way to get anywhere from up here in Frostcrest, for me at least, is through this pass. The sea serpent surely wouldn’t help, not after what I’ve done a hundred years ago.”

“Figure it out,” Hallard said sternly, “dig into the mountain or something; you’re an earthwyrm for gods sake.”

“I’ve tried that; the rock is too hard. I cannot dig through it.” Anaq responded. “You can’t make a tunnel big enough; you don’t have a ship big enough for me. Taavi was the one who brought me here; I need her to agree to take me elsewhere.”

“Where else is there? There are humans on every continent, in every biome and location. There is practically no place you can go where you wouldn’t be running into a town.” Hallard said.

The wyrm grunted, “Ugh, you humans are like ants, just fucking everywhere.”

“We could put you in the World Hole; there might be enough space down there,” Ivis said sarcastically.

“And live in another prison? With the potential of flooding and drowning?” Anaq asked rhetorically.

Azier approached Hallard and said, “I still don’t trust him; he'll go on another rampage as soon as he gets by this mountain ridge. Maybe not right away, but someday.”

“That’s exactly why I don’t want him passing through,” responded Hallard. “Until we deal with the Dragonbane threat, he’s not going anywhere. It seemed like Vexx was trying to work with him; who knows if Anaq has been working with the Order after all these years.”