Standing under the lush branches of the ancient tree, the man couldn't help but frown as he heard the cries of a woman in labour from the ceremonial tent. Although he had often attended the births of the children of the kings and emperors in his charge, this was a completely new feeling for him. All these women had nothing to do with him, and their lives or deaths had no special meaning to this world, any more than the lives or deaths of their children. The power struggle would never end in this world. No matter who the protagonist was. Besides, most of the living beings in this world were just as likely to reproduce as to die.
No, this time was different. After all, his love was suffering the pains of childbirth, suffering to give life to his children. He knew there were two of them from the moment their life source had formed enough to give a faint response to his request, transmitted through the energy force. Even in the womb they possessed this gift, and it was safe to say that the fruits of their forbidden love were unusually strong. Children, conceived by fate through the union of representatives of two opposing clans - Dragons and Phoenixes. As complete opposites, they maintained the balance of this world, preventing one side or the other from advancing, which would spell the end of all things.
-Brother? - The voice made the man, whose mind was in the tent next to his woman in a fight to the death, shudder. I never thought I'd find you here. It's a surprise to find you here, a traitor who has chosen to place himself above all of us.
"Alomar, please, I don't want to hurt my precious brother..."
"You hurt me? Huh, you take on too much, Daerid." - As soon as he said it, the two of them leapt into the sky, transforming as they went. Their scales gleaming in flashes of fire, their wings flapping in a wind as strong as the epicentre of a hurricane, neither rival was inferior to the other. Claws and teeth, spikes on their tails and, of course, fire - all were used. This fierce battle of alien creatures would make an outside observer lose his mind.
Trees in this once peaceful place were uprooted or felled. Fire raged here and there, a column of fierce flames rising towards the terrible figures in the sky. Yet everything around the tent was untouched, surrealistically static.
Meanwhile, a few more figures appeared in a flash of light outside the tent.
"Oh, I see Alomar is a little ahead of his clansmen."
"Daerid's strength is almost equal to the Elder's."
"Is he? Pfft, I don't think so. But it's best to leave them alone, let's get on with the main task at hand and be done with it. Daerid is not our problem, we can't let his descendants survive."
In silent agreement, they combined their mental energy, which made the air crackle with electric shocks, and directed it at the tent, causing the woman, who stood between life and death, giving her last life force to her babies, to turn her head sharply towards the danger and sob pitifully. No, not now, why were they so careful? .....
She knew their love was forbidden, but when the seeds of their love suddenly sprang up in a way that had never happened before, she allowed herself the naive thought that no matter what, they could know happiness. Oh, how fleeting it had been, and how wrong she had been to think it could last.
"Daerid..." - was all she could whisper as the pain pierced her mental and physical body once more.
"Go away!" - He opened his mouth to rain down righteous fire on his young brothers, but a fierce blow came from above.
"You are not worthy to be our brother!" Alomar screamed, digging his claws into his opponent's scales, sending sparks flying. "I... I trusted you more than anyone, I hoped you would be the next Elder. But you have cruelly betrayed me, you have betrayed us, your clan! Give up trying to protect the girl Viviana, she is so pathetic that even the second highest clan banished her in disgrace. There is no future for your descendants!"
"You are wrong!"
At that moment, there was a sound like the opening of the earth, and a giant, like an ancient curse, fell upon the earth, seeming to dwarf the sky itself. A dragon with scales the colour of rare amber towered over the other two.
"Daerid."
"Elder."
Alomar moved quickly to the side, kicking up columns of smoke from the nearby burning trees with his tail.
"My brother, you have broken an ancient vow our ancestors made to the Sacred Guardian. For this, you and the Phoenix Maiden must sacrifice your...? Ha, that's interesting. I'm sorry to have to offer my congratulations on the twins."
"I don't want your congratulations, leave my family alone!" -Daerid shouted angrily.
Alomar growled angrily at the disrespectful insolence of his former clanmate and was about to charge back into the fray, but when he saw the elder's gaze, he frowned slightly, but did not stop snarling. Other clansmen preferred to watch from a safe distance. When the Elder himself came, it was best not to get under his paws, everyone knew that.
"Do you have the courage to challenge me now?" - The Elder spoke with icy gentleness and extended his claws. "Who knows, if you were the leader of one of the most powerful clans, you might be able to get an audience with the Sacred Guardiane himself?"
"If you are..."
Then something happened that no one expected. As soon as the Maiden Viviana had time to give birth to her last twin, a torrent of her inner power, which she could no longer control or quench, lit up with a flash like the glow of hundreds of stars. Daerid slipped out of her body, leaving it as an empty shell filled with some of her power, and rushed into the tent.
The scene was certainly shocking, there was a lot of blood, two newborn babies pressed against the chest of a beautiful woman who seemed to passed away. He rushed to the bed, tears rolling from eyes that had never known such a feeling. Daerid could only kiss his lover's cheek and gently lift her head with his hand, watching as the last colours of life faded from her body to the loud cries of her children. A voice whispered in his head like a sad autumn song.
"I can't stay with you, my love, I'm sorry. But I can try to save our babies. Please use what's left of my strength."
Suddenly, the stiffening body opened its eyes. In those eyes, it seemed, was the burning fire of the underworld. The most ancient and ferocious fire. In an instant it spread through her body, embracing the two babies but not harming them.
Realising that there was no other choice, he burned his hands, the skin of which began to blister and burst, and grasping the hand of this strongest of women, he began to pour his power into her, uniting the currents of forces as different as darkness and light.
In doing so, he poured out his power without a trace, so that his empty copy dissolved into thin air outside the tent, in the moment of flying wildly to meet the fangs of the elder of their clan.
As if a heavenly hand descended upon that place, streaming with an unprecedented light that blinded the observers, and if anyone here could see anything, they would see a shadow gracefully rise up the pillar of light into the sky, taking the form of a strange bird.
Hello, hello, hello!
Nice to meet you, I'm the author of this story.
English is a completely foreign language to me, so I'm translating it from the original language to share my story with as many people as possible.
I sincerely appreciate any feedback and comments, including grammatical ones.