For what reason it might be, Korialstrasz had no time to consider. The light began to fade, and the naga regrouped.
But now that he could see them, it was a simple matter for the dragon to strike with both his paws and his tall, bowling over the sinister creatures. Several went sinking into the blackness below, but some desperately sought to rework the spell that had nearly done In the behemoth.
Korialstrasz's body flared a bright red. The water around him suddenly boiled. In his mind, he heard the naga shriek as the heat struck. Two males in the forefront were caught full on, their bodies swelling monstrously as they burned red.
A buzzing filled the dragon's head. He looked below to his right, where a female with all four arms raised toward him glowed with magic of her own.
It was a simple matter for him to increase the heat that his body radiated. The female naga fled just before she, too, would have been boiled. The buzzing ceased.
But Korialstrasz's lungs suddenly ached, and he felt the impulse to breathe. He needed air and he needed it without delay. With desperate strokes, the red dragon pushed himself upward.
The surface seemed so far away that the fear that he was still swimming down instead of up crossed his air-starved mind, but he had no choice but to continue the direction he had chosen.
The strain on his lungs grew horrific. If he could just take a single breath...
His head shoved above the water. However, even as Korialstrasz filled his starving lungs, he continued to push himself above the sea. Magic and wings greater in span than some other dragons were in length threw him well into the sky.
A sky that, though still overshadowed, no longer stormed.
Despite the naga threat yet high, Korialstrasz was forced to hover for several seconds as he worked to regain not only his breath but his senses. The clouds remained thick, but the sea itself had grown calm, even deathly silent.
A mass of squirming tentacles broke the surface, snaring the dragon by the tall and hind legs and seeking the wings.
Letting out a roar, Korialstrasz immediately focused on the spot from which the tentacles had sprouted and exhaled sharply. The torrent of flame he unleashed was not as strong as he hoped, but it did make the monster beneath unbind one of his legs.
But the rest of the tentacles still tugging at the red giant threatened to pull him under. Korialstrasz beat his wings. He was no ordinary dragon, even if he was not an Aspect. The naga's pet would soon discover that.
And so, incredibly, rather than the sea creature dragging Korialstrasz down,
A kraken.
How the small band of naga had gotten such a creature into the bay, he did not know. Still, what mattered most was that the monstrous beast weighed heavy on Korialstrasz. The dragon lost momentum. The sea grew near again.
There was no choice. Near to collapse though he was, Korialstrasz exhaled one last time with all the force left to him.
Unhindered by the sea, his powerful blast broiled the kraken. The sea monster let out a chilling shriek as it released its grip and plunged back into the water. The wave it created rose as high as Korialstrasz's tall before subsiding.
The huge red did not rejoice. Indeed, it was all he could do to keep conscious. Despite his horrific weakness, though, Korialstrasz quickly shoved himself in the direction of his goal. Even as short as the distance remaining was, he did not know if he could reach landfall before his remaining strength failed him. Yet, all he could do was try.
All he could do was hope....
The waters remained still as the gigantic red dragon dwindled in the distance, remained still until a single naga head emerged to watch the vanishing leviathan.
The female naga's slanted eyes stared unblinking until Korialstrasz was no more than a distant dot just above the horizon. At that point, a second head, that of a fearsome male, thrust up. The scales on the right side of the male's head were torn near the jaw, the result of the most peripheral of wounds caused by the dragon's sweeping tail. Ignoring his wound, the male peered intently in the direction the female had.
'The deed is done...' she murmured in a grating voice. 'We will be spared....'
Nodding, the male grinned. The female followed suit, revealing her teeth to be no less sharp, no less savage, than her companion's.
The two naga submerged.
FOUR
The foreboding landscape rising before her on the horizon was called Khaz Modan. The hooded draenei had no reference as to the name's origins, but the mere sound of it made her steel herself. She knew that orcs inhabited this region, but so, too, did dwarves. Both were races of which she knew. And for her sake, if it came to a confrontation, the mage hoped that it would be with one of the underdwellers, not the green-skinned warriors. The dwarves, at least, were allies.
At first, there was no sign of the island settlement for which she hunted, but gradually some shapes materialized on the distant shore. The most prominent of those was the thick, stone wall on the far end of Menethil Harbor that she had already learned protected most of the town from inland incursions. Then, taller structures and huge, shaggy trees made themselves visible through the dissipating morning fog.
One building in particular caught her gaze. Rising above all else, the four towers of Menethil Keep watched over the settlement like stern guardians, their coned tops reminiscent of warriors' helmets. Within their ranks, the almost cathedral-like structure of the main building stood only a story shorter, but was much broader.
And as Menethil Harbor took form before the lone figure, she knew that the sentries in turn were very likely catching sight of her.
Sure enough, only minutes later a ship turned out to meet her. The crew was mostly human, although there were a few daring dwarves aboard as well. Dwarves in general did not do well with the sea, having a tendency to sink like rocks if they fell in, but currenttimes demanded bravery of a different sort.
As the ship reached her, a human leaned over to study the lone intruder. His bearded face stretched into a look of surprise.
'My lady,' he grunted. 'Not often we get one of your folk in this particular land... and certainly not by such means as I see before me.' The man leaned closer, revealing for the first time that he wore a tarnished breast plate marking him as an officer. Despite his beard, he was young for his rank, as young as she possibly. The violence of the past few wars had reduced the number of capable veteran warriors on both sides.
'I seek only landfall, nothing more, from Menethil Harbor,' she replied. 'Will you permit that?' The priestess did not add that, one way or another, she would achieve that landfall regardless of his answer.
Fortunately, the officer appeared a man of common sense. Draenei were allies; why should one not be allowed entrance to an Alliance stronghold? 'You'll be having to answer a few questions once there, but other than that, there's no reason I can see to bar you, my lady.'
He had a man toss down a rope ladder near her boat. A hirsute sailor scrambled down to take command of the sailboat while another held the ladder in place as the draenei climbed up.
'Welcome aboard the
