Fortunately, Gire had worn himself down with his initial attack against the human settlement. Otherwise, Tyrei would never have been able to catch up with him.

"Gire, wait! You have to stop this! That little human didn’t kill our mother, and you’re only going to stir up their nest if you keep this up!"

Gire’s long, serpentine neck twisted so he could look back at his sister. "Why do you protect them?" he howled, blowing a thin jet of blue-hot flame back towards his clutch-mate to emphasize his point.

Tyrei gasped and ducked her head so that the flame could only singe her left ear and cause small burns on one of her head-crests. "Dammit, Gire! Be reasonable!" she growled as she further closed the distance between the two. In an attempt to slow him down she reached out her head and chomped down hard on the end of his tail.

Gire hissed and swung around quickly, swiping at Tyrei with his free hand. The near miss forced the smaller dragon to let go of his tail, and she adjusted her wings to slow down her forward flight. This was hardly the two young dragons’ first fight. After all, they were siblings, and if you can’t breath fire on your family, who can you breath fire on? But this was the first time the two were out to really hurt one another. This was the first time that their mother wouldn’t be waiting at home to make it all better when it was over.

Gire, realizing that he wouldn’t be able to out fly his sister, instead turned to face her, the two flapping their leather like wings at a faster pace to allow for hovering. "Why are you doing this, Tyrei? Why do you care? One of their kind killed our mother! What does it matter what whether or not this one was involved?"

Tyrei sighed. "Because, Gire, they’re not just dumb animals. They think. I think... I’m sure... that they’ve even got souls, and to kill an innocent human would be as wrong as to kill an innocent dragon."

Gire snarled again. "But an innocent dragon is dead, anyway. Our mother is dead! And now the elders are talking of us just turning tail and running from the killer! I will not run away from these tiny, pathetic little-"

Before Gire could finish his sentence Tyrei lunged for him, making a grab for the small female held in his right talon. In response Gire lifted the creature up and out of Tyrei’s reach as he grabbed his sister with his left foreleg and bit down hard on the side of her neck. Tyrei screamed in pain but instead of backing away tried to move closer, clawing her brother with her back paws as she tried to climb up him towards the captive mammal.

Thus tangled together the siblings began to plummet but even then neither relented. Teeth were bared and bloodied, hand-like fore-claws held close in a perversion of a hug, back legs raked against underbellies, and tails lashed wildly as enormous wings beat uselessly against gravity. The fight and fall lasted only a few seconds, but they felt like an eternity as Tyrei inched her way towards the human.

Just as Tyrei was just about to grab the girl from her brother’s claws when he dropped her. "No!" she screeched, pushing herself away from Gire before she dived after the tumbling biped. Gire looked down after his sister. Later, he would calm down and come to regret their fight and the damage he did her, but now feelings of anger and betrayal still held sway. He gave the smaller dragon one last sneer of disgust before turning and flying away, perhaps to work off his frustration by burning down a few trees.

Tyrei intensified her dive, trying desperately to reach the human in enough time to save her. It seemed luck was with the dragon that day, as the diminutive mammal hadn’t had that much of a head start making it easy to catch up with her. Tyrei had to actually pass the girl so that the dragon could turn herself upright, matching the creature’s pace at first in order to soften the stop as much as possible. Even so, when it was finally over Tyrei was exhausted, and a quick glance down proved that she had finished just in time.

Tyrei dropped heavily the last few feet to the ground and then leaned forward, setting the minute female down gently. She examined the girl as carefully as she could and determined that, although she was shaken and badly bruised, she would probably recover. She smiled at the smaller sentient while the human returned her gaze with a look of wonder. Suddenly, all the tension Tyrei had felt over the last few days was released at once, and Tyrei opened her mouth to let out a few rumbling dragon-chuckles of relief.

And that’s when the arrow pierced her throat.