A torrent of winged serpents cascaded down M'hakashan's slopes, washing over the terrain like the molten granite still bleeding from the mountain's seething caverns. They stormed over the jungle havens, lighting upon isolated settlements and picking through the herds of yoshies with a rapacious hunger. As eager as the dragons were in their race to consume everything, they almost seemed in search of something vital behind the feasting.

No less than four had carved into the yoshi melee, and these monsters indiscriminately leveled the battlefield, throwing the dinosaurs into a panic and scattering them every way and that. Caimon, in a full-throttle back peddle towards the jungle's denser refuge, blundered over his retreating rival, and they both scrambled through their respective clouds of dust.

"Out of my way, you ape!" the orange one shot at his oafish Mulhollen counterpart as he stepped out of the collision.

"You were in my way first!" Caimon lamely fired back.

One of the fanged minions interrupted their discourse with a screech pitched to rupture glass. It squared off on its fours and faced the two, the excited humor to its eyes resembling glowing egg yolks. Its hesitating pose reflected a moment of indecision: which yoshi was tastier?

Caimon instantly relinquished his quarrels with his yoshi brethren and screamed like an imbecile. The Piewa commander took flight towards the ridge of trees, more inclined to work his legs than his voice. The dragon, already riled into frenzy by the thrill of the hunt, darted into a chase after the fleeing prey. Caimon hugged the grit of the earth, stricken as though he would shrivel into it like a weed, while the beast plunged over his head and bounced after the Piewa.

Meekachu reeled his dumbstruck daughter out of the charging monster's path as its desperate orange-hued target rushed their way. The Piewa lunged at the ferns coasting the clearing, but the dragon was upon him like a curse, stealing him from his fated leap and crushing him in its jaws like a squirming grapefruit.

Miya gaped at the carnage, her typically pink skin nearly as pale as her father's. She dizzily trod backwards, her eyes fixed on the dragon as it pinioned the orange Piewa to the ground with its fore claws and dismembered him with its teeth like a piece of chicken.

"Miya, let's run!" Meekachu tugged on her arm. She was too transfixed with the violent goings-on to pay him heed, however. Her leaden legs anchored her to the jungle floor.

"Miya!!" the yellow dino insisted, his patience running dry. The dragon, after cleaning the bones of its latest meal, cast greedy eyes on the pair of bystanders. Miya, now wise to the danger of joining the orange yoshi in the pit of the dragon's stomach, dropped out of her trance.

"Ah-ah-oh my fruits...!"

"Now would be a good time to run away, Miya," Meekachu suggested in a note of understatement.

The monster, frothing at the mouth with juicy crimson, skid around on its heels and charged forward, churning up a wake of dust. The two fugitives mirrored its move and reflexively bounced away, just as the dragon thundered beneath their flying feet and crashed into the next palm grove. The brittle undergrowth cracked and splintered under the ductile trees as they bent over to cradle the monster's girth.

Miya and Meekachu landed in a tumble beneath the clearing's shaded outskirts. They each sat up, panting and exhausted with fright.

"Are you all right?" Meekachu gasped.

"I--" A broad swing from another dragon's tail caught Miya like a wrecking ball, and her sentence finished about six yards away. A glint of emerald chipped off the site of impact and spun away in the opposite direction, but Meekachu presently ignored it.

"Miya!!" he screamed and sprang after her. As he neared her side he trained a wary eye on the monster behind the assault. Meekachu was relieved to find that the culprit was too occupied with inter-dragon skirmishes to take notice of its tail's recklessness. He ducked to his knees and worriedly nudged the pink one's shoulder.

"Miya! Miya! Are you okay??"

She moaned and rolled over drunkenly. "...Uh?"

At this sign of life, Meekachu released his anxiety with a huff and rolled his eyes skyward. "Thank heavens. Are you all right?" he repeated.

"...Yeah..." Miya answered weakly, as if unsure. With a grimace, she climbed onto her hands and looked back over her shoulder, where terrified yoshies danced around the grasping swipes of dragons while shadowy streaks flickered over the din in rapid blinks. The pink dino glanced into the sun, which was eclipsed by a thick sheet of winged serpents. They clouded the sky like locusts.

"Good spriffing fruits!" she exclaimed at the awesome spectacle. "It's like all the dragons on the island woke up at once!"

"I think that's precisely what happened," Meekachu assented.

"But, how? Because of M'hakashan?" she speculated.

"I don't..." He abandoned his statement and gawked at the spot he had vacated a minute before. Miya, perplexed by his silence, followed his stunned expression and discovered a stoic, robed figure, poised motionless on the very spot Meekachu claimed before. He stared out at them beneath the sagging folds of his hood, his arms tucked into the course, dark fabric and the purple ridge of his nose the only sliver of scaled skin exposed to the light of day.

His sudden arrival was as inexplicable as the dragons'. Miya didn't understand where he came from. Meekachu couldn't dream of a way make him go back. He recognized the presence with the subdued voice of defeat.

The robed figure stood uncannily still, like a ghastly obelisk. It reminded Miya of a haunted tree, its branches slicked back and its obsidian bark entrenched in the packed, arid earth for all of time to gaze at and wonder of the evil sealed within.

At her side, Meekachu was under a spell of shock. She didn't even catch a whisper of breath from him. A silent noise encapsulated their shaded grove, and all the cries of battle couldn't listen in.

Did Meek know this... person?

Making the first move, the pillar of cloth trod forward in lazy, meandering steps, oblivious to the pandemonium to his left. He stopped before an arbitrary patch of grass, crouched down, and plucked a sparkle from its locks. He straightened and flashed the gem in his hand like a badge.

"They're after this, you know."

His voice had a detached, hissing ring that chilled Miya's blood. Meekachu's nostrils dilated with a startling huff and his back stiffened. Miya's eyes quickly bounced from him to the pit of the stranger's palm, where a familiar green jewel blinked back at her. Her fingers reflexively dug through the tie in her hair, finding an alarming vacancy between the frayed pink strands.

Marawok's gem!

While Miya assembled the clues, Meekachu picked himself up. "Charbok," he called across the dusty clearing, his tone defensive.

"Raiquoo," the stranger returned stonily.

Raiquoo? That's what the elders call Meekachu! Was this stranger another elder? What's he doing with the dragon king's stone? Who's after it?

"'They'?" Miya began to wonder out loud. "You mean the dragons??"

The newcomer aimed his blunt nose at the speaker. "Yes, little girl. The dragons are scouring the island, looking for their king. They will devour everything in their path until proof of his fate is found."

"But he's dead," Miya announced, throwing that factor into the equation. "Won't they go back to M'hakashan once they find his body?"

"Marawok's body won't mean anything to them without that gem." Meekachu stepped forward. "Charbok," he repeated in a stronger voice, "Take what you want--take me if you have to, but leave Miya out of this."

Charbok flicked his snout at the yellow one, and a lustrous reptilian sheen peeked out at them from beneath a ruffle in his hood.

"I've news for you, Raiquoo, in case you haven't noticed. I don't care about your children. Their fate is fixed. I don't have to lift a finger. It's you who insists on defeating the order of things."

The implications towards his offspring's demise flared Meekachu's temper. "Order?? What order?! Everyone's getting slaughtered! M'hakashan has erupted, the dragons are storming the island--people are dying!"

"And whose fault is that?!"

Charbok's roar was akin to a dragon's, and a quiet pall descended over the three. Meekachu's expression narrowed with dread.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You are a fool, Raiquoo. It is time you learned your place. You violated the code of your brothers, for what? For some scruffy outlanders?"

At mention of the fox and his crew, Meekachu's eye twitched with recognition. He considered their impact of the scenario before speaking again. "Are you saying that I should have left them here, to interfere with our tribes through the merit of their existence? Was it the Council's will to repeat the episode of two decades ago?"

"There are ways of the elders undisclosed to you, but necessary for the good of all!"

"Then how?" Meek challenged his reasoning. "How did they plan to take care of the foreigners? How were they going to repair the rift in Ni--"

"Don't misplace responsibility here, Raiquoo. It was not I who broke M'hakashan's seal. It was not I who took the Yoshian Stone from its rightful place, and let loose M'hakashan's wrath, and all the demons of the island!"

"But the foreigners--!"

"They were ordained to die!"

Miya's face drew long with horror.

"But you insisted on helping them. It wasn't your job, Raiquoo. You were not to interfere--"

"It was not my intent--!"

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions! And now everyone will pay the price for your insubordination!"

Charbok's last remark baked in the tropical sun, unchallenged. Meekachu only reciprocated the cloaked one's icy leer. Miya cast her confusion into the ring.

"Meek, who is this? Is he another elder, like you? Why is talking like it's your fault M'hakashan erupted?"

Meekachu's frown deepened, and his gaze sank into the earth. Miya proffered a tentative step in his direction.

"...Meekachu?"

Charbok, inviting the yellow dino's response, goaded him with the pink one's enquiry.

"Yes, Raiquoo. Explain it to her. Tell her why the dragons are here. Tell her who is responsible for this...!"

"Shut up!!" Meekachu thundered. Miya recoiled from him, glancing nervously between the robed yoshi and her adoptive father.

The truth bleed through their shared silence. Behind them, the mountain's legions continued to skewer the ranks of the island's two dominant tribes, and as the jungle's roots drank their blood the gravity of the matter finally occurred to Miya. She turned to her tiger-stripped companion, the crest of her rubicund nose bleached white.

"Meek..."

He stood quiet, staring into himself. His composure was placid, but his eyes quivered erratically, racing over a thousand decisions here and gone and testing his cunning for an alternative, or an exit. At length, he closed his eyes, fortified his resolve with a deep breath, and spoke.

"They may all be so..."

He paced forward and held open his hand in a demanding pose.

"But so it shall not end! Give me Marawok's stone, Charbok!"

The arcane yoshi appeared nothing but amused. He furled his draped arms into his cloak, concealing the coveted gem.

"Hrmph. What would you do with it?"

"What do the elders want with it?" Meekachu returned.

"That is no longer your concern. Seriously, brother, what do you hope to accomplish? The floodgates are already open. The best you can do is retreat. Marawok's stone, in your hands, profits nothing."

"So says you! But I have learned from these mortals," his words hesitated, "...my friends, and that is no profit comes from surrender!"

"Clinging to mortal semantics!" Raiquoo made it sound like a crime.

"Only until I've worn out my second chance! If you do not relinquish the stone I must take it!" Meekachu advanced boldly to make good on his words. Charbok's foot retreated, but his free arm was thrown in Meekachu's path, his flat, dark palm reading like a stop sign.

"I will not allow you to challenge our order any further!"

"Oh?" Meekachu retorted, "So it's your order now? Then by rights you can keep it, and leave me my chaos. I'm taking this into my own hands!"

The banana-hued yoshi launched off one limber foot, springing forward like the great cat he borrowed his stripes from, and fell into Charbok's attack: a flurry of needles, spawned from some unseen void between his fingers. They barbed the pulp of Meekachu's snout and killed his pounce mid-leap. He flopped gracelessly to the grass at Charbok's feet, one hand groping at the prickly spines that stood in front of his eyes like hairs on a yellow cactus.

"Meek!!" Miya staggered forward with a protective impulse, but her cry seemed to shatter an immunity spell, and a frothing growl overshadowed the pink dinosaur. She rolled away from the swipe of a bundle of claws and spun to face a dragon that had strayed into her sphere of immediate attention.

Nose stinging and vision a washy blur, Meekachu rose to one knee in time to meet the back of Charbok's hand. Stunned by the blow, the yellow one caught the ground and grunted a soft complaint to the worms. The dark yoshi then reached down and snagged Meekachu by the tuft of bony ridges along his spine. Yanking him up gruffly, Charbok pressed a spell to his underbelly and punted the yellow dino with the strength of his magic. Meekachu was kicked across the grove and delivered to a mat of sand skirting a curtain of trees. A pillow of earthen powder wafted away from the impact and tickled Charbok's senses. The mutant yoshi tasted the dry air with a forked tongue and snorted to clear his nostrils. He languidly peeled the hood off his eyes and squinted into the afternoon, watching his fallen brother wrestle with a dusty cough.

"Are you quite finished?"

Short on a worthwhile response, Meekachu answered with a static lash. It flailed from his outstretched hand and cracked the air like a brilliant whip. Charbok smartly stepped to the side and the electric band flicked away into oblivion. As his glance turned back to his yellow adversary, a bored rebuff began to slide off his tongue.

"I hope that's not the best you--"

And Charbok tasted the earth. The sky rolled under him, and the world was suddenly on its side. He turned onto his back and stared into the belly of a dark, scaly cloud. It tread over Charbok on its four stout limbs and craned its swan-like neck in pursuit of a bouncing pink spot in the corner of its vision.

"Curséd dragon!" Charbok swore and crawled out from beneath the monster's staggering charge. He stood and spied the object of the dragon's chase. To the elder's left, Raiquoo called after her.

"Miya! The gem! Get the gem!"

Charbok's steely eyes narrowed to slits. He fished into his robes and realized the jewel was missing. His keen sight traced his footing to the spot where the emerald had been knocked ajar, and discovered the rabid monster's girth looming over it.

Vexed by this new obstacle and Miya's intrusion, Charbok's expression furrowed with annoyance.

"Insolent mortal! Take your dragon elsewhere!"

The pink yoshi skied to a stop, sprang into the opposite direction, and scurried around the monster's flank, throwing a quip at Charbok as she sped past him.

"Here, you take him!"

The lumbering beast, having lost Miya's scent, spun around and squared off with the nearest yoshi. Charbok cursed again and faced the dragon.

"Blasted girl! I'll be done of you after I take care of this!"

The dragon's shoulders hunched and its head arched low as it collected a firy roar behind its tongue. Charbok likewise charged a spell, and luminous purple whisps threaded around his paws. The dragon's jaw fell wide and it braced to barbeque its next meal. Before a lick of flame could climb out, a net of florescent chains fell over the dragon, each hot band shearing off its scales and scorching its exposed hide. It squealed piteously and tossed itself to the ground in a fit.

Charbok dropped the spell in his hands and watched with an awed grimace as the electric attack wrapped the dragon in a lethal hold. Even after the crackling magic died and the dragon's life was arrested, its legs twitched vigorously without it. Charbok turned to Meekachu, whose open fingers still smoldered from the spell.

"You--"

The dark elder was taken by surprise again, and a thick knot stuck in his throat as a sharp sting pierced his back. His arms jerked into his robes reflexively, and there they encountered a stone point, red with...

His chin dropped to his chest, and he stared dazedly at the head of a spear, protruding through his heart and slick with blood. His hands recoiled from the tip of the weapon as if it was a poker hot to the touch. His fingers dug into the air like mangled talons, and a stunned, twitching gaze floated again to Meekachu.

The yellow yoshi was muddled with all reactions at once until his expression compromised with a blank stare. He watched the stained spear retract violently, and Charbok crumpled to the earth like a limp rag, revealing the pink dinosaur standing beyond him. Meekachu held his breath as he beheld his pride, posed like a statue over the fallen elder, frozen and wide-eyed, and with a dripping spear clutched in her hands.

As Meekachu's feet overcame the dramatic pause and began to scratch forward, Miya began to show signs of collapse, herself. As if her mind only recently accounted for her actions, she belatedly trembled with horror and grief.

"I... I... I was just... I was going to..."

Meekachu was then upon the scene. He sluggishly reached for the quivering weapon and gently stole it from Miya's locked grip. Her babbles started to string together into excuses.

"I didn't want to, I mean, I was helping--he was going to--"

Some sibilant noise crawled out of Meekachu, trying to smooth the girl's ruffled feathers, although he could hardly get a sense of the matter, himself. At their feet, the mound of cloth shifted and murmured, clinging to a vestige of life. Meekachu fell to his knees, taking the elder's shoulder with a soft grip.

"Brother..." he began apprehensively, almost apologetically.

"No!" the fiend coughed, pointing a wild look towards the sizzling carcass that lie about the emerald gem like a morbid wreath. His voice was pinched with desperation. "...the...stone!"

Meekachu glanced that way, and found it. He got up and started towards it.

"It must...be...destroyed!"

"What?!" Meekachu stopped and whirled back to examine Charbok's face. The defeated elder began to chuckle darkly into his robes. Bent to the ground and soiled with blood, he looked like a crippled demon, or a crouching gargoyle, about to strike.

"You...fool... What did you...think...we wanted with it? Mara...wok...must be...eliminated...forever!"

"But, you can't!" Meekachu exclaimed. "What would become of the dragons?"

"That's...the...the point. If the stone...is...destroyed...the dragon king...will not...return...the dragons..."

"Will slaughter mindlessly!" Meekachu finished his sentence. "They won't stop until their king is resurrected! If order is not brought back to the dragon clan, this madness won't have an end until everyone is destroyed!"

"No!" Charbok hissed, and cast slight, cloudy eyes upon the yellow one. "It is the dragon...king...who brings terror...! If he is...gone...so the dragons will...dwindle away. Can you not see...? They will...die out. Yoshies will finally...be rid of them!"

"And in the meantime? How many innocents will be lost before the dragons vanish? How long will it take? How many horrible years will pass before we can even begin to see the benefits?"

"If you want to...see the rainbow...you must...endure the storm."

Not completely swayed, Meekachu danced between Charbok's argument and his own. He slid down to his knees, feeling suddenly heavy, and he panted under the weight of an urgent decision. "But... How will we even know the tribes can survive long enough? What if the dragons devour us all in the meantime? There would be nothing left..."

Charbok hummed deeply. His life continued to drain into the dirt, stealing his time away. "It is...up...to you now...brother. You have won...the stone...but…" The elder wilted to the earth. He closed his shimmering eyes and muttered a bleak, final petition.

"Heavens help you...Raiquoo...if...you're wrong.
Heavens...help...us all...if we're wrong."

Miya gasped and retreated from the elder as his form reduced to smoke and blew away in a gust of wind. She shook her head and sighed, drawing in the courage to keep a level head. The pink one found her priorities and rushed to Meekachu's side.

"Meek! Are you okay? That elder... He's--" She choked on the fact that she had never killed a yoshi before.

"He's not dead," Meekachu breathed in a short huff, reassuring her. Miya knelt beside him and steadied him with one arm, for he appeared at once too weak to keep his bearings.

"Meek??"

"His spirit...returned to his brothers." He winced and fought for his breath. "Oh... I can't...get up..."

"Are you alright??"

Meekachu dizzily fingered the bulk of his sore nose, and glanced over the stiff quills lodged in his skin. He chuckled sardonically. "Heh... Poison. Damn him."

"Poison?!" Miya panicked.

"It's...okay." The yellow dino stiffened and twisted around to spy his prize.

"Miya! Bring...the stone here."

"But Meek--" she began, more immediately concerned for his health.

"Please!"

Miya caught herself in the middle of her objection and hesitantly nodded. She scurried straight to the gem's resting place and retrieved it.

"Here, Meek..." She passed the emerald to her father's grasping hands, which eagerly claimed it. After taking a moment to admire its unmarred clarity, Meekachu clasped the jewel to his chest and prayed out loud.

"By stars help me, indeed! I've been wrong... so far. Might I be right, just this once... and redeem my wasted life. Might there... be something...something worthwhile...left behind for my children." He turned bleary eyes to his companion. "...and for you, Miya."

Miya swallowed back tears, dreading something she couldn't yet understand.