Bellowing roars, the gnashing of teeth, and the beat of massive wings filled the dawn sky. Two mighty dragons grappled fiercely with one another, their massive forms taking turns blocking out the rising sun. A fight merely for survival? Nay! Twas’ a fight for power - for something capable of granting great power - something that must not fall into the wrong hands…or in this case, claws.

To a keen eye, betwixt the entwined behemoths, a small crystal, glowing with light was just barely visible. The dragons clawed desperately for it, each seeking to keep a grip on it amid their fierce struggle. Its crystalline glimmer flickered in and out of view - almost yearning to continue to exist, like a struggling candle’s flame in a cold and gusty corridor. 
The crystal had a light with a color perhaps never before seen in the realm, and after its like, perhaps never to be seen again. It was not merely one color, it was all colors…and none all at once.  A hue lacking definition, logic, or reality. It was unique. It was power. And Vaeldrak The Cruel meant to have it entirely for himself.  Just imagine! The crystal and all its power, all for him!  Twas a thought even more delicious than a feast of a thousand juicy sheep.

But Vaeldrak could not afford to daydream at present.  For his current predicament required great focus, as he was facing a worthy adversary at last - another of his kind, as driven as he was in obtaining the crystal.  “He is not worthy of such power!” mused Vaeldrak to himself as he dodged the swipe of a razor-sharp claw.  “He shall waste the power of the crystal, using it for the good of the many, rather than solely for the good of himself!” he hissed exasperatedly. “It must be mine, and mine alone!”

Momentarily lost in his thoughts, Vaeldrak refocused onto the present, channeling his rage from the thought of the crystal not being his. Yet this distraction, this brief moment of introspection had been just enough of a lapse to allow his opponent to wrestle the crystal unto himself.  The other dragon would not let grand delusions of power distract him as he quickly turned upward to flee with his newly coveted prize into the clouds - hoping to lose his adversary among the white mists.

After a howl of rage at both himself for his mental lapse, and at his opponent for his current yet perhaps brief victory, Vaeldrak tilted his head upwards and drew in a breath unlike any other he had ever drawn before. As a great sea recedes before releasing a tsunami of destruction, so did Vaeldrak inhale the air until releasing a blaze of orange fire, a cone of expanding doom aimed squarely at his fleeing opponent. Nothing in his line of sight would be spared the annihilating heat emanating from his gaping maw. 

The fleeing dragon could feel the heat of the flames below rising fast to meet him as he neared the sanctuary above.  As a veteran of many battles with his own kind, and the scars to prove it, he knew from experience he would not make it to safety before being hit with the swiftly closing fireball at his heels. With no other choice but to meet fire with well, not exactly fire, he craned his neck and began to inhale a mighty breath to match that of his opponents. When he felt he could wait no more as the fiery doom was nearly upon him spewed downward a blast of his own - a massive deluge of frigid ice to counter the flames of his opponent.

As the two beams of orange and blue met in the yellow dawn sky, time seemed to stop for a moment and everything turned to white.  The moment lingered, it was fragile, almost awe-inspiring to behold, but it most certainly was the calm before the storm. Then, in an instant, the moment was over, and the sky was filled with an explosion, the size nearly beyond comprehension - followed by a deafening boom and a shockwave so great it was felt twice round the realm by all creatures, great and small.

It was quiet for a long time, a very long time afterward.  The sky was filled with ash and snow, flittering towards the ground as if a great celebration was occurring, yet certainly this was not a moment of anything resembling joy. After what felt like an eternity, the sky began to clear.  The falling ash and snow began to wane, and the sun, undeterred from the events it had just witnessed, continued on its path towards its zenith. 

The dragons were gone. Nowhere to be seen  Had they been vaporized?  Can dragons even be destroyed? If anything were able to destroy a dragon one would think it certainly would be another dragon. Yet the ancient texts don’t provide answers to such a rare and fantastic situation as this.  In fact, the ancient texts barely provide any information on dragons at all, what with them being such elusive and rare creatures.  Perhaps in time, we will learn of the fate of the pair of beasts but for now our focus is required elsewhere…no longer in the sky, but on the ground below.

For as you see, the cause of this mayhem, the crystal, was now nestled safely, almost cozily amidst a bed of reeds in a small pond! One would think being at the center of a great explosion and then having fallen from such a height it would be damaged, if not destroyed, yet the crystal had survived the ordeal without so much as a scratch.  It lay in its watery haven, its glow slowly pulsating with its illogical color - slowly at first, almost as if it was catching its breath, then its radiating began to pick up speed.  Faster, then faster yet, then so fast it ceased to flicker altogether and simply radiated its fantastic light in a momentary flash so bright it mirrored the brightness of the explosion caused by the two dragons. 

The very moment after the light from the crystal hit its apex, culminating in a blinding flash, it went out. But not before its beams of light had extended in a massive aura over the pond and into the surrounding forest. All of its light now gone, it now extinguished, like the candle in the cold corridor finally succumbing to the relentless gusts of wind swirling around it.  The crystal became as clear as the water of the pond itself. It seemed as if perhaps the tale of the crystal had ended - a truly noteworthy adventure to be sure, but what could top a story such as this, an epic battle of dragons over a magic crystal?

A fish with large eyes wearing a blue hat and robe, holding a wooden staff poked its head out of the pond.

“Well wasn’t that all very strange! Very strange indeed!” it bubbled to no one in particular.