Cherval and Trillor came up to her, chattering excitedly, complimenting her on how she had led the song. Suddenly Trillor froze, baring his teeth in an expression of utter hatred. "He's here!"

Serali followed his line of sight to one of the metallic dragons that had crowded around the red dragon. A brass of moderate size, he was chatting with a pair of smaller bronzes. Recalling how she and Trillor had met, Serali had no doubt who the brass dragon was. With a roar Trillor launched himself at the brass. By the time Serali reached the conflict the brass dragon had Trillor pinned to the ground. Serali hit the brass in the side, claws first, and tumbled him off of the smaller plains dragon. The brass whipped around and snapped at Serali. She hissed at him and raked her claws across his muzzle.

Other dragons were backing away from the battle, creating a clear space. Serali took advantage of it to step back a bit from the brass and stand upright. She balanced herself easily, remembering her years of lessons with Cervus. The brass stayed on all fours and leaped at her, no doubt thinking that it would be easy to knock her over. But she stepped nimbly aside and spun as she did, kicking him soundly in the back as he went past. The blow did no real damage, it was moving with him, but it was enough to send him sprawling. He scrambled back to his feet and snarled at her. She snarled right back and moved in to the attack with a quick kick followed up by a jab that took the other dragon right in the nose. He howled, an animal sound, and snapped at her. She wasn't quite quick enough and he managed to get her forearm in his teeth. He bit down hard, enough to crack scales and draw blood.

With his teeth lodged in her arm her options were more limited, but she managed to kick him soundly several times. He swept his tail around, and she hadn't quite been expecting that. It took her feet out from under her, and suddenly she was pinned. He let go of her arm to snap at her face, and she only just managed to twist enough to avoid his teeth.

But she knew exactly what to do in this situation, and brought her knee up hard. A male dragon has no external genitals, but the internal ones are in roughly the same place as they would be on a human male, and the single layer of plating that covers them isn't enough to entirely cushion such blows. The brass shrieked and let go of her.

Suddenly the huge red dragon pushed through the crowd.

"What's going on here?" His voice was deep and harsh.

The brass was too incoherent with pain and rage to offer an explanation, and Serali had no idea what to say, but Trillor had picked himself up off the ground and now he moved forward and pointed at the brass. "That dragon killed my hatchling daughter!"

The red gave the much smaller brass a none-too-gentle prod with one clawed foot. "Is this true?" The brass hissed at him. In an instant the red had him pinned, his enormous clawed hand over the brass's throat. "Is this true?!"

"Yes," snarled the brass, and tried to bite the red's arm. There was a light of madness in his eyes.

The red dragon snarled back, a wordless animal sound, and Serali realized that his eyes were every bit as mad. Without even bothering to say a word he tore the brass dragon's throat out. Then he turned and looked at Serali with blood dripping from his teeth. His expression seemed to say "I could do the same to you if I wanted to." She shuddered.

He licked the blood from his muzzle and walked away, leaving a stunned crowd of plains dragons behind him.