Prologue

The valley was afire. Screams of the dying dragons echoed in the mountain ringed basin. The ground was scorched and cracked, searing hot. Flames leaped dozens of feet high, burning bodies like candles and creating rivers of fire that snaked across the valley, a deadly spider's web. The sounds of death and suffering hung heavy in the air, making the five surviving dragons bow their heads in pain and grief. Over 300 feet long each, they made their way slowly among the carnage. 
Each bore the scars of the battle, deep riddling gashes, gaping wounds that bled profusely, but none felt any pain. They were numb in shock. They looked at the scores of fallen Hunters at the far edge of the field, the perpetrators and cause of the agony around the giant dragons. They walked obliviously through the channels of fire, the flames licking their wingless bodies, glancing harmlessly on their protective scales but scorching the tender exposed flesh of their injuries. They didn't notice. The lead dragon, a sleek headed silver female with an incredible jeweled headdress adorning her caribou-like antlers, bent her head as they approached a near dead soldier dragon. It was much smaller than they, at only fifty or so feet in length. Its proud wings were riddled with holes, the delicate membrane torn beyond repair. An enchanted spear had been stuck deep into its chest, making its last breaths heavy and agonizing. The dragon female moved her head over her smaller cousin. A diamond-like tear slowly slid from her eye and fell onto the soldier's shattered scales. With a shudder and a long moan, the dragon went still. Another giant dragon, an emerald green female with a crown of leaves and ivy in her rack, stepped forward. A tear from her eye, this colored a brilliant green, copied the first and splashed onto the body. A sound, like that of tearing roots, filled the air as fresh shoots of new grass began pushing their way up from between the dragon's scales. In a matter of moments, the grass had overtaken the form of the dragon and made it into a small mound. The ground shuddered. Slowly, the engulfed form of the fallen soldier sank into the parched soil, until all that remained was a smooth patch of bud grass. 
The survivors looked at each other in silence and moved off to the other fallen. Each in their own way made the bodies part of the landscape, either by burning, washing, scouring, or immersing them into the soil. Hours passed before all the dead allies had been given some sort of burial. When they were done, they gathered before the decaying carcasses of the Hunters in contemplation. The silver female turned to one of the two males, this one a radiant red.
"What shall we do with these, Ignis? We cannot let the carrion take them, and I refuse to give them a burial," she asked in a low angry rumble.
"Let us remove them from existence. I will make it so it as if they never arrived. Come," he said. He raised his large head and jumped into the air. Instead of falling, he began to swim through the air as if it were water. The others followed in solemn silence.
When they were a half mile into the sky, they hovered and surveyed the damage. Not a single spark of green, save for the newly created graves, had been left to indicate there was life, or that there had ever been. With a sigh, the green female shook her head.
"Why must the Hunters do this? What drives them to this madness?" she whispered.
"That I do not know, but now I will purge them from this valley," Ignis growled. He raised his head to the sky and opened his jaws. A bright glow began in the back of his throat, and after a few seconds, he pointed his nose at the mass of bodies on the ground. Another moment past, then a jet of fire exploded from his maw. The force was so great that his head jerked back, and then he directed the blaze to consume the Hunter bodies. In only a few seconds, the whole section was aflame. The stench of the burning bodies made the dragons cringe.
"Well then, it is done. Let us retreat to our fortress, if it still stands, and consider our options," the silver female said after a long pause of observance. The others nodded.
"Yes, Ferocia," they said simultaneously. The silver dragon turned and started to glide through the air towards the far end of the valley, and the others followed in silence.