But other memories kept flowing into her, one in particular disturbing to her. She saw a huge city on the edge of a sinister, dark body of water. A maelstrom formed in the latter and the city was dragged under, countless lives sucked into the water with it before the waters themselves began to follow into the dread gap. Iridi sensed the foulness of the Burning Legion... and something older and more terrible than even them lurking in the background.

The priestess fought through the memories and voices, seeking that which was more immediate, more significant to the moment—

She found it. A part of the dragon mage was literally missing. A small part, but the violence of its destruction had been terrible.

And even as the draenei discovered this, that intangible gap within suddenly expanded. Bound to her patient, the priestess was also struck. And while against her the attack was only peripheral, it was enough to throw the draenei back.

Iridi landed hard. Fighting dizziness and pain, she suddenly looked about, certain that whatever was responsible was upon them.

Yet, although she saw nothing, Iridi knew that time was running out. "Great one!" She seized his shoulders in a most unpriestesslike way, shaking them hard. "Great one! Krasus!" Out of desperation, she added last, "Korialstrasz!"

The dragon mage stirred, but did not wake.

The draenei's feeling of impending disaster heightened. With no other recourse left to her, Iridi struggled to raise Krasus up so that she could drag him away from the immediate area to better protection.

A blood-chilling roar filled the darkened sky... a blood-chilling roar that was answered a moment later by another, identical one even closer.

SEVEN

In the pit that passed for its nest, that which Zendarin and the veiled sorceress had created digested the energy most recently fed into it by the pair. Despite having been fed well—as the screams of Zzeraku could attest—the thing in the dark still hungered. It hungered for both more of what the nether dragon could give it and also, at last, for solid fare.

But of both, there was none to be had. The small, scaly creatures —the skardyn its "mother" had called them—had learned to stay well away from the nest's vicinity. They had discovered the hard way that, although newly born, that which had hatched from the egg was already a master of its natural magic. With its growing abilities, it had drawn one skardyn to it by causing the ground underneath the vermin's feet to give way. The skardyn had fallen into the pit, where the small morsel was devoured in a single swallow, the food still kicking and screaming as it descended down the gullet.

It was growing fast, faster, in fact, than its "parents" had imagined. They were pleased with that, although not as pleased as it, who yearned to be free, to fly in the sky....

To hunt and devour proper prey...

Then, through senses that only it was aware that it possessed, it noted those who had come before it, those who were almost like it... but not quite. Now and then, it could feel and even imagine what the other two did, the two who acted as one. They were as close to siblings as it had, and so these glimpses of their freedom were as a feast to a starving man.

They were hunting. They were hunting the proper prey. They not only were hunting it, but, having tasted some little hint of it, now knew where it hid.

The thing in the pit tasted their eagerness. They were not as clever of mind as it, but their instinct was strong.

It waited, eager to savor through them the devouring. Soon, though, soon it would grow large enough to hunt on its own.

And then... no force in all the world would be able to stand against its might.

The flapping of wings filled the night sky, but although Iridi had excellent vision, she could not quite make out what it was they presaged. There were shapes above, shapes that held a vague likeness to that for which she had searched, but the draenei priestess also felt the wrongness emanating from those shapes. Whatever descended upon Krasus and her should not by rights have existed on either Azeroth or Draenor... though, in all contradiction, it also felt as if a part of both worlds.

"Ahh, sssuch lovely-looking morsssels..." bellowed a monstrous voice, striking her ears like thunder. "And we are ssso hungry..."

"Hungry...yesss, we are..." echoed a second with equal ferocity. "It hasss been ssso long ssslnce we feasssted..."

"Ssso very long..." called the first from what seemed to the draenei directly above her.

The sky there shimmered an unsettling purple. The purple coalesced into the outline of a gargantuan creature.

A dragon. A dragon of such proportion as to leave Iridi gaping at it despite the peril it also presented to her.

"Ssso very long..." it repeated. "And we are always hungry..."

It descended.

The draenei's hand thrust up, the naaru staff forming In Its grip. The crystal flared.

Roaring, the nightmarish dragon suddenly vanished.

Iridi knew that it had not been due to the staff. The crystal had no such ability.

The ground around her erupted, entire trees, huge rocks, and tons of dirt ripped away by what at first the priestess imagined an earthquake but what materialized a moment later as the dragon... barely yards from the two small figures.

"We mussst feed!" it declared somewhat more succinctly than previous.

Above, the other voice repeated, "Yesss, we mussst eat!" It took no stretch of Iridi's imagination to understand that the pair referred to the draenei and Krasus.

She waved the staff at the one on the ground. The shimmering dragon, in the process of tearing up the rest of Iridi's surroundings, drew back in anger... and disappeared again.

The draenei immediately seized Krasus and, exerting herself as much as she could, dragged him in the opposite direction.

The Wetlands there suddenly exploded. A second later, the huge form of a dragon appeared. Although Iridi could see no difference between it and the previous visions, she was certain that this was the second of the monsters.

It opened wide its mouth to snap up Krasus... and Iridi in the process.

She tried to raise the staff, but it was entangled with the unconscious mage. Iridi concentrated, seeking another course of action.

Krasus's eyes snapped open, the energy of life causing them to glow briefly.

Before she could speak, he shoved her from him. Startled, the priestess tumbled.

A roar split the skies, but it was a different one from those she had heard before. Iridi blinked her gaze clear.

Where Krasus had stood, a huge, crimson form now towered. The red dragon Korialstrasz spread his wings, a wondrous sight of such huge dimensions that his mere presence made the shimmering monster hiss and retreat.

"Yes! You would do best to flee from me!" Korialstrasz proclaimed. "For I show no mercy to those who threaten my friends!"

"Foollsssh morsssel..." snarled the cowering monster, but it backed farther yet, clearly intimidated... which was as Iridi knew the red dragon desired.

From the previous direction came a roar that marked the second of the two macabre beasts. Korialstrasz immediately turned his huge head, snapping at the air.

He was weaker than either of his foes knew, and the draenei prayed that they would keep their ignorance. If they sensed in the least that his show of might was partially bravado, then they would quickly turn on him.

Korialstrasz roared back at the darkness... and the other dragon formed. Like the first, it was cowed. As the red dragon spread his wings wider yet, the shimmering form dropped to the ground, taking up a position like its twin.

Iridi's gigantic companion glanced down at her. "Leave this place," he murmured. "Leave cautiously, without showing any fear, but leave it now...."