YCH from the talented  biggoodwolf!

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"You claim to be a friend," growled the massive brown drake. "Yet you come to us with a sword strapped to your back and demand to see our elder. Why should I let you through?"
"I came alone," I replied. "If I meant harm, my sword would do little good against you all. I have it because the journey to your lands was dangerous, and I had to fight my way here." I drew out my sword and threw it to the ground in front of him. "Take it. I will return for it when my business is concluded."

The drake looked down at the blade. His eyes took on a blue glow, a glow which then enveloped my sword. It lifted into the air, and the brown drake threw it back at me. I looked down as it clattered at my feet.

"You have no business here," he said. "I fear your time was wasted. Take this back and return."
"With respect," I said, "you do not speak for your clan. If I am turned away, let it be done by one with the authority to do so."
The glow left the drake's eyes and he glared down at me. I met his gaze, unwavering. A deep growl emanated from within his throat.
Then another voice came. "Stay down, Thanar. He is right."

Another drake landed. Significantly smaller than the brown one, his scales were a dull grey, and he held his head low to the ground. He leaned in close to me and sniffed curiously at me.
"You have a dragon's form," the grey said, his voice thin and frail. "But I smell no magic about you. Is that why you have come to us?"
I knelt down to retrieve my sword and sheathed it upon my back. "In a sense," I said. "There is a monster rising, in the east. I believe it's an elemental of some sort, conjured by some sorcerer, but it's gone rogue. It's small now, but if it's allowed to rampage unchecked..."
"An unfortunate circumstance, yes, but why have you sought us out?"
"...a creature conjured of sorcery requires sorcery to vanquish. And as you have sensed, I have none myself to fight it."
The old grey stretched out his wings. His movements were laboriously slow, each wing taking an age to stretch, joints creaking and scales cracking. Finally, he spoke again. "Elementals are conjured around an enchanted stone that keeps their form together. Their heartstone. Destroy it, and the creature will collapse in on itself."

I paused, waiting for more. Silence hung thick in the air. But nothing more came.

"I...appreciate the info," I said. "But I will need help. That's why I came here."
The elder laid himself on the grass, and Thanar sat beside him, his gaze piercing me.
"No," the elder said at last. "A rogue elemental is not our concern. I suggest finding a human mage to help you."
"But..." I paused, unsure what to make of the elder's refusal. "A single human won't have enough power to stop it! And by the time I gather enough, it may have grown out of control!"
The elder shrugged. "Then leave," he said. "Whatever chaos the elemental may wreak, it will be rebuilt in time. There is always time."
"No, there isn't!" I growled. "I need magic of a strength that only you have!"
The elder smiled and closed his eyes. "Never enough time, never enough time" he said. "That's the way it always is with smaller, younger folk. But even a smaller dragon like you has much more time than you say. If you must gather more allies, then gather more allies. And if you can't, then leave them be. It is not your problem to solve. No one will blame you for leaving people you do not know and who do not know you to their own fate."

I rubbed at the base of my broken horn. Looking at my wrist, although it had long since healed completely, I still felt the shackles on them. Shackles that would have still been there, if not for everyone that had come to my aid all those years ago.
"I will," I said. "I will blame me." I looked back at the elder, but his eyes were still closed. My gaze when back to Thanar, who was still staring me down. "How can you rest, knowing that lives are lost and homes are gone, when you could have done something?"
The elder was silent for so long, I thought he might have dozed off. But he spoke again. "You are a hero," he said. "You can take pride in that. But being a hero always means biting off more than you can chew. Heroes can never be satisfied. Heroes can never rest happy while evil and danger exists, but evil and danger will always exist, thus you will never rest happy. Learn to let go."

"That's not...!" I looked back and forth between the two, then turned with a growl and opened my wings. "I've wasted enough time here."

I leapt into the air and soared to the east.

---

I stood on the overlook, studying the monster's movements. Thus far, it was still small - relatively speaking - but the wind ruffling my wings and the sparks in the air told that it was rapidly gaining in size and power. Its movements, as expected, were erratic and unpredictable. Elementals were usually drawn towards their own sources, but what of an elemental whose source was everything? Where would it go? What would it do?

My eyes swept over the darkened sky. I had hoped, perhaps foolishly, that one of the drakes might have taken her off what I had said and decided to join me at the last minute. But the only thing in the sky was smoke and ash. I sighed and drew my sword, then leapt from the cliff and into battle.

The wind intensified as I flew close. I shielded my eyes against the sand and dust in the air, angling myself to the ground. I couldn't stay on wing much longer or the whipping winds would rip me from the sky and dash me upon the rocks. I landed heavily upon the ground, folding my wings in tight. I looked up into the face of the omnimental - eyes of glowing fire, a gaping maw of wind and water. I gathered my strength and courage, and charged it with a roar.

Even closer to the monster, I could feel the pull of the storm. It became ever harder to run, the surging winds lifting me from the ground. Rather than fight it, I leapt into the storm. It had to have a weakness somewhere, something holding it together. It must have been deep inside the eye of the storm. If I could find and destroy it, I could stop the rampage.

I angled my wings to let the roiling winds catch me. The landscape swept by in a blurred mass as I was swung in a wide circle, but I kept my bearings. An opening in the thundering clouds that made up the omnimental's body, that was all I needed. I could dart in, shatter the heartstone holding it together and then probably dart out again before it collapsed on me. Every time I whirled by its face I looked deep into its dark maw, hoping the strikes of lightning from its eyes might illuminate something. Around and again I went, but saw nothing in that gaping abyss.

A massive arm of roiling thunder swept over me. It was slow and cumbersome, and easy enough to dip beneath, but the wind stirred up by its passing tore at my wings. It knocked me rolling and tumbling off course. The dizzying plunge, though, I knew was my best bet. I rolled through the air, drawing closer to the monster as I righted myself. I filled my wings in tight, letting the speed of the storm propel me forward. My grip on my sword tightened as I desperately tried to keep hold of it against the storm that threatened to tear it from my grasp. I sped straight for the glinting heartstone.

Then there was a blinding flash of red. A burning pain flooded my body and I felt myself torn from the sky. I was temporarily deadened to the world, blinded by the flash and deafened by the roar of thunder. But I certainly felt myself crash upon a rocky ledge, then fall to the ground, the wind ripped from my lungs. I pushed myself onto my knees with one arm, the other arm wrapped around my chest. As the piercing light faded and I was able to see clearly once more, I found myself in a field of fire, the flames roaring all around me. I glanced around for my sword - where was it? It had been ripped from my grasp in the strike, and now...

I looked up and saw it. Caught in the tremendous winds, it spiralled through the air, whipping around the storm. Far out of my grasp. I roared out and reached my hand uselessly towards it, but it was far gone.

But then, a soft blue glow surrounded it. The wind no longer had hold over it, and it sped through the air towards me. It floated in the air in front of me, and I pushed myself to my feet and seized it.
"Thought you might need that," bellowed a voice above the crackling flames and roaring wind. Thanar landed heavily beside me.
I grinned. "Changed your mind after all, did I?"
"Gloat later. What's the plan?"
"Can you sense the heartstone?"

Thanar looked up towards the omnimental, and his eyes took on a piercing blue glow.
"It's in there," he yelled.
"Can you pull it away?"
Thanar grunted and his body trembled, as if struggling within his own mind. "I can hold it," he finally said. "But the barrier is too strong for me to pull it through."
I nodded and held my sword ready. "Hold it as long as you can," I called, and leapt into the air. "That's all I need."
Thanar kept his blue gaze on the omnimental and nodded, and I soared off towards the monster.

The heat intensified as I drew closer, the winds strengthening once again. Through the whirling clouds that made up its body, I saw a faint blue glow. There it was. I just needed to get there.

But the closer I approached, the more and more the storm fought back. I pumped my wings and tried desperately to keep on target, keep aiming for the glow. But the winds buffeted me back, threw me into the sky, pulled me off aim. Whenever I tried to draw close, another blast overpowered me and blew me back.

Then, I felt a tingle in my wings. A warmth filled me - not the searing pain that had struck me before, but the soft glow of enchantment. A blue glow enveloped my arms and tinted my vision. And suddenly, my body would not bow to the force of the storm.

The glow behind the clouds begun to flicker. Of course. With his efforts split between holding the heartstone and guiding me against the storm, Thanar must have been struggling. I had to strike it down before his magic gave out.

Lightning struck in front of the heartstone. I dove down towards it, blade held high. I wove between lightning. I plunged through cloud. I saw the stone before me, trembling violently as though trying to break free.

And I smashed it with the hilt of my sword.

---

When I opened my eyes, I was on my back. Thanar was looking down at me. His eyes had lost their blue glow, but the dark clouds had dispersed and the fires had died out.
"We really did it!" he said, grinning ear to ear. He stepped away from me as I slowly sat up. "We defeated a rampaging elemental, and the villagers came by to thank us, and wanted to arrange a meeting with the elder to sort out an alliance!"

I laid a claw on his nose and smiled.
"And that," I said, "is what it is to be a hero."