Dille Qigh, The Dragons Arise

[BLACK BART]

The second moon settled over the horizon announcing the end of a day and the beginning of another, an event that had occurred for over five hundred years, quietly, majestically, precisely...but on this eve...prophetically.

"There will be another day"


Words that hung in the cool air as the mist from them did on his lips, as did the promise of them in his dark brown eyes.

For the first time in his short life Trehbur needed a promise, for the first time since the devastating news he had been given, he prayed for guidance…and for hope.

Hope that there would be a tomorrow, another day, as he had known in the past, a day without violence, without death, without fire.

Trehbur, 37, A Lord of the Dragons, Third Tier and the second strongest telepath ever to rise in the prestigious crown of the Dille Qigh, guide and counselor to the eternal gods of the skies.

And tonight it meant…nothing.

Nothing as the ashes still smoked, as the death count still increased, as the news of an entire village…. and it’s destruction by one of their very own.

“Kahlray, A small but promising village of farmers, a life dedicated to rebuilding to what was…gone”

The words rang in my head as the tears stung my face, for the Beast that was reported to have wreaked the death and destruction on the innocent people…was my own.

Tomorrow would be a new day, a day of discovery, a day of uncovering the horrors of the world we now lived in, a day of finding out the who…and the why...

 

[Cinderella]

Nhabjuu

Nhabjuu soared through the night sky, making her way across the vast range of mountains that were the Draklor Chain. She had ventured out after moonset nightly for three moons in search of a place to make a new lair. Each time she flew farther and farther away, until three nights ago when she finally found it.

It was an island. Small by normal standards, but there was an small mountainous area which included an inactive volcano on its northern end. Inside were mazes of caverns and even a hot spring which bubbled up merrily from deep below the surface.

On the southern tip of the island was a small fishing village. There were only a few lesser folk living there and a handful of ratlings. She wondered why there were not more, they seemed peaceful enough. No matter.

Nhabjuu had no quarrel with hue mans and thought that it was entirely possible for them to co-exist, one of the bones of contention among the others of her kind. She had thought long and hard before making her decision to leave The Colony, but once her decision was made the white knew there would be no turning back.

Nhabjuu circled the village one last time before beginning her descent. She had fed earlier, so all that was needed was to make herself comfortable and sleep. Having chosen a spot, she settled her bulky body, curling up into a ball, albeit a rather large ball, and resting her head on her tail, the magnificent White was soon fast asleep.

 

[Messalina]

Little Bird

A tendril of smoke curled lazily from the small hole in the thatched roof of the wattle and daub hut. This was adjoined by a small garden, just large enough for one and the occasional guest plus provisions for during the cold months.

Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the edges of the room were lined with sweetgrass baskets and ceramic pots that held dried grains and vegetables, spices and other items that only the owner knew the purpose of. Bunches of fragrant herbs hung from sisal twine strung in a criss-cross fashion from wall to wall.

The focal point of the quaint little scene was the woman who sat on her haunches beside the firepit in the center of the room. Her raven hair was arranged in a single braid which hung to her waist, her clothes simple buckskin, fashioned in the ways of the ancient ones. Her feet bare.

For all its outward simplicity, this unostentatious home was rich by the standards of many. And rightly so. For this was the home of She Who is Here But Not Here -- the Dreaming Woman. Feared by some, respected by many, she preferred to be called Little Bird a name given her by one whose path she walked for a moment in time, long long ago.

"You'll get fat."

Little Bird chuckled and continued to form oat cakes which she placed on heated stones at the edge of the fire to cook. "Hush, Gazesby. We are expecting company."

"You make enough to feed a village."

"This one will be hungry," she grinned again and shifted the ashes which covered some tubers she had roasting there. The juices from the young hare on the spit that Gazesby was reluctantly turning, sputtered and sizzled as they dripped into a crockery bowl nestled in the low burning fire almost as if to second her gentle reproach.

All in all, the scene was quite ordinary except for one thing. A small thing, but nevertheless. There was no one else visible in the room save Little Bird.

 

[Tonsillitis]

Gazesby

Each living thing has a spirit, a soul connected to their physical body. This is the world you do not see, yet it is as real as that which you live in. Each time something or someone is born they are bonded with their soul and when they die this spirit returns to the world of which it came from.

However, once or twice a spirit has gotten lost on its way home.

Very long ago, a child of a murdered family, not older than ten, swore never to rest until he had avenged his parents. The child's name was Ne'huuru. He kept his promise and avenged his parents by killing each of the men responsible for their deaths -- most he killed while they slept.

After completing his task, he threw himself off of a cliff to join his parents in the Otherworld, but one of the murderers had been killed before Ne'huuru could reach him and therefore not all his parents' murderers had fallen by Ne'huuru's hand. Bound by his promise he was not allowed to enter the spirit world.

Having had lost his physical body, he wandered the earth as a spirit. He could take nearly any physical form, though only for a brief time. His path was dark and lonely for thousands of years, he saw civilizations rise and fall yet he took no part in them and did not care.

He was alone until one day when he met Little Bird, having seen her spirit when she was in a trance. She had spoken to him and they had become friends. At first he refused to return to the world and they only met in her dreaming time.

Over the years, their bond grew stronger and she started to see him in the real world even though almost no one else did. He took physical forms sometimes to help her and sometimes merely to amuse her. She was his only friend and he swore to protect her.

He had become Gazesby, her guardian spirit...

Gazesby shook his head and kept turning the rabbit. He looked at all the food and smiled. "One might think you were married to a dragon the way you cook!" he laughed.

Gazesby was, despite thousands and thousands of years in this world, still a ten year old. He loved Little Bird not only as a friend and kindred spirit but also like someone would love their older sister. Usually he took the shape of a small boy to eat with her. Sometimes he assumed the body of a very attractive man and pretended to be lost coming to her for help, but after just one look at him she would laugh and call him Gazesby. She always saw right through any disguises he wore but he still kept trying to fool her. Just like a ten year old.

 

[Graybread]

Oken dar shen

The magma rose through the newly formed fissure in the rock near Oken dar shen’s lair, where he had lain sleeping for nearly the last five hundred years. His reptilian eyes slowly opened to the pitch-blackness that was his lair. He lie there for another twenty years and absorbed the heat, slowly taking in its precious energy. After five hundred years he moved, his scales and claws scraping across the hard rock. Slowly he made his way the quarter mile to the surface. Through the tunnels and caverns, that was his home. It was daytime as he saw the light through the trees and brush that covered the opening to his pit. He would wait for the dark of night before going forth, but it never came. He waited for another year before confusion and hunger spurred him on.

With a puff of smoke from his nostrils, he lit his internal fire. He opened his maw and his forked tongue came out. A jet of fire burst from his mouth to set the opening ablaze. He continued to burn his way free as his eyes adjusted to the light of day. He crawled out and up the rocky path to the top of the peak, which was his mountain. He spread his leather wings to take in the heat of the sun and sat on his perch. The black scales that were his armor glistened in the light of the blazing sun. It was a different world than he remembered, his tail twitched with anticipation of the meal he would find.

A mortal would be good. he thought.

He stretched his long neck and straightened his spine from head to tip of tail. He flexed his legs and with a downbeat of his huge wings, he launched himself into the air. He circled rising higher and higher, swooping and diving, riding the air currents. He flew above the landscape on silent wings, reveling in the freedom of flight, searching for the first taste of human flesh, in over five-hundred years.


http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v144/Graybread/dragon-picture-064.jpg

 

[Why]

.........................

 

[Guest]

The brooding hulk of the ruin Ebota V loomed over the misty valley. Vines and stunted trees had taken root in the ancient castle walls so that, at first glance it looked like a rocky out-crop.

It was here that Brodda took refuge after the last ‘quake.
She knew the ravaged stone might collapse on her during one of the many aftershocks but, in those days, she had longed for death. After three years of living close to death, Brodda learned to love and respect it.

Her only companions were the wild cats that also sheltered in Ebota V and the mute dwarf Pharche and the latter was away foraging most of the time.

She spent her early days sending fingers of thought through the universe, feeling for news of her dragon, still convinced he lived.

It was a dark night when the chilling realisation came to her that Chthoniflare was dead. For days she raged and wept, the cats and Pharche stayed away, fearful of the electrical sparks she generated in her fury.

She stands, like an ivory statue, in the large roofless hall gazing up at the second moon.

“If you are under this moon also, I will kill you.” She whispered to Chthonflare’s killer. Wherever he or she was on Dille Qigh, they would hear that oath - as they would every night of their life.

Taking a deep breath, Brodda spreads her arms wide and they become white wings. In a flash she is airborne in the shape of a white eagle. She is hungry and hunts a hare or small deer, the latter will feed her, Pharche and the cats for a week.

 

[Graybread]

Oken dar shen

Oken rose higher and higher into the bright blue sky riding the currents, until he saw the veil of darkness off in the distance.

Has night come at last?

He crossed the dividing line between night and day, but sensed that this was not the night that he had known. He crossed back and forth, light into dark/dark into light, confused, uncertain. He caught movement below, a tiny speck on the landscape. It was a mortal, chopping at the soil with a metal tool. He descended in narrowing circles on silent wings, coming to land some twenty feet in front of the mortal.

The farmers eyes widened in terror as they fell upon the massive form of the Dragon.

“Please,” he begged, his voice quaking, dropping to his knees. “Please,…..please don’t hurt me!”

“Tell me mortal, what has happened to my world.” Oken asked, his voice a deep rumble.

“I….I have a family to feed. Please don’t take me, please,” he cowered, his hands clasp together before his face.

Oken stepped closer to the farmer, igniting his internal fire, tendrils of dark smoke drifting from his nostrils.

“Tell me what has happened to my world,” he repeated, “and I shall spare your family.”

“I don’t understand,” the farmer wept.

“The night and the day do not move as before. Tell me why this is.”

“You mean the catastrophe?” the farmer asked.

“Tell me of this catastrophe.”

“You….you do not know? It has been centuries past.”

“Tell me of this catastrophe.” Oken repeated.

“It was the ‘Techno’s. They tried to change the orbit, but it didn’t work. Now….now we are stuck, the planet does not rotate any more.”

“It is this ‘rotate’, that brings the night and day?”

“Yes….I think that is how it works,” he answered, his voice quavering.

“And my kind? I have seen none of my kind in the skies. Has this too changed?”

“I do not know what has happened to the Dragons,….but I have heard.” The farmer answered, shaking with fear.

Oken moved his head to within a few feet of the farmers face, his green reptilian eyes narrowing.

“Please Sir,….do not hurt me,” his whole body trembling.

“Speak mortal.”

“By the Gods Sir, I do not know where they are. I have only heard that they are being held. Being trained.”

“Trained?”

“To be ridden Sir.”

Oken raised his massive head to the sky as he let this information assembly in his mind. It was then that the farmer saw the small amulet hanging around his neck. Three disks, the two lighter outer ones half covered by a darker one in the center. ‘The eclipse of the two moons’.

“Oh by the merciful Gods,” the farmers voice filled with terror. “You….you are the legend. You….are him, the ‘Great Dragon, Oken dar shen’.

Oken’s head snapped back at the mention of his name.

“How is it that you come to know my name, mortal?” his eyes’ narrowing to slits.

“Oh please great Lord, do not harm me! I have a wife and children!” he begged as he knelt before Oken’s massive head.

“How is it that you come to know my name?” Oken asked again, anger rising in his voice.

“Oh please Sir,….you….you are a story that we tell our children, to frighten them,….to keep them close to home.”

“You use my name to frighten your children,” the tendrils of smoke darkening, becoming thicker.

“But….you are just a legend, a myth.”

“A myth,” Oken roared, snapping the man up, a great tooth piercing his chest and into his heart. His skull cracking between the back teeth.

The taste of blood was sweet on Oken’s tongue. It had been long since he had tasted mortal flesh and he relished his meal. He heard the screams of a woman and turned his head to the hovel sitting near the tree line. A woman holding a babe with two small children at her side. They stood in horror as he approached, frighten beyond running. He snapped the woman and babe up first, grabbing the children in his sharp talons. He ate his meal slowly, his forked tongue licking the blood off his jaw. He mused over the new knowledge that he had gained. The anger welling in him.

They dare to hold my kind. To train them as beasts of burden. Their blood shall flow across the land, my kind shall fly free, once again.

He bit the head off the screaming little girl, letting her blood flow over his claw. He watched the terror in the boys face as he devoured his sister, taking pleasure in his meal.

“Do I look a myth to you child,” he asked the horrified boy. “Should I let you run free to spread the word that Oken dar shen is retuned to free his kind? Hmmm….me thinks not.” He answered his own question, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly, popping the screaming boy into his mouth. “They shall know soon enough.” He added swallowing the meal.

He opened his blooded maw and let a blast of fire consume the hovel before ascending back into the sky. He would find these trainers and once again, the sky would be filled with his kind.

 

[stalwartone]

~Ayron Terben~

The quiet of the mountain woodland was briefly broken by the creaking of hidden hinges, and a figure stepped into the open. The man paused to test the wind, then removed a long eyepiece from a waistpack. Scanning the area for a moment, he changed the carefully ground lenses a couple of times, using the different refractions to focus on various points around the region. Satisfied, he returned it to it's case, then collected his other belongings.

His clothing was a carefully fashioned copy of a picture found in the Brotherhood's archival library. This clothing seemed sturdier than what was seen in the image, but this day and age demanded that fashion be less important than durability. At least it allowed the Cloth Friars to maintain their skills, and the Tool Caste to continue rebuilding the looms and implements needed.

He pulled on his backpack and tightened the straps, then tied on the belt with extra implements lashed to it's length. Strips of cloth scraps were wrapped around his boots, then a pair of the eyeshades were tied to his head. His final item was a long cloak of loose burlap, it's outer surface trimmed with uneven lengths of various cloth scraps, all died in woodland colors. The underside was a marbled grey. Several generations of Revival Caste had tested the design, based upon series of similar designs used by military types known as "snipers". It would, when properly set, provide concealment, break up his figure, and diffuse his body heat. Alternately, he could use it as a blanket or lean-to.

He set out in the direction suggested by the Dwellers. His job this day was to search out desperately needed resources, whether it might be suitable land for farming, wood and fresh water, grains and other foodstuffs, or deposits of the slow, clean burning coal that produced such high heat. Anything the Group could use would be noted and marked on a map, and he would be leading a group of gatherers out to accumulate these potential wealths.

Providing he wasn't met by any of the myriad of creatures out in the world these days...

 

[Destiny]

Ta'Hareen

She had been traveling most of the day on the trail of a stag, she was close to catching him when a sound spook it into fleeing. "Damn!" she cursed softly," damn damn damn." Finally she caught a couple rabbits. She was getting tired of rabbits and the stag had looked good enough to feed on for a few days. Gathering food as she went, you would be surprised by the food along the forest floor that can be cooked into a stew with rabbits. finally having gathered all the herbs she needed she proceeded to look for a place to spend the night.

Up ahead she noticed and outcropping of rocks that would be perfect. It had an over hanging rock and the sides were exposed she could she well into the valley and beyond from that vantage point and up she climbed. Finally reaching her destination, she set aside her rabbits and gathered wood for a fire. A low embered one that didn't produce much smoke or light but would heat the stew just right. Beginning the preparations for the meal she set aside her shield and sword and looked down over the Valley. Off to the north was the city of the Dragon keepers. She had heard rumors that the dragons were no longer as controlled as they once were. Beginning to wreak havoc on villages and small caravans.

The smell of the food was beginning to fill the scent of the night air and she covered it and then walked to the edge of the overhang. Placing her hands to her hips she looked toward the sky, watching for the signs of the beasts that bellowed and breathed fire.

 

[Tonsillitis]

Gazesby

Gazesby suddenly stopped what he was doing. He could hear screams of terror on the path to the spirit world and he saw a whole family return to it together. He saw the scars on their spirits. When people were killed by each other their souls were left intact. However when people were killed by magic or by magic creatures their spirits got wounded as well, scarred. No doubt a dragon had killed these people. A powerful dragon indeed.

"A dragon is hunting," he said casually to Little Bird whose eyes widened.

Gazesby remembered when he saw spirits return to the spiritland killed by dragons almost everyday. It had been more seldom now, almost never human spirits. He wondered what had happened to the dragons and he wondered why they didnt hunt for men nowadays. However now it seemed one had started to again.

He wondered if the dragon was only hunting to still hunger...

 

[BLACK BART]

"My Lord, Are you absolutely certain?"

"Yes, Jahrean, for the third time I have no choice"

"But to leave the crown, without an escort?"

"It is for the best. Greater numbers will only attract greater troubles."

"But you will be ALONE, my Lord?"

"No, Jahrean, As long as I am a Lord I will never be alone"

Words spoken with more confidence than I felt. And yet there was my duty and the honor of the Tiers to uphold. I was packed, the leather skinned bag containing what I needed and over my shoulder, the heavy cloak covering it and the staff I used to control the younger and still learning brood.

"Where are you going my Lord and when do I prepare for your return?"

"Kahlray" I returned patiently and patted the young mans shoulder. "And then to the land of darkness. I return when this is OVER and the answers are found"

And with those proud words a chill swept over my frame, though the winds were warm today something was wrong and told me to take a second, final look at the breath taking spires behind me as I left, riding the winds down from my stationed loft and to the green pastures below, away from the only home I had ever had since I was a boy.

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Sera

Word of the Lord's imminent departure moved throughout the castle like wildfire, not taking long to reach my ears. Leaving!! Uttering hasty words of farewell, I wasted no time. There could only one direction he would be travelling and I ran as fast as the wind to catch up.

"Trehbur!"

He stood still when I called his name, not even turning until I reached him. Fire flashed in my eyes mingled with a hint of confusion and even fear as I faced the Guardian.

"You are leaving!"

"I must." Trehbur's words were filled with sadness tinged with anger and... something else.

"Without a word? Without... me?"

The Guardian's eyes held a look of determination. A look I had come to know well over time. One that told me he would not capitulate.

"Go home," he bade me forcefully as he turned and strode away.

I stamped my foot in frustration. How dare he! But I had come prepared. Shifting the leather bag which I had hurriedly packed, I ran to catch up and fell into step beside him. Trehbur was mine as I was his and wherever his path led, so would my own.

"So... " I began with a defiant tone in my voice. "Where are we going?"

 

[BLACK BART]

Trehbur

"Legends" I growled and looked into the determined eyes of the woman, knowing she would follow regardless, and yet?

" Once it is written that the "fleshers" were dragon hunters, banded together by the desperate need to survive and in that determination ways evolved to seek out the winged monsters and kill them."

I had to try. What type of Lord would I be if I let even one such as this woman perish trying to protect me?

"It was fear that drove them. Fear of extinction and not understanding the kind of being they fought against. Gradually the weapons they used became more powerful and when the first Dragon fell the hope of an entire race rose."

Did she understand? Could she? This was no ordinary female that stood defiantly in front of me and faced me down.

"The war began and raged for long, bloody centuries...and then one day the Dragons were simply....gone."

Her eyes reflected the pain that I knew shined in mine and from her stance I could see she felt the pain of the memories the "fleshers" had carried for the time since the Dragons disappearance.

"You know what the Lords and Ladies mean to the survival of the Dragons today, Sera...but until today were you aware of what they meant for thier destruction in the past centuries?"

Knowledge. It could save you from damnation. And sometimes it could damn you from being saved.

Even damn an entire race...or two.

"Are you ready to fight beside the very ones that might be responsible for the near destruction of the entire Dragon family?"

 

[Why]

....................

 

[Graybread]

Oken dar shen

The skies were clear and blue as Oken glided along the air currents, the anger welling in him. The thought that his kind being trained as riding beasts, was at first a concept beyond his logic. “Why,” didn’t enter into it, the mere fact that they were being held and trained was enough. He didn’t have a consolidated plan to set all Dragons free, he didn’t even know where they were being held, but he would find them.

He watched the sky and along the ground for any signs of movement. Anything that would show the presence of Dragon. After several hours, he found what he was looking for. Far below him, he spotted the silhouette of Dragon wing against the rocky outcrop of a small short mountain range. He descended in a sharp curving arc, coming up behind the small stunted red Dragon. His anger peaked as he saw the rider on the Dragons back.

In one quick movement, he snatched the rider off the Dragons back and devoured him.

“Mifiddi tenggar, chrumelrissai. Mra sesun saghaba,” he said in the ancient tongue. (“Come my brother you are free. We must find the others.”)

Instead of following, the small red simply went aground and sat there, looking up at him. Oken alit beside the red.

“Mra sesun saghaba,” he repeated.

The red just looked at him.

“Do you not understand the ancient language,” Oken asked, using the Dragon mind words.

“You have killed me,” the red replied.

“You are free,” Oken stated.

“No, you have broken the connection. I have chosen.”

“I do not understand this ‘chosen’, explain,”

“At my hatching, I chose the trainer you have killed. All Dragons must chose at the time if their hatching. We must connect with a mortal. And now I will die, because my chosen one in gone. I know of you ‘Ancient One’, it is with great honor that I meet the Great Dragon ‘Oken dar shen’, before my death.

“This can not be, you are free to fly.”

“I can not, the connection is broken and I must die.”

“Then you shall die like a Dragon.” Oken stated, the fury burning in him, opening him maw and letting a burst of dragon fire loose to consume the red.

Oken ripped the burning carcass open and reached in to eat his heart, so no other would find it. His fury fueled by this new knowledge he ascended back into the sky. Searching, he found village after village of mortals and destroyed each in his rage. Leaving hundreds burning and dieing in his wake.

The wild beasts of the land he left untouched but the animals of the mortals he destroyed. He burned fields and orchards in his fury.

I must find a way to stop this 'choosing', even if I must devour every mortal that lives. If I must I will find one that is free and start my kind anew.

Catching movement before him, he sees a large white eagle and nears it. He senses the magic that she carries and circles around her wondering if she is friend of foe.

 

[Destiny]

Twilight's first kiss....

I sat under the rock outcropping now the fire long dead. I had learned long ago to keep the fire to a minimum. It would be dark soon the twilight sky was just kissing the land's endless horizon.

A twig nearby snapped and I turned with dagger drawn I perched waiting breath held the stance one anyone would know for what it was, I was ready for anything. The stag stood there proud and fearless now, I was no longer a threat and he dipped his great head. His horns were numbered many and he knew that he had won only on the fact that He had been spooked by another creature. He dropped to his knees and rested on his haunches as he curled up to sleep and watched me. He was the lord of the forest and he had come to bid me farewell into the great world that would lead to the dragons.

I relaxed and even tossed him some uncooked herbs I had found, not that he needed my help in being fed. It was a gesture, one that would someday aid me when I needed it. There was something about me that animals could sense. I was not there to harm them, I was merely hunting. They knew the value of the hunt. It took away the old and the sick, it took away those that could not defend themselves leaving the herd or the pack strong.

I had been a dragon Mistress and had held the reigns of my own dragon beast in flight and on the ground. My dragon was long gone now killed by another beast. I had given up the training of another. the one dragon I had had would be my last. I understood them. I thought I understood them. I had heard of the village distruction. I had seen the billowing huts burned down and I had smelled the dead and the dying. At the claws of a beast and at the bellow of his roar they had died.

The stag soon forgotten and I was getting tired. I needed rest, tomorrow was soon ebough to reach the city I was headed for although it still lay 3 or 4 days more away.

 

[Guest]

Brodda

Brodda soared high over the valley. She enjoyed these times of freedom from gravity and took a moment to coast on the thermals, allowing the turbulence to toss her around playfully.

After a while her growling stomach reminded her of her quest for food and she veered off towards the valley floor. As she descended in a graceful arc she heard the “swoosh” of leathery wings some miles off.

She sent out probes that told her a large male dragon was heading her way, full of fury and sorrow.
Brodda knew the dragon would circle her, suspicious of another, smaller winged creature.

She took a perch on a snag and pretended to scour the valley although, in truth, she was waiting for a sight of the winged monster. A movement in the valley far below caught her sharp sight and Brodda saw a naked girl about her own age stepping into the cool waters of the lake and disappear as she swam off like a fish. Even from that distance Brodda could sense the maiden's special gift, an affinity to wild things and she knew this girl also mourned a lost charge.

When the dragon finally came within her sight she realised this was no ordinary beast but larger than any she’d seen. Brodda turned from the beautiful image of the bather to watch this monster.

His nostrils still trailed smoke as he lazily flew above the small copse in which Brodda’s eagle persona sat. She deliberately chose a snag out in the open for him to sense her better.
She could feel his ambivalence and – to appear relaxed in his presence – she ruffled her feathers and preened a little.

“So, my scaly friend.” Brodda thought.”What do you make of me?” She could smell the smoke from his destructive rampage drifting over the countryside and knew he had been on a killing spree. He had to be a rebel, a maverick, yet she felt no fear.

She sent out a greeting to see if his mind was receptive. “I am no threat to you, mighty winged one. I mean you no harm.” And she watched to see if he reacted. Quietly she sent out a silent message using the words of tenderness and endearment Chthoniflare could not resist.

Her charge had not followed the accepted training for “unbroken” dragons. That expression made Brodda shudder. To break such a great spirit was wrong – she knew. She had taught Chthoniflare, over long and often frustrating years, to trust her through mutual respect. His death was still a mystery to Brodda but she could not rest until she found out the truth.

She had heard rumours of a rival keeper, jealous of Brodda’s relationship with Chthoniflare. Another of roving gangs of rustlers who badly mistreated any dragons they could capture. Chthoniflare would not have gone easily in such a case. Yet none of these had been proven.

Brodda watched the mighty beast draw near, his circular path growing tighter with each revolution. Now she could see his great, angry eyes clearly and smell the blood on his claws.

“How shall I address you, Son of Oken?” She said silently to him using the usual tender phrase and his head whipped round to stare straight at her.

She froze. His eyes blazed with – what? Anger, certainly, but there was confusion there too.

The legends told to every child of Oken dar Shen were familiar to Brodda as they were to all. His name evoked such fear that a wayward child would be stopped in its track by the very mention of his name. “Father of all dragons” was another common way the people referred to this fearful apparition. Brodda wondered why this handsome warrior reacted as he had to her reference to Oken

 

[Seumas]

Marlanus K'Tar-Hol

The right hand scratched the rock again. How many times? I had given up counting long ago, but it was in the realm of countless.Oddly enough, the arm was not the least bit sore, nor had it sustained injury through all the digging. I must remember to thank Surinus, while I am crushing his head with this abomination.

I scratched at the wall again and a hole broke open. "What part of the world was going to surface in?" was the question I had not even bothered to ask myself when I began this escape attempt. Now it was answered as sunlight came pouring through. I stopped scratching and began to strike the rock widening the hole big enough to crawl through. Spilling onto the fround I looked up to see how high the sun was in the sky.

Damn! Dead center above me. It would be awhile before I could get my bearings.Or would it? I don't know how I could have forgotten about the eye the gave me. I chuckle to myself. "...gave me..." Like they did it out of the goodness of their hearts. I was a testing ground for them. The arm, the eye. Oh they are great assets, but i would have preferred to be anesthetized rather than just immobilized. I felt every incision, amputation and suture.I closed my left eye to let my right work its "magic". Immediately the crosshairs appeared and the horizon began to zoom and I saw a small villiage...or what appeared to be one. I should be able to make it in an hour or so. I reached up to pluck the fruit from a nearby tree. My strength, both physical and mystical returning, I take my first steps toward the villiage.

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Sera

Fleshers! The mere utterance of the word was enough to make my skin crawl, and I fought to hold back the icy hand that gripped my belly and set my hearts to beating as though my chest would fairly burst. Those tales had been whispered by the elders like a flea in the ear, a caveat to keep the young from forgetting the killing times -- or to scare them into behaving much like the tales of Oken dar Shen.

Of course I'd heard rumors in the castle about villages being burned by a great dragon -- Black most often, but more alarming there had been word of a White -- depending on where the gossip came from. Either way, I had found it very disturbing. It had been many millennia since Dragons had been moonstruck. And now the possibility that the Fleshers were gathering?

"The talk is that there is a Dragon... hunting." A troubled look crossed my eyes as I considered the implication of what I had just said aloud. "Of course you know that. The talk is also that it is... " I paused and lowered my voice reverently... the Ancient One."

Oken dar Shen. Neither of us wanted to believe the Ancient One capable of such atrocities as had been told, but the facts all seemed to point to Him. I suddenly realized why Lord Trehbur had set off on this journey.

Meeting his eyes with my own defiant ones, I answered the Lord's question with a sense of assurance that I didn't quite feel. Did I have another choice? I did not. "Tres," I said quietly, placing my hand on his arm. "Where you go, so will I go. We will find the answers together." Deep down I knew that they would not be easily found and more than likely not what we would wish to hear.

 

[BLACK BART]

Tres

It was her touch more than the words that convinced me. Neither of us knew truly what we were about to face or how we would react but with the promise of doing it side by side somehow it seemed almost possible.

I nodded and covered her hand with my own, then confessed a thought I would never have dared in the past.

"I have often suspected the Eldest Lord has not always shared the complete truth with his supporters, and on that suspicion delved into records that though not banned to me were shunned. The general impression that I gleaned from those ancient records was a catastrophic mistake caused by two races and the war that resulted. Oken dar Shen was reputed to already having disappeared centuries before and perhaps is not aware of the events that preceded us to date. I will attempt to touch his mind when we find him, let him see the truth as we see it, and then hopefully be able to reason with him."

Bending I lifted my pack and Sera's smaller one and shouldered them, the weight not to much to handle and somehow reassuring.

"But remember, if we can not reason with Oken dar Shen...the great dragon must and will perish I carry the knowledge neccesary to destroy him if we must...but would rather accept him into our fold as perhaps this worlds greatest hope and triumph."

And with that we began our journey, side by side and down the final slope of the hills I hoped one day to return to, a man....a woman and a hopeful dream for all that lived on Dille Qigh.

 

[Daeowan]

Cail moved silently through the brush of the sparsly wooded forest, it's name not known to him. Nothing was known to him in this region, as with most that he journyed through in the past few months. He relied solely on his ability to read the life around him, or lack thereof. He had a scare only a week before as he travelled through a forest that was recently swept with flame. Familiar tracks were lain here and there, the tracks of a dragon.

Dragons. The very mention of the beasts made him grind his teeth together in anger. Had it not been for those loathesome beasts he wouldn't be here right now. He was far from home, so far he doubted he could return after he did what he had to do, assuming he survived, of course.

For now, his stomache rumbled, reminding him that he hadn't stopped to eat in two days. He had plenty of ground to cover and saw eating as something that would only slow him down. Still, the feeling of his stomache eating itself wasn't pleasant. Perhaps he would do well to stop and...

Something smelled divine!

He stopped for a moment and smelled the night air, even going as far as pulling down the fabric covering his nose and mouth to better analyze them aroma. It wasn't like the normal smells of the wood. It was... sweet, and smelled delicious. A desert of some kind with the slight hint of oats about it. He looked about, smelling the air as he did, and soon found himself following the scent. He had very little money with him, but perhaps he could indulge himself tonight if whomever baked such a heavenly smelling food wouldn't mind selling portions for cheap.

He came upon a hut within the hour, quite a walk considering how long ago he had smelled the food that had demanded his attention. His skills as a ranger were becoming more and more apparent to him as he had travelled, showing his prowress subtly at first, but his ability to smell from such a distance was an obvious testiment to his teachings. As he quietly crept closer to the home, he took note of the garden close by, and of the various small hints that whoever lived here was quite well off. Not by most people's standards of course, but he could see it easily. Metal tools, like the axe stuck in a tree stump, spoke volumes to someone who lived off the land, for instance. He also noted a precious animal hide or two used for decoration. Again, another sign that the owner of the place lived handsomly out here.

Great, he thought. They probably won't accept such meager earnings for whatever it is they've been baking. Still, he decided he should try. It had been over a month since he had spoken to anybody. He was admittably quite lonely that night.

He approached warily, not bothering to use stealth at this point, and walked right up to the entrace to the hut.

"Hello?" he called out, his hand slipping beneath his cloak to his blade, just in case.

 

[Messalina]

Little Bird

"A dragon is hunting."

Little Bird's breath caught. Of course she'd sensed the discord but she hadn't taken the time to consider the cause. There were many new and unusual things afoot of late it seemed -- but a dragon feeding on mortals? An occurrence unheard-of save for in tales and legends from long before "The Age of Taming"... centuries before the Cataclysm. Even then there was only one.

"We will see what we will see, Gazesby," Little Bird said with a sigh. "Perhaps... " she added with a wry grin, "if you behave... I will tell you a story of Dragons before you sleep. But only if you behave."

Gazesby watched as Little Bird began to bank the fire. "Are we going somewhere? I thought we were to have guests."

"Yes. And yes, little one. I am going to fetch one of them now. You will stay here and see that the hare doesn't burn to a crisp." Of course she knew he would not, which was why she had adjusted the heat of the coals that cooked their dinner.

Little Bird could feel him pouting as she pulled on her boots and picked up a waterskin and a leather bag, slinging both over her shoulder. "Mind you keep a good eye on our dinner. I will be back as soon as I can."

She began to chuckle. "Even sooner. It seems that one of our guests has found his way on his own -- but there is another who comes, and that is where I will go now. "Prepare to meet... "

Padding over to the door, she opened it with a quick movement, looking up into the startled gray eyes of the ranger with a grin. "Well met, Cail" she greeted warmly. "You are far from home and welcome to take shelter here. Won't you come in?"

Suddenly Little Bird cocked her head as if listening. "No, wait. First we must go elsewhere -- and I will need your help."

 

[Daeowan]

Cail's eyes widened, surprised for the first time in months, and scarcely managed to respond in time.

"Well met, miss," he said evenly, calming himself immediately. He tilted his head curiously as this young lady exhibited some knowledge about his wherabouts, and possibley where he lived! "Have we met?" he asked, a bit confused.

As she responded, he reached up and pulled back the hood of his cloak and slipped down the fabric covering his nose and mouth. His long brown hair, unkept and untidy, hung shaggily behind his head. He hadn't exactly stopped to bathe in the past month, being in such a hurry and all, and was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable in the presence of a vision such as she.

Suddenly, he became aware of another subtler presence nearby. He looked about a little, wondering where it was.

 

[Destiny]

Morning....

The day started with the sound of sliding rocks and Ta'hareen looked up and along the edge of the ridge to see nothing there and had to wonder at the rocks sliding somewhere nearby. A rabbit skittered into view and then was gone once more as she shook her head and began to prepare for her departure once more.

She moved to roll up the furs and her food stuff. Tied and in a bundle now she kicks out any remains of her having been here and begins to move the rest of the way into the ravine. The bundle bounced along her hips and a single bird of prey screamed in the light as she continued along the path that lead to the of the ravine and out onto the flat meadows of trees and fields. Finally reaching the end of the rocky area she sighed and felt the noon day sun beating down n her and any other day it would not have bothered her but today she felt more then in the need of a bath, she desired it.

Moving along the tracks of the meadow she began to see the telltale signs of life and decides to follow the tracks knowing somewhere there would be water. Finally she found it a beautiful blue lake with enough rocks and shrubs to hide her items while she stripped of her clothing and moved into the cool refreshing water.

The Bird of Prey soared over head still and alighted on a tree as it watched the young dragon mistress wade through the water and bathe herself. the cold refreshing water lapping at her hips and waist and then her breasts as she began to dive through the water and disappear beneath.