xXLizzzieXx wrote:The Grand Archmage
The Grand Archmage nodded and said with his mind, "The caves are about a twenty-minute flight from here. Go east for three miles until you see a glimmering white stone structure. That is the dwarf tower, where the dwarves who worked in the mines would sleep at night. When you pass it, turn northward and search until you see five to ten cave openings. Some will be large and easy to spot, while others will be small, so search carefully. Each will have a small pile of sapphires or gold outside of it to indicate that the mine is abandoned, so that should help you." He waited for Croner to take off as he took in the sights of the area around him. The sky was clear, birds twittered in the trees, unlike the scene which the other twelve dragons undoubtedly viewed.
He thought briefly of how all of the dragons would soon find mates of their own species to spend their life with and missed his own wife, Tara. She had died in a fire centuries ago, leaving him to raise their son to take his place when he died. His son was a young man now, young because mages, or wizards, as they were often called, aged slowly. He thought of his brother, Merlin, who was also a mage and happened to be King Arthur's advisor. He was proud of his brother, yes, and he was equally proud of Croner, who, like him, had lost loved ones due to horrid circumstances. He thought of the inevitability that society would one day reject and despise mages, and that they would have to seek seclusion on a forgotten isle and make a new life for themselves. The dragons would have to come with them, of course, if they didn't, things would only end up worsening for them, because the slayers would return in full force.
+Croner Septa Ler+Croner took off. He followed the Grand Archmage's instructions meticulously, going first to the west. They passed over the lake, then the woods, and Croner was filled with the sheer exctasy of the flight. He had had no reason to fly lately - prey usually just stumbled past him mistaking him for a miniature mountain or large hill, and was easy to catch. Yet he thought that from now on he might want to fly from time to time just for the pleasure of stretching his wings. He did not let his mind wander too far though - he had to conxentrate on the journey lest he get lost or bump into something - Croner had always been rather clumsy and his tendancy to drift off in thought certainly did nothing to help.
In about a quater of an hour he reached the dwarf tower and admired the care with which it had been built. He wondered how long it had taken to construct - dwarves were strong and stout but certainly not very tall, so they must have had to climb to the top in order to add on new slabs of marble after the tower reached a certain height. Unless they had built some sort of machinery to lift the slabs for them... perhaps he could find some answers when he explored the caves.
After that it did not take long to find the caves. His heart soared as he scanned the area. There were so many of them! Surely some would contain something that could help him with his studies.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
. . . Cassia Alla Moore . . .
Cassia woke up, and that feeling of lonelieness was back and nagging her. She surveyed the group. The spiked dragon, who had saved her. A fire dragon. The elf dragon who she recalled had read her aura last night - at least, she had changed colours and looked at her, so Cassia assumed that was what she'd done. She'd keep a distance from the elf dragon, she decided. No-one had the right to read her like that, and Cassia was scared of what the dragon - Anna she thought she had heard someone call her - might have seen. If she saw how empty and broken Cassia felt, she would surely lable her as weak and throw her out of the group and then she'd be alone again. But wasn't that what she wanted? To be alone? She was alone now, she realised. She was in a cave with other dragons, but she was still alone, because none of them knew her. She didn't want them to know her, the way she had been before the slayers ruined her life, because then she'd have to remember and that was painful. Lying there at the mouth of the cave, she thought she could see three slayers approaching it, torches in their hands. No, that's stupid. It wasn't even the same cave. And that was the old me, the weak me, the coward. She was stronger now. Wasn't she? Was she stronger, or just more alone? She had been able to share her thoughts, her feelings, with her family, she remembered that...
SHUT UP! She could not think of that. She could only think of survival.
She hated this cramped, encolsed space. It brought back too many memories. It made her miss the way she'd been. Open. Caring. Happy. Whole. She sealed away all those thoughts and feelings and was left with only that gaping emptiness. She wanted to approach one of the other dragons, make friends with them, but she didn't want to share her feelings with anyone. They were private. She was hungry, she realised. The storm had passed. She needed to clear her mind. Normally she would paint, but she had left her canvases and paints on her last beach. "I'll hunt, if you don't mind." She just hoped no-one would insist on coming with her. She didn't know if she could handle comany just then. She had never felt quite so fragile before. It terrified her.