ENTER THE MYTHRIL Chapter III

CHAPTER 3

March, 1346 A.D.

The village had been rebuild, just on time for the celebration for finishing the construction of the castle. The people from town and some dragons organized a festival with food, games, dances and music. The paranoid Duke instructed the nobles and the royal guard, along with the court of dragons, to keep things under control, in case the celebration would degenerate into a riot or worse. It was very unlikely to happen, for the people from the village were loyal to the Kingdom. But with the English being inactive for a while now, a permanent state of uncertainty flooded the minds of the nobles. Even though most dragons were on the side of Scotland, deserters and spies were not to be underestimated, of both dragon and human kind.

The humans from town were the ones celebrating for the most part, since the festival was an event of human nature. Dragons didn’t really care too much about it, but it was a time to socialize and strengthen ties between the two races. These ties were represented mostly by kids and hatchlings playing around, eating and sharing under the supervision of their respective parents. But humans generally shunned dragons; they didn’t trust the beasts to be around their kids or even themselves. The pretext for it was their undeniable physical superiority and their natural ability with the arcane and mystic arts at early ages. These features were taught by the dragons themselves to a selective group of humans that had learned to use them through the years, but it also made them creatures to be mistrusted. Nevertheless, there were humans that still accepted and even liked dragons. There was an example of this situation close to the town’s windmill, a bit away from the main plaza.

The windmill was located in the far, northeastern corner of the village. A wooden fence enclosed it, along with an almost square shaped area –about 30’ long by 45’ deep- that also contained piles of packed wheat, a wooden cart holding a dozen empty earthenware vessels, and two cows that served both as milk providers and as the “engine” that allowed the sails to spin and mill the wheat within the stone structure of the windmill. Two women, a man and two female dragons supervised the playground of the four children around ten years old and two hatchlings of about 20 or 30 in human years. The delayed aging of dragon made them look way younger than they actually were to human eyes, and these two hatchlings looked like large version of a ten year old human.

The kids ran after the two hatchlings trying to catch their tails, even though they were told not to. Marie, the eight year old little blond girl, dressed in a wool shirt and pants and a couple of sandals, and her brother Thomas, twelve years old, dressed more or les the same way, tried to flank the Amethyst -purple- male youngling, Cadorec, wearing only ragged leather pants, who tried to slide between the siblings, while the Sapphire female hatchling climbed on top of the packed wheat with two boys following her, trying to reach her tail but failing. The blue female, know by the name Tavah, who was wearing a dirty and ragged wool tabard, leaped to a higher level, giggling as she looked down at Jimmy, of thirteen, and Tod, of eleven. She spread her wings and jumped over both kids and landed on all fours on the ground behind them, ready to start running again.

“Hey, no flying!” Tod protested just before he comically fell between two piles.

“I can’t fly, silly!” Tavah giggled with a high pitch voice while she waved her tail, daring them to catch it, if they could. “I can barely glide, and I didn’t even do that!”

“C’mon, give us a head start, Tavah”, Jimmy said climbing down and started running towards the female hatchling.

“I already did!” the female chuckled, leaped away and galloped on all fours.

On the other side of the playground, Cadorec got caught by his tail and he made a brief whimper. Marie had jumped in an attempt to catch him from his back, and once the hatchling was slowed down, Thomas ran towards him and drove the three of them to the dirt. Giggles and laughter were heard from both kids.

“I win! I win!” Thomas celebrated, standing up and jumping out of joy.

“Not true! I grabbed him first!” Marie protested, still holding Cadorec’s tail, which she raised to show her brother. “Look, I still got him.”

“But I got him down!”

“That doesn’t count!”

The games, giggles and talking among them continued for a while until the decided that they were tied, since one of the hatchlings went was caught but the other manage to stay out of reach. They resumed a singing game were they clapped their palms and paws with one another in sequence.

Their parents were charmed with how they kids were able to hang out with each other, despite some adults from both races, especially humans, couldn’t really stand the others. The legend of the Mythril and gossip about its appearance in this era had spread across the populace of the village and that had eventually created mistrust in dragons. Despite that, things were still under control and encounters were not noticeable, if such ever took place.

In the middle of their game, Tavah bluffed in the sequence and had to wait until a new round would start in the game. She sat close to the wheat piles and waiting with a slight smile in her face. She was really hoping that Marie would go at least until the last match in the game and then start over. She sighed. She was really enjoying such a wonderful day, sunny as in the summer but with a nice temperature. The breeze caressed her features, coming from one side of her face, and she smiled as she tilted her head a little to the left to feel it partially frontal, with her eyes closed. The little female inhaled deeply, smelling the sweet fragrances of the flowers recently harvested by the local gardener of town, which she enjoyed smelling and every now and then she asked her to give her one for her own fun. The tasty flavor of backed peach and apples pies just being taken out from the fire ready be served was another scent that called her attention, which made her decide which would be her dinner. Apple would be nice, it was sweeter for her. She also felt a slight smell of rain, as if it had been raining for days or as if rain would be coming soon. Tavah realized that the last essence was out of place, since it hadn’t rained in two days, and the seers, mostly dragons, had foretold rain overnight. She knew that it really didn’t make sense, until she opened her eyes and looked directly towards a light colored figure wearing ragged leather pants and a tribal looking mark all over it.

It was another hatchling, with white scales that barely reflected the sun light, except where the abstract black tattoo covered his scales or part of them. The young one was sitting on the wooden fence, engaging one of his forepaws on one side of it to remain in balance, sidewise. The other was placed on the corresponding propped up knee. His large hind paws hung down his seated position, one placed over the fence, the other subtly touching the grass beneath. From his slender features, Tavah could notice he was looking up into the sky, as if dreaming awake, with a slight smile on his face. The young one’s snout seemed to compose a nice line through his cheeks and all the way to his still little horns, which would grow at least one or two more feet until he was a grown adult. A set of long flexible scales on his head and back, just between the wings, mimicked white long hair combed backwards, almost reaching the base of his tail. His wings folded on his back made him look somewhat aerodynamic, despite his hunched pose and the rather build body, which was above the average musculature for a hatchling of his age – also around 30, but with the look of an oversized 12 year-old boy -. His long tail hung behind him, arched up in the shape of a cup avoiding the ground and it was waving casually, almost describing a “U” with its movements.

Tavah decided to approach him and perhaps invite him to play. She really enjoyed the company of Allastor, even though he was very quiet and introverted. To her, he was the most polite hatchling of the rookery; Never rude, never offensive. She wondered if he was shy or was scared of something. In either case, she liked him like that. Allastor was somewhat distracted within his own thoughts and didn’t see her coming. What made him change his behavior made Tavah chuckle a bit. His motions and his attention to the infinite were interrupted by a large and yet relatively small butterfly with colorful wings that landed on his snout. He barely shivered and froze in place, his smile disappeared, his pose straightened and his blue eyes wide open looking at it, each eye comically oriented towards a point too close in between them, making him look cross-eyed. Tavah giggled covering her snout trying in vain to avoid drawing Allastor’s attention. He then turned his eyes to her, still wide open. The butterfly only moved its wings casually.

“Tee-hee, I think it likes you”, she said to the white one.

Allastor remained quiet, not really knowing what to say. He just made a mild smile, and then turned his gaze to the little insect on his snout. He didn’t want to hurt the smaller being, so he shook his head a couple of times but the butterfly wouldn’t leave. Instead, the insect climbed up to the tip of his nose, tickling it a bit. After trying to hold back a sneeze, the butterfly took off and Allastor finally sneezed. Tavah giggled again.

“How long have you been there, Al?” she asked the white hatchling with an innocent look.

Allastor looked at her, somewhat embarrassed, “Uhh, I guess… about the same time as you guys?” he scratched the back of his head.

“You have been watching us for that long?” she replied quiet surprised. “Don’t you want to play with us?”

“Ahh, n-no…I, uhmm, I am ok” he said looking away. If it wasn’t for his scales she would have noticed him blushing. “I am just… hanging out here, that’s all.”

“‘Just hanging out’?” she repeated not really believing his words and she giggled. “You’re a bad liar.”

Allastor looked at her, speechless and unable to answer to her reply. He looked somewhat ashamed and Tavah noticed it. To her, he looked cute when she cornered him

“Come, Al, lets play with the other guys!” she grabbed his wrist and pulled him to the playground. His efforts to avoid it were futile, for the little female was determined to make him share against his will.

From above, a shadow looked upon the two dragon kids. It was barely discernable, but a closer look would have revealed a male Copper dragon with his wings folded around his body as if it was a cloak. His tunic had the silver insignia of the High Dragon Council. He stood straight, almost immobile, crossed-armed, his tail curled around his feet on the ground, tapping the dirt under it from time to time. Very few really knew his intentions, but none dared to question them. As he watched both hatchling leave the fence and move to the center of the farm he shifted his weight, uncrossed his arms and moved behind the chamber he was look from to disappear into the darkness of the cave.

When they arrived, two more hatchlings and two more human kids joined their ball game. Everyone was assigned a number and when they were set they spread throughout the field, called a random number and the one assigned to that number was to catch the ball. Upon arrival of Tavah and Allastor, the other kids stopped their play and some of them welcomed the pair. The two new hatchlings, Norren –an Emerald- and Talon –a Ruby- didn’t really feel comfortable with Allastor’s presence. After all, he was the Mythril and they couldn’t pull themselves into trusting him. Moreover, they liked to bother him and get him into trouble.

After they introduced the new players they assigned their numbers in order: 1 for Marie, 2 for Cadorec, Tavah 3, Thomas 4, Allastor 5, Norren 6, Jessica –a 13 year old girl- 7, Tod 8, Jimmy 9, Kaleb –a 12 year old human- 10 and Talon 11. The game started with the number 7 being called, so Talon tossed the leather ball to him and from there on the numbers were called randomly. Tavah usually called number five and passed the ball to Allastor, who at first seemed a little shy about the game, but after receiving the ball a couple of times he began to like it. Whereas, Norren and Talon enjoyed it at first, but when they saw Allastor staring to like it they started to feel annoyed, and some ideas crossed Norren’s mind.

At some point the Emerald male purposely moved towards Talon, who was close to the stone wall in the far corner of the windmill area. Talon wasn’t really paying much attention until Norren was a few feet from him.

“Si start ekess feel graprov zahae wer Aussir ir…” Norren whispered to the Ruby one, so the other dragons couldn’t hear. Talon looked at him doubtfully.

“Svabol chiili wux tepoha persvek shishin, Norren?” Talon asked with a straight face, not really surprised, since his friend always planned the most fun ways to tease the Diamond hatchling.

The parents looking at the playground with the kids signaled then that they would get some pies for them after they were done playing.

“You boys and girls behave while we get the goods! We’ll be right back!” said one of the human mothers as they left the field.

“Yes, ma’am!” said the kids and the hatchlings almost in unison. After the adults left, Norren moved closer to Talon.

“You’ll see… if you get the ball, call my number and toss it to me. You are going to like this…”, the Emerald whispered with a smirk, looking at the festival’s goods sellers and meal cooks, and then he walked by Talon, waving his tail in victory.

The game and giggles went on for several minutes. Four of them had lost and were removed from the game. Tod dropped the ball upon catching it, Jimmy mistook Jessica’s number and tossed at her, Cadorec stumbled against the fence and dropped the ball, and Kaleb was not fast enough to catch it before it bounced a second time. All the kids agreed that the humans were allowed one bounce when they tossed or grabbed the ball, but dragons had better movement capabilities and they were not allowed any bounces. Thomas had called for number 1, tossing it at Marie and she grabbed it with both hands and she almost fell flat on her back, but she managed to regain balance. She took a couple of steps, held the ball with one arm and dusted her attire off with the other before looking at who was closer to her, since she wasn’t too strong to throw the ball. She spotted Talon closer to her and engaged herself. Talon was already expecting it.

“Eleven!!” she yeld and tossed the ball with both hands.

She almost fell at her effort. She miscalculated the direction and strength of the throw and Talon had to run a bit to the right and backwards, but didn’t have problems catching it. He leaped into the air and bounced off the stone wall behind him to catch it and landed softly on the dirt.

“Sorry, Talon…” Marie said a little embarrassed.

“'s a'ight, Ah've got it” he replied with a smile.

The smile disappeared when he turned to see his playmates. He first looked at Tavah and Allastor, they were close to one another, but for much he wanted to have the Diamond look like ridiculous he didn’t really wanted to hurt the female. A couple of yards to their left, but far back, Thomas was jumping and bouncing in anticipation to the throw. Then he looked to the right, Norren was there obviously waiting for the ball. The Ruby hatchling thought of throwing the ball at the white one’s face, but he would be able to react fast enough to catch it. After all, he had shown proficiencies that most hatchlings couldn’t match. He was faster, stronger and more resilient than other hatchlings of the rookery, not overly, but he was above average. So, Talon discarded the idea and decided to follow Norren.

“Six!” he said as he threw the ball at the Emerald one, who caught it easily due to the relatively short distance.

Norren looked at the ball. After a moment he turned towards the festival, where the real party was taking place. There were several jugglers and acrobats entertaining the people, and some dragons that decided to assist and have some public relations with the humans. People were also eating delicious apple pies and bread cakes, sitting, chatting or dancing to the cheerful rhythm provided by the musicians. Norren looked for someone that looked especially vulnerable. He found a little boy, about 8 years old, maybe less, playing with a little wooden toy his father had won for him. They were standing just below the improvised tent, held by a couple of sticks that needed constant adjustments to stay in place. Just beside it, some of the apple pies were ready to be eaten.

Norren looked back at the ball on his paws, measured it weight and the hardiness of its surface. He also checked its ability to bounce off surfaces and he tested it a couple of times against the floor. It didn’t bounce much and the sound of the impact against the ground was loud. Thomas and Jessica said something about hurrying up but Norren didn’t really pay much attention. He then looked at Allastor with a smirk. The white one already knew that look, his eyes went wide and his heart started pounding a little faster than usual. ‘No, not again! What now?’, he thought to himself. He looked around to see what would threaten him that would hurt him, make him look like ridiculous, anything that would gratify the Emerald hatchling. Tavah was the closest he had. Maybe was planning on tossing the ball hard to hit her and blame Allastor for not catching it, or perhaps try and hurt him in front of the female. ‘Better me than Tavah’, he thought, and moved a little to the side covering the girl.

“Allastor, you are not supposed to block me”, she said, but the Diamond one didn’t move. He firmly stared at Norren waiting for the worse he could think of.

Norren gathered all of his strength and aimed for the festival. Allastor noticed it and then turned back to the multitude. Then back to the green hatchling. “Norren, pleas-” he couldn’t finish the phrase, and the ball left the Emerald’s paws.

“FIVE!!!”

The leather ball flew pass the dragons and almost hit Thomas, if it wasn’t for his reflexes kicking in just before the ball passed by his face. Allastor started galloping as fast as he could, as soon as the ball almost knocked Thomas down. He saw the multitude growing closer to him. He avoided whatever obstacle was in the way when a fire juggler in a monocycle got in the middle of the road. He tried to break his trajectory to not hit him but his wing poked the side of the monocycle’s wheel. The juggler lost control over his acrobatics and one of the fire sticks went flying to a tent that held fireworks. The seller had nothing more to do but jump out of the tent and it burst with sparkles, high-pitch whistles and explosions, bringing down the whole thing and setting it on fire. Allastor kept galloping, his tongue out; his eyes fixed on the ball flying towards whoever Norren aimed for. In the process he stumbled against three or for people, effectively knocking them down. The ball was about to hit its destination and Allastor panicked. It broke the sticks that held the gaming tent and then the face of the game host, a 40 year old fat but muscular man, making him sit down, stunned. The spherical projectile changed directions and slowed down.

The improvised tent came down threatening the kid that was playing with his wooden toy, who looked up in astonishment at the structure coming down at him. At that point Allastor forgot about the ball, his protective instincts kicking in at an early age, and he leaped towards the kid. He crashed against him and grabbed him to get him out of the way of the falling tent just on time. He used his own body to absorb most of the impact, and helplessly rolled against the cook tent with the pies, breaking the supports of the table. Every pie and cake on it fell to the ground and some on top of the boy and the hatchling. Even some of the cooking bowls fell down. A few were still at the edge of the stove, about to fall. The hatchling did his best to protect the boy.

The ball went unstopped and hit the conductor of the band on his back and he fell over the musicians, and the latter ones collided with the structure of the tent. It came down along with them and covered half the people that was listening or dancing at the rhythm of the music.

At the end of the chaos, the human guards and a few dragons that watched from above came to aid and control the situation, look after for the injured ones and taking care of the fire in the fireworks tent. From the playground, by the windmill, the kids and the hatchlings watched in owe at the mess that was caused by their little game. Tavah held both of her paws against her little snout, eyes wide open and completely immobile. Cadorec and the human kids, more than shocked were impressed and even Thomas said a slight ‘wow’. Talon was half impressed and half pleased that Allastor was directly involved in the mess. Norren only smirked. He walked close to Talon, who was still looking at the disaster, and nudged him on his side.

“Well, that went a little bit beyond what I was going for, but… oh well…” he laughed, cross-armed.

“Yeah… Ah think w' better get out of h're…” Talon started, but then one of the dragon mothers, Talon’s, grabbed both by their ears. It made them scream a little. “Ack!! Mother!!”

“The two 'f ye need tah 'xplain a lot o' things! C'mon!” she said almost growling, with a thick Scottish accent.

“But mother, ye saw it! 't w's the Mythr-” Talon started almost whining, but was cut off by the larger Ruby female.

“Ah know what ah saw!!” she said severely. Then she addressed to Tavah, Cadorec and the other kids before leaving with both hatchlings painfully held by their ears. “'xcuse meh, young ones. Ah've got tah take these two fer a littl' talk. Ye may want tah return tah yer o'n mothers fer now. It's not a good moment tah be alone.”

Back at the half-ruined festival, Allastor uncovered the boy he was protecting, kneeling in front of him, removing a thick layer of apple cream and pieces of cake from his own head. The kid was still shocked at the commotion and could only look at the larger white dragon covered in food. His wooden toy had broken, but at that point he was more concerned about what had happened, for it was so fast that he was unable to assimilate it.

When Allastor finally removed all the residues of apple pie from his eyes and face, he started panicking. His surroundings were nothing more than a pseudo-chaos. A burned tent, mildly injured people, an unconscious man and many shocked women and children were the price of his attempt in trying to save one life. The boy was removed from in front of him by his father, repeating if he was alright and making sure he had made it out of that mess unharmed. The white one remained on his knees, immobile, looking up at the father of the creature he had just saved.

For a few seconds, all he could see was the two humans, the rest was a blur and sounds around him were muffled. Finally, the man looked at Allastor with a straight, somewhat upset face. The hatchling only widened his eyes in fear, slightly curling his tail around himself, one arm blocking his chest, waiting for the kid’s father to spat something referred to his obvious condition of dragon and what had just happened because of him. Suddenly, the man nodded at him, and left. Confused at first, and still shocked, he started to fell a bit of a relief, but that feeling was soon swung away by a new fear towards a man from the crowd of people yelling words of menace regarding dragons, more specifically about him.

“It was him! The white dragon, the Mythril dragon started this revolt! He is the one encouraging the other dragons into taking things into their claws!” The man who kept rambling on him, making him responsible for more than he was able to even understand, was no less than a Count assigned to deal with the interests of the King regarding the village where the festival took place. According to Allastor’s father, he was one of the leaders of the so-called Dragon-haters, people who ultimately lost their faith on dragons and saw them as a menace more than a protection against English invasions. He wore a purple toga and jewelry as it would be expected for a man of his rank, but his manners spoke different altogether. He even spat as he babbled words. “He must to be removed from here, along with these over-developed reptiles!!” From there on, arguments started degenerating between the races.

The word “Mythril” was heard several times. Both humans argued about how menacing dragons could be, being this event the very proof of it, and dragon justified this as an isolated event, since the Mythril was involved directly in it. The atmosphere started to turn somewhat aggressive, and finally, the Count and the crowd of humans around him, added to the upset dragons trying to justify themselves, overwhelmed little Allastor, and he couldn’t contain his tears and whimpers. He curled around himself and folded his wings over him, visibly trembling.

“ENOUGH!!” A shadow covered him and the crowd was abruptly silenced by a deep, thundering voice.

Allastor looked up through an opening between his arms and wings, through his tears he discerned a large Golden male standing in front of him and slightly to the left, his right arm raised in a protective posture and his large wings unfolded in a menacing way. He was wearing somewhat elegant, robes worth of a noble, with the symbol of the Arcane Council on it. His features inspired more respect than fear, having slender features for a male but wise and intimidating for a dragon. A pair of tendrils simulated a mustache and they went down the sides of his snout, almost reaching the middle section of his chest. He was in fact a member of the Dragon Enclave, a representative of the dragon kind and an ambassador with the humans.

“I shall not allow ANY of you address to this boy the way you are, especially in my presence!” he growled but at the same time maintained a polite tone in his statement. He then addressed to the count that blamed the hatchling for almost every issue the Kingdom faced. “It would not be very healthy and constructive, my dear Count, to start a coup against us just because of a small accident.”

“You call this ‘small’?” the Count replied, reaching out with both hand and signaling at the mess around them. “That little… pest almost got three innocent men and a kid because he couldn’t hold his urges! Not precisely to protect, as you so vehemently claim!”

“Had you had noticed better, this child saved the life of a human kid! I wouldn’t call someone capable of such an action… a beast.” The dragon elder returned to the human, as politely as his mood would allow.

“That kid is a potential menace! Even you dragons are at the mercy of the power you say this dragon would unleash when the time comes!” the Count continued not listening to the dragon. “Even you say it!! HE IS THE MYTHRIL!!”

“HE IS JUST A HATCHLING!!” The male finally roared, tired of the negligence of the human. Everyone stayed quiet, but the atmosphere was tense.

The only sound that could be heard was the little dragon’s sobbing behind the towering Golden elder. He then continued with a soft voice, this time towards the audience.

“Look at him” he pointed at Allastor, trembling and sobbing, defenseless. “Does he really look like a creature with the thought of world domination in his mind and the power to even take this very village?”

“And what’s to stop him from becoming what you so prophesizes?” the Count started again, but he was cut by the elder dragon.

“Worry not, Count! We, the elders and Council of dragons and humans, will take care of that. We have been watching him since he was born. He hasn’t manifested the slightest amount of magics and his behavior is impeccable so far. We will keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t become a menace to anyone. Even if he does, judging him is not in any of you, but us. But right now, he is unable of any evil, and certainly unable to unleash anything at all.”

Mumbling and chatting was heard among the crowd. The situation was more or less controlled, and the guards and dragon guardians managed to finally disperse the crowd around the hatchling and the elder. Few people remained or even stared at the dragons. The Count, upset, ordered the festival to end earlier, attend the injured and remove the tents the fastest possible before mounting his chariot to leave the village. Some people still mumbled things about dragons and the hatchling, but others spoke of how the kid had really saved a human boy.

In either case, Allastor was still unable to assimilate everything. He couldn’t bring himself to stop crying, the commotion was too big and the emotions too sudden and extreme. Tavah had come close to see how he was doing and comfort him. She was sure that he would be affected that way, especially if even the rookery hatchlings, like Norren and Talon, would always shunned, made fun or bothered him. Not only he was the Mythril, but one of the youngest of the rookery. She kneeled beside him and looked at him with a sad face. She ripped a rather small piece of fabric from her attire and brushed his chin with it. Soon, the sample was completely covered in cream pie. Tavah remained there anyway, looking at the Diamond hatchling.

“Are you alright, little one?” The elder asked kindly, trying to comfort little Allastor, who was still stirring his tears and residues of apple pie from his face. Then, the Golden one tried to cheer him up a little, grabbing a piece of apple pie from the hatchling’s snout and holding his chin with the other paw. “Well, you made quite a mess… we will get to that later, but what you did for that boy was respectable and very honorable.”

Looks came and went on the hatchling, mumbling about the elder one’s statement. Some agreed but some spoke otherwise. Allastor dared not looking at the Golden elder’s eyes directly.

A figure appeared in the sky, flying down from the mountain behind the village, and from behind the Golden one. A female Sapphire with simple and modest attire made basically of cloth covering her slender body landed just beside the white hatchling, still sobbing and whimpering. Kilyne kneeled beside little Allastor, who wasn’t even half her height yet. She grabbed his head gently and directed it towards her so he could look at her.

“Mom! I didn’t mean to… I was not my fau-” His sobbing and his fear made it difficult for him to articulate complete sentences. He made two deep sobs and then he released the pressure on his chest and collapsed into a deep but low weep “It was an accident, mother…”

“Shh, I know it was…” she whispered and hugged him and he did the same in return, burying his face under her chin and against her neck. She glanced at the disaster he had made, no really believing it was him. Then she looked at the elder but still talking to her son. “It’s not your fault, my sweetie…”

There was a silence between the four dragons. Tavah alternated looks to the mother and the elder. For a moment she felt out of place but she didn’t want to leave Allastor’s side, who was still weeping on his mother’s arms. Kilyne looked at the elder, speechless and astonished about what had happened and waiting for him to say something. Then the golden looked upwards, behind the mother and the two hatchlings. She turned around and saw a shady figure on top of the second corridor that lead to the cave in the mountain. It was the Copper dragon that was watching the hatchlings before. All the dragon did was nod and waited for the Golden to do the same. He did it after a couple of seconds, and the figure moved back inside the caves. The elder stood up, as if dejected but with an expression of anger on his face, closing his eyes. He took a deep breath and sighed before speaking.

“Kilyne...” he said with a low but gloomy voice.

The way the elder spoke made the female Sapphire freeze; her look fixed on the Golden one, eyes wide open. He remained silent for a few seconds. She felt fear since he was one of the members of the dragon High Council, which meant they were nothing less than the supreme tribunal of their dragon clan. Ever since the appearance of the new Mythril dragon they have been watching the Darkflames’ in how they raised their child. Day and night, the kid was watched by an agent of the Council, and it was that Copper dragon who was assigned to the task.

“I believe that the time has come…” he finally said, looking to one side avoiding her look for some reason. The he looked at Allastor, still staining a bit of the sweet apple cream. “Give him a bath first, make him look presentable. I will be expecting you at the Halls…” He then looked at the mother waiting for an answer.

“Y-yes, milord…” she said with a soft voice and a small hint of fear, and bowed with her head.

The Golden dragon nodded, unfolded his majestic wings and took off. Tavah stared at the elder with an expression of surprise for a moment and the looked at Allastor’s mother. Kilyne, still holding his son looked at the cute face of the female hatchling and forced a smile to address to her.

“This is no place for a hatchling for now, little Tavah.” She said with a sweet tone, reaching out for her and patting the little Sapphire’s head. “Go to your mother, she ought to be worried. Go.”

Tavah nodded twice and ran up to the first corridor that led to the mountain. She stopped there to look back at Kilyne and Allastor on her arms, taking off to the nearby lake. When she turned around to look for her mother she found the large Copper dragon standing in the way, looking at the horizon and the female mother flying away from the village. The female hatchling stared at him enough time to draw his attention. All she did when the dragon looked at her with a neutral expression was do an angry face and look severely at him. The dragon raised an eyebrow still looking at the Tavah and the replied sticking her tongue out at him. The she left walking with an angry gesture. All the dragon did was a small chuckle. He looked at the village below; everyone was still picking up the tents, goods and whatever garbage was left to leave it as it was originally. Then, he turned to look at the lake, spotting the mother and her hatchling at the border while she bathed him. He remained there, looking at the horizon until they returned to the mountains and entered the cave, to keep an eye on the Diamond one, as he always had since he hatched.