Post by Erosaf on Sept 23, 2010 9:18:12 GMT 1
CHAPTER 1 – THE COURIER
Saida POV
The plains of Nuban were always perilous to cross at this time of the year. Everyone knew who ruled over the land yet none seemed to want to take him down. All except for a band of humans who had seeked refuge in the great mountains, the dwarves having long since fled from Nuban. It was known that a leader would rise out of the darkness to banish all evil from the land.
When that day would come no one knew, for there was no Sun Wyvern to ask for guidance at the moment. The last had been slain, a thousand years ago, and everywhere, the people lived in constant fear. At least not a Sun Dragon old enough to give us such answers, she was only five hundred old. That is if they were still in the human king King Zaos' lands. Those who lived outside his borders had peace for themselves.
At least for the time being they did. One day though, even they would feel the suffering of their own kind inside the borders. My people, the elves stood firm in their belief that a new leader would rise up. A prophecy had been said once and they waited for the day that it would happen.
Young is the leader of the alliances,
the Wyvern Rider of a black drake,
From in the darkness he shall come,
Filled with the light of wanted peace.
the Wyvern Rider of a black drake,
From in the darkness he shall come,
Filled with the light of wanted peace.
No one knew yet who this referred to, only that the person would not be an elf. The darkness had thus far evaded the traquil glades made by the tall trees of my homeland, Quessir Sdnal, the great southern forest that only elves live in. Once this had not been so, for we had been freinds to many a human. But then things changed and the humans were barred from our forests, killed before they even set foot under the trees, unless an elf was with them and seemed to be with them by their own free will.
None of us wanted to see our woods penetrated, but only those who were clearly of the elf kind, or half elf were permitted without question to leave or enter the border of the forest. I, like many other elves sought to find the chosen human that would help us rise up to free our world from the shadow. No elf though knew anything about him and it was certainly a slow process.
There was nothing yet that we could see as a good lead on where the boy was. We did not know if he had even been born yet. I travelled the many miles every year, covering every city outside King Zaos borders to try and find the person destined for the egg I carried. Getting our hands on the egg had not been easy, one of the others had had to sneak into Nuduien and steal it from the king himself. None of us would give it back to him without a fight now.
The only thing I knew was where the egg had come from. I sighed as we kept on the move, myself and two other elves. We could not stay in one place for too long, as we knew there were others that would be chasing after us. But we were not alone here on the ground. The moment I left the mountains with the egg again, a white dragon had come soaring to find us. She was mine after all, but I did not want any one else to know about her that was human. At least not those who were inside the darker empire of the land.
For them to know that there was a Sun Dragon again would be bad for us. King Zaos' own dragon was a Dusk Dragon and that meant trouble when the two met in the sky. They would fight to the death, as I would if I saw the human king. Eventually he would fall but I knew that it was not to be from our doing. No instead it would be the other rider who took him down. I would not live to see the peace reborn on our lands.
Velatha and I both accepted this, and knew that though I was the future heir of the elven throne, we would not do anything to stop our destiny in the war to come. As I saw things that were to happen I told her if they were to affect her. There was no point in not telling her, she always found out one way or the other. Therefore I simply told her when there were things for her to know. I did not like having her yell at me in my own head any more. Young though she had been, I knew that she was stronger now.
We were the last of the dying age of Riders. The only other rider from the old times was King Zaos. He did not know that we lived on as yet. I had no intention of him finding out until that battle happened. Nor I knew, did she want him to know of her presence.
'Orc's ahead of you, head west a bit, away from the track,' Velatha hissed.
'The kings?' I queried.
'Yes. They are searching for you three,' she replied. 'Well, more for the egg you carry. There are at least a hundred of them moving swiftly towards you.'
Where on earth does he get such numbers from? I wondered. “Let's get off the track. Velatha sees a vast troup of orc's coming along the road. They're searching for us!” I told the elf in front of me.
“As you wish, My Lady,” the elf replied, turning away from the track. We were out of the way only just in time, we heard the orc's stop where we had left the track. Just as the leader sniffed the air in our direction, Velatha dove, engulfing the entire group in one burst of flames from her mouth. They did not even see her coming before they died.
'Good job, Velatha.'
'I must do what is needed to keep you safe, Saida. Never forget that. For without you I would...'
'Die, I know, Velatha. No need to constantly remind me of that. I do not wish to lose you. We cannot afford to lose either you or me at the moment.'
She sighed as we rushed on with our horses. We would not be able to linger here for long, someone would see the smoke soon and guess that the fire had been lit deliberately. Almost three centuries had gone by since the fall of the Uruohtars. The fall of the group of elite fighters who I had been a part of. There were others I knew that may have survived, but their dragon's had not. That was the thing that saddened me most. Our numbers had been a thousand strong, then King Zaos had come to us, became one of us and then killed us off, one by one, in the beleif that we were consumed by the powers we all held.
Velatha and I had been lucky to escape that blood bath, we had fought once but never gotten close to killing the half elf that had Rhothilion. If any outcome could have happened, we would be the victorious back then. We had lived for at least two centuries before he decided we were all to fall. I had been the leader of the Uruohtar's as well, for that had been my parent's position before he killed them.
**
We reached Domethdura as the night seemed to barely have touched the world. The gates were thrown open as we came into sight, though we stopped so Velatha could join us. My horse would follow the others, seeing as we were going into one of the cities. Only seemed fair that an Uruohtar arrived on their dragon, as we always had in the days long since past.
She was a beautiful dragon. Her scales were a brilliant white colour that all seemed to sparkle almost blinding people in the sunlight. Her eyes were very elf like in appearence, though a lot deeper and meaningful. They were a deep orange in colour. Her head was the size of a horse, her eyes as large as a cart's wheel. Running down the middle of her furry face were several large spines, these ran from her nose, all the way to the tip of her tail. Out the back of her head, at least the length of a pike, were two sharp white horns. Her cheeks had dinner plate sized triangular horns coming from them, protecting her throat. A pair of massive gleaming white teeth showed at all times outside her mouth.
You could almost say that the rest of her body would have been almost the size of a large hill, but not as big as a mountain. Some of the mountains dwarfed her still, and she was always growing. She was the biggest type of dragon that there, was out of the different types. The humans often thought that it was one of her predecessors that created a whole bunch of mountains in the massive previously dwarf owned lands. It seemed to make sense, though Velatha could not beleive so.
Her body was well muscled, and out of each of the three toes on each of her four feet stretched gleaming white claws that were the length of a common human broadsword. Her wings were white with long delicate looking feathers and were easily shaped like those of an eagles. Elf bow shaped long feathers adorned the tip of her tail. When she went into battle, these feathers hardened into sharp spines that she could use as weapons.
I smiled as I climbed up into the saddle that was carefully attached to her back just in front of her wings. I was always careful not to pull on any of her scales when I was on her, she did not like it at all.
'Ready to fly little one?' she asked.
I laughed. 'Of course, Velatha.' She knew me better than that.
Velatha snorted and then leapt into the air, soaring twice over the town before soaring up to the top of the mountain that was in the middle. I heard a loud rumble as the top of the mountain opened to admit her. This was the place the Uruohtar's often spent the night, and there was one in every town. Velatha desended slowly to the ground through the air, giving ample time for all the humans to clear a space for her. The roof of the mountain sealed itself shut as we glided down.
“Greetings Uruohtar and dragon,” one of the humans called as my feet touched the ground again. I looked up and smiled. One of the human lords had come to greet us. This was something that we expected from every town really.
“Greetings to you as well, Young Lord,” I replied. I smiled, he really was alot younger than me.
“How long do you and your dragon stay with us?”
“Only for the night, we will leave again tomorrow night. As you know i carry something of great importance to the Freedom Seekers, and my own people. We cannot stay in one place too long. Are my companions coming here?”
“They wait outside, My Lady, as they always should.”
I sighed and smiled though. “I suppose that is one thing that might change one of these days. Lets see if anyone in your city can hatch a Moon Dragon shall we?”
He grinned. “All the children of the right age are waiting for you in the hall, Uruohtar.”
“Please, Saida is my name, and my dragon is Velatha, we are the last except for King Zaos to remain from the old days.”
I sighed though as we headed in that direction, I lowered my heavy thick hood back onto my shoulders as we went, I only wore it when we were flying as high as we had been. As we moved, I ran my hands through my long sandy blond hair, getting it to lie neatly.
We left the dragon area and I followed him through the streets, one hand resting on the diamond jewelled pommel of my white sword. An Uruohtar's right, the blade was, and everyone one of us had one that matched the colour of our dragon's scales. These swords were family heirlooms once a member of the family got one. Corellon mine was named, and I took a lot of pride in the sharp weapon.
It was then I heard someone unsheath their sword and I spun around, looking first at the dark copper blade and then at the face of the man who held it.
“It cannot be!” I gasped, staring at the man in shock. “You survived?”
“Aye, I did, Saida, Rider of Velatha,” the man replied.
“Where is Tolthe?” I inquired, not being able to sense the male copper Dawn dragon anywhere nearby.
“I am one of the fallen, Saida. You though, I happen to see did not lose Velatha. It pleased me to see her in the sky. I knew it would be you that was coming, seeing as there is only ever one white dragon alive at any one time.”
I bowed my head for a moment. Then the human lord who ruled the city exclaimed, “What you're a fallen Uruohtar Sontar Vandiir?”
My old freind Sontar looked at the human leader and sighed. I knew he was thinking about how much he could tell this human about the fall of his order. Especially with me standing right there beside him, not as fallen as he was, but still a fallen because our order was gone. A hard thing for the elves to come to terms with these days. Destroyed by human hands, and Sontar was one of the human Uruohtars who fell to one of his own kind. “I am, Lord Darren. No one though did I want to find out.”
Lord Darren sighed. “I would not have told anyone. No wonder you have always been able to guide me when there was need for your council. You are one of these immortals.”
“No one is immortal, Lord Darren,” I said. “We are still able to be slain, but to get that lucky is not oft possible for someone who is not one of us.” That was all I could say in this matter. He would know that I meant 'get past our dragon' by getting lucky enough to kill us.
“Is Velatha well?” Sontar asked. “There is something I would like for her to see, seeing as they all say the Sun dragon can bring back fallen dragons.”
'Can you do that?' I asked Velatha.
'Only if provided with one thing that all dragon's have inside of them,' she replied. 'bring him to see me.'
“Velatha is well and fine at the moment, Sontar. I came here carrying something for the human children to touch once more.”
“You are becoming a familiar face here, Saida,” Sontar said, noticing that people were running out of their houses to watch me as I moved towards the hall.
That was what he thought, was it? I knew better and decided to tell him why I was really here. What he thought was a mere story. “It is more than people know what I bring with me, more than being well known,” I chuckled.
My mind registered that the other elves were close now. Then the other elves appeared out of one of the streets and moved to walk on either side of me.
I smiled though as I moved, knowing there was one reason they were here, and that was because I was the one that was to be their queen one day. That was the day that I managed to find the egg's rider.
We moved quickly now, into the hall, I withdrew the black egg from my pack as I walked through the last of the crowd of children. I took two deep breaths before saying, “Form a line, children, and let us see if any of you are the one fated to be the partner of this egg.”
The children moved into a single line, all of them wanting to touch it. At least fifty children there were, and it took until after dark for the entire group to go past the egg. It remained stubbornly still, without a single crack on its shell. All the children seemed dissapointed about that. As were the elves with me. This human Uruohtar was getting more and more harder to find.
I pushed the egg back into its pouch unhappily. This was starting to get fruitless. Many years I had spent searching for this rider, and the egg stayed dormant.
“I suppose while I am here, we could give a little demonstration to the children of the strengths of the Uruohtars,” I said, moving to stand with the others again.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Sontar enthused. “But who here could possibly match your strength?”
“Let's show Velatha what ever you have to show her first,” I replied. “Then we can worry about that.”
He nodded and we headed back to the dragon area, he was permitted in, at a word from me, but the others had to remain outside again.
Velatha snorted as she saw Sontar. “Greetings, Sontar, Rider of Tolthe,” she said, smiling a little at him. Because he was right there in front of her, she spoke like any human or elf did, instead of within our joint mind.
Sontar bowed his head and then placed what looked like a dinner plate sized diamond shaped piece of copper on the ground.
Velatha surged to her feet at the sight of it as we both retreated from it. I watched as a continuous streak of flamed poured from her mouth as she commanded, “Awaken, Tolthe!”
The copper diamond seemed to melt and then reform, as she closed her jaws and stopped the flames. Copper spread across the ground and then seemed to pile itself up, forming the massive shape of a copper dragon. Three hundred years younger than Velatha, yet as beautiful, the copper dragon turned his head and lowered it to Sontar.
“Sontar,” the male dragon rumbled.
“Tolthe!” Sontar exclaimed, stroking the copper cheeks in joy. He then looked up and said, “Thank you Velatha.”
“You are most welcome, Sontar and Tolthe. I am glad to have been able to help you both,” Velatha replied, smiling down at me.
Instead of being scale covered like Velatha was, Tolthe was completely furred from head to toes to the tip of his tail. A mane of longer fur covered his neck, and I knew that showed he was male. The female Dawn dragons did not have that thicker hair on their necks.
“Now that demonstration will be easier. Let's see how much you have forgotten, Sontar,” I said. There was the tiniest challenge in my voice this time. He laughed. I knew though that he would not pass the idea over though. He was as competitive as I was.
“Let's!” he agreed.
Tolthe was only about a third of the size of Velatha, but I knew he was a very strong dragon all the same. He was going to grow swiftly for the next eighteen months, he'd double in size, so that he'd gain the size he lost. However I knew that he would never be as big as my Velatha.
I chuckled though as i headed out of the resting area and into the greater canyon. I could see scores of children and adults alike moving to find places to sit.
Velatha and I headed out, followed by Tolthe and Sontar. That certainly drew a lot of gasps from the assembled crowd. I sighed, I had expected this reaction from them all. Using magic to make my voice heard by everyone. “Do not worry. Velatha and I both trust this Uruohtar and his dragon. Velatha herself gave copper Tolthe his body back.”
I waited for things to quieten down again before adding, “Now, Sontar and I are going to show you all just why King Zaos and Rhothilion should fear all of us, the Freedom Seekers!”
Everyone seemed to listen when I said that, not to mention they all seemed to sit down as I pointed one palm at Velatha and muttered, “Amoro uruloki!” Dragon armour! Finely crafted but durable steel armour seemed to appear out of no where, covering every inch of Velatha, except her wings. She needed to be able to fly after all. Her tail feathers constricted into sharp spines and she roared.
I did not even feel the light diminish in strength from doing so. Though the spell, was a good drain on someone's energy. I felt nothing from its use. For me, using magic was nothing, I had the strength for any task, seeing as I was over five hundred years old. We were a formidable pair and as the last pieces of armour appeared on Tolthe, Sontar was summoning, Velatha stretched like a giant cat, her armour rubbing on other pieces. Then once more, she bounded into the air, getting used to the weight.
My eyes ran over the copper dragon. “Sontar, when I had your sword created, you were not fully trained.” I paused, remembering the words I had said upon giving it to him. “I remember myself promising you, that if time permitted I would finish your training. Now we have that time, therefore you may travel with me and my companions so that I have the chance to do so.”
He nodded. “Aye, I remember.”
“Good. I was not really giving you a choice in the matter, Sontar. I was telling you that you would be finishing your training with me once more,” I told him. I smiled though, he knew that I was one of the kinder elves.
“I can't come into the forest,” he complained.
“Oh yes you can. As my guest you will be able to, Sontar.”
“Oh.” Clearly he had not considered that before now. He grinned though. “It will be good to see those forests again.
“How else am I meant to keep you from King Zaos' knowledge as well? There are not many places to hide, Sontar. I know all of them, and he knows all but a few of them.”
“Then how am I meant to keep Tolthe hidden and safe?” he asked.
“Leave that one to me. I know that man better than anyone alive now realises, seeing as I have had to deal with him for the last... three hundred years.”
Velatha landed then and looked at us both. “Are we going to fight or not?” she asked. I knew that she wanted to get a bit of practice in with her own pupil. Tolthe was her son after all. She would not hurt him all that much, seeing as she knew that was the truth about him.
I sprang up onto her as lightly as I had always, and she leapt into the air, humming with some anticipation at the evening to come. There was just so much we could show these other humans that were our allies, and so little time to do so. Many a century had gone by since we had seen peace, and only a handful more years would Velatha be Sun Dragon of Nuban.
“Do not think of the things to come, Saida. They will come as they come. You know that, my rider,” Velatha said.
“I know that but it is not the easiest thing for me, seeing as I oft see the future before it happens, you know that.”
“We will deal with things as you see them. Until that happens, do not worry yourself about the future.”
I sighed as Tolthe darted towards us, a snarl on his face. “Time to put into practise skills we have yet to use for a long time,” I growled and Velatha dove to meet the dragon.
He dodged and she flipped over, I easily remained in the saddle as she flipped around to meet his grabbing legs. There was nothing I could not handle when it came to her. I had flown a lot with her over the last five centuries. No greater opponent was there than us when we were in the sky. Eventually we would tear King Zaos apart! As we should have done, years ago. Would have saved a lot of lives if we had. I had shown mercy though, and look what it had cost everyone. This time he would get no mercy from us.
We would become the hunters, not he. And this time, we would be the ones that came out on top. All these things flashed through my head as Velatha and Tolthe attacked each other. Eventually, Tolthe was forced to the ground by Velatha. I slipped to the ground, drawing Corellon as Sontar did the same. While it was obvious that Sontar was thinking as he did everything, I was acting from memory. Not one thought went through my head as we fought each other, I knew these things too well.
To say I was much swifter would have been a massive understatement. It was obvious though that I had no thought of killing in my head though as I moved my sword arm. Eventually the bronze sword, Aelasar fell to the ground. I smiled though, lowering my sword. Everyone who was watching would have known from that that if I had wanted to, I could have killed him, seeing as Velatha had Tolthe pinned under her.
“This is only a smaller example of the things Velatha and I can do. Only the eldest of dragons can do most of the things we know, and Tolthe is by far too young for us to show all of those things to you. He would be over run,” I explained why we had stopped fighting. Tolthe snarled at me, clearly not agreeing. “From the old days of peace, I live on, the leader of the Uruohtar's of old!” That drew a gasp from the crowd of watching humans. No one would have expected me to be that powerful Uruohtar.
I let Sontar go and he retrieved his sword. I knew that he was a little stunned by the fact that I had fought only too gracefully for me age. To the humans I was ancient, but to the elves, I was young. The best of us lived for at least a millennium and a half, before we died. I though, would die young. A regretful thing, but needed, if peace was to come to us.
I had not even powered up in the fight against Tolthe. Against a juvenile dragon like him, there was no need at all. Velatha was not even breathing hard, though Tolthe was. “You will learn eventually, Sontar, the true power within you. Not for months yet though. What you fought just then was weakness for me. Had Velatha and I used our full strength against you, you would have died within seconds.”
His eyes widened as he heard that. “How strong are you really?”
I looked up to where Lord Darren was. I thought about what I was going to ask him before I spoke once more. “Is there somewhere strong enough in here that can withstand the post powerful of riders and dragons without us leaving a scratch?”
“The enclave behind me is the strongest, Lady Saida.”
I nodded and climbed up onto Velatha once more, after resending her armour back to the forest with a quick spell. “Go ahead and find somewhere to watch from, Sontar and Tolthe. You will like this.”
They nodded and headed up to join all the other humans. I hoped it would not be too much of a squeeze for them to have Tolthe up with all of them as well. They would managed though around having him taking up a fair chunk of space, I was sure. I saw the humans clearing a big space for Tolthe to relax in.
I smiled though as Velatha leapt into the air, I was muttering a spell under my breath as she moved through the air. “Glory of the sun dragon, harness the strength of the suns rays after which you get your strength.”
Velatha seemed to shimmer with the light of the sun's rays, though it was night time now completely. She snarled as I leapt down from her. All of the humans gasped as they saw her true beauty and strength.
“Shield the eyes!” I commanded my magic again. Velatha snarled and then her body seemed to blind everyone with its light. My magic though was shielding them from the blindness that they would have gotten. It took a lot of focus to do that though, they would realise that I hoped.
Then I motioned for one of the other elves to come forwards. I knew that he had been a rider once, but was more fallen than Sontar had been. He had lost the stone for his day dragon, so Velatha could not do that which she had for Tolthe. Something that saddened us a great deal. We had both liked his dragon, but she was gone from us. Likely in King Zaos' clutches, if her stone lived on. She would remain there until his death if we could not recover her.
I smiled though as Velatha attacked the spectral dragon that I created with magic. I was the one in complete control of the creature, and I knew that Velatha was enjoying herself. Every rider had a dragon inside them, seperate to the one that they were bonded to. So very few though learnt to bring out this inner dragon. Mine was shockingly a green dusk dragon, but Velatha knew that she would always come first. There was no doubt about that for anyone.
The dragons seemed to fight with a fierce ferociousness that I could see that the other humans in the room were completely shocked by the massive strength that Velatha was able to hold. More than once she sent the other dragon crashing into one of the walls, though I tried to fight it when it happened. When she was finished, and I was feeling quite drained of energy, a rare thing for me, the green dragon faded away.
Then the elf I had called over chuckled, knowing that I wanted to fight with him. Though it would not just be with our own swords, seeing as we both knew the strength of the dragons we had been bonded to. Somehow, he could still communicate with his dragon, and I knew that he would do so now. Only in order to harness the strength of his mighty dragon.
To an onlooker, you would think we were fighting with the same speed as each others thoughts, though magic seemed to blast from us more that once. Velatha was chuckling in one corner as I fought, knowing that I was playing with the other elf. Gradually, my powers increased though, I was being cautious as I did not wish to hurt the other elf. It was soon clear that even he could not withstand my powers.
“Only a dusk rider can withstand my true strength, though dawn dragons are strong. Day dragons though cannot hope to win a fight against Velatha and I,” I said, as I stopped attacking him.
~~
I smiled as I re-saddled Velatha after a good night's rest. Was almost time to get on the road again, and this time I knew that we would get very close to the forest by nightfall.
“You enjoyed yourself last night, didn't you?” she asked.
“I doubt you would have enjoyed yourself any less than I did. It was a good night last night. I suppose showing them the power that is on their side was a good thing. These humans need reminders like that every now and again.”
She chuckled and stood up. Sontar and Tolthe came in then, and I knew that Tolthe was eager to take to the skies again.
“Your training starts again once we are in the woods,” I told them. “Out here is too risky, and we all have to be on our guard here, as it is not a safe land.”
Sontar nodded.
“I understand,” Tolthe replied.
“Try and keep a calm head whilst we are on the move,” I told the copper dragon. He nodded.
I knew he was excited to have a chance to be in the sky after so many years of being in his stone. Velatha had not seen the need ot give her stone up as yet, and I knew that she never would. Also if Tolthe got too excited up there, I knew that Velatha would tell him off herself. She had taught him to fly personally.
“Lord Aaron comes,” Velatha muttered.
I nodded and smiled as Aaron came in, followed by the two elves that travelled with me. Our horses followed them in, unafraid of the dragons. They were well bred and had grown up with Velatha around them.
“I wish you luck on your search, Head Uruohtar,” the human lord said. He looked at Sontar. “may we meet again.”
“It had been an honour living here, Lord Aaron,” Sontar replied.
“And we enjoyed staying here overnight,” I thanked him.
“Indeed,” Velatha confirmed. “One of these days, we shall return to you.”
“Until we meet again,” Aaron replied.