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Chance

The next morning came by as the darkness of the night was lifted.

Sun shone through the open window of Xiciro's home, shared with his love, Legna. With the return of Avila, she had helped him in at least giving her a peaceful sleep not plagued with nightmares of the ambush. Her blinded state did not help her through the day, but Xiciro did give her the rest she needed and everything she needed. He just wished there's some way he could undo the blindness.

Flying towards Qeveriyt, which was some hours away, was something that Xiciro always got annoyed with. Not only did Qeveriyt was shielded, it was also in the middle of a sandstorm as a natural barrier. Fortunately, Xiciro knew how to use a portal magic. He channeled the darkness inside him and produced a direct link towards the center of the town. He crossed it and closed the portal behind him, knowing that it would attract more attention than it should. Not many dragons could use portals to travel.

Avila sensed his appearance and approached him the moment the portal was closed. She was bewildered and surprised, which somehow made Xiciro felt accomplished.

"You...used a portal? Like Sannourah?"

"It's not hard to copy an ability once you know the basic components," said Xiciro. "It's quite convenient, to be honest. I don't need to waste three hours to fly here."

"Yeah, that's convenient, but we need to talk."

Avila directed him towards a nearby tent. Suspicions and over-awareness had caused Xiciro to lose his ability to trust, even if that dragon was someone he knew like Yort. But here, Avila, his former enemy, wanted to talk to him in a serious manner, which he thought could only mean one thing.

"I don't care about your shady personality, but do I need to remind you that you are acting suspicious last night?"

"So?"

"I don't want to feel suspicious around you, anymore, you got that? You've proven yourself to be our ally, but what you did last night...no, the whole week, made me curious. Are you hiding something from me?"

"It is not important," said Xiciro with a dismissing tone. "Now, if you're finished, I have better things to do."

But just as he moved over the giant tent cover, Avila said, "I will be there when you decided to betray us."

"And I will be waiting, but for now, I'm-

Xiciro took a glimpse of a familiar object hanging around a dragon's neck. He knew that insignia. It was small, but he knew that insignia. He looked towards the dragon that was wearing that thing. It was a black-scaled dragon not bigger than most older dragon, so Xiciro could conclude that he was around 90 or maybe almost 200, but not over that. His wings were still dark and his face looked very prim. Based on observation, he could be right, but that was out of habit. Right now, his attention was towards the thing hanging on his neck like a necklace.

The dragon was talking to a red-scaled dragon, and it seemed like a daily banter. Upon closer inspection, however, Xiciro could see that he was wearing something around his chest part. He looked like a courier, which was something that was common around Qeveriyt. They needed communication and the fastest and reliable communication these days were dragons. But still, Xiciro did not care of the details. He was fixated to the object dangling under his neck.

Without waiting for them to stop talking, he said, "Good morning, good fellows. Fine day for a hunt, don't you think?"

The black-scaled looked towards him and said, "It is, old one. We were just talking about it. I hear the mountains due west of here have many preys. But, uh, do you mind?"

"I'm sorry for interrupting you, but I wonder where did you get that necklace?"

"Necklace?" He looked down. "Oh! Sorry, I think I did not tuck it in properly. Don't want it to be lost, right?"

"Yes, or you'll be shot down from the skies."

Xiciro made a laugh a dragon would sound like, while the younger black dragon was laughing nervously with him. The red one did not find it funny, though, since his expression turned sour.

"Oh, sorry if I offend you, red one," said Xiciro. "But...your necklace looks suspiciously like a craving of a northern flower. Are you from the north?"

"No, I don't. I uh...like flowers?"

"I know dragons who like flowers, and you don't smell like one. In fact, I think you are one of them, aren't you?"

"One of them? Look, old one, if you have a thought in mind, why don't you just tell me?"

Xiciro could sense murderous intent from the red dragon, and it seemed that his suspicions were starting to prove itself. He then said, "I think I can tell you a piece of my mind."

All of the sudden, the Argoon used a disembodied darkness, shaped into a hand, to grab the smaller dragon's neck. The force was so strong that almost broke his neck, but Xiciro tried not to. The red dragon quickly roared and spitted fireball towards him, but the Argoon dragon looked towards him and the fireball was engulfed in darkness.

"I think you're working with them, the anti-dragons," said Xiciro while Avila walked towards him. The red dragon then proceeded to roar and ran towards Xiciro, but he stopped dead in his track by Avila, who used darkness to restrain him to the ground.

"Now why don't you tell me where the hell is my mate, hmm?" said Avila while approaching the red dragon. "Tell me or I'll make your fear comes true."

"Avila, don't..."

But then Xiciro felt another darkness behind him and he turned towards the black dragon. There was clearly a dark aura around him, and it was eroding Xiciro's own manifestation.

"What do you think you're doing with my darkness?" said Xiciro calmly.

The black dragon suddenly eroded the darkness and fell to the ground. He recovered quickly before he ran away. Xiciro sighed and started following him, but then he fell to the ground after losing touch with the darkness that sustained his bone legs. He looked towards that leg and towards the black dragon, and said, "This is why I hate running."

But before the dark dragon could run faster, he was blown back to where he came from. Out from one of the tents, came out Cynder, who quickly used her own darkness to restrain the black dragon. His attempt to erode the darkness was stopped when the young dragoness approached him and said, "Forget reality". The black dragon quickly lost consciousness.

Xiciro approached her and said, "You're Avila's friend, right? That was a spectacle back there."

"Thank you, but...Avila?"

Xiciro turned towards Avila and he saw her using her powerful darkness to get into the red dragon's mind. The dragon was writhing, roaring, and tried to get out, but he seemed to not be able to. Avila shouted "Where is my mate?! Where is Seraphor?!" many times and she kept giving the red dragon powerful illusion of fear that it started to broke the red dragon.

"If she keeps going, that red dragon will become a vegetable!"

"Avila, stop this instant!" exclaimed Xiciro while approaching her. "He cannot stand the fear!"

"If there is a small hope of finding Sera, I will take it! He's an enemy, so he deserves to die for being with them!"

"Think! Do you think these degenerates tell their slaves about a secret? Do you think they are that generous? They are nothing but incompetent fools who dared to fight against the dragons and think that they know everything after enslaving dragons. Avila, that dragon that is going brain-dead does not know anything. He's just a spy. We can still root out many dragons like him if he's still alive. All we have to do is to stop, Avila."

"You have one already. This one does not need to live," said Avila with a cold stare. She turned towards the red dragon. He was clearly so scared and tried to vainly struggle against the restraint. Avila then said, "But he does not deserve to die, either."

Xiciro knew Avila was not thinking straight. Her desire for revenge and need to kill had overwhelmed her logical reasoning. Knowing that she would not stop tarnishing her own reputation, clouded by a wrong judgement, Xiciro had no other choice. He touched her and negated the effect of her darkness. Avila was surprised by this and looked towards Xiciro. The older Argoon dragon then said, "This is for your own good, Avila. I'm sorry."

She then fell to the ground, unconscious, undoing the darkness. Cynder quickly walked towards the scared red dragon and said, "You're safe now. Forget the reality. Dream...think of the best moment in your life, and go to sleep."

The red dragon looked so calmed, and closed his eyes. Cynder sighed and said, "I only ease his pain, but he will be scarred for life."

"You...said your ability is also fear, but it does not look like so."

"I try not to be the darkness that I once was," said Cynder. "But...about that dragon...I've never seen a dark dragon in this world."

"They were once a variety of dragon races with powerful dark abilities. Me and Avila are Argoon, while Bartoz...he's not here right now, is an entirely different race."

"So it seems. Then tell me. How do you walk with that kind of leg?"

Xiciro wanted to explain to her that it was complex, but seeing her own amputated leg made him feel like she wanted to actuall know how to walk normally again. He smiled to her.

"My dear, I think we will get along very well," he said.

The shock of another covert attack happening only a week after the failed skirmish on Xici kingdom made every dragon aware of it to realize that it wasn't safe anymore, despite of the shields. The Order had started to conduct a meeting to talk about the situation, but nothing could be done about it. Not only did they unable to find a way for a solution, they were not able to trust each other anymore. The red dragon was still traumatized, and the mysterious black dragon could not be touched due to his darkness ability. Avila decided to not go to the meeting, knowing that she was out of control and needed to step down before anyone got hurt, be it humans or dragons. She was also surprised by her own brutality, which would certainly give her bad reputation for it. Despite of this, however, no one seemed to care except for those closest to her, like Xiciro and the Dark Sentinels.

Xiciro, however, had something in mind with the black dragon. He knew the black dragon had some kind of dark-based ability that could erode other darkness. It was not the same, but similar, concept with his own darkness-negating ability. With his self being a cursed one, he could use darkness and fear, and he used illusion to let the black dragon talk.

"Where is the Anti-Dragon base?" said Xiciro calmly.

"Nowhere, and is not your goddamn business."

"Wanna bet on it?"

"We can fight out there to a standstill, and I'll bet my life we will," said the black dragon. "You think illusion can stop me?"

Xiciro sighed, knowing that dealing with a dark dragon would prove pointless. He was lucky with Avila since she was inexperienced and her dark angel form hadn't manifested yet. Even with his vast knowledge, it wouldn't be useful in fights, either way.

"Alright, you win this one, young one," said Xiciro while releasing the illusion. "But don't think for once I will let you off easy."

"I am smart enough to know that, old one," said the black dragon, with a mocking tone on the 'old one'. "I want to negotiate my way out of this place, and I'll tell them..."

"That we got no beef? Oh, don't mind me, I'm just quoting what the young one said these days. I'm letting you go, of course. There's no use holding you in this cramped tent."

"Then you'll follow me to where I go, right? You won't have that chance, either. See, I know what you are going to do, black dragon. The red doesn't know, but I know, and I am not working with those sons of bitches. Those humans are just thinking that we are on their side."

"Well, that's new," said Avila, coming in. "Never thought I heard that from a traitor. Do you think you expect me to believe that?"

"Try me, bitch."

Xiciro suddenly rushed towards him and grabbed his neck with his front claws. The smaller dragon was choking on it and tried to claw Xiciro with darkness, but realize that he couldn't do it.

"You got your trick and I have mine. There's one thing you don't call a female dragon and that's a bitch. Don't compare her with a mutt that's even lower than a human."

"Hey, hey! Stop it, Xiciro! What the hell are you doing?!"

"You don't feel offended of all this?"

"I'm supposed to, but you reacted faster than I do!"

The black dragon glared at Xiciro and tried to concentrate to manifest his dark power. Xiciro was surprised when the black dragon could actually manifest darkness while being negated. But just as he tried to attack Xiciro, Avila swept her tail and a very sharp, invisible wind blades cut through the floor in front of the dragon.

"That will be the last time you'll ever call me a 'bitch', asshole," said Avila while walking towards him. "You don't want to get diced, do you?"

"Okay, okay, you win." He then turned towards Xiciro. "You got one strong female here."

"You'll be surprised how popular she is. Now tell us why you claimed to not be associated with the Anti-dragons?"

"Seriously are you Westerners such unimaginative bunch? They are the Dragonsbane!"

"Poetic name, from a northern flower."

"So why helping them, then?" asked Avila.

The black dragon hesitated to told her, but when he knew he had no chance to get out with Avila around, he sighed and said, "We are being blackmailed by those dragon-hating humans to serve them or our race is extinct. We don't want to tell them that we are more than capable to fight them, but they have our eggs hostage. We lost two of them to a facility near the sea. I don't want to know what the hell is in there, but I'm pretty sure it is a lockup for dragons."

"That was quick."

"What do you expect? I don't like to engage in fights, but you two seems to be so easy to be triggered. Aren't you supposed to be the wise knowledgeable type, old one?"

"And you are supposed to be the smart, genius one," said Xiciro. "Why are you starting a conversation with the red dragon?"

"He was my friend. Of course he's not! That was encrypted message. He's one of them. You can't trust dragons in this small dragon settlement. It won't work."

"That's the basis of this community," said Avila.

He scoffed. "Maybe, if it is a thousand years ago. Opening your gate to the world is the first mistake you've ever done."

"And not opening your doors are also the first mistake you've ever done," said Xiciro. "Besides, Argoons can't alienate their own race, right?"

Avila and the black dragon gasped in surprise, but then he took a closer look on Xiciro, then to Avila, before he said, "Why am I not seeing this? An Awakened and a Dark Angel? In the West? You've gotta be kidding me."

"Wait, he's one of ours?" asked Avila to Xiciro. Xiciro did not immediately talk to her, thinking that she had found out about their relationship, but he was glad it did not come to that. I would overwhelm her.

"I find it odd that his darkness could erode mine and being able to manifest darkness despite of being negated. Not only that, he could withstand my illusion, which is something dark dragons could not normally do, like your own allies. That's smart of you, not giving out that sparkling scale layer. I think you are also a cursed one."

"I'm Awakened, like you, old one," said the Argoon. "We are different, that's all."

"But why didn't you tell us about it?"

"How can I trust a black, Western dragon?"

"You know that sounds racist, right?"

"For a human, of course. You are genuinely untrustworthy, but seeing that you two are western Argoons, at least you can be trusted. To be honest, I don't know anything about their plan, but if you want to follow me back to the south, we can tell you how much you've missed out."

While the black dragon talked with Avila, Xiciro walked out and approached the wooden building housing some of the Order members. The meeting had just finished, and many of the dragons were on their separate ways, some with their riders. Some of them noticed Xiciro and greeted him, but one in particular approached him. He was a familiar green dragon.

"It seems that your questioning is not bearing any fruits," said Yort.

"He's one of us. He's an Argoon dragon."

Yort was surprised and looked away. Xiciro did remember that Argoon dragons were forced to go to the south, but he did not think that they would actually want to return to the west. The part of that history was not detailed in his mind since many accounts of it had been lost in time.

"Xiciro...I'm sorry...he shouldn't be here..."

"The past is the past, Yort."

"If I am historian, yes, but...I took part on their banishment, Xiciro. I knew one of their ancestors...and possibly yours, too."

Xiciro realized that he was talking with a living history. He then stopped interrupting Yort so he could continue.

"The reason no Argoon dragons were in the Western Region is not because they are a rare race. No, Xiciro, they are not. Grandos and Abridorn...were forced to kill some of the Argoon dragons because they betrayed us."

"To the Dragonsbane?"

Yort nodded. "If that's what you call them, then so be it. Basically, it wasn't all of them. One of them, a vile worm named Valutja, took it upon himself and betrayed our information to the enemy. We respected him and he was one of us, too, but Valutja's greed took the best of him, and he betrayed us for a sum of gold inside the capital's coffers. It may look clichéd, but it happened. Since then, the reason why human's storybook always portrayed black dragons as evil and dangerous type of dragon is because of him. Abridorn managed to kill him, and by the order of the humans, we were forced to banish them to where they belonged and never returned to us."

"And you follow the whims of those small beings?"

Yort became serious. "Our relationship with them will not be what we are today if not for the Argoon's banishment. You and Avila were the lucky ones that only I remembered that part of the history and was the only one that experienced it. We promised ourselves, and our younglings, to not remember this event. Official scrolls and books were destroyed, and our more...savvy ones took it upon themselves and made them forget with a simple magic. But I doubt that Argoon inside that tent will ever forgive us...if he's not being taught that all his life."

"There's a reason why he needs to go to the West, and I found it. Some of his race's eggs were taken to a facility. I think it's something like a dragon prison."

"Ancestors...did the Dragonsbane did that? That is beyond our tolerance! We need to do something about it or our dignity won't last!"

"Do not tell me that one of that is a direct assault to be prison."

"We are not that stupid! Okay, calm down, Yort, we can get through this." After Yort calmed down, he said, "This may feel like an order, but I want you to escort that Argoon back to his kin."

"Why should I?"

"Aside from you being the same race as him, you know how to negotiate. If they still don't trust Westerners, the simple fact that your ancestors were also theirs could sway them to our side."

"A great idea, Yort, but I'm an outsider. I'm not in your small group of dragons, and I don't plan to."

"Which makes you an asset. We cannot risk losing our fighters when the time comes. Oh, and uh...I want you to take Avila."

Xiciro was surprised. "I thought she's with you."

"Not officially, just like Seraphor did. Don't worry, we won't tell anyone, but you need to set off in the middle of the night, when there is little activity. We don't need a hero's farewell and attract attention, right?"

The Argoon nodded and turned to get inside the tent. Whatever the Order needed, they needed it now. He did not want to be associated with them in fear of being exposed one day or another, but if it could help him gain a trust with Avila made her his friend, he would gladly do so. Yort was his only true friend that he could trust, and he was willing to do it if it was him.

After telling his fellow Argoon dragons the plans, Avila nodded, while the black dragon just stood there and listen closely. Xiciro finished the briefing and let them talk. No one had any questions, and Xiciro nodded to them.

"We'll set off an hour from now. Get some rest."

Before Xiciro walked out, he said, "Anyway, what's your name?"

"My name is Avet, and you are?"

"Xiciro."

"Nice knowing you."

"Likewise." Xiciro walked out of the tent and looked towards the south. The journey to prove his self-worth had started. He wished he would have the strength to tell his daughter that he was her father, but that would wait.

Right now, he was interested in meeting those of his own race.