A new home

The clouds around Shervan seemed to be dancing around the mountains they covered, leaving to his draconic sight only their snowy peaks. The morning air that sustained his wings sent shivering, yet someway pleasant thrills in his black scales. All was so similar to his hatchlinghood's home, but at the same time, if possible, it was way wilder and more impenetrable.

Shervan and the two other dragons had been flying until night had come. He had barely uttered a word, concentrating on flying the best he could despite his wound. Iexolud and Erifor had been silent as well. The Great Hunt was still going on: no unnecessary distractions were allowed.

"The Gyrader valley is there," Iexolud then announced, pointing below the clouds with his head. What Shervan saw was a gargantuan ring of impossibly high mountains, where the clouds left some space enough to let a green valley be glimpsed. Some green and brown elements were present though, and they did not resemble trees or rocks at all. Rather, they were...

"A HUMAN VILLAGE!" Instinctively, Shervan flew away, before being blocked by Erifor.

"No, it's not what you think," he yelled, "it's the Gyraders' village. They keep us hidden from the rest of the world."

"I..." He swallowed and painfully forced himself to ignore what was still a menace in his mind. He had sworn he would follow them. He couldn't go back...

'It's madness', an annoying, yet reasonable voice kept resounding in his brain. No way humans would ever protect dragons. That was against the natural order of things. They could never share one world together: they were destined to be in an eternal fight to survive. Every dragon in Krisar knew that.

What had encouraged to accept Iexolud's offer had been more a strange sense of curiosity. Just a try. To see if all was true. To see if they were really protected...and have a family...and be happy with each oth_

'Concentrate on flying!' his mind roared to him. His sight rapidly got back on the sea of clouds that permeated the whole environment, although still with some fear.

"That mountain," Iexolud then said.

The rocky formation the old dragon had pointed had nothing remarkable to Shervan's eyes. Snowy top, clouds, some vegetation here and there: just like the others around. With a deep plunge, both Iexolud and Erifor, to Shervan's astonishment, dove into the clouds.

The black dragon stopped himself in the middle of the air. His survival instincts were screaming their protest all together.

"Get here!" The blue head of Erphjor appeared from the clouds - on that old head's orders, he immediately suspected. "Our cave is just below!"

"I...uh..."

He stood in mid air, but he couldn't think of anything against following them. Slowly, he forced himself to go straight inside the clouds. For a single moment he saw nothing but plain gray, but then it ceased.

The two dragons stayed on a rock ledge, big enough to accommodate at least two more of them, which opened to a cave. A red and yellow light came from the large hole, accompanied by an unmistakable smell of a...

"Your cave is on fire!" Shervan yelled.

"No, no!" Iexolud laughed. "It's our fireplace. One of the things humans taught us."

"What..."

"We just sit in front of it and enjoy its warmth. Fire does not have to be a weapon. It can also make your home more pleasant."

A home. A real home, offered to him. A home to share with other dragons like him. Just like it used to be...Shervan watched his legs and realized they were trembling.

"Are you fine?" Erifor asked him.

The young dragon moved his mouth, but only a fleeble growl came out. He gave a look at Iexolud, whose elder eyes were solidly on him. Suddenly, he didn't see anymore a demented elder, but a gentle savior.

Could that be, finally, the end of his suffering?

"I'm...I'm fine," he said, emitting a weak voice that did not belong to him, "I'm just suddenly so...so..."

"Tired?" Iexolud got closer. "You can rest inside and we'll keep an eye on your wound, don't worry..."

"No, it's not that...not only that." There was a word for that strange, forgotten feeling that was pervading him. It was a curious, yet pleasant warmth. He felt he used to know that sensation, when he lived with his family...he was very...very...

"Happy?" Erifor finally proposed.

Shervan was not sure if that was the word he was looking for, but it sounded good enough.

"I think so."

He looked at the clouds around the mountain. Somewhere behind them, the spirits of his parents and his sister were praising him. He rose his head up, let out a roar to them, this time not a mourning, low one, but a full, energetic dragon roar. Its powerful sound resonated through the rocks.

"What was that?" Iexolud asked, amused.

"I was telling my family that I am happy," the young dragon announced. He got closer to Iexolud.

"So," the elder concluded, happily, "it sounds like you are going to stay with us?"

Shervan hadn't expected to have the answer so soon, but here it was.

"I will," he finally said, "I don't want to be alone anymore."

Suddenly, he felt the urge to open himself to them, to tell his story of frustration and loneliness. "They said it was just natural that I would lose them, but I have never accepted that. Ever. Even after learning to deal with solitude, I have always saluted their spirits every day after." He paused. "I don't know what's so different with me...why I need so bad to be together with someone else, while for others company was just a matter defending ourselves better...but you have saved me." He bowed his head deep and rubbed it on Iexolud's neck, in a sign of devotion and servitude. "I will be forever grateful for you."

"Shervan," the old dragon accepted the gesture and nosed him back, "I may know what made you different there in Krisar. You may have a trait that dragons who live there missed, apart from some...and those who had it, millennia ago, travelled across the ocean and became the ancestors of the dragons that live this land."

"What do you...mean?"

Iexolud smiled. "Ah, all the years I've lived, and I still cannot describe it..." he paused. "It is something so innate for the dragons of Gyr'end, that we do not have a name for it. Everyone knows dragons in Krisar are solitary, from the reports of the most adventurous ones who crossed the ocean, but I didn't know they actually aggregated themselves in families like us. Still, your words reveal that if they hadn't to defend themselves from slayers, they wouldn't."

"No wait," Shervan interrupted him, "my parents cared about me and my sister. We were never without at least one of them close to us. It's just, I remember them telling us, when it was night, uh...what are they called..."

"Stories?" Once again Erifor, who was just watching them, came to his support.

"Yes...stories. Well...except that I don't know why, I always had this urge...to rub myself on them, to show them I needed them and, well... they would go away from me. Even my sister. I would curl up and sob..." he was talking more than he had talked in his years of exile. Finally, he had someone to tell his...yes, story was the word for that. He needed to say how badly, in his whole existence, had he missed that thing not even Iexolud had a name for. "But they were the only ones I could do that with, so I would do it again and again...and even now I can't renounce showing their spirits how I..." he paused. Too many words were absent in his mind, the last inheritance of what had been stolen from his life.

Iexolud rubbed his snout with his own one, a gesture Shervan accepted. "I promise, you will now find what you have missed. You have my word." He gave a look at the fireplace inside the cave. "Come, it is time I introduce you to the others."

"Yes."

The three dragons entered into the cave. As they proceeded to get closer to the fireplace - an exquisite aroma that Shervan had forgotten - a dragon in the distance walked towards them. It was a male, with scales of a crimson color, apart from a large white stripe on his torso, showed the same signs of age as Iexolud and - the young dragon gasped - a sinister detail.

"Iexolud..." Shrkvaen gasped "that dragon's left wing..."

"It happened during the War," the old dragon said dry, "an...accident. Nothing that happened here. Please wait for some time before asking about it."

Shervan nodded. Iexolud was showing himself to be reliable, there was no reason to doubt him. The crimson dragon came in front of them, and greeted them in a voice that was way more cavernous than Iexolud's, yet joyful and friendly.

"Iexolud! Erifor!" He almost seemed to jump from joy, despite his handicap. "You made it!"

"Yes, we did!" Iexolud replied, exchanging a nose muzzle with him. "Shervan, this is my life mate, Talork."

"Life mate?" he was not sure he understood. "I...don't know what is."

"It just means that we really care for each other," Talork said, "never heard of it?"

The young dragon lowered his head. "No..."

"Talork, forgive him," Iexolud intervened, "From what he told us, dragons in Krisar have changed little since the ancient times. But Shervan has the same trait as our ancestors."

"Oh, I see," the other dragon nodded. "Welcome to Gyr'end then, Shervan! A life mate is someone that you bond emotionally for the rest of your life. Iexolud and I have been knowing each other since we were hatchlings and always have been close. Once I...also saved his life."

Shervan made a pleased roar of surprise. That sounded like everything he had missed throughout his whole existence.

"I like the idea."

Iexolud and Talork smiled.

"Are others here?"

"Yes, my sister," Erifor, who had not spoken a word since they had been in flight, said. "She should be waking up right now, I'll go calling her." And he walked away from the fireplace and went into the depths of the cave.

With a gesture of his head, Iexolud invited Shervan to sit down together in front of the fire, which kept burning peaceful and pleasant. Such a good and forgotten sensation.

"What lies down there?" The young dragon asked the two elders, while sitting in between of them.

"Parts of the cave that we use for sleeping" Talork explained.

"Did you...find Erifor like you did with me?"

"Yes" Iexolud confirmed "Erifor and his sister were rescued by us like you."

As Shervan nodded, he suddenly remembered something else he should have asked immediately for.

"I saw a human village close to here..."

Iexolud and Talork looked at each other in amusement.

"That's the Gyraders' village. The last descendants of the humans who supported us and that we did support. You're going to meet them as well."

"Humans..." Shervan hesitated. "Aren't they dangerous? I mean...even the ones I've seen here turned against me, and I believed this island to be safer..."

Both lowered down their heads, in disconsolation.

"Trust us, it was a shock when the Krisaders came," Iexolud's voice was suddenly broken and fatigued. A tear ran from his eye. Why was he suddenly protecting his eyes? "and started attacking and hunting us, especially after they had promised us nothing would change in this land...we had signed a peace treaty with them...and the species we held the dearest suddenly became our enemy."

"Now even the Gyraders outside these mountains have accepted the new rule," Talork explained, "so they are now against us, while their great-grandparents were with us...oh, they are coming" he suddenly exclaimed, his head watching the cave's corridor.

"Fine. Sorry, Shervan. I don't want your first day here to be full of sorrow." The young dragon just nodded, not sure of what he had just ranted about. Why had he suddenly needed to release tears? Had he got some smoke from the fire?

From the tunnels were emerging figures two dragons, headed to the fireplace. One was of course Erifor. The other, who looked female, had white scales with deep blue shades between them. On a first glimpse, she looked to be her brother's age. Shervan got up immediately, eager to meet her too, his spirit so badly hungry for company, but she seemed to be talking - disagreeing, judging from her muzzle - with Erifor about something. Could he be the argument of that discussion...? After a while, still, the female got closer to him and briefly said, in an unemotional tone: "I'm Nifor. Erifor's sister."

"Hi Nifor" he simply said, unsure about her attitude. She did not show any reaction and quickly went back talking to her brother.

"Are you, by any chance, hungry, Shervan? If you're too tired to go hunting around, the Gyraders sometimes give us something," Talork told him, his friendly attitude creating a sudden deep contrast with the female's cold tone.

"No, I'm...fine" he answered, ignoring his stomach growling, still too hesitant to trust anything from those mysterious humans he still hadn't seen. "Just a bit tired...I would like to stay with you all around that fire..."

"Of course," he smiled. Shervan proceeded to return to the fireplace, followed by the two siblings. It was all so peaceful, just like he had always wanted.

Suddenly, a loud noise from outside resounded through the cave. He had heard that sound before, and in all occasions it had been followed by a human coming for him...

"Slayers! We must leave the cave!" He roared and got up, ready to leave the cave. That piece of heaven, already destroyed after so little! No! Unacceptable! Unacceptable!

"Shervan! It's not a slayer!" Iexolud blocked him immediately. "It's Ianna, who has come visiting us."

"Ianna...?"

"Stay there and relax. You'll meet her soon."

"But who is this Ianna?"

"A friend. A very dear friend of ours. I'll go get her." He opened his wings, and in few moments was out of the cave.

Shervan watched around. It was all so pleasant, yet all so confusing. That was a human sound...well, it was probably one of those Gyraders...maybe they were actually right. He would have the answer soon...

Iexolud came back to the cave some time later, carrying something on his back. It was a human, but totally different from the ones the young dragon was so used to. Its brown hair was longer than usual; its eyes, the same color as its hair, bigger. Its profile looked slimmer, more refined and less bulky, plus - with his astonishment - there was nothing metallic. Suddenly, something - the spirits, maybe? No, it had to be his intuition this time - suggested him it had to be a female human.

In any case, none of the other dragons were alarmed. Instead, they immediately saluted her in a language he had never heard before, while she slowly got closer to the fireplace alongside with Iexolud, who at a certain point indicated Shervan.

The female human spoke.

"Welcome, Shervan."

Her tone was still calm and inviting. But he did not move.

"Do not be afraid. My people and I were, and still are, profoundly bonded to your race."

It was then that he realized it. That human was speaking to him...in dragon language. At that point, he acknowledged it.

'By the spirits...Iexolud didn't lie at all.'