Peace comes to an end

The fire kept hitting the innocent rock in the cave long and hard, the dragon's rage begging to be unfolded more. Shervan released his anger again and again until he had no fuel left inside of him.

That night felt just like his lonely nights as a wanderer, in the depth of caves found by fortune, spent burning stones that would refuse to melt despite his best efforts. The shadow of the loneliness that used to torment the young dragon was on him, threatening to take away what had given him back happiness...and in the cruelest manner imaginable.

His sister. His sister! Shervan would rather have her dead for real, like he had believed for so long. Better dead than serving the enemy! Even with such excuses! 'I am being forced'. Pathetic! An adult dragon, forced? His anger at her was even higher than the one for the Krisaders, the origin of all the pain brought over this land and his life. Krisaders were against his kind by nature. But his own sister...his own flesh and blood...

The energy inside of him was reaching its end. Better to leave the poor stone in peace, rest a bit under the comfort of the darkness of the cave, where no hostile human would find him. But as he lay down, his tormented thoughts made another assault on him.

If only he hadn't followed Nifor that night...he could have remained there, happy and safe with Iexolud and the others. But no, he had to go looking for something that had stopped to be family long ago. Still...if he hadn't done it...he wouldn't have come to know the danger that was arriving to his new home...

And then he thought of Nifor herself. They had taken separate paths that same day. 'I am going to recruit all the dragons around I can find to join our battle', that's what she had said, and Shervan hadn't even had the time to debate it before she was already soaring up towards the horizon. But she was right - she had always been right. By doing nothing for two hundred seasons, they had only prolonged their misery before their inevitable death. But_fighting_gave hope. Fighting was their last chance. Fighting was the answer. Either die in battle or win and restore peace. The Krisaders were coming, so what was left to lose? It was useless to hide. The Krisaders, their enemies, his true and only enemies...they knew everything, now.

Iexolud's stories around the fire were the next to invade his mind. Those stories set in the time of freedom, when a dragon was able to live as a dragon...soaring up freely into the sky and touch the white clouds, dancing with the wind and facing it like an equal...now kept on the ground by wingless, smaller creatures. Creatures immensely weaker, which yet had stolen from him his right to live as a dragon. No, he remembered, not all of them: only the Krisaders were the enemies. Ianna and Axor were family too. Yes, even Axor, despite his past...any human that joined the dragons' cause was his friend. Just like any dragon that did the opposite was his enemy...

Narkan...

'Your sister is lost', a part of his mind told him, 'this is going to be a battle that will determine the future of all dragons. You must do it.'

'We can save her!', another voice roared. 'She's one of us!'

'Not anymore, and you know it. If that human who keeps her orders her to kill you, she will obey.'

'She won't kill one of us! Let alone me!'

'Are you sure she hasn't already been forced to do it at least once?'

'Shut up, just shut up!'

Some flame within him called to be left out again, but at this point tiredness was prevailing. There was a minuscule visible piece of sky in the entrance. He had to wait for the sun to come back...something so urgent to tell, and he had to wait, because slayers were active at night...

...then the anxiety slowly faded down, as the dragon left his black head rest upon his forepaw, and fell into slumber.

The sky was grey and the sun covered, the wind howling furiously. A sound similar to Ianna's lute was in the air, playing all her melodies at the same time not in harmony, but in a dreadful cacophonia. He was in the middle of an enormous flock of dragons, roaring in terror while flying away from something he could not see nor smell. Then he turned back...

A gargantuan figure of a human, taller than any mountain could possibly be, with two big, pitch black eyes in the stomach and a wide open, grinning mouth in the chest, from which a horrific black liquid came out. The human wielded a gigantic and horrific sword, dripping an impossible amount of blood. Dragon blood.

A stream of pure fear trespassed his whole body. He flew away, just like the other dragons, fighting the wind blowing to his opposite direction. not daring looking away at the being.

Suddenly, a stream of bravery hit Shervan. He turned back to the monster-human, which was killing more and more dragons with his sword. Then a voice, the voice of Iexolud, resonated within him, praying him to come back and save his scales.

"Shervan don't do it! Shervan don't do it!"

Then another voice began, this time talking like Nifor.

"Do it! Go! Do it! Go!"

Then a third one, speaking like Ianna.

"Shervan! Shervan!"

One to one, the voices of all the dragons of the cave, plus Ianna's, surrounded him all at once, but none of them was higher than Nifor's and her "Do it! Go! Do it! Go!". Gradually, the rest of the voices suddenly turned into awful, high pitched roars.

He knew what to do. Finally he reached the head of the monste, with fear replaced by anger and determination. But what he faced in front of him was no longer the head of a human.

It was a dragon head, with grey scales and a female look, carrying on the nose a replica of the torso of the human-monster, controlling the rest of the body with long, gigantic metal chains.

The horrible dragon head opened its mouth, and pronounced in a feminine, distorted voice: "Forgive me...forgive me...forgive me...". Its mouth closed around Shervan, swallowing him in a world of darkness...

He woke up emitting a loud roar of pain. The darkness around him were initially a proof he had been swallowed up by the gigantic body of his sister, but then there was the same piece of blue sky, turned to day. It was time to go, finally.

In the dragons' cave, the atmosphere was atrociously miserable. With the latest news, leaving the cave had become out of the question for any reason. Luckily, unlike humans, dragons could go on without eating anything for months, but their resistance, sooner or later, would end. They needed to think of something, but no one seemed capable of coming up with a single idea.

Erifor would do nothing but sleep in the depths of the cave, never showing himself except for drinking rainwater; Iexolud had spent the last two days motionless in front of the entrance, his eyes pointed to the sky. Talork had walked from one to another, in pointless attempts to cheer them up or find something that could give hope; but now it had been three days since Shervan and Nifor had disappeared, and nothing had changed. Ianna and Axor had come of course, and the queen had done her best to propose solutions, only to receive a wall of silence.

Talork looked at his life mate, warming up his scales in the morning sun. The best he could do was just staying next to him, giving nothing but his presence to give at least some kind of comfort. Iexolud just watched him without expression as he lay down and gave an affectionate muzzle. After a while, Iexolud returned the gesture. It was already something. The gift of voice, given in equal measure to humans and dragons, not always arrived where the natural language of dragons could...

The two mates just remained there, letting the warmth of the sun wash out their troubles, even if just for a while. Their paws touching each other meant more than anything else. It was the sum up of two lives spent together, in happiness and tragedy.

Then, something appeared in the sky.

"Iexolud..."

"Yes?"

"Look there."

There was a dragon coming for them, flapping frantically its wings. It had black scales, just like...

"Shervan," Talork exclaimed, "look bud! Shervan!"

In few seconds, energy returned to Iexolud. The old dragon was on all fours again, staring at the coming dragon with an unreadable expression.

Finally, the dragon landed in front of them. It was really Shervan, with a look in his snout that expressed more urgency than regret.

"Shervan!" Talork welcomed him with his muzzle. "We are so happy...welcome back!"

"Hi Talork....I can explain everything...there is a lot I need to tell you..."

"What about? I'll light up the fire and you can tell us everything, don't worry..."

"Yes," the youngster nodded, "Hi Iexolud..."

But the amber dragon had remained motionless. No word was coming from him.

"Iexolud...?"

Suddenly, he sprang to him and roared furious. Talork watched in astonishment as Shervan put on land by two amber paws.

"You MORON!" Iexolud roared in anger. "You disappear for days without saying anything...with a Krisader at our doors...like if all these months here meant nothing?"

Shervan moaned in pain. Talork knew perfectly how strong his bud's sense of control was; the youngster wouldn't get hurt. Nevertheless, it had been hundreds of seasons since the last time he had seen Iexolud lose control like this...two hundred, to be precise.

"I am sorry!" Shervan cried.

"I believed you to be DEAD!"

"Iexolud, I have urgent news! For real!"

"Uh, is something going on?"

Erifor had appeared in front of the cave too. Talork turned his head back for a moment to hide his giggle caused by Iexolud's mortified expression.

"No, no..." his bud said embarassed. "It's just..."

"Shervan!" Erifor had finally noticed him. "Is my sister there too?"

The black dragon qucikly got up, his scales filled with dust. "No, Erifor, I'm sorry...she's trying to find other dragons to bring here..."

"She...what?" Erifor exclaimed, starting to breath heavily. "Where is she? What is she planning?"

"I don't know, I swear!" Shervan replied. "I need to tell you the news I have first! The Krisaders...are coming."

Silence. All the worst fears of those days were becoming reality. Talork looked again at Iexolud: his distressed look was beyond any word, just like Talork's own gesture before.

"Let's go to the fireplace," the crimson dragon commanded.

Everyone entered the cave. Talork took some moments to reach Shervan and tell him a pair of things.

"Don't worry about Iexolud, he's just happy to see you alive. Of course you cannot know it because he always made his best to look constantly calm..." and here he couldn't keep a giggle inside his mouth "...but once one of his sons had escaped too and when we two rescued him his reaction was the same." Then he added, "don't tell him I told you this. As you're going to see, he's been trying to cover that part of his character since our youth days."

"He has sons?" Shervan asked. "Where are they?"

Talork closed his eyes for a moment, invaded by memories. "They all died in battle together with his mating partner."

Gradually, everyone sat down around the fireplace, while Talork took out some wood, brought to them by the Gyraders, putting it in the fireplace and igniting it with his fire.

"So, Shervan," Iexolud began, "please share with us your information." Talork noticed how he was almost embarrassed to look at him.

Nevertheless, the young dragon spoke without hesitation.

"First of all, I will explain why I did it. Nifor...after the news Axor brought, she wanted to find dragons who are willing to fight. I found out just before she was leaving. I went with her because she would have no one to help her if meeting slayers, and...because I wanted to find my sister."

"And did you?" Talork said.

"We did."

Shervan, suddenly, retreated slightly his head back and half-opened his mouth, like if he was fighting the urge to breathe fire. When he resumed, his voice was broken.

"She was chained...with the same metal they use for their metal fangs...she was kept as a slave by the Krisaders - and..."

Out of instinct, Talork, who sat next to him, patted him with his healthy wing. "Don't be afraid."

"Thanks Talork...the Krisader who keeps her...is the same Krisader who slew our parents!"

He released a breath of fire into the air as he concluded. Erifor emitted a weak sound. Iexolud, instead growled clear and loud.

"You mean...that human that came together with Axor..." he lowered his head. "I was right when I said I had never seen him before. I should have killed this bastard!"

"It's not your fault," Talork urged to tell him, "we would never think somebody could do such - such a thing."

"There is more," Shervan quickly said, "when I met her, she was in a big...group...of Krisaders during the night...there were cannons all around, luckily they were all sleeping..."

The black dragon spoke for long, narrating in detail all the moments spent with his unfortunate sister. The atmosphere became denser and denser, almost as river mud. Until the final revelation came from Shervan.

"They have a plan for us," he announced, "they don't want to simply exterminate us. They want us to serve them. They want us to end like slaves to them...like my sister."

Silence fell, except for the cracks of the fire. Iexolud was opening and closing his mouth repeatedly, like for trying to find something to say. As for Erifor, he was simply motionless.

Shervan continued."They will ask us to give them Axor. They want to kill him because he killed another slayer. If we don't, they have the cannons ready for us."

Talork almost felt his fire mechanism turn off. To face them again...to revive all those memories...he looked at his lacerated wing. Would he lose the other one too, soon? How many friends would he lose this time? Iexolud, on his left, looked like melting. His head touched the rocks, his paws covered his eyes, his wings flapped uncontrollably. He was regressing to a hatchlinghood state, like if a bird of prey was close and could take him away.

"What can we do...?" Erifor asked.

Quickly, Iexolud got back control. His head emerged from the rocks, but his eyes still looked down.

"Looks like we have no other choice."

"What do you mean?" Shervan exclaimed.

The elder dragon closed his eyes. "We must go with them."

"No!" Shervan got up on all fours, instantly. "You cannot be serious!"

"You have no idea what Talork and I passed through!" Iexolud got up as well, and in his case the effect was more impressive: his head looked Shervan's from above. "Our whole land set on fire, our houses destroyed, our city reduced to ruins! Did I ever tell you, youngling, that I lost all my hatchlings in battle? Did I?"

So in the end it wasn't necessary to alert Shervan, Talork thought. His mind, for the rest, was conflicted. He was as scared as Iexolud, but had they really become so frightened to decide to submit to the men who killed them?

"But...couldn't you just mate again?"

Ouch, Talork thought. This was not going to end well...

"YOU DARE SAY SO?" Iexolud was out of himself. "After disappearing for days you even insult my dead offspring!"

"What do you mean? If you had hatchlings you had a mating partner, right?"

"SHE FELL IN BATTLE TOO!" Iexolud's roar of pain filled the cave in its entireness.

"Oh," Shervan exclaimed. Erifor, in the meanwhile, was firmly looking above.

The last echoes of the elder's pain died among the rocky walls, and then the cave entered into a long, horrible silence.

Finally, it was Erifor to break it.

"We need to make a decision, right?" He asked, uncertain.

"Yes," Iexolud nodded.

"Do we have to fight them, then? Or go with them?"

"We...we must discuss it first."

Shervan rose on his four paws. "Iexolud, damn! it's useless to keep hiding! They know our location, they have a dragon who will bring them here! Either we win, or we die! There's no other option!"

"Shervan," he replied, with trembling voice "I know."

"Then what is stopping you? Please, think about it! Do you really want to live like a slave? I would rather join the spirits and leave this wrecked world once and for all since we can't make it better!"

"Shervan, we understand your point of view," Talork intervened, "but we must discuss with all the Gyraders, too. This emergency is about both us and them. Possibly, we may be able to find a more peaceful solution."

"But..."

"If we end up in a bloody battle, we'll reinforce their ideas on us. The ideas based on our far ancestors."

"But that doesn't count! The dragons of the past you narrated were dictated by arrogance! We are dictated by need! It's totally different!"

"If they were able to understand, you'll agree you wouldn't have wandered alone for all that time," Iexolud pointed out, acid.

Shervan let out a growl. "This is...a low blow."

"Shall we go to the main village and tell them?" Erifor asked.