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"I do not understand why you would bring that creature with us." Alaine growled angrily as he pushed through the long grasses.

"Why would I leave Minos behind? Slokakan know that they are valuable to the dragons and they would destroy them if they could. With me he is safe." Thronnos' voice was a calm rumble as the dragon walked beside him.

Alaine twitched and cast an eye back at the elf that perched on the dragon's back as if he belonged there. Without a fight or struggle going on, he was able to see the harness and it just made him set his wings back in disgust at how it was attached. Metal rings had been pierced through various broad scales along Thronnos' chest and it was to these that various chains and links were connected to hold a saddle pad against the base of the drake's neck. It wasn't until Alaine got a good look at the back of the neck that he saw a pale mark burned against the scales, like a bit of frost that formed an intricate glyph like the first dragon had boasted. It was disgusting to see the fine scales marred and punched through in such a fashion.

A drake's first weapon was his scaling, a way to ensure that he would not be harmed by claws or the horn of prey animals. It required a good diet and care to keep them strong, warm sunlight to cure them into fine hardness. The fact he had spent most of his life with them tarnished and soft, rotting and barely able to turn a blunt stone made him enormously proud of his own ruby red scales. To see another drake allowing his own to be marred in such a fashion was beyond unsettling. It didn't seem to bother Thronnos, he had allowed the elf to clamber all over him and hook into the links of his scales and adjust others. There were dozens of links that hung unattached to anything at all along his haunches and even his wings.

"So you never leave your rider behind?" He lingered behind the other drake, allowing the larger to lead him so he could keep an eye on the rider.

"I can, I feel comfortable in the dragons that are under our command and they would die to protect him. The younger and more moody ones will not, they know the truth." The drake leapt down into a shallow span of water as he spoke. "They will send spies here, they will murder Riders where they can because it devastates a dragon. They lose focus and become berserk. It is... devastating to say the least. They go into a rage against friend or foe, kill those that try to help them and in the end they must be put to rest."

"So you kill them." Alaine wrinkled his lips back in distaste, his mind going back to dragon he had killed on the shores of Canith.

"They give us no choice." Thronnos glanced back at him, no, not at him, he was looking at the elf perched on his back. "It rips away something precious."

This isn't right. They look at these elves like hatchlings, but I've never heard of a hatchling being killed and parents going suicidal. _ The drake thought uneasily and followed down along a marsh where the mud sucked around his paws. _It must be some sort of spell.

He had seen other dragons and their Riders in the city, they were all like the one he'd killed. Marked in various ways, saddled and armored in some cases, and all with elves near them or on them. He had no idea how many there were, but they were all drakes. He hadn't seen a single female in the midst of them, which meant if there was something wrong it would have to be with the females. Why else would they be kept separated? Did they refuse to submit to being ridden around or were they kept in chains? There was something at work here and he was determined to find out what. Everything about it reeked of secrets and half told stories. He didn't remember much of his childhood, but he knew that they wouldn't behave like this. The old stories, of the old gods and their race that he had learned in the nest, they didn't make his kind out to be war mounts.

"There, that's Draeg Bloddym." Thronnos paused in the marsh and made a gesture with one of his wings. "We don't often..." He paused and canted his head. "There is a small ground entrance, you should fit, but I will have to go aloft."

Alaine tucked his head down in humiliation at the delicate way that the other drake avoided talking about his inability to fly. He hadn't seemed put out when they set out, he had carefully made no more mention of his wings after they first talked about. Draeg Bloddym was a massive edifice of smooth red stone that towered high in the air, there were no windows, no balconies, nothing except blank stone that curved about in a circle at either end. The marsh was situated around it, but turned directly into solid ground where the stone met, quite unnatural appearing. The sound of wings could be heard above as several dragons flitted about, either leaving or arriving with their respective riders, but no females. Not that he could sight.

"Doesn't it sink?" Alaine gave Thronnos wide berth as he padded next to the other drake. "Into the marsh, I mean."

"Magic, we keep it held by magic. Any army that arrived here would find it impossible to march through this march, it would come up to their chests." Minos answered and Alaine ignored him entirely. The temptation to lean over and snap up the creature still lurked at the back of his mind, every time he talked it became a bit more tempting.

"I'll meet you on the other side, towards the left curve you can see the bottom entrance. You should fit, but if not I will return and we will make other arrangements." Thronnos dipped his head before flicking his wings out and making the red drake step away so he had room to take off.

There was an entrance at the base, one that looked like it was designed to admit large wagons, but how wagons came through the marsh he had no idea. The wind from the drake beat down against him as the dragon went aloft and he was left trudging through the muck and mud. His wings twinged with pain as he shifted them on his back and pulled them tightly down. Just once he wished he could take to the air, just once he wished he could feel his body embraced by the warmth of Aratha holding him as he darted as easily as a thought to his destination. With a sigh he continued ahead, he would find more answers here and hopefully understand exactly what the elves did here.

~ ~ * ~ ~

Dragons. Dragons everywhere Alaine looked. They frolicked near a deep broad pool that looked like a miniature lake, they flitted through the air, they rested on rocks and ledges around the inside of the walls and they walked along trails created by broad slabs of sandstone. Alaine stood in the heart of a city of dragons, his feet refused to step forward as his eyes drank in the sight of every color of dragon imaginable. The males were highly visible, their brilliant scales standing out in every shade of color nature could throw, and they were loud. They roared and laughed, sported in the lake and mock challenged one another. Most of them were young, just testing their wings, but some were older and obviously Ridden. Their pierced scales and metal rings attested to that, and they were the ones that first drew the eye, but the females.

They lounged everywhere and his mind felt a moment of confusion at what he was seeing. They were smooth and scaleless, their hide was pebbled and soft looking, in the colors of the earth. He remembered his mother, she had been scaled and a deep blue like the sky in autumn, but these dragonesses weren't like that. The brightest color the dragonesses had were deep mossy green or a reddish color like clay. Their hornless heads were smooth and boasted only two bumps right above their eyes and their hooked beak like muzzles flashed and caught the light. His sisters had been like that, he remembered them, why had his mother been scaled? That confusion made him pull back into the entrance of the cave and shadows as they moved around him, well over fifty of them by his estimation. Something was wrong with his memories.

"Are you going to hide here, Alaine?" Thronnos' voice was filled with amusement as he dropped gracefully down from the rock overhead. "You wished to see this place, it is our nesting grounds and home to our females. You may walk freely, except I would be cautious if you approach any of the upper levels. Nesting females can be very protective."

"This isn't right." Alaine gave his head a little bit of a jerk back and forth. "My mother was scaled, not like this. What happened to their scales?"

"A scaled female?" Thonnos jerked his head back and showed his teeth in a strange manner. "There's no such thing as a scaled female."

"She was scaled! Blue as the sky, father was deep orange like flame. This is wrong." He bristled at the way the dragon kept his lips wrinkled back, a parody of an elvish smile. They were doing something to the females here, that was their secret, they were making them unable to defend themselves and forced to rely on the elves.

"Come, I will show you." Thronnos dipped his shoulder so that Minos could slide down his scales. "You were young when your parents were taken from you, perhaps you did not understand some key points of our culture."

"Do not patronize me." Alaine snapped his jaws angrily. "What have you done to them?!"

"Nothing, come, I'll show you." Thronnos paused and turned back to look at him. "I assure you, we have done nothing to them. Isn't this what you wished to see?"

Alaine lashed his tail nervously, but stepped forward out of the shadows. He knew what his memories told him, he knew exactly what they meant and they were hiding something. He would find out what it was and use it against them. He would tear this place apart so that he was able to release his people from whatever they were doing here.

"We built this place specifically under Thronnos' plans." Minos spoke as he walked beside the dark drake, as if he had a right to speak. "We created the pool for bathing and drinking, recreated nesting sites up along the walls, there is a steady food supply in fish and meat both and there are sunning spots at the highest point of the walls. Some things are still a work in progress, but Thronnos believes that we have done well."

"Indeed, the females enjoy this place greatly, it is protected from natural predators and their eggs are heated from vents cut into the walls and hot water that pours through it." Thronnos picked up and gestured with his head. "This is also an infirmary for dragons or Riders that are harmed, our own personal fortress."

"And the females never leave?" Alaine followed as he was led around the lake and spotted a pair of dragonesses sprawled out on rocks, their forepaws stretched out so that a pair of servants could file them into points. They seemed to enjoy the attention as they spoke rapidly among themselves, their lean bodies stretched their full graceful length.

"They can, and they do, but most prefer here." Thronnos gestured with his muzzle. "The mating flights are held away from here, it always sets the younger males to fighting before they're sent on to the birthing grounds."

"And who sets up the pairs?" Alaine twisted his head around, glancing at a group of youngsters that looked barely higher than his knee. They were fighting among each other, tumbling in a group beneath a watchful dragonesses eyes.

"No one, they pair up on their own. When a drake is mature he comes and spends time here until he finds one he fancies." Thronnos grimaced. "Did you think they bred us like horses? Find a mare in heat and get a stud?"

Alaine shrugged one wing. "It was one idea, I don't see where this would work out, so many dragons packed together and so many males. There must be a great deal of fighting."

"Not all of the males here are here to sire the next generation." Thronnos made that strange lift up of his lips, an elvish smile on a dragons face. "A few are here for just that, but some of them are here to tend the eggs."

"Doesn't that take them out of action? I'd think that you'd want them out and fighting, not tending eggs with their mates." Alaine paused as Thronnos stopped and turned his head to look at a pair of bedecked drakes, one was swimming in the water while the other rested on the shore with, who Alaine presumed, were their Riders. A gaggle of youngsters were sprawled in boneless sleep in front of the large drake's paws, a pile of jewels with one dark brown female thrown into the midst of them.

"Beryl! Come here a moment, would you?" Thronnos dropped his haunches down and parted his jaws in a broader smile. "The drakes that come here do so out of personal choice, an arrangement that they work out with a dragoness of their choice."

A deep black-green drake padded towards them, leaving the elves and bathing drake behind while his tail curled behind him. His horns were dipped in pure silver, glittering in the light so that they looked sharper and hooked at the end. It must have been for battle, but it looked strange to have his natural weaponry so decorated. He bobbed his head in greeting and made an odd movement with one wing, flicking it forward and back up in a snapping movement.

"Peace, I'm not here to call you from your hatchlings for duty. This is Alaine, a refugee from the Slokaken and he wished to see this place. He was taken quite young, and I fear.." Thronnos gave him a look, a patronizing look that made him growl softly to himself. "..he is confused. He remembers both of his parents as being scaled, not recalling one that was a proper female."

"My mother was a proper female!" Alaine snapped his jaws angrily as Beryl's deep green eyes shifted to him and the drake wrinkled his lips back in the same smiling expression.

"Azurebow would be horrified if you called him a proper female." Beryl coughed out laughter. "He is no more female than I am, though we both parent our clutch."

"Your clutch?" Alaine drew his head back in confusion. "What do you mean? My mother was female!"

Beryl's expression softened. "You must have been young to not remember right. Those little ones there," He gestured with his nose. "Those are my young, and Azurebow's, we raise them together. One of the females agreed to carry our clutch to allow us a chance to raise them as our own, our Riders take their own rest as we do so."

Alaine shrank back slightly and tried to filter his mind through the memories of his parents, those dim edged memories of their voices and songs. They were fuzzy, they always had been, a golden memory of a time when things had been safe and he had been loved. He could recall their faces, he could recall the warmth of their smell.

"Some drakes simply prefer other drakes, it's always been that way. In many ways, they do a great service due to the fact the females we first started with had never been raised properly and some didn't know how to care for their young. So at first, they were allowed to take over the nurturing of the eggs and raising of the young." Thronnos explained while Beryl continued to peer at him closely, the examination made him more than uncomfortable.

"Now that things are settled we simply find a dragoness that we like and ask them to help us." Beryl gaped his jaws in a broad grin. "We take over the clutch and raise them up properly, that's how Thronnos remembered it on our Isle. Likely your own mother was the sister or good friend to one of your parents and gave them a clutch to raise. Or you were orphaned, rare, but it does happen sadly."

Alaine opened his jaws to answer and then closed them again, trying to wrap his mind around the idea that 'mother' hadn't been a female at all. "But... that's not what I remember." His words sound weak even to himself.

"You were young, likely you knew on some level and the mind simply fell into the patterns you overheard or recognized in others." Beryl tilted his head to one side. "Did none of your siblings survive?"

"No.. none." Alaine curled his tail around himself, pulling himself down closer to himself. What else didn't he remember? What else had his mind clouded or filled gapes of his memories with?

"Well, don't fret, then. I don't remember much of my family either. Just snippets here and there, nothing more and even that is tinged by the stories I've been told. Sometimes I'm not sure that I ever really had a life before I came here...." Beryl gave himself a shake and turned towards Thronnos. "Will that be all, sir?"

"Yes, back to your mate and hatchlings." Thronnos dipped his head a bit in approval. "A likely looking pair of drakes, as well. Heard fine reports from them."

Beryl bobbed his head amiably and gave the strange twitch of his wing again before padding back to the lakeside where the blue drake was stepping out of the water and shaking himself off. Alaine watched them touch nose tips affectionately, their heads coming in close together in obvious tenderness that made him shift his gaze away. He hadn't considered such a thing as being possible, and his memories were trying to align themselves to that way of thinking. How much had he lost of his own culture? He had been considering himself as a true dragon, but these ones knew more about his kind than he did. It was unsettling to say the least. He had forgotten so much of being young and what it had been like, he couldn't recall his siblings as more than anything but fever dreams.

These dragons, they were well fed and sleek. The females weren't collared and chained, but walked freely among dragons and elves alike. It made him shift uncomfortably from foot to foot, it was another bit of truth offered to him that stuck in his gullet. Had it been true? That these dragons were allowed to live their lives without any hindrance of any kind except that they aid the elves in destroying the ones that had taken their island. But what of Rowan's story? That this entire war was due to a petty reason and they had destroyed so many other islands in their wake.

"There now, I hope that answers your questions?" Thronnos tilted his head back towards Alaine while settling onto his haunches. "Nothing more sinister going on in this place and I should think you would be comfortable here for a time, if you would like?"

"Stay here?" Alaine looked around, the drakes and dragonesses, the little ones of all ages that were either sleeping or playing or eating. A gathering he dreamed of and now he was being offered on a plate. "I can speak to whoever I wish? Ask questions?"

"Of course, Minos and I have to make a patrol out past the ocean and I thought you might find yourself more comfortable here. I will, of course, be happy to assign you a guide and your own lair." Thronnos dropped down so the elf could start to clamber up his shoulder. "I think that it might reassure you to see what we've started here, talk among the dragons and they will answer you freely." He tilted his head with a sly expression on his face. "I'm sure you'll find the dragonesses perfectly pleasant to talk with, it's not often that they have a drake not torn between his duties of his Rider and her. They'll be intrigued by you."

Alaine shifted in embarrassment at the keen look the drake gave him and his eyes slipped towards the gathering of dragons, but most especially the dragonesses that could be spotted nearly everywhere. He'd never seen an adult dragoness before, not until now, never spoken to them, never interacted with any of them. And now he was thrown into their midst and he felt a disturbing mixture of suspicion and eagerness.

"I am a prisoner?" Alaine asked, his voice a bit rough as Thronnos rose up with his rider strapping himself in. Minos was watching him closely, the elf's eyes never left him as the drake settled on his haunches and gave his wings a preparatory shake.

"Of course not! Leave if you wish, but I hope you will come to enjoy what I'm offering you. We support you, Alaine." Thronnos prummed low in his throat. "We wish to destroy those that harmed you, you need only trust us."

Alaine growled a response as the Thronnos beat his wings several times to get a feel for them, the wind blew around him as the blue-black drake launched himself into the sky. He was left staring up at the diminishing shape and listening to the rumbles, chirps, and trills of dozens of other dragons. He stood in the midst of his own kind, and tried to hold onto his rage, his suspicion and anger.

~ ~ * ~ ~

Thronnos swung his hind legs out and caught the edge of the rock and dropped down with a beating of his wings to balance himself so Minos wasn't thrown against his neck. He felt the elf clutching against the saddle to keep his balance, the chains shifted against his chest as it resettled a bit further down his shoulders. His tail coiled naturally around an outcropping before he dropped down to all fours and flipped his wings down against his side. The southern outpost overlooked the sea and barely saw the glimpse of the islands beyond the bobbing waves. It had been little more than a short flight to get to the outpost, but he still felt tired. Tired and old, despite being in the prime of life. Authority was a weight on his soul that aged him more than his years. Responsibility that was entirely foreign to his instincts had begun to wear him away.

"He's the one they were searching for." He lifted one of his forelegs up as he spoke, letting Minos slip down his shoulder so his Rider could settle against his elbow. "He's the only escapee that they've had."

"Not surprising given how they beat the beasts down." Minos dropped down to sit while Thronnos carefully lowered himself onto his belly. "I think that we have a chance of taking the mines if we can bring him over to our side. He'll know what they look like, have a general idea of their numbers and what they're hauling out."

"He's angry, very angry." Thronnos furrowed his brows slightly and turned so that one eye was focused on his rider. "He believes in absolutes, black and white, evil and good."

"That can work to our benefit. We've already painted the Slokaken as being the enemy, it should be natural that he would wish to join us." Minos lifted a hand so the drake could duck his muzzle down and have his nose rubbed over by the gloved hand. "Give him some time with his own kind, our dragons will show him how they feel and he'll pick up on it. In no time he'll be ready for the birthing caverns and have a Rider of his own."

"You'll give him a Rider?" Thronnos lidded his eyes as his Rider stroked along the bridge of his muzzle as they spoke. The hard tips of the glove worked along the edges of his scales and towards the edges of his muzzle.

"I'll have to, we need him securely under our thumb if he's to help us penetrate the Isle and overtake the mines. If he doesn't trust us, he will betray us and we cannot risk that. Not now that we have a chance to claim the gem mines. I'll pull some of the lower class females, they don't have hopes of having their children be Riders so they won't complain at their choice of dragons." Minos murmured idly. "Hopefully it'll be a female and we can polish him up and find him something to make him feel useful past overtaking the Isle."

Thronnos rumbled thoughtfully and lidded his eyes as he mulled over the situation. He had always known that the dragonets had been taken, but this was confirmation on how they were being used. His trials were written over his body, the broken wings were the worst of his scars, but he had looked past them to see the scales. They weren't healthy, not quite, they didn't knit together the way they should have, but were lumped together oddly in scar patterns along his shoulders and haunches. There were odd patches that were deep crimson, almost black, while the rest of him was a brilliant ruby. That said nothing about the way that his body was too thin, there wasn't enough fat on him, nor muscle. He could only imagine what condition the poor fellow had come out in.

It was a pity so many dragons were being forced to labor beneath the surface of the island, but he couldn't help things. He couldn't save them, the Isle wasn't able to be taken. The elves could only work magic with the aid of focus stones, or at least, they could only work decent magic with them. Every day magic, the sort that could create common lights, melt small amounts of metal, sending messages, that could be done easily, but without stones there were no great war magicks or real power. They could bring them from Tomaia, but they were limited. The mines were well guarded and had enough stones that they would be formidable if they had a long drawn out battle. Their Riders would be made useless before they even had a chance to figure out the defenses, until now. Alaine would be their link, he would be able tell them defenses, he would be able to give them the information they would need to strike hard and fast. To retake the Isle and the gem mines as they hadn't in the past.

"When was the escape reported?" Thronnos lifted his head away from the strokes and frowned as a stray thought tugged at the back of his mind.

"Six months back, I believe. We'd assumed he'd died or fled, but with those wings it wasn't very likely." Minos rested back against his cheek comfortably, a warm weight against his scales, the familiar scent filling his nostrils.

"Why come here? After all that time? Why now and why not then? Where was he?" Thronnos flicked his eyes to look out along the sea.

"Canith, that's where Quickwing went down and he all but admitted to killing the poor creature." Minos dismissed the questions casually, but Thronnos was rolling the drake's behavior through his mind. "He probably hid in the hills there until he recovered. He's not in good shape now, I can only imagine how bad off he was when he made his escape."

"The gold in the birthing caverns, he said he threatened the women there. Snapped at them." The drake flicked his tail back and forth restlessly. "He was quite upset by how Alaine behaved."

"That's not surprising, look at what he's been through. It will take time and effort to get him to come around to our way of thinking." His Rider sounded almost annoyed at the questions, but Thronnos ran with them.

"He shouldn't have, though, don't you see?" The drake lifted his head and growled softly to himself. "It's instinctive, an unmated drake should be hampered by their pregnancy and not threatened them."

"He's been mistreated, why would he look at them and feel anything except for aggression?" Minos pulled away from him, his tone sharpening.

Thronnos snorted at his Rider and ground his teeth together thoughtfully. Alaine had been through much, years of abuse, but that shouldn't have destroyed every ounce of instinct he had. A drake was protective of his mate carrying his clutch, it was as simple as that, but an unmated drake was slightly different. They were hard wired to be nest tenders, when they hit a certain age they would naturally seek out their mother or a sister or simply a female that was ready to clutch. That'd form a protective ring around her, instinctively defending her from harm and allowing the father to hunt and care for his brood while his mate was protected. Females had to have smooth thin hide, not scales, they were able to generate more heat to brood a clutch and were therefore vulnerable. Nature and their society had designed them to be able to protect the next generation. Traditionally, a drake would pick out a likely young female from a clutch that he'd guarded and become more possessive of her. He would become her guardian as she grew older and when she was of age they'd pair off. That was how a healthy society worked, that's how it should have still been working, but not here.

They didn't live in a society that would have nesting mothers when the drakes came of age nor were they trained up with that expectation, they simply were raised as a group by elves and one drake. Himself. And he was hardly old enough to properly raise them up. That's when he found out, when a young drake was full of hormones and no outlet, he would get confused in the presence of any pregnant female. No matter the species. It coaxed the naturally protective urges to the surface and they would Imprint on the female as well as the child. It wouldn't have worked with a healthy hatchling raised properly by their parents, they would have been firmly linked to their own species, but with the hatchlings he had saved weren't raised properly. They became entangled with another species far more easily, so the single baby that was born became their object of interest. Not for mating, but a deep bond that developed to a near unhealthy relationship that hampered their ability to bond with even females of their kind.

He cared for Minos, he felt great affection for his Rider, but not to the extent of the rest of the dragons. He had been raised well, he understood their differences, he recalled the old tongue and the names of his family. He was the only dragon within the archipelago that could boast that. The rest were easily drawn under the spell of what their instincts told them and the kind treatment they were given. The moment they were introduced to a woman far enough along in her pregnancy and they would begin to brood and grow protective. It was becoming the natural order of things and each generation seemed to adapt more easily than the one before it. But Alaine hadn't even made a show of fighting off that instinct, he should have felt comforted in the birthing caverns. He should have felt protective of the females there, he hadn't been raised properly, even broken minded he shouldn't have reacted with outright aggression.

"It goes beyond emotions," Thronnos gave himself a shake and rumbled low in his throat. "Perhaps it is only his background, his abuse, but what if he was not alone in healing? Would it be so hard for him to Imprint on another species?"

"It's unlikely, you-" Minos started, but the drake snapped the air irritably. He was on the edge of an idea, one that disturbed him.

"It's not unlikely. Thousands of women with swollen bellies in the Archipelago, births happen every day, how hard would it be? Canith is populated." Thronnos flexed his toes against the ground. "He might not even understand what's happening to him, but a bonded drake who had picked out a female to guard and brood her young would be dismissive of others. Look at the other dragons with Riders, they don't dote on the pregnant women anymore. They ignore them, they have matured past that stage."

"If he Imprinted on a Rider, it wouldn't be an elf." Minos straightened up. "What species inhabit Canith? The satyrs, some humans, otterkin and dryads.... "

"It could be his abusive past has made him ignorant of even his instincts, but if he's Imprinted on another race..." Thronnos trailed off and fought the unease that rippled through his heart.

"We can't put him to another Rider, he'd have no allegiance to us." Minos' lifted a hand to rest it on the bridge of his muzzle. "You are as wise as ever, Thronnos. I will send out a Wing to Canith. We need him beneath our hold if we're to trust his information, and if he's already Imprinted we can use that. That island isn't that large, we can hunt down the newborns..."

"And bring them here, find out if he has chosen one and raise it here." Thronnos ignored the constricting of his heart. "We can blame the Slokaken as to why we had to rescue them, he will believe it. It will solidify him as an ally to us."

"We will have to kill the mother," Minos' murmured and pressed his hand against the drake's jaw. "She would give lie to our story."

There is no other way... The Isle holds the gems needed to win this damned war. It is my home, no matter how badly they've desecrated it, I can take it back, but we need to know what they've done. _ Thronnos lowered his head so his chin touched his forelegs and repeated the refrain he had learned over a lifetime of war. _It is for the greater good, it is worth the sacrifice.

"They will have to be killed, bring them here and we will allow Alaine to see the last half of the 'rescue'. If he has Imprinted, he will seek out his Rider." The drake let out a soft rumble. "There is no other way to retake the Isle."