Aerie

Yet again it was time for plowing. I  dreaded this time of year since it meant that I would have to work next to the horses for long periods. Once, I had asked my father why he did not plow while I cleared away the rocks. He had replied that I was too young to be doing such heavy work. I wasn’t sure about that, but I was not one to argue with him.

So this year, like every one previously, he hitched up the horses, lined the plow up for the first furrow, turned to me as  I stood off to the side and said, "Alright, all yours."

I stepped forward, took the reigns, and like every year that I could remember, the horses instantly began blowing and stomping nervously. "Go ahead,” my father encouraged. So I started. Reins hooked around my neck so that my hands were free to guide the plough, grip on the handles just tight enough to keep it under control. With a click of my tongue, I ordered the horses forward. Except the horses didn’t wait for any kind of order.

No matter what I tried to do, the horses simply tried to get away from me. The plow leaned and jerked, and the furrow veered drunkenly. I felt sweat begin to form on my forehead despite the cool morning air. Please, I plead silently. Just this once, let me do this right. Just one furrow. Something to show that things had improved since last year. At that exact moment the horses took it upon themselves to bolt forward in unison. The reins around my neck tossed me face first into the dirt.

“Can I *cough* try again?” I said, blinking gritty particles from my eyes.

“Certainly. Only… careful with the reins this time.” my father said. “I’ll try to make sure that the horses behave. They seem a little skittish today.”

                                           ………………………………...

This type of thing had been happening for almost a month now, and I knew that Father was becoming frustrated. He was an honest farmer, earning his living, and our families support, solely from the years harvest and the little wool and other items our small farm produced.  I, as you may have gathered, had been little help in maintaining the farm as of late, though not due to lack of effort on my part. This season had been different from the previous ones : all animals, every size ,shape and type, had inexplicably become absolutely terrified of me.

Horses fled, sheep panicked, dogs bristled, cats hissed. Even chickens would stop laying eggs if I walked past. The other villagers were starting to consider this to be some kind of wizardry, a blanket term that they used for everything that they did not understand. Often I thought that the only thing that prevented them from driving me out of town once and for all was my father. Still, even if I had not been exiled completely, I was not welcome anymore, from the few festivals we celebrated right down to the local tavern. People who had been my friends for years

After yet another day of attempting to plow, we walked back to the hut, both of us subdued after the rigors of the day. Another day, and I had been absolutely no help at all.
"You made me proud today, son." My father said.
"What!?" I said in surprise. "What are you talking about? All I did was get pulled down on my face!"
"Yes. And then you got up again.That’s how you made me proud.”

I didnt know how to respond. He was proud? Of me? Even after all that had been happening this season?

“Thanks,” I said finally. “Thanks Dad.”

 A while later I was sitting in the barn hayloft, which served as my bed during the summer. I felt confused. I had been sure that my father had been growing uneasy around me, just like all of the other villagers. I had been absolutely sure.

But I had been wrong. I had been completely wrong.

And I could not have been happier about it. My father was proud of me. After everything, he was proud of me still.

A whisper of rustling straw announced the arrival of my mother into the barn. “How did everything go today?” she said in her soft voice

“Good,” I said. “I think that everything went just fine, actually.”

“Did you get very much work done?”

“Well, no. But still, I think… I think things are going to be all right.”

She smiled. “I’m glad that you’re feeling better. You’ve been so anxious lately- it’s about time that something finally worked out.”

“It’s not that anything really worked out today- but for once, I am going to try and be positive about it.”

“And that is exactly what you need to do. Just try and keep that, no matter what, alright?

“Okay. Do- do you have any idea why all this has been happening lately? With the animals and all?

"I don't know," Lucy said. "I don't know why. Maybe you just aren’t cut out to be a farmer. It didn’t come easily for your father and I either. But I do know that you are our son. And you will always have a place here. Here you will always belong. And someday soon, you’ll find your place in the world as well. Have a little faith. Things will work out. One way or another"

"I sure hope so." I said.

                                        …………………………………….

The next day, the same thing yet again. I stood carefully positioned away from the horses as usual, watching my father struggling to remove an especially large rock on his own, despite my repeated efforts to help him. The horses would simply not allow me to come near. The sun was strong- I could feel droplets of sweat making their way down the small of my back and starting to stream down my face. A breeze ruffled against the back of my neck. That was good, I thought. The breeze would help cool things down just a little bit.

Without warning the horses panicked and charged forward. Dragging the massive rock onto my fathers leg.

All I could do was to try and force the stone off to one side long enough for him to pull the trapped limb out from underneath. The leg was bent in a way that no leg should bend. “Healer!” my father groaned, jaw clenched. “Get the healer!”

I ran, the usual taboo against me entering the village forgotten as I raced for the healer’s hut.

                                      …………………………………….


Word of my father's injury, and my role in it, soon had been heard, repeated, and embellished by every single village dweller. Soon the rumors took a more violent tone, fed by a wellspring of anger over my perceived bewitching of their animals. Soon, unchecked by the level headed voice of my father, talk of ‘doing something’ about me became action. I had no warning whatsoever.

The next morning I was standing in the sun outside the barn as I usually did after cold nights, feet akimbo, eyes closed, soaking up the warmth to the point where  I no longer felt the nights chill lingering in my bones. I heard shouting from the hut. My fathers voice.
Still stiff, I took several moments to reach the source of the noise. I was greeted by the sight of my mother, bound and gagged on the floor. Standing over her was the village chief, Edric, and half dozen villagers. Then they noticed me.

"There he is!" someone shouted, and every single one of them charged me at once. I was almost instantly overwhelmed, an ax handle to the back of my head ending my attempts at escape.

Night had fallen by the time I awoke.

I was lying bound and gagged like my mother had been, laying outside our little hut like a piece of refuse. Inside, I could hear an argument in progress over exactly what should be done with me, interrupted only by the sound of slapping as the villagers tried to hold the mosquitoes at bay. I almost smiled at the sound. At least I didn’t have that particular problem. Not even the mosquitoes seemed to be coming anywhere near me. a fact that I was grateful went unnoticed by those in the hut. Maybe they would get tired of scratching bites and just let me go, I thought. Right.

I lay there for what felt like a long time, trying to breathe through the gag and making futile attempts to work the ropes around my arms and legs loose. Abruptly I was hauled to my feet and tossed bodily into a wagon, which the horses were not very happy about. We set off, about five villagers walking along beside. I managed to wedge myself against the side of the wagon, and, wincing as it strained my shoulders further, worked my bound hands underneath my feet and finally to my front. A slight victory, but still a victory. I started listening to the quiet murmurs of conversation taking place around the wagon. A few voices showed that some of them were having second thoughts about taking me wherever they were taking me.

“Is this really necessary?” one voice asked “What has he really done to deserve this?”

“You know full well. Either he goes, or these… ‘accidents’... keep happening. Do you want to put the whole village in danger?” a gruff voice answered. Edric, probably.

“Of course not. Its just… he’s just a lad. Why must you do this?”

“To make sure that he can’t come back. The decision has been made.”

The conversation turned to other things.

Soon I was struggling to hold myself upright as the wagon began a steep upward climb.The villagers began to grow quiet as the ascent continued. I wondered what could make the usually talkative villagers become so subdued. What were they going to do?

Finally, the wagon stopped with a grind of metal wheel rims against loose rock.

 As the driver struggled with to keep his horses in place Edric hoisted me from the wagon and onto the hard ground. He rolled me onto my back with his foot and pulled his knife. With a few deft cuts he sliced my hands and feet free.

"Start walking," he growled. "And don't even think about doubling back. We'll be here to make sure that you don't."

He pointed toward a downward slope punctuated by jagged boulders. Edric shoved me from behind. Knees bowing from fear and from the lack of blood flow caused by the ropes I stumbled, falling down the slope for a long moment before I rolled to a stop.
“Now move,” Edric called. “If I can still see you when the sun rises, then I will come after you and finish you myself.”

I didn’t know what else I could do. I turned my back on everything that I had ever known. On my home. On my family. And started walking.

I couldn’t see the stars. There was no sign of the moon. I was in darkness. Within minutes I could no longer see even the light of the villagers torches.

It was slow going.  The ground was uneven, covered with sharp edged rocks that clutched at my legs and feet. There could be anything out here. I could only hope that my talent for keeping animals at bay did not fail now.

I began to hear sounds in the darkness around me. Very faintly at first. Then they became louder. Something was following me. Maybe it was one of the villagers. Edric, intent on making sure that I never bother his precious livestock again. But this didn’t sound like a villager. This sounded more like it was stalking me.

Eventually I stopped, slumping down against a convenient rock. Despite the cold I fell asleep quickly, worries of being hunted blotted out by simple exhaustion.

I dreamed of nothing at all. Which was a mercy, perhaps.

                                     …………………………………….

When I woke,  the first thing I noticed was that there was light. Off in the distance the brilliant sun slowly had begun to climb over the horizon. For the first time I began to get a look at my surroundings. There was...nothing. A plain, that stretched out in all directions, nothing but craggy rock and stunted plants. The only landmark that I could see was the sun itself. And behind me, the mountains that I had lived among.

Throat tight, I turned and continued my march. Edric was nothing if not a man of his word. If he had said that he would be after me, then he would be. I had to keep moving.

The sun was strong. Stronger than I remembered. I felt terribly exposed out here; I was accustomed to having my view interrupted by mountains in almost every direction. Here there was only open space except for the maze-like gaps in between the larger boulders. In some places the ground was so broken that it resembled a shattered piece of winter ice on the pond.

Nowhere to hide.

I needed water. I had not been out here long at all and already my mouth was feeling drier. Maybe it was my imagination, but I began to hear the scrape of rock against rock coming from nearby, from the bouldered area. Edric? Something… worse?

Fear settled into my stomach like an icy millstone. Hide. I needed to find someplace to hide.

Off to the right I spotted a break in the otherwise monotonous plain, and I sprinted for it like a rabbit pursued by a pack of wolves. There was a hole. A darkened pit punched into the ground. I couldn’t see the bottom, but one side of it was angled enough that I could probably climb down. But would I be able to climb back up?

Behind me, rocks fell and clattered against the ground. That was certainly not my imagination. I climbed inside, certain that Edric was about to come running out from the boulders and put an end to me. Climbing down was easier than I had thought, thank goodness. As soon as my foot hit bottom then I ran as fast as I could inside of the tunnel that now stretched out in front of me.

It didn’t even occur to me that the tunnel was the most likely place on the entire plain to have something living inside of it. Until I had already ran inside, that is.

When my panic induced energy began to fade, I sat down on the ground, thinking to take a moment to catch my breath. And I listened. I heard nothing but my own breathing. My heartbeat seemed loud in my ears when compared to the silence.

As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I realized that there was sunlight filtering down through a narrow crack high up near the ceiling of the tunnel. I could see small rocks littering the floor around me, and rough, uneven walls. I started to get up, feeling the stiffness more than ever. I hadn’t dared take the time to warm myself up properly that morning, and the long walk had somehow done little to warm me.

I was being watched.

Beside a rock near the wall of the tunnel were two sets of eyes. Neither blinked.  I couldn't blink either. I was terrified of what those eyes could belong to. A head emerged into the light, but it took me a moment to understand what I was seeing. It was... like a lizard, about five feet long with dull gray scales and shining orange eyes. Then it did something so strange that it almost broke me from my terrified stupor.

It bowed. "Great One," it said in a softly hissing voice.

My mind was still struggling to cope with the arrival of the lizard. All I could manage was "Yes?"

It looked back up at me. "It is fortunate that we came across you. It is easy to become lost in these caverns."

I struggled to bring my mind up to speed. "What?" I stammered. Well, sort of up to speed.

"We stand ready to serve." It gestured with its tail to where a second lizard had padded up beside it. This one was slightly smaller than the first, and was a somewhat darker color. Finally my brain began working again.

"What do you mean, ‘Great One?’ " I asked.

Both lizards instantly looked confused. Don't ask me how I knew they were, but I could. "You are a Great One," the first lizard said. Not a question, but a statement of fact. "You bear their scent." It's nostrils flared.

Scent? I...smelled?

Before I could ponder this further, the lizard came to a decision. It wrapped its tail around my forearm. "We will lead you." it said, and pulled me along after it.  And I followed.

I followed.

                                          ……………………………………….

Both lizards moved fluidly, amazing to watch. They never said anything, hardly speaking at all, in fact, but I got the impression that they were a bit frustrated at my own difficulty progressing over the rubble. They led me under stone arches, through narrow fissures and up old rock slides to the point where I had no sense of direction left. At least it wasn't completely dark. Enough light filtered down from holes in the ceiling at points to let me more or less see where I was putting my feet.

"What are your names? Do you have names?" I panted.

Both lizards paused. "I am Kartan," the bigger lizard said after a moment. "This is my mate, Telana." it said, indicating it's darker companion. I guessed that it- Telana?- must be female, and Kartan had to be male. Only slightly more than I knew a moment ago, but it was something.

After an especially convoluted set of passages, Kartan hissed that we had arrived. The two of them took up positions on both sides of a huge doorway somehow cut into the stone. After looking at each with uncertainty, I went through.

What was this place?

Obviously, I thought as I walked down a long hallway built to the same dimensions as the entryway, this had not been built with those of my size in mind.  So who had it been built for? Or… maybe the builders had just wanted this hall to make you feel as small as possible?

It was working.

I reached the end of the hallway and stepped out into an unbelievably massive space that stretched to both sides for what seemed like miles, the walls curving gradually around until they met somewhere on the other side. The stone of the walls was riddled with huge holes of different shapes, like a huge stone beehive. In the center of the space was what looked to be a mountain, a towering mound of rock that looked small in comparison to its surroundings. Sunlight streamed through a few openings in the ceiling that looked to lead straight to the open air.

"We must find the Elder," said a voice from right beside me. I jumped. I hadn't realized that Kartan and Tealana had followed me.

"The Elder?" I asked, walking along behind them.

So. Much. Space.

They stopped at one of the holes that I had seen before. "Stay here." Kartan said. With that he easily leaped ten feet straight up to the lip of the cave.

In awe I looked at Tealana. She just blinked at me and sat down with her tail arranged neatly at her feet.

"What is this place?" I asked, finally giving voice to my question.

She regarded me with an unreadable expression. "This is the Aerie. The ancestral home of the Great Ones."

Great Ones again. And I still had no idea what they were, other than I apparently smelled like one. And that both Kartan and Tealana were determined that I actually was one. A thought struck me. "Tealana? Does your kind have a name?"

"We are those who serve the Great Ones. We are yilan." she said shortly.

I tried to hear what was happening in the cave above us. All I heard were a few words that did not sound like the language that I knew. A few minutes later Kartan dropped down from the cave mouth and landed with a casual thump.

"The Elder will meet with you," Kartan said without preamble.

I eyed the lip of the cave. "Up there?" I asked. Kartan nodded.

Well…. I had come this far… what was one more risk of being eaten?

Ordinarily the climb would not have been too hard, but who knows how long without anything to eat would make it pretty tricky. But whoever this 'Elder' was, he apparently was the one to talk to. And I needed those badly. And besides, trying to run probably wouldn’t work out too well. So shaky or not, I started climbing.

Fortunately the rock had plenty of grooves running through it that made good hand and foot holds. It struck me that the grooves had fairly even spacing, like something had clawed gouges straight into the rock.

Then I was at the top, Kartan and Tealana looking up at me with something like amusement. I was trying to catch my breath when a voice came from behind me. "We were planning on bringing you up, you know." I turned, and froze. Sitting a few feet away.... was a….

My brain locked up again.

                                         ………………………………………….

It was huge. Easily taller than the village great hall back home, though it was hard to tell- the head was shrouded among the shadows of the cave roof. Claws like plow blades, but much sharper. Scales that looked as thick as millstones. And that was just what I could see from where I stood on wobbly legs.
I could tell that it was watching me, although I could not see it’s head. "Kartan was right. You DO bear our scent." said a rumbling voice. The neck bent downward and…

My legs nearly gave out then and there.

 It’s massive brow furrowed. "But how could that be? You are quite obviously human." It turned, looking at something toward the rear of the cave and speaking more softly, as if to himself.

My brain felt as if it had turned to a useless mush, but I still heard what it had said. Our scent? Who was “Our”? What?

“What?” I squeaked

The creature turned back toward me. "Oh! I'm sorry! I forget myself- I don’t usually have guests. Please, have a seat. And forget about diving back down there," I snapped my eyes back to the front. "You would only break something that I am not currently prepared to fix."

Light flared from nearby, making my eyes smart like I had looked into the sun. When my vision adjusted I saw that, bizarrely, it was now holding what looked like a ridiculously oversized version of the lanterns that had lit the homes of some of the wealthier villagers. “There.” the creature continued. “No sense in holding a conversation in the dark.”

It turned again, the light from the lantern revealing that it was browsing through a pile of objects near the back of the cave.”Ah! Here we are. I knew that I still had this lying around,” It dropped something onto the floor in front of me- something wooden. Was that a stool? Somehow that little stool, such a normal object in the confusing mess that my world had become, allowed me to focus again. I had to do something. Panic would have to wait until later.

I sat down, wishing that my legs would start behaving themselves.

“What-” I squeaked again. I coughed. “What….are you?”

“In what sense? Metaphorical, occupational, spiritual, or literal?”

“Uh-”

“Literal, then. Well, my kind have been called by many names- not all of them complimentary- but the one that I prefer is ejderhalar.”

“Huh?”

“Hmm. Doesn’t translate all that well, come to think of it.”

“K-Kartan said that you were called Great Ones.”

Great One?” I suppose that works just as well. Yes. I am a Great One. My name is Ashfang," the dragon continued. “And I am something of the records keeper here.”

“Where is here?”

“Aerie, of course. And you can relax, by the way. I have no intention of eating you. Far too bony for my old jaws, I think. And far too small.”

Now that I looked at it a little more closely the dragon did appear to be quite old, now that I looked at him, with scales missing in places from his brown hide. Even his talons showed signs of long wear.

"You, my friend, present something of a puzzle," he said, rummaging through the pile and extracting a scroll.

"I have never seen anything like you- obviously a human, but- there seems to be more here than meets the eye.  I am getting ahead of myself. Where are you from, and how did you find your way here?"

So I explained. My parents, the villagers, the animals, Edric, the exile, being found by Kartan and Tealana, everything. When I told him about how I always found some warmth in the morning to help me get moving, he turned and again started digging through a pile of stuff at the rear of the cave. When I had finished my story he pulled a cylindrical object- a scroll from the pile. He unrolled it easily, his talons moving with supreme care and dexterity despite the scrolls small comparative size.

"Look here," he said, motioning me over. The scroll was covered with bizarre marks, nothing like the ones I had learned how to read. "What do you see?" Ashfang questioned. His tone was odd…. solemn, almost.

I was about to say that I couldn't make sense of it.
But then... I saw something that I felt like I had seen before. I leaned closer to the scroll. "This one here, it looks almost like..."

I felt like I should know what the symbol represented, but I simply could not remember what. I became aware that Ashfang was looking at me intently. "Uh, what language is this anyway?" I asked, intimidated by his gaze.

" Glyphic Draconian. A tongue that supposedly is secret." he answered.

The reply confused me "Supposedly? What do you mean by-" I started to ask.

Ashfang interrupted me. "To be honest, I’m not sure myself. I have never encountered something quite like you before- which surprises me, since I was under the impression that this life had long since ran out of surprises. My. Oh my.”

The dragon began shaking and emitted a sound like a boulder being ground to pieces. Was he...laughing?

Finally he stopped and caught his breath. “I must thank you,” he said. “For coming here. And reminding me that there still are things that I do not know. Thank you.”
He seemed to collect himself, then returned his attention to me. “So, my personal realizations aside, I think we should concentrate on what to do with YOU at the moment. Now that you are here, what do you want?”

The question caught me off-guard. He seemed to be fond of changing the subject of this conversation.“I don’t really want anything. I was just trying to follow the tunnels so I could try and get away. The other people in my village finally got fed up with me and ran me out.”

Ashfang snorted. “One does not walk all that distance and follow two unknown dracan simply out of a desire to escape a few villagers with torches. Think about it. Why did you come here? Why did you keep going?”

I sighed and tried to think, not an easy task under Ashfang's unblinking gaze. "I just... I felt like I needed to continue. I don’t really know why. It just felt like something that I needed to do.”

“And why did you follow Kartan?”

“He… he acted like he recognized something about me. About what about me is different all of the sudden.”

I took a breath, trying to put the feeling into words. “ I want… I want to know what changed," I said finally. "As long as I can remember I have fit in just as much as I had any right to. Haven't ever had any real friends, but I fit in. But lately...everything had changed. I want to know why. What I’m supposed to do."

Ashfang smiled, revealing an impressive array of teeth. "That's something that I think I can help with." He said. “Are you willing to see this through to the end?"

“I.... think so.”

He turned toward the cave entrance. "Kartan!"

"Yes Elder!" the dracan replied instantly, his head poking up over the lip of the cave mouth.

“Bring food for our guest here. In the meantime,” he said, settling onto the floor, “you are going to tell me everything that you can remember.”

                                         ……………………………………..


I told him. Everything, from my earliest memory, a sudden, vague burst of light, to the moment I had climbed into his cave. I told him about the village. About the people, about the other boys who I had played with when we were younger, about the girl who I had thought was rather pretty but had never dared to tell her so. I told him about how the merchant caravans would come through during the harvest months, selling their wares of fabric and furniture and exotic food. I told him about my parents, about how worried I was that the villagers had done something bad to them. My voice faltered at the memory, images of Father and Mother bound and gagged on the cottage floor. I hadn’t been able to see their faces one more time before the villagers had spotted me. Were they alright? Was Mother worried about me? Was Father alright?

Ashfang eyed me as I tried to hold back the flood of emotions, all of them bottled up since this had started. Fear. Anger at the villagers. Worry. Sorrow for the home that was now lost to me. Especially sorrow. I couldn’t stop the tears from coming.

“Sorry.” I sniffed.

Ashfang looked up from the parchment that he had been writing on. “Sorry for what?”

“Never mind.” I said, wiping my nose on my sleeve. “Thats about all that I have to say. After they took me to the plains I just started walking. I thought I heard someone following me so I tried to hide in a large hole in the ground, a hole that was really a tunnel. I followed it, and then I met the dracan. Now I’m here.”

“Indeed, which is remarkable in of itself.” Ashfang said, putting a finishing touch onto his parchment with a talon dipped in ink. “Now, you might as well relax. I need some time to try and make sense of all of this, and you look like you are ready to fall where you stand from fatigue. Kartan should have- ah, there we are.”

Ashfang pointed to off to the side, where a perfectly normal looking bedroll had been deposited sometime during my story. I shuddered to think where the dracan might have found it. “Get some sleep. I’ll wake you if I need something.”

Obediently I went over, spread the bedroll out across the floor and laid down.  It felt good to actually sleep on something besides bare rock- the last few nights made this bedroll seem as plush as a kings bed.

And yet, I couldn’t sleep. Ashfang had produced a selection of yet more scrolls from the rear of the cave and had begun sorting through them with gusto.

Though I understood nothing of what was written there, my gaze kept sliding over to look at the inked symbols. Where had I seen these before? Nowhere, I thought. And I still know them, I thought a moment later.

It can’t be a good sign when you start holding arguments in your own head. I rolled over to my side and closed my eyes. Just relax. Relax. Rela-

“What in the world is she trying to reference?!” Ashfang suddenly bit out. He stood and turned angrily, still looking at the scroll. “Blasted-”

His tail suddenly swung around in my direction and I reflexively rolled to the side, the scaly limb landing with a loud WUMP! through the space that I  had occupied until a moment ago. “She just HAD to be mysterious about it, didn’t she?! Where did I put that codex?”
The near miss from the tail was suddenly compounded by a scroll carelessly tossed over his shoulder in my direction- which wouldn’t have been a problem if this scroll hadn’t been almost as long as I was tall.

“OOOOOFF!” I wheezed as the scroll bounced off my stomach like a felled tree.

Ashfang turned at the sound. “Arent you supposed to be resting?” he asked, completely unaware of what had just happened.

I had never imagined that a dragon could be so… absent minded, I thought as I mde my way back over to the bedroll. Hopefully he still remembers who I am in a few hours. So he doesn’t bite my head off or something

What I wouldn’t give to be back at home right now, in my nice cozy hayloft.

                                          …………………………

Ashfang woke me a few more times, both because of a carelessly tossed scroll and once because he wanted to ask me about whether or not I was strictly a carnivore. My blank look prompted him to clarify. “Do you eat only meat? Or a mix of things, like plants and such?”

“A mix of things.” I responded. “Though meat is always tasty.”

Ashfang turned away without further comment, looking confused. I opted to just go back to sleep.

When I woke up it was morning, judging from how stiff I felt. Ashfang had not moved an inch, scrolls still spread out in front of him. “Feel better?” he asked.

“Murghuh.” I replied. “Rggmmph. Ahem. I mean, morning. Is there anywhere around here where  I can just sit in the sun for a little while?”

Ashfang eyed me with interest. “Is this something that you do often?”

“Every morning. Look, I’m not feeling much like answering questions just now, so-”

“Of course. Kartan will show you a place.”

As if he had been waiting outside the cave for the entire night for someone to mention his name Kartan appeared almost instantly at the mouth of the cave. “This way, Great One.” he hissed.

“Can you stop calling me that?” I asked.

“Certainly, Great One.”

He led me to a passage near the rear of the cave, to a longish chamber scoured into the rock with morning sunlight streaming in from an opening at the far end.
“Will this suffice, Great One?” Kartan asked.

“Yes. Thank you.” I said. “Can you please stop calling me that?”

The dracan sat down to wait, a hint of what might have been a smirk on his face. Maybe.

Standing there in the sun I took the time to try and gather my thoughts. Exiled from my village; bad. I just spent a night in a dragons cave and I am still alive; good. I dont know where I am; bad. Eric might possibly still be after me; bad. He isn’t likely to find me; good. If he does find me, he’s in for a big surprise; good.

I almost smiled at the thought of Eric blundering into Ashfang’s cave and seeing me there, sitting across from the dragon like I was having a conversation with a friend. That would certainly make his frightened cattle seem like a small problem. And then he would be all the more convinced that I was involved in something evil. So in terms of helping me regain my home, that idea would not be working anytime soon.

To be honest this deal with the dragon- Ashfang, I corrected myself- was the best chance at ending the whole “scare the animal” thing that had gotten me exiled in the first place. Even if I managed to get rid of it there was a good chance that Edric still wouldn’t let me come back. But while it still was happening, I had about as much chance as walking into the village again as I did of going to the Eastern Deserts. This was my best chance.

Perhaps my only chance.

Eventually both my knotted muscles and tense thoughts started to loosen, and Kartan led me back- which I wasn’t sure was necessary, since it was only a distance of a wagon length or two. Then again, given how twisted the passage was, I probably WOULD somehow manage to get lost. Ashfang turned as I walked back in. “Feeling better?” he asked.

“Much. Sorry about that- I’ve never been very good at being social in the morning.”

“Is that a fairly recent thing? As in, did it start around the same time as everything else?”

“No.  I’ve always been like that, as far as I know.”

“Hmm. Well, that doesn’t help either…” the dragon murmured. “Thankfully this is being difficult- I would have been so disappointed otherwise!"

“Did you find anything?” I asked.

"Absolutely nothing!" He said brightly. " Not a single instance in my collection of anything even remotely similar to this! Isn't that wonderful?"

"Um." I said. " No. Isn't that bad?"

"Not at all! It means I have something that I can really get my teeth into! Er, " he said as I shifted uncomfortably in my seat " In a manner of speaking. Relax- that's just an expression."

"So, if there was nothing in your library, what do we do now? " I asked.

"We get to use a more hands on approach," Said the dragon.

"At the lowest level of Aerie's central column, there is a spring, it has been known as a… special place… since before even my time. It is said that it has the power to reveal truth. Interpretations of what that means vary somewhat, but I do know that any use of that particular water for scrying is more precise and clear than anything else that I have ever used. So... I'm hoping that that same water can help us get a little insight into this mystery."

The dragon sighed. " It has, however, been quite a while since my last visit to the spring, and I'm afraid that the tunnel is now too small for me. You'll have to go with Kartan, and then inform me of what you see in the spring. Understand?"

Kartan nodded, turned, and dropped the ten feet down to the ground. I walked over to the edge and looked at the drop. Ashfang's voice came from behind me. "Ah. Here, I'll help you down." The tip of his tail wrapped around my waist and set me down outside the cave. His tail withdrew and his head appeared at the opening. "Come back once you're done. Someone will need to teach you the ropes, as it were. And I simply can't wait to start recording your story! No matter what happens, it will make quite a tale!"

Kartan nudged my leg. "We need to get moving," he told me.

I tried to walk quietly through the rocks on the Aerie floor as Kartan led me toward the central pillar. It took quite a while to reach it, and it looked even larger up close.

"Wait here a moment," Kartan told me, indicating a large boulder, which I crouched behind. He went ahead.

As I crouched I could hear sounds of activity beginning to come from the caves, flapping, growls, hisses, even roars, which seemed impossibly loud given my distance from the wall. The light coming through the ceiling flickered. I looked up and realized that something had passed through the holes, interrupting the sunlight. Something with wings. As I watched a gigantic dragon with brilliant green scales dove through and flapped toward one of the wall caves.

I was still watching when Kartan came bounding around the corner. "Quickly," he whispered. "We only have a few minutes to get down there" He trotted toward the pillar.

The tunnel wound around in a semicircle until we were headed back toward the pillar, then it dropped steeply for a good distance. Kartan halted at a stone doorway like the one at the entrance. "Beyond there," he said, pointing with his muzzle.

"Uh,so exactly what am I supposed to do?”

“You need to look. That is all. Though what you see- may not be pleasant.”

“What do you mean?”

Hunter's luck," he called back over his shoulder. And then he was gone.

A single torch burned inside the doorway. Past it was a perfectly round spot of black, like a hole to infinity set into the rock. I walked up to the blackness, wondering what it was. I tossed in a small pebble and heard a tiny splashing sound. Water.

Did I really want to do this? Would I see something that would help me? If this didn't work... then I wouldn't be any worse off than before. If this was my chance then I was going to take it.

I knelt down next to the pool and leaned over it, looking into it's unknown depths. Not a single glimmer of light reflected from it's surface. Somewhere in the back of my mind a quiet thrum of anticipation began to grow. What was I about to see?

I waited. And waited. The pool remained as dark and still as the inside of a tomb. Was I doing something wrong? Kartan had made it sound like whatever I was going to see would happen immediately.

My mouth was parched- it had been quite some time since I had had any access to water. Without thinking I reached my hand down and drank from my cupped hand.

After another minute of trying to see something I stood and backed away from the spring. This had been… absolutely pointless, I thought. With a sigh, I began to walk back the way I had come.

A sharp pinch of discomfort went through my stomach. Then again, and I doubled over. "S-something wrong-" I grunted. I sat down on the floor and looked back at the spring, illuminated by the torch.

The room started moving.

No, not the room. Something was happening to my vision. Oh no...

The room seemed to start creeping toward me. The pain in my stomach hit again, spreading outward into my entire body. I could hear a crunching, groaning sound coming from below me. I watched in shock as my calves somehow shortened. I thrashed, head slamming into the ground. The pain of the impact seemed barely noticeable compared to everything else.. The skin on my back crawled and tingled weirdly, the sensation spreading across my arms and legs. Orderly rows of dark gray colored shapes sprang into existence across my skin, covering my body within seconds, longer flattened shapes appearing on the front of my torso. My hands twitched madly, fingers thickening and merging as the shapes coated them too.

New muscles thickened my limbs, extended nerves tingling painfully. The dark shapes encased my feet, my toes thickening until they resembled my hands. My spine lengthened explosively, taking my head with it. I could feel a new limb protruding from my tailbone, still lengthening until it was as long as my growing body. Then it was longer.

My skull creaked sickeningly, flattening into a  muzzle that filled itself up with pointed white teeth. My hair vanished under the gray shapes- scales- and my ears moved near the top of my head, becoming pointy. My eyesight dimmed until suddenly growing bright, the torch shining like a bonfire. Sharp black talons punctured my fingers and toes, setting themselves into place in the bone.

Pain, the worse yet, tore through my innards and my shoulders. My guts twisted, mutating into organs designed for my changing form. I retched painfully, my shoulders splitting in half, the new pair sprouting, new bones and tendons forming giant hands that wove translucent black skin in between their fingers, growing stiff as flight muscles wove themselves over my bones before relaxing. I heard a loud 'Whumpf' noise and heat flared in my chest. One last pulse of pain came from the back of newly changed head and neck, and….

And then everything stopped.

Everything was still. I let out a relieved gasp and stared at the wisps of smoke that rose from my nostrils. My field of view was wider, eyes farther apart on a larger head. I raised my head, a strange sensation with my extended neck. When I blinked a clear membrane dropped over my eyes. I blinked again, an actual blink this time, and heard a click as  I closed my now scaled eyelids. I looked over to the spring and was surprised to see that it now reflected like a mirror.

I looked at the image shown there, green eyes with catlike pupils that glowed in the light of the torch. Even the dark gray scales of its face had a dull shine. The scales on its chin and on the front of its neck were slightly lighter in color, and went down its front all the way to the tip of its new tail.

No, not it. Me. I was looking at my own face.

I could smell the pine sap of the torch. I opened my mouth and it looked like my head had split in half. My tongue was now forked, nestled among cone shaped white teeth.

I looked at my reflection a moment longer, a flood of emotions pouring through my mind. "It actually worked..." I whispered, voice altered somewhat by my larger lungs and throat. "IT ACTUALLY WORKED!" I roared flinging my wings open and marveling at how... right they felt. Everything else still ached terribly, but the wings… those felt right.

I began climbing back out.

Everything had shrunk. The previously cavernous tunnel to Aerie's main level was now comfortably sized. Kartan was waiting for me under the overhang. His eyes widened, his scent tasting of surprise at seeing my drastically altered form. He bowed as he had when I first met him.

"Now you truly are a Great One," he said respectfully.”Apparently,” he added. I grinned. Good to see that a little thing like this couldn’t remove his sense of sarcasm. "The Elder is waiting," he continued. My wings twitched, wanting to be used.

"Can I fly there?" I asked.

"That would not be wise. An unfamiliar dragon flying about Aerie would draw questions that we are not yet ready to answer." Kartan said.

I nodded, and followed him out into the open.

The walk to Ashfang's cave did not take nearly as long as it had before. This time, Kartan had to hurry to keep up with me instead of the other way around. When I reached the cave I called into the entrance, now at about the level of my chin. "Elder!"

"Not now, I'm waiting for someone else to come ba-" Ashfang stopped in mid sentence and stuck his head out of the entrance. His tongue flicked out like a snakes, and he blinked. "Ah. It's you?!”

“Yes. What happened to me?”

“I don’t know. Well, come in then, and tell me what you did!"

I hopped up easily into the cave. I was amazed at how much less intimidating Ashfang looked now. As I climbed into the cave my tail knocked into several stacks of books, which I barely kept from toppling over. Ashfang leaned out of the entrance again and spoke to Kartan. "Excellent work, my friend, as always. Please don’t tell anyone about what you’ve seen. Go home and rest. And thank you."

Kartan bowed, first to Ashfang and then to me, then left. Ashfang turned his attention back to me. "Obviously that didn’t do what we were expecting," he said, looking me over. I nodded slowly. "Amazing. You're the spitting image of Ravenscale. The only difference are those black markings, and your age of course."

I looked at myself. "What markings? And who’s Ravenscale?"

"On your wings, head and neck. I've never seen anything like those on a dragon before, but I suppose that is appropriate. You have a unique situation, after all." Ashfang said. “Ravenscale was one of Aeries founders- though he has been gone for a long while. I can’t fathom how he could be connected to all of this. It certainly can’t be a mere coincidence.”

“So… we still know nothing.” I said.

“Indeed. If anything we know less than we did before

I looked back up at him. "What now?”

“Well, given...this….” he said, gesturing toward me, “I think that many of your questions have become moot points. We’ll just have to figure out where to go from here. And I think that you’ll need to learn a few things about being a dragon- we don’t know how long this will last, so it’s best to plan for the long run.”

“Will I learn to fly? "

He snorted. " I would guess that you need lessons in that about as much as I do. You probably know how to fly just like how you are speaking Draconian right now. "

My jaw dropped. "You mean I'm speaking... right now?"

"That is exactly what I mean. Seems that you already know some things- though I have no idea how. But there’s much more you likely don’t know. As I mentioned, I am going to teach you as many of the nuances of being a dragon as I can. If you are going to become part of Aerie clan, you'll need to know as many of these things as possible."

"Part of... But how?! I'm not even really a dragon!" I protested.

"Maybe not. But like I said, we need to plan for the long run. If you’re going to stay here you need to belong to the clan."


I nodded after a moment. "Alright. Let's get started then."

                                         …………………………………………….

Ashfang took me to a series of cliffs overlooking the ocean. The shape of Aerie loomed in the distance behind us, a volcanic cistern that brushed the clouds, giving no indication of what was inside.

Ashfang opened his wings, talons tightly gripping the rocks we stood on. "Feel the wind! One of the great joys of dragon-kind is to hear the wind as it sings across the rocks, the trees, the grass."

I spread my wings like him and was shocked by the amount of lift. I was almost completely lifted off the ground before  I could anchor myself.

Chuckling, Ashfang lowered his wings. With difficulty I managed to do the same. Ashfang gestured at the drop to the ocean in front of us. "These cliffs have been used by hatchlings to build their wing strength for many years, since even before Aerie was formally established. Now it's your turn. Jump off."

I eyed the waves below, salt coating my tongue. "Is there a certain way to do this? Do's and dont's?"

Ashfang lowered himself to a sitting position on the ground. "The only 'don't' is thinking about it. The only 'do' is to fly. Take a running start, jump, then open your wings. You will know what to do then, even if you do not right now."

I nodded and backed up about fifty feet, not a great distance now that I was about twenty feet long including my tail. I flexed my wings until they touched above me, then lowered them almost to the ground, keeping them carefully shut. I leaned back, and charged forward, past Ashfang, and leaped over the cliff. I opened my wings as soon as my claws left the ground. Even so it felt like a long time before they caught the air, the leathery membranes tightening with a FWAPP.

I was headed toward the ocean!

I twisted my wings and tail without thinking, and I leveled out almost instantly. My legs tucked close to my body, my neck straightened... and I was flying.

Unsteady at first, over and under-correcting, I soon began to become more stable. I tried a few turns, gently at first, then steeper and steeper until I was nearly touching my own tail tip, reversing direction in the space of a single body length. Growing confident I dived low enough to skim the wave tops with the tips of my wings. I began to understand what Ashfang had said about listening to the wind. Every fiber of my being reveled in the new-found ease of movement and the sensation of power and significance that came from my elevated perspective.  I flew on, circling the cliffs countless times, practicing flips, spins, loops, and other things that I couldn't name.

Eventually I noticed that Ashfang had stood up and was gesturing at me with one wing. Was he telling me to land? Abruptly I realized that I had never thought to ask him about that particular part of flying. Would my instincts take care of this too? I tried a swoop past the cliffs where Ashfang stood watching. I waited to feel the rush of unthinking movement that had come when I had first taken to the air. And waited. And waited. The cliffs were right in front of me now. Frantically I flared my wings in an attempt to slow down. Still too fast! I threw my back legs and tail beneath me and tried to sort of run to a stop, but stumbled, rolling head over tail until I finally slid to a halt.

"Oof!" I groaned. Dust coated the inside of my mouth. A shadow crossed my face.

"Nice landing," Ashfang commented as he walked up.

Rolling back to my feet I replied, "You seem to have forgotten to mention that I don NOT in fact know instinctively how to land."

"You had the right idea. Just flare sooner so you don't come in so fast. Don't worry, literally everyone, myself included, makes that mistake on their first flight no matter what they say." Ashfang started walking back to Aerie. "Very impressive for your first flight, though," he continued as I trotted up next to him. "Most young dragons need to be literally pushed before they trust that they would know how. Your agility is also remarkable, as is your endurance."

"Endurance?"

Ashfang nodded at the sun. I realized that when I had began my flight it had been on the opposite side of the horizon. "I was up there that long?"I asked in amazement.

"Yes. I was starting to wonder whether you were going to come down at all. Come on then, you must be hungry after that flight."

"No kidding. So  what exactly do dragons eat?"

                                         …………………………………………….

I stared at the venison in front of me. It was prepared a little bit different than I was used to, namely that it was looking at me in terror. I looked over at Ashfang, who was already halfway through his deer. "What are you waiting for?" he asked as he licked clean a thighbone. "Eat up!"

Silently apologizing to the deer, I twisted it's neck.

The meat was actually very good, nice and juicy. I discovered that I no longer chewed. Instead I tore pieces of meat off a sent them down my throat with a flick of my neck. Pretty soon there was nothing left but bones. "Well," I said as I licked some stray meat off my lip. "That was different, Very tasty, though. Kind of ironic that that was the first time that an animal had a real reason to be afraid of me, and I ate it."

Ashfang nodded as he gathered up the remains of our meal. "An irony indeed. Now then, how about we find you a cave? Would you prefer one at ground level or higher up?"

"I can do that?"

"Certainly! Why wouldn't you?"

"Well, I thought I would have to earn it or something. I mean, aren't there a lot of dragons that need caves?"

"There are far fewer dragons in Aerie than we have caves, young one. We could easily hold double the number of current occupants. Besides, this will be a good first step- it will be the equivalent of declaring your intention to join the clan.”


I chose a small cave about midway up Aerie's wall, withing sight of Ashfang's home. Just perfect for a young male such as myself. I had some trouble sleeping that night, mostly because it took some doing getting wings, tail, head, and all four legs arranged comfortably. Even sleep itself was different in my new form. My heartbeat and breathing slowed, my mind relaxed, yet I was still slightly aware of my surroundings.

When morning came, the sun shone straight through one of the openings in the ceiling and into my cave. Not a bad way to wake up in my opinion. I stood, shaking off sand where it clung to my scales and wondered why I felt something was odd, even more than the fact that I had just slept perfectly comfortably in what amounted to a sand pit. Then it hit me. For the first time in my life, I had woken up warm.