A Dragon Destiny

[Yoshomika]

Jade looked out over the plain from her cave high atop the mountain. She had lived alone since her brother had mysteriously vanished, and there wasn't a day that went by that she didn't think of him. Even answering the trivial questions of the villagers who dared brave the treacherous climb could not distract her.

Jade's green eyes flashed as she saw storm clouds rolling in. She felt excitement, knowing storms were the best time for her to divine the future. She shed her fur cloak and wandered out as the first fat raindrops fell. She relished the clod wetness on her skin, soaking into her clothes and weighing down her raven locks. She sat atop a rock and closed her eyes, feeling the energy in the air, pulling it in, letting it flow through her and eventually grounded it into the rock. The clips of visual in her head sped through so quickly she barely could make anything out, she was simply left with such a stab of despair and dread she hadn't noticed she had fallen onto her back and now stared up at the Heavens. She felt as if the lightning had reached out its tongues and licked her from toes to scalp.

"Something's coming," she murmured, clambering to her feet and dashing into the cave. She stripped out of the wet cloth, covered herself with furs and warmed herself by the fire. "Something dreadful..."

 

[Kolath]

Keiran flew slowly over the border of the human and dragon lands. The war had finally been ended with the humans agreeing to the terms of the Dragon council. He hadn’t yet heard what the demands had been but the magic in his blood tingled with anticipation of something coming. He feared that it would be something that he couldn’t condone morally. He turned back to his clan’s roost his golden scales flashing in the sun.

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Far away at the mountain she dwelled on a lone rider slowly made his way up to her cave in the rain. He bore the news of the treaty that had been reached with the dragons. He doubted a oracle needed to be told of her fate but he still was doing his duty. The treaty said that every town had to surrender a woman most dear to them to one of the dragon clans. There were dozens of Clans and their town had been chosen to turn over two women and one of them was to be the oracle.

 

[Yoshomika]

The moon was high when Jade snapped out of her trance, a nightly process she used to deal with the visions. She liked to block her mind for the longest she could, before the visions pressed upon her, swallowing her whole. She saw creatures of fire that flew through the clouds, beautiful young maids lined outside castles, what they waited for was never revealed. She saw blood, she heard screams and she suddenly was filled with a panic. She had to escape, had to run or they'd catch her too! But she couldn't leave... she was loking for something... or someone.

She stood and tended the dying embers, heating the bed to toss more wood to burn. She wouldn't be sleeping tonight, her dreams worse than the visions that plauged her. She wished to rip her eyes out od her skull, but she feared the loss of the distracting reality might make the visions everlasting, and couldn't bear to curse herself. Her vision was a warning. They were coming for pure maids to offer to these beasts. For sacrifice perhaps, or worse, mere food... She also knew they would drag her off her mount as well, if she didn't flee. "Where are you?" she whispered, watching the sky. She would stay, stay until this place told her where her brother was.

 

[Kolath]

The rider came up to her bowing in respect to her position. “My lady, I’m sorry but by order of the king we are required to take you down to the town. If you will not come willingly I will have to return and take you by force. The treaty with the dragons demand that the most valuable maidens be turned over to the dragons, if we do not comply they will destroy the land of the humans making it unlivable.” He looked at her waiting for her answer not knowing how she would react.

Far to the west over the mountains that divided the land of the humans from that of the dragons Keiran landed on the meeting place of his clan. He brushed his wings back clearing of the cloud dust that formed there when all dragons flew. Their leader was returning from the treaty signing and the agreement that the humans made with the dragon. There were rumors about what it was but only their leader could tell them. off in the distance they could see him coming their way but only him, not the dragon that had gone with him as his second. Where was the other dragon and why had the leader returned without him.

 

[Yoshomika]

When the rider appeared, Jade hadn't been surprised, but at his news she knew her prophesy was fufilled. But the fact he had come all the way up the mountian with his horse... she knew she'd have no choice than to let him take her. He'd only come back with more people and weapons if she refused. And even if she miraculously escaped that... dragons would come. They wouldn't search for her, they would merely make it impossible for her, or any other for that matter, to survive. "I'll go with you," she said quietly, her green eyes making it quite clear she didn't approve of the situation. "If this is my path, I must follow it. Only then will I know my desitiny.

She let him help her onto the horse and she sat quietly as he led the animla back down the steep hill. She watched her home grow smaller and smaller, until it was lost to the curve of the mount. She'd been waiting for years here... maybe finally it was time to be reunited with her brother. Or maybe it was another peice in her puzzle, another step in her neverending quest.

Her brother was alive, she could feel it. She had seen it. But where he was now, she was in Fate's hand too.

 

[Kolath]

“You what!!?” Keiran couldn’t stop his outburst. The clan leader had just told them what the dragon council had demanded from the humans in the treaty. He knew that it would have been something that he wouldn’t be happy with, but this was almost unthinkable. He knew that dragons took human maidens as mates even when he had been a human but most of the girls were there by their own choice after the first night. These girls would have no choice ever.

“You can’t do this, it isn’t right for us to demand that they give up girls against their own will. How can you be so selfish?” Keiran noticed that the dragons around him had moved away and the leader was slowly closing with him. he knew what this meant…a challenge for leadership and knew that he would have to face the consequences of what he had just said. However he wasn’t going to back down and so stood his ground ready for the battle to start.