The Dragon's Sign

Chapter 4

"Character comes not from mere strength, skill, nor will, but from the heart that brings forth the actions and reactions."

~ -Herdorina, practice master of the Keep~

Deep rumbles echoed around them as the storm proceeded to unleash its burden that it had for so long carried. Torrent winds blasted the altitude currents with wild thrashes, sending the dragons scattering into the higher skies. Flashes of lightening zig zagged through the clouds, followed by a loud boom.

"Gregory!" Unaile cried out, grunting in pain as another strong blast sent her head over heels with her wings billowing full like a sail. She had lost both Gregory and Sazther's body long ago, and now only lived to battle out the rage of the storm. Lightening stuck, narrowly missing her head. The air sizzled as the bolt disappeared into the ground below.

Finding a hole in the air stream, Unaile struggled to flap up and over the dark clouds. Her wings strained against the crushing weight of the air around her. "Come on", she thought,"just a little more."

A sudden undercurrent picked up from beneath her, causing her to shoot upward and over the storm. Cool night air met her as she regained herself and balanced out. Glancing around, Unaile found several others strung apart, bit in much better shape than she would of expected.

A small bubble of pity for the ones who were probably stuck on the ground welled up inside her, but a sense of relief easily overcame it as she spotted Ravensdire, her third in command, gliding overhead.

"Fall back to me!" Unaile shoutd to the small struggeling band of survivors.

It took a few minutes for them to gather together, but were soon flapping their wings in a weary v-formation. Unaile searched all of them for any serious wounds before setteling back into her place at the head of the right tip of the formation.

"Has anyone seen the others?" she inquired anxiously, hoping that she could recruit them and have at least a fighting chance of finding the others who were currently grounded on the desert plains below.

"I do not think anybody could of seen through that monsterous stormhead," Ravensdire replied gravely, shooting out a small flame to calm his jittery nerves.

"Landerial and I think we saw Terrun heading towards the ground after something, but we couldn't tell if it was her or Thundfer," Ceric hissed, his words punctuated with ice streams dripping form his mussle.

Glad to have found some sort of lead, Unaile heaved a relieved sigh and studied the headclouds below them. Thunder still rolled blow, as if resounded by a gong, but lightening no longer struck across the dark clouds and though seemed somewhat tamer than before.

Calculating the odds in theor favor and against them, she tried to wrestle a plan out of her mind to track down her missing unit. "Well, first there's the problem with how much distance we have covered during the storm itself, then what we have managed to cross up here."

"Then there's the matter of finding out where they fled to, which could be hard if we're in the Yohari territory. On top of that, we must also salvage food and water sources before starting the search."

Taking a deep breath, Unaile narrowed her focus on the particles of matter around her: the tiny bodies of water within the clouds, the rushing of blood and electricity both above and below her.

Power engulfed her and made her drunk with magic. Trying to sort through the scattered atom memories, she flitted through each one, until she had gathered all the information she needed.

"Ravensdire and Ceric, go South of our position! There's a group on the ground about two hours flight, and there seems to be one wounded among them. When you are all rested up, head to the Keep. Don't stay and look for us," Unaile ordered sharply, as the images of the nearby surroundings embedded into her memory.