Dragon's Blood

Kade

*A/N - this is the last pre-written chapter I have, everything from now on will be totally new and may take a little longer to upload. Sam talks a lot here because this chapter explains pretty much everything about how they have reached this point and why Iyla is so important. There are still plenty of things I'm not telling you though, lots of twists and turns to come!*

"You?" Bill asked, "They left when you left and came back when you came back - why?"

"I don't understand," Iyla frowned, then turned on her heel and strode away suddenly.

"Wait!" Bill cried, running after her, "Where are you going?"

"I need to talk to Uncle Sam," Iyla was striding determinedly towards the elfin Council Chambers where they had left Sam with Alhem the previous evening. Bill stumbled, trying to keep up with her.

"Slow down!" He breathed, "You can't just storm into the council chambers, that'd be like - like - walking into the staff room at school without knocking! He's probably not even in there anymore, surely he would have had a room to sleep in like we did?"

Iyla slowed, but she didn't stop, "It's not like I can just send him a text to see where he is though is it?" She reasoned, "I'm pretty sure we won't get a signal here."

"Well let's just ask someone," suggested Bill. "I'm guessing that's how things worked before texting was invented. Why are you in such a rush, what exactly did Pandra tell you?"

Finally Iyla stopped, rubbed her temples and took a deep breath, "It's hard to explain," she said, "I just know there's things going on that I don't understand yet. I need to know what they aren't telling me."

"How do you know there is anything they're not telling you?" Bill asked reasonably.

"I just do!" Iyla sounded exasperated, "I've had so much to take in the last few days and the more I think about everything I've been told, the more I see gaps. Like why is Kade so concerned with finding me? I must have been the hardest Dragon Tamer out of them all to find, I was on a totally different world! And why did the dragons wait for me to come back before they came out of hiding? And why exactly did Kade destroy my village? And, and, well just AND EVERYTHING!" She sat on the ground and folded her arms, "Where's Sam?" she asked grumpily, as if Bill was deliberately hiding him.

A little hand tugged at her clothes, accompanied by a polite, raspy throat clearing. Grimp's bright blue eyes blinked up her from his tree bark complexion, "Grimp knows where Chandak is," he offered, "Grimp keeps telling you lady, anything you want, anything you need, Grimp will do, Grimp will find."

"Couldn't find me any crisps." Bill muttered under his breath.

"Grimp does not know what cr-is-ps is." The little creature looked perplexed, "But if it is required, Grimp will find out."

"No, no Grimp, crisps are not exactly a priority," said Iyla, smiling in spite of her mood, "But please do show me where Sam is, that would be very helpful."

Grimp drew himself up to his full height, delighted that Iyla had finally asked him to do something. He motioned for them to follow with one tiny gnarled hand and scurried off into the trees.

Sam was sat in a small clearing, alone with his head in his hands.

"Uncle Sam?" Iyla approached and Bill hung behind, "Are you ok?"

Sam rubbed his face with his hands and looked up at her, a deep sadness in his eyes. "Pandra has told you," he said, "I've seen the dragons ... so much has happened while I have been gone; my brothers and sisters ..." He left the sentence hanging in the air, his silence thundering with grief. Iyla knew that she didn't need to tell him what she had seen, the images that Pandra had shown her of the persecution of both dragons and Chandak in the years since they'd left. She now knew what he had been speaking to Alona about over the last two days in hushed tones, and she was sure that he and Alhem had spoken about it too.