Generations: Broken Prophesy Story

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

    Chaser was slow to return to the cave.  Tired as he was, and only wishing to sleep, he instead was taking his time to enjoy the weather and the chance to fly.  Rolling lazily through the fluffy clouds, he glides silently over the choppy sea.  Fish, sharks, even sea-dragons play in the waves as he sails overhead.  The sun was making it’s last stand before it too sought a well deserved rest, casting the approaching land in its golden light.

    Tipping back, Chaser slows his descent, coming to a short jog he lands.  The lazy river burbles nearby, a pair of half woven baskets lie piled near a tree.  The normal sounds of his sisters chatting is nonexistent.  “Amber?  Jade?  Nyota?”  The silence is deafening.  A cold knot of dread settles in his belly.  “Anyone?”

    Sniffing the air outside the cave, he is assaulted by the coppery tang of fresh blood.  “Jade!”  He rushes into the darkened grotto, where the scent is strongest.  Even in the growing darkness, the ebon dragon’s eyes clearly make out the unmoving shape of a fellow Shadewing, tucked deeply into the back.  “Jade?”

    A masculine groan from the figure, as it shifts, surprises him.  “Chaser?”

    “Radi?  What happened?”  Chaser examines the young male before him.  A long fresh gash runs the length of his body, and strange burns cover parts of his face.  “Wait here!”  Rushing to where he and his sisters had been keeping their packs, Chaser diggs out the last of Gothi’s herbs.  Chewing them up, he mixes the bitter mass with his saliva, forming a thick poultice.  “Okay…  This is going to hurt.”  He mumbles around the paste.  Using his tongue, He presses the herbal mix into Radi’s side, bringing a hiss from him.  Making sure to spread the mix into as much of his wound as he could, he looks over his handy work.  “Where is everyone?  Did they go looking for more herbs?  How did you get so torn up?”

    Radi looks back with his eyes filled with fear, “Ahadi…  Ahadi, has them.”

    “Ahadi?!   How?”

    “Umeme and I were followed.  Everything was going well.  We had planned on returning tomorrow, but Ahadi got too close.  Even with the hot spring baths and rolling in stinkweed, he could still smell your sister’s scent on me.”

    “Did he??”

    Radi shakes his head, “No he sent a couple of hunters loyal to him to bring them in.”

    Chaser sits back, his mind feels like it has been put through his Grandmother’s butter churn.  “You mentioned Umeme…  He didn’t go back did he?”

    “No…  He left me here with the girls.  He went to the mainland to try hunting.  He doesn’t know.”

    Pacing the length of the cave’s opening, Chaser stops.  “Will you be alright?”

    Radi meets Chaser’s eyes.  “You are going to go after them.”

    “They are my sisters.”  With a deep sigh, “And besides…  No one gets away with hurting my family.  My Brother.”

Radi’s expression softens as he pleads, “He will kill you.  Please wait till Umeme gets back.  He’s made a ritual of his ‘breeding’.  He will wait until the moon is at its highest, before he does anything.”

Chaser glances out the cave’s entrance, “So I have a little time…”  His eyes narrow in thought.  “Stay here!”  Without another word, he rushes outside and leaps into the sky, quickly vanishing into the growing darkness.