The Dream of Shadows

Chapter 4

          Hayden. Draek's voice boomed within Hayden's head, waking him from his uneasy sleep in the saddle. Hayden opened his eyes and looked around, trying to figure out why Draek had awakened him.

        What's going on? Hayden asked when he could see no immediate danger. A small mountain range could now be seen off in the distance but other than that nothing seemed to have changed.

         We are nearing the Frozen Tundra. Draek was exhausted, all the dragons were. They had made what should have been a four-day flight in just short of two days. Draek's revelation jolted Hayden out of his weariness. The sun was just starting to descend, but even in the daylight, Hayden couldn't see the Frozen Tundra.

        How will we know that we are there? Hayden asked. He continued to look around for signs of the environment changing, but he found none. The only thing he saw was a few mountains off in the distance.

        I don't know. Draek answered honestly. Hayden could feel that Draek was getting tired, their constant flying at almost full speed was wearing on his body. We are about to meet up with the green dragons. Draek said as he slightly changed his direction of flight.

        Hayden was excited to meet up with the elves and their green dragons. The more dragons they had for this journey, the better.

        Draek saw the dragons before Hayden did but he was surprised to see them already saddled and with their riders. Hayden had thought that they were going to get a chance to rest, but as they neared the group of ten green dragons, Hayden watched them jump to the sky.

        Again, Draek changed his direction, this time to follow the green dragons that had just joined them. It appeared that they were heading straight to where the mountains lay and when Hayden asked if that was right Draek growled a yes in response.

       They continued flying the rest of the day, until just before the sun set completely behind them. As they had flown the mountains that they had been aiming at had continued to grow and reach towards the sky above. Hayden thought that he had seen clouds staying around the tops of the mountains but as they neared, he realized that it was, in fact, the tops of the mountains covered in snow.

       They had finally decided to rest at what the elves told them was nearly a half day flight from the mountains. The Frozen Tundra lay on the other side of the mountains, and the only option they had was going to be to go over the mountains.

        Once they had landed and gotten their gear off of their dragons, the elves began working on getting a camp set up while the dragons flew off to hunt. Hayden stood off by himself looking up at the mountains that loomed over them like giants. Hayden heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Cass walking up beside him.

         "Amazing, aren't they?" She asked when she stopped walking, leaving the smallest amount of space between them.

        "They are," Hayden replied. Not sure what else to say.

         "Do you know the name of this mountain range?" Cass asked, looking up at the white-topped mountains.

         Hayden just shook his head. To be honest, he doubted that anyone back home in Erskine had ever been this far south even to see the mountains, let alone know their name.

         "The dwarves have their own name for them, as do the elves. When humans first laid eyes upon them, they thought they were looking at the world's end. They never imagined that anything could be on the other side of the mountains, so they named them TheeAgren. It means the end." Cass said.