WREN Book Three Prince of Dragons

The waking of the dawn

"Hey old man, no molesting my son." Shea sat down holding out a cup of coffee to Guldan. His eyes went to me. Before I could ask for a cup, Cordgi fell down beside me. He held out a cup filled with dark thick liquid.

"Who made this?" I asked.

"Greyson." Cordgi made a face. I chuckled.

"He's feeling better?" I asked.

"Kind of hard to keep him down." Shea shook his head.

"Guldan, how far are we traveling?" Shea asked to get our minds off of the bad coffee.

"No, that's not your name." I shook my head.

The dream coming back to me. I lifted my eyes up to his. He watched me with a small smirk on his lips. I lowered my head, slipping from my seat I knelt at his feet.

"Kyain, I am honored." I whispered.

The room seem to still as the name was spoken. It was as if an ancient hand reached through time or space to quiet us. I felt his hand on the back of my bowed head. His fingers dug into my hair.

"That is a name I haven't heard for a very long time." His voice sounded older, more weathered as he recalled who he had once been.

"Fly with me Zyn?" it was ineed a question. The oldest dragon in our world had just asked me to ride him. I lifted my head.

The tears in my eyes blurred his image. "It would be an honor." I gasped out.

"Do you know, you ..." Kyain stopped he shook his head.

"Fly with me, one last time." He whispered instead.

"Please. I have already taken a last flight, promise me this won't be..." His hand slapped my face. It stung as the words lifted me.

"I don't plan to die until I can find the Prince I am seeking." His voice was strong with his conviction.

"Then, I shall be honored." I bowed my head again.

"No, you shall be proud. Rise, child of man. There is much you need to know." He pulled himself up, walking briskly out of the cavern.

"Please, for all that's holy, tell me he isn't the first bonded dragon?" Shea's face was white. His dark eyes looked like holes into another world. I nodded.

"My God! He, he saved me." Shea walked away before I could ask what he meant. The coffee in my cup was more like sludge. I held it out to Cordgi who winced at seeing it.

Moving through the people slowly rousing to the new day, I kept my gaze away from the cavern mouth. Stepping into the sunlight I let it wash over my shoulders. It's warmth was weak as it still hadn't risen above the horizon fully. I watched the ground until I saw the clawed feet.

The talons were as large as my arm! They didn't look weak at all, these could easily tear apart flesh. The reddish orange foot led up towards deeper colors in his legs. I was awed at what I was seeing. He wasn't just one or two colors. He had greens, blues, gold, sliver, bronze, red, purple. My eyes scanned over his entire body.

His head was held high above my own. It's golden eye looked down at me in merriment. His long green/ blue neck scales shinned in the light as the sun rose around him. His head spikes were each a different color, one gold, one bronze, one silver. The scales along his backside were a hued rainbow. He was nothing like I had ever imagined. As I gaped at him with my mouth open I tried to recall just what type of dragon the ballad said he was.

My mind was blank. The ballad of Kyain and Zyn was wiped from my memory, until I heard it being sung inside my head. Shea would tend the fields with me, often he sang or whistled the ballad. Not once within all the words did it denote what magic Kyain possessed. It never identified his core element.