Era's End

Chapter 2

Starsong waited and sniffled to himself for several long minutes while the two humans talked inside. Ally started off loud enough that Starsong could almost make out what he said, though it was difficult with that funny way the humans talked. All their sounds felt too quick and tiny, like the trilling of a bird instead of the elongated, clear sounds he and his kind made.

But soon the two were talking so soft that Starsong could barely hear that they were talking at all. Starsong's curiosity overwhelmed his guilt and fear. He considered placing an ear to the door to try and get a better idea of what the humans were doing.

Just as he got up to do so though, the door opened. Ally and Ending stood in the doorway, Ending's face was flushed and Ally's face was calm but his eyes were wary, glancing all over Starsong as if he might try to snap at Ally at any moment. I am a fierce dragon, but you have nothing to fear from me, Starsong wanted to say. Dragons and humans are friends.

Ally said, "Well, Ending tells me he found you by the river, that you're from the other side of the mountains back that way. That you mean no harm. Is that right?"

"That is all very true, yes," Starsong said.

"And that you are injured."

"My wing feels much better today," Starsong said cheerfully. "Though I still don't think I can fly yet."

"Let's get you inside and take a look at it, shall we? Uh on second thought, maybe in the forge. There's more room there, less things for you to stumble into or knock over."

About half an hour later, Starsong's wing had a clean new bandage over the ragged hole in it, and the broken bone in it was properly splinted. "Dragons heal quickly, so I think I will be able to fly again in a month or so."

"That's still a long time," Ending said.

"And meanwhile," Ally said. "You can't stay here. Neither of you can."

"What?" Ending demanded. "I understand we can't hide a dragon from the village - they'll try to kill it, and won't believe us that it's not dangerous!"

"He, please, not it," Starsong said.

"Oh. I'm sorry, Starsong, I didn't mean to offend you."

"You didn't. But what's this about Ending can't stay, Ally?" Starsong said, worried. Had being around him made Ending unable to stay? The pang of guilt came back and Starsong blinked back a tear.

"What Mirth and Wind said last night, Ending. Wind had a prophetic dream about the magic that protects this valley fading, and you have something to do with it, son - best you go with the young dragon to his home for awhile."

"Who are Mirth and Wind?" Starsong asked.

"Village elders," Ending explained. "Wind is a Keeper, and Mirth is her Keeper's Guard."

"You have a Keeper here? That's incredible! I thought they were all gone from the world. That's what my village elders have said. But if they're wrong, then the Goddess hasn't abandoned us. Not yet."

"Abandoned?" Ally said.

"Yes. They say that's why the perimeter guard magic around your village and mine are failing."

Ally and Ending exchanged worried glances. "Yours too?"

"No, it's the same magic construct, I think, though it's in two connecting bubbles. My bubble extends to the ocean on the other side of the mountain. The dragons in my village live between the ocean and the mountain. I was on a recon mission with some of the other airdragons investigating the perimeter, near the waterfall at the edge of the valley here. But in a spot where it was particularly weak, the magic attacked me - I think it thought I was an enemy. It stunned me right out of the sky. I hit a tree as I fell, and that's how I hurt my wing."