Lightborn

CHAPTER TWO

Heirs To The Throne

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Winter's Moon,
Sun in the Great Sow,
Year 204,
Kreon's Era

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Death smelled of frozen smoke and plum wine. It danced in the white wisps rising from the guard's nostrils to the tune of the magic bubbling within his breath organ.

Hess shut his eyes and whimpered a fading prayer as the pressure upon his chest rose, hoping that the gods could hear better in their temples.

A force slammed into the dragon above and the weight of the palm was lifted off his chest. Roars, screams and snarls of two warring dragon voices clashed with each other. Hess coughed and spluttered as he lifted his head to get a better look, but his vision was obscured by dust the tussle had kicked up. Their steps shook the walls of their rock corridor, bringing down rains of sand and gravel. He looked behind him and saw that the other guard had shielded Mae by wrapping him within the coils of his tail

"Hatchling, come here," he called to Hess as he cradled Mae and tried to pull him out of the way.

"Nika-" gasped the guard as his opponent clamped down on his throat. The strangled word was Nikator meaning victor. The dust cleared and the guard slumped to the floor, retching for air.

Hess didn't dare lift his eyes past the level of the approaching feet that alternated with each other, left, right and left. A maw picked him up by his scruff and gently lifted him, the dragon's exhalations rekindling the warmth of his yolk scruff. Hess chirped as the floor beneath him shifted and a semi-conscious Mae was picked up from the other guard's tail. His surroundings blended into a blur of golden light and greyish stone. He and Mae found themselves being lowered into a nest lined by large, fluffy bolls of white fibres from the silk cotton trees and cotton plants.

He wriggled his way closer to Mae and whispered to him, "Are you alright?"

"I am," he whispered back, waking up from the trance and fluttering his right wing to steady his broken left wing. "That was close. Gleyssier's going to kill you if he finds out."

"He's going to- I think they woke up half the mountain with that fight."

Mae chirped when a muzzle toppled him onto his side and began licking him clean. The tongue was warm and gentle while nursing them and Hess felt his worries melt away with each stroke when it was his turn. The dragon, their father licked them till they were as clean as they had been on the day they had hatched and then nuzzled the hatchlings' little snouts and bodies. His limbs and tail had encircled their makeshift nest, forming a safe barrier between them and the rest of his stunned entourage.

"Someone has been up to some mischief, haven't they?" he asked as Mae managed to latch onto his father's lower jaw with his pudgy hands. The hatchlings looked ridiculously tiny against their father's body, looking like seeds when compared to the pome of their father. The nervous whispers of his imperial entourage were drowned under their chirps and croon.

The Imperator lifted Mae's broken wing with a single talon and regarded it. His cyan eyes narrowed into a glare as it fell limp when he let it go.

"I fell on it while trying to fly, Father," Mae explained. "The healer said that it'd need a week's rest to work again."

"Is that why you two were found so far away from the basal caverns of Mons Sterne?" he asked, his eyes softening and acquiring an amused sparkle in them.