The Dragon Prince

Dream

Back at the red mushroom, all the fairy dragon tribe was eating and celebrating around a flat stick which they used as a table. Niifkiir, Krilkul and Norokmal all sat near Rohun as they talked cheerfully. Rohun told them about his past, his parents, the grey dragons and Onikhah. They stared at him in wonder and horror as he described his escape from the dark dragons and the screams he heard from the grey village as he made his escape once again.

In'Norokmal told his own story about his experience with the dark dragons. "A few moons ago, I was out on a patrol of our territory. We've had an unusually small number of intruding animals recently, but for some reason the silence was eerie and unsettling instead of peaceful." The other dragons that remembered the event nodded in agreement. "It was the night of a full moon, so everything was lit up and glowing like it does, when all the crickets and beetles suddenly stopped chirping. We all heard the rumbling and quick footsteps of something all too familiar... Drakes."

Rohun looked at him in confusion. "Drakes? You mean the running dragons?" Norokmal nodded. "I thought they lived only in the plains," Rohun said, wondering what drakes would be doing in the forest.

"They appear in the forest every once in a while if there are too many sandstorms on the plains. It has been pretty windy this season," Krilkul broke in.

Norokmal cleared his throat and continued. "The drakes were in stampede, like usual, so we flew to the higher parts of the trees. They can't climb, so we're safe there. But we noticed something seemed off about them. They kept glancing behind them with fear in their eyes. And that's when we heard it." In'Norokmal paused as a small blue female dragon shivered at the memory. "A deep rumbling growl came from behind them, and yellow eyes suddenly crashed through the trees. The dragons's pelt was as dark as ash, not beautiful like the sky dragons at night, but a deathly black nothingness. We knew immediately that it was a dark dragon."

Rohun's eyes widened. "What did it look like?"

Norokmal shook his head. "It was too dark to tell. The air surrounding it was shadowed; it seemed to repel the light of the moon. Fortunately for us, we didn't have to deal with it. It was busy chasing after the drakes, which I'm assuming led it through the forest to the plains on the other end."

Rohun and the other dragons sat in silence. After a while, the blue dragon stood up. "It's getting dark, so I'm going to put my little draglins to bed," she nodded towards In'Norokmal.

"All right, Biimonah. Rest well." Norokmal said with a smile as the female left. She was followed by a few other dragons, both male and female, who filed out of the room after nodding in respect to Norokmal. They head to their own smaller mushrooms. One older looking purple dragon stops and waits for the others to file out, then turned to Rohun and approached him. The scales above his eyes were starting to turn a little grayer, and there were small wrinkles on his skin. "Gold one, do you need a place to stay the night?" he asked. Rohun nodded.

"I have a few extra rooms in my mushroom, if you would like to stay there for a night," the old dragon said with a wrinkled smile. Rohun gladly accepted, and the two dragons left the large red mushroom. The purple dragon, whose name was Haafdeinmaar (though he insisted that everyone call him "Haaf"), lived in the center of a large ring of mushrooms. He told Rohun that it used to be a hotel, but recently the visitors stopped coming. "The forests just aren't safe enough to travel anymore," Haafdeinmaar sighed.