The Darkest Dragons

CHP. 10 "Bad News"

Raine's P.O.V

I woke up with a splitting headache, the one that starts at one place and slowly spreads to another side of your head. When I first opened my eyes I couldn't actually see, but my eyes quickly adjusted to being used again and I looked around, I was in an unfamiliar room, it had nothing in it other than my bed and a chair, though now that I look closer the chair seemed to be occupied by none less than my brother. I said to Abelard, "Where are we?" his head shot up and he stood carefully gripping his stomach in pain. I realized why he had not answered, it was because instead of producing words I had just moaned incoherently. I winced and tried again, though this time I said "Water..." he made out my words finally and nodded, he got me a glass and filled it with water, I slowly drank letting the cold liquid rush down my dry throat. I said much more clearer this time. "Where are we?" He said "We are at Ryan's house, you passed out last night because of your head and we had to take you here to get you patched up." Everything came spilling back into my brain and I winced remembering Ryan's terribly sad story from the night before. I nodded to Abelard and he said "How are you feeling?" I winced and said "I have a headache but that seems to be it." He nodded and I said "How is your stomach, last I remembered you still had a nasty gash." He smiled and said "It isn't any better I'm afraid, though Ryan stitched it up last night." I nodded and lifted Abelard's shirt to reveal an red smear across his stomach, there were seven stiches, it seemed to be healing and there was no puss oozing out, so it wasn't infected. I said "I'm sure it will close in no time, it must just be sore because there is no infection." "I was going to tell him that this morning but thank you for saving my breath." We both turned to see Ryan standing in the door holding to mugs of steaming liquid. He gently set the cups down once he entered the room, I never really noticed the tiny bedside table until he set the mugs down though. I smiled and said my thanks, Abelard quickly followed. I picked up the mug and held it to my mouth, it smelled sweet, I slowly took a small sip and as I did a wonderful taste washed over my senses. I tastes like strawberries and some other flavors, probably the best tea I have ever tasted. "Thank you, Raine, It is a tea my wife used to brew. You're right about the strawberries and I have the recipe written down if you really think its the best you've tasted." I blushed and said "I didn't think I said that out loud but if you have it written down I would love it. He smiled and as I drank my tea Ryan said "So you can leave once you've had breakfast, you guys really recovered quickly though Raine, you might have a headache for a couple days. Abelard you might be sore too." We both nodded and I said "You really did'n-" Ryan cut me off and said "Raine, it is my pleasure to cook you guys breakfast, and the least I could do since you guys pretty much saved the Sky platform." I just nodded remembering Ryan telling me I wasn't a burden at all. He smiled and nodded in approval. I tried to lean up but as I did the headache grew stronger and I winced. Ryan helped me sit up slowly and then throw my legs over the side of the bed. I noticed I had new clothes on and I looked to Ryan questioningly. He threw his hands up and said "I had a female maid come in after we were done and get you new clothes that weren't bloody." I smiled and tried to stand. I was a little shaky but I managed to make it to the door. Abelard put his arm around me for support and we both made it to the table where three dragon heads were laying waiting for us. When I we got near all three of them made a noise in their throats, some sort of happy purr. I stroked their noses and then sat down carefully in a chair surrounding a small table. On the table there were breakfast rolls with butter and fruit jam, there were small pastries that had strawberries and blueberries on them and there was also a fruit basket. I smiled and grabbed a few things and started to eat once everyone sat down. we ate in silence, not an uncomfortable silence, but a companionable silence. When we were done we talked about a few things before getting up, now that I had food and an even more clear mind, I stood and could walk with no trouble, my headache had subsided to a dull pulse. I could tell Abelard felt better too. After saying goodbye and thank you, we left Ryan's house and got on our dragons. Faaris said "Are you alright?" I said "Yeah, my head doesn't hurt as bad as when I first woke up." She shook her head and said "Well, Nut told us that Skylar wanted to see you guys." I nodded and looked to Abelard I said "Skylar?" and he nodded. Our dragons took off much slower than usual, I noticed they had a few cuts and scraped but they had already closed and were of no threat. I said to Faaris " Are you alright, I never got a chance to ask you after the battle. Do you have any bad wounds anywhere? Does Arian?" She shook her head and looked back at me "We didn't get as hurt as you did, or as Abelard did, The dragons hadn't landed any really damaging blows, They didn't have as good of training as we did. " I nodded and said "I just hope the next time we meet those awful dragons, and their riders we don't get as hurt. Do you know if there were any deaths?" Faaris dropped her head and said "Three mud dragons, 10 riders and 2 sky dragons." I instantly felt terrible. I turned to tell Abelard but I didn't see him. I stopped Faaris and we turned to see Abelard talking to Iris on her dragon, their dragons seemed to be close in height but when I looked closer Arian was taller. I laughed and Faaris cooed in their direction. Just then they exchanged something and Iris took off, and Abelard walked back over. I smiled at him and raised an eyebrow playfully and he made Arian shove into us as they walked past but when he glanced over his shoulder he was smiling. I laughed and proceeded to bombard him with questions about him and Iris. I then asked about what was exchanged between them and he said "It was a gift. she had remembered that I had wanted to create a book full of dragons we discover. Well, she had already done that and the only Dragon she doesn't have is a Obsidian dragon. So she gave me the book to keep." I smiled. It was adorable. I then gasped, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!" we both stared at each other and started laughing he then said "Happy birthday Raine!" we both smiled and then frowned. I said "I hate that we have to miss being with Mother and father on our birthday. We even had to miss the breakfast we planned." Abelard said "I wonder if dad remembered the pancakes?" my eyes widened and I said "I hope so!" after a few seconds we started to fly and as I looked back at Abelard I smiled. Once i turned back around we were at the guardian building. We slowly walked to the doors of the Guardians Building. It saddened me that people had to die because of what we had started. I pulled my chin back up and said to myself We can do this, this is what we were brought here to do. We walked into the doors being held by two guards. I thanked them softly and they nodded there heads. We walked into the war room where only Nut and Skylar were. I raised an eyebrow in question. Faaris came in and stood behind me. Her chest against my head, her neck raised above me. I could feel her heartbeat and I calmed down. Abelard and Arian came in too, and finally Skylar spoke. She said "I have gathered you two today to say that we now have an advantage, we could take over the army now because of you too, we had scouts follow them and count them every hour and all the dragons that survived the Battle against us are all accounted for except one. We never saw him leave, we never saw him appear he just vanished with no trace at all." Skylar stopped talking and we looked to Nut. Nut looked down on us and said "Stryker is missing." I frowned and said "This is just what we need on our 13th birthday." Skylab looked shocked and said "Happy birthday you two, this IS important but we can talk about this after lunch, will you two join me for lunch here?" we both nodded, She continued "Think about this and have a bit of fun today because you shouldn't miss your 13th birthday." We both smiled and she smiled to before dismissing us. As we walked out we both said "What now?" we looked at each other and said "We should go find out guards. I bet they are training." I nodded and we got on our dragon and flew over. We landed and saw our guards immediately. I smiled and watched as our guards all mock fought with each other. I smiled and looked at Abelard, I said "Turn Iris, Luna, and Ryan invisible." he nodded and everyone stood in confusion as they were getting lightly slapped from every direction. We flew down and laughed. They smiled and returned to normal. Ryan said "Glad your feeling better, caused us to win a match." I smiled and we said "We had to have a little fun on our birthday!" they all laughed and said "Happy birthday!" we laughed but after a moment   I remembered why we needed to come over, and as we became solemn they looked at is in confusion. I said "We just talked to Skylar and Nut, Stryker is missing, no one can find him and no one even noticed where it was when he left." I decided to put it out as it is and get to the point. "We have no idea what to do as we have no idea where Stryker is and what he's doing." Caleb stepped forward and said "Well... I might know someone who can help." We walked towards Caleb, he was staring at Abelard who was talking as we walked, oblivious. Suddenly Abelard looked up at Caleb looked away his face reddening. I guess I tuned out because I heard Abelard saying to me "Raine? Don't you remember the map I showed you of the different forests meet? I nodded and he said "I thinks that's where Stryker is" I nodded again and Abelard said in my head "Are you okay? Does your head hurt?" I smiled and said "No, sorry, just got distracted." he raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes glanced towards Caleb before smiling. I huffed and tuned into what Caleb was saying "-And we can go find the stone and when we hold it, it takes us to the sorcerer." I nodded and said "And you know where to get the stone?" Caleb opened his mouth to say something but closed it he lowered his head and shook it no. I sighed and said "Well, what does it look like?" he lifted his head and his eyes met mine, he said "It is so blue it is more brilliant than the sky. But in the dark it is as green as the forest after the rain. I think you have to have either a dragon or a dragon-magic item. I nodded and said "Well I have both of those things." they looked at me curiously and I said "What? I'm sure Faaris can find the stone." I quickly and mentally scolded myself. People aren't really supposed to know I have one of the dragon-magic items. They are called Dovah-Monah There are 7 artifacts made by the 6 origin dragons, hence the name. Sky, fire, water, Forest, mountain, and ice. We have two artifacts and they are kept with us at all times. One is a knife called the dragon queen's knife, it was made by the bones of a mountain dragon and it can only be wielded by persons with dragon blood in them. There is also a vile filled with the tears of a water dragon, it is said to heal you, it can heal any wound caused by battle or sickness, even magical wounds; sadly we didn't have this.  There is spear that is made from the scales of a fire dragon, whatever it is thrown at or whatever the spear point hits will explode. There is a necklace in the shape of a leaf made by the forest dragon, it can protect and heal but it can also connect you directly to nature. There is a pair of gloves made by the ice dragon, you can touch anything and it will freeze, and you can be in the coldest place in earth and you won't feel cold. Then there is a feather, from the original guardian, it grants the ability to fly without aid of a dragon, your abilities are also increased a hundredfold. But the last item is the rarest most powerful item ever created. It is the crown, no one has ever been able to touch it, or come close to it. When you get close to it you feel as though you're drowning, when you get to almost touching it some may feel as though their skin is peeling and if you touch it, you burn. There is only one person who can wear it, she hasn't been spoken of and she has been forgotten for many years but all dragon-blood royals are taught about her. She will be able to wear the crown of the dragons. Every dragon put a piece of their souls into the crown. You become the most powerful person. It has never been needed so it has been forgotten by many. We have the Queens knife and we have the spear. I can't ever seen to remember...

"Raine!"
I looked up and stared at everyone. I looked to the guards who appeared worried and then at Caleb and Abelard. Abelard said again more gently "Rain?" I nodded and he said "Are you sure your okay? We tried to reach you but... Not even Faaris could get inside your head. She said you sounded like you were speaking..." he looked around and stepped closer. "It sounded like you were speaking in origin tongue." I stared and then blushed furiously. I said "Its nothing, I feel fine." I turn to Caleb "I know we will be able to find the stone, I think I've heard of it before somewhere. Caleb nodded and said "we need to go to high peek and from there we can find the stone, from there the dragons should be able to feel it, or sense which direction it's in and eventually one person, the closer we get, will have a vision of where the stone is." We all paused and walked on silently though I eventually broke the silence, "We will need to leave immediately, I will tell the guardian and we will leave in the morning." they all nodded and after getting one more glance of Caleb me and Abelard started the walk back to our platform house. When we got there I plopped into the bed and said:

"This is going to be a lot harder than expected."