Here Be Dragons: The Protector

Chapter eight: Origins

Even after taking the time to explain what they could of the situation to Mrs. Hart, Jenna was still dubious. "All I know is that she is part of Air, so we should do our job and get her home. If she does turn out to be some mythical White Rider, great – we've made everyone's lives easier. If not, we still need to get back before they find us and attack again." As much as Lukas wanted to know exactly who and what the girl was, he had to admit she had a point. 

However, that was when Mrs. Hart chose to point something out to the Riders, "Surely it would be dangerous to move her while she's unconscious? You've seen what she can do... What if she woke up on the back of your..." she couldn't quite bring herself to say dragon, "woke up in the air and panicked? She needs to understand what's happening, or she'll probably end up hurting you."

In the end, Lukas sided with Mrs. Hart. Too many people had been injured already, and this time dragons would be in the cross-fire as much as their riders. But, as Leader Helena had said, time was of the essence; they had to find a way to wake up Vaylerie so they could explain what was happening and leave. The Turned would surely be coming. Then it hit him – a way that could solve both the issue of her powers, and of her unconsciousness. Soon after their earlier discussion, they had checked the girl for any sign of physical injury, and there were none. Next, Jenna mentally probed her power pool, reporting that it was notably smaller than it had been during the flight here. Once the Riders recognised Vaylerie's condition as a severe case of energy depletion, Lukas explained it to her mother. "It's basically magical fatigue. She just used up too much power – it completely emptied her reserves and her body doesn't know how to function without them. It's the worst case I've seen, but only because she used all that power so quickly. It normally takes an entire day to cause energy depletion. It was a huge shock to her system. But, the trick to waking her up is simple: we just have to fill her energy reserves again." Lukas grinned at that, for he'd reached the clever part. "The way Riders fill up their reserves is either with rest – but that would take too long – or by absorbing the energy of their surroundings. But we can only absorb energy of our element – so we're going to test which element or elements she responds best to."
Mrs. Hart had been nodding along as he talked, but frowned at the last, "What would such a test entail?"
Jenna understood her concern, so reassured the woman by adding, "It won't be anything harmful or dangerous. We'll just put her in different environments and monitor how quickly her energy pool fills – we'll know she can absorb Air energy, so we'll observe her in this cave for a while before placing her in Tollight and then by a fire, and seeing if it fills faster or slower."
"Speaking of fire, we'll need dry wood; I imagine you'll want to stay with your daughter, and Jenna is far better suited to keeping an eye on Vayle's power returning than I. I'll be back soon." With a small smile, he turned and headed out of the cave, but Mrs. Hart called out to him.
"If you can get a view, there's a tree roughly that way –" she gestured behind her, deeper into the cave, "– that is very wide and sticks out above the others. The leaves around there are so thick that barely any rain reaches the ground, so there's always a lot of dry wood there."
Lukas nodded his thanks and set of in the direction she had suggested.

The sky had clouded over while Lukas had been out, and during his trip back to the little cave, it had started to rain. The entire point of firewood was that it be dry, so when Lukas felt the first droplet land on his neck, he formed a smooth stone bowl from the ground at his feet. That bowl was now suspended upside-down just above his head, to deflect the rain away from him rather than collect it. With the clouds filling the sky, and the red body of Tol mostly obscured below the trees, the forest looked very dark. An army of Turned could be waiting for him, and he wouldn't see them until they opened those awful eyes of theirs. The rain pounding on his makeshift shelter only added to the tension – not only was he blind to them, the racket ensured he was deaf to them as well. Feeling slightly on edge, he quickened his pace. Reaching the cave, he relaxed slightly – the three women were still there; with a pang of sadness, he saw Vaylerie was still unconscious, but the other two were talking softly in the darkness. He fished the bundles of logs, twigs, and dried leaves from the dirt basket slung over his shoulder and deposited them between the two. By the time he'd returned the basket and bowl to the ground, there was a small fire flickering behind him. He sat beside it heavily, and asked Jenna the result of their first round of testing. "It looks like you were right. There was a noticeable increase in the rate she regained power, so she belongs in Light as well as Air." She sat back slightly, obviously still reeling from the discovery, and looked sidelong in his direction, "The only question now is if she's just unusual in that she has more than one element, of if she's actually this White Rider you mentioned... What do you actually know about that?"

A quick glance at a nodding Mrs. Hart told him she wanted to know just as much as Jenna, so he began. "Bear in mind a large portion of this is legend and rumour, so you can't put too much stock in it... But then again, every story has truth buried in it somewhere... To explain the theory, I have to share what came before it. Before the Riders, even." He settled into a more comfortable position, preparing himself for the long tale that was about to unfold from his lips, "The world was different back then, magic flowed free and wild. Dragons weren't the only magical beasts – there were faeries in the forests, maids in the sea, griffins in the sky. But more importantly, the Elements were still awake. The power of the Elements was like the lifeblood to all the creatures, but after Darkness was banished, the humans were mostly cut off from that power. However, some humans claimed they could speak with the Elements. They claimed that they were given secrets of the past and of the future. These humans were revered – they were praised as prophets of The Dragon. The prophets recorded all they were told in a vast store of knowledge we've taken to calling the 'Hall of Prophecy'. The world wasn't perfect, but it was more or less in balance. But all things change, and that change arrived when the cataclysm was prophesised: the Elements would be ripped from the world and forced into slumber, and the magical inhabitants who relied on them for sustenance would die out in their wake. Panic and uncertainty rippled through the world. Most of the creatures retreated into their havens – certain the apocalypse was something they could fight off. The prophets pleaded with the Elements for knowledge of the coming events, and how to stop them. Instead they were told how The Dragon had created them, and why: to fight the chaos. They told the prophets that their era was nearing its end, and that the duty was to pass to them. But they knew all of humanity could never be strong enough – nevermind the prophets alone. They turned to the only creatures they could still find for assistance. Most of the dragons had not bothered to flee when hearing of the cataclysm, as they knew it would not aid them. They knew only one thing that would survive what was to come, a people who didn't need the Elements to survive: humans. Eventually, the prophets approached them, begging for assistance against whatever chaos was coming. The dragons gladly accepted, but asked something in return. They would not simply be allies, but partners; fused together into a single entity. Hence, the Riders were born. Although most dragons were pleased with the partnership, some saw it as servitude. Amid the ensuing rebellion, rose a black dragon. It attacked in a frenzy. The land below it rent apart, oceans crashed together, its shadow fell on the world, and the people felt fear. Wherever it flew, chaos and pain followed in its wake. The Elements fled from the beast, fled from the world and into the vastness beyond. The Riders looked upon the black dragon – saw its overwhelming evil, and its dominion over Earth, Water, and Darkness. And they hoped. They hoped that one day, the world would balance this great evil with a powerful good. They could no longer prophesise or promise the arrival of the White Rider, they could only pray, that The Dragon would restore balance. And with that hope, they threw themselves at the beast. It was strong, but it was one, whereas the riders were many." He paused briefly, to let the story sink in. He knew he'd gotten caught up inside the tale, telling them more than they needed to hear, but he couldn't help himself – the passion he felt when he talked of that world whisked him away. Since hearing a description, he had taken every opportunity to learn more, and the result of his research was the story he'd just shared. He tore himself away from that beautiful world and back to reality, back to the fire flickering before him, the rain pattering on the ground behind him. "So, in answer: all I know of Vaylerie is that just the idea of her gave hope to a desperate people. And that's exactly what we need her to do again."