Island Confederation

Chapter 3

The First Sentience

After five days of learning Shaoleim and sailing, we reached a small island in the Island Confederation. Palm trees lay just past the sandy shores of the small island. Forested mountains, clearly visible from shore, lay in the center of the island. This will be the first time I set foot on foreign land. Oh ancestors who watch over me, give me your wisdom. And father, dear father, I thank you for teaching me Nakashi. I turned around to see Guangmei looking to the east. "What's over to the east Guangmei?"

"Home," she said longingly. "My people are there."

"Do you want to go home?"

"It's been awhile since I've been, but I care more about a few of the people there not the country itself," she said as she walked away. What's with this elf's hair? First all brown, now patches of jet black and brown. Is she going through puberty or something?

I went down to my room to hear a peep, as if a young songbird was hatching. The egg! I ran over to the corner where I had kept the egg. A small crack had appeared as the young hatchling tried to free itself. I watched in excitement as the creature fought its way free from the eggshell which now hold it hostage. I saw a small, yellow eye in the hole the baby made. After a few minutes of fighting, the young raptor hatched, feathers slick with the goo of any other egg.

"Welcome to the world young one." It chirped back and rubbed its head against my leg. I grabbed my sword and cape. "Let's find you some food," I said as I cleaned the goo off of the pale green feathers.

After finding the hatchling food, Guangmei called me and Josheire up to the deck. Rather than seeing a port to dock our ship, we saw a ship graveyard and a small, grey dragon. "Barrékél! I thought you said this would be a good place to get supplies, not a dragon's nest!" He said enraged. "I am not a fan of being lied to."

Guangmei shouted out in another language towards the dragons. She smiled as one of the dragons walked over. "What is she saying?" Josheire asked me. "And why is she talking to these beasts?"

"I have no idea. I don't speak that language." The dragon spoke back to Guangmei in the same tongue. Guangmei's brown hair then turned jet black. She smiled at continued talking to the dragon, now threatening it. The dragon laughed at Guangmei until she said "Ykendra." At that moment the dragon stopped laughing and was taken aback. It flew away to the interior of the island. Guangmei turned around. "Give him a few minutes." What does Ykendra mean? More importantly, how does Guangmei know dragon?

Just as she said, the young dragon returned in a few minutes, only this time, with a larger dragon with ghostly pale scales and bloodshot eyes. The grey dragon pointed at us, shaking slightly, only to be whipped by the larger dragon's tail. The pale dragon roared at the smaller one, shouting at it in their strange language until Guangmei spoke.

"Guthren tagel. Syagān jāth yashkeiselk ka kylth hasyeneth?" The pale dragon looked at Guangmei stunned. She looked towards the grey dragon and muttered something to him. He flew off back into the island's interior. The larger dragon beckoned to us with her claw as if we were dogs.

"Gaoreng," I called in my broken Shaoleim, "watch ship."

"You're getting there," Guangmei said as she jumped off the ship. "For a human you aren't that bad." Josheire shrugged and jumped down right after while I, on the other hand climbed down with a rope, raptor clinging to my hair. If I jumped, I would have broke my legs. The pale dragon lumbered her way to the center of the island with us in toe.

As we walked I noticed that there were surprisingly less trees than expected. It was less of a tropical forest and more of grassland with the occasional buffalo. The only thing of note on the island were the twin mountains and, of course, the giant flying fire-breathing lizards.