Silver tears of the Moon

The drakonians

A/N: Hi, I am back with chapter two. I am apologise in advance for any tears. In case you are confused, the double lines "=======" indicate a skip in time.

Glossary:

*Druid: mages with special skills in nature magic. They have a sensitive connection with all the fauna and flora.

*Drakonian: Half-dragon; half-human creatures. Generally the offspring of humans and dragons. Main features are horns, dragon wings, fire-breath, slit pupils, scaled skin and tail, and scale ridges from head to bottom of spine but not all features are present.

*Naiad: water nymph.

*Warlock: Half-human; half-demon creatures. Generally the offspring of humans and demons/daemons.

[song- Mattia Turzo: Lost soul]

It was not long after dusk when a *drakonian gamekeeper walked out from the main house when he heard something small crying and lovely voices singing. He called out to his wife. Together they followed the tiny wailing and music. Eventually they found the source of the noise - a crib hidden amongst the reeds along the riverbank. Naiads held it steady. They vanished as soon as the gamekeeper and his wife drew close. Faraan picked his way through the reeds to get to the crib.

"Nagia (Na-gee-ya)," he exclaimed," It's a small child!" He hopped up the steep bank to his wife, his clawed feet easily finding purchase on the slippery bank. They went back into the house. Faraan placed the crib on the main table. He and his wife peered inside. Yerathiel opened her blue-green eyes. She looked up at the strange faces staring down at her and smiled. Her pointed ears peeked out from beneath her white-blonde hair.

"It is an elven babe," Nagia said, "Where did she came from?"

"I do not know," her husband replied. He thought for a moment before declaring," I will travel upstream and search for her family." And that is just what he did. At noon he packed the essentials for them, picked up the child, wrapped in thin wool blankets, and kissed his wife farewell. He positioned the baby more securely then jumped into the air. With a few flaps of his red-scaled wings he flew steadily upstream.

It took five days for Faraan to reach Azura. The sun had just about set on the fifth day when he reached the glade that once belonged to the Elven goddess Lunara. The scene that greeted him would send his dreams to the darkest recesses of the dreamworld. Small wisps of dark grey smoke rose from charred ruins scattered at the other end of the glade. He recognised that the smoke belonged to mage fire as a normal fire would have already burned itself out. The glade itself was dead. Faraan turned the sleeping baby's head into his shoulder, worried that she might unconsciously remember the image. He slowly picked his way through the debris. He came across four corpses. Three of the bodies were human, but the fourth caught Faraan's attention. It was an elven woman. The lack of weapons and the scattered tell-tales of ice, lightning, fire and deformed features of earth indicated that they used magic. The elven maiden held a silver locket in her pale hand to her chest and a crown adorned her head. He glanced down at the baby in his arms and noticed that she looked very similar to the elven woman. He picked up the locket and the crown. There was an insigne on the crown. The royal wolf and crescent moon of Azura! That meant that the woman was the queen, and the babe must be the princess! He looked across the glade at the charred ruins. He did not want to come face to face with more bodies so he flapped his wings downward and, with a few powerful strokes, rose into the air. His dragon eyes picked out the remains of the castle, its army and some of the higher quarter. He quickly looked away, nauseated by the sight that glared back at him.

"Who would do such a thing?" he wondered aloud. Then he remembered the three dead mages by the queen and sank down back beside them. The mages wore obsidian black robes with blood red streaks and splatters. There were no insignia to indicate who they were.