The Dragon Prince

Nothing Left to Say (about Rocks)

Rohun looked at the vibrant greens ahead of him. It was unlikely that the white dragon had already entered the thick forest. Onikhah was simply too large. As he looked around at the rocks and trees, he remembered what the dragon had said. "Meet me where the leaves are green and the earth is fire" echoed the voice in his mind. Rohun sighed and walked along the edge of the forest, and noticed that his powerful claws dug into the earth with each step. He looked at the ground and saw that he was walking in a large clay deposit that had been left by some rock slide a long time ago. To his surprise, the clay was a bright red color, and the flowers that grew from that soil were beautiful marigolds. The red and orange around him reminded him of fire, and he knew this must be the place Onikhah was referring to. 

Rohun stretched his short neck, but his short stubby legs kept him close to the ground, making it hard for him to see any further than a few golden tail-lengths ahead. He looked at his surroundings one again and noticed a large pile of rocks that had fallen in a rockslide. He decided to climb up onto the rocks so he could see better, then took another look around. When he reached the top, he spotted Onikhah a few meters away. He called out to him, and the white dragon smiled.

"Good find, yes yes," Onikhah said as he stood up and stretched his six legs. "I see you have mastered the ways of the grey dragons, yes," he smiled. "Are you ready for your next task? Finding and catching fairy-sized dragons can be very difficult."

Rohun groaned. "Of course it is..." he sighed. "Is that all? Just finding fairies? What about my people, why can't I go back to them? How is any of this going to help me save them?"

Onikhah gave him a stern look. "Your people are not the only ones in danger of the dark dragons, yes. You heard the black dragons attacking the grey village, did you not? You are not the only thing that they are after."

Rohun flinched at Onikhah's harsh words. He remembered Zegurvild's eyes as the dark dragons attacked. Although his voice had no fear in it, his eyes were filled with terror. Zegurvild had obviously seen the dark dragons before, and knew what they were capable of.

Suddenly, a loud roar came from deep within the forest. Onikhah looked up and peered into the trees. "I feared this, yes... there is no time to explain, young prince. You must transform quickly, and I must leave this place, yes. Help the forest dragons, and ask them to guide you to the river. Remember, young prince, that you are now a part of a much bigger goal. That is all I have to say, yes..." he said as he leapt suddenly into the air and flew off. Rohun still couldn't imagine what it was like to fly without wings, but Onikhah seemed to do it without thinking.

Rohun sighed and got to work. Since his camouflage was made to blend in with rocks, he searched for a rock deeper in the woods and hid next to it, getting ready to throw his crystal at the first fairy dragon he saw. The task proved to be much harder than he thought, because most of the faries that came his way whipped by at amazing speeds, each of them several feet higher than his short stubby legs could reach. After several minutes, Rohun felt like giving up when he suddenly had an idea. Most of the dragons flew in one spot where there was an opening in the leaves, so he took his necklace and placed it on a large branch close to the opening, and held the string in his mouth. The next time a fairy dragon flew by, he quickly tugged the string of the necklace and the crystal fell on the dragon, who let out a small 'oomph!' as the crystal—which was about half his size—hit it.

"Sorry," Rohun muttered as the dragon gave him a sharp glare and scurried off again, disappearing into the thick trees.

Immediately he started to shrink, and he felt wings sprout from his back. He sighed in relief; it felt nice to have his wings back. The first thing he noticed was his sight. He now had compound eyes which let him see in multiple directions, and it took him a few seconds to get used to seeing multiple things at once. His body was light, small, and slender, just like the small dragon that had just flown away. He took a look at his wings. He expected to see his golden bat-like wings, but remembered that he was a fairy dragon now. His wings were gold and black, like a yellow monarch butterfly. This seems fitting... he thought to himself with a small smile.

His train of thought was broken by another loud roar from deeper within the forest. It shook the earth and trees and everything around him, and the thought of something so much larger than he was terrified him. Gathering up his courage, he spread his wings and jumped off the edge of the leaf after grabbing his necklace, which had conveniently shrunk down to a size fit for his tiny body. He followed the path that the other dragons had come from, and headed into the thicker part of the forest.