Warriors of the Dragon

The Trows

            Hanmir's men had shown the riders to some large stalls where their dragons would each fit. Sephira and Sorin stood together with Oryx and Caius in a single stall. The other elves were equally unwilling to lock their dragons in the strange stalls, but the humans and their dragons seemed used to the arrangement and Sabine and Turrock settled in quickly. Isolde saw to Turrock's wounds, using bandaging material and a poultice they had packed to cover the wounds after she cleaned them with buckets of water and yellow liquid the Earth clan riders had mixed using some anti-septic powder. Dawn helped clean Cerberus' wounds and used a crystal to help speed up the healing process.

"We can show you to your rooms." A small lady said nervously to the two dark elves who stood like silent shadows of demons beside their dark crouching beasts. They had removed their dragons' helmets, saddles, and packs, but were deliberating if it was a good idea to leave them unprepared to flee if Hanmir was untrustworthy.

Their animal eyes reflected the light from the lanterns as they turned to the small lady out in the hallway. She could've been a small human to their eyes and she stepped back unable to keep the fear from her face as she saw their alarming eyes. The orcs inspired just as much fear from the miniscule ladies that were sent to show the guests to their rooms. Craven's eyes met Sephira's as he stood by the room the woman said would be his.

"Thank you." Rauka said in a smooth friendly voice as she bowed to the little lady with a smile and a hand over her heart.

"I need to wash the blood off me." Craven growled to Rauka.

"Me too. Is there somewhere we can wash?" she asked one of the ladies.

"Yes, of course. There is a bath chamber here." The woman pointed down a hall and Craven and Rauka looked in to see a large pool of steaming water. They had similar bathing pools in their own cave systems and were used to bathing in them.

"That's great. Thank you." Rauka said, entering the room first and unbuckling her armor. Craven followed her in.

"Do you mind if I join you? Or do you want me to wait?" he asked her.

"You don't have to wait." She told him. "Just look the other way or something." She laughed.

"It's a hot spring." Isolde murmured in awe as she peeked in the room with Dawn and Markus.

"There's only one bath?" Markus asked, his eyes sticking to Rauka's naked tattooed body as she was the first to ascend the stairs into the semi-translucent white water.

"Hey, hey, wait!" Dawn called to Craven as he started undoing his belt. Isolde covered her eyes at the sight of Craven's naked, chiseled upper-body that was covered in dark tattoos obscured in some spots by goblin blood. "Maybe you could let the women go first?" she asked making Craven frown.

"Let me just wash off the blood." Craven sighed as he bent down and splashed water up onto his dark-skinned arms. When he was finished, he stood up and grabbed his armor, shirt, and weapons and left grudgingly. Isolde couldn't help letting her eyes drink in the sight of his handsome physique as he stalked by.

Malina strode in as Isolde began disrobing and Dawn stood with indecision.

"What's the matter? Aren't you going to bathe?" Rauka asked Dawn with a tilt to her head.

"I'm worried about the Duvendis female. I saw her get cut." Dawn explained, moving towards the doorway. Malina caught her by the shoulder.

"Are you sure you want to bother them? There are stories that if you see their true faces, you'll die of fear." Malina told her.

"What about your true faces? There are stories about your race too." Isolde spoke up as she joined Rauka in the warm water and she tied her long tangled red hair up into a bun on top of her head. Malina spared her a quick unamused look with her eyebrow raised before turning back to Dawn with meaning in her dark eyes.