Warriors of the Dragon

The Beach

*

Craven's eyes opened when a pair of black boots nudged his shoulder. He knew she wanted him to get up, but instead he reached up to grab her hand and pull her down. He saw that Isolde still lay motionless and the light elves and Air clan humans were all in their tents.

The sun was setting and glowing red and orange on the horizon. It had gotten cooler and Craven longed to have her warm body against his. She laid back beside him for a moment, but could feel the others about to wake.

"Please stay." He begged her in a whisper close to her head. They heard Markus grumble and start pulling his tent off of Turrock and Sephira leaped up and walked towards the water that lapped at the shore. Craven sighed loudly waking up Isolde who squinted at him from where she lay on the sand.

"What's the matter?" Isolde asked him in a drowsy voice.

"Sleeping in the sand is not comfortable." He commented as he peeled his eyes away from his wraith to look at the inquisitive green eyes that peered at him. He picked himself up off the ground and pulled his armor off. "We should find some food." He said, feeling pain in his stomach. The dragons started waking and many of them were hungry. The riders sent them off to find food warily in the strange land.

Craven removed the saddle and armor from Crow before sending him off and watched as he flew high in the sky until he was a tiny fleck. He started building his tent when he noticed Rauka start to build hers next to his and then Isolde on the other side. He frowned to himself wondering if he could move the tent without either of them asking him why. The tents were all fairly close to each other on the small beach even the wraiths' tents under the rocks.

Markus built the fire with the help of Isolde while Craven shifted his tent slightly closer to the wraiths' and finished constructing it. He sat with the others around the fire until the dragons started arriving with full bellies and Rauka cooked vegetables for everyone in a soup and they ate the dried meat the Trows had given them until the male wraith brought several fish over that he had caught. Sephira took off her gloves revealing her black painted hands as she started cleaning out one of the fish with deft fingers and her dragon glass dagger. He handed the other fish to Dawn as he joined Sephira and removed his gloves to clean the fish with his dragon-glass dagger.

"I hate fish." Leuthil commented when Dawn tried to hand him one to clean.

"Do you know how to clean fish?" Dawn asked, turning to Isolde.

"No, I'm afraid not." Isolde said, looking at Markus.

"I used to catch fish in the river. I think I still remember." Markus offered taking one of the fish and almost dropping its slippery body in the sand.

"I can clean fish." Rauka volunteered. Dawn handed her a fish after she had dug out a pan to fry them and Sephira placed her fish in it.

"Orcs eat fish?" Markus asked Craven.

"Of course." Rauka interjected.

"More often on the coastal regions of our Territory." Craven commented with a shrug.

"Most elves eat fish. The oils are good for you." Dawn murmured.

"How in the world did you catch these?" Markus asked with his eyebrows furrowed. The mysterious wraith just shrugged, something that his sister would do.

As it grew dark, they found they weren't very tired having slept the whole day. Dawn and Markus began to show Isolde how to use her sword and Rauka let Luna try her scythe blades. Craven sat back and watched while his mind wandered and the Duvendis had disappeared down the dark beach.