Dragon Riders:Legacy(Book 2)

Chapter 28:The Petral Mountains:Reena

It had taken Reena a full week to reach the Petral Mountains.
When she and Terra reached the Zhongese-Euran border she didn't know how she was going to find one tower in the whole range of snow capped mountains. Especially when he tower she was looking for was designed specifically to look and blend in with the mountains.
"I'll fly higher up and see if I can spot anything that resembles a tower." Terra said, and flew higher up in the cool, Euran air; Eura was cooler that Zhong, a cooler temperature she wasn't use to.
She slowed her horse to a slow walk while she waited for Terra to get done searching for the tower.

   About half an hour later Terra returned from her search.
   "I didn't see anything out of the ordinary," Terra reported, hovering in the air. Her mighty flaps of her wings making billowing waves of wind.
   Reena wasn't sure what to do next.
   They could keep searching for the tower or try and find a magic user who knew how to contact the Riders.
   But if Terra couldn't even see the tower from the sky then what chance did they have at finding the tower at all.
   "What if we try sensing the stone blocks of the tower. I know we will be able to sense the difference between the stone blocks and the mountains." Terra suggested, which was actually a pretty good idea.
   "That's brilliant!" She exclaimed to Terra.
   She instantly pulled her horse to a stop and climbed off, and got down on her knees. She placed both of her hands on the cold earth, reaching out her senses to the feeling, texture, and structure like buildings anywhere nearby.
   Terra joined her on the ground a few seconds later, and helped her search for any stone structures through the earth.
   She extended her feeling through the earth for what seemed like miles, which drained her energy excessively.
   Then she picked up a cylindrical rock column with many organized cracks and fractures on the structure; columns should not have that many cracks and fractures in them. Only towers and stone building did, which meant the rock column she found was actually the tower she was looking for .
   The tower was about four miles away. If they left now they could make it reach it by noon.
   Climbing back onto her horse, she spurred it into a run, desperate to get there at or before noon.

   By the time Reena and Terra made it to the tower they had become incredibly deep in the range of the Petral Mountains that she wasn't even sure she could make it back out, even with Terra's help.
   She pulled her horse to a stop and tethered it to a low tree branch; she had Terra to thank for allowing her to see to tie the horse up.
   Then using her temporary vision she searched for a way to get into tower designed to look exactly like a giant rock column that blended in well with the rest of the rock column around it.
   She saw no way to get up to the base of the tower except climbing up the sheer cliff.
   Walking over to the cliff, she began her climb up to the tower.
   The sharp, pointy rocks dug into her palms and her feet through the soles of her boots; her boots were meant for forest walks and hikes, not climbing up a cliff.
   While climbing up the steep cliff she grabbed a sharp rock causing her to cut her hand as her hand slipped on it. Pain flared through her hand causing her to almost lose her grip on the cliff face.
   She stopped herself from falling by digging her boots into the cliff.
   She breathed a sign of relief, and balled her bleeding fist into a tight ball, and placed it against a foothold.
   Then all of suddenly a rock beneath her left foot gave away resulting in her cutting her knee opened on the jagged-blade like rocks.
   She held back a cry of pain as hot blood dripped down her arm and leg, soaking her arm sleeve and pants leg.
   Grunting in pain, she pulled herself up higher on the cliff, careful not to use her left leg or right hand—which was her dominant hand—that much unless she necessarily had to.
   Her leg and hand throbbed more and more in pain with each inch she moved up the cliff.
   When she made it to the top of the cliff, she fell onto her back, breathing heavily from the excruciating climb up the cliff with her cut palm and knee.
She laid there for a little bit, ignoring the rocks digging into her back.
She then pushed herself up into a sitting position, and examined her cut knee.
Her pants leg at the knee was cut open, soaked with semi wet blood. Her knee and palm were caked in dried blood; every time she moved her knee or clenched her palm her wounds threatened to break open.
She unclasped her cloak from around her neck and tore off two thin strips from her cloak and tied one tightly around her knee and the other around her palm.
She put her cloak back on and pulled her hood up to protect her ears from a cool breeze that started blowing through the mountains.
Then standing up, she walked over to the base of the tower.
Terra was already there sniffing around the base of the tower.
Reena saw no way anyone could get into the tower unless the entrance was higher up or on top of the column/tower. That idea made sense because dragons could fly and the best way to keep out intruders was to put the entrance somewhere they can't reach.
"I don't think that is a plausible idea because there is no way a giant dragon, a dragon about three or four times my mother's size could land on the top. And why would they make the entrance so visible to enemies? That doesn't even make any sense. I mean like I agree with keeping the entrance out of your enemies reach, but being in plain sight like that is just plain ridiculous." Terra argued.
"Okay. So where do you suppose the entrance is?" Reena asked Terra, hoping Terra might have an idea because she didn't have one.
"Hmm...If I we're Dragon Rider I would put a safeguard in place so that non-Riders couldn't get in." Terra suggested.
She thought about it for a minute, running the idea through her head. It made more sense than her idea.
"That makes sense. Do you have any ideas on finding this 'safeguard'?"
"If it's made from stone like the rest of this place then we should be able to sense it's difference in the tower."
She nodded at Terra's idea.
Closing her eyes, she stomped her foot against the ground, using her seismic sensing ability she learned from Sandstone, which allowed her to sense things through the earth, such as people, structures, movements, and other things.
She saw a clear outline of the tower in her head. Out of all the stone blocks she saw something different from the rest. A large, slab of stone that seemed to be made to slide to the side when opened.
She opened her eyes, and walked up to the area where she was sure the slab stone-door was.
She scaped the linch and moss off the stone slab till she came across a faint hand print with a spiral in the center of the faint engraved hand. It looked a lot like the spiral mark on her right palm.
She took off her right glove and unwrapped the strip of cloak from her palm and studied the the faint, silvery spiral mark on her palm.
She wondered...
She placed her hand on the engraved one. Nothing amazing or wondrous happened. The tower looked the exact same.
She was about to remove her hand when the stone palm gave in and her hand disappeared inside a black hand shaped hole.
Thinking she accidentally broke the ancient mechanism, she was just about to remove her hand from the inky black hole when two stones with half circles cut from them closed in on her wrist like a stone manacle. Preventing her from removing her hand.
She tied in vain to remove her hand, even with her earth abilities, she couldn't get the tower to release her.
She apparently made the mechanism mad because she felt a burning sensation in her right hand, like someone was dipping her hand in liquid lava.
She cried in pain, and tried even harder to remove her hand.
The burning heat just crept up her arm and then throughout her whole body. Her body felt like ever single nerve and muscle was on fire;this was worse than when she lost her vision.
Then she felt a strange presence unlike any she had ever encountered, barge into her mind and start shifting through her mind like a whirlwind; the presence wasn't kind and comforting like Terra's, it was intimidating and cold.
She held back tears of pain when she tried to shove the invading presence back. It just shoved her back like she was a gnat and dug deeper till she was on her knees begging for the excruciating pain to end.
"Stop fighting," a very deep, strong voice commanded her through her mind.
She stopped crying and begging when she heard the presence speak. It sounded old and weary, like it rather be sleeping than dealing with her.
"Who-who are you?" She asked tentatively.
"I am known as the Soothscryer. Long story short, I was created by a dragon and Rider animus to allow anyone who has good intentions to enter my tower and seek any answer they wish or to talk or see anyone they want in all of Erdas. But only the worthy, brave, and those with pure hearts may enter. And you with all your kicking and screaming and attempts to break me—which I cannot be destroyed I was created to be indestructible—I am starting to consider not letting you in. But you do, however, have good intentions and you are brave. I deem you, Reena Zhuang, daughter of Chenglei and Ah Cy Zhuang, and you, Terra, daughter of Stonecleaver and Sandstone of the Terra SwiftWings worthy to enter my tower and ask one thing of the Amethyst Mirror. Just one question. But you must ask in the Ancient Language or Draconic Language, or else the mirror will not understand you." The Soothscryer finished.
She was puzzled by what the "Ancient Language and Draconic Language" was. She had never heard of them before.
"Do you know what languages the Soothscryer is talking about?" She asked Terra.
"The Ancient Language I think is the words my mother told you to speak to the mirror when we found it. The Draconic Language is the language of the dragons."
"No offense, but your mother could have warned us about the rude, mind invading, intelligent tower." She said, her anger at the tower boiling over.
"It's okay. And be nice to the Soothscryer. You're lucky it didn't kill you." Terra defended the Soothscryer.
"Fine. Let's just go talk to this magical Amethyst Mirror."
"Glad for enthusiasm to go talk to the mirror. I'll be glad to get rid of you." The Soothscryer said curtly, and the stone let go of her hand and the giant slab of stone slid to the side, revealing a spiral stone staircase going up.
She and Terra walked through the threshold and started up the staircase.
Reena started to get dizzy as she and Terra continued going around and around.
When they made it to the top of tower they found a large, circular smooth amethyst mirror. The Amethyst Mirror was a deep shade of purple with veins of silver crisscrossing all over the mirror that it looked cracked from the distance.
"Go ask it to see and talk to the leader of Erdas Dragon Riders." Terra urged her, pushing her forward with her head.
She looked back at Terra and Terra nodded.
She took in a deep, calm relaxing breath, and then walked up to the mirror.
She stood before the mirror on the wall, looking at her reflection in the shattered looking mirror.
Before she said the words Sandstone told her to say, she recited them a few times in her mind to make sure she had them right and in the correct order.
Once she was certain she had it perfected, she said to the Amethyst Mirror, "Eka fricai un shur'tugal. Eka wunsch eom thorta eom du fuhrer abr du shur'tugal. Eka thorta du ilumeo. Vel enradhin iet ai shur'tugal."
The mirror responded to her words by starting to shimmer. The silver veins started spinning around in a circle upon the mirror's surface till they formed a swirling whirlpool of silver in the middle of the gleaming Amethyst Mirror.
Next an image appeared in the silver whirlpool.
Reena saw a forty-ish looking woman with long, curly brown-black hair and deep brown eyes staring out at her.
Neither of them spoke; Reena was too awestruck at how the mirror could let her see and talk with the leader of the Erdas Dragon Riders.
The serious looking woman was the first of them to speak, her voice strong and steady.
"Who are you and how did you gain access to the Amethyst Mirror? It is a ancient relic of the—," the woman stopped when she saw Terra appear in her line of limited vision.
"You are a Rider. Forgive me for my harsh questions." The Rider apologized.
"Are you the leader of the Erdas Dragon Riders?" Reena asked, suddenly finding her voice back.
"Yes. Do you need us to come get you? Are you in the Petral Mountains at the moment?" The head Rider asked with a touch of fear and worry in her voice and eyes like she was worried about something that was about to happen.
"Yes," she replied.
"Good. Stay there, do not leave. A Rider will be there in a few days to pick you up. But whatever you do, do not leave the tower. Do you understand me?" The Rider commanded her, a hidden fear of something hiding behind her eyes.
"Yes, ma'am."
The head Rider nodded.
"Now, I must go. Listen to what I said."
Then the Rider and swirling whirlpool disappeared, returning the mirror to the way it was before she contacted the head Rider.
"What was all that about?" Reena asked Terra, not sure why a powerful Rider sounded scared and worried.
"I'm sure she'll reveal it once we're at the Rider base. Now get some sleep, you need it." Terra said, curling up on the stone floor.
Reena walked over to Terra and fell asleep by her side.

P.S. The Amethyst Mirror was created by Truthseer and Audric(means wise ruler.) Truthseer is the daughter of Whiteout the first and Thoughtful and is a animus and a one moon borne dragon with the power to see the future.