Dragonsound: Guardians of a Fallen World

Chapter Two: Blood and Glass

     I swirled and dipped through the air, utterly alone in this vast expanse of blue. A patchwork of greens and browns spread out below me, with the occasional flash of silver where flora had not covered the ruins of humanity.

     Once the sun's first rays had broken the horizon, the Wyrdfell's gathering scattered. Small groups and pairs drifting off in all directions. Some would stay in the city and keep watch over the Wyrdfell, others would retreat to a hollow halfway up one of the nearby mountains. There was the entrance to the bunker that most of this world's humans had hidden.

     Most of us kept our dens near the bunker. Part of it was instinct. While we may not pack together like wolves, we were social creatures and most of us disliked being too far away from the others. The other part was defense. The humans below often had us retrieve materials from the surface, ran diagnostics on our vitals, and we were there for their protection. There had been a couple of occasions where one of the less friendly creatures from the surface made its way into the bunker somehow, and we had to drag it out.

     My den was located a few miles east. A cliff wall had partially collapsed on the castle ruins built on its side. There were two entrances. One where I had to dive down a winding staircase overgrown with wandering plantlife. From there I had to glide through a narrow break in the wall and into the massive main chamber. Earth had fallen through from cracks in the ceiling, and a thick carpet of moss, grass, and loose earth layered the ground. Two other chambers connected to this one. A smaller one with faint luminescent moss that I slept in, and one with a pool of clear water. Light filtered in from the outside and made it glow faintly. Underneath the water was a short tunnel that opened up behind a waterfall on the other side of the narrow cliff-face.

     It was here that I was headed. My breakfast, a large buck, had already been caught and I would eat it in the comfort of my den. I had been away from home too much in the past month. Everest had me take some supplies to another much smaller bunker several days away by flight, and when I had returned, another dragon had found a massive Nihil nest that needed to be torn apart. Yes, I was looking forward to some much needed time at home.

     I needed to clean too. Emily and Aidon had promised this morning to stop by at some point in the week to talk more as I hadn't seen either of them in a while. A sharp snort burst from me. They just want to interrogate me about that drake from earlier.

     Something had driven me to find the dark scaled male from last night, so I had made my excuses early and gone to where I had seen him earlier, only to find him no longer there. I had barely been able to stop my shoulders from slumping in disappointment.

     That is of course when Everst came out of nowhere to scare the scales off me.

     "Eleniel!" Not only was his voice loud, but he hadn't used the mindlink, which just made his attention all the more startling. "I just wanted to thank you for helping with the nest that Chrysos found. Your instincts are invaluable, especially when we had to hunt down the stragglers."

     I had put on a polite face and nodded along, looking for the hint of darkness and gold that I knew had to be around here somewhere. Instead of finding the one I was being drawn to, my gaze met Emily's and the glint in them let me know I hadn't fooled her for a second.

     I snorted again as my wings snapped open just enough so that I could shoot through the main chamber's entrance. I couldn't wait for that conversation!

     Careful to save the hide, antler, and bone, I ate breakfast. The hide I could tan and stretch to block the entrance to my sleeping place to make it warmer. The bone could be brought to the humans, they would grind it down to powder and either add it to soups as a nutrient booster, or use it to buff our scales free of irritants when we visited.