Loran sat on a tree stump in a field on the far outskirts of town. She was staring up at the grey-blue silhouette of the far northern mountains. They ruled the skyline in shades of muted colors. The snow looked like icing on a roughly shaped cake.
"And you are sure a dragon is up there?" She said to the sky as she studied the mountains.
Morgan was standing with his hands behind his back. The cape of his wings obscured his hands but you could tell what he had done. "Yes, I felt him turn to me. Instinctively all dragons can feel other dragons. We have a certain amount of metal in our body, and we can feel that metal."
"So it's not like a mental bond then?" Loran had learned more about dragons in her time with Morgan than any other living being. Whole universities would sell their whole building just for the chance that she was getting.
"Heavens no, I wish I could talk to him from this distance. At least I might have had someone besides those damned demons to keep me company. They lost language centuries ago. Talking in a cave is a fine way to cause a cave-in." Morgan's shoulders slumped slightly as he stared off into the mountains.
"I still think the souls are there in that mountain." Morgan continued as he also stared off into the distance. "And Ed can't be any more specific?"
"No, he says it has something to do with distance. They are still too far south, and with them heading north the souls are not moving very much. As far as he can tell they are somewhere in line with us. He just isn't sure if we are ahead of them or behind them yet." Loran ran her fingers over the dying bark of the tree. As much as she loved flying, she still missed the feel of nature around her.
Morgan snorted, "Hmph, I understand what he means, but it is frustrating. I know our mission is the souls, but one of my brothers lay nearly dormant. Is there anything that says we can't investigate?"
Loran smiled to herself as she dropped off the log. She was tall but still a foot shorter than Morgan. She walked up to his side and put a hand on his shoulder. "Nothing except daylight says we can't go right now."
Morgan looked down and smiled. "Sounds like we need to make a little trip in the night."
The two had been coming to this spot and staring north for over a week. Ed and For'Ten had slowed down considerably when they got closer to the human border. In the south, people were used to the more open use of magic and divine powers. The humans of the north were far more stodgy when it came to that. Any overt use of magic would raise undo concern.
Erust and his caravan had come up with the same conclusion as well. They traveled with The Dirge, only stopping right before they made it to their home. They had shooed him away and given him some food, water, and a map across the last of the border.
The Dirge was absolutely curious where they were going. As he had traveled with them he had become aware that the trio were positively swimming in energy. The kind of energy that could be sold or traded. By himself, trying to enslave all three was impossible. The best he could do here was try to find a way to ingratiate himself with them so he might double-cross them later.
Erust and Ashra smiled and waved as The Dirge walked away from the cart and into the desert. Rennish just stood stoically and watched him disappear into the waves of heat coming off the sand. "Thank gods he is gone." The presence of the man had him on edge the whole time. Rennish didn't know why but his natural survival instincts went nuts around him.
"Rennish, seriously he wasn't that bad." Ashra smiled as she turned back towards the carriage.
"You don't feel what I feel. Something about him. It's not savory to the natural world." Rennish tried to explain the best he could. The problem was the words came out convoluted and flowy.
Erust shrugged his shoulders. "Either way we are nearly home. The mansion should be over that hill."
The trip to the mansion was taken slowly. The lloras were not desert animals. So they stopped to water them frequently. They would normally have traveled in the times when the sun wasn't fully in the sky. They wanted to be able to slow down their visitor just in case he felt like making trouble. This was the only concession Rennish had been able to make with the other two when he protested bringing a stranger along.
The cart moved slower than a normal man's walk, but the tent was up, and staying out of the sun was the only way to keep from melting in the midday heat. The waves of heat looked like ribbons of color swaying at the edge of your vision. They danced and played tricks with the light. Ashra learned why her people talked about the dangers of staying in the heat too long.
The view of the house started as a series of darker banners moving in the waving streams of the heat off the sand. As they moved the building became larger. Until it stopped moving long enough for them to realize it was real. It came into view and signs of swaying palms and billowing awnings started to spring forth from the mirage. It went from a blob in the sun to a building.
"Home sweet home!" Erust called out for all to hear.
"I wonder if our stuff is still there." Rennish snorted to himself. He remembered his room and wondered if it still had a mattress. Sleeping on the sand was getting old.
"To think, this is where I first served you," Ashra ran back through her memories and remembered her feeling of apprehension at serving a human. She had thought he would be a brute who abused her and used her body. He had turned out to be something completely different. The man she was now wed to was calm, cool, sweet, and protective of her.
Erust was having his own emotions. He was trying to remember that meeting. Certain parts of it were hazy, other parts were crystal clear. It was as if parts of his memory were damaged. He knew that he had been told that The Oracle had damaged him in many ways, but why were only mere seconds of memory damaged?
Minos met them at the gate to the building. He stood at the door and waved. "I am glad to see you have returned! I have put on a feast of chilled foods for you!"
Rennish lifted his head. "Where did he get ice?"
Ashra smiled. "You dig a deep enough cellar and it always stays cool. I am sure he had water and wind down there to bring the temperatures all down. If it's 100 plus out here then 50 degrees will feel cold."
Rennish smiled and got himself up off his back and stretched. "Screw a mattress can I sleep in the cellar?"
The other two laughed. "Same old Rennish..." Erust shook his head.
Deep inside though Erust was having his own issues. He could remember the bed, but not anything else. He knew something else happened. Was this removed on purpose or was it just damage of the soul. This wasn't the first time he found a discrepancy like this. Anything, before he woke up, was hazy at best most days. The farther back he went the more damage there was. Ashra told him it was normal and she was just glad that he was alive.
Right now he wanted to have those treasured memories. The fact that they were so damaged bothered him more than the loss of other things.
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Far to the north a woman and a man stood at the farthest edge of town in a clearing used for travelers to camp for the night. A cold wind blew off the mountains and put a body chilling shake into their soul.
The two had paid for another few weeks at the Inn and explained their absence as a need to travel to meet a merchant further north. This bought them some time to be away without raising suspicions.
Loran used her skills to make sure that the forest wasn't watching them. Morgan used his eyes and nose to look for anything else hidden in the darkness. When they were both certain that a flight would be unobserved Morgan stretched his wings and transformed into his dragon body. The moonlight made his body glow in the dark. He stood out among the dark forms in the forest. Thankfully to anyone under him he would only appear as a shimmer in the sky.
Loran crawled up onto his shoulders and positioned her legs between his shoulder blades, When flying they would squeeze over her legs and hold her in place. With a thrust from his legs, they leaped into the air and his wings started to bring the higher. The flap of the leather between his bones made a distinct snapping noise as they moved.
The flight over the land to the mountains gave a spectacular view as fields danced past them bathed in moonlight. Everything had a serene almost ethereal look like the white light of the moon reflected off each blade of grass or pond.
The fields turned to moon bathed rocky pastures. The pastures turned into hills with small scraggly trees poking up between them. The trees eventually disappeared until the countryside was mostly jutting rocks and ice-covered crags.
The moment everything changed was when they started to ascend the slopes of the mountain. Loran had her eyes closed and was enjoying the frosty wind as it whipped across her face. She was smothered in the smells of the mountain as it went up to her nose. She was blissfully unaware of what was happening right up to the moment that Morgan suddenly dropped from the sky.
"Morgan!" She screamed instinctively. She clung to him as hard as she could as he dropped from the sky. "What are you doing?"
"Giants!" He growled softly through his dragon mouth. The drop to the world ended abruptly when Morgan put both his wings out and flapped wildly to get his airspeed under control. He plopped his feet down on the ground and crouched as low as he could. "Quick, hide behind me. They are coming."
Loran almost objected but thought better of it. She dropped her head and got between Morgan's dragon body and a rocky outcropping. Anyone attacking would have to come over Morgan or the rocks.
Time seemed to stand still. Loran listened to her own breathing and slowly unhooked the cord straps from her blades. She wasn't going to pull her weapons yet. She hoped to avoid a fight if at all possible. If it was a battle they could have avoided Morgan would have simply climbed higher into the sky and avoided it at all costs.
Slowly the dark forms started to appear on the northern end of the clearing. The first giant materialized from the dark and Loran choked a gasp. She had thought Ostrand was large, but this stunted even her expectations. She wished silently the old codgy badger was here at this moment. She had the feeling he would have loved to have seen someone bigger than him.
The huge man came out into the moonlight and exposed his hardened features. Polar bear fur blew in the wind around his cape and war garb. Slowly other warriors come up from behind him and they formed a wall in front of the dragon.
Morgan had kept his body low to the ground with his wings outstretched. He was perched with the expectation he might need to take off quickly. He was willing to abandon Loran if he thought it might save her life. He needed to interrogate these men first though. His first thought when he smelled their fires was that they had to be what was keeping his brother captive.
"Do you plan to capture another dragon, giants?" Morgan didn't hide his fire, he let the smoke curl from the edges of his mouth. He was once the strongest being on the planet. He wasn't sure how much power he still had in his old age.
"Capture? Identify yourself! Although your colors give you away." The giant was holding his club like a staff and he slammed the butt end into the ground for emphasis.
Morgan curled his lips and stood up on his hind legs. He splayed his majesty in the bright moonlight. Snow and ice on the granite reflected light onto the dragon. His white and gold coloring glowed in the night. The giants behind the first one gasped as they saw him in his full spread. "I am Morgan Firenze, the white gold emperor and one of my brothers is dying. I have come to look for him."
"The world ender does not look for anyone! He takes what he wants." The war chief smiled and spat on the ground. It was a stand-off. Could the giants realistically kill Morgan? They knew they would be hard-pressed to do so. They had come down the mountain to investigate what was coming their way. They had no idea their desired prey would come to them. They were sorely unprepared for this encounter, but they couldn't show that at this time.
"I could level your mountain but time has mellowed me out. And my time is ending soon. I was searching for something else when I sensed my brother. I thought I was the last one. Tell me who is still alive." Morgan pulled his wings in and bent his head down to look at the war chief.
The chief laughed. "You expect me to give you something for free? And your friend there isn't waiting to kill us?"
Loran stood up and screamed. "You forced us down. A good partnership always has trust. He told me to stand behind him, so I did. You wouldn't lay a hand on him before I made it you." Loran tried to use her most convincing boast. The giant was near twice her size. She could take two of the smaller ones guaranteed. But more than that or this large one and she was facing a desperately pitched battle.
Morgan forced himself back into his human form. "I will shrink myself to a size you feel less threatened by. I am here for my last brother. Please, we are not here to hurt you. I am simply here looking for family. My days of warmongering are long gone, dead with the demon races."
The war chief relaxed and leaned down to the newly sized dragon. He was still cautious. This was the white gold emperor. He had destroyed an entire continent to kill one being. His danger at any size could not be overstated. "Quid pro quo dragon. I will tell you who we have, but you will tell me what you are after. You will tell me why the mortal races are in turmoil again."