I sat there for a few moments, seeing my friend through the woods. I wanted to be mad at him as well, but I could not bring myself to it. I knew that he was right in a sense. I hated to think so wrong about my father, but I knew it to be true, and so did the rest of the tribe.
He had seemed to give up, and he would not talk to anyone. Not even his own deputy... Socra was practically the leader of the tribe now. I shivered, as I closed my eyes, trying to clear those thoughts from out of my mind.
I needed to do my job, if my father did not want to do his, there was nothing I could do to wake him up. Socra had already tried to do that, and he had threatened to expell her fron the tribe. It seemed a bit crazy to me, as I blinked my eyes open.
I saw that he was with another dragon, though I could not tell who it was at the moment. I knew that it was not his mate, I had seen her asleep back in the cave, and there was no way that she could have woken up and flown past me without me noticing.
I tried to sneak my head around, but there were just too many trees to see who it could possibly be. I did not want to sneak around too much, for the fear that I might be seen as well. It was heavily frowned on for a dragon to sneak and try to listen to a private conversation between other dragons.
That is why I nearly got in a lot of trouble that night that I had tried to hear what it was that Yikla was trying to tell Himla and Socra. I was lucky that Socra did not tell my father about that, or I might have lost my chance to be the next deputy.
I could not hear the other dragon that he was with talking, and I thought for a few moments that he might be talking to himself. It would not be the first time that I had seen Kota do that. I had caught him doing it before, and he was a bit embarrassed about it.
But no... That was when he was a lot younger for one thing. I could also smell another dragon in the air as well. The dragon did not smell like a normal dragon would from this tribe, but it also was a smell that I had smelt before so I was not too worried about all of that either.
I knew that Kota would never try to betray our tribe like that... At least that was what I had hoped at least. If he did then it would make sense as to why Yikla had gone off the map, and how they had known that we knew they were planning the attack, and we hid a bunch of dragons.
They did not know that we had defence though. Not even I knew that, it must have just been a thing between Himla and Socra. It did not matter in the end, we had lost a lot more red dragons than we had managed to kill of the black. My brother was one of the dragons that had been included as well...
I moved back, ready to leave, and just to keep on walking along, pretending that I had never came across them in the first place... That was, until, I saw both of the dragons turn in the direction that I was. I heard one of the dragons say something to the other 1.
I then realized who the 2nd dragon that was with Kota was right away. It was Yikla... Maybe I was wrong, and maybe Kota had betrayed us after all. I grabbed my claws out, I was ready for a fight.
If they had seen me, or heard me, than there was no need to sound the tribe at all, I knew that I could beat the both of them in a 2 on 1. Even if it was at close combat, and Yikla was a bit bigger than me as well...
"Who is there?! Show your face and we will not kill you!" Yikla said, almost as if she was trying to sound threatening, but also trying to be quiet at the same time, as it was simply just a whisper. I squinted my eyes, and then hid behind the tree.
I had to think fast, it was either to fight both of them, or to run back to camp and tell Socra about all of this. I knew I was faster than the both of them as well. There was no way that they would follow me back either, if they knew that I would tell them about what it was that they were doing.
I waited it out for a few moments longer, not sure what to do in the exact moment. I sat there, with my back held to a tree, as I heard one of them, more than likely Kota, coming in the direction of me. I shivered, trying to think of the best way out of this.
If they really were betraying us, they were still my friends, and I did not want to have to fight them, or have to kill them. I sat there for a few more moments, and I was just about to run away, until I heard a voice of a 3rd dragon from much closer to me.
"Calm down both of you... What is the meaning of this meeting that the both of you have called?" I heard the familiar voice of my mentor, Socra, say to the other 2. My heart stopped... Was Socra a part of this as well? I was questioning so many thing at the exact moment.
It all seemed so fake, surely none of this could be real right? I sat there, still expecting them to come after me. Until I then began to realize, that the noise that they had heard had been Socra. I then calmed myself, as I focused in on what it was that they were saying for real this time.
This could be something very important, and I might have to tell my father about it as well. If he knew that his deputy had been the one that had betrayed him, and was the reason that he had lost his son, he would be even more broken that he was now.
If that was what they were doing though, I had no other choice. I wish I could say that Socra and Kota would never do something that evil to the tribe that they had grown up in. I just had so many questions that I could not get answered at the moment.
There was no other way surely right? Socra would tell me if she was having private meetings with Kota... Well mainly Yikla as well... Everyone in the tribe had thought that she had just disappeared after she had betrayed the tribe. If she had done that, and she was talking to my deputy, that could only mean one thing right?
I suppose that I should not be jumping to conclusions however... She might have called this private meeting due to the fact that she knew that the tribe did believe that Yikla had betrayed us. If my father knew about it as well, he would for sure have a reason to expell her from the tribe.
She knew that if I knew about Yikla, and about the meetings, that I would most likely tell my father about all of that as well... I still could not clear the thoughts from my mind, that the meeting had an evil intent as well.
I sat there, and then listened as I heard the voice of Kota, speak back to Socra. I wanted to poke my head out, just to see if it was real, and they really were all together, but I also had the risk of being caught that I must evaluate as well. I would for sure get in a lot of trouble this time.
"We are hear, because we must talk about Jangras father Himla... We believe that he is not fit to be leader, and that you should take over for him." Kota said to Socra. A ghasp of relief nearly came out of my mouth, but I thankfully stopped myself from doing so.
I kept on listening in, trying to catch what it was that Socra had to say back to him. I almost wanted to poke my head out once again, but I stopped myself for the 3rd time from doing that. As I heard the voice of Socra then speak back to Kota a bit upset.
"You are correct, he is not fit at the moment, but you were not alive to remember what he did in the last war between dragons. He is a great leader, he is just in a lot of pain right now..." She said to him. I thought about what it was that she had just said for a few moments.
I then realized that she was right. None of us had been alive to see how great my father was as a leader. In fact half of the dragons in the tribe were not alive to see that, and the dragons that were alive for it sometimes forgot that as well.
I calmed myself a bit more, as I realized that Socra was not here to betray our tribe after all. I cursed myself for even thinking that low of her in the first place. I then thought back to the thought of me being here in the first place... I knew that I should leave, this was none of my business.
I just could not help it. I really wanted to know what it was that they felt like they needed to call a private meeting about. I sat there for a few more moments, waiting for one of them to speak, once again thinking about turning my head to see if they were still in fact there at all.
I knew that they were however, red dragons were a lot more silent than black dragons, but that did not mean that they were quiet. After a little bit longer of quietness, I finally heard Yikla begin to talk back to my mentor, finally breaking the silence.
"You guys cant keep living like the old times, it is time for you to wake up, this is the world we are in now... You need to step up for your tribe, I may not be a part of it, but I am doing this for the good of your tribe." She said back to Socra. I closed my eyes, trying to erase the thoughts of what all of the other dragons had been saying about her in our tribe.
It was clouding my judgement at the moment. I knew that a part of what she had said was true as well. Socra needed to stop thinking back on the past, and the days that he was a good leader. He had not been leading the tribe over the past year... That had been Socras job recently.
I sat there as there was a few more moments of silence once again. This tine I did not bring the thought in my mind about whether or not I should turn my head around and see if they were still there however. I just sat there for a bit longer waiting it out.
After a bit longer, I finally heard the voice of Socra begin to speak back to Yikla. She sounded a bit angry as well at the fact that she was talking to Yikla. She too still had a lot of thoughts on what the rest of the tribe had been saying about her while she had been gone.
"You are not a part of our tribe... You are right! So why do you speak like you did not betray our tribe... You told them everything, you told them where we hid the children and the elders... And now you come back like that never happened? I ought to kill you right now!" She said loudly to Yikla. It was so loud that it nearly vibrated back to the cave that our tribe was sleeping in.
Once again there was a few moments of silence, and this time I did turn my head around to see the look on the face of Yikla. Did she have any sort of emotion on what Socra had just said to her? Was it really true? Or was it just Socra being angry and repeating what the rest of the tribe had said.
As I poked my head out, I saw that Yikla had a bit of pain on her face. She had really betrayed us then... It was all true, and now she was coming back to us as if none of that had ever happened... I was surprised to see that the black dragons had not attacked us again already...
Yikla then stood her ground at Socra. She was a tiny bit bigger than Socra, but Socra was a big red dragon, and Yikla was still a bit young, and she had not fully grown, she must be only a few years older than me. She looked back up at my mentor, and then began to speak back to her, clearly trying to keep herself calm.
"They caught me in your camp, I had to tell them about all of it, or else they would have sent it back to my father, and all of you would be in a lot worse of trouble." She said back to Socra. Socra did not say anything, she just squinted her eyes at Yikla, not sure if she was ready to believe that.
But I then began to get a bit angry at her. She had just admitted that she had told the black dragons all that she knew about us. I could not help it this time, as I then began to walk into their small little clearing through the trees, that they were having their meeting.
They all looked at me, a bit surprised to see my face. As I landed right beside Kota who was dead silent through all of this. He was just trying to take in all that was being said much like I. I just did not feel like I could stay sneaking into the meeting any longer with me knowing the roots of the conversation.
Yikla looked a bit embarrassed seeing my face, and I wondered why that might be so. I shook my head, as I looked at her a bit angry at her, just like I had seen Socra be a few moments ago. She looked down at the ground, as I stared her down.
Socra then began to speak to me, a bit surprised to see me here, but she did not seem to be upset at all of this, this time. I turned my head away from Yikla, and then focused my mind on the dragon that was speaking to me at the exact moment.
"Jangra... You should not be here, we called this meeting because we feared that you would tell your father about it. You know what he will do if he finds out about this right?" She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, and then I looked away.
I looked back over at Kota, who was just looking at me, waiting for me to respond to what Socra had just said. Normally I would have thought that Socra would have been a bit angry about this like she normally was when I was sneaking into a private meeting. But this time she seemed a bit scared.
It was a slight bit of weakness, which was something that I had never seen from her ever before.
Socra looked at me, and she looked almost as if she was scared. I knew that she loved the tribe, and she only had the best interest in mind. She had let my father kill her own husband, that proved that she was loyal to the tribe, there was no doubting it.
I closed my eyes for a few moments, but then realized that it showed signs of weakness, and that was one thing that my father had taught me not to do. I opened them and then I looked back at her, and I squinted my eyes at her, trying not to show those signs.
"Yes... I know that, but I am the dragon that you are supposed to mentor, you told me yourself that you do not hide things from me... Are you lying to me now too?" I said to her. She looked down at the ground a bit sadly, I could tell that she was a bit stuck, and she was not sure what to say back to me.
It was exactly what I was planning, I was trying to see what was going on, and whether or not she was a part of all of this. It seemed as if she was not, and she did not trust Yikla either. But I could tell that she was a bit embarassed as well.
Kota did not seem to notice any of it at all, I could tell that he just wanted to be left out of all of this, which I did not blane him for. Yikla had her head down to the ground, and it seemed as if she was not paying attention to what was going on either. I squinted my eyes at her, trying to see if she could sense the energy coming from that. I could tell it did, but she did not look up at me to show it.
Socra finally lifted her head up from off of the ground. Thankfully she had done that as well, I did not want to see any signs of weakness coming from her. My father had already shown plenty of that recently. I looked at her, as she finally began to speak back to me on what I had just said to her.
"You are right... I apologize, I just do not want to hurt either of you any more. I did not know what you would do if you found out I was with her." She said to me. She pointed her head over to Yikla, who I looked over at. I then remembered why I had popped out into the clearing in the first place.
It was because of her, she made me feel a bit sick, and what I had just heard her say to them made me feel sick as well. It made me a bit more angry that Socra had not told me about any of this, but I did my best to keep myself calm, as I turned my head back over to Socra.
Socra still looked a bit embarrassed I could tell. My mind was not on her at the moment however... My mind was more on the fact that Yikla was with us in the room, and she had also admitted to betraying us none the less. It made me feel sick, and wonder how I could easily just fall in love with 2 snakes.
I looked back at Yikla one last time, for a big dragon, she sure did look very weak. I then turned my head back over at Socra, and then I nodded to her to get her attention, as I then began to speak back to her on all of this.
"I am just more upset to hear that you are with her, and you have not killed her... We are with a dragon that just admitted that she had betrayed us..."