I sat there in my small little hand crafted nest for quite some time, just thinking hard about what had gone on tonight. It all just came so fast, and frankly, it was a bit chaotic as well. I wanted to say that my father was back, and that he was ready to lead our tribe through these troubling times, but I could not do so.
I am sure that I was not the only dragon in the tribe that felt the same way as I did either. He had sat in his cave, just grieving in solitude most of the days, and he did not seem to care for his tribe at all, as a normal leader should be, no matter how good or bad the dragon could be.
It was just hard for me to really accept the fact on whether or not he was really back to lead us. I wanted to say in my head that he was, but I also could not lie to myself. I was not sure, if I was going to be honest with myself.
I shook my head though, as I looked over at my sister. I could tell that she was asleep, and she was not having her usual nightmares that she had each night. It was clear to me that she was feeling a lot better, now that she had at least heard the voice of her brother.
My brother had saved me, and it was not the first time that he had done that. But it was the first time that it had been the way that it had been this time. My father had tried to kill me, there was no denying that, and I was sure that had a lot to do with many of the dragons still not ready to trust him.
Like most of the other dragons, I was not quite sure if I could trust him after what he had just tried to do to me a few hours ago. I wanted to push it off, and say that it was because he was in pain, that was what Socra had told me, but I was not sure if it was simply that easy to forgive him.
He had to prove to the tribe that he was back, and he would not let us down ever again. Until he did that, I was not going to be ready to trust him. It was like he was a new leader, no dragon was too sure to trust him yet. To a sense as well, he was the new leader, but that was for a different reason.
I shook my head, as I turned it away from my mother, and my sister, who were sitting there peacefully sleeping. I wish that I could do the same, but I was just too lost in thought for that to be the case for me. I had to get out all of my inner demons, before I could lay my head to rest.
I looked outside of the large cave, that all of the dragons in the tribe had been sleeping in for the last year or so. I stared up at a the leaves that were on the trees, as they were pine trees, and most of the leaves were still there. I took in the smell, as it cleared out all of the blood that was still in my system.
I blinked a few times, and I turned my head away from the trees, and over to the cave that was far away from the cave that we were in now. I would say that our cave was much larger, but after what I had seen earlier, I was not so sure that was the case.
Rather maybe what I had not seen, as it seemed as though we had just been walking down a tunnel for most of the time that I was in the cave with Socra. I shook ny head, as I then thought on what it might be that Socra and my father, Himla, could be talking about.
I am sure that there was a lot of catching up to do, as what Socra had told me Himla's response to everything she had told him for quite a long time, had just been a grunt. She had said that she was fairly sure that he had not heard a word of what she had said to him.
My father had told everyone a lot of plans, that it seemed that he might have made up on the fly as well, as he was not like that a few hours before then. I am sure that they were speaking more in detail on all of the promises that he had made to the tribe.
I closed my eyes for just a few moments, as I thought back on my father being at the top of the cliff, for the first time in quite a while. He had spoken to the tribe, with quite some enthusiasm in his voice, like he had actually meant what he had said.
I breathed it all in, maybe it was true in fact, maybe he was going to come back to normal, and he was going to lead the tribe through all this hardship. I then remembered the words that he had said, as it had not happened all that long ago in fact.
There stood my father, at the top of the cliff, looking down at his entire tribe. I had recalled some vivid memories of him doing that when I was a lot younger, though it seemed like a dream at this point. I could hardly remember when my father had taken his role as the leader of our tribe.
He did not look hesitant, nor did he look scared. He just nodded to his whole tribe, as I saw a lot of them were surprised as well, to see him at the top of the cliff, addressing the tribe like he used to do. I nodded back to him, as he then began to keep on speaking to the tribe, after the long time of silence.
"I want you all to know, that yes, I have not done my job as leader, and I know it is going to be hard for you to trust me again..." He began to say to the tribe. I saw many of the dragons nod in agreement to what he had just said, which I was not sure whether it were a good, or a bad thing.
I saw many of the dragons looking around the rest of the clearing, to see if any of the other dragons here were thinking the same thing that they were. I tried my best not to think too deep on it, as I focused my head on my father. I did hear one specific dragon step up to speak however.
I knew who the dragon was that had spoke right away, as it was Kips friend, Lunk. He was never really a friend of ours because he was so much older than us, but I knew that he had a lot of respect around the tribe on him, so I was quite curious as to what he had to say, as I listened in on it.
"Himla... My father used to tell me stories about you, and what you did in the last war... They had the same plan before, which was to kill all of us. I believe you can save us all again." He said to my father. I nodded to Lunk, as it actually caught me at a bit of a surprise if I was going to be completely honest with myself.
I did not think that there would be any dragon on the side of my father right now, much less after what he had just done to me. My father, as I could tell was a bit surprised by it as well, and he was a bit caught off guard at the same time too.
He did eventually nod back at Lunk, as he regained his control of what he was thinking. I knew that my father knew just as well as I did, what had happened in the battle that the black dragons had done on our camp last year... Lunks father had been killed in that fight.
That is why my father was surprised as to the fact that Lunk was so willing to trust him. I was surprised as well, as after what he had been saying earlier, I would not have thought that would ever be the case. My father eventually got enough control of himself, as he began to speak.
It broke off my short chain of thought that I had just been having, as I then turned my head over to my father. As I was still not caught up on all that was going on at the moment, but I listened to what it was that he had to say anyways.
"Thank you Lunk... I appreciate that... I know that many of you will not feel the same, but I promise that I will change... I learned something, and now that I know what it was that I had to learn, I am ready..." He said to the entire tribe. I saw a bit of some surprised faces, but I also saw some that still did not look too sure if they were ready to believe what he had just said.
I did not blame them, as I knew a lot of them had lost family in that attack, but they had managed to recover from it a lot better than my father had. My father had seemed okay at first, but he had gradually gotten worse and worse over time, to the point where Socra had to lead us.
That was why I was not sure if I was ready to trust a word that my father had to say to the tribe. I heard one dragon say something, that was loud enough for me to slightly hear, but not loud enough for my father to hear through all the voices at the top of the cliff.
"He tried to kill both of us his sons... I don't think he's learned a thing!" The dragon had said to another. I saw that I was not the only dragon around the area that had heard what the dragon had said either, as I saw a few dragons looking around, trying to see where it had come from.
I was trying to do the same as well, as I wanted to step up and try to protect my father, but I really wad not in the shape to do so, neither physically, nor mentally at the moment. I then just shook my head, and looked away from that dragon.
Plus, in a sort of sense, the dragon was in fact right. I could not stand up for my father, knowing that he had just tried to kill me. I closed my eyes for just a few moments, until I heard the voice of a more familiar dragon step up to speak to my father. I looked up a bit surprised to see who it was as well.
"You were not there for your daughter, nor your son, nor your wife when we needed you... What makes you think we should trust you now?" The dragon, which was in fact my own mother, stepped up, and spoke to the entire tribe.
She did not look at any of the dragons that were in the clearing, to see the reactions on many of the faces of the dragons, but she instead just had her gaze, and her eyes locked on the eyes of my own father. My father did the same as well, as I could tell that he was in some pain.
He felt a bit guilty as well, as it was clear for me to tell that. He did not lock his eyes on the tribe that was all around him, as they were all looking up at him, waiting to hear his response to what his own wife had just said to him. After a few moments, my father then nodded to my mother, as he then responded to what she had just asked.
"You should not trust me... I did fail you all..." He began to say. I squinted my eyes at him, as I was a bit confused as to what he was doing. That was not a good start to whatever it was that he had to say to the tribe. I listened to him as he kept on speaking however. "But I am not me anymore... I feel different, I feel like there is unfinished business that I must attend to..."
A lot of the dragons that were in the clearing, were all looking around at each other, as they were all confused as to what he had said. I was just as confused as the rest of them as well, as I knew that I was a smart dragon, but I had not a clue as to what he had meant by that.
We all just sat there, as I heard many dragons speaking quietly to each other for just a few moments, as it was clear that they were asking their friends as to what he might have meant by what he had just said. It did not take long for those voices to die down however.
My father let the dragons speak to themselves for a short period of time, as a leader normally would let his tribe do, until he felt as though it was his time to step up and speak again. Once the voices went away, and the eyes then went back up to my father, Himla then began to speak again.
"I am not the same dragon that I once was... I don't have very many feelings any more... But if there is one thing that I must do, no matter if it leads to the death of me... It is to get revenge on those dragons, and to kill Plyma..." He said to the entire tribe. I saw a lot of angry dragons nod to him.
I knew that they were all very upset at the black dragons, for going on to our land, and killing many of our friends, and our family. I knew just as well as they did, that they wanted to give the black dragons a bit of a taste of their own medicine.
I smiled at my father, as it seemed as maybe he was back, and he was in fact ready to take our tribe into a war, to fight back against to black dragons. I was beginning to get a bit excited, as I saw that many of the other dragons were as well.
They began to speak amongst themselves, a bit louder than they had just a few moments ago. I saw that a lot of them had their claws out as well, as it was clear that many of them were ready for blood. I wanted to try to stop of all of this, but at the same time, I knew that I shouldn't.
I too was pissed off, and I was ready for blood as well. I was ready to kill any black dragon that I saw near me. I pulled my claws in and out a few times. I then shook my head, as I knew that I should relax, and not get too ahead of myself.
I knew that no matter what, I was going to be a deputy, and a leader of this tribe some day, so I should not act like the rest of the mob in the tribe. I needed to keep myself cool and calm, and do my job as a leader. I nodded to myself, and then I turned my head over to another familiar dragon, as he stepped up to speak to my father.
"How do you plan on that? None of us are ready for war! There is just a few warrior dragons, versus a hundred thousand of them!" I saw Ipse, step up and speak to my father. I then saw the excited looks on many of the dragons, as they then became scared looks.
They realized that it was not as simple as it had first seemed that it would be. I realized that right away as well, as I nodded to Ipse, knowing that he was in fact right. We could not just go into Plyma's base, and take him down... Surely right?
There would be thousands of dragons there to protect him for sure, even if we did manage to sneak in. None the less, we did not have a single clue as to where his base was in the first place. I shook my head, as I then realized that it was not going to be a simple as it had first seemed.
Himla sat there for just a few moments, as he waited for his tribe to calm down, and then he finally nodded to his whole tribe, letting them all know that he had heard what Ipse had just said to him, and he knew just as well as I did, that it was not just as simple as that.
After the tribe had managed to relax themselves, my father then began to speak up to all of them, making the rest of the leftover voices of the dragons still talking silence themselves. I stared at my father right in his eyes, as it almost seemed as he could see it, as he winced a bit as he began to speak.
"Yes... You are right... But we have other red dragon tribes... I will speak to them about my plan... Before someone ask, I might as well tell all of you... I will be getting the warrior dragons to train all of you how to fight a black dragon... Do not ask me how right now, you will soon find out." He said to all of the dragons in the tribe.
I saw excited looks on many of the faces of the dragons. Most of those were from the guards, or from the hunters, but I also saw that to no surprise what so ever to me, many of the cave dragons had quite the scared looks on their faces.
I knew that a lot of the cave dragons had stood up for their tribe, and they had gone to help fight, and protect the tribe when we had been attacked, but I also knew that many of them had stayed in their caves to hide as well.
I squinted my eyes at a few of them, though most of them had their heads to the ground, and they were not paying me any attention, even if they did not. I gave up on it, and then I looked back over to my father, as he spoke up one last time.
"I will plan all of this very soon! But for now, you all go get some rest... I need the hunters to hunt for us tomorrow, we need to be well fed..." He said to the tribe. Many of the dragons got the scared looks of their faces, as they realized how worn out they were in fact, as it was so late.
Many of them sat there for a bit, expecting something to happen, but once my father jumped down from the cliff, they gave up, and they followed the rest of the tribe into the big cave, to get some sleep for the night. I was about to do the same, until I realized that I felt like I had some unfinished business that needed to be tended to.
I stopped myself, as I saw that there were no dragons left in the clearing, but I stopped my father standing with Socra below the cliff, as I saw that they were speaking to one another a bit quietly. I quickly headed over to them, to make sure that I did not miss any of what they were saying.
Once I caught up to them however, they then began to stop speaking, as they saw that there was a dragon that was with them. I poked my head out, to let them know that it was just me, but they did not continue on with the conversation that they had been having.
I looked at them a bit confused for just a few moments. My father had just been about to give deputy over to me, and now for some reason he was acting like I was of no importance to the tribe. It frustrated me a bit, as I tried to hold that in, as I began to speak to the both of them.
"You guys can keep on talking... Am I not supposed to be the next deputy of our tribe?" I said to the both of them. They looked at me for just a few moments, as I saw them both lower their heads, as it was clear that they were a bit guilty, but at the same time a bit hesitant.
I squinted my eyes at the both of them, as I was not so sure what was going on at the moment. Did they still not believe me to be the dragon of destiny? I had thought that maybe that was not the case for some time, but my brother had just came back from the dead and proved it to be true.
There was not all that much that really needed to be said about that. Surely they had not forgotten about that right? Socra finally decided that she was going to be the first one that was going to look up at me, though I had hoped for it to be my father, but I listened to what she had to say anyways.
"Yes you are Jangra... But I think this should be between you and my father... It is not just our plans of what we are going to do that we are talking about, there is some private matters as well." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, and then I squinted my eyes at her.
What was so private that I should not be a part of? I tried not to get frustrated as I turned my head over to my father, who was still the leader of our tribe, and in the end, it was him that made the final decision on all of this. My father sat there for a few moments, until he too finally lifted his head up at me.
I could see that there was a lot of pain in his eyes, as well as a bit of a guilty look on his face. I could tell that he was in a lot of grief as well. He did finally manage to look me in my eyes, and he spoke to me a bit softly as well, like he used to when I was a kid.
"Jangra... She is right, we will talk about our plans tomorrow, but right now there is some serious and private matters that need to be tended to. Plus I know you are tired after what I did to you... You should go see a medicine dragon first though." He said to me, emphasizing on the part that he had said it was him that had done it to me.
I shook my head, as I was no longer worried about that now. It was in the past, though not long in the past, if my father truly had changed somehow in that short time, than it did not matter any more. I looked at them both for just a few moments, as I could tell that they were both waiting for me to go away.
I looked at the both of them, and then I rolled my eyes, and then I began to walk over to the big cave, first to where the medicine dragons slept, as I knew that at all times at least 2 of them had to be awake. The pain from the burn then began to hit me a bit more now.
It had seemed to disappear for all of that time before, but now that my mind was off of all that, it felt like some of the worst pain that I had ever felt in my life. I quickly rushed myself over to the medicine dragons, as I did not want to feel that any longer.
I kept my eyes closed, as I did my best to try to get that all out of my head at the same time as well. I did not want to think about that any longer. The more that I kept that on my mind, the more and more that I knew that it would stress me out.
I still felt the pain of the burn, but the medicine that they had put on me had managed to take a little bit of the pain off. As well as the thing that they had made me eat as well, as I was beginning to realize that, that had made me feel even more tired.
After a bit more time, of me just doing my best not to think of all of that any longer, I finally managed to get myself to sleep.
I woke up, but I was not in some normal place that I should be. No... I was not in the cave, nor was I out in the woods at all. In fact I was out in the open, which made all of this feel even more scary to me. I knew that red dragons were a lot stronger in the open, but my whole life I had been taught that we needed to stay in woods to hide from humans.
I looked around me, as I saw a lot of crops, which were the things that humans used to grow their own food. It always seemed a bit strange to me, when I heard the stories of the types of food that humans liked to eat. I knew that they ate meat from time to time, but for some reason they liked the food that grew from the earth.
I wanted to vomit, as I thought about eating that as a meal. I then looked away from the crops that were all around me, as I spotted something that was in the distance from me. It seemed as though it were one of those strange but nice looking caves, that humans made themselves to live in.
I looked at it for quite some time, as I did not know why, but there just so happened to be something that seemed a bit important about it. I stared at it for quite a long period of time, but I then shook my head, as I then began to walk towards it.
This was certainly a bit of a strange dream for me to be having. Maybe those herbs that the medicine dragons had given me, were making me feel a bit crazy. I shook my head, as I knew that this was not real anyways, this was all just a dream.
I looked around, as I got to the front side of the nice looking cave. I looked at it for quite some time, as I then realized that I saw a human at the front of it. I looked at the human for quite some time, as I then realized who the human was, as normally when I had seen him, he had been a bit hard to see.
I had not been in a dream at that time either, so that probably also had a lot to do with it as well. I stared at the human for some time, until I gulped, as I then stepped up, realizing that it would probably be a smart decision for me to speak to him.
"Joseph? Is this where you are? Are you near me?" I said to him. He looked at me, as I saw that he was squinting his eyes at me for quite a long time. He did not say anything back to me however, which confused me quite a bit. Was he upset at me?
I knew that he had his eyes squinted at me the last time he had seen me, and it was a bit embarrassing as well. But more some reason, something just seemed off with him. He stared at me for a bit longer, as he then finally decided to speak back.
"Mariah! Are you just about ready for me to teach you how to shoot a bow?" He said. I looked at him a bit confused as to what it was that he was talking about. Suddenly I saw something walk past me, as it nearly had made me jump at the same time.
I realized that it was a human, but it was a bit smaller than the likes of Joseph. It must be a female, as I knew that they were a bit smaller than the males were. She also happened to look a lot like Joseph as well, as I then realized that it must be his sister that I had heard about.
I realized at the same time, that it was not me that Joseph had been speaking to at all. I looked at the ground, a slight bit disappointed, as at the same time, I realized that my vision was beginning to get a slight bit blurry as well. I heard a voice speak to me before I left my dream.
"Soon..." The voice said to me. I did not recognize the voice at all, but I knew that it was not a voice of a dragon. It in fact was a voice of a human, though I had not heard the voice before. I blinked a couple of times, until everything was dark.
I woke up, almost flying up, as it seemed as though I had a bit of a random adrenaline rush as I had woken up. It then disappeared just as soon as it had hit, as I realized I was tired. I turned my head, as I heard a dragon speak to me.
"Its gonna be a long day Jangra! You better wake up!"