Dragonflight

Chapter 1

As the sun moved toward the horizon, its first rays of the day awakened Vrydon from his sleep. He stretched his wings and gawked away the last remnants of sleep with his mouth wide open. The morning sun had already begun to warm his scales. Vrydon made his way to the nearby mountain stream to drink from the cool water as the sun continued on its journey to the top of the Dragon Mountains. While he was drinking, a big shadow fell over him. Grido, one of the elder dragons, flew over Vrydon and landed not far from where Vrydon had been sleeping.

"Vrydon, my boy," said Grido, after he had quenched his thirst, "how are you?"
"Pretty good," he replied, "what brings you to me?"
"The Council of Elders has asked me to come and fetch you for a special hearing. We would like to know your opinion on a particular case."
"Why are the Elders so interested in my opinion? I am barely sixty-eight years old and have nowhere near the wisdom of the years that the Council's occupants have."
"The Council is of the opinion that of all the young dragons, you are the one with the keenest mind. They also noticed how thirteen years ago you managed to end the quarrel between Lioger and Bedr."
"It didn't amount to much."
"Nevertheless, the Council wishes to hear your voice during this session."

Grido and Vrydon then left for the Council of Elders, whose meeting place was at the top of Geflo's Tooth. Both dragons slid their wings on the wind that characterized this part of the Dragon Mountains. Grido was clearly the oldest of them both. This was not only apparent from his larger wingspan, but also from his more sedate way of flying and his scales showing some bleached spots here and there. After a quarter of an hour's flight, both dragons arrived at the meeting place, where most of the council had already gathered. Zert, the eldest of the dragons and chairman of the council, looked sickly with his dull ash-gray scales showing his age.

When all the counselors had settled, Zert said: "Dear Vrydon, reports have reached us from the south that Erabin, king of the elves, has begun the construction of a lake, cutting off the water supply to the north. Moreover, it is also rumored that he has plans to expand his empire to the north. He must be stopped. We would like to know how you would tackle this problem. "

Vrydon replied: "I would start by trying to gather information in the field itself. Since we as dragons stand out too much for such a case, I would use a werecreature for this task, preferably a wereraven or -rabbit. You also have to have someone who has sufficient insight into the culture of the people you wish to spy on. Therefore, an Eleven guide does not seem entirely inconvenient to me. It also seems good to inquire about the comings and goings of King Erabin. If his attitude in recent months suddenly has become suspicious, you have to find out what has changed and try to undo this change. "

A murmur of approval arose from the counselors. Apparently they had already entered the same train of thought. An older silver-green dragon indicated with her tail that she wished to speak. "I agree with youngster Vrydon that we must first gather information about the situation on the ground and certainly not rush into our work. I am not sure, however, that we can trust an elven guide. Elves are known for their crafty words, enough evidence of which can be found in the stories of our oldest members. How can we be sure that the elf we would use as a guide would not betray us to Erabin? " There was another murmur of approval as the silver-green dragon settled down on the rocks again.

After expressing his desire to take the floor again, Vrydon said, "Elder Arysa, I agree that we should consider carefully which eleven we can trust to help us in this delicate mission. However, there are elves who disagree. are with King Erabin and have even left his empire to live among the people, so I propose to search among them for a suitable guide, however, we will, for our introduction to our potential guide, call upon a werecreature to to make the first contact and see if we can trust the elf with our secret. "