The Silver Dragon (Unpublished, unedited version)

Chapter 27: The Search

Raize sighed as he looked out of the opening of his new cave. It was still only a little higher then his previous one, but it was smaller, with fewer dragons. Five males and five females. It was quite a comfortable place, and the dragons he had met seemed nice. There were a few other fire dragons, and one of the females had seemed to have already taken an interest in him. While he had shared a cave with his sister for most of his life, it was strange to be living with females again, though he supposed he could get used to it.

What truly worried him was Silver. He couldn't help but think that something horrible had happened to her yesterday. And if Gravon had gotten to her before Zepos... He shivered at the thought. So instead of waiting to be called out of his cave for his now more advanced classes he exited the cave at the dawn of light, hurrying to the outside of Sky Mountain. The sun had barely touched the horizon, but one of the many skills of a fire dragon was near perfect vision in the dark, so the lack of light didn't bother him at all.

He flew to where he knew Zepos had been pointed the day before, and soon found a clearing that seemed like a place Silver would like to go. It was a small cave near a pond with long reeds around the bank and deep water.

He first checked the cave, hoping to find Silver and Zepos wrapped in each other's wings, but when he saw nothing he began to get worried. He leapt down from the cave and checked the forest around the small clearing, wondering if the two had slept in there. Still not finding anyone he began to think that maybe he was at the wrong place, when he saw a messily scrawled message in the rock.

'Hey bruther. I know you wood come hear evenchally. But if this is some other dragon, bugger of. Me and Zepos have left sky moutain to search for anuther Dragon Haven. Sorry for not bringing you, but it is to dangerus. Once we find anuther haven, we will come back for u.'

A small growl left his throat. She had left him! Again! He read the message over and over before stepping back and creating a fireball in his throat. He blasted the wall, destroying the message so no other dragon could find it. Oh this was so like Silver, doing things without thinking them through. Didn't she know that A.O.D.H had recently been on the move, coming toward this very mountain range? He turned, debating on whether to warn Iraliene or not. No, he wouldn't, not yet. First he would gather some friends and see if he couldn't find Silver.

With an angry snort he threw himself into the air with a beat of his wings, flying as fast as he could back to Sky Mountain. He needed to find her before it was too late.

* * *

Gravon was pacing in his cave, one of the highest in The Nest. He had slept badly that night, wondering when Silver would come, but she hadn't. It had left him angry, frustrated and confused. Why hadn't she come to him? Everyone else had, eagerly even. But this damned dragoness was just so... He snarled at himself before stalking to the edge of the cave and looking down over the mostly empty nest, as it usually was this early in the morning. There were a few dragons slowly getting up and flying around, mostly teachers getting ready for their classes. However there was one dragon that caught his eyes. A young fire dragon that couldn't be more then eight years old.

He frowned suspiciously and leapt from the cave, spreading his larger-then-normal wings and descending toward the dragon. He knew that Silver had two brothers; both of them fire dragons, and one of them resided at Sky Mountain. This dragon was definitely young enough to be her brother, and they had some similarities' in body appearance as well.

Seeing that the fire dragon was in a hurry Gravon manipulated the gravity around him with a thought, drawing himself toward the ground with greater force and making himself fall far faster then normal. Before he hit the fire dragon he opened his wings, lessening the gravity and coming to an almost perfect, stand still stop. The fire dragon yelped in surprised, reflexively speeding up, trying to get away from the threat from above. When he realised that there was no threat he turned around with a growl, looking at the dragon who had disturbed him. Gravon laughed in contempt.