The Tribes of K'haren - Completed

Chapter 14.1

From Sethara's cave, it was only a journey of one and a half days to get to the foot of the mountains. As Kran told Nume, a huge mountain called Nuir-ksad served the dragons as an outpost. Everything northward from this mountain belonged to them and was never stepped upon by any phraio tribes these days. When Kran told her this, Tarlequin frequently threw in some more detailed information, such as explaining that Nuir-ksad was actually a remainder of the ancient dragon language and meant spiral-lookout. That was because the mountain, if not flown onto, could only be reached by following a road slowly climbing it in a wide spiral.

But when they finally arrived at the foot of said mountain, they had to learn that the road was actually no longer worth calling it such a one. When the wind turned, Luthi suddenly panicked out of nowhere. He backed away a few hundred feet, leaving the others behind at the foot of the hill. Raf had to go back with Bay to get the baggage off the gseirut's back. He didn't even attempt to drag the poor creature closer to the mountain, it was too frightened.

'We'll have to leave him behind.' He explained when he returned.

'What? But we can't!' Nume shouted.

'You won't get him any closer to the dragons. We were lucky for him to go this far in the first place. But don't worry, he doesn't know where else to go so I suppose he'll stay close to our smell. As soon as we leave the Dragon Mountains again, he should find us.' Raf reassured her. She didn't want to believe him but had to admit that he knew a lot more about gseirut than she did, after all, he'd managed to get Luthi to trust a baymout.

'If we get back out...' Kran said, looking over to the gseirut.

'Will the beast come with us?' Tarlequin asked, he meant Bay. The goat-man had lost all new gained trust in her when she'd returned for a hunting trip carrying some poor creature's hoofed leg as a snack for later.

'No. We'll come back down anyway, this is only where we must ask to be allowed in. It won't be easy, I've managed once before but that was luck more than anything else...' Raf explained.

Together, they started their climb. As soon as Nume set foot on the path, the amulet around her neck started glowing in a soft tone of blue. She asked Tarlequin what this meant and he said it knew they'd entered the dragon's kingdom.

'How can it know anything? It's just an amulet, isn't it?' Kran asked from behind the two. He came in last.

'Oh it sure is an amulet. But it's a magic one. There's a spirit caught inside it, the one of a dying dragon. The poor creature decided to rather end up in an amulet than die. It couldn't have known that it would thus have to live its final moment for eternity.' Nume's chin dropped upon hearing these words.

They continued climbing without talking much. Whenever Nume stumbled, Tarlequin was sure to catch her. He even helped Kran every once in a while. In the distance, Nume could see birds flying around nervously. By the time they had a first break, they had already climbed to the other side of the mountain and could now look out on the rest of the Dragon Mountains at the north.

It was nearly midday when they finally reached the top of Nuir-ksad. It was strangely flat and grey, grass only grew in little spots scattered all over the place. The view was stunning and the birds Nume had seen earlier on were now heading towards them, it seemed. It took a moment until Nume realised these couldn't be birds, they grew ever bigger as they advanced, too big for any bird.

With impressive synchronicity, five dragons landed on the open ground of Nuir-ksad. They were each the size of Luthi but their wings spread wider and they had very long necks with sharp looking jags all over them. Their scales resembled Raf's and their claws were even bigger than Bay's. Two of the dragons were of a similar green as Raf was but one was blackish with blue dots whereas a smaller one had red stripes all across its belly and underneath its neck but the rest of it was brown like earth.

But the most impressive one of them was the one who'd lead the group, it stood closest to Nume and the others. It was grey and slightly smaller than the green ones but it didn't have any jags, instead, a cyan membrane, much like the one its wings were made of, was stretched between finger-like extremities along the neck, across the back and to the end of the tail. The dragon could move these extremities, either laying the membrane flat or showing it off as impressively as it was doing right now.

Raf bowed low, stretching his open hands far away from his body, a gesture the others immediately copied. If he'd refused to bow to Sethara, there must be a good reason for him to obey this tradition now, Nume thought. Or maybe he was just as scared as she felt. Though Nume couldn't quite decide whether she was more amazed or frightened. She'd only seen dragons once before: They had been orange-red and covered in spikes. Those dragons had brought terror and death to their tribe.

But when Nume looked up again, she was truly baffled. The dragons bowed their necks and lowered their heads so deep they nearly touched the ground. Each of them blinked slowly once before raising its head again.

'Greetings to you, noblest of all dragons.' Raf said. It sounded like just some phrase to Nume but the dragons seemed interested in him and let him continue. 'We have come here today to kindly ask permission to enter your lands.' He continued. One of the two green dragons snorted at that.

'By what reasoning?' Nume heard the voice inside her head just like Sethara's. But this one was low and full. The cyan winged dragon blinked.

'We must talk to your majesty, the king of dragons.' Raf spoke slowly. Without waiting for the dragons' reaction, he turned around and pushed Nume forwards. She didn't have a clue what he was doing and her eyes were opened wide in fear.

The cyan winged dragon lowered its head to the level of hears and eyed her up interestedly. Nume could smell the remains of its last meal and it nearly made her throw up. Then the dragon suddenly roared right at her. It had recognized the necklace she was wearing. The sound nearly threw Nume off her feet and despite being terrified, she covered her ears instinctively.

'Ouch...' she muttered.

'Oh, forgive me.' The voice said to her surprise. It seemed absolutely calm. That confused Nume, if the dragon wasn't angry, why had it roared?

'We bring this amulet as a sign of our trustworthiness.' Raf explained, completely ignoring the previous incident.

'I am very much aware of that.' The voice spoke again. The striped dragon moved, wanting to have a closer look at Nume, but it quickly went back to its position when the cyan winged one snatched at it.

'So will you let us pass your lands unharmed and lead us to your king?' Raf finally dared to ask, his voice sounding slightly insecure. As soon as the dragon focused on Raf again, Nume slowly backed away, coming to a halt close to Kran and looking at him. She couldn't resist giving him a quick smile. They were talking to dragons and they were not about to be eaten!

'No.' the dragon answered after a moment of consideration. Raf looked disappointed but not too surprised. What else were they going to do, Nume wondered. Then the dragon spoke again: 'If your message to our king is so important then we shall bring you there immediately. I remember you, Raf'ney-krush. Your guilt has not been forgotten. I take it that this is why you have returned.'

Without giving them a chance, the dragons swung themselves back into the air and the one who'd spoken picked Nume up in the process, carrying her in its mighty claws. Kran stood still in shock so it wasn't particularly hard for the blue dotted one to pick her up and Raf was captured moments later by a green dragon. But Tarlequin's instincts had made him instantly turn around and attempt to run away, just to then be picked up by the red striped dragon.

// Which dragon's appearance is your favourite? I really like the cyan-winged one :)