The Silver Reckoning

Chapter 3: Discussion

Sky Mountain was silent, deathly so. There were no dragons flying out in the open sky. No cries of laughter or joy from troublesome hatchlings. From the burnt forest below clouds of smoke rose and the remnants of fire flickered away at a fallen tree. A broken pile of metal machinery sat in the middle of a number of fallen trunks. The left overs of the massive battle that had taken place.

Above it all flew a lone red dragon. He was rather small fire drake, little older then eight. But there was something about him that created a sense of fear. The red scales radiated an aura of power that was enough to make most dragons wary. His head was hanging low, not really seeing anything as if he was deep in thought.

With a flap of his wings he glided around to the entrance of Sky Mountain, trying to ignore the scent of burning flesh from the large piles of ash on either side of the entrance. It had been a stupid idea to burn the bodies there. Shivering slightly he skidded to a halt and slowly padded inside. There were a few dragons about, talking in low voices, but everything had slowed down now. The battle had taken a large toll. The counted dead was nearly a thousand, including two extremely rare gravity dragons, putting their number down to eight.

The fire dragon slowly walked passed them, drawing many a gaze as he did. His red scales seemed to shine in the light, as if they were flawless in every way. There were no scratches or scars, nor even a slight blemish. It was like he preened himself to perfection. However his glum expression and drooping wings spoke words. He wasn't to be approached right now, and many dragons headed the warning. Except for one.

A deep purple dragon trotted up toward him, another drake with a slightly worried expression. He looked tired as well, his scales not shining with their normal brilliance.

"Raize... you alright?" he asked.

The red dragon, Raize, looked up toward him, quickly nodding his head, "Yeah.... Just... missing my sister is all."

The other drake nodded his head in understanding, "Don't worry, we'll get her back. We have to."

"I know Retrix, I know," replied Raize with a strained grin.

The void dragon didn't know the true reason behind his mood, and he aimed to keep it that way. No one could know, not just yet anyway. It could only be revealed when the time was right, at least that's what he had been told.

"Hey, Iraliene sent me to get you. We are to have a meeting of sorts up in her cave," Retrix said, turning and opening his wings, "We are to get there as quickly as possible."

The two of them took to the air, flying through the silence of the mountain once again. Despite the fact that they had lost a number of dragons in the battle, they had also freed numerous amounts from A.O.D.H. There were a lot of new dragons around, and many of them were dazed and a little overwhelmed by the new way of life.

Both drakes entered The Nest, a large cavern dotted with thousands of caves. They flew toward the very top, where a cave sat, big enough to fit a number of dragons. They flew inside. There was a split in the cave, leading in three different directions. The two drakes went right, knowing exactly where to go.

The cave opened up into another large cavern, nowhere near as big as The Nest, but reasonably sized, enough to hold nearly a hundred dragons comfortably. It was usually quite busy, but that day there seemed to be only a few dragons there. They looked up as the others walked in, pausing their conversation for a moment.

"Retrix, Raize, good to see you," said the largest of them, a light green dragoness who was seen as the leader of Sky Mountain. Iraliene.

"What's this all about?" asked the young fire drake, glancing at the rest of the dragons with them.