Dragon Kin - Awakening

Imprisoned

The lowlands were quiet as the troop passed through on their way to the northern gate. Through that gate, they came upon a stone stairway, both steep and narrow, that would take them high up the side of the mountain to the highland centre, home to the nobles, scholars, priests, warriors, council members and their families.

In the centre of the highland village stood a stone dais from which the chief made important announcements a commenced ceremonies. As she walked past the dais Vada's eyes were glued to the old stone platform, for she knew that it was there that she would meet her fate, the same place her father had.

Though she had been brought to the highland village as a sacrifice, it was a surprise to Vada that her execution would not be immediate. Instead of meeting the High Priest that wished her dead, she was thrown into a cell that had long ago been carved into the stone of the mountain.

Sitting on a small three-legged stool, with his back to the bars of Vada's cell, sat Prince Takashi, bolt upright with his arms folded across his chest.

Vada stared at his back, there was little else to focus on, and in the lamplight of the drafty prison hall, he shivered.

Before taking up the watch Takashi had sought more information from the high priest but the man's ravings were baseless guesswork. In Takashi's opinion, Vada was an innocent soul that would be sacrificed to test a mad man's theory.

He had gone on to plead with his father, and though his brothers had supported him the priest's words were the only ones to reach the chief's ears.

As he sat there in silence he tried to conceive a plan, a way to prevent, or at the very least delay the death of his prisoner. A strange heat began to crawl its way up his back, he shifted in his seat but the heat continued to intensify until he jumped up unable to bear the sensation.

From the very back of the dark cell, Vada continued to stare at him, her face void of any expression.

'Why does your priest think sacrificing me will awaken the dragons?' She asked, now that Takashi faced her.

'I can't tell you anything, I'm sorry,' Takashi sighed, feeling hopelessly torn between his duty and his gut.

'Why not, I'll be dead soon anyway,' Vada shrugged.

Takashi stared at her for a long while with a heavy frown. It was amazing to him how such a young woman could be so accepting of such a fate. Though executions were not a regular occurrence in their village, thankfully, he would never have imagined a prisoner with such a sentence could be so resigned. Suddenly he felt like he owed her something, even if it wouldn't help her at all.

'Ten years ago,' he began with a sigh, 'the Dragons turned suddenly feral. Nobody knew why at first but then it was discovered that their eggs had been stolen-'

'What?' Vada gasped, jumping up from the small cot, crossing the cold stone floor in seconds, 'I've never heard this-'

'The priests felt it was better to keep that information quiet.' Takashi explained, 'even the Guards didn't know. Then along came your father, out of the blue, absolutely raving, declaring that he knew what had happened, what the Chief had done. He was detained, kept away from the people but he continued to wail. I was only nine at the time but I witnessed everything, the sound he made still disturbs my sleep. Father and the priests couldn't understand how he knew about the eggs. Meanwhile, the Dragons only grew more unsettled, they circled above the village at all hours of the day and night diving so low that nobody dared to enter the town square for fear of being snatched up. Somehow the priests got it into their heads that your father made them worse. They dragged him out to the dais and the dragons that were above the village settled at the sight of him and took to perches on the cliffs overlooking the square or atop the stone pillars around the village. Though they had ceased their circling in the skies, they roared endlessly while your father shouted 'blood of my blood' over and over until... well, until he couldn't anymore. The dragons shrieked as one when your father's blood hit the stone of the mountain and then-'

'They disappeared?' Vada cut in.

'It's hard to explain. It was suddenly so silent. Within a matter of days, messengers showed up from the other villages to find out if we knew what had happened. The Rystwith Dragons had all... crumbled, scale by scale they became dust that was whipped away on the wind or stone scattered along the mountainside.'

'Aren't there any wild dragons out there that weren't tame and may not have met the same fate?' Vada asked, with no schooling to speak of, her dragon knowledge was limited.

'Wilds haven't been seen since the pacts were made with the first dragonkin centuries ago. Its assumed that all of the dragons were tamed. And what good would a wild do anyway?'

'Well,' Vada mumbled looking thoughtful, 'maybe another dragon would know what to do?'

'And who would communicate with them if they did exist? The Dragonkin are legends, I don't believe they ever existed at all. Before the eggs were lost the riders of the high villages were all we needed to tame the dragons.'

'Or did the dragons choose to trust us in spite of the lack of dragonkin to act as a bridge between the races?' She wondered aloud, though it was a question that neither of them could answer definitively.

'I guess we'll never know.' Takashi shrugged.

They fell into silence then, each lost in their own thoughts. Vada turned over Takashi's story about her father's death, a rendition she had never heard before. Of course, she knew about his ravings regarding the dragons, the priests could only keep so much quiet, but she did not know that the dragons crumbled the moment he died. What could be the correlation, she mused.

Takashi, on the other hand, considered his memories of the dragons and the riders that had tamed them. They were not overly extraordinary people, merely guards with a passion for taming and riding. It wasn't everyone's wish to be dragged through the air on an uncomfortable scaley creature apparently. He recalled it made many young hopefuls violently sick for the first few months of their training if they lasted that long.

'So you don't think my blood will resurrect the Dragons?' Vada asked suddenly, yanking Takashi from his memories to bring him back to the awful truth of the present.

They were face to face now, though there were still bars between them. Vada tilted her head back to look up and lock eyes with him, eager to hear his answer.

The body heat that rolled off the strange girl in great soothing waves both confused Takashi and set his mind freewheeling with all manner of preposterous thoughts.

'No, I've tried to make sense of your father's actions for years. I remember his face and the pain etched on his features as clearly as if it all happened yesterday.' He paused as pain flashed through her eyes and he wondered whether he should continue. When she did not pull away he took a deep breath, hung his head a little and added, 'No matter how much I think about it, I can only reason that he was out of his mind.'

As the final word left his lips Takashi let out a heavy sigh and allowed his shoulders to sag as the first rays of the morning began to appear through the barred window of the hall.

'I want to make my dying wish,' Vada announced, looking past Takashi now, into the golden rays that penetrated the dreary darkness of the stone prison.

'Anything.' Takashi replied resolutely.

'Promise me, that you'll make sure my brother and sister aren't hurt because of all of this madness?'

Before the prince could reply, the door at the end of the hall creaked open and one of his guards entered with a look of deep remorse.

'Prince Takashi, it's time...'