Today is the day the Cullens would fight the newborns. Saphira actually had a reason to get out of bed today due to it, and she made her way up a mountain to watch over the battle. She found a nice spot overlooking the field that the Cullens had picked as the battle ground. Saphira sat among some bushes on a rock, holding her knees up as she waited patiently. She could see the Cullens lined up waiting for the newborns, she could hear and see them coming. Saphira's eyes were not just keen, but she could pick up heat and cool signatures, and vampires were not hard to detect given their cold bodies. Was she a little worried for them? Of course, but Saphira did not want to be involved, she has been in too many wars. She watched with interest as the newborns crashed through the trees and brush into the path of the Cullens where the fight began, and the wolves joining them shortly after. The way the Cullens fought compared how the newborns were fighting was a lot more coordinated. Saphira observed the newborns behaving more aggressively and without any thought of how they were fighting. That was only now, newborns weren't able to fight well, unless a human who had learned martial arts had been turned into a vampire. Her eyes were drawn away from the battle when she heard the footsteps of other vampires approaching. She listened for a moment before standing and walking into the forest, for she knew the footsteps were of the Volturi guard. Saphira remained hidden as she watched their shadows glide through the trees and reach the edge of the mountain to watch, it seemed they were not too surprised by the wolves fighting alongside the Cullens. Nonetheless, they watched silently until the wind changed and they caught her scent.
Jane lifts her head and turns to her left with a frown, sniffing the air curiously. She had a confused expression on her face. "Strange. Do you smell that scent? I recognize it, this is the fourth time I have caught this scent."
Alec, Felix and Dimitri were all sniffing the air. Dimitri walked over to the rock and leaned down to sniff it. "Whoever this scent belongs too, was only here just minutes ago. Perhaps we should follow, given that we have encountered such a scent before."
"It might be a good idea, I know we are here for the newborns, but this scent has come about during times when Aro suspected vampire activity," Alec said, sniffing the trail of the person the scent belonged to and looked at the forest. "They went this way, I think Aro will be pleased to find this person and demand answers from them."
"I agree we should find this person, but we have a duty to oversee the newborn issue and Aro will be mad if we do not." Jane turned around to keep watching the battle. "This battle will be over soon, and we can investigate this trail. I find it particularly curious that we find this scent here, overlooking a fight between newborns and the Cullen clan."
The rest of the guard agree, and they stand there, watching the battle unfold below. Saphira smiled, taking this as her opportunity to transform into a dragon. Instead of the ice dragon, she had transformed into a dragon with extremely dark, purple scales that would almost be deemed black with white claws on her paws. Her under belly had lighter purple scales and her wing limbs had tiny, diamante-like detail in the crevices of the scales which glitter under the moonlight. The dragon is slimmer than the ice dragon, allowing it to fly and manoeuvre in the sky in an almost effortless fashion. Her snout was long and thin like a gharial and her head bore two, one meter long curved white horns with another pair of curled horns coiled around the other horns and tiny horns around the cheek of the dragon. She had no back spines, but her tail had a long, sharp blade that would cut through flesh and bone with ease. Saphira smiled and stepped very lightly towards the vampires. Despite being massive, she was able to move quietly as shadow dragons, were in an essence, shadows and can merge into shadows to hide and increase their power. Slowly, but surely, Saphira stepped out and her shadow soon cast over Jane.
The vampire glanced down and turned around, gasping loudly in surprise when she looked upon the dragon's face and the bright green eyes that looked back at her. The other three turned with the same reaction. They had never dreamed of meeting a dragon, nor did they ever think they were real. Jane had to look away before looking back, thinking that this was some kind of an illusion. But, the dragon breathed out warm air and there was no mistaking this creature was indeed real.
Jane opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She realized she had to find her voice again and cleared her throat gently. "This…I am not sure if you are the same creature who's scent we have picked up numerous times before, but…wow, we had no idea who the scent belonged to."
Saphira was amused by the response, but she said nothing other than made a laughing growl sound. "What she means to say is, have you been to certain events in the world before? I am not sure how old you are, but we want to be sure it is you who was there," Alec said in a very polite manner. Saphira said nothing, but blinked at them. "I guess you do not talk, or if you do, we would not understand."
"In any case, were you responsible for the destructions of some of those times?" Dimitri asked curiously. "I only ask so we can rule out vampire activity. I do not think we can do anything regarding your existence right now, only to keep it a secret from humans." Again Saphira said nothing, she simply looked at them. "I guess we a not going to get anywhere with this."
Saphira breathed out deeply, she glanced down at the battle which made the guard look as well to see the newborns were almost completely gone. "Seems like we should head down there in a moment. Perhaps we will see you…" Jane looked back to see the dragon was gone. "Where did it go? I did not hear it leave?"
"I do not know Jane, I think Aro will be very interested to know about this." Dimitri rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You head down, I will try to find it. I do not think it has gone far."
"That might be dangerous, but we will start heading down to the Cullens and you can catch up. Do not make it angry, the last thing we need a dragon breathing fire upon the castle." Jane turned to leave, though she was concerned that Dimitri might be stepping into dangerous territory.
Dimitri followed the scent of the dragon, only to find it had only moved to a large in a small valley crest of the mountain. It was drinking water and looked up at him curiously. "I am sorry if I am bothering you. But maybe we should talk privately."
Saphira stared at him, she could see he wanted to. But she was not willing to tell him anything. She lifts her head and walked downs him before lowering her muzzle to him. He was nervous and stared at her for a moment before glancing at her snoot and back to her eyes. He could see she wanted him to do something, so he placed his hand on her snoot. Almost immediately upon contact, Dimitri gasped loudly as Saphira began showing him memories, specific memories of the events they had been to. He saw that Aro was at these places, and he was important to her somehow. She did not tell him everything, only that he was important.
Stumbling back, Dimitri stared at the dragon, and she lifts her head slowly as she watched him with her large eyes. "You were trying to end a war I see. And Aro is somehow important to you…I shall let him know. But I do not know if Aro will respond to this, after all, a dragon who is keenly after him might scare him. But I will tell him when we return to Volterra, you have my word."
And Dimitri left Saphira alone. She waited for a moment before changing back into her human form and put her clothes back on. She knew that Aro will use his ability to see their memories and he will see her. She did doubt he would actually come to her, but that did not matter. She was able to at least tell the Volturi that Aro was indeed important to her. At least it will put it in his mind, so she was not concern about that. And with the battle over, Saphira knew the Cullens had won and she made her way back to her home, deciding that it was best to stay there for the time being. She would go to the Cullens again soon, but she needed sometime. Especially as some anxiety attacks hit her after she returned home, she wished for nothing more than to wipe them all away.
One day later in Volterra
Upon arriving back at Volterra, the guard made their way to the throne room. They knew without a doubt that the kings would be happy that the newborn issue was dealt with, but the knowledge that a dragon exists in this world would likely put fear into them. After all, they have never dealt with a dragon before and they would not know where to start.
"It is wonderful to see you four again," Aro said with a wide smile, standing from his throne to approach them. "I trust that the newborn issue has been dealt with." He took Jane's hand gently to see into her mind.
"It has, but there is a more pressing issue that we discovered while we were there," Jane said, glancing at the other two kings on their thrones.
Aro's face went from smiling to a face of shock, horror and the slight confusion. He backed away from them and frowned at them. "A dragon, that scent we have picked up before is a dragon?"
"So it would seem," Felix said. "It came to us while we were watching the Cullens destroy the newborn army, and it stared at us. We do not know if it can speak or not, but it was definitely there. It gave us all a pause on paying attention to the fight."
"Is this a joke Aro?" Caius asked with a concern frown. He did not like the prospect of something stronger than themselves living in this world. "Dragons are myths."
Aro shook his head. "I am afraid no, I saw Jane's memory very clearly. A dark purple dragon with white horns and…" He grabbed Jane's hand again, which took her by surprise. "Emerald green eyes."
"Why do the eyes matter? It is a dragon." Jane was not sure what Aro was feeling, but she could read his shock and confusion about all this. He even seemed to space out for a moment before looking at her. "I do not even think there is anything we could do."
"No, a dragon is out of our league. Especially if it has been around as long as we have." Aro lets go of Jane's hands and held his hands together thoughtfully, turning away as he considered options. "I do believe this secret stays with us. A dragon can draw out the most greedy of humans in this world for their scales and horns. I do not think the legends of dragons in ancient cultures are completely false."
"There is more Aro," Dimitri said slowly, stepping forward and holding out his hand. "I followed the dragon, and it showed me some things. It was there at those times of war trying to end them, but there is something else that it seems interested in."
Aro grabbed Dimitri's hand and not only did he see the dragon, but also the memories it shared with him. His eyes widen as his mind overtaken by an old, ruined city in Europe five thousand years ago. The city was ablaze with fire and ruin, humans were still fighting and the dragon intervened by killing the humans that caused this destruction. It picked up children and their families to carry them outside, and there was definitely an image he saw in the first memory. Where the dragon saw him, and seemed to try to get his attention. But Aro and the young Volturi at the time were fighting two other vampires, that they did not notice the dragon above. As at that time, it was the shadow dragon and the smoke and ash kept it hidden among the clouds. The second memory was a place two and half thousand years later, it was not on fire, but rather it was raining heavily and there were trebuchets hurling boulders at a citadel in Europe. Humans were fleeing and soldiers were fighting, the dragon was there destroying trebuchets and encouraged a duel between the two kings at the time. What confused Aro was it seemed to get at human level at some point, standing in a long hallway in the weather and looking down, he saw himself at the opposite end feeding on a human. He saw his old self look back at the dragon, and stare before the dragon moved away. It took off from where the entrance to the hallway was, but watched the entrance and no one came out. There were several other times where he saw himself where the dragon seemed to try and get his attention, but one that he himself remembers seemed to be fuzzy.
Aro stepped back as he was overwhelmed by these memories that the dragon had shared. He blinked and rubbed the back of his neck. "This dragon appears to have an interest with me."
"That is what I took from that too," Dimitri nods, though he was worried that his king would be harmed by the dragon. "What should we do? The dragon probably knows where we are."
"If it wanted to come for Aro, it would have done so by now," Caius sneered, standing and walking down the stairs. "I for one, am not concerned. It has not snatched him and locked him in a tower yet, so that is enough reason to believe it will not come."
Aro listened to Caius, but there was a familiarity in all those memories. It was as if those memories came from someone familiar, and those eyes. He's seen them before, and he knew it. But he could not confirm if those eyes were hers or not.
"I agree, but we should be vigilant Caius. I, for one, would hate to anger a dragon. I may consider going to Forks myself to see this dragon. But only after a lot of consideration." Aro placed a hand on Caius's shoulder who looked at him with a confused frown. "And tempting fate that way, is not in our best interest."
"I understand Aro. Maybe after that human girl is a vampire, we should go." Marcus's suggestion sounded plausible, but Aro was not certain.
He smiled at everyone. "I appreciate your concern. I will head to my study to prepare for such a task."
They all bow to Aro and he turned to leave the throne room quickly. He felt his own mind trying to tell him something was familiar. And when he entered his office, he walked over to the window to stare out at the clouds, his thoughts about his daughter began to linger in his mind. Aro had forced a lot of his memory about his daughter to the back of his mind, and made himself believe she was no longer around. But deep down, he knew she was likely alive. He remembers being told she was special, and the mark on her arm would grow as her strength grew. Placing his hand on his stomach, remembering when it once carried a life inside him. He smiled gently as memories of those times came back, and Didyme helping him all through his pregnancy. And with this knowledge about the dragon, Aro knew that it was a high possibility that this creature knew something about his daughter. Hearing about the dragon itself made him think of her because there was a connection between her and dragons. But he had to ponder on that, whether he should just believe this dragon only wanted him to talk or if it really could be a possibility of seeing his daughter again.