Sorry this has taken so long. I've had severe writer's block of late and it wasn't until listening to some music that I got back on track. For those interested, the song "Moon Shadow" by Kate Rusby influenced this chapter.

'My sister is dying.'

Silence fell in the stony chamber. Eyes old and young turned from their texts towards the hunched body of the speaker.

Bent and frail with age, he lay almost inert on a moss-covered ledge of rock in the great library. His own great wings lay stiff and nigh on useless across his back and his colour, once all the glory of the dawning sky, was now grey and faded. But worse were his eyes. Set thoughtfully deep into his elegant head, twin magnificent sapphires were now clouded and hidden beneath rheumy lids.

This was Daeconduras, Father-Older-Than-Years, Lord of the Air Dragons. And it seemed he was coming to his end.

A sigh shuddered through his ancient jaws and broken teeth.

'I am tired, Soshani. Take me to my chambers, daughter. I wish to rest alone.'

A youngish dragon, scaled entirely in midnight blue, gently helped her Lord to his trembling feet and led him respectfully back to his private chambers, deep within their mountainous home and made him comfortable, wrapping his quaking body in blankets and placing a sheepskin beneath his fragile head. He waved her away, but even as she left she heard Daeconduras begin to weep.

The departure of the Lord and his aide prompted an immediate outburst of chatter and speculation.

As aloof and ancient as dragons may seem, they are still as given to gossip and rumour as most.

But it was still true enough that age had all of a sudden caught up with Daeconduras, and cruelly so. Older than even the eldest of the rest, many found the thought that he, who they all called Father, who had been one of the first faces they had all seen when they hatched, had a sister, curious. Who was she? Where was she? Was she as ancient and peerless as he?

Study was forgotten in the great library, texts placed back on shelves, as all discussed theories and notions.

Amongst all the uproar a massive shining presence disappeared unseen from the great stone hall. His four claws padded thoughtfully over the heather-strewn walkways towards the balconies that stood at various cracks and openings on the mountainside. His great body shimmered like oil on water beneath the full moon light.

His already careful steps became quieter and gentler as he realised that another dragon rested her forearms against the stony railing.

Moonlight glinted like stars on the edges of her scales, turning her whole body into a mirror image of the clear night overhead. Her long, curved horns, normally a dull grey, glittered like they were covered in diamond dust.

Moon-Shadow she was truly named, revealed in all her true glory only by the light of the exalted moon.

'Am I that fascinating that you must watch me in secret, Storm-Chaser?'

She didn't even turn her head to watch as Raisho, massive, rainbow-hued dragon of the turbulent skies, stepped forward into the full light where his shining skin seemed bland and lacklustre compared to her radiant scales. He towered head and shoulders above her, despite standing on four feet whilst she stood on two. He sat down on his haunches, his tail curving over his long claws.

'Excuse me, Soshani, I did not mean to intrude. I simply did not wish to disturb you whilst you seemed so deep in thought.'

The moonlit dragon sighed heavily, and the whole mountain seemed to sigh with her. Deep in the earth something shuddered.

'I do not deny I am worried, brother. Death casts a deep shadow in our Lord's eyes now. He fades so quickly. What will we do without him?'

'We will grieve, and then we will survive. Nothing lasts forever, not even Daeconduras.'

'"We will survive…" Hmmm…' Soshani's whole body dimmed until she seemed as nothing but shadow as the moon was briefly hidden by scudding cloud. Suddenly her opalescent eyes flared with white light.

'But will we, Raisho? There seems something so eternal and stable about Father that I wonder if the world can survive without him, let alone us.'

Riasho shook his massive horned head solemnly, 'That's just fatalism, Soshani, it won't help anyone. When… he goes, we'll cope. We'll survive. We'll live. I promise.'

The midnight dragon snorted disbelievingly down her long nostrils, 'That promise is not yours to make. I'm sorry, Raisho. I just hope Sprite gets back soon. Daeconduras wants to see the Shadow before he leaves. He and that family go back a long way, you know.'

Soshani spread her white-edged wings and leapt off the sheer cliff, gliding away into the night to join the other shadows that wheeled and dived against the bright night backdrop.

Raisho reclined his huge bulk on the ledge and thought over what she'd said, and the happenings of not many years ago when chance had seen him having a personal involvement in saving the line of Shadows.

Times changed and were still changing. Perhaps, in some ways, Soshani was right. Without Daeconduras perhaps the world wouldn't survive. At least not the way it was.