Really sorry it has taken me this long to post and with such a short chapter.

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and added as a favorite story.

Chapter 10

Carefully we entered the dark room. We paused to allow our eyes to adjust, as dark shapes slowly took forms, I could faintly see but not distinguish

From behind me Gazzy lit an ancient looking oil lamp that hung from the wall. The sudden shock of light burnt away our night vision blazing everything white for a moment. Once recovered a pool of golden light surrounded us revealing the nearest shelves stacked high with old-style books. Tapestries hung from the walls depicting violent battles of men and women with pointed ears fighting ferocious dragons. Above the fighting, surrounded by a halo of light, a proud white dragon stood beside one of the pointy-eared men.

Nudge wandered over to examine the books while I helped Gazzy light more lanterns. There were five rows of shelves that reached from ceiling to floor and were much longer than my wingspan. Thick books bound in leather sat pillared on the shelves.

After the shelves came what Gazzy described as an armory. Row upon row of swords, spear, bows and arrows, all kinds of knives, and a great many things I have no name for. They stood gleaming, held up by wooden stands, full suits of plated metal armor protected wooden scarecrows, and shields displaying coats-of-arms or symbols none of them recognized.

"should we take a weapon?" Gazzy asked hesitantly.

"What? Of course not. They are dangerous and could hurt ourselves." I said wondering at why he'd asked.

"but the guy with the dragon had one and how else can we defend from a sword."

"I beat him without a sword. Anyway none of us knows the first thing about using a sword."

"He was surprised, next time he will better prepared, Max. We could learn to defend against them." Gazzy begged. "At least it's not a gun."

I was still shaking my head.

"Can you talk to Fang about it, please?"

Before I could reply Nudge walked over carrying an armful of old books. "ok so I was looking at all the books and stuff, and they are not in English. They're, like, kinda similar letters but with extra lines and dots on top-"

"Titles." Fang had approached silently, Iggy, Angel and Total followed behind.

I was annoyed that he wasn't keeping watch and a little angry he'd followed. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. " there is a dragon circling the area."

"Ilumino's watching them." Said Angel, "we thought we'd come see what you're doing. And I agree with Gazzy."

I gave her a look but didn't reply.

"Sooo…." Iggy took a moment to exaggerate looking around. "Where are we?"

Gazzy described the cavern to Iggy and they moved off to feel the weapons and discuss the advantages and drawbacks of each style. Fang and I listened to Nudge explain the oddities she found in the books. They were hand written in strange letters we were unfamiliar with, many had beautiful hand illustrated pictures and while some letters were similar they didn't form any words we were familiar with.

Eventually we decided the books were absolutely useless to us. Even ignoring the language barrier we could never have read such large volumes with our limited reading abilities. Some of the scrolls on the other had detailed maps of a continent we'd never seen before, most we weren't able to read names of cities or land marks. But some very few were in English, none of the cities, rivers, mountains, or forests were familiar.

I left Fang and Nudge to admire the armory and went in search of Angel and Total the only members of the Flock I couldn't see. I wandered past row upon row of swords, then bows, then shields. Eventually I passed the last lantern I'd lit and knew Angel had lit the next few.

The walls narrowed into a corridor and the floor descended down veering to the left. I quickly caught up with Angel and Total in a smaller room which I estimated was directly beneath the armory. I stood beside Angel, but before I could open my mouth, my eyes caught the glittering light of a huge orange gemstone.