Chapter 3.
The air was cool in the early hours of the morning. The sky above was cloudy, murky and dark grey, as if it wanted to match the mood of Wordren. He sighed tiredly and leapt out from his home. He glided down to the valley, touched down at the entrance to the central cave and proceeded inside, becoming increasingly nervous with every step forward, not wanting to take part in the upcoming conversation.
With one final, uneasy sigh, he began to go through the network of tunnels. His destination was located deep inside of the mountain. It was a huge, half-circle shaped delve, where the Council of Elders resided, now taking care of the matters which normally belonged to-
He interrupted his thoughts right here. It happened only a month ago, the memory of dire loss was still far too vivid.
He could faintly hear the murmurs of the elders as he entered their domain. Everyone became silent as he sat down, and looked to the whole council. They were sitting on a higher ridge of the cave wall, which it made the dragon on the floor raise his head up, practically forcing him to admit their authority.
After a few moments of tense silence, Elder Ragnar spoke up.
"First Guard Wordren, son of Arengiir." his voice echoed through the hall"We have summoned you here, to inform you about the decisions which have been made regarding the unfortunate events of the last month."
Wordren took a sharp breath, now looking straight ahead.
"I will accept your judgement, honoured Vehnek." he said calmly. Facing the inevitable, his earlier nervousness was swept away. He had been sitting there for two minutes so far, and he'd already had enough of the elders' time-consuming and overly formal way of acting, which –by his opinion- usually never led anywhere. This would never happen if-
"Firstly," Ragnar interrupted his thoughts "after closely examining the case and hearing out any and all witnesses, we deem that you shall not be held responsible for any of those events, for you have fulfilled all your obligations as First Guard."
This made Wordren's throat clench.
"Honoured Vehnek!" he spoke up, addressing the whole council "In light of the recent events, I'd like to ask for my exemption from guard duty, and forfeit my title and position of First Guard."
Now all the elders seemed to be surprised. Elder Ragnar scratched his throat to quiet the distracted murmurs, and looked straight into Wordren's eyes.
"You have worked conscientiously over the last decade to earn your title, Wordren. Are you sure that this is what you want?"
"I am." Wordren replied without hesitation. "I'd like to recommend Second Guard Naveron to take my place. I strongly believe that he possesses all the necessary skills and knowledge to be successful."
The elders exchanged a few glances with each other, and quietly discussed Wordren's announcement. Once they reached their conclusion, they all looked to Ragnar.
"We accept your decision; you now stand relieved from guard service." Ragnar announced"Your future role in the clan, as well as the possible candidates for taking your place will be discussed at another time."
"Of course, go ahead and waste some more time, like usual." Wordren whispered bitterly to himself, staring at his own forelegs.
"The second subject of this meeting" Ragnar continued "is to discuss the future of the former leader's heir."
Wordren snapped up his head, looking at the council again with wide eyes. He clawed the floor in his anxiety.
"This council is a temporary solution to substitute the clan's leadership. For the future of the clan, and to preserve our leaders' illustrious bloodline, it is imperative to ensure the hatchling's healthy progression. For these reasons, we decided to entrust you and your mate with the upbringing of Lohengrin, son of Siegfried, in line with the former leader's last wish..."
Wordren let out a huff of relief.
"...until he reaches the age of fifteen winters."
"What?!" Wordren cried out in indignation. "And then? What the hell do you want to do with a youngling halfway into adulthood?!
"Mind your place, Wordren!" Elder Ragnar growled, waving his tail in his disapproval.
Wordren snapped his eyes shut, and gave and apologetic nod towards him. After a few moments of silence, the Elder continued.
"His further training will be performed by Elder Zorhen, separated from the rest of the clan."
"Elder... Zorhen?!"Wordren shouted, unable to restrain himself as he stood up to all fours, "He's completely-"
Ragnar strictly interrupted him.
"Regardless of what your opinion is about Elder Zorhen, and regardless of how caring of a father you may be, you simply do not own the necessary knowledge a leader must possess. Under normal circumstances, Lohengrin could have learnt everything he needs from his father. Since that option is not available anymore, we are forced to find a less favourable alternative." He explained.
Wordren sat back with a defeated sigh. He knew that he can't extort anything else from the elders.
"I will comply with your orders."
Back in Wordren's home, things were much more peaceful since Lyara was done with her usual morning bath. Now she was making considerable efforts to catch and chew on her mother's tail, which she kept waving around lazily. Melyan occasionally smacked her daughter lightly on her nose, just to keep teasing her, while she held Lohengrin in her paws, cleaning him with long strokes of her tongue.
Contrary to Lyara's earlier hysteria about the bath, which also happened to be quite normal for a hatchling of their age, Lohengrin was completely passive, and rather listless.
A large figure appeared at the entrance of the cave, and began to smile at the sight.
"Daddy!" Lyara exclaimed happily, and ran to her father to nuzzle his leg.
"Hey there, Sunshine!" Wordren smiled warmly at his daughter and lowered his head to let her to climb on. Then he walked over to Melyan, with his daughter waggling back and forth, curling her tail around his neck.
"Just a minute, we're almost done here." Melyan said lightly and continued to bath the hatchling between her forelegs.
Wordren lowered his head and nuzzled Lohengrin.
"Hi Wordy." Lohengrin mumbled.
"How are you holding up, little guy?" Wordren asked softly.
"I'm fine."
The not so keen answer drew a worrying look to Wordren's face. He was about to say something, when Melyan spoke up.
"All right, we're done." she smiled after a last lick, and nuzzled Lohengrin gently."You took it very nicely, unlike a certain little dragoness..." She gave a teasing glare to her daughter.
Lyara rolled her eyes, and jumped off from her father.
"Can we go out now, and play?"She asked excitedly.
"Sure you can!" Melyan smiled at her. "Just stay within eyesight of the cave."
"Okay!" Lyara replied. She paced towards the entrance, then suddenly stopped and looked back at Lohengrin.
"Are you coming?"
"No." Lohengrin murmured. "I think I'll go and sleep."
He walked to the side cave which he shared with Lyara, and disappeared inside. Lyara took a rueful look at him, and then ran out.
Wordren watched the whole scene sadly, and settled down at the side of his mate.
"How did the audience go?" Melyan asked curiously.
"It wasn't too bad." Wordy replied "They decided to let the kid stay here for a while."
"For a while?"
"After his fifteenth winter, an elder will take him to teach him the things he has to know about leading the clan."
"Which elder knows anything about that?" she asked in her disbelief.
"Zorhen."
"Who?!"Melyan burst out "That senile... Dragons call him Crazorhen for a reason!"
"Look, we barely know him." Wordren cut in "In fact, nobody really knows him, that's why there is all that bad gossip behind his back. And there's nothing I could do about it. We have to accept this, whether we like it or not."
"I suppose you're right." she replied in a calmer manner. "Have they told you anything else?"
"Well... they figured out that I'm innocent..."
"And it only took them a month to see the obvious. How typical."
"So I resigned."
"You did WHAT?! Worden... for the love of the Spirits, why?" Melyan asked in her disbelief.
Wordren gulped, trying to swallow the lump in his throat. He was avoiding his mate's questioning glare.
"Because I've failed, that's why. I should have been there, fighting together with the others. Instead, I wallowed around at home because I was careless enough to take that stupid blow to my neck." He explained bitterly, with eyes shut.
Melyan touched the face of her trembling mate with her forehead comfortingly.
"Wordy." she began softly "You should not blame yourself. Siegfried gave you the order to stay here. He also said that you did what you could. Since then, everyone else admitted that you did what you could under the given circumstances. I know that Siegfried and you were like brothers to each other, but I also know that he would probably kick your butt now, if he could see you blaming yourself like this."
Wordren stayed silent for a few moments, and let out a depressed sigh.
"I guess you're right. But I'm not going to change my mind now. I don't want to be in that position, ever again."
"But you used to like guard duty..."
"Yeah, when I was a rookie, and could always use my night patrol time to sneak out with you for a little... stargazing." Wordren gave a nostalgic smile, twinkling at his mate mischievously.
"Oh, yes." Melyan blushed, giggling like an adolescent "Stargazing it was..."
They both laughed and nuzzled each other lovingly. Wordren turned himself to rub his mate's forehead with his chin.
"Yeah, those were the days." he continued nostalgically "Now we're all old..."
"Hey!"
"...and wrinkly..."
"Hey!"
"...and grumpy..."
"Wordren!"
"What?" Wordy asked innocently "I'm not talking about you; you're just getting more beautiful with each passing year!"
"You cheeky bastard!" Melyan laughed out, and bumped her head into Wordren's shoulder.
Lyara watched her parents' departure from home carefully, in the cover of a hawthorn bush. As soon as they were out of sight, she began to climb her way up to the cave, and crept inside. Tiptoeing to the cavity where she and Lohengrin used to sleep, her eyes scanned around for the other hatchling.
Lohengrin lay flat on the rocky surface. He was sound asleep, occasionally mumbling something in his dream, flexing a paw or a tailfin every now and then.
She stopped, looking at her friend worriedly. She has spent a lot of time coming up with her plan, but now she was a bit unsure about the whole matter. Back before the incident with the Skrills, Lohengrin was always cheerful, inquisitive, and a lot of fun to play with. Since then, he had barely left the cave at all, he never played with anyone and he was disturbingly quiet and restrictive.
Even with her young mind, Lyara quickly figured out that her friend and now adopted sibling was still under the effect of his parents' sudden passing, and seemed to be unable to handle it alone. The solution for this problem proved to be elusive for her, and she was becoming more and more desperate about the well-being of Lohengrin. She talked about it with her father, her mother, and even a few older dragons in private, but nobody could come up with a straight answer.
In the end, she concluded that desperate times needed desperate measures.
With a sudden boost of certainty, her head swung forward, biting into Lohengrin's tail and began to pull him out from the cave, trailing him towards the entrance.
At first, Lohengrin didn't feel a thing. He drowsily opened his eyes more or less successfully, and slowly figured that he was moving backwards. Blinking rapidly, he gradually realized that someone was pulling his tail, he turned his head only to find Lyara dragging him around.
"Hey!" he snapped angrily "What are you doing?!"
Lyara let his tail go, and looked into his eyes firmly.
"I'm getting you out."
"But I don't want to!" He protested in irritation.
"Like it or not, you're coming with me!"
Lohengrin shook his head. "Forget it."
"NO!" Lyara yelled at him "You're haven't done anything but mope around and sleep in this cave for weeks! You're my little brother now, and I'm not going to let you stay here and turn into a Dust Fury!
"What? Little brother?!"Lohengrin burst out "I'm older than you!"
"Really, by how much? Two days? I was here first, I call the shots here!"
"No you don't!"
"Prove it!" Lyara said teasingly, giving him a playful look, descending herself into a pouncing position "Wrestle. By the big aspen, down in the valley."
"Why don't you just go and-"
"Are you afraid?"
Now that did it. Lohengrin growled in his frustration, getting on all fours, glaring at Lyara menacingly. She began to bounce up and down, chiming in her most annoying tone.
"You're afraid! You're afraid! You're afraid! You're..."
"RAWR!"
Lyara quickly swirled around to make a run for the old tree, with Lohengrin rushing after her, shouting various threats about what will happen if he ever get a hold of her.
The two hatchlings ran down the valley, the one on the front laughing loudly, while the one behind continuously shouted his nonsense, earning curious glances from other dragons. The tree they were heading for was a couple hundred metres away, but it seemed much less thanks to its sheer size. That certain white aspen was centuries old, and older dragons always considered it as a respectable living memento of persistent growth and flourishing.
The hatchlings considered it to be the best possible playground in the area, shown by the significant amounts of claw-marks left on its bark over the past centuries.
Lyara hastily reached the bole of the tree, and then turned around, only to be pounced upon by Lohengrin. She landed on her back, Lohengrin being on top of her. Lohengrin was about to say something, when both of them heard an excited scream from the greenery above them:
"Pile up!"
With that, another hatchling landed on top of them, tittering happily, in the process sweeping a few thinner sprigs, leaves and vast amounts of white barks into the pile.
"Faelynn!" Lohengrin moaned under her "Get off me!"
He barely finished his sentence when another three hatchlings reached them, happily jumping to the top of the pile, which was becoming more unstable with every second. Lohengrin tried to stand up from Lyara's grasp, but the crowd on top of him proved to be too heavy, and as the pile began to lean, his legs buckled. The younglings clung to each other tightly as the pile began to fall over, all Lohengrin could do was to grab Lyara, pulling her with the others along in a great ball of scales. Giggling and squeaking happily, the hatchlings tumbled over and rolled down from the slope until they eventually came to a stop. The whole bunch laughed from the bottoms of their young hearts, while they tried to untie their tangled limbs.
"Yuck! Stop drooling all over me!"
"Gee, you guys weigh a ton..."
"Get out from my mouth, you taste like fish... Wait!"
Unable to hold it in anymore, Lohengrin began to laugh as well, finally joining the others.
Hours later, Wordren was on his way home, escorted by the last rays of the sun, which was about to disappear behind the mountains. He was slightly disgruntled that his hunt wasn't as successful as he originally anticipated. Upon his arrival to the cave entrance, Melyan rushed out to meet him.
"Come!" she said with sparkling eyes "You have to see this!"
Wordren followed his excited mate to the cave, heading straight to the hatchlings' nest.
Inside, Lohengrin and Lyara were snoring in unison, with Lohengrin lying on his side while Lyara was lying across him with her wings unfolded lazily around them.
"They were outside, playing at the Great Tree the whole day..." Melyan explained, and leaned against her mate.
Wordren chuckled, and hugged Melyan tightly to himself with his wing.
"It's so good to see him finally recovering..." he sighed, staring at the two little dragons like he couldn't get enough of the scene.
Wordren was right; after that day when Lyara had so cleverly lured Lohengrin into her trap, he did show signs of getting better. He still wasn't as playful or excited as before, but he gradually loosened up, he was regularly spending time with the other hatchlings now.
The real breakthrough came at an especially cold winter day. The whole family was walking their way up a rocky path, leading to a wide plateau located on the top of one of the mountains, which encircled Toemnir valley.
The last year brought some significant changes to the two youngling's bodies. They were still barely four feet long from nose to tail but they had become a lot more bulky, especially in their shoulder muscles. Their wings were not useless, overweight sheets of flesh without much purpose anymore. Yet still they continued to grow at a considerable rate, though they still had trouble wading through the deep layers of snow, which were sometimes more than three feet thick. That didn't stop them from having lots of fun, bouncing around the pure-white blanket which turned the already known and familiar landscape into an entirely new one, but Wordren and Melyan ended up carrying them, they didn't want the younglings to waste all of their energy before getting to the main event of the day.
"What exactly are we going to do?" Lohengrin asked curiously, while he clung onto Melyan's back.
"You'll find it out once we get there." Worden turned his head back and smiled mischievously "I'm sure both of you will like it a lot."
When they finally reached the plateau, the hatchlings were let loose to admire the sight. There were a few other families on the hilltop as well, gathering at the edges, staring down and giving encouraging advice occasionally.
But the hatchlings were not with them, and as Lohengrin was struck with the realization, he stopped and looked up to Wordren.
"Are we...?"
"Yes, you're going to fly today."
"AWESOME!" Lyara screamed, unable to hold back her eagerness. She and Lohengrin quickly ran to the edge of the cliff and stared down. Way down below, there were a few other Night Furies standing and waiting for the hatchlings to come, ready to intervene if something were to go wrong. Above them, there were a few young dragons soaring, still flapping clumsily and being shaky at their turns, but they were flying nonetheless. This all seemed very exciting, but when Lohengrin noticed how high they were compared to the ones at the bottom, he started to feel a bit uneasy.
The two parents caught up with them, Wordren instantly lowered himself down, and began to explain a few things.
"What you are basically going to do, is to dive downwards, then open your wings to let the wind carry you at first. Your main wings are generating the lift that will keep you in the air. To control where you want to fly, you have to use both sets of tailfins, spreading them and tilting them in the appropriate direction. Your bodies already know most of this; the basics of flight are in our instincts. When you're feeling like you're going to fall, flap your wings. If you feel like you're losing control, let the ones down there to catch you."
"And what if I can't fly at all?" Lohengrin asked worriedly.
"You can always try it again." Melyan said, smiling at him "It's not a shame at all if you aren't successful for the first time." she looked up at Wordren "Wordy will show you how it's done."
Wordren grinned widely like a youngling, and stepped to the edge of the cliff. He crouched down, flexed his muscles and threw himself off the edge. The two hatchlings leaned over to see him spiralling down, then opening his wings wide, which turned his fall into a rapid climb, and he finished off by doing a loop and landing gracefully behind them with a few strong flaps to slow himself down.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist..." he chuckled.
"Show-off!" Melyan assessed, and patted him lightly on his forehead with her tail, causing him to giggle guiltily even more.
"Now. "She said, turning back to the two hatchlings "Who would like to go first?"
"Me! ME!" Lyara exclaimed, eagerly jumping all around.
Lohengrin just frowned at her, and looked nervously down to the valley again.
"Alright, alright!" Melyan giggled "Get into position, and when you're ready, jump."
Lyara readied herself at the edge of the cliff, tail waving left and right in excitement. She grinned widely, slowly opened her wings, and flung herself forward. Lohengrin watched in amazement, as she dived a few dozen feet, opened her wings which almost instantaneously levelled her flight, and began to distance herself away from them. The wind carried back her excited screams, as she slowly started to spiral downwards, gently gliding towards the bottom of the valley, aiming for the dragons below her.
"This is so amazing!" she laughed. "See me from up there?"
"Way to go, Sunshine!" Wordren exclaimed, and took a proud look around, to show off how content he was with his dear daughter's progress.
Melyan chuckled upon seeing her mate's swaggering, and lowered her head to Lohengrin's.
"It's your turn now." she said encouragingly.
Lohengrin's blue eyes grew wide in fear, as he looked down to the depth below him again, and looked back to his step-mother's smiling face.
"Umm... how about tomorrow?" he asked in an unusually high voice.
"Oh come on, Lohengrin..." Melyan chucked and nudged the youngling gently with her nose.
"Wait! I...I mean, it's kinda cold right now, and the wind's tricky, and... have you seen how high we are? How about I try it at first from Wordy's back, or..."
Melyan and Wordy exchanged a meaningful glare, and then Wordren slowly stepped behind Lohengrin, who continued his blabbering undisturbedly.
"...or let me climb up a tree or something, or-"
Wordy placed a paw at his back, and with a forceful swipe, he pushed Lohengrin off from the cliff, sending the shocked youngling downwards, flailing and screaming in horror.
"WHAAAAAAAAHHAHAAA-"
"Your wings!" Wordren shouted after him "Use your wings!"
Lohengrin forcefully opened his wings, which stopped his swirling and stabilised his descent, now diving faster and faster. With a sudden flash of thought, he tilted his tailfins upwards, and then...
He flew. His earlier dread turned into happiness as he realized flying isn't hard at all, and how joyful it is! Suddenly he felt dozens of new sensations, ones like never before, like how his wingtips told him about the currents of the wind, how sharply cold and refreshing the air was around him, how the wind caressed his scaly hide. He became so excited that he made a decision to push his limits, to see how far he can go without getting into trouble. Tilting his head and tailfins upwards, he turned the levelled glide into a leisure climb. As he noticed his gradual deceleration, he flapped his wings, joyfully realizing he's gaining both speed and altitude. With a subtle twist of his tail, he made a turn, and then dived away a bit to get some more speed. He utterly enjoyed how the wind blew through his sensitive earflaps and how every detail around him became slightly blurry as he became faster. To avoid getting near to the ground, he began to climb again.
Every dragon down at the valley and up at the plateau watched his performance with amazement.
Lohengrin began to laugh happily. It was like something just clicked into the right place inside him, he left all his negative feelings back at the cliff. He felt as light as a feather, and most importantly, absolutely carefree.
It was late at night, when the family reached the comfort of the home cave. Wordren carried a huge pile of deadwood in his mouth; he walked next to the shallow, dragon-made hole in the rocky floor and dropped his burden into it. With the same movement, he blew fire at it as well, creating some warmth which his family could enjoy for the rest of the night, replacing the silent darkness with dancing flames.
Lyara travelled on her mother's back, with legs limply hanging down at her sides, looking completely exhausted from the day's events.
On the other hand, Lohengrin speedily flew into the cave, doing wide circles around the fire. He hadn't touched the ground once, since he was thrown off from the cliff.
"Lohengrin!" Wordren said in a warning tone "I've told you not to fly inside the cave-"
"But why?" Lohengrin whined, looking at him directly. In that moment, he slammed himself into the cave wall, slid to the floor and ended up resting upside down in the corner, with his tailfins dangling next to his head.
"That's why." Wordy chuckled, and walked towards the cross-eyed youngling. He lifted Lohengrin by the tail and gently carried him next to the fire, where Melyan was already lying and bathing Lyara. She was so sleepy that she forgot to protest about the whole thing completely.
"Alright." Wordren said "You'll have a bath, then you're off to sleep!"
"A bath?!" came the desperate response "Oh come on, Wordy..."
The sudden outburst made Worden laugh out loudly. There was still hope for the kid, after all.
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