Chapter 4.
13 years later...
The moon's face shone brightly on the surface of a small lake in the middle of the forest, its beams giving a soft, silvery light to the surroundings. Ripples began to appear on the water, as a young doe on the shore started to quench her thirst. She was alone, separated from her herd after the sky had darkness cast over its surface not too long ago. She had run as fast as she could to avoid the supposed danger, and after a while, she decided to stop and drink a little, upon seeing the friendly lake.
She finished with the drinking, and was about to move on again, when suddenly a loud, purple-blue explosion raked the ground right next to her. Completely in panic, she instinctively began to run in the opposite direction...
Exactly from that way, a Night Fury appeared in a steep dive, crashing right into her. It happened in a fraction of a second: the doe tried to struggle, but the dragon had its legs curling tightly around her in a deadly hug, and closed its jaw around her neck with overwhelming strength.
A few loud rustles and a cracking sound later, Lohengrin stood tiredly but proudly by the corpse of his prey. He gave himself a few moments to catch his breath, and scan the area for any potential movement.
Another Night Fury silently stepped out of the forest. She was almost twice his size, and by the looks on her face, she wasn't as content with the younger dragon's performance.
"You're still trying to hunt from the air." she assessed in a slightly berating tone.
Lohengrin let out a guilty smile, ears flicking backwards against his head.
"C'mon Ohrana, you know I'm not really good at stalking..."
"And you will never be, if you don't practice." she said in a slightly rebuking manner "This time you've had some success, but you can't hunt in a forest from the air. Not to mention, the light flashes and explosions are anything but subtle, you alert the whole area about your presence."
Lohengrin dropped his head so she couldn't see him rolling his eyes. The hunt instructor was right, as always, but it was hard to admit such a thing.
"You must not take unnecessary risks during a hunt." Ohrana explained further "One day you'll have to do your part in providing for the clan. An injured hunter is not too useful, and you're risking serious wounds every time you dive into the forest. You have to be much more careful, and plan your approach accordingly."
"I guess you're right..." Lohengrin sighed. "I'll try a bit harder next time."
"Good." Ohrana nodded, then looked at the doe" Let's carry your prey back to the clearing, and see how it went for the others!"
Without further words, Lohengrin grabbed the doe with his jaw, and took off to follow the huntress. They flew to the east for a couple of minutes, and then landed at a clearing, where other dragons of Lohengrin's age were gathering into a half-circle.
Everyone looked eager to show their results to the older huntress. When Lohengrin noticed Lyara standing proudly over a full-grown stag, he took a look at his own pitiful doe and sighed in frustration.
"Let's see."Ohrana said, and began to walk to her nearest pupil. "Faelynn?"
The young dragoness puffed her chest.
"Lyara and I cornered this deer, and took it down together."
"Teamwork!"Ohrana exclaimed "Very nice. I can't stress enough the benefits of having someone to back you up. Flying in pairs is five times more efficient and ten times safer. I'll make sure to note your parents about your progress."
Lyara and Faelynn exchanged a victorious grin with each other, while Ohrana walked to the next dragon.
"What do you have for us, Garenald?"
The dragon showed boar to his instructor.
"The bastard put up quite a fight, but in the end I proved him to that I'm right..." he grinned, obviously looking proud at himself.
"Handy work, taking down a boar all alone while you're not fully grown." Ohrana commented. "Do I see burns on its hide?"
"Umm, yeah."Garenald admitted "I had to use my fire to keep him at bay..."
"That is all right, if you check your aim. Even a boar isn't too nourishing if you blow it into pieces first... Nevertheless, good job."
"Thank you." Garenald bowed.
Ohrana walked on, stopping in front of a dragon who seemed to be a bit chuffed, and couldn't stop himself from frowning painfully.
"What's wrong Altarem?"
"Nothing." he mumbled "Just had too many... bleh."
And with that, he started to gag. He made disturbing retching sounds, and started to drop fishes out from his mouth to in front of him. One after another, it grew into a pile, and the whole procedure lasted for about ten minutes. Ohrana sat calmly next to him, counting the catch. The others chuckled and shook their heads in disbelief.
"Umbleeerrgh..." Altarem finished, and glared up to his mentor, now looking clearly sick.
"Forty-two. I'd say it's impressive, but as you surely feel now, carrying this many fish isn't really practical. You've managed to put quite a stress to your stomach, make sure to visit Elder Tamaana this night. She'll give you a root or something to chew on and calm your belly down.
"Okay." Altarem groaned weakly.
Ohrana stood up and addressed everyone around.
"All right, group, tonight's hunt is over. Leave the prey here, Macharon's hunting party will arrive soon and bring them home for proper distribution. Good night everybody, we'll continue in a few days."
The younglings said their goodbyes, and began preparing for the trip home, chatting about their experiences. Lyara playfully bumped into Lohengrin's shoulder.
"What's wrong, Fancy Flight?" she asked gleefully "You don't look too happy!"
"Nothing." Lohengrin answered moodily, and turned towards Altarem. "Hey, Al, are you sure don't need a wing to get back home?"
"Nah, thanks Lohen, but I'll be okay." he replied, mustering up a weak smile.
Lohengrin turned back to Lyara.
"I just thought I'm doing pretty well, but Ohrana showed up and proved me wrong. Again. Then I saw what you've caught..."
"Oh come on, you can't be the best at everything! This is my revenge for you out-flying me by a mile yesterday. And it's quite a nice rabbit you've caught, you shouldn't be disappointed with it." She grinned.
"It's actually a doe, Lyara." Lohengrin corrected her, and began to smile teasingly "Now that you've mentioned it, how about a race to home? The loser cleans the fireplace tomorrow morning!"
Lyara stood silent for a second. And then she began to smile as well, unable to resist the temptation.
"Okay!" She laughed, and immediately took off.
Lohengrin gave her ten seconds of vantage, and then headed after her with a sly grin on his face.
Lyara flew as fast as she could, almost at treetop level. She looked back over her shoulder, but couldn't see Lohengrin. As she raced towards the entrance of the valley, she became more and more confident about her victory, when suddenly a blurry black form came from high above, brushing her surprised face with a wingtip, hopping right ahead of her. Flying almost two times faster than her from his dive, Lohengrin did a confident barrel-roll in front of Lyara as he gained more and more distance from her.
"HOW THE F-" Lyara roared in her disappointment, but the wind drowned out her insults from Lohengrin's ears.
He just laughed heartily, as he did a loop in the air, purely for the sake of being more annoying before zooming away.
By the time Lyara reached their home cave, she'd found a very bored-looking Lohengrin sitting at the entrance.
"Finally, I was about to fall asleep." he yawned.
"Very funny." Lyara pouted and bumped into him on her way past, causing him to chuckle at her annoyance.
"Hey, let's make a deal." he said "Tomorrow we'll go out together, and I'll show you a few tricks, if you teach me how to sneak around like you do."
"Hmm. I might consider it. Or not!" Lyara smiled, then pointed her nose up and marched into the cave, as she gave her best to look very much offended.
Upon entering the cave, they saw Melyan, Wordy and another dragon sitting around the fireplace, having a conversation with their voices down. The unknown Night Fury seemed to be really old, with a raspy voice, and scaly hide dotted with grey spots, but his sheer size was impressive. He looked like he was even bigger than Wordren, who was quite well-built thanks to his decade long service with the Guards.
The elder dragon turned his head and spotted the two adolescents staring at him. He turned back to Wordren, and spoke up:
"You will explain the situation to him, so he can make his decision tonight."
Wordren let out an angered huff, disliking the tone of the elder.
"As you wish." he growled nonetheless.
"I shall be on my way then." The older dragon replied and he walked out of the cave. As he passed the two young dragons, he gave an inquisitive glance at Lohengrin.
The family inside watched the elder's departure. As soon as he disappeared, Lohengrin asked:
"Oookay, what was that about?"
Melyan glared at Wordren, who sighed tiredly.
"I have to speak with you in private, Lohen."
"What's going on?" Lyara demanded.
"Come here my dear, and I'll tell you." Melyan offered to her. Lyara gave a last, worried glance to her father and Lohengrin, and then joined her mother in the side-cave.
"Let's head out." Wordren gestured with his head, and they walked out from the cave, settling down in front of the entrance.
After a few moments of uneasy silence, Lohengrin became curious.
"So? What's with that elder?" he asked.
Wordren sighed again.
"He's here to take you away, to the Shalnar ridges far in the north. Shortly after your parents... I- I wanted to convince the Council to let you stay with us. I made a promise to your father that I'll take good care of you. They gave in, but only until you'd reach fifteen."
"But... why? What do they want from me?
"They want you to take your father's place, and be the clan's next leader." Wordren explained "From what I understand from all of this, leaders are supposed to know a bunch of things which are restricted to the others for some reason. Elder Zorhen came here to inform you that your time with us is coming to an end, and he wants to take you away and teach you."
"So..." Lohengrin began after a few seconds "I was never meant to stay with you forever-"
Wordren interrupted him, sounding defensive.
"Lohengrin, I've kept this away from you because I wanted to give you the hatchlinghood you deserve. If I would have told you before, you'd fear this day for years. I tried arguing with them, and-"
"Wordy. It's fine." Lohengrin said calmly. After his initial surprise, he felt a strange sense of acceptance. Somewhere deep inside, he had always suspected that his father's legacy would come up one day. And looking at the nervous dragon in front of him, who did every possible thing he could to make him happy, despite not being his own son, his heart suddenly swelled with gratitude.
"You...you and Melyan did everything you could to replace my parents." he said, struggling a bit to find the words "And I'm very grateful for it. I always will be. But... if it is my duty to become the leader of the clan, I'm not going to try to avoid it." He pointed his head up to look straight into Wordren's eyes. "I'll do what is expected from me, and make all of you proud."
This drew a smile of relief to Wordren's face.
"If your parents could see you now, they'd be really proud of you. And believe me, I know. I knew your father like the back of my paw. He had the same kind of firmness when things started to get serious..."
"Really?" Lohengrin asked curiously.
"You bet!" Wordren stated, then he began to laugh, "Although he wasn't always like that. When we were young, he just couldn't sit still for five seconds. He was always on his way to play pranks or generally annoy anyone he could find. Mostly your mother."
"I bet she loved that..." Lohengrin smirked.
"Oh, absolutely!" Wordren's glare trailed off towards the sky, a goofy, nostalgic grin beaming on his face. "Valerien was always easy to piss off. Spirits, how many times I've heard her yelling at Siegfried... But of course, as the years passed, Sieg slowly began to take things more seriously, and he completely stopped being a cheeky bastard over time, which your mother valued greatly. But when he was young, he was always causing trouble, together with his all-time assistant."
"Let me guess: it was you!" Lohengrin said, joining Wordren's laughter.
"Yeah, you're right. We were terrible." Wordy admitted. "But I have to say I'm glad that you and Lyara are much more manageable than we were."
Their laughter slowly died off, and Wordren noticed how late it was that night.
"Let's get inside and get some sleep, shall we?"
"Go ahead." Lohengrin answered "I'd like to stay out for a bit, if you don't mind."
"'Course not. See you in the morning."
"Good night, Wordy."
Lohengrin watched Wordren going into the cave, then settled down and raised his gaze to the stars above him. He couldn't help but feel melancholic. Tomorrow he would leave the place where he spent all of his previous life, possibly for quite a long time. It might even take years. Although he was curious about what would happen after he joined the elder, part of him felt sad about the farewells of tomorrow.
As the skies slowly began to fade from the deep blue into pink, and the first rays of the sun caressed his face, Lohengrin's eyes snapped open instantly. Looking around, he realized he must have fallen asleep right where he'd sat with Wordren.
The memories of yesterday night's discussion came to his mind, causing him to sigh as he stood up and walked back into the cave. He expected the others to be asleep, but much to his surprise, Melyan was awake, pacing back and forth in her nervousness. Wordren must've been with a hunting party, only Lyara seemed to be asleep, but Lohengrin couldn't see her, she was in her side cave.
"Lohengrin!" Melyan exclaimed, and hurried to him "Wordy told me about your decision. I've wanted to go and catch something for you for breakfast..."
"It's all right, I'm not hungry at all-"
"It's an outrage he has to take you while you're so young! Why couldn't he wait a couple years more? Oh Lohen, be sure to always keep yourself clean, especially behind your ears..."
"Melyan..." Lohengrin smiled, trying to interrupt.
"... never eat anything that smells like eel..."
"Melyan!"
"...never fly where the wolves howl..."
In an effort to keep Melyan from stressing out herself completely, Lohengrin stepped forward, pressed his forehead against hers and nuzzled her, resting his chin on the back of her neck. He wanted to tell lots of things to her with this, and she seemed to get the message. She quieted down, and gave a motherly lick to him.
"Thank you. For... everything." Lohengrin whispered.
Melyan let out a shaky sigh.
"I should really start to admit that you're not a hatchling anymore."
"Yeah. Probably." Lohengrin smirked. "Is Lya still asleep?"
Melyan took a step back, and turned her head towards the side-cave.
"I don't think so... Lyara!" she called "Don't you want to come out?"
No answer came, and Melyan took a worried look at Lohengrin.
"She didn't take the news about you too well..."
"I'll handle her." Lohengrin said confidently, and walked into the smaller cave. It was connected to the main one with a short L-shaped tunnel, which made it perfect for younger dragons who wished for a bit of privacy.
Lyara was at the back of her cave, curled into a ball and showed her back towards the tunnel dismissively. Lohengrin stopped a few steps from her, and quietly spoke up.
"Lya? You okay?"
"No." she grumbled, refusing to look at him.
Lohengrin sat down next to her, and curled his tail tightly around his legs.
"Look." he began calmly "I know this isn't-"
"This isn't fair!" she snapped, and made a sound which closely resembled a sniff.
"Hey, you're not crying, are you?" Lohengrin asked in surprise, and leaned closer to her.
"Of course not!" She said angrily, wiping her face with a violently quick swipe, sitting up whilst doing so. "I just... my eyes sometimes... umm... when you wake up, y'know?" She awkwardly blurted out.
"Oh... right." Lohengrin left her at that. "I know this isn't what we've wanted, but I have do this, for everyone's sake. They are all counting on me, to be the clan leader one day."
"Right, but... couldn't you just stay somewhere closer?" Lyara asked.
"I'm afraid I don't really have much of a choice."
"But... I'm going to miss you..." she whispered and stepped forward to snuggle at Lohengrin, burying her face into the scales of his neck.
To say that Lohengrin was not expecting such a display of affection, would be a huge understatement. Once he regained his senses, he gave a sad sigh, and gently stroked the top of her head with his chin.
"I... I'm really going to miss you too, but I'll be back one day, Lyara, we're the best of friends after all. These things will just... work themselves out."
"Promise?" Lyara murmured.
"Promise."
"Okay. Let's go out." she sighed, looking a bit less depressed than before.
The two walked out to meet Melyan, when Wordren walked into the cave.
"I've arranged everything else with Zorhen." he announced, and sat down next to his mate. "He will be waiting for you at the Great Tree." he continued, looking at Lohengrin.
Lohengrin gulped.
"I should be going, then..."
"You watch out for yourself out there, kiddo." Wordren said in a caring tone.
Lohengrin just nodded, gave the three dragons a grateful smile and walked out of the cave. He was afraid that should he spend one more minute with them, he wouldn't be able to leave.
Elder Zorhen sat under the ancient aspen, eyes closed and enjoying the warm rays of the rising sun. Lohengrin landed a few steps away from him, but stopped right there. He wasn't sure about disturbing the old Night Fury in his meditation of some sort, so he just sat down and stayed silent.
Minutes crawled by at the pace of a snail, and Lohengrin had to forcefully keep himself calm. He was restless, curious, slightly afraid and excited, a huge variety of different emotions swirled inside him, but he was determined to not show a thing. He wanted to give a good first impression to his soon-to-be mentor.
About half an hour later, Zorhen slowly opened his eyes.
"You have shown some ability to restrain yourself and keep your anxiety at bay, which is promising. Are you ready to depart?"
"I'd like to ask a question, if you don't mind." Lohengrin replied, his voice sounding slightly hoarse after the long silence.
Zorhen looked into his eyes. Lohengrin felt like he was staring into an immeasurably deep emerald lake, filled with memories and experiences refined by centuries of age.
"You may ask, but only once." he said in such a stern and powerful tone that made Lohengrin shiver. Suddenly he wasn't sure about his question, but by the looks of the older dragon, there was no stepping back now.
"With all due respect... why you?" Lohengrin asked "I mean, there are lots of Elders here as well, and-"
Elder Zorhen, firmly interrupted him.
"Because you are young, I am willing forgive your disrespect this time. But be aware, that I will not tolerate any of it in the future. Understood?"
"Yes."
"And you will address me as 'Master' or 'Ahltar' in the Old Tongue under any and all circumstances."
"Yes, Master."
"Good." he finally sounded less threatening now. "Tell me, Lohengrin, son of Siegfried, do you honestly imagine that the Elders of the clan are Elders solely because of their age?
Lohengrin shook his head.
"N-no..."
The old dragon shot an expecting glare at him.
"No, Master." he said quickly.
"I had hoped so, otherwise you would not be as smart as you look. Each Elder has one specific purpose, one certain field of expertise which they mastered. Elder Tamaana for example, travels the Way of Life: when anyone is suffering from any kind of health issues, physical or mental, nobody knows more about it than her. Elder Ragnar is on the Way of Tradition. He is the expert of the clan's history, our ancient rules and culture. Other Elders have chosen other kinds of knowledge to pursue; they learn it, broaden it and share it with the upcoming generations, so it will be preserved for as long as the clan exists. Mine is the Way of Knowledge. I have chosen not to specialize myself in any specific field; I possess a large amount of information about almost everything. I will never say that I have learned everything, because such a thing is not possible. But I can safely say that you cannot ask a thing from me that I am unable to answer. This makes me the only possible candidate to be your trainer for the upcoming years, as a leader has to be in possession of a general knowledge about a wide variety of matters. Have I managed to answer your question?
"Yes, Master." Lohengrin stuttered, and bowed his head to show respect. The Elder's speech raised dozens of other questions in him, but he didn't dare to ask just yet.
"Do not worry, you will have all the answers you seek over time." Elder Zorhen said to him reassuringly, like he could read the young dragon's thoughts. "But for now, we have to go; there is still a long journey ahead of us."
Spotted a mistake or something you like? Or just have a question? Review!
I
I
I
V