Chapter 6.
"Now that you can speak acceptably well in the Old Tongue, it is time for you to take another step forward, and learn the runes as well."
Elder Zorhen's announcement took Lohengrin off-guard again. Right when he thought he was about to finish this with this particular subject...
"Runes?" he asked, being unfamiliar with the concept.
"Our ancestors invented a way to register their observations in written form, because it is safer than always relying on remembrance. Keeping an eye on your vicinity is key, simply because learning itself is nothing more than observing your surroundings, analysing how things work and use that knowledge for your own good, and the good of others. So there is a set of angular marks which can be carved into flat surfaces, essentially turning complete words and phrases into a form which can be read and understood long after the passing of the dragon who actually wrote it down."
"Oh. Now I understand, Master." Lohengrin said. "It's pretty clever, I suppose."
"That it is." Zorhen nodded "And come, let me show you what will be your reward, once you have learned how to read."
Lohengrin followed the old dragon through a series of narrow tunnels, which began at Zorhen's cave. He tried asking his master about them a couple of times so far, but he's never got a straight answer. Soon, he discovered that the tunnel leads into a quite spacious hall.
This hall was deep inside the heart of the mountain, yet the interior was actually quite bright and visible. As Lohengrin continued to look around, he discovered that there were a series small openings in the cave walls, designed and carved out to let the sunlight in. And the gentle light was just enough to notice the myriad of runes carved on the walls themselves.
"Welcome to the Hall of Enlightenment." the elder said.
"This place... looks amazing!" Lohengrin stuttered.
"Do you happen to have any other impressions?" Zorhen asked inquisitively, with a vague smile on his face.
Lohengrin instantly knew that the question is supposed to be a test of some sort, so he took a few seconds to think and to further observe before attempting an answer.
"Well..." he began, narrowing his eyes as he examined the area "I think this cave is not entirely your work alone, Master. The lighting design seems to be similar to the ones used before the Kinstrife. There are entrances here, which are likely to lead into smaller chambers, and judging by the number of the entrances and the amounts of text on the wall, I would think that several generations of Elders worked here. This would also explain why the same runes look slightly different on other wall sections, as if they were scribed by different dragons."
"Good." Zorhen nodded approvingly "Your assumptions are correct. This cave was here when I arrived to Clan Toemnir more than five centuries ago, and it will remain here long after I depart from this world."
"So you were a strider once, Ahltar?" Lohengrin asked in surprise.
"Strider" was a term used to describe Night Furies who left their birthplace, and ventured around until they wished to settle into another clan or returned home. Such a thing was not uncommon at all, young Furies tend to be adventurous, and it provides the clans with new members from the outside to keep their bloodline sufficiently diverse. And it was the only way to hear about other clans as well, for the Night Furies were scattered far away from each other.
What Lohengrin's problem was, is that he actually had a hard time trying to imagine Zorhen being young and adventurous. He immediately realised how silly it was, but still. After more than ten winters, he was so accustomed to Zorhen being very old and wise the thought of a youthful Zorhen not knowing the answer to every question in life seemed rather impossible.
"Yes, I was." he replied. "I have come from the far north, where the snow and ice never melts, and the daytime and night time can actually last for weeks."
"What a crazy place to live..." Lohengrin thought.
"Once you have learned to read the runes" Zorhen continued, interrupting Lohengrin's pondering "You will spend a lot of time here, educating yourself further on your own. You are right, hundreds of my predecessors' writings can be found here, I have no doubt that you will find some of them very interesting."
Nothing could be heard but the sound of crickets in the moonless summer night. Only the light of the stars above gave some sort of vague impression of clarity.
That did not comfort the two stalking Night Furies in the thick forest below; the sky wasn't even visible through the dense greenery above them. The lack of light fortunately didn't prove to be too distracting, as they could see almost perfectly in the dark, not to mention they didn't have to rely solely on their eyes to see anything. Their sharp sight combined with excellent hearing, smelling and echolocation made them very deadly predators.
Although, they were not exactly looking for prey this time.
"Lya, we've been sneaking around here for almost an hour..." Faelynn whispered.
Lyara gave an irritated sigh and stopped to look at her friend.
"Look, Lynn, I am absolutely sure I saw something on the way." she whispered back "I just want to make sure about it before we run to the guards." she stood silently for a moment, raising her nose up and sniffing the air "I can almost feel their scent."
"That's just one more reason why we should stay out of this!" Faelynn stressed, with a slight touch of fear in her voice.
Lyara just frowned, then tried to gave her some reassurance.
"Give me one more hour. If I can't find them, we go home and forget this whole thing. If we do find something, we back off, and alert the Guards. Okay?"
"I have a bad feeling about this." Faelynn sighed, but she gave a resigning nod towards her friend.
The duo continued to slowly creep through the forest, constantly sharpening their senses to catch any trace of sound or smell which should normally not belong here. Strict determination reflected on Lyara's face, as she sneaked carefully through the undergrowth. Faelynn silently followed her as best as she could, anxiety radiating from her every movement.
They went on and on, and even Lyara was about to call it off, when they suddenly heard faint whiffs of chattering.
"Did you hear that?" Faelynn asked, her voice sounding a lot higher than usual.
"I did." Lyara stated, narrowing her eyes. "There's a clearing a few hundred steps from here, I think they are there."
"Fine, can we go now?"
"Not just yet." Lyara began crawling towards the clearing. But not straight towards the suspicious sounds, she slightly trailed off to the side so the gentle waft of the wind blowing around would not betray them by carrying their scents towards the intruders.
Since she was denied from the opportunity to protest again, Faelynn followed Lyara on her way. After spending a good ten minutes properly positioning themselves, they began to approach the clearing. Step by step, they drew closer and closer, the traces of talk gradually becoming more noticeable. Then Lyara stopped so suddenly, Faelynn could barely avoid bumping into her, almost giving away their presence in quite an awkward way.
As she looked next to Lyara, she let out a barely audible whine.
There were three Skrills on the clearing. Although neither of the two dragonesses had seen one before, they instantly recognized them from the stories their parents used to tell. They looked even more frightening than in the stories, with their greyish- white scales, huge claws, broad jaws full of sharp fangs and reddishly glowing eyes. Their unique feature was even more underlined by the darkness of the night: as their entire body crackled with static electricity, yellow sparkles were visible on their hides. Even their size was worrisome: they were almost twice as big as the Night Furies. They seemed to be arguing over something, but they did it in their own language, so the two young females could not understand a thing. There was something next to them, which looked like the bloody remains of a boar. After a few moments, they seemed to reach an agreement, as they stopped arguing, and one of them began to eat, while the other two paced around impatiently, occasionally snarling at each other.
Lyara felt a light nudge at her shoulder.
"Do you think we've seen enough now?" Faelynn whispered so quietly, Lyara had to read her lips. She gave an uneasy nod, then the two started to backtrack as silently as possible, to get enough distance from the hostile dragons to alert the nearest Guards.
As Lyara turned herself from the direction from the Skrills, she accidentally stepped on an air root with the same momentum. Since everything was quiet around, the blunt crack of the root seemed to sound just as sudden and loud as a thunder clap.
"Oh crap."
Faelynn's concerned question has been suppressed by a deafening roar behind them.
"RUN!" Lyara screamed, and they both bolted off into the darkness as fast as they could. Soon, she lost sight of Faelynn in the darkness, but she had no other choice but to keep on running, zigzagging around trees, jumping above bushes and crawling under tree logs. She desperately looked for a clear spot in the greenery to take off, but there was no easy way out of the forest. The obvious solution came so suddenly into her mind that she had the urge to curse herself for not thinking about it sooner.
"You idiot!" she cried out, then stopped, and sent a blazing fireball through the canopy above her. She launched up to try to fly out of the forest, but much to her horror, she felt a sharp pain in her tail, then an irresistible force pulled her back, slamming her into the undergrowth. She shook her head to get away the dizziness, and then she saw a dark figure looming over her.
"Y'thought you could get away that easy?" the Skrill barked, with an evil grin on his face, then moved his head right above Lyara's "You ain't gonna run home and tell the others that we're 'ere!"
"Screw you!" Lyara snapped at him angrily, and slapped the Skrill right in the face, her claws raking the scales and drawing a bloody mark on him. The Skrill roared out in pain and involuntarily took a few steps back, giving Lyara just enough time to get up on all fours, and run towards the opposite direction of him.
Adrenaline rushed through her veins, and she gasped for air in her desperate run for her life. A shattering electric explosion tore apart a tree next to her, as the obviously angered Skrill shot a ray of lightning-like fire. She began to jump around randomly, to avoid giving the Skrill an opportunity for a clear shot.
For a minute or two, no further shots came, so Lyara risked a quick look behind her shoulders. The Skrill was nowhere to be seen, so she slowed down a bit and took a look around.
"Now, where the heck am I?" she mumbled to herself in desperation, eyes searching around for any familiar object.
Somewhere from her right flank, another lightning-blast came and hit her. She screamed in agony as the explosion sent her through some bushes and she painfully landed on her back. Luckily, her fireproof scales saved her from a deadly wound, but the sheer force of the impact badly bruised her side. Aside from the fiery pain from her ribs, she felt her head spinning and couldn't hear anything but a loud ringing in her ears.
Lyara slowly rolled on her belly, and shakily tried to stand up again. Through the fog in her mind, her senses barely registered the three Skrills approaching. The closest one bit hard into her wing shoulder and hurled her to the other side, pinning her to the ground with his wing claws on her neck.
"Kill 'er!" cried the Skrill with a bleeding gash on his forehead.
Lyara felt the iron grip tightening around her neck, but she only managed to let out a few terrified groans.
"You ain't so snappy now, huh?" the Skrill growled "The rest of the worms will never know wha'appened to you..."
Lyara squirmed in her despair under him, but there was no escape. Her vision became blurry, and her lungs felt like they were on fire, as they demanded fresh air. As the world slowly became darker, she couldn't see anything besides the red eyes of the Skrill above her. The red eyes, filled with utter hatred.
The red eyes, promising a certain death.
Not a moment too soon, a huge purple-blue fireball exploded in the side of the Skrill, knocking him off with irresistible force. Lyara let out a pained yowl as she was shocked by a too near explosion for the second time in a couple of minutes. The blast whirled up a lot of dust from the ground, effectively rendering Lyara blind to anything farther than her nose. She coughed and tried to roll over and stand up again, only to feel someone who's a lot stronger than her, grabbing her by the nape of her neck and forcefully pulling her away. Still feeling quite disoriented, Lyara couldn't put up much resistance, as the dragon moved her for a minute or two, before gently releasing her to the ground.
She opened her eyes to look at her saviour in her struggled to sit up.
"Don't worry." the other Night Fury said in his deep voice "Faelynn managed to alert us, you're safe now."
"A Guard!" Lyara thought. After a few moments, she managed to remember his name. Just as she opened her mouth to say something to him, a smaller figure appeared and crashed into her, throwing legs around her in a tight hug.
"Lyara!" Faelynn screamed, burying her face into Lyara's shoulder "I was worried sick that we wouldn't find you in time..."
"I... I'm okay now." Lyara gasped, trying to ignore the dull pain she felt radiating from almost every part of her body.
A commanding shout came from above the trees.
"Salkonyr!"
The Guard answered the call immediately.
"We're here! I've got away with her, she's alive, Naveron!"
Loud rustling came from a nearby tree's canopy, as First Guard Naveron climbed down on the stout branches.
He took a quick look at the two young females in front of him, then addressed Salkonyr at once:
"You escort them back to the clan, while me and the rest will chase those bastards off our territory."
"Aye, sir." Salkonyr nodded.
Naveron quickly spread his wings and blasted his way through the interweaving canopies as he took off and began to fly towards the direction of the fight. Vicious snarls and explosions echoed through the forest as the Night Furies began to forcefully relegate the unwanted intruders.
"Let her go, so I can check her." Salkonyr said softly, directing his words to Faelynn who was still desperately clinging into Lyara. She reluctantly let her friend go, while Salkonyr walked over them and thoroughly examined the ugly bruise at Lyara's side. He gently poked the wound with his nose, causing her to wince, then he gave a few licks to the bloody bite-mark to her wing shoulder to keep the gash clean.
"Nothing serious." he assessed in a comforting tone, causing Faelynn to sigh in relief. "The bruise will heal quickly, and the bite will as well, once Elder Tamaana has properly cleaned and treated it. Trust me, the old lady's salves work wonders."
"Thank you, Salko." Lyara sighed tiredly, and mustered up a weak smile.
"All right, girls!" Salkonyr smiled back at them "Let's go home."
Salkonyr led the way for them, heading out from the forest so they can finally take off. Faelynn walked beside Lyara, trying to support her friend. Lyara seemed slightly annoyed by her overly concerned behaviour, but she didn't say a thing.
"What were you two doing out here, anyway?" Salkonyr asked.
"Um... we..." Faelynn faltered, looking at Lyara.
Lyara took a deep breath and began to explain:
"We wanted to practice hunting, and I thought I spotted one of the Skrills. I wasn't sure what I saw so I went to stalk up to them to make sure before rushing to you... And I screwed it up big-time."
"Not many dragons of your age could survive an encounter like this." Salkonyr pointed out.
"I'm not a hatchling anymore!" Lyara cried out in resent. "I'm three winters from official adulthood!"
"Of course you aren't." Salkonyr told her quickly to sooth her "What I tried to say that your inexperience gave you an almost too costly lesson. Missing your role is usually not a good idea."
"Missing my role?" She asked confusedly.
"Look, you're aspiring to be a huntress, aren't you?"
"Well... yeah."
"Then you should leave investigating threats to us, and concentrate on what you're trained and good at."
"I just wanted to spare you guys from a false alarm!" Lyara said defensively.
"Don't." Salkonyr stated, and began to explain: "We'd rather go out two or three times more than necessary, but don't get yourself into trouble by doing a job which you aren't prepared for, because it can be lethal. You know, your father used to by my instructor when I was a rookie. He always said: 'Rather a river of sweat on training, than a drop of blood on the field.' And he was absolutely right; I would rather work twice or thrice as hard as normal, in order to avoid the injuries to others or worse."
"Speaking of your father" Faelynn butt in "I'm not sure how your parents will react when they see you..."
"Oh, I have an idea. Dad's going to royally freak out." Lyara said sadly, then an embarrassed smile appeared on her face "Mom will be a lot easier: She'll just faint on the spot."
Lohengrin was sitting alone for hours in the semi-darkness of the Hall of Enlightenment. Learning what each rune means was not as difficult as he had originally thought, by now, he was reading more or less fluently. Much to his admiration, the sheer amount of interesting reports, stories and interpretations was enormous; he couldn't even imagine how much effort this whole cave cost. And according to Zorhen, lots of the ancient knowledge the Night Furies once had was lost; the old ones must have been unbelievably clever, compared to today's average Fury. And even today's Furies were recognised as the smartest dragons of all.
One part of the wall in front of him proved to be very interesting: it was a family tree of Clan Toemnir's leaders, dating back hundreds of generations. Elder Zorhen's writing was right on top of the list; the last entry was Siegfried, son of Siegurd. According to Zorhen's notes, the numbers of Clan Toemnir raised to a level when a clan-split happened, resulting in Lohengrin's grandfather and a good number of the clan moving away to someplace else. Lohengrin couldn't stop wondering if his grandfather would still be alive, he was his only relative now. Siegurd's mate passed away due to an illness a few years before the clan-split.
He greatly enjoyed tracing back his heritage, occasionally finding interesting facts about them, like Baraon, who lived for almost nine hundred years, or Caentongiir, who lead the fight against a group of rouge Changewing trespassers when he was only twenty winters old.
With a sudden idea, he decided to backtrack to the furthest point, to see who founded his clan. He walked beside the wall, getting nearer to the distant corner, going through hundreds of his forefathers' names until he found the last one, which was actually the very first:
"Leywanth, son of Daarion, younger brother of Haarion. Born forty-three years before the Kinstrife. Lineal descendant of Wotahn the Victor, Lord of Menedhaec, Master of Darkness, Dancer of Storms, Saviour of Dragonkind, true High King and supreme ruler of all Night Furies."
Lohengrin stood motionless, as if he had been struck by lightning. The weight of the discovery simply shocked him: he is a descendant of the most famous and most powerful Night Fury that ever existed. And his own name originated from the royal title of Wotahn. What is this supposed to mean? A strange coincidence? Or something else? Is Fate itself showing signs that it wants something with him?
In an effort to calm himself down from the shock of being the last descendant of the family which caused both the rise and the downfall of his whole kind, Lohengrin evoked Zorhen's words of an earlier lesson, which was about family and its importance:
"It does not matter where you come from, but what will you become. Evil or kindness is not something one can inherit, and in the end, everyone flies on a path of his own choosing. Your own decisions, your own actions determine who you are."
Forcing the scaring truth into the back of his mind, Lohengrin turned around to head out of the cavern and find his master. Zorhen made a few hints that his progress is heading towards a vital lesson, and he wanted to ask about it again. He had to be careful about expressing his opinion, Zorhen blatantly refused to teach him anything he felt Lohengrin is not yet ready for.
Elder Zorhen sat alone a few steps from the entrance of his cave, seemingly deep into his thoughts. As Lohengrin approached him, he spoke up.
"I have received troubling news from the clan."
Lohengrin froze in mid-step. Another mind-bogglingly unaccountable trait of the old dragon was, that he seemed to be well informed about the rest of the Clan's doings. Sometimes, after a long pleading from his pupil, he reluctantly shared a few things, but he preferred to have Lohengrin solely occupied with his studies. This annoyed Lohengrin night and day, for he was longing for any kind of information about his friends and family, but he had to bear with the scraps Zorhen was willing to share.
Never before the old dragon made an announcement like that, so Lohengrin quickly sat down on his haunches and tried to suppress the cold sensation of worry and fear inside of him.
"The Skrills are apparently back to trespassing in our territory again." Zorhen said.
Lohengrin felt his throat clench.
"Anyone hurt?" he asked.
"They were encountered by two young hunter aspirants. Luckily, only one of them suffered minor injuries, thanks to the nearest Guard patrol's timely arrival."
"Who's the injured?"
Zorhen looked strictly into Lohengrin's blue eyes.
"Lyara, daughter of Melyan."
Any traces of self-control suddenly vanished from Lohengrin, as he stood up, opened his wings, and would have took off immediately, had Zorhen not jumped right in front of him.
"Where do you think you are going?!" he asked angrily.
"Guess what? I'm going home!" Lohengrin bared his teeth, completely forgetting about himself "I am not going to sit here and doing nothing while my family and friend's in danger and-"
His rant was cut short by a forceful blow that hit with such speed and force, he couldn't react in time. Zorhen's clawless punch knocked him to his side. In a fraction of a second, Zorhen was right on top of him, holding him down with his forepaws.
Lohengrin roared in his rage, and he was about to claw at his mentor when he felt a sharp pain at his temple, forcing him to go completely limp.
"Control your anger!" Zorhen growled.
"HOW CAN YOU-?!" Lohengrin managed to cry out, and tried to fidget out from the old dragon's firm grip, only earning another jab of pain.
"That I will teach you, amongst other things. But you must stay here and finish your training."
"But... they'll need me!"
"And? What will you do? Listen to your emotions and lead them into a trap? If you run home and take charge, you are only going to cause more deaths!"
Lohengrin took a sharp breath, and spent the rest of the minute controlling his breathing. As always, the old dragon's words were full of truth, and as soon as he was not blinded by the storm of vivid emotions inside, he saw the reason eventually.
Embarrassment occupied the place of his fading anger, he felt terrible for losing control to that magnitude, shaming Elder Zorhen's previous lessons and shaming himself.
Once Zorhen felt Lohengrin is calming down, he slowly stepped off from his chest, allowing him to sit up. The young dragon didn't dare to look into his eyes, he was staring at the ground, his voice riddled with shame as he spoke up.
"I... I apologise, Master, for my inappropriate behaviour."
"To put it mildly." Zorhen commented, causing Lohengrin to sink even lower.
Zorhen let the heavy silence thicken around them for a few moments, then he continued:
"The reappearance of the Skrills is not surprising, and it is certainly not an event the Elder Council is unprepared for. You have to trust them to keep the clan out of the bloodshed, as long as you are able to join them. Acting without thinking will only result in deaths, so we do not do that. Understood?
"Yes, Master." Lohengrin said calmly.
Zorhen only looked at him for a couple of moments, then sighed loudly.
"I wished to spend a bit more time to prepare your for your upcoming lesson, but time is of the essence. You surely must have noticed the technique I used to paralyse you."
Lohengrin nodded.
"The technique you are going to learn, is called mind-taming. Our ancestors realised that the mind is far more than storage of information. It also houses a certain kind of energy. An experienced mind tamer can use this energy to achieve things with its body, things which would be impossible otherwise. This is how I am still stronger and faster than you, for example."
"So it is a way to boost physical abilities, Master?"
"Not just physical." Zorhen shook his head "The scale of one's mind's usefulness is determined by its mental potential. Everyone is able to tame their mind and use its energy, but at a different scale. Some more than others. There are three main levels of mind-taming: at the first one, you will learn how to be in absolute control of your senses. You can use your mind to locate and communicate with others without moving an inch. It can also multiply the sharpness of every other sense you have. The second level of mind-taming teaches you how to be in absolute control of your own body. How to force your wounds to heal a lot faster, how to make yourself many times faster and stronger for a limited period of time. How to completely shut off your sense of pain, rendering you unstoppable in battle."
"Unstoppable in battle?"
"For a limited time. One of the crucial rules of mind-taming, is that if you force your body to constantly make greater efforts than it would be able, you are going to exhaust yourself into a point of death."
"And what is the third level?" Lohengrin asked.
"The third level of mind-taming is only achievable to self-learning, so I cannot teach you that. Basically, it covers the limitless other possible uses of your mind energy. One sufficiently knowledgeable in mind-taming could use it for taking over someone else's body, invading one's mind to extract information, or even shred it to pieces. There are a huge variety of ethical and not so ethical uses."
"This knowledge" Zorhen continued "of mind-taming was always restricted to a carefully selected group of dragons, for the risks of one's misusing its effects were severe. Traditionally, the clan leaders knew mind-taming to a certain extent, to give them the special advantage needed in tending for a whole community."
"I see." Lohengrin said quietly. "Did... did my father know this?"
"Yes, he did. You may have been spared of the details, but he fought with six Skrills at once, and took down five of them. Mind-taming can make you more dangerous, but certainly not invincible." Zorhen explained.
Lohengrin sat silently in front of his Master. Suddenly, lots of things became clear, but only now did he realise what a tremendous weight will be on his shoulders, once he becomes the leader of his clan. Zorhen laid down a steady foundation of knowledge in his brain about a wide variety of matters, with mind taming he will be able to use it all at once, split his attention, multitask, and at least mentally be anywhere he's needed.
"Before we begin" Zorhen interrupted his thoughts, speaking in a rigorous manner "you must swear upon the Spirits and everything that is holy, that you will never attempt to use this sensitive knowledge to mistreat anyone. Contacting someone's mind, invading its most private space and reading its thoughts without permission is a severe crime and will be punished accordingly. Or for example, trying to use your mental powers to exercise violence is not a smaller crime. Do you know what will happen if you dare to misuse mind-taming for your own selfish needs?
"You will hunt me down and tear my head off in front of the clan to show example?" Lohengrin asked back, with a hint of dry humour in his voice.
The long silence before Zorhen's answer convinced him that he is right.
"Precisely."
A/N: Ohhoho, things are getting interesting now! The brief period of peace is over, and Lohen will have to find a solution very soon. Tune in for the next episode, when things will start to reach to the boiling point! ;)
And, as always:
Spotted a mistake or something you like? Or just have a question? Review!
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