Chapter 1

8 years earlier, somewhere in the Ural Mountains

The whole forest was blanketed in the soft shade of pure white,highlighting the deep blueness of the pond even further. Winter weather was always beautiful here, with the snow reflecting the enervate sunlight, whiteness and dark green varying on the trees and tiny icicles sparkling on the pine-needles, drawing up a very peaceful environment for anyone who decided to dwell within.

A dark shadow appeared on the mirror-smooth surface, as a young Night Fury leaned closer, her nose almost touching the water, eyeing the trout down below. She narrowed her eyes and flexed her muscles, concentrating on the exact moment when to strike. She slowly opened her mouth to reveal her fangs and took a deep breath, when...

When a large portion of snow landed on the top of her head, right between her ears, she let out a surprised squeal and almost tumbled into the pond.

"LENNY!" She roared, and turned around, bearing a furious expression at the other young dragon, who not only ruined her attempt at fishing, but rolled in the snow laughing loudly at her.

"That was awesome; you should've seen your face!"

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

Upon seeing the charging dragoness, Lenny quickly jumped onto fours, and began to zigzag in the forest while still making the annoying tittering.

"Aren't you overreacting a bit, Nyssie?" He grinned back at her.

"You're doing this to me all the time!" She yelled in her chase "Just let me catch you, I'll bite your ear off!"

Lenny wanted to laugh again, but because he wasn't looking at the direction he ran towards, he crashed into something huge, black and scaly, and both of them tumbled into the snow.

"Lenhardt!" the dragon moaned under him.

"Hehe, sorry Dad." Lenny chuckled, ears flattening against his head.

His father took an assuming look at him.

"What's with all the hurry? Were you-"

His question was cut off, as Nyssie crashed into Lenny, flinging him into the snow, and proceeded to make her threats real, biting hard into his earplate.

"Not again." Lohengrin sighed, and took an apologetic look at the dragon he'd been having a conversation with a few seconds ago. "Please give me a few minutes, Salko."

"No problem." Salkonyr nodded whilst trying to hold back his laughter, and began to walk towards the edge of the forest. Lohengrin turned back to the two younglings, and decided to step in before his son was suffocated by the paws of his own daughter.

"Laranys, Lenhardt! Enough!"

Nyssie slowly let go his brother's ear, stepped off from his neck and sat down beside him.

"He's terrible! Every time I want to hunt or fish, he shows up and ruins it!" She complained.

"Telltale." Lenny murmured as he sat up.

"You know, Lenhardt" Lohengrin voiced his disapproval "you should really find a different way to spend your free time than annoying your sister. How was this morning's hunting exercise, for example?"

"He failed to catch anything, again!" Laranys chimed.

"That's it. In the evening, we are going to talk with your mother, and you're going to take hunting lessons from her until Ohrana says you're making progress."

"But... I wanted to go out with-"

"You can have all the fun you want with your friends, as soon as your mandatory matters are taken care of." Lohengrin said strictly. "Am I clear?"

"Yes, Dad." came the cheerless reply.

"Hah!" Laranys grinned, earning a disapproving glare from her father.

"And you," Lohengrin turned towards her"...why do you have to make a scene every time he pulls a prank on you? The whole forest was blustering with your shouting!"

"But...b-but-"

"Patience is a virtue, Nyssie. And, if you knew that he wasn't performing well at the hunting lessons, why haven't you considered helping him?"

"I-I...err..." she mumbled, and lowered her head.

"Guys." Lohengrin sighed tiredly "You are not hatchlings anymore; this is your fifteenth winter. Both your mother and I would be really happy if you'd start to act according to your age. Or..."a broad grin appeared on his face "...I will be forced to introduce stricter upbringing measures."

Both younglings dropped their jaws in their surprise, just as Lohengrin expected. With a wide swipe of his tail, he catapulted a huge batch of snow right into their faces.

"What the-"

"Hey..."

Shaking their heads to get rid of the snow, the siblings forgot about their disagreements with each other as they stood up to two and launched themselves against their laughing father, nipping and patting him as they all tumbled over. The younglings began to laugh too, as they were wrestling and rolling around, spraying snow everywhere.

"Alright, alright!" Lohengrin chuckled, hugging his son and daughter tightly against his chest."See? You can work together if you want. Now, let me go."

The siblings crawled off from their father, allowing him to stand up.

"I still have stuff to take care of" Lohengrin explained "so you two run along now, and argue a bit less with each other, okay?"

"M'kay, dad."

"Bye, Daddy!"

"See you home at evening." Lohengrin nodded, and took off, heading after Salkonyr.

The two younglings watched their father's departure in silence, until Lenhardt hesitantly spoke up:

"I thought he wasgonna be more upset..."

"About what?" Nyssie asked.

"Y'know... about this whole hunting issue. The Leader's son, unable to hunt for shi-"

"Hey, hey, calm down!" Laranys tried to repose him"When was he ever mad at us for something?"

"Well, there was that occasion with that bear..." Lenny grinned.

"Yeah." she sighed "But he was right about that. I still dunno what were you thinking..."

"I told you! It seemed like a great idea back then!"

"But apparently it wasn't!"

"Well... yeah." Lenny smiled guiltily.

"Let's stick to the point." Laranys said "Daddy was right, I could try to help you out..."

"Really? Would you do that?" Lenny asked eagerly, ears perking up.

"Maybe. But only if..."

"If?"

"If you ask me nicely."

Laranys expected her brother to puff himself up, whinge something about pride and grumpily go away. The response she got however was exactly the opposite:

"Nyssie please, I'm hopeless! I wanna be good, help me, I beg you!" Lenhardt pleaded to her.

Nyssie needed a few seconds for the shock to wear off, and close her dropped jaw. After that, she started to chuckle, but decided to be tactful, and only said:

"Let's go back to the pond and see how you do with fishing."

Salkonyr sat alone at the edge of the forest, waiting patiently for Lohengrin to return. Interruptions like this current one happened every now and then, but everyone showed patience, since they all knew that it's not as easy to attune family life with the day-to-day clan matters. And with the amount of work Lohengrin invested to take care of everybody else's problems, nobody ever thought about voicing a complaint.

The loud rustle of wings interrupted Salkonyr's thoughts, as Lohengrin arrived and landed next to him.

"Eh, sorry." he apologized "Sometimes they get carried away with the sibling rivalry."

"Oh, no problem at all." Salko smiled "Are they giving you a lot of trouble?"

"The twins? No, not really. They behave themselves rather well; I just have to step on their tails every once in a while to make them mind their places."Lohengrin explained "Lenny's a clever boy, but he likes to be funny and he sometimes takes it further than he should. Nyssie is the calmer one, but when she gets pissed off, she can freak out royally if she wants."

"What a Daddy's girl." Salko smirked.

"That she is!" Lohengrin laughed. "I'll never forget the day Lyara laid two eggs instead of one. We were overjoyed then overly worried about what if one doesn't hatch. We're so incredibly lucky to have both of them."

"Speaking of which, do you know how many families are envying you ever since? First clutch, two eggs, both hatch... that's quite a stunt to pull off. What's your secret?" Salkonyr asked jokingly, earning laughter again from Lohengrin.

"I have a wonderful mate." he answered simply "And hey, how much time does Faelynn have left?"

"A bit more than a month. I can barely wait." Salkonyr grinned.

"See? There's a chance you two will get lucky too, one can never know." Lohengrin chuckled, then he switchedto a more serious tone and asked: "Anyway, where were we exactly?"

"I asked you if you could inspect the newest Guard recruits tomorrow..."

"Right! Tomorrow I have a meeting with Elder Tamaana, but I can show up in the afternoon."

"That's perfect." Salkonyr nodded "I'll round up all the rookies and make a good show for you."

"Marvellous." Lohengrin smirked "Anything else?"

"Actually, there is..." the guard said slowly "Eienarth claims that he saw something strange yesterday night, during his patrol on the south-western perimeter."

"What kind of strange?" Lohengrin asked with narrowing eyes.

"Well... he said that he saw flashes of light on the horizon, accompanied by loud thundering."

"But the sky was clear yesterday night..."

"That's what I said to him, too. And that's why he didn't report it officially."

Lohengrin's gaze trailed away, as he thought over the issue.

"Storm would be the most logical explanation" he began to think out loud "but that's impossible in the recent weather. I'm pretty sure he can tell the difference between lightning strikes and dragon fire, so we can rule that out too."

Salkonyr gave him a puzzled look.

"But then nothing remains!"

"Not so fast." Lohengrin shook his head "In that general direction, a day of flight south-southwest from our borders, there's a human settlement."

"You think humans would cause this?" Salko asked in disbelief.

"I don't know for sure. I have no idea what they are capable of. Nobody has seen humans for centuries; I'm not even sure what they look like. You know what? Eienarth is on rest today, right?"

"Right."

"I'll send him out tomorrow, to go back to the spot where he saw this, and stay there for a day. Have one of your rookies accompany him. If both of them comes back stating that they saw the flashes again, we'll go out and investigate a bit. I don't care what happens outside our borders, but we can not discard a possible threat because it seems unlikely."

"Alright, but what would the humans want from us?" Salkonyr frowned.

"Our ancestors' policy towards them was to live and let live. I'm sure if we don't seek confrontation, they won't bother us. I just want to make sure."

It was late night when Lohengrin finally arrived home, he had to add the visit to Eienarth and Naveron to his daily schedule, not to mention another bunch of smaller issues he took care of in-between. Now all he wanted was to settle down and enjoy the peace and quiet with his family.

He landed at the mouth of his cave, and as he peeked inside, in the dancing light of the fireplace, he saw his younglings sleeping. Laranys curled into a ball, wings neatly folded and tailfin covering her face as she quietly snuffled in her sleep. Lenhardt on the other hand, was lying on his back with his wings spread, legs aimlessly dangling in the air, head slightly tilting to the side with his tongue sticking out, a puddle of saliva slowly gathering next to his head. Lohengrin chuckled at the sight of this, as he silently walked in. A few moments later, Lyara appeared, coming from the pool at the back of the cave. Tiny droplets of water glistened like diamonds on the scales of her chin. A warm smile appeared on her face as she noticed him.

"I was starting to wonder if you ever come home." She greeted him in a low voice.

"I am sorry, I intended to finish earlier." Lohengrin replied in a similar manner, as he walked to her, and nuzzled her face, nose slowly wandering up to her ear and purring gently into it.

"Apology accepted." Lyara sighed happily."You won't believe what just happened in the evening. Lenny and Nyssie both came to me, and explained that they are practicing hunting together. I was so shocked, I couldn't speak."

"I might have something to do with that." Lohengrin chuckled "I kind of scolded them today for always getting on each other's nerves, and not helping the other at all. I have to say though; I haven't expected them to react this quickly, either."

"Well, it worked." Lyara smiled"It's good to see they're showing signs of adulthood."

"About time, if you ask me."

"Oh come on, let them enjoy their youth! Youngling years fly away quickly; they'll have enough chances to be all serious."

"I'm not the one to ruin any fun! I'd just like to see them helping sometimes, instead of causing more problems."

"You will, just give them some time. What will you do tomorrow?"

"Elder Tamaana asked me to help her organize a group to fetch some herbs and ingredients for her salves."

"Because Mom asked me if we could eat something together at midday..."

"That's not a problem." Lohengrin assured her. "We can go eat together, then I'll go to check how Salkonyr's doing with training the Guard rookies. I'll be home late afternoon."

"Sounds great."

"What about you?"

"I think I'll visit Faelynn." Lyara smirked at him "She's pretty sad since you've banned her from hunting..."

"You hunters are insufferable!" the male grinned "She's expecting an egg, getting rounder by the day, she should be resting and preparing herself, but no, she wants to fly around, chasing stuff. The minute I dare imply to a hunter that they should slow down a bit, they freak out."

Lyara chuckled too, but she tried her best to stay quiet, not to wake the younglings up.

"Stop it, it's not that bad."

"Yeah, it's worse. I still remember the day when you were getting near to lay the eggs so I tried to convince you to stay home..."

Lyara shook from the suppressed laughter as she followed Lohengrin to their usual sleeping spot.

"... I had no idea you can roar that loud." He continued.

"Look, I apologized later okay? And besides, we're laughing at it now! What would you say if someone would forbid you to fly?"

"I'd say: 'You're so dead.' And it's a completely different thing."

"You're terrible! Lyara laughed.

Lohengrin stepped forward, gently laid her to the ground and whispered into her ear as he settled beside her.

"Yes, I'm sooo terrible. That's why you love me."

"Cheeky bastard." Lyara whispered back, gave a soft lick to his face as she snuggled close to him"And by the way, it's true."

"I'm freezing my arse off!"

"Would you stop complaining already?!"

Eienarth and Volkownyr were sitting on a hill at the south-western perimeter, at the far edges of the territory of Clan Toemnir. Today's morning brought some clouds, but the cold was still bone-freezing. As he walked around, in an effort to keep his limbs warm, Volkownyr couldn't imagine how his first guard duty could be any worse. Eienarth and he were sent out here to keep an eye on the horizon for any unusual movements or phenomenon. As the hours crawled away uneventfully, Volkownyr became irritated by the unpleasant weather, and Eienarth became irritated by him.

"If you can't stand a little cold, go get back under your mother's wing!" Eienarth growled, not even looking at his young companion.

Volkownyr just rolled his eyes, and decided to change the subject.

"Anyway, what are we hoping to spot here? Not that I don't enjoy the view of the endless wastes covered in snow..."

"We are hoping to not see anything unusual."

"Like those flashes you saw yesterday?"

"Like... Do you see that?"

The young guard-aspirant looked in the direction the older dragon motioned to him. Black spots were moving relatively fast, followed by smoke trail, and something flew above them.

"What the heck..." Eienarth mumbled as he narrowed his eyes, trying to pick up the details from the huge distance.

"The flying one is coming towards us." Volkownyr reported. "Can it be a dragon?"

"I... I don't know. It's too big to be a bird, but something's off with the way it's flying... It's like... a giant dragonfly."

As the contraption rapidly came closer, they could make out some details. It had wings, but it didn't move them. It made a sharp and rapid pulsating sound, and it grew louder and louder...

"This is unbelievable..." Eienarth muttered.

"I think... we should get outta here!" Volkownyr proposed in an unusually high-pitched voice.

The object stopped, hovering at a few hundred steps away from them. Now Eienarth could see small things attached under the object's stubby wings, which looked rounded from the front. There were two bubble-like, transparent shapes on the nose of the thing, one above the other, and it seemed like something was moving inside of the bubbles...

"Eienarth, let's get out of here!"

"Stay calm, there's no reason to assume-"

Eienarth never finished his sentence. Flames spouted out from under the object's wings, and a split-second later, explosions tore the whole hilltop apart.

Every once in a few years, Elder Zorhen came down from the Shalnar ridges, to take a look at how Lohengrin was managing the clan. Despite his thorny manners, Lohengrin always liked the old dragon, and frequently asked him to visit more often. Regardless of the welcome, Zorhen always came and went whenever he felt like it.

Now the two were walking on the snowy plains of Toemnir valley, Zorhen eyeing every clan member he could spot, while Lohengrin filled him in about the events he missed between now and his last visit a few years earlier.

Lohengrin just finished an anecdote about a nomadic flock of Deadly Nadders, who asked permission to fly over the territory of Clan Toemnir, when Zorhen asked:

"And how are your kids?"

"They're both growing nicely. I thought about sending Lenny over to you for a season or two, so he could learn a few practical things."

"Assuming he is not a spoiled brat, we can work something out. But you have to teach him proper behaviour first."

"That won't be a problem." Lohengrin smiled "I intended to wait a few years with this anyway."

"What about Laranys? Does she have an idea about the role she would like to fulfil?"

"She's a handy huntress, but lately she likes to spend time around Elder Tamaana, asking her about what's what. If she wants to, I'll let her to be an aide of the Elder. Maybe many winters later, she will succeed the Elder's place."

Lohengrin couldn't miss how Zorhen's ears twitched at the mention of Tamaana. His gaze wandered off, he looked like he's remembering something. Driven by curiosity, Lohengrin had to ask:

"What's wrong?"

"Hm? Nothing, I am just wondering if we are getting so old that you will need to find replacements. When I first met Tamaana, she was barely older than your daughter is now."

Lohengrin's eyes narrowed and he tilted his head to the side a bit, ears perking up.

"What's the deal with you and-"

"Lohengrin Valdr! Lohengrin Valdr!"

The panicking yell interrupted his question. He immediately turned towards the source of the voice, and saw one of the Night Guards rushing towards him.

"We've spotted something huge in the sky, heading straight this way!"

"Show me." Lohengrin ordered, and took off, following the Guard towards one of the mountains which bordered the valley, Zorhen silently accompanying him. The Guard's choice of words caused some discomfort inside Lohengrin. Guards were trained to be able to measure a target's dimensions quite accurately from spotting distances. If a Guard says something's huge, then it's multiple times bigger than any Night Fury.

They reached a spot near to the mountain's top, and landed right away. The thing in the air was easy to notice: it was huge, grey, and was coming startlingly fast.

"A minute or two, and it's in fireball range."

"What in the name of..." Lohengrin muttered, then turned to Zorhen "Have you seen anything like this before?"

"I have heard about creatures of the sea called whales, which look similar to this but whales don't fly. This thing has wings, although how they generate lift without moving them is beyond me... As if some force would send this thing forward."

"So you think that this isn't a living creature?"

"This could be one of those human contraptions, but the last time I was around those bipedal freaks, they knew nothing about flying."

The flying object became louder and louder as it neared towards Toemnir valley. Lohengrin tightened his jaw as he tried to come up with something. An unprovoked attack against something which turns out to be harmless is bad. Countering a potentially deadly threat early on is advisable. Finally, he turned towards the Guard, who was anxious to get an order to do something.

"Find First Guard Naveron, I'm ordering him to round up all his Guards! Third Guard Salkonyr and the guard aspirants shepherd everyone into the central cave system with all possible despatch!"

"Yes, my Leader!" the Guard barked, and launched himself into the air.

Looking back at the flying object, Lohengrin took a deep breath, and sent out a blazing fireball, barely missing the nose of it. The only reaction to the warning shot was that it tilted its nose a bit downer, gaining a bit more speed for the exchange of altitude. Aiming at those round things under the wing, Lohengrin shot another fireball, scoring a clean hit, bursting the thing under the object's wing on fire.

With one engine destroyed of the four, the plane continued along its course.

"Down you go, monstrous beast!" Lohengrin growled, and prepared to shoot again, when Zorhen cried out:

"Wait!"

The object started to release some kind of greenish fog as it flew over them.

"The gas could be explosive! I'll take the shot!"

With that, Zorhen carefully aimed and let loose a fireball, which narrowly avoided the green cloud and exploded above the flaming wing of the object, tearing it full of holes. The hit caused the thing to slowly roll to the left, and it crashed into the northern mountain ranges around the valley, with the largest explosion the Night Furies ever heard.

During its way down, the plane left an enormous cloud of the green fume, and it slowly descended into the whole valley. It spread so fast, nobody could avoid inhaling it.

The gas burned Lohengrin's throat and made him gag, a disgusting green slime pouring out from his mouth. The realization of what happened struck him like a lightning.

He couldn't breathe fire anymore.

"Z-zorh... Zorhen!" he groaned.

"I know!" the old dragon yelled "Get the Guards ready, we are under attack!"

"See to it that everyone else reaches the central cave!"

Both dragons jumped down and hastily flew away, Zorhen heading east to the tallest mountain, Lohengrin descending to the centre of the valley. Reaching the clearing, he found every available guard in line.

"All five Wings are ready and waiting!" Naveron reported to him.

Lohengrin tried everything he could to calm his panicking nerves. After a few heavy moments of silence, he spoke up:

"We need to know if hostiles are approaching. Take the Third Wing and fly above this cursed green mess. If you see anything coming at us, get down immediately!"

Naveron faced a group of Night Furies.

"You heard the order! Spread out and spiral up! We're making a circle above the mountains! Anyone sees anything, comes back here at once!"

The eight dragons took off, and quickly disappeared in the thickening green mist. Unfortunately, the wind wasn't blowing with enough strength to carry the fumes away, and it sat upon the whole valley, filling it like a bowl and pouring out at lower slopes of the mountains.

In a short while, Naveron hastily returned with the seven guards behind him.

"We saw a column of undefinable objects on the ground, heading straight toward the entrance of the valley! They'll be here in minutes. And they are definitely hostile too, they are shooting something like tiny rocks, one of them went through Raylandt's left wing, leaving a minor injury."

Lohengrin took a concerned look at the guard.

"Ray?"

"I'm fine. It hurts a bit, butit's small enough not to affect my flight."

"What about your fire?"

"We couldn't breathe fire even when we were above this fog. Seems like it has a longer term effect."

Lohengrin shut his eyes, and tried to force himself to stay calm. Whatever is coming for them, they managed to somehow strip them from their primary means of defence. This leaves only claws and fangs for them, while the enemy can still attack from long range.

"Where are they coming from?"

"From the south-southeast..."

Lohengrin exchanged a meaningful glare with Naveron. Both of them knew that it's exactly the same direction where Eienarth and Volkownyr were sent. If they couldn't get back with the news, it means...

"Alright." he finally spoke up "The Second Wing takes position south from the entrance, the Fourth Wing to the north. The Fifth takes position in the riverbed, opposite of the entrance, while the First, the Third and I take off. We wait for the enemy to enter the valley, then attack them from every sides together. Once I give the signal, the ones at the side and above engage. When they are occupied with us, the Fifth leaves the riverbed and finishes the job. Second Guard Orlengiir leads the final assault."

With a few quick nods, everyone acknowledged the plan, and rushed to their designated spots. At least the enemy's plan had an undesired side-effect: the fog covered the dragons from enemy eyes, and they could hide behind the slopes and rocks of the mountains, in preparation for a nasty surprise for anyone who dares to enter their home.

Lohengrin, Naveron, and the fourteen guards of the First and Third Wings slowly circled above the entrance, always staying in the fog. In a couple of minutes, they spotted the approaching enemy. Rows after rows of humans, each carrying something which looked like black sticks, escorted by loudly rumbling, angular beasts of some sort, crawling slowly on the ground.

"ATTACK! ONWARDS, TOEMNIR OHREI!" Lohengrin roared, and turned upside-down, beginning a dive into the middle of the enemy formation. With bellicose roars, the guards around the entrance all launched themselves towards the intruders.

Blasts echoed throughout the valley, and the ground constantly trembled. Horrid roars of pain and rage could be heard from the direction of the valley's entrance, and it only intensified the panic of the Night Furies inside the central cave. Hatchlings wailed, ignoring the comforting licks of their parents, elderly Furies sieged the Guards with never-ending series of questions, who tried to divide their attention to hundreds of directions at once.

"Don't fall behind!" Lyara warned her son, as they tried to force their way through the crowd. Lenhardt obediently followed his mother, who headed towards Salkonyr. The Third Guard looked quite busy, trying to maintain order in the panicking flock of Furies, and Lenny wasn't sure it's a good idea to approach him now.

"Salkonyr!" Lyara tried.

"Give me a second..." the guard gabbled, and jumped in front of a youngling "No, you cannot go out! I know that your parents are out there but you must stay here!"

Taking a look at the protesting dragoness, Lenhardt immediately recognized her.

"Let me try!" he said to his mother, who gave a quick nod, then he approached the dragoness."Selaryn!"

"Lenny!" she cried out "Please tell me you know something!"

Salkonyr and Lyara watched as Lenny walked a few steps away with the young dragoness, quietly talking to her. Momentarily free from distractions, Salkonyr quickly asked:

"Can I help?"

"Have you seen Laranys entering the cave?" Lyara asked desperately.

The heavy silence and the meaningful gulp only added to her fears.

"I'm afraid not." he said slowly "But I could've easily missed her in the crowd, and..."

"I tried calling her many times, I tried looking for her, I even asked almost everyone about her! All I know is that she was with Elder Tamaana this morning. The Elder said she flew away to catch a few fishes in the river, but nobody saw her ever since!"

"Look Lyara, I-"

He was interrupted by startled cries. In small groups of two and four, black forms began to appear from the thick green frog. Salkonyr was about to order the recruits to prepare for a fight, when he figured out that fellow Night Furies are heading this way. He couldn't recognise their shape first, because many of them were carrying wounded, or flying erratically.

One of the returning dragons was Naveron, who instantly began to yell orders to the others. Salkonyr rushed to his superior.

"Naveron!"

The First Guard looked at him, and the sight took Salkonyr aback. Naveron was carrying some serious stab wounds, droplets of blood glistening everywhere he went. Even his wings were full of bleeding holes, how he managed to fly over here, Salkonyr had no idea.

"W-wha..What happe-?" he tried to ask.

"We've lost." Naveron growled darkly.

A/N: *Dramatic music*

'Nother cliffie!

Yeah, I know, I'm evil. ;)

As always, Ask, Comment, Review!

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