Farewell and good night

Her mother stood in front of the house, a smile playing on her face. To someone who did not know her well, she would appear excited and even happy but Kayla noticed the red around her eyes, her bitten fingernails.

"This is going to be so great for you both! Tristan always wanted to be a dragon rider and I know how much you love to read books, the island should be full of those! And you will get to meet other people and might even acquire some new friends!" her mother said but her voice rose in an unnaturally high pitch at the end of the sentence, the smile she had on, obviously fake. Kayla wondered when she would see her mother again.

She knew Tristan had tried to reason with the riders and asked if they could bring their mother with them but the riders had declined. Again, their answer made perfect sense to her, although she hated to admit it. They could not bring to the island everyone's family members and they would not make exceptions.

Yes, everyone said the lands were safe, yes there would be food for the winter, yes they said they would take care of her, but they did not know.

Mom, there is something I have to tell you… Something about father...Don't go too near to the Spine…

"Excited Kayla?" her mother asked, oblivious to her trail of thoughts.

"Very"

….

"Daisy, my lovely goat. You have no idea how much I will miss you" Tristan said as he rubbed the animal's chin and she behd, satisfied.

"You could always take her with you, you know" Buster commented and Tristan raised his eyebrow at that.

"For some reason I doubt Daisy and the dragon would get along very well. You know, since dragons tend to feast on goats" Tristan said and snorted.

He left Dairy to her business and turned around to look at his two friends, Grion tall and proud and Buster small and timid.

"Take care of her for me, if you can. She is a good dragon substitute. Don't go too near to the Spine and not too deep in the forest. And Grion… Would you be able to check on my mother every so often?" Tristan asked and wished his friend's answer to be yes.

Grion snorted.

"Don't be stupid. Of course, I will. Just keep sending me you dragon's baby teeth or something and once I sell them, there will be more than enough golds and silvers to keep your mother going" his friend commented.

Tristan smiled, happy and proud to have such good friends and pressed his chest close to Grion's, while holding their fists together. They did not embrace, they did not need to. He then run his hand through Buster's hair and for once the boy did not pull back and just looked at him with his big brown eyes, ready to cry.

"Don't let your mother boss you around too much. You are a man now, you have turned 14" he said and smiled. The boy nodded and shook his head in acknowledgement, while Grion had his hand crossed over his chest but he was struggling not to let the emotions overtake him.

It was time to go, he knew, but he felt a tightness in his chest when he thought of leaving. In his mind he had always pictured the dragon egg hatching but never the part where he would say goodbye.

He sighed, rubbing Daisy's ears one more time and he turned to walk inside the house as there was one more person he had to see.

"Mom, look what I got for you" he said and showed her the blue-grey fragments of the egg, as he entered their small house. He had tried to retrieve pieces from Kayla's dragon egg, as well, but all that remained of them was sand. His mother smiled politely but didn't seem that excited about the fragments and she was gazing every so often at his sister. Kayla was standing in the corner of the room and when she saw him she nodded in acknowledgement and walked outside, giving them some privacy.

"How proud your father would be!" his mother commented, her smile wide, her eyes red. Tristan nodded, feeling a lump in his throat.

He walked to her side and hugged her tightly. Tristan remembered the time when he was no taller than her hips but now he was taller by a head at least and she looked small.

"Don't go too near to the Spine, mother. Take care of the animals, they should be more than enough to provide for you and whatever you have left, sell in the market. Grion will bring you supplies once so often as his father gets the best picks of meat" he said but at his comment his mother suddenly seemed angry.

"I don't want anyone's charity" she said in an almost offended tone.

"Mother, it's not charity. You are left with no husband and no children to take care of you and the winter is coming and it will be long and cold. There is no crime in accepting any help that you can get and Grion will be making money from our deal as well" Tristan explained and showed her the dragon's shell once again. This time his mother did pay attention and looked at the intricate design and colour.

"Is that your dragon's colour?" she said out loud, a smile playing at the edges of her mouth, one that looked genuine.

Tristan nodded, proud.

"Yes, he is a dark blue, silver colour, He is magnificent, mother. Would you like to see?" he asked her and his mother nodded. He opened the door and his dragon walked inside, tentatively and smelling everything, excited.

"Can I touch him?" his mother asked and Tristan nodded. He spoke to the dragon's consciousness and told him to be nice but the dragon had already walked to his mother side and was jumping up and down. His mother gave him a chicken bone and the dragon looked ecstatic. When she tried to stroke him however he pulled back and went to stand next to Tristan.

His mother sighed and smiled happily.

"He is very handsome and I am sure he will take good care of you and you of him. Has Kayla brought her dragon as well?" she asked and went to gaze outside of the window but Tristan knew that only his sister and the two dragon riders were present.

"No, it had to stay back. Mother, I will miss you" Tristan commented and his mother hugged him tightly once again, but she seemed to be considering something and bit her lip.

"Tristan, I know this is what you want but promise me one thing. Watch over your sister. You are light, you have always been light but sometimes she can be dark. Don't let her go" she said suddenly in a very serious, mature tone.

Bewildered, Tristan still nodded and exited his childhood home, memories dancing at his mind's edges, making his dragon gloomy and content at the same time.

…

They started their journey early in the next morning just as the sun was rising. The sensible thing would have been to travel on dragon-back but as there were two more riders that needed to be picked up, the elf and the human had set of to go retrieve them, while the rest of them travelled on foot. There was also the matter of the dragon eggs and it was not safe for them to be on dragon's back in case of an attack. If indeed there was an attack and the eggs were down below the dragons would be free to manoeuvre and fight the invaders which would not have been possible if they were carrying the eggs. The magicians and the soldiers had been left behind as too many people would attract unwanted attention and slow them down.

The two big dragons patrolled the skies to sense incoming dangers and the hatchlings and remaining riders were walking. They had been lucky about the weather as it had been another clear summer day and that allowed them to transverse the land quicker.

The purple dragon was in a wooden cage and it did not look happy. It had twice the size of his own and everyone could see that the creature was growing extremely fast as if a spell had been cast on it. From what he had heard from the riders, as soon as his sister was put in a cage the dragon had gone ballistic. It kept attacking everyone and no one dared to come too close. They had all agreed that the dragon could not be kept loose. The dwarven dragon rider had been picked to put the purple into the cage but now his usually trimmed, long, red beard stood in shreds.

Indeed, the dragon looked rabid as he was gnawing on the wooden bars, furiously, hissing and growling at anyone who came any closer than 6 feet away and had even tried to blow whiffs of fire but only smoke emerged from his strong jaws. His nails had also scraped the inside of the wooden cage and there wasn't a single spot where the wood was smooth. Tristan did not doubt that if the dragon continued at it he would soon get out.

He had to wonder if he had falsely accused his sister. As soon as he heard what had happened he had confronted her, calling her heartless but as he looked at the dragon once again he was not sure who was in the wrong.

Tristan run his hands over his dragon's back who was sitting on his shoulder and was thankful that the creature was not attacking him. The dragon was calm now, pouring but at the beginning of the trip, with purple causing havoc, he had been agitated. Tristan's dragon was male from what the riders had told him and he was thinking of possible names, while looking at the clear blue skies and the green land that extended ahead of them, when his sister approached him.

They had not spoken since the fight.

"She is not going to survive without us. Worry will kill her before winter does" Kayla said as she walked next to him. The Urgal rider was in front of them and the dwarf in the back, watching over the eggs and the purple dragon as they had both been put in the carriage and a black, muscled horse was carrying it.

He did not like his sister's words and hoped she wasn't right. He still hated that the dragon riders had declined bringing his mother to their community.

She would have been safer there…

Tristan felt his dragon's consciousness nudge his own and he watched as the dragon made attempts to fly. He gave up quickly, however, as a bee circling a yellow flower had sparked his interest.

The dragon was jumping up and down trying to catch the bee and was very irritated when he couldn't get to it. He was chasing it around and run to Tristan's knees when the bee decided to fly up and sting him on the shoulder.

Tristan yelled, startled, feeling the bee's sting sink deep inside his flesh and the poison spreading. The bee fell on the ground, its intestines sprawled on the green grass. It tried to move for a few minutes, struggling to change its fate but it died regardless.

"I thought dragon riders did not get bitten by bees. This is unfair. I think someone should change the rules" Tristan commented and shook his head to the Kull and Kayla who had rushed to his side.

"We are not above nature, we are one with nature. Remember this, both of you" Stoic said, his tone solemn.

"Why is everyone so serious? I am the one in pain, here" Tristan commented and smiled, his dragon at his side licking his wound. The Urgal shook his head, annoyed, obviously not used to his sense of humour yet.

"Waise heill, Be healed!" he whispered instead, the sparks of magic flying from his hand and landing on Tristan's wound.

After this their journey was uneventful and they were steadily approaching Dras Leona, which was the meeting point with the other four riders. On their third night, they stopped near a hill where not much life was present and set camp. His dragon had just eaten a fox while the purple was devouring everything that was given to it. The dragons were not of a similar size, with the purple being slightly bigger than his own.

Tristan had thought of a vast array of names for his dragon but nothing seemed to do the trick, just yet. He was also worried that his dragon was not flying and was instead walking everywhere but the riders had reassured him that sometimes it took dragons more than a week to fly.

Tristan was lying inside a tent, the dragon's breath warming his skin from the night's chill. He could hear the riders talking as they had been set the task of keeping watch. His sister was sleeping in another tent and he could hear the purple's wails but he tried to ignore them as he had done so in previous nights.

Suddenly all noises were silenced, even his heartbeat and breath and a feeling of dread was settling over him. Cold sweat was running down his brow and suddenly his dragon jumped up and hissed.

He moved slowly and gazed outside of his tent just as a gigantic dark creature was approaching the carriage where the eggs and the purple were. A dark brown dragon attacked the creature before it was able to get to them and the two riders were already in alert.

"Garjzla. Light!" the dwarven rider shouted as bright light exploded from his hands and the dark creature hissed as another one of its kin approached their camp. Without a second thought Tristan picked up a sword from near his tent. His heart was beating very fast, its sound echoing in his ears and adrenaline was rushing to his limbs. His dragon stood next to him, teeth bared.

The Urgal rider jumped on his dragon, quick and started landing blows on the dark creature but it seemed as if they didn't have much effect. The dwarf's dragon fell from the skies just then, viciously attacking the other creature. He saw fire blazing from its jaw and setting almost everything alight.

"It's a shadow wyrm!" the Kull shouted and kept attacking the creature. Every time dragon and wyrm met the earth shook as if an earthquake was taking place.

Tristan wasn't sure what to do as there was no enemy to fight left for him and even if he did, he doubted his skills would be good enough or his dragon large enough to match the shadow wyrm's advances.

Instead he decided to find his sister and try to protect the dragon eggs but as soon as he reached the place where they had put the carriage, he realised with horror that it and her was gone.