Based on characters from Fablehaven© by Brandon Mull. The original characters and plot details are my property. No copyright infringement intended.
Seth stopped in the center of a large cave room. Leander skidded to a stop just before bumping into him. Bracken and Kendra followed at a more leisurely pace and now stood hand in hand looking at the empty but pretty cave. Bracken raised his free hand and the ball of light slowly rose to within a foot of the ceiling, illuminating the entire area.
"There," Seth pointed. Of course, no one could see them but him.
Leander followed the line of his arm staring at an open space in the cave. The stalagmites were broken, some of them crushed but there was no sign of a dragon other than the strong smell of sulfur.
"What can we do to release you? I have disarmed the spell that kept you trapped in this room," Seth said out loud. He stood still listening for a moment. "Bracken, I think you will need to heal the dragon. The poison didn't kill her but it has left her unable to move."
"I can't see her, Seth. You will have to help me out."
"Unleea can you release the shade sharing?" Seth asked and listened silently for a moment.
"She says she needs bright light to break away. The dragon is unresponsive and incapable of releasing any magic light anyway." Seth looked specifically at Bracken.
Bracken looked at Seth, irritated he pursed his lips, and started thinking. He couldn't heal the dragon if he couldn't see her and the dragon couldn't release the shadow charmer without being healed enough to release magic light. Grasping at a small straw he lowered the small glowing light orb until it was in front of Seth.
Seth cautiously pushed it forward until it stopped in mid air. Seth waited then shook his head. "Not enough," he mumbled.
Bracken channeled more light to the orb but other than the room getting brighter nothing happened. The orb traveled back to the ceiling and dimmed slightly.
He had a memory flash of Kendra wrapped in shadow reaching out and touching him, instantly their combined fairy light had increased. They had rocked off balance as Seth, released from his shadow, reappeared on the ground beneath them.
Kendra's magic and his light may solve the problem here too but he did not want to betray any of their secrets in case it didn't work. He looked at Leander and Kendra thinking.
"Hold hands, maybe we can combine our talents and give her enough 'light' to separate," Bracken said vaguely, trying to protect Kendra's fairykind status from an unknown entity. Even with Seth's Shadowmaster status, this was dangerous for Kendra.
Bracken still holding Kendra's hand, he reached out for Leander. Leander took Bracken's hand and reached for Seth's hand. Kendra held Bracken's hand with both of hers. Finally, Seth reached out and laid his hand on an unseen figure.
Almost instantaneously, the huge form an ice blue dragon appeared at the end of Seth's arm. Leander dropped his grip on both Seth's and Bracken's hands and stood gaping at the huge spiky dragon that had appeared. Kendra prepared to feel dragonfear and was confused when it didn't hit her.
"Well done," a young female voice said. This time they all heard and their heads turned toward the voice.
"Stop where you are," Seth yelled as he turned looking toward the exit from the room. "Show yourself. NOW," he commanded.
Close to the cave wall a small ragged figure appeared curled into a ball on the floor.
"Don't kill me Shadowmaster. I couldn't kill the dragon, I know I failed. But I kept her away. I kept her bound. Let me go. I don't want to see you kill the dragon. Please, I couldn't bear it," she begged in a small voice and groveled keeping her face to the floor.
"What makes you think I want to kill the dragon?" Seth asked her.
"That's what the other Shadowmaster wanted," she said to the ground.
"Who was this Shadowmaster? Do you have a name?" Seth asked.
"Kelmar," she muttered her face still in the dirt.
Leander gasped. "Are you sure it was Kelmar?"
Bracken grabbed Leander's arm and shook his head.
Kendra was not paying attention to the interrogation of the little shadow charmer; she was too interested in the dragon. Without the paralyzing effect of dragonfear to deter her examination, the dragon's appearance fascinated her.
The huge dragon lay curled up compactly, her wings pulled tight against her sides, the vicious looking ice blue spikes along her spine barely moved with her slowed breathing. Kendra was unable to see the dragons' tightly tucked head or tail from where she was standing.
The mineral rich water continually dripped on her leaving some of its minerals behind so a thin crust of stony minerals covered her scales in places, the very beginnings of stalagmites forming on her almost still body. Where the water hadn't reached a layer of dust and dirt covered her scales and spikes. Still something about her color, her spikes or her overall appearance told Kendra that she should know this dragon.
The dragon was breathing very shallowly but it came in painful wheezes. Suddenly Kendra made the connection.
"Bracken," she murmured and tugged on his hand then whispered in his ear, "Heal the dragon. I think this is Raxtus' mother." She pointed at a particularly unique but familiar spike on her back.
Bracken turned to look at Kendra questioningly and then took an appraising look at the dragon. He realized that she could be right.
He moved around the large but tightly curled dragon until he found her head. He pulled his sword from its sheath across his back. The sword shimmered and he held his second horn. He laid it across her forehead and unexpectedly writhed with pain as he empathically felt hers. What affected her was a combination of poison and dreadful magic, she was indeed fortunate she had survived. He raised the horn from her head and it felt like a huge weight in his hand but he knew he had neutralized the magic and poison in her system.
Kendra watched as she seemed to breathe easier now. She was totally focused on the dragon and barely noticed Bracken moving slowly, stumbling he disappeared behind her huge form.
Laying his hand on the dragon's body to keep him from falling, he looked up and could not see over the dragon. "Kendra, I need your help," he called, his voice weak.
She looked up and could not see him. She rushed around the dragon. Bracken was leaning again the dragon, his face was ashen and his eyes were bloodshot. She came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug and felt the warm flow of magic rush into him.
He took a deep breath, his healthy color returned. He turned in her arms and smiled at her. "Thanks," he sighed feeling her rejuvenating power restore him. He kissed her forehead and turned back to the dragon.
She kept her hands on his back to support his healing of the dragon.
He pressed the tip of the horn against the dragon's body just at her heart. It almost appeared to pierce the scale. He knew that it couldn't, the scales around the heart were densest scales on a dragon. He poured as much healing into her as he could with Kendra's assistance. He sighed happily relieved when the dragon took a deep breath and stirred.
Unleea finally looked up from her nose in the dirt position when she heard the dragon draw her breath and saw the deadly looking spiral horn pointed at the dragon's heart.
"No!" she screamed and rushed at Bracken. Seth flew at her and tackled her to the floor. Leander helped Seth subdue the small female. She wiggled and writhed under their attempt to hold her down. He felt her try to set a shadow on Bracken's mind and blocked it. Her teeth snapped close to his hand as she tried to bite him, trying anything she could do to escape.
"We are not hurting her, little one, we are healing her," Seth said sternly, looking at the young girl intently.
She stopped struggling and turned her head to look at him. "Why?"
"We like dragons," Leander answered.
"To eat?" she asked still unable to understand what was going on.
Seth and Leander both laughed. "No!" they said in unison.
"She had been lost and many who love her have been looking for her." Seth lied, he didn't know who she was but he was sure someone was looking for her. If Navarog wanted her dead, she must be a really good dragon. "Besides she helped a friend of ours and he wanted us to find her, he knew she was in trouble."
The dragon was moving around more now. The dust, dirt and mineral crust of centuries of dripping water sloughed off her back.
Kendra helped Bracken move away from the dragon. Healing the dragon had drained him but she was replenishing him as rapidly as he could draw it in. Bracken and Kendra moved further away from her, while trying to get closer to Seth and Leander. They didn't want to be isolated from them when she was fully awake.
She was a very big dragon, not quite as big as Celebrant but close, like Bracken's description. The depth of color of each scale mesmerized Kendra. They reminded her of Raxtus' underbelly scales. She also had a peculiarly shaped spike on her back that Kendra knew Raxtus had. She was now positive that this was his mother.
She looked at Leander and wondered how he was going to feel knowing that he had both a father and a mother now. Navarog had tried to kill her but failed. Kendra was happy that Raxtus had eaten Navarog; it was ironic but also poetic.
"Unleea, where are you?" the dragon called drowsily.
"Over here behind you. Are you well?" Unleea answered from beneath the watchful eyes of Seth and Leander.
"I am getting better fast. Who did this? Who healed me?" the dragon asked raising her large head, her big eyes blinking in the light of Bracken's magic glowing ball.
"I did," Bracken stated.
Suddenly Kendra felt paralyzing dragonfear hit her. She could still move a bit and looked around at everyone to see the affect of dragonfear. Bracken seemed somewhat more immune than her but not totally. Leander was rigid next to Seth, his eyes wide with fear.
"We mean you no harm," Seth stated, the fear had no affect on him. "We came at the request of the young dragon who you spoke to in his dreams."
"They freed us from the troll's spell and have not harmed me or you. The new Shadowmaster seems to be quite a different sort than the last one," Unleea pleaded with the dragon.
"Who spoke, I think I recognized the voice. Who said 'I did'?" The dragon's female voice was multi-faceted and very melodic.
"I…did. I am…Bracken, the… hornless unicorn," he said struggling with the words.
"The Fairy Queen's son? You came to heal me?" she said astonished. She immediately dampened her dragonfear. "Thank you, Prince Bracken, I feel much better now."
Unleea gasped and looked at him with adoring eyes.
Kendra felt she could move and breathe again. She looked over at Leander and saw he had the same reaction. He was taking a deep breath just the same time she did. It didn't make sense to her… a dragon affected by dragonfear? Then she decided he must be faking to appear human.
"When we heard you were trapped I happened to be available so we came to find you," Bracken told her. "May we know your name?" he asked.
"Not yet, not until I know more about what is going on," the dragon said suspiciously. She had no idea who or what the other human-like creatures were.
"Navarog is dead," Unleea said eager to give her good news.
"How?" she asked looking at the smiling humans surrounding her. She was beginning to believe they had rescued her after all.
"Navarog was killed while he was in his human form. He was planning an attack on Wyrmroost and Celebrant. He was bragging about it," Kendra answered. "The dragon heard the plan, snuck up on him and ate him."
The dragon growled and roared loudly. Kendra threw her hands over her ears.
"That dragon is a hero if he killed such as Navarog. I will honor him when I see him. What is his name?" she said in her normal though musical voice.
"I don't know," Kendra said warily looking at Leander, who was looking at her and slightly shaking his head.
Leander smirked inwardly thinking, you wouldn't honor him not if you saw him. You would ridicule him like the others, but no one will see him again anytime soon.
"Do you know why Navarog was trying to kill you?" Bracken asked the dragon.
"No."
"Unleea do you know why Kelmar was trying to kill her?" Seth asked the shadow charmer.
"Yes," Both the dragon and the shadow charmer answered.
"Why?" Four human voices asked in unison.
"I was hated by my rivals, the other female dragons who wanted my mate. Kelmar sent Unleea to either kill me or die trying. She is a sweet thing for a shadow charmer but Kelmar didn't know that. She warned me and we were trying to figure out what to do when Navarog showed up and cut me with a poisoned blade. We were able to hide long enough for Unleea to shade me. We ran here and hid in this cavern," the dragon said.
"I knew that the hermit troll had a special space here, I heard him mumbling. What I didn't know was that he had the means to trap us if we came inside," Unleea explained.
"I wanted to go into a hibernation-like sleep before the poison incapacitated me but I was so weakened by the poison that I quickly cessated to keep from dying," the dragon clarified.
"Once she went to sleep I couldn't get released from the shade-share. I became part of her and shared her life force and was able to continue."
"What year is it?" the dragon asked aware of their strange clothing and wrist adornments, especially on the young woman.
"Two thousand ten," Seth replied.
"What? No! This cannot be," the dragon cried. "My offspring will be grown."
"We can help you find your offspring, what are their names?" Bracken asked.
"They weren't hatched when I was attacked. I don't know their names. Poor Celebrant had to raise his offspring on his own," she lamented, her head swaying sorrowfully on the end of her long neck.
Kendra was right, Bracken thought, it is Raxtus' mother.
Leander looked at her and realized what she had just disclosed; she was his mother. The dragon that everyone thought was dead was actually alive. Still he didn't want her to know who he was. Having one parent embarrassed by your appearance was enough for him. He was glad that his father would see his favorite mate again but Leander couldn't see a way for them ever to be a family. Besides, he was happier as a human, happier than he'd even been, except perhaps when he was flying. But he hadn't experience a fraction of what it meant to be human; he was sure that there would be something he could find that would rival the feeling of flying.
"So you are Axezeles," Leander stated to keep his friends from guessing whether he knew or not.
"Yes," she said proudly but surprised. "I am. How do you know of me?"
"I am Leander, a tracker. I have been looking for Celebrant's and Axezeles' only son. He has been missing for over a month," he told her. "I came upon a young dragon and his request to find you. Because of the two shadow charmers the trail to you was easier to follow."
"Only son? But there were four eggs surely there was more than one male," she said confused and deeply disappointed with the number of male offspring.
"Bracken, will you tell her? You know the story better than I do," Leander asked feeling sad, troubled by her words.
Bracken nodded, knowing that it had to be hard on him just looking at her especially when she didn't appear to be concerned her son was missing. She seemed more troubled about the others.
Leander pulled the lighted stone from his pocket and walked away toward the dark cavern entrance, toward Hugo. He was disappointed that she didn't seem concerned that her 'only' son was missing. It has to be a dragon thing he thought. They aren't as connected to their children as humans are. The eggs hatch unsupervised. If you survived to hatch, you grew up. If you survived growing up, then you showed up years later to make your parents proud… or not.
He had survived but definitely didn't make his father proud. Celebrant was distressed at the terrible loss of his mate and was not proud of a son who was a freak and an unbearable disappointment. That was why his half brothers were in charge of the other two dragon sanctuaries. He spent most of his time invisible so other dragons couldn't torment him, which they would do if they caught sight of him.
He walked past the huge pile of rotting slime and sat curled up with his head on his knees next to Hugo at the entrance of the troll cave. He sat the lighted stone on the toe of his shoe. His left arm wrapped around his legs his hand gripped his right elbow. He pushed the bright stone around on the toe of his shoe with his free right hand.
He tried hard not to listen to Bracken retell the story he had only heard himself two days earlier but it was impossible to ignore it. He explained the situation surrounding her and her eggs. But as Bracken skimmed over the consequences of the use of fairy magic to save and hatch her only offspring. Leander couldn't help but groan as Bracken told her that other dragons had never accepted Raxtus. A major understatement if there ever was one, he lamented. A strange noise rumbled in the cave reducing his ability to hear Bracken. He was shocked when he realized the strange sound echoing through the cave was the dragon weeping.
He heard a different noise, closer to him and looked up. Kendra came around the corner, tears clouding her eyes. She shuffled to his side and sat down next to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and cried softly into his shoulder.
When he had first met her, years ago, she was crying but he had been a dragon then and he hadn't known what to do. Although as a dragon there were limited things, he could have done.
"Don't cry," he said just like the first time, but now he could do something. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. He rocked her; it just seemed a natural thing to do and it comforted him too. It was difficult knowing that it was his mother in there weeping for his siblings and even possibly for him.
"I know its old news to us but she just learned that she's lost three children and her only son is missing," she sobbed into his shoulder. "That has to be hard enough but she now knows someone wanted her and her children dead for very serious reasons."
"We will figure it out. She will be safe," Leander said confidently as a lump formed in his throat reducing his ability to speak. All of this emotion was new to him. He felt tears fill his eyes and when he blinked, the warm tears fell onto his face. He gulped trying to swallow the lump and sniffed as the tears also made his nose run.
Kendra looked up at him and smiled sadly through her tears.
"Look. I've got you crying too. Sorry," she said as she reached up to wipe the tears from his face.
"Every day is something new!" He shrugged and grinned back enjoying the feel of her warm fingers on his face, her warm body next to him. Was he enjoying the feelings too much? Kendra was only a friend.
He was embarrassed at the thoughts going through his mind. He was crying over his mother, the death of his siblings and still enjoying Kendra's warm hug and tender touch.
What was wrong with him?
What was with all of the conflicting emotions? Was this what it was like to be human all the time? Maybe it will get easier, he thought hopefully.