Prologue part 7: Anticipation and stakes rising
Half a night later…
It is midnight, a time when the stars and the moons are the most visible, presenting themselves over the dunes of this kingdom that sing as the wind moves them and embraces them.
In the middle of the desert stand a humble building made to hide who are inside it and the decisions they take. Go trough the front door and walk until you found the stairs, then descend these stairs and at the bottom, you will find the Room, guarded by four sandwings. And in inside it, at this moment, its dragons are quite serious and even a bit stressed.
A somewhat average sandwing wears a crown, a simple golden one that shows he is above the three sandwings and the nightwing in the room. All five are around a great but simple circular wooden table.
Of the three sandwings, one is fully average and has no scar, a second has smaller wings and more muscular talons, and the third is slightly bigger than the others, with his wings membrane extending a bit on his back, likely to due to a mutation.
The nightwing is also pretty close to his tribe base shape, aside from a silver scale following each eyes.
All the dragons here wears almost nothing, their more elaborate clothes would only slow them down, being unnecessary in this secret meeting made quickly to react at what happened a few days before.
The crowned sandwing named Dryseed starts the discussion with a neutral tone to inform and confirm everyone of the situation. All the others start focusing on him.
"As we all know, this meeting has been taken after our scouts discovered that a group of dragon settled a camp near Telunabris. They have been successful in going into the ruins without being harmed during their exploration of the place. They have taken notes and have returned with them."
Dryseed then looks at everyone in the room.
- "Any questions?"
- "Yes, I would like to ask who they are exactly. Do we know them personally? What are their plan?" Answers the nightwing.
The more muscular sandwing rise her talon, Dryseed replies to her:
- "If you have the answers, you can tell them to Venomtail."
- "Thanks. The one who are in the camp and exploring the temple are members of the Eternal Sea, the Mirror of Sol and Coldmoon. There is also an icewing captain named Nordclaw that came with his soldiers yesterday in the camp."
- "Does this sudden arrival changes their behaviour? How do they both interact?" Ask the nightwing.
- "They have not changed their course of action Horizonwatcher. However, while the group of icewings is just training around the camp, one of the soldier joined the team exploring the temple. Also, captain Nordclaw interacts and discusses a lot with these high ranked members. He may not be a part of an organization, but he takes part at least indirectly in their business."
A bit of surprise appears inside everyone's face, but no one seems to know what to say nor what to ask until…
- "So what do we do?" Ask the sandwing with no scar.
The sandwing wearing the crown answers the question as calmly as possible, remaining patient.
- "To answer that, let's focus on what has the biggest potential in the situation. If the ruins of Telunabris are to be more accessible in the future, what will happen?"
Before anyone can reply, Dryseed answers the question.
- "These organizations obtain more knowledge about animus magic, maybe they get location of others old place like that one, and maybe they find some enchanted artefacts. So what then?"
- "It will draw the attention of queen Scorpion. She may be a bit dumb, but she definitely won't miss the opportunity for more exotic loot if she ever hears about it." Answers the slightly bigger sandwing with an imposing tone.
- "Correct Drytongue, and I would like to add my part. Not only will she want to do that, but her decision no matter if it is good or bad will be supported by others somewhat influent dragons like me who don't want to oppose the queen at all, and bootlicking her for extra safety and gains."
Replies the scarless sandwing named Crackingscale.
- "And Queen Vigilance will definitely take a look at the ruins if the words reach her. She is strict in ordering to know everything and take even the slightest advantage she can get." Says the nightwing.
- "And others queens and power hungry dragons may go or send forces here as well if they became interested enough" Continues Venomtail.
Everyone look at each others and think about that has been said, trying to guess the outcome of such situation, when Dryseed speaks.
- "All of these are good reasons to keep what is taken and learned from the ruins a secret. The longer it takes for the words to spread, the more we have an advantage. Make no mistake, if what these ruins have are more than worth it, the dragons will know, but we can gain time to plan better and with more resources."
- "So we need a diversion?" Replies Venomtail with a grin, knowing from experience that it may be necessary for things to get ugly in some way.
- "Maybe. First, we need to help that camp and its dragons and cross our interest to better plan. Second, we need to do everything to say nothing interesting about it and shut down the hype. And finally we will set a distraction, but not before the interest for Telunabris is really rising."
Answers Dryseed.
- "So for now, I wait?" Ask Venomtail.
- "For now yes, but you will follow me when I need you. As for you, Crackingscale and Drytongue, just downplay the event each time a dragon speak of it, or say nothing if it can backfire. And finally you Horizonwatcher, don't do anything in particular, just stay silent about it."
- "And what will you do?" Ask Drytongue.
- "I will visit these dragon in fourteenth hours with Venomtail, just the time to get some rest before this little travel of importance to negotiate a deal. Anybody wants to add anything?"
- "I think it's enough. We will speak of it tomorrow if there something." Answers Venomtail with confidence. She know being careful is good, but paranoia will in the end tire everyone, so ending here to rest isn't bad at all.
- "So it is set. The meeting is finished."
With these final words of Dryseed, the five dragons return to their room to rest as the night passes except for the nightwing…
The sun rises over the sea of sand, the temperature increases and dragons slowly wake up from their slumber in relative comfort. Outside of the camp's building, the team of ten dragons is present once again, ready to go again to the ruins.
They check one last time the content of their large satchels, all the tools and resources they need are here. Once it is done, Abysswatcher tells the plan like last time.
"Remember, we go directly to the temple's center, cover the most preserved body with mesh and take it with us. If anyone feels too bad, he will leave the temple with one dragon following him and stay at the entrance. If six of us or more have any kind of symptoms, we abort the mission."
No member has any doubt about the mission, so with all of them ready, the group takes off in the air under the watch of the habitants, beginning their expedition like yesterday…
Observing the scene carefully and thinking about it, Frosttongue decides to go talk to Frostteeth for answers. The icewing captain starts to return to his building when he hears the younger icewing's words.
- "Excuse me, may I ask you some questions captain Frostteeth?"
The called out dragon turns his head in surprised and reacts with curiosity at the sight of the speaker.
- "You may. But first, what is your name young one?"
Says the captain in a neutral tone.
- "Frosttongue. Can you tell me with your words what role you play here? For a captain, you being without soldiers makes curious."
Frostteeth hesitates as he understand what is asked, but after a moment answers carefully.
- "I am here for management and possible negotiations, that's all Frosttongue. You may doubt it, but even an isolated camp like this need dragons with many different set of skills to help in any potential situation."
The young one seems more interested and his bit of suspicion disappears.
- "If I understand correctly, all of you are working to extract from the temple's ruins and learn more about it. What kind of curse makes these ruins difficult to explore, and how have you solved the problem?"
More at ease with this question, the captain gladly answers.
- "The curse is an aura that spread sickness upon any dragon whose body shows weakness or exhaustion. So to walk inside it unharmed for a relatively long time, you have to be in good shape, and minimise contacts with the place by wearing heavy clothes like metallic mesh, gloves and a mask."
- "I see… So how well do you think the exploration team is doing?"
- "Good enough. I'm not an expert in the ancient lore and magic stuff, but progress is made and that's what matter. The speed is sufficient, what is important is that there is little risk. That's why we send a team of ten dragons to do simple tasks, it's for safety. If one can't continue, he leaves, if too many can't, we give up the task."
- "So Coldspine is safe in that expedition?"
- "Yes, he is. He may be a be a beginner, but he has nine others ones he can count on."
Frosttongue remains silent for a moment, his head full of thoughts.
"Did I answer all of your questions? You still seem to have some doubts in your mind."
- "Yes, I'm a bit… worried and curious about all of these events and my partner being close to that."
Frostteeth hesitates in his answer before deciding to let a bit of his emotions be shown.
- "Coldspine is your partner? That makes sense. As for your worries, they are normal, all the dragons here can be worried about the recent events and the future, including me."
- "Aren't you more worried about captain Nordclaw than anything else?"
The captain stares at the young icewing, not understanding him completely as he sees he is genuine, then chuckles the moment he truly get the answer.
- "I see our combat yesterday marked you, but no, I don't worry too much about him. What I worry about the most is that something terrible will happen in the next few days, what is at stakes here is kind of overwhelming. I know I'm not alone in this, but I can't shake this stressful feeling."
- "Now that I think about it, it's clear that anyone in charge of the camp now must have a lot on their shoulders. But how did you came into that position?"
Frostteeth decides to answer with reluctance.
- "I am a simple captain in the icewing military, and I don't think I will ever ascend in ranks, the tasks they give me betray their lack of faith in me. What changed my life was joining Coldmoon, my contribution earned me respect, and I began to believe in them and their purpose as time passes. It is why I am here today."
The young soldier is more than surprised, having difficulties believing the dragon before him is really of the position he claims.
- "They put that much trust in you?"
The icewing with many scars reacts hurt for a second, but calm his feeling and happily explains himself to the young one.
- "Correct. They value me greatly first because of my skills and experience, I know a lot about the criminal domain and how to act in these kind of shady situations, because I dwell in that domain and I had a lot of mission concerning it. Second because I became more loyal and familiar with them, they trust me more as I trust them more."
Frosttongue thinks about what has been said for a moment, then replies with a content expression and tone.
- "I understand. Thank you for answering my questions captain Frostteeth."
- "Glad I could shake off some of your doubts."
And so, the two dragons split apart, the young one returning with his comrades, and the older returning in the main building, probably to continue working with others members.
The team marches a second time on the ruins' shattered ground, passing trough the corridor in silence. The tens dragons go forward without being slowed down by the heavy mesh they wear or the mask, no complaint appear on any of them, but still, they can't erase that last bit of stress, their mind anticipating what they will do once they arrive at the center.
The noise of the wind blowing outside and on the temple's remains can be heard by everyone, as no word is spoken. By the nature of this second expedition, all has already been said trough that corridor, speaking would be unnecessary and a little exhausting, which is something to avoid. And that means only a handful of different noises can distract the team from the tension building in their mind, the image of what they saw yesterday…
Arriving at the center, all the members stop and cast a look over all the area. Nothing has changed at all, the corpses didn't move, they didn't deteriorate, and all of the crystal shards are still glowing.
Refocusing her mind, Abysswatcher glares at the most preserved corpse being at approximately a quarter of circle on the left, by far the farthest dragon from the absolute center.
Rising her front talon, she orders the nine others to follow the plan they've concluded this morning. And so the dragons walks, carefully looking around and pushing away the glowing pieces, avoiding the curse as much as possible, and they will need to remain the least affected by it, for what they will do in a moment will be costly…
This is it, they are now at their destination, forming a circle around the most preserved remains of a dragon. Looking at it closely, the skywing is covered in glowy veins of many colours: silver, orange and yellow with trace of dark blue and dark purple.
The right side of his body is covered in burns, the horn fractured, the talons damaged, but not anything critical. In fact, his right wing is surprisingly in good shape, like his hear and head bearing only a little scar, and its left side remain untouched by anything but the colourful veins.
Shocked by what they see but following their mission, the group of dragons with gloves takes out a large amount of copper mesh and put it beside the individual. Then, they gently roll the corpse into the mesh and make him wear it. His wings, slightly bigger than that of any skywing of its size, make thing difficult, but the ten dragons find a way to cover the whole body with the mesh.
Once it is done, the team reorganizes with four members transporting the corpse and six protecting and guiding them. Keeping their focus, they succeed in reaching the exit in less than half an hour.
Now at the temple's entrance, the members look at each others, checking for any sign of symptoms.
Seeing nothing, they start to return to the camp by walking, the skywing they transport not being something they can fly with without risk…
