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Chapter 21

We slowly made our way deeper into the cavern, the Nii ignoring us for the most part. I wasn’t sure if they were unable to sense their environment or they simply didn't mind bumping into things, but whatever it was, they moved slowly enough to not be an issue even if they did hit you.

“Careful there,” Ophara muttered as she pushed a fist-sized one away from her head. We were far enough into the room by now that I couldn’t see the walls in any direction. Nevertheless, Loriel forged ahead as if she knew exactly where we were going.

Meanwhile I could still feel that same stirring of energy from before. I’d expected it to die out as the first one had, but instead it seemed to be spreading out. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was supposed to know what it was.

“I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you,” Avanor said, falling back to walk besides me. “We’ll know soon enough if anything is up.”

I looked at him, considering what so say. “It’s not that I’m worried. It just feels… important, somehow.” I shook my head. “But you’re right, there’s no use thinking about it right now.” He simply smiled in response.

“So anyway, what do you think about this place?” he asked, gesturing at the Nii surrounding us.

I followed his gaze, letting the Nii’s light flood my perception. “It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.” The constant swirling colors had an almost entrancing effect if you stared at them long enough.

“That’s great. I wasn’t sure if coming here was a good idea, but now that we’re here I’m just glad we…” he interrupted himself, all of them stopping dead in their tracks.

“What?!” Ophara asked out loud, all their expressions turning from happy to serious in an instant. I didn’t know why. There was nothing around us that would warrant such a reaction.

I was about to ask, but Avanor held up a hand, eyes unfocused as he concentrated on something else.

They’re talking to someone, I realized, noticing how all of their minds seemed to be interacting with their Imi.

I waited, resisting the temptation to probe a little deeper and maybe follow along with their conversation. Even so, it was easy to tell there was something major happening.

Several tense moments later Avanor turned around to face me. “I think we just found out what you’ve been sensing,” he said before turning back towards where we came from and breaking into a light jog. The others followed, and after a moment’s hesitation the Tsahn and I began moving as well.

“It’s dragons. Well over a hundred of them.”

The moment he said the words I knew it was true, the faint movements I was still feeling instantly taking on a whole new meaning.

“They’re intelligent,” I said without a doubt in my mind. In front of us I began making out hints of a wall, the Nii slowing us down far more than I would’ve liked.

“Are you sure?” Saren asked.

“Yes, absolutely.” Now that I knew what I was feeling that fact was as clear as day. These minds I was feeling were nothing like those of the feral dragons closer by. Each and every one of them felt just as powerful as Rahk had, back then when he’d led me here. I shuddered to think what such a congregation of power entailed.

We finally broke free of the cavern, speeding up as the Nii grew less frequent. Now only the Tsahn’s clumsy run was holding us back, but there was nothing much we could do about that.

“Do you have any idea what they might want?” Avanor asked, breath calm despite the physical exertion.

“No, I…“ I began, but interrupted myself when a thought came to me. If what I was feeling was dragons then that other stirring - the first one that had been off in a direction that didn’t seem to fit into this world - could only have been one thing.

“I don’t know what they want, but it has something to do with Rahk.”

“Who’s that?”

“He’s the dragon that helped me get here,” I replied, voice tense as I tried putting what I knew together.

“I’ve been meaning to ask about that,” Loriel shouted from behind to make herself heard over the sound of our footsteps echoing throughout the tunnels. “Are you sure that he came from here?”

“Yes. He said so himself.”

She furrowed her brows. “I guess I’m just wondering how it’s possible he’s never been seen before. And now there’s over a hundred more, out of seemingly nowhere. We’ve explored and mapped every centimeter of this planet, so how could we have possibly missed something like that?”

I didn’t know, and neither did any of the others.

We ran in silence the rest of the way, my thoughts always coming back to one single question. Why was this happening now? A species that noone had seen in millions of years suddenly returning in full force, just minutes after I had found my Krahl. Had I somehow caused this?

The thought alone made me anxious. Who knew what these dragons had in mind, their colossal powers constantly drawing closer at incredible speeds. I could only hope their intentions weren’t malicious.

And then there was Rahk, of course, who, for some reason, was separate from the others. I’d felt him do something just moments before disappearing, though the sensation had been too strange and too faint for me to know what. How was he involved in this? Was he some sort of scout for the others? He hadn’t told me much back when we’d met.

I shook my head, trying to focus on the way in front of me, but the confusing mix of excitement and anxiousness made it difficult to steer my thoughts.

It took us several more minutes to finally reach the surface, in which I felt the dragons come ever closer. They were spreading out, with a larger group heading straight for us. Now that I could sense them more clearly it became apparent just how fast they were moving. It was only going to take them a few minutes to cover the last kilometers between us.

I was the first to exit the tunnel and fly up, out of the ravine. While I waited for the others to follow I returned to my normal size, a tiny bit of calm settling in as my body changed into the familiar form. There was simply something different about this shape.

“We’ll try to meet them up there,” Avanor said, pointing at the highest mountain we could see from here.

“What are you going to do?” I asked. I hadn’t even considered what their goal was in coming up here so quickly.

“See if they’re friendly or not,” he answered simply, mounting one of the Tsahn behind Loriel. Within seconds all of them were ready to go and the animals took off in their characteristic snaking flight.

I followed close behind, turning to look north as we rose above the mountain ridge blocking our sight. A surge of emotion ran through me as I saw a sparse line of tiny figures approaching from the horizon. I hadn’t expected them to be so close already.

They were flying fast, faster than I’d thought possible. By the time we touched down on the flat mountain top, barely a thirty second flight, they were almost upon us. Their approach was heralded by a thunder in the air that rivaled any storm I’d ever heard.

The central group of maybe fifteen dragons, the one that was headed straight for us, began slowing down, falling out of line with the others. I braced myself for an impact with the oncoming storm wall that carried them, but just before it arrived a small hole opened up, passing around us before closing again. In a blink of an eye the main line of dragons was past.

I resisted the urge to look after them, focusing instead on the group approaching from the front. There were sixteen of them, flying in a loose formation with a lilac colored one with a grey underbelly leading the center. They spread out, the majority of them encircling us, their wingbeats controlled as they hovered in place in the air around us. Four more were circling higher up, while the leader touched down opposite of us, careful gaze resting on me.

It was a female, I realized, and she was larger than me, easily as large as Rahk. All of them were, in fact, their two-colored bodies significantly more massive than mine.

Instinctively I found myself standing up tall, my head raised and wings raised slightly from my body. The dragons’ eyes seemed hostile as I looked around at them.

Several tense moments passed as we eyed each other, none sure what the other party was going to do. I was taken off guard when the leader suddenly spoke.

“It’s not him,” she said in the powerful dragon tongue, for the first time taking her eyes off me to look at the other dragons.

“How can you be sure? He might be masking his mind as well as his body,” a green, and white colored dragon to the right of me asked. He met my eyes with hostility.

“He’s intimidated,” the lilac dragon stated matter-of-factly. It was true. How could I not be with this much power on the verge of attacking me?

Instead of replying the green dragon launched himself forward, out of the circle, and touched down on top of one of the tall spires covering the mountain. I tensed, but didn’t move otherwise.

“You’re right,” he said, though his voice was free of mock. His eyes lingered on me a moment longer before he turned to the lilac dragon. “We’ll leave you, then.”

She simply nodded and in a sudden flurry of motion the swarm of dragons took off, rapidly accelerating towards the southern horizon. I looked after them for a moment before turning to face the one that had remained.

“Who are you?” I asked, still gathering my composure.

“I am called Sarkehh,” she answered, “though I must ask the same to you. Who are you?”

“I am Arkanith,” I replied, strangely proud to be able to present my new name. It had truly been a great choice, I thought.

Sarkehh seemed surprised to hear that. “Who gave you that name?”

“My friends did,” I answered, looking down at them. The word had come to me without thinking, simply encapsulating my feelings towards them. But now that I’d said it, I saw the truth in it. Even if I had only known them for days, I was happy to call them my friends.

“That is good.” Her expression softened.

“What do you want here?” I asked. Sarkehh considered me for a moment

“Before I can answer that, I have to ask you one more question,” she said, waiting for my approval. I nodded.

“What is your Krahl?”

Spoken by her the word had the same unmistakeable air of certainty behind it as it had with Rahk.

“My Krahl,” I repeated, feeling that same quality repeated in my own voice. Saying it in this tongue meant more than simply producing the sounds. It carried with it a deeper understanding of one’s own self.

I thought I was beginning to understand why I’d had so much trouble saying it several months ago.

“My Krahl is to live,” I said, trying my best to put into words what I’d felt down there in the light filled cavern. “It is to give chances for life to unfold.”

“I see.” A hint of thoughtfulness entered her expression. “Your conviction seems strong for having found it so recently,” she added.

I simply met her gaze, staying firm.

A faint smile appeared around the corners of her mouth before disappearing again. “In that case I will deliver the message we came to spread.”

She focused on Avanor, quickly touching his mind with her own before retreating again. He seemed to barely have noticed she did anything at all.

When she started speaking again it was in perfect Vornith. “I am here to give you a warning and a plea for help. As we speak, others of my kind are seeking out every member of your civilization they can find and delivering the same message.”

“Wait, wait, wait, what is going on?” Ophara interjected. “How come you…”

Sarkehh interrupted her with a gesture, expression serious. “In time. You can ask questions after I have told you what I have to say.” She paused, gathering her mind. “There is a dragon on the loose that has the potential to wipe out all life on this planet if he so desires. He has done so before and might do so again.”

I felt all my thoughts stop at that very moment. No. That can’t be true.

Sarkehh gave me a concerned look, but carried on with her explanation. Beside me Avanor and Loriel exchanged worried glances. “We do not know where he is or what he is out to do, but we ask you all to lend us your aid in finding him. Know, however, that he is a shapeshifter of phenomenal prowess, capable of masking both body and mind.”

No, no, no, I could hear myself thinking. It can’t be him. It can’t.

“Be wary of any new arrivals, be they familiar or strange. Do not attempt to confront him, for he is far too powerful to be brought down by anything other than the combined might of our entire race. That is all.”

She fell silent, eyes shifting to me. I couldn’t bare to confirm what I already knew.

“His name,” I began, barely daring to speak. “Is it Rahk?”

I knew the answer as soon as I felt the turmoil of emotions rise up in her mind. Rage, hatred, and betrayal were all there, overshadowed by a looming fear. Fear! His name alone was enough to make someone of her power afraid.

“You know him?” Sarkehh asked, the first of a million questions, I felt. Her voice seemed almost frail, suddenly.

“Yes,” I whispered, remembering the first words Rahk and I had exchanged. How he had thanked me. Thanked me for allowing him to get to my world. “I helped him escape.”

End of Part 1