[Wk45] The Fate of the Dragons, part 1
The dragons met with the elves every other year to celebrate each other in the rare gleam of the dual full moons that shone over the elven home planet, Orachii. They let their auras consume their urges, and filled the air with their multitude of brilliant hues. New trees and flowers scattered behind them, swords clashed under showers of purple sparks, and thunder rolled across clear, dry, skies. They changed shapes, altered wind, water, and soil, and set their world alight with the fey need in their release.
The celebrations following the Elven Unification were intense. There was much pain to be shed in the wide warm glow of their two moons. The dragons, solid and unwavering with their seamless auras for uncounted millennia, had worried for their elven kin when the Sickness struck. The ensuing twilights were as rife with their relief as it was abundant with the elves’ triumph.
Saftal’s clan typically returned from their inter-planetary excursion a handful of hours before the dual twilight. Dragons of purple auras were the only family of dragons that could waft easily to distant planets. Their ability to make the journey without extreme fatigue or serious injury cast them as the observers and explorers of worlds outside the neighboring orbits of their home planet and Orachii. They roamed the galaxy frequently; flickering in and out of time and space, traveling in size-less fragments on the concentrated beams of their auras. Saftal’s clan was the largest of the exploratory clans; the plum aura that framed their history and their essence was often regarded as one of the oldest and most concentrated hues in the dragon spectrum. Their well-organized adventures across their galaxy routinely brought the freshest information with the most detail and nuance.
Saftal was a bit reckless on her excursions. She often flew by herself, ahead of her clan, and had, on numerous occasions, neglected to relay her location to them. Dragons were bonded creatures, deriving their strength and stability from the intense intimacy they cultivated between their clans and families. They thought in groups and felt as one. Saftal, unlike every other dragon she’d ever met, enjoyed her solitary flights. She relished the lightness of hearing only her thoughts against the wind and her wings. Her clan appreciated the different information she brought from her journeys to the discussions, and tended to regard her cravings for solitude as a phase.
Saftal’s clan traveled regularly to Etyn and Tasua. Their cousins, the pearl dragons, resided on Etyn, and the merfolk lived on Tasua. Saftal’s own home planet, Vitua, had long, active, histories with Etyn and Tasua.
The merfolk were fantastic storytellers, and the dragons adored the blue, green, and black hued energies they wove into their tales. They would exchange tales of their worlds, air and water perspectives meeting in tangible color and emotion. Their often-contradicting lived experiences brought them new approaches to mutual problems.
Etyn was family; visiting Etyn was like coming home. Although pearl dragons were not auraic, they understood the ways of their distant clans. The aura dragons bonded with them as they would any of their auraic kin.
The social visits often took up the bulk of the excursion. Saftal would leave early, flying to less populated planets. She loved to look for new creatures and the beginnings of fresh families and homes. Saftal took personal pride in her discoveries, and would tell her clan all her hopes for the fledgling communities she spotted in her solo missions.
Her latest project was keeping up with the newcomers to Kort. Kort was a sparsely populated planet, despite its temperatures and atmosphere being relatively amenable to life. Her clan rarely visited; a plague had roamed the planet several centuries ago, and life had struggled for foothold there ever since. Saftal was fascinated by its emptiness and snuck away for a peek at it every time her clan traveled.
When the newcomers arrived, Saftal happened to be sitting atop a ledge over the ravine where they landed. The first ship fell, flame riddled, on the rocky north edge of the valley. It exploded when the next ship landed several hundred feet away. Saftal wept as she felt the lives aboard the shattered ship snuff out beneath the smoke and fire. She watched the creatures pour from the second ship, rushing to the flames with little buckets of water that would not bring their kindred back. The third ship landed, and Saftal realized she was witnessing their Arrival.
stay tuned for part 2 next week!