DragonStone- Fatal Winds

by M A Bernier

  “I’m afraid we will not find anything else alive here Jaymee.”

  Alys spent several minutes reaching out to the ship with her mind. She found nothing of significance, no connection to the mysterious disappearances other than the same effect on the wood of the ship that she felt on the ground and in the plants on land. To Alys and the others it was clear the same entity or entities were responsible for the crew’s absence on this ship as the people on the land and the colony ships in orbit. She watched as Eryyn and Jaymee went below in the after section, then several minutes later emerged from the stern section. Jaymee was the first to emerge. He leaned down from where he had come from and Alys saw what looked like a drawer with clothing being handed to him. The two walked to the edge of the cargo ship.

  “Syl?” Eryyn looked at the dragon who immediately lowered one of her clawed hands and gently took the drawer from Jaymee’s hand. It was obvious the way he carried it, that it must contain something delicate and of value. Syl handed it to Alys who immediately heard the plaintive cries of hungry kittens. She peeked under the light layer of clothing and saw kittens suckling on their mother. The mother cat, all orange and short-haired, glanced at her, and blinked once almost as if thanking them for her rescue. When Eryyn and Jaymee were back on board Eryyn addressed the captain, his voice was low and his tone serious.

  “Captain, the same darkness which has kidnapped so many of the people on the continent has also taken those that were on that ship. I feel we should get to the Ring Islands as quickly as possible. Have your men release that ship and move us a short distance and lower the sails. I want to give that ship a proper burial. After that is done have everyone find something secure to hold on to, they might be in for a bit of shock.” After the cargo ship drifted about hundred feet away Eryyn nodded to Syl. She stretched forth her neck out over the railing. All others watched as her chest and belly expanded as she took a deep breath. When she exhaled a column of fire emerged and enveloped the cargo ship. Several of the crew shielded their eyes from the brightness of the flame. No one could shield themselves from the intense heat that emanated from both Syl’s body and the column of flame she let forth. A few moments of silence were observed. Even the plaintive cries of the feeding kittens had subsided momentarily. Eryyn nodded to the captain who issued a few orders and the sails came down. Eryyn walked to the front of the ship while Syl took to the air. All others found something secure to grab onto having been told what was about to occur. At first the ship did nothing, as Eryyn stood at the bow it suddenly lurched forward although it appeared he had done nothing at all. The ship accelerated faster and faster until it reached a point where the keel of the ship was hardly touching the water. Shortly thereafter the crew realized the ship was not touching the water at all. The wind blew with such force that it was nearly impossible to look in the direction it was traveling. Almost a full hour passed by, with most of the crew below, before the ship speeding above the water finally began to slow. Alys and the others joined the captain with Eryyn at the front of the ship and could see islands breaking the horizon in the distance. As Alys stood next to Eryyn he showed no fatigue from his effort.

  “Is it wise for us to come into port so quickly?” The ship's captain really wanted to say ‘unnaturally’ as he spoke to Eryyn.

  “There is no one to see us.” Eryyn spoke gravely as he looked the others with him. As they drew closer Alys could see Syl circling overhead. The islands truly formed a ring and some were connected by small land bridges. The size of the islands ranged anywhere from a mile to twenty miles in diameter. Eryyn guided the ship into a small port on one of the middle sized islands. The edge of a small town could be seen as they docked and the crew lashed ropes to the pier. Other smaller boats where docked, some anchored off shore but none had anyone present in them. At the outer edge of the small town a few animals were wandering alone through amidst the buildings, some in and out of them as well. Eryyn and the others disembarked and made their way to the beach area where Syl was gliding to; as she touched down she turned to Eryyn.

  “I’ve circled all the islands, there does not appear to be anyone at all, unless they are in hiding.” When she spoke the latter half of the sentence everyone could hear in the sound of her voice that not even she believed that was the case.

  “This is not right.” Eryyn said out loud to no one in particular. He started walking to the general direction of the town but then suddenly stopped. “Something very different is going on, the disappearances of all these people just doesn’t make sense.” Eryyn turned and looked at the others.

  “Because it is highly unlikely that every one of them had a birthmark of some kind.” Ardant answered to the unspoken question Eryyn asked. “Something else is at work here.”

  “Why do I have the feeling that even though these types of disappearances are different they are still connected?” Alys looked at the rest of the group.

  “Because they are.” Replied Syl. “I can feel it in the flow of the unseen tide and currents.”

  “I will not allow any further abductions!” Eryyn’s face was angry as he spoke. He took several steps back from the others and raised his hand not holding his staff and closed his eyes. His body started shimmering and parts of him began to dissolve in and out of existence.

  “ERYYN DON’T!” Syl cried out, but it was too late.

  “Syl what’s wrong?” Alys voice was raised. She lost him once and hearing a dragon’s warning filled her heart with dread.

  “Everyone get behind my wings!” Syl Stepped back to the very edge of the beach.

  “Syl, tell me what’s happening!” Alys demanded as she ran from a sense of urgency. Before Syl could respond Alys saw a quick flash of light as if lightning had struck where Eryyn stood. Alys peeked out from behind Syl’s wing. Eryyn was glowing bright white and then a clap of thunder from nowhere erupted around them. Eryyn was thrown fifty feet from where he stood. The sand on the beach absorbed the brunt of the impact but he was not moving.

  Alys was the first to reach Eryyn with Ardant close behind. Before they touched him Ardant used one of his devices and passed it over Eryyn’s body.

  “He’s alive, it’s safe to turn him over, but very gently.” He was laying face down with his staff still in his hand. As they turned him over he groaned in pain, to Alys it was a wonderful sound even though for Eryyn any movement appeared difficult.

  “Eryyn, what happened? Was it the enemy?” Alys tried to sound calm as she held his head in her lap.

  “No.” He replied weakly. A weak smile crossed his face which confused her and the others kneeling over him. “I got slapped.” He said as he looked at Syl and then lost consciousness. Alys turned to Syl for an explanation.

  “What happened to him?” Alys demanded. She was not angry with Syl. Alys just wanted an explanation and as quickly as possible.

  “The eddies he sought to travel are forbidden.”

  “Forbidden by whom? And why” Alys asked in frustration. “Eryyn just wanted to find the enemy and to find out why everyone is disappearing.”

  “Whom is one even we the most ancient of all creatures have no name for, there may not even be an entity, none know for certain.” Syl could see Alys wanted more of an explanation. “I know no more than I can tell you accept they are protected by forces no dragon, demon or any creature could wield to overcome.” She looked at Eryyn. “What Eryyn said confirms all that my kind has ever believed, there is an entity which protects those eddies and currents. Who, or what it is, and what other purpose it may have we do not know.” She looked again at Alys. “All I do know is that Eryyn should not be here, in this instant he was truly warned.”

  “You mean whatever it was might have killed him?” Asked Jaymee.

  “If he was lucky, only in the oldest memories exists rumors of the fates of those who attempted what Eryyn did.” Eryyn was brought back to the ship. They remained only long enough to pick up extra supplies from the abandoned island town and food for their new passenger and
her kittens. It was perhaps foolish to keep the kittens on board, but no one felt the new mother should be left behind. Before leaving the Ring Islands they did spend most of the day making sure that penned in animals could roam freely to eat. Every small island was the same Syl advised, given her advantage of flight she was able to make faster surveys of all the islands. The one thing they knew without a doubt was the abductions occurred only at night, Ardant had noted after visiting several homes that the beds looked as if someone had casually gotten up and left. It was almost as if everyone had left willingly, except that everyone felt the cold chill of something unexplained. Once the ship was again underway and Eryyn taken to below deck. Ardant had a chance to further explain to Alys and the others the confused look he had on his scanning device but it would not explain fully the multiple bruises and muscle strain.

  “The only time I have seen these readings is someone who tumbled town a cliff wall or had been run over several times.” On board the ship they had gathered with Syl under the canopy. “All his muscles show the effect of being pulled, torn or twisted. Whatever did this to him left no sign of an attack.” Ardant glanced at Syl and corrected one word. “Warning. But, if that was a warning anything worse would surely have killed him.” Ardant sighed and looked out upon the ocean at the setting sun. The past three days had revealed no more by his scientific resources of who, or what, the enemy was, or where this lost city was located. He turned back to the others and continued speaking as he voiced the many thoughts and questions he was trying to digest and understand. “This world, the Earth, still fills me with profound astonishment.” Ardant folded his arms in front of him. “When the colony ship I commanded returned to Earth most of us really expected to find perhaps a lush green planet most likely without other humans. We expected to find, if people did survive, technological settings at least similar to ours and a culture and history at least similar. Little did we, or I, expect to find such a culture as different as the colony ship as this one. I had always the science had been the dominating culture, and yet after meeting dragons, Eryyn and with Evergreen I find almost everything I thought about our history is probably wrong.”

  “Not wrong, just incomplete.” Jaymee, like always, was the most silent of the group. Ardant was not sure if he had always been like that, or had been that way since the death of his biological parents. He did not speak often, and Ardant noticed did not smile often. He was so quiet and reserved Ardant often was startled slightly when he did speak.

  “What do you mean?” Ardant asked Jaymee.

  “I don’t think your history is wrong. It is just that it is based on what was recorded by the dominate culture at the time your ancestors inhabited the Earth. It is no different than what I was taught, that magic has always been the dominant force. I never considered the type of culture you brought could exist. I think there have been different ages of human kind, sometimes science and sometimes magic. For all we know this could be the first time the two have ever coexisted together.” Jaymee looked around at the others, their faces each shown the thoughts in their mind as the statement he uttered had been an awakening of great thinking.

  “What makes you think this might be the first time?” Asked Syl.

  “Well, I had not considered the thoughts of a science culture until the return of the colony ship. I listened to some of the conversations between you, your father and my parents.” Jaymee gestured to Alys. “I have talked at length with Gydin and Rothyn each chance I could get, and they have told me that your father often spoke of one age or another, but never both together.”

  “That is true.” Syl folded her giant clawed feet in front of her in total human fashion. “And I think you would be right except that not even dragon kind has been on Earth since its birth. None of us know what Earth was like before we came, even in our memories we may not know when we arrived or how, but we do know it was long after this world’s creation.”

  “Syl.” Ardant had crossed his arms while listening. His face expressed the need to ask to him an important question. “In the memories of your kind, or any knowledge that you have, how often has there been the type of cataclysmic event like the one 10,000 years ago? More to the point, since your kind can ‘sense’ this flow of time or events, how often has that kind of event been felt.”

  Syl started to open her mouth to speak, then closed it as she realized that something at the edge of her mind was trying to come forward. After several moments her face grew more serious, then she spoke. “Since the Great War, that was the only event which parallels what we felt with Lysithia’s return.” She stopped speaking and looked intently at the others. When she looked at Ardant he seemed to have an insight on where her thoughts were going as he said, "keep going." “And what is occurring now.” She almost seemed reluctant to admit what she felt, or where her thoughts were leading her.

  “This cannot be good.” Alys sighed deeply and sat on the bench nearest to her.

  “So, here are the facts as we know them to be.” With each point Ardant made he touched on finger and the next, each one lifting up from a closed fist. “The first, we have two major events happening in less than a five year span which has never been recorded more than once in a species which has been on this world for eons.” Ardant pointed to Syl. “Second, we have Eryyn who has touched and harnessed a power called the Rootsource, which for all intense purpose would drive any other mortal creature mad. Third, Eryyn has joined at least once with the DragonStone and done what no human or dragon thought possible, and that is turned Dragon in Human.” He checked off another finger. “Fourth, the DragonStone, previously thought of as myth by the colonist culture and the culture here on Earth, has appeared on several occasions to witness a choice.” Ardant turned to Syl. She needed a word from him to verify what his unspoken question was.

  “It has never done so more than once in my father’s time.”

  “Fifth, it has spoken through a mortal.” Ardant hated admitting this fact. Magic was something five years ago totally alien to him. Now he had been chosen or, his choice verified by the DragonStone as well as being used as its voice. ”Sixth, another enemy we cannot yet find who may be as powerful again as Lysithia was, which indicates another battle and another choice this time apparently I will make.” Ardant looked at both hands before relaxing his fingers and lowering his hands. “I am running out of fingers. Now, being someone not accustomed to all this destiny and magic culture I could say I am overreacting.” He looked at each one of their faces, including the ship’s captain who had joined them in the last few moments. Syl, Alys and Jaymee all returned a look that told Ardant he was in no way overreacting. Their faces almost seemed to say he might even be under-reacting as the points he made registered on their consciousness.

  “Could this DragonStone be manipulating all of us?” The ship captain’s question was answered with a casual "no" from all the others at the same time. Their quick answer caused them to look at one another, each felt as if the answer were perfectly natural, but was not entirely sure why they all answered the same way at the same time. “How can you be sure? Lore and myth are not a guard's strong suit and we are trained little on it. What little we do know seems to say to me there is the possibility that at least we are being guided perhaps even helped?”

  “No.” Jaymee shook his head. “That does not feel right.” His words sounded hollow to him as he looked at the others for confirmation. Each one of them had in some way touched the DragonStone. He felt his answer would be justified with them on a deeper level of understanding.

  “Jaymee is right captain.” Alys stood from where she had been sitting. “The stone itself is only ever been present to witness a choice. Eryyn had once spoken about his joining with the DragonStone, he could not explain fully what he felt, but it was again to verify a choice of power and its use. Even Eryyn felt at that time he was not being tested by the stone but by something else, and the stone was present only to witness.”

  “And you ambassador, did it not speak through y
ou?” The captain asked Ardant. “I plead my ignorance if I do not understand what has happened.”

  “There is no ignorance in asking, only in keeping silent.” Syl said to the captain. She turned after to Ardant. “What did you feel when it spoke through you?”

  “It’s hard to say, but I think Jaymee and both of you are right about it being only a witness to choices and paths. Even though it spoke through me, it felt only as if it was another method of confirming yet another choice.”

  “All these events remind me of a dormant volcano.” Ardant had once again paced for a few moments with his arms crossed. Alys could not help note this trait. She smiled inwardly realizing it was much the same trait her own father had when he was considering a serious decision in his life.

  “In what way?” Asked Jaymee.

  “Well, in that a volcano can lie dormant for thousands of years. Once in a great while it can erupt with devastating force and cause a great deal of destruction, even if not intentionally. It’s like the pressure reaches such a point that smaller eruptions begin to occur signaling the larger one which has to occur in order to relieve dangerous pressures within the Earth.”