The Dragon Healer of Tone (World of Tone)

by Adams, A. D.

  “You go love. I’ll be all right. Your mother and sister are both here, and if anything happens, I’ll call you.” Fienna thought to Terra as they swam. When they arrived at the shore, Faray was standing near Dawra wanting to know what was happening. Fienna lay in the water with her belly just coming out as Terra walked out. Faray still had problems with the fact that Terra and Fienna wore no clothes much of the time. Terra walked to his sister.

  “A dragon has been hurt, and I’m going to heal it. Can you watch Fienna while I’m gone?”

  “Yes, of course,” Faray answered.

  Terra climbed onto the back of Dawra without putting on any of his new clothes, and Dawra launched herself into the air. Hectise was laying on the large flat rock in front of the cave entrance. He was watching over his daughter. He got up and went to the shore as Dawra took to the air.

  “Where are they going?” he asked Fienna.

  “A dragon has been hurt; Terra is going to heal her.”

  This satisfied his curiosity, and he lay down in the sand and again started watching his daughter. Terra and Dawra reached the female dragon, finding her body lying on the sand of the ocean shore. Terra immediately placed his hands on her. The orange glow traveled from his hands onto the great dragon’s body. It crept across her, relieving the pain and healing until her whole body was glowing, then it was done, and Terra backed away.

  “How did this happen?” he asked her.

  “I was flying along the coast when over thirty of the large black fliers attacked me from out of the sun. I killed several over the water and managed to make it to shore,” she said.

  Terra made sure she was all right and mounted Dawra to return home. As they prepared to take off, Terra saw dark clouds forming above them. As they took off, Fienna’s mind screamed to Terra.

  “We are being attacked by thousands of fliers. They’re everywhere,” Her mind then left his as if she was unconscious. Terra reached for Dawra’s mind without thinking.

  “Fienna is under attack; we must get home now.”

  Dawra heard his mind as clear as if it were sound. She increased her speed and within what seemed an eternity, but was only in reality a short time, they were within sight of the crevice. Dark angry clouds exploding with lightning hung above the crevice like death. As they approached, they could see hundreds of dead black fliers littered the ground with their broken or burnt bodies. Wounded dragons lay about the rim of the crevice obviously overwhelmed by the hideous creatures.

  As they breached the crevice walls, Terra could see nymphs scattered about like so many leaves, and Hectise writhing in agony and the dead body of Lowlack. They landed in front of the cave. Terra dismounted, and Dawra took off to help Hectise. He looked around and anger flowed into his being like never before. He heard a sound behind him.

  As he turned, he saw his mother cowering behind a rock. He walked over and looked down but said nothing. He then walked to the center of the huge flat rock. He stretched out his arms, and the ground below him began to glow orange. His whole body began to shimmer in the darkness. At that point even the injured looked at the site of power beyond understanding.

  As Reicka watched her son, his body began to change. His neck elongated, his head grew, his shoulders broadened and something began to grow from his back. He then hunched over, and a tail started to grow from his backbone. Wings formed and great talons appeared.

  Then before her stood the largest dragon she had ever seen, pure white with a crystalline back ridge. Light pulsed down from his head and up his tail to meet were the wings attached to the great body. When the two pulses met, the light spread into both wings and disappeared as it reached the tips. He turned his head toward his mother, and she saw the eyes of her son on the body of a dragon and his great crystalline teeth.

  She could hardly believe his size. He turned his head toward the clouds and said a single word.

  “Fienna!”

  All of Tone seemed to pulse with the power of that one word which penetrated to the soul of all. The clouds above them erupted into a boiling mass and finally dissipated into a blue sky. His great wings then stretched out, and in a single great downward sweep, he was halfway up the crevice walls. He then breathed in and let go an orange flame that engulfed the entire crevice. As the flame reached her, it seemed like a blanket of love and comfort that took her fear away and healed her body and soul. The flame dissipated, and in moments, she could see that all the plants were restored, the great dead bodies of the Averons were gone, the dragons and nymphs were getting to their feet healed. Then she again looked up, and Terra had again stroked those huge wings down driving him to a height above the crevice. Again he breathed an orange flame that covered the entire rim of the crevice and arched across its opening to create a great fiery dome. As it disappeared, she saw her dragon son look into the distance and fly off with a speed beyond anything she had seen before.

  Hectise and Dawra rose above the crevice walls and saw nothing of Terra. They could see the path he took. Boulders, the size of a half-grown dragon, were thrown about like feathers. The other dragons rose and formed in a phalanx behind the two, and without hesitation, followed the path Terra had taken. Reicka rose slowly to her feet as a group of nymphs surrounded her in a protective circle. The old nymph that Terra said was a wizard floated out of the water and to the side of Reicka.

  “Do not be alarmed. He has taken the first step on a journey we all need him to make. He can’t be harmed by that witch,” the old nymph said in perfect human language.

  “You can speak my language? What do you mean witch, what witch?” she said in a voice at a point of almost hysteria.

  “Obecka!” he replied.

  “She still exists,” Reicka said in amazement.

  “Yes, but not for much longer. He is not capable of being harmed by her, not with his power. She has made the greatest of mistakes.”

  “Mistake!”

  “You never make a gentle soul angry. Only a fool would do that,”

  the old nymph said.

  She sat back on the rock shivering from the wet dress she wore. The old nymph ordered a fire built and the two female nymphs who helped Fienna brought warm clothes.

  Chapter 78 - The Release

  (Sometimes an End is a Release to a New Beginning.)

  357 set of seasons since the coming of the Averons

  Terra’s mind had only one thought and that was to retrieve Fienna.

  As a dragon, he could feel her mind now, and she was well but in great danger. He flew without really a conscious thought of it. As he passed the valleys and entered the realm of the mountains, a flock of over five hundred Averons swirled directly in his path. Terra barely noticed them and flew directly into the great mass of creatures. A shield of air as hard as rock had formed in front of his great body, and the Averons crushed bodies were thrown above and below him like so many leaves in the wind. His passing created a powerful vortex, which twisted behind him. The creatures not crushed by his forward motion were sucked into the twisting winds behind him. Their bodies were torn apart by the forces of the churning air as if a child were tearing apart a ball of fluff.

  As Terra passed through the last of them, their bodies littered the ground, and none seemed to have survived for the path was now clear behind the great dragon.

  In the shadowy interior of Obecka’s cave, Fienna and Faray sat bound to chairs that were tied back to back. Fienna was near the time of birthing, and she was tired and sore. She just had awakened to the memories of the horrific battle that was fought at the crevice. She did not know how she got to this place or where she was. Faray felt Fienna move and bent her head back to talk to her.

  “Fienna are you all right?” she asked in a whisper.

  “Yes, where are we?” Fienna whispered back.

  “You are in my home,” a powerful female voice said.

  Fienna looked and saw the most striking and beautiful woman she had ever seen. Tall with golden hair and dressed entirely in black.
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  “I’m am Obecka, the most powerful Solan of them all. My magic is greater than any,” she said in a condescending voice.

  “Why did you bring us here?” Fienna asked in a voice even more commanding and powerful than the woman.

  “You are bait. I want the one who kills my pets and nearly myself.

  He will come for you, and I will destroy him.”

  Just then the whole world seemed to move to the tone of one word

  “Fienna.”

  The woman wavered and almost collapsed from the power that passed through everything on Tone. She grabbed the great table she stood near to steady herself.

  “My mate will be here soon, and he sounds none too happy. I would let us go if I were you, for I’m sure he would leave you in peace.”

  The woman’s face seemed to change from an expression of fear to anger, and her beauty was diminished. She slowly pushed herself away from the table and slowly, almost painfully, moved to a small enclave in the wall. There she picked up a dark colored globe and a large black staff with a black jewel on its crest. The enclave seemed to grow dark as a horrid blackness flowed from the cracks in its walls. It seemed to flow down the walls and along the ground until it reached the woman.

  It then moved up her body creating a black cloak around her. There she stood gripped by the blackness in a motionless pose with her two arms extended, with one hand holding the staff and the other the globe.

  Terra could not miss the target of his search. There in front of him it loomed, a giant mountain that seemed to ooze blackness, which dripped from every crack and crevice. Any other being would have been repulsed by the horrid sight and the fear it generated but not Terra.

  To him the mountain was ugly, but nothing else to his fearless eyes. He saw a ledge, which led to a gaping black hole in the side of the mountain about three quarters of the way up. He knew from his mental contact that was where Fienna was. He slowed and landed noiselessly on the ledge and changed back into a man. He did not need the dragon form any longer, and it seemed to fade on its own. He walked into the cave naked. There he saw Fienna and Faray tied back to back and an odd figure in a blackened alcove of rock. As soon as he walked in, an amulet similar to the one he used to wear and now embedded in his and Fienna’s chest flew off a hook on the wall and floated in mid air just in front of his chest. It was as if it were examining the one embedded in him. Terra looked at it and pointed to his mate and Faray. The amulet flew to them and positioned itself over their heads. It then turned on it’s side, and from the eight colored stones ribs of matching colored light arced to the ground creating a protective dome over the women at the same time cutting their bonds. In between the ribs transparent panels appeared that were combinations of the colored ribs that made up their borders. The clear stone did not create a rib, but one panel was twice the size of the others and had no color. It faced toward Terra and allowed the women to see him clearly. Suddenly, from the dark colored globe, a black lightning bolt crackled across the room and struck the dome. It was instantly reflected back to the source. The globe shattered into an explosive blizzard of sparkling shards. The figure’s hand was a bleeding mass as the blackness crept across the wounds and sealed them. The figure then pulled the staff directly between them and grasped it with both hands. From its jeweled crest a second bolt issued toward Terra. Instantly, from the lighted jewel embedded in Terra’s chest, eight entwined strings forming a rope of light snapped across the distance and met the bolt. A powerful explosion erupted between the two. Neither seemed harmed as the light and dust cleared. The two were motionless for a time. Fienna thought it was eternity before she saw a blackness ooze from the feet of Obecka and begin to slowly make its way toward Terra. Her thoughts burst a warning, and Terra simply thought back, “Don’t worry; I see it,” in a loving and concerned tone.

  Terra’s body began to glow orange as the blackness came closer. His glow increased to a point where his body was no longer visible, and the brightness was so intense that Fienna could not directly look at him.

  The blackness advanced and began to form a dome over his body.

  Within moments, the glow was gone and deadly black appeared in its place. Fienna could no longer feel Terra’s mind, and her fear swelled.

  For what seemed an eon, nothing seemed to happen. The scene before the two women seemed frozen in time. As Faray watched, the black dome appeared immutable until she thought she saw a wisp of orange in is dull surface. Then she saw another.

  “Fienna, Look at the orange wisps.”

  Fienna looked, and there they were small orange streaks in the impenetrable blackness. Slowly, they grew brighter, and the black dome was now an angry swirling mass of black and orange. Then she felt the mind of Terra. Her joy was indescribable. The dome slowly became a solid bright orange and then collapsed revealing the bright orange figure standing at its center. The blackness spread across the floor began to turn orange until it reached the black hooded figure and started to climb its body. The figure seemed to begin to shiver, and a blood-curdling scream pierced the dead quiet of the cave. The blackness seemed to flee into the cracks that then filled with Terra’s orange glow. The figure was now completely covered in an orange glowing blanket of energy; only the black jewel remained uncovered.

  The jewel resisted; it pulsed with black to blue light until it exploded into a sparkling shower of clear shards. At that, the figure collapsed into a heap onto the ground, and Terra’s glow faded except for his feet, and the ground he stood on. Terra reached out his hand toward the amulet, and the colored dome faded as the amulet flew to his hand.

  Faray stood and turned to help Fienna up. Terra moved across the room with such speed that Faray was only just reaching for Fienna when the great arms of her mate picked her up. Terra carried Fienna, and the three advanced on the figure lying on the floor. The ground below his feet changed to an orange glow with each step. The once beautiful woman was now an ancient figure that was beyond help.

  Terra knelt down still carrying Fienna, and the old woman opened her eyes.

  “Thank you for releasing me from the grip of the black demon. I could not control my own will. I’m now free at last.”

  As her eyes closed for the last time, a fog surrounded them. Three human female figures formed from the fog in front of them, and from the body of the old one, a smoky white figure lifted. It took it’s place with the three which became four. As Terra stood, a fifth figure began to form into shape at the center of the four. The center figure was not of the fog but was a transparent image of a very old woman floating in the air wearing an amulet like the one Terra held.

  “I am Telsen, a Solan of the first order, young one. You have much power,” it said to Terra.

  “Who are you?” Terra asked.

  “I am the last of the Solans. We were trained in the use of magic in a sisterhood of love. We used our magic to help and protect the people.”

  “You’re the last?” Faray asked.

  “You will be the start of the next generation,” the image said to Faray.

  “The amulet is hers now. Please give it to her,” the figure said to Terra as it pointed to Faray.

  Faray gently took it from Terra’s hand. Two of the stones began glowing as she placed it around her neck.

  “You must come soon to see me in the Mur Mountains. Your mother knows the place.”

  “Why should we come to see you?” Terra asked.

  “You need to know what I know, and she needs to be trained,” the image said.

  Just then Fienna felt a cramp in her stomach and moaned slightly.

  “Just a cramp,” she thought to Terra before he had a chance to ask.

  “You must go. Soon you will have a new child. This mountain was once held together by the blackness and now by your magic. When you leave, it will crumble.” With that the image faded, and the four figures merged into the fog as it slipped out the cave entrance.

  Terra heard two dragons land on the ledge outside the cave’s en
trance, and then two great heads peered in the opening. It was Dawra and Hectise. The three left the cave and mounted Dawra with Faray behind Terra and her brother still cradling Fienna in his arms. As they lifted off and flew the path back to the crevice, Faray looked back. The once black mountain that she saw as the Averons carried them the cave was now bright orange in color. Every crack and crevice seemed to have been flushed of the blackness by Terra’s orange glow. As the color began to fade, a powerful rumble began. Before her eyes, the entire mountain seemed to collapse into a hill of ruble with a great plume of dust rising into the sky.

  As they flew over the edge of the crevice walls, Terra could see four dragons lifting Lowlack’s still body into the air. Terra had told Fienna of the dragon’s death and sadness passed over both of them for the loss of such a friend. He would be taken to an active volcano were his body would rejoin the fires within.

  Chapter 79 - The Birth

  (New Life is always welcome.)

  357 set of seasons since the coming of the Averons

  As soon as they landed, Terra leaped from Dawra’s back with Fienna in his arms, and Faray carefully climbed down. Fienna was having more cramps as Terra moved toward the cave’s entrance.

  Reicka and the old Sinut saw them land and rushed to Terra.

  “Is she all right?” Reicka asked with concern in her voice.

  “She’s having cramps in her stomach,” Terra said.

  “It’s her time then. Let’s get her in the cave,” she said.

  The three women and Terra went to the cave, and the old Sinut called for Setilan and Seana. They both came with fresh seaweed for a birthing bed and new delicate cloth to clothe the newborn and mother.

  They went into the cave and found Fienna cradled in Terra’s arms with her stomach and lower body glowing orange from Terra’s hands.

  Dawra stood back watching carefully all that went on. Fienna was in no pain, but her muscles were contracting every few moments. The nymphs spread the seaweed into a soft mat next to Fienna and helped her and Terra move onto it. Reicka said nothing because it was better than the dirty cloth she had spread out. Soon Terra and Fienna could feel the young one trying to leave her mother’s womb. Without pain, Fienna gave birth to their daughter. She was small, and instead of being multicolored like her mother, she had a face of light green with a myriad of other shades of green patterned over her tiny body. Fienna healed immediately with Terra’s help and took hold of her newborn.