I have always wondered why the stars fell upon the earth in the first place. Were they compassionate of the little humans living under them, or were they forced into it by their brethren? Maybe they were merely bored. Not that it mattered, but I guess I enjoy pondering the semantics.

“Winter? Do you know the answer Mr Reed?” The voice was stern and demanding. It started to pull me away from the thoughts and into my body again.

“Yes?” I guessed, hoping he might repeat himself.

“Well then, please stand up and write it on the board.” His voice was contemptuous now, imploring me to embarrass myself.

I rose and took one more glance out the window. This might have been the worst time to do so. My body froze and my hands began to tremble. What I was seeing was impossible. If I could have moved I might have tried to rub my eyes. The very skin on my body was betraying me as I stared, into the sky beyond. Too many of them, far too many. I was dimly aware of the professor coming up behind me to see what had spellbound me so. Then, there was only ringing.

“libertatem petrae” My mind translated the Latin words as they were spoken. Something all children were taught from a young age. “freedom from stone.” The voice sounded too far away, as if I were hearing it through a wall.

The ringing began to pulse through my skull, through my limbs. I felt it flow through my arms and legs and press out of my hands and feet. I couldn’t tell if it was burning or chilling. The words pressed into it, vibratinginto my bones and heart. Once the spell shattered I understood it was neither. The sound was like glass exploding from the sound barrier being broken. Later I would understand that it had been the quick thinking of my professor to break an onsetting petrification curse. A few more moments and I would be a flesh and bone statue.

The Thousand-Eyed Dragon, Mother of all the great dragons, all the drakes, and reptiles in fact. Although this last part seemed to be overlooked most of the time. She was ancient and impossibly old as time itself. And she was flying toward the city. A dozen dragons soared in rank on each side of their Mother. The sky seemed to wide enough to hold them all. It was an army, and overwhelming force of nature. Who could gaze upon The Thunder and not be terrified. Named because each time their wings fell in unison, a crack of thunder rolled out onto the world. In my mind, the only thought in my mind was that they were probably not here for a field trip. If they were here for war, no city or country could oppose them. Not a Wizard or Warlock, or even fabled Dragon Hunter could hope to succeed against such a force. I began to feel very small as my classmates around started to chatter and crowd every window. Even my professor had forgotten about me and began to chant once more. However, this time it wasn’t a spell, but more of a prayer.

“Save us, fallen stars of ole.

For we know the errs of man are great,

Alas, Her heart greater still with compassion.

Deliver onto us humility and peace,

for those who worship the ways of old.”

I felt no internal change from the words, but I could feel them taking hold of the classroom. The anxiety that had been building was dissipating. There were no longer goosebumps on the back of my neck. I looked down at my caramel coloured hands and they were no longer shaking. I could feel the little muscle I had in my calves cease clenching. Momentarily, my thoughts were put on hold. I took this time to straighten up my posture and comb my hands through my hair. One breath, two, then a third. Shallow at first, then deeper and travelling lower into a stomach. What ever this was, a visit from the Dragons, it was not an act of aggression. If it had been, they would not be flying so slowly towards us. We might have already been dead if they had chosen to fly above the clouds and strike from the heavens. No, they were coming with no haste. There was something big happening.

“I need to find my father,” I said this as a matter of fact. Before Professor Yvonne could stop me, I was out the door and running down the halls.

~

There was no good reason excusing me from the grounds but I didn’t truly care. My father, Darius Reed, would be a centre of this visit. At the very moment I realised this, I forgot about any sort of punishment that might befall me. As terrified as I had been, I felt the deepest urge to draw closer to this anomaly. It felt as though, without even my knowing I was being called into something much larger than a visit from The Thunder.

“Where are you going, Winter?” The girl shouted as she ran fast behind me.

I recognised the voice of course, her name was Scarlet Letalis. She was the daughter of an infamous member of the city’s council.

“I can’t slow down. If you want to find out you’ll have to come with me.” I said between breaths.

Instead of responding, she sped up and began running in line with me. Scarlet was like that, treating everything as a challenge. I was glad she wasn’t pestering me about where we were going, because then she would very likely try to race there first. Suffice it to say, I don’t think I could beat her in any physical contest, just looking down at my thin legs next to hers gave me away. However, there was no chance I would ever tell her this. I knew the quickest way out of the grounds because I had wandered these halls a hundred times. There were little alleys I had learnt of between the main corridors that might have taken Scarlet by surprise but if they did she didn’t let on. I had been at the College for many more years than her, ever since I was a child. This place, The College of Brius had been more of a home than my father’s Grove some of my years. Especially when he had been travelling as a diplomat, I had too much time to explore the grounds, and even more time to sneak off into the streets of Brius-Beth following the river. This city was all I knew, moreover than my father could have ever claimed.

We ran north, out of school where the ground under us changed from brick tile to a wide cobblestone path. The large stones were smoothed from the years of foot traffic. There was trees lining each side of the path, and very quickly the road split and meandered into many paths. I knew where the dragons would land, at Wickers Clearing, outside the City Hall. Before we rounded the last building, Scarlet pulled at my arm. Her face was flush and sweat coated her brow. She was smiling, and that made me smile too.

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“Okay, I’ve followed you here. I think I deserve an explanation before you go crashing the party and I get told to leave.”

Her tone was serious, but her face was pleading. I was a hard egg to crack, I’d be the first to admit that. She knew it better than most. If I didn’t want to share something, there was no way of getting it out of me.

“My father used to tell me, ‘The Dragons have been waiting a long time.’ I don’t know what he meant, he’d never tell me more. But particularly today, I’ve got a feeling that something important is happening.” I told her.

“Well of course its something important, The Mother is here…”

“No, it’s more than that.” I gritted my teeth.

I told her about my morning and how it had felt like The Thousand-Eyed Dragon was staring directly at me. Even though they had been flying very far away. The way I felt in that moment, I could almost guarantee it was no coincidence that she had trained her eyes on the school, trained her eyes on me.

“Why would She be looking for you?” She sounded genuinely incredulous. I didn’t know if she believed me.

I smiled because it was a preposterous idea. To The Mother, I was a little boy, a child of sixteen. By the standards of my own species I was considered a child. I hadn’t received my Divine Rite. I hadn’t done a lot of things that ‘adults’ have done, and to Her they were all still children. Truthfully, I did not believe it had anything to do with me. What would be spoken of would not concern me. It may concern the Kingdom, or impeding doom, or even the Fire of Scythia. I only had to be here because my father would be speaking as the representative of Brius-Beth. There were no others who fluently spoke ancient Draconic. Perhaps few who could converse with snakes or lizards, but not Dragons. The city would send no one else. He was the last human Druid of this city. The last to know of the wild and stay valiant to its place. The others whom stayed at his Grove now gone to the wind, seeking new homes or already passed into the Spirit World.

There was another topic my father never spoke of. The story of how he became the last Druid of this rising city. To ask why was easy enough, but how it had occurred, and how he ended up being the only human willing to be a citizen of the city was apparently very difficult to speak of.

“I don’t think it’s about me, more likely my father.” I said, not sure how to translate any of my other thoughts.

“Hmm, you still sound too excited.” Scarlet chastised.

“Come on, we wasted enough time.” I tried to pull her along.

She stood her ground, “I think I’ll stay back. Dragons have never been too fond of my kin.”

Before I could respond, there was a small black dagger in her hand and she melted into the shadows. This was another thing that she was known for, the need for a notorious exit. Apparently, these traits ran in her family.

There was little time to fret over this, I could hear the commotion around the bend. I darted down the path to see exactly what I had expected. The two dozen Dragons which had been in rank besides The Mother in flight were smaller now. Shrunken down to fit in Wickers Clearing, each one was no larger than a horse. They ringed the larger Dragon, as an imperial guard might surround a royal. Unlike a royal, I doubted if their Mother needed the protection. She too had become smaller than when in flight, although She still seemed to make us humans look ant-like.

“Ah, here is my son, we may begin.” my father spoke quickly.

I slunk through the crowd and came to his side. They had been waiting for me. His jaw was tight and his statute rigid. I could sense the tense air. My father seldom repeated himself, nor did he like a slow conversation. His solution to his problem was to train me in the linguistics of Draconic. This also seemed to make the City Hall politicians pleased, as they sought to keep a Draconic translator by their side. I would be the one who quickly translated between my father and The Mother.

“Darius Reed, Druid of Brius-Beth. You honour The Thunder with your presence.” The Mother spoke without even opening her maw coming from deep in her throat, resonating into my ears with such clarity it almost felt telepathic.

“The honour is ours entirely, Great Mother of The Thunder. The fallen star of Dragons. For what purpose do you fly?”

A few hundred of her eyes blinked, creating an illusory ripple across Her head and neck, ending half way down her wing.

“Forsaken is the world, forsaken is the peace humans indulge in. A perilous danger is upon the humankind. A plight is spreading across the lands.”

I faulted translating when I understood Her meaning. I looked to my father who grimaced and nodded for me to continue.

“Cryptic are your ways, please deliver unto me clarity as our congregation has neither Soothsayer nor Oracle. We have had no signs of such a plight.” My father replied in a worried tone.

“Those who possess understanding of the Scythian Fires know of The Eternal Flame. The fire which burns from my essence.”

“Yes, we before you know well the Fire of Scythia and The Eternal Flame.” He turned and spread out his arm to confirm his word. I wondered who else could see the fear in his sunken eyes.

“The Eternal Flame has been stolen. Usurped by creatures beyond the veil, escaped from The Spirit Realm.”

Her words rang in my ears. For a moment, I was reminded of the curse I’d been placed under that morning. Maybe, just maybe, The Mother was scared as well.

“Your word is absolute truth, I do not doubt this. Action must be taken.” My father bowed.

“Last Druid of Brius-Beth, I again will command too much. This fire was stolen from me originally by an ancestor of the humans, and given to them not only for magic, but for your civilisation to bloom. Now it is in the hands of creatures named The Bloodless.”

“I take your meaning, Mother. How may we stop them.”

“They are a disease, spreading through carrier to victim. With The Eternal Flame, they will cease to die to the elements. They will begin to build strongholds, and begin to breed.

All of while, humans shall slowly wither. The fire which flows through your cities will grow cold, crude and incomplete. That which requires lightning will be flawed, and those who command it will find it strikes without heat.”

She lowed her head down to his father. “Find The Bloodless, release my breath from their perverse rituals. You will avenge me, bare witness to the prophesy.” The tip of Her horned nose touched his forehead and a bright light emanated from the touch.

“One raised by the wild, shall seek The Architect of the East.

The plight of the land will spread, and the corrupted shall feast.

Atone the sin of man, and be reborn again to change The Age

Follow the will of The Mother, to be gifted anew the fiery page.

To have magic reclaimed, One must never return the same.

But given the chance, save a creature with its forgotten name.”