"What did you find?" I asked Brumli when we were in the air.

"I found a large island with some ruins on it."

"Well done Brumli."

The island that Brumli had found was due east. We flew there at top speed and made it to the island in just a few minutes. The island was considerably larger than any of the other islands we had discovered thus far. It was mostly a large rock formation with a small beach on one side of it. The ruins were built atop the rocks and had been largely consumed by vegetation, but it was undoubted proof of civilization.

"Let's come back with the ship, I want to take my time looking at these ruins," I said to Brumli.

We flew around the island twice, looking down at the ruins, then made our way back to the ship where Uraia and the rest of the crew were waiting for us on the deck.

"What was it?" Uraia ran up to me and asked as soon as I landed on the deck with Myra.

"An island with ruins, we're going there now," I answered her, then turning to William, who was in charge of navigation, I said, "Turn the ship, we're going east!"

"Yes my queen."

I was so excited by the discovery we had made that I couldn't stand still. I paced up and down on the deck while waiting for us to arrive at the island. Uraia was also excited but she dealt with her excitement by standing at the bow of the ship and waiting for the island to come into view.

"Alegra, there it is!" Uraia called out to me.

"Pull up close to the island and drop anchor, and get the boats ready for disembarking," I said to William.

"Yes my queen."

"Uraia, Brumli, let's go," I said to them, heading for Myra.

Uraia, Brumli and I took off for the island and left the ship to the crew. We landed on the beach, dismounted from the birds and told them to wait there for us. Leading from the beach up to the ruins were stairs that were carved out of the rock. I walked up the steps first, followed by Uraia and then Brumli. The ruins consisted of a raised plateau that one accessed by going up five steps at the front of the structure. There were four large pillars in the corners of the plateau that were engraved with runes, and at the center of the plateau was a large pile of rubble, most likely there had been a roof atop the structure that had collapsed.

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"Brumli, what do you think?" I asked after we had taken our time examining the ruins.

"This is all limestone, this structure was built with materials that were brought here to the island."

"Meaning that the society that built this is advanced enough to have naval vessels capable of transporting large, heavy materials?"

"Yes, that's a safe assumption to make."

"What about the runes, have you seen their kind before?"

"They bear a vague resemblance to something that I've seen before, but I couldn't tell you what they mean, or who is responsible for them."

"Well, at least we know we're in the right place, whatever it is we're looking for is bound to be close. We'll keep the ship anchored here and use the birds to continue searching, my guess is we're going to make contact in the next couple of days."

Upon returning to the ship my thoughts turned to the sheer magnitude of what we were on the cusp of. When I first announced this expedition I was met with more than a few dubious looks. The idea of life beyond the shores of our realm was unthinkable to them and the general consensus was that I was embarking on a wild goose chase. I was looking forward to returning to them with the news of our discovery, I was also concerned about the possibility that we may not be equipped to deal with what we encounter should what we encounter turn out to be large in number, malicious and unreceptive to overtures of peace. There was every possibility that we would make such a discovery and given that it was perhaps unwise to continue but we had come too far to turn back without seeing this through to the end.

"Do you want us to continue our aerial surveillance?" Brumli asked me.

"No, I think we need to think very carefully about how we proceed. From now on we'll go out in pairs, I don't want one of us getting into a dangerous situation alone out there. We'll continue searching tomorrow, we've had enough excitement for today from finding those ruins."

I wanted to use the rest of the day to collect my thoughts and think about how we would proceed when we made first contact, but by mid afternoon those plans were shot to pieces. I was standing at the stern of the ship looking out at the ocean, lost in my thoughts, when I saw a figure in the sky approaching us from my left. The flier descended closer to the water and flew past the stern of the ship, flying low enough to the water to spray water onto the ship. It was the dragon rider. They landed on the island with the ruins and right away I went for Myra.

"I'll come with you," Uraia said, following me.

"No, I'm going alone."