Dragon Guide

Chapter 6: Preparations Part 1

As I stand at the entrance of the tunnel, I can clearly see all ten chambers, and what lies in front of me is... beyond whatever my mush of a brain can put into words at the moment. The furthest two chambers lay empty, belonging to Raven and Gerald. Beyond that I see that two of my whelps lay unconscious at the entrance of their chamber, locked in by the barrier. The rest shriek and smash themselves into the invisible barrier, fighting to break free. I run forward and as I approach, they cry mournfully and slither in my direction, clawing at the invisible wall keeping them at bay. Their blood streaks down and appears to be suspended in mid-air and I kneel in front of them where they can all see me and push out a soothing and comforting emotion over them all. I wait for this to take effect but to my surprise, they grow even more restless and fight even harder to reach me.

I look up at Nova and Gram and see them standing to the side, watching carefully. I give Nova a careful eye and we have an understanding. I will need to shift them sooner than expected. In the human form, I can handle them better and they will be less dangerous to each other. I look now in the direction of Armin and I contemplate if he will really be up to the task, I have planned for him. Well, we have no choice now. I turn again to Nova and Gram, " Take Arros and Adelina to the infirmary, have Merlin check if they have caused any damage to their brain or body, and I will take care of the rest. As soon as you're done, bring them back to the main chamber with the tablet."

"Are you sure?! Gram can take the two downstairs and I can stay with you!" Nova frantically responds. I listen to her but say no words as I try to think past the pain in my chest, I try to be rational. If they wake up, Gram doesn't have the nature of magic to physically protect himself, but Nova can use her magic to reinforce the durability of their skin, kind of like making armor. "How much longer do you think they will be unconscious?" I ask Gram. He is an expert in battle plans and strategy, I may just leave this decision to him. " Another ten-to-fifteen-minute give or take. I can make it in time, I'm confident", says Gram.

"Okay, I leave it to you." Turning to Nova I say, "Prepare blankets and trollies. We'll need to leave this place soon after their transformation. We can't risk the hunters picking up the smell of their fresh shedding which will only be intensified because of the large number of them. We will need to call both the Dragon Council and the Black Council to aid us in our move. We'll need to be fast and efficient, there can be no mistake right now. I don't want to lose even a single one of my children."

"I understand master," Nova responds in a severe tone and manner that she reserves only for dire situations. I give her a nod of approval as I can see that she understands the urgency of the situation. With that, she nods and scurries away to prepare what is needed. I stand and stretch out my body, gathering all my magical power, and in my hands forms a purple light that slowly pulses with little white lightning bolts. I push it out into the air and cast it outwards, I watch as it pushes forward and hits a wall, the barrier at the entrance of each chamber. Slowly but surely the light claws its way up all of the barriers, and the whelps slither away in caution. The light disintegrates the barriers and vanishes, leaving behind just the faintest smell of violets.

"Come little ones, Mother needs you too", I say in Dragon's tongue. Wordlessly they all swarm me and cling to me, whimpering in sorrow and renewed reassurance of my presence. "Come with me my children, mommy must show you something, please come with me," I say as I turn my body and head towards the original chamber where they hatched.

They follow behind in haste and anxiousness, fearing that I will leave them again. When we make our way into the chamber I head straight toward the tablet, not sparing a second. As I sit on the edge, all my children present gather around me and cling closely. I look at them each in the eye, at this stage, they have the mental capacity and understanding of a young child, in human age about the level of a ten-year-old, but I will need them to clearly understand what I am about to explain. There is obviously the chance for some errors, but there is no room for too many of them, so I need to reduce the number of delays.

"I will make it that you look like me so that you can talk like me, and walk like me. If you do this well, we can always be together. We would never need to be away from each other and I can take you outside. Will you try for me?" I ask tenderly.

They watch me carefully. twisting and turning their heads from left to right. I watch as their pupils dilate and rotate in their sockets.

"I will show you how. Come to me Armin, everyone else please step back a little." I say, but they are restless from what happened before and they dare not move away.

"I will not leave you; I must stay with you for this."

With that, they are somewhat pacified and step back, giving us a little bit more room. It was not the amount of space I had in mind but I'll have to make do. Armin approaches me and I point to the center of the stone tablet, silently directing him to where I need him. I throw a handful of flames to each of the pits at all four points, North, South, East, and West. The flames roar an angry red and orange but they stay where they are, in the pits. I pull a knife from the sleeve of my cloak, holding it firmly in my right hand, and move toward Armin.

Cautiously he watches me as I approach. When I am finally in front of him, I kneel and with the knife, in my hand, I cut open a shallow slit inside my left palm I watch as the blood swells into droplets above the skin, and then the flow fills my palm like catching water from a fountain. The red pours down past my wrist and continues down to my elbow where it spills onto the top of the tablet. I look at Armin's eyes and I see a raging hunger.