It was still Early morning when I woke up, the air around me tinged with a sense of urgency. Stretching my neck, I looked around at my nest and the hatchling sleeping there, LeOsha. She was sleeping soundly and I wondered what it was that was making me nervous. Stretching out, I studied my lair for anything out of place, but all was as it should be.
Reaching for Kith's mind, I asked him if he'd seen anything amiss in our territory; the answer again was negative. Carefully I shielded my fears, some instinct told me that much ill would come of his knowledge. I ran a talon along my daughter's scales, somehow sensing that I'd not see her again in this life.
Taking a final look at my lair, I took wing over the valley that had become my home in recent years. Silently, without knowing why, I bid it farewell, winging my way northward, answering the strange summons.
A heavy mist covered a small glen just outside of our northern borders; when I tried to fly past, the fog rose thick and choking to obscure my path. Reluctantly I grounded, coming to rest beside a small mere unreachable save from the air. The mists around the pool glowed eerily, their light a faint silvery-blue. The whole area was silent; the only sound was the lapping of water against the shore. No birds or insects dwelt here; not a good sign I know.
Carefully picking my way to the edge of the water & bent my head to drink. The water smelled sweet, like honey. But I didn't partake , for visions opened to me then.
I saw a battlefield, many dragons lying dead in its gore. In the center of this horror a single silver fought still, guarding the bodies of two golds and a red with glistning scales. My breath came in a gasp as I recognized the silver and the red, Kith and LeOsha, my family. Even as I cried out against this, the picture changed to other flashes: a strange blue and white furry dragon throwing himself into a bonfire and dying in agony; a great red falling before a massed hoard of enemies with an emerald clutched in his talon; and a young steel dragon torn apart by his friends. Although I'd never seen any of these before, I felt as though I should know them. And the hopelessness of there deaths horrified me.
I looked up to the heavens, surprised to find it already dark and the sky clear. "Oh you who were the first children of the thought of the One," I begged, "show me how these things may be averted!" The stars twinkled brightly for a moment until a dark shape arose from the water and blotted out the sky. I screamed in fear as I seemed to fall for a time, comming at last to stand in a dark hall, its walls covered in haunting tapestries.
"So you wish to change that which has been ordained, Kementari?" A soft voice purred. "Do you know what it is you ask?" A figure sat enthroned in a cold stone chair at the end of the hall. Like a human he was, seemingly balanced despite lack of a tail. Gloominess hung over him like a shroud, but the sense of power around him told me who this must be. I lowered my head in difference to Namo, master of destiny.
"I would gladly give all that I am to avert these things to come. My life is but little when compared to these losses." My eyes greyed in sorrow at what I had seen.
"Are you certain, Daughter of Tears, that you wish to make the sacrifice necessary? Even without knowledge of the price?" When I nodded, he held out a sword to me, its runes familiar along its length.
"This blade, I'd given it to Kefrie before her fall." I looked at him, perplexed.
"Go out the door behind me; follow the path toward the sunrise untill you reach the place where wind ceases. There your partner's shade will come, and armed with this blade, shall pull you from the timestream; to which you will return when the time is right. Your mate will find you, but too late to counter your sacrifice." I lowered my head, sorrowed that I must leave my family at this time, but a mothers instinct won out and I passed through the door the high one had indicated.
Outside the terrain was unfamiliar, a misty swamplike land who's faint breath of wind semed to chill the soul. A wide swath was cut amid the mire and at every step in the goo my talons squished and stuck momentarily. My stomach grew unsettled in the fetid air wafting up from the stagnant water. But I refused to falter. A tear splashed into the water at I spared a thought for my daughter, soon to be without her mother.
The land began to rise gradually, untill I stood on a barren hilltop beneath a grey sky. At I looked around I noticed the abcence of wind, I'd reached the place. A small light bounded up the hill, resolving into the form of the elven girl I'd partnered before her death. Her dark hair fell across her face as she bowed to me. "Are you ready, Dracare?"
In response, I lay the sword upon the ground before her, even as I had several years ago. Pride would have forced another dragon to fight their death, even when they desired it, as in this case. But for myself, I rolled to my back, exposing my tender chest to her blade. Sobs wracked me as I thought about Kith and the love we shared, the love that led me to protect him in this way. As Kefrie aproached I could tell she was crying too, her arms trembled as she raised the blade for the killing stroke. "I'm sorry," her voice drifted down to me.
I felt a burning heat followed by a cool dampness that I thought at first were her tears, but I belatedly realized was my heart blood. A heart wound, good, granting me a few words, but unhealable.
Suddenly, I was roused from my thoughts by a roar of agony. I forced my eyes to open, seeing through blurred vision my mate bending over me with pain and fear. His eyes glowed a bright lavender, his voice raging to know what had done this to me. Despite my need to be heard, I was nearly drowned out by his tirade. Finally, as I was fading, he bent down to hear my last words.
"Dearest," I murmered, "Forgive me this. It was necessary. Wait for me, Kith. Live for me; I'll return when the time is right. That was promised! Care for LeOsha, please, for me." I was barely able to finish what I had to say. I vaguely felt him lift me and cradle me in his arms as I drifted away.
Looking down on the body that had been mine, I felt relieved, though I didn't understand why at first. "You chose correctly, Daughter," A voice behind me spoke. I turned to face Nienna, she who I served, a questioning look on my face. "Seven seven times a maen shall pass ere you two shall meet again. His fate is averted. Out of sorrow over you he shall take your daughter and leave this land and miss the holocaust which shall destroy so many of your kind. Those others you saw are those you'd never have met, in the life you left. Your touch in their lives may yet change what is to come when to life you return." She pointed to a hazy glow. "Your fate lies there, but not starting as you are. Of the line of your partner you shal be, untill you've earned your place as a dragon once more." With that she sent me away.
Where I went then I know not, for much of what I was was hidden from me, and only now am I regaining my memories. A new being I became, but my essence remained the same. In time I found my mate and hatchling, and regained my wings and claws. But, for better or worse, I am Silvermist now, and shall remain so untill the end.
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