More Kazdrea: Dawn of the Dragons' Secret!

Chapter 2 - Fields of Towers

Leonar lived on a farm outlying the city of Trankus. It was one of many farms which provided food and goods to the walled city, which would otherwise be forced to rely on foreign imports. Thus Leonar had found his seventeen years of life to be full of hard, yet satisfying, labour. Throughout it all his mind had been as fertile as the fields he tilled, and he had been intrigued by the things he had seen when his eyes were closed; things which noone else had ever seen; places which noone else had ever been.

He had slept relatively late on this bright midsummer day, and as a result he had only managed a couple of hours of work before the heat of the day became almost overwhelming. It was so hot, in fact, that his father was willing to suggest they take a break, going over to a miniature grove of about four trees at the edge of the corn field and flopping down in the shade they provided. He was getting on in years, and the grey in his moustache had almost completely overwhelmed the brown once there. Still, the roundness of his belly revealed many a bountiful harvest past, and the twinkle in his eye spoke of many more in the future. Leonar recognized his father as a man of hope, and thus as he joined him in the shade he decided to share with him his troubling visions.

"I had a dream last night." Leonar stated.

"Don't you mean 'this morning'?" His father's voice was playfully scolding.

"Technically yes," Leonar replied, "but it was so vivid, it scarcely mattered what was happening outside."

"Very well then," his father replied with mild interest, "tell me about it."

Leonar thought for a moment. It was difficult to describe such mental images as he had recently been privy too, and he struggled to put his vision into words. He elected to look up at the most obvious source of inspiration: the deep blue summer sky.

"The sky....was like this one, only with less azure and more of a....haze," began Leonar, "though beneath it was a different world. All was grey, as stone towers filled the landscape as densely as....as those cornfields." He gestured to the rows of corn before them stretching into the horizon. "I saw them much as a bird would, as though I were flying uncontrollably toward this....cold, stone city." Leonar gazed at the cornfield intently, as though the answers to all his unspoken questions could be found in those carefully-divided rows. "And as I beheld this scene, I felt this horrible feeling of isolation, and loss, and emptiness."

His father emitted a sigh of exasperation, both at the nature of his son's dream and his emotional response to it. Such fanciful dreams left one dissatisfied, and emotion (with the possible exception of rage) left one indecisive and weak when the time came to take up arms.

"Listen, Leonar," he began in a world-weary manner, "we all have visions of worlds which never were and never shall be." He rose to his feet. "They are merely dreams, and have no bearing on the past or the future. All we have to decide what the future will hold is with our own two hands. Boy, your head should spend less time in such dream-clouds and more time in the...." He made a sweeping gesture with his arm into the distance behind him which took in the mountains, forest, cornfield and stables before stopping in front of a sizeable mound of cattle excrement. "Fields," he finished, dropping his arm while still not taking his gaze from his son.

Leonar gazed at his father with what appeared to be wide-eyed innocence, and the latter's expression softened somewhat. "Come," he said to his son, "soon it shall be time for our own two hands to be raised in prayer. Let us prepare for tomorrow's trek to Trankus, where we may beseech Lanolar for a good harvest."

As Leonar watched his father start off toward their house, he could sense that he was looking fondly forward to their journey into the city and chance to pay homage to the Mother Goddess. He was a man who was well aware of everyone's place in the world, and might have made a fine clergyman had he been fortunate enough to have learned how to read. Leonar, however, looked forward to paying his respects to someone else.

Leonar trudged after his father through the grasses, scattering dark and pallid-winged locusts with almost every step. He watched as they fluttered by, surrounding him with droning wails, and worried that there might be a plague of them this year. He had heard that in the east, in the motherland of Kazdar, they had discovered a means of slaying any vermin foolish enough to attack the crops of the Empire, but Leonar did not enjoy the thought of selling and eating poisoned food.

*****

It was another scorcher of a day when Leonar and his father hitched up the wagon and drove into the city beyond the rolling hills. Trankus was a rather large settlement, and as they traveled through its streets Leonar wondered how so many people could live so close together. As they reached the temple, however, his thoughts turned to the piety of his father, and how he could remain so pious after losing his wife while she was giving birth to his only son. Leonar blamed only two things for the tragic loss of his mother: the fickle and capricious nature of the gods, and some unknown failing on his part.

Upon entering, Leonar found the temple to be almost as hot as it was outside, perhaps due to the bright sunlight streaming in through the great colour-tinted windows in the domed ceiling. The huge main chamber was filled with sculptures and other depictions of the Mother Goddess Lanolar in the act of creating the mountains and lands and seas and creatures that dwelt in all of these places, Leonar payed little attention to them. Instead his eyes searched among the priestesses for Sonya, a childhood friend and acolyte to whom Leonar had taken quite a fancy. Failing to find her, he walked wearily over to the central shrine, where his father was already kneeling in prayer.

Kneeling himself, Leonar began to psychologically prepare for prayer, starting by reciting the names of the pantheon's deities: "Lanolar, Sturmgladius, Skyha, Ah'then'a...." The heat was distracting, and Leonar wondered how the priestesses could endure wearing such long, flowing gowns just before passing out.

*****

Leonar awoke in a starry sea. All was silent, and all was dark save those tiny points of light in the distance. He tried to reach for one, as he felt that he was floating in nothingness, but if flew from him and winked out of existence as though he had pushed it away with his action. He whirled around as best he could to see the other stars behaving in the same fashion, until all was darkness save one star which now approached him.

As the light drew nearer, it dimmed to the extent that Leonar could make out the features of a woman within. She was beautiful to behold, though many of her features were still veiled in light. Her left hand supported a shield emblazoned with a lion's head, while her right hand held a snakelike staff topped with the upper body of an owl. Her silver tiara also bore an owl's visage. Her body was clad in golden breastplate, while her legs were wrapped in a skirt of silver, gold, and black.

*****

"Ah'then'a!"

As Leonar regained consciousness, his right arm flailed, landing hard upon some sort of silky fabric - a priestess' skirt - and pinning its wearer to the spot. The resulting gasp of said priestess caused Leonar's eyes to flash open, and he gradually took in his new surroundings.

He gazed first in the direction that his nose could pick up the smell of incense. The room was lit by two torches on large pillars of solid gold. The flames of these torches emitted a blue smoke which every so often had a white flare cross through it, which looked like a shooting star. Between these torches was a marble statue of a beautiful woman, dressed in a flowing gown of white, holding a long bow in her right hand, with a quiver full of flight arrows around her back.

"Leonar! Are you alright? Could you release me?"

The sound of a familiar voice caused Leonar to swiftly turn and look at a face framed by long hair the same shade of brown as that of the goddess he had just envisioned. Her eyes, however, were blue, while her overall facial structure suggested a simple kindness.

"Sonya!"

Leonar was now propping himself up on the part of the floor occupied by her skirt, but upon realizing this he swiftly took his arm from it, which sent him back down again. "Where am I?" He asked.

"In one of the temple's inner chambers," came a voice from the general direction of the statue.

Leonar sat up to gaze upon the speaker and saw a brown-haired, brown-eyed woman in her late thirties or forties whose robe was a deeper blue than those of the other priestesses. Perhaps she was of a higher rank.

"Peasants and serfs are normally not permitted in here," the woman continued, "yet Sonya was so worried about you that we decided we could make an exception in the case of you and your father."

"How long have I been out for?" Leonar asked, rising to his feet. "In my dream, I believe I saw....the goddess...."

"Ah'then'a." The High Priestess finished for him. "There must be a reason why you called out her name."

Leonar shook his head. "It was very hot....I was weary....that must have been why I fell...."

The High Priestess ignored him. "There are many who claim visions coming to them while they pray at the shrine, yet seldom do they lose consciousness during such visions. That, coupled with the fact that it is highly unusual to receive a vision of a goddess in the temple of a different goddess, lends credibility to your vision."

Leonar looked about the chamber. He caught sight of a rather excited Sonya, a number of other priestesses, and his father. The latter was aghast; had it really been only yesterday that he had been chided by him once again for his fascination with his strange visions? Still, Leonar was far too frightened to gloat; he knew precious little about the ways of the temple, and virtually all of it had been taught him by Sonya; an acolyte and thus practically mere initiate!

"Sh-she didn't tell me anything," stammered Leonar, deciding that the truth was probably the best (and safest) course of action at this point, "she just appeared to me....in the starry sea."

He began to describe his vision in as much detail as he could recall. From what he could gather from the High Priestess' expression, she was slightly disappointed at the brevity and comparative simplicity of the vision, yet still intrigued at the possible interpretations of it.

"We must ponder this further." The High Priestess stated when Leonar was finished. "You may go now, but," the hint of a smile crossed her lips, "do let us know if any more deities appear to you."

Leonar left the temple in mixed spirits. While he was somewhat pleased that Sonya found him so important, he was equally disappointed that he had not the opportunity to spend time alone with her. He did not have long to dwell on this, however, as there was another young woman waiting for him outside the temple.

She was somewhat older than Sonya - probably in her late twenties - and in addition to kindness her brown eyed countenance also possessed a bit of playful mystery. Her flowing, full-skirted gown bore a hint of opulence, being made of yellow silk with puffed sleeves and a half-neck-high collar plunging in a 'v' shape all made of cloth-of-gold. Her hair, too, was golden, and after a moment Leonar recognized her as Sahra, a woman who came to Trankus a few months past to aid the white-haired elder Valora in teaching literacy to those of higher birth.

"My, but I am popular today," said Leonar, smiling slightly, "How did you get here?"

"By coach from Talamar, about four months past," Sahra replied flippantly, "but if you mean this day, I heard of your location by word-of-mouth. I was wondering if I might have a word with you alone."

Leonar looked at his father, who nodded silently. "I will wait by the wagon until you two are done," he said to Leonar, "don't be gone too long." He strode off in the direction in which they had come.

Sahra took Leonar's hand and smiled up at him, though she was only an inch or two shorter. "I know a lovely little clearing just at the edge of the forest," she said, "it will be ever so nice at this time of day on a day like this. Come!"

She led him through the city streets until they had left Trankus and entered one of the forests dividing the farmland. All the while Leonar wondered how Sahra could seem to skip and flutter along despite her heavy clothing and the (admittedly waning) heat of the day. It was almost as if the wind were carrying her.

This wind also had a penchant for occasionally blowing her long hair into her mouth, so she held it back as she spoke. "I have often heard how much you love dragons."

Leonar raised an eyebrow and smirked slightly. "Perhaps 'love' is too strong a word," he replied as they entered the clearing. "They are majestic creatures, to be sure, and Princess Michelle shows their pantheon to be perhaps more open-minded that ours...."

Sahra thought for a moment, gazing at the pure azure sky above the forest canopy and the sun-drenched plants beneath before looking at Leonar and saying simply, "Behold." She bucked her hips back and thrust her shoulders forward as much as her corsetted form would allow as her form began to change.

In a few moments Leonar was staring not at a woman in a yellow dress but rather a huge reptilian monster with great golden wings that shimmered in the summer sunlight. She was twice the height of his father's largest draught horses at the withers, and with her long lightly feathered serpentine tail, she was four times as long. Her teeth were like daggers, and her claws like short swords, but her head and neck were crested with regal golden plumes like those of a phoenix. Her stance suggested a swanlike patience, however, and she lowered her head to appear less threatening once she noticed Leonar's distress.

Leonar, for his part, had fallen to his knees and then prone on his back during the course of Sahra's transformation. It was not that her human features had been grotesquely distorted at any point in her metamorphosis, merely that she had become so large and fearsome by its end. Leonar would have fainted dead away, had he not been held by such awe at the sight of her.

Sahra swiftly became aware that she had made a hasty mistake, and mentally chided herself for it. She should have heeded Leonar's subtle warnings that he may not possess the qualities necessary for direct allegiance with the Dragons of the Wyrmroost Mountains. Instead, she had advanced the situation too quickly, and had risked untold danger to all involved. Belatedly she begun to understand Dreafar and Prindakhwassstar's reasons for waiting years or even decades to put plans into action. But human life is short, and as Sahra silently resolved to salvage as much as she could from the situation she wondered how short Leonar now expected his life to be.

"I rean ye no haru....dan it!" Trying and failing to speak a human tongue in dragon form, Sahra gazed sidelong in thought for a moment. She swiftly decided that she would be far more capable of reasoning with Leonar if she were once again a woman in a yellow dress, and thus reverted to that form.

Craning his neck, Leonar saw the dragon-runes on her armband-bracelets glow with a pale blue illumination. A moment later the dragon was gone and once again replaced by apprentice schoolteacher Sahra, who immediately lifted her skirts and rushed to Leonar's side, saying, "I'm so sorry for frightening you so!" She knelt next to him and tried to catch her breath.

"D....D....Dr....Y...." Leonar offered, pondering whether or not tackling and pinning her might keep her from transforming again. He had some sensible doubts, however, as Sahra's armband-bracelets now adorned her arms as golden runic wrist cuffs. Still, he gradually gained a dawning realization that she meant him no harm, and he was able to calm himself somewhat and rise to a sitting position as he waited for her to be ready to speak.

"I....wanted to reveal to you the nature of the realm and of the surrounding regions." Sahra began, pausing for a moment before continuing. "You need to realize why this land has been at peace for so long....why Talamar is not a tyranny. It is....the doing of dragons."

Leonar said nothing; instead he simply stared into her dark eyes with stern inquisitiveness.

"Specifically, the Dragons of the Wyrmroost Mountains," she continued. "They have long watched over this land, taking care of its people like chi-" she stopped herself too late.

"Like children." Leonar smirked in spite of his abject terror. "Or were you going to say 'chickens'?"

Sahra flushed. "I meant 'children'," she replied, then, seeing an opportunity to make some light of the situation, she added, "Well, most of us are a good deal older than any human....Prindakhwassstar, for example, who also teaches reading in Trankus, is over three hundred years old."

The smirk faded from Leonar's lips. "Is she the eldest dragon of the Wyrmroost?" He asked.

"No," Sahra replied, "that would be Dreafar, the Fire Dragon. Her age is closer to a thou-" she stopped herself again and said instead, "I am doing nothing to help the situation, am I?"

By this point Leonar had blanched white. He said nothing.

In contrast, Sahra's face reddened as she continued. "You must forgive me. I am merely a youngling, and my parents were slain in the last battle with the Fire Giants."

Leonar had had much to ponder during the shocking revelation provided by Sahra, yet he still interjected before she could continue. "Fire Giants?!" He exclaimed, "There have been no sightings of giants since before my birth!"

Sahra flashed him a half-smile. "There's a reason for that," she explained, "giants can build trebuchets and ballistas and catapults, but they cannot fly."

"I have a couple of questions to ask you." Leonar stated, trying desperately to piece together the onslaught of information he had just been given.

"Very well."

"First of all," he began, "what is your real name? Second of all," he continued before Sahra could respond, "what possible reason could you have for telling me all of this?"

Sahra thought for a moment. "My real name is Hisisaakkor." Leonar grimaced once again at the seemingly-harsh (one might say draconic) sound of a dragon's true name and the facial contortions required to pronounce it. "It means 'Wings of the Mind Soaring Through the Sky and O'er the Land'." She continued. "Your visions, your interest in the unknown, and your heroic aspirations resulting from the aforementioned two qualities are why you are of interest to us. You have said that you see stone and steel....cities. These fit the description of an empire rising in the east, which opposes the Wyrmroost. A war may be brewing," Sahra said simply, staring off into the distance, "a war which could have very dark and violent influences over the populace here. However, you can help us stop this, perhaps. Sometimes being aware of something is enough to put an end to it."

"You speak of dark influences." Leonar replied in as emotionless a tone as he could manage given the circumstances. His fear would have caused him to refuse her outright, but he was worried that she would then decide to simply devour him and be done with it, and thus he was able to summon sufficient mental faculties to create a convincing lie.

"I shall consider all that you have said. Your words have merit, and I may decide to help you. However now it grows late, and I must be returning to my father."

"As you wish," Sahra replied with partial satisfaction, "but be advised that one cannot run from one's destiny."

Leonar bade farewell to Sahra and returned to his farm with his father. Throughout the trip and the rest of the evening he was quite taciturn and quiet, and his father could tell that he was lost in thought, which put him in a pensive mood as well.

Throughout the night and the days that followed Leonar could sleep only when exhaustion took him, and he laboured with the detachment of an automaton whilst awake. He constantly wracked his brain in effort to determine the best course of action in his horrific predicament. He considered revealing the dragon's secret to the city, but realized that such an act could cause a panic, and at worst would bring down upon the realm the fury of a dragon older than his civilization. He considered fleeing with his father, but that would place him in danger as well were they pursued. He came thus to understand that the people's greatest protection was their ignorance in this case. Still, he would be a pawn in noone's machinations, be they dragon or god.

At last Leonar came to a very difficult decision, yet one which he considered unavoidable.