Kyvren-Rib Bone

Feeling the sweat I had worked up running through the forest being blown away by the cooling night air was wonderful. I had missed this feeling. Having Dexlux flying beside me annoyed me slightly but I was stuck with him now. Looking at him as his noticeably smaller body glided through the air, he was a good flyer. I wonder what his sister is doing. Probably going crazy trying to find him.

The thought made me smirk and Dexlux glided closer to me thinking I had forgiven him from his little antics at the pond. Smoke rolled out between my teeth and he shied away again wincing. Both of us felt lighter and stronger than we ever had. Almost like when we had freshly hatched, and we fist started to fly and felt invincible. The song that Arista sang was amazing.

Suddenly Dexlux surged forward.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know… I can't get this terrible feeling to go away. We need to hurry."

"Dex, if we rush, we may run into a fight we don't want." Reluctantly we slowed back down to a speed we could maintain for a while. It wasn't the fastest, but it was the smart thing to do and he knew it.

It took three hours what should have taken us an hour and a half. We had to stop to avoid patrols and some of it we had to walk on foot and change back into our smaller form. It was annoying but there was nothing else we could do. The sun had long gone down and the time for the meeting was fast approaching, in fact I would be surprised if the First was not already there.

The wind was blowing an odd south easterly direction as we headed north easterly so our sent would be washed down wind but it was hard catching anything from the meeting spot as it too was getting carried away from us. The Forest was thick, and we had to approach on foot to get to the dam.

This place was the first river that our flight had closed up. In a way this is where our war had begun, and the first resistance from the merfolk happened. An oddly familiar crunch sounded behind me and we both paused. Dexlux had stepped on something. It was a rib bone.

Even in the weak light, its pristine bone white stalk poking out of the black earth stood monument, mocking us. Fish scales softly caught and gleamed here and there. The area felt wrong now, tainted, haunted.

Even Dexlux became silent and respectful in his way. That was especially off-putting.

"K-" raising my hand swiftly he immediately cut himself off and the smooth sound of his daggers being drawn hung in the air.

The small change in the wind had brought a surprising but not all that unexpected smell. The warmth of the sweet irony sent warned it was freshly spilled blood. Dexlux smelled it too and we both crouched low to the ground, taking in everything around us.

Slowly all but belly crawling up the small crest of the dried up river bed and the rock dam, everything stopped.

Three bodies lay torn and bleeding. The carnage didn't surprise me it was who the bodies once were that froze me in place. The First, Jeylux, and my third, Aureolz. Dexlux was still shuffling to the top and I quickly grabbed ahold of him. He stopped instantly and gave me a questioning look.

If he saw this…saw his sister like this. I could see his questioning face turn to worry. I hand signed to him, "there was an attack, your sister is badly hurt don't rush in." He pushed against my restraining hand as realization hit with my simple explanation.

Gripping him harder I could see the flush of anger come to his face. He needed to be calm before he crested the hill. Who ever did this could still be here. We could both die if we weren't careful. Dexlux understood this too and knew I was right to hold him back even though he hated it.

It took only a few minutes for him to compose himself then with a nod I let him up slowly. As his head crested the rise, he caught his breath and bit hard into the leather handle of a dagger but didn't rush in. I grabbed his shoulder to show support and he was as stiff as a sword just cooled from the forge.

I had to leave him there and do a light circle around us and the dam to make sure no one els was around. Dexlux was frozen staring at his sisters torn body. As soon as I gave the 'all clear' he launched himself to her side all but sobbing. I had to look away.

My third was stone cold. He had put up a good fight. They had all but severed his head from his body and rest of him didn't fair much better.

"Found…you-Dex." The weak words carried on the wind to fill the whole clearing.

"Kyvren she's alive!" The disbelief in his voice matched my own astonishment. Rushing over, her wounds didn't come from a merman, those could only come from another dragon man.

"Jey who did this to you?" Dex forced the words out through clenched teeth.

"I'm sorry Dex…so….sorry. almost-got one. Dex…" Jeylux didn't even have the energy to raise her hand and only let it fall open. The pale blue blood-soaked cloth did a slow flopping roll as if it wanted to mock her one last time. Beldrym.

It was almost unbelievable that he would actually go this far. The pale blue scrap of cloth was undeniable. Not many had the fighting ability to take us on let alone kill one of us. Beldrym's flight had that capability. He would answer for what he had done here tonight and in the past.

"Dex… Kyvren-take care of him." She had a faint smile on her face, tears ran down her face. I knew it wasn't from pain, she didn't feel any pain right now.

"No…NO Jey don't, you can't leave me alone like this. What am I going to do without you?" She looked back to her brother with such regret in her eyes it brought tears to my own. With a shuttering breath she breathed her last. Dexlux all but collapsed on top of her and I had to turn away. He needed to grieve in private.

Turning my attention to the First, I felt my own throat tighten again. He hadn't been dead that long. The blood was sticky or wet on the deeper wounds. His left arm was gone from the elbow down, at least five deep stab wounds to the torso that I can see. From the amount of blood pooled under him, his back must be slashed open as well. That's probably what did him in.

Taking a deep breath, it doesn't take me long to search him. He must have known or at least had a back up plan if he was to be ambushed like this. He would have something on him to lead to the information he wanted to give me here. Sure enough, and odd stick with a nice chunk of bark and a palm sized rock. The bark had a horrible smell coming from it and I almost laughed.

He had done a similar thing a year ago when we took down another flight that had killed one of our younglings. He had been badly wounded finding their main base. He had managed to rub some sulfur on a tree near the cave and taken some indigenous rock from the area as well. It was enough to lead us to the area and purge the flight.

This had the same sulfur smell on the bark. I just needed to find the type of rock and then the tree.

Looking at the man I had served under for so long, he was the closest thing I had to a father. Funny how I never thought about it till now.

My thoughts were interrupted from the heat of Dexlux transforming. He had laid his egg mate on the ground with her arms crossed over her chest. They had hatched from the same egg and never once been separated from each other more than a few days at a time.

He rearranged himself with his head facing away from me. Breathing in so deeply that I could feel the air rushing to his silent crying maw. When he breathed out, it was the hottest fire dragons could emit. It was slow and broiling hot. It took his full breath to turn his sister's body to ash.

With the last vestige of breath, he collapsed in the ashes. He would bear her ashes for as long as they clung to him. He would have that amount of time to get revenge on her slayers. Then he would go into full morning regardless if he were able to get his revenge or not.

After looking over our other flight mate we placed the First next to him and them cremated them both with our hottest flames. I was the one to take on their ashes. Dexlux had his wings burdened enough with the ones he carried.

"What clue did the first leave us?" Dexlux heavy flat tone resonated deep within me.

"Bark from a tree he marked with sulfur and a special type of rock. I'm not sure what kind it is, but it's not from this area I believe." Picking up the items I hand them over to Dexlux who took them silently.

After a few moments of rolling it over in his freshly coated ashen hands, he sighed heavily. "Maybe farther north? I have no idea…" he held it back out to me, expending as little energy as he could.

"I think so too. It has to be a place we know at least." We both stood there thinking back to beginning of this campaign. All the camp sites, patrols, everything and everywhere we had gone filled my thoughts. I know it had to be the same for Dexlux.

Almost at the same time we looked at each other. There was one place that only the three of us went to, and it had trees with this bark everywhere. It was a special recon mission, more for practice then anything ells.

"The grove." We both said together. Carefully we took to the air. No other shapes could be seen, even still we flew as low as we could without exhausting ourselves to much. Arista's song was fading, and our stamina was starting to run out. It couldn't be helped. It would be morning soon and we still needed to get back to the pond and Arista.

Dexlux was the first to notice the subtle change in the trees. We where in the right area. It took another hour to find the right kind of rocks and then the sulfur smell lead us to the right tree. It had a gouge in it where the bark was taken. The Firsts tracks were all over the place. It took us another thirty minuets to find the spot he had hidden the paper.

"What does it say?" Dexlux was still emotionless, or almost, a raging burning fire of anger shifted below his stony face.

"Its coded. I'm going to need some time to decode it. We might as well head back." He only nodded and transformed. Tucking the soft paper into my clothing for protection I too transformed. It was going to be a long hard flight back to the pond.