The Coming Storm

Chapter 1

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Lilianna crested the ridge to look down upon the valley below her. The short northern summer seemed to spur the plant life into taking advantage of every sweet second of sunlight and warm air that came its way. Wherever the cliff walls were not too shear, there was all manner of greenery bursting forth. The tree canopy completely obscured the forest floor as the gradient gradually lessened before coming to the water’s edge. The river flowed its wide winding path through the center of the valley around the corner and out of sight, but Lily knew that there it met the ocean in a deep Fjord as the sides of the valley extended like fingers out into the salty waters.

Oh, long ago, when people had reported that magic lay thickly over the land, there had been rumors. Lilianna had done her research before making this trip. It didn’t seem like many had lived this far north even then, whether that was due to the harsh winters or the rumors, Lilianna wasn’t sure. Certainly, living close to the ocean would have made for good fishing, and nowadays there were villages dotting the ocean side farther north than even here. Somehow, no villages had ever chosen to settle here though. It was a beautiful place.

But those rumors were when there had been magic. Magic that fed the land and which in turn the land fed to the creatures that lived upon it. In humanity, this power had expressed itself in the form of enhanced innate skills. You were born with certain skills and power enhanced them many times over. Unicorns, brownies, children of the Fey, any number of creatures and races had existed then. Stories told that there had been dragons as well, immense creatures whose size required large amounts of magic to survive, and who only lived in areas of particularly high concentrations.

Then, roughly 300 years ago, came an event later historians titled “The Great Loss.” The power began to fade. Cities were hit first, slowly but with building speed. This caused panic and often crippled populations. Magic was like air. It was…just…there.

And now it wasn’t.

Panic leads to unclear thinking and desperate acts, which leads to war. Battles were fought over control of the greatest pockets of energy that still could be found. Often these areas were where the dragons lived. Dragons may be fearsome but, when there is no end to your attackers, eventual defeat is inevitable.

That was when the dragons had died out. Their lands would be taken, battles would be fought between peoples to maintain their claim – massive engagements – which expended a lot of the energy reserves being fought over. Before long, the lands were drained and it was time to find another pocket. One by one, the other creatures who had depended upon this energy for their survival began to die out as well. No more unicorns. No more brownies. No more Fey or other creatures. And humanity was left with nothing but enhanced Talents that continued to be passed down in the genes of a slim number whose lines had once had a particular affinity for magic.

But few who had that would admit to it any longer. Humanity was plunged into a Dark Age. Anger, betrayal, and jealousy were the dominant emotions that rallied after The Great Loss, and religions that viewed magic as unnatural and evil predominated. Witch hunting had been a regular past time for several decades, eradicating many of those remaining with strong Talents in their genetic lines.

The Great Loss had never hit this kingdom in the north the same way as it did other locations. Lily knew this was because her race had ruled and protected the lands here. They had kept the wars out, until their disappearance.

Lily squinted and got out her binoculars. Closer to the bend in the valley, on the other end from where she stood, Lily could just make out the dark mouths of caves in the higher cliff faces. Though small from this distance, Lily could tell the openings would be massive were she right in front of them. Movement caught her eye. Something large was emerging from the shadows of a lower cave, shielded by an overhang. Straining, Lily could make out a long thick shadow. Suddenly, part of the shadow on its back lifted, parted, unfurled. As a breeze tore through the valley the creature leapt into the air. The moment its wings touched the sunlight, a glare came off of them which almost made the creature glow. Lily had trouble keeping her eyes on it. They began to tear from the effort. She blinked away the moisture. The animal glided almost lazily down into the valley, pausing for a moment over the water. Then it dove, grasping a large fish with each front claw, before settling onto a giant rock next to the river to feast.

As this was about halfway down the valley, it was now much closer to Lily and she was able to get a better look as it ate. The creature was like a giant worm, with strong thick back legs for pushing off of the ground, and shorter front legs with 3–or was that 4?–talons for grasping prey. Its glow-like quality was due to the white and blue scales covering its body, reflecting the sun here and there as it caught a ray in just the right way.

This must be an ice dragon. Most of its scales were white, but those on the underside of its wings and neck and some of its legs were in shades of light blue. Lily guessed the dragon’s belly would be in similar blue shades. It would make sense as camouflage. The white scales would blend with the snow during winter when on land. The body tapered back into a long tail with a short spike but ending in a kind of smaller fan.

The fan reminded Lily of something. She tried to think of what. Yes, a fin! Lily wondered if that helped with aerodynamics when flying, or if the dragon might also be able to swim. Either way, it seemed that the sightings reported of late from boats going past this area were not exaggerated. The boats were going out of their way to avoid this fjord now.

Lily sighed. This was her fault, she knew. She, and now her child, were the last of her race. Lily had been prophesied to return to power. There was more to the prophecy but she had already fulfilled that part, marrying Alexander, the heir apparent. Another part of the prophecy was that she would restore magic to the kingdom. So far, her efforts seemed to be succeeding. With this restoration, there were new complications arising. Lily suspected that as magic increased, there would only be more unforeseen dilemmas, such as the one that brought her here now.

Firstly, they needed to figure out how to protect the lands and the people/creatures they were in charge of, both from each other and from the outside world. The rest of the world hadn’t caught on quite yet that magic was increasing here. They only knew about Lily. Reports varied on her abilities but were generally underestimated. Thus Lily might be a target, or her family, but so far, the rest of the country wasn’t. That couldn’t last. Lily was still working on how to handle that day when it came.

If power was returning to the land, it would make sense, in theory, that the land would now be capable of supporting magical creatures again. She wouldn’t have thought it enough for a dragon yet. And she had no idea where it had been all this time to suddenly show up now, when conditions were ripe to support it.

An ice dragon!

It was beautiful. There was also no telling how destructive it may or may not be, or how intelligent. Lily needed to assess the threat level before deciding if this area was to be made off limits to people, if the animal itself was in need of protection, or if the animal would have to be dealt with in some way to protect others. Alex had voiced some concern about her leaving, but she needed to see and assess this potential threat for herself. And Alex had to admit she was most suited to the task, given her abilities. It appeared the prophecy and her current status as the last of an ancient race who had more power in their little finger than any human with Talents left alive today made her the de facto person in charge of dealing with all magic-related issues. She had appeased Alex by assuring him she wouldn’t go alone.

Although, he’d panicked again when she’d told him who she planned to take with her.

Lily heard movement and gasping behind her as another body made it at last to the top of the ridge. Mary was red in the face and sweating when she saw Lily. She had always thought she was in reasonable shape before, until she agreed to come here with Lily, who had been traveling all over the country of late. Failing to take note of Lily’s quiet stillness with her eyes glued to her binoculars, Mary huffed out a sigh of relief and unceremoniously dumped her pack on the ground. Then she sat on a rock, fanning herself.

“Phew! That last kilometer was just awful! You and I need to take more trips. I seem to have gotten lazy of late.”

Lily didn’t move but murmured quietly, “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You had a baby. No one bounces back right away from that.”

“You did!”

“No, I didn’t. I’ve had longer to recover. Given how many babies the prophesy thinks I’m going to have, I’ve got to get things like this done when I can.”

Mary groaned loudly, removing a shoe and massaging her foot, “I don’t want to think about another child right now. I just want to relax and enjoy the sun for a moment.”

Something about what Mary said made Lillianna feel uneasy. She was still watching the Ice Dragon and was about to mention its presence to Mary when two things happened:

1) Lily realized that she wasn’t having to squint through the glare any more in order to see the ice dragon…and the reason for that was because the sun had gone behind a cloud. Mary had mentioned sun.

2) The Ice Dragon suddenly looked up from its meal…and glanced in Lily’s direction.

At this point it is worth mentioning that there was a reason Lily had decided to bring Mary along on this trip.

And there was also a reason why Alex had misgivings…understandable misgivings.

Mary had gone to school with Lily and Alex. She was one of Lily’s closets friends. Their group had banded together because they all had strong magical Talents in their family lines (well, all except Lily). It was a side of themselves they didn’t share with many. Since the days of the Witch Hunts, no one volunteered information like that. But the power in Mary’s blood was particularly strong in that it had merged over the years with multiple magical lines. Mary’s Talents were both a blessing and a curse. Many of Mary’s ancestors, in fact, are still spoken widely of today.

…in fairy tales.

Cinderella? Sleeping beauty? Such stories weren’t the beautiful and romantic adventures in reality that children and adults sigh over. If you will recall, while most such tales included a happily ever after eventually, they weren’t so fun for the heroine until then, and often involved years of suffering.

Magic seemed to always want to attach itself to Mary and warp reality around her to fit some form of fairy tale. Lily had never seen magic work that way around anyone else. With Mary, it seemed a living, although somewhat mindless, entity bent on fitting Mary into a certain role, whatever fairy tale might best fit the current moment when the magic becomes aware of her presence again and sees a story to put her in. Mary had been fighting it her entire life. The impulse had lessened in the past few years but still cropped up occasionally.

Along with this Talent came others that made such heroines famous. One was the affinity for animals. She could almost feel what they were feeling. Mary and Lily had been friends when Lily’s powers first manifested. Until she’d learned to shield, magic had literally leaked off of Lily, heightening all of her friends Talents to a dramatic degree. When that had happened, Mary’s Talent strengthened to the point she was actually able to hear animals’ thoughts. This was the reason why Lily had decided to ask Mary to accompany her. They had discussed it together and agreed having Mary around a potential dragon would be a risk to one magical trait, but the possibility of her being able to communicate with the creature could be of enormous value in figuring out their next steps.

Lily’s inner alarm bells were blaring now.

The ice dragon flapped its wings, pushing off with its hind legs into the air. There was nothing leisurely about it any longer. The creatures’ movements were filled with purpose, its form rapidly growing larger.

Lily lowered her binoculars to look back at her friend, her lips forming a warning as she did so.

Sure enough, her friend’s face was no longer red and sweaty. It was beautiful and serene, the wind blowing her hair around her just enough to look graceful and ethereal but not enough to get stringy or slap her in the face, as would happen to most. Mary’s head and body were angelically haloed on the rock by a single ray of sunshine, dramatically cutting through the clouds to form a perfect ring around her and the stone she reclined upon. A bouquet of beautiful white, purple, and pink wildflowers had already bloomed at her feet. It almost looked as though a crown of sunshine were gracing her head.

Dismay enveloped Lily. Witches aflame, this wasn’t good!

The magic had apparently decided a dragon was too good a story to pass up – it didn’t understand the concept of low hanging fruit. Mary had been enjoying her rest too much to notice her Talent at work, making her into a beautiful princess. It didn’t seem to matter that Mary wasn’t actually royalty. Mary wasn’t bothered as much in recent years because she had gotten married and had a child and there were fewer stories these realities could play into. But this was a temptation too great to avoid, it seemed. And a land that was growing in magic was feeding into all of Mary’s Talents, making them stronger. Both a blessing and a curse in this instance.

“Mary! Incoming!”

Mary’s head jerked up, her brown eyes wide with both alarm and stunned amazement.

Lily realized as she began to turn her head that she had made a mistake in taking her eyes off of the dragon. Instinctively, she had already begun to pull up her magic, erecting a shield over herself and Mary. That was the only thing that saved her.

Before she had fully turned again to look at the dragon a strong gust of icy cold wind hit her.

Witches frozen and blue!

Lily’s particular brand of magic was air magic. Thus, her shields tended to make air into a more semipermeable barrier around her. This attack was also air mixed with magic, and her shield hadn’t been fully erected yet.

The force of it hit her hard, the cold chilling her to the bone instantly. She was thrown to the side. The strength of the blow stunned her. The air was still blowing her when she forced her eyes open, though not as frigid any more.

Come to think of it, it was blowing from a different direction now too.

Her eyes opened and, in front of her, she saw where she had stood a moment before. Mary was scooped up in one of the ice dragons’ larger hind talons and it was carrying her off, Mary hanging on for dear life. It appeared to be heading back toward the caves.

Lily looked down.

The tree canopy at the bottom of the valley was rapidly approaching.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Lily focused, mentally slowing the motion of her body through the air while buoying herself with the air below her.

She opened her eyes again.

Lily found herself hovering about 20 feet above the tree canopy.

When she had first done this, long ago, she hadn’t known what she was doing. She’d merely panicked and her magic had burst out of her. It had immediately been replaced by utter astonishment at failing to hit the ground, which meant that her concentration had gone. She’d only managed a moment or two hovering trying to think of what to do before gravity had kicked back in and she’d plummeted the rest of the way. Luckily, the force of her fall had begun from the place she had been frozen, only 6 to 10 feet above the ground, rather than the height at which she had begun her descent. That distance had been considerably greater. Now that she was more familiar with her powers, she held onto her concentration and continued to hover while she took stock of the situation.

The ice dragon and Mary were already almost half way back to the cave. The dragon was fast when it wanted to be. Otherwise it wouldn’t have reached Lily and Mary so quickly. Now that it had its prey in hand, there seemed to be less need to rush. Lily guessed that such speed probably consumed a lot of energy, possibly magic as well. In which case, the beast wouldn’t be able to maintain such speeds for long. Like many predators, it was likely fast in short bursts but not over longer distances. Also, its breath was very strong and cold, and it seemed to be able to cover a good distance with that as well. Lillianna suspected that, had her shields not already been partially up when the dragon attacked, she might have been frozen solid either there where she stood or frozen and then blown to break into a thousand pieces on the ground below. Either way, Lily was extremely grateful her shields had given her what protection they had. As it was, her teeth were still chattering. That situation would improve when she used more magical energy. Unless she got hit without a full shield again, she suspected she’d be sweating before her time with the dragon was over.

Well, she’d found out one of the things she’d come to discover. The dragon could definitely pose a threat to people.

Lily sighed. Those caves looked far away. Lily could direct the wind to float her there. She couldn’t have done it with Mary, and it took a lot of concentration to do. This wasn’t an area of her magic she was strong in yet. She’d be tired when she got there. But walking would take far too long.

There was no other option.

Flying it would have to be.

Lily cursed and grumbled to herself. “At least Mary got a ride,” she thought aloud, as she leaned forward and forced the air behind to rush her forward. It would have been hell getting her to walk the rest of that way today.

*********************************************************************

Lily could hear Mary shouting long before she could see her.

Mary wasn’t normally given to shouting, but she supposed the situation might warrant it.

“Honestly, did you even consider your actions? Is this who you are? Is this the impression you want to make? My hair and my clothes are a mess! You scared me half out of my wits and who knows if Lily is alright? You don’t simply take people without their permission! This is not acceptable behavior! I demand that you take me back to check on my friend at once!”

Pause.

Another angry shout, “Yes! I DO have to yell!”

Lily had reached the cliff. She had come from behind so her approach would not be visible and was creeping up to the side of the cave entrance. However, it didn’t sound like she would have been noticed either way. She peered around a corner and saw Mary stomp her foot.

Another furious retort, this time quieter, “Well, I am sorry if your ears are sensitive! Maybe you should think about what you are doing more carefully next time if you don’t want people to scream!”

This time Lily could hear a sort of plaintive whine from the dragon, though she couldn’t see it from where she was standing unless she made herself visible.

An unladylike snort from Mary, “If you had wanted to make friends, you didn’t go about it very well, did you?”

Another whine. It sounded almost wheedling.

“And what about my friend out there? You may have done serious injury to her!”

Mary seemed slightly calmer but worried about Lily. Lillianna guessed that the danger at this point from the magic taking over had lessened. Mary seemed more in control of her own narrative and that was enough for her. Lily called on her depleted reserves to put up a shield. She was starting to feel drained and she didn’t know if she could catch herself again if she was blown off of the cave mouth. Then Lily stepped into view at the entrance and walked forward, tiredly dusting her hands from the dirt of the rocks she’d been gripping a moment ago.

“No, I’m fine.”

The ice dragon reared back at Lily’s appearance and went into immediate attack mode, flapping its wings and rushing at her, breathing in a lung full in preparation for icing.

“No!” Mary yelled, stepping between the dragon and Lily. The ice dragon had to dig its hind feet into the dirt of the cave, desperately trying to stop itself before hitting Mary. It slid forward on the rocks until it managed to stop less than a foot from Mary’s face. She reached forward and bopped it on the nose, “Bad!”

The ice dragon blinked. Clearly, it was struggling to comprehend that it had just been bopped on the nose like a naughty puppy.

Mary put her hands on her hips, “Weren’t we just talking about making a better impression? Honestly, if you keep attacking everyone you meet, people are going to start running out here with weapons and torches!”

The dragon snorted a huff of air in a clearly dismissive gesture.

Mary glared at the ice dragon, “I’ll give you that you can probably take a few, maybe even a half dozen or so. But if you keep on this way, people will see you as a threat and won’t rest until that threat is taken care of. They will just keep coming. There are a lot more people out there than there are dragons. It just takes ONE of them to succeed. Eventually, that WILL happen!”

The dragon slowly and deliberately stood and turned its back on Lily and Mary to saunter farther back into the cave. Lily felt as though she had seen this action many times before, though not on a dragon. He was posturing! Trying to show that he wasn’t afraid of small little humans, though the attempt in and of itself showed that something Mary had said had sunk in.

“You might be the last of your kind,” Mary called. “You’ll never know if more might have shown up to keep you company if you get yourself killed!”

The ice dragon halted his posturing and threw himself onto what looked like a nest with a noise Lily could only interpret as sulking. It was amazing how well she seemed able to read the beast even though she couldn’t understand him. At least, Lily was assuming it was a he.

“It’s a boy, isn’t it?”

Mary rolled her eyes, “What gave him away?”

From his nest, the dragon narrowed his eyes at them.

“Are we finished with the dramatics?”

Mary looked at the dragon. The dragon shut its eyes as though to ignore the pair and pretend they weren’t there.

“It would appear so.”

“Good,” Lilliana sat and leaned her head and torso against the wall. That felt a little better. She could do with a nice long sleep but now that they were communicating, they had more ground to cover. “Let’s get comfortable and have a talk. I need to know his history, if there are more, does he have a particular territory he considers his, where did he come from, what can he do, does he need help?… And we need to talk peace terms.”

The dragon opened its eyes and raised its head, gazing alertly at Lily. He seemed expectant.

******************************************************************

Lily tried to stretch the kinks out as she sat at the mouth of the cave and watched the sun rise. The dragon had gone back and retrieved their packs for them. Then they’d spoken for about three hours as Mary and Lily ate a meal of dried rations and guzzled water, before, exhausted, Mary and Lily had fallen asleep where they sat. By that point they’d been certain the dragon wasn’t going to kill them in the night. His name wasn’t pronounceable to humans but Mary had decided it sounded closest to Theodosin, so that was what they’d elected to call him.

The way that dragons thought was different than the way that humans thought and at times this made it difficult for Mary to understand him. She got that he had been frozen in ice, asleep - probably a glacier farther north. The magic had been getting less and less and the dragons were getting weaker without its presence. They were active less and slept more and more, until eventually, there just hadn’t been enough magic to feed on to keep them awake. Lately, the ice had been growing thinner but he might never have woken had he not sensed or smelled (hard to tell) a weak thread of magic that had enticed him and pulled him out of his slumber. He had been very weak at first, needing several weeks to recuperate. Luckily, there had been a body of water close by with large fish that had caused him minimal effort to catch. He’d grown strong enough to fly short distances but the magic was so minimal that it didn’t feed him enough to make him strong. He’d started flying as far south as he could, toward the smell? The feel? Lily was still confused on that point. When he could fly no farther, and this was not very far initially, he would find the ocean or a body of water and rest again. Yes, he could swim. And some of the way he had. He was able to hold his breath a long time (Lily would be interested to time him at some point to see how long), but he seemed to prefer the air. Eventually, he came to this valley. Here the magic was stronger for him to feed on, though not as strong as he remembered feasting on before his sleep in the ice. Farther south, he had sensed larger populations of humans. So, although the smell tempted him, he had decided to remain in this valley and make do with what he had. He had settled down to wait. He was waiting to see if the magic would get stronger or if any of his kind might scent him on the wind and come to call.

None had.

He seemed lonely. Young and lonely.

Mary and Lily guessed that he had not been very old for a dragon when he’d gone to sleep in the ice. His intelligence did not seem at the level of human intelligence but that could also be a function of his age and his long sleep.

If it was an adaptation of ice dragons to go into some sort of suspended animation when there lacked enough magic in an area to support them, then this could well mean that there were more that would show up. Many could also have been easily slain as their energy waned and they became more lethargic. Theodosin still slept for much of the day. He had remained reclined in his nest to speak with them and everyone had fallen asleep where they sat after several hours when no one could keep their eyes open. Theodosin had only lasted as long as he had without a nap due to his excitement at finding someone he could communicate with after such a long time on his own.

Lily sighed, a young fledgling. He would need to be protected. Lily and Mary had been able to persuade him of the need for rules of some kind to protect both himself and the humans, at least. Now, how best to protect him and provide him with some much-craved company, and how to protect the human population if other dragons began to appear?

No, Lily shook her head.

That wasn’t right.

She could feel it.

WHEN other dragons began to appear.