Where did the Dragons go?

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Not since The Great Dragon Hunt. The stories about dragons and the power they held was enough for a massive effort by all the Nations of the world to band together and seek their destruction. After studying some ancient ruins I have found evidence to suggest that during the Great Dragon Migration may have stopped in this valley. We will begin our search of the valley in the morning.

A short-haired golden-yellow leopard-spotted Therian, set the quill he was writing with down to the side and put a cap on the ink bottle. He sprinkled dust on the paper then stood up from the chair and stretched. Opening one eye he peered down at the letter he wrote.

“Past?” A knock on the door came with the baritone voice calling out. The door creaked open and a blue-scaled dragon-like head poked into the room. “Hey. Are you about done? We’re waiting on you.”

Prowler-of-the-Past, or Past to his friends, turned around and looked at the strange face. “Yes. I’m just going to leave this here to dry. Let me get my robes and sling.” The dragonborn stuck a blue clawed hand in the room and gave a thumbs up before leaving and closing the door behind him. “Daorathna… the only creature I’ve ever met to claim to be descended from dragons and can read, write, and speak the Draconian Language. I’d love to know where you really came from.” Past pondered in a whisper while staring at the door.

“Is he coming?” A high-pitched voice asked from the living room. A small reddish-orange kobold bounced up and down excitedly in his leather armor, a dark cloak tied about his shoulders, and a bright pink cowboy hat sat on his head with a couple holes to allow for his small horns to poke through.

“Calm down little cousin.” Dao said as he pulled the last of his adamantite plate mail armor on. He picked up his shield and placed it on his back then strapped his scimitar to his belt. The distinct sound of a door clicking shut could be heard from the back bedrooms and Past stepped out into the living room. He nodded at Daorathna and they followed the little kobold out the door.

“From your translations at the previous ruins, it should be in this valley.” Past said to the group as they walked through the forest of evergreen trees.

“Yes.” Daorathna replied. “Weloh, please don’t run ahead.” Dao called after the hyper-energetic kobold.

“Don’t worry! I’m the greatest archer in the world!” Weloh exclaimed as he pulled his bow and held it aloft for the others to see.

“Yes, but his eyesight gets worse in the bright sunlight.” Past said to Daorathna as the dragonborn shook his head.

“And somehow, it still doesn’t change the fact that he shot the wings off that evil fairy.” Daorathna replied. Past chuckled at the comment. “Or that he talked about it for weeks afterwards.”

“It was only one week.” Past shook his head, having had this argument with Daorathna multiple times since they first met each other. “16-days is one week, 8-weeks for a season, 4-seasons a year.” He sighed and said a bit more softly, “I really wish you would sit down with me and tell me about where it is you come from.”

“Maybe, one day. But that day is not today.” They caught up to Weloh who was peering over the side of the cliff down into the valley. The mix of evergreen trees and the red sandstone cliffs, made the area appear as though the forest was on fire.

Carefully they made their way down the cliff side and into the valley proper. After several hours of walking through the valley with small stops to rest, Daorathna paused and stared at the cliff face. Weloh, who had been riding on the tall dragonborne’s shoulders looked down at him. “What is it?”

Past walked closer to the two of them. “It’s there?” Past asked, as Daorathna resumed walking towards the cliff face in silence. Near the base of the cliff, there was a large section that appeared to be collapsed. “Do you think the entrance is under this?”

“I don’t think. I know it is. Bahamut has guided me here.” Daorathna replied.

“That’s your Dragon-God! The one you pray to under that big tree in the backyard?” Weloh asked while they studied the collapse on how best to clear it out.

“Did he happen to show you where under this rubble the entrance is?” Past asked a bit off-handedly. Dao shot him an angry look for a brief moment. Past held up his hands in an apologetic sign. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to sound crass. I know better than most that the God’s exist.” He lightly tapped a pouch on his waist designed to hold a mage’s spellbook.

Daorathna gently picked Weloh up off of his shoulders and set him down on the ground. “We should have activated the travel sigils on the house and brought it with us. It will be long past sun-down when we get back to the house. Plus we’d be able to rest and get to clearing this out, starting early tomorrow.”

Past scratched the back of his head, then adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses on his face. “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about lunchtime. But the best I can do for us, is cast shape stone and dig a small cave entrance into the cliff wall.” Dao nodded and Past got to work on his spell. It took a few hours, as he needed to rest for a bit after just a few castings of the spell. But, as night fell they at least had a space about the size of a large tent for them to rest in.

Past panted heavily as he sat on the ground after he was done, and Weloh was sound asleep lightly snoring. Daorathna picked the little kobold up and carried him inside and used his larger cloak as a blanket for the small kobold. Dao looked at Past, “You should rest too. I’ll stay up.” Daorathna said.

Past smiled wearily, “You know I’ve been cursed. I couldn’t sleep even if it were magically induced.” Past pulled a small black book, that appeared to be made out of living shadows. The air around it seemed as though it were a black fog rolling off the book and dissipating before it reached the ground.

Dao removed his heavy plate armor, his blue scaled body was covered in magical tattoos. “How much stone can you use your magic on tomorrow?” Dao asked as he laid down using the torso pieces as a pillow.

“More than I did just now, but less than we would like.” Past replied. “Sleep. I’ll wake you if anything happens.” Past watched the Daorathna until his deeper bass snores could be heard. He then turned to his book and began writing away inside it. It had been over twenty years since Past had been cursed with his inability to sleep. As a loyal follower of the God of Knowledge and Dark Secrets, it was but a small exchange for some of the forbidden knowledge that he could receive from his God.

Not wanting to dwell in his memories on his awakening ceremony, Past tried to focus on the knowledge he needed. So he scratched away in the book he was holding, where is the entrance to the dragon cave?

An hour before sunrise, just as he could feel his power back at full he saw a simple phrase reply. Behind and up. Past looked up from his book as his eyes caught movement. He saw that Weloh had sat up and was yawning wide with his arms outstretched as far as they could go. “Weloh,” Past said to get the kobold’s attention. When the kobold was looking at him he continued, “What elements did you get during your awakening ceremony?”

Weloh finished stretching and yawning before replying, “I got only got one element. Rainbow Mana. It allows me to use all elements, but at a much weaker degree than specialized awakenings.”

Past nodded, “Right, that’s why you use your bow and arrows. You can empower your shots to deal extra damage.” Weloh nodded. “Can you create a bunch of plants?” Past asked and Weloh had a look on his face like he was thinking.

“I kind of can. It’s complicated. It’s an area around where my arrow strikes the ground. It’ll cause a bunch of roots, vines, and other plants to grow rapidly and tangle up anyone in the area.” Past nodded while he was thinking and put his book away in it’s place on his hip.

“How many times can you do that?”

“Maybe three or four times. It uses a lot of mana.”

“And that exploding arrow of yours, how many times can you use it?”

“Maybe eight times from full to empty. Why?” The kobold looked curious as Past smiled and motioned for Weloh to follow him outside.

Once outside Past pointed a little ways up the cliff face. “If you shot the collapsed area with your roots arrow, the plants should slightly break up the rocks. Then you can shoot two exploding arrows at the same area and blast away a good size area of rock. I can’t shape stone much more than what I used to make the cave. But if you cleared away a couple large sections, we should be able to find the entrance, and I can make us a path to it.”

Weloh had an excited look on his face and ran back into the cave to get his bow and arrows. He came running out already notching an arrow before looking up at the cliff face. But before he could draw his bow, Past stopped him. “Let’s wait for our friend to wake up and we clear out the cave. Wouldn’t want our things to get buried in another avalanche of rock and stone.” They didn’t have long to wait. Dao was up with the sun and praying for the first hour of the new day before he was ready.

“So. Any insights as to where we should begin digging?” Dao said as he pulled a shovel and a pick out of seemingly thin air.

Past nodded, “Yeah. We have an attack plan. But, could you store our non-essentials in your spatial area? Don’t want to lose them if we end up causing another avalanche.” Dao nodded and jogged back inside the small cave. A moment later he came back out and gave a thumbs up. Past nodded to Weloh who just grinned as he drew his bow back. Still in the shadow of the cliff face from the bright morning sun, Weloh’s eyes glowed a dim green as the arrowhead began to emit the same dim green light.

A moment later with the twang of his bow, an arcing green light raced across the distance. As the arrow struck the collapsed rubble, a flash of green light lit up a large area of the wall. In seconds, small rubble pieces began falling down the cliff face as the magically grown plants pushed their way out a couple larger rocks began to break free and slide down.

The three adventurers eyes grew wide as they realized what was about to happen. Dao turned and picked Weloh up and began running along the cliff wall. Past melded with the shadows and practically teleported instantly to a safe distance. The three watched as half the collapsed rubble continued their ancient decent to the valley floor.

Weloh cheered the whole time the other two watched in stunned silence. “Told you! I’m thee best archer in the world!” Past just shook his head in disbelief.

Daorathna pointed a finger at a dark cave uncovered. Weloh cheered even louder when he saw it too. Dao put his shovel and pick away in his spatial storage. Past started to laugh as he walked back to where he would begin to shape their ascent to the cave.

The sun wasn’t quite directly overhead when they finally reached the cave. But being the only one with the Earth Element as specialized focus, he was the only one who could make a stable path up. So when he collapsed on the ground just inside the dark cave, Dao passed him a water skin. Wordlessly he thanked Dao and drank deeply from it. Dao took the time Past was resting to put his armor on and properly equip himself.

Weloh on the other hand was exploring the entrance as one could call it. He whistled in appreciation at the sight. His eyes much more accustomed to the darkness, he was able to see that they had indeed uncovered another Draconic Hall. The cave entrance slowly transitioned from rough cut stone, to a detailed architecture. A sealed wall, with a set of double doors nearly forty feet tall and thirty feet wide sat in the center of the back wall.

Daorathna examined a wall with claw marks and scratches, then followed them closer to the back wall. Weloh walked slowly beside Dao, “This looks like your writing, only much larger!” The kobold commented after a minute.

Daorathna snorted, “That’s because it’s the same language.” He stopped and turned to look at Past who was walking to catch up to them. Six small glowing orbs of blue light were spread out in a wide circle around the Therian illuminating a significant area around him. Past tossed the waterskin back to Dao.

“What’s it say?” Past asked.

“It’s a basic warning of beware and keep out. Death waits for any who trespass inside.”

“Are we trespassing?” Weloh asked looking up at Daorathna.

“No. Bahamut has guided me here. We are here for the unhatched eggs hidden inside.” Dao stopped to look at the other two. “Nothing else. Only the unhatched eggs. Do you understand me? Nothing. Else.” He placed a heavy emphasis on the last two words. He waited until they acknowledged what he had said, then he turned and walked over to the doors, and knocked.

Authors Note: This was supposed to be my entry for the Dragon's Contest. But I lost track of when the contest entries were due. Having missed the deadline, I figured I could upload the story anyways. I hope you enjoyed this reading. I plan on continuing to upload more to the story, as well as smaller writings pertaining to the world at large.