43 days since the Nameless One’s escape
17 days since the fall of Traxti City
Morning, South Arctic
He of the Barren South grumbled as he saw the erratic flying of the Hourglass dragons. “Land. Mail.”
Once they landed, He of Music struggled to keep his claw from shaking as he quickly composed a message to Sentinel. He couldn’t tell if the shaking was the cold finally getting to him or the wendigos or the cursed ice dragon. I hate this war. Why couldn’t I have been hatched after the war!? I just want to be surrounded by my hoard, and not need to worry about darkness and death and destruction…
Medallion put a wing on him and He of Music managed to stop shaking long enough to finish the letter and send it off. She was just as nervous and fearful as her clanmate and brother but she knew that with the way he heard the world around him that the chilling effect of the wendigos was most likely affecting him more than her. She’d be damned if she didn’t help him.
A scroll appeared after a few long minutes of waiting. Medallion grabbed the scroll and opened it for her clanmate. He of Music silently thanked her as they both read the missive.
He of Music,
This is not good. It is possible that wendigos could be overpowered... even without the use of dark magic… But... it would take extreme magical power, concentration, and mental control and a weakened wendigo.
Be doubly careful with this dragon. When you reach South Crystal City let me know. I may have words for He of the Barren South.
Sentinel
He of Music burnt the scroll not wanting to risk their guide ever finding out about the contents of the scroll even though it was coded.
“Finished?” He of the Barren South asked in his usual cold manner. A short nod from He of Music was the response. “Good. You are not hatchlings and I am not your parent. Get your act together.”
As they took off He of Music and Medallion noticed that besides the three wendigos from before there was more galloping below them. Both really hoped that those wendigos were also apart the the ice dragon's hoard and not rogues.
What was also curious about the whole situation was they were surrounded by wendigos but the blizzard never worsened nor did the temperature drop. Even the chilling aura that should come off of them was absent. What in the world did this dragon do to these wendigos? It was possible that this was typical behavior and that the herd that attacked them were like the ones that attacked Equestria, driven by dark magic and out of control. Forget being nightmare, to both dragons this assignment was becoming a nightterror.
17 days since the fall of Traxti City
Evening, Near South Crystal City
He of Music stifled a yawn. Except for the nap he took while awaiting a response from Hourglass the day before he had been up for nearly two days and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could go.
Medallion noticed that He of Music was fighting to stay awake. She was about to tell He of the Barren South that they needed to land when she saw something in the distance. A mass of dark purple, blue, and red spread out on the ground. “He of Music we are almost there hold on a bit longer.”
He of Music breathed a sigh of relief. It was hard to say for sure, but it looked like the city was less than a hour away. He was sure he could hold out that long. As they got closer he noticed that there appeared to be wall of the same dark crystal surrounding the city. That was not apart of the intel that He of Hourglass gave them during their final debriefing the morning they left. Though the information was at least three hundred years old.
10 days since the fall of Traxti City
Early morning, Hourglass City
“Golden DragonHeart?” Eternal Beats sang his surprise as head rose up. He was not expecting his Firstclaw to be at his hoard. He had a satchel in his arms. He looked over to see that Legacy Chaser was yawning. They had decided to sleep at his hoard so that all they had to do was wake and take off.
Speaking of his hoard, a few of his bird were snoozing on her head, not even affected by the dragon waking up. Both male dragons watched the dragoness to see how long it would take her to find out she had several birds for a headdress. It was more than a minute before Legacy Chaser noticed the looks her clanmates were giving her.
“Eternal Beats!” She whispered harshly. “Do I look like a tree branch to you!?”
“No…” Eternal Beats struggled to not laugh at the exasperated dragoness as she failed in her attempts to extract the birds. Clearly these birds were taking after their master as he could see the smirks the birds were sporting. He like pulling a prank or two every now and then but right now wasn’t the time. He gave the birds a look and they flew off laughing. A cough drew his attention back to Golden DragonHeart along with Legacy Chaser.
“Morning Eternal Beats and Legacy Chaser.” Golden DragonHeart greeted his clanmates warmly, now that he had both dragons’ attentions.
“Here are charts with notations of expected weather conditions for this time of year.” The purple dragon pulled out a thick stack of folded papers to show the white dragon before he put it back. “Luckily, Soul Fire managed to update all of them before them before he Chose so they are not three hundred hundred thousand years out of date… though do expect some slight inaccuracies…”
Golden DragonHeart dug through the satchel for a few minutes grumbling a bit as he struggled to find what he was looking for. Suddenly his expression lightened as he finally snagged the item he was looking for. “Here is some intel on the South Crystal City.” He held up a small bound book. “It includes what the city should look like and what to expect from the golems. It should take roughly seven to nine days to reach the city plenty of time to read up.”
Golden DragonHeart put everything back then handed over the bag to Eternal Beats “Thanks Firstclaw.”
Eternal Beats and Legacy Chaser were about to take off when Golden DragonHeart put a claw on Eternal Beats back. “One last thing Eternal Beats…”
“Yes.” He chirped. Golden DragonHeart cross his arms and raised an eyebrow. “Oh… I spent sometime yesterday practicing stoping the lyricaliness of my voice…”
“And?”
“I can sort of control it now… “ Eternal Beats spoke slowly. It was hard to control his lyrical voice without concentrating. ”I don’t like it, but I can control it… you never told me why.”
“I only have suspicions, Eternal Beats, nothing more… What happened to your voice and instruments makes no sense to me… I have not enough time to memory walk the Memories yet to do more than speculate. Just keep practicing…”
Present
He had made it his goal to not speak like a bard in a bar the entire trip down. He was glad that his firstclaw told him to practice. Somehow he didn’t think He of the Barren South would find it all that ‘arousing.’ It was quite hard, though, as he was itching to allow his voice to normalize and the itch had only risen over time. A small part of him considered his voice as part of his hoard. A small, nagging, singing voice...
The ice dragon began to descend. It appeared the ice dragon was going to have them land outside the wall. Made sense as walls were not put up without a reason. It would not be well to spook or anger the local populace by flying over the wall unless they had no choice.
As He of the Barren South seemed to not want to help any further Medallion started looking for a gate or a door or something while He of Music stay with the ice dragon. He of the Barren South had lead them to the wall just outside the city but she could not see anything that could resemble an entrance.
“Here is where I leave you.” He of the Barren South finally spoke as he handed He of Music a flat round piece of glass that was etched to look like a snowflake. “When you're finished send a scroll. I will escort you back north. Am I clear?”
“Clear.” He of Music nearly gulped by the hard look that the ice dragon was giving him. He managed to recover just as He of the Barren South had turned around. His posture indicated that he was about take off. “Wait. My secondclaw said in our last correspondence that he might wish to send a letter to you.”
He of the Barren South huffed and turned around. Outside of the huffed breath there was no indication that the dragon was irritated as he maintain his usual icy stare.
He of Music nodded his thanks, wrote a quick note, and sent it off. Less than three seconds later he had a reply. That surprised him as he wasn’t expecting a response so quickly. He almost wasn’t able to catch the scroll.
I’m sending an sealed scroll for He of the Barren South’s eyes ONLY. Give him three of my tokens along with the scroll.
Sentinel
He of Music was confused by what his secondclaw was ordering but nonetheless another scroll soon appeared just has he managed to grab the requested tokens. “My Seconclaw has ordered me to give you this scroll and three of his firemail tokens.”
He of the Barren South grabbed the scroll but did not touch the tokens. He of Music shrugged and he figured that he could also get them later. He was, however, curious about the contents of the sealed scroll. The ice dragon quickly broke the seal and began reading. His expression curiously morphed as he read.
He of Music didn’t think it was possible but somehow his scales managed to pale and his eyes widen in what he could only describe as absolute shock. He showed no shock when Medallion had revealed that the Alicorn Keeper had become a dragon… Of course, he was in all likelihood in disbelief about the revelation. Maybe Sentinel used Draconic Script to force He of the Barren South to believe. Tartarus it could be anything. Sentinel was an open book filled with riddles and hidden messages that only the writer could deceiver.
“Tokens.” He of the Barren South held out his free claw. He of Music was still in a state of shock and confusion over the change in the ice dragon and was not really paying attention. He of Barren South growled angrily. “TOKENS. NOW!”
What could could have Sentinel written that would cause He of the Barren South to lose his cool? He of Music wondered.