//------------------------------// // Reconciliation // Story: At the Twilight of Harmony // by Rammy //------------------------------// 37 days since the fall of Traxti City 11 days since Legacy Chaser’s murder Early Afternoon, Hourglass “The ‘Nameless One’ has found a dragon that is in Dragon Keeper’s firemail network.” “Any suggestions on what should we do?” Twilight questioned. No one answered. Sentinel sighed as he saw that his firstclaw was giving him the floor to answer as he attempted to collect his thoughts on the matter. “I have no idea… only the same as before: prepare for war…” “That’s it?” Ambassador Grizzle squawked. “Where is the Alicorn Keeper!? He would…” Sentinel blinked for a moment in confusion as the griffon ranted. I thought we dropped enough hints… though he may be dismissing them as I am in my dragon form as slip of the tongues...  “... I demand an explanation! What have you liz…” Sentinel walked right up to Grizzle in a threatening manner. For brief moment he shrunk back in fear before he remembered that Sentinel, to him, was merely an image. “Your display would be more intimidating if you were actually here.” Ambassador Grizzle smug grin disappeared to be replaced by absolute shock, his beak dropping nearly to the floor, as Sentinel changed form. “Al… Alicorn Keeper! You're… the…” “Alicorn Keeper, yes.” Sentinel resisted the urge to rolled his eyes but he did give at least a smug grin. He was glad that most griffons only knew him to be merely an alicorn stallion and were not aware of his previous kaleidoscope fur. Though he was surprised the the griffon didn’t go into a rant that it was a trick. “H...how!?” Grizzle exclaimed. “No… No… this is some sort of trick!” Aaaaand I ‘spoke’ too soon… Sentinel moaned. “Es eslu scktārthotais viethratzis sarzs. As for the details…” Sentinel paused as he tried to find a less blunt way of saying buck off. “They are unimportant right now…” “But…” “Ambassador, please.” Celestia lightly pleaded with the griffon before the meeting got further off track. “Sentinel is right, we have more important things to discuss. Dragon Keeper, He of Hourglass, do you have an suggestions for what we should do?” “None at the moment,” He of Hourglass answered. He had hoped that Secondclaw would be able have something as he needed time to figure out the best way to combat this revelation. Sadly that wasn’t the case, leaving him to basically give out information he was not ready to give out.  “But given the reports of the griffons and the location of the dragon the east coast may be first hit… I won’t know for sure without checking with others.” “Then there is not much more we can do for the moment…” Celestia rubbed her temple trying to ease her frustration. A large MMMM cake would be in her future. “Sentinel, Scorpan if you find anything relevant… “...To the bombings I will send as soon as we get anything.” Sentinel promised as he interrupted Celestia. “Any information on the movements of the Nameless One that I can get from my dragonmail network will be sent over as soon as I get any…” He of Hourglass added. “Celestia, Grizzle given the the rapidly deteriorating conditions I would like to propose a daily meeting if nothing more then to make sure that communication lines remain open.” “Agreed.” Celestia nodded as she agreed. “I concur.” Grizzle nodded. 12 days since Legacy Chaser’s murder Early Morning, Hourglass Soul Fire yawned then stretched, knocking some of the gems that comprised Golden DragonHeart’s bed. The night had been busy for him. He was glad all he did was end bad dreams as it meant he could guard sleep and dreamwalk concurrently. Anything more and he would have had to remain awake. He looked around to see that Golden DragonHeart was resting his head against his desk. “Any word from the dragon that contacted you yesterday?” “No…” Golden DragonHeart whispered sadly. He lifted his head off of the desk. “And I fear the worse, but I dare not send a letter less the ‘Nameless One’ could use it against us.” “What of the other dragons in your network?” “I managed to get a hold of all of them but six… those six I fear are dead as I couldn’t even get the letter to go as none were near the time for the Slumber...” “So then there is a chance that he was not discovered where or who you are…” “Is that supposed to make me feel better!?!?” Golden DragonHeart snapped. “Wow! Look! Take my token and all you need to do for me in return is be a piece of meat that I can use as a LIVING SHIELD!” “DRAGON KEEPER!” Soul Fire roared not backing down from the angry spark dragon, “Calm down. Think of your hoard and breathe.” Golden DragonHeart growled angrily but did as his secondclaw instructed. He took deep breaths and thought of all of those who he promise to protect and that if he didn’t keep a clear head he would fail. The anger and anxiousness slowly bled out. Soul Fire breathed a sigh of relief as Golden DragonHeart calmed down. “The longer those dragons hold off the Nameless One the longer we can have to prepare for his arrival and the higher chance we might be able to win. It took one hundred and twenty master spellcasters, twenty of those were spark dragons, just to weaken and seal him. There are only three Keepers alive and there should be twelve… Golden DragonHeart we can’t save everyone…” “I know that Soul Fire… but it’s still doesn’t make me feel better…” “No, it doesn’t,” Soul Fire whispered, “and that is a good thing… To become numb to death is to not live at all… and you loose what it means to be sentient, to be merely an animal. We are Keepers. The weight of the elder races’ sin is on us until we absolve that sin by sending the Nameless One to the Void...” Golden DragonHeart sighed. It was going to be a long day and it had barely even started. He handed over a scroll. “I have a task for you when you go get the supplies from Port Klippfisk.” Soul Fire opened the scroll and read the contents. According to the scroll he had been tasked to trading for items that could been stored for a possible siege and preferably meat items. Also given the turmoil of the eastern continent trade would have been disrupted. How it disrupted and how bad was unknown. It was before the fall of Traxti City the last time the clan traded with either trade port. There was a slight concern that It had been attacking the trade caravans along the trade route even though it was north of Hourglass and hugged the southern end of the Salt Flats. The clan had previously ignored the caravans in order to not spook them but apparently Golden DragonHeart thought that maybe it was time to offer then armed escorts. Soul Fire nodded as he rerolled the scroll and without another word he left the library. For the second time he could sense someone following him. He knew it wasn’t that vile dragon that he promised to shred to a pulp. Whomever it was was doing a good job at staying out of sight which would be quite difficult but not impossible on a partly cloudy day like today. He also couldn’t defect any illusion magic or teleportation magic so either the person wasn’t using them or was really good at hiding his or hers magic signature even from a dragon such as himself. He didn’t want to switch forms unless he had no choice. As much as he knew he would have had better luck tracking down where this person was with alicorn magic he didn’t want to tip the person off to either his other form or the fact that he was actively looking for him. There it is again… I’m sure of it… Sentinel kept flying as he carefully search the sky behind him. hopefully this time whatever was following would not notice his wandering gaze. He finally caught a glimpse of a very familiar black and greyish blue figure as he zipped from a cloud to another cloud closer. Twixt’d?! Why am I not surprised. Soul Fire rolled his eyes and slightly shook his head. This wasn’t the first time Twixt’d had followed him. Twixt’d, while he loved his parents, was drawn to Soul Fire. Probably due to what both he and Golden DragonHeart thought could become his hoard. Luckily it never bothered They of Hourglass at all. In fact they felt that Soul Fire was a good influence on the whelp. It did help that they were hatchmates. “Twixt’d? Why are you following me?” Soul Fire accused as he teleported to where Twixt’d was hovering behind a small cloud. “I… uh…” Twixt’d flustered for a few words from the shock of Soul Fire’s suddenly teleporting in front of him before his expression darkened. “None of your business!” Soul Fire tilted his head in confusion as he watched Twixt’d. Why would he revert to his old patterns? The only thing he could think of was Twixt’d was struggling to sort out his feelings. “Twixt’d, it is my business… why don’t we land?” “Fine.” Twixt’d grumbled. After they landed Soul Fire looked into Twixt’d eyes to get an idea of his internal turmoil. There, hidden in the whelp’s inner fire, was confusion, anger, frustration, and rage along with love, friendship, and admiration. All of these emotions were directed at him. Uh huh I see… I think I know how to deal with it. “Hit me.” Soul Fire ordered. “What!?” Twixt’d head snapped back in shock. He was upset, mad even, at the dragon but not really to the point of hitting him. He just needed time… but then he wasn’t even sure why he followed Soul Fire. “HIT ME!” Soul Fire roared. Smoke and ash pour out of his maw as he took a predatory step forward. “Hit me you miserable excuse for a drake!” Twixt’d’s rage finally snapped and in a swift motion he clawed at Soul Fire who merely closed his eyes as the claw came down. Soul Fire could feel the sharp claws of Twixt’d slashing deep across his head. Luckily the slash missed his eyes. Once he could feel the claw lift off of his face he poured a bit of power into his paw and closed the claw marks on his face. Unlike any other times he didn’t heal it fully. He knew it would scar healing it the way he did, but it felt right. Twixt’d shook as the rage poured out with each breath. The more he breathed the less rage he felt. When he finally felt no more rage he finally looked up. Soul Fire now sported three linear marks that went from above his left, green eye and down to the left ending just short of his right, purple eye. He look at his own claw as saw that it was dripping with blood. He shrunk back in fear of what Soul Fire might do. Why did Soul Fire egg him to attack him? Sure he was upset at Soul Fire but he truely didn’t want to hurt him even though he did think about doing it when he smashed up the training grounds. That was why he took his rage out on the training equipment and not Soul Fire. He cared for his best friend he was just so frustrated that he would allow him to help and that he had been hiding something as important as he did. Soul Fire relaxed as he saw in the whelp’s eyes and more importantly his inner fire no longer held hurt and resentment towards him. He did see the panic rising but he was just happy the Twixt’d was back to his old self. “Feeling better?” “No!” Twixt’d screamed. “I just slashed you face to the point of scarring… I could have taken out an eye! I… I… could have...” “Are you mad at me any more?” Soul Fire interrupted Twixt’d before his blubbering got worse. “I… No…” Twixt’d reluctantly answered. “Good.” “Good!?” Twixt’d angrily repeated. “I… oh whatever!” Soul Fire watched Twixt’d’s expressions for a moment longer to make sure he didn’t make a mistake in his assessment. He was soon satisfied that Twixt’d was perfectly fine he was most likely just was not wanting to deal with the situation at the moment. “Can I hang with Vorac?” Twixt’d suddenly asked. That caught Sentinel off guard. After all that Twixt’d went through with Vorac he wants to hang with him!?! It made little sense. “Why!?” “I dunno…” Twixt’d shrugged. “You are going to have to do better Twixt’d… Vorac… is…” Sentinel wasn’t exactly sure how to describe Vorac especially since he was changing… but so was he… It was headache inducing for sure. “Don’t get me wrong I like dad and all but I have always admired you… you always had this... aura around you… and with a ‘name’ like Vorac and a voice that sounds like ‘you fucking mess with me or my friends bitch and I’ll fuck your ass so hard that you’ll have shit out of your mouth…’” Twixt’d chuckled for a moment before it died in sorrow. “I wish I knew you on the streets… Hell, nothing would have bucking messed with us... life would have been different…” *I like him.* Vorac spoke up for the first time during the exchange. Sentinel inwardly groaned. Of course his feral half had to be like Quartermaster and find his ability to curse to be a plus. Though he also suspected that it was more to do with Twixt’d’s praise of Vorac’s voice more then that he had been so ‘eloquent’ with his description. “Yeah, but that’s not you… you're no gangsta wannabe…” “True…” Twixt’d admitted, “but it would have made life a lot easier…” “Easier and right rarely work together… sadly usually it’s right and hard…” Soul Fire sadly explained. “Having said that, I wish I had found you on the streets of Traxti sooner…” “Gah!” Twixt’d shouted, throwing his arms into the air. “Enough with the bucking doom and gloom I had my fill the past week…”