[Legends of the fire age] [DragonBorn] [Book one] [Prolouge] _______________________________________ The roaring tempest drowned out the soft undertone of the hidden creatures that skulked through the night as icy blasts of wind battered at the walls of the worn out shelter placed at the center of the small village. The rolling frozen grass that garnish the land seemed to chime out a harmonious lyric as they rap against each other. Clouds hung heavy in the darkened sky as flurys descended over the sleet covered ground. The night was still as the blizzard raged turning the world dim and lifeless until everything blurred and it became impossible to see through the curtain of white. A shrill scream erupted from inside the confines of the small abode. It echoes throughout the valley as it rose over the the vale of the storm alerting everyone that the time was almost near. The villages leader laid sprawled out in her soft bed, rivulets of cold sweat streamed down her body as her pale honey blond hair clung to her temples in a dampened mass. Tremors rack her body her breath coming in uneven pants from the strain of giving birth. Her face was a sickly white as she clenched her jaw in pain and frustration that her child would not come it had already been twelve hours of labor and he had yet to crown. "come now iliana I can see the tip of its head push now the child has already been in there too long any longer and it will die." urged the midwife and best friends of the mother to be. Fear stricken illiana grips the hand of her husband that stands beside her bed her voice cracking as she voices her feeble protest "no he cannot die." She prayed to the gods of magic and beasts in desperation, chanting under her breath. Worry mar's the large mans thickset brow as he watches his beloved wife struggle with the diligent childbirth,his hand tightening around her much smaller one instinctively as tears prick in his deep set sea blue eyes at the thought of his child not being one for this earth. “It Will be okay illiana just push, our child will be alive and kicking,” he murmured kissing a line across her knuckles tenderly. Refusing to let her child die illiana strains,her muscles pulled tight as she heaves, pushing with all her might. Back arching, she gives one last mighty push. Despite her clenched teeth a scream of agony tears itself from her throat as fire burst forth from her gaping mouth. Had it not been for the restraints around her wings they would have also been thrashing about cutting down anything within reach. Falling limp upon the bed illianas relieved whimper sounds through the room before the wail of a child rings out high and strong. Illiana had not noticed her eyes had fallen shut as her chest rises and falls in slow intervals as fatigue washes over her. Forcing them to Flutter opens she's looks around meeting the shock stricken face of her friend whose jaw was touching the floor. Instantly she snaps her eyes to the small blue bundle within marilyn's arms, fear rocketing through to her very core as the blood drained from her face turning it even whiter if that was possible " What's wrong is he ill," She screeched voice breaking with panic as she struggled to sit up. Snapping her mouth closed Marilyn simply shakes her head, a slow smile grows on her slim face as she hands over the fussing child. His tiny chubby fists shaking angrily in the air as his bawling grows louder. What illiana saw jolted the panic from her system her mouth falling open looking just as her friend had, she was awestruck. "Black...his scales are BLACK! Wait he has scales!," She yells in astonishment her face glowing with glee, "this hasn't happens in nearly 800 years! How is this possible newborns are rarely born with scales!." her eyes darted wildly from her husband to her friend as if they held the answer to her question. Marilyn tinkling laugh lights up the room,as wonderment filled illiana. She looked at her beautiful baby boy. His mop of midnight black hair just like his father's standing out in disheveled tuffs, stark against his fair skin and even more so against his large fire eyes that shifted and swirled like a rolling inferno. He was like no other in her village or in the villages that were positioned through the northern provinces. She looked deeply into her little ones eyes seeing her own reflection, seeing the same eyes upon her own face, she felt a surge of love so big it made tears spring unbidden to her eyes. Looking up illiana meets the joyous smile of her dearest, a silly grin placed on her face as she brings his hand to her ashen lips kissing it lightly as he had done to her. "what shall we name him Calder?," she inquired as her fingers moved to stroke the child's soft mane. "I was thinking maybe caeel as my great grandfather went by," calder chuckled as he sits beside his lovely wife his own hand hand rubbing his son's cheek. "Yes caeel shall be his name. My sweet, sweet caeel," illiana cooed just before a touch of dizziness made the room spin and a sense of foreboding hit her. A deafening bang stun the room's inhabitants as the door crashed into the wall. There before the three friends stood the elder seer his long Grey hair and beard hard with ice and blowing around his face with the frigid licks of wind, his icy blue eyes fixed to the child. "so the spirits did not mislead me the child has been born and now we must prepare." he whispered to no one in particular. An ear-shattering cry came from the child as he was startled by the noise. "Elder dorewin how may we help you." Calder said as he stood from the bed greeting the old man with a curtsy bow showing his respect to the old-timer. " it is not i that needs the help worrier but it is you that will need it in the years to come," the elder preached wisely as he closed the door behind him with a gentle nudge before making his way into the middle of the room his old bones creaking with age. Illiana watch the interaction between her husband and dorewin with mild interest as she tried to soothe the infant, rocking him against her chest. "What ever do you mean," marilyn asked curiosity driving her to prod. Ignoring the petite woman with a dismissive wave of his dappled withered hands, the elder turns to calder and illiana his eyes sorrow filled. " Your son he is the child that has been prophesied to me. He must be just look at his sabel scales. At his Scarlet eyes he is the one destined to save our kindred from the brink of extinction. He will be our conqueror or our damnation in the centuries to come let us pray he is the first, let us pray we can keep him safe until his destiny comes into fruition," elder dorewin stated as he began to recant the message he had received from the ancestors souls themselves. One will stand alone after all else have fallen into destruction by the hand of power. He will reign over the dragons. On the eighteenth winter of his birth he will bear witnesses to the great wars revival and he will face the bringer of our kin's death. With scales of darkness he will be a silent shadow in our pleas. With eyes of a raging fire he will be the passion that ignite our souls. He will untie the dragon kingdoms and bring peace to our lands. Yet if he should fall before his eighteenth winter all hope is lost.Many will be after his life we must let none succeed for if they do our kind will be whipped out from the face of this realm and nothing will save us from our demise. Illiana hugged her child tightly to her breast tears streaming from under her lashes as she listened to the old man's words. “How will we keep him safe Calder how?,” she muttered through her sobs. Calder held onto his family his jaw set and he looked at his boy and his boy looked back a innocent smile on his small face and he vowed to protect him, protect them with his life. “We will keep him safe at any cost necessary my love he will live, I vow to you he will.”
[Legends of the fire age] [DragonBorn] [Book one] [Ch] _______________________________________ "Ca-...,caee-...CAEEL! WAKE UP!." i stirred from my dream filled mind, my eyes fluttering open as i hear my mama's frantic calls. Her slender fingers were grasping my shoulders, shaking them up and down erratically sending my head jerking each and every way. Blinking up at her in confusion, i begin to open my mouth to ask what was going on, but the moment she sees my eyes open i'm pulled from my bed my feet dragging my old fabric of my quilt along with me until it pools at my feet. "Hurry, my little one. We must go." she says urgency in her melodious voice as her hands move in a flurry of motion, hurriedly cramming clothes and provisions into a pack, pushing a bundle of clothing into my chest she motions me to get dressed. I stared blankly at her my mind sluggish from lack of sleep as i watched her flit back and forth. I must have taken to long because soon she snatches them back. "nevermind, we are out of time let us go." She says as she packed them up as well. Swiping my bulky maroon wool cloak from my unmade bed she hastily securing it around my thin shoulders securing it in place with a winged pin of our house, making sure it was nice and snug. The shiny copper fastener sparkling under the rooms low candle light as she patted it against my chest. I don't understand why mama was so edgy, the tense lines around her mouth and the way her brow creased on her usually smiling face worried me deeply but the way her eyes would flicker with dread whenever she didn't think I was looking terrified me. My mama was not a weak woman she was not one to be frightened easily but when she was I knew something was terribly wrong. I had just managed to tug on my boots over the scratchy fleece of my breeches before her hands were pulling on my wrists urging me to hurry along "come now, quickly my love we must leave." she implored, as she tried to keep the distress in her voice hidden, I still manage to detect the small tremors despite her efforts. Her grip dug painfully into my flesh as she yanked me forward. I let out a faint yelp of protest, but she appeared not to hear it as I was dragged along. I tried to keep up as I rubbed at my tired eyes opting to ignore the dull smarting of my wrists. It was a shock to me that mama would let me be up at such a late hour or should I say early, to early even for the sun for it had not risen yet. She had always said rest was the important thing besides the substance of our body. I still wore my sleeping attire under my heavy cloak as my shoulder length dark raven colored hair fell unkempt and uncombed. She tugged the hood over my head as her gaze raked over me as if she was committing it to memory. "Okay little one we will need to move fast I need you to try and keep up as best you can." She says putting heavy emphasis on the words fast and keep up. Before I could answer mama threw open our flimsy wooden door, a cool breeze rolled into our house bringing with it the fresh smell of pine and sunflowers, i breathed in the intoxicating aroma as it rustled through my clothes. My eyes stung from the sudden streams of morning light that feel over them, I peeked out from around mama at the world ahead. In the distance the sun was just peeking over the twin mountains of the elven forest, the sky was starting to clear up, the horizon turned a clear crystal blue illuminating our small village in a soft glow. Everything shifted under the light touches of the humid breeze setting the tall gross into a motion of waves. It was beautiful. Then everything changed. thundering reverberations of hooves on the hard ground and the clanking of armor penetrated the quietness that had captured the world for that single moment. After all the silence before the storm is always the most deceiving. A shrill scream rang out through the still morning originating from the villages borders. The screams never ended after the first one blared over us, they were just a series of strangled cries each new one drowning out the one before. They carried on the wind, echoing throughout the small province I called home. Mama froze, her body stiffening for a second before she snapped her head in the direction of the screams, her face hardening with some unspoken resolve I couldn't quite comprehend, "At any costs," she whispers under her breath almost to low for me to hear. Grabbing my hand tightly in hers she dragged me out the door letting it slam behind us, I was yanked down our stoop stopping only long enough for her to catch her bearings as she hoisted the pack over her narrow shoulders. She knelt down before me looking steadily into my eyes, and I stared right back into hers, back into the eyes that reflected mine as a perfect mirror image. Her gaze calmed me it stilled my worries and i could let out the breath i didn't realize i had been keeping in "I need you to keep close caeel, do you understand never leave my side," she said in a voice so firm all I could do was nod and squeeze her hand tightly. She did not move and I realized she wanted me to say it, swallowing past the lump in my throat a few times I manage to squeak out a reply slurring slightly as my tongue felt leaded "yes mama."