The Dragon Savior of Tone: World of Tone: Book 2 (5 page)

As Dawra flew Terra and his sister, Faray, back to her home, the three saw numerous smoke plumes coming from the village. The sight that greeted their eyes from the air was devastating to Faray. The entire village was burning, and bodies lay about, unmoving. Dawra landed in the center of the village rather than the clearing that she normally came down into. Terra jumped from her back and helped his sister to the ground. Faray began to cry as they walked around the area. Everyone was dead; not one person seemed to have survived the attack. Terra held his sister, but suddenly turned away. He walked to a great beam sticking out from under a collapsed roof. He initially felt something before he heard a low whimpering from beneath the beam. He reached down and lifted a heavy piece of wood. Underneath the debris, he found Sifar, the young human that he had met the first time he came to the village.

He was curled in a ball and crying. Terra picked him up and carried him to Faray.

"Take care of him," he said as he turned in the direction of the road that led off into the distance.

Terra began to run with a speed that was beyond understanding. He disappeared down the road as Dawra took off to follow him. She could see Terra moving along the path, her eyes followed the trail and saw that it came to a small river. It then followed along the bank until it entered a rocky valley between two mountains. A large number of human males were a short distance from the valley. She estimated Terra would catch them near the center of the narrow area, where the river had carved out a small flat section of land with high vertical stony walls. Dawra thought about helping Terra, but this was a human problem, not one for a dragon. She landed on a peak above the valley, where she could see all that would happen.

The group of humans, a hundred or so, stopped in the center of the valley to drink from the river. Terra entered the valley in that oddly quiet run he had. He stood behind the men on a small rock ledge that was slightly above the group.

"You killed my friends. You owe them their lives," Terra said in a voice so powerful that the ground itself shook.

The men turned in surprise and most grabbed for their weapons. Some had odd branches strung with thin vines. They took out straight pointed sticks and placed them into the branches tied with vines and then let the sticks fly toward Terra. He again spoke just one word, "No," and the sticks shattered in midair. Those closest to Terra grabbed their ears in pain as they dropped their weapons. Ten or so managed to keep their long metal blades and long wooden sticks and charged him.

He again used his sounder power and said, "Stop."

Those charging toward him were blown back, their bones crushed. A few with long thin wood shafts recovered enough to throw them at this deadly stranger, which was the last act of violence they ever performed. As the spears flew toward him, he used the one word that destroyed all - Silla. The world seemed to stand still as his magic propelled the overwhelming sound through the valley. The shafts appeared to stop in midair and then disintegrated into dust and the humans before him evaporated into clouds of red mist. The rock walls and ground shattered into gray shards and dust, which created a reddish gray cloud of death before Terra.

Terra stood unmoving at the apex of the destruction. He heard a whimper to his left and turned to see a head of a young human poked out from behind a boulder. He walked over and found a frightened, small young human crammed into the small crevice between a boulder and the rocky valley wall.

"Tell whoever sent you more is owed," Terra said to the human with a look of anger as well as pain. Terra turned and left the human shivering in fear. The youth stayed in his crevice until sunset, when he heard a movement. He tried to push himself further into the small space, making a scraping noise. Soon a woman on a runner appeared around the edge of the boulder, looking about until she spotted the terrified shivering youth.

The woman dismounted and walked to the young one and stared down at the disgusting sight. She could smell the fear from the youth. He looked through his fingers, which were covering his eyes and saw a woman in man’s clothes, with a long knife slid through her belt and a bow slung across one shoulder. She was fearsome looking to the youth and he tried to curl into a smaller ball of shivering flesh.

The woman looked at the destruction about her. She saw the rocks and the floor of the valley shattered and covered with a reddish gray dust. It was as if an earthquake had happened, but with far more destruction. She wanted to know what the youth had seen, so she reached down, grabbed his clothes, and pulled him out, forcing him to stand. He whimpered like a small child missing his mother.

“What happen here?” she asked, as his legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground. She bent over and again grabbed him by the shoulder and repeated her question with anger in her voice.

“A man, a huge man stood before us as we reached this spot,” the youth said in a trembling voice.

“Continue,” she said as she shook him.

“He was in a rage. The men attacked him with arrows and spears. He said the word 'No' and the arrows turned to dust. Then he said 'Stop' and men were blown off their feet. Finally, he said a strange word, and the men and their weapons exploded into a red mist. The rocks shattered and the ground cracked and moved, you could feel the power everywhere. I was hiding behind the boulder and was saved.”

“He said three words and nothing else?” she asked with a serious expression.

“He said something else. He saw me and told me that more was owed.”

“What did he mean?”

“The-the village. The men destroyed it and killed all the people,” the youth blurted out in absolute terror.

“Where is the village?” She asked, trying to control her anger without much success.

“Back down the road,” he said as he pointed the way.

The woman grabbed him and tied him onto her pack runner and she mounted her runner and road down the path toward the village.

Chapter 6 - Visits

(Good and bad all deserve a chance.)

- The Time of the Draman -

Terra returned to the village and looked over the destruction. He hoped not all humans were this vicious. He would find out soon. Terra sent everyone to the crevice. He changed to his dragon form and used his talons to create a long trench. He then found all the bodies and gently placed each one into the trench. He covered the bodies with the soil from the trench and flew into the air. He flew around and back toward the trench while breathing in deeply. Terra then sent a searing hot stream of fire at the ground above the trench. The soil melted and turned into a hard rock as it cooled, making a permanent tomb for the villagers. Terra then flew back to the crevice.

He walked into the cave, his home. There he found his mate Fienna, his daughter, mother, sister and the young one who survived the massacre. He was sleeping in his sister's arms.

“Fienna, can we talk in the back cave?”

“Yes my love.” They walked into the small rear cave where they slept. Fienna could feel a deep sadness within Terra. It was for both the villagers and the humans he had killed.

“I must leave at sun-rising. I have to find out what is happening in the world. I must know this to be able to protect you and our daughter,” he said in a sad voice. She knew he did not wish to go, but he needed to understand what was happening.

“I understand. I will stay here. We will be safe,” Fienna said with a confidence she did not really feel.

The next sun-rising, Terra and Fienna walked out into the crevice and went for a swim in the lake. They then moved onto the edge of the lake and lay in the sun to dry.

“You need to ask your mother about where to go,” Fienna said with her eyes closed.

“I know. I really do not want to do any of this,” Terra said as he turned to Fienna and put his arm around her waist.

She opened her eyes, turned toward him and hugged him tight.

“You need to see the human world. You were raised by dragons; your friends are sea nymphs and dragons. You know nothing of your own kind. You need this, my love,” Fienna stated with tears in her eyes.

They stayed together, making love, and then went back into the cave. There they met his mother and sister. Sifar was still asleep.

“I need to know how to get to the other villages,” Terra said to his mother.

“The path that you followed outside the village will take you north and south. Follow it the opposite direction that you went to find those men and it will lead you to the larger southern villages. I don’t know much about them, but one is where the sisters live. I think it is the largest village in the north on the Great Lake,” she described, while drawing a picture in the dirt with a stick.

“I will fly down the path and then change when I get near the larger villages.”

“When will you leave?” his sister asked.

“After high sun,” Terra replied.

“We need to put some supplies together for you,” his mother said.

Terra spent the rest of the time before high sun with Fienna and his daughter. He finally walked to the water's edge to talk to Setilan and the other sea nymphs that guarded the crevice and his family. “Can you stay with them, Setilan, while I am gone? I would not worry so much if you stayed,” Terra said to her.

“Of course I will stay. We will also increase the guards throughout the crevice,” Setilan told him with the understanding that Terra needed to know his family was safe. Terra looked up and waved at one of the dragons on the crevice's rim. The great blue dragon Hectise took off and landed close to the group near the water. He was Fienna's father, and though he had not helped raise her, he did love his daughter.

“Hectise, I am about to leave. I am counting on you to protect my mate and daughter,” he said with a serious, but sad, look on his face.

“Do not worry, my daughter and yours will never be harmed as long as I live,” Hectise said with iron in his voice.

Terra walked over to his mate and child at the cave opening. His mother came from the cave with a bundle in her hands. “Here are your clothes, food, and water. The clothes are old and tattered. I want you to look poor and not be noticed. Well, at least I want you to be noticed as little as possible considering your size.”

“My size?” Terra asked with curiosity in his voice.

“You're the biggest man I have ever seen,” his mother told him.

His sister came out of the cave, heard the end of the conversation and said, “Terra, you’re more than big; you’re the most powerfully built man anyone has ever seen. Here, you think of yourself as small when you're in human form, but you are not. The clothes we made you will help hide your muscles and size, but only so much. Just be careful, I don’t want you lost from me again.”

“I will be,” he said, as he hugged both his mother and sister. He then walked over to his mate and daughter and hugged and kissed them. Terra walked away from the cave opening and started his transformation into his dragon form.

As the change completed, his mother walked up and tied the bundle to his arm. He nodded and took off. He flew to the village of his mother and sister. Then decided to fly to the Lake of Solan and beyond to see the best place to change back to his human form. As he followed the road, he flew higher than normal so that he did not frighten the humans below. Terra could also fly at greater speed in the higher winds. He could see many valleys cut into the surface of the land. The endless rain from untold past seasons had carved the land, leaving tall hills and valleys of varying depths. From this height, the land appeared as ripples, merging and flowing into each other.

As he flew south, the path bent and twisted, following the easiest course through the valleys. The path slowly became more traveled by the humans. He saw wooden platforms pulled by beasts and humans alike. Groups of prey beasts driven by one or two humans also traveled the path. Planting areas appeared more often and though they were larger, they did not seem very lush. He also noticed the land had a slight upward slope. Small villages appeared and became more numerous as he continued south.

Terra saw the path split into three, and decided to follow the center path that was obviously the most traveled. He saw more and more humans traveling the path as he continued south, including armed groups who seemed to be stopping many of those on the path. He reached a point where he saw a very large village at least four to five times the size of any other he had seen. It lay on the shore of the great lake.

As he flew over the shore, he saw piles of wood and a number of humans working on wooden platforms, some floating in the water. He saw some of the floating platforms carrying humans. There seemed to be small sticks coming out of the sides and humans were dipping them into the water, which moved the platforms forward. As he flew toward the other side of the lake, the platforms disappeared.

The land had sloped up considerably and the lake was much higher than the crevice where he lived. He was curious and thought to Fienna, “
Ask Setilan if her people have ever been in the Lake of Solan.
” She thought back to Terra and told him that the sea nymphs could never get to the lake because a very high waterfall cut it off. They had been at its base and had seen caves lining the walls of the gorge that the waterfall emptied into. The water at the base of the gorge split into two paths flowing around a small piece of land at the coast. The waters then flowed into the vast coastal waters Terra knew. Setilan also called the lake an inland sea, which they called the Sea of Ice, since the water coming from the waterfall was ice cold.