Set in Stone - Chapter 3

"Alphess Fenne? Come out, we need to speak with you and your pack." Kale called softly as he landed on the plain, the sun high in the sky. He swept his eyes across the open grasslands hurriedly, knowing each moment was precious.

A rustle in the grass in front of him caused him to turn his head towards the sound just as Darias landed. Alean, dark coated lupine creature with ghostly, spectral fur and glowing red eyes rose up out of the grass and seemed to walk upwards on air until she was eye level with Kale.

"Ah, Guardian Kale, how nice to see you, nice to see you! Bad occasion though, we almost thought you were humans, almost thought." The Dyre Wolf laughed coldly, cocking her head at him. "Did you finally notice the humans, finally notice?"

"Yes, Fenne. We need the help of your pack to warn everyone of the human danger, as fast as possible." Kale replied, staring down the ghostly canine, who laughed humourlessly again.

"Only nine of us left now Kale, nine of us left! Humans already caught most of us, caught most." The Alphess sighed, just as eight other Dyre wolves materialized in the grass around them, tails wagging gently.

"We still have to try and find anyone. If the humans have already gotten to you, we have to at least try to save the others. The humans have got Lunara, for Drakon's sake, this is going too far!" Kale snarled, looking around and watching as the eyes of the wolves flashed different colors, showing the strong emotions coursing through their heads at these words.

"Guardian Dragon, they dare capture a Guardian Dragon?!" Fenne barked, standing up on her airy platform and bristling, white fangs gleaming. "Too far, way too far! We'll help you, we'll help Guardian Lunara's people too. Meddling humans, we'll drive them out, the meddling humans!"

With that the Dyre Wolves set up howling shrilly, and as one the group leaped into the air with Kale and Darias as they took off.

"Spread out along the length of the territory, since we're in the western end now, we'll sweep horizontally from west to east. Alphess, you and your pack will spread out closer to the territory point, Darias and I will be on the opposite end." Kale ordered the wolves around him, shaking slightly.

"Is it just me, or do the Dyre Wolves creep you out just a little?" Darias mumbled in his ear as they sped towards their given end of the search. Kale nodded.

"No, they are kinda creepy... All the same though, we need their help." Kale replied, sighing and wheeling around to face the east.

"I never said they weren't important." Darias mumbled as he flew a bit further on, and turned to face the same direction. Letting forth a bright tongue of flame into the noonday sky, Kale started forward, but almost instantly stopped and let the rest of the band go on.

"Darias, cover my spot. I need to check out something." Kale called to the griffin, who looked back, shrugged, and shifted his position a little. Meanwhile Kale looked down and inhaled deeply the strange smell that was wafting to him on an updraft.  He dove downwards, recognizing the spot as the den of the two basilisks that had been living on the land for years.

Landing, he made his way to the den entrance and cringed, already guessing at what had happened by the stench that met him. It only took him moments to wriggle down the tunnel, and instantly he wished he hadn't.

To be short, they were dead. Many human corpses were scattered about the dimly lit room, but the two huge snakes in the middle had been stabbed dead, their eyes poked out by swords. The huge eggs nearby were no more than shell shards and goo now. Kale stared for a moment, and slowly started growling, louder and louder until it reverberated around the cave and made his head ring.

He stopped very abruptly and backed out of the cave, glad to be smelling fresh air again. Already he was failing, the creatures he was supposed to be protecting were dying. 'How unfit to be a Guardian Dragon am I?' he thought to himself shaking his head and pacing the grass outside the hole that stunk of rot. 'It might not be too late for Deyara though.'

Turning around and leaping into the sky again kale flapped his way to the top of a hill, to a large rocky den he had helped dig when its resident had first moved into his territory; the cave of a Chimera.

"Deyara? Oh Deyara, please say you're here. This is no laughing matter, come out if you're hiding." Kale called as he skidded and stumbled into a landing, entering the shallow cave and searching around carefully. There was no sign of any struggle, or any Chimera, except a stale smell of fur and fire.

Sighing, Kale took one last look around to be sure, and backed his way out of the cave, bitter. So they weren't dead, but they weren't here to help, either. They say no news is good news, but some news would be better than none at all.

That was, however, every creature on this end accounted for; the Dyre Wolves, the Basilisks, and Deyara the Chimera. One missing, one group dead, last group severely reduced. Still, it was a start. And there was no use dawdling.

Kale sprung to the sky again, and pushed himself doubly as hard as usual to catch up with the band of searchers, who were beginning to get worryingly distant. To his surprise some of the Dyre Wolves were missing from the line, and had gone down; some were just coming up and others were just going down when he rejoined them, focusing on locating that tiny tingling at the back of his mind that would signal him to the presence of another creature of lore.

'…Guardian Kale? Is that you up there with all those others? What's the worry about?' a voice piped up at the back of his mind, causing Kale to jump in surprise and look around. "Wha?" he mumbled, raising an eyeridge.

'Kale, its Nikkia. You know, the Inflecture? Inflectures can do this mind-talking thing?' the voice grumbled, and Kale jumped again, earning him a strange look from Darias.

'…Right.' Kale thought back, and sighed to himself. 'Long story short, Lunara has been captured, humans are running around capturing or killing any creature of lore they can find, and we're trying to get everyone on my and Lunara's territory to safety. Come up and join us before you're murdered as the Basilisks were.' Kale thought, completely monotone, trying to hide the anger he was still quivering with.

'WHAT?!' Nikia yelled, and suddenly a fly buzzing beside his head turned into a bluebird. "Lunara, captured? Humans rampaging? WHAT?!" the bird yelled, fluttering around his head in a panic. Kale flinched and swiped out a claw, grabbing the bird and placing a claw on her beak.

"Shush up and calm down Nikkia, and don't sneak up on me like that." Kale snapped, releasing her. She phased into a larger eagle and flew alongside him.

"B-But HOW could this happen? I mean, how could a human, even a huge group, possibly capture a dragon without actually killing them first?! It's unthinkable! It's not even possible!" Nikkia squawked, observing the line in the air. "Look, I'll fly lower and relay any findings of any creatures through the group to you, okay?" she sighed, and dove downwards.

Kale nodded, but then a strange thought formed as Nikkia's words stuck in his mind. It was true, it was practically impossible for any group of humans to ever capture a living dragon. He hadn't thought about that at the time, but if so, that would mean that they weren't alone, those humans.

"There's a traitor among us…" the dragon mumbled, staring down at the landscape blurring by underneath him.