Chapter 4

The following characters are identified in this chapter:

Tualvungi

Female Dragon, Mandara’s former Mistress, a dark Blue Dragon, she protected Kreuzfeur when he was injured

Kreuzfeur

Male Green Dragon, wounded and lost an eye during the raid on the Demon-lands

Over the next nine days, we made time each day to go flying. This was in addition to the studying that we continued to do. Book 6 just seemed to go on and on. New pages continued to appear each time I neared the end of what was available. I now knew more about being a Dragon than I ever thought possible. Flying provided a good break from all of the studying.

On this the tenth day since our initial flights, we had no problem jumping off the cliff after spreading our wings. Each day after the third day, we had explored the surrounding area in a different direction. The results of this had not been encouraging. Everywhere we had flown, the terrain had been basically the same: hot, dry, and desolate with few if any signs of life. There had been some life, but it was the kind usually found in desert areas. There had been very few locations with any water. It didn’t appear to rain much at all here.

Today we were flying in a new direction for us. We usually flew at 500 feet above the existing ground and adjusted our height for the various terrain features that we encountered. We had found that flying was such a turn on, that we didn’t care that the scenery below us was mostly the same all of the time. We would ride the thermals up and then glide along dropping lower until we found another thermal to take us up again. If thermals were absent or far apart, we would fly using just our wings. We hadn’t been interrupted at any time; not until today.

We had been flying for about an hour before we encountered the storm. We could see it ahead of us and climbed to avoid it. This proved to be impossible. The storm appeared to be composed of a sand storm at lower elevations with a dust storm on top of that. The dust was aided by strong well defined Dust Devils. This part of the storm went up to altitudes that were higher than we were comfortable attempting, but certainly to 10,000 feet or more.

We were soon enveloped in the outer edge of the storm with its spinning particles that had an electrical charge. The particles or grains of dust impacted on us with their own speed and momentum while discharging the electrical charge they had built up. The dust worked its way under our scales becoming an irritant. Our forward flying speed only added to the impact of the dust and added to the pain and irritation. It was also hard on our eyes and breathing, not to mention that it was difficult to see through the dust.

“Should we veer off?” Ken asked in a booming voice. We now knew why Dragons have such loud voices. It was so they could communicate while flying.

“That would probably be best,” I agreed in my own booming Dragon voice, and we turned to avoid the worst of the storm. This was of little help for a while as the storm was very wide. We eventually did come to its outer edge.

“Are you all right?” Ken asked after we had cleared the edge of the storm.

“Yes, now. Where did that thing come from?” I asked.

“Who knows. It’s probably just a natural weather phenomenon,” he told me, as we flew around the storm. It was easy to see the way the outer edge of the storm affected the ground as it moved over it.

We flew on keeping away from the storm and were soon past it. Once we were past it, we observed a rather strange thing. After a few minutes, I called it to Ken’s attention.

“It doesn’t appear that the storm passed over this terrain,” I told him.

“What do you mean?” he asked, as he looked at the ground below us.

“Remember how the leading edge of the storm ate into the ground and swept up the loose material? This ground hasn’t been affected like that,” I told him before we both dropped to a lower altitude to more closely inspect the ground.

“It would certainly appear that the storm didn’t pass this way,” Ken agreed once we were back at our previous altitude.

“Does that seem strange to you?” I asked.

“Yes, where did it come from then?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Let’s do a wider sweep and see if we can determine where it started and its path,” I told him before we made a sweep of several miles on both sides of what could have been the storm’s path. We still didn’t know where the storm had started or its path. On the way back to the cliffs, we made another observation.

“The storm hasn’t moved,” I told Ken, as we neared it. It appeared to be in the same spot where we had first encountered it, and it looked like it was just rotating around a fixed point.

“Does this seem unusual to you?” I demanded again after seeing this.

“This whole place seems unusual to me,” Ken told me. “Let’s go home,” he continued, and we flew around the outer edge of the storm to return to the cliff before landing and returning to our Human form and then transferring back to the front yard of my property.

By the next morning, I had made up my mind and told Ken what I intended to do that day.

“We need to go back to where the storm was yesterday. I want to see what is there,” I told him.

“Curiosity killed the cat,” he told me.

“What cat?” both Al and Alva asked, having heard him.

“It’s just a saying,” he told them.

“Yes, but I’m a Dragon and a lot harder to kill,” I told him in return.

We set out earlier that day than we usually did and arrived at the cliff before the day had a chance to heat up. It required more actual flying today to reach the storm area, as the thermals were still rather weak this early in the morning even here.

As we approached the area where the storm had been, we were amazed to see that there was still a storm in the same location, even this early in the morning after a cold night, since there were no clouds to keep the heat in.

“Something isn’t right,” I told Ken, as we approached the storm. It appeared to be somewhat smaller than it had been yesterday, but it was just as intense. Soon we were being stung by the particles in the air which still carried an electrical charge.

“This is not a natural phenomenon,” I told Ken who agreed with me.

“What is it then?” he asked.

“I’m not sure but believe that we should find out,” I answered. The whole time we were being pelted by the rotating dust on the outer edge of the storm.

“How?” he asked and that was, indeed, the question.

We had already flown a little deeper into the storm with some difficulty, when Mandara addressed me.

“This storm was created by a Dragon several millennium ago,” It told me in my mind.

“Really!”

“Yes, I can feel the curse that IT used. You could remove it with a strong blast of Dragon Magic, as the curse has grown weak over time,” It told me still in my mind.

“How?” I asked.

“From the claws of your arms,” It told me.

“Where?” I asked on learning this.

“The center of the storm,” It told me but added, “get lower first.”

“The storm is too intense at lower altitudes,” I objected.

“Hold me with the claws of your left hand and I will clear the way. Use the claws of your right hand for the Magic blast,” It directed. I moved Mandara to my left hand, and we immediately dropped to a couple of hundred feet above the ground, leaving Ken still above us.

The storm was very intense this far inside it, but Mandara provided a shield from the particles, and I was able to see that there was something at the center of the storm, which seemed to be calmer than its outer parts.

“Fire at that,” Mandara directed, pointing Itself at the object. I aimed the claws of my right hand at the object and thought ‘Fire’. Immediately, a concentrated blast of Magic flew from my longest main claw and hit the object below. Instantly, there was an huge explosion at ground level as the two Magic forces came together. It was of such a magnitude that within seconds the storm lost much of its intensity and the sand and dust began falling out of the air as the storm fell apart. Within two minutes, Ken had joined me. There was only some minor dust remaining in the air. Mandara was anxious to land but remained in my hand.

“How did you do that?” Ken asked on joining me.

“Mandara told me what to do. Let’s land and see what it was that the storm was protecting or hiding,” I told him. We dropped quickly and landed away from the large object that had been at the center of the storm. As we approached it on foot, Mandara let out a scream of agony for all to hear. It was loud and very long.

The object was covered by sand and dust revealing a large hill. A quick spell removed the covering to reveal the scales, horns and bones of a large Dragon. It had been dead for a very long time, as evidenced by its poor condition.

Mandara jerked free of my claws and flew to the remains but did not touch them. It hung there in the air before them and pulsed a yellow light into the remains for a short time. After several minutes, It returned to my claws.

“Those are the remains of my former Mistress, TUALVUNGI from the Dark Blue Clan. She was to be protected on the raid here to the Demon-lands by myself and KREUZFEUR, the Green Dragon. When he was injured, she got him away from the Demons but dropped me in doing so. That was how the Demons captured me. I will drink-him-down when I find him. He not only abandoned her, but he is the one who murdered her and hid the body here with a storm curse to keep other Dragons from finding out about it,” Mandara told me in a voice full of just anger and the need for revenge. There was little that I could say to comfort it. I slipped it back in Its scabbard after a time to sulk there. Turning to Ken, I explained what I had learned.

“Should we cover the remains again?” he asked when I had finished.

“I’ll check with Mandara,” I told him, as I wasn’t sure what to do. When asked, Mandara agreed that we should cover the remains with sand, but not use any Magic other than a Dragon Ward to keep the desert animals away from it. Instead, I cast a Dragon Spell around the remains once it was covered with sand again. I had called on several Sand Elementals in the surrounding area to do the work. There was plenty of loose sand and dust available for them to work with.

Following that, Ken and I flew back to the cliff, where we returned to our Human forms before I transferred us back to my front yard. We were eating a late lunch following our return when Ken brought up the identity of the Green Dragon.

“So, is this Green Dragon, Kreuzfeur, the one who was in Atlanta a week and a-half ago?” he asked.

“That would be my guess. He is probably also the one who sent those three want-to-be Dragons here to get rid of you. He was apparently really unhappy that they hadn’t succeeded,” I told him.