Chapter 31

Miranda sighed tiredly "mama I think I'm going to go to the lair for a few days and just sleep." Laurel hugged Miranda "ok sweetie, if you need anything just let me know." Miranda nodded gave Zara a snuggle then left for her lair. Miranda slept for a whole twentyfour hours getting up she fixed herself something to eat, then packed some food in her backpack, strapped her Mandolin to the pack and went through the mirror. After laying on the beach for an hour she decided she needed something to distract her from thinking about how long Christopher had been gone. Going over to the other mirror she took out her list of words and phrases looking at all the crossed out words, rubbing her hand over the mirror she sighed "I wonder what strange lands your hiding back there." Miranda blinked as her hand went through the mirror, grinning she peeked through and saw only darkness and the outline of some tree's, stepping away from the mirror she tried all the words until she knew that it was the words "strange lands" that would let her in. Up above Miranda added some more food to her pack, got her little jar of paint and paint brush, her lantern and went back through the mirror, she chuckled to herself Christopher could go off adventuring so could she at least for a few hours, changing to her dragoness she looked down to see what she had stepped on and grinned it was the old silver sword that she used to play with, sticking it in her pack she walked to the mirror and passed through it.

Carefully marking where she had come through with the paint, she set down the paint jar and brush, holding up the lantern she slowly started to move forward trying to see out into the darkness. Miranda knew that at the beach it got dark but there was always some sort of light usually from a moon but it never got black dark like this place, she stopped hearing a strange noise, tilting her head she listened not hearing anything she held up her lantern and started walking, shivering she realized it was getting colder with each step she took, when a fine white mist almost like ice crystals seemed to descend like a curtain Miranda decided she had better go back through the mirror and come back when it was day light. With a hiss Miranda saw dozens of what looked like red yellow eyes staring at her, slowly she started to edge backwards in an instant they were on her, with a roar she felt needle sharp teeth sink into her tail, whipping around she snarled flaming the horrid creature that looked like a cross between a snake and a badger, slashing with her talons snapping and biting with her fangs, she snarled fighting them off, hissing as they disappeared back into the blackness Miranda could still see their eyes staring at her, panting she shot flames at them each time they started to move forward. "Come on whoever you are, we've got to get out of here now, there are more coming!" Miranda's head snapped around to see a small odd looking dragon the size of Zara with wings and scales that looked like wood bark, hissing at her the small dragon grabbed the strap of her pack pulling at her "do you want them to tear you apart? come on!" Not daring to fly for fear she would slam into some unseen tree Miranda ran as fast as she could following the small dragon. Moaning the small dragon cried "we're not going to make it, here they come" Miranda her back against a hill looked around, seeing crevice between some rocks she quickly used her talons to dig out a space, grabbing the little dragon she threw it into the space then backed in snarling and snapping at the creatures that were now pacing back and forth in front of her making odd growling hissing noises. Panting Miranda gasped "what are they?" "Don't you know anything? They're Wevrils, they only come out in the dark but dark is lasting longer and longer soon it will be dark forever" snapped the little dragon. Every time the creatures rushed forward Miranda would let out a roar and a flame, they seemed to fear the fire she thought, she tried five times to transport herself back to her lair, with a sob she realized it wasn't going to work, either magic didn't work here or she just couldn't reach her lair, she tried getting home to the Manor house that wouldn't work either. Shivering as the icy mist settled around her Miranda told herself all she could do was wait for light however long that took, Miranda tried heating the rocks around her for some warmth, feeling the little dragon shivering also, she grabbed him and stuck him in her backpack "that should give you some protection" she said then frowned as the little dragon snapped "would you quit grabbing me and tossing me around, I may not be as big as you but I'm not a toy!" Miranda tried one more time to get home "crips! are you using magic? you can't use magic here it makes things worse you have to stop now" shrieked the little dragon at her, Miranda felt an odd vibration around her and frowned.

It seemed like she had been awake for days, Miranda felt her head nodding and jerked it up, staring out into the dark trying to see past the icy mist, shivering she heated the stones again. Miranda woke up with a start, she quickly looked around, the mist was gone and it was light, if you could call it that, more like the sun was trying to push through the black and barely making it a dull gray outside, it wasn't as cold as it had been during the night but it was still terribly cold. Shivering almost uncontrollably Miranda looked in her pack, the small dragon was gone and so was half the food she had put in there, Miranda sighed and crept out of the crevice, she almost fell over her body ached so badly, there were bites and cuts all over her body. "I have to find the mirror she told herself" eating a few bites of bread she took a deep breath and stood up stretching she groaned but started walking in the direction she thought the mirror would be in, always keeping an eye out for the creatures and making sure she was close to something she could hide behind or under or above.

"See I told you, never saw her before, she didn't even know what the wevrils were and she tried to use MAGIC!" Miranda who had been trying to find the mirror for hours whirled around, she saw the small dragon from the night before and with him were three other dragons her size but once again they didn't look like any dragon she had ever seen, they seemed to be covered in a white short fur, their wings wrapped in some odd looking material. "Shut up Strut before I wring your scrawny neck" snapped one of the dragons, Miranda almost giggled at the look of offense on the small dragons face. Miranda looked at the one large dragon "I need to find the place where I came in here, can you help me? it has blue paint markings on the stones" The big dragons shook his furry head "you need to come with us, it will be dark soon and as you found out it's not safe to be out after dark falls, we'll talk later for now just follow us." Miranda frowned but followed them not wanting to spend another night fighting off those horrid creatures.

Flying as quickly as she could, her wings stiff and unresponsive from the cold, Miranda moaned to herself, they seemed to be moving further and further away from the direction she wanted to go in, trying to keep track of landmarks like a certain gnarled tree, a particular group of rocks Miranda followed. She squeezed through a small opening in the rocks and found herself in a large cavern, sitting gasping for breath her head hanging, Miranda watched two of the large dragons fill the opening with large rocks. Strut grabbed the strap of her backpack "hey you, come on, we want to see what you have in your bag" Miranda grabbed the little dragon with a snarl "my name is NOT hey you, my name is Miranda, you took half my food you little pip squeak, you didn't even ask, if you had I would have shared with you, keep your paws off my pack do you understand me!" The little dragon with an affronted look put his paws on his hips and glowered up at Miranda "well how was I supposed to know you would share, sheeesh I know it's your pack for cripes sake get a grip!"

Miranda couldn't help it, she started laughing not hearing the hysteria filling her laughter, "Your going to lose control in a minute, here drink this and warm up, then we'll talk" a large dragoness told her, putting a cup of some hot liquid in Miranda's paws. Miranda curled up a small fireplace carved out in the stone and sipped from the cup. It didn't taste all that good but it was hot and took some of the edge off how cold she was. Miranda looked around the cavern, it was bare except for an old battered table, a few cooking pots, a pile of furs that looked at lot like the wevril's fur, shuddering remembering those horrible things, she frowned hearing a terrible racking cough coming from behind a screen also made from the same furs. Miranda glanced at the little dragon that was just sitting watching her "one of your dragons sound sick, that's a nasty cough" the little dragon called Strut rolled his eyes "like I don't know she's sick, she will probably be dead in a few more days." Miranda gasped "that's a terrible thing to say!" Strut snorted "it's a fact of life around here, we're all going to be dead soon, might as well accept it." Miranda listened to the harsh rasping coughing again, standing up she grimaced for a moment then went over to the dragoness that had given her the hot drink. "I have some herbs in my pack that might help whoever is sick, the little mouth over there said I can't use magic here is that true?"

The dragoness looked thoughtfully at Miranda, "Shelaw is very ill, I doubt your herbs will help her but you can try, she is old and worn out, you can use some slight magic inside these stone walls, it's outside you can't use it, the demons suck it up and feed on it from what we hear, but no one has used magic here in hundreds of years, there just isn't anymore left." Miranda asked for a hot cup of water, then went to her pack, Strut watched avidly while she took the things she had packed away out, the herbs at the bottom of the pack. "You touch one thing and you'll pull back a bloody stump" she warned him. Strut glowered at Miranda "for crips sake I'm just looking, don't get your scales in an uproar!"

Miranda took the hot cup of water from the dragoness who introduced herself as Raimi, sprinkling in a certain amount of the herbs Miranda stirred it with her talon then went over to the screen, she tapped lightly then went around it, an old very tired weary battered old dragon looked up at her. "I brought something that might help her cough, if you can hold her head up while I help her drink it." The old dragon frowned at her "you say it will help? what makes you think so?" Miranda smiled kindly "because my mama is a wonderful herbalist and taught me how to use them" watching Miranda suspiciously the old dragon purred then nuzzled the old dragoness. "Shelaw, this young one wants you to drink this up, it will help you feel better." The old dragoness Shelaw turned tired eyes on Miranda, she wanted to tell them all to leave her alone to die but saw the pain in her mate Morpaw's eyes, she slowly drank the hot herb infused water then closed her eyes. Miranda frowned touching her arm gently feeling how chilled she was, even covered with blankets of furs. Miranda took the chill from her, eased the pain in her joints from being cold so often, then ran her paw down the old dragoness's neck easing the pain in her throat. She rid Shelaw of as much of the chest infection that she could, sighing Miranda realized her magic was very weak and slow here. With sadness in her eyes she told the old dragon she had done all she could for the moment but Shelaw would rest much easier now. Morpaw took Miranda's paws in his "thank you, young one for helping my gentle mate." Miranda smiled "your more then welcome, I just wish I could do more but my magic seems to be limited here." The old dragon nodded sadly. Taking the cup back out with her, Miranda asked from another cup of hot water. Raimi nodded taking the cup from her, Miranda watched where she got the water from, smiling she took the cup from Raimi. "I can heat it up, you don't need to go to all that trouble." With a frown, Raimi watched Miranda puff lightly into the water heating, going back to the table Miranda put some different herbs in the water and drank it, she had no intentions of getting sick and she could already feel the chills running through her body.