The Last Battle: Part 7, Draft 1

Ye olde change of plans. This is obviously not the next part of "New Story". It's not even the part of "Last Battle" I already had written but didn't put up here. That one takes place after Apex 1 and I decided that posting it now would reveal something I don't quite want to tell you about before it comes up in the story. So you probably won't be seeing that one for a long time.

What you've got here is me plowing through the second half of the last scene I posted on the blog. I'm trying to work on just getting the thing written, as I know it's going to need editing whether I plow through without regard to quality or spend 27 minutes crafting each sentence into perfection. If you do want a bit of a spoiler, this is the last time Cyra and Rayna will be together before Apex 1 happens.

Comments greatly desired. Seriously. If nobody's reading this, I can just skip posting it and play more Zelda.

Brenn said something to Argonios and Cyra began to translate. Kata wasn’t fully paying attention. She had seen dragons at past Sendings before and even attended a hatching once. But this was really the closest she had been to a dragon. As far as Kata could tell, Brenn was a full-grown dragon. Even when his head and neck were lowered, he was substantially taller than even Sir Argonios. The dragon wasn’t merely blue, he was a variety of blues. Every individual scale seemed to contain multiple hues that shifted and changed as he breathed and the sunlight caught them differently. Like most dragons, his body was mainly a dark shade, while his underbelly was lighter to make him less visible from beneath as he flew. He had four horns, two larger ones near where his head and neck met, and two smaller ones above his brow ridges. Cyra had told Kata that the smaller horns were particular to male dragons, a fact that had come up when Kata was trying to determine the gender of newborn dragons at the last hatching. Brenn slowly drew his head up and away from Argonios, regaining his full towering height. He seemed to always move slowly, though Kata wondered if that was just a side affect of being among what he perceived as small and delicate company.

Brenn and Cyra moved to stand in front of Kata. The dragon lowered his head again and Kata found that having his extremely large face so close to hers was a little unnerving. As Cyra finished growling out an introduction, Brenn puffed out his heated air greeting. The two regarded each other for a moment. Then Brenn turned to Cyra with a few deep vocalizations.
“He wants to know how you got your scar,” Cyra explained.

Cyra pointed and Kata glanced down at her arm. She vaguely recalled from Cinnet’s material on proper etiquette when meeting a dragon that dragons regarded scars as signs of a great warrior. Kata figured it was because their tough, scaly hides prevented them from getting many.

“I got it fighting a rogue Tals clan dragon while I was returning from the Battle of Faell.”

Kata spoke to Brenn as she answered. Cyra already knew the story, or at least, the part that she told people about. Brenn rumbled deep in his throat, apparently finding this explanation acceptable.

“Where did you get that one?” Kata asked, indicating a long mark across Brenn’s lower neck and chest. Cyra translated for the dragon and he gave his response.

“He got it during the Independence War. He was protecting a civilian from a Keltarian soldier.”

Kata didn’t know much about dragon expressions, but she almost felt like Brenn was smiling at her. Cyra certainly looked happy to see her brother sharing war stories with Kata.

The pair moved on to the Suto Teg priest. He repeated his bent elbowed bow again and pulled out a scroll. He then launched into a lengthy recitation in Rannak, which Kata guessed to be the official Suto Teg greeting to a dragon. Again, Kata couldn’t be certain of Brenn’s emotions, but she though he looked a little uncomfortable, repeatedly shifting his weight from one side to another. It seemed to confirm her suspicions that both Cyra and the dragons were somewhat mystified by the Suto Teg faith.

The three spoke for a bit longer, and then it was Cinnet’s turn to be greeted. To Kata’s surprise, Cinnet began with a few words of Rannak. She hadn’t been aware that Cinnet spoke it, but it did seem like him to make he effort to greet a dragon in the most formal and proper way.

Cinnet was asking about how long Brenn would be staying for and if any special accommodations beyond the usual ones made for visiting dragons were required, when the western tower door opened. Rayna, dressed in full armor, rushed out onto the field towards the assembled group of welcomers. Cinnet looked displeased at being interrupted by an unscheduled late arrival to the event. Cyra paid no attention to his irritated looks. Kata noticed the expression that came over the queen’s face: the soft smile that shook just the tiniest bit and the eyes that were ever so slightly too bright. It was a look that Kata had seen many times before when parents saw their children ready to ride off on their first assignments as knights. She remembered getting that same look from her own father when she had climbed up on Tally’s back and prepared to leave for the castle and her first Sending.

Cyra went to meet her daughter, with Brenn following close by. With his considerably longer stride, the dragon was the first to greet Rayna. He nudged her very gently and she stroked his nose in return. Cyra stood next to Brenn and the three were soon engaged in lively conversation.

After a few moments, Argonios motioned to Kata, Cinnet, and the priest.

“I think it would be best if we left them alone for awhile,” he suggested softly

Kata nodded in agreement. The Suto Teg priest looked nervous, likely concerned that he would be neglecting his duty to transcribe the dragon’s words. But eventually, after checking over his notes one more time, he rolled up his writings and started towards the tower door. Even Cinnet didn’t protest the idea too much.

As they were leaving the field, Kata turned back and took one last look at the queen, the princess, and the dragon. They made a strange group: the massive blue beast padding slowly along to allow the humans to keep pace, the young knight tall and dark haired and brimming with excitement, and the queen, walking between the two, looking smaller than usual by comparison, and constantly talking to one or the other or both. But there was something there that Kata couldn’t quite explain. Maybe it was something in the way they walked, or their posture, or just how happy all three of them seemed to be together. It wasn’t really anything tangible enough to describe, but still Kata ran up to Argonios and tapped his arm.

“Look,” she said, pointing at the three when Argonios had turned. “They look like each other, don’t they?”

Argonios stared at the little group. He said nothing at first and Kata wondered if she should have said anything, if her observation was just some trick of her own mind. But the beastman’s face soon brightened in understanding.

“Yes,” he answered at last. “They do.”