"Ah, hello again Sir Fangorn," bowed the human auxillary with customary reverence.
Fangorn stared down at the human, "Hello Sir Barrigan. I have completed my rounds of New Alveri, and will document the days events for record keeping."
He dully went over the events of the day; a few petty crimes that the humanoid soldiers dealt with easily, but the most noteworthy being a pair of fledglings deciding to take a fight out into the streets and stopping them from destroying humanoid property.
"Another one of those days eh?" said Barrigan.
"By the Ancestors yes," sighed Fangorn.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, Fangorn suddenly caught a large shape heading straight toward the landing pad. His body stiffened. Was it an attack? Yet when his gaze narrowed, he recognized the dragoness coming forward. It was Darzhja.
You have got to be kidding me...
The dragoness, without so much looking as to where she was going slammed onto the landing platform, uplifting bits of rock when she landed and making the surprised humanoid scurrying for cover. Her momentum kept hurling forward, forcing Fangorn to spin around and stop her from crashing.
"Darzhja! What by the Ancestors were you thinking? You know better than to just come crashing in to a landing zone!! You could have hurt the humans!!" he bellowed. Only later did he realize that this was precisely the wrong way to address her.
Something didn't look right though. Her eyes were filled with fury... and pain, similar to what he had seen during the attack on New Alveri itself.
“Fangorn, if you’re here to call me names like you usually do or give me the run around of how I'm breaking this protocol or that, I don’t want to hear it!!” she snapped. Without pausing, Darzhja turned to a large faucet of water and began drinking feverishly. How long had she flown without stopping? She looked terrible. So Fangorn took the time to let her recover first.
Fangorn took a breath.
"What happened? You're not supposed to be back from your mission. Where is Lorath? What became of the investigation?" said Fangorn. Normally, one would send a messenger first to announce their imminent arrival, but Darzhja was never known to follow protocol, though in this particular case, Fangorn was greatly concerned of the possible reason as to why she had done so. Something had gone wrong, terribly wrong; so wrong that perhaps she felt she could not trust the normal messengers.
"Lorath... he's not coming back to the knights..." said Darzhja with a low growl. Fangorn's eyes widened. Lorath had been his lairmate and his best friend with the knights. While they had had a falling out, if Darzhja had come back alone...
"What... happened? Is he?" said Fangorn, his heart pounding.
"He's taking over for his clan..."
"But that's impossible, both his father and his older brother have precedence..."
"They're both dead," said Darzhja, panting.
"Wait what? So there was an attack on Damescara then? How did that happen?" bellowed Fangorn, his wings unfurling. His once dull day had now become anything but.
Darzhja turned her head away.
"Darzhja," said Fangorn, forcing himself to calm down, "How about we get inside? If things are as severe as they are, lets inform our superiors immediately so we can discuss what happened in a more secure setting. My mentor Lord Ragnor has been paying attention to the case and needs to know what happened..."
Darzhja stared long and hard at Fangorn. Fangorn suddenly realized how bad things had gotten between the two, that when it came to things of such magnitude, Darzhja was hesitant to speak.
"Can I trust you? Sir?" she said, glaring at Fangorn and placing bitter emphasis on his rank.
The words stung far more than he ever imagined. Did she despise Fangorn so much that she would rather see one of the major cities of the Empire burn rather than even contemplate seeking out his help? If so, then Fangorn blamed himself, because if he had to think about it, he had treated Darzhja rather badly.
"Darzhja," said Fangorn, "Lorath was still my friend, and if something has happened to him, I still feel that I have a right to know what's going on. Furthermore, I know we haven't gotten along at all, but... when something like this has happened, we need to let our superiors know about it. My mentor Jereforth has been investigating the case as well. I can help."
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