Decieving Eyes,

Chapter 4

“Sire, she’s awake. Her eyes will be unfocused but that will sort itself out in a few days.” The old man walking gently to sit next to me stated stuttering nervously at talking to his superior. He was right, my eyes were unfocused, crazily so, I could hardly see the man that knelt next to me, though even through my limited eye-sight I could tell that he was easily well over my mother’s age when she had died. He was some-what ancient looking, his eyes shrunken in and his face thin, the skin saggy and tired looking, ancient even for an elf, the age so affecting that the magic could do little more then keep him alive. He was so hunched that it was hard to believe that this frail being was seven foot tall and had once been one of the most powerful beings that ever walked the earth. As I looked up at them groggily Handred seemed to misunderstand my look of grogginess for a look of confusion.
“It’s about a week since you fell ill, we travelled fast out of Gaeng, stopping at this old mansion just next to the boarder to get you the assistance you needed. May I ask for your age, niece?” Handred asked rubbing his cheek, my eyes were still foggy but I was now able to make sense of my surroundings without getting a headache; I could see the bristles on the side of his face; he had not shaved for a while.
I stared at him, surprised at the formality and the easy way in which he had accepted me as his kin.
“Sixteen, though you must have registered that from my father at the time he spoke to you?” I muttered my voice harshly croaky.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t paying much attention to the dates your father supplied, we couldn’t be sure if he would be truthful. He has lied to us before after all.” He paused registering my shock but giving no explanation to his statement, carried on. “But sixteen is interesting, if you are indeed going to take the elf side then in two years you will show the traits, it seems we will just have to wait until you turn eighteen.”
“Wha?! What about the traits I show?! You have to have noticed them! I mean it’s hard not to and without them I would probably be dead already.” I screamed, it sounding all the more weirder with the frog-call voice I possessed at the moment, feeling my strength refresh in my burst of anger, how was I a normal human girl? I was stronger then any human I had met, I had better eye-site and my speed was unnatural. I had never been normal, the last time I remember being normal was before that incident, but these traits couldn’t be related to that…
“Well we’ll leave that open to discussion later. There is no point in talking at great length whilst you are still ill. You are to recuperate in this room for a week, in that time you will not do anything too straining; you will stay in this room. You will have a maid servant to keep you company and to teach you the basic etiquettes of this country. In this time you will be polite and mannered; I will expect you to eat in the main dining area without complaint.” Handred stated staring hard at me as he issued my orders.
“Yes, sir. But may I inform you that I have very little interest or knowledge in the area of etiquette.”
“I have noticed, that is why I have issued you with a maid servant to teach you the manners of a lady, you are not in Gaeng anymore.” Handred bowed his head and signalled to the ancient one, and then they both turned and left me and the room quietly.
I sighed heavily and sat up in the soft bed, the mattress lay on the wooden floor; the mattress seemed filled with some sort of feathers, making it lumpy but soft. The sheets were smooth and skilfully woven, a light rose pink of colour created by crushed berries. The room around me was simplistic; it was small and the walls the grey, rough surface of the stones building it up, the floor was wooden slats and the bed lay in the right hand corner of the room, the furthest away from the door and the window on the left hand side, set in the wall next to the bed. In the opposite corner of the room from the bed was a grand wardrobe, the only grand thing in the room, hinting at the wealth of the establishment if put together with the clear, almost liquid, windows and the evenly cut stone walls, next to this ancient giant was a simple cabinet on which lay a single hand towel and nothing else. In the right hand corner next to the door was a small table next to a fire place, surrounding both the table and the fireplace stood four chairs, these were positioned strategically in order to gain the most heat off the fire evenly. I pattered over to the wardrobe and heaved it open, its hinges screeching in protest. Inside the wardrobe hung some pale and rough garments; they were short, they would only reach the middle of my thigh, they hung off the shoulders and constricted around the stomach with a belt. Looking down at my battered and dirty clothes I decided to opt for the rough material that hung in the wardrobe and quickly dressed in it, belting it tightly around my waist.
At that point a young girl walked in, she had a gentle and cultured face, and her black hair was cropped short to frame her girlish features. Her eyes were also gentle; a light blue, not striking but almost grey. Her clothes were simple, almost identical to mine and she had a bag over her right shoulder, her arms were filled with objects that looked carefully stacked so that they were less likely to fall as she walked. Her features were set in a calming expression, purposely designed to put me at my ease, it only served to make me weary, no one looked at you like that in Gaeng without planning something, and I wasn’t about to start trusting people now just because I was out of that hell hole.
“Good-morning, Miss Kaline, I’ve brought a few necessities for you, here are some washing stuff; a pitcher, bowl, comb and soap. There is already a towel on the cabinet and I have also brought a mirror for you. Break-fast will brought for you as you woke up late, but tomorrow you will be woken at the proper time and be expected to take break-fast at the main hall.” The girl bowed and deposited the objects gently onto the cabinet. After that she went and sat on one of the chairs and pulled out a sample from her bag that hung over her shoulder. She stared sewing as I walked quietly over to the mirror and looked at my reflection for the first time since I was ten. There was only one way to describe how I looked; ragged. My hair fell in matted drapes over my shoulders, desperately needing a brush, my face was thin and my cheek bones stuck out oddly, not reflecting my father’s plump face at all. But it was my eyes that grabbed my interest, they contrasted heavily against my black hair as they were a startlingly deep blue with two flashes of a deep violet in each iris. I cursed lightly and stared again, noticing that I had attracted the girls attention; staring at her in the mirror I noticed that she couldn’t have looked much older then fourteen, but knowing elves she was probably along the lines of being thirty years old already. I had no right to be calling her a girl.
I frowned at her as she stared at me with the expression of pity on her face, but her eyes expressed a different emotion completely envy. But as I returned once more to my own reflected my own mythical eyes burned through me, creating a beast, the heart of fear itself, stirring so that it clawed at my chest and tried to climb up my throat, leaving me with the sick taste of pure terror filling my mouth and soiling my tongue. My breath came out as gasps as the maid approached me from behind and clasped her hands to my shoulders trying to be reassuring, she was taller then me at about five foot ten, and stared over my head at my reflection, pointedly staring at my gruesomely beautiful eyes.
“Miss Kaline, I know it’s, strange, but you don’t need to be scared, nothing can hurt you. You’re more powerful than anyone here, and your eyes aren’t something to be blamed or feared, but to be thanked. With these eyes you can do anything you want, anything. And aren’t they beautiful too? I have never seen eyes like this ever before, and I think I never will. I feel blessed to have experienced the sight of them, blessed and honoured. The God’s, themselves, have gifted you. And though it maybe painful or even frightening, this is the price you pay for such gifts and power.” The maid stared at me obviously envious now; any pretence of sympathy had evaporated, replaced only with greed and jealousy. Jealousy that green-eyed monster that I had felt so often and thought that it would never apply to me, but I had never once experienced such a devouring jealousy that the maid clearly felt. It sent shivers down my spine, the sheer power of the emotion fixating me to the spot; I felt glad that I had never experienced it to that level, to the level of which there was no return, a violent level that destroyed everything in its greed. It had transformed her once gentle eyes, into sharp beacons of open hunger.
I looked away shocked and scared, for once my body reacting to the message my brain sent me; run. Pushing the maid away, I stood up from my stooping position and rushed to the door, my feet thudding heavily against the wooden planked floor. I felt the strange sensation of déjà-vu from when I was a child, immediately my breathing heightened and I felt my mind going blank, fear and escape the only thoughts that now occupied me. I felt none of it, my feet thudding heavily against the wood, the splinters forcing entry into my feet and causing my blood to stain the floorboards as I ran, I didn’t feel my chest tightening as my brain increased oxygen production, blood rushing through my veins and feeding the suddenly starving muscles. I thundered down the spiralling staircase, banging into the stone walls as I turned each corner, the maid still following. She was stronger from years of being an elf, trained the elven way so that she could run longer and faster than me, though I was fast compared to my human counterparts. As I reached the bottom of the first level I noticed the small doorway and crashed through it, entering a large hall I heard the maid clatter behind me, she was close now. Not pausing to look around I carried on running, my heart straining and a sick taste filling my mouth from the back of my throat, I was near my limit. An arm reached out in front of me, causing me to stop to a thud, nearly toppling over, as it clasped my arm.
“What is going on!? Kaline I demand an answer.” My uncle’s voice reverberated through my oxygen-starved brain.
“Sire, that maid,” I panted, breathing heavily after every sentence looking around nervously around me hearing the maid approaching, slowed down now but I could still hear her heavy breathing. I looked at my uncle and from his look determined that he still demanded a more thorough explanation. “She’s crazy! Look at her eyes, you can tell that she’s insane! She chased after me like a crazy-woman when I ran away, I mean even if she were under orders to keep me in that room she wouldn’t act like that.” I looked around and saw her staring menacingly at me, teeth bared like a feral cat.
“I issued no such orders, seems as if you did leave your room you could only pass my room and there I would catch you. Miss Jinla, what do you say about this matter?” I looked at my uncle, he was staring at the maid, Jinla, worriedly; he had noted her animalistic behaviour.
“Sire, I was only trying to make sure she didn’t escape.” Jinla spat it out, moving lithely like a cat stalking prey, twitching from side-to-side.
“Hmmm, I will have the physicist look at you. But for the moment your duties are suspended, I will look after my niece.” Handred signalled for the old man to step forward to usher Jinla off, but she slapped him in the face, almost making him fall with the force and cutting his wrinkled mask with her sharp nails; all humane-traits gone, replaced by a feral and animalistic disposition. Jinla stepped forward ignoring the old man and walking towards me. I glared at her as you would a wild animal, but like a predator that knows it’s stronger she ignored me, stepping forward once again. In frustration I wished for my sword or even my bow, if I had them I could end it. After all she had lost all of her consciousness to the animal instincts imprinted from the dawn of time. As I thought of this I felt a gradual sensation of heat rise to my right palm, burning yet it was not painful. I looked down to see the cause of the confusing feeling and saw a small flickering flame, small and painless but most definitely fire. I felt the energy surrounding it, feeling the muscle constricting; lending energy to feed the small flame, but this was only the fore-arm feeding the flame, so pushing the energy from my right bicep down my arm to my palm I fed the flame more, stoking it and causing it to grow. It was now quite large and I flapped my hand about adding more air to the mixture, it grew bigger and after a large flick of the wrist the flame shot off to the wall, next to Jinla’s head. She screeched and wreathed like a wild animal, instinct telling her to fear the red heat that had splattered against the wall near her. I felt my muscles stiffen again, painfully this time, and the flame went out; my energy spent. Jinla pressed herself against the opposite wall and hissed at me backing away, fear now registered in her eyes and Handred used this as an opportunity to grab her and hold her arms behind her back.
“Please put this maid in a small and secure room. I will have one of my regiment guard her.” Handred muttered as he gave Jinla to one of the stronger and more heavily built servants. “Come with me, Kaline.” He then walked off, walking down the hallway. I paused, now, to study the environment I had found myself in, understandably I had not paid much attention before, but now I felt myself facing a curious mind at my surroundings. It was not an overly grand hallway, but it was stone, the blocks were evenly chiselled and joined by pieces of the stone slotting together, a lot more expensive and time-consuming then most houses I had seen let alone been in. there was three doors down this hall, the first I deduced was my uncle’s, there was his door next to me on my right, and there was the door I had entered through behind me as I turned to follow my uncle down the passageway. Further down the hall there was a large and ornate door made out of wood but riveted by large, black metal bars with intricate designs on them. This door was placed on the left and it was this door that my uncle swung open and walked briskly through. I followed him and wondered where the halls light had been sourced, looking up wonderingly I saw thousands of glowing lights, they were glowing stones, these had provided light to the dim hallway and looking up again, and to the room I had just entered. The room I entered was large, a banqueting hall though it was not as large as the hall I had frequently dined in at school it was grander. The windows were made out of a flawless, smooth material letting in the most amount of light that was possible, the windows were also imprinted with smooth and realistic images, the colours not even showing signs of fading. The hall had one table centred in the middle, it was long and made out a beautiful dark wood, it was almost black in colour and the texture looked like polished stone. The chairs were much the same, smooth and heavy looking. On the table lay a large set of food, mostly woodland fruits and berries, easily found and prepared. It lightened up the table with random variations of the vibrant colours, some which I saw reflected in the dyes of the clothes that the many people that stood around the edge of the room wore.
The people stood around the room, their hands folded in front of them and bowing as we marched past. Handred looked at me questioningly as I stood in the middle of the room gaping at my right palm, an expression of awe plastered onto my face.
“May I ask what that demonstration back there was? Or are you as clueless as I am?” he asked his voice strained, curious but pathetically hiding another emotion; fear.
“Um, I’m not too sure myself.”
“Well it certainly was interesting, I’m not sure I’ll ever see anything like it in my life again.” A creaky and unstable voice echoed behind me, I turned around to behold the sight of the ancient one wobbling towards us, both suspicious and curious, leaning heavily on a gnarled walking stick.
“I suppose this is another of these not normal traits that I show; it wouldn’t surprise me, little does these days.” I muttered in a wondering voice, only realising later on how aged I sounded to myself; weeks back I would never have thought that way but life was becoming full of events that seemed to age me mentally.
“When did it become apparent that you were not, as you say, ‘normal’? Was it after a horrific event that may have triggered the early development of your elven attributes?” the old man asked me, a curious look spreading across his face.
“At the age of seven. After,” I paused looking at the ceiling thinking of how to word it, they needed to know, but I could not bare to relate my story to anyone, lest the nightmares came with a vengeance, the time that I had spent unconscious had been nightmare free, and so had the remaining time after that, and I hoped to prolong that status as far as I could. They looked at me hopefully, urging me on. And I pointed to the crescent scar on my neck stroking it gently. “It was the time I gained this… souvenir; it’s a bitter reminder for me never to run off again. I was at a school trip and bored so I stumbled off into the forest at the back of the house, I got lost and when the sun was setting I met a beautiful woman, she was crying like I was, her eyes full of sorrow, beautiful violent eyes that froze me to the spot with awe. She gave me her handkerchief, telling me the words that haunt me even now; ‘I am so sorry little one, dry your tears. I am so sorry.’ Then she attacked me. The next thing was that I woke up surrounded by teachers and feeling my blood spilling out of my neck. My school taunted and teased me for my belief in vampires after that and I was called ‘Vampire Girl or Princess’, but how could I not believe? Yeh anyway, it was after this event that I started exhibiting these… characteristics, as you put it.” I stopped looking around me at the faces in the room; a woman was crying, her hands covering her eyes and sobs shaking her body, Handred was now holding my hand gently, his eyes full of sorrow and sympathy, it was strange I had neither heard his movement nor felt the touch of his hand on mine, the old man sat still staring at me pityingly. At that time I realised the hot but wet sensation of my tears rolling fat and uncontrollable down my cheek, Handred lifted his other hand and brushed them away.
“We have never met a person that has been bitten by a vampire before, elves do not strike them as good feeding and they rarely come to this land unless for necessary talks with our leaders. We did not know that a half-human and half-elf that was bitten by a vampire would result in this. It seems that though you have your elf half, your human half has been taken over by the vampire genetics that were transferred to you when bitten. You are in fact, half-elf, and half-vampire. Possibly longer living and stronger then any elf we know or any vampire, it is unknown what the results of your coming of age will be. It would be interesting to investigate more though…” the ancient one trailed off at the look from my uncle, a sharp warning glance that only a superior man would be aloud to give.


Chapter 5


They left me to adjust to the Elven life-style for another week, showing me around the magnificent city that surrounded the old manor house, it was unbelievable they called this a small town; it was roughly the size of the capital of Gaeng, Jesna, or the city of the clouds in the old tongue. The ancient one was my constant companion, surveying me for both unusual behaviour and for my health. He asked me many questions about my childhood, asking me about my temper problems, teaching me way to manage them and also asking about my stock of scars. I had explained every one, able to remember them because of the amount of pain and effort it took in order to create a scar on me. He was most shocked by the one on my left forearm, the blow had been in sword practice at the age of fourteen, a friend of the boy that I had killed had aimed a blow at my arm designed to take it off, but because of my uncanny abilities it had ended up only severing the muscle, not even reaching the bone. I had claimed to have seen the blow coming and jumped out the way, but the truth was that I had been off guard and taken the full force of the blow. It had left a scar but I still saw it as a miracle. The ancient one also saw it as amazing, he said that that amount of resistance to a sword was impossible to an elf; it would hit the bone on the elf and scatter it, not just stop at the muscle. The ancient one was grateful for my help and after a week concluded me healthy enough to ride to the capital of Elander, the ancient city of the sun, Slackne.

Though in parts Elander was indeed green and luscious, in main it was an arid nation, hot and dusty though they had no problem living in this environment, they had adapted and were now suited to the atmosphere and food. The place that I had been staying in to recover was a green place, close to the boarder getting some of Gaeng’s awful and cold weather, even in the summer Gaeng was not as warm as you would wish and it chose to rain most of the time, making the air sticky and uncomfortable. The weather of the place I was staying at the moment was much the same, sticky and hot making riding a chore, though it was better then walking. Elander was the opposite of either of its neighbours, Gaeng was cold and wet whilst the mountainous Kazank, which was always seated in the clouds, was of a misty and mild climate. They had large green trees reaching above 20 metres off the ground; they formed a perfect hiding place for the grand and reclusive vampire cities of Kazank.

The dress of Elander reflected this temperate; thin and swaying material, making it cool and light in order to be as comfortable in the heat and the sometimes humid air as much as possible. Women wore variations of the same style, the colours widely different, colours created from natural dyes found in plant’s petals and berries, the style was basic, two pieces of cloth, one covering the front, dipping for the chest and going down to about three inches above the knee. The back piece was much the same, dipping for the back, revealing the shoulder blades. These two pieces of cloth were shown at the sides and joined at the top by two matching brooches, varying in style on each dress, and tied around the waist with a leather belt, a sword dangling at the hip. Men wore much the same, though many chose to have the top joins sewn and the length longer. Both men and women wore leather sandals, sturdily made to stand constant use on the rough, sun-baked earth.

It was as soon as I recovered that I was presented with an apple-green dress of this style with gold brooches and a depiction of a rearing horse engraved on them, from my uncle. I loved it, it was cool and practical, they were also clothes that Gaeng, as a nation, would not approve of and let ‘their’ girls to wear. As I put it on I found it to be made of a silken material, finely meshed, but somehow not see-through, it was obviously made of expensive material though it was given to me as casual wear. I thanked my uncle profusely for it and commented on how moving was much easier in it then in any of my clothes in Gaeng had been. He had laughed it off and then presented me with a large, war-like horse claiming it to be fully tamed and that I had no need of a saddle but I would need reins. Though I had been cynical at first, as soon as I mounted the horse I knew that it was true, though it had been bread for war it was amazingly docile and listened to every request and suggestion I made.

We left the small homestead almost as soon as I was fully recovered and equipped though I lacked my sword. The ancient man had given us a scroll with all of his apparent writings on me, he had bowed plenty before we left with a crowd following, my uncle was apparently a great war hero, with both strength and mercy, and he also had generosity and dignity. This had made him the biggest catch around, at the age of one thousand this year; he was still a single man and not old. My mother, I had found out, had been the daughter of a nobleman and the age of five thousand when she had died. Many women had arrived at the house we were staying in order to ‘woo’ my uncle but he had ‘eyes for none’ as he had stated. Not only did he have all of these advantages but he was also handsome and most of all rich, his campaigns and status leaving him with plentiful money to spare. This made my uncle unusual, he was single whereas many men of his status and riches had a wife and even a few concubines, and they also had plenty of heirs and some illegitimate children walking around their large grounds. This had caused many harsh rumours to spread of the great man, but he had batted them off like flies, claiming that he would never again fall in love after being betrayed so violently by his past lover. It was a subject that I dared not ask upon after the look on his face when he had stated this but it did make me curious.

It was of this that I was thinking as we made our way through the crowds and out of the homestead. We trotted calmly, in no hurry, across the countryside and it was here that I asked him the question that had been nibbling at my mind for a long time.
“Um, but uncle, who will inherit your land and wealth, not to mention your position, if you have no child, legitimate or not?” I asked nervously, studying his face for any change from the stone mask he had worn whilst leaving the homestead, and though we had left the homestead awhile ago it had stuck like that. To my surprise he laughed and looked at me wonderingly.
“Who do you think? You will! You are my niece and my beloved sister’s only child and she was my only other sibling. You are more then worthy enough to take my position as you will soon find out.” He laughed again, cynically this time at his role in society. His cynical view shocked me; it was appalling of him to think that his position in society was low and insignificant. I had heard from the people around me that he was well known, not just for his war effort and achievement but for his counselling and guidance to the King and the major lords. The fact that he thought this insignificant was both shocking and sobering. He expected me to take his position? And he said it would be simple, somehow I highly doubted that and I thought that he very much over-estimated my intelligence and strength, I had never learnt the matter of tactics and never once learnt how to manage and control a country. The task seemed impossible to me and I refused to accept that I could ever take his place or that I was the only one available for that position. I looked at his face dumb-founded as he smirked lightly reading the shock on my expression.
“Honestly I’m over-rated and my position isn’t hard to take up. Over time you would learn everything you need to know and I promise you, I don’t plan on dying anytime soon.” He smiled lightly and then shifted forward, turning away from me to look ahead. After that we didn’t talk, both absorbed in our own thoughts, mine of shock and horror, I had no clue what he was thinking of, and probably never would, though it couldn’t have been anything happy as his face remained as still and sullen as that of a carving, lifeless and emotionless. We continued to travel steadily across the nation, the weather heating up and the landscape becoming more and more arid as we got closer to the capital, a journey that would take the best of a month. The air and land would become increasingly dustier and dry the closer we got until finally we would reach our red-dirt covered destination, the capital of Elander and the elves. Here at the capital the water would be limited but somehow the nation survived, centering around this tough climate, living healthily and wealthily. They had magnificent celebrations as the season long rain arrived and supported life, filling springs and dusty streams and lakes again. They prayed to the Gods, praising the heavens, animal sacrifices made in the astonishingly beautiful temples of the water and sun Gods. The main supplement of plants thrived in that time only to be harvested as soon as they were ready, prepared and stored to last the hot season. But the life of the city was centered on the great river running through the middle of it and the many under ground streams that flowed from it and popped up in springs? It was off this that they managed to grow crops all the way through the year, though they were depleted and had limited choice through the dry seasons, wheat and grain being the only plants able to survive the drought. But it would take us a month to arrive and until then we would be racing the wet season to the capital and travelling through the beautiful scenery of Elander. It was on the wetter edges of Elander that the horses were reared and bread, making the long trek to the capital to be sold and brought, in Elander they would be broken in and trained in either cart-pulling or war. The bulkier, slower horses were for carting and the taller and faster for war, but both were well bread and strong. Both horses could pull a loaded cart quite easily with a partner and both would ride into war fearlessly, but cart horses were calmer and more docile, not to mention slower, so they were used more the carts, whilst the war horses were of a fiery temperament, though fiercely loyal to their rider, making them the perfect war horses.
I was riding a fine war horse, bred on the out-skirts of Elander growing up wild in the mountains only to be chosen by its herd to go the elves. This was the major difference of the horses in Elander; they chose to be ridden, respecting the Elvin race and thanking them for their kindness and generosity by picking two colts of every generation in their herd to go to the elves to be ridden or pull carts. Though these were not glamorous jobs they were rewarded highly, their life was luxurious, being allowed to roam where ever they wished when they were not needed and fed grandly even in times of famine. After all these horses were highly needed and respected by the nation and had to be treated importantly. I was told the moment that I was given my horse that she was a fine mare from the Kazank mountains, the boarder between Elander and Kazank, she was also called Jazaer which in the old language translated as ‘Child of Thunder’. She was a fine horse, tall and beige in colour with a fine black mane and tail, she had grey socks and a large white star on her forehead. She was to stay with me until she or I died, both horse and rider in Elander remained loyal to death.

As we rode through the valleys and the long, stretching plains I realized the speed at which we were now going, we had sped up, now travelling at an almost constant gallop, the horses coats had turned dark with sweat and the riders sat uneasily and uncomfortably, my uncle now clearly led the precession and had an air of command about him, all this heightened my senses and caused my skin to prickle uneasily, something was coming. I urged Jazear forward into a faster pace to catch up my uncle, and then once level with him, stared at him confused and uneasy.
“Uncle, why have we sped up? I thought we were doing fine for time.” I asked a curious look spreading across my face in a front to cover my fear. He looked at me shocked and then grinned lightly.
“Nothing to worry about… we just wished to make it back before the first day of the rain feasts.” His face and tone were reassuring but his eyes hid an unbidden fear, he looked away from me quickly. I knew that he didn’t wish to scare me, but his being untruthful was all the more scary, then him telling me a fearful truth of what was following us that had made him speed up the company so. I looked behind us, searching for the cause of my uncles fear, and looked at the clouds, they were large and plentiful and as I stared at them I swore I saw a flash, a flash of red moving around the clouds, travelling on air currents, and then after the red had disappeared a sparkling green flash appeared following its trail across the sky. I gasped and looked at my uncle, only to find he had turned around again and was now staring at me, and now he only replied to my questioning look with a small nod and a grimace. With that my uncle signaled to the other men and sped up his horse with a small and silent whisper in its ear, it sped up but only slightly, unable to go any faster. I felt the sudden ice-cold thrill of fear run down my spine as I envisioned what the threat was, it had to be Dragons, as those were the only creatures that could fly, had that range of colors and the sheer size to enable them to be seen so high up and far away. The thought both chilled and thrilled my mind endlessly; I could finally see the most magnificent beasts to ever exist in myth or creation.