Chapter 1
Noarme
Wet dew slid in between Noarme’s talon scales, Noarme held back a annoyed grunt as she stalked forward, she turned her head skywards and sent a small prayer to Embade, Salaria had been stocked with prey ever since the seam sickness wiped the star city almost clean of its occupants, Noarme was down to thinking she was the last of the Safä, but she had gladly found 5 others, ever since the six of them had been searching for others, searching through the now empty city of Salaria. Noarme crouched to the ground, her dragon form was now fully developed, so Noarme had access to her fire, Serrated claws, and most importantly, her skills she would use to protect the remaining Safä. Noarme caught a whiff of her prey and pressed her body even further into the wet grass below. A strong looking bull palarin stood just metres from her snout, possibly a easy grab, if he didn’t fight.
Noarme drew in a breath and crept forward, her claws sliding out of their sheaths, Noarme allowed a quick glance to the setting sun westward, then lunging forward, merciless. The Palarin bull fired forward, Noarme in Tow, “give up your chase, palarin!” Noarme growled, her stomach growled in protest to all the movement. Noarme bounded after the Palarin that seemed to value its life, she kept her wings pinned to her body to avoid tearing them on the loose branch’s, Noarme gave one final bound until she felt her claws sink into the armoured flesh of the palarin, “give up your fight” Noarme whispered to the bull, the bugling Palarin bull gave a last fighting whistle before falling to his side, panting his last breath, “good bye dear friend” she said, despite not knowing the beast.
-
Noarme neared the hall of spirits, ever since the hall’s occupants were narrowed down to six, the western rampart of the building had ruined away, for a good hundreds of years. Noarme let the winds carry her ever so slightly higher, the dead palarin bull limp in her front talons, Pekag, Tambed, Cithayt, Nambit and chemmos were waiting back at the hall of spirits, the last of the Safä.
The blazing hall of spirits came into view, Noarme heard the usual squealing of cith, and growled, it confused Noarme how Cith had such a squeaky voice, Noarme’s head span as the memories of the day she first met Cith twirled through her head, she saw the scrawny little dragon lounging under a dartha tree, as quickly as the memory came, it disappeared. The large opening of the meeting room seemed to call her, with that Noarme let her tired wings tilt downwards, and press them to her body, taking a straight dive for the opening’s ledge, at the last second she snapped open her wings, and landed softly.
“Whoo! She’s finally here!” Noarme heard cith’s voice, and craned her neck, looking for the scrawny dragon, finally catching view of his tail behind one of the mighty councillors chair.
“Finally, I was starting to think you turned into food yourself” Nambit’s deep voice hit a concerned edge, as he stalked around the large meeting room, his muscles rippling, Nambit was the biggest of them all, both heightand muscular size.
“I am not that easy to squish” Noarme protested, putting the palarin bull on the ground, just at that moment Chemmos poked his head through the meeting room’s large doors, “hey Noarme! What has the gods of eyrie blessed us with this time?” He asked, Chemmos, the brainy dragon that rarely risks being around Nambit, out of the smartest choices, he was not that scrawny, but he wasn’t really built for the task of battle.
“A large palarin bull” Noarme answered, “now are you going to cook it?” She replied, flicking her ears.
“Ooh, did someone say food?” Tambed slid down the wall, and Noarme jumped, “how the heck did you get up there?!” She whispered rashly.
Tam shrugged, “I can go anywhere”, he seemed to pause for a second, “are you impressed?..” he risked stepping closer, out of the corner of her eye, Noarme saw Nambit wedge closer.
“I was, now I am not” she said, “Chem! Are you going to cook this food or what? You have a room full of hungry dragons!” She called out loudly, making sure Chem could hear her.
“Yea, give me a second, it’s a long way down to the kitchen, like, why did they put the kitchen way under the hall, I bet it runs into the ground” Chem said, it seemed he wouldn’t stop talking, because even as Chem took the palarin’ shine legs in his talons, to drag it to the kitchen, his words never stopped, one thing to learn with Chem is that, it’s not that helpful to listen to his endless chatter.
“Ok, ok, nobody wants to hear it” Nambit said, rolling his spring green eyes, Noarme had to admit, he had nice eyelashes, probably some she would die for.
-
Delightful smells surrounded Noarme, they sat in a large dinning room, that had no problem holding all six of them yet, Pekag leaned forward, letting his nose hover over over the palarin’s gamey meat on the plate, “it smells of the most delicious thing I have ever witness, Chem, where did you say you got these cooking skills?” He said, pek the oldest dragon of them all hadn’t been there earlier, because he was napping, the old man. Noarme leaned forward to mimic pek’s movement, “agreed” she whispered, her eyes locked on the palarin leg she had claimed.
Noarme leaned back in the oversized chair, meant for the dragon stage of a Safä, “I have been thinking, we have searched all Salaria, with not luck of finding others, but what if, some Safä people had escaped Salaria, and mixed their bloodlines with Fae and fury? There would be a chance that their could be more Safä out their” she said, as soon as finished she heard a choking sound, coming from Tam, “you think so? You think the Safä people’s would betray their laws like that?, Safä keep to Safä, that’s how it always been.” Tam sounded half frightened, and half angry at the idea, before Noarme could answer him, Pek broke in, “you mean ‘us’? We are Safä” Every head along the table nodded, except Tam, Noarme saw Tam grip the table edge with his talons with such force that she was sure, the wooden edge would give out, “how are we even proud enough to call ourselves ’Safä’, we are struggling to survive, and we can’t even do as we are meant to, protecting the innocent!” Noarme felt her features soften, “Tam..” but she got no further, for Tam was out of his seat, heading for the dinning door.
“Well, that was a nice dinner” Nambit said, easily sliding out of his chair despite the bulk on him, and with that he headed for the door, Cith and Chem said their good night’s quickly, and left. Noarme’s gaze turned from the door to pek, pek made no sign of moving, “your not going?” Noarme found herself asking, Pek looked up from his meal, “nope, I still have a meal to finish” he replied, he sounded surprisingly calm, “Pek, do you agree with Tam? He sorta has a point, we haven’t done anything to protect the weak, as the star guild is supposed too” she said making Pek look up from his meal again, “I don’t know about you, but I am proud to call myself Safä, Tam does have a point, but do you know that the star guild also had another rule?” Noarme made a slow shake of her head, “I didn’t know” she said, Noarme hadn’t gotten through all of her training with high master Embade before he passed away from the seam sickness.
“Well, let me tell you now, this rule was, that no Safä was to help someone, if their life was at risk doing so” he said, his old voice, somewhat comforting, “and right now, we are at risk, with only six members of the star guild? I don’t think saving people would be the best for us yet, I think we should wait until we find others, I do believe you, when you spoke of mixing, it might be true, for not all Safä abided by the rules as closely as others.” He said, winking at Noarme, Noarme couldn’t help but feel elated at his words, “thank you, Pek, for believing in me” she said, rising to her feet, Pek dipped his head, “it’s the least I owe you” he said, his snout dipping down to take another bite.
Noarme said her goodnight’s and touched the large dinning rooms doors, “Pek?” she said, half turning, “when should we search for these mixed people?” She asked, pek looked over at her, “it’s probably safer if me and you head out tomorrow morning, then we can explain to the others, once we are sure their out there” he said, answering her question, Noarme thanked him and exited the room with haste.
-
Noarme woke quickly, Pek’s words still swimming around her head, she sat up from the pile of blankets on pillows that acted as a comfortable bed, no bed could fit a dragon in full size, so they were left to sleep on blankets and pillows, to be honest, Noarme wasn’t at all bothered by it at all. Noarme crept past the others rooms, down to the mouth of the corridor, where she could see pek’s form slumped against the door arch.
“Pek!” She whispered, ducking past nambit’s open camber, hoping that the other four were all still asleep, Pek glanced up from what he was fiddling with, and a smile broke over he face, “so, the Noarme finally managed to wake herself?” He said kicking off the wall, to stand on all fours, Noarme snorted, “hey, I treasure my rest” she said, Pek nodded, “uh huh” he replied, together Noarme and Pek trudged down to the meeting hall.
“Do you think we should leave a letter? The others wouldn’t be quite happy if they found out both of us were missing without a word, blimey!, they might think we died from the seam sickness!” Exclaimed Noarme, Pek sighed, “yea sure, just don’t reveal to much, they will hunt after us” he said, walking out onto the opening’s ledge, Noarme watched as he stretched his old wings, then turned to one of the high master’s chairs, looking around for some parchment, to write on.
Noarme finally seemed to find a piece of parchment after what seemed to be a million years, she quickly scratched on a note for the other four males.
Gone on a small flight adventure with Pek,
if any of you get hungry, there is a decent sized palarin herd on the western side of Salaria, you won’t miss them, I trust that Chem can cook for you lot. Noarme
Noarme finished the letter quickly, and glanced around, scavenging for a neat place to prop the letter, also so it was obvious to find, “Pek, should I put the letter in my room?” She asked, Pek turned to face her, from his spot on the flight ledge, “yea maybe, chances they will look there first” he said, “alright, be back in a jiffy” she said, turning and bounding towards the corridor that was littered with chambers of all sizes, though only six of those chambers were used. Noarme disappeared into her chamber and placed the note on her vacant pile of pillows.
Noarme made it back to the meeting room with ease, finding Pek in his same position as she left, “did anyone see you?” He asked, his eyes showing a cautious emotion.
“No, nobody saw me, well, I don’t think so” she said, taking care in turning her head to gaze at the pocket of air behind her, Pek shook his head, “forget it, we have wasted enough time, let’s go” he said, instantly throwing himself off the ledge, but Noarme didn’t fret, she had seen this about a million times, she had even done it herself, but she has always preferred something less prone to crash, like a simple leap in to the sky, that option always floated Noarme’s boat.
Noarme brushed the thoughts aside and leaped off the ledge, her wings snapping open to keep her in the air, at the movement Noarme instantly felt the regret of flying so much yesterday, pain washed through her shoulders, and the base of her wings. Noarme’s wingspan’s were nothing compared to pek’s, the older dragon outsized her indeed, but he couldn’t outsize Nambit, whenever somebody mentioned Nambit’s size over pek’s, Pek seemed to get quite irritated, so everybody was cautious about the topic.
Noarme allowed the warm winds from the west lift her higher up into the air, Noarme was careful not to get whipped by pek’s thin tail, as it moved in the uncontrollable winds, “Pek, any idea where we would start?” She asked, Pek turned his attention to Noarme “perhaps Dyn brailing, the Safä people liked them folk the most, even though we’re not supposed to be bias” he said, tilting his wings to dove downward, Noarme sighed, and thanked the brother, Dyn brailing was the closest to them.
-
Pek and Noarme traveled for a thirty minutes before arriving at their destination, Noarme and Pek landed at the watch-line, Noarme glanced around, the barns were supposed to be facing the western side of the eyrie, “where’d all the houses go?..” she asked, her voice seemed to withdraw from her as soon as she pushed the sentence out, Noarme watched Pek peek around the burnt farms, “gone” he replied, Noarme flicked her ears, slightly stunned.
“What happened to the farms?” She found herself asking, her curiosity surfing through her, “they might be burning land to start anew? I really don’t know” Pek grumbled.
“Maybe we should go further into Brailing, then” Noarme whispered, but the wind must of carried her words, for Pek heard her, “yea, but not in these stage’s, people will start shooting dragons right, left and centre” he said, his younger humour deciding to show its face.
“Alright” she said, slightly amused, Noarme willed her body to change its shape, losing two legs to be replaced by arms, and losing a tail in general. At last Noarme checked over herself to make sure she looked human, like the Fae and goodfolk that walked eyrie’s surface.
“Alright, let’s get going” Pek said, Noarme turned to face him, this was her first time seeing Pek in his first stage, a grey beard hung to his belt, and he had bottomless brown eyes that seemed to twinkle every now and then, he also wore a ragged leather Tunic, and tattered breeches.
“I think we need to go and find some decent clothes” Noarme said, casting a tired look at her own clothes, they were once elegant, and beautiful clothes of a Star guild’s apprentice, but were now dull and torn.
Pek looked down at his own clothes, then sweeping his finger’s over his long grey beard, “damn, I have gone grey” he said, then seemed to remember what he was doing, “oh, yea, most definitely” he finished eyeing his grey beard, Noarme gasped, “wait, just to check.. I am not grey, right?” She said, suddenly self-conscious.
Pek chuckled, “no, I suppose your glad, you look roughly 18, lucky, now quickly, I want to get this mop off my face” he said, glancing around, “Pek, do you remember any market’s we can get things from?” She said, walking into the dense trees that found home in Brailing, Noarme glanced behind her to find that Pek had slung his over grown beard over his shoulder, and was now hacking through the dense trees, much like Noarme herself.
Soon enough, the pair came to a common road, longer along the busy roadway a small market made of travelling merchants presented itself to the commoners. Noarme heard a sigh, and turned to see Pek, he looked tired and relieved, “finally” he said, Noarme rolled her eyes, “Pek, save your energy, we are yet to find the dragon blooded” she said, approaching the small make-shift market, she eyed a few stalls that were packed with unneeded goods until she spotted a bulky man haunched over his sword, obviously sharpening his sword.
Noarme decided to approach him, for pek’s sake, “hello” she said, in a friendly voice, Noarme would never had been able to do this before the siege of illness fell upon her people, she had always been hiding under Embade’s feet, but when it came to finding survivors, she guessed that the confidence to speak had grown.
The man glanced up from his sword, and grunted, shifting his weight to make himself look stronger, Noarme’s guess. “What can I do for you, young lady?” He said, his voice sounded as if he been smoking a pipe for far to long, Noarme dipped her head, she was guessing that this man was part of some sort of guard, “My friend, Pek, is having dire trouble was his.. Scraggly beard, would you mind cutting it? His not a bad patient, if you were wondering” Noarme gestured to her companion, who was scratching at his long beard as if nothing else existed, the man glanced at Pek then back to Noarme, Noarme couldn’t miss the way his face fell when she mentioned her companion.
“Sure thing, young lady” he muttered, “just bring your friend real close” he said, pulling a small dagger from his boot, Pek seemed to catch sight of it, and shot a look at Noarme, “what? You said you need a trim.”
“Yea, but by him? Noarme! He looks crazy!” Pek’s reply was rushed and frantic
“So? If he dares to hurt you, he won’t live to see the night” she replied calmly “plus, it’s what you wanted” she yawned.
Pek gave a small grunt before crossing his legs to sit infront of the solider, the man went to work, trimming at pek’s long friend.
Finally after the man finished Pek stood, and brushed his fingers over his cheeks that were now missing his long grey hair, he turned to the man, “you should become a barber, you would make good money” he said, pleased with the man’s craft, Noarme sighed and touched pek’s shoulder, “I think he means, thank you” Noarme leaned forward to put a small pouch of tokens in the man’s free hand.
-
The sun floated high in the sky by the time Pek and Noarme finished gathering important looking clothes, “do you think we could brand the star guild’s logo into the tunic’s?” Pek said, gazing at his new violet tunic, Noarme looked at Pek, “hm, I think we could get to it, when do you specifically want it branded?” Noarme asked.
“Probably before we go on the big hunt for dragon blooded” he said, “we should buy more clothes like this for the others on the way back” he said grooming his trimmed chin.
“Sounds about right” Noarme said, flicking her long brunette hair over her shoulder, unlike Pek, Noarme wore silver armour, polished off with a few purple under clothes. The silver armour was light and flexible, but hardened and protective, Noarme also wore a silver circlet, a sapphire adorned the middle of the circlet.
Both of the companions wielded weapon’s, only to protect themselves, never to harm innocents. Noarme and Pek travelled down what seemed to be a endless road, until they came across a small village, Noarme and Pek looked at each other, smiles spreading over their face, “we won’t take any dragon blooded home today, for we will under go what we came here to do, see if it is possible” Pek said, soothing out his tunic’s wrinkle’s.
“That sounds alright, your tired, and I am slightly to small to carry a load of dragon blooded” she said, they entered the village, small young’s peeked out of their cool home’s in the heat, “People of Dyn Brailing! We would appreciate if you step out from you digs and face us, Trust me, we’re no danger to you!” Pek called out, sounding basically royal, maybe it was his old voice mixed with his elderly power that made him sound so. Noarme smiled at the young family’s that kindly exited their home’s, “What’s the meaning of this?!” Noarme heard a older man yell out, several among the crowd agreed.
Noarme held out her hands, “calm, we mean no harm, we are here just to check something, it might be possible that we will be back, a few days prior” she Coaxed to the crowd, Pek nodded, “we will be gone soon, alright? As Noarme said, we are just here to test something, ok, repeat after me, if you can hear me, thank you” Pek said, and heaved a great breath.
“Hang dus Fenic”
The stars will rise
Noarme had heard these words before, when she had taken her own vow’s to the star guild, but the phrase was only used after the vow’s ceremony.
“Hang dus Fenic” one of the villagers muttered, whist others around her seemed completely confused, Noarme turned to Pek with a smile on her face, “it’s true!” She said, overwhelmed with excitement, Pek nodded, turning back to the villagers, “thank you for your time, we will be off now” Pek said turning back to the road, he haunched over, his skin starting to turn into startling blues and purples, Noarme turned to him, her eyes wide, “What are you doing pek!” She whispered rashly, doubting that he could hear her, instead now, stood a large dragon, the villagers behind her seemed to take a step back, looking terrified.
“It’s alright everybody, we’re Safä of the star guild, dragons we may be, but we’re protecters, here at the ready” she said, the crowd seemed to calm a little, the crowd was quiet.
“Then where were you when the watch line was attacked?” The small voice came from a small boy in the front, Noarme crouched down, so she became eye level with him, “I am so very sorry for the watch-line, I really am, but the star guild’s members are down to six, we’re taking our chances of survival, sorry, but we are looking for dragon blooded, like ourselves, to help restore star guild, so we can save more Fae and goodfolk” she said, her voice was quiet, but it carried out to the villagers with ease.
The villagers nodded, seeming to understand, though Noarme knew that no doubt there would be questions, “we will be back, in the mean time, happy harvests to everybody around!” She said, hoping she could help perk up the Villagers moods, with that Noarme crouched, three fingers on the ground to hold her body, and shifted to her dragon form.
“C’mon Pek, we have wasted enough time, the others might be starting to get impatient.”
-
Impatient was a understatement, they were fuming, “Where have you been!” Tam’s voice was hostile and concerned at the same time, “for the first time, I agree with Tam!” Shouted Nambit.
“Calm down, geez, we were going for a flight” Pek said, holding up both of his front talon’s, to help reassure them, “Calm down?! Calm down?!” Nambit repeated, “you both had gone missing for nearly five hours! And your telling us to calm down?!” Noarme turned to Nambit, it was overwhelming to be in this room with all the shouting, the walls seemed to make the words echo back, “Nambit, please, calm down, you might be hurting Cith’s ears” she said, trying to use the smaller dragon as a excuse, Both Nambit and Noarme turned to glance at Cith, he was sitting there, looking fine, but lines of anger traced over his features.
“My ears don’t hurt, my ears want to know what you two were doing on that flight” Cith said, Noarme heard Nambit Growl, Noarme swivelled her head around to peek at Pek, who seemed to be having the same problem with Tam and Chem.
Noarme sighed, how were they to explain? “My head hurts, I am going” She said, hoping Pek could make a similar excuse, Noarme couldn’t miss the looks of concern pointed at her. Noarme hurried along until she made it to her chamber, her room had been untouched, no searching, no wonder why the others were angry! They hadn’t seen the note!, Noarme sighed, she layed down in her pile of pillows and blankets, she felt the pain dancing under her flesh like fire, maybe that long flight wasn’t the best idea.
“It was necessary, because what we found, will help with our chance’s” she said quietly to herself, Noarme allowed her head to bob down onto her front talons, her eyes threatening to close on her, the other’s had been right, five hours of flight and walk? Tiring, Noarme closed her eyes and let herself slip into the sleeping trance.
-
Noarme opened her eyes and yawned, “finally your awake” Noarme jumped at the voice, she quickly glanced around her room, seeing nobody, “who’s there?” She said, she was still to tired to recognise the voice, Noarme blinked and rubbed her eyes, finally making out a large body, resting near her window, “Nambit? What are you doing in here?” She asked, approaching him, watching him shrug with one shoulder, “I came to apologise, but found you sleeping, so I waited” he said, Noarme bit her tongue, “do you know?..” she whispered softly, praying he knew what she was talking about, “yea, Pek told us” Nambit brooded, “why didn’t you tell us?” He said, sliding off the window’s seat, Noarme suddenly found interest in her talon’s, “I didn’t tell you because of the reaction Tam had last night, I thought the rest of you would react similarly” Noarme said.
Nambit’s expression was grim, “I wouldn’t have” he said, his voice soft, Nambit started to walk towards her, his gait extremely swift for his size, Noarme stiffened, Nambit now stood in front of her, his tail coming around, and twining with her’s, Nambit seemed to bit a bit to close for Noarme’s liking.
At that sudden moment a knock on the door interrupted them, Noarme seized the moment and gaze a sorry smile to Nambit before sliding away from him, untwining her tail from his. Noarme walked to the door with a fast pace, opening it.
Tam waited on the other side of the door, “Tam? What are you doing here?” She said, quite aware that Nambit had toggled his scales to match his surroundings, almost as if being invisible.
Tam walked into her room, then turned to look back at her, “I am sorry Noarme, for my little outburst last night, I should have listened a little more, I really should have” he said, quickly, Noarme knew that Tam’s mojo didn’t usually include apologising, “Tam, it’s fine-“ but Noarme was cut off, “it’s not, Noarme, your one of my dearest friends, I shouldn’t have gone off at your opinion, least of all speak to you the way I did.”
“Tam, really, it’s fine, it’s happens to everybody” Noarme said, Feeling the need to rush, Noarme herself knew it was had to keep the toggled scales going.
“Uh, Tam, why don’t you go and have a small hunt, your swift and uh.. fast, so chances are you will catch a big palarin!” Noarme said, hoping Tam would take the bait.
Tam nodded slowly, “alright” he said, Noarme could hear a sad note in his voice, Noarme sighed, “Tam.. I am sorry, I just need time alone, you haven’t done anything wrong, alright?” She said clasping his talon’s in hers, Tam nodded, “I get it” he said, letting go of her talon’s and vanishing out the door with a smile.
Noarme turned to where she last saw Nambit, “Nambit? You still here?” She asked into the empty air, the air infront of her began to ripple until the well-known Nambit stood infront of her, “here” he said, then paused, “do you need your time alone? Or was that a distraction?” He asked, tilting his head.
“Just a distraction” Noarme said, she felt bad big time for lying to Tam, “but you better get going, Nambit” she said, gesturing to the door.
Nambit chuckled, “the first time I can say I have been kicked out” he said, making his way to the door, Noarme rolled her eye’s.
“Whatever.”
Hurricane ! Follow Evacuation Routes.
