Calm Before the Storm

It has been days since Zuthiss introduced Haganto to Undrenth, who accepted Haganto’s presence with a simple nod. Zuthiss swiftly left after that, with barely a goodbye to Haganto, let alone expand on the fact that he was Grarvuntiess’s grandson.

But then again, did Zuthiss need to?

Grarvuntiess and his mate had been fortunate enough to lay a second egg after successfully hatching their first, only for their son, Alrosdar, to be poisoned by Agron. This meant that Grarvuntiess’s call for help was not only fueled by rage and grief but also a desperate need for his second child to avoid the same fate. It was never mentioned in the tales that Haganto had been told what the fate of Grarvuntiess’s mate, Comyr the Barbarian, was but Haganto suspected that Grarvuntiess was the reason for that. He probably lied by saying she was already dead, just so that no one would know about their second egg, including Agron. This way, if he and the others had failed, Agron wouldn’t have gone after his mate and Zuthiss’s mother.

Haganto wondered if Grarvuntiess actually deserved his epithet.

Undrenth lifted her head, causing several coins to slide down the pile of gold. The female dragon paid the fallen treasure no mind, as she instead turned her attention to the red egg beneath her and gave it a small lick and a nuzzle. Then she lifted her head and looked at Haganto.

In the few days that they have spent together, they have grown to have an amicable companionship. It was a quiet one, due to Undrenth being a mute and Haganto not having anything to say but the silence between them wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable. Whenever Haganto sat by Undrenth’s side when he wasn’t taking a quick patrol outside, which was most of the time, he never once felt Undrenth be agitated by his presence. And when he gave her the food that Zuthiss had prepared days ago in case something like this happened, she always accepted it graciously with a nod. They barely knew anything about each other, but still, Haganto was fine with their relationship.

Of course, he could be misunderstanding things, but somehow, he didn’t think that was the case.

“Haganto.” Haganto jolted a little at the sound of his name, which sounded a bit muffled. Luckily, he recognized the voice before he started looking around the cave for intruders. He opened his bag and took out the communication stone, which was now glowing a light orange.

“Tarron, hang on,” Haganto said softly to the stone, making sure to say the elf’s name to accept the call. He then got up and gave Undrenth a nod. When Undrenth nodded back, Haganto turned and began to leave the cave.

He might be acting over-cautious since Tarron wouldn’t be able to see Haganto and his surroundings. But there was a reason why Zuthiss didn’t tell the elves about his and Undrenth’s egg. Haganto was going to respect Zuthiss’s wishes and do his utmost best to keep the egg a secret.

Having a whole conversation in Undrenth’s presence without including her seemed rude anyway.

“Alright, Tarron, what’s the matter?” Haganto asked as soon as he was out of the cave. Animo, who had been sleeping in Haganto’s pocket, stirred before he poked his head out and chirped at the stone, apparently not happy that Tarron woke him up.

“Nothing so far. I, uh, I mean we just figured now would be a good time for us to update each other,” Tarron explained. “And sorry for disturbing you Animo.”

Animo, who had jumped to Haganto’s arm and crawled down it while Tarron talked, trilled a little as if he understood Tarron and forgave him.

“I see. Well, nothing has happened up here,” Haganto informed Tarron. “Zuthiss hasn’t come back either.”

“Still? Just who is he recruiting anyway?” Tarron asked, sounding agitated.

“I don’t know,” Haganto answered. “I have no idea who it could be either.”

“Councilor Belanor doesn’t either,” Tarron said. “To his knowledge, the only dragon that could even come close to being Agron’s match was Grarvuntiess.”

“Well, we don’t know every dragon,” Haganto said. “Perhaps, he is a young dragon who hasn’t earned his true epithet yet.”

“Whoever it is, Zuthiss better be bringing them soon,” Tarron said. “Because our army is getting anxious.”

“The recruits have arrived already?” Haganto asked. “How many?”

“Not all of the recruiters have come back yet, but Ruith just came back with three thousand dwarves from their capital. Their king sent word to their other underground towns so hopefully, more dwarves will come soon. Alinar, another recruiter, contacted me yesterday saying he was on the way with five hundred elves. But surprisingly...Alanus has so far recruited the most.”

“Alanus came back?” Haganto asked, unable to keep the alarm out of his voice.

“Don’t worry, he didn’t come back personally,” Tarron assured him. “But whatever song he sang...well, humans have been trickling in not even four hours after he left us. Some came in groups of ten, some fifty, and some even came in all by themselves. Altogether, six thousand of our army are humans. And not only that, Alanus somehow even managed to recruit a couple of giants.”

“How?” Haganto asked, his eyes widening in shock. “The closest giant village is-”

“Weeks away, I know, but apparently Alanus accidentally ran into three giants. Luckily, they were kind enough to listen to Alanus’s song and now we have giants hanging around elves, humans, and dwarves. It’s a good thing most of them brought along food because I don’t think even Malnora’s food storage would have been able to feed them all.”

Haganto stayed silent as he took all of this in. The reason Grarvuntiess only called for elves, dwarves, and other dragons in the first battle against Agron was because they all had some kind of magic. Not that Agron had a weakness against magic, but it was believed that intelligent beings with magic wouldn’t fall so easily.

That and they believed they were the only ones brave enough to stand against Agron.

But they weren’t the only ones who lived in the Faye Expanse. Their world was the humans’ and giants’ too, and they had as much right to fight as the elves and the other magical beings. And clearly, they were willing to risk their lives to rid the world of Agron.

The Faye Expanse was hard enough to live in without worrying about a sadistic monster that only wanted to kill.

“Now we just need the rest of the others to arrive and we’ll be ready for Agron, who should be able to find us no problem.”

“You’re not going to bait him with another dancing elven maiden, are you?” Haganto asked. “Because I don’t think that will be necessary.”

“Oh, no, we’re not even within jumping distance of the river. At least, I hope he isn’t able to jump over half a mile,” Tarron said. “I meant that he would be able to...oh right, you wouldn’t know.”

“Wouldn’t know what?”

“...When you raced off to Filla Aethel without a word, we had Animo go to the other end of the tunnel. It took some time but we ended up about halfway up the mountain.”

“And?” Haganto asked, a bit confused as to where exactly the tunnel ended was significant.

“Because we saw with our magic that he headed straight for Filla Aethel. And we never talked about the outside world near his cave. Let alone chatted about our sister village.”

“What are you trying to...wait. Oh. Of course. Agron has an enhanced sense of smell. He smelled them from halfway up the mountain,” Haganto said, feeling somewhat idiotic for not figuring it out sooner. Granted, Agron’s sense of smell was not mentioned in Alanus’s song or in any of the stories he heard but many creatures and species, himself included, had an enhanced sense of smell.

So why wouldn’t Agron?

“Or from the cave,” Tarron said grimly. “It would explain why he dug his way up the mountain, and not in a straight line in any other direction.”

Yes, that made sense. Agron may have wanted to save the Malnora elves for last, but it made sense that he wanted to take his years of imprisonment out on the nearest village of elves. Did Agron know that about half of the elves in Filla Aethel, including Alberad, were originally from Malnora too? Was his sense of smell strong enough to detect a Malnora elf apart from any other elf?

Wait, if he could do that, then Agron could also-

Haganto shook his head as he tried to fight the feeling of certain dread in his stomach. No...Agron’s nose may be strong enough to smell a dragon a mile away, but it wasn’t strong enough to tell the difference between a Malnora elf or an elf from somewhere else. Agron certainly couldn’t tell someone’s blood heritage just by smelling them. Haganto was just getting ahead of himself there.

He had to be.

“Anyway-” Whatever Tarron was about to say got cut off by the sound of crows. But it wasn’t the crows’ cries that sent shivers up Haganto's spine.

It was Tarron’s gasp of horror.

“What is it Tarron?” Haganto asked with a terrible foreboding as Animo squirmed and whined on Haganto's arm. His foreboding only grew more suffocating when he heard murmurings from Tarron’s side of the communication stone.

Murmurings, while incoherent, were clearly made out of fear.

“We...had crows stationed by the river,” Tarron said in a voice. “So that we can know when...but we’re not ready! The others-”

It was screams that interrupted Tarron this time.

“Tarron!” Haganto couldn’t help but cry out, even though he doubted that the elf would be able to answer. He wanted to help, to run all the way there, but he still had to protect Undrenth and the battlefield was too far. Haganto could only listen and stand there as terrified shouts and desperate orders for the soldiers to stand their ground came from the stone.

And it was only going to get worse once Agron actually reached the army.

Then unexpectedly, Tarron spoke.

“He looks so much worse than I...Haganto! Have Zuthiss and the other dragon go straight here, understand?! When they come, don’t even let them land, just send them straight here! They’re our only...wait. Why isn’t he moving?”

“What?” Haganto asked as the voices on Tarron’s end slowly died down.

“Yes, he is just standing by the river-”

Then came a voice, loud and clear, saying words in a tone that made Haganto’s blood run cold.

“Where is Grarvuntiess?”

Agron knew about Zuthiss’s heritage.

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