Kyle Edwin Salveson

Fate Bender

FATE BENDER By Kyle Edwin Salveson There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Yet, from his vantage upon the towering cliffs of Trapitl-Himilien, the keen, celestine eyes of Aodh Ollaimhalla discerned three figures aloft, soaring splendidly on the waning warm winds of summer's end. The ruby, emerald, and sapphire of their scales glimmered with divine enchantment. They flickered in and out, illuminated in the night sky by the pale light of a shattered moon, whose tragic fragments trailed eerily across the void. Circling amidst the thin cloudscape with supreme grace and strength, the dragons saw, heard, and knew all that transpired within the verdant expanse, the Valley's solemn guardians. Aodh found it a sobering reverie, surveying the far-flung sanctuary of the elusive wild elves, which was now a refuge for the final congregation of surviving creatures of the world.