Wanderling

The late autumn sunlight filtered weakly through the bare branches and the last leaves remaining on the Deep Wood trees. The past few days had been dry, and the fallen leaves and random forest debris crunched musically with every step Dangira took. A slight breeze carried the smells of dry leaves, slightly damp soil, rocks, and the distant smell of wood smoke. She took care to keep the movement of her tail to a minimum and breathed deeply while smiling up at the evening sky that was dusted with the colors of fire and night. With this breath, she caught a new scent. One she could not identify.

Dangira slowly lowered her head and peered through the surrounding trees. Her eyesight was exceptionally keen as were all her senses. She took a series of quick deep breaths in various directions and pinpointed the new scent off to her left where the easternmost edges of the Deep Wood filtered out into a rocky outcropping that tumbled onto a vast grassy plain.

Dangira went through a mental inventory of what she knew lived at this edge of the Deep Wood while she purposefully made her way to the nearest clearing. There were the normal forest-dwelling animals and the large woolly beasts farther out on the plains. The great cats had a much more pungent smell. The small animals that ran through the forest had their own wild scents, but it was none of those. Nor was it any of the remaining insects, late berries, or decaying trees or foliage.

This new smell did not resemble any of the living creatures she knew of or any of the flora. It had a slight sweetness to it and a new smell she could only describe as a different kind of earthiness. She couldn’t feel any new rumbles beneath her paws either. Her mother had always told her to learn to leave things that were not known alone. Dangira had never taken that lesson to heart.

Dangira made it to the nearest clearing and unfurled her wings softly before leaning forward, running at full speed, and powerfully flapping her wings to take flight. Once fully in the air, she angled herself toward the area that was the origin of the new scent. She loved the feel of the wind drafts under her wings and the feel of the air currents across her face and body. Once the scent started to get stronger, she angled herself lower and began observing in earnest.

A new sound like the cry of an animal reached her ears. She swung her head toward that sound and could just make out some movement among the trees at the edge of the wood. Dangira slowed her speed and angled toward the ground a short distance from what she was viewing. It walked on two legs and seemed to be wandering aimlessly. The little creature had a strange outer covering that did not appear to be fur, feathers, scales, or skin. It didn’t have claws but had something dangling from one paw. This little creature was the source of the new scent and the cry she had heard.

Dangira landed as softly as possible and turned her head in curiosity at the new little creature. She took one step and the creature either heard or felt her step because it turned a tear-stained face toward her. Fear was pulsing off of it in waves and seated deep in its shimmering earth-colored little eyes. The tears running down its face gave a taste of confusion and sadness to the air surrounding it. It bore a strange dark mark on its head above its eyes and the marks were repeated on its coverings. The marks smelled of burnt wood.

Dangira crouched low and tried crooning softly to it. She had no desire to harm the little thing but wanted to gather it close. The little one’s cries softened, and she felt its confusion and sadness turn to a combination of hope and curiosity. When she was close to the little one, she took a deep breath and smiled at the sweetness of it. She breathed softly out, her breath rippled its coverings and the little one made a giggling sound in its belly. It reached its empty paw out to her, and she felt the softest touch on her snout. The tiny paw felt soft and smooth. Dangira looked deeply into the little creature’s eyes and knew its heart was pure, strong, and had a deep magic of its own. She saw strange images of creatures that looked like it, but much larger. She saw flashes of anger, fear, and resentment from those larger forms. She saw the little creature’s hands stretched toward a female of its kind that was being pulled away from the little one. She saw another little one that was slightly larger than this one laughing. She could feel that they were bonded like nest mates.

Dangira slowly pulled her snout back and blinked down at the little one. She gently nudged the creature with her snout and felt what must have been a soft belly under the coverings. This caused the little one to giggle again. She raised her head and looked all about while scenting their surroundings. She saw the track of a lone animal leading away through the tall grasses of the plains to the east, but there was not another creature like the one in front of her in sight. Big or small. She did not smell anything else odd in the area though she did smell other scents on the coverings of the little one. She did not feel any strange currents in the air or any odd rumblings on the earth beneath her paws.

She cautiously curled her body on the ground around the little one. It played among her front paws for a bit, with what had been dangling from one of its own paws. The thing it held appeared to be some representation of itself. It kept saying something that sounded like “pwee dow” although Dangira had no idea what that meant. It clambered around and continued to babble to her in a strange language. As the sun dropped below the trees of the Deep Wood the little one’s eyes began to fall. Dangira scooped it up in one of her paws and it curled itself around the limp thing it had been holding. She wrapped the little one’s body snugly in her paw, careful to keep her talons away from it, and cradled it against her chest. It was soon deeply asleep and she took to the air.

In the far northwest, the Deep Wood ran right up the side of the Silver White Mountains. The Village of the Seers was spread among various mountains in the range. She would go there to confer with The Mother on what to do with this little one.

She flew on through the clear cold sky with her inner fire to keep herself and the little one warm. She flew over rivers, streams, the darkest reaches of the Deep Wood, and a vast plateau. She could feel the tiny fluttering heartbeat of the little one she carried, and her own heart ached for the poor creature. It had no way of defending itself and was clearly a youngling. How had it found itself all alone at the edge of the Deep Wood?

Dangira flew to the second tallest mountain, curved around the mountain to the north, gave the appropriate tail signal to the sentry hidden above, and glided to a soft landing at the Frost Gate. The Frost Gate had been created by the ancients when the Seers were at war with the mountain trolls an age ago. The gate was formed by Seer magics and appeared to all others as nothing more than the rock and snow of the highest mountain tops. Seers, however, could immediately view the landing space and the smoothly-hewn tunnel beyond.

She passed two more sentries that stood guard on either side of the tunnel entrance. They nodded to Dangira as she rumbled past. The long entrance tunnel, lit along the ceiling by Seer lights that were embedded into the rock and glowed a soft warm white, branched off into three other passages. One to either side and one that angled down into the mountain. She took the passage that angled down and was wide enough to allow for the widest of extended Seer wings. It eventually opened onto a landing space that offered access to a vast cavern in the center of the mountain. She flew down into the mountain depths. She passed multiple landing spaces around the cavern walls each with a lit tunnel leading into the mountain.

The landing space she alighted on was about halfway down the wide-open smooth walled cavern. The Seer lights here glowed a silvery blue rather than a warm white. Dangira followed the tunnel and stopped at the opening into a living space that was dotted with multicolored Seer lights. The Mother was the oldest living Seer and she was whom all the Silver White Mountain Seers sought out when they needed wisdom.

The Mother was breathing softly and Dangira called to her through the entry. She heard the breathing pattern change and heard movement to the right of entry from inside the living space. Soft rustling accompanied creaking and muted groaning sounds before The Mother’s surprisingly strong voice answered, “Yes, Dangira?”

“May I enter, Mother?”

“Yes, of course. I see that you have a pressing question for me. Come in, come in.”

Dangira walked lightly into the living space and turned to her right to see The Mother in her sleeping alcove. She looked tentatively at the wise old Seer and then looked at her paw as she slowly and only partially unfurled it to reveal the tiny creature still slumbering there. As she glanced up she saw recognition flash across The Mother’s eyes and felt a tensing in the air.

“I found it along the eastern edge of the Deep Wood. It was all alone and mewling. Do you know what kind of creature this is?”

The Mother stretched her neck out further toward Dangira’s paw and she oddly fought the urge to cover the little one and hide it from The Mother’s gaze. The Mother saw this and slowly moved back again.

“I hold no ill toward your creature, Dangira. I only wished to See it.” The Mother settled herself more comfortably.

“Do you know where it comes from, Mother,” she asked as she gently curled her paw back around the little one and sat down to converse.

“I have not seen one of these creatures in quite a while. These creatures are known as humans. This is a female youngling. Humans have never been near the Deep Wood. They live far to the west and south of the Deep Wood. I did not know them to be to the east.” The Mother paused and sighed heavily before continuing. “Humans have been friends to some Seers throughout our history. Humans call us dragons. There have been great friendships between Seers and humans and also great discord.”

“Do humans abandon their younglings? I saw this youngling being pulled away from a female of its kind and there was deep anguish.”

“From what I know humans are generally very protective of their young.” The Mother narrowed her golden eyes, “How did you see this?”

“When it placed its small paw on my snout. I saw things that I think the little one experienced.”

“Dangira, you know we are called Seers because we can see the truth in all things. However, the ability to see what another has seen…is rare. I do not know exactly what this means for you or the human creature, but it is not to be ignored.”

“Do you know what they eat?”

The Mother looked at her with a questioning quirk on her right eye ridge.

“I have not seen it eat and did not see anything near it that would pass for food. I would assume it will need to eat when it wakes.”

“I will return shortly,” The Mother whispered softly as she rose from her sleeping alcove.

The Mother was not gone long before returning with Caelum a much younger and slightly larger male Seer.

“Greetings, Dangira,” he rumbled, “The Mother tells me you have something of interest?”

Dangira looked questioningly at The Mother before very slightly unfurling her paw. Caelum’s cobalt eyes flared without restraint, and she felt his surprise but also his familiarity. “You have seen a human before,” she whispered excitedly.

“Yes,” his deep voice rumbled through the chamber. “I know of many human settlements that lie hundreds of leagues to the west. I had a human friend who lived in one of those settlements years ago.”

The little one stirred slightly and made sleepy little sounds, Dangira whispered to Caelum, “Do you know how to care for it?”

Caelum swung his large head slowly back and forth and then whispered back, “I know who does though.”

Dangira was distressed and trying everything she knew to comfort the little human. It seemed that Caelum had left ages ago and had yet to return. The Mother could offer no further advice other than water. While this had seemed to help at first the tiny human was now refusing it and Dangira did not know what else she could safely give it. She tried distracting the little thing with puffs of smoke. The first of which she blew at the tiny human’s face and sent it into a fit of coughing. After that, she directed her entertaining smoke forms toward the ceiling. The little one had been getting increasingly more irritable and she didn’t know what to do. She knew the little one was hungry, sad, and confused.

Just as the little one started crying in earnest Caelum’s head popped through the door with a human at his side. This human was much larger and had similar coverings on it. Its paws were clapped over its mouth while its grass-green eyes stared unbelievingly at the little human. Despite seeing that the newcomer had no ill will toward the little one, Dangira instinctively placed a curled paw, like a wall, around the little one and narrowed her hazel eyes.

“Dangira,” Caelum said soothingly, “this is Milly. She is a friend, and as you can see, a human. She is here to help.”

She reluctantly moved her protective paw to the side and Milly slowly removed a satchel from her shoulder. Dangira could see that she was moving slowly to avoid scaring the little one as much as to appease her. She relaxed as she saw Milly pulling food from her satchel.

The tiny human immediately started eating the offered food.

“What is her name,” Milly glanced up at Dangira while feeding the little one.

“So it is a girl,” asked Dangira.

“Yes,” Milly smiled.

“I do not know her name. I have just been calling her little one since she is so small. Are those marks on her face and coverings her name?”

“No,” Milly answered sternly. Dangira sensed her displeasure and immediately felt her protectiveness rising. “Those marks mean that the little girl has been branded a magic maker. You likely found her because the humans she was with abandoned her out of fear.”

“Why do humans fear magic?”

Milly sighed, “Humans often fear what they do not understand.”

Dangira puffed out a breath of displeasure and the little one turned to her with that little giggle in her belly again. She smiled at the little one and proclaimed, “Then we shall call her Theia,” she gently rested her snout against little Theia’s head and felt Theia’s little paws reach up to pat her.

“Why doesn’t she have any claws,” Dangira asked Milly as she gently tapped Theia’s paw with the tip of one of her claws.

“Well,” Milly smiled, “humans do not have paws. They have hands and feet. They walk on their feet and use their hands for tasks. They have fingernails at the end of each finger on their hands and the same for the toes on their feet,” Milly pointed to her own fingers as examples while explaining.

While this partnership was taking root there was darkness settling in elsewhere. A short darkly robed figure was slowly walking a circle around the area where Dangira had found Theia. Another taller figure dressed all in dark grey stood over a woman whose hands were cobbled behind her back as she huddled on her knees. The high voice from under the dark cloak was cold and calculating.

“No signs of struggle or the evil child. We have been saved from her fetid nature by the true Gods!” The woman on the ground scoffed softly in protest at the pure absurdity being spoken aloud. The short dark figure turned sharply toward her, “You disagree that your child was of darkness?”

The woman kneeling only glared up at the short figure in front of her and then raised one brow.

The dark figure gestured dismissively to the man in grey and he immediately yanked the woman off the ground. He roughly marched her to one of two waiting horses.

The short figure bent its knees and laid its hand on the ground. The head bent forward under the inky hood of the cloak and it whispered, “Darkness will be stamped out and rightness will reign.”