The Silver Reckoning

Chapter 21: Betrayal

"Ha?" she tilted her head, a little confused at that.

"By both I mean, you go with one and then, for a number of different reasons, end up with the other. There are less common futures where you end up with other dragons, like West."

Silver barked a laugh "I don't see that happening."

O'hen shrugged, "There's others as well. There's even one future, an extremely unlikely one, where you end up with me. But that's... how should I say it... a very desolate future."

The dragoness frowned at that, "No offense... but that would be a little strange. I thought you said you couldn't mate."

"It's not that I can't, it's the fact that if I do another time dragon would be born, and that would cause a catastrophe, one that could very well destroy time itself," he said, "And possibly everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen."

"Ha, okay. That makes sense," she shook her head, "And here I was hoping for a simple answer."

He laughed, "Time has always been complicated. Nothing will ever change that."

She snorted before getting to her feet and shaking herself off, "I'm going to head back to Sky Mountain. A couple of friends of mine are hoping for a friendly sparring match. Maybe it will help calm my mind."

O'hen hesitated and opened his mouth, as if about to say something, then thought better about it, "Okay. Later then."

His body glowed in its strange fashion before dissipating back into time. The silvery glow that usually accompanied his visits faded away once more, leaving her alone in her cave. It had always been strange, how he had been able to do that, but she was getting used to it. Huffing, she walked over to the exit and launched herself into the sky with a flap of her wings.

She thought back to their conversation. When she first asked it had been more of a frivolous question, out of general curiosity, but now that she thought of it she was slightly frightened of the answer. She had already made her decision, she knew that, and she believed she had made the right choice as well, but if she revealed her answer then she was afraid of what it would do to both him, and the other drake. A sigh escaped her.

"Time for that later," she murmured as she tucked in her wings and flew into the mountain.

Her claws created sparks as she skidded into a landing and began to pad toward the training centre. She was quite eager for this, wanting to know how much she had improved and how much control she had. It shouldn't be that hard for Celestia and her to defeat the two drakes, though if they had been training every day for the past nine months then maybe they did have a chance.

As she was about to enter the tunnel into the training room something caught her eye. She looked up and spotted her brother, Raize, walking swiftly toward The Nest. There was something about the way he was looking around and walking that made her frown. It was like he had somewhere very important to be, but didn't want anyone to follow him. Naturally, this made Silver suspicious. Glancing at the training room she decided her friends could wait.

Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, she began to trail her brother. She let her shell contract into a ring around her left horn, so if he glanced back he might think she was a light dragon instead of his sister. The dragon's around her were slightly surprised at her movement however, and she felt their stares follow her, most of them male. She chose to ignore them and quickly slunk after the fire dragon.

He made his way through the crowds of dragons, through the tunnel and into The Nest. She expected him to take flight, but when he didn't she frowned. Instead he picked his way over the jagged ground to a small cave at the very bottom of the mountain. Silver had seen it before, but had never payed it much mind. She guessed it was probably where some very strange dragon liked to live, possibly one that couldn't fly.