Fate of Dragons

Chapter Twenty-Four, Part II

It seemed that Derol's relief at being out of the thick of things was not meant to last. He woke to a voice loudly giving orders, seemingly right outside his tent. He crawled to the front of the tent and pushed himself halfway out of the front flap.

The dawn light had not yet reached his group of tents, but it shone brightly just past the shelf of rock that shielded the camp. Derol blinked so his eyes could adjust to the bright light.

He was not surprised to find that the voice giving orders belonged to Malía. She stood in the shadow of the rock with her back to him, facing a crowd of people and dragons, whose figures were brilliantly illuminated in the morning sun.

Derol shook his head and retreated back into the tent. Apparently the dragons had come back overnight. He listened to Malía's direction as he pulled on his clothes and boots.

"While I meet with the mage council, you'll work on the nets. It'll take at least two, but probably three able dragons to transport one sick one, at least at that distance.

When Derol emerged from his tent, he saw a group of dragons and riders break away and head off across the flat expanse of ground beneath the spires. He scanned the area around camp, wondering if anybody had cooked up a large communal breakfast, similar to the stew that had been shared with them the previous night. They were probably all too busy. Seeing nothing, he shrugged and was about to return to his tent for some bread from his pack when Amina appeared, scrambling down from an outcropping of rock above their camp.

She approached, pulling a light scarf away from her face now that she was out of the sun. Her thick brown hair was tied in one braid that fell over her shoulder. From her other shoulder she unslung a pack, which she set down gently near the embers of last night's fire.

"Would you mind getting that going?" she said as she pulled root vegetables and leafy greens from her pack.

"You've been busy," Derol said. She must have been up early to have already finished foraging and returned to camp.

"It gets hot if you don't beat the sun. And these hills are part of the range near the Onami settlement, so I knew what I was looking for."

Derol leaned over to select some small logs from the pile of firewood near their group of tents.

"Is that onion?" he asked.

"Similar," Amina answered. She'd pulled out a board and knife and begun chopping her ingredients. She deposited them into a bowl near her feet.

Derol got the fire going hot, then let it burn down enough so that the cooking pan could be placed over the coals that resulted. As the vegetables cooked, Fenn and Eriya appeared too, pulling small eggs from their pockets. Amina nodded her approval, and they cracked the eggs and deposited them into the pan with the vegetables. Derol now felt guilty at having slept as long as he had.

The smells of breakfast wafted over the camp fire and Derol offered to stir and watch over the food once it had all been added to the pan. By now, Malía was done giving her orders and the riders and others had dispersed around the camp to begin their preparations. Derol watched them work and felt guilty again for having slept late, and now for looking forward to such a delicious breakfast when almost everybody else was working. He was not the type to be the last to rise. In fact, on his farm, he'd always been the first, and the one directing all of the work.

They were almost done eating their food when Maira padded over on soft feet and sat on one of the boulders positioned around the fire.

"If we thought we'd get some respite now that we've reached our destination, I suppose we were very, very wrong," she said. "I've been sent to ask you to contribute your efforts to our cause."