Chronicles From the End of an Age

A Last Hope - 5Yrs BTA

Strager looked up, following the gigantic wall of grey spires high into the sky, where their peaks were shrouded with grey and black clouds. Broken ground reminiscent of gigantic slabs of shattered stone lay out in front of him for several dozen dragon-lengths. The mountain wall stretched far into the horizon both to the east and west, an impenetrable range that would take far too long to traverse and was far too tall to fly over.

The metal dragon sat on his haunches as he studied the mountain range, feeling the anxiety and anxiousness run through him as he ran over his plan. His silver shell was the same dull grey as the clouds above him, and the golden yellow scales running along his underbelly lacked the usually gleaming shine that he was quite fond of. His two wings, covered by the same metal shell, were held loosely at his side, and his tail flicked back and forth with agitation.

"Are you sure about this, Strager?" came the voice to his side.

He glanced at the dragoness next to him. A crystal dragon with a soft purple sheen to her otherwise opallic scales. Beautiful and powerful, she currently looked toward him with a concerned gaze.

"No. It's the only chance we have though," replied Strager, looking back at the mountains again, "It's the only place that I can think he might be... especially after what we've seen Athaer do."

"Yes but... even if he is in there... what makes you think he would even want to fight for us. After what we did to him..."

"I don't know. But he's our last hope Opallio."

"You don't know that."

"We've already been through this. There is no other way..."

"You don't know that!"

"Well, how else would you suggest we fight this?! Huh? How else? You saw what she did to the mental nation! And now she has turned her eyes on us. We need help. We need someone who knows what we are fighting against. Unless there is another dragon out there that has what Zyal has, then I see no way we are to survive the current storm."

The crystal dragoness looked to the ground, seeming rather taken back by the drake's outburst, before saying quietly, "We could surrender."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," growled Strager, before turning back to the mountains and opening his wings, "Have the company wait for a day. If I haven't returned by then head back the sky city and report to Queen Polliar. Perhaps the combined might of the earthen, sky, and water nations will be enough to hold her back."

Before the crystal dragon could respond Strager leaped into the air with a flap of his metallic wings, a twang of metal against wing following him as he pulled himself up toward the mountains. He tried to show bravery, to show surety, knowing that if someone needed to do so it was him. But inside there was only a dwindling ball of hope as he entered one of the many open ravines slashed in the side of the grey spires.

He wasn't sure what he expected the Living Mountains to be like. He had only ever seen them from a distance and heard stories of their dangerous depths. Very few dragons who entered left alive. Any who disturbed the walls or broken ground below awoke a beast of earth and stone, unstoppable even by some of the most powerful dragons in existence. For nearly four decades they had searched for the source of the Living Mountains, with very little proof of anything found. Until now. Strager had once believed that such unbelievable power from a single dragon was impossible, but after having witnessed otherwise there was only one being he believed had the strength to create the mountains. He just had to find them.

So, he winged his way deeper and deeper into the Living Mountains. The ground below was no less broken and shattered than the stone on the outskirts of the range. The grey walls were unnaturally smooth and steep, like pieces of polished stone. Yet they rose so far above him he was still unable to find their peaks. It was a strange feeling for the drake. Never had he felt so small, and so overwhelmingly outmatched. It shocked him to think that a dragon had done this.