Chronicles From the End of an Age

The Wrong Scales - 32Yrs BTA

VOTE ON THE NEXT CHRONICLE BELOW!!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The chorus of tinkling crystalline wings filled the cavern. Opallic purples, greens, and whites caught beams of golden sunlight streaming in from holes in the alpine ceiling. Scaled bodies twisted and spun in the air, narrowly missing each other in practiced elegance. Tails flicked and turned, guiding their owners into choreographed loops and spirals, each movement designed to highlight a different colour of opal that curled through perfectly groomed and polished scales. Each flap resonated with a different pounding drumbeat, every turn a different tune, chaotically imbued in perfect harmony.

Surrounding the stage of dancing crystal dragons was a crowd, situated in the shadows, watching the performance with silent awe. Every available space was crowded with a myriad of earth, metal, and crystal dragons, their gazes reflecting the colours scattered by the dance. The smooth stone underneath their paws formed into large steps, creating room for hundreds to sit in on the dance, yet it still didn't seem like enough.

Rennock sat close to the front of the crowd, on the lower steps, looking up at the dance with unparalleled wonder. His small wings were curled tightly to his side, and his earthy green scales seemed almost brown in the darkness. Next to him sat his mother, a large crystal dragon nearly three times his size, with a soft emerald hue glowing in her crystalline scales. On his left was his brother, another earth drake who was too busy gnawing at one of the small spikes on the ball at the end of his tail to really pay attention to the dance.

But Rennock was hypnotised. His claws gripped at the edge of the step in front of him, and his heart pounded in rhythm with the beat of the drum. He swayed slightly at the twists and turns within the dance, and his breath hitched softly as two dragonesses passed by within a claw-tip of one another, flashing each other a grin as they did. The dancers pulled seamlessly into two parallel lines as they dove toward the ground, the glowing beams of sunlight reflecting all their colours all through the crowd. A collective gasp rose as they pulled up within a dragon length of a horrid crash, turning up and splitting apart as they exploded out from each other, with a chorusing roar.

They circled the stage once, before gliding down to the centre stage, each landing and facing outwards. They each bowed, one by one, followed by a howled applause from the crowd. Dragons stamped their feet, slapped the stone with their tails, and flapped their wings in appreciation of the performance. Rennock made as much noise as he could as well, wallowing out his squeaky roar and banging the spiked ball at the end of his tail against the ground.

His brother looked at him, slightly annoyed, and gave a huffed, "Finally, it's over."

Rennock ignored him, watching as the dances lined up together, sitting on their haunches to bask in the praise. His eyes searched the line till he found one of the smaller crystal dragons, a dragoness no bigger than him. He caught her eye and waved his wing excitedly. She smiled and waved her wing back.

"Alright you two," his mother spoke, leaning down to her two hatchlings, "Let's go and wait for your sister outside, okay."

Rennock nodded eagerly, while his brother only grunted in response, getting to his feet, and shaking himself. Together they followed the leaving crowd out through the exit, an opening at the lower end of the cavern. As they walked the young earth drake found himself going over the maneuvers of the dance in his head, stepping side to side with raised wings, almost able to picture himself up there with them. With the same glowing scales. The same shining wings. A yelp escaped him as a weight hit his back, driving him to the ground.

"Geode!" he growled, "Get off me!"

His brother chuckled, "Don't tell me you were trying to dance?"

Rennock tried to haul himself to his feet, and throw his brother off, but, as usual, he found it far more difficult than it should be, "Get off me!"