The War of the Isles

28. Ursula

Atop the hill, I lay, 

Watched the skies greying, 

Death - not too far away,

My countrymen praying.

I close my eyes to see,

My family calling me,

So close to meeting,

A heavenly greeting...

I woke up in a flash remembering Ingrid's writings. It had just been a dream. I remember how she fancied herself as a poet, although, I had little care for her writings. But when Ingrid, Mila and I were together she often read verses from her little diary as Mila and I would mock her.

Mila... I wonder where she is. 

Ever since that idiot Fredrick had shown up, Dhara had been circling around him like a puppy. I was beginning to miss Mila and Ingrid due to thee intense loneliness that I had begun to feel here in Kalheim. With Fredrick in the picture, it was as if, Dhara did not see anything else around her. And that was beginning to hurt.

In her defence, I would understand that it had been rather long since she had seen her love. But a simple conversation with Sammy had made me realise that Dhara had always been a lovesick idiot. 

"Even Charlie did not like him," Sammy had said. When I asked why, he simply shrugged. 

The past two days in Kalheim had mostly been spent on feeding and grooming the dragons. We had two Red Wentallions, two Cloud Shells and One, and a surprising find of three Sky Drakes, belonging to the Former Forty-Third. 

The Achmans unit which had captured Kalheim, had simply locked in the Sky Drakes inside the dragon shed due to their lack of experience with dragons. This was excellent news, as I now had more dragons for riders who were stuck being footsoldiers.

This morning, I decided to repeat yesterday's exercise of feeding and brushing the dragons in the shed. I got up from my bed and was about to leave for the bathing area when I heard a squawk. 

I turned around to find Vibhava near my shelf, looking blankly at me as if I had forgotten her. I turned around and picked her up.

"Don't worry birdie, I am not like Dhara who forgets her friends. Let's go."

Vibhava was beginning to go from pink to white. It was insane how she had changed over three days. I still could not figure out if she was a seagull or not. She had a slightly curved beak as sported by most seagulls, but as far as I knew, seagull chicks were brown, not white. And seagulls most laid their eggs on cliffs so it was indeed strange to find Vibhava in a dragon pit. Her squeaks and squawks were unlike seagulls too. 

As I made my way towards the bath, I also wondered how the dragons within the Yahanbhag pit, did not choose to eat bird eggs. Most dragons had an incredible sense of smell and could easily identify their own eggs, even if they were mixed with others from their own species. They would feast on birds, and eggs too. 

When I had mistakenly taken Vibhava yesterday to the dragon pit, she seemed unafraid of my new Wentallion, Zhira. Zhira was not as tall as Mika, but the red on her scales shined more brightly than Mika's. 

Zhira had simply sniffed my pocket knowing Vibhava's presence. When I had removed Vibhava from my pocket, commanding Zhira to not eat her, she again sniffed Vibhava and gently tried to nuzzle the little bird. 

Whilst I was relieved to not make a meal of Vibhava, I had become far more curious about her.

And I walked to the bath reminiscing about yesterday's encounter with dragons, thinking about Vibhava, missing Ingrid and Mila and mostly being angry at Dhara.