Chapter 10

Serali and Kethro set off several days later from Barona. They flew in a general westward direction, headed toward Land's End, but they were looking for a good place to live. A large dry cave would be perfect, but with their diamond hard talons, it would be easy enough to dig out a new cave if they could find a suitable spot. They were looking mostly idly, neither one had any unbearable need to settle down, but the idea was there, and if they should happen across a nice cave, why not?

They were several days out of Barona when Serali remembered the cave they'd stopped at on their way to visit Janus. They reached the spot a few days later, but the cave had changed. Outside of the cavern's mouth there was a heap of oddly shaped rocks ranging from gravel to stones the size of a human. They descended curiously, wondering what was going on. As they landed, and rock came hurling out of the cave and crashed into the pile outside. It was followed swiftly by several more and then by a dragon, carrying a particularly large rock.

He was azure blue with paler silver-blue plated undersides. His head was crowned with the spikes and horns of a mountain dragon, though he was much lighter in color than mountain dragons usually are, and he had external ears, like a plains dragon. He was also rather young looking, and smaller than either Kethro or Serali. He looked rather embarrassed as he dropped the rock he was carrying with a thud.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't think this belonged to anyone. I shouldn't have started digging out someone else's lair like this. I apologize!"

"No need for apologies," said Serali. "We don't live here, we're just passing through."

An expression of relief crossed his face, to be immediately replaced by curiosity. "I think I've seen you before, haven't I? You're that gold dragon that made such a stir at the last dragon's moot."

Serali nodded.

"I don't know your mate though. He is your mate, isn't he? There I go assuming things again."

Serali smiled. "Yes, he's my mate. I'm Serali, and this is Kethro. What's your name?"

"I'm Doran. It's nice to meet you." He inclined his head and dipped his wings is a kind of bow.

"But why are you moving in here?" asked Kethro. "It's rather near a number of human settlements."

"I'd rather live with humans than Skrissish right now. I think he's gone totally mad."

"What do you mean?" Kethro seemed puzzled, though Serali remembered the way Skrissish had acted at the moot and wasn't very surprised.

"It started harmlessly enough of course. He began to rule for trial by combat more often than usual. You know that the Dragon King is supposed to judge disputes that dragons can't settle themselves, and when he can't settle it they either drop it all together or fight it out. I didn't like that much, but there wasn't really any harm in it. But then some of the more quarrelsome dragons started deliberately bringing things to him so that he'd tell them to fight.

"I really didn't like that, and a lot of other dragons agreed with me, but it didn't seem to affect us, so we ignored it. But after the moot he seemed to be almost insane. He would rage at everyone, and he even got into fights with anybody who tried to disagree with whatever he was talking about. Mostly what he talked about was you, actually. He thought you'd gone and sung at the moot so you could start taking the rulership from him. Of course nobody else thought so but a few bullies that agree with anything he says because he lets them fight.

"Even that the rest of us that lived in those mountains could live with. What happened next though…" The azure dragon shook his head. "Well, one of his bullies had picked a fight with a smaller dragon, hardly out of childhood. And of course when they took it to Skrissish he judged they should fight. A lot of us didn't like that. The poor little thing was half the bigger dragon's size. But nobody gets seriously hurt in these things, so we all let it go ahead. Would that we had stopped it then.

"When they fought, the little dragon did better than anybody thought she would. She moved fast, used her small size as an advantage. The big fellow looked like an idiot a dozen times over as she escaped him. But at last he caught her. She'd worked him into a rage, and he wasn't very stable to begin with. Nobody realized exactly what was happening till it was too late and he'd broken her neck. He killed her! All of us were terribly upset, and we took the whole mess before Skrissish. It's become too much of a habit to go to him for justice, even now. But he doesn't even know the meaning of the word. He said something about a 'regrettable accident' and let that murder off without any punishment at all!

"Well, there was some talk of overthrowing him and putting somebody else in his place. Your name was mentioned a few times," he nodded to Serali, "since you're a royal gold, and they've been leaders since dragons started, but nobody knows anything about you, you could be just as bad, no offense, and in the end nobody could agree on anything. But I, and a few others, decided that we should just leave the mountains and get away from that lunatic and his bullies. I imagine that there are going to be more following us before long, if things don't improve. So I guess humans may have to get used to us, because there's nowhere else but human lands for us to go, really."

"Why not go in groups?" asked Serali.

"Dragons don't live in groups!"

"Plains dragons do."

"No offense to plains dragons, I mean my mother was one, so none at all, but mountain dragons just don't live like that. I don't think I could be happy, all crammed in with other dragons like that. And some mountain dragons think of plains dragons as some lesser creature, like a smart drake or wyvern. Though most don't. I sure wouldn't! But still... most mountain dragons really get upset if you even suggest living like a plains dragon."

"That's kind of sad."

Doran nodded. "It is. Dragons are dragons, no matter what kind."

There was a moment of silence, but then Serali shook herself land said, "Enough of gloom and depression. We really should get going. We're looking for a good lair spot, but there really aren't very many here. I have half a mind to go dig a cave in the bluff above Land's End village. They're somewhat used to having a dragon hanging around."

Doran shrugged. "To each his own, I suppose. This is as close to a human settlement as I want to go. I'm not sure I could get used to humans, even if they got used to me."

Kethro grinned at him. "If you ever want to find out, you can come visit." He turned to Serali and added, "I think that living near Land's End is a good idea. I'm quite curious about this human family of yours."

"Maybe I will someday." Doran smiled. "It would be interesting to see how many of the stories I've heard are true."

"You'd be welcome anytime, but you should probably wait a few months at least, since the home that we're so graciously inviting you to doesn't even exist yet."

They all laughed at that. Then Serali and Kethro made their farewells and flew off toward Land's End and their new home.