Serali backed away from his furious advance. He stopped moving forward and drew in a deep breath. Serali had a second of awful realization, he's going to flame, before instinct took over. Even as fire blasted out of the other dragon's mouth, Serali was rolling backwards down the hill. She felt the heat of the blast. If it touched her, it was a brief enough touch to do no harm. He scales were designed to resist flame, but dragon's fire could be hotter than any smith's forge, and if it got hot enough it could damage her despite the protection of her scales. But now was not the time to muse on the properties of dragon scale. Serali got to her feet quickly. She looked up. The blue-green dragon and his two slightly smaller companions were standing at the top of the hill. The blue-green dragon spoke again.

"Trevasslan vikar! Brith tav morin?" His voice was full of anger, his teeth bared in a raging snarl. Serali spoke in the only language she knew. "I don't understand you!"

The dragons didn't seem to understand her either, for they again moved forward. Serali had no idea what was going on, or why she'd been attacked. She backed away from them again. Suddenly there was a break in the clouds and the sun streamed down around them. Serali could immediately see that the three dragons all had scales that shone like pearl. The blue-green dragon's were especially vivid. His companions were both in more muted shades, the one a green almost the color of the grass he stood on and the other a light amber color.

The trio of dragons, on the other hand, could immediately see that Serali was a brilliant metallic gold. The sun glinted brightly off of her smooth scales. Their reaction was as startling as it was sudden. The lead dragon halted his forward rush, a shocked expression on his face. "Arvasen," he said, in tones of wonder. All three of them started at her with expressions of shock and awe.

The blue-green dragon walked up to Serali cautiously and, opening and closing his large wings once to make a sharp clapping sound, he commenced to give a lengthy speech in apologetic tones. Serali couldn't understand a thing, though she thought she caught one or two of the Dragonish words that Donovan had taught her. Which made sense, since these were dragons, what else would they be speaking? She shook her head and said again, "I don't understand."

The blue-green look at her with a puzzled expression. He walked back to his compaions and spoke with them for a moment. They seemed to come to a conclusion, for he walked back over to Serali and motioned. The gesture was clear, come with me. He pointed to the sky and then repeated the beckoning gesture.

Serali nodded her understanding, pointing to the blue-green dragon, to herself and to the sky. The dragon smiled at her, nodding enthusiastically. Then he took a few running steps and leaped skyward. Serali followed, taking a bit longer to get airborne than the smaller dragon, whose wings, she noticed, were much larger in proportion to his body than hers. The other two dragons followed after.

After flying for some time, Serali noticed something ahead. Something that was definitely not flat. As they got closer she could make it out more clearly. Out of the unrelieved sameness of the plain rose an outcropping of stone. The light gray rock showed clearly against the green of the plains. Near the base of the rock, a streak of darker green where trees grew around water marked the course of a stream. The rock looked like it might not be far, but they kept flying long after she thought they ought to have arrived. The rock just kept getting bigger and bigger. It was huge! And what she had thought was merely a tiny stream was really a great river. When they got close enough to make out the dragons moving about on the rock, the true scale of it hit home. You could easily fit the entire city of Barona inside this thing and have room left over, thought Serali. The rock was several miles wide at its narrowest point, and loomed hundreds of feet over the flat plain. It was truly colossal.

The blue-green dragon led the way to an opening in the side of the rock. He landed gracefully on the edge of the opening and vanished inside. Serali followed him, although her landing was a bit more awkward, the ledge was only just big enough for her. Inside there was a tunnel leading down into the rock. It was dimly lit by a set of glowing glass globes hung from the ceiling at wide-spaced intervals. The passage twisted and turned for quite some time before finally coming out in a wide, high-ceilinged chamber. On a slightly raised dais at the far end of the chamber lounged a dragon. He was obviously quite old, his horns were worn and he was at least twice Serali's size.

The blue-green dragon clapped his wings and spoke to the amber dragon. Serali recognized the same gesture he had used when speaking to her. The amber replied briefly and then motioned to Serali. She stepped forward.

"I'm afraid I don't speak dragon, if that's what you're speaking."

The amber dragon looked quite surprised at this. He spoke then, in perfectly understandable common, although he had an odd accent. "How is this, that you are a dragon but speak only the human tongue?"

"Sir, I was orphaned at my birth and raised among humans. I don't know any other language, and I'm afraid I don't know much about dragons at all." replied Serali.

"How can that be possible, that a child of the royal race that was thought to be almost extinct, should be raised among humans?"

"My parents left me among them the day I was born. I know nothing else."

"Why then have you come here?"

"I may be raised among humans, but I know better then to think myself one of them. I want to learn the ways of my true people."

"I understand your desire to know your people." He gestured to another dragon, rose colored, hornless, and very tiny compared to his massive bulk, that Serali hadn't noticed standing in the shadows in a corner of the room. He spoke for sometime to her in the dragonish tongue before turning back to Serali.

"Child, you are welcome here. We rejoice to find one of the race thought lost. I myself shall see to it that you learn what you must know to live among us. I am Drevass, the leader here at the dragon stone. Now come, sit here and tell me your story."