Book 2 Chapter 22: Dragon’s roost.
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Author's note
 
Time to welcome a very enthusiastic new subscriber, NohVoha. Also, I have another new subscriber who showed up before him, but I cannot remember whether or not I have welcomed you yet. So, if I have, you will be welcomed twice. I would also like to welcome Anthel.
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Levin’s POV
 
(Hey Gaerien! What’s wrong?) Levin called across the wagon to Gaerien who had a bit of a harsh look on her face.
 
[I think she’s alright,] Ether guy answered before she could say anything. [I guess you two can’t hear them, but it seems like the fey court is arguing about something.] He seemed to be debating with himself over something for a little while, and then he talks again. [You see, the fey court are all the fey of nobility level, and they have the job of keeping the dryads appeased so that we can live in this forest in peace. They also have great say over what goes on in the capital and any village where a dryad has awakened. Anyway, it seems like something Sagal has told them has upset them a little.]
 
(Hmm... so, why do I always hear them as…) Gaerien responded to Ether guy’s explanation absentmindedly, and then it looked as though some kind of realization suddenly appeared on her face. [(They talk with spirit energy!?)] She says, switching to Elven in order to demand it directly from Ether guy.
 
[What? Oh, spirit energy, is that what you asked about? Yes, that is how the fey dragons communicate.]
 
[(Wow! All of them do!?)] Gaerien seemed like she could hardly believe what she was hearing. Considering she was the one who is supposed to know a lot about these more magical type things, this fact really got Levin’s interest.
 
[Yes, the fey dragons are the strongest of the fey. They have the extra spirit energy to spare on something like that.]
 
So, that was what she was so surprised about then? But, at the same time, does this mean humans can’t hear them at all? He looked back to the top of the tree they were going toward. They were almost there now, and he could see that HUGE dragon he saw from a ways off was hardly the only one. There were several flying around the higher branches. No, flying is not really the right term. They were not even beating their wings at all. It was more like they were just suspended there in the air somehow.
 
He was starting to be able to see between the branches now as well. The branches were huge on their own. He was guessing that if you were to drag a bunch of dirt up here, you could plant an entire grove of towering red-woods on top of just one of these monstrous boughs. The branch was the size of a sky scraper. Just how big was the trunk then?
 
They were flying into the upper branches now. There were several more dragons every bit as large as the one carrying them. It made some sense, if the dragons were the most powerful fey then of course they would be in high positions. Wait, would that mean that the queen might actually be a dragon too? He tried to think back. Did Ether guy ever say what the queen was? Now that he tried to think about it, she was not called the “elf queen.” He had just been assuming that since Ether guy was an elf. However, if these dragons were intelligent and also this powerful, then couldn’t they easily rule the other fey races?
 
As he thought about this, he looked up to the largest dragon. A true colossal creature. Looking at this massive dragon on this massive tree somehow made both look smaller. It created a strange illusion where this dragon looked almost like a normal size snake in the branches of a normal size tree. However, just realizing how truly massive this tree was forced him to realize the nature of the illusion. The smaller dragons hovering near her were probably the same size as the one carrying them, but her size truly dwarfed them. Using him as a point of comparison, if his head was the size of a tank, then the overwhelmingly huge dragon in front of them had to have a head the size of an entire city block!
 
Levin could feel Aerien’s mom’s arms tighten as she was rapidly looking around this space filled with dragons. There were quite a few of them, and according to Ether guy they were the most powerful members of this most powerful race. Could it even be possible that right now they were staring down a gathering of the most powerful creatures in this new world? Up until now, Levin had been excited about coming to a castle and meeting the queen. It was such a fairy tale concept, and it seemed pretty exciting. However, instead of a queen he was getting a dragon, and instead of a castle it was high atop this monster of a tree. Not only that, all these dragons seemed to let off an aura, he could feel their gazes on them and every single set of eyes seemed to carry such pressure.
 
Levin turned around and hugged Aerien’s limp body tight to himself. He knew she was every bit as unconscious as she had been every day of this journey to get here, but right now he felt like just having her close made him safer. Shouldn’t it be the other way around though? Shouldn’t he be the one protecting her? She was younger than him, at least in this life. He had spent every day since her birth holding and protecting her. She was also unconscious right now.
 
No, Aerien was the older one if they added her previous life as well, and Levin was probably the youngest. Aerien was strong despite being smaller before, and now she had grown bigger than he was. She was already like a mother to him, and now that she was bigger the effect was only amplified. He clung to Aerien, trying to find some relief from all this scary energy from this room full of monstrous creatures that could swallow the entire wagon whole in a single gulp. He somehow had not felt it before, but now that he was in here all of his primal instincts were waking up and telling him that his life was in mortal danger.
 
He looked across to Rolwen and Gaerien, only to see Rolwen shrinking between Ether guy’s arms in much the same way as he was clinging to Aerien. Gaerien though seemed to be looking around curiously. If she were a normal baby, he would think she doesn’t understand how scary this situation is. However, he knew she should know better. How could she be that calm!? Levin really didn’t understand.
 
Their wagon was brought closer and closer to the massive largest dragon. It’s huge face followed them as the wagon descended to the ground, or rather the large flat space created in this knot of branches.
 
Ether guy shifted until he managed to shrug off Rolwen and get himself into a kneeling position facing this titanic creature without even leaving the wagon. [Túeth!] He called Aerien’s mother’s name, and then she carefully laid Aerien down on the side of the cart, shoving him off to the side with her, and then she knelt down as well. Nobody seemed to be particularly concerned with them.
 
The wagon was lowered to the ground, and the large head of this overwhelmingly huge dragon followed them all the way down. By this point, Levin had completely forgotten about the one that was carrying them. Something of this size... he couldn’t help but fixate on this sight that just defied the imagination. To think, something that overwhelmingly huge was actually a living creature!
 
No words were said, but Levin imagined these dragons must be saying several things which he could not even hear a word of. He could see Gaerien looking up toward the dragon who could not be anything other than the queen. Her eyes did not have the same look of awe and fear as Rolwen, and probably himself as well, had. Rather, she seemed to look as though she was paying attention to something being said. This was all the proof he needed to know he was missing out on some kind of exchange of words.
 
[Yes your majesty.] Ether guy suddenly said. [It is as you said, we have come before you in hopes that you might help to heal Aerien’s fractured spirit.]
 
The silence continued for a while after that. Levin looked up to see the large dragon staring down at them. She had barely shifted a muscle since they had landed on the ground beneath her. If he hadn’t seen her head following them down as they were carried in, he might even doubt she was a real creature. He might think she was an incredibly life-like statue instead. Her massive greenish blue scales that almost made the viewer think of the sea could be made of some form of precious stone, and the eyes from some kind of polished colored glass. Perhaps this ability to hold so perfectly still was the dragon’s equivalent of a show of gracefulness? If that’s the case, then of course this dragon queen would have such grace down to perfection.

On the subject of her eyes, there was something that struck him, more because he had not realized it before he dared to look up and evaluate the difference between this great creature and a statue made in her likeness. Her eyes... her right eye had a scar across it, and the actual eye in the socket looked almost as though it had somehow turned to stone. Once he had noticed this, his attention was captivated by this eye and he felt as though he could not escape.

 
-
 
Oren’s POV
 
(3 minutes earlier.)
 
The great fey dragon Oren listened to the bickering of the annoying lesser dragons. Well, lesser relative to her at least. In truth, they were among the most powerful of the true dragons in this great forest, but they were all lesser relative to her.
 
She was normally not opposed to the bickering of the lesser dragons. It was something common among them, and it normally had to do with the best way to deal with a problematic dryad. Should they reason with it? Overwhelm it with a large amount of spirit energy, the likes of which only the fey dragons can produce? Or, should they simply appease the dryad by eliminating the ones who may offend them? The latter option was often the easiest, at least in the short run. However, since the ones who lived closest to the dryads were the elves who were born differently from other fey races, such actions often had to be done rather judiciously.
 
The debates in the fey court were usually quite effective at finding the best course of action for any situation, but the thing that made their squabbles this time so annoying was that the subject was somewhat offensive to her own sensibilities, and it was getting in the way of the more productive discussion.
 
One of her changelings had been in the middle of delivering a report on a new especially troublesome dryad who had woken up. It seemed the dryad was not like any of the others. It was far more crafty, and it also seemed to be exceptionally intelligent. More troublesome was the fact that, while it had clearly been offended, it had already carried out the punishment on those who offended them to their satisfaction. There was no leverage they could use against this dryad, and it was incredibly hard to predict what their next actions may be. It seemed to be pacified for now, and all the elves were already spreading the word that they had to stay away from it’s territory. So, it seemed the problem was solved for now, but given the level of intelligence this dryad seemed to have, there was no predicting what may happen in the future.
 
To have such a truly abnormal dryad. All this squabbling between the lesser dragons would be perfectly understandable if it were for the purpose of figuring out what to do about this dryad. However, that’s not what set them off. It seemed they disapproved of one of the factors in how her changeling, Sagel she remembered his name was, had managed to pacify it.
 
“The dryad seems to have taken quite a liking to Aerien, the grey elf child I told you of earlier. They seemed to want me to help in raising the children, and it seems that I promised to do so while under the influence of that strange alcohol they had given me.”
 
The entirety of Isanil’s upper branches erupted into fierce bickering after these words were spoken. Sagel was a fairly advanced changeling. His power to absorb new forms, therefore, would easily be great enough to acquire the form of a fey dragon if he spent enough time absorbing their spirit energy. It seemed this fact wounded their pride. It was a truly pathetic pride if it could be threatened just by having a changeling gain the ability to have the same form as them. The fact that they were all so spineless, and they were showing how pathetic they were with every exchange while their time could be much better served in letting Sagel continue his report, it absolutely infuriated her.
 
She carefully divided her attention and placed an energy barrier around the upper branches. She formed it into an ovoid form that did not include the floor of the split for the crown of branches where her changeling and the great fairies stood. They were not involved in this, so they did not need to be caught up in what she was about to do.
 
‘ENOUGH!’ She liberally spent a large amount of her own spirit energy in order to make her displeasure project to them as loudly as possible. These pathetic dragons were all visibly rattled by this and they quickly fell silent. She re-absorbed the large amount of expended spirit energy, breathing it in through her nostrils, and then she dropped the barrier. The great fairies below all looked up at the now very weak looking cluster of dragon nobles with a mix of curiosity and also pity. Oren smugly smiled to herself as she wondered how much THAT would wound their clearly flimsy pride, being looked at like that.
 
‘I will approve of this promise my changeling has made, and applaud him for his excellent work in pacifying this troublesome dryad. In fact, with things as they are in concerns to this grey elf child, I believe this is even the best result we could have possibly gotten. I am quite pleased with the information he has provided, and I have already decided what will be the best way to deal with this new dryad. The grey elf child will be instrumental in this, and having Sagel present will be of vital importance to securing her cooperation.’
 
She looked up at this moment, Nebelis had reached the upper branches, and he was flying in. She could sense Isanil looking at the wagon he was carrying with great excitement. The great dryad was doing the closest approximation a tree spirit had to salivating, forcing Oren to wonder just what they had heard from this new dryad to make them so riled up about this girl.
 
‘Patience Isanil’ She communicated silently with the tree spirit by forcing her spirit energy directly into the bark of the great tree that served as their body. ‘Remember the state that child is in, it will likely take some work to revive her.’
 
‘Hmmm! I know that! But... she made a nymph a dryad immediately! And, did you hear what that changeling said about them? How smart this new dryad is!? They really are VERY smart! I have been talking to them! I really want to see what she can do!’
 
Oren sighed in her mind at this overly excited tree spirit. ‘I would not expect the same to happen for you all that quickly. Remember, the method that did that caused this child to collapse and enter a state that is near death. I strongly doubt she can do it twice.’ Or rather, Oren really HOPED she could not do it twice. It would be nice to get some more intelligent conversation out of Isanil, but it would be a real problem if it made them as devilishly clever as the dryad Sagel had described.
 
Well then, Nebelis had just set down that wagon he had carried the elves in. It was only proper for her to face her guests and greet them. The entire route of events from this point were more or less a given, but she could still not skip on the formalities along the way.
 
‘I greet you elves. I understand you have traveled here for the purpose of seeking an audience with me and to ask a favor.’
 
“Yes your majesty.” The elf responded. “It is as you said, we have come before you in hopes that you might help to heal Aerien’s fractured spirit.”
 
Oren did not even move a muscle as she stared straight down at the elves in the wagon, she merely sat silent for a few seconds after the elf had spoken, allowing the appropriate amount of time for the pressure of her presence to remind everyone here she was being asked a favor and not having a service demanded of her. In truth, she had already considered what might need to be done in order to heal this child, and she already knew exactly what she needed done and all about what her response was going to be. Everything today, with the exception of a few minor annoyances, had been proceeding exactly according to her expectations.
 
‘Very well,’ she finally spoke up in accordance with the script she had laid out in her mind. ‘Bring the child before me.’
 
The elf man responded immediately, crawling across the wagon and reaching over the trembling younger female elf in the wagon. He peeled a small human off of what appeared to be a small elf child around 15 years of age who was laying comatose in the wagon. This was undoubtedly the child in question. It was hard to believe this child was, in fact, actually only 6 months of age and even like those irritating new fairies as well.
 
Knowing she was from the great sealed world, and also one of the almost completely unheard of mages of that world, it filled her with the slightest bit of hesitation at what she was about to attempt. However, she did not think she would be in too great of danger from it. Those other ones from that world knew next to nothing of magic despite being exceedingly advanced in their cultivation. This child’s spirit should only be that of a low ranked mage at best, so it should not be something that could threaten a great dragon such as herself.
 
‘I will ask all the dragons of the Marquis rank to maintain the levitation spell suspending Isanil’s body above the scar. The dukes shall maintain watch. This will be a delicate operation, I will have to see this child’s spirit from the inside.’
 
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Subscriber's comments of the chapter
 
"Yay she's back next chapter."
 
                                             -meowingLexi
 
"good a dragon queen should be about 2000% less backstabbing than a elf queen =P if shes not part red or black that is ^-^. also shes going to say something along the lines of "h@ly sh*t" when she sees that mind scape next chapter rofl"
 
                                             -Roy
 
"get me an eye patch yarr! on a side note super girl could probly heal her eye since they are made of energy and not true flesh and blood, fey are lucky."
                                      
                                            -Roy (again)
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