Arithoth continued through the forest, following Drolin's instructions. The rest of the clan trailed behind wordlessly. Along the way Arithoth felt Thirwyn fidget in his sleep, kicking spontaneously and twitching his tail. This was usual behavior for Thirwyn when he slept. Often he muttered in his sleep, though the words were indiscernible, even for Arithoth's keen ears, but this time Thirwyn's movements were less subtle and more desperate and violent. His muttering became whimpers and small cries. This concerned Arithoth. “Is he all right?” he asked Miren.
Miren looked over at Thirwyn. “Probably nothing, but you might want to wake him up. The young'un wants to see our new home, doesn’t he?”
Arithoth shook his head slightly to awaken the nestling. “Thirwyn. Thirwyn! Wake up! We're almost there.”
Thirwyn woke up with a start, gasping, panting and trembling so much his scales one would think his scales would fly off.
“Thirwyn? Is everything all right?” Arithoth asked.
“I didn't do anything,” Thirwyn muttered in dismay.
“What do you mean? Thirwyn, what's wrong?”
“Why is she mad? I didn't do anything.”
“Who's mad?” Arithoth asked.
But Thirwyn just curled up into a ball, lost in his cloud of unknown misery.
“Thirwyn?” Arithoth looked to Miren.
Miren looked curiously at the nestling. He seemed just as confused as Arithoth.
Drolin examined Thirwyn with extreme fascination. “Does he usually do this?”
“No,” Arithoth said.
“Does he have dreams?”
“All the time.”
“Has he told you about any of these dreams?”
“No. He usually keeps them to himself. He mentioned one, once, saying he met some human in a dream, but some of the nestlings teased him about it. He didn't mention them much after.”
“He met some human?” Drolin asked.
“That's what he said.”
Drolin went silent, lost in thought.
Arithoth was startled. “Is this bad?”
Miren assured him. “It was probably a just nightmare. Look at you! You're so nervous your scales might drop off from fright. There is nothing wrong with the young'un. Be at ease, he's a perfectly healthy little nestling.”
Arithoth sighed but smiled slightly at the older dragon’s reassurance.
“Stop here,” Drolin instructed.
Arithoth stopped at the trunk of the oak just as Drolin had instructed. “Uhhh... Drolin, what exactly are we supposed to see here?”
“Just a moment.” Drolin scaled down from Miren's head. He scramble to the base of the tree and began pulling away weeds and leaves at the mixed with the roots.
Arithoth looked at Drolin curiously. “Is this really the time for weeding?”
Then Drolin took a small rope in his teeth from underneath the debris, and tugged. There was a groan from underground and then a trap door fell revealing the entrance to an underground den between the roots of the oak.
A unified gasp of amazement came from the whole dragon clan and murmurs of barely held excitement and joy rippled through the crowd. Arithoth's eyes widened in surprise, and he tried to use this new discovery to cheer up Thirwyn. “Thirwyn! Look this is where we will live for now on! Isn't it amazing?” he said as he walked through the entrance. The nestling remained silent on his father’s head.
The inside was lit with torches as they proceeded down the earthy stairs. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they entered an enormous den big enough to fit a hundred dragons (which was more than sufficient for this clan of thirty dragons). The dirt was soft under the weary claws. The walls were decorated with blue symbols that glowed in the dirt walls. Along the walls on the ground were nests softened with the dirt and dried grass. Some nests were larger than others to accommodate both dragon individuals and families. At the very center of it all was a large glowing orange stone that shed light on every inch of the cave.
“Thirwyn! Look!” Arithoth urged,
Thirwyn made a small dispassionate sound.
“Thirwyn. Please, what is it?”
Thirwyn grumbled, “I don't want to talk about it.”
From the far corner of the cave came a very tall and wiry woman. She wore a simple white dress with a pale lavender shawl draped loosely around her shoulders. Around her neck was what looked to be a silver jewel. She wasn't young, but she wasn't exactly old. Her face had only a few wrinkles to indicate her approach to old age, and her black hair had only partially surrendered to the gray. Her smile emphasized the growing wrinkles in her face, as she held her hands out and bowed slightly before Arithoth. “Welcome, dragons. I hope you find it comfortable here.”
Arithoth unconsciously backed away and moved his head higher so Thirwyn was out of reach of the new woman. Arithoth looked in shock at the woman. “You are... human.”
“You could say that,” she answered, straightening from her bow. Drolin bounded from the dragon clan and nimbly climbed up on to the woman's shoulders. The woman smiled and stroked the cat fondly.
The adults and the fledglings, who had seen a human before and knew of their habits, stared apprehensively at the woman, waiting for her to strike at them with her human hatred for their kind. On the other hand, the newly awakened nestlings and hatchlings' eyes widened at the sight of the woman and begged for their parents to tell them what this new creature was. The parents hushed them, promising to explain the situation later.
Miren, however, was the only who saw no problem with the woman's presence. “So this is the lass you've been talking about, Drolin? I must say she is quite a sight for these weary eyes.”
The woman laughed. “You must be the flattering Miren.”
Miren bowed, extending his wings slightly, making the bow look almost gentlemanly. Most of the dragons looked completely dumbstruck at thod. The hatchlings and nestlings laughed. Miren straightened and looked to the clan. “She isn't dangerous. She's a wizard. Her family has been helping dragons for generations.”
The dragons, still too cautious to come any closer, examined the woman from a distance.
“He speaks the truth. When I sent Drolin scouting the land, he came back with stories of your clan and all the hardships you have endured. I decided to help you by making a home here. It is only a few miles from Grestling, the human town nearby. I hope you don't object.”
“Not at all,” said Arithoth, “I would rather we settled near a human town in order to keep our promise to them. We just never expected... errr... you to be here.”
“I really did not intend for it to be so much of a surprise.” The woman looked over at Miren.
Miren smiled. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”
The woman sighed. “Well, this is what I prepared. I made it a bit larger than what you require; I didn't know how many exactly you were bringing. There are nests near the walls as you can see. This whole place is ensured to hold up with magic, hence the blue inscriptions on the wall. I'll have to renew it every now and then, but not too often. I couldn't exactly put a fire in here because of the smoke, but I enchanted that stone in the middle. You can dim it by tapping on it once.” She walked over to the stone and knocked on its shell once. The stone dimmed to one third its usual brightness. “And brighten it by tapping twice.” She knocked twice, and the stone returned to its original brightness. “And just press on it to turn it off, but I don’t think you guys would want to. I know you dragons like sleeping in some form of light. Hope it helps.”
“It does,” Arithoth said. “Err... What is your name?”
“Oh! Leah. Leah is fine.”
“Arithoth,” Arithoth introduced himself. “But if I ask, Leah,” his eyes dropped to her silver pendant. “Your choice of jewelry concerns me.”
Leah looked down at her necklace and smiled somberly. “As you would be concerned, but I assure, this was not taken by force. A dear friend of mine gave it to me before his passing.” Her smile disappeared and her eyes softened with sadness. “I only wish I could've done more to save him.”
Arithoth’s mouth twisted in a skeptical grimace.
Miren rolled his eyes. “Dear, Arithoth! You can't seriously be thinking the lass is against us?”
Arithoth felt ashamed of his doubts, but the evidence in front of him was too condemning.
Leah sighed. “I know it looks bad. I use magic. Drolin here is clearly an imp. And I have a dragon scale around my neck. But I assure you, there is one thing that I have that no witch would.” With that, she lifted the hem of her dress slightly to reveal a birth mark on her ankle in the shape of vortex with a line drawn through it.
Arithoth brought his head closer to see it. Miren snorted, “That's definitely the mark all right. And really, Arithoth, I have heard of wizards carrying a dragon scale. It isn't uncommon, especially now with the state of things.”
Arithoth nodded. “I'm sorry to have doubted you.”
Leah waved it off. “Do not worry about it. I understand your concern for your clan, not to mention the safety of the little one on your head,” she said, her gray eyes spotting Thirwyn.
Thirwyn was still curled into a ball on Arithoth's head. He paid no heed to Leah.
“Thirwyn, show some gratitude toward this woman,” Arithoth commanded, “She's giving us a home.”
“Thanks,” Thirwyn said curtly.
“Thirwyn,” Arithoth growled. “Please be polite.”
“I just want to sleep,” Thirwyn grumbled. He scrambled down his father's back, landing on the soft earth. He then walked straight past Leah and Drolin and crawled into one of the nests and slept a dreamless sleep.
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