don’t mind me asking?” Inadar pointed at the well wrapped bundle.
“I'm not sure. I found a dragon skeleton up in the mountains and this was there. I think there was a few others, but they were all broken. This is the only one not broken. Kind of pretty isn’t it?” Cero unwrapped the round stone and held it up to the early morning light.
“It is. Can I see it?” Cero hesitated but handed it over anyways. Inadar held it up and was admiring the way the light made it glow when she heard Torroth gasp. “What is it?”
“It was actually glowing. Not just because of the sunlight, but glowing.” Torroth took the stone and tried to replicate the effect, but for him it was opaque in the light.
“Let me see.” Cero took the stone again and held it up. This time he had his back to the sun. The veins of clear crystal came to life with a light that shimmered and glowed.
“It feels like when I can sense a dragon when you do that.” Mesmerized, Inadar let slip a dangerous truth while she watched the stone glowing.
“When you sense a dragon?” The stone stopped glowing and Cero turned to Inadar who realized her mistake.
“I mean it reminds me of a dragon.” Inadar desperately tried to backpedal.
“So you have seen a dragon before?” Cero caught Inadar with his crystal blue eyes and she couldn’t think of anything to say.
“What she means is that we have seen dragons before. In the distance.” Torroth came to Inadar’s rescue.
“You lived on the western side of the Braebach? That’s the only place where the dragons still live.” Cero caught Torroth this time with his eyes and held him speechless.
“In a book. We saw a picture in a book.” Inadar came to the rescue this time.
“In a book in the distance.” This time Cero caught them both. Inadar tried to shake the overwhelming urge to tell the truth.
“What is holding you up?” Urake appeared and rescued the both of them.
“Nothing. We were just talking.” Cero smiled disarmingly.
“Well, talk and walk. By the way, Aleest…! We are almost at the snow line. Elmet won’t be able to continue in the snow.” Urake caught up with the tamer a moment later.
“That kid is weird. I almost told him everything.” Torroth watched Cero who was walking up the line while he replaced the strange glowing rock in the bag.
“Would you believe that I almost did to?” Inadar scowled furiously.
“Try to avoid speaking to him. Perhaps his Gift is the ability to make people tell the truth.” They both watched as Aleest slid off his horse and gave it a fond hug before whispering something in its ear. Elmet gave a nicker and began trotting back down the trail towards the camp.
“Its creepy how well trained that horse is.” Torroth muttered in disbelief as he watched the warhorse take a corner on the switchback.
“Better keep up or I will be sending you back after the horse.” Urake warned Aleest one last time before the column began moving again. The going was considerably harder now that they had to break a train through the deepening snow. At first it wasn’t much work, but after a little while, they had to begin taking turns in the lead breaking a trail for the rest. Their pants were soaked before long. Aleest, as Urake had feared, was having the hardest time of it. He began lagging farther and farther behind while the softer hearted volunteered to take his place breaking trail. They stopped to catch their breath for a couple minutes and despite his evident fatigue, he struck out towards a stand of trees some distance away.
“Aleest, this is just the beginning. It is only going to get harder from here on out.” Urake shouted the admonition to the lad who waved back in acknowledgement.
“We would be doing him a favor by leaving without him. Ouch! What was that for?!”
“You talked.” Arken was hunkered down on his heels next to Niman who for some reason refused to forsake the bigger man’s side.
“Whatever, I haven’t said a word since we left the camp and you still don’t want me to talk?”
“In case you hadn’t noticed you were talking again. Ah, ah…! You mouth is opening and usually after that you make talking noises.”
"Give him a break Arken. He has been relatively quiet since we left. As for Aleest, I will have a talk with him when he gets back. It isn’t that much of