Night Dragon An Epic Fantasy Adventure - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,57
him, to help him, but even as he did, Jason doubted that he had enough strength to do so. He doubted there would be anything within him that would help.
As he pushed power outward, sending it flowing into the blue dragon, he could feel it flowing into an abyss. An emptiness. A void.
“Stop,” the dragon said.
“I can help you,” Jason said.
The ice dragon landed and Janeya climbed down, crouching down next to Jason, looking at the blue dragon.
“Stop,” the dragon said again.
“But I can help.”
“You have helped enough,” the dragon said.
“I can help.” Jason tried again.
The dragon twisted his head, looking at Jason. “You are everything he hoped you might be.”
“I can do more for you,” Jason said.
Why did this dragon’s sufferings hurt him more than others?
Maybe because the dragon had always been free. Maybe because this was the last connection he had to David. Or maybe because Jason felt as if he should have been able to help.
“Find the rest,” the blue dragon said.
“The rest of what? Dragons? I’m trying to find them. I’m trying to understand what I need to do.”
“The rest of the ancestors,” the blue dragon said.
He stared at Jason and in a flash, a vision appeared in Jason’s mind. It was that of power, and yet, within it was a smoky appearance, something of a haze, and beyond that was a soft glowing, as if there were energy within it.
“What is it?”
“The ancestors,” the blue dragon said.
“Let me help you,” Jason said. “Then I can find the ancestors.”
“No. You must find the ancestors, and then you can help me. You will understand. He has shown me.”
“He?” Jason shook his head, looking over at the ice dragon and then back at the blue dragon. “David?”
“David,” the dragon whispered. “No. The night.” With that, the dragon closed his eyes, took a heaving breath, and then was no more.
Jason tried to pull upon heat and ice, mingling them together, but even as he did, he knew it wasn’t going to be enough.
An emptiness filled the dragon.
And he tried, but there could be nothing done.
He crouched down, sitting for a moment, his hands resting on the dragon. “I should have been able to help him,” he whispered.
“He knew it was his time,” the ice dragon said.
Jason looked over at him. “He was young. At least, for a dragon he was young. There should have been something I could have done.”
“It was his time,” the ice dragon said. “Come. He wanted you to find the ancestors.”
“You know where it is?”
“I did not. I do now.”
Jason remained next to the dragon for a long time, holding his hands above his body, wishing that there was more that he could do and feeling regret that he could not.
“Come,” the ice dragon nudged again.
Finally, Jason got up. Janeya watched him, saying nothing through it all.
He climbed onto the ice dragon’s back and then waited for Janeya to join him. When she did, he shook his head. “I’m sorry. I tried to do everything I could for him.”
“I know, but why?”
“Because he’s a dragon,” Jason said. “And he was a friend. He helped when others did not. When others could not.”
The ice dragon took to the air and the landscape started to shift, taking on the appearance that the blue dragon had shown him. A hint of smoke and haze began to appear, and then they started to descend, dropping to the ground, following what Jason could see of the shifting and shimmering landscape until they came to the ground.
“This dragon was connected to an auran, someone who could have been a Dragon Soul but chose not to be. And because of that, the dragon was allowed to live free. I feel I owe it to this dragon to understand. I feel like I owe it him to do more.”
She watched him before turning and nodding off into the distance. Jason looked, following the direction of her gaze, and noticed a slight haze hanging over the ground. Something like a fog, but he didn’t think that was the case.
Mist?
Not the same as the mist dragon, though.
He headed toward it.
The ice dragon followed him, but the rumbling under the ground suggested that the earth dragons were coming as well. As he went, he focused on the haze and the energy there. He thought it was from the mist dragons, or even from the smoke dragons, but as he neared, he realized that wasn’t the case at all.