Hokage

Hokage had been Travelling, he had intended to spend the rest of his life going from place to place, reflecting on his life up until now, dedicated to His art. He wanted to put his considerable strength to other uses and take part in the softer arts. Fighting had taken its toll on his psyche and he had found his soul wearying. He had been travelling a few months, flitting from lair to lair, carrying out tasks to pay for his supper, sometimes begging the kindness of strangers but also offering what he had to others in need when he had anything to share.

Months went by and he felt as though he was coming back to himself. His previous fire slowly being restored. He began drilling again for himself, though more slowly, to reduce the stiffness in his bones from sleeping out in the wilds, on rocky beds with only what he knew of survival to keep him warm. He was fortunate to have been born of an Iceheart lineage as he found that he needed less warmth than other Dragons to feel comfortable, occasionally he pondered which parent he had inherited this from as neither had told him much of his heritage before he had been sold to another Clan.

Further months went on, he continued to train gently and slowly. Winter came and went and came again, or perhaps he just strayed too close to the ice floes of the southern Ice field The road became wearisome, but Hokage was stubborn, he had made up his mind. He was a traveller now, no longer a burden to any clan, no longer subject to the demands of a clan who had really only raised him to get something from him. No longer subject to petty social politics. Yet he missed it; belonging somewhere.

The iciness of the season and the cold wind took its toll on him though. No one place to call his own became nigh on unbearable as he fell ill with dragon flu. Coughing racked his body and he lost weight as food became scarce. The waters nearby the floes were freezing and this stopped him from hunting. He stopped moving and tried to set up a more permanent shelter 'at least until I can recover' he told himself. And he did recover, but only a little. He had been left with a bad chest and was weak from weeks of little food, sometimes going days without eating anything at all.

It was as he rested in his frigid den on a floating iceberg that had broken from the north side of the Ice floes that a warmer wind greeted him. He tried to curl himself tighter, ignoring the soothing breeze, but it tugged at his mane and wings. It played with his tail and blew a sweet-scented, purple dragon-lily round his nest until it caught on his antlers. It teased him during the day but disappeared at night, only returning when he woke from a bout of coughing or was wracked with shivers till he could no longer sleep. Then it would return, like a beloved pet checking that its owner was alright. A calming presence that lingered until he fell back asleep exhausted.

One morning as the 'berg continued its lazy journey, Hokage awoke feeling more refreshed. A slew of coughing made him pause to catch his breath but it did not seem to diminish the slight return of energy. The warm breeze had been growing stronger of late and that morning it was almost blustery. It blew strangely from the south, heating his frosty bones and caught excitedly at his wings, lifting him a few inches from the ground regardless of how tightly he tried to fix his pinions to his side. He tolerated this for about an hour before he gave up. Fighting the wind was draining what little energy he felt he had recovered. He gazed out in the direction to which the wind appeared to be travelling and sighed. It would be a nightmare trying to fly with a tailwind. there would be far too much flapping involved.

As though reading his thoughts the breeze blustered up again with new insistence. tugging out his fans and setting them up for flight without need for really any of his input. He took a last glance back at the paltry set-up he had made for himself in the icy divot on the side of the block of ice. The berg moved ominously beneath his paws. He felt he should have been alarmed; had that happened before? However the breeze seemed to know what it was doing, and gently lifted his spirits along with his body. He sweetly took to the air, finding that flight had become easier than he could ever remember. Circling the block on which he had made his home for the last couple of months he found it far smaller than he had realised. The iceberg shrank from view as he made a third circumference of it, rising effortlessly and he spotted a large crack down its north side. An astounding crack echoed up to him as he watched in shock and awe. nearly a third of the berg broke off and went slewing into the sea whilst the remainder slowly thought about its new, lightweight figure before deciding to go for a swim.

Hokage watched with less horror than he felt he should as his pinprick of a nest was submerged in water by the rotating glacier who seemed to thing showing its smooth and dimpled backside to the sky was a wonderful thing to do. As he was distracted he didn't notice the breeze lifting him higher and higher. Sornieth shrank away from him until he could vaguely see the outlines of the closest great region. The Twisting Crescendo spun lazily in the distance letting him know that he was far closer to the Windswept plateau than he had realised. Slight panic set in as he wondered if the breeze from the crescendo had come to claim his soul and that perhaps he had died on that gods-forsaken slab. Though almost as soon as this thought occurred an errant wet leaf slapped him in the face. The Crescendo itself seemed to dance slightly with amusement as it spun its lazy spiral to the East.

Disgruntled a gentle cross-breeze came to once again quieten his thoughts. He could feel the air thicken beneath his wings once more as an alarming gust swept him rapidly to the north accelerating as it went. the air beneath was so warm that all he had to do was glide, the cooler air above directing him towards what seemed to be the Starfall Isles the glow from which was visible on the horizon.

Settled and placid he let the wind take him where it would, rising higher in the sky than he had ever been before. The warmer weather would hopefully help him recover from his poor health. Gusts blew him along for most of the morning, taking him gently in a great curve round the twisting Crescendo so that he skirted along the border to the plague lands. Whenever a disturbing thought arose (that he was to be taken to the Starfall isles to lose what little strength he had and was to lose his mind to the skies, that he was to go and be a plague dragon due to his recent illness, or that he was being lured into the open maws of the Shade to face his own destruction) warm crosswinds would blow the thought from him as easily as it blew the dust and snow from his mane.

The Warm wind did not abate as it continued into the afternoon. His stomach rumbled, his wings ached from the prolonged time in the air and he felt his mind dull with weariness. Just as he felt he would pass out, a dense cloud of confused Insects, caught on a rising draft, came into his flightpath. He could not have avoided them even had he wished to and though they were not the seafood he preferred, the impromptu meal they provided was the sweetest thing he thought he had ever tasted. He could not remember when last he had eaten and the sustenance was enough to renew his energy for the flight.

The warm wind blew softer as the hours passed. He skimmed over the sea of a thousand currents. The leviathan Trench and the Spiral deep stretching out ominously beneath him. He had by now learned to trust his wings and the air beneath them, but still a great foreboding came upon him as he dipped gently lower. A few bubbles reached the surface and popped with a great groaning which he was glad was mostly swept away by the defensive air around him. He was not sure that the lamentations of the Tidelord would not have driven him completely mad.

Thankfully though the air round him was slowing considerably, it continued on into the evening. Hokage worried that it would not give up and that he would have to fight it to let him land. He could not sleep on the wing, that was not a skill he possessed. And since lunch he had just about lost all of his energy. He fought not to pass out, fearful that he would be blown like a broken rain-shelter until the was thrashed against Sornieth, broken and bleeding if not worse.
The wind Who had seemed to have lost most of its own strength abated more rapidly. It no longer seemed interested in Keeping his dark thoughts at bay as the light begun to fail.

Twilight swept across the tangled wood as Hokage skimmed the tops of the stunted trees, the light died and he was dowsed in darkness. The ground seemed to be dipping away from him the further into the Shadowbinders domain he travelled but his altimeter sense failed as he could no longer see and a great fear rose in his breast. Things began to hit him in the face. Things he prayed were branches and not bats or sprites or even worse Furians...

The Wind that had carried him so faithfully so far, The wind he had come to trust, that had protected him from the creeping doubt and from the Tidelords wails, the wind that had fed him and given him hope, Died abruptly. He flapped feebly, shocked to find that there appeared to be no air beneath his wings whatsoever. As the wind had died so too had his energy. Unable keep himself aloft, he crashed violently downwards, careening into Solid wood, rocks and great banks of Bramble and thorn. He came hurtling out from a particularly dense patch of thorny trees onto a small, sodden clearing. The circle of trees would not even have allowed him to stretch out fully and his tail dragged into the undergrowth behind him. He collapsed to the ground incapable of taking his own weight. Without the power to stand, cough, or think, Hokage blacked out.

Eyes glinted from the trees. Small beady eyes. On coming to, It occurred to Hokage that the Wind had been helping him to remain calm throughout the strange happenings of the day. That the breeze had bolstered his spirits and chased away his fears, making him capable of even considering such a flight. Gentle gusts had kept him warm in the days on the run up to the journey and its return every time he had woken had been as comforting as having a companion. Now it had left him, all fear flooded back. His body was heavy; he could barely move. He could no longer believe his wings were capable of flight, never mind having flown all day. A dull ache rested in his chest that prophesied a worsening of his condition and despite the humid air around him the ice in his bones appeared to have returned with a vengeance.

So exhausted was he, so full was his head with brain fog that he did not notice that he had an audience until a soft chatter echoed from the wood to his left. the soft babble was echoed by another creature straight ahead, which was taken up by a third off to his rear. He froze. The chattering did not seem friendly somehow. Purple glints signified scales and claws. The smell of rot and decay met his nostrils, along with the faint whisper of carrion. A wolf howled in the distance. They said Hati roamed these woods.

Caught between abject terror and resignation of his fate, Hokage found himself focussing on a gentle blue glow through a line of trees to his right.

"Its here! Its here, Uncle!!!" a youthful voice reached him, shouting through the trees.
A low growl echoed into the small clearing from Hokage's Left and he summoned enough strength to Growl loudly back. He could not allow a child to be harmed through his own stupidity.

"yes, yes, Shade, Be careful! you don't know what it is!" came the kindly reply. As a Greenish Glow joined the Bluish one.

Whatever had growled seemed to think twice about taking on a defensive, hurt dragon and another Drake in full health.

Hokage groaned deeply as a small purple pearlcatcher hatchling came gambolling into the clearing, making plenty of noise and growling adorably at the bushes. No doubt he thought he was being fierce. The eyes there seemed to realise they were not getting fed today either and one-by-one receded into the wood.


Following the Oysterling a small adolescent male Tundra appeared through the undergrowth and stopped in his tracks on seeing the injured 8 tonne Imperial. His coat was an Alarming shade of Green and in fact seemed to be the source of the greenish-yellow glow.
"SHADE, COME HERE NOW!" the young male shouted at the infant. Hokage would have smirked if he didn't feel so dreadful.
"Why?" shade answered with curiosity.
"Shade!" the glowing Boar almost shouted. He was spooked and scared for the child.
"But he fell from the sky! can i keep him? Only if nobody else wants him?" the small dragon wittered as he came round to stand in front of Hokage's head as it rested on the ground.
Hokage Coughed weakly. Shades mane was blasted backwards.

"Nice to meet you little one." Hokage rumbled. "You'd best run back to your nanny." Shade looked affronted.
"That's not my nanny!! That's Sonny, He's my Uncle." The hatchling seemed set on talking Hokage's ear off, but Sonny quickly interjected.
"Shade." his voice dropped with warning. the little oysterling rolled his eyes and trotted back to Sonny's side.

"you don't look so good grandfather." Sonny addressed Hokage Cautiously. "Can i get you some help?" The honorific tickled the large Hart and he rumbled deep in his chest. He took a deep breath and paused before answering.

"I could use a little help, yes, only I fear that the creatures in this wood will have me before you manage to bring back any assistance." the sentence drained him.

"Can you walk?" came the tentative question. "our clans lair is not far from here, I'm trying to tire out this one before bed." Sonny gestured to little Shade who looked far too excited at having a brand new member of the clan to even think about sleeping yet.

Hokage didn't think he could but grumbled a noncommittal answer in reply.

"in any case," Sonny continued, "the animals here tend to prefer Carrion to live kills, you would probably be fine for the time being." Hokage sighed. This wasn't going to be easy.

He thought about it and decided that he would tolerate his pain and discomfort as long as the lair wasn't far.
“How far?” rumbled the Imperial. Sonny thought.
“About half a Kilometer.” Hokage pondered this and then sighed again before Heaving himself up. He stumbled a little and swayed precariously, to which Sonny grabbed the young Pearlcatcher and took a few steps back. The thought of food and somewhere warm to sleep spurred him on and Hokage found he had just enough energy to drag himself along. He was much bigger than the other two, half a kilometre wasn’t too far. Sonny took the lead and tried to explain quietly to the baby dragon who was currently bouncing on his back that you have to be careful around strange and Injured dragons. Hokage plodded on slowly in silence, all energies focussed on keeping himself upright. The tips of his wings and tail left great gouges in the earth and he dragged one of his rear paws that seemed to have gotten damaged in the fall.
Very quickly they came across a large clearing which glowed quite brightly with blue Mushrooms of some sort. Hokage would have liked to examine them if he had been in any fit state to do so. Across the field there was a gathering of tents. A haphazard collection of wooden buildings created a kind of an easily defendable encampment set in amongst a clump of trees. The underbrush had obviously been cleared to create some larger dwellings whilst a few smaller nests perched in the firs round about. The lair was taller than its footprint suggested. Fires glowed beyond the entrance welcoming the weary traveller and Hokage had the fleeting sensation that this was much like coming home.