Hi everyone! I know, I know, I've been so inactive lately. I was fighting writers block, then I had studying (all that's wrapping up for now) and work, then right when I had planned to update I got busy with preparations for my brothers engagement. So yeah, basically, life happened. But here's a freshly baked chapter, made with plenty of love <3 I'm also making new book 'Interdimensional Pirates', if anyone is interested in adding it to their libraries to check it out when I start on it. Until then, peace out ✌🏼 and please forgive me for the wait I made you guys go through 😣 let me know how you're liking bk2 so far! I'd really like to hear your thoughts :) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >
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The wind howled through the cracks and holes in the mountain. Smoke rose slowly from its peak, staining the clouds above ash grey. Men yelled in anger and screamed in pain and fear as they threw spears up towards the mountain. Inside the volcano that's walls dripped sluggishly with lava, dragons gathered around the cracks and holes in the volcano walls to fire back. Fire and ice shot back at the men who leaped out of the way, rowling and tumbling on the slippery snow.

I sat in my small stone room looking down at the red dress I was wearing. I had been working on making a dress since I had arrived at the dragons home, two months ago. I had finally finished it this morning and I looked down at it in satisfaction. The ground shook under me and dust fell from the roof as the battle continued outside. It had woken me up and I had quickly slipped on my new dress, followed by my bow and quiver, then my snake-skin bag. I strode out of my room in frustration, heading straight for the Generals room.

I stopped in from of General Theaven's room, holding back the urge to storm in. "May I enter, General?" I asked and I heard his voice behind the large stone door, welcome me in. I pushed the door open with a considerable amount of effort, the hinges squeaking from the weight.
When I had first arrived here, I'd often wonder how the Dragons managed to build things like the hinges on the doors. Only the rooms of important dragons, or in my case, people, had doors. The rest of the rooms were all open and people could move in and out as they pleased.
The few doors in the volcano were large rounded rocks that had been carved to fit the door hole, with just a small gap at the bottom so the door could be pushed back and forward. There was one large hinge on the door that connected it to the wall and allowed it to move back and forward more freely, that was made with a mixture of metals and was, in a humans eyes, quite a messy job, bumped and waved in odd ways that looked as though there was little effort put into it. However, for dragons, I wondered how they even managed this. Though messy, they made something that needed such fine work, with their large paws and talons? And how would they know how to make hinges anyway? Isn't that a human invention?
But after all these questions piled up, I decided to ask Zane. That's when he took me deep into the mountain where I had never been before. There he introduced me to the dragons behind all the finer buildings. They were tiny dragons, much smaller than any I'd ever seen, the largest among them was only a bit more than half the size of Zane, but most of them were as large as my open hand.
"These are what we call Atoms, the smallest species of dragons alive today." Zane told me, as I watched the pale coloured dragons work, breathing tiny lines of fire onto chunks of metal, melting it and shaping it, slowly, with their tiny heatproof hands.
"They're very intelligent dragons. They have incredible memory and they can recreate anything they've seen being made. That's how they made the hinges you asked about." Zane said. "but why've I never seen them around the village before?" I asked. I was sure if I'd ever seen a dragon so small I'd have remembered it, considering when I had first seen Zane I thought he was the smallest dragon.
"Well, they aren't exactly the best dragons for attacks are they? They're far too small. On occasion though, they'll convince the General to allow a few of them to sneak into the villages blacksmith shops. That's hoe they learnt to make these things, from a few minutes of observing the humans create something. Then when those dragons return they need to explain the whole process to the group. They aren't the prettiest creations, but they do the best they can with the little resources and knowledge they have."

This was some time back. Now when I see the creations of the Atoms I'm quite grateful. They went through dangerous means to gather the little bits of knowledge they needed to create something, and the things they didn't pick up from the humans, they figured out on their own.

Now I closed the door behind me, hearing the now familiar sound of the hinges squeaking, and the uncomfortable humidness of the volcano.
"How are you, your majesty?" General Theaven asked as I stepped closer to him, cranning my head up to look at his deep green scaled face.
"I could be better, it's chaotic outside! There's at least a hundred armed men outside, with bows and catapults, why is this happening?!" I was angry. It had been happening so often since my arrival. Why? We'd never travelled to the dragons mountain and attacked them in their homes before. Why all out of the sudden? I mean, maybe they guessed this is where I had taken the monile, but still, this was a very bold move of them. At first I thought there was no need to worry, but then I realised there were far too many unfamiliar faces. My guess was, in a desperate attempt to regain the monile, the Chief had requested aid from neighbouring villages in exchange for something valuable, maybe gold, maybe a promise to support them with resources throughout the winter, who knows.
Either way, they were sending large forces. I would sometimes go on Nevis to fly over the forest surrounding the village, and each time I went I saw a group of maybe twenty men wading their way through the snow. My guess was that they were trying to go unnoticed as they travelled, so as not to alert us, or any other enemies they might have, of an attack. To see twenty armed men travelling from one village to another wasn't out of the ordinary, in fact most onlookers would probably assume they were just delivering resources for trade, or that our village was struggling with hunts and they had been sent to aid them.
But this was no coincidence, every attack is getting worse and worse, with more people attacking and more weapons being included. I thought, with a sickening turn of my stomach, that at this rate, they may be preparing for war.

"Well, this should have been expected your majesty, we have in fact stolen the monile from them, after so many generations of it being in their possession." General Theaven said and I sighed. "I know, but I thought by reuniting you with the monile that it would bring peace between dragons and humans? That was why I gave it to you, that's why I stole it in the first place. What was the point if the fighting only gets worse!". My temper was rising and I didn't care, all of this pain and struggle only made things worse in the end.

General Theaven smiled sadly. I hated it when he done that, it was like he looked right through my anger and tough shell, to a young girl who was grieving, scared and confused. "If only it were that easy, your majesty." he started, making my anger and fear leap like a kindled flame, "but you said if I brought you the monile-", I began to say, my voice rising until it was almost a shout. "I know that's what we said your majesty. But we couldn't explain it all at the time. The monile doesn't have some magical ability to make all the humans love us or else drop dead, there's more to it than that."
It was obvious now that he mentioned it, and I pushed away the embarrassment that crept up at the thought that I had expected the war between dragons and humans that has lasted thousands of years, to just be over once I handed the dragons the monile.

"well.. What can I do to help?" I asked in a calmer tone now. If there was anything I could do, anything at all that could make this war end, to make me be able to live in peace, I would do it.
"Well, we can't carry on like this. I'm sure you've noticed the numbers of the humans are growing, and although we have around seven hundred dragons living here, not all of them are ready to fight." General Theaven said slowly, as if thinking carefully about what he was going to say next, perhaps unsure what we are to do himself.

"Well why not? What are the statistics?" I asked. "Well if we exclude the dragons who are unable to fight, such as the young, their mothers, the elderly and disabled, we have only have three hundred and fifty dragons. Only fifty among them are trained warriors." General Theaven explained and I pursed my lips. They never needed more dragons than that trained before, the attacks on the village were done one dragon at a time. The people were always caught unprepared when the dragons attacked in the past, but this time they're ready, with weapons we never had before.
I was also aware that some of the warriors among the dragons would leave in pairs every week to hunt and collect food and supplies. Generally ten dragons would be gone at a time.

"Well, what other options do we have?" I asked and General Theaven took a breath, as if he'd been waiting for that question this whole time.
"Well, you see, we weren't lying when we said the monile would bring peace between humans and dragons. You see, the monile was said to contain some power that would ensure peace for the dragons, however, the knowledge of what this power is and how to use it has since been lost."

"Been lost? What do you mean lost?" I asked, my heart thumping in my chest. This had to have all been worth it. My banishment and my parents death, had to be for something right?
"Well you see your majesty, the monile was created with a mixture of precious gems and dragon magic. The problem is, dragons no longer possess magic like we used to, over the years our magic grew weaker and weaker until it just died out. Now the best magic we have is the elements we breathe out of our mouths, like fire and ice." General Theaven said sadly.

" So basically, we know absolutely nothing about how to use the monile, or what it even does. That makes it completely useless does it not?" my temper began to seethe again, not at the General but at the situation we were in.
"Well, your majesty, I'm sure you are familiar with the tale of how the monile came to be made. It was when a soothsayer told the General of a Queen, who would come to rule the dragons and bring peace between them and the humans. The problem was, they obviously didn't expect the Queen to be born so many generations later.. So, they never bothered keeping much record of how to work the monile. After all, they can't have guessed we'd lose our powers over time and have no knowledge of how dragon magic works-"

"General?" I said and the General stopped speaking and looked at me curiosly.
"yes, your majesty?"
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but is there anything positive at all in this story? Is there any clues that can help us or are we at a dead end?" I asked, no longer being able to contain the desperate feeling inside of me, the feeling of desperately needing to know if I could fix things.

"My apologies your majesty, but there is in fact one clue." General Theaven started and my spirits instantly lifted. A clue, even the smallest hope would help.
"Well, in legend, we used to speak of a land that was the origin of all magic, a place that was full of peace, where magic was in the very air, and any creature who walked into that land would be healed of all their wounds and struggles. The perfect place really."
"So you believe this place could somehow help me figure out how to work the monile, correct?" I asked. If I were to be completely honest, the place didn't sound real at all. General Theaven said it was legend, but to me, it sounded like a fairy tale.

"Correct. In legend, it is said that you need to travel across an ocean of sand to reach this land. That's most likely speaking of the vast desert in the east. It's a few days from here for a dragon, I can't tell you for certain how long it'd take for you on foot.. "  I humbed quietly, scratching my chin in thought.
"And.. You really think this is a worthwhile trip? Do you truly believe this legend is real?" I asked and General Theaven nodded. "I do. Either way, it's worth a try. Better that than fighting the humans." he said. "but the problem is your majesty, we don't know how far away this land of magic is. Who knows how many months you could be gone? You need to decide what you want us doing in the meantime."
Ah, who knows how many months I will be gone. That's a long time. I sighed, General Theaven was right though, I needed to make a lot of decisions, and I needed to make them soon.
Because even now, right now, more villages were sending their warriors to aid in our destruction.

April Bluebird/BlueWhiskers1.
Dragon Age 2; The Queens Jewel.
Chapter 5; Decisions
21/Dec/2021
2446 words.