She moved swiftly across the ruined landscape like a river cutting through stones. The sun seemed to be setting however...the sun does not set in the east and yet the east was set aflame like dusk. It was supposed to be night. Midnight. Even the two moons with their pale blue glows were proof of that. Yet the eastern burning orange sky reflected in her eyes.

Snow was falling and it covered the ground like a soft blanket across the land. It covered the stones and the splintered wood and the rubble that stretched as far as the eye could see. Though there was something strange about the snow. Something unnatural. It fell all around her and landed on her pretty white scales and turned them black.

She stopped and stared up at the sky to watch the black snowflakes spiral down onto the ground. A rather large one drifted onto her snout. But it wasn't cold and it didn't melt. It was hot, so hot in fact, that it glowed red like the embers of a campfire. When the glow disappeared a wisp of steam disintegrated into the atmosphere. The wind blew the dark flake off her nose and again it drifted into the air to join the others on a journey. The breeze also carried a smell. The harshly burning smell of smoke filled her lungs and she coughed in attempt to clear it from her system. Then she knew that this wasn't snow that fell from the dark sky. It was ash.

"Try not to inhale too much of it. We'll both end up suffocating."

The voice made her spin round to face the owner of the deep and naturally confident voice. It was the type of voice that could win a battle if one could could do so.

"They have attacked the heart of our land. The rivers and streams run red with the blood of our kin." The female spoke in a hushed tone and turned back to the blazing skies of the east.

The creature, to whom the voice belonged, was none other than Igneous, a handsomely scaled beast with torn wings that have seen many fights. "It's not just the rivers and streams you should worry about, my dear snowflake. It is the fact that the hunters have become the hunted in this twisted reality." He paused for a moment to let that message sink in.

The she-dragon closed her eyes as she listened to the winds and the whispers of fallen warriors they carried with them. Her heart sunk into her stomach where it froze. "We cannot go on like this. It is only a matter of time before they overrun our lands completely and our races are hunted to extinction."

"They've already overrun the lands! Everywhere you look there's human scum!Every day thousands die. We can't do this anymore. We can't sit around, waiting for something to happen while we're hunted! Dragons are already a fiend to even the Commonfolk!!" Igneous exclaimed. When the she-dragon flinched, he lowered his tone, quietly apologized and added, "Mysterion has arranged a meeting. We should go."

***

"That is outrageous!! Y-you can't, Frosty!"

Frost lowered herself back into her seat and sealed her lips. The outburst from Illumir swept an uneasy silence across the room. Scales rattled. Paws shuffled. Breaths hushed. The others didn't like her idea...but it wasn't like they had a choice. One of them had to go and the best choice was her. Others thought otherwise.

"There has to be another way. We can send someone else to do it," Evelyn quickly said so the quiet could be suppressed. It didn't work. Another wave of uncomfortable silence washed over the great beasts. "We could send a Celestial. O-or one of the triplets!"

"No!" Roared the powerful voice of Mysterion, then repeated a bit quieter, "No. It won't work with Celestials, not even the Elders can do it. As for the triplets, their fates have already been bound. To ask one of them would force history to be rewritten and we cannot risk that." This was a massive dragon, shrunken to fit into the meeting room, but still somewhat larger than Igneous. Her royal purple, spade-shaped scales glistened in the low candlelight of the room.

Murmurs ripples across the room and whispers whistled in their hushed tones. Then it all went silent again. "Alright," said the great white and golden-marked dragon, Illumir. "It's settled then. Frost will go. She'll do it on the condition that the prophecy is true."

Igneous nodded in agreement. The fiery scaled dragon had always had doubts about this so-called 'prophecy'. It was first heard over a decade ago and still no sign of the destined savior. Even the stars had grown quiet and they were responsible for revealing the grand words of hope. Had even Paradise started to doubt their own tellings? It was strange and it was nerve racking to think about. Thankfully Frost was able to distract him from his thoughts.

"The prophecy is true. We must all believe that otherwise all hope is truly lost. We will survive this as long as we have hope for without hope we have no magic and without magic we are defenseless."

"But you've got to keep in mind that some people don't even have magic abilities, making them already sitting ducks with labels on their heads saying: 'shoot me'. What about those people, Frost?" Shanya quickly said before Frost could continue. "Not everyone travels in groups and traveling in groups nowadays is most dangerous. Humans have weapons we don't. They have machines that tear up the land. They have machines that can blow a Mekur to pieces. They have machines that can extract magic even from an Eysarys. They can extract a dragon's blood and use it in their witchery projects."

Frost lowered her head. Shanya was right. What did they have compared to the barbarians from Earth? Yes, they had hope, but that was slowly dying and with it many innocent lives were lost. If only the people's prayers were answered and help arrived, but their prayers were greeted with silence. Paradise had nothing left to say as bodies piled high and rivers ran scarlet and thick with blood.

Eventually Elijah spoke up for the first time since the meeting had started. Small sparks of impatience flickered along the spine of his slender grey body. A single electric blue stripe of long hair went down his spine which was the source of the sparks. "Prophecies are a tricky thing - they always are delivered in riddles. You can never tell when it'll happen or how long it'll take until it dawns. Most of the time you make the wrong assumptions and that leads to irreversible and sometimes fatal mistakes."

"He's right," Evelyn quickly stated before Elijah could continue his rapid rambling. "All we can do is wait and see what time will tell. If we're all going to end up dead because of the wait, then so be it. Irrational thinking will get us nowhere."

Mysterion, the grand purple dragon, dipped her horned head. "I believe this meeting is adjourned. Frost will take the Orb to the deepest cave in Sutirigor and remain there until the time his arrival..."