A/N: This is the second post today everyone, be sure to look at the previous chapter before this one!

ALIE

   I coughed and gagged as the dust settled, blinking stone dust and tears from my eyes at a rapid pace so I could see. I felt the wind on my skin, warmer now, and felt completely exposed.
   But it was his presence that slew tendrils of cold fear down my neck. It was more then a presence, it was a voice. Not one of words precisely, but pushed on me like a blanket my instincts could almost hear. It was angry and territorial and my mind could translate the instinct into words I understood.
   HOW DARE YOU HUMANS COME HERE TO THIS HOME THAT IS MINE.
   This, I knew, was the voice only royals could hear. The ones from the original bloodline of the kings of old. The Kaide's, the Flower's, the Avery's, the Dargolyn's... and the Greyor's.
   I was the only one here most definitely of the bloodlines except, perhaps, Ritch. I was a Greyor. It was I who would have to face this dragon. It was only I who could save us.
   I finally blinked the dust away and stood. Some part of my eye saw the others stumbling to their feet as well amongst the ruin of stone surrounding us, but most of me could only see the beast that was before me.
   His eyes were the same green-yellow as the females had been, but whereas her pupils had been what you would call narrow, his were fine black slits like a crack in a stone. They were set into a horn-like skull, the small, black scales growing larger as they trailed down his strong neck to a long body, then thinning once more at its tail where it ended in a sharp and jagged point.
   He had four legs, the hind ones slightly larger then the ones in front, and each limb had four massive digits, three of which with a great curved talon the size of my forearms and the forth one behind almost comically smaller at the size of my hand --- the size of the one on Geacob's necklace.
   The wings were loose but not stretched, making it difficult to tell the size but I was able to see they were thin enough to see the stars shine though them. They ended in curved talons similar to his claws but hollowed and smoother.
   I saw all this, but what I saw more than anything else, even more so then his bright and mesmerising eyes, were the sharp teeth poking jaggedly out the front of his snout, revealing only a small fraction of the terror hiding in the shadows of those scaled jaws.
   They were less then ten feet from me, close enough so that I could smell the salty smoke off his breath.
   And I froze.
   My body refused to move. I didn't feel fear though, but instead, I felt absolute awe at such a magnificant creature.
   "We only came t-to ask you some questions!"
   It was not I who spoke --- as I still stood frozen in wonderment --- but Venny. How could Venny hear the dragon? I looked over in surprise to see him standing tall. He didn't look afraid but... angry, his eyes narrowed. "Once you answer them, we'll leave you in peace!"
   The dragon's eyes moved to Venny and a vibration came through the cave. It was not a growl but a warning in the mind.
   YOU OFFEND ME, BOY-KING.
   He huffed and I heard Loryn let out a small squeak and saw Ritch trying to cover her head as if that would protect her.
   She was terrified of this creature.
   And the creature could smell it.
   I remembered what Uncle Jack had said then, about the scent of fear and how much the dragons despised it. I saw the eyes narrow at Loryn just then, and the muscles of the dragon's neck enlarge as it coiled in a similar way to a snake and prepared to strike.
   No.
   "Roiloighon." I said calmly. "You will not hurt them."
   The dragon's eyes moved to me and I felt his surprise at the demand in my tone.
   YOU DARE SPEAK TO ME AS IF I AM BELOW YOU?
   "Alie, no." Geac whispered but I stepped forward, across the dusted stone, my feet scattering bones that tinkled and clinked or turned to dust which bellowed and wisped with the wind around me.
   "You are not below me, Roiloighon, but none, be he a man or a god, should hurt my friend simply because they fear you when you are, in fact, so fearsome."
   Those eyes studied me and inhaled deeply, then let it out in a gust that I had to brace myself to keep standing under. He tilted his head as it looked at me. YOU DO NOT FEAR ME. It's presence over my mind and instincts said. Then he grew angry again. LEAVE NOW OR ROT HERE FOR ETERNITY. YOU DARE BE HERE SO UNWELCOME INTO THE HOME I CLAIM AS MINE. He swiped his talon'd paw out, not at me, but at the bones, throwing them against the wall of the chambers in rage.
   Like a spoiled child, he was. I thought this, but didn't say. A spoiled child not getting his own way fast enough.
   At the violent move, the other four stumbled back, but I remained unflinching. Weakness, I knew, would not be good to show such a creature. Like a mountain lion, weakness would mean prey. Just as fear did.
   "I've heard you can sense the lies in words, so listen to mine and hear the truth in them, Roiloighon." I told him, my voice clear and calm. "We mean no harm at all to you by coming here. We only dared enter your lair in search of you to beg answers we are in desperate need of."
   Those eyes studied me again.
   YOU WILL ASK, GIRL-PRINCESS. He finally said. THEN YOU WILL LEAVE.
   I didn't delay. "The five of us have been gifted a vision of the fire you gave."
   I KNOW THIS. I GIFTED THIS. YOU ASKED NO QUESTION.
   "My question is: why?"
   KINGDOMS SHOULD BE EARNED BY THOSE WHOSE BLOOD TIES THEM.
   I frowned. "I don't understand."
   I GAVE MY ANSWER. YOU WILL NOW LEAVE.
   "I have more than one question."
   He let out a huff but there were no word and so I dared ask.
   "Why did you bring us together? If it truly was you whom gave us these visions, what is it that we are to do now that we are joined?"
   THIS ANSWER YOU SHOULD KNOW.
   I fought the urge to glare at him. "We do not have the minds of a dragon but instead of lowly humans. Perhaps that is the reason we do not understand."
   THIS ANSWER YOU WOULD KNOW, he corrected himself, HAD YOU BEEN HONEST WITH ONE ANOTHER. KINGS OF OLD HAD HONOR. HONOR IS TRUTH. YOU EACH HAVE FAILED YOUR TEST. His eyes moved to Geacob briefly. AS HAVE THE BLOOD OF THOSE WHO HAD LIED TO YOU; KEPT SECRETS THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN KEPT. His eyes went back to me and I felt his fury build up, directed at me and me alone, making goosepimples rise on my arms and legs and the back of my neck. KINGS OF OLD HAD HONOR, AS HAD YOUR FATHER. PERHAPS IT IS HE WHO I SHOULD HAVE GIFTED THE SIGHT, THOUGH HE WOULD NOT HAVE LEFT HIS KINGDOM AS YOU DID. YOU, GIRL-PRINCESS, HAVE FAILED YOUR TEST OF HONOR. YOU ARE NOT WORTHY TO FOLLOW YOUR BLOODLINE.
   Anger. Only anger consumed me at hearing those words. "You claim that you yourself were wrong then, Roiloighon?"
   He snarled at me, his teeth snapping, his wings ruffling. YOU DARE!
   "You chose us." I said firmly, fighting down the fear and forcing my calm once more. "For some reason, you chose us. If we have failed something you believed we would pass, that would indicate that it was you yourself what was wrong." I quickly spoke louder over the sound of his snarling. "Or perhaps you were, in fact, correct, but you are too impatient and furious to properly guide us."
   A clawed hand came down hard on the ground next to me. So close that I felt the scales brush my arm and my hair whipped with the wind of its movement.
   YOU DARE!
   "Alie, stop." Geac whispered.
   But I couldn't. If I stopped now, I was as good as dead.
   "You claim to be godly. A protector. A guardian. This is what you claim and so you will claim the responsibilities that come with those titles, Roiloighan. Protects us. Guide us as you see fit. I beg it of you." I paused. "I, not as one who follows you, for I follow the guidance of the Mother, but guide and protect us because you have chosen us."
   He snarled again, pure rage. When I was a little girl, my family and I had gone to Tark to celebrate the marriage of the crowned prince. I'd been only a toddler then, but I remember my father sitting me upon his shoulders as he showed me the massive cat from across the seas. The king had it shipped in specifically to fight in the tourney, but father let me see it before it was let loose and I remember very clearly the sound it had made as it lifted its head and roared.
   Until I heard this dragon snarl, I had thought it was the most massive sound in all the lands, but this snarl of anger made that sound very similar to that of a baby bird in comparison.
   I SHOULD KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND, GIRL-PRINCESS!
   "You will not!" Geacob yelled. "You will not harm her!"
   The fury that leaked from the dragon came out in a wave of heat that teared my eyes and scalded my skin. But then, he stilled, and in that stillness, I could feel a hint of something I was sure was fear come from the dragon. I looked to Geac, expecting him to have found some massive weapon that even a dragon would pause before.
   He held, not a weapon, but his necklace before him, held up in his hand high above his head. He walked over slowly so that he was almost in front of me and I felt his fingers reach back and lace with mine.
   "We came here to ask for answers." Geacob spoke now. "You chose to give us riddles and insults. We, the first in years, have come to you begging guidance and protection, and you threaten to do the opposite. You say it's because we failed a test? Very well, perhaps we have." He nodded in acceptance. "Then give us another. Try us again. Let us prove that all those deaths of all those kings were not for nothing."
   I squeezed his fingers. I have never loved him more.
   YOU STINK OF FEAR. The dragon said with a low rumble that trailed off as he continued. BUT YOU HIDE IT WELL. AS OTHERS OF YOUR BLOODLINE HAVE THROUGHOUT THE CENTURIES. He was quiet a moment, his presence over my mind finally still and simply thoughtful.
   Then it came to me; Geacob could hear him, too?
   The dragons' eyes shifted from Geacob and I, to where Ritch, Loryn and Venny stood, including us all as he spoke again.
   LORIS PETTAL HAD NO BUISNESS IN DARGOLYN SITTING UNDER THE CROWN THAT WAS NOT HIS. HE UPSET THE BALANCE. HE DID SO FURTHER BY CORRUPTING FLORN AND AVERTON. HORNOR WAS FAILING AMONG THE FIVE BLOODLINES AND IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE NASCIA AND TARK SUCCUMED TO IT AS WELL. He sat up, looking quite kingly himself. A FRESH BEGINNING WAS NEEDED AND SO I CHANGED THE FUTURE OF THE LAND AS I ONCE VOWED I WOULD IF DARKNESS CAME.
   Then those eyes narrowed again. YOU FIVE ARE THE FUTURES OF WHICH I CHOSE. THREE OF YOU LIED OF WHOM IT IS YOU ARE. TWO OF YOU HAVE BEEN LIED TO, YET ARE TO BLAME BECAUSE YOU NEVER SEARCHED FOR THE TRUTH. He sniffed at Geacob. I WILL BRING YOU, ALONG WITH YOUR RANGERS, TO THE BASE OF THE MOUNTAIN. PAST THE PATHETIC ARMY THAT NEARS THE CIRCLE EVEN NOW. He sniffed again. RANGERS. The dragon actually managed a gruesome grimace. I DESPISE RANGERS.
   With that, four talons wrapped tightly around the waist and hips of Geacob and I, while the other reached out, swiping up Ritch, Loryn, and Venny at the same time, giving none of us time to react or even attempt to dodge.
   "Oh, shite!" I heard Venny shout as Roiloighon turned around in the cavern and pushed out of the cave.
   I screamed at first as we made the first arch and I saw two oceans in the far distance and nothing but blackness below. The wind burned my skin and eyes and I forced them to close, focusing on Geacobs warm body and the tight, nearly painful grip of the dragon that surrounded us both.
   But then we began to circle downward, and though I felt uncomfortable pressure in my ears and the wind froze sweat to my skin and I knew that if we dropped, it was instant death...
   It was exhilarating.
   I found myself laughing and I threw out my hands. "I'm flying!" I shouted. Thank you Mother!
   Geac, who had one arm wrapped around my waist above the talon, near as tight as the dragon himself, shouted into my ear. "You've gone mad!" He shouted but I could hear laughter in his voice above the fear. "You're gone completely mad! The both of you!"
   "Both?" I opened my eyes and looked through the stinging wind at the others only a couple feet from us, but I hadn't heard a sound from them. Venny was grinning like a fool but clutching Ritch as if his life depended on it. Ritch had both arms pinned by the claws and had his eyes shut, his face decidedly green.
   But Loryn had her arms out like I did, her eyes closed and a small and gentle smile on her face, looking completely relaxed. All the fear she'd had of the dragon vanished with the extent of her excitement. For the first time, I saw what Loryn would have looked like had she been raised without invisible chains on her wrists, if she hadn't been forced to endure all that she had since she had the vision. She looked young and free and peaceful. Mother, I thought, if we die, I beg you return her as a bird.
   The most frightening part was landing, seeing as he barely skimmed the ground when he dropped us. We landed hard and rolled and bounced across the earth. By the time we stooped and stretched arms and legs in search of broken bones, the dragon was already swooping down again with five screaming Rangers and one grinning Uncle Jack clutched in its talons. Jack came to a stop after his roll and bounded to his feet as if he weren't nearing his fortieth year.
   "You did it!" He shouted at us. "You're all alive!" Then he frowned just as quickly. "Where's the storyteller?"
   "Dead." I said. "Died saving our lives from the female dragon."
   "At last, he finally escapes life's suffering." He said solemnly, then he looked wary. "So... whom did Roiloigon speak to?"
   "All of us." Said Loryn. "Why?"
   "All of you?" Uncle Jacks eyes bugged. "B-but that's impossible." He said.
   "Well, it was mostly Alie." Geacob said, a touch of amusement in his tone from hearing his uncle stutter. "But yes, we could all hear him. So I suppose that thing about dragons only speaking to kings isn't true seeing as none of us but Loryn is even royal and not even of the bloodline." Then he turned to grin at me. "We did it!" Then he frowned. "Though, the dragon didn't say much of anything useful did he."
   Truth, Roiloighon had said. I needed to tell the truth.
   Just as I thought of him, the dragon swooped down, dropping another batch of screaming Rangers. I wondered if he could hear me, and if he could, I wondered if he were listening.
   "What's wrong?" Geac asked, seeing my face.
   I swallowed. "I need to tell you something." I told him. Speak the words, Alie. "I need to tell you who I really am."
   He frowned but somehow managed to make it a kind smile as well. "Are you sure? If it's because of what the dragon said---"
   "My-name-is-Aliena-Greyor." I said quickly before I could stop myself, my word running together I'd spit them out so quickly.
   He frowned in confusion at first, probably trying to understand my quick-spoken words, then they widened in shock as he heard them, then understanding as he recalled the name of the only daughter of King Aaryn Greyor of Nascia.
   His hand slipped from my shoulders. "W-what?" He breathed.
   Then Loryn dropped to the ground and for a moment, I thought she had fainted at the sound of my confession, but then Venny crumpled as well, then Geacob. 
   A vision, I thought. We're going to have another vision.
   Then Ritch stumbled and fell face first on the harp packed dirt and then I suddenly---