Getting back to his pack took far longer then he expected. The desert felt endless, far longer then when he had crossed it before. The heat was harsher as well and he felt himself growing in thirst.

‘I should have taken a drink before I flew,’ he thought.

After an hour or so more of flying a cluster of mountains appeared in the distance. Sharrag felt a leap of joy in his heart, but as he got closer he realised these were not the Beor Mountains he had come to know. They were much smaller and no snow aligned the mountain peeks, nor was the mountain range nearly as big as the Beor Mountains.

As he reached the first mountain the familiar smell of water reached him. He smiled and angled his flight downwards towards the small stream he spotted in the mountain ranges. He landed and took a deep draught of water. It was rather dark where he landed as well. The setting sun wasn’t visible and Sharrag let loose a small sigh. He enjoyed watching the sun sink into the horizon.

After he had drunk he curled up near the bank of the stream and fell to sleep, snoring softly. A pear of eyes peaked at the dragon from behind a rock. They belonged to a human. The rest of his features were hidden beneath a black robe that melted into the darkness, making him look nearly invisible.

From beneath the robe he pulled out a flat stone with jagged edges. His seemingly glowing eyes returned the green dragon and he muttered a few words in the ancient language and the stone seemed to glow. Flashes of green, blue and grey appeared on the stone and once it had finished the human placed the stone in his cloak and disappeared into the night.

* * *

Sharrag woke a little later then he wanted to. The sun was just peeking over the mountain horizon, which he guessed it to be around mid morning. With a groan he hauled himself to his feet and stretched like a cat, yawning. He took another drink of water before flapping his wings and taking off into the sky.

After another few hours of flight he finally spots the Beor Mountains in the distance. He let out a small roar of joy. He missed the large mountains and lush green forests, even if this little adventure had held a little more interest, he preferred the place with his wolves.

Another few hours and he reached the first of the mountains. He tilted his flight upwards so he flew up and over them with a small smile. He prepared himself for another exhausting flight over the top.

‘My wings are going to be strong after this,’ he thought with a smile.

The next few days went by quickly and before long the end of the Beor’s appeared in the distance. Sharrag frowned. If he could see them then he had passed over the valley where his wolves were a long time ago. With a growl of frustration he descended below the peeks and into the valley. He spread out his mind, trying to find the wolves. He didn’t have any luck.

He descended further until he was skimming across the treetops. The valley he was in wasn’t familiar at all. With a sigh he followed the valley for a while, before turning into another one. Before long the sky began to turn dark again. The dragon landed in a cave with a sigh and fell to sleep.

He continued like this for days, occasionally hunting down a few off the Feldunost that lived in the valleys. His wings were getting extremely tired by now and he debated whether or not to walk for a few days.

He passed into another valley, his mind still spread out searching. Another mind touched his own, causing him to growl and shield his head. The mind pressed again against his barriers, asking to come in. Sharrag frowned, the mind felt familiar, but he couldn’t place where he had felt it before.

He let it in.

‘Is you Sharrag?’ said a rather guttural sounding voice.

‘It is,’ replied the dragon.

‘Come. We wait,’ said the voice again.

Sharrag frowned and tracked down the source of the mind with his own and followed it. As he got closer he realised that the mind was that of one of his wolves, one of the younger males when he left. With a growl of happiness he glided down and landed at the cave where he felt they were.

One by one the Shrrg came out of the cave to greet their leader. The pups came last, rushing out towards him. Sharrag grinned and gave them all a nudge with his snout. He had missed them, and it looked like Angela had taught them a few things. He noticed that some of them had what looked like metal coverings for their body and the weapons they had foraged from the Urgralgra strapped to there sides, close enough to their heads so they could reach around and draw there weapon.

The last Shrrg to emerge was the younger one that had spoken to him earlier. He had a large sword strapped to his side and leather strappings over his coat. He also had a cut down the left side of his maw that Sharrag hadn’t seen before. The dragon reached out his mind to him.

‘You talk?’ he asked.

The Shrrg nodded his great head, ‘Not well, but I talk.’

Sharrag smiled at the thought, ‘You have a name?’

The giant wolf nodded his head once again, ‘I Talismen.’

The dragon laughed a little, ‘Can anyone else talk?’

Talismen looked at the Shrrg around, ‘Few say name, but I best.’

Sharrag looked around at the other Shrrg, and one by one they gave him their names. The eldest female was Tay’el, and the other two females were Seriah and Siserl. The last male was Craves. The wolves hadn’t named the pups yet. Talismen seemed to have adopted the roll of Alpha among the wolves, even if he was the youngest male, yet Sharrag sensed he still wanted to leave him in charge.

Sharrag looked up in surprise as something else came from the cave. The mother Urzhad and her bear cubs. She nodded her head in greeting to Sharrag and the dragon nodded back. He was surprised that the bear was still with them. He expected her to move out after a few days. He reached out to her mind.

The bear showed him a few images before he could ask why. Sharrag growled when he saw them. There had been humans sighted in the mountains, and they had been hunting for him. It turned out another thing the Shrrg had learnt was how to use their minds in combat, taking over or paralysing victims that didn’t know how to protect themselves. From what they had found in the human’s minds Sharrag could only guess that humans were hunting all over this mountain range for him. He growled in annoyance. He didn’t want to move, not yet.

“You’re back early,” said the voice of a human from behind him.

He turned around the face Angela, who was standing there. She was leaning on some sought of staff with a sharp tip.

‘A lot of bad things happened to me. I don’t want to go to that forest again,’ he said.

Angela nodded with a frown, “Did the elves attack you?”

Sharrag shook his head, ‘Other things did, and there was this song that hurt me a lot. I broke my wing again, but some elves helped me.’

“Oh,” replied the witch, “Then I’m sorry. Did you at least meet Saphira.”

He shook his head again, ‘No, I saw her but I just froze and was unable to show myself.’

She nodded with thought, “Okay, I guess we can wait for a little while then.”

He nodded, ‘Besides, I missed my pack.’

He looked around at them with a small smile on his maw. Angela had a small smile as well.

“They are doing very well when it comes to the talking and mind control business,” she said, “They have excelled, and are doing a lot better then most humans. They are useful with weapons as well, using their speed and strength to take down most of their enemies. I got some dwarves to make armour for them, though they didn’t know why. I also got some new weapons, better then those old Urgal ones they had had before.”

‘They can fight well then,’ he said.

Angela smiled, “I’ll show you later.”

Together they walked into the cave, followed by the Shrrg and the Urzhad. Angela caught him up on everything that had happened in the past week. Human sightings had become a lot more common, as Sharrag already knew. Hundreds of them had been spotted throughout the mountain ranges and occasionally there had been battles between the dwarves and men. The Varden were also beginning to pack up and move. After the battle that had taken place they had decided to move to Surda.

Sharrag in turn told them his story. How he flew over the top of the Beor Mountians and his trip over the desert, and the sunset. Angela noticed that his green scales now seemed a lot shinier then before; they were almost glowing in fact.

After the had recounted everything that had happened Sharrag decided to ask a question, ‘Do you think I should join in this war?’

Angela was a little surprised at the question, for she knew that Sharrag didn’t want to have anything to do with it.

“Why do you ask?”

‘Just as I was about to leave Aradon asked me if I was going to join, and seemed disappointed when I said no.’

Angela thought carefully before answering, “No, I don’t. I believe this war is eventually going to end and you will be left in peace. If you do join you will be targeted and there is always a strong chance you will fall into the wrong hands.”

‘But if I do won’t I be able to meet up with Saphira quicker?’

“Yes, but any eggs that you to have would be immediately sought after by both sides and could very well end up in the wrong hands,” she said.

Sharrag nodded, ‘I know your right, but it seems I may have to eventually have to choose a side. With all these humans about, hunting me. Soon I may not even have a choice.’

“I know,” replied Angela, “But the longer you stay out of it, the more likely you are to survive.”

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Hey guys, new chapter. Hope you enjoyed, vote and comment if you did. New one up soon. Until then, See Ya!

Pennator^^