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"BRING UP THE DRAKES! RIDERS!!! MOUNT UP! SECOND WING TO TAKE THE LEAD!" A booming voice stirred Alaine from his slumber, but the words didn't come from outside of his cave, but from within his own mind.

The entire complex was alive with movement, the roaring of the drakes and the winds of wings as they took to air or landed depending on their state of undress. Elves were belting on swords and latching harnesses onto rings as the dragons crouched against the ground snorting eagerly and fidgeting despite commands to hold still. There wasn't a sign of a hatchling, or even a fledgling, anywhere near the lake or the lairs, the dragonesses were restlessly flitting towards their own lairs with their eyes wide with agitation. The red drake settled down on his haunches and watched as a regal blue dragon helped push his rider onto his neck, his neck bristling with metal spines that had been hooked into the pierced scales. His tail was barbed at the tip in a round steel ball that boasted spikes that tore furrows through the ground.

He'd seen the dragons in some of their armor, but never like this, never bristling with weaponry and loading up not only their own riders, but other elves as well that scrambled into position. Archers were slinging bows as they found positions around the spines and armor, and none of the dragons complained in the least bit. The blue in front of him was nearly prancing in place, rumbling and turning his head repeatedly to check to see if his Rider was in position. The elf had barely snapped himself onto the harness before the drake launched himself into the air and arrowed straight up into the sky towards the other circling dragons. They cried out to one another, roaring and challenging before a wing of five peeled off from the group and arrowed towards the east at full speed.

"Amber?" Alaine lifted his head and tilted it up towards the dragoness' lair, only to see it the perch of a strange amethyst colored drake who was having large metal claws pulled over his forepaws.

The sheathes fit neatly over the back of the toes, extending the points out into deadly razors that were lined with pale opals that shown like fire in the sunlight. His Rider was strapping them on in a hurried manner while the drake's head was turned towards the opening of Amber's lair and he seemed to be rumbling. Alaine felt a spark of jealous anger at seeing the stranger pay attention to the female that he had been spending so much time with, his jaws opened to hiss a challenge and his wings started to spread before he forced himself to stop. The drake was being armed, he already had on a heavy vest of chainmail that covered his chest and part of his lower stomach. He could no more challenge the stranger than he could beat his wings into the sky and fly. He forced himself to retract his wings and stepped back towards his lair.

"Ho! Ho Alaine!" Thronnos' voice was a deep rumble from the skies before the flash of dark scales swept down along the walls and the older drake came in for a neat landing.

"Thronnos." Alaine answered in a clipped tone, wincing as he heard the drake from above him thrum out suddenly with an obviously affectionate tone.

"Exciting is it not?" Thronnos flipped his wings back with a shake, the harsh scent of smoke clung to his scales while Minos slipped down his shoulder without missing a beat.

"Rest, old friend." The Rider slapped the black foreleg affectionately. "You can fill our new drake in on what's going on, I need to get the transfers ready to head out."

Alaine still flinched when Thronnos lowered his great head and gave a gentle bump against his Rider, a caress that was filled with affection as the elf set off at a trot towards the man set of caverns. "Send the cook with some meat! I can eat it as we fly!"

"What is going on?" Alaine suppressed his anger as another wing of dragons roared and peeled away from the churning mass above them.

"The Slokaken are making their move, they're going after the unclaimed Isles." Thronnos dropped his head and licked along one foreleg, bloody marks marred the scales, not large, but enough that red streaked down towards his toes. There were similar marks right along his chest and stomach, a few arrows were sticking out of his haunch, small compared to the size of him.

"You were in battle." Alaine pulled his head back as Thronnos twisted his head to snap at a few of the arrows. "And you'll claim those isles first?"

"We can't save them all," He rumbled and spat out an arrow that he'd pulled free. "They're massacring so many, we're doing our best, hopefully we can remove as many as we can before they're all overrun. Once they get a toehold, they will end up like our home."

"So you'll overtake them first." Alaine barely suppressed the disgust in his tone and glanced up as wing beats came nearly directly overhead, the purple drake was launching himself into the air with Amber's sweet call coming after him.

"I have no time to argue," Thronnos snapped out, anger in his tone for the first time. "I came only to get enough of the youngsters transferred to cover the gapes in our lines. It would aid us greatly if you could move to the stronghold, you are older and might be of great help."

Alaine growled wordlessly at the suggestion, his tail snapping behind him and raising up puffs of dusts. Why should he help these elves? It meant nothing to him if they killed one another. It meant nothing to him if they all perished in a war that he had never wished to involve himself in, and had taken so much from him.

"When they see us leave in answer to the battle, they will try to form an attack. Look at this place, the eggs and hatchlings, the females. They would use them all as they used you, youngster." Thronnos rumbled in agitation, his head turned towards several elves that were dragging the forequarters of an oxen towards them. "You can swim, and swim well, you could protect them. It is the duty of the drake to protect the young."

"I will not haul your damned elves on my back!" He snapped in reply, but Thronnos was already moving towards the food.

"Then stay here and pray they do not take Hayden's Spit or go alone and fight by yourself, I do not care which! I have not the time to bandy words with you!" Thronnos roared back to him, spreading his wings to leap forward so he could meet the servants and snap up the food. He only glanced back once to call out. "If you choose to go, speak to any dragon here and they will tell you where the stronghold is!"

Alaine stared after him as he snapped the food up in his jaws, but didn't settle to eat it, he beat his wings and took to the air, sweeping over the ground towards the main section of the caverns where Minos had gone. The red drake bristled at the attempt to give him orders. Did they think that they could make him fight? Make him one of their tamed dragons to be ordered and told where to go, how to fly, when to fight?

"Are you going to go?" Amber's light voice pricked his temper again and he didn't look up at the sound of her claws coming down the wall.

"I have no reason to, you are perfectly able to defend yourselves." Even to himself, he sounded as if he were sulking.

"The Slokaken haven't moved like this in so long." Amber landed beside him, worry in her tone. Worry, he realized, for the drake that she had seen off. Her drake. "It isn't often that they attempt such a large invasion, they will have magic to turn them back."

"All the more reason I will not fight. Why should I risk my scales for your elves?" He snapped back and turned his head to give her an aloof look.

"Dusk is going on his first mission," Amber's voice was pained. "He's being sent out to guard the coast, the likeliest place they will try to land."

"I am sure he has given you many fine clutches to remember him by." Alaine couldn't stop the aggressive tone from spilling past his lips. "He will surely die honorably with his damned Rider urging him on for the greater glory of their race."

"He is my clutch." Her voice was harder, and the tip of her tail suddenly snapped against his haunch, catching his hard scales. It didn't hurt, physically, but it made him shift away. "My first clutch, the only drake I've born.... That's lived."

"I am..." Alaine tried to find words to apologize, but none came. "I did not realize, I thought he was your mate."

"My mate was one of the first fallen." Amber stood up stiffly, affront in every line of her body. "They kill us, just as much as we kill them. It is not a game, it is not sport, it is survival."

"Amber..." Alaine stood up as she walked away from him, her head held up a bit higher and averted from him.

"Go and bathe and eat, enjoy the comforts you are given while others die for our home." She hissed back at him before snapping her wings out and leaping into the air, not even looking back towards him as she arrowed towards the highest point of the walls.

Alaine hunched miserably in on himself and ground his teeth together while watching her outline come to a graceful landing. The wings were rapidly disappearing, some were obviously drakes that had been here on breeding duty, but the bulk were youngsters that were barely fledged. They were being loaded up with supplies, not riders, and clumsily taking off in the opposite direction of the Riders. The red drake followed their progress and stood up slowly, he would not be defending the elves. He could care less for them. He would only be killing elves and defending the dragons left behind. With that in mind he turned towards the caverns where Thronnos was being loaded up with several archers as well as his Rider.

~ ~ * ~ ~

The ocean crashed against Alaine as he struggled through the worst of the waves and drew in a great breath that belled out his sides. The arrows skidded against his scales and slipped over them before he dove beneath the salty water and flared his nearly useless wings before clawing towards the bottom. His wings could never be used for flight, but for the water they could be worked to push him downwards so the arrows wouldn't be able to riddle his hide. There were already half a dozen bristling on one of his shoulders where he had taken a volley from the ships that were attempting to find space enough to land on the edge of Hayden's spit. He ignored the pain and lidded his eyes with a protective membrane while keeping his eye tilted above him. The fire from the fledglings archers allowed him to see the dark oblong shapes of the war ships.

Dozens of them had arrived nearly a week ago, they had begun their attack with both magic and physical force while Hayden's Spit had tried to defend itself. He had never seen war like this, never experienced a battle on such a massive scale that he could barely conceive of it. He got his first good look at magic on the first day he had arrived on the coast, they had sent part of the cliff crumbling down beneath the archers that the Tomian's had set to set fire to the ships. One moment the cliff had been whole and solid and the next it had crumbled in on itself, a great light had enveloped the archers so even as they ran they couldn't get past the barrier. They had been flung to their deaths in the water below, and he had seen worst. He had seen a fledgling burned from the sky, screaming in pain as sickly pale flames had eaten away at his scales. And he was in the midst of it.

The dragon flicked his tail behind him to guide him as he pulled his wings back and strained until his paws touched the rocks beneath the ocean. They were jagged and sharp, but he ignored the pain and dug his claws into them so his natural buoyancy wouldn't drag him back to the surface. He had had days to practice his technique and these elves were learning to fear him. They had started to fire at the slightest movement that might have been him surfacing, and that meant they were wasting resources. The Tomian's had had advice on how to improve his strategies, but he had shrugged them away. He wouldn't listen to them, he wasn't their pet, their warrior, their slave, he was Alaine! He was a free-dragon and he would, by Oron, paint the ocean in blood the way he saw fit.

He centered his eyes on one of the boats that was in the midst of the fleet, it was larger than the others, which meant it was important. His lungs had barely begun to ache for breath when he snapped his wings down and pumped them through the water. Pain erupted through him as the bones scraped against each other, grating and nearly blinding, but he shoved it away. Elves were up there, the ones that had imprisoned him, beaten him, starved and near killed him and he would not allow pain to stop him. He worked his wings as if he were flying, pushing the water down violently as he clawed through the currents and built up speed with his ascent. He gave his tail one last lash and lunged upwards, his jaws spread to release his breath in a vibrating roar beneath the waves before his claws crashed against the underside of the vessel.

The impact rattled through him while he used his grip on the underside of the ship to swing his haunches up and kicked violently against it. It was too large to just use his weight to drag under, but that didn't mean he didn't have more weapons. He pushed his head out of the water with a snarl and pushed with his forelegs, rocking the ship against the waves as elves went scrambling over the decks. Small creatures that fired arrows at him and there were tell tale flashes of light that meant they were going to try and work magic. He pushed harder and moved his forelegs up to grip the railing before heaving down, rocking the ship towards the water until his jaws could close around the mast and tear at the wood. Arrows hit along his jaws as he twisted and pulled one last time, his hindlegs came free while he shoved with his forelegs tipping the vessel slowly onto its side.

The wood dropped from his jaws and he shoved away just in time to avoid another volley of arrows, but his work was done. He drew in another breath and pushed beneath the water again, but this time he didn't seek the ocean floor. He used his wings to keep him just beneath the waves while elves tried to swim through the churning waves. Small two legged creatures that were trying in vain to live, trying to reach safety, calling to their comrades and they were his. Once they were in the water they were all his, his to kill or his to allow to live, and there were precious few that would evade his jaws. Each snap tainted the waters red with their blood, each crunch of bones and ligaments between his teeth fueled his bloodlust. He would kill them all, kill every last one of them and leave the oceans as crimson as his scales when he was through.

After the last ship had pulled out, and fled, Alaine hauled himself from the ocean and felt the disconcerting sensation of his weight pressing around him after being so light in the water. His wings ached, they were swollen around the old wounds and the tips dragged against the shore as he crawled up to press against the cliff face. He could have crawled up to the top, but he was exhausted and for now he just wanted to sleep and recover from his exertions. The elves would come down eventually, as they always did, and try to tend to his wounds. Not that he let them, he wanted nothing to do with their hands on his body, for now he would let them stay and he could dig them out with his teeth later or they would fester out. Either way, the pain just helped keep him sharp and alert while he curled up and tucked his tail around himself.

The sounds of pained dragons came from above he spared a glance up to where the fledglings and some of the younger drakes were being treated. He hadn't seen any go down, so far there had only been one casualty. He grudgingly admitted that the elves took pains to keep the drakes back to ensure that they weren't hurt needlessly. They were taking a heavier toll when it came to deaths compared to their aerial company. For now he sagged his eyes closed and tucked his head all the way against his comfortably full belly and let out a groan. He would sleep, and recover, and tomorrow there would be more that would face the end at his teeth and claws.

~ ~ * ~ ~

"They're coming back, from all quarters." Alaine blinked his eyes slowly at the bouncing silver youngster that was peering eagerly up at the sky. "Sir, did you see?"

_Sir? _ Alaine felt weary amusement and lifted his head with a yawn while the dragons around him began to bugle out towards distant shapes that were arrowing in on the island.

It had been three long weeks, and he had seen the battles raging along the coast, but they had tapered off after the second week. The youngsters were flying with more confidence and striking hard and fast, and he had heard murmurs that their focus gems weren't strong enough to last for a sustained amount of time. He wasn't sure about that, but he had seen enough darkened stones throne over the sides of ships that he had to wonder how they used them to so destroy them. The last week he had only had to go after two ships, and that had been wholly unsatisfying. They had immediately pulled back and tried to lure him out into deeper water, going just slow enough that he could keep up, but fast enough he couldn't catch him. The first time he had nearly caught himself in a net before he had recovered enough to tear his way free, and the second time he had avoided it entirely. Since then, they hadn't tried to bring their ships close and it had become a battle of magic.

"Yes, I see." He pushed back up to all fours and stretched, wincing at two arrows that had managed to fester along his haunches where he couldn't quite grasp them. Eventually they'd fester themselves out, but for now the infected flesh was swollen and tender. "I see Thronnos as well."

The dragons that came in were doing so at a rapid pace, the first few wings landed with loud roars and boasting laughter as they dropped down outside of the stronghold with their riders clinging to their saddles. Their voices carried loudly as they spoke of Trinid and how the island was now safely under their command. Their boasts of driving off the enemies ships were filled with stories of fire and rocks that they had dropped from above, smoke that they had used to conquer a fort that had been built there. Others were bellowing out that they had nearly managed to claim Port Nachaz itself, but had only been driven back by their mages. The world was filled with the clamor of dragon voices, the elves could scarcely be heard as they slipped off their mounts and started to unharness them, and Alaine suddenly felt strangely small.

He had become confident in his time of battle, he had grown sharp witted and clever with how he attacked and he hadn't needed any Rider to tell him how to behave. He had gotten his revenge time and again, and he had bathed in the feel of being more powerful than the creatures that had destroyed his life. And now, he was surrounded by drakes the same age as himself that weren't impressionable youngsters, but seasoned warriors. It was a confusing sensation that made him pull back while the wings began to land within the stronghold itself.

"FIFTH AND NINTH! ALOFT!" Thronnos bellowed from above. "Bring the healers from the birthing caverns, empty it if need be."

Two wings of dragons stopped their boasting and reluctantly took to the air, but they didn't argue with the order as Thronnos began bellowing orders while he circled above. One wing dropped down, but they did so clumsily, with their chests wrapped in thick heavy canvas and room was made for them. It was a confusing mess, one that made Alaine stumble back as elves began to spill out from the stronghold to rush the dragons. Thin as reeds, high pitched and distressing, cries came from the dragons. Not a few voices, but dozens, they rose up in the air and broke through even the draconic voices that were stilled and the drakes shifted restlessly. Their heads either craned to see what was going on, or turned away entirely, some lowered their heads to push against their Riders' hands for comfort.

Babes. Babes were being lowered from the wing that had landed, carefully swaddled and wrapped, the elves were taking them down with infinite care and clearing an area for them. Alaine's brow furrowed slightly at the strange sight, for they weren't the babes of the elves. He could see strange creatures, their skin the color of bark and some that were otterkin, others were like the elves but with rounded ears instead of tapered and some made his heart sink as he saw familiar ears and muzzles of satyr fawns. He flexed his toes against the ground and let out a low growl before pushing past a few of the fledglings and snuffed at the air. What were the elves doing with babies that weren't their own? They had no use for them, it wasn't right.

"Get the wet nurses, we have twenty seven here," Minos was moving among the little ones as if he belonged there, Thronnos hovered over their heads while Alaine snarled and shoved past an anxious pearl colored dragon. Something wasn't right here, something was wrong. "We need to set up tents to sort them out, as soon as the healers come they can help assess the-"

The elf's words faded into the sound of the ocean and the beating of Alaine's heart as he forced his way to the front of the dragons and looked over the youngsters. There was one, out of all of them, that his eyes fell on and stopped. One lone buck was bleating out in distress, struggling against the tightly wrapped clothing and trying to get onto his unsteady hooves. The soft white colored fur was offset with the brilliant copper-red while he folded his ears back and managed to get up before anyone could stop him. The slit pupiled eyes were wild looking as he bleated out in a loud voice, the same voice that had rang through the cozy little home that Rowan had made for them. Made for him. On a hill, on an island, where he had first tasted life. Oake, Oake was crying out in terror and confusion, and one of the elves moved forward to snatch him up before he could bolt away. Those filthy hands moved to touched his Oake!

The world narrowed down to the distressed fawn and the drake, an invisible cord snapped between them and Alaine lunged forward with a shriek of rage. The elf that had been picking up the fawn stumbled back as the crimson dragon swung his head down and snapped his jaws. Oake fell to the ground letting out a terrified sound while the rest of the babes began to renew their wailing, but that one sound cut straight to his heart. He tilted his head down, while cold blood rage boiled in his heart, and gently extended his muzzle out to the tiny fawn as he had done a dozen times on their islands. It hurt his soul as the little one scrambled back in fear, but he gently flicked his tongue out to touch the soft muzzle and crooned. Even through his rage he sang to the small buck, the warm scent of goat and 'home' filled his senses. What had they done? How did they capture Oake? Where was Rowan? Rouro? Meera? The otterkin?

Ever so gently he lifted a forepaw and slipped his toes beneath the squirming trembling fawn, he could feel the fellow huddled against his palm as he made a cage of his talons, careful not to knick him in the slightest. The rest of the babes continued to wail, but he hobbled away from them on three legs while the dragons watched him warily. They looked at him like he was mad, but he didn't care about them, and he would kill them if they even so much as stepped towards his precious burden.

"Oake.." He crooned softly and lowered himself awkwardly onto his belly. "Oake... My fine little buck... It is alright, it's alright..."

The fawn trembled in his hold, but slowly started to move and blinked his eyes up at the looming red figure above him. Alaine lowered his head and touched his nose tip against the slender chest, puffing out a breath so that the hoof like hands reached out to grip either side of his muzzle. The drake turned his body, curling and twisting until his tail rested around the fawn and he was protected against his body, wrapped in the warmth and hardness that defined a dragon. He kept his paw curled around him so that the little red and white satyr could barely be seen by any but himself. The hiccupping bleats began to still and he felt the warmth of the tiny body relaxing against him.

"You know him.." Thronnos' voice was a distant rumble, but it was enough for Alaine to lift his muzzle away from his fawn and face the older drake. "There was an evacuation of Canith, we saved those we could and the-"

All his life his rage had been hot and alive, it had been flush with the desire to avenge his kind and the wrongs done to him, but not this rage. It was cold, it was ice that curled through his stomach as he recalled Rowan and the first glimpse he had ever had of the little fawn nestled against her. That moment, when she had trusted him to almost touch him, when he could have scooped the small babe up on his tongue had defined their relationship. And now, the little one just happened to come to Hayden's Spit? The rage built, blinding him to everything except the single minded desire to keep Oake safe from these twisted creatures of war. It spilled through his heart and soul while he heard the faintest tone of approval come from Thronnos' when he spoke.

"If you have killed her... " Alaine spoke softly, so softly, afraid that if he spoke louder he would shriek out his anger and frighten the little one. "If she is dead by your doing... I will destroy the whole of creation to see your blood spilled on my claws and your life leaking away. Understand this, because Oron will give me my justice... His Feast awaits you if you lie to me. It is his name I was call upon to hunt you down."

Thronnos stared at him, the older drake's head lifted slightly, the faintest flicker of unease ran through his eyes before he gave a jerking nod. "The female was killed by the Slokaken, you have my word. I did not know that you knew this young one."

Alaine hissed, baring his teeth and aggressively meeting the other drakes eyes while he remained firmly in place around Oake. Thronnos continued to meet his eyes, but slowly backed away, step by slow step towards the rest of the youngsters. When he looked away, Alaine lowered his head back to the trembling buck at his side. He was so small, so very tiny and vulnerable, with his tail flat to his rump cheeks and his paws clutching against Alaine's scales. He looked up with some amount of recognition while Alaine crooned a wordless song to him and spread one of his tattered wings to shelter the little one.

_Rowan... Please be alive. Please... I am lost here, among these dragons, lost and uncertain. _ He prayed fervently as he rested his muzzle against the exhausted fawn. _No one will harm your fawn, I promise, I will tear this island into the ocean if even one of them harms him. _

~ ~ * ~ ~

"So you were right, Thronnos." Minos slapped him on the shoulder and the drake shifted so that his Rider could sprawl out against his chest, but it was not with the feeling of satisfaction that he had assumed.

"I was right and I was wrong." Thronnos rested his head beside his Rider and flinched at the lingering scent of smoke on his scaled hide. "He believes that we have done this on purpose."

And he is right... He added to himself silently, his soul feeling heavy and tainted by the deeds that he had done.

It had been a hard deed, but he had taken the lead when they flew over Canith, he and his hand picked drakes who could be counted on for discretion. He hadn't even been sure that they had managed to achieve their goal, but he had taken a best guess. His scouts had flown over and marked places that a dragon might have been or hunted. They were large creatures and they left traces, downed trees, marks from their scales on trees, scarce food from being overhunted. They had narrowed in on two points, one had been a lonely area with only a handful of inhabitants, and another that had been lower down on the coast where he had been sure that Quickwing had been killed at. The attacks had been swift and hard, but he had been among the leaders of them. The females had had to be killed, they had to be removed from their young to ensure that Alaine would never know how it had come to pass.

Even thinking it, it didn't stop the guilt from running over his heart and he tried to pull his mind away from it and focus on what they had accomplished. The all out attack on the Slokaken settlements that had gone on around nearby islands had worked brilliantly. He had used it both to cover their actions on Canith and to weaken the enemy. Minos had brilliantly come up with several week points that had actually been taken and they were ahead in the war. Alaine had his Rider, strange though the choice was, and they now had a way to bond him to them to ensure his loyalty. It had all succeeded, but Thronnos' mind lingered on the cold angry gaze that had met his own, and the words that resounded in his ears still.

"He will come 'round, he will have to. It's not as if he can nurse the creature. A wet nurse will have to tend him and by the time he's grown he'll know nothing else but our culture, he'll be loyal and so will Alaine." Minos' tone was disgusted. "A goat Rider, there will be fights over this, but we'll raise the animal as a soldier. We've got a few of the lesser races serving us, after all."

"If he ever finds out, if he ever learns the truth entirely..." Thronnos flinched again at the words that had been thrown at him. "Oron would claim me."

Oron's Feast. The great dark god was said to feed on the worst of dragon-kind, their emotions, their deeds. Betrayers and kin-slayers were among his favorites, and the stories spoke of how he would rise up when his name was evoked by a righteous voice. He would grace the dragon with the power of Sight, to see past the lies and see only truth so that he might have his vengeance with a clear mind. When the rogue dragon was killed, it was not Aratha's warm wings that came for his soul and heart, but Oron with his cold dark ways. His still body, just barely alive, would be dragged down to the Feast where he would be locked forever in the pits of despair. Never dying, never aging, never healing, cut into and consumed again and again, devoured and reborn as he paid for his crimes. For eternity.

"Oron?" Minos lifted a hand to rub along his brow. "You put too much faith in myths, there is only this." The elf gave his scaled forehead a firm pat. "Flesh and blood, our lives. He will come round, you will see. We'll let the fawn mature a little while we plan for our final battle."

Aratha, it is for you that I commit these crimes. In your name I seek to avenge those that have been lost and fallen so far from grace. Thronnos lifted his haunted eyes to the skies above and the golden sun. Shield me from your brother, keep me safe, and I will bring you a land of dragons once more.

~ ~ * ~~

The world had shattered around Rowan, it exploded in dirt and stone, water and the horrifying sound of a roaring voice that seemed to encompass all of her being. She curled herself protectively around her fawn, tucking him close against her chest while she tried to keep the worst of it from tumbling against him. They were tearing into the very earth, ripping away rocks while she was locked in place for fear of falling debris. Oake's cries had been shrill as she kept his muzzle burrowed against her breasts and cautiously cracked open an eye to see the sunlight spilling around her, a towering black muzzle darted back and forth above her. A hellish visage that reflected the brightness of the day while showing teeth as long as her foreleg, his hot foul breath spilled had around her as voices came from around the beast. And then the darkness and the pain...

"Please.. stop Rowan.." A familiar voice came to her as she twisted and cried out for Oake. "You're going to tear the stitches..."

"Rouro..." She croaked out and snapped her eyes open, she felt hot and feverish as dry paw pads pressed against her shoulders and another set of paws pressed firmly against her stomach.

"Hush... you're safe now, you're safe. You're on my ship.." The otterkin stroked her cheek lightly while she felt a trickle of wetness along her side. Blood, she was bleeding.

"Oake..." She struggled against his grip, but his paws remained like iron and forced her to remain down. "Please.. give him to me.."

"Rowan.." The otter's eyes darkened while she felt someone pressing clothe to her side and applying pressure. "The elves took him."

"Oake..." She choked on her fawns name and tried to get up, she struggled against the hold and fought him until he barked out for more to come to hold her down. "Let me up!"

Their bodies, furred warm bodies, they held her down as they wrapped her stomach. She remembered the elves and her hiding spot being torn open, but nothing past the flash of something silver. Oake had been screaming, his high pitched voice had chased her into the darkness. They had killed him, they'd slaughtered her first and only fawn. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks as she tried to get herself out from under them. She had to see him, she had to touch him, she had to know for sure that he was gone, truly gone.

"Be still now!" Meera's voice rasped out of the darkness. "Oake is alive..."

"You're not dead?" Rowan swallowed and fought against the hot tears that rolled down her cheeks. "How do you know? They tore open the caves, th-the dragon..."

"They took the children," Rouro squeezed her shoulders. "Otterkin, dryad, satyrs and humans. They took the children and killed the families, but the children left alive."

"Why, for the love of the gods, why?" She shifted slowly, and he allowed her to lift her head to see her bandaged stomach. She'd remembered pain, she'd remembered the sickening feel of bone and steel against each other. She brushed her hand down and winced as the wound went all the way up along her side to just beneath her breast.

"I do not know, but they took them to Hayden's Spit." Meera spoke again, Rowan glanced over to see the otterkin looking exhausted in the swaying lamplight. Half of her face was swollen and cut, her arm was pulled up tight against her stomach and chest, bound in splints. "I heard them, they were to take them straight to the Spit. Afterwards we found you, and human woman, still alive, barely, but still alive."

"Alaine.." She breathed out the name. "He would know Oake..."

"If he is alive." Rouro sounded weary. "We have no promise he is still alive, we have no word, we cannot be assured that he is."

They had taken her fawn, they'd nearly killed her and taken her small buck from her, yanked from her side before he could even speak. She squeezed her eyes shut against the tears that began to fall, she couldn't stop them. She had no idea where he was, or what they wanted him for. He was too young to fight, too young to be a servant, why would they want their children?

"Is Canith taken?" She rasped out and slowly sat up, paling a bit as pain shot up her side. "Have they occupied it?"

"No, they came and took the young and left." Meera let out a bitter laugh. "Like thieves in the night."

"We need to send out messengers.." It was hard to talk, hard to think past the pain that was growing worse by the moment. "Find Heartwood, he's Oake's father, tell him... what happened, tell him to send out the call. Talk to your kind and the humans... This cannot be left alone. They took our children.." The last came out in a sob that she couldn't stop.

"You want to fight?" Rouro's voice was soft, shocked, and she looked up to see his furred face furrowed into a frown.

"No.. I want the children back. We'll get them back.... The bucks will help, they have to help, satyr fawns taken.. their fawns.." She trailed off, the pain was making it too hard to keep her mind focused on what she was saying, but the bucks had to help. It had to rouse them from their forests, they had to get back her Oake. They had to...