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Chapter 1: Fitful Dreams
Kaylin woke with a start. She saw her mother’s face in the woods. She was smiling brightly as though the sun was stolen and placed on her brow, hers to keep for the rest of eternity and beyond. The rusty leaves on the forest floor seemed to chase her heels in a race across time. Suddenly the trees stopped and a great green plain rolled on to meet the dawn. The daises and tulips were glittering like diamonds with the morning dew as they warmed their faces in the early sun.
Kaylin’s mother stopped and turned around, but it was too late. The roses shot up out of the earth from nowhere and caged her up as a rampaging dragon. Kaylin knew Mariee hated roses; her mother hated roses as if they were the root of all evil in the world.
Now Kaylin looked out the window and saw the lights in the sky. It was not yet day. Her dreams were growing worse, but never before had they woken her in the night. Softly she stained her pillow with tears trying not to wake Albekcc, her father.
He still heard the weeping, despite her efforts, and softly crept into the room. She was asleep again on her wooden framed bed before he got there so Albekcc pulled the woolen blanket over her shoulders and stroked her auburn hair before turning to go back to bed. Albekcc was worried for his daughter. She was starting to forget things that she knew were important. It was hard for him to have to raise Kaylin on his own, without the help of his beloved wife. There were things that Albekcc couldn’t teach Kaylin, only things that a mother could teach. Even Kaylin’s immediate female relatives would not be able to explain these things. Elves don’t forget things, but then again Kaylin wasn’t fully an elf. Her grandfather Traenkin was an elf, but her grandmother Gorgin was mortal. Albekcc wasn’t sure how to help his daughter; the mortality came from Mariee.
Kaylin’s birthday was in a month. She will be 33, the coming of age for elves. It was tradition for the mother to take the daughter and go to the Cliffs and find the peak called Mongrind; the dragons dwelled there. The oldest and wisest dragon was sought to tell the mother and daughter which egg would be given and where to find it.
The father would be the one to stay home and plan for a return party, giving the new adult whatever was wanted; it was a similar ritual for the men, but instead of the mother going it was the father. Kaylin was worried she would be the only one in the Klan that wouldn’t have an egg for this event; but was more sorrowed by the fact she didn’t have a mother to share the time with.
Albekcc tried for many years not to worry about this time, but now that it had come he couldn’t push the thought away. Even though she always wanted a mother figure, Kaylin hadn’t said what it was she wanted from her father, and he hadn’t thought about or even made arrangements for the egg search.
Hours went by and he thought in silence on the flet of the tree, trying to think of a way to send Kaylin on her journey. At times he thought of sending Gorgin, his mortal mother-in-law, but she was already too old even for her own race. He wished he could go with Kaylin to search, but who would tend to the festival? Even if someone else were willing, he would be the main course to the hatchlings of the first dragon he met. It wasn’t permitted for a father to take a daughter, as is a mother can’t take a son.
It was possible, with coaxing, that Limbar would take her cousin up to Mongrind, but Arshtec could do the same. Arshtec was willing to do anything for her great granddaughter and more.
Albekcc would talk to both of them that week and see what could be done. But right now he would sleep. Kaylin was peacefully dreaming, as peaceful as soft waves on the shore. She had not had a decent night’s sleep since Albekcc could remember. He couldn’t bear to wake her, even to greet the coming sun.
i'll continue after i get some input from people, unless i am badgered to keep on going. hmm... ya rite!
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