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Suluksati took wing over the ocean, letting the soft salted breeze caress her feathers and steal away some of the pain in her heart. She was going home, beginning the traverse of hundreds of miles of ocean between Serenia and Eowyn. She had done it before - there were islands she could rest on, should she need it, but she didn't want to rest. She wanted to go home.

A khehora had died because of her. She hadn't been able to save them, or the dragons that had killed him. She had been able to save nobody. She had failed. The world felt so dark, illuminated only by her many failures. What was she to do?

She didn't know. She just wanted to be home. Serenia was the land of light. There was nothing dark there, nothing that she knew about anyway. It was the land of her ancestors, her goddess, and her clan. She needed that comfort now, because she feared that she had lost her way.

As the Eowyn shore drifted further and further behind her, Suluksati held back her tears. She just wanted the world to be right again.

~~~

She had come to rest on an island for the night. It was a small island, barely more than a sandbar at high tide, but she wasn't planning on staying long. She intended to rest for a time, then be on her way. In the meantime, she caught some fish and ate a snack, wishing that the darkness around her wasn't so finalistic. She shimmered, illuminating her small sandy perch with magical light - an island of light in a sea of inky, chaotic blackness that roiled and murmured, spashing against he island in a silent threat - the ocean was there, and it would devour her if she wasn't careful.

But Suluksati was careful. Though she would rest, she would not completely sleep. There were dangers in the water for a Khehora flying alone, and she knew them well enough to avoid them. She snacked on a previously captured silx as she waited for her body to be ready.

It had been a few hours of waiting on the sea of insanity, shimmering with light, when she saw them - twin orbs glittering malevolently in her light. She brightened her magic, getting to her feet. They blinked, and drew closer.

Suluksati's heart began to race. She gathered her magic to her as another twin set of orbs - eyes, she realized - surfaced nearby. The water began to coarse around her small island, in a manner so unnatural that she drew back, coiling her tail around her as the water began to rise. She hissed, dodging a small wave, and one of the sets of glowing eyes came close enough for her to see what it was.

A dragon. She growled, hoping to bluff it away, but she and it knew that she was in the dragon's element, not her own. If the first set of eyes was a dragon, it was likely the second was as well, and surrounded by water, she could not hope to take them. Nor did she want to. She wanted to leave them safe and sound. A wave struck her and she coughed at the sudden shock of cold, lashing out with her caws as she shook the water from her eyes.

Her claws gouged flesh and a dragon snarled not a foot away. She cleared her eyes to see it retreat back to the safety of the water. She knew she had only one chance to escape before they came at her with water again. She flashed, brilliant and blindingly white, before, with powerful flaps of her wings, she launched from the island. She was airborne and gliding when they recovered and they chased her, their lithe bodies slicing through the water with their magic. She flew as fast as she was able, dodging waterspouts that sought to strike her and water tendrils that sought to grapple her. One of the piesios took to the air, but returned to the ocean when it realized that, in the air, an Alikhora was second only to an Ayrala dragon. Suddenly, the two peisio gave up the chase, watching her fly away with their shining, angry eyes. Suluksati wondered why, but only for a brief moment.

There was an iceberg below her, and on it lay a dragon, its snowy mane and crystalline crown marking it as Aiskalan.

"Hail, Khehora." it called to her and she banked sharply, surprised, "Come and sit with me on my iceberg. The Peisio fear me and will not attack you here." Suluksati circled around it, not quite believing that a dragon would talk to her.

"Hail, Aiskalan." she stammered back, "That is a kind offer, but..."

"Were I to try to trick you, I would have frozen you from the sky, Khehora. I am bored. Join me." it said. There was a hint of a regal growl, "I promise you I will do no violence until we reach the shore."

Suluksati hesitated, then glided in, wary. "Why." she asked, a little more rudely than she intended, landing on the cold block of ice.

"The truth is, Aedaun Khehora, that I am using my power to keep this ice afloat. The waters here are too warm for me." it grinned a predatory grin, and ice grew - too quickly for Suluksati to see - to encapsulate her feet. She struggled, but it was no avail. "I am not breaking my promise. I will do you no harm until we reach the shores of light. And you, being of the clan of light, will not harm me. Your kind prefer justified massacres and fair fights, correct?" the dragon laughed, "The dragons of your clan can get away with it... but I am surprised that khehoran runts like you can manage. I suppose all the weaklings must have gotten themselves killed. Hmm." the dragon shifted so that it rested comfortably near Suluksati, looming over her with interest. "I suppose Serenia, land of light, is your homeland?" it asked, it's white eyes gleaming with predatory interest.

"It is." she said, lashing her tail as she sat, the ice moving obligingly to accomodate her seat but not to free her. "What do you want with the land of light, ice-kin?"

"Yes..." said the dragon, coiling its furred tail around Suluksati, "I am rather far from home, aren't I." it chuckled, its breath frozen, "I intend to do the lesser clans and your pitiful kind a favor, one small favor. Would this world not be better without two-legged annoyances running around? Without the children of the gods contending with the true heirs to Magesc? But we dragons have sat there, letting ourselves be hunted like common prey. I will not. I am dying, and so my pack cast me out, but I will take this land with me. Take away the light, and darkness will reign. Darkness pit against darkness will devour itself. Then the Dovaa will be devoured by dragons, and magesc will be ours once more, under the majestic Kalyth..." it sighed, "Oh, I will likely die. There are so many of the little Serenians about. But I will take their lands into a winter that will crush them for good. What do you think Khehora?"

"Could indeed work." said Suluksati, her feathers fluffed against the cold that surrounded her, "But it will not work as well as you hope."

"Is that so." it hissed. Suluksati wondered why it was talking, still. "Witness my power, Khehora, and hope for your salvation from the two legger's disgusting hands." Icy magic blossomeed around her an suddenly they were moving quickly along the ocean, the iceberg powered by the dragon's magic. Suluksati braced herself, folding her wings tightly to her body as her ankles screamed with the pain of movement and the cold. Suddenly she saw it - the shores of her homeland. Through a cold-deadened nose she could smell the familiar odors of home - the budding golden petalias, the scents of life and springs beginning. Home.

The iceberg crashed onto the sands before she knew it and came to a stop under a tree. The dragon bared its teeth. "Impressive, no? I may be old, but I have a great deal of power. I can bring this land into a winter that will kill its spirit." it stood, furred tail lashing, "Well, Khehora, it was a pleasure talking to you. I have always found your kind amusing. As the terms of my promise, I can do violence to you now - we are on, after all, the shores of Serenia..." it raised its claw, almost playfully, "Good bye, little Aedaun." it crowed.

Time slowed for Suluksati as adrenaline burst through her veins. She shrieked, gathering her magic to her and realeasing it all at once in a beam of holy light. It struck the Aiskalan dragon in the chest and, spreading in a shimmering nimbus of light, pushed the dragon back and away. Suluksati struggled, finding that she could break free - the crash of the iceberg had loosed her from the ice. She made to run for the trees while the dragon was distracted, but a claw blocked her way as it stumbled towards her, its eyes bleeding from her spell.

"Did you not understand?!" it howled, snapping at her with its jaws, "I will end this war and save our world!" Suluksati tried to leap over it, but had to abort her jump as the Aiskalan's tail threatened to swipe her from the sky. She glided in a circle, talons out.

She did not want to die, but there didn't seem to be a way away from the dragon - she had used all her magic in that light blast and she would need to regenerate more in order to blind it and escape. She would have to fight.

The iceberg began to disintegrate, and she realized it was drawing power from its former boat as it came towards her, powerful and ancient and terrible. She hissed. "You wouldn't be enough." she said, crouching, "All of dragon and khehora kind would have to stand together. That will never happen." she said, charging. She pounced, clinging to the dragons chest as she clawed into it ruthlessly. It roared and thrashed and nearly threw her off but, with a lucky bow, she slashed its neck. It roared, and she saw the blood freeze, holding her. She fell to the ground, taking some of the fur with her, and the bleeding Aiskalan stood over here, covered in blood and bloody ice. "You end here." it said, "You won't get to see the start of a new era." it raised a claw, just as the horizon began to brighten with light.

"No." said Suluksati sadly, feeling magic return to her body, "You wont." she blasted the dragon once more and it fell, disintegrating into dust in the light of the Serenian dawn.