Caged in Eclipse

By: Brianna Lee Hubler

Copyright © 2022 Brianna Lee Hubler. All rights reserved.

__________The dragons of Vesperus concealed their might. Too often thrill seekers, glory hounds, and treasure hunters paraded into their lairs, wielding steel and stealth. They raided nests, slew brood mothers in their sleep, and emptied hard-earned hoards of all that glittered and shined. They stole away the scales, claws, and teeth of beloved mates, of brood mothers and their protectors, but left the disgraced corpses behind. They speared hatchlings through their shells. They drained yolk from dragon eggs and starved the survivors of their assaults. They pocketed countless vials of yolk for sale, sustenance, and alchemical craft.

__________When dense streams of the eight known elements poured from the dragons’ maws, droves of opportunistic mortals raided the dragons’ lairs over the charred, mummified, and petrified remains of those who invaded before them. The dragons abandoned any notion of reasoning with mortals. They retaliated in a less bestial, more precise manner. They sent the smallest, weakest hatchling among them to stalk a Kulgen mortal to Rrimtar. The little one drank from the Fountain of Fortune, stole for her kind the power of Patriarch Mythrhis, and returned safely to her nest. Before the eyes and noses of her kind, she swapped skins and took the form of a human child.

__________As she grew, the hatchling gifted each scale she shed to one of her elders. The elders melded her molted scales into their hides and learned the art of disguise. Since then, not a dragon was born who could not wear a human face.

__________Nevertheless, the raids of the past had depleted their numbers. Too few dragons remained. The elders determined a rekindling of their bond with elves was an urgent and necessary provision for the continuation of their species. They knew the War of Eternal Divide preoccupied their oldest allies. The Katheermor forsook Vesperus when their endless, elemental war devastated the ancient landscape. They travelled to minor realms and scattered their battlefields across them. They protected the major realm of Vesperus, trusted that one day, their Chosen One of Prophecy would end the war, and allow them to safely return to the mainland. The matchmaking ceremonies that once paired young Katheermor with dragon hatchlings halted and the War of Eternal Divide raged ever onward. A vital, symbiotic union was lost both to the dragons and to the elves.

__________Litrus, the Ambassador of Light, slashed his talons across the sky, and tore open a portal to Anmoradai. He flew through the never-darkening skies and spied a battalion of Anmorkatheermor, as they dragged one of their own before their king. Litrus hung back, high above their eyes, and listened to their king’s verdict. The king determined the prisoner committed treason of the heart and body. He took the prisoner’s sword from the battalion and ran the prisoner through.  

__________Litrus’s instincts drove him to follow the path the battalion had tread. He passed through Anmoradai into another, more secret place. There he found the products of the prisoner’s treason and the answer the dragons searched for. Beneath a dark, cloth veil, two tiny hybrids cried. They clawed at the veil and hoped to free themselves. Litrus gently lifted the veil with his teeth and set it aside. He sniffed the elf twins, first the girl, and then the boy.

__________Though both contained the impossibly rare, coveted blend of Light and Dark magic within them, the girl owned Shining Dark and the boy owned Obsidian Light. Litrus’s elemental bond coerced him to choose the boy as dragonkeeper, as the guardian of hatchlings and the matchmaker for dragons and riders. Litrus flew the boy to Vesperus and left the girl behind.

__________Among the dragons, unaware of his unjustly forsaken sister, the boy grew and took the name Aucraylin. The dragons taught him how to read the hearts of men and how to coach dragon hatchlings from their eggs. Aucraylin learned the names and needs of all dragon breeds. He treasured his closeness to the majestic beasts, credited them for saving his life, and never tired of his duties. He neither knew nor desired any family other than the one Litrus gave him, but the dragons he adored were proud beasts, and they shielded from him a great many secrets.

***

__________Litrus dove into the mouth of an enormous cave. He shook the rain from his scales and folded his wings against his back. The large stones scattered about the cave entrance shook and rolled. They stacked themselves atop each other and barred the storm from passing into the cave. Litrus adjusted his form to the human shape. He clapped his hand to Eirevene’s back to thank her for shutting out the storm.

__________The Ambassador of Earth nodded and then gestured to the chamber ahead. “The Council of Elders await your declaration,” she reminded.

__________Litrus sighed. “They await bleak news,” he confessed.

__________Eirevene frowned. “So, it is to be a solar eclipse then.”

__________Litrus nodded solemnly.

__________I tire of locking my son behind bars, he thought, but wisdom trumps will.

__________The head of Litrus’s human form was far closer to the ground than his native head. Out of habit, Litrus ducked into the adjoining chamber. Eirevene followed.

__________The Ambassadors of the Elements gathered in a ring. Litrus and Eirevene found their places among them and settled within their circle. The ambassadors’ attention turned to Litrus.

__________“I have confirmed the nature of the eclipse. We must seal Aucraylin until it passes,” Litrus announced.

__________The elder dragons murmured among themselves.

__________Litrus growled and silenced them. “We cannot let the wildfire within him scorch the earth.”

__________“Litrus of Light,” a dark-haired ambassador called. “You fail to notice that wildfire burns hotter the more we interfere.”

__________“Darumon of Dark, we cannot allow our ward to run free when he has not tamed his strength,” Eirevene countered. “The lands below would face the same devastation our allies sought to avoid.”

__________Darumon growled. “You compromise the needs of one of our own for the sake of our slayers!” he boomed.

__________The Ambassador of Fire nodded. “Litrus does not fear the boy’s strength,” she said.

__________She turned to Litrus and added, “You fear where his soul drives him.”

__________Litrus scoffed. He broke the circle and exited the chamber.

__________I do not need their consent to corral my hatchling, he decided.

__________Litrus shifted to his dragon form. He tramped through the caverns to the chamber where Aucraylin tended the newly laid eggs. Litrus eyed Aucraylin’s work. Each egg occupied a cell in the cavern wall. Each cell was heated or cooled to serve the elemental needs of the unhatched dragon who occupied it. The natural color of each dragon’s element alit each dragon’s cell. Aucraylin sung a haunting tune in Elvish, imbued with magic, to coax the hatchlings to grow hardy bodies and proud hearts.

__________Litrus grinned. I chose well, he determined.

__________Since he faced the eggs, Aucraylin did not see Litrus crane his neck into the chamber. Litrus lifted Aucraylin by the tunic. Aucraylin kicked his feet and squirmed.

__________“I wasn’t finished,” he argued.

__________Litrus chuckled, carried Aucraylin deeper into the cave, and deposited him in a cell of his own. Aucraylin bolted from the cell and ducked under Litrus’s towering forelegs. Litrus stepped back, pulled a lever with his teeth, and dropped iron bars in front of Aucraylin. Aucraylin jumped back.

__________“Now you rest,” Litrus ordered.

__________Aucraylin gripped the bars and shook them. Dust poured onto Litrus’s nose from overhead. Litrus sneezed. His sneeze shoved Aucraylin into a wall. Aucraylin slumped and pouted.

__________“I’m not a hatchling anymore, Litrus,” Aucraylin asserted. “Let me den with the others.”

__________Litrus snorted. Smoke trailed out from his nostrils. Ashes collected on Aucraylin’s face and hair. Aucraylin wiped his face with his sleeve and shook out his hair.

__________“Uncalled for,” Aucraylin said.

__________Litrus yawned, dropped to the floor, and curled his gargantuan body in front of the barred cell. He closed his eyes.

__________“Not until the day you release your dragon’s breath,” Litrus claimed.

__________Aucraylin growled and kicked a stone at Litrus’s scaled hide. “You know I’m not really a dragon,” he argued.

__________Then the moon blocked the sun. Aucraylin’s eyes brightened, and his voice darkened. He grabbed the bars of his cell and pushed to bend them aside. Litrus turned his head toward the bars, opened his mouth, and heated the bars with his breath. Aucraylin’s hands smoked and stung.

__________“Where is she?” Aucraylin demanded.

__________Litrus snorted. He lowered his head and waited.

__________Aucraylin released his grip on the bars and shook out his hands. Then he crossed his arms over his chest and glared.

__________“Where is she?” he repeated. Swirling tendrils of light and darkness poured out from Aucraylin’s heart and danced around his feet.

__________Litrus counted, Three, two, one.

__________The moon passed by the sun. The tendrils dispersed. Aucraylin’s eyes dimmed.

__________“Aucrayla, Sister,” he whispered. Then his voice cleared.

__________Aucraylin collapsed upon the floor of his cell and fell into a deep slumber. Litrus raised his snout, pressed it against the bars, and licked Aucraylin’s forehead.

__________“I am sorry,” Litrus whispered, “but you are better off never knowing her.”

__________Aucraylin twitched but did not wake until morning.