Silva opened her eyes- and instantly wished she hadn't. Her head felt as if the entire herd had stepped on it.
Blazes. Whatever that was, I'm NEVER doing it again. They should put warnings on rides like that.
Her throat was dry and strained, as if she had been screaming, and her hands ached. Shaking slightly she lifted one hand to her face and saw several red fingernail divots in her palm, especially bright against her strangely pale skin. The arm shook harder as she lay it back down.

What... happened? What did I do? Blinking, she looked around for the first time, although she could only see straight up with her neck muscles too sore to turn. She let her jaw slide open in suprise, letting out a tiny and strained squeak.
Ok, nevermind what... I'd trade that for where.

Instead of sky overhead was grey cloth, dancing with orange light from a few lanterns, one of which was in sight, stacked on top of several boxes and thick books of different sizes. The tops of many more piles of... stuff... filled the rest of the small area, and underneath her she could feel a wooly blanket. From the temperature and sounds outside it seemed to be full on night.

Oh...kay... Silva was not exactly comforted, and she pressed a hand to her forehead. Alright, easy now, lets at least sit up... Taking deep breaths she raised herself up slowly onto her elbows, trying to ignore the way that there seemed to be an ecco bouncing around in her skull, how moving at all made her dizzy.

Slowly she looked around. This was only half of the tent, the other, silent half divided off by a curtain. The small square area was cluttered with chests, boxes, books, glass containers... Five or six stacks were topped off with burning lanterns that cast everything in a strange, flickering orange hue that gave Silva an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. A small cage hung in the corner, full of blackness and a pair of red eyes... she shivered and turned away from it, thinking that she must be imagining things, like a child who makes a chair out to be a monster in the dark of their room. And not a yard away from her, laying on the ground-

What is that?


That was a fairly large oval shaped... thing. It was hard to tell what color it really was, tinted a soft creamy orange in the firelight. It seemed... strange. Not strange like the light or the sick, icy feeling that slept in Silva's bones, but different.

All right, now you're just being strange. She shook herself mentally, closing her eyes. I was attacked by theives on the road, and I hit one- She stopped to clench her teeth as a fresh pain flashed through her head. And the other one must have hit me, I guess. Blazes, I hope the herd didn't scatter, if they at least stay together I can find them again... So some kindly people found me laying by the road and decided to watch me until I woke up? It seems that way. With a deep breath she opened her eyes again and leaned forward to try and get up. Her hand brushed against something next to her-
My backpack! She opened it and looked inside; not much to see, but nothing missing, not even the little bit of money she carried. They definately aren't theives, then. Silva, you are one lucky idiot. This could have been a lot worse. She still felt terribly beaten up, sore and sick, though. She sighed.

The oval shaped thing caught her eye again, and she stared at it, puzzled. Carefully she reached out one hand and touched it- and gasped suddenly, her first reflex to pull away, but instead she rested an entire palm against it's smooth, hard surface.

It's.... There wasn't a word for it, not that Silva could think of. A strange, warm feeling sank into her skin, into the muscles of her hand, settled into the cold bones of her fingers. She blinked, stunned, and her vision seemed to clear the tiniest bit, just like when the lights became stars-
She pulled her hand away slowly, reluctantly, and stared at it in confusion as the feeling in her hand went back to normal. Maybe the people are healers? She feelt guilty and silly at the same time for what she was thinking, but her head hurt something awful, and it wouldn't harm anything, right?
Carefully, as if it might bite, Silva leaned forward against her sore back's protest and lay her forehead gently on the oval thing, sighing as the eccoing pain dulled, just a little bit. Not a miracle, but it was something. I wish whoever's tent this is would hurry back so I could thank them. The room is a little strange, I'll admit, (Her mind returned to the cage, and the eyes) but the fact that they probably saved my life more than makes up for it. Then-


Low, growling, angry voices and several sets of feet came up to the side of the tent, on the other half of the curtain. Silva jerked her head back with a gasp as if she had been caught doing something wrong. The sound of a tent flap oppening, and she could feel a cool, night breeze flutter though.
Well, here's my chance to thank my saviors, then. She rose slowly to her feet, still more shaky than steady, and paused to pull both straps of her pack over her shoulders. She was reaching out to pull the curtain aside when the edge of it fluttered in the wind and she caught a look at the people who had come in-
-four of them, draped in dark black robes, with strangely pale skin and worn rings under their eyes. The thing in the cage hissed softly, and Silva stepped back in suprise, realising for the first time that she might still be in danger.
All right, not an emergency. They didn't see you, so untie one corner of the tent for a quick getaway if necessary and wait to see what they say. They might just be eccentric or something. Heck, they could be dressing up for a play or something, for all you know. Silently she stepped back to the outside edge of the tent and knelt to unfasten the rope that tied it down, listening.

"I'll say it again, I do not like her being kept in the same room with it, not when it might be able to revive her."
(Silva blinked in suprise at the high, nervous voice. Well that's getting right to the point...)

A cold, hard voice answered, sounding bored and irritated. "Then I'll repeat myself as well, that she's useless to us if the after-effects destroy her before we finish."

"...Not entirely useless."

The thing in the cage hissed again at the ugly sound of the third man's voice, and Silva -who no longer cared enough about things in cages to deny their existance, considering how these people were talking- had to agree. The others seemed to be thinking the same thing, all suddenly quiet.
Uh, yeah, that's enough for me. Time to slip out and get as far away from these people as I can before sunrise... She started to lift the edge of the tent so that she could slip under, but she wanted to hear what else they had to say, in case they mentioned WHY they wanted anything to do with her. I'll only wait another minute...

The fourth person spoke up, a woman who seemed to be choosing her words carefully.
"Still, it would be considerably harder to finish the project if she were to die. We would have to wait for it to feel threatened enough to take another mortal's body again, and the odds that the next one would survive are not high. This one's only lasted so long because she's completely denied it-"

The cold voiced second man flatly inturrupted her, as if she was taking too long- "but now that her life was threatened enough that the residual energy forced it's way out, it will continue to be out of her control, and the only way to keep her mind from being obliterated is to let the... item's... natural power stabalize her. Without it she will gradually loose control until her mind is destroyed, which means we have no means to reach the season other than striking it directly. So we have to keep her with it. Could we move on please?"

Silva had to sit down, her head was spinning. Not me, they can't be talking about me, it must be someone else, just a mistake. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. Ok. These people are bad news, and my being the wrong person won't help me once I'm dead. I need to go. Now. She looked to the oval thing suddenly, worried. ...But that thing did make me feel better, and they're definately no good, so I don't see why I shouldn't take it with me... just to be safe... She flatly refused to realise that the fact that it helped her ment they probably WERE talking about her, that she HAD to take it because if they were right she would die without it.

Careful not to make any noise she slipped over to it and lifted it gently- not light, but not too heavy to carry, for a little while. At least it made her feel a little better now that she was holding it (which was both a good and bad thing, considering what it implied). Silva carefully moved some of the piles of stuff out of the way so that she wouldn't knock anything over on the way out, but as she started to slide the thing out ahead of herself-

"SSSSSSSHHHRIEEEEEEEEE! IEEEeeeeeeeIIIIIEEEEEEeeee!"
The black thing in the cage started flaping around wildly and shreiking at the top of it's lungs.

I run, they come look, see me gone, they'll catch me before I'm ten feet away; no good. Blood pounding in her ears Silva jumped up, waving her hands at the creature, whispering "Shhh, shhhh!" quietly, but it wasn't working. The four in the next room had gone silent, but none were looking in yet.

"Come on, please... If you'll shush I swear I'll let you out, shh now, shhhhhh..." To Silva's complete amazement, it stopped screaming instantly. Quickly, before she could think about the fact that she was letting a hissing, red-eyed-thing loose, she reached up and undid the latch on it's cage. Without a sound it swooped down, hovered over the orb thing for a moment as if checking on it, and dissapeared in the night darkness outside.

The cold voice sighed in irritation. "I cannot stand that blasted Baiton. I know they hate cages, but if it throws one more tantrum I'll end it myself, whether it be useful for studies or not. If only it hadn't bonded to that dragon egg, we wouldn't have had to bother."

But Silva never heard that, already mostly outside, and as she finished slipping out behind the egg with her heart thundering, suddenly she wanted nothing more in the world than to just get AWAY from these people. She picked it back up and ran as quickly as she could, blind to the darkness under the bright stars.

Ahead...



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Glenn Dragons from Midsummer's Enchanted Caverns and Isle of Mirrors

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