Mistress Bell had been, up until the end of the Last Great Dragon War, in charge of teaching all of the Aerie hatchlings how to fight and put there natural abilities to the best use. The fact that every clan had to leave one egg every twenty-five cycles, meant that she had to teach every kind of dragon which makes the Blood Isles its home, and is part of the Council of Wyrms. In this way the Council tried to allow those young who were hatched in the Aerie to learn about each other, and to form bonds at an early age with other kinds of dragons, thus strengthening the Council itself.

     As I was saying, Mistress Bell was in charge of teaching all of those. In the aftermath of the war, and the fact that some of those she had taught had faired so very poorly, mostly because they had simply been little more then Hatchlings, and could not survive the abyss which was the last battle of the war. Thus, among other shuffling, and the destruction of Clan Cloudkill, Mistress Bell was quietly shuffled off to guard this island, and given the mandate to keep others from stumbling across its dangerous shores. I had, when we discovered Lord Darkheat, expected that the ancient brass dragon had been killed, or at the very least sent somewhere else by the Grand Councilor from clan Magma. It seemed that I was wrong.

     Lord Sutton certainly recognized her easily enough, simple since she had not changed much in the past few centuries. Perhaps one or two more chipped scales, but not much more then that. Lord Sutton on the other hand had grown considerably, and it took the old war mistress a few moments to recognize her old pupil. When she did though, that was not the end of our problems.

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     "Sutton? Jean Sutton? Why as I live and breath!" The huge claws were pulled back and Jean gratefully pulled his head from where it had been trapped on the crystal floor. He needed no urging from the urgently motioning elf at his side to remember that Darkheat was not very far at all behind him. Before Mistress Bell could continue with her questioning he spoke, urgently and quickly.

     "Mistress Bell, you have to trust me and we must leave this place before Darkheat gets here. What is going on here has not been condoned by the Council, no matter what Darkheat and his allies have told you, or shown you." As the ancient brass tilted her head and regarded the younger Silver in surprise at the burst of words, he spared a glance behind them, to where the larger shape was emerging from the last chamber, roaring as it spotted the elf and silver dragons.

     "Please Mistress, we must go!" The ancient brass regarded the silver infront of her, searching his eyes for a split second before nodding.

     "Very well."