*Author's Note: The picture above is how I imagined the castle to look like.*

~Blu’s P.O.V.~

I shivered as a cool rush moved over my wing, pressing down on the injured limb with a slight pressure. I struggled not to wince as I felt the familiar tingle of magic running down the sensitive wing. We had taken the cast off for this, and considering my wing wasn’t fully healed yet, the process had hurt a little.

“Hey, honey, you're doing great.” I heard Tyron tell me as Aaron wavered his hands, the magical water slowly healing me up.

“I'm not giving birth yet silly. It doesn’t hurt. It's just cold, and feels weird,” I wrinkled my snout.

Aaron chuckled. He had mostly recovered from his ‘mana sickness’ over the past two weeks, and while he wasn’t yet at a hundred percent he had regained enough power to heal my wing. Or at least make it a little better. After a couple of minutes of it however, I felt the strange throbbing that had been ever constant since the injury begin to fade.

Eventually Aaron drew the water away and let it fall to the ground, panting softly. I blinked and shook out my wing a little, looking at the wing. It still hurt a little, and there was some odd purple/brown colouring around the edge where the injury had been, but other than that it felt rather good. I grinned, flapping my wings a little to stretch it out before turning to Aaron.

“Thank you. It feels much better now.”

He nodded his head, “No problem at all. I still wouldn’t go flying on it just yet unless you really need to. It isn’t fully healed, so just give it a couple of days to strengthen and stretch again and then you can try it out.”

“I completely agree. You don't want it totally ruined,” Tyron cut in rather seriously.

I snorted softly, “I know, I know. Don’t worry, I’m not stupid enough to try flying just yet.”

But even as I said that I looked to the sky wistfully. I hadn’t realised how much I had taken flying for granted until these past couple of weeks. The longing to be up in the sky was nearly unbearable, to feel the wind under my wings again and ride the currents as high as I could. I shuffled softly, looking down again.

Tyron noticed my fallen mood and wrapped his wing around my shoulder, “Don’t worry, you’ll be up there again before you know it.”

I smiled gratefully at him before turning to Aaron, “We should continue on. We’ve stopped for long enough.

The mage nodded his head and with a call to the guards he ordered the journey to continue. I again found myself padding along the ground. This time though, as I did, I kept my wings slightly open, allowing myself to pull out the cramps of the past couple of weeks with occasional twinges of pain.

Tyron had chosen to walk with me this time. His own wings were a bit tired and another one of the gryphons had opted to take his place in the sky for a while. We walked in comfortable silence, allowing the constant thud of feet against ground to calm down our constant thoughts. Harry was off with his friends and Tabitha and Mum were helping with some other travellers with a few carrying items.

‘Blu,’ said a sudden voice in my head

‘Hannah?’ I blinked in surprise nearly coming to a startled stop.

Tyron looked back at me, wondering why I had fallen behind. I gave him a quick smile and trotted to catch up, before focusing once again on the voice in my head.

‘You haven’t talked in a while,’ I said.

‘It requires a surprising amount of energy to make myself known to you,’ replied the dragoness, ‘But I feel my old strength returning.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ I asked.

I felt a rather strange emotion flood through my mind. An emotion that wasn’t mine. It was a mixture of excitement and longing, kind of similar to how I felt when I saw Tabitha for the first time in ten years. It made my heart flutter and gave me a sudden urge to roar into the sky. I resisted that urge of course, it would be a little strange for me to bellow without no apparent reason.

‘It means that we are getting close,’ Hannah replied.

‘Close? To the lost kingdom?’

‘Yes. In fact, I reckon at this current pace you will reach that mountain by sundown,’ she said rather proudly.

I let out a rumble of surprise, ‘What! Really? I need to tell Aaron.’

I glanced at Tyron, who was giving me an odd expression, “What?

“You suddenly seemed to get all excited, and I can’t figure out why,” he replied with a tilt of his head.

I grinned at him and playfully bumped his side, “Guess what. Hannah just contacted me. She said we should be able to find the abandoned kingdom by the end of the day.”

“Wait, really?” he said, his eyes lighting up.

“Well, that’s what she said,” I replied.

“We need to tell Aaron then! Finally we can put an end to this constant moving!” he said raising his wings.

I felt Hannah chuckle in my head. I nodded my head, and with an excited step quickly hopped onto the side of the trail and began running toward the beginning of the line where Aaron was leading. Tyron was right behind me, gliding above my speeding form with eagerness. The travellers watched us go by rather startled. I had to make sure I didn’t accidentally step on anyone during my run.

‘Hmm… I can’t wait to be home,’ Hannah hummed in my mind.

“Aaron! I got exciting news!” I shouted as I neared the leading troops.

There was a slight commotion up front as a dark brown horse drew to a stop, moving off to the side of the road. Aaron looked back and saw me coming. I checked my speed, as not to spook the horse as I came up to them. Aaron gave me a confused frown as I slid to a halting stop. Tyron circled above me for a moment before landing on the other side, causing the horse to prance a couple of steps before Aaron calmed it down.

“What is it Blu? Is something wrong?” he asked.

I shook my head, panting, “I have some great news.”

Tyron nod his head in agreement rather eagerly, “Yes! Our trip may be closer to finishing than you think.”

I looked at Tyron with a frown, “I was going to tell him.”

Aaron looked between the two of us as Tyron smirked slightly at my annoyance, “Wait… are you saying that we are nearly there?”

Turning my attention back to Aaron I nodded my head, “Yes, Hannah just told me that we should reach the mountain by tonight!”

“Really?” his eyes widened, “Well… where is it? What are we looking for exactly?”

I hesitated, ‘Ummm… Hannah if you are still there we could use some help.’

The dragoness chuckled through my mind, ‘You are even more eager than me it seems. It’s a large mountain, and very wide. Not quite as tall as Crag Mountain, but a fair bit bigger in diameter. The city is actually in a large bowl made from a extinct supervolcano.’

I frowned, ‘How do we get in?’

Hannah thought for a moment, ‘Usually it’s only accessible from the air, but there is a hidden gate that allows ground dwellers in. But it can only be opened from the other side and it blends in with the rest of the mountains, so it might be a bit difficult to find. One of you will have to fly over into the city and open the door from the other side.’

‘Okay,’ I nodded my head, before looking back to the others and relaying what I had just been told.

Aaron seemed to think for a moment, “Alright, Tyron you are going to have to get that gate open for us.”

I rumbled, “Why can’t I go?”

“You still have your injured wing, and while you may be able to fly now it will probably take even longer to heal. Besides, if it is overrun by demons and stuff he can quite easily get away, which may be a bit difficult for you,” Aaron said.

I snorted, before sighing and nodding my head sadly. I could see the logic behind Aaron’s argument, “Alright.”

Tyron placed his wing over my back, “Don’t worry, I’ll be back before you can blink.”

I smiled and nodded my head, nudging him softly, “Okay. Fine. But be safe.”

“And I’m going to go with you.”

We spun around in surprise to see Tabitha behind us on her own horse. She looked at us with a such a serious glare that we couldn’t argue.

~Tyron’s P.O.V.~

I pushed my wings hard as I shot into the sky. My heart was pounding rather excitedly in my chest. We were finally there, well, not quite, but we were getting close. The lost kingdom. I don’t know entirely why, but the very thought made my body tremble with joy, though I don’t think that it was fully my feeling that I was experiencing. I felt a soft stirring in the back of my mind. It was probably Theno, the dragon that had originally owned my body.

Rather excitedly I tried to reach out to him, as it was the first time in a while I had spoken with the red dragon in a while, ‘Hello.’

‘Urrgh, what is happening?’ came the surprisingly sleepy voice.

‘We are nearly at your home,’ I said with a slight grin.

‘Wait… really?’ I felt him instantly perk up, seeming to catch on to where we were going.

On my back I felt Tabitha shift slightly on the leather saddle they had hurriedly strung together. The girl had insisted on coming along, so I had reluctantly agreed. She had come up with a rather winning answer saying that if there were enemies that I would need back up, especially if it was a trap.

‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘And your help here would be appreciated. If you remember where it is.’

‘Hmph, of course I do. Now,’ he went silent as he seemed to be studying the surroundings through my eyes, ‘You are a little less than an hours flight. I suggest you go a bit higher. It’ll be easier to spot then.’

I nodded in agreement and rose a little more into the sky. The wind whipped over my back and wings. It was a cold wind, which meant a storm was likely a couple of days away. It might even hold snow. My scales protected me against the worst of it though, and I wasn’t extremely fazed by the chilly bite, it was more Tabitha up on my back I was worried about. Flying this high could be quite dangerous for the unprotected. But she was wearing thick layers of fur, so I wasn’t overly concerned.

As I looked around the mountains, I noticed many had adopted icy peaks. Not quite snow, at least not yet, but it was getting close as winter made its round. By the end of next month, everything would likely be white. It made me glad that we were nearly there. Being trapped in the mountains during winter was a sure death sentence. At least this place would have protection from the high winds and blizzards.

I shook myself out of my thoughts and focused on the task at hand. A number of mountains around had their peaks cut short with a crater at the top instead of a point. Volcanos, all of them, but none were even close to large enough to hold an entire city. So I turned away from the and followed Theno’s directions, flying forward for what seemed like forever. In reality it was only about forty minutes, but my excitement at finding the kingdom made it seem like a much longer journey.

‘There it is!’ exclaimed Theno with the most passion I had heard him say anything to me.

I frowned, looking around in confusion, ‘Where?’

My vision suddenly focused without me doing anything, and I grunted, a little unnerved. It wasn’t long before I realised what I was looking at. The mountain, while not as tall as some of its surrounding partners, was simply massive in diameter. It reminded me of a bowl. And I think I forgot to mention this, but it was absolutely gigantic. It looked more like a valley then a volcanic crater, with trees and rivers swirling through it in great snakey patterns.

I shivered slightly and dipped over the edge. On my back Tabitha had grown still, and I couldn’t help but stare. There, in the middle of the luscious grasslands and trees and hills, was quite possibly the most beautiful city I had ever seen, which was saying something considering I had been to Telaran.

It was gigantic, covering a good portion of its side of the crater. A massive white castle jutted out from the side of the city closest to the mountain wall, with the buildings steadily getting smaller as it reached the outskirts. It glistened grandly in the morning sun, almost blindingly so. So many tall and arrow shaped towers stuck up from the castle’s interior that I couldn’t count, with windows on all of them. Each spire was thick enough to house a dragon five times the size of me, and some towers even cleared the tops of the mountain walls around it.

The city itself was amazing as well, wide enough to accomodate ten dragons standing abreast. Stone buildings of all sorts crowded down the streets with flat roofs and many stories. Again, the doorways themselves could quite easily fit a dragon inside. A river ran from the castle gates all the way through the city until it joined with the stream in the middle of the valley.

As I came closer however I felt a pang of sadness run through me. I couldn’t tell exactly what from, but it quickly became clear, as I felt Theno’s presence in my mind. While he noticed the grandeur of the city as much as I did, he also saw its emptiness. The streets were completely abandoned. Blackened stone and crumbled buildings were surprisingly common, and even the castle itself had cracked marble and burns. One of the towers looked as though it had fallen onto the city itself.

I swooped over the broken walls and came to a scampering stop on one of the stone pathways. It was then I felt horror run through me. Cracked stone and scorch marks weren’t the only things that were apart of the city. It took me a moment to realise, but when I did I let out a shocked breath, and Tabitha did the same.

A dragon’s skeleton, fully intact, lay sprawled along the road. It would have been twice as large as me if it were still alive. Inside my head I felt a startling rage, and I froze, thinking that a mental attack was coming, before I realised it was Theno.

‘Theno?’ I asked.

‘They will pay for what they’ve done,’ growled the dragon, ‘I swear to any and all gods, they will pay.’

I went silent.

He must have noticed because he sighed deeply, ‘Sorry… about that. It’s just a shock to see what has become of my home.’

‘Don’t worry,’ I replied, feeling a little of my own anger, ‘I’ll help anyway I can.’

I felt his agreement.

“We need to find the gate,” Tabitha said from my back, lightly running a comforting hand up my neck.

I shook myself, “Yes.”

I took to the air with a single flap of my wings, heading toward where Theno silently lead me. As we went further into the city I spotted more and more skeletons, some as large as a human manor, and others barely the size of a horse. There were also a number of strangely shaped human ones, with skeletal wings and claw like feet. I frowned slightly, wondering what those were from. I resisted asking Theno, not wanting to upset him more. One corpse stuck out from the rest. It was a skeleton with its wings covering three far smaller skeletons. A mother, protecting her children.

I gulped softly as I swooped into the courtyard and landed once again. Theno lead me at walking pace toward a rather large cave, the first natural structure I had seen, in the side of the mountain wall. It was rather dark, though from the torches I could barely see inside it was obvious it had once been used rather often. The path that lead from it went straight into the main city.

I went to take a step forward when a slight rockfall from the mountain ledge above stopped me. I frowned, looking upwards, then let out a startled cry of surprise. A great shadow seemed to block out the entire sun, with wings the size of one of the smaller buildings in this city and a massive bulk that looked like a mountain.

Tabitha reacted quick than I did. She leapt from my back, rolling onto the ground below and entering the safety of the cave. I took a step to follow her when a massive weight landed upon my back. I grunted as I was slammed into the floor below, the other dragon holding me down with enough strength to steady a mountain. I pushed and struggled for a moment, but this dragon’s single paw was nearly as big as me.

I shivered in fear as I looked up at the dragon, only able to see its silhouette with the sun.

“And who,” a voice boomed as if it came from all around, “are you?”