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"Do you think we should... find another?" Enele said, nursing his bruised tail and half-broken wing. "I mean.... I cannot fail you again. And I cannot help you hunt or scout like ... this!"
"I thought we could heal you," White Eyes said, listlessly. "But I guess you're harder to heal than humans are for us." He held his oddly colored hand up, "I'm sorry..." He'd tried his bone-shaping on the dragon, but that proved to be very painful to a living subject. They'd tried healing with Warmhand, but even that didn't work so well. It got the pain and swelling to go away, and they could bandage it.
"I will heal!" Enele said, then lowered his head, "sometime soon..."
"Finding another like you would be impossible," White Eyes said. Though he meant it, and Enele was flattered and humbled by the love that his elfin bond had for him, Enele was serious too.
"No, not impossible!" The Lian dragon stood up, holding his wing carefully with the splint on it making him very difficult to see around. It kept his wing from folding down, for the time being. His wingsail was not damaged, but one spar was dangerously crushed by a falling branch during a swift flight through the woods. "There are others!"
White Eyes tilted his head, "really?"
"Yes, and we hardly like to be alone." Enele said, "I am certain that if you get someone to take you to the eggs, you will find another. You can bring them home to me, and I can teach them everything they'll need to know!"
"Even about flying?" White Eyes said with a smirk.
"Even about flying, when my wing is fixed! And I will know not to tell them to go so fast through the forest. That might be the first lesson!"
Since White Eyes was able to send across far distances, he felt that it was time now to try something new. He knew where to find Dulath and Baeris - in that Nexus place the Healing Den. Dragon's minds were much easier to spot than humans - even talented ones like Baeris. She wasn't what they called "telepathic" enough.
**Dulath? Dulath? Can you hear me?** White Eyes "sent". He sat in a calm cross-legged way, in their den. He was aware of Enele pacing about, but then his consciousness reached its destination.
Child? You ... are calling from a very long way away! What is it?
**Enele, the Lian dragon that I bonded, you remember him?**
With a loving mental chuckle, Dulath replied, Of course I do. I can hardly forget my children's children.
**Well, he kind of almost broke his wing. And we were thinking, aren't there other nests of Lians?**
As a matter of fact... There are... Dulath related that Ryslen was now hosting small nests of them. There was one waiting.
Very shortly, Dulath made an appearance at Bald Mountain's west-facing low ledge. The greenygold dragoness picked up White Eyes and nuzzled her descendant Enele, and promised that they would return shortly.
"Not too soon!" Enele said. "I want time to heal!"
White Eyes made himself at home at Ryslen. Ainea had told stories about the place and her time spent there, and he seemed to be able to find his way around pretty easily. It was huge, made for humans and full sized dragons. But there were the two red Lians, Ke'li and Ke'l to help him when he needed it.
**I'm so glad you're here, because I miss Enele!** He told them. They eventually clued him in when the hatching was about to happen, and he found himself surrounded by other small candidates.
The first to hatch was a lovely red glitz, not entirely unlike those red-toned ones from Enele's clutch. Another, a blue similar to Enele, went off to a feather-winged dragoness! That surprised White Eyes - he wasn't certain why a dragon would want to have a tiny companion but could hardly complain.
A green bonded off, but then White Eyes got the strangest feeling from everyone around him. None of these Lians had names! Why was that, he wondered? Well, he'd have to wonder about the why's later. A silver-white went to one candidate who apparently could manipulate air! A human? No - White Eyes sensed far more going on with that one than met the eye.
A purple paired off next, still without a name. Yet another egg broke open, and the orange-glitz dragonet that came from it fell over himself trying to get to White Eyes.
Hello White Eyes! He said. The feeling of fulfilment came flooding back into White Eyes. This must be as good as it gets - maybe shy of recognition. His impression to Enele was magical, so was this!
"Won't Enele be surprised," he said smiling.
Who's Enele?
"Another mini-dragon, you'll meet him soon." As White Eyes knelt to cradle the tiny hatchling, the final Lian egg hatched with a brilliantly yellow result. But he was more interested in feeding and caring for his own...
"We've got to find you a name!" White Eyes said. A strange sensation came over him, and he smiled. "How would you like the name Torre?"
I like it, is it special?
"It's.... Yes, it's special. I think my chief will like it too. Might make her sad, but I think she'll understand. She taught a human boy named Torre to fly on our eagle's backs, and I think she really liked him."
What is an eagle? What is a chief? There were so many more questions... Torre would ask them all!
Torre looked up sharply when a noise caught his attention. To White Eyes, the noise signified something far more than just a distraction from hunting practice.
Enele had come - Enele! The lovely aquamarine male swept in over the tall trees of Ryslen, shortly followed by two familiar dragons, black Lyesaseath and silver-ecru Kylionith. White Eyes' heart skipped a beat: his mother was coming here? He missed Enele of course, but he'd missed his tribe mates a lot too.
That is Enele? Torre asked, and skipped over a stone path toward the group landing nearby. Excited, the orange glitz fluttered his wings and touched noses with the older male. They were almost entirely opposite in color save for their beautiful wingsails - "Enele! Your wings are healed!" White Eyes giggled and ran toward his first bond. "And this is Torre," he said, of the younger.
It seemed like both the Lians would get along just fine, Enele took up where White Eyes had left off in the hunting training - since he had experience at the job himself. The elf, meanwhile, rushed up to his mother and Farfire, embracing both warmly.
"I'm so glad you've come! We're making progress, he's flown a little bit and we're hunting now. Mostly," he said, as the orange glitz tripped and went nose first into a berry patch...
It wasn't much longer before Torre and Enele and the rest all went back to Bald Mountain. Both Lians were spectacular, tiny but bright, and flew circles around the bigger dragons. Torre especially - and it was true, Apogee the chieftess did get a little misty eyed when White-Eyes introduced them.
It took a little while longer, though, several eights of years, before another Lian was introduced to the Holt...
