Aodhine

Aodhine’s ruby eyes opened as she felt a brush of pure life and love caress her cheek. It wasn’t a physical touch but a familiar force of nature. She had awakened in the same place that she had gone to sleep - a monastery temple abandoned during the fighting. She had no idea how much time had passed, only that she had felt herself diminish as her beloved kin had waned and fallen. She was the last, so far as she knew, to have escaped into hiding. The dark chamber was large, however. A dedicated Aodhine temple that had spiralling domed ceilings and open arches that once let in all the light of the day. They had been bricked up when the temple was concealed under the permanent snow of the mountain peak. She moved her head to look into that darkness, dust trailing from her black hair as it moved for the first time in what felt like centuries. She was looking at the place where the large stone slab had been placed over the wooden doors, expectantly awaiting the moment that she knew was coming. As though scripted, as though she had foreseen it, the stone slab cracked and then groaned as it slid across the floor, grinding over time-bleached tiles. The wooden doors too, groaned and parted, spilling dim light and errant snowflakes into the stagnant air. The cold breeze made Aodhine gasp. How weak had I become? The moment of distraction had let a figure enter the doorway and step around the stone without her heeding. “Aodhine,” the female voice purred. “My beautiful sister Aodhine.” “Catherine,” Aodhine responded, hearing the brittle nature of her own voice. “What has happened to me?” “Time,” Catherine responded, almost sadly now. “But that is not important, you are so faded to my eyes little sister, come and feel the world again!” Aodhine took her first step, her statuesque form stiff as it moved down the few steps that led up to the shallow space in the wall. She hesitated. “What of my beloved children?” She asked, looking around. She soon found the thing her eyes sought in the gloom, hidden in the deeper shadows. She crossed to the form and laid a hand upon it. Red light rippled through the surface, like light shining on water. It intensified, flowing out out in every direction beneath the almost transparent surface of the dragon’s scaled body until the whole creature was momentarily alight with internal flame. She felt her strength begin to gather as the Elder Drake awoke from his deep sleep. “Bodaway,” she said, smiling down at his giant head. His voice, or the sound of his thought made real, rumbled into the ground. “My Queen.” She smiled, joyous that her child had survived the slumber. Looking up at Catherine, she paused. Seeing nothing but the dim light through the broken door, and snow drifting silently in. Her sister was not here.