Before Dawn

The village woke again before full dawn, slowly, as Old Agar sat watching from his bench. The pale haze of morning lifted gradually over the buildings and cast faint shadows across the square, the sun not yet available to throw it's full authority behind the effort. A faintly wooden smell drafted out from the evening's pit fires, and the honey-tang of drying ale from the tables and dust nearby. It was unusually quiet, this morning, but occasional rustles and hinge-creaks in the middle distance spoke to the building alertness.

Old Agar's attention, however, was focused on none of this, having grown deeply accustomed to the mornings of the village. He woke to watch the sun set, and returned to his bed each day before the mid-day meal. Bright light did not agree with his eyes, but his vision in the dark was sharp. In the pre-dawn light, Agar could quite easily study the massive creature sprawled in the alley across from him. As the dragon slept, he had carefully counted the rings on her neck, examined the spines of her eye-ridges, and stared at her wings. Finally, as the first rays of true sunlight began to filter across the horizon, he glanced agitatedly to the east, then sighed sharply. Agar reached for his stick, and began walking across the square.

He simply stood in front of the creature's head for a time, and then reached out and gently rapped her on the nose with the side of his cane. She sneezed mildly and reached up with a claw to scratch at her nose and idly opened her eye to a slit, and then snapped it open to a full and interrogative disc once she saw Old Agar standing before her. He felt the comfortable pressure build in the back of his head and then heard her voice.

"You smell strange."

Agar grinned impishly, replying "To find the high ground on that one, you'll be wantin' to brush your teeth, great lizard!" He laughed at her look of consternation and added "You'll be Gadrya's get, then. Serryah, was it?"

Serryah's attention snapped from peevish curiosity to intense scrutiny. "My mother is dead," was all she said, but the tone conveyed real danger.

Agar was unmoved. He removed his collar and loosened his right sleeve, revealing the blue coil that ran from his elbow to his shoulder. Seeing that Serryah recognized the mark, he carefully relaced his shirt. "I have something for you. You'll need it, once you've found her." As he spoke, he raised his cane aloft, and brought it sharply down to the soil with a muffled cracking sound. Gingerly he pulled apart the now split halves of the wood and removed the long thin crystal from within. Serryah said nothing, only watching with unease as he slid the rod into place along her temple. Agar turned quietly, his task complete, and straightened from his customary stoop. His pace, as he left the village, was slow, and unhurried. He would be missed, he knew. But not greatly. And not for quite some time yet.