SAGE

Sven walked most of the day, pausing only at mid day to drink some water and eat bread. He was sure where he was going but he had heard the town  Alagaesea mentioned many times at home when Raz was alive, so maybe he would go there.

  By nightfall he checked into a small farm inn on the outskirts of a town two leagues from Alaegasea, he had been careful to stay off the main roads. Many boys his age have been reported missing the past year including his older brother Nenji who had run away two days after Xen's death and had never returned, most likely abducted to join an army on either side of the war and with the kind of powers he had, he was not interested in being a captive to be used as a weapon in a struggle he knew nothing about.

 At the inn he kept his head down taking a room with six other men, he did not mind the squeeze even if he preferred to stay alone, there was strenght in numbers and from their conversations while he pretended to be asleep, The Conqueror's army had swept through most of the towns on the west side of the serpent's pass and was now encompassing around Ligath a large wine shipping city in the middle of Hanorak they also said that he was looking for something.

''A dragon's egg ", the voice telling the story whispered loudly.

"A dragon's egg?'' another voice echoed

''Yes, I heard that a new egg was unearthed somewhere north of Ligath, Bukarat or Nibigan''.

''But the conqueror cannot raise another dragon not after the one to which he was bound is dead''.

''He can raise another dragon lord like the other Gesian what was his name?''

''Sikorra'' Sven tried to remain awake to hear more but his eyes slowly drifted shut and that moment before he surrendered to sleep he wondered what he would dream of.

 The next morning, bright and early Sven got up to continue his journey sneaking out before his roommates who were still snoring deeply would awaken. He walked all through the morning and the gates of Alagaesea was just a tiny speck in the hilly distance when something hot and sharp as lightning slammed between his shoulder blades and poured down so fast he the air was knocked out of his lungs he could not catch his breath and there was a ringing in his ears what ever it was seared into the soft flesh of his arm just below his elbow, the pain sent him sprawling to his knees and hoping that no one was around to see.

 It took a full minute for him to recover and there on the inside of his arm was a mark of the dragon he was now a sage a new dragon had hatched. He refused to think of what it meant, first he would pick himself up and take cover, to be marked made him a target and he would hold on to his freedom for as long as he could.

 Takira crashed to her knees striking her head on the rock she had been binding, stars bloomed painfully behind her eyelids and bile rose up in her mouth she turned away throwing up into the stony earth, she pushed off the ground cradling her throbbing forehead in her palm  then she saw it - etched into the skin of her inner arm was a dragon angled to fly she knew what it was,  here was a dragon lord somewhere waiting for her but she also knew that she had to leave Ligath immediately.

 She hurried home and threw up her bed searching for the packed bag she had hidden there ad scrawled a note for her mother telling her that she was safe, her mother would understand they had begun planning for it since the first day at ten she had been picking stones out of rice and the stones had suddenly begun to fly out on their own whenever she moved her hands, her mother had made her swear to never tell anyone else and she had kept that promise until she met the book keeper of Nanesgai ten months ago and he had shown her what he could do.

 Takira stuffed the gate pass he had given her for if she ever needed to find him into her bag she stepped out of the home she had lived all her life and without a backward glance she ran.