Daughter? Mishakal’s voice sounded far away.
It’s fading, isn’t it? Miraria tried not to cry. You’re losing your connection to this world. You can’t stay.
Neither can you. Let me take you home. Mishakal struggled to keep in contact with her cleric.
It was very unnerving for Mishakal’s acolyte to see her goddess’ short comings. The goddess was amazingly powerful on Krynn, but on this strange world, the Blue Lady was having problems. I have to stay. I’m a candidate.
Mishakal gave her cleric the impression of her sadness. I cannot stay...Krynn needs me. An overwhelming peace washed over Miraria. Stay, fight, impress, but return to me Daughter. The goddess’ presence faded as she returned to her domain.
Miraria was left feeling a sad sort of peacefulness. "She’s gone." The cleric was alone in the room she was given at Cy Dragonstake, truly alone. "And what did she mean by fight?"
The iridescent blue flit that was sitting in front of her, cocked his head and chirped. He wasn’t sure exactly what his mistress was talking about.
Miraria smiled and rubbed her flit’s head. "You’re no help at all Mish." She stretched, her muscles cramped from sitting so long, and stood up, wincing at the pain in her legs. The blue flitter, slightly upset at her comment, leapt to her shoulder and nipped at her ear. Miraria laughed. "Alright, alright! You’re not no help, you’re little help."
Mish seemed content with that description of his abilities and calmed down. He wrapped her tail around her neck and resisted the urge to go off and find some more interesting things to do. He didn’t enjoy sitting for hours at a time, listening in to some conversation between his mistress and a mysterious, disembodied voice. The flit was totally unaware of the fact that his presence was required for the mysterious, disembodied voice to speak.
Miraria sighed, and wished for the millionth time that she had spent more time on her meditation exercises back at the temple. It has taken a moment of complete desperation for her prayers to reach the goddess from this strange world, and Miraria was disinclined to repeat that experience just so she could say her prayers twice a day. She had finally been coming to terms with the fact that she was probably only going to see her faith rewarded when she was about to die, when someone brought up flitters. Miraria had seen the small dragon-kin around the Cy, but she hadn’t known that impressing one was as easy as finding an egg. After little Mish had hatched and impressed to her, Miraria could feel her psychic powers growing. Within days, and with Mish’s help, the cleric could once again commune with her deity, if only for short periods at a time.
Miraria followed Mish down the hallway, straightening out her new robes, graciously provided by one of the riders at Cy Dragonstake. The robe, with it’s long sleeves and belted waist, was not the normal sky blue fabric that she was used to, but a shimmering silver/white. The fabric was lighter than she was used to, and Miraria felt like she was wearing nothing at all. This made her nervous, and she often reassured herself by tugging on the sleeves or fiddling with the belt.
Mish, realizing that his mistress was lagging behind, zipped back to her and chittered at her.
Miraria smiled and picked up her pace. "Where are we going anyways Mish?"
A vision of the rain-swept landscape entered her mind, courtesy of little Mish. The blue flitter was heading for a balcony.
"Outside?" Miraria was confused. "The weather’s horrible. It’s pouring and there’s thunder and lightening! C’mon Mish. Let’s go to the Library." The quiet girl had often taken solace in the Cy’s library. The collection of books not only gave her something to do, but helped prepare her for her life in this new world. She was still a little scared everytime she saw a dragon, her first encounter with Hottan Matsu was not conductive to a great appreciation of the beasts, but she was starting to discover their beauty as well as their power.
Mish paid no heed to his mistress’ suggestion, and continued flying towards the balcony. Miraria sped up, trying not to bump into anyone else and trying to catch the iridescent blue. "Mish!"
The flitter stopped when the hall ended. Before him was a door that Miraria knew led to a public balcony. The view was astonishing, but the cleric didn’t really fancy getting wet. "Mish."
The blue flitter chirped happily and sent her visions of an opening door. The cleric sighed, realizing there was no way out of this. "Stupid flitter." She turned the knob and pushed the door hard, as it was a little old and rather stiff.
Her breath caught in her throat as her eyes swept over the landscape. The dismal weather, and grey sky made the greens of the land even greener, and the blues of the water, even bluer. The occasional lightening flash would make everything shine brightly for a second as the rain reflected the light. A small overhang covered the section of balcony right in front of the door, so as long as Miraria stayed there, she could enjoy nature’s show without getting wet. The cleric smiled, and stroked Mish’s head. "Maybe you’re not so stupid."
A vision of pure black came to her from Mish, which quickly changed into a beautiful starry night.
Miraria smiled, understanding was Mish, probably through the prompting of Mishakal, was trying to tell her. "All this darkness may not mean dawn is near. But maybe I can find beauty in the night."
Mish rubbed his head against Miraria’s and made a purring noise. His mistress was so happy, he didn’t see a reason to break her daydream with the message some dragon’s eggs were hatching.
"There you are!" A vaguely familiar rider was standing in front of the door to Miraria’s room.
The cleric had finally realized that the overhang protected her from the rain, but not the wind and it was getting rather chilly. She wanted to go back to her room and roll up in her blanket. These new robes of her’s were nowhere near as insulating as her old ones had been. "I was just out on the balcony watching the storm." Miraria had no idea why anyone would be looking for her.
"You’d rather watch rain than the hatching?" The rider was a little annoyed. Miraria got the feeling that the person had been looking for her for quite some time.
"Hatching?!?" She was surprised. "When did it start?" She quickly followed the rider towards the sands.
The rider sighed, glad to have finally found the missing candidate. "Not too long. We were just surprised you were a no show. We thought Mish would have mentioned it for sure."
The blue flitter chirped indignantly as he flew along behind. He informed Miraria that this was not his fault. He thought she’d be happier with the storm.
Miraria sighed. And just as I was beginning to thing you actually had some intelligence.
"There you go." The rider opened the door for her. "Good luck."
"Thanks." Miraria saw that the person was already gone. She smiled, gathered her courage and stepped onto the warm sands. She couldn’t help feeling a little terrified as she walked towards the eggs, as the last time she’d been at a hatching, she had been about to die. The looks of anticipation, and kindness, on the other candidates faces helped to calm her rapidly beating heart. This was not a hy-dragon clutch. No one was going to hurt her.
Once the fear was suppressed, the cleric took a moment to enjoy the heat radiating off of the warm sand. After the chill bite of the wind, this gentle heat was most welcome. She knew that feeling would probably not last extremely long as her thin slippers were letting the heat right through the bottom of her feet. Her toes were beginning to get extremely warm, verging on uncomfortably warm, when the first egg hatched.
Miraria found that the now painful heat on her feet was quickly forgotten at the sight of the beautiful creatures. How could I ever mistake them for evil? They came in beautiful yellows, bronzes, greens and blues, each colour shining in the light. Miraria remembered seeing the silver dragons flying over her village. She remembered the way the light shone off metallic scales. She remembered how small she had been in comparison to the giant golden dragons of her homeworld. By only seeing the first of the marvellous creature, she already knew she preferred the pastel hides to hard scales.
Her thoughts were interrupted by everyone’s gasps of astonishment when a small purple nose poked it’s way through it’s shell. Miraria tried to recall what she knew of Cy Dragons, and their ranking, but she couldn’t remember if purple was closer to the top or to the bottom. In a moment, it didn’t matter.
Miraria, I will help you journey back to your own world and serve your goddess. My name is Valinra! The small purple hatching moved towards the cleric, radiating love as the sands radiated heat.
The peaceful loneliness she’d felt since her arrival here was banished, replaced with something deeper, stronger. She fell to her knees and embraced her soulmate. "Thank you, Valinra, thank you."
Mish, feeling a little left out, reminded his mistress he was present by getting himself squished between dragon and rider. He creeled loudly, demanding his freedom.
Miraria wiped the tears from her eyes and picked the flitter up. As she walked Valinra towards her first meal, she got a vision of herself crying in the darkness from Mish.
She smiled and rested one hand on Valinra’s head, and one hand on Mish’s body. "No love. I’m not crying...I’m raining."
Valinra continues to grow...
Miraria impressed Mish from Cy Dragonstake.
Miraria impressed Valinra from Cy Dragonstake.
Background from Morion Designs.
