by Sarah Hite
The Dragon Guard:
Moons and Sons
By Sarah Hite
The Dragon Guard: Moons and Sons
By Sarah Hite
Published by Bright Scale Publishing
Cover Design by Justin Klett, Justice Defender Designs
Interior Design by Lampas Books, LLC
www.lampasbooks.com
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places,
and incidents either are products of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance
to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is
merely coincidental.
© 2015 by Sarah Hite
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this
book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
ISBN-13: 978-1517150167 (paperback)
The Dragon Guard:
Moons and Sons
Pronunciation Guide
People
Ania- A- nye- a
Cainen- Cane- en
Daemon- Day- mon
Kaimen- Kay- men
Layon-Lay- on
Lorex-Lore- x
Lukair-Luke- air
Madia-May- dia
Miella-Me- elle
Tollak Vidar-Tole-lock Vi- dar
Tyanna-T- anna
Tyia-T- ya
Tyra-Tie- ra
Dragons
Chekal-Cheek- all
Dea- Hyun-Dye- hun
Konjon-Can- John
Kei- ata Lorbrein-Key- ata Lore-brain
Kyeon Mangjul-Key- on Man- jewel
Kym-Kim
Lyong Ryou-Lee- ong Rye- oo
Pai-Pie
Seoung-See- ong
Shaelynn-Shey- lynn
Quetalla-K- tall- a
Land
Altera-All- tera
Cremla Darré-Crème- la Dar- a
Elbernez-El- ber- nez
Eliek-El- lee- Ek
Liek-Lee- ek
Jehu- J-who
Omri-um- Ri
Other
Hegrim-HAY-grim
Semmarra-Sem- ARE- a
Character Descriptions
Dragons
Saydene “Moon” Mangjul Ryou- She is the Princess of Dragons’ Keep and is the King’s
sister.
Kei- ata Lorbrein “Shaman”- He is the shaman of Dragons’ Keep and one of the Council elders.
Elder- He is the oldest dragon in the Middle Kingdom and is the Chief council member on the King’s Royal Council.
Pai “Scout”- He is Kei-ata Lorbrein’s son and is a messenger scout for the Royal Council.
King Kyeon Mangjul- He is the King of the Middle Kingdom.
Queen Kym Mangjul- She is the Queen of the Middle Kingdom.
Chekal Ryou- Chekal is a messenger scout for the Royal Council. He is also the grandson of
General Lyong Ryou.
Lang Ryou- Chekal’s sire and the Queen’s primary Royal Guard.
Lyong Ryou- Ryou is the Chief General of the King’s warriors. He is Lang Ryou’s sire and an elder on the Royal Council.
Kwan Ryou- Moon’s mate and Lyong Ryou’s youngest son.
Seoung Mangjul- The King’s brother and a member of the Royal Council.
Shaelynn Ryou- The daughter of Moon and Kwan Ryou.
Sayden Ryou- Shaelynn’s brother and the son of Moon and Kwan.
Humans
Thorin- The former Commander of the Dragon Guard, as well as Ania’s father.
Silvrin- Thorin’s second in command, current captain of the Pycan Dragon Guard and the father of Lukair, Lorex, and Stone.
Lorex- Silvrin’s oldest son.
Lukair- Silvrin’s second born and Ania’s best friend.
Martus- Silvrin’s second in command and nephew.
Cainen “Flame”- Flame is the leader of the team returning the egg and the true heir to the throne of Ciciana.
Aiden- A village elder and member of the Dragon Guard.
Oden- A village elder and member of the Dragon Guard.
Nealson- A village elder and member of the Dragon Guard. He is also Ania’s Grandfather.
Daemon- A member of the Dragon Guard.
Layon- A member of the Dragon Guard.
Captain Harden- A member of Lord Ryell’s court and leading military official of the Omri Province.
Henreth- The healer of Aretell, a member of Ryell’s court, and one of the few who know dragon anatomy.
Ania- A member of the Dragon Guard, and leading female character.
Madia- A village elder and member of the Dragon Guard.
Tyanna- Ania’s friend and team member.
Mariah “Stone”- Daughter of Silvrin and Madia, as well as a childhood friend of Ania’s.
Lord Ryell- The Lord of the Omri Province, whose capital city is Aretell.
Lord Kayton- The Lord of the Keu Province, whose capital city is Mactell.
Lord Mychal- The Lord of the Jehu Province, whose capital city is Sheadod.
Lord Morbren- The Lord of the Zimri Province, whose capital city is Cryome.
Lord Dregno Gunner- The Lord of the Arza Province, whose capital city is Kintone.
Duke Tollak Vidar- The ruler of Altera, the land where they live. Rules from the nation’s capital city of Ciciana.
Moon
Sunlight Streamed into the cave, lighting the walls with liquid fire and illuminating each individual stone. A chill breeze cooled the rift, bringing with it the first hint of the changing seasons. She shivered and arched her neck down to look at the neat pile of sand next to her. She nosed the eggs, counting them—one, two, three… three? She counted them again, her heart skipping a beat.
“I could have sworn…”
Trying to stay calm, she nosed through the sand. Her anxiety rose with each passing second until she found what she was looking for. With a sigh of relief, she uncovered one more of the four, foot-long, wet, glossy, leathery eggs. This, slightly smaller egg, had been pushed up un- der a small rock ledge at the edge of her nest. She carefully scooted it out from under the ledge and back to the others. This egg perplexed her. It was the last of the four.
She studied the eggs, noting the differences in their shells. Two were cream colored, speckled with brown, like the rest of her kind. The third resembled their sire’s breed with accents of her own. She imagined this one would look something like him. The last, however, resembled neither breed of dragon, nor any she had heard of. This egg was small, soft, and completely white in color, with cream-colored veins that reminded her of lightning. She noticed that the veins were interconnected and repeated the same pattern on the other side. Not wanting to lose this egg, she arranged her nest so that the smaller egg was surrounded by the larger three in a vague triangle. Then she reburied them in the warm sand.
She looked out toward the cave entrance. The sun was setting. She listened for the sound of wings. Nothing. She sighed.
He’s late again, she thought. She would have to speak to her brother about this. This is the third time; each time he’s later than before.
She stretched and then looked out over the rest of the cavern. She walked to one of the other eggs kept in the depths of the enormous cave and inspected it. It had hardened considerably since she had checked them last. She inspected each egg in the clutch and thought, These will hatch soon. Dea-hyun will be pleased. She continued her rounds noting the stage of each clutch. Some were only about a few weeks from hatching, maybe less.
At the conclusion of her rounds, she returned to her own clutch. The eggs, which were only a few days old, were snug in the sand. S
he looked them over once more and sighed; her eggs were half the size of the other clutches. Was this from lack of food or because both she and her mate were small for their breeds? She was not sure if she should be proud of them or not. It was not that she did not want them; she wanted them very much, but no one knew they existed, not even her mate. Somehow, she had kept her pregnancy secret. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but if her brother discovered her deception… he would not have liked the fact that her mate was a mystery, or that no one had known she had been in a relationship. She was the only one who knew anything about the small Forest dragon, and there was so much she did not know. She had known him for months, and had taken care of him while he recovered from injuries that he refused to speak about, but in all that time, he had never told her his name. It was as if he did not know it himself. However, she also knew that if she had told her brother, he would have made sure she was fed regularly.
At her current age, she barely stood at eight feet, half t8he average height for dragons her age. Kei-ata Lorbrein’s son was almost as tall as her and was barely half her age. The other dragons would not allow her to do anything “dangerous,” thinking her too fragile. They did not believe she could take care of herself and kept forgetting her age. They refused to respect her. It did not matter who her brother was or who her father had been. Even her family did not seem to respect her at times. Only Elder and Kei-ata Lorbrein seemed to give her the respect she deserved. Giving her the position of clutch guard was their idea.
A loud growl from her stomach interrupted her thoughts. The hunters had not come this week, and now they were almost a month late. Her stomach growled but there was nothing she could do about it. She curled up and went to sleep on an empty stomach.
Waking with a jolt, she noticed something was making noise near the mouth of the cave. She slowly unwound herself from her eggs and crept closer. The noise grew louder; she listened to the creaking and deduced that no animal of the mountains could have produced that sound. It sounded more like stone or metal. She tensed and waited for whomever was foolish enough to sneak up on a clutch guard. However, before she could act, there was a long, loud crack that resounded in the depths of the cave. A slab of slate broke away from the mountainside above and fell to the ground below.
She sighed, rather relieved. She was glad it had only been rocks, as she did not think she had the strength to fight. However, the rocks disturbed her. She returned to her clutch, thinking to herself: Falling rocks are dangerous and should be reported; too bad I can’t do that until he comes. If it gets too bad this cave won’t be safe anymore.
Midmorning the following day she was going through her rounds when her stomach began to growl yet again. She had been ignoring it all morning, but now she was starting to feel the effects of her forced fast.
“Ach. I’m not going to do anyone any good if I die of hunger.” She looked over the twenty or so clutches in the cavern and went to the cave mouth. She scanned the sky for any sign of the hunters. Nothing. She looked back at the eggs, then out at the sky again. She noticed a small herd a deer, on a hill not too far away and made a quick decision, now believing that the hunters were deliberately not coming. It would only take a moment; she turned back to the eggs one more time. “Just a small one, then I’ll be right back; and, by the Ancestors, if anything happens while I’m gone…” Unease broke through her voice as she spoke. Then she spread her wings and leapt off the shelf.
She was angry, angry with herself, the deer, the forest, the wind, the whole hunt. It had taken much longer to catch the one small doe she had targeted than she had hoped. She had begun the hunt upwind of her prey, only for the wind shift, alerting the deer to her presence. They ran and the hunt turned difficult. Forced to chase them, she dove through forests, thickets, brush, and chased them past rivers. The deer evaded her until the sun peeked and she finally boxed them in a canyon. She realized how late it was as she snatched up the small doe, and headed for home, not stopping to eat her prize. About a half mile away from the nesting cave, she saw them. She knew instantly something was wrong; her heart sank lower with every beat of her wings.
She landed quietly on the ledge and set down the doe, her hunger forgotten. She did not enter the cave, but instead curled up on the ledge to await the admonishment she knew would come. She had failed; now a hatching would not come for many dragons. Something had happened because she had left the eggs unguarded. The other mothers came then, but they did not see her. They talked, voices low, full of many mixed emotions: anger, pain, loss, despair, and confusion, among others.
She heard the many voices and pieces of different conversations.
“Where did she go?”
“Why would she leave? I don’t understand.”
“…can’t be trusted…”
“…the simple task of caring for eggs. All she had to do was keep them warm.” “Irresponsible little—not old enough to look after a rock.”
Dea-hyun left the cavern after the rest, and noticed her sitting on the ledge after the others had left. She marched up to the smaller dragon and huffed. “What were you doing, gorging yourself on deer? You think you can just leave the cave unguarded whenever you feel like it? Well, explain yourself.” She continued without giving the younger dragon a chance to speak. “The whole cavern’s been destroyed and you have nothing to say for yourself? I should make you pay for your insolence right now, but I know He’ll want his share of you.”
With that she flew away, not looking back to see what affect her words would have on the already frail-hearted small one. She did not see the trembling ball that had become of the clutch guard. The smaller female knew no one would trust her again, with any task, not even her brother. How would she explain this to him? How could he believe her? An entire season of clutches destroyed, including her own, her first clutch, all because she had to hunt. No, her brother would not believe her. Why should he? The sound of footsteps accompanied by the scrape of claws on stone interrupted her thoughts. She tensed, expecting more cruelty and sarcasm from a mother. Instead, however, the voice was calm, and caring.
“Come.”
Kei-ata Lorbrein. She followed the blue and gold dragon inside where she found Elder picking his way through the remains of the twenty clutches. The destruction shocked her. She knew of nothing that could cause this kind of an unforgivable disaster. She could not speak. She could barely stand. She stumbled over to the wall and collapsed.
“What happened here, Saydene? Be honest now.” The deep bass voice was Elder’s. He went to her and asked again, “What happened? Take your time.” Elder was the oldest dragon at the Keep; his scales were crimson and copper, laced with gold.
After a moment she spoke, shaky, halting, and barely audible. “The hunters… they… they just stopped coming. First they… had only been late, but then they just stopped. It had been over a month since their last visit. I had no choice.”
The Shaman and Elder looked at one another, and Kei-ata Lorbrein looked down; Elder was concerned. “I believed you,” he said, noting how thin she had become.
Saydene looked up at Elder. “There are none left? Not even in the smaller caverns near the back?”
“No, they destroyed them all.” He looked down at her to find her gazing off toward the back of the cave where her own nest had been.
“Father,” Kei-ata Lorbrein said quietly, drawing Elder’s attention. “They may have killed her too, if she had not gone to hunt.”
He nodded. “How many eggs were here, Saydene?”
She sighed, “About twenty clutches, three to five eggs a clutch. I never really got around to counting them all.”
“Sixty to one hundred eggs,” Kei-ata Lorbrein said in an unbelieving tone.
“A heavy loss,” Elder agreed, and continued to address her using her nickname. “Moon, I know you would never forsake your duty unless you had no other choice. There will be more eggs.” He paused, “I will speak to your brother. His majesty will be angry over the loss.
I will try to open his eyes to those who are truly at fault. Here, eat your deer.” The shaman had fetched it from the ledge.
But she did not see the deer. She had been in charge of not just her clutch, but all those that had been laid season, and she would suffer the loss the most. She wanted so much to go to her nest, to see if it were true. Maybe, just maybe, they had missed them, but she could not stand, or move at all; she could not think. The loss of the eggs shocked her into something of a trance. Her eyes glazed over and, unfocused, she gazed off to where her nest had been.
Not much time had passed by the time the King arrived. Elder met the red and brown dragon on the ledge while the Shaman began to clean up the remains.
“Your Majesty, I see you’ve heard.” Elder said in greeting.
“Yes, I heard. They all came at once, demanding punishment. To think, I can’t even trust my own family to such a simple task! She should not have left.” He was very angry, almost furious. “Why would she leave the cave unguarded, to hunt?”
Elder stepped in, “You are right, my Lord: she should not have left. But she should not have been forced to.” The King eyed him, and he continued, “It is my belief that those assigned the task of hunting have been neglecting their duty.”
“Explain.”
“Your sister would not hunt for herself unless she had no other choice. She had not received a delivery in over a month. She had to hunt and, my Lord, hunting probably saved her life. If she had been here when the cave was attacked, she would not have been able to fight them off; she would have been too weak.”
