What's To Come[Private Cosmos/Baldirak]

It was dusk. Dusk and beautiful. How did she know it was beautiful? Because Rektani had come to the surface to admire the view. Where had she gone, exactly? Well, to be more specific, she had come to her old nesting place. The same place where she had hatched her seven beautiful children. It was a large cave, that also happened to have an outcrop that she stood atop, and admired the beautiful sunset from. Oh, that seemed like such a long time ago, she thought with a small frown of sadness, the edges of her mouth just barely curving downward.

Now.... it felt like she had lost so much. She rarely saw Sorrell anymore, no doubt in search of her lost son, or worse. And half of her brood had disappeared. All that remained were Lye, Satori, and Xia. The rest.... heaven forbid it. Xia was out there, so she still had to have faith that the gods had protected the rest of her children.

The old queen would let her head droop. She even felt like she had lost a part of herself, and she didn't know why. She had been receiving this continuous pain in her stomach. She remained quiet, sitting atop the outcrop, watching as the sun would slowly set below the treetops....

Unaware of what was out there.

The Earth King had taken an early bedtime tonight because he had a cold. But his mind preferred Baldirak to be wide awake, and so for a couple hours, he just lay in his den, miserable. Unable to sleep, he eventually left his den and made his way to the surface, trying not to sneeze or cough along the way; couldn't let anyone else get sick. When he stepped out of the cave that served as the main entrance to the Haven, Baldirak found it to be dusk. The sky was changing colors as the sun sank below the horizon, the moon was visible and the stars were just starting to wake up. But the air was cool; not great for a Dragon with a cold. Oh well. Turning his pale gaze to the sky again, Baldirak counted the stars, recalled their names, sang his praises to the moon as he always did. He wondered if Rektani was aound somewhere--it was no secret to the Earth King that his adoptive mother often came to the surface. A few EarthWIngs often left the Haven to wander the world. It was a dangerous thing to do; if anyone ever noticed, the EarthWIngs' certain but frail exsistence would be known before Baldirak was ready. But as it were, the great Dragons were ironically good at going unnoticed, and if they were noticed, good at passing for one of a small pawful of rogues that had not been around when the tribe fell. Well, Baldirak hoped this is what they said if they ran into anyone.

His cold was not so bad that he couldn't smell; his cough was worse than anything. So he smelled the air for any sign of Rektani. He found it and followed it, but was confused by the direction. She had gone to the Lush Forest? Alone? Frowning a little, Baldirak made his way by land. It was nearly dark, but the air was just too cool for his liking to fly. So he limped on toward the forest his tribe once called home. Rektani's scent lead him to a cave on an outcrop. She just sat there and seemed upset about something.

"Mother. What beckons you from the Haven at this time of night, and to this place? What upsets you?"