Chapter One

20,000 years later (present-day)

Eridanus Réalta

Eridanus glanced back and forth as she ducked outside the gates. The basket clutched under her talon made it hard to walk as she darted into the buzzing marketplace. She quickly pulled up the twilight purple-splashed hood of her cloak to cover her indigo scales as a tiny blue SkyWing bumped into her. She picked some good, bright crimson amorosos, a few pieces of white-fleshed dragefrukt, thin green espinafre, pale yellow brokoli, and some other, equally colorful things. 

She walked along the ‘frozen treats’ stall, tucking her cloak tightly around her, for the temperature was freezing here, especially as the FreezeWing owner continued to exhale a light dusting of frost all over the ice creams. As she perused, she accidentally bumped into a small emerald green dragonet whose scales were dappled with pale green. Eridanus dropped her basket of fruits and vegetables in surprise and mumbled a small sorry to the dragonet. She moved to continue, but the stranger had begun babbling and didn’t seem to want to stop. “ I am so sorry,” she gushed. “Here,” she said, picking up some fallen food and thrusting it at Eridanus. She moved the basket towards the stranger, careful not to let the dragonet or any other dragons see her talons.

“Thank you,” she mumbled quietly, hiding her snout.

“You’re so welcome!” came the enthusiastic answer. She finally was able to continue to the palace, but the annoying dragon was still following her. When Eridanus was about at the castle the dragonet started talking again “I’m Aquarii, by the way-” 

The irritating voice trailed off when Aquarii saw where Eridanus was going. “Y-you work for Queen Sundancer?” she gasped, clearly faking about half her surprise.

 Eridanus didn’t answer. She was heavily tempted to lead this irritating dragonet to a shadowy corner, throw off her cloak, and see her reaction. It was a well-known fact that the EclipseWings were traitors to the royal family… or at least most of them. The reason for that is because of the former Prince Shadowwalker’s deadly antics. Twenty thousand years ago, when Eridanus’s egg had just been laid, there was an enormous argument between Prince Shadowwalker and Queen Sundancer, leading to the beginning of the longest war in Dragonkind's history.

“Excuse me, Aquarii is it? Not to mean any harm, but don't you have things that you need to do? I don’t know, maybe go help with the war that's going on?” snapped Eridanus, attempting to hide her annoyance. 

“Oh! Right now my family has one of the biggest farms in the Pruvian sector, and we’re harvesting pearl clams and purple ceilp, and making kelp ropes, and we also make weapons out of coral and oyster shells,” replied Aquarii in a slightly venomous tone.

Then the meeting gong rang. “Got to go,” said Eridanus, eager to escape before the stranger got a good look at her inky scales. “Nice meeting you!” she added as a slight afterthought. 

Eridanus ran through the gates, desperate to make it to the meeting hall early. The four guards almost questioned who she was, but to save time she merely waved an onyx talon at them and ran past, through the golden gates and along the marble hallways. 

Claws clicking and sliding on the polished white floor, she ran through her black-opal-and-sapphire door and into her warm, shadowy room. She threw off the cloak in exchange for an eggshell-colored marble and gold bracelet with a dragon filigreed into its delicate metal that her godmother, Queen Sundancer, had gifted her and a few other bangles and trinkets. Queen Sundancer had told her that first appearances were everything, and the High Mage’s new ambassador had arrived earlier in the week. Therefore, this time, appearances were probably doubly important. 

Feeling excellently shiny, Eridanus checked her appearance in the mirror and adjusted the silver dragon necklace that she had never taken off, as it had been her mother’s last gift to her before she passed away, before dashing away. 

Eridanus raced to the meeting hall, but right before she reached the end of the hall she overheard four young wizarding apprentices talking to each other. Eridanus quickly analyzed the four kids, trying to see what was going on. The one that looked the youngest was the smallest boy she had ever seen, or perhaps that was because she was about thirty-eight feet tall and the child was about four feet tall. He had on a green woolen tunic and was clutching an armful of books, as well as a few battered scrolls. He had enormous eyes and dusty blond hair, which stuck out ridiculously in the marble corridor. One of his companions, slightly older than him it appeared, was playing around with him.

“Got your nose!” squealed a girl with slightly darker hair than the boy. They looked so alike, Eridanus didn’t need to think very much before she decided they were related. She wore clothes similar to the first boy. She also noticed that the girl had managed to disconnect the boy’s nose, which, as you can imagine, looked rather horrific.

“Give it back, Agitha!”  shouted the boy. At about this time, Eridanus decided to step in. “Excuse me, sorry. I need to get in there.” 

“Thank goodness!” the other boy said, face full of relief. “The guard who watches the door thought that we were going to go into the conference room to sabotage the meeting, so he locked us out; Is it okay if you open the door for us? We’re representatives of the Auburn Sector, chosen specifically by our village leaders! ”

“Sure, I guess? I’m here for the meeting too,” replied Eridanus. Carefully moving, to not step on the tiny people, she swung the door open just a bit and stepped inside. “Thank you!” the second girl giggled, not even paying attention. The first girl ran in first, breaking the spell on the littlest boy's nose. The other three walked in after the girl, more slowly.  

Queen Sundancer fortunately was just now taking her seat, so Eridanus quickly moved to the opposite side of the room and took her seat on the right-hand side of Queen Sundancer with a tiny sigh of relief.

“Council, you may begin.” Queen Sundancer stated ceremoniously as Eridanus took her seat as gracefully as she could. “We welcome our new guests to Mount Naga. I’m delighted that you have found new spells that will help enhance our peace treaty with High Mage Galning. I understand that you have found a way to help infiltrate Shadowwalker’s defenses.”

 “Yes, Queen Sundancer.” A high-pitched voice came from the left side of Sundancer. The mage standing there was probably one of the smallest people Eridanus had ever seen other than the boy whose nose had disappeared. Still, he radiated an air of authority, and his green eyes seemed to burn Eridanus’s scales. Even Geb, Eridanus’s least favorite guard, seemed to slightly duck out of his way as he shuffled around the table towards Queen Sundancer, herself, and the map sprawled across the table before the two of them. 

He slunk closer, scarily close. Eridanus couldn’t help it – she backed out of his way, wriggling away from him and his odd aura of – well, not wickedness exactly. Just a gross, slimy presence that she would not rather have so close to her scales at this time of day. Or any time of day. She fought back the urge to blurt out: “Eeeew! Don’t you brush your teeth?”

The wizard clambered up on the table to bend over the map, cheerfully oblivious to the fact that half the room had just scuttled away from him, even though he was about a quarter their size. He would be smaller, but there was an enchantment that enlarged visitors so that they would not be hindered by their minuscule size whenever they entered this room. (Normally, a wizard was about 6 feet tall, an adult human was about 5/6, and a fully grown dragon could be anywhere from 50’ and 100’ tall, unlike herself, about 40 feet tall. So you could easily see the problem)

“Put me on the ground. Now.” the wizard squeaked, his high-pitched voice offsetting a shuddering rumble through Eridanus’s scales. Sundancer, with great care, picked up the mage by the back of his robes, placed him in her palm, and put him on the ground. 

The mage began jumping around, muttering, and throwing tiny stones. For a moment, Eridanus thought he was throwing a tantrum. Then he stopped and crouched down. “O ddewin llygoden I Ddraig fwystfil!” the wizard screeched menacingly. 

Suddenly his back began to wriggle like ugly worms were hiding in his robes. His nails elongated, becoming talons, and the worms began erupting out of the wizard’s back to form a wing. Eridanus’s jaw dropped. Transfiguration was a tough feat to undertake, and the wizard –Galning, Sundancer had said? – had just chosen the hardest form to assume. Or so she thought. She had met a few wizards, and as much as she had disliked them, she had overheard quite a lot about wizard magic and whatnot, and she knew that not only was it almost impossible to transform into anything magical, but no wizard ever had achieved transfiguration into something as powerful as a dragon. And this wizard was now a fully formed dragon with scales of swamp green, three long claws, and small stubs for horns. The wizard’s eyes were still the same bone-chilling, swampy greenish color that burned, burned like the hottest, cruelest dragonflame, and scorched Eridanus’s soul to a crisp.