Incoherent Perspectives

Walking through the path I could occasionally hear footsteps not too far behind me. Like I am being followed by... someone. I would continuously ignore it but they only kept getting closer and closer, louder and louder. Until I turned around. Every time I did it was only silence. Nothing to see and nothing to hear. It couldn't be Aurora or any of the other embers for they wouldn't be so creepy about it. Maybe Lumina. But when I shouted out into the dark, mildewy forest. "Who's there?! Stop hiding and show yourself!" I shouted into the darkness. Nothing, nothing but that same mysterious blue glow a lot like the one I saw last night.

This time, I decided to follow it. It took me far off the path and would occasionally switch colours. It'd be any kind of colour of the rainbow. So this strange glow could be an Irisalis, but it wasn't. I checked the map which had descriptions of all the dragons in Pyrix when I caught a glimpse of the source. A mysterious dragon with strange gradient scales. Not matching any descriptions given in the current "Discovered" species. But it was only now on the map I realized... There was one small, unnamed region in between the Shadow Flare and Sunburst Aether councils and that's where this dragon was headed. I think one of these new dragons can be a replacement for Dawn.

The dragon I had followed came to a wall. A lot like the known councils. There was a single guard on the wall with the same appearance as the dragon I was following, the yellow-grey gradient. She lowered the gate, allowing him to enter. The gate however was built as thick as the wall. It looked exactly like the wall, I thought it was the wall at first. When the other dragon entered, the secret gate closed and the wall just looked like old, mossy ruins. The dragon on the wall, her scales shifted in colour and she hid within the shadows, with her eyes closed. You wouldn't even know she was there. I approached the gate and when I did, she quickly opened her eyes to check who it was and when she realized I wasn't one of them, she shut them tight again.

"I saw you!" I shouted up to her. She didn't even budge. Dragons say the Shadow Flares are secretive but after seeing these, I beg to differ. They haven't even been found at all. So unlike little being known about Shadow Flares, Nothing is known about these dragons. I sat against the wall, not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. It wasn't until about midnight the dragon came out of hiding to confront me. "Scram, kid. We don't want you here," she said. Did she just call me kid? I'm in my early 20s. I thought. "I just want to speak to your queen," I responded to her. "Queen Vipress? She's not looking for company right now. Besides, how did you even find us? We go undiscovered for centuries and then you come along." Queen Vipress? How would that name relate to their breed? Do they not follow the custom? With names like Aurora and Helia, you would know they are either Sunburst Aethers or Stella Alises because the names are celestial. Cassius and Asteria, you can assume they are Shadow Flares or Ignius Nocterns because of the dark names. Lumina relates with rainbows and Dawn relates with time.

But with these dragons, you couldn't tell. Unless all of them have awesome and intimidating names because Vipress ticks both those boxes. "I followed one of you. He was following me around Tageo... In broad daylight," I responded. "Tageo? He was that far from home? Secondly... what are you?" she responded."Have you heard of the prophecy?"

"The prophecy?" she echoed. She was clearly skeptical about all this. It was written all over her face. At this moment, her scales weren't the colour of the shadows. They were their beautiful natural colour. Deep blues and Sapphire hues. The colours of the night sky, she looked more like a Stella Alis than one themselves did, yet... She wasn't. Looking up at her, I could only pick out her teal eyes that glowed in the night. The only thing that helps me see her because she blends in perfectly with the night sky. It soon came to her realization. Something told me that if I wasn't a part of the prophecy, she wouldn't be as lenient. My question was how do the Sunburst Aethers and Shadow Flares not see these undiscovered dragons? Their councils were right there on either side but these dragons had gone undiscovered for centuries as the guard puts it. She sighs in frustration. "Let me get another guard. Even though I hate to say it, but stay here," she said.

The guard flew off the wall, landing inside the region and council. I was waiting for about ten minutes before I heard her and a second male voice coming this way. "He wants to speak to the queen, the possible creature of the prophecy," she said. "He wishes to speak to the queen, eh?" The male dragon responded. They both flew up and landed on the wall. "I'm Inferno, this is Vortex. You said you wished to speak to Queen Vipress," he said. I nodded. "Open the gate once you know there is no one else around," Inferno said. Vortex nodded. Once she looked around a bit she quickly pulled the lever, opening the doorway. There was already a guard waiting on the other side that was neither Vortex nor Inferno.

She looked a lot like Vortex, just smaller. She introduced herself as Mirage and at first, the region didn't seem like much but what Mirage had to show me, blew me away. "There is nothing here," I said. "That's what we want you to think when in reality... The actual region is below the surface," Mirage said in an unusually innocent tone. I didn't know what she meant by below the surface. But I was about to find out. Mirage led me to a small secluded part of the very little forest they have. There was some kind of hidden ramp leading underground in that small area, only viewable from within the walls. Heading down the ramp, there were torches lined on the walls and pillars formed in arches to keep the thousands of pounds worth of dirt and sand up there and not have it all collapse on the dragons. We kept walking deeper and deeper to the core until the tunnel widened.

The dim atmosphere grew incredibly bright and there was an entire castle below the surface. It turned out, they didn't have a region. This small piece of land was all they had. Their palace was massive and it was where all of these dragons lived. According to Mirage on the way to here, there were only 101 of them. Which was less than any of the heavily armed guards in the other councils and just the guards. She was saying there were fifteen guards, one queen, one heir and four higher-ups. the other 80 dragons were all just average citizens or the lower classes. It was amazing to me how such a small group of dragons managed to stay hidden and repopulate for centuries, preventing the entirety of their breed from going extinct. And also how such a small group of dragons could build this massive underground palace.

It reminded me of PATH. The underground mall back home in Toronto. Just... bigger than PATH. "Queen Vipress is over there talking to Embera," Mirage said

"Embera?" I echoed.

"Yeah, she is the head guard or the second-in-command."

"Does Queen Vipress know I'm here?"

"She does, Inferno told her, that's why he went ahead in the tunnel." I nodded slightly. Still regretting this slightly. No turning back now, I thought to myself.