Part 7c. The Mission over Sea
It was midday, the sun shining down on the sea north of Kunmie Isle where a fast motorboat was turning circles. Inside Iyru was listening to Oisin, singing a song, while Sayre, swimming next to the motorboat was jumping in and out of the water, joyful on the sound of music.
"That was beautiful." Iyru called out. "I never felt so moved. The way that boy tried to capture the girls heart... I wouldn't hesitate."
"Thanks." Oisin answered though Iyru still hadn't figured out the song was for her. Maybe he was being to subtle. Maybe he had to had have used her name. Too many maybes.
In the sea, Safyre too seemed a bit down suddenly. Iyru turned to the dragon and asked: "Why did you stop playing? It was perfect for the music."
"Some people didn't see what else was perfect for the music." Safyre answered.
Oisin looked at the dragoness warily. Would she know of his feelings too? Nah, he had been around Fairlight too long, suspecting everyone could read the contents of his soul... well except for Iyru.
"We'll have to stop fooling around anyway." Iyru said, "We have that report to finish and then get to shore to spend the night. Among other things." She looked at the three eggs that lay safely tucked away below the benches of the boat.
"Are you sure you wouldn't mind another dragon around?"
"If it is to be, it will happen." Safyre just answered cryptically.
"It's the only way to find out if they need a human to survive, Iyru." Oisin answered, "I'm not glad of having to risk it either, but it makes sense."
"Better two to strive for attention than one to be without?" Iyru asked.
"Something like that."
"Let's get going." Iyru sighed, "Safyre, where do you want to go?"
Safyre sped away to the North-East, taking them closer to their eventual ending point. The main base was nowhere near to be seen, but maybe by the night they would see the landmass of the continent that held the buildings.
"I'm not particularly fond of the idea of letting other people in." she said.
"Afraid they'll all be little Tasrins?" Oisin asked smiling.
"It's just such a wonderful secret to have." Iyru said, looking toward where Safyre was swimming, barely able to separate dragon from water though she knew where her dragon was.

***

"It's about time we pack up." Oisin said, "we have quite a way to go before we'll reach land, and if we're really going to go ahead with the eggs we won't get much sleep soon." Maybe they could even huddle close before the fire, maybe she would need to be warmed up... Oisin snapped out of the daydream.
"Yeah, it's already getting dark." Iyru said, looking in thought at the sky, "It seems a bit early."
Oisin stopped and joined her gazing at the sky. "Hmm... Nasty weather."
"I thought you didn't know much about the weather."
"I recognise bad clouds when I see them."
"Like the once we had on landing?"
"They Seem awfully close to sweep by us."
Safyre suddenly ducked up beside them. Looking at the heavens she suddenly squealed happily before calling: "Storm! Storm!"
"Why is she yelling that?" Iyru asked.
"Why is she so happy about it?" Oisin asked.
"Safyre?" Iyru asked, "Is there going to be a storm."
"Yes!" the bay answered, "A wet one with lots of waves and wind. It will be fun."
"I shouldn't have forgotten you are only a baby." Iyru said.
"You have to get us to shore, to shelter." Oisin told the dragoness, "Our boat won't last through the storm."
Suddenly remembering her two friends were not good swimmers like her, being able to stay under water for hours, sheltered in the deepest water if the sea got too heavy.
"North is the fastest way to land." she called, "Lots of caves there too." Oisin was almost certain he saw the dragon wink. But that just couldn't be, right?
"We're following." Oisin called out, removing the anchor.
Fastening everything that was loose, Iyru looked a bit frightened at the sky. It seemed impossible to outrun the storm. Their boat was fast, but it had a long way to go before they hit land. An hour, maybe more. And the winds were rushing the storm right toward them.

***

They had covered almost the entire distance to land when the storm hit them. In the distance the barest tip of solid earth was visible. Large waves collided against the boat, making it plain that between sinking and capsizing they didn't have much options.
A large wave rolled over them and suddenly Iyru was in the water. Trashing about she tried to recognise up from down. A sleek form suddenly passed her. Sharks! Iyru thought with her clouded mind before she felt the reassuring presence of Safyre. Letting herself be dragged ashore in the strangely calm waters around the Bay, Iyru crawled onto the beach and struggled to her feet. She was tired from trying to hold on to Safyre. The wind was beating at her with ferocious force, trying to wear her down, but Oisin was still out there.
"Where is he?" she called to Safyre, "Is he safe."
"I don't know, Iyru. I had to save you first. He would have wanted that."
"Don't talk about him in the past tense." Iyru suddenly called out with more force than she intended. "Go look for him. Please." she said.
Safyre dove back into the waves, a patch of calmness around her body. Iyru remained on the beach, looking though she saw nothing. Somehow she thought sitting down would be like abandoning Oisin. She was surprised at the fierceness of her emotions, never having realised before what a comfort it was to have him around. She had told him everything and he had listened. She could not, would not... dared not, think of him dieing.
"Bring him back, Safyre." she whispered in the wind, crying.
In the water, Oisin was trying to remain on the surface. He clutched an egg in his hands, the one he had been able to save from the broken crate. He was almost hoping it would hatch into a dragon that would take him to shore. The water was cold and he was continuously being pushed down by the waves that ran over him.
"Oisin." a voice suddenly called him, "Where are you?"
"Here Safyre! I'm here!"
"Good! Iyru will be pleased that I found you." Safyre called out.
Oisin noted the calm seas around the bay and wondered if the dragon was actually keeping the storm at bay. Would she be able to stop something so powerful?
"I saved only one egg." he told her, fearing she might be mad that he had let her siblings drown.
"I have seen them." she said plainly. "My brother and sister live and will not be needing humans to take care of them. They do need each other, kind of like you and Iyru."
"Just like that?"
"They have bonded also. One bond is enough though the lucky ones of our kind find more than that. I have two already and I feel I'll find more to bind me. It is what you call family."
Surprised by what might have been the longest speech the dragon had given him, he could only grasp her tight and fortify his hold on the egg. Maybe it was foolish to think it would yet hatch, if the other two had done so already.
Seeming to sense his thoughts, Safyre said: "What is to be, will be."
Safyre brought Oisin safely to land, surprising the bard by her strength even though she was only a day old. She was roughly the size of a dolphin, big enough to drag him to land, small enough to tell him that one day she would be big enough to save more than one at a time.
"Oisin!" Iyru called as he dragged himself the last metres to shore.
"Iyru! What are you still doing out!" he called back.
"Waiting for you." she hugged him tight and felt the egg.
"You saved the eggs?" she asked.
"Egg." he clarified, "The others I lost."
"You're safe." she simply said.
"According to Safyre the other two are also safe."
"Alone?"
"Together."
"I guess we have the answer to our question then." she said, "But it's not the way I hoped to find out."
"I would have preferred drier conditions too." Oisin said, letting Iyru pull a strand of seaweed from behind his ears, "I don't think I'll ever want to go fishing again."
"We weren't fishing." Iyru said.
"I know, but I can't say I won't go out playing with Safyre again. She would eat me."
"I think she likes fish more than you." Iyru smiled, "Let's go find a cave."
"A cave sounds good. And a fire."
"A fire." Iyru nodded.

***

Inside a cave, snugly sitting together, huddled close to the fire. Iyru hugged Oisin again, "The thought of losing you frightened me."
"That's good to hear." Oisin said, blushing slightly.
"That song... I thought about it on the beach. Was it about us?"
"I thought you hadn't noticed it." Oisin shrugged.
"I hadn't. I needed a storm to figure it out."
"Than I should say thank you to the storm." Oisin grinned, "And to Safyre for making sure it didn't get me killed."
Safyre, hearing her name, made a small jump outside the cave. They had especially looked for a cave near water so Safyre could remain close to them. The dragoness had not made any objections against this one and was more than content to keep the storm away from their shelter.
"I wonder how she does it." Iyru said, "Controlling the storm."
"I don't know if she controls the storm, or else she would have called one upon us just to play in it." Oisin smiled wryly, "Maybe she controls the sea."
Iyru nodded and wished she had a cup of tea or hot coco to ease the cold out of her bones. The fire helped, but she still felt cold inside.
"Do you think she has heard anything from those two other dragons?"
"They passed by not too long ago." Safyre interrupted, "I know their names now. I'll find them if you want to see them again."
"How?"
"They're family. I know them." Safyre just said.
"There's so much we don't know yet." She sighed.
"And thanks to Safyre we'll have a whole lifetime to find out what we need to know." Oisin said, "I'll make sure they think we knew everything from the start in the stories." he winked, "No-one would believe otherwise."
"I think Knux will drag you naked through cacti for saying that, Iyru blushed guiltily at the sudden image in her mind and wasn't able to suppress a grin. You have a better chance in talking a mountain into becoming a lake then to get Knux to change the history he writes.
"I'll just have to defend my artistic freedom then,." he shrugged, "No-one reads the history, people listen to the stories and songs."
"And what will our two brave heroes do now, stuck in a cave as they are."
"Why they will miraculously find a way to find the other members of the mission of course."
"And how do you suppose we do that without even knowing where we are." Iyru asked, "I don't have a map, do you?"
"Better!" he smiled, "I have a laminated map."
"I will have to remember to take things from the boat next time we sink."
"I was holding it when we went down." he said, "Luckily."
"So where are we?"
"I think I'll need Safyre's help. I have no clue where she brought us ashore."
Showing the map to Safyre she had little difficulty pointing them where they were once Oisin had marked where they had been when the storm had toppled them. Without knowing it they had drifted from East to West and landed above the swamp, near the Deadly Mountains.
"Do you think Tasrin and Enid will still be there?" Iyru asked.
"Safyre has to pass there anyway to get to Kunmie. She could probably check quickly if they are there."
"Alone?" Iyru asked.
"We'd only slow her down." Oisin answered, "Besides, we have an egg to hatch."
"You can hatch the egg alone." Iyru said.
"And you can spend an entire day in cold cold seawater with Safyre." he mumbled.
Iyru looked up. "Hadn't thought about that."
"I can go alone." Safyre pitched in. "I can swim faster alone." she proudly stated.
"I've been overruled." Iyru sighed, "Ok, ok, but I don't have to like it. What if she gets hurt?"
"She won't. What could hurt her?"

***

The next morning Iyru still looked questioning at the sea, "I still think she shouldn't have gone of on her own."
"She'll probably have less trouble than we." Oisin said, "We're going into the mountains."
"Aren't you going to hatch your egg on the beach?"
"Nope."
"Care to explain?" Iyru asked quirking her eyebrows.
"I always thought of dragons as creatures living high in the mountains, I've countless stories about mountain dragons and none on water dragons. It just feels more right."
"What about Nessie?"
"Touché."
Looking back at the cave, Oisin wondered briefly what kind of dragon would hatch there. But the egg had made no intention of hatching. Pushing the thought to the back of his head he told himself to hope. After all, what will be, will be. He smiled. 
"What are you smiling about?"
"Something that both Fairlight and Safyre said." Oisin shrugged, "It seems weird."
Iyru shrugged and walked toward the first hill. They would have quite a walk before they even got close to the mountains.
"This better be worth it." she sighed.
"That's the spirit!" Oisin called, running behind her, catching up and adjusting his pace to match hers. Grinning he walked into the morning, toward the mountains. "Today is a good day to hatch a dragon, don't you think."
Iyru, who had never been a morning person, just looked at Oisin and wondered if last night she had been temporarily insane to confess her deepest feelings to him. But then, the feelings were still there, even if she did want to club him on the head with a hammer... no, an axe, a nice large, sharp axe. Savouring the idea, she continued smiling. 

***

They had walked for hours and the landscape had gotten stonier. Oisin was looking at the peeks of the mountains, way up in the clouds. he knew he would not get there, but maybe the base of the mountains would be enough to hatch the dragon of his dreams.
Suddenly stumbling he only barely held on to the egg. Behind him Iyru laughed out loud. The previous ten times she had at least tried to keep it in. It wasn't his fault really, there were so many cracks, drops and elevations in the landscape that he just had to trip often.
"I thought bards were supposed to be graceful." she said.
"Give me a stage and I'll show you graceful. Give me a guitar and I'll give you agility. Sadly these traits didn't get conferred into my legs." he said, making it a joke. He just loved the way she laughed, even if it was at his expense.
"Just wait!" he said looking back, "One day I'll show..."
He stumbled again and this time he couldn't control his fall. Oisin crashed to the ground, releasing the egg as he went down in a reflex to throw his arms around to balance his body. 
Laying on the ground he thought that if the egg would ever hatch, the dragon would hate him for being so careless.
"You're not careless."
"That's very nice of you to say Iyru." he said.
"I didn't say anything, Oisin." she answered, "Your egg looks awfully cracked. And so does your head if you're hearing voices."
Oisin jumped up, running to the egg, being sure that he had killed it.
"I'm so sorry!" he said to the egg, "They're never going to let me try another egg." 
"Then it is a good thing I'm not dead." the tiny voice said again.
Oisin looked at Iyru, trying to see if she was moving her lips. 
"Aren't you going to help it?" she asked him.
Squatting, Oisin started to rip pieces of shell away from the egg. Slowly a purple-tinged grey dragon, wrapped in a bundle of hair and feathers became visible in the egg. Seemingly caught up in his tail and fur the dragon squirmed to get up right.
Hugging the dragon, Oisin still felt he should not be allowed to take care of it. He was just about to offer the dragon to take his chance with someone else. But before he could, the dragon looked deep in his eyes and said: "Don't think like that. I waited to get here for so long and now you would deny me?" a small tongue licked him and the dragon continued, "I'm Hazen."

Continue to Part 7d

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