\n Carnoc watched as Chris and his twin daughters disappeared indoors.  He didn't mind the twins, really; they always seemed to be so full of energy, and their happiness was infectious.  But asking to ride a dragon...  He growled again.  Letting them touch him was one thing, since he'd known them since they weren't even as long as one of his claws, but to ask him to carry them on his back was just ridiculous.  Dragons were not ponies.

\n Taking a deep breath, he spiraled up into the cool, clear sky, arcing away from Chris' farm and towards the taller mountains to the east.  After a couple minutes of flying he spotted a ledge halfway up the northern slope of one of the mountains, the dark hole of a cave entrance behind it.  He pulled his wings against his sides and dove toward it, waiting until he had descended below the peaks of the surrounding mountains to unfold his wings.  As soon as he had, he snapped them open and flapped hard, slowing his descent until he landed on the ledge.

\n Another dragon sat there, and waved a wing at him while carving intricate designs into a tree trunk with his claws.  "I think I've finally got an idea for the pattern at the crown," the other dragon said, and held up the trunk for him to see.  "What do you think?"

\n Carnoc flexed his wings a few times to keep their muscles loose, then folded them against his back.  "I still don't see a point to clawing up the wood like that.  You know it will have rotted by the time we get back from the cycle, Molthan, and why spend so much time doing it if it won't last for your descendants to see?"

\n He snorted.  "It won't rot if kept safe and dry in the caves--and if nobody mistakes it for firewood.  But either way I'd rather do this than just hunt, eat, and fly every night.  I know I have the endurance for the cycle flight anyway, as long as I do a little hard flying, so I can spend the rest of the night how I want.  And I want to make these carvings."  Molthan paused, then looked back at the log and dug one foreclaw carefully into the wood, digging out a small chunk of wood before pausing to make sure he liked the cut.

\n Carnoc watched him work for a moment, then said, "well, I have to go and talk to Alon.  Chris gave me some bad news...  Alon will most likely call a clan meeting when I tell him, so make sure nobody else leaves the caves."

\n "I will.  Don't tell me the news; go talk to elder Alon.  I'm sure I'll hear it from him once everyone gathers for that meeting."

\n "Of course."  Carnoc looked over the tree trunk one last time before walking into the darkness of the cave.

\n A smaller, darker red-scaled dragon looked up as he entered, then rose to its feet.  "Back so soon?  Usually you're out flying all night practicing those stunts of yours, and there's no way you've caught some prey already," the dragon said.

\n He clawed at the ground with a forepaw.  "Not tonight, elder, not after what Chris just told me."

\n "Why, did something happen?"

\n He hesitated for a moment, then said, "some humans found the ruins."

\n Alon tilted his head.  "And?  That can't be it; there's nothing dangerous to us there."

\n "That's what I thought, too, but Chris said that they dug up a dragon skeleton, and Sir Bourdan's journal."

\n Alon was silent for a little while, deep in thought.  Then, "not good.  Nesleh's told us before how much is in that journal...  That's how the Dales first found the clan, after all.  It will tell them everything."

\n "Chris did say he tried to make them think that we don't exist anymore, but he's not sure if it will keep them away."

\n "They'll know we're still here after they read how that journal ends.  Is Chris going to try to stop them from coming back?"

\n "He said he didn't think there was anything they could find that could make things worse, so no, he's not."

\n "This is bad...  No, it's beyond bad, it's terrible," he pawed at the ground.  "Who knows what these people could do with the information they have?  For all we know, we could look outside tomorrow night and see nothing but humans, wanting to watch us, capture us...  It's likely many of them would want to kill us!  You know the story of when the Dales first found our clan; they thought we were demons."

\n "And humans haven't changed much since then, have they?"

\n Alon started to nod, but gagged, then started coughing.  He did his best to end the fit, but before long tiny bursts of flame leapt from his mouth with every breath, his coughs growing louder and more ragged, and by the time he finally managed to end the fit the cave smelled strongly of smoke and flame.

\n "Are you all right?" Carnoc asked.

\n He coughed again, but there was no burst of fire this time.  "I hope so...  This is the worst cough I've had for years."

\n "Alon, you were breathing fire while you coughed.  What if you have the rupture sickness?"

\n He growled.  "No, no, it's not that.  There would be other indications if I did...  I probably just need some water, and I'm sure it'll go away in a couple nights.  Now let's focus on the more important of our problems: what can we do about these humans?"

\n Another dragon who had been walking past stopped in his tracks, sniffing at the air.  "Which humans?  What about them?"

\n Alon looked over at the other dragon.  "Vallen, I need you to find the rest of the clan and bring them all back here.  Now."

\n Vallen half-spread his wings.  "Are we in danger?"

\n "We could be.  Please, hurry."  Vallen tilted his head and left the cave, a blast of wind generated by his wings signaling his departure.  Alon watched him go, then turned back to Carnoc and said, "continue."

\n "I don't know what we can do...  Nothing came to mind when I was talking to Chris.  The only real option we have would be to leave earlier than we had planned to."

\n "Before we do anything, we have to consider all of the options.  What are they?"

\n "Well, we can't just hide.  The journal has a map, and with that map they'll be able to find us.  I suppose we could always fight back...  We could have Chris lead us to their houses, and we could kill them."  He bared his fangs at the thought, flexing his claws in anticipation.

\n "No.  It's too risky; we could easily be seen, and if we're seen killing humans..."  Alon looked over to one of the other dragons in the cave.  "Lemnir, what do you think would happen if we attacked and killed a few humans?"

\n The other dragon thought for a moment.  "They'd come here in force and wipe us out, I'd expect.  It would be suicide."

\n "See?" Alon said, turning back to him.  "It's a reckless idea and it would spell the end of our race."

\n "I could do it without anyone being able to guess they were killed by something that could possibly be a dragon.  I'm pretty accurate with the bolt; I could kill them from a distance."

\n "I don't think so; I've seen you practicing your aim and you just aren't that good.  Besides, there's no way you could kill however many there are with just one shot, and there would be police jets in the sky looking for us as soon as somebody saw what was happening."

\n He growled, tail flicking back and forth.  "I could fight a jet."

\n "Again, you aren't that powerful, and even if you were the jet would identify you before you destroyed it.  Carnoc, you must learn to calm your blood.  I know you're our warrior, and I know you're strong, but doing something like that would expose us and get us all killed."

\n "We're exposed either way," he insisted, blood roused at the thought of battle.  "Let me do what I'm capable of doing."

\n Alon sighed.  "Why won't you just drop the idea?  I know you can't do it, you know you can't do it.  Why keep asking?"

\n "I'm stronger than you think I am.  Why say that I'm not?  We all know what Vidac could do, evidence still exists of what Sern could do, and I'm capable of all the same things.  Just one shot with Vidac's bolt would destroy any human fighter jet and you know it.  If I can fight, why not let me?"

\n He raised his head towards the ceiling of the cave.  "Because it's just not necessary.  Maybe you're right; maybe we will be exposed by this.  But there's always the chance that they won't look for us, and until they find us, or do something that tells us they are definitely going to find us, there's no reason for us to take such drastic action.  At the very least, we must hear what the rest of the clan thinks before deciding what to do."

\n He growled under his breath and looked away; he was tired of being lectured by Alon.  He may be clan elder, Carnoc thought, but that doesn't mean he's always right.  "Fine, we'll wait.  How long do you think it will take Vallen to find everyone?"

\n "Well, I'm sure at least half the clan is already off hunting...  It could take half the night, depending on where they were all planning to hunt tonight.  What you can do now is go to the alcoves and see who's still back there.  Wake up everyone you find and tell them to get out here for a meeting."

\n He growled again, but turned without arguing any further and walked into the depths of the cave, moving from alcove to alcove.  Most were empty, but there were still four dragons lying asleep in their individual sections of the cave, and a fifth that was already up but still lying in his alcove.  He nudged each one awake and told them Alon had called a meeting in the outer chamber, then approached the fifth dragon and stopped at the entrance of his alcove.  "Hey, Krain."

\n The other dragon stood and flexed his wings slowly, yawning wide.  "I was wondering where you'd gone.  Did Alon send you down to see Chris?"

\n "Yes, and now he's called a meeting in the outer chamber.  It'll start as soon as Vallen gets everyone back here."

\n "About what?  He doesn't have the rupture sickness, does he?  He's been coughing all week, and I thought I smelled flame-smoke coming from his alcove before I went to sleep in the morning."

\n "He doesn't think he does, but he was coughing up fire a few minutes ago...  No, this meeting's about humans."

\n "What did they do now?  Anything dangerous?"

\n He pawed at the cave floor.  "Well...  They found the ruins, a buried dragon skeleton and Sir Bourdan's journal."

\n Krain closed his eyes and arched his back, stretching.  "So..."

\n "We could be exposed.  Or at least, we could be if we don't do something about it."  The two of them walked slowly back out to where Alon was sitting.

\n "What can we do, though?"

\n "That's what the meeting is about; Alon wants to hear what everyone thinks before he decides what we should do about it.  I want to fight, but Alon doesn't agree, of course."

\n "We shouldn't, or at least not unless they try to attack us.  There's no threat to our survival until then, so there's no reason to fight."

\n "That's practically the same thing Alon said.  Well, except that he insulted me in the process."

\n Krain sighed.  "We both know why he did that.  He doesn't want you to bring it up at the meeting; so many of the other dragons look up to you because of what you are, especially the fledglings, and if you raised that idea in front of the whole clan a lot of them would side with you even though it's a bad idea.  Even some of the older dragons would like it, just because nothing important has happened in so long and they'd want to have a war they can distinguish themselves in and be remembered for.  Alon is just trying to suppress your plan before it can take hold, that's all."

\n "I'm still going to bring it up," he growled, and sat down, leaning against the cave wall.  He glanced over at Krain, who sat beside him, then looked out at the stars and the rising moon.

\n "We could leave, I suppose," Krain said.  "We're supposed to fly to the dragoness' clan in about a month anyway, once the nights are a little longer, so why not leave early and take the young and old ones with us?"

\n "Maybe, maybe not...  We have to tell Chris first, so he can make sure it'll be safe on our path to their caves.  It wasn't in the spring when we were supposed to leave, and it wasn't when the older dragons left last cycle either, remember?  Rolest was breathing his own smoke because that other Drake had told him right before it was time to leave that there were Canadian military exercises taking place directly in their flight path that would take a full day to fly around."

\n He sniffed at the air.  "We'll see what the rest of the clan thinks."

\n Carnoc shuffled his wings and closed his eyes, resting his head on his front paws.  He fell into a light doze, soothed to sleep by the gentle breeze and cool night air.

\n Some time later, he felt something poke his side and woke up again.  He looked around to see the other twenty-four members of the clan there, seated in a circle around Alon and talking quietly to each other.  Alon paused to make sure everyone was present and awake, then growled, and the rest of the clan fell silent.

\n "Thank you.  Now, I made Vallen fly out and collect all of you because Chris has given us some very bad news: the ruins have been found and explored."

\n A dragon on the other side of the circle snorted.  "So?  It's just crumbling walls over there.  Scorched walls, sure, but nothing to expose us."

\n "It's much worse than that, Ureth.  They dug beneath the surface.  Not only did they find the journal of Sir Bourdan, but they found a dragon skeleton."

\n "Ralnin's bones." the dragon to Carnoc's left said.

\n "Nesleh, do you know anything useful about this?" Alon asked.

\n Nesleh looked at the ground in front of his paws.  "We all know the history of this, correct?"

\n "Yes," the other dragons replied.

\n "So, Ralnin was the dragon the humans captured after we freed Sildar from their fortress.  We attempted to reason with them so Ralnin could be freed, but they didn't listen and ultimately killed him.  For him to be killed like that when he had done nothing wrong was barbaric, and now to disturb his bones..."

\n "All right, but the skeleton isn't what we're worried about," Alon cut in.  "It's the journal that's dangerous, because we know exactly what's in it: a map to the cave, a description of the plant they used to drug Sildar and Ralnin, even a..."  Alon trailed off into a fit of coughing.  It seemed for a moment like he was done, then he coughed again and a jet of fire shot from his mouth, scorching the ground in front of him.

\n "Alon, are you all right?" Nesleh asked, jumping to his feet.  "You don't have the rupture sickness, do you?"

\n He didn't say anything; he was too busy spitting out as much of some sort of dark fluid as he could.  The fluid sparked as it hit the ground and created a puff of smoke, but didn't catch fire.

\n Nesleh, Lemnir and a couple of other dragons rushed to Alon's side, who held his mouth open so Lemnir could look inside, examining the roof of his mouth.  "Both of his sacs are leaking.  Someone bring some water!" Lemnir shouted, pulling his head away so Alon could cough up more of the fluid.  Krain ran into the depths of the cave, where an underground spring kept a small pool of water full at all times.

\n He returned a minute later, cheeks bulging, then brought his snout to Alon's and pinched his cheeks together, forcing the water into the older dragon's mouth.  Alon swished the water around as best he could and swallowed some of it, finally spitting out the rest.

\n He swallowed again and frowned, and the other dragons backed away, returning to their places in the circle.  "I had hoped that it was not true...  But it is.  Both of my flame-sacs have been torn.  They are leaking, and I have the rupture sickness.  I don't know how much more time I have..."  He coughed again, but it wasn't as bad as before.  "Enough.  There is no cure for the sickness, so there's no need to distract ourselves with something we cannot change, and either way the clan's troubles are more important than my own.

\n "Now, Chris has attempted to make the humans think we don't exist any more, but since they have the journal I doubt that will work.  They're likely going to come looking for us and this cave at some point, so does anyone have any ideas for what we should do?  I've heard a few, but I want to know what the rest of you think before I make my decision."

\n Carnoc opened his mouth immediately.  "We can fight.  Chris could find the humans for us, and we could kill them."

\n "Sounds like a good plan to me," a dragon on the other side of the circle said.  Many others, including most of the young dragons, bobbed their heads in agreement.

\n Alon snarled at him.  "For the last time, no!  It's a terrible idea, and you need to stop bringing it up.  I know your instincts are always this violent, but that doesn't go for the rest of us and you shouldn't be trying to get us to go along with your poorly thought-out, overly brutal plans.  Your idea won't work.  It's just stupid."

\n Carnoc glared at him, clenching his claws against the ground and struggling to keep his temper down, and Alon bared his teeth and growled in response, staring back at him and daring the younger dragon to argue with him. The two of them stared each other down for a moment, then he sighed and lowered his head to ground, acknowledging Alon's authority.

\n Alon barked a laugh and turned to the rest of the clan.  "Anyone else?"

\n Krain spoke up.  "We can leave.  We're supposed to fly out west to the dragoness' clan in a month or so anyway; why not just leave early?"

\n "It will take about a week to make the arrangements with Chris and his contact, and there's no guarantee that the humans won't come looking for us before then; besides, the youngest and oldest of the clan would still be here for them to find.  And what would we do if they attacked before we could leave?"

\n "Fight," Carnoc said again.  "If they attack us, we may as well fight back."

\n "It's a fight we'd lose."

\n "Alon, I'm stronger than they are and you know it.  Let me do what I'm capable of doing."

\n "That should only be a last resort," Nesleh said, interrupting before Alon could anger him again.  "We've managed to live here, peacefully, ever since the formation of the clans.  There's no reason for us to change that now."

\n "I can think of more than enough reasons."

\n Alon snarled, then grimaced and spoke.  "Enough.  All we can really do is make preparations to leave as soon as possible and hope for the best... and see if Chris can keep them from investigating the cave, so the dragons who stay behind will be safe.  If we're lucky and we don't fly around much, we may fool the humans into thinking we don't exist any more."

\n "Then how will we tell Chris to contact his man in Canada?" Vallen asked.

\n "Go and tell him now.  The sooner Chris gets word to his man that we have to leave, the better."  Vallen left the cave.  "The rest of you go out and hunt, and try to eat enough to go for a few days without food.  We should be safe hunting tonight, but don't go too far if you don't have to, and just take however much you need from the Drake herds if you can't find anything in a couple of hours.  I don't care if you don't like taking prey you don't have to hunt for; if you can't find anything else then it's better to do that than to fly over unfamiliar territory when humans are going to be looking for us.  If you can all find enough prey to last you a few days, we may not have to go outside until we're ready to leave the country, and that will help keep us hidden--plus, maybe they'd have given up trying to find us by then.  Nesleh, I'd like to talk to you before you hunt, but the rest of you can go now."

\n Carnoc stood and waited for Krain to join him, but the other dragon went to Alon's side instead.  "Krain, aren't you coming?" Carnoc called to him.

\n The other dragon sighed and dug his claws into the ground beneath him, eyes down.  "Go on without me.  I'm going to stay here with my father for a while, and I won't go out until later."

\n "All right.  See you when I get back."  He walked to the ledge outside, then spread his wings and leapt into the dark night sky.

\n He caught the wind and rode it in a wide arc to the northeast, towards the mountain valleys that were thick with deer for him to hunt.  After facing down Alon and having to listen to his insults without being able to retaliate, he needed to sink his claws into something, preferably something that would bleed.  He glanced around to see how many dragons were flying in the same direction, and saw only two.  Still, Carnoc growled and sped up his flight, wanting to get to the hunting grounds first.

\n He slowed down as he passed over the thinner sections of forest, keen eyes searching among the trees below for any sign of deer or some other animal he could eat.  After about fifteen minutes of drifting over the dark forest without finding anything, he finally picked up the scent of deer from somewhere south of him and twisted around, following the smell until he came across a small herd of them resting in a clearing.

\n Fortunately the wind was in his face, preventing the deer from smelling him as he had smelled them.  After watching the still herd for a moment, he tucked his wings against his sides and dove.

\n He flared his wings and pulled out of his dive just at the last possible moment, extending his forelegs and fangs and reaching for as many deer as he could.  The deer bolted as soon as they felt the blast of wind from his wings, but he still managed to catch one in each of his front paws.

\n Carnoc growled happily and forced his claws together, making sure the two deer were dead before he landed in the clearing and set them down.  After standing motionless for a moment to be sure the forest was still silent--once the crashing of the fleeing deer had faded, anyway--and that he wasn't going to be attacked while he was feeding, he settled down onto his belly.  He sniffed at the first of the two dead deer, then held it down with his front claws and started eating.

\n It didn't take much imagination for him to start thinking of the deer's carcass as Alon's neck he was pinning down and sinking his fangs into; after the clan meeting earlier that night, he would have liked nothing more than to demonstrate to the elder dragon what he thought about his insults, and the more force involved, the better.

\n He was just finishing the second deer when he heard the flapping of approaching dragon-wings; he growled and looked up at the sky to see another dragon pause overhead, then spiral slowly down to land in the clearing next to him.

\n "Did you save any for me, son?" Nesleh asked as he folded his wings.

\n He snapped up the last bite of deer, swallowed and grinned, exposing his bloodied fangs.  "No, I've just finished.  You're going to have to find your own prey for once."

\n Nesleh laughed and thumped Carnoc's side with his tail.  "Oh, I'm not so old yet that I can't catch my own prey.  I could probably still outfly you, big as you are."

\n He spread his wings.  "I'd like to see you try."

\n Nesleh opened one of his own wings and pressed it against his, slowly getting him to fold them again.  "No need to get competitive, it's just an old dragon's jest.  Now listen, Alon wanted me to talk to you about what you've been nagging him about since you came back from Chris' house."

\n Carnoc bared his teeth; a lecture from his father was one thing, but Alon's lecture coming out of a different mouth was another.  "Well, I need you to tell Alon something for me," he said.  "I've had enough of him pushing me and humiliating me in front of the entire clan.  Everything I say, everything I do is wrong to him and he always makes sure to tell everyone just how wrong I apparently am.  I never hear the end of it when I do something wrong and I get no praise when I do something right!  I've had enough of his insults.  Tell him that if he mocks me like that one more time, I'm challenging him."

\n "You can't do that!" Nesleh said, drawing back his head.  "There hasn't been a duel in this clan for three hundred years, and I'm not going to let you be the one to change that.  Our clans have always had stability, and now more than ever we need them to stay that way.  You bringing this up is exactly what Alon wanted me to talk to you about: you aren't controlling yourself.  I know that I finished teaching you to manage your temper years ago, but after what Alon and I have seen tonight I think we're going to have to start working on your self-control again."

\n He lowered his head.  "Father, I've been trying, I really have...  You saw me at the meeting tonight.  Alon insulted me and practically dared me to lose control, and I contained myself.  I can still do it."

\n "That's not all that we're worried about.  You're too eager to fly off and kill these humans, so eager that it's the only possibility you're even considering, and that's not how you or anyone else should be thinking."

\n "It's just the only option I think we have," he growled.

\n "Well, it isn't.  If it was, Alon and the rest of us would have accepted it."

\n "It just seems like it's the right time to expose ourselves.  Come out fighting and show the humans that we don't want to be messed with, and they'll leave us alone."

\n "It's exactly that sort of thinking that will get us all killed.  If the humans' first public encounter with us since Sir Bourdan is a lethal one, they'll wipe us out!  I know you think you can fight, Carnoc, but even you can't win against a full squad of fighter jets.  Sure, you have Vidac's bolt, like the warriors before you, but that doesn't make you strong enough to keep us all alive.  The humans are just too numerous for us to try and fight them.  If we do ever make public contact, which is starting to seem more and more likely, it has to be peaceful.  It's the only choice we have if we want to survive."

\n Carnoc shuffled his wings and started to clean away the blood on his claws that had accumulated over the course of his meal.  "I guess you're right," he admitted; the older dragon made a convincing argument.

\n "I've had four hundred and eighty years to think about it; of course I'm right."  Nesleh groaned and got back to his feet.  "I think it's about time for this old dragon to go off and find some prey.  I'll see you back at the cave, son, and do try to keep what I said in mind."

\n "I will, father," he said, and Nesleh flew away to hunt.