Division

Allen
listened to the gentle beat of Tanith’s wings. He had tucked himself just under
an ridge of the saddle to hide his body from the cold air that passed right through
his cloths. It helped him little to put more cloths on to stop the wind from
cooling his cold. He did not know how Tanith was dealing with the cold air that
passed under her wings. He looked at those large membranes normally riddles
with veins, now turning a more solid colour with nearly no signs of blood.

“Are you
alright?” His mouth
formed the words but his mind spoke the voice through the something they shared
now.

“Could
be better” She did
not sound like she was in any sort of trouble.

The last
leg of their journey was to fly over the Gregor mountain ridge that separated
their destination from the ocean. The dragons had been climbing for the last
half a hour now to clear the peaks. With the dragons rising higher into the
air, Allen started to become light headed. His breath quickened when he felt
like he gotten less and less air. The cold did not help either, he only hoped
it would be for a short time.

“Allen,
Tanith, How are you holding up?”

“I am
fine, trough I don’t think my pilot has ever handled these altitudes”

“Allen,
Try to hold your breaths and puff them out in short controlled breaths. We will
be over these peaks soon but it will take another hour before we are in more
comfortable weathers”

Allen tried
his best to follow Freya’s advice in breathing. He could feel his head clear
but the pain in his head from the icy chill did not pass. In the cold he could
not eat or drink without risking whatever he tried to eat falling out his
chilled hands. He cursed his decision to eat light in the morning, it came to
haunt him as his stomach was demanding for him to eat at least something.

He
continued to focus on the turrets that where locked and tied to keep them for
shaking to much. A thing layer of ice had formed on the metal barrels, in the
back of Allen’s mind he wondered if the ice would ever cause problems with the
guns, would he be able to defend himself with the mountains?

He could
vividly remember the discussion Freya and Evans had about this path, it was the
less guarded entry into the country, hardly anyone suspected pilots to take the
dangerous altitudes that where needed to clear the mountains. Yet they had a
risk of freezing or suffocating if the dragons flew to high. With Tanith
levelling off he hoped that weren’t too high. He managed to turn himself to
look at the instrumentation his saddle came with. He had the scrape the ice from
the glass of the altimeter to be able to read the altitude of twelve thousand
feet. The flight time ticked over into the four hours since they took off from
the island where they stayed for the night.

 “Aren’t we…” Tanith started but
suddenly she jerked up in a violent motion to avoid something.

“My
apologies”

Allen could
see the mountain peaks pass under Tanith not much later, two imprints of
draconic claws dragging along the snow where left behind by Tanith.

“A bit
close for comfort Tanith.” Allen’s voice was short on air and rasped.

He received
not much of an apology from Tanith, She was focused on the last leg of the
journey. They were now officially in enemy territory. Allen heart started to
pounce, he could feel the sheer tension overwhelm him. If something happened
now, they had no hope of returning. With Tanith tilting to lower slowly and get
into warmer air caused Allen to almost jolt up in alarm.

“Allen
calm down nothing is going to happen”

“Easy
for you to say” He
did not realise half way he switched back to spoken word. “but you are not
freezing your butt of, waiting for someone to attack you. What if they have
flack?”

Tanith did
not respond with so many words to Allen, just kept reassuring him that
everything would be alright. Once more Allen was forced to take his position
just behind the ridge that protected him. Keeping his body from cooling too
much, he couldn’t wait until they were in warm air.

He
regretted his wish the instantly they broke through a cloud layer. The air was
humid and hot. Even with his cloths still cold he started to sweat. Before he
started to cook her peeled off the layers of clothing to feel the warm air rush
through his hair. The air painful to his cold fingers and ears. Moving his fingers
he slowly gotten some sensation back in them.

The first
thing he decided to do was to grab an early lunch from his meal packs.
Something that he could eat fast and would still his hunger. Meal crackers came
back into mind. The dry crackers filled him up ones he drunk some water. He was
not quite prepared for how much the water was chilled by the cold air from the
mountain pass. When he took a few sips he could feel his brain hurting. The
unpleasant sensation caused him to rub his temples. The sharp pain ebbing away
in his mind only to pass a few moments later. He dared another sip of water but
drinking it slowly. While his lips gotten cold, he did not got the same needle
like sensation in his head from the water.

Freya took
the lead to flying to some destination somewhere the jungle that sprawled below
them. She landed on a large stone circle that bas obviously carved or otherwise
placed here.

“It
looks like dragon claws carved this” Tanith remarked to Allen, her eyes where glued
to the repeating patterns.

“I am
sure of it”

“Dismount
here.” Freya
interjected Tanith’s fascination.

Allen
dismounted in part to see what Tanith was so excited about within the ground.
Closer up he could see the patterns on the ground. They where made by something
sharp and rather big, some parts of the sculpture looked purposely melted and
hardened to make shapes and patterns. That where fascinating to look at. He
followed his eyes along the until he gazed at the centre of the piece where a
rather large sapphire was located.

“Walker, At
attention we have company”

Allen could
see three dragons approaching them, Instantly he was at attention. “At ease”
Admiral Evans called out to him before Allen could climb on Tanith’s back.
Allen stop half way in trying to get on the saddle to look over his shoulder at
the dragons. What was remarkable about them was how unremarkable they were.
Where Freya stood out with her lavender scales and Tanith was like a warm
summer day with her orange and sand scales, they where mud brown.

The three
dragons where like the ground itself flew towards them, from closer Allen could
see that the scales of the dragons where well kept, each one was cleaned and
had a iridescent shimmer to them. He did not notice people riding on the back
of the dragons due to the lack of a saddle. The dragons landed with grace, he
could barely feel the ground shake when the dragons came to a standstill. Their
pilots dismounted, their dark skin mirroring the muddy brown scales of the
dragons. Their cloths contrasted their skin with the purest white. They looked
impressive, muscular and each wearing some kind of sword that was engraved with
golden dragons.

Admiral
Evan stepped forwards and placed her right hand on her heart and the other in
the air. “Greetings lord Omari, I hope your flight has been for coming and your
dragon healthy.”

One of the
man stepped forwards, fine golden threads differentiated him from the others.
He mirrored the symbol. Again with his right hand on his heart. “Greetings
Admiral Evans, I hope your dragon has carried you without problems across the
ocean. We welcome you and Freya ones again. Our elders are eager to talk with
her again.”

“I think
it’s best Allen to copy the Admiral.” Tanith noted, from her vantage point she could
see the brown dragons looking at her with part wonder, part distrust.

Allen did
what he was told, Freya did not seem to speak otherwise and he also placed his
hand on his heart and his left in the air. Omari noticed this and interjected
Allen before he could speak. “Evans, is he one of yours?”

Evans
looked over her shoulder at Allen who grew visibly uncomfortable with what to
do in the situation. “Yes, my apologies, I forgot to tell him about your
customs. His shame is on me.”

Omari
smiled and bowed slightly to Allen and folded his left hand towards him. “My
name is lord Omari. I give you no shame for not knowing our customs, I see you
wanted to show respect in the only way you knew. I feel honoured by the
signature”

Allen could
hear the Admiral relax with the reaction of Omari. Allen made the first move to
mirror Omari’s greeting, he passed for a moment to see Omari nod.

“Airman
Walker” A sudden realisation shot to this head about including dragons and
spoke. “And allow me to introduce my dragon Tanith”

Allen could
hear something in the back of his mind, it much have been the three dragons,
speaking in a tongue he was not familiar with. It was rapid fire and over in
moment. The eyes of Omari widened a bit

“Well it’s
a pleasure to meet you to Tanith” He turned to her and repeated the hand wave.

“Please
greet him for me”

Omari’s
smiled widened a bit. “Why don’t you do that yourself Tanith”

Allen’s
mouth dropped open, Tanith just gazed at the human before her. Allen could feel
the emotions rolling around in her mind, part freedom, part wonder.

“We
really should have warned you Tanith, Allen. We should have told about the
Camari. They process the same gift you have Allen”

Now it was
Omari’s turn to be amazed at Allen. “You hear other dragons?”

“I do”

Omari
turned to admiral Evans with a bit of astonishment. “Admiral Evans, I never
realised you would teach some of your country in our way”

“I have
not, he came in flying into us. Victim of the war we are in.”

Omari gave
a small nod of recognition towards Allen “We are all victims of this war, come
and let us house you.”

The flight
to where the Camari had their home was not a long one, through the jungle
opened up to show a large city that was bathed in colours. Each house had their
own shade and colour of pastille colours. The plastered housed where spaced
apart so dragons could walk through the bigger streets between the houses.
Almost all of the dragons where a shade of sand, brown or green. Sometimes they
just seemed to blend in where placed near patches of grass that where sprawled
trough the city. The further inwards to the city the more prominent the houses
became and the large the dragon spaces.

When Omari
and his entourage reached the inner city, they landed on a large plateau that
seemed to be for landing dragons.

“Dismount
and show Tanith respect” Freya called to Allen. “We are in their culture and adhere to their
customs from now on”

Allen
dismounted and did as he was told by giving a slight bow to Tanith. “Thank
you for carrying me Tanith”

“It is
my pleasure”

Omari
snapped around in hearing the interchange that happened, he started to speak an
fast and tongue clicking language that was the Camari language. Allen was never
schooled in their tongue and he found the language melodic and fascinating.

“Walker” he
started to Allen. “How long can you speak in the dragon’s way?”

“To be
fair, I don’t know it slowly started”

“right,
right” Omari passed around.

“I brought
him with me because I did not know what this was Lord Omari. I hoped that your
elders would shed some light on Airman Walkers’ condition.”

Omari
paused to mull the question over “I will put it to the elders, but Walker does
not have a condition. It normally takes our shamans years to be able to speak
the dragon’s way. But all that later, you had a rough journey. Freya and Tanith
must rest and you must be starving.”

Tanith was
not happy about being pulled away from Allen in a strange world but followed
Freya and the three mud coloured dragons to a large plaza behind some sort of
palace. They where served roasted meats that where seasons in salt, peper and
other flavours Tanith could not place. She never tasted such a thing before and
had to hold her back to simply devour the roasted pig whole.

“Why
didn’t you tell us about these people before Freya?”

“Because
Tanith, need to know. We should have told you along the journey but I was
afraid you would break of and threaten our mission”

“You
where afraid? Doesn’t Evans make the decisions?” Tanith took another bite of her meat.

“That is
still Admiral Evans to you Tanith.” She took a pause, choosing her words
carefully. “Admiral Evans was always a caring pilot to me. However we never
shared the decision making process until we met the Camari. I never spoken to
her much before and she never to me. We where tainted by the views of other
humans and dragons respectively. The Camari opened both our eyes.”

“When
did this happen?”
Tanith shovelled a bit closer to Freya in interest of the story.

“A year
ago.”

“So that
is why you distanced yourself from the other dragons?”

“that is
correct Tanith. I couldn’t be around their judgemental views of humans after I
started to become closer to Admiral Evans. She was my human, I was her dragon.”

Tanith
clawed the ground, her burning question just pushed trough her mind.

“Did you
and admiral Evans had anything to do with the attack on the city?”

Tanith did
not know what happened but before she knew it, Freya was on top of her and
biting down at her neck. “Don’t you ever suggest that again! They where my
friends as well. I cared for every single dragon that Jane assigned to a
pilot!”

Allen
wanted to sit down to start lunch, an mouth watering amount of delicious
smelling meals. Trough a growl came from outside and later a burst of Camari
tongue spoken in the dragon’s way.

“Admiral
Evans, Airman Walker, It seems your dragons need your interference in the
dragon plaza”  Omari looked them straight
in the eyes. “I suggest you be quick”

Without
knowing what was going on, he ran after two helpers and Admiral Evans to the
dragon plaza to find Tanith and Freya tooth and claws with each other. Both
where bleeding from various wounds on their scales.

"FREYA" Admiral Evans thundered with her voice over the two dragons. The anger in her voice was enough to make Allen shiver. Trough the dragons in their blind rage headed no words. More bursts of the Camari language in the dragon's voice followed. But the two dragons still slashed at each other.

“Walker!” Admiral Evans turned around, anger
searing in her eyes. “What the hell is going on!?”

“Ma’am, I don’t know” Allen ran to Tanith but
couldn’t get close in the fight.

“Tanith!” Allen shouted, trying to get into
her. “TANITH”” he blundered with more volume.

Behind him Admiral Evan shouted again, trying
to get the dragons to snap out of their rage. Allen was distracted by the voice
of his Admiral and as such he did not see Tanith fallen to the side and did not
see her tail speeding towards him and hitting him inn the stomach. He could
feel himself being thrown backwards against a pillar. Allen could feel a sharp
hit on the back of the head and slumped against the pillar.

Tanith growled when she was pushed against the
ground, Freya had caught her off guard and managed to push her against the
ground. Tanith could feel that her tail hit something but was unaware of what
that something was. She could hear the Admiral shout Allen’s name and suddenly
she was aware that something was wrong. Allen’s presence left her mind. Tanith
stiffened when she realised what happened.

Her eye traced past Freya who was still
growling at her, towards Allen who was slumped against a pillar. Her tail just
a short distance from her Pilot. Evans had ran towards the unconscious pilot
and her hands where covered in blood that seeped from the back of Allen’s head.
Tanith’s stomach turned and her skin grew cold. She offered no resistance when
she felt the jaws of Freya around her neck.

“Now I dare you to speak those words again” Freya growled, unaware of the unfortunate event that happened.

“Freya bloody hell!” Admiral Evans shouted with
her anger returning. “Get a hold of yourself”

Freya snapped too, looking at her pilot, then
at Allen. Putting one and one together she let Tanith go, forgetting her own
injury as she looked at the unconscious aviator. “Oh”

Tanith looked in despair how her Pilot was
carried away, several what looked like nurses had gathered around Allen. At
least six man carried the stretcher inside. Tanith wanted to go after them but
was held back by Admiral Evans.

“Tanith, I know you can hear me.” She started
sombre. “But what the hell where you thinking!?” She also turned to Freya “and
you to. You are bloody full grown dragons in the army. You are supposed to be
our countries bloody best, We are here in a new world, with a new culture, who
welcomed us with open arms to get a grip of this war and stop it. And here you
two idiots are, acting like animals. You know what the admiralty would say when
they saw you? They would say that they where right! They would tighten policies
on Dragons even more and you would only see war. I don’t care how it started, I
only care that you acted like animals. Do you even know how bad this looks on
me?”

She rubbed her temples “How do you even punish
a dragon. I don’t even know, but what happened today, I will not stand.”

“Jane…” Freya started, but was interrupted by Admiral Evans’ tirade.

“That is Admiral Evans for you Freya, today you
don’t deserve it to call me by my name. I don’t want to hear your excuses
Freya. I have to rely up on you not to lose your bloody temper. What would
happen if this is in the air? Would you throw me off? We can only hope Walker
comes by without any issues, but for the god of me, if he is harmed or killed
by this action today, I will send you both off to the breeding pens for the
rest of your lives!”

she turned
around and left the two dragons be. Freya shivered and rolled around in a tight
curl, locking the outside world away from her. Tanith was struck between trying
to follow the stretcher with Allen on it and staying put. Her resolve was
passing across the plaza in the hope to feel Allen in her mind again.

Allen woke
up with a terrible ring in his ears. His head hurt like someone was driving a
nail into it. When he opened his eyes the light that flooded the room hurt his
eyes. He immediately closed them again to block the pain from outside. He tried
to move his arm but failed, he could feel a distinct hot sensation across his
arms, spreading trough his chest and body. He tried to move his arms again but
then again he could not. Slight panic washed over his mind. He tried to do just
anything, moving his head was painful for his headache but not his neck. For
his jaws it was the same, licking his dry lips.

The small
coat of thickened saliva did do little to ease his discomfort. He just hoped he
could have some water, trough with the light blinding and pain in his head kept
him from moving to much. He groaned a bit.

“Walker you
are awake?” He could hear a voice calling. For a moment he could not place it,
who was the voice and why did it know his name. What happened to him?

“Walker?”
the voice called again to him. He could recognize the voice from somewhere. His
brain processed the inputs on a lower tempo, sluggish he started to remember.

“Adgggrrrg”
He tried to pronounce the admiral’s name but his voice did not obey to what his
brain wanted. His words where slurred, distorted beyond rescission. Something
in the room was moving, he could painfully hear the sounds of someone coming
closer.

“Need water
Walker?” Admiral Evans offered him. Trough his answer was distorted again.

“Just nod
if you can” And Allen gave a slow nod. He soon felt a hand supporting his head
and a earthwork glass pressed again his lips. The glass was tipped over and he
let a few sips of water enter his mouth. It felt good to have the relatively
cool liquid enter his mouth. Eagerly he started to drink more, trough Evans
made sure he was not drinking to much.

“Easy
walker. You have been asleep for a day now. You took quite a blow, Tanith is
worried sick, trough it service her right”

Allen tried
to get up, wanting to tell Tanith that he was alright, but a pain shot trough
his head from the effort. He fallen back to bed, starting to feel slightly sick
and soon bending next to the bed to throw up into a bucket. Even though his
stomach contained nothing, his body could not have it.

“Here try
this” He could feel the dry cracker touching his lip and slowly he tried to
take a bite from the cracker, happy that the tasteless cracker absorbed some of
the acid flavour. After a single bit he took a single sip of water. Slowly he
managed to eat a whole ration cracker and drink a glass of water. Leaning back
into the bed he tried to open his eyes, the light still hurting but he could
get used to it.

It took him
half a hour to finally be able to open his eyes fully, a hour later he could
slightly move his arms and legs again. Slowly he came to, trough his voice did
not seem to have any progress, trying to communicate was just not possible and
he resorted to pointing and nodded to signal what he wanted. Evans forced him
to lay back in bed.

“easy
Walker” she placed a hand on him when he tried to get back up.

“Let me
handle this, Freya and Tanith done enough damage. You take it easy, try to rest
and we will see how it goes tomorrow” she stood up when Allen finally laid back
in his bed.

“Trough I
would say to Tanith that you are awake”

“You
know Tanith, I never apologized” Freya was laying next to Tanith, she did not move much as most of her
body was covered with quick patches to cover the claw marks. Tanith looked
slightly worse, she had two ugly bite wounds around her neck that where painful
when she stretched around. She did not want to respond, no matter that Evans
has told her what the mission was. She did not forgive Freya.

“You
still haven’t”

“Well, I
am sorry. I lost control of my emotions and that is not what an senior is
allowed to do”

“Well
you are not my senior”

“I still
am since Evan….” Freya
started to stopped when she saw Admiral Evans standing with crossed arms.

“It will be
a while before you can claim that position” She turned to Tanith.

“And I hope
that you start to realise that it’s not just Freya’s fault what happened. You
are just as guilty. “ she paused before telling Tanith that Allen was awake.
Trough he did not feel fine, telling her about his inability to speak.

“ALLEN!?”

Allen could
hear Tanith’s call, he slightly snapped to. Trough the growling and gurgling
that was his impaired speech he could at least make himself audible to Tanith.

“T an
ith?” he had to
strain his mind to speak to her, he could feel his head starting to hurt again
when he strained to talk to Tanith.

“I am so
sorry Allen, I should have be careful but Freya…” she stopped “No,
I did not listen. I should have heard you.”

Allen
listened to Tanith while trying to ignore his distracting headace.

“I
forgive”

Tanith did
not know what to say when he simply forgave her, she let the connection hang in
the air for a while before contacting him again.

“You do?
When are you up again Allen? Could you come?”

“I need
rest”