A request by Lord Cobalt, a friend and dragon on IRC, to show how he and my character, Kaz, met. Not actually carried out in roleplay, just sort of brainstormed between the two of us. The Dreambound concept and Gateway rhyme are copyright to Cobalt.
Disclaimer: Kaz is my main character used in roleplay, Yes, her usename(tm) is Kaz. Yes, there is a series of Dragonlance books by Richard Knaak that features a minotaur named Kaz. Yes, I own them all. But! I did not steal the character! I happen to think highly of the author, and the race and world and culture he created. My Kaz, full name Kazanthi de-Arluun, is named in honor of both writer and his character, Kaziganthi de-Orilg. There's a lot they have in common, but my minotaur is not from Krynn, and her world, clan, past, and history are unique to myself.
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A Meeting of Minotaur and Dragon
Kazanthi de-Arluun plodded through the level expanse of dry scrubland. Flat was not really a proper term, as scattered boulders, sudden rises of rock slabs, and razor-edged stone dotted the otherwise even landscape. The gritty earth was pale brown beneath the minotaur's cloven hooves, the short vegetation tough, hardy, and flung wide apart by the wind's careless hands. What creatures lived there were not visible, and the silence filled her ears. Desolate was the word, but it suited the mahogany-pelted minotaur just fine. Though grown to full size at eight feet, the young warrior was not yet mature. Her broad-shouldered frame was leaner, lighter than it would be in the years to come, as nature continued the filling out of muscles and thickening of bone. Nevertheless, there was power in the half-grown's body, promise of even greater strength to come in the depth of the flat, muscled chest and wide build, which to most other races would be the most obvious mark of a male. For minotaurs, however, neither length of horn, nor tenor of voice, not height nor amount of muscling were explicit clue to gender. In the years to come, the mahogany-pelted warrior would grow used to being mistaken for a male.
Still, the brown eyes gazed about with a terrible weight behind them. The youthful fire in them had been nearly killed during an all too brief, all too long, stint in the minotaur empire's army. The silence around her echoed her own, the land a fitting reflection of her razed spirit. Now she struck off across the empty landscape, her own resolve and disillusioned heart churning over the broken oath that rankled her soul. The sun shone off her pale horns, their wide stretch instantly proclaiming her an Arluun to any other minotaur, even as the dark hair and fur made her an unheard of rarity in that clan, where long horns and pale coat hues were the birthright. Clad simply in a loincloth and tunic, sword at her side and travel-pack on her shoulders, she made an unlikely picture in this, the borderland.
A thin, unsettled expanse where roving orcs and ogres preyed, no one ventured willingly into the wilds, or forsook the few guarded roads between the realm of her people and where 'civilized' territory officially began. Yet cloven hooves carved out their own path, taking her away from home and into the human-dominated places where races mixed freely, if not always amicably. The road of an Exile or a traveler. Either way and both, it was hers now.
Thoughts whirling in unsettled dervish over the events that brought her to this pass, the minotaur's own doubts and emotions vied for attention within. Kaz's nostrils flared as she automatically scanned the terrain, roughly triangular ears swiveling independently. Vigilance was ingrained, and instincts the only thing that saved her as she entered the field of rocks and jumbled slabs.
The dry wind pushed back her shoulder-length black hair, bringing the scent of sage and coyote bush, snake, lizard, even rabbit. Water as well, though that faintly. The breeze came again in a gust, pressing the fur close against skin, and it carried a new odor that sent adrenaline charging through the minotaur's veins even as alarms sounded in her head. Her sword rasped free as the gnolls shouted, triggering the ambush.
Spitting a minotaurish curse, Kaz brought her blade up in time to counter the blow of a rough wooden club. Though the minotaur was no small being, the pack of gnolls, ranging in height from about six feet to a little taller than seven, had the advantage of numbers. They were leaner than an adult minotaur, but some of them matched the half-grown warrior in bulk. Long-limbed, with hyena-like features and far too many sharp teeth, they descended from their rock crags and emerged from cover, expressions of anticipation smeared over their mongrel faces. Wearing breechcloths and carrying clubs as well as stolen weapons, the short-pelted troll-kin snarled and advanced, barking threats in their guttural tongue. Her only impression before the attack was of tawny, spotted fur and grey skin, black eyes, clawed hands gesturing menacingly, and short, canine muzzles wrinkled into snarls.
The one before her was an adolescent, and overeager. With only a club, he didn't last long before the dark warrior. She was a minotaur, and had been a soldier after all, trained for this. She welcomed the battle-madness with a roar, sword flashing, and the gnoll screamed, felled. Now the others sped their advance, and she bared her own set of formidable fangs as leathery ears flattened, tail lashing.
"Let's see what you can do, you ugly excuse for goblin-offal," Kaz snarled, and charged to meet them.
She crashed against the leading gnolls with all the violence of an angry sea, a splash of mahogany fur against the duns of gnoll and rock. Amid the scrabblings of claws and pads on stones, the minotaur's hooves clacked furiously as she leaped and slashed, putting all the power of her youth, displaced fury, and recent turmoil into the fight. The mahogany pelted warrior lashed out with everything in her, sword and hoof, fist and fang, snapping at muzzles and throats with terrible wrath. It wasn't enough. After the first startled rush, where she killed and was only dealt the briefest of wounds, the gnoll-pack regrouped and split, to try and flank her. The female battled two of their number who were armed with rusty swords, and saw the trap closing. With a broad shove that caught the sword-bearers by surprise, throwing them back, Kaz turned and leaped for the nearest ledge of rock, created by the slant of large broken flakes of old stone. Her hooves grated against the surface as she tried to climb swiftly, brown eyes darting about as she searched for a better position to fight from, thoughts grim.
Unless I find better ground, they've got me. Too many. If they get behind me, I'll be joining the ancestors.
From atop the bluff, the dragon narrowed his eyes as the figures below scrambled at the base of his perch. Grey talons clenched over the haft of his weapon, and his almost feline ears twitched. He had emerged from his temporary lair to stretch his pinions in an idle flight, then drill with the projectile grip on the tip of his pike. After a few hours of target practice shattering small stones, he had extended his wings and basked in the sun. The first sounds of battle below had roused him, and deep blue eyes had observed the actions of both minotaur and gnolls. Now the minotaur whirled, putting its back to the face of the cliff directly beneath him, apparently realizing there was no getting higher, and deciding to make a final stand there. He heard snarling words in the liquid flow of the creature's native language, and raised an eyeridge. Probably threats, with the occasional insult to parentage, no doubt. The bovid was anything but quiet, deep timbered, rumbling voice resounding to the sky even when merely snarling. The gnolls kept coming, now sure of themselves, and neither hunted nor hunters thought to look up. The black dragon tilted his head, and decided to act. This fight was far from an even match.
Kaz gripped her sword and shifted on her hooves. She was panting as much from exertion as from rage. This was not how she had pictured herself dying.
Killed by dogs out in some desert, with no one to know, and likely put in a stewpot. Hrrr! The only good side to this is that I'll at least go down fighting.
The first gnoll topped the small ridge, and with a bellow, the young minotaur lashed out with one hoof for the canine snout. Then the world lurched, and she was yanked upwards as her head was wrenched sharply to the side. Pain shot through her thick neck, and Kaz gasped, barely able to hold onto her own sword. Digitigrade hind legs kicked and flailed, but met only air as the rising sensation continued. Dusty rock blurred against blue sky with a smear of clouds, and then she was falling, sword clattering away and hard stone meeting her shoulder. The breath was pushed from her chest, and she could feel the deep burn of future bruises under her hide. For a minute, a heartbeat, or maybe only a second, Kaz lay prone on the gritty rock surface, fighting to inhale. Then her lungs filled, and she drove to her feet, lunging for her dropped weapon. Swinging the oddly forged blade up in a defensive position, she whirled to face whatever new threat had decided to visit her.
Cobalt watched as the minotaur struck the ground, and mentally winced. He had not meant for it to hit quite that hard. Still, when he had reached down with a forearm to grab one of the bovine horns, so handily long, and lift it up to the top of the plateau, he'd known it was the wisest course of action. The dragon doubted it would have listened long enough to take his hand, and the influx of gnolls had not left time for politeness. And yet, the price for such action was the flaming suspicion that lit the brown eyes now focused on him. He swished his tail. He knew without consulting the emotion-sensing crystal that brushed against his chest that the minotaur was prepared to fight to the death. Still, I did just save him. He doesn't have to be quite so antagonistic.
Kaz's heart began a frantic thump in her chest. A dragon! A great black beast, at least twenty-five feet long. Marked with a bluish stripe that began on the reptilian snout and traveled back to the tip of that sinuously weaving tail, the black wings were also outlined in that same deep, mineral blue. Vibrant cerulean eyes watched her with maddening calm, and even amusement. It towered over her, standing upright, grey claws holding a metal staff that appeared to her as if someone had found a way to meld an artistic sculpture and a few different weapons together into something graceful, beautiful, and obviously dangerous. A gold chain hung around its neck, tipped with a drop-shaped crystal that winked in the light. The sun gleamed over the intricate scaling of the dragon's hide, and Kaz swallowed past her dry throat, calling up her courage. She would die, but she would see the color of dragon blood before her bones were chewed. Leathery ears pinning against the windblown mane of black, she growled her challenge out in the Common tongue.
"Do you always have your hounds drive your dinner to you? Too lazy to fly for your meals, lizard? Come on then! I will give you a fight to make you wish you had left me well enough alone."
The warrior's speech was flavored by a strong accent that softened some syllables, and rolled many an 'r', as well as lending a harshness to a few consonants in particular. It startled the dragon, who had been expecting a less comprehensive knowledge of Common, if indeed it was spoken at all. Instead, the minotaur was apparently quite fluent. Cobalt hrmphed, but a hint of mirth carried in his voice as he replied in kind. "You have a strange way of showing gratitude, bovine. My name is Cobalt, not 'lizard'. And tell me, why should I fight a creature as small as you?"
"Then do not," Kaz snapped back, "That makes it easier for me."
This remark paused the dragon, as he took a moment to scrutinize the braced minotaur. Was that a joke? Sarcastic remark? Delaying tactic? All three? From the fight with the gnolls, Cobalt hadn't thought the horned warrior one for witty repartee during battle, but then again, gnolls didn't have the wits needed to appreciate it. Wait. How had the minotaur known he did have intelligence enough to understand such remarks? Even as he drew breath for a retort, the minotaur straightened from the attack crouch, sword dipping slightly, and went on.
"Still. You did just save my hide from decorating a drying rack. If you were in league with those goblin-kin, you would have attacked already. I appear to owe you my life, and my thanks. I am Kazanthi de-Arluun, called Kaz by usename. I am in your debt."
The minotaur sighed, sheathing her blade. It was the first debt she had ever incurred, and it rankled. Perhaps the situation left behind had told on the minotaur more than even she realized, for her next words, while true enough, were of ancient custom that was seldom practiced, and never so casually to one so unknown. Yet, the more modern ways had led to the army's actions that had turned her stomach, and to the broken oath. Later in the journey, the minotaur would come to wonder if she was trying, in some small way, to make amends to the traditions she had betrayed.
"I am honor-bound to accompany you until that debt is repaid." As if I stand a chance of saving the life of a dragon, unless it's from starvation. Kaz scrubbed her muzzle wearily, now feeling each wound and sore muscle, each scrape. The ancestors toy with me. First outcast by honor, then trapped by it. Ha-urr! My people only ever have one kind of luck, in truth. Her shoulders sagged. After eight days of almost nonstop travel, pushing herself to her limits to gain valuable ground, she was too tired to care any longer about the pursuit that would surely have begun by now. When they finally concluded I deserted, they would have sent a mounted party. Poor comrades. I'd hate to have to read this trail.
Cobalt half-spread his dark wings. He was admittedly intrigued. This was the first minotaur he'd met. He knew almost nothing about the race, and the dragon's curiosity was one of his prime motivations. Learning was a passion.
"Coming? I'd like to get out of the sun for a while. Evening approaches. The gnolls have succeeded in eating away the afternoon, and little else. I'd like to leave before they remember they own spears, and the strength to throw them."
"Agreed. How will we get past? If they see us depart, they will surely follow. Gnolls are nothing if not persistent."
Cobalt grinned. "Yes. Dogged bunch, aren't they?"
The only answer to his jest was an impatient snort. Cobalt sighed and mentally added 'no sense of humor' to the growing list of this minotaur's attributes. He crouched and turned his blue-striped back, serpentine neck swiveling towards the black-maned warrior.
"Get on, and I'll fly us out. They won't see which way we went, trust me. But we'll have to be quick. Fog won't last long in this sun."
Kaz didn't know what Cobalt meant, but did as bade without a word, settling herself uneasily just behind the dragon's neck, legs forward of the blue-spined pinions. Cobalt felt furred hind legs grip his neck with surprising strength, and he shook out his wings, leaping into the air directly above the frustrated gnolls. The black maw opened, and a blast of gloomy, densely moist fog streamed forth. It flowed heavily down, splashing mistily against the stone walls, filling the rocky bowl and obscuring the ground.
By the time it thinned enough to see through, the gnolls could only howl curses, for dragon and minotaur were nowhere to be seen.
Cobalt kept low, skimming over the uneven terrain, covering an amazing amount of distance in just a short time, leaving the site of the ambush far behind. Backwinging gently, he dropped his hinds down, pike held close in one hand. As soon as the wind from his wings died, and the whirling of rock scree had stopped, Kaz slid from the dragon's back to the earth, and followed him inside a cave that was formed by a slide of cracked rock slabs and a massive boulder. Cobalt turned and stretched out inside, inviting the minotaur to sit.
"Tell me, what are you doing out here? Do your kind often journey into this place?"
Kaz's tail swished once, but that was the only sign of emotion she gave as she sank down against one cool wall. "No, they do not. I am leaving my homeland."
"I don't know much about your people. Tell me of them. And why you are leaving."
The brown minotaur gazed down at her hooves, and slowly, began to speak. She explained that honor was the driving force of her race. The warrior heart, and traditions, the pride inherent in her people. The past was still glorious, even if the present was not. Voice never breaking from the even, quiet tone, she began recounting her disgrace. She was neither proud of what she'd done, nor ashamed. At this point, she was still just confused and hurting, values and heart warring inside.
"The cause was unjust. The orders and actions dishonorable. I could not be a party to it anymore… it was not what I had been taught was worth fighting for. I could no longer just follow orders, to preserve the honor of clan and myself. I dishonored both by obeying even as many as I did, and by not Challenging everyone from the captain, to the gods-bedamned general."
Kaz went on, detailing the atrocities. Cobalt blinked, dumbfounded. No wonder the minotaur was so somber. The warrior had seen, been forced to do, things such as had sent him flying in quest from merely looking on the aftermath. And for one so young! He could tell by build if nothing else, that even by the horned race's standards, Kaz was barely out of adolescence.
Then he noticed his pendant. It glowed softly in the dimness of the cave, reacting to the minotaur's emotions. He blinked, startled. It was the grey of numbing fatigue, shot through with the crimson streaks of pain, edges embroidered with despair's coal shadings.
"Kaz? Are you all right? Were you wounded in the fight?"
"Some."
The minotaur grunted, but heaved to cloven hooves, shrugging off the travelpack at last. As Kaz kneeled and began pulling items from it, Cobalt noticed the dark stains on the rocks.
"You're bleeding."
"Yes."
Cobalt tapped his claws against the stone and added 'infuriatingly monosyllabic at times' to the mental list. The minotaur began to dress the hither-to ignored wounds, and spoke without looking at him.
"And you? Why are you out here, hauling folk up by the horn?"
"I'm on quest. I've been searching for a place called the Dreambound Realm. Have you heard of it?"
"Vaguely. Some elven legend, is it not?"
"I've found it's not limited to one people. Many races share it. Mine do, at least. A land filled with many marvelous objects, and holding much knowledge. A dragon land, filled with my kind who would escape the hunters and slayers, and live at peace with any others who travel there."
The minotaur spared him a glance as she wrapped a bandage around the upper thigh of one furred hind leg. Perhaps there was a way to repay her debt. "You are hunted?"
Cobalt growled, and his voice became infused with bitter anger. "No. None have come after me, yet. But I search and search for other black dragons, and all I can find are corpses. Some old, some fresh, murdered and dying, just for their color. Humans! All black dragons must be evil, so they kill innocents." The dragon's talons scraped heavily as he clawed the floor in a simmering fury.
"The ones I come upon still living are the worst, and rarest. They cannot tell me anything except what I know, and they can only die while I make them as comfortable as possible. I have not seen another black dragon alive and well for much of my life. Butchers! No feeling to them, no compassion. My brethren are hacked and tortured, broken where they lie, old and young alike. And only if they are lucky do they take a pawful of slayers with them. Hatchlings are baited like animals, even eggs are pashed! These murderers know their business well."
Cobalt forced himself to relax. He had not meant to say so much to the minotaur. They had only just met, after all. But the ready baring of the brown-eyed warrior's own heart had prompted a responding chord in him. He knew he did not fully understand this code, this honor of Kaz's, but he felt already that here was an honest being.
"And I am close to my goal. I fly for the mountains now, to find a cavern said to be the final gate."
Kaz listened as he detailed his journey thus far, the trials already faced. Her heart sank within her. Truly, she could see no way for her, a mere minotaur, to aide this dragon. But at least, it seemed he would prove a good travel companion. He was not like the drakes of legend and tale she had heard in her village. Cobalt had already impressed her with his casually equal treatment – there was no hint of the superior attitude she'd expected. He spoke a great deal, but then, she had ever been one who listened, preferring to hold her own silence unless necessary. His words took her mind off her own troubles.
Cobalt paused at the end of his tale. The minotaur, exhausted and aching, had made no complaint throughout the long story. He shifted.
"Sleep now. All else can wait. You are done in from your journeying and the battle."
Kaz could not deny the truth. She removed her bedroll, so long unused, curled up by the stone wall, and fell into heavy slumber.
The black dragon regarded the wide expanse of dead-end obsidian before him and sighed. The massive cavern had all the contours of a liquid, smoothly rippling around him like a bubble in a pond. Strange characters were inscribed deep into the surface, filled with metal of a kind neither traveler had ever seen. Behind him, the minotaur's voice came again.
"Cobalt, come eat. Staring at it some more will not make the riddle make sense."
"But we're so close. If I can just puzzle this out, we'll be there, at last!"
A grunt, and a shifting of the logs making up the campfire as Kaz poked them with a stout branch.
"You do not know the language. I do not know the language. Looking at it until your eyes hurt will not change that. We shall have to find someone who can read it. That means we must leave soon. If you do not come eat now, I am taking your share. I am hungry. Besides, you are in my way."
This last caught his attention, and Cobalt turned, catlike ears uplifted. The fire burned, small by his standards, outlandishly large by the minotaur's, and over it roasted two deer and an elk. Keeping watch over this cooking meal was his comrade, a piece of thin, tanned hide stretched out on a smooth wooden platter in her lap. Hooves propped carelessly up while she leaned back against a wall, the pale-horned minotaur wielded a writing tool across the surface of the skin, brown eyes going from the wall to hide, then back to check on the meat, never resting on him. The dragon sighed and padded over to the fire, long neck swinging in an arch to allow him to look over her furred shoulder. His jaw gaped for a moment before he remembered to shut it.
Kaz was drawing the bedeviling wall and runes. Not just roughly or even fairly accurately, but like a painting – complete in nearly every detail, from the sagging ripples that adorned the surrounding stone to the perfect polished surface of the symbol-studded gate. Shadows, the gleam of metal, subtle shadings, distance and position, all were taking shape on the scrap of rabbit-hide. The rendering was nearly complete.
"I didn't know you were an artist. When did you start this?"
Kaz's hand never faltered, and her tone was dryly amused. "I am many things. My people do have other trades than warrior, hobbies other than hunting. The obvious is not always all there is to a thing."
This made Cobalt shift his forepaws uncomfortably, the memory of how long he had taken to find out that the minotaur was, in fact, a female, rising as an excellent example of how he had assumed that what was obvious was all there was to Kaz. That had been a bit embarrassing for him, but had made the minotaur actually quirk a half-smile, one of the only ones he had seen grace her muzzle. He had grumbled to himself about not recognizing the fact through scent, but Kaz – with those blasted keen ears of hers – had idly remarked that since he has only met one minotaur, he couldn't exactly tell that way either, not being familiar with the different subtle markers. He blinked back to the present, listening as the minotaur continued.
"I started yesterday when I finally figured out you would moon over that pile of ancient lava until we both died of old age, and still be no closer to solving it than we are now."
Cobalt wrinkled his muzzle in a confused grimace, looking around the campsite. It had been made comfortable and semi-permanent with its small woodpile, grass-padded sleeping spaces, and the rough wooden frames which held curing hides. How long had they been here? He knew he hadn't gone to hunt… vague memory pushed through, of the haze of distraction as he'd sat puzzling over the runes, and absently taking food at intervals from the insistent minotaur. He frowned. "You've been doing all the hunting?"
She snorted, and set aside the drawing, standing up with a yawn. "You were occupied. If I wanted to eat, I surely was not about to wait for you to take your turn. I would have starved."
The dragon matched her dry tone. "Eminently practical, aren't you."
Sharp white teeth snapped shut with a click, tassled tail weaving. "Yes."
Cobalt ground his fangs together. The minotaur's ears flicked, but her only comment was a pointed gesture at the food. He tore into the well done elk while she took up the haunch of one of the deer. Her heavy jaws made short work of it, and Kaz gnawed thoughtfully on the bone as she wandered over to the wall which held the runes. The dragon gulped his mawful hurriedly.
"What are you doing?"
The minotaur stopped dead, and turned, very slow and deliberate in the motion. Her tail was rigid, but her low, rolling voice was calmly polite. "I am going to go look at those runes."
"But-"
"For sea's sake, Cobalt, they have been there longer than either of us. I may not be the most graceful thing on hooves, but I doubt they will break, and you have been brooding over them like a bird all these long weeks!"
The dragon blinked. Had he really? Surely, Kaz had studied them as much as he. However, now that Cobalt thought on it, he really hadn't moved in all this time. Casting back, he realized that when he had, it was inevitably when the minotaur was gone. He had not meant to do such a thing, guarding the wall like a jealous hatchling. Still, there was a feeling of… possessiveness. For all she had walked by him this last leg of the quest, it was still his. He had been the one to go through trial after trial, long arduous journeying and research, the harrowing tests, not the minotaur. And as he looked back at Kaz, he saw that this knowledge shone in the dark eyes. It was what had kept her back, tending to the daily needs like food and water, while he made the effort of comprehending what lay before him. He bowed his head in silent apology, and she wordlessly accepted, balming any strain between them away.
He resumed eating as the minotaur stepped up to the sheet of obsidian. After examining one of the metal runes thoughtfully, she obeyed a natural impulse, lifted her hand, and touched it, even as a disbelieving gasp sounded from behind. Fingers resting on the symbol, Kaz looked back over her shoulder, a baffled expression on her face. Before Cobalt could begin to explain why the action had surprised him, the runes began to glow.
Kaz's head whipped around and she leaped back, sword finding its way into her ready hand. Cobalt charged to her side, wings half-extended, meal forgotten. The glow threw shadows in harsh relief, and it was these shadows that pooled and gathered before the pair, taking shape. Eyes devoid of all detail glowed a pale yellow in color to match the light streaming from the runes. To each, it appeared as one of their kind. Kaz saw it as the dark outline of a minotaur, and Cobalt as the shadow of a great dragon.
The shade bent gleaming, empty eyes on them both. "I was beginning to wonder if you two would ever get this far."
Kaz snorted, sword lowering a fraction. "You try getting past a dragon set on not moving."
The flickering guardian seemed amused at that, but addressed them as one. "You seek to enter the Dreambound?"
Cobalt nodded earnestly, manner respectful. "Please, allow us through. I have traveled so long, searched for many years. Let us pass, Sentry, I beg."
"The test and the fee are small ones. To avoid the wrath and open a path – a single token from your heart, is the key to make walls part."
Cobalt twitched his long tail, and began immediately to think on what that could mean. For him, the words echoed something deeper, a wisdom so old it had to be cloaked. A final challenge of worthiness. A scornful snort at Cobalt's side drew his gaze, and the dragon's jaw dropped in horror as Kaz stepped forward, voice caustically pointed.
"Who writes your riddles, specter? Did they never hear of plain speech? Or were they so all-fired fond of their rhymes?"
"KAZ!"
Cobalt's cry was both a wailing of frustration and shout of anger. The brown eyes which snapped to meet his own, however, showed no remorse. Her ears were half-flattened and she gestured with her own measure of impatience.
"After all this time of your seeking, do not tell me you would rather stew over a riddle when the gate-keeper himself stands there with the key, and it would ease your heart to step inside with naught but a word, honestly spoken and returned! These games are such as my own kind can never understand, and I thank the ancestors it is so!" A brown fist struck her flat, muscled chest to emphasize her point. "In here is what matters true, not what cleverness can be spun with phrases."
The dragon opened his mouth, but Kaz's movement seemed to catch his eye, and play over again in his mind against the backdrop of words. A single token from your heart… the thump of hand against muscle, over the beating heart beneath… no, it was too simple! But, could it be, was that all it took?
He swung abruptly to the watching shade, and clawed at his armored chest until a single scale came loose in his hand. The phantom's talons opened as Cobalt dropped the scale into its palm, and the black dragon bowed low.
"My name is Cobalt. Well and brightly met, guardian of the Dreambound."
The shade inclined its head in a nod, and the oddly echoing voice was gently approving. "Be welcome here, Cobalt. Enter, be at rest, and join many of your kith and kin. No hunters stalk here, no war enters. This realm is a peaceful one."
The black dragon turned to the minotaur to explain, but she merely flicked her tail. In one swift movement she drew her dagger, pulled the neck of her tunic aside, and cut a lock of fur from the surface of the left pectoral. Sheathing her blade, the warrior stepped forward and placed it in the shadowy hand of the guardian.
"I am Kazanthi de-Arluun. Greetings."
"Welcome, minotaur. Enter. You are the first of your kind the Dreambound has seen."
Kaz's ears swiveled, but her thoughts remained her own. To Cobalt's utter frustration, the minotaur insisted on breaking down the camp to a small degree: dousing the fire, dumping the grass beds outside, setting the drying racks in a corner, and packing the remaining venison for travel before even setting one cloven hoof close to the rune-warded gate.
"Promised land or no, there is no reason to waste good meat, or leave a mess for the next to come."
Cobalt covered his face with his paws, and the shadow-guardian who had stood watching throughout, actually threw back its head and laughed. As the unlikely pair stood before it at last, the runes flared, obsidian vanishing from their path, and it spoke again.
"Step through, and be well. Should you desire to leave, simply return here, and touch the runes you will see on the other side. Once admitted to the Dreambound, you may come or go as you will."
Then it and the blocking stone faded, and the two travelers stepped past the gate.
* * * * * * * *
Cobalt settled on the rocky outcrop, wingbeats slowing, wide pinions folding close against his back. The blue eyes blinked against the orange light of the rising sun, and he watched the minotaur below in her morning ritual.
Still appearing the lean half-grown, after nearly three years, Kaz's frame had only gained about a third of the dense muscle and thickened bone that would continue to accumulate until her thirtieth year, when the bovid would be physically adult. Even so, the minotaur ensured that what developed was strong, drilling against the air and shadows in a measured, fluid dance, sword glinting in the dawn's glow. Every day, regardless of weather, she had spun this warrior's waltz as the sun began to climb over the mountaintops. At first a curiosity, then a source of amusement to many of the Dreambound residents, she had nevertheless made a place for herself among them. The ones who had once been fighters, and were of a size manageable, had begun to come and spar with the minotaur. When they tired of the new sport, Kaz had once more practiced alone.
Cobalt settled on his stomach, arms crossing as he watched. Morning sunlight threw the red highlights that lurked in her mahogany pelt into sudden visible fire, and raced along the pale, shining surface of her horns as she whirled, going through another series of moves. A drawn up, sudden halt, sword flicking up in salute to the mountain, and the metal blade reversed, gliding smoothly into the scabbard at her side. For a moment, Cobalt had to blink away the memory of his first sight of her, embattled and fierce, in the empty wasteland of their meeting. Then Kaz turned, lifted her bovine head, and smiled.
The spark in those brown eyes was alive and well, fanned and given a chance to recover during her span in the Dreambound. Many friends had been made here, and good times had smoothed away the jagged edge she'd once had. This place with amiable dragons of every size and description, of infinite abilities, and the other races who populated it, had let the minotaur learn to play again.
Kaz looked up as she finished, and saw her friend stretched out on a ledge. "Ho, Cobalt. Ready to delve into the mines, then?"
The black dragon grinned, head bobbing. "Shall we?"
"Let me get my pack, then you may lead on."
The dragon took to the skies moments later, minotaur seated on his back. Cobalt caught a young thermal, angling his wings and slipstreaming along towards the largest mountain. Even from a distance, the dark mouths of the mine entrances were visible against the great stone flanks.
Empty and echoing, it was uncertain just what had been carved out of the mountain's depths. Yet, even here, there was evidence that the Dreambound had long been a place of dragons, for the tunnels were of an immense size, burrowing and twisting their way into earth. Exploring the mines was a hobby for some, a one-time trip for others. Cobalt, curiosity ever strong, wished to go deeper, into the very oldest sections, where many did not venture. Even now, much of the mines remained unmapped and uncharted. It was the sort of puzzle some dragons delighted in. It was this, the possibility of padding where no other of his kind had bothered, in a place ancient even by draconic standards, that drew Cobalt, though neither he nor the minotaur had even visited the mines' outer and most viewed tunnels.
The sheer size was overwhelming to the minotaur. The vast caverns at the busier mouths were almost beyond her comprehension. Tunnels large enough to hold three dragons of her friend's size, standing side by side, were the standard in the deeper ways. The mines narrowed as they became older, but Cobalt could still move with relative ease. The supports were not the blocky, squared forms of thick timber and rough bracing her own people used, but rounded, arched. Dwarven-forged catwalks of interlaced metal abounded, but made so that even Kaz was comfortable striding along them. Cobalt mused that this likely meant a host of races had cooperated in the endeavor that left the great corridors worming throughout the mountain. Dwarven-craft made it seem the support arches grew out of the stone walls themselves, while the arrangement, several blocks fitted so well together the seam was all but unnoticeable, was unique to some human cultures. Kaz grunted, but said nothing. She recognized the keystone method, though here, it should never have worked. Still, the keystones themselves might have had more than a little to do with it.
They were not so large, compared to the other blocks making up the archways, just under eight feet across. They were carved with scrolling designs, and they glowed brightly, providing illumination in the tunnels. Kaz clambered up to the topmost scaffolding, that which ran right up and under the gleaming stones. She sniffed idly at the surface of one. Magic, no doubting, and strong, to last all these long years. Knowing little of the arcane, the minotaur soon lost interest, and moved on. Though she occasionally went down to look at something that happened to catch her eye, for the most part, the minotaur was content to stride along the highest of latticed platforms, ducking keystones as she paced her draconic friend.
Their voices echoed in meandering conversation as they penetrated deeper and deeper, into the winding ways and twisting shafts. All main branches were marked by an image or relief carving, of everything from animals of every sort to tools to depictions of elven archers and human shepherds. Secondary tunnels bore the symbols of the primary branch they led from, but in various different poses or unique scenes. Every step of the way, Cobalt jotted down a description of this on a tablet he had brought along. In this manner, he kept a map of their path, and recorded the way back against the time of return. Instead of wandering to see documented wonders, like a chamber peppered with rainbow-hued crystals in breathtaking natural phenomenon, the pair delved into places no one had yet bothered to go, reaching the last documented tunnel section, and stepping forward into real exploration.
For the minotaur, this was something done because her friend wished to. Not that she was not impressed by the things she had seen thus far, but she lacked the urge to seek and find that Cobalt did. Her curiosity was healthy, but his was voracious. One did not allow friends to go into ancient and unknown places alone, though. So here the minotaur was, listening to a quiet broken only by their movement and voices, breathing still air. Another considering look at a keystone as she passed beneath it, one leathery ear turned to catch Cobalt's words about the depiction on the wall marking this section. Something about a pegasus, and why would they use a winged creature as a marker so far down beneath the earth, away from sky? The minotaur sniffed, testingly. The air was fresh. I wager an ale the keystones are responsible for that as well. There is no way for air to circulate down here in anything but sluggish fashion. Cobalt's voice down below calling her name prompted an absent response.
"Perhaps they began running out of things to use as marks which were appropriate."
This set the black dragon off again, chasing that theory to its conclusion in rambling sentences and wonderings aloud. Some the minotaur responded to, furthering the speculation, some she did not, allowing Cobalt his quick mind's flights of fancy.
Cobalt was energized. Only once did he allow brief regret at the fact that Kaz was so small in comparison to himself – thus, with considerably shorter legs, was slowing his progress to a significant degree – to surface. The thought was swiftly banished. It would have been a faster trip, but a less enjoyable one. Going places with friends was always better than going alone, having someone to share the excitement of a discovery heightened the pleasure of that finding.
Time shortens when you do something you enjoy, and friends make it pass smoother than might otherwise be noticed. Though they had to halt to eat meals, and sleep – hence the packs that both carried strapped to their backs, loaded with ample trail rations as well as odds and ends – the days it took to reach the depths of the mountain tunnels went by pleasantly beneath the gloam of constant keystones. Several undocumented sections were passed up, the dragon not content with merely looking through the next one that lay unexplored. He put distance between himself and the last known tunnel complex, and only then began poking about in chambers, down side and connecting ways. This place, he felt, had a neglected air, and he set to the task of ferreting out its secrets.
Kaz, on the other hand, would have liked to have started a long time past, in one of the better preserved tunnels. What gave this section its feeling of antiquity was the obvious fact that it was indeed, almost incomprehensibly ancient. As they had kept travelling, she had noticed the size of the grand corridor shrinking, until it fit only one dragon the size of her friend, and he would be unable to spread his wings more than halfway before the stone walls halted him. The keystones, so brightly glowing in other places, had dimmed gradually, here and there flickering, as if a fitful wind was blowing their inner candle almost out. The air was closer here, no longer as fresh, tasting stale. In some of the side tunnels, the keystones were dark completely in spots, only one here and there left to shine its dim illumination. The catwalks were no longer pristine – their surfaces were dulled, and in some areas, they creaked and whined, shifting slightly as her weight traversed them. Safe enough, the minotaur reckoned, since they still held solidly. It was merely as if the bolts needed some tightening, a slight bounce to the latticed metal that had not been there before. Even that, after hiking along miles of stout, obviously dependable walkway, was enough to make the minotaur pause, and consider joining the dragon on the floor below.
Cobalt paid little heed to the keystones, other than to grumble a bit about the increasingly poor lighting.
"No one else ever said the lightstones were out or weakened down here."
A semi-amused rumble from above made him look up, to see the minotaur resting furred arms on the rail of the catwalk, looking down at him. "Everywhere everyone else has been, they are not. You are the one who wished to go where no others had, remember? It might have been prudent to treat this venture as one where the unknown was truly what you expected to find. Most folk, when going underground, bring a lantern."
Cobalt lifted his head, vaguely feline ears twitching as a draconic smile crept across his features. "You're slipping, Kaz. Used to be you wouldn't even think about leaving me to be the practical one, you would have just brought a lantern, and any other gear you thought necessary."
The minotaur snorted at him, leathery ears flicking back against dark mane. "Who says I did not? Have you seen what is in my pack other than food and a bedroll?" Humor flared in the brown eyes. "I am merely trying to finally teach you the lesson in pragmatism you refuse to learn. I will admit, giving up on the monumental task has crossed my mind now and again."
The two disparate creatures eyed each other a moment, then grinned fanged grins, and continued on. The keystones became more scattered and irregular in their illumination, spilling over even into the main corridor. While darkness was not that much a hindrance to the minotaur's sight, up on the catwalk as she was, the cracks and fissures that spread through the stone wherever a keystone was dark went unnoticed, and the dragon was too distracted by other details to bother about it that much. The tunnels had stood for longer than a dragon's age, why would he bother about their soundness now?
From what was known, Cobalt had reason for his confidence. The keystones were not a simple creation; instead of being as links in a chain in the magic that maintained the carved tunnels, they were more a network, a web, connecting to each other in mysterious fashion. One might be dark, but the others present along that section of corridor took up the slack and so maintained the structural integrity of the whole sector. Stresses were still felt on stone and supports, but the magic placed in the keystones ensured cohesion. Where the keystones were mostly dark, but for one or two, greater evidence of the stresses and pressure placed on the arching supports surfaced in wider, jagging cracks, and fallen chunks of stone from the ceiling littering the floor. The trouble with Cobalt's confidence in the safety the keystones provided was that he only knew they were safe… and no one had delved so deeply along the way as to come to places where they did not glow faithfully.
The corridor bearing the mark of a chimera, its three heads watchful and wings furled, was lit by only one keystone, located in the center of that main passage. It guttered, casting uncertain and dim light in fitful strobes that did little to show the way. Cobalt forged ahead with enthusiasm, eyes on the end of that corridor, where a soft glow was visible from one of the side tunnels. The minotaur drew up short however, nose lifting as the air was scented, an uneasy feeling making her pause, shifting from hoof to hoof. Yet, without any real evidence, she was reluctant to speak, and the light was too intermittent for the seeking brown eyes to fasten on anything but shadows, which suggested, but hid, all reasons the bovid might find for her discomfort.
"Cobalt, hold. Maybe we should not delve any further along this way."
The dragon paused, looking back, a foreclaw uplifted. It was hard to see him, and if he had not been marked with that brilliantly deep blue, the rest of his body would have faded against the dark stone, even when the erratic light did illuminate.
"Why not?
"Do you not feel a bit wary of going down this way with such poor lighting? With that flicker, there is no shifting our vision for the dark, and we cannot see well enough by the glow it gives so sparingly."
Cobalt wrinkled his long muzzle in a bit of surprise. "I've never known you to be afraid of a little darkness, Kaz. Besides, there's a glow down at the end of this passage, and different colors too. You can see it as well as I can. Get your lamp out if it pleases you, but I'm going to see what's around that bend."
The minotaur frowned, and her long tail gave a few swishes of annoyance, where normally there would be a joking rejoinder. She was not frightened of the dark. Her instincts were whispering, and Kaz paid attention to those. A paradise for dragons this might be, but there were still dangers to consider. Though true… there had been no danger in this place to anyone for as long as she had come here. Unless one counted the very real possibility of being smothered in a hug by a too-friendly dragon. Muttering in her native tongue, the minotaur unslung her backpack, and begin to rummage inside it for the lamp she had indeed, brought.
Cobalt headed intently down the passage, heedless of the rocky ground that should have been smooth. The tunnel here was narrower, enough for him to turn around, but not to spread his wings even as much as he'd been able to a few sections ago. His claws kicked smaller stones from his path with each step. Neck stretched out ahead of him, he was eager to catch his first glimpse of whatever was giving off that tantalizing light which seemed rosy in one part, golden in another, and blue in still another. When his head passed the keystone in the center of the tunnel, it flared brighter than it had as of yet, sustaining its illumination for one brief burst. Encouraged, Cobalt proceeded, trying to take advantage of the opportunity of clear sight. He hurried his steps almost into a trot, making it two thirds of the way down the corridor in a few moments. Kaz looked up from holding a striker to the inside of her lamp, startled at the keystone's behavior, brown eyes narrowing.
Then the keystone went out. Complete darkness, the kind that only comes deep underground, with tons of stone overhead separating one from the sky and open air, descended heavily, and the rock walls began to speak. It was a painful sound, groaning and cracking, and in that darkness the light of Kaz's lamp flared, a startled thing. Held aloft in the end of the minotaur's astonishingly prehensile tail, it revealed the beginning of a rain of rocks from above that clattered against the metal walkway, jarring it as the size of them increased. The center keystone, completely dark, was grating free, sliding inexorably from its perch as the supporting stones wobbled in their fit, chunks cracking free, and falling. Below, Cobalt was splay-legged, head lifted and eyes blinking against the return of faint light even as stones bounced off his back and folded wings, glanced off his serpentine neck and pinged off his snout.
Alarm reared inside the minotaur, and muscles snapped taut beneath mahogany pelt. Deep voice swelling into a bellow, fanged jaws dropped into shouting gape. "Cobalt! Turn back! Get out!"
A heavier rock, capable of stinging even him, chose that moment to crash into the black dragon's shoulder, staggering him and drawing a pained snarl that was drowned by the voice of frustrated stone, growling out its anger at being freed. Breaking from the startled paralysis, Cobalt sinuously reversed, powerful haunches bunching and flinging him in a streaking bound down the length of the corridor. Boulder-sized chunks now shattered on impact with the floor, sending dangerous shards flying everywhere. Some bounced off the dragon's tough hide, but others found ways to cut, drawing blood. A heavier slab smashed into one of the packbags he had draped over his back, snapping the strap that held it on and tumbling it to the floor. He yelped as a falling rock slammed down in front of him, and unable to go around it or dodge, claws scrabbled as he hastily climbed over. Impacts of smaller missiles were constant now, stinging and bruising against his folded wings and back.
He couldn't see the pattern emerging, but from higher up, the minotaur could. The tunnel was collapsing along the archways, and before it came tumbling down, the center keystones were the first to fall, smashing into the walkway she stood on before rolling off, jolting the metal path harshly. Without their magic, they only held out a little longer before gravity and the immense pressure squeezed them out of place. Once they went, the entire arch crumbled. Cobalt was fast, but he wasn't moving fast enough. In the span of heartbeats, the minotaur saw one of the keystones ahead of the dragon begin to slide free.
Brown eyes wide, she leaped into a dead run. Not away from the tunnel… but deeper into it. She raced for the keystone, the walkway shuddering from the heavier impacts of crumbling slabs beneath cloven hooves. The light jounced behind her, held aloft in the bovid's tail but nearly forgotten. The mountain's roots roared in the minotaur's ears, she saw the dragon falter, have to climb over a boulder that had smashed into the ground ahead of him. He would not make it in time, if that center stone fell now. Shying this way and that, the catwalk shrieking under the increased stress and vibrating with the impacts of rock, the minotaur dove beneath the sinking keystone. Brawny arms snapped up, clawed fingers spread and gripping. Ignoring the splintering stones that cut into furred hide, sprayed into needles and daggers by their shattering, the bovid heaved. The keystone's slide halted, but legs and arms quivered, sweat almost immediately springing up to dampen Kaz's pelt. Poised like Atlas beneath the keystone, the half-grown minotaur gritted her fangs and tried to hold the end of the world up by a few precious seconds. Unable to even use the breath to shout at Cobalt to hurry, Kaz strained against the pull of gravity, and the want of the rock to answer it. The catwalk bucked and shivered beneath her hooves, giving no help.
Cobalt's breath tore at his throat, fear and adrenaline coursing through his veins in flame and ice. The instinct to spread his wings and fly away was balked by reality, that they were underground, and he could not even unfurl his leathery pinions. His cerulean eyes were wide, pupils flared so that the dark nearly swallowed all color away. Runrunrunrunrun... Pushing himself harder, he lunged for safety, looked up to try and avoid more falling slabs, and saw Kaz make her stand. He saw the quiver of the archway in the dancing light from the minotaur's lantern, saw that squirm of rock like a living thing snarl, held at bay for seconds longer than it liked. He saw the imminent collapse paused, saw the effort contorting the minotaur's bullish features.
Then time snapped back, and he hurtled past Kaz's position, streaking towards the end of the tunnel. When the dragon thundered by below, the minotaur groaned, and flung herself away from the keystone. The lamp was dropped, breaking, as she leaped into a gallop on the tortured walkway. Light from the previous corridor beckoned, promising safety, and she could see the dragon plunge past the marker, become doused in the soft glow. Cobalt was safe.
Talons squealed against the rock floor of the stable passageway, as Cobalt flung himself to the ground. Sides pumping like a giant bellows, the dragon panted, feeling every bruise, cut, and throbbing sprain in the sudden wash of relief. Then his breath caught, and he whirled, peering into the darkness. "Kaz!"
The dragon took another breath to shout, and choked on it a moment later when the walkway on which his friend had been running gave a moan of twisting metal, bending sharply, and was battered to the floor in a crush of twisting and snapped latticework. Rock dust gusted past him, obscuring the little view he had, and the dragon coughed, lifting a foreclaw to shield his muzzle and eyes as best he could. Eyes squinted, trying to defy nature and pierce the murk. "KAZ!"
Just as he was about to try and go back in, determined to dig through the rubble, he paused, listening, cat-like ears pricked. There! Faint. A cough, and stirring. Rocks tumbled away. "Kaz?"
Hoarse, rasping, and definitely not happy, the minotaur's voice responded. Well. Was heard. Listening to the syllables of Kaz's native language spewing forth, he doubted she was actually talking to him. About him, possibly, though he didn't hear the drrahkgon which would have been a dead giveaway. But, given what had just happened, even if she was maligning him soundly, he didn't mind. A cursing minotaur was a living minotaur.
When Kaz hobbled out of the shambles of the tunnel, the dragon winced, immediately feeling worse. He was injured, but his sheer size had helped, and he had not fallen from a height. The black-maned minotaur was limping badly, putting barely any weight on her right leg, and was bleeding from several scrapes and cuts, as well as from the corner of her mouth. She clutched one arm which was obviously broken, and a large gash was present on the broad back, carmine flowing without hindrance. Covered from horn to hoof in rock dust, brown eyes squinted up at the dragon, roaming over his own injuries and cataloguing them in like manner. He hastily extended a foreleg, offering it as support for the minotaur. She leaned on it gratefully, then snorted, trying to clear her nose. As the dragon lowered his head, jaw opening to speak, the minotaur interrupted with an almost resigned query.
"Are you done exploring for today?"
Cobalt smiled a little wanly, and nodded. "I think so. Home, then?"
A rumble of agreement from Kaz, and carefully, the black dragon crouched, letting her wrap an arm over his neck, and helping support her as she clambered up onto his back. Turning about, he struck for the way out. Both of them could do little in the way of first aid – all their gear was gone, and all around them was stone and metal, less than useless for bandaging wounds and setting limbs. What bled would have to clot on its own, what was broken would have to remain so after being set.
At first, it was easy. They had traveled in a relatively straight line, from one main passage to another, at the end of their journey. But the middle had been a meandering thing, passing this corridor, going down that, skipping three here and choosing this path at that junction. The way back, notes scribbled in a dragon's hand on a tablet with ample sheets of parchment, was lost, buried beneath the rubble of the collapsed tunnel. Cobalt went as fast as he dared, his own gait hindered by a limp. The way out would not take the three days it had coming in, where he went by the minotaur's pace, but it would still take at least one day, he figured roughly. That time stretched out before him as he hesitated, trying to remember whether or not he'd come down the branch with the bear marker or the lion. He fretted, looking one way, then another. Neither seemed familiar.
"Left." Kaz's voice came quietly from where the minotaur rested on Cobalt's back, and he felt the bovid's weight shift as brown eyes peered closer at the markers on the walls. "The bear."
"How do you know, Kaz? I've… lost the tablet that had the map of the way home. I don't remember either one of these, and I was the one writing them down. You remember me writing the bear down?"
"No, Cobalt. I am a minotaur, though, and no maze can confound my kind for long unless it… well, there have to be certain things in effect. In any case, I can tell the way we came easily enough. Go left."
The black dragon obeyed, and Kaz guided him back to the correct path when he faltered or could not remember the way. He didn't have to glance at his crystal necklace to know the minotaur was fatigued, and in pain, even though the rumbling voice never faltered, nor caught, calm and smooth throughout the long hours of the journey. When they reached the more well-traveled and broad lanes, and met with other would-be explorers, who exclaimed over the battered pair and gave them water, food, and began to see to their wounds while healers were fetched, then only, did Cobalt see the minotaur surrender to the toll her wounds had exacted. Baffled, he tilted his head. Damned if he knew why, but Kaz had fallen asleep… smiling.
Sable brown nostrils flared, taking in the chill morning breeze that swept down off the mountains. Leathery ears perked, and the loose black mane drifted away from Kaz's thick neck, only to resettle a moment later. The minotaur's broad chest filled with the crisp air, then expelled it in a pleased, rumbling sigh. The battle drills and routine were complete. Invigorated, Kaz saluted the sun, and then sheathed her sword, turning to head back to the spartan cabin that had served as a dwelling for little more than three years. There was still a bit of lingering soreness in the arm that had been broken, but for the most part, the Dreambound's healers had speeded her recovery to mere days. It was time to go.
A last look around the interior of the cabin that she had built, three years gone at her arrival. It was a shelter, and it had been comfortable, sturdy, but it had never been intended for anything other than a temporary abode, and the lack of personal touches – other than being scaled to one of her people – showed it. Everything was in order, though, and it would stand empty, until someone else had need of it. The minotaur had made her good-byes yesterday, visiting friends privately and without fanfare. All that needed saying had been said, and the hour was here.
Kaz checked the traveling pack, new to replace the one lost beneath the mountain, making sure all the necessary supplies had been stored and properly placed. Then straps were slipped on, and the whole thing settled against her broad back. Though the minotaur knew it was full, somehow, it weighed lightly. It was made more easily borne by her mood than anything else, she knew. A last look around, a grunt of satisfaction, and Kaz turned for the exit. The sound of leathery wings beating the air in familiar time brought up the minotaur's ears, and she hesitated a moment, then stepped outside, closing the door firmly.
Cobalt backwinged to a landing before the minotaur's house, and had barely touched down before the door opened, and Kaz came through. His catlike ears flicked sideways as he noted the haversack, and he shifted, sitting up on his haunches, talons grasping lightly at his knees. "So, you're really going."
The mahogany-pelted minotaur halted before him, tail swaying in even motion behind her. Brown eyes reproached him. "I am. I assume you heard it from another, despite my attempts to keep it quiet before I could speak with you myself. I waited half the night for you to return to your lair, my friend. It was not my intention to leave you a mere note, but you gave me little choice."
The black dragon flared his wings abruptly, sinuous tail giving an unsettled lash. "What I don't understand is why, Kaz. Why leave this place? Was it because of the accident? I'm sorry you were hurt, you know I never meant either of us to be harmed."
The broad, bovine muzzle lifted higher, a hint of defiance in the angle of those long horns. "It has nothing to do with that, Cobalt, though yes, that is why I can depart at all. We are even now, no debts." Kaz moved closer, a hand reaching out to pat over the dragon's much larger paw. "You are my friend, and you know this. I will miss you as I will miss all the ones I have made here. This is truly a wondrous realm, and I am glad enough to have found shelter here a while. But this is the end of your journey, Cobalt. It is time I finally began mine. This is where you belong, not I. I will perhaps, be able to come visit someday. If I cannot, then I hope your days are filled with enough puzzles and mysteries to keep you entertained."
Fangs bared in a grin, and the minotaur's clawed fingers gave a firm squeeze to the larger, scaled ones, before Kaz let her arm fall and stood back. The blue-marked dragon sighed. He understood her reasons – the letter he'd found when he had finally gone back to his lair was simple and concise – he simply didn't like seeing a friend depart, perhaps for good. "And perhaps, if you stay gone too long without visiting, I'll come seeking you, eh?" He gave a slight smile back. "Who else is going to teach me about being practical? No one else is as bull-headed as you are."
Kaz wrinkled her muzzle, and promptly kicked him, with enough force behind the cloven hoof to actually sting, drawing an exaggerated but genuine yelp. He snorted at her as he rubbed his forearm. Still has no sense of humor. "I'll walk you to the Gate."
The minotaur nodded once, and set off, making Cobalt scramble to reverse and fall in beside her. In companionable silence, they made their way overland, coming at last to a sheer cliff, which seemed made all of black obsidian. Set into one area, were metal runes. Here the pair paused, and regarded each other. Cobalt's smile was teasing, even as sadness tinged its edges, outlining his mirth as his striping outlined him. "Do you even remember how to get out again?"
"I always remember the way out. Fare well, Cobalt. Strength and honor be yours."
They clasped forearms, despite the size difference, and the minotaur smiled in return, a hint of regret for the parting embroidered around her hope and anticipation. Then Kaz turned to the runes, reached out and touched one. They flared with a light, and the stone vanished from her path. She stepped past the boundary, and vanished from Cobalt's sight as the barrier was reinstated.