Losky
 

 [story] [impression] [rider] [Healing Den]


Losky's story...

"Ay then, did you hear?" It was morning down by the well, where the village women gathered to fetch water and share gossip.
    "Yes, they say old Farmer Brue's cow birthed a two-headed calf. Can you believe it?"
    "I say its that Smith's boy, Losky. I always known there 'as something odd about him. Look at him, he's got shifty eyes, and he's different from all the other kids. I bet it was his work. He's a heathen!"

    The talk that day didn't differ much from the other days. There was always some bizarre event to be blamed on "the smiths boy". Every single strange and evil event to happen to the village of Gyrean was blamed on "the smith's boy", even though there was no way the poor kid could have done any of those things. The people were just superstitious, and suspicious of things they didn't like.
    The strange thing was, a lot of bizarre and evil things did happen to the village of Gyrean that didn't seem to happen anywhere else, caused by the smith's boy or no.
    Losky had always been different. The first few months of his life he had been an angel. He was healthy, didn't cry, was a happy baby. But then, about three months after his birth, he took a change. He cried and cried and was a terrible child, a burden on his poor mother. And many of the village said he wasn't human. For one thing, his eyes shifted colors, going from an emerald green when he was happy to a dark blue-purple when he was angry. He was skinny, with irregularly long fingers and toes, and his hair was a whitish blob that he had to struggle to keep from growing down to his ears each night. He defanentaly looked the part of a heathen. When he was younger, and had met the other children of the village for the first time, they had pestered him will all sorts of questions.
    "How come you're eyes change colors so?"
    "How come your hair's all funny? It looks like a mass of straw."
    "My da says that you must be a heathen, no human could have eyes like that."
    Losky glared at them, his eyes turning a lilac and his face growing hard. But he didn't say anything. He just let them walk all over him, ignored their taunts as he gathered the firewood. Then he ran home and cried. He had been young then.

    He was used to that now. It didn't bother him anymore that the children ignored him, the woman snickered when he passed and the men looked away. He had come to hate them as much as they hated and feared him. Let them think what they would. Losky had no time for such things. He liked to work at the forge, and now that he was thirteen years old his father had finally let him help, he spent as much of his time there that he could. There, or out exploring the forest that everyone else in the village were afraid of. "All sorts of devilish creatures live there." It was said. Warrior elves, Fairies, even Dragons! Well, Losky had never run into any such creatures.
    Well, come to think of it, he had, once. He had stumbled once across a pile of colorful, smooth stones. Only, they weren't stones. As Losky looked at him, he realized that they were eggs! Dragon eggs, perhaps? In excitement, he had bent to touch one, but heard a sharp "hssst" coming from the trees. He jerked up, startled, and looked around, but saw nothing. He bent again, but the noise was sharper this time, and spoke a strange word.
    "Meglhar!" it exclaimed. Losky jerked upright again, staring as the strange word rippled through him. It was gibberish to him, made no sense what so ever, yet it burned into his memory. It seemed so familiar. So very familiar. Without waiting to hear the mysterious voice again, Losky ran from the forest and back into the relative safety of the village.

    That had been long ago, and Losky had never run into any such thing since. This mooing, as the village women returned home from their gossiping over the two-headed calf, Losky's mother awoke him with an order.
    "Get up Losky, don't you think you can lay around all day! You've chores to do, and I'll not let you work at the forge until they're done. Hallow's eve is near upon us, the day when spirits walk and the creatures of the forest run wild! You must gather Rowan wood now, to protect us from them." Losky groaned. He hated Hallow's eve, and Midsummer's eve, when the spirits walked, and he had to gather Rowan wood and avoid the garlic and salt that everyone threw around to protect themselves. He had been burned badly by the salt once, as soon as it touched his skin. And gathering rowan wood was no better. Always, always he avoided that wood, it was terrible to have to touch, but on Hallow's and Midsummer's eve, there was no avoiding it.
    "Yes'm ma." There was nothing else he could say.
    Outside, he shivered in the cold October air. Hallow's eve, he hated it, yet each time he felt a sort of...awakening. His mother would want a good stack of Rowan wood, so he went in search of it, his hands burning every time he was forced to pick up a piece. Why did it bother him so? It didn't seem to bother anyone else. The other children, when given the same task, skipped about happily and chattering about the festivities of the soon to come holiday. Yet another way he was different, like his fingers, hair, and eyes.
    As he finished the gruesome chore and brought the wood to a pile by the barn, he heard noises from within. They sounded like the village children. What were they doing in there? Gratefully dropping the wood, he hurried to the barn door.
    And stopped. Hanging above it, a silver horseshoe, meant to keep spirits out. Perhaps it was just his imagination...but it made it...difficult, for him to go into the doorway. But he did, he slid past the ice to stare in horror and Temoy and Farin, two of the village boys worst for teasing him. They had thrown everything on the floor, dipped the cow's tails in paint, and had probably been up to other mischief he couldn't see yet. Oh, that would be like them, do things like that and get him in trouble for it.
    "What's the matter, is Losky afraid of a horseshoe?" They taunted, swallowing the initial shock of seeing him there.
    "Out!" Losky exclaimed, his eyes so dark they looked black. "Now!" He wanted to say more, to tell them off for doing this to him, but they would just go home and twist the tale to their parents, and Losky would pay for it. He wanted to beat them up. In fact, why didn't he? Forget what their parents thought. They already hated him enough already. He raised a forge-strenghtened fist. He may be scrawny, but he was no one to take on in a fight.
    Temoy and Farin hurried out. Just to make sure of this, he threw several hard objects at them to speed them along. He didn't look to see if he had hit them. Why couldn't they just leave them alone! He turned in despair to the mess they had caused, knowing no one would believe him if he said that Temoy and Farin had done it.

    The next day, Temoy took sick. He developed a terrible rash and couldn't get out of bed. The day after, Farin had it. The day after only a few days before Hallow's Eve, every child in the village had it. Except for Losky.
    "That child started it." The women would say as they brought their child to the village's oldest and wisest woman, Nynaeve, for herbs and medicines, though none believed she could help them. Most believed it was Losky's doing.
"That demon, my Temoy says he made him sick! Say's the creature forced him into his family barn and put some kind of curse on him, and Farin, and now look at all of our dear children! I tell you good citizens, something must be done!" Temoy's mother spoke up at village council.
    "Will we stand for this? Can we sit here and allow our children to be afflicted by inhuman creatures such as that one? Can we stand by and let him inhabit our town under the guise of a Smith's son? We have allowed it, we have been kind and forgiving, and look what the ungrateful creature has done to repay us! I say he's through with second chances!" Another townsmember spoke up. Everyone agreed, except for the Smith, who was not present. He need not hear what was planned, in the next hour, to happen to his son.

    Hallow's eve came, and the village children were no better. Losky woke up to a sharp wind rushing in through the open window, and knew it was going to be a bad day. But it was the day that spirits walked, a day that he too, must walk, and go about chores and be part of the festivities. Well, he did his chores, but then he ran off to the forest. There, he spent a pleasant day, not knowing what was brewing in the village he had called his home all his life.
    As it grew toward evening, when Losky knew he had to return before his mother would be angry, he climbed the hill back up to the village almost happily.  The sun had just sunk below the horizon, and already the Rowan wood bonfire was blazing, though left unattended at the moment. Watching it, Losky didn't hear the shouts or see the people until it was too late.
    From behind a house they poured, the village men, carrying salt and things of silver. "There he is!" One called, and Losky barely had time to think before they were upon him. "Go back to where you can from, creature! Leave us be!" Shouts rose up from the angry mob of people as they threw salt and pounded him with the silver. The salt seared his skin, burning, eating away, and each blow of the silver took his breathe away, not so much for the hardness of the metal but for the same reason that he could barely walk under the horseshoe over his barn. He sank to the ground, trying desperately to throw them off, but the his head throbbed, and his skin burned. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the mob had carried him towards his own home, and towards the fire. Oh no, they weren't going to...he felt himself, helpless, being lifted up. No, no! He tried to cry out, but he could not find his voice.
    "Now you demon of the night, on the very night that those like you prowl, we shall send you back to where you came from!" Losky's eyes glowed bright blue with fear and anger, as he was carried closer and closer to the blazing fire...this was how his life was going to end. He had been a reject all of his life, feared and despised, and now it was going to end! But what had he done to them? Nothing!
    "I am not a demon, I'm just a boy! A human!" He cried. They were just afraid, afraid of those who were different. He was not going to let them do this to him. And quick as a flash, he moved. He did not realize it until he landed on the ground behind the mob. What in the world? He didn't have time for that. With unnatural nimbleness and speed, he raced towards his house. Fast as he was, they were still catching up to him, He ran, but missed the doorway, and scampered up the wall! He clung to the thatching and stared at his hands in horror. Besides being burned and scarred from the attach, they were turning yellow, and appeared textured as the thatching. He looked down on himself, and he seemed to blend into the wall!
    "Where'd he go?" The angry mob members demanded. "The demon, he disappeared! Climbed right up the wall and disappeared. Surely, good Blacksmith, surely now you can't deny that an evil creature has fooled you into thinking he was your son!"
    Losky gasped, and looked down to see his father and mother there, looking up with worried eyes. Lord, they couldn't believe that he wasn't human too! They were his family! But, looking at himself, and what he had done, Losky realized something. He must not be human, no human could do such feats as he had just completed. What then? He had not caused all those bad things, though he would have liked to have caused Temoy and Farin to be sick, but he hadn't! Not likely anyone would believe him. He would have to come down some time, and then they would take him, and he would die this Hallow's Eve, with no more family to go to.
    "Whatever creature he is, I cannot believe he is evil." Losky's mother said coldly. "Leave him be! He means you no harm! Creature or no, I have raised him, and I will stand by him." Oh ma. Thought Losky, though his eyes were rooted to his father.
    "I too." The Blacksmith replied. "Away from my home, all of you! Away, and do not return! Go to the Eve festivities, but leave my son and me at peace."
    "Nay smith, we will not rest until that creature is dead and not capable to curse innocent people any longer!"
    "Then so be it, I will never lift a hammer at the forge for you again." And Losky's father and mother turned from them, and entered the house, barring the door. Losky knew he had to act. He moved, slowly, carefully, and the camouflage shifted with him. He crept along the wall to the back window near his bed, the window that had been left open to awaken him that morning, and climbed inside. Once inside, he shut the window and fell to the floor, the camouflage falling away. He lay there, panting, until his mother and father entered the room.
    "Losky..." They began, he cut them off.
    "What am I? What am I that you don't tell me, instead lead me to that fate!" He yelled, or tried to. His whole body quivered in pain, and it was an effort to speak, let alone loudly.
    "Losky, my Losky, I promise you we knew nothing before today." His mother bent to comfort him, he tried to push her away, but was unsuccessful. "I don't know what you are or how you got here, but I love you, my son, and will always protect you." Tears fell from her eyes, and Losky knew her words for true. He looked over at his father, his teacher, and saw the truth in the Smith's worn face as well. His family, he loved them. But he was a danger to them, now that he knew that he was, whatever he was.
    "They won't give up." He said. "I must go. I can't stay and endanger you any more."
    "But where will you go?" His mother whimpered. "You can't go anywhere in the condition you are in." To prove her wrong, Losky struggled to stand. It wasn't so painful. He could bear it.
    "I don't know." Losky shook his head, though he was beginning to relies where. "I must leave, I can't stay. They'll try to kill me, and I'll be too much a burden on you. Please, I must." His mother wanted to protest, but did not. She knew, as he did, that it was for the best.
    They left him a while, to rest and recover. He didn't think he could, but he slept a little. When he woke up it was completely dark out, and there was a bundle of food outside of his door. He stood, not feeling as sore as he was. He did a few stretches to work his muscles, and peered out the window. The mob had left, at least for now. That fateful bonfire still burned.  Sighing, Losky looked around that which had been his home one last time, then grabbed up the food bundle and climbed back out of the window.
    He wasn't sure how to call the camouflage trick back to him, but it seemed to be a subconscious thing, for his arms and legs had turned dark, like the night air. It wasn't far to the forest, only a few mile's distance. Losky ran, or tried to run, the whole way. Once he hit the familiar tree line, all the emotions of the previous day seemed to crash upon him, and he began to run blindly. The forest, the forest in all its strange, wild familiarness could comfort him. He had nowhere else to go.
    Somehow, he found himself at the strange spot where, long ago,  he had seen the many eggs. There were still eggs there, or perhaps they were different ones.  Exhausted, he sank down onto the soft ground next to them. Staring up at the sky and trying to keep the water building up in his eyes from spilling over, he didn't notice the egg next to him shake at first. He didn't even notice when it cracked, and a dark head popped out. He did notice when it bit him on the ear.
    "Oww!" He exclaimed, rubbing his ear. The draconic head peered up at him innocently. Soon, a draconic body followed, spilling into his lap. A dragon! Losky was amazed. He held a dragon in his lap! He wanted to laugh. Dragon's were said to be as big as houses and breathe fire, yet this creature was hardly intimidating.

The dragonet, if indeed that was what it was, crooned and looked up pleadingly at him.
    "What do you want?" He asked it. It nudged his arm. Sighing, Losky opened his food bundle and shared some meat with the little creature, who ate it up delightedly.
    "Well little dragon, you have an appetite." He muttered. The dragon seemed to like him, and he liked it. "Meglhar." He said, recalling the strange word he had heard the first time he had stumbled upon the eggs. Suddenly, the creature disappeared, just winked out of sight.
    "What?" Losky cried out after it, but was silenced as he heard voices. They seemed to come from everywhere at once, and he stood, frozen in place. There, before his eyes, five little men seemed to appear from the forest! They had bushy hair, and pointy ears and fingers, and eyes that changed colors rapidly.
    "They hatch, they hatch!" One called out excitedly in a lilting accent, pointing at the broken shells of Meglhar's egg. "Look, one has already gone!" None seemed to see Losky. Their eyes slid right past him. He was still camouflaged.
    "This one's hatching!" Another exclaimed excitedly. "Soon my friends, we shall have the finest firelizards in the Elven council. What a lucky find!"
    Elves! Real live elves! Losky had to fight with himself to keep still and silent. Before his eyes, another egg hatched, revealing an orange little dragon. One of the elves exclaimed delightedly, but the dragonet did not go to him; it crawled instead to his neighbor.
    "You thought you could run off to this great find without me!" A sweet voice seemed to come from nowhere.
    "Sarengetti!" One of the elves exclaimed, and a figure materialized from the forest. It was another elf, a female, with the same wild pale hair as the others and Losky himself had. She was different from the other elves though. She was slender and graceful, whereas they stumbled about.
    "I helped you get these firelizard eggs, don't think you can just run off and leave me!" She said, glaring at each elf in turn.
    "We apologize humbly." One said in a satirical manner, bowing deeply. Another of these firelizards hatched and fluttered to the shoulder of the one bowing.
    Sarengetti shrugged, laughing as the firelizard bit at his new owner. "They hatch!" She exclaimed, walked towards the eggs. "Three already, but two here. Where is the third?"
    As if that had been a summons,  Losky's black firelizard friend Meglhar appeared again  and fluttered to his shoulder. All six of the elves turned to stare at the creature who seemed to be alighting on thin air.
    "Who goes there?" One said, looking directly at him. His camouflage trick must be working well, if even elven creatures couldn't see through it! "Be you a spy?" Without waiting for and answer, he walked up to Losky, or rather, kept walking until he ran into Losky.
    "I see you, spy!" He said with a satisfied smile. "Spy and a thief, to steal our firelizard from us." Losky realized that in fright, the camouflage had dropped, and the elves could all see him.
    "I'm no thief, I swear!" Losky said, wondering if these were Warrior Elves. They didn't seem to hear him.
    "Are you of the elven council?" The elf before him asked.
    "Am I what?" Startled by the question, Losky peered at the elves shifty eyes. Shifty, just like his own.
    "Meglhar!" Sarengetti exclaimed. There with that word again. "Terotiskin, that's Meglhar, don't you remember?" The elf scratched his head. "Meglhar? Doesn't sound familiar to me. Well...maybe it does. That young lad, years ago, that you used to be around all the time?" Sarengetti nodded, hey eyes a bright green.
    "Meglhar, you're back! Though I must admit I'd never expected to see you like this! I suppose you're so tall cause you're half-human, such a shame. But it is good to see you here again, on tonight of all nights!" As she said this, two more firelizard eggs hatched and two more firelizards attached themselves to an elf.
    "Er, I'm not Meglhar." Losky said, confused. Why would an elf mistake him for one of her own kind? Well look at yourself. The village  didn't believe you were human, so perhaps elves will believe you are one of them.
    Sarangetti laughed, her eyes getting an even brighter green. "Of coarse you are, silly. Though you may not remember it. Come to think of it, I don't think the prince let your memory stay after you were sent away, so I guess you wouldn't remember, would you?  A shame. They were happy memories."
    Remember? Sent away? What was she talking about? The pieces fell together in his mind. Could that be why the village treated him so, he really was inhuman, he was an elf, sent away for whatever reason. It made sense, and his hair and eyes were like theirs.
    "He seems to remember some things, to be able to hide so well." The elf, Terotiskin, said.
    "You mean I'm an elf!" Losky burst out. "I'm not human? I was born here, in the forest?"
    "Well, yes, you are an elf, I suppose."
    "You suppose?"
    "You aren't full elf, just half elf. That's why the prince banished you, you almost gave us away to a human, cause you don't have all the powers an elf has." Half elf. A banished elf. Well that was great.
    "I don't think any more more of the eggs are going to hatch." One of the elves complained. "This is boring. It's hallow's eve, we should be out having fun, as most are!" There were murmurs of agreement.
    "Oh yes lets!" Sarangetti said, seeming to forget him. "There's that superstitious human nearby, he's always fun to scare!" She turned and skipped off happily into the forest, the other's following her. "Come on Meglhar, it'll be just like old times, ay?"
    Losky followed, not sure what to think of this. All apprehension faded though, as he trampled silently through the forest with the others. If he was to be cast out of his home for being a heathen, then he could enjoy his heathenness.
    "You might want to send him away." Sarengetti told him, pointing to Meglhar. She had to point up, for the flit was perched on his shoulder, and he was nearly twice as tall as she.
    "How?"
    "Just make him disappear between again."
    "Between?"
    "Ay, between, it's an ability all firelizards and dragons have to travel anyplace and anytime."
    "You have dragons here too?" Losky asked, bewildered.
    "Nay! No dragon's exist here, they exist on a world far away. Neither do firelizards, but we stole some! Used magic and went right to the world of dragons, to this dragonhome called the Healing Den, and took some firelizards eggs! We wanted them to hatch and impress to us, and you've gotten on in the process. We tried to hatch a stolen clutch once before, but they all hatched and flew away before we could get to them." Losky looked at the elf in wonder. Traveling across worlds and stealing eggs! Had he done those kinds of things when he was Meglhar? That would be the life.
    "Could I use magic to travel places too?" He asked. She laughed.
    "Nay Meglhar, you have human blood, and that deludes the magic. 'Twas why you were sent away, if you will-but I suppose you can't recall." She laughed merrily. "No matter. You can still have fun this Halloween night, as all elves, and even half-elves, should."
    "You still haven't told me how to send my firelizard between."
    "Meglhar, you always were so funny!"' Sarangetti laughed again, but looked at the black firelizard, and he vanished. "He'll come back later, when you have use for him again."
   "Shhht, we approach the human's dwelling." At the elves word of caution, Losky blended in with his surroundings and did it quickly and proudly, to show his companions that he could  be one of  them. If they noticed, they said nothing.
    "Watch this!" Sarangetti whispered gaily, though he could not see her. "I have never understood this chimney thing the humans have." She became visible again, and he saw her and a few other elves rush forward with amazing speed to the house. Sarangetti climbed up the wall, as he had done, and reached the chimney. With a few waving of her hands, the smoke pouring from it floated downward instead and circled itself around the house. Others pounded on the wall, whispering in eerie voices. Caught up in it, Losky too rushed forward, to the animal pens. He smacked the pigs, causing them to squeal and run around. in circles. He blended in with the night around him so the animals couldn't pinpoint exactly where there scarer was coming from, but Oh, they made a noise!
    "The human comes!" He heard an elf whisper, and Losky made sure he truly did blend in with the night. The man didn't see him.
    "Lord lord lord." The man muttered, clutching a silver horseshoe to him. "Spirits, stay away from me! Leave me be!" He shouted. "Go away this Hallow's eve!" Losky stifled laughter. He heard someone, scramble into the pig pen with him, and suddenly all the animals went silent.
    "That's, good, that's good now. Now leave me be!" And the man went inside and barred his door. Losky burst into laughter, mirrored by six elven laughs coming from various points around the house.
    "Clever Meglhar, very clever." Sarengetti voice giggled. "Isn't this so much fun? Just like old times...Hallow's Eve is the best, that and Midsummer are the only nights the prince allows us to roam and cause mischief freely. Oh its wonderful, we can play tricks on humans, or talk with spirits, or tease banshees, or hundreds of other fun things!"
    "Let's go then! The night is wasting!" Meglhar spoke from Losky's mouth. Meglhar the elf surfaced in Losky the human boy, and it was Halloween night. All night, Meglhar the elf, along with Sarangetti and her companions roamed the forest. They popped up in villages to play tricks, they danced with fairies, they conversed with monsters, and Meglhar the elf had the time of his life. It was more fun than he had even dreamed of having as Losky the human. Sometimes, Meglhar the firelizard would pop in from between and flit around for a while, enjoy the fun with then, then disappear again. He had been cast away for being an evil creature and had once denied it, but now he felt proud to be part of the forest in such a way.
    As morning came, the elves began to leave. Soon, it was just him and Sarangetti.
    "So this is what it was like before ay?"
    "Ay, just as wonderful! Hallow's Eve is the best night of all!" Sarangetti replied while playing with the strand of bewitched fall leaves in her hair. The  leaves were the brightest she could find, bewitched to stay those colors and not crumple or turn brown.
    "Yes indeed. So now what?"
    "I must go back to the Elven House. The Prince may give us free reign on the special night, but he expects us all to be back morn."
    "Great." Losky replied, thinking how wonderful it was to finally find a home where he could be home.
    "Well. I'll see you. 'Twas fun!"
    "Wait, can't I come?"
    "Nay! You can't go near the place, no humans are allowed near it."
    "But I'm not human." The words sounded similar to the words he had spoken not even a full day ago. "But I'm not a demon, I'm just a boy! A human!"
    "No, but you aren't elf either."
    "I am an elf! Look!" He blended into the trees around him, an ability that was mere thought to him by now.
    "You are not fully human Meglhar, or I wouldn't be talking to you, but you aren't fully elf either, or you wouldn't be in a human's body and sent away from the Elven House too. There is that too, why you can't come there." In a human's body. Losky was every aware of how much taller than she he was.
    "But where shall I go?"
    "Fare well Meglhar. It was wonderful to see you again, just like old times! Hope I can see you again sometime!" With a happy laugh, she scampered off into the forest. One of the leaves fell from her hair. Losky picked it up.
    "Sarengetti!" he called after her, but there was no answer. He didn't expect one. One thing about the elves, they seemed to have no sense of seriousness.
    "Now what Meglhar?" He asked his firelizard. Meglhar was not, and could not be his name. Meglhar didn't exist and hadn't for all of the life of Losky. Meglhar was the name of a black firelizard, not of a half-human, half-elf.
    Meglhar chirped and disappeared between. "I don't blame you." He sighed. "No one else wants to be around someone who's different."
    Nothing had changed, really. He was still an outcast. He was still alone in the forest, and whether he was sad and depressed or not, he still had to do something about it. He could live in the forest, living off the land would be no problem for him, and he could build a shelter, with some effort. He could still live, and be relatively healthy. But he felt let down. Before, he had wanted to be normal, be a normal human and fit in with them. Now, he wanted to be elven, to be like them, so he could live that happy life he had glimpsed the night before. He needed to fit in somewhere. He needed to sleep. He had been awake all the previous night and day.



    "I don't understand it." A dragonrider was saying to another as Baeris passed. "The stupid flit keeps following me around! I didn't impress it, it's just popped out of between and followed me!" It was evening at The Healing Den, several days before Halloween. her eyes fell on the flit that the dragonrider was complaining about, and stopped. That was one of those special halloween flits that had popped up around the Healing Den. There had been a clutch of those, but the eggs had gone missing mysteriously. It fit the Halloweeny mood the Healing Den was coming to have perfectly. All sorts of spooky candidates, disappearing eggs...reappearing firelizards. This one was a black one, not one of the normal colors, and when he saw her, he fluttered away from the dragonrider and to her shoulder.
    "Is he yours?" The dragonrider asked.
    "Oh no. Where did you find him?" Baeris had a hunch that this flitter could lead her to the rest of the missing eggs.
    "I don't know. He just appeared out of between from somewhere and kept following me around. Gave my dragon some strange images."
     Perhaps these images could lead her to the missing eggs. "What kind of images? Were they images of a place?"
    "I think so, though not a place I've ever seen the like of."
    "Could you dragon take us there?" She inquired. It was always a gamble, following firelizard's between, but perhaps it could lead her to the eggs. Those were very special eggs.
    The dragonrider knew the gamble too, but he nodded.
    Dulath my beauty, are you willing to have a little adventure?  Baeris bespoke her goldgreen dragon. The dragon was enthusiastic. Preparations were made, and Baeris, Dulath,and the dragonrider with his Blue, went after the firelizard.
    They found themselves in a large forest. That was all they could really say about it. it was autumn there, the leaves had all turned brilliantly colored, and it had the feel of an Earthlike place, but it could be any world. The black firelizard chirped excitedly and fluttered through the forest. Baeris followed it, the others close behind.
    At one point, the flitter stopped and seemed to alight on thin air.
    "Meglhar. You came back." A voice said. Baeris squinted, but couldn't see anything. There must be someone there though. Prrhaps this someone who had obviously impressed the firelizard would come to the Healing Den as a candidate for the frenzy. If he was invisible, he would fit right in.
    "Hello?" She asked the air below the firelizard. "Is someone there?"
    "Aww, forget it." The person muttered, and materialized into view. It was a boy, perhaps thirteen or fourteen, and he looked to be human, but a very strange human. He had pale unruly hair and pale skin, and was skinny as cold be. His fingers and ears were oddly long and pointed, but that was not what Baeris noticed the most. She noticed his eyes, a deep brown that faded into a blue as she watched.
    "Hi." She said to him. "I'm Baeris Kshau, of the Healing Den." The boys looked up at her curiously.
    "The Healing Den." He said to himself, but Baeris heard. "That's where Sarengetti said she stole the eggs from!"
    "Stole the eggs?" Baeris asked. So they had been stolen.
    "No! I didn't steal them, my friend did. I just found them, and Meglhar hatched."
    "It's all right. What is your name? Can you lead me to the eggs?"
    "I'm Losky. I'm afraid the eggs have all ready hatched and impressed themselves to elves."
    "Elves?"
    "Yes, The elves stole the eggs." The boy seemed apprehensive. He could be an elf, he certainly had the looks of one, though he spoke of them as though he wasn't one.
    "Where do you live?" She asked him.
    "Here." He said. "Here in the forest. And don't ask, I live alone. I'm an outcast."
    He's human, but not all the way. There's something else there too. He cold become a candidate though. Dulanth alerted her rider.
    "Well sitting there feeling sorry for yourself won't help anything." Baeris told Losky. "Howbout you come with us? You could impress a dragon as well as a firelizard."
    Losky's eyes shot up, and shifted again from blue to a hazel green. "A dragon!" He exclaimed, but sank again. "I can't go. I'm not a human."
    Baeris laughed. "Losky, the Healing Den doesn't care about that! And this is a very special clutch. You could be, human, elf, somewhere in between that, or whatever, and still come to impress. The clutch there now is a very special one, and it will hatch on Halloween!"
    "But Halloween was last night." Losky said, confused.
    "Perhaps time runs differently here than on our world. But hallows eve is not far off for us, and you could come and be a part of it. I promise, you won't be outcast there."
    Hallow's eve all over again? To replay the joy of the previous night....to see dragons...to impress a dragon as he had a firelizard...
    "Okay, I'll go!" Losky exclaimed.



The Impression...

  Losky didn't think he could ever get used to the peculiarness of The Healing Den. He had only been there a few days, but had seen in those days a world so different that he felt he had been there much longer. The Healing Den existed in a kind of  nexus, something that had been explained to Losky, but he didn't quite understand. It was a large, egg shaped rock with part of it cut out, and home to many dragons and other interesting creatures. He was to be a candidate for a special clutch, or clutches, along with many other creatures from worlds he had never even dreamed of. There were humans among the candidates, and most of the dragonriders were human or humaniod, but there were other creatures two. Ghosts, vampires, sorcerers, another half elf like himself, made their homes in the candidate barracks. Losky felt at home among all the mismatched creatures in a way he never had before.
    Since time here was different than the time in his old world, Hallow's Eve happened again, and with it, the long anticipated hatching.
    OUR EGGS HATCH! Came the cry from the sands from all of the mother dragons. That was enough to jarr Losky from his sleep and cause him to rush out onto the Healing Den sands to bond his lifemate. Tonight would be a Hallow's Eve for him unlike any other.
    One by one the eggs hatched, spilling onto the sands such a variety of dragons that could only hatch at the Healing Den. Each one amased Losky, and brought a sense of joy to him. Soon, he would be bonded to one of those magnificant creatures.
    His eyes were glowing a bright green when two dragons hatched, a bronze-rust swimmer from Twengith's clutch and a velvet green from Tsuyoith's clutch. The swimmer  went to another, but the other slipped behind him, stood up on her hind legs and tousled his hair.
    "Hey that's not fair Veilth, you didn't have to mess it up!" Losky cried out, barely aware that he had known her name all along.
    She was beautiful, a green so deep she almost wasn't green at all, and bright orange eyes. She was Veilth, and she was his dragon.
    Meglhar screeched and perched angrilly on his shoulder, but Losky calmed him. Together, he, Veilth and Meglhar left the sands in search of food for Veilth, and for that ravenous apetite of Meglhar's.