Quintin looked beyond Dracogart’s rocky valley over which the mountain’s shadow fell Father was out there somewhere hunting with his mount Draco the largest dragon alive the dragon king of the Shadow Dragons When the Major’s men had left the castle for the mountain path to retrieve the egg Father had left with Draco the king of dragons would be angry to hear his wives so distressed he’d said But Quintin knew the truth Seeing the Major’s men take an egg from the Shadow Dragons nest was too painful for even his father to bear There were shouts from the men in armor and when Quintin looked one had approached the edge of the nest The man held a spear its tip fitted with a fat dripping hearth weasel as if a treat would be enough to trade a dragon for her child One of the mother dragons slunk toward him a threatening hiss venting from her smoking maw The fins at the edge of her jaw fluttered She was eager to crunch bone Courage men shouted someone Hold cried another And still more were roaring orders as the man in armor inched closer to the dragon Quintin held his breath The young soldier stepped across the line on the ground where the rock had been scorched by dragon breath the threshold of the nest Too close Quintin whispered The mother dragons reared up all of them screaming in unison black wings flapping The foremost dragon lunged her powerful jaws snapping with a thunderous clap just short of the young man’s belly The dragons screams built on one another the noise folding onto itself lifting with a ferocious desperation They were screaming for Draco Draco whose size and power would protect them all Draco their king
Quintin’s eyes burned with tears Draco was with his father Draco would not save them And then a roar exploded from somewhere below the mountain It was so loud and resonant it was as if the earth itself had opened up Draco No This roar was earthbound Not of the sky Quintin heard Umbra screech and skitter away scurrying back to her family back into a nest farther up the mountain She was only a little dragon after all even if she was Draco’s daughter The mother dragons mood shifted their hissing and smoking replaced by a quiet nervous chirping tiny sparks spitting from the sides of their mouths Quintin had never seen Shadow Dragons look like that tails wrapped close to their sides bellies pressed low to the ground all huddled close together They were frightened Frightened of what was making its way up the mountain road A bear A bear unlike any Quintin had ever seen before The hulking beast stood heads above the horses her girth so wide it took up the entire path Her long grizzled fur looked like fire a bright amber color that gleamed in the torchlight Her jaws looked powerful enough to crush iron her paws big enough to shake the earth There was no mistaking it a Hemoth Bear She was Mizar The mightiest creature in all of the Bear Highen And beside her stood a man just as hulking and grizzled as she The Bear Major himself Jasper Lourdes They approached the nest the dragons clustered together in a quaking mass Mizar the Hemoth chuffed and snorted her massive footfalls causing the very earth to shake Quintin watched as the Major placed a hand on the Hemoth’s flank and the bear stopped The Major continued to approach and without hesitation stepped over the nest’s threshold The dragons did not make a sound He picked his way over rocks and boulders
until he was standing above an egg its black shell speckled with pinpricks of warm light One of the mothers the one who had snapped at the soldier whined with alarm and the Hemoth roared again dislodging rock and stone from the mountainside and sending it tumbling down Quintin threw his hands over his head to protect himself from the stony shower dust powdered his shoulders When the rumble faded to nothing the dragons were silent again Major Jasper Lourdes bent down to the egg and took it gently in his hands Quintin longed to know how it felt Warm he imagined Like the stones that lined the hearth fires in the castle Finally delicately the High King of the Bear Highen fit the egg into the crook of his arm as if cradling a baby and bowed to the frightened flock of dragons And just as suddenly as they’d arrived the Major and the Hemoth left disappearing down the mountain road with the Major’s soldiers following behind Quintin was alone with the Shadow Dragons trembling with his awe of the Hemoth Bear and with fear and sadness for the egg the men had taken with them the Shadow Dragon that would never be
And the Great Bear Lord Tawn saw inside the heart of the human Dov and saw in it that which pleased him courage to face whatever threat might meet him love for all the On High’s children and the honor to uphold the greatness of the stars And so it was that the Great Bear Lord Tawn chose the human Dov to be protector of the realm And so it was that the Highen had its first Major and its first Hemoth Bear the writings of bern the writings of bern The Crowning of the First Major The Age of Tawn Star Writ
