Our Home Destroyed ... What Now?

Just minutes after sunset and just minutes before sunup, Loot and Safrin were in the land of the midnight sun, Iceland, their home for the last eighteen hundred years. They would travel to places where no one would know them and do their shopping as well as save humans.

Loot had stripped the cabin out of the ship they had crossed the ocean in. Loot had flown the rest of the ship to the top of a mountain in Iran so no one would find it. The cabin part was buried under a few feet of dirt and sod so it would not be noticed. The front door was a large boulder Loot would remove with a spell when they came and went. The back of the cabin had an escape hatch that could be opened only from inside.

They had set up a great life there. Loot had brought sheep from Norrland and Ireland over the years. Safrin planted a garden on the top of their house, and they had a great rock bluff they could fish from just minutes from their front door. The island was full of hot springs they could swim in, and Loot had dug a beautiful well for drinking water. They would go on a picnic every week and watch the wildlife play in the ocean — seals, sea lions, and whales were around most of the time.

One beautiful evening, they watched the northern lights as they sipped on wine they had gotten during their last trip to the mainland. Loot could see Safrin was suffering from cabin fever; she had been on the island for over four months. He asked her if she would like to go for a trip. Safrin said, "I would love to go see Mermax, Teaona, and Dento. Can we do that after our picnic we planned for tomorrow? I have the food ready."

Loot smiled and said, "Let's do it."

Loot heard thunder. The picnic they had planned was sure to be ruined, but that meant they could go to the Smoking Mountains earlier. The wind grew stronger and seemed ready to blow them away. The hair on Loot's back stood on end; he heard voices outside. He jumped out of bed and landed with a thud on the dirt floor.

Safrin, startled, screeched, "What's wrong? Is it Mermax, Teaona, or Dento?"

"No. But someone is coming," Loot said.

He cast a spell to shrink all their belongings and put them in a bag he had made to take things on his trips. He ushered Safrin to the escape hatch. They climbed out, but Loot didn't close the hatch. Safrin looked at him with concern.

Loot said, "We can't come back. If they land here, they will find it."

Loot looked out over the sea. The ship was landing in the place they had originally landed. He smiled at Safrin, who had a tear in her eye as she watched the earth return to the same as it was before they had built their home. This was a sad day for the two of them, but they had already seen many others' homes destroyed.

Loot changed into a dragon, and he asked Safrin to turn into a bird. With all the time they had had to try out their magical powers, Safrin had discovered that she was a shifter; she could become any living thing she wished and could cast spells as Loot and the rest of the dragons could.

Loot's powers had grown so strong that when he focused, he didn't have to say the words for his spells; he just had to think them and it would take place. No other dragon had magical powers that strong. The two had trained together so much that their magic was second nature. Loot and Safrin found that if he cast a spell on her, she would change into the last living thing she had been thinking about. Most of the time, she changed into a wyvern because she had Fin on her mind a lot. At other times, if they had just been on a trip around the island, she would turn into a bird. Once, she turned into pig after Loot had left a mess in the house.

Loot found he could cast an area effect around Safrin and it would not affect her, a great discovery. He was able to cast an effect around the rogue dragons when he helped Thaldon and Mithrex. Loot had to tell Mithrex and Thaldon that the effect would make anything in the area soft so they should be careful to avoid being grabbed. The rogue dragons dropped like flies onto an apple pie. Loot was happy it was over; he never liked killing anything for no reason. He could never say they had killed Mermax's sister. He had killed so much evil in the last eighteen hundred years that it was as if he were an assassin, but he had had no other choice.

The dragons would let him know if he was needed someplace, and that is where he would go, often alone. But at present, they were off to the Smoking Mountains, the only safe place for them. Loot passed over the old home to see who had landed and saw that the ship had nothing but monks on it. They would not have started anything with Loot and Safrin, but Loot considered it best to stay hidden.

"Loot, I told you we would try to stay out of your life, but why you are headed this way? Just for a visit?" Mermax asked Loot.

"A ship landed on our island. We will stay with you for a bit if that is okay."

Mermax told him with excitement, "Dento has a celebration planned! He invited his sisters, and they are on their way. They should be here before you."

In a disgusted voice, Dento said, "Mom! It was a surprise!" "What was?" Teaona asked.

Mermax said, "That your sisters were coming and that Dento was going to have a party. Sorry I ruined it for you. Sorry, Dento."

Dento didn't know that the conversation was all blocked from Teaona and that he had almost spoiled it for her.

Loot slowed down over the ocean so Safrin could land on him and change back. No one could understand why it was painful for Safrin to change into anything smaller than herself, but it was as if her bones would break. They flew back to Ireland in just a few minutes and landed a few paces in front of Dento and Thalin.

Dento told Loot and Safrin, "Please head to the back of the cave, and say nothing."

Loot had forgotten that it was the anniversary of Teaona's trial. He felt bad that he had forgotten, but Mermax knew that his presence alone would make her happy.

Loot and Safrin headed to the back of the cave, and Loot found a wand. He had never seen one, but its glow caught his eye. He put it in his satchel; he wanted to ask Mermax about it after Teaona knew they had come home. They still had kegs of mead left over from the raid on Fair Well. All the kegs would be nothing to a dragon, but if they drank in human form, the mead would last for years.

After drinking some, Loot was a bit of a mess when he asked Mermax what the wand was. It was a shock for him to find out a child born to a wizard had some of the wizard's powers but still needed a touch of magic to tip the scale. The wand was an evil wand. It had the wings of a fleet in the core, and this would allow the caster to conjure evil spells. The caster was just a young man, and Thaldon took him to train under Merlin the Great when he had trouble with his evil spells. Teaona told them to hush because it was time to have fun, not talk about what could have been.

It started with hugs all around. Loot was so happy that they had a home to go to after they had lost theirs. He had just passed a tumbler of mead to Safrin when he spotted an older man in the back of the cave. His heart started to pound. He strolled toward the man. His thoughts of war, pain, and death ran wild. It was Mithrex. He had come in with the large group of dragons and gone to the back unseen so he could surprise Teaona. Loot had a look...