Unraveling the Mystery Pt. 1

".... Rayla.... wake up, Rayla. The new world order is starting, dear, you need to embrace it."

Slowly, Rayla's eyes began to open. There was that voice again, always calling. It sounded familiar, yet strange at the same time, almost like a memory she couldn't grasp. She shook her head, and looked around. She was sitting in a meadow, on the top of a small hill. She saw nothing but grassland as far as the eye could see.

Rayla frowned. Why did she always wake up here? Everytime.... but this time there was something different. In the distance, sat a beautiful white maiden. A human, with billowing white hair, and albino white skin. She sat perfectly still. Ray couldn't see the woman's face from here, so she squinted her eyes at her.

Again the dragoness's better judgement, Ray decided to approach the human. As she walked, Ray could feel ice creep around her paws, and heard a low chanting, but she refused to stop. As she finally made it within speaking distance of the human, the woman spoke up. Ray could tell now that the woman's hands were clutched together, and her eyes were closed, almost as if.... praying?

"You will be clensed, Rayla," the woman spoke. Rayla's eyes widened, "How do you know my name? Who are you?" she snarled. The woman continued.

"You will be purified of your unclean blood. Warn the others. Tell them they must be purged, saved. You are our last hope, Rayla. I am counting on you...." the woman then slowly opened her eyes, and Rayla was shocked.

The woman's eyes were red and blue.

"AAAAAIK!" Screeched Rayla, flailing her paws in the air as the dream vanished. She panted, gasping for air. What in Astral's name had THAT been? Groaning, the groggy dragoness rolled onto her stomach. Her head hurt.

"Hey, what's wrong?!" shouted Thirahan, who came rushing in, followed by his and her mates.

"Same cursed dream, but this time it was different," muttered Rayla. Thira raised an eyeridge. Rayla had told him of her reoccuring dream. Maybe it was a sign from the dragon gods, Thira had suggested. But why wouldn't Astral just tell Ray in person? Astral WAS her grandmother, afterall.

"Different? How?" Asked Thirahan curiously.

"Well, for starters, there was a human," said Rayla, "with pure white hair and light pale skin. When I approached her, I began to hear demons, and the ground began to freeze. She said something about me being the only hope or whatever... stupid cryptic dreams.." Ray muttered.

Thira stared at her, "I don't know, Ray, what if this is a sign from the gods? I think we should talk to Sterlynn, he's pretty knowledgable about this kind of stuff. After all he does talk to mom, doens't he?" Ray nodded. Yea, that probably would be a good idea.

"Yea, let's do that!" the ice dragoness declared, jumping up and racing out of the cave faster then Thira could say "food". Thira yelped, "Hey, no fair! Wait for me!" and darted straight after her.

-----

"Hmmm, doesn't sound familiar..." Sterlynn said when Ray finished her story, "Though I do have one theory. Mom said that our species was cursed, and that there was no way to undue the curse. Basically, are species is doomed because mom mated with a SeaWing, and there are no more remaining Auroras for us to mate with. Therefore, we will have to mate with her species. Our heritage will slowly dwindle until there is nothing left of what makes an Aurora. But, why would a human tell you this?" Sterlynn sighed. He was as confused as Ray or Thira were.

"So,let me get this straight," said Thira, "Even if we mate with IceWings, our heritage will slowly dwindle until what we are producing isn't even an Aurora?"

Sterlynn nodded, "Which, of course, would mean the extinction of the species. I don't know, Ray. I can only go as far back as four generations. Those include Mom's, Grandparents', Great-Grandparents', and Great-Great-Grandparents'. I know our heritage extends father then that, but everything beyond that is blury, and the last conversation I had with someone farther back in the timeline was very blury and hard to understa-"

Sterlynn was cut off midsentance, "So, wait, you HAVE spoken to older family members?" asked Rayla, sounding hopeful.

The smaller dragon stared over at her, "Yes.... but like I said, it was very vague. I didn't even catch their name. All I know is that they were a grey dragon with large spikes on their back. The only words I caught were, "You must remember" and "Death will come". I'm as worried as you are, Rayla. But the Auroras forsook the dragon gods, such as Astral, so they weren't able to interfere with their practices, so even they don't know much about our history! And they're gods! All they know about, from what Astral's told me, is that they forsaw the flooding, but only when it was too late to warn the Auroras, and that happened only about thirty years ago, so it wasn't very long ago. Phantom believes that, somehow, there was a seventh god, which descended to earth and ruled the Auroras, blocking the other gods from entering, but nobody knows. And-"

"Yea, great story Sterlynn," muttered Thira, cutting his brother off, "But as you can see, I don't really care. Okay, so what do we know? We know thatour ancestors are calling us, right? Maybe we should talk to dad about this...."

"Yea! I heard dad found Aari! Isn't that great?" said Rayla, unlocking her energetic attitude.
"Don't believe everything you here, that could be a rumar," said Sterlynn, though he was visibly excited to see his father once again as well. He hadn't seen him in the last month, after all, and was eager to talk to his father about what his mother had told him.

Thira chuckled, "Okay, what are we waiting for? I have to tackle Aari for getting herself kidnapped. AGAIN!" Ray and Thira laughed, before they launched up into the sky. Sterlynn quickly followed suit, no one aware of the ghastly figure watching them from afar....

----

"Dad!" shouted Rayla, practically tackling Arkhor as she flew into him. She let out a yelp of happiness, and nuzzles his snout. He purred back, and nuzzled her as well, grinning. He had been a little surprised when she charged him, but was otherwise unfazed.

"Rayla! You'll never believe who I found!" Arkhor said, grinning, and suddnely, Aari rushed out of the darkness, tackling her sister, shouting with joy.

"Rayyyylaaa!" Aari shouted, nuzzling her big sister with happiness and joy. Aari hadn't seen Rayla in FOREVER! She was dying to get to know how her big sister had been moving up in the world.

Before Rayla could speak, Sterlynn stepped forward, dipping his head as he acknowledged Aari, "Hello, my name's Sterlynn, it's a pleasure to meet you," he said, smiling at her.

Aari blinked at him, not recognizing him as a SeaWing, as he held no visible SeaWing traits, with the exception of his webbed paws. "Um, who are you? You're an IceWing, aren't you? Are you a friend of Rayla's?" she asked, tilting her head.

Sterlynn blushed, "Actually.... I'm your brother."

It took Aari a moment to proccess this, then her eyes widened, and she hugged Sterlynn, "Oh! You're that brother dad told me about that I never knew I had! Oh, this is great! First I get rescued, then Shine and the others throw me a huge party, and now I get to meet my long lost brother! This has to be the best week ever!"

Rayla purred. She was glad her sister was happy. She deserved to be happy, after everything she'd gone through. Thira couldn't help but smirk at his sister's enthusiasm. Rayla suddnely remembered why she was here, and stepped forward.

"Uh, hey, dad?" she asked, "Where's Shine?"

"Oh, don't tell me you want to ask her if you can be queen again. You know as well as I do that that isn't happening," he said, tilting his head at her. Ray rolled her eyes at him. It would happen SOMEDAY! But that was beside the point of what she was talking about.

"No.... I want to ask her about prophecies, and stuff..." Rayla replied.

Arkhor smiled, "Why not just call her? She IS a goddes, after all! If you want to talk to her privately, go somewhere private, though. Here, follow me," he said, and started to walk off. Rayla decided to tell Aari, Ster, and Thir where she was going, before she gleefully flew after her father. He lead her to the temple, where Shine sat, staring up at the fake sky.

"Hey! Shine!" Shouted Rayla, who jumped over to Shine.

Shine glanced at Rayla, "Oh! Rayla! Glad to see you're alright!" for some reason, Rayla began to feel happy. Happier than usual. And that was saying something. Well, Shine WAS the goddess of emotion, so that could be expected.

"Thanks! Hey, do you know anything about prophecies? What am I saying, of course you know stuff about them! You're a healer and a goddess!" Ray added, then continued, "You see, I'm asking because I've been having strange dreams recently, involving a meadow, that slowly withers away, then catches on fire, before I wake up. Recently, I had a dream where I was in the same meadow, but instead of withering and burning, I saw a human girl. The girl told me that I was her only hope, before the dream ended. You have any idea what that could mean?"

Shine thought for a moment, then spoke up, "It could mean a few things. Firstly, it could mean that another dragon is trying to contact you through your dreams, which is most likely. And it could also have something to do with your heritage...." Shine narrowed her eyes, "The Auoras are a tricky species, since even us gods no nothing about them. Somehow, they were able to block us from watching them on their island. We aren't sure how, but everyone is curious. The closest thing we know to their heritage is Sterlynn, since he can talk to your ancestors. But even he can't talk to the distant ones. The ones who created the barrier. Even Nimbus can't talk to them, and he's the god of death! It really makes you wonder..."

"Why not stop wondering..." a voice said.

Shine and Rayla spun around, surprised, and were shocked to see a scarred, black and blue dragon. Foam dripped from its mouth, and its claws were as long as tree branches. It looked like it had leaped straight from Hell's gates.

Before Rayla could ask who it was, or even snarl, the grotesque dragon spoke up, "You will not interfere! You. Will. Die!" And with that, the monster leaped forward, claws outstretched, ready to kill.