Traveling to a new place...

<font color='#008080'>Pain. Flashes of light.  Fear so tangible it's tasted.  Fear, like blood, tastes metalic.  Someone screams.  Is that her voice?  No, her mother's.  Her mother.  Her father.  They're being killed!  Why?  What will she do without them?  No.  No!  NO!
The pain comes again, scorching across her face, from her left ear to the right corner of her mouth.  There is laughter as a male's voice speaks.  "Her father and mother were both graded so highly.  Why wasn't this little one yet graded?  We have redeemed her."  His laugh sends chills down the spine.

Devyn jolted from sleep, rising quickly and silently to her feet.  What was this place.  She'd been sleeping on a palet in an inn where she had again sang for her dinner and a place out of the cold.  It was Mia when she fell asleep, but it was warm out.  The sky was a clear blue that was nearly comforting.  "Could I still be sleeping?" she asked aloud to no one in particular.  Of course, she smelled no others, so there was no one to answer her, but the answer came to her just the same.  Of course.  This is Fronima, where it is safe.

Out of habit, she rubbed the scar that covered her muzzle and tugged at her mouth.  Her gasp was sudden and loud as she felt the unblimished skin of her face.  It was gone, as if it had never been.  But it had been.  Could it be she truly was in Fronima, the land of power and dreams?  She knew how to draw power from Fronima to use as magic, but never before had she entered.  She knew, somehow, how to use song to bring forth the magic.  She could speak words and use the magic, but she could sing, not even using words, and it was easier and more powerful.  Without thought, she began to sing a wordless song in her clear soprano that comforted her.

The sound from behind her startled her, and as she turned, she felt the corner of her mouth tug up and knew that the scar had returned.  Who's there? she demanded in the language of Ramath-lehi that would hide the slight quaver that she felt in her heart.</font>

 

<font color='#008080'>Devyn felt unnerved by the silence that followed.  She knew there was something watching her, she could feel the eyes, but try as she might, she could scent no one else, could see nothing.  Walking, she felt the thing follow her.  What the flaming hack? she thought, agitation growing.  She could feel the change in her self.  That change from the timid to the strong-willed.  It only showed itself when she was performing or feeling threatened.  The anger would come soon, but that was better than being afraid.  Who goes there?! she demanded.

I am no threat.  I am your friend.  I shall protect you while you travel here.  There was something familiar about the voice, but Devyn couldn't put her finger on what it was, or who.  She did feel comforted, though, and the anger faded, but the shyness and fear didn't return.  She liked the feeling.  Steady confidence that was something she hadn't known in many centuries, though she couldn't remember what had happened to change that.  There was such a hole in her memories.  Deciding the path before her was as good as any, she began to walk.  There was something familiar about it.</font>

 

<font color='#008080'>Devyn opened her eyes and found herself, as she had every night over the past month or so, in Fronima.  She had traveled many roads that seemed so familiar to her, though she couldn't say why.  In every town, she was alone save the presence that never showed itself, but was always just over her shoulder.  There had been times when she'd felt drawn to a certain place, but when she tried to go, a rain began to fall that she was unable to penetrate.  When she tried again and again to pass through, the ever patient voice would direct her elsewhere, telling her she wasn't ready for what was behind the veil of rain.

Wondering where she would travel this night, she came across a trail that seemed even more familiar than the many she had crossed over the nights.  As she followed it, she found something in her heart wanting to soar.  Giving in to the emotion, she spread her wings wide and took flight.  She smiled at the view, one she knew so well that she could trace every path that ran through the thick woods.  As every time that she came to Fronima, the scar that would normally tug at her mouth was gone, her face unblimished.  She landed without a thought to where she was and stared in shocked recognition at the house.  It was relatively small, but it was nice.  She knew where she was, in the middle lands of Sudesha.  The sign in front of the house read, "Tymdlupi House of Song."  Her parents had taught the art of Song, a type of sorcery they had learned to use, to any who wished to learn.  The house had been home for the first 700 years of her life, before her family had become nomads.

Devyn found herself on the porch before she realized that she wanted to go in.  Unfortunately, the door wouldn't budge.  Sighing, she turned to leave the porch and was confronted by a familiar down pour.</font>

 

<font color='#008080'>Devyn felt growing agitation as the truth came to her.  Her past, the reason that she was alone, lay just beyond the rain.  She was learning, and something more that she wished to learn lay just beyond the rain.  She knew that her presence, whatever it was, led her through her memories and protected her from what it thought she was unable to handle.  Let me be!  I need to go to that place ahead of me.  I need to learn about my past.  Clear this flaming rain!

The rain slackened gradually, almost reluctantly, and she stepped from the porch into the last of the rain.  Once it had completely stopped, she shook stray raindrops from her wings and took flight.  She followed the pull to a place that she knew though she didn't.  She landed in a clearing at the time that a pendragon family came into it.  She stayed at the edge of the clearing, even though she had the feeling that she could stand in the middle of it and they wouldn't see her.  The presence that was always there but never there seemed even closer at hand, as if it rested a protective hand over her.

The mother pendragon was slim, with tawny fur and white-blonde hair flowing down her back.  The father was a powerful, winged male with dark red fur and darker auburn wings and hair.  The flame at the end of his tail was a bold red, as well.  Both wore four thin strips ono their faces, two on either side.  The two young pendragons who followed were bold mixings of their parents and opposite in all appearances.

The young male was covered in dark red fur, but his hair and wings were a white-blond.  The flame of his tail was the same shade as his eyes, a dark violet.  The female, following close at his side, was the exact opposite of her brother.  Her fur was tawny; her hair and wings, a deep auburn.  Her eyes were a lighter shade of violet than her brother's.

"Devyn.  Gaven.  Come now.  We're going to sleep here tonight.  It's time for lessons.  Donovan, do you wish to take Gaven hunting during Devyn's lesson, or would you like to watch them both?"  The mother's voice was smooth and deep for a female's.

The rumble that came from the male was deep and rich and brought a tear to Devyn's eye.  It was her family.  Donovan's laugh delighted the young Devyn.  "Of course I'm going to stay.  My little ones delight me.  Begin your lessons, my love."

Devyn, the grown Devyn, watched with tears in her eyes as the tiny her created fire, wind, and a variety of other things with her young, sweet soprano.  Then Gaven took his turn, raising his young, strong baritone.  Once they finished their lessons, father and son set out to hunt.  Mother and daughter set about to build a fire, speaking quietly and joking around with one another.  Both could hunt as easily as father or son, but chose to remain behind.

The sound in the brush behind her had Devyn drawing into a defensive stance.  The smell in the air was wrong.  A form lunged at her, went through her and into the clearing.  There were a multitude of the dark shapes that converged on the mother and daughter.  A single cry cut the air high and long before being cut off.  Come, Da!  Please come! Devyn thought viciously, unable to stop the attackers.  As if hearing her thoughts, he father burst out of the woods and into the fray.  She began to see that mother and daughter weren't going gently.  A lucky blow sent young Devyn flying, unconcious.  Grown Devyn turned her head and saw Gaven standing at the edge of the clearing.  He was trying to stay out of sight and make it to his sister.

Devyn watched in horror as her parents were slowly overcome.  She heard her mother's cry of anguish.  Her father's tail flame flashed, then went out.  "Grab the little one.  We'll let her live, but I have an idea."  The voice was very much pendragon.  She watched the hulking shapes move in masse to gather around the young 'dragoness.  She caught the flash of a black tail tipped with a black flame.  "Her father and mother were both graded so highly.  Why wasn't this little one yet graded?  We have redeemed her."  His laugh sent a chill down Devyn's spine.

She watched as a claw-not the 'dragon's-drew from her left ear, across her muzzle, to the right corner of her mouth.  Devyn felt the pain faintly, then felt the scar tug her mouth.  the tail flame came forward, burning the cut closed.  "Leave her now.  She'll live, and she'll bear the shame."  As quickly as they came, the shadow creatures disappeared with their master.

Devyn rushed forward and tried to sooth the child, but her hand passed through.  "Devyn!"  Gaven rushed to his sister's side, nuzzling her until she began to awaken.  "Don't move.  Don't go anywhere.  I'll get you something to eat.  Don't die."  The last was said on a whisper.

Devyn sat with the child 'dragoness for a time beyond time.  After what could have been days or minutes, the young Devyn rose and began to wander away.  Don't go!  Wait!  Please! Devyn cried, knowing that Gaven would return too late.

Suddenly, Devyn found herself wisked to a hill top that she had never visited before.  The sky was a clear blue; the flowers, a colorful blur that she couldn't distinguish from the tears in her eyes.  "Wipe your tears, my soft-hearted one."  Devyn's eyes snapped open and cleared quickly.  Before her stood two pendragons she never thought she'd see again.  Her mother and father.  "We tried to keep you from learning what would hurt you, but you were right to demand to go.  You needed to remember what happened."  Her father's voice was the wonderful bass it had always been.  Her parents looked so young, so....alive.  But they weren't.  And they were so sad.  "Your brother has been searching for you.  He has changed his name and hides himself from the world behind an angry demeanor, as you do behind your shyness and anger.  Neither of you are complete without the other.  There will be times after you've found one another where you will be apart from each other, naturally, but you will be complete again."

"Treasure one another, my heart, as we treasured you both.  This will be the last time that you shall see us until you make the trip to Fronima yourself.  We shall be your protectors whenever you enter this world, but you shall never see us like this again."  Her mother's sweet eyes held tears thickly.  Devyn lodged herself between them, absorbing their scents, their textures.  Her memories began coming back, slowly openning as if they'd always been just beyond her reach.  The light faded and Devyn opened her eyes to see she was back in the real world.  She had to find Gaven.</font>