Only two good things have come out of this war: the spoils of a good raid and thrashing scalies.  But the raids aren’t as rewarding as they once were.  Those cold-blooders are getting smart, not decorating themselves with precious metals like they used to.  All that leaves us with is the satisfaction that there is one less of those cursed things every time we take one out.

Our kind still haven’t made any progress in our war with the dragons.  But, we haven’t allowed those wretched scalies to gain an upper hand either.  This thing has been going on so long, I don’t think anyone even remembers why this war started in the first place.  I personally don’t care.  Dragons are scum, and that’s all that matters.  So what if this whole thing is centuries old?

Things became personal for me in this war when my sister Kilani was almost killed by one of them.  Granted, we haven’t been close for quite some time, but she’s still my blood.  Aside from Shie and Riah, she’s all I have left.  For that, I wanted blood in return.  When a small group of the leatherheads tried to infiltrate our camp to retrieve my sister’s body, we sprung our trap and captured two of them.  The reddish one’s anger flared and she tried to attack, but the Zhirite-lined cave we were in rendered her weak.  As a result her death was gladly mine.

That taste of vengeance proved to be bitter-sweet, however.  Kilani’s body was gone from her resting place and the other dragons had escaped.  Princess Kiriad, in her infinite lack of wisdom, did nothing to get her back.  I wanted action, and I wanted it now.  I spent the next few weeks with my pack-mates Shie and Riah gathering others to my cause – those who believed as we did that Princess Kiriad wasn’t fit to rule, those who were willing to help me get my sister back and exact revenge on those sniveling, cold-blooded, leather sacks.

By the fourth week we had our small army, and a plan.  Under cover of night we started out on our quest to recover Kilani.  My hope for finding her alive was almost non-existent; she was too close to death while she had rested in the cave.  But, I wasn’t about to let the scalies have the satisfaction of desecrating her body even after death.

Dawn broke as we continued on track to the heart of the dragon kingdom.  We rested when necessary to keep ourselves in top performance should we encounter any cold-blooders.  By mid-day we had come upon a small clearing when we were suddenly driven back by a bright flash, stunning Shie, Riah and me.  The clearing smoke revealed a figure I would never had expected to see that day.

Kilani was alive...