Emissaries of Angvard

Disclaimer – This is a work of purely speculative fiction. It is not intended to infringe on any rights by and of the companies and/or individuals involved in the production of any series mentioned here. The characters involved are the intellectual property of their respective authors/creators except for the ones that are listed as an OC, which are mine.

A/N – 1. The legend for the Ancient Language used is at the bottom of the chapter.

That is all. Enjoy the chapter.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Bright as a flaming sun, the dragon hung before him, buffeting him with gusts from its mighty wings. The dragon's body appeared to be on fire as the brilliant orange light of the setting sun illuminated its shimmering milky white scales.

Harry struggled, fumbling with his fingers to keep hold of something that he could not see as the dragon attempted to push past the barriers that were keeping it away from him and the small bundle in his hands.

Suddenly, all feeling in his legs disappeared even as he tried and failed to get away from the creature that was surely his end.

The dragon was near him now, its hot breath falling upon his perspiring skin making him tremble for reasons he knew not.

A second later the dragon sniffed and its jaw opened a little and Harry had just the time to see its sharp, pointed teeth before it spoke?

"…calm yourself, young one."

Harry woke up with a start, his mouth opened in a silent scream.

"…shhhh," the gentle voice soothed. "Your wound is still fresh. Please, lay down." It spoke near him in a strange lilting tone as it whispered the command gently.

Harry jerked his head to look in the direction the voice had come from. Confusion and pain settled in his mind as he squinted his eyes to see the face of a woman holding her hand to his forehead as she attempted to gain his attention.

She was fair, beautifully so. Her angular face was framed by her long black hair cascading down her shoulders as they curled slightly at the ends, hiding within their curtain, one of her magnificent blue eyes. There was something about her, something that he could not exactly put his finger on, but that screamed magic to his senses.

Just as that thought passed through him, memories of what had happened in his last waking hours hit him with a force of a rampaging bull and his eyes widened in worry.

"Lenora!" He shouted.

Looking around himself, Harry darted his eyes every which way to see where the baby dragon was hiding not having properly registered the fact that he was in the presence another human being for the very first time since his arrival.

"Lenora! Where is she?" he asked frantically.

The woman beside him gently removed her hands from his forehead and settled them on his shoulders in an attempt to calm him. When it did not look like he would listen, she answered his query in her strangely melodic tone.

"She is here, young one. Right beside you. Look…" she said leaning down as she brought the little creature from under his cot with both hands and delivered her into his trembling hands.

A single touch of her leathery skin and shining liquorice scales on his palm was a soothing balm to his body as some of his tension eased out of his body like the still water finally having a crevice to flow.

For the second time, Harry's green eyes caught the little dragon's onyx ones and a deep, content note rung in his mind as though assuring him that everything would be alright if he had her by his side.

He saw her, for the first time, in her entirety. She was of the same liquorice colour as her egg. Her small body was covered in dark slate coloured scales that ran all the way to her hind legs leaving her underbelly with soft skin. She had claws, sharp and white, like polished ivory. A line of small spikes ran down her spine from the base of her head to the tip of her tail. A hollow where its neck and shoulders joined created a larger-than-normal gap between the spikes

A scant few moments later, Harry was gently nudged out of his reverie as the woman beside him looked at them with a small smile. "You will have many a year to bond with each other, young ones…" she paused as she gently rubbing the little dragon's scales with her delicate fingers, "but you both need some rest. I assure you all your questions will be answered when you wake up."

Harry registered her words and was about to say something before the woman said a few words that stilled him, "Fricai onr eka eddyr," and all his worries melted away instantly.

His magic responded to her words and without any effort of his own, its agitated flow settled into its usual smooth, calming presence.

The woman smiled as she saw the tension in his shoulders recede and with slight pressure on his chest, leaned him back so he was once again laying on the cot with something soft underneath his head.

A warm hand touched his forehead once more and with her thumb placed at the middle of his brow, the woman whispered, "Slytha."

A moment passed and his eyes grew heavy, closing on their own, just as his breathing evened out. The woman took one last look at him and the little dragon, who was no longer than his forearm as she settled herself on his chest, curling her tail around his fingers, and left the room with a content smile on her face.

-x-x-x-x-x-

It was not until some time had passed after the woman had left did the green eyes opened in the barely lit room.

There were multitudes of questions churning in his gut and as he looked at the now awake dragon looking at him with her large black eyes so innocently, his hand lifted on its own and settled on her soft head to soothe her.

"Lenora?" he whispered softly.

Something brushed against his consciousness, like a finger trailing over his skin and he felt a tendril of magic touch his mind just a moment later and he suppressed his urge to flinch even as his eyes widened slightly.

It was coming from her!

Her magic had bypassed his occlumency shields like they weren't even there!

There was a part of his mind that scoffed for having expected himself to be able to keep a dragon of all things out of his mind, exceptional mental shields or not.

Dragons of his world were magical powerhouses. Knowing what he did now if one wanted to get inside his mind, he was fairly certain that nothing but his complete and utter concentration towards defending his mind might be able to keep them at bay.

And with his memories of her unlocked, he wasn't as surprised that Lenora had been able to reach him with her mind. She had done it before, after all. And thus it wasn't much of a leap to say that she had at least some level of conscious control of her magic. That is to nothing about how easily she had been able to make him forget about her during the first task.

A sense of sadness crept in his mind as he remembered what she had done before he could mask it and the tendril of magic that was distinctly Lenora, receded from his mind as though ashamed by the memory.

Before it could, Harry grabbed onto it with his magic and coax it back to where it had been with as much care as he could.

While he was upset about it, he could tell that she had done what she did simply to keep him and her children safe from the ministry wizards. He understood the fear that had driven her to take his memories.

The little dragon on his chest purred contentedly just as the warmth of his magic touched her own with the tenderness he had attempted to impart.

And that one act made it perfectly clear to him that not only she could read his thoughts but even his emotions were clear to her as much as her own.

Harry took a deep breath and attempted to unscramble what he had discovered just before falling unconscious and seeing the large dragon outside the cave opening. Now was not the time to be fascinated by the bond that had apparently formed between them.

What he had thought to be a stone had turned out to be a dragon egg. Right.

Lenora's egg…

'What the…? How is it possible? How could she be here?' he thought, utterly baffled by the discovery but more a little glad that she was.

Shaking his head he set the questions about the how of it all aside and focussed on the now.

'Lenora? Can you hear me?' he asked, mentally nudging the question in the direction where her magic had sequestered itself in his mind.

Lenora raised her head and blinked softly at him in reply and a smile came to his face at the success.

'You remember me then?' The thought slipped out of him before he could help it and even knowing how stupid it was to ask such a thing to her when she had already acknowledged him somewhat.

Harry felt a vaguely amused feeling tinged with some shame from her as though she had heard more than that question in his thoughts. But when she blinked at him once more in reply to his answer, a relieved sigh escaped his lips as though a weight had been lifted off of him.

'I'm not alone.…'

Lenora caught the stray thought and craned her neck to gently rub her face with his in support and Harry smiled at her in return.

'Alright. We will talk about our situation later. Right now we need to figure out where we are. Did you see anything while I was unconscious?' Harry asked.

Lenora held his gaze for some time before she closed her eyes and slightly shook her head.

Harry frowned internally. He had gotten a feeling that she was attempting to tell him something but couldn't quite convey what she wanted to say.

It was a very vague feeling, fleeting, ephemeral. As though she knew something but was unable to tell him. It confused him. Was it her magic?

Something occurred to him suddenly as the thought crossed his mind and he looked at Lenora in askance. 'Is your magic weak somehow?'

Lenore blinked once and then yawned cutely having already tired herself during the small conversation she had with him.

Harry closed his eyes and sighed. He could feel her tiredness through the bizarre bond that had formed between them. It reminded him of the familiar bonds some wizards had formed with their pets but much more invasive.

'I suppose whoever had sent her and shrunk to still be within her egg must have diminished her magic too. But why go through all this trouble?'

Just then a memory of the words his friend had spoken to him flashed in his mind and his eyes widened in realisation.

"And what of the truth you wished for me to find," he asked more to gain time to control the upheaval of emotions the words had caused within him.

For the first time since Harry had ever known him, Death smirked. "You will know it soon enough."

Harry released a deep breath through his nose as the jumbled pieces started to form a picture in his mind.

It was Death. It could not be anyone but him. He was the only being Harry knew who was capable enough to mould nature to this degree.

But even as he played all the dreams where he'd heard Lenora's voice through the years, Harry felt thankful to the King that he had not let him suffer his debt alone.

A firelight flickered in his room and brought him back from his errant thoughts.

'Right. I need to figure out a few things before she's awake again. Now that I know for sure she is connected to me somehow, we'd need a plan. Especially if there are more magic users besides the woman who was visiting me.' He thought, focusing on his very brief interaction with the serene woman.

The woman had attempted to use some sort of sleeping spell on him.

It would have alarmed him had he not felt the intent of the spell mingling with his magic when he had allowed it to affect him. It had even required some effort too. The potency of the magic that she had used to cast the spell on him had given him much information about her and possibly even those similar to her. The first and most obvious was that the woman was a Healer.

Secondly, she was an experienced magic-user and was good enough to not require any guards to meet a new arrival like him.

That ruled her out as the possible the leader of whatever these magic users called themselves if there were even others in this place.

And Harry was somewhat leery of attempting to use magic to find signs of any presence nearby even when he could finally feel his magic just above his skin, waiting.

What had happened to him in that cave must have broken through whatever barrier that had stopped him from using it before.

All his thoughts and what little knowledge he had of binding magic pointed towards the bond as the reason. As powerful as dragons were, there weren't many magical barriers that could bind their will and with how he could feel Lenora's magic taking root in his mind, her connection to him must have been enough for the bindings to snap.

But the real reason he refrained from casting a spell was his reasoning that if there were experienced magic users in his vicinity, watching him, then they would no doubt pick up on that and without further knowledge of what he had gotten himself in, it was not the wisest course of action to show his cards.

And thirdly, the woman did not consider it odd that he had a dragon of all things as a pet.

Was it a usual occurrence?

Did people here live with dragons?

Harry knew he had gotten lucky with Lenora when he had met her during his fourth year at Hogwarts. Besides her understandable anger and grief at her stolen eggs, she had been very reasonable and kind to him. Their times spent together, that he could now remember, were filled with them sharing stories and giving each other advice about life, although he had been on the receiving end of the latter.

But many dragons in his world had acted like mindless beasts who wrought carnage if not contained and held a bloodthirsty streak for wizards and other species that had magic running through their veins.

If dragons were common here, and people lived with them, it was possible that most of them were like Lenora.

As bizarre as the thought was, it was, at the very least, a possibility. He had heard about covens of witches and wizards in Egypt and even some in Portugal where the resident magical population resided with Sphinxes.

While the situation with dragons was a whole different ball game but the point still stood. Sphinxes were dangerous and if wizards had been capable of living with them then it was, as he had deduced earlier, at least possible. Dangerous as hell. But possible.

Whatever the case might be, from what he had observed, the woman had seemed slightly pleased having seen his worry for Lenora.

At least he hadn't left that bad an impression.

It could also be that she was simply playing the part and was waiting for him to open up but he rather doubted it.

The brief touch of her magic had not carried any duplicitous feeling nor had it done anything to him other than soothe his worries.

And besides his days spent in Madam Pomfrey's care and his own practices in his later years had been more than enough for him to learn the difference between spells cast by a healer and those that meant him harm.

Intent behind the cast was everything.

The woman had simply meant to give his body some rest.

It was good. It meant that he could at the very least get some details from her or others like her about the world he and Lenora had found themselves in.

But for now, he needed to gain something, anything that did not give him away as an outsider.

His hands touched his sides and for the very first time, he realised that he had been dressed in loose clothing that very very comfortable on his skin. It wasn't cotton, the cloth wasn't thin enough for it to be that. Nor was it any other cloth he was familiar with. It seemed simple, soft to touch and shaped like a tunic.

With as least amount of movement as he could make – knowing as he did about the pesky little alert charms the healers usually cast on the patient's bed – Harry darted his eyes around the room in an attempt to see where he was.

The firelight coming from a lantern in the room and the lone sconce on the wall were bathing the room in a burning glow. The walls seemed to shine with it as uneven, somewhat unpolished and barely worked upon they were. The cot below him was rigid and was probably made of rough fibre like jute or something very similar as the pattern dug into his skin despite the white linen that had been draped on it.

Without lifting his head, Harry looked at his front and was surprised to find an open window showing the night sky with a pair of twinkling stars beyond his reach.

There was a single wooden chair beside his cot sitting empty ever since the woman had departed.

There was a painting of a barren desert hung on the wall to his right and one of a dense forest directly facing it on the opposing wall.

Besides these simplest of things, the room was sparsely decorated. The wooden walls seemed to have been grown rather than built as his eyes could not find a single edge that seemed to connect a part of it to another.

That alone told him that either the magic user's here had transfigured the housing from raw wood or they had directly used magic for construction which was even rarer.

And why wood?

Weren't they afraid what a dragon might do to it if an errant breath from the fire breathing creatures touched their finely crafted homes?

'Too many unknowns.' Harry sighed.

While he could make educated guesses about people here, he would be found out if anyone here asked him a question that he should know but didn't.

'Let's hope the interrogation isn't done until I have at least gotten a look at the surroundings outside.' He hoped.

With sleep calling him once more, his tiredness caught up to him at last. With a hand on Lenora's head and a smile at her adorable little face, Harry closed his eyes and was asleep soon after.

His dreams that night took him on a journey of a land filled with people he did not know as they laughed and lived together in harmony with dragons above in the blue sky roaring their delight at the scene. It was an image of the magical world he remembered having when he'd first gotten his Hogwarts letter.

A world he had wished to call his home.

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Andumë Svit-kona," the voice of her fellow Elf and Rider fell upon her ears as she was gliding towards her the main chamber hall.

She turned, gracefully, and looked at him with a smile. "Atra Mor'ranr lifa unin hjarta onr, Laetri Vor."

"And you, my friend," Laetri replied and inclined his head with a gentle smile on his face. "How fair's our patient?"

Andumë looked at him with a slightly raised brow and a smirk. "Our patient, Laetri Vor? I was under the impression that it was just I who was treating him."

A musical laugh escaped Laetri's lips as he looked at his long time friend. "Indeed, vinr Andumë, you were. Though I must confess my curiosity as his rescuer," he said shaking his head in a little mirth.

He paused for a moment, weighing something in his mind before he continued. "Opheila was worried after seeing him crouching in the cave below the mountain as he clutched his newly bonded to his heart. He looked afraid as he saw us. I suppose I understand the reason, Opheila had caught the scent of a feral Fanghur in the cave, the one we have tasked the apprentices to hunt, but there is still something niggling at the back of my mind. Even meditating on the issue for the last few hours hasn't given me a clue as to what it could be." He shook his head, somewhat distressed.

"And then I had hoped to wait until the dawn to check on the young ones but she asked me to check on his health. It seems she couldn't rest either," he finished.

"Ah, I suppose I can understand why you sought me out this late in the evening then," Andumë nodded understandably. "Opheila's scales must be itching at the sight of a wild young one having bonded herself to a human male in such a manner as they did."

Laetri winced as he remembered the tongue lashing he had got from his dragon when he had attempted to allay her fears. "She was…upset that another kin of her, another wild one had hatched for someone without her knowledge again, besides her worry for the both of them. As it has happened more than half a dozen times in recent years, she has confessed to being somewhat worried about what it might mean for the Order.

"As you know, most of the eggs given to the Order at the end of last year's celebration have not yet chosen any to hatch for. Opheila is of the opinion that Order should restart ferrying the eggs among the populace so the young ones could choose their partners. She believes and here I agree with her that it is the reason that wild ones are being found more and more instead of the younglings that are conceived within the Order," he explained. And then as though following an afterthought asked, "Has Briam shared similar worries?" knowing that Andumë's male dragon partner could be more in tune with his senses than Opheila sometimes.

Andumë was silent for some time as she digested what her friend and his partner were hinting at before she sighed and decided to be open about her own thoughts just as her friend had been. "He has. Though he hasn't shared with me the reasons for his worries, though I suspect they are similar to Opheila's own," she replied, looking at the open night sky from the balcony near the corridor.

A moment of comfortable silence passed between the two friends before Andumë looked up at her friend and smiled. "We can discuss the issue further in the morrow. For now, let me allay your worries about our patient," she said teasingly. "He woke up for a while when I was in his room changing the wet cloth on his head. He was worried about his young partner when his eyes couldn't find her nearby. And then when I put her in his hands…" the female elven Rider shook her head with a serene smile, "…you should have seen his face, Laetri Vor. I will never get used to seeing the strength of the bond between a young Rider and their dragon," she sighed happily.

Then looking at him with a wide smile she whispered, "He seems to have given her a name already." She laughed behind her hands. "Lenora, he called her. And with how pleased she was as she purred in his hands, I suppose she likes it well enough."

Laetri's himself smiled as he pictured the scene in his mind and then shook his head muttering, "Young ones…" A lone star shimmered in the sky and he looked at his long time friend, nudging her with his soft hands. "Get some sleep, Andumë. With the initiates and the new arrivals, we'll have a long day tomorrow. Atra du evarínya ono varda," he wished before walking away towards the stairs that led to the open area where the dragon's usually rested, to reassure his partner once more.

"Atra du evarínya ono varda, Laetri Vor." Andumë mirrored.

With that the two Dragon Riders went to opposite directions, looking for their respective partners to share their thoughts.

Tomorrow was indeed looking to be a long day.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry was up as the first rays of the sun fell on his eyes filling him with its warmth. Having had gotten the best sleep in a long time, he felt rejuvenated and almost ready to be on his way before his minders knocked on his door to start to question him.

Expanding his magical senses around himself in a slow, deliberate manner, he found the remnants of two fading alert wards on his cot and expedited the process by purging the intent behind the spells and flooding them with his own. Placing his hands on two small indents where the woman had anchored the spell, Harry released a trickle of magic from his hands, hoping that his minders wouldn't notice the infinitesimal surge.

Sighing satisfactorily, he felt as the ward faded away completely, its magic absorbed into the environ with some of his own.

A sharp pain shot up through his right palm as a wound he hadn't noticed before made itself known. Harry lifted his hands and felt his skin itching and burning like a spider bite. There was a burn mark of a diffused white oval in the middle of his palm.

On a whim, Harry channelled his magic to heal the wound from within and the mark shimmered, pulsatingly, easing away the itching and burning sensation.

He could feel some of his magic coalescing there, waiting, as though it was a tap, and he only needed to open it for his magic to answer his call.

Sighing frustratingly as another mystery added itself among the unknowns, Harry was about to get up when the weight on his chest stirred and Lenora opened her eyes, turning her head to look at him. She blinked rapidly, likely in an effort to shed the last remnants of sleep and he smiled at her, petting her head lovingly.

'Hello there, sleepyhead.' Harry sent her way through their bond and got a vague happy feeling in return.

For a moment Harry frowned, wondering if her young age was the only reason she couldn't communicate with him as she used to do before but then shrugged. It wasn't the time to analyse the possible reasons behind their bond and her circumstances. He'd needed to hurry if he wished to find anything that could help him make a backstory.

Idly, he noted that the clothing he had found on himself last night, had, in fact, been a tunic shirt and leggings. Though the morning light did reveal it to be a combination of beige as the primary colour with brown linings that ran diagonally through his chest as the cloth wrapped around his form.

With a slight effort and a little wince at the discomfort, courtesy of his still sore muscles, he got up from his cot clutching Lenora in his left hand. She yawned prettily and his lips tugged upwards. He really couldn't help it. She was just so cute looking around with her wide-open eyes as she took in most of their surroundings.

Harry crept along the wooden floor with his light feet, trying to make as little noise as possible.

Peeking side to side just outside his door, he saw a long corridor to his left and a similar wooden wall to his right.

With Lenora in his arms, Harry walked briskly towards the corridor, casting his eyes in either direction to see anyone coming his way.

He had just entered a small hall and his worries were well-founded when his ears caught sounds of murmurs coming from an open area just a few steps to his right.

Harry leapt from his position and landed beside a wall on the balls of his feet, hiding behind it quietly to see if he had been discovered. When the muffled voices didn't stop suddenly, he put his ears near the edge of the wall and attempted to listen to what the voices were saying.

Any knowledge was better than nothing at the moment. He just needed a single thread and then he could weave a vague story about how he had found himself in the cave and with Lenora thereafter.

Hopefully, the people questioning him wouldn't be much invasive as to be willing to attempt to break his mental shields. Not that it would be easy.

He shook his head as the words from people behind the wall became clear enough for him to understand.

"…I dinna know what to do, aye. She chose me. Me! A Dragon Rider. Ima just the boy of a tanner, yeh know! Father dinna know what to say either. Was stammerin' the whole time Master Andumë was explainin' things to him. I was too!" the sound of a laughing boy echoed in the hall.

"You had it easy, Turmoth," another boy spoke in a serious tone. "I heard there was a girl from those wanderin' people. Right scary she was. Hard folk her kind are. Always travellin' and moving through The Spine, living in the forests for days on end but never settling at a place. During the last ferrying celebration in Daret, she was just standin' there lookin' at the eggs as the elves carried them among the people in the city and next thing people see is her kneeling beside an egg and everythin' glowing around her. Scary it was. Rihas Ilkasdaughter they called her. Me mum said her people left before she woke up." he finished.

Harry heard the boys until their voice moved far away to not be heard from where he was hiding with a thoughtful look on his face.

He looked at Lenora and his mental gears started working around what he had just heard.

So it was a thing here. People living with dragons. Hell, the boy had said Dragon Rider. They rode them!

Though the concept intrigued him something fierce, it was also so out of his comprehension that it took some time before he was able to accept it.

Dragon riding people. Right.

And the dragon eggs chose their riders?

'Was that what happened with me and Lenora? Did she choose me?' Harry wondered, and found himself surprisingly happy with the thought.

His female dragon though had caught his thought and looked up at him, blinking once in response.

An unexplainable feeling of joy surged in his heart and he found himself hugging her to his chest as she purred in delight.

Some moments passed before his thoughts returned from his dragon to something else the boy had said. Elves.

ELVES!

It all sounded like the times of old he had read about in the millennia-old history texts and scrolls that the Resistance had found in the demolished ministerial archives that Hermione had shown him once. Elves, at least the ones in his world, had long since died, if they ever had been alive, to begin with. Their existence had always been a matter of furious debate among the historians who bothered to search their origins.

Some said that the house-elves had been an off-shoot species that came from the original elves who had been exceptionally magical, much like witches and wizards. The only difference being while witches and wizards had magic, the elves were said to be of magic.

But it was unlikely that the boy was talking about house-elves because they were subservient creatures, dependent on a witch's or wizard's magic to sustain themselves.

With slightly pointed ears and life-spans of hundreds of years, the original Elves were said to be a very peaceful race. Until they died due to some unknown reason.

That was all unproven though. Nobody in his world had found a shred of truth to support the theory.

But elves? Here?

Harry's eyes widened as he remembered the woman who had treated his wounds during the night.

Had she been an elf?

He remembered her presence had seemed oddly powerful to him. It had as he recalled, screamed magic to his senses. It was a completely different feeling that what he got in the presence of his fellow witches and wizards.

And even the way she had greeted him, 'young one…' it at least gave some credence to the theory of longer life-spans if a woman who looked in her late twenties, called him, a young one.

Harry shook his head. Whatever the case, from what the boy had said and from his own short interaction, he knew, that elves lived here along with humans? Other magic users?

Questions, far more than answers stacked in his mind as his frustration mounted. There were plenty of things that could give him away, and that is to say nothing about the things that seemed to be somewhat of a common knowledge like dragon eggs and riders being chosen and this ferrying celebration.

It didn't make a lick of sense to him aside from the basic concept that he would not be able to expand upon even if his life depended on it.

But there was something in the boy's words that had given him an idea and an elementary framework of what he could say to explain his presence.

Lenora squeaked in his arms and he rubbed her scales to soothe her.

'I know you must be hungry, Lenora. I am sure someone will come looking for us when they see the room empty. I don't want to go looking for them before I have at least bare bones of my story prepared. Can you wait a while, you think?' he asked gently even as he sent his apology through their link.

Lenora blinked at him once and nuzzled her face into his chest.

When Harry felt her acceptance through the link, he smiled and thanked her in return.

Even after all these years, magic never stopped amazing him. To see a gigantic dragon from years past snuggling into his arms, purring and squeaking…Harry had never been more glad that he was a wizard. And now that Lenora had chosen him, and if what he had heard was true, perhaps he could be something a bit more…

A voice from the same corridor broke the thread of his thoughts and he froze where he stood. "An early riser, I see. It would certainly help you in the following days, young one."

He saw the one who had found him wandering and a relieved breath left his lips. Coming towards him, looking as though she was gliding on air with how smoothly she traversed the distance between them, dressed in clothes that were similar to his own but with a distinct cut that made it certain that it had been sewn for her gender, was the woman he had met last night. And in the morning light, he could see he had been correct in his estimation of her beauty and presence.

The woman practically oozed feelings of calmness.

Just as she came near him, he could feel her aura attempting to soothe his somewhat agitated heart.

"Peace…youngling," she spoke holding up a hand to allay his possible fears. "We do not consider curiosity to be something one should ever have to hide. I, myself find myself curious with things on a daily basis."

Harry heard her and took it as the sound advice it was meant to be. Knowing that he would need to prevaricate during this conversation, he loosened his mental shields enough to be able to show his emotions on his face but sharp enough to know when someone was attempting to get past them.

When she raised her hand towards Lenora, asking his permission to greet her, Harry nodded, unsurely.

The woman smiled and rubbed Lenora's scale with two of her fingers and greeted them both. "Kvetha, noble dragon. Atra Mor'ranr lifa unin hjarta onr. I am Andumë," she said looking at them both.

Lenora purred in pleasure from the ministrations of, now named, Andumë even as the woman continued to speak. "It is a pleasure to see you both here safe and unharmed. When we felt the surge of coming from the caves below the mountain and a sense of urgency that came with it, we were afraid that something had happened…" she trailed off looking into the distance.

Harry looked at her and frowned internally. She seemed worried for some reason. It was clear enough to see if one knew how to look past her calm demeanour and polite countenance. But without much information about literally anything in here, he could do nothing to understand it.

Shaking her head as though ridding herself of whatever her imagination had conjured, Andumë resumed. "As I said, I am glad I find you both in good health. I would have met you in your room but I did not find you there. I suppose I did not consider that with everything happening so suddenly, you would have wandered on your own, looking for some answers to your, no doubt, countless questions. I confess I would have as well. But certain things need to be addressed before we get to that," she said in her familiar lilting voice that he had heard from her lips last night.

Harry simply nodded once more, agreeing with much of her statement. She didn't know it, but even the things she wished to go through would only fill his empty mind with some much-needed information.

Andumë simply continued her askance with her patient smile. "May I enquire your name?"

He was about to reply when something occurred to him. The boy he had spied on earlier had said the name of the girl in a very peculiar manner, much like the times of old. With a moment's pause to think, Harry decided to answer the query in a way she might expect to hear.

"Harry. Harry Jamesson," he answered in a soft but confident manner.

A twitch of her brow was the only indication he got that his attempt at mimicking their culture had fallen flat.

"Harry…" she said slowly, tasting the words on the tip of her tongue. "A name I am unfamiliar with. Do you know what it means?" Andumë questioned, her brows furrowed.

Harry shrugged. "Someone once told me that it means different things to different people. I, myself consider its meaning as 'protector of the hearth,'" he answered, unwilling to give her an inch she could use to peal his story later.

She looked at him for a moment but inclined her head in acceptance. "Hmm. A good name then. Harry Jamesson, I would have asked you to join me in the initiates chambers but I think it would be best if I explained certain things that you might be going through since bonding with noble Lenora here," she said moving past him and motioning with her hand to follow her.

Harry moved beside her, following her steps while going through what he had planned to tell her about his origins in his head.

Soon they were crossing the hall, another wide, cavernous corridor, a stone bridge connecting two sections of the building and then up a rounding flight of stairs that ascended to the door where a few rays of light were coming from the opening above.

Andumë finally stopped at a finely crafted door and pressed her fingers into the carved grooves and gently pushed at it.

The door opened with nary a sound and the morning light hit his face with all its brilliance just as the fresh breeze touched his skin with its healing touch. Harry's eyes closed without his askance and he breathed in the sweet-scented air that fell on his face, a smile coming to his lips.

Having spent the past two days in a cave and then being sequestered inside for healing had given him a new appreciation for the open.

And what helped more was the magic that permeated in the air. He was practically breathing magic!

He exited the room and entered the open area with his bare feet as they touched the platform where he was standing, feeling the cold stone floor underneath his skin. The platform where he was standing was a large open area about the size of the great hall of Hogwarts, roughly circular in shape and with railings on its edges for protection.

It seemed as though it had been carved from the mountain itself with how it melded with the stone walls that lined the edges of the door frame he and Andumë had just come from.

There were grooves and scratch marks on the careworn floor that didn't tell him anything about how it was used apart from the fact that it was well maintained even with the repeated usage.

Harry stepped forward near the edge and gaped at the majestic sight in front of his eyes with barely disguised awe.

He could see everything.

From the far shadowy trails of what could only be a city situated behind a rising orange sun to the endless forest that engulfed everything in sight. It was as though he was standing on the peak of a mountain that touched the heavens. Clouds, steamy and cool past before his eyes, moving away with nary a sound.

It was breathtaking.

And if the squeak from Lenora and the sense of awe he was getting from her through their bond was any indication, she very much shared the feeling.

Andumë's serene voice brought him back from his reverie. "It was built by the first leader of our Order," she said, admiring the scenic beauty just like him. When he looked at her, she explained. "Utgard Mountain. An outpost of the Riders - one that has lasted since their founding. Edoc'sil, 'Unconquerable,' it is called this bastion. For it is so steep none may reach the top unless they can fly."

"Fly? How?" The question slipped out of him before he realised how stupid it was when the answer was clutching his tunic shirt at this very moment.

Something on his face must have shown his thoughts as Andumë's tinkling laughter echoed in the open area. "Why dragons of course," she finally managed, controlling her mirth.

As though it was the cue that was needed, a brown blur flew from below sending gusts of wind on their faces as it went careening through the air in a brilliant acrobatic display and a powerful roar that matched its size.

Harry gaped, open-mouthed, as a huge brown dragon circled them from above, flapping its massive wings with an ease that he could not imagine from a bulky beast like him.

Lenora's squeak's increased in volume and intensity as she watched one of her kind in the sky with her large black eyes, unblinkingly.

'You used to be that large, Lenora.' Harry sent to her with a laugh, teasing her a little.

Lenora ignored him, busy as she was still admiring the shimmering scales on the large dragon's back as they reflected the sun's rays brilliantly.

Harry shook his head and attempted to get his excitement and awe under control. There had been quite a few shocks since his arrival, it was time to get some answers.

"Are you…I apologise I do not know how else to phrase it. Are you a Dragon Rider yourself?" he asked tentatively.

Andumë turned to him and with a moment's pause replied. "I am."

"And that one," he said pointing at the brown dragon still circling them from above, "is your dragon?"

"His name is Briam and yes we are partners." She answered patiently. "Here," she pointed at her mind, "and here," then moved her finger to her heart. "We do not let while looking at him speculatively.

Harry felt something in her voice which told him that she was waiting for him to confirm a suspicion that she had and he resolutely denied her the chance. "Um… Is that what happened to me and Lenora?" he asked instead.

"Yes," she replied. "though the circumstances differ somewhat."

When Harry looked at her in confusion, she explained. "Briam chose me to be his companion when his egg was being presented to my kind in Ellesméra quite a few years ago during a ferrying celebration when I was in my early youth. Whereas you found Lenora in the wild where she was presumably left by her sires for this very reason. Similar bonds, though different circumstances, as I mentioned earlier."

Harry frowned at that. "Is it common for dragons to leave their eggs in the wild?" he asked not liking what she had hinted even knowing that it was more than likely Death who had put Lenora in his path, not her dragon parents.

When he looked at Lenora and felt a very thin feeling that roughly translated into his mind as agreement from his dragon companion who blinked at him, Harry knew he was right on the mark.

Andumë, unaware of his inner musings, answered his query. "Not common, no. But it has been happening for some time now. We are trying to understand the reasons but the investigation is taking some time."

Harry nodded slowly, knowing that it was all he would get out of her about this particular issue.

"May I ask something to abate my growing curiosity now?" she asked looking at him in the eyes.

He tried not to shift under her penetrating gaze as her blues attempted to unravel his mysteries and just nodded in acquiescence.

"How is it that you found yourself in the caves beneath the mountain?" she asked without preamble.

Harry knew this was coming and prepared himself as best as he could before answering in a tone that conveyed his pained acceptance. "I used to travel with my aunt and uncle. We were wanderin' folks, travelling along The Spine, settling for a few days before moving on. A night a couple of fortnights ago, we were attacked," he began in a monotonous tone.

"I…I don't know what happened. I was separated from the group. When I woke up in the morn, I couldn't find them. I tried searching along the way we had come from and towards the way we were going but even after days, I couldn't find a single trail with a clue that spoke of their presence," he paused, memories of similar incidents in his past flashed before his eyes even as he narrated his concocted story.

Andumë looked at him in sympathy but refrained from saying anything, simply waiting for him to finish his tale.

"Then the storm came," he continued. "I was hiding in the caves down below when suddenly the entrance collapsed. I tried to find a way out but the stones were heavy and I couldn't lift them. It was…It was dark. I searched and found a crevice that led me to a place with a pool of water and stone pillars that reached high above in the mountain.

"I climbed up using vines and then there was this creature. I have never seen anything like it before. It looked like a snake, but it had wings. It was growling at Lenora's egg and after a moment when nothing happened, tried to roll it towards the edge," Harry recounted that bit as honestly as he could.

"I must have made a noise then because I remember it looked at me with its slitted eyes. And…and then it jumped on the vine I was using to climb. I remember bits and pieces after that. I…I think I fought the beast. It's hazy, my memories…" Harry trailed off, looking far into the open sky.

This kind of misadventure was somewhat of a normal thing for him back in his world. No matter what he did, trouble usually found him with or without his efforts. But it would have been difficult to explain the reasoning behind his thought when he couldn't exactly tell her what he had seen and done.

Andumë looked at the young man and found herself surprised by his mental acumen and the way he had dealt with the hurdles that had surrounded him. It was rare, that a human male used his brain rather than force to solve his problems. It was a problem she had seen in many of her students in the past years. She waited patiently for him to regain his composure and continue.

"I saved the egg from falling to the edge. I was tired and hungry. I do not remember what happened exactly, but one moment I was holding the egg and in the next, it started rocking. A shard from the egg broke and…and that is…that how I found Lenora," he finished somewhat tired by the excessive evasiveness he'd had to follow to simply explain his presence.

Not knowing how she had taken it, Harry decided to simply let her take the lead and did not say anything after that, busying himself with caressing his female dragon partner.

After a moment of long silence, Andumë finally spoke. "It is not always an easy thing to do. Revisiting our pasts. It hurts us sometimes, pains us to take another look at what we did and what had happened to us. But it is a strong mind that comes out of the quagmire of past mistakes and suffering." She said solemnly, nodding her head in understanding.

Harry sighed as the weight of her words settled on his shoulders. "Now what?" he asked.

Andumë's smile returned to her face and she spoke in the language she had used to cast the sleeping spell on him last night. "Neyi…ono eddyr aí Shur'tugal."

His very being stilled at her words. The magic in his veins rung within him with the sound of hundreds of bells clanging together in agreement of her exclamation as his magic, even if not him, understood the words as clearly as anything. He knew not what she said, but he could feel the truth of it in his bones.

A surge rose from within him and he could do nothing to stop it as it washed away from him liting up his palm with a brilliant silver light as it shone upon Lenora and bathed her in its silvery essence.

Lenora squeaked happily and nuzzled her face on his palm, humming contentedly and his face split into a wide grin even as something in the back of his mind noticed that the slivery essence was coming from the oval burn mark that he had discovered.

Andumë looked at the scene as her eyes shone with her joy just as the massive form of Briam disappeared behind the cover of clouds with a roar of approval. She shook her head as she heard his last thoughts through their bond.

Deciding to let the new dragon and rider pair know what they would be doing, she put a hand on his shoulder and said something he would remember as the beginning of the most wonderful experience of his life. "Come, Master Laetri is about to address your fellow initiates."

-x-x-x-x-x-

~ Review please ~

A/N – 1. It is not Ophelia. The name is, in fact, Opheila. I did not spell it wrong.

2. Legend –

• Fricai onr eka eddyr – I am your friend

• slytha – Sleep

• Atra Mor'ranr lifa unin hjarta onr, Laetri Vor – May Peace live in your heart, friend Laetri.

• vinr – Friend

• Atra du evarínya ono varda – May the stars watch over you.

• Kvetha – greetings

• Neyi… Ono eddyr aí Shur'tugal – Now…You are a dragon rider.