3.
The doors to the top of the mage’s tower crashed open as the Swordmaster of Hoeth fell through them.
“Aledraan. For a High Elf, you display as much natural grace as a drunken mule” responded the Dragon Prince.
“Prince Kildarin, I apologise for disturbing your meditation, but I have news of the most urgent order.” The Swordmaster had spent several hundred years wielding double-handed weapons whilst wearing a full suit of chainmail. So for him to have beads of sweat dripping from his brow, his haste with bounding up the towers step must have been a frenetic one. The Dragon Prince glanced over towards the elven mage in the centre of the room and saw that the magister still had not interrupted his meditation.
“What is it, Swordmaster?” asked the Dragon Prince.
“Prince Kildarin, it is Zoriath. He has awoken!” Aledraan exclaimed.
“Zoriath? My attuned dragon?” asked Kildarin. The Dragon Prince had not been able to converse with the Emperor dragon since their youth. The mages within the High Elf council had bound the souls of the Prince and the Dragon just a day after Kildarin had been born. The Dragon had been sick and it took the magic and the heart of the High Elves to preserve Zoriath.
“My Lord, it has been four hundred years to the day since his eyes closed. And now they are open once more and glow with the brightness of all the forges in Ulthuan!”
“Haste is the answer, young Prince” stated the Elven Mage, his eyes still closed and his body relaxed. “Zoriath has a journey to take you on and you must leave immediately”.
The beating of the dragons leathery wings soon drowned out the conversation in the tower as Kildarin and Alderaan strode over to the window of the mage’s tower. A huge taloned claw the size of the Elves themselves smashed through the window, bringing the Dragon Prince and Swordmaster together and clutching them firmly yet gently around their waists. With the agility of a cat and the strength of a thousand bears, Zoriath hoisted Kildarin and Alderaan onto his back as he soared upwards towards the clouds. From their vantage point thousands of yards above the ground, the High Elves could only see the tallest of towers in Ulthuan and what looked like a giant grey creature marching along the horizon...
