ALL NOVEL Chapter Fifty-Five: Clan of Lore Conclave - Play Time
“Having a teacher like that will help her learn higher-level concepts with her magic, faster,” said Lady Borsal. “I worked with…” Her voice trailed off as four people entered. All of them had white hair and had that same feeling as the Elder. All but one of them had deep purple eyes. They glanced in my direction but headed toward the stairs. One of them, a stately gentleman who looked quite old, but still vigorous, had bright red eyes, and Lady Borsal bowed her head at him.
He flashed a sharp smile in her direction before heading toward her. “Little Borsal, will you join me in my area? I’d love to chat with you about some new ideas I have.”
“Of course,” she responded with a smile and held out her arm to him before leading him to the stairs. The other three Elders were already seated in the same terrace as they approached.
That left me alone with Indigo, since the Cat still wasn’t anywhere to be seen. The chatter from the seats increased again as another group of dragons entered the archway. This time I almost froze before I tapped Indigo to get her attention. Little dragons flew around this group, accompanied by two adults. There were two of them, one a deep blue and the other an orange. The blue one was bigger than Indigo, while the orange one was her size.
Indigo peeked out from my hair and watched with me as the adult dragons guided the young ones toward an area right in front of the stage. My attention snapped back to the arch again as another person entered with a young dragon, this time on her shoulder. This one was a bright green.
Again, they headed to the area with the other two young dragons, leaving the youngling there before the adult headed to talk to other adults. The next couple of people didn’t have young dragons, but stopped at the snack table. Indigo climbed down from my shoulder, and peeked over the edge of the counter at the group of young dragons playing on the couch. They were flying about, chirping, and looked to be playing some sort of game.
“You can join them, you know,” I whispered to Indigo. “You can make friends.”
Indigo said nothing, but her tail stuck straight out, pointed behind her.
I glanced over the crowd and caught the gaze of one of the Elders with the purple eyes as she glanced in our direction. I pointed at Indigo, then the young dragons. The Elder nodded with a smile. “See? The Elder says you can. I bet you will have fun.” Still, it wasn’t enough to get her moving. “I bet you are the first one with a story player, and you can tell them all about it.”
That got her staring at me, then the MP3 player which was resting on the counter. Instead of picking it up, she nudged it closer to me. “I’ll keep it safe, no one will take it from here.”
Indigo nodded, then launched herself in the air, flying toward the group of kids.
A few dragons noticed but quickly looked away as Lord Bennit glared at them. Still, I could tell people were watching the unknown dragonet. She made it to the couch that the others were playing on and joined in. As far as I could tell, the other little dragons didn’t have a problem with it at all. They mostly seemed happy another had joined them.
I felt a huge relief as a weight I didn’t know I was carrying slid off my shoulders, and I let out a breath I had been holding while watching her fly toward them. Now, I truly was left alone at the back, with nothing really to do. I wondered where the Cat was, but he’d seemed very spooked with the Elder. Hopefully, he’d show up again.
No one else arrived, and I grabbed my handy stool to sit down behind the counter. My coffee mug was still warm, and I took several sips while watching the crowd below. Eventually, I pulled the drawing of the shield out of my back pocket and laid it out on the counter. It still wasn’t right, but it was closer than the last time I’d worked on it. Betty wanted me to figure out what it meant, and that was what I needed to do. Yet, I didn’t know where to even start.
It didn’t take long for Lord Bennit to appear back on stage.
“Ah, it seems everyone is here. Welcome to our conclave! It has been many years since we have gathered. It was time. While I wish everyone was here, I understand why some are not.” His gaze flickered around the room. “It is good to see someone from every family line, and almost all our Elders.” He nodded at the group of Elders. “I called this conclave because of a new item that was found, that has the ability to spread our stories.”
Lady Borsal stood up. She held up the recorder. “I have spent the last several weeks recording our oldest tails. Those passed down to me from my grandmother, and her grandmother. The stories of our beginnings.” Mutterings broke out across the room.
Lord Bennit held something up, and then the dragon language filled the room. The one that I didn’t understand. It was soft, and in her voice, and it only ran for a few minutes before he shut it off. “This gives us the opportunity to pass knowledge to our little ones, even when our Elders are far apart. Or when our scholars are lost in a project.”
“How does it affect their development?” called out a voice. I recognized it as someone who’d entered with younglings.
“Like normal, but it lets them listen to the story again and again. Not that I am encouraging our Elders to not tell our stories, but this lets the young ones listen as much as they want. We all know how they want to hear them all the time.”
Chuckles broke out from the parents of the group.
“I’m hoping this will save our stories from being lost. We have lost Elders before it was time, and our histories have gaps because of it. This will let us stop that from happening again.”
More chatter broke out. “Let’s chat about this in our groups. I will be available for questions.” Immediately it got louder in the room as people moved about. A crowd went to surround Lord Bennit, while another surrounded the Elders.
Some got up and headed to the snack tables. I stood up from my stool as a few headed in my direction for warm drinks. Most ordered some of that tea that Lord Bennit drank, which was a quick beverage to pull together. The dragons chatted to each other in their language, even in front of the counter. Most thanked me before they headed off to stand in other groups.
Lady Borsal paused at my counter. “I’d love one of those teas.”
“Sure,” I said, grabbing her a mug for the hot water. “How come everyone broke off into smaller groups? I figured Lord Bennit would talk about the MP3 players for a while.”
Lady Borsal chuckled, and to my surprise a green-eyed dragon answered. “Some of us don’t have a problem with the MP3 players, as you called them. Sure, let’s use them, some say, while others will want to chat for a long time about them. This lets the rest of us catch up with old friends, and matters we care about much more.”
I nodded to the green dragon. His hair was cut close to his head and his eyes almost looked oversized for his face.
“What I don’t understand is, why are you here?” he asked.
“Sable is the host of the conclave,” said Lady Borsal. “We are on neutral ground here, protected by powerful magic. I’m sure you felt it when you entered.”
He nodded with a frown, as he studied me.
“She also introduced the devices to us. Sable is a friend of the clan.”
Again, the dragon looked confused, but he said nothing. He only picked up his tea and headed off. It didn’t take long for me to get several more teas in people’s hands. Lady Borsal stayed behind.
“What’s that drawing there?” She pointed toward the rough drawing of the shield. I looked down, realizing I hadn’t put it away in the face of customers, and hesitated. What should I say?