The Dragon Healer

No one had seen Obecka for hundreds of seasons, but her legend grew. The Averons were only seen on the brightest of sunrisings flying about the edge of the valleys looking for their next victim. The legend held that Obecka and her Averons could not come into the valleys because the magic of the four was in the valley mists. The storytellers weaved the song of the icy door created by Obecka and how it slowly melted and absorbed the magic from the blood of the four murdered Solans. The blood red water trickled into the valley streams spreading across the land and then eventually evaporated into the mist, combining the power of the four into a magic laden shield that Obecka and her Averons could not or would not enter. Where this legend came from and who first sang of it was lost in the shadows of time. The mist still filled the great valleys sunrising and sunset protecting the people from the one that would harm them. It was said that one sunrising a woman would come and gather all the power of the mist. She would then take revenge for the deadly act of murder the black Solan had committed. This one would restore mankind to its proper place in the world. It was thought that a great Solan would be born to accomplish these tasks, since the magical power of healing was only born in the women. No man had ever shown the power of magic, so it was always known that it would be a woman that would bring humanity out of the mist and into the world of light. New born female babies were always carefully watched to see if the great Solan had come, but none ever appeared and after many seasons the search slowly vanished as time swallowed the past, changing it into legend. Though the people still held the hope that one sunrising she would come.

There was one other evil that plagued man, the great coastal dragons, which were frighteningly familiar. Little was known about these great beasts, it was thought the dragons killed for food not pleasure. Man was not a favored meal, but would be taken when available. It seemed the dragons liked to stay near their dens in the coastal cliffs, where they could bathe and sun themselves. They were able to protect themselves from magic, for it was said that even the black Solan could not affect them. The dragons were beautiful animals with their great wings and multicolored skin, but more dangerous than any Averon. They were four to five times larger than the Averons and apparently liked the taste of their flesh, for they could often be seen on clear sunrisings carrying an Averon carcass to their dens. The dragons rarely came close to the human villages and farms even though the mists did not seem to bother them. The farmers kept their plow beasts under roof so the dragons would not see them. Dragons had been known to swoop down from the sky and take an entire plow beast while the farmer was plowing. They would carry the beast as well as the plow away. Once a luckless planter was taken, it seemed he had gotten tangled in the plow harnesses and was carried away with the plow beast never to be seen again. So it came to pass that the Averons would not venture too close to the dragons' domain or the valley mists and the dragons stayed near their coastal dens, leaving the muddy misty valleys between to humanity.