Violet Stormwing's Arc

Chapter 30 of 46

On the second day, Violet crossed the last high peak and found the valley below. Gentle slopes ringed it like the walls of a bowl. A waterfall spilled down one cliff into a still pond. The place looked forgotten, untouched, dreaming. Violet landed the pink dragon on the grass and knew the bracelet had brought her true. But the map ended here. It named no exact spot. Somewhere in this green bowl a wild dragon guarded buried treasure, and she had no idea where. She walked the valley on foot. The pink dragon paced behind her, wary. Violet searched for turned earth, for claw marks, for any sign of digging. She found only flowers. A wide field of them stretched across the valley floor, blossoms in shimmering jade tones, layered petals swaying on thin stems. Beautiful and useless. She kicked through them, frustrated, and her boot struck something hard under the roots. She knelt and dug with her hands. Stone. Not a rock, but a carved slab, half buried. She cleared the dirt and saw ancient symbols cut into its face. A steady light spilled from the grooves, soft and blue. A runestone. She had used one like it before to fool Kael's men with its glow. This one was larger, older, set deep in the earth like a marker. Violet could not read the symbols. But the pink dragon could. It lowered its head to the stone and went still. Its nostrils flared. A low sound rolled from its chest, not fear, not anger. Recognition. The dragon pressed its snout to the carved face and the light brightened under its breath. Then the ground shifted. Not the runestone. The whole field. Beneath the jade blooms, something vast uncoiled. Petals scattered as a shape rose from the earth it had slept under. Scales the color of moss and old bronze. A wild dragon, larger than the mother, larger than any Violet had bonded. It had not buried treasure here. It had buried itself, and the runestone marked its resting place. The treasure was the dragon. Violet stood between the pink dragon and the waking beast. She did not draw her blade. She raised one open hand, the way she had learned. The wild dragon fixed a single ancient eye on her and did not strike. It watched. It waited. The bracelet's map had not led her to gold. It had led her to the last wild dragon itself, and now she stood before it with nothing but her hands and the trust she carried. She had found it. The search was over. But finding was not taming, and Odette's oath still bound her tongue. Violet took one slow step toward the great dragon and began.