BlueStar

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1) Cold Morning

He sat there watching as the blue sun sank beneath the black oily sea from the cool green sky. High lilac clouds were lit by the setting sun as it streamed ever northwards as they did throughout this season. Ever-present Raootha glowered over the opposite horizon, the vast sphere's milky orange eye taking in everything, although he knew it was the giant planet that this world orbited he could not shake the feeling that there was some truth in the myths. Closing his heavy eyes for a moment he reminisced on the day's events, shuddering as he recalled the mindless violence that contrasted sharply with the beautiful sight before him.
To distract him from his troubles he made himself recall the myth of Nighttime. The globe of Rassu - as the ancients called this planet's mother star, fell into a pit called the Chasm of Darkness each dusk, where the chaos serpents would smother her & stifle her light. She would be tangled in their bodies through a torturous night. Before dawn Rassu will be shaken free of the coils of destruction by the heroic efforts of the warrior prince Torna, her nephew and allowed to climb the vaults of heaven once more. He also remembered the truth behind the myth, that the globe of Rassu was a vast super-heated mass of gas, and the world upon which they lived rotated upon it's axis so the sun was no longer visible. He felt tears on his cheek, his father has told him all this and is now dead.
My mother is too. He thought in exasperation. All the members of my tribe are dead or dying. Despair filled his world until he passed out from the pain in his soul and body.

**********

Opening his eyes he saw that Torna had won the nightly battle once again. Day had already long since broken and the morning was already bright. The sky was almost fully yellow as Rassu heated gases in the atmosphere to eventually glow brighter than her for a period at noon.
Tearfully he recalled last night's events, the fire, the black shapes in the night, the deaths and the screaming. Shuddering he blocked this from his mind and tried to watch the busy forest life. Myriad clouds of insects filled the air, some with glassy delicate wings, others with metallic bodied. Most were small and blue for camouflage. Birds chirped and the leaves on the tips of the branches stretched toward the golden light. An emptiness made him realise he was hungry, and those leaves could fill his belly many times over.
Farnac groaned as he tried to move his limbs, wincing at bruises he kneaded stiffness out of each limb in turn. He pulled the rags that were the remains of his tunic closer round his body and struggled to sit upright. Immediately he fell back onto the ground. He gasped at the stabbing pain and a sickening crack reminded him of a broken foreleg. He lay there panting for several minutes.
Without warning a gentle cough contrasted with the bustling silence of the forest, he could see no one.
"Ahem. said the soft voice, louder this time.
Farnac ventured an answer "Hello?" his eyes wildly searching the dark blue undergrowth for hidden eyes.
"You require my services?" Farnac recognised the distinctively gentle voice now - a Tree Dweller, the people who were scattered throughout the deep woods in which he was himself now hiding. Without seeming to change colour, a blue creature manifested itself from a fallen trunk it was sat upon, a short distance from where he lay. Its cool pearly eyes watched him carefully.
"I did not realise the Forest Spirits spoke the Grasslander speech!" Farnac exclaimed, he thought they were too secretive in their business to possibly know anything of his own speech. He reminded himself that his own tribe has little dealing with the folk of the great forests, and only knew the local folklore on such races. His own tribe had had no dealing with them, he sadly reminded himself.
"I will not offer my skills to you again, I trust not flesh eaters." The small being's speech was perfect with no trace of accent. This insult was too much for Farnac, after his ordeal.
"What services? And what do you mean by "flesh eater"? I am a herbivore and eat no meat." 
"I meant no offence" he replied coolly. "I meant that you eat of the sacred foliage." Farnac wondered what they ate if not meat or leaves "You require healing of mind and body, I can mend your leg and heal your wounds."
Were the legends true? Farnac thoughts quickly ran wild, he had once believed it only idle gossip that a people could use psychic powers for physical healing - his own race had limited power in that respect. Those with the Gift could only speak to others without using their tongues and force some control on the weak-minded.
"Please" was all he could manage to utter his mind a blur with amazement and half-remembered lore.
The soft-spoken Tree Dweller arose from his perch and ambled over to him. He had only two legs! He also had no visible tail, and his naked body was totally bare of fur - he reminded himself that they reproduced asexually and were generally referred to as "he". It's face was almost featureless, merely a mouth and two large pale blue eyes. Feeling drawn into those swirling eyes, his body went limp, feeling helpless and paralysed but filled with an unnatural calm. A voice entered his head without leaving the still lips of the little man.
"You are hurt badly, my payment will be high."
He wanted to ask what payment he asked, but found his tongue would not co-operate. The world about him slowed down; an insect passing by seemed to freeze in the air. The forest became silent. A white light framed the small body then surrounded them both. The aching pain swiftly evaporated from his body and his mind felt as if cleaned from within by a torrent of water. The wounds he could see out of the corner of his eye went rapidly through the stages of healing - scabbing over and then restoring within moments.
Memories filled his consciousness, each moment of his life was rifled through and examined as if he was a datacube, this process sped up until the images became a blur, and forgotten sensations writhed across his conscious mind. Suddenly the glow faded and he leapt upright.
Trotting around he tested his new leg, laughed as he had never felt better for weeks, stretching he removed the remains of the bloody rags he wore and saw his body was immaculate; gone were the abrasions and bruises caused by his wild blind stumbling in the dark foreign forest.
"Thank you..." he began, then realised he was alone. Farnac suddenly felt chilly as he looked for the mysterious healer and listened for noises sounding likely to be the Tree Dweller. He decided the forest was too alien to his ears, for him to pick out the footsteps of an agile Tree Person, then decided it was time to forage for food. He reluctantly cantered away from the cliff edge with its glorious view of unending forest and the vast deep orange ocean.

**********

Watching the giant impassively with its large eyes, the Tree Dweller looked down on the creature he had healed. His curiosity was piqued; this was no ordinary Grasslander he had ever found or heard of.
He has knowledge of science in areas that his fellow kind had none, and had a mind working like no other he had seen in his long life. Other things troubled him too, usually the Centaurians were pure white and stockier than this individual, that was definitely taller, more slender and only had fur in a striped mane of white patched with brown stretching from his broad shoulders to his rump and thick tail. He decided to keep track of his journey through the forest to discover answers to his questions.

**********

Farnac swiped at the high twigs using the branch he had found amongst the leaf litter. He stretched to his highest by putting his forelegs upon a tree trunk. His efforts were not without bounty, a dense pile of twigs and leaves were strewn about the floor beneath him. He thought he should had already eaten his fill but the healing experience had left him filled with a deep hunger that he had never felt before. He continued stuffing his face until he felt positively bloated.
The mind cleansing that he thanked the mystery healer for had helped him to put the previous night's events into crisp perception. The destructive monsters known simply as Dark Ones had attacked his tribe.
He recalled the falling star in the east, which made an unholy screaming, that boomed across the plains. Douil renounced it as a bad omen.
Emotionlessly he recollected the panic several days later as the small gang of beasts had attacked their village before the onset of night, in the confusion their meagre weaponry could not be fully set up and they were overwhelmed quickly. He now remembered seeing others of his kith and kin reaching the forest as he did, but in the panic-stricken run through unknown territory he had quickly lost sight of them, then collapsed at the lip of the cliff where he watched the sunset before passing out.
He had just discovered that unbeknownst to him he was mildly telepathic, his now clear mind told him all his capabilities that were available to him now he had reached puberty. Always he had known that Dranis, his father and his uncle Goocra had joined the tribe relatively recently. His uncle Goocra was a middle class telepath, with a seven inch twisted silvery horn protruding from his forehead - as in all psychics of their race.
Therefore his father must have carried the genes for this power as did his mother from her father who was the old clan leader Brossi, so he must have inherited the Gift from both his mother's and father's side.
He wept, as he knew his parents were most assuredly dead. They were manning the lasguns along with the other adults and were trapped on all sides when the Dronn came.

**********

The elf sat patiently, the centaur had feasted on the canopy and violently ripped quite a gash in the leaf cover using a rotting branch. He allowed him to do so; it was understandable that he needed to replace his reserves as they are quickly used up in the rapid psychic healing process. Listening to the forestmind, he learned of other lost centaurs and sent requests to other elves to lure them towards the one that he was studying.

2) The New Tribe

Rubbing his gut and yawning deeply, Farnac was started to see three centaurs burst into the clearing in rapid succession. Mixed feelings of rejoice and remorse filled the four as they physically greeted and embraced each other. Gradually Farnac took control of their hysteria and managed to get them to settle down. The three new centaurs were his aunt Flossha, young cousin Gurt and his triplet-sister Drens.
He was ecstatic to greet his sister with whom he shared both a womb and the same parents. They laughed and kissed each other over and over.
Joy turned to pain as he asked where their triplet-brother Pawl was.
"He didn't make it Farny… those evil monsters!" as she broke down weeping, he felt powerless to stop his own tears mingling with hers. A strange feeling overwhelmed him. He could feel the beat of Drens' heart and the hurt in her mind! Eagerly he explored her pain and soothed her from within. He began to realise she was sleeping when she ceased crying and her head slid into his lap.
Farnac turned his attention to the others. Flossha was a daughter of the old clan Chief Brossi, as was his own mother Braihn. Tentatively Farnac used his newfound powers to search her for serious wounds, finding none more serious than scrapes and cuts he was shocked to stumble upon the fact that Flossha was pregnant! He was doubly surprised, as she had so far refused all Chief Goocra's attempts on her virginity and she was quite old now - she is the triplet-sister of his own mother who is almost past childbearing age.
He was shocked at himself when he felt regret that the small boy centaur, Gurt had survived the attack. He tried justifying his feelings, as the boy was more arrogant than his chief-father was and was spoilt by the idea that he was destined to lead the clan. Although several years younger than him, he treated Farnac as filth and he loathed him for it. He allowed himself to smile as he discovered the double fracture in Gurt's left arm, then instantly felt guilty.
Tales were silently shared of the nightmares of the night - all were physically healthy as far as Farnac could determine but were understandably disturbed at the attack.
"Are you sure you are ok Farny?" Drens inquired for the umpteenth time.
"Yes Drens, I never felt better in fact." He blurted out. This was met with complete silence from the others; he could feel their questioning eyes boring into him.
"What I mean is, I have been healed. By a Forest Man." He replied to their unspoken question.
"What did they do to you?" she seemed panic-stricken "They have made you lose your emotions."
"They are not like that!" he defended the skilful elfin "They have merely allowed me to see things clearly, I feel I have already grieved for them enough"
"That is never healthy young one" Flossha interrupted "The grieving process is long and hard, they have made you repress your feelings" she added gravely.
Irritated Farnac stood and marched from the clearing, through the route least obscured by foliage, ignoring Drens cries. He trotted as fast as he could without hurting himself on each branch, eventually he came upon a small gathering of diminutive brown humanoids, they scattered as he approached. They must be goblins. He decided, non-sentient and the bottom rung of the ecological food chain.
He heard the sound of hoof steps behind him and continued. He knew that they could follow him all the way back to the plains, they would hear his steps over a great distance so he did not bother to run. After almost an hour of struggling through alternate dense vegetation and clearings he came upon the Great Grassland he knew as home.
The grassland was rippling like an ocean in the continuous breeze. Blue and unending, the swaths of grassblades continued up to the horizon, where misty grey mountains ran jaggedly eastwards like the mouth of an immense dragon. Dotted all over the expanse were coloured dots marking the various herd beasts indigenous to the plains.
The sight relieved him; he had had nightmares in which the Dronn had destroyed the entire plain, replacing it with bare rock. He wondered how exaggerated the tales of the Dronn were. Presently the others joined him quietly from the forest.
On a spot of the seemingly featureless landscape, where he knew his home to be, he saw a dark streamer marking a fire.

Several pairs of eyes watched the small herd of Plainsfolk leave their forest. They noted the direction they fled in and sent orders for messengers to be readied, the Fay would have to be told.

**********

Blood. Carcases, not what he expected. Smoking charred skeletons where strewn about the ruined camp. Farnac took in the scene passively as the others moaned and wept as they recognised their loved ones.
Why did they not eat all the bodies? he wondered. And how come there are so many dead Dronn here, I thought they ate their dead. It occurred to him that the futile weapons that they had managed to trade for from the Fay could not possibly create such damage as he saw. Lasguns had been used here, powerful ones.
"We have to leave, now Drens," he told her as he sensed her approach.
"How did you know it was me?" her voice was shrill and nervous.
He turned to her, "I have the Gift" he waited to let this sink in, he had always known she would accept anything he said as gospel. "The Tree Dweller's healing has helped me to understand this."
She nodded and then hugged him close; he could feel her smile on his neck and felt a deep relaxing wave pass through him. 

**********

It was approaching nightfall, the yellow of the midday sky fading to allow Rassu's deceptively cool blue globe to be seen as she fell towards the cosmic chasm in the west. The gods must be having a great gathering. Drens decided, as she identified most of the members of the Triadd pantheon in the sky.
Gooui, Rassa's womb-guard had reappeared from behind the great goddess' face - marking the beginning of the new month. She wistfully recalled her father teaching her how it was really a small "companion star" running around the larger "star" of Rassa, and that they were in fact both immense flaming balls of gas. She had always enjoyed his tales, but fables they must be as great aunt Drouil had always emphasized how blasphemous they were. She relaxed in the cool breeze of the hill after a hard day digging.
Turning her head towards the thunder of distant hooves, she saw a white speck in the distance. She recognised the rhythm of the steps as distinctly centaurian. Sitting up she took interest in the newcomer. The figure slowed its pace; it had reached the fresh burial plots. Shortly afterwards it crumpled to the ground.

*********

They had begun trotting slower now. The packs they had were heavy, and after several days of packing, they were on their fifth day of travel. Flossha - as the most senior member, had taken unofficial command. She had sent Farnac and Gurt to rein some plainsbeasts to carry most of the load.
Perhaps I should have told them to fetch more than three. She pondered. Too late now, we shall cope with our burdens as the hexahippi do. She resolved to have faith in her decisions.
They were heading eastwards and slightly northwards as she planned to aim for the legendary Fay cities of the great forests. Once there she had no further plans, she would cross that hurdle when she got to it. One other thing bothered her; the new month marked the lateness of her cycle. The high possibility of her being impregnated by Goocra made her shudder - it was not her choice, what he did to her.
Midran was still silent, she walked with her head hung low and refused to respond to any comfort. Farnac felt sympathy for her; he felt her pain almost physically and wished he were not so empathically helpless. Drens had found her weeping and howling in the recently expanded burial plot. Usually Farnac found her daintily pretty, with her long slender legs and pure white body that marked her as a pure descendant of Brossi, the old chief. Now she looked dirtied and dishevelled. Flossha had bathed her body as if she were an infant then used herbs to create a vaporous broth to send her to sleep. Now she did not cry or speak, but did as asked, to walk and carry a rucksack.

**********

Several days Rassa crossed the vast sky. The group was temporarily camped in well-known grassland, comfortingly similar to their village lands. Gurt examined the sky; the planets were approaching a configuration that meant more of them than average were visible. He grew tired of the view and stopped walking. Turning he cast his eyes behind him, the hexahippi looked as exhausted as he was. Their manes varied from blue through purple to other shades and hues of orange. Their three pairs of legs were sturdy and allowed them to carry a heavy load over long distances or run at great speed. Their legs were generally paler than their flanks and backs that were invariably banded with blue and orange.
Gurt watched irritably as Drens adjusted the straps on one such beast. Stupid animals, they knew nothing of pain or discomfort. He thought. They know nothing of grief, or the terror of the Dronn. He had refrained from his usual suggestions to how the big lunk Farnac could be more like himself. He had allowed Flossha to take command temporarily, though she had the pomposity not to ask his permission he was too depressed to confront her.

**********

Farnac began to be concerned for Gurt; he had spoken little and seemed not to have mourned as the others had. Admittedly silent was better than the usual arrogant way he strutted about and continually demanded his own way. This was not his fault, his father, Goocra, was Chief and did not refrain from telling him every available moment.
Technically he is chief now. He thought regrettably. Though the youngest survivor, he is the eldest and only heir to the position.

**********

It was halfway through the month when they reached the crater. The immense chasm was filled with a dark black resinous substance, eerily similar to the carapaces of the Dronn.
"What happened here?" the innocent question was uttered by Drens.
"Obviously a meteoric crater." Gurt rolled his eyes. He was back on track to becoming his usual self.
"But what of the goo - it reminds me of the Dark Demons..." A dull thumping from above interrupted Farnac. They gawped at the skywards as a pearly sphere arrived from the north. The globe hovered over the epicentre of the deep hole. Screaming Flossha and Midran fell to their knees and began to chant:
"Hail O mighty deity! Bless us with your presence!"
Farnac watched nervously, he knew it was no god. But from descriptions and teachings by his father he concluded it must be a Fay surveillance ship. Looking to Drens and Gurt, he wondered what they thought it was. Gurt was intelligent but tended to make assumptions outside what he knew. His own sister was well taught but tends to be torn between the sciences and the myths. The two women from the older clan fully believed the Triadd tales, finding scientific jargon to be alien, nonsensical and above all blasphemous.
After a few minutes of tension, the object shifted position to be over the Grasslander's heads. A blinding light suddenly blazed from the blue-green pearl. Lime-green tendrils sprouted from circular pores that had opened up round its girth. The group found themselves wrapped in glowing, pulsating tentacles before losing consciousness.

**********

He saw tall spindly shapes. They had swollen heads and immense eyes. The beings wafted their slender fingers. He struggled to move but found his limbs could not respond. Panic stricken he glanced round the room; the others were encased in translucent green pods suspended from the brightly lit domed ceiling.
He heard a myriad voices whisper in his head. Be calm, don't struggle, you are safe. Repeating endlessly. Gradually he lost his feeble grip on consciousness.

3) Dragon Keepers

Trith awoke from his dreams and rose reluctantly from his comfortable nest. He sat for a long while on the toasty warm sunning pad, though obviously it was shadowy, being this deep into the poorer caves.
Work consisted of mining; this was usual for males of his young age and rank. First there was a hunger pang to deal with, energised from the pad, he stood erect and began the long walk upwards to the dining caves.
He had to stood low in these quickly-dig tunnels, as he approached the upper caves they became noticeably higher and broader, Trith nodded to friends and associates as they passed. As usual the lower cavernous eateries were packed, he forced his way through to the bar to collect his fair portion of grookla. Prodding the barely active grubs, he used his keen eyesight to spot his brothers in the deep shadows.
"Welcome to our respectable table early riser." Tarath jibed.
"I had a wonderful dream last night, I just wanted to stay there" He replied in answer.
"Was the lovely Maffra there again? That makes at least two hundred times in a row now - whose keeping count?" The others roared with laughter at Yorrish's latest joke on his crush of a higher-ranking female hit him.
"Laugh it up jerks. We spent last evening in the scarlet crystal stratum" Trith countered. He knew this would silence them, and let their imagination fill in the gaps as courting couples used the strata to be somewhere private. After news telling and more gags on various subjects, they left the low table to start the day's mining. After several hours of dusty rock drilling, the boys met up above the ground near the old Altars as they always did daily at noon.
"Lets go to the forbidden relics." Tarath suggested after a brief discussion. The other stared at him. In answer he held up the sparkly orb gems that were used to unlock, the gravfields surrounding the supposedly dangerous relics.
Laughing they started the long hike, and Tarath boasting elaborated a tale of how he lifted the key from the foreman's quarters. Sparse but tall trees sheltered the route and the light was tinted blue by the thin canopy.
Eventually they arrived at the mystery-shrouded site. The vast metallic shapes were rumoured to be from an ancient civilisation of advanced centaurs. The elder matriarchs of course denied this and spread the tale that they were merely shrapnel from an earlier period in the Goulde's own culture, protected from vandalism and time by the force fields.
As Tarath inserted the globe into the corresponding keyhole, the vague shimmering barrier around the site dispersed, they stepped in tentatively. The artefacts where strewn about the clearing in no particular pattern. Ranging from a few feet to those that almost towered above the tall trees. Although the grey shapes were metallic and cold to the touch, they were completely dull though on close inspection slightly lustrous. The innards of many of the forms, serpentoid tubes spewed from wide unnatural gashes.

**********

Distant drums beating grew to frenzy-pitch, the boys snapped from their reverie and wordlessly began to make their way back. Soon they broke into a run, a subtle alteration in the beat told them the danger was a dragon attack!
The Goulde had strong defences, but his time two mature dragons undertook the attack. They were most likely a mated pair and were desperately seeking food for hungry nestlings otherwise they would be foolish enough to try and hunt sentient Goulde from their strongholds.
On their approach they met chaos, one dragon had already been shot from the sky using the mounted pulse-cannons, and lay writhing and screeching in its death-throws. The remaining dragon was in a fighting frenzy now. Its mate's imminent death replaced the foraging instinct to bitter revenge. Shredded and scorched male were strewn about, armed with psiwhips the dragon clawed as its life force drained from numerous gashes and flowed into orange pools. Moments later a guarded weyr-female arrived from the tunnels with a hypodermic gun. Moments later the dragon collapsed unconscious. The rumour spread, the dragons were not too injured for saving.

4) Tree Enclosure

Wakening from a peaceful golden dream, Midran opened her eyes and stretched her hands to the soft cushioning of the bed beneath her. Her eyes snapped open and flicked over the strange room. Rising cautiously she found her self on a low woollen mat, the others were sleeping close by on similar mats. She visibly relaxed, eyes wandering she studied the mottled-spectrum pale room that looked somehow organic. The pale yellow light enticed her to explore the outside of this chamber.
Fragments of memory she recalled from the recent past. The discovery of the crater. The appearance of the flying strange metallic object. Then no more memories.
Outside it was might brighter and yellow. Perhaps it was better described as inside, the trees reached up to provide a dense unbroken ceiling. Unusual vine-like plants hung from branches with ripe glowing yellow fruit-like structures providing ample light. At the tree bases, immense buttress roots were trained to form a solid woven wall.
It occurred to her that this was primary forest rather than the usual secondary, with sparse undergrowth. She heard stirring from behind her as the others arose and gasped as their alien environment.
Farnac took in the new situation quickly, as he studied his fragmented memory of the journey he realised their captors were the highly intelligent and sentient race of Fay. What reason did they have for taking them? Did they intrude on their territory at the crater?
He sensed a presence. Opposing the entrance to this sleeping chamber was a similar one across the clearing; he walked towards it, his eyes searching the darkness within. There were two of them. They studied him impassively, barely moving as their steely eyes bored into him. They entered his mind.
"Tell us about your father." The duel voice sounded like any other sound, but precipitated directly into his brain.
"What of him? He was a good man and I know he is dead from the black beasts," He said defiantly.
"He is not native to those plains, where did he originate?" They questioned without pause.
"I know little of that, I know he and my uncle travelled a great distance before taking control of our clan." He felt that this answer disappointed them somewhat. "Why do you ask?" he added.
Hesitantly they replied, but somehow he felt they told only part of the truth. "We need to find the remains of the dark herds. They are vital to the war against the Dronn." In answer to his unasked question, they added: "That is our name for the dark evil beats that now terrorise your grassy plains."

**********

He sensed a source of anger. Gurt burst into the room. "Who are you, and how dare you kidnap us?" He took a few steps forward.
In answer, though Farnac sensed no fear from them, Gurt found himself entangled with bright red fungus threads, sprouting from the floor that impeded his movement.
The Fay ascended into the canopy aided by tendrils that had stretched down from branches as they watched. Gurt passed out, but soon recovered minutes later.

5) Tactical Conference

It was a great meeting. The vast spherical auditorium was lined with row upon row of the senate. Less influential members of society craned their necks to peer into doors or watched in comfort via orb-screens. The Fay had gathered to discuss the invasion of the Dronn. The conference began with a lecture on the currently known facts they had on the enemy:
The seed of the Dronn soar through intergalactic space at sub-light speeds in huge fleets of vast spore pods. Many miles in diameter, their huge bulk having a thick layer of insulation that inevitably gets broken up in the atmosphere of host planets, releasing the individual sporelets. These can orbit the planet entirely before crash landing onto the ground, then the invasion begins. Released from the pioneering spore are a few warriors and a single queen. They quickly set about multiplying and decimating the landscape by consuming all organic matter, converting it into their own. When a sufficiently large colony has formed they launch small planetary spore that travel sub-orbitally to infect other continents.
Eventually they detected this lush planet of Huenta and seeded its atmosphere with their malevolent sporelets. These had first infected the equatorial continent, devastating the great Centaur civilisation. The two secondary empires managed to retaliate and had developed terrible and mysterious weapons that they had used to obliterate the Dronn colonies. Many also immigrated in great numbers to the northern continent and nearby islands before the Dronn managed to reach them, the worst weapons were not used until last and destroyed the Dronn as they invaded the heart of their empires.
The Fay of that continent had reacted too late - they barely kept hold of fragments of their most precious tropical forests. Then began the Fay's long and difficult restoration of the impoverished land, of which much had regressed to vast plains desert or tracks of wasteland. Meanwhile the centaur colonies on the islands and the north continent thrived.
Eventually the Centaur and Fay informed the Fay of other continents and the infection of the northern continent was anticipated via sub-orbital spore. After many a hundred years this had happened. The Great Plains had been infected in at least three identified places and the counterattack had to be quick. Battleships had been created and attempts to attain the knowledge of the brown equatorial Centaurs from their thriving colonies by the Fay had been tough.
In the centuries-long struggle many centaur cities have been destroyed and many Fay forests consumed. The Centaur civilisation had only recently begun to reform from its ashes of barbarism. Recently the fay of one city had resorted to capturing centaur in the hope of gaining wisdom of their ancient and mysterious weapon of Dronn destruction.

**********

The Fay civilisation has existed for a long indefinite time, perhaps even thousands of millennia, it developed from the elf culture and spread to become global and independent of it. Eventually the global Fay civilisation broke down to societies of individual islands and forests, though still in contact. Several sects of their society had split off to for the World Seekers - interplanetary travellers/colonisers and the much older morphic Shape Shifters that penetrate other cultures and races, they exist parasitically.
The centaur civilisation began on the equatorial continent and because of their fear to cross water did not traverse the oceans of their own world though did venture into space to begin colonies throughout the solar system. Then their civilisation declined, even before the Dronn invaded, those on the homeworld either reverted to barbarism on the equatorial continent, or formed less advanced cultures on islands or the northern continent. Many in the northern continent eventually reverted to nomadic barbarism. Many island cultures and several mainland ones have recently begun a renaissance.
The Goulde, though accepting and inventing much technology, never moved from the homeworld, though did travel to other continents before their civilisation began to withdraw slowly as the centaur's did.

**********

The introductory history over with, the Fay strengthened their telepathic mind links, until eventually their minds could work as one. Opinions were mulled over and examined as with one mind.
"It is essential we attain the Centaurian Weapon. Without it we shall never win this fight."
"But what if there is no refuge of Centaur civilisation like we predicted. There could be errors in the calculations, there are too many unknown variables."
"And if they do exist? We waste time conferring, we must act to send out search parties"
"If they don't we could be wasting our energies that could be turned to weapon design"
"We know how ineffective our weapons are, we barely managed to scortch a small raiding party."
"Such weapons could be improved" The voices grew dynamic.
"There is no time to start from scratch - we need to contact the intelligent Centaur"
"What of the Otherworlders?" This suggestion quietened the other arguments, the Otherworlders were either myth or unreachable.
After minutes of calmer talk a conclusion was reached: "We shall repair and launch the ancient starships. And parties shall be launched to discuss the probable location and existence of the Centaur cultures. Meanwhile the weapon creation shall be reviewed but we shall not waste energy there."
The meeting formally adjourned.

6) The Fire Stables

The cavern was vast and dark. The rancid smell of ancient strata of manure filled the air with a stench like no other. Donning his gasmask Trith entered the hall, followed shortly by his brother Yorrish. Without hesitation they headed for the tunnels that sloped downwards, ignoring the other tunnels that stemmed from the hall chamber as they led to roosts. The slope varied in gradient and texture to their sensitive feet. Often they passed safeboxes - cavities in the wall fenced off by stone pillars - bars to protect the occupants, they unnerved Trith.
Eventually the warm sulphurous air told him they approached the hatchery. The tunnel opened into a vast cavern. The walls stained yellow and red from the fumes emanating from pillar-like vents in the floor. The ceiling was distorted to become like several chimneys fused together, allowing good ventilation. Between the vents the floor was littered with piles of head-sized pale calcariferous eggs. 
Yorrish tapped the nearest egg with his war staff, it responded with a dull thud. "How do we know which are ready to hatch?" he asked, although the elder he was usually not the wiser.
"Just before they hatch you can hear their egg-horns scratching at the inside of the shell" Trith explained, Tarath responded by pressing his head against the egg. He held his breath - nothing.
It only took them a few minutes to find a suitable egg, lively and scraping incessantly at its rocky prison. It took them almost an hour to release the egg by chiselling at the stem that attached it to the floor, taking it in turns until the egg finally tumbled to the floor with a rumble.
Now came the hardest task - they somehow had to find a way of smuggling it out of the cavern unseen. They had chosen the time well; there was a ceremony amongst the highest-ranking females - some sort of promotion, so most guards were attending that event and here the security was at minimum.

The brothers Trith, Tarath, Yorrish and friends were considered trouble makers, their illegal expedition to the forbidden relics was discovered when Tarath was caught returning the keys he stole. Tarath had been reprimanded and hurled into solitary confinement. His loyalty had kept his gang from punishment but had angered the Head Guard enough to lower his rank from Miner to Sewer Scourer - the lowest and most unpleasant duty possible.
The others in the gang had conspiring to break him free and then flee the colony. Trith and Yorrish had managed to convince them that to wait for him to be released then steal what they needed to start a new colony would be wiser. A discussion has started in which females, dragons and digging tools became top priority for "obtaining".

Trith and Yorrish had begun stealing Dragon eggs one by one and planned to rear the young dragonlets in a natural vent-cave they had discovered far from the well-used tunnels. Trith had found it easy to convince Maffra to run away with him, he realised she loved him as much as he loved her. The eight others in the plan had convinced a total of three females to join them - far more than he had hoped. Also stockpiles of tools, weapons and other necessities grew daily.

7) Experimentation

Flossha was quite gravid now - her abdomen was grotesquely distended. Farnac was worried about the children she carried. Two foetuses were developing normally, albeit stunted as the third one was developing unnaturally swiftly. She had been taken from the group at regular intervals over the last few weeks; he decided they had been experimenting on her - the child with accelerated growth seemed altered somehow - probably using the ancient and forgotten art of Genetics.
The others were faring better - they felt safe and secure. The Fay occasionally interrogated them. They were warm in the den and well fed by the lush and unusual mushrooms that grew in broad patches of the clearing.
Once Gurt had stubbornly tried scaling the walls, inevitably he fell and with a sickening thud he broke several bones. Their captors had tranquillised and abducted him then brought him back healthy several weeks later, much to their relief.


Farnac's gift was obvious now - he couldn't help but empathise for the other's physical and mental hurts. Eventually he plucked up courage to tell them of his gift. Only Gurt refused to believe him, he was obviously jealous, as he knew this would mean his instant appointment as chief. His appointment was accepted without ceremony. Gurt increasingly became a loner and resentful to the losing of his birthright. Farnac only just realised - he had kept his gift secret entirely for Gurt's benefit.

Farnac had gradually managed to persuade Midran to talk, one reason he was shocked to learn of her silence was her strong crush on him. Obviously he was surprised and eventually found himself falling in love with her himself. They announced their mutual love a week later and the clan accepted this with great delight, this was exceptionally good news.

**********

It was a month later. Midran was now with Farnac, she was also pregnant and Farnac feared for their safety. Two weeks earlier Flossha had unexpectedly given birth - the two weaker children were born dead. The stillborns were emaciated and pure white - they should be half black Farnac realised, as their father Goocra was pure black. The surviving triplet was jet black and healthy. Farnac was shocked to look into her blue eyes and see a mind far too advanced. She was sentient from birth and the others were scared of her fearsome mental powers.
Datt, as Flossha decided to name her new daughter, began walking much sooner than was normal and grew at a rapid rate.
When the Fay next visited they arrived in a group of eight, ignored the other centaurs and advanced directly to Datt. A trapped look appeared in her eyes, though she could not speak, Farnac could sense fear of abduction in her young mind, this transformed to an angry sense of aggression and the fays' bodies shuddered before collapsing to the ground. 
Too shocked to talk the others stared at the smug Datt and the swollen bleeding heads of the fallen Fay. Swiftly several vines began to descend down to the clearing, carried a dozen or so fay, the vines suddenly acted possessed and flung their passengers to the ground. Grasping their opportunity the clan grabbed the vines and began to use their strong arms to haul their bodies over the enclosure walls. Their escape was rapid; the primary forest had little undergrowth to impede their travel.

After .....

LAST UPDATED 6TH JULY 2001