Hope...Lost...

[Tradieus Kha'Serith]

I will edit TS when I find out when it should be placed

How long had it been? Candlemarks? Cycles? Months? Eras? Time was of no consequence to the children of the scaled race. Living for countless ordinations they survived while all around them faded and turned to dust. The elves barely rivaled the shrunken dragons when it came to longevity of life and only then because they hid in their forest homes like rats in walls. No, the dracon race would be around for as long as Diana continued to put the air in their lungs and until then they would be alone.

The grasslands of the wilds of Sherian Province unfolded around him in a sea of shades of green for as far as his wine colored eyes could see. Looking up into the sun without shading those same eyes he relished the heat on his scales as he spread his wings wide. The giant wings sucked in the warmth giving him a pleasant tingle in his stomach as they flapped back and forth slowly. He was alone in the everlasting pastures of grass.

How long had he been gone from the world he couldn't tell except for when he left it was cold and he had been dressed in furs. He had also been among forests of snow covered pines in a land close to the oceans surrounding the Medonian Continent. His armor was also different from when he last wore it, where once the proud symbol of the Imperial Legion had been emblazoned across it, now no trace of it could be seen. The colors of his armor were no longer that of the Divine Wrath Legion, but were simple dark grey that stood in contrast to his shining bronze scales. He must have been gone for some time for such a thing to happen.

"Rumen, have you found anything?" Tradieus asked the Paladin that approached him slowly from behind. The human had been with him since the time he had been Lord Thane of Diana, not once wavering from his duty to protect him. He had only one other friend such as Rumen that he could depend on blindly.

"No my lord there is nothing for miles around in either direction." This voice belonged to Morton, the dracon in disguise as the portly axe wielding butler. "There were signs of smoke in the far distance to the west and signs of an orc horde that passed not three miles away from us not long ago."

"Orcs and smoke to the west of us? The weak smell of the sea blow from the south. Unless Fortress Charisma is still burning we are in the lands of The Sherian to the east of the fallen Narim." Tradieus turned his tail pulling dirt along behind it.

Looking over the heads of the other two he envisioned the fallen city. He had been there, he had fought there and the carnage played so eagerly in his head.

"We will rest here for now. Build a fire." Turning his back on the two and leaving them to their orders he stalked away from them his talons scraping rivets in the ground.

[Tradieus Kha'Serith]

He was some distance from the site that would play host to the threesome as they waited for Tradieus to decide when they would move again. It seemed they had done nothing but camp in the wilderness for so long without seeing the inside of a city or even a village or hamlet. The Dracon Lord would steer them away from places that seemed to populated that would destroy his sense of wanderlust. It had been the same for longer then Tradieus could remember as he traveled in a state of perpetual darkness.

Stopping to look back at the two faithful friends as they pitched the tents they had and placed a ring of rocks that would house the flames. He sighed and turned his eyes back to the horizon and sighed again. They had followed him all this time without even so much as a word of opposition and he almost pitied them because of it. Maybe if they would have said something they would not have had to sleep on the cold hard ground all this time. No. They were ever loyal and even though Tradieus could see the pain in their eyes he did nothing to ease it from their weary shoulders and tired feet.

The call of a sea bird as it passed overhead calling out to its mate that flew in wide circles calling back. Flapping his own leathery wings he wished he could take to the air with such grace as those that he watched now. It would make things easier for him, being able to pick up and leave whenever he wanted never staying in one place for too long. Then Rumen and Morton wouldn't have to follow him, sigh, but he was sure they would track him wherever he went.

"Fools." His gravely voice was soft despite the harsh words he used. Why did things have to be so hard for those faithful that did everything in their power to try to help the world around them? It was what Tradieus had done his entire life since being expelled from the Hidden City of his people. First to Diana where he held the position as Lord Thane, then to the legions where he fought the Orcs of Ire and then to the subjugated realm of the Jadaxian People. Nothing was ever easy for the faithful and it always seemed as such for those that placed nothing in the the Gods and Goddess of the higher planes.

"Curse this mortal flesh that binds me here." He racked his sharp talons across his cheast leaving small rivets of blood in the wake. Falling to the grass on his knees he looked into the clear blue sky, his arms spread to embrace the powers above and he uttered words of prayer to the All Mother, Diana.

[Tradieus Kha'Serith]

Folding his arms over his cheast he peeled his vision from the sky above and turned it to the ground. In the grass he saw a glossy black beetle as it treked across the deep blue-green grass. It was in no rush slowly wandering its way to wherever it had need to go. So unlike the rest of the creatures that lived in the world, they were always in a rush to do everything. Changing like the rise and fall of the tides, staying the same to only just get comfortable then switching.

Tradieus was sick of the way the world ran. He wanted things to stay the same or to change so slowly that it was hardly noticed. The ever changing of the world was one of the reasons why he was almost afraid to rejoin the world. What need of he of a world that didn't even bother to realize that he was alive? He had no need of it.

He did feel compelled to return to civilization if only with the tiniest speck of his being. If only to once more feel the soft hardness of the temple floors beneath his taloned feet and to watch the sun play amongst the crystaled canopies of them. To fall before the alters and shrines of Diana to worship with others that loved her as much as he did. That he wished more then anything to be able to do, instead of kneeling in dirt and grash in the middle of the wilderness feeling more then alone despite his constant company.