Annie Tolen felt herself slipping from reality as her mind drifted aimlessly in a
dark void, losing track of time, drifting along in the endless darkness for
what seemed forever.
After a time, she looked down on an ancient room filled
with armed warriors in battle armor. It is a large room with tall walls hewn
from rock. A man is standing on a large rock at the front of the room,
addressing the soldiers. Something tells her she should
recognize this place, but her mind is confused with everything that is
happening to her. She concentrates on the man – the obvious leader of these
warriors – but she cannot understand what he is saying. Her dream drifts closer
until she recognizes Elias Hawkes. As he turns to look in her direction, the Hawkkur
Warriors – for that is who they are – begin chanting a single word over and
over: Drakkon! Drakkon! Drakkon! Drakkon!
The massive room quickly fades from her vision and she finds
herself back in the black, endless void. She calls out to her Dragon Within,
but Capella is nowhere to be found. She begins to panic, wondering what has
happened to her Dragon Within as another vision forms in her mind.
The scene is a huge wedding, held in a massive chamber filled
with hundreds of Star Traders in attendance. As her vision slowly floats
towards the bride and groom, she can only see their backs as they stand before
the official conducting the ceremony. The bride is dressed in a beautiful white
gown with voluminous skirts and a long train, both trimmed in green and gold
while the groom is dressed in a formal forest green uniform of the Hawkkur
Legion. As the ceremony concludes and the bride and groom turn towards the
crowd, she is shocked to see that she is the bride and Elias Hawkes is the
groom!
Before she can recover from the shock of seeing her own
wedding, she is thrust back into the void. She welcomes the black as she
wonders what is happening to her. Is this just a dream? Or is she truly seeing
the future?
Without warning, another vision forms. Annie finds herself
floating, rather speeding, alongside a powerful starship traveling through
Transit Space, a warship bristling with weapons. She moves closer to the
warship and suddenly she is inside moving along a wide passage filled with
jubilent spacers in the uniforms of the Tycho Star Traders and the Hawkkur Legion.
Her vision continues to move through the starship until it comes to a wide door
guarded by more Hawkkur warriors. She moves through the door and into the room
where a group of people are gathered around a large bed.
No! No! No! She screams as her vision self approaches the huge
bed.
Annie Tolen stares at her dream self laying in the bed,
holding a tiny infant boy wrapped in a shiny blue blanket that bears the Hawk
and Star of the StarHawke Tycho. Two young girls, about eleven and nine are
sitting on either side of the bed smiling as they watch the baby boy. Elias Hawkes, wearing
the uniform of the StarHawke Tycho, kneals beside her bed. There are others in
the room as well, a mixture of men and women in the livery of the Tycho Star
Traders and the Hawkkur Legion, offering their congratulations.
The StarHawke Tycho reaches over to touch the boy, his
eyes filled with love for his son. As his hand gently grasps the boy’s there is
a surge of Dragon Magic that races out into the room and throughout the
starship until it is felt by everyone onboard. As the surge fades, those
assembled around the boy hear the unmistakeable growl of his Dragon Within.
Awestruck by what they have felt and heard, the assembled officers kneal before
the StarHawke Tycho and his family. Throughout the starship, the chant begins
and is repeated over and over: Drakkon! Drakkon! Drakkon! Drakkon!
Thanks for reading!
Dave
