
***
Not that it really bothered Iliris. She could see in the dead of night almost as well as during the day, even if her vision did loose certain sharpness then. Sense of colors. Fluidity of movements. But the night couldn't blind her.
And she was glad for that, because what brought them, her and some of her fellow dragon keepers here was no simple task. Even if it was the one they performed often enough, one that was written in the first aims of their group in the first place.
To save dragons.
And, if what she had heard was true, there were dragons here to be saved. Even though the conditions were far different than those they encountered usually.
Dragon keepers had found out about the dragons that lived in the Gulf of Ryt some time ago, and back then they had decided to leave them be, unless they would want to come to them themselves. They inhabited distant islands, too far north to attract many travelers, and they stayed hidden from the world for the majority of time. Some sailors had seen them, folk of the rare civilized islands had their tales and legends about them, but not much for, or so Iliris had learned. The dragons were there, but they minded their own business in peace, so the dragon keepers let them continue doing so.
Until came the news of dead dragons.
Young ones, small ones, two of them found near here. One was washed on the coast of an inhabited island, to the puzzlement and horror of its locals. The other one was found by a group of sailing merchants, stranded on a distant island by a storm, who found the dead beast up between the cliffs.
Both of the dead dragons got sold. Because the world was cruel like that. But only because of these rare deals Iliris had found out about them in the first place.
Tracking the sailors and then getting the location of the island from them hadn't been easy, because, of course, they weren't eager to share it. Yet certain threats were too great to keep silent about any secrets and Iliris could be... persuasive. When she wanted to be.
So they got the place. And they set out. This time Iliris didn't make the mistake of traveling alone, the lesson thought by the dragon killed by the Molthal's giant still too fresh in her mind. There weren't too many of them, but anything was better than one, especially when faced with an unknown danger.
"Let's see what we can find on this coast before nightfall. Stay alert. Anything could be lurking here," she spoke, turning to her companions, her face grim. Iliris checked her gear, her sword and armor once more, before stepping further among the rocks.
Her heart beat heavy in her chest, her spirit full of dull, distant sense of worry.