Omensent: Revealing the Dragon (The Dragon Lord Series) by Barry Gibbons

wonder. "It was everything that I dreamed it would be!" She looked up at Tempest. "Thank you, Tempest. It was something that I'll never forget!"
    "I am happy that you enjoyed it. Once this is all over, we can go again, if you would like." She turned her gaze to Damion. "I'll return as soon as I have news." The huge scarlet serpent launched herself back into the air with a single thrust of her wings, and quickly sailed off towards the west.
    They watched as Tempest disappeared into the distance, then Damion looked to the others. "I guess we had better begin our own preparations."
    "I'll go see to the messengers." Sly told him, starting off for the castle.
    "I'll go dig up everything I can on Etaz and His followers." Damarius told them. "We'll want to know all we can about them."
    "I guess I'll go speak with the Captain of the Guard." Shirk told them. "We'll need to begin preparing the city in case of a siege." He hurried toward the battlements with a worried expression buried beneath his thick beard.
    " Lady Skie and I will go see to little Leia's dinner." Raven smiled, taking her daughter by one hand.
    "I'm going to go find Captain Harper and fill him in on everything we've discovered. I'm sure we can count on him to deliver a message to our friends in Jaghera." Damion knelt down and kissed Leia noisily on the forehead. "I'll return soon." He watched as Raven and Lady Skie led Leia up to the massive keep, then slowly began to make his way towards the town below.
    He found Captain Harper and Slither in one of the local taverns enjoying a tankard of ale together while the locals watched on in amusement. For them, the novelty of having a shadowspawn living amongst them had lost its shine, but it never failed to amuse them when a traveler met the huge shadowy beast for the very first time.
    "Damion!" Captain Harper roared in greeting. "I th ought you had left for Salastar!" He waved to the bar maid and motioned for her to bring more drinks.
    " I did," Damion told the old sea captain, joining him and Slither at their table. "and you were right. The Etazk are indeed preparing for war." He went on to tell them of what he had discovered. "Apparently, Etaz has returned to lead His people in a war to bring all the people of the world under His dominion."
    "What can be done to ssstop them?" Slither asked, draining his tankard, then running his serpentine tongue across his scaly lips in satisfaction.
    "Tempest already destroyed their fleet. That should slow them down quite a bit , or at least long enough for us to get word to everyone so they can begin making preparations to face them."
    "Couldn't you just have a couple of your dragons go and destroy their army for us?" Captain Harper asked with a puzzled expression.
    Damion frowned, then shook his head. "I will not do that." He declared in a firm tone. "I will not force the dragons to slaughter thousands of men, even if it would prevent a war."
    " I was afraid you might say that." The old sea captain scowled. "Sometimes you're too honorable for your own good."
    "We've all thought that about Damion from time to time." A new voice chirped in a youthful tone.
    They all turned to see a small boy with fiery red hair and freckles standing a few feet away with an enormous smile plastered across his face.
    "Dar!" Damion laughed in genuine delight as he jumped up from his seat and scooped the tiny boy up into a crushing hug. "How have you been? We haven't seen you in months!"
    Though he looked like a child, they all new the boy to be actually be on e of the Alena, a race of childlike sprites that lived for thousands of years. He was one of Damion's closest friends, and had been vital in retrieving the Dragon Gem and helping to release the scarlet dragons back into the world once more.
    "I went home to spend some time among my people." Dar groaned , his ribs creaking. "It had been a while since I looked in on things back in the Cursed Forest."
    "And how are things back home?" The huge warrior