Aurora gave no answer to Storm's knocking.
"I'm coming in, Aurora!" Called Storm.
He pushed open the door.
The cave was dark, except for the small amount of moonlight that shined through the hole in the ceiling that was covered by one of the dragon's glass domes.
Aurora laid underneath it on her back and was staring up at the night sky.
Without another word, Storm walked over to her and laid down beside her.
"Cruel of you to leave me all alone to entertain Kalipso. " Storm joked.
"I'm sorry, Storm. I just didn't feel like dealing with people tonight."
"It's all right, Aurora. I'm only joking. "
They sat in silence for a moment.
"I suppose you want to know what happened today?" Asked Aurora.
"Of course I do, but I won't force you to talk about something that is clearly traumatic. When you are ready to talk about it, I'll be here to listen. " replied Storm.
"Did you... react like that in the beginning?" Asked Aurora.
Storm chuckled. "I was worse! For that first year, no one was able to approach me safely. I locked myself in an isolated cave not far from the Hatching grounds and attacked anyone that dared to approach me.
"It didn't matter to me if it was humans, elves, griffins or even other dragons. "
"How did you recover from that?"
"It is... a work in progress. " he replied.
Storm grinned as he remembered those days.
A young griffin visited him every day for a full month. He'd chase her away with a lightning bolt every time she did but that only seemed to encourage her more.
After the month ended, he gave up at trying to discourage her and he allowed her to stay.
They eventually started talking, Storm would often rant about his hurts and his dispair, the Griffin offered no advice or tried to change his views. She'd just let him rant while offering him a sympathetic ear.
She meanwhile would talk about lighter topics such as her studies, or the world outside the cave that Storm had chosen to exile himself into.
She expressed interest in why he was capable of breathing lightning instead of dragon fire but he always refused to broach the topic.
Storm found that his burden always seemed lighten after his discussions with her and eventually he even started looking forward to it.
As the other inhabitants of the region heard of him tolerating the young griffin, they too began to seek him out.
They begged for his protection, but he laughed at their requests and sent them away with insults or if they were especially persistent, with a display of his lightning breath.
Finally after 5 years, he recovered enough of his sanity that he felt he was ready to go out into the world again.
He gave a final goodbye to the persistent griffin that helped to restore his mind. When she asked where he intended to go or what he planned to do.
He simply told her than he needed to find a purpose again.
It was during that first raid on a caravan that he met Augustus and officially started his resistance.
"Sounds like Razor was a good friend. " replied Aurora.
"I didn't think so at first. I considered her an annoying little pest with no sense of self preservation.
I threatened to fry her up like a chicken and eat her so many times but she never gave up on me." answered Storm.
Aurora was silent for a moment and seemed to be deep in thought.
"After we moved to the new Hatching grounds. I refused to give up on you. I returned to our old Hatching grounds but found no trace of you."
"After my first search through the caves. I never returned here. I actually tried to avoid the place so that I didn't stir up old memories.
I'm not suprised you found no trace of me." Replied Storm.
"I flew to the Elven village to look for you there but I only found a massacre.... and blood... dragon's blood.."
"I was wounded in the fighting. You probably found some traces of me from that time.
And it's seems like the dragon my father assigned to the village was slaughtered. " Explained Storm.
"I returned to my new home, and for several years I mourned you.
I was eventually able to move on and for a time I was content.
Five years before you found me, I was out hunting when a group of mages stumbled across me.
I fought them, but I was defenseless against their magic. They managed to restrain me and took me to one of their cities.
Their master, Rorick. Was a vile man that took a particularly sadistic delight in the suffering of non humans.
They bound me with magical chains that I could not break and everyday he would return to harvest something from me forcefully.
Blood, scales, hair, claws... Every day he would take something and I was powerless to stop him."
"Aurora...." Exclaimed Storm.
"He didn't stop there though, he and his apprentices would also come in to test new spells, or weapon enchantments on me.
He was trying to find magics that were especially effective on dragonkind as well as to identify potential weaknesses in dragons that they could exploit. "
A few years ago, several new weapon enchantments were created that were especially effective on dragonkind.
Storm tried to identify the source at the time but was unable to find it.
"Where is this Wizard!! I will hunt him down and make him suffer for what he has done!!" Growled Storm.
"Won't do you any good. He's already dead." Replied Aurora.
"Ohhh... Did you....."
"No, another of his 'pets' managed to escape his cage and rampaged through the tower.
By the time that the city guards were able to subdue him, the mages were already all dead.
The city lord ordered that all of Rorick's creatures be killed, myself included.
But a wealthy merchant that Rorick owed an substantial amount of money to, convinced the lord to spare me and the merchant took possession of me to settle the debt.
At that point I had already accepted death. I was just waiting for it to claim me."
"I seem to recall you were fighting tooth and claw to escape when I tried to rescue you. " Replied Storm.
"It was because I was afraid of you! Another mage, trying to take me away to who knows where!
For all I knew, you could have been even worse than Rorick. " Exclaimed Aurora.
She smiled afterwards.
"But that wasn't the case. Instead a person who I long thought dead had come to my rescue.
It seemed so unlikely that I first thought that I had gone mad and that this was nothing more than some delusional dream."
"When I saw you bound like that in the battle, it triggered all my old memories of my own treatment."
"That's why you rampaged like that!" Said Storm
"I've been apprehensive around magic and Mages in general ever since." She replied.
Storm gave no reply but he moved closer and extended a wing over her.