Where Hope Once Was

He nodded, then took the seed she held out to him and closed his eyes in concentration, then placed it into the ground and covered it up with his hands. Taking another deep breath he concentrated on channeling energy to it.

“It sprouted!” Leda said excitedly at the tiny shoot of green that came out, “So Big Brother’s good with life, right?” “Let’s see,” Maya studied the plant, “Hrmm. Seems like you’d make an excellent gardener dear, when we return to the Valley, we’ll work on learning things from the Tillers. But here, see?” she pointed to the edges of the shoots, “You’ve got a good deal of your father’s magic too, sadly Leda is incorrect,” she smiled gently up at her daughter, “But your brother is showing great promise. You have control over fire and earth it seems Gon. Or will with study. The lifeblood of Azeroth seems to rather like you as well.”

“You can tell all that from one shoot?” he asked with wide eyes and she nodded.

“See how the shoot is green, but here, there are little bits of running color?” he glanced at where she had pointed, blinking at the little lines of flame and the glow of azerite tendrils that were wrapped around the shoot, “As for earth, how quickly it grew. The soil is willing to care for it because of you,” she whispered a few words and cleared the soil with a passing over her hand, “Tarkar, your turn, here’s your seed.” Both his brother and sister jumped as flowers burst forth from the ground nearly as soon as he had touched it, and Maya smiled broadly, “Oh! Now Leda, this is what someone skilled with Life will do with their seed! Tar, you have a great gift as a healer!” “I do?” “That’s really cool Little Brother!” Leda said happily as she and Gon leaned closer, “Those are really pretty too!” “Almost as pretty as Mama,” Gon agreed, “And… Oh! Mama, he has some fire too! Look!” “And azerite’s all in his stuff too,” Leda added, “I see it there.” “Probably because you three hatched in a pool of it,” Maya scrunched her nose in thought, “It seems to boost power… probably because it is part of Azeroth. Tar, you’ll make a good farmer as well, when we return to it, but I think perhaps you should learn to make medicines with herbs that we can grow.”

“Okay Mama,” he smiled, then glanced to his sister, “I bet you’ll have a real pretty shoot.” She beamed and took her seed from Maya, closing her eyes and making a small prayer before going over to the cleared soil and planting it. All three children stared, then Gon glanced at Maya, “Mama… why isn’t anything happening?” “Hrmm…” Maya frowned as she studied it, “Leda. Let’s try something else. Can you form the soil into different shapes?” Leda blinked, then nodded, “Alright Mama,” she held her hands over the dirt and both her brothers cried out with delight as golden structures began to form. “Look! Sister made a castle!”

“And a little forest! With animals…” “I see,” Maya smiled, “Darling, you can shape the stone. You can hear them, can’t you?” Leda nodded, “They’re my friends. They like Brothers too.” “…I only hear animals. And they don’t say a lot of interesting stuff,” Tar said, then glanced over at Gon, “Big Brother, can you hear anything?” He shook his head, “Man! Now I’m jealous of you both!” “Leda, you’re a healer like Tar is. Just in a different way,” Maya smiled, “Don’t worry Gon, that just means that you’ll have to learn, just like your siblings will have to learn to listen to the other half of their blood. We can all work on it together.” The three nodded, and she clapped her hands, “But I’m so very proud of all of you! You all three were able to showcase your abilities on the first try! That’s impressive, usually it takes over a year to do so. And, now we can tell where your strengths lie, we can build with that.” The three children nodded. “…It’s a bit much to ask, when you haven’t seen much of this world yet, but Azeroth needs us, and she asked us to be her protectors,” Maya took a deep breath, “When this war is over, we can return to the Valley and the Tillers, to the home that we made there.” "I don’t mind going on an adventure Mama,” Leda said and her brothers nodded, “We’re all together, right? It’s like a big camping trip!” “Besides, we’ll learn loads of things in Kul Tiras!” Gon added, “And the things that are hurting Azeroth are there.” “They're in lots of places,” Tar pointed out, “…But it’s a start at least, right? But why can’t we go dragon…?”

It was after the sword fell that she came here, quietly learning from the Pandaren ways to find her inner balance, to control the void that had twisted her. She did not know why she was with Umbric’s group, didn’t understand much of this world.

Once she traveled a bit to see the damage she had missed in the nether realm that their research was being done in, she retrieved her eggs, pleased to find that all three of them were exactly where she had hidden them. She could not hatch them, not yet… it wasn’t safe.

In the Valley of the Winds, she hid. Making her home among the Tillers and setting up a small farm, she would stay far away from the incoming War, from the other dragons, from the Wound that was begging for help that she could not give. Her grief and her joy were intertwined. Sever was long gone, he had died to protect all of them… yet her children were all safe.

Was it selfish to want to keep them from hatching just a little bit longer? To keep them protected and safe until she was certain that nothing would hurt them?

Maya couldn’t answer. Couldn’t explain how that made her better than her brother when he kept her sheltered for all those years.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow she’d hatch their eggs. Until then, she’d sing to them, listen to the three talk of exploring the world and going on adventures. There was time for all of this. They’d come into the world the next day.

She told herself that every day for months, until the day her hand was forced.

It happened as she was leaving Halfhill, trying to beat the storm home. The earth shook, and she recognized the voices that Sever had taught her to listen to, her eyes widening as she realized that the stones were calling. And then she was running, leaving her cart, and transforming into the star-cursed red drake in mid-step, then flying to the farm that she called home, to the place where she had hidden the eggs.

Azerite had erupted from the ground deep below, and there were elementals starting to roam the fissure as the gold blood of the earth was spilling over. The farm and house were both gone, and in their place… Maya turned back to her elf form as she landed, staring quietly at the three dark haired children, two boys and one girl, all three looking to be twelve years of age, all three looking a bit confused, as if just discovering how big the world really was.

To be fair… They truly had no idea before now.

“Mama!” the girl said cheerfully, “Brothers, she’s back!” and then Maya found herself hugging all three tightly and wondering what it was that she was so afraid of.

“Shush now, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she whispered, “Gonen, Tarak, Leda… can you ever forgive me?”

“Course we do Mama,” all three chorused, and then they jumped at the roar of a particularly loud elemental.

“...We have a duty to Azeroth,” Maya said quietly, then smiled, “Alright, you three go whelpling, let me take care of this.”

“Mama you’re not the right sort of dragon,” the eldest brother pointed out, “They’re not going to listen to you. They don’t listen to Little Brother either, just me and Sister.”

“Your father gave me some skill,” she ruffled his hair, brushing the streak of red behind his ear with the black, “You and Leda be ready, just in case, but stay behind me. We must close up this fissure before any more damage is done to the people that live in this Valley.”

“...yes Mama,” he said, then took his sister’s hand, both changing to their whelpling form, both black scaled dragons, though each had a pattern of red scales, hers in a small patch where her neck met her chest, his like the streak of red in his hair, a line that started on the left side of his face and twirled to the tip of his tail. Their brother changed as well, going to clumsily fly and land on their Mama’s shoulder as the two stayed on the ground. Unlike those two, his scales were red, with only a line of black, just like his brother’s, just on the right side. Maya tried. She really did, but she had to admit that Gonen was right. She couldn’t close the fissure or calm the elements down. “Children, now,” she said quietly, later there would be time for her apology, “Tarkar, we heal when the fissure is closed.” “Yes Mama,” he said quietly as Gonen and Leda stepped forward, placing their small paws on the earth in front of them and whispering.

It was all over in a moment, and Maya could never remember Sever controlling his elements that quickly.

But when did he ever try to protect his Flight’s domain?

Before she could examine that thought, a cheering broke out, and confused, the children switched back to their elf form as all four of them turned to see the small group of Pandaren that had come rushing to aid Maya with her destroyed farm.

Tarkar hugged her waist as Gonen took his hand and Leda stepped in front of all of them with hands on her hips. Maya placed a calming palm on her daughter’s shoulder, taking a deep breath before speaking. “...I… suppose my secret is out.” “If we known you had children, we’d have given you more food that first night you came,” Nana Mudpaw said as she pushed forward, “And had we known that you were dragons, we’d have ensured that you had more meat when you came to trade. Now young Maya, you have been working this small patch by yourself. It’s a shame, that house got destroyed, but what are neighbors for after all?” she clapped her hands, “Alright everyone, let’s get to work. Farmer Yoon! These four will stay at your place until their farm is fixed.” “Mama, if those fissures are opening up…” Leda glanced up at her, “Aren’t we supposed to help everyone?”

Maya took a deep breath, then smiled sadly, “Thank you Nana, everyone… but… I believe it’s time we moved from the Valley. I promised them that they’d get to see the world a bit.” The group looked a bit put out, and Nana smiled, “Good. Then we’ll have time to fix up the farm before you get back home,” she laughed, “Not everyday a family of dragons decide to try their hand at farm life. And those berries you grew were the best I ever had! Your place will be waiting for you kids, just keep in touch, y’hear me!” “Yes Nana,” the four chorused, and then squeaked as they were gathered in several bear hugs as the Tillers came forward. “You saved our Valley!” Maya’s smile became more real as the night went on, an insistence on a going away party and packing supplies becoming more an order from the elder of the Tillers, and it would end up being another week before they parted, and one journey that she was sad to take.

Sever, they welcomed us. If you had lived, we’d been all home together.

“MAMA! Look at that ship!” Leda’s words broke her out of her thoughts, and she was brought back to the present, standing in Stormwind’s harbor, about to board the boat to go to Kul Tiras. Gonen had said that a lot of Azeroth’s pain was coming from that way, something felt like it was trying to get out.

“It’s huge Sister!” Tarkar said excitedly, “Do you think they’ll let us explore it!” “I wanna! Look at the sails! Mama, Big Brother, isn’t it the prettiest!” “You got weird ideas of pretty Sis,” Gonen stuck out his tongue, “Ships aren’t pretty! They’re ships!” Maya giggled, “They can be pretty Gon,” she said gently, “Leda thinks so, and that’s enough. And Tar, we’ll have to see… you three have lessons, remember?” “...Mama, do we have to learn how to…” “Yes,” she smiled at her middle son, “You have a gift for healing that I once did, and Gon does well spells, and Leda is a natural fighter. Not to mention, all sorts of things normal children your age do, going to school, making friends. It won’t all be saving the world, and after this, hopefully it won’t have to be.” The three grinned at her, and the brothers took her hands as Leda happily led them onto the gangplank of the ship.

It was incredibly dangerous, the Horde and Alliance were now at war. There was the very real danger of the fissures of Azerite opening up, the island nation they were heading towards was unknown to Maya… and rumors had reached her of possible dragon involvement and manipulation. Hand in hand, the Duskheart family went towards the new adventure, far more thrilled than worried over the idea of a grand adventure.