[Child of the 7th Age]

Child awoke on the deck of the vessel in the middle of the night. She remembered the words in her head from the night before. Was it a dream? Was it a vision? Or merely her fears speaking in what seemed an increasingly cold, empty world.

She listened carefully to the sounds of the ship. She could hear the creaking of the wood and the groaning of the taut lines as they stretched and curved above her head. But beyond that, she heard the sadness of people, each in an isolated cabin, each locked in silence and unable to see or feel or touch their neighbor.

Once or twice, she thought she made out a sound of fear or nightmare. Perhaps Frodo, or Sam? She could not tell.

Child shuddered, not from cold but from loneliness. She felt so very, very alone.

But then she heard a whirling above her head, saw a red-gold light of flame and a flash of wings.

"Angara, Angara come here great one. Have pity on me." The dragon lit on the deck and lowered her head until it fairly fell into Child's lap. Never before had this taken place.

Child bent over the great creature, her own curly hair, mixed brown and grey, falling down onto its scales of green and gold. Angara, her precious Angara, was weeping. Never, in all the tales of old, had she witnessed such a thing.

And into her mind, there came a sadness. The two istari, they who dressed in blue and walked with Curunir in an ancient age.....They who still used strange potions and set heart against heart, it is they who killed the line of my people. It is they who slaughtered my mother and my father, my kin, my spouse, and my little ones until only I was left. For we were the last dragons of gentle heart, we who lived with Man and Elf in peace.

For peace is not in the hearts of these wizards. They set Man against Man, Elf against Elf, even Hobbit against Hobbit. Guard against their wiles, oh wise woman of your people, for they look to you, your small band, to make a single crack in the universe, and should they make that crack, they will enter therein. No peace shall be left on earth.

Guard well Child, or all that you know and love will perish, as happened to me and to mine.

Child bent down and brushed a gentle kiss on Angara's nose.