It was dusk and Celine sat in front of her window, watching the stars come out over the trees as night began to fall. She had decided that after her strange experience earlier in the day, that she was just going to sit at Jander's house so that she wouldn't have to worry about doing anything strange again. As she sat there, she fingered the strange amulet that was hung around her neck and thought about what Katrander had said. He was obviously deluded in some way, but now she was never going to be able to talk to him normally. Suddenly, as night fell fully on the forest, she saw a small procession of lights coming towards the tree. She watched as Jander came out to meet the procession.

"May I help you?" he asked. "It is odd that I would have so many visitors at this time." he said, standing leisurely in front of his doorway.

"Give up the mage." Katrander said, at the front of the procession, holding a torch. "We know she's in there."

"What mage?" Jander asked, confused. "I know of no mages in this area, the Kin'stara don't allow them."

"Celine." Katrander said, the elf maiden behind him nodding in agreement. Looking closer, Jander recognized her as the one who had, along with her sons, brought Celine back to him.

"What proof do you have?" he demanded, unaware that Celine could hear him and was watching out the window, listening.

"When I brought her in, I could sense it. We Kin'stara elves are very sensitive to magic, you know." she told him, her two sons and Katrander nodding in agreement.

"That's not proof. She has that amulet, and her sword has a preistly spell cast on it." Jander argued, standing in front of the door and barring it with his body. "I'm not letting you put her on trial for circumstantial evidence!" he exclaimed, aghast.

Celine gasped, drawing away from the window. An elven trial? She knew that since her kind was such a gentle folk, the only kinds of trials usually held were those that violated the most ancient elven customs. Slowly, she peeked back out the window again.

"Go home. You serve no purpose here, you are only four. I don't think the entire village agrees with you four." Jander said, getting annoyed now. "I see no reason to bother our visitor, she has done nothing."

"They'll believe me. With what happened to my father." Katrander said, turning and stalking off. Jander stood there for a moment, and then looked up at Celine's window. She quickly jerked her head back in. The next moment, she heard Jander's footsteps coming towards her room.

"Celine?" he said, entering the room. She stood motionless by the window, her hand resting on her dagger at her hip. "I'm sorry if you heard that, Katrander is always like this, he doesn't trust outsiders."

"It's all right." Celine reassured him. "I can take care of myself if need be." she told him, straightening up and giving him a confident look.

"Somehow, I don't doubt that." Jander said, giving her a smile. "I will leave you now, have a good night." he said, exiting the room.

Celine walked over to where her sword lay. Lifting it up, she looked at the engravings on the blade. "I need to get away from my past, whatever it is." she said softly, buckling her sword on. Then she picked up her flute and her backpack, placing her feathered cap on her head and slinging her long bow over her shoulder. Finally, she fastened her dark cloak on her shoulders and took up her position by the window. She would leave tonight, and get away from this village. Her chances would have been better staying and fighting pirates. Celine sat, and went into a brief reverie, resting her head on the side of the window.

A great crimson dragon swooped out of the sky over the elven village. Crimson dragons were very rare, as they were a manifestation of a crazy mages' attempt to combine the goodness of a bronze dragon with the powerful breath weapon of a red dragon. This mage was now dead, and his single, evil minded creation swooped down towards the elven village. All of the elves, save the five great priests of the village and the squad of elite elven archers, were in their houses, making the only targets the archer and priests who were lined up in front of the House of the Speaker of the Sun and Stars. It looked to be terrible odds for the elves, as the archers knew that they could not hope to hold off the dragon for long from decimating the priests.

Three of the priests, who were standing in the back, concentrated on preparing a Fire Storm spell that would attempt at destroying the dragon, while the remaining two waited to heal the brave archers if they got hit by the dragon's breath. Down swooped the dragon towards the awaiting elves.

A young elf maiden, now an apprentice priest, watched from her home in awe. Her mother was down there, and she was a very brave elf indeed, for she had fought and destroyed these kind of monsters before. She was one of the priests that was waiting to cast healing spells, she being a very powerful priest, was not in the direct line of fire, the elves tended to put their least powerful forces at risk first, a practice the young elf wholly agreed with now, as the dragon came towards the Speakers' House.

As the apprentice watched, the dragon seemed to pinpoint it's gaze on a single elf. That elf looked up at the dragon, noticing it's gaze. Then she gasped. She had seen this dragon before, it was the legendary "Kariacianoairnita" which in dragon tongue, meant "Crimson Fire". She had unwittingly met up with this dragon when she had accidentally stumbled into the wizards' lair while on a mission to return a valuable spell book to Silvanesti. The priest had only been an apprentice then, and the wizard, crazy as he was, had decided to allow her to visit his "pet" before he had shown her the way out of his confusing castle. The dragon had been huge then, but was larger now. When she had seen it earlier, it had attempted to spit acid on her, and had singed the spell book. The apprentice priest had hastily prayed to open up a dimensional portal, and had succeeded, sending the dragon away, to the distase of the wizard. Apparently, this dragon remembered her and wished to finish what it started.

"Watch out!" the priest, the young apprentice's mother, yelled, "She breathes acid!" The other priests looked at her briefly and sped up the recitation of thier spell. The other priest stood there, frozen in dragon-fright.

Kariacianoairnita glared at the priest, taking in a huge breath and stopping in the air above the archers, unmindful of the silver-tipped arrows striking her belly. The great dragon turned toward the priest who had defeated her by sending her through a dimensional portal long ago. She had a score to settle with this particular elf. Roaring, she breathed a huge gout of acid onto the priest. Just then, the other priests got their fire wall spell ready, and as the priest became engulfed in acid, her defense spells failing to the powerful attack of the dragon. Kariacianoairnita, now finally getting revenge on the one who had defeated her so long ago, fell to the ground, dead. None of the archers were injured in the battle, and the four remaining priests walked over to the dying remains of the other priest.

"You can do nothing to heal me, friends. The acid is poisoned as well, and I will soon be gone. All that I ask is that you bring up my daughter to be a great priest, as she has great skills for one so young." she said, falling back into the embrace of death. The four priests solemnly and cautiously wrapped her body in a cloth and left the archers to get rid of the remains of the dragon.

The young elf maiden that had been watching at the window, slumped to the floor and curled up in a little ball, her shoulders shaking with sobs at what she had just witnessed. Her mother, a great priest, had just gotten killed by a dragon. She vowed then that she would grow up to be a great magic user like her mother, to keep up the proud legacy of priests in her family.

Celine awoke from her reverie with a start. That was a strange memory, she thought as she glanced up to check the moon. She certainly didn't know where it had come from, she had probably listened to too many of the centaurs' stories about the far away land of Krynn, where there were evil red dragons plaguing the land. She shivered as she noticed that the moon had risen to its' highest point. It was time to leave.

***
"Depart"