The Dragon Gate : Book 2
an excerpt

Chapter 1 Interlude

Daniel stared up at the sky, fingers laced together behind his head. It had been a year since he arrived on Kydance, and he was restless. Not that you could have told by looking at him. He was outwardly calm and still. But his mind was racing, trying to find some way to get back home..., well to get back to Earth at least. If he was going to be honest with himself, Kydance was as much his home now as anywhere. A fond smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as his thoughts drifted momentarily to Ta'Rynn. Their relationship had blossomed into love in the months since the end of the war, and Daniel still had trouble believing it sometimes.

Daniel forced his train of thought back to going over the options available to him. Initially, after the war, he had assumed it would be relatively easy to get back to Earth, but that was before he had discovered that most of the power storage left over from the ancients was in such poor shape that there was no way it was going to stand up to a full transport spell of the magnitude Daniel would need. And then there was the problem of what to do about power on Earth. He knew Richard had been working on something, that he had apparently usede to power the transport back to Kydance, but Daniel had no idea what that power source might have been. And then there was the fact that the method Richard had used was not terribly useful because of the time lag involved.

With a frustrated sigh, Daniel slowly stood up, stretching with a grimace as his back popped. He was standing in a high mountain meadow, the grass high and green from a good rain the week before. But today was bright and clear, the sun hot on his skin at this altitude. Finally with a shake of his head, he turned and headed back up the slope, towards the beautiful crystalline structure of the aerie. It was nearly lunchtime, and Ta'Rynn would be upset if he missed it.

Covering the ground with an easy stride, Daniel glanced back up at the sky, smiling as he caught the glints of light and the flickers of movement high above. The little ones were out playing again. It was a welcome sight, and one that brought back wonderful memories of the hatching several months before. The dragons had been kind enough to let him and Ta'Rynn attend, which he had gathered was not normally allowed.