Boelik (21 page)

“
Every bit. The girl was an
ancestor of yours. Ryan’s eyes were mismatched like your father’s.
His human eye was the left one, and looked just like your father’s
as well.”

“
His ‘human’ eye? Was he a
half-demon too, then?”

Bo nodded. “He was.”

“
Are you going to leave
that behind?” Kian asked then, nodding at the hat.

“
I don’t know
yet.”

Kian and Bo both stared at the gray hat for a
moment. “I think you should take it,” Kian said at last, just as Bo
decided for himself.

Bo shook his head. “I can’t.”

“
Then…I’ll keep it for you.
For the next time. Then you can take it back. Right?”

“
Right,” Bo
agreed.

With a sigh, Bo looked up into the trees and
listened to the distant birdsongs. Everything felt so surreal, with
the withering cabin behind, the peaceful forest ahead, a new
country in the future, and a fully-grown Kian next to him. He
glanced over at his friend and sighed, facing away again. “When did
you grow?”

“
Oh, just about every night
since I was born.” Bo gave him a baleful glare, and he laughed.
“You’re always too serious. One of us has to crack jokes, at least
once in a while,” Kian yawned, stretching his arms out. “Ah,” he
sighed, relaxing and looking ahead. “It’s still so nice today,
too.”

“
It is,” Bo agreed. Kian
peeked at him and returned his gaze to the woods, stroking the
brown stubble on his chin.

“
You know, I look older
than you now,” he commented.

Bo glanced at him. “You’re right,” he said,
facing away again. “Old man.”

Kian laughed.

They sat there well into the afternoon,
content to chat. As Bo looked up at the sky and saw fiery colors
seeping through the leaves, he said, “It’s time to meet my
transport.”

“
Already?” Kian
asked.

Bo nodded and stood, handing him Ryan’s hat.
“Come on.”

Kian took the hat, and they walked along the
path, over the bridge and through the woods to the field. They
waited for a few minutes, turning to look at the sunset over the
trees. Then, in the distance, they heard something like thunder.
Kian scowled up at the sky and said, “Well, it seemed like a nice
enough day.”

“
It still is. I promise
you, that isn’t thunder,” Bo said with a smirk, not taking his eyes
off of the sky. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kian look at
him questioningly.

Before long, Dayo was in sight, and Kian was
standing dumbfounded as the unicorn dragon landed in front of him.
He closed his eyes and braced himself as the draft Dayo created
nearly blew him away, then went back to gawking. Bo laughed.

“
Nice to see you again,
Dayo!” Bo called.

Dayo rumbled upon spotting Bo and then Kian’s
face. “Boelik,” Dayo said.

Kian started, obviously hearing him too. He
stared at Dayo’s face, trying to determine if he heard what he did
or not.

“
And who is this young
fellow?”

“
Uh, I’m, er…Kian,” he
stammered. “Nice to…meet you, I guess?”

“
And you,” Dayo said, his
rumbling laughter coming again.

Bo laughed with him for a moment before
turning to Kian. “Well, Kian, I’ll be seeing you,” he said, hazel
eyes shining.

“
I hope so,” Kian replied,
giving another quick glance at Dayo before turning to Bo. “I’ll
visit you sometime. Where’ll you be?”

“
I’ll be-” Bo started
before Dayo interrupted.

“
In America. I’ll come back
and get you some time and take you out there,” Dayo
offered.

Kian stared for a moment at the dragon before
nodding. “Thank you,” he said. Dayo dipped his head.

“
Then I guess I’m off,” Bo
said.

“
I’ll see you soon,” Kian
said, pulling him in for an embrace. Bo patted him on the
back.

“
All right, but only if you
don’t crush me first.” Kian let go and Bo gave him a smile.
We
will
see each other
again.

Dayo rumbled for Bo to hurry. “It’ll be worse
if you dally,” he warned. Bo nodded to him, then grabbed his sack
of supplies where he’d stored food and his cloak.

“
Good-bye,” Bo called,
mounting Dayo. He waved at Kian from above, and Dayo leapt off and
away.

Kian waved as he shrank to the size of an
ant, and Bo guessed that if he’d had Ryan’s vision, he’d have been
able to see him waving still long after that.

“
Do you regret leaving him
behind?” Dayo asked as they flew.

Not at all,
Bo
replied.
I know I’ll see him again. I only regret
that I didn’t know how to reassure him of such like Olea could
have.

“
He’ll be fine. Maybe now
he can find a woman to spend his time with instead.”

Bo snorted.
I fear he may
be a bachelor forever. He hasn’t talked of women since he was
young.

“
He may be taking after
you.”

Dayo.

The dragon rumbled beneath him, flapping his
great wings as they rose above the clouds. “Sorry. You did fall
into that one, however. Anyhow, I’d be more worried about getting
some sleep if I were you. We’ll be passing over an ocean. I hope
you packed food.”

I did. How long will this
take?

“
About a day in
whole.”

Are you sure you can still
go that long without stopping?

Dayo snorted. “Positive. Now sleep, and by
the time you wake I will probably be at the other coast.”

If you say so,
Bo
replied, cozying into Dayo’s fur before falling fast asleep.

***

Dayo ended up being more than right; Bo
actually slept for most of the ride. When he awakened, they were
soaring over a large body of water. The sunset shone over it,
turning it into liquid gold, the waves glittering. Bo asked if they
were in America.

“
We’ve been in America the
last few hours,” Dayo replied, amused. “This is the lake called
Superior. Michigan is surrounded by five of the largest freshwater
lakes in the world.”

Oh.

“
There is this, Superior,
then there are Michigan, Erie, Ontario, and Huron.”

I get it, Dayo. A lot of
water. I don’t really believe that I need a geography lesson.
Except maybe as to where to find these dragons of yours.

“
Fine, I’ll get to that.
After we land.”

On the ground at last, Bo sat cross-legged on
the forest floor. Dayo had carefully landed in a grove of trees and
lay next to Bo like a giant cat. “So,” Bo asked, “where are these
dragons of yours?”

“
Well, they won’t exactly
look like dragons, typically,” Dayo said, peering at Bo from the
corner of his eye.

“
Changelings?”

“
All that remains of the
species of dragons. Besides me, of course.”

“
How exactly am I supposed
to find them, then?”

“
Generally, they will be
cold and rather factual, and less social with others. What may be
more helpful, though, is the fact that fire-breathers will be the
most common to receive information.”

“
How is that
helpful?”

Dayo snorted, as if the answer were obvious.
“Fire-breathers stink of sulphur, even as humans. So either they
will continue to stink like rotten eggs, or they will wear a false
scent strong enough to mask that.”

“
So I look for humans with
an overpowering scent?”

“
Yes. Hang close to them
and eavesdrop.”

“
Where should I
search?”

“
Hm…” Dayo rumbled in
thought. “Well, I thought you should try the small mountain area.
Arvon. It’s to the east of here. We tend to like meeting in high
places, and as remote as we can get is all the better.”

“
Why didn’t you land
there?” Bo asked.

Dayo snorted and shifted his large head to
better stare at Bo. “And cause suspicion? Among dragons? Bo, their
eyesight is keen. They would have spotted you on my back
immediately, and it would be clear to them that you weren’t one of
us the moment we landed. No, the more I can make it look like a
passing dragon, the better. You shall simply have to deal with the
run.”

“
All right, I understand,”
Bo sighed.

“
At the very least, I can
tell you that we are creatures of habit. And the habit around the
ones you are looking for is to have a meeting every season. The
next one of which just so happens to be in two night’s
time.”

“
Dayo! Why didn’t you
start
with that?” Bo chastised. Dayo
rumbled a laugh.

“
Because it
is
somewhat entertaining to frustrate you, my
friend.”

Bo groaned. “You’re rude.”

“
I’m an old dragon who
enjoys his few pleasures.”

“
I see harassing me is one
of them.”

“
Naturally.”

The two bantered onwards into the night, when
Dayo at last bade Bo farewell and flew off under the blanket of
darkness. Bo stood, stiff, and looked to the east, trying to find
the peak of a mountain. Seeing nothing, he sighed and leapt into
the trees, heading off anyway.

Mount Arvon was a rather large hill, Bo
realized, arriving at last. It was certainly an extreme compared to
the plains he’d been living in within the last couple of centuries.
It was the second sunset since he’d arrived in America, and he
crouched in a tree and watched it as it painted the mountain with
its light.

Bo waited at the mountain’s base in his tree
until night fell, when he began to hear something like thunder. He
looked up into the moonless night sky, and saw a dark silhouette
only discernable by the absence of stars it created. It landed
higher on the mountain, and Bo detected a strong smell of sulphur.
After the first came four more, each varying in shape and size, and
Bo followed the five onto the mountain.

When he got up to the dragons, they were
already changed and putting on their clothing. He couldn’t see very
well, so they looked rather like dark shadows that moved without
hosts. Still, Bo managed to sneak closer and open his ears to the
conversation.

“
So, Droka, seems one of
your friends had a little secret,” said one voice, a gruff male who
growled the word ‘friends’.

“
What would that be?” The
responding voice sounded much younger, like a young-adult boy. He
seemed to be acting intentionally relaxed.

“
Oh, just that he was a
half-demon.” This one was an older woman, with a voice like
ice.

“
Do explain,” came another
man’s voice. He sounded middle-aged and matter-of-fact.

“
Well, one was attacked by
the demon Oni. He then proceeded to rampage and turn into a demon
himself. I had a raven friend flying overhead who saw it all. Then
the boy turned back to his human self after his friends took him
down. It seems he managed to take down a white she-wolf before it
ended, however,” the first voice said.

“
Did she…die?” Droka asked.
Bo had to strain his ears to hear.

“
No clue. My friend came
straight to me with the news after the boy turned back. I haven’t
sent anyone back to check since then. By the sound of it, however,
it did not look good.”

“
Which one was it? That
turned into the demon?”

“
The one with the dark
hair. The black wolf,” the woman said. The dragons were quiet for a
while.

A fifth voice spoke then. It was another
young-adult, this one female with a gentle lilt to her voice. “At
least no one else saw, right? After all, they are in the middle of
the woods.”

“
True,” the middle-aged man
replied. “But we cannot afford to forget that the Sault is only
twenty some miles north of there. Several thousand live there in
close proximity. If he were to do that, there, then…news would
spread like fire. Humans couldn’t handle it, or him.”

“
We would have to remedy
the situation as best we could,” the older woman said.

“
You mean kill all those
people,” Droka replied, lowering his voice.

“
We would do what was
necessary.”

“
You couldn’t!” the young
woman’s voice came again, appalled. “We’re supposed to
protect
people, remember?”

“
It would be for the
greater good.”

“
She’s right,” the gruff
voice agreed.

“
I don’t think she is,” the
middle-aged man said.

“
I agree. If we missed even
one, for example, it would give them the opportunity to see us,”
Droka said. “And then we would be seen as monsters just as much as
demons. Besides, how would we make it look like a human
action?”

“
Droka?”
the young female hissed at him.

“
I have to put it into
their terms, Opal. I apologize,” he replied in a low voice. The man
with the gruff voice snorted.

“
Your point is made. But
what, then, do you intend for us to do? Sit idly by while this new
development rages on and ruins centuries—no, millennia—of
secrecy?”