Ramaeka (The Ramaeka Series Book 1) (7 page)

“Where are you
leading me little one?” she asked abruptly.

He looked up
at her pleadingly. 

“You have to
help my friend escape and take her to Isahn,” he said in a rush, terrified she
would get angry and leave.

She ran a hand
through her hair frowning. 

“I didn’t come
here to get mixed up in a dragon’s debate.”

“Not a dragon,”
he interrupted her.  “A human.”

She looked at
him intently. 

“Tell me
everything as we walk,” she said calmly.

So he did,
from the arrival of Alekra to his talk with Isahn.  He explained his father’s
plans and his visits with the human prisoner.  Through the whole thing the
investigator listened silently, nodding to herself occasionally.  When he was
finished, she looked at him.

“Let’s get
your friend to a safer place.”

Ramaeka beamed
and hurried along the passage.

Upon reaching
the cell they discovered four guards lounging about outside it.  They were
joking and talking, never even noticing the approach of the sleep spell that
the Investigator laid on them.

Ramaeka was
thoroughly impressed; he hoped he would be half as efficient one day.  His
companion gesture him forward.

“She’s your
friend,” she said calmly.  “Tell her she must come with me.”

He moved
forward and peered into the small cell. 

“Alekra,” he
whispered.

The human
clambered to her feet her anxious expression clearing as she saw his face.  He
felt the Investigator move to stand beside him.  Alekra frowned and looked at
him nervously, now was the time to see if the spell worked.

“This is a
friend,” he told her pointing at the Investigator.  “You have to go with her.”

Alekra’s eyes
widened in surprise. 

“I can
understand you!”

The
Investigator put her hand to the bars of rock which melted away before
Ramaeka’s eyes.

“Come,” she
told the human firmly.

Alekra
hesitated then walked out of the cell.  Ramaeka grinned happily and hugged
her.  She hugged him back fiercely, pulling back to look at him anxiously. 

“Will you come
too, Ramaeka?”

“No,” he told
her sadly.  “My father would hunt me down; you definitely wouldn’t be safe if I
came along.  But I’ll show you out.”

“Alright then
Ramaeka,” the Investigator interrupted.  She looked at him with respect.  “Show
us out of this snake pit.”

He did so
gladly, whispering quietly to Alekra in delight.  He could understand
everything she said and she could understand him!

It was
possibly the best ten minutes of his life.

His heart
ached as he led the two of them out of the fortress and into the open.  The
investigator transformed into her greater form and waited patiently for the two
to say goodbye.  However before he could say anything Ramaeka heard a roar
reverberate through the fortress.  He grabbed Alekra and shoved her up onto the
dragon. 

“Go,” he shouted
at them.  With a bound the dragon was in the air, and shooting away at an
incredible speed.

He had no more
time to think after that.  With a snarling roar his father bound like an
immense shadow from the mountain.

“You!” Ramanae
snarled at his son.  “Do you know what you have done?”

Ramaeka
cowered away from his father, terrified.  He transformed quickly, forcing
himself to concentrate mind racing.  It would take a lot more skill and power
than he had to stay alive in a fight against his father let alone beat him. 
But if he could distract him long enough for Alekra to escape it would be worth
it.

“Months of
planning have been for nothing.” 

Flecks of
saliva rained down around Ramaeka, his father was so furious.

Ramanae bared
his teeth at his son in fury. 

“I should have
killed you when you were born you earthbound little lizard.”

As the great
black dragon towered above him; he crouched low to the ground trying to draw
power from the meagre amount of earth that collected in the cracks of the
rock.  With a roar his father launched himself at Ramaeka; he dodged, swinging
to the left.  With a bound he leaped up the cliff face narrowly avoiding the
razor sharp end of his father’s tail.  With incredible swiftness his father
turned and shot a spell at him causing him to drop down the cliff as the stone
exploded around him.  Rocks battered his body, stunning him temporarily
allowing his father to grab him with one massive claw.  His claws ripped
through Ramaeka’s side sending him spinning onto the cliff edge in front of his
father who promptly pinned him with his claw.  Ramanae roared in triumph as
Ramaeka struggled desperately, his side burning in agony. 

Frantically he
looked around for any way of escape as his father leaned forwards, his immense
fangs bared.  Twisting his head around he bit deep into his father’s middle
claw, his jaws meeting in the middle.  With a yell of pain his father released
him, drawing back momentarily.  It was long enough, Ramaeka rolled across the
ground and over the cliff edge.  Clutching his side he managed to half open his
wings, slowing his fall before hitting the icy cold water of the river. 

Weak from
blood loss he struggled to the surface, gasping for air.  As the fuzzy black
edges of his vision began to close in he looked back to see the cliff rapidly
falling back, his brothers and sisters launching themselves over the side of
the cliff as his father roared at them.  Turning away he let the river carry
him away as he relaxed into unconsciousness.

Chapter Three

Ramaeka awoke
to blinding pain.  His entire side felt like it had been trampled by a wavaki
then munched on by a giant flesh eating cave worm.  He groaned and tried to
touch his ribs, however before his hand got close a strong hand grabbed his
wrist.

“Easy there kid,”
a warm voice said from somewhere above him.  Opening his eyes he found himself
staring in to a pair of grey eyes.  Which were rather unsurprisingly attached
to a face.  He blinked as the face pulled back slightly and into better focus. 
The face was attached to a dragonet just above his own age; he had a strong,
kind face and blond hair which was marred by a single black streak that ran
down over his eyes.

“Hey there,”
the dragonet said smiling at him.  “It’s good to see you awake.  Those are some
wicked scratches you’ve got there, looks like you tangled with a dragon or
something.”

Ramaeka
blinked again and looked closer at the figure above him.  He was human. 
Suddenly everything that had happened came rushing back to him.  Alekra!  And
his father had tried to kill him.  He sat up, gasping as pain hit him.

“Where am I?”

“Hey easy,”
the boy said gently pushing him back down.  “You’re in the Capri Mountains,
north of Talok city.”

“Which world?”
he gasped.

“Looks like
whatever got him rattled his brains as well,” said a sarcastic voice to his
right.

Jumping,
Ramaeka looked over to see another young male human tending to a fire.  This
one had black hair that stood up in spikes and large amber eyes set in a thin
face.

“Aw leave him
alone Shady,” growled the first boy, he looked back down at Ramaeka.

“You’re in
Skyde, which is the only world I know about,” he told him calmly.  “You should
get some more rest, that wound and a ride over those falls would have killed
most people.”

Ramaeka leant
back obediently, his eyes already heavy.  Before he succumbed to sleep, he
managed a smile.

“Thanks,” he
mumbled.

When he woke
up again, the blonde human was sitting cleaning a long sharp looking knife. 
There was no sign of the sarcastic dark haired one.  He sat up carefully.

“You’re awake,”
the blonde jumped up and rushed over to him.  He felt Ramaeka’s forehead and
checked the bandages on his side quickly as Ramaeka watched in fascination.  He
supposed he had somehow slipped into a human world while he was in the water.

“Here,”
offered the boy holding out a cup.  He took it and carefully sipped at the
contents, it was a broth of sorts though he couldn’t place the meat.  I hope
it’s not dragon he thought queasily.

“My name’s
Stripe by the way.”  The boy, Stripe, was watching him with interest.

“Stripe?” he
grinned despite himself, a most fitting name he thought.  The boy grinned
tugging sheepishly on the black lock of hair that hung over his eyes.

“Yeah that’s
what the folk that took me in called me; they didn’t really like me too much
though.”

“My family
didn’t like me much either,” Ramaeka replied shyly.  “I’m Ramaeka.”

“Nice,” Stripe
grinned.  “So Ramaeka what’s a kid like you doing way out here by yourself? 
Did you actually get attacked by a dragon?”

“Well, yes,”
Ramaeka hesitated unsure of how much to tell the boy. 

“I’m sort of
on the run from my father.”

Stripe smiled.

“S’ok, me and
Shady ran out on our families too.  Where exactly are you headed?”

“I’m not sure,”
he admitted.  “I don’t even know how I got here.”

“Maybe the
dragon caught you and flew you here to eat”

He winced at
that.

“No I don’t
think so.  It grabbed me but I managed to get away by jumping into the river.”

Stripe
frowned.

“Seriously it
was a dragon?  We better move in case it comes back.”

“It’s okay,”
he said quickly.  “I mean, I think I was swept pretty far along through the
mountains.”  He recalled Stripe mentioning that he only knew of one world, it
might be better not to bring up the fact that there were others.

Stripe seemed
to ponder that.

“All right, I
reckon maybe it’s alright then,” he looked at Ramaeka impressed.  “I can’t
believe you survived a dragon attack though, that’s impressive.”

Embarrassed
Ramaeka looked down, it was better if Stripe didn’t know the truth.  Rough
bandages around his chest and stomach caught his attention.  He ran his fingers
over them wondering how bad it was.

“You’re
actually healing really fast,” Stripe told him.  “In fact it’s a bit strange;
I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Ramaeka
shrugged uncomfortably. 

“Really?  How
long is it supposed to take?”

“A wound that
size most people wouldn’t get the chance to heal from, but if they did probably
a month or so at least.”

Surprised
Ramaeka touched his wound again; he could feel the skin healing together.  He
had always taken it for granted that wounds, even severe ones healed within a
few days.  Obviously this was not a trait that he shared with humans.

“Um, my people
have always healed really fast,” he told Stripe nervously.

“Lucky, I take
ages to heal up,” Stripe groaned.

“So what
exactly do you and Shady do?” he asked curious.

“We
appropriate and then we sell,” replied Stripe with a wicked grin.  “It’s what
most street kids like us do.”

“Appropriate?”

“Steal.”  Shady
walked out of the surrounding forest.  “We steal.  You got a problem with that?”

“Not really,”
he replied honestly.

Shady scowled
at him then flopped down next to Stripe who had settled back down to cleaning
his big knife again.

“What’s that
for?” he asked curiosity making him bold.

Stripe looked
up and blinked in surprise.

“It’s a sword.” 

Ramaeka looked
at him blankly. 

“Er, it’s a
weapon to fight off enemies with,” Stripe explained.  “Here I’ll show you.”  He
jumped up eagerly, Shady rolled his eyes.

“Here we go”
he muttered to himself.

Ramaeka
watched in fascination as the blond boy swung the big blade around expertly. 
He spun it so fast he could barely see the gleaming blade, neatly switching
hands half way through.  Then with a cry he gave it a twist and flick and the
blade landed with a thud in the trunk of the tree next to Ramaeka who flinched.

“Wow,” he said
in amazement, ignoring his wound he knelt and tugged on the handle.  It was
deeply embedded in the tree and he had to pull several times before the blade
slid out.

“That was
amazing.”

He carefully
handed the blade back to the grinning boy.

“I’ve never
seen anything like that before.”

“I taught
myself,” Stripe said with open pride.  “I spent months spying on the army
training in my old city.”

“Yeah, but
then you got caught,” said Shady dryly.

“I didn’t get
caught,” Stripe protested.  “I almost got caught.”

He turned to
Ramaeka grinning.  “They grabbed me by my pants as I was going over the fence.”

“So what did
you do?” Ramaeka asked in fascination.  Stripe was possibly the most
interesting person he had ever met before.  To his surprise Stripe blushed.

“Well, my
pants were a few sizes too big for me so I wiggled out of them and over the
fence.”

“He had to run
the whole way through the city completely naked,” Shady sniggered.

Stripe flushed
as Ramaeka laughed as well. 

“You’re just
jealous,” he told Shady.  “Everybody got see what an amazing body I have, they
were all over me for weeks after that.”

Shady rolled
his eyes.  “You were only eight at the time, they thought it was cute.”

Ramaeka
watched and listened in fascination as the two humans argued.  He had never met
anybody like these two.  Alekra had been much older and calmer, plus they had
never really had the chance to talk properly to each other.  His family were
cold and distant with each other, each looking for a way to get ahead of the
rest.  Even Bakara, though kind, had been distant to him through age.  These
two were completely different, especially Stripe who almost glowed with
energy.  He hoped that they would allow him to stay with them for a while at
least, just until he figured out what to do.  Ramaeka pushed away his concerns
laughing as Stripe dropped a worm down Shady’s shirt.