The Cowboy Who Strolled Into Town (90 page)

Chapter 7

Even as Davron made passionate love to Molly he knew something was not right. The inkling, though far from compelling, was still there. As they lay side by side, he patiently waited for her to sleep in contentment before quietly extricating himself. In the past month since he arrived, he had long since graduated from the couch in the furthest living room, but now downstairs was where he headed.

“You feel it too?” Josh asked him from behind. Davron had not bothered putting on any lights, neither did he bother turning round at the sound of his son’s voice.

“Not only that, but something else too; I hear something.” Davron turned to face his son, “stay behind me, we cannot let them enter anywhere near the house”

There were twenty of them. All dressed in advanced, camouflage gear that blended perfectly with the night. They could not be seen with eyes, but that said nothing about the nose. Davron, who was more used to the terrain, tracked them with his nose and his ears, Josh stayed behind him. They were moving slowly towards the house. He went round the general area where he knew they were. Using stealth, he hoped to pick off their numbers. Motioning for Josh to stay where he was, he crouched forward and picked four off in quick succession, wringing their necks.

They are too many,
he thought in desperation,
and not enough time
. He recognized the slick, sterilized scent of the energy cannons they carried, knowing fully well the damage they would wreak on the house, on
his home.

“Hey! If you are looking for me then here I am!” He shouted.

The startled assailants whipped their guns around towards his voice, to find nobody. Davron had already gone round to the front, between them and the house, and picked off two, tossing their broken bodies aside, “I said over here!” The cohort was confused now, and turned to all sides to find the up till now invisible enemy, but now Davron, burst through their scattered ranks to knock down expertly knock three more down. In the ensuing confusion within their ranks, they tore apart, many of them switching on to night vision.

“Have you soldiers forgotten me so quickly, who I am? Do you even know who you are dealing with?!” Davron asked fiercely from twenty meters away, “Besides, how dare you attack your king?!”

“What king? You’re no tiger shifter! You’re just a mutt!” One of them said, and the others chorused in reply. They were all facing him now, “Who is that behind you? On the floor.”

“Like I said: Your King!” Davron shouted, “Sorry buddy.” He whispered to Josh who was lying prostrate beside him before he grabbed him by the air and tossed him, screaming with a loud swoosh, fifty meters into the air.

Josh let out a humongous burst of flame that nearly singed the air of the soldiers below him. The cohort, cowering before the sight was very visible before Davron, but he did not attack them.

“Sorry buddy, there was not enough time for any other way.” He apologized to Josh, as he dived away, from an angry burst of flame.

“This must be some trick! The dragons are no more!” The soldiers announced in disbelief. Some pointed their energy blasters at the hovering flame spewing terror, while others pointed theirs at Davron, who had changed into a lion.

“What, you call me a trick?!” Josh roared in indignation, launching a huge ball of flame into their midst, sending them scattering in all directions.

They rolled to their feet, all the guns pointed up at the volatile dragon, “The flame seems real enough,” Davron said pacing round them, and taunting them, “What are you gonna do now? You know you can’t kill him; he’s indestructible”

“Maybe we’ll just kill you and head out: it’s you we want.”

“Yes, we all know that’s a lie; you don’t work that way. I am his father; you want to try killing me before my dragon son?” Davron chuckled, a deep evil sound that would send chills down ordinary people, but these were hardened men, “You the rules, the dragon to rule us all! Drop your guns, and swear allegiance, now!”

One by one the guns clattered to the floor, followed by one knee each. Even Davron bowed his head. The rule of the dragon had returned.

“Hey, what’s going on?! Are you trying to wake up the entire city?!” Molly asked from just behind Davron, “Oh my God, is that Josh?!” she asked staring with fright at the dragon hovering above, whose wings beat with a sound like a hundred sheets flapping in unison in the wind.

“Yeah it’s me, Mom; cool huh?!

“Oh my God,” she gasped stepping back as the cohort rose from its knees, barley a collection of fluttering shadows in the dark.

“Good thing we did away with the staff huh?!” Davron said with a laugh.

****

The cohort burst out of the
saution chamber
in an expert offensive formation they had practiced many times before. Molly had put her foot down, but Josh had eventually succeeded to convince her of the futility of their mission without him. And presently he stepped out of the chamber, fully clad in combat camouflage amour given him by the cohort, with Davron by his side.

They set out at once for the dungeons. Josh all the while remarking to himself how much like a sci-fi movie this place seemed to him; all silver and shadows, along with a lot a lot of futuristic architecture and machinery. The several guards in charge of the dungeons, were caught by surprise, and taken out with swift, accurate shots from the cohort energy blasters.

Jon lay in restriction cuffs, in a cell bounded by titanium alloy on three sides, and a red-hued energy beam on the front. His head had jerked to attention when he had heard the shots, and now his slight curiosity turned to relief when he saw Davron burst through the formation of soldiers in front of his cell.

“Am I glad to see you! Now get me out of here so that I can tear the throat out from that rebel pretender Dada, and crucify that weasel Jarden!”

“Dada’s dead,” Davron said as he punched in the codes that caused the force field to turn blue, and to finally disappear, “Jarden blew his head off shortly after you passed, from what I’m hearing.” Davron was on the restriction cuffs now, “Apparently he had no intention of helping Dada get the throne, and the whole plan all along was to get you guys in the same; kill two birds with one stone sort off.”

Jon was rubbing his wrist, “That fool Dada was always too trusting, if it was not Jarden, or me, it would have been somebody else eventually.” Jon was speaking to Davron, but his eyes were directed elsewhere: at Josh who up until now had stood quietly to the side, observing the man who looked a lot like his father, only with a sterner demeanor; his uncle. In him Josh could find no trace of the playfulness he had come to love about his father.  He guessed it was the price required for ruling such a brutal climate. “And this, I presume must be my nephew.”

“Josh,” the boy spoke, stepping forward boldly.

“Yes well we can do reunions later; right now we have to hit the throne room Jarden gets wind of our arrival.” They had all agreed before coming over that they would keep Josh’s ability secret.

They were off in an instant, Jon leading the way; he had helped himself to one of the energy blasters from the fallen guards, and Josh and Davron, with a couple of the cohort were just behind. The rest, brought up, and protected the rear.

There were no altercations along the way, and in short order, they arrived at the throne room bursting through, and the cohort spreading out into attacking formation.

“It’s over Jarden!” Jon said, pulling out his hands to reveal his silver sword, “Now bring me your head.”

Josh followed Davron in as well, marveling at the shear extravagance of the giant halls furnishing.

“Funny how you could make a big deal of this. Seeing as I have as much right to rule as you do”

“I don’t have time for games uncle. You are an eagle, a bear, and a wolf, and you are soon to die!” Jon retorted, rage coursing through his body. Josh could see, however that Jarden was as cool as ice.

“A wolf?! About to die? Have you ever seen me change into a wolf, little Jon?” He asked as he began growling, transforming instantly into a snow-white tiger. He pounced at once, catching Jon off guard, who had barely had time to duck. The resulting blow he received across his forehead sent him sliding ten meters across the tiled floor. Jarden jumped at him again, aiming for his throat. Shots flew past him, fired from all angles, but they all missed. The next instant he was over a dazed Jon, but Davron, shifted into a bear, for the weight, threw himself at him, knocking him away.

Jarden scrambled to his feet, making sure to keep the bear always between him and the shooters to avoid a clear line of sight.

“You’ve been planning this all along, haven’t you?” Davron wondered, “Lying and keeping one of your shifts a secret all these years!”

Jarden’ laugh rankled over the several walls and crevices that defined the throne room, “Your shock is not half as precious as your father’s, when I ripped his heart out with my bare tiger claws.”

“You lunatic! You killed father!” Jon was growling beside Davron now, “he trusted you and you killed him!”

“And the drama goes back a thousand years,” Jarden replied poetically, clearly enjoying himself.

He attacked once more, darting forward from side to side, but now there were two against him, both bear and tiger stood their ground. Jon jumped at him, but he darted away to one side, bouncing off the floor, mouth wide open, straight at Davron, who hit him aside, sending him sliding across the floor, inadvertently, towards Josh.

Josh froze, and Jarden saw his chance to inflict some real damage, he took one giant leap and covered the ten meters between them, aiming to bite the boys head off with his razor sharp teeth. To Davron’s eternal relief, Josh came into his own, and breathed out a giant spurt of flame-the biggest he had produced so far, blowing the cat away, and burning off a huge chunk of his snow-white coat in the process.

“What just happened?!” Jarden asked lashing about blindly, his face badly burned from the fire, “What sort of trickery is this?”

Jarden looked at the boy who was still in human form with equal askance, then at his father, “Pretty hot flame for trickery.”

Josh felt the rage build up in his head as before, but now he felt he had much better control over it. He still did not know what happened, nor why it had happened, but he was beginning to understand why Davron had often resorted to the harshest measures up till now to get him to release his beast within. Sometimes life gets scary, and until then you never know what lurks within. Sometimes, in order to protect your own skin, or the people you love, you have to lose yourself to the beast inside.

Enraged, Jarden, still dazed, roared as he leapt through the air towards the boy, hateful, killer intent in his bound, “No mere child does that to me, and get to live! Nobo-“

Josh shifted in a flash, swinging his dragon tail at the advancing lion, sailing through the air. Twelve pieces of singed, snow-white furred, tiger flesh dropped, with frightening thumps, like lead to the floor. Twelve for each razor-sharp blade that had protruded out of that deadly tail; it was over almost as soon as it had begun.

Epilogue

Tears of relief flowed down Molly’s milk-white cheeks when she saw both of them across the windy expanse of the green lawn that led to the house from the fence, and she ran out to meet them, “I was fraught with worry for you two, is it over?” she asked as she hugged her son.

“Yes Mom it is.” Josh answered, his voice smothered in her bosom. She looked enquiringly at Davron over Josh’s head, and sighed with relief when he nodded gravely.

“We agreed with Jon that he would leave us alone. Josh has no interest in his throne, even though he is the rightful heir to it. He went through the whole rant about not being able to hurt family, but I have lived in my world long enough to know better.” Davron explained to her a while later, over a late breakfast the three of them were sharing, on the medium-sized table beside the glittery waters of the pool, “So to make the deal clearer, we decided that so long as we stay here, they would stay on their end. No exceptions to the rule. This basically helps them because the boy is indestructible. They can’t do anything to him.”

“No exceptions?! But that means-“ Molly was cut off by Davron’s hand  tenderly holding her chin, and his intense stare in to her eyes so that she saw that same light of commitment which she had witnessed just over a month ago, in the twilight of the furthest bedroom.

“You are my family now; you and Josh always have been for a long time now. I have no regrets.”

THE END