Authors: Rain Oxford
“He’s kind, that’s all I know.”
“Dragons are very rare. Most people do not believe in
them, and I can see why. This guy could fly around the whole world at night and
never be seen. That felt pelt of his would make him very good in the water, but
the shape of the wings would make it unnecessarily difficult to swim. The shape
of his legs indicates that he can dive in air or water very well, but he is
defiantly not a glider for the same reason he is not a swimmer.”
“How do you know so much about dragons?”
“Just because they are considered myth, doesn’t mean
I don’t believe in them. There is plenty of information out there to those who
look. I have always been fascinated in them. My father, on the other hand,
hates anything to do with them and insists they don’t exist.”
“Well, now there’s one more of them not about to die.
In the morning, we need to find him some water.”
“What if his attacker comes back?”
“It will.”
“What?!” I demanded, standing up. The dragon’s head
snapped up as well.
“I can feel it, he’s still in danger. Can’t you smell
it?” he asked. He knew about my unusual sense of smell.
“No. All I can smell is the forest, the dragon, and
you. And you don’t smell frightened.”
“I said it will come back, not that it’s here now.”
I sat down. “When I met you, you were the most
paranoid person on the planet. Anything that could go wrong did. And yet you
did what you had to do anyway.”
“I’m not that paranoid anymore. I spent too long
living alone with Divina and Kiro.”
“Why did you stop calling him Edward?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess when he stopped
being around as much. The thing is, he isn’t an uncle or mentor so much
anymore… more like a father. And I think he thinks of me as a son. Kiro has
never been comfortable as a father. I’m afraid one day he’s going to bring
another apprentice home and tell me to live with Divina. It’s only been three
years, but I have learned so much. Maybe too much.”
I patted him on the back. “Have you talked to him
about it?”
“No. He’s always going off on missions and leaving me
with Divina.”
“Maybe the problem isn’t how he feels about you.
Maybe he feels that you don’t need him anymore. Maybe he thinks you’re better
off with her, that he’s just getting in your way.”
“But that’s silly. Even without lessons in magic, I
learn life lessons from Kiro all of the time. From Divina I just learn history
and facts.”
“When did you start calling him Kiro?” I asked again.
“Why did you call him Edward? Wasn’t that your special name for him? I’d feel
pretty sad if my future son called me a nickname all his childhood and then
suddenly stopped.”
He thought about it for a while. Before he came up
with anything else to say, I fell asleep.
* * *
I woke to a sight I would never have expected; an
angry dragon’s face inches from mine. The dragon Dylan started to heal last
night was standing over me with his wings splayed out in what looked like an
attack position. When he roared, displaying his sharp teeth and rendering me
temporarily deaf, I tried to crawl back. To my surprise, it was Dylan, lying
next to me, who pinned me down. He tried to say something, but the dragon’s
next roar drowned Dylan’s words out.
The dragon turned his head to shoot fire over his
shoulder. Suddenly, something came at him from the front and attacked his neck.
He was thrown off of us and I was able to see what was really going on; we were
being attacked.
Two creatures relentlessly struck the dragon. They
were only about as tall as a draxuni, but much leaner. Black, matted fur
covered their bodies. Their heads were short with wide snouts and solid,
blood-red eyes. The fangs were so large and sharp they could barely fit in the
creature’s mouth. Their ears were pointed and sitting above their heads (much
like a draxuni’s) but they currently leaned flat in anger. They had large,
leathery black wings that were similar to the dragon’s, but somehow creepier on
these creatures.
One of them was trying to get a good grip in the
dragon’s neck with its teeth while the other was tearing at the dragon’s
injured wing. The dragon faithfully tried to cover us, even though Dylan was
now trying to get in the fight. The creatures forced the dragon to his back to
tear at his belly. In an instant, the air went from warm and humid to cold and
dry. First one, then the other creature fell over to writhe in pain. Dylan had
fierce concentration on his face.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
He winced. “Don’t talk.”
The dragon let out a cry and Dylan shuddered. The two
creatures stopped writhing, gained their footing, and quickly disappeared into
the forest. Dylan slumped against the dragon, reaching for the dragon’s torn
neck, but a faint green glow was all Dylan could manage.
“Come here,” he panted.
When I did, he took my hand with his free one.
Instantly I felt exhausted, like I had been the one to fight in battle. Even
though the encounter had lasted mere minutes, it had felt like it lasted hours.
The green glow burst into an eerie fire and the dragon sighed, relaxing. The
wounds on the dragon began to close as I grew more and more dizzy. Dylan and
the dragon passed out and I had enough time to sit down before I did too.
* * *
I woke up very comfortable with the sound of a
crackling fire and the smell of food.
“Wake up,” Dylan said insistently.
I would have grumbled at him if my stomach hadn’t
taken that moment to growl loudly. I snuggled into the warmth and opened my
eyes. I didn’t know dragons were cuddly creatures, but this one was wrapped
around me with his front leg over me. Big eyes blinked at me as if wondering
when I was getting up. I snuggled deeper under his limb.
“Oh, get up. You need to eat and then we need to wash
the dragon blood off us before we attract attention.”
I shifted the dragon’s paw off me to see that I was
indeed covered in blood. It was appalling. “How did that happen?” I demanded.
The dragon shrugged his paw back over me and laid his head down.
“The creatures attacked him over us and he lost a lot
of blood. He needs to drink some water so hurry and eat.” Dylan handed me a
stick with cooked meat on it. I took a bite and froze, not sure whether to chew
or spit it out. “I know it’s weird. I have no idea what the little mammal was,
just eat it,” he demanded.
I ate the meat with a weird, reptilian texture,
crustacean flavor, and mollusk smell.
“Any idea what those creatures were?” I asked.
Dylan shook his head. “Never seen nor heard of
anything like them. I know there are many creatures in this forest that are
undiscovered, but those guys seemed a little mythological.”
The dragon snorted.
After choking down the food, we headed for the sound
of running water. The dragon appeared to be healed and ambled along gracefully.
His wings folded safely against his back, but twitched nervously every time we
heard a particularly loud noise. We made it to the water without losing any
body parts, minus a little blood when Dylan mistook a thesper tree for an
innocent one.
“If it’s blood colored, you should probably avoid
it,” I advised.
“It’s a little more blood colored now,” he moaned.
“I’m sorry if my losing blood is inconvenient for you, but trees don’t attack
you with thorns on Earth.”
The river was calm and didn’t look too deep. Dylan
and I stripped as the dragon pounced into the creek. Since it was midday and
the clearing had plenty of sun, it was warm enough. I hated cold baths.
“Hey, when did you get a tattoo?” Dylan asked.
“A what?”
“A skin picture.”
“I know what a tattoo is. I just don’t have one,” I
insisted.
“Well then… that is a very nice birth mark that you
never had before.” He was staring intently at the back of my shoulder.
I tried to see what he was talking about, but all I
could see was a smudge of emerald green. “Oh, no. It’s probably some kind of
infection from something in this forest.”
“Yeah, sure, an infection in the perfect shape of a
dragon.”
“Really?” I tried harder to see it, but now I
couldn’t even see any green. I was interrupted by an irritated bark-like roar
and looked over to see the dragon waiting on us impatiently. Dylan and I got in
the water, which flowed calmly about waist deep. “Oh, get clean. You smell,” I
lied.
An odd huff was the only warning I got before I was
showered with hot droplets of water. I turned to him and wiped my eyes in time
to see him gather another mouthful of water and spray it all over me. Dylan
fell down, he was laughing so hard. It wasn’t long before the smell of dragon
blood was washed away and there was a new smell.
This was a malicious scent, a hungry scent. Something
was watching us and I could smell its anticipation. I narrowed in on the
direction the threat was coming from; the dragon and I both turned to watch at
the same time. Dylan noticed our hesitation. The creature slowly crawled out of
the cover of the ferns.
It was a hynerpeton; one of the smaller species of
amphibians. Like all amphibians, they are carnivorous, fast, and had strong
jaws filled with sharp teeth. Large green and black bands covered the
slime-coated skin. The poisonous bristles around its neck were flared in
warning.
“If a human saw an axolotl that was two meters long,
they would freak out, but this is smaller than any amphibian I have seen in
Duran. We should probably go.”
Shinobu, previously curled up on Dylan’s clothes,
hissed, but the beast obviously had no idea what it was dealing with.
Unfortunately, when it didn’t run from her, she retreated to the edge of the
water, then looked at Dylan as if to ask for advice. Two more hynerpeton came
up beside the first one. We couldn’t outrun them and they were very hungry.
“Go away!” I yelled. I waved my arms up. “I’m bigger
and louder than you! Go away!”
Dylan joined me. “Get back! I gave food poisoning to
the last thing that tried to eat me!” he yelled. The hynerpeton stopped,
confused.
I looked at him. “You gave Divina---”
“Shut up,” Dylan demanded.
The dragon reared up on his hind legs and let out a
deafening roar. He flapped his wings wide and brought his front legs down in a
stomp that created large waves. He displayed his tail spike above his head in
strike position. Luckily the amphibians must have decided there were easier
meals than us, and they sauntered off.
“Great. Off they go, scampering away from the bigger
monsters we have just attracted with the noise,” Dylan said. The dragon was of
like mind and quickly disappeared into the forest. We rapidly dressed and
followed.
“So is the dragon strong enough to fly?” I asked.
We nearly had to run to keep up with the black beast.
His wings angled against his back, which made him extremely streamlined. Despite
his reptilian-shaped body, he moved more like a mammal, fluently bounding over
any objects on the ground.
“Yeah, but whatever those were that attacked him are
still out there. That is weird, though. I’ve never heard of creatures like
them. I don’t like it. Why did they attack the dragon?”
“We need to name the dragon,” I interrupted.
“Ask him what his name is,” Dylan said.
“What? I don’t speak dragon.”
“Then let’s name him
Blood
. I always wanted a
dog named
Blood
,” Dylan said. While he spoke fluidly in Sudo, he said
the name in his mother language.
“Am I incorrect in my language lessons or does that
mean---”
“Oh, yes.
Blood
is blood in English. I told
you about dogs, right?”
“Yes, the little canines that are very loyal pets.
They look like draxuni. Why in the world would you want to name one of them
blood?”
“It befits a psychic dog who would gladly eat the
last woman on Earth.”
I stopped and grasped his arm. “Please tell me you
are referring to your Earth films. I can’t keep up with you when you get like
this.”
“I have not seen a movie in three years. I miss it.
Besides; being very confusing is a strong defense mechanism.”
The dragon gave us a very irritated bark and nudged
me in the back, nearly pushing me down. We followed him quickly to another clearing
with a small lake. Beyond it was a very beautiful red rock mountain.
“Um, well, not exactly what one expects to see in the
middle of a forest of monsters,” Dylan said. I had to agree.
The dragon flapped his wings once before shooting up
into the air and over the lake. We went around the lake but he took off again,
towards the mountain. He waited for us at the mouth of a cave, and when he
entered, we followed cautiously. While the entrance of the cave was dry and
plain, the deeper we wandered, the more fascinating it became.
The air and walls became wetter. After the third time
I slipped, Dylan made a torch from a random stick and part of his shirt. The
walls were dripping and there was definite growth in plant matter, but
projecting from the walls were jewels. Red, green, and purple glittering walls
made this cave quite appropriate for a dragon to hide out in. Finally, we came
to a naturally formed chamber. Cluttered in the middle was a bed of scorched
rock.
The dragon quickly blew fire at the rock and curled
up on it for a nap before the fire had completely extinguished.
“Really?” Dylan asked the dragon. “That’s why we came
here? For a nap?”
The dragon huffed at him and settled down.
“Stupid dog,” Dylan said.
I ignored the inaccuracy. “At least we’re safe here.
I think we should name him Miyo.”
The dragon and Dylan both looked at me in outrage.
“Absolutely not,” Dylan said. “His name is
Blood
.”