The Gift of Charms (9 page)

G
uya was waiting outside his cave when Yoshiko arrived, as if he’d been expecting him.

‘So you are back, smalling,’ he said as Yoshiko landed. ‘But I see actually you are not so small any more. Are you are now ready for my challenges?’

‘I am ready.’

‘Well, then, you had better come with me,’ replied Guya.

Silently Yoshiko followed the older dragon into the enormous entrance. Today it was brightly lit as daylight with a dozen fire torches and a roaring fire in the corner. They passed rows of bookcases filled with strange symbols, and dozens of tall clay vases.

Then they walked through to the left of the cave where the walls closed around them in a maze of colourful crystal. All kinds of glittering minerals grew from the stone in pinks, greens, blues and purples.

A smell of smoking herbs wafted out and there in the very far corner was the most complicated set of cauldrons he’d ever seen. Glass tubes, bubbling pans and pots joined a large copper centrepiece.

‘That is where I make the sorrel juice,’ said Guya. ‘Now, are you ready to try your first challenge?’

He pointed to the Goadah pot, which had been brought inside. It was standing right in the centre of the cave.

Looking at it again, Yoshiko realised it was far bigger than the one by the Fire Pit.

Guya watched on with interest.

Yoshiko turned his back to the pot. His arms felt back for the handles and as he bent his knees they instantly sprouted out of the pot’s sides for him. He grasped them and hauled the pot on to his back.

‘Well done! Well done, Yoshiko,’ Guya said. ‘The Goadah pot chose to help you. The Goadah pot only chooses to reveal magic to those it trusts. That is the wonder of this pot, its incredible wisdom to become
known only to the worthy! The other important thing to learn from it is that you have built up your physical strength by trying to lift it.’

Guya walked towards the pot and patted it appreciatively.

‘Task one completed, Yoshiko,’ he said as he chuckled to himself. ‘Now we must come to the second task – to fly around Dragor seven times. Do you think you can do it?’

This time Yoshiko was more than sure of himself.

‘I know I can,’ he grinned.

Yoshiko landed back on Guya’s mountain, panting but exhilarated.

‘I am back,’ he called. ‘I have circled Dragor seven times just as you wanted.’

He walked slowly towards the cave entrance, getting his breath back.

But the older dragon was nowhere to be seen.

Yoshiko headed around the edge of the cliff, where he and Guya had first watched the lake, and made out the bulk of the older dragon. Guya was seated with
his eyes closed, breathing slowly. Yoshiko approached him quietly.

‘I have flown around Dragor as you asked,’ he said gently.

Guya’s eyes snapped open. ‘Come sit here with me, Yoshiko,’ he said.

Yoshiko settled himself next to Guya. ‘While you have been gone I have been thinking. We have never talked of why I live alone on this mountain,’ said Guya. ‘I am sure you are curious.’

Yoshiko kept silent, not wanting to let on that he knew more about Guya since asking Ketu about him.

‘As you know, Dragor is only one land,’ continued Guya, ‘the other places are not hidden like Dragor, let me show you more clearly.’ Guya picked up a metal ball that was resting in his lap. ‘All of the lands rest on this circle that you see. The world is actually ball-shaped. The green, brown and yellow shown on the globe is the land. The blue part is the ocean – the great waters that seem to run forever.

‘They can be very peaceful,’ he said, ‘but then they can quickly change to storms and become dangerous. And outside of the oceans there are many battles between lands. I have a tale now to tell you.’

Yoshiko was mesmerised by Guya’s words.

‘A long time ago a dragon found a human in Dragor. It was a male human, and the dragon found him just at the boundaries of our great land, dying of cold. He had somehow climbed all of our defences – right over our enormous freezing mountain tops. This human was covered in fabrics from head to toe to try to keep warm and protect his sensitive skin but it was not protection enough and his body was giving up,’ Guya went on. ‘A dragon out in the remote mountains found him. The dragon knew that humans were the sworn enemy of dragons after they had drugged us with their herbs, trapped us with nets and held us in heavy chains. He knew that the Battle of Surion had been fought to free our kind from them, but still his heart told him that every dragon’s duty is to ensure no other creature dies when it can be saved. He carried this burden, because he feared that the Council would most likely let the human die.

‘And so the dragon decided that he would help the human on his own if he could. If the human lived, the dragon would try to get it back to the human world. If the human died he would take the body to the Council and admit what he had found.’

Yoshiko nodded as if listening to a fable, but he had realised that Guya was that dragon.

‘The dragon took the human to a secret empty cave he knew of,’ said Guya. ‘There he boiled it up some sorrel juice. Slowly the dragon fed the hot juice to the human, and to his relief it drank a little. Then it opened its eyes and the dragon could see it was very frightened. The human was very small, Yoshiko, as most humans are. They are shown in pictures as larger, but in fact a human is no bigger than your leg. The human had never seen a dragon before in the same way that the dragon had never seen a human before, and it was terrified to see the huge eyes looking down on it.’

‘What did it do?’ asked Yoshiko.

‘Well, the human was too weak to move,’ said Guya.

‘It soon realised that the large creature was trying to help it. So it stopped resisting and again began to drink the sorrel juice and after a while it said something. It said: “This is good.”’

‘It spoke?’

‘Not only did it speak,’ said Guya, ‘but it spoke a language the dragon could understand and what was more, it spoke in the old Nephan dialect. The language that we use for formal council.’

‘They speak like we do?’ Yoshiko interrupted in amazement.

‘It was the language of its own people,’ continued Guya.

‘The Nephan dialect, our dragon language, and this human’s language were one and the same. Although perhaps,’ he added, ‘with some different words and the way we phrase things here and there, but you would be able to understand this human very well, Yoshiko, if you were to meet him. The dragon and the human became friends,’ continued Guya. ‘As the human got better he was very grateful to the dragon for rescuing him. He wanted to return the favour. So whilst he was recovering he tried to share what knowledge he could with the dragon. He told him the secrets of many plants which grow in deep forest areas, new herbs for sickness – those which would heal many different illnesses that Dragor had not found answers to.

‘The dragon wanted to know the secrets of the human world. He told him that in his human world he was a man who liked reading books, who lived on an island. He spoke of the town where he lived having houses made of stone and discussed the things of times long ago which were buried in the earth.’

‘Like what?’ asked Yoshiko.

‘The human world is much, much older than Dragor,’ said Guya. ‘Over all that time many things have become buried in the ground and forgotten. They became covered deep in the soil, and it is the job of special men to find them and dig them up without damaging them. This man was in charge of finding the bones of old animals which no longer existed. He said he was called a long name – a palaeontologist.’

‘Bones of our ancestors, and dinosaurs and dragsaurs?’

Guya nodded.

‘The humans only know of dinosaur bones. They know not of dragons ever really existing or indeed about the evil dragsaurs that their myths confuse with us as they haven’t fully pieced together the history. This man, though – he had noticed something in his digging. He had found different kinds of bones. Ones with special teeth and signs of fire around them, where the others had nothing.’

‘Dragon bones?’ guessed Yoshiko.

‘Yes. Dragon bones. The Battle of Surion killed many dragons,’ said Guya, ‘and many of their dead bodies were left around the mountains which now protect Dragor. The man noticed this. He noticed the strange
bones made a ring around a set of mountains which no human had travelled into.’

‘So he decided to see what was in the mountains?’ asked Yoshiko.

‘Yes. He climbed the mountains outside Dragor on his own looking for traces of dragons. It was an ambitious plan, for the smoke from the Fire choked him, and the cold mists froze him,’ said Guya. ‘If the dragon had not found him he would have died and it would have been us, the dragons, wondering what
his
bones meant.’

‘So what happened to the human and the dragon?’ asked Yoshiko.

‘When the human was better the dragon helped him return home to his town on his home island,’ said Guya. ‘He flew him over the Surion Mountain, breaking the commandment of Goadah. And when he arrived in the human world he saw things of great beauty.’

Guya blinked away a tear that had formed in his eye.

‘So the dragon went back to the human world often?’ asked Yoshiko. ‘To see his friend?’

‘No. The dragon never returned to the human world. He stayed in Dragor and tried to live as he had always done, but this knowledge had changed the dragon and he became a hermit.’

‘I know that dragon is you. It has to be!’ Yoshiko finally announced, looking straight into Guya’s mystical eyes.

‘Yes Yoshiko. It is me. And I have observed you and in doing so put together many pieces of my own jigsaw,’ said Guya. ‘You have just circled around Dragor seven times. You have passed your second test. Now we have your final challenge. Pass this and I will tell you everything I know.’

‘
T
ask three,’ said Guya as they neared Cattlewick Cave. To its left was a much smaller cave. Inside it was a huge bundle of burning sticks that Guya had prepared. Yoshiko felt the searing heat of the cave as they approached. His stomach gave a little flip at the thought.

Guya led Yoshiko into the small fire cave and placed a nearby cauldron over the sticks.

‘You must stay inside the cave until the sorrel juice inside bubbles,’ Guya said as he exited the cave.

As the smoke closed around Yoshiko the intense heat became almost suffocating.

He gritted his teeth, willing the water to boil faster.

The sweat on his scales had become steam now, and it scalded him, rising up in a hot mist. He steadied his breathing, letting the sensation settle around him.

As the heat built it became unbearable. Every nerve in his body screamed for relief.

Everything was saying he had to quit and leave the cave. And then an inner voice spoke.
Just a little longer, Yoshiko. You can do it
.

Breathing hard he felt the heat envelop every part of his body.

And then to his relief the cauldron whistled.

Yoshiko staggered out of the fire cave, limp and exhausted, to find Guya was waiting, applauding.

‘Now I know without doubt that you have a great destiny ahead!’

‘Your path is not like mine,’ said Guya as Yoshiko regained his breath. ‘You will not dwell on an empty mountain top, though you have special gifts and this will make your life different from that of other dragons.

‘The question is – are you truly ready to discover yourself?’

Yoshiko sat absorbing Guya’s words. Since Yoshiko first met Guya his life had changed completely. Now that he could control his colour change he felt he could fit in with the other dragons his age. During his training with Romao he had built up enough fitness to become a Guard Dragon when he left Fire School and Kiara and Ketu would be proud of him.

But the realisation hit him that something much bigger stood ahead for him.

‘I do want to discover what my destiny is.’

Guya smiled. ‘I am pleased with your choice.’

The elder dragon then pressed a crystal in the wall and Yoshiko saw a complicated metal mechanism. It whirred around on cogs, revealing a secret panel that opened into a small room. Guya’s flickering candle revealed some of what was on the walls.

A mixture of strange symbols and pictures filled almost every corner of the wall.

‘No one knows who painted these images,’ Guya said, pointing at the wall in front of them. ‘This hidden cave and the images are from centuries ago, when the clans first settled here after the Battle of Surion. The symbols
have been a mystery, Yoshiko. I have dedicated the last three decades to trying to understand them, but the pictures tell an easier story.’

Different dragons were painted on the walls, from various clans. Some looked as if they were fighting with one another, and others were running from little human stick figures. In the centre of it all seemed to be quite an important image, which was slightly bigger than any of the others.

‘Do you recognise this dragon?’ Guya asked. Yoshiko looked closely. The dragon was a Nephan shape but was made up of different colours, each colour of the seven clans. ‘It’s like me,’ said Yoshiko suddenly. ‘A Nephan who changes colour.’ Guya nodded. ‘I think it was foretold that you would come here, Yoshiko,’ he said. ‘I felt when you first came to this mountain that your arrival was important.’

‘What does it all mean?’ asked Yoshiko.

Yoshiko’s eyes were following the images on the wall. Part of him doubted that the dragon drawn there hundreds of years ago could be him, yet something inside told him that his changing colour was linked to this destiny.

‘You have waited long enough,’ Guya said. ‘We will now discover the truth together.’

‘Look into the picture, Yoshiko,’ said Guya. ‘Do you see anything more?’

The painted dragon began to come to life, the colours flickered, and then it slowly opened its wings.

Yoshiko gasped out loud.

‘What do you see?’ asked Guya.

‘The dragon,’ said Yoshiko. ‘It’s opening its wings. It is starting to fly … It is definitely me! It has very large wings!’ He concentrated harder and saw the big wings flapping just like his own. Then he saw himself fly high in the sky and begin circling the globe that was painted on the wall next to it.

Yoshiko said finally. ‘I want to travel the skies. I need to go beyond the boundaries of Dragor,’ he said. ‘I can see it all, and there is something else …’ he paused. ‘I am helping the clans. I am dropping something on to them from above.’

‘What are you dropping?’ asked Guya.

‘Something precious,’ said Yoshiko. ‘It is raining down on all the dragon clans.’ From the animated dragon’s wings, glitter fell, showering down on to the cave wall in all different colours of the rainbow.

Yoshiko rubbed his eyes shocked by what he’d just seen.

Guya pointed to another part of the wall that had been dark before. Now his candle cast it in light.

‘See this picture?’ he said. ‘It is joined to the first. You are the first chameleon dragon ever known. You said it yourself when we met that first day. I did not know what it meant for Dragor but felt I must prepare you for something important. I always puzzled over this picture. You may think I seem strange, Yoshiko, but I am really no different from any other dragon – just with different experiences, and with my own unique purpose. It all makes sense now to me. You see, the human, he told me that the dragon bones that he found were not always buried alone. Some had gemstones buried with them.’

‘What would the dragons want these stones for?’ Yoshiko asked.

‘The Council keep it quiet so as not to cause alarm in our land but all dragons of Dragor are losing their talents,’ said Guya. ‘Talana dragons are not able to dig as good caves, the Bushkis are not as good with writing and organising papers and the Nephans are not as good at breathing fire.’ He waved his wings expansively. ‘These and other problems were not known before the Battle of Surion. The dragon clans are all missing something, and I believe these stones hold the answer.’

‘Why did we not bring the stones with us?’ asked Yoshiko, thinking of the Hudrahs and their black stones, and the Ageless Ones, with the opals around their necks.

‘Most stones were left in their homelands, or lost in the chaos caused by the horror of battle and bloodshed. Only a few of our stones came into Dragor. It is you who must bring them back to us. Every dragon must have his or her rightful stone,’ Guya said. ‘The human told me he would continue to travel the world’s mountains and search for more of the stones.

‘I believe you must go to him to collect the stones, to help the clans. Your wings are strong, Yoshiko, and most of all it is your colour changing that I believe will help you.’ He unfurled his great wings to reveal one of them was broken. ‘It was not my destiny to return.’

‘And if I don’t want to take such a risk?’ Yoshiko asked in a small voice.

‘If you decide this is not your path no one can make you follow it,’ replied Guya. ‘You will need to travel far. The human gave me a map that tracks both to and from where he lives. You must follow it and fly high in the sky at night and sleep away from view by day. It is a special map. It is of no use in Dragor, because what you need to see is hidden.

‘Above the smoke of the Fire Which Must Never Go Out there are tiny lights in the sky at night. The humans call them stars. They will guide you.’

‘I will go, Guya.’ Yoshiko spoke the words with certainty. ‘If I can help the clans I will go to the land of the humans and fetch the stones.’

Guya eyed him for a moment, and then nodded as if he had expected that answer.

‘You must bring the stones back here safely,’ he said. ‘Then you must find a way to spread them into the clans. Every dragon must have his or her rightful stone,’ Guya repeated.

‘When should I leave?’ asked Yoshiko.

‘By my calculations this Red Seventh Moon’ said Guya. ‘That is when you must go. The stars will shine brighter on that night than they have since your birth. You must head towards the Burial Ground. When you pass the last mountain top look east.’

He took a large parchment scroll from under his wing.

‘Here is the map of stars. Now that is all the help I can give you. Fail, Yoshiko, and you will never solve the problems of our land.’