Chapter 30
Iza
~
I spotted a wagon below and descended. This is much farther than I’d ever flown from the lair before, and the exertion tugged upon my shoulders, though the day is still young. For some time I’d worried I’d overflown my friend, perhaps hidden by a canopy of trees, not that the plain is overly encumbered with trees. My chest rattled, eager to learn if this wagon held Lucas. By the storm of emotion brewin’ in my breast, I knew it did.
The human faces that peered up at me far below proved quickly enough I was correct. I pulled in my wings and plunged in a spiral, the speed of my descent exhilaratin’, but nothin’ like the anticipation of my reunion with Lucas. I reluctantly spread my wings to slow, and circled, with a dozen powerful strokes to land behind the wagon, not to stampede the horses.
Not even settled, Lucas ran against me at nearly a full tilt. He bounced off me, both of us gruntin’ through our laughs of joy. The human boy threw his arms around me, and I arched my neck to hold him against me. An enormous bevy of gnomes blinked in and about with curiosity.
Neither the boy or I said a thin’ for a long moment. Lucas interrupted the silence first.
“I can’t believe how much ya’ve grown.”
“Mo’sale says I’ll be bigger than Ash’et.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Lucas said.
“Yar voice is different.”
“I started croakin’ one mornin’ around mid-winter. Thought I caught the croup. Mama laughed and said it was all me. Ya might notice I’m a lot taller now, too.”
I uncoiled and flattened upon the road to get lower. He backed away several steps, arms extended, and I peered eye-to-eye at him. “Sorry, I cannot see it.”
He laughed. “It’d be easier if ya weren’t as tall as a tree yarself, now.”
I rolled my head with a joyous enthusiasm I couldn’t, nor wished, to control. I know my eyes whirled, and in sudden embarrassment, closed both sets of lids a moment to hide them.
Ash’et would be mortified, the way I’m actin’. But I don’t care. She only knows one emotion, and it isn’t joy.
A cleared throat brought the two of us back to Earth for a moment. We turned our attention to Lucas’ grandparents, who had gotten down from the wagon, stood arms linked around each other’s waists, gazin’ at me and Lucas.
“Ya’re lookin’—beautiful, Iza’loch,” the man said.
I expect dragons look as unattractive to humans as humans look to me—except for Lucas, of course. I trumpeted, amused by my own humor. The emotion brought a slew of new gnomes. I tried to ignore the pesky thin’s, extended the forward edge of my wing, pushin’ a few gnomes aside, and the man took a claw and shook it in the best facsimile of a handshake the two races can muster. Lucas’ grandmother followed suit, though her cheeks hued red.
“Yar Standish sounds almost human, now, Iza,” the woman said.
“No need to be insultin’,” I said.
The woman’s face transitioned from sun-hued to crimson.
“She’s kiddin’, Grandma,” Lucas shrieked, grinnin’ broadly.
His grandfather laughed, and the woman hid her face with a hand. I struggled to keep my head from swayin’. I lunged to snuggle again with Lucas. Misjudgin’ my strength, gave the slight human quite the shove. He grabbed my neck in an embrace.
The four of us chatted for a few more minutes. But the grandfather interrupted our excited greetin’. “We have to get goin’ if we’re gonna get to the Inn by nightfall.”
Lucas encouraged his grandparents to go on ahead. “We’ll catch up,” he said.
His grandfather gave him an odd look, and took a little more urgin’ before he helped his mate up into the wagon, and shooed the horses forward. Lucas and I walked along slowly without speakin’ at first, watchin’ the wagon move over a near, shallow rise. I didn’t look forward to bein’ on the ground long. There is nothin’ beautiful about a dragon’s gait, unless ya think a gimpy goose walks eloquently.
“Ya never told them ya’d be able to fly on my back, did ya?” I asked.
“Are ya kiddin’? The suggestion alone would have frozen them with apoplexy. They’d have forbidden it. Much better to show them how safe it is, than try to convince them beforehand.”
“Sounds rather deceitful,” I said.
“How happy was Ash’et to hear Syl bonded with an orc, and flew all over the valley with him?” Lucas asked.
I felt cross-eyed, as I worked to keep my eyes from whirlin’ in consternation. I studied the stones beside the wheeled path as I struggled to drag each taloned claw forward.
I hate walkin’. Such an inefficient mode to get about.
“Asr will probably fly Tir when he gets a little stronger,” I mumbled. “That ogre is considerably heavier than the orc Janding.”
“I don’t think my grandparents will be too surprised when we show up,” Lucas said. The boy’s eyes widened and he sprinted toward a tree. I used a flutter of my wings to join him.
“What is it?” I called.
“Have ya ever tried an apple?” Lucas asked.
What hung from the limbs was nothin’ more than nibs, but Lucas sliced one open with his pocket knife and gave it a nibble. He scrunched up his face in disapproval. I wasn’t surprised. Ren has spoken about harvestin’ apples in the autumn.
“It smells, interestin’,” I offered, reachin’ out to smell it. Nothin’ like what the ogres use to create their cider.
“In a few months they’ll still be green, but be this big.” He wrapped his fingers around a fist-sized space. “I’ll give ya a taste then. They’ll pucker yar lips.”
I plopped down and extended my wings, suddenly sleepy under the warm sun. It’s so much warmer on the plains. The penetratin’ rays felt glorious.
Why do dragons live in the highest peaks anyway?
I know the answer of course. Humans, and those stinkin’ dwarves, had hunted my kind for an uncountable number of millennia. The high crags accorded protection. Lucas lay in the grass next to me and leaned into my shoulder. I snuggled him inside my curled neck.
Why had there been such distrust between our kind?
I love my Lucas so much.
He talked. I listened. The words sounded like poetry, especially in his new, deeper voice, even though I’d already heard most every story, communicated in our shared dreams. I closed my eyes and half-dreamed, lost in the joy of bein’ reunited with my only friend. Not correct. I’ve become very fond of the ogre, Ren, and even her littlest siblin’, the devilish Ike.
Lucas pointed out shapes in the clouds as a good hour passed. I barely managed to half-prop up an eyelid to look at the next fluffy puff.
He has such an amazin’ imagination.
He nudged me awake. “We need to go. My grandparents will be worried.”
I stood slowly and Lucas looked up at me, not movin’.
“Are ya scared?” I asked.
He nodded.
“But ya’ve ridden on my back hundreds of times in our dreams. What’s different?”
“This isn’t a dream.”
I trumpeted, and weaved my head, but I stopped when I realized he wasn’t amused. “What’s wrong?”
He looked up in the sky, not speakin’ for a moment. “I remember how cold it is. I left my jacket on the wagon.”
I suspect the cold isn’t what bothered him. I leaned down and he lay across my shoulder. I raised him up and he slid upon my back, where he nestled between my dorsal ridges. “Ya feel exactly as ya did in our dreams,” I told him.
He grunted.
As he squirmed to find a natural position, I extended my wings to stretch from the lazy afternoon spent soakin’ up the sun. My stomach growled.
Would I be able to take a deer if I saw one on our way to the valley?
Lucas was already startin’ some kind of whine in anticipation of my launchin’. Safe to say that huntin’, with him on my back, is out of the question.
He gripped the loose hide that folded against my ridges, and I took that as my prompt he was ready. I leapt into the air and his whinin’ turned into a scream, I assume a human response to excitement. I worked my wings but flew only a bit above the wavin’ grass of the plain, where it’s warmer.
“Is it not beautiful?” I asked. Even this low.
He remained silent.
“Lucas?”
“I’ll tell ya when I can open my eyes,” he shouted.
I trumpeted. Such a wit. I love him so much.
It only took me a few minutes to cover the distance it would take Lucas’ grandparents an hour to traverse, and the terrain of the countryside changed quickly. We passed human farms where the land dipped into shallow valleys that were less arid. The domestic creatures about panicked at sight of me.
Lucky I don’t hunt yar kind.
Soon the homesteads spread farther apart, until the forest thickened as the terrain rose, and evidence of humans, except for the two-track trail, disappeared. I ascended as the rollin’ hills folded into peaks that rose and fell into shallow valleys, only to rise higher. The air chilled.
“Are ya cold?” I asked.
“Freezin’.”
I bugled in alarm, but he reassured me. “It isn’t much farther anyway, is it?”
If only I could turn and look into his eyes. I didn’t want to tell him we were less than half-way.
“Do ya wish to stop and warm up?”
“Where?” he asked. “It won’t be much warmer down there in the shadows of those trees.”
“I can find a clearin’,” I offered. “I can’t land among the trees anyway.” Did he press his face into my hide? If that is what I felt, his face was very cold indeed.
As soon as I saw the wagon that surely carried Lucas’ grandparents, I swooped low over the trees. They were well into the tall pines. I had no chance of landin’ close to them, until they broke through the trees and entered the far valley. I circled again, hopin’ the humans would be able to see that their grandson’s on my back, so they wouldn’t worry. Or. Would that be more frightenin’ to them?
I had to turn south. The flight to meet them this mornin’ had tired me when I didn’t carry a near adult-sized human. No takin’ advantage of the updrafts at the elevation I normally flew. I pressed hard for the Inn.
The trek took another hour. Exhausted, I glided for the broad lawn before the Inn, and settled as softly as I could a wing-span away from the steps. The gnomes immediately popped in around us, their irritatin’, high pitched voices more gratin’ than usual. A call rang out, about “a dragon and its rider.” Other humans sittin’ on the veranda stood and gaped. I leaned forward, and spoke to none of them in particular.
“Can ya help?” I asked. “Lucas has struggled with the cold.”
Before any of them acted, my old troll friend, Eina, ran down the veranda steps. As tall as she is, she only reached Lucas’ foot.
“Slide down, lad. I’ll getcha.”
“Ya wouldn’t believe what it’s like,” Lucas said. “Nothin’ will ever be able to top this.”
I twisted around but still couldn’t clearly see the boy’s face. “Are ya all right, Lucas?”
“Absolutely,” he half-screeched. “A little cold, like a hard snowball, but this was the best day of my life.”
Laughs echoed from the veranda and a great sense of relief rushed over me. As Lucas slid into Eina’s arms, I thought about his grandparents, the pain Mo’sale had experienced when I was late returnin’ to the lair the previous year.
“I should go meet yar grandparents,” I said. “I don’t want them to worry.”
“I’m worried more about their anger,” Lucas said, as Eina lowered him to the ground. He shivered, and plunged his hands into his pockets. “I waved as we flew over ’em. Pretty sure they saw me.”
“Ya, go sit a spell by the fire inside,” Eina grumbled at the boy.
Lucas grimaced, but I gave him a shove that propelled him toward the stairs. Laughs flowed from the veranda.
“And ya,” Eina said. “Yar stomach is growlin’ somethin’ awful. Have ya eaten in the last couple days?”
I lowered my head. I am a bit hungry.
“Ya best go hunt somethin’ down before ya lose the last of the sun,” the troll commanded.
I thought a moment, as Eina strode for the stairs. I extended my neck to bring my head down to the troll’s height, and looked her eye-to-eye. “I must go meet Lucas’ grandparents,” I argued.
“Think of Lucas, if not yarself,” Eina growled. “I know the two of ya will be curled up together tonight in the barn. How will he sleep with yar stomach churnin’ through the night?”
I managed not to trumpet at her humor. There were already enough busybody gnomes around. A few of them were even rubbin’ down my wings.
Pesky, but carin’ little beasts.
I closed my inner eyelids and felt my head wobble with emotion.
“Go.” Eina growled. “Get yarself somethin’ to eat if there’s any to be found nearby. If Kelhin or Janding is about, I’ll send one of ’em off to assure the grandparents.”
~
Night gathered by the time I returned, sated if not filled. I had lucked upon a herd of young bucks a couple ridges away. The animals were more concerned with their ruttin’ practice than a chance predator, and I had snatched one in each taloned mitt before the mob was even aware of me.
I landed a ways from the boardwalk and groomed in the shallows, mindful of the chill night would bring. But after satin’ myself with an elk a few minutes ago, I’d been in such a hurry to return to Lucas I hadn’t yet tidied up.
The tread of heavy boots on the boardwalk drew my attention away from my task. Lucas’ grandfather strode toward me.
Oh, this is not good.
I flicked my tongue over my teeth to ensure no stray bones or sinew stuck between them before I edged closer to the walk. As he neared, his expression worried me more. I found myself lowerin’ to the ground deferentially, flattenin’ out my wings, just as I do to Ash’et. I don’t know why. Not like the human was likely to shred me.
“I’m conflicted, as Lucas’ parents are,” he said with no preamble. “Lookin’ at the majesty of ya, it’s hard to worry about anyone ya would take under yar wing.”
He laughed. It took me a moment to understand the human cliché, the humor of it.
“My son warned me. I tried not believe it,” he continued, but paused again.
I looked toward the Inn, hopin’ Lucas would show up and deflect whatever the grandfather had on his mind.
“I told Lucas to give us a few minutes,” the man said.
Ohhhhhh.
“Watchin’ him atop ya made it pretty clear. It’s been so many generations a human and dragon have bonded, we assumed the old stories were wives’ tales. But Lucas went to the breakfast table every mornin’ tellin’ his mama about the vivid dreams he had ridin’ the Black Lake dragon.”
“I care for Lucas very much,” I said.
“And he’s crazy about ya. But he has a few years before he reaches his majority.”
I groaned, and couldn’t help it as my head swayed. Lucas and I had lamented that exact fact durin’ many a dream.
“Exactly.” The man paused and looked out toward the Lake, the surface reflectin’ the risin’ moon. “His parents recognize the passion that drives him.” Again he paused. “I ask ya. The two of ya’ve already decided he’s gonna stay when the summer’s over, correct?”
I felt my eyes whirl hard enough to make me dizzy. There was no stoppin’ it. Gnomes flitted in, curious about the emotion I radiated.
“Those critters really like ya, don’t they?” he asked.
I settled my chin against the boardwalk rail to keep my head from swayin’.
“Ya didn’t deny it, so I guess it’s true, he plans to stay. Ya know he has an older brother?”
The change of topic confused me a second. I nodded in the human fashion, not trustin’ myself to speak.
“The lad is newly married, but wishes to strike out on his own, to settle, away from the village. His bride shares his adventurous spirit, surprise be that.” He paused. “I believe he hopes Lucas will stay here, to give him an excuse to follow through with his promise.”
I lifted my head and looked at the man eye-to-eye. “Promise? Lucas isn’t aware of this?” I asked.
“Hardly. We didn’t want to encourage him.”
“So what is the brother’s promise?”
“To settle here. To be near Lucas. To ensure he finishes his schoolin’. To give him the direction he’ll lose, away from his parents.”
“He will indeed finish his education,” I said. “Nothin’ is more important. His brother and bride will be very welcome here.”
The man studied me without speakin’ for a moment. He chewed on his lip. Odd, how humans can move their faces in so many ways.
“Any favorite spots around, ya’d recommend for the new settlers?” he finally asked.
Again, I felt my eyes whirl, and I gave up tryin’ to keep my head still. Dozens more gnomes surrounded us, each seemin’ to need to touch me. Don’t know what drives them to do that.
“We can begin the search for the perfect place first light,” I offered.
The man chuckled, but it didn’t sound like a happy one, though I’m no expert on human behaviors, no matter how well I can read Lucas. Guilt for feelin’ so happy when the man seemed so sad edged my chest in a different kind of pain.
~
The End
~
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