“Let’s take a break,” Rudd’ard
said. “Mul’drak and I will go get us
all something to eat.”
Rudd’ard rose and swiftly mounted
Mul’drak. He reached down and affectionately patted the larger dragon on the
neck.
“We’ll be right back,” he assured
us, and then promptly disappeared.
“Whoa,” Jake said with an exhale
of breath. He looked toward Arr. “What are you getting out of this?”
“The non-verbal exchanges between
the two seem to confirm what they are telling us,” Arr told his partner. He
smiled in a conspiring fashion. “It will be interesting to see what they return
with. I caught a glimpse of where they were going as they locked minds. I do
love the sunglobes from Muldavian.”
“They’re flying all the way to
Muldavian?” I asked in disbelief. It would have taken us months to get there
even with jumping through windows and hitching a dangerous ride on the
Malestrom.
“Not flying,” Arr corrected,
“Jumping.”
“I wonder what that is like?” I
asked.
“Probably like jumping through a
window,” Jake suggested. He was walking around the cavern, stretching his legs.
We had been setting for over an
hour listening to Rudd’ard tell us the story of Tal’on. I was anxious to get to
where this all tied into the Sollen, or dragoncall, and why the Valdare wanted
it. Wanted it so much they killed my parents. That was, if I was reading all
the clues correctly in this mystery my parents left me to unravel.
Rudd’ard and Mul’drak reappeared
about thirty minutes later. Rudd’ard slid off of the older dragon’s back. He
pulled a harness with a sack on either end from around Mul’drak’s neck and
began to unpack items placing them on one of the larger flat boulders in the
middle of the cavern. To Arr’s delight there were several sunglobes. One sack
contained the sunglobes, some other delectable looking fruits, nuts, and a jug
of something. The other sack was filled to the brim with roasted meat. You could
smell it as soon as Rudd’ard pulled the rope tie open. He spread the food out
on the sacks. There were no plates. This was going to be buffet style, finger
food.
Mul’drak speared a sunglobe with
a long, wickedly looking claw. He held it in that paw as he sliced it in half
with the claw on his other paw. He handed the half to Arr.
“I believe you were hoping for
this,” he said in his deep baritone.
Arr accepted gracefully and with
a knowing grin. At least the old dragon was in on the fact that Arr could read
his pictures, because Arr hadn’t said a word.
Jake drew his knife from his belt
and leaned over what appeared to be the hindquarter of some beast.
“May I slice anyone some,” he
offered.
I raised my hand. I hadn’t had
anything since breakfast and realized with the tantalizing smell that I was
starved.
Rudd’ard took the other half of
the sunglobe and cored out the meat of the melon with his claw. He then popped
the cork on the jug he unpacked and poured some golden liquid in the melon’s
shell. He handed it back to Mul’drak. Once the old dragon had emptied the
improvised bowl, he poured it full again and had his own long slow draft.
Jake finished cutting meat. He speared
some on the point of his knife and handed it over to me. I took it with pleasure
as Arr cored out a slice of the sunglobe for me with his knife and hand it over
as well. Roasted meat in one hand and a juicy slice of melon in the other and I
was as happy as a Dar-dolf puppy on a tit.
Rudd’ard offered to fill Arr’s
melon rind bowl with liquid when he was finished coring it out of the edible
meat. Jake seeing the advantage of that, cut another melon in half and cored it
out for me and him a bowl.
The golden liquid was delicious
with a sweet, and what I can only describe as, the wettest taste I have ever
had in my mouth. It was extremely refreshing.
“Mallie nectar,” Jake said
licking his lips. “I’ve only had this once before. A mercenary friend of mine
asked to be paid in it when he did a job for a Muldavian ambassador on Titan
IV.”
“It is a favorite of our clan,”
Rudd’ard explained. “We trade Selist Root for it.”
Being a trader, I knew Selist
Root came from the swamps of Polor and Mallie nector, even though I had never
had any before, I knew came from Crainsil on the opposite side of the verse.
These dragons were ‘Jumping’ all over the place. They must not have any limit
to their range.
“Where do you call home now,” I
asked. “I mean, this is Drakis, right?”
“It is unfortunately,” Mul’drak
confirmed, “destroyed by the Valdare millennia ago.”
So Tal’on’s story was not a
recent one. I waited for the answer to my question, but it was not forthcoming.
“I am afraid we do not know you
well enough to divulge the location of our home world. The last time someone
found it, this was what happened,” Rudd’ard indicated with a wave of his paw
toward the outside world beyond the cavern. “Tal’on told Delevy everything that
night as they sat and ate. And Delevy told Tal’on of her world.”
“The Valdare had been at war with
the Sandcor for centuries. So long they could not really remember what started
it,” Mul’drak said over the rim of his bowl of nectar. He folded his wings up
close to his body as though the thought of it chilled him. “We had never
experienced war. We lived in peaceful clans here on this planet, which at that
time, was a lush garden of flora and fauna.”
“The Valdare and the Sandcor were
fast approaching the age of star travel. They were both tinkering with genetic enhancements
to build a bigger, better soldier. That is the reason they assumed Tal’on was
bred by the Sandcor,” Rudd’ard explained. “When Delevy reported back to the
Prime about Tal’on’s transformation and where he came from, the Prime was
anxious to try another meeting with our brethren.
*****
The Prime stood before Tal’on
dressed in his official military garb. His chest was covered with metals. His
three cornered hat sat jauntily on an angle. Though his guard protectively
surrounded him, he wore his ornamental saber on one hip and his blaster on the
other. He was further equipped with one of the pain sticks Tal’on had become so
familiar with in the past when confronted with the Prime’s guard.
“Delevy tells me you can understand
and speak our language now,” the Prime said as he tapped the end of the pain stick
against his tall black boot tops in an intimidating way.
“I can,” Tal’on answered.
The Prime looked first at Delevy,
and then at Tal’on, and back at Delevy.
“I thought you said the beast
could communicate,” he said in an irritated tone.
“He can,” Delevy said. “He
answered you.”
“I heard nothing, but a rumbling
growl,” the Prime informed them.
How
could this be? Thought
Tal’on.
Tal’on and Delevy exchanged
glances.
“Perhaps it is because you were
with me during the change,” Tal’on said. “I know very little of what happens. The
Greats do not tell us for fear of frightening us.”
“What is he saying?” the Prime
demanded of Delevy.
Delevy bowed to the ruler. “He
believes he can understand us because of something that happened during his
change into this form.” She waved her hand to indicate his new larger frame and
wings.
“Well, you certainly did not
change,” the Prime said in frustration. He whacked the pain stick against his
boot in growing irritation. “How is it you can understand him and I cannot.”
“Once again I think it is because
you were with me during the stasis,” Tal’on said to Delevy.
“This is impossible!” The Prime
shouted in growing anger. “I want to see you in my chamber, Keeper.
Immediately!” He ordered.
He spun on his heel and retreated
with his guard gathered about him like hatchlings about the head dragoness.
Delevy reached up and patted Tal’on
on the shoulder. “I will be back as soon as I can.” She looked anxiously after
the Prime.
“I tried to talk to him,” Tal’on
apologized. “You heard me.”
“It will be all right,” Delevy
counseled.
“Tell him I want to go home,” Tal’on
said. “Tell him I need to go home.”
“I will,” Delevy promised. “I
promise, I will.”
She gave Tal’on one last
reassuring pat and ran after the Prime.
Tal’on watched her go, heard her
close the door and lock it. He went to the wall and removed the piece of stone
he had been working from its hiding place. The blue rock was almost the right
shape. He tried to picture what Graf’tal showed him years ago when he first
became his Great. The Sollen Graf’tal let him hold was this size and shape. He
told him it would summons any dragon within hearing range. But, though this
Sollen vibrated in Tal’on’s paw, it did not give off any sound. Something was
wrong with it. Tal’on did not know what more to do to it to get it to work.
What sort of magic was instilled in Graf’tal’s old Sollen that Tal’on did not
possess or even know? Would he ever get home?
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