Star Trader Update .043

043.01

“On the fourth day Tal’on woke up ravenous and shivering, sure indications he was going into stasis,” Mul’drak said. “Of course, Graf’tal had told him what to expect, but he had also told the youngling that he would be there for him to guide him through. The Great left the details of the journey through the mental muck of stasis to the time when it came, so as not to frighten Tal’on.”

“So, in short,” Rudd’ard added, “he knew little of what was about to befall him.”

043.02 

Tal’on couldn’t remember ever being this hungry. Even the first few days without food when he arrived in this place did not compare to the gnawing emptiness he felt. When Delevy arrived with his meal he knelt, bolting it down half chewed and raised his platter to beg for more. He was not adverse to begging. He had an almost primeval desire to eat and it was all he could do to keep from thinking of Delevy as his next meal.

“Morrrrr…Pleeez,” he begged.

Star Trader Update .042

042.01

Tal’on watched the green come and go as he finished up his meal. She dragged in numerous things that looked like their skins, but were in large squares. She spread one out on the stone beneath her feet and piled the others at her side. After making several trips she appeared to tire and sweat formed on her brow to dampened the fur that fell across it. Tal’on watched with horror, his mouth full of the last morsel off his platter, as she shed her outer skin and threw it to the ground. She proceeded to pull off another layer of her skin and wiped her face with it before she tossed it to the pile on the large skin. She now stood with only a layer of green around her chest and covering her legs. The rest of her, neck, shoulders, arms, appeared as her hands and face, pale and soft. Tal’on didn’t realize it, but his mouth was hanging open in surprise.

Star Trader Update .041

041.01

Tal’on had drifted off into a troubled sleep where the beings on this planet hit and probed him with their fiery sticks. He was brought back to reality by the sound of something grating against the stone floor. He bolted to his feet and yanked his chain to its full length in order to follow the sound to the see-through wall. He was surprised to see part of the wall was open now. One of the beings, blue from neck to feet, except for his hands, was standing there flanked by six other red beings, equipped with the pain sticks Tal’on encountered before. Several other beings of multiple colors stood behind them. Tal’on could see at least four more before the cave curved to conceal where others of their kind might have been hiding.

He wondered if the color of the beings designated their rank in their society as the color of his skin gave others an idea of his lineage, age and status. Perhaps the blue was a ruler…a leader of some type.

Star Trader Update .040

040.01


Tal’on vaulted onto Graf’tal’s haunches, finding purchase with his claws between the plates of his senior’s scales.

“Careful there youngling,” Graf’tal chided. He curled his long neck around and spied the young wingless dragon, his charge, with a shinny pair of obsidian black eyes rimmed and flecked with gold. “Why can’t you mount like any normal youngling?” He snorted smoke into the face of the lizard looking Tal’on on his back. “You scramble like a hatchling.”

“I would board properly by wing if we were not always the last to leave the ground,” Tal’on shot back as he finally made it up Graf’tal’s back and settled on the dragon’s shoulders with his scaly legs wrapped around Graf’tal’s neck and his tail lying out along the dragon’s spine.

Star Trader Update .039

039.01

“Say that again,” Jake said. He looked at me like he thought I had lost my mind.

“It was a dragon,” I repeated.

Jake got up from his place in my co-pilot’s seat on the bridge and took a few paces away from me. He removed his cap and ran his fingers through his dark, wavy hair. This was a habit Jake had when thinking, stressed or otherwise irritated. He could have been all three after my statement.

“What did you see?” Jake asked Arr.

“It was a dragon,” Arr confirmed.