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.
The female responded well to the magic of the ‘Pleeez’ word. She hurried off and brought back another tray in record time. By the time he got to the bottom of that heaping platter the edge was taken off of his hunger enough for him to notice he was freezing. He also had difficulty swallowing the last few mouthfuls. The collar they put on him was uncomfortably tight. He ran a long claw between it and his neck. There was a lot less room compared to before he fell asleep.
Delevy saw his action. Her eyes squint in question. She tapped her wrist and then made a motion with her other hand indicating the shackle. She clutched her wrist tightly. ‘Was the shackle too tight there too?’
Tal’on lifted his hand. The ring around his wrist used to hang loss. Now it was so tight his scaly skin bulged to either side of it. It was the same with the one around his ankle. In fact, now that his hunger had been sated he realized his hand and foot tingled. They were half asleep. The shackle was cutting off the circulation. The Early change…could it be?
043.03
Delevy didn’t understand what was happening to Aon, she just knew his restraints were too tight. Perhaps what she was feeding him was making him bloat up. The food certainly did not satisfy his hunger as it should. He ate more than any Knot she ever saw.
Delevy knew the Prime would be very angry if she let anything happen to Aon. She decided to take it upon herself to make sure nothing did. She slipped the key to his shackles off the ring at her belt, tossed the key at Tal’on, and ran for the door to his cell to put the bars safely between him and her.
043.04
Tal’on freed himself and massaged his neck, wrist and ankle until they stopped tingling. He tried to rise to his feet, but found that his legs would not lift him. He was overcome with a severe chill which racked his body. He went to pull the things Delevy called blankets up over his shoulders, but found that the lightest touch of the cloth upon his back sent stabbing pains from shoulder to waist. He curled over in pain, kneeling with his head on the floor. He couldn’t move…couldn’t think…The mere idea of sitting upright made him want to retch.
043.05
“Tal’on didn’t know how long he huddled there, trying to still the pain in his back,” Rudd’ard said. “He eventually fell asleep, but that was worse than the wakeful pain.”
“You see,” Mul’drak chimed in, “we dragons have very active minds both waking and sleeping. Our dreams are vivid with color and full stories. The thing a youngling in stasis loses is that dream state. Stasis is a void, a black hole that a youngling cannot escape. That is what we Greats do for our charges, we fill that void with pictures. We guide them through the void. We make the unbearable, bearable.”
“Tal’on had no guide until Delevy, in her desire to help what she took to be an injured charge stepped in.” Rudd’ard rose to his feet. “Delevy guided Tal’on through the stasis to the other side without really knowing what she was doing.”
“Or how important a task she had taken on,” Mul’drak added.
“Or what her action would lead to.”
043.06
It could have been minutes or hours. It felt like days or maybe weeks. Tal’on couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t see. The world around him had disappeared. He was alone, stumbling through an endless void. Tal’on was lost. He could not hear or see. He could not feel anything but the excruciating pain. His mind was totally empty until he heard a faint sound…a voice far away…and he began to follow it. Follow it through the dark murky vales of smoke and ash that surrounded him in this frightening place.
043.07
“Delevy told Tal’on later that she watched him from the safe place behind the bars of his prison as he seemed to crumple down over himself. She saw him quake and heard his moan as he drifted down into stasis. He collapsed over on his side and seemed to go into convulsions,” Rudd’ard explained. “That was when Delevy took the chance and went into see if she could help Tal’on.”
043.08
He was so cold, his teeth were clacking together. Delevy could see he was unconscious. She took the chance she would be able to sense when to run and have the time to get away. She pulled his blankets over his shivering body and when that wasn’t enough she fetched hers and more from storage to cover Aon. When she returned she could swear he was larger than when she left. His feet and hands stuck out from beneath the covers, but perhaps her mind was just playing tricks on her, or he had moved.
She lit the brazier in the corner of the room. It was meant for heating weapons of torture, but it would warm the room since the Prime had deemed central heating unneeded for the prisoners under his regime. The temperature began to rise, but Aon still quaked and moaned below his covers.
Delevy sat down cross-legged at Tal’on’s head and pulled it into her lap. She stroked his brow and spoke gently to him. She knew he didn’t understand her completely, but like anything suffering, even an animal, she hoped he found a soothing voice comforting. When he rolled over in agony his head butted against her stomach and his hand came up to grasp at her knee. His claws retracted, something she had not seen happen before and he kneaded her leg like a huge cat, his pads working at the fabric of her pants.
She took the opportunity to examine him more closely. She ran her fingers softly over the pebbly tip of his nose. He snorted in his sleep as though the touch might tickle. A small trail of smoke puffed from his nostrils and swirled up to make her cough.
She stroked his horns from the base to the now very lethal looking pointed tip. They felt like stone and were cool to the touch. She traced her finger over the scales of his hand. Funny, it looked more like a paw now. Closer to the way his feet appeared. She ran her hand down his long neck and felt the joints between the large plates on his chest. He sighed beneath her touch and nudged his head into her stomach again.
Tal’on reached up and curled his other arm around Delevy’s back. He settled his paw at the base of her spine and squeezed her closer.
He had her captive in his arms. It had happened so quickly she didn’t have time to pull away. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She spoke gently to him and tried to disentangle herself from his grasp, but each time she tried to move he only snuggled closer to her. He was almost wrapped around her. It seemed as though he could not get close enough to her. If he had been smaller he would have been curled in her lap.
She continued to pet him and speak gently. Most of the time he was calm, his only movement, the chills that ran down his body in waves and the almost constant flicking of his tail. She could hear his scales scrape across the floor. On occasion, he growled or snapped in agitation sending shivers up Delevy’s spine as his teeth glistened in the light of the brazier. She questioned her own judgment which got her into his tightly woven grip.
She could call for another jailer, but would he wake and attack her? She thought not, but she didn’t want to take the chance. So, when he growled, or made any other sound, she stroked his frilled ears and talked to him in a soft voice to calm him. It seemed to work. Delevy just didn’t know how long she could keep it up.
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