Reecah's Flight

by Richard H. Stephens

  “We don’t like it, but they are properly armed. To go against them will bring much death to my kind. Our numbers are dwindling. We dare not lose any more dragons.”

  Walking at a faster pace, she said, “I must keep moving.”

  Lurker followed her around an outcropping of fallen boulders into a thicker patch of forest. “I had better remain with you if you plan on going this way.”

  “Why? Isn’t it a good idea?” Reecah asked, but she already knew the answer.

  “The colony is stirring. They’re aware of those following you.”

  Reecah considered his words but a movement in a wide clearing to her right caught her attention.

  The forest parted at the base of a steep hollow in the mountainside. Approaching the concaved rockface, she froze.

  High above, a brown dragon swooped from a ledge, its nose coming dangerously close to hitting a tree that protruded from the cliffside. It adjusted its wings to swoop up and over the tree before diving toward the clearing.

  Reecah pulled back, bumping into Lurker. She clung to his scaly shoulder to keep from stepping on his toes and offered him the innocent smile she used to undermine Poppa. “Oh. I’m so sorry. I stumbled.”

  “No need to apologize Reecah. I will always support you.”

  She took a chance and rubbed his neck. “Aww, thank you. I’ll always support you too.”

  Lurker’s smile left her giddy. Even now, she couldn’t believe it. Her hand on Lurker’s scaly hide, they observed the brown dragon, no bigger than Lurker, ride the currents swirling around the unusual hollow in the mountainside.

  “Pretty, isn’t she?”

  Reecah glanced at her dragon friend but his attention was on the brown dragon. “Very. That’s a female dragon then?”

  Lurker regarded her with a funny expression. “Is it not obvious?”

  Reecah studied the brown dragon. Other than her colour, and two extra horns sprouting from each cheek, and two smaller horns near the end of her snout, nothing differentiated her from Lurker. “Um, yes. Of course.”

  Lurker stared at skeptically but she kept her attention on the female dragon.

  Landing on what appeared to be nothing but the side of the cliff, the brown dragon’s claws dug into the rock face. She remained there for a moment before dropping earthward. Spreading her wings wide, she caught an updraft and swooped up and over the treetops behind them, before soaring back into sight and finding another place to land.

  “What’s she doing?”

  “Nothing really. She does this all the time. Just enjoying how she can ride the wind, I guess.”

  Enraptured, Reecah gazed in wonder, imagining how amazing it would be to do just that. “What’s her name?”

  “You wouldn’t be able to pronounce it.”

  “Oh, right. You said people can’t pronounce dragon names.”

  “People have short memories.”

  “Ha-ha. Selective, more like.”

  “Selective?”

  “Never mind.”

  “People are hard to understand.”

  “You’re telling me,” Reecah said. Staring at Lurker’s puzzled expression she laughed. “Ya, I know. You just did.”

  She stood at the edge of the clearing with her dragon friend, observing the brown dragon play in the wind and couldn’t help feeling envious.

  She was about to say as much but noticed the peculiar way Lurker watched the female dragon; a subtle smile on his lips, and longing in his eyes.

  “Do you know her?”

  “I know of her. I’ve never actually met her. She comes here everyday.”

  “Why don’t you introduce yourself?”

  Lurker’s scaly face scrunched up. “Oh no. I couldn’t do that.”

  “Why not?”

  Lurker didn’t respond. Instead, he hung his head and started back into the forest.

  “Where are you going?”

  “We should get moving before the people catch up.”

  Reecah smiled. The thought of meeting the female dragon intimidated him. “Wait a minute.”

  Lurker stopped.

  “You’re sweet on her, aren’t you?”

  “Sweet on her?”

  “You know? You like her. You have feelings for her.” She wasn’t positive but it appeared like Lurker’s green face flushed. “Come on. Introduce yourself.”

  “It’s okay. We should go.”

  Reecah contemplated the bashful dragon and nodded to herself. Stepping into the middle of the clearing, she looked up. It took a moment to locate the brown dragon perched on a broken tree trunk near the top of the cliff. Putting her fingers to her lips, she whistled.

  “What are you doing? Do you want to get eaten?”

  She swallowed. She hadn’t thought of that. “You’ll just have to protect me.”

  She couldn’t be sure, but it seemed like the brown dragon watched her. To make sure, she jumped up and down waving her arms. “Swoop down here! There’s someone who wants to meet you!”

  “Reecah!” Lurker backstepped farther into the woods.

  She glanced at him with a mischievous smile. “Aw, come on. Don’t be shy. Look, I think she’s coming.”

  The brown dragon dropped off the trunk without flapping her wings—plummeting headlong. An ear-piercing shriek echoed off the mountain face.

  “Reecah!”

  The brown dragon dropped like a stone, adjusting her wings to fly straight at Reecah.

  By the time Reecah realized her folly, it was too late. Throwing her hands over her head she fell to her knees and crouched low.

  Lurker rushed from the trees, stepping over her and sheltering her with his body.

  The brown dragon adjusted its wings at the last moment to land heavily beside them. Her eyes on Reecah, she shrieked again.

  Lurker shrieked back.

  Reecah feared they were going to fight right on top of her.

  Lurker sounded in her head, “She wants to eat you. Says you look tasty.”

  Reecah crawled farther beneath his body, unsure whether to take that as a compliment or not.

  A lengthy silence ensued.

  Reecah hazarded a glance from between Lurker’s forelegs. “What’s happening?”

  “It’s okay. You can come out. I explained to her who you are.”

  She hesitated. “And that is?”

  “A Windwalker.”

  “Heh. I don’t know what that really means myself. Are you sure she won’t attack?”

  “Pretty sure.”

  Reecah started crawling out but stopped. “That’s not reassuring.”

  “I promise I won’t eat you,” a female voice sounded in her head.

  “Lurker?”

  “That wasn’t me. That was…” Lurker said a word that sounded like a jumble of mumbled grunts.

  “How can she talk to me? I thought you were the only one.”

  “I have allowed you into my circle of trust. Temporarily,” the brown dragon answered.

  Reecah attempted to steady her breathing. She was now capable of talking to two dragons! Crawling out from beneath Lurker, she kept him between them. She forced a nervous smile. “Hi, my name is, Reecah Draakvriend. Pleased to meet you.”

  The brown dragon took her gaze off Reecah. “I thought you said she was a Windwalker?”

  “She is descended from the Windwalkers. For some reason she goes by another name,” Lurker responded.

  “Perhaps she’s ashamed of being a Windwalker. How well do you know this human? Grimclaw claims the king’s men are coming this way. How do you know she isn’t with them?”

  The king’s men? Reecah unconsciously fingered her sword hilt, ensuring the blade sat properly within its sheath. So that’s who the people in uniform were. Why would king’s troops be after her? According to Poppa, the royal palace was weeks away by foot.

  An awkward silence ensued. Judging by their changing facial expressions, the dragons were communicating privately.

  Lurker’s voice startl
ed her. Mentioning the brown dragon’s name, he said, “…is satisfied on my word that you are not a threat. You may relax.”

  “I hope her trust lasts.” Reecah cringed as soon as she spoke. The brown dragon could hear her as well.

  Reecah lowered her eyes, embarrassed. “My apologies…” She searched for a way to address the female dragon. “I cannot say your name. Do you go by a different one?”

  The brown dragon glanced at Lurker.

  The dragons’ conversation sounded in Reecah’s mind. “I told you. People are different. They go by many names.”

  “That sounds confusing.”

  “She refers to me as Lurker.”

  “Lurker?” The brown dragon smiled and turned her attention on Reecah. “I like that. It suits you.” She winked at Reecah.

  The astonishing gesture allowed Reecah to relax—she sensed they had just shared an intimate secret.

  “What would you name me?”

  The brown dragon’s question threw Reecah. She was afraid to call the female dragon anything in case it offended her and broke their tentative bond.

  The brown dragon leaned in closer, waiting for an answer.

  Reecah gulped. If the dragons spoke in her head, did that mean they were able to read her mind? She would have to speak to Lurker about that. Glancing at him, it didn’t appear as though her thoughts had registered.

  She had named Lurker because of his habit of perching above her and lurking when he had first started following her. Thinking about the brown dragon’s penchant to dive through the air and glide back up again, she said, “If it’s alright with you, I shall call you Swoop.”

  Exposed

  Lurker flew off halfway through the afternoon to scout the progress of the king’s men and hadn’t returned by the time the sun dropped behind the western spur of the great valley.

  Pulling her cloak tight to ward off the evening chill, Reecah watched Raver flit from one nearby tree to another, keeping pace at his leisure. With the increased dragon activity, she feared for his safety, but Lurker’s earlier comment about Raver being a poor food source provided her with a little consolation.

  Unable to see sufficiently in the encroaching twilight, she stopped at the bottom of a small waterfall. The cascade fell from unseen heights, through the leafy forest canopy, into a large pool. The pool overflowed and tumbled across her path—a babbling brook meandering lazily down the forested slope.

  Checking her rucksack, she sighed and let it fall to the ground. She was out of food. She filled her waterskin and drank her fill of fresh mountain water, hoping to ease her cramping stomach.

  Watching the eddies at the base of the falls, she couldn’t recall the last time she’d bathed. She followed the stream a short way through the darkening forest to where it dropped over a precipice to the valley below. Standing on the edge of the forest, she scanned the dark skies for nearby dragons. Shrieks echoed throughout the valley but none of the calls sounded close, so she returned to the waterfall and risked a quick wash.

  Getting a small fire burning, she removed her boots, cloak and breeks, and waded into the pool up to her knees; pleasantly surprised at how warm the water felt compared to the air.

  Raver landed on her cloak and watched her remove the rest of her clothing. Rubbing her clothes together to wash away the worst of the accumulated grime and sweat, she wrung them out and tossed them on a flat rock at the water’s edge. Undoing her tight braid, she shook out her long hair, enjoying how good it felt to scratch her scalp.

  A sudden premonition of someone watching caused her to submerge herself up to her neck and examine the darkening shadows in the flickering firelight.

  The only one visible to her was Raver, watching her and blinking. That provided her with a momentary sense of relief until he abruptly turned to stare off into the forest as if something had caught his attention.

  She swallowed. Surely if someone was nearby, Raver would have known of their presence before now. She followed his eyes to the deeper forest shadows. Something had diverted Raver’s attention.

  “Lurker?” she whispered.

  Other than distant dragon song and crickets, she heard nothing except the incessant cascading water.

  After a while, she released her apprehension in a long slow breath and dunked her head beneath the water to scrub at her hair. Breaking the surface, she shook the water from her eyes. If her heart hadn’t caught in her throat, she would have screamed.

  Jonas Junior stood at the water’s edge, his unbuckled sword belt in hand.

  Raver squawked from the boughs of a tree, his warning too late.

  Junior dropped his sword belt and hopped around on one foot, struggling to remove a boot. “Are you okay?”

  Reecah glanced at her clothes. They might as well be on the far side of the valley. Sinking lower in the water, she asked, “What’re you doing here?”

  Junior stopped pulling his boot off, his cheeks red. “I, um, came to find you. I thought you were drowning.” His stare intensified. “What happened to your shoulder?”

  “My shoulder?” She tucked her chin against her collar bone and looked at the scabbed over abrasion Jaxon’s knife had left. “Oh that. A present from your brother.”

  Junior nodded, not appearing surprised by her answer.

  She didn’t know what else to say. All of her possessions lay beside the campfire. Looking behind her for an escape route, the thought of running naked through Dragonfang Pass didn’t strike her as a good idea, but what choice did she have?

  “You need to get out of there.” Junior glanced around the flickering clearing. “Jaxon will be here shortly with a bunch of others. If he finds you…” He lowered his eyes to the ground, not meeting hers. “…especially like this, you’ll be in serious trouble.”

  “Were you spying on me?” she asked, an edge to her voice. It seemed like a moot question considering the danger she was in, but she couldn’t help herself—her cheeks flamed red. She felt violated.

  “Huh?”

  “How long have you been watching me?”

  “Watching you?” he squeaked, the lie plainly apparent. He laughed nervously. “I just got here.”

  “Liar! Liar!”

  They both looked at Raver, the flames glinting off his shiny feathers.

  “Well,” Junior started but seemed to struggle with what he wanted to say. “I, um, didn’t want to intrude, but when you went under—”

  “You were spying on me!” Reecah moved to stand up and have a go at the insolent man but stopped herself in time.

  “Okay, okay, sorry. I didn’t see anything. Well, not really.” He wouldn’t meet her gaze. “Look, I just wanted to warn you.”

  “You led the king’s men to my hut and tried to kill Raver.”

  Junior frowned. “Raver?”

  “My bird. You shot an arrow at him.”

  Junior nodded. “Ah. The other day? I had no choice. They were watching me.”

  Reecah didn’t believe him. “Watching you?”

  “My father. My uncle. My brother. They’re waiting for me to expose myself. Father keeps me on a short leash. They suspect I tipped you off in the spring. Father’s looking for an excuse to disown me.”

  Reecah didn’t know what he was talking about. Nor did she care. Junior was a Waverunner, and like Raver so aptly said, Waverunner’s were liars.

  She cast a worried glance into the forest. “Where are the others? If you’re on such a short leash, how come you’re here on your own?”

  “I pointed the trackers up that crag.” He pointed to where the waterfall fell through the trees. “I slipped away and followed you here.”

  “How did you know where I was without the trackers?”

  A smile brightened his chiselled features, his vibrant green eyes finding hers. “Father doesn’t know it, but I can track better than any of them. I found the routes you used to outdistance us back home.”

  That threw her. Not knowing how to respond, she continued glaring her displeasure
.

  “I learned from the best at an early age.”

  She couldn’t help herself. “Oh yeah, and who would that be?”

  “Viliyam Draakvriend.”

  Reecah made a conscious effort to keep her jaw from dropping. “You’re a liar.”

  “Liar! Liar!”

  Junior cast an irritated glance at Raver. “Whether you believe me or not, it’s the truth.”

  She didn’t know if she should be appalled or angry that Poppa had taught one of the Waverunners anything. She was sure Poppa hadn’t held Jonas in high esteem and Grammy had detested him.

  “Come on.” He glanced at her clothes. “Get dressed. You need to get away from here. Jaxon isn’t as stupid as he looks. He’ll soon realize I sent him the wrong way.”

  If Junior thought she was about to just step out of the water stark naked, he was gravely mistaken. Her narrowed eyes darted between him and her clothes.

  Junior lowered his gaze, looking at her from beneath lowered brows. “I, um, I’ll go stand over there.” He pointed at a large boulder on the edge of the brook. “Just make it quick.”

  “My clothes are soaking wet!”

  Junior shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I’d offer you my cloak but the others will wonder what I did with it.”

  “Put my cloak on the rock and leave me.” Reecah indicated the same stone her clothes lay on.

  He did as she asked and disappeared behind the boulder.

  Not trusting him for a moment, she crawled through the water to the shoreline and stretched an arm out to grasp her cloak.

  It was impossible to tell whether he peeked around the boulder. “You better not be looking!”

  His muffled reply mollified her. “I’m not. Just hurry.”

  She jumped to her feet and lifted her cloak in front of her. Looking around, shivering, she wondered, now what? Her clothes were soaked. If she pulled her cloak on, it would be also.

  She sidestepped to stand with her back to the fire and her eyes on the boulder, appreciating the warmth.

  “Are you decent?”

  “Stay where you are!” she snapped, humiliated.

  “What’s taking so long? Jaxon will be along anytime now.”

  She sighed. Struggling to keep her cloak from exposing her to prying eyes, she rummaged through her rucksack and dried herself with her blanket as best she could.