Something Wyverian This Way Comes

by Jeffrey M. Poole

  Pravara was silent as she studied Steve’s burning hand.

  “Without jhorun,” Steve continued, “if I were to thrust my hand into a roaring fire, I’d hurt myself. Same thing with Sarah. Her jhorun will move her around all without her moving, like you noticed before. With me so far?”

  The young dragon nodded.

  “Just like Sarah’s jhorun, my own will allow me to burn something, regardless of whether or not there’s anything there to burn.”

  “Can you make something burn that isn’t supposed to burn?” Pravara thoughtfully asked.

  “You mean like a rock?” Steve picked up a small rock from the ground and held it in his hand. “For all intents and purposes I can make the rock burn, but as soon as I pull my jhorun away from it the flames would disappear. Watch.”

  The small rock was suddenly engulfed in flames. Pravara watched, fascinated, as the rock appeared to burn like a dry piece of timber.

  “As soon as I extinguish my flames,” Steve told the dragon, “this is what happens.”

  The flames poofed out, which left a red hot stone lying in Steve’s unscathed hand.

  “Is the stone warm?” Pravara inquired.

  Sarah gently held her hand over her husband’s.

  “Yes, it’s warm,” Sarah agreed. “If that were sitting in my hand right now I’d be badly burned.”

  Steve pulled the warmth away from the rock until it was cool to the touch once more. He dropped the now harmless stone to the ground.

  Anxious to impress the visitors, Pravara reared up and started taking deep gulps of air.

  “I can make fire, too! Watch!”

  Giving little consideration as to what she was aiming at, Pravara let loose a single jet of flames. Tiny for a dragon, but still more than adequate to inflict damage if one didn’t have heavy scales to protect them. Pravara’s flames were headed straight towards Sarah.

  Sarah gasped with alarm and darted behind Steve, hoping he’d be able to shield her from the sudden onslaught of fire. Steve brought up an arm and instructed his jhorun to absorb all the incoming flames, regardless of source. Pravara hiccupped with surprise as she felt her flames being sucked out of her mouth at a high speed.

  Absorbing the last of the little dragon’s fiery breath, Steve visibly sighed. He glanced behind him to verify Sarah was okay; she nodded that she was.

  Kahvel was outraged.

  “Pravara! What have I told you about spitting fire at your age? You don’t have enough control yet! Apologize to Steve and Sarah. Now.”

  Properly cowed by her sire’s glare, Pravara whispered an apology and retreated into the darkness of the cave.

  “Are you two injured?” Kahvel asked, concern evident in his voice.

  “No harm done,” Steve assured the gold dragon. “Had that been you or Pryllan’s flames my response would be different, I’m sure. As it is, it’s just a harmless mistake.”

  Sarah nudged her husband and whispered a few words in his ear. Steve nodded as he turned to face the wyverian couple.

  “Both Sarah and I are in agreement here. Whatever has you spooked, Kahvel, you can count on us to help. Whatever it takes, you have a fire thrower and a teleporter in your corner.”

  Kahvel nodded while Pryllan bowed her head.

  “You have our thanks,” the emerald dragon responded.

  “When are you going to tell us what has you two so concerned?” Steve asked. “What’s going on that’s bothering you enough to contact us on our world? You mentioned before that several dragons had been ‘lost’. What did you mean?”

  “There’s some type of malady spreading throughout the wyverian population,” Kahvel informed them. “Large numbers of our brethren have reported they are at the first stage.”

  “The first stage of what?” Sarah wanted to know.

  “This malady comes in three stages,” Pryllan explained.

  “So far as we know,” Kahvel added darkly.

  “The first stage happens once a dragon has become infected and a period of several days follows. That’s when the victim loses the ability to spit fire.”

  “That’s horrible!” Sarah exclaimed.

  “The second stage,” Pryllan continued, “is the loss of the Collective. For a dragon, that’s detrimental to our wellbeing.”

  “The Collective?” Steve repeated, puzzled. “What’s that? After all this time I thought I knew everything there is to know about dragons but it turns out that I really don’t know anything. Not a word, dear.”

  Sarah managed to keep her face neutral.

  “The Collective is a telepathic connection to other dragons,” Pryllan told them. “The voices of our brethren are there whenever we need them, whether to call for help, or to communicate with the Dragon Lord, or to ask a simple question. The Collective is the embodiment of everything that it is to be a wyverian.”

  “So this second stage cuts you off from other dragons?” Steve asked.

  Kahvel nodded. “Correct. If you become hurt, or if you need to alert your fellow brethren of a threat, you’d be unable to do so.”

  “What does the third stage do?” Sarah all but whispered, not really wanting to hear the answer.

  “Loss of flight,” Kahvel angrily informed her.

  Steve held up his hands. “Wait; just a moment. You’re telling me that this wyverian malady results in a dragon becoming defenseless? What if they need to call for help? What about getting away?”

  Kahvel and Pryllan both nodded.

  “So that’s why you’re so concerned,” Steve observed, looking at Pryllan, “and why you’re angry,” he finished, looking at Kahvel. “You two are new parents. You want to protect Pravara.”

  “We do” Kahvel agreed.

  “How do you contract this malady?” Sarah asked. “Does anyone know?”

  “How long ago did it first show up?” Steve asked.

  “Who got it first?”

  “How did it spread?”

  Kahvel looked at his mate. Pryllan gave him the approximation of a shrug.

  Kahvel suddenly looked off to the east.

  “What is it?” Pryllan asked.

  “I have been summoned.”

  “Does he know about the involvement of the humans?” Pryllan asked worriedly.

  “No. If Rinbok Intherer did he would have voiced his displeasure by now.”

  Steve held up a hand.

  “I thought you guys were always talking with this Collective in your head? Wouldn’t he already know we’re here since the two of you obviously know?”

  Both dragons shook their heads.

  “The Collective doesn’t work that way,” Pryllan gently told him. “We use the Collective only when we need to. The Collective is never invasive. When we require access, we share our minds.” Pryllan looked pointedly at Steve. “You should know what that is like, correct?”

  Steve nodded. “Gotcha.”

  “Is she talking about the connection the two of you share?” Sarah softly asked, bending close to his ear to keep from being overheard.

  Steve nodded again. “Right.”

  Kahvel extended his great golden wings and within moments he was gone, having disappeared high into the sky.

  “I hope everything is alright with Rinbok,” Sarah remarked, still staring at the large cloud Kahvel had just flown through.

  “Rinbok has become infected,” Pryllan softly said. “So has Kahvel. He hasn’t said anything to me but I can tell.”

  Both Steve and Sarah gasped with shock.

  “Are you sure?” Steve asked.

  Pryllan nodded. “Kahvel informed me about the Dragon Lord a few days ago.”

  “And Kahvel?” Sarah gently inquired.

  “I believe he has recently contracted this malady. His body is cool to the touch. His body is never cool unless he suffers from an ailment.”

  “What stage are they?” Sarah wanted to know.

  “Providing Kahvel’s condition has not worsened, the first stage. However, from what I�
�ve been told, Rinbok has been at the second stage for over a week. He will lose the ability to fly any day now.”

  Steve huffed out an irritated breath and began to pace. “We need to figure out what’s going on and we need to do that now. The question is; how do we do that?”

  “We need to look at this problem like any other,” Sarah told him. “We need more information. We can’t make an informed decision until we know what we’re dealing with.”

  Steve looked up at Pryllan’s large form.

  “I’d say there’s only one way to do that.”

  Sarah turned to her husband.

  “How?”

  “We get Pryllan to snoop around. Ask some questions. The more we can find out the more we can pinpoint what to do next.”

  Two slitted green eyes stared down at him as Pryllan’s elegant green nose lifted higher into the air.

  “Excuse me? I’ll have you know I have never snooped a day in my life.”

  Steve smiled up at the large dragon.

  “Maybe it’s time you learned how. For Pravara’s sake.”

  “Speaking of which, what am I to do about Pravara? She can fly, yes, but not with much stealth.”

  It was Sarah’s turn to smile.

  “I guess we’ll have to watch her for you.”

  Surprised, Steve turned to his wife.

  “Babysitting? We’re babysitters again? Are you sure?”

  “It’s only for a little while, dear,” Sarah complacently told him. “If we want to know more about what’s been affecting the dragons, Pryllan will have to be the one to do it. The least we can do is watch Pravara for her.”

  “She’s asleep in the nest,” Pryllan told Steve, sensing his reluctance. “She shouldn’t be a bother to you.”

  “Babysitting a dragon,” Steve repeated as he started to smile. “I don’t suppose you have a bottle of some sort should she wake up, do you?”

  Pryllan blinked with surprise.

  “A bottle? Of what?”

  “Forget it,” Sarah told Pryllan. “He’s joking. We’ll be fine. Go. See what you can find out. Just be careful and avoid contact as much as possible. I don’t want you catching whatever it is they have.”

  “Agreed,” Pryllan agreed.

  Pryllan took off in her trademark fashion, which was leaping over a hundred feet straight up and extending her wings only at the apex of her jump. They watched Pryllan’s retreating form until she vanished from sight high in the sky.

  “Where did she go?” a quiet, timid voice asked.

  “Son of a biscuit eater,” Steve swore softly.

  Together, he and Sarah turned to the mouth of the cave and saw Pravara sitting on her haunches. Wide awake, Steve noticed. He glanced nervously at his wife.

  “Your mother, um, had some errands to run,” Steve lamely told the young dragon. “She’ll be back in a little while.”

  If Pravara was concerned, she didn’t show it. Instead, she looked back at her nest, then up at the sky, and finally back at her two babysitters.

  Steve clapped his hands together and rubbed them rapidly back and forth. “So, Pravara, what would you like to do now? Umm, what does a baby dragon like to do for fun?”

  “I’m no baby!” Pravara growled. “Babies can’t spit fire, or fly! I can do both!”

  Pravara leapt into the air, much like her mother would, and flew out over the nest and started towards the ground far below. At least she would have if Sarah hadn’t caught the young dragon with her own jhorun and began pulling her back to the nest much like a fisherman would do after hooking a fish.

  “What’s going on?” the young dragon demanded. “How are you doing this? Let me go!”

  Pravara flapped her wings harder in an effort to break Sarah’s grasp.

  “Don’t just stand there grinning at me!” Sarah scolded her husband. “She’s strong. I’m not going to be able to hold her there forever!”

  “And what exactly am I supposed to do?” Steve asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t care! Distract her!”

  Steve looked at the struggling dragonlet and smiled. He ignited three chasers and began juggling the fireballs, throwing them higher and higher in an attempt to get the dragon’s attention. It worked. Pravara was still flapping her wings in an effort to escape, but now it was only a half-hearted attempt to do so.

  Steve added a fourth and a fifth fireball and included them in with the others. As he juggled, he noticed a large flat surface to the immediate left of the cave entrance. Inspiration had just struck.

  He let the fireballs extinguish, one right after the other, and then walked over to the left of the cave entrance. He drew a large six foot diameter circle of fire and instructed his jhorun to keep the circle lit. Then he drew a couple of concentric rings inside the large circle and also kept the rings burning.

  “What are you doing?” Sarah demanded, somewhat crossly.

  “Drawing a bulls eye.”

  “I can see that. Why? Why did you stop juggling?”

  “I have an idea. I’m going to work with Pravara on her aim.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  Steve adopted his smug smirk and mimicked his favorite old west movie star.

  “Just you watch and learn, little lady. Hey Pravara!”

  The dragonlet finally ceased her flapping and hung, motionless, in the air. She turned to look at Steve, who had pointed at the bulls eye.

  “I’ll bet I can hit the center more times than you can.”

  Pravara was silent as she was slowly lowered to the ground. Once Sarah had deposited her safely in front of her nest, she relinquished her grip on the small dragon and waited to see what Pravara would do.

  “What is that?” the dragonlet asked, curious.

  “It’s a target. Come here, I’ll show you.”

  Forgetting that she had just tried to escape her nest, Pravara obediently joined Steve and together they stared at the target.

  “Here’s what you do. See the dot in the middle of all those rings?”

  Pravara nodded her head.

  “See if you can do this!”

  Steve ignited a chaser and threw it at the target, decreasing the intensity and strength of the fireball as much as he was able. Deliberately aiming a few feet to the left, the chaser impacted the outermost ring of his target and glowed brightly a few seconds before disappearing.

  “Oh, darn. I was so close. It’s your turn. Think you can hit it?”

  A grim look of determination appeared on the young dragon’s face. Standing as still as she was able, she stared at the center of the target for a few moments before whipping back her head, like Steve had seen Sarah do when trying to swallow vitamins, and then snapped her head forward. The resulting fireball spun off to the right and threatened to fly into the nest before Steve was able to stop the ball of fire and have his jhorun absorb its energy.

  “The sun was in your eyes,” Steve told the forlorn little dragon. “I do believe you get another shot.”

  Pravara’s ears perked up. Once more she sighted the target and was ready to snap back her neck again when Steve gently placed a hand on her long scaled neck, drawing her attention.

  “Try this. Instead of whipping your neck back, which takes your eyes of your target, try to keep your head level. Don’t move your neck. There, that’s good. Now, with the target still in your sites, inhale as much air as you need and once you’re ready, release your breath in a fast whoosh, like you’re forcing yourself to sneeze. Can you do that?”

  Pravara did as she was told and when she released her breath, as fast as she was able to exhale, she was startled to discover the resulting fireball was larger than her normal shots but also had much more power behind it. Pravara’s shot ended up flying a little bit straighter. She missed the outer ring of the target, but only by a few inches.

  Excited, Pravara turned to Steve to ask his permission to go again, but Steve was already waving her on for another shot. As Pravara practiced, with her accuracy improv
ing with each of her shots, Steve wandered over to where Sarah was sitting on an outcropping of rock.

  “You do realize you’re never, ever, going to rid yourself of your Doctor Dolittle moniker if you keep doing stuff like this, don’t you?”

  “What’s the problem? I’m just helping her work on her aim.”

  “Look at her! It’s been, what, ten minutes and she’s doting on every little thing you say. You certainly don’t need me here.”

  “Steve! Look! Look! I hit the target!”

  Steve and Sarah rose to their feet and walked over to the side of the cave with the burning rings still visible. Visible just inside the outermost ring, but fading fast, was the strike from Pravara. They turned to face the little dragon who was practically bouncing up and down on all four legs.

  “Nicely done!” Steve praised, giving Pravara a pat on her shoulder. “Not bad at all!”

  “I got closer to the center than you did!” Pravara declared proudly. “Let’s see you beat that!”

  “Ah! I see! The challenge is back on! You got it, squirt.”

  Steve ignited a chaser and spun it on his finger as he pretended to aim for the target. Once he had put on a little show, he flung his chaser out, but not before Sarah appeared behind him and kissed his neck just as he threw the fireball.

  His chaser spun out of control and impacted the mountainside nearly twenty feet away.

  “You need to practice,” Pravara helpfully told him.

  “Mmm-hmmm,” Steve grumbled, casting a look over his shoulder at Sarah, who was practically in tears from laughing so hard. “Let’s try that again, shall we?”

  Steve ignited another chaser and lined up his shot for real this time, all while keeping an eye on Sarah, who was inching closer and closer.

  “Keep your distance, lady.”

  Sarah backed a dozen feet away and held both arms out, palms facing up, as if to say, ‘who, me?’

  Just as Steve threw the chaser Sarah vanished and appeared right next to him and blew softly in his ear. This chaser struck the mountain even farther away than the previous one.

  “You helped me practice,” Pravara informed him. “I’ll do the same for you.”

  “Aren’t you a barrel of laughs?” Steve chuckled as he frowned at his wife.

  Sarah put both hands on her hips. “I know you didn’t just scowl at me.”