Something Wyverian This Way Comes

by Jeffrey M. Poole

  “If hardly any dragon can find this Nevir place, how is it they’re supposed to go there to die? How are they able to find it?”

  “A dragon will feel the pull once their end is near,” Pryllan explained.

  Steve nudged his wife to get her attention. “It’s like the underworld from Greek mythology, I suppose.”

  Sarah shook her head no.

  “I don’t think that comparison is right. The underworld is essentially hell. I doubt very much Rinbok lives in hell.”

  Steve looked up at their large green companion.

  “He doesn’t, does he? I mean, living people can go there and still safely return, right?”

  Pryllan gave him a pitiful look. “Obviously. Kahvel has journeyed to, and returned from, Nevir many times.”

  Satisfied, the two humans fell silent.

  Pryllan’s expression turned neutral as she turned to the much smaller Zweigelan.

  “We fly north. Keep up. Do not hamper our progress and I will put in a good word for you with the Dragon Lord.

  Syrreth and Ferreth studied her a few moments before both heads gave a little bow.

  Pryllan nudged Pravara’s sleeping form, awakening her.

  “Rise, young one. We must return to the valley.”

  “We’re flying back now?”

  “We must begin now if we’re to return before the sun sets. If you tire, and I expect you will, you must inform me immediately. Do you understand?”

  Pravara nodded her head. Unfolding her wings, she took to the air in the same fashion as her mother by leaping as high as she could go and then flapping her wings. Pryllan’s huge form sailed past her and continued another fifty or sixty feet into the air before her wings snapped open.

  ****

  “Why do you have two heads?” Pravara asked Syrreth, flying just off the Zweigelan’s left flank.

  “Why do you only have one?” Syrreth countered. Ferreth had been trying his best to ignore the dragonlet.

  “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

  Syrreth shook his head no.

  “What happened to your parents? Did something bad happen to them? Were they killed? Were they eaten by a monster?”

  Syrreth regarded Pravara with a scornful look.

  “I never knew my parents.”

  Pravara’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You never knew your mother? What about your father?”

  “Didn’t he just say we didn’t know our parents?” Ferreth snapped out. “Are you deaf? Are you not listening?”

  “Play nice over there,” Steve warned.

  Pravara glanced quickly over at her mother, who was flying nearby, and the two humans safely ensconced within her talons. The fire thrower was pointedly watching the proceedings, no doubt at the request of her mother. Returning her attention to the strange two-headed dragon, Pravara continued her relentless string of questions.

  “How old are you? I’m less than a year old. My mother is much older than that. Way older. Way, way older.”

  Being old isn’t a bad thing, young one, her mother’s thought interrupted.

  “I meant no offense, mother.”

  I know.

  Waiting for an answer, Pravara observed the right head, Ferreth, glance irritably at the left. Syrreth whispered something to its twin before turning to look back at her.

  “Even we do not know how old we are. Needless to say, we are much older than you.”

  “Are you as old as my mother?”

  “Older,” Syrreth assured her.

  “Have you always lived in that cave?” Pryllan suddenly asked.

  This caused both heads to swivel around to stare at Pravara’s mother.

  “How do you know of the existence of our cave? We never showed you where it was.”

  “You truly haven’t had many interactions with other dragons, have you?” Pryllan observed.

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Steve’s voice asked as it floated up from underneath her.

  Syrreth nodded. “Agreed. What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Are your senses not stronger and sharper than everyone you’ve encountered?”

  Ferreth nodded while Syrreth said yes.

  “It’s a trait common to all dragons. I could see your nest up on the face of the cliff as well as smell it.”

  “We do not stink,” Syrreth argued as he growled. Ferreth also growled.

  Pryllan’s return growl, much louder and deeper than both of the heads combined, silenced both of them instantly.

  “Do not be so quick to pass judgment,” Pryllan scolded Syrreth. “I was not accusing you of being malodorous.”

  Ferreth blinked his pale green eyes at her. “Insinuating that I am?”

  Pryllan started to growl again but was able to stop herself before anyone could hear her. Swallowing her impatience she tried again.

  “Only in close proximity do I detect a scent from either of you. However, the same cannot be said for whatever objects you have in your nest. There is a strong odor of human and dwarf coming from one of the caves high up on the cliff. Therefore I assume that is your cave. Am I correct?”

  Syrreth turned to Ferreth and began a heated argument.

  “I told you that’s how they found us. You have become obsessed with finding jewels and gold. Most have been handled by dwarven hands. They are a foul people. Their things stink!”

  “Actually, I smelled humans before I smelled dwarves,” Pryllan admitted.

  Syrreth’s smug expression vanished from his face and appeared on Ferreth’s. It was the first signs of expression anyone had ever seen on the Zweigelan’s right head.

  “Did I not tell you that your collection of human artifacts would be our undoing?”

  “You are just as guilty as I am.”

  “Am not.”

  “Are too. Admit it!”

  “Never!”

  I am all for open discussions, Pryllan began as she directed her thoughts towards the two humans she currently held, but I’ve never encountered someone such as this. Should I break this up?

  She felt Steve’s laughter as he answered her.

  Naw. Let ‘em duke it out.

  Duke it out?

  Let them work it out on their own, Sarah thought to her. Listen to them. This certainly isn’t the first argument they’ve had together.

  True.

  “Why are you always so angry?” Pravara asked, interrupting the two bickering heads. “Not even my father is that grumpy.”

  Surprised, Pryllan turned to the dragonlet and hesitated for a few moments. “He’s not that grumpy around you, is he?”

  “Many times he is,” the young dragonlet gloomily informed her. “He doesn’t like to go flying with me anymore nor does he take me hunting. All he ever wants to do is worry about the big day.”

  Surprised, Pryllan turned to her offspring.

  “Big day? What big day?”

  Pravara approximated a shrug. “I don’t know. Father only tells me he’s not ready.”

  If Pravara didn’t have her mother’s attention before she certainly had it now.

  “For what?”

  Sensing she had disclosed something that she shouldn’t have, Pravara went silent.

  “Not ready for what?” Pryllan prompted again.

  Pravara fidgeted midair, which resulted in her tail flicking nervously from the left to the right. That, in turn, caused her to veer off course and crash into the Zweigelan. Syrreth surprised everyone by lowering his long neck and dipping it under Pravara’s right wing and holding it steady, stabilizing her.

  The young dragon mumbled her thanks and banked to her left so that she could put a little distance between herself and the grumpy dragon, although she was surprised to see the dual-headed dragon had just come to her aid. Well, part of it did. Syrreth seemed to be more approachable than Ferreth, but there was no avoiding the Zweigelan’s sulky right head if she wished to pursue her conversation with Syrreth. The dragonlet shook her head in fr
ustration. Their strange new companion was just too difficult to figure out.

  “Never flick your tail rapidly back and forth,” her mother warned her. “We use our tails to help direct the air flowing under our wings. And don’t think I’ve forgotten this secret you’re keeping from me. We will return to this discussion at a later date.”

  Pravara swallowed nervously. She knew her mother hadn’t been fooled. She had inadvertently let something slip that her sire had not shared with her mother and now as a result she was being pressured for more information. If only she was old enough to communicate telepathically with her parents! Then at least she could warn her sire of her mistake. Bored by the silence everyone else seemed content with she again directed her attention to her new friend.

  “You never answered my question.”

  Syrreth sighed loud enough for everyone to hear him.

  “I have answered many of your questions.”

  “Why are you always so angry?”

  “It’s not anger you see.”

  Pravara noticed her mother’s left ear twitch. She was listening intently to the conversation.

  “Then what is it?”

  “Remorse.”

  “Remorse? What does that mean?”

  Syrreth turned to look back at Pryllan as if to say ‘your offspring, you tell her’. Steve burst out laughing once he had caught the look of disgust on Syrreth’s face.

  Pryllan waited a few moments before she answered.

  “Remorse is a worrisome agony arising from a sense of guilt for past wrongs.”

  Pravara was silent as she thought about her mother’s precise definition. The human female spoke up.

  “What are you feeling remorseful about?”

  Syrreth didn’t say anything. Neither did Ferreth.

  “It can help you feel better if you get what is troubling you out into the open. We might be able to help you.”

  Syrreth turned to look at Pryllan’s claws. He found Sarah’s eyes and held them.

  “You’re a human. It is of no business of yours.”

  “We’re all in this together,” Sarah reminded him. “You might not appreciate the situation you’re presently in but one of the advantages of having friends is that friends will help you.”

  “Are you my friend?”

  Much to Sarah’s credit, she didn’t hesitate.

  “Yes.”

  Taken aback, Syrreth was silent as he contemplated this turn of events. The two Zweigelan heads regarded each other for a few moments before Ferreth resumed responsibility for their navigation, allowing Syrreth to deal with Pravara.

  “We were forced to disclose the location of the other two Zweigelans.”

  “I take it you didn’t want to?” Steve asked.

  Syrreth shook his head no. “We tried to force the Collective from accessing that memory but it was no use. Once our thoughts fused with the Collective then they knew instantly where to find them.”

  Pravara caught her mother’s eye. Pryllan looked straight at her and winked.

  Are you confused about the subject matter in this conversation? Pryllan’s thought said to her.

  Unable to speak back to her telepathically, Pravara nodded.

  Do not concern yourself with Syrreth and Ferreth’s affairs. None of it concerns you. Listen, but do not speak.

  Grateful – for once - of the parental guidance, Pravara decided to stay quiet and out of the way, but still close enough to hear what was being said. She might not fully understand what the conversation was about but she certainly didn’t want to be excluded, either. She had long ago learned that adult matters were significantly more interesting than her own.

  “If one of the other Zweigelans had been captured in your stead,” Sarah began, “your location would have been revealed, too, right?”

  Syrreth considered. “Perhaps.”

  “Are the other two as strong as you?”

  Syrreth nodded.

  “So if you were unable to keep that information hidden from the Collective then it stands to reason that they wouldn’t have had any better luck than you.” Before the Zweigelan could find fault with that logic she added, “You have nothing to be sorry for. Did you willingly tell them where they could find the others?”

  Syrreth again shook his head no.

  “It’s a terrible situation,” Sarah agreed. “You were forced to give up information and there wasn’t anything you could have done about it. There’s no remorse there.”

  Syrreth sighed. “We have been alone for longer than you can ever realize, human. We are accustomed to it.”

  “We prefer it,” Ferreth added darkly.

  “You’re not alone anymore, Syrreth,” Pryllan’s soothing voice added. “Dragons prefer their isolation, this is true, but we also have a unique tool that we use in order to help us better ourselves.”

  “What would that be?” Syrreth asked suspiciously.

  Ferreth didn’t say anything but everyone could tell his attention was focused on the conversation at hand.

  “The Collective.”

  Syrreth gave a snort of derision and made an elaborate showing of returning his gaze to the passing countryside.

  “Would you like to know why?”

  Syrreth ignored her.

  “I’d like to know why,” Sarah announced.

  “The reasons number three,” Pryllan began. She shot a glance over at the Zweigelan to see if Syrreth and Ferreth were paying attention. Both heads were staring straight ahead but Pryllan caught the slightest bit of movement of Syrreth’s ears. They were both listening. “The first reason is communication. What I said before is true. Most dragons prefer isolation rather than living in large numbers, like a herd of bolgers.”

  “What’s a bolger?” Syrreth asked, forgetting that he was supposed to be ignoring them.

  “Big land mammal,” Steve helpfully supplied. “Walks on all fours. They’re found up north. Not very bright. Produces some great steak, though. I like mine medium well.”

  “As I was saying,” Pryllan continued, “as long as we are connected to the Collective, we are always in contact with other members of our species. It does not matter where you make your nest as you will always be connected to the other minds. Most dragons choose the northern valley not for isolation from each other but for the plentiful game found nearby. Thus, thanks to the Collective, a dragon can live wherever they choose and still have the ability to communicate with their fellow dragons should the need arise. I personally use the Collective for this reason. When I do not desire to use the Collective, I will allow it to go dormant.”

  This got Syrreth’s full attention.

  “We thought we had to be in full contact with other dragons at all times. Is this not so?”

  Pryllan shook her head.

  “It is not. Think of the Collective as an ability that can be turned on and off. If you have turned the Collective off, and the Dragon Lord summons you, the Collective will activate and relay the message. Only Rinbok Intherer has the power to activate the Collective within you should it be in a dormant state. That is, unless you wish the Collective to remain active. It is entirely at your own discretion.”

  “We were not told this,” Ferreth hissed out angrily.

  Pryllan was shocked. “The Collective’s nuances were not explained to you?”

  Both Syrreth and Ferreth shook their heads.

  “We will come back to that. Secondly, the Collective is good for knowledge. All wyverian history is handled within the Collective. The summation of all our knowledge can be found within your mind if you choose to access it. You have but to ask.”

  Syrreth shook his head in disbelief. “We did not know this, either.”

  “And finally, the third reason is support. Since we can sometimes live far apart, we need a medium to contact other dragons should the situation call for it. Ask yourself a question. If you’ve sustained an injury and were unable to care for yourself, what do you do? Who do you turn to for help? What then? How woul
d you survive? Ordinarily a quick message sent through the Collective would have half a dozen dragons coming to your aid. What if you witness something you believe the Dragon Lord needs to know about?”

  “What if you’re accosted by a group of humans that wanted to do you in?” Steve absentmindedly added.

  The Zweigelan’s mood, which was starting to brighten while listening to all the advantages the wyverian Collective had to offer, suddenly darkened. Everyone could see it. Syrreth grunted and returned his gaze to the north.

  “Is there something else on your mind?” Sarah called out to him. “Syrreth, what are you thinking?”

  “We believe we don’t belong in your Collective.”

  “Why not?” Pryllan inquired. “You are a species of dragon. You are part of the Collective.”

  “Your young intercepted the band of humans who were trying to kill us.”

  Pryllan angled her head to automatically check on Pravara. She had told the dragonlet listen, but not to speak. Apparently Pravara had become bored as she was now ignoring everybody and was instead watching several cumulus clouds pass by below her.

  “What about it?” Pryllan asked, ready to leap to her offspring’s defense.

  “We are Zweigelan, and yet couldn’t fend off a band of filthy humans –”

  At this Syrreth looked with alarm over at the two humans Pryllan was holding. Steve waved off the insult.

  “Don’t worry about it,” he called back. “No offense taken.”

  “We have never had anyone come to our aid before,” Syrreth continued, in a much softer tone.

  “It’s making you rethink your positions on dragons, isn’t it?” Sarah guessed.

  Syrreth nodded while Ferreth ignored her.

  “Since no one has said this to you before,” Pryllan announced as she looked over at Syrreth and Ferreth, “I’ll formally say it now. Welcome to our community. I am glad you are here.”

  “Welcome to the brotherhood of the dragons,” Steve added. “You’re taking your first step in regaining your honor as a dragon.”

  Ferreth turned to look at the human fire thrower.

  “What do you know about honor, human?”

  Steve took a breath but Pryllan cut him off.

  “These two humans are friends to the dragons. All dragons. He has the Dragon Lord’s express permission to ride me.”