by Scott Moore
“However, this dragon could be made up to scare children who don’t go to sleep on time,” Malik poked.
“You will have to read the book. I have read it countless times. Maybe it is time for someone else to get a look at it.”
Malik didn’t have time to read myths and legends. He needed to gather his wits, take a quick nap, and then set off in search of his friend. He didn’t have time to curl up next to the fire and read hundreds of pages filled with nothing but non-sense.
“We would love to look if you are ready to part with the text,” Mollie said.
“I have gotten my use from it. No one here at the village cares what I have to say about it. Mother tells me to get my head out of the clouds and focus on the reality of the world. She says that soon I will have to figure out how to bring in an income for the home. I figure she is right, but I don’t know what I want to do with myself yet.”
Mollie reached out, extending her arm and gave him a few pats. “You will figure it out.”
Khris’ shoulders relaxed, letting some of his tension dissipate.
“There are a few more things about the Crystal Dragon you should know.” Khris hopped off the stool. “The first is that anyone who finds it has to travel to the farthest corners of Luberg into the Crystal Rivers. The second is that anyone wishing to have a chance of finding it has to talk with the Never Aging Mind, there are several references that claim to know where the man is, all stuffed into the back of the book. However, I am not sure he exists,” Khris said looking disappointed.
“I am not sure how you believe any of this exists,” Malik replied. He took a glance to the doors hoping to see Vee clambering through. He would barter for a place to sleep.
“I believe because there is no reason to lie about such a thing, plus I have seen those monsters.”
Mollie swung her hand around hitting Malik in the chest. Malik grabbed onto the bar to keep from falling backward onto the floor.
“Did you say you saw those monsters?” Mollie asked.
“Why did you have to hit me for?” Malik said rubbing his chest.
Mollie was too intent on Khris’ reply to bothering answering Malik.
“I have seen the monsters twice. Maybe it was the same one, I am not sure. No one here in the village believes me. Mother thinks I am being foolish and trying to avoid my duties. It is why she has only let me out of the house to chase the cat. She has everyone in the village watching out for me. Thinks I am getting sick. Won’t even let me read my stories anymore. She fears they are making me see things. I am not seeing things though.” Khris looked at both pleading with his eyes for them to believe him.
“If we were to say we believed you had seen them, could you show us where they were?” Mollie asked.
“I could show you right now,” he said the words spilling from his mouth.
“Good and then you can show us that book, later?”
“I will show you the spot and then get you the book. Mother won’t be too happy, but at least you can tell her I was right.” Khris stretched out his hopes.
“Why in the world would we want to see these monsters?” Malik asked.
He couldn’t think of a single reason he would want to see another of those beasts.
“Maybe we could track it,” Mollie turned to him, whispering.
She said it as if he had any want to track one of those things. He tried to communicate that to her with his eyes, but she was off the stool looking toward Khris.
Khris glanced to the doorway where Vee had disappeared. Malik wished she would barge through and stop this foolish plan. She didn’t come out though.
“We have to hurry,” Khris said, deciding to take the wrath of his mother.
Mollie turned, waving Malik to follow. Malik sighed, letting the hopes of his plans fall into the wind. He got up off the stool, slapping a few coins down onto the bar for Vee’s trouble.
Chapter 18
Nests
Khris led them up the sloping roadway, turning right just before his mother’s flower shop. He pushed them past the houses lining the following streets. The village of Twin Rocks was a straight line sectioned off into other straight lines. Filled with no alleyways, back paths, secret sub-sections, or anything that varied from the pattern. Every road had the same cobblestoned fencing. Each home looked the same. A stone fence circled each home, sharing the fence to either side with their neighbor.
“We used to live there,” Khris pointed.
Malik looked to a house that looked the same as all the rest. He wondered how any drunken man found his way home after a long evening at the tavern.
“How can you tell?” Malik asked out of curiosity.
Khris looked at him confused. “By the pine trees.”
Malik noticed Khris had a way about him; looking to others as if the answers to their questions were obvious.
Malik looked at the trees trying not to get into another spatter. Not because he worried about the boy, but because he feared Mollie may hit him again. Malik focused on the trees in each of the yards.
“What is different about them?”
They varied a little in shape and size but in the dark, they would be the same outline.
“Where they are is different in front of each of the homes.”
Malik looked again, seeing that while each home had a pine tree in the front yard, each tree was in a different spot.
“Clever,” Mollie said. “Why are all the houses the same though?”
“To show no favoritism throughout the village,” Khris said, “each member of a society should feel the same.” Kris bit his bottom lip. “Although it’s not that way in reality. They look much the same on the outside, but inside each home is different. Every individual is different too. Some people are good, some are bad, and some are not who they seem at all.”
Malik figured there was a lot more to the story, but Khris waved them on down the path. Farther on the houses grew more spaced. Khris explained that this was where the town council lived. The furthest house was the mayor’s home. It looked like all the others on the outside but Khris assured them that on the inside he had all the perks akin to a man of his stature.
Malik didn’t ask what those amenities were. Something else occupied his mind. The thought of coming face to face with another of those monsters. He could feel its hot ragged breath on his face. Could smell its stale stench. Every image gave him chills. He wasn’t too masculine to admit that he felt real fear.
“Right up here are the sheep grounds. Mother once suggested I become a sheep herder, but I never got into fighting off the wolves. The first time I saw the monster was up this path a little further.” Khris pointed to a drop off in the landscape. “Down here is a small valley we call Grazer’s Paradise. It is nothing more than a pasture of deep green grass. The farmers all fight for their time in the valley to feed their sheep and goats.”
When Malik reached the edge of the drop off, he could see that the grass in the dip was much greener.
“So, if you aren’t going to be a sheep herder why were you down in the grazing area?” Malik asked.
“Mother comes up with a new path for me every week it seems. A month ago, it was sheep herder, before that I believe it was a milk boy, but the week I saw the monster it was gatherer.” Khris pointed down farther into the ravine.
Copses of fat green trees grew clustered together. Small fruit, the size of a balled fist, dotted all the low-hanging trees.
“The trees grow all year round. Great thing about Twin Rocks is it never gets too cold to kill our trees or crops. We can grow everything all year round. So, I was gathering the first time I saw the monster. Just behind that first section of trees. The gatherers spread apart covering the whole dip. There is no reason for groups to gather, because they will pick over each other’s shoulders. At least that is what Les, the trainer had to say.” Kris shrugged. “Do you want to go down farther into Grazer’s Paradise?”
Malik noted that he didn’t sound afraid. Th
e time cooped up in the flower shop had melted his brain. Anyone who saw these creatures and didn’t want to run was deranged.
“I would like to see where you were. To see if there was anything special about that spot,” Mollie replied.
Malik thought about turning around. He could meet them back at Vee’s tavern. That is if they even made it back. Both times these monsters had been killed was because of Abrie. Mollie may have shoved the sword through the second one, but it was Abrie’s arrows that slowed it down. Now Abrie was dead or being taken somewhere hostile by Sweet Tongue.
“I don’t think this is such a good idea,” Malik interjected. He hoped Mollie would see the sense in his words.
She already followed Khris down the trail. Malik sighed. He wouldn’t let her go alone. He didn’t like her plan, but maybe she saw something he had not yet seen. Or maybe she was crazy; he would bet on the latter.
“During the dry season this is all filled with grass. If left alone, the grass would be higher than our hips during this time of the year. During the wet season, there is a small stream that cuts through the ravine. The stream is impassable during the peak rains. However, the rainy season last only about forty-five days. After that, the grass sprouts right back up and the trees bloom their fruits for the rest of the year.” Khris guided them to a set of stairs built into the ravine wall. They were stone, wood, and in some places carved right into the earth. Malik would have guessed that they dropped over twenty feet before hitting the bottom.
“There is a ramp way a quarter mile to the east of the village. That is where the sheep herders bring their sheep into the pass. There are several staircases built in for the gatherers’ convenience. It is a bother carrying those hundred-pound baskets farther than you have to.” Khris shuddered at the thought, Malik noticed.
The ground under Malik’s boots felt much softer. He wondered if it was the grass, the dampness of the earth, or if it was a trick of his mind.
“Watch your step down here. The grass covers everything, but the stream will cut divots into the ground that are almost impossible to see. Step lightly,” Khris warned them.
Malik figured this was a great hunting ground for any creature. A quick adversary had only to fall into a hole, breaking its leg, and boom supper on a silver platter. Malik hoped he wouldn’t be that supper.
“I was just over this way,” Khris said pulling up after about five minutes in the ravine.
Mollie and Malik stopped beside him surveying the area. Malik saw hundreds of fruit-bearing trees. Closer he could smell the sweet scent wafting on the air. Malik’s stomach growled, and he reached out for a fruit from the branches.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Malik’s head froze in mid pluck.
“Is someone going to shoot me for stealing a fruit from a tree?”
He was only half joking. He knew of certain cultures that were very strict about their cultivation. However, that wasn’t the case in a place like Luberg. They were close to the border of Opallum though and he had no way to know what customs came over from the smaller kingdom.
“Not quite. There is a trap built into the fruit itself. A deterrent from nature, not us.” Khris reached out, grabbing the fruit. He pulled the fruit from the tree.
Malik watched him press his thumbs into the soft skin of the fruit, “the skin will give you loose bowels if you eat it,” he said shucking the skin from the fruit. “That is inconvenient for sure, but there is something far worse than runny poop.” Khris opened the fruit, showing the inside to Malik and Mollie.
Malik saw the small black seeds dotted throughout the fruit.
“These are filled with a poison that will cause your insides to not break down your food into nutrients. You will crap it out because of the skin but you will never feel full. It makes you want another and another. You will poop the seeds out over the landscape as you go, causing new trees to sprout. However, you won’t make it two days, as your body will dehydrate. You will die in stomach wrenching agony.” Khris popped the seeds out with his fingers one by one. It took him a few moments and then he smashed the fruit in his palm, shifting it around to make sure none of the seeds had escaped him.
“Here now you can eat it if you still want to,” Khris said.
Malik looked at the smashed mess on Khris’ palm. Although his stomach growled and his body yearned for something to eat, he shook his head refusing the pile of pulp.
“For the best,” Khris said, letting the fruit drop to the ground. “I am not the best at de-seeding. I was sure I got them all, but you can never be too careful about it.”
During this whole event, Mollie had been rummaging near the base of the trees.
“This is where you were during your sighting of the monster?” Mollie asked, standing up.
“The first time, yes.”
Mollie looked around again. Malik figured she saw nothing more than he saw; hundreds of short, fruit filled trees and dark green grass.
“What about the second time you saw the monster?”
Khris looked farther down the ravine. “The second time, I was looking for the monster. I knew what I had seen, but no one wanted to believe that I had seen it. I had to sneak out of the house, during the night, and come here without anyone else knowing,” Khris’ eyes ate up the landscape as if it were the first time, he had seen it all. “There is a small nook in the walls just over this way somewhere. I went into it and it widens out right after the opening. Further back, it is hard to see, but I had a lamp with me. That is when I saw the beast the second time. He was in that hole.”
“Can you show us where that is?” Mollie asked, curiosity spiking her voice to a higher pitch.
Khris looked again toward the wall beyond the copse of trees. He started to look reluctant, Malik thought. Malik figured he gained some of his sense back.
Then he answered like the idiot Malik knew, “I think I can find it again.”
Malik felt like screaming but contained it to an inward cry. He wished these two explorers would get their fill of this game.
“Good, you lead the way and we will follow,” Mollie said.
She turned back to Malik and waved him on again. Malik began to feel like the party’s third mule.
Khris moved them through the fruit-bearing forest. Malik wished that the little devils wouldn’t kill him, because their sweet smell made his mouth water. When they reached the end of the trees Malik thanked the Saints for the mildew smell of wet wood.
“Just up here,” Khris said, picking up the pace now that they didn’t have to avoid low-hanging branches.
The closer they came to the wall, the more the smell carried on the air. Malik also noticed that the breeze the smell rode on was cooler.
“The only reason I found the hole the first time was because of the cooler air coming from inside the wall,” Khris said. He pointed toward a spider web like crack in the rock, at the base of the wall. “It does not look like much, but I assure you that just past the opening it is a full flung cave.” Khris started at the crack with intense eyes. “No one else would come down here with me. They claimed that they had real jobs to do, and that they did not have the time to go on monster hunts. Now, you can tell them what you have seen.”
“Let’s get in there and see what we can find,” Mollie said.
“I came along on this silly journey to find the monster. I was fine when you explored the trees. I was fine that you looked for the crack. Actually, I was never fine. This whole thing is crazy, Mollie. You are acting crazy.” Malik tried not to be frantic about everything. It was getting harder to do.
“I am just trying to get a better understanding of what is going on, Malik. This may be helpful to us.” She wasn’t doing well hiding her growing anxiety.
“To what end? We know the creatures exist, Mollie. We have already killed two of them, what more proof do we need of them?” Malik let the fear get the better of him.
Khris stepped between them holding his hands out to either
side. “Wait!” His voice cracked with the attempt at a commanding yell.
Mollie and Malik paused. Malik took a deep breath, steading his rampant nerves.
“Did you say you knew the beasts were real? You killed two of them?”
Malik noticed that Khris’ face was beet red. Malik looked to Mollie to answer for them. She had been the one to lie to Khris in the inn. Malik agreed with her, but he didn’t have anything to add to the lie.
Mollie opened her mouth to answer and then shut it again without saying a word.
“You guys can tell me,” Khris said, dropping his arms.
Malik thought he looked more like a child than a man close to his age. Malik looked back to Mollie who avoided eye contact.
“Come on,” Khris begged.
“Stay off your knees with the pleading,” Malik said.
Khris shot around to him with hope of an answer.
“I don’t know about the creatures. If you are looking for answers we don’t have more than what you already know. It sounds like with that book, you may know more than we do,” Malik said.
“You said you have killed two of them though?”
Malik was ready for Khris to jump up and down with glee.
“We had help and we did it all together,” Malik answered. Malik left out the part where he had frozen in fear both interactions.
“How did you kill them?”
When Malik took too long to answer Khris tried another angle. “It says in the book that they can’t be killed. Or at least, it is unknown if they die. Did you see it die?”
“Not quite, well not in any sense that I have ever seen anything else die.”
Khris looked at him, trying to figure out what he meant by that answer. Malik couldn’t give him any more. Malik had never inspected the creatures after death. Their bodies fading away hadn’t been noticed.
“We don’t know anymore,” Malik added before Khris could ask another question.
Mollie woke up from her trance. “That is why we need to go into the cave. We have to figure out where these things are coming from and what they are coming for.”
