“Duh,” Katie snapped sarcastically.
***
Even though he was an extremely intelligent creature, Sygax found Katie’s teachings to be useless. It was apparent that she was trying to be helpful, but unless he were able to handle a bow, which would be an impossible task to manipulate the device with his claws, it seemed like he would be going hungry for a while longer. For a brief moment, he felt sympathy for Katie. She had been his first human contact—as a whole person, and not disassembled for his eating pleasure—and even though she appeared to be wary of him now, he couldn’t help but feel a certain level of admiration for her. After all, she had at least tried to instruct him on the finer points of hunting.
As Sygax listened in on the debate Katie and Edward were having in regards to his feeding and care, his opinion of the female hunter faltered. She seemed to have developed a measure of hostility toward him, which was confusing to him because she had been so nice when he initially encountered her. Was it possible that the guardians of the tree had somehow affected this change in her perception? He had witnessed the spell that the fairies had cast upon her, but until now hadn’t considered the effect it would have on Katie. It had to be a dark form of magic to change a person so dramatically, didn’t it?
Wishing there was something he could do to reverse the spell, Sygax tried very hard to block out the harsh words being spoken nearby. The humans might not realize it, but dragons had feelings, too. As Katie and Edward continued their quarrel, acting as if he was not nearby and perfectly able to understand everything they said, Sygax slowly crept deeper into the forest, unsure of how he felt, but knowing in his heart that it was best to keep his distance until the emotional turmoil had run its course.
***
Although he was so tired he could barely keep his eyes open, Brian stayed awake while Edward and Katie were away from camp. He had considered waking Julie a couple of times during the passing hours, but ended up allowing her to sleep, sure that she wasn’t quite ready to handle a shift of guard duty on her own just yet.
When he heard a rustling nearby, coming from the forest, all of his senses went into overdrive. The fact that the sun was only a few hours from setting made him nervous. Surely, the hunting party would require rest before the group moved on, but if Edward and Katie remained away from camp much longer there wouldn’t be time for more than a meager nap. It wasn’t until he saw his friends beginning to emerge from the woods that he began to relax again. “I was beginning to wonder if you two got lost or something,” Brian stated, the nervous laugh of sleep deprivation bubbling from his throat and making it sound like the quiet cackling of a madman. When neither of them made an immediate reply, he noticed the grim-faced expressions they both wore. “Is something wrong?”
After a brief pause, Katie sighed. “We got into a somewhat heated debate about the dragon’s training. While we weren’t paying attention, Sygax wandered off.”
“I’m hoping he’ll come back,” Edward added. “I can only assume that he overheard our conversation and his feelings were hurt.” A scowl flickered across his features as he glanced toward Katie, giving Brian the impression that their leader blamed the young woman for the creature’s disappearance. For a moment, the shaman was silent, the underlying hostility between his friends warning him to watch what he said. It shouldn’t have surprised him that the emotional turmoil was escalating again. Lately, it appeared to be a more frequent occurrence. One of these days I’m going to wake up and find them trying to strangle each other. I really wish they would sort out their differences and rally behind one another. Their almost constant bickering is going to tear this group apart if they don’t start showing a little self-control.
“How do you want to deal with the remaining watches?” Brian asked, changing the subject in an attempt to distract them from their moodiness. “I’m pretty sure that once the sun sets and Amber returns, you’re going to want to get moving again.”
“True,” Edward admitted, turning his attention to the red-haired man and rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Have you been standing guard the entire time we were gone?”
Brian nodded. “I didn’t feel that Julie was prepared to pull a shift by herself just yet, so I let her sleep.”
“Get some rest, my friend. I’ll have Katie wake her and take the next watch. I think it would be good for them to spend some alone time together.” Though it was obvious that Katie was still upset, she nodded her head in agreement. “I’ll take the last guard shift. Make sure you don’t let me sleep more than a couple of hours,” he instructed, turning to face the dark-haired woman.
***
Sygax opened his eyes and yawned. The sun had sunk considerably closer to the horizon since he'd retreated into the woods, finding a well camouflaged place in the underbrush to lay while he'd sorted his thoughts ... and apparently dozed off. His plan seemed to work perfectly. Even though the harsh words of the humans were etched in his memory, the short nap had eased the hurtfulness of them. The more pressing concern at the moment was his hunger, which the rumbling of his belly reminded him of. Perhaps if he returned to the company of humans, he could apologize for his disappearance and for being a burden to them. It might not be much, but maybe they would welcome him back and give him something to eat, no matter how small or meager the meal may be. Anything in his gut was better than starving, which Sygax dreaded the very thought of, knowing the madness of hunger could prompt him to feed on the one thing he swore after leaving the Tree of Life that he would never indulge in again … human flesh.
Determined to reunite with his new friends—although he was unsure just how receptive they would be—and make amends for his abrupt disappearance, Sygax rose to his feet and left the cover of his hiding place. Almost immediately, he spotted a large, four-legged, furry creature gazing in his direction from a short distance away. For whatever reason, the beast did not seem in the least bit afraid. If anything could describe its actions, it would be curiosity. The animal stretched its body upward, balancing on its hind legs, and sniffed the air. Though this gesture seemed to make the creature appear more human, Sygax wasn’t sure of the intended message the beast was trying to convey. One thing he did know, however, was his nose and stomach were telling him that the enormous ball of fur was a potential source of food.
Cautiously, Sygax stalked closer, keeping a wary eye on the animal for any changes in its behavior. Its stance remained one of curiosity until the dragon got within ten feet of it, then the creature’s posture began to display a more aggressive nature. The enormous bear opened its jaws, the flesh of its lips quivering as the animal bared its teeth and emitted a roar of warning. Its front paws swatted at the air between itself and the perceived threat, making the animal look like a boxer throwing practice punches. The whole act amused Sygax. It was impossible for him to take the bear’s menacing gestures seriously. Especially when it seemed likely that he could fit nearly half of the animal’s body comfortably in his mouth.
Being new to hunting, he tried to recall Katie’s attempted instruction. Even though Sygax had a considerable size advantage over the bear, he knew that his inexperience would give the animal a chance to escape and fight back. He inched forward, moving with as much stealth as he could muster and trying to maintain eye contact with the beast as he slowly closed the distance between them. From what Sygax could tell, the creature was unaware that the dragon was almost within striking range. The bear seemed too focused on attempting to scare the mythical beast to realize its own doom was seconds away. By the time the animal realized its efforts were being disregarded and its life was in jeopardy, the danger was too close. In an attempt to disengage, it lowered its body to the ground and prepared to retreat, but it was already too late.
Striking out, Sygax clamped his powerful jaws around the torso of the bear. The crack of its spine resounded in the forest for a split second when the dragon closed its mouth and its teeth penetrated the thick hide of the animal. The bear emitted one final grunted attempt to roa
r, then succumbed to the oblivion of death, the torn flesh of the beast’s belly allowing its innards to spill through the dragon’s teeth.
Chapter 9
An hour into his guard shift, Edward absently whittled his way through the small pile of sticks he’d gathered. It had taken nearly half that time for Katie to finally doze off. He wasn’t sure why she had been moodier since leaving the Tree of Life for the second time. Her distrust of the dragon seemed to be the biggest part of the problem, but he was almost positive that there was a secondary, underlying issue she was refusing to tell him about. In an attempt to appease her, and hopefully put Katie in a better mood, he had decided to carve out some new arrows for her bow. Using one of the projectiles he’d already made for her as a guideline, he had managed to create a half dozen more in the last hour.
His thoughts were broken off by the echoing roar of a creature in the nearby woods. Turning his head, he squinted into the dense foliage. The noise hadn’t sounded very dragon-like, but whatever had made it seemed pretty large, the depth of the menacing vocalization was indicative of something big.
For the most part, Edward kept his eyes glued to the surrounding forest. His eyesight wasn’t as good as Katie’s, yet he was relatively certain that he would spot a potential threat to their safety before it got too close to their camp. It wasn’t completely dark, but the gathering shadows made him nervous. What if he was wrong, believing he could see something coming toward them before it was too late, and his inaction put his friends in mortal danger? As he considered waking the others, a second, strangled roar broke the near silence. Before Edward could glance down to see if his companions had heard the sound, Katie popped up from her blanket like a Jack-in-the-box. If he didn’t know better, he would surmise that she was fully awake and alert, and had possibly been feigning sleep the entire time he was on watch.
Her attention focused, she studied the shadows of the forest for a moment before turning to meet Edward’s gaze. “What was that?” It was an honest question. To this point in her life, she had never heard anything quite like the sound that woke her. Not knowing what had made the noise only served to make her more anxious.
“I’m not sure,” Edward admitted, turning his eyes back to the forest. In his peripheral vision, he saw Katie rise to her feet and take a few stealthy steps into the surrounding foliage. “What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?” Edward whispered in a harsh, scolding tone. “Get back here!”
Ignoring Edward, she continued to scrutinize the shadows between the trees, which seemed to shift and grow at an alarming rate as the sun began to dip below the horizon, ushering in nightfall. Before long, the only light would be provided by Amber, and possibly the dual moons of Desolace if the canopy above would allow their luminescence to reach the ground.
Fear consumed his every thought, yet Edward reluctantly tore his gaze away from the willful woman and the surrounding forest. Being the leader of their small group, he had to focus on the well-being of everyone in his party, not just Katie. He was afraid of taking his eyes from her, thinking that the moment he did would be the brief slice of time she would decide to do something stupid or careless, but he had to make certain Brian and Julie were awake and able to aid them if their current situation demanded it. As quickly as he could manage, Edward roused them from their slumber.
Once he was sure they were awake, he placed a finger before his lips and urged them to silence. When he turned his attention back to where Katie had been moments ago, Edward panicked. Where the heck did she go? In a frenzy of worry, he scanned the area around her last known location, trying to look everywhere at once. He blew out a relieved breath when he finally spotted her; his fear that she had wandered deeper into the woods abated. Instead of throwing caution to the wind and slinking further from camp, he realized that she had actually backed up and was closer to the rest of the group. He wasn’t sure why she seemed to be retreating, but Edward got the impression that she was frightened. Whispering urgently, Edward tried to get her attention. “Katie, what’s wrong?”
“Something is coming,” she replied in a low tone. “Whatever it is, it’s big.”
Despite the bad feeling he had in his gut, Edward clung to the hope that their lives were not in danger. He had to. Otherwise, he would have to admit being a failure as a leader. “Can you see it yet? It’s entirely possible that it is Sygax.” He meant the words spilling from his lips to be encouraging, to put Katie’s mind more at ease, but he noticed they were having the opposite effect.
As she heard Edward speak, Katie turned away from the approaching footfalls and tried to run in the opposite direction. It was blind luck that the wizard managed to get a grip on her arm when she attempted to flee. “Let … me … go!” she demanded, trying to break free of his grasp. “If it is the dragon, it’s probably coming back to eat us.”
Katie felt an ominous silence drop over her like a death shroud as the reverberating footsteps suddenly stopped. Sensing the lack of reaction from Edward, she tilted her head upward to meet his eyes. Fear caused her nerves to tingle throughout her body. Even if she wanted to, Katie could not bring herself to check and see if there was something behind her. At least, not until she saw the smile creeping into his features.
“I don’t think it will be a problem,” he remarked, lifting his hands to her cheeks and gently forcing Katie to look toward her rear. She resisted at first, but finally gave in when she realized that Edward would persist until she turned her head. A sharp intake of breath hissed through her teeth as she saw the dragon standing at the edge of camp. Her initial reaction was to grab her bow and flee, but instead she stood frozen in place. “I believe Sygax has learned something from your instruction,” Edward added, his hand on Katie’s shoulder in an attempt to soothe the trembling woman. He wasn’t sure if what the dragon held in its jaws was a peace offering, or a meal, but the limp, furry creature hanging from both sides of the beast’s mouth didn’t appear to be something found. Rather, it looked like it had been freshly killed.
***
As nightfall crept into the sky, George sat up and yawned. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he looked around and realized that he was alone; the Black Knight’s army was long gone, leaving only a path of devastation in its wake to give an indication of where it was headed. His stomach rumbled, forcing him to realize it had been nearly a day since he had eaten anything. Foregoing the night’s patrol, for a few minutes anyway, he rose to his feet and retrieved a few pieces of dried meat from the sack he’d knotted around his steed’s control lever. Instead of returning to the place where he had spent the afternoon sleeping—it wasn’t as if he had a bedroll, or anything else that needed to be packed up before he took to the skies—he perched atop his mount and ate.
Half asleep, George chewed the virtually tasteless mystery meat. His mind wandered as he slowly quieted his noisy belly, unsure why the Black Knight had not been in contact with him lately. The last time he could recall conversing with the entity was after his life-threatening aerial encounter. The silence disturbed him. George remembered a comment the demon had made about his steed, which supposedly had surveillance cameras installed in it. Was it possible that the Black Knight had lied about his ability to see George’s surroundings through the metallic monstrosity? It was obvious that the demonic entity could hear things, but he hadn’t yet spoken up about anything that would give George the impression it was prompted by visual stimulus.
With the shroud of night fully engulfing the world in darkness, his hunger sated for the time being, George pressed the button on his mount’s neck to extend its wings, and pulled back on the control lever to urge the metallic creature to flight. He flew low to the ground for a while, traveling in the deforested wake of the Black Knight’s army. It wasn’t until he caught a glimpse of moonlight reflecting from their shiny bodies that he steered his steed higher. For the next few—seemingly endless—hours, George buzzed over the treetops. He figured it would be safe, at least until he reached the Tree of Life. The
small band of miscreants should be far enough from the clearing for him to surmise that his presence in the sky would go unnoticed. Also, he didn’t want to risk being spotted by the flying fireball any more than he had to.
Chapter 10
Sygax dropped the dead bear from his jaws and began to converse with Edward, relaying the reasons for his disappearance. When the brief exchange concluded, the dragon turned his attention back to his meal.
“What was he saying?” Katie inquired, keeping a wary eye on the mythical beast.
“Apparently, Sygax overheard our heated debate after you thought you had failed to teach him how to hunt. His feelings were hurt a bit, but once he had time alone to consider everything, he set out to prove that he was a worthy pupil,” Edward replied honestly.
“Are you implying that the dragon actually learned something from me?”
“No, I’m stating it as a fact. The proof is right before your eyes.”
As much as it pained Katie to think that she had been wrong about the dragon, it seemed obvious she had misjudged Sygax’s intentions. With a reluctant, heavy sigh, she turned her head toward the beast. When Katie opened her mouth to apologize, she quickly snapped it shut again as her stomach lurched and bile rose in her throat. The dragon had begun to eat, and having never seen Sygax doing such made the sight more shocking. The act was far more violent than she'd expected. It wouldn’t have been so bad to merely hear the creature chewing its meal, but with the setting sun, Amber had materialized and her incandescent glow provided enough light for Katie to witness every gory detail.
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