by Eric Vall
“Fine.” I turned and left the cave, but I paused at the entrance and glanced over my shoulder. “Last chance, Valerra.”
No sound came from the cave, so I shifted into my dragon form and took off into the dark sky.
As I flew back to Hatra, I cursed Valerra and her stubbornness. I knew it would be difficult to convince the other dragon to leave her canyons, but I didn’t think she would refuse me. I lost control of my temper in the cave, but I knew I made the right call.
I looked back at the canyons. I had hoped Valerra would see sense, but her cave remained dark and quiet.
I sighed in disappointment as I left Valerra and her pride behind me.
Chapter 6
The next morning, I rose early, dressed quickly, grabbed the Sword of Hatra, and stowed it away in my spatial storage. It was dark outside still, and I quietly made my way through the city. Thankfully, the moon was low in the sky and partially illuminated my path to the airship. The city was quiet and peaceful, and my dragon senses made the walk to the airship a breeze since I could easily maneuver around in the dark.
I stopped just outside the airship and took a deep, bracing breath. My parents and Alyona planned to see Ravi and me off, and I was sure Laika would show up, too. So, I sat down on the grass near the ship and yawned as I waited for the others.
Soon enough, I could see a light head toward the ship as my parents and Alyona approached. Ruslan held a flame that flickered brightly in his palm so Julia and Alyona would be able to see through the dark streets.
“Morning,” I greeted as I stood up and waited for them to join me before we continued on up the ramp and into the ship.
“Good morning, Evan,” Julia said as Ruslan waved next to her, yawned, and put out his flame as we entered the ship.
Lanterns and candles lined the sides and illuminated the ship, and my parents walked ahead as I stayed behind with Alyona.
“Good morning.” Alyona rubbed an eye and held back a yawn.
I smiled at her. The princess was beautiful even when she was tired.
“You should have stayed in bed, you look exhausted,” I murmured and gently pushed one of her forelocks out of her face.
“I’m fine.” She stifled another yawn. “I was up late in the library. I found some helpful spells, and I wanted to make sure I memorized them just in case I needed to use them.”
“Make sure you get more sleep later on, okay?” I requested and softly stroked her cheek.
“Evan, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” She swatted my hand away with a smile.
“I’m always worried about you. You always put the safety of others before yourself. It’s okay to put yourself first sometimes.”
She avoided my eyes, and I sighed.
“Just promise me you’ll get some sleep later, okay?”
“I promise,” she said and grabbed my hand.
“Thank you.”
We continued walking through the halls of the airship, and we eventually came to the passage where the phoenix was staying.
My parents waited for us near the guards.
“Laika is waiting for us,” Ruslan reported as he nodded toward Ravi’s room.
I quickly strode over to the doorway and smiled at what I found. Ravi was on her bed, dressed and bright eyed, and Laika leaned against the dresser but stood straight when we arrived.
“My lords and ladies,” the wolf Demi-Human greeted with a bow, “good morning. I hope you all slept well?” She looked pointedly at Alyona, who avoided the wolf Demi-Human’s eyes.
“Good morning, Laika, and to you too, Ravi,” I said to both of the women.
“Morning,” the phoenix replied.
Ruslan stepped forward and clapped his hands. “Now that we’re all up and about, shall we go?”
“Yeah, we can head out,” I said before I led my group out the door and out of the ship.
The group followed us to the walls at the edge of the city. The walk was quiet, and the only sound was our footsteps along the gravel and an occasional yawn. The air was warm, but the wind that would occasionally whip through the city was cold, and I could see us all shiver with every breeze. We passed through an area still under reconstruction, and Ruslan and I helped the women step over the debris that littered the ground. When we finally approached the wall around the city, the guards stationed at their posts opened the gate quickly.
I turned to say my goodbyes when Julia stopped me.
“Wait,” she thrust a leather bag into my arms, “I packed you some supplies. The bag is enchanted, so it can fit nearly anything you could have need of.”
“Thanks, Julia.” I hugged my adoptive mother and slipped the bag into my storage space.
Once the bag was stowed, I turned to Alyona and Laika and hugged each of them.
“Please be careful, Evan,” Alyona whispered in my ear.
“You too. If anything happens, send a message. I’ll get back as soon as I can.”
“If you need anything, my warriors and I can fly to you as well,” Laika offered as we broke our hug. “Keep us updated on your progress.”
“Will do,” I promised.
The sun had begun to rise, and I turned to the canyons to see if I could catch a glimpse of crimson scales.
“Will she not even come to say goodbye?” Alyona asked as she followed my gaze.
I had sent a vague message to my friends and family when I arrived back in Hatra last night. I explained that Valerra had refused to come with us, and I told them to not go near the canyons while I was away. Valerra was angry, and I knew better than to test her temper.
“No, she won’t.” I shook my head, and my anger toward Valerra coursed through my veins again, just as strong as last night. “She’s too stubborn.”
“Who is too stubborn?” Ravi asked from my side.
“The dragon who lives in the Crimson Canyons,” I replied as I turned to the phoenix. “Her name is Valerra. I asked for her help last night, and it didn’t end well.”
Ravi’s eyes grew wide, and she stared toward the canyons. “There is another dragon here?”
“Yes, but if you ever see her, stay away from her,” I warned. “She doesn’t take kindly to strangers.”
Ravi nodded, but her gaze searched the top of the canyons to try and catch a glimpse of Valerra.
I turned away from the canyons and looked out into the desert.
“Are you ready, Ravi?” I asked.
“Hmm? Oh, yes. Of course.” She hugged everyone in the group and smiled. “I want to thank you all for everything. I hope I get to see you all again one day.”
“It was lovely to meet you, Ravi,” Julia replied as she broke away from the phoenix’s embrace, “and I hope all is well with your people. Maybe after all this is over, we can meet again, and your people could travel beyond the desert once more.”
“I hope you are right.” Ravi gave a grateful smile, and in a pillar of flame, transformed into her phoenix body.
When the smoke cleared, she shook her feathered head and flapped her flame colored wings.
I smiled at her and shifted into my dragon form. Her bird form seemed so much smaller now.
With one last look at my friends, I took off into the sky, and Ravi’s small body bolted after and surpassed me. I was impressed by her speed, but with a few flaps of my wings, I easily caught up to her.
“All right, Ravi. Which way?” I asked and watched as the small bird closed her eyes. I could feel her magic pulse, and she turned toward the south.
“This way, follow me!” She flapped her wings, and small flames formed along the tips. Then she wheeled away, and smoke and ash followed behind her as she flew.
The desert was calm in the morning. The sun was still low in the sky, and a cool wind whipped across the land. Ravi seemed content to fly directly in the sunlight while I flew above her, but my wings would occasionally cut through a cloud, and rain would pour down. More than once, I accidentally hit Ravi, and she would squawk in surprise.
I guess fir
ebirds didn’t like water.
Ravi consistently flew parallel with the sun as it rose, and she never seemed to veer off the path of sunlight.
“Why do you fly in the sunlight?” I called out to her after a while of silence, and I swooped down so she was flying right beside my large head. “Doesn’t that make it hard to see?”
“We are creatures of fire, the sun doesn’t bother us,” she replied. “If my elders are correct, your people have myths of a Moon Goddess, yes?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Apparently, the Moon Goddess created Hatra.”
“Well, the Sun God created the phoenixes,” Ravi explained as she glided near my face. “The stories say one day, the Sun God wanted to impress all the other gods who ruled the universe, so he asked them for a challenge that would be impossible for all the others. The Earth Goddess gave him one: to create a life of flesh and bone that could never die. He created many different creatures, and dragons are said to be one of them.”
“Really?” I asked with interest. “I didn’t know that.”
Granted, there was still a lot I didn’t know about Inati.
“Yes, but each different creature perished, no matter how long it lived,” Ravi continued. “Anything made from flesh and bone would die and return to the earth as dust. Finally, the Sun God had a realization. Flesh and bone returned to the earth because the Earth Goddess was the first to create life. Her creations would return to her. So, for his next creature, the Sun God created something out of the ashes made by his own flames. The result was the phoenix. We are flesh and bone, and we still die, but we do not turn to dust after death. We turn to ash and are reborn. We are immortal. The Sun God completed his challenge, and all the others were amazed. It wasn’t long until others found their own loopholes. The Goddess of Magic found immortality spells and gifted them to humans, and the God of Oceans discovered how to use water to heal and prevent aging.”
“Do you believe the old stories?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“I think the old gods are only as real as we want them to be,” she replied as she spun in a tight circle along an air current right beside my eye. “They offer reassurance to people. I don’t think they are meant to be taken literally.”
As I watched the small firebird and thought about her story, she flew inside the sun’s beams and practically disappeared. This world was full of magic, but this was only the second story of the old gods I’d heard since coming to this realm. I wondered if it was true that dragons were created by the Sun God. That would be pretty cool.
“Wait,” I said as I realized something, “did you say you’re immortal? The whole ‘rising from the ashes’ thing isn’t just a myth?”
“No, it’s real,” she answered casually as the tip of her wing brushed my cheek. “Every one hundred years or so, we must burn in order to be reborn. We can also burn anytime we are seriously injured. It’s part of our purifying magic. As long as we burn and our ashes are left alone, we will return.”
“That’s really cool. So, how old are you?”
“My first burn is to be this month. I’ve never done it before, but I’m excited. My father has ordered a beautiful pyre to be constructed for me.”
“A pyre?” I asked as pictures of burned witches rolled through my head.
“Yes, a phoenix’s first burn is a celebration.” She swooped over my head on another air current and glided on my other side. “I will receive many gifts and have a celebration when I am reborn.”
“Sounds like fun,” I told her.
“Oh, you should come!” Ravi exclaimed as she flapped her wings and landed on my head. “I’m sure my father wouldn’t mind, and you could bring all your friends from Hatra! It would be so much fun!”
I shook her off my head, and she laughed and flew ahead of me again.
“It does sound fun,” I chuckled, “but I don’t think we’ll be able to make it, sorry.”
“I understand,” Ravi sighed as she drifted back in line with my snout again.
We flew in a peaceful silence for a while, and the only sound was the slight crackle of the phoenix’s fire and the wind as it raced past us. On a whim, I reached out with my magic to check our surroundings. Then I felt a slight pull form beneath me, and I growled.
I could feel treasure, lots of it, and I wanted it.
“Ravi!” I called out to her. “Stop!”
She thrust her wings out to slow down and flew over to me
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Her eyes darted around and searched for any sign of danger.
“Nothing is wrong, sorry,” I apologized. “I just want to check out something really quick.”
“Oh, okay. Lead the way.”
I flew down toward the golden sands of the desert and landed on top of a dune. Then I felt around again with my magic and could sense the treasures buried beneath us, so I began to dig and used my claws to delve deep into the sand. Unfortunately, the ground was too loose, so the more I dug, the more sand collapsed from the dune to fill it in.
I growled in aggravation when the hole filled once more.
“What are you doing?” Ravi asked as she landed next to the dune.
I didn’t respond as I paced along the ground, and smoke billowed from my snout. I needed to reach the treasure, but I couldn’t dig it out.
Suddenly, I had an idea.
I flew up into the sky, with Ravi close behind, and focused on the magic I’d acquired from Asher. I hadn’t used my lightning since Asher was freed, but I was hopeful I still had it.
A moment later, the air crackled with electricity, and I smiled as I focused on the treasure buried deep in the ground. My lightning responded instantly, and bolts of energy rained down to the earth. The sound echoed through the desert, and I heard Ravi yelp in surprise next to me. Sand exploded into the air and covered Ravi and me in a thin layer of dust.
When the debris settled, the dune was destroyed. There was only flat desert, and the wagon that had been buried was now cleared. It sat on its side, probably pushed over from the wind and sandstorms.
Ravi blinked at me in confusion.
“All of that to unearth a useless wagon? Dragons are very strange creatures.” She shook her head, and in a flash of golden fire, transformed into her human self again.
Then she walked along the wagon as I also shifted into my human self and examined the wagon, too. It was in pretty bad shape. The wood was mostly rotten, and the white fabric over the top was ripped to shreds.
I pulled off a few boards and dug through the sand inside.
Ravi helped dig next to me.
“What is it exactly you expect to find in here?” she asked as she pushed the sand out of the wagon.
“I’ll know it when I find it,” I muttered and focused on the task at hand.
“Of course.” I could practically feel Ravi roll her eyes, but she continued to dig.
After a few more minutes, I finally found what I was looking for: a wooden chest. The chest was made of oak and had held up okay. There was a metal lock that kept the box latched, so I wrapped my clawed hand around it and snapped it off easily. Then I threw the lock in the sand as Ravi walked over to me.
“So, this is what you wanted?”
“Yes,” I replied as I braced my hands on either side of the lid.
I could sense the treasure inside the chest. It called to me, like it knew it was mine. So, I slowly opened it up, and a broad grin spread across my face. The box was filled with gold coins and jewels. There were also some slips of paper that might have been paper notes or deeds. I wasn’t too concerned with them at the moment, so I focused more on the wealth of gold before me.
I heard Ravi gasp as she looked inside, and I growled in the back of my throat possessively. She immediately took a step back out of fear, and I stopped.
“Sorry, it’s a dragon thing,” I tried to explain.
She seemed to understand and left me alone with the chest.
I pulled out a few of the coins with a smile. Vale
rra had an entire lair full of treasures, and I knew this was the very start of mine, so I pushed my hands through the coins to search for the bottom of the chest, and my hands hit the bottom when I was up to my elbows in gold. I smiled again and withdrew my arms. Then I pulled the chest out of the sand and out of the wagon.
I loved hoarding beautiful things. First, it was women, and I would soon possess more. Now, I owned the start of my treasure, and I would grow this pile. I also had a city, and it was only a matter of time until I lorded over countries and kingdoms.
It was good to be dragon Evan. Very good indeed.
Ravi waited for me outside of the wagon, and she leaned against the rotten wood with her arms crossed.
“Are you done?” she asked with a small smirk.
“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean to growl at you.”
“It’s okay.” She shrugged. “You’re a dragon. You hoard treasure, I understand. Just so you know though, I have no interest in treasure. My people have spent so long alone we have no need for money. Everything we do is for the good of the tribe. I promise I won’t steal from you.”
“Okay,” I said, since I wasn’t sure how to respond to her. “Let me just store this away, and then we can continue on.”
I used my new ability to create an open space and pushed the chest inside.
Then I turned back to Ravi, but she was gone.
“Ravi?” I called as I walked around the wagon. “Where are you?” I looked upward to check if she’d shifted while I was distracted, and I tried to sense her magic, but I couldn’t feel anything. “Ravi? Where the hell did you go?”
The sun had just started to set, so I shifted into a dragon and flew up into the sky to get a better view. After a moment, I caught a glimpse of orange hair on the sand a few yards away. I flew down toward it, landed in a dust cloud of sand, and marched toward Ravi as my wings folded along my back.
“What the hell was that?” I demanded as I drew closer to the phoenix. “You can’t just disappear.”
When I reached her, however, I froze.
The phoenix was on her back on the sand, and she didn’t move.
“Ravi?” I questioned as my heart skipped a beat. “Are you okay?”
