Dragon Envy

by Kelly Armenta

  None of the weapons provided by Areth contained iron. I was just fey enough to have a mild itchy reaction to things forged from that ore. I could touch it and be around it when necessary, compliments of my dragon self, but I preferred to avoid it if possible. All of the blades I carried, the buckles on my clothing and even the circlet on my brow all appeared to be made of the same metal as my bow and arrows. Whatever it was, it felt solid but light. And it contained no iron.

  At the end of the couch lay a sumptuous sable colored long fur cape. On top of it lay a pair of wraparound sunglasses and heavy fur lined gloves. Late additions that appeared when I told Areth I wasn’t entirely certain if Immy was serious when she mentioned Wooly Mammoths. Probably best to just be prepared for any weather.

  Immy returned as I was checking out the other miniature etched creatures. She was wearing the same outfit she’d left in but had added a long leather cloak tied over one shoulder and under the opposite arm. And like me, she’d added a leather corset. Both the cape and corset split to accommodate her wings, then laced around her at the sides. On her hip she had strapped a beautiful silver and bronze chackram. An interesting choice of weapon that. Her black curls were tied back, and she had an eager look upon her face. I could swear her hair had grown just since she’d hacked it off. She took one look at my outfit and clapped her hands together. “Absolutely perfect!” She remarked then motioned for me to follow her.

  I gathered up my coat, glasses and gloves and we headed back out to the hall. Remembering as I walked to stay firmly to the middle, I followed her several hundred feet down the corridor. While we walked I glanced at the strange landscape on the other side of the hall divider but wasn’t tempted to either linger or touch. The barrier didn’t seem to have suffered any damage from Goldy’s spastic charge earlier, though the same couldn’t be said for the floor. Inside me Goldy harrumphed but said nothing.

  We came to a halt in front of a set of double doors about nine feet tall. The doors were carved in a representation of a universe complete with planets, suns and moons. I didn’t get a good look, and while I wasn’t a complete hack as an astronomy student, I nonetheless didn’t recognize any of those constellations. Shrugging one shoulder I followed along as Immy pushed open a door, and in through it we went.

  I’m not sure if I had expectations for what a gateway through the Everlasting might look like. Maybe some huge archway pulsing with nebulous goo or something more modern like Jace and Gareth’s control room, heck even a phone booth would have been believable, but a….book?

  “It is merely a locus.” Immy informed me pertly, “We’ll be leaving through there.” She told me and pointed to what looked like any other section of cavern wall just to the right of the platform occupied by the book.

  Uh huh I thought skeptically, as I trailed her across the floor and up a handful of stone stairs to a dais where the book-locus stood. I say stood, because the thing was probably a good six feet tall. It was also bound in what looked like leather, must have had several thousand thick parchment-looking pages and was opened to somewhere toward the front of the book. On the left side of the page there was an oblong image of a planet. It looked like depictions I’d seen of Earth, except the land masses were all different and the surface areas a pale blue and brown while the ocean sections showed a pale yellow color instead of dark blue. Clouds of green tinged yellow moved over one of the land masses in the lower hemisphere. I assumed the world was round, but the picture showed it flattened. On the page there was a pinpoint of light that sort of pulsed over one of the land masses in its northern hemisphere. At the top of the page the word ‘Abnobi I’, which I guessed might be its name. On the right side, the entire page presented a grassland complete with a large grazing herd of shaggy blue I don’t know what’s, being watched over by…oh wow! “Are those Centaurs?” I breathed. I wasn’t sure what was more amazing, the creatures themselves, or the fact that the entire scene was….moving. It sort of reminded me of the painting in my room, back in Garth and Jace’s den. The difference being that my painting seemed to be a timeline snapshot, whereas this page appeared to be in real-time.

  “Technically they are Centauresses.” Immy explained with a nod and grin. “If you look closely you might notice that they are all female. I did promise girls only, didn’t I?”

  “Why yes you did.” I murmured, staring intently at the scene and trying to take it all in. The grass was bluish green, about knee high and appeared to be moving with a gentle breeze. In the sky above the grassland I counted two opaque moons and a sun that looked buttery yellow instead of the intense yellow of Earth’s sun. The plains seemed to stretch on into the distance, pretty much flat forever. The animals looked like they might be some sort of cow, except they were covered in shaggy pale blue hair and had a darker blue bony frill behind a double set of curved horns. If their horns had been straight, I might have said they were related to a triceratops. They looked placid enough, munching happily on the grass and swinging their cow like tails at imaginary insects, even the babies looked content. I watched as a couple youngsters squared off in what was sure to be a pretend death match, complete with hoof scuffing just before they butted heads. Apparently some things were the same, no matter what world you occupied.

  “The Lugnor have many predators.” Immy mentioned as she watched the scene intently, “Look there,” she said pointing toward the left side of the page where the grass seemed to be moving, but in the wrong direction.

  I leaned in as a large wolf like creature leapt from the grass toward a youngster. The young Lugnor stood frozen in fear as the predator reached for it with claws extended, and I felt my fingers tighten into a fist. I leaned forward just as an arrow slammed into the wolf-like creature and it fell to the ground, twitched once, and then lie still. Whew, that was close I thought, then watched one of the Centauresses lope up still holding her bow, another arrow notched. She edged between the youngster and the dead predator seeming to break the youngster’s frozen spell and sending it scampering back into the herd.

  “That is Jocara.” Immy told me, pointing to the Centauress. “She along with her sisters will be assisting us.”

  And let’s hope I don’t manage to piss her off! The woman looked tough enough to wipe the floor with me. Well the human me anyway, and maybe do some serious damage to the dragon me too. I mused. Surprisingly she looked, just like you might expect a Centauress to look, body of a horse, torso of a human. Seemed the history books got that one right. On Earth I guess you would have called her coloring, bay? Her body was a rich brown with tan colored stripes and her tail and hair on her head was black. She wore bracers on her forearms made from some type of thick hide. Her breasts and upper torso were restrained by more of the same, as was the juncture where her upper body melded into her equine portion. A sort of armor if you will, which might also be used to carry things as it looked to have pockets with flaps, almost like a saddle bag. She had an impressive set of abs, left uncovered. She also had a set of spiked black twisted horns growing out of either side of her head from the temple area. The hilt of a sword could be seen over her right shoulder, a long whip secured at her hip, and like me she carried a full quiver strapped across her back.

  My eyes were drawn to the dead creature. I called it a wolf, but only because I wasn’t sure how else to describe it. The thing had a mane and tail like a horse, full and dark grey with stripes of cream running through it. It looked to be about the size of a large dog. Its back and neck were a light tan color, the chest was a pale dark red and the legs had alternating bands of pale blue and tan that ended in clawed feet. At the shoulder and hip, slender slightly curved spikes grew out of its fur almost like quills. The creature had large forward facing ears and a face that reminded me of a fox.

  I watched as Jocara lifted a leg and shoved her hoof at the dead wolfish animal before leaning down and removing the arrow. She took a moment to wipe off the blood on its fur before placing it back into the quiver. Giving the surrounding area a sweeping glan
ce, she turned and trotted back to her position at the edge of the herd. The Lugnor appeared not at all fazed by the near death of one of their own, and merely continued eating as if nothing happened.

  Chapter 16

  “This will be our first stop.” Immy informed me few minutes later. Her voice snapping me out of the close inspection I was conducting of the other six Centauresses I could see on the page. They looked similar to Jocara except in coloring and dress, and not all of them had horns. I turned my gaze to Immy as I watched her step forward and flip the book’s pages to another world ah…scene, this one much different than the first. “This is D2 she told me and I could see the name across the top of the left page. It’s the World we’re attempting to repopulate.”

  On the right page, tall white-capped craggy mountains overlooked a huge alluvial plain covered in golden grass which danced in the overhead sunlight. A hundred foot waterfall flowed down the mountain side and fed into a large lake off to the left. Several small tributaries ran from the base of the hills and joined into a river that cut the plains and disappeared into a thick forest at the far edge of the page. In the air a lone bird hung suspended on the currents, its iridescent feathers flashing different hues in the bright sunlight as it lazily flapped its broad wings. The scene was gorgeous, the mountains breathtaking, and the open air seemed to call to me, inviting me to take wing and fly! Goldy opened her eyes and stood, her head swung left to right as she took in the full page and then she leaned forward almost as if she were trying to press her snout against it. Her motions caused me to sway and I was glad once again for my lack of heels. “Whoa there girl,” I joked and placed my hand over my stomach with a smile. “It seems I’m not the only one that finds D2 beautiful.”

  Immy had been watching me out of the corner of her eye. At my comment she seemed to breathe a soft sigh and nodded her head once. A smile covered her face. “Shall we then?” She asked as she reached for my wrist and I felt myself wrenched across time and space.

  “Aiiiyyy! Warn a girl would you?” I muttered once my body reassembled itself.

  Immy laughed as I quickly glanced around at the blue green grass covered ground we stood on. At least she hadn’t deposited us in the middle of the herd I thought. She gave me a smile then turned and waved an arm at the nearest Centauress who grinned then waved back. She seemed pleased to see us and came trotting our way, whistling loudly, no doubt announcing our arrival to her sisters.

  “This is Mictaar.” Immy informed me as the slightly scarier version of Jocara came to a halt before us.

  Like her sister, Mictaar had black hair and tail, but her body looked like a zebra, except it was grey with violet stripes. Dark purple scales covered her breasts, around her waist and down below her belly button. I couldn’t tell if they were part of her body, or just coverings used instead of some other material. Her eyes glowed an eerie lavender color and she had horns that curved over her neck and back. The horns were covered in delicately carved symbols. Across her back she carried a beautiful bow that was probably taller than me. Her long flowing hair seemed to move with a life of its own as she stood before us gazing back at me. Yeah, definitely scarier I thought. Her head tilted to the side as she considered me, then she smiled, exposing perfect white teeth.

  “You…think I’m scarier than Jocara?” She asked, and then burst out laughing so hard she had to brace her front feet to keep from falling over. “Oh that’s rich!” She gasped when she could finally catch her breath.

  Just peachy, I sighed while my face and neck felt like they’d gone up in flames. Apparently Centauresses can hear my thoughts. And they speak English. Who knew?

  Beside me Immy tried to stifle her laughter but lost it completely when I turned to give her a dirty look. “It’s just…the look on your face.” She told me then shared a glance with Mictaar and the two of them burst into laughter again. I sighed and just stood there wondering if maybe this little adventure would indeed end up with me having green hair, or the equivalent thereof.

  My thought sent Immy off on another laughing tangent which lasted long enough for three of the other Centauresses to arrive. One of them was Jocara and I just sort of resigned myself to more laughter at my expense and wondered if it wouldn’t be wise to simply raise my shields.

  “For what reason would you need to shield yourself from us?” Jocara asked while she aimed an annoyed look at Mictaar who was suddenly no longer laughing, but rather doing her best to look innocently baffled.

  “It was merely that Lexi surprised Mictaar.” Immy explained with a smile. “I was not aware that you and your sisters would be able to hear her thoughts.”

  Jocara’s eyes moved back to me and it was all I could do to prevent myself from thinking something that might embarrass me any further.

  Jocara raised an eyebrow and looked at Immy expectantly. Immy actually straightened as if she’d been prodded, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing myself. She shot me a look of chagrin and took a breath. “Princess Lexi Helyanwe may I introduce Lady Jocara and her sisters, Lady Mictaar, Ianacua and Reehe. The others you will meet are Anete, Leekes and Favns. Ladies, this is the Princess Lexi Helyanwe.”

  Oh I thought, we were going with that? And caught the sly grin my comment seemed to cause Immy, at my thought. Hmmm okay then, I thought with a shrug. Ianacua was blonde, or would that be palomino? I wasn’t exactly sure. Unlike her sisters she was fully covered in thick leather armor and had more leather bags strapped around her waist and girth. Her hair was braided back from her forehead in corn rows and flowed down her back. Reehe’s body was dappled grey and she had black hair and tail. Black fetlocks started just below her hocks and flowed down her lower legs, covering her hooves. She wore the least amount of clothing or armament and had ears that tapered to a point, like mine. Both Ianacua and Reehe had striking coloring, and both were quite lovely. Neither had horns. All were much taller than either Immy or myself. In my flat boots, I couldn’t even see over their backs. Mictaar was actually the smallest of the four, and the top of my head only came to just below her withers, putting the top of her head somewhere around seven feet or so.

  We were all eying each other cautiously when Goldy stood up and stretched like a cat. Her movement startled the sisters so badly that Ianacua actually yelled then reared up and the others jumped and nearly bolted. Immy landed in front of me holding up her hands in the universal sign of peace while I found myself staring over the top of her wings at four arrows pointed directly at me.

  “Ah Ladies,” I soothed them in my calmest voice, while I reached over and gently edged Immy to one side. “This is Goldy, my dragon. My apologies for having startled you.” I then frowned down at Goldy who rolled her eyes up at me. Now would be a great time to go back to sleep! I all but snapped at her. She huffed back at me while I waited impatiently as she flopped back onto the stone floor and closed her eyes. Grateful she hadn’t decided to launch us into the air, I turned my focus back outside myself to find five sets of eyes all staring back at me in varying degrees of surprise. Taking a deep breath I ignored Immy and smiled up at the sisters making sure I did nothing that might be construed as aggressive. Goddess alone knew getting punctured like a pin cushion wasn’t exactly how I anticipated this little adventure starting off. Cause let’s face it, yanking arrows out of your body was never fun. And the blood would ruin my new wardrobe which would really annoy me.

  Jocara frowned down at me, the tension in her bow going slack as her eyes flicked between Immy and me. “You do not believe they would kill you?” She asked.

  I thought about it for a moment then responded, “Maybe…if they were coated in a strong enough poison.” I told her then shrugged. “Though it would have to be extremely toxic and take some time to actually kill me. Assuming I didn’t heal myself first.” At her skeptical look I signed and slowly pulled a knife from my boot, holding up my left palm to show I meant no harm. I glanced up at her before turning my hand over, taking my knife and slashing it across the skin just
above my bracer. Blood immediately covered my arm, while around me I heard several sharp intakes of breath. Ouch….that hurt! I gritted my teeth while I stood there bleeding for about ten seconds, which felt like an eternity, then shifted my arm to heal it. Wiping my blade on my pants I slid it back into my boot before using my fingers to clean away the still wet blood, revealing my once again, unblemished skin. “See no harm, no foul.” I told them. Actually, I’d be lying, if I didn’t admit that the pain of the wound still echoed in my psyche. But I’d suffered worse injuries and I wasn’t going to let a minor cut bother me.

  Jocara frowned then nodded once, waived her hand at her sisters who immediately lowered their weapons and returned their arrows into their quivers. “You bleed.” She remarked.

  “Don’t we all.” I replied in a tone that caused her to chuckle.

  “Yes,” She agreed with a grin, “we do indeed.” She dipped her head to me and turned to Immy. “Keeper, it is good to see you. As requested, the Lugnor herd is well rested and ready to be moved.”

  “And the Vuratar?” Immy asked, as she turned towards the hills in the opposite direction. Hills that couldn’t have been seen from our earlier vantage point when looking at the page in the book.

  Jocara nodded her head and told us, “They were pushed to the higher pasture two days past. They will not be difficult to find once we get these through the gate.”