The Cursed Dragon

by Rachal M. Roberts

  Ravanan lowered his bloody head to her height and bared his teeth, snarling. He was so close to her she could feel the steam in his hot breath and see the fine lines on his black horns. All he had to do was breathe fire and she would be dead. Kalara was terrified, staring into his eyes, seeing her reflection, but her reflection wasn’t standing before him.....

  .....her reflection was reclined on a rocky ledge. She refocused her eyes, blinking, and it dawned on her that she was awake now and really staring into the terrible eyes of Ravanan in his true form. He was unnervingly close and if he did choose to breathe fire she’d be incinerated. She could have reached out and touched his muzzle – he was so close, his head was bigger than her twin bed in Jenn’s apartment; any nerves she had wilted with fear.

  He had been watching her sleep and had also been inside her dream. Kalara’s breathing was quick with fright. Taking in the ozone smell of a rainstorm – she realized he must have just quieted his menacing aura because even though she didn’t hear or see any sparks the lingering scent in the air gave him away. Ravanan was angry.

  Laying there, frozen with panic, she wondered what he was mad about but was too afraid to ask. In the dream, Ravanan’s face was covered in human tissue and blood; now it was clean, there was no blood smeared on it where the Azure Wizard had been torn in two.

  Ravanan didn’t flinch a scale, made no sound but for the heavy rush of air as he breathed.

  Her heart was racing in the uncomfortable silence. She felt hot from his dragon breath. She didn’t think she’d done anything wrong, after all he did tell her she was free to walk around and he hadn’t chained her up.

  ‘If he’d wanted to hurt me he would have.’ she told herself.

  Kalara was shaken and upset by her dream, she wanted to talk so she could stop thinking about it and break the tension of the moment. She sat up and spoke with a quivering voice. “Ravanan – you’re back. I looked around some, I found the lake and crystal room. I didn’t touch anything, there were some really nice looking crystals in there.”

  “So you found my wizard’s alcove.” his voice filled the cavern and rang in her ears “Why didn’t you make your bed there if you thought it so nice?” The edge in Ravanan’s deep voice was still there, sharper than before. He was definitely upset and not happy about finding her where she had fallen asleep.

  “I didn’t want to disturb anything. This room was empty so I moved over here to get out of your way.”

  “Of course it was empty!” The edge in the terrible blue dragon’s voice burned away to become an anger that had been brewing in him for days – ever since they had returned to Black Blade.

  The air around him began to sizzle and spark and Kalara’s hair starting lifting. “How interesting you chose to sleep here. Wouldn’t you agree it is strange that you went right to my empty treasure trove? Why? Was it possibly to fetch your lost memories? Did you hide your mind in here after emptying my treasure? That is why you wanted to distance yourself from me wasn’t it? So you would have time to come over here to retrieve yourself. Or perhaps your thievery spell misfired and traded your life of memories for my treasure; that was one spell you should have nailed – knowing you’d die trying to fix it.”

  Kalara was fully awake now and in utter disbelief at what she was hearing, “What?! You’re not making any sense!”

  “And still, you have no past. This is why I can’t trust you. When I left to find you my treasure room was full and when we got back it was empty. Now I wonder, who would have taken it? Who knew I was gone? My snares and traps were flawless but if another dragon had months to sit and think on how to pass through them while I was gone...”

  His anger-induced electrical field was raising her hair and his words were echoing off the walls like bullets, Kalara thought it best not to speak.

  “.... And you, little Kalara, are going to help me get my treasure back; just like you helped that dragon take it from me. Who is he? Or did you somehow manage it alone and find a way to be in two places at once – one by my side and another off at a seer pool ready to banish me?”

  His words were full of malice; they stung her worse than the sparks of his aura that were noticeably getting bigger.

  “But I don’t...”

  He cut her off “....know anything? Of course you don’t. How convenient for you. But it’ll come back to you with my help and I will discover your role in the heist – do not doubt that! You will welcome death when I am done with you. The need for your lost memories is the only thing keeping me from ripping you in two so let’s work on getting those memories back – shall we?”

  He roared and reared up to almost reach the ceiling and transformed himself back into the Azure Wizard. Walking up to Kalara, Ravanan angrily cast “EVOKE TABLE”. A jade-inlaid table and chairs appeared between them, the finely crafted wooden pieces matched his bed and were undeniably from a Mayan artisan who died long ago. Fingers of lightning were dancing on the old wood as Ravanan beckoned for her to sit down.

  Kalara was scared. How would she ever get out of this? She honestly didn’t know anything about his treasure and wanted him to believe her. “Ravanan, I’m sorry this happened to you. But how can you think that I had something to do with it?”

  “I can’t say that you didn’t. Your departure from the territory was suspicious. Perhaps your total memory loss is a camouflage attempt, an impressive one, if not risky. And of all places to store yourself, how did you even know you’d find your way back here?” He wickedly hypothesized and emphasized his previous order for her to sit, as he sat down as well.

  Kalara gingerly sat down, afraid that the old chair would snap and then all the lightning would converge and course through her body. Trying to be lighter than she was in the chair, she asked “But what about this table? Why didn’t the thief take it as well?”

  “This is not treasure, it is a useful thing that some human put its precious time into to make pretty for a king. It wasn’t even protected with traps.” the blue wizard said as he reined in his aura with a mastered control. The lightning obeyed him, even down to the minuscule paths it took as Ravanan artistically toyed with the positive and negative charges in the air around him.

  Kalara’s eyes fearfully watched the arcs of lightning dance back and forth, it wasn’t natural for electricity to waltz. Her fear turned to intrigue “How are you able to control it so well?”

  He sneered with an evil grin and with his eyes he indicated for her to watch his hand. He drummed his fingertips on the table, just as he had done in the mall when she met him. Her eyes immediately locked onto the working tendons on the back of his strong hand, their rhythmic movements nearly hypnotized her just as they had before. Why did he have to be so perfectly handsome? But then she noticed the lightning bolts had become one, maybe a foot long, and it was jumping and skipping across the table like a rock skipping over water in perfect sync with his fingers, over and over the bolt kept repeating the table dance. From watching the display Kalara understood the extreme power she was next to; it was like a dial, with a little irritability a static charge surrounded Ravanan and it could grow into lightning full of anger and malice if he wanted.

  “But how?”

  “I’ve worked with my electrical aura since I hatched over two thousand years ago, I ought to be good.”

  “Can you do the same with fire? Or Water?”

  “Now that is the real question isn’t it? All dragons know color determines primary force, blue is electricity, purple is ice. But can a brown dragon who is naturally a master of heat and lava excel at electricity? If he has cast enough electrical spells, then yes, but it would always drain him more to control electricity than lava, unless he had only focused on electricity his whole life in which case it would come easy to him, like second nature. Whereas since lightning is my primary, it costs me nothing but a thought.”

  “But how exactly are you doing it?”

  Ravanan was not in the mood for teaching and his bolt doubled in length. “Insid
e my aura I charge the air wherever I want to, I can pinpoint it.” Then Ravanan pointed the bolt to walk to Kalara, he held it still, aimed directly at her eye, she could feel the natural moisture in her eyes start to tickle.

  She froze where she was, unblinking and not liking the display. “OK! Please, how can I help? What can I do to show you that I had nothing to do with this?”

  Ravanan ran the lightning bolt backwards away from Kalara and it hit the far wall behind them with a loud bang. He smoothed his hair back down after the charged aura was gone, took a breath to quiet himself, and put his plan to work “I want to know what you experienced for the past few months, every detail. Leave nothing out.” His blue eyes penetrated her soul.

  “I may not remember every day – there were a lot of confusing ones and many slow ones.”

  “Just start with why you were that far north.”

  Kalara knew that answer. “I was confused and lost in a jungle in Brazil and couldn’t remember anything. Annette found me there. It was so kind of her to take me back with her and keep me safe, I didn’t care much for the airplane ride though. She is the best medicine woman for her tribe, she let me stay with her and made this ring of our hair to protect me.” Kalara held up her hand for Ravanan to see.

  At this he interjected “Kalara, you no longer need that ring, I’m your protector now. Give it to me and we’ll find out its true purpose.”

  Kalara handed him the braided ring and felt a shred of hope form in her heart, maybe he was trying to help her – better than Annette ever had.

  Ravanan studied the ring and asked her “So it was a woman?” The way he said it was peculiar as if he hadn’t expected a woman, he seemed to make a mental adjustment.

  “Yes, her name is Annette. But I think she grew weary of dealing with me and found a roommate for me to stay with. You see, everything she tried to recover from my memories had failed, I don’t think she is used to failure. After that I didn’t hear from her much. My roommate was Jenniffer. She really didn’t like me and I bet she is glad I’m gone.”

  “So you moved to that city where I found you?”

  “Tulsa, not that I got to see much of it. Jenniffer thought it was too dangerous for me to get a job or leave the apartment for any length of time. I had to persuade her to take me to the mall the day you found me.”

  Ravanan tucked the ring in a hidden pocket. “I need details. If I could see what you saw, hear what this Jenniffer or Annette told you, we could possibly figure this whole thing out. I’m going to cast Union, I’ll need your help.”

  Kalara could see the conflict in Ravanan’s eyes, he wanted to help her but at the same time he was ready to blame and execute her. The only thing she could do was what he said to do. At least she was more receptive to his spells after the whole Anti Blood episode. She found him so desirable, she simply couldn’t imagine her former self wanting to steal from him. “There is not much to see, Ravanan. I’m so messed up. I know I am. Do you really think you’ll see anything important that I haven’t already told you?”

  He moved his chair closer to her, “I do. It can’t make it any worse can it? All I’m asking is to directly know your memories, better than if you tried to put words to them. All you have to do is say ‘Union’ and keep trying to remember the early days with that dragoness named Annette. Try to think of everything you saw and where you went. Go slowly.”

  “Say the word ‘Union’? Is that it? Will I be casting a spell?” Kalara was getting excited.

  “Yes, you will be. You don’t have to be that strong with magic for the symbiotic spell to work since I’m doing the majority of it. Just simply say ‘Union’ and be wanting to share your thoughts with me.”

  Kalara timidly reached out for his hands, giving him her trust. “OK then, UNION.”

  Ravanan cast “UNION” and “SCRIBE”. Immediately he slipped into Kalara’s body that was looking for her lost meal in the forest. Ravanan recognized the forest he was in and began to search for his food. It had been right there before him, he had the perfect shot. How could he have lost it? The frustration of losing prey nagged at him. He never lost his target. What had happened? The memory began to pass away into a black visage until another memory rose in Kalara’s mind.

  A dark-haired woman named Annette was convincing him to go with her and before long he was walking to the airport restroom carrying cloths to change into. He didn’t want to do it, but it was what Annette recommended so he wouldn’t look out of place. He even remembered how odd it felt to physically remove the cream robe with his hands instead of charming it away. He looked down and saw his feminine human hands pick up the jeans to put them on. He then gave the beautiful robe over to Annette.

  As the memory faded, another black visage brought Ravanan to the next image. A strap was holding him firmly to a seat, then the airplane took off in a forceful start. It wasn’t anything like the flying he was used to with all the jarring and bumpiness.

  The next black visage brought him to where the airplane landed. He was walking down a long tunnel in Kalara’s body. And then on a long car ride that was headed towards the morning sun, he saw oak trees, green fields, and tasty cows. The ride ended at a lone cabin in the woods with large rocks guarding it. There were many rocks, positioned like seats around a central great stone altar.

  Ravanan heard Annette say “You’ll be OK Kalara. It’s just jet lag. It’ll wear off soon and you’ll feel fine. Here is a trash can.” After some uncomfortable feelings, he uncontrollably expelled corn broth. What was that liquid trash? He was so hungry. He heard himself speak in Kalara’s voice “Annette, don’t you have any meat?”

  Annette answered over her shoulder while doing something else “No, we’ll go to the store tomorrow with Todd. This is all I have for now.”

  He watched with sorrow as Annette took his cream robe from her travel bags and hung it behind a door. It didn’t belong there. But he trusted that Annette knew what she was doing and let her do it.

  The sad memory faded and a black visage later Ravanan was in the sweat lodge behind Annette’s house again. This time Annette had brought Todd to help and learn. Surely this would be the day when his past would come back to him. Todd used wood from a bodark tree to make the fire especially hot. Throughout the ceremony the hot fire kept popping sparks everywhere. The sage and sweet grass was really fresh, the red-tailed hawk was alive, and the steam was made from boiling the water Todd collected from the seasonal spring down in the ravine. They prayed to the spirits of the earth; and once again he didn’t know the chant so Annette had to coach him through it. The steamy lodge filled with a heavy ash cloud and a splintery voice spoke ‘Stay away from me Acama, stay lost and don’t ever come this way again’. By the end of the long ceremony, nothing had changed except he had a sore throat and was coughing up blood caused by the microscopic glass shards in the ash that he had breathed in.

  After the sweat lodge memory, there was another black visage and he was sitting at a table allowing Annette to cut some of his long hair. She needed it for a special ring of protection. It wouldn’t be ready for a few days and he’d just have to wait for it. But it would be well worth it. Then he was elated when Annette gave him the finished ring in the following week, however he did notice that there was considerably less hair in the ring than Annette had taken from his head.

  After another black visage passed Ravanan was saying good bye with Kalara’s voice, he was being loosely hugged by Annette and he tried to return it but Annette made it difficult. He sat alone at a table in a crowded mall, his one small bag of clothes was with him it was all he owned. Ravanan recognized that place as the place where he took Kalara to eat when he had found her.

  Then a red headed woman, tall and thin but emotionally tough, looking concerned, came up to him. She spoke in a throaty voice “Hey, I’m Jenniffer. Looks like you could use a roommate.”

  The spotty memories faded to nothing and Ravanan pulled away. He now owned the memories as well, having magically scribed them t
o his mind, they were a perfect copy in every detail. Kalara woke as if from a trance “Did I do it? Is that what I was supposed to do?”

  “You did fine. We’re on the right path.” He told her. “Now let’s go look at this ring.”

  As they made their way to the wizard’s alcove Ravanan said “Kalara, I know now that it wasn’t your idea to go north – it was Annette’s. I want to know who Annette is.”

  “I told you that. She is a medicine woman for her tribe. She is wise and greatly respected.”

  “Who said she was wise?”

  “She did.”

  “So she steals from her Acama under the pretense of helping. Maybe her version of wisdom can be seen in holding her Acama captive instead of killing her.” Ravanan became serious. “Annette has ulterior motives and I get the idea that dragoness doesn’t want you to remember anything. She wasn’t helping you.”

  After they entered the wizard’s alcove Ravanan walked over to a stalagmite pedestal and retrieved a small, bluish-gray gemstone cut like a disk. He treated the chamber full of rocks as a human treats a kitchen full of ingredients. He walked over to another stalagmite that displayed a single mineral shard bigger than his hand. It looked like thousands of translucent sheets pressed together giving off a black color. As he flaked off one of the brittle sheets that broke into the size of a lemon slice he asked “Do you remember the spell to reveal an enchanted item’s function?”

  Kalara didn’t remember anything, let alone spells. “Not really..... no. Does that surprise you?”

  “No, I was just checking, surely being involved with things you used to do would help you remember. This thin sheet of biotite, along with a crystal of iolite, will show us the ring’s true purpose.” He then walked onto a raised area near a rock that made a perfect table. He reached into his sapphire robe, withdrew the braided ring and placed it on the table.

  Kalara was listening and trying to catch anything he might let slip. “...”things I used to do “....Was I your helper here in your alcove?”