by T. J. Quinn
“There’s more like you?” Rhiannon asked surprised.
“Yes, there are four of us. But with the blast, we were pushed in different directions, and I have no idea where they are. They could be anywhere on this planet.”
“Will you try to find them?” she asked, not sure she liked the idea.
“Yes, I will. We had settled a meeting point just in case, so whenever I’m ready, I’ll go there and wait for them.”
“This meeting point, is it near Wales?” Gwendolyn asked, with a slight frown. Like her granddaughter, she didn’t like the idea of him leaving the village.
“No, it isn’t. It will take me quite a while to get there,” Kael explained. “I’ll need a carriage and a big boat,” he added.
“Those things cost a lot of gold,” Rhiannon pointed out.
“I’m aware of that. I’ll just have to find a way to get that gold.”
“It’s not that easy, you know? Most people work their entire lives and never gather enough gold to buy themselves a simple coach,” she explained.
“I thought gold was a metal anyone can find on the planet,” he said, a bit confused.
“In theory, yes. But most people don’t know where to find that gold, and those who find it, claim the mine for themselves and no one else can extract gold from it,” she explained.
“What happens when you find the gold?”
“You have to be sure the land you find it in isn’t claimed. Otherwise it would be stealing, and you could get hanged for it.”
“How do I know if the place is claimed?” he asked, considering all the information she was giving him.
“You’ll have to ask around,” she replied, looking at him intrigued. “You speak as if you could find gold easily.”
“I’m not sure if easily, but yes, I’m convinced I can,” he assured her.
The women exchanged strange looks, and Rhiannon finally turned to look at him. “People say there’s gold in the Devil’s Mountains. It’s a very rough place, and so far, not many have tried to find it. The mountain is still unclaimed,” she explained.
“How can I get there?” he asked, immediately interested.
“Well, I could take you. I’ll tell my father I’ll spend a few days in the next village, visiting a friend and that way he won’t miss me,” she offered.
Gwendolyn looked at the couple and shook her head. Rhiannon was sure she could feel her interest in the man, and she wasn’t very happy with it. After all, he was a stranger.
“It’s better if I take him. Your father won’t be pleased if you leave the village,” she said, with a stern tone.
“Grandma, you know you can’t go to the Devil’s Mountains. It’s too far from here, and there’s a lot of climbing on the way,” she pointed out.
“I just don’t think,”
“I’ll be fine. Dad will grumble a bit about it, and then, he won’t even miss me, you know that. The bakery is the love of his life,” she insisted.
“She will be safe with me, I assure you, Gwendolyn,” he said, trying to appease the old woman’s fears.
“Will you protect her even from yourself?” the older woman asked, with a scornful tone. She was aware of the attraction those two felt and letting them leave on a journey like that one would only mean trouble.
“I would never hurt your granddaughter.”
She sighed and looked at Rhiannon. “Are you sure you want to do this? If people find out about it, your reputation will be ruined,” she warned her.
“I don’t care about that, and you know it. I also know that would kill dad, so we’ll be careful, I promise,” she said, taking her grandmother’s hand in hers. “You know we could use the gold.”
“I know, but not at your expense.”
“It won’t be, no one will know we’ll be alone in the mountains.”
“Very well. You’ll need food and water, just in case you’re unable to hunt or to find a stream,” Gwendolyn said, turning the subject to the practical questions of the trip.
“Yes, you’ll have to lend me one of your winter coats, it’s cold up there. I can’t take mine because dad would suspect.”
“Of course.”
While Kael observed them, the two women got engaged in a lengthy dialogue, discussing the entire trip on their own. A few minutes later, they had decided they would leave first thing in the morning.
“You two are quite the planners. Are you sure you didn’t forget any detail?” he teased them.
“No, I believe we’ve covered it all,” Rhiannon assured him with a bright smile. “All you have to do is bring your expertise to find gold, and we’ll be just fine.”
“Where will we spend the nights?” he asked, curiously.
“We’ll take a tent, in case we’re not able to find a cave. We’ll have to hide it well, to protect ourselves from the demons, but they don’t usually wander through the woods. There’s nothing there that interests them,” she explained.
“Can you set this tent?”
“Yes, it’s easy. I went camping with my father a thousand times while I was growing up, so I’m used to setting up a camp and even cooking on a small fire.”
“Remember you can’t set a fire unless you find a cave,” Gwendolyn warned them. “The demons would spot the smoke, and only the skies know what could happen.”
“I’m aware of that, grandma, don’t worry. We’ll only be gone for a couple of weeks. It will take us at least three days to get to the mountains. We’ll give ourselves a week to search for the gold and three days more to return.”
“Your father won’t like this, at all,” Gwendolyn muttered.
“You’ll help him understand I need to go out more, meet new people,” she said, with a persuasive tone.
“I won’t lie to him,”
“You don’t have to. I will be going out more, and I’ll be meeting new people,” she replied, twisting the truth to meet her needs.
“I truly hope you know what you’re doing,” the older woman said, getting up, and starting to clear the table.
“I’ll go home now, to prepare all I need to take. I’ll have to prepare a magnificent dinner to sweeten dad’s heart,” she announced, as she got up to help her grandmother.
“Good luck with that. Peter was never a sweet boy. He was born worried,” Gwendolyn said, with a slight frown. She knew well her son.
“We’ll leave at dawn,” Rhiannon told Kael. “Let’s hope the demons won’t bother us tonight. Otherwise, it will be harder for us to leave. Dad would be edgy and certainly not in the mood to see me leave,” she explained.
“Let’s hope we have a peaceful night then,” he agreed.
Chapter Seven
Rhiannon left the house, and he stood at the door for a few moments watching her leave and already missing her vital presence.
“I should be the one going with you,” Gwendolyn sighed, feeling as impotent as someone watching an accident happening without being able to do a thing to stop it.
She didn’t consider herself a white witch like people called the healers and seers, but her instincts had always been a lot more accurate than most people’s. She used herbs and beverages to help people heal, and she had never found that a special gift. She just read more and knew more than most people.
But her instincts were something else. She could always read a person, from the moment she met him or her. When she had found Kael in the woods, she had been sure he was meant to do great things for her people, and she hadn't doubted helping him and taking him into her home.
What she hadn't expected was the obvious attraction between Rhiannon and Kael. It was possible to see the sparks flying between them, and she was sure all the promises they could make would burn in the fire of the passion burning between them.
In other circumstances, she would have been happy for her granddaughter, but she knew Kael wouldn’t stay. He had a mission that didn’t include Rhiannon, and he planned to fulfill it.
Wishing she could do anything to protect
her baby girl from suffering, she let out a deep sigh and returned her attention to the washing of the dishes.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” Kael asked, a few moments later, walking away from the door.
“You could get me some more firewood. I never have enough of that. Just make sure to stay away from everyone. Being seen right now would ruin all our plans,” Gwendolyn warned him.
“I’ll be careful.” Picking up his hood from where he had left it, he walked out of the house and headed to the woods.
Things were coming out better than he expected. If people were right about those mountains, he would find enough gold to buy him a boat so that he could sail to America. It would also help him repay Gwendolyn for all her help and made him feel better about it.
He knew she was worried about the idea of having her granddaughter and him spending the nights together, all alone, for two weeks. He was sure she was aware of the attraction he felt for Rhiannon, but she shouldn’t worry about it.
A woman like her would never look twice at a man like him. He was too different from her species, and so far, she had shown nothing he would consider a hint of interest in him, and he would never impose his presence on any woman. No matter how much he craved for her.
And he had never craved for one as much as he did for Rhiannon.
He helped Gwendolyn to prepare all the things they would need for the trip, including a pick and a shovel, in case they found the gold.
That night, after they had gone to bed, the demons flew over the village, with their scandalous yelling, but they didn’t stop.
“They’re probably going over to the next village,” Gwendolyn grumbled, half relieved, half worried, as she came out of her bedroom.
“Go back to bed, I’ll be keeping watch for any problems.”
Intrigued, and wanting to see what he was up against, he decided to follow them and check what they were capable of. He couldn’t tell the old woman that, so he just waited for her to go back to sleep, before he left the house, locking the door behind him.
Once outside, he ran into the woods, looking for a clearing where he could spread his wings. In just a few moments, he was up in the night sky following the noisy group of night creatures.
Kael found them the minute they were raiding the defenseless village, and he was able to observe them from a safe distance. His ability to see clearly at night, allowed him to see the creatures in detail. Their grotesque bodies were the only resemblance they had with humans. They had two legs and two arms, but instead of hands or feet, they had formless limbs with deadly claws. They had leathery wings similar to his, but a lot smaller, and filled with small claws, turning them into lethal weapons. But it was their heads what made people call them demons. They were horrible as if taken out of a horror tale, with all the wrinkles, the flat nose, the pointy ears, the three small horns coming out of the bald heads and the vast number of sharp teeth in their mouths, not to mention their long, forked tongue.
They weren’t a pleasant sight, that was for sure and to top it off they didn’t wear any clothes. Every monstrous part of their bodies was exposed, including their penises.
There was no one outside of their houses, so the creatures spent their time trashing everything they found on their way. There were around twenty of them, and they didn’t carry weapons, but their strength and claws seemed to be more than enough to make people hide from them.
He wanted to destroy them, shift into his drogon form and take care of them one by one, but to blaze them out of the skies might torch the whole village. It was too dangerous. He would have to lure them away from there.
He was still thinking about it when he noticed a small movement, to his left. There was a young boy hidden underneath some wooden boxes, piled against a stone wall. He was trembling so hard, the boxes where he was hiding, trembled with him. It didn’t take the demons long to notice him.
In a blink of an eye, they surrounded the boy, and their laughter showed they were mocking their victim.
Unable to stand and watch how they killed an innocent person, Kael shifted into his drogon form and got closer to the group, ready to act in case they tried to hurt the boy.
At first, they only poked the child, kicking the boxes and pulling some of them, but when one of them picked a large piece of wood from the ground, Kael was sure they were going to hurt the kid.
Furiously, he inhaled all the air he could before he let out a powerful flare that enveloped a few of the demons, including the one with the wooden bar. They were turned into ashes before the others could react, but by the time they did, Kael was already turning them into demon torches.
One managed to escape the blaze and flew right up to face Kael, but a couple of seconds later, he was falling to the ground turned into ashes.
The boy’s cries caught his attention and distressed, he realized the wooden boxes were on fire, and the boy was still caught underneath them. Quickly, he flew there and kicked the boxes away before he pulled the kid out of there, ignoring his horrified cries.
Once he was sure the kid was alright, he put out the flames, using a barrel of water he found not far from where he was. The kid was still shouting at the top of his lungs, so he returned to where he had left him, wanting to be sure he was alright, that the flames hadn't gotten to him.
“Please, stop yelling, the demons are gone,” he said, checking the kid’s trembling body for burns.
He still yelled for a few more seconds, until he realized Kael meant no harm. “Who are you?” he asked, still sobbing.
“A friend. Are you hurt?” he asked, getting closer, now that he was calm.
“No, the flames didn’t get to me,” he mumbled.
“Good, I didn’t mean to endanger you, but there was no time. I had to attack them, or they would have attacked you,” he explained, with a faint smile.
“What are you?” the boy asked, with awe.
“I’m a drogon, and as you were able to see, the demons aren’t my friends, either.” He helped the boy to get up. “Now, what were you doing out here at this hour of the night?” he asked,
“My mother wasn’t feeling well, so I was going to the healer’s house to ask her to come see her,” he explained, wiping the tears from his face with the sleeve of his shirt.
“And where does this healer live?” Kael asked, with a slight frown. The kid was too young to be on such a mission.
“In the nearest village. Miss Gwendolyn is the only one we know,” he explained.
Kael wasn’t that surprised to hear the old woman’s name. She certainly was an extraordinary woman.
He crouched in front of the kid until they were at the same eye level. “What’s your name?”
“Joshua.”
“Well, Joshua, I’m Kael. Do you trust me, Joshua?”
The kid slowly nodded, as if he wasn’t quite sure, but that was enough for Kael. “I’ll take you to Gwendolyn’s house. We’ll get there in a blink of an eye. Will you let me take you?”
It was imperative to bring Gwendolyn to see the kid’s mother. She had to be in bad shape to allow her son to go out at night.
“Yes, please,” he accepted.
“Good.” Kael stood up and displayed his wings before he picked up the kid in his arms and flew away.
At first, Joshua was too scared to move or even open his eyes, but soon, he had forgotten all that, and he was watching the world underneath them.
A few minutes later, Kael was dropping the kid in front of Gwendolyn’s front door.
“Joshua, can you do me a favor?” he asked before he opened the door.
“Yes, of course.”
“Don’t tell anyone what you saw. Can you do that?” he didn’t want Gwendolyn or Rhiannon knowing about his drogon form, at least, not for now.
“Yes, I can. Either way, no one would ever believe me,” the kid said, with a naughty grin.
Kael ruffled his hair, smiling and putting away his wings and claws, he unlocked the door and went looking fo
r Gwendolyn.
Chapter Eight
“What’s going on? Have the demons returned?” she asked, rubbing her sleepy eyes.
“No, they are long gone. But you have a visitor. Young Joshua came looking for you.”
Gwendolyn opened her mouth to ask all the questions seething in her mouth, but the minute she heard the name of the kid, she forgot them all.
Startled, she ran to the cabin’s main room. “Joshua, what happened? Why are you here at this hour?” she asked, worried.
“Mom is worse, she can barely breathe,” the boy explained, wriggling his hands nervously.
“You came here all alone?” she asked, as she ran into the kitchen, picking herbs and a few bottles on her way.
“Kael found me and helped me get here.”
*The woman snorted but didn’t say anything. Instead, she put all the things she had been collecting in a basket and ran to the small stable at the side of the house, pulling out an old horse and saddling the beast in a few moments.
“Can you take him back home? My horse can’t carry us both,” she asked Kael.
“It will be a pleasure. I’ll see you there.”
She nodded and left in a fast gallop.
“We better walk this time, or we’ll get there faster than Gwendolyn,” Kael suggested, locking the door before he turned to face Joshua.
The kid looked so tired he seemed about to collapse.
He took a deep breath, trying to look stronger than he was, “Yes, you’re right.”
“Or perhaps, we can take the scenic route. That should give your grandmother enough time to get to your place,” Kael suggested, sure the kid wasn’t able to take another step.
“I would like that, thank you,” he assured him, with a weak smile.
Smiling back, Kael spread his wings and had him climb on his back this time. That way, he would be able to have a better view of the world underneath them.
But before they reached the boy’s village, he had fallen asleep, with his arms tightly wrapped around Kael’s neck.
He was about to reach the boy’s village when he saw Gwendolyn’s horse crossing it. He decided to follow her since his passenger was entirely out and when she arrived at a small cabin on the edge of the village, he waited until she got in for him to descend and land on the front porch.
