by Troy Hooker
“So you are the one who will be riding the leviathan, eh?” he bellowed with a chortle.
“Yes sir, I suppose that’s me—”
“Well then, you best get to know the beast, or he’ll turn you into toast.”
He snatched Sam by the collar and marched him in front of the dragon.
“Orono! Please come and meet Sam!” he yelled up beneath the mammoth lizard’s snout.
Instantly the dragon lowered his massive head to meet the Keeper’s. His head was the size of a large garden shed, and his gaping nostrils were so large Sam believed he could easily fit inside one of them. As his great amber and jade eyes met Sam’s, they glowed brightly, even in the afternoon sunlight, seeming to pierce Sam right through to the soul.
“Orono, if you please, would you formally greet our friend here?” the Keeper said.
Orono breathed out suddenly through his huge nostrils, and small puffs of smoke escaped in ring shapes, quickly becoming large clouds that engulfed Sam in eye-scorching smoke that left him in a coughing fit and forced him to bury his head in his robes.
Even after the smoke cleared, it took several minutes before he could even open his eyes once more, at which point he had already realized he was the center of a dragon and his Keeper’s practical joke. The Keeper’s belly laugh was contagious, and before long, the entire party was chuckling at Sam’s expense.
“Sorry boy! I just haven’t had the chance to do that in a very long time!” the Keeper continued to laugh, so much so that Sam thought he might split his side.
Sam brushed himself off and regained his composure, standing tall in front of the dragon once again. No fear—that’s what Mr. Sterling told him whoever, or whatever, would be looking for. He was going to start now.
The dragon lowered his head once again to meet Sam’s gaze. If he was expecting the satisfaction of seeing the human run from him, he wasn’t going to get it. Sam met his gaze, and for a moment there seemed to be a power play for control. It was the dragon, finally, that turned and lowered his head first, his demeanor suddenly one of submission.
The Keeper gaped at Sam, in complete awe of what had just transpired. He looked the dragon up and down, then back at Sam. But instead of demanding to know how Sam was able to get Orono to submit to him so quickly, he only bowed his head and extended his hand.
“I am Shatal, from the family line of Telok, and the last of the keepers here in Lior. Welcome to my garden,” he said.
“Uh—well, it is nice to meet you, Shatal. I am—my name is Sam. I am from Grand Rapids,” he said dumbly.
“Excellent,” he said, then slapped him on the back. “It looks like we don’t need any further instructions here with the dragon as you and he seem to be agreeing with each other. So we best get you right to it.”
He led Sam over to the dragon’s side where there were steps leading up to its huge shoulders. The others began gathering around as they approached the steps, and suddenly Sam was surrounded by the people he had come to love—each placing their hands on his head while bowing their own. Mr. Sterling began the prayer quietly, his hand becoming instantly warm to the touch. Then his grandfather spoke, his words showing obvious love and concern for Sam as he ventured out. Next came Cooley and his rigid, pious prayer, and finally Emma, whose voice shook with uneasiness and worry on Sam’s behalf.
It was enough to make Sam’s buried emotions come to the surface. Instantly he was so overcome that he could not hold back the tears.
When she saw his inability to control it, Emma grabbed him and pulled him tight to her. She didn’t speak, or move, just allowed him to place his head on her shoulder. It was as if the floodgates of every dammed emotion he held since he could remember opened up. He tried to stop it, but the more he tried, the more he was unsuccessful. These people, the ones that seemed to initially keep everything from him, were actually trying to help him. He was not strong enough to face what he had seen alone, and he was grateful to have them here now. Truly the Creator was looking out for him when he sent him to White Pine.
Emma took her sleeve and wiped back the tears he attempted to conceal. Then she smiled at him, holding his face once again in her hands, and whispered, “It’s time to be strong now,” so faintly that they were the only ones to hear it.
Mr. Sterling was still praying with his hand over his daughter and Sam, and it was only the Keeper’s soft but booming voice that could snap them all back to reality.
“I hate to break up such a sweet moment, but the day is quickly escaping into the shadows, and if this young man is to return at all tonight, he will need to leave now.”
Emma handed him his backpack, and Sam followed the Keeper to the steps silently. The emotions were still flooding his mind, but he felt as though a great weight was lifted off of his shoulders for the time being. He looked up at Orono, who seemed eager to be on the move. As they reached the top of the stairs, the Keeper hoisted Sam into the strange-looking basket strapped to the back of the great lizard. Then he handed him his backpack and slapped him on the back.
“Be sure to hang on. Orono here takes some pretty steep dives. There’s a blanket in the front of the basket. It will get mighty cold up at some of the heights he takes you to.”
“Thank you, Mr. Shatal,” Sam told him.
Shatal shook his head.
“Don’t thank me, boy. Thank Orono. He’s the one that really chose whether or not to take you. Just be good to him, and he’ll take care of you. You can count on it.”
Sam looked down at the others. Emma clung to her father, half burying her head in his robes. Cooley’s expression hadn’t changed since earlier that morning, when at moments he almost seemed frustrated that Sam was going. Now he stood gazing into the depths of the sea in front of them.
Suddenly, from the trees on the boundary of the Keeper’s garden appeared a young woman quickly making her way up the pathway. Shatal saw Sam peering into the distance and halted his descent on the stairs to get a better glimpse of the person.
Miss Karpatch’s robes were flowing behind her as she hurried into the garden toward the dragon. Sam’s heart leapt one more time as he saw his once frustrated history teacher running to make sure she saw him off. Seeing the surprised look from Sam, the Keeper climbed the stairs once again and helped Sam out of the basket once more.
He descended the stairs with trembling legs to meet his teacher, who instantly took him in her arms. Sam accepted the embrace, clinging tightly to the woman who at one time was one of Sam’s most despised teachers, but now, was a trusted mentor. In some ways, she even felt like the older sibling he never had.
“I believe in you, Samuel Forrester,” she whispered in his ear. “I always have.”
Sam forced the tears back for what seemed like the millionth time.
“Thank you Miss Karpatch.”
Once again, he climbed the stairs to the basket on the dragon, this time without help from the Keeper. He strapped himself in, situating his backpack, and nodded to the Keeper that he was ready.
***********************
Shatal lifted his arms up from the ground and made a gesture with his hands that looked sort of like he was waving to no one in particular, then moved quickly out of the way from the front of the winged creature. Sam felt a sudden lurch from the basket, and the dragon stepped forward from the stairs, stretching his wings out beside him, covering nearly the entire width of the garden. Then he lifted his head up into the air and belched out an incredible fireball, even larger than the one from the Light parade in the City. Sam felt the heat rush back toward him, bathing him in a foul burning warmth, and causing him to bury his head in the front lip of the basket.
With one leap the beast was in the air, pounding its wings against the air as it quickly gained altitude in the afternoon sky. The roar of the wings was tremendous, and other than the deep, rapid breathing of the dragon, Sam could hear nothi
ng else.
He ventured an uneasy lean over the side of the basket and could see the tiny ant-like people of the City crowding through the streets of vendors. The Keeper’s garden blended in with the trees and surrounding cliff faces, and none of the group that had seen him off were visible.
The dragon circled the City, where the great spires rose like great white teeth coming out of the mouth of a great monster that appeared to swallow the City Center. They made a low pass just off the coast near Boggle’s house on the cliffs before heading directly toward the mountains. They flew low, then climbed upward toward the sparse clouds, then swooped low once again into the forest lowlands, skimming the tops of the thin pointed pines.
He didn’t believe it possible, but it was perhaps even more amazing to be flying with the dragon than on the Lightway, with it’s euphoric feeling of shooting through the air, or on the Light cloud with the Sons of Light. The great beast beneath him was a master of the skies, using his great wings skillfully to catch updrafts and ride currents to speed their travel.
He had come a long way. Just two weeks ago he wouldn’t have believed in God, and now he was flying on the back of a dragon. To place trust in a mythological creature he didn’t know existed until coming to Lior was a complete submission of faith, and it was even more so to trust it to take him to a doomed place that could end up swallowing his soul.
The dragon banked toward the same valley between the mountains that brought Sam into this strange land, and sped toward the towers of rock and snow. Sam felt the air change to reflect a biting chill on his hands and face and was glad that Mrs. Sterling slipped an extra blanket into his pack before he left the cabin. They flew steadily upward as the forest gave way to the foothills, and before he knew it, they were passing over a small cabin nestled in the valley, the same cabin he first visited after walking through the arch for the first time, and where Emma had kissed him. It was snowing heavily at the cabin as they flew overhead, and drifts were piling up steadily against the pines. As he looked back at the scene, the small stream became visible for a brief moment, its icy banks reflecting the momentary sun in the breaks of the clouds.
Sam watched the picturesque scene disappear from view as the dragon continued on through the thinning mountain pass, the massive peaks beginning to close in on them as the valley disappeared beneath them. Past the dragon’s left wingtip emerged a glacier that wedged itself between two competing mountain cliffs, glowering over the valley and the curious pair of human and mythical creature as they passed it by. Sam considered its magnificence, having never seen a glacier up close. He had always admired them, even studied them, but had only seen them in pictures. It was beautiful.
Then, almost as if his thoughts were transmitted directly into the dragon’s mind, Orono suddenly dipped left, racing downward toward the glacier as if he would fly smack into its face. Just before impact, he stretched his wings out and slowed, gliding calmly next to the wall of ice. It was as though they were suspended next to an incredible frozen wave, and at any moment it could come crashing violently into the valley.
The great dragon soared back up between the peaks of the mountain pass, effortlessly weaving through the narrow valley that soon would take them out of the mountains and into the steamy jungle-like forest. Even though he did his best to stay awake and take in every vista, at some point exhaustion overtook Sam, and he nodded off. Having no consequence, the dragon flew steadily onward toward a forbidden land.
Sam woke in the basket some time later, the sun beginning to disappear into the mountains behind them. There was no way of telling how long they had been in the air, but the cool breezes of the peak were gone, replaced with the misty warm air from the thick deciduous forest beneath them. Still exhausted, he thought about slipping back down into the basket to sleep out the rest of the trip. The dragon’s steady beat of the wings was enough to put anyone to sleep, although something told them they were nearing a landing.
As Orono dipped slightly to the left, Sam caught a glimpse of a reflection below that resembled a grease spot on the road after a good hard rain, but after a closer look, Sam realized it was actually a body of water glimmering through the treetops.
The dragon headed straight for it, descending as they flew closer, until they were soaring only meters above the clear, blue water. There were no signs of life anywhere that Sam could see, except for a lone red and blue bird that steered clear of the great flying mammoth. By now, Sam had grown accustomed to the steep dips and gut-wrenching banks the dragon made, and prepared himself for landing as they slowed near a lone outcropping of rocks on the edge of the dense jungle surrounding the tropical lake.
The dragon bent his tail up suddenly, and the basket tipped upward, nearly dumping Sam into the water below. There was a tremendous beating of wings, and then they were safely on the ledge overlooking the lake. Immediately the dragon bent his long scaly neck down, burying his steaming mouth and nostrils into the sunset-orange water. Sam took a moment to do the same, drinking deep the cool water from the flask that Mrs. Sterling had packed. Then he removed the map from his pack that Gus slipped in his hands before leaving the cabin and attempted a guess at where they were.
The mountains were clearly behind them, putting them somewhere in the Anori Forest on the edge of Clear Lake. From where they stood, the lake looked fairly wide, but according to the map, it also stretched miles north into the region of Nais, where the tropical jungle turned back into alpine forest that led into the Descendant town of Sainia, nestled high in the mountains. They were heading east, straight for the coast of the Yahm Sea, although they could change course at any time.
Gus had shown him the land controlled by the Darkness and the Metim to the north, and just south of that lay the mountains where the Giants claimed their territory. Further east beyond the sea showed a huge chunk of land where rivers snaked every which way, and then the mystical mountains called the Sadak range—the edge of where Liorians believed lay the Divide, and beyond that, Watcher territory.
Somewhere between Lior and where the map ended lay Ayet Sal. According to Gus and the others, no one knew exactly where it was, nor did they attempt to find it. Most believed that it was only accessible by the dragon, and that finding it otherwise was impossible. But now, at age fifteen, a human from a small town on Earth was going to one of the most dangerous places in Lior—alone, nonetheless—and his grandfather was the one that was sending him there.
When Orono had his fill of lake water, he spread his wings wide as if enjoying a great stretch, then looked back toward Sam in the basket, as if asking if he was ready to go. But before Sam could get the words out of his mouth, the dragon had already leapt from the ledge and was furiously beating his wings against the moist air.
Strange, he thought as they banked once again toward the east, flying away from the afternoon sun. It was almost as if Orono knew he was ready before he could say it.
They flew for nearly an hour before the dragon began turning to the north, where the slate grey peaks of the Shimshon Mountains where the Giants took residence were beginning to become visible. They weren’t as tall as the Agam Mountains, but they rose up in almost straight sheer cliffs, almost resembling that of the City spires.
They would most likely fly to the north of the mountains, according to Gus, then across the narrow point of the Yahm Sea, where the mountains gave way to a long stretch of beach. But it was nearly another two hours before the glimmering evening sand could be seen stretching into the horizon in front of them. The dragon beat his wings to gain altitude as they left the cover of the forest, and suddenly Sam saw why.
Although small from the air, the dark-skinned Giants could be easily seen scattering like buffalo on the sand. It was difficult to tell exactly what they looked like from that altitude, but to Sam they looked exactly like normal people, just much larger.
Dragons were apparently not on the Giants’ list of favorite animals, however, as
a steady stream of abnormally large arrows began whizzing past them. A few struck Orono’s wings and breast without harm but made the dragon climb even higher in the sky to avoid them. Soon they were high enough to see only the occasional arrow lazily flying by them as it lost momentum and began its downward descent. Sam wondered what it would take to bring down a dragon as impenetrable and as smart as Orono, and decided it would require certain speed and skill that most hunters did not have.
On they flew, and the night came quickly in the sky. Sam drew some deep breaths before nodding off to sleep again in the basket, listening to the steady beat of the dragon’s wings as they transformed into a drowsy pattern of soft drums in the air, gradually becoming part of his dreams.
The arch was black as the sea at midnight as he stood in front of its opening, an overwhelming fear gripping him and forcing him to stand frozen where he was. The figure in front of him placed something into the leg of the arch. Immediately it began to glow a bright blue—but then morphed and dimmed into a deep, dull black cloud. He watched the green lightning as it climbed up the exterior of the arch, forcing it into submission much as a slave to its master.
The figure then stepped away from the arch, and thousands of liquid black shapes with hollow faces poured from the opening. They hovered desolately over him, and once again he was unable to run or scream for help. He writhed from the cold pain that emanated from the dismal spirits as they slowly descended toward him, their vacant eyes becoming hauntingly visible in the Darkness.
But suddenly there was one … a single hollow face that stood out to him. Who was he? Cold and lifeless, he pushed his way through the Darkness toward Sam ...
Sam awoke to the pitch black and the sound of beating wings as Orono landed. He had no idea how long he had slept, but he figured it was a long time. As he wiped the sleep from his eyes, the listless feeling was quickly sucked away by an instantaneous fear, one that could only be brought about by a deep presence of Darkness.
