by Mark Robson
‘Another world? What other world?’
‘The inhabitants call it Earth. We are currently flying over a country the people here call France. The people are similar in appearance to you, but this world is not like ours. They have no dragons. They are aware of us due to a number of encounters over the centuries, but here, we are creatures of legend. They refuse to accept that we exist.’
‘Earth? France? You’ve been here before?’ he asked, unable to mask his shock.
‘Yes, but I always keep my visits as short as I can. The people here are invariably hostile towards dragons and they have developed weapons unlike any we have in our world. Last time I was here I encountered a group of men carrying things they called “muskets”. They looked rather like strange sticks made of metal, but they spat fire and tiny balls of metal at tremendous speed that stung my scales, leaving spots that itched for days afterwards.’
‘When was this, Ra? Are we likely to meet them?’
‘I doubt it – at least not the same crowd. I believe the people here live no longer than you do, and that encounter was over one hundred season rotations ago in the time of this world. I’ve not needed to use the gateways again until today.’
A distant sound drew Elian’s attention. Irregular crumps and thumps sounded close, yet had to be coming from the ground. What could cause such a noise?
Looking down Elian noticed strange flashes of light and occasional dashed lines streaking across the countryside with impossible speed. Then flashes lit the sky nearby, red and orange fire blossoming with loud reports. The explosions were both startling and frightening, tying a twisting knot of fear in Elian’s stomach.
Kira suddenly tapped Elian on the shoulder. Her face in the dark looked as scared as he felt. ‘Fang says there are thousands of men fighting below us. Tens of thousands even. He doesn’t know how, but they’re killing each other despite being hundreds of paces apart. The entire countryside below us has been torn apart by war. Where in Areth are we?’
‘That’s just it – we’re not in Areth any more. Ra says we’ve travelled to another world, Kira. She says men here have invented strange weapons that spit death over great distances.’
‘I don’t like it,’ she said. ‘Tell Ra to take us back. I’d rather take my chances with the hunters than get caught up in the mess down there.’
‘Agreed. Ra, can you take us back?’
‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘but not yet – we must wait until dawn.’
‘Dawn! But that must be hours away. We’ll freeze to death. My hands and face are already numb.’
‘I know, but I can only open a gateway at dawn. Time here does not run with the same cadence as it does in our world. Longfang and I have been discussing which side of the lines of fighting we should land.’
‘What have you decided?’ Elian asked, his teeth chattering.
‘We haven’t. He wants to land to the west. I want to let the wind carry us to the east.’
Another noise, not sharp and explosive like the other sounds they had heard, but continuous and droning, drew Elian’s attention.
‘What’s that?’ he asked aloud, not really expecting an answer. Whatever it was, impossible though it seemed, it was getting closer.
There was a pause.
‘Longfang has better night-vision than I. He thinks it might be a strange form of dragon that we’ve never encountered before. We both tried calling out, but the dragon hasn’t responded. He bears two dragonriders, but has no consciousness that we can reach. From what I sense of the thoughts of the dragonriders, they are preoccupied with getting home.’
‘A dragon!’ Elian was startled. ‘But you said that they didn’t have any dragons here.’
‘It appears my information was incorrect.’
‘Has he seen us?’
‘I don’t believe so, but it’s hard to tell. I’m calling the dragon “he” for convenience, for I can sense no gender. If he is a dragon, then he’s a most odd-looking fellow. His riders seem to be embedded in his back.’
As the dragon approached, so the explosions came closer as well.
‘Is the dragon making those flashes? Is this another one of your dragon secrets?’ Elian asked.
‘I have no idea what’s causing them, Elian. The dragonriders are doing their best to ignore the flash fires, but they both fear them. The impression I get is that the fire originates from the ground, though that seems unlikely.’
Elian wasn’t so sure. Having seen the speed at which the lines of fire had sped through the night below them, he was not ready to discount anything at this point. Maybe this dragon was somehow involved in the fighting. Dragons in Areth didn’t engage in the conflicts of men, but that did not mean the same would hold true here.
‘Can we follow him, Ra? But let’s stay out of sight. Maybe if we land near him, we’ll get a chance to find out what’s going on.’
‘Very well. I shall keep Fang between the strange dragon and us. I doubt that they will penetrate his camouflage. It looks as if they have begun to descend, so we should be able to stalk him with ease.’
How long they glided along behind the droning dragon, Elian could not have said. By the time the strange-looking creature landed in a wide field, Elian was frozen nearly as badly as he had been on his first day.
On the way down he noted that the dragon they were following, aside from making the strange droning sound, was a very strange shape. It had two sets of main wings, one above the other, which seemed to be solid and unmoving. Its wingspan was about two-thirds that of Aurora’s and it had a third, smaller set of wings near its tail. The creature was also unnaturally short, measuring less than half of Aurora’s length. It looked ungainly, rather like a bee – whose body size compared to its wingspan had always defied reason.
Its legs appeared thin and spindly with strange joints. They looked almost like the legs of a giant insect, but shorter, and not at all similar to the strong legs of a dragon. Perhaps it wasn’t a dragon at all, but some sort of outsized insect. If so, then how had the men flying on its back tamed it?
The creature landed between two lines of fiercely burning torches. As it ran across the grass Elian noticed yet another strange thing. Its legs were not moving! Was it sliding? In what little light there was from the path of lights, he could just make out that the creature’s feet were round like the wheels of a wagon, but much smaller.
‘Is the dragon actually a flying wagon?’ he wondered aloud. ‘That would be amazing! It makes sense too. If the people here are clever enough to make weapons that spit death over large distances, why not a flying wagon?’ Elian wanted to take a closer look.
There were some very large buildings at the edge of the field, far larger than any he had ever seen in Racafi – some large enough to house several dragons at once. It stood to reason that the men would reside there. Elian directed Aurora to land a good distance away, concealed in the darkness. His teeth were chattering and his body was shaking wildly as Ra settled on the ground. When he turned, Kira was similarly suffering.
‘I’m s-s-sorry, Kira,’ he shivered. ‘We c-can’t risk a f-fire here. Get F-fang to curl up. Y-you can shelter in the h-hollow he makes. He can c-c-cover you with a w-wing. If you snuggle down with your b-b-b-blankets, you should warm up quickly.’
‘W-what about you?’ she stammered, her mouth struggling to form the words.
‘I-I-I’d like to get a c-closer look at that d-d-dragon. Then I’ll d-do the same with R-ra.’
‘Don’t!’ she said quickly. ‘W-we don’t want to g-get caught here. Why d-don’t you s-sleep next t-t-to me? We’d w-warm up quicker if we h-huddled together,’ she suggested. ‘H-hunters do it all the time.’
Elian nodded. The idea of getting a close look at the flying wagon was very appealing, but he knew she was right. It would be risky. Also, he felt so cold that snuggling together sounded like a far better idea. ‘All right. If you’re sure,’ he said.
He slid from Ra’s back. The temperature at ground level was
far cooler than night-time in Racafi, but it wasn’t freezing. He held out his hands and helped Kira to dismount gently. No sooner had her feet touched the ground than she shook off his hands.
‘Just d-d-don’t get the wrong idea,’ she said abruptly and staggered away towards Fang.
‘Not a ch-chance,’ he replied, trying to force his frozen lips into a smile.
Elian knew Kira valued her independence, but it was interesting to see she was not above putting it aside when experience or common sense dictated. If she did not want to show weakness – that was fine by him.
‘No offence, Ra, but I’m going to sleep with Kira and Fang tonight,’ Elian thought, struggling to concentrate.
‘I understand,’ she replied. ‘Sharing warmth is a good way of bonding. You want her to be your friend. This is a good way forwards. Sleep well, Elian.’
‘What if someone finds us in the night?’
‘Don’t worry, Elian. I’ll wake you if need be.’
‘But if we need to talk with them . . .’ he started. ‘Will they understand Racafian?’
‘No, they won’t. There are many languages in this world. None would make any sense to you, but don’t worry. I can help. If we have need of communication, you can speak and I’ll do the translating. Just speak as you normally do. I will do my best to see that you hear the native’s speech in Racafian and I will try to control your words so that the native hears your words in his native tongue.’
‘You can do that? Fantastic!’ Elian tried to imagine how such a process could work.
‘In theory, yes. I must admit that I’ve never actually tried it, but I’ve met dragons who have. They said it was not difficult, but you must understand that the translations might not be entirely accurate, and it will take me a moment or two to establish the link.’
‘How “not entirely accurate” are we talking here?’
‘I’m afraid that’s a question for which I have no answer,’ Ra admitted.
Elian considered the possible problems that might arise as a result of misunderstandings. Having already seen some of the destructive capabilities of these people, apprehension tightened the muscles of his back and shoulders as he imagined what they could do to him if he were perceived as an enemy.
‘Let’s hope no one finds us, then,’ he thought.
Chapter Twelve
Dragon Terror
Elian found it impossible to sleep next to Kira for long. Cuddling up close whilst they were shivering with cold was fine. It felt good and comforting, especially after seeing the strange fighting and the flash bang fires earlier. They both drifted into an uneasy sleep quite quickly. However, once he had warmed up, Elian woke up feeling uncomfortable. Kira’s breathing was settled and her body had relaxed into sleep. Taking care not to wake her, he eased away and arranged all the blankets over her.
Fang was also asleep, so Elian repositioned himself within the hollow circle Fang had made and waited for morning. As dawn approached, Fang stirred and Elian climbed the dragon’s side to peer out from under the cover of his wing. The increasing light revealed a lush green countryside rich with vegetation and perfect for farming. What his father would give to have land like this to cultivate! It was a farmer’s paradise.
Kira appeared silently beside him. Her face betrayed nothing of her thoughts, but Elian felt more comfortable with the silence than he had the previous day.
The wait for dawn to break was a nervous one. They were all anxious to leave this strange land and return to Areth. Fang’s wound needed urgent attention and every moment they stayed increased the chance of their being discovered. They saw one of the strange dragon-like things launch across the field and climb into the slowly brightening sky. To Elian’s excitement he could see that his deduction had been correct. The beast was not alive, but a man-made contraption. The machine had a single rider and Elian wondered if the man would notice them as he gently circled into the sky above. The heartbeats dragged into an eternity, but finally the sun peeped over the horizon. It was time for them to move.
Elian and Kira crouched low to Ra’s back as they launched. On one side a line of trees masked their take-off. On the other side Fang shielded them as much as possible with his camouflage, carefully positioning himself between Ra and the men and machines now moving around their great houses.
‘He’s seen us,’ Ra announced as they accelerated. ‘The one in the air is looking at us right now.’
‘Have others seen us as well?’ Elian asked.
‘No. Just the flying one. No one on the ground appears to have noticed. But I can feel the surprise of the one in the air. He’s debating if we are real.’
At the crucial moment of dawn, the boundary between worlds was at its weakest and Ra was able to open a far bigger gateway than she had when they had escaped the dragonhunters. It was wide enough for the two dragons to enter side by side. They plunged into the vortex and out of the war-torn world. The mind-twisting wrench of passage, the momentary sensation of weightlessness, and the dizzying effect of emergence were just as disorienting to Elian as they had been the first time. He half expected to reappear above the same water hole in the savannah that they had left from, but the view that met his eyes was very different.
Jack reached an altitude of about five hundred feet and began a gentle turn to the left, seeking to gain as much height as practical before striking out for the enemy lines. As he climbed, he scanned the brightening sky for hostile aircraft, but the airspace above, around and below him remained clear.
It was as he was passing about six thousand feet that he noticed a strange shape in the corner of the airfield. Although the sun had peeped above the horizon up at his altitude, lighting the blue, blue sky with its bright golden rays, he could see that down on the ground dawn was still a few moments away. What was that long, sleek thing? If he didn’t know better, he would have said it looked like a dragon.
For the first time in ages, Jack laughed aloud in the air. A dragon! What was he thinking? This war must be getting to him. He rubbed his goggles with the back of his glove, suspecting a smear of oil, but the goggles were clear. For a moment he returned his attention heavenwards, scanning the sky for hostile aircraft. He couldn’t afford a lapse in concentration over something so ridiculous. He looked down again at the huge, bronze shape and then across to the hangar area where a number of machines were being brought out onto the field. Why didn’t anyone on the ground react to its presence? Was he the only one who could see it? Truly, he prayed he wasn’t going mad.
Suddenly the colour of the object changed from a bronze/brown to a resplendent gold as the sun cleared the horizon at ground level. To Jack’s further amazement a grey, swirling vortex that looked somewhat like a tiny spinning disk appeared in the air not a hundred yards from the thing. The vortex was strangely two-dimensional. Jack could see it swirling, yet from directly above, or to the side, it looked invisible, without depth.
The golden thing, whatever it was, suddenly launched towards the vortex with surprising acceleration. As it ran, great wings unfolded and began to beat. A quick comparison with the aircraft being wheeled out of the hangar revealed a wingspan greater by a considerable margin than that of the aircraft below. Then it was gone; swallowed by the swirling vortex, which promptly collapsed and vanished.
Jack blinked a few times in rapid succession. There was nothing but empty space below him. His colleagues were going about their normal business. If it had been real, then surely someone on the ground would have spotted it. He would wait and see if anyone mentioned it later. If they did, then fine – he would share what he had seen. If not . . .
‘Go and find some enemies to scare, Jack,’ he muttered to himself under his mask. ‘Talk of dragons will do no one any good.’
Elian’s first breath drew in clean air, tinged with the pungent scent of pine. It was warm, but not with the tropical heat of the savannah. The air here had the feel of summer about it. They were gliding across a huge area of dense forest, which marched rig
ht to the curving shores of a large lake, and onwards again from the far shore into the distance. To the north, great mountains of purple-grey rock thrust thousands of spans into the blue sky. Bright patches of snow speckled the mountaintops with majestic white, whilst occasional puffs of fair-weather cloud and a few lenticular caps to the leeward side of the distant peaks punctuated the blue heavens. As they neared the lake, the sun set the surface of the water sparkling with dancing gold. The scenery was breathtaking.
A blurring to their right drew Elian’s attention as Fang shed his camouflage and appeared alongside them.
‘Where are we, Ra? This doesn’t look, or smell, like Racafi.’
‘I’m not surprised, Elian. We are in northern Cemaria, several thousand leagues from your home.’
‘Where? Good grief, Ra! This type of travel is a neat trick, but aren’t we as far from Orupee here as we were in Racafi?’
‘True, but Longfang needs healing, and my dragon-sense – my instinct, if you like – opened the gateway here for us to see that need fulfilled.’
Elian considered that for a moment as they glided down and across the lake towards the far shore. It made little sense to him.
‘Isn’t there a day dragon in Orupee that could have helped?’ he asked. ‘I thought dragons roved all over the world.’
‘Most likely, but it would not have been the right day dragon,’ Ra answered haughtily. ‘Dragonsense is not something that can easily be explained to humans. It has to do with destiny and purpose. A dragon has a sense of “rightness” when she is following her destiny. Beware, though, for this should not be confused with safety. There are no safe paths, and not all encounters work out as a dragon might wish. A true dragon always follows dragonsense, though. If I were to do as I pleased, rather than following the purpose for which I was born, my existence would cease to have meaning and the world would be a poorer place. Time and again throughout Areth’s history, it has been dragons following their dragonsense who have shaped the most pivotal moments, averting disasters and setting events in motion that have been to the benefit of all. There is nothing of chance in this. It is inbuilt. It is the greatest of the abilities we have been blessed with.’
