“Cage Brother made it glow blue and the excess fell away without pain.”
“I did it when I was bored this winter. When my mates spoke of my prowess every one of my brothers asked to have the same done when their women begged to have it for themselves. Where I’m from it is normally done as a baby and by a sharp blade. Magic sure is beneficial. Without it none of them would dare have had it done.” Cage smirked.
“Then when I rest for the night I will learn all there is to know about a circumcision, but I need to know if it hinders reproduction?”
The men and women laughed. One though quipped “If anything, it makes more seed.”
It wasn’t long till the group met at the peak of the bridge. The witch began the conversation “I know the ways of the Utala from research. My only business is with my clients. Lead me somewhere private I may stay. I will not interfere in your affairs nor will I interrupt or approach any children. Once my business is complete and I’m sure the clients have the best chance to have babies or, if the clients state so, I will wait and make sure the baby takes root and still leave. I brought my own food and drink so as to not burden you.”
“Then we will take you to be accommodated. A warrior” Moril stated as leader. “will be placed near at all times both for your protection and ours. If you use magic on any child or other not being Cage and his mates, you will be killed if specific permission is not granted.”
“So we are agreed. I will get started right away. Where…”
“We are Cage’s mates.” Meeka gestured to the three of them. “And Tohka is the one you must see first.”
“Then you and Lord Cage must come and sit with me first. I will be with the two of you later.” She said to Meeka and Brooke.
“This way.” One warrior pointed to the elder’s tree. The tribe dispersed at the beach, but Cage and Tohka followed the witch while Meeka spent spare time checking on her people. Brooke meanwhile sat and spoke with her sisters about events and what her man said in the night.
Brooke watched as the four vanished behind the door and said to her sisters “I hope nothing is wrong for Tohka and if there is, that something can be done.”
Lanna rubbed her small bump of her belly. “You don’t need to worry. Now that Cage’s balls can work right you and your sister-mates will be with child very soon. Just do not become pregnant too soon and be in Zanza’s condition when we go warring.” Eyes shifted to the warrior with the obviously swollen tummy. “By that time I won’t be able to kill the stupid men for either my child remains in me or it would be too soon to part after the birth.”
Zanza said “But if you do make a new life we will all be happy, Brooke Sister. Your family needs more children. When we survive this war I want to see you surrounded you babies.”
“And grandbabies.” Lanna quipped. “My only son has got it in his head he wants Rena as his mate when she becomes a woman.”
Zanza snickered. “He will need to know my two sons want her too.”
“They have a lot of work to do.” Brooke grinned. “As they are now, it will be Sean who takes her as his when he becomes chieftain. They are not blood so it won’t be wrong, but at the moment he doesn’t see her sexually. He is too young and doesn’t know who his true spirit mate is, but he practices each day with his dad. Compared to the other youth, he is second strongest. Rena is the first. Her skills are worthy for a priestess and when she matures she will be stronger than I… I hope.”
Moril sat down with the circle of women. “He will have to defeat me when that time comes. I will not have Rena be mated to a lesser chieftain and I believe she will surpass all but her dad one day, in fighting prowess. The boys will find her hard to defeat once she reaches full maturity. As it is, Sean’s constant need to better himself is more dedicated than the other boys. Such is why he is now the youngest man. At ten years of age, it was a remarkable feat. Few could fend off a hungry alpha wolf without being scratched and surprised.”
Brooke grinned and boasted “My family is strong.”
And just as the sun peeked over the horizon there came a thump that shook the ground silently. Heads spun till noticing four dragons. Ulon, Poli, the green and yellow generals right in front of them. The huge rosy male said “Is that the two-leg witch I sense with Cage and Tohka Two-legs?”
Moril stood. “Yes, Ulon. You are all up early.”
Xamii said “Slept we have not. Pondering proceedings we have. Mox Shadowscales and two generals study writings Cage Two-legs provided. Barbav Sapphirescales is with Megdline Two-legs and Frill Four-legs.”
“What are these proceedings?” The chief asked as those waking came over to listen.
“To learn why Rare Ones clearly wanted unity by those leading. Our knowledge says you two-legs get sick when flying.”
“Only when we are new to the experience.” Moril explained. “Daku has been so kind in allowing most of us to fly with him. Some did have sickness, but we Utala adapt swiftly. The only hardship we have not overcome is sailing over water. Flying is enjoyable when you know you won’t fall off and be killed.”
“Immune, are you?” The yellow general Xamii asked.
“Not exactly, but I’m more comfortable with heights. I’ve flown on Daku’s back more than most. Brooke and her mates have had the most time and Brooke had a great fear of heights. Now she enjoys it, knowing she won’t die if she fell.”
“So wards aid less sickness?”
“If you know you won’t die if you fell, wouldn’t you feel better?” Moril reversed.
“Consider this conversation I will. Ulon Rosescales, you know what to do.” She said and both generals dropped on their bellies, arching their long necks.
The huge male stepped forward. “Brooke Two-legs, if the Rare Ones’ prophecy is true then you are my partner. You have become friend, my first in a non-magical individual. Your fierceness makes you mine, but generals want to see why. They will test us this day and see how we cooperate.”
Brooke placed a hand on her hip while another gripped the handle of a tomahawk. “What must I do, Friend?”
“Climb. We will do a dragon exercise all soldiers know. It is good you have not consumed nutrition yet. It will be beneficial. Then the generals’ will create tests for the two of us. Nothing lethal, but pain might result.”
“Alright. Would you prefer we begin now?” He grunted and she walked right up to his upturned hand, crawled up in it and hopped off on his hindquarters. Brooke walked straight to a large spike between his great wings and wrapped an arm around it. “What next?”
In answer she felt her feet get magically stuck to the smooth yet rough scales as he walked away from everyone. Both arms held on as he reared up on his hind legs, bent at the knees and suddenly shot almost straight up. His wings slammed down, further increasing the launch from the ground. He angled almost level with the ground, but made way for outside the reef and all the protection. It wasn’t long before they were extremely high up when he said “We begin.”
Ulon roared mightily and his head went down, the body following. The increase of speed allowed him to snap out his wings and roll, flip, make hard turns. Loops and complex maneuvers showed off that despite his enormous size he was able to do the impossible. Brooke forced herself to hold on with one arm and not allow fear to settle in. She not only held on she began to understand what he was showing her. Ulon was revealing how he would fight, how he could and would outmaneuver an opponent. It reminded her of how Cage would fight nothing but air. Ulon was shadow fighting. She could almost imagine another reptile coming in to bite his neck and he would arch it and follow through with a twist so that his hands could tear through scales and flesh. No longer was her heart hammering with fear, but battle. She then realized she had pulled out one Tomahawk to yell “Don’t hold back, Ulon! Show me everything!”
His response came through action as he became faster and more ferocious. Brooke’s stomach bounced around, sometimes in her throat and others at her feet. She was glad she hadn’t eate
n because despite her best efforts, she was queasy. Ulon was a mighty force and the difficult movement and complex maneuvers lasted close to an hour before fatigue began to settle.
When he leveled out one of the stationed reptilian soldiers suddenly appeared with a great roar and Ulon returned the challenging noise. Brooke’s eyes widened in fear, but was unable to say anything. Ulon slammed his wings down, barely dodging the attack, but slapped his long tail like a whip that struck the attacker’s wing, splitting a good fifteen feet of flesh out of the membrane, but it healed in a second as if nothing happened. Brooke knew this was what the generals’ had in store for a test, likely seeing how she would react after all the work he did and the fatigue accumulated.
Ulon shot higher, trying to gain the advantage against the more experienced elder. Brooke knew that at the moment it was up to her. Ulon was tiring physically. So far not one bit of magic was done. She got up the nerve to yell “Ulon, use me! Do that move you used to dodge a neck attack where you claw out the back, but instead drop me! If I drop from too high my emeralds will make magic he will sense. You can’t win in your condition.”
“Then it will be done. Leap and fall off my back. We will use you as a ploy to draw him in.” Her feet became unstuck and she didn’t hesitate to run down his back and jump without fear. She had done it a hundred times off the cliff of their home so she trusted the wards in the hidden emeralds of her leather wrapped handles.
She screamed in a terrified way, playing up the scene. She heard Ulon roar in fright, also acting and in a few seconds she was gripped by massive hands. She held on, drawling her second tomahawk in preparation. Between the cracks of scaly fingers holding her like a bird in a pen, she noticed the soldier took the bait and came in to capitalize on what would be a sure victory. She couldn’t keep her footing and knew it was time when her partner gave a massive jerk and his hand opened.
Brooke rolled painfully into a spike and bit back a yelp as hot blood nearly scalded her skin. She held still while she watched several feet deep gashes heal on the back of the attacker. When the blue light died, flesh and scales were whole once more. Buckets of blood remained, but she was silent. She carefully got up and found Ulon trying to get away and noticed the faint illusion of herself clutching his spine. It almost made her laugh.
Hunting instincts took over and she crawled forward one spike at a time and timed jumps when Ulon paused to attack, further creating a distraction and perfect opportunity. In about a minute she stood between two horn spikes and bent her knees. She leapt and twisted in a move honed from dancing and hit a hard bone right in front of a suddenly surprised eye as large as she is and before it could react she twirled her arms and sliced through the sensitive organ four times before jumping away.
Suddenly Ulon appeared in an instant Jump right below. His great maw clamped down on the soldier’s neck, teeth buried to the gums while a hand grabbed Brooke and closed around her. Intense fire was cut off as Ulon closed the airway. He planted both clawed feet on the other’s ribs and shoved off, opening his mouth without separating the head from the body.
Things slowed almost to a stop when Brooke could see again and the soldier hovered in front, his eye, neck and ribs glowing bright blue. Beside him were the green and yellow generals. “Display of first battle showed trust and skill.” Xamii said. “Diversion tactic succeeded in mock battle. Excellent balance and creating the opening for Ulon to finish off. Brooke Two-legs, how will you succeed against three elders using magic?” In answer she held up her tomahawks. “Prove it.”
Suddenly hundreds of balls came into being, all launched at her and Ulon. “What is going on?” She asked when all began striking an invisible wall just outside his snout. She noticed the pink stone called tourmaline glowing and twinkling.
“The three attack. They have applied a combined shield around themselves.” He responded from his extra magical sense since the flashes are so blindingly bright.
“Ulon, their shield, is it like Cage’s?”
“Clarify.” He said calmly, not worried about any massive spells breaking through.
“Um… when I cut his eye, was his shield the same? Could I jump on them again? Cage likes to fight as his opponents do. If he doesn’t use magic I can cut him…”
“I understand now, Brooke Two-legs. One moment… Yes, they left that kind of opening. No magic may pass their shield, but they will see you coming and I for this, cannot move.”
Her mind worked furiously before coming up with “You do not have to. If you can make so many spells at one time then fight back by attacking from every angle. Surround me in one of your spells, but just before your spell comes in contact, release me and I’ll slip right through… how high will I fall?”
“Ten feet. The barrier isn’t large, but it is powerful. Your suggestion will work. At that drop, the wards Cage Two-legs implanted won’t activate. I’m now blocking their magic from sensing us. It will further mask your approach. Ready?”
Brooke simply glared and was completely surrounded in pink light. She couldn’t see, but she felt the acceleration send her up. It vanished just as suddenly and she fell from about a dozen feet. She landed on the green ones back and rolled. Surrounding them were hundreds of pink attacks being stopped by an invisible force. She made three steps before the green general said “That is far enough, Brooke Two-legs.” All attacks seemed to stop at the same time as the great face spun around. “Barely felt you fall I did. If the attack you planned was quicker you would have succeeded, but not this time. For lesser warriors you have advantage. Against me, no. Still, you reached me. Done well you have.”
Pink swirled below her feet as Ulon pulled her back into his hand. She felt both defeated and victorious. It was a strange feeling. They then were silent in the gentle glide back to the island. The soldier went back to his patrol.
As Brooke landed Moril spoke to the yellow general. “It looks like Brooke Sister impressed you.”
“So it seems.” Xamii responded in a monotone. “Ulon’s use as a distraction gave a great advantage, but such tactics can only be used for so long.”
“But in the heat of the moment it is hard to think of everything.” Fredrick spoke up and he crossed his thick arms over his chest. “When you are desperately trying to survive against a sword you miss the dagger in the other hand. Even a prick will distract enough for the sword to pierce your heart or sever your head.”
“Wisely put.” The dragon commented. “The demonstration was adequate and would have killed a powerful being. More practice is needed. Poli Silverscales, it is now up to you.”
“Tohka Two-legs is still with the witch.”
“Meeka Two-legs is available at the moment. It is your task to stay out of our claws till the star is directly above.”
Meeka smiled as Brooke fell flat on her back in the sand and asked for food. Rena hurried along to gather some bread and fruit, arriving a half hour ago on Daku’s back with her other siblings. The healer said “It’s alright, Poli. You can work with me and Tohka as individuals to fully see how we will react.”
“If you want,” Daku spoke. “I can add a third attacker against Poli. You two will be Jumping around trying to catch her, but I will test how fast she truly is. Never has a dragon out-flown me before. I wish to see if she is the first.”
“An honor, White King.” Poli humbly admitted and seemed eager to test herself if her wings slapping her length were any indication.
Meeka climbed up her friend while Daku grew to Poli’s approximate size and all of them took off to begin the test.
“Hand cramp?” Cage asked as he opened the door and let her outside.
Tohka’s left hand massaged the right’s palm while flexing her fingers. They stepped out into sand under the noon day sun. “Yes.” She admitted with a grimace. “I held my knife for too long.”
“I told you not to worry. I was observing every tiny thing she did. The necklace I gave you had to come off because she couldn’t sneak past the wards.”
“Don’t make fun of me, Cage Love. I had to be ready to stab her if she even so much as twitched wrongly. Only your magic feels comfortable. Even thinking of what she was doing was wrong in my mind though I felt nothing.”
“Well?!” Brooke shouted as she noticed them come out and hurried over.
“Where’s Meeka Love?” Tohka asked as she looked all around, not noticing the gold braid anywhere.
Cage pointed skyward. “Way… way up there. Above the gathering clouds. Right now she is standing on Poli’s skull, looking at Daku chasing them all over while slipping through rings of fire. Meeka seems to be feeding Poli directions on Daku’s current moves.”
“Really?” Tohka shielded her eyes with a hand while searching. She noticed a very faint flicker of light reflected off Poli’s scales. “Oh, I only see tiny specks. I wish I had those eyes, Love.”
“So, what did she say?” Brooke prodded impatiently. Several others, the chief included, gathered to hear.
Tohka instead asked “When will they return? I want Meeka here when we explain what was discovered.”
Moril said “Won’t be long now. The sun is overhead now. How about we break for a meal? It is time for the children to come in from the slides anyway.”
“Go on ahead. I’ll go see what is going on up there.” Cage said before disappearing in a barely audible pop.
He stepped out into the air over a mile away, working on air walking. His arrival didn’t go unnoticed as Daku suddenly veered through flames as if they weren’t there. Meeka said something to Poli who slowed down and the generals’ made the fiery rings vanish. The griffin king began shrinking as he got closer and made a perfect landing while his partner half ran through the air. “Thank you for arriving. It was time for a rest.”
“How’d it go?”
Meeka slid down between Poli’s eyes and laid there panting. She was obviously exhausted and by Poli’s sluggish movements she too had been run ragged. “Poli is indeed the fastest dragon I’ve ever met, but she still could not out fly me with wings alone.”
Ascension of the Warlock (Book 4 of the Death Incarnate Saga) Page 51
