Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles

by A. J. Norfield

  “Ivar and I will walk with you guys, if that’s okay. Safe grounds are not far from here. If we pick up the pace, we should make it to the stables by nightfall.”

  A different whistle came from above, signaling the cables dropping. Both men pulled the lever to partly rewind the cable, allowing the remaining length to crash on the ground next to them. Picking up the end of the cable, the last of it disappeared neatly in the strange contraption on their backs.

  “Ready when you are,” said Sebastian to them.

  The camp was quickly broken up, and they were well on their way before the sun hit its highest point of the day. The others in the camp were as surprised as the rest to see friendly faces so far from home, although an overall weariness was present in each member of their group.

  Sebastian and Ivar took the lead. Every so often, they would make birdcalls with their hands, which were then echoed back from the tree branches where the rest of their group were following. Raylan tried to spot them up amongst the branches, but rarely saw more than the occasional shadow moving between the leaves. The members of each group kept careful eyes on their surroundings, making sure they were not getting surrounded or walking into a trap.

  Raylan and Galirras were in the middle of the group. Together with Gavin, who walked next to them, they kept an eye on their new friends.

  “I wonder how long they’ve been out here,” said Raylan, discreetly.

  “Who knows? They seem a little bit too well equipped though to be recent slaves. I wonder where they got all the gear.”

  “Maybe it was payment for luring us into a trap.”

  Raylan looked at his brother, warily.

  “They do not seem like bad people. Not like the other people who stole me. They do not smell of blood, and they talk differently, too,” remarked Galirras in Raylan’s head.

  “That’s doesn’t mean anything, Galirras. The most brutal assassin can dress up nicely and wash himself before going to hunt his target; but in this case, I think you are right…they do not feel like bad people.”

  Gavin looked at him.

  “Galirras said they don’t seem like bad people. I tend to agree…if they hadn’t shown up when those wolves attacked, who knows what would have happened,” Raylan added, shrugging his shoulders.

  He looked behind them to see if the rest were still keeping up. Peadar and the others were on their horses. Raylan was glad that Gavin decided to walk with him and Galirras, for a bit.

  “It was a good thing one of you heard the wolves attack; but I think you would’ve arrived too late, if it hadn’t been for Sebastian and his men.”

  “We never heard the wolves,” said Gavin.

  “What?” said Raylan, while looking at his brother.

  “I said we never actually heard the wolves. Never saw them either.”

  “But how’s that possible? You all came rushing to our aid when we were being attacked. Did you hear Sebastian and his men with those weird backpacks then?”

  “No, actually, I think it was Galirras that called us…”

  Raylan looked at Galirras who had a blank look on his face.

  “I think so, too,” the dragon said happily, after a moment. He seemed very pleased with himself, this morning.

  “You never told me you could do that.”

  “You never asked, either. Besides, I’d never tried something like that before. We were in trouble, so I think I sent out an unfocused call for help. I think these strange tree people might have heard it, too.”

  “If that is so, others might have heard the same call,” said Raylan.

  “We’d better be on guard for any enemy patrols, especially if one is as close as Sebastian mentioned,” he added, while quickly explaining things to Gavin.

  Raylan was silent, for a bit, going over this new information.

  “Would you be able to talk to the others like you do to me?” he said, finally turning to Galirras.

  “I do not see why not, now that I think about it. It is different from our link, which is effortless. Before, with the others, I really did not focus on their minds at all…nor did I hear any of their thoughts. I just pushed my own ‘voice’ out there. With some practice, I am sure I will be able to do it again.”

  “Great, let’s try it out with Gavin here.”

  “Try what out?” Gavin said, with a hint of doubt.

  “To see if you can hear me again,” said Galirras, after some concentrating.

  Gavin smiled.

  “Ha, so it was you! I recognize the sound your ‘voice’ from before...if one can call that sound…you’re still fading in and out, a bit.”

  “Gavin is not the only one that can hear you,” said Xi’Lao, who had been walking close by.

  Yet the others did not seem to react at all.

  “I think Galirras can only send out an unfocused signal, strong or weak, when he speaks to other people. He cannot direct it, like he does with me,” said Raylan.

  “Which would mean, if he talks to one of us, he talks to all of us,” added Xi’Lao, as if she made a mental note.

  “Well, in any case, that took me completely by surprise,” said Gavin.

  “It can be a little disorienting at first, right?” Raylan laughed, while hitting his brother on the shoulder.

  He saw Galirras make a small misstep, something that he’d not seen him do for a number of days already.

  “Was that difficult to do, Galirras?” Raylan asked.

  “It takes some concentration. I will have to get used to it. I am sure it will become easier, with practice,” said the dragon.

  “I suggest we keep this within our group, until we know for certain who we can trust,” Gavin spoke, softly.

  Raylan gave a small nod.

  “Agreed. We’ll practice with other people later this evening. We’ve got to keep an eye on our surroundings, for now…and we wouldn’t want Galirras to trip,” he added, with a wink.

  “Hmpf, I would never trip!” Galirras snorted, as both brothers and Xi’Lao laughed, heartily.

  The day went on without incident. As the sun began to set, Raylan started to wonder how long they still had to go. They had been moving south most of the time, meaning they were going in their preferred direction, at least.

  “Sebastian, how far do we still have to go?”

  “You can call me Seb, you know. And not much further. In fact, we should see the entrance any moment.”

  They had been walking uphill for some time, the ground becoming more stone than dirt. To their left the hill rose into a big rock formation as they moved along its stone walls.

  “Here it is,” said Sebastian, after another quarter mile.

  “I don’t see anything at all,” replied Raylan, looking at the dead end cove in the stone wall that Sebastian had been pointing at.

  “Just have a closer look.”

  Raylan and Galirras walked toward the end of the Cove.

  “This doesn’t look like stables, at all,” said Raylan.

  “What do stables look like then?”

  Raylan pictured one of the many stables he had seen in Shid’el and presented the image to Galirras, in his head. He was really getting used to this sharing of thoughts. Galirras had to ask less and less about things he did not know, as he would just pull up the reference from Raylan’s mind when discussing the subject. It worked like a charm.

  “They’re not stables in the traditional sense. Just go closer, you’ll see what I mean,” said Sebastian.

  Moving forward, Raylan was looking at all sides. There seemed to be nothing but rock wall and plants. Coming to the far end of the cove, he noticed a small irregularity in the rock wall. Upon moving closer, he pulled away some of the shrubbery that was in front of it and discovered a hidden passageway. It was large enough to move a horse through it, if you took the reins. A person would never find it, unless you walked all the way to the end. The natural flow of the cove completely hid the entrance from sight. As the ground consisting of solid rock, there was also
little fear of leaving footprints behind that would expose the secret entrance.

  Peadar joined them after dismounting.

  “I’ll go have a look,” he said, after Sebastian invited them to go further.

  After a few minutes, he returned.

  “Raylan, come on, you’ve got to see this. It’s amazing.”

  Following Peadar, they entered the rock formation, one by one. The horses fit perfectly, as did Galirras, as long as he kept his wings folded. Turning a corner, the passage quickly opened up. What Raylan saw could have come straight from a children’s fairy tale. The scene was magical in the last rays of sunlight. A large clearing completely surrounded by stone walls. Open at the top, it was as if someone had scooped out the inside with a giant spoon. The ground was filled with a green, grassy field as well as crops where most of the sunlight shone during the day. The high edges of the stone walls were colored orange and deep red from the setting sun. It gave the grass a golden shine, which slowly turned to deep dark green as night took over the sky.

  At the far end were two horses in a small, fenced, part of the hidden cove. Next to them were Twan, Otis, Martin and another unknown man, softly talking. As soon as they saw their travel party enter the clearing, they broke off their conversation. Twan approached them, casually.

  As Gavin moved next to him, Raylan felt his brother tense. If this was a trap, this would be an ideal moment to let it spring.

  “Twan, is everything prepared?” asked Sebastian.

  “All taken care of Seb. Their horses can join the others. There’s plenty of grass for them to eat. We’ve just started a fire and are about to cook some stew with some shrooms and forest potatoes.”

  Sebastian turned to Raylan and the rest.

  “Welcome to our stables,” he said, spreading his arms wide. “This man here is our head of stables, Borclad. He doesn’t speak much Terran, but that won’t prevent him from being a fine host for us weary travelers. Unpack and make yourselves comfortable, we’ll be safe here from the patrols for the night. Tomorrow, we’ll go and see the council. I’ll bet they’ll be surprised to see y’all.”

  As they all followed Sebastian, Raylan saw his brother relax, somewhat, if only a little.

  As the rocky bottom surrounding the hidden cove prevented large trees from growing too close, a large part of the heavens was visible. Rows of clouds slowly drifted by as more stars became visible in the darkening sky.

  The group slowly relaxed as good food was offered and people had time to talk, taking turns telling each other their stories.

  Galirras was slowly swirling some leaves around, letting them dance above the flames of the campfire. Every so often, a leaf would come dangerously close to getting burned, but he always managed to blow the flames away before the leaf would incinerate. When he got bored with that, he started splitting the grass with the wind, drawing figures which lasted mere moments.

  At the same time, he also spoke with Gavin and Xi’Lao, to practice multitasking and improve on his concentration. After the earlier introduction that day, Xi’Lao was delighted that Galirras was able to communicate with her directly and used every discreet opportunity to ask him hundreds of questions about what it was like to be a dragon.

  Eventually, he grew tired from the extended bouts of concentration. He moved closer to Raylan and fell asleep with his head on Raylan’s lap.

  “Sleep well, little one, you did well today. Soon, your head will be too heavy to sleep like this; you’re growing so fast. I won’t be able to call you little one for much longer, either.”

  “I don’t mind being called little, not by you, at least,” answered Galirras.

  He yawned, involuntarily showing the rows of sharp teeth lining his mouth. As Raylan looked at him, he noticed Galirras’ head had gotten wider. His neck had also become more muscular. Next to the large horned comb, smaller horns were now growing along his spine. His scales were increasing in size, too, and the color of his skin was approaching more of a golden brown, moving away from the pale yellow he was when he came into this world. It seemed to him that Galirras was slowly leaving his frail build behind and growing into a much stronger developed dragon.

  Raylan looked at the folded wings. The membranes had gotten thicker and sturdier. The bone structure of the wing had kept growing, but the muscles around the shoulder area still looked underdeveloped because of Galirras’ refusal to test out his wings.

  Softly scratching Galirras above his eye ridge, Raylan noticed Sebastian staring at them.

  “You don’t seem to be afraid of him,” said Raylan, “None of you, actually.”

  “You forget we followed you for a number of days already. I saw how everyone was around him. I figured as long as we don’t get on your bad side, there would be nothing to worry about. Don’t get me wrong, he looks like a fierce beast, but you seem disarmingly friendly with him.”

  “But you didn’t seem surprised about seeing a dragon, either. It makes me wonder if you have seen creatures like him before.”

  “No, but I saw plenty of strange creatures when I was sailing as a young lad. Huge fish, monsters with many tentacles, some were almost half the size of the ship itself. So perhaps meeting a dragon didn’t seem all that impossible to me.”

  “Perhaps someday you can tell me about those other creatures you saw,” said Raylan, yawning.

  Sebastian smiled.

  “We’d better turn in for the night. Tomorrow, we’ll need to focus on the road while traveling and that’s best done when well rested.”

  Raylan did not need much convincing there; it had been an exhausting day. He started to make himself comfortable, when he turned back.

  “Hey, Sebastian.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I never thanked you for this morning. If it hadn’t been for you and the others, Galirras and I would’ve been in real trouble. So…thank you, I owe you one.”

  Chapter 10

  Treetops

  Raylan saw Galirras squeeze through the tunnel in front of him. The dragon had to partly walk over the wall to fit through the narrow passage. After some discussion, they had left the horses behind in the care of Borclad.

  The cove, where they spent the night, appeared to have another exit in the back. It led through a series of narrow tunnels that barely accommodated the always growing Galirras. The dragon had awakened well rested. During breakfast, he happily exaggerated to Gavin and Xi’Lao about his hunts the previous day and how he protected Raylan from the wolf, which, he swore, had been at least twice his size.

  They had been walking upward for some time, when they turned a corner and saw light at the end of the corridor. Stepping into the open air, Raylan heard Galirras, in his head.

  “It’s a dead end. Where do we go from here?”

  It took a moment for his eyes to adjust before he saw what Galirras meant. They walked onto a rock terrace, just big enough to fit their group and higher up than Raylan would have guessed. It seemed the lower branches of the trees ran on the same level as the terrace.

  “I’ve got no clue,” he answered.

  He approached Sebastian, who was waiting for everyone to exit the cave; but just before Raylan could ask what was going on, he started to speak.

  “Alright, things will now get a bit tricky, so listen up. Your boots will only get in the way from this point on. Since I don’t have any spare leather ones with me, you’ll have to go barefoot from here on.”

  “What do you mean barefoot? Where are we going?” asked Gavin.

  “Up there.”

  Sebastian turned around and pointed at one of the massive branches that had grown from the trunk straight onto the rock terrace. From the ground, the branches had already looked big, but this was something else. The branch was so wide it could almost be called a road, and was large enough for two people to pass each other without touching or falling off for lack of room.

  “What? The tree?” asked Raylan.

  “It’s much safer than traveling on the ground, e
specially now that we’re reaching the soft, sandy parts of the forest. Better tie your laces together and hang your boots around your neck. You don’t want to drop them while walking up there,” Sebastian said, with a smile.

  At that, Sebastian jumped onto the branch and walked toward the trunk of the tree. Once above the precipice, he turned around.

  “It will probably take us a good deal of the morning to reach our settlement, so let’s get moving. But watch your step…some places can be quite slippery.”

  They saw no choice but to follow his example. Taking off his boots, Raylan was the first to follow. The tree bark felt cold to his feet; and he felt every crack, bump, and cavity of the branch under his feet.

  Galirras followed Raylan onto the branch. His claws dug into the bark with ease, allowing him to move easily over its surface. He looked down to the far away ground and instinctively stirred his wings. Using his tail for balance, Galirras felt as sure of his footing as he would on the ground.

  It did not take Raylan long to get accustomed to the feel of the tree. His years at sea allowed him to develop a confident stride while the ground constantly moved below him. As the branches swayed ever so softly from the wind, he saw other people were less at ease with their new high road.

  Xi’Lao and Gavin seemed to be doing okay. Peadar walked uncertain, his legs shook. Raylan heard him mutter his dislike of heights. The young lad made sure he kept close to Twan, who assisted people in the middle of the group. Both archers and Ca’lek found their way okay, but Harwin had some trouble with parts of the path. Otis and Martin helped him constantly, as he muttered that men were made for walking on solid ground. Richard closed the ranks. He did alright, but walked slower than the rest, suggesting he was a bit more nervous than the others.

  The morning flowed by slowly as they systematically made their way from branch to branch. Sometimes, sliding down to a lower crossing branch; other times, climbing higher. Often, they walked all the way to the center of the tree, moved around the trunk, and continued on to another branch on the other side.