by D K Drake
She had risked everything for him. It was his turn to risk everything for her.
Javan snatched the four scales from the wall, deactivating the portal. He picked up his mother’s bag, slung it over his shoulder and took off at a dead sprint through the woods toward the hidden village of Gri.
◊◊◊
It was dark by the time Javan returned to the village, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him from carrying out his newly devised plan.
He charged into his grandparent’s house and found them eating quietly at the table. “Good. You’re here. Ravier, I need your sword, an okty and directions to the city of Japheth. Grandma, I need you to pack me some food for the trip. I don’t know how much time I have and need to be on my way as soon as possible.”
“Javan!” Hannah jumped up and hugged him, then inspected his face. “What happened, dear?”
“I got beat up by some bully named Micah.” Javan noticed the look of alarm Hannah and Ravier shared. “You know him?”
“Yes,” Ravier said. “He’s the youngest of the king’s thirteen sons and a vicious Dragon Hunter. He’s destined to take King Omri’s place one day, but his father won’t allow him to hunt dragons and thus dethrone him until the king is on his deathbed. In the meantime, Micah practices by hunting people.”
“He took my mom.”
“Where did he find you?” Hannah asked while she led Javan to the table.
Javan sat down and cleaned up the dried blood on his face with a wet towel Hannah gave him. “At the portal.”
“Was he waiting for you there?” Ravier took over the questioning as Hannah scrambled to get a place set for Javan.
“No. He showed up with two other guys right after mom activated the portal.”
“She activated it?” Ravier leaned forward. “Why didn’t you go through?”
“I almost did. After all, Micah let me go because my mom gave herself up if he would leave me alone.”
“What made you stay?”
“I realized I’d be running away from home, not back to it. Besides, my mom brought me here to collect dragons and overthrow the king. That’s what I intend to do, hopefully with your help. But first, I need to rescue her before the king kills her. Thus the need for your sword, an okty and directions.”
Ravier leaned back and crossed his arms. “I like this spunk. I wasn’t sure you had it in you. So I’ll help you. But not by sending you off with a sword you don’t know how to use to a city you know nothing about.”
“So you’re going to get some people together and save her yourself? Good.” Javan stood. “Just let me come with you.”
“Sit down and eat. We’re not going anywhere tonight.”
“We have to! I told you, that Micah guy took her, and the king is going to kill her.”
“Not right away. You see, King Omri likes to make a spectacle of people like Esmeralda. He can’t send his dragons to wipeout her family and friends because he’s already done that. Instead, he’ll have her toted around in chains through every city and every village in every region in Zandador while proclaiming the date of her public execution. He wants to remind the people what happens to those who defy him.”
“So we’re going to rescue her when he brings her to one of the villages close to here?”
“No.”
“No?” Javan could feel his blood starting to boil. “Why not?”
“Because we need save her on the day she is scheduled to die.”
“Isn’t that cutting it a little close?”
“No. The best way to save her is to introduce you as a challenger in the competition for the throne. The best way to introduce you is in front a crowd forced to gather by order of the king to watch a beautiful woman die for committing the ‘crime’ of personal liberty, something most of that crowd secretly longs for but lacks the courage to pursue.”
“How is introducing me as a challenger going to save her from being executed?”
“It might not, but it’s our best chance. You’ll understand when the day comes. I figure we have about four weeks to get you ready and perfect our plan.”
“Shouldn’t we come up with a plan B, just in case?”
“A contingency plan. Good. You are thinking like a leader. We’ll work on it. But our primary focus is preparing you to collect dragons. Understood?”
Javan nodded. “Understood.”
“While in training, there are rules to follow.” Ravier stood and looked Javan in the eye while ticking off his rules on his hand. “No whining. No complaining. No arguing.” He poked Javan in the chest. “You do what I say, when I say, how I say. Do you have a problem with that?”
He did, but if he could learn how to fight in order to protect those he cared about and avoid another beating like he got earlier, he could keep his mouth shut. “Are you going to teach me how to fight?”
“That’s part of the training.”
“Okay. I’ll follow your rules. When do we start?”
“Now. Get some food in you, then meet me in the barn for your first lesson.”
Javan wanted to protest and eat after the lesson, but he decided arguing with Ravier’s first order would not be wise. He thus sat and ate the bowl of stew his grandmother put in front of him while dreaming about what it would be like to confront Micah, pull his hair and bust his nose.
Then he wondered if he would ever be strong enough and brave enough to make a dream like that come true.
Chapter 15
First, Go Back
Unsure what he was walking into, Javan eased open the door of the barn and peeked inside before entering. “Ravier?”
No response.
He stepped inside and meandered across dirt floor. “Hello,” he called. “I’m here. Ready to get started. This is where you said to meet.”
“Down here.”
Javan followed the faint voice to the end of the barn and noticed a light coming from a hole in the floor in the corner. A flat piece of wood the size of the hole was leaning against the wall. Javan bent over the hole and noticed a ladder that led to the underground room. He climbed down, turned around and gasped at the sight of the vast space.
It was a good twelve feet high and looked to be about twice the length and width of the gym-sized barn above. The long wall to his right was covered with shiny weapons from swords to spears to bows and arrows. Opposite the weapon wall was a target area. Some were shaped like humans, some like animals and some were simple circles attached to the wall with a bull’s eye in the middle.
The wall behind Javan was a giant map of what Javan assumed to be Zandador while the far wall was divided into two sections. The left was floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with old, thick books; the right was a blank black slate. Several rows of chairs faced the slate wall, and a podium as well as a desk faced the chairs.
Ravier was standing behind the podium. “Come.” He pointed to a chair. “Sit.”
“This is a neat room,” Javan said as he walked toward Ravier. “Can I shoot that bow?”
“Not tonight. Tonight you sit and you learn.”
“Learn how to fight, right?”
“Eventually.” He handed Javan a notebook with thick, rough paper and a pencil. “First, you need to learn about Zandador and the basics of dragon collecting.”
Javan sighed. This was starting to sound way too much like school. He felt like he was going backwards when he wanted to be moving forward. “You mean I have to sit here and listen to you lecture?”
“While taking notes, yes.” Ravier picked up a piece of chalk. “This type of teaching bores me, too, but in order for your active training to make sense, you must have a fundamental knowledge of Zandador as well as how and why collecting dragons is necessary.”
Javan sighed, opened his notebook and readied his pencil. “Fine. Tell me what I need to know.” He wanted to get this book training over with so he could learn how to use some of those weapons.
“Good.” Ravier nodded. “Let’s start at the very b
eginning.”
“A very good place to start.” Javan couldn’t help but notice Ravier’s unintentional reference to the song Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music, his high school’s spring production last year; he had helped build the set. Now the song was playing on an endless loop in Javan’s mind, making it more difficult to concentrate on Ravier’s history lesson.
“When God created the world, the earth was one large supercontinent.” Ravier drew a circle on the slate and outlined the edges of the supercontinent within the circle. Then he began drawing lines that divided the supercontinent into sections. “Large beasts such as dinosaurs dominated the region now known as Africa. Snow tigers and lions lived in the European and Asian regions while quaggas, monkeys and lions dominated the South American region.
“The most feared, most respected, most honored creatures—the Dragon Stalkers—ruled the mountains and plains of North America.”
“Ummm…what about humans?”
“I’m getting to that.” Ravier starred the land in the middle of the map. “Mankind settled in the Middle East. Now, the rich oxygen atmosphere allowed man to live an average of 900 years, but instead of using those years to live for and grow closer to their Creator, they turned from God. They became consumed with their desires for selfish pleasures and over the course of nearly 2000 years grew extremely corrupt. Angered at man’s defiance, God sent judgment on the earth in the form of a worldwide flood.”
“Hang on.” Javan raised his hand. “I know this story. God had Noah build an ark. The flood wiped out everything and everyone except Noah, his family and all the animals Noah brought on the ark.”
“You are correct.”
Javan smiled and put his hand down. He wasn’t sure why he was so proud of being right when he was the only student in the class.
“But the flood didn’t just wipe out the human and animal populations; it changed the face of the earth.” Ravier erased his supercontinent and redrew the land to look like the map of earth Javan knew. “It was so powerful and so devastating that it caused the supercontinent to break apart into seven distinct continents.
“The very atmosphere changed as well. God knew that with decreased levels of oxygen in the post-flood world, many of His creatures would not be able to survive. So in the Great Rift between the Americas and Europe/Africa, He created a new dimension, a dragon dimension. The extinct animals of the post-flood earth would reside here, and the dragons, with their unique gifts, would rule the land.”
This was not part of the Biblical flood story Javan had heard before. It had to be true considering he was sitting in the dragon dimension at the moment, but he still had a few questions.
“How did the animals get from earth to here?” he asked. “Why are humans here if dragons are supposed to be in charge?”
“Let me finish telling the story, and I think I’ll answer your questions.”
“Okay. Sorry. Keep going.”
“Thanks.” Ravier rolled his eyes. “God chose one man to work with the dragons to build the portal and round up the animals that needed refuge in the new dimension.”
“That man had to have been Noah.”
“No. It was Japheth, Noah’s youngest son.” Ravier sounded rather smug, like he enjoyed telling Javan he was wrong. “Before the flood, Japheth gathered eight dormant dragon eggs—a male and female of each kind—then safeguarded them on the ark.”
“How could he tell the difference between a guy egg and a girl egg? And how did he know which eggs belonged to which stalkers? Don’t all dragon eggs look the same?”
“No.” Ravier sighed. “Female eggs have a solid colored shell; male eggs have spots. Each type of stalker has a distinct colored egg.”
“Does it match the color their scales turn when they’re hungry?”
“For the noon and midnight stalkers, yes. But Dawn Stalkers lay pink eggs, and Dusk Stalkers lay white eggs.”
“Got it.” Javan pretended to make some notes on his paper. “So how did this Japheth guy build the portal?”
“I’m getting there. Shortly after the floodwaters subsided and everyone was able to leave the ark, the dragon eggs began to hatch. Japheth discovered that he could telepathically communicate with the dragons. He also learned that if he was able to ride a dragon as soon as it was strong enough to ride within a few weeks of its birth, he gained that dragon’s loyalty. It would go anywhere he directed, follow any orders he gave and protect him from any threats.
“His brothers referred to his dragons as his collection, so he began referring to himself a Collector.”
“Okay. This collecting thing is starting to make a little more sense,” Javan said. “But just to make sure I’m clear: if I get my own collection of dragons, I’ll be able to tell dragons what to do, and they’ll have to do it?”
“They’re not your slaves, but yes, you will have their complete loyalty.” Ravier crossed his arms. “Can I get back to the story?”
“Sure.” Javan was liking this story and began to wonder what other benefits came along with dragon collecting. Would having his own dragon collection turn him into a babe magnet? Surely chicks would dig the chance to ride around on the back of a ferocious dragon that only he could tame.
Ravier turned back to his earth map and drew a triangle off the coast of Florida. “Following God’s directions and with his collection of Stalkers, Japheth flew across the Atlantic on the back of Zandador, his male Midnight Stalker; the other flying dragons carried the wingless dragons.
“They landed in what is now Puerto Rico, then Bermuda and finally Miami. In each place, Japheth plucked scales from the backs of his dragons and fused them to rock walls in a huge octagonal shape. He also carved out a circle in the wall next to the octagon that was just big enough to fit four dragon scales into.
“I would explain the science behind how the portal works, but I don’t understand it. All I know is that the three points of the portal connect when you put the four scales in the circle beside the octagon and punch in the right code.
“God showed Japheth how to make it work, so once Japheth had the portal set up, he returned home, gathered all the endangered animals that were living near the ark and used the teleportation abilities of the Dawn Stalkers to teleport the animals to the portal.”
Javan raised his hand. “Question.”
“What?”
“Why take the time to fly across the ocean if he could have teleported there in the first place?” He crossed his arms. “Teleportation seems like a better, faster way to travel.”
“Dawn Stalkers can’t teleport to a place they’ve never been before.”
“Oh. Good to know.”
“So, with the portal activated, any animals that swam into the triangle were transported to the dragon dimension; the land creatures went through the wormhole. After all the animals went through, the leader, young Zandador, invited Japheth in.
“Although he was tempted to see the wonders of the alternate dimension, he refused. He needed to remain on earth to have sons and daughters and help rebuild after the flood. Zandador thus flew Japheth back to his home and left him with scale keys to access the portal if he ever changed his mind. He then flew away and returned to the Great Rift.”
“And the Great Rift is this place we’re in now?”
“Yes. It’s a dimension roughly the width and length of the Atlantic Ocean and is made up of seven distinct regions. Let me show you.”
Ravier and Javan crossed the room to look at the map on the wall.
An odd-shaped island in the midst of red seas filled the wall. It was divided by thick black lines marking the borders of the different regions. The northern most tip, Xyies, looked like a giant thumb covered by a white, icy-looking landscape. Ravier pointed to the thumb. “This is Xyies, a cold, barren land; the only habitable places are in underground caves.”
Javan shivered just thinking about living in such a cave. He liked the warmer look of the land below Xyies, though. It spread out like the palm of a hand
and was covered with pictures of thick clusters of trees. He pointed to it. “This looks more human friendly.”
“It is. That’s Gibbet. The weather is warmer, but the thick jungles make building there challenging. And the abundance of monkeys are annoying to deal with.”
Javan moved his finger to the wide open area south and east of Gibbet. “What is this region?” It was more than twice the size of Xyies and Gibbet combined. The northern corner of the region was filled with pictures of volcanoes while most of the rest of the area looked to be a bleak desert. The only exception was the far eastern shore that was filled with a picture of a huge lake and trees and open space.
“That’s Tirza, the country just north of Zandador. An extensive mountain range separates our border from theirs while a desert separates us from our neighbors to the south.” Ravier drew an air circle around Zandador with his finger. “We’re in the middle of the Great Rift. The weather is near perfect all year, and the land is the most habitable in the entire Rift. The river that runs through the middle of Zandador breaks off into various streams, allowing us to set up cities and villages pretty much wherever we want.
“North Zandador, where we are now, is hilly and mountainous. South Zandador is swamp land along the river, then turns into rolling meadows and farmland.”
Javan noticed four distinct areas separated by dotted lines on the map of Zandador. “What are these sections?” he asked, indicating the areas.
“Those are Dragon Stalker territories. The Midnight Stalkers own the mountains in the north. The Noon Stalkers own the north eastern shore from the river to the mountains. The Dusk Stalkers own the south eastern shore from the river to the desert. And the Dawn Stalkers own the south western shore from the lake down to the desert; that’s where we went yesterday.”
“Got it.” Javan was starting to understand the lay of the land. The rest of Zandador was divided into different sections the way America was divided into states. Right in the middle of the country just north of the river was a picture of a castle and the name of the capital city, Japheth. That’s where his mother was. That’s where he needed to go.
