by D K Drake
“He can break through the shield?”
“It’s not easy, but yes. He has that capability.”
“So what do we do now?”
“We don’t know.” Hamilton lifted his okty, allowing it to hover about ten feet from the ground. “You kind of ruined the plan we had.”
Javan nudged his okty up so that he was eye to eye with the floating Hamilton. “I only deviated from the plan cause you guys didn’t tell me what the real plan was. I went there today to save my mom, not watch her die like you wanted to. Besides, I still think that keeping Ravier and my mom alive for another week is a better idea than letting that dragon eat them today.”
“That dragon is going to be eating you in a week.”
“Not if I show up riding a dragon of my own.”
“Dragon collecting takes time, something you didn’t give yourself enough of.”
“Trust me, I get that. But I had to do something.”
“If you are done arguing about what is done,” Astor said, looking up at them from the ground, “I will tell you what we are going to do.”
Javan and Hamilton glared at each other, then turned their attention to Astor. “What’s the plan?” Hamilton asked.
“Hamilton, you take Javan to Dusk Stalker territory and track down Mertzer.”
“Mertzer?” Javan shook his head. “No. That’s a bad plan. Mertzer won’t let me ride him unless I prove myself by collecting another dragon first.”
“You bonded with Mertzer,” Astor said. “He’s your best bet.”
“No. I’d be wasting my time. My best bet is to collect another dragon first. Then Mertzer will be an easy second dragon to add to my collection, and I’ll be halfway to my goal.”
“Kid’s got a point,” Hamilton said.
“He does indeed.” Astor adjusted his glasses and pursed his lips. “Go to Dawn Stalker territory. Set up camp under the Whistling Waterfall. I’ll send supplies. You two focus on doing whatever it takes to collect a Dawn Stalker.”
“Yes, sir.” Hamilton followed up his salute to Astor with an order to Javan. “Let’s go, kid.”
“Wait,” Javan said. “Astor, aren’t you coming with us?”
“No. I must stay here and keep an eye on Micah. I’ll send word if he does anything you need to know about.”
“You’ll send word?” They had no phones, email or old-fashioned telegraph lines. From what Javan had observed, they didn’t even have any kind of postal delivery system. How could they possibly stay in touch? Javan scratched his head. “How?”
“There are ways. Now go.”
Javan didn’t feel right about leaving such an old man to fend for himself in this hostile environment. “Are you sure you want to stay here?”
Astor pointed south. “Go.”
“Yes, sir.” Against his better judgment, he flew away with Hamilton in the direction of Dawn Stalker territory.
Chapter 36
A Sticky Situation
Bacon? Was he really smelling bacon? Javan sat up and rubbed his eyes in the cave he and Hamilton had claimed as a camping spot the night before. The “door” to the cave was a sheet of water that sounded like it was whistling as it cascaded down from a cliff a hundred feet above them and dropped into a pool of clear water two hundred feet below them.
The soothing sound of the cascading water had lulled him to sleep last night in spite of the underlying whistling notes the water played. Now the smell of bacon sparked his senses and woke him up.
A small campfire was burning about thirty feet away from him near the entrance. Holding a black pan above the fire was a young woman with striking blue eyes and light brown hair that spilled past her tiny waist. She looked somewhat familiar, but Javan couldn’t place where they might have met before. As for Hamilton, he was nowhere to be seen.
“Umm…hello?” He latched his hand around the handle of one of his stalker swords just in case he needed it. “Who are you? And where is Hamilton?”
“You’re awake.” A smile stretched across her face, and Javan felt his heart do a strange sort of somersault. This girl was pretty.
“Yeah.” Javan coughed to clear his throat. He wasn’t used to speaking to pretty girls. “You…umm…didn’t…umm…answer my…umm…questions.” Why couldn’t he talk without using the word “umm” three million times?
“Sorry.” This time she laughed. Now she was even more attractive. If she kept this up, he wasn’t going to be able to utter any comprehensible words. “Hamilton’s out scouting for dragons. He’ll be back soon.”
“Oh. Okay.” Javan rolled his eyes. He was such a brilliant conversationalist.
“We’ve met before.” She pulled the pan away from the fire and placed it on the ground. As she divvied up the meat she had been cooking onto three separate plates already filled with berries and bread, she said, “We met in Gri. I brought you your lunch.”
“That’s where I know you from! My grandmother called you…” Javan snapped his fingers several times while trying to recall her name. The snapping didn’t help.
“Gesha.”
“Right. Gesha. I’m Javan.”
“I know.”
“Right. So…umm…how did you know I was here?”
“The UCN.”
“The what?”
“The Underground Communication Network. Astor sent a message. He told us where you were and what you needed. I volunteered to bring the supplies.” She shrugged. “And me. You needed someone to hunt and cook for you while you do your dragon collecting thing.”
“Right.” Goodness! Did he really just say ‘right’ again? He mentally slapped himself for his verbal ineptitude. “Well, umm, thanks for coming.”
“Sure.” Keeping her eyes averted, she delivered a plate to Javan and returned to her spot by the fire. “I hope you like cicko meat. It was the best I could do on such short notice.”
“It…umm…smells good.” Cicko meat? What kind of animal was a cicko? He would sound like an idiot if he asked. So he didn’t ask. Instead, he took a bite. Much to his relief, it did taste similar to bacon. Only a touch tougher. “Tasty.”
“Glad you like it.” She blushed and popped a handful of berries in her mouth.
He was mesmerized by the way she chewed. She tilted her head slightly to the side, closed her eyes and barely moved her jaw. She might have noticed him staring, too, if Hamilton hadn’t burst into the cave the second she opened her eyes to reach for another bite.
“Morning!” Hamilton scooted in from the narrow ledge that separated the waterfall from the rock wall. “Gesha, something smells delicious. You got a plate for me?”
“Yes, sir.”
She handed him a plate, and he walked over to sit beside Javan. He stuffed his mouth full of both meat and berries, but didn’t let that stop him from talking. “Eat quick, kid. I found the perfect place for you to hang out and wait for a dragon to stroll by, jump on and ride.”
“That’s the plan? I just wait for a dragon to come to me?”
“Yup.”
“What if no dragons happen to stroll by?”
“One will if I do my job right.” Hamilton stuffed another round of food in his mouth as though he were a starved barbarian. “Just trust me.”
Javan took a civilized bite of his own food and swallowed it before asking, “Trust you to do what?”
“Herd a dragon to you.”
“Herd me a dragon? How are you going to do that?”
“Easy. Dawn Stalkers are scared of insects. I’ve been out catching those annoying little creatures. I’ll use them to get the dragon to go where I want him to go—straight to where you’re hiding.”
“Really? That’s going to work?”
“You have a better idea, kid?”
Javan shook his head. “Nope.”
“Then finish your food and strap on your stalker swords.” Hamilton slapped Javan on the back. “It’s time to collect you a Dawn Stalker!”
◊◊◊
Javan wiped
the sweat from his eyes for the umpteenth time. The ritual sweat-wiping was the only action he had taken all day as he sat perched high above the ground in the tree Hamilton had picked out for him.
It was a cool tree to climb and sit in. It looked like a weeping willow except the leaves were ten times as big, the branches were five times as thick and the trunk grew two times as tall as any weeping willow he had ever seen.
The large, drooping leaves camouflaged him perfectly while the sturdy branches made sitting comfortable and safe. The only problem was that he was stuck in one spot and had been for a good eight hours or so. His legs had fallen asleep, his back was getting sore and he had long ago finished the nuts, fruit and beef jerky Gesha had given him to snack on.
He did have a fantastic view of the Whistling Waterfall to his right. He couldn’t hear the whistling from where he was, but he could certainly enjoy the sight of the sheet of water as wide as an eight-lane highway spilling over the edge of the cliff, rushing past the labyrinth of caves and dropping into the peaceful lake below. Waist high shrubs and knee high grass filled the distance between him and the water. Trees like the one Javan sat in covered the land as far as he could see when he looked to his left.
The terrain on the other side of the waterfall was completely different. It was marked by a series of rocky, moss-covered hills, streams and mini waterfalls. As he drank the last of his water, he found himself wondering if any of those waterfalls hid caves as well.
How do they keep finding me? The high-pitched, fear-filled thoughts of the snow white dragon startled Javan. It appeared out of nowhere and was just past jumping range for Javan. The dragon shivered and looked around. I think I finally escaped those vicious little creatures.
Javan wasn’t sure how Hamilton had managed to get the dragon to teleport to this exact spot, but he was sure he would take advantage of the situation. As quietly as he could, he retrieved a stun ball from his belt and moved himself into a squatting position on the branch he had been sitting on.
The dragon began strutting toward the water. He couldn’t allow her to walk out of throwing range, so he moved some leaves from a branch above him out of his way with his left arm, cocked his right arm and sent the stun ball spiraling toward the unsuspecting Dawn Stalker.
The claws of the stun ball lodged into the base of the dragon’s long neck, rendering the dragon immobile. “Yes!” Javan shouted. “Gotcha!”
He worked his way down the tree, marveling at how easy collecting his first dragon was going to be. He didn’t need a week or a month; all he needed was a day. He couldn’t wait to see the look on King Omri’s face when Javan rode into town on this beautiful dragon.
Did she already have a name? Should he re-name her even if she did? Was that proper collection etiquette? If so, what should he call her? Was there a book of dragon names he could rent from some library somewhere in Zandador? Did they have libraries in Zandador?
Growing impatient with his tedious climb down, Javan decided the puffy green bushes at the base of the tree would be soft enough to break his fall. So from about twenty feet up, he let go and launched himself butt first into the bushes below.
They were soft.
They did absorb his fall.
But Javan didn’t realize until it was too late that he had willingly thrown himself into a patch of sticky bushes Astor had warned him about just last week.
The leaves on these particular bushes secreted some sort of tacky substance that was so strong the people used it in place of nails when building things like furniture. Or houses.
Now he was stuck, glued in place from his neck to his heels.
While he fought to free himself, he heard the stun ball on the dragon’s neck drop to the ground. That clunk was followed by the sound of the dragon galloping away.
He let out a defeated, frustrated sigh and tried not to consider the possibility that he might have just ruined his one and only opportunity to collect a dragon.
Chapter 37
Gesha to the Rescue
Javan could feel the sticky substance the bushes secreted cementing itself to his skin and clothes. The longer he stayed put, the more entrenched he became.
“Not good. This is so not good.” He dropped his head back in despair. The sticky leaves immediately latched onto his hair, rendering him completely immobile. “Great. Now what am I supposed to do?”
He watched the sky change from blue to a collage of pink, red, orange and purple as the sun began its farewell tour. In the hue of the setting sun, Javan finally heard Hamilton’s voice.
“Kid, what have you gotten yourself into?”
“I’m stuck,” Javan said, as though his predicament wasn’t obvious. “I’m hot. I’m hungry. And I really need to pee. Please just cut me loose.”
“Ooohh.” Hamilton leaned over Javan and shook his head. “No can do, kid.”
“Yes can do.” He tried to nod, but his head wouldn’t move. “Unsheathe one of my swords and chop away at these bushes.”
“These here are sticky bushes.” Hamilton slowly walked around the bushes. “If I try to cut you out, the sword will get stuck along with the rest of you.”
“Come on, dude.” Javan really should have paid more attention to Astor when he was telling him about these bushes. He was sure the old man mentioned the trick to getting out of one if he ever got stuck. “There has to be a way to get me out of here.”
“Well…there is.”
“Good.” He knew a way out existed. “What is it?”
“I’ve seen people make some kind of creamy concoction that forces the leaves to unstick from what they’re stuck to.”
“Okay. Fantastic. Make the cream.”
“I would, but…”
“But what?”
Hamilton stopped his pacing and bent over so Javan could see his face. “I have no idea how to make it.”
“What?” Javan started to panic. “You mean I’m going to be stuck here for forever?”
“Calm down. Maybe Gesha knows.” Hamilton patted Javan’s forehead and chuckled. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
◊◊◊
Hamilton’s idea of right back turned in to a gap of several hours, enough time for the sun to set and allow the moon to take over the sky. In that time, Javan’s muscles started cramping, and his stomach wouldn’t stop growling. That uncomfortableness was nothing, however, compared to the overwhelming need to empty his bladder, something he almost did when he heard Hamilton’s booming voice interrupt the quiet of the night.
“Good news, kid!” Hamilton approached Javan carrying a torch. “Gesha knew exactly what to do.”
“Sorry we took so long,” Gesha said. She spoke softly out of Javan’s line of sight, making deciphering her words difficult. “Finding some of the leaves and bugs I needed in the dark was a little challenging.”
“Leaves and bugs, huh?” The thought of having bug guts spread all over him was not appealing. “That’s the only way to get me out of here?”
“Yes,” Gesha said. “My brother’s leg got stuck once, and my mom taught me how to make this cream to get him out.”
“I’ll have to thank your mom, then. Does she live in Gri, too?”
“No.” Her words became almost inaudible. “She’s loyal to the Dark King and cooks for his army. I haven’t spoken to her in over a year, not since I ran away from my post as a soldier in the army.”
“I didn’t know you were in the army.” Javan had a hard time picturing the quiet, frail Gesha in the role of a soldier. “Why did you run away?”
“Everyone has to join the army, but not everyone is cut out for it. I wasn’t. They weed out the weaker people like me by working them to death. The only chance I had to survive was to run away.”
“I found her sick and shivering and starving in the woods near Gri about six months ago.” Hamilton’s voice sounded louder than normal compared to Gesha’s soft tone. “The ladies of our village took her in, and she’s been a part of our little community ever s
ince.”
“Enough about me,” Gesha said, her voice faint but growing stronger as she changed subjects. “Javan, this cream is going to feel cold to the touch. You ready?”
“Yes!” He tried to lift his head up so he could see her, but that only strained his neck and added to the agony of his cramping muscles.
Even though he couldn’t see her, he could feel Gesha start to apply the cream with shaky strokes under his right arm. The cool, mushy, gooey substance she spread on him obscured the tingle of her touch. So did her question. “How did you get yourself stuck here?”
He figured he would have to explain his predicament to Hamilton. He just wished he didn’t have to explain it to Gesha; it wouldn’t exactly paint him as a hero in her eyes. Sighing, he began telling his tale. “A dragon teleported here to get away from some insects.”
“Ha!” Hamilton said. “I knew my plan would work.”
“Anyway,” Javan continued, “I stunned it with a stun ball from my perch in the tree. Climbing down was taking too long, so I jumped, thinking these bushes would break my fall.”
“Hold up.” Hamilton lowered the torch so close to Javan’s head that it nearly singed his hair. “You jumped into sticky bushes on purpose?”
“I didn’t realize they were sticky bushes.”
“How could you not know they were sticky bushes? Everybody knows about sticky bushes.”
“Hamilton, let him finish the story.” Gesha adjusted the torch so that it was a safe distance away from Javan’s face and moved over to his left arm. “What happened to the dragon?”
“The stun ball wore off, dropped to the ground and the dragon got away.” Javan raised his right arm and wiggled it. “Hey! Your cream is working!”
“Good.” She finished with his left arm, freed his hair from its sticky prison and drew one of his swords from his belt. “Now all we have to do is cut you out of your clothes.”
“Excuse me?” Javan held his head up in alarm. “Why do you want to cut me out of my clothes?”
