by D K Drake
Utilizing the cover of woods on either side of them, they sprinted the fifty yards across the clearing to Mertzer. He stood in the middle of a wide patch of gooey globe shrubs chomping away on the large blackberries. He seemed oblivious to the deafening beat of the clinking soldiers on their left and the rumbling of the crashing of the waves on their right.
Hamilton stopped a good thirty feet away while Javan approached the feeding dragon. “Hey, um, Mertzer? Sorry to interrupt your dinner, but it’s me, Javan. You have to let me ride you. Now.”
I have to do no such thing. Mertzer chomped another mouthful of berries and the last of his scales turned to white. Unless you already collected another dragon. He looked up at Javan, gooey goodness dripping from his snout. You collected the Dawn Stalker Ratha, didn’t you? I always knew she had a soft spot for Collectors.
“I wish I had known that,” Javan said, “but no. A Hunter is after you with what looks like the entire army. You have to let me ride you before he has a chance to enslave you.”
I am aware of the approaching army; they have made an endless amount of noise all day. But I have escaped many Hunters before. I shall escape this one as well.
“This time is different.” Javan wondered if Mertzer had any idea how close he was to the ocean. “Trust me on this. You need me.”
“I can only hear one side of the conversation here, kid,” Hamilton said. “I can hear those soldiers, though, and they are getting close. What’s going on?”
Tell your friend this dragon isn’t ready to be hunted or collected. Mertzer stepped out of the shrubs, shook off any berry goo still stuck on him and pranced forward. Away from the soldiers. Toward the ocean.
“Wait!” Javan ran after Mertzer. “Don’t go that way!”
But he was too late. Mertzer stepped through the trees. Onto the sandy shore. And froze at the sight of the ocean.
◊◊◊
“Dragon!”
“The dragon’s here!”
“Quick! Get Micah!”
The shrieks of the startled soldiers rang out as twilight settled in, and they scrambled south in a hurry. Apparently none of them wanted to stand their ground and keep an eye on the immobile dragon.
Javan saw his opportunity and took it. He sprinted to the white beast, climbed up scale by scale and perched himself at the base of Mertzer’s neck. “Run, Mertzer! Run!”
The dragon didn’t think a thought or move a muscle.
“Go!” Javan prodded him again, this time kicking his heels into Mertzer’s scales. “Move! Now!”
Can’t. The water. It’s so…
“It’s just water. No big deal. I’m here for you. Let me take you away from it.”
“Get that dragon to move!” Hamilton shouted from the ground below. “Micah’s almost here. I’ll try to hold him off, but you have to get out of here now!”
“What are you going to do?”
“Whatever it takes.” He drew his sword and charged toward the oncoming enemy.
Javan leaned against Mertzer’s neck, closed his eyes and tried to ignore the sounds of the skirmish behind him. “Come on, buddy,” he whispered. “You can do this. Start with one little step forward.”
Steel clashed with steel behind him.
Mertzer remained silent.
Then Hamilton’s voice rose above the fight. “Javan! Watch out! He got by me!”
Javan jerked up and looked back. While Hamilton engaged a dozen soldiers in a sword fight, Micah rushed forward, sword drawn, eyes focused on Mertzer’s long tail.
“You are not cutting my dragon’s tail off.” Javan turned himself around, snatched a stun ball from his belt and hurled it toward Micah.
It missed.
He reached for another one and launched it while running across Mertzer’s back. But he couldn’t get the right spin on it, so it never activated its stunning feature. All it did was bump Micah’s shoulder and thump to the ground.
Micah laughed and grabbed Mertzer’s tail. “I win,” he said, pulling his sword back.
“Not yet you don’t.” Javan drew his swords, slid down Mertzer’s tail and kicked Micah in the chest before he could complete his dramatic victory. Micah let go of the tail and crashed into the ground.
Javan crashed and ate a little dirt of his own. But he quickly rebounded and found himself in a standoff with Micah. Javan’s two swords were half the size and not even close to the width of Micah’s one sword, the tip of which was pointed at Javan.
“I told you I would meet you on the battlefield,” Micah said, “and here we are. Do you remember what else I told you?”
“You mentioned something about me not surviving the encounter.”
“Good memory.” Micah lashed at Javan. Javan used both swords to block the blow. “Those toy swords won’t hold up much longer.”
“We’ll see.” Javan lunged forward but couldn’t get close enough to do any damage.
The two traded strikes, each parrying the other’s attacks.
Until Micah broke through Javan’s defenses.
Chapter 41
Beaten
Javan raised his swords to block a blow to his head, but that left his core unprotected. Micah took advantage of the opportunity and stabbed at Javan’s stomach.
“Got you now, Collector boy,” Micah said as the tip of his sword punctured Javan’s abdomen.
“Not quite.” Javan crossed his swords in an X pattern below Micah’s sword and forced the sword up before Micah had a chance to shove it in. But the tip of the sharp sword was still too close to Javan. As he pushed it up, it slashed his skin from his belly button to his clavicle.
He clutched his bleeding chest and staggered backwards, breathless from the intense pain.
“I should finish you,” Micah said, “but I want you to see this.” He turned and headed for Mertzer’s tail, which lay as still as ever a mere ten steps from Micah.
Javan’s pain vanished at the thought of losing Mertzer. “Back away from my dragon!” He charged at Micah, but Micah was ready for the attack. He met Javan with a kick to his wounded chest and sent him sprawling into the sand.
“He’s my dragon now.” Micah picked up Mertzer’s tail and sliced through the scales with his sword.
Javan watched through tears as Mertzer jumped, flopped his shortened, bloodied tail and screamed the most agonizing scream Javan had ever heard.
“Shut up, you stupid dragon.” Micah tied his belt near the end of the newly created stump to minimize the loss of blood, then draped the lifeless five feet of Mertzer’s tail around his neck and climbed on to Mertzer’s back. Looking down at Javan, he said, “I’ll see you in Japheth in less than two days’ time. I’ll have my dragon ready. Good luck finding one of your own between now and then.” He slapped Mertzer with the side of his sword. “Move!”
The last thing Javan heard before he lost consciousness was the sound of Mertzer screaming as he sped away into the woods.
Chapter 42
Surrender
“I
t’s not deep.”
Javan didn’t recognize the calm voice of the man inspecting his wound, nor did he bother opening his eyes to look at him. He was content to finally lay on a flat, soft surface after spending a restless, painful night being jostled around in Hamilton’s arms. Unlike their okties, the oversized man had survived his skirmish with the soldiers and had carried Javan to whatever place they were in now.
“So the kid’s going to be okay?” Hamilton sounded exhausted. And concerned.
“He’s lost a lot of blood,” the stranger said, “but once we patch him up, he should recover without any problem.”
“Hamilton, you’ve done well. Now get some rest.”
This time Javan forced his heavy eyes open. “Astor?”
“Yes, Javan, I’m here.” Sure enough, Astor was sitting on the right hand side of the bed Javan was lying in. “Here” was a one-room hut with a dirt floor. The only other furniture in the place was a table and chairs by the firepla
ce across from Javan and a second bed in the opposite corner.
“Kid, you’re awake!” Hamilton towered over Astor. Dried blood caked his face from a cut above his left eye, but that was nothing compared to his blood-stained shirt. That seemed odd since his shirt wasn’t cut and he didn’t appear to have any major wounds. Then Javan realized that was his own blood on Hamilton’s shirt. “You had me worried.”
“Where are we?” Javan asked.
“Bacquie’s farm,” Astor said. He nodded to the balding man on the other side of Javan’s bed who appeared to be in his sixties. Or six hundreds by Zandadorian age standards. “It’s a secluded place outside of Dusk Stalker territory. Hamilton walked all night and carried you nearly fifty miles to get here.”
“Didn’t go anywhere without gathering all the stun balls you threw.” Hamilton looked and sounded exhausted. “I put them back on your belt for you.”
“Thanks,” Javan said. “For everything.”
“You’re welcome, kid. Now that I know you’re okay, I’m going to sleep.” Hamilton nodded, strode across the room and belly-flopped onto the bed. The bottom half of his legs hung off the end of the bed, but that didn’t keep him from immediately zonking out.
Javan also closed his eyes while Bacquie worked on washing his wound. He was too tired and too haunted by Mertzer’s screams to care about the pain. Until something wet and cold touched his skin. Javan shuddered and looked up. “What is that?”
“Sealing mud,” Bacquie said. “Once it dries, it will keep your skin together until the wound heals.” He finished spreading the mud along the slashed skin and stood. “I have some things to attend to outside. I’ll let you two talk.”
Javan waited for Bacquie to leave, then turned to Astor. “I’m sorry, Astor. I failed. Micah beat me. He got Mertzer.”
“I know. Hamilton told me what happened.”
“And no matter what I tried, I just couldn’t find a way to ride one of those Dawn Stalkers. I’m no Collector.” Javan looked up at the ceiling and signed, resigning himself to the way his life would end. “But at least I’ll be able to save my mom and Ravier when I trade my life for theirs tomorrow.”
“Young one, you still have--”
“A time trap!” Bacquie burst through the door before Astor could finish his sentence. A breathless young girl with blonde pigtails who looked to be about seven or eight entered behind him. “Merilyn’s been scouting the Noon Territory, and she says a Noon Stalker is caught in a time trap!”
“It’s true! It’s true!” The girl ran to Javan and enclosed his hand in hers. Her big brown eyes bulged with excitement. “The time trap stretches from the jungle to the meadows, and one of the dragons never leaves the jungle. If you go now, you can catch it and ride it. Imagine the look on the Dark King’s face when you show up in Stalker Square tomorrow riding a Noon Stalker!”
The girl made the news sound so hopeful. Javan wasn’t convinced. He remembered Ravier mentioning time traps before but never did get around to inquiring about it. Guess he should now. He looked at Astor, sighed and asked, “What’s a time trap?”
Chapter 43
Time Trap
“S
o it’s a storm that slows down time?” Javan, dressed in one of Bacquie’s brown shirts that was two sizes too big for him, stood in a meadow with Astor under the heat of the blazing late-morning sun. They had ridden together across the river and into Noon Stalker territory on the back of Bacquie’s only okty. Javan’s chest hurt and his head pounded, but thanks to the meal Merilyn fed them before they left, hunger wasn’t a problem.
The air ahead of them looked wrinkled and warped, but that was the only difference Javan could discern.
“Yes,” Astor said. “You can be stuck inside one of these storms for days or weeks, but it only feels like a few hours have passed.”
“How is that going to help me catch a dragon? I only have one day left.”
“You eat these.” Astor handed Javan the leather pouch he had been wearing across his chest. Javan opened the pouch to find it full of cherries.
“Cherries. Cherries are the secret to beating a time trap?”
“They’re called energy balls. They have green beans inside them. Bite one and see.”
“Okay.” Javan bit one of the cherries in half. Sure enough, the outer fruit protected the inner bean.
“The beans give you a burst of energy that allows you to move faster than everything in the time trap, including dragons.”
“Hey,” Javan said, studying the bean more closely, “I know what these are. They’re coffee cherries!”
“Coffee cherries?”
“Yeah. On earth, we take the fruit off these cherries, dry the beans out, roast them, crush them up and use them to make a drink we call coffee.”
“Interesting.”
“We drink coffee to give us energy. I used to go to Starbucks on the way to school every day to get coffee to help wake me up. I thought that caffeine was a lifesaver. Now it will be. Literally.”
“Just don’t eat too many before you find a dragon. You’ll need to feed a good chunk to the dragon you ride so it will be able to fly out of the time trap.”
“Gotcha.”
“Find it and ride it before all of its scales turn golden. Otherwise it will want to eat you rather than the cherries.”
“Gotcha.”
“And remember to use your strengths. Don’t try to surprise him or overpower him. Connect with his mind. Talk to him. Reason with him. Convince him to let you ride him. Let the dragon choose you to be his Collector.”
“Gotcha.” Javan wasn’t sure that was the best strategy, but agreeing with Astor seemed like the wise thing to do at the moment. “You’re going to come with me and help me, right?”
“No, my son. I’ll be putting together a feast for the dragon. It will want to eat once its free from the trap. I also need to be able to come and rescue you if you’re stuck for too long.”
“Hold up.” Javan didn’t like this news one little bit. How was he supposed to make his way through a time trap and collect his first dragon by himself? “You mean I have to do this on my own?”
“Yes. You’re ready. I believe in you. Now go.”
“Do I at least get to take the okty?”
“It would require too many energy balls; you need to save them for you and the dragon.” Astor put his hands on Javan’s shoulders. “The jungle is only a few miles away. You can easily run that distance.”
“Yay.” Javan rolled his eyes. “Running. My favorite thing.”
“What is necessary is not always enjoyable.”
“I so wish running wasn’t necessary.” Nevertheless, Javan gulped, ate a handful of cherries and stepped into the warped air of the time trap.
◊◊◊
Despite the raw caffeine in his system, Javan felt everything slow down. His steps. His breaths. Even the blinking of his eyes.
A hummingbird inched along in the sky. A cricket let out a long, leisurely chirp. A breeze drifted through his hair strand by strand.
“Javan!” The intensity of Astor’s voice startled Javan. “Noon is approaching. Eat another handful of cherries and find that dragon!”
Javan turned, gave Astor a thumbs up and chomped on some more cherries. His heart rate quickened and with it the pace of his steps. Next stop: the back of a Noon Stalker.
Chapter 44
Striking a Deal
As Javan sprinted across the land, the meadows changed to flowery fields. The flowery fields soon gave way to a vibrant jungle full of giant green plants and tall trees with green leaves of every shape and size. The mountains lay beyond the jungle, but Javan wouldn’t need to go that far.
The dragon he was after made his home in the jungle.
Only the jungle was the size of Hawaii, and Javan was on foot in a time trap with no help of any sort. The long, drawn-out songs and chirps and slithers of the animals around him didn’t exactly put his mind at ease. He slowed to a walk but ate a
few more energy balls just in case. If any of those noise-making animals were dangerous and tried to attack him, he liked knowing he had the ability to outrun them.
“Okay, Noon Stalker, where are you?” Javan crossed over a creek, dipped under an ivy canopy and walked through a cluster of pointy ferns. No matter which way he twisted and turned, though, he couldn’t avoid their prickly tips. “Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!” He finally spun his way out of the cluster and collapsed onto a bed of clovers.
Which he shared with a black panther.
The jolt of pain from his fresh wound colliding with the ground was nothing compared to the fear coursing through his system as he stared from his hands and knees into the panther’s yellow eyes. It hissed, snarled and bared its fangs.
Fortunately it did so in slow motion, allowing Javan time to stand and begin backing away. He inspected his wound in the process and was happy to note that the sealing mud had done its job and kept his cut sealed.
A human? Where did he come from? If he causes my meal to run away…
Forgetting about his cut, Javan reached for his stalker swords and surveyed the narrow clearing in which he stood. Vines draped across the palm trees that surrounded him and dangled to the green, puffy-leafed plants and barbed ferns all around him. He could hear the dragon’s thoughts but couldn’t see him anywhere.
How could he not see a gigantic golden dragon in the middle of all this green?
Hmm…he looks like he’s looking for me. But that’s not possible. I’m cloaked. He can’t know I’m here.
“You’re cloaked? Ha! That’s why I can’t see you.”
You can hear me?
“Yes.” Javan sighed. “I can hear your thoughts.” He hated having to explain this thought-reading thing to every new dragon he met. He needed a shirt that said “I am a Collector and can read Stalker’s minds. Get over it.”
I have never met such a human before. You intrigue me. What else can you do?
