Unless...
What had I done on that mercenary ship? I’d been calling to Nasataa – I had stretched my mind as far as I could as I tried to call him. Maybe I could try that. Maybe there would be a Blue Dragon out there somewhere who would hear our call and come to rescue us again.
I reached out as far as I could with my mind, calling, calling, begging for help. I tried to project an image of Nasataa and me in this cage and of the fire they were preparing on a platform below us. I tried to project the danger of the situation as I called, called, called to anyone who would listen.
Please! Please hear and help us!
Was that a tiny tremor I felt in the song?
The last ray of light fell behind the horizon and below me, they lit the fire. It shot hungrily into the air, crackling and popping with fury.
My insides froze at the sight even as sweat popped out along my brow. We were out of time. It was too late.
Chapter Seven
I hadn’t realized that the cage could be lowered until it slowly began to sink through a trapdoor in the platform and descend downward toward the fire.
A crowd had turned out to watch my death. Great. I was not just going to die horribly, I was also going to be entertainment for the people of this awful city. I’d always wanted to see a city. I had so much fun visiting Abergande that I was sure I’d love the excitement of an even bigger place – all the varied people and the many shops and inns. But this city was not anything like what I’d hoped for. These people were villains! And they thought it was fun to watch someone die!
My anger grew with every moment that my cage was lowered slowly downward. I held Nasataa protectively to my chest, my jaw clenched and a fierce look on my face. I wouldn’t cry. I wouldn’t. Oh, skies and stars, I already was!
A tear leaked down my face, but I scowled and brushed it roughly away. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of watching me cry.
Nasataa seemed mostly unaffected. Fortunately, he didn’t realize the danger we were in. I hoped he wouldn’t realize it, that he wouldn’t suffer. The poor little guy. He deserved so much better than this! I should have been able to protect him from these monsters.
I felt a quiver in the song of the sea, and I cried out to it to save me. Please! Please! Whatever you are, please help us! Help us!
I sent out a visual image of Nasataa, sweet, innocent baby Blue Dragon Nasataa. Surely whatever creature stirred in the depths of the sea would see him and want to help – right?
The fire was getting closer and now the murmur of the crowd was settling into a quiet chant of words I didn’t understand. I’d never understood hating a group of people. After all, people were individuals and each one was different, but I couldn’t help but hate these people right now. They didn’t seem like individuals. They seemed like one huge moving entity of hate and destruction – and I wanted to turn that destruction right back on them!
I gritted my teeth and then an image filled my mind. It was wobbly and hard to see, but it looked like my cage, far, far up in the air hanging over the roaring fire.
Yes! I tried to send the message to the mind far away.
Who was it? Who had seen our plight?
It’s us! I tried to call.
Please, help!
Another image filled my mind, but it wobbled weakly and fell apart before I could understand it. I just hoped it meant help was on the way. I was already too hot, sweat pouring off of me. My skin hurt from the heat of the fire below. Gusts of smoke filled the basket, leaving both me and Nasataa coughing and choking on it. We might breathe water, but we sure didn’t breathe smoke!
We hadn’t even reached the real fire yet and I already felt like this was too much to bear.
Another wobbly, incomprehensible communication filled my mind.
Please! Please hurry! I begged the mind. We didn’t have much time. My lungs felt scorched.
And then, suddenly, the basket was wobbling and shaking like a fish on the end of a line. The crowd around us were all looking to a spot above my head. If they weren’t so swathed in cloth, I might have seen looks of surprise on their faces to match the surprise on mine as our basket was snatched from the air and the chain holding it wrenched apart with the sound of tearing metal.
I squirmed in the cage trying to get a good look at what had a hold of us, but everything was happening too quickly. We were falling toward the water, narrowly missing a boat loaded with cloth-wrapped bales, and then dragged under the surf. I coughed on the water, grateful when it washed my lungs clean of smoke. Black trails filled the water when I exhaled.
I clung to Nasataa as we sped through the water so quickly that all I saw were bubbles around us. Water tugged at me, swirling my hair so that I couldn’t see anything. It seemed to go on forever until finally, we stopped, the cage settling on a sandy seafloor.
But we were still trapped inside. We’d die of starvation if we couldn’t get out.
There was a squealing of metal and the side of my basket opened, wrenched apart by two massive ... tentacles?
They retreated and I hurried out of the basket, stepping out on the sandy ocean floor on wobbly legs. My breathing was returning to normal in the wake of our salvation.
I tried to send images of joy and gratitude as I looked up, up, up into the single eye of our savior. I gasped, shock filling me.
I tried not to stumble backward at the sight of him. We’d been saved, it would seem, by a squid the size of my village. He rose proud and magnificent before me, his beak opening and closing and his long, tangled arms swirling in the ocean current.
“Th – thank you,” I tried to say underwater. I send gratitude as hard as I could toward him and he sent back another one of his garbled communications.
All at once, his eyes snapped shut and he drew his arms in, and then he shot away, the burst of water from his flight so powerful that it knocked me backward, sending me tumbling through the water like a leaf in the wind. When I finally caught myself and found my feet again, the squid was gone.
I clutched Nasataa close to my chest. I had no idea where we were. No idea how to get back to the portal and I was terrified to look up on the surface to get my bearings. Last time, that had been a terrible decision.
I took a deep breath.
I should be thankful that the squid had saved us. I was thankful.
Why had he come when I called? Was he just that kind and helpful? I had hoped for and expected a Blue Dragon, but I’d never even thought to hope that other sea creatures could hear me, too.
But that didn’t stop apprehension from filling me.
I had no idea what to do next.
Chapter Eight
I found my way to the coastline where the water was shallower. I was so tired that I almost stumbled into a round metal object as large as my parents’ cabin before I noticed it. As soon as I did, I shrank back into the shadows.
I was just in time.
A woman – maybe? – with goggles and a facemask just like my captor had, swam out of the metal structure and out to sea. She didn’t look behind her or she would have seen me. I huddled in the shadows, shaking at the thought of being captured again.
The Bubbler had not lied. These people did breathe under water.
So why had the mercenaries needed me if they had them? I hid for long minutes, waiting to see if anyone else came out or if the woman returned. When no one did, I slipped back out to sea and found a deep and rocky trench. I stayed in the trench, following it for hours until my legs began to give out from under me. I was cold and shivering – not from the cold of the sea but from the shock of the past day. Fear kept me beneath the waves and away from the shore.
Nasataa was restless in his bag on my back, signaling often that he was hungry and thirsty with images in my mind. I couldn’t let him starve. And I was thirsty, too. Eventually, I’d have to go up to the shore and find us fresh water and something to eat. But what if I was captured again? It was clear that any discovery by these Rock Eaters would
mean our deaths.
I was still worrying about it, my belly knotting up inside me, when Nasataa slipped out from the bag on my back and shot out in front of me.
I sent him an image of him returning to me. Come back!
He didn’t listen, swimming inland and snatching up colorful fish as he went, gulping them down in a single bite. He was hungry. No wonder he wasn’t listening. Strange that a creature so suited to life underwater would be thirsty, though. What did the big Blue Dragons do about that? Maybe there were fountains of fresh water under the sea if you knew where to look.
I chased after him with tired limbs, kicking through the water. I would go faster if I lost these silly boots, but I didn’t want to be without shoes, so I kept them on my feet.
Come back, Nasataa!
The water was growing shallower. This was not good! What if he broke the surface and they caught him? And then part of him disappeared as he leapt into the air.
Skies and Stars! He was going to get us killed!
I chased after him and when my own head broke the surface, I spun around, scanning in every direction, ready to duck under again at the first sign of trouble.
There was no one there. I gasped in relief. No people, no structures on the horizon. Nothing but rocky beach and cold clouds, grey sea, and waving trees. I drew in long, relieved breaths. But where was Nasataa?
I found him in a small cave, lapping fresh water from a natural bowl in the rock. I took a handful of it myself before slumping on the smooth rock of the cave floor.
I was so tired. I’d just rest for a moment. I wouldn’t fall asleep. That would be far too dangerous. Just one moment of rest.
A warm body cuddled up against me. And I let Nasataa’s gentle snores wash over me. He was a good dragon. I tried to send him an image of what a good dragon he was as I listened to his soft breathing, in and out, in and out.
My eyes fluttered shut and I fell asleep in a cave I’d never seen before, on a beach I didn’t know, in a hostile land.
Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.
I ignored that thought and let myself drift off to sleep.
Chapter Nine
“What have we here?”
I woke with a start. My mind spun, trying to remember where I was or why a dark silhouette stood over me, framed by sunlight.
A cave. I was in a cave. I’d fallen asleep. Nasataa woke beside me, flaming the wall of the cave as he yawned.
“And a baby dragon, too. And you thought you’d just sleep in a cave along the Rock Coast?” the woman standing over me clucked her tongue.
I sat up, scrambling to my feet.
“Who are you?” I asked, my voice thick with sleep.
She snorted as she drew back and began to arrange driftwood into a tent for a fire. She pulled a flint from her pocket, sparking a handful of grass and after a moment, a merry driftwood fire lit. Blue and green flames licked along the driftwood as the salt of the sea tainted the orange flame.
“Pretty isn’t it?” the woman said. “But still dangerous. Like you and like the baby dragon.”
I flinched back at her words. Was she an enemy, too? The dancing flames illuminated her face. She was a woman in her forties or early fifties. Still beautiful but worn by wind and sun so that her face was wrinkled and thin and her black hair had thick bands of silver running through it. She was narrow and lithe, but she moved carefully like she had an old injury to nurse, and I saw that she was fitted in leather and metal armor. She carried a long staff with a curved blade at the end of it with the air of someone who knew exactly how to use it.
“Are you here to capture us?” I asked, putting my back against the cave wall. There wouldn’t be much that I could do if I had to fight. She was the one with the staff.
Nasataa leapt into my arms, his little flame lighting up the cave.
“I’m here to make you some tea and something hot to eat,” my visitor said with a smirk. “Why don’t we start there?”
There was probably a catch to that, right? But I couldn’t think of what it might be. I still wasn’t ready to relax, but when she filled a kettle and placed it on the fire and then started to cook soup, I stepped a bit closer, letting the fire warm me.
“Do you know of the Troglodytes?” the strange woman asked.
“No,” I said, enjoying the warmth of the fire.
“They are the Elders of the Dragons. They hold the wisdom of dragonkind and they shepherd the dragon peoples through the difficulties of their generations. They have been with us since the dawn of magic.”
Why was she telling me this? I cocked my head to the side as she poured tea, handing me the first cup. It was fragrant and warm and my whole body relaxed as I sipped it.
“Long ago, one of the Troglodytes had a vision of a time to come when magic would leave the land.”
I felt a tingling feeling as she spoke those words. Did she know that time was now? She poured herself tea and continued.
“They saw a champion arise. That champion would require guidance and protection. Care and training. That champion would need a fierce protector to guard them so that they could bring magic back to this world. In the return of magic, there is hope for many people and nations. Right now, the magic has left us and the people war over the scraps left in the world. If it could be restored, we could bring peace and prosperity back to the nations.”
“We?” I asked. What did she think I had to do with this? Unless ... she didn’t think I was this champion, did she?
“I am here to find the champion,” the woman said sincerely before taking a sip of her tea.
“Are you saying that you are the fierce protector?” I asked warily. She certainly looked fierce.
She laughed. “No. I’m here to train the protector and make her fierce. You’re not the champion, Seleska. You’re the protector. Nasataa is that champion.”
My face went pale. “How do you know our names?”
The tea, soothing a moment ago, was making me feel ill with this news.
“I am Vyvera Kyrynos and I serve the Troglodytes. I was sent by them to find you and your little charge. It is not for us to choose the champion or the protector, but we can at least help you. I am here to help teach you what you need to know to help him save the world.”
My mouth fell open at her words.
Save the world?
Was she crazy?
“Will you accept my help?” she asked.
“Ummm, yes.” I agreed. After all, I was stuck in a foreign land, lost on the shores, with no supplies and no hope and here was a strong warrior with hot food offering to help me. I’d have to be crazy to say no.
She smiled widely. “Good. It is agreed.”
She held out a hand and I took it awkwardly. Her hand clasp was firm and strong.
“Now what?” I asked as she released my hand and began to pour soup. There were four bowls.
“Now, I will take you to the Troglodytes. They will have more that they wish to say to you. And I’ll be teaching you what to do with this.” She handed me the bladed staff. “It’s a Dragon Staff – an ancient crafting of the Troglodytes and it is yours now.”
“Oh,” I said as I took it. “I really can’t accept something so valuable.”
“It’s meant for you.” Her words were curt.
“Umm, thank you? But what will you fight with?”
“I have my own,” she said.
I looked surreptitiously around the cave, but she had nothing else with her. No bags. No staff.
Vyvera pushed one of the bowls of soup toward Nasataa and he leapt from my arms to the ground and began to eat. She handed another one to me and took up the third before turning to call out the cave mouth.
“Heron! Soup is ready!”
I nearly dropped my soup when my best friend strode into the cave, his usual grin spread wide across his face.
Heron? Here?
I set the soup down carefully and ran to throw myself at him, hugging him so tightly that I thought my arm
s might not be able to let go.
“Ngh,” he grunted before patting my back gently. “Are you okay, Seleska? Vyvera said she needed a moment alone with you. But I didn’t know you were upset. Seleska?”
Ooops. I hadn’t meant to cry, but the safety I felt at his presence just drew the tears right out of me. I wiped my eyes hastily.
“I’m just so glad to see you,” I said.
He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
“I’m kind of hungry. If it’s okay with you, can we eat that soup?”
The soup was the best thing I’d ever tasted. I couldn’t have told you what was in it or what it tasted like, but it was the best.
Chapter Ten
“We can’t linger,” Vyvera said as soon as we had finished eating our soup. “The Rock Eaters hunt you. It seems you had quite the brush with them. I’ll get Damokas.”
She stood up, striding out of the cave while I was still processing her words. There were more people out there?
“How many of you came to find me?” I asked Heron.
His gaze hadn’t left me since we started to eat. It was almost as if he couldn’t believe I was there.
“Just Vyvera and her dragon Damokas.” His smile seemed to say more than I could understand.
“She rides a dragon?”
“A big one. You should have seen the Elders when it set down on the beach! Your parents had just reported that you hadn’t come home. We were about to start searching for you.”
“Oh,” I said stupidly, feeling my cheeks get hot. “I didn’t mean to make people worry. I thought it would be simpler for everyone if I just left.”
“And has it been simpler?” his smile didn’t change, but it seemed like he was laughing at me from behind his eyes.
“No, just more dangerous.” I paused. I wasn’t ready to tell that story yet. “What happened then? How did you get here so quickly?”
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