by S. E. Smith
Dried blood ran from his nose and the corner of his mouth. Cheri frantically stripped his clothing off while his symbiot jumped up on the bed to lie over him. The moment the symbiot touched him, Jaire jerked and screamed in pain.
“What is it?” Rolf demanded, hurrying into the room. “Four other boys from the village have the same thing. Every time their symbiot tries to help them, they scream in pain and their symbiot retreats as if it is in pain as well.”
Sara lifted her fist to her mouth to keep from crying out when Jaire’s body began to jerk uncontrollably. Jaguin and Rolf hurried to each side to hold him down while Cheri cleared his airway.
“What are we going to do?” Cheri asked tearfully. “If his symbiot cannot heal him, there must be nothing that can.”
“The village council has sent an urgent message to the palace asking them to send a healer,” Rolf said in a grim voice.
“He won’t make it,” Cheri said, seeing the faint tint of blue beginning to form around Jaire’s mouth and the fresh blood dripping from his nose. “He is dying.”
Sara’s eyes burned. She bowed her head and remembered her aunt saying the same thing years ago to the doctor. Vivid memories of Delilah resurfaced. She was so young, just like Jaire, when she was lying still against the white sheets of her bed. Sara frowned when she saw something spilling out from under the shirt that Cheri had removed.
Stepping forward, she carefully picked up the shirt. A delicate yellow flower lay wilted on the floor. Sara stared at it with a frown. Something bothered her about the flower. She saw or read something about it somewhere, but where?
Reaching up, she pulled one of the long hair pins out of her hair. She used the tip to turn the flower. As it turned, she saw the stem and the filaments. It was red, yellow and black.
“Just like the snake,” Sara murmured as her memories came back. “Morian said to never touch this flower, that it contained a poison that was deadly to not only the person who touched it, but to the symbiot.”
“What?” Jaguin said, turning toward her.
Sara looked up, her face growing tight with concern. “The flower, it’s poisonous. Morian Reykill, she had some in a special case in her atrium. She said the blossoms were so beautiful it was hard to resist, but that was one of the draws. When anything touched it, it would inject poison into its victims. The poison was slow moving, but so toxic that it could even kill a symbiot if it received enough of it. I remember it because it reminded me of the Coral Snakes back home. There was a saying ‘Red on yellow, kill a fellow’. This has the red stem with the yellow petals. The filaments are black and don’t touch the petal,” she explained in a fast, desperate tone.
“Is there an antidote?” Cheri asked in a pleading voice.
“Morian said she didn’t know of any,” Sara whispered, staring down at the flower.
“No!” Cheri’s tortured cry filled the room.
“There has to be one,” Jaguin growled, bending to pick up the flower.
“Don’t,” Sara warned, grabbing his wrist before he could. She looked at him, then at Rolf. “You have to warn the others in the village and ask if any of the other boys had a flower with them. Don’t touch it. Use something to pick it up with, but keep it away from your skin.”
“Surely there is some way to save our son,” Rolf asked.
Sara bit her lip and looked back at Jaguin when he pulled his arm free. “Back home,” she began, rising to her feet. “Back home, almost always where one poisonous plant lived, another plant that carried a cure for it grew nearby. It was always true in the woods where I lived and I found it to be true in my other studies.”
“Do you know where Jaire was today?” Jaguin demanded.
His father nodded. “One of the boys was able to tell us before he collapsed. They were in the hidden falls cavern,” Rolf responded.
“That would be about right. Morian had to keep these in a special box that remained dark except for a blue and red light,” Sara said with a nod.
“Sara, do you think… Do you think that there might be a cure there?” Cheri asked in a husky voice.
Sara looked grimly back at Jaguin who nodded. “There’s only one way to find out,” she said, turning on her heel. “Jaguin, you know where the cave is, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he answered. “It will take us about twenty minutes by air to get there if we hurry.”
“Let’s go,” Sara whispered, turning once more to look at Jaire. “I hope we can find it in time.”
*.*.*
Sara had once asked Jaguin how fast Honey could go. She decided that she was glad that there was no speedometer attached to the symbiot by the time they landed ten minutes later. They had to have covered over two hundred miles.
“This way,” Jaguin said, leading her up a steep trail. “There is the entrance.”
Sara nodded and hurried forward. She paused at the entrance when Jaguin put his hand out and knelt. She waited as he searched the ground.
“Five prints, this one is Jaire’s boot,” he said.
“How do you know?” Sara asked, leaning down to look at the faint mark.
Jaguin stood up and gave her a grim smile. “Father cut a mark out of each of the left boots that Jaire owns. It makes it easier to track him,” he told her.
“Smart man,” Sara whispered.
Jaguin flashed her a smile. “ Yes, he did the same with me when I was younger,” he agreed, stepping into the cave.
Sara silently followed him. Her eyes scanned the dark interior. Light from the ceiling illuminated the interior of the cave. High overhead, Sara could see the glowing crystals that cast the eerie glow. Turning to look at Jaguin, she nodded toward the water.
“It is designed to collect water,” she whispered. “Look near the water or any place that looks like water may drip down.”
“I’ll take the left side,” Jaguin said.
It took them almost fifteen minutes to find the plants. They were hidden under a slight overhang that normally wouldn’t be visible. Once they located them, Sara searched the area near the outcrop. She cried out when she found what she hoped they were looking for.
“Look at the colors,” Sara said, pointing to the blossom.
“It is the same one,” Jaguin stated with a frown.
“No, look. The blossom is red with a black stem. ‘Red on black is a friend of Jack’,” Sara murmured.
“Who is Jack?” Jaguin asked in frustration.
Sara shook her head. “Never mind, I know this is it,” she said. “It has to be.”
“How can we know for sure?” Jaguin asked.
Sara studied the flower for several long seconds. What if she was wrong? What if there was another plant that they had missed? Worse, what if the rule of nature back home didn’t apply here? Once again, images of Delilah rose up in her mind and the doctor’s insistence not to listen to her aunt.
“We need to test it,” Sara said, turning toward where the flowers the boys had picked rested.
Sara stopped when Jaguin’s hand shot out and wrapped around her wrist. She stared up at him in surprise, then resignation. It was the only way to know.
“What do you think you are doing?” He asked in a deadly tone.
“I’m going to test it,” Sara said, tugging on her wrist to free it. “It’s the only way, Jaguin. You know that as well as I do.”
Jaguin’s head turned toward the overhang. “You can’t,” he said, turning away and walking over to the ledge.
“What are you doing?” Sara demanded, her heart racing. “Jaguin, don’t!”
“What about our child, Sara? The poison would kill it, if not you,” Jaguin said, staring back at her.
“If you die, I’m lost anyway,” Sara whispered.
Jaguin bowed his head and was silent before he shook his head. “It is possible you could survive. You have a strong will to live. If you have our child, I know you will fight to survive for it,” he said, turning back again.
“Jaguin, no!” Sara
cried out, but it was too late.
As if in slow motion, she watched him reach over and pick one of the few remaining blooms. His fingers caressed the bloom, before he turned. There was a puzzled expression on his face.
“I feel fine,” he said, staring back at her in confusion.
“Maybe it takes a little while,” Sara said, taking a step forward. “You are older and bigger than the boys. That might be it.”
They both looked down at the brilliant yellow flower with the red stem. Jaguin was about to touch it again when a drop of liquid fell onto the petal and slid down. Jaguin looked at Sara in confusion when he saw the look of horror on her face. He reached up and touched the skin just under his nose. Pulling his fingers back, he noticed they were red with his blood.
“Sara,” Jaguin started to say before the blossom fell from his fingers.
“Jaguin!” Sara cried out, reaching for him. She helped lower him to the floor of the cave.
“I guess it doesn’t matter how big or old I am,” Jaguin muttered, wincing as pain began to slice through him.
“This had better work,” Sara said, carefully laying his head down on the smooth rock and scrambled to her feet.
She hurried over to where the other blooms were. Twisting one, she snapped and turned to run back to where Jaguin lay moaning. She wasn’t sure how to use the flower. Did it need to be processed to work?
“I don’t know,” she whispered in frustration. “I don’t know how to make the antidote work.”
Sara tried rubbing Jaguin’s fingers in the center of the flower, but nothing happened. She sat down on the smooth rock and gently placed Jaguin’s head onto her lap. She tenderly brushed his hair back from his face. She turned to study the bloom she was holding. How could it work? If just touching the other was enough to inject the poison, then surely…
“Drinking it,” she murmured, noticing the red liquid in the bottom.
Sara didn’t know what else to do. It was obvious that Jaguin was deteriorating. Sara tilted the petal until the liquid dropped into Jaguin’s parted lips. She kept his head angled just far enough that he could swallow without choking. She waited and then poured a little more into his throat until she saw him swallowing, watching as he swallowed the precious liquid.
It seemed like eternity before his eyelashes finally opened and he looked at her. A slow smile curved his lips. A trembling one curved Sara’s in response.
“It worked,” he said.
“You better be glad it did,” Sara whispered before she burst into tears. “I am so going to beat you up for this when we get back.”
“As long as it involves a little tail, I just might let you,” Jaguin groaned as he sat up. “We need to get the antidote back to the village.”
Sara nodded. She didn’t want to destroy the plants, fearful if she did, that they may never find them again. Instead, she had Honey form a small container and poured the liquid from each plant into it. Once they had almost a full one, they had Honey seal it.
“Let’s go,” Sara whispered, hurrying over the uneven ground back outside.
Chapter 22
Sara wiped the tears running down her face away. She stood in Jaguin’s arms, her body shaking with emotion. Next to the bed, Rolf and Cheri held each other tightly, both crying.
“Jaguin,” Jaire whispered above his mom’s quiet sobs. “Jaguin.”
“What, Jaire?” Jaguin growled, his own throat tight with emotion.
“Uh, did someone die or something?” Jaire asked, glancing nervously back and forth before he frowned down at himself. “Why am I naked?”
Jaguin and Sara’s laughter warmed the room. Soon, Rolf joined in, though Cheri was too busy swatting Jaire with the towel she brought in to cool his face. After several starts and stops, Jaire explained that he and the other boys from the village went to the cave to do some exploring. One of the other boys found the pretty flowers and they all decided it would be a neat way to get the attention of the girls in the village. The boy had removed his shirt and just used it to pick the flowers, afraid they would damage them. They didn’t actually touch the flowers until they returned to the village and started to divide them up.
“I guess poisoning all the girls wouldn’t make them too impressed, huh?” Jaire asked with a crooked grin.
“No, it wouldn’t have been a good idea,” Jaguin agreed. “They like Dragon Races better than flowers anyway.”
“How would you know?” Sara asked with a raised eyebrow.
Jaguin’s face flushed and he gave Sara a crooked grin that reminded her so much of Jaire that she had to resist rolling her eyes at the two of them. With a shake of her head, she decided that maybe she didn’t want to know. After all, it wasn’t as though he was likely to do it now.
“How about I show you?” Jaguin suggested with a mischievous grin.
Sara’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Do the dragon races involve racing other guy dragons or….”
“Not when we get older,” Jaguin grinned, stepping toward her. “I’ll give you to the count of ten.”
Sara turned on her heel and took off for the back garden, squealing with excitement when she heard Jaguin roar.
“Ten!”
“That was not counting to ten,” Sara yelled, shifting into her dragon.
I never said I was going to play by the rules, he said, surging forward on powerful wings. I do know about this wonderful place down by the river, though.
I love you, Jaguin, Sara whispered.
I know, Jaguin responded. I love you more.
How did you know? Sara demanded, slowing so that he could easily catch up with her.
Jaguin swooped down from above and wrapped his arms and legs around her. You talk a lot in your sleep.
Sara’s laughter filled the air as her mate carried her to the small island of grass near the river. Her wings rose to surround him. Both of them shifted at the last second, their arms and legs tangled as they clung to each other. Sara knew that her demons were gone once and for all, chased off by the dragon that changed her life. He did more than save her life; he gave her the home and the family she thought would only be a dream.
*.*.*
Aikaterina stared into the pool of liquid that she created. Her eyes softened on the two forms tangled around each other. She had returned from her travels just a short time ago. The small gold she gifted to the two figures glowed brightly, as did the spark of life she could see cradled safely in the young human’s womb.
“It is so nice to see the dragons find their mates,” Arosa sighed, floating down to sit next to Aikaterina.
“Yes, it is,” Aikaterina murmured, thinking of another set of dragons.
“Where did you go, Aikaterina? Did you find a new mate for one of the warriors?” Arilla asked curiously.
Aikaterina waved her hand over the pool. The image of the two lovers faded and she rose to walk along the river of gold. While the river looked wide, it was small in comparison to the vast universe. She stood looking down at the immature symbiots that were just beginning their life.
“I hope so,” Aikaterina replied in a soft voice.
“What is wrong? You seem… sad,” Arosa commented, staring in concern.
“Sad?” Aikaterina asked, tilting her head to the side and staring at Arosa.
“Yes. It is an emotion that I have felt from the human women,” Arosa commented. “They are not sad now, but when they first came….” She stopped and looked at her sister for guidance.
“Is there anything we can do to help you?” Arilla asked hesitantly.
Aikaterina studied the two sisters. Her gaze traveled around the cavern they created. The others that lived there were traveling through the vast star systems. Arosa and Arilla seldom left, preferring to remain close to the human women. Aikaterina’s raised her hand to her chest. She wondered what it would feel like to have a heartbeat, to feel… love.
“I have broken a law,” she whispered, returning her gaze to the river of gold.
“You… You broke a law?” Arilla exclaimed in shock.
“Yes,” Aikaterina replied.
“But, what law?” Arosa asked, stepping closer to Aikaterina.
Aikaterina turned and gave the sisters a slight smile. “The law to not interfere,” she said. “There were two brothers, twins. They were the original Twin Dragons. I did not realize when I gifted their mother two sons that it would be so difficult for them to find a mate.”
“What did you do?” Arilla asked, reaching out to touch Aikaterina.
Aikaterina released a deep sigh and waved her hand. In front of them, a shimmering window appeared. Through it, two warriors stood gazing around in silence. She stared at them before waving her hand again. The window slowly faded.
“I gave them a second chance,” she admitted, turning to step back to the shimmering pool of liquid. “I have given them thirty Earth days to find their mate.”
“What happens if they don’t?” Arosa asked quietly following Aikaterina back to the pool.
Aikaterina’s smile faded. “Then, time will reset itself and they will die,” she replied in a quiet voice. “It was all that I could give them.”
“Why?” Arilla asked.
Aikaterina wearily sank down beside the pool. Her hand trembled as she waved it over the pool once again. Her eyes softened at the sight of the warrior holding the fragile, yet incredibly strong, female in his arms.
“It takes a great amount of energy to change the course of history,” Aikaterina murmured, not looking up at Arilla.
“Arosa did it once,” Arilla murmured, glancing at her sister.
“Yes, and it changed the course of the future,” Aikaterina stated. “By changing the future for one, you will change the future for the other.”
Arilla and Arosa looked at each other with a confused look. Aikaterina didn’t miss the message passed between the two sisters. She chuckled.
“You are both still very, very young. In time, you will understand what I mean. For now, just accept that for every action there is a reaction,” Aikaterina said. “Leave me now, please. I must rest.”
