Elemental Awakening

Chapter Six

Diary entry: day twelve

Dear journal,

Well now that everybody knows that I know how to “will” water as Ashfoot says, I am being worked as hard as they can work me. For some reason it feels like we are preparing for battle. They train every day and never take breaks. I don’t know how they can do it. Even the little kids like 4 and 5 years old do exercises and train, or go to school. The cactus paw are weird.

Tariel stepped to the front of the podium followed by someone that was clearly a dragon rider, or at least dressed as one. “All of our children were bonded. Five clutches were hatched and only five eggs out of any of the clutches bonded non Cactus Paw children. We do not know what this omen means, but the Dragon clan is changing their stand on the bondings. The leadership is willing to shuttle parents and letters to and from the village. Because so many of the dragons bonded our children, they are only going to be able to release two dragon pairs to come back home.” The crowd erupted in chatter Tariel had to control the noise and the excitement. “We know that this is a difficult idea to have to deal with, and we know that everyone wants one of the riders to be their child. Because of this I am leaving the decision of which of the returning children to the Dragons. Remember, my own children are there, and I am recommending that my children be taken out of the consideration.” The rider stepped forward

“The clan is grateful that the Cactus Paw have come to our aid, we are going to do everything that we can to keep our alliance strong. The last thing that any parent wants is to be cut off from their children. After your festival we will post one dragon team; two dragons and their keepers, until your riders can fly. My dragon Leaf and our mates will be the first team. We will be here to shuttle families and news to and from Perch until your four dragons and riders take first flight. If you have any questions we will be here for the next hour.” Leafs rider walked to the back of the room to field questions as Tariel retook the podium.

“All family members are welcome to speak with Set. Please take your time.” Tariel stepped down once more to convene with Ashfoot and Magrotin.

Magrotin, Ashfoot, Avensong, Cafune, and Tariel met in the council house adjacent to the clan meeting hall to discuss what the next step would be in thwarting the nocturnal attacks. Cafune the matron of the nomadic half of the Cactus Paw didn’t get to sit in too many meetings. Only during the winter months did she get to attend. Her sand colored linen slacks gave her comfort during the months in the summer, but didn’t provide much insulation during the winter months in the caves under the volcano. Her hair was shaggy and sand colored as well, but cropped in a fashion that made heat and sweat easy to escape. Her short nose and amber eyes all made it easy for her to blend in to the dessert wastes. She has spent forty years in the dessert and still managed to be charitable and understanding.

“The dragon’s mention two of the villages and towns that we stop and trade with during the summer.” Cafune chewed her lip. “If we don’t have places to stop under during the migration, we will not survive.”

“I have been seeking the wisdom of my sight, but something; or rather someone is blocking my way.” Ashfoot confessed. “I have nothing that I can add or help with. At this point it is all up to our tactician and leadership.” Ashfoot glanced down to her lap, not sure how to address what was to follow.

“Ashfoot, this has never happened before. What, what is this thing?” Aven was perplexed her tactical knowledge and experience were greatly garnered from the histories. “If I have no basis what this beast is then I have no way to counter it. I know that he or it has promised retribution if we don’t turn over our elementals, but I have no idea what this thing may have planned for us. Do we have any information from dragon scouts?”

As if on cue Set came through the door. “All we have is that every man woman and child is missing. There was only one village attack where we had an active dragon. The perch leaders only heard screaming. When our scouts made it to the village nothing was left.”

Much sobered Magrotin asked. “No bone? No blood? No sign or warning left? How can an attack be so swift and absolute?”

“Nothing. Not even to harness.” Set sighed as he took a seat with the circle.

“Mother, do you have any notion of how to get past your block?” Magrotin asked.

“It’s a child.”

“A child? A child has a hold of the threads of the fates?” Cafune incredulously supplied “How can a child have so much say?”

Ashfoot began to laugh in helplessness. “There isn’t even any guarantee that this child will even be born.”

“What?” Avensong was dumbfounded. “How, I mean that doesn’t make any sense.”

“The child is to come from the union of David and Dankiyet. If they even decide to.” Ashfoot finally revealed.

Avensong hummed, as Magrotin added “Well I like him. He will do well by my daughter.”

“My husband always finding the positive.” Avensong laughed.

“Well I think that someone needs to inform the boy then.” Tariel put in.

“I will tomorrow. When the elementals begin their final test.” Ashfoot relented.

“I think that this concludes this meeting.” Tariel ended the discussion with everyone thinking about the future. “Come Set, we have some apartments for you and your dragon against the cold.”

“Thank you sir.” Set followed Tariel out of the council hall “The dragon leaders are being informed now. We will try to see around this child as well.” Set replied as Leaf informed the Queens Telepathically.

Avensong and Magrotin walked out of the council hall arm and arm smiling to themselves with the news as Ashfoot followed in a dark cloud. They were beside themselves with the surety that their family would grow, but Ashfoot could only think that this was going to be a savior or a corruptor. Ashfoot decided that her visions needed to be redirected to the here and now rather than what is to be. Maybe she would be able to see what this beast in the desert was.

…

Ashfoot gathered what she needed for a vision and settled onto the mat on her floor in her home. Ashfoot let go of everything that was tying her to her physical body. Her soul lifted away leaving her body in a state that looked like she was peacefully sleeping to any passerby. As she began her astral walk she felt a tugging. A strong pull like water draining out of a basin. The only thing that Ashfoot knew was she was being drawn to something, but not the nature of it. As she drew closer to the source of the pull she could feel a malignance growing. She felt as though her skin was being twisted away from her bone. She felt as though vines and thorns were winding their way through her body wracking her in pain. The vines clasped and drug her closer to the contagion. It now felt as though all the life forces of the Abysmal plane were being sucked into the black depths that she was now being pulled to. In the very center of the blackness that was creeping around her Ashfoot saw a disgustingly disfigured maw that at one point must have been an attractive smile. The lips drew back from chipped and pointed teeth, insects chirped and scratched in the darkness, and the beast spoke. His voice sounded like bones breaking and made her skin feel as though it was being ripped away from her body.

{Ashfoot. The mighty shaman of the Cactus Paw. Welcome to my world. Please stay a while I would like to discuss a few things with you.} The beast’s fetid breath washed over Ashfoot and made her gag. How was that even possible? She had no corporeal form to sense smell, yet she was moved to retching. {You will give me what I want or I will only make your death last longer than absolutely necessary. I want the elementals. I want the soon to be shaman, and I want to know what you see with your far reaching sight.} Ashfoot coughed unable to respond because of the utter disgust that she was feeling. {You don’t have long. I am coming. Now be a good little elder and help me out.}

Ashfoot forced herself to respond “Who are you?” coughing around every syllable.

{You will see who we are, and who I was.} Ashfoot was sent through the convoluted maze that was this creatures memories, or maybe it was its mind. She saw a young boy, scrawny, and bruised searching through scraps behind a vendor’s building. She heard the screeching and crashing of a freshly hatched draglet. She then could only see the newborn’s face as it seared an unwanted bond into her own mind.

 [You are mine, and I am yours. You know me as Erzuli!] The little draglet was beside himself with delight, he had made his bond, but it was a horrible choice, and it wasn’t complete.

As the boy Ashfoot twisted in the incomplete bond. “But how did you find me?” The phantom memory asked.

[You don’t ask of me, for I was old before my birth, you will be grateful for the knowledge you will glean from me, and grateful for I will learn of you.] Erzuli didn’t understand how this waif could be so presumptuous. When did the riders stop teaching these pups to bend to?

“But you aren’t in the hatching ground! I’m not in the Hatching ground. We shouldn’t be here!” the child began to push against the draglet mentally and physically. The draglet only dug his claws in harder, and pushed harder on his mental link.

[No my pet, I wasn’t hatched in the grounds. I was forgotten with the fever.] The draglet forced the image of his hatching onto his victim. His mother and her rider were wasting away with fever, his nest mates had died in shell in the cavernous apartments that they lived in. This wasn’t a hatching ground, there was no bonding ceremony, the draglet fought for survival and scrambled out of his perch home to find a bond with anything that he could, his survival depended on it. Erzuli was forgotten by the dragon clan, so he chose a child that was thrown away.

“No, no, no! This isn’t right! You can’t have me!” Screams of fear welled up out of the boy’s throat as he struggle harder against the bond. People began to come out of houses and shops in response. The once vacant street was now thronging with people trying to get a glimpse of what had happened. The panic stricken child looked to the crowd in hopes of salvation. “Please, help!”

The boy’s hopes were dashed against the cobble stones as one by one they turned away, and a dragon with his rider strode up. “Let him in Lochsear, Erzuli has chosen you. You don’t have a choice, you should be honored that you were chosen.”

“No, no, I don’t want this! Please help me, he’s hurting me!” Lochsear’s panic was rising, and he was crying.

The rider gave the child one pitying look before his eyes glazed over with the command of his own dragon and he struck Lochsear in the face knocking him unconscious allowing the draglet to take full control of the damaged and abused boy.

As the boy blacked out Ashfoot was once more in the presence of the foul creature in the dessert. “You! You were that child!” she choked around the stinking tepid presence that filled her mind.

{Lochsear} Ashfoot felt a forceful snap as though she had been thrown against a wall. This was the beast’s dismissal.

Ashfoot woke in her physical form drenched in what she hoped was just sweat. ‘I need to prepare, now I have a name.’ Ashfoot thought. ‘The dragon clan has something to explain.’

Set, and his mount Leaf, they would have to validate this. Ashfoot hoped that the beast was playing on her trepidation of having so many youths in the dragon clan instruction.

…

Ashfoot burst into Set and Leaf’s apartment finding the very large dragon wrapped around the central hearth, with a roaring fire. The flames leapt against his scales making them glow with warmth, his head was in the threshold that opened directly to the volcanic bowl and farm grounds fifty feet below. She took in her surroundings and noticed that the dragon did indeed take note of her presence with a flicker of his huge glacial blue eye. “You will tell me who Lochsear is! I will know this NOW” The dragon huffed and shoved his nose out the frame into the wind. Set regarded her with sad eyes and a downcast face.

“That was a crime, and something that the dragon clan regrets.” Set replied.

“Tell me everything.” Ashfoot demanded, as she moved to the apartments couches and made herself comfortable, leaving the dragon pair no choice but to explain. Set sat down across from Ashfoot and began recounting with Leaf.  

“Erzuli was hatched in his family’s home, the mother didn’t notify the dragon Queens that she was whelping. The entire clutch died, except for Erzuli. The Mother was dying when she was found after Erzuli bonded Lochsear, her rider succumbed to the fever. When a dragon bonds it cannot survive without its rider, the need for the bond drives the infants to frenzy until they find a rider. When a dragon is ready to whelp her clutch she does so in the hatching grounds, and the Queens make sure that enough strong youths are present for all the young to bond. The physical and mental health of the rider greatly influence the draglet. We only want strong riders in hopes that they will produce the strongest, and smartest dragons.

“Lochsear had many problems to begin with that made him a very poor candidate. He was a refuge child from one of the outlying villages that had been attacked by bandits in the past. The boy’s parents caught the fever as soon as they arrived in the Dragon Maw and died within days. We had no knowledge of his upbringing, and it’s something that he was able to keep from his dragon. We suspect that it was not pleasant.”

Ashfoot scoffed. “To put it mildly. I’m sorry, please continue.” She regained her composure.

Set leaned back in his seat and continued with the account. “We noticed after a number of months that Erzuli was becoming more withdrawn from the rest of the draglets. In juveniles there is a lot of play with their learning, we leave the draglets their space so that they can exercise and establish their hierarchy. By the time the draglets launch with their first flight the class has its leadership, and everyone else falls in line behind. Erzuli broke this rule, because he didn’t fit in with the other draglets he was left behind. The only position that we could even afford the draglet was herder, if he could launch. He didn’t. He spent four years on the ground, using four legs and his wings to crawl around the Dragon Maw.

“As a dragon, he didn’t take care of himself, his growth slowed, and he kept his rider hidden in their home. His teachers and other members of the school made frequent checks on Lochsear to make sure that his dragon was keeping his health up. We knew that Erzuli would instruct him to give responses that would leave the visitors happy and leave. The dragons were worried, and after another year of not seeing Lochsear in public, they took the youth into custody, citing that the dragon wasn’t performing his duties as a caretaker. The young man was protected and cared for under the Queens for another two years.  While Lochsear was in under the care of the Queens, Erzuli thought that it was best to appease general opinion and begin flying. If he ever wanted to be eligible to find a mate he needed a healthy rider.

“Erzuli was eventually awarded his rider back, and for a while things seemed to be some level of normal. He met a young woman, and started a relationship, it’s not uncommon for these things to happen until the dragon finds his own mate. Lochsear was happy, and the girl Hazel was happy too. They were together for a year when Hazel became pregnant. She died in child birth, and the baby a little boy died a week later. Lochsear returned to seclusion. Erzuli stopped flying, and the Queens threatened to get involved again, but this time it was Lochsear’s choice. Erzuli could do nothing to appease the young man, so he tried to force him through the bond. For a time it worked, but not without issues. Lochsear bucked the bond, it was never a complete one to begin with from what I understand.

“Lochsear did little more than what he was instructed to. One day the force that Erzuli put on Lochsear through the bond became too much for the broken man. He killed Erzuli, savagely, in the center of the city. Lochsear turned to Erzuli, with a mad glean in his eye screamed at the dragon in front of shops, and onlookers alike. He said ‘you hold me no more, dark tormentor’ he then took his belt knife out and drove it into the breast of dragon and took it out again. He repeated this until a shop keeper came up behind him and drug him off Erzuli, but it was too late.

“Lochsear was imprisoned while the Queens investigated what transpired, and led up to the tragic event. No rider has ever been able to break a bond with their dragon without the dragon dying first. He was broken from the mold. His dragon only added to the corruption. Lochsear echoed back into the dragon too though. The two were never meant to be bound. After six months of convoluted stories and dead ends the queens decided that it would be best to execute him.” Set sighed, signaling that he was finished with his recounting.

Ashfoot shifted on the couch, uncomfortable with what she had just heard. “He’s not dead.” She cleared her throat. “Well not that I know of. I had a vision. I was trying to see what was happening to the villages. An evil forced pulled me in, and placed a memory of a child and a dragon bonding, and this beast in the desert told me its name was Lochsear.”

It was Leaf’s turn to shift in discomfort. The dragon moved his massive form easily, as though he was a feather on the wind. He wound his head around and placed his clear blue reptilian eyes directly in front of Ashfoot’s face. He huffed and nosed closer. She could see the deep wells of ageless intelligence in this gentle young creature. She shivered with the understanding that if he wanted to he could crush her without effort at all. She could see the weight of that endless knowledge pulling his youth out of him. She sank into his gaze and received the memory that he needed her to take from him. When she rocked back and broke eye contact with the great being Set spoke a few words. “Thank you, we no longer have that weight.”

Ashfoot stood up, nodded to the dragon pair, and excused herself. She immediately walked down to the warrior house and informed Dankiyet what she had learned. It was the middle of the night when she rapped on the door of the house apartments.

Dankiyet answered the door after a few moments. Ashfoot immediately spoke, “We have much to speak of, before you ask, no it cannot wait.” Dankiyet followed Ashfoot out of the warrior house and up the tunnels to Ashfoot’s hive house. Candles were already lit when they walked into the general living area.

They sat down on the plush rugs and large floor pillows. Ashfoot retold everything that she had found out that day and night. She then went into the memory that Leaf had given her. “When Lochsear was supposed to be executed something happened. It is unexplainable. They decided to conduct the execution during the night of the blue moon’s eclipse. When the execution started they had Lochsear chained to the executions block, the world passed in front of the blue moon blacking the night. As the blue moon emerged from the shadow of the world, a beam of light shone upon Lochsear and the block, it changed in color.

‘The executioner opened Lochsear’s throat, his guardsmen let the hammers fall on his feet and hands. He bleed, but did not die. They tried again and again to kill him. Eventually in desperation, a Queen dragon grabbed up the murderer and flew him out to the desert in desperation. She carried him out to the farthest point that she could reach in a full day and night, she flew up into the sky until she could hear him gasping in the thin cold air. She then opened her claws and let him plummet to the desert floor. She never validated that he actually died.” Ashfoot sighed. Dankiyet rocked back awestruck with the terrifying news.

She could not handle this information, she didn’t think that anyone could. A dead man, a thing that was supposed to be dead, was killing without prejudice. “I don’t understand, how can one person be able to do this amount of destruction?”