Chapter 7
2038 Words
7
“If you don’t mind a simple detour,” Sage mused as he hitched up his pants, “-we’re in need of some more appropriate attire.”
“I’d prefer it. We don’t want to catch the attention of Gargan’s men,” Caius pointed out.
Sage turned to the north and squinted into the distance. “If I recall, there was once a village along this route where a fine seamstress once lived.”
Caius shrugged. “Perhaps. I’m not from this area myself.”
“Where do you hail from, my friend?”
Caius smiled. “From further south. And yourself?”
I rolled my eyes. Even my amateur eyes could see the two were trying to pump one another for information.
Sage gestured down at himself. “We come from a very different land.”
“That’s certainly true, and I don’t think I’ve caught your name,” Caius noted.
Sage bowed his head. “My name is Sage.”
“That’s quite a title to take, even among the followers of Gad,” Caius commented.
“‘Gad’?” I repeated.
Sage coughed into his hand. “How silly of you to forget the omnipotent god, my dear Jane.”
“God’s here, too?” I piped up before I bit my tongue.
Caius studied me with an arched eyebrow and his teasing smile. “You don’t know about god and dragon shifters?”
“She’s led a rather sheltered life,” Sage explained as he handed me the wooden box along with a warning glare. “Sometimes it makes her blurt out odd things.”
I dumbly nodded. “Yeah, what he said.”
Caius looked between us for a moment before he turned his attention to the northern horizon. “Well, if we’re going have any hopes of catching Gargan then we’d better get going.”
“Could we fly on your back?” I suggested to the dragon. “That would make things quicker.”
Caius chuckled. “You really have been living in a convent.”
I glared back at him. “I’m just new to this-” a warning look from Sage made me turn my trajectory, “-this whole ‘traveling the world’ thing, okay?”
“Dragons, or most shifters, can’t use their full form for very long. The strain is too much for our bodies,” he told me.
I looked at the road and drooped. “So we walk?”
“We walk,” Sage agreed as he led the way with his pants threatening to drag.
I followed after him and Caius, annoyance that he was, sidled up beside me. His stupidly handsome looks didn’t keep back the sullen anger I felt against his crack about the convent, so I kept my eyes glued to my grandfather’s back. It was strange not to see his wispy hair and neck wrinkles. I almost missed them.
“I’m sorry about the convent joke,” he apologized.
I shrugged. “It’s all right, I guess.”
“How long ago was your friend’s wife captured?” he wondered.
I shook my head. “I don’t really know. Time is. . .well, it was a traumatic experience, so I’ve kind of lost track of time.”
He stared ahead and chuckled. “You don’t trust me.”
I whipped my head to him and glared at the dragon. “Your introduction was to kidnap me!”
“I really did think you were a sorceress,” he insisted.
“Have you met any sorceresses?” I questioned him.
“Two, but one turned out to be a hag,” he admitted. A faraway look slipped into his eyes as he smiled fondly. “She almost ate me, but we certainly had some fun-” he paused and glanced at me before continuing, “-some exciting times.”
I snorted. “I know what s*x is.”
He feigned surprise. “You do?”
A devilish smile slipped onto my own lips as I nodded. “Yes, and I’ve even participated a few times.” My grandfather broke out in a fit of choking. “With protection,” I added.
“Protection from what?” Caius asked me.
I waved away his question. “From unintended consequences, but that’s not important. What’s important is that I know a lot about the world, just not the fine details.”
“Like a dragon shifter,” he mused.
I frowned at him. “Are there really that many of you guys?”
A flash of pain flitted across his eyes before he turned his face away from me. “There’s quite a few, and yet not very many.”
By his tone I had the horrible feeling that I’d somehow hurt him. “Did I say something wrong?”
He shook his head and his smile returned. “Nothing I probably didn’t deserve.”
I stopped and held out my hand. “Truce?” He paused and turned to look from my hand to my face. I grinned. “Or don’t you shake hands in the real world?”
He grinned and took my hand in his strong grasp. I felt like my bones were going to be crushed. “They do, and I accept your truce.”
“Could you return my hand?” I whimpered.
He winced and released me. “Sorry. I’m not usually so physical except in fights.”
“Do you get into a lot of those?” I asked him.
He gave me a wink. “Only when the need arises, and it does arise a lot.”
Sage had continued up the road and now had a fifty-foot head start. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled at us. “We need to hurry along now, children, or we won’t make the village before-” His teasing was interrupted by him tripping over his own pants.
“Sage!” I yelled as Caius and I hurried up to him.
Sage sat up and rubbed his temple as he glanced up at me. “In case I don’t make it even to the village, tell Bee I love her.”
I snorted and wrapped my arms around one of his. “Stop being a baby and let’s get you up.”
Caius took my grandfather’s other arm and together we hefted him to his feet. The dragon man steadied him before he looked him over. “I may not be able to carry you on my scales, but I can still carry you on my back.”
Sage hitched up his trousers and shook his head. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had the joy of being on an adventure, and I’m not going to lose one inch of road to being carried.”
Caius shrugged. “If that’s what you want then I’ll have to take another companion.”
“Hey!” I yelped as he swooped in and lifted me into his arms. I glared up at his grinning face. “I can walk just fine!”
“We wouldn’t want you to fall like your kin,” he argued.
I started back and my lips flapped open and shut. “L-like my what?”
He chuckled. “Kin. The resemblance is unmistakable, particularly that glint in your eyes.”
Sage smiled. “Smart lad. Yes, we are related, but I would like to request that you not let that secret on to the rest of the world.”
“Of course, but on one condition.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What?”
“That I get to carry you to the next village.”
I rolled my eyes. “For God’s sake. . .”
“All I ask if the pleasure of your close company,” he pointed out. “Surely that’s worth the secret I’ll keep close to myself for the rest of my life.”
“Deal,” Sage agreed.
“Grandpa!” I snapped out of habit.
Caius laughed. “So that’s the relationship? You look quite sprightly for a grandfather.”
Sage smiled. “You should see me in top form, but let’s hurry along so your ‘condition’ may be met.”
“Don’t I get a say in this?” I protested.
“No,” was the reply from both men.
I crossed my arms over my chest and sank into Caius’ arms. A dark cloud settled over my brow. “Gentlemen’s agreements, my ass. . .”
“I’m only trying to protect you from the dangers of the road,” Caius assured her as they walked the winding road.
I snorted. “What? Like a sprained ankle?”
Sage stopped and squinted into the distance. “We may yet find out. Look.”
I looked at where he nodded. An old woman shuffled our way. She was dressed in a ragged shawl and a blue dress that was stained at the bottom edges. Her long, disheveled gray hair cascaded over her shoulders. One of her hands grasped a twisted stick that she used as a cane. She stared at the ground and mumbled to herself as she swayed to and fro on her journey toward us.
“An old woman?” I guessed.
Caius set me down and walked up to Sage’s side. His eyes flickered to my rejuvenated grandfather. “You’re only human, aren’t you?”
A soft smile slipped onto Sage’s lips. “To be human is to be many things.”
“Then you’d better stay back and let me handle this,” Caius commanded.
Sage bowed his head and took a step back. “As you wish.”
“It’s just an old woman,” I protested as the wizened old creature came within fifty feet of us.
The ancient creature must have heard my voice because she raised her head. She smiled and nodded her head in greeting. “Fare greeting, fellow travelers!” she called to us.
“Fare greeting, old mother,” Caius returned.
She looked up at the sky and squinted her eyes against the bright sunlight. “Quite lovely weather today, is it not?”
“It is, old mother, but that’s no benefit to you,” Caius countered.
The old woman returned her attention to him and blinked her eyes. “What do you mean, young sir? The sunlight is the bread and butter of the old.”
Caius nodded at the ground beneath her feet. “Then why don’t you offer the sun its due and cast a shadow.”
The woman’s wrinkled features twisted into an ugly scowl. Her lips curled back in a crooked grin that revealed her sharp teeth. “You’re quite attentive, dragon cull, but not attentive enough to notice that I’ve taken yours.”
Caius’ eyes widened and he looked down. I followed his gaze and gasped. The high sun cast a round shadow beneath him, but that shadow now twisted into the two-dimensional figure of a small dragon. The creature opened its mouth and I felt a vibration run through the air. It was in pain. At the same time Caius gasped and clutched his chest as he dropped to his feet.
“Caius!” I shouted as I rushed forward.
Sage blocked my path with his arm. His face was calm but for the look of disgust directed at our new foe. “Hag.”
The old woman grinned. “Yes, and proud of my heritage. Not like you filthy humans who destroy not only your own past and future, but those of other species.”
Sage scoffed. “Quite noble words for a creature that survives off consuming the souls of others. Release the man in your power immediately.”
She cackled. “And leave his tasty soul to rot in his mortal form? Hardly!”
“Run!” Caius choked out as he doubled over. “Just run before she gets you!”
He cried out as a white glow appeared around his body. Part of the glow broke off as a tear-drop shaped translucent blob. The blob arched over the road and landed in the open palm of the hag.
She chuckled as she raised the blob to herself. “Quite a pure soul. Yes, it shall be very tasty.” Sage strode past the trembling Caius and stopped ten feet from the hag. The woman looked up and sneered at him. “You dare to challenge me? Or do you wish to go before your friend?”
“I challenge no one, but I offer you a chance to escape,” he extended to the creature.
She snorted. “You would grant me leniency? You who has no power over me?”
“I may not have power over you, but-” he stretched one arm straight above his head, “-other elements are at my command.”
I heard a deep rumble and the sun vanished. My eyes looked to the skies and my jaw hit the dirt as I beheld a giant storm cloud appear out of nothing. Lightning shot across one half to the other, followed by a thunder boom that shook the ground.
The hag gaped at the clouds as I did. Her wide eyes lowered to look again at her antagonist with new respect, and fear. “Who. . .who are you?”
My grandfather smiled. “Your end. Goodbye and good riddance.”
He flung his arm down. A bolt of lightning shot out of the cloud and struck the hag. She exploded in a brilliant white light that sent her innards sailing over everything. I ducked a particularly large piece of flesh and twisted around where I tripped over my own stumbling feet. My butt met hard earth and my head tilted back to watch the cloud disperse as quickly as it had come. The soul piece she’d held in her hand flew back into Caius and the glow around him disappeared.
I looked to my grandfather as he turned to me with a smile. The medallion around his neck gave off a soft glow that slowly faded. “What do you think of your grandfather now?”
- Writer
