Legacy of Dragons- Emergence

by T D Raufson

  The truth that the piece of wood had actually been found at that dig didn’t matter to Olaf. It hadn’t mattered to any of the other scientists, either. They had all dismissed it as modern pollution to the site.

  Aldrich remembered that moment clearly. It was his one chance to save his career by being quiet. Wodin wouldn’t allow it then much like he had not allowed it earlier that day. But, unlike a few years before, now he had proof, proof in his own hands.

  Aldrich always found it amusing that Olaf could believe, with absolute devotion, that his ancestors had not only made it to the mainland of North America, but had traveled inland and even set up communities, but he could not believe elves, dwarves, and magic ever existed. There was more written and physical evidence of magic around the world than anyone had ever found in Minnesota to support Olaf’s Viking migration theory. Aldrich harrumphed in his seat at the Cinnabon in the Dulles International concourse and continued rolling the two-inch long piece of alder between his fingers. The fine carved runes on it flashed as it rolled over the top. It glowed today, unlike the first day he had found it. If it had glowed that day, he might have kept that job.

  Aldrich laughed at the thought that a glowing piece of wood with unidentified carvings on it would have changed the outcome. Those very glowing runes had sparked the questions that led to his early morning departure from Minnesota. Wodin had no plans for him to have a comfortable career where he knew where his rent was coming from month to month.

  He sat back in his seat at the table and crossed his arms to stew over his most recent termination. Wodin was certainly treating him harshly for his indiscretions. He had not quite figured out what the nascent dreams of dragons had to do with it, but it would become clear soon.

  If he had been paying attention to the dreams, he would have known he was going to lose another job. The date and place had been clear enough in the dream. If he had kept the job, there would be no reason for him to be in this concourse on this day waiting out an incredible layover at the Cinnabon. Now all that was missing was the most beautiful dragon he had ever seen walking down the concourse. Although dragons had disappeared over a thousand years ago, he refused to believe that they had not existed. He had too much evidence to the contrary, but it seemed unlikely he would see one walking through an airport. Either way, he was here, as the dream had predicted. The glowing elvish text was telling him a magical creature was nearby, not an everyday event.

  The crowd was starting to build, and the cart had just passed with the angry woman in the inflatable splint. She was coming. He slipped out of the chair, walked to the edge of the seating area and looked at the passing passengers.

  “Well, Wodin. Is this where you want me? Think we can work out the rent now?” he said to no one in the crowd.

  Aldrich pulled the earbuds out of his ears and the Viking metal he had been listening to became a whisper on his shoulder. The moment was approaching. The dream had very clear time indicators, and Aldrich could feel everything falling into place.

  The cart with the five golfers drove by, and the last guy dropped his bag. Golf clubs, balls, and tees spread across the concourse floor. The cart stopped. The initial chaos disturbed the flow of people and created an opening.

  Aldrich prepared for the smiling nun. She had smiled at him in the dream. Maybe she liked short men. As she walked by, she ignored the bag, clubs, and the guy scrambling about to collect everything and looked at Aldrich. Somehow, as if someone had flipped a switch, she looked up and smiled at him. It had happened all through his life. Anyone devout in their belief recognized it in him and smiled or showed him some sign of solidarity. In some cases, like this one, Wodin sent them to tell him he was in the right place and right time. A small offering would have helped but the smile was nice. It didn’t bother Aldrich that they had a different name for Wodin. The Allfather was not too fussy about who he used. That was one of his best features, and there were too few of those to count.

  Aldrich looked up the concourse for the dragon, and his heart dropped. A couple appeared in the place where his dragon should be. He stared at the them trying to figure out what his deity had in mind while knowing the very thought was arrogance.

  There had to be an explanation. The tall man had been in the dream too. He had stood beside the dragon in brightly gilded armor. Once he made the connection the scene changed. A giant shadow covered the crowd, and the image of a glistening bronze and copper dragon hovered all around the woman dressed in a very attractive red business suit. The aroma of hot cinnamon filled his nostrils, and the image shimmered in his mind. As he had in the dream, he stood there and watched her walk by.

  Meliastrid. A voice in his head whispered the name as she walked by. The tall man next to her, dressed in full plate armor and carrying a sword, turned slightly to look at him as they passed. The shadowy suit of armor surrounding the man in Aldrich’s vision saluted him when the man in the concourse smiled at him.

  By the time they had walked by, the golfers were gone, and the crowd was back to its normal flow. Aldrich sat back down in his seat and let his pulse settle.

  “Where to next, Wodin? I’ve been faithful, sorta. I came here and watched your movie. Did Leif float about the ocean like this as you guided him? Did he wonder where lunch was coming from?” He asked the noisy room around him. As always Wodin didn’t answer, but he would. It would come in a vision, a dream, or some other interesting sign. In the past month, the visions had been clearer and more common, but that was all that had changed about following Wodin. The pay had not increased any. For a moment, he hoped Wodin needed him in Germany. It would be nice to go home for a while, and that was where his current ticket was taking him, in six more hours. If Wodin didn’t like his path, he would change it, in the most inconvenient way possible.

  “Aldrich Handleman,” a booming male voice from the sky called to him. He jumped from his seat as a cold sweat broke out all over his body. Wodin had never addressed him directly and never out in the open. It took a few seconds for him to realize it was just the public address system. The first announcement was over, and he had to wait for him to repeat the call to catch the end of the page. “Please report to the ticketing desk.”

  Wodin was working fast on this one.

  He was already through security so he would get to enjoy that process again, but he was sure it would be worth it. It was time to find out where Wodin really wanted him. The tickets provided by his employer would be non-refundable, non-transferable so this would probably come out of his very shallow pockets, but one suffered for his faith if one did it right.

  He stuck the ear buds back into his ears and walked back toward the ticketing desk, braced to accept whatever the changes were. Maybe he would get to see the south pole on his way this time. Aldrich grinned and flipped off his deity, in his mind.

  July 25 – 1034 EDT – Signal Mountain, Tennessee

  The knock on her door thrust Melissa out of a very peaceful rest. She could tell that she had overslept again, which she had been doing a lot since becoming a dragon.

  Don’t blame that on me. I’m an early riser; you just stay up too late.

  Melissa grinned at her inner conflict and rolled her feet off the bed.

  “Yes, what is it?”

  “You have a visitor?” Charles called back through the door. Something was bothering him, and she wondered if it was yesterday’s trip or today’s visitor.

  “Who is it this early? I’m not expecting a guest.”

  “I could describe him for you. I could tell you what he told me. None of that would reduce the questions or increase the answers. I suggest you just come down.”

  Melissa started to press him for more but realized it was useless.

  We could eat him, you know?

  “He would be tough and gristly.”

  She shared a laugh with herself and changed her appearance to a relaxed but dressy pant and blouse combination of crimson and copper highlighted with black.

  In a few moments she
was downstairs entering the parlor to greet her new guest. Whether Charles had anticipated that she needed to be prepared for a surprise or he was playing with her, she had no reaction to the short bearded man standing in the middle of the parlor when she arrived. He was probably the most bedraggled man she had seen in a while. Mud still clung to the seams of his boots, and the cable-knit cardigan that he wore over a faded Korpiklanni T-Shirt was long enough to look like a robe. His beard and hair were unkempt, like he had just woke from a long sleep to meet her. He looked, for all the world, like one of the seven dwarves, but she couldn’t place which one. He dropped to one knee and looked up to greet her.

  “Good morning, Meliastrid. Wodin sends his greetings and warnings through his servant Aldrich Handleman.”

  She resisted stepping back when he used her dragon name.

  “Wodin? The Norse god, Wodin?”

  The smile on the small man’s face was contagious and answered her without words. She realized she had probably been rude with her response and quickly adjusted.

  “Thank you, good man for delivering his greetings. What warnings do you bring?”

  “I’ve traveled here at his direction, at some pain to myself, to tell you that you must be cautious how you travel from here and that your path is not safe.”

  It will do you no good to ask him to explain it.

  Melissa nodded to her own inner voice and resisted asking searching questions.

  “I thank you again. Is there anything more you have for me?”

  “Nothing more than my personal desire to tell you that I am so pleased to be in the presence of the Dragon Ambassador, and that I look forward to the day that I can see you in your most regal form.”

  Melissa heard a nearly silent intake of breath from Charles and looked at Aldrich a little harder.

  “What do you know of my forms? First you use my name, and I ignored it, but now you go too far.”

  “I’m sorry madam, I meant no disrespect, and if it is your desire to keep that to yourself, I shall not divulge it to anyone. I did not realize you wished to remain hidden, but I needed for you to know I am very serious.”

  “How do you know all of this?”

  “I am guided by Wodin, as I said, and he provides me more insight than most. I offer my vision, knowledge of history both contemporary and arcane, and what support Wodin will bring to your quest. I expect you have a need, which will be greater soon. It would only be honest to warn you that Wodin may guide me to assist you even if you choose to send me away. He is not concerned with what pain and expense that will take to accomplish. If you choose to send me away, please do not take my appearance later as an insult, just understand Wodin is not accepting of my disobeying his direction.”

  “Are you saying Wodin has sent you to help me?”

  The small man stood and walked forward. “My lady, He has sent me here through dreams and some hard corrections to warn you and help guide you.”

  I like him.

  Again she nodded because she agreed.

  “Then there are others here that you need to meet.”

  Placing her hand on his shoulder they turned to leave the parlor. Charles was standing at the door with his arms crossed and his face saying no.

  “First, this is my butler, my friend, and most recently my body guard, Charles.”

  “You, Honorable Knight, I have seen twice before, but only once in person. I am sure you will not remember me from the dream, but perhaps you will remember me among the crowd yesterday at the airport when Wodin put me in your path.”

  Charles nodded and smiled to the small man, indicating he did remember the meeting and looked up to Melissa with a warning look that was milder than before.

  She shook her head to tell him there was no threat in this man. Melissa remembered the scene from the day before. There was no way he could know what he did without help. She focused on him to see what magic she could see and immediately accepted his story. Whether he was there for good or ill was still to be seen.

  Charles shook his head and turned to lead them up the stairs. Together they walked to the second level of the library where the others were supposed to be working on new information Elaine had found while they were in Washington.

  Elaine was not standing over the books as she had been for weeks. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the window watching the morning shadow creep up the back lawn. It was apparent to Melissa that unfinished business was boiling beneath that surface.

  Melissa looked over at Charles as they entered, expecting some answer about why she was moping, but he shrugged that he didn’t know what was going on. Kaliastrid was seated in Melissa’s favorite seat with one of Helena’s novels resting open in her lap. From the placid look on her face and the fact that the book was upside down, Melissa knew she was not reading it.

  “How was the …” She started to ask her question as she looked up into Aldrich’s eyes. “…trip?”

  Elaine also turned around at the disturbance and looked at the new visitor. Her mood shifted a little, but she was still agitated about something. Melissa could now see a small black book in her lap that may have been the cause, but she could not be sure. She would need to defuse the situation, either way. It was positive that the young woman was not surrounded by a cloud of static energy.

  “The trip was interesting. Mother, Elaine, may I introduce Aldrich Handleman? He has offered to aid in our research.”

  He dropped to one knee again in front of Kaliastrid’s chair and bowed his head before her. “Your Majesty, I also bring you greetings from Wodin and wish to tell you how much I have looked forward to meeting you. It is not every day one is in the court of the Queen of Dragons.”

  “How is it that you know me, sir?” Kaliastrid asked.

  “I know you all. I have met you all through dreams and visions that have guided me here. I was, most recently, working at a dig in Minnesota when Wodin moved to place me in your daughter’s path in Washington yesterday. He then changed my travel plans and sent me here.”

  “Wodin, sent you?” Elaine asked from her spot in the floor as she turned fully around to face the visitor.

  With a look to Kaliastrid to be sure he was polite, Aldrich stood again and looked down slightly toward Elaine. “It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Elaine Ambrosius, human child of magic. You have no idea at this time what gift you have been born with. The gods have smiled upon you.” A tear ran down her cheek as his words released the flood of emotion the young woman was fighting. He reached out to place a hand on her cheek. As his hand touched the tear, fire engulfed his hand. Elaine flinched as the fire seemed to cover his entire hand, but instead of jerking his hand away he pulled it slowly from her face and turned it over in front of her. The flames danced around his small fingers and then rose from his palm as he completed turning his hand over before her.

  He smiled at her, and her face relaxed as the fear that she had hurt him vanished.

  “Let me take that pain from you for a while. There is no need for you to suffer so with it. There is nothing unnatural about you, child. Let the knowledge of Wodin assure you that you are highly respected and your gift highly prized. You have something sought after for the ages. It was, from what I have read, a bone of contention amongst other races.”

  Kaliastrid inhaled a little this time, and Melissa looked at her. She waved her away and continued to listen to their visitor.

  Aldrich reached back out to her with the fire still dancing on his hand. Elaine, unsure of what to do, fumbled with the book in her lap before she abandoned it and rose to her knees in front of him. She lifted her hand to his and their palms touched. He turned their hands together to face each other. “Take this back from me. It has not harmed me, and it will not harm you. Be at peace with this gift. You will not fail at this.”

  The flame that had disappeared between their hands engulfed their joined hands and then vanished between them as if she had doused it like a candle.

  Aldrich smile
d at her.

  “You see, you did not hurt me. You can control this.” The contagion of his smile jumped to Elaine, and she relaxed back onto the floor looking at her hand.

  Aldrich turned away from Elaine and stepped around the room to a point where he could face everyone.

  “As I have been guided to see, all is as it should be here. There is a sixth on his way, but that story is unwritten yet and will surely involve more pain before Wodin is done. There is much happening now that no one knows about, and it is focused here with you and the dragons. Wodin sent me to help you in your quest.”

  “So, I was right,” Kaliastrid said to Aldrich, “Elaine is a sorceress. She’s an innate human.”

  “Yes. Once a rarity. In fact, from what I have read, it never existed.” Aldrich answered.

  “I think our return has...” She looked at each of them and hesitated, “I think others are starting to show signs of magical ability. Innate ability, not trained or learned.”

  “It seems so. It would appear that some of us are half-breeds of long-lost magical creatures.” Aldrich nodded.

  Melissa shook her head and looked out the window. “How can that be, mother? Humans never had innate magic ability.” She turned back and looked at Aldrich. She could see that her question had disturbed Elaine a little, and Kaliastrid was looking at her with concern.

  “I can’t stop it. When I get angry or upset, something catches fire or flies across the room.”

  Elaine stood up from the floor and stood next to Aldrich.

  “I’ll show you how to control it, dear,” Kaliastrid said reassuringly.

  “You will master it soon,” Aldrich added in support.

  “What? What am I mastering? What are you going to teach me to control?” Her voice sounded panicked even though Aldrich had calmed her a great deal.

  Elaine looked at Charles with real fear in her eyes, and Melissa suddenly understood. She expected Charles to reject her because she was different. Melissa turned slightly to look at Charles. She needed to find a way to tell him what she had just figured out.