Everett climbed up on the wolf’s back and they rode on along the creek bed.
Sarah
The dragon soared over the land with Sarah held tightly in her grasp. Initially and quite rightly frightened, Sarah gradually overcame her terror and couldn’t help looking down with awe at the beautiful turquoise colored world beneath her. They passed over a large forest, dense with blue green foliage. As they flew higher, they joined the little white clouds that floated like islands of mist in the sky. To her left she could see a vast blue green body of water that spread out as far as she could see. Tiny specks, that she presumed were ships, were sprinkled atop the water like flakes of pepper. The entire coastline was crowded with humanity. Several castles with high stone walls, dotted the coast with smaller towns and villages in between.
It grew colder as the dragon flew higher and Sarah shivered, pulling her arms close around her. The mist from her breath was white against the bright day sky. The mountains grew larger as they turned inland. After they flew past a deep blue lake, Celestra began to circle, gliding slowly lower and lower as though about to land. The ground sped towards them faster and faster and Sarah was certain that they were about to crash but as they crested the tops of the trees, the terrible green beast flapped her wings furiously throwing great gusts of wind downwards creating an abrupt braking sensation. Like a helicopter in a movie, Celestra landed amongst violent swirling air. The dust settled and Sarah saw that she was standing before the mouth of a deep cave.
“In there,” said the dragon.
“Why are you doing this?” asked Sarah.
“I won’t tell you again,” repeated the dragon.
“Or what?” said the little girl defiantly.
Celestra blinked her eyes in disbelief. “Aren’t you afraid I’m going to eat you up?”
“If you’re going to eat me, you’re going to eat me. I don’t have much to say about that. But I won’t be bossed around.”
“Curious,” said Celestra. “Bravery deserves a reward. One question.”
Carefully considering her words, Sarah said, “You’ll just tell me a lie.”
“Dragons don’t lie.”
“You just won’t answer then. It’s the same thing.”
“If you ask me your question I promise to answer and to tell you the truth.” Sarah was sure she could hear bemusement in the dragon’s tone.
“Will I ever see my mother again?” she asked.
“When this is over, if I survive, I promise that you will be taken home. But until that time, you’re my prisoner. Now in there.”
Sarah entered the cave. It was not as deep as she feared and there was light streaming down on her from a break in the ceiling. A nest of leaves and straw filled one corner and a pool of ice-cold water lay directly beneath the hole. She washed her face, took a long drink and sat on the pile to think.
After what seemed like a very long time she ventured back towards the entrance of the cave. As she peeked out, she heard a shout. “Get back in there!” said a feminine voice.
“Yes, get back in there,” shouted another.
She looked around for the source of the voices, and when she didn’t see anyone, she edged out of the mouth of the cave a little further intending to make a break for it. A bright green dragon the size of a pony stepped in front of her and roared, “Get back in there!”
A second green dragon slightly larger, but otherwise identical, stepped up next to it. “Yes, get back in there!”
“Let me go,” demanded Sarah.
“We aren’t allowed,” said the first dragon.
“No, we’re not allowed,” said the second.
“If you can’t let me go, then can someone tell my why are
you keeping me prisoner?”
“Mother told us to,” replied the first dragon.
“Yes, mother told us to,” mimicked the second.
“But why?”
The dragons looked at each other and then back at Sarah. “We don’t exactly know,” they said in unison.
“Because she’s afraid of your uncle,” said a small voice.
A third dragon, no bigger than a large dog crept around the corner meekly. It was white with red and pink blotches on its skin. “I’m Jasper. These are my sisters Jade and Esmeralda,” he said. Then he sniffled.
“I’m Sarah.”
“I know, mother told me.”
“Aren’t you mister smarty pants,” said Jade.
“Yes, mister smarty pants,” repeated Esmeralda.
“Do they always do that?”
“They’re twins. And I think they share a brain,” mocked Jasper.
Jade roared and lunged at the small dragon. “Be careful, or I’ll eat you up little brother.”
“Yes, eat you up little brother,” repeated her sister.
Jasper moved away from the pair and stood next to Sarah trembling in fear. He was quite certain that one day they would eat him up no matter what mother said.
“Why is she afraid of Uncle Everett?” asked Sarah.
The green dragons shook their heads so the small dragon answered.
“He’s the grand wizard.”
“That doesn’t really help me. What did your mother mean when she said when this is over, and if I survive?”
He scratched at the blotches on his skin with the tip of one of his wings.
“Mother made a deal with the wizard for dominion over the lake region. But men came and started stealing all the fish. So, she wants to change the deal to keep the men out.”
“Why didn’t she see the Queen?”
“The Queen and mother aren’t speaking right now. Something about cows,” replied Jasper, and then he sneezed. “Mother was promised that when the true king returns the men will stay off the lake.”
“I’m not from around here. Can you tell me what I have to do with it?”
“If mother has you, she thinks she can keep your uncle from defending the Queen when the true king returns.”
“You should go inside now,” said Jade.
“Yes, you should go inside now,” repeated Esmeralda.
“But it’s dark, and it scares me,” whined Sarah.
“She’s scared of the dark,” cackled the green dragons in unison.
“I’ll come with you,” offered Jasper.
The little girl and the white dragon with the irritated skin retreated into the cave. Jasper sat on the pile of leaves and motioned for Sarah to join him. She curled up next to the dragon who wrapped his soft leathery wing around her shoulders.
“I’m a little afraid of the dark too,” he admitted.
“What’s wrong with your skin?” she asked the dragon who was furiously scratching to the point of bleeding.
“Allergies. It started after the water went bad.”
“I have allergies too. Here, this should help.” She reached into her pocket a withdrew a small bottle of pink liquid and smeared it all over the blotches. “Here, try this.” Then she fed him a small pink tablet from a case that she took out of her other pocket.
“Oh, that’s so much better. The itching was driving me crazy,” he said.
After a few moments the antihistamine started to take effect. The little white dragon yawned, closed his eyes, and fell sleep.
Sarah lay on her back next to him and looked up at the sky through the hole in the ceiling.
“I wonder how high that is?” she thought to herself.
G’nolls
The sun was low on the horizon when Percy led them into a thicket with a small clearing in the center. With a practiced hand, he had a small smokeless fire burning within minutes. He gave half of their water to the horse and set the rest on to boil in a small iron pot that he’d procured from the innkeeper with the supplies. Amanda looked on, impressed with his efficiency as he cut up pieces of dried meat and dropped them into the pot with some chopped roots and dried peas to simmer. “Keep it going. But only use small sticks like this. We don’t want to send up plumes of smoke,” he
said.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I think I saw some wild herbs that will add a nice flavor to our supper.”
Without a sound, he slipped away from their camp. Amanda added a few sticks to the fire and tested their water bottle. The last few drops fell on her tongue, and she wondered when they’d find fresh water again. The hobbled horse stood quietly to one side munching oats from a bag over her muzzle. Trying to be useful, she spread out their bedrolls on opposite sides of the fire. The evening was noticeably cooler, and she pulled the thick woolen blouse up around her chin. Percy returned with a sprig of herbs in his hand. He looked around the site and seemed pleased.
They sat next to each other on a fallen log each and took turns stirring the pot.
“How did you know?” she asked.
“Know what?”
“Back at the ambush. That they would come to us from another direction, that the ambush was just a fake?”
“A feint, not a fake,” he said.
“Whatever,” she said impatiently. “How did you know?
“It made sense that you were the target. If it were just an
attack, there were better places to ambush us on the way out.”
“But how did you know that it was a feint?”
He signed, “General Carvalis.”
“Who is General Carvalis?”
He looked at her. “Right, you’re not from here. General Carvalis was a great leader who successfully led the King’s armies against the Necromancer Arkadamus about a millennia ago. Later in his life, he wrote a famous book about the tactics of war that’s standard reading for officers. In it, there are many passages about ambushes and deception. What we were facing was called the Necromancer’s Bluff.” He looked at Amanda’s curious expression.
“Here, let me show you.” He took a stick and started to draw some shapes in the dirt.
“In the Necromancer’s Bluff, the main attack, here,” he drew a pair of lines in the dirt, “is just a distraction so a small force can go after another objective like a map, or kidnapping a high-ranking officer from the opposite force to use as ransom or to gather information. Here.” He drew a circle and a line like an arrow leading toward it.
“It was commonly used by both sides. Later, as the war began to go poorly for him, Arkadamus used it frequently, but not on officers. You see, it was common for officers to travel with their families on long campaigns. There was honor then, women and children were treated with respect. But Arkadamus didn’t have any honor so when the war began to go poorly, in his desperation, he began to raid enemy camps on the night before battles and steal away women and children, especially from among the senior officers. He would torture them horribly using their screams to force his opponents to surrender.”
Amanda sat there quietly listening to the lesson, a look of disgust disfigured her face. “So, we were to be tortured?”
“Who knows, but it seemed logical that you were supposed to be captured to be used somehow.”
“And they have Sarah,” she said.
“We’ll get her back.”
Amanda shivered.
“Are you cold?” asked Percy.
“A little, it’s really cooled down.”
“It’s normal this time of year, hot days, cold nights. More so now, we’ve been climbing all day.” He picked up her blanket and shook it off before placing around her shoulders.
“Here, you can borrow this to keep it closed.” Percy removed from his pocket the silver cloak pin with the bright blue sapphire and handed it to Amanda.
She examined it. It was a beautiful piece, shaped like a belt buckle. It was a three-quarter complete ring, like the letter “C”, with a sharp prong set in the center, the prong was free to move around the ring but a large blue stone, that had to be fake Amanda decided, on one end and a knob on the other kept the prong from coming off.
“Here like this,” Percy said. He pinned the two pieces cloth together and with the prong and then turned the ring to keep the prong from sliding free.
“That is so clever thought Amanda.”
Though dinner smelled delicious, at first Amanda couldn’t eat. Her stomach was knotted with worry. But after some gentle coaxing from Percy that she needed to keep her strength up she relented and took a small cup of the camp stew. It emptied quickly and she realized how hungry she was. She finished another serving, this one larger than the first and immediately she felt better.
“Let me get some more water to clean this up,” she offered as they finished.
“No, you’ve had a hard day. Stay close to the camp. I’ll fetch these down to the stream, to wash them, it’s not too far and the water seemed to be clean.”
He was not gone long and to keep busy, she tended to the camp. Suddenly, she heard the rustling of a something large moving about in the woods.
“Percy?”
She peered carefully into the woods searching for the source of the sound.
She spun when she heard a sharp noise behind her.
“Percy, if you think you’re being funny. You’re not!” she called out.
As she turned back towards the fire several dark furry creatures emerged from the woods in front of her. Suddenly, rough hands grabbed her arms from behind and held her tight. A chubby creature, shorter than the others, separated itself from the group and approached. Amanda struggled against the leathery hands. She tried to wedge her arm up through the hold to break free but she wasn’t strong enough to break the iron grip. She screamed once, then her captor pulled a rough gag across her mouth and only the tiniest squeak escaped from her lips when she tried to scream again.
The chubby creature, grey with age, approached warily. Amanda tried to kick at it but it easily evaded her foot. In its tiny paws, it held up a stone bowl and a blackish purple stink wafted up towards her. She held her breath but the little masked creature that resembled a badger crossed with a raccoon waited patiently. When she could hold her breathe no longer, she gasped. The smoke filled her lungs and she coughed as the poisoned air burned her nose and throat. Her head swam, the camp spun and everything went dark.
-----
She dreamt. She was standing next to her grandmother by the edge of a bright blue pool. Nana waded in and she followed. The two of them bobbed up and down in the pool
treading gently in the warm water. Nana smiled and let herself sink below the surface; Amanda followed. Instantly, her senses were assaulted by the sound of the whale song. She covered her
ears but the vibrations from the sound pulsed through her. She blinked and Nana was gone she was alone under the water. Amanda panicked. She swam towards surface but the longer she
swam the further away it became. The sound became more intense and she could feel a force holding her still. She fought against it until her muscles ached; her arms felt pinned to her sides. With no strength left, her struggles gradually quieted and she knew what it must feel like to be a tired fish on a line destined to die. She’d never fish again, she decided.
When finally, there was nothing left of her resistance the sound of the whale song changed. It became more rhythmic and soothing. She became aware of thoughts that weren’t hers. Memories of great battles, of unfamiliar places and unfamiliar faces came to her. In her minds eye, she could see her grandparents, they were young and beautiful. Without warning the water went dark and cold.
Suddenly, something stirred next to her. She struggled to move away but her hands and feet were tightly bound just like in the dream. Amanda blinked; she was surrounded by a close darkness. The distinct smell of earth told her she was below ground. The feeling of being buried alive kept pushing to the front of her thoughts. She wasn’t exactly sure when she’d become fully aware. There were moments of lucidity like after she’d had her appendix removed and she was waking from the anesthetic.
“Shhhh. Don’t make a sound,” whispered Percy.
She felt the gag come away to be replaced by his gentle calloused hand.
The deafening silence was interrupted by a loud electronic BING! from her tablet that was still in Percy’s bag.
It was loud, and she thought of the front door click you
hear when you’re sneaking after curfew, hoping not to wake your mother and face her wrath. Terrified, she held her breath, waiting in the dark for the bad news to come, hoping that it wouldn’t. After a moment it arrived in the form of growling and snorting. A torch glowed, then another and another. Percy drew his sword and rushed into the sea of sparking eyes.
“Stay close to me!” he shouted.
He was immediately surrounded by angry, furry bipeds waving stone knives and jabbing at him with sharpened sticks. Amanda could just make out their plump round bodies that reminded her of the badgers she’d seen while protesting the fracking in North Dakota. They varied greatly in size, with the largest ones being almost as tall as she was and the smallest ones being no taller than her waist.
She watched Percy move about as lightly as a dancer, dodging and striking with his sword in one hand and his belt-knife in the other. Several of the ferocious creatures fell quickly, but he was severely outnumbered and was soon on the verge of being overwhelmed. A pair of leathery hands pulled at her but she spun under the hold and flung the attacker off. She planted a hard, front-kick right into the middle of an approaching assailant; it doubled up and fell to the ground.
Before she could reach Percy, she watched as a sharp wooden spear pierced his stomach. He cut the spear in half, staggered and slashed furiously but a second spear stabbed him in the thigh. He dropped to one knee still fighting with the fury of a wounded rat trapped in a corner.
Fear and rage filled Amanda to the brim and it spilled out of her violently as she shouted. “GET BACK!”
Louder than ever before, the sound of whale song echoed in her mind. A surge of energy radiated away from her in every direction and bathed the battle in bright yellow light.
Amanda Applewood and the Return of the False King: An Everworld Book Page 13