by Marc Secchia
“Mwaa-haa-haaargh! Nice list. I’m flattered.”
“Where’s my list?”
Dragon peeked back from the corner of his eye. “What’s that you’re doing with your mouth?”
“It’s called a pout.”
“What does this expression signify in Human culture?”
“That you’re absolutely no fun.”
“Gnarr,” he rumbled. “I think my list for you just evaporated.”
Spreading his wings, Dragon soared steadily into the storm-washed blue skies. The white sun peeked around the corner of the giant red, turning the colours of sky and ocean starker, literally sun-bleached by the pinpoint power of that white gaze. Ahead, light blue ocean rippled to the horizon and beyond. Behind, that last spit of land slowly sank toward the waves from their perspective. Azania too became quieter as the last, rough-fronded coconut palms disappeared from sight.
Hard to imagine there was more land out there.
With a pensive note in her voice, his Rider said, “It’s like a desert, isn’t it, Dragon? A great, watery expanse – I imagine that there’s all sorts of life hidden below the surface, but it still looks as if there’s nothing. See how the colours are changing as we go deeper?”
“Aye, I do,” he said, touching the spectacles to reseat them. The focal distance from his eye differed, especially when he was tired, he had noticed. “This would be a lonely route to travel on one’s own.”
“Aria did.”
“Always focussed.”
“Apart from when you turned her head.”
“I only wish I knew why.”
She kicked his neck. “Stop being a thumping great misery-guts. Scared?”
“Real Dragons are never scared. Honest ones, however …”
Chapter 21: Sea Serpent
THEY FLEW DIAGONALLY TOWARD the setting suns, thrilling to the glorious, infinitely subtle changing of the colours through evening into night. Ignis set the waves aflame with golds, crimsons and orange, sparkling off the swells a mile below their flying altitude. As the belly of the Lumis Ocean swallowed the giant red sun whole – an impossible illusion if one paused to think about it – the corona lit up with mighty flares that threaded the deepening purples above. A wide lane of fire burned across the waters toward the awestruck Dragon Rider team. Even when the sphere had vanished, those wispy fires licked heavenward above the horizon for over an hour.
Beauty to scribe sonnets upon the most jaded, fearful of hearts.
Azania said, “We’ve passed Aria’s first stop. The orb is adjusting to show the stars – would you like to see, Dragon?”
“I would.”
Unstrapping her thigh belts, the Princess climbed the final arch of his neck, stepped over his skull spikes as if this were the most natural action in the world, and knelt upon the top of his head. A slim brown hand brought the orb into his right-eye field of vision.
“Slightly further away – perfect, thank you,” he purred. “That’s … wondrous. A celestial starscape inside a crystal. Who would have thought?”
“See, there’s a hair-thin line tracing our progress?” she said.
“Aye, and I make us two royal hairs south of the target,” he agreed, adjusting the flight path slightly. “I’m so thankful that this evening is wind-still for a change. Another two and a half hours, do you make it?”
“Sounds about right,” she said. “Do you mind me sitting on your head?”
“Do you mind me flicking over the moons?”
“Ha ha.” After a few minutes, she said, “Know any good songs?”
“A few.”
“I’ll go one for one with you. Help us pass the time.”
Also, it would help them not to think too hard about what might lie ahead. He knew he must face fate head-on. No escaping, avoiding or hiding, as he had done in the past – but perhaps the hardest trial of all was the waiting. The not knowing. Hope’s stubborn breath burned in his hearts, almost paralysing in its intensity.
Azania had a sweet yet slightly husky singing voice which had seen training by her royal tutors. All proper Princesses were musical, of course. He had no formal training, but since Dragons sang at many occasions, among them births, deaths and family gatherings, he had a reasonable command of melody and rhythm. What he did not have, was command of his new voice.
Becoming white was more troublesome than he had imagined.
“No mind,” Azania said brightly. “I’ll teach you. Two gold clinkers per song?”
“Sold to the pretty girl in black.”
“Flatterer.”
On and on they coursed, melodiously.
About an hour before midnight, Dragon spied the gentle orange glow of lava from afar and they made one more course adjustment, aiming for the second pimple. The one that was not erupting. Grotesque image.
Winging in to land, Dragon observed that the pimples were a decent size, perhaps fifty Dragon paces across, but barely a ridge above the ocean level. The one oozing lava was doing the better of the two, which was not much of a recommendation. The rock was black, igneous and jagged. No problem for draconic paws, but Princess Azania would not be sleeping upon this, if he had his way. He supposed that if the volcanic activity continued, the two pimples would soon merge into one. Still, with a few hours remaining until high tide, they might yet get wet.
Azania agreed. “Maybe sleep up on your back? Do you think you could fold your wings to make me a decent royal boudoir?”
“At your service, Your Royal Highness.”
“I’m grateful, Your Fiery Majesty.”
“Ooh,” he purred.
And on that note, they both fell asleep within minutes. He stirred when the wavelets touched his nose, but the water only rose to a couple of feet up his body by two hours before dawn, drawing a great hissing and bubbling from the volcanic vents. Due to the position of the moon, the schedule now put the next low tide an unusual eleven hours away on its complex schedule. Aria’s notes stated that the reef resting spot would likely only be visible for an hour before and an hour after the tide’s lowest ebb.
Despite the dawn’s beauty, Dragon rested deliberately until the hour came for their departure. This was the critical leg; the longest and most dangerous. He tested the air with his senses; so fresh, it zinged down his nasal passages and into his lungs. Azania fiddled with the orb.
“Not sure something out here isn’t making it misbehave,” she said finally.
“Keep an eye on it, and let’s make sure we navigate by our reckoning as well,” he instructed. “Or –”
“No.”
“Good. We’re agreed to go on?”
“More than,” she growled, checking the straps of the Dragon bow on his left flank. They had packed as lightly as possible, but retained the weapon as a necessity. “Remember, this is the one day we have to make this crossing. So, eight point four degrees west of north. How many hairs do you make that?”
Touching her hair with his talon, he said playfully, “But these hairs are all curly. I’m totally confused.”
“Oh, come on!”
“For the record, I like your hair.” The Princess eyed him wrathfully. “It’s all frisky, complicated, unmanageable and frightfully hard work at the best of times …”
“Shut those fangs before I shut them for you, Dragon.”
“And it gleams like a raven’s wing –”
“The hole has been dug and you are deep inside, so put a cork in it,” she informed him pithily. “Onward, my faithful steed! To the heavens!”
Northward they forged, on into the immense unknown. Endless ocean all around. The suns rose and rose, baking Dragon and Rider in a white glare until noon, when the red giant once more eclipsed the white and a northerly breeze sprang up, forcing him to press harder and harder to maintain their tight schedule. They passed over a pod of smallish whales being chased by a wide wedge of light blue Sea Serpents. No small creatures, these. The undulant curves appeared to be twice the length of any of the whales, and they
were moving quickly.
Azania peered at their navigation crystal and suggested that it had settled down and that they were on course once more. Time was tight. Once again, Dragon forced his aching wings to pick up the pace. He could feel every mile they had already flown in his body; he had done ten hours on the wing before, but this was both a distance and a time challenge, and that had not included working against a headwind. Was the weather changing again?
Into his sixth hour of flight, he rested several times on the wing before powering on once more. Seven down. Just one more to go, and they should reach the reef. Both sets of eyes scanned ahead and to the sides as they flew at an altitude of a mile and half, where the wind seemed not as strong.
Azania tapped the crystal again. “Not good. Our path’s meandering about like crazy in here, and I know we’re steady as she goes, according to the suns.”
“Eyes peeled, Princess.”
“Do you have any idea how nasty an image that is, Dragon, especially since I’ve seen you eat eyeballs?”
“Wouldn’t miss them for the world,” he grinned, easing his shoulders one more time. “Pop, crunch, slurp – although, I’ve never actually tried peeling them. Seems a waste of good juices.”
“Deep breaths. Easy does it,” she advised.
“Want to climb off and push from behind?”
“Wish I could.”
“We’ve got this, Princess. Can’t imagine how Aria did – there! No, that’s a Sea Serpent.”
Both Dragon and Rider narrowed their eyes, looking off his left flank and ahead. Odd how that serpent was coiled up, however, almost as if it were sitting right atop …
“The reef,” they both said at the same time.
Azania said a bad word. Dragon offered one even worse.
She snarled, “Of all the freaking places in the Lumis Ocean, it had to pick our reef? What is this? I mean, that’s obviously the spot, right? We’re on time –”
“Aye, and his coils lie horizontally, like one of those desert turbans. On the one paw, we might be grateful he’s shown us the exact spot. On the other paw, I’ve a bad feeling about his size. That’s the granddaddy of all Sea Serpents, if I’m not mistaken.”
“It’s not exactly like we have a choice, is it?” the Princess snapped.
“No. We need to fight for our place.”
“Against one of the most territorial and aggressive creatures in the oceans? Perfect. I’ll go mount the Dragon bow, shall I?”
“Let’s do this. No quarter!”
“Not even a hundredth of a – whatever. See if you can pinpoint the head. I’m going up.”
By up, she meant onto his shoulders. Shortly, he felt her affixing the flexible mount to his uppermost spine spike, and she settled the weapon into place. She double-tied everything down and packed away the navigation crystal. Azania donned her body armour and placed the quiver of eight-foot quarrels where she could reach it easily. Dragon handed back his spectacles.
“Ready,” she said.
He tilted his aching wings into a long, fast dive. By his sire’s egg, he was tired – and they had another five-hour stint to look forward to after this short rest.
Ornery mood?
Aye, and then some. He refused to let some overgrown water snake steal their future. Not today.
Closer. Closer still. One brute of a Sea Serpent waited for them upon that reef, its coils half as thick as his body and perhaps three times his length, although it was difficult to estimate given the way it was coiled up, layer upon layer, hiding the head and muzzle.
“Together?” she said. “I’ll fire when you’re in range.”
“Together!”
Dragon swooped. Battle speed. Hit it hard; hit where it counted.
At the last instant, as the white-hot flame began to spurt out of his mouth, he saw one vindictive yellow eye peeking out of a slit between the coils. Cunning serpent! The Dragon bow sang as Azania let rip; flesh sizzled and burned as he directed his fire right at the eye … and the coils exploded in front of them. A huge head lunged out, taking a bite that never found its target. Azania cried out as he jinked wildly, holding his fire on target for as long as possible before breaking away and circling.
Ripples stilled where the serpent had vanished.
One tiny cream-coloured reef. Barely wide enough for two Dragons’ paws – how the creature had managed to pile itself atop that, he had no idea. Nor how Aria had known how to find it. That was one smart, courageous Dragoness.
“Gone?” she panted. “I hit the head for certain.”
“So did I – but I don’t like this. I’ve a bad feeling that we only stung the beast.”
“What choice do we have? You must rest.”
“Aye.” He shook his muzzle, circling several more times. No movement beneath the water. The ripples had vanished. “We’ll land. I’ll try to take a look around underwater. Keep the bow armed and the eyes sharp.”
They landed gingerly. Dragon peered about underwater, where to his surprise, his eyesight was clear. The main reef must cap an underwater mountain, he decided. It lay ten to twenty feet below the surface for the most part, and covered an oval area perhaps fifty Dragon paces wide and eighty long. Only this single spire, apparently old coral to the non-expert eye, broke the ocean’s surface. Hordes of colourful fish swarmed about the area; the bright neon colours and variation were breathtaking. No sign of the serpent.
He did not believe it for a second.
Five minutes later, he checked again. Ten minutes. Nothing. He tried to shake out his wings. Azania massaged a restorative oil into the major flight muscles and primary wing joints, bringing a deep-seated, tingling relief that made him groan.
One more check. Nothing.
Dragon forced his muscles to unclench. How much rest could they get away with?
He watched the ripples in front of his nose. Such a tiny perch. He modulated his breathing, concentrating on oxygenating the blood again after all the energy output, drinking a little seawater to help remove toxins. He could not quite relax.
“Dragon, fly jump!” Azania yelled.
At the same instant as his thighs bunched and launched, a huge wave burst over them, out of nowhere. He tumbled into the water, thinking that the serpent had – what, spat them off the perch with a jet-stream of water? Flex the wings. Keep to the shallows. Azania had been knocked away, but she hung onto his left wing as the water pummelled them due to the violent movement of a huge body nearby. Dragon surged away as the powerful serpent circled the mound, hunting them. Up again? The Princess needed to breathe.
Barely had he scrambled out and his Rider found her way back to the Dragon bow, when the Sea Serpent struck a second time. Powerful coils whipped toward them. Azania took her shot, burying a quarrel up to the fletching in the blink of an eye, but he was forced to jump and then dive as the muzzle, filled with backward-sloping fangs, struck like a cobra toward his left wing. They hit the water hard, together.
Forced deeper by a coil rolling over his back, Dragon pounded the water with his wings and struck out with his talons and fire, gouging bloody trenches and dark, charred channels in the giant Sea Serpent’s flesh. Fighting underwater was a strange, almost languid interplay of strike and counter-strike, where every movement slowed down so much that his brain ran ahead while his body lagged behind. He surged through the water to punch Azania away from a sweeping bite. Coils! He arched his back as a muscular, serpentine length slipped beneath his belly, but his forced dodge only found a denser, more confusing thicket of serpentine coils. His fire hissed out.
Trapped! The beast had wound itself around his body! The serpent squeezed him with monstrous strength. Dragon burned and burned it again around the eye; now he was free, gulping a massive lungful of air before the mighty grip tightened again around his middle, and the Sea Serpent dived. Here came Azania! The lithe, tiny girl hung grimly onto the edge of the Sea Dragon’s jaw as the water rushed by, the pressure increasing with the depth. He groaned as those
powerful muscles clenched again, causing his ribcage to creak. Never had he felt a grip like this!
Twisting a Dragon bow quarrel about in her hands, Azania plunged it deep into the serpent’s burning yellow eye.
Convulsions tore them through the water.
Mighty as the body was, it thrashed about atop a deeper ridge with Dragon helplessly trapped in its coils. Up again? Down? Where was the surface? He dared not strike out with his fire for fear that he might burn Azania – there she was! She rolled over and over, helplessly sucked about by the tow. The girl was still trying to draw her Dragon talon dagger to do more damage, when he saw her head strike a lump of coral.
A tiny ribbon of crimson trailed from the spot as she went limp.
Reaching out with his forepaw, Dragon somehow managed to snag the tip of her boot as the azure Sea Serpent thrashed into a powerful rotation that wrapped his wings about his body. Then, they were tumbling into deeper water. Sinking slowly as they scraped down the side of the reef, he had a moment to cry in a desperate bugle:
≈Azania! Help us!≈
What could he do? She needed air, but could not possibly swim.
The only option came to him in a flash. He would not be able to use his fire anymore, but he might just save her life – this girl who had taken on a Sea Serpent a hundred times her size.
He stuffed her into his mouth and sealed his lips.
Carefully, forcing air up out of his lungs with the help of those terrifyingly powerful coils, he pushed the seawater out, hoping to create a bubble in which the girl might rest. Meantime, he raked the Sea Serpent repeatedly with his talons. It wouldn’t let go? He would cut right through this thing! He quarried great hunks of flesh out of the trench he had begun, digging deeper and deeper through the dense muscular layers.
Come on, Azania. Come on!
Something shifted in his mind. ≈Come on!≈
Squeeze himself loose! Could he make it – the Sea Serpent shifted and the grip tightened enormously, almost forcing the last of his air to burst from his lungs. The girl shifted weakly upon his tongue, coughing and spluttering.
≈Alive!≈