“Yes. I asked Master Doronal about any spells I could learn that would help against them in case any ever come here.” Aeron frowned. “But he wouldn’t teach me any, at least not yet.”
“You and the magic master talk about nahual a lot, do you?”
“Not a lot, no,” Aeron admitted, “but I hear things. Have you found out anything interesting about nahual?”
“I hear things too.” Millinith looked at him, a faint smile on her face. “For instance, I hear you might know something interesting about nahual. Is that true?”
Aeron hesitated. How did she know? Master Doronal? But how would he know? Unless Sharrah or Willem had said something to him. Aeron frowned. “I can’t say. I’m to meet with Master Doronal and Master Canneth about it soon. In fact, I should be on my way there now, actually.”
“Of course.” Millinith was smiling, but there was a gleam in her eye that made Aeron wonder whether she had deliberately asked him about what he was going to tell the masters in order to fluster him. “It was nice meeting you,” she said.
“It was nice meeting you as well.”
He headed off to the stable, deep in thought. When he got there, the masters were looking over the work completed so far.
“Excellent progress,” Master Doronal said to Supervisor Matthias who was walking with them.
“Indeed,” Master Canneth agreed.
“Thank you, masters. Most kind,” Supervisor Matthias said. “But most of the credit goes to the men. They’ve worked well and hard and have made me proud.”
“What’s left to complete?” Master Doronal looked expectantly at the work supervisor.
“The final hookups for the water closet will be done tonight, and we will be installing the two thermal conditioners and the ceiling fans tomorrow, which, once the few remaining pieces of furniture have been delivered, will complete this side of the dragon stable. We then have the fence and the office to complete, but we must wait on the concrete for that.”
“Ah, yes. And the fence will be completed on Hemday afternoon?”
“Yes. But the new piers we laid for the inner wall of the office will require another two weeks to set, because they will bear the load of the new wall and share the load of the floor of the office.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Master Canneth said. “Aeron’s study can be used until then, I think.”
“Yes,” Aeron said from behind. “There is plenty of room for that.”
“Ah, Aeron. Your space is coming along nicely, yes?” Master Doronal smiled at him.
“Yes it is. Very impressive.” Aeron nodded to Supervisor Matthias.
“Thank you for the update, Matthias.” Master Canneth smiled at the work supervisor. “We won’t keep you from your work. Our compliments to the workers.”
“Yes, thank you.” He bowed and walked proudly out of the building with a smile on his face.
“Now,” Master Doronal began, turning to Aeron, “Willem and Sharrah mentioned you had some interesting information about nahual?” He stared at Aeron, brows raised in inquiry.
“Yes,” Aeron said, looking accusingly at his friends. They had told him! “Though I want to wait until Traders Methon and Dellia arrive after dinner to talk about it. First, I want to ask Trader Dellia about something she mentioned to us earlier to get it clear in my head.”
“I see, yes. They mentioned you had invited them over after dinner. And speaking of dinner, here it is!”
The culinary workers spent several minutes placing the evening meal on the table before setting off back to the Dining Hall. Aeron, the craft masters, and his friends, spent the next hour partaking of the delicious food. Roast fowl, roasted vegetables and a tasty pie for dessert. Aeron was in heaven.
He checked the link and found Anaya barely asleep. Hey lazybones, you should wake up. Your dinner is here.
I suppose.
Aeron laughed. Though she sounded casual, he could sense her excitement and hunger.
Willem looked at him, a question in his eyes.
“Anaya. I told her to stop being lazy and get up and eat.”
Willem smiled and looked out the doorway.
The young dragon poked her head in and looked around the stable. Much has changed since this morning.
Yes it has. The place is almost finished.
Anaya then located the open chest with her food, just outside the door, and dove in with relish.
“Willem, I forgot to ask you this morning, but do you have the sketches of the riding gear with you?” Master Doronal queried.
“Yes, sir, I do.” He fished the sketchbook out of his satchel and handed it to the magic master. Master Canneth looked on as Master Doronal flipped through the designs. They talked about the riding gear as they cleared the dishes to the chests, Willem explaining his reasons for the various details.
“As far as her saddle, I think we should wait until she is closer to being ready to carry someone.” Willem glanced at the doorway where Anaya was sitting on her haunches, licking her lips. “From what we suspect, and these last few days of measurements have shown, she is growing rapidly. Making a saddle now would be a waste, it would be outgrown soon.”
“True enough,” Master Doronal remarked.
“Speaking of measurements, we could do that now while we wait for the traders.” Sharrah pulled out her measure tape from her satchel and looked questioningly at Aeron.
“Might as well.” Aeron turned to his companion. Want to do measurements now?
Now would be good. She stood and walked to the middle of the room.
Aeron grabbed his lantern and unshielded it. The only other light came from the lantern on the table. It was so near sunset that the bulk of the lowering sun was already blocked by the Caer walls and buildings.
“Hmm, I’ll check over the furniture list to be sure there are enough lamps and sconces,” Master Doronal said as he grabbed the table lantern. He walked over to where Anaya and Aeron were standing.
“I wonder,” Sharrah said, one brow raised and a smile on her lips. “Would the masters like to do the honors?” She held up the measure tape and looked at Master Canneth and Master Doronal.
“I’d be delighted!” Master Doronal traded the lantern he was carrying for the measure tape. He held onto the end of the tape and tossed the other end to Master Canneth. It unrolled as it flew through the air to him. “Canneth, grab that end.”
Master Canneth caught the end of the unrolling measure tape and asked, “Where do we start?”
Sharrah handed the lantern to Willem, grabbed her notebook, and said, “Let’s start with her length.”
They spent the next several minutes taking Anaya’s measurements, the masters oohing and aahing as she stretched out her tail, wings and neck to be measured. Aeron smiled as he watched them. They really were having a grand time with it.
“Amazing,” Sharrah said when they were finished, glancing at her notes. “She’s grown over an inch from nose to tail-tip since last evening. That incredible growth rate has been fairly steady so far.”
Aeron walked over to Anaya and hugged her neck. “She’s a growing girl!”
“At that rate, she will nearly double in size in just about three months,” Master Canneth said, in some awe. “We will definitely want to monitor her scat and track the amount of remaining bone fragments, which can indicate calcium needs. And,” he paused and looked at Aeron, “you must ask her daily about any pain in her limbs or tail. With growth that quick, her muscles might not keep up and she may experience muscle pain.”
Aeron nodded and looked at Anaya. Do you feel any pain like that?
Only the, soreness you called it, from flying.
“If she does,” Master Canneth continued, “we can get something for that from the infirmary. Though, we will need to be careful, we do not know dragon biology, so we do not know whether they are allergic or will react badly to medicines we can take with no issues.”
“True,” Sharrah said. “Willow bark extract and their pills are great
for us for pain, but if the same amount is given to dogs, they can get severely ill and even die.”
“She says she doesn’t have pain like that, only soreness from flying,” Aeron said. “Speaking of which, you need to do your flying exercise for tonight, Anaya.”
I will make a round of the Caer, then fly to the sinkhole and back, she said. I will use my toilet too before returning.
We will have a new toilet in the yard for you soon, Aeron said. They want to study your, scat they call it, to see whether you are getting the right kind and amount of food.
They are going to study my poop?
Aeron stifled a giggle and replied, Your scat, yes. For a while, at least.
Anaya blinked and walked out into the yard, everyone following behind. She looked up and crouched down slightly, her leg muscles and haunches tightening. She then leapt up, wings beating again and again as she rose up into the air. Her dark silhouette could be seen against the ruddy gold sunset sky as she flew south and over the Caer wall. Even the smiths had paused in their work on the scale, watching as she flew away, only returning to their calibrations when the silence was broken.
“She is an amazing creature.” Trader Dellia was standing near the weight scale and turned her gaze from the sky to them.
“Trader Dellia,” Sharrah said. “Thank you for coming.”
“My husband had to stay at the tent with my son, as we are doing very good business this evening.” She smiled at everyone.
“I’m sorry for asking you to come again, and I want to apologize for earlier today,” Aeron said.
The masters glanced at each other, then at Trader Dellia, and then looked back at Aeron.
“I have had many things happening in my life recently and, well, that is still no excuse, but I am sorry. And I thank you for returning.”
“Of course.” And Trader Dellia bowed her head slightly.
“Shall we move to the table inside?” Master Doronal motioned to the large doors.
They all made their way inside, and once seated, Master Doronal turned to Aeron and indicated he should start.
Aeron cleared his throat. “I have an idea about nahual, Trader Dellia, based on what you said about them earlier.”
She sat up straighter and looked at him. “What I said?”
“You mentioned that nahual hunt us because they need something we have. How did you come by that idea, if I may ask?”
“In the vision I had, I could sense the creature’s desperate need, its hunger. It seems they need something and hunt us for it. The one that was hunting me in the vision, it wanted something from me. I felt her intense need of it. My husband and I talked of the vision the night I had it. We decided it has to be something people have that animals do not.”
“Yes,” Master Canneth said nodding. “That makes sense. We have no reports of animals being found dead, killed in the same manner as people attacked by nahual.”
“Precisely.” Trader Dellia smiled at the zoology master. She then turned to Aeron and asked, “This gave you an idea?”
Aeron nervously cleared his throat again. “Yes. You see, I had a dream about what might be a nahual a few weeks ago myself. I had forgotten about the dream until you mentioned the stench. That brought it back to me in sharp detail.” He paused and moved in his chair, sitting closer to the table. “Well, in as much detail as the dream had. I recalled the awful teeth, and the terrible smell. And then I remembered another thing. In my dream, as it moved in close, as it prepared to attack me, it began to make an unusual noise and I felt a wrenching in my chest. I think I was dreaming I was having a heart attack, was being scared to death. But the wrenching reminded me of something else that tugs at my chest.”
Master Doronal raised his brows, crossed his arms and sat back in his chair. “Animus being drained?” he asked, surprised.
Aeron looked at his master and nodded. “Yes. I think nahual hunt us to drain our animus.”
“You had a vision?” Trader Dellia was staring at him, her eyes wide.
Aeron shook his head. “I do not think it was a vision, no. Not in the sense you mean. I think it just was a nightmare. But it gave me the idea.”
Trader Dellia nodded and turned to Master Doronal. “What is this, animus you called it?”
“You can think of animus as magical stamina that people have. It is like physical stamina. When you exert yourself physically, lifting items, running, doing work, that sort of thing, you use up some of your physical stamina. Animus is like that for spells. When you cast a spell, you use a small amount of animus. And there are some spells that slowly drain animus from you while the spell exists. When the spell ends, the draining stops.” He glanced from one attentive face to another around the table. “Much like physical stamina, using animus increases the base amount you have. Exercise and physical labor increase your physical stamina, and using magic slowly increases your base animus. And also like physical stamina, it regenerates with rest.”
“Why do you think that this animus is what nahual need from us?” Trader Dellia had turned to Aeron and stared at him intently.
“Of course, I do not know this for a fact,” Aeron began, “but from the things you said about them, it just seemed like animus was the strongest possibility. How many animals cast spells? Aside from dragons, which I bet are very hard to chase down and attack.”
“Not many animals that we know of,” Master Canneth said thoughtfully. “And of those that do, most don’t have very powerful spells.”
“That’s what I suspected,” Aeron said. “Most animals have nowhere near the amount of animus we have, I am guessing. Now, there isn’t anything else we have that animals do not, is there?” He looked around the table.
“What about spirit?” Willem asked, turning to Master Doronal. “Do animals have spirit?”
“They do,” Master Doronal replied. “Each living thing has spirit.”
Willem slowly nodded, absorbing that bit of information.
“Anything else?” Aeron asked. “I couldn’t think of anything else that would be a reason why they seem to attack people whenever they can.”
Around the table, everyone was silent as they tried to come up with other differences. Several minutes passed with no ideas being put forth.
“This is an intriguing possibility,” Master Doronal eventually said. “One we had not considered. We will have to review what we know of recent attacks in this new light.”
“There was something else Trader Dellia mentioned that I am not sure you have heard of.” Aeron glanced at the trader and then at Master Doronal. “There is a new type of nahual as well. They can cloak themselves from sight.”
Master Doronal glanced at Master Canneth and then at Trader Dellia. “Lord Baronel forwarded your husband’s letter to us. We have not heard of any of these, nahual-ton I believe you call them?”
Aeron was surprised. Apparently the masters knew about it already.
“Nahual-ton, yes.” There was a note of relief in Trader Dellia’s voice. “I am glad Lord Baronel did not dismiss our warning out of hand.”
“Not at all,” Master Canneth said. “We are keeping our eyes and ears open for any and all information on nahual.”
“The idea of nahual that can stalk invisibly is a frightening one, I must admit,” Master Doronal said, “but we are on alert.”
“Good, good.” Trader Dellia murmured. “ I am not sure when nahual-ton will come to the fore. Visions aren’t always clear in all their aspects.” She turned to Aeron, smiled, and asked, “Was there anything else, young Dragonlinked?”
Aeron saw Master Doronal raise his eyebrows and look to the trader. That’s the second time she had called him that. Was it some kind of title she was giving him? He wasn’t sure he wanted one. He glanced nervously around the table before looking back to her. “No, Trader Dellia, not from me.”
“Well, then, if no one else has need of me, I shall take my leave. I would like to let my husband and son know of these new and interesting ideas.”
She stood up, and bowing, said, “Good evening to you all.”
The men and boys stood and Sharrah smiled and nodded to Trader Dellia as did everyone around the table.
“An evening of clues and revelations, certainly,” Master Doronal said, sitting down after the trader had left.
“I do not know anything about animus other than what you described tonight,” Willem said, “but Aeron’s idea seems sound.”
“It does,” Master Canneth said, tugging on his lower lip. “It’s the only idea that might actually have some basis in fact.”
Willem smiled at Aeron, who looked a little embarrassed.
Outside, Anaya’s return was announced by her wing beats as she landed in the yard.
I am back.
Did you have fun?
I did. Flying is fun!
How do your wing muscles feel?
Still sore, but not as much as before.
Good. Eventually they won’t be. We just have to keep exercising them.
“She says she is still sore, but not as much as she was.”
“Good. The flying exercises will take care of that.” Master Canneth had walked out with the rest of them into the yard to watch her. “Eventually, we’ll want to start adding weight to her back, increasing it a little at a time until we get to your weight.”
Aeron nodded, excitedly. He couldn’t wait to be able to fly with her.
It will be fun. Anaya padded up to a water trough that had been set up just outside and to the right of the large sliding doors and began to drink noisily.
“Huh,” Aeron said. “I didn’t even notice that before. How did you know that was there, Anaya?”
I heard the men as they installed it this morning.
“What do you mean you heard them installing it?”
They were whispering, and it caught my attention. I think they did not want to wake me up, but I was awake already.
“You were awake? That means you were pretending to be asleep when they brought breakfast.” Aeron looked at her, frowning. “You are such a lazybones!”
Anaya lifted her head from the trough and turned to look at him, mouth slightly open, her partially split tongue hanging out a little. She made a series of soft panting noises. Aeron got the very strong impression that she was laughing.
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