Aeron nodded. “I know. It’s important.”
I do not like the idea of doing all that in caves. It was very constricting in them, from what I remember.
Aeron blushed. Well, maybe you will think of something else when the time comes.
I will have to think on it more.
“How long after is the clutch laid?” Master Canneth asked.
Fifty to sixty days later, the eggs are laid. She will seek out a place a day or two before she feels it is time.
Master Canneth nodded and wrote more notes after Aeron relayed the information. “And these places, caves mostly?”
Anaya confirmed that they were mostly caves, places where the temperature remained relatively stable.
There were still more questions asked, and Aeron dutifully got answers from Anaya, who was happy to provide them. At least the girls aren’t with us, he thought. He’d have died of embarrassment if they had been. He glanced at Willem and smiled nervously. Come to think of it, had the masters deliberately had the girls stay in the office to spare him? If so, he was extremely grateful.
“I think that is all we have for today.” Master Canneth closed the notebook and tucked the pencil inside. He glanced at Master Doronal, who returned his look, then he handed the notebook to Willem and said, “Could you return that to Sharrah for me?”
“Yes, sir,” Willem replied.
“And if you would,” Master Doronal said to Aeron, “ask her to keep us updated on the leaflet.”
“Of course. I’ll let her know.”
“Excellent. Good afternoon to you then.” Master Doronal and Master Canneth left, deep in conversation.
Willem bumped his shoulder into Aeron. “If you’d have blushed any more, I think your head would have turned into a beet!”
Aeron laughed nervously. “Yeah, it was a little embarrassing talking about that stuff with the masters.”
“I bet her memories were pretty, ah . . .”
“Yeah,” Aeron said quickly, looking at Anaya. She was now taking a nap. “You don’t know the half of it.” He blushed again.
Willem glanced at Aeron’s crimson cheeks and chuckled. “Come on, let’s see what they’ve got so far.”
They headed back to join the others in the investigation office.
“Jessip. A moment, please.”
Jessip turned and saw Proctor Josephine at the end of the hallway. Ash stood beside her, grinning. “Yes, ma’am?” he said as he walked to them. Why did Ash look so happy? It probably wasn’t good. Jessip had been on his way to his afternoon chores. He hoped this wouldn’t make him late.
“I’m taking you off your scheduled chores for this afternoon. I need you to assist Ash. I’m just now assigning the task, and it’s already late in the afternoon, so I want you to help him. And, I can trust you two to finish the job properly.”
“Of course.” Jessip looked at Ash. “What, if I may ask, is the task?”
“The daytime temperatures have been above freezing these past few days, and as it is coming to the end of the winter season, I think it is time to tap the Sugarsap trees. I do not want to miss any sap. Ash knows proper tapping, so follow his lead. Get a move on, now, it’s getting late.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The two headed off, Jessip trailing Ash.
“If we hurry, we might make it back in time for dinner.” Ash picked up his pace, leaving Jessip behind.
Jessip sighed. He wasn’t in the mood to hurry. He rather liked the slower pace of life at the Farm. But it was pretty late in the afternoon, and though Jessip knew little to nothing about tapping trees, Ash did, so Jessip would trust his word on the need to hurry. He increased his stride to catch up.
“There are nearly thirty Sugarsap trees,” Ash said to him, once he caught up. “We’ll need to place taps on them all as well as hang capture buckets on each of the taps. Can’t say as I blame Proctor Josephine not wanting to miss any of the sweet sap. It is used to make many products for the Farm and Caer, some of which are used to make other things and most of which are quite tasty in and of themselves.”
Jessip and Ash walked two horses from the stable to the wagon they would use and hitched them up. It didn’t take long to ride the wagon to the sugar shed where the items they would need to tap the trees were stored.
Along with storage, this large shed was also where the sap was processed. In fact, more than half the space in the building was devoted to processing. There were several large metal pans where the sap was carefully boiled to reduce it to syrups of various types as well as machinery used to process it further into other products.
Jessip and Ash hopped down off the wagon and began loading it up. They grabbed as many wooden taps as there were trees, plus a few spares in case some broke on insertion. Ash grabbed two hand drills for making tap holes, and Jessip picked up a couple of the large wooden mallets for inserting the taps. And once they loaded up all the buckets and covers they would need, they were off.
Ash instructed Jessip on which road to take out of the Farm. It lead up a low hill from the Farm proper and to a number of small groves of Sugarsap trees. Ash suggested making their way to the farthest grove first and working their way back toward the Farm.
“Your three month probation period is up soon, isn’t it?” Ash asked him as the wagon rumbled along the rough road.
Jessip flicked the reigns to get the horses to move a bit faster. The day was getting along, and he didn’t want to miss dinner if he could avoid it. “Yeah. In a couple of days, actually.”
“So what do you think, you like it at the Farm?”
Jessip shrugged. “Yeah, I actually do. The whole pace here is nice. Relaxed. Although, I like the animals even more than the farming, truth be told. Especially the horses.”
“Maybe you should ask to be moved to Animal Craft. You do seem to work well with them.”
Jessip grimaced. “I dunno, I’m almost eighteen. You think they’d let me?”
“I think if you asked Proctor Josephine she would write you a recommendation.”
Jessip looked at Ash, brows knitted in surprise. “Really?”
“Sure. You’ve actually been a good worker. I mean, once you settled in.”
Jessip turned his gaze back to the road ahead and thought back to when he had first come to the Farm. He had still been, well, his old self. It had taken a few days to shrug off the old completely, to start on his new path. What Aeron and Proctor Jarvis had told him was true. He had to make the effort to change and figure out what he wanted. He was grateful Aeron had spoken up for him to Lord Baronel. Otherwise, he wasn’t sure what would have happened to him. At least now he had a chance to do something.
Jessip wondered how Aeron and his dragon were doing. He smiled faintly at the memory of when he had first seen her. His chest had been sore for three days where she had hit him. He still felt bad about whatever he had thought he was going to do to Aeron. But on the bright side, it had started him on the path of change. What had Aeron told him then? ‘I tried.’
“Maybe I will,” Jessip said, nodding and looking over at Ash. “How about you? Do you like it here?”
“I do, actually. Botany has always been interesting to me. All the different kinds of plants, some of which have magical properties, the huge variety of them, they’ve always amazed me.”
“And how about the other work you have to do here, like, I dunno, cleaning stables?” Jessip smiled a crooked smile.
Ash laughed. “Yeah, not everything is fun. But it’s honest work, and it keeps things different. Not the same thing all the time, you know?”
Jessip nodded. “Yeah.”
When they reached their destination, Jessip and Ash hopped off the wagon. Ash grabbed a drill, and Jessip grabbed a mallet and a tap. Ash carefully examined the first tree, noting the old tap holes, now sealed. He placed the drill a few inches to the right and a few inches above last year’s tap, making sure there wasn’t a low branch or trunk defect above the spot he chose. He began drilli
ng straight in, but after half an inch or so, he angled the drill so that it would bore in at a slight upward angle. He carefully drilled about another two inches into the tree, and after he cleared out the loose bits of drill turnings, Jessip used the mallet on a tap, hammering it gently into the newly created tap hole.
“Perfect,” Ash said, smiling.
“And look,” Jessip said a few moments later, “it’s already producing sap.” He pointed to the clear liquid emerging from the tap.
They quickly hung a covered bucket on the tap and walked over to the next tree to repeat the process.
Aeron placed the dinner tray on the table next to Willem and removed his coat. He dropped it on the bench and sat on it, smiling at Sharrah who was sitting across the table from them.
“So,” Sharrah began, “what task did you guys have earlier with the masters? I forgot to ask.”
Aeron blushed and said, “Just some more questions for Anaya.”
With a wicked grin, Willem said, “About reproduction.”
Sharrah, seemingly oblivious to Aeron’s embarrassment, said, “Oh really? What sorts of questions?”
“At what age do females and males start . . .” and Willem stumbled over the words, a little embarrassed himself. “Uh, reproducing. How many eggs are typical, those kinds of questions.”
Aeron glanced at Willem, then looked at his plate, cheeks burning. “Master Canneth wrote it all down. You can read the notes he took for all the details, if you like.”
“Mind if I join you guys?” Cheddar asked, walking up to them.
“Not at all,” Sharrah replied, smiling.
He returned her smile and sat next to her.
“I never did get a chance to do what I intended when I stopped by this afternoon,” Cheddar said. “How did your trip go, Aeron?”
Aeron was relieved. Anything to shift the topic away from those embarrassing questions about Anaya. “Flying there was . . .” Aeron thought back on the flight. “Fantastic, amazing, glorious, golden to the extreme. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I absolutely love flying on Anaya. And I’m really not trying to boast, saying that.” He looked around at his friends. “I just . . .” His eyes lost focus as he thought back to flying above the wintry landscape.
“We know you’re not,” Willem said, a small smile on his face. “And though I am intensely jealous, I don’t begrudge you Anaya in the least.”
“Well,” Cheddar said, spooning up some of his stew and smiling, “other than flying on your dragon, what of the rest of the trip?”
“The riding gear got a lot of looks in the village,” Aeron said, munching on a piece of roast chicken. “Everyone was staring at us. One person even called it ‘fancy clothing.’” He smiled at Willem.
“It’s functional,” Willem said. “I didn’t really intend for it to be ‘fancy.’”
Aeron chuckled. “Millinith introduced me to the village elder, Cayo. We talked for a bit, and then one of Elder Cayo’s sons, Fillion, took us out to the farmstead where the attack took place.”
Aeron paused, his expression becoming somber. “We met Gurt and Etran. Their cousin Valin was the victim. He was only eighteen.” Aeron cleared his throat. “Millinith asked Gurt questions about the attack, and then we went outside to examine the body of the nahual, which they had covered in snow, so it was still . . . fresh. It stank pretty bad. The same horrible smell from my dream. Though in my dream, the stench was stronger. Millinith thinks that, once they die, the smell fades over time.”
“Do they look as ugly as I’ve heard?” Cheddar asked.
“They’re pretty ugly,” Aeron admitted. “They have this short layer of fine fur all over their body. And they’re very lanky. Very thin muscles on long arms and legs. But I have a feeling they are quite strong, nevertheless. And their mouth.” Aeron made a face. “Ugh. It’s the worst. It’s so big it nearly splits their head in two. And they have these wide blades of teeth. Wider than a horse’s.” Aeron shivered. “She dissected the corpse too, which, let me tell you, was not at all pleasant, even with my back to it.” Aeron grimaced.
“Anyway, after she was done with the corpse, we followed its tracks out to its den. It was a long trek, about an hour out. The den was dug in the side of a small hill. I am not afraid to admit that I was not happy going in there. Fillion, Millinith, Etran, and I, all went in to check whether there were any more nahual inside. It was dark, close, and smelly. I just knew we were going to be ambushed from a side tunnel or something.”
“There were more nahual?” Sharrah asked, breathlessly.
“Thankfully, no. We found a toilet room, which smelled really nasty.” Aeron shook his head, trying to shake of the memory. “And then there was the room where it lived and slept. Two rooms were all that were in there. In the main room there was a bed of raised soil and a pile of dead animals. Foxes, rabbits, voles and such. A food store, maybe. Millinith looked around, and we went back to the farm.”
Aeron smiled. “Then Fillion, Anaya, and I had some fun in the snow while Millinith finished up.”
“Was Fillion nice?” Willem asked.
Sharrah glanced at Willem, then asked Aeron, “He was your guide, right?”
Yeah,” Aeron replied. “He was nice enough. He didn’t believe I had a dragon, at first. He got mad, thinking Millinith and I were making fun of him.” Aeron grinned and said, “He changed his tune once he saw her, though.”
Aeron’s smile faded and he looked down at his hands. “Listening to Gurt talk about the attack, about Val getting killed, upset him a great deal. We were all affected by the story. Fillion said it made you think, you know? How quickly your life could change, or even be over. We talked a little about that, and it made me think, too. He said we shouldn’t waste time, we should find out what we’re good at, what we like to do, what we should do. And if there is someone who we like—”
“I know you hate when I mention it,” Sharrah interrupted.
Aeron sighed. “I know. I’ve thought about Trader Dellia and her vision too. I just . . . I can’t lose Anaya. I’m terrified of losing her.”
I am not defenseless. We are together, we are strong.
Aeron was surprised by her remark, echoing, as it did, his own statement about her to Fillion.
“Anaya told you something, didn’t she?” Willem asked.
“What? How did you know?”
Willem smiled. “I can always see it in your face.”
Aeron frowned. “She did. She said she’s not exactly defenseless, and that together we are strong.” He sighed. “And she’s probably right. She is pretty big and very strong.”
Together, we are even stronger.
I love you so much! And I’m scared something would happen to you.
We are one, we are together. We will do what we will do.
Aeron sat quietly, pondering his dragon’s comment. She had said something like that before, but he still wasn’t sure what she meant.
“This cold weather puts a chill in my bones,” Sharrah said after a bit. “Can we go to your rooms and have some hot cider?”
Aeron, still puzzling over Anaya’s cryptic remark, agreed. “Yeah. I could use some myself.”
They finished their dinner soon after, and then walked to Aeron’s rooms. He was quiet most of the way, still pondering Anaya’s comment. After he had served out cider to everyone, Aeron sat in his desk chair, staring through the doorway at Anaya.
“I’m sorry I asked about the trip,” Cheddar said. “It seems to have put everyone into a quiet mood.”
“Oh, it’s not your fault,” Aeron said, holding his mug of cider in both hands, enjoying the warmth. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind these past few months. What about you? You really think you can do the leaflet printing?”
“Sure. A one-page print job is easy. The most tedious part is setting up the type. Once that is done, one or a hundred pages is just a matter of inking and pressing.”
“I think I’d like to see a press in action,” Willem sai
d. “It sounds interesting.”
“Oh, it is,” Sharrah said. “He showed me the other day. It’s pretty amazing that you can make just lots and lots of copies with them.”
“If I remember right,” Willem said, “the type pieces are made from lead, each letter a separate piece?”
“From a lead alloy, yeah,” Cheddar replied. “And each letter along with some ligatures, which are combined letters or symbols used for various reasons, all those are individual glyph type pieces, yes. Though ligatures are starting to fall out of favor because they require separate pieces and typesetters need to know when to use them and when not to.”
“I suppose the leaflet will be pretty easy, then,” Willem said. “Nothing fancy in it, just lists and some instructions.”
Cheddar nodded. “Yeah, it should—”
Aeron stood and walked into Anaya’s den.
The others looked at each other and walked to the door, unsure why he would just leave in the middle of their conversation. They saw him standing next to Anaya. The two of them were staring, unseeing, to the east.
“Aeron?” Willem asked.
Bright light flared from Aeron’s arms just above the wrists, and light shone forth from Anaya’s forearms as well. Willem, Sharrah, and Cheddar had to shield their eyes from the glare. After a brief moment, the light faded.
“Aeron!” Willem ran to him, grabbed his arm and stared at it.
“What?” Aeron asked, almost dreamily.
On both his arms, his skin had lost all pigment in about a two inch band just above his wrists where the light had shone forth. And Anaya’s forearms were the same, though her bands were wider.
“Your arms, Aeron,” Sharrah said. “What happened?”
Aeron looked down and stared at his arms in confusion. “I don’t know. There was . . . something . . .”
It is time, Aeron.
Time?
“Does it hurt?” Willem’s voice was full of worry.
“Hmm?” Aeron replied. “No. What happened?”
“You didn’t see the light?” Willem asked, brows drawn together in concern.
It is time. We must leave.
Time for what? And where are we going?
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