Finally, it seemed safe to put the crystal down, and so I dropped it in between two of Salanraja’s external ribs, then pawed it into a corner so it wouldn’t end up falling to the ground. I was surprised how big it was. No wonder my jaw had ached carrying it.
“If you don’t want me to die, don’t put me in a situation where you might kill me,” I replied. “Simple solution.”
Salanraja groaned, sending a soft rumble through my legs. “You never learn, do you? We’re in this together, and it means we both need to take equal responsibilities. We’ll both have to risk our lives sometimes if we’re going to save this world.”
“But why should I care about your world? I wasn’t born here. All I want is food, and a good rest after all that happened here.”
“Because you saw what your crystal revealed, did you not? It’s not just this world, but the fate of all worlds at threat. Once warlocks like Astravar control this planet, they won’t stop there. Their lust for power has no bounds, and only brave souls like you and I can stop them.”
I examined one of my paws and shuddered when I saw the char marks on it. “But he’s so powerful,” I said. “You’ve seen what he can do.” I tried to lick my paw so I could groom myself. But it hurt too much.
“He can be beaten,” Salanraja replied. “We have to believe that. They cannot win.”
“Whatever you say. Now, I remember you promising some food.”
“Can’t you ever think about anything else?”
“No…”
Salanraja laughed. But this time it sounded like a laugh of endearment rather than one of mockery.
“Fine,” she said. “Let’s report our conquest to the village, and then I can hunt you something nice.”
19
Midar Village
Mutton was on the menu for the evening. A whole sheep, can you believe it? Though Salanraja didn’t steal it or anything like that. We got it from Midar village for free.
The village elder came out to greet us as soon as we landed. It looked completely different to Dragonsbond Academy, and also completely different to the village I’d lived in in South Wales. There were no stone houses here; everything was built of wood and straw. Honestly, with these dragons flying around that could flame these buildings and roast villagers in their sleep, it surprised me they’d be so stupid as to use flammable materials for building. Still, I’d never claimed humans were smart.
The village elder was an old man, no different looking than any other old man I’d seen. He hunched over a walking stick as he hobbled over on his two feet. This time, it was a regular old walking stick, and not a magical staff like Aleam’s. It didn’t have any crystals on it or any of that nonsense. Honestly, it felt good to meet someone normal for a change, so I jumped off Salanraja’s back, as I rubbed myself against the side of his leg, purring away.
The old man looked up at Salanraja. “Where’s your rider, dragon?” he asked.
“I am the rider,” I replied, and then the man jumped up in surprise and almost toppled over.
“Oh,” the man said after he’d recovered himself. “You can talk… Well, with the things that come out of the Wastelands, you’re not the strangest thing I’ve seen by far.”
“And what do you mean by that?”
“Nothing.” The old man shook his head and laughed nervously. “Just beings of magic and all that.”
“I’m not a magical being,” I said. “I’m a Bengal. A descendant of the great Asian leopard cat. You should have some respect.”
The man’s jaw dropped, and Salanraja let off a loud groan. “Will you stop it with that Asian leopard cat nonsense? None of us even know what it means.”
I ignored her and instead tried to glare the old man down.
He chuckled and then reached over to scratch me under the chin. I let him, but I didn’t react with any signs of endearment. I still was unsure whether or not to trust him. He smelled funny.
“So, are you the dragon rider who defeated the bone dragon? Shepherd Rala, my granddaughter, bless her, saw it die while she was out grazing her flock. Before that, it had already taken the lives of most of the flock. I’m just glad Rala got out alive.” He glanced over at a small pen containing several sheep, no more.
“I am that dragon rider,” I said. “You got a problem with that?”
“No, not at all,” the elder replied. “So, I guess, you’ll be wanting a reward. We’ve got a good stash of gold in our village treasury reserved for incidents like this. Or maybe, if it would please the king, he’d rather have a few hundred yarns of our Midar wool?”
I growled, softly. He just wasn’t getting it. “I’m starving, and I want food.” I said.
The man paused a moment, looking at me with an expression of incredulity. “You want food?”
I looked back at the pen. The sheep in there looked fat and tasty. Though they weren’t lambs, I could still make do with a bit of mutton. “One of your flock should do the trick,” I said.
“Bengie, are you crazy?” Salanraja said to me.
“Shut up,” I replied. “I’m the one who speaks his language, so I’ll make the necessary negotiations.”
“But they’ll skin us alive at Dragonsbond Academy. We should take back some payment as a reward for the mission. It can help fund the academy and secure its future. Then they’ll give you as much food as you like from the kitchens once they make you an Initiate.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t trust them, and you never seem to deliver on your promises either.” I mewled and then rubbed my head up against the old man’s leg.
Salanraja grunted, and the old man flinched, then looked at her sheepishly.
“Just ignore her,” I said. “She’s having a bad day. But I can tell that your village isn’t the best stocked, and you need to recover from the terror. One sheep or lamb, if you have one, will do just fine.”
The man tugged at the skin on the front of his neck. “Yes, well, that can be arranged, I guess.” He turned back to the village and cupped his hand over his mouth. “Rala, take your fattest sheep to the slaughterhouse.”
“Oh, no need,” I said. “Salanraja will slaughter it herself.”
“Will I now?”
“You did promise to hunt something nice for me,” I replied. “I just thought I’d make it a little easier on you.”
“Gracious demons, you’re an idiot…”
The elder’s granddaughter had now arrived, a tall thin woman with blonde hair, wearing a long white shepherd’s frock. They were whispering between themselves. I adjusted my ears so I could hear them a little better.
“I think we can give them Colos,” she said. “He’ll make a fine meal, I guess.” She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and let off a slight sniffle.
“Just point to the sheep you wish to donate, and we’ll be on our way,” I said.
Rala turned back to me and pointed over to the pen. “That one, eating grass by the fence. She’ll be the tastiest, I think. Take her and thank you. I was so worried when I saw the bone dragon, I thought our village would be the next to fall to the Wastelands.” She sniffled again.
“You’re welcome,” I replied, and I walked over to her and pushed my head against her shin.
But she seemed stiff and didn’t really want to stroke me. So, I ran back up onto Salanraja’s back. “You heard them. Take that sheep closest to the fence.”
Salanraja grunted again, and then she beat her wings and flew up into the sky. The way she was behaving, I thought she was going to fly away without the sheep, but she swooped after a moment and took up the defenceless farm animal in her talons.
The sun was setting on the horizon, and it stretched across the green and yellow fields, casting its warm rays of protection as its own way of saying farewell.
20
A Feast Most Fine
After dropping the sheep from a great height and roasting it to mutton, Salanraja had left me to guard our meal while she went off in search of firewood. We’d camp fo
r the night, she’d told me, and I was okay with that idea as long as we had food. Though I asked why we needed a fire when I had a fur coat to keep me warm.
But she said it was traditional on these kinds of journeys. If I was a human, I’d appreciate it. Admittedly, now darkness had fallen, the night was getting pretty cold, even for a cat.
Salanraja soon returned with a tree trunk in her claws. I looked up from my feast of mutton, which I’d already started, and licked my lips.
“Couldn’t you just hold on for one minute?” she asked. “The dragon should always get first bite of her hunt.”
“But you didn’t hunt it,” I said.
“I killed it. Because, I seem to recall you saying that it was far too big for you to kill yourself.”
“Will you be quiet? I’m trying to enjoy my food here.” I turned back to the carcass and ripped another chunk of tasty mutton off of its belly.
There came a rush of wind against my fur and I saw something massive falling fast towards me in my peripheral vision. I screeched and darted out of a way of the tree trunk, right before it thudded against the ground, sending up tufts of grass and soil.
“What the whiskers do you think you’re doing?”
“I said we needed firewood,” Salanraja replied. “And here it is.”
“But you could have crushed the life out of me with that thing…”
“Oh, I was quite careful where I dropped it, thank you very much.” Salanraja landed on the ground next to the log and tore off some strips of bark with her teeth and claws. She moved fast, and she soon had a tall pile of loose wood on the ground between us and the mutton. She turned to this and let off a fast jet of flame at it, which ignited at once.
I watched her cautiously for a moment, but she didn’t seem to be in the mood for roasting me as well as the mutton. So, I approached the carcass, tore off another strip of meat, and then I took it over in my mouth towards the fire.
Now the warmth was there, I realised how much I appreciated it. It reminded me of being back in South Wales in winter, curled up on the mistress’ lap in front of the fireplace as she rocked gently back and forth on her armchair, a book in her hands. I missed that place and I couldn’t help wishing that all this was a bad dream. That I’d wake up tomorrow back in my cushioned bed on the living room floor, with a breakfast of salmon trimmings waiting for me in the kitchen.
But how could I be thinking about salmon when this mutton tasted so wonderful?
“I hope you’re enjoying that,” Salanraja said. “Given how you damaged a poor family’s livelihood to take it.”
“It’s good,” I said, and I licked my lips. “What was that you said about livelihood?”
“Didn’t you hear them say? The bone dragon slaughtered most of their flock. They had, as I counted it, six sheep left. Before that, they probably had at least sixty.”
“So?”
“So, they now need to rebuild their flock and taking one of their sheep away when they have so few is going to make it much harder for them to do that. You may have ruined that family, and you don’t even seem to care.”
I dropped the mutton on the ground. Suddenly, it didn’t taste so good anymore. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
“Would it have made any difference? You would have acted the same, anyway.”
“I’m not sure I would.” I said. “And I think I’ve had enough mutton for one day.”
“Well…” Salanraja looked into the distance. “This is what happens when you go around acting on a whim all the time. You need to put some thought into your actions, Bengie.”
“Whatever,” I replied, and I yawned. The heat from the fire was reminding me how tired I was. “I’ll know better next time.”
“That’s the thing. There might not be a next time. If word gets back to the Council how you behaved there, there will go your chances of becoming an Initiate. You’ll be stuck in the cattery while I’ll have to ferry the king’s pompous relatives across the land.”
“And how long will it take for them to hear?”
“Probably when the next tax collector comes.”
“Which will be?” I asked.
“At the end of the year, I should think.”
“So, we’ve got plenty of time then, because it’s not even winter yet.”
“That’s not the point, it’s the principle of it.”
“Well, my principle is I need a good night’s sleep so I can present our mission’s success respectably before the Council tomorrow…”
Salanraja snorted, but she said nothing more on the subject. Even though I was pretending to be nonchalant about the whole mutton incident, I did feel terrible about it. Really, though, I didn’t know why. These humans had given me food when I’d needed food, and that was the way the whole cat-human relationship was meant to work.
There was a cool breeze in the air, which added a pleasant sensation to the warmth coming from the fire. Underneath this breeze, I soon drifted off to sleep.
21
A Nightmare Most Foul
My body still ached from both from the burns and being crushed before, and I kept tossing and turning as I slept. But eventually, I found a comfortable spot to dream, and I saw myself in a long meadow, chasing dragonflies underneath the shade of a sad willow. The air was warm, and my master, mistress, and their son were nearby. The adults sat on a picnic blanket while the son was laughing and rolling through the grass.
Suddenly the air became chilly, and the sky took on a purple hue. A massive blue head arose from the horizon, its skin cracked like an eggshell. It looked down on me, emanating a glow like the rising sun, except this glow washed away any warmth left in the air, rendering me shivering and helpless.
I wasn’t in the valley anymore. I was in a land of swamps and a purple, lifeless gas. No one was around to keep me company, other than those wisp-like creatures, the Manipulators. There must have been thousands of them scattered out across the landscape, filling it with ghostly pockets of white light. Each of them looked up as if in reverence towards Astravar’s cruel face that was growing and growing in the sky. Soon, it got so large that it stretched from one end of the horizon to the other. His lips curled upward as he glared at me with those cruel grey eyes.
Then he laughed. But it wasn’t a laugh of joy, it was a laugh with one sole purpose, to instil terror into the soul of anyone who heard it. To communicate that there was no greater power in this world than him. Then his gaze spun downwards and focused on me, and I had the sensation of being watched not just by him but by thousands of different creatures at once.
“You were a fool when I met you, and you remain a fool. Do you think by bonding with a dragon I won’t be able to find you? Do you think you can truly escape the power of a warlock?”
My legs felt heavy and rooted to the spot, as if someone had put my feet in special manacles designed for cats. As Astravar continued to stare at me, his eyes gained a pale shade of blue, and my body felt colder and colder. I felt like I was stuck out in the snow with no shelter to hide in. I thought for a moment that I might die.
But I could not die here. I had to run. So, I mustered up strength, and pulled my legs off the ground. I didn’t have my normal agility, and each step felt like I was dragging my feet through a pool of thick honey.
I trudged between the Manipulators, who each turned their heads to look down at me as I passed. I looked up at one and saw Astravar’s face where the manipulator’s head should be. His pale blue eyes glared down at me. His gaze seemed able to strip my life force away from me, as if he could reach inside me with his mind and yank out my soul.
I continued dragging myself along the ground, not knowing where I was going. I didn’t care. I just wanted to escape. But each time I even thought I’d made some progress, I’d be right in front of a Manipulator again, staring up at it, the warlock’s cruel gaze boring into me.
“Stop!” I screamed out. “Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!”
I looked back up at the h
orizon. Nothing had changed. Astravar’s head was still there, massive and unforgiving.
“You cannot escape me, Dragoncat,” he said. “You swallowed my magic at the Versta Caverns, and now I exist burrowed inside your body where you’ll never find me. Eventually I’ll hunt you down, and I’ll claim you back as my own.”
I stopped trying to run. I had to face up to him. I had to speak my mind. “What do you want with me?” I asked. “Why did you have to bring me into this world? I had a good, comfortable home. And now you hunt me when all I want to do is live my life.”
Astravar again roared out that terrible, derisive laugh. “You are such a pathetic creature,” he said. “You’re a scavenger who thrives on the service of others. What would your life be if I took everyone you relied on away from you? No creature that cannot survive alone deserves to live on this world, or any world for that matter.”
“I’m domesticated,” I said. “It’s not my fault. I was born that way.”
“Were you?” Astravar replied. “Because I believe you were born to be feral, and I shall make you feral again once I find you. And your dragon, she will serve me too.”
I whimpered inside my throat. I hated this man. But I couldn’t fight him. He was too strong.
“What do you want of me?” I said again. “Why are you here, visiting this dream?”
“I came to tell you you’ve failed. You disrupted an experiment when you killed my Manipulator. But if you meddle again, I will come out and destroy you with my own hands.”
“An experiment?”
“A demon dragon,” Astravar said. “The first one to have been brought forth from the Seventh Dimension for thousands of years. I will bring it into this world, and it will hunt down all of the dragons that protect Illumine Kingdom and convert them to my cause. You shall serve me once again, Dragoncat. Do you like the new name I’ve assigned to you? It’s ironic, don’t you think?”
A Cat's Guide to Bonding with Dragons Page 9