by Logan Jacobs
We all paused along the path and took up resting in our own ways. Nadir and Lezan continued to fan themselves heartily, while most of the Morpho women fluttered up into the trees and nestled themselves inside of a thicket of branches. Meanwhile, Jemma and the dragonkin women took refuge underneath a large leaf, where they began to inspect their weapons in case they actually needed to be used again.
Jonas found solace on top of the stump of a fallen tree. The soothsayer got up onto the trunk, crossed his legs in front of his body, and placed his hands against his knees as he leaned forward. Then he closed his eyes and began to hum to himself before his body went completely rigid and his face turned emotionless. Jonas was putting himself deep into meditation, probably to assess any future dangers we might encounter on this journey.
When I looked over at Arrick, I noticed he was leaning up against Malkey with his arms folded over his chest and his right leg rested behind his left.
Then it hit me… That was how I was standing.
So, I repositioned my feet about a foot apart and shoved my hands into the pockets of my pants, but much to my surprise, Arrick noted my change and then did the same.
Awww… He was copying me. My son was definitely taking me and his mother’s advice of “watch and learn” to heart. He was observing and taking note of each and every thing I did, down to the way I leaned up against a tree during times of relaxation. He was definitely going to be a great king someday.
Or, at least, he’d look cool while doing it.
“Fan faster!” Lezan grumbled to Nadir. “I’m barely feeling anything from your end.”
“We can’t all have muscles like a sapling!” the Coonag leader snapped back. “I’m doing the best I can!”
“Arrick?” I asked my child telepathically through our dragon bond. “You want to have your first responsibilities as a leader?”
The boy stood up from his lean and smiled intensely.
Sure do, Dad! He nodded with excitement. What do you want me to do?
“Well.” I gestured over to Lezan and Nadir. “We’ve got two of our subjects who are currently overheating, to the point that it’s affecting their attitudes toward each other. We can’t have that if we want a team that’s a well-oiled machine, now can we? How do you propose to fix it?”
Arrick rubbed his tan chin as he thought about my challenge. The boy looked around at his surroundings, then back to the Coonag women, and then over to the trees above them.
Can we get more fans? he suggested. There are plenty of leaves to choose from…
“Maybe.” I shrugged. “But then think about how much manpower that’s going to require. Also, how do you think everyone else will feel if we do all this work just to make two of our friends feel comfortable?”
Probably not very good, Arrick pondered. It would make it feel like they were getting preferential treatment.
“That’s right.” I smiled at the boy’s thoughtfulness. “Even though we are all friends here, it would cause some light bitterness toward the Coonag women, because we are all expending our energy to help them get out of a situation they have put themselves in. Try again.”
Arrick considered his surroundings once more. His gray eyes narrowed, and his tongue squeezed through his lips as he thought about the situation intensely. Then the boy rested his hand against the copper water dragon behind him and patted his bondmate for a second, and his eyes lit up with revelation.
Malkey! he announced. If they are overheating, we need to cool them down! And we have a living, breathing water tank right along with us! No offense, Malkey.
None taken, my friend, the water dragon chuffed.
“That might just work.” I nodded. “But this is your rodeo, Arrick. You make the call, and you tell your future subjects what to do.”
I saw the nerves freeze up my son’s body. He may have had a lot of experience performing in front of a crowd of people, but those were always just dramatic recreations of a battle or major event from our history. This was the first time he would be addressing our crew as the Dragon Prince, or the “Princeps Draco.”
Arrick clenched his fists tightly to try and calm his jitters. Then he stepped forward, cleared his throat, and made his proclamation.
“I have an idea,” he announced to the crew. “Malkey? I need your help, buddy.”
The copper water dragon ambled over to his bondmate, let out a happy hum, and then nodded eagerly.
What do you need, friend? Malkey asked as his tail wagged like an overexcited puppy.
Arrick turned around and pointed at the two overheating Coonag women.
“Remember that thing you used to do when we were babies?” the Dragon Prince asked his partner in crime. “The one me and my sister loved so much? Do it for them.”
Malkey chuffed at the prospect, but he serpentined his body over so he was only a few feet away from Nadir and Lezan. Then the deadly adolescent beast tilted his head back into the air, inhaled deeply, and unleashed a spray of water from his pointed snout. However, this wasn’t like his regular blasts of water. Those were usually intense, fire-hose-like beams of pure force. This time, Malkey pursed his lips together and released them just enough to send a large, flat wave of small droplets out of his mouth like a sprinkler.
The water cascaded out in its thin fan over the two Coonag women, and they both gasped when the cool droplets landed on their bare skin. Then they both let out relieved sighs in unison and put down their fans.
“That feels incredible,” Nadir practically moaned. “It’s like my own personal cooler.”
Soon, Sela found her way over so she was in the path of Malkey’s mist.
“Hold on,” Lezan mused with an annoyed glance. “I thought you said you weren’t hot?”
“I never said I wasn’t hot,” the moss-scaled warrior woman retorted. “I simply said I wasn’t feeling bad. But a cool spray of salt water in the heat of the day is something nobody can pass up.”
So, one by one, the others meandered over to the living sprinkler. Well, everybody except for Jonas. He was still deep in a meditative state.
I walked over to Arrick as I watched our crew cool off underneath the cascade and placed my hand on his shoulder.
“See that, son?” I smiled at the boy. “That’s what a happy crew looks like. And it’s all because of you.”
“Really?” Arrick looked up at me with pure joy in his gray eyes and grinned. “You think I did good, Dad?”
“I couldn’t have done better myself,” I reassured him. “Now, you’d better go soak up your praises. Some of that refreshing water, too.”
Arrick let out a small exclamation of excitement before he ran over and started to jump back and forth between the two sides of the water wave. Even though he was meant to be king someday, he was still a kid.
Still… he was a damn smart kid.
I guess that shouldn’t have been surprising. He was the child of Nerissa and I, after all. I’m just thankful he seemed to inherit all of our best characteristics.
While everybody else was busy enjoying the gentle mist, I headed over to see how our resident soothsayer was doing. Jonas was still in his trance, and he was muttering some sort of verse in his native dragonkin tongue under his breath.
“You sure you don’t want to cool down, too?” I joked to the elder as I approached. “They all seem to be having a great time over there.”
“You heard the conversation earlier,” Jonas said without opening his eyes. “This robe gives me a wonderful air flow.”
“Are you getting anything?” I quickly changed the subject before I had to think about the “air flow” in Jonas’ lower body. “Maybe some information about how many orcs there are in the castle, or maybe even where their home base is located?”
“We both know that’s not how it works,” the soothsayer chuckled. “I am, however, getting something, even if it’s only a grain of sand in a whole dessert of reality.”
“And?” I asked as my breath held in place.
Finally, Jonas opened his right eye and stared back at me with his intense green iris. Then he let out a deep sigh.
“There are living things in the place we are going,” he said cryptically. “Though, what those living things are, I cannot discern. All I see is us talking to something that can talk back in the middle of a large, complicated room.”
“What do you mean by ‘complicated?’” I wondered. “Like, the architecture is complex?”
“Not quite.” The old man shook his pepper black head. “It’s hard to explain, Ben. The events transpiring in the room are complicated…”
Well, shit. I didn’t want to hear that at all. I figured this was going to be a straightforward mission where we went in there, killed any orcs who possibly remained, and then saved the queen.
But, according to my soothsayer friend here, it wasn’t going to be anywhere near that easy.
“Complicated how, though?” I pressed. “Do the living creatures make it complicated?”
“That I cannot foresee, Draco Rex,” Jonas explained, and his weathered face drooped as he held up his arms in a shrug. “All I know is the gods are telling me to prepare for complexity. It’s hard to explain… The visions of a dragonkin soothsayer don’t always appear in a visual. They are more of a feeling. A feeling implanted in our very souls by the gods. And they are telling me whatever we encounter on this excursion, it is going to be complex.”
“Great,” I grumbled as I looked over at my friends, who were still having a blast underneath Malkey’s water fountain. “I guess I should probably let them know, then.”
“As much as it will damper their spirits, you should,” Jonas sighed. “The last thing we want is to go into such a situation unprepared.”
I gave the old man a pat on the back before I went back over to my friends.
“Alright, guys,” I announced as I came to a stop. “Jonas just gave me some potentially bad news…”
Malkey halted his spray and then turned to me, as did the rest of my crew.
“What is it, Ben?” Mira questioned.
“There’s somebody in the castle,” I replied. “Or, well… There’s something alive in the castle. Something we will have to confront and that will lead to a ‘complicated’ situation.”
“So, the orcs have made it there,” Sela growled.
“The orcs have made it there!” Nadir repeated, though she sounded a lot more excited about the fact.
“Maybe.” I nodded. “But we don’t know that for a fact. For all we know, it could be a bunch of fucking rats, and the ‘complicated situation’ could be they give us the plague or something.”
“Oh, no,” Jonas called out from his stump. “Whoever you meet in that castle is sentient. You have a conversation with them.”
“Then maybe they’re giant sentient rats,” I chuckled. “Either way, we need to be prepared to fight. Are everybody’s weapons in order?”
“Yes.” Sela nodded and pointed between herself and Mira. “Our seaglass blades are hungry for orc blood.”
“And I counted my arrows while we were resting,” Jemma spoke up, “If I conserve them well, I should have enough to make it through a brief battle. Perhaps longer if I try to pull them out of my fallen enemies and reuse them.”
“Hey,” I mused, “if it works for Legolas, it can work for you.”
Everyone on my crew gave me a confused look, but I knew the joke didn’t land. So, like all good comedians do when presented with a silent audience, I just moved on to the next point. I turned to the Coonag women and raised an eyebrow, an indication for them to answer my question.
“Our weapons are always ready,” Nadir noted. “Our axes are strong and sharp, and our teeth are ready to rip, tear, and bite anyone foolish enough to pick a fight with us.”
They both bared their sharp fangs to reinforce their point.
“Awesome.” I grinned before I looked to our new allies. “What about you, Morphos? Are your fan blades still in one piece after that encounter with the fr--er, hopper?”
“A few of my spines are a bit duller,” Holara noted with a frown. “I guess that just means I’ll need to punch and slash with more force.”
“Have I mentioned I like this one most of all?” Lezan whispered to me as she jerked her head toward the purple-haired pixie.
The rest of the Morpho women pulled their fan blades from their sides, opened them up, and showed me they were still intact. A few of the weapons were riddled with holes in the leathery parts, and many of their tips had been chipped, but otherwise they looked alright.
Other than Zerandrie’s. The soft-spoken woman with yellow wings didn’t show her weapon at all. Rather, she stared sheepishly at the ground as if she was embarrassed.
“What’s the matter, Zerandrie?” Ahwara asked. “Where is your blade?”
“I-I lost it.” She frowned. “It got knocked out of my hands while we were fighting the hopper, and I couldn’t find it in the foliage.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” the Morpho leader gasped. “We never would have moved on if we knew your weapon was missing.”
“I didn’t want to bother anybody…” The red-haired woman’s lip quivered as she spoke, and I thought she was about to burst into tears.
“It’s alright, dear,” Ahwara reassured her friend as she looked straight into her eyes. “Perhaps you can sit out any skirmishes until we construct you a new one?”
“That’ll just make me feel useless.” Zerandrie’s frown deepened. “I’m such an idiot. I should have said something sooner.”
“Hey,” I said softly as I moved over to comfort the beautiful butterfly woman. “Don’t beat yourself up about this. Here… I know it’s not a fan blade, but it’ll get the job done nonetheless.”
I pulled my pink-stone dagger from its sheath and presented it to Zerandrie. The Morpho woman stared down at the smooth rose-colored blade, studied it for a moment, and then shook her head.
“I couldn’t,” she protested. “That’s one of your weapons. Besides, I wouldn’t even know where to start with one of those things.”
“It’s not very hard.” I winked. “Here, let me show you.”
I placed the hilt of the dagger into the palm of Zerandrie’s hand before I stepped around behind her. Her frail, petite body pressed against the front of my own, and I could feel the woman’s trembling through my clothes. Her sun kissed wings fluttered like an anxious heart against my chest, and her breaths had become much more harrowed.
“Relax, Zerandrie,” Candara interjected, and the golden-haired woman shot her nervous friend a reassuring smile. “Remember what I taught you… Deep, slow breaths will help you get those jitters out of your system.”
“I’m not jittery!” Zerandrie retorted in a defensive tone. “I just don’t want to break his weapon.”
“I don’t think you could break this thing even if you tried,” I promised. “Now watch… Fighting with a knife isn’t much different than fighting with one of your fan blades. The only major difference is you have a much smaller range of damage you can inflict. Now, the easiest way to take somebody down is by stabbing them like this.”
I pulled back the frail Morpho’s right arm and then shoved it forward as we held the blade in front of our bodies, and she let out a small gasp.
“You alright?” I asked as I glanced down.
“Sorry,” Zerandrie apologized. “I didn’t realize you were that strong.”
“It’s alright,” I laughed. “I sometimes don’t remember my own strength. Now, that was a standard, straightforward stab. If you want maximum efficiency, though, you hold the knife downward like this…”
I flipped the knife in her palm and then pulled both her arms up so her fists were horizontal with her face.
“How is this efficient?” she asked me. “Now, I can’t stab or slash.”
“Sure, you can!” I reassured the Morpho. “Actually, you can do it way better now. From this stance, you can stab in any possible direction, like so.”<
br />
I guided Zerandrie as I made her stab to the left, then down, then to the right. Then I instructed her on how to slash in the same quick, tactical motions.
“Wow,” the red-haired woman breathed. “I can see why you like using this thing.”
“It gets better,” I continued as I took a step away from the woman. “If you train yourself to always think two steps ahead, you can chain together your attacks so quickly your opponent won’t even know what hit them. Check it out.”
I took my pink blade back from the Morpho as I stepped over to a thick tree nearby. Then I took my fighting stance, inhaled deeply, and got to work. I slashed the tree in an upward motion, then stabbed it on the way back down. Next, I moved my blade downward and simulated stabbing it once more before I made an upward diagonal slashing motion with the outer blade of the weapon. Finally, I stabbed the point of the dagger into the trunk sideways so hard it stuck.
“Go, Dad!” Arrick cheered me on as I turned around and threw out my hands.
“See?” I chuckled. “If this was a living, breathing enemy, he’d currently be bleeding out from his jugular.”
I pulled the dagger out of the tree, walked back over to Zerandrie, and handed it to her once more.
“There’s no way I can do that.” She gulped.
“You don’t have to do that,” I promised. “That takes lots of time and training to accomplish. All you’ll have to do is point and stab if the time comes. Plus, with your wings, I think you’ll be able to pull off a lot of the same swift, dive-bomb attacks you’re used to doing right now.”
“I’ll try my best.” The soft-spoken redhead nodded as she fluttered her eyelashes at me.
“That’s all we can ask for.” I smiled as I turned to my son. “What about you, Arrick? How’s your sword holding up?”
Arrick produced his Viking-esque blade from its sheath and then held it out proudly for me to see.
“Perfectly fine, Dad,” he promised. “But soon it will be soaked with the blood of our enemies!”
As much as I liked the kid’s enthusiasm, I didn’t know whether to be proud or to be a bit worried at his desire for bloodlust…