by Ella Hart
He had been walking alongside the Thames River. For a long while, he had lived in England. It had been quite interesting, as he had been born in what was now the United States. Thankfully, no one there had wondered why an American – as it was the United States of America by that point – had come to England. It was rather common for those who could afford it to come back and visit. Since he had a pretty convincing English accent, it sounded as if he was simply back at home.
Queen Victoria had been out for a walk without any of her guards. The royal guard uniform was nowhere to be seen, yet there she was, just walking, as it if was the most common thing in the world. Of course, this was after Albert had passed away. She was wearing her signature mourning black. He wondered why she was out there, but didn’t dare approach her.
To his surprise, it was her that approached him.
She began a conversation with him. They exchanged greetings, and he smiled at her. He wondered if he would be the one that broke her permanent mourning. He knew there was no chance of it, but it was an interesting thought. Would she stop her mourning for a foreigner? He doubted it.
“What happened after you began the conversation with her? What did you talk about?” Paulina interrupted him long enough to ask a question. He laughed a little.
“We talked about the Thames. At that time, it wasn’t the most pleasant to walk down.” He sighed. “She wanted to know what I thought of it. Actually, she asked most of the questions. I didn’t get much of a chance to ask her any questions, which I thought was okay. After all, just to talk to the grieving queen was amazing.” He smiled a little as he thought of their conversation that day. “It ended with a quick goodbye. She kissed my cheek, and I never saw her again.” He sighed. “She was the only woman who stole my heart and never returned it.”
“Did you ever get over her death?” Paulina’s question stung a little. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”
“It’s all right.” He smiled a little. “Yes. I have gotten over her death, although she will always have a part of my heart.” That’s when he realized how good it felt to be able to confide this to someone.
Chapter Eight: Road Trip Blues
As the thought crossed his mind, he began to wonder if Paulina felt the same way. He shook his head slightly, but wasn’t sure what to say now. The silence fell in, and he didn’t stop it.
She eventually pulled over.
“We need gas,” she explained, “and we can grab something to eat here. Are you hungry?”
“Yes. Unbelievably hungry.” He hadn’t realized that his stomach had been growling for a while. He felt his face flushing. “How long has my stomach been growling?”
“About ten minutes now. That’s why I started looking for somewhere to pull off. I hope we can find something to eat around here... Maybe inside the little store here?” She smiled a little, and handed him some money. “Here, you can go pick something. Get me a slice of pizza if they have, please.”
“I’ll do that.” He smiled at her, and headed inside. The smell of the convenience store hit him, and he grimaced. It was like someone had vomited up alcohol and then tried to cover it up with air freshener and freshly made food. It made him nauseous just thinking about it.
He was relieved to find the pizza Paulina had requested. It didn’t look too safe, but his options were limited, so he bought two slices. He was happy to see the store sold his favorite soda and a candy that he hadn’t been able to get in the town of Hamlet. He checked he had enough change to purchase enough for the both of them, and once he had done so, he thanked the teller and left the store.
He was pleasantly surprised to see Paulina walking towards him.
“Here you go. A slice of pizza, a soda, and a pack of candy.” He smiled at her, and handed her the things. “And your change, before I forget.” Digging in his pocket, it took him a moment to find the change. She thanked him, and took the food and the change.
“Not my favorite candy, but that’s okay. I’m just glad you were thinking ahead and got two of everything. I half thought I’d have to go back in and get a drink.” She smiled. “Shall we get back on the road, then?”
“Do we have an idea of where we’re going? Where we are, even?” He wasn’t quite sure he was ready to get back on the road. “Maybe we should stick around to see where we are, and figure out where we can go.”
“I was thinking we could go to a friend’s house. She’s only about two hours further south, but I was getting hungry enough that I couldn’t wait. And neither could you.” She laughed. “I know exactly where we are, and where we’re going, Cobalt. Don’t worry.” She touched his arm lightly as they headed slowly back to the car.
“All right, but I want to stretch my legs a little more before we get going again. I’m not used to being cramped up for so long.”
“Sure.” She smiled, and started walking back to the car. He followed, and saw her looking quizzically back at him “Weren’t you going to stretch your legs?”
“I need a spot to sit down while I eat. I didn’t think of that.” He laughed. “It’s a bit of an unfortunate thing to need, but it’s a need I have.” She seemed to understand what he meant, and she laughed too.
“So do I.” She smiled at him. “But for now, we won’t leave this gas station. We should probably move from the pump, though.” He found himself curiously enchanted by those lips of hers. Why was she so enchanting?
He nodded. That was understandable – moving from the pump, anyway. There was nothing else to do at the moment, so he ate his pizza in silence. Paulina moved the car from in front of the pump to a parking spot in front of the store.
H Cobalt watched her park as he opened his soda, taking a swig of it. He let the plucky taste wash over him, savoring it. He hadn’t been able to find it in that little town. “You haven’t had soda in a long time, have you?” She laughed a little at that. He nodded slowly.
“They don’t sell them in town. Or, they didn’t, anyway.” He wasn’t quite sure what to say. He didn’t live there anymore, but it was still a town. Still existed even if they weren’t living in it at that particular moment. There was just something about talking about it in the past tense that didn’t feel right.
“I see. So, what now? Do you have plans for when we get there, or are you going to wait and see what’s going on before you decide what you want to do?” Paulina decided to strike up another conversation with him. He couldn’t understand how she could find him so interesting. Granted, he was the one that had lived through all his experiences – through his life.
“I’ll have to wait and see what’s going on. This is the first time I’ve left with a friend. I don’t really know how to go on from here.” As much as it pained him to admit it, it was true. He had no idea how what his next steps would be. It had never crossed his mind that he would leave a town with a friend in tow, he was used to his own company. How could he not think of that?
“A friend?” She smiled a little. “Do you think of me as a friend?”
“Yes. I do.” He smiled back. “Not many dragons have that privilege at all. Most of us are either dead or can’t stay in one place long enough to make friends because of all the prejudices against us.” He sighed at this point. There wasn’t anything else that he wanted to say about it. He wasn’t used to being able to call someone a friend. There was no friend he could’ve turned to when his family was killed.
“Are you okay, Cobalt?” She raised an eyebrow as he got up and walked towards the hood of the car.
“Bad memories. That’s all. They’ll pass if I get my mind off of them.” He managed to give her a smile. He didn’t want her to worry about him, but he believed they were way past that point.
He let the silence come wash over him like an old blanket that gave him comfort. The silence always gave him comfort. He didn’t know why, but he did know that this time, he welcomed it.
There was no speech between them for the moment. Paulina allowed the silence to continue a while
, sensing his need for it. He closed his eyes, holding the neck of his soda bottle tightly. The memories washed over him before he could stop them.
“You’re leaving? Again?” Her voice had been full of disappointment. He turned to face her, and instantly regretted it. There were tears in her eyes, threatening to fall. He didn’t know if he could handle seeing her cry, if he could handle watching her heart break in front of him.
“Yes. I’m leaving again.” He sighed. “This one is permanent, Amanda. I’m sorry.” He took in a deep breath. Honestly, the only reason he was sorry was because he had led her on. There was no reason for him to stay, not with an angry mob threatening to gather every day. Threatening to tear his scales from his body in the most painful way.
“Why must you go, Cobalt?” Her voice quivered. He looked down.
“To protect you, Mandy. Please. You mustn’t ask for more details. Just know that by continuing to date me, you’d be putting yourself in more danger than you are now. Please. Don’t ask.” He knew she was curious by nature. There was no reason for her to get curious about this, though he knew she would. It was almost pointless to ask her not to want more information.
“But, Cobalt... why must you leave? What danger is there in my dating you?” She didn’t understand what was going on. He didn’t expect her to.
“There is danger in what you are asking, Amanda. Please. For your sake, don’t ask me why I must go. It’ll only put you in more danger. I’m sorry.” He pulled his hand away from hers, and began to walk away.
“Please. Don’t go, Cobalt.” Her plea was one of teary voice and even wetter eyes. He turned to face her once again, and found that her tears had spilled over. There was something he could do, though.
“Maybe we’ll cross paths again when it’s safer. But for now, I must ask that you not follow me. I beg of you. I’m doing this for your safety. Please understand that much, if you can’t understand anything else without asking questions.” With that, he began to walk out of the house. Before he could get too far, Amanda stopped him. Her hand rested tightly on his arm.
“Please. Don’t go.” Her final pleas to stop his exit sounded more like pathetic attempts to apologize for what was going on, rather than really attempting to stop him.
“I have to. I’m sorry.” With that, he pulled away from her – for what would hopefully be the last time. This time, she let him go. He walked out of the house, and out of her life, without a single regret.
He sighed. The flashback, the memory, had been uninvited. Unwanted. It shook him to the core. There was no reason to remember Amanda as well as he did. He’d never fallen in love with her. It only lasted so long between them because he had liked her company.
A horn honked. He started out of his thoughts, jumping slightly. He heard a laugh from the car.
“Sorry. My bad.” She smiled at him. That’s when he realized that she had honked at him. Why Paulina would, he didn’t know. Then he realized she was apologizing for honking at him. Not because she had startled him. He smiled a little back.
“It’s all right, Paulina. We should probably get back on the road, anyway.” He took in a deep breath, and got back in the car.
“Off we go, then.” She smiled a little wider, and started the car. He buckled up and settled in again. There was little time left on the road, and he was feeling a mounting sense of excitement. To start anew, while difficult, was the most exciting part of his life on the run. He never knew exactly what would be happening in his life. He liked that feeling from time to time. Especially after spending a long time in one tiny town.
“So, what’s your friend’s name?” He pressed his lips together in curiosity after asking the question. He was curious about this person. Why did Paulina think of her as such a good friend? Did she drop in on this friend unannounced often? Or were these what the humans would call extenuating circumstances?
“Her name is Rani.” She smiled a little as she thought of her friend. “She’s incredibly sweet. Before you ask, yes she’s married.” He wondered why she thought that was the next question on his mind.
“Why do you think I’d ask that?” He furrowed his brows slightly as he asked the question. There had to be something he was missing.
“Guys typically ask that one of me. I just wanted to tell you before you could get your hopes up, if you were going to ask it.” She had sound reasoning for mentioning it. Now that she said it aloud, he understood it. “Oh. I see. Well, I don’t think I’d really be into her.” He smiled. “My eyes are on someone else.”
He watched as her cheeks became a bright red. The reaction hadn’t been expected, but when he thought of how he had said it, he realized what was making her blush. She thought he was falling in love with her.
That got him thinking. Had he fallen in love? His first love had been killed by dragon hunters. He’d sworn he wouldn’t fall in love again after that. Being in love while not being human was dangerous. Especially because he moved around so often.
It didn’t seem too farfetched. He had trusted her enough to let her know his secret, and live. Most often, if someone found out his secret, he did one of two things. He either ate them or he would burn them to death and start a forest fire in the process. He’d leave after one of those incidents. Often enough, they were able to link him to them somehow, so he had to leave if he didn’t want to get in trouble.
“Are you thinking about someone special?” Paulina’s question, while random, was completely understandable. He’d mentioned that he had eyes for only one person. Though he wasn’t sure if that had meant Paulina or his first love, he decided to indulge her with stories of his first love.
“Her name was Solana. She was a Spanish princess – one of the most beautiful in all of history.” He smiled a little as he began to talk of her. She wasn’t sure what she had started, but she didn’t try to stop him. “I fell in love with her, and I fell hard.”
“What did she look like?” She started to ask questions, as he had expected she would. There was no reason she couldn’t, after all.
“Her eyes were blue as sapphires. Her nickname was Zafiro – the Spanish word for ‘sapphire’. I wish you could have seen them. She was tall for the time. She stood tall at five foot nine. Most people of the time were five foot three to five foot five, depending on the gender.” He smiled as he remembered her. She had a beautiful smile, and so he began to describe it. “Her smile was simply gorgeous. If she smiled at me while asking me to do something, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it for her.” He took in a deep breath.
“She sounds amazing.” She didn’t say much more for a moment. Then, with a smile, she continued. “How did you two meet?”
“That’s actually a funny story.” He smiled. “If you really want to hear it, I’ll tell you.”
“I’d love to hear it. It’ll help pass the time we spend on the road. Like telling the stories did earlier. I’ve got a bit of the road trip blues.” He looked at her funny as she said this. What were the ‘road trip blues’?
“What are the... these road trip blues you speak of?” He managed to get the question out.
“It simply means that I’m ready to be off the road. I need something to help me stay focused on the task at hand. Hearing some stories of yours will help me.” She smiled at him as she stopped at a red light.
“All right then. I’ll tell you how I met Solana.” He smiled back. “It is a bit of a longer story. It might take a while to tell.”
“Even better.” She encouraged him to tell her the story. So, he took a deep breath, and started to think about how he had even met her. The story was an old one, but one of his favorites. And unlike humans, he remembered in perfect detail without changing things.
“It began on a starry night.” The opening sounded quite cliché, but he knew it was nothing like the stories that started on a starry night.
He had walked in the forest. There had been a fire in his town, but it hadn’t spread to the forest. That was something he had been thankful for. The f
orest in that part of Spain had amazed all who visited it. Quite beautiful, as he remembered it. There was nothing to compare it to anymore.
He’d been minding his own business – looking around at the various trees and plants for comfort – when he’d heard a cry for help. He recognized the voice as feminine and tried to gauge where it was coming from. He’d never been one to turn down a damsel in distress. Acting on that, he hurried toward the source of the sound.
It hadn’t taken him long to find it. Though voices are known to echo in the forests of Spain, he’d spent plenty of time there. He knew how to decode an echo. Upon finding the source of the voice, he found a woman trapped in a rope net. She must not have had a knife on her person; otherwise she would not have needed help.
A conversation ensued as he worked on getting the release to break. He introduced himself as Cobalt – of course. Never one to let onto his secret on purpose, he didn’t give her a last name. Leventhorpe is a given name of dragons, and really only dragons. He didn’t want to share this with a woman he’d only just met. For all he knew, it could have been a trap for a dragon, and she was part of it.
Then she said her own name – Solana. He only knew of one person with the name, the princess. He’d heard of her, but had never dreamed he’d meet her.
“What did you do when you learned she was the princess?” Paulina asked the question as he took a sip of his soda to relieve his dry throat. “Did you freak out? Or did you stay collected?” She sounded genuinely interested now. There wasn’t any reason she couldn’t be.
“I did what any man would have done in my position at the time. I bowed deeply, and greeted her properly. It was considered rude not to greet her as ‘your highness’ or at the very least, ‘princess’.” As he said this, he found himself yearning to hold her again. “She told me I didn’t have to call her by title. I was the one saving her.”