“I’m doing this for us,” he said.
“I hope so,” she said.
“I am. For you. For Mother.” Even for Father, but he couldn’t say that to his sister. Not yet. When this was done, then he could introduce her to the dragon. Then she could know the power that Jason had encountered. And she would understand why they wouldn’t have to fear any longer. But only after this was done.
She watched him as he started to eat but said nothing.
6
Jason made his way through the village, moving quickly toward the outskirts when he came across Tessa again. She was dressed in dragon skin, and she had a slingshot in hand. He frowned at her.
“What’s that for?”
Tessa glanced down, flushing slightly. “It’s nothing.”
“It looks like more than nothing.”
She flashed a smile, glancing to his bow before looking up and meeting his eyes. “Well, I’m going with my father to hunt close to Varmin.”
“You’re going hunting?”
“You don’t have to say that as if you don’t think I can do it.”
Jason shook his head. “That wasn’t what I was getting at.” He wished he could take it back. It was more about Tessa leaving the village, the fear that she would have in doing so. How could she not, after what happened the last time she’d left? Jason didn’t think that she had left the village in the time since.
“My father wanted me to come. The hunting parties haven’t had as much luck lately, and…”
“I’m sure you’ll have luck. If anyone will, it will be you.”
“You could go with them. Us.”
There was a time when Jason might have agreed to it. That was before.
“Maybe next time,” he said.
“Are you sure?” There was a hint of hope in her voice, and it pained Jason to be the one who would take that hope away, but it also surprised him that she would even want him to be a part of any hunting party.
“I…”
He trailed off as he caught sight of Reltash making his way toward him.
Tessa looked to Reltash, and she nodded slowly. “I understand. Next time.” She left him, and Jason experienced a pang of sadness.
Reltash was dressed in his dragonskin coat and had a sword strapped to his side and a bow slung over his shoulder. Angus wasn’t with him today, but neither was Marl. It was a rare time Reltash was alone.
Jason approached. “Are you going off hunting again today?”
Reltash turned toward him slowly, and Jason made a point of pulling the bow off his shoulder, holding on to it.
“I’m going,” Jason said. “I thought I found something yesterday, but there were others who scared it away.”
“Dreshen. Where did you find that?”
“You mean my bow? You weren’t nearly as strong as you thought.”
Reltash frowned. Jason could imagine the way his mind was working, trying to sort through everything he had experienced, and it was almost as if Reltash were trying to decide if he actually had been responsible for damaging the bow. It was enough for Jason to smile.
And yet, he was careful not to say anything. He didn’t want to draw too much attention to the fact that he had restored the bow. He still wasn’t entirely sure how he had done so. If Reltash examined it too closely, he would find it was covered by ice, and that layer should render it brittle, and yet it seemed just as flexible as it had been before.
“I imagine it’s more effective than the one you carry.” Jason flashed a dark smile and pushed past Reltash, heading out of the snow. He could feel Reltash’s eyes burning on his back and he took off, hurrying down the slope. Every so often, he would pause and glance back, but there was no sign of movement coming out of the village.
Move carefully to avoid falling.
This time, he wanted to fall.
He dropped down to his backside, sliding, trying to pick up speed. If he was going to meet the dragon, he wanted to do so as quickly as possible. Now that he had committed to this, it was time for them to get on their way.
It was the middle of the morning by the time he reached the stream and the cave.
Jason darted inside, moving carefully along the lip of earth, and paused to ensure that the two deer he’d caught were still where he’d left them.
They were untouched.
He glanced down at the stream. There was no sign of the dragon.
Here he had committed himself to this, telling himself he would be taking off for the day, but what if the dragon wasn’t interested in that any longer?
He knew the dragon had been off hunting, and it was possible that he had disappeared again. If that were the case, then there might not be anything Jason could do to reach him.
How had he called the dragon the last time?
It had something to do with using the dragon pearl.
He took a seat, focusing on the dragon pearl and on the cold within him. It was the same thing he’d done the night before when he had tried to use that power on his mother, and as he did, he could feel energy radiating from him, striking the pearl and flowing outward.
The dragon pearl began to glow with a soft white light which intensified, striking the crystals overhead and reflecting off them.
It was blazing, illuminating the entirety of the cave, and as it did, he had to worry that doing so might have been a mistake. What if he was alerting others of his presence? If anyone saw the cave mouth glowing like that, they would know something was taking place inside it. It wouldn’t surprise him for Reltash and anyone with him to come down here, not after they had been searching for something.
And he didn’t even know what they had been searching for.
Jason let out a frustrated sigh.
There was no sign of the dragon. The more he focused, the more uncertain he was that he would even come across it.
Reaching the dragon involved some way of communicating, and yet he wasn’t entirely sure what it was going to take. It was possible he didn’t know enough about how to reach out to the dragon. It was something to do with his way of calling to it, but what was that going to require?
He pushed power out, sending it through the dragon pearl.
A stirring in the water caught his attention. Jason glanced over. The dragon poked his head out, letting his eyes press against the surface of the stream, and when his gaze locked on Jason, he crawled out, shaking free. This time, small shards of ice did come splattering off him. It was almost as if the dragon were angry with him.
“You returned,” the dragon said.
“I told you that I would.”
“I wasn’t certain.”
Jason glanced over at the deer. “I had to make sure that my family was provided for.”
“What about my family?”
“You still haven’t told me whether the hatch mates are your family.”
The dragon sat up. It might be Jason’s imagination, but it seemed almost as if the dragon were even larger than the last time he’d seen it. The top of his head brushed the ceiling of the cave. As he propped himself up on his crystalline wings, they spread out, making it so that the dragon filled the entirety of the cave.
“I don’t know.”
“I’m ready to go,” he said. “I told you that I needed to see if there was anything my family needed. I made sure that they had enough to eat, and hopefully they are as prepared as possible for however long it takes us to find the hatch mates.”
The dragon lowered his head, and Jason climbed on.
There was a chill from the dragon, and he wasn’t sure if it came from the creature himself or from the water the dragon had been in. Either way, that chill was almost overwhelming, pressing in upon Jason, and he wrapped his bearskin jacket around himself. Most of the time, he didn’t need the jacket any longer, and yet, with the dragon behaving like this, he had an even greater need for it.
It surprised him. It was almost as if the dragon was angry with him, and yet, Jason didn’t know what he co
uld do to temper that anger. He had left the dragon, yes, but he had needed to. His family had needed him. The dragon had to understand that.
Only, it didn’t seem as if it did.
They glided along the surface of the snow. It was the same thing they had done the day before, and as they slid along the snow, picking up speed the faster they went down the slope, the wind whistling around them, Jason closed his eyes and clung to the dragon’s back. There was nothing else he could do.
He took a deep breath, drawing in the cold air, letting it fill him. In doing so, he managed to ignore the cold he felt through the dragon. It was almost as if he was able to disregard the way the dragon pressed upon him, sending chills rolling through him.
All of a sudden, the dragon stretched out his wings, and they took to the air.
The change was drastic and sudden, and the power with which the dragon used that shift caught him off guard. There was a surge of his muscular wings, and then they soared higher and higher into the air. Unlike the other dragon Jason had flown with, this one did not spiral up. He simply streaked straight up, almost as if angling against the wind gusting against him.
The power of the dragon was almost alarming. They streaked higher and higher, and as they did, Jason gripped the dragon’s back, squeezing with his legs, trying to ensure that he didn’t fall.
Still, there was a sense of joy in flying with the dragon. There was something relaxing about the change, the energy the dragon used, and he cried out in surprise.
The dragon twisted in the air, banking, and they changed directions, angling toward the mountain peak. For a moment, Jason thought they might be visible, but the color of the dragon blended into the bleak gray sky. They were high enough up that he could see nothing other than the snow reflecting up toward him. As they crested the top of the mountain, he looked down, hoping to catch a glimpse of the village, but they were within the clouds and he could see nothing.
And then they angled down.
The dragon hurtled toward the ground, moving more and more rapidly, power surging from his massive wings as he streaked downward.
Jason squeezed, terrified, and yet there wasn’t anything else to do. The dragon wasn’t going to harm him—he didn’t think.
“Where are we traveling?”
The dragon spread his wings and they slowed, catching a current of air and gliding. It was almost peaceful that way, certainly more peaceful than when they had been powering straight ahead, and as Jason clung to the dragon, feeling the way his wings moved beneath him, the entire body flexing as he flew, he experienced that surge of joy.
“I search for the sense of my hatch mates,” the dragon said.
Jason breathed out, letting the cold air circle around him, trying to welcome it, but with as fast as they were moving, he felt nothing more than the cold working over him.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
The dragon rumbled beneath him. “I have been hunting for the last few weeks.”
“This is where you’ve been going?”
“It is.”
They dove, hurtling toward the ground, and as they did, Jason realized the dragon streaked toward a horned creature that was unlike anything he’d seen before. When the dragon neared, the creature darted, and rather than shifting, the dragon spread his wings and glided after the horned creature, snapping it in his massive jaws and swallowing it.
There was a brief spray of blood that stained the snow, but then they were climbing again.
“How often do you need to eat?”
“When I hunt, I eat.”
“And you’re hunting now?”
“We are hunting.”
They continued flying, staying above the ground, Jason clinging to the dragon’s back, feeling the movements of the creature beneath him. With each moment, he started to unwind, letting the sense of the dragon fill him. There was power to it, and yet, the chill he’d been experiencing began to ease. It was almost as if the dragon had finally come to accept that he wasn’t going to run off again.
“What should I call you?”
“Call?”
“I’m sure you have a name. I’m Jason Dreshen. Do dragons go by anything?”
“There has been no need to call me anything.”
“Have you interacted with anyone else?”
“Only you.”
As they flew, there was something about that which troubled Jason. It took a moment to realize why that should be. “How is it that you’ve only interacted with me, and yet you know how to speak my language?”
“I understand the words you know.”
“You can understand my thoughts?”
“We are connected,” the dragon said.
Jason hadn’t realized that, and yet, did it surprise him? It seemed the dragon had had some connection to him ever since he’d first found it, and yet Jason had not been able to know the dragon’s thoughts.
“How is it you can know my thoughts but I can’t know yours?”
“Because you have not tried.”
“I have to have something to call you.”
“Then choose.”
It seemed so simple, and at the same time, it was not. Anything he chose would have to fit the dragon. He wasn’t entirely sure what would be suitable. What could he call a creature like this? He didn’t know anything that might fit with the right language, and yet, he realized something else. He didn’t know the dragon well enough to choose anything for him. Perhaps in time he would.
Rather than calling him anything inappropriate, it might be better for him to simply refer to the dragon as dragon. Eventually, he would have to come up with a name. If they were going to travel together, then the dragon deserved a name. More than that, he probably needed a name. It would be easier for them to communicate.
Perhaps he should have asked Henry how the dragons were named. At least then he would have some idea of what the naming conventions were, and yet, he hadn’t even revealed the dragon’s presence to Henry or any of the others.
There was a part of him that felt a little guilty at hiding the dragon from them, but he thought he owed it to the dragon as an attempt to protect him. The moment the others knew about the ice dragon, they would want something from him. Perhaps they would attempt to use him. It was part of the reason he’d not revealed the dragon’s presence to anyone.
The dragon rumbled again.
“You knew what I was thinking just then, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“Can I keep anything from you?”
“Perhaps you can learn to, but why would you want to?”
“Why would I want you to know everything that I’m thinking?”
“Are you thinking anything that would cause harm to me?”
“I think I’ve proven I am not.”
“Then you would have no need to fear.”
Jason grunted. It seemed so simple to the dragon, and yet he knew it was not. There was nothing simple about any of this.
“The other dragons can’t tolerate the cold, but can you tolerate heat?”
“I haven’t tried,” the dragon said.
“What do you think would happen?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you enjoy the mountains?”
“Enjoy?”
“Do you mind it here?”
“It’s all I’ve known.”
The answer surprised Jason. “And yet you can feel your hatch mates.”
“I can feel them. They are there within me.”
What must that be like? What would it be like for him if he could detect his sister and mother? If he knew how they were feeling and how to help them?
Family, then village.
The hatch mates were the ice dragon’s family.
In some ways, feeling his family would be beneficial. He might be able to use that knowledge to determine whether there was anything they needed of him, but it might also make him suffer more. Knowing the agony they experienced might be more than
he could bear. Perhaps it was for the best that he wasn’t connected the same way that the dragons were.
“If you can feel them, is there any way you can determine where they are?”
“What I feel is what you feel when it comes to detecting my energy,” the dragon said.
“But I don’t really feel anything.”
“You’re aware of the power you can draw from me.”
Jason reached for the dragon pearl. He held on to the dragon with one arm, squeezing his legs, and found the pearl within his pocket. He pulled on the energy within it, drawing it through himself, using the cold as a focus.
“Like that,” the dragon said.
“I can feel it,” Jason said. “The only difference is I don’t know whether it’s coming from you or from something else.”
“The power you’re drawing now is from me.”
“Are all dragon pearls connected to the dragon in the same way?”
“I don’t know.”
“How don’t you know?”
“How many dragons do you know?”
“I’ve met you, and one other.” That wasn’t completely true. There were some other smaller dragons that he had encountered, but they weren’t very large, and he didn’t have as much experience with them. Certainly not enough to discern whether there was anything to their powers. He barely knew about the power Henry was able to draw from the dragons.
“You know more than I know.”
“How many other dragons do you know?”
“None.”
They angled north. They followed the line of the mountaintops, soaring above peaks, traveling farther and faster than Jason could ever have imagined doing. After a while, he lay back, resting, but he had to wonder. If the hatchlings were out there, he didn’t think Therin would have scattered them too far. They might have been within a certain radius of where this dragon was.
“We could go after the Dragon Souls,” he suggested. It wasn’t something he was eager to do, and if he did, he ran the risk of encountering danger. The Dragon Souls knew far more about their magic than he did, and anything he might attempt would be fraught with that danger. It was better to search for the hatchlings with this dragon, but if anyone would know where to find the other hatch mates, then he thought it might be the Dragon Souls, and Therin in particular.
Iron Dragon: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (The Dragon Misfits Book 2) Page 7