"Land!"
Land?!
For once, Jasper's voice was cause for celebration. Rib leapt to his feet, facing the front of the boat to see the promising, summer green strip on the horizon.
Rib gazed at it dreamily.
Oh land, how I've missed you.
"So which kingdom has the pleasure of hosting us first?" Gavin asked humorously, sweat on his brow as he cleared the deck of monigon dung, flinging each pile overboard. He paused and looked to Mortaug, who answered.
"Ah! Thomdan." Gavin returned to his work, murmuring, "I'm sure I've heard something about it before?Oh." He straightened and looked at Rib. "Actually, this is one of the places where Memory was seen with Zheal."
"What?" Rib grew tense. "You mean the people here may have met her before?"
His friend shrugged, then nodded.
"I- I have to ask them about her!" Rib said. "But?" He stared back over the waters, at all the ships and tiny dots of people on them. "Everyone will be too afraid to talk to me."
Gavin joined him at the front of the boat. "I have an idea for that."
"What?"
"You'll see. Look, there's our port." Gavin pointed to a point of land where many ships gathered around. "Just in time, too. We've run low on supplies. Which means Mortaug wants us to sell monigons."
"Us?" Rib hunkered lower down in the boat as a large ship passed close by. "Gavin, no one's going to pay any attention to your monigons if I'm around. They'll just stare at me and leave."
Unless things are worse here. Rib checked that his wings weren't sticking up in the air too noticeably. What if they try to drive me away?
Gavin smirked at him and gave him a rough pat on the head in jest. "I told you, I have an idea. Don't worry about it."
Now that Rib made an effort to fish for them at least twice a day, everyone on board looked significantly healthier than they had leaving Cliffport. Rib fancied strangers wouldn't even be able to guess the starvation his companions were faced with only weeks ago.
As they neared, all five monigons crowded to the nose of the boat, barking.
"Hey, quiet!" Gavin ordered and they silenced, all turning their heads to their master. It still impressed Rib how well Gavin had managed to train them over the couple weeks of being stuck in a boat with them. The young man hadn't needed to send any of them swimming for a long time now.
Finally sailing in to dock, Rib let everyone else embark before him. The monigons were first to leap out of the Merry May, tearing down the wooden path until Gavin called them back. Jasper and Damara both followed Gavin out, and then Mortaug.
Rib peered over the side of the boat at all the sailors and merchants and children. No one seemed to have noticed him hiding there yet. He tried to take comfort in the feeling of his saddle hugging him tight, wished it would grant him courage.
Well, here goes?
Reluctantly, he clambered onto the dock, taken aback by how very stable it was beneath his feet. He felt as though he had suddenly become the waves, swaying uncontrollably.
Gavin laughed at him and took hold of his wing. "How can you be worse off than I am, when you're the one with four legs?" he asked. "Here, come on."
Rib followed his friend down the dock. As he teetered, he saw people turn and stare, just as he feared they would. Gavin's monigons bound around them, barking joyously.
"Hey," Gavin greeted a stranger who pressed against a post to make way for them.
They passed a group of startled ladies and Gavin nodded to them. "Good day."
When they reached the end of the dock, Gavin let go of Rib's wing, stamping the ground with his foot. "You feel that? Real land."
Rib was distracted, feeling everyone's stares fixed on him. "Gavin, people are scared of me."
His friend sighed.
"Here, let's try my idea," he said and led Rib away from the port, down to the beach. The monigons seemed to like it there, barreling each other over and into the sand.
"What are you doing?" Rib asked as his friend walked over a rocky area, searching the tide pools with his head down.
"There's something here we need. Something that will make people look our way."
"Look our way?" Rib echoed. "People already look my way. Didn't you just see them staring at me?"
"Yes, but what I'm looking for should?Ah-ha!" The young man stopped at a crevice in the rocks, reaching in to retrieve something. "Here."
Rib padded over to see Gavin hands holding a round, spiral shell.
"What is it?" he asked, peering over his friend's shoulder. The shell fit nicely in Gavin's palm, gleaming in the sun.
Gavin didn't answer, but smashed it against a jut of rock.
"What are you doing?" Rib objected. "Isn't there something living in there?"
Gavin grinned back at him. "Relax, O Sensitive One. It's abandoned. See?" He showed it to Rib. The spiral was caved in, chips of it broken away to reveal some sort of white substance inside. "This is what we want."
With two fingers, Gavin dipped into the thick liquid and began applying it to his face, peering into a small mirror he'd pulled from his vest.
Rib watched in confusion, hoping he'd understand once his friend had finished.
"There," Gavin said, and grinned again at Rib.
The substance was already beginning to dry as a pasty white, which stood out against his dark grey skin. With it, Gavin had encircled his eyes and traced his features.
Rib couldn't help but laugh a little. "You look funny."
The young man examined his reflection again. "That's the idea. Now, hold still." He dipped his fingers again and reached towards Rib's face.
"What? Why?" Rib lifted his head away. "You're going to paint me too?"
Gavin gave him a strange look. "Weren't you just complaining how people are afraid of you?"
Afraid?
"Well, yeah. But what will this do to help that?"
With a mischievous expression, Gavin answered, "It'll baffle them."
"Baffle them?"
"Come on, Rib. A little faith in your friend, please?"
Alright?
Hesitantly, he brought his face within Gavin's reach and felt the young man trace rings with his fingers. Rib waited a while longer for him to finish, all the while wondering what he looked like with each dab and stroke. He couldn't feel much except the light pressure of Gavin's fingers on his scales and a hint of coolness from the substance.
"There. Now we match."
Gavin wiped his hands off and held out the mirror for Rib to see. In his reflection he saw his vibrant face, the color firebloom, patterned with circles and lines. His muzzle was outlined, his eyes encircled, and a selective few of the flat, angular scales atop his head were filled in white.
"It doesn't appear as well on me as it does you," Rib commented.
"Doesn't it?" Gavin looked perplexed. "Oh, but we see you as black, remember? To the normal human eye, you look like the dragon version of me." He pretended to pose like Rib, chest out, shoulders back.
"Do I?" Rib took on a stupid smile. "Aw, I'm flattered."
They both laughed and Gavin pulled a small cloth-wrapped item from his vest.
"Here, I have a gift for you," he said, holding it up.
"A gift?" Rib's heart leapt in excitement. He'd only ever seen humans give each other presents. Now he stared at the mysterious package with anticipation. "What's in it?"
Grinning, his friend set it on the beach in front of him. "First, I want to see you try to open it."
"What?" Rib protested. "I can't, I'll break it!"
"No you won't."
As Gavin refused to open it for him, Rib inched his foreclaws right up to the package no larger than a chicken's egg. With gingerly movements, he used his talons to pick at the cloth tightly wound around the item, but it was no use. The package was only pressed deeper into the sand.
"Gavin!" Rib gasped in exasperation.
"Go on."
Curling his lip back, Rib lowered his muzzle to the pa
ckage for a different tactic. He couldn't even see the thing as he tried to get at it with his teeth, but he could hear Gavin laughing at him. He came away with nothing more than a layer of sand in his mouth.
"Gavin," he complained, his feelings hurt. "You know I don't have hands like you. Why mock me like this?"
"I'm not. It's just a little jest, that's all," Gavin said. "Here, I'll do it."
With a flick of his foot, he kicked the package up into his hand.
"Careful!" Rib yelped, thinking he heard whatever was inside make a muffled clinking sound.
"Honestly, Rib." Gavin shook his head.
It made Rib jealous to see how swiftly the young man was able to tear off the cloth. There, in the lighter grey palm of his hand, lay a small metal object. After a moment, Rib recognized it as a bell humans tied to their sheep and goats. Half rusted, it looked as though it'd been lost and exposed to the elements for a year, the only new thing on it being the short lace it was strung on.
Rib set his eyes on it and loved it.
Gavin's giving it to me. As a gift.
"What do I do with it?" he asked eagerly.
Gavin rose his eyebrows. "Well, you're more excited than I expected. Thought you'd be disappointed until I told you what it'd do for you."
"I've never owned anything before!" Rib said. "What will it do for me?"
His friend gave a smile and picked the bell up by its lace. Free of the cloth wrapping, it made a pleasant clinking sound as he rattled it.
Tying the thing to the saddle strap on Rib's chest, he said, "I can put it on you every time we enter a port. That way, people won't be so startled to suddenly see you there, silent as you are. They'll hear you coming."
"Won't that just make them stare at me more?"
"Rib, people are going to stare at you one way or another. What I'm doing for you now is to make them curious, puzzled, humored. Wouldn't you like that?"
To humor them? Rib looked down at the bell hanging from his strap. He wriggled a little to make it clink, a smile spreading across his face.
Gavin shook his head in amusement. "You are one odd dragon."
Putting his fingers to his mouth, he gave a sharp whistle for his monigons.
"Now we really ought to go and sell some reptiles," he said and started back for the port.
Rib started after him, his doubt returning.
"You really think people won't be afraid of me now?"
Gavin gave him a humorously confident look in the eye.
"Trust me," he said. "They'll be far too confused to even think to be intimidated."
. . .
Well, thought Rib, his bell clinking every step he took. I can't tell whether they're scared of me or not.
Everyone was staring at him again as he and Gavin walked into town, but with quizzical expressions this time. Gavin's five monigons tussled with each other around their master, nearly getting under his feet and tripping him.
"So where are we going?" Rib asked quietly.
Hesper trotted beside Gavin and he patted her on the head. "Somewhere with plenty of room?I suppose here. This is as good a place as any." The young man came to a stop on the side of the street, where people silently backed up.
Rib watched as his friend stood up on a barrel and cleared his throat.
What is he doing?
"Dragons, dragons!" Gavin called out loudly to the crowd already looking at them. "Here be the dragons!"
Whisking a feather toy attached to twine from his vest, Gavin got his monigons' attention by swinging it in front of their eyes. All five of them stopped their playing immediately to watch the toy move back and forth.
"Come and see, and you will be amazed by all my dragons!"
Rib pressed up against a wall. "Gavin," he whispered. "Why are you calling them dragons? I'm the only dragon here."
Gavin shushed him slyly.
As people formed a half moon around them, Gavin whistled a short tune before singing,
"In Wystil, they were wild,
But now they are quite mild.
They wouldn't harm a child,
Even when they're riled.
Out hunting, they will chase.
For you, they'll win a race.
Besides protect your house,
They'll catch its every mouse!"
As he sang, he used the dangling feather toy to make his monigons jump and spin. Once and a while, Hesper would perform an especially fancy trick, doing flips off a barrel and jumping onto her master's back to balance on his shoulders. Soon Gavin had gathered a considerable audience, and every time the animals did something impressive, like leap over each other or walk on their hind legs, everyone would clap and cheer.
Look at that, Rib mused. They really are paying attention to his monigons instead of me.
"Yes indeed, it's guaranteed,
This is the very finest breed.
All my buyers have agreed
These dragons meet your every need!"
All his buyers? Rib was confused. He hasn't even sold any monigons yet.
At the end of his song, Gavin got all five of his monigons to line up, flank to flank, and lie down. Then he himself took a bow and jumped down from the barrel as everyone applauded yet again. Rib studied from the distance how they slapped their hands together.
How strange it is, he contemplated. Clapping?
Looking down at his tail, he tried hitting it against the ground and was pleased by the resulting thump.
I can clap! Proudly, he repeated the action, beaming.
By now, people were coming to speak to Gavin. No one seemed to give Rib too much notice, though many knelt to touch the monigons still lying on the ground, voicing their approval.
"Are they trained for Dragon Round?" one man asked Gavin, but was quickly drowned out by the others.
Someone with a clinking sack shoved to the front of the crowd, waving it in front of Gavin. "I have three hundred, forty-five glints right here!" he announced. "I'll give it all for that one there!"
The man pointed towards one of the monigons, a yellowish one that scratched itself with its hind leg.
Gavin couldn't look more surprised as the man forced the bag onto him. Staring down into it, he broke into a grin and laughed. "Sold to you, Sir!"
He sold one! He really did!
Rib held still as Gavin stuffed the sack into a large pocket of his saddle.
"Wait until Mortaug sees this," his friend whispered.
The buyer, obviously delighted, took a rope and tied it around the yellow monigon's neck. A fine lady, presumably his wife, drew near, hugging the man's arm as she beamed down at the pet.
"Is he still young?" she questioned, looking up at Gavin. "Will he grow as big as this one here?" She motioned to Rib, giving him an appreciative gaze.
What? Rib was shocked by her ignorance. She think I'm a monigon, too?!
Gavin laughed good-naturedly.
"Oh, no," he answered the woman. "My friend here is far different than these animals. If you'll notice, he has wings, as these do not." He pointed to his reptilian hounds.
"Oh." The lady began to blush, embarrassed. "Yes, I see now."
My wings? Rib looked from the woman to Gavin. As if that's all that separates me from them!
"I can talk too," he spoke up and everyone silenced.
The woman covered her mouth in surprise. "Oh, my apologies! I just assumed you were like that one Huskhn's steed?Tairg, I think it was. I never heard that dragon speak a word."
Wait. Rib froze. She's seen Memory before?!
"When did you see her?" Rib demanded. "Was she with Zheal?"
"That's right!" the lady exclaimed. "Zheal was his name. Such a lovely man?I've never known a Huskhn to be so admirable. I suppose it must be the royal blood in his veins?"
The man whose arm she clung to cast her a disapproving look.
"What was he doing here with my sister?" Rib urged.
"Your sister? You can't possibly mean Tairg?
"
"Yes!" Rib cried. "She's my sister! Now, please, what was Zheal doing with her?"
The lady gave him a sympathetic smile. "You really care about your sibling, don't you? I'd have never guessed that of dragons."
She's still not answering my question!
Rib became terribly frustrated, looking to Gavin for help. His friend was leaning against his barrel, a slim smile on his face as he rubbed the back of his neck. No one was paying attention to his monigons anymore now that Rib had begun speaking.
Clearing his throat, Gavin asked the woman, "So, you said Zheal was talking about Tairg? What things did he say?"
The lady brightened. "Oh, he was boasting about how Tairg was only the first of his dragons. That soon he'd have dozens?no, a hundred!"
"What?!" Rib blurted. "How?"
"With the help of a wizard," someone else said. "That's what he was looking for here in Thomdan. A wizard."
"But now Lord Griffith is proclaiming himself the Sole Wizard of the World."
"That's right," a youth spoke up. "And he's already refused Zheal's request for help! Soon Husk and Crageria will be at war with each other, just you wait!"
"War?" Rib echoed, aghast.
"Yes," a man agreed. "What a fight that will be. Between two leaders, both on dragon back. You!" He pointed at Rib. "You say Tairg is your sister? What chance does she have in a battle against Lord Griffith's beast? Who will win?"
Rib opened his eyes wide.
Memory will have to fight Oriole?!
"I- I- I don't know!" he stammered. "This is really going to happen? Where? When?!"
I have to save Memory!
"Rib," Gavin coughed, but he ignored him.
"I'm telling you," the youth spoke up again. "Soon! Huskhns don't wait for anything. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if Zheal had Tairg marching his army onto Lord Griffith's territory right now!"
"Right now?!" Rib cried, digging his claws into the ground.
"Rib!" Gavin shouted at him.
"What?" He looked to his friend, mouth trembling.
"Come on," Gavin said, grabbing him by the wing. At the snap of his fingers, all four of his monigons leapt up and followed. The sold one tried to go to Gavin as well, but its buyer held on strong to the rope tied to it.
"But Gavin!" Rib objected. "I need to hear this!"
"No, believe me," the young man told him. As they strode, he wiped off his face of the paint. "It's all just talk. Nothing but rumors."
"How do you know that?" Rib argued.
"Because I can recognize rubbish when I hear it," Gavin answered firmly. "And you had better learn how too. There's a lot these townspeople will make up."
"But-" Rib began to protest again, until his friend stopped to face him and look him in the eye.
"Trust me," Gavin said. "I've been hearing things like this for years working in the inn. There's always some rumor about Huskhns preparing for war against some kingdom or another, but it never happens. People are just afraid of them because they're fierce at sea. They've really only invaded lands once, and that was a long time ago."
Rib willed his heart to stop beating so fast as he held his friend's confident gaze.
Maybe he's right?Those people didn't seem to know what they were talking about.
That one lady even thought I was a monigon.
He sighed, trying to relax muscles.
Clyde is the one who actually saw my sister. I should trust what he told me?
"I'm sorry," Rib said, lowering his eyes to the ground. "I'm just so scared for my sister."
"I know. I'll help you ask about her, alright? Now, come on. Mortaug isn't going to believe how much we got for that monigon."
Chapter 9
Dragon Fool Page 9