The Great Losing: The Mad Dragon King (The World of Shestafa )

by Karine Green

  Mack noticed Méi watching the looks that Romayo and Fabian kept exchanging with each other. It appeared she didn't trust them. Were they still hiding something because it was very clear they were having an unspoken conversation with each other? Maybe he shouldn’t trust them either? He’d have to watch carefully.

  "Why would they do that?" Misty asked. "Why destroy knowledge. Wouldn't they also eventually need it? All the healing books, farming, navigation, and the fire control knowledge, all lost."

  Mack shook his head as he remembered an essay question he’d had in tenth grade. "Hitler..." He shook his head, again as he realized these people wouldn't know who he was talking about. "In the other realm an evil man encouraged book burning, to make the people willingly take away their own history, opinions, and ideas. To make them tear down the cornerstone to their own freedom, and instill fear in those who might try to present a new idea; basically, to promote the hatred of anything un-German; or, in this case, anything un-Secular. Once the hate was established by way of deliberate misunderstanding, it was easy for them to focus it on the Je...the dragons. Both you and Méi said there had been a genocide here that was still actively being carried out. I am starting to wonder less about what happened, and more about how it happened." Perhaps his study of Earth history and religions wouldn't be as useless as he thought. "Understanding is the path to making it end, but that requires an enormous leap of faith, surrender, or a military rout of the enemy. People don’t just give up beliefs because someone said so.”

  Fabian smiled and beamed first at Mack, then at Romayo.

  Romayo sighed and shook his head. "Misty, I am sure Mack is correct. They did it to promote their ignorant hatred, without consideration that they may one day also need the knowledge. An uneducated village is easily controlled. When people are afraid to express ideas, in writing or otherwise, then progress moves only at the pace of what those in power want it to move at. Knowledge is power, as I am sure you know. Not having records makes it too easy to forget important things." He patted Mack's shoulder. "Don't worry about the Forgottenness. The effects will fade, especially when you see your room. Well, at least, I am reasonably sure it is your room."

  Fabian shrugged. “Regardless, it’s his room now.”

  "My room!" Mack said enthusiastically as they passed a closed and dilapidated dragon gear shop. He would have to remember to come back to it. He realized there was a point in time when many villages lived with dragons and humans together, and not just Blue Valley. He needed to know more about that symbiotic relationship, and how it was severed. He wondered if the riders grew up with their dragons, or if they were chosen at a later age. His life with Fran and Ed was fading, and the Great Dragon Makani was resurfacing. He remembered that his parents were Royalty. His mother was Queen Parana and his father was the King Consort and the Air Dragon Minister of Blue Valley. Did that make him a prince?

  Romayo smiled brightly. "Yes, if the room doesn't trigger any memories please let us know, and we will mix the memory tea for you now, instead of with dinner. Be careful if you go to the lower floors. We are now housing refugees from the outer laying villages the Seculars destroyed. We are trying to help them rebuild, but there is still a Secular faction in the hills that burns the new villages as soon as the framework is up. Without a dragon and rider to protect them during the rebuilding they are essentially trapped here," he explained and then pointed to the other large barns. "The upper level in all four guardian barns was once the private quarters of the Ministers. The dragon floor is untouched, and the lower rider homes, offices, and gear storage areas are for refugees." He smiled at Méi. "If you like I can show you to the Fire Dragon's home?"

  "We'll stick together for now," she said, eyeing him.

  Mack smiled at her. Despite her excitement at meeting a dragon trainer and Misty's proven track record, Mei still distrusted humans to her core. Even with all the talk about learning, experience, and books, Mack could tell that she believed them to be untrustworthy killers.

  He felt a rush of excitement as the Air Guardian barn was getting close enough to see the details. The term barn was a woeful understatement. The architecture was definitely that of a large barn, but its decor made it look like it had been renovated into a home by likes of an HGTV Dream Home crew. The villagers were pushing open a set of sliding doors. The bottom level was exposed, and the villagers were using poles to pull open the upper sliding doors to reveal the main room of the dragon quarters.

  "What is that bar along the upper-level entrance?" Mack asked, but he was already having flashes of it. It's where the dragons rest coming and going from the main quarters. They momentarily rested there before entering so their claws didn't scratch the floors.

  "It's a dragon roosting bar," Romayo said, still smiling.

  Fabian frowned. "The only things missing are from the storage rooms on the lower level. It is the weapons, shed claws, and horn lockers. All of which had been taken by the Seculars as an insulting payment to reimburse them for the cost of invading Blue Valley in the first place. I suppose it never occurred to them that they wouldn’t need reimbursement if they had simply stayed home."

  "Really?" Mack said, looking at Fabian. It was the first time his enormous grin dipped since they’d landed.

  Romayo gently put his hand on Mack's shoulder and left it there. "Really."

  Mack looked at him, "Yes?"

  Romayo smiled. "I just wanted to see how you would react to a strange human's prolonged touch," he pointed toward the barn, "Don't worry, somehow we managed to keep the libraries intact. Everything is as..."

  Mack couldn't stand it anymore. He had to go inside. He flew up to the second floor and perched himself on the open balcony, wrapping both of his hind paws around the dragon roost bar. He rested for an instant, then leaned gracefully into what could best be described as the living room. Memories came rushing back. He had entered this room using this bar thousands of times, with one exception. It was on his father’s back.

  His first memory of it was returning from a flight lesson with his father. He was about a month old. His father and his rider, Semiji had taken him out on his first flight. He remembered feeling Semiji's hands on his back to steady him while he clung to his father's neck with his wings spread out. His father assured him he would one day own the air in flight ability.

  Mack’s throat burned as he swallowed unshed tears back. He immediately recognized everything. The main living area had couch-beds of rough granite, the centers crumbled and scratched to a near fine powder. Dried palm leaves covered the granite powder, which should make the bed comfortable to curl up on. There was a tall granite slab in the corner of the room, which was perfect for a dragon wishing to scratch his claws and back at the same time.

  He rolled onto one of the couch-beds. He lay there for a second lazing on it. Then he scratched his claws on the slab. There were shelves and bookcases with scrolls and books on them.

  A painting hung between two bookcases. He jogged over to it, examining it closely. It was his parents. Four dragon pups, ranging in age from about nine to fifteen were in front of two adult dragons. There was one exception. A baby dragon pup was painted looking out of his mother's pouch, also smiling.

  “This is my family.” He sat on his hindquarters looking at the painting, studying every detail of his parents and siblings. "I have momma's stripes and eyes, and dad's paws." He held up his paw to the painting and glanced between it and his father’s likeness. His father had darker blue eyes than him. He smiled, remembering how his two brothers used to tease him about being babied by both his parents and sisters.

  He pointed at their images. "You two were just jealous because I was the favorite." It wasn't true. If he remembered correctly, his mother went out of her way to be fair. As to his sisters, he was well aware he was their baby doll for their tea parties. The only thing that Mack got from momma that was excess was the extra two months in the pouch, which was probably the reason the artist had drawn him there.

&
nbsp; He smiled and put his paw on her image. "I know the extra pouch time and spoiling had more to do with you than with me. I was the last baby. After me, you would have to wait for grandpups."

  He bit his lower lip, he couldn't look at the painting of his family smiling back at him. They looked so...alive. It was like they would be home soon, and he was just waiting for them.

  He walked into the room to the right; his parents den if he remembered correctly. He found two broken saddles and a large granite pouf. The saddles were in various stages of repair. He walked over to them, but something blue startled him from the corner.

  It was another dragon.

  "Hello," he said. No sooner than the word came out of his mouth, he realized it was a mirror. He ran over to it, pushing off so hard that he scratched the floor. "Oops, sorry floor." His mother would have hated that. He choked the emotion back as the memory came and left.

  He stared into the mirror. He really was a dragon. His eyes were the same bluish silvery color as they were when he was in California, except with cat-like pupils. "That would explain how I could see so well last night."

  Two horns were on his head just above his ears. "Cool, I look like the Ram's football helmet." They were probably diamond since they looked just like his claws. He made a face at the mirror like he was going to growl. He almost scared himself.

  "Whoa, I am fierce looking with long, sharp-looking fangs," he growled at the mirror. To him, it sounded like an alligator. Not that he had that much experience with them, but he had heard recordings. He turned his head and admired his horns, again. No wonder Misty was able to hold on to them so easily. His were curved back. Méi's horns were straighter and set up higher on her head, so Misty's hands would have slid off when Méi flew at a sharp angle. He smiled; he liked Misty, and was glad he had built in handles.

  He sat down properly on his hind quarters, not like a human squatting. He noticed how much more comfortable it was. It struck him again that he really was a dragon. He was believing it, "No; I am remembering it. I am not Timothy Makani. I am Makani of the Air Dragons, of the Blue Valley Air Guardians. Dad was the National Minister of Elemental Air Dragons.” But there was something missing in his memory: “What did Mom do, again?” He dismissed it for the moment. He would have the tea later, and that should clear it up. Memories were coming and leaving. It was starting to get annoying.

  He knitted his brow and his eyes stung as he choked back the emotion for the third time. Misty was right, the Seculars had stolen everything. He truly had nothing left of his real life, even the memory of it was fogged. It had nothing to do with the Forgottenness curse. He had been so little when society had collapsed that he naturally did not remember because there were no memories to be remembered.

  He felt a bitterness rise. "No amount of magic tea would fix the fact that my life had been stolen in the biggest case of cosmic identity theft in history. Perhaps it isn't a good idea to talk to the White Witch. I think, I might be tempted to bite her."

  He snapped his jaws at the mirror. Then he spotted something blue on the granite bed.

  He got up, walked over to the bedding, picked up a scale and held it up to his scales. It was a bit larger than his scales, but the color match was exact. He sniffed it and remembered her smell. It smelled safe. He hugged it to his heart. "Momma." He put it down, out of fear of bursting into tears.

  He focused in on the opposite wall. It was lined with shelves, and every nook and cranny was stuffed with either books or scrolls. There was also a writing desk, with two air dragons carved into the side of it. It didn’t have a chair. He ran over to it, and stood there. Leaning back on his hind legs, the desk was the perfect height for a fully-grown dragon to write and study at. He moved his paws to see if the writing was possible as he remembered.

  Thank heavens for opposable thumbs and the fact that dragons have them.

  He looked at the dried-out ink cakes and poked it with the tip of his sharp claw. He jumped as it cracked into three pieces. He could hardly wait to try it, with fresh cakes.

  He looked at the bed again, and walked over to it, climbing in. He turned around three times on it and lay down, sniffing at the old, dried out bedding. A memory crashed into his mind; his father trying to coax him out of his mother's pouch.

  Oh, yes, Momma was the Queen.

  "Come out Little Mack, it's time for you to learn how to play. Your brothers are very excited to fly with you and fish with the Mountain Dragons at the Upper Lake," his father had said, holding out a paw. Mack smiled; he was named after his grandfather, Makani. He was called Mack in order to distinguish the two.

  Romayo had said he had a room. His own room.

  He got up and ran into his room. There was another little granite pouf in the corner. It was pristine. He smiled. "I never slept in it. I always snuck back into momma's pouch." He had been almost eight months old when she finally nipped him in his hindquarter to get him to stop.

  He sniffed at the little bed, being the baby, he had his own room with all the baby toys because his older siblings didn't want to play with them anymore. He smiled, he slept between his parents, instead. He frowned. He knew he had siblings, but he couldn't remember them individually right now.

  The first night he had slept alone was the first night he had spent at Fran and Ed's. He smiled, he’d been spoiled by his parents, in a way that made him feel beyond loved. He had been treasured, by both sets of parents. Poor Fran and Ed would remember him; they would be devastated not knowing what happened to him. Although from a parenting, standpoint Fran and Ed had taught him how to be a young adult, his mother was well on her way to raising a spoiled adult, who would act like a child- a pup.

  Mack looked around his room trying to block out the burning emotional pain that tickled his throat. There was no way to get back to Fran and Ed, and no way he could get his real parents back.

  "All I can do is live life to honor them, both," he said, looking around at all of the little toys. “Lord, I was spoiled.”

  He blew at one of the little wooden whirly gigs that were placed everywhere throughout the room. It spun slowly. Some were on the ceiling, floors, and all over the walls. He smiled and ran up to another one, gently snorting on it. It whirled like crazy.

  The idea was for him to build his dragon's breath to make them all spin, even the ones behind him. He drew in a breath, closed his eyes, and gently let a long breath out. The wind blew his little bed over, and every whirly gig twirled.

  He smiled, wagging his tail, and upheaving his little bed again. "Oops." He turned it back upright, and then ran out to the balcony. "Hey why are you still down there?" he called to Méi and Misty.

  Romayo glanced over at Misty.

  "We wanted to give you some privacy. Are you ready for us?" Méi asked, smiling and wagging her tail.

  "Yes, can you bring Misty up? I don't think there are stairs anymore. We need to rebuild those." He watched Romayo glance at Méi.

  "No! I am not a human transport. You can get her yourself if you want human smell in your barn," she said, flying up. She looked excited. "I haven't been in a dragon barn since I was five. I could have grown up with my sisters in a barn just like this one." Tears welled in her eyes, then she looked at her dirty scales. "Do you have a scale polisher?"

  "Don't know, but if I do you are welcome to it." Mack glided down, and a very happy Misty jumped on his back, gripping his horns.

  Dunia’s Burrowing

  Dunia burrowed under the ground. "Claws in – Claws out – swoosh tail, watch out for the tree roots. Claws in – Claws out. Hey, it's my tree,” she said, recognizing a tree root. “How are you today, tree?"

  She cleared the dirt away from the root. "Excellent," she said, smiling. "You are looking much healthier without those nasty beetles." She cringed at the thought of how much she had enjoyed eating the beetles. “Let’s try one of those spells Blue was talking about; As I breathe out, you breathe in.” She gently blew out as much of the air in her lungs as she could. The
roots seemed to heal before her eyes as the tree took in her exhaled breath – breathing in as she breathed out.

  “Magic is strange,” she said looking at the root.

  Earlier, Blue had helped her read a section of a tree care scroll. Later in the afternoon, she found this poor tree, newly, but badly infected with Fire Beatles. She thought about the scroll, and then she called the beetles to her. Much to her shock, they ran right into her mouth almost begging to be eaten. So, she ate them, and then cried about it for nearly two hours. That’s when he’d shared the basic botany scroll for Earth Dragons with her.

  Blue had told her it was good for Earth Dragons to eat the beetles because it polished their teeth, and helped make ligaments stronger and more flexible. It would help keep burrowing and tree moving easy. A happy side effect was that the tree could usually heal because dragons usually ate all of the invading beetles. Even an entire colony of them wasn’t much more than a small popcorn snack for an adult dragon.

  This was a Shou Sho tree. Its branches could make a salve that would heal severe wounds and in some cases magical humans based in Earth could even heal amputations with it. It was amazing. It was good to be home and remember things.

  She smiled, as she examined the tree routes closer. It was healing nicely. She was also happy she could now burrow well enough to keep the dirt out of her mouth. Although Blue said that it was good for her to let it pass through, she wasn't ready to do that yet, so instead she huffed on the dirt to restore the nutrients, then recovered the roots. Having a friendly Earth Dragon in a village would bring a bumper crop of whatever was planted there.

  "I am getting hungry," she said, placing the dirt back around the root.