by Darren Lewis
No. She thought grimly. I never would've allowed him to jeopardise my mission. That thought made her angrier but this time at herself.
Cerys batted the air in front of her with both hands trying to instil calm into the camp's leader. As soon as she had heard Blue's mental cries of torment Cerys had left the farmhouse and followed Blue's trail. During the morning she intermittently heard Blue's dreams and nightmares. As she walked they would come to her resembling sound waves crossing the landscape but only visible to her because of her gift. By the time she encountered the camp it was midday and Blue's dreams no longer visited. Cerys thought the worst had occurred.
“Yes but he's not a risk to you.” Cerys explained. “And neither am I.”
Whether by luck or fate Cerys knew the inhabitants of this particular camp and Al, knowing Cerys well, had let her in immediately.
“How the hell do I know that, Cerys? Your word? Fat lot of good that will do us when ten or a hundred dragons pay us a visit!” Rick screwed up his hands into fists in sheer frustration. “I've got my people to think about. They wanted to kick him out of here straight away, a few wanted him dead.” Cerys shivered at Rick's casual mention of murder. “I told them if they did come looking for him at least he'd be alive!” Rick sat back in his chair and stared at Blue sleeping. “Why have you done this, Cerys? The Grey make as many enemies amongst our kind than allies.”
“Oh come on, Rick!” Cerys whispered harshly. “That's bullshit and you know it. They are working to rid us of 'our masters.'”
“Yes well the majority of folks I've spoken to tend to see them as the types who would kill you to cure you of a disease.” Cerys scoffed in disgust and fell silent, her anger simmering. Blue mumbled in his sleep and Rick leaned forward to check on him.
“Why him, Cerys? He's clearly not able to deal with what he knows.” Cerys pursed her lips. She was fine with Rick knowing her affiliation with The Grey and she would offer information on Blue if it aided them both but she was not about to divulge all that she knew. She was also not above lying to get her own way out of a difficult and dangerous situation.
“They believe that he is special. That he was to be raised by dragons and then by humans and only then could we beat our foes.”
Rick gazed at Cerys with narrow eyes wondering if he was being toyed with. After ten seconds of scrutiny Cerys threw her hands in the air.
“Oh fine. The Grey want him okay. I was his contact and was supposed to get him…somewhere.” Rick nodded though he showed quite clearly in his expression that he knew Cerys was still not revealing everything. Cerys leaned closer to Rick. “If I don't tell you any more, then you can't tell them.” Rick bit his upper lip as he considered Cerys' advice.
“Alright, young lady. You have two days, no more, then you're gone.”
Cerys' shoulders slumped as the tension left them, she hadn't realised how on edge she had become.
“Thank you. Now if I can only convince him to trust me.”
* * *
Tears of utter joy spilled down Blue's face as Calda, Galatea's beautiful dragon, emerged from grey cloud into the icy blue of a clear sky. The wind swept them from Blue's cheeks leaving tiny frozen trails behind. Coupled with a half laugh, half sob, Blue rubbed his cheeks against his gloved hands to warm them. He then released the reins attached to the dragon. Not that they were there to guide the dragon, dragons were a long way from horses, they existed purely as a safety feature for the rider.
Calda glanced over her shoulder at the impulsive young rider, noting the dropped reins. The dragon chuckled and looking forward once again dipped her wings. The affect was immediate, the dragon tilted downwards at an alarming angle causing Blue to cry out in shock and grasp ineffectively at the loose, flapping leather straps. Calda righted her angle to horizontal just as quickly and Blue's mouth hit the hard spine of the dragon.
“Never lose your concentration, Blue. You could be in the most normal of environments, even a place of safety and your life maybe in danger.”
Blue tasted blood in his mouth and felt the warm run of blood from his nose.
“I think I've broken my nose.” He complained.
“I'm glad you said 'I' and not 'you.”' Calda noted with approval. Blue fumbled in his riding jacket for a cloth he normally used to clean his goggles and pushed it against his nose, wincing as he did so.
“Okay.” He mumbled through the cloth. “What would I do in a situation like that?”
“First you must ascertain if there is an actual threat as the reverse may also be true. The situation may seem full of danger, full of a threat to your life, but in reality allowing events to play out would be the best course of action.” Calda tilted her wings bringing them in a wide arc, on a course to the Academy. Blue screwed his eyes up.
“How on earth do I tell the difference?”
“What I said 'concentration.' Take heed of every moment and the people around you. It is said that you shouldn't judge people too quickly or harshly but in truth we all do, even dragons. It's how we survive. It just depends on how good we are at making those judgements.”
“Doesn't it depend on what type of person, or dragon.” Blue added, caressing Calda's back. “One is?” He finished.
“Yes.” The dragon admitted. “But we're not just animals surviving on instinct. We must use instinct but temper it with intelligence.”
Blue closed his eyes and thought on the dragon's words. He felt the soft thump of them landing and frowned. They shouldn't be touching down just yet.
“Open your eyes, Blue.” The dragon commanded. Blue opened his eyes and found himself standing in front of Sir Tarvos on the day of Blue's ascendency.
“I know this is a lot to process, Blue, but please use that brain of yours and think.” Blue scoffed at his former master's words. He turned and saw the rest of the students of the Academy standing and watching, each with expressions as lifeless as statues. “These here do not possess your talents and I'm not just speaking of your riding skills.” Blue and Sir Tarvos were now walking through the halls of what had been Blue's home for the last twelve or so years. “You heard me speaking to a distant figure many years ago but that conversation was in here.” Tarvos tapped his finger against his head. “From then we knew you were one to watch, to educate to the best of my abilities before passing you onto those who would continue to teach you for the betterment of our world.”
Blue stopped and waved his hands in frustration.
“But what's wrong with the world?” As soon as the question was spoken Blue pictured the night the graves were filled with the bodies of men, women and children. Tarvos reached out to steady the young man as Blue's legs trembled in horror.
“Any world that allows such an atrocity to happen and disappear as smoke on the wind needs healing, Blue. That was a fact I was convinced of long ago just as I'm trying to convince you now.” Blue wiped the tears from his face and was surprised his hands weren't covered in blood. He touched his nose expecting a flash of pain but he pressed it with no reaction. Tarvos allowed himself a small smile at Blue's confusion. “Yes, Blue, this is a dream.”
“Then you're not real. Calda wasn't real either?” Blue sighed morosely, feeling more distraught that his home had been ripped away from him. The windows to his right shattered with a titanic crash of glass. Blue ducked instinctively and shielded his face but he still saw the magnificent form of Calda enter the long hallway.
“Of course I'm real, daft boy! You just happen to be dreaming.” The dragon growled and sat back on her haunches. “Dreams are the only avenue left to me to communicate with you, Blue.” Calda relaxed and Blue stared into her golden eyes.
“Trust me.” Calda whispered.
* * *
Blue walked alongside Calda through the sodden grass and onto the mud infested road. Storms had apparently washed a great deal of mud and debris from high in the valley, depositing a great deal on the tarmac, concealing the majority of the black road. The sky was now clear and the wind
light. The season should've made for a frightfully hot day. Blue stared into the sky and watched his warm breath rise and mist away. The cold penetrated his riding clothes and Blue acknowledged vaguely he should be shivering, perhaps wailing in pain as the frigid air burrowed deeper into him, surrounding his bones and making them ache. The pain was missing, it wasn't dulled through medication or his mental state, it was simply not there. Blue shrugged, if he wasn't to feel the pain that was fine by him. The road continued and so the young man and dragon continued walking in silence. A few moments passed and Blue realised the silence wasn't a lack of talking on his or Calda's part. Soft though it was, the breeze caused no noise as it washed through the nearby trees and bushes. Birds that Blue could see wheeling and soaring low to the ground and high above his head did so without the chorus of song. Intrigued but not alarmed, how could he be when in the presence of Calda? Blue addressed his own movement. As he walked he was leaving large footprints in the mud. Again there was no associated sound. No squelch of compressing wet earth and no sharp thump as his foot heel struck the exposed tarmac.
Don't worry on it, Blue. Calda reassured the young rider. I can sense your disquiet. These events you are experiencing may seem like fantasies and you think you're being misled, deceived. All we can ask is for you to consider all you know; all you've learned of the world is a lie.
Blue tilted his head and reflected on the dragon's strange words. Whenever Calda spoke to him during instruction Blue had never 'felt' the dragon's emotional state during mind-speak. Now Blue was able to detect distress from the dragon coupled with the odd sensation of tumbling or vertigo, as if the dragon's emotions were out of control within and attempting to be released.
We were different back then, Galatea and I. We revelled and flourished in our zeal. The dragon spoke through her own emotional distress as they carried on down the road. To be a part of the righteous chosen is to be one with power itself. Once you are captured by it, absorbed by it you will do anything that power deems the rightful path. Now it's true enough that sometimes anyone, dragon or human will have to act in a way resulting in terrible consequences to accomplish a right result. Those who do we hope are blessed with a conscience as they should feel the pain every day for the rest of their lives, but they should also experience the good they did and perhaps the universe will forgive them their sins. For us it was never that way. We did as we thought right, with never a thought to whether it was considered 'wrong' as that purely depends on your viewpoint. We had no such viewpoint as for us only one existed. The difference in us? We never questioned our decisions or actions. We never gave those we did hurt a moment's thought. The doctrine was within us and we followed it and at times waded in blood to fulfil our 'rightful' destiny.
The dragon stopped abruptly and Blue took a moment to process Calda's thoughts. He frowned as philosophy was not high on the learning agenda for a would be dragon rider.
Look about you, Blue.
Blue did as he was asked and wasn't surprised that their surroundings had changed, merely curious as to how Calda had accomplished such a feat. Five caravans were standing twenty feet away, arranged to form a horseshoe or cul-de-sac with two caravans sitting parallel to another two and one creating the base of the shoe. Men, women and children were rushing about, their expressions, ones of mortal dread. Parents shooed their children into the caravans as swiftly as possible and slammed the doors, leaving a young couple and their child standing alone. To Blue this was performed in silence, the only sound being Calda's voice in his head.
When you were two years old a tithe was demanded of your small township. It was the same as it has ever been since the end of the war. All children, male and female born within the last year to be presented to us for selection. Your mother and father had already successfully hidden you away for two years and for reasons beyond me one of their neighbours informed on them, seeking to elevate their own station with us. We had the local leaders bring the three of you before us for judgement. You know our ways. Disobedience is not to be tolerated. There are no grey areas, only absolutes.
For the first time in this strange existence, Blue's hands began to shake. He looked down briefly in bemusement to discover the trembling was rapidly rising through his arms and into his shoulders.
Forgive me, Blue. I'm holding your emotions in check but they are manifesting even here 'physically.' Let me finish my story and you will understand. The three of you were sentenced to death. Your parents by the flame and you were to be left outside, unclothed and uncared for as an example to others, offer your children to us and risk us taking them or have them die alone from exposure, hunger or wild animals.
Your parents were brave till the end and fought. I saw in their eyes they would rather be the architects of their own and your deaths. It was over quickly; what resistance could two unarmed humans offer us? The woman, your mother, was mortally wounded and she flung herself across your body. I moved closer, curious more than anything at the time at the utter ridiculous nature of humans. That was when your mother made her final stand. She swept around with a large knife she had hidden within your blankets and slashed my foreleg. I reacted on instinct and thrust my claws forward. They…they went through your mother and into you. The scar you bear was received as I killed your mother.
Blue stared at the ground at his feet. The blood soaked woman had collapsed backwards, her spine arching almost protectively over her child. He watched as Calda bellowed in agony and strode forward lifting his mother and tossing her aside with ease. The two-year-old boy lay upon the muddy ground his eyes wide with fear and cheeks wet from his tears. Calda leaned in close to put an end to the infant, her own blood running swiftly from the knife wound and dripping to the mud next to the child's hand.
There! Calda announced triumphantly and through the roiling emotions of the dragon Blue recognised the elation sweeping all the pain Calda was experiencing aside.
This moment, Blue is why you are so special and stopped me from ending you. The images of the younger Calda and Blue froze. I didn't think it possible. Didn't believe it either, not fully, not until you were old enough to mind-speak. You must've wondered why you were my best student, my best rider? We bonded, Blue! Right there on the mud caked ground!
Blue took a few steps forward and fell to his knees. The shaking was affecting his entire body and for the first time in this odd place his thoughts coalesced into something coherent.
“You're lying!” Blue cried out into the silent world. “You and Galatea are bonded. You are lying to cover past sins!”
No. Calda spoke gently into Blue's mind, caressing it with a soft mental touch. That is your gift, Blue. You are able to bond with any dragon. It changed mine and Galatea's path as we saw the simple innocence and goodness of an older child rather than the pure instinct of a baby. An innocence we'd purposely ignored to do our kind's bidding. It forced us to confront what we were and what we'd done.
Blue drove his fists into the side of his head and dropped forwards, grinding his forehead into the ground and let out a howl of frustration. A sob escaped him despite Calda's control.
“What am I supposed to do?” Blue's breath hitched. The sight of his dying mother and father replayed again and again in his mind's eye. It wasn't grief that was causing him to cry, not yet, it was the conflicting tales he'd learned over the past twenty-four hours. He shook his head violently to dislodge his thoughts as he believed if they remained in his head much longer his mind would be lost.
“Thomas?” A woman's gentle voice reached Blue over the swirling mess in his head. It calmed his breathing and dried his tears for reasons he couldn't understand. A hand laid upon his shoulder and pushed him up to his knees. His watery vision found a young woman crouched in front of him, a gentle smile matching the gentle tone she'd spoken to him in. “Or, Blue, now I should say.” She continued with an amused curl of her lips. Blue's eyes twitched to the bloodied body of the dead woman a few metres away. “This isn't easy but please hold on tight. We're h
ere for you.” Blue frowned and a shadow passed behind the woman. Blue looked upwards into the face of a bearded man, in his twenties, at Blue's guess. The man's brown eyes were filled with love and worry. He placed his hands on the woman's shoulders and squeezed.
“If you need us, Blue. Now you know where we are. Where we've always been.” The man leaned forward and tapped Blue's head. Both adults smiled though the woman could not suppress the tears from falling.
Blue! Calda called out distracting the young man. He turned to gaze wearily at the dragon before returning his attention to the couple in front of him. When he turned they'd disappeared.
I've shown you what I can, Blue. How you proceed is entirely in your hands. Tell Cerys the road you wish to take. And if we do meet again I hope you can forgive me. The dragon turned and walked away from the bloody scene leaving Blue alone in the silent world.
* * *
Blue awoke to the sight of green cloth suspended five feet above his head and the sound of snoring from his right hand side.
“Another cot.” He whispered to himself. Considering his last memory before passing out was one of terror and his dreams were ready to cause a mess of emotions, Blue felt surprisingly clear headed. He levered himself onto his elbows and saw Cerys half lying, half sitting in a rather uncomfortable looking chair close by. Seeing her with her eyes closed the young woman seemed at least five years younger than when Blue had met her. Not that her face bore the weariness of a strangled existence or hard upbringing, it was her eyes. They held such depth of pain when awake it aged her. Cerys snored again and Blue turned away smirking, certain it wouldn't be a good look for anyone when sleeping.
“Ha ha, Blue.” Cerys mumbled as soon as the snore was complete. “I can hear your damn laugh in my head.”
“Sorry.” He apologised swinging his stiff legs over the edge of the cot so his knees touched Cerys'. Cerys sat up slowly, her eyes never leaving Blue's.