by V. M. Sang
Monarlisk went out then and caught a small fawn for Pettic and Cledo and cooked it for them as before. It was approaching sunset and they re-entered the cave and settled down for the night.
The next day, Pettic decided to try out Monarlisk's promises of greater freedom. He set off, after telling a disappointed Cledo to stay, towards the valley bottom where he could see a small lake. He planned to bathe as he had not been able to cleanse himself since arriving on Ignis.
As soon as he got down to the valley and to the lake, Pettic undressed and stepped into the water, bracing himself for the cold. To his surprise, when he got into it, the water felt pleasantly warm. He decided it must be something to do with the volcanic activity in the area. There certainly seemed to be a fair share of volcanoes around, some belching smoke in the distance.
On returning to the cave, clean and refreshed, Pettic found the dragon gone. He thought he would go deeper into the cave just in case the ruby was there, although why he should be lucky enough to find it in the first place he came to he did not know.
He wandered towards the back of the cave, where a wide passage led further into the mountain. The sides floor and ceiling had been scraped clean. He thought it was probably the dragon pushing his way through that had worn it smooth. Although it was a large passage, Pettic estimated it was only just large enough for Monarlisk's bulk to pass through.
Soon he came out into another large cave. Not quite as large as the one at the front, but quite large enough for a dragon to rest at ease. Scattered around the floor was a variety of objects, some large and some small. As he walked into the cave, he concentrated on feeling his earring. Unfortunately, no matter where he went in the cave, there was no answering warmth from his earring. The ruby was not here.
He sat down on the floor and pondered. Cledo licked his master's face as if to say, `Never mind, we'll find it somehow.'
There was a whole world to search, though. Surely, he could not have been put through in a place far away from the ruby? The mysterious magician must have come through in the same way as Pettic and surely would have arrived at the same place. Pettic felt he would not have then travelled right across the world to hide it, therefore it must be somewhere near here.
On the other hand, perhaps the time here was similar to the world of Terra and went much more quickly. He would then have had time to travel a long way without much time passing on Fusionem, as Pettic's world was called. It was a problem.
Then Pettic heard Monarlisk calling from the other cave and he went out to see what the dragon wanted.
`I've decided to trust you even more, my small friend,' said Monarlisk. `I want you to go to the cave I told you about near where my former mate lairs. There are some things there I'm reluctant to lose. Beautiful things. Works of Art and Craft. We dragons love beautiful things for their own sake, not like your people, who only seem to like them for what they can get for them.'
`You said your cave is over the sea. How can I get there?'
`People cross the sea in their boats. You must get a sailor to take you across. I'll give you directions as to how to find the cave when you arrive. It'll be a long journey and will take you many months. I'll give you one full turn of Ignis around the sun. If you aren't back by then, I'll eat your dog.' He wrinkled his nose at that thought, though.
`I'll need money to pay for passage,' Pettic said, and Monarlisk gave him some of his treasure to sell in order to get the required money.
Pettic sighed. How he was to accomplish this task he did not know, but that he must do it was certain, and the next day he reluctantly told Cledo to stay with Monarlisk and he set off in the direction the dragon had told him he needed to go to get to the coast.
Chapter 3
It took Pettic four weeks to reach the coast. He passed a few small towns and villages on the way. Several times someone shot at him as he approached a town and he had to beat a hasty retreat.
Mountains covered the land, and it seemed quite barren in comparison with Fusionem, Aeris and Terra. Those lands were green. This world was brown. A few stunted trees grew on the lower slopes of the mountains and a coarse kind of grass grew there. Small deer-like animals grazed on these lower slopes and bears roamed the high peaks. Pettic heard them at night so he never slept without lighting a fire, even though he did not need one for warmth,
The journey seemed to take forever, but he eventually reached a small town on the coast where he was not shot at, but welcomed. He asked about passage across the sea and learned of a ship that regularly crossed on trade missions and was due back in a few days.
Pettic paid for accommodation at a waterfront inn while he waited for the ship to arrive. The inn was not the best, but it was clean and friendly. It was warm too. The fire burned not wood, but a black substance the people told him they called “coal”. They said it burned much slower and hotter than wood.
The furnaces of the metal workers and smiths burned this strange substance too. They told him it was a rock from out of the ground. This Pettic doubted. He had never heard of a rock that would burn, but he thought if they wanted their secrets, let them keep them.
When they knew he had come from further inland, they asked questions about the dragon that came to live there about fifty years before.
`We never had dragons round here before,' an old man told him. `Why did this one come here? He's a nuisance. He requires sacrifices to stop him from ravaging the area. As if there isn't enough trouble with the volcano and earthquakes without adding a dragon!'
The days passed slowly for Pettic. He was anxious to get this task over with and get on with his search for the ruby. He asked in all the towns he visited if anyone had heard of an artefact with a large ruby in it. No, he did not know what the artefact was, unfortunately. Yes, he understood that made it almost impossible.
One man, hoping to make quick and easy money, told him his father-in-law had a ring with a large ruby in it. The next day he brought the ring to Pettic, having sneaked it away from his father-in-law, but Pettic's earring stayed cold so he knew this was not the ruby he wanted. He apologised to the man and told him to take it back.
Eventually the ship arrived. Pettic's eyebrows rose when he saw it had no sails. How did it cross the sea? That it did was obvious as he watched it come in from the moment it appeared over the horizon.
After the dockers had unloaded it and the captain come ashore, Pettic approached him about a passage when he next crossed. The captain agreed when he saw Pettic had money, but he would not leave for a couple of weeks. Both he and his men needed time ashore with their families. If Pettic were here in two weeks' time he was welcome to have passage.
Another two weeks before Pettic could even begin his crossing of the sea. He was impatient to get on with his task, but as he could do nothing about it, he spent his time talking to people and finding out about their lives.
He discovered that many of the people relied more on something called `science' than magic. He asked about this `science' and they told him it was logical and realistic, unlike magic. Anyone could do science, while it took a special talent to do magic, so it was much more useful to the everyday folk.
After two weeks, he waited on the quay for the captain to arrive, load his ship and set sail. They agreed a fee and shook hands on it then Pettic boarded the vessel.
He soon discovered the ship ran by using this rock called “coal”. It burned in furnaces below decks and then heated water that pushed round huge propellers at the rear of the ship. This idea fascinated him and he spent a long time watching the pistons that drove the propellers, He resolved to suggest the idea to some of the clever men on Fusionem. If they could find some of this “coal” on his home world, what a difference it would make to transport and heating.
Eventually, after a week at sea, which Pettic found most unpleasant, although the captain told him it was quite a comfortable crossing, Pettic gratefully landed on the shores of the land where Monarlisk had come from. Here, he had been warned, were many
dragons as well as their smaller cousins, wyverns. He thanked the captain and set off into the interior.
This country seemed to have as many volcanoes as the land he had come from, if not more. It was a desolate place with not much vegetation. The towns were clustered around the coast where there was a little space for vegetation to grow, but in the mountains it looked bleak and bare.
Pettic soon found a few scrubby shrubs growing, that fed the wild goats and a few relatives of the deer he knew in his own world, and an occasional a grassy area surrounded a stinking pool. The water tasted sulphurous when he drank some but did not seem to do him any harm and he managed to bring down some game with his bow for him to eat.
He was lonely though. He missed Cledo and he hoped Monarlisk would keep his promise not to harm the dog before a year, and that he could get back before the year was out. He plodded onwards into the fiery land, ever nearer the cave and the dangers he knew he would face once he got there.
A few times he saw dragons overhead and crept beneath a rock or an overhang to hide. He had no illusions they may be as accommodating as Monarlisk. Only the loneliness of that great creature had kept Pettic alive so far.
Once he almost stumbled into the lair of a wyvern. The creature hissed at him and lunged, but he managed to back away. Why it did not chase him he did not know, but was glad it did not.
Eventually he saw a landmark. Two columns of rock. They were just below his cave, Monarlisk had told him. If he climbed up from the base of the second one he would find the cave easily. That was easier said than done. Monarlisk obviously never climbed up from here.
Pettic looked up and saw the cave but it was a steep, almost vertical climb. He sat down and thought. There must be an easier way to get there. After a few minutes' rest, he stood up and began to look around.
It took him a good half hour to find the path. It seemed to go in the wrong direction at first, but as he explored it, it wound nearer and nearer to the cave entrance.
Pettic paused in his climb. He always tried to keep himself fit, and in all fairness it had not been difficult. His life as the friend and companion to the prince meant he had learned much of the things the prince learned, and these were active things like fighting and riding. He rarely sat around. Yet this was just what he had been doing recently while he was with Monarlisk. He puffed and panted as he climbed and had to pause for a rest.
Just then a dark shadow swept over him and a reddish orange dragon landed at the entrance to the cave. Fortunately for Pettic, there was a slight overhang above him and he was downwind of the dragon so he could not pick up Pettic's scent. He called across the valley and another musical call answered.
Pettic cowered in his hiding place. The last thing he wanted was to be caught by another dragon. He could not be so lucky twice, and this time he would surely be eaten.
Shortly he heard another dragon land and peeked out to see a beautiful red dragon who was, as Monarlisk had said, the colour of the sunset. This must be Crinilisk. The two greeted each other lovingly, twining their long sinuous necks around each other.
`Do you think more babies will come from this clutch?' asked the male.
Crinilisk replied, `I hope so, Bladmisk. It's been such a disappointment. Only ten living hatchlings in fifty years, and not all those survived. I was so sure that with a younger mate I'd have more eggs. There's something very wrong. It's not only us who are having problems with this. It seems to be all over Ignis that dragon fertility is decreasing.'
`You thought moving caves might help, Crinilisk, but it doesn't seem to have done. Only three eggs this time. It's a major disaster for our kind.'
What Monarlisk said was true then. Dragons could be dying out on Ignis. They had gone on Fusionem and on the world of Terra. He had not seen any on Aeris, either, although he reasoned that perhaps there should have been some, the air seeming to be their natural environment. Perhaps they were becoming extinct on all the worlds.
Pettic was unsure quite how he felt about that thought. Dragons were unfeeling creatures. Not necessarily evil, as they were often portrayed, but just selfish with no empathy with others, even their own kind.
After a while, the dragons seemed to settle down. They entered the cave and all became silent. Now what was Pettic to do? He had to get into the cave to get the items that Monarlisk wanted, but it looked as though the pair had moved from the cave where Crinilisk and Monarlisk had lived. He sat and wondered. Perhaps if he could find out why the dragon's fertility had decreased, then perhaps they would be grateful enough to allow him into the cave to get some of the treasures in there. Perhaps.
As he sat under the overhang, thinking about the dragons' problem, the ground began to tremble beneath him. At the same time, he saw a plume of smoke rising from a mountain on the horizon. Then the mountain began to throw flames into the air. It was a spectacular sight, but the tremors of the ground were not at all spectacular.
Pettic began to feel afraid, then, just as suddenly as it started, the trembling stopped, but the volcano continued to erupt. Although it was some distance away, Pettic could hear the rumbling sound it made. He looked around him for a place to stay but decided the safest place was exactly where he was.
The next morning the volcano was still erupting. The smell of sulphur had increased and the sky was covered by a thick cloud. Pettic tried not to cough, but it was to no avail. A hacking cough escaped him just as the dragons emerged from the cave. Crinilisk looked down and noticed him.
`Bladmisk,' she said, `There's a human down there. I heard him cough then I spotted him. Go and get him for me, would you?'
Bladmisk struggled down the path, which was a tight squeeze for such a large creature. He gently picked Pettic up in his huge teeth, by his leather jerkin and carried him up to Crinilisk.
`Here we go again,' he thought. `I'm a gonner this time, surely. Sorry, Cledo, old boy. I'm sorry I've caused you to die too.'
`Well, well, a human here in our territory. He's either brave or foolish,' said Crinolisk to her mate.
`I hope I'm not foolish,' Pettic said, `but I rather suspect I am.'
Both dragons looked at each other and then at Pettic. Bladmisk spoke to Pettic then.
`How did you learn to speak draconian?' he asked.
Pettic decided he would not mention his amulet. He had thought himself lucky that Monarlisk had not wanted to take it from him. He dare not risk it again.
`I learned it from an old magician,' he told them. `I have no idea how he learned it though.'
Bladmisk thought for a moment.
`It's said the ancient dragons could take human form,' he speculated. `Maybe your magician was the last of the ancients.'
`I've no idea about that,' replied Pettic. `I only know he spoke draconian and taught me.'
The pair of dragons looked at each other again. `Do you think this ancient one could still be alive?' Crinilisk asked her mate.
`It's just possible. Do you think he'd know why dragon fertility has decreased so?'
He turned to Pettic.
`Do you know where he is, human? We might consider sparing your life for an answer to this question of dragon fertility.'
Pettic thought fast. Since there was no old man, he would have to make something up.
`I heard he has since died,' he told the dragons.
`Perhaps he left some papers or something behind that would give a clue as to any findings he may have had on this. I can't believe he wouldn't know about our declining fertility, and as a dragon himself, not try to find out about it. I wonder why he kept human form though?'
The dragons seemed to have decided this fictitious old man had in reality been an ancient dragon. Pettic smiled inwardly to think the dragons had accepted this part of his ruse. Now all he had to do was to get the dragons to let him go in search of this `old man'.
The dragons were anxious to solve the problem of dragon fertility and they agreed, after a long discussion, to allow Pettic to go and find out what he could. If the old
man were dead, they said, then bring whatever he found out to them so they might solve this problem.
Chapter 4
Pettic, with a sigh, left the dragon's lair. At least he had escaped, but he had not got the things Monarlisk wanted. If he did not get them, then both he and Cledo would die at the big black dragon's hand, or perhaps talon would be a better word, he told himself. Still, whether hand or talon, he would be just as dead, and Prince Torren would remain lost.
As he made his way down the mountainside, he thought hard. This awful air seemed to make thinking more difficult. No wonder the people lived on the coast. Not only was the land more fertile, but the air was fresher too. The smell of sulphur still hung around there, but not nearly as bad. In the mountains the air was especially foul when the volcanoes erupted, as one had done just yesterday. It still belched fire and ash and the sun disappeared behind the thick clouds. That couldn't be good. At least on the land where he arrived, there seemed to be fewer volcanoes. In fact, he only saw one. The one on whose side he emerged.
Pettic slowly followed the valley back to the coast and the seaside town where he had landed. The ship he arrived on was just about to leave and the captain hailed him with gusto.
`Are you ready to return, young Pettic?' he called. `We'll be weighing anchor in a couple of hours.'
`No, I've more business to attend to here,' he replied, `but I hope to be ready on your next trip.'
Pettic found an inn with a room that he took for the next four weeks. It would take the captain that long to cross and return, allowing for a shore leave for his men. Then he began his quest for someone who might throw some light on the fertility of dragons.
Most people he met wondered why he asked. Surely the fewer dragons the better? They were fierce and evil beasts who would eat anything and especially virgins.
The townsfolk used to take a virgin up to the mountains every six months for the dragons. They tied her up to a stake and then left. The dragons left the towns alone for a while, after the sacrifice, except for the odd raid on a farm where a farmer had somehow annoyed them.