by Adams, A. D.
“Anything. Meat, hides, baskets, even my healing powers.
Unfortunately, lately people have very little to give me when I heal them. Some won’t heal without being given something, but I can’t bring myself to do that,” Reicka said in a sad voice.
“Meat, that’s easy enough,” Terra said as he walked over to the great dragon that had brought them.
He started to make a series of noises, and it returned the noises and then took off. In a very short time, the great beast returned with a runner bigger than any she had ever seen. It dropped the dead animal in front of Terra.
“Can we trade this?” he asked.
“Yes, that would bring us all the cloth we need and much more. We could keep some for us also,” Reicka said.
“No need, I will get you as much as you need,” Terra said in a calm and unconcerned voice. It was almost impossible to get runner meat from where they were from. But when it was available, one and all sought it.
Reicka was ready to leave with Terra, but Faray insisted that she go with Terra, and Reicka remain behind to rest. Terra picked up the runner as if it weighed nothing and casually tossed it up to the dragon who caught it in it’s great taloned hands. She had seen three men struggle with smaller animals, so his casual use of his strength still surprised her. The dragon lay down, and the two mounted. It leaped into the air with amazing power and seemed to be out of site in moments. Fienna walked up to Reicka and put her arm around her shoulder.
“They are flying over the scrub area and soon will be approaching the green.”
“How do you know this?” Reicka said looking up at her.
“We share our thoughts. It doesn’t seem to matter how far apart we are; I know what he is seeing, thinking and feeling.”
Reicka looked at her in amazement. No humans could share thoughts. She could not imagine the closeness of these two. No wonder Fienna knew what was happening without ever speaking to Terra and that must be how she learned Reicka’s language.
Terra and Faray dismounted Lowlack after again landing in the open field. Suti bounded onto Terra with a force that would have knocked any other man to the ground, but he just grabbed the great cat and hugged it while his face was being licked. Terra told Suti to stay by the dragon as he took the runner and threw it across his shoulders. They then made their way to the road. Faray led Terra to the village. In the center of the oddly made caves was a place where many people were milling around among small covered caves that had numerous things, none of which Terra had seen before. As he entered, everyone turned and looked at the huge man dressed in rags carrying the biggest runner they had ever seen. Faray led Terra to a place that meat hung in. The man standing behind a wood box looked up at the massive man in front of him with fear in his eyes. Faray asked Terra to put the runner down.
Terra dropped it with little more effort than dropping a feather. Faray started to talk to the man, but Terra paid little attention, for he was looking at all the people and things around him. Suddenly, he felt a tug on his arm, and Faray led him to another small cave. Here there were all sorts of cloth, and Faray picked out several pieces and had Terra hold them. They visited several more of these caves and picked up other things including a net that Terra put everything in which he swung over one shoulder. Then they started to walk back to Lowlack.
As they reached the place to leave the road, Terra heard some noise behind them. As he turned, he saw a long straight stick flying at them.
He snatched it from the air as it was about to hit his chest. He saw ten men spread across the road with that fool Wistack behind them. Terra now stood facing them with Faray slightly behind him, and he was holding the stick in his hand. He looked at the stick and saw it had a metal tip like the knife that the fool had. He flung the thing toward the ground. It hit with an explosive force, and as the dust cleared, only a hand’s width length of the shafts protruded from the ground. Suddenly, a small man began to run toward them and then leaped into the air with his feet plunging straight at Terra’s chest. Terra’s arm moved with an unseen speed. His hand was now stretched out, and an orange rope of light extended from his palm to the man in the air. The rope encircled the man’s body, and he was held in mid air three or four paces from them. Terra flicked his hand, and the man was thrown across the road hitting a tree about the diameter of a man’s thigh. As his body struck the trunk, a hideous sound of breaking bones could be heard. It was as if dried twigs were being crushed but much more excruciating. The tree bent back as the body impacted it and then snapped back to its normal position throwing the man’s broken body back into the center of the road. You could barely hear death moans coming from his tortured soul. Faray was frightened beyond description and put her hand on her brother shoulder; her fear melted away like frozen dew in the sun. She felt a power surging through his body so great that it nearly knocked her to the ground, but she managed to stay on her feet and somehow kept her hand in place. From the corner of her eye, she saw another man raise a large metal ax, but before he could throw it, a cat leaped from the dense green forest knocking the man to the ground. Before Terra could raise his voice to Suti, the man’s throat was torn out, and he lay dying with his blood running onto the road. Terra called Suti and with blood dripping from her fangs she loped over to him and sat down stroking her head against his leg and purring like a contented pet. Faray saw an arrow flying right at them, but before she could warn Terra, a bolt of white lightning from a single overhead cloud pierced the air striking it.
The arrow exploded into splinters. The remaining men began to back up all with the fear of death in their eyes. Then from overhead, the leaves of the trees began to rustle, and a shadow fell across them. She saw the men turn to run in fear, but before they could take a step, a wall of flame appeared in front of them boiling in its intensity. The heat was beyond Faray’s ability to feel. The fire rolled down the road dissipating some distance away. The sight that befell her next was beyond description. Eleven sets of charred bones lay before her. The ones furthest away, Wistack was obviously trying to escape the fate he brought upon himself and the others. The road itself was melted, and the foliage facing it burnt black.
Terra looked down, and Faray felt a wave of udder despair pass through her body. It was so strong that her knees collapsed, and she dropped to the ground under the overwhelming power of the emotion.
Her hand dropped away from Terra’s body, and the feeling passed. She could hardly believe the pain he felt at the death of the men who had just tried to kill them. This man was beyond her understanding. The power she felt flowing through him seemed unlimited, but his soul had a kindness that not even a newborn could approach. Terra knelt down and helped Faray to her feet asking if she was all right.
“Yes, yes, please let us leave,” she said in a weak voice.
“The man he healed in front of your cave and a number of others are attacking Terra,” Fienna said to Reicka in an unusually calm voice.
“What?” she said in almost a yell.
Fienna looked at her confused, “He can deal with them. They are no match for him. Even dragons fear his power,” she said with pride in her voice.
“Power, what do you mean power?” Reicka said in a concerned tone of voice.
“He can destroy anything he wishes. I just wish he didn’t feel so bad afterwards. Sometimes I think he’s too gentle for his own good,”
Fienna said in a wistful tone.
“Anything!” Reicka said in a truly surprised voice.
“Yes, anything. Wait!” Fienna said as she held up her hand to quite anymore questions.
“It’s over. Terra and Faray our on their way back,” she said finally.
Lowlack slowly drifted to the ground with his passengers on his back. It was no bother flying them. In fact he enjoyed the adventure. It was something different to do. He was a little resistant to the idea that the two humans were related to Terra, but he seemed to have determined they were telling the truth. If Terra accepted it, he would also. The two got off Lowla
ck’s back with their great bundle and went to the older human female. All the guard dragons had heard that Fienna was with child and soon it would spread to all the dragons on Tone.
Lowlack assumed that the nymphs also knew. Things were changing; he could not decide if it was for the better. He looked above and saw Hectise coming in to land. He had obviously heard what was happening with his daughter and was coming to see if it were true. Lowlack took off and flew back to the rim and landed in his favorite spot were he could see the entire crevice and got the warmth of the sun. The heat made his old bones feel better.
Terra walked with the net full of things they had gotten from the small village to his mother. Faray followed behind. Fienna was in the cave and was just coming out as he dropped the load in front of Reicka.
Faray immediately went to her mother and started to tell her of what had happened, and Terra went to Fienna. They said nothing as Fienna folded into Terra’s arms.
Chapter 75 - The World Changes
(Nothing Stays the Same Forever.)
357 set of seasons since the coming of the Averons
The old woman sat in her cave in the Mur Valley. The fog surrounded her and in the flames of her fireplace as she watched the powerful young man defend himself and his sister from the pitiful attacks of a few insignificant men. In her fire, she saw lightning from the sky destroying an arrow.
“He controls the sky to. All the stones are lit on his chest except the ninth. How much power does he have?” the voice of the many came screeching from the fog.
“Quiet, I need to watch this,” the old woman said in a loud and irritated voice. The fog settled down. She knew her sisters were worried about a man being the one, but the old ones didn’t say who it would be, just that one would come. She was concerned about the lightning. Nowhere did it say that the one would control the sky. He was more powerful than she had imagined. He was uncontrollable by any one on Tone except for the dark one that destroyed all he touched.
“It is time to begin watching him. He is growing into his destiny,”
the old woman said to the fog.
“Perhaps it’s time to contact him. He needs to know what he must do,” the voice of the many said.
“NO! We cannot influence him; he must make up his own mind.
The ancients wrote that no one must interfere. He is the only one who can make the future of Tone. Not us,” the old woman said in an angry voice to the fog.
“Sisters, we must wait and see. We will contact him after the first battle is done,” she said in a kinder more sympathetic voice to calm the souls of the fog. She sat back and began to do the sewing she had put down to watch the young man. His image still flickered in the fire of her cave. He was riding the great dragon to his home holding his sister as they moved through the air effortlessly.
The old Sinut had just finished telling his old friend the land nymph of the things that had happened. Both now knew that this human was the one foretold. They had little knowledge of what he might do or how.
“Those witches know, but they’ll never tell,” he thought to himself in anger.
As he floated in his underwater cave, he reviewed the things that had happened over the last twenty or so full moon risings. He could hardly believe the events. He never thought he’d live to see the sun-rising that the dark one would be defeated, but perhaps now he would.
In the center of the great continent where death and darkness was the way, an evil distorted ancient wizard sat and watched his fire alone. In it, he saw a young man commanding all the powers of magic he had and more. He controlled even the clouds of the sky, and he had not had a sun-rising of training. His hatred and fear of this man was growing sunrise to sunrise, and there seemed to be nothing he could do to stop this young fool. If only he had known of him as a boy. If the boy had only stayed in the human world he would have. He waved his hideous hand in anger, and the picture vanished from the fire fueled by the body of one of his dwarf servants that had displeased him. From the darkness, the voice that had forever tormented him came.
“Your time is short,” he heard with a laugh behind it that wrenched his soul.
“I can defeat him,” he yelled to the darkness that surrounded him.
“I almost did, and I have another plan to try,” he screeched.
Another hideous laugh and the words came to his ears, “You cannot.
You are already dead, and you don’t even know it.” The words cut him to the bone as the laugh faded from his hearing and back into the darkness. He sat back and bellowed for a drink of casoff. He would drown his hatred and fear in drunkenness.
Chapter 76 - A Quiet Time
(A Time of Rest is Always Welcome.)
357 set of seasons since the coming of the Averons
As the sun-risings passed, life in the crevice became quiet once more.
Fienna’s belly was growing with the new life of his daughter within her. She was happy about the birth of her child. His mother had said the baby and mother were doing well. Better than any she had ever seen except for her pregnancy with Terra. Even in her womb, she remembered Terra did nothing to harm her.
As time passed, things settled into a routine. Either Reicka or Faray would be in the crevice with them, the other being home to help those who needed it. The destruction of the men and path were blamed on a passing dragon. No one minded the deaths, for they were all men that many wanted gone, especially Wistack. Terra had not wanted his mother and sister to see him in his dragon state, so he and Fienna made some excuse and had Lowlack take them to the cave they used to hide Terra’s change. Those sun-risings were special to both. After Terra changed, he would fly Fienna to all the places they loved. She was on those occasions again free.
It was a nice sun-rising; the sun was out, and Fienna was in the cave with his mother making clothes for him. Terra decided to go lie in the sun and relax. He lay down near the shore of the lake where the stream of water from the cave babbled into the lake. He was half-asleep when he thought he heard something and sat up.
“Healerrr!”
Terra at first thought it was the water making noise, and it happened to sound like a word. He settled down again and tried to fall back asleep.
“Hhhealerrr.”
This time he knew it was not just water noises. It was a voice made from the waters’ splashing.
“Who’s there?” Terra asked as he sat up.
“I ARE TONE,” a voice from the water said in a gurgling manner.
“Tone is this world,” Terra said.
“I ARE WORLD,” the voice said.
“You’re this world; you’re what I stand on,” he said confused.
“YES, I ARE WORLD. I ARE TONE.”
“Why do you call me?” Terra questioned.
“YOU HEAL I,”it said.
“Heal? Heal what? You are fine. I see nothing to heal.”
“NOT HERE PLACE. BEYOND I HIGH BACK.”
“High back, high back. You mean mountains?” he said in a thoughtful slow questioning voice.
“YES, MOOUNTAAAINS,” the voice said slowly trying to pronounce the word.
“How were you hurt?”
“DARK HURT I. I HURT BAD. I NEED HEAL,” the voice said in painful tones.
“I, ah, how can I heal you.”
“YOU KNOW HOW WHEN TIME. TIME NOT YET.”
“You can wait.”
“I WAIT LONG. I WAIT LITTLE MORE.”
“How long have you existed?” Terra asked in a curious tone.
“I BE FROM BEGINNING. I BE TO END.”
“Who else do you talk to?”
“I TALK NO ONE. YOU ARE I FIRST. YOU ARE HEALER.
YOU HEAL I. I IN PAIN. I PROTECT YOU, YOU HEAL I.”
“You will protect me?” Terra asked.
“I STOP FLYING THINGS WITH CLOUD. I PROTECT HEALER.”
“I will try to heal you. If I can. I want nothing to be in pain.”
“YOU GOOD. DARK BAD. YOU LIGHT DARK,” the voice said in a
n assured tone.”
“What do you mean, LIGHT DARK?” Terra asked in a confused tone.
“YOU KNOW WHEN TIME.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I KNOW. YOU WILL. YOU GOOD. YOU LIGHT DARK NO
OTHER CAN. YOU HAVE NINTH. YOU HAVE ALL MAGIC.
YOU ONLY ONE.”
“What do you mean?” Terra asked, but the water talked no more.
He sat back trying to understand what just happened. His mind reached for Fienna, and she answered.
“Did you hear the water talk?” he thought to her.
“What are you talking about?” she thought back.
“Oh, I just thought I heard something forget it. Go back to what you were doing.”
“You sure, I can come to you,” she thought with concern.
“No, I’m fine go back to what you were doing.”
Terra felt Fienna’s mind fade into her work, and he fell asleep thinking about the words he heard. When he woke, it all seemed like a dream, and he put it from his mind. He got up and went back to the cave.
There, new clothes awaited him. They fit perfectly and gave him an air of power that no one could deny. Even though they fit, he felt uncomfortable in them, so whenever they were alone, he wore nothing, just as Fienna.
Chapter 77 - A Fool’s Attack
(Only a Fool Anger’s a Gentle Man.)
357 set of seasons since the coming of the Averons
It was morning. Terra and Fienna were swimming in the red water of the lake when Dawra came flying in and landed at the lake’s edge.
The two swam toward her. Fienna was now quite large and felt more comfortable in the water than on land, so the two spent much of their time in the lake. Terra found Fienna even more beautiful in this condition, if that was possible. As they approached the shore, Dawra seemed to be agitated about something.
“Terra, a dragon has been badly injured. She has a small one and needs your healing,” Dawra yelled across the water as they swam closer.