The Dragons of Decay

by J. J. Thompson

  He slipped his bare feet into winter boots and just stood leaning against the cabinet, waiting for his body to warm up.

  When he had regained a bit of strength, he moved cautiously across to the fireplace. Naturally there was nothing there but ashes, but there was a pile of neatly cut logs waiting on the floor beside it and Simon knelt down and grabbed one, meaning to set it on top of the ashes.

  But he couldn't.

  He stared in disbelief at his skinny fingers, watching them trying to pick up a log that any child could lift. But there was simply no strength left in him. The logs were frozen together and Simon did not have the power to separate them.

  The cold from the floor was biting into his legs and he slumped back and stared around hopelessly.

  So, is that it then? Is this how it ends?

  He might have laughed if the whole thing wasn't so sad.

  Well, at least I'll die at home, he thought with a shrug of his slight shoulders. Could be worse, I suppose.

  It would have been easy to just slip away at this point, but there had always been a part of the wizard that refused to quit. That small voice inside of him that gave him a kick in the ass when he really needed it. And it did so now.

  No, I can't let it end like this, he thought as anger burned away the fog from his brain. Not like this. Think, Simon! What can you do, even as weak as you are, to survive right now?

  If only I had someone to help me, came the responding thought.

  And that was the spark.

  Of course, you idiot! Think like a wizard!

  He turned his head away from the cold fireplace and stared at the floor.

  “Kronk,” he whispered. “I need you.”

  The tower shook from its foundations to its roof, creaking in the cold. The wooden floor seemed to sag as if made of soft rubber and bounced back and then a small figure made of jagged pieces of dark rock, stood there and gaped at him.

  “Hey buddy,” Simon muttered. “How ya doing?”

  “Master?”

  Kronk reached toward him with his small hand, his red eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.

  “Master? Is it really you?”

  “In the flesh. Well, what's left of it,” Simon said and then he was wracked with a violent shudder.

  The wizard's obvious distress snapped Kronk out of his state of shock and he tip-tapped over quickly, looking at Simon closely.

  “Master, you are freezing!” the earthen said.

  He hurried around the wizard and easily broke off several logs from the pile, stacking them in the fireplace. Then he rested his stony hands on the wood and Simon watched bemusedly as the little guy's body began to glow a fiery red.

  The wood burst into flames and the wave of heat that washed over the wizard made him moan with pleasure.

  “I do not know what has happened, master,” Kronk said to him. “But you are not well. Can you stand? The floor is too cold for you to be kneeling on it. Come, I will move a chair in front of the fire and you can sit on it.”

  Somehow Simon managed to get to his feet and the earthen quickly slid a kitchen chair close to the fireplace. The wizard collapsed on to it and just sat quietly, content to absorb the heat.

  Kronk stood in front of him, looking up.

  “Master, I will need some help to get things back to normal here. You need food and hot liquid and rest and I am only one person. Could you, perhaps, recall Aeris? We could really use him now.”

  “Aeris?” Simon repeated stupidly, feeling his brain moving at a snail's pace. “Oh right. Yeah, good idea.”

  He looked at the space beside Kronk.

  “Aeris, I need you,” he said weakly and then closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable. He wasn't disappointed.

  A distant rumble of thunder penetrated the walls of the tower and Simon gritted his teeth. Then a burst of white light flashed through his closed eyelids and a crack of deafening noise announced the air elemental's arrival.

  Simon opened his eyes and watched as Aeris, who was now floating next to Kronk, looked around in stunned silence.

  “By the Four Winds,” he managed to say finally. “What is going on here? How did we...”

  And then he saw the wizard.

  “You! But you're dead!”

  “Yeah, thanks a lot,” Simon said with genuine amusement. Just seeing his two friends again was making what he'd been through seem more real. “I mean, I know I look like crap, but...”

  Aeris frowned.

  “That's being generous. I'm surprised you're even breathing.”

  He looked around the tower and then turned to Kronk.

  “This place is too cold. Our wizard here will die if we don't get it warmed up quickly.”

  “I am aware of that,” the earthen said stiffly. “I only just got back myself. I asked master to call you to help, so why don't you? I am going to start a fire in the stove to produce more heat.”

  Aeris stared, bemused, as Kronk picked up several logs and scurried over to the cast-iron stove. He shoved them in and then hopped in after them, to start them burning.

  “Um, yes. Right. Good idea,” Aeris said. He flew up and hovered in front of Simon at eye level.

  “It is good to see you again,” he said in a strangely gentle voice. “When you are feeling better, I'd love to know what happened. But for now, I'm going to boil water for tea and then make you some food. You are a shadow of your former self, my dear wizard, and that self was none too fat to begin with.”

  Simon could only smile at the elemental. The warmth felt so good and he was so tired that talking seemed to be too much effort.

  The next few hours passed in a blur for the wizard. With the fires going in the fireplace and the stove, the main floor quickly became comfortably warm again. Aeris made him hot tea and brought up several packages of smoked venison and some jars of pickled and preserved vegetables from the storerooms below.

  Simon ate slowly, his young stomach adjusting to solid food, and could almost feel his body converting the food into energy.

  Once he was done, the wizard had regained enough strength to stand by the kitchen sink and bathe. Aeris had heated water in the kettle and filled the sink and Simon slowly washed away the layers of grime off of his body. When he was done, he toweled off and watched the dirty water disappear down the drain.

  Kronk came down from upstairs with clean clothing and Simon felt a vast sense of relief as he put on clean socks, underwear and a robe and sat back down in front of the fireplace to sip more tea.

  Then the earthen hurried to the door and jumped up to slide open the bolts.

  “Going somewhere?” Aeris asked him as he hovered next to Simon.

  “The horses. I must check on them,” Kronk said, sounding a bit frantic. “They have been alone for days and Sunshine was due to give birth. I will be right back, master,” he added and then slipped out of the door, closing it firmly behind him.

  “Oh damn,” Simon said, too exhausted to move. He felt a knot of fear suddenly burning in his stomach. “I was so caught up in my own problems, I totally forgot about the horses!”

  “Understandable,” Aeris told him. “Don't assume the worst, my dear wizard. Kronk will let you know how they are.”

  With a sigh of helplessness, Simon tried to relax and be patient. He drank some tea and rested the cup on his thigh while he stared into the flames in the fireplace, trying to sort out his thoughts.

  “So how long was I...gone?” he asked Aeris after a few minutes.

  “How long? Well now, that is a good question,” the elemental replied with a frown. “Time means nothing in the elemental plane, you know. But I would hazard a guess and say perhaps a week, possibly two.”

  “Two weeks? Good grief, how is that possible?”

  “How is it possible that you are sitting here alive and well?” Aeris responded with a shrug. “It is a time of miracles, it seems. Now, once Kronk returns, you really must get some sleep. You are barely able to sit upright in that chair, my dea
r wizard. Whatever you have been through has obviously been traumatic and your body needs time to rest and grow stronger.”

  “Yeah, I know. But I need to find out how Sunshine and the others are doing. I also have to get in touch with Clara, Daniel, Liliana...”

  He reached up and tiredly ran a hand over his head. One thing that hadn't regrown during his accelerated growth period earlier was his hair. It was maybe a half inch long now and he felt light-headed and naked without it.

  “You know, you look even younger without that mane of yours,” Aeris told him, amused, as he watched Simon stroke his short hair. “And your white streaks are gone. I will admit, I am dying to hear your story.”

  “Later,” the wizard said. “I'm still trying to work the whole thing out for myself.” He watched the fire burn for a moment. “There is so much to do but I'm limited by my weakness right now. It's going to get frustrating very quickly, I think.”

  “Yes and we all know how much of a joy you are to be around when you're sulking.”

  “What? I don't sulk!”

  Aeris looked at him knowingly and quirked up an eyebrow.

  “You don't?”

  Simon frowned and then had to reluctantly turn it into a sheepish smile.

  “Okay, maybe I do once in a while; a little. But I'm worried about, well, everyone really. The problem is that I think if I tried to cast a Magic Mirror spell, I'd probably pass out.”

  “Exactly why you aren't going to do that,” Aeris said firmly. “You will need a few days of constant nourishment and rest before you cast even the simplest of spells. Luckily for all of us, recalling an elemental that you've previously summoned takes very little magical power.”

  “Fortunately for me.”

  Almost an hour passed before Kronk returned. The door banged open, he hurried in and slammed it firmly behind him. A bitter wind momentarily raced around the room and started Simon shaking again.

  “Good news, master!” the little guy exclaimed as he scurried across the floor. “The horses were inside when I got there. Chief had broken open the door and they had been leaving the stable to use the snow around the tower for water.”

  “Did they have enough food?” Simon asked anxiously. “How's Sunshine?”

  “They were on the last of their hay, master, but I have fed them now and they seem to be happy. And the mare is fine.”

  He paused a moment and then smiled widely.

  “And so is her foal,” he said dramatically.

  Simon gaped at him.

  “She gave birth? Oh my God! How is she? How's the baby?”

  “Mother and daughter are both doing well, master. The filly is the picture of Sunshine, yellow coat and all.” He chuckled. “Chief seems very proud of himself.”

  “I'll bet he does,” the wizard said with a broad grin. He started to get up, hesitated, and then sat down again with a thump.

  “I don't think I'm up to paying them a visit just yet. Maybe tomorrow.”

  “Good idea,” Aeris said approvingly. “Don't push yourself if you don't have to. Baby steps, my dear wizard.”

  Simon had to laugh at that and the two elementals exchange confused glances.

  “I said something funny?” Aeris asked.

  “You did, actually, but you won't understand until I tell you how I got back. And,” he stood up cautiously, “that is going to have to wait. I need to get some sleep. Kronk,” he said as he walked toward the stairs. “Would you double-check the wall and the gates, please? Tomorrow I'll recall your earthen friends to keep watch again.”

  “Of course, master. I was going to do that anyway.”

  “I'll join him,” Aeris offered and smiled at Kronk. “I feel no imminent storms, but better safe than sorry.”

  Simon stood at the bottom of the stairs and caught his breath. He'd never realized just how steep they were.

  “Thanks, both of you. And thanks for the help today. If it wasn't for you, I'm quite sure I would have died. Again.”

  “No master, you would not,” Kronk stated. “You are very resourceful. You would have survived, somehow.”

  Aeris remained silent, only raising a skeptical eyebrow at the earthen's statement.

  “I appreciate the loyalty, my friend,” the wizard said affectionately. “But I think you're wrong. Anyway, if I can actually make the climb, I'm going to bed. Wake me up if a dragon comes knocking. Other than that, please let me sleep.”

  “We will, master,” Kronk said. He moved across the room to stand at the bottom of the steps, watching Simon climb up slowly.

  When the wizard reached the second floor, he looked down and saw the little guy nodding his approval. He winked and headed for his bedroom. Sleep had never seemed so attractive and he was unconscious as soon as his head hit the pillow.

  Chapter 19

  Simon slept long and deep and didn't wake up until midday. When he did, he simply lay in bed staring up at the ceiling. He was going through his memories of the last several days and, the more he thought about them, the less any of it made sense.

  He raised his hands and stared at them in the bright sunlight streaming through the frosted windows.

  A new body, he thought. How about that.

  He wiggled his fingers, balled his hands into fists, opened them again and looked at his palms.

  The skin was pale and pinkish, but the weirdest part was that there were hardly any lines on his palms. A faint heart line and life line, but that was about it.

  “I really am a blank slate,” he said softly and then he thought of the mother of this body; that tragically lonely, brave, desperate woman who had passed away without knowing if her child would live or die.

  “I'll never be able to thank you enough,” he said to her memory. “I just hope that, wherever you are, you know that.”

  Reluctantly, Simon threw back his covers and sat up on the edge of the bed. He grimaced as he realized that he'd fallen asleep fully clothed. He stood up and stripped off his robe, socks and underwear and threw them into the clothes basket in the corner. Then he opened his clothes cupboard and stared at himself in the full-length mirror.

  It was his body, but it wasn't. Pink. Good grief, he was so pink that he looked like a freshly peeled grapefruit.

  Simon stuck out his tongue at himself and then giggled.

  But oh my God, I'm skinny, he thought.

  He ran his hands along his ribs and then up and over his face. His cheeks were hollowed out and his huge eyes, one bright blue and the other a rich brown, stared out of their deep sockets like frightened animals peering out of dark caves.

  “You need food, son,” he told himself sternly. “Get your strength back and your ass in gear. That's it.”

  He took a last moment to rub his head. The hair was so short, he looked like he'd just had a buzz-cut. It made him look about twelve years old.

  “Yeah, people are totally going to take you seriously now,” he said with an eye-roll. Then he grabbed a robe out of the cabinet at random and closed the door.

  After getting dressed and slipping his socked feet into his battered old slippers, Simon carefully walked down the stairs to the main floor. Aeris was just pouring steaming water into a cup and looked up when the wizard appeared.

  “Good day, sleepy head,” he said jovially. “I heard you get up. I thought that you might sleep the day away.”

  “Morning, Aeris. Or afternoon. Whatever.”

  Simon sat down at the kitchen table and accepted the cup of tea from the elemental.

  “No, I've slept enough for now. I am really hungry though.”

  “I assumed you would be, so look,” Aeris said and, opening a cupboard, he lifted something out and flew over to the table with it.

  Simon's eyes widened. It was a loaf of whole wheat bread. The smell was heavenly.

  “Fresh bread? Where did this come from?”

  “Night faeries,” Aeris said and when Simon stared at him in confusion, he laughed.

  “I made it, of course. Where did
you think it came from?”

  “Hang on a second. You can cook?”

  Aeris flew back to the counter, grabbed a sharp knife from the drawer and brought it back to Simon.

  “Cook? Of course I can cook, although to be honest with you, baking bread isn't exactly challenging, is it? Mix the ingredients, bake until it's ready and you're done.”

  Simon began slicing the bread, fingers trembling a bit in anticipation.

  “Oh, I just thought of something!” Aeris exclaimed. “Be right back.”

  He shot across the room and disappeared down the stairs to the basement.

  Now what? Simon wondered.

  He put down the knife and picked up a slice of bread. It was still slightly warm and the wizard closed his eyes briefly, savoring the moment. His mouth was watering so much that he had to swallow before he took his first bite.

  “Don't eat that!” Aeris yelled from the stairs and Simon actually dropped the slice of bread and stared at him in shock.

  “Why? What's wrong?”

  “Nothing. Sorry, but here,” the elemental said and handed him a jar of strawberry jam.

  Simon took it with a laugh.

  “Oh, thanks, Aeris,” he said gratefully. “I'm so hungry, I never even thought of that.”

  “My pleasure. Now, you eat as much as you can while I go out and find Kronk. I'm sure he's with the mare and her foal, but he wanted me to call him when you got up.”

  “Why?” Simon asked around a mouthful of bread and jam.

  “Because, if you are up to talking about it, both of us would like to know what happened to you. Will you tell us?”

  The wizard chewed and swallowed reflectively and then nodded.

  “Sure. Why not? God knows I owe it to the both of you.”

  “Good. We'll be right back.”

  And Aeris disappeared with a little pop of air.

  It might help it all feel more real if I talk about it with someone, he thought, feeling a bit nervous. It's like it was all a dream...or a nightmare.

  Simon was on his fourth slice of bread and was just getting up to make himself more tea, when the front door banged open and Aeris shot into the tower, followed closely by Kronk.