Sarah smiled at the lieutenant. “Job security. Excuse me.”
The newly appointed Director of Medical Services moved off in search of others that needed her help. Kneeling down in various spots, she administered aid to every soldier but Darius, who was uninjured.
Steve smiled as he watched his wife moved amongst the soldiers. If they weren’t devoted to her before, they sure as hell were now! Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the griffin watching his wife applying more of the precious elixir.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think to ask. Have you been injured?”
The supple neck snapped around. “I am unharmed. We did sustain several injuries. One of our scouts had most of the feathers on his left wing burned. I presume that ye were responsible for that.”
Sarah returned in time to hear the griffin mention one of his group was hurt.
“Which one? Who’s hurt?”
The surprised griffins all eyed each other. Would they be willing to let this human female heal them? The griffin with the scorched feathers stepped forward. His left wing still stung, threatening to ground him until he had a chance to heal. If this human female could heal him, then he’d be more than willing to take the chance.
Sarah nervously approached the griffin, which was holding out his injured left wing. Feathers were darkened and scorched everywhere. A single, tiny drop restored them to their full luster. Squawking appreciatively, the healed griffin rejoined his fellows, only to be pushed aside as the others approached the human woman, presenting beaks, talons, wings, and so on.
Sarah had just finished healing the last of the company of griffins when a screech sounded in the distance. She instantly scooted behind Steve, waiting to see what was heading their way this time.
A group of twenty griffins landed, with a dozen or so holding spindly cubs in their beaks. She started towards them when the leader of the griffins spoke. “Do not approach yet, human female. Ye will more than likely be attacked. A moment, if ye please.”
The griffin moved amongst his fellows, squawking and chirping, no doubt explaining that the female human will heal them if they allow it. Several times they heard indignant screeches. Finally, the injured griffin with the previously torched feathers squawked his own defense for the humans. The females finally relented, approaching tentatively with their young. Ever so cautiously, with no sudden movements, Sarah applied a tiny drop to each of the creatures that requested her services.
Thirty minutes later, the newly healed phalanx of griffins, with their cubs hovering close by, stretched their wings and forelegs, settling down in the clearing as far from the humans as possible.
Rhenyon sidled up to Steve. “What is this? Why are they not flying away?”
Steve shrugged. “I have no idea. I just figured they’d go about their business. Maybe something is wrong. I’ll go ask.”
Waving his arms finally got the attention of the head griffin, who decided to draw near the powerful human once more. With his newly healed cub in tow, the griffin approached.
“Human. What is it?”
“Everyone calls me Steve. What’s your name?”
The griffin hesitated before answering, “Pheris.”
“Pheris, is everything alright? We can’t help but notice that you guys haven’t flown away. Is there something we can do to help?”
“My fellow griffins are tired,” Pheris explained. “We never had a chance to finish our hunt. Myself and a couple others are now forced to hunt at night.”
“Do you typically hunt at night?”
The griffin shook his head no.
“So you and the others are hungry, is that it? You didn’t finish your hunt?” The griffin wearily nodded. “Would you permit me to see if we can help out one more time?”
The griffin looked down at his cub, his eyes full of pride and concern. He looked back at the human.
“There are over thirty of us. How can ye hunt for numbers such as this?”
“How do you plan to? Besides, I never said I was going to hunt. But we should still be able to help. Wait here, we’ll take care of this.”
Running back to Rhenyon, who had overheard the entire conversation, he motioned for his wife to join him as well. The three of them huddled together.
“Exactly how do ye plan to provide meals for that many griffins?”
“I’m not, Rhenyon. Sarah is.”
Sarah choked. “Me? I can’t hunt!”
“You don’t have to, babe. I’m willing to bet that the castle has everything we need. Think you can teleport the supplies we need here?”
“I don’t know where they keep that sort of thing! Why would you think that I could?”
“Just trust me. If I can get a pack full of meat back on the bed in our quarters, you could bring it here, right?”
“Well, yes, but how are you going to do that?”
“Get word to the king,” Rhenyon immediately answered. “He will do whatever he can to help. He is a strong advocate for fostering interspecies relations.”
“I can only send things back and forth in that pack from our quarters,” Sarah explained. “I don’t think the king will be in our quarters.”
Rhenyon thought a moment. “Can ye place a message on his desk in the Antechamber? That is where he would be right now. He does not retire until much later than this.”
Sarah concentrated, bringing up a mental picture of the Antechamber and the king’s desk. That’s where the map was, she recollected. The king had given an overview about the kingdom of Lentari to Steve there. Yes, she could visualize that desk very clearly. She was sure she could drop a letter right on the desk, if that’s where the king was.
“Yes, I believe I can do that.”
After parchment and ink had been retrieved from their camp, Rhenyon hastily scratched out his request:
Sire, are ye there? If so, respond here on this parchment. Will wait a moment before retrieving – Rhenyon
He folded up the paper and handed it to Sarah. She took it, closed her eyes, and conjured up the image of the king’s desk. In case he was leaning over the desk for any reason, she chose to drop the letter several feet over the surface of the desk and let it fall the remaining distance. If he wasn’t at the desk, but in the Antechamber, it should attract notice. The paper in her hand vanished. She looked at Rhenyon.
“Now what?”
“We shall give him a moment to notice it, read it, and write a response. Then you can bring it back here.”
After giving the king about thirty seconds to respond to the message, Sarah retrieved the paper. She handed it to Rhenyon, who unfolded it at once. There, below his message, was the king’s neat handwriting:
I am here. What is it?
Rhenyon composed his response:
Brokering deal with griffins. Crucial. Will explain later. Need ye to take the pack ye have been filling with food and fill it to the brim with raw meat. Put in same spot for Sarah to teleport. Will return it as soon as emptied. Will need to keep refilling until advised. Awaiting response.
He refolded the paper and handed it back to Sarah, who sent it to the king. After giving him a full minute, Sarah returned the parchment.
Acknowledged. Ready in ten minutes.
Rhenyon smiled. “Excellent.” He took the pen and wrote back, Understood, sir. Our thanks.
“Be ready to teleport the pack,” he said to Sarah. “But we will have to help ye with it. It will be full of meat, so it will be very heavy.”
“We’ll be ready,” Steve assured him.
In ten minutes time, standing in front of the skeptical griffins, Sarah teleported the pack into her arms, then toppled forward. It must have weighed over seventy pounds. Luckily, there was a ring of soldiers standing around her, all waiting to grab the pack the moment it appeared.
Kern and Pheron got to it first. They gently set the pack on the ground while Steve untied the drawstring opening, gesturing for Pheris to come over. The skeptical griffin peered in the pack and squawked with
surprise.
“How do you want us to do this? Just dump it out or would you like to take the pieces out and hand it out yourself?”
“This will not be enough, human, but I do thank ye. We will let the cubs feed, and if there is anything left over, we will eat what we can.”
“Ummm, you don’t understand. As soon as this is emptied, it’ll be sent back to be refilled, where it’ll then be brought back here. We can keep doing this until everyone has eaten their fill.”
The griffin studied the fire thrower. “We are in yer debt, human.” Several squawks had the griffins forming a line, much like you’d find at a buffet, with Pheris guiding them along.
It took two refills before the griffins were sated. It was Rhenyon who made the surprising next step.
“If ye like, all of ye are more than welcome to share the clearing with us. Ye can rest yerselves here before returning back to yer nests.”
The griffin shook his head. “Appreciated, but we will return to the forest. On behalf of myself and my fellow griffins, I thank all of ye for yer kindness. It will not be forgotten.”
In a massive flapping of wings, the griffins took to the air and disappeared into the blackness of the night.
Chapter 11 – Mountains
The following morning found everyone sitting together amidst their partially-dismantled camp. Steve’s eyes travelled around his companions. Rhenyon’s eyes were bloodshot. Pheron met his gaze and nodded his head. He was yawning constantly. Apparently no one had slept as well as he had.
Why wasn’t anyone talking? Even when Sarah brought them their breakfast (still warm!) they had barely mumbled their thanks and sat back down, huddling together. Jalen and Rhein were nervously scanning the skies. Apparently they were expecting something to drop in unannounced. They weren’t disappointed.
Making his daily appearance, Kahvel glided in from the north, touching down with a gentleness that was unbecoming for a creature of his size. No one even bothered to look up, let alone say a word of greeting.
Kahvel snorted. “Missed something, have I?”
“Where were ye last night, dragon?” Rhenyon finally asked. “We could have used yer assistance.”
“I take it that ye are referring to yer little skirmish with the griffins, are ye not?”
“If ye knew about it, why did ye not help?” Rhenyon got to his feet. “If not for Sir Steve, we would have been done for.”
Kahvel leaned low, inspecting the soldier up close. “Ye sound like a man and smell like a man, yet ye whine like a human female not yet grown. Ye are still alive, are ye not?”
Rhenyon grunted. “No thanks to the likes of ye. Ye could have taken them out with one bite.”
“The griffins were yer problem, not mine, human.”
Trying to stave off open hostilities, Sarah stood up. “Rhenyon, I think what Kahvel is saying is that he couldn’t do anything without creating a feud between dragons and griffins.”
Rhenyon turned back to the large dragon. “Is that the truth, dragon?”
Kahvel nodded. “I believe I already said that.”
As the soldiers stowed away the tents and gear, Kahvel approached Sarah and Steve.
“Held off a flock of griffins, did ye?”
Bursting with pride, Sarah turned to the huge dragon. “From what everyone told me, he held off a half dozen griffins by himself while those who were wounded could seek cover.”
“So-”
“And,” Sarah interrupted, “he managed to negotiate a truce between the soldiers and the griffins as well.”
“Then-”
“To top it off,” Sarah continued, steam-rolling right past the dragon, “he convinced the king to send food for the griffins, who had been interrupted in the middle of their hunt by their nests being attacked.”
The massive dragon paused, waiting to see if the small human female was finished speaking.
“Well? What do you say to that?”
“Are ye finished then?”
Sarah smiled. “For now.”
“Ye have done well, Steve.” Kahvel’s piercing gaze rested briefly on Sarah, before returning to Steve. “Ye did not dispatch any griffin?” Steve shook his head no. “Ye are to be commended. I could not say the same if I felt my mate threatened.”
“I could have, very easily,” Steve admitted, “but I didn’t. Something didn’t feel right. So I showed them that I could, and that’s when they started listening. I’m just glad that one of them could understand me.”
“Ye will find most species can understand one another,” the dragon explained. “Whether or not they choose to reveal that information falls within their discretion.”
****
By midday, the travelers finally spied the small, worn path leading northwest up into the mountains. Clutching the painful stitch in his side, Steve scowled as his eyes followed the path uphill.
Great, just great, he mused. Uphill. He hated anything uphill. Downhill hiking was just fine. This, however, was probably going to kill him.
Sensing her husband’s thoughts, Sarah came up quietly behind him. “Just take it slow and easy,” she advised, knowing full well that one of Steve’s strengths was not travelling uphill.
“And if everyone else outpaces me?” Steve muttered darkly.
“Let’s just see how it goes.”
Steve grunted, his mood souring quickly. Fortunately for him, the pace adopted by the soldiers was a gentle one, with frequent breaks. Unbeknownst to Steve, the soldier setting the pace out at the front of the procession was Pheron, who was deliberately going slow for Lady Sarah’s sake. Heal a shoulder and get a devoted friend for life!
The Bohani Mountains were not what Steve had expected. He paused long enough to stoop down and scrape away at the ground. Aside from some loose pebbles, and a thin layer of gravel, there was no vegetation, no soil, just rock. Were all of these mountains as barren as this?
He was used to the peaks of northern Idaho, which were covered with evergreens, various wildflowers, and so on. Steve thought momentarily to the last experience he had exploring those woods. Squirrels had darted up and down the long trunks of the tall trees. Woodpeckers searched for food in the distance. The incessant chirping of insects sounded from all directions.
These mountains, however, were as barren as a prison cell and as quiet as a library on Sunday. The dwarves lived somewhere up there? Their cities were underground? Steve shook his head. He couldn’t even begin to fathom the amount of manual labor necessary to bore through solid rock.
The pace was slower than Rhenyon would have liked, but at least it was progress. They had discovered a small mesa that had the remains of several campfires scattered about. Steve had sighed gratefully. Was this the equivalent of a rest area then?
“How long will we continue to follow this path?” Sarah asked.
Steve, taking a long swig of water from his leather canteen, snorted. “All the way, right?”
Sarah smiled, gently patting her husband’s arm. “We’re going into the heart of dragon territory. I seriously doubt a man-made road will take us within range of the dragons.”
Pheron smiled, nodding his head. “Well spoken, Lady Sarah.” Walking up to the female half of the Nohrin, the friendly lieutenant pulled out a folded piece of parchment: a smaller version of the map hanging in the Antechamber. Pointing to a spot just northwest of the boundary between forest and mountain, the soldier tapped a thin blue line.
“We are searching for this river,” Pheron explained. “Its source originates high in these mountains. Now, we do not need to find the source, but if we travel upriver, it will take us to here,” the lieutenant pointed to a small area devoid of hills and peaks just south of the lake. “This plateau is our destination. We believe the dwarven entrance lies somewhere around there.”
“The entrance to the dwarven realm lies on a plateau?”
“Yes, milady.”
“A plateau is flat. How can a door be on a plateau? I’d think it would be on a
wall somewhere, and according to this map, there isn’t any. Not unless we try here, west of the lake, or possibly the east, where the mountains start again.”
Pheron was silent as he studied the map. The lady’s logic was irrefutable. There could not be any doors there. Questioningly, he looked at the captain, who had overheard Sarah’s remark. Rhenyon, in turn, stood and walked over to the map.
“The exact location of the dwarven entrance is unknown. The dwarves are said to be masters of illusion.” The captain tapped the map, directly over the plateau. “The entrance is there. We have but to find it.”
Finding the mountain stream did not prove to be an arduous task at all, nor was it difficult to follow it upstream. The river had done a wonderful job of burrowing into the rock, creating footholds everywhere. Countless years of erosion had created a naturally flat embankment on both sides of the fast moving river. In this manner, they were able to make close to ten leagues before they found a suitable place to camp for the night.
As the gear was unpacked and Sarah prepared to teleport the nightly provisions from R’Tal, Steve found himself giving Jalen a hand stocking wood for their nightly campfire. However, scraps of wood were scarce, and only a few pieces of driftwood could be found.
“Let us try searching over there, Sir Steve,” Jalen suggested, pointing farther upstream. “There might be some wood up there.”
Steve looked up at the dwindling daylight. “We have maybe fifteen more minutes before it’s gonna start getting dark.”
Following the sounds of splashing water, Steve and Jalen came upon a small waterfall.
“You check around here, I’ll look up there,” Steve instructed, climbing up the rocks to scout around the river upstream.
“Yes, sir.”
If there were any branches or driftwood to be found beyond the waterfall, Steve wasn’t able to find any. A splash of water and a curse announced the presence of his companion.
“Find anything down there?” Steve asked, turning around. A blinding flash of pain brought him to his knees. Spots appeared in his vision as he viciously fought off a growing sense of dizziness. The second blow knocked him forcefully to the ground. Steve blinked his eyes a few times, trying to ward off the darkness that was threatening to envelop him. He managed to make out a few blurry faces before finally slipping into unconsciousness.
Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy Page 28