by J. Axbridge
“IMPOSSIBLE! YOU SHOULD BE GONE FROM THIS EARTH—ASHES!” Ravot yelled. “THIS CAN’T BE!” The head dragon paused, “There is only one creature we’ve ever encountered that could withstand our fire but their type had been erased from the earth for many years.” Ravot walked slowly up to Mayumi and me, looking us over before turning to the others sharply, smoke still streaming out from his mouth. Victoria and Caelyn glanced up at him still holding their hands, eyes watering with tears. “You two young humans, who are you?”
“Mm, mm, my . . . mm, my sister told you, I’m Victoria and this is my twin sister Caelyn,” Victoria stuttered.
“Yes, I remember your names but, what are you? Surely you are NO MORTAL HUMAN!”
“Um . . . , the Elder Werewolf told us we were part fairy. . . Is that what you mean?”
“FAIRIES? Liars once more, there are no fairies alive in this world. I do not believe your human lies!”
“Show them your nails. Show him the symbols on your finger nails,” I said impatiently.
“NAILS? You have symbols . . . show me now!”
Victoria and Caelyn let go of each other’s hands and turned them over showing Ravot their nails. Clear as day the wings under their nails were visible but instead of black, the wings under their fingernails were now glowing bright red.
Ravot laughed and laughed, surprising us all. Suddenly he didn’t seem so scary anymore but it did make me a little nervous. He reached out his scaly hand and pulled my sisters up. “Please forgive us. If we had known you were fairies none of this would have happened. But you two, yet young, have strong fairy magic in your blood. Usually it takes years for fairies to learn how to put up a protective shield like you did. How long have you been in study of the fairy ways?”
“Studying?” Caelyn asked. “We’ve never studied. We’ve been told we’re the only two fairies on earth just yesterday, if that means anything?”
“You are the TWO!” Ravot hissed, his voice rising. “Braddock said that we may need to search for you someday if we ever left our cave. But it seems fate has brought you to us first.”
“Yeah fate and your cool underground water slide,” Ethan smiled once more and relaxed his tensed shoulders.
“Fate seems to be going around a lot these days.” Arthur blurted out . . . “Wait a minute. A moment ago you tried to kill us, now we’re supposed to believe you’re friends because my sisters are fairies?” Arthur asked skeptically.
“Young man, life can change abruptly. A moment ago, I was definitely going to kill you and your friends, but now I will protect you. You see, fairies and dragons have been friends for thousands of years. Fairies were the ones who helped us escape to this cave and hide until the world was safe for us once more and for this we are indebted to all fairies forever, even these young fairies here.”
“Well, I hate to burst your bubble Ravot but it’s not safe up above like we’ve already told you. The world has been destroyed by a meteor shower that seemed to never end and when it was over most of the humans were wiped out, leaving the earth free for other creatures to control.” Arthur replied, then walked over and stood next to Mayumi, squeezing her hand tightly.
“No matter,” Ravot hissed, “we will fight if you need us. The fairy twins are our friends and since you are their siblings, we now consider you our friends also. We will not harm you.”
“Wait, what about me?” Mayumi stood tall and proud as only she could, letting go of Arthur’s hand in a show of individual strength. “I am not their blood. I am not a fairy, I am simply a human. My ancestors may have even hunted your kind?”
“I admire your strong spirit female, definitely strong.” Ravot hissed, teeth glaring. “You must be a dedicated companion to protect the fairies like you do. A companion like that is more family than blood. May I ask, what is your name young female human?”
Mayumi stuck out her chest looking up making direct eye contact with the lead GuDra unfazed of his size and spoke confidently, “My name is Mayumi . . . Mayumi Gushiken. I am from—”
“GUSHIKEN!” Ravot hissed deafeningly breaking her off mid-sentence. “The Gushiken still exist? Braddock never told us of this.”
“Excuse me, but I am not ‘The Gushiken.’ I am Mayumi Gushiken. You make it sound like I am in a cult or rock band?”
“My dear young female, let me understand. . . Your family name is Gushiken, is it not?”
Mayumi nodded warily in agreement.
“The Gushiken was a group of skilled hunters from an island far away from here and lived many thousands of years ago. They were a noble and dedicated people and the best hunters of beasts. Even at the time when the Draco were being hunted and killed, the Gushiken NEVER came after us. They would in turn mislead other hunters and did all they could to protect my kind. The Gushiken understood we were not a threat to humans, therefore not to be harmed or hunted to extinction.” Ravot eyed the other GuDra with seriousness before they all knelt as a sign of respect. “You, Gushiken and you fairies, we thank you and we will serve with you in this fight you speak of. It is our duty and honor to be by your side until the end if need be.”
Slowly the GuDra returned to their standing positions, their leathery wings scrapping the ground around them. “I’ve never dreamed there’d be a day when the Draco, Fairies and a Gushiken Hunter would be fighting together. This is a monumental day my new friends!” Ravot hissed, clearly elated.
“Don’t forget us. We’re here to help also; it’s not just those three,” Arthur reminded the dragons.
“Please forgive my manners. May I see your nails as well? You are fairies too, yes?”
Arthur, Ethan and I walked closer, holding up our hands. Ravot looked at my hand first then yanked my arm closer forgetting his strength almost popping out my shoulder and I winced in pain for a moment. Spying my finger nails he reached out and pulled Arthur’s arm just as hard and put our hands side by side.
“Let me see your nails brave young human,” he turned to Ethan, who quickly put his hand next to ours trying to avoid being yanked.
“You three . . . you have a, ‘Creature Bond’, the head, body and tail of a beast. It has been seen before but it is rare to see such a bond bringing together three humans of one creature. You three will be quite strong if you stay and grow together and if you fight together in battle your strengths will only increase beyond your imagination.”
The three of us stared at Ravot not sure how to react to his information.
“Bearing the head of a werewolf young lady, your decision making and your awareness of a situation will increase,” Ravot smiled I believe, showing more of his sharp teeth while gazing at my nail. “You are a natural leader.” Letting go of my hand abruptly he turned to Arthur while I rubbed my sore wrist.
“Yours my anxious human warrior would increase your strength when your brother and sister are by your side . . . An important fact one should not dismiss so easily. . . And yours brave young man,” he peered at Ethan more seriously, “Would give you the strength to better balance the situation at hand. It’s only you that can help convince one or the other of your siblings if a decision they’ve made is good or bad. You, I should say may have the hardest task of all. A tail is a very important symbol and you must be brave to have such a mark at such a young age. . .” Ravot stepped back and addressed the three of us again.
“All of you are strong but you are even stronger together, you must never forget that!” The large dragon sounded almost parent like towards the three of us.
“Yeah, we’ve been told that a time or two,” Arthur quipped sarcastically.
“Sure we’ve been told that, but we don’t know what to do with the information?” I jumped in, “That’s another reason why we’re searching for the Book of Symbols. It’s supposed to help us learn more about these things,” I held up my nails, “so we can use our special gift of the werewolf and know those ‘Creature Bond’ strengths you just mentioned.” Exhausted, I walked over and sat down on a boulder to take a rest, stari
ng at the ground. “We need to find that book Mr. Ravot.”
“Yes, the elusive ‘Book of Symbols’ . . . Today is a fortuitous day for everyone it seems.” Ravot turned and motioned to a smaller GuDra he called Chirin, who reached under her wings walking forward. Slowly she pulled out an ancient leather-bound book in her scaly hands. “This, my new friends, is what we’ve been guarding down here for many years, and it is what you’re searching for I believe,” Ravot walked to where I sat, handing the ancient book to me.
Excitedly my eyes widened as I unbuckled the leather strap and opened it with Arthur and Mayumi peering over my shoulder in anticipation.
“It’s blank. IT’S FREAKING BLANK!” Arthur yelled, looking up at the GuDra. “Is this a joke?”
Ethan stood up and now stared along with us as I flipped from page to page seeing absolutely nothing written on the ancient, yellowed pages.
“This unfortunately is what I expected would happen, we too can only see empty pages, yet Braddock swore on his life that this was the original, ‘Book of Symbols’. Therefore, we believe that only a fairy can read it since they were the creators and keepers of the book. It must be protected by strong fairy magic.”
“Vic, Caelyn, get your butts over here and have a look.” Arthur motioned for the twins to join us.
The twins ran over and I handed them the book carefully.
“Really . . . ? None of you can see anything?” said Caelyn, eyes popping out.
“You two cannot see it, can you?” Mayumi asked, tilting her head in curiosity.
“Of course we can, it’s as plain as day,” Victoria said, while Caelyn eagerly flipped from page to page.
“This is amazing. There’s got to be hundreds, no . . . , thousands of symbols in here. I thought there would be only nine or ten?” Caelyn said in awe. “You’ve got to see this.”
“Umm, duh . . . we’re not fairies and unless we grow wings in the next few minutes I doubt that we’ll ever be able to read that book,” Arthur stared frustratingly at the empty pages. “We’re just going to have to trust you two to explain what our symbols mean.”
“You can trust us!” Victoria glared at Arthur.
“It’s no surprise there would be thousands of symbols.” Ravot hissed softer now, seeming more friendly if that was even possible for a dragon. “In ancient times and throughout history there were many magical and mystical creatures that roamed the earth before humans took control. Most creatures had symbols under their nails and the fairies kept detailed track of those, logging the strengths and magical abilities of each symbol in a book, this book it appears.” He tapped a long sharp nail on the Book of Symbols. “I believe even my symbols are in that book,” He held up his scaly hand and under his thick, long, sharp nails we saw a variety of symbols. Wind, Fire, Shield, Bird and Heart were on one dark scaly hand alone.
“All of the GuDra here have symbols under their nails on both hands. Most of us have the same symbols but a few of us have different ones. The symbols you’ll find are specific to each individual and therefore our powers or gifts as some call them are different from each other. This is Jaggo; he has a book symbol on one nail which gives him the ability to read text in any language. He is the only one to have such a symbol and that makes him very special to all GuDra and now to you also.”
The group of us continued discussing the aspects of the symbols as Victoria and Caelyn flipped through the book looking over the various types of symbols, some plain yet others intricate they’d say, along with explanations they would read to us.
“There’s a lot of information in here and it’s all written tiny and swirly. Is this fairy writing? This will take a long time to get through,” Caelyn brought the book close to her face, apparently inspecting a variety of fairy wing symbols closer . . . “But Victoria and I can do it. Remember we have the Power of Two!”
“Hey Super Twins, just find out how we can use our symbols to our advantage and do it as fast as possible. The rest you can read later,” Arthur walked over to the door looking out at the neon blue and green water glowing in the distance. “We need to be prepared for what’s out in the world these days because there appears to be a lot of strange creatures that would rather have us dead, and personally I’d like to live a while longer.” Arthur looked affectionately at Mayumi and she nodded her head shyly, grinning at my brother. They shared a brief yet tender moment silently together, which I was happy for but my heart skipped a beat realizing I’d never get the chance to share such a passionate glance of love with Jax.
Chapter 57 - Trapped
Arthur
Moments after the loud splashing began, I heard that unmistakable dark voice I’d thought we’d finally escaped, “The SymJin are trapped. They do not evade me this time!” The vile vampire seethed as more werewolves and vampires slid into the neon blue and green underground lake. The six of us along with the GuDra stared at the opening realizing we had unwelcomed company much sooner than expected.
“The damned things followed us after all,” I said, sliding up against the wall nearest the opening peeking around the corner as still more vampires and werewolves splashed in. Soon they began congregating on the shoreline near Lawrence Karayan’s abnormally large frame, eerily making no sound at all.
“Good, we are all here,” Lawrence Karayan surveyed the cave. “They’re in here someplace, start searching and find them.” It seemed he was trying to sense our presence with some supernatural vampire power but the thick rock walls must have blocked his ability or possibly it was dragon magic stopping him. Either way I didn’t care because it was working, he didn’t know where we were yet and it gave us just enough time to prepare some kind of defense.
I still realized it wouldn’t take long to be found, after all we were in the only room and a pack of werewolves were already cautiously approaching. Mayumi quickly prepared her darrow and the rest of my family prepared for another fight, pulling out their weapons and scooting in next to me along the wall nearest the opening, so not be seen by those who peered in.
The GuDra hastily took up positions around the room in a circle, spaced out evenly leaning up against the cool rock walls. Once in place they folded their wings over themselves and immediately appeared as mummy-like statues.
“OVER HERE, WE’VE FOUND A ROOM!” A young werewolf cried out to the others. “IT LOOKS LIKE THIS LARGE BOULDER HAS BEEN MOVED.”
“DO NOT ENTER!” Lawrence Karayan roared and I heard him fly towards our room backed by a mix of at least fifty or more angry vampires and werewolves by the sound of their feet clamoring to just outside the opening.
“Yes, they are in there,” Lawrence fumed, the only light shining being the reflection from the glimmering of the neon lake. “I know you’re inside SymJin and this time you will not only die, I’m going to kill you slowly and painfully. GO GET THEM!” Lawrence commanded and the first wave of werewolves and vampires sprinted into the dark room.
Flames shot out immediately from the GuDra and the cave was alight with a mixture of fire and screams followed by the crackling of burning bodies and bones. Victoria and Caelyn thankfully wished for a protective bubble which once again encircled us keeping everyone safe from the dragons’ deadly breath of fire.
Lawrence Karayan was beyond angry; we could hear his high pitched screams emanating from the opening as flames were still shooting out. In less than thirty seconds the first attackers were dead and gone, turned to smoldering ash piles on the ground. Realizing the attackers had been defeated the GuDra stopped breathing fire leaving the room hot, silent and full of rancid deathly smoke.
“ALLISTERS’, YOU’RE NOT ESCAPING. I WILL WAIT HERE FOREVER AND YOU WILL COME OUT!” Lawrence Karayan bellowed into the opening just feet from where we were hiding.
For a moment everything was a hushed silence and very still, until I felt a strange breeze zip by my face. It was the giant vampire, I could feel his presence in the room for a split second, he was so fast that he was in and out of the room before any of us h
ad a chance to react. This could be a problem, I thought.
“INTERESTING. . . I SENSE YOU HAVE THE BOOK OF SYMBOLS AND YOU’RE GOING TO GIVE IT TO ME! THE DRACO ARE NOT GOING TO SAVE YOU AGAIN. I WILL KILL THEM TOO. . . GIVE IT TO ME NOW OR THIS WILL BECOME YOUR EVERLASTING TOMB.”
“That creature chasing you, he is an Ancient, one of evil descent!” Ravot hissed, walking over to us briskly. “If he’s survived this long, it means he is very powerful. And yet he is chasing the five of you, and that means he’s missing something important. . .” Looking towards Chirin, then to the open door, Ravot knew. “He doesn’t just want the Book of Symbols; he needs the Book of Symbols. He needs to know how to activate and use his other symbols on his hands otherwise he would have no use for such a book and would not be coming after the five of you. Whatever symbols he has yet to understand must be very mighty and dangerous . . . We have no more time, we need to get that book out of here and we need to go at once. Fairies, may we have the book for safe keeping?”
It didn’t look like Victoria and Caelyn wanted to give it up just yet but they were scared and handed it over to Chirin without hesitation. Quickly Chirin grabbed the ancient book and slid it under her wings once more and instantly it disappeared.
“Listen,” said Ravot. “We do have another way out, but we’ll have to carry you.”
“Carry us?” Adelaide questioned, “We’re flying out of here?”
“That is correct. We are going up.” Ravot pointed his long scaly finger up as he looked down at Adelaide.
“Up and out. . . Up there?” I stared up at the solid rock ceiling wiping the beading sweat from my forehead. The fire the GuDra had produced made the room feel like a hot and steamy sauna.