by Logan Jacobs
Once we arrived home, the guard searched us, just as I thought he
would, and Asta shot me a mischievous smile when he looked in my pack
and found nothing.
“The elders wished to see you upon your arrival,” he informed me.
“I assumed they would,” I agreed.
“The cart is waiting outside,” he said with a gesture to the door.
I nodded and led the girls out to the same cart we’d taken earlier. It
was a different driver this time, but we hopped in, and he started to head back
to the castle.
None of us dared to chat on the ride over. All I could think of was the
eggs back at my house, and I figured the girls felt the same way. Silence was often the way one dealt with secrets, I just hoped it didn’t seem strange to the
driver.
Blar was in my satchel still, and his head poked out and looked around
as we rode, but it wasn’t long until we pulled up to the castle and the cart
came to a stop.
“Alright,” I whispered as the cart pulled away. “Let me do all the
talking.”
“Okay,” Kas agreed with a nod.
“Of course,” Asta said at the same time.
I led the girls up the white stone steps to the hall of elders and pushed
the door open.
“Volrath,” Rinbar greeted me. “You took longer than we anticipated.”
“My apologies,” I said as I walked to the end of the hall where the
three council members sat.
“Have you brought us more good news?” Preyna asked, and I glanced
over to see the egg I’d brought them earlier was no longer in the basket.
“I’m afraid not,” I replied, and I lowered my head in mock shame. “We
were too late upon our arrival.”
“So, you did not get the egg?” Beyer asked, and he leaned back in his
chair.
“No elder,” I said with a shake of my head. “The egg in the nest was
cracked and eaten when we arrived. I saw the culprit, though. It was a giant
wolf, and I managed to injure him, but he had gotten what he wanted and
took off through the trees. We looked around to see if there were any other
nests around to bring you eggs, but there were not.”
“I see,” Rinbar muttered, and he leaned back and pulled on his long
black beard. “This is sad news indeed.”
“You brought us one egg today,” Preyna added with a slight smile.
“That was well done. This was not your fault.”
“I appreciate your kind words,” I said with a bow. “And I do have a
favor to ask.”
“Speak your request,” Beyer instructed, and he eyed me coolly.
“I presume you have scrolls that tell of dragons,” I replied. “I wish to
borrow some for research purposes.”
“The scrolls in our possession are very old,” Preyna said after a
moment, and her dark brown eyes narrowed slightly. “We cannot lend them
out.”
“Would the council permit me to visit the scroll room and look at them
there?” I asked.
The elders glanced back and forth at each other, and I waited for their reply.
“We may be able to arrange something for that,” Rinbar said. “We will
contact you again soon. For now, you are relieved.”
“Thank you, elder,” I said with a bow, and I turned to usher the girls
back out the door.
I led them down the stairs, out the castle gate, and into the heart of the
city before I felt like I was able to take a true breath or try to speak.
“Let’s go to my father’s shop,” Kas suggested once I finally slowed
my stride.
“Okay,” I said. “Did you need to grab something?”
“I think he might have some books on dragons,” she said. “But we’ll
need to tell him what’s going on.”
“Do you trust him to keep a secret?” I asked. “We have gone against
the council’s wishes.”
“I do,” Kas said with a nod. “My father is a strange man, but he’s an
honest one.”
“I believe you,” I replied, and part of me guessed her father might
know more than he’d let on about what we were doing, so I didn’t mind
telling him, especially not if it meant we could get some information.
“I have to admit,” Kas mused as a frown tugged at her lips, “it did
seem strange the elders wouldn’t allow you to look at the scrolls.”
“I thought so, too,” I agreed.
“Do you think they believed you when you said we didn’t find
anything?” Kas asked, and she bit her bright red bottom lip.
“Not fully, no,” Asta answered before I could.
“I’m not sure they did, either,” I agreed. “But right now they have no
reason to think we’d lie.”
“We need to figure out why they want so many eggs,” Kas said with a
determined expression, and then the blonde led us to her father’s shop.
The day had grown late while we were out, and it was dusk when we
arrived. The lantern outside of the shop lit up the street with a small orange
glow, but the sign on the door said they were closed.
“Father?” Kas called out as she walked inside.
“I’m in the back!” Ramir shouted. “You and your friends come here.”
“How did he know we were here?” Asta whispered.
“The same way you know things,” Ramir hollered, and Asta’s eyes
went wide with surprise, but Kas just chuckled.
“You didn’t expect the father of a sorceress to be anything but
impressive, did you?” the strawberry blonde laughed.
“I suppose not,” Asta chuckled.
I let Blar down off my shoulder, and he walked next to me as we
followed Kas to the back of the cluttered store where Ramir had brought me
the first time I’d visited.
We rounded the bookshelf and found the small man sat at his desk with
a large book laid out in front of him. Small reading glasses were perched
upon the bridge of his long nose, and when he heard us, he looked up and
smiled.
“Ah, I thought it would be the three of you,” he said. “And one more, I
see.”
“Father, this is Asta,” Kas introduced.
“A Ljosalfar, yes,” Ramir said, and he looked Asta up and down.
“Good to meet you, nature maiden.”
“Likewise,” Asta responded, and she did a small curtsy.
Kas and I exchanged a look of confusion at the strange gesture, but
Asta just chuckled.
“It is a formal greeting in my culture,” the elf girl explained. “To be
called a ‘Nature Maiden.’”
Somehow, I was not surprised one bit Ramir would know this.
“So,” the old man said, and he laced his long, bony fingers together on
top of the desk and glanced at Blar. “What can I do for you four today?”
“Well,” Kas murmured, and she bit her lip. “We need some
information, but first we need to explain what’s going on so you’ll
understand why we need it.”
“Is this about the dragon?” Ramir asked in the most nonchalant way
possible, and Kas’ jaw dropped.
“How did you know?” Kas asked, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’m your father,” the old man snickered as he beckoned to Blar while
he set his eyes on Kas. “You think you can pull one over on me? Come he
re,
you handsome fella.”
The little dragon scurried up the desk, then, and went right up to
Ramir, who reached under his chin to give him pets.
“You can see through the enchantment?” Kas asked before her voice
dropped into a whisper. “I thought I did so good.”
“You did well, my darling,” Ramir said with a wave of his hand. “But
I’m your father. Of course, I can see through your enchantments if I so
choose.”
“So, you knew he was a dragon last time we were in here?” I asked.
“Of course,” the old man chuckled. “Now, I’m assuming you need
information on dragons?”
“Yes,” Asta said. “Twin dragons, to be exact.”
“Twin dragons,” Ramir murmured, and his eyes narrowed as he
thought. “I don’t sense that this one has a twin.”
“Not this one,” Kas clarified. “Two other eggs.”
“I see,” he said with a nod, then he stood up and went to the bookshelf
behind him and looked through it as he spoke. “Twin dragons are quite
powerful, some of the most powerful dragons. Ah, here it is.”
He brought a large book back to the desk then and set it down. He
waved his hand over it, then, and the pages flew open until they settled on
one page in particular.
I leaned over the desk and looked at the page. It showed two black
dragons that looked almost identical, but one had fire swirling around it and
the other had water.
“It says here twin dragons can wield complementary elements,” Asta
said as she pointed to the book.
“I didn’t even know dragons could control water,” I whispered, and I
was shocked this was even possible.
“Dragons can control many things,” Ramir said, and he smiled his
crinkly eyed smile at me.
“Father, what does the council know about dragons?” Kas asked.
“I don’t know all of the council’s business,” Ramir said. “But a long time ago, there were rumors that dragons hadn’t been banished from Asgard,
but that the council kept them to themselves. Hiding creatures that large
would be difficult, though, so I don’t know how true the rumor was.”
“This was a long time ago?” Kas asked.
“At least a few centuries ago,” Ramir said with a shrug. “I haven’t
heard anything for some time, but if you ask me, the council knows more
than they reveal about a lot of things.”
“They asked us to collect eggs,” I told him.
“I’m not surprised by that,” he said, and his eyes narrowed curiously.
“Did you get the eggs for them?”
“One,” I admitted. “But we have two more they don’t know about.”
“Right,” the old man said, and he leaned forward and spoke in a low
voice. “If I were you, I’d keep it that way.”
After that, Kas gathered up some books and put them in her bag for us
to take home, and Ramir bade us goodbye but told us to come back soon.
“You seem bothered by your father’s opinion,” Asta said as we walked
home.
“He’s always been wary of authority,” Kas sighed. “I just don’t want to
put too much stock in what he says about the council. He’s never liked
them.”
“And you’ve never seen a reason for that,” Asta said with a small
smile.
“No,” Kas agreed before she cocked her head to the side. “Why is that
amusing to you?”
“It’s just children often agree wholly or disagree completely with their
parents,” the elf girl said. “But your father is obviously a wise man, and he’s
lived a long life, so perhaps he knows more than you think.”
“Maybe,” Kas said, and she pursed her lips. “The council did act
strangely today, but I don’t want to turn against them without proof.”
“I think that’s a fine stance to take,” I said with a smile, and the
sorceress smiled back at me.
Once we got back to my house, I built a fire inside, and Kas and Asta
made themselves comfortable on my bed.
Then I started a fire under the stove as well and put on a large pot of
water to boil.
“What are you making?” Asta asked as she looked up from the book in
Kas’ lap.
“I was going to hatch the eggs,” I said.
“Right now?” Kas asked, and she looked up at me quickly.
“Yes,” I answered. “There’s no sense in waiting, is there?”
“I suppose not.” Kas shrugged.
“What if one of them is a girl?” Asta asked with a smile. “Wouldn’t
that be fun.”
“It would be very fun,” Kas laughed lightly.
“I’ve never seen one hatch in real time,” Asta giggled as she and Kas
came to stand by me.
Blar was lying on the counter next to the eggs, but the water started to
boil, so I reached over to pet his head.
“It’s time, buddy,” I told him, and he stood up and shook his little body
before he hopped onto my shoulders to get a better view of the pot. Then I
grabbed the two eggs and carefully placed both of them inside the boiling
water.
“Won’t this cook them?” Kas whispered.
“This is how I hatched Blar,” I said with a shrug.
“Are you sure this is how you did it?” Asta asked, and her yellow eyes
narrowed in suspicion.
“I’m positive,” I chuckled. “Just give it a moment.”
A couple of minutes passed, though, and nothing happened.
“How long should it take?” Kas asked.
“I don’t know,” I muttered and shook my head. “It didn’t take this long
for Blar.”
“And this is exactly what you did before?” Asta repeated.
“Yes,” I said, but then I thought for a moment. “Well, I spoke to Blar’s
egg.”
“You talked to the egg?” Kas asked, and she raised a white eyebrow at
me.
“Yes,” I said with an eye roll. “I was having some mead, and I started
to talk to the egg. I can’t be the first person to talk while they cook.”
“You were trying to eat him?” Asta gasped, and her yellow eyes were
huge with surprise.
“No,” I said. “Well, yes, but I didn’t know what kind of egg it was at
the time.”
“Do you just go around eating random eggs?” Asta inquired.
“Let’s just focus on these eggs,” I said to put a stop to the current
conversation, and then I bent down and looked into the pot. “Hello, in there.
I’m Rath, and this is Blar.”
Blar let out a little bark.
“Can you hear us?” I asked the eggs, and I ignored the look Asta and
Kas exchanged over my shoulder. “We’d love to see you.”
One of the eggs cracked then with a loud tinging sound, and the girls
jumped back slightly. Then we all leaned in to get a better look.
“Talk to it more,” Kas urged.
“We see that you’re twins,” I said. “Can we see both of you?”
Suddenly, the other egg cracked, and a second later, they both began to
crack more and more until the eggs seemed to burst open and a huge splash
of water hit the girls and me.
I wiped my face off and opened my eyes to see two small, red dragons
sitting on the edge of the pot. They stared
at me with bright purple eyes, and I
couldn’t help but grin.
Blar let out a little bark, jumped onto the counter, and ran over to them.
The little dragons greeted each other by smelling one another’s noses, then
the twins nuzzled Blar on either side of his head.
Unlike Blar, these two didn’t have horns, and their bodies weren’t long
like his was because they were still babies. They had short legs, large, round
torsos, thin wings, and long necks and tails. They also had little red triangles
that ran along their spines, and their red color was remarkable. Even in the
firelight, their crimson scales seemed to shimmer.
“Hello,” I greeted them, and I reached out to scratch them under their
chins.
The little things let out little yips and rubbed against my hand. Already,
deep inside me, I could feel we were bonded, and that Blar was bonded with
them somehow as well.
“Wow,” Asta whispered, and she leaned down to get a better look at
the little creatures.
They were about the size of Blar when he hatched, so I held my arms
out to them, and each of them scurried up to one of my shoulders.
Kas reached out to pet the one on my left shoulder while Asta petted
the one on my right.
“What do you think?” I asked Blar with a smile, and he smiled back
and let out a little bark.
“You’re so beautiful,” Asta told the dragons.
“You are,” Kas agreed, then she looked at me. “How will we know if
they’re girls or boys?”
“Hm,” I said, and I picked up the little dragons off my shoulder and set
them on the counter. Then I moved Asta and Kas to one side of me and
picked up Blar before I looked at the little dragons. “Are you a boy or a girl?”
I gestured to myself and Blar to signify boy, and to Asta and Kas to
show girl.
“I don’t think that will--” Asta started to say, but then the little dragons began to move on the counter.
One went over to the girls and sat down in front of them while the
other came over to Blar and me and crawled up my shoulder.
“A boy and a girl,” I said with a smile.
“They look the same, though,” Kas said, and she bit her lip. “How will
we tell them apart?”
“Oh, I know!” Asta gasped, and she reached behind the little dragon
and grabbed one of my kitchen knives. Then she retrieved her old green dress
from the floor and cut a ribbon of fabric from it. She tied the fabric into a