Rundimahair: A new hero for a new adventure

by Larry Forkner

  As he stared into Ashling’s troubled green eyes, Sean felt his over confidence melt away. If a woman with the powers and gifts that Ashling possessed was worried, then he was going to worry twice as much.

  * * *

  The days and weeks that followed were spent organizing the residents of Rundimahair into fighting units. Actually, most were already divided into battle brigades, but it had been too long since they’d been put to the test. The younger residents had yet to be assigned.

  Eamon and the Council realized they’d been lax in keeping everyone in fighting shape, since it had been centuries since they last fought for their very lives. They were now dedicated to making up for lost time.

  The key to organizing an effective fighting force was in the blending and sharing of the right powers. Today they were focusing on cataloging the powers and gifts of their younger generations. Everyone from eighteen years of age and older would be part of the greatest fighting force they’d ever assembled.

  Today, Ashling and Sean were training young men and women between the ages of eighteen and thirty. Much of the early training would involve helping them recognize powers and gifts they might have.

  “We’ve been too slow to push our younger generation, Sean,” Ashling said, as they watched training begin.

  “I don’t know about that, Ashling. Some of them look like they’ve got some serious powers.”

  “That’s the point,” Ashling said. “We have a very gifted younger generation, but they are nowhere near their potential.”

  “Can’t change the past, so let’s look to the future,” Sean said.

  Ashling glanced at Sean with furrowed brows but finally smiled and said, “Well said. We enjoyed so many years of peace that we’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to be facing war in the near future. We can’t get those years back, but we’ll make the best of the time we do have.”

  “You’re wise beyond your years,” Sean said, smiling. “And that’s a ton of wisdom, because you are really, really old.”

  Ashling smiled sweetly and then punched his shoulder hard enough to knock him off balance. Sean managed to keep from toppling to the ground as he regained his balance.

  “Oh, I think I touched a sensitive spot. A little defensive about our age, are we?” he said, laughing.

  “Age is meaningless to our race, Sean. By our standard of aging I’m still a young woman and you are still a brat in diapers,” Ashling said.

  Sean chuckled and said, “Fair enough, young lady. I’ll make sure to never bring the subject up again.”

  “Probably for the best,” she replied. “You do have a young girl closer to your age who has a serious teenage crush on you. Maybe you should set your sights on a youngster like that,” Ashling said, arching one eyebrow.

  “You mean, Albie?” Sean asked.

  “Oh, so you can read her mind too,” Ashling said.

  “No, I leave the mind reading to you.”

  “I guess she’s not one for hiding her feelings,” Ashling said.

  “You think?” Sean asked, smiling. “The first time we met she was making her interest very clear, and that was with Aengus right there beside her.”

  “Well then, there you go, Sean. You’ve got your future young wife all picked out.”

  “I was very careful to not encourage her at all,” he said a bit defensively. “She’s a sweet girl, but too young for me. I prefer a more mature woman but one still young enough to be interested in love and romance.”

  “I hope you find the young lass you’re looking for then,” Ashling said, sweetly.

  “Judging by all the kissing and hugging you’ve thrown my way, I believe I’ve already found her,” Sean said, chuckling.

  Their romantic bantering was interrupted when a group of trainees began shouting for help. Sean and Ashling rushed to the small group gathered together. They were standing around an eighteen-year-old young man lying on the ground.

  “What happened?” Ashling asked, as she knelt beside the young man writhing in agony.

  “I’m not sure,” a lovely, blonde-haired girl said through her tears. “We were sparring with clubs and I managed to hit him twice. The first hit was on his shoulder and wasn’t that strong. He swung a hard blow at me and I moved behind him while he was off balance. I punched his kidney, and he went crazy.”

  A young, slender boy next to her said, “She’s right, he just went berserk. David was shouting and screaming and then just fell on the ground and started rolling around.”

  Ashling had been examining David, while she listened to the girl and boy’s explanation. “It’s all right, Susan,” she said to the distraught young girl. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Sean, please get everyone back at least fifty feet. I think I know what the problem is,” Ashling said.

  “You heard the boss lady!” Sean shouted, as he started motioning for everyone to get back. They responded quickly, seemingly anxious to get away from the struggling boy.

  Ashling had already turned her attention back to David and placed her hands on his temples. She listened to his troubled thoughts for a few moments and nodded her head slowly.

  She quickly began pounding on his chest and legs, while shouting angry words, in a language no one else understood. Ashling slapped his face multiple times while she continued shouting.

  After a few moments, David began shouting, which quickly turned into a guttural growl. It appeared to the onlookers like he was having some type of seizure.

  Slowly, his muscles began to ripple and twist as he cried out in pain and agony. Ashling touched his mind tracks, trying to control what was coming.

  “Sean, I need you over here now!” she said urgently.

  He rushed to her side and asked, “What is going on?”

  “No time to explain. I need you to transform into your dragon-self right now!”

  He was dying to ask more questions, but when Ashling spoke in this tone of voice, he did what she asked immediately.

  Sean focused hard for several moments before he felt the change coming. He quickly morphed into his dragon-self and let loose a mighty roar. This is what always happened with the change. It was as if his dragon persona was celebrating its release from confinement.

  As Sean’s dragon-self flapped its massive wings and stomped around with thunderous steps, Ashling watched David very closely. His muscles continued to ripple and twist and turn even faster, while he screamed over and over. Slowly, the screams began to sound more like an angry roar.

  “Okay Sean, give us a gust of fire!” Ashling said.

  Sean raised his mighty dragon head and released a fearsome burst of white-hot flame into the air. The young trainees reacted in several different ways.

  Some of them stood their ground and watched what was happening with fixed fascination. Others backed away and were silent, keeping a close eye on the massive red dragon which Sean had become. A few of them cowered and turned to run away as fast at their legs would carry them. Even though she was preoccupied with helping David, Ashling made a mental list of those who turned and ran. They would require special mental training before they ever went into battle.

  David was now writhing on the ground in what appeared to be complete agony. His muscles bulged massively, and his skin seemed to turning a dark brown.

  “Now Sean!”, Ashling shouted, “Into the air with you!”

  Sean burst into the air, rolling and twisting and turning as he flew. He released a series of fiery bursts as he roared his challenge to any and all dragons.

  The effect on David was immediate. His young body convulsed as he twisted and turned even harder. When Sean roared out another fierce challenge, David’s transformation finally erupted. To almost everyone’s amazement, the young man burst into the air and began flapping his new wings.

  “I knew it!” Ashling shouted, I knew it!”

  The young trainees all gathered back around Ashling and watched in wonder as a long, slender dragon joined Sean in the sky. He wa
s slow and a bit awkward, but he was flying!

  “He’s going to be a brownie,” Ashling said.

  “A what?” one of the trainees asked.

  “He’s a brown dragon!” Ashling said, smiling brightly. Not counting Sean, he’s the first dragon to morph since we moved Rundimahair to America almost three hundred years ago.”

  “That is so cool,” Susan said, smiling. “David’s a dragon!”

  * * *

  After flying together for several minutes, Sean recognized the symptoms of fatigue in David. He remembered them well from his own first time flying.

  Suddenly, David began to revert back to human form. Sean saw what was happening and quickly flew under David, as the boy passed out and began to fall.

  Sean slowly glided to the ground about fifty feet from where the trainees were gathered. Ashling quickly dismissed the children and asked them to be back at nine the next morning. She grabbed a blanket from the medical supplies on hand and rushed to David’s side.

  “That was totally amazing,” Sean said, after Ashling had examined David and covered him with the blanket.

  “You have no idea how amazing it truly is, Sean!” she said, as she watched him approach, while pulling a white t-shirt over his head. Apparently he’d heeded her advice about keeping a stash of clothes nearby for emergencies.

  “I thought you said we weren’t likely to see anymore dragons born to our people,” Sean said.

  “It had been so long since we’d had a new dragon that we all thought we’d see no more,” Ashling said, with tears of joy in her eyes.

  “This is a big deal, right?” he asked, as he knelt beside Ashling.

  “Dragons were always what gave us the advantage over Grainne and her followers,” Ashling said. “Without more of them, our chances of surviving a full out war with her were slim.”

  “So now our chances just got better,” Sean said, with growing excitement. “I can’t wait to start training David, and any others who might be born.”

  “You and I both,” she said, smiling at him.

  “So how come I came out full on red and he’s kind of light brown. Is it because he’s younger?” Sean asked.

  She shook her head and said, “No, it’s just a different breed than a red. Your red breed is the rarest of all dragons–and the most powerful.”

  “Oh, so David is not going to be as powerful as I am?”

  “Don’t get yourself all arrogant about it,” Ashling said, laughing.

  “No, it’s not like that,” Sean said, smiling as he took her hand in his. “I was just hoping for a really powerful guy to help us defeat the crazy woman.”

  “Yes, another red would have been amazing but don’t discount our new brownie here. He’s going to be a powerful dragon in his own right.”

  “Really? You call them brownies? That’s kind of demeaning, isn’t it?” Sean said.

  “It’s just what they’re called when they are first born,” she explained. “No one but a red dragon had better ever call David a brownie. As you know, dragon’s tempers can be somewhat unpredictable.”

  “Especially those girl dragons,” Sean said, laughing. Of course, that’s the same with humans too.”

  “What do humans call guys like you?” Ashling asked. “Oh yeah, ignorant rednecks.”

  “Is that girl dragon humor?” Sean asked, as he slowly backed away.

  “You’re so lucky I have to get David back to town, Sean. Now close your ignorant yap before you say anything else offensive. I need you to fly our newest dragon home. After he’s had a chance to rest up, and understand what happened, we’ll announce it to everyone.”

  That’s going to be awesome!” Sean said. “We finally have something to celebrate.”

  “It will be, but I’ll be doing the announcing. I don’t want you putting your big foot in your mouth again and getting everyone mad at you,” Ashling said.

  “Fair enough, darlin’,” Sean said, laughing. “I do all the hard work and you get all the glory.”

  A small ball of dragon fire singed the seat of Sean’s jeans. He glared at Ashling and asked, “How’d you do that?”

  “Do what?” she asked innocently.

  “Try to burn my favorite jeans.”

  “Oh, that. I was just reminding you to take those clothes off before you take David back to town,” she said innocently. “You don’t want to go through two sets of clothes in one morning.”

  “Good point. I’ve gone through a few outfits already since we started training. What I want to know is how you did that fire trick when you aren’t in your dragon form.”

  “It’s a little advanced for someone who’s still a rookie dragon. When we start our class for teaching all of our new dragons, I’ll teach you lots of tricks you don’t know yet,” Ashling said, smiling.

  “There’s only me and David, when it comes to teaching our new dragons,” Sean said, while rolling his eyes. You’ve already been teaching me for a while, so I should be ready.”

  “There’s only you two so far,” she replied. “I have a feeling that we’re going to be seeing more in the near future.”

  Sean was about to demand to hear more when he saw a gleam in her eye. She knew more, but she wasn’t going to tell him anything until she was good and ready.

  “Are you just going to stare at me all day or will you help David back to town?” she asked innocently.

  “Fine, turn around so I can undress before I light up my dragon self. “Will you bring my clothes with you?”

  Before she could answer, she heard an ear-shattering roar. When she turned back to where Sean had been standing, only his discarded clothes were there.

  Ashling heard two mighty roars as she turned her gaze upward. There were Sean and David flying side by side toward town.

  “You’re going to regret flying again so quickly, David,” she murmured. Her eyes widened when Sean did a series of arching rolls, leaving beautiful, circular trails of fire in the sky. “Ah well, Ashling said, smiling. “Boys will be boys and that’s the truth of it.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Count your joys instead of your woes;

  Count your friends instead of your foes.

  ~ Old Irish Saying ~

  Grainne was not a happy woman. It had been a month since her troops had attacked Aengus and Ailbe. In that time there had been no significant progress in pinpointing where Rundimahair was located.

  They’d been able to ascertain that it was somewhere in the Northwestern section of the United States–most likely Oregon, Washington, or Idaho. After the battle in central Oregon, she’d been sure her sworn enemies were in that state.

  The problem was that none of the follow-up investigation in Oregon had provided any evidence they were hiding there. Reluctantly, she’d widened the search to include Washington and Idaho.

  She wouldn’t have included Idaho, since she felt they were more likely along the coast, but several reports they’d heard indicated two families living in Idaho were considered quite strange. More than once police had been called about strange lights and fire in the sky above their farms.

  However, the last report led to a dead end. After an altercation with their nearest neighbors, both families had disappeared without a trace. When the police searched through their abandoned homes, it appeared that the only things they took were some clothes and personal effects.

  There were no photos or personal mail. They left a lot of nice furniture behind, but there was nothing to indicate who they were or where they’d gone.

  Her researchers believed they may have been families who’d left Rundimahair because of hard feelings. After being out in the mortal world for a few years, they suspected they’d gone home and made peace with their leaders.

  She’d have them continue to search Idaho for other signs that Eamon’s people–or anyone like them–were in Idaho. If they could find even one disgruntled follower who’d left Rundimahair, they could extract the location from them by any means necessary.

&
nbsp; The problem was, they weren’t finding anyone or anything. Not only was Idaho a dead end, Oregon and Washington gave up no leads at all.

  When Grainne became too frustrated with the slow progress, she had to stop and remind herself of what happened in central Oregon. There was no doubt that Ashling, Eamon and their new wonder-kid, had been there.

  It was possible they’d passed through time and space from somewhere far away. Grainne’s gut feeling didn’t buy it. She’d let some of her people follow up in Washington and Idaho, but she was using her best trackers in Oregon.

  “We’ve got something in Idaho near the border of Utah!” one of her trackers shouted as she interrupted her musings by rushing into Grainne’s office.

  Normally, Grainne would have punished a tracker who dared enter her private office without permission. But the young woman’s excitement was contagious, so she let it pass. “What have you got?” Grainne asked calmly.

  “Someone connected to one of the families in Idaho is currently living in Utah.”

  “You have an address?” Grainne asked.

  “Yes and no,” the young woman said.

  Grainne gave her a hard, impatient look and the tracker hurried to add, “It’s not a street address, but we know where he is.”

  When the tracker paused again, Grainne seemed to flash across the room in a second. She pushed the terrified tracker up against the wall with her hand wrapped around her slender throat. She squeezed hard until the tracker’s face began to turn beat red, while she gasped for air.

  “When you bring a report to me, I expect it to be delivered quickly and completely, in clear, concise language,” Grainne whispered in her ear. “You think you can do that?”

  The terrified tracker began nodding her head vigorously. She knew she was seconds away from death if Grainne didn’t release her strangle hold.

  “Where is he?” Grainne asked quietly, as she released her death grip on the woman’s throat.