Inferno Legacy: Loyalty of the Dragon (Book Two)

Chapter 17

                Cody had a long, uncomfortable, dreamless sleep that night, if night it was. In his sleep he could feel a growing sense of Separation Anxiety from being away from Inferno. He had been away from Inferno before, but either they were too far away to touch each other’s consciousnesses or something about the magical protection of the cages prevented it. Cody assumed it was the latter, or perhaps both.

                When Cody awoke he came to his senses enough to reassure himself that whatever happened, he would see Inferno in a few days. After a minute or so of convincing himself, he allowed for his eyes to explore the cage-cell that he and Mournful now shared. With his eyes more accustomed to the darkness he could see more, but there wasn’t much more to see. The only surprising new detail was seeing mournful sitting on the opposite side of the cube-shaped cell ten feet away. In her hand she held a small white bowl and a little gray spoon that she used to slurp the contents of the bowl. There was a second bowl beside her.

                “What’s that?” Cody asked as he rolled out from under the cot and approached the bowl.

                Mournful looked at him carefully before answering, “A fermlar.”

                “Which is…?”

                “It’s what we, or rather they, call the food they serve prisoners. Basically a stew made from old bits of meat that have no other use, and they call the stew lar. Putting the stew in this kind of bowl to serve is called fermlar,” Mournful explained as she ate another spoonful and placed the half-eaten bowl of stew on the floor beside her.

                Cody picked up his bowl and studied the greenish-grey mixture of shredded meat and salty water…at least he hoped it was water. He reluctantly picked up the spoon and slowly put it into his mouth. He gagged, but swallowed the vile mouthful to avoid making a mess. He glared at the bowl for a moment before setting it aside, as Mournful had done.

                “I would have to be half-starved to eat that,” he grumbled.

                “That may yet happen,” Mournful pointed out grimly.

                Cody looked at her and asked, “Why? The others should be here in a few days.”

                “You honestly think they’re just going to heal Inferno up and let us go? They’ll heal Inferno alright, but after that we’ll all be prisoners until we are sentenced to death, or worse.”

                Cody didn’t dare ask what the worse could be. Instead he sat in silence, debating what they should do next. However nothing came to his mind that sounded remotely interesting or useful. Finally his questions from earlier returned to him and he face Mournful for a moment, wondering if she was in the mood to talk. He decided to give it a shot.

“So why were the gryphons so different from you?” he asked first.

Mournful shrugged before answering, “I don’t know if you figured it out yet, but every one of the Dreamkeepers can turn into an animal at their choosing. I can turn into a gryphon, my sister is a snow leopard, her mate is a white lion, their sun is a white mountain lion, and their daughter is a white tiger. I can’t honestly tell you why I’m so different from the other gryphons, but for whatever reason our differences are only beneficial for me so I don’t complain.”

Cody thought about what she said. “You claim to have not seen them in so long, yet you know a lot about their children. I didn’t even know they had a daughter.”