Legendary Stars

Part 2 Chapter 9

Boaz could barely keep his eyes open as he rode Magma through Upper Ember. He turned to Sheraga, who appeared to have endless energy as he quickly rode his Komodo dragon throughout the region. They had been on the move all last night, not even stopping for a break. Having had a long and stressful day, Boaz was utterly worn out. As much as he wanted to rest, he understood the urgency of locating Jai.

He wanted to talk to Sheraga, but every time he thought of something to say, those intense amber eyes were all he could focus on. Sheraga physically seemed strong beyond his years. Although his wine-colored clothes and gold armor covered most of his body, one would have to be a fool not to notice that the DragonLord was all muscle. Something about the look in his eyes made one know better than to cross him. Boaz knew he was still in a foreign territory, so he had to be cautious. Magma had been trailing behind Sheraga and his dragon the entire time. The sun lightly kissed the horizon, signaling the start of a new day.

Sheraga slowed to match Magma's pace, "You don't talk much," he flatly stated, never looking in Boaz's direction.

"What's there to talk about?"

"There's plenty to talk about. How do you know Aqila? What details did she give you about this death vision? What her fiance is planning to do about her apparent disappearance? But you can start with, who the hell are you, and why should I be inclined to trust you?"

Boaz did not see a firing round of questions to come from the DragonLord. However, everything he asked was reasonable. "My parents are librarians in Theyra. We live in a village in the Theyran Desert and owe a landmark library. I work with my parents collecting, maintaining, and renting books. Aqila's mentor, Zeroun, started bringing her to the library when she was young to study various topics. We became friendly, especially since we are so close in age. As we got older, sometimes Aqila would just visit to talk about her reading material. We would give each other book recommendations and talk about them later. I didn't know she was an apprentice seer until much later."

"When she came to drop off her books yesterday, she seemed a little off, like something was bothering her. She didn't go into details about her vision other than saying the need to have a vision increases after leaving the area where Jai was. She said she was worried about having a death vision about him. Then she told me that she thought Jai was heading to Ember's border. Aqila didn't go into any details. The sight was becoming too strong."

"I'm not sure what Kavi will do or how he will find Aqila. But, after meeting him in person, I have no doubt that he will find her and bring her back home safely," he explained briefly, unsure how much information he should give him.

Sheraga shook his head, "Okay, good. I just need to know who I'm working with."

Boaz was nearly frustrated. He asked all of those questions for no apparent reason. Now, Boaz had a question for the DragonLord, "Why do you want me to come with you? I mean, you already know that tensions are high between Firehearts and Landkeepers. I don't see how I can be of any help to you."

"I don't expect you to be of much help either," Sheraga shrugged, "I brought you because if things did take a turn for the worst and Jai and some Flamethrower are injured, I'd be wasting time to make two trips. Since Tora really needs to stay put, thanks to your kind of folk, I didn't have much choice."

Boaz felt offended. He really thought Sheraga believed that he could be helpful at some point. But in a perfect world, he would have chosen Tora instead.

Sheraga turned and looked at Boaz, "But I might be impressed to see you make yourself useful. We aren't too far from the border now. For the love of the Universe, it's bad," Sheraga groaned, shaking his head in anguish.