~ Power ~

Chapter 5 - A New Addition

The bushes rustled some more. Freya swallowed and braced herself. What if it was a group of bandits? Or worse, Lena…

The bushes closest to the camp began to rustle. But what emerged caught both Freya and Ken-Lee completely off guard. It was a baby dragon, black as night with red stripes decorating its miniature wings. It stumbled about, apparently still learning to walk. Freya wondered where its mother was. She looked back at Ken-Lee in amazement.

‘What do I do?’ she mouthed. Ken-Lee threw his shoulders up, indicating he had never come across a baby dragon before in his travels. Freya turned back to the dragon. It still hadn't noticed they were there yet, but it was stumbling closer to their campsite.

Freya gulped and then made the decision to move closer to it. Slowly and as quietly as possible she moved towards it. When they were about two metres apart it stopped abruptly and looked up at her. From what she could tell it looked quite startled. Then it started rocking back and forward and an intermittent gargle emitted from its throat. It reminded Freya of when her childhood cat Willow had coughed up a hairball. She drew the comparison between the two, but a little too late. The baby dragon had already spurted forth a little fireball into Freya’s face. Luckily Freya was still clasping the two gemstones. She let out a long exhalation.

The dragon started rocking back and forth again, but instead of spitting forth another fireball, this time it collapsed onto the ground. Freya rushed forward and picked it up. It was shaking from tooth to talon. She made the assumption that it must have been cold in the night air and returned to the campfire with the baby dragon in hand.

‘Well, well, isn’t this an interesting turn of events,’ Ken-Lee said mystically, ‘I haven’t seen a dragon in a long, long time. Not since Midgar.’

Freya was too occupied with her current task to ask where or what Midgar was. She lowered the dragon down and laid it down right beside the fire. She could feel the warmth against her cheeks. The dragon opened its eyes and looked around, Freya feared that the fire was too hot for it. It rocked back on to its hind legs and then walked forward and perched itself on top of the fire. Freya smiled and carefully laid out some more logs around the dragon.

‘I wonder where it came from?’ Freya asked no one in particular.

‘Who knows…maybe this is what Lena was digging for? Dragon eggs.’

Freya pursed her lips together.

‘I wonder where its mother is. It can’t be more than a couple of hours old. This is all very strange Ken-Lee!’

‘That it is my dear. That it is.’ Ken-Lee looked up at the night sky, ‘We’ve got maybe three hours of moonlight left, then we should probably push on downstream.’

‘Okay. But what shall we do with our little friend here?’

‘I’m not sure. But the place we’re going is full of thieves and black-market dealers who would do almost anything to get their hands on one of those.’

Freya looked down at the baby dragon, peacefully bathing in the flames of the campfire, every now and then rolling from side to side as if it were dreaming.

‘I can’t just leave it here though. It will die.’

‘No, I guess not.’

With that Ken-Lee closed his eyes and almost instantly began snoring. Freya could not sleep due to excitement. She just stared into the fire and watched as the flames licked hypnotically at the dragons shiny black scales. She put both gemstones in one hand and reached into the fire to stroke it gently. Freya thought that she could really grow to like having a dragon around.

She smiled at the dragon and said, ‘I think I will call you Smokey.’

                                                        *            *          *

When the sun started to push up above the horizon Freya woke Ken-Lee and asked if they should move out. He nodded and they packed up camp, ready to go. Smokey was lying on a pile of ash and warm embers. Freya bent down and picked him up and he began to shake again. Freya cradled him and focused on using the Red Jade to create enough heat to keep him warm. When she hit that point a constant sound emitted from Smokey’s throat that could only be described as a purr. Once again Freya thought of her cat Willow.

They walked downstream until about noon when they stopped for a rest and replenishment of fluids from the stream. Freya set down Smokey on the ground as her arms were getting very sore. She stretched them out while Ken-Lee took bearing of his surroundings.

‘We have made good time. We should be there within the hour.’

Freya was extremely pleased to hear this.

‘What is this town called?’

‘Lerant.’

‘And how big is Lerant?’

‘Quite big my dear. It has several taverns, many inns, and a handful of legitimate storefronts. That’s the good side, the west wide of the town. The other side, well, they are the slums. That’s where all of the black-market dealers do their business. There is some plain nasty stuff that goes on in the slums. Stone-fights an’ all…’

Ken-Lee trailed off.

‘I don’t want to be scaring you child. As long as we stick to the west side of town, everything will be fine. But I think you should let me head into town first and book us a room in an inn. Then you can come along after the sun sets. That way you will get far fewer inquiries about your new friend here.’

Ken-Lee bent over to touch Smokey. Smokey jerked back and started emitting the same guttural sounds he had the night before. Luckily, Ken-Lee was quick enough to recognise this and duck, narrowly avoiding having his head engulfed in a smouldering fireball.

‘Nothing like a dragon to keep you young!’ Ken-Lee said with a nervous laugh. ‘Well, better get on. I will come back for you around dusk. Wait for me here at the tree line.’

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Sorry to cut you off short this week folks, but I’ve only had a couple of hours to write! The options for this week are (again, please choose only ONE):

1.      Ken-Lee returns as promised. He and Freya stay in town and work out what to do next.

2.      Ken-Lee doesn’t return at all. Freya becomes worried and travels to the town herself, but she enters the slums instead of the good side of town.

3.      Ken-Lee doesn’t return. Freya, worried, travels out to find the town but finds nothing.

4.      Ken-Lee comes back with a group of black-market dealers and they all try to take the dragon from Freya.