Dragon Dreams

Chapter 20: North (3/3)

I swam my way slowly out of the infinite ocean of darkness. Cool air rushed into my nostrils as myriad sounds whispered all around me. In the span of a few breaths, I was awake once more, still lying in the clearing where I had passed out. Time was fuzzy—as it always is when waking—but the sky was still quite dark. I figured I had probably been out for a few hours.

I got up, feeling groggy, and stretched my neck, back, and wings. I stopped mid-yawn as I spied Rofar sitting a few yards away.

"Ados abhya, od inouseyk," he said. As those syllables rolled smoothly off his tongue, they somehow didn't sound foreign at all. "My friend, you are awake," was what I heard instead. I understood every word. My mouth hung open; I blinked, but shock had me otherwise frozen.

"Ad wya ohrus ktholya," he continued with a small smile. "Od evndet, ays?" Once again, the comprehension was effortless. I heard, "I'm very pleased. You understand me, right?"

"Ays," I said slowly. "Yes." My eyes grew wide, and I shook my head, baffled by this entire experience. I was conversing in a strange language that somehow wasn't strange at all. Every word I knew in English now had a counterpart in the dragon language. On waking, it was like a switch had been flipped and now I was bilingual. "Man, this is so weird," I thought.

Rofar continued to speak in dragon-tongue, "We'll communicate in this way from now on. I wanted you to learn this before we reached the clan, and now you should have little trouble interacting with the others, most of whom won't understand English."

I noticed that Rofar's speech came across differently when he spoke dragon-tongue. While his English sounded rather archaic and formal, he sounded perfectly casual when speaking his native language. It made sense when I thought about it. Some subtleties of informal English speech didn't come naturally to him. "Wow," I responded. "So, that's it then? Now, I can speak like this when I wish?"

"Generally speaking, yes. There may be a few gaps in your knowledge. For instance, if there's no English equivalent for a word in your vocabulary, you won't know what that word is when you hear it. So, you may still encounter specific concepts that you must learn by yourself for this reason. Don't worry. I, along with the others, will help you as these come up. Now, young one, how do you feel? Are you ready to continue?"

"Yeah, uh, I think so," I replied. "I'm still trying to get used to all this, but I feel fine."

"Very good. It's still a while until sunrise, so we may reach the clan by midmorning."

We took to the skies once more. The clouds had moved in to form a solid layer, blocking the moon completely. Luckily, there was just enough light peeking out from the eastern horizon for our eyes to function. I could make out the familiar coastline below us, fringed with islands of all shapes and sizes.

Rofar suggested that I might benefit from some more magic practice. This led to me attempting to create the orb of light that the older dragon had demonstrated the previous night.

"Do I have to do this while we're flying?" I asked unenthusiastically.

"I hope it will be a useful exercise in maintaining your focus. You must try not to think about flying. Concentrate on summoning the light—use your will, and it will happen."

Three failed attempts later, my frustration was apparent. I snorted and glared at the empty space in front of my snout where the light should have been. Flying was still too much of a distraction; it was like trying to do a hard math problem while balancing on a narrow ledge.

"Here, young one," my companion said, "I have something that might help. Hold your two forepaws out like this." He extended his front legs out in front of him and held his paws close together while spreading his claws apart. "Focus on a tiny piece of space between your palms. Grow the energy from that speck and move your paws apart as you do so. It might be easier for you to start with this controlled technique."

I did as he instructed. As I stared down at the slice of air between my paws, the background noise started to fade away. In the back of my mind, I was still moving my wings up and down, but the act of flying had been tuned out for the most part. I just breathed deep breaths and stared at the spot, willing a speck of light to appear. After a few seconds of nothing, a minuscule point of light flickered to life. White radiance illuminated the rough, sandpapery skin of my footpads. With renewed excitement, I slowly drew my palms apart and watched the light grow to the size of a marble, then a cherry, all the way to a small apple. Then, I felt a little dizzy and banished the magic before it became too taxing. Nonetheless, I was proud of myself.

"Did you see that?" I inquired of the older dragon.

"Yes, I did. Very good, Ayreth, very good. Maybe you can do it a few more times as we go. I know it might feel a little tiring, but it will get easier over time."

The flight continued, diffuse sunlight creeping upwards beyond the clouds. Following Rofar's lead, we started to leave the coast behind. The terrain quickly grew more mountainous; snow-capped peaks emerged from the overcast horizon ahead of us. There was not a single trace of human activity below. Towns, buildings, cars, and even roads had long since disappeared, leaving the land truly wild. I was actually excited by the remoteness, the privacy. Isolation meant safety from the outside world. I could be free from the anxiety of being tracked down or discovered by humans who would harm me.

Rofar revealed that we were close, and thus we began a slow descent. Glacial runoff carved the landscape into pristine valleys where forests were clustered around lush meadows and lakes. The covering of clouds had opened up in a few places to allow dramatic shafts of light to illuminate the earth. It looked like a painting. It looked like my dream.

Up ahead, I noticed a mountain ridge that looked like a row of sharp, white teeth. We flew over the odd rock formation, and the blue dragon hugged the steep cliff face as he plunged down over the other side. Far below, a river swirled and foamed through twisting rapids. I got a good look at this valley, which stretched many miles into the distance. The surrounding peaks struck me as particularly tall and menacing, and the river's whitecapped path out of the valley was impassably narrow. This place was truly untouched by humankind.

We darted in and out of the sunlight as we flew. To my left, I saw my winged silhouette cast on the rock face, the two of us flying in tandem. The valley floor was only a hundred yards beneath us, and Rofar seemed to be headed for a clearing nestled in a bend of the river. The scents of evergreens and rushing water—long absent in the upper atmosphere—returned in full force. My heart sped up as I followed the older dragon down for our landing. We dipped below the treetops and glided down to the soft grass waiting to welcome us back to earth. The last beat of my wings sent a swirl of leaves into the air, then everything seemed to go still. I stood reverently, looking at my companion. He returned my gaze with warm sincerity.

"We are here. Welcome, Ayreth, to the home of the dragons."

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