Chapter 18: Letter in a Box

            It was during that same night, lying on top of the comfortable bed, that I let my mind brush over my sudden thoughts during the day. Firstly, there was the knowledge (now) that Frain had not murdered the butcher all those years ago; that only meant that there must have been another dragon in Baedon the night I found Frain. Next, there was the trouble with the burned down shop; if there was a dragon residing near here (causing problems) could it be the same one that killed the butcher?

            The presence of a dragon could also mean that there was a Tamer. It might not be the case at all; no one has heard of a Tamerless, wild dragon for centuries. The last one, so I know of, was alive when the Tamers had been established but had died a long, long time ago, longer ago than when Torrin had been born. There might be more than Frain’s reasons why we were meant to come back here; though I had never believed in such things as fate and destiny, suddenly my whole world seemed to be ruled by them.

            As I lay there, thinking, I couldn’t help but let my imagination kick in with images of a great black dragon tormenting a large town (maybe even a city). Its long jets of fire streaming from its mouth as it flew above the streets of terrified people; the pearl white teeth in its jaws glistened like red hot coals. It must have been larger than Torrin, maybe even twice as big; its enormous beating wings creating small whirlwinds on the ground below. Then there was the tail, lashing around, ramming into the rooftops of the buildings. Along with the massive claws at the end of its muscular legs, they clutched menacingly into the rafters and tiles and pulled them clean away from the houses.

            There was a jolting surge through my body and I bolted up from lying on my back. That wasn’t just my normal, conscious imagination; I had been dreaming. Not even knowing I had been drifting off, my eyes had flashed open with the last light of dragon fire blazing across my mind’s eye. It was the most peculiar feeling and there weren’t any more words I could use to describe how I felt other than that my whole body was tingling and I had goose bumps all the way down my arms. The hair on the back of my neck really did feel like it was standing on end.

            Stranger, if it was possible, as I had jolted up from my bizarre dream, my hand had shot onto the pendant I always wore around my neck, even at night. It did surprise me and for the first time since being given it, I slipped it off over my head and looked at it closer. At night, the gems sparkled more miraculously than in the day; unexpected though was that the darkest dragon stone twinkled the most. The black gem of Torrin was much more speckled with white sparkles looking more like the stars in the night sky than the little grey dots they appeared to be in the day. The others weren’t all that less remarkable; they glimmered in their own ways, neither one the same as the others.

            The two paler jewels seemed almost white, just with the slightest hint of the colours they really were in the day. The orange amethyst and blue sapphire glinted with an inner shine where all of their colour seemed to focus inwards. The garnet and purple amethyst appeared very dull and uninteresting but in reality they were just as spectacular as the others situated with them on my pendant.

            It was then that I took notice of the metal base for the first time; it was a silvery metal and, from faint memory, I believed it might be pewter. It wasn’t the expected metal I would have associated with those mighty dragons. In any sense I would have expected gold or silver, maybe even another more resilient expensive metal; then again, they were very mysterious creatures. Just as I turned it over, I thought on something else; a reason for the not so bright metal would be so that their precious stones would appear much more brilliant and not be dimmed by the surrounding brightness.

            As I held the weighty pendant in my hand, I glanced out of the window. I needed to confront my own grief, and even some guilt. I stood up, slipping the necklace back on and headed to the door. Locking it as I stepped out, I listened around before walking along the hallway and down the stairs. In the tabled area, there was no one around and the front door was even locked. Thinking on my feet, I slid my fingertips along the top of the door frame; suddenly feeling smug as soon as they knocked a small brass key off. Catching it as it fell off, I slipped it in the lock and hid it under the mat on the stone step outside.

            Even with nearly everyone in the town knowing I was back, and with a huge dragon (to them), I still expected to see a few people wandering around at this time. However, the night was empty of any human movement; there was an old fox rustling around a few doors but he saw me as no threat. As I reached the burnt shop, I was hit with a wall of emotion. Brushing away a tear, I faced up to my grief and took a deep, deep breath. Stepping over the threshold, I looked around; there was the smallest amount of light from the moon. Everything was covered in soot and the bits that weren’t were burnt; it was quite a horrible sight. The soot and dust under my feet would swirl up with each of my steps.

            There was no chance of seeing much of the Harrisons’ personal stuff but I did want to see if there was anything unscathed. I looked behind all the cabinet doors and in the least damaged drawers; most of them were empty. The few things I found were made of metal or glass and were distorted from all the heat that had surrounded them in the fire. Behind the desk there were a few drawers and a couple of cupboard doors; looking in one of the drawers, I found a metal box.

            It appeared to be a jewellery box but when I looked inside there was a folded note. I opened it up and it was for me. It read: To Carly, we hope that you are safe and well. If you ever find this please take them far away, keep them safe. They were entrusted to us to look after but there has been suspicious goings on and we think that we might have to leave and not take anything. Do not tell anyone you have them... Love from, Mr. And Mrs. Harrison. From the swirly writing, I thought it might have been Mrs. Harrison who wrote it but, even with a few tears, it was nice to know they were thinking of me before they passed away.

            I slid the note down the side of the box (inside) and turned my eyes to the contents. There were small little velvet and leather bags, those that contained jewellery like rings or earrings. There were quite a few of them and there was a niggling in my mind as to what they contained. True enough, opening one up and tipping it over my open palm, out dropped what looked like a rounded gemstone. Inspecting it as closely as I had with the ones around my neck, it seemed too perfect to have been dug out of the ground and polished to look like this. It was a dragon stone. And it wasn’t the only one. All of the twenty or so gems were dragon stones. They were different sizes as to be expected and all of varying colours. I never looked at them all but I could feel through the leather and velvet that they must have been.

            There was no lock or key to the box so I had to be careful how I carried it. I had to keep these safe and, along with the one that Ky had given me, I had to keep them a secret. Since finding out what the jewels on my necklace really were, I had always thought on how many people really knew that dragon stones existed. It was most likely that if anyone did know of them then they would only be Tamers and even then it might only be a handful out of the thousands that lived in Dracona.