Chapter 25: Westward Bound

            As is the case in life, nothing ever goes to how you planned it; that was the case now. I had packed all my stuff and was now lobbing it out of the bedroom door into the hallway; all except my rucksack which was safely on my back. There was quite a bit of noise but I really did not care who I disturbed and neither was it all that early in the day. By the time all my bags were out of the room, I locked the door and struggled with them all the way down the hallway.

            Luckily, by the time I had reached the stairs, I didn’t have to resort to throwing them down. ‘Would you like a hand with that?’ Seb offered as he walked from the second staircase.

            ‘How kind. You should know that they aren’t any lighter than when I got here,’ I shared with him as he picked up three or so. I picked up the rest and we headed downstairs.

            It was while I was eating a quick breakfast that he sussed it out. ‘You’re leaving today then?’

            ‘Mmhmm. Yes, and this time I mean it.’

            ‘Why now?’ he asked, taking it quite in his stride.

            I slouched in my chair for awhile. ‘Because I have to.’ That’s all I really had to say after all my bother.

            ‘You finished?’

            I smiled and we both grabbed the bags again and headed off. Frain, as he had said, was back by now and lazily lounging in the sun once more. Seb put his share of bags down and I busied myself with fastening them to the harness once that was around Frain’s shoulders and forelegs. ‘You really don’t have to do this,’ I spoke to Seb as I knew he was still standing there.

            ‘I really think I do,’ he commented. I had now finished buckling on the last bag. ‘Can I at least have a hug before you leave?’

            Smiling to myself but soon normalising my lips as I turned around, I went over to him. ‘Of course.’ And I slipped my hands round his shoulders just as he held me round my waist. ‘Mmmm, I’m going to miss you,’ I whispered to him.

            Letting go of each other, he smiled and nodded a few times. ‘Yeh, I’ll miss you too. Take care, Frain.’

            Frain didn’t reply vocally, he bowed his head once and I went to kiss Seb’s cheek. It took awhile to even get a foot onto Frain’s elbow since Seb wouldn’t let my hand go. ‘The longer you keep me here, the harder this is going to be. I have to go, Seb.’

            ‘I know. It’s just I don’t like the thought of you up there.’ He pointed to the sky.

            ‘It’s the quickest way and Frain is very safe when I’m on his back. Otherwise, he likes to show off,’ I told him as I clambered up into the harness.

            Seb folded his arms stubbornly; as he had said to me before, he preferred to know he was safe being firmly on the ground. ‘Just take care, alright?’

            Shaking my head, I sighed unbelievably at what he was saying. ‘I’ve been flying long enough to know what to do.’

            ‘Well, I’ll let you go then.’ He stepped a few paces away but remained there to watch us go.

            It never took Frain long now to get himself into the air, even with me on his back; he still needed the few jogging steps. The first rush of air always jolted me forwards though I was getting more and more used to when it would be. As we climbed steadily, I looked down at the ground to wave down to Seb; he was still there but was slowly growing smaller and smaller. I could just make out him waving back; as I clung tighter onto the straps, my emotions began to build up realising there would be no knowing when I’d see him again.

*****

            This time we really did head to where we meant; I had told Frain that if he made anymore diversions then I’d buy a horse and make my way on my own. He did not like that at all, saying that I wouldn’t be completely in his sight; according to him, being on his back meant that I was almost completely protected. There was the tiniest chance that someone would attack a dragon and if that did happen it was more likely to be another dragon. It was slowly becoming clear to me that Frain’s personality was that of a protective yet caring one; there might be other characteristics to him though those would show more over time.

            Remembering what Ebra had told me back at the Yok Hills, I had to come to terms with maybe never knowing my closest friend inside or out as I could with any human friends. Even Ebra and Zika had secrets from each other and they had been together for at least fifty years or so. There was also the matter of Torrin; he was the oldest dragon alive as far as anyone knew and his Tamer had been dead for about twenty years (from what I could gather). Torrin was a very reserved, proud and self-serving dragon but he wasn’t wild; he still lived among the other six elders but spent a lot of his time roaming over the wild lands to the east of his home. Though I supposed if he was provoked in the smallest way, he would turn into a dangerous creature without a thought. With the role of being a Tamer there came the responsibility to understand the dangers of living in the vicinity of one dragon; however, living near to hundreds of them could be a disaster if something bad were to occur.

            All of this swirled round my brain yet it was very welcome to as it kept me from thinking over the couple of things that I had come across in Baedon. It began to draw itself in my mind and I wondered if one had ever happened in the past; two enormous dragons (about the same size as Torrin) battling together in the sky. Their flames merging together as each tried to bring their opponent to the ground. The white of their claws and teeth glistening in the sunlight and even more spectacularly as they continued their raging into the darkness of night. It was hard to stop my overactive imagination but I shook my head and the images dimmed into nothingness as I looked around us.

            We had flown enough away that Baedon was no longer visible behind us. Frain would hardly flap his wings as he glided on the warm air. He would tilt his body or swish his tail to level out or keep his bearing but that was about it. There weren’t many of them but we passed a few fluffy clouds and even trailed under what appeared to be a rain cloud slowly making its way south. Since neither Frain nor I had never been as far west as Fordem and only ever to Safi, we had no idea what the people would be like.

            Obviously, Frain would keep himself as unseen as is possible but it was really down to me being careful with what I said and to who. Even though we had been to Safi, with Doran and Hydra, the two dragons kept away from the inhabited lands so we had even been in the dark back then. Doran had always kept me reminded that there was an invisible boundary as to where dragons were still believed to exist and where they weren’t. Though there was a major sense that I might have accidentally shifted that boundary when I let Frain show himself when I first became his Tamer.

            There was still a long way to go until we reached Fordem. The plan was still that we would land south of the river town near the local forest. I didn’t want to start a freak panic by landing too close. Frain would have to fly high enough and on a bearing that would skip the fringes of the town’s sight. That was the plan anyway.

            After one stop for a stretch, it took about four hours to reach the forest. Frain’s descent was a little bumpy which meant I had to hold on tighter than normal and squeeze my legs in to make sure I didn’t fall off. His landing was just as rocky though his excuse was that the ground wasn’t hard enough. Not understanding why that would affect his landing, I just brushed it off and unloaded his burden and took the harness off.

            He had landed closer to the forest than I thought he might but then again it meant he was closer to his prey. Finding the nearest sturdiest looking tree, I flung myself up and grabbed hold of the lowest branch. I hadn’t climbed a tree for a long while, not since I had last been in Ky’s garden. Being up here now, stood on the branch, I remembered back to the last time I sat in his tree house with him. Nothing had ever been awkward with Ky, not like it had with Seb. Oh, decisions, decisions. ‘Anyway,’ I said out loud to myself. I hopped down back to the ground. ‘So, this will have to do for now.’

            ‘Why do you do that?’ Frain asked; he was now lain out on the ground with his forelegs crossed and his hind legs lounged out to one side like a cat does.

            ‘Do what?’ I asked back; it was often the case that I never really knew what he was on about exactly.

            ‘Climbs trees?’

            I answered as I rustled through one of my bags to find a blanket. ‘Because it’s fun. Plus it reminds me of someone.’ Luckily, he didn’t know about everything I got up to with Ky. I knew Frain didn’t trust him even if I did completely.

            For the first time ever, he tilted his head and I could swear I could read the tiniest hints of confusion; it was rather amusing to see. ‘Would you like some wood? For a fire.’

            ‘It would be nice for once. Why?’

            Without any warning, he stood straight up and lashed his tail out in a horizontal sweep and cut down a tree cleanly through the thickest part of the trunk. It fell to the ground with an almighty racket; having to cover my ears, I shut my eyes as well. There was also a sudden rush of heat and, opening my eyes, I saw him set fire to the tree with a spectacular roar of blue-tinged flame; of course, as ever, the blueness always seemed to be just my imagination. I tried to focus on it but every time I squinted it disappeared. It was strange seeing a whole tree on fire but at least it was a welcoming heat coming off.

            It wasn’t late enough for any flying, as I could tell by looking at the sky; there was still a smudge in the western portion. So, I waited; slouched on the ground by one of Frain’s forelegs. There was plenty of food left in one of my bags and so I heated up a slab of meat so I could make some sort of burger though when I had, I wished I had some ketchup or sauce to go with it. Frain, meanwhile, had been watching me with a stern eye.

            ‘What’s your problem?’ I asked him as he was still hanging his head low and very close to my shoulder.

            ‘What have you done to that nice piece of lamb?’ he asked, sniffing at my food pack.

            ‘Cooking it. You know humans can’t eat raw meat. Besides, it tastes sooo much better,’ I said as I sunk my teeth into my dinner. ‘Why don’t you go hunting,’ I suggested to him.

            He huffed a load of smoke out of his nostrils and then lay his neck out on the ground. ‘I would but deer don’t come out at night, and if they did it is hard to catch them in the woods.’