Chapter 28: Pondering

            Shaking myself awake from my nostalgic mood, I pushed on walking through the town. Luckily I had left all my bags at the small campsite by the forest, so all I had to think about was looking after myself. Not wishing anything horrific on this town or its people, I suddenly felt rather bored; as I usually would, I grabbed a small paper bag of fruit to occupy my hands and thought if there was anything I could do in the way of talking to a particular person. For the second time, I wandered down a certain road; I looked around for more detail than I had been doing whilst eavesdropping into the nearest conversations.

            As I looked at the walls and doors as I passed by, I noticed there was a very inconspicuous door between a small café and a florist; I headed over. It was a very plain door, hence why I hadn’t noticed it on my first pass; there were no markings or a sign to say what it was for. It rather intrigued me due to the lack of reasons why it was placed there. Not sure whether it was a shop or a door to an upstairs house, I knocked to make sure. Waiting a few minutes, I tested the doorknob and the door swung open with the smallest of turns. Maybe this was very wrong but I was up for a thrill after just spending my time sneaking around. The door opened and there was a flight of stairs at the end of a very small porch. Door closed, I headed cautiously up the stairs.

            At the top, it was rather dark, I could just see where I was going; my hand was outstretched and it touched a door or what I expected to be a door. I could just see the handle and I pushed it down to reveal another room. It was a very large room, turning out to be the whole upper floor of the shop below, made to be as open as possible. There seemed to be no one in and I was just about to leave, seeing as this was someone’s home, but that wasn’t going to happen.

            ‘Oh, please don’t leave just yet,’ came a woman’s voice from what might be a small bathroom or a large cupboard. ‘Please, take a seat. I’ll be with you in a moment.’

            Erm, ok. I took a seat in a not at all comfortable chair and waited. Soon enough, walking backwards out of the door, came a middle aged woman and I recognised her instantly as the healer from Dracona. She had healed the deep scratches on Frain’s rump that he acquired from his fight with Jeta. I shivered at remembering how scared I felt for him since he was the one fighting and it made me gasp. ‘Oh, hello. I’m sorry if I’m intruding,’ I began but she brushed it away with her hand.

            ‘Nevermind that, dear. How are you? And would you like a cup of tea?’ she asked, kindly busying herself with a copper kettle and placed it on the hob.

            I stood up, starting to get an aching butt, and stood near the very wide window. ‘Yes, please and I am fine. I thought you lived in Dracona...’ I pondered aloud.

            ‘Yes, I do but something told me to come here for a change of scenery. Funny thing that you should be here too.’ She turned the fire on underneath the kettle and she waited for it to boil before pouring the steaming water into the two mugs she had prepared.

            Taking the hot mug off her as she bustled past me, I placed it down again on the worktop as it was too hot for me to drink right now. ‘It does seem a coincidence.’ As always, my head was one or a few steps ahead of my mouth and I had to slow my thinking right down so my tongue and lips didn’t stumble over their words. ‘Um, since you are the only other person in this town other than me that knows and understands dragons, could you help me with something?’

            She was sat in a little armchair, the type with flowery upholstery covering it, and was knitting what seemed to be some very odd looking socks. ‘Of course. What is it that is troubling you?’ It wasn’t obvious, as she wore a few layers on her upper half and the way she spoke, but I doubted whether she was a Tamer.

            ‘I don’t know if you’ve heard but apparently there is a dragon roaming around these areas,’ I half-stated.

            The needles in her hands clicked away as she continued on with her current little knitting project. ‘I had wondered why some people were acting so strange, so nice of you to come here and tell me. Thank you.’

            ‘You’re welcome.’

            ‘A dragon, you say?’ I nodded as she peeked up for a second. ‘Wouldn’t that be obvious as you are here?’

            I could understand why that would make perfect sense but there clearly were things that I knew and I could tell she would keep it a secret. ‘It seems that way but no. I told my dragon to stay as concealed as possible and not to come anywhere near the town. Except to pick me up tonight but that would be in the darkened openness by the river to the south.’ I was saying a bit too much yet it was alright here with her, anyone else and I would hardly have said a thing about Frain. ‘He is currently living on the far side of the nearest forest, out of view of the ships. I’m sure he wouldn’t have risked being spotted even at night; we spoke of all that on the flight over here.’

            ‘And what have you concluded so far?’ she asked, still knitting away. I told her all I knew, seeing as there was no one else (no other human) that I could share my thoughts and findings with. She listened, the constant clicking of her metallic needles resounding through the air. It fascinated me as she didn’t seem to be paying any attention to her hands yet she made no mistakes (from what I gathered). ‘So, what is it that I can help you with? It may seem obvious but I am no Tamer, I do not excite myself with flying around on giant lizards and understanding their ways. I am merely a healer and that is all I know.’

            That seemed to answer my unspoken question but I continued to speak openly anyway. ‘Oh, well that means that there might be another Tamer out there. One who doesn’t live in Dracona but spends their life out here in the wilderness...’ My voice trailed off and I paced around the room in a wide circle with my mug clasped between my hands. ‘Er, thank you.’ I put the mug down on a small table and headed over to her door. ‘It’s nice to meet you again. I really should be going now.’ And I headed out the door with her saying goodbye after me.

*****

            I had to wait a while, a long while. As soon as the sun started to dip down to the horizon, I headed out of town at a rather fast run hoping Frain wouldn’t be preoccupied with some catch. The river came into view, shining like melted silver pouring down a curved line in the earth. Of course, though, running meant I was early anyway so Frain clearly wouldn’t be there as I told him after sunset. As I stood there on the ground pacing, I kept an eye out in case there were ships that were using this particular vein tonight. After the run, my heart was pounding in my chest and my lungs were gasping at the cool air.

            I hadn’t wanted to be in a rush but it was whilst I was talking to the healer that it became clear that all I had been wishing wasn’t true, must be. There was no other reason for all the problems that had arisen during my little trip around the country. Frain might agree, or he might not, either way I couldn’t just leave it alone... not anymore.

            The sun was long gone from the world, leaving the smallest of smudges on the western horizon. It was just disappearing, blending into the indigo of the rest of the sky, that Frain came into my view as the stars began to shine like tiny sparkles. A splendid image came into my head, as the spines along his back twinkled in the light of the crescent moon; from the distance that Fordem was from here, he was less than a shadow. If anyone was looking over the night sky then the twinkling of the pearlescent growths would appear as stars themselves, shooting ones as he glided on the cold air.

            He landed, as silent as the swishing of the water against the bank and furled his wings back into his sides. Dropping his head for me to press my palm to his snout, the violet of his irises barely showed in the darkness. It would also seem, to me, that he had grown a bit with the freedom and openness of the wild that he had been roaming in since we left Dracona. He could sense the fear through my skin, or so I imagined as he asked why I was in an apparent hurry to get out of here.

            I had spent as little time as possible to get onto his back and before he launched himself back into the air, he looked over his shoulder at me. ‘Is there something I should know before we leave?’ he asked slowly and with a cautious tone to his voice.

            ‘I will tell you when we have got back to camp,’ I told him and with that, he drew out his wings and pushed himself in the usual manner up into the darkness above. There was the familiar sound of the rushing of air but to untrained ears, I doubted any unknowing onlookers would recognise the flapping to belong to a dragon.