Chapter 31: Dragon Talk

            It was a few days later, when I was just about to leave, that Torrin gave Frain and me one last visit (or so I thought). He was lying down, whilst I was once again sorting Frain’s harness.

            ‘You will not be travelling alone, Egg-Saver,’ he began. ‘I will be going with you and Zika.’

            Frain swung his head but it was low and he almost knocked me over if I hadn’t been paying attention. ‘Why, old one?’ he asked, sounding concerned rather than surprised.

            Torrin dropped his head and the darkened look in his eyes gave him a new menacing appearance. ‘Because there are things that need to change. Especially after what you have told us. Zika is coming but not with Ebra; this is something to do with us dragons alone. An awful amount of the newest generation of Tamers that haven’t heard of us elders nor our stories. It is a great shame and we need to sort out this issue with that strange dragon.’

            It was my turn to sound concerned. ‘Why isn’t Ebra coming along? Zika is hardly ever very far from his Tamer.’

            ‘He is getting older now, although he is considerably younger than myself. It is only recently that he is flying for longer periods of time. Ebra understands, as old as he is in human years. Do not worry, young ones, you will understand when we get there.’

            Frain and I didn’t ask anymore. We were soon ready though Frain seemed suddenly reluctant to leave with any amount of gusto. He was lolling about, walking around with his head held low on his slender neck. I wasn’t as concerned about him as I probably should have been. That came down to not knowing him anywhere near as well as the older Tamers knew their own dragons. It was only when Zika circled above that Torrin launched into the air and joined him. Only then did Frain seem keen enough to take to the skies.

            So, I flew on the back of one dragon and in the company of the two oldest male dragons in this world. It was quite a splendid sight seeing them soaring above and below us. As always, they could fly much higher than Frain but they stayed relatively close so as not to make Frain feel alone. I was quite happy watching them and feeling Frain’s various muscles move under me; even as his tail swished to keep him straight. The more I focused on it, the stranger it felt but if it all helped keeping us in the air then that was fine by me.

*****

            By the time we had landed near to the Draconian walls, there was a flash of colour to the sky as a crowd of dragons came to see what the sudden appearance of their elders was for. I dropped down the side of Frain and patted my hand along his neck as he curled up on the ground.

            ‘I’m fine. Go look after Torrin.’

            I turned around and the old dragon was snarling lowly; not only him though but Zika as well. They stood side by side, their teeth bared but the younger dragons couldn’t see what was going on. Bustling my way through them, it took me awhile to finally stand beside Torrin’s foreleg. He was still snarling until I touched my palm to his scales.

            ‘Torrin, please. Go for a flight over the city. I will sort these out,’ I offered to him. He took it with one final snarl, unfurled his wings as pounced out of the reach of the others. Zika took his place and we all watched as the black dragon soared above the gates and landed in the place of the sentinels. Torrin waited there.

            I was about to look up at Zika, when my hands shot up to my ears as he roared like thunder right beside me. ‘Enough! Now, go back to your business. All of you, except the sentinels,’ he added hissingly on the end. As soon as his order had been said, most of the fifty or so dragons that had assembled flew away like a swarm of bees leaving a few behind. As the others disappeared back to the nesting cliffs, Torrin rejoined us here on the ground.

            Once again, I was left listening to weird noises. After a minute, I gave up trying to understand and went back to Frain. He was listening, so I could tell from his narrowed eyes; his head was tilted as well. When he noticed me, he soon changed his expression.

            ‘Everything will be alright now. He might not say but I will. Thank you.’ His voice was particularly low and I didn’t know what his gratitude was actually for though I kept my mouth shut for the time being.

            ‘Could you tell me what they’re saying or is it a dragon thing?’ I asked, curious as to what Torrin was telling the younger dragons.

            Frain shook his head. ‘It is best you don’t know. Torrin is nasty when he’s angry. Come on, we don’t need to be here anymore.’ And he turned around to walk towards the city. ‘It will be nice to see Doran again,’ he hinted as he turned down the right streets.

            As I walked beside him, one of my hands on his side, I thought on what Doran might have gotten up to whilst I was away. Most likely was that he just got on with his life and went flying around the north or wherever he went to. The easiest way of knowing, for certain, that Doran was in the city was by looking for Hydra. Even if she wasn’t around then Doran may still be. We arrived at my house. I unlocked the door and called his name as I slipped the saddle bags inside. There was no reply, so I locked the door again and walked down the road. Frain followed, remaining silent as I made my way to the Eduram.

            With the arrival of Torrin and Zika, there had been a huge commotion amongst the other dragons. However, there seemed to be no bother among any of the humans. Maybe it was because hardly any of them knew who the new arrivals were; that is what Torrin had said but I was just sitting on the fence. I wasn’t sure what to do; maybe I should have stayed with Torrin and Zika but that could also have been a bad idea. Just as those options weighed against each other in my head, the Eduram came into view around the corner.

            ‘I’ll see you later,’ Frain said to me; and with a small nudge on my shoulder, he went on his way.

            I let him go and headed up the stairs. Even if I didn’t find Doran, there could be a chance that I might bump into Mya. It had been her idea to leave for awhile, even if it wasn’t for as long as she meant but I did feel a little refreshed. I decided to head outside, just in case Mya was out there; she wasn’t and I couldn’t remember where her personal study was either. So, without any other choices coming to mind, I just stood around in the main hallway. After a long time, I realised I wasn’t going to find Doran here. Thinking about it though, I hadn’t seen Hydra either. With that, I left as swiftly as I had arrived and called for Frain to join me. He landed easily in the square and pulled his wings in rather tightly.

            ‘Have you seen Hydra about?’ I asked him as soon as his front feet touched the ground.

            ‘No, but I haven’t been looking for her. Have you found Doran?’ he asked me back.

            I shook my head and folded my arms. ‘Maybe they’ve gone flying but there’s no rush. What to do now?’ I asked myself.

            ‘We can go flying ourselves?’ Frain suggested, looking up at the sky for a moment. With not much else available, I clambered onto his back and clung on tight as he launched into the air. Frain circled above the city and from the height we climbed to, Torrin and Zika were clearly visible back on the ground. They were still stood outside the southern gates with a medley of colour from the sentinel dragons. Frain ceased his flapping for awhile and simply glided on the warm air coming from the city and the neighbouring cliffs.

            There was very little wind even for the altitude we were at and so I could speak to my scaly friend (a little louder than normal). ‘Frain, could you maybe go to the cliffs?’ He didn’t reply but banked round to the left and headed over to the roosting site. He landed with a soft bump on the grass. ‘Thank you.’

            ‘You’re welcome.’

            As I hopped down, Frain walked off and flew up onto the cliff tops. Why he did that was not clear but I watched him for a few minutes and it was eventually clear that he was talking to another dragon; although this dragon was unfamiliar to me. Deciding that I should keep out of his personal life, I turned away and stepped towards the first nests. Not all of the roosts here were for nesting but it was always impossible to tell unless a sitting dragon stood up. Out of all the dragons in Dracona, I only knew five properly and another two who were only hatchlings still. Rada and Emery were the first two, when I arrived here, that I had made friends with although finding them among all the others was not an easy task. Just as I reached the first nests, I changed my mind and headed up the slope to my right that led to the top of the overhangs. I was lucky that it hadn’t been raining recently or I would never have made it to the top.

            After a good five minutes of clambering my way up the grassy slope, I reached the top rather out of breath and I rolled onto my back until it came back to me. Things went slightly darker; opening my eyes, I saw a shadow above and, sitting up, I realised it was only Frain. ‘You could have asked me to drop you off up here,’ he told me.

            I put my hand onto his snout. ‘Yes but I only just made my mind up. Besides, it’s seems a nice view up here,’ I said, turning to face the city. The full size of it could be seen from here and yet it wasn’t far enough away that the details weren’t missed. The battlements were evenly spaced all the way around the high-rise walls. The eastern gate could easily be watched from this point of view but the north gate not so much. There were a few sentinels back on their perches above all of the gates which meant that maybe Torrin and Zika were done with talking to them all.

            Just then, as I started to get up, Frain took a few steps away and lay down on the grass. ‘Hydra is back,’ he told me.

            ‘Hmm?’ I looked up and saw the faint outline of a blue-tinged dragon fly in from the north-west. ‘Ah. Good.’ I couldn’t see things that clearly from this sort of distance. It was only when she came in to land that I realised she had Doran riding on her back. As Hydra drew in her blue and white-tainted wings, I stepped over. ‘I’ve been looking for you,’ I said more to Doran than the both of them.

            ‘Really?’ he asked as he hopped down, joining me on the ground. ‘You’re back earlier than I thought. What did you want me for?’ He only had one saddle bag with him; of course, I had taken most of them but it meant he hadn’t gone too far.

            ‘I suppose you haven’t noticed then... Anyway, Frain and I flew all the way to Fordem and we came across something rather odd.’ I skipped over exactly what it was we found, for now. ‘And we went to visit the elders in the hills. A couple of them came back with us.’

            ‘Came across what?’ Hydra asked, swinging her head around.

            Frain started speaking from where he was lying down, only his and Hydra’s conversations were usually in dragon speak and incomprehensible to humans. Doran and I walked away from them and I told him exactly what Frain would be telling Hydra.

            He listened closely but the only thing he seemed bothered about was Torrin and Zika flying north with us to the city. ‘Maybe I should go and have a talk with them. I don’t see the need for them to be up here although they will have very personal reasons.’ And off he walked all the way to where Torrin was laid down outside the gate as I saw clear enough even from this distance.

            ‘Now where is he off to?’ came Hydra’s voice from behind me.

            ‘To talk to Torrin. Should I go with him?’

            Her large horned head appeared to my left. ‘If you wish. He missed you being around...’ she told me, her voice trailing off as if she had re-thought on saying it. With that, I trekked down the grass bank, following Doran’s path.