Dragon Wings -- Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Cial awoke to a claw jabbing him in the side. He groaned. He was back in the fleet, and Lydia was telling him to get up. And she would complain again about how dragons his age seemed to always sleep in…

And then reality hit with the force of lightning. He was outside Fleet territory, beside a river, and Lydia was dead. A thousand emotions battled for space in his head. Grief. Fear. Anger. Confusion. But if he was out in the middle of nowhere, who was poking him…?

He opened his eyes, startled to find that he was surrounded by a group of dragons. Were they rogues? Cial stood up slowly, trying not to make any sudden movements. Would rogues kill him for no reason?

They weren’t the same rogues that had attacked him and Lydia, at least. These ones had more brightly coloured scales. There were only four of them. But what if they were part of the same group as the rogues…?

“What are you doing here?” One of them growled. He was one of the more colourful ones, with green scales not that different than Nogard’s had been.

“I… um… I’m lost…” Cial stammered. There was nowhere to run if these dragons decided to attack. “Who are you? Where am I?

“We are Fighters. From the Fleet of Crystal Blood.” Cial had to fight back a sigh of relief. Fleet dragons! They wouldn’t kill him. But still, how far had he ran? And he had never heard of the Fleet of Crystal Blood. It sounded… ominous.

“I’ve never heard of that Fleet,” Cial said cautiously, not wanting to offend them.

“I’m not surprised.” The green dragon said tersely. “We are a nomadic Fleet. We never stop travelling.”

“Oh. That makes sense.” Cial wondered why they were still surrounding him. Did they think he would try and run? “Um… can you guys help me get back home? I’m from the Fleet of Jade Oceans…”

They exchanged glances. “We’ve never heard of the Fleet of Jade Oceans.” A dragoness offered. She was long and thin, and her scales were a glossy black. She gave Cial the creeps, although she really was quite pretty.

“Really? They’re part of the Ancient Alliance. I thought all dragons would have heard of it.” The dragons eyed him as he spoke the words. Cial was beginning to get the increasing sense that he was not welcome around these Fighters. “But, uh, I could probably find my way back, if you don’t…”

“No, no. We couldn’t leave a child alone out here. We will take you back to our Fleet.” The green dragon said animatedly, then inspected him. “But you can’t fly, can you?”

Gee, ya think? Cial wanted to ask sarcastically. Instead, he simply replied, “No.”

“We’ll carry you there. Jora, carry him.”

“Hey! Wait!” Cial squeaked as the largest of the dragons approached. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

“No.” The green dragon replied simply. Cial closed his eyes and tried not to feel ill as the immense brown dragon named Jora grabbed him and lifted off into the air. The huge dragon’s claws were not very gentle. Cial was being carried more like a piece of prey than a dragon, dangling out of his carrier’s claws in what felt like a very dangerous location. He peeked out his closed eyes and immediately wished he hadn’t. They were so high he could taste clouds on the air, and the trees below had shrunk to an unbelievable size. Cial shut his eyes again. A dragon afraid of heights? They said it was impossible, but Cial now knew better.

He refused to open his eyes until he felt their group begin to descend. What he saw was a bit odd. It was obviously a Fleet Clearing, but it didn’t appear to have any shelter. It was just a bunch of dragons living in the middle of a field. Whoever the Fleet of Crystal Blood’s leader was, he mustn’t have been thinking very clearly when he chose this spot. Or was that just the way nomadic Fleets did things…?

Jora let go of Cial and the small dragon shakily took a few steps on solid ground. Several Fleet dragons looked up at the group’s arrival, seemingly startled. The black dragoness swooped gracefully into a landing, and surveyed the Fleet. Even her wings were black. Cial gulped.

“All right, midyear.” She said with an air of importance. “Our leader is away right now, so you may speak to him tomorrow.”

Cial was again confused by the ways of this Fleet. The leader was ‘away?’ Leaders didn’t just leave. They were too crucial for the everyday life of the Fleet. And come to think of it, why had such a large group of Fighters been doing patrol?

He turned to his captors. “Um, not to be rude or anything, but why were so many of you doing patrol?” The black dragoness stared at him. “Er… I’m just … curious. In my Fleet there’s usually only one dragon at a time.”

“We were on the lookout for a wild boar that was around our borders.” The green dragon said. Cial looked at him closely; as he spoke his eyes darted to the side a bit. Lying? Why would they be lying to him…?

“Don’t ask to many questions.” The black dragoness advised him. “Nomadic Fleets do things differently than your Fleet does. In any case, the feeding area is just to the left over there. And you can sleep over there, in the Healer’s place.” The Healer’s area had some shelter at least, a small circle of trees and a pond. “My name is Kaya. I am the Advisor of the Fleet of Crystal Blood.”

Why was the Advisor on a patrol? Cial asked himself, but decided not to voice the question. It was best not to annoy the dragons who had so kindly taken him in.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. The reality of Lydia’s death still stung Cial like a thorn in his foot, and he wished he could just curl up somewhere and sleep for the rest of his life. He wandered over to the feeding area and forced himself to eat some deer. The other dragons still stared at him like he was the strangest thing they had ever seen. Was it his wings? Nobody in the Fleet of Jade Oceans stared at him like that…

Finally, the sun began to sink beyond the horizon. Heaving a deep sigh, Cial wandered over to the Healer’s place and lay down in a tuft of long, soft grass. At night, the Fleet of Crystal Blood seemed to get more active. Instead of staring at him strangely, the dragons that passed seemed to give him looks. Looks that plainly broadcasted, You do not belong here.

He must be imagining things. Why on earth would they act so hostile? But Cial still had a very hard time falling asleep that night. As the moon rose and the darkness descended, the dragons seemed to be looking at him through half-closed eyes, like cobras regarding a helpless mouse.