Damara recovered in the following days at the house, deep in the woods. Just as Kara had predicted, the scar on her calf was ridged and glaringly pale. But that didn’t matter to her, for she had other things on her mind.
What is Tyrone doing? Did he send Tide to find the eggs? What will Tide do if he finds them? Questions fluttered inside her head like moths, silent but restless. Will Chasm be there, guarding the clutch?
“There was a huge sea serpent that saved Stag and his wife!” Faren chattered, rousing Damara from her thoughts. They were sitting in the bare limbs of a large fig tree, on the edge of the chilly orchard. Snow laden clouds drifted overhead, always moving, never clearing.
“I know,” Damara muttered, though she still didn’t believe it.
“But then bad dragons came and killed Stag’s wife and took out his eyes.” Faren looked up at her with a pouty expression.
“I know,” Damara repeated, growing impatient. “I was right there when Clyde told us.”
“Where is Stag?”
Damara furrowed her brow.
Do you only hear half of what you’re told? she questioned the child silently. He’s dead.
He died because of me.
As Damara was lost in thought, Faren became distracted by a tiny monigon, no bigger than a bee. The child watched as it clung to one of the tree’s light grey twigs. A winter breeze blew, causing the miniscule monigon to bob up and down. Damara stared at it as well, amazed to see that the creature had not four legs, but six.
I’ve seen monigons like you before! She remembered Xander placing them in her hair, when she and her brother were young. She could almost hear their laughter carry in the frigid wind.
What was it I called them?
Fairy dragons?
The tiny monigon blinked, then was suddenly gone, blown away by a mighty gust of wind. Damara clenched her teeth, gripping the tree trunk with one hand and taking hold of Faren with the other. The wind yanked at their hair before letting up, the air stilling as though it had never even moved.
“Here, let’s get down now,” Damara urged Faren.
The child shimmied to the ground. Damara repositioned herself on her perch, then jumped down, landing on the frozen ground with ease.
“Dear Lord, don’t injure yourself again!” Kara called to her from the nearby stables. “Tyrone is coming to bring you girls back to Faren’s family, you know. It’d be a crying shame if we had to put it off any longer.”
“We’re going to see my family?!” Faren was delighted, turning to Damara with shining green eyes. Rippling red hair framed her youthful face, bringing out the pink of her cheeks. “Did you hear that, Damara?”
What?! Damara fretted. They’re not going to send me to the refugee camp, are they? What about Chasm and the clutch? Shouldn’t I be doing something to help?
“They’re here! They’re here!” Faren cried happily, running out across the frosty fields to meet Rosefinch and Lynx where they landed. Tyrone dismounted Rosefinch the moment her feet hit the ground.
Damara gazed at them, dismayed to see that Tide was not with them.
“Come on, now,” Kara spoke up from behind, startling Damara with a hand on her back. The heavy framed woman guided her down Faren’s beeline towards the dragons and Tyrone.
Damara returned Lynx’s smirk with a biting gaze as she and Kara joined the group. Tyrone gave his older sister a hug, free of his knight’s garb.
Remembering her concerns, Damara asked, “Where is Tide?”
Tyrone turned his tired, thoughtful eyes to her. “I sent him to look for Iris’ clutch,” he answered. Then, as Damara’s face creased with worry, he reassured her, “He’ll be fine.”
But he’s just so weak…
“Yeah,” Lynx snorted. “All Tide would have to do is take a fighting stance and Chasm would die laughing.”
“Shut up!” Rosefinch blared at him. Everyone flinched except Lynx, who grinned, clearly rewarded by her aggravation.
“If you could breathe fire, Roe, you’d have roasted everyone here just then,” he snickered. “Everyone but me, that is.”
“Don’t call me Roe!” Rosefinch snapped. “You’ll just taint it with your vile tongue.”
Whoa, Damara thought. I’m not the only one who despises him!
She saw Tyrone and Kara exchange knowing looks, obviously familiar with such disputes. Faren gazed up at Rosefinch with wide eyes until the dragon noticed her and sheepishly relaxed.
“Well,” Kara broke the tension, hands on hips. “I’ll grab some bread for your travels and then you can all be on your way.”
“I’ll go with you,” Rosefinch said and together they walked to the house. Damara saw Rosefinch stop at the doorway with only her head stuck inside as Kara entered.
Damara stood with Tyrone and Faren, eyeing Lynx as he craned his head back to watch a bird soar overhead. His neck arched outlandishly far, the crown of his head nearly scraping his scaly spine.
Faren giggled.
Through the corner of his eye, Lynx looked at her, jagged teeth unveiling themselves as he cracked a smile.
Freak, thought Damara.
Tyrone stifled a yawn as they waited and she peered at him.
When was the last time he even slept?
“You two can ride in the saddle on Rosefinch,” he told her and Faren. “That is, if you feel comfortable holding her, Damara.” He looked at her questioningly.
“Of course.” Damara frowned. Why wouldn’t I? Hasn’t he seen how I look after Faren?
She turned her face away in shame as she was reminded, I lost her. She’d be dead if Tide hadn’t found her in the woods.
The sound of crunching ice sounded behind her. Kara and Rosefinch returned from the house, a bundle of food in the woman’s thick arms.
“He was inside the house?” Rosefinch exclaimed, laughing with Kara. Both, Damara noticed, had the same hearty expression on their very different faces.
“Thank you,” Tyrone said, taking the food from his sister. “Will you take Ivory for me?”
Only then did Damara notice the wyvern clinging to the fabric of Tyrone’s tunic. Kara carefully lifted her off.
With a look from Tyrone, Damara climbed up onto Rosefinch’s back.
This saddle! she marveled, staring down at her seat. It’s so strange. Undoubtedly, it was more comfortable than riding bareback, but felt unfamiliar to her all the same.
Damara heard Tyrone clear his throat and she turned her head to him. Faren jittered nervously in front of him, squeaking a little when he picked her up by the waist. Damara leaned over to take the girl from him, tensing up slightly as her hands knocked into his leather gloved ones.
Pulling Faren right in front of her into the saddle, Damara could feel the child trembling in her arms.
“I’m scared,” Faren said quietly, shrinking into her.
Damara hushed, smoothing down the little redhead’s hair. “You’ll be fine.”
She couldn’t help but goggle as Tyrone scaled up Lynx and straddled the dragon’s spine. He’s not going to use ropes or anything? I couldn’t do that…
“Someday you’ll come up into the air with me, Kara,” Rosefinch said.
The woman snorted in disbelief. “Not in this body. I’m even starting to think my days of riding horseback are over.”
“Will you be alright on your own here?” Tyrone asked his sister, with Lynx jerking restlessly underneath him.
“Ty, you need to be more worried about yourself,” Kara scolded. “You can’t out ride your own mortality. You know that, right?”
Damara saw Tyrone give a small smile, almost more like a weary cringe.
He looks so very exhausted…
As Rosefinch spread her wings in the chilly air, Faren pressed further back into Damara’s chest, making it uncomfortable for her to breathe.
“Relax,” Damara whispered, but the child remained rigid and close.
Rosefinch beat her wings, rising powerfully up off the frozen ground. Lynx jo
ined them in the sky, flying in an irregular, bizarre way.
How does Tyrone hold on?! Damara was bewildered as she watched.
Rosefinch seemed to sense Faren’s fear, for she glided low over the forest, carving around tall pines and woody branches. As the trees petered out, making room for frosty green fields and lumpy grey boulders, the child relaxed in Damara’s arms somewhat, peering down past the dragon’s flanks.
How far is this refugee camp? Damara pondered, unable to recognize the land. Are we in the uppermost area of Wystil, or have we left the kingdom’s territory altogether? There certainly aren’t any towns to see.
Then she noticed a massive hole in the ground as the dragons passed over it. Damara gawked, dumbfounded by its great emptiness.
“A giant’s mouth,” Faren whispered in awe.
Suddenly, Lynx gave a joyous roar and dove into the seemingly bottomless pit, disappearing with Tyrone still on his back. Faren cried out in alarm, stiffening in Damara’s arms.
“Mindless monigon!” Rosefinch cursed, clearly more aggravated than worried.
“Aren’t we going back for him?” Damara called over the bitter cold wind, thinking solely of Tyrone as the female dragon flew on, leaving behind the great hole in the ground.
Damara thought the dragon yelled something in response, but the words never reached her numb ears. Faren wailed and Damara hugged her tighter.
“It’s alright!” she tried to calm the child, but it was no use.
Tyrone is fine. Lynx is a fool, but Tyrone can handle him.
Rosefinch banked in descent to land softly on ice-stiffened grass, a large pile of boulders looming before them. Faren was in a panic, shrilling and crying as Damara helped her down to the ground. The child stood and trembled with tears streaming down her face.
“I want my family!” she shouted.
“We’ll find them!” Damara tried to calm her, but Faren pushed her away.
“Hey!” Damara lost patience, snatching the child’s wrists. “Look at me.”
Faren stopped struggling at last, face crumpling.
“What’s wrong with her?” Rosefinch asked worriedly, observing as Faren surrendered to Damara’s comforting embrace.
“She’s afraid of flying,” Damara answered. It seemed obvious to her, being a fragile and flightless human, but she supposed that to a dragon, the fear of flight was unfathomable.
“Can’t you get Tyrone?” she urged. “We’ll need to walk the rest of the way.”
Rosefinch opened her mouth to respond, but then a voice sounded behind the girls.
“We’re already here.”
Damara spun around to see Tyrone emerge from the boulders, dusting off his tunic, unscathed.
“What?!” Damara exclaimed. How is he here so suddenly?
“Faren,” Tyrone spoke, looking down at the quaking child. “You’re family’s coming out to meet you now.”
Coming out? From where?
Suddenly, a man and a woman rushed out from between the boulders, crying out in jubilance as they ran towards Faren.
“Mummy! Poppy!” Faren exclaimed delightedly, shaking herself from Damara’s arms to be swept up by her parents. The father looked like a farmer, with strong arms that lifted Faren so he could kiss her on the forehead. His wife nearly wept with happiness, strawberry hair pinned to the crown of her head. A ruddy-haired boy also appeared from the rocks, trotting up to them with sparkling eyes.
Damara stood back and watched the reunited family rejoice, completed within each other’s embrace. It was a jarring sight that stirred something deep within her.
If Faren’s family is so quick to welcome her back, even though she wandered out into the woods…couldn’t Xander forgive me, too?
Could I return home?
Chapter 23