“Hey, you look awesome in your new armour.”
Thomas pats my neck. I’m not sure why humans think us dragons love slaps on the neck all time, but we love those two-leggeds anyway. Why shouldn’t we? They feed us and help us develop our skills to the best they can be. And they feed us too. Oh yeah, I said that already.
I go with Thomas to the training camp. We leave the buildings and houses of town and walk down the country road. The sun is shining, birds are singing, and the plants have a vivid green to them.
It’s a beautiful day to begin my training.
Almost too perfect . . .
I don’t know how, I just sense it. Before I even think I jump on Thomas, knocking him to the ground, shielding him with my body. The explosion happens right behind us. I close my eyes. I can feel the heat through my armour. Thomas screams. Chunks of dirt fly everywhere.
Then as fast as it happened; it’s over. Slowly, we both stand up. We look around. There a no buildings damaged, simply because there are none in the countryside. But there are fields. That’s where we find the crater. I hurry to look over the edge. It’s unexpectedly deep, about twelve feet. At the bottom there’s a dragon. He’s bent in an uncomfortable position, but it looks like he’s still alive.
I draw my head back in surprise. How did he cause an explosion?
Thomas catches up. (Humans can be so slow.)
“Morengo?” Apparently Thomas knows him.
The dragon groans and lifts his front claws.
“I‘m coming down.” Thomas begins to slide down the sides of the crater. There isn’t enough room for me at the bottom so I stay where I am.
“Are you OK?” Thomas puts his hand on the dragon’s head. I now notice Morengo has a natural mask covering his face. Besides that his entire body is red except for his stomach, which is gold color.
“I’m fine.” He replies in dragon tongue. Thomas can't understand him but I can. To prove his point, he tries to lift his upper body up. His left leg gives in and he falls back down.
“Careful!” Thomas cries. “Stay still. I think something’s broken.”
Morengo grunts reluctantly but he does as Thomas says and stays still.
Thomas picks his way around him and examines the leg.
“It’s not broken, just badly sprained.” He looked up at Morengo’s wing. “But I can’t say the same for your wing.” Thomas looks up at me. “Linder, help get him out. Come down here, you can support some of his weight.”
I hesitate. Memories of dirt and rock caving-in return. Pounding, crushing, breathlessness.
“Linder!”
I must do it. For Thomas.
Reluctantly, I begin declining slowly down the burnt, crumbling dirt. Finally I reach the bottom.
Morengo tries once again to get to his feet. This time he succeeds. I lower my neck and head under his left arm in order to get it over my shoulders. I stand up. I can feel his weight now. He is trying not to put too much on me, I can tell by the way his other legs are straining. Morengo is taller than me, his shoulder is about two feet higher than mine.
“Ready?” I ask.
He nods, grimacing. Obviously his broken wing is hurting him. I’m surprised at the little damage he’s taken. Nothing should be able to survive that kind of explosion. Not even a dragon.
We take a few steps forward, the first of many, I’m sure. Thomas stays at the bottom, encouraging us on.
“Come on, you can do it.”
I push up with my hind legs. We are now completely on the slope. Slowly, but steadily, we make progress. I’m sure we look stupid. Like that three legged race the humans sometimes play. Loose dirt and rock make it slippery and hard to get a good grip. I have to dig my claws in order to keep from falling back down. Every muscle in my legs are straining.
After what seemed like hours, we finally made it to the top. We both collapsed, exhausted, but thankful for level ground.
Morengo stands up. I now get a closer look at him. His body has a lot of burns and cuts, his left wing hangs uselessly on his side. Thomas scrambles up beside us.
“We have to get Morengo back to camp.”
I nod in agreement, but the question is: How? I am not carrying him again.
Thomas seems thoughtful as well, or is that hungry? Human faces are so hard to read.
“OK, Linder, you fly ahead to the camp and see if you can get some help.”
I raise an ‘eyebrow’ (even though I technically don’t have one).
“What?” Thomas doesn’t get the message. He rubs his fingers on his chin.
I wait patiently.
“Oh!” He finally concludes. “Right, you can’t get help because you can’t tell them why.”
I stand up and move off a few paces. I sigh. All I wanted was to start my training today. Is that too much to ask?!
“I can still walk. . . Somewhat.” It’s Morengo who speaks. He is trying to balance on three feet. He takes two hops forward and stops, smiling. “See?”
“Alright, I’ll go get help.” Thomas says. “Linder you stay with Morengo, start walking towards the training camp. I’ll be back soon.” He jogs up the road. We watch until he disappears around the bend. Now it’s just me and Morengo.
“Well, better start walking.” Morengo said. He hobbles off the direction Thomas went.
I’m not sure what to say now that Thomas is gone, so we walk in silence. We’re traveling very slowly. I look down and watch a beetle scurry away from under my feet.
I hear a bird singing off in the distance. Everything has returned to normal now that the explosion is over (well, except for the field. Poor farmer).
“Nice armour. Is it new?” Morengo asks casually after a minute.
“Yes, I just got it today.” I lift my head and smile. But there is still one question I have to ask:
“How did you cause that explosion?”
Instantly his eyes look away. The trace of a smile he had on his lips is gone.
“It was an accident.” He said.
I waited for more, watching him eagerly.
“You’re not settling for that, are you?” Morengo sighed. He seemed reluctant to tell me for some reason. “I was training. You see, I don’t breath fire. I become-”
“Hey dragons!” Thomas shout comes from overhead. I look up, he’s sitting on the back of his own dragon who is hovering just above our heads. Eyj, a dragon instructor for the camp. She is pure white, an albino. Even though she is pretty old she is still beautiful. Her red eyes have a spark to them I cannot explain. It’s like they can see right through you.
Eyj lands in front of us and Thomas jumps off. She is about the same size as Morengo. So once again, I’m the smallest dragon.
I can’t help but wonder how she can help. My question is answered very quickly. I watch as she walks over to Morengo.
“Hold still.” Her voice is like a whisper. Soft but strong.
Eyj places her right forefoot on Morengo’s left shoulder. She closes her eyes.
“Hey what-” Morengo stops mid-sentence.
Eyj’s claws begin to glow a warm, pulsing light. She opens her eyes. I gasp, they’re glowing too. She takes her forefoot off and the glowing in her eyes fade away.
Morengo lifts his left foot and stares at it. He wiggles his claws then sets his foot on the ground to test his weight.
He looks up at Eyj. “Thank you.” He musters.
I notice his wing is still broken. It still hangs broken and bleeding.
“Eyj, how come you didn’t heal his wing too?” As soon as I say it I realize how childish
it sounds. I really am amazed at how she’s healed his leg.
Eyj laughs, it’s not rude, more like the kind a mother would give a young child.
“I’m not as young as I used to be. That is all that is needed for Morengo to walk back to camp.”
I nod understandingly.
Thomas pats Eyj. “Good job.” Than to the rest of us: “Let’s go.”
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