Dragon Mirror- Ties Between the Veil

C

Jrash pulled to the side of the road, watching the passing craft warily. Ramoth’s mind voice stuttered in his head due to distance.

Do yo-u ne-ed me me me?

He shook his head minutely, as if trying to clear the echoes, but was really struggling to make his nerves quiet. The Moa yoked to the floating craft eyed him with large yellow eyes, their long necks supporting small heads with curved pointy beaks.

The flightless birds weren’t what made Jrash uneasy. The last time he had seen a floating craft had been when the Charbitian Protectora had come to his grandmother's house. He had been only five, but the portent of what had been happening had impressed upon his young mind an awe of the Charbitian Empire.

He smiled blandly. Only now did he really understand that he should have been impressed with his grandmother, who received the mighty empire as supplicants for her wisdom.

He never really understood how they made their floating craft, but it was a beautiful thing to behold. Painted wood and metal filigree on a flat bottom base with bismuth spirals hovered above the ground silently as it was pulled by the two moa yoked in delicate leather harnesses dyed a deep blue.

A covered cab in front of the craft held two men, one of which waved amiably at Jrash as they passed him. They were heading back the way he had come, and he assumed their destination was the Sero’s Lift, and eventually onward to Temp’ Allah. He passingly wondered if they were bound for his grandmother’s, and felt a chill drop down his back.

We should move through the Wilding and avoid the roads.

He jumped a little, and glanced down at his Will. The red eyes that stared up at him seemed earnest and full of fear. Her tail twitched violently, black wings tucked tightly against her body as she crouched in the underbrush.

Waiting for the craft to pass out of sight around the bend, he glanced back down at Ramoth and laughed anxiously. “And what do I do? Pray the Deidades and the weirdlings miss my trespass?”

The Aya’Daroul made a chirruping noise and chattered her teeth. If you honor the Wilds and respect the Deidades, I will protect you. Even your fat okapi knows how to move in stealth.

Blowing out an exasperated sigh, he threw his head back. He watched a flock of sabledactyl swarm in the distance. The road to the Callio archipelago cut across to Silkvetr and northwards through the lower steppes, where he would need to find a boat to one of three major settlements.

Taking the roads would ensure a more swift journey, but would also endanger him. The likelihood of being caught by the Protectora was sevenfold when traveling the warded roadways that the Empire had built.

“Darken my eyes, I am not ready for this.” Ramoth leapt away in excitement as he turned his okapi towards the quiet forest edge. The clawed hooves rang out in finality as they crossed the warding stones and stepped off into the loam and mulch of the Wilds.

For the first several days, traveling cross country in the Wilds was only as difficult as the underbrush they encountered. His okapi was alert and anxious for the first day, and stamped nervously at every animal call and sound during the night.

A week of steady travel on paths traveled by the wild fauna had them passing the outer walls of Silkvetr. He was mildly impressed at the speed of their travel.

Jrash gazed up at the towering hexagonal skyscrapers that connected like a spider’s web with covered walkways laden with hanging foliage.

The whole city was allowed a three mile radius since it had begun being built before the pact with the Charbitian Empire. With the help of Charbitian engineering, sewers, aqueducts, rainwater collection, power stations, and rooftop greenhouses had slowly risen upward over several hundred years.

Let us be away from this cancer.

Jrash scowled down at Ramoth, who clung to the front padding of the saddle. She had been scouting clear paths for his okapi to navigate, but the closer to Silkvetr they had come, the more she clung to his presence.

“What are you scared of?”

The feline face turned up towards him and red eyes blinked slowly. They hunt daroul for sport near this enormous eyesore. The small creature's wings shook as she shuddered. Jrash felt a rising alarm from his Aya’Daroul as her pupils became anxious slits.

He took a momentary glance back up at the city walls, forestalling his desire to go inside the gates and explore. He buried his fingers tenderly in Ramoth’s fur and smiled.

“Let's get out of this place!” And kicked his heels into the okapi’s sides, startling the animal to leap forward with a startled bleat.

Ramoth’s wings extended in surprise, but she curled into Jrash’s lap more firmly, radiating appreciation as they galloped down the path in a manic dash to escape the sight of the human capital.

Their mad dash down the game path soon proved to be ill-advised when they burst over the top of a ridge and plummeted down into the midst of a flock of microraptors.

The avians startled up into the air with loud calls, but quickly descended to defend the corpse of the wild boar they had been feeding.

Jrash’s Okapi landed wrong as the animal tried to twist in midair to avoid the unexpected encounter, and he heard the sickening snap of a front leg. He barely had time to grab Ramoth to his chest before they were catapulted from the saddle and into the brush opposite the half eaten carcass.

He landed heavily on his shoulder and felt his arm go numb as he rolled. Ramoth’s body felt as if it melded into his chest for a moment, before she broke away from his arms. He kept rolling until he hit something hard, and everything went black.

When he regained consciousness, he thought he had gone blind, but quickly realized that Ramoth was straddled across his face with wings mantled aggressively.

The Aya’Daroul was yowling and hissing, and he felt her agitation as she swiped repeatedly. He could hear the raucous calls of the microraptors and felt an overwhelming fear.

The pain in his head was only slightly less than the pain in his shoulder and side, yet he still managed to gently push Ramoth aside as he pulled himself up.

He realized that half of his body was wedged underneath a decaying log, which had likely saved him from being mauled by the ravenous flock. Another vicious yowl drew his eyes to several of the brightly colored avians displaying threateningly outside of Ramoth’s reach.

The rest of the flock, in the darker coloration of the females of the species, swarmed over the unfortunate Okapi, who was thankfully dead.

Pushing at his Will, he then grabbed at a ridge in the fallen log and hissed in pain. Pulling himself into a slumped sitting position, he cast a doleful glance at the flock of bickering raptors as they tore into his mount.

One of the males lunged at him, and Ramoth hooked the creature's neck with her claws and pinned it beneath her. Before Jrash could react, she sank her teeth into the unfortunate aggressor’s neck and held it in a choke hold.

He struggled to slide himself out from under the log, gasping in pain as Ramoth growled deeply over her kill. When he managed to extricate himself, he blanched.

His Aya’Daroul had noticeably grown in size. The microraptor’s bright plumage had faded and the body had desiccated.

When she finally let go of the body, her muzzle had elongated into something not quite feline, and her double tipped ears were longer. Tiny black tipped horns poked out from the sides of her eye ridges, and her red eyes had grown larger in her skull.

“Deidades protect my soul.” He whispered, and the Aya’Daroul turned slightly to regard him before slashing at another microraptor.

The way of this world is that things die, should I waste the life force that is brought against me? You eat the game you kill. Why would I not do the same?

He gave a nervous laugh and tried to pull his belt knife with his off hand. “I don’t exactly eat as you do.”

One of the wings flicked out in agitation, and a handful of black feathers drifted down into smoke.

I will not argue the semantics with a child.

“Child?” He did not feel the offense he put in his voice. His knife was now firmly gripped, even if it was his off hand, and he slowly pulled himself into a crouch. He leaned against the log, trying to catch his breath.

By now the male microraptors’ had decided that they were too much of a bother to deal with, and started to drift backwards towards the ready feast. Jrash eased his breath, taking a moment to wipe the sweat from his eyes.

“I need to go to the city.” He said quietly.

Ramoth whipped her head around to stare him in the eyes and he flinched back.

She was now as large as a medium sized dog, but her head was elongated with oversized eyes. Her wingspan seemed to be the same, but her feathers were sloughing off, revealing fleshy gray webbing.

As a cat, she had been adorable and sometimes even cuddly. Yet now she seemed to be taking on the aspects of a wraith or some other type of abomination.

She lowered her head, and whined. I cannot go with you and they might capture or kill you.

He was taken aback at the worry and affection in her mind-voice. But he gritted his teeth and laughed helplessly.

“My arm is useless and very painful like this. I need a wisewoman or a shifu.”

The Aya’Daroul lifted her head and tilted it sideways. The raucous calls of the flock in front of them carried on as if they had stopped existing.

I do not know a shifu, but I know a medicine man that dwells near here.

“How do you know a medicine man?” Jrash asked, mystified.

The creature's pupils contracted to slits, exposing gold centers in a blood red iris. She pulled her wings in closely and looked away.

I just know him.

Jrash was perplexed by the overtones of embarrassment in the voice in his head, but decided it wasn’t worth pushing her over. He barked out a groan as he stood, and warily watched the flock for a reaction as he rose.

“Ok, lead on.”