The Dragon' Son (15 page)

Their eyes met; her striking emerald ones fixating on his. Something began to stir deep inside of him, a mixture of emotions that he had never felt before. He wanted to hold her gaze forever. He wanted her to draw closer and look deeper into his eyes, never to look away, but the fear that she may see into his mind and heart, the fear that she may see the things that he never wanted anyone to see, caused him to look away from her. Even though he had removed his gaze from hers, something yearned in him to look back. Was it the feeling that her eyes, still looking on him, could pierce through him and see into his heart? Or was it this strange stirring feeling inside of him that waxed and waned and confused his mind?

He was distracted from his inward struggles by a movement from the Princess. He looked up, and a new wave of confusion washed over him. Her lips were moving in speech, but no sound came from them. The same shocked expression also came over her face as she seemed to realize this oddity as well. They stared at each other for a moment until she tried to walk to him. She took a few steps forward, then smacked into an invisible barrier. She stepped back, dazed, looking slightly humiliated and even more confused. She put up her hand and pushed against an invisible barrier with wonder on her face. Keegan slowly walked forward with his hand out, only stopping when his hand pressed up against a smooth, unseen barrier. He pushed against it, but nothing happened. In fact, it was so firm that he felt if he had pushed against an ancient tree near Pharrgon’s cave. There would have been more movement from the tree.

Leaving his hand against the strange, invisible surface, he and the Princess only stared at each other, exchanging odd and confused glances. Keegan looked at his hand and, for some reason, felt shocked to see that her hand was pressing against his, only separated by the barrier. The sight of her hand so close to his moved him in some way.

Suddenly, her hand disappeared, and he looked up to see her place her hands behind her back as she took a step away, her face red and downcast. Then there was a new sound that broke through the sound of the music that had been playing all this time. A gentle but inaudible voice called out. Even though it was gentle, it shook the forest, sending vibrations through Keegan. As the voice shook the forest, the Princess began to rapidly disappear before Keegan’s very eyes.

“Wait!” Keegan pressed against the barrier, but it was too late. She was gone. The light of the forest began to fade and take on an eerie glow. Keegan stepped away from the barrier and looked around. The trees and their petals began to turn to charcoal and ash. The grass began to shrivel and fade as a black mist began to seep up from the ground. A deep, familiar, menacing growl echoed through the forest, making Keegan’s heart quake in his chest.

“Keeeeegan…” called voices from the growing darkness.

He backed up against the barrier, his breathing rapid and his mind reeling.

“I see you,” hissed a malicious voice through the darkening trees, “and you cannot escape me.”

Keegan crumbled to the ground, covering his head with his arms.

“Keegan!” a rich, booming voice cried loudly. “Keegan!”

With a gasp, Keegan opened his eyes and found himself lying next to a golden-scaled mass. It took him a moment to remember where he was, but the memories of the night before came flooding back to Keegan’s mind.

After leaving the Princess on the road, he had followed Pharrgon’s shadow until they met in the forest. A dragon slayer was stalking Pharrgon. He fled at the mere sight of Keegan, however, and did not return.

“Keegan?” a rich soothing voice vibrated.

Keegan looked up to see one large, golden eye looking at him inquisitively. “You slept soundly,” Pharrgon said.

Keegan groaned and sat up. He gathered his blanket, stood up, and walked around to the other side of Pharrgon where he had made a campfire. The dull ashes of the fire were letting up a thin stream of smoke, and beyond them, Ardor grazed peacefully nearby.

“No troubles during the night?” Keegan asked groggily, making a peripheral sweep of the area.

“The night was peaceful.” Pharrgon brought his head down to eye level. “You slept soundly until I sensed an evil dream rising in you, so I woke you. Have you been sleeping well when we are apart?”

Keegan looked sideways at Pharrgon. “You know that I don’t sleep well without you,” he mumbled.

“Ah, but your nightmares are getting worse, are they not?” the dragon asked.

Keegan looked away from Pharrgon toward Ardor. Pharrgon already knew the answer to most of the questions that he asked. He just liked to ask them, which angered Keegan and made him determined not to answer this question.

Pharrgon sighed. “Keegan, you must not let these dreams continue; you must overcome them.” His rich voice was soft and pleading in tone.

Keegan walked over to the edge of the hill and looked down at the long, sloping valley below. “How can one overcome dreams?” he asked, more of himself than the dragon.

“To overcome these dreams, you must overcome your guilt and your hate,” Pharrgon answered. “You must let go of the past; forgive the one who hurt you. Only then you will be able to overcome every obstacle.”

Keegan felt hot anger rush through him as his memories raced through the massacre and his father’s death. His mind paused on the scarred man and started its regular routine of memorizing every line and feature of the cursed man’s face. How could Keegan forgive someone who even treated the dead with disrespect?

He turned around and faced Pharrgon, his voice straining to hide the anger that wanted to spill out of his mouth. “I cannot give forgiveness when it is not deserved.” He walked past Pharrgon and over to the waterskin that was hanging next to his vest on a branch of a fallen oak.

He took a few short drinks to help curve the edge of his anger, then he swallowed several mouthfuls when his thirst finally overcame his anger. When he finished drinking, he slipped his vest on and walked back to the campfire. He squatted beside it and began to stir its powdery ashes in solemn silence. The silence continued until Keegan could stand it no longer. He hated it when a rift was set between him and Pharrgon. Silence was always the outcome when a rift was created.

“Would you care to hear of the venture that I had yesterday?” he asked, breaking the silence with a pleasant tone of voice.

Pharrgon let out a heavy sighed and shifted his position. “Yes, I would be pleased to hear,” Pharrgon answered. “I sense that it was most exciting.”

Keegan threw some wood on the ashes of the campfire. “If you will start the fire, then I will begin.” He stood up and backed away from the wood, something he had learned to do when allowing Pharrgon to start a fire.

Pharrgon opened his mouth slightly and let out a short breath of flames onto the wood, igniting the scraps instantly. Keegan stared at the flaming wood in horror as an image flashed past his mind of burning huts in a village. The sound of screaming began to ring in his ears as he stared at the wood, making his heart race, but a hum from Pharrgon made the flashback disappear. Keegan blinked his eyes as he looked up at the dragon who had assumed an impatient expression. He cleared his throat awkwardly, walked up to the fire, and placed some more wood on it. He stirred the wood around until Pharrgon made an impatient thrum in his throat.

“All right! I’m coming to it!” Keegan sat cross-legged on the ground and looked up at the gold dragon. “Yesterday, I met a princess. But only after I had saved her from some men who,” he paused briefly, “who reminded me of those that burned my village.”

Pharrgon made the thrumming noise again but with less impatience. “Details,” he said and settled into a very relaxed pose. Pharrgon listened quietly as Keegan recounted his story, only making the annoyed thrumming noise again when Keegan recounted his conversation with the Princess and how he had left her on the road alone.

Keegan cringed when Pharrgon gave him a sharp look. “Well, her escort was only a short ways up the road,” he tried to justify.

Pharrgon snorted. “It was most inappropriate to leave her alone on the road. You could have gently shown her the direction of her escort and then left. But shoving her toward the object and then leaving her so rudely was unacceptable and should be avoided in the future.” Keegan tried to hide the smile growing on his lips as he remembered how angry the Princess had become when he had left her. She had called him despicable. More accurately, she had screamed at him and called him despicable. Considering that he thought her a graceful fairy princess when he first saw her, it came as an amusing shock when she lost control of her temper.

“It is not humorous, Keegan,” Pharrgon growled. Keegan looked up at the dragon and caught a hint of amusement twinkling in the great golden eyes that looked down at him.

“I know it is not supposed to be amusing,” Keegan said, glancing down at the fire for a moment before looking back up at Pharrgon with a grin. “But it is amusing anyway,” he chortled. “And she told me, in a far from kind way, the things I should avoid doing in the future.” Keegan’s grin widened. “When I left her on the road, I seem to remember that she called me ‘despicable’.”

Pharrgon snorted, and the twinkle in his great eyes began to grow. “I agree with her,” he teased.

“Do you now? I thought you were supposed to defend me!” Keegan laughed. “Fine family you are!” He picked up a stick and flung it at Pharrgon.

Pharrgon dodged the flying stick nimbly and stood with a playful snort. He brought his head down and snapped at Keegan teasingly. Keegan rolled away from the dragon, grabbed a large stick, and whacked Pharrgon’s nose with it. The dragon snapped at Keegan again, chuckling as he did so.

Keegan dropped the stick and ducked skillfully underneath the dragon’s snout. He ran behind the dragon’s jaw and wrapped his arms as far around the dragon’s neck as he could, gripping the dragon’s scales.

Pharrgon chuckled, sending vibrations up and down his throat. He slowly began to lift his head high into the air. When Pharrgon’s head was nearly twenty feet from the ground, Keegan kicked his legs up and wrapped them around the dragon’s thick neck as far as he could, then he began to carefully crawl around Pharrgon’s neck up to the top. He concentrated carefully on every move he made, gripping the golden scales that anchored him to the dragon, until another series of vibrations reverberated from Pharrgon’s throat, threatening to shake Keegan from his precarious position.

Pharrgon seemed to twitch as he again chortled. “I feel this odd sensation that makes me want to scratch and jump and laugh like a happy spring pup,” Pharrgon noted in an amused but sincere tone.

Keegan paused and thought about Pharrgon’s description then began to laugh as it occurred to him what Pharrgon was feeling. “You’re ticklish! I never knew you were ticklish!” he said loudly. He began to laugh so hard that his arms started to convulse and lose their grip on the dragon. “Stop, stop! I am going to fall, because I’m laughing so hard!” he yelled. Pharrgon chuckled as he lowered his head toward the ground.

When he was close enough to the ground, Keegan let his legs drop slowly, then he turned his arms loose and landed on his feet with a clumsy bend of his knees. Pharrgon raised his head back up and shook his whole body then looked down at Keegan with a smile.

“You did much better from the last time that you tried,” the dragon said with a brilliant sparkle in his eye. “Last time you wouldn’t even try to make your way around my neck, and you almost did not make a safe landing.”

Keegan sat on the ground cross-legged and smiled. “Yes, if it wouldn’t have been for your quick timing to catch me in midair, I don’t think I would be here to do this again,” Keegan chuckled. “And it wasn’t that I would not try to make my way around your thick neck. I just couldn’t make it,” Keegan corrected. Pharrgon chuckled deep in the back of his throat then raised his large, majestic head high into the air and inhaled deeply.

“Ah, there is a great red spine hart nearby.” Pharrgon licked his golden chops and stood, unfurling his wings slightly. “I feel if I do not fly and go fetch that hart then I shall explode with energy.” And with that, the great dragon leapt into the air, unleashed his mighty wings, and began flying down toward the valley.

Keegan watched for a moment with a smile then called for Ardor. Ardor raised his head, his thick white mane bouncing in the air, and whinnied before trotting happily toward Keegan to have his back loaded with blankets and bags.