TRAVELLER (Book 1 in the Brass Pendant Trilogy) (27 page)

Herd dragons ate a diet of cypress wood and their stomach acids were so hot, that the wood smouldered in their stomachs producing the tell-tale dragon smoke during digestion. While nesting, a female’s digestive system heated up even more than usual. This made her eat more wood, which in turn, gave her the energy to look after her babies and her eggs. Sometimes, a nesting female’s stomach acids ignited the cypress in her stomach and the wood exploded sending a belch of fire from her snout. An agitated female protecting her nest could belch a large explosion of fire from her snout, and this was usually her weapon of choice against anything, or anyone, who approached her eggs. Morgan was right. This challenge wouldn’t be easy.

I decided to go upstairs so I could bathe before the evening meal and, when I undressed, I could just see the shape of my underwear on my skin thanks to my morning of lying in the sun. I smiled as I turned on the convenient water taps and I wondered if we’d have another discovery style quest sometime in the next couple of weeks. If we did, Morgan and I could go back to the beach.

After dinner, Evangeline asked me to sit with her in the first aide room while Marko checked her wound. Her cut was jagged and it ran from the base of her thumb right across her palm. Already, the healing pastes had knitted the skin together into a pale, jagged red line and Marko smoothed on more of the paste that kept the skin supple and prevented scar tissue from forming. After that, he placed a piece of Early Era skin leaf across the palm of her hand. This leaf attached itself to the skin by tiny, sticky particles and its properties were naturally antibacterial. The leaf was large and thin, and could be cut to size. It was basically nature’s answer to a Synthetic Era plaster. The plant had never been found in any other Era other than the Early Era, and we cultivated it in special hot houses back home in Aldiris. Marko told Evangeline she would need to have the leaf replaced in the morning before her run, but that tomorrow night it could be removed after the evening meal. He said, she’d be able to use her hand normally then without fear of the severed skin separating again.

Morgan and I spent the evening with the other questers searching through the Ancient Era parchments for more information about dragons, but, while we found a few fascinating and frightening facts about wild phoenixes and their nests, we found no new information about dragons. When I lay in bed that night, I frowned to myself and I hoped Mirren had received our message before she left her house to meet her boyfriend from the city zoo……..

CHAPTER 13:

I woke to the sound of a bell ringing in my ears. It was a gentle bell, but it was still a bell, and I knew it was the house alarm which had been set to wake us all in time for the morning run. I groaned to myself. Last night, after dinner, Zurina had presented us each with some running shoes and a small stack of sports clothing appropriate to this time segment. When I’d looked at my running shoes, Morgan had laughed out loud at the look on my face and Zurina had frowned at him as she’d told us she’d been sent our sizes from our previous tutors. She’d also told us that the private forest which was behind our house was popular with many running clubs and outdoor activity enthusiasts, and, as such, it was necessary that we look as if we belonged to this time segment while running along the tracks. Apparently, Zurina was going to be joining us for the run each morning too and I’d grimaced at this news. She had the look of someone who wasn’t going to set an easy pace.

I changed quickly into running pants and a long sleeve shirt before tying the synthetic laces on my black and red, synthetic running shoes. I didn’t completely hate these shoes, but I still hated running.

I could tell, as soon as I saw him waiting for me in the hallway, that Morgan had received a reply from Mirren about the dragons, but he didn’t tell me what she’d said until we were running behind the other questers along the uneven, forest track. Zurina ran with us and, as I’d feared, she set a fast pace as she led the way through the evergreen cypress forest that spread out into the hills behind our house. The dirt track was well used and wide, but we didn’t pass any other runners as our breath made small puffs of fog in the cold, misty morning air. After a few minutes of running, Morgan deliberately slowed our pace until we fell a little behind Evangeline who ran directly in front of us.

“Mirren knew a lot about dragons,” he said, and he grinned when I glanced at him. “She said a dragon lays her eggs over a few weeks during summer so they won’t all hatch together. Eggs that are ready to hatch will have turned from white to a speckled green and these will hatch only once the air temperature is at seven points of measure above freezing for two hours straight. This is why they usually hatch in the fall. Once an egg begins to hatch, it can’t be slowed down or stopped and……I was right; it is impossible to return an unhatched egg to a nest,” he said, as we jogged along the track. The forest was thick both sides of us and I frowned and glanced at Morgan. If we can’t return an egg, how were we supposed to pass this challenge? Morgan knew what I was thinking and he nodded.

“Mirren said once a dragon loses an egg, she’ll not leave the nest again for at least forty eight clock turns. She won’t even sleep, and she’ll be so mad she’ll burn anything that even looks in her direction for at least two days. We have no fire shields and I can’t think of anything to use as one, so I know of only one possible way to pass this challenge,” said Morgan, and I looked at him again.

“We’ll have to take an egg that’s ready to hatch,” I guessed, as our track curved through the trees and I jumped over a tree root.

“Unfortunately, yes, we’ll have to hatch our egg. The temperature in the Quest house is set to a constant nineteen points of measure above freezing; I checked it this morning, but, if I override the voice activation and reprogram the house panel just before we go to bed, I can set the house temperature to fall to seven above freezing two hours before we have to wake,” said Morgan, and he grinned at me. “That way, our dragon will hatch first thing in the morning. It’ll be easy to return it to the nest then and, unfortunately, we’ll have to miss our morning run to look after it,” he finished smugly, and I smiled too.

“I love this plan,” I said with feeling, and he laughed. My lungs were starting to burn already and anything, even looking after a baby dragon, was better than running. We increased our pace in order to catch up with the rest of our class and Evangeline glanced behind her and frowned at us suspiciously……..

We had to leave for out challenge at rise nine, straight after the morning meal, and when Marko collected our stack of empty bowls, I just had time to run up to my room and change into a warmer jacket. We’d changed back into our quester clothes after our run and Evangeline followed me upstairs to get herself a warmer jacket too. Dragon territory was usually in the mountains and the temperature would likely be cool. I waited for Evangeline at the door to our room and, when we entered the room together, I glanced at her.

“Evangeline, make sure you take a speckled egg. Don’t take a white one because they’re impossible to return,” I said quietly, and Evangeline nodded as she did up the clasps on her warmest jacket.

“Thanks Livia,” she said quietly and I nodded too before we rushed out of the room together and headed downstairs to the locker room.

We needed our bows and a quiver of arrows, and Morgan emptied his pack too and took it with him to carry our egg. I put my emergency cylinder into my inside jacket pocket and I quickly fastened the metal clasps. We were to leave together from the rising marker in the back courtyard, but, for this particular challenge, we could return at any time before sundown at the quest house, which was around set six at this time of the year. We were going to a marker at
Centaurus1433 set 59º
so we obviously wouldn’t be able to leave until after midday, but I doubted any of us would have an egg before then.

As the air patterns began, I took an arrow and loaded it into my bow, and Morgan did the same. Dominic rolled his eyes at us and shook his head but we ignored him. Ancient Era dragon territories were usually wild, uninhabited places where ancient animals roamed in large numbers, and there was no guarantee that our marker was going to be clear of such animals when we arrived.

The temperature dropped and there was a roaring in my ears before the courtyard disappeared suddenly. The pain in my bones was excruciating, and when the deep blue blackness became colours, the first thing I saw was a flash of yellow. I could hear powerful limbs too as they slid through dirt and, all around me, I heard muffled growls
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Even before the pain had faded from within me, I was knocked to the ground by something warm and powerful, and I heard a yelp as a slashing sound was followed by the sound of a scuffle. There was another growl that sounded like it was right behind me and, as the colours merged, it took me a moment to realise our entry had dropped us right into the middle of a tiger fight. The two large males tore at each other almost beside me and they weren’t tawny skinned tigers……they were much, much worse.

I scrambled to my feet and Morgan was already pulling me backwards by the arm when the two giant sabre tooth tigers saw us……….The next moment was slow in my memory, but Seth assured me later it took only a second in real time.

The two tigers rolled apart and rounded on us instead, and blood glistened in the wounds which marred their yellow fur as they looked at us with their golden, yellow eyes. I stood very still and lined up my bow and, when the first tiger leant forward in a crouch, I was ready long before it leapt. I hit it through the heart in mid-air and it fell heavily before the second tiger fell awkwardly and slid along the ground towards the first. It had an arrow through its throat and it was dying just as quickly……and I took a step backwards at almost the same time……as Morgan lowered his bow.

Time sped up again and I saw Dominic standing beside us in shock as he stared at the two giant beasts. Evangeline was right in front of the second tiger and she stared at them too while she breathed deeply and put her hands over her heart.

“You can thank us later,” said Morgan cheerfully, and he patted Dominic on the back as he took my hand. We headed towards a patch of cypress trees and left the others standing silently in the middle of the marker.

We were in a mountainous region and we walked across a flat, bare section of ground. The steep slopes around us were covered in a mixture of bare ground and patches of cypress forest. Some of the patches of trees were completely shredded, and everywhere we looked, branches hung loosely from torn trunks. The ground was littered in pieces of cypress branch too and some patches were covered in shavings of wood. It was cold here, and cloudy, and smaller, thinner clouds of dragon smoke rose here and there from the edges of the tree patches. Herd dragons stayed close together, hence the name. They were different to the more solitary, smaller flight dragons of the far north, and they were different to the nasty water dragons known for their aggression in the south. Herd dragons ate wide paths through cypress forests in spring and summer and they were known to be good for fire control. The females nested quite close to one another at the end of summer and, while they were nesting, the males moved on and found a good place to spend the winter. The males then waited there for the females and, once all their eggs had hatched, the females followed their trails and arrived some time during winter to present the herd with their next batch of young.

The breeze was cold here too and it smelt strongly of cypress smoke. I was glad I’d had time to fetch my jacket. We walked without speaking. Dragon’s had good hearing and, if a female dragon heard our voices, she’d be alerted to unfamiliar sounds. She’d never leave her nest if she suspected danger. I heard a grating screech from somewhere to the east and it echoed shrilly in the thin, mountain air.

We could see a number of smoke puffs rising from the other side of the patch of trees we were approaching and, when we neared it, Morgan let go of my hand and pointed to the top of a tree which wasn’t quite as shredded as the others. I knew he intended to climb it and I watched him as he climbed up the trunk before swinging himself onto the lowest branch. He climbed steadily then and the tree swayed as he climbed closer to the top. I frowned as he climbed a few branches higher than I thought he should have, and I folded my arms as he grinned down at me. He looked about him then, in every direction, and I was beginning to wonder whether he was going to come down before the end of autumn, when he finally began his descent.

“All the dragons here have full nests and a few hatchlings as well. I don’t think they’re going to need more branches anytime soon. We need a nest with eggs only, and not too many branches. That mother will need to add to her nest branches before her babies are born,” whispered Morgan. “There’s a lot of smoke rising to the west. We should head that way,” he added in a whisper, and I nodded as he took my hand again.

We found a suitable nest eventually but it had taken us almost three clock turns to find one with eggs in it only. This nest had four speckled eggs and three white eggs in it and it wasn’t as full of branches as the other nests we’d spotted. Dragons made their nests on soft ground and they were usually against the edge of a tree patch. Mother dragons laid anywhere from five to ten eggs and this nest was situated against the edge of a patch of trees with a rocky rise just downwind of it. The rise was a perfect place for Morgan and I to wait in relative safety and comfort until the mother dragon decided to gather more cypress branches for her nest.