Black as Blood (Part Two)

The Magnus Ventus Rex gets his butt kicked by a bunch of kittens

That night while Ralem hit the sack and fell asleep almost immediately, Jaydon was hesitant to follow. He had so much to plan! Everything had to be perfect for Arianna’s return. But he knew the cats would be back again tonight so he forced himself to go to curl around his Rider’s bed and fall asleep.

            “About time you got here!” Ralem said when he entered the dream, “I was just having the worst dream that all your scales were coming off!”

            “That is a horrible dream!” Jaydon exclaimed, “Any sight of the cats?”

            Ralem surveyed the surroundings, which was the center of town in Redfield with calculating eyes. “No sign of them, yet.” It was seemed to be a ghost town, crates where venders used to yell and sell their wares now lay empty. They had never dreamed of behind in town, mostly it was in the forest or Baroke. Jaydon felt nervous being in such an enclosed space. He frowned, “I still don’t understand why the cats do this. They can’t hurt us, only our dream selves. And they hardly ever do anything at that, just fight us, I kill them, then we’re done. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

            Ralem sat hard on the stairs, “I don’t understand either. But from what Lauri’s told me, they could gather information about us. I mean, to get in our dreams is to get in our head right? But what they are looking for is a mystery to me.”

           “Hey Ralem, would you care for some tarts?” Ralem turned his head to find his older sister peeking her head out of the window. She was in her old house, the small one in the center of town with the patchy thatched roof and dark clay walls. The door opened and Aidan stepped out, a bright smile on his ten-year-old face, “Hey, Uncle Ralem! You want to go fishing after dinner?”

            Jaydon’s eyes narrowed. “They’re cats,” he growled. Bunching up his hind legs, he shot towards the boy claws-first. He hit the boy right on the chest, but his claws met nothing but air. He hit the dust hard on the other side, sending a small dust cloud around him. “Ouch,” he murmured,  rubbing his jaw. Aidan hadn’t even moved. He didn’t seem to have seen the dragon. “What do you say, Uncle Ralem? What’s wrong?”

            “Kill it!” Jaydon snarled.      

            Ralem considered the scene. “The cats have never appeared as my family before… I don’t know. I think this might be a legit dream for once. Or..” his eyes lit up in an idea, “A memory! I remember this day, don’t you? It was last year-”

            As soon as this realization hit him, people appeared all around him and the bellows of venders and ebb and flow of conversation filled the air. “Uncle, who are you talking to?” Aidan asked, turning to look in Jaydon’s direction.

            “Ralem, they’re cats. I know it. You’ve got to kill it before he kills us!” Jaydon growled, and then gasped as someone walked right through him. “What- why am I invisible?”

            “Because you were not hatched yet,” Ralem murmered.

            “Uncle Ralem? What are you talking about?” Aidan asked, his eyebrows pinching.

            “Nothing,” Ralem said, grabbing the boy in a swift movement and swinging him, laughing all the way, onto his shoulders. “Where to first?” he asked him in a mock-serious voice.

            Jaydon looked really nervous. He edged his way through the crowd before giving up and walking right through some people. “Ralem, what are you doing? We need to kill the cats first! Who knows what they could be finding out about us!”