World Of Fire (Arula: Five)

Chapter 3

After the deal was made with Head-Council Marcus, Karma stormed out of the council room and down the hall. Jason chased after her. Were they really going to go face to face with a dragon? The thought troubled Jason deeply. He never met a dragon before, not that he ever wanted to meet a fire-breathing lizard, but the reality of that settling in made Jason nervous. "Are we really going to confront a man-eating beast?" Jason asked Karma when he finally caught up to her. They were going down several hallways and up a few flights of stairs. Karma led them to area that Jason had never been before, which was exciting and scary all at the same time.

"We don't really have any other choice," Karma replied. "If the dragons attacked Argo, who is to say they won't attack another village?" They continued to climb the flight of steps. Jason could feel his legs burning at the climb.

"What's the deal with the dragons, anyhow?" He asked. "It seems like this the first they raided a village."

"It is. For many years the dragons had stayed in their mountain home. Nobody has seen or heard from them... up until now. That's why we have to see what's going on. Dragons just don't attack without cause." Jason pondered on that one, but decided it was best not to argue. They had finally reached the top of the stairs and came across a door. Karma pushed it open without further hesitation. They had entered one of the tower rooms of the palace. This tower room was filled with winged rabbits. The rabbits flew freely around the room, jumping and flying from bird stand to bird stand. The rabbits came in various of colors, brown, black, white, maroon, and so forth.

Jason had to duck a few times to stand clear of swooping rabbits. "I thought the winged rabbits inhabited the Elven Clan." Jason stated as a brown and black rabbit landed on Jason's shoulder.

"They do," Karma said, sounding impress. "The elves gave us a few breeding rabbits so that way we can communicate easier with one another."

"Oh," Jason said taking the rabbit off his shoulder and putting it on the table next to him. Karma walked across the room to where a young boy sat by a closed window. Jason guessed he was the caretaker of the winged rabbits.

"I need to send out two messages." Karma told the boy. The boy quickly nodded and stood up.

Where to, miss?" He asked gathering up two rabbits.

"One to Nork, the other to Abaddon." The boy nodded again and went into the cupboard where he took out two jars of herbs.

"I will need the letters for each rabbit, miss." The boy said opening up the jars and taking out each of the herbs. Karma went over a table, took two sheets of paper along with an inkwell and a pen and began to write her message. She allowed it dry after she was done, rolled them up, tied them, and handed them to the boy. The boy took the papers, tied each one to a rabbit. He then took a herb from one jar, allowed one rabbit to smell and taste it and did them to the other one, but with the different herb. The boy then took the rabbits over to the window, opened the window and let them go. The rabbits flew off into the direction of Dwarf and Elf Clan. Jason watched this all happened, and asked,

"How do they know where they're going?"

"Simple," said the boy. "You tell me where you want the message to go, I get out the right herb for that area, the rabbits sniff and eat it and they have the instincts to go and find where those herbs are. Which of course will take them to the correct place they need to be." The boy smiled proudly at this. Karma smiled and thanked the boy.

"Come on," Karma said to Jason and walked out of the room. "We got work to do."

----

Karma and Jason spent the rest of the day packing and preparing for their long journey ahead. The journey to Argo and possibly to Dragon Mountain would take months and who knows how many more days they would spend there. But that didn't matter to Karma. She was actually happy to get out of Shurli and back into her world. She had spent the last spring season in Shurli, listening to the councils' bickering and complaining. Karma has little down time to herself during that long season. What little down time she had, she mostly spent it with Jason. She liked Jason. He was easy-going, fun, and easy to talk to. He was the only person who understood her. Mostly because he too was from the Otherworld, or Earth.

But when Karma wasn't hanging out with Jason or being harassed by the councils, she spent her time drawing in her book. The headaches had gotten worse throughout the years that she was there. And worst yet, they've been mostly happening during night, so sleep wasn't an option anymore. She tried her best to keep up her spirits, even if they were down.

As for Jason, he had gotten use to Arula and its customs. He had nothing to complain about, well, only for the fact that Arula was a technology free world. After that, Arula was a beautiful world, filled with beautiful cultures, creatures, and towns. For once, Jason was glad he stepped through that portal almost a year ago.

After Jason had finished packing his supplies into his traveling pack, he flopped down on the bed, exhausted. Today indeed was a weird day. But it actually started out nice, he had to admit. Getting out of the musty palace felt great, and like Karma, he couldn't wait to get out and explore. Though the fact being that he might have to deal with a fire-breathing beast did not bowl well for Jason. He rather not be burned to a crisp. Jason suddenly felt the bed beneath him shift and the sound of something purring. He moved his head upward and came face to face with the green disappearing cat, Moss. It stared down at him with its yellow eyes.

"Hello again, Moss." Jason said to the cat. "Hadn't seen you in hot second." The cat didn't reply. Instead it chose to purr louder, bump heads with Jason and move its slick body around Jason, rubbing against him as it did. The cat moved down towards his ribs laid down with a ruff thump on the blankets. It stretched out against Jason then curled up in ball. Jason could feel the cat's purr rippling through its body and echoing in his ears. Sighing, Jason reached over and began to stroke the cat's silk fur, which only made it purr louder. As Jason laid there on the bed, petting Moss, he began to think about the journey ahead tomorrow. He had a very weird feeling that maybe, just maybe the dragon attacks were not done without reason. Much like everything else happening in this world, everything that has happened it done because of something, or someone...