The Origins of Anusa

Chapter 2: The Travels

"Wait," the traveler sighed clearly unhappy about this choice, "I'll ride." As Norbert turned around, the traveler hopped on Norbert's slick, scaly back. Luckily for the traveler there were slight raises along her spine that was not visible from the ground.

"Do not grab the third spine from the base of my neck. That spine will slice your fingers, so will my tail and wings. For some reason only a few of my spines are extremely sharp," Norbert stated as she leaped into the air. "Remember if you fall, yell "nooo", but only when you fall. Got it?"

The traveler nodded then remembered she was blind. "Ya, I-I un..," the traveler stammered, but stopped as Norbert broke into a dive, but leveled out just as quickly. The traveler was hyperventilating, but was starting to feel sleepily from the rocking motion of Norbert to her steady, but calming sound of her wingbeats.

Norbert tried to resist the sensation of twirling and flipping in the air, but kept having to remind herself that she was blind and had a passenger. Norbert remembered her past of fun and happiness, but shoved the memories away before the dark memories came. Norbert continued flying until she felt the traveler shift on her back. "Hello, my passenger," Norbert began. "¿Cómo te llamos?"

"Um...?" the traveler stammered.

"Sorry, I sometimes switch languages. I know so many languages that they, on rare occasions, get confused in my elderly mind," Norbert apologized shifting to a slightly, lighter shade of blue, which happens when she is in direct sunlight for a long while. "That means 'What is your name?' in Spanish."

"Oh, my name is Charles River," the traveler answered shifting on Norbert's back a bit. "What about your name, dragon?"

"I am Norbert, not much longer by the way," Norbert said flying steadily lower down to the rushing green, blue, brown, with slight bits of gray ground below them that was starting to take form as they dropped closer.

"How... it... wha?" Charles stammered as Norbert circled a small town with small houses that had gray wisps of smoke coming out of their brick chimneys. In the center of town, there were two two-story buildings, one was the inn, with a stable off to the side of it, and the other a meeting house, that was the most modern building with brick stairs and a stone statue of a horseback soldier in the square in front of the two buildings. As they circled for the third time, Norbert flew in smaller circles while diving towards the edge of town closest to one of the four wells around the town.

"I am magic so, even if I cannot see, I have other heightened senses like hearing, smell, and direction," Norbert confessed right before landing on the soft, green grass.

Charles got off Norbert and started walking into town with Norbert right behind him. The houses on the edge of town were short, squat, brown, dusty houses that had small herb gardens on the side. In front of a few houses were a patch of pretty, small, yellow flowers that were native to the area around Narisa.

"Charles, where is this house of yours?" Norbert asked. People from the thatched roofed houses were opening up glassless windows to look at at the light-blue dragon following a dirty, unshowered man into the town. After a short look at them, children tried to run up to Norbert, but were held back by the mothers.

"Here," Charles murmured walking up to the door and knocked once before walking in. Charles walked into the small house with two rooms, a bedroom with a small wool bed and a pallet to sleep on, and a living zone with a fireplace that had a small fire going. "Dear?" Charles called.

"Here," a short, narrow woman assured Charles while walking out of the door to the small bedroom. "Did...you...?" she stammered as she got closer.

"Norbert is outside, she is too large to fit in the house. We need to get Sarah outside. Is she well?" Charles explained hurriedly walking into the bedroom.

"She has gotten worse, but the doc...doctor says... he says she can't survive," the woman muttered as tears streamed down her face.

"I'll carry Sarah to Norbert, she can heal Sarah. If she can fly here blind, she can do anything," Charles reassured his wife, but mostly to reassure himself as he looked at his daughter. Their daughter was so sickly white it was hard to tell her from the bed sheets. Sarah was bone thin and was going through a coughing fit when Charles finished talking to his wife.

"Father," Sarah whispered excitedly, "have you.." Sarah had gone into another coughing fit.

"Yes, stop talking darling. I'm going to carry you to Norbert. Don't be frightened, she is a good friend," Charles told his daughter as he lifted her frail body from the bed and took her outside where Norbert was lying on the ground sweeping her tail back and forth along the rock strewn ground.

"Poor girl," cooed Norbert. "You'll be alright soon. I hope," She muttered so quietly no one heard her. Norbert got up from where she was lying and walked slowly to Sarah. "Sarah, I am Norbert. I am from Quinita, that was where I spent my youth. Do you believe with all your heart that I am real and the land I come from is real?" Norbert peered at Sarah as she nodded painfully. "Good, come my friend we are going on a journey to a place that is far, far, away," Norbert said looking at Charles.

They hopped on Norbert's back, Charles in front, with Sarah in between him and his wife. Norbert hovered above the ground a bit, before taking off. As they flew Charles and his family started to drift to sleep before they finally went out cold. 

(Sorry this is so cringe worthy. I know I judge myself a lot, but hey it's just one of my wonderful qualities. I've actually prepared the chapters for future updates, but I don't want them published all at once.)