Dragons Rising ✔️

Ch 36: Daredevil

The message strayed back into my thoughts. I wasn't sure what I'd been expecting, but whatever it was, it wasn't this. Both my parents both died—but only after being imprisoned for as long as it took me to be born, some nine or ten months. The idea of them locked up that long just for making me, then being killed... It made my blood boil. I headed upwards, further from the ground, in search of some way to blow off steam while flying.

My parents had died for me, something that I felt guilty about, even if I hadn't had any choice in the matter. If they'd just dated, even just gotten married, they would still be alive today. The punishment for getting together with someone from another species was only a few months or years in prison, not death.

I was glad at that moment that owls couldn't cry because I didn't want to give into the sorrow that was pressing in on me. I wanted to be angry, to do something, anything other than to giving in to the urge to curl up under a tree and sob. So I pushed my wings harder, flying so high that the trees were small, even to my razor-sharp owl eyes. The air was colder up here, but unlike when I rode on Leera, I had feathers to keep me warm.

I leveled off and soared over the forest, feeling the wind zipping past my beak and over my wings. Something caught my eye far below me - two people in close proximity who didn't seem to notice that the other was there. Kuertis was collecting water from a stream, while forty feet or so past the other bank stood Clarisa. She still didn't have any firewood, but she was talking to a sliver.

They sped past below me, and I circled around to watch them. The sliver's scales were nearly pitch black, something I never seen before. Most slivers were pale silver or white colored. This one hovered in front of Clarisa for several minutes as she it told her message, its six dragonfly wings beating furiously to keep its long, fish-like body aloft. I tried to read Clarisa's lips from where I was, but it was more than a little difficult, what with me having to circle around to keep sight of her. Not to mention, I'd never really tried to lip read before.

She finished her message without me being able to decipher any of what she was saying, and the strange sliver flew off, moving faster than I could make out. Clarisa started actually collecting firewood as soon as it was gone. Kuertis finished collecting water soon after and headed back to camp. I stuck around for a while to make sure Clarisa wasn't doing anything else except collecting firewood, then flew off again, away from camp.

I wandered through the night sky for a while, knowing that if I landed, I wouldn't be able to sleep. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind about how there had to be a better way. There had to be a better way to keep the truly dangerous paltors from causing trouble than by killing all of us.

After all, Callah and I had turned out fine, despite our heritage. Clarisa was a bit of a different story, but she still didn't deserve to die for what she was. And how many had died already because of what they were or who they decided to have a child with? Not all of their half-blood children could be insane or bent on destroying Lykela. If only there was a way to find out how someone would turn out before they were born...

The thought of it all was so hard to reconcile with my idea of the country I called home. I had gone flying alone to clear my mind, not to make it even harder to think. But that was exactly what had happened.

I angled my wings downwards and turned back towards camp, intending to head back and maybe sleep it all off. But I didn't- I couldn't just pretend like everything was alright around the others. For one thing, Tawny would see right through it, and I would have to lie to her again to cover up the truth. I hated lying to her.

I knew that letting her come with us on the mission would mean that I would have to lie to her even more. I'd known it before, but I'd been so angry with Clarisa that I'd invited Tawny and Kuertis just to spite her. Now, so far from Clarisa herself, I regretted that decision.